The Darkness Before Dawn

Preparation

Umiko and Yukiko looked through the double headed microscope. The monkey's lungs were ravaged and resembled Swiss cheese. The pieces of lung that you could hold felt saturated with fluids. Umiko sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Essentially they die of respiratory failure, which is not the issue. The issue is, is that the microbe is easily fending off the immune system while it absolutely destroys the body within days. To put it simply, the microbe is working too fast".

"Pass me the gene pedigree for the microbe, please? Yukiko asked. Umiko shuffled some papers around on the desk and found the one Yukiko asked for. She handed it over and Yukiko's blue eyes scanned the document.

Each gene that was used to construct the organism was listed by its origin. "Here's your problem. You have C26 turned on which we know makes the lungs vulnerable. But what has really messed you up is you have J54 and J66 activated".

"So? They allow for easier cross species infection which is what we need to jump the species barrier" Umiko said, scratching the back of her head in confusion.

"True but by activating both you've essentially obliterated the species barrier and doubled the strain's infectability. This is why your microbe is working too well" Yukiko said as she pored over the microbe's genome map. "A little bit of tweaking and it'll be ready for human trials" she said, attempting to cheer Umiko up.

"Fuck! Ugghhhh I should've fucking seen that! Goddammit!" Umiko shouted in frustration as she threw her notes and books off the counter. She stormed out of the basement, past all the other rooms, up the stairs and finally slammed the door to her room.

Shinju was texting on her phone when she watched Umiko storm to her room. Seeing Yukiko come up from the basement she raised a questioning eyebrow. "She forgot to turn off a gene" Yukiko offered as a way of explanation. "Ah" Shinju replied, returning to her phone.

The door bell rang, startling Shinju and Yukiko. They both looked at each other, a little unsure of what to do. The bell rang again. Kay came into the hallway from the great room, her finger holding her place in her book. "Are you going to answer that?" she asked as she walked to the door. Umiko had joined them at the sound of the bell, driven out of her room by curiosity.

Kay opened the door to reveal a smartly dressed man standing on the step with a suitcase at his side. He was tall at 6" and had broad shoulders that lead down to a muscle thickened waist. His biceps strained a little against the suit fabric as he adjusted the suitcase he was holding. Tailored pants hung from his waist and did nothing to hide the impressive bulge the man had.

His black hair was tousled, like he had a permanent case of sexy bed head. Clear grey eyes observed everyone around him and took note of his environment. He bowed to the women and said "I am Tenno. Mother sends me with her regards. Here is your first mission" he said as he stepped inside the mansion and handed Kay a thick envelope. "If you will kindly excuse me, I will see myself settled" as he turned to go up the stairs and to the servant's quarters in the rear of the house.

Kay walked into the great room and emptied the envelope's contents onto the mahogany coffee table. A letter, documents, a dossier and maps spilled onto the table. Yukiko picked up the letter and unfolded the thick parchment to read aloud:

Hello my lovies! I do hope this city grows on you all as we have so much work to do here! So, what do you say we announce our arrival with fanfare?

Hoku Shinoki is the human capital. He owns most of the city and he has refused my protection so I want him dead. Be prepared to transfer all his money and real estate holdings to the organization upon his death.

Prepare his body so that his identification will take a while. I want to watch his family suffer.

Mother

"She's not messing around!" Yukiko said, "although I'll see what I can do about a temporary DNA block since we want him ID'd eventually". Umiko got up saying "I'll prepare my workstation and tools for the body alteration and disposal. Do you want to help Yukiko?" "Fuck yes! I've always wanted to see how it all works!" She said, grinning.

"I'll check the software and data on him. Kay, when you get your weapons we need to do a camera and comms check" Shinju said as she stood up to leave.

Kay walked into the outdoor dining area with a sledgehammer she had taken from the garage. She approached the large Asian statues that had been put around the seating area. Hefting the sledgehammer in her hands, she swung several times at the statues. They crumbled apart revealing weapon pieces stored in airtight plastic bags. She picked up all the bags and walked into the house.

"Oh! Tenno!" She said as she passed him. "Yes Mistress?" He asked. "Would you be a dear and clean up the mess out back? Thank you" she said as she continued up to her room, her voice floating down the staircase. "Yes Mistress" Tenno said as he adjusted his jacket and made his way outside.

After thoroughly inspecting, oiling and cleaning the weapon pieces, the weapons themselves were assembled. A top of the line sniper rifle sat off to the side, next to an assault rifle and finally a hand gun. Kay took the sniper rifle's scope with her as she bounded down the stairs to Shinju's office.

"I have arrived!" She announced as she threw the door open. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" Shinju asked, annoyance in her tone and demeanour. "I've heard of it but have yet to give a shit" Kay responded smiling. "Here's the scope. Mount your camera and whatever and I'll radio you from the range once I get the sights zeroed in". "Roger" Shinju said sarcastically.

The rest of the day was spent with each woman preparing her part of the mission and going over the mission in detail, trying to think of alternative plans in case something went wrong, plotting escape routes and pick up points.

After two days of practice, rehearsals, and long night discussions, they were ready. The mission was green lighted for the next night, when there would be no moon and the night would be full of shadows.