”They're almost out of reach of the drone, Mike!” yelled Shaw.

“We almost have a visual, we just need to catch up a little bit more! Right turn!”

They van jerked around violently, and a mug crashed and shattered on the floor.

“Call the turns earlier, dammit!”

“Sorry! Next left, cut the roundabout! Then— wait.”

“What?!” screamed both Sarah and Shaw.

“They stopped! Less than three blocks ahead! Go! Go! Just two more corners!”

Sarah hesitated for a moment.

“Check the perimeter.”

He hurriedly switched to thermal, zoomed in and did a scan of the surrounding area.

“Don’t see anything, checking back at the van!”

”I see it now!”, said Sarah. “It crashed!”

Shaw and Bower looked out the front window. The van was lying on its side at the end of a long trail of snaking skid marks. White Smoke was billowing from the wreck.

“There’s someone outside the van!” yelled Shaw when she saw.

There was a person limping from the van in their direction.

“Quick! Gun locker! Four Seven One Five!”

Shaw got up and entered the digits into the electronic lock on the metal compartment. He pulled out an MP7 and loaded it. It had been a while since he’d had to use one of these.

”It’s Kate!” he heard Sophie yell. He moved to the front of the van and looked out the wind shield. It was Sergeant Prescott. She was bleeding from her neck. They had almost reached her. Behind her, around the van, there was movement, and suddenly the noise of gunfire. He heard bullets ricochet off the asphalt. They must still be dazed from the accident. They were shooting like shit. Sarah slid the van into a handbrake turn as she screeched to a halt between the smoking wreck and Kate.

Sophie opened the doors. Kate looked like she had been in, well, a car crash.

Gunfire was still screaming around them as Kate jumped in. Bower was shooting bursts out the window now, too. Shots impacted the bullet-resistant exterior of the van.

”Kelly’s dead!” screamed Kate over the pandemonium. “We need to leave! Now!”

Sarah didn’t need to be told twice. She floored it, and after a quick right turn, the gunfire stopped and the screaming engine seemed like a quiet spring day in comparison.

“Kate, are you alright?!” screamed Sarah, too loudly. Her ears were ringing heavily. They hadn’t had time to wear ear protection.”

“I’ll live!”, she yelled back. “Just get us home safe!”

“Umm, guys…” said Mike.

“What are we going to do now?” asked Sophie.

“GUYS! Aargh” yelled Mike and screamed as he coughed heavily. Everyone looked at him. His shirt was soaked in blood from a wound below his shoulder.

“I’m passing out now…” he slurred, and did.

They stood in a semicircle in the room of the safe house that had the gurney and medical supplies. Sophie stood next to Mike, who had fallen asleep after being drugged. A heavy bandage was wrapped around his shoulder. Sophie’s skin was white as a sheet. Her voice was small and hoarse. She had blood stains all over the sleeves of her shirt.

“He was extremely lucky. The bullet went clean through him. It probably missed his major arteries, or he would have died in the van. I think it clipped the very top of his lung, but for now he’s stable. We do need to get him to a hospital, though. I can’t drain his lungs if fluid starts to build up.”

Kate nodded.

“We will. Director West is on her way. We’ll ask her to arrange that. It shouldn’t take long.”

“Some professional should also look at the stitches you tore open on your neck.”

“When there is time,” said Kate.

“Okay,” said Sophie. “For now, Mike needs rest and quiet. I’ll stay here,“ she put her hand on his arm.

They got the hint and left. There was a couch and an armchair in the main room. Sarah sat down. Kate carefully closed the door to the sick room. The sun had risen while Sophie had stitched Mike back together. Outside, birds were singing. It was a clear and bright day, and only thin strands of clouds hung in the morning sky. For a while they just sat there in silence. Kate thought about injecting Sarah, but this was not the plan.

“Thank you for coming for me!” said Kate, finally. “After what I said to you…”

“Don’t be stupid!” said Sarah.

“I’m so sorry!”

“Shut up. You don’t have to be. Look at me, Kate!”

She did. She looked deep into Sarah’s dark brown eyes. She thought about injecting her, and how those eyes would go empty. But that was not the plan.

“You were right. I was a self-obsessed asshole.”

“You were grieving.”

“So were you! But I thought I was the only person who lost something, that I was the only one that was hurting. And you came to me, and you didn’t have to. We weren’t close, before. Yes, I know, we talked. But I didn’t consider you my friend. I didn’t consider anyone my friend. Only…”

“Sarah, stop.”

“I never told anyone where I got transferred from. Only West knows.”

Kate said nothing. It took Sarah a while to continue.

“I… was doing private security. Some chemical plant. Nowhere, USA. I had a friend there, from back in the navy. Her name was Sarah, too. Fucking stupid. We were… close. Very close. They say you shouldn’t mix up your relationship with the workplace. But we made it work.”

For a moment she seemed lost in thought. The sun slowly rose in the sky. A sheet of sunlight crept down the wall. Kate thought about injecting her.

“One week, she takes three days off, and texts me that she’ll be out of town and not to worry, she’ll be back. And I didn’t worry and she was back like she’d promised.

Then, a week later, we’re at the plant and everything is normal and we’re having lunch and suddenly she pulls out a gun and shoots everyone at the table. Except me. She tells me to get on the floor, and cuffs me. She leans down next to me and whispers into my ear. I’ll never forget what she said… she… she said: ‘We’ll serve together.”

“I’m so sorry,” said Kate, face screwed up in pain. She thought about injecting her.

“They were going to take me. I was put in a van. Division raided the place just in time and freed me. I was recruited as part of the hush-up.”

“What happened to Sarah?”

“She killed two division operatives before they shot her in the head”

”Oh God…”

“I… I thought I could never trust anyone again. I spent my first year at the division completely isolated. I went home after the shift and locked my doors until it was time to go back to work. Until I met Lilly. She didn’t let me be alone, she didn’t let me be miserable. She didn’t allow it, she wouldn’t have it. She made me laugh again and no matter how bad I tried, I just couldn’t help but love her.”

Her eyes were wet. She took a deep breath.

”I… I never told anyone about Sarah... Not even Lilly,“ she sobbed. “And each time she went out undercover, I wanted to tell her. B... but I thought she had no choice, and that I would only burden her. And now, I always think, why didn’t I tell her?!” She was crying now. ”Why didn’t I tell her?! I could have stopped her!”

Kate got up sat herself next to her, taking her in her arms, comforting her.

“Why didn’t I tell her?!” cried Sarah and leaned into Kate. Kate felt Sarah breathing softly against her. She thought about injecting her. She could do it right now. It would be so hot.

“It’s okay, It’s okay. Everything’s going to be alright. All of this will be over soon,“ said Kate. “We’ll get through this. We’re a team. You’re my friend. And you’re the strongest woman I know. You saved me, and I’ll always be there for you.”

Sarah let out a final sob, then took some slow, deep breaths.

”Thank you, Kate.”

For a little while, they just sat there. Kate kept her arms wrapped around Sarah, thinking about the things that were to come.

Sophie was washing her hands for the third time, now. There was still red gunk under her fingernails. The hot water on her hands stung. Her hands were red and she couldn’t tell if it was blood or if it was her skin turning red from the heat. At least they had stopped trembling.

She heard Sarah and Kate talking outside. It sounded emotional. She turned her head to look at Mike for the hundredth time.

This time, he was awake.

“Mike!” she said in soft surprise. The knot inside of her chest seemed to loosen.

He spoke, words a slow slur: ”Yep, that’s me. Whoah. Whoah. Oh, wow… I’m so high right now. What did you give me?

”Morphine,” she said.

“Right on.”

She laid her hands on his cheeks. He smiled.

“You need rest,” she said.

“Hey, are you getting all Florence Nightingale on me, young lady? I can get behind that. Also, You have really warm and wet hands.”

She laughed and gently put her hand on his chest, avoiding his wound. “You’re high.”

“You made me high. That’s pretty cool of you. Can I have a kiss?”

“As long as you don’t get blood on me, you doofus,“ she said and kissed him. It felt good and relieving. She’d been so afraid of losing him.

The door opened and Sarah and Kate stopped mid-stride. She hurriedly pulled back, her hands making erratic movements as she tried to find a set of gestures that would somehow cover up what they had been doing.

“Err…” she said. “This isn’t—” Her ears and face burned as they turned pink in embarrassment.

“We knew,” said Kate.

“You knew?”

“We totally knew”, said Sarah. She looked like she’d been crying, but she wore a little smile now that almost hid the pain. Sophie could relate.

“You guys should try kissing on morphine, it’s so much better!” slurred Mike, raising a finger at the ceiling. Sophie blushed even more.

“Director West is here. We need you for a minute,“ said Kate.

“Holy shit! Sex must be amazing.”

“MIKE!”

They stood in a row. Director West leaned heavily with her back against a wall, her temples cradled in the fingertips of her left hand. Sophie was speaking, Sarah was fidgeting, and Kate was taking a quick look at her cell phone which no one noticed as new.

”Hospital care for Mister Bower can be arranged. Thank you, Miss Shaw.”

“May I go back to Mike? I’m uncomfortable leaving him alone, if there’s something—“

“You may. Dismissed.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.”

She went to the sick room. They watched her leave, then the Director stood up straight and turned her attention to Sarah.

“Agent Mahoney. Were I not so short on personnel, I would relieve you of your duty right here and now. What you did was insubordinate, irresponsible and plain stupid. Any number of things could have gone wrong. The fact that agent Prescott managed to overwhelm her captors and force the vehicle to crash was lucky, and you couldn’t have planned for that to happen. And if it hadn’t, they would very probably have gotten away.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I will have to accept your apology. However, you are relieved of your rank.”

Kate interrupted: “Is this necessary? Don’t we have enough trouble already?”

“Some measures need to be taken. Agent Mahoney, I respect your capabilities in combat and despite everything you remain a valuable asset, but I do no longer trust you to make the right decisions. Hence, you are no longer afforded the authority to do so. I ask you to join agent Shaw in the sick room. I would like to speak to agent Prescott in private.

Sarah looked sour, but she didn’t protest. She nodded, turned, and entered the sick room, closing the door behind her.

“Agent Prescott, you said you have recovered sensitive information and that you needed to show me in person. This constitutes a big risk, but here I am. What is it that you have to show me?”

”When I escaped from the van, I snatched this,” she said and pulled a small metal cylinder from her pocket. It was the size of a lipstick, or maybe a crayon. She held it up in front of her as she stepped closer.

“What is that?” asked the Director.

“Not sure, but they had them in heavy boxes to protect them. I think they are some sort of new technology they are using.”

“What makes you think that?”

In Kate’s pocket, her cell phone chimed.

She looked into Director West’s eyes and said: ”Seven blue purple leaves left at the right lot.”

The moment of confusion was enough. Kate put one hand over West’s mouth and in one quick motion injected her with the other. The woman had no time to react. She twisted for a second and let out a barely audible scream, muffled by slave Kate’s hand.

Slave Kate saw the Director’s eyes widen in shock. Their faces were inches apart. Their eyes met for an instant and she could see the confused fear and rage in them. Then, the Director’s eyelids twitched and her pupils dilated. Her gaze went empty and her eyes rolled back. With the voiceless sigh of her breath escaping her she collapsed into slave Kate’s arms.

Slave Kate hastily lowered the unconscious body to the floor, then took four quick steps toward the sick room and locked the door. Then she bucked, her legs almost giving in under her. Her pussy felt like it would need only the lightest touch to explode. At any other time, she would be on the floor, letting herself orgasm. But that wasn’t part of the plan. She leaned against the wall, breathing heavily, barely managing to contain herself.

Seconds later, there was a knock on the front door, and Kate had trouble not to moan with excitement.

Mistress was here.