Winter Wasteland, Part 4

With the snow leopard having left, the clothed one turned to R.C.L.E.P.A.O.S. and spoke up, "I wonder why she did not try to escape as others tend to around you."

R.C.L.E.P.A.O.S. simply smirked around the cigar and gave off a deep chuckle, "Probably too scared to try, I imagine they haven't seen anything like me around these parts."

The clothed one just nodded, "I suppose so. I don't think we'll be able to get the satellite up in a month either, it will take time to get the rest of the crew through."

R.C.L.E.P.A.O.S. nodded and just tossed half of the cigar to the floor, stomping it out with her boot, "No matter, it's just to keep her scared for now. She's not extremely beneficial, but we'll see how things turn out."

***

Misery made it to the extraction point with little incident, glad that she was finally getting out of this horrible icy wasteland. She set down the mortar launching looking device and placed the specialized flare into it, firing it quickly and covering her ears as it exploded a few hundred feet in the air. She then waited, huddled up around herself to keep warm.

A few hours later and the chopper was spotted off ahead of her and she sighed a breath of relief, slowly standing up as it started to hover a few feet from her, quickly heading over and hopping inside. Inside, there were three completely armored creatures, face masks, helmets, goggles, and all sorts of padded equipment from head to toe, looking very militant. Almost as if they expected to run into some big trouble up here after Misery signaled them. Misery waved her hand around, giving the signal to take off and the pilot nodded and started to head out.

One of the military uniformed creatures started to reach towards Misery and rolled up one of her sleeves, sticking a needle into her arm and drawing out a sample. A briefcase was pulled out and the blood sample was squeezed into a small tube on the side of a laptop looking device. The device hummed to life instantly, and after a few minutes it beeped showing that she was clean of any infections, having no idea what to expect from the strange energy readings.

Soon afterward the screen turned on with a video image of their home base, and the uniformed creature turned the laptop to face Misery. Misery felt quite fatigued after her long stakeout, the adrenaline rush and caffeine high beginning to wear off and take their toll on her, but she knew that they'd want a report on the situation immediately.

Eventually, a well dressed anteater appeared on the screen, wearing a perfectly tailored suit and tie, sitting down with his hands neatly folded on his desk before him, clearing his throat, he spoke, "Agent Misery, glad to see you've returned safely from your mission, what do you have to report?"

Misery glanced wearily at the creature on the screen, suddenly being hit with a two ton wake up call. She had finished her mission, but she couldn't report the truth without them dropping her off into the nearest mental asylum. She had to think fast, come up with some alternative for what the energy readings are. Something that would happen on a regular basis from here on out, and not require further looking into.

Within seconds, Misery came up with a plausible solution and cleared her throat, speaking calmly. "The energy readings directed us to an abandoned command post, probably left over from a previous war. I stayed outside until an energy fluctuation and then went in to investigate. The place was a mess, and it took me a while to find the source. Apparently, there's an errant computer that keeps powering up and down when it needs to access data, signaled via satellite. From what I saw, there was no way to shut the device down, and it almost appears to be used as nothing more than a routing node for hackers. Nothing for us to worry about, sir."

The anteater sat, listening to her assessment of the situation and before long, nodded. "Yes, very well then. Never can be too cautious. Would you be interested in returning to this location should the energy readings become more frequent to trace where the signal is coming from?"

Misery smiled, not only had her plan worked, but it almost guaranteed that she would be able to come back once the mysterious duo's plans were in full force. "I'd be delighted to, Adviser Crislone."