I had been slowly trudging and walking around under Dani's direction since week two, the walking was painful but the breathing exercises were the worst. Not because of complications or anything like that, but because I hadn't been smoking and felt like I was hacking up a lung every half hour or so as they naturally healed from the self inflicted damage, combined with breathing as deeply as I needed to in order to 'help' (apparently) recover from the broken ribs it was it's own kind of torture.

Fifteen minutes ago Daniella had cleared me for light duties, in hindsight I should have realised something was up when she assessed my condition wearing, well, not much at all really. She had walked me around the penthouse as a part of the final assessment, slapping my hands away as I tried to grope her while we walked, the other girls sneaking in when my back was to the entrance. I was now 'conveniently' in the furthest possible corner of the room from the large bed.

Four weeks had past and the girls were all getting... impatient. My eyes flicked past Dani to the more intriguing action on the other side of the room.

"Your all evil." I grumbled from the furthest possible position in the room as I eyed the girls.

"Ah huh." Dani grinned seductively a few paces to my front, teasing me forward with a come hither motion of a finger.

My eyes fell upon the enticing beauty that was Abby. Her heritage made her appear as an exotic beauty even though she was Australian born and raised. The darker colour of her skin and facial features was thanks to aboriginal heritage somewhere along the line even if far removed from her current appearance. There were clearly european and asian influences in her genetic makeup as well.

* * *

One shot of painkillers and several hours latter I looked over the lightly dozing mass of sweaty intertwined bodies as I sat propped up against the bed head. Knowing Sumiko was keeping an eye on everyone I had taken the opportunity during a quiet moment to ask her about what the girls had been up to during my exile as an essential component of the recovery process. Due to the nature of our various relationships I had expected at least Brianna to temporarily seek the comfort of another to release the pent up frustration. Apparently I'm not the only one that talks to the AI about what's on their mind, the other girls looked to Sumi as the matriarch of the group by proxy, being the 'girlfriend' had in the girls eyes naturally granted her that status.

During our little talk the AI had revealed that ensuring I had an adequate number of sexual partners available was one of the ways she was 'looking out for me', per her prime directive. That also explained why she was specifically targeting women for the tiger cell. I wasn't about to complain about the abundance, and after assuring the AI that no, men did not in fact interest me in that way, we moved onto the topic at the top of my mind. Specifically why they weren't going out on the prowl for men while I was out of action.

Turns out Sumiko had taken full advantage of the matriarchal position and the AI had used her 'authority' to my advantage. All in the name of keeping her master safe and happy of course. I saw equipping the girls with updated gear and weapons as a necessity. After all, the better they were at their jobs the more likely we would all survive the engagements. Sumiko had turned that on it's head in the girls minds. You see tiger cells expected individual operators to provide their own gear, the fact that I had been outfitting the girls was the rare exception rather than the rule. So the AI had gently hinted during their group discussion that their 'preferred' status may very well be conditional upon remaining both loyal to me personally and the other Draugrs in general, as I could theoretically withdraw the additional funding at anytime.

To say I was pissed with the AI at the thought of my girls believing they had to prostitute themselves in return for favours would have been an understatement. Although if I really admitted it to myself, my anger was more related to my own self esteem. I much preferred the thought of the girls genuinely enjoying my company rather than them simply being 'paid' to be there and treating it like a job. But watching the playback of the very open and frank discussion during the impromptu group session had alleviated my fears. None of them were actually looking for a man in their lives, full on relationships were something that rarely worked out for active duty veterans. They were currently having their need for companionship met and that was that. Brianna had initially broached the topic and the other girls quickly and rather openly admitted to Sumi that even though they knew going in that love shouldn't play a part in our individual relationships, over time they felt an undeniable bond both with myself and the other girls of the cell. The end result was the declaration that maybe it was love, maybe it wasn't, (the AI admitting she didn't care either way, I was just being stubborn), but they weren't going to mess up a good thing by screwing around... unless it was with each other. A sentiment I could wholeheartedly get behind, and a lesson I wish I'd had the foresight to figure out with Veronica, my ex.

I was still a little unsure if the AI had guided the discussion, but when all was said and done... did it really matter all that much? They had clearly made their decisions individually and of their own free wills with absolutely no coaching from me. And yeah, I definitely felt an affectionate attachment with the five of them as well. So no harm no foul I guess.

I looked down at the sound of Abby spitting out Clea's scrunched up panties that had been used as a gag, she looked up at me from her awkward position through her long and messy black hair with a grin. Yep, she was a freak in the sack and adored punishment and rough handling.

:

Less than five minutes later I watched as Daniela hurriedly pulled on her chest armour, she had been leaving me instructions as she dressed. Primary of which was no smoking. She had been returned to active duty now that I needed less intensive care, and with a quick peck on my lips she headed off to join the girls for the impending OP.

Left to my own devices I drowsily made my way over to freshen up before heading down to the mess hall we had built into the second floor. There were four small private quarters, one large bunk house, separate toilet and shower facilities (with walls and even doors!) and this mess hall on the second floor now. The ground floor was an administration and command/coordination centre. But I doubted we would ever get big enough to need it.

David was making himself a cup of coffee and drowsily preparing for his own work day as I walked in. Noting the rare occurrence where I didn't have scantily clad women close to hand, he seized the opportunity of having my undivided attention and began to fill me in on the progress of the microbot factory he had been assembling components for on behalf of Sumiko. I listened in silence, nodding where it seemed appropriate, because quite honestly I had no fucking idea what he was talking about but appreciated his attempt at keeping me in the loop.

He was talking with a rather animated voice and waving his hands in the air about how the project was assembling like a miniature version of a multilevel factory. His was currently gushing about how it would be an incredible floor display for any corporate office with the microbots being the 'workers' as they busied themselves with running the factory using painstakingly and accurately miniaturised versions of the full sized equipment. Instead of turning out full sized robots they would be making more microbots for various tasks. Seems David wasn't yet aware of the AI's intent of creating a life sized avatar for herself, using the microbots to assemble into one giant bot... sort of like in some of the old anime series I guess. I smirked at the thought of the AI watching animated shows for hints and tips on what to make next... although gotta say, I wouldn't mind a cute little cat girl in the mix. I let my thoughts become distracted with memories of Luna and old girlfriend. Well okay, technically an old girlfriend of Brianna's and not mine. She was a reaper that for reasons only known to herself had modeled her upgrades complete with cat ears and tail, cybernetically altering herself into that exact fantasy. Completely bored out of my brain at the droning on of David I had plenty of time to wonder about the idea of somehow dna splicing then cloning cat girls. I eventually dismissed the thought, cloning was prohibitively expensive and banned most everywhere. Not to mention the added complications of trying to find someplace where it was legal not only to grow clones but where it was legal to mix species DNA to clone hybrids. Wonder if that Kitty Kats strip club was still around?

I lost my train of thought when my pocket vibrated, not that I was focused on anything all that important. The ancient com device letting me know someone was trying to get in touch. Of course only one person had the number, and I only used it because it pissed her off when she couldn't see who else might be in the room listening in via a standard video link.

"Your such an ass, use a vidcom like normal people." Veronica grumbled her greeting when I picked up.

David tried to hide his grin when I connected the call, enjoying the fact that there was out least one woman in my life that didn't want to jump my bones. The fact that she was my ex-wife was just a bonus. With the daily updates for project wolf being a requirement of our deal, she had at least begrudgingly upgraded our conversations from insults to insults mixed with facts, and we now had some semblance of back and forth between us... sort of.

"Good morning beautiful." I answered in good spirits.

"Fuck you."

"Now, now. You know I'd have to share you with my girls if I let you do that." I winked at David. So I was in good spirits due to having been laid for the first time in a month, sue me.

Veronica silently stewed on the other side of the line, having set herself up perfectly for the comeback.

"You're in a good mood, that pet slut of yours start putting out again?" she finally responded with a bitchy tone, putting two and two together.

Sensing things were starting to get a little tense David silently excused himself and headed downstairs.

"Let's get to business shall we?" I had to swallow my response, I knew from experience things would just devolve to a stream of insults if I didn't start moving this along. And like most women, she knew which buttons to push for maximum effect. My relationship with Brianna and my girls being primary among them.

"Techs say you can bring it online if you want." She said matter of factly, and even smugly when I didn't respond to the bait.

"Well that's good news I guess."

"Yeah, I might get lucky and there could be an active chinese neural link nearby."

"Meaning?"

"Dead ex."

"That's not exactly abiding by the terms of our agreement, I'd hate to have to cancel the purchase contract." Sure it was a low blow, but she pissed me off with the Bri comment.

I heard her sigh over the voice link. "Fine. First thing it does when brought online is search for active comm nodes, presumably to get orders. We haven't been able to crack the encryption, and I doubt we will, so that's a best guess."

"Hmm alright, anything else?"

"It'll accept basic commands, but only in mandarin, and only if you have an active chinese neural implant. Complicated orders are out, like designating specific targets, but you can set it to patrol between way points and the like. Of course being a chinese manufactured warbot means it's going to try and kill every active neural link that isn't chinese."

I smiled at her slip up, already being on her shit list I didn't hesitate to point it out.

"Intelligence just happened to have a mandarin speaking individual on staff with a chinese neural link?" I asked innocently.

I could hear teeth grinding. "I've been ordered to provide full transparency. Apparently my boss doesn't want you dead as much as I do. Besides, kind of fun knowing you have five more of the things and you can't do anything with 'em."

"I can see why you might think that, yes." I said matter of factly. She was right of course, but she didn't need to know that. Due to my lack of tech knowledge I may have been over simplifying things, but I didn't see why one couldn't just rip out and replace the electronic bits, thereby creating a 'friendly' wolf.

"Asshole! What did you find out?"

"I'd like to help out my dear, I really would. But our agreement didn't specify a two way street. Chat tomorrow, ta-ta!" I replied glibly, cutting off the call as she began an insult riddled response.

"Sumiiii." I called out to the roof, good mood returning. The AI's cute asian avatar took over for the morning news feed displaying on the mess halls screen. She was sitting up in bed, copying the girls and wearing a replica of one of my shirts as a nightie, although now I think about it, I think she was the one that actually started that particular trend.

"Yes master?" She smiled in greeting.

"Have you done any sort of assessment on the wolves?" It was easy to not get distracted after the events of last night.

She pouted at my lack of response and answered with a tilt of her head. "Not really. Other than monitoring them to ensure they don't activate. I've been busy with setting up priorities and indexes for my backups so I don't 'forget' things again. Why, did you have something in mind?"

"I was just chatting with Ver..."

"I know, I was listening, she really doesn't like Brianna does she?"

"That would be an understatement. But she got me thinking. Can't we just take out all the evil nasty chinese bits and put in good wholesome Aussie bits to replace them?"

Her eyes focussed on the middle distance as she does when accessing data. "No. That's not how it... wow, hang on. I believe so. Programming would take a bit of trial and error of course to interface with the hardware, but...yes?"

"You need any tech help, just hit me up." I drummed to the tune of my words on the table before getting up for another coffee, certain I was getting the biggest eye roll ever at my back.

"I'll need to test in a safe environment to verify of course, and there's the problem on not being able to officially link into the military network, which if we go ahead, would draw far to much attention and set off red flags all over the place, you know for security and stuff." Sumiko finished responding as I sat down again.

"Does your 'boss' have access to secured off grid testing nodes?" Of course Sumi didn't have a boss, or a job. But I wasn't sure how deep she had decided to go with her cover incase one of the girls went digging for information on my mysterious girlfriend that they never got to meet in the flesh.

"The what now?" She asked in interest.

"Well I'm just guessing, but I would assume all new hardware would have to connect to some kind of test network to ensure compatibility and security before being allowed to connect to the live network right?"

Sumi blinked at me blankly for a few seconds.

"Did you somehow leech tech knowledge out of the girls last night or what?" She asked with a grin.

I groaned in pain and held my side as I snorted, it still hurt like hell to laugh.

"Speaking of which I found a new one." She teased in a girly voice.

"As much as I appreciate it, lets hold off on anymore recruiting if we can. At least until I'm one hundred percent again."

"Aww okay you big baby."

I nodded my head in time with my thoughts for a few moments as I watched the AI, her grin growing larger with each passing second now she had baited the hook. When I'm released from medical leave in three or four weeks time, we would be one over capacity for our hummer. Meaning we would at least need one more vehicle if called on at full strength for an OP. I didn't fancy the idea of anyone heading into combat on their own, not even Abby and her mole. Even though the rest of us would be close at hand. Though there was always the option of upgrading to a more modern APC as opposed to the quick response Humvee, but that would just be expensive.

I looked at Sumi, the edges of my lips curling in a grin. I gave in. "Tell me about her."

The AI clapped excitedly "Yay!" and jumped up on her bed.

She landed on her feet in a boardroom environment, dressed in her slutty business attire and standing in front of an old fashioned white board with a long wooden pointer, grinning at me over a set of old fashioned reading glasses. Next to her was a slowly rotating life sized hologram of... you guessed it, a random gorgeous woman.

"This is Brooke Taylor, she is twenty one years old, caucasian, an irish expatriate and a capricorn. She is one hundred and thirty five centimeters tall, weighs fifty three kilograms, has green eyes, shoulder length brown hair and a cup size of thirty four B."

I shook my head with a smile at the nature of the current 'briefing'. Then a switch turned on a light bulb at the back of my mind as I recognised a common trait between the girls.

"She is Irish, with a sexy accent?" I asked in interest to confirm my hypothesis.

"She is." Sumiko grinned at me wickedly.

"If I didn't know any better I'd think you were basing your selection criteria on the hotness of their accents." I laughed.

"That is in fact a desired criteria." She smirked back.

"Really?"

"Yes. Research shows that humans find members of the opposite sex that are also of obviously different ethnic origins to be more desirable sexually. Your biological imperative to breed diverse and healthy offspring is ingrained into your natures. Hence why you find accents to be so 'sexy'."

"Huh, well there you go." I said stunned.

"Please, save further questions until the end of the presentation." She smirked before continuing.

"She likes curling up on the sofa with a good book, and prefers the company of a close group of friends in quiet intimate gatherings, as opposed to going out clubbing. She has interest in different fetishes but will only discuss those once she has gotten to know you a little better."

"How do you dig up this stuff?" I asked in exasperation.

"Social media. May I continue?" The AI said dryly with a pointed look.

Yeah okay, I could believe that. People made all sorts of stupid shit about their lives public, yet complained about privacy at the same time. I rolled my finger in the air with an eye roll of my own indicating she should proceed.

"Now with the important details out of the way, we can get on with the more mundane topics to hand. Arriving in Australia after her birth, and not becoming a naturalised citizen, she is attempting to get a head start on new laws that will be introduced requiring compulsory military service for any individual that has resided in the country for more than five years."

It made a certain kind of backward sense if I looked at it from this girls point of view. The new laws were more designed to put expatriates of every nationality under a more intensive spotlight to reduce security risks for the general public. At least on the face of it, reading between the lines we were gearing up to kick the Chinese off our continent. By requiring military service it got around the potential civil rights abuses as a result of more intense monitoring under the guise of military recruitment. It was sneaky, in more ways than one, but that's how politicians worked. This Brooke girl was trying to get ahead of the curve to hopefully gain a more desirable post than simply being stuck somewhere she had no interest in being, intent on making the best of a bad situation.

Tiger cells could, and often did, recruit anyone. Obviously those individuals had a more mercenary intent to their actions and actively sought out the higher risk/reward type jobs, the benefit to the tiger cell being typically very highly skilled assets at their disposal. I doubted that was Brooke's case though, she was likely looking to find a group she was comfortable with before the new laws were introduced, it would satisfy the upcoming requirements as military service if she could sign up with a tiger cell before the laws were introduced. That particular loophole was slated to be closed at the same time due to the more lax nature of security checks.

"I have contacted her on your behalf to discuss her options and find out what, if any skills she may have that could contribute to your effectiveness during operations."

"And?"

"Brooke applied for, and was granted, a recreational pilots licence for fixed wing and VTOL aircraft at the age of seventeen. She currently has a total of one hundred seventy two hours flight time logged thanks to civilian employment. She has also shown an interest in, and has demonstrated a high aptitude for ground based operations during my initial interview."

"Sounds promising, not sure I'd like to throw her in the deep end by taking her into the field without proper training though." I commented.

"I would suggest she come in for a day or two voluntarily to be assessed by both Brianna and Daniela for suitability in either assault or sniper roles, in addition to your other... more leisurely pursuits. But I would highly recommend we arrange for her to be approved for the aerial dispersal of munitions on her civilian licence. Other training would only be to aid in her survivability should she be forced to... exit the aircraft during flight."

"I agree with the first point, but I don't have an assault boat or anything like it in my back pocket at the moment."

"I have had some initial discussions with Abby in relation to that, and there are some promising options."

"Yeah alright, get her to come in for a chat." I couldn't help but grin in anticipation.