Free The Cresperian Alliance by Stephanie Osborn

operative dropped the frozen guard as if he'd been a mannequin.
    "And number two,” Sira said seconds later.
    The second guard fell.
    They dragged the two bodies into the heather, then both teams started for the back door. Within seconds they were crouched along one side of the structure.
    "All right,” McAllister said, “get ready to move out, kiddies. Faith, you take the back door and play bulldozer. Hope, get—"
    "Sst!” Sira's hiss could be heard, though she herself could not be seen, thanks to her invisibility device. “Hold up! The underground network layout is off! They're almost below us!"
    "Are you sure, honey?” Tomlinson, her invisible mate, asked in startled tones.
    "Positive. The underground facility design is skewed relative to the house, and they dug out from under without realizing it.” A tiny, smooth gouge appeared in the ground, as the invisible Sira delicately wielded her disintegrator. “If I go straight down right there, and the teams use ropes, we might be able to get them out with no one in the house being the wiser."
    "Do they know you're here?” Tomlinson pressed.
    "Not only do they sense me—and are happy about the fact—they have sensed the disintegrator in use, not to mention the invisibility devices,” Sira averred. “That's the edge of the chamber they're being held in, and they're alone for the moment. It's dinner time for them, and evidently the British don't like watching us eat.” Grim humor was detectable in the Crispy woman's voice. “They've stopped eating and have moved to the far side of the room. They want out, as fast as we can get to them. Is everyone ready?"
    Tomlinson and McAllister glanced at each other. “Go, Sira,” Tomlinson ordered.
    "Stand back, then.” Abruptly a smooth sided tunnel appeared, some eight feet in diameter, going straight down through first soil and then solid rock for about thirty feet. Near the bottom, a dark rectangular hole opened off toward the house. Three green heads peeped out cautiously. Two were typically Cresperian pyramidal; the third was vaguely human shaped, with long, dark green hair.
    "Ropes!” McAllister ordered, and Unit Faith flung three ropes down the hole, wrapping the top ends around nearby rock outcrops and belaying with their own bodies. The first sheets of rain moved in just then, heavy and soaking, and within seconds they were all dripping. But the gusty mist and swirling fog that came behind it obscured their rain soaked outlines, effectively eliminating any possibility of their being spotted.
    Sira called out softly in Cresperian, and the three below ran for the ropes. Bangler noted that two were still in full Cresperian form, but one was evidently in mid-transformation: it had the body of a human female, but still possessed soft orange eyes and green pelt. They were all naked except for metallic armbands wrapping each of their arms, whether two or four.
    The two normal Cresperians used all four arms and both legs to shin rapidly up the ropes, but the half morphed female desperately cried out something in Cresperian, as she struggled with the rope near the bottom of the pit. She leaped upward a good ten feet, grabbing the wet rope and managing to haul herself another foot up it before losing momentum.
    "She can't!” Sira exclaimed in a low tone. “She doesn't yet know how to do it with only two arms!"
    Having gotten a short distance up the wet rope, the partially morphed Crispy lost her grip and slid down to the bottom. Bits of green and red stuck to the rope, and the Crispy involuntarily wailed in pain, a high pitched, distinctly inhuman sound.
    At the cry, lights flashed on inside the house.
    "Shit! That did it!” McAllister cried. “Get ready to boogie, kids! Time to blow this joint!” He started waving off his people.
    "WAIT!” Bangler blurted, ditching his pack on the ground and deactivating his invisibility device. “I can get her! Wersky, help belay the rope!"
    Tomlinson nodded permission. Without