ALWAYS SOMETHING THERE TO REMIND ME
BY: DINO MONZON
Chapter Two
"It's certainly good to be back," Scarlett thought as she finished taking a
refreshingly cool shower. Following the mission de-briefing session with
Hawk, the young intelligence specialist had retreated to her quarters at the
4th level of the Pit and took the opportunity to freshen up.
The shower certainly helped. Not only did it help take away the fatigue
Scarlett felt following the mission, it also helped clear her mind and eased
away the stress the assignment to Shadow Island had taken on her mind and
body.
Finishing, Scarlett put on a white terrycloth robe, cinching the sash around
her slim waist and ,exiting the shower stall, left the bath to cross over to
the bedroom to change into fresh clothes.
Going to the glass fronted closet, she made her selections and discarding
the robe quickly put on a sky blue sleeveless shirt over a white blouse and
white walking shorts that grazed her shapely knees.
Scarlett winced slightly as the blouse's fabric tightened a bit and grazed
the bruised area just below & to the side of her left breast where the
Baroness had scored a vicious snap kick during their one-on-one fight. The
San Francisco's Chief Corpsman had told her her side would throb with pain
for the next few days. Thankfully, the worst injuries she got from that
catfight had only been a couple of bruised ribs and a nasty concussion.
That, as well as a few nasty electric shocks following the Baroness' attempt
to interrogate her earlier when she inadvertently got captured.
"Count yourself lucky, girl," Scarlett told herself as she sat before a
dresser mirror and combed her sleek red hair. "Things could've been a lot
worse..." Silently she thought of her Dad who taught her a few new martial
arts moves when she last visited him over at Atlanta, Georgia; they helped give her the edge she needed to take down the Baroness. She finished combing
her hair and was retying it in it's usual ponytail when a knock sounded on
her door.
"Now who could that be?" she wondered. She wasn't expecting visitors.
She quickly finished up. "Come in," she invited. "it's open." She got to her
feet and crossed over to her quarters' living area just as the door swung
open to admit Cover Girl.
"Hi, Scarlett. I hope I'm not intruding," she said.
"Hello, Cover Girl." Scarlett said warmly, glad to see her friend. She
motioned to the sofa. "Please, have a seat."
"Thanks." Cover Girl was the driver of the G.I. Joe Team's Wolverine Armored
Missile Carrier. A former high fashion model who etched a name for herself
in Chicago and New York prior to enlisting in the Army and ultimately
qualifying for the G.I. Joe Team, she still retained her stunning good
looks, highlighted with her chestnut brown hair and rich brown eyes, and a
temptingly alluring figure that was evident even in her current attire- a
brown field jacket over a cream blouse and tight khaki pants tucked into
brown combat boots trimmed with olive-green stripes. She was holding a
paperback novel and an envelope.
"Can I get you anything, Cover Girl?" Scarlett asked. "A glass of water?
Juice?"
"No, thanks, Scarlett. I won't be staying long." Cover Girl smiled
appreciatively at her friend's offer. She handed over a paperback copy of
Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. "Here's the book you loaned me. I just thought
I'd return it. Sorry I took so long to finish it. It's a great read."
"No apologies necessary, Cover Girl. I'm glad you liked it." Scarlett said.
"Would you like to borrow something new?"
"Maybe later," Cover Girl replied. "Oh, by the way, I took Mail Call duty
yesterday and this arrived for you." She next handed over the envelope.
"Thanks." Scarlett took it. She noted it was from her hometown/State,
Atlanta, Georgia.
"Well, I'd better get going," Cover Girl said, rising from the sofa. "I've
got surface shift duty coming up in fifteen minutes." By that she meant
running a watch over at the Fort Wadsworth Motor Pool Building where the
G.I. Joe Team's covered as the 21st Motor Pool Company. To allay any
suspicions on the part of the regular staff of Ft. Wadsworth, Hawk
instituted a rotating 4-6 hour shift for members of the Joe Team to stand
watch over at the Motor Pool. Those assigned to such duty were under
Clutch's orders as his cover is the motor pool CWO-Chief Warrant Officer-.
Cover Girl usually took the slot as his assistant.
"Thanks for stopping by," Scarlett said. "I hope you and Clutch get along
famously." she added lightly. Scarlett was only too aware of Clutch's
reputation as a jokester and being a bit of a chauvinist. Though, to be fair
to the man, he was certainly the best in his field, and was, at heart,
really a good guy to have around when things got nasty.
"Aw, Clutch's not so bad once you get to know him." Cover Girl said as she
took her leave.
"No argument there," Scarlett agreed. "I'll see you later, Cover Girl."
After her friend left, she took the letter and returned to the bedroom.
Sitting at a Chippendale writing desk, she opened the letter.
Scarlett smiled to herself. despite the faster advantages offered by
computer technology via the Internet and E-Mail services, her father,
Patrick Sean O'Hara, still preferred writing to her the old fashioned way.
Not that she objected; somehow, a handwritten letter seemed more personal
than one transmitted electronically.
The letter took up two pages. Her father inquired about her and asked about
her Army career as well as conveying the regards of her three elder
brothers, John, Frank and Brian. Her dad hoped she was doing well and that
she and Snake-Eyes were still close to one another. Also, he informed her
that the family's martial arts school was back in business after a brief
hiatus following the attempted 'hostile takeover' bid by Extensive
Enterprises. Lastly, her father wished her well and reminded her to take
care.
Scarlett felt her spirits lift after perusing her dad's letter. She was glad
that the family business was back in on it's feet. She had worried about it
briefly. Especially since she was on hand during that run-in with Extensive
Enterprises, the American business conglomerate that was actually a front
for Cobra's business/financial and legal holdings throughout the United
States.
Cobra-through Extensive Enterprises- had attempted to acquire Scarlett's
father's martial arts school in the hopes of using it as a cover in order to
train Cobra's elite Crimson Guard cadre. Scarlett had been on leave from the
G.I. Joe Team then and hadn't a notion of the problems Cobra was putting her
Dad through until she happened to see an Extensive Enterprises stationery
lying around her father's study. Knowing of the firm's ties to Cobra, she
started to look into the firm's Atlanta office on her own. And soon found
out that that Cobra meant to go all-out in taking over her family's business
to the extent that the Baroness was personally in charge of the operation.
Scarlett' along with the help of Snake-Eyes, Clutch and Col. Blackjack (The
G.I. Joe Team's recently assigned Executive Officer currently on leave, and Jane, the original field nurse of the first G.I. Joe Team, had managed to
stop Cobra's plans- but not before the Baroness had first kidnapped her
father and , later, had captured Scarlett when she tried to rescue him on
her own. That had been a down the wire operation, Scarlett recalled. Cobra
came too close to getting away with their plans. If it weren't for
Snake-Eyes, Blackjack and the others...
Scarlett broke off her reverie. That 'assignment' had occurred six months
ago. And for all that happened, although her father learned of her real Army
career, some good came out of it. Her Dad learned how much Snake-Eyes loved
her and, more importantly, he-along with her brothers- approved and
supported their relationship. All he asked of Snake-Eyes was that he take
very good care of his youngest child-and only daughter.
Scarlett set the letter aside and made a mental note to write her Dad a
reply later after dinner that evening.
She went to her bed and lay down, leafing through a copy of Reader's Digest.
Considering how everything came down on her last mission, she needed to get
some rest- do something, anything, to take her mind off anything concerning
her duties with the G.I. Joe Team.
In his own quarters, Snake-Eyes knelt on the floor of the living room area
and focused on meditating.
The Commando had discarded the accouterments of his tradfe and had changed
into a simple black jumpsuit. His gloved fingers steepled before him, he
sought to clear his mind of conscious thought as he contemplated the
aftermath of the mission.
Snake-Eyes' was likewise relieved at the mission's success. The raid on
Shadow Island had been a hairy operation. Cobra's plan to set up an
electronic intelligence/communications relay outpost on Shadow Island- a
former U.S. Navy forward staging base for Los Angeles-class submarines to
conduct long range sea patrols in the Pacific Ocean- had been ascertained by
the National Security Agency following their picking up of renewed
electronic/communication activity from Shadow Island, which had long ceased
operations following the end of the Cold War. Given that political
considerations forbade the U.S. Navy and Marines from mounting a
carrier/cruise missile strike on the island, and that the new occupants of
the reactivated facility were members of one of the world's deadliest
terrorist cadres, the job of dealing with Cobra had fallen to the G.I. Joe
Team. And since those same politics precluded the assigning of the mission
to Torpedo & Wet-Suit, Snake-Eyes and Scarlett got the job of landing
covertly on Shadow Island , raiding Cobra's facility, learning their plans
and putting a stop to it.
The execution of the mission hadn't been easy, Snake-Eyes recalled. Cobra
made sure of that. Still, he and Scarlett got the job done and thwarted
Cobra's scheme. Scarlett in particular proved herself and went through a lot
to do her part and complete the mission...
At the thought of Scarlett, Snake-Eyes paused. For a minute, he could've
sworn he felt Scarlett was in trouble. But that was preposterous. She was
safe and sound in her quarters, resting.
Snake-Eyes wondered if, perhaps, he was mistaken. "I'm just tired," he
thought. Scarlett was fine. How could she possibly be in trouble?
He shrugged. Sometimes even his Ninja training made him over sensitive to
Scarlett's thoughts. "Of course she's all right", he told himself. She isn't
in trouble.
-"Face it, girl, you're in trouble", Scarlett thought. "Deep trouble."
Quickly, she ran down the cold corridors, mentally tuning out the Intruder
Alert klaxons that had come on line the moment she accidentally tripped the
silent alarm 'eye' while making her exit from Cobra's Computer center with
the CD ROM disk she took. Already she ran into Cobra security patrols,
managing to take down a pair of Vipers with her XK-1 Power Crossbow before
being forced to discard her weapon following that run-in with that BAT.
"Should've known Murphy's Law would kick in sooner or later. Just my luck it
had to be sooner than later," she thought as she again brought up her
M-1911A1 Auto Pistol and paused to fire twice, scoring a double hit at a
Cobra Alley-Viper before the Cobra Urban Assault Trooper managed to bring up
his shield to protect himself. The slugs slammed into his throat and sent
him sprawling to the ground.
Scarlett ran on, surreptitiously glancing over her shoulder at intervals to
check for any pursuers. Already, she could hear the Baroness' accented voice
sharply exhorting her guards to take her-alive, if possible.
"At least Snake-Eyes' still free." Scarlett thought. She knew Snake-Eyes
would see to his part of the mission first-sabotaging Cobra's communications
and main power generators- before linking up with her. She hoped he was
doing better than she was so far.
Looking ahead, Scarlett saw a pair of Cobra Officers coming up to block her.
She raised her pistol to fire-
"Don't try it, dear Scarlett." advised a familiar, cold voice behind her. It
was the Baroness. "Drop your weapon and surrender. No sense sacrificing
yourself for nothing." The Cobra Intelligence Officer, a statuesquely tall,
elegantly beautiful woman in her 30s, outfitted in a sleek black leather
coverall with the blood red insignia of Cobra emblazoned on the tunic. In
her hand she held a Russian-built 9mm Makarov pistol. She cocked the weapon
to underscore her words.
Scarlett glanced back, seeing she had no choice now. Spirited bravery was
one thing-recklessness was another.
She sighed and turned to face the Baroness, who was flanked by a small
retinue of personal guards-Crimson Guardsmen, Alley Vipers and Cobra
Troopers. "All right, Baroness," she said wearily, exhausted from the chase.
"You win." For now, she added silently. As long as Snake-Eyes was still at
large, Scarlett knew she had a chance. She dropped her M-1911A1 to the floor
and kicked it towards her Cobra counterpart, raising her hands and placing
them behind her head.
The Baroness motioned to a Viper to collect the surrendered pistol. "You
made the right choice, Scarlett. " Her jet-black eyes sparked with contempt
from behind her glasses as she kept an eye on her younger G.I. Joe
counterpart. "It would've been a shame to riddle your tempting body with 9mm
rounds. " She strode over to face Scarlett. "It's been quite a while since
we last crossed paths, dearie. I'm going to enjoy having a private chat with
you. But first..." She turned and indicated to a Viper.
The Cobra Infantryman approached. "Yes, Baroness?" he asked.
The Baroness turned back to Scarlett, a wicked smile on her sensuous
lips.
"Frisk this woman. Thoroughly. Just in case she has a few tricks up her
sleeve."
The Viper eyed Scarlett lasciviously, taking in her hourglass figure. "It'll
be a REAL pleasure, Baroness." he said cruelly. He approached the captive
female Joe and began.
Scarlett flinched slightly as the Viper methodically and slowly ran his
hands over her slender body-deliberately taking his time to brush his hands
over her breasts and legs. Inwardly, she felt cold. Scarlett always kept
herself chaste, promising to herself that only Snake-Eyes would have her.
The sight of the Cobra Viper running his hands over her made her sick.
Still, she kept a calm, composed appearance. Under other circumstances, she'd
like nothing better than to kick this offensive animal across his face. But
she had no option open to her just yet. "Enjoy yourself, you animal. You'll
pay the Piper soon enough." she thought.
After what seemed like an eternity, the Viper ceased and retreated to
the Baroness. "She's clean," he reported as he turned over Scarlett's throwing
stars, the only weapon she had which were mounted to the wrist of her
gloves.
"Thank you, my boy." The Baroness smiled as she dismissed the Viper.
"Scarlett 's eyes flashed as she faced her tormentor. "Satisfied,
'Baroness'? she asked acidly, contempt in her voice.
The Baroness smiled at Scarlett's bravado. "Not exactly, dear girl." She
looked past Scarlett and gave a slight nod, a cruel look on her face.
Too late, Scarlett remembered the two Cobra Officers behind her. As she
turned, one of them brought up his AK-47 assault rifle, and slammed the
heavy stock to the side of her head. Hard.
"Oooohhh!" Scarlett moaned. Her slender legs buckled, and she keeled over to
crash on the cold tiled floor.
The Baroness was saying: "We will talk, Scarlett, and mark my words- I WILL
BREAK YOU..."
Scarlett vaguely heard the taunt. Her vision blurred and she lay still as
oblivion claimed her.
______________________________________________________
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