Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 144: Do What You Do Best

Delphi’s pre-planned route took the boat out wide of the west coast of the Island to avoid The Great Wall, and then into a sheltered bay near Woolnorth that Bill Rutherglen had recommended.

They moored the boat offshore; hopefully far enough out to avoid attracting any unwanted attention. The black sails were lowered and hidden down in the hold.

There was a palpable excitement as the first of the propaganda drops took place in Woolnorth. Admittedly, it was a tiny town of 150 people, but the symbolism of the first drop was important.

As they passed through three more tiny townships, the teams spread their pamphlets around with great enthusiasm.

Now they were creeping towards the larger township of Smithton, where thousands of people lived. There was a military base in the centre of town, which meant there would be patrols on the streets, so they’d need to be much more cautious here. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

This would also be the first time they would come to the attention of the military machine. There would be no missing the fact they had been here after they hit the Main Street with their flyers.

"When we get into Smithton proper, we’ll work in larger teams for safety," Delphi briefed them as they stood on the outskirts of the town. "Alton and I will work with Wolf and Arrie, the rest of you will form the second team. Stay together, don’t separate. There will be patrols here, so the soldier handling the drops will need to be covered by whoever is on weapons. Take up hidden positions front and back so you have all angles covered in case we’re discovered."

"Yes, General," came the muttered replies.

They joined in a quick group handshake before they set off in opposite directions to cover the north and south of the town.

This was getting seriously dangerous now.

The teams were dressed all in black, with a black assassin-style hood, to hide them in the dark.

"Wolf, you’re on pamphlet drops," Alton informed him. "We’ll cover you as you go. Stay sharp man."

Wolf nodded and headed out into the nearest street. This area was residential, so he would literally be doing letterbox drops.

The closer they got to the business district, the more fluttering of batches of pamphlets he would be doing, spreading them like confetti so they couldn’t be missed by the townsfolk going about their business in the morning.

"Arrie," said General Meyer, "you stay behind and cover Wolf’s rear. General Chastain and I will run up ahead of him and take the forward position."

Arrie nodded with grim determination. "Good girl," he said, forgetting to call her private.

She had already proven her worth on this trip, her bravery and work ethic more than making up for her status as the smallest soldier on the mission.

Delphi and Alton silently ran behind the houses, through the backyards, taking up their position at least five houses ahead of Wolf.

Bogden had been left waiting for Delphi on the outskirts of town.

He could only barely pass as a very huge dog instead of a tubiàn, but having him running around the streets at night would be far too noticeable until Delphi could train him to be much stealthier than he was currently managing.

Two dogs suddenly appeared out of nowhere and went crazy barking at them as they crossed their territory.

"Hell!" whispered Delphi.

Alton had pulled his sword.

"Don’t kill them Alton, we’re trying to win hearts and minds here and killing the people’s dogs will turn the town against us."

"Alright," he whispered crossly, "if you insist".

He whacked both of the dogs across the chops in quick succession with the flat of his sword and the two German shepherds ran away yelping sorrowfully.

Delphi glared at him. "I meant don’t hurt them. ’Killing’ was a figure of speech..."

"Be specific next time," he shrugged.

The next hour passed uneventfully as Wolf kept up a slow jog, thrusting the pamphlets into letterboxes as he ran.

They reached the main street, which was getting uncomfortably close to the military base.

Alton pointed up to a nearby rooftop on top of a real estate business, and he and Delphi used a garbage bin to climb up, moving stealthily along the ridge lines and jumping the short distance from building to building as they kept ahead of Wolf.

"Let’s hope these rooves have been maintained," whispered Delphi, "otherwise we’re going to drop through one of them soon".

"Just stick to the ridge-line," he hissed, "don’t step off onto any sheet metal".

"Alton!" Delphi grabbed his arm and pointed.

Not too far up ahead was a patrol of two soldiers, coming marching right down the main street.

They looked at Wolf, but he was still spraying armfuls of pamphlets about and hadn’t seen the men.

Alton pulled out his crossbow, training it on the pair, looking desperately at Wolf and willing the man to look up ahead.

"He’s not going to see them in time Alton," Delphi hissed. "I’m going down there. I’ll honey trap them."

"Delphi!" he growled in frustration.

"Don’t worry, Alton, I’ve got this, trust me. I know what I’m doing, and if it goes wrong, you can still shoot them."

"Fine!" he said angrily. "Go and do what you do best then."

"What the hell, Alton? You and I are having a good talk when we get to Squeaking Point, whether you want to or not!"

Delphi slid down the roof, gripped the gutter, and dropped lightly onto the pavement.

She stripped off her black gear and shoes, until she was standing barefoot in her bra and lycra shorts. She quickly pulled out her bun and messed up her hair, smearing some of the camouflage paint from her face across her arms and stomach, like she’d been dragged through the dirt.

Then she ran down the street towards the soldiers.

"Help! Help!" she called to them.

Both of the men startled at her cry in the still night, but they relaxed as soon as they saw the semi-clad small woman.

"Officers, officers," she wailed, "a man dressed all in black attacked me. He tried to... take my virtue, but I managed to fight him off and escape. He ran that way. Quick! Quick! Please catch him! I must have justice! Please," she begged them, "don’t let him escape".

Wolf, of course, heard this commotion, and immediately disappeared behind the businesses into a blind alleyway.

Arrie saw him disappear and heard Delphi’s cries. She silently followed Wolf down the alley, where he moved her against the wall and wrapped her body under his so they would be almost invisible if anyone looked down there.

"Which road did he take?" one of the soldiers asked her. "That one? Okay miss, you wait right here, we’ll see if we can catch him. We’ll be back to help you in a minute. Don’t move."

"Thank you, officers, thank you. Yes, that way, that way," she cried, pointing away from Wolf.

She noticed that both of the men seemed not to be moving, and were opening staring at her chest.

She wrapped her arms across her breasts like she was utterly ashamed for them to see her without her jilbab and headscarf.

"Don’t look! Don’t look at me, please officers. You must catch him!"

"Stay right here miss, we’ll be back soon," the soldiers thundered off in the direction Delphi was pointing.

"Did you see the rack on that girl?" one said to the other as they ran.

"How could I miss it?" his friend replied. "She’s hot as fuck. Let’s go back quickly before she has a chance to get dressed."

Alton heard their banter from his rooftop position, where he had his crossbow zealously trained on their backs.

His trigger finger started to shake with an intense desire to shoot them, despite Delphi having already disappeared.