A couple of hours later, the rumble of numerous engines is heard as the teens cross onto the Pit. All of the girls are wearing short shorts or skirts and bikini tops; and the guys are shirtless with mostly cutoff shorts among them except for one or two pair of jeans.
AJ's Rubicon is leading the pack, and EJ's Hummer is bringing up the rear as the convoy arrives back at the base. Sydney, who had been born stone deaf, was riding with her best friend Cheyenne.
Just for a laugh, and because Serena, Ericka, and Jamie dared her to, AJ goes airborne over the lowered crossing gate, her long raven-black hair flowing in the wind. She skids in a one-eighty degree spin to a stop not far from and uses her remote to raise the gate for the others. As a Cobra lackey comes up to find out who she is and what she wants on the base, she lowers her sunglasses and looks at him, the expression on her face one of pure haughtiness and boredom.
A couple of the other kids slip onto the base through the other gates.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he snarls at her.
AJ grabs the roll bar and pulls herself up, flips over the door and arches over the side mirror, landing on her feet like a cat beside her jeep. "I'm AJ and I live here on the base. I told Dad that I'd come back and help him in the office during Spring Break, which starts Monday."
Since AJ was tall and slim like her father, all of her muscle hidden, the guy thought that he would have no problem at all controlling her.
"And what about the rest of those following you?" he queried.
"They all live here, we all go to the same school, and we all promised our parents that we would help out here whenever we were on vacation or had time off. Duh!" AJ answered, crossing her arms just underneath her bikini top, when she suddenly caught his eyes wandering downward. Exactly what she was counting on.
"All right, jerk. My eyes are up here, not down there. Who's your commanding officer and where is he? I could have you demoted and thrown out for sexual harassment," she barked at him, sounding more like Beach Head than her dad- the quiet, laid-back, almost meek Lifeline.
The rest of the kids had a hard time keeping straight faces as they drove past, watching AJ pick this guy to pieces. Especially EJ. "Damn, she almost sounds more like Old Witch in Heat than she does Dad," he thought as he sped past.
"Um, uh, well, um...ah…" the guy stammered, trying to regain his footing in an argument that he'd already lost, and when AJ's fist swung around, he didn't see it. All he saw was her shoulder bunch and then nothing for a few hours.
When he finally woke up, he was bound and gagged with his own clothes in the corner of a deserted basement. He could hear footsteps and noises like someone rearranging furniture in the rooms above him.
Somehow, he finally managed to wriggle around enough to free his communicator and managed to grunt into it enough to let their communications officer know that he was in trouble.
Rance Steinberg had been tasked with guarding this guy and just happened to be on the other side of the shelving, unseen to the lackey, and heard everything that the Cobra lackey had done. He came around the corner and kicked the guy in the head, knocking him senseless, and out cold again. He then rushed upstairs and let AJ know what had happened.
AJ called the rest of the group, and they all managed to meet at the Steen twins' house. Most of them knew that they were being followed, and they all played their roles to the hilt.
Carrie challenged Jamie to a motorcycle race using their dads' bikes, a drag meet down the main roads of the base. Jamie had never met a challenge that she didn't like and heartily agreed. The rest of the kids would be stationed around the base at certain points to 'watch' the race.
Could Grand Slam's Harley Racing bike under the direction of his daughter, Jamie, beat Rock N Roll's Kawasaki Ninja, under the direction of his daughter, Carrie?
Not only did the kids have bets on who would win, but quite a few of the Cobra troopers who would be stationed around the 'track' put money down on their choice of riders.
The Cobras were fooled. None of them even gave the kids a second glance- something else that the teens were counting on.