Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 132: Video Evidence, Your Honour

Delphi opened the door and looked up and down the hallway for a very angry man.

Alton was already gone.

She walked despondently back to the training room and looked into all of the dark corners. As expected, he wasn’t there.

She felt more upset by the fight than she had expected she would, and she didn’t really understand why.

She tried to analyse her feelings. This relationship stuff was new to her; even though it was a Clayton’s relationship, it seemed to have all of the hallmarks of a real one.

She was feeling misunderstood, she realised. He clearly didn’t trust her, and he believed she would break her promise not to be with other men while they were courting. That seemed to hurt her an unreasonable amount.

She didn’t want to ruin the last night with the girls who weren’t coming on the mission, but she was struggling with how to retake control of the situation with Alton, who had taken the easy route and just walked off.

It seemed that Alton wanted to believe the worst of her. How could she prove her innocence to him? Why did she even have to? she thought with annoyance. Shouldn’t he do her the courtesy of at least hearing her out?

She stalked over to Han, beckoning him to stop dancing and join her.

"Do the cameras cover every room in the building?" she asked him.

"Yes, General," he nodded seriously, "except for the toilets". Luckily he hadn’t been drinking too heavily.

"What about the bathroom vestibules, where the sinks are?"

He nodded, "yep, they’re covered. So are the showers, the cameras are just angled at head height."

"I need the tape for the bathroom in the hall. Don’t look at it, just download it."

"What do you want it downloaded onto, General?" he didn’t ask what he shouldn’t.

"Put it on the smart phone for me."

"The detonation device?" now he sounded slightly surprised.

"Yup. That’ll do," she said cheerfully.

"On it, General, leave it with me."

"I’ll be waiting here, bring it down to me when you’re done."

Delphi breathed a sigh of relief. She was perfectly happy again now, and she danced over to Feifei and Tingting to the catchy sounds of Murder on the Dancefloor.

"Brenner has a black eye," said Feifei matter-of-factly.

"What?’ exclaimed Delphi.

She knew exactly who would have given it to him.

"Is he alright?" she said with concern.

"Ruby’s treating him now. Opal’s very upset."

Delphi thought about going to check on him, but decided it was probably better if she stayed away from the sick bay. ’Too many cooks’ and all that...

"Did he say what happened to him?"

"It sounds like he got into a fight with the General," Feifei looked curiously at Delphi. "Do you know anything about that?"

"I might know something about it," she didn’t want to lie to her best friend, "but I can’t tell you the details," she said regretfully.

"Fair enough," Feifei nodded. "Not very helpful what with them leaving on the mission together tomorrow. I hope they can work things out between them."

"I’m sure they will," said Delphi vaguely. "There’s nothing a good bout of war and being in fear for one’s life can’t fix among friends. Needing to rely on one another to stay alive has the effect of bonding people."

Feifei laughed, "you’re probably right Delph".

Loveday was still sitting on the bleachers with Indy. Niko came and sat down beside Indy, giving her his best puppy dog eyes.

"What?" she laughed.

"Come and dance with me?" he pleaded.

"I don’t want to leave Loveday alone. I have no idea where Baer’s got to tonight."

Loveday had a fair idea of where he was...

"He’s disappeared with his woman," said Niko bluntly.

Alcohol made him even more direct than usual, but in any event, he didn’t want Baer touching his sister, so he was pleased that Baer seemed to be getting it on with Araminta; and he wanted to make sure Loveday knew all about it.

"What?" Indy cried. "Niko, don’t gossip unless you know things for a fact."

"This is fact, not gossip. Look at Loveday," he pointed at his sister, "she’s not even surprised".

"Loveday?" cried Indy, "did you know about this?" she said with sympathy.

Loveday nodded.

"And you’re okay with it?" Indy looked incredulous.

Loveday nodded again. "Yes," she smiled, "I told her she has my blessing. Baer was getting a little too pushy for my liking. And he’s not a one-woman man, which is a huge problemo from my perspective."

"Why am I the last to know all this?" asked Indy.

"There was nothing to know before tonight," said Loveday. "Arrie asked me what I thought, and I said be careful but go for it. Hopefully that’s exactly what she’s doing."

"He’s a lucky man," said Niko wistfully, looking at Indy hopefully.

"Hey, don’t do that in front of your sister!" exclaimed Loveday to Niko, "it’s icky! And talk about double standards. You don’t want me with Baer because he’s too handsy, and here you are pressuring Indy!" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"I’m not pressuring her," he protested. "I just said Baer’s a lucky man, that’s all. If I got a dance and a kiss, I’d be a very happy departing soldier!"

Indy laughed. He was so cute when he was like this, and he was so damn handsome, how could she say no?

Honestly, she quite liked the idea of having sex with him, but she knew he had very old-fashioned values and even if he didn’t know it himself, he would lose respect for her if she slept with him before marriage.

The consorts had taught them about the Madonna-Whore complex as part of honey trapping techniques; different horses were needed for different courses.

Niko had her on a pedestal, and she wasn’t ready to climb off it. She hoped she could gradually educate him and drag him kicking and screaming out of the dark ages.

"Go on, go on!" laughed Loveday "God forbid I stand between my brother and my best friend getting it on."

"We’re not getting it on!" cried Indy.

"Sure, sure," said Loveday teasingly.

"We’re not!" she cried, as Niko dragged her onto the dancefloor with delight.

"Who says we’re not?" he growled in her ear, pulling her close against him and not wasting any time claiming his kiss.