---

“Honey”, said Allie, making the introductions. “This is Melanie, and her daughter Ariana. Mel, Ari, this is Riley. Just so you know, Mel is Piper on the intercom, and Ari is Hawk. They’re staying with us tonight; Ariana will sleep with you in your room, in the other bed. Will that be okay, baby?”

Riley just nodded, and greeted the guests with a “Hi!”

“Hi, Rye”, said Ariana, with a friendly smile and shortening his name.

---

 
 
Ninja Girl - Part 5
 
Ariana turned out to be a lovely girl, and, despite the age difference, she seemed to be getting on quite well with Riley.

Right after diner, the grownups were having such a serious conversation about something, that was boring Riley and Ariana to death.

“It’s gonna be nice to have another girl around, for a change”, commented Ari to Riley. “it will be like having a little sister”.

“You don’t have any sisters?”, asked Riley, wondering about Ari’s family.

“Nope. I have a brother, but he is with dad”, she answered.

“Oh”, replied Riley, “Where is your dad?”

“Well, they are in the men’s team, logically. You know, most of the people are usually transferred to the reserve when they have kids, but mum and dad wanted to keep active”, explained Ariana, “they wanted to continue serving their country. I bet your mum will also do that, even though she has adopted you”.

“Mummy adopted me?”, exclaimed Riley, happily surprised

“Well, of course, Rye!”, Answered Ari, “That’s why she’s your mummy now!”

Riley kept chatting with Ari, but his mind was somewhere else. At some point, without any particular reason, he got up and hugged Allie tightly. Surprised, she hugged him back.

“Wow!”, she exclaimed, seconds later, “One can get used to this! Are you okay, love?”

“I love you, mummy!”, was Riley’s only answer.

“I love you too, baby”, replied Allie, hugging him again.
 
 
Later in the night, when they both were in their beds, Riley asked Ariana, “Why is there a men’s team and a women’s team?”

“Well, it seems that having mixed teams was causing some trouble, so they decided to have separate teams. They work so well now, that no one’s really willing to make any change”, Answered Ari, shortly before they both fell asleep.
 
 
Next day was a really intensive one, Ariana woke up Riley very early to make him do their morning exercises with her.

“Come on, don’t be lazy, Rye. You have to stay in good shape and become a strong and agile girl to be able to help your mum when she needs you”, Ari encouraged him. Seeing that she had a point, Riley decided that she wanted to do that, and stay fit for Allie.

“Remember that maybe at some point, your mum’s life, and all of our lives, might depend on you being able to do whatever you’re told. And you will have to be ready to do it", she told him with an unusual seriousness on her face. Riley just nodded in agreement. He was realizing that this was indeed something important and didn’t want to disappoint either his mummy or Ariana.

“Good girl!”, said Ari, giving him a hug.

The small gym in the house was enough for them to start doing some exercises, after a light breakfast. A bit later, the others also came down to the gym. Allie was proud of how her new baby was making his best efforts to keep up with them.

Allie also wanted to find out if Riley was able to ride behind her on the motorbike, so they all went for a short ride after lunch.

Afterwards, in the afternoon, Lisa kept teaching him about guns, and later Ariana enjoyed herself styling Riley’s hair.

Riley was starting to get worried about not being a girl. He surely felt at home there, and had never before felt happier. He had a lovely mummy that loved him without reservation, and was doing the best he could to make her proud of him. But, when all was said and done, he was still a boy, and nothing he could do would change that. What would happen when they found out? Would they send him to the men’s team? He really didn’t want to go there, he wanted to be in this women’s team, with his mum and his new friends.

It was difficult for him to fall asleep that night.
 
 
A couple of days later, they gathered together all their belongings again. The five of them dressed in black leggings, tops, masks and boots, and went into a dark SUV. Later, they switched to a black van, quite similar to the first that Riley had seen. There were also some motorbikes stored inside. Two other women joined them, but no one talked very much.

The night had already fallen when they finally stopped.

“Baby, I need you to do whatever I ask of you. No questions, no doubts. Whatever you want to ask, I’ll tell you afterwards. Right now I need you to blindly obey me, no matter what. Will you be able to do that?”, asked Allie. He nodded, then added, “Yes mummy, I will do whatever you tell me, no questions. I love you”. She couldn’t help smiling at her baby and hugging him tightly.

“Remember to use the bird names on the radio, baby”, Allie reminded him, as she put the intercom on his head. “You’re Robin and I’m Falcon", she said, then continued, “they are Cassie”, she pointed to Lisa, “Piper and Hawk”, indicating Mel and Ari, “and Harrier and Kite”, she finished, pointing to the new women. “Kite, you already know, she cut and styled your hair the first day, do you remember her?”

Riley nodded and smiled at Kite. She smiled back.

Allie made Riley repeat all the code names twice, to make sure he got them, and then, they all finished getting ready. All of them, including Riley, put on some strange glasses that allowed them to see in the dark, even though everything seemed to be green. After checking that all their devices and tools worked perfectly, they brought four motorbikes down and got on them.

Harrier and Hawk (that is, one of the new women and Ariana), stayed in the van, while the rest got on the motorbikes. On one of the motorbikes, Riley sat behind Allie, hugging her.
 
 
Riley wasn’t exactly sure what was happening. Two of the motorbikes went one way, two another. They stopped near a big house that seemed to be very heavily guarded. Allie told him in no uncertain terms, using hand signals, that he had to stay there, hidden, until she told him otherwise. The sounds in the intercom were very few and no longer than a word or two.

Suddenly, all of the lights in the big house went off, including the area surrounding it. Some seconds later, some dim emergency lighting came on, but didn’t provide enough light to see clearly without the night vision glasses.

Riley saw how the half dozen guards in the area surrounding the building were deactivated by different means, and how the four women moved almost freely in the yard. Finally, two of them entered the building, another one stayed outside, watching out, and the other one told him to in with her, which he did.

Once inside the building, they kept moving fast, until they reached a big office where two of the women were holding a man. Riley was sure that they were Cassie and Piper: his new mum and her sister.

“Okay, big man”, said Piper to the captive, with a really cold bitchy tone, “we want the safe open in ten minutes, with or without your help. If you give us the key, we’ll finish earlier and you’ll be happily alive. Otherwise we’ll be delayed a bit, and then someone will have to pray for your soul”

The man seemed scared. It didn’t take much to get the key and the numbers to open the safe from him. Falcon gave Robin her gun.

“Take this, and make sure this man doesn’t make any strange moves. If he does, don’t hesitate, just shoot. To the body, if you want to kill him, to the legs if you don’t, it’s up to you”, said Falcon, his mummy.

“You wouldn’t do it”, said the man, looking Robin in the eye. Robin looked at Falcon and asked, “Does he deserve it?”

“He certainly does”, said Falcon, with a harsh tone.

“Then I’ll do it”, finished Robin, pointing the gun directly at him. His pale face showed that he knew that Robin would certainly do it if necessary. Cassie was looking at them, amused, from the other part of the room.

A little later, they got back to the van with a box they had obtained from the safe. It seemed to be very important to the women, and, apparently, it was very fragile, as they were treating it with the greatest care.

They got into the van and, after driving for a while, switched to the trailer that Riley knew so well. That was the last he remembered before falling asleep. He woke up some time later, when the trailer was entering the garage and Allie led him to their room, to change into his pajamas and go to sleep.
 
 
“Morning, honey”, Allie greeted him when he awoke. He smiled happily and hugged her. “Wow, my baby is happy today, isn’t she?”, she added. “Lets join the others for breakfast!”

Allie led him through the big house. It was in fact the first time that he was able to see it, because he had not been allowed to leave the room when he had been here before. Now it seemed that they trusted him enough, so those limits were apparently off.

The building was furnished and decorated in a simple but comfortable way, and there were lots of rooms and corridors, but they didn’t really stray too far from where they had slept. He could hear more people around in the building, so this might be some kind of headquarters. He didn’t mind whatever other people might be around, though, as he was with his mummy.

End of Part 5
 
 
Lots of thanks to Amrad for helping me fix most of the mistakes in the text! The remaining mistakes are still my fault, and I apologize for them.