Nowhere To Go But Roanapur

Thank you ninesenshi on your reviews. When I first started this fic I had no desire to add watersports but you've mentioned it enough where I'm interested to see how I'd do in writing such scenes. So you'll get your scene, but not in this chapter, however, I am nearing a prime time for it so you will see soon. Again, thanks for the reviews.

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I went with Revy to drop off the hand and collect her payment. She offered to cut a share with me, but I declined. Money was of no real use to me. I was more concerned about the employer and why he’d have any business with a man with experimental gadgets from the military. I stayed low key, letting Revy exude leadership while I surveyed everything covertly. This person had money, and lots of it to throw around. I noticed the cameras, saw the microphones, and smelled the defense system’s weapons. To start a scuffle in here would be ridiculous, but how could I warn Revy of them without arousing suspicion? I stayed quiet, maybe I didn’t need to. Revy seemed to know this guy was bad news already. We both remained silent until we had an audience with a spokesman of the big boss. The exchange was simple and quick and we were out of there before I could get any more insight to the dealings. Maybe I could go back some night soon. Alone.
We split up shortly after that; we’d gone back to the Lagoon company’s main office to find that Dutch had accepted a job that would take them out to sea for at least two days. We spent the night checking her room for supplies and when the morning came, I left Revy to it and returned to my own home. There were things that I needed to do before I went back to check out Revy’s previous employer.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The moon sat high in its cradle tonight, casting a silver glow on everything around me as I slipped through the darkness. The building looked like a warehouse outside but was modeled like an office building inside. I stayed in the shadows as I circled the building twice, checking for guards and cameras. Found both. There were two men on every door and a third on mobile patrol a few hundred feet from the stationary watch. They were good sentries; switching up the routine, checking behind them frequently, yet randomly. The open stretch of land between woods and building could prove difficult to traverse. Except where the moon cast the building’s shadow out long and cool. But there were guards there too. These were not run of the mill thugs, they knew how to fortify a base. If there wasn’t a landscaper on the payroll I might have given up on the idea of sneaking inside tonight, but there was and I didn’t. The artfully scattered bushes and ponds of flowers could serve as ample cover for a stalking leopard. But I couldn’t go in leopard form; I would be illuminated by the moon. I stayed low, eyes intent on all three guards. Slowly, so slowly I crept forward, not a single muscle twitched out of turn as I crept towards the first line of cover. With a predator’s patience I waited until the opportune moment and slinked closer. I crouched in the line of bushes and awaited the next turn of the guards. One passed by the bushes, inches from my reach, and kept going. I watched the other two, waiting for both their eyes to be averted…Now! I crept out the bushes and into the open, low enough for the two ahead not to see me, but if the third should look back now… I moved quick and quietly, not a dead leaf crunched underfoot, not a branch of leafs rustled. A line of bushes marched around the corner of the building and I followed it silently. A camera was directly above, but I was in it’s blind spot. I could access the roof from here if I time it right and not get seen by any of the mobile patrol.
I half changed my hands, my steely claws replacing my human nails and I set them into the stone. I pulled myself up, ascending the wall as quietly as I could despite having to claw the wall. I reached the camera and went around the blindside. The roof was simple seeming but I dared not touch down. I spotted the ventilation system and made my way around the edges to it. The crawlspace was tight, but I crept on, my senses attuned to anything that may aid my research. Something wafted under my nose, a scent so familiar it stopped me in my tracks. I’ve been all around the world and had the pleasure and misfortune of many different smells, but this one I’d never forget. I fought not to lose sight of my mission and go down memory lane; I couldn’t get distracted here. If members of my old team are here then that mission Revy accepted was bogus. It also means that they knew I was here. Anger swelled through me but I swallowed that down too. I had to find out how much they knew. I moved on, staying upwind of the currents because if the team was here, then another shifter would be as well. Maybe. No sense in neglecting that possibility, right? I came to a vent intersection and stilled myself, ears straining. To the right, I could hear the low rumble of voices. I went right; deathly silent as the voices, still hushed, grew stronger.

“We have every reason to believe she’s here in this city.”
“Just because she’s been everywhere doesn’t mean she won’t revisit someplace she’s been before. You see how long it took us to get to this shithole.”
“I know Trish has been here, I can feel it. Now if you’ll show us the tape you may be able to hold onto your life for a while longer,” this voice belonged to the scent; one of my old squad leaders.
“What makes you think she’s been here?” this from the spokesman that paid Revy.
“One of our affiliates lost a partner a couple days ago and when a witness came forth he described our mark. We’ll ask you only once more to show us the tape or we’ll kill you for the interest of our affiliate.”
The spokesman startled, “Well I don’t see what harm it will do to cooperate.”

I suppressed a growl as I began to retreat. If they recognized me on the tape then Revy would now be dragged into this. I don’t mind getting pulled through her problems but I won’t allow her to come to harm because of me. I’d have to leave again. But go where now? Perhaps I can give the Borneo Rainforest another try. I sighed; I couldn’t just leave. Not if they see the tape and link Revy with me. If I hadn’t waited a day I might have been able to get that footage but now it was too late. On the plus side Revy was out at sea and would be gone for another day yet. I had time to try to wrap this up. I broke from my musings to find myself slipping back out on the roof. Good timing; I brought my focus back and carefully climbed down. By the time I crossed the yard once more to the safety of the tree line the moon was lower, glimmering in its last few hours before the sun took over once again.
Maybe I could lie low enough for them to think I split town. Or maybe I could have enough people see me leave to get the squad to believe it. I would need Revy for that. It should all coincide nicely; I help Revy and she helps me escape. Not too many questions asked. It could work, but I’d have to risk being in public and letting people see me. As well as have proof of me asking around for transportation. Maybe I should go to Chang. He’s helped me out before… no. I don’t want to get him any more attention from the US than he already has. I’m alone on this one. As usual. Time to implement my fake departure. I’ll explain it to Revy when she returns.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Revy had actually been gone four days on that mission. Just as well because after that break in I needed to lie low for a while. Especially since a few scouts from my old unit were in town. Anger roiled inside me, hot and fast. Of course they’d find me eventually, Roanapur really was my last place to come to. I could stay and fight but that didn’t work out so well the last time. That last time cost me Daisuke. I suppressed a growl but felt the fury grip me hotly. I heard water sloshing and returned to the present to see Revy swimming closer to me. She’d wanted to go for a swim so I invited her over to my pool where we ended up skinny dipping after fucking on the pool steps.

“Fuckin’ A, this water is hot,” she said as she drew nearer.
“The sun does shine directly on my pool for several hours a day,” I explained.
“This water is almost simmering, but I’m not seeing any bubbles,” she said. “The hell you glaring’ for?”
Was I glaring? Sure was, I tried to clear my face and make it more friendly, “Sorry Miss Rebecca.”
“You’ve been off in your head all day, Whore, even while we were fucking. Ever since that last job you’ve been acting different. You’re biting harder and the sex is getting almost too violent, what’s going on?”
She’s very perceptive, I almost sliced her beautiful ass open earlier; “I have a lot on my mind lately,” I sighed, “I’ll try to curb it, I’m sorry.”
“Right.”
“I need to hire you for a job,” I told her.
“What kind?” she quirked an eyebrow.
“A fairly simple one: transport me out of town. I can’t stay in one place too long so I’ve got to leave.”
“What the fuck happened while I was gone?” Revy asked, getting more irate.
I sighed heavily, “I’m not leaving for real, I just need to make it look like I am. The hunters are here to take me out and if they think I already left then that’s one less confrontation for me.”
“How are you going to make them think you left?”
“I’ve already asked around town for a transport and a lot have pointed me your way. Now that you’re back, I’ll hire you guys, we leave for a day or two and I’ll not be seen coming back with you. They may question you though.”
“Dutch won’t like this,” Revy said.
“it’s a fake mission, but its real money.”
“I didn’t mean that. We’d be inviting trouble our way; Dutch hates that.”
I growled, “Then maybe I’ll just go to a different company and not come back at all.”

I was losing more and more of my control around her. It couldn’t be time already, could it? Its only been a few weeks since the last time I felt like this. Weeks since I felt the rage inside open up as if to swallow me whole. Fury burning me up from the inside out. I remember when I first tasted this rage back when I first got pulled into the unit. When the genetic experiments first started, there was no burning hatred in me, disregarding my pre-existing discontent. It was after the second or third batch of injections after the successful coupling of the leopard and human genes, that was when the emotions built. It was like I was filled to the brim with wrath and then I exploded and let it out. There had been several dead around me when I came to the next day and I’d woken in a puddle of blood three inches thick. I wasn’t angry anymore though.
I came back to myself with Revy glaring at me. Had she asked me something else? Behind her I could see a looming enclosure. I’d expanded an undeveloped house into a sanctuary, closing in much vegetation and forest. Capping it off with a high arching roof. The walls were over five inches thick with reinforced steel. I used to only lock myself in a sanctuary once every other month, but lately its been more frequently. Was I losing myself to the beast within? Was it something about the experimentation? Was I evolving into a real monster. I seldom remembered what went on during the times I locked myself away, just a flash or two depending on what I found afterwards. The first time I’d burned through a town, slaughtering everything that I smelt, tearing people and animals apart. My team couldn’t control me that day, and the public learned about a creature. There was no photographic evidence, no eye witness accounts, just tell-tale slaughter from something strong and furred. The unit pulled me in quick after that and kept me under lock and key for some time.
Daisuke didn’t seem to have that problem though and we found out after I’d almost killed him on a night like that that it was best for me to be locked away when the rage rode me hard. Building a sanctuary was the first thing I did when I reached a new place that I hoped to inhabit for a while. Outwardly indiscrete but inside was like a jungle pod. Trees and shrubs, even a man-made pond in one corner. I kept a few animals in them, expendable animals that were replaced each time I spent the night in the Sanctuary; cows, horses, hogs… I shifted my gaze from just beyond Revy to the quickly darkening sky. It was almost time.

“I think it’s time you left for today,” I said.
The sudden change caught her off guard, “You wanna tell me why I should?”
“Tonight’s not a safe night to be at my side.”
“You in some kinda trouble? Think I can’t handle it?”
“I know you can’t,” I said, though I didn’t mean it to sound so menacing.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she asked angrily.

I growled and got out of the pool, water streaming off my naked body, but some of it was evaporating against the heat of my wrath. I walked quickly towards the sanctuary, I felt the change gripping me, felt my body wanting to run with fur and fangs to rend and tear everything in sight. Revy followed after me and caught up as I reached the door. I turned on her, pulling her against me and then pushing her roughly against the wall. I moved my hands from her shoulders to the wall around her. This close I didn’t trust not cutting her.
“We can’t be together tonight. A furious rage fills me and every now and then I have to let it out. I have supreme control over the beast but not on these nights!” my throat rumbled with a low bass growl. “If you follow me into the Sanctuary, Revy, I will kill you, so please stay out.”
Revy could see the feral beast in my eyes, saw the control thinly kept, the elongated fangs, the fury within. She felt fear stirring within. With me so close with rage riding me hard, she remembered that her pet truly was a wild animal. An unnatural wild animal.
“I’ll stay back,” she said. “But you better let me in on this later.”
“As long as you promise not to go inside when I’m in there. No matter what you hear.”
With her promise, I turned and locked myself in the sanctuary with nightfall close on my heels.