Froggy slams a door closed as Mireille and Kirika run into her apartment. She quickly locks and bolts the door. Together the three women slide a large half filled bookcase in front of it.
“Thanks for bringing us here,” Mireille says to Froggy. “We obviously couldn’t go back to our place. They probably already have men waiting there.”
Froggy smiles slightly. “No worries. Shit happens when you call off a hit.”
Kirika pulls her pistol and aims it directly at their host. “How do you know about that? Who are you?”
Mireille follows suit with her gun. “If I were you, I would answer her. She’s not as patient as I am.”
“Whoa,” Froggy says as she raises her hands in the air. “I’m a friend.” She pauses. “Or should I say a friend of a friend. Pretear contacted me about you guys. She thought you would be in trouble once you got back and arranged for me to pick you up. She thought this would be a good place for you to hide out.”
“Really?” the blond assassin asks. “Well, I suppose that’s possible.” She slowly lowers her gun. “All right. For now, I will assume you are telling the truth. But try anything funny and I won’t hesitate to put a bullet through your brain. Understand?”
Froggy nods. “Trust me, I understand,” she says. Kirika also lowers her gun and nods, acknowledging the woman. “Well, now that we have that out of the way, we should make sure we are ready for when your former employers show up.”
“What did you have in mind?” Mireille asks.
A sly smile spreads across their hosts face. She reaches behind her and flips a large white switch on the wall. With a whir and some quiet grinding, the wall begins to slowly slide downwards. As it does so, it reveals a large compartment filled with several guns, what appears to be a missile launcher, some grenades, and a large assortment of ammo. There are enough munitions to supply a small militia. Directly in the center of the compartment are three twenty inch television screens, each showing a different part of the apartment building.
Mireille steps towards the wall and grabs one of the smaller pistols. She inspects it closely, then puts it back. “Impressive assortment you have here. We could hold out for days with all this.”
“Well, that was the original plan,” says Froggy. “But I’m hoping we get lucky and they haven’t tracked us. But eventually, we need to get you guys out of France. At least for the time being.”
A man walks into the room wearing only a towel, vigorously brushing his teeth. As he sees the three women, he pauses for a second and blushes. “Ummm… hi,” he says nervously.
Froggy shakes her head. “This is my boyfriend Fillet,” she introduces him. “Fillet, this is Mireille and Kirika,”
He takes his toothbrush out. “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” says Mireille with a grin. Kirika simply attempts to avoid eye contact.
“Well, I’m gonna go throw some clothes on,” Fillet laughs. “I do apologize. Froggy is suppose to let me know when she is bringing over gals with guns.”
“Sorry,” Froggy sarcastically. “Next time I will text as I’m speeding the narrow streets of Paris and dodging bullets.”
“Well, it is only polite,” Mireille jokes.
Fillet leaves the room, sort of shuffling quickly and holding his towel to avoid any “accidental exposures.”
A beeping noise comes from the open wall. Froggy turns around and diverts her attention to one of the screens. “Well, it looks like my hopes have been dashed. They’ve found the building. Since we’re on the sixth floor, we should have a bit of time before they find us. So fight or flight?”
“How many are there?” asks Kirika.
“It looks like four, maybe 5,” replies Froggy.
“Can your man handle a gun?” asks Mireille.
“Almost as well as he can lay pipe,” Froggy proudly replies.
The two women just look at her with a slightly puzzled look on her face.
Nervously, Froggy stutters, “No, he really lays pipe for a living. I didn’t mean anything sexual by that.” The comment appears to make things worse as the two now just stare at here.
Mireille shakes her head. “Well then, we should be pretty evenly matched then. And we’ve got the definite advantage when it comes to firearms and location, so I say we fight.”
“Fight,” concurs Kirika.
Froggy grands to guns off the wall, cocks them and smiles. “Fight it is then. Let’s lock and load ladies.”
“Lock and load,” shouts Fillet as he steps back into the room with two sawed off shot guns in his hands. He is also wearing two pistols on his hip, a rifle strapped to his back, and his waist and chest are adorned with extra rounds of ammo. He has pretty much everything, except one vital piece of equipment.
Mireille and Kirika both blush and try to look away. Froggy simply facepalms. “Hun,” she says. “I think you forgot something.”
“Really?” he asks. “What?”
Froggy shakes her head. “Your pants…”
Fillet looks down and sees himself exposed. “Oh.” He quickly attempts to cover himself with the shotguns and quickly sidesteps back into the other room. “Excuse me while I throw on some jeans.”
As he leaves, Froggy apologizes to the other women. “Sorry about that. He just gets excited when there is a possibility of a gun fight.”
“I could see that,” laughs Mireille. “Even without the pants, he got geared up impressively quick.” She smiles at their host and former driver. “By the way, not bad Froggy. Not bad.”
“Not bad at all,” agrees Kirika. Froggy and Mireille turn and stare at her, momentarily stunned.
Great writing Cody!