The Awaening of Angel

Authors note: I have used some military terminology and jargon in this chapter which you may not be accustomed to. As an aid I've included definitions or explanations in brackets following the term. It breaks the flow a little but I thought it preferable to an appendix or footnotes and I wanted to include the military terms in order to add realism to the story.

*****

13 Aug PM Mid-evening (Exact time unknown)

Circe

The van ride seemed to take a few hours but it was hard to tell since I had a bag over my head. It was also pretty uncomfortable, what with my hands and wrists being tied, but this was easy compared to being hog-tied in Tillman's dungeon. My "captors" were silent except for the occasional grunt or cough. Some, if not all of them needed a few lessons in personal hygiene. Dirty clothes, body odor and bad breath. Tillman never missed a detail. As we travelled along I felt a hand grab my ass, and since I was determined to be the model trainee, I didn't respond or resist. Someone in the van snickered. Then two hands grabbed my breasts, and just a little too roughly. They really seemed to enjoy them but left their hands outside of my top.

One of the men said with a heavy accent, "Stop van, we need to check for bugs."

"Hey I don't have bugs. I keep clean, unlike you guys."

My smart remark got me slapped on the side of the head, "Shut-up bitch whore!"

The van stopped and I heard some sort of electronic chirping around me.

"She's clean. Keep driving."

I wanted to also be witty about my cleanliness but thought better of it. The slap to the head hurt. The chattering picked up a bit but was very whispered. I did hone in on two female voices, or very effeminate men and that made me wonder if Alexandra was here in the van and involved in the test. After a while the van stopped and I could hear gates opening. The van then entered a building and the garage door shut.

"Out bitch whore!" Someone roughly grabbed the hood and my hair and half-dragged me out of the van. I chuckled to myself, yep, been there done that, referencing the time that Tillman pulled me out of the limo by my hair. It was some sort of warehouse because you could tell by the way the sounds echoed and reverberated. Hands on either side of me grabbed my arms and shuttled me deeper into the building and door after door closed behind me and we went up some stairs. Eventually I was roughly deposited in a hard chair and told to be quiet, and not move. Again, been there done that.

After quite some time someone entered the room and walked to my chair, and the hood came off. It took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust to the light but there wasn't much to see. The two "captors" standing next to me appeared to be female and they were dressed in black and wore ski masks. Neither of them had Alexandra's build.

"Stand up and don't make trouble. Take off your clothes."

So now it begins. Obediently I stood and my arm and wrist restraints were removed. I rubbed my wrists to get the circulation back and then quickly pulled my clothes off. As the last item hit the floor I heard a snap and turned to see that one of them had put latex gloves on. She came around to face me.

"Open your mouth."

The gloved fingers went in and swept around my mouth.

"Clear. Now bend over and spread 'em."

Well now this was something different. Two un-lubricated fingers were roughly pushed into my vagina and then into my rectum. Thanks bitch – I hope your next gynecologist treats you just the same way and is a man with giant hands and fat fingers.

"Clear. Put this on."

I was tossed one of those orange prison jumpsuits and told to sit back down once I was dressed. If I knew Tillman, things were going to get interesting but in any case I was just happy that he was active again and on the mend, at least that's what I hoped anyway.

13 Aug 11:32 PM

Tillman

Conveniently, one of my most trusted team members owned a very popular gym that was busy all of the time. It made a great meeting place to conduct initial planning operations because nobody seemed to notice a bunch of very fit people going in and out of a gym. Plus she had set up a very private meeting room that was on the 3rd floor and well away from any customers. Right after I hung up with Alexandra I had hit autodial on my cell for my Tango Team. And no, not the dance. Tango is the military phonetic alphabet for the letter "T" and Tango is often used as the code word for a terrorist. So my Tango Team were specialists in dealing with terrorists.

The FBI has HRT's or Hostage Rescue Teams but they mostly deal with domestic hostage situations, like the guy who barricades himself in his house and holds his wife at gunpoint. Often the domestic hostage-taker still cares about his own life but that's not normally true for terrorists who often consider themselves to already be dead. This puts a whole new dynamic on things because there just isn't much room for negotiation. My Tango Team RoE, or Rules of Engagement, were maximum force, maximum speed, with no attempt to take prisoners. Let me explain. When you shoot, you shoot to kill. This Hollywood business of just wounding someone is just fucking stupid. It will get you killed. Contrary to popular opinion, bad guys just don't fall over dead with one shot anywhere on their body. Hell, it's pretty common for people to survive getting shot in the head. Bullets have to hit just the right place and with just the right velocity and just the right penetration.

So my Tango Teams were always trained to put bad guys down as quickly as possible and in a way that they could no longer threaten my team or the hostages. That means that if they did their jobs right there would be no prisoners. And it's not cold-blooded murder, those people are a real threat and they will kill you if you don't kill them first. Other military operations have other more 'civilized' rules but if you try to apply those to terrorists then your team will end up dead and so will the hostages. I should also mention that on all of my teams, military customs and courtesies are placed aside when we are working. There isn't time in these situations to refer to people by their ranks or to be saluting, and even though it may appear to be very informal, let me assure you that it's not. Everyone knows the chain of command and who's in charge, and that even includes civilians who might be on a given team.

Over the next few hours the various members of the team filtered in and the last would arrive by chartered jet sometime around 0520. The wait was agonizing because images of Victoria kept playing through my head. I needed so desperately to act, to do something, but I also knew that any sort of hasty plan could get Angel killed. So I forced myself to detach and start thinking of her as just some random hostage we were going to go rescue. This was not the time for personal emotion and involvement.

"Hey boss, can I ask you a question?"

"Yes Champ, what is it?"

"I feel that as one of your senior NCO's that it's my duty to ask if it's wise for you to be leading this operation, considering your, um, your history with the, um, the hostage."

"That's a good question Champ and it is one I would expect a senior NCO to ask of any team leader. Let me ask you this in return, considering your, um, your history with the, um, the hostage, do you think it's wise for you to be a member of this team for this operation?"

I saw flash of anger in Alexandra's eyes and then she chuckled a bit at how I had mimicked her words.

"Sir, I am an integral part of this team and we have been working as a well-oiled machine for years. To replace me would jeopardize the team and I will do my job with no emotion when the time comes."

She paused for a moment and the fire returned in her eyes.

"Plus I want to get these animals and wipe them off the face of the earth for what they've done!"

"Good answer Champ. And those are my feelings too, and the same reasons as to why I feel I'm qualified and able to lead this team on this operation."

"One other thing that I'm worried about sir. How are we going to find her?"

"I already know her location Champ. During one of our sessions I installed a subcutaneous tracker chip at the base of her neck without her knowing. It stays dormant except for when I tell the NSA to send a burst transmission and that makes it virtually undetectable."

"You bugged her without her knowledge? That won't make her happy boss."

"I was afraid of a repeat. I'd rather just ask for forgiveness after the fact. Now get to work, we have lots to do."

The answer seemed to quell Alexandra's concerns but she was right to bring it up. I'm positive the other team members were thinking the same thing and I knew that Alexandra would relay the details of our conversation and that would be the end of it. Over the next hour I didn't see the conversations happening but knew they had because the team palpably relaxed. Of course in some cases the conversation was just a knowing nod saying things were okay with the old man. Don't get me wrong, the team was still highly-strung at the moment, but it was directed at the upcoming mission and not concern about the team's leader.

13 Aug Late evening (or early morning of 14 Aug)

Circe

The chair was just getting plain uncomfortable when the door opened and two of my 'captors' entered the room carrying a camp cot which they set up against the wall. Another entered with sandwiches and water which were placed on a little table.

"Hey guys, I need to use the restroom."

One of them pointed to a door on the opposite wall, "It's in there, and you can move around the room as you wish, but don't plan on trying to escape. There's no way out." Then they left and I heard the door lock when it closed. I heard muffled voices outside but couldn't make out what they were saying. I chuckled to myself at the statement, '...don't plan on trying to escape' but it was a nice touch. In any case I needed to go to the bathroom really badly and the nice thing about this one was that you didn't have to stand in line to wait your turn, but that's about all that was nice about it. There was no window, mirror, soap or paper towels and the fixtures were filthy and I'm guessing hadn't been cleaned in at least the past ten years, so I did what any self-respecting female would do and I hovered. Then I washed my hands and used toilet paper to dry them. Tillman's dungeon was the Ritz-Carleton compared to this place. Once back in the main room I sat down and ate the food they had left and decided I might as well get some sleep. I turned off the lights but there was a dim emergency exit light over the door that cast the room in an eerie red hue. The cot wasn't a proper bed but I was tired and fell asleep in moments.

14 Aug 0420 Hours

Tillman

"Ok people, what do we have so far?"

My tactics guy spoke first.

"We have the GPS coords uploaded to everyone's Tac-Comms as well as a 3D version of the building. It's a vacant 250,000 square foot, three storey factory about 120 clicks (kilometers) from here. NSA has satellite feed on the building and we have a good infrared signature on the single Hotel (hostage). She is being held in a third floor room and the good news is that one of the walls is an external one. So far they have kept her in that room and not moved her around the building. Power to the building is primarily controlled from an internal control room but there is a secondary distribution center located in an out-building. There is direct access to the roof from a number of external ladders and internal stairways and there are numerous doors and windows on all walls of the ground and second floors. The facility sits in an industrial area and provides numerous routes for covert infiltration. Best window for jump-off is about 0400 tomorrow."

Intel was next.

"It appears that there are 23 Tangos in the facility with about half of them scattered throughout the property, probably on security detail. The other half seems to congregate in a large room which we think is an operations room. Two are on guard duty outside the room where Hotel is being held. These are all indicated on the 3D images in your Tac-Comms. We have a team enroute that should be sending back recon info soon. There is heavy rain with high winds in the forecast starting after 2300 tonight."

Then my Weapons team briefed their area of responsibility.

"Primary load-out will be silenced, subsonic 9mm, flash-bang and frags (grenades), smoke canisters, and NVG's (night vision goggles). Two heavy SAW's (Squad Automatic Weapons) will provide external security for exfiltration."

Medical spoke last.

"We will two medic teams at the main infiltration points. Another team will be on reserve at the CP (Command Post). Two Med-Evac Blackhawk helos will be orbiting five minutes fight time away and Metro General hospital has been alerted to a possible SWAT operation and has three trauma pods fully staffed for the next twenty four hours. Any wounded prisoners will be treated but transported by ground and not air."

My teams were all professionals and this one was no different. They constantly drilled for various scenarios and had a great record for saves.

"Okay folks, let's get the details of this planned and then try to get some sleep. Doc will issue Go-pills about an hour before we head out. If there are no questions then let's get to work."

By 0845 we had all the details worked out and two dry-runs accomplished. We would all meet at our weapons and gear facility at 2200. Time to get some sleep, or try anyway.

14 Aug Early morning

Circe

I dreamt that I was with Tillman and that he was kneeling on the floor next to my bed, breathing in my ear and fondling my breast. It was so real, like it was really happening. Then the fog of sleep began to clear and I realized that Tillman really was squeezing my breast and breathing heavily in my ear. But something didn't seem right. He didn't smell like Tillman and his hand was different. Just then the lights snapped on.

"What the hell are you doing!! Get the fuck out!! You know that nothing is supposed to happen until 'he' gets here!!'

The hand was quickly retracted and the owner scurried out of the room. The person in the doorway hit him on the side of the head as he went past, knocking my groper into the wall in the hallway.

"Do that again asshole and I'll personally cut your throat!"

With that the door slammed and locked and there were angry voices receding down the hall. I had to admit that Tillman had really created an elaborate script but I also wasn't happy about being groped, regardless of the conditions of our contract. About half an hour later breakfast was brought in and I ate all of it. Then I waited, and waited, and waited. Nothing was happening and it was quiet in the building except for muffled footsteps of voices every once in a while. Have you ever tried sitting in an empty room for hours on end with nothing to do?

After a few hours I was going stir-crazy and laid down on the cot. My thoughts drifted off into memories about Tillman, about the wild sex we had, his hungry exploration of my body. The feel of his cock as it stretched my throat and later as it parted the lips of my pussy. His frenzied thrusting and our entwined passion as we both came. More important than the sex though was the emotional connection I felt with Tillman and I longed for him to feel the same way about me. I ached deep inside for him and allowed myself the luxury of fantasizing about a future with him.

Later that afternoon I noticed a lot more noise and activity in the building so something was definitely going on. Shortly after dinner there was a commotion in the hallway and three 'captors' came into the room. As was the norm they were all clad in black and masks covered their heads and faces. The one in the lead seemed to be in charge and looked at me long and hard and then said to the others, "We will begin tomorrow." Then they left the room and the door locked once again. This training session was really confusing, but maybe that's what Tillman wanted. You just never knew what that guy was thinking. As it was, the whole business seemed ominous and foreboding for some reason. He had either hired really good actors, or his team was playing their parts at an Academy Award level. I spent the rest of the day just trying to put pieces together but finally gave up and climbed into my uncomfortable bed.

15 Aug 0310

Tillman

Everyone was in position waiting for the jump-off signal. Two teams would take out the Tango security patrols, while three teams would enter the facility from different directions and clear remaining Tangos. One team would position on the roof and rappel to the outside wall where Hotel was being held, place a breaching charge, and extract Hotel. Building power would be cut the moment the teams entered the building. The operation would continue until the building was cleared of all Tangos.

15 Aug 0340

NSA was providing live imagery on all Tango locations and it was raining hard and the wind was blowing as forecasted.

"All teams, this is Alpha. Unless you receive the abort code execute at 0350 Tac-Comm. All teams acknowledge with status."

"Bravo, we're green."

"Charlie, locked and loaded!"

"Delta, green here."

"Echo, green."

"Mike, ready."

"Romeo, green and grumpy."

"Copy all green. Let's rein it in people. Go on automatic and do this the way we always have."

Now to just wait the longest ten minutes in the world. Let me tell you what happens in those minutes waiting for combat. Time distorts and your vision narrows. You become aware of every breath and every single heartbeat. Adrenaline is released and flows unabated. You hear sounds like individual raindrops on your helmet or feel a drop of sweat behind your kneecap. Thump, thump, thump, breath, thump, thump, breath. Three short tones followed by a long one in the earpiece. "Go, go, go!!"

0350 +

The darkness, rain and wind masked much of what was going on. Tac-Comm chatter was minimal but the displays showed seven Tangos already down that were on perimeter security. The extraction team was already on the roof and anchoring ropes. Infiltration teams entered next, more Tangos went down. Extraction rappelled to the wall, attached a breaching charge and swung off to the side. Then a brief flash as the charge went off.

15 Aug Middle of the night

Circe

Sleep wasn't really working out for me and I was tossing and turning. Something was just bugging me but I couldn't put my finger on it. The rain was beating on the roof and the wind was making the roof creak. I was startled when I heard shouting and feet running out in the hall. Then there was a flash and a bang and part of the wall just disappeared. My mind was unsure of what my eyes were seeing and my eventual conclusion was that this was a dream and I was in fact asleep. But about that time two figures swung through the opening in the wall and then I was sure this was a dream. They were also in black but were carrying guns and all sorts of equipment including some sort of binocular things over their eyes. One of them ran towards the door and knelt with the gun facing it, illuminated by the red glow of the exit light. The other came towards me and I decided that it was time to scream in my dream, but it was halted by a gloved hand over my mouth, and its' owner whispered in my ear.

"Angel, don't make a sound! We have to get you out of here now!" and the hand came off my mouth.

"Alexandra is that you?"

"Yes. Now no more questions and be quiet. Stand up and I'll help you get this on."

In the dim light I couldn't quite make out what she was holding but it looked like a bunch of straps.

"Step in."

It turned out to be a harness and she pulled it over my shoulders and buckled it all in place and cinched it up tight. She grabbed the harness and pulled me towards the opening in the wall and grabbed one of the ropes and hooked it to a device on the harness.