Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 157: Stop Giving Him Hope

Delphi’s chosen route through the centre of the Island, had proved to be ideal, after their clifftop battle in the Gog range.

It was all long quiet stretches of bushland with tiny hamlets and farms, where the team continued their relentless pamphleting; not that it took very long in these small villages.

Indy yawned and stretched as they walked out of the town of Miena just as dawn broke. It was a tiny place, not more than twenty homes to drop their flyers.

"I can’t wait to make camp," she yawned again. "I’m so tired."

"Me too," Loveday joined her in a contagious yawning session and the two girls giggled.

"General Meyer?" called Indy.

"Mm," he grunted.

"Can we camp near the Great Lake? I desperately need a swim."

"Yes, that would be good, Alton," said Delphi. "Everyone’s pretty filthy."

He pursed his lips. "The lake’s very exposed. People can easily see us on the shore with a good pair of binoculars."

"Maybe we can find a sheltered inlet?" Delphi suggested hopefully.

He grunted noncommittally. "We’ll take a look. No promises."

They made camp in a patch of bushland not far off the water’s edge, and the men headed off to swim in the lake directly north, the women heading east towards Miena Dam where they would be in an inlet and out of sight of the men, so they could bathe properly.

"Oh my goodness I’m looking forward to this," cried Indy, stripping off, with the exception of the ubiquitous thigh dagger. "Did you bring the soap, Arrie?"

"Yep, right here!"

Opal was still not used to the girls’ lack of inhibitions around each other, not having grown up with them. She waded into the freezing water in her underwear.

The other girls didn’t comment, not wanting to make her feel different. Things were already weird enough between Opal and Indy without isolating her further from the former palace women.

Opal saw Indy swimming out further on her own, and she swam across to her. It was almost impossible to get anyone alone in the conditions they were living in as they travelled.

"Indy," she called out.

The girl stopped swimming and looked cooly at Opal, inclining her head for Opal to continue.

"I’ve been wanting to talk to you. Alone. It’s been hard to get you without a crowd."

"I’m sure it has," replied Indy drily. "What do you want to talk about?" her tone clearly suggested she had no interest in small talk with the woman.

"Niko." Opal didn’t beat around the bush.

"I have nothing to say about him, Opal," Indy floated on her back because pretty much anything else was impossible if she wanted to stay still in the deep water and talk.

Opal couldn’t help but stare at Indy’s huge breasts. She was definitely tough competition, this woman.

Opal was most unused to any woman being competition for her. She was no slouch on the looks and figure front herself, but these palace girls were all drop dead gorgeous, and their surgeries made it even more difficult to keep up with them. What was that old saying? ’You’re not ugly, you’re just poor?’ It seemed money really could buy anything...

"I’m sorry about what happened between Niko and me, but I guess he just couldn’t control himself once he started making love to me. He might have thought I was you to begin with, but he definitely knew it was me before he ’finished’, if you get my drift."

"Opal!" Indy cried, the girls’ words hitting her like stones to the head. "Your business with Niko is your own. He’s all yours. Be my guest. Please ride off into the sunset with him so he stops mooning around after me."

"Well that’s the problem, isn’t it. He still feels responsible towards you. He doesn’t want to let you down after getting close to you. You need to make things clear to him. You’re stringing him along. I’m sorry Indy, but I’ve lost my virtue to the man, and I need him to step up and take responsibility for his actions."

"I’ve told him exactly the same thing, Opal," said Indy, staring at the sky as she paddled on her back. "But I’m not his keeper. As I said, this stuff is between the two of you. It’s nothing to do with me. I don’t want to be drawn into your drama any more than I already have been."

"He thinks he still has a chance with you, Indy. That’s why he hasn’t stepped up to the plate with me, like he should."

"Can I help that he’s a blockhead? I’ve told him multiple times to move on with you and that he has to take responsibility for his actions, but I’m done now. I can’t bring him to your side Opal, if that’s what you want from me," Indy gave a mirthless chuckle.

"Leave that part to me Indy, just tell him to leave you alone. It doesn’t help when you look at him with tears in those baby blues like I saw you do when he saved your life the other day. You’re giving him hope."

What a capital ’B’ b***h, thought Indy. If this was how girls treated one another in the outside world, she really wanted no part in it.

"Opal, my apologies I couldn’t control my tears, when I was nearly backed off a cliff by a sword wielding man and Niko saved my life," she said sarcastically, "but somehow the situation squeezed some uncontrolled emotions out of me. I’ll do my darndest to be more robotic in the future. I don’t think there’s much more to be said on this topic," she said coldly, "I’m heading in".

Opal watched the girl’s back as she swam back to shore. She’d said her piece and told the girl to back-off; that should be sufficient, she thought with satisfaction.

As the young women waded out and dried themselves, a soldier sat in the dam’s engineering booth where he was on lookout duty in a job he’d been given as a punishment for getting a little too rough with a harlot.

Generally, nothing happened here all day long and he spent his days in the booth drinking and sleeping, and his nights in that shithole of a town, Miena, drinking and womanising, insofar as that was possible in a town that size.

This was the biggest, and best, thing that had happened since he arrived at the Great Lake. Actually it probably ranked pretty highly as a great thing even compared with life back in the capital.

He put down his binoculars and his whiskey, and picked up his combat knife, closing and locking the booth behind him.