Charlemagne's Stolen Secret - Part 3

Story by zmeydros on SoFurry

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#14 of Persephone and Tritonia

Charlemagne makes it through the meeting with Mark Brin only to find something's gone missing from her room. With her needy body making her emotions spiral out of control, she tests her team's trust.

When Persephone helps Charlemagne inspect her room, their ire and bodies collide.

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Charlemagne's Stolen Secret - Part 3 ~A Persephone and Tritonia story~ by Zmeydros (Edited by Tiliquain and Journeymanic)

"Who's Francesca?" Persephone and Tritonia asked in unison.

Alphonse and Pepper had their foreheads wrinkled in confusion.

"She's my Chief of Operations." Mark shook his head. "This is so like her. I bet I got some messages during dinner and she's responding to the time-sensitive ones."

Where was Francesca's briefcase? Mark had handed her his laptop to take notes during dinner and I couldn't see her briefcase anywhere in the room. Shouldn't there have also been a paper bag somewhere? The one she'd been holding in her left hand when she stepped onboard?

Catching on that I wanted to check on Francesca, Tritonia said, "I'd feel better if we checked on her."

"I'll be right back." I put my hands on the table with the intention of scooting back, but before I could plant my feet, Mark's hand was already on the back of my chair.

"No need to trouble yourself. If she's not back in the next five minutes, I'll go check on her myself, okay?" Mark's face didn't have even a hint of worry, but it was too blank. Like the people who tried so hard not to have a tell in poker that their tell was their face being too neutral.

I made a mistake by following up with, "There was an attack on the base last week and we don't have replacements for our security contingent yet. If she's in trouble, there's no one to--"

"There was an attack on the base?" Mark's eyes widened.

"I'm sorry I didn't inform you yet, it's all in my next report," I said.

Persephone, Alphonse, Tritonia, and I spent the next twenty minutes going over the details of the attack with everyone gathered there. I wanted to check on Francesca, but I was having to run damage control the whole time. The attack would make us look very bad if it wasn't handled with care.

Just as the conversation was ending, I heard the airlock cycle again. A couple minutes later, Francesca walked in holding the brown paper bag she'd had when I'd met her. Either the hormones and instincts that came with my new mare cunt were addling me, or I was losing my mind. She couldn't have gone back to the submarine to grab a bag she'd already brought in.

I sensed a common reason for all my observations, but I couldn't imagine what it could be.

Francesca walked up to the table and pulled the bottle of Pineau des Charentes out of the bag before setting it down. "Mark, a very important message came into your inbox and I think it would be best if we cut things short."

Mark gave just the slightest hint of a smile before sighing and wiping that smile off his face with a somber frown. "Are you sure it can't wait?"

"I'm sure," Francesca said.

"I'm sorry everyone, but we best call it a night," Mark pulled his cloth napkin off of his lap and put it on the table before getting out of his chair.

"Wait, don't I know you from somewhere?" Persephone asked as she looked at Francesca.

"Trust me, I'd remember meeting a talking shark." Francesca's friendly smile didn't match her terrified eyes. I could see beads of sweat at her hairline.

Persephone laughed. "My mistake. I hope we get more time to talk next time we meet."

"Same here, Persephone," Francesca shook Persephone's hand without hesitation.

Francesca must have read Persephone's dossier before she came on base because she hadn't shown even a hint of surprise at Persephone's appearance. Her sweating and nervous body language had to be about something else.

The other guests came over to us and shook our hands, not giving us room to get up. As they were leaving, I tried to get up to follow them, but my legs wouldn't even push me back. The moment I tried to scoot, my clit dragged on my panties and made me gasp. I looked at Persephone, "No need to wait for me, I'll catch up." I looked at Alphonse and Pepper so they knew I was talking to them too, "We should follow our guests out." I winked slowly at them, a gesture I'd taught everyone. It meant that something was up. I had no idea what they were supposed to look for, but I hoped they'd find something amiss.

Ted, Martha, and Harman were politely waiting to be escorted to the airlock while Mark and Francesca were looking like they wanted to bolt for the exit, but knew they should wait for Pepper and Alphonse.

Alphonse and Pepper got up from the table quickly, but Persephone stayed put. I wasn't going to just let her watch me gasp and moan as I got out of my chair. "Percy, get your butt moving."

"I can't," Persephone said.

"What?" I glared at her and said, "I gave you an order," under my voice so our guests wouldn't hear us.

Everyone was awkwardly waiting for Persephone, who was being so insubordinate!

"One you don't want me to follow," Pesephone said.

I turned red as I got the urge to sock her right in the jaw. "You'd think I'd know whether I want you to follow an order or not."

"Please don't make me get up." Persephone whispered as she grabbed my left hand and put it on her thigh.

One of her fully-erect cocks throbbed under my fingers, lightly squirming in its fabric confines. My pussy clenched and I had to breathe out a puff of air to avoid moaning. What my pussy had wanted for the last nine hours was under my hand! My wetness soaked through the seat of my pants as I looked at our guests and said, "Persephone just reminded me of an important matter we must discuss. We'll be along shortly."

With that, our guests, guided by Alphonse and Pepper, headed for the airlock.

Taking my hand back, I said, "What's gotten into you?"

"What's gotten into you? You smell like you're in heat and you came when you were eating that cake." Persephone sniffed the air and then groaned.

I shivered with arousal. "You're attracted to me?"

"You can't even imagine." Persephone panted.

The way she said it made my mare parts wink and I moaned while arching my back.

"You're attracted to me too?" Persephone raised an ear in question.

"Yes, now that we have that settled, we need to get up and say goodbye before they leave. Something's off and I want to try and figure out what it is."

Persephone glowed brighter as she got out of her chair.

Getting out of my chair nearly gave me another orgasm and Persephone's bioluminescence flickered madly as she heard the noises I made. Once I was standing, things were a bit better.

"Can I stand behind you so they don't see my--?" Persephone blushed deeper.

Gasping, I grabbed the tool bag from under the sink and handed it to her. "Here, just hold this in front of your crotch."

"Charlemagne, I think you need a tool bag too." Persephone was looking at my crotch.

"SHIT!" The navy blue of my uniform wasn't quite dark enough to hide the acute wetness between my legs. I grabbed the frilly yellow apron Gillon had been wearing earlier from the hook next to the stove and put it on.

Persephone laughed at the sight of me in a girly apron.

I gave her a stone cold glare.

She stopped laughing.

Leading the way, I went to the diving equipment room. My apron was such a surprise for everyone gathered that they all did a double take. I used that moment of hesitation to count bags. Francesca and Mark were holding the briefcases I'd seen them come in with and she was still holding the paper bag. Wasn't the paper bag empty? She'd taken the wine out.

As I struggled to put it all together while my entire body was tingling with need, Mark shook my hand again and said, "This was a terrific experience. I look forward to next time."

"Sure, I'm always up for a stimulating conversation," I said.

Ted chuckled and shook my hand. "Took the words right out of my mouth. Looking forward to next time, dear."

Martha gave me a nice big hug the moment Ted let go. "Next time you're in Washington, I'm gonna be disappointed if you don't spend at least one night on my guest bed."

I hugged her back feeling a bit icky about it because the touch was making me even more hot and bothered. Patting her back, I said, "Oh, I'd be happy to stay with you the whole trip."

"That would be fantastic!" She let go and gave me a big smile.

Francesca shook my hand, "So good to have met you."

I tried to peer down into the paper bag as I shook her hand, but the top was too closed for me to see inside. My brain was foggy and exhausted. They had enough clearance to check things out of The NPO Repository, as long as the items weren't too dangerous. Their money helped keep the lights on, after all. If I counted the bags wrong or had missed something obvious and embarrassed them with an accusation, they'd be able to use the report on the attack to convince the council to relieve me from duty.

If I'd thought ahead, I could have used an NPO to communicate with my team covertly while we were all standing here. But then we'd be staring off into space periodically looking very strange...It was unavoidable, I had to let them go and then investigate and see if I could figure out what was up and gather some irrefutable evidence of whatever had transpired. And, in that case, I would be better off if I acted like everything was normal.

Harman shook my hand. "It was fun to finally get to see how you think, Charlie."

"Oh, so you're calling me Charlie already?" I asked.

"Forgive me, I heard one of your team members call you that and liked the sound of it," he grimaced.

I chuckled. "I'm just giving you crap. With the amount of money you're giving us, you can call me whatever you want."

Ted and Harman gave nice belly laughs that lightened everyone's mood, just like I'd planned. My playfulness took the edge off for Francesca and Mark, they were no longer hunching from tension in their shoulders.

It was all smiles as they said goodbye to the rest of my team and headed through the airlock. As they undocked from the station, I called everyone to the diving equipment room so I could set my whole team loose on my investigation. "I need a half hour to attend to some things. I want everyone to spend that entire time scouring the habitat for anything amiss: bulkheads that aren't properly latched, any object you don't recognize, any objects that are missing, a disheveled closet or storage space or any other signs of a search. Then we'll have a meeting in the command center."

Tritonia asked, "Do you have any more information? Do you know what we're looking for?"

"No, all I know is that Francesca was gone for an extended time without supervision and she and Mark were nervous about something," I said.

"Their conversation about the aperitif did strike me as odd," Gillon said, looking at his fingernails.

"Yeah, I thought so too," Abrams said. "I got the same feeling when people were trying to remember their lines in acting class."

My eyes widened. "That's exactly it! Okay! I'm convinced something was up, go find out what." I turned to Persephone. "Work with Gillon to connect Tritonia's enhanced optical array and then carry her around to see if she can spot anything."

"Will do!" Persephone saluted me.

Everyone scattered, except Persephone. She waited till everyone had left the room before saying, "I feel like I know Francesca from somewhere, but I can't place her. Her hair and eyes were wrong, but the rest of her, I feel like I've seen her before."

"But you're not sure who she is?" I asked.

"No, she's changed her appearance enough that I can't place her." Persephone sighed. "The worst part is, I feel like I should be angry at her and don't even know why."

"Well, if you think of who she is or where we should look to try and find out, let me know. I definitely don't think she's Mark's chief of operations," I said. "Her background check was approved by the council, but they are in Mark's pocket."

Persephone looked at the way my pants only went down to above my ankles and the way my arms stuck out further from my sleeves than they should and tilted her head. "Did your uniform shrink?"

"They got me the wrong size when I ordered a replacement," I lied.

"That sucks, hope you can get another right-sized one soon." She looked a bit shy, shy in a way that made me think she wanted to flirt with me.

I smiled trying to ignore the thrill I was getting from Persephone's continued interest. "I think the one that fits is dry now. I'll put it on before the meeting."

"Before I go, I wanted to ask you about what you said just before we left the dinner--"

I laughed, trying to hide my desire. "Just because we're into each other doesn't mean we should fuck."

She looked at the floor and hugged herself with her left arm. "Oh, okay."

"Look, I have to use my better judgement. I'm your commanding officer and that's not a good power dynamic for sexual relationships." My whole body ached for me to say something different. I knew what the professional thing to do was and now that Persephone was actually on the menu, I knew I had to resist.

On the other hand, wasn't casual sex between two people who could just keep things strictly sexual pretty much okay no matter the arrangement? Why were there all these rules surrounding sexual behavior? I bit my lip and pushed those horny thoughts out of my mind.

"I understand, ma'am," Persephone said before walking out of the room, still looking crestfallen.

Before I made a mistake, I needed to revert my pussy back to its normal state so I could use my vibrator to get a few quick orgasms. Then, I'd be thinking clearer. Rushing to my quarters as fast as I could without triggering my pussy or losing my footing due to the insanity that was starting to befall my tailbone, I opened the bulkhead. Part of me had worried my door would be ajar and my room would be ransacked, but it was the same as I'd left it.

I went to the storage compartment under my bed, opened it, and reached into the back corner...only to find that the NPO sphere that reverted me back to normal wasn't there.

My heart thudded in my chest as I grabbed a flashlight and looked at everything in that large storage compartment. No sphere.

I retraced my steps from this morning checking every place I might have set the sphere down and still didn't find it. After frantically pulling the covers off every bunk in my quarters and looking in every storage compartment while my own wetness streamed down my legs, I knew. The NPO I relied on was no longer in my room. All that strange behavior I'd noticed had been a heist.

I was fifteen minutes late to the meeting I'd scheduled and when I arrived, I said, "They stole an NPO right from under our noses. How the hell did we let that happen?!"

"Wait, what?" Alphonse said.

"I was keeping a potentially dangerous NPO locked away in my room for maximum security and somehow Francesca got in there and fucking took it. I blame myself, and I blame every single one of you!" I growled, my anger mixing poorly with my acute, constant arousal.

Gillon met my eyes and let his compassion show. The others were still processing my abnormally irritated demeanor.

"How can we be sure it was her?" Pepper asked.

"Is it not obvious to any of you? The bags she was holding when she entered never made it to dinner, she didn't act like any COO I've ever met, and she there were times when she seemed like an actor trying to remember her lines. Just like Abrams said. Abrams, the only person here, other than me, who suspected something was up." I scoffed. "And now a billionaire has a powerful stolen NPO."

"What does it do?" Abrams asked.

"That's beyond your clearance," I said.

"Is it beyond mine?" Septimus asked, squinting at me with suspicion.

Putting my head in my hands, I groaned as my whole body reached painful levels of arousal. My nipples and clit felt like they were being pinched. I was sure the wetness between my legs was visible and was feeling embarrassed on top of it all. This was rock bottom. I'd been an idiot and taken off the apron. "Why can't any of you stay on topic? What's with all this completely irrelevant chatter?"

"Irrelevant?!" Septimus laughed. "We don't even know what the stolen NPO looks like! We could trip over it and not know we'd found it. What the hell, Charlie?!"

"It's a goddamned aluminum sphere about the size of a baseball, there, are you happy n--" I growled in frustration as my pussy winked in the middle of me trying to speak. It wasn't a growl I'd ever made before and sounded more like something that would come from a wild animal.

Gillon grimaced to show me that I'd gone way too far. Septimus had his hands in front of him, trying to protect himself from my rage. Pepper, Persephone, and Abrams were gaping at my bizarre behavior.

Tsubumi looked deeply concerned as she said, "Okay, you seem really off."

Tritonia said, "This is atypical behavior for you, Charlemagne."

"Yeah, why are you yelling at everyone for not noticing one of the smoothest heists I've ever seen? Maybe we should just go look at your locks and start investigating. More yelling isn't going to do anyone any good." Persephone was staring me down, confident she had the higher ground.

"That's some very insubordinate behavior, Percy." I narrowed my eyes at her.

"I'm sorry, but everyone looks too shocked for this to be normal behavior for you and I'm worried because you don't seem like the sort of leader that just explodes at everyone when something goes wrong." Persephone held her hands in front of herself as if she was expecting me to deck her.

I wanted to sock her right in the snout for the second time that day. Especially because she was so damned right!

Working to calm myself, I took a couple deep breaths. The many screens displaying readouts pertaining to the base glowed brightly over Alphonse's desk. Septimus was hiding in the far corner against the wall where we'd affixed a sixty-inch screen for the powerpoint projector. Abrams was leaning on the large oval conference table. Gillon was standing next to him, gripping Tritonia's top handle while resting her heavy cylinder on the table. Persephone and Pepper were leaning on the wall next to Alphonse's desk, comforting each other.

Keeping my expression calm despite the typhoon inside me, I said, "Undermining my command in front of an audience is unacceptable behavior. In the future, if any of you have constructive criticism about my leadership, tell me in private, understood?"

Everyone responded in the affirmative.

I said, "Percy, I recall you saying the electronic locks currently installed in my quarters are some of the best ever made?"

"They are..." Persephone stepped away from Pepper. "Shall we go take a look at them?"

Meeting the eyes of everyone else in the room one by one, I said, "While we investigate my quarters, find Mark's submarine. It couldn't have gotten too far."

"What are we to do if we find it?" Gillon asked.

"Monitor it and discuss options to make sure they don't make it to port," I said as I motioned for Persephone to follow me. Once she was walking toward me, I left for my quarters.

Persephone went to her quarters to get a bunch of equipment and then started examining my door lock. A few minutes later, she said, "There's no sign of tampering, that means she must have used something to listen to the electronics inside the door lock. I need to look at the other lock to be sure."

I led her over to the storage compartment and she spent a few more minutes looking at it. Eventually, she said, "Fuck," under her breath.

"What?"

"I know who Francesca is. She's Uma Todone: a woman who has taken tons of jobs right out from under me. She knows more about electronic locks than anyone." Persephone sighed. "I should have recognized her. She keeps herself bald and wears a different wig for every job. She also likes to use colored contacts and makeup tricks to disguise the shape of her face."

"My instincts were correct then, she wasn't his COO."

"Yeah, we should go report to the others," Persephone got up.

"Before we go back, I need to make sure you understand something. If you question my fitness to command in front of everyone again, I will have to discipline you. It is dangerous to undermine the authority of a commanding officer," I said.

"But we deal with NPOs, what if something's genuinely wrong with you?" she asked.

"People could use that excuse to disregard any order I gave if I let them. If I can't trust my subordinates to follow orders, they become a liability."

"But that trust has to go both ways. Right now, I know something's wrong with you. I can literally smell it. Everyone noticed you were behaving differently. You seemed overly aggressive and agitated. And you lied to me. You're definitely at least four inches taller than before." Persephone backed away as she said this.

My jaw clenched as she spoke. I wanted to beat the everliving shit out of her! "I'm fine. Let's just go back to the others."

"You're leaking so much fem juice that the crotch of your pants is wet. You're sweating like you have a fever and you're definitely taller. It's a lot like when I..." Persephone's eyes went wide. "You're transforming into a hybrid, aren't you? That's the only--"

"I told you, I'm fine, goddamnit!" I pushed her onto my bunk.

She yelped in surprise.

Insufferable, she was the most insufferable person alive. I got over her and held her against the bed while sitting on her so she couldn't budge. "Why won't you fucking listen to me?"

"Because you're in heat and out of your fucking mind!" Persephone yelled.

It felt good to be atop her, dominating her with my extra inches of height. I didn't know why I wanted to hold her down or why I had to be pressed up against her. My thoughts were like sand falling between my fingers. I couldn't even examine them anymore. All I knew is I wanted something from her.

Her pricks squirmed under my butt cheeks, probably sore from bearing my weight. I moaned and ground my pussy against the rise her cocks made right where they came out of her slit. I'd planted my pussy on that spot without a second thought.

"That's it!" She growled and bit my uniform shirt, her sharp teeth also hooking my bra underneath. Her lips were curled into a snarl as she shook her head back and forth shredding my shirt and bra to tatters. It was predatory, animalistic, and hot as hell.

I grabbed her uniform shirt and tore it open, the buttons flying every which way. We looked into each other's eyes, then we grabbed each other and pulled ourselves into a hungry kiss. She grabbed my breasts, which would have been gigantic on anyone but me. I was such a big woman that they looked to be less than C cups, but there was still a lot to fondle. My nipples hardened in her fingers as I moaned into our kiss.

She humped against my crotch over and over as my wetness soaked into her pants. I broke the kiss and took her tits into my large hands. She squealed while her dicks twitched wildly in the confines of her pant legs. When she retaliated by pinching my nipples, I flipped us onto our sides. We wrapped our arms around each other, pressing our fronts together like we were in a lesbian porno. Persephone was every bit as vicious and desperate for touch as I was. She was the only person on base that truly understood what I was going through. No explanation was needed, no discussion, just two animals getting their lust taken care of.

After chafing our parts against our pants for a few minutes, we locked eyes. I let go of her and we both rolled onto our backs to peel our pants and underwear off. Her prehensile dicks found each other and started some mutual stimulation. Then she flipped onto her hands and knees and moved between my legs. My heart raced as she looked at the black and pink mottled flesh of my pussy and the thick, two and a half inch clit jutting out from it.

She blinked as if she thought she was hallucinating."Y-you have a horse--"

"Shut up!" I grabbed her head and shoved her face against my snatch.

Her exuberant licking and dangerous toothy sucking of my clit made me groan and writhe. But it wasn't what I needed. I grabbed her under her arms and hauled her on top of me. Then I licked my own juices off her face as I hugged her against me. Soon we were making out like drunk sorority sisters who were desperate for their first taste of female flesh. We nearly rolled right off the bunk as we groped each other's asses, clawed each other's backs, and dry humped each other.

We were sweating profusely from all the effort, but the heat felt good. When we ended up on our sides again, breasts and fronts firmly pressed together, I lifted my left leg and put it over her hip. This motion was sheer instinct at this point, as was Persephone shoving her cocks inside me the moment she had an opening.

Our grunts and moans echoed throughout my quarters as inch after inch of her glorious twin pricks filled my mare cunt. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced or imagined. Both of her dicks could move independently and I could hardly make sense of what was going on inside me beyond the immense pleasure it was causing. And she kept changing what she was doing while working to stretch me wider and wider so she could prepare me for the increased girth as we got closer and closer to hilting herself in me. All the while, I was grinding my big clit against her groin so much I was going to wear us raw.

Somehow she knew exactly what I needed. It was like we both wanted the exact same things out of sex. Her licks and nips to my neck nearly drove me over the edge every time. When she bit my neck, I tilted my head to give her better access. Then she did the same for me while I bit hers. Her shark skin was a fascinating texture. It wasn't as rough as a normal shark's, but it still felt a bit like flexible armor. I doubted I could cut it with my teeth even if I wanted to.

I could feel her toned pecs tensing under her breasts just as mine did the same from the exhausting firm hold we had on each other.

Our raw sexuality had a tender underbelly to it. Not because we were holding back. The tenderness came from us being so fully in sync with each other that whenever one of us was fierce, the other was supple. When she thrust into me, I tilted my hips toward her and relaxed so she could get in as deep as possible while my hands pulled her ass toward me, making sure she took everything I gave her.

The pleasure was so constant and intense that the stretching and pressure at my tailbone barely passed my notice. Not wanting to think about the implications of getting a horse tail, I gave every bit of myself to our coupling.

My pussy twitched as I yelled, "HARDER! THICKER!"

Persephone was likely exhausted by this point, but she followed my orders with enthusiasm. Widening the helix her dicks had made inside me, she pulled almost all the way out and then shoved back in so hard that the shockwave traveled all the way from my ass to my tits. Her huge balls made a "plap" against my backside every time she thrust home. Just feeling the violent contractions her buttocks made as she pounded me made me want to cum. She had the perfect body: functionally fit and beautifully hybridized.

I could feel my tail pressing out against the bed sheets, nearing the half foot mark.

Persephone reached under it to find my equine donut of a tailhole and traced the tip of her middle finger around it. I whinnied for the first time in my life and pressed back against her touch. I was so sensitive back there, so wonderfully vulnerable.

Then she gave me an order, barking it as sharply as a drill sergeant, "CUM YOU STUBBORN MARE BITCH!" and pressed her middle finger into my donut.

I threw my head back and let out a screaming whiny as my entire body convulsed. It was the most embarrassing sound I'd ever made.

She drove her finger deeper as she hilted herself in me with one last, monstrous thrust. Her twin lengths pulsed from base to tip four times before becoming twin volcanoes. Her hot sticky mess filled me to the brim as she squealed and writhed against me.

Us having sex was the most efficient and productive experience of my entire life. I felt like I'd just discovered how to crack the atom.

My muscular mare cunt and her shafts shared a passionate dance as we came so hard we were letting loose a cacophony of curses and moaning cries. I felt like someone had thrown me into a nuclear reactor. I was so hot I should have been bursting into flames, but that heat, that burning, was ecstasy. Orgasms had been good in the past, but this was beyond my comprehension, something that shattered the ceiling of my self knowledge and reached heights unimagined.

When we came down from orgasm and I'd taken a few deep breaths, I said, "Thank you."

Persephone gave me a squeeze. "That was amazing."

"From now on, we're going to be a huge distraction to each other." I sighed.

"Unless we do this frequently." She licked my nose.

"Unless I get the item they stole back," I said. "This was great, but needing this every day would really fuck up my life."

"What did it do?" she asked.

"It allowed me to reset my body every twelve hours so that I wouldn't continue transforming into a horse hybrid," I explained.

"I wonder what Mark needs it for?" Her pricks were starting to soften inside me and retreat back into her. Part of me wished they could remain buried in there forever, then I wouldn't have to go through being painfully aroused with no way to get off ever again.

"Speculation is useless at this point. There are proper channels for him to go through if he wants to study an NPO or put it to use," I said. "Him stealing it means he's not planning on returning it or that he has a plan for it that's so urgent he couldn't wait for paperwork. We must get it back as soon as possible."

"Couldn't we just confront him and ask for it back?" Persephone asked.

"Did you find any evidence that of tampering we can use to prove it was stolen?" I raised an eyebrow.

"The lack of evidence is evidence." She was looking through the wall, deep in thought.

"What?"

"How did Francesca know exactly where it was in your room?" Persephone asked. "There is no evidence of a search and you have six locked storage containers in here. She barely had enough time to hack the two locks she opened in the time she was gone. The exploit she used is incredibly time consuming."

"What was the exploit she used?"

"She used an antenna to listen to the electromagnetic radiation inside the locks. Like how researchers in Project Tempest were able to record what was being displayed on the computer screens in the room next door. Through listening to the components inside the lock as she hacked it, she was able to figure out what the unlock code was. The only reason I know about it is because she's famous for using a similar exploit on a Swiss diamond bank, even though no one has been able to prove it."

I blinked. "You sure you're not making this up? How could you read a computer screen in another enclosed room?"

"When electronics operate, the electrons moving through the components release EM radiation. That radiation can be picked up if you have sensitive equipment. Then you can reverse engineer those signals to find out what was going on inside the electronics. It's why server rooms in secure facilities, like ours, have air gaps. Air gapping is to prevent things like Project Tempest." She paused. "The equipment used to do this usually isn't very portable. Especially when it's made to listen to something like a shielded lock. These locks give off very faint EM signatures to prevent that exploit, but through Mark Brin, she likely has access to million-dollar, specially-engineered equipment."

I stroked her arm. "You mentioned it was surprising she knew where in my room to look?"

She cupped my ass. "Yeah, I'm assuming people like Mark Brin are privy to things like who checked out what NPO, but your equine transformation is something almost no one knows?"

I nodded.

"If I was going to steal it from you, under your bed is the last place I would have looked. Instead, I would have checked your safe first and your safe...It would be a nightmare, even for Francesca and her equipment."

"Oh?"

"You have to put in a key to get the screen to turn on and the lock for that key would take me a few hours to pick. If it was in the safe, Francesca would have stolen the whole safe," Persephone said. "And she very well may have been caught. For them, that was the worst case scenario..." Persephone pulled out of me and scooted to the edge of the bunk so she could look up at my fire alarm. "Just like I thought. Your fire alarm has been disabled. She was planning to breach the safe with a thermite torch! The only weak point on that model is that they used thinner metal to make it lighter and more portable."

"You're a genius!" I kissed her.

"I'm just very good at my job." She grinned.

"Want to show Francesca up and steal my NPO out from under her nose, just like she did to us?" I grinned. "That would show them. They'd have no way to complain about it without admitting they'd stolen from us in the first place."

"Fuck yes!" She was beaming.

"Well, let's get a shower and then go meet the team," I said.

"Wait, are there NPOs that can sense other NPOs?" she asked.

"No." I stared blankly for a moment, remembering something. "But the Americans recently discovered a Soviet research project that was trying to make an NPO detector."

"Francesca has one," Persephone said. "Or she just randomly decided not to breach your safe and look under your bed after she'd already disabled your smoke alarm."

My eyes went wide. "Shit!"

"I think the tracker is slow to work because otherwise she would have just turned it on the moment she walked into the room and not bothered with the alarm. On jobs, every lost moment is a moment that might get you caught. If I was doing this job, I would have set the tracker down the moment I entered, and while it did its thing, I would have prepared for breaching the safe which was the most likely place for the NPO to be stored."

I kissed Persephone deeply and forcefully. I'd never met a more brilliant person and I didn't even have the words to express how fucking astounding she was.

As she sputtered and tried to make sense of the sudden kiss, I said, "You're the best kind of nerd."

She gave me a peck on the lips. "And you're an incredible lay."

I rolled my eyes. "I hope I'm more than that."

"Well, you kept us all alive during the worst possible circumstances, so I think you're a good commander, too."

"You think?"

"I'm still reeling from the tantrum you had before we had sex." Persephone used the sheets to wipe herself off a bit and then got up.

"Fair enough." I sighed as I wiped myself off so I wouldn't drip and got out of bed.

"Y-you have a blonde horse tail! I love it!" She was bouncing.

Looking behind me, I said, "Crap!" It was luxurious and down to my calves. Also, there was no way it would fit in my uniform dress pants unless I cut a hole in them.

We took a shower where she was overly preoccupied with shampooing her cum out of my new tail. I pretended to be indifferent to avoid encouraging her, but it did feel very nice.

When we got out of the shower, she put on her uniform and buttoned her military jacket to hide the fact she didn't have a shirt. Then she dashed to her quarters to get a shirt that hadn't had the buttons pulled off. I cut a hole in a fresh pair of uniform pants and a pair of underwear. Then I threaded my tail through as I got dressed. When all was said and done, I walked toward the command center. Persephone followed behind me so she could watch my tail swish involuntarily: at least someone was enjoying it.

When I got to the command center, everyone stopped what they were doing the moment they spied blonde horse hair hanging down between my legs. As if to taunt me, my tail swished just then. Tsubumi and Alphonse's eyes were sparkling with delight and wonder. They must have thought the tail fit me as well as Persephone did. Septimus looked like he was about to faint, Gillon frowned with worry, Abrams and Pepper had their mouths half-open.

Tritonia said, "Did you undergo the Kirkii Failsafe Procedure or something?"

"What? With all the weird shit we've been through, me having a tail should be the least of your concerns." I pointed at the screens with an arm that was obviously too long for the sleeve it was in. "Show me where Mark is."

Alphonse forced himself to look back at his computer screens. There was a pink tint to his cheeks as he pulled up a live video feed that showed Mark Brin and his entourage standing on the deck of his submarine. They'd surfaced about nine miles from our base. The ticker on the bottom of the news screen said, "Mark Brin about to make a major announcement."

"What the fuck?" I said.

"Turns out he had a press conference scheduled," Alphonse said.

We all watched as the view switched to the camera on the deck of his sub. Mark Brin said, "I know I may seem out of touch with the common man having a press conference on the deck of my own personal submarine. A revelation in my personal life has caused me to realize that I have too much stuff and I don't want to be out of touch with everyone who doesn't have six figures in their bank account. Effective immediately, I'm giving a quarter of my assets, including this submarine and the private island it's stationed at, to the POSC so they can continue their work protecting and nurturing the world's oceans."

"He knew!" I said. "He knew we'd come after him and he's fucking bribing us to let him get away with--"

I shut up when Mark Brin continued. "Half my assets will be used to create a foundation that will employ technology and economic incentives to fix our dysfunctional social services. What sorts of problems will this organization tackle? Let me give you two examples. My best programmer learned everything he knew on his own and still doesn't have a computer science degree. I want that to change. My foundation will work with government agencies to develop a certification system so students who learn online and show aptitude can get post secondary degrees without having to set a foot in college. Secondly, I recently learned how underfunded and mismanaged our veterans' programs are. To aid in solving this problem, my new foundation will have a special contingent that focuses on making America's veterans' services the best in the world."

"Oh bloody hell, he's leaning so hard on the PR it's gonna snap under his weight," Gillon said.

I nearly lost my balance because I knew what Mark Brin was about to say next.

Mark put on his best smile and the camera took an angle that showcased his face and the gorgeous sunset behind him. "The last fourth of my assets will be leveraged to fix our damaged political system, and I won't be on the sidelines for this objective. I am officially announcing my candidacy for president of the United States of America."

Getting my NPO back had just gone from difficult, to fucking impossible.

END OF PART 3

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