Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 137: Operation Honey Trap!

The team had moved all of their gear onto the old boat, which was thankfully still moored in the cove where the guards had hidden it from the girls.

Rutherglen had set sail this morning so he could get distract attention from their boat, which they planned to land back at the Island in the middle of the night. They would see him soon enough, in Squeaking Point.

"I’m so excited to have found these dolphins again," Delphi said to Alton, "and it looks like they’re going to follow us without needing to ingest my blood".

"They were built to defend cargo, so they’ve probably retained the instinct to protect boats from tubiàn," Alton said in the same professional manner he’d been using for the last few days.

He was a master at keeping his interactions with her so polite that she swore only she had noticed the change in him.

Initially she had been angry, but now, as more time was passing, she realised she was just sad.

She actually missed the man and their relaxed banter and gentle flirtation.

He made her feel safe and protected, and she knew he would never overstep the mark without her agreement.

The same couldn’t be said for Brenner, who had been watching her from a distance with a barely suppressed intensity that felt slightly out of control. Like the mark was not just going to be overstepped, but he planned to pole vault over it...

She felt helpless as to how to fix things with Alton.

Come on Delphi, you’re a girl of action! she told herself. You need to wrest back control of the situation!

Yes! she decided, it was time to take action to repair things with Alton, and bring him back to her side.

In what capacity, she didn’t know, but if it required some level of commitment from her, so be it... so long as it wasn’t marriage.

If he wasn’t going to talk to her about what happened with Brenner, she would just have to honey trap him back!

She was very confident in her seduction skills.

Everything the consorts had said would happen when the girls used their techniques on the men had taken place, with textbook-like perfection.

She nodded to herself with determination, her eyes steely; Operation Honey Trap, begins!

As they set sail across Bass Strait for King Island, the team was much more relaxed than on their first crossing.

Indy and Loveday sat together with her feet hanging over the gunwale.

"You two wouldn’t have been sitting there like that on our trip over here," said Delphi as she walked past them.

"That’s because a shark or an octopus would probably have snapped our legs off," said Indy. "Having these dolphin guards is beyond great. If only Ruby was here, she would love this," she said wistfully, missing her little sister dreadfully.

The pair had never been apart for a full day in their lives.

"The good thing is, you don’t have to worry about her," said Loveday.

"Yes," nodded Indy, "I’d much rather she wasn’t here, I just miss her".

Delphi sat down on the deck not too far from the two girls, leaning up against the cabin. She pulled out a little notebook, staring out to sea, scribbling in the book every so often.

"What are you writing Delph?" asked Loveday curiously.

"Nothing," she said, "just brainstorming some strategy ideas".

Indy and Loveday nodded, turning back to their gossipy conversation about Arrie and Baer.

It wasn’t strictly untrue, reflected Delphi, she just hadn’t specified which strategy she was brainstorming.

This particular strategy was Operation Honey Trap. The mission to the Island was already carefully planned out with military precision, there was no brainstorming going on about the mission...

She dropped ideas into her notebook as they came to mind, scratching some out as unfeasible, and circling others which seemed like they could work.

She worked hard on her final list.

By the time it was ready, she was feeling happy again, and super-confident. There was no way this man could resist what she had in store for him!

She had made a flexible set of items that could be rotated in or out of the Operation, depending on whether the right circumstances presented themselves or not.

She surveyed her list one last time, committing it to memory:

OHT! <3 <3 <3

1. Wear your bikini around him on the boat

2. Exercise in front of him in your bikini

3. Wear your bikini in front of Brenner to make him jealous [MAYBE A BAD IDEA?]

4. Set a meeting with him when you’re having your shower, leave the door open

5. Offer to honey trap on the mission to make him jealous

6. Offer to share a horse

7. Whisper in his ear

Brenner arrived and sat down next to her.

"What are you writing about Delphi?"

She closed the notebook quickly, looking guilty.

"J... just strategy ideas. F... for the mission!"

Did everyone have to ask her what she was writing about?

Okay, enough already, she got it! This was not the right focus for a General on her first mission for the Rebellion.

She should be writing about mission planning topics, not how to seduce her fellow General.

Brenner nodded, looking wistfully at her.

"We haven’t spoken much since the farewell party. I hope you’re not angry at me," he looked at her with puppy dog eyes. "I apologise if I behaved inappropriately in the bathroom. I wasn’t in a good place after that victory lap, and I admit I drank too much. But there are no excuses for misbehaviour, so I’m sorry if I offended you."

"It’s okay Brenner," she smiled at him, feeling sympathy for the guy.

While he hadn’t done the right thing, it had been a pretty extreme thing that had happened when he was carrying her.

That was probably out of line on her part, even though she couldn’t seem to help her body’s ’overreaction’ to stimuli.

And he had stopped when she told him to. Plus, Alton had punished him enough already. The faded black eye still made her wince to look at it.

"Let’s put it behind us. We’ve had a pretty crazy start to getting to know each other. I apologise that you were subjected to my... my little problem."

She didn’t want to talk to Brenner about it any more than she had to, but she was starting to suspect that the Emperor might have tampered with her girly bits in some way that made her hypersensitive. Despicable fiend that he was, she wouldn’t put it past him...

He laughed, grinning broadly. "Look, I’m not complaining. I just misread the cues that’s all."

"No, you didn’t misread them, it was my fault for subjecting you to that. Let’s call it even and start afresh?"

"Deal," he smiled that cute little grin of his.

They shook hands and Bogden came up and lay down, putting his head in Brenner’s lap, begging for him to pet him.

Brenner scratched the dingo behind the ears.

"Good to see at least one of your over-protective male friends likes me."

Delphi looked around for her other over-protective male friend. Alton had taken the wheel, he was looking at them but shifted his gaze back out to sea the moment she looked his way.

She hoped this wasn’t another black mark against her. She stood up.

"I’d better go and see what I can do to make myself useful," she said to Brenner.

"I can help too," he said eagerly, jumping up.

Waah! How did she set some boundaries with this man that put him squarely back in the friend zone?