Their plane landed at the airport and like before they were greeted on touchdown once the plane was stored in the hangar. This time it was the national army. A man walked up to Hanson looking over the other two. With Hanson looking as professional as he does all the time it's easy for him to be mistaken for the one in charge. It worked though. Hanson got a note of the information while Hunter continued in the background working on the bigger picture.
They were given a military escort to one of the finest hotels in Rio de Janeiro right next to the beach. They weren't set up in the nicest room but there was plenty of space for the three of them. Two king-size beds separated by a wall, a living area separate from the beds with a half kitchen, but the piece that got Juliet excited was the saltwater pool available just beyond the balcony.
"Hey, Hunter! Are we going to be able to enjoy some time here?" Hanson and the hunter looked at each other. "Who's Hunter?" The two were perplexed. Hanson readdressed her, "Lady Juliet, who is 'Hunter'?" She pointed past Hanson to the only other person in the room, "Him. I can't stand to call him sir, the young master leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and he won't tell me his name so I need something to call him. Since he's a demon hunter I have dubbed you Hunter. If you don't like it, then that's too bad! I need something to address you as."
Hunter did not seem pleased, "Master works you know. Since, you know, you are in debt to me."
"No, I still have my pride."
She watched his face as he struggled with the idea of having a steady name. She could feel a slight twinge in her throat again from the collar but she stood fast refusing to back down on this. The tingling stopped as he gave in, "You know what? Go with it. Just remember that I use an alias on jobs so you need to remember it."
"And who are you on this trip?"
"Jack."
"That's… simple…"
"I try."
Hunter and Hanson went back to unpacking their materials. Hunter starts going over the rundown of what they knew, "Hanson, so the military is having issues with their planes and other vehicles falling apart during use and just sitting. I know they have issues with some locals but I'm thinking that's not it. Considering that for the past three days they watched the entire base and things fell apart in front of them. I think this may be a simple case. How much is it paying again?"
Hanson stood up straight recalling the details, "After contract fees, we will receive around $274,000. Do you really believe that this will be that easy?"
"I already have a good idea of what we're dealing with."
Juliet barked up, "Whoa! Whoa! Wait just a second! $274,000?! Do you realize how much money that is?" Hanson and Hunter just looked at each other wondering what the big deal was. Hanson spoke up, "As the one who helps with the finances; that kind of contract is rather small for us and the effort we are putting in. If you think about it, the fuel for the ride down here, the pilot's time, his room and board, plus food, then our food, ride from the airport to the hotel room that is provided, then travel around town, plus resources, materials, etc., plus whatever else we may need that we didn't bring, the fuel home, jet storage, and then we have to reserve for the building such as water, electric, and other utilities, then paychecks to the employees which will leave us with about… $24,000 to split among the three of us which goes into rent for staying at the building, our share of utilities, living expenses, then whatever is left over is ours."
"$24,000 three ways is still $8,000 per person!"
"$970 rent, $124 utilities, $300 food for a total of $1,400."
"That leaves $6,600."
"We have to put 20% away for taxes as we are independent contractors. We provide our own 401k retirement, insurance, savings, and whatnot."
Hunter chimed in, "After this job I'll have maybe $900 left which if we don't get another contract I have to live on."
Juliet was shocked, "Wow, this job is tough."
"Not really, your contract paid $920,000 and because you were so close to another job, Hanson and I took home, what was it, about half a million to split?"
Hanson replied, "Yes, sir."
"Yea, so if you find a good job you can easily be set."
The gears started turning in her head, "You guys made half a million dollars off of me and you didn't give me any?"
Hunter quickly snipped at her "Hey! You were the problem so no! You didn't get any. We had to catch you which meant you sure as hell weren't helping us. You don't get paid for not helping."
She was shut down. There was nothing she could do with that. She stayed speechless while the other two got set up. They began mapping out the base where there were incidents. They began making a pattern and formulating a plan. Hunter made a comment that really got everyone excited, "We can finish this by the end of today."
It was a 20-some minute ride to the base where Hanson, Hunter, and Juliet sat down with one of the Commanding Officers. Hunter presented his plan to the CO. The plan seemed rather simple considering the issue that was happening. The idea was to cord off a large area of the base in an open area where someone from a high position can have a clear sight of a jeep that will be used as bait. Using a thermal scope, they need to take shifts watching the jeep to look for any abnormal heat that radiates off of it. When they see that change they need to aim and fire at it.
The CO laughed, "You really want us to just have someone fire at heat spots on a vehicle? No, no, you need to find the person or persons responsible. You have almost unlimited resources available to remedy this and I expect you to take care of the problem." Hunter kept a very straight face, "Sir, I get this all the time. My methods are obscure but effective. About sundown just set up a jeep, lock down the area, and have someone with a rifle stationed where they can see it with a thermal scope. If within one hour they do not see a change in heat, I will continue at your request."
"One hour?"
"Just one hour. Set up a decent marksman or someone who needs practice."
"You get 30 minutes."
"No, one full hour."
He didn't like that, "One hour."
"After that hour have him rest and secure his weapon and we'll take a look at the jeep with them."
The CO reluctantly agreed. Sunset was not for another couple of hours so until then the three were almost free. "Hanson, I'm going to head back to the hotel for a nap."
"I'll be following you, sir, the flight was rather long and some shut-eye sounds nice."
"Juliet."
She perked up, "Yes?"
"Since we're here and we talked about this you need to go out and take care of yourself just please don't leave a mess."
"You mean I get to feed?"
"Yes, just remember the rules."
The light in her eyes flickered before she went running off towards a popular tourist area. Hanson and Hunter returned to the hotel with an alarm set with enough time to get up shortly after sunset to return to the base. It was a peaceful couple of hours. The sun slowly set and the world moved on around them. Their alarm went off just before Juliet returned to the room. She walked in to see them getting ready but they saw her carrying bags. Hunter was the first to question, "Where did you get those?"
"Totally got them straight from the store backroom."
He tried to fathom what she said, "So you stole them?"
"No! Of course not. Traded a favor."
"Traded a favor? I thought you were feeding?"
"I did that too. You see, while we're here I wanted to at least get some vacation time but to do that you need a swimsuit so I found a cute one and then grabbed a stock boy to show me what they keep the back stock. I coursed him with what most 18-year-olds think about and got the one I wanted and found a few other items."
"Ok, how did you pay for them?"
"That's the best part. I convinced him to look the other way with the best hand job he'll ever experience and had the stockroom manager write them off as damaged when I demonstrated that there are women out there with amazing deepthroat skills."
Hunter cringed, "That's slightly disturbing."
"Well, it's a win-win-win-win. I got stuff and didn't have to pay for it, two guys got their rocks off, and I got to feed on one of them so I'm good, and nobody got hurt. The manager is going to need a nap though."
"That's really gross."
"Nah, besides, unlike your frail bodies, mine can't catch all that crap that you can. Our evolution makes us superior in that regard."
Hunter just shook his head while Hanson got their stuff ready. Juliet started pulling out some of the outfits she got which were clearly too large for her but she could change them to fit them. She started to change into one of the sundresses she got but she was stopped by Hanson, "Lady Juliet, there are men in your company."
"I don't mind. If you see something you like let me know."
Hunter stepped in, "What he means, in a much politer fashion, is stop. You can hover or fly, correct?"
"Yea, I can."
"Good, you're going to earn your pay for today. We need you to look around the base and see if you can spot other hotspots similar to the jeep we had laid out so we can pinpoint where these things like to live."
Hanson grabbed the bag, Hunter grabbed Juliet, and she tried to fight her way out but couldn't because of the collar. The car ride was going to be short but gave enough time for Hunter to lay out the rest of his plan, "Hanson, you have the container correct?"
"Yes sir, as requested."
"Good, it's cleaned out and ready for use?"
"Yes sir, we are good."
Juliet questioned, "Container for what?"
"For the little monsters that have been wreaking havoc on the base."
She questioned further, "Monsters? I haven't seen anything?"
"That's because the things we're going after have learned to hide in plain sight. That's why I have them use thermal scopes."
"Ok, what are we up against?"
"We are going after gremlins."
"Wait, those are real?"
"Very much so. They are like cockroaches though and they are horrible little monsters. They first surfaced in World War 2 and no one really knows where they came from but they were terrible. I'm surprised that they found their way into such a populated city. They take parts from machines to build their own nests but they need to be maintained so they keep stealing parts and now it's affecting someone. What we are going to do is move in, clean up the mess that their riflemen left us, and let them know what they need to do to clean up the rest. What I need you to do is look over the area and see if you can spot where their nest may be. Look for scattered parts of machinery or small hubs of misshapen bits. If we can find the nest, we can catch most of them."
"What are you going to do with them?"
"Dump them in a scrap yard. The rest that are left behind will need to be exterminated by the military but most of them will survive."
"That's kind of cruel."
"Well like I said, they like cockroaches. Nobody really likes them but I'll try not to wipe out a whole colony of them."
They arrived at the gate and were ushered into the area where the jeep was sitting. There were a few more bullet holes in it than when they left. The marksman was brought down and started pointing out parts where he saw heat fluctuations. Hanson and Hunter began moving parts and eventually they started getting to the very inside of the jeep. Hanson took out a pair of gloves and grabbed a spot that looked like an oil leak. As he picked it up more oil began dropping into the ground as they revealed to the CO and the marksman, a small hairball. "That, gentlemen, is what is destroying your equipment."
Hanson laid it on the ground for them to see before taking the gloves off. He reached into his pocket pulling out a piece of paper to present it to the CO. He snatched it and began reading, "There's no way."
Hunter began his spiel, "There is and it's right there in front of you. We're looking for the hive now so we can get rid of the mass of them. Once we do you'll need to clean the machine parts out and store them. Then for the next three days, you'll want other traps like this with people watching them to clean out the remainder. You must wear gloves otherwise you'll stain your hands black and get sick."
The soldiers just looked at each other in confusion before Hunter smiled, "If you disagree there is a contact number of someone who will explain it to you. I'm sure you've heard of them but I think it would be best to not bother them." Instead of arguing they just nodded and agreed. Juliet showed up behind them on foot not to alert anyone else, "I think I found the colony. There's what looks like a cluster of parts near the fence on the south-south-east side about 1000 feet from the building that's there."
"Must be the machine shed. Good job sweetheart."
Sure enough, they were shown to the machine shed, and just where she described there were bits and pieces of old jeeps, tanks, rifles, and anything with moving parts. Hanson and Hunter began rifling through it and found a small section that was fairly open. "Set it here and we can check it tomorrow. Make sure it's secure."
"Yes, sir."
Hanson placed what looked like a thick white tube with a latching top. Hanson secured it to a piece of metal putting all his weight on it to make sure it stayed. The three addressed the CO before being escorted off the base, "We will be back tomorrow morning. You can have your marksman stand down until we leave tomorrow. Once we leave, follow my instructions that are on that paper and you should have your problem solved in two days."
Once off base Juliet had to start asking questions, "How did you know all this? I mean, I'm part of this mystical world that humans shouldn't know about but here you are just a wealth of knowledge able to capture a very powerful succubus and swat a gremlin infestation in under 24 hours. How? Just how?"
Hunter chuckled, "I had a good teacher. Hanson also helps a lot. He reads constantly about myths and lore that a lot of people, even hunters, have forgotten about. I do my share but my skill is planning with even just a little bit of information. When they told me what was happening and that their vehicles were being primarily targeted I knew right away what it was. So I had Hanson get a Containment Chamber setup since he knows the idea behind it. We work as a team where just one of us wouldn't suffice."
"Wow, you guys really do earn your paycheck."
"Yea, we do. Sometimes it's dangerous but if you have someone you trust you'll never have to worry. And besides, you're not the most powerful succubus I've come across."
"Excuse me?" Hunter just smiled at her, "No! No! You do not get to just leave that there! Tell me!"
The evening was declared by Hunter to be a free roam for everyone. Hanson took his time to clean up their room for their departure tomorrow morning before heading out. Hunter took care of a few things before retiring to the hotel bar. Juliet changed herself to fit her new string bikini and headed down to the beach to make sure she had enough sustenance for a while.
The end of the night came around. Hanson returned around midnight quickly prepping for bed and falling asleep. Hunter kept to himself at a booth in the bar until Juliet showed up still in her outfit but with a modest yet still see-through sash at her hips. She found him sitting alone and decided to join him. He had his hand on a drink and his eyes on his phone. "I didn't even know you owned a phone."
"Yeah, I really don't like it but I have to report back somehow. How was your night?"
"Went well, thank you for letting me continue."
"Yea, just don't overdo it."
"I won't. I don't want to make my master mad. I have no idea what he may do to me. Oh~ no~."
"Har, har. Make me out to be a monster just because you lost."
"I didn't lose! Just… strategic decision." She looked a little downtrodden.
"Would you like a drink?"
"Not a big fan of human alcohol."
"What have you had?"
"Vodkas, wine, scotch, whiskey, stuff like that."
"We'll try something different. Bartender! Can I get a Blue Maui High Tide?"
"What the hell is that?"
"Just wait."
In just a short while the drink was delivered in a curved glass where the drink was a bright blue with a lemon, lime, and salt on the rim. Hunter passed the man a few coins for the drink. Juliet looked at it, "This is new."
"Most of what you had was just straight alcohol. This should taste a lot better but go slow. The high tide is a triple shot."
"Smells nicer."
"It's mixed with pineapple juice, and orange juice but mostly Blue Maui liquor, and they may have added something else like Tequila so really take it slow."
She took a small sip from the edge, "Mm! Salt!"
"I said be careful."
"No! It's good."
The two sat at the table with Hunter focused on his phone doing something. Juliet slowly enjoyed her drink till about the last half. She hit the pocket of sweetener and alcohol and downed the rest of it in one push. "Ok, I'll admit it, you were right."
"You finished that awfully quickly."
"It was good so my body just reacted."
"Yea but I'm worried that you being… what you are… might have an adverse effect and why I recommend that you slow down."
"What are you talking about? I feel… oh no."
Her eyes rolled back before she landed on the side of her face on the table. Hunter looked over his phone at her thinking to himself, "Succubus receive energy from the life of others through bodily fluids such as spit, and blood, but most vital to them is semen. Because of how quickly they metabolize to make sure that after expending so much energy, they have enough to survive. This effect also carries over to foods and drinks they consume." He pocketed his phone while walking around the table to her, "That is why I said take it slow." She muffled something back but it was lost.
Hunter looked around and the only other person was the bartender who looked concerned until he waved him off. Very carefully he sat down next to her shuffling her body over to his so he could pick her up. Once secured he stood up with one of her arms over his shoulder and his on her hip pushing her against him to keep his center. "Goodnight," he said as he left. The bartender nodded with a laughing smile.
Hunter got her back to the room with no issue before carefully dropping her on the bed. She lay there face up breathing peacefully in her passed-out state. With her there and Hanson in the other bed, he looked for an alternative. After a shower, he found his spot on the couch in the main room. He set his alarm before slowly drifting off himself.
The sun beat his alarm clock. The bright globe of light beamed in through the slightest crack lighting up the entire room. He sat up, started the coffee maker in the kitchen, and went to check on the other two. It wasn't often that he was up before Hanson but when he was he started his day a bit differently. Out on the balcony, he had his coffee in his hand looking out over the beach. There were already a few people out enjoying the sun and sand.
The coffee was finished at the perfect time. Hanson walked out of his room seeing the shadow on the balcony. He joined him, "Good morning sir, sorry that I wasn't awake to ready your things."
"Hanson, you're my assistant, not my butler. I can take care of myself, you know?"
"Very true, sir."
"How'd you sleep?"
"Very well, yourself?"
"Little rough on the couch but enough to function with some help from the sacred black brew."
"I think I will have some myself."
"Pot's still fresh so help yourself."
After another 30 minutes of the two of them talking on the balcony and they heard something move behind them. Looking back there was a very wobbly half-naked woman trying to function. Hanson went to stand up but Hunter waved him down, "I got it." He shut the sliding door behind him so Hanson couldn't hear as well. "Good morning, how are you?"
"I'm just sleepy."
"No hangover?"
"No, I process things so fast that I don't get them."
"And knock yourself out with half a drink."
"Quiet you. You tricked me. I know it."
"I warned you."
"Knowing I would do it anyway." She turned to him, "So how did I get back up here?"
"I wasn't going to leave you in the bar all night."
"Oh, well did you at least get to take advantage of the passed-out woman in your bed?"
"Excuse me?"
"That's a no. Darn, one day I'll get you."
"Yea, that collar says otherwise."
"You wait."
The plan for the day was to quickly stop by the military base and pick up the container from the night before. With everything packed and the limo waiting outside they arrived at the base and were escorted to the container. Hanson checked to make sure that they had caught as many as they could before sealing it and releasing it from the ground. The metal hive would have to be removed by the military but the hard part would be tracking down the rest. They already had their plan to have three jeeps stationed and marksmen at the ready for them.
At the airplane hangar, the group received a full military salute from those present before departing. The container was locked up for the trip until they arrived back home. Hanson arranged to have it picked up and transported to a site in Mexico where they would still be in a comparable environment but away from where they can't cause too much trouble. The contract was paid out the next day and was split among the three with Juliet getting an equal share for finding the hive.
The team did a wrap-up meeting going over the steps taken and methods used before dismissing for the night.