Penumbrials Ch. 01: Penumbra

***

Terry checked the map on her screen again. 'This position is good. No air traffic routes here.'

Adalet triggered the anchor mode to automatically keep the airship in position and stared at the skyline of the city that filled the screens. One building was at the centre and Ourania zoomed in on the penthouse. The watched it from a higher position because the surrounding wall with downward slanted horizontal slits prevented viewing the penthouse from any of the other high-rises around this one. It provided enough privacy to be able to use large windows and a shallow swimming pool surrounded by a multitude of plants.

'That's Elyssa's residence?' asked Dormin.

Terry turned to him. 'Yes. One of several, but this is where she usually lives according to Ismene. It's unknown where she is exactly right now though. Chances are good that she won't be back until later in the evening.'

Dormin nodded. 'I'll take first watch, you go eat and rest.'

The women unstrapped and Adalet gave him a quick kiss. 'I'll bring you a plate.'

He smiled at her. 'Thanks.'

Terry gave him a quick kiss as well. 'I'll make sure she won't forget to bring something to drink.'

He chuckled. 'Thanks.'

Terry looked over her shoulder at Ourania and smiled a little deviously. Ourania blinked and glanced at Dormin before looking back at Terry. 'What?'

Terry chuckled. 'Oh, nothing. I'm hungry, what's for dinner?' she said and walked out of the cockpit.

Ourania sighed and stared at Dormin's face before looking away. 'If you see anything strange at the controls call me right away.'

Dormin smiled softly. 'Of course. You enjoy your meal and get rest.'

She nodded quickly and left the cockpit imagining that inner voice of hers was sniggering at her.

As predicted it was late when lights came on in the penthouse and Dormin got a good look at the interior. Most furniture was of simple design and black against a backdrop of lighter wood. He turned on the recording and sent a message to the others. They arrived the same time lights went on in the bedroom and off in the living room at the penthouse.

'Elyssa is the dark woman with the long, dark red, curly hair.' said Adalet to Ourania as they watched them move about in the bedroom. 'We don't know much about the white feline and red-brown canine at the force. Even informants couldn't tell us their real names. We suspect they're bodyguards of some sort.'

Terry checked the search results. 'Ah, according to Ismene the feline is Gwen, the canine is Stefanie.' She looked up. 'Apparently Ismene found an old message in which their names were mentioned by Elyssa.'

They watched as Gwen and Stefanie approached Elyssa, pulled down the shoulders of their knee high dresses, let them fall to the floor exposing their bare fur, pulled down Elyssa's dress exposing her bare dark chocolate body, and moved in close to kiss her.

'Looks like they're more than bodyguards.' said Terry and Adalet nodded.

The two ran their hands all over Elyssa's body and kissed her in her neck while she shut her eyes and sighed in their warm attention. She stepped back after a moment and pulled them to the bed where she sat down on her knees.

Stefanie crawled on her knees before her and closed her mouth around Elyssa's, their tongues dancing around each other. She cupped the sides of Elyssa's firm breasts and pressed her own against them. Elyssa ran her fingers through Stefanie's fur down her side and massaged her behind.

Gwen moved behind Elyssa on her knees and pressed her front against Elyssa's back, cupping her behind and massaging it while she kissed and bit gently in the sides of her neck.

Elyssa pulled back and cupped Stefanie's cheeks, then slid her fingers through her long, brown hair while Stefanie worked her tongue down and around Elyssa's breasts. Gwen moved down as well, kissing and licking down Elyssa's back until she reached her behind and gave the area between her buns her full attention with her tongue.

Elyssa's face radiated the pleasure she found in it and Stefanie bit gently on her nipples before working her tongue down her body to give the area between her legs her full attention with it.

Elyssa threw back her head and squirmed with her hips between the feline and canine's muzzles.

'Definitely more.' said Adalet and glanced at Dormin while the urge she had to suppress for days welled up.

Terry put her hand on Dormin's arm and he saw her bite her lip and turn her ears back. Ourania's eyes switched from the console in front of her to the view on the screen and back.

He cleared his throat. 'Let's skip this for now. We can see if anything else happens later on in the recording.'

Ourania saw the desire in Adalet and Terry's eyes and glanced at Dormin wondering what he was capable of to have these two as lovers, and what it would be like to be like them. A tingle shot up her body and she took a deep breath. 'I'm going to tidy up the secondary systems. Can't have it looking like a mess here forever.' she said and walked away briskly.

Terry sighed. 'I've done so long without, but now I feel frustrated when we can't love each other for more than a day.'

Dormin laid his hand on hers. 'So do I, Foxy.'

'As I.' said Adalet and laid her hand on Dormin's knee. 'I'm going to wear two vests from now on. And so will you.'

Terry and Dormin chuckled. He put his hand on hers. 'I didn't care much about getting shot before apart from the inconvenience, but now there's a real drawback.' He stood up from his chair. 'I'll go make us something to eat to take my mind off things as well.'

Terry sighed. 'Yeah. I'll go help Ourania.'

'I'm going to check on the state of the rest of the bedrooms, collect all linen for a thorough wash to get rid of the years of dust.' Adalet said and kissed Dormin passionately.

She pulled back reluctantly and walked out of the cockpit while Terry kissed him before following her. Dormin watched the screen and the three women in their heat of passion for a moment, then walked out to take care of the need for food.

Terry walked in on Ourania at the cargo bay where she was working on the electric system. 'How's it going?'

Ourania looked up from the row of connectors in the central box. 'It's coming along. A lot of the wiring had been added during the years Diafanis had been in use and when I started modifying it for my experiments. I just need to run the cabling where it belongs and extend the connector boxes like these.'

Terry nodded. 'I'll tidy up the sensor network side and update the wiring schemas.'

'Thanks.'

Terry smiled a little. 'It'll keep my mind occupied.'

Ourania glanced at Terry as she opened another switch panel and checked the schema on her tablet. 'Ehm, you're not holding back because of me, are you?'

Terry looked at her. 'Holding back?'

Ourania kept her eyes on the connectors in front of her. 'I mean, with him. If you need some time on your own I could go out to buy parts I need anyway.'

Terry stared at her for a moment, then chuckled. 'Oh! You mean going wild with him?' She smiled a little. 'No, at least that isn't the original reason. It's that Adalet and he need more time to heal their bruised ribs. Things would be too much of a strain on their chests and back right now.' She sighed and looked at her tablet. 'I guess we can't really hide it, eh?'

Ourania glanced at her again. 'I saw the way you two look at him. He must be some amazing guy.'

Terry chuckled. 'Well, he did save my life with Adalet. But it's something more that I can't explain. Something that started soon after I met him. And the same seems to go for Adalet. He awoke a real interest in us that we hadn't felt before.' She grinned at Ourania. 'He's our alpha now.'

Ourania chuckled. 'That sounds wild.'

Terry looked back at the switch panel. 'Whenever you feel like it, just go for it. I've seen your look in the cockpit.'

Ourania gripped the underside of the connector box. 'I, don't know..'

Terry smiled softly. 'You'll find out. It took several days for us while we were constantly together.' she said and closed the panel. 'I'm off to the next one.'

Ourania watched her leave the cargo area and sighed. 'I think I already know the outcome.' she said to herself and forced her mind to focus on her job again.

***

'They're asleep now.' said Dormin when they all came together later in the lounge to eat. 'Probably. Everything's dark now.'

'Anything they did, after?' asked Adalet.

He shook his head. 'No, went to sleep right away.'

'So we need to follow them until something comes up.'

Terry tapped on her tablet. 'As far as Ismene can tell Elyssa's doing seemingly normal business all the time. Meet regularly with the heads of the companies her money's invested in, talk to prospects, private parties.'

'We'd need to find out how she communicates her orders.' Dormin said. 'Which means getting close enough to her.'

'Well, there's one way I can.' Terry said. 'As long as the right equipment's there. I'll just get in through her grid provider.'

Dormin nodded. 'Nice. Hopefully that will bring us more clues.'

'I also know someone who specialises in spying equipment. We should visit her later.'

'Just what I was thinking of looking for.' said Dormin and smiled at her. 'We'll start with these things and see what comes up.'

Dormin flew Diafanis later with some instruction from Ourania on the things he wasn't familiar with. She had to suppress a little giddy feeling inside at working close to him for a while and was a little disappointed she couldn't teach him more with his prior experience.

He flew Diafanis to a high rise where they could land on the roof and remain virtually unseen with the dark matter shield off. Ourania reversed their synchronisation back to native and turned off the shield after Terry confirmed there were no cameras on the roof.

'Be careful.' said Adalet when Terry and he were ready to leave and gave him a big kiss.

He smiled and cupped her cheek. 'We'll be back. Keep things safe here.'

She nodded and squeezed Terry's hand. Terry gave her a smile. 'Don't worry. He shoots and I bite.'

Adalet chuckled and watched them until they went through the roof access door.

They went down the service stairwell to keep out of sight and Terry bypassed the alarm on a window on the first floor through which they could access a part of the ground floor roof and get down to the back alley.

'Whereto now?' asked Dormin as he checked the alley both ways.

Terry gestured to the left. 'This way. We need to go a few blocks.'

The place Terry had in mind was a seemingly average electronic repair shop which sold some lesser known brand multimedia equipment on the side. It was located in a small dimly lit street with a few more shops and two late night restaurants serving spicy food usually eaten when drunk or in the process of getting drunk. The few customers inside proved the point.

Terry walked inside and went up to the counter where a young guy was working on the internals of a media player. 'Hi. Do you have something for privacy?'

The young guy gestured with his head to the back. 'Check the last rack.'

Terry gave him a nod and went to the back with Dormin looking at a selection of camera equipment, personal alarms, and various security software.

'This is it?' asked Dormin as he looked around.

Terry opened a panel in the wall and pushed a button. 'Not really.'

A few moments later they heard a click and a small section of the wall between the rack and the corner opened up. A middle aged woman with neon blue shoulder length hair and a pink shirt with cartoon animals peeked out. 'Terry! Good to see you, come in.'

Terry grinned at Dormin and slipped trough the opening with him. Inside they found a slim but deep room with a couple of desks in front and a row of racks filled with electronic parts going up to the back.

The woman sat down behind the second desk and gestured at the chair of the desk in front. 'How have you been?'

Terry sat down. 'Good, until I got into some weird trouble.' she said and gestured at Dormin. 'This is Dormin. He saved me from a very bad situation.' She looked back at Dormin. 'Meet Flux. She's a genius in concealing electronics.'

Dormin gave her a nod and smile. 'Pleasure to meet you.'

Flux examined him for a moment. 'You're ex-military, right?'

He nodded again.

'I can tell from the way you stand. I have more customers who came from the military.'

He chuckled. 'I guess they drilled us too well.'

She smiled at Terry. 'So you found a boyfriend.'

Terry's eyes grew big.

'I see the way you look at him. And for that I only need our natural female instinct.'

Terry grinned. 'My life suddenly got more complicated.'

Flux leaned back in her chair. 'Well then, what do you need?'

Terry and Dormin left the shop an hour later with several bags and headed back to the high-rise and Diafanis. Adalet was glad to see them back and she lifted off at once to go back to their position close to Elyssa's penthouse.

Ourania hummed when she saw a grid connector between the rest of the electronics from Flux's shop. 'Let me guess, you want to exchange the grid connector at her place with this one that sends back data?'

'Not quite me.' said Terry. 'The provider will, so we won't be seen by them and risk being recognised.'

'And how will you do that then?'

Terry smiled and leaned back. 'Simple. By messing up Elyssa's connector.'

***

Ellis, the young engineer from ShnellCom sighed when he parked the minivan at the underground parking for his first appointment of the day. He could already sense the impatience and general distrust rich clients usually portray when he needed to fix their connection problems. Especially because his boss told him to go to this customer first. Another one with a free priority pass.

He got out of the car, grabbed a box with a new connector and his toolbox from the back and went up to the elevator. He pushed the button and was glad he didn't have to wait long for it to arrive. The doors opened and before he could avoid them a woman in tight dress and a fox carrying two bags rushed out. They bumped into him as they were hurriedly talking about missing a flight and toppled him back on the floor.

'Oh no!' said the woman and bent over to him. 'I'm so sorry! Are you all right?'

Ellis looked up at her and straight into the cleavage exposed by the loose dress. The woman didn't have a large cup size, but the inside curves he saw were nice enough to make his morning better. Her black hair fell down and her blue-grey eyes looked worried at him. Her beauty definitely made his morning better. She reached out a hand to him.

'Ah, I'm okay.' he said and took her hand. She was stronger than he had expected as she helped him up and gave him a gentle smile. 'Thanks.' he said and smiled back at her.

'I'm sorry.' said the fox woman as she held the connector box that was knocked out of his hand. 'We were in such a hurry we didn't look where we were going.'

She gave him a little smile and he thought the lighter red-brown braids at the side of her head were cute. 'Ah, no, it's okay. Accidents happen.' he said and took the box with a smile.

'You sure you're okay?' the woman asked.

He nodded, gave her a confident smile and picked up his toolbox. 'I'm sure. But you better be careful on your way when you're in such a hurry.'

She smiled at him and gave him a peck on his cheek. 'We'll make sure now, thanks.'

He watched them hurry into the car park and stepped into the elevator with a good feeling that would last all day.

'It's done.' said Adalet on the phone when Terry and she walked out the back of the building with the original connector box in one of the bags. 'We'll be there in fifteen minutes.'

'Good.' said Dormin. 'I missed seeing you in dress.'

Adalet smiled. 'I'll have to wear this more often then.' she said and disconnected.

'I wonder if he'd think the same of me in a dress.' said Terry.

Adalet took one of the bags from Terry. 'Oh, I'm sure he will.'

Terry checked with Ismene back aboard Diafanis and grinned when she saw the modified grid connector had made an active connection via a split data stream through several servers. 'It's working. We have a network connection now. I'll have Ismene try to infiltrate other equipment gently so it doesn't set of any alerts.'

Dormin gave her a pet on her head and she wagged her tail. 'Good work. If I had you on my team years back, some reconnaissance missions would have been much easier.'

Adalet smiled deviously at him. 'If that were the case we'd probably been kicked out for indecent conduct.'

He chuckled. 'Yeah, probably true.'

'Looks like they're leaving.' said Ourania as she saw the three women walk out the living room.

Dormin went up behind the pilot seat with Ourania. 'Let's see where they're going then. Can you get a detailed look on the street?'

Ourania adjusted a couple of controls and the screens in front of her showed a nearly clear view of the street with enough detail to read license plates.

'Elyssa's car is a dark green Winston sedan. Can't miss it.' said Terry.

A few minutes later the car appeared from the parking exit, turned right on the street and Ourania flew after it while Adalet kept an eye on their surroundings and Terry on any air traffic nearby.

***

Elyssa visited several firms around the city of which Terry found regular business agendas with the help of Ismene.

'Nothing unusual so far.' she said. 'Oh, I see a common appointment for some of the heads. Looks like Elyssa will hold a meeting at a club just outside the city this evening. Probably with all the big bosses from looking at the few calendars Ismene got hold of.'

'I suggest we go there now and see if we can have a listen to what's being said in that meeting.' said Dormin.

'I'll prepare some bugs.' said Terry.

Ourania switched her screens back to normal view. 'Off we go then.'

Diafanis landed a while later out of sight at the edge of the terrain belonging to the club. Adalet, Terry, and Dormin moved inside the treeline leading up close to a grey stone mansion with several large buildings attached to it serving as stables and guest houses. Dormin picked the lock of one of the houses and Terry connected to the local network inside to search for any available computer.

'Found the reservation system.' she said after a short while. 'And the location of the meeting.' She found a floor plan. 'And it's somewhere inside the building. No windows to peek through.'

Dormin straightened his jacket and looked at Adalet. 'Maybe our vice-president here wants to have a look with her security expert to see if the location is suited for a highly confidential meeting.'

Adalet gave him her business smile. 'I want to be absolutely sure no one will listen in.'

One minute later the three walked through the front door and up to the reception desk in the large hall furnished with dark woods and dark tones of red and green. The young lady at the desk smiled warmly at them. 'How can I help you?'

Dormin gave her a quick smile. 'We heard from a reliable source you offer services to conduct highly confidential meetings.'

'We have a variety of options, what did you have in mind?

Dormin glanced around. 'Let's just say it'll affect the stock market when things are leaked.'

A man in his thirties in black suit popped up in the doorway behind the desk. 'I think we have just the thing for you.' he said and rounded the desk in one smooth move. 'I'm Harold Kramer, business manager for Billton Estate. Welcome.'

Dormin gestured at Adalet 'Miss Withers, our vice-president,' and at Terry. 'miss Salucci, our security expert.'

Harold glanced at the car park outside through the large front windows. 'I didn't see you arrive by car?'