II
Sauda sits at the end of the table furthest away from the door and with her back to the corner of the room. There weren’t any windows in the room, so they didn’t have to worry about snipers. And there is only one entryway. If an enemy came through, they’d get a bullet to the knee. Knee shots meant they weren’t dead, so they could still play them with.
She sits with her favorite SIG P238 in her lap. Not that she expected to shoot her new superior, but it was comforting.
“We’re here, instead of resting? Where are the new kids?”
1st Lt. Jordan Thayjon Kettlewell, alias Sugar, sits next to her. He sprawls out on his chair with glasses hiding his eyes. No doubt nursing a hangover from his day off. He’s twenty-nine and two years her senior, yet he still acts like a twenty-year-old.
“Relax Sugar, they’re just trying to make us sweat.”
Sauda’s entire team sits on one end of the table. Kettlewell on her right and on her left, Specialist Adorna Mendoza, alias Dragon. Adorna isn’t her actual name, but if anyone spoke her real one, they'd have complete control of her.
Adorna is a Lilin Demon from Hell under the Philippines. Even though her Succubus form is as tall as the room, her human form is small and petite, barely reaching five feet. Her bonded partner sits behind them. Specialist Ashleigh Wright, alias Fingers, the group’s Castor. A curvy Yemeni girl from the Midwest with long dyed blonde hair and a shy smile. She isn’t a fighter at all, but knows her way around a spell and a gun.
Kettlewell leans back in his chair, stretching until a gap of golden-brown skin shows between his pants and his shirt. A sharply cut treasure trail with a soft pudge sitting above it. Not fat enough for the average skinny male, still passing military requirements, but definitely fatter than any other shapeshifter. The amount of food he has to eat for his superhuman metabolism to fail is astonishing. If Jordan’s not talking or kissing someone, he’s eating. While they were waiting, he’s already gone through three large containers of Chex Mix.
He scents the air, pulling two snorts of air into his nose. He smiles. “Four nulls inbound.”
He brings a foot up and relaxes, stuffing a piece of jerky in his mouth from the mountain of snacks on the table. His head turns to Sauda to reveal new golden eyes with black slit pupils. He smiles, showing off his new fangs.
“Play nice,” She warns.
“Anything you say, Cap.”
Ashleigh wrings her fingers as footsteps come closer and louder. She crosses and uncrosses her feet, and her fingers fly as she casts runes in the air to calm herself.
“Fingers,” Sauda whispers, “relax.”
Adorna growls at her Captain to leave her partner alone, then sits up straight as the incoming men's smell flows into the room.
“Cool it,” Sauda says to the Demon.
Two of the men Sauda “met” the day before, dressed in full ACUs, enter the room, turning to usher in the Major. Maddox comes in and the last soldier follows like a conga line. They stand in a row between the door and the table, blocking the exit. If someone sneaks behind them, they're all dead.
“What a show,” Adorna whispers so low that only Sauda and Jordan can hear.
“I wonder... how far the sticks up their asses go?” Jordan whispers back.
Maddox steps toward the table, “No one in uniform?” His tongue pokes out the side of his mouth, and his hands rest on his hips. Everyone can see his chest puffing out, but none of them even pretend to be scared.
“Relax, Maddox--”
“That’s ‘Major Maddox’ to you,” one of his cronies spits, a very pale one, half of his body hidden behind his Major.
Sauda leans forward in her chair and places both elbows on the table, hands fisted under her chin. “Major Fucking Maddox. Better?”
Even with the Major’s tan skin, they see him flush, his anger filling him.
“The disrespect!” yells the half-hidden soldier. He stands tall with bright orange hair and freckles across his face like a grownup “howdy-doody”. “No one stood as I called attention, no one was in uniform. Do you have no respect for authority?”
The other two soldiers stand out in the open, not saying a word but staring at Sauda’s side of the table.
“This is a joke, right? One of those human... pranks?” Adorna looks from Ashleigh to Sauda and then to Jordan, ready to put on an act.
“Yes,” Jordan says as deadpan as he could manage, “yes it is.”
Adorna’s dry fake laugh breaks through the silence and Jordan laughs, fangs in full view. Sauda sees Maddox and Company step back. Sauda cracks a smile. Jordan grabs a piece of jerky.
“Forgive our resident Demon,” Sauda says to them, “She doesn’t fully understand human behavior… when she chooses not to.”
“She’s like you? Half Demon?” The grown-up Raggedy Andy asks.
“Nope. She’s the full Monty. Not a drop of human.”
“If you don’t count the breakfast in my stomach,” Adorna smiles, staring at him.
The human faces change from anger to astonishment, to fear. Sauda can smell their fear and it stains the air, and she prays for her nose to adjust. The Major stays angry.
“You disgrace the Army--”
“Fuck the Army!” Kettlewell boasts enjoying the mad looks. Everyone on their side of the room knows that Jordan doesn’t mean that. He loves being a soldier. He was trying to rile up the new boys, and Sauda isn’t about to ruin his fun.
“What my First Lieutenant really means is: Uncle Sam may pay us a rather large fee for our skills, but he doesn’t even care for us nor us him,” Sauda explains, enjoying the smell of their outrage better than their rancid fear.
“That’s not the attitude to have, Captain,” Maddox says puffing up his chest again.
“You really think you got a promotion taking over this team?”
Maddox’s chest deflates like they knock the air out of him.
“Taking over the team?” Jordan asks. He stops chewing on whatever he has in his mouth.
Sauda holds up her hands and looks at the Major. “This is a glorified team of murderers—”
“Hey!” Ashleigh objects.
“Minus the witch,” Jordan nods.
“Hey!” Ashleigh says again.
“Besides our Castor,” Sauda continues, “We are assassins under the hire of the government.” The more she talks, the angrier she gets, but she buries her moral quandary for another time. “We are their dirty secret and you are now in charge of keeping it. If you die, they will strip you of all titles and glory and leave your family to believe you’re a traitor. This is not a promotion, this is your funeral.” Sauda stares into Maddox’s eyes as he stares back. “So we don’t really have to wear our ACU’s.”
Jordan leans forward and squints his eyes at the Major. Sauda looks at her first lieutenant and sees cat ears grow from his head. Gasps shout out as they watch the minor changes only Alpha Shapeshifters can pull off.
“I know you! Major Colin Maddox!” Jordan laughs, allowing all his features to return to normal and clapping his hands loudly. “Shit boy, did you really wreck a whole tanker just to show off for a girl? You must have got into major trouble. But I see Daddy Brigadier General must have saved your ass.”
“That’s just a rumor,” Maddox says straightening his clothes. The room instantly gets tight and Jordan smiles at the Major.
“Major, sir?” Ashleigh is as quiet as a mouse and innocent-looking. Her fingers slowly moving behind Sauda’s back, casting a spell for courage... “We don’t wear uniforms here because when we go out on missions…”
Ashleigh balks as she realizes all eyes are on her and scoots a little closer to Adorna. Adorna reaches back and pulls Ashleigh’s entire chair behind her and Ashleigh ducks out of sight.
Sauda raises her hand, grabbing the spotlight. “We don’t wear uniforms on missions unless specifically told to. The Army wants no one to know about us. Dead or alive, they will deny us, anyway.”
From behind Adorna, Ashleigh speaks up, “I hope you get out soon.”
“Do you want to get out?” Maddox asks her.
Ashleigh rapidly shakes her head.
“She has her reasons for being here,” Adorna growls at him.
Maddox’s men instantly crowd him as if ready to save him if Adorna jumps over the table. Adorna bares her teeth and Sauda hears the click of a gun’s safety from Jordan. His left hand stays on the table near his snacks, but his right hand is in his lap.
“Down.” Sauda puts her hand on Adorna’s shoulder. She turns her head to Sugar. “Why would a shapeshifter need a gun in this situation?”
“I don’t want to mess up my clothes. They’re new,” Jordan smiles.
“We’re a team now,” Sauda rolls her eyes at Kettlewell, “we need to play like one.”
“Team building?” Ashleigh asks from her hiding place.
“Team building,” Sauda smiles. “So, Major, how’s your shooting?”
He raises the “People’s Eyebrow”.
“Deadly.”