Seas Of Passion

“Miss, I feel it my duty to remind you that you are dealing with a conglomerate with interests around the world and enough manpower and weaponry to render your species extinct in a matter of months. If you attempt to gain entry into this facility you will be shot on sight.”

Lara turned away from the intercom and called the four guards over. Manfree tapped her arm meekly.

“The guards should be able to get in still miss, their data is possibly still in the system as being able to enter and exit this place.”

Lara nodded and looked at the guards expressionless faces.

“Open the door, one of you should be able to.”

One by one, they tried to open the door with their palms, but none worked, each giving a denial message and making a loud beeping noise. Undeterred, the guards shot through the keypad and then began kicking and slamming against the door until it buckled and dented inward, then fell off its hinges, revealing the inside of the facility as well as four more guards heading down the corridor at the far end of the first floor. Lara leapt out of the line of fire and ordered her guards to attack. As one, all four men dropped to one knee and began firing in almost perfect unison, causing their targets to retreat down the corridor, though they didn’t make it far before they were down. Lara’s guards continued firing on their prone bodies until there was absolutely no movement and then stood up and turned to Lara, awaiting further instructions.

“Manfree, if you want to be my slave you have to prove yourself to me first; take these men to Lieberman’s room and kill anyone you encounter along the way. I’m going to have them obey you temporarily, so if they die it will be your own fault. Now hurry and go before more guards come this way.”

Manfree nodded and watched as Lara whispered something to each of the guards. After she whispered to each one, he would turn and look at Manfree expectantly.

“Thank you for this opportunity miss, I won’t fail you!”

“Hurry up and go,” Lara said disdainfully. She walked out of the facility and back to the sedan. As she did so, she saw Jacob holding his midsection as he leant against the side of the car.

“Jacob, what’s wrong with you? Are those toxins harming you somehow?”

“Yes, I suppose my healing ability isn’t as strong as it once was, not to mention I saved you back on the shore, which cost a lot of my energy.”

“Don’t blame me, it’s clearly because you’ve been spending too much time as a human and your abilities are weakening. This is all you have to look forward to if you don’t give up your foolish desire to be one of them. I’m going to start my own clan and bring about the great cull; join me and once it is complete you’ll be able to roam the whole earth freely and all the remaining humans will be your slaves. Surely that’s better than living among them as if you’re equal to them when you should be their master?”

“Lara, I haven’t ever been a fighter, in my last incarnation I was a whale shark and before that a basking shark; violence just doesn’t excite me like it does you. I wouldn’t do anything but get in the way.”

“You’re a waste of a good shark Jacob, is it a human woman perhaps? Or maybe it’s human women in general? Think how many you would have once the cull was complete! With 95-99% of all humans gone, every woman that remained would kill to be a member of your harem because we will control all. Their so-called civilization will fall back to the same place it was in the time of that foolish tower they attempted to build into the sky. You don’t have to answer now, just think about it; I have many things I must do before I even lay my plan before the high council, but I’ll tell you this: if you get in my way, even once, even on accident then I will teach you about the one useful thing I’ve learned from humans: torture.”

Lara walked back into the facility and heard the sound of gunfire from the second floor. She grimaced as she looked at the elevator but then saw a flight of stairs and used it instead. At the top of the stairs, she saw the guards she controlled pressed against the wall for cover, popping from behind it to fire on their targets one after the other. One of them had a deep wound in his left arm and was unable to aim, but otherwise they were all in fighting condition. Manfree was far away from them and the fighting, barking orders at them. When he saw Lara, he immediately seemed relieved.

“Miss Lara, thank goodness you’re here! We’re running low on ammunition for the guns and these guards seem to have enough to last forever, what do we do?”

“Are we close to Lieberman’s office yet?” Lara asked impatiently, getting a nod from the guard with the wounded arm. Lara moved close to the corridor and spoke loudly, hoping her voice would carry to the guards they were battling.

“Stop this foolishness; you can’t hope to win against me and my men. If you give up right now I will control you, but not harm you at all, you have my word on that. I am only here to take over, not slaughter mindlessly. Nothing will change for you if I am in command, so why are you fighting against me? Put your weapons down and stop getting in my way before I lose my patience.”

There was a poignant silence as the guards weighed their options and soon enough, four pistols followed by four submachine guns clattered into the corridor.

“Good, now walk slowly to me, hands up,” Lara said, keeping her guards in front of her just in case. When the men arrived and nervously began looking everywhere but at her eyes, she smiled coldly and walked up to them.

“It won’t hurt at all, just look at me and let me control you. You will still be able to think and see, I will just be in control of all you do. Hurry and look at me or I will tire of this and simply kill you all.”