The Agnus Dei Gambit

She was looking expectantly at me, like she was hoping I was thinking what she was thinking. I sat on the bed threw my arms around her waist and hugged her as she stood there. That wasn't what she was thinking.

So, she threw one of her gorgeous legs over mine and pressed every inch of her body against me. For such an athletic woman I am amazed at Kelly's ability to be "boneless" in situations like that. I know women are a lot more flexible than men. But Kelley's ability to mold herself to me reaches some new height of sensuality.

We kissed. Kelley also kisses like no other female. When she kisses you, she conveys that she is completely there, totally involved, and in the moment with you. It is an opening and a giving of herself that could pass for actual intercourse with some women.

I pulled her closer to me, squashing those big, beautiful tits to my chest. She gave a slight moan, and her breathing became much more noticeable. We kissed that way as she humped and rubbed her mound back and forth on the top of my leg making soft cries. I thought, "She's as hungry as you are".

While we were kissing, I put one hand on her left breast and began to manipulate it. She increased her humping and added low moans. The elastic feel of that huge perfectly shaped orb under my hand was giving me a hard-on that I thought was going to rip the zipper off my pants.

Kelley gets aggressive when she reaches a certain state of arousal. I knew she had reached that stage because she broke the kiss, jumped to her feet, frantically peeled off her pants, undid my belt and grabbed me by the feet tipping me backward.

She whipped my pants off, underwear and all, like a matador doing a pass with his cape. I was now naked from the waist down sporting a woody that I wanted to take a picture of for future reminiscence. That whole pas-de-deux had taken approximately ten seconds.

She then straddled me as I sat on the edge of the bed. All I could feel was extreme heat and wetness. She made a slight gasp and pushed me as far into herself as she could get. I had my arms around her tiny waist, locked behind her back, just above the flair of her muscular ass.

She was leaning back, counting on me not to drop her. I was leaning in the other direction with my hands above the jut of her buns. I was buried in her right to the top.

Then she began to move. I looked at her beautiful face which was a mask of passion. Her lips were curled into a snarl and she was driving herself into me with all of the strength in her powerful body.

She wasn't making her usual loud moans, only a series of uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uhs!!! That in some ways was even sexier because it conveyed the maximum effort that she was putting into the sex.

Her insides were spasming. But she hadn't come yet. The heat and smell was beyond exciting. It blasted me into some new realm of sexual stimulation and pleasure.

Then she started to fervently whisper, "Ahhhh Yesss!! You're so deep inside me!!! I'm so wet for you!! Fuck me, Fuck me!! Come inside me!!!"

I didn't need any encouragement to do that. I was so caught up in the passion of the moment that I came like Old Faithful. I thought it was never going to stop. It was beyond mind blowing.

The moment she felt me spurt Kelley went off on a gyrating, bucking orgasm where she lost total control over her upper body. She was flinging her head from side-to-side and her bounty of copper colored hair kept whipping back and forth over her gorgeous passion filled face. I had to strain to hold on to her.

She gave three final bucks and slumped in my arms, like she frequently does. I sat there holding her to my chest with both of is breathing off the scale. I was thinking to myself, "This woman is not human. She is a goddess. And you are the lucky mortal she has chosen. You need to work hard to be worthy of her."

*****

The following day we were on the A22 headed north into an impressive array of mountains. This was the first time either of us had been into that part of Europe and the mountain vistas looked a lot like the front range of the Rockies. You almost expected to see Hannibal tramping past with his elephants.

It was summer. So, the temperature was warm and pleasant. That would NOT be the case in the winter. We planned to set up base at Reschensee, which was the last real civilized point before you got into the tight mountain valley that ended at Melago.

Reschensee had an actual four-star hotel called the Traube Post which had spectacular views across Lake Reschen. It was expensive but need I remind you -- "donors."

It was a six mile hike up a lovely rural road to the complex at the foot of the Nockspitze and the Citadel just beyond. There were some decent hotels there too. Depending on the situation we might move the rest of the way up to those.

However, I thought we should build a little cushion between our base of operation and the target, at least at first. We would have to proceed with caution if those guys were as dangerous as they seemed.

The next morning was sunny but chilly. We set off looking like Alpine mountain hikers, which is one of the primary tourist activities in the area. We planned to walk up the shoulder of the mountain that enclosed the Citadel and circle around to the top of the sheer canyon that encircled it.

The girls were in L.L. Bean explorer mountaineering shorts that showed off their fabulous legs and layers on top for the changing weather on the mountain. I was sporting Lederhosen, long thick hiking socks, a checked shirt, and a classic Alpine hat. That was just me practicing a bit of tradecraft. I'd discovered a long time ago that the best protective coloration was "cluelessness."

The girls were carrying 18L Mammut Alpinrucksacks. I was carrying a Mammut Trion Spine 75L mountaineering backpack. Theirs had lunch, eating utensils, a ground cover, along with a good bottle of red. Mine had the contents of a crate that had arrived courtesy of a mysterious benefactor on the island of St. Lucia.

Brooke needed its contents to do the electronic reconnaissance that was the first step in our getting to know what we were up against. It took us three hours to get to the little collection of hotels and guest houses at the base of the mountain. There, we stopped for lunch.

I'd assumed that a neighborhood where a bunch of religious nuts were holed up would be a wasteland. This wasn't close to the reality. Looking around, I could smell the money. There is no accounting for Teutonic tastes.

It was obvious that we weren't likely to bump into any of the Citadel's recluses at a four-star spa. So, I made a reservation to continue our stay at the hotel that we were eating at.

It was called the Gletscherblick. It means glacier view, which gives you some idea of the terrain. It also saved me carrying almost a hundred pounds of gear six miles at a brisk walk, just to get up to the starting point of our venture. We could move to our new place as soon as we finished with today's business.

We hiked up the mountain from the hotel area. The walk was grueling. But it had to be done since we needed to do a detailed survey of the place before we burglarized it and since it was sitting in a narrow mountain defile there was no way we could just walk around the building and take pictures.

This was only a scouting expedition. We just wanted to get the general layout, doors, windows, and any other access point. Fortunately, the very thing that made the Citadel hard to approach made it easy to investigate. We set up shop on the western edge of the surrounding cliffs, which put us less than fifty yards from the walls and sixty feet above the roof.

The first thing we noticed was that the roof was flat. There were ornamental merlons on the battlement that surrounded it and a lead roof. There was also a trap door. That would no-doubt lead to a set of circular stairs, assuming that the fortress was laid out like a Medieval keep. We could use that.

Brooke set up the through-wall detector we had brought. The unit could map space and movement behind a stone wall for up to fifteen feet. The concept is basically the same as radar. It uses ultra-low power radio waves to scan a sector and paint a picture.

Brooke's device was special. You normally have to hold wall penetrating radar against the wall itself. But Chelsea had added her own refinement in the form of a parabolic booster that focused the power of the radio waves, thus enhancing the range. It DID narrow the observation surface to about five feet at fifty yards. But it let us see into the interior of the building like we were shining a flashlight on it.

The tower was four stories tall and easily a hundred feet square and we could only map the space in the outer rooms. But that gave us a picture of the general layout and also a count of the occupants. The tower had surprisingly few rooms at the top. They were big and spacious. There was nobody in any of those rooms. Hence, they were probably living quarters for the creepy guy and his friends.

With a little bit of luck, that might be where the blood sample was kept, assuming that one of those rooms belonged to our target. If that was the case, then we might be able to get in and out without having to deal with the guards on the floor below.

Brooke also scanned the building for network activity. It's a standard electronic discovery tactic and Brooke was a master. Of course, she had to crack the network's access control first. But her mother's Botnet melted the firewall like an ice cube in the Sahara.

Brooke said flabbergasted, "That's a pretty sophisticated operation. I thought they might have a server. But they're running a whole farm."

*****

The Chapel of the Apostles dated to Theodoric's Ostrogothic invasion in the 490s. The remoteness of Melago protected the Christians from the barbarian hordes that were descending out of the Alpine passes. The original walled basilica was constructed out of humble Roman brick.

Then things changed. Jerusalem fell to Islam in 636 AD and the Apostles needed a new place to live. They had heard about Melago and its splendid isolation. The Christian residents provided the slave labor, and an impressive keep was built.

The Citadel took sixty years to complete. But it would stand against an army. There were crenelated battlements, gatehouse barbicans and a guardroom. There were only twelve Apostles. But there were another hundred acolytes, devotees and servants living within the keep.

That group included everything from guards to scullery maids. The Apostles had separate quarters in the top floor. The acolytes and guards lived below them. The servants all slept on the ground floor. The second floor of the keep was an arcaded great hall and the ancient chapel, which was where John lay prostrated on the floor.

He was contemplating his accomplishments as he lay face down, arms outstretched just as Christ himself had lain on the cross. He had successfully recovered the Lord's precious blood. Now, this final act would be the consummation of his life.

John longed for a time when there would be no material distractions from the world of the spirit. Physical possessions were the enemy of the soul. Jesus had said that. Hence, multinational corporations and the military industrial complex were the great Satan. John knew that those abominations had to be cleansed in order for the Second Coming to occur, just as the first John had said in Revelations.

The money to perform his godly task had been easy to come by. The Apostles merely took what they needed. If you objected, you died. The same with the scientific knowledge. By definition, every scientist was a heretic. So, it wasn't hard to justify the kidnappings and extortions required to obtain the means.

Simply put, the Apostles planned to destroy the internet. The resulting chaos would return society to happier times, times when the church had prospered - the Middle Ages. Still, the Apostles were assassins by trade, not strategic masterminds. Consequently, another entity was needed to draw up the plan. Those were the Praefecti.

The Praefectii traced their origins back to Julian the Apostate. The Emperor Julian attempted to restore the old Roman gods thirty years after the Roman Empire had adopted Christianity. He might have succeeded too, if it weren't for a cabal of Roman elite, who arranged for his untimely demise. They called themselves the Praefecti.

The Praefecti were the "overseers," hence the name. They were a group of highly placed Christian nobles from across the empire. Thanks to their position and wealth, they had their hands on the societal and economic controls of the western world and they were the hidden architects of late Roman society.

There were never more than thirty Praefecti, all of whom were among the richest and most powerful men of their age. That included such diverse characters as Justinian, Charlemagne, William the Conqueror, Richard the Lionheart, most of the Renaissance Popes, Richard the Third, the entire Tudor family, Louis XIV and Queen Victoria's Prince Albert.

The Praefecti were dedicated to the advancement of Christianity over every other religion and, of course, to their personal enrichment. The Praefecti had decided that the secular world, needed a good old-fashioned biblical purification, ala Sodom and Gomorrah. So, they gave the Apostles the task.

John was by far the most tech savvy of the Apostles. He and his brother James, whose naked ambition was his defining trait, were the two disciples who were responsible for the project. This was a moment John had devoted his life to.

Through social engineering, bribery, hacking and simple intimidation the Apostles had managed to plant the necessary malware in all the right places. The crypt at the Citadel contained the powerful servers that would be the lash that John would employ to drive the money lenders from the temple, just as the Master had done. And a much more spiritual world would dawn in less than three days.

*****

I dropped Kelley and Brooke at our new digs. Then I walked the six miles back to our rooms in Reschensee, checked us out of there, packed the Mercedes and drove back to the base camp in Melago.

Brooke had done the analysis while I was gone, and she had some eye-popping results. She said, "I did a full network reconnaissance while we were up there. The pings gave me a detailed picture of the active hosts and IPs. But the results simply don't make sense."

I got the same look that I always get when people talk nerdy to me. Kelley said kindly, "Tell Joey what you discovered dear. But keep it simple. Just tell him what you think is going to happen."

Brooke said, "Sorry Uncle Joey. I was brought up with this stuff. I sometimes forget what it's like for people your age." I think that was an apology -- probably accurate. But OUCH!

Brooke continued with, "They have a substantial information warfare operation running in that building. It's designed to activate a specialized virus that's been embedded on the internet's root servers. I did a quick analysis of the code and pinged around to the target IP's and it looks like they are planning on a total extinction wipe of the DNS zone tables."

She stopped and looked expectantly at me. Since I hadn't understood a single word that she'd just said I made a circular motion with my hand and said, "Annnnd??" Both Kelley and Brooke burst out laughing. Kelley said gently and lovingly, "They want to end life as we know it on this planet."

Now it was my turn to laugh. I said, "You're telling me that bunch of religious nuts, living in the ass-end of the world, think they can dinosaur us??!! That's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard!!" Neither of them were laughing.

I stopped and said wearily, "Okay, explain the situation to this old Army cop. But do it in words he'll understand."

Kelley said, "Everything from the way we do business to our entire physical infrastructure is enabled by electronic data communication. Without it, we would have no commerce, no essential functions like electricity, we wouldn't even have an operational military since all of its command systems are virtual."

I just sat there flabbergasted. I said, "How in the world could that BE??!!"

Brooke said, "It just is. We've built our modern world on a virtual platform. It lets us do amazing things. But the price has been utter dependence on something that we barely understand, let alone control."

I sat back and thought for a second. Then I said, "Let me get this straight. These guys plan to destroy the internet and if they do, then everything that's technological will stop working?"

Kelley said, "Well - Not exactly, but everything from financial and governmental systems to the automated control functions that keep the lights on will stop talking to each other. It won't impact third world countries like the Sudan. But it will return all of Western society to the 18th Century."

I sat there with my mouth hanging open. I said, "WOW!!! We've set out to get the University's blood sample back. Now we're in the middle of a James Bond movie. We DO get ourselves into some interesting situations don't we"

Kelly said grinning, "That's about the size of it."

I turned to Brooke and said meekly, "You're the computer genius. What should we do?"

Kelley answered instead, "We've gotta destroy that installation and everything in it." Then she added ominously, "And the sooner the better."

*****

The prospective end of the world prompted a long and very heartfelt call to St. Lucia. I told Chelsea the situation, and I asked her if what they were planning was even possible?

She said, "Of course it's possible. Internet protocols depend on addresses. That addressing is incredibly complex at the leafy end of the tree. But like all trees, it traces back to the roots. Destroy the roots and you destroy the tree."

She said, "Wait one" and there was clicking in the background for several minutes.

When she came back on the line her voice was grave. She said, "They are going to do a coordinated strike on every DNS root server. I can wipe the launch code. But they'll just reload it. Worse it will alert them to the fact they've been discovered. You're going to have to destroy the actual equipment and storage to make this go away permanently."

I laughed sarcastically and said, "And how am I supposed to do that. The place is full of armed hostiles and I left my automatic weapons and thermite grenades in my other pants."

Chelsea said casually, "Leave that part to me. Just give me a shopping list and I'll have it delivered."

It was like she was telling me to order a couple of pizzas. I had no idea how she was going to find and reroute the necessary military grade hardware. But I was confident that Chelsea could do it if anybody could. She was the Red Dragon after all.

Thus, the following night, we found ourselves back on our perch overlooking the Citadel. We had taken delivery of a packing crate full of handy things earlier that afternoon. I had no idea whose army Chelsea had hacked to gather all the equipment. It looked German. But I didn't doubt my little friend's godlike powers.

It was two AM. All three of us were wearing black light-absorbent tac-suits and balaclavas. They made us more-or-less invisible in the dark. I was carrying a silenced CMMG Mark 3 CBR and a twenty-round clip of 7.62 NATO rounds. I had three more clips in a ballistic nylon bag dangling from my tac-harness.

Kelly was wearing her knives. Kelley's a ninja savant with a throwing knife. She practices constantly and she's so good that she can pin a postage stamp to a wall from twenty feet. She had six of those lethal little beauties in a bandolier across her delectable chest. They would be better than a gun in close quarters.