Page 19 of Ruled By Their Desires

Three

She’d denied him again…

And what the fuck was she meant to do with that statement?

He wanted her like an object, something to have to show off. Like it was the only way he could. It was so messed up but, it gave her an excuse to give in didn’t it? An arranged partnership, marriage, whatever the fuck you wanted to call it. But it wouldn’t really mean anything. Not with Marcus. She couldn’t.

They’d be no way she could put her emotions in a box and seal it away. Being with him like that would break her. Seeing him walk away and fuck others, then come back? There was no way she could deal with that shit. It would take her apart to watch it. Tossing and turning all night, it kept her awake until the alarm went off. Showering, she was in and out quickly heading for the vehicles nodding to her guys and hitting the road eating breakfast on the fly early, trying not to think about any of it.

For the first time on a mission with Marcus…

He’d never seen her in action. They’d been a few requests over the years to join other missions, but she’d declined them. Her guys went or not up to them, but she never had. Now that too was changing. Too much was changing for her taste. Four Humvee’s in full camo in a convoy, taking risks they wouldn’t normally take. Full to the gills with Cyborgs, weapons and her. It didn’t sit well with her that they were risking their lives for her people. For humans, without saying a word of complaint and yet no human but her was there taking the risk with them. It was wrong.

She was the only human and wondered why, they’d been others at the training ground, but no one volunteered the info, so she let it go. Someone was bound to let it slip at some point or they never would. It was how they were.

And if they were spotted, they’d make one heck of a target.

Her quad rode with her in the second vehicle. Marcus up front in car one. Two others behind. Twenty in all. Nineteen Cyborgs to take a nuclear missile compound, disarm it, make it inert and blow the place up. It was bound to be heavily guarded and she wondered if they could do it. She looked at her quad, hoping this wasn’t a mistake knowing what choice did they have?

Pushing through after dark, she slept in the back while the quad kept a look out, swopping out drivers, dozing themselves every now and then. As daylight hit, she took a turn at the wheel. They fed her and passed her drinks. It was going to take 8 days to get there from their current position going at their fastest and not stopping other than a pee break, hoping they weren’t spotted and a full 10 days, to get back to the base doing the same if it all went tits up. If they survived the blast in the first place. The whole thing made her head hurt. That left 1 maybe 2 days to gather intel and 1 day to hit it, take it and get out. Timing was gonna be tight. 4 Hours later she swopped out for Hawk and apart from another toilet break, they kept going.

Finally arriving at the drop off point on schedule, the convoy stopped heading into some brush and a canyon. There was no hesitating. Marcus was out and over in quick time, the rest of them already using the camo on the vehicles to hide them fully. He came directly to her. “If I asked you to stay with the vehicles, would you?” She just blinked at him. He clenched his jaw. “If I ordered you?” She just stared at him blankly. “Fuck woman, you’re going to give me a heart attack.” He sighed. “Right.” And blew out a breath.

“Moon can hold her own.” Spike told him, not that she needed him to defend her, but she blew him a kiss anyway.

Marcus sneered. It was a good look on him. Wind change anyone? “Your team is scouting the east fence, go as close to the area as you can without being seen. Note guard changes and systems, any access points or weak areas we can use. Back here in 30 hours.”

They all gave a nod and he walked away.

“I don’t know why he brought me if he didn’t want me here.” She mumbled as they all loaded up on weapons, food and water and they started moving.

“He wasn’t leaving you behind in case this blows up in our faces. Literally.” Crash told her.

“Why?”

“We weren’t leaving you alone and if we fail, you will most likely die out here Moon and that’s not happening. So if it looks like it’s going south fast, we can make a run for it with you. We might make it in time to get to the Mountain Base without too much damage, but you are another story. We have a nuclear fallout suit in the Humvee, if this goes wrong, you put it on. It’s a chance, a small one but at least you’ll have it. You’d be protected from the blast here. And that wasn’t happening if we left you behind.”

She frowned. “And the others at the training camp?”

“Already moving. Been told to hurry.”

They gave her ten to go pee, down some water and eat a little before setting off again. They kept the pace to her speed. She knew she was holding them back, but this wasn’t a timed exercise. Getting there faster wasn’t going to give them any more than what was already there. They moved silently and she followed Hawks hand-signals to the letter. She stopped when they stopped. She moved when they moved. She took cover when told to. And they moved and covered her when they needed to. No one spoke. Everything done by the hand signals she knew so well.

Just over six hours later and they started to slow down. Moving slowly through the grass and trees on a hill behind their target. The compound up ahead was lit up like an old-fashioned Christmas Tree. Something was definitely happening down there. The quad would be able to zoom in, but she used the binoculars.

Her first surprise was that there were humans and Cyborgs down there. Together. Working together, but that couldn’t be right. Hawk instructed her to hunker down and stay put. She moved back. The quad spread out taking off in different locations. She was well hidden from any passing security by her camo blanket if they came out that far.

Moon watched the compound below for hours. Took note of entrances and exits, following the humans walking around going from place to place trying to identify what they might be doing and what the buildings were, realising, they had no intel on what was going on inside those buildings. None. The plans they had were pre burn. It had been decades; they could have been altered many times over. The silo was likely the same but right up to it, they had no idea if they were still being used or repurposed in some way.

Grabbing someone would be the best idea but they wouldn’t know how reliable that info was and someone was likely to miss them. She thought it over looking at the area below.

Could they really leave this to chance?

Someone had to get in. It was a risk. If she got caught, they’d know they were coming. It was likely they knew they were coming anyway so what was the difference. Right?

She chewed on it for a while longer scanning the area, now looking for an access point. Spotting a break in the outa fence. It was small. Animal small but she could do it. Then a section not far ahead in the inner fence wall. The ground around the compound and in between the two fences was far from what it had once been. Not maintained for decades it was all overgrown and wild, giving plenty of cover. The outer fence broken in several sections. She mapped out the best cover to get her there from her position and checked her watch. Roughly twelve hours to get in, look around and get out again, ready to meet her quad and take off for the drop off point.

She could do that…..

---