ALL THE RUMORS ARE TRUE
With a low moan of anguish, the guard dropped his rifle and fell to his knees. Then he began to convulse. The neurons in his brain were firing in a particularly random manner.
Emma primly stepped around the writhing guard and slammed the heel of her boot into the back of his head. The man immediately went limp and sprawled face-down on the floor. Emma then hooked her foot under his mid-section and rolled the guard over onto his back. After reassuring herself that he was still breathing, she turned away.
If he were to die, and the others found out, they would give her no end of grief.
The door to the lab had a keypad entry lock. But Emma had already extracted the code from the now-unconcious guard. After punching in the guard's authentication code, the door slid open as smoothly as a "Star Trek" special effect.
Inside, a dozen large, barrel-like containers were regularly spaced along the walls of a brightly lit room. Only one was occupied. Emma carefully examined the container's display panel and made a quick choice. It was correct, and with a metallic click and a deep hiss, the upper part of the container began to lift away from the main body.
Blinking against the light, Kurt squinted at Emma. He was only visible from the chest up and he was shirtless.
"Emma, vas?" he croaked.
Emma nodded her head towards the doorway, "We have to hurry."
Kurt crawled out of the containment unit. He was naked and he carefully kept his back turned to Emma.
With an exasperated sigh, Emma took off her cloak and impatiently reached over Kurt's shoulder to hand to him. He immediately wrapped it around his waist and turned to face her.
"Thank you, Emma," he said calmly. His eyes had adjusted to the light and he was examining his surrounding with some curiosity. "Any idea what this is about?"
"It turns out that China has a mutant research program," Emma replied disgustedly. "Their operatives gassed us in that Manila hotel. This facility is located in southern China - right on the coast. Unfortunately for the Chinese, they don't have much experience with telepaths. The inhibitor collar they used on me was based on a decade-old SHEILD design. It was pathetically easy to defeat."
Kurt shook his head, "Do you have a way out?"
Emma nodded, "We can fly out of here. I mind-probed an officer. According to him, there's an airfield just outside the gate. There are several transport jets there, and it's a short hop to either Taiwan or Vietnam."
Kurt nodded. "How do we get out of this building?"
"Follow me." Without another word, Emma turned and walked out of the room.
With an amused expression on his face - Emma tended to become very dominant and abrupt in the field - Kurt followed. He kept a tight grip on the white cloak that was wrapped around his midsection.
The worker was staring out into space as Kurt wrestled open the lid of the large crate that was resting on his cart. The fit was going to be tight, but there was enough room inside for both Kurt and Emma.
"You first," Kurt ordered quietly. Emma didn't argue. She was proud of how she kept herself fit, but Kurt was both an acrobat and immensely flexible, he would have a much easier time adjusting to any leftover space in the crate.
Emma climbed in and Kurt followed, pressing tightly against Emma's body. As soon as he entered the shadowy interior, he became invisible - except for the gleam of his yellow eyes. After the mind-controlled worker put the lid back on the box, even that barely visible trace of him vanished.
The cart carrying the box began rolling. Emma kept a mind-link to the worker who was pushing the cart, keeping him under tight control.
That wasn't easy. And Kurt's presence certainly wasn't helping. Emma's taste in men ran towards alpha-males like Sebastian Shaw, Scott, or Logan. She normally didn't consider Kurt, Hank, Bobby, or the other men on the team to be in her league. But now Kurt was so physically close. And the only reasonable thing to do in this close of a space was to put her arms around him. One of her hands was resting on the small of his back and the other was between his shoulder blades. Emma suddenly realized that the cloak Kurt had wrapped around himself had been knocked loose when he climbed into box.
His body was whipcord muscle underneath short, sleek, seal-like fur. And Kurt smelled like an exotic combination of man and animal, with just a hint of a musky wood-smoke scent that she'd never noticed before...
Emma took a deep breath and released it slowly. This was silly. She couldn't afford to be distracted.
"Kurt..." she said softly.
"Hmm?"
"Your tail. Move it, please."
"Vas?"
"Your tail - it's wrapped around my thigh. We don't have time for that kind of foolishness."
Kurt chuckled. "Ach. Sorry. But that's not my tail."
Kurt shifted his lower body. And Emma felt the intruding... member... unwrap itself from around her.
The rest of the escape went off without a hitch - which was a good thing since Emma was completely flustered for the remainder of the day.