Genomorph

Chapter 42

CHAPTER 42

The estate was located a few miles north of Los Angeles, secluded enough and yet with easy and quick access to several major transit arteries. It was not a flashy estate, but it was large and had several out buildings, making it an ideal safe house.

A convoy of vehicles, several vans and moving trucks along with a black Lincoln entered through the heavily gated entrance. The vans and trucks moved on to the collection of outbuildings while the Lincoln stopped in front of the main house.

Through binoculars Senior Chief Charlie Wright watched as four men got out of the sedan. They were dressed casually, like business men arriving for a retreat, but Wright was not fooled. Their close cropped hair and obviously excellent physical condition was not the real give away, it was the way they scanned their surroundings and the way they carried themselves. These men were soldiers, well trained and disciplined. Wright switched from the binoculars to a 100X spotting scope with an attached video camera and began recording the scene.

The vans unloaded close to a full platoon of identical looking men, who moved into the out buildings which Wright knew had been set up as barracks. They all carried simple luggage, no military looking duffel bags or such, but again there was no mistake as to who they were and what they were here for.

The arrival of the tactical team did not necessarily mean that his former CO had been found. In fact there had been activity at this location before. The organization had several such houses and had been stationing teams at each of them for faster deployment. The team that had been here previously had moved out a week ago, probably being shifted to another location. Since the estate was officially listed as a retreat for business leaders, keeping a team there too long would potentially draw suspicion.

Wright switched off the video camera and carefully withdrew from his concealed position on a ridge overlooking the estate. The observation post was distant enough that it would be hard to spot, but these men were professionals. The last team had regularly sent out patrols, pairs that to the casual observer would have appeared to be simply taking a stroll around the grounds. Undoubtedly the estate was routinely swept for electronic devices as well, which is why they had chosen not to plant any while it was empty. The organization was paranoid to the extreme, and they could not afford to tip them off to the fact that the estate was being watched. That would be a dead giveaway that Brandi was in LA.

Brandi. The thought that his former commander, the finest warrior Wright had ever served with, was now a beautiful young woman named Brandi was something that Wright found incredible. Still, when he had read the reports detailing the events behind the transformation, the warrior genes that had made Brandon a desirable candidate for the Genomorph Protocol, he had not been surprised. Anyone who had served with him would have readily agreed that there was something different about Brandon Anderson. In a fraternity of elite warriors he stood out as someone very special.

Wright rose from the ground once he had crawled over the ridge and returned to the Ford Excursion concealed in the trees. He climbed into the passenger seat and Petty Officer Enrique Vasquez started the engine.

“What do you think, Chief?” Vasquez asked.

“It’s a new team, same size as the last one,” Wright said. “Other than that, I can’t say. You go back and report to the Skipper and I’ll maintain surveillance and get some more video.”

For the rest of the day Wright observed the estate but did not see anything that indicated the tactical team was up to anything. He managed to get video of the four men from the sedan who were undoubtedly the officers of this team, as well as shots of several of the others. Late that afternoon Vasquez returned and along with him were Petty Officers Lewis and Darrow, the SEAL platoon’s snipers. Wright briefed them both on what he had seen throughout the day and then he and Vasquez returned to their safe house with the video he had shot. The estate would remain under constant surveillance and the SEALs would be on alert until the mercenaries left. If they made a move, the SEALs would be ready to respond immediately.

*****

Brandi and Melissa spent Sunday just relaxing. Melissa shared a lot of funny stories about the times she and Karen had as undergraduates, but said she was saving the best for when Karen made it big in Washington; timing was everything with the really juicy dirt.

Brandi also spent several hours Sunday altering her form. She mimicked Melissa and Karen and Amber, who had gladly allowed her to record her patterns for practice; she thought it was ‘so cool’. Amber was the hardest, as she was four inches shorter than Brandi and very petite. Brandi found it required much more effort to hold a form that was so physically different from her own, and the process of actually becoming shorter and smaller was in fact very painful, as was returning to her normal form. Still she endured the discomfort knowing that it was like physical training and trusting her body to let her know before she went too far.

In addition to practicing altering her form, Brandi experimented with changing the form of her biomorphic armor. The first attempts were less than dramatic; she was able to change the basic design of the garment, but changing the appearance of the material was much more difficult. What she ended up with were variations that all looked like leather; tight fitting pants and a halter top or bodice were fairly easy. Forming the material into something like a skirt was very hard, as it tended to want to cling to her body.

Melissa had an idea, and asked Brandi to mimic her. She then showed her pictures of different hairstyles and Brandi tried each of them out, varying the color and length of her hair so Melissa could see how she would look with a variety of styles.

“This could be very useful,” Melissa said after Brandi had returned to her own appearance. “It’s like having my own life sized Barbie doll!”

That evening Brandi grilled steaks, one of Brandon’s specialties. They had been marinated all day in teriyaki sauce and fresh garlic. She prepared baked potatoes for a side that were large enough to be a meal on their own. After dinner the two girls sat on the deck in each others arms and watched the sun set over the ocean, a beautiful end to a beautiful day.