Playing to Win

By Tasamin

Part One

Running through the airport Rita rushed by people who threw her annoying looks. The instructions had been downloaded to her panel at the very last minute. She was to fly to Mexico. She did not even have a chance to tell anyone. Finally reaching her seat in coach, oh how she was missing the section's jet at this moment. She settled in for the long flight.

Finally arriving at the terminal where a driver awaited her arrival. Not saying a word she followed him to the limo that waited. The lush tropical land greeted her with a rush of warm humid heat. The drive was quick when she saw where she arrived. Torre Blanca, she mentally translated, white tower what had she done to deserve this?

The driver opened the door, and led her to an office. She sat down in a plush leather chair. She tapped the arms impatiently as she waited.

There finally the door opened, there stood Mr. Jones. "Good Afternoon, Rita. Can I offer you anything to drink?"

She smiled, "No thank you but you can tell me why I am here."

"All in good time my dear. We are waiting for one more person." Jones tapped at the panel in front of him. "But it seems her plane has been delayed. Would you like to have a late lunch while we wait?"

"Yes, after I get a chance to freshen up." Rita said.

"Certainly, that is very remiss of me." Jones said with a smile as he pressed a buzzer. A short dark haired gentleman came in. "Juan Carlos, please show Rita to her room."

"Certainly this way miss." Juan Carlos said as he led the way. Reaching her suite she breathed a sigh of relief and took a quick shower. She felt much better. Heading back down to the office she wondered whom they were waiting for.

Then someone grabbed her and hugged her close. "Rita!"

By the long mane of curly hair it could only be one individual. "Girl and your flight was delayed I assume?"

"Yes, of course what would you expect from me?" Curlly said as she released her. "Nice place huh?"

"Yes, but you better get moving for lunch with Mr. Jones."

"Glory yes, do you know why he brought us here?"

"Not in the least." Rita said with a shake of the head.

***********

"Ladies, let me get to the point." Mr. Jones said as he watched the two ladies sitting in front of him. "Do you recall that mission where the ladies went on mandatory refusal?"

Rita and Curlly looked at each other. Rita remembered that mission quite clearly. She almost shot Michael on that mission.

Mr. Jones nodded. "Good I see you remember. Well, we are going to have another such mission. A test as it were."

"A test?" Curlly asked.

"Yes, how well you ladies do without your male counterparts." Mr. Jones said quietly.

"Great." Rita said glumly.

"Wonderful glad to see you are in the spirit of the game. The players will be arriving shortly. Your male counterparts are currently being briefed by Operations. We shall oversee the games from here."

***********

Rita and Curlly walked out of the meeting in shock. They could not believe it was coming down to this. Rita did not even notice as she bumped into Michael and Roarke.

Michael grabbed her and set her straight. "I see you have been briefed."

Rita looked at them not at all surprised to see them there. "You could say that."

"Well, boys get ready to lose." Curlly said impudently.

Sinjn who just arrived in the hallway said along with the rest of the men and women who had been picked for the mission, "Lose what?"

"To the female superior skill of course." Curlly said confidently. At that boastful statement voices suddenly erupted in agreement or firm disagreement.

"Oh we are talking about your packing skills?" Sinjn said impishly.

Curlly's face took on an indignant look. "No."

"Oh then we are talking seduction?" Antonio said with a wicked smile.

"Would you care to make a wager?" Roarke said confidently.

DeLeah piped in, "Tony stop smiling like that! Name your terms, buddy."

Michael held his hand up to try to quiet the crowd. He explained the situation and not being a man who accepted defeat as an option he wanted to gather his team together ASAP. He knew the ladies would be pulling out all the stops on this one.

The women were whispering to Rita about what to bet or more to the point what they wanted from the men. "Not so fast Michael, we the ladies that is wish to make this interesting. A wager as Roarke suggested sounds very agreeable to us."

Michael studied Rita very carefully. He knew she had something up her sleeve but what he could not say. Her eyes were twinkling madly with mischief and something else. Yet to refuse her wager would indicate weakness on his part and that was not to be allowed ever. "Name your terms." He said softly.

Rita smiled broadly, "Let’s just leave it at whoever loses has to do whatever the winner says."

Roarke spoke up, "That is too broad, Rita." A natural negotiator and business man at heart he knew it was time to get the fine points now.

"Are you afraid of losing, Roarke?" DeLeah commented from where she stood drinking her coffee.

"Not in the slightest." Roarke replied.

"Fine a day and a night at the winner’s disposal with their significant other." Rita said getting to the heart of the deal. Knowing perfectly well that Roarke given the chance would have them here till they hammered out a deal to his liking.

Roarke mulled it over and looked at her, "You know darling I would do that would do that without a wager."

Michael threw him a look of repressed anger. Rita smiled, "Not everything." She chided gently. "Terms satisfactory?" She stuck out her hand to cement the bargain.

Michael nodded and took her hand and kissed it instead of the traditional shake. Then he pulled her aside. "Rita." He said quietly. "Be careful we maybe playing by the rules but others may not."

Rita had already considered that this whole exercise was highly suspect. "I know." Yet there was something else worrying her. The last time they were on opposite teams she almost had to shoot him. There were some nights when that thought caused her to awaken from nightmares.

"You will not be put in a position again like that Rita." He said reading her mind.

Her eyes were shimmering with unshed tears. She nodded as he pulled her into his arms. Then his head bent down to whisper in her ear, "But if you find yourself in a similar position with Roarke, you have my permission to pull the trigger." He said hoping to make her laugh.

He received the desired effect and a slap on his back for his efforts. "Michael! Really."

He gently kissed her. "May the best team win." He said as he walked away followed by the men.

Rita walked away slowly already plotting in what position on the team to insert the ladies. Curlly had her laptop out and was already sitting in a corner gathering relevant Intel.

"What have you got, Gigi?"

"I have got us accommodations at the Acapulco Princess courtesy of the Sultan of Burundi and his traveling harem again." She said with a grin.

"Did anyone tell the boys that is where we stayed the last time?"

"Nope. I checked."

DeLeah was bouncing up an down anxious to start. Rita watched in amusement. "How many cups of coffee did they let you have on that plane?"

"Hmm I lost count at 4."

Rita rolled her eyes. "Oh dear. Well ladies time to divide and conquer. Sher will lead one team and I will lead the other. One team gets to go shopping for supplies and the other gets to do recon and preliminary assessment of the site."

Sherry looked at Rita, "Don’t even think of sending me shopping."

"But Sher, you’re the one I trust to get them out of the stores in a reasonable amount of time." Rita said sweetly.

"How about you take that team?"

"Sherry be realistic letting Rita loose in a foreign country shopping, bad idea." Brenna pointed out.

"Goody, now that we have settled that, Sherry will take Avillion, DeLeah, Aries, and I will take Brenna, Nahla, and Nabiki. Curlly will be running tactical for both teams as soon as she settles in to our base of operations."

Curlly passed a panel to Sherry. "Here is the list of things you girls need to bring back."

Sherry stared at the list in horror. "There are clothes on this shopping list."

"Don’t worry Sher, I’ll help you there." Aries said confidently. Rita tried not to giggle.

"Oh one thing I don’t think it needs to be said but no contact with the boys." Rita reminded them.

"Just our luck in Mexico all the pretty sights and the boys are off limits." Avillion said with a sigh.

"No dancing." Brenna added to the list.

"No romantic dinners." Nahla added the last.

*********

"Good thing you brought this with you." Roy said as he sunk back into the plush seating.

"There is not point to traveling unless its in style." Roarke said as he watched the Torre Blanca disappear in the distance.

Michael sat with the laptop planning the mission. He looked up, "Where are we going?"

"I have a house Las Brisas, though I had hoped to show it to Rita first." Roarke said thoughtfully. "Perhaps after we win."

"Its good Rita doesn’t know where it is. Does she know the extent of your holdings?" O’Brien inquired not wanting the girls to know where they were.

"No she has not interest in my properties or business ventures." Roarke said as the limo made its way to the gated community. The car was ushered in without question. Up the sloping hill they finally stopped at a high walled house with a large iron gate that rolled open. The limo stopped and out stepped the men.

"This is not a house this is a compound." Sinjn said as he observed the glass walled house that looked over into Acapulco bay.

Roarke led them to the door, which was opened by an older gentleman dressed in suit. "Gentlemen, this is Summerset he will see to your needs."

Summerset studied the men before him and categorized them with a discerning eye. When his eye finally fell upon Michael the two could blank stare each other to death if they would be allowed to. But Summerset knew his duties and led the way to the different guest bedrooms that had been prepared.

Michael sat at the desk in the living room and began calling up the schematics to the club they had to gain access to. The club was holding a gathering of arms dealers with heavy security, retinal scans at the door. It was too late in the game to replace or create an arms dealer to gain access to the meeting. There had to be another way in there always was.

Roarke was making calls about the club. He found out that the help had been security cleared by retinal scan as well. Roarke could get himself into the meeting but all ten of them was asking too much. That would set off alarm bells in the head of the security chief. Roarke should know seeing that he was an accomplished master thief. Yet this time the target was a person at a large gathering.

He hung up the phone. Wondering how the girls were going to get in. "Michael there is only one way for all of us to get in." Roarke said quietly.

"I know." Michael said with a sigh of resignation.

Roarke nodded knowingly. "Who wants to go shopping?"

Sinjn who just walked in with Jack groaned. "I get enough of that with Curlly."

Jack was far from thrilled at that statement as the look on his face said it all. In walked O’Brien and Xavier carrying sandwiches. "Great chef, Roarke." O’Brien said as he sat down.

"What’s going on Jack you look like you swallowed something bad?"

Jack turned to face him and said, "We have to go shopping."

Xavier took another bite of the sandwich let it fall back on the plate. "No problem."

"I’ll go shopping." O’Brien volunteered.

"NO." Came the resounding response from some of the men. They had seen some of O’Brien’s fashion choices.

"All right everyone let Summerset take your measurements. Xavier and I will take care of the rest since the rest of you are severely horrified by this."

"We all know you have no problem spending money and shopping Roarke." Sinjn said with a smile.

"It would do you well to pick up that trait Sinjn considering who you are marrying." Roarke commented.

"Curlly can do enough shopping for the both of us." Sinjn replied.

"Enough, banter later. The rest of us will be doing preliminary recon and then a rehearsal."