Rock and a Hard Place: Chapter 4
Author's Notes: As another chapter of the Saga unfolds, I figured I better clarify the relative ages of Scott and our heroines. Although Lisa and I have never really defined an exact age for the girls, it's assumed for story purposes that they are probably somewhere in their early twenties. So, although we do appreciate Harry trying to boost our male audience (grin), there's NO rape, statutory or otherwise, in this saga. We currently have enough problems keeping the rating solid as it is; we'd hate to have TFFPTB (The Fan Fiction Powers That Be) nail us on a rating violation. You have been formally disclaimed. :-).
On with the story.....
The two girls drove in perfect unison at top speed all the way to Death Valley. Neither spoke with the other; instead they treated the long drive like an intense race competition. About 4 hours later both bikes halted 2 miles north of Death Valley.
"We drive any closer their going to pick your bike up," Roxanne remarked as she removed her mask Medusa and set it down on her bike's seat.
Annie removed Firewall as well and nodded, "Yeah I know. Did Scott send the spy satellite photos?" Roxanne accessed her computer terminal on her bike. An image of the terrain in Death Valley displayed on her windshield. To her dislike Annie stood next to her also peering at the image, "Can you bring the image in closer?" Roxanne zoomed in the image to show a direct aerial shot of the ghost town. "There's Piranha, Jackhammer, and Manta right outside what's left of that building, but what is all those white squares in the image."
"They look like tents...lots and lots of tents. Ever thought about getting some glasses." She remarked with light humor, but change to a more serious tone. "Could be a whole army of Contra World agents, but why out here?"
Annie ignored her rude comment, "Maybe it's their base of operations. After all nobody knows where the headquarters of Contra World is located."
"Annie...MASK has been looking for that since day one. I don't think they'd choose the most obvious place behind enemy lines."
"But isn't that the safest place to be...most people don't notice things under their respective noses."
"True...but I don't think Contra World is that broke that they need to pitch tents in somebody backyard just too keep a roof over their heads. Something else is going on down there. If we take Chameleon in I can get us a closer look unnoticed, but that means were going to have to share a bike." She patted her back seat, "Come on I don't bite."
"I know you don't bite...I worry more about who you plan to kill." Annie remarked as she push her bike Phoenix off to the side of the road behind a huge rock formation.
Annie took a moment to call up Phoenix's communication link to Boulderhill and set her guidance system to automatically show the bike's location to Buddy and any other vehicles currently active in the link. She wasn't taking any chances of losing her bike, or getting left behind by Roxy. She glanced over at Chameleon's radar panel to see a green blip marking Phoenix's location and smiled in satisfaction before she left the bike. As an afterthought, she pulled a specific backpack out of Phoenix's travel tote and slid it across her shoulders.
Both girls placed their mask back on, and Annie hopped on the back of Chameleon. "By the way, you might want to watch YOUR back, Trakker, because at this close range, my knife isn't going to miss."
"I always knew you were a backstabber," Roxanne retorted, adding casually, "Hope you're not claustrophobic." She flicked a switch allowing a black metal shell to engulf the entire bike. With in a matter of seconds the outside of the bike blend directly into it's surrounding and became invisible. She then drove the bike off the main road and headed in the direction of the ghost town.
Roxy drove slowly past the three parked VENOM vehicles outside the ghost town's only remaining structure, and Annie stiffened in reflex as she saw Vanessa approaching Manta from the direction of the pitched tents.
"Would you RELAX already!" Roxy snapped as she turned a corner and headed into the makeshift camp. "You've been breathing down my neck this whole ride! We're STILL in stealth mode...Vanessa can't see us. Unless you'd like me to pull over so you can give a big hello to Mother Dear," she added snidely, knowing she'd get Annie riled.
Annie balled her already clenched hands into fists, somehow restraining from smacking Roxy upside the back of her head. "Yeah right, she'd be too busy coddling you to give me the time of day. And I'm sure you'd have SOOO much to talk about...catch up on old times, trade a few PNA secrets, sell out the rest of the team..."
Roxy's shoulders moved in a nonchalant shrug as she replied way too casually, "Yeah, I should just pull over and push you off the bike right now, and then take my chances with VENOM, 'cause you wouldn't stand a chance."
"What you SHOULD do is watch where the hell you're going!" Annie yelled as Roxanne nearly ran over a figure fleeing in the direction of the tents.
Roxanne swerved sharply, narrowly missing taking out one of the tent poles, as she drove after the person who had cut in front of them. She turned again and couldn't quite miss taking out a second tent's canopy before she found a secluded corner from behind the campsite to rest Chameleon without incident.
"Well that's just wonderful Roxy," Annie sneered as she watched several people scurry out of the collapsing tent. "Why do you even have a stealth mode when you can't even avoid a simple canvas tent?!? Someone's bound to have noticed that."
"Bah, it's a ghost town...probably so superstitious around here that they think it's actual ghosts. Besides," Roxy pointed to a mine entrance only a few hundred feet ahead of them, "I think we just found where the action is."
Both girls settled down to watch the mine entrance in silence. Two Contraworld guards patrolled the entrance as workers scurried in and out every few minutes. Most of them looked to be Mexican in descent, although Annie caught a view of a few rare caucasians and African Americans in the mix. Every once in a while, a guard would escort out a cart pushed by one of the workers, as they wheeled it off to an unknown destination on their left, returning quickly with the empty cart.
Annie broke the silence with her thoughts first. "My first thought would be a slave labor ring, but those workers are moving way too purposefully for that." She watched a few more moments, using her communication skills to read the unspoken body language of the group entering the mineshaft. "It'd be more accurate to say they're resigned to the task, like it's a necessary evil."
Despite herself, Roxy nodded in agreement. "Betcha they're mostly illegal aliens. Either Contraworld smuggled them across the border, or they were already here. It's a perfect way to for Contraworld to get cheap labor, and the people don't complain because they're safe from the Border Patrol."
A plan started to form in Annie's mind but halted momentarily at the sight of Sly Rax and Cliff Dagger exiting the mine entrance. The two men conversed quickly, then headed for their respective vehicles. Annie waited a few more minutes to make sure the two VENOM agents wouldn't return before she said, "Looks like the opportunity for a closer look just knocked. I'm going in there."
"YOU?!" Roxy practically choked inside Medusa. "You don't look even remotely Mexican...you'd never pull it off!"
"Pull over to that rock formation on our right," Annie ordered, ignoring Roxanne's comment. Roxanne did so, making sure they were safe from prying eyes before she took Chameleon out of stealth mode. As Annie dismounted and took her mask off, she added with a wry grin, "I admit this makeover is going to be tough being so on the spot, but I'll make sure to tell Buddy what you just said, oh ye of little faith. He did train me after all."
Roxanne glared at Annie, trying to hide an embarrassed blush as she snapped. "Well, you better do something with that mop on top of your head then. Otherwise you may as well just paint a target on your back with a bright neon sign pointing to it that says: 'Vanessa's daughter...MASK agent.' "
Annie looked up at Roxanne sideways through her red braid as she pulled off her uniform and began pulling clothes out of her backpack. The only vanity Annie had about her looks at all was in regard to her long, thick, and brilliantly beautiful red locks, and the idea of coloring them made her want to cringe in horror. So did the thought that she didn't have anything to color them with.
"You're right...Damnit!" she cursed vehemently.
Roxanne smirked, reaching into Chameleon's travel tote and tossed two boxes of black hair color to Annie. "Aw come on, Scott might like you better as a brunette," she teased, knowing Scott loved Annie's hair just as it was.
Annie just glared back as she growled, "I suppose I should be thankful that I was bequeathed dark roots. And this had BETTER rinse right out."
Roxanne looked at her watch impatiently, "You done yet? Cause the rate your taking, you might as well enter a freak'n beauty pageant."
Annie emerged wearing a blue checker flannel shirt, faded jeans, and her hair dyed black. Her face and hands were covered in makeup giving off the appearance of darker skin, "See all set...you should be impress this sort of transformation usually takes hours."
"Oh please..." She jumped off her bike, "You still look like you haven't worked a day in your life." Roxanne picked up several handfuls of dirt and patted it all over Annie clothes. She then grab another handful of dirt and rubbed it into her hair."
"Cut that out!" she said in a low threaten voice, "Your ruining my hair."
"Yeah well something got to be done to get rid of," She sniffs Annie's hair," Is that lavender?"
Annie narrowed her eyes on Roxanne, "Don't you know what a peach smells like...and I know somewhere in that sick twisted mind of yours you're getting pleasure out of it."
Roxanne just smiled then pulled off Annie's flannel shirt and started ripping wholes into it.
"That's one of my..." She bit back her words and knew Roxanne was right, but she wouldn't openly admit it. She had to look the part of a worker who spent several days in that mine and not walking into it for the first time.
"You going to rip your jeans too? Or do you trust me with a knife?" Roxanne added as she threw the shirt back at Annie.
"I can handle that myself," She pulled out her hunter knife and rip a medium size holes into her jeans just over her knees.
"Well that will have to do for now," Roxanne looked at her still feeling as though she stuck out like a sore thumb, "Make it a quick in and out and don't get caught."
Fifteen minutes later, a large group of workers entered the mineshaft, joined stealthily by a younger girl in a blue checked flannel shirt and faded blue jeans. She flicked a dark braid over her shoulder and adjusted the red bandanna folded across her forehead, letting hazel colored eyes adjust to the dim light of the underground. Black boots scuffed along the rocky floor as she navigated carefully through the rather wide shaft. Mexicans of all ages dug feverishly through the dirt, passing instructions to each other in rapid fire Spanish. The girl tried not to snarl in disgust as she saw children who couldn't be much older than ten doing jobs made for men twice their age. Gotta do what you gotta do, she thought as she looked around for an open space to try and work. I just wish I could get them out of here that is if I could make them understand that they should leave.
Her attention was drawn to a yelp of surprise in front of her as a careless worker dug in a touchy spot too far up and nearly sent the whole wall crashing down on top of them. The girl quickly backpedaled, but took enough time to reach out and steady the older man in front of her who nearly got toppled by a pile of rocky debris.
"Watch what yer doin'!" he snapped at the offending worker in perfect American. The offender simply let out a string of slurred words, probably curses in Spanish.
"You alright?" the girl asked softly, removing her hands from the man's shoulders once she knew he was steady.
The man turned to face her, his dark skinned Afro-American face full of undisguised surprise. "Ain't too many speak English 'round here...but thanks."
"Welcome," she shrugged. Noticing the two guards looking her way, she picked up a nearby shovel and began scooping the dirt out of the main path.
The man picked up his discarded shovel and began helping her, sizing her up as he asked quietly, "What's a pretty girl like you doin' workin' hard labor like this?"
That almost blew her cover as the girl tried to figure out the man's intentions. Hoping for innocent curiosity, she replied with the story she'd manufactured, "Gotta do what ya gotta do," she shrugged, shoveling another pile of dirt out of the way. "Dad got sick with cancer, couldn't keep up with the bills on our family farm and lost it. We've been wanderin' ever since, workin' where we can to keep ourselves goin'. And there's worse things than this a pretty girl could be doin' if you get my meaning."
He smirked as they cleared the last of the dirt away. "I do. Got about the same story myself. Most of these other jokers," he indicated the mexicans around them with an irritated expression, "is just tryin' to get a free ride in this here country while you an' me born here can't make no decent livin'. Disgusting." He shook his head and added by way of introduction as he grabbed a pickaxe and kept digging, "Name's John."
"Anita."
Anita glanced over her shoulder to see a set of guards paying way too much attention to them, so she cut the conversation and threw herself into her work. She needed to make this look good if she was going to pull this off...no way was she going to be proven wrong. After a while of vigorous digging, she noticed their interest fade and turned back to see John pulling a shiny, silvery ore off of his shovel.
"Whoa, that what the big production's for?" she whispered so as not to attract any more attention.
He nodded. "Yeah. Some kinda precious super metal or somethin', not exactly sure. I don't ask too many questions...the last guy that did that left and never came back."
It looked like John had found quite a large vein of the new metal, so Anita got to work helping him dig out more of the metal ore, reaching in and casually slipping a sample into the hidden sheath in her boots under the disguise of dusting them off. Okay, I think I've seen enough. Time to find an excuse to get the hell out of Dodge...