For the first time in months, Shipwreck felt he had truly come home.
Standing on the deck of the passenger liner, he closed his eyes and felt
the warmth of the noonday sun on his cheeks. He smelled the salty sea air.
It enlivened him, invigorated him, and almost made him forget that he had
once stood on the brink of execution in a Cobra fortress.
Cover Girl joined him on the deck, along with the other passengers who stood about, enjoying the ocean view. They were cruising through the Pacific Ocean, headed for the islands of Hawaii. With Shipwreck clean- shaven and Cover Girl wearing a blond wig, the two hardly resembled their former selves. Their hope was to reach Hawaii and infiltrate the old American naval base at Pearl Harbor, which Cobra had taken over as their major military base in the Pacific.
That was it, of all places. Shipwreck and Cover Girl could both remember standing anxiously behind Mainframe as he found the coded data among the mountains of top secret information stashed on the stolen data CD that had indicated the last confirmed location of Mara. Hawaii, of all places. A chain of islands 5000 miles away, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There, it appeared, they would find the answers they sought. They would find the truth about Mara, and with any luck, would set her free.
* * *
The time for goodbye had come at last. Shipwreck and Cover Girl stood together on the train platform with their bags, ready to board the train that would carry them west. As the two stood hand in hand, they looked in silence at their friends, who had come to see them off.
Flint, Lady Jaye, Mainframe, and Zarana. They were six men and women whose lives had become intertwined together in a common destiny. Fate brought each of them together. Fate had kept them alive to this point as well. Shipwreck thought about all they had been through. Could it truly be that they were the last survivors? How did he manage to make it so far when so many good men and women had died? It wasn't a matter of better training or skills. It was luck. If you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, you were going to get it. Yes it was luck, or perhaps a higher power, God if you will, had kept him alive.
God, if you're out there, Shipwreck thought at that moment, give me the strength to do what I must do.
"Where will you go?" he asked Flint.
"We lost the war here," Flint said grimly, "but there is a new front now. The war in Europe has only begun. We'll join the fight there, from the hills of England, to the beaches of France, all the way to the mountains of Russia if we have to. One day, we'll come back with an army to take back our country. I won't rest until that day comes."
It seemed such a heroic, grandiose sentiment to espouse at such a moment. Here they were a measly group of six people, soon to be four, and Flint was talking about returning with an army to take back a country that Cobra had thoroughly conquered. It was just like Flint to say that. We will never give up. We will never surrender. Only a true Joe would feel that way from the bottom of his heart.
Cover Girl was crying softly. Shipwreck looked at her and understood. Was this truly goodbye? Could this be the last time we will ever see these people alive?
Slowly, Shipwreck stepped forward and shook Flint's hand. He and Cover Girl took turns embracing each of their four friends. Then they stepped onto the train that would carry them away, to their unknown destiny.
* * *
They had come to Hawaii at last. Together, Shipwreck and Cover Girl played the tourists, walking through the streets of Waikiki in garish aloha shirts and sunglasses. With the exception of the occasional Cobra trooper sitting on top of a HISS tank at certain street corners, you could hardly tell that anything in Hawaii had even changed. People went about their daily lives as if nothing had happened. There were rules now, of course, that everyone had to follow, things like obeying curfew and respecting your hard working Cobra officers.
Shipwreck and Cover Girl felt truly relaxed for the first time in weeks. They were very much below the Cobra radar, blending in perfectly with the rest of the civilian population. Together, they cruised through the shopping malls, took pictures, and took a walk along the Ala Moana beach park.
The sun was setting over the ocean as Shipwreck and Cover Girl sat down at a park bench above the sandy beach to admire the view.
Shipwreck held a map of the island of Oahu in his other hand. He unfolded it and put it on his lap, directing Cover Girl's attention to the inlet of water at the southern area of the island, just a few miles west of Honolulu.
"Pearl Harbor," Shipwreck said, tapping the spot on his map with his finger. "Tomorrow, we'll head over there, case the area, figure out our plan. Then we make our move."
They looked into one another's eyes. Both of them seemed to remember the last time they had sat down at a beach like this. It seemed like a million years ago, Shipwreck had confessed his love for Cover Girl on a Saturday morning at sunrise, and she had turned him down and broken his heart. As if sensing the hurt of that bygone time, Cover Girl reached over and gently took his hand in hers.
"There's something I never told you about Mara," Shipwreck said. "I had a dream about her, Courtney. I dreamed that she and I were married, and we had a daughter. Her name was Althea. But you see, the whole thing was fake. Cobra used me, tried to manipulate me by using my feelings toward Mara."
* * *
The house he believed he had shared with Mara and Althea was burning down. Shipwreck could not believe it. He was still in shock that his wife and daughter were nothing more than synthoids created by Cobra.
But I thought you loved me.
Daddy, you're a real drip.
Synthoids. They were synthoids!
What's wrong, Shipwreck? Was there something important in that house?
Tears were running down Shipwreck's face. It was worse than a dream because at least you knew it was all in your head. But this, the synthoid family—it had all seemed so real. He had wanted so much to believe that he really had been a hero, captured Cobra Commander, and married a cured and fully human Mara. He had never known what it would be like to be a husband and a father, with a family of his own. He had never known what it meant to truly have a home you could go back to, where you were always welcomed by those who loved you most.
Now he had finally tasted it, even if none of it had been real.
He didn't want to let it go.
The tears ran down.
"Aw," Shipwreck said sadly, "nothing. Just a dream or two."
* * *
Shipwreck sat quietly in a corner of the mess hall, once in a while eyeing Flint and Lady Jaye, on the other side of the room. It wasn't that he envied Flint for having Lady Jaye. He envied what they had together, their special relationship. It had been five weeks since the incident with Springfield and the synthoids, and he hadn't been able to get the memories of Mara and Althea out of his head. He thought of Mara every day. Truly, for the first time in his life, he had experienced a life of love and family, and he had liked it. But there wasn't anyone like that in his life now. Mara was gone. He would probably never see her again.
"Hi, Shipwreck, what's going on?"
Shipwreck looked up and saw Cover Girl standing in front of his table, with a tray of food in her hand.
"Can I join you?"
"Uh, sure," Shipwreck mumbled.
Like I care, he thought. Cover Girl was another one of his disappointments. He remembered, long before he had met Mara, he had been attracted to Cover Girl, from the moment they'd first met. He was drawn to her auburn hair, her shapely model's body, and her seductive sweetness. He'd thought he could charm her with his manly ways, but she'd always repulsed his overtures, sometimes violently. Yet there were times in their relationship when they'd been forced to work together and help each other out in the course of a mission. In that setting, they had formed a grudging respect for one another.
Man, Cover Girl is hot.
Too bad she hates me.
Shipwreck looked at Lady Jaye and Flint again.
There's someone special out there for everyone, except for me.
"Are you okay?" Cover Girl said.
"What do you mean?"
"You've been kind of distant the last few weeks. It's not like you."
"And what am I normally like?"
"Well, you know."
"No, tell me what I'm normally like. Loud and obnoxious, right?"
"Hey, I didn't say that."
"Sure, but you think that. Listen, Cover Girl, I don't need your sympathy act. Go and bother someone else."
Cover Girl blushed out of anger and embarrassment.
"Suit yourself, sailor boy," she huffed. "Just thought you'd like some company, that's all."
With that, Cover Girl picked up her tray and got up to leave their table.
Unexpectedly, she felt something tugging at her hand.
It was Shipwreck, reaching out to stop her from leaving. His grip on her hand was firm yet tender. Cover Girl, against her will, felt her hand heating up for some reason she couldn't understand.
"Aw, come on, I'm sorry," Shipwreck stammered, "I didn't mean that. Would you have lunch with me?"
Cover Girl stood uncertain for a moment, weighing the situation, debating whether to laugh in his face like she had done so many times before. Then she noticed the genuine pained look in his eyes and reconsidered.
What happened out on that island five weeks ago?
"I'm just a nothing sailor," Shipwreck said. "I'm an idiot sometimes."
Cover Girl smiled.
"Naw, I wouldn't say that."
"Oh really?"
"You're an idiot all the time," Cover Girl said, her smile widening.
* * *
The two of them sat on that park bench on the beach, thinking back to that faraway time.
"So that's why you were like that," Cover Girl said, understanding everything for the first time.
"I had the best dream of my life," Shipwreck said. "But that's all it was, a dream. I lost that dream, it burned down right before my eyes."
He turned to face her, a tender look in his eyes.
"I went back to G.I. JOE, but nothing was the same anymore. I couldn't go about feeling the same way about everything. For everyone else, life was exactly the same, unchanged, but for me, nothing was the same anymore. I couldn't understand how everyone could go about doing their daily lives, when I'd had this wonderful dream of the way things might have been. But you reached out to me, Courtney. I never really understood our relationship. It was like a love-hate relationship since the day we first met."
"Mostly hate, I would say," Cover Girl laughed.
"Yeah, anyway, you reached out to me. I guess you saw my loneliness and wanted to become more of a friend to me. And I was touched by that. Somewhere along the line, I fell in love with you. But I didn't know how to tell you, how to show you how I felt about you. I guess I really blew it, back then. But I never stopped loving you, not for one second."
Cover Girl touched her hand to Shipwreck's lips.
"Don't talk about it anymore," she said. "We're together now. Everything's going to be all right. I love you, Hector. I love you so much."
Shipwreck leaned over toward her, and their lips met. Their kiss was light and innocent, but then it deepened into something more passionate and hungry. Shipwreck slipped an arm around Cover Girl's back to hold her closer to him, and Cover Girl in turn put a hand on the back of his head to bring him closer. Their kiss continued as their tongues began exploring each other's mouths. With his other hand, Shipwreck caressed Cover Girl's face, and his fingers trailed down her face, her slender neck, her collar bone, all the way down to her left breast, where it rested. Cover Girl felt his hand on her breast through the thin fabric of her shirt and bra, and she felt her body inflamed by his touch. She knew at this moment how much he wanted her, and how badly she wanted him. Of course he had wanted her for a long time, but for the first time, she was ready to give herself to him, her whole body. Their kiss broke off at last, and Cover Girl reached down to cover Shipwreck's hand with her own as it rested on her breast. Both of them were breathing heavily. Their faces were flushed with passion, desire, and years of longing suppressed and denied.
Cover Girl moved Shipwreck's hand on her breast, a little downward.
"My heart is beating so fast," she whispered.
They kissed again.
* * *
Shipwreck could not say what it was about that day that stuck out so much in his mind. One year they were sharing a Christmas dinner together, along with the rest of their friends. It was an innocent time, a happier time, far from the conquests of Cobra that would come years later. They were sitting at a table with Low-Light, Mainframe, and Scarlett. The room was lit only by candlelight and by the colored lights of the Christmas tree at the far end of the mess hall, near the entrance.
He couldn't even remember what they were talking about that night. All Shipwreck knew was that sitting across from him was one of the most beautiful, wonderful women he had ever known. She was smiling and laughing, talking about something he had long since forgotten. He remembered the way the candlelight danced across her face and the sparkle in her eyes. He remembered that the whole room seemed to fade out in his ears, even the sound of Cover Girl's voice, as he sat entranced by her. Everything he had ever wanted in a woman was right in front of him: beauty, gentleness, kindness, intelligence, and grace. He felt his heart thumping in his chest, and the butterflies in his stomach. All he wanted at that moment was to hold her tight. That's when it hit him.
Am I in love with Cover Girl?
Is this what it feels like to fall in love?
* * *
Shipwreck emerged from the shower dressed in his underwear and a long bathrobe. His towel was slung around his shoulders. He walked into the common room, wondering if he should ask Cover Girl whether she wanted the bed. He would have been content to sleep on the floor.
But all such modest thoughts vanished when he saw Cover Girl lying on the bed, dressed in nothing but a thin shirt and panties. Shipwreck's eyes traveled up and down the length of her luminous, perfect body, admiring her soft beauty. He could not fail to notice the way her nipples pressed against the thin fabric of her shirt, or the small tuft of pubic hair between her thighs not covered by her small underpants. Then the reality of the situation hit him at last. They were finally alone, just the two of them, sharing a hotel room with a single bed, just a few hours after sharing a most desperately passionate kiss.
"Come to bed," Cover Girl said in a voice thick with desire and longing. It was obvious that she could see the growing bulge in Shipwreck's underpants.
Slowly but surely, Shipwreck crossed the distance between them, throwing off his robe and towel and joined her on the bed, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her furiously. It was a matter of seconds before both of them were completely naked, their bodies pressed against one another beneath the bed covers. Cheek to cheek, naked skin against skin, with his cock moving against her womb, they were finally together as one body. No one would have been able to tell where one ended and the other began. All the years of desire and frustration, attraction and animosity, longing and agony, vanished in the instant their bodies were joined in this act of true love.
Shipwreck's hands and lips were everywhere, on her face, her neck, her full breasts, her belly. His hips moved rhythmically against hers, until they both felt themselves nearing their sexual climax. Cover Girl gave one final scream as the pleasure overtook her, and the two lovers settled in each other's arms, their faces flushed and sweating.
"It's been too long," Cover Girl said lovingly as she brushed her fingertips against Shipwreck's sweat-beaded forehead.
It's been too long since I was with a man in this way.
It's been too long from the moment I fell in love with you, that we could finally make love.
But we're together now. And that's all that matters.
Cover Girl leaned over and kissed him gently once more, and they drifted off to sleep.
* * *
It was overcast the next day when Shipwreck and Cover Girl stood on a high hill that overlooked Pearl Harbor and, under the cover of bushes, examined the naval base through binoculars.
The fenced off perimeter of Pearl Harbor was heavily guarded by HISS tanks and STUN vehicles. A pair of Cobra flight pods made the rounds above the complex, making routine patrols. A concrete path, heavily guarded by armed Cobra troopers, led to the Arizona Memorial, a giant concrete memorial that had been built above the sunken ruins of the USS Arizona, a permanent reminder of the December 7, 1941 attack.
Or at least that's where the Arizona Memorial used to be. Now in place of the Arizona Memorial was a giant offshore complex, a behemoth of concrete and steel rigging. The structure rose to a height of five stories, standing tall above the water.
So that's it, Shipwreck mused. That must be Cobra's maritime laboratory. What are we going to find there? Who are we going to find?
He felt Cover Girl squeezing his hand.
"You okay, Courtney?"
"I'm with you," she replied.
"Looks pretty scary for just the two of us, huh?"
"Yeah. Any ideas?"
"I'm starting to get one right now," Shipwreck said as he swept his binoculars across the base one last time.
Shipwreck put his binoculars away and the two lovers exchanged a knowing look.
"We move tonight," he said with determination.
Together, Shipwreck and Cover Girl picked themselves up and walked the short distance to the nearby parking lot, where their car waited to take them back to the hotel.
Cover Girl joined him on the deck, along with the other passengers who stood about, enjoying the ocean view. They were cruising through the Pacific Ocean, headed for the islands of Hawaii. With Shipwreck clean- shaven and Cover Girl wearing a blond wig, the two hardly resembled their former selves. Their hope was to reach Hawaii and infiltrate the old American naval base at Pearl Harbor, which Cobra had taken over as their major military base in the Pacific.
That was it, of all places. Shipwreck and Cover Girl could both remember standing anxiously behind Mainframe as he found the coded data among the mountains of top secret information stashed on the stolen data CD that had indicated the last confirmed location of Mara. Hawaii, of all places. A chain of islands 5000 miles away, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There, it appeared, they would find the answers they sought. They would find the truth about Mara, and with any luck, would set her free.
* * *
The time for goodbye had come at last. Shipwreck and Cover Girl stood together on the train platform with their bags, ready to board the train that would carry them west. As the two stood hand in hand, they looked in silence at their friends, who had come to see them off.
Flint, Lady Jaye, Mainframe, and Zarana. They were six men and women whose lives had become intertwined together in a common destiny. Fate brought each of them together. Fate had kept them alive to this point as well. Shipwreck thought about all they had been through. Could it truly be that they were the last survivors? How did he manage to make it so far when so many good men and women had died? It wasn't a matter of better training or skills. It was luck. If you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, you were going to get it. Yes it was luck, or perhaps a higher power, God if you will, had kept him alive.
God, if you're out there, Shipwreck thought at that moment, give me the strength to do what I must do.
"Where will you go?" he asked Flint.
"We lost the war here," Flint said grimly, "but there is a new front now. The war in Europe has only begun. We'll join the fight there, from the hills of England, to the beaches of France, all the way to the mountains of Russia if we have to. One day, we'll come back with an army to take back our country. I won't rest until that day comes."
It seemed such a heroic, grandiose sentiment to espouse at such a moment. Here they were a measly group of six people, soon to be four, and Flint was talking about returning with an army to take back a country that Cobra had thoroughly conquered. It was just like Flint to say that. We will never give up. We will never surrender. Only a true Joe would feel that way from the bottom of his heart.
Cover Girl was crying softly. Shipwreck looked at her and understood. Was this truly goodbye? Could this be the last time we will ever see these people alive?
Slowly, Shipwreck stepped forward and shook Flint's hand. He and Cover Girl took turns embracing each of their four friends. Then they stepped onto the train that would carry them away, to their unknown destiny.
* * *
They had come to Hawaii at last. Together, Shipwreck and Cover Girl played the tourists, walking through the streets of Waikiki in garish aloha shirts and sunglasses. With the exception of the occasional Cobra trooper sitting on top of a HISS tank at certain street corners, you could hardly tell that anything in Hawaii had even changed. People went about their daily lives as if nothing had happened. There were rules now, of course, that everyone had to follow, things like obeying curfew and respecting your hard working Cobra officers.
Shipwreck and Cover Girl felt truly relaxed for the first time in weeks. They were very much below the Cobra radar, blending in perfectly with the rest of the civilian population. Together, they cruised through the shopping malls, took pictures, and took a walk along the Ala Moana beach park.
The sun was setting over the ocean as Shipwreck and Cover Girl sat down at a park bench above the sandy beach to admire the view.
Shipwreck held a map of the island of Oahu in his other hand. He unfolded it and put it on his lap, directing Cover Girl's attention to the inlet of water at the southern area of the island, just a few miles west of Honolulu.
"Pearl Harbor," Shipwreck said, tapping the spot on his map with his finger. "Tomorrow, we'll head over there, case the area, figure out our plan. Then we make our move."
They looked into one another's eyes. Both of them seemed to remember the last time they had sat down at a beach like this. It seemed like a million years ago, Shipwreck had confessed his love for Cover Girl on a Saturday morning at sunrise, and she had turned him down and broken his heart. As if sensing the hurt of that bygone time, Cover Girl reached over and gently took his hand in hers.
"There's something I never told you about Mara," Shipwreck said. "I had a dream about her, Courtney. I dreamed that she and I were married, and we had a daughter. Her name was Althea. But you see, the whole thing was fake. Cobra used me, tried to manipulate me by using my feelings toward Mara."
* * *
The house he believed he had shared with Mara and Althea was burning down. Shipwreck could not believe it. He was still in shock that his wife and daughter were nothing more than synthoids created by Cobra.
But I thought you loved me.
Daddy, you're a real drip.
Synthoids. They were synthoids!
What's wrong, Shipwreck? Was there something important in that house?
Tears were running down Shipwreck's face. It was worse than a dream because at least you knew it was all in your head. But this, the synthoid family—it had all seemed so real. He had wanted so much to believe that he really had been a hero, captured Cobra Commander, and married a cured and fully human Mara. He had never known what it would be like to be a husband and a father, with a family of his own. He had never known what it meant to truly have a home you could go back to, where you were always welcomed by those who loved you most.
Now he had finally tasted it, even if none of it had been real.
He didn't want to let it go.
The tears ran down.
"Aw," Shipwreck said sadly, "nothing. Just a dream or two."
* * *
Shipwreck sat quietly in a corner of the mess hall, once in a while eyeing Flint and Lady Jaye, on the other side of the room. It wasn't that he envied Flint for having Lady Jaye. He envied what they had together, their special relationship. It had been five weeks since the incident with Springfield and the synthoids, and he hadn't been able to get the memories of Mara and Althea out of his head. He thought of Mara every day. Truly, for the first time in his life, he had experienced a life of love and family, and he had liked it. But there wasn't anyone like that in his life now. Mara was gone. He would probably never see her again.
"Hi, Shipwreck, what's going on?"
Shipwreck looked up and saw Cover Girl standing in front of his table, with a tray of food in her hand.
"Can I join you?"
"Uh, sure," Shipwreck mumbled.
Like I care, he thought. Cover Girl was another one of his disappointments. He remembered, long before he had met Mara, he had been attracted to Cover Girl, from the moment they'd first met. He was drawn to her auburn hair, her shapely model's body, and her seductive sweetness. He'd thought he could charm her with his manly ways, but she'd always repulsed his overtures, sometimes violently. Yet there were times in their relationship when they'd been forced to work together and help each other out in the course of a mission. In that setting, they had formed a grudging respect for one another.
Man, Cover Girl is hot.
Too bad she hates me.
Shipwreck looked at Lady Jaye and Flint again.
There's someone special out there for everyone, except for me.
"Are you okay?" Cover Girl said.
"What do you mean?"
"You've been kind of distant the last few weeks. It's not like you."
"And what am I normally like?"
"Well, you know."
"No, tell me what I'm normally like. Loud and obnoxious, right?"
"Hey, I didn't say that."
"Sure, but you think that. Listen, Cover Girl, I don't need your sympathy act. Go and bother someone else."
Cover Girl blushed out of anger and embarrassment.
"Suit yourself, sailor boy," she huffed. "Just thought you'd like some company, that's all."
With that, Cover Girl picked up her tray and got up to leave their table.
Unexpectedly, she felt something tugging at her hand.
It was Shipwreck, reaching out to stop her from leaving. His grip on her hand was firm yet tender. Cover Girl, against her will, felt her hand heating up for some reason she couldn't understand.
"Aw, come on, I'm sorry," Shipwreck stammered, "I didn't mean that. Would you have lunch with me?"
Cover Girl stood uncertain for a moment, weighing the situation, debating whether to laugh in his face like she had done so many times before. Then she noticed the genuine pained look in his eyes and reconsidered.
What happened out on that island five weeks ago?
"I'm just a nothing sailor," Shipwreck said. "I'm an idiot sometimes."
Cover Girl smiled.
"Naw, I wouldn't say that."
"Oh really?"
"You're an idiot all the time," Cover Girl said, her smile widening.
* * *
The two of them sat on that park bench on the beach, thinking back to that faraway time.
"So that's why you were like that," Cover Girl said, understanding everything for the first time.
"I had the best dream of my life," Shipwreck said. "But that's all it was, a dream. I lost that dream, it burned down right before my eyes."
He turned to face her, a tender look in his eyes.
"I went back to G.I. JOE, but nothing was the same anymore. I couldn't go about feeling the same way about everything. For everyone else, life was exactly the same, unchanged, but for me, nothing was the same anymore. I couldn't understand how everyone could go about doing their daily lives, when I'd had this wonderful dream of the way things might have been. But you reached out to me, Courtney. I never really understood our relationship. It was like a love-hate relationship since the day we first met."
"Mostly hate, I would say," Cover Girl laughed.
"Yeah, anyway, you reached out to me. I guess you saw my loneliness and wanted to become more of a friend to me. And I was touched by that. Somewhere along the line, I fell in love with you. But I didn't know how to tell you, how to show you how I felt about you. I guess I really blew it, back then. But I never stopped loving you, not for one second."
Cover Girl touched her hand to Shipwreck's lips.
"Don't talk about it anymore," she said. "We're together now. Everything's going to be all right. I love you, Hector. I love you so much."
Shipwreck leaned over toward her, and their lips met. Their kiss was light and innocent, but then it deepened into something more passionate and hungry. Shipwreck slipped an arm around Cover Girl's back to hold her closer to him, and Cover Girl in turn put a hand on the back of his head to bring him closer. Their kiss continued as their tongues began exploring each other's mouths. With his other hand, Shipwreck caressed Cover Girl's face, and his fingers trailed down her face, her slender neck, her collar bone, all the way down to her left breast, where it rested. Cover Girl felt his hand on her breast through the thin fabric of her shirt and bra, and she felt her body inflamed by his touch. She knew at this moment how much he wanted her, and how badly she wanted him. Of course he had wanted her for a long time, but for the first time, she was ready to give herself to him, her whole body. Their kiss broke off at last, and Cover Girl reached down to cover Shipwreck's hand with her own as it rested on her breast. Both of them were breathing heavily. Their faces were flushed with passion, desire, and years of longing suppressed and denied.
Cover Girl moved Shipwreck's hand on her breast, a little downward.
"My heart is beating so fast," she whispered.
They kissed again.
* * *
Shipwreck could not say what it was about that day that stuck out so much in his mind. One year they were sharing a Christmas dinner together, along with the rest of their friends. It was an innocent time, a happier time, far from the conquests of Cobra that would come years later. They were sitting at a table with Low-Light, Mainframe, and Scarlett. The room was lit only by candlelight and by the colored lights of the Christmas tree at the far end of the mess hall, near the entrance.
He couldn't even remember what they were talking about that night. All Shipwreck knew was that sitting across from him was one of the most beautiful, wonderful women he had ever known. She was smiling and laughing, talking about something he had long since forgotten. He remembered the way the candlelight danced across her face and the sparkle in her eyes. He remembered that the whole room seemed to fade out in his ears, even the sound of Cover Girl's voice, as he sat entranced by her. Everything he had ever wanted in a woman was right in front of him: beauty, gentleness, kindness, intelligence, and grace. He felt his heart thumping in his chest, and the butterflies in his stomach. All he wanted at that moment was to hold her tight. That's when it hit him.
Am I in love with Cover Girl?
Is this what it feels like to fall in love?
* * *
Shipwreck emerged from the shower dressed in his underwear and a long bathrobe. His towel was slung around his shoulders. He walked into the common room, wondering if he should ask Cover Girl whether she wanted the bed. He would have been content to sleep on the floor.
But all such modest thoughts vanished when he saw Cover Girl lying on the bed, dressed in nothing but a thin shirt and panties. Shipwreck's eyes traveled up and down the length of her luminous, perfect body, admiring her soft beauty. He could not fail to notice the way her nipples pressed against the thin fabric of her shirt, or the small tuft of pubic hair between her thighs not covered by her small underpants. Then the reality of the situation hit him at last. They were finally alone, just the two of them, sharing a hotel room with a single bed, just a few hours after sharing a most desperately passionate kiss.
"Come to bed," Cover Girl said in a voice thick with desire and longing. It was obvious that she could see the growing bulge in Shipwreck's underpants.
Slowly but surely, Shipwreck crossed the distance between them, throwing off his robe and towel and joined her on the bed, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her furiously. It was a matter of seconds before both of them were completely naked, their bodies pressed against one another beneath the bed covers. Cheek to cheek, naked skin against skin, with his cock moving against her womb, they were finally together as one body. No one would have been able to tell where one ended and the other began. All the years of desire and frustration, attraction and animosity, longing and agony, vanished in the instant their bodies were joined in this act of true love.
Shipwreck's hands and lips were everywhere, on her face, her neck, her full breasts, her belly. His hips moved rhythmically against hers, until they both felt themselves nearing their sexual climax. Cover Girl gave one final scream as the pleasure overtook her, and the two lovers settled in each other's arms, their faces flushed and sweating.
"It's been too long," Cover Girl said lovingly as she brushed her fingertips against Shipwreck's sweat-beaded forehead.
It's been too long since I was with a man in this way.
It's been too long from the moment I fell in love with you, that we could finally make love.
But we're together now. And that's all that matters.
Cover Girl leaned over and kissed him gently once more, and they drifted off to sleep.
* * *
It was overcast the next day when Shipwreck and Cover Girl stood on a high hill that overlooked Pearl Harbor and, under the cover of bushes, examined the naval base through binoculars.
The fenced off perimeter of Pearl Harbor was heavily guarded by HISS tanks and STUN vehicles. A pair of Cobra flight pods made the rounds above the complex, making routine patrols. A concrete path, heavily guarded by armed Cobra troopers, led to the Arizona Memorial, a giant concrete memorial that had been built above the sunken ruins of the USS Arizona, a permanent reminder of the December 7, 1941 attack.
Or at least that's where the Arizona Memorial used to be. Now in place of the Arizona Memorial was a giant offshore complex, a behemoth of concrete and steel rigging. The structure rose to a height of five stories, standing tall above the water.
So that's it, Shipwreck mused. That must be Cobra's maritime laboratory. What are we going to find there? Who are we going to find?
He felt Cover Girl squeezing his hand.
"You okay, Courtney?"
"I'm with you," she replied.
"Looks pretty scary for just the two of us, huh?"
"Yeah. Any ideas?"
"I'm starting to get one right now," Shipwreck said as he swept his binoculars across the base one last time.
Shipwreck put his binoculars away and the two lovers exchanged a knowing look.
"We move tonight," he said with determination.
Together, Shipwreck and Cover Girl picked themselves up and walked the short distance to the nearby parking lot, where their car waited to take them back to the hotel.
