Badass

Badass - A Hannah Todd Story

Badass - A Hannah Todd Story

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. This work is copyrighted by the author. All characters involved in sexual activity are eighteen years of age or older at the time of portrayal.

This is the continuing adventures of Hannah Todd. I would strongly recommend you stop reading this and go back and read at least some of "The Bridge" which provides the back story for most of the characters in this story. I know... it's 30 chapters and lots and lots of pages, but I and a small handful of folks think it's pretty good. I have tried to provide some of the history of the characters so that you can feel like you are getting the full story just by reading Badass. So, proceed as you wish. And, bad or good, your feedback is always welcome. And thank you for your continued support.

Badass - Part Fourteen

Badass - Part Fourteen

There's nothing quite like a hot tub filled with beautiful, naked women. Les and Peggy, both avowed heterosexuals, blushed accordingly. So unlike Peggy to blush. But we all laid back and let the jets stream over us, and it helped to take the cares of the week away.

For the most part we kept it very loose and casual, talking about kids and the men, or women, in our lives. Holly broke the easiness of the conversation by bringing up my divorcing her. A topic that was gaining more and more traction with her these days. So, I decided to bring that to an end with a verbal right cross.

"Holly, you'd better watch yourself. One of these days you're gonna bring this up and I'm going to say okay."

"Please say yes, Hannah. I'm begging you. It's time we each lived our separate lives. We'll always be business partners, just not lovers. You have your lover; I want mine."

"I'm hurt, Holly. Don't you miss me that way?"

"To be honest, sometimes. But it's time for me to move on. I'd hate to lose Chuck because I'm not available to him when he needs me. I..."

"Fine. Have your divorce. If it's come to that, call Linnie and make it happen. I won't fight you anymore."

The room fell silent. Atypical for a room full of women. Especially these women. For a full minute, not a word was said. Silence. Then Holly leaped from her spot across from me in the hot tub and landed on me, throwing her arms around me.

"I love you, Hannah Todd. You are..."

Odd reaction from a woman divorcing her spouse after said spouse agrees to said divorce. Water was everywhere. Splashing inside and outside of the tub. The ladies were all wide-eyed and confused-looking.

"...the most wonderful woman on earth."

"What the hell just happened?" Peggy asked.

Holly, all 5'9" of her, stood up and looked at her and said, "Hannah is divorcing me. I'm the happiest woman on earth. I have to go. I have to call Chuck." And she leaped out of the tub and grabbed a big towel and ran out of the en suite.

"What the hell was that all about?" Les asked. "Why in the world would she want to divorce you, Hannah? I thought..."

"Yeah, hold that thought. Since Duane, the bloom's been off the rose with Holly and me. She's found herself a man, if you believe that, and she wants to be free to pursue him. I've held her back long enough. You know the old saying about if you love someone, set them free. I guess if she comes back, she's mine."

"I don't get it," Peggy said. "But she's already yours. I guess Duane put the kibosh to that."

"It's deeper than that. And a hell of a lot more confusing. I'm swearing you all to secrecy. I need to tell Duane before he hears it through the grapevine. Tonight, I'll tell him."

Lizzie said, "He's gonna propose, isn't he?"

"As soon as I tell him. And I expect I'll say yes."

Caroline looked at me and reached for my hand. "You really love him, don't you?"

"The problem, Car, is I love them both. I don't want to lose either of them."

"You can't have a selfish heart, Hannah. You have to decide." Les said.

"I guess I just did. When I said, 'till death do us part' I really meant it and still do. But I love Duane, so."

And I broke down and cried. Bawled my eyes out. There I sat in the middle of my hot tub, being hugged by four naked women. I'd never felt so rejected and accepted all at the same time. It was baffling to be both sad and elated all at once. But I couldn't wait to tell Duane.

Once the water was no longer hot, I told the gals to get into their jammies and meet me in my office. Holly was not with us at this point, and there were things I wanted to share with my ladies. Like the video of Peacock's house exploding and the memory sticks we had received. At least some of them.

"And you went on this mission without Juicy? How'd you do that?" Caroline asked.

"Yep. I've got SEALs. Nobody throws a party like those boys. How'd you like that video?"

Peggy, of course, had to speak up. "How do you do what you do, Hannah?"

"Let's just say she's very well connected." Lizzie said.

Everyone laughed. I just smiled. "And it doesn't hurt that I'm rich."

More laughter.

"And she has her own army." Peggy said.

"Hell, I have an army, navy and air force. And we're equipped to take on a small country if need be."

"How about Albania? I'm pulling a lot of girls out of there." Les said. "Since 2045, it's been the transportation hub between Italy and the Balkans which have become the biggest hub for trafficking in the world. I've got more agents there than anywhere."

"For you, Les, I'll consider it."

We then went down to the sunroom for wine and conversation. We talked next steps. Mostly about the auctions I wished to attend and the black and white memory sticks we had in abundance, containing the journey of hundreds of girls in distress.

"How about local action, Queen Bee? Just like at Rose's place, there have to be depositories where they are keeping these gals for disposition."

"It's right up there on the list, but we have to be careful. Don't want to tip our hand to the bad guys. But I am considering a multilocation raid to see if we can save some of these girls in bulk. Right now, though, the most important thing is to find out who is in charge with Peacock out of the loop. I'm thinking of digging deeper into Rhee Spanner's crew for more resources. I have a feeling we're gonna see just how deep her well is."

Everyone nodded and agreed. It was then that I extended an invitation to Rhee to my place to further meet with the girls and then with members of my team. The ladies convinced me. It's time to rescue some girls. So, even though it was Friday night, I contacted Rhee and invited her for lunch on Saturday. Short notice, but she's used to that. And I am a priority client, after all, so she had no problem accepting my invitation. Especially when I mentioned we'd be serving one of Bertha's lunches.

---------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------

Saturday was a true working lunch and I had Les, Lizzie and Peggy attend, along with Avi, Anthony and Alec, my Triple-A. I especially wanted to have Hoagie there, as the demon on my shoulder. Duane and Herman were there of course. Rhee showed up with two of her guys.

We held the meeting in the Greenhouse before lunch. I wanted Herman and Peggy's inputs and they were scheduled to go swimming and meet with Celeste and Holly right after lunch. The Bernstein girls would have lunch with the Tuttlehills. The other kids were on a play date at the Untermyers. The babies, my twins, and Bertha's little Ellie were raising hell and driving Bertha, Aggie and Becca nuts.

"For those of you who have not met Rhee Spanner, here she is alive and in the flesh. With her are two of her captains; Arnold, a former Delta Force operator and Sid, who was with the ISA, the intelligence arm of JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command. These guys know their shit and are cleared for our operations. I don't see us doing the operation we are planning single handedly. This venture will be more of an octopus. Many hands working together for a common purpose. All at once."

Hoagie, of course, spoke up. "What kind of operation, Hannah? Is it a search and destroy or a rescue mission?"

"Good call, Hoagie. A little bit of both. Once again, we will be killing and capturing the bad guys and freeing the slaves. A little bit General Patton and a bit of Abe Lincoln. Unfortunately, we have to find them first."

"I have a feeling that's where we come in," Rhee said."

"Oh, we're gonna need you for more than just that, Rhee. We're only starting to explore the drives we received on our latest mission, and we don't yet have any locations to pursue. But I have a feeling they will start to become apparent all at once, and I want to be ready to roll."

"Can I see these drives, Miss Todd?" Sid, the Intelligence Support Activity guy asked.

"I intend to take you and Rhee up to the office and look them over. Maybe you can see something we haven't."

"That's what we do, ma'am." Sid said.

"I'm counting on it. We've done many missions rescuing trafficked individuals, but never like this. Usually we are one and done, but this will be multi-pronged and all at once."

"And we have no idea where we are going?" Rhee asked.

"Not yet. But I'm optimistic some of these drives will bear fruit. I fear only that the locations have an expiration date, so we have to move quickly. As quickly as we can."

"Then," Rhee said. "I recommend we break up into pairs and explore the drives we have here today and see if we can find anything. Many hands make light work."

"Agreed, but first lunch."

I raised my wrist to my mouth, "Call Bertha in the kitchen."

"Yeah, Missy. Lunch is ready. Bring your crew and we'll get 'em served."

"Kids under control?"

"All three babies are down for a nap. Dining room is set and ready."

Herman and Peggy decided not to join us for lunch, electing instead to go to the Tuttlehills to watch Celeste swim in her match against the county's best breaststrokers. Holly's paramour would join them, and the pair would adjourn afterwards to celebrate Holly's big news. Celeste would go out for ice cream with the Krasses.

As to be expected, lunch drew kudos from all diners, and Rhee's crew, never having experienced Bertha's home cooking, were especially impressed. Afterwards, the rest of us adjourned to my office, Rhee's people bringing some special computer equipment. Very special.

For almost an hour, what we experienced was an exercise in futility, until Sid found something we couldn't even see. A hidden directory - filled with goodies. Locations. The kind where trafficked individuals just may be kept. He copied the contents of the directory onto a memory stick of our own, so that we could make copies for the team to research. That came off of the 2056 red drive. It was one of the drives found in Peacock's desk. The most recent.

The hidden directory named 'Locations' was broken up into five states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland. This was obviously Peacock's territory. It begged the question: How many more territorial managers were there and what states did they direct?

For the sake of handling, we started printing out the location information for Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The locations were grouped by county; six locations in Chester County, three in Lancaster, four in Delaware County and sixteen in Philadelphia.Sixteen. Every county in southeastern Pennsylvania had at least one location.

"Let's start checking these places out," I said. "We can start with PA and work our way to the other states."

"I'll start in Philly," Rhee said. "That's home to my people, and I think we can cover it best. You guys are county Mounties and will do a better job up here."

We split up the addresses and decided to just try some surveillance first to see if these were active locations. We would start on Monday and report back on a big video call on Wednesday. Time to get the whole first team to the Greenhouse, and Duane sent out a group text to that effect.

I wanted a private meeting with Rhee, so we decided to take it outside and walk back to the Greenhouse to discuss my ideas and her thoughts on the same.

"Rhee, I'm afraid I'm going to want to draw a lot of your people into this scheme. We have to move quickly and I just don't want to bring anyone in who is not specially vetted. I see us doing this in three steps. First, identify the locations, then surveil for a short time and then hit the places all at once."

"You obviously have thought this through, Hannah. I concur, and we will start with a quick drive-by of the Philly locations. Maybe in some neighborhoods, a walk-by. Arnold's crew will handle the heavy lifting, but Sid's people will do most of the first step. You and I should talk on Tuesday, late. Give us a couple of days to put my team together and do a quick look and see."

"Sounds great, Rhee. Tell me, have the bills been getting paid okay?"

"On time and in full. You are easily my best-paying customer. And you know how much I love working with you. I'm here today, aren't I?"

"Like clockwork, every time. Of all the wonderful things Larry and Linnie do for me, finding you was the best. Before you guys leave today, I want Sid to check the red drive marked 2055 for any hidden directories or files."

Speaking of Linnie; my supercell went off, and there she was. As cute as a button, but looking confused.

"Hannah, what the hell is happening with you and Holly? I got a call not an hour ago - something about a divorce. Please tell me..."

"Yep. I finally gave in. She's been beating me up about it for weeks, and I'm just done."

"But you two were so much in love..."

"I still love her, Linnie, but she can't handle my relationship with Duane, and she has someone of her own she is pursuing."

"What's her name; anyone I know?"

"It's a guy. Someone in Celeste's world. He's a swimming coach. An ex-Olympian."

Throughout the conversation, Rhee was looking at me as if I was from Mars. She would never allow this kind of complication in her life.

"So, what am I supposed to do, Hannah? This is not going to be a simple no-fault divorce. And the assets. It's gonna be a nightmare."

"Probably not as bad as you think. Holly and I will remain business partners, but the bulk of the assets will remain mine. Holly is a peach. She's not about the money. She's made that perfectly clear to me. The three of us ought to get together and hash this out preliminarily so we can see the road ahead of us. Come up next weekend, if you can. Spend the night. Hell, bring Larry and the kids and spend the weekend."

"Do we really need to hurry? Todd-Bernstein isn't going anywhere, and I expect Holly will continue to live in the house."

"Not so much a hurry to get it done, but I want to get it off Holly's mind. Once she sees we are moving in her direction and that I am truly on board, she will back off some, and we can take our time and get this nonsense settled."

"Let me check with Larry and get back to you. How is Duane taking this?"

"He doesn't know yet. But tonight he will."

"I foresee another big wedding in the future."

"Please, Linnie. Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

"Fine. This is not my cup of tea, but I have a gal in our family law department who will make this go smoothly. It will be nice for her not to have a contentious divorce to handle. Hook Holly up with Kwame Jones. His office has a great family law department, and we have worked together to resolve some really difficult cases. This should be a piece of cake for her."

"Good. Invite her up when you come."

"You're already assuming we are coming?"

"Come on, Linnie. You know you're coming. It's just a matter of when."

"You know me too well, my friend. I'll get back to you by tomorrow after I clear it with Larry."

"Love you."

"Love you back."

*CLICK*

"What is this about a divorce, Hannah? I thought you and Holly..."

"Please. It's complicated. Nothing's really going to change. At least not so soon. All in all it's probably for the best."

"Duane's going to propose, isn't he?"

"Everyone keeps saying that."

"Everyone?"

"Yeah, this all took place last night in a hot tub full of women. Like I'm going to do with you, I've sworn them all to secrecy."

"Consider me sworn."

"Before we go in, though, I wanted to talk to you about Canada. The Goldheimer situation."

"I wanted to talk toyouabout that."

"Oh? Tell me there's news."

"There is. We got a wasp drone into the residence, and Goldheimer is definitely there and lying low. In fact, I'm sending up three more of my guys to join the extraction team and with some luck, we can get her out by Wednesday or Thursday."

"I want to bring Peintre in too. Is that doable?"

"We were hoping to get Goldheimer out while Peintre is at the shop, but that's two more guns we have to deal with. It's doable, and the border may be a bit more of a problem, but we can compensate and make it so. I'll let you know. Just be ready on this side of the border for them. Have you heard from your people up there?"

"Nothing positive. In hindsight, I should have just left the whole operation in your hands. Kept my people out of it."

"Once we cross the border, they can take over. The three I'm sending up as support will shadow them on the way home, just in case."

"I love working with you, Rhee. Your confidence is contagious."

"And I love working with you, Hannah. Your money is so green."

We had a nice little laugh and went back to the house to join the others, who were looking through drives and finding stuff.

Sid said that also on the drive marked 2055 there was a hidden directory, and most of the locations were the same as the other drive, with some exceptions. That was good news for us as it meant that they were not just burning locations and moving on. We had a better chance this year of finding active locations where Peacock's prey was being held.

Almost ready to wrap up, Lizzie made a discovery when rooting through the black and white drives. Unlike the rest, one had a target inked on it, and when she plugged it into the computer on Holly's desk, she found it to be blank. Not finding that an acceptable end, she called over to Sid to give it a look. He pulled the drive from that computer and plugged it into his special machine. He was able to discover a hidden directory, but no matter what passcode we used, we had no success in opening it.

So, I took a shot. "Use the word Raven, all small, all caps and then initial cap with all smalls."

The third option opened a directory entitled 'Targets.' What we found there gave us all pause. It was a seemingly endless list of wealthy homeowners in the five-state area that Peacock had lorded over. And right there, prominently under the letter 'T' was Hannah Todd. Right before Tuttlehill, followed by Untermyer. The only target of the three not yet hit by the Peacock organization.

I would call Polly Untermyer later today and insist we increase her security. She'll give me no trouble when I tell her we had actionable intelligence in this regard. She's learned to trust me and Duane and especially RFS.

After making some copies of the red and blue drives and the target drive for them and us, Rhee and her people hit the streets. Anthony, Alec and Hoagie were given the job of connecting with the rest of the team for a Greenhouse meeting on Monday. We'd break into smaller teams and pursue the local locations we had addresses for. All agreed that it was the best place to start.

As we broke from the meeting after instructing all the operators to head on home with a mandate to return for a Greenhouse meeting on Monday, I got a call from Ali on my super cell. It was the call I had been waiting for.