FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Agent Becker took a deep breath before getting out of his car. He was standing in front of The Palm Palace Motel. Not only was it one of the two motels in Blalva Beach, it was also popular among locals for the attached diner and lounge. The latter was Becker’s destination. As he walked into the lounge he recognized one of the mercenaries from the photos Josh had taken. He was chatting and laughing with several other men at the bar. Just from how they looked he had to agree with Bob’s observations.

Becker walked up to the bar and took an empty stool near but not next to the group of mercenaries. They stopped talking as the stranger approached the bar and sat down. He could feel their eyes on him, but just ignored them and ordered a light beer. He focused his eyes on the baseball game on the TV, but he was keeping his true attention on the mercenaries as he drank his beer.

After a bit they started to talk again. From the conversation he could confirm Bob’s suspicions. He caught several foreign accents, though they all spoke English well enough. They didn’t just have military service under their belts, they were definitely soldiers of fortune going by the stories they were sharing. Unfortunately they were just swapping war stories over drinks and not any current plans. This wasn’t too surprising, given their line of work.

Since they are at a bar drinking, I don’t think they have any plans for tonight. They seem too professional for that. I should report back, to confirm Bob’s story and start making plans. Becker reached for his wallet.

As he did so he noticed the mercs grew quiet again. Becker did his best to ignore it even as he felt their eyes on him. He placed a few bills on the bar for his tab and tip.

“Hey mate,” one of them called as Becker stood up. “What do you got back there?” Becker turned and saw a slight smirk on the man’s face.

Shit, ok, Florida man time. Becker slapped the holster through his shirt. “This old girl? She’s a 1911, a real one, not one of those modern knock-offs.” Becker put on a big wide grin. My Pop-pop smuggled it back from Vietnam.”

“Oh really?” The one with the South African accent asked, obviously amused.

He could see the mercenaries were buying his act so he just rolled with it.

“Oh yeah! He disassembled it and brought it back in this little hand-carved box he bought from a local. My sis got the fancy box, I got the gun.”

“Sir, we don’t allow firearms in the motel.” The bartender said firmly. “You need to get out of here now before I call the police.”

“What’s wrong with you? You never heard of the Second Amendment? You’re making us look bad in front of the foreigners! Ah, put down the phone! I was already leaving.” Becker started to walk towards the door. “Enjoy your vacation, boys. If you swing by the gun club on Wednesday I’ll let you shoot the old girl. You know what they say, nine millimeter kills the body, forty-five kills the soul. Stay safe out there.”

As he walked through the door he could hear them all bursting out in laughter. Becker let out a long slow breath as he walked back to his car.

“Thank god for stereotypes.” He muttered under his breath as he reached his car.

***

The armory at the Blalva Beach Police Department wasn't much more than a well secured closet. It was a small town and sidearms were generally more than enough firepower for the police department. Still, even a small department needed to be prepared for emergencies. Chief Blair was inspecting one of the AR’s. The chief hadn’t fully geared up since he accepted the job in Blalva Beach twenty years ago. And the last time he did so was more as a deterrent to looters after a hurricane blew through the city. Now it was for a different incoming storm.

“I wish we had a little more firepower than this.” Officer Clemens said from the doorway.

“That’s what SWAT is for.” Blair replied before handing the rifle to Clemens. “Still, This is a hell of a mess. I’d feel safer if we just raided The Palm Palace tonight and got those damn mercs locked up.”

“Why don’t we?” Clemens asked honestly, feeling much the same himself.

“Because Harper is right.” He pulled a shotgun off the rack. “We need to get the people calling the shots or Ellie is never going to be safe, not to mention the other mermaids. These bastards already fucked over the lives of Ellie and the others. They aren’t going to get away with doing anything else to our mermaid.”

***

The alarm on the nightstand went off, its electric buzzer cut right through Sasha Kirkland’s dream and she immediately sat up in bed. She reached over to silence the alarm before turning on the bedside lamp. It was well before sunrise, but there would be time to sleep later after the asset was collected. Kirkland got out of bed and hurried to get dressed.

The cheap tourist disguise was already tossed into the trash. Kirkland dressed instead in her tailored suit, freshly pressed the day before. There was no need for blending in or subtlety anymore. After checking her necktie in the mirror one last time, Kirkland picked up a burner phone from the dresser and sent out a simple text message. Once that was done she pulled out the battery and then snapped the phone in half before tossing it.

When Kirkland stepped out of her room at The Beachfront Motel, her driver Mark and bodyguard Lou were waiting for her. She just gave them a nod before walking to the van.

This is it, all or nothing. She thought as she climbed into the back of the van. “Take us to Fourth Avenue, we don’t want to be too close or too far from the marina.”

“You got it.” Mark replied as he put the van into gear.

“Keep a lookout for the local PD, but do not engage unless I say so. Are we clear Lou?”

The bodyguard sighed. “Crystal.”

The white van slowly pulled out of the parking lot and away from the beach.

God, I need a vacation after all of this, somewhere far away from any ocean. Kirkland thought as she slipped on her headset.

***

Harper sighed as he scanned through the document on his laptop. He had been up late trying to track down more information about who had rented the vans the Mercenaries were currently using. Harper had tried to catch some sleep on the cot, but he was just too restless to get any sleep. He left the cot for Becker and focused on following what clues and information they had. Harper let out a long groan as the trail looped around back to familiar information.

“Bad news?” Rowland asked as she placed a fresh cup of coffee next to her fellow agent.

“More like no news.” Harper took a sip of coffee. “I finished tracking down the car rentals for our friends at the Palm Palace. They tie back to a shell corporation we were already looking into, so no new leads.”

“Is it enough to pursue the front company further? We might find some more information via a raid.”

“Maybe in the future, but for now it’s at best a cold lead. Still, I’ll send what I found back to my team in Quantico.”

They both turned towards the center of the boat shed when they heard Ellie break the surface of the water.

“Good, I can smell there’s already coffee.” She smiled slightly as she swam towards the coffee machine. She saw Agent Becker was passed out on the cot while Agents Harper and Rowland were over at Josh’s desk. “Where are Josh and Bob?”

“I officially kicked them out. I know they are your friends and I appreciate them watching over you, but things are about to get too serious to have the two of them here.”

Ellie let out a long sigh. “I’m not upset about that. Honestly, I feel better knowing they are safe and won’t get hurt on my behalf.” She stirred her coffee. “I already feel terrible that I’ve pulled them into this mess as much as I have.”

“That’s assuming those two stay out of trouble.” Rowland shook her head. “I’m damn sure they didn’t go far when we kicked them out

“I wasn’t happy to see how involved those two were as civilians, but don’t regret having friends willing to stand by you.”

“Uggg,” Becker sat up on the cot. “It’s too damn early to be this sappy.”

***

Elsewhere in the marina Bob and Josh were on the deck of the Sea Cucumber. They were drinking coffee as the stars were just starting to fade out. Josh was watching as the stars winked out as the sky started to brighten.

“I’m curious,” he turned towards his friend, “do you know how to actually sail a ship by the stars?”

“With the right equipment and charts, yes, I do. Are you looking to learn?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged, “maybe. At this rate I’m going to end up with my own boat, aren’t I?”

Bob just laughed. “Some people are just meant for the sea. It’s why I couldn’t give it up even after all those years in the Navy.”

“After all the shit that I went through, I feel like ending up down here with Ellie was the best thing that could have happened to me. It’s like I’m alive again working with her and you out on the ocean.”

Bob nodded and was about to say something when something caught his eye. “What the hell is that?”

He quickly went for his binoculars and looked out towards the entrance of the marina.

Josh squinted as he looked at the distant ship. “Whatever it is, it’s too big to tie up here.”

“This ain’t good.” Bob said softly

***

Chief Blair drove down the nearly empty streets of Blalva Beach. He already had several officers hidden in position around Ellie’s place. He had just checked in with them before heading out. The county SWAT team was just waiting on standby ready to respond. He knew the SWAT commander personally from his days in the city, and knew he and his men were growing impatient even knowing the stakes involved.

When I took this job I told Rosa things would be easy. Just a quiet beach town, mostly just keeping the peace and keeping drunk summer people out of trouble. I guess for the most part things were pretty quiet, even when a mermaid moved into town. And Ellie helped to keep things safe, doing all that diving work for us just for good will and beer. It’s time to pay that good will back.

Blair was just pulling up to Ellie’s place when his phone started to ring. He saw it was from Sarah at The Palm Palace and he took the call.

“Sarah, What is it?” He asked as he turned off his truck

“Chief, those men all just piled into the vans and left. They were also dressed in what looked like tactical gear to me.”

“Crap! Alright thanks for letting me know, I have to go now.”

“Stay safe!” Sara replied as he ended the call.

Fat chance of that. Blair thought as grabbed his weapons and gear. He rushed towards the front door as he shouted over the radio. “All units, this is Chief Blair! Converge on the target location!”

By the time he reached the door Agent Rowland had already opened the door.

“I got word the mercs just left the palace!” He shouted as he rushed in. “I’ve already got some boys in position. The rest are spread out through the town in case things spill over.”

“Let’s pray that doesn’t happen.” Harper said as he strapped on his vest. “SWAT is already responding, but the hostiles are going to get here first.”

“God, I think I’m going to throw up!” Ellie’s long tail twitched below the surface of the water.

“Ellie, stay low in the water. They want you alive, but you don’t want to catch any stray fire.” Blair said as he loaded and charged his rifle.

“You know what, Harper?” Roland said as she inspected her side arm one final time.

“What?” he responded as he pulled out an extra two magazines so they would be in easy reach.

“Maybe we should have taken up Bob’s offer to loan us his shotgun.”

Blair laughed and handed his shotgun to the agent. “Here, you can borrow mine.”

***

Harper was keeping his eyes on the security feed when his phone started to ring. He was going to ignore it, but saw it was Josh’s number flashing on the screen.

“This isn’t a good time, Mr. Andrews.”

“No kidding, Bob and I just spotted a strange ship pulling into the marina out of the bay. Bob says it’s an old landing craft.”

“The hell? Where did they find something like that? Keep an eye on them, but stay clear of Ellie’s place, the mercenaries are inbound.” Harper didn’t wait for confirmation before ending the call.

“Shit, what do we do now?” Josh asked.

Bob was already in motion, casting off from the dock. “Time for a little naval support.” Bob said in a flat tone as he started the Sea Cucumber’s engines.

***

A pair of white vans screeched to a halt in front of Eel Bait Recovery and Salvage. The doors slid open and ten heavily armed men in combat gear poured out. Before they could advance on the boat shed, lights flicked on illuminating the street and parking pad.

“Freeze! FBI! Drop your weapons and get on the ground!” Harper’s voice blared through the intercom.

The mercenaries, however, replied by firing their weapons as they advanced on the building. Inside Chief Blair and the FBI agents took cover behind a metal container as the walls were perforated with bullets. Ellie in a panic dropped lower into the water. Her instinct was to completely submerge, but she had to know what was happening above the waterline.

“Open fire!” Blair shouted into his radio over the gunfire.

Up on the rooftops surrounding the boat shed the Blalva Beach PD started to return fire. They dropped two of the mercenaries before they were forced down by suppressive fire. The mercenaries rushed at the door. When Harper heard the breaching charges go off he locked eyes with Ellie.

“Ellie ! Get out of here! Now” he shouted as the ruined door was kicked in.

“Grenade!” Rowland shouted as Ellie dove under the water.

She could feel the shockwave of the flashbang through the water, but she didn’t turn to look behind her. Ellie snagged her go bag before letting herself out of the small rear exit she had made. Just as she slipped completely out from the hatch, she flicked on one of her diving lights. When she did she let out a silent scream. A pair of divers were waiting for her right outside the piles of her home. In a pure panic, Ellie flicked her long powerful tail and started to swim away from the divers.

However, they were prepared to catch a fast-moving mermaid. They fired a pair of nets at Ellie from specialized guns. She managed to avoid one, but the other one wrapped around her body. She struggled against the net, managing to free a hand and went for her diving knife. But by then the divers had caught up to her. One of them slammed her wrist with the but of his net launcher and she dropped her knife.

In a rage, she reached out and grabbed the regulator and wrenched it out of his mouth. She damaged the supply hoses as she yanked and pulled and the diver was forced to surface. The other diver further secured her body and then proceeded to pull her towards the surface. Ellie thrashed her body, but couldn’t get enough force in any direction to pull free from the two divers as they pulled her towards a strange ship she never saw before.

The front of the ship lowered down into the water like a ramp. She saw a tank full of water that was obviously waiting for her. She struggled even harder trying to pull the pair of divers back into the bay, but she couldn’t do more than just slow them down.

“Oh fuck!” Josh shouted as he saw the divers surface and drag Ellie across the surface of the water. “That’s why they brought that thing, so they wouldn’t need a crane!”

Bob's eyes narrowed as he threw the throttle to full. His other hand was gripping the wheel with white knuckles.

“What are you doing!” Josh’s shout was barely audible over the engines.

“Performing the oldest combat maneuver in naval history. Prepare for impact!”

Josh ducked down and gripped the side rail as tightly as he could. There was nothing the landing craft could have done to avoid the impact, even if they had seen it coming. The Sea Cucumber crumpled up against the other ship, the force turning the ship to starboard. Bob cut the engine, grabbed his shotgun and boarded the landing craft. Josh was right behind him with an old baseball bat.

Bob fired a warning shot. The twelve gauge round got the small crew’s attention instantly.

“Every one of you mother fuckers kiss the deck!” He shouted as he racked another round. “Josh! Get Ellie!”

Josh didn’t reply, he was already heading to the open landing ramp and the diver who was trying to attach the net to a winch. The young man didn’t even think. Josh cracked the bat over the head of the diver before the other man could even look up.

“Josh!” Ellie sputtered.

She was having a hard time keeping her gills completely submerged on top of her obvious panic

“Hold on! I’m coming!” He grabbed the diver’s knife and ran into the shallow water. “Try to hold still, I don’t want to cut you.”

He started to hack at the net as quickly as he could. The net was tough, but Josh was determined to free her. Eventually it was enough for Ellie to wriggle her long body out of. Josh helped to push her body off the partially submerged ramp and back into the water. Ellie let out a shuddering sigh as she felt her gills relax

“Thank you…” There were tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry for everything!”

“No time for that now! Get to your hiding place before anything else goes wrong!”

Ellie’s tears were washed away by the bay as she slipped below the surface. As she started to swim she saw the other diver. He must have taken off after Josh jumped his partner. The diver had ditched his scuba gear and was just trying to make his way to the docks. Ellie felt a cold rage boiling inside of her.

She bolted towards the diver and grabbed him. He struggled, trying to punch and kick, but Ellie didn’t care. She dragged him down into the murky bay. Ellie wrapped him up tightly in her tail as they sank down to the bottom of the bay.

She saw his face as he struggled to hold his breath and to break free. The fear and dawning dread was clear on his face. As much as Ellie had wanted to drown him when she first grabbed him, she wasn’t a killer. It was all too much for her. She released him, and he quickly swam straight up. Ellie watched him break the surface before she started to swim away from the chaos.

Some mermaid I am, can’t even drown a fucker who deserves it. She thought as she slipped out of the marina.

***

The SWAT truck roared up , blocking access to the van. The team jumped out, weapons hot, catching the mercenaries from behind. The last one still standing after getting caught between the swat and the FBI surrendered. The expensive body armor they were wearing had saved several of the downed mercenaries from death, but not all of them were so lucky.

“Chief Blair!” the SWAT captain called into the boat shed “Hostiles are neutralized!”

“Roger that!” Blair replied as he slowly got up. “Everyone still breathing?”

“I think so, but Becker is going to need to get his ears checked out.” Rowland said as she slung the shotgun over her shoulder.

“What?” Becker shouted, still deaf from the flashbang and following the firefight.

“Yeah, We’re lucky you warned us about the flashbang or we’d really be screwed.” Harper knocked some dust off his body armor.

“Ambulance is already on the way, sir, though we might need to call in more for transport of the suspects to county.” The SWAT captain informed them.

“I want the survivors under constant guard.” Harper said with an urgent tone. “They need to be constantly monitored while under medical care.

“Trust me, they will be, they won’t get a chance to escape.” The captain said with a nod.

“I’m not worried about that, I’m worried about them getting silenced before they can say anything.”

***

“Unit three! Respond! Damn it!” Sasha Kirkland ripped off her headset and threw it down on the floor. She opened the door that separated the back of the van from the front cabin. Lou and Mark turned their heads back in surprise. “I’ve lost contact with everyone, the mission is scrubbed! Get us out of here now!”

“Yes ma’am!” Mark replied as he Quickly hit the ignition. “Where are we heading?

“Right now, just pick a direction and drive!” Kirkland pointed straight ahead.

The bodyguard reached down for a small case stashed between the front seats. He opened it up and retrieved the small submachine gun from inside. If they needed to shoot their way out, a handgun wouldn’t do them any good.

Kirkland didn’t seem to notice or care about the weapon. “Don’t speed until we are out on the highway, we don’t want to be stopped for something stupid.

‘I know, ma’am.” Mark said as he came to a complete stop at a sign before continuing.

“I knew this was a mistake. We should have aborted as soon as the FBI rolled into town and come back later. Damn impatient bastard.” Kirkland mumbled as she slipped back into her chair. Kirkland didn’t have much time to lament her situation before she heard the unmistakable sound of a police siren. Oh go no…I’m dead!

“What did you do?” Lou turned to the driver and pointed his weapon at him.

“Hey fuck you! I was driving perfectly!”

“Pull over now!” the voice of the officer came over the bullhorn.

“Don’t you even think about it!” Lou tightened his grip on the submachine gun.

“I can’t outrun a cruiser in this box!” Mark gave him the side eye. “What are you going to do shoot me? Like that will accomplish anything!”

We’re going to die regardless. Kirkland thought to herself as she slumped into her chair. I never even had a chance to even look at a cabin.

Mark pulled over, but Lou wasn’t about to give up. He jumped out of the van and opened fire with a spray of automatic fire on the cruiser. The windshield shattered and he tried to duck back behind the van for cover. Lou wasn’t fast enough, and the police returned fire. He stumbled to the ground, ending up face first on the pavement.

Mark knew that after that it would be suicide to try and resist. He was pulled out of his door and thrown roughly on the ground. Kirkland offered no resistance either as she was wrenched out of her chair and onto the sidewalk, where she was cuffed and searched.

Another cruiser was already pulling up before Kirkland was permitted to even sit up. As she watched the officers were inspecting her mobile communications center.

“Holy shit! Look at this thing, it’s like god damn NASA in there.” Officer Smith gawked at all the equipment

“Don’t mess with anything.” Officer Garcia closed the sliding door of the van. “Get TJ on the horn, we’ll have him tow it to the station and the feds can take a look at it, whenever they finish up at the marina.”

“Looks like we’ll need a tow too, our radiator took a hit judging from the coolant pooling under it.” Smith shook his head, “Think we’ll have to help clean up the mess at the marina?”

“We’ve got our own mess right here.” Garcia’s voice dropped low. “Why did he have to shoot?”

“Not now, we’ve got a job to do. I’ll call TJ, you keep an eye on those two.”

“There’s nowhere for me to run, officer, and I’d rather not die tired.” Kirkland said in a matter of fact tone.

“Please, exercise your Fifth Amendment right and shut up.” Garcia snapped

___________________________________________________

Original story and setting by Syntaxerror37

FA: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/sevencrown37/

SoFurry: https://sevencrown.sofurry.com/

Discord: therealse37

Bluesky: @sevencrown37.bsky.social