Lisa blinked in suprise, pulling her hand back as he answered the phone with the words “this is not a secure line.” 

“It doesn’t matter” came the voice on the other end, one that Jeb knew well . “this is going to fast to set up a secure link.  We’ve found DeathClaw.” 

Lisa, realizing this was something classified, padded into the kitchen, coming back a few moments later with two cups of Coffee, setting one down next to him then going to sit on the couch where she couldn’t overhear.   Still, her feline ears did pick up some unsettling words, ‘Happenstance Islands’,  ‘Freedom’s Run’ definitely caught her attention. 

Jeb frowned at the phone “We have no maps or anything? 

<“Oh we do Captain, they just date from the Trans Oceanic war.  and as for hard intel, all we know is that DeathClaw is there under an assumed identity at the resort there.” 

Jeb hmmed thoughtfully...his nose catching the scent of fresh coffee looked down and saw the cup by his hand.  Smiling he took a sip “Bless you babe...oh no I don’t mean you Sir.” 

On the other end of the phone General Anton Revil laughed, “I hope not Kincaid, my wife is rather jealous you know....hmm...Do you think your Girlfriend may be able to help us?” 

Jeb blinked looking at Lisa then turned so she couldn’t read his lips “Sir, she’s only a ROTC cadet-” 

“Who led a ROTC unit that wiped the floor with yours if you remember Captain.” 

“How can I forget General?” he smirked. 

The Badger on the other end of the phone grinned “you know her better than I do Jeb, all I have to go by is your reports...however just by looking at those I wouldn’t hesitate to send her.” 

Jeb nodded, “I’ll ask her...how long till the pickup?” 

“Thirty minutes, shall I tell them to expect two?” 

Jeb thought and nodded “its her home...like hell she’s going to just wait here.” 

“all right, see you in thirty Captain.” 

Jeb quietly hung up the phone and took a deep breath....sipping his coffee he turned to face Lisa “babe, would you get me that big black bag in the front hall closet?” 

Lisa nodded confused as Jeb went into the bedroom , where she could hear him rummaging around in the back of his closet.  Finding the bag she oofed a bit as it was heavier than she expected.   He was back when she returned to the living room, pulling out a black flightsuit and pulling it on.
“Can I ask what’s going on?”  she asked.
 

Jeb nodded “Do you remember that airliner bombing last year?” 

Lisa nodded “yeah, I read about it...some extremist group from Barovia took credit for it , trying to kill a dissident or something.” 

“Well, what I’m about to tell you is classified.   We know where they are...and they have gotten a hold of a WMD according to a reliable source.” 

Lisa paled her ears going flat against her head “Nuclear, chem or biological?” 

“We don’t know exactly...the information is less than two hours old..we’re trying to move fast to catch them before they move again... Lisa...They’re on your family’s resort.” 

The young lynx stood there stunned, the coffee cup falling from her fingers, splashing across the carpeting.  Jeb stepped over the puddle, hugging her tightly as she trembled “its ok, we’re going to get them...but we need your help.” 

“mine?” 

He nodded “we have no intelligence photos, no idea of the layout of the place, or even what cabin they’re in.  Like I said, we’re putting this together fast.  We need you there to make sure we don’t wander around the island like chickens with our heads cut off.” 

“What about my family?” 

He sighed “if all goes well they’ll never know we were there...if not...”  Jeb didn’t need to say the rest “We believe they came in to Fairport on a fishing boat, and are assembling the device at the resort..to be smuggled into the mainland.” 

Lisa nodded “What do you need me to do Sir?” 

Jeb smiled and tossed her a similar black flightsuit “Get dressed, our ride will be here in a little bit.
 

Lisa nodded, wriggling into the black  suit, then picking up the other bag as Jeb led the way to the roof.   once there, he slipped into what looked like a parachute harness, handing her one as well.  In a few moments she was ready for whatever, standing there in the cool midnight air, watching with curiosity as he inflated several large balloons from a tank in the heavy bag. 

“Are you doing what I think you’re doing?” she asked 

“That depends,” he said as he hooked a strong cable to the balloons and let them rise into the night sky, hooking the other end of the cable to the ring on the back of his harness, then pulled her next to him, attaching his harness to hers.  She wrapped her arms around him, not really having anyplace else to put them , her ears picking up the sound of a approaching aircraft.  Looking up she saw a military transport, on its nose a strange looking V shaped device, almost like the plane had a set of insect antenna.   Suddenly realizing what was about to happen, she eeeped as Jeb chuckled “you might want to hang on about now.” he said, as the plane caught the cable, pulling them both off the ground and into the air off of the roof of the building.
 

Lisa Squealed and hugged Jeb tightly ...when she opened her eyes she was several thousand feet above the ground, being pulled through the air towards the open cargo ramp of the transport.  Within seconds strong pairs of hands hauled them in like so much fish, leaving Lisa gasping for breath on the ramp, her eyes adjusting to the red lit cargo compartment. 

Looking around she noticed several persons , some she recognized from the exercise earlier.  As the cargo doors closed the lights went back to white, blinding the lynx momentarily, when her vision cleared she noticed that all of them were armed to the teeth, many of the weapons unfamiliar to her. 

Jeb counted heads, seeing how many of his team had been pulled together at even shorter notice than they were used to. “Eleven, is that all?” 

“Well sir, Sgt. Walker is in Snug Harbour, and is renting boats to pick us up with...seemed faster than waiting on the Navy to get their barnacle encrusted asses in gear.” Replied Sgt. Pathmaker, carefully loading the magazines for her sniper rifle, ignoring the scowl from the lone navy person, a Chief Petty Officer who was the underwater demolition specialist. 

Seeing Lisa he grumbled “oh great, now we’re bringing the Girl Scouts along with us.” 

Lisa blinked self consciously as Jeb opened one of the crates on the side of the aircraft, pulling out a nasty looking machine pistol and strapping it to his side  “all right, listen up people.  All we know for certain is DeathClaw is on the island Freedoms Run”  Jeb stepped over to a map spread out across the top of a crate, the others clustering around him.   “The island is covered with heavy vegetation, with few buildings except for here.”  Pointing at the lagoon  he continued “We’ll come in here from the drop off point, around the east end of the island...”seeing Lisa’s expression he looked at her “Something bothering you Cadet?” 

Lisa nodded “Well Sir, if you come in that way...you’ll be silhouetted by the light from Fairport, plus the boat motors will be heard, as most of the cabins are right along the water.” 

“So how do we get in there toots?  Just tiptoe in and hope the terrorists don’t hear us?  I say we call in the bombers and turn that island into a parking lot.” grumbled the CPO, oblivious to the dark looks shot at him by the others. 

“That is not an option Chief, even if it wasn’t for the fact there are Freeland citizens there...if they have a chem or bio weapon, we would just spread it on the trade winds.  No, we have to go in.   Slipsunder, you know the islands..where do you recomend?” 

Lisa gulped, realizing not only her family’s lives, but potentially hundreds of thousands of others were riding on her, and that these Commando’s were going to be going by her recommendations  “only one thing to do, that’s make sure I do it right the first time” she thought as she looked at the map.   “I’d say come in here, on the south side of the island...there’s a seaplane dock carved into the cliffbase with a stairway to the top of the cliffs.  Its far enough away from the cabins they wont hear us..and the only ones who know about it are my Family and Kari, as she parks her plane down there in that cavern.”  Pointing  at the map she continued “From there we should go to the main house-” 

“But I thought the main house wasn’t used by guests.” 

“it isn’t” Lisa replied “But the cabins are scattered across both sides of the lagoon....it would make more sense to check in there and ask which cabin this person is in.” 

Jeb nodded “sounds good to me, anyone have anything to add?” 

Pinky spoke up “What about your family , do they have someplace they can take shelter?” 

Lisa nodded “There’s is a old bunker that was built for an Atomic test 40 years ago that was never used, and a tunnel connecting the basement of the main house to there.  We used the tunnel for storage, and the bunker as a hurricane shelter, so they can get there without getting in the way.”   She frowned at a though “my little brother though spends a lot of time out in the woods, sleeping wild.  So he might not even be there.” 

Pinky smiled reassuringly , patting her sniper rifle “Don’t worry kid, I haven’t missed a bad guy or hit a civilian yet, and I don’t plan on ruining my record.” 

“Rale is usually on Bucks Rump, this little island here, so if he is out then by the time he got over to the main island to see what was up it would be over.” 

“also,” said Jeb “There is only one cabin rented at the moment, Sgt. Walker called asking about renting for a large party...so we wont have to worry about guests wandering about.”  He nodded, apparently satisfied with the plan such as it was.  “all right, we got just under three hours till the drop, Pinky, get Slipsunder outfitted then get as much rest as you can...we’ll be goin in at about 3 30 AM local time, it is now....23:47 Island time.” 

Lisa reset her watch, noticing everyone else was doing the same , then followed the puma forwards . As she passed by Jeb who was talking to someone on the radio, he reached out and squeezed her hand gently. 

Lisa squeezed back and followed Diane , watching while Pinky opened up what looked like a standard airline shipping container, except for the cargo  “Are you right or left handed Ma’am?” the puma asked her. 

“left handed, and you don’t have to call me ma’am.. .I’m just a cadet” 

“But you will be an Officer soon, and if you keep up like you did at that exercise, a damn good one.  lets see, your sort of short...better go with the M41.  You’ve used one before?” 

Lisa nodded as Sgt. Pathmaker handed her the weapon.  It was a smaller version of the one Jeb had, the main difference being the caliber, hers firing caseless 9mm sabot rounds, the impactor being a 5 mm hardened dart.   She kept adding equipment to Lisa’s arms, IR goggles, GPS/COM, flash grenades, fighting knife and finally a set of infra red resistant coveralls. 

“there you go, go ahead and try those on so I can make sure everything fits.” 

Lisa nodded, slipping out of her flightsuit, Diane glancing over the younger felines nude form as she dressed.  She smiled “your definitely much prettier in the flesh than through an IR sight, Jeb’s really lucky for finding you.” 

Lisa blushed a bit as she wriggled into the coverall “Gee, and here I thought I was lucky for finding him.” she replied, prompting a laugh from the puma.    Lisa chuckled back as Diane continued to outfit her, the plane speeding towards its destination...
 
 
 
 

Freedoms’s Run,  02:23 

Corvallo stretched as he entered the bungalow, it had been a pleasant night, the infidel whore who ran the island was highly skilled in her arts ,as he was highly skilled in his charm and pleasantness. As he entered the back room Raban looked up grumpily “you’ve been screwing that whore Sylvia again haven’t you?” 

The hare laughed and nodded , speaking in high Barovain <“Many times in fact, and I could have had her older daughter as well.”> 

Raban frowned <“When we leave this place, I will cut their throats.”> 

<“Of course Comrade. What of the two children of the Holy race?”> 

Raban grinned at Corvallo, his feline tail swishing from side to side <“the male will be killed,  and  the female will be given to the warriors of the struggle to relieve their needs.”> 

 Corvallo nodded, sitting down on the edge of the bed, watching the feline work <So how much longer?>“ 

Raban shrugged <“Tomorrow night, the detonators will be in place and we’ll be ready to crate it, then we just wait for the boat to ship it to the mainland.”>   the feline frowned and sniffed at the  rabbit <“you left the island!”> 

<“Only went into the town to help Sylvia get supplies she or her children wont live to eat-erk!”> 

<“IDIOT!  What if someone recognized you?”> 

The rabbit shrugged and got a bottle of fruit juice “now who in Fairport would think that a meek rabbit like myself is a member of the Dark Triad?  You worry to much DeathClaw.” 

The feline sighed setting down his tools and switching languages himself “Worry is what keeps our struggle going forwards.” 

Corvallo nodded at the oft repeated phrase “Well, right now I’m too worn out to worry, you going to bed soon?” 

Raban shook his head “I wish to finish this last bit of wiring...this should be a spectacular event, lighting the heavens with its Holy fire.” 

the rabbit nodded as he rolled over “About 15 megatons spectacular...”