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A render for 's Back in Black - Part 8Patriette twisted her wrist. Her shield, which was on the floor just out of sight behind the bed, sprang up into her hands.Dark Raven’s pistol barked out a suppressed shot at point-blank range.The bullet hit squarely in the middle of the shield. Patriette crashed back against the closed curtains of the window and collapsed to the floor, the shield still ringing from the impact. Dark Raven cursed and stepped forward, lifting the gun for a second shot. The door to the bathroom flew open. Dubstep barreled out of it, her face set and determined. Like Patriette, she was dressed in civilian clothes. Dark Raven whirled, her gun swinging around to face the new threat. Patriette rose, choking and sputtering. She raised her shield to protect her head and chest. “Dubstep!”Dubstep didn’t listen. She spun and kicked Dark Raven’s outstretched hand, knocking the silenced pistol out of the surprised woman’s grip and onto the bed. She flung a punch at Dark Raven’s face.Dark Raven dodged almost effortlessly out of the way of Dubstep’s attack, then slammed her fist into the young heroine’s stomach.Dubstep staggered back, bent double and clutching her middle. Patriette got to her feet, still holding her shield in front of her. Dark Raven snatched the pistol off the bed.Dubstep straightened despite her pain, then flung herself again at the villainess. ***The moment they heard the pistol shot and Dubstep crash out of the bathroom, Myra and Joan turned towards the bedroom and raised their own guns, aiming them through the open door of the hotel room. ,With a glance at each other, they started to move forward into the room.At just that moment the next hotel room door down the hall burst open.Surprised, Joan and Myra both spun in that direction and fired on instinct. Their silenced pistols barked and flashed almost simultaneously.Meadowlark, dressed in civilian clothing, slid out of the newly opened door and onto the floor of the hallway, her dart gun spitting with practiced precision. One dart hit Joan squarely in the neck. Two more struck Myra, one in her shoulder and the other right in her plump breast. Both women tottered for a moment, as if in shock. Myra’s eyes crossed and she collapsed to the floor with a defeated sigh, like a puppet with the strings cut. Joan still stood but her eyes were glazed and she rocked back and forth unsteadily on her feet, as if she was trying to remember what she had been doing.Nightkiss whirled out of the newly opened door a half second later, Meadowlark’s second dart pistol in her hands. There were two sharp pffts from her weapon.Two more darts struck Joan, one in her thigh and the other in her arm. She stared blankly at Nightkiss for a long moment. Drool rolled down her chin and her gun fell from her hand, landing on the floor with a thud. Her head tilted forward, her eyes half-closed.“Just go down already!” Nightkiss fumed, her pistol still raised. Like Meadowlark she was still out of her regular costume and wearing the gaudy snowman sweater and blue jeans.Joan gave a soft grunt. Her eyes rolled up into her head and her legs buckled underneath her. She fell into a heap on the floor, half-draped over Myra’s unconscious body. The two women slept a dreamless, drugged sleep of oblivion. Nightkiss gave the dart pistol in her hand a disgusted look. “How do actually you aim with these things? I had it aimed at her chest. These shots are all over the place.”“But at least it’s quiet,” Meadowlark breathed, getting quickly to her feet. “Not like that screeching energy gun of yours. And you’re welcome for letting you use it, by the way.”Nightkiss rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She glanced towards the hotel room door. “Come on, let’s go.”The two women raced for the door to room 214.***Dark Raven sidestepped and brought the edge of her hand down hard on Dubstep’s solar plexus.Dubstep reeled back, stunned and staggered. She grasped at her throat with both hands. Without missing a step, Dark Raven grabbed the young vigilante and slammed her against the frosted glass wall of the bathroom. She pressed the pistol against the girl’s chin and glanced back at Patriette. “Ah-ah, Pammy.”Patriette had her shield ready to throw. She hesitated, then dropped it to the ground.Dubstep’s wide eyes flickered back and forth between Dark Raven and Patriette. From the hallway came the sound of several muffled shots.“Backup?” Dark Raven sneered. “I’m impressed, Pammy. You’ve really thought this through.”She grabbed Dubstep in a chokehold with her arm around her neck, then whirled around the corner of the glass wall with her silenced pistol raised.Meadowlark and Nightkiss had just entered the hotel room, their dart guns at the ready. Using Dubstep as a human shield, Dark Raven fired her pistol. It barked three times, the bullets chewing into the hotel room door and the outer hall.Meadowlark and Nightkiss both ducked back into the hallway and out of sight with strangled curses.“I’m surprised you’re still alive, Pammy. You’re quite resourceful,” Dark Raven purred as she ducked back behind the relative safety of the bathroom frosted glass wall. Her pistol barrel was jammed against Dubstep’s cheek. Patriette glared at Dark Raven. “I may not have my costume on, but I’m still a superheroine.”“I see,” Dark Raven said. She pulled her pistol away from Dubstep’s face and pointed it at Patriette’s head. “Too bad you’re not bulletproof.”Patriette’s eyes flickered down to Dubstep’s left hand. “There’s no way out of here, Dark Raven.”“That’s where you’re wrong,” Dark Raven snarled. “If you or your friends in the hall try anything, I’ll put a bullet in this pretty girl’s head. Or yours. It’s all the same to me. Either way, I’m walking out of here.” Dark Raven jammed the barrel of the pistol harder into Dubstep’s cheek. “Isn’t that right?”“I don’t think so,” Patriette said calmly. “It’s now or never, Dubstep.”Dark Raven cocked her head, suddenly alert.Dubstep jammed the hypodermic syringe she had been holding in her left hand into Dark Raven’s upper thigh, then slammed her right elbow as hard as she could into the woman’s stomach.At the same moment Patriette twisted her wrist. The shield leapt up off the ground and into her hand.Dark Raven cursed violently, reaching for the syringe in her leg as Dubstep broke away from her. She fired the silenced pistol wildly as Dubstep dove across the bed and rolled onto the floor. “You little bi—”Patriette moved swiftly around the bed towards Dark Raven, her shield held high.With lightning reflexes Dark Raven turned her gun on Patriette. It coughed once, the bullet clanging off the metal shield. Patriette cleared the bed and swiped hard with her shield. The edge slammed into Dark Raven’s wrist, and sent her pistol spinning off into the air. Patriette smashed Dark Raven up against the frosted glass wall with her shield, their faces just inches apart. Dubstep got shakily to her feet, her hands grabbing at her body in surprise. “I’m not shot? How am I not shot?”“Got you,” Patriette said grimly, her eyes on Dark Raven’s face. There was no triumph or joy in her tone.“Good for you, Pammy.” Dark Raven smiled. Her eyes were already glazing, and her body was growing heavier by the second. “Surprise…tactics. Just like…Night Raven…taught you…” Her voice became thicker, the words starting to slur. Weighted eyelids drooped shut, and the villainess started to sag forward.Patriette tossed the shield aside and caught Dark Raven under her arms as she fell. The villainess’s head slumped onto Patriette’s shoulder, her body limp and helpless in her grasp. Meadowlark and Nightkiss appeared around the corner of the wall, dart guns at the ready. When they saw Dark Raven barely conscious and supported only by Patriette, they lowered their weapons.“Two more in the hall, out cold,” Meadowlark said matter-of-factly.“Get them both into the other room,” Patriette said. “Make sure they don’t wake up. And get Dream Thief in here. We’re going to need him.” She turned and let Dark Raven’s voluptuous body flop onto the bed. Meadowlark nodded. She motioned to Nightkiss and the two women hurried back towards the hallway.“She’s…gone…Pammy…” Dark Raven sighed. She was barely awake, her eyes almost closed. “You…won’t…” Her eyes rolled shut, and her breathing became peaceful and even, her large breasts rising and falling gently.“We’ll see,” Patriette whispered, gazing at the unconscious woman who had once been her friend. Dubstep looked over at Patriette in confusion. “We’re not going back to the restaurant?”Patriette shook her head, looking suddenly tired. “That will take time, and the clock is already ticking. Besides, there’s too much risk of us being seen while dragging three unconscious women halfway across town. We’ll do what we have to here.”Meadowlark came back into the room a couple of minutes later. “Girls are secured. Nightkiss is with them. No signs that anyone noticed the commotion, either. I think we’re clear.”“Good,” Patriette murmured. She stared down pensively at Dark Raven’s sleeping face. “Your agents?”“Ready for infiltration,” Meadowlark confirmed. “They have the invitations and the former owners aren’t waking up anytime soon. And with Dark Raven and her goons subdued, we’re on a short time table.”“This will be worth it,” Patriette said softly. “You’ll see. We’ll save her.”Meadowlark sighed. “I hope so. Though I don’t see how.” She turned back for the hall.Dubstep came up beside Patriette and put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “We’ll get her back, Pammy,” she said softly. “You’ll see.”Patriette nodded. She was quiet a moment. “She’s looks so pretty right now, doesn’t she? So peaceful and calm. Like the old Night Raven.”Dubstep glanced down at the unconscious Dark Raven. Her face was completely relaxed in sleep, her brow and cheeks smooth and a tranquil expression on her slumbering features. She looked as if she was just taking an afternoon nap.Dubstep squeezed Patriette’s shoulder again. “Dream Thief will help us get her back, Pammy. That’s why we’re working with him, right?”Patriette put her hand on top of Dubstep’s, her eyes still on Dark Raven’s sleeping face. “I hope so,” she whispered.***“Well, well,” said the woman in the booth. “You both seem excited. Is this your first time at the Ultimate High?”Oriole pushed her invitation through the slot in the plexiglass window. “It sure is. I can’t wait to go.” She glanced up the slopes of the mountain. “Does the journey take long?”The woman behind the glass, young but stern and dressed in a sharp business suit, examined the invitation carefully. “Not long at all. Fifteen minutes or so.”Bluejay slid her invitation towards the woman too. “We’re just so gosh darn excited,” she said as cheerily as she could. “A real spa. I can’t wait.”The woman behind the glass examined the invitations for a moment, the raised her eyes and appraised the two young and bubbly women in front of her. Oriole was dressed in an orange, sleeveless dress that came to her upper thighs and was cleft down the middle to show just a hint of her swelling bosom. She wore orange heels to match. Bluejay, on the other hand, was decked out in a long-sleeved shoulderless silver dress that came down to upper thighs as well, with silver heels on her feet to match. “Well, I think you’ll find the Ultimate High will be quite the experience,” the ticket booth lady said tactfully. “Don’t worry about needing jackets for the ride up. The car is heated. Here you are…” she glanced at the invitation as she handed it to Oriole, “Jaime. And here you go, Tara. Have a wonderful time.”Bluejay flashed a smile. “Oh, I’m sure we will.”The two gorgeous women turned for the cable car.“If I have to smile one more time I think my face is going to break,” Bluejay muttered.“Tell me about it,” Oriole said under her breath. She looked up at the cable car and the long mountain slope before them. “Well, this is it. “Ready?”“Yeah,” Bluejay acknowledged. She nudged Oriole lightly with her elbow. “Stop worrying. We got this.”Oriole boarded the cable car, glancing at two uniformed guards at the end of the platform who eyed them suspiciously. “I hope you’re right. It’s going to be awfully hard to get any kind of backup all the way up there.”The cable car doors lurched shut. A minute later the cable car jolted forward, starting the slow climb to the top of the mountain.Oriole glanced around the empty cabin. “Well, so far so good,” she breathed. She looked back at Bluejay. “If they suspected anything they would never have let us get this far, right?”“I guess,” Bluejay said. She walked to one of the windows and looked out. “Unless they gas us here on the car, or dart us the moment we get out. Or they know who we are and they’re just toying with us.”“Wow, aren’t you just a ray of sunshine?” Oriole said sarcastically. She ran her hands down her dress. “Gotta admit, it’s nice to have a change of outfit for once.”“Yeah,” Bluejay agreed. “I just wish we weren’t going in unarmed. I feel positively naked without a sidearm.”“You know we can’t risk it,” Oriole said. “We don’t know what security up there is like. If they check handbags, or have a metal detector—”“I know, I know,” Bluejay said irritably. “I just don’t like it, that’s all. I prefer to handle things directly. All of this sneaking around makes me uneasy.”“Look,” said Oriole, coming up beside Bluejay, “this is just standard infiltration and reconnaissance. We keep out heads down, don’t blow our cover and keep our eyes open. Who knows? We might be able to find out what Tobin is doing up there.”“Or sabotage the defenses,” Bluejay said, rubbing her arm. “I know those vigilantes are a little…unprofessional, but they still might be able to storm the place if we can find a weakness on the inside.”Oriole was quiet for a moment. “You think they’re going to be able to help their friend?”Bluejay snorted. “I seriously doubt it. I just hope this kidnapping plan of theirs doesn’t get all of us killed.”The cable car cleared a rise, and the Ultimate High Spa and Sauna appeared clearly ahead of them.Bluejay tapped her ear. “Bluejay to Meadowlark, over. We’re safely on the cable car. Target is in sight. We’ll report when we’re inside, over.”Oriole shook her head, her eyes on the looming building ahead of them. “Oh, sure,” she said in a small voice. “How hard can this be?”

Edit: Removed purses - the purses were ditched in the last chapter.

Description
A render for 's Back in Black - Part 8Patriette twisted her wrist. Her shield, which was on the floor just out of sight behind the bed, sprang up into her hands.Dark Raven’s pistol barked out a suppressed shot at point-blank range.The bullet hit squarely in the middle of the shield. Patriette crashed back against the closed curtains of the window and collapsed to the floor, the shield still ringing from the impact. Dark Raven cursed and stepped forward, lifting the gun for a second shot. The door to the bathroom flew open. Dubstep barreled out of it, her face set and determined. Like Patriette, she was dressed in civilian clothes. Dark Raven whirled, her gun swinging around to face the new threat. Patriette rose, choking and sputtering. She raised her shield to protect her head and chest. “Dubstep!”Dubstep didn’t listen. She spun and kicked Dark Raven’s outstretched hand, knocking the silenced pistol out of the surprised woman’s grip and onto the bed. She flung a punch at Dark Raven’s face.Dark Raven dodged almost effortlessly out of the way of Dubstep’s attack, then slammed her fist into the young heroine’s stomach.Dubstep staggered back, bent double and clutching her middle. Patriette got to her feet, still holding her shield in front of her. Dark Raven snatched the pistol off the bed.Dubstep straightened despite her pain, then flung herself again at the villainess. ***The moment they heard the pistol shot and Dubstep crash out of the bathroom, Myra and Joan turned towards the bedroom and raised their own guns, aiming them through the open door of the hotel room. ,With a glance at each other, they started to move forward into the room.At just that moment the next hotel room door down the hall burst open.Surprised, Joan and Myra both spun in that direction and fired on instinct. Their silenced pistols barked and flashed almost simultaneously.Meadowlark, dressed in civilian clothing, slid out of the newly opened door and onto the floor of the hallway, her dart gun spitting with practiced precision. One dart hit Joan squarely in the neck. Two more struck Myra, one in her shoulder and the other right in her plump breast. Both women tottered for a moment, as if in shock. Myra’s eyes crossed and she collapsed to the floor with a defeated sigh, like a puppet with the strings cut. Joan still stood but her eyes were glazed and she rocked back and forth unsteadily on her feet, as if she was trying to remember what she had been doing.Nightkiss whirled out of the newly opened door a half second later, Meadowlark’s second dart pistol in her hands. There were two sharp pffts from her weapon.Two more darts struck Joan, one in her thigh and the other in her arm. She stared blankly at Nightkiss for a long moment. Drool rolled down her chin and her gun fell from her hand, landing on the floor with a thud. Her head tilted forward, her eyes half-closed.“Just go down already!” Nightkiss fumed, her pistol still raised. Like Meadowlark she was still out of her regular costume and wearing the gaudy snowman sweater and blue jeans.Joan gave a soft grunt. Her eyes rolled up into her head and her legs buckled underneath her. She fell into a heap on the floor, half-draped over Myra’s unconscious body. The two women slept a dreamless, drugged sleep of oblivion. Nightkiss gave the dart pistol in her hand a disgusted look. “How do actually you aim with these things? I had it aimed at her chest. These shots are all over the place.”“But at least it’s quiet,” Meadowlark breathed, getting quickly to her feet. “Not like that screeching energy gun of yours. And you’re welcome for letting you use it, by the way.”Nightkiss rolled her eyes. “Whatever.” She glanced towards the hotel room door. “Come on, let’s go.”The two women raced for the door to room 214.***Dark Raven sidestepped and brought the edge of her hand down hard on Dubstep’s solar plexus.Dubstep reeled back, stunned and staggered. She grasped at her throat with both hands. Without missing a step, Dark Raven grabbed the young vigilante and slammed her against the frosted glass wall of the bathroom. She pressed the pistol against the girl’s chin and glanced back at Patriette. “Ah-ah, Pammy.”Patriette had her shield ready to throw. She hesitated, then dropped it to the ground.Dubstep’s wide eyes flickered back and forth between Dark Raven and Patriette. From the hallway came the sound of several muffled shots.“Backup?” Dark Raven sneered. “I’m impressed, Pammy. You’ve really thought this through.”She grabbed Dubstep in a chokehold with her arm around her neck, then whirled around the corner of the glass wall with her silenced pistol raised.Meadowlark and Nightkiss had just entered the hotel room, their dart guns at the ready. Using Dubstep as a human shield, Dark Raven fired her pistol. It barked three times, the bullets chewing into the hotel room door and the outer hall.Meadowlark and Nightkiss both ducked back into the hallway and out of sight with strangled curses.“I’m surprised you’re still alive, Pammy. You’re quite resourceful,” Dark Raven purred as she ducked back behind the relative safety of the bathroom frosted glass wall. Her pistol barrel was jammed against Dubstep’s cheek. Patriette glared at Dark Raven. “I may not have my costume on, but I’m still a superheroine.”“I see,” Dark Raven said. She pulled her pistol away from Dubstep’s face and pointed it at Patriette’s head. “Too bad you’re not bulletproof.”Patriette’s eyes flickered down to Dubstep’s left hand. “There’s no way out of here, Dark Raven.”“That’s where you’re wrong,” Dark Raven snarled. “If you or your friends in the hall try anything, I’ll put a bullet in this pretty girl’s head. Or yours. It’s all the same to me. Either way, I’m walking out of here.” Dark Raven jammed the barrel of the pistol harder into Dubstep’s cheek. “Isn’t that right?”“I don’t think so,” Patriette said calmly. “It’s now or never, Dubstep.”Dark Raven cocked her head, suddenly alert.Dubstep jammed the hypodermic syringe she had been holding in her left hand into Dark Raven’s upper thigh, then slammed her right elbow as hard as she could into the woman’s stomach.At the same moment Patriette twisted her wrist. The shield leapt up off the ground and into her hand.Dark Raven cursed violently, reaching for the syringe in her leg as Dubstep broke away from her. She fired the silenced pistol wildly as Dubstep dove across the bed and rolled onto the floor. “You little bi—”Patriette moved swiftly around the bed towards Dark Raven, her shield held high.With lightning reflexes Dark Raven turned her gun on Patriette. It coughed once, the bullet clanging off the metal shield. Patriette cleared the bed and swiped hard with her shield. The edge slammed into Dark Raven’s wrist, and sent her pistol spinning off into the air. Patriette smashed Dark Raven up against the frosted glass wall with her shield, their faces just inches apart. Dubstep got shakily to her feet, her hands grabbing at her body in surprise. “I’m not shot? How am I not shot?”“Got you,” Patriette said grimly, her eyes on Dark Raven’s face. There was no triumph or joy in her tone.“Good for you, Pammy.” Dark Raven smiled. Her eyes were already glazing, and her body was growing heavier by the second. “Surprise…tactics. Just like…Night Raven…taught you…” Her voice became thicker, the words starting to slur. Weighted eyelids drooped shut, and the villainess started to sag forward.Patriette tossed the shield aside and caught Dark Raven under her arms as she fell. The villainess’s head slumped onto Patriette’s shoulder, her body limp and helpless in her grasp. Meadowlark and Nightkiss appeared around the corner of the wall, dart guns at the ready. When they saw Dark Raven barely conscious and supported only by Patriette, they lowered their weapons.“Two more in the hall, out cold,” Meadowlark said matter-of-factly.“Get them both into the other room,” Patriette said. “Make sure they don’t wake up. And get Dream Thief in here. We’re going to need him.” She turned and let Dark Raven’s voluptuous body flop onto the bed. Meadowlark nodded. She motioned to Nightkiss and the two women hurried back towards the hallway.“She’s…gone…Pammy…” Dark Raven sighed. She was barely awake, her eyes almost closed. “You…won’t…” Her eyes rolled shut, and her breathing became peaceful and even, her large breasts rising and falling gently.“We’ll see,” Patriette whispered, gazing at the unconscious woman who had once been her friend. Dubstep looked over at Patriette in confusion. “We’re not going back to the restaurant?”Patriette shook her head, looking suddenly tired. “That will take time, and the clock is already ticking. Besides, there’s too much risk of us being seen while dragging three unconscious women halfway across town. We’ll do what we have to here.”Meadowlark came back into the room a couple of minutes later. “Girls are secured. Nightkiss is with them. No signs that anyone noticed the commotion, either. I think we’re clear.”“Good,” Patriette murmured. She stared down pensively at Dark Raven’s sleeping face. “Your agents?”“Ready for infiltration,” Meadowlark confirmed. “They have the invitations and the former owners aren’t waking up anytime soon. And with Dark Raven and her goons subdued, we’re on a short time table.”“This will be worth it,” Patriette said softly. “You’ll see. We’ll save her.”Meadowlark sighed. “I hope so. Though I don’t see how.” She turned back for the hall.Dubstep came up beside Patriette and put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “We’ll get her back, Pammy,” she said softly. “You’ll see.”Patriette nodded. She was quiet a moment. “She’s looks so pretty right now, doesn’t she? So peaceful and calm. Like the old Night Raven.”Dubstep glanced down at the unconscious Dark Raven. Her face was completely relaxed in sleep, her brow and cheeks smooth and a tranquil expression on her slumbering features. She looked as if she was just taking an afternoon nap.Dubstep squeezed Patriette’s shoulder again. “Dream Thief will help us get her back, Pammy. That’s why we’re working with him, right?”Patriette put her hand on top of Dubstep’s, her eyes still on Dark Raven’s sleeping face. “I hope so,” she whispered.***“Well, well,” said the woman in the booth. “You both seem excited. Is this your first time at the Ultimate High?”Oriole pushed her invitation through the slot in the plexiglass window. “It sure is. I can’t wait to go.” She glanced up the slopes of the mountain. “Does the journey take long?”The woman behind the glass, young but stern and dressed in a sharp business suit, examined the invitation carefully. “Not long at all. Fifteen minutes or so.”Bluejay slid her invitation towards the woman too. “We’re just so gosh darn excited,” she said as cheerily as she could. “A real spa. I can’t wait.”The woman behind the glass examined the invitations for a moment, the raised her eyes and appraised the two young and bubbly women in front of her. Oriole was dressed in an orange, sleeveless dress that came to her upper thighs and was cleft down the middle to show just a hint of her swelling bosom. She wore orange heels to match. Bluejay, on the other hand, was decked out in a long-sleeved shoulderless silver dress that came down to upper thighs as well, with silver heels on her feet to match. “Well, I think you’ll find the Ultimate High will be quite the experience,” the ticket booth lady said tactfully. “Don’t worry about needing jackets for the ride up. The car is heated. Here you are…” she glanced at the invitation as she handed it to Oriole, “Jaime. And here you go, Tara. Have a wonderful time.”Bluejay flashed a smile. “Oh, I’m sure we will.”The two gorgeous women turned for the cable car.“If I have to smile one more time I think my face is going to break,” Bluejay muttered.“Tell me about it,” Oriole said under her breath. She looked up at the cable car and the long mountain slope before them. “Well, this is it. “Ready?”“Yeah,” Bluejay acknowledged. She nudged Oriole lightly with her elbow. “Stop worrying. We got this.”Oriole boarded the cable car, glancing at two uniformed guards at the end of the platform who eyed them suspiciously. “I hope you’re right. It’s going to be awfully hard to get any kind of backup all the way up there.”The cable car doors lurched shut. A minute later the cable car jolted forward, starting the slow climb to the top of the mountain.Oriole glanced around the empty cabin. “Well, so far so good,” she breathed. She looked back at Bluejay. “If they suspected anything they would never have let us get this far, right?”“I guess,” Bluejay said. She walked to one of the windows and looked out. “Unless they gas us here on the car, or dart us the moment we get out. Or they know who we are and they’re just toying with us.”“Wow, aren’t you just a ray of sunshine?” Oriole said sarcastically. She ran her hands down her dress. “Gotta admit, it’s nice to have a change of outfit for once.”“Yeah,” Bluejay agreed. “I just wish we weren’t going in unarmed. I feel positively naked without a sidearm.”“You know we can’t risk it,” Oriole said. “We don’t know what security up there is like. If they check handbags, or have a metal detector—”“I know, I know,” Bluejay said irritably. “I just don’t like it, that’s all. I prefer to handle things directly. All of this sneaking around makes me uneasy.”“Look,” said Oriole, coming up beside Bluejay, “this is just standard infiltration and reconnaissance. We keep out heads down, don’t blow our cover and keep our eyes open. Who knows? We might be able to find out what Tobin is doing up there.”“Or sabotage the defenses,” Bluejay said, rubbing her arm. “I know those vigilantes are a little…unprofessional, but they still might be able to storm the place if we can find a weakness on the inside.”Oriole was quiet for a moment. “You think they’re going to be able to help their friend?”Bluejay snorted. “I seriously doubt it. I just hope this kidnapping plan of theirs doesn’t get all of us killed.”The cable car cleared a rise, and the Ultimate High Spa and Sauna appeared clearly ahead of them.Bluejay tapped her ear. “Bluejay to Meadowlark, over. We’re safely on the cable car. Target is in sight. We’ll report when we’re inside, over.”Oriole shook her head, her eyes on the looming building ahead of them. “Oh, sure,” she said in a small voice. “How hard can this be?”

Edit: Removed purses - the purses were ditched in the last chapter.