The Hawaiian Special Forces

Chapter 35

Aoloa carried the rabbits to the back of the house were Hokulani was working. She absently accepted them and began devouring them. He hooked into her HUD and saw what was going on. She was deep in negotiations with Kodachrome44.

Kodachrome44: Look, SherpaDerpa assures me you're being straight with us, but your terms are a bit odd. I trust him when he says you have legitimate reasons behind them, but you can understand why we're a bit reluctant to agree to this.

UPSOutsider98: I completely understand.

Kodachrome44: Yet you won't budge on your terms. It feels like a setup to abduct one of my teammates.

UPSOutsider98: I'm aware of that. Sherpa wasn't able to find anyone willing to accept the terms. I consider that unfortunate, but to be expected.

Kodachrome44: Even a hotel would be better. At least then there would be a trail if we needed to find a friend in trouble.

UPSOutsider98: As reasonable as that sounds, it would be highly problematic for us. It's simply not possible. The location cannot be closer than the outskirts of a town or city. While we're fine with more secluded locations, we understand why that's simply not a feasible option for you. We are attempting to be accommodating. SherpaDerpa can confirm this, as you well know.

Kodachrome44: You showed him something to convince him of that.

UPSOutsider98: I also had a better sense that he wanted to meet. We do not take such risks lightly. You respect SherpaDerpa and his organization. You know him to be credible. At this point, you are questioning his judgment, not just my word. My word means nothing, but his should have some value.

Kodachrome44: I'll discuss matters with my team.

This discussion windows closed and Hokulani leaned back, munching slowly. ::That could have gone better.::

::It went better than the one with Genghis. He flat out accused us of being cops and started advising that we be shunned as such.::

::Well we are acting pretty suspiciously.::

::I didn't say he was being unreasonable, but there was no point in anything. He's the one who still supports the idea that we're doing some weird CGI tricks.::

::And if we were the authorities, we'd have access to the processing power to do that. Yeah, I get it.:: He sighed. ::So now what?::

::We wait, and stay active on the forums. Keep confirming and denying information when we have something we know. Explain things where we can. Stay safe.::

Aoloa nodded and headed back into the woods. He still needed food for himself.

His eyes flicked about, picking up the faint traces of animals and movement. A flutter of motion caused him to lash out, snatching a bat from the air. It wasn't much, but it was a little bit of something, and worth the couple bites to swallow down.

It took him another hour to find enough food to be content. As he made his way back to Hokulani, his ears picked up noise shortly before he saw flashing lights around the home. Cutting parallel to the home, he picked up Hokulani's scent moving away from the home before she treed.

He followed up it, then switched his comms to combat mode. It took a few minutes before Hokulani's position appeared a few hundred yards away from him, high in a tree. ::What happened?::

::They've been reverse tracing us for a while. They finally located us.::

::Who are they?::

::Swiss government. They didn't bring military this time, but things just got a lot more risky. I cleared out just a few moments before they arrived.::

Aoloa considered the situation. We've been moving around quite a bit, but hanging close to Zurich. We may have to relocate for a while, or start moving around more. If I know Hokulani, she's also going to beef up her techniques to avoid detection. Any sort of contact with people just became a lot more dangerous, too.

He took a deep breath as he watched the dogs reach the tree they'd gone up. There was a strong desire to slaughter the mutts that made their lives so challenging. It would be nice if the authorities were afraid to send puppies after them. Unfortunately, the people were already close, and would be upset if he attacked them as well.

With a grin, he dropped down, making enough noise for a few of the mutts to catch the sound, and took off at a lope. Sure enough, he soon had all five of them on his scent, barking eagerly. When he was far enough away that the humans wouldn't be able to interfere, he turned on the dogs and began slaughtering them. To his annoyance, one fled with gashes on its haunch.

::That wasn't smart, Aoloa.::

::Perhaps, but they'll be more cautious about using dogs to chase us, and that gives us an advantage in the long run.::

With the dogs no longer pursuing them, they made a rapid getaway.

Thirty miles later, they found another house to leech from. It took a little digging, but Hokulani was able to find some information about a counter-hacking bust that had failed. It reported that the hackers had been stealing Internet access from homes, and apparently had an exotic animal with them, which had severely injured or killed several canine units.