Juri heared sanionji call after her, but didn't feel like waiting. Her feet smashed into the grille, sent it spining across the storeroom and slamming into the far wall. The guard choked on the first drag cigarette, struggled to stand, and groped around for his gun. He wasn't quick enough. Juri dropped lithely from the vent, smiled at the gape of astonishment on the man's fave, and then lashed out with her right leg, pivoting on her hip.
"And that's why they call the The Beatiuful lepored." Juri tutted.
They dragged the dinghy up onto the shingle and over to where the angle of a lurching rock would hide it, and then crouched in the shadow of the same rock to take stock.
Miki didn't look good, his naturally reddish complextion tinged with green.
"Water," he said witha moan,"should be strictly reserved for washing with. That's not an ocean, it's nature's way of making you throw up. Why can't we have a missions to nice, sunny, tropical islands in the middle of the nice,calm,flat sesa? What's the fascination with shaky tides and the middle of the night?"
"Miki,"Prompted Kazue,"do the words 'lets,' 'keep', and 'moving' mean anything to you?"
"I mean, it's not asking for much, is it? Look at the Bond movies. And island like Dr. No's wouldn't be too bad, would it? Great beach, bit of a waterfall, a few palm trees. There's got to be an island like that owned be a full-time nut somewhere in the real world, right? Why can't they send us there? And if they could throw in a Bond girl as well, that's sure increase my motivation."
"Fraid you'll just have to deal with me,"said Kazue."And as for motivation, if you don't get moving now i'm going to be motivationg you by squeezing somewhere that hurts."
"Jeez sis, you don't have to be so harsh. I would have rather that Juri say that to me, not you." Said the now drooling miki. He got to his feet and followed his partner just the same.
They moved as smoothly and silently as they could across the craggy scrap of the shore that spilled out of the cave. Kazue glanced up the cliff, woundering how the other pairs were doing in their joint mission. Returning her gaze to the mouth of the cave, much closer now, she wongered whether they, too were finding further progress barred by Stormfeld's men. There were two of them, armed and looking alert as could reasonably be expected of somebody on guard duty at midnight.
"We could try and creep past them,"she suggested to Miki.
"I don't do creeping,"he returned."It makes me feel like i'v got something to hide. Besides, I bet these guys have been working really hard and could do with a bit of a rest. And i think we can help them with that."
"Sleepshot?"
"Sleepshot. You want the one on the right or the left?"
In unison, Miki and Kazue raised their right arms. Sratlight glittered on the shiny metal wristbands. They lowered their hands ans painted their wrists at their respective targets. With a hardy audible phut, tiny twin projectiles spat from their wristbands. The countless hours of pratice paid off. The sleepshot shells buried themselves in the guard's bare cheeks. They drilled into the skin, immediatly releasing a powerful anaesthetic into the bloodstream. Neither men would wake before dawn.
"Nighty night,"crooned Miki. "Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite."
"Hey, Miki," said Kazue exasperatedly,"before you start breaking out the bedtime stories, we've got work to do remember?"
Miki eyed the forbidding-lookings cave and the cliff piled high above it. "How could i forget?" he said. " I hope Stormfeld's got a elevator."