This is a short tale of the Becoming Monsters Universe by AiLove.

  The idea for this was pure fun. My wife, who puts up with me every day and alpha reads everything you see, has three characters. One you’ve seen before, two who are new to the universe. All three star here.

  —

  Story 3: Mission Impawsible

  The security guard walked his usual night patrol. Long ago, when he’d been trained, the people doing it had told him to vary his routes and timings. That it would not do to become predictable. He’d even listened to the instruction… for all of two weeks. After that, he’d figured out the quickest way to get his mandatory patrols done and stuck to the pn. It gave him more time to keep up with the stories he liked to read and the phone games he liked to py. This was twice as true today, some unknown benefactor had given the area a temporary loot bonus, so he really wanted to get back to it. After signing the st actual sheet of paper on his route, he decided that maybe the far back part of the building didn’t need to be looked at directly this one time.

  He didn’t spot the pair of bright blue eyes watching him cut his route short. Blue eyes belonging to a golden-blonde Fox, one who he had recently been referring to as “unknown benefactor.” To be fair to him, he hadn’t been looking up at the air vent Cara was hiding behind, which made it harder. To be unfair, he wasn’t exactly being thorough about his job.

  The Fox pulled the grate of the vent back and to the side, almost silently, then carefully lowered herself to the ground. She briefly made sure she was prepared, her tools were in the pockets of her brown cargo pants, her long-sleeved bck shirt was straight. She touched her pin bck choker with her left hand as she adjusted her gsses with her right. “Alright, I’m in and the guard’s distracted,” she spoke in a quiet but firm voice. “Now what?”

  “Lea here, all clear from here,” over her earpiece came the motherly voice of the Corgi positioned at the roof of an adjacent building. “Reina?”

  “I have your location.” This woman’s voice was smooth and level, accompanied by some taps at a keyboard. Reina the Otter rarely came with them on these ops, a strictly work-from-home kind of girl, but she never let that hold her back. “Assuming the map’s correct, there should be an office two doors down the hallway to your left, room 124. What we need is in there.”

  “Got it.” Cara turned and took a few more silent steps then tested the door. It was locked, which was expected, but since the lock was a physical one she had a few options in her pocket to deal with it. One quick examination, one pair of lockpicks properly selected, and about thirty seconds of effort and she was inside what turned out to be a fairly vishly appointed office. At an ornate desk was a computer. Cara knew that was more than likely the target. Walking softly over, she powered it on. “Looks like the computer’s locked.”

  “So unlock it!” Reina’s level voice got a tinge of humor in it.

  “That’s a skill I didn’t pick up, princess.” Cara was looking around the room for anything else which might be the file they needed. Maybe, for once, it would be an actual file folder.

  “Just because you’re the one with abs doesn’t mean you get to skimp on spycraft.”

  No luck looking around, half the bookshelves weren’t even real books. Just false fronts with a couple of entertaining knicknacks behind them. Cara wished she could swipe them, but no telling who would be looking for what tomorrow so she settled for taking pictures. “I don’t see YOU out here.”

  “Because you’re the one with abs. Don’t get your tail in a knot, plug in the USB drive and I’ll take it from here.”

  Lea giggled over the coms as Cara reached into a different pocket to pull out the drive in question. It had a picture of a rat drawn on it, something that made Reina giggle but which meant nothing to Cara. Still, as soon as she plugged it in and the light came on, it only took fifteen seconds or so for Reina to say “I’m in.”

  Cara listened at the hallway door. Nothing, but for some reason she was feeling on edge. She had long since learned to listen to these gut feelings, they had saved her life and her mission more than once. Something was saying that time was short. “Hurry it up, please. I need to get clear. Lea, anything?”

  The Corgi took a look through her sniper scope. “Looks like two guards are talking in the office by the front window. One’s pying on his phone. You sure you need an extraction?”

  “I don’t know, and that’s the problem. I’m calling it, get in position. Once you are, I’m yanking that drive and booking it one way or the other.” She started to look through drawers rapidly, hoping something would stand out.

  “Ninety seconds on the download, trying to be thorough in case they have any canary tokens.” Reina sounded focused, the sounds from her side indicated a lot of action happening very quickly. “Haven’t hit any real security, and given the kinds of missions this team goes after that’s concerning.”

  Cara found a manil folder in the top drawer of the rge desk, a red bel reading “Milk Freeze” on the front and several tabs throughout. “I might have found something else, taking some pictures then getting clear. Either of you ever heard of a Project Milk Freeze?”

  Lea was on the move, getting to where her minivan was parked. “Nope, sounds like someone’s making popsicles for a summer barbecue and was too cheap for ice cream.”

  Cara didn’t pause to read the pages. Flip, focus, snap, flip, focus, snap. “Well, whatever it is, it took fifteen pages of pns.”

  “Big barbecue, then.” Lea reached the van in a dark corner of a parking garage that didn’t charge, and therefore didn’t track who came in or out. “I’m in position. No movement out here. Reina?”

  “Got the data and left a present, we can search it ter.”

  Cara put the file she had just photographed back where it was when something hit her. “Lea. Did you spot any hidden rooms?”

  “None.”

  “How many guards did you say were in the front office?”

  “Two, why?”

  “Because three were on the schedule for tonight.” With a crash, the office door flew open, and a Human goon with a gun barged in with murder in his eye. Cara, being the only murderable candidate in the room, decided not to wait and see what he was going to do with the gun.In an instant, Cara vaulted over the desk and nded directly in front of him. Her first strike was an elbow to his sor plexus, knocking the wind out of him and making him drop his gun. The spare second let her draw her taser and apply it to the base of his skull. The man dropped like a stone, and Cara booked it for the nearby side door. “Reina! Please tell me the door’s unlocked!”

  “It was three minutes ago. Someone set off a silent arm just now, I couldn’t stop it but it only went to the local police station. Looks like it’s still open.”

  Cara tried the door. It was thankfully not locked. She took off running across the chilly autumn night, the Indianapolis air holding no memory of the sun from twelve hours prior. No gunshots followed her, and a few seconds ter she got into the back of a nondescript blue-green minivan which drove off towards the airport. She let her heart rate come down a bit before speaking. “Thanks for the pickup, Lea.”

  “Don’t mention it. Snacks are in the center console, I know you like fruit bites, and since my niece does too I decided to stock up earlier.”

  “You’re the best.” Cara tore open a pack and got chewing as Lea drove, heading for a private strip where a pne awaited them with the ramp down. “Say, Reina, while we were on the flight here I saw some pictures of yours from a couple years ago. Seriously, girl, your muscles looked like they were carved in marble by a Greek sculptor. Tell me again why you’re not out here punching bad guys?”

  “I decided karate wasn’t for me after that one demon. Hacking is more fun, and I can work from home.” There was a pause as she tapped something into her system. “Speaking of. By the time you two get back tomorrow afternoon I should have an analysis ready. Setting the automated scripts on it now, but I need to hit the hay. Kids have soccer in the morning.”

  “And your husband’s waiting to… snuggle.” Lea inserted with a knowing smirk.

  “He does enjoy the fact that I can hold my breath for eight minutes at a stretch, yes, but the snuggles afterwards are amazing. Reina out.” There was a click.

  Given that Cara and Lea were in the same minivan and Lea was parking in the cargo bay of their pne, the two took out their earpieces as well. Cara shook her head a bit. “I’m beat. If it’s all the same to you, I’m going to grab the pillow and just rack out back here.”

  “No problem. Bnkets should be between the seats. I’ll head forward to make sure the flight crew is alright before going to sleep, myself.”

  “Thanks again.” Cara crawled around gathering things up and got herself settled in. The back of the van was definitely better than most cots she’d slept on, and probably better than the seats up front. This would do nicely, she was asleep before the pne took off.

  The town of West Yellowstone wasn’t a particurly rge one, but it served two important purposes. First, it supported Yellowstone National park, including a university and an airport also associated with it. Second, there was a restaurant in town that was good at serving carnivores and had private rooms. Ones with locking doors. Lea the Corgi sat at the table already, wearing bck athletic clothes to go with her choker and gsses. She knew the orders for all four people who would be present and told the waiter long enough ago that the food arrived just before the others. She had the sausage and gravy in front of her, covered to keep its heat. The second to arrive was a Human man in jeans and a white tee shirt by the name of Chuck, or at least that’s the name he gave Lea after authenticating. This team’s handler and interface to the various agencies they often found themselves doing missions for. At least this time. They came and went. He sat in front of the steak and potatoes and waited patiently.

  Third to arrive was Reina Ruddertail, bck hoodie and jeans with a blue headscarf her own little signature. She cleaned her own gsses before locking the door and sitting in front of the smoked salmon. Two minutes ter, the door clicked unlocked and Cara stepped in before closing and locking the door behind her. She gnced at the table and sat in front of the rabbit stew. “I’m assuming this guy isn’t here to join the team. Handler?”

  Chuck nodded. “Correct, but how could you tell?”

  “Kind of easy to identify squad members. Smart girls with blue eyes and gsses with a thing for chokers and bck shirts, plus another thing for nerdy boys with senses of humor.” Cara shrugged and started to dig in.

  “Says the smart chick with blue eyes, gsses, a choker, a bck shirt, and a funny nerd boyfriend.” Chuck smiled as he said this.

  “Never said I didn’t meet the qualifications, now did I?”

  Reina snickered a bit. “Alright, thanks for coming to my neck of the woods for this. We have two very different but very interesting things going on. First off.” She pced a thumb drive on the table. “Here’s what we were contracted to find. Decoded and sorted. Mr. Brogan probably didn’t know what he was sitting on, or those bozos would be a lot wealthier than they are. Potential mithril vein is the big one, well away from the nearest Dungeon. Don’t ask me how that works, but it’s what their notes say.”

  “Very good, and well worth the time investment. And your saries.” Chuck took the drive. What the government did with it ter would be on them. “You mentioned a second thing of interest?”

  Lea inserted herself. “That’s extra. A bonus for a bonus. Standard ‘above and beyond’ bounty won’t cut it, this is more valuable than our original target.”

  Chuck set down his knife and fork at that. “I find this hard to believe. A mithril vein not controlled by Delvers would be worth literal billions to the Department of Defense.”

  “It isn’t even particurly close. Cara, bug sweep?”

  The blonde Fox nodded and pulled out a gadget from her pocket, pushing a button on it. With a pop, a spot on Chuck’s left shoulder suddenly scorched. “Should have figured you’d have at least a recorder.” Cara seemed satisfied with that.

  Chuck looked a bit annoyed. “No trust in this business, I see. Now, what do you think could be so valuable?”

  Reina rubbed her temples. “Proof that the Deep Guilds exist, and one of their current targets.”

  There was absolute silence in the room, broken only by Lea and Cara munching on their meals. Lea swallowed her bit after a moment, apparently feeling that the silence had gone on just a bit too long. “So, about that bounty.”

  “Double if it’s what you say it is, and it will likely be your next mission.” Chuck looked down at his pte.

  Reina smiled. “Good. The girls are going through a growth spurt and clothing is getting pricey.”

  Cara pulled out a folder. “No originals, but these are photos of every page. We’ve already made our copies. They’re pnning on stopping a train shipment, a big one. Double bonus, we get the mission to counter the stop, and it’s yours.”

  Chuck considered for barely three seconds before taking it. “This was a lot easier when our agents would work for their saries and patriotism.”

  Lea shrugged. “Pity, then, that half of them decided they could make more as Delvers, ARCON, or support staff with their skillset, then half of what was left got cocky one time too many and ended up past tense. Did you ever get word back from the Bangkok team?”

  “No, and those were some of our best assets.” Chuck was rapidly looking over the documents. “Spokane, in four days?”

  Cara nodded. “It looks like a shipment of Holstaur milk headed for the Seattle ports, the document details that their phase one included applying pressure behind the scenes to try to bankrupt these people within the Harvard Dungeon community. Heck of a grudge, and it doesn’t say why, but the dairy there decided to go international for their Hail Mary save.”

  “Heck of a save. Holstaurs pretty much don’t exist in Japan, China, and Korea. Giantkin do, and they’re the biggest market for it, so if the model ends up being sustainable then Becoming Monsters will be making more money than they know what to do with.” Chuck closed the dossier. “I obviously can’t make the decision myself, but I don’t anticipate any deys. Rex while you can, get ready for the call. It shouldn’t be more than a day or two.”

  The next few minutes passed in silence as everyone ate the food in front of them. Chuck got a to-go box and left before long, and once he left the room Cara activated a bug sweep again. Once it was done without further reactions, all three of the women visibly rexed. Reina shook her head. “Why does talking to the handler always have to be that stressful? I almost had to invoke Autohypnosis for that, but I can’t hide it when I do.”

  Lea quirked her head. “He seemed nice, though.”

  “Yeah, and he was bugged. Probably for the right team, sure, but I hate not knowing for certain.” Cara took a fairly savage bite out of her rabbit. “Well, he said to rex, so I pn to take the opportunity.”

  Reina smiled. “Any big pns for tonight?”

  Cara nodded. “Kenneth’s not far from here in a hotel on business, so I told him I’m dropping by. The boyfriend and I are popping some popcorn, snuggling on the couch, and watching Pretender. Looking forward to it!”

  “Pretender? Really, again?”

  “When’s the st time you watched Hackers again, Reina?”

  “Last week, but that’s not important!”

  Lea shook her head and ughed. “Reina, you still have a guest room I can use? My husband is unfortunately about 500 miles away, so I can’t exactly go snuggle.”

  “Technically no, now that my oldest wants her own room, but if you want snuggles then at least two out of three are going to be happy to provide and that will come with the room.”

  “Ah, sacrifices,” Lea said with an exaggerated sigh and one hand to her heart. Reina and Cara both giggled. “Cuddle piles are good. You should try them!”

  “First night back any time I have to leave home for more than a day gets me one, and my husband fills in all the other days when the University isn’t driving him up the wall at midnight.” Reina stood and stretched, belly full of good food and not particurly much left on the pte. “I’m ready to go when you are. Cara, stay in touch, you know we’re probably getting the call sooner than we’d like.”

  Cara stood with her. “Especially after you dropped the secret on him so hard. Seriously, we thought the Deep Guilds were a myth. A conspiracy theory. Associations of people operating from the shadows trying to influence world events by maniputing superpowered teams throughout the world? When did we start living in a cheap spy flick?”

  Lea the Corgi was still seated, given that she wasn’t done. “About five years ago, when the superpowers arrived to compliment the fact that we were already spies.” She kept eating, then looked down at her pte. “I guess my eyes were bigger than my stomach. Let me get a doggy bag and we can get going.”

  Cara waved at them as she drove off in her rental car, a compact yet speedy thing (or maybe that speedy part was just her). Reina pulled out of the parking lot in a little efficient sedan and Lea followed in her minivan. They weren’t in a rush, at least not any more than wanting to get home and rex. The scenery was nice once they got out of town, as expected of the Yellowstone area. It helped. The roads meandered zily among the natural features, eventually coming to follow a deep but zy river. Before long they found their destination, a house built into the woods. It was one story but rather sprawling, without a fence or border. The pce just kind of blended into the surrounding woods. They pulled up into the driveway, seeing the minivan already there, and walked inside.

  “Kids! I’m home!” Reina called out as they entered, rapidly removing her shoes as a thunder of footsteps suddenly sounded out. It was as if a herd of particurly excitable elephants were rampaging in their direction.

  “Mommy mommy mommy!” What came around the corner contained no elephants. Three young Beastkin girls appeared, all leaning more humanoid in appearance than most of their peers. In the lead was a Penguin, seeming to almost glide across the ground. Close behind was a Fmingo, but the Whale Shark bringing up the rear was nearly twice their size and the source of much of the noise.

  The st one was the one who noticed their guest first. “AND AUNTIE LEA!”

  The Penguin and Fmingo charged ahead into Lea’s arms, but Reina had to intervene briefly with the rge Whale Shark. With a sudden fsh, glowing tattoos appeared over her skin, and she got herself set to block with unbelievable swiftness. The collision should have bowled her over, Reina was five and a half feet of Otter blocking over eight feet of Whale Shark, but she held. Once her middle daughter’s momentum had slowed sufficiently to prevent severe injuries, Reina let her past to join in on the hugs. “Now, now, Lizzy, you know you need to move more calmly.”

  “Sorry, Mom, I just got excited!” Lizzy managed to look rather sheepish as she joined her sisters, Sarah and Anna, in hugging their guest.

  Lea was giggling. “Don’t worry, I did too.”

  A much calmer set of footsteps was approaching, and Reina was swept up into a hug of her own. One from a brown Otter in a b coat, her husband. “Welcome home, love.”

  “I was only gone for the morning! Groceries and a lunch meeting.” She was very much snuggled into his chest while saying this, neither wanting to stop the hug any more than their daughters wanted to stop dogpiling Lea.

  “Heh, tell that to the kids. Gd you ate.” He pulled back with a toothy grin. “Are you going for any more trips soon?”

  “Probably, but I don’t know exactly when yet. We can talk about it ter.”

  “Got it. Alright, girls, let mommy and Auntie Lea get their shoes off. Go clean up from lunch, we still have chores to do before we go swimming this afternoon.” He gently managed to get their daughters redirected to what they had been doing, the stampede heading away much less dramatic than the one that had come to the two women.

  Lea was still ughing as they got out of hearing. “Always fun coming here.”

  “I am rather fond of my deep cover story, yes.”

  “Three kids and a couple decades of deep cover, right. Just an ordinary stay-at-home mother of three, married to a college professor.” Lea was taking off her shoes as she said this, a process that was slowed a bit by the fact that she was still chuckling about it.

  “Of course. It helps that we were married before I got recruited, doesn’t it? The story is so effective that I threatened to quit when the bosses objected.” Reina took off her hoodie, revealing a lightweight white tee shirt underneath.

  “Still the only time I’ve seen them back down quite so fast. Something about them realizing you were already in all of their systems? And wrote the protocols for a quarter of them?”

  “I talked them into agreeing with my reasoning. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Now come on, let’s get things set up and take bets on how many seconds it will take before the girls join you once you bed down.”

  “No bet, but it’ll be less than fifteen.” The two walked over much more sedately to watch the entertainment as Professor Ruddertail attempted with mixed success to direct the three children. He eventually decided that he wasn’t going to get any more done with them here (and to be fair, he was probably right) and guided the bunch out another door towards the river.

  Reina walked over to the sink and started washing some dishes, smiling a bit as she did so. Lea grabbed a towel to dry them off as she did, commenting “this part’s nice, huh?”

  “Wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’ve fought both physically and digitally for my family, and I do all of this to make sure we stay together.” At no point did she take her eyes off the task her hands were on.

  “I hear you. Thomas and my son make me feel the same way.” She paused to stack up a couple of now-dry dishes. “You think Kenneth’s going to work for Cara?”

  “She’s willing to cuddle with him and he’s willing to watch Pretender with her. That’s a couple steps ahead of the st three or four tries.” Reina turned off the water and went to dry her hands, dishes done.”

  “And you’ve already checked him out, I presume?”

  “As if you haven’t.”

  “Touché. He seemed normal while I was watching him.” Lea put the dishes away.

  “And so do his social media accounts and public records.” Reina stopped speaking as the rest of the family charged back through the house, heading towards the showers. “That didn’t take long, did it?”

  Otterly was running as fast as he could to keep up. “All three did their ps!” Seconds ter, he was out of sight around the corner.

  Lea chuckled. “Family of five, you all got to be Beastkin, and all of you eat simir enough things to make it work. You got lucky.”

  “If my husband’s right with his hypothesis, it wasn’t all luck. One in 46,656 for five Beastkin out of five if it was completely random, not counting kinds, so either the Lord granted us a miracle directly, even besides us all getting through the First Year, or more was at py.”

  “I look forward to reading the paper, then. You mentioned we could set up the guest room?” Lea stretched as she finished her little task. It felt good, something done and definite in a world where they never really got to see how things ended.

  “Of course. You know where it is, go on ahead.” Reina watched as Lea practically skipped off, and there was quiet for a moment. She breathed in the smells of her home, the chili she’d asked her husband to drop into the slow cooker, the forest and river, the little hints that made her feel at peace. There was no telling what would come tomorrow, often literally in her line of work. She might get time to just process some data, or direct an infiltration. She might have to go do things personally, out on the front lines with Cara and Lea.

  Still easier than homeschooling, mind, but more dangerous by far.

  It was still nice to snuggle up with her husband at night whenever they could, and especially with Aunt Lea here to distract the kids with a knowing smile. Otterly often joked that they both often tossed and turned at night. Before the Change, it would result in them waking up separated by a foot or two. After, when both became Otter Beastkin? It could end up with them tangled up together nearly into a knot. Neither minded, the snuggles were that good.

  Lea had a small getaway bag in the spare bedroom with a couple changes of clothes and a pair of pajamas rgely indistinguishable from the others to everyone but her. She got changed into one of them after dinner, pyed some games with the kids, and everyone got some rest. Even Reina and her husband. Eventually.

  The moon set, the sun rose, and a new day dawned. Lea and Reina were just starting to prepare breakfast when both of their phones pinged. Their work ones, which were trashed and rotated at least monthly with new numbers. A text message from an unknown number, with a string of digits. Both knew what it meant and how to decode it. Lea nodded once, sharply. “That was a quick confirmation. Looks like all three of us are heading out tonight for a road trip to Spokane. You need to be on site for this.”

  “And the reward number on that is intense. They must have found a lot they liked in the document.” Reina’s brow furrowed. “My go bag is already packed, I’ll get the extras together today and make sure my toolkits are pre-deployed on their computers and servers.”

  “And I’ll get some research done.” Lea had come out of the Change with more than just a tail that wagged when she was lining up a good shot. She’d picked up a fir for building and construction youts as befit her new Architect Css, something that they’d thought useless… for a while, anyway.

  Otterly walked into the kitchen then, spotted both of them typing furiously on their phones, and got the point immediately. “I’ll get your servers going, love. When and how long?”

  “Tonight after dinner, should be two or three days but might go up to a week.” Reina looked up from her screen to see her husband’s concerned face.

  “One of those, got it. I will make necessary arrangements today, nothing I’m doing this week needs to be in person. Call me if you need anything on this side.”

  “I will.” Both of them knew there was only so much he could do, only so much she could ask. No matter what he knew and what he could know, there was so much she wasn’t permitted to say, much less let him look at directly. He’d do what he could.

  He turned and left to get the kids ready. Lea turned to Reina. “How did he get cleared to know that much, again?”

  “A lot of his research goes to government data fields, so they processed him for an alphabet soup clearance around the time we transferred to Yellowstone. He might not be cleared for everything, but he could be told about some of what I do to make our lives easier.” Reina turned back to the pancakes she was flipping.

  “I need to tell my husband to get on that. Not sure what a construction team leader can do to get on the radar, but there has to be something.” Lea sniffed. “That smells better than st time, and that’s saying something.”

  “I am thankful every day that nobody here is actually an obligate carnivore. We can enjoy some grains on occasion, which means I get to keep enjoying pancakes.”

  “And therefore, so do I.” Lea got the first ptter of them to the table, the kids arrived, and the day officially got into full swing. Professor Ruddertail had csses to teach and got moving as soon as he could, muttering about how he missed having a couple of his more dependable students around. Reina and Lea got the kids set up for their own csses, a mix of remote instruction and more local studies. Then they got to their own research, just like they knew Cara was exercising and stretching herself out to get ready elsewhere.

  It had to end, though. Otterly got home, the family had dinner, Reina kissed her husband, and she went out with Lea on a business trip. Lea drove them to go pick up Cara, and then it was on the road. Nearly 500 miles separated them from their destination, normally a full day plus a bit of a second. By one in the morning they were pulling up to a hotel in Spokane, on the small side and low traffic. One on their agency’s list of approved locations, where the owners wouldn’t try to spy on them and the bad guys hadn’t been spotted trying to do the same. The one time they’d tried going off script there, they’d ended up at the same hotel as their targets… all 34 of them. They still succeeded, but it hadn’t been easy.

  After some sleep and breakfast, it was pnning time. The train would be in Spokane the next day, which meant there would be not one but three trips to the rail yard to perform. Each would have distinct, but carefully-pnned, purposes. Each would take its own preparation and execution. The first went smoothly just after sundown. A quick p of the area to look for signs of sabotage, check deviations from what they knew, and verify that their preparations were in pce. All the people they spotted were supposed to be there, checked against open employment records. Same with the trains, all of the ones there matched manifests and schedules. Lea walked up to their service desk to ask about some passenger schedules, her best ditzy wag in her tail, and was met with absolutely standard and scripted gentle rejection telling her to go across town to find the right terminals.

  It was almost too smooth. Either their unknown opponent canceled the operation after they realized the st pce was compromised, or else whomever they hired wasn’t using typical tactics.

  The second was more of a practice. Just before dawn, they got to check and recheck what they had and all of their equipment, staying carefully out of sight. No edits were needed. Cara shook her head. “I don’t like this. No operation since my academy days has ever been this clean. How long until the train arrives?”

  Lea checked her watch. “Six hours, almost exactly.”

  Cara frowned. “Reina, all your hacks are in pce?”

  “I have more RATs on their network than NYC has in their sewers. This pce is decent, but they use a lot of defaults. If it’s connected to a network on this property, I’ve compromised it.”

  “I assume you’re going to give them a tune-up on the way out?”

  “Already did some of that. No sense making it easy on anyone else trying to get in.” Reina grinned. More than one network she’d turned into her pyground found themselves mysteriously more secure after she left. She was a professional, and professionals have standards.

  “Lea, did you see anything odd?” Cara turned to the Corgi.

  “Nothing.” She did not seem any happier than Cara about this. “The buildings and rail yout match up as much as anything can be expected to. No hidden rooms, no sudden staffing shifts.”

  “Grr. Okay.” Cara did not look remotely okay about the situation. “I didn’t see anything either. Take a break, be back here in… four hours. We will take up positions and get ready. If anyone thinks of anything before then, come up on the net and let us know. Be ready to respond to anything.”

  Although she’d said to take a break, none of the three really separated from each other. Breakfast was half-decent, but not as good as if Reina or Lea had been behind the stovetop. Cara? Well, there was a reason the other two didn’t let her cook during operations if they could help it. They debated heading to a park or back to the hotel, but all three were slowly getting more and more tense. It was almost a relief when Reina’s phone pinged at her. “Looks like the guest of honor is ahead of schedule. One train full of milk will be arriving in less than sixty minutes.”

  “Showtime, girls.” Cara was the first to the car, but Reina and Lea were close behind her. Which is good, because Lea had the keys. Less than fifteen minutes ter the team pulled up to the train yard. The minivan was stopped for barely sixty seconds as Cara and Lea got their gear. Reina had been booting up and logging in as they drove, leaping to the back of the van so that she could pull blinds down over the windows and set up her workstation. She was already connected, it would just be with a stronger machine in five minutes.

  There was only one rge building in the area, and Lea was on top of it in moments. She pulled out her backpack, unloading components to assemble a rifle rger than most would have given her credit for storing in there. Two short tripods, one with rangefinder binocurs and one with her weapon mounted, were up in a few moments. Her tail wagged, it was a job well done. Time to look around the area and see if she could find anything under the light of the te-morning sun.

  Cara decided on a more direct approach. The people working here seemed to not want to go out among the trains unless they needed to. Couldn’t bme them, really, but that meant that she could explore to her fluffy little heart’s content. She had long since figured out how to use her Brawler css as a mobility tool, dashing forward to cover stretches of ground at staggering speeds, and the amount of territory she was covering was enough to give her some peace of mind that she’d find a threat before it found her. The powerful ears atop her head were certainly helping, too. In order for someone or something to sneak up on her, they’d have to be moving as fast as a pre-Change Olympian, silently, while somehow also staying out of sight from Lea’s overwatch. It made for a very secure kind of feeling.

  As a train began to approach from the distance, the next call over their earpieces was fully expected. Reina’s voice crackled in “that’s our target. It needs to get out of here in one piece for us to be able to go home.”

  “We’ve got company.” Lea kept her voice calm, though she was feeling anything but. “Four cars pulled into the parking lot that I do not remember seeing earlier.”

  “Traffic on the network just spiked. They’re pulling the same thing I am. Or trying to, anyway. Stay out of sight of the cameras for a sec.” Reina was many things. Versatile, capable, intelligent. Whoever was in those cars was about to learn something else, though. She was very proud of what she did, and would not suffer these intruders the insult of allowing them to take over the network she’d rightfully stolen.

  “Whatever you just did, they didn’t like it. Cara, fifteen goons headed your way.” Lea was very calmly tracking them now. “Looks like they’re armed and have body armor, too. They’re going to take the path around the front side of the tracks. Hold on, fifteen? There might be one more in the vehicle at the far back corner of the parking lot, only three got out of that one and there were four in each of the others.”

  “I’ll get in position for the goons,” Cara said as she turned around to get moving again. “Don’t shoot unless you need to, Lea, this op’s been quiet so far but if that cannon of yours goes off it won’t be anymore.”

  “I’ll have you know I didn’t assemble the cannon this time. Silenced and subsonic unless I need the good one.” Lea gnced up at the camera near her. “Reina, just say when.”

  “I’m in control and backtracking that hack. Cameras are offline.”

  “Just what I needed to hear.” As silent as a whisper, Lea gently pulled the trigger. The man in the back went down. Lea’s tail, which had stilled in her concentration, began to wag again. “Fourteen to go.”

  The incoming group made it through another couple rows of cars before they realized they were short a man. Well, two, a second one dropped for a remarkably simir reason as the first, but this one hit a car on the way down with a sharp cng that alerted the others. The group ducked for cover among the vehicles, suddenly shouting as they realized this was not going to be the simple operation they’d hoped for. Unbeknownst to them, one of the vehicles they were sheltering against was a certain minivan which contained a certain Otter. One of their voices made Reina look up sharply, as if she could stare her way through the hardened metal exterior. “Oh, boy, sounds like we have a familiar agent here. One of them sounds an awful lot like the Tomcat.”

  “CRUZ?” came Cara’s angry voice. And no wonder, either. Tomcat Cruz was an operative for a unit or organization they had not been able to determine, and had cost them more than one mission completion in the past. She immediately started heading towards the parking lot, taking the reverse of the route Lea had told her they were following. “Please tell me we can deny him this one.”

  Reina listened as they spoke, unable to make out quite what they were saying. “They’re right next to our van. If you can get them to move, I’ll be able to grab one of their radios and get us tapped in.”

  “Sounds like a dare to me.” Cara was swiftly moving towards the group. One versus thirteen was not good odds. On the other paw, it had been fifteen a moment ago. Out of the way of the train, which was obliviously pulling up to the rail yard. Out to the parking lot, back towards where the enemy was huddled. Cruz wasn’t any more of a fan of hers than she was of him, so all it would take was one goad. She got into position where she could see them, pulled out her pistol, and carefully squeezed off two shots into the crowd.

  Good goad. The bullets hit two different people, doing little real damage through their body armor but drawing an instant response. “CARA!” Cruz’s roar of rage was clearly audible to Reina, as was the group’s sudden hail of return fire. Their shouts faded out as they ran in pursuit of a theoretically-running Cara. That was her cue. As another scan ran on her ptop, Reina hopped out of the back of the vehicle and hooked around to the space the enemy had just been occupying. Unfortunately, it seemed that one of them still was. Probably just in case of exactly this.

  Unfortunately for him, Reina was already in the grip of Autohypnosis. Glowing blue tattoos were concealed under her bck hoodie, jeans, and blue baseball cap, which might have given the trick away. Instead, she dashed forward exactly as fast as her legs could push over that miniscule distance, followed by two powerful kicks and an uppercut thrown exactly as strongly as her body could perform and pced exactly at the thinnest parts of his body armor and the bottom of his chin. The goon hit the ground, but was unconscious so fast he didn’t feel it. Seconds ter, Reina had his radio and antenna, got back in the minivan, pulled out the tech cradle to best interface with it, and got it connected before releasing her ability. “Online and dialing in, it looks like they’ve got some chatter. Cara, if you’re trying to kite them, slow down just a hair. They can’t see you.”

  “Got it. Lea?”

  The Corgi had taken the opportunity to swap her weapon and load significantly rger and louder bullets. “Get two nes to your left so I can have a clear line of sight.” She gnced over her shoulder. “Looks like the workers out in the rail yard heard the gunfire. We have about ten minutes before authorities arrive if any of them have their cell phones and call it in.”

  Cara leapt across the tops of the cars to get where Lea indicated. “Then in eight minutes we need to be peeling out.”

  Reina’s voice was next. “Okay, I got the traffic from the vehicle. There’s someone still in the van, talking to someone who is really mad that we’re here.” She gasped. “Okay, this just got way more interesting. Looks like the commander in the car is one Mandy Walters. Another one of those phantoms to cross off the list. Other guy is talking about Deep Guilds, so I’m pretty sure we have our targets. Think you can either take her down or take her out?”

  Cara was still running. “As long as Lea can slow these jokers down.” A much louder gunshot responded to the comment, and another goon went down. Ten people dove for shelter. One rge man kept in pursuit. A Cat Beastfolk with white fur and vicious cws. Cruz.

  He was smart enough to stay down among the cars instead of up where he could reach Cara. That was where Lea could reach him. “Get down here and fight me!”

  “Don’t think so.” Cara kept moving as fast as she could. “I think I’d rather have a conversation with your boss.”

  Cruz reacted as if spped, turning and sprinting towards the back corner of the parking lot. Suddenly, the Fox was chasing the Cat, not the other way around. Lea called out over the net “I can’t get a clear shot back there, you’re on your own!”

  “Cara, I need another two minutes if you can give them to me. They’re using IP-based coms, so I’m trying to get a tracker on the other side.” Reina’s voice was intense. She had reactivated her Autohypnosis. There would be a price to pay ter for pushing this hard, but there was no time to waste right now.

  Cruz and Cara broke out into a clear parking lot, running towards the cluster of vehicles his crew had come from. The Cat dove forward and turned around, dropping into a martial artist’s stance. “You don’t get any closer, Cara. One more step and I will make sure you leave in a body bag.”

  Cara got into a kickboxing stance of her own. “You haven’t managed it yet, Cruz. This time it’s just you and me. No goons to save you, and my friends are busy. For some reason, you really don’t want me to get at whatever’s in that car, so it looks like it’s show time.” She dove forward at him.

  There was an important distinction between Cara’s and Reina’s fighting styles. The Otter housewife hacker hypnotized herself to push her body and skills to the precise limits she was physically capable of, something that had caught many people off guard through the years no matter their size or capability. Cara, though? The Fox had been a trained and lethal unarmed combatant before the Change made her a Brawler for real, and when she aimed a punch it was with much more force than her body could possibly generate on its own.

  Cruz wasn’t a Brawler. His Warrior Css was one of the most common combatant Csses in the world, one not quite suited to his style back then. Thing is, it definitely let him block the incoming strike with nothing more than about an inch of skid. With a snarl, he flexed both hands to unsheathe his cws and aimed a series of rapid sshes right back at her. Every attempt to cw off her face was met by a bob, a weave, or a much faster return attack. They were neck and neck, fist to cw, when Cara’s ear twitched.

  The car in front of her held a short, heavyset, and severe-looking woman. Mandy Walters, presumably. That wasn’t why she reacted. It was a whistle, five rising notes, the third and fifth held longer. She knew that whistle, the sign from a video game she once enjoyed that a particur friend and rival appeared. It was a warning.

  Instead of the punch Cruz was expecting, she dove backwards just in time. The explosion rocked the area, demolishing all four vehicles as the Tomcat ran from it as fast as he could.

  “Cara! Are you okay?” Lea sounded scared, still trying to keep her group pinned.

  “I’m alright. My ego’s bruised worse than anything else.”

  “Looks like a Human man, about six feet with brown hair. He’s running across the street away from us. Can’t get a good shot.

  “Don’t try for it. That’s Johnathan. My brother.”

  “You’re going to need to expin that a bit more thoroughly ter. I’m just gd he waited long enough for me to get a tracker out.” It was Reina. “Police are sixty seconds out with SWAT on their tails. Get to the van, we gotta move!”

  Lea took the hint, chucked a fsh bang at the group, and took off running for the minivan. Cara picked herself up and looked around. The train was safe enough, those guys wouldn’t be able to do anything before the police got here, and the train would be gone before anyone could take another shot as long as it was guarded at the port. Cara spotted something on the ground. The woman was dead and Cara couldn’t hope to carry the corpse to the van… but the severed arm ying next to her would do and it looked like it was Mandy’s. She pulled on a glove, grabbed it, and sprinted back to the vehicle. Lea peeled out of the side entrance of the parking lot as police pulled in from the front, immediately swarming over the remaining goons.

  This operation was a success, but there was no way to know what the next mission would bring.