Operation Rebel Dragon: day one
Xiu Ming pushed herself, listening to the steady rhythm of her feet hitting the pavement. She kept her breath to a seven count. She kept to her usual route, trying to dismiss the looks she got from some of the people on the street. The tensions between her old homeland and her new homeland were not lost on her. The embassy had sent her a memo suggesting that she transfer to a Chinese university. There were two problems with that.
The first problem was the fact that outside of the military, to which she was barred access, Chinese colleges were nowhere near on par with their American counterparts when it came to the field of computer technology. It was only her family's connections that managed to get her a student visa. And even that was a tenuous situation.
The other problem was far more complicated. Her family's high level status, the same status that allowed her to go to the Institute, was maintained in part by careful political alliances. The best way to secure these alliances was with a marriage between the younger generations of the families. This ensured a long term commitment and made it difficult for either side to break the alliance without a scandal. Thus, she had a fiancé-to-be waiting for her the second she returned to China. One that was most assuredly not of the gender to which her romantic feelings leaned towards.
There was one other problem, she liked America. China was beautiful, but it was just so… Ming couldn't think of how to describe it. There was so much that wasn't available, her family's status meant she was always forced to be a living propaganda machine when in public. She was sure that she would have to throw away any hope of a career in favor of being a devoted wife, her education would just be a certificate on the wall, a conversation piece for parties.
She was pondering this troublesome triumvirate when she heard the screaming, an ear piercing wail of distress. Her jog turned into a sprint as the sound led her to an alleyway in front of her, where she found two men dressed in black and wearing balaclavas. They were holding down a young woman dressed in jogging clothes similar to Ming's own. Considering the rushed attempts of the two men to rip the clothing off of her, it didn't take a genius to tell they were trying to rape the poor girl.
Ming rushed up behind the pair and delivered a hard strike to one man's kidney, and a strong round house kick into the other man's ribcage. Being a part of a high profile family in China, Ming had been trained in self-defense from an early age. The men seemed to reconsider their situation very quickly, her presence making the risk no longer worth the reward. They fled the scene, sprinting down the opposite end of the alley way and out of view.
She turned her focus on the young woman. "Are you alright," she asked. The moment she said it, she regretted it. Of course she wasn't alright, two men had just tried to rape her in an alley. What an incredibly stupid thing to ask. Ming mentally smacked herself.
The young woman didn't react with anger though. She was apparently still coming down from the shock. She was breathing rapidly, quick, short, breaths that were slowly falling back to a normal rate. "I… I think I'm okay." She attempted to get up, but stumbled and would have fallen if Ming hadn't been there to catch her.
"I'm Xiu Ming, we need to get you to a hospital." Ming began leading the girl out of the alley.
The young woman slumped against Ming and looked up at her.
"My name is Madison Victory, you have no idea how happy I am to meet you."
…..
Operation Rebel Dragon: Day 21
Madison sat in her quarters at the Activity's headquarters, awaiting Christopher Payne. The operation had proceeded exactly as planned. To her surprise, Madison found the life of a covert operative to be fairly boring. Other than adding Ming to her inner circle and the regular meetings with Karen, her life and daily routine hadn't changed much. To her surprise, she and Ming had been fast friends. Of course it helped that Madison had been briefed on everything that Ming liked and everything she looked for in a woman, but they did legitimately have a few things in common.
She'd expected that faking the aftermath of a rape would be difficult, but Karen had helped her with that. Initial relief, followed by insisted on privacy in her hospital room with her 'grief counselor', actually Karen, during which her friends were under the impression that she was a raving mess. Afterwards, she just returned to her normal routine, with Karen telling her friends, now including Ming, that she was seeking solace in the familiar and it was an important part of the recovery process.
After that, it had been simple. Just go about business as usual and develop the relationship with Ming. She spent four days in the hospital, and three days after getting out, they went on their first date. It had been a simple affair, a could-be-a-date-could-be-hanging-out sort of thing when they went to a lecture by a professor visiting the Institute over break who was apparently from a place called Big Mountain. He seemed incredibly intelligent, but also slightly crazy, talking about advanced robotics and it's impact on the geopolitical landscape of the world, while also constantly connecting it to something called a robo-scorpion.
After that they started jogging together every morning, under the pretense that Madison no longer felt safe doing it alone. Then Ming started joining Emma and Madison's meet ups at the coffee shop. Their second real date was five days after their first. An actual, no room for doubt, date. They went to the theater and saw a performance of The God of Vengeance. They spent the entire walk back to Madison's apartment joking about the old play. The truly memorable part of the evening had been at the end. They'd stood outside Madison's apartment awkwardly for a couple of minutes, Ming unsure whether or not to just leave, Madison unsure whether to invite her in. Then Ming had surprised her, closing the foot between them, wrapping her arms around Madison and planting a kiss on her lips.
Madison had been too surprised to react for a moment, then her mind caught up and she returned the kiss. It was a slow, gentle, tentative kiss. When it was over, they were both nervous, and they bid each other a flustered goodbye. The first thing Madison had done was gush about the date to Emma. Then the logical part of her mind kicked in and reminded her the reason why she was in a whirlwind romance with Ming. So she picked up the phone and dialed the secure line to inform the Activity of her progress.
Their third official date had been more relaxed. Now that they were both certain of the nature of their relationship, things were easier, less flustered. It was the quintessential date, dinner and a movie. After a very nice dinner at one of the upscale Boston restaurants, and one of the new war movies that Hollywood kept putting out. All of that was nice, but what happened when they'd gotten back to Madison's apartment was amazing.
Emma had been out with one boy or another, so she invited Ming in. They popped a bottle of wine and spent an hour or so drinking and talking. Then, when they were good and tipsy, things kind of started getting a little blurry, one thing led to another and then they were making out. Hands slipped under shirts, clothes were peeled off, and two hours later they were laying naked and panting on the plush carpet in front of Madison's fireplace.
That had been two days ago. Last night, they'd spent the evening in, deciding to have a movie night. They made it halfway through the second movie before their clothes came off. The first time had been wild, passionate, but at the same time nervous and tentative, neither of them sure if the other was as into it as they were. This time confirmed it, this time was slower, they were feeling each other out, figuring out what each of them liked and disliked, experimenting. They were officially a couple.
Or that was the legend, Madison told herself. Bullshit, the honest part of her said. She was head over heels for the girl, no question about it. And that wasn't a problem, was it? "So much for not being gay," she said to the empty room.
Her introspection was interrupted when Christopher Payne and Karen, who she still didn't know the last name of and doubted she ever would. Payne wore one his usual gray suits. Karen wore her usual ensemble of a low cut blouse with an insanely short skirt, straddling the line between slutty and professional. "Madison, I apologize for making you wait, but I was my meeting with SecDef ran long."
"It's no problem."
"Good, Karen tells me that phase one of the operation has been a complete success, congratulations."
Madison couldn't hide the blush on her face, someone congratulating her for seducing someone would definitely take some getting used to. "Thank you," she said.
Karen laid a folder on the coffee table. "Now that you've established a personal relationship with Xiu Ming, we can move to the actual process of making her an asset."
"Now that phase one of your first operation is done, we will be referring to you under a codename for all future operational proceedings."
What's the codename?" Madison had gotten some really stupid nicknames in her life. Not out of any outright malice aimed at her, she just had bad luck in that regard. She really hoped that this wouldn't be another.
"From now on, as far as the Activity is concerned, your name is Charmer."
And thus a covert career is born. I'm honestly pretty anxious to drop the bombs, but that's still a ways off. I wrote this to alleviate some writers block on the next Dominance chapter.
R&R people.
