Part 9

River removed the metal panel covering the way into the boiler room with ease and slid inside the inner wall of the base with no difficulty, Tahk sliding in after him. He looked around the room before he found his entryway into the building’s air duct and set about making his way to the control room while Tahk grinned at him. He exited into the back hallways, where he would cut down everyone in his path and take out the emergency launch pad.

No one had apparently seen their approach; otherwise they’ve had a battalion of soldiers waiting to take them out as soon as they’d gotten that panel open. River was very thankful the White Noise had worked properly.

River tried to keep the screams he heard behind him of dying soldiers away from his focus as he crawled through the ducts with a practiced ease. The training facility had forced him to crawl through air ducts constantly as training, learning by moving through a metal Discovery Zone till he could do it with utter silence.

He crawled through the vents, having a little difficulty when he had to crawl up two floor’s worth of air duct, but the handles the company had crafted for him worked well. They were simple black holds with a plastic strip covering one side. He just removed the strip and attached that side to the wall. Within seconds, it was solid enough for him to use to lift his weight and climb up higher.

He came to a vent above the control room and saw the men watching Tahk on the screen while arguing back and forth in Russian. He pulled on his gas mask before cracking the vent open and throwing in a gas bomb, efficiently killing all of the men as River exited the air duct.

River stared at the control panel, watching the panther- Tahk killing, leaving a trail of blood and bodies before he got to the emergency launch pad and destroyed the access panel. He grinned and made sure Tahk was making his way to his planned exit before starting to plug in the codes for the self-destruct mechanism. They’d stolen the software they’d used and trained him on so he knew exactly what to do despite not knowing Russian.

A man burst into the room, a gun trained at River’s head, but without even looking up from the screen, River had pulled a knife out of his leg sheath and threw it, hitting the man right between the eyes. The sudden death made the man’s muscles tense and he pulled the trigger, but River expected it and dodged it before hitting the final to start the timer.

True to all spy-movie clichés, a woman’s voice rang out through the compound, announcing that the place was about to blow in Russian as River sprinted out of the room and headed to his own exit point.

He ran down the hall and threw a small explosive ahead of him that rolled and blew a hole in the floor of his path. He jumped through the created hole down into the laundry room where he left and found the room with the huge water tank they’d told him to find. He used another explosive to blow a water pipe open. Water sprayed everywhere, but he was able to jump into the hole and held his breath as water rushed around him and pushed him down through the tube before he flew out into open air and fell several feet into a pool that fed into a lake.

Tahk was on the riverbed waiting. He yanked River out of the water and they started running toward the pick up point, ignoring the loud explosion behind them. They grinned at each other.

It had been a good day’s work.

“Good job, boys,” Cossack said, sitting across from them in the limo while the driver put their luggage in the trunk, “You executed the plan so flawlessly, no one ever had a chance to send out a message of who attacked them. The Russians are completely in the dark about who attacked them, but they can easily deduce it was us. They just have no way of proving it and they can’t make a stir about it without releasing what it was that we destroyed.”

Tahk smiled, “When’s the next mission?”

Cossack grinned, “You like finally getting to use all of those skills we’ve ingrained in your brain?”

“I like being around River.”

Cossack didn’t reply, but the two boys smiled at each other.

“I like being around you, too,” River said.

The drive back to the facility was long and quiet. River couldn’t help remembering his life before, a boy struggling through school because of too many difficult classes. He’d been terrible at fighting, but this was something he excelled at, fighting and espionage. Maybe he was a genius like his brothers. He’d just needed to find his area.

He looked at Tahk and remembered how so long ago the boy had put flowers in his locker, telling him he was beautiful and grabbing his crotch. What had happened with that?

River leaned over and asked Tahk, “Do you remember the time you snuck out and put those flowers in my locker?”

Tahk nodded, “It was a short time after my first transformation. My body had been chemically out of balance and I had been aggressive for weeks and was desperate to see you…”

River couldn’t help asking, “What ever happened to you taking everything you’d ever wanted?”

Tahk sucked his breath is and blushed bright red, turning away from River to glance at Cossack, who just sat on the other side of the limo reading the newspaper. Tahk turned back to River and murmured, “Wait until we’re alone. Really alone.”

With a grin, River sat back and fought back mental images of all the things he wanted to do to the black-haired boy. He looked around the room and noticed Cossack’s newspaper.

“Is that today’s date?” he asked.

Cossack looked up before glancing at the paper and replying, “No, its yesterday’s.”

“Hm,” River replied, “I turn 19 next month.”

Cossack snorted, “Sometimes I forget how young you boys are.”

It was night. There had been a small party for them back at the facility when they’d returned, which basically meant cake and a toast with fake champagne before everyone returned to their duties. Alcohol wasn’t allowed in the facility.

River sat and laid in his bed thinking about Tahk. He was going to be 19 soon and he’d never even kissed anyone. Although he wasn’t the type of guy that measured his worth in his sexual experiences, he still thought it was kind of sad. Plus he really wanted to kiss Tahk.

He glanced around his room and thought about the facility, letting his training kick in. His room was opposite a wall from Tahk’s. Their bathrooms probably shared a water pipe.

River got up and entered his bathroom, grinning at the air vent in the ceiling. It was pretty small, but they’d given him the acrobatic training, he figured he could fit in. He stood on his toilet and pulled off the cover before sliding up into the air duct. Why hadn’t he thought of this before? He could get to Tahk’s room and they didn’t monitor the bathrooms (though he knew there were hidden cameras in his bedroom).

He found the right vent, knowing what Tahk’s toothbrush looked like, and slid down into the bathroom. All of the lights were off and the door was open.

“Tahk,” he whispered loudly. When he got no response, he repeated this. Finally, Tahk hoarsely answered, “River?”

“Get up and come to the bathroom. Act like everything is normal.”

Tahk got out of his bed and walked over to the bathroom, turning on the light and shutting the door. He kept his eyes shut, their feline characteristics making them more light-sensitive than normal human eyes.

“River, what’s going on?” he asked sleepily.

“They don’t monitor the bathrooms,” River replied, “And I can fit through the air vents. So we can have some time alone.”

Tahk opened his eyes and looked at him, “Alone?”

“Alone,” River replied.

They smiled at each other before Tahk leapt at River, mashing their mouths together. Neither had much (no) experience in these matters, so it was a clumsy, sloppy kiss. Still, they both enjoyed it immensely.

Once they got things figured out so it was comfortable, River kissed him several more times before speaking, “We can’t do this for too long or they might notice.”

“No,” Tahk whined and continued kissing River. River moaned and reciprocated before pulling away form him.

“We can’t let them notice or they might stop us.” Kiss. “They could weld the ducts shut.” Kiss. “God, I love kissing you.” Kiss.

They kissed several more times before breaking apart. River crawled back into the vents while Tahk left the bathroom and got back in bed.

Both slept better than they could ever remembering having slept before.