Episode 5: Bunnies in Black
Part 6
A long, slender leg slipped out from the waters of the bubbling grotto of the Playboy Mansion. Beneath the dimmed lights, a thin haze came from the heated waters rushing over the manmade waterfall within the pool. Several nude bodies filled the pool, but the only sound came from the speakers above them, filtering light music into the air. She stretched herself as her leg slid back under the hot tub, resembling the bubbling waters of the grotto. Supposedly, it held many secrets, but, like Vegas, what happened there stayed there.
“Mmm… this is heaven.” Diamond peacefully moaned at the soothing heat, completely relaxed as she rapidly texted Lancy. “I don’t know why the other ladies hate this mission so much. Hot soak, hot guys to watch… It’s perfect!” She giggled quietly to herself, then tapped her phone on her chin.
While she enjoyed looking at the patrons, they hadn’t given her much information. And the Bunnies weren’t much fun either. She’d hoped The Girls Next Door accurately depicted the Mansion, but they hardly seemed interested in friendly chitchat. Diamond pouted, disappointed by her reality tv dreams shattering around her. At least she could blend in while relaxing, and, hopefully, no one would suspect her surveillance. She snapped a quick picture of her long hair piled on top of her head and her skin barely peeking from the water, then sent it along with a text that read, “Keep your eyes peeled for me if you’re not too busy upsetting Pearl.”
A wailing moan pierced the ambient music, a noise unlike any she had ever heard before. The screeching pitch made Diamond’s phone screen crack, then shatter into pieces before the deafening noise finally silenced. Diamond’s jaw clenched. Borrow her jewelry and turn them into new gadgets, fine. Wear her clothes to work and tell everyone they were fresh out of GQ, fine. Break picture frames in her office because you were testing out a new laser, fine. But her phone? That made it personal. She gazed down on her poor, shattered phone. A senseless victim. Whatever alien was hiding here would wish it never met Diamond Divine.
She pushed the button on the side of her phone that acted as a last resort back-up speaker. “Girls, there’s totally something by the grotto! It killed my phone, so I’ll be offline. Meet me here quick!”
She hurriedly slipped on her hot pink bikini and matching wrap skirt, then snapped her strappy heels onto her feet. After letting her hair down from the loose bun piled on her head, she pulled a miniature gun from a pocket in the skirt with a smirk — time for the alien to pay.
Diamond happened to be ready just in time for the others to show up. Red looked beyond relieved. After leaving the sanctuary of the bathroom, she’d had another run-in with the guy who just adored “muffins her flavor.” Emerald was still disgusted by the entire affair and was ready to let Jay have it the moment she got her hands on him. Pearl… to say she looked peeved would have been putting it mildly. Diamond idly wondered what new things had the ladies so riled up, but there was no time for that now.
“So what’s going on, Barbie?” Emerald asked.
“I was in here getting my spa on, when a weird noise killed my phone! But no one even blinked twice at it but me.” She waved her hand around at the others, who were too infatuated with each other and the sexual tension rising through the steam to notice much else.
“Jeez, and I thought Blondie was always horny,” Pearl laughed.
“Where’d the noise come from?” Red asked.
Diamond pointed towards a small corner of the waterfall, along a wall of the illusioned cave of the pool, which no one occupied despite the coveted privacy it would have provided. The four women side-stepped the pool, clinging to the rock as they walked toward it.
Emerald raised a brow, then glanced at the shattered phone clenched in Diamond’s hand. “Damn, shit killed it. I’m amazed you’re alive without your lifeline.”
Though she remained silent, Diamond’s hand stiffened around the miniature gun in her other hand.
Red’s brow furrowed as they walked, examining the rock face for any peculiarities. Meanwhile, Pearl slipped on what looked like a large pair of designer sunglasses. That’s what they had been before she’d modified them to detect signals certain levels of technology gave off. Not that she’d buy shades like these. Actually, she had “borrowed” them from-
“I knew it!” Diamond crossed her arms with a pout. “I’ve been looking everywhere for those!”
“Sorry, I owe you a pair, Di, I swear.” Pearl pressed a tiny button along the side of the frame, almost invisible unless one knew it was there. A light flashed along the front of the lenses, and suddenly, hidden circuitry flickered along the grotto. She brushed against a large rock illuminated in green light, which made a panel slide open to reveal a long, dark passageway. Barely hiding her grin, Pearl motioned toward the opening.
“Nice.” Red laughed. “This has cliché written all over it.”
Pearl shrugged and took off the shades. “Blame the one who built it.”
The ladies snuck down the hall. Within seconds, the wall slammed shut, and Diamond sighed, blinking as she stared down the dark passageway. “They can never stay open, can they?”
Emerald smirked. “Better for us. No one will see us here. I want this mission over and done. Jay owes me big time for this shit.”
A soft humming sound trickled from the dark and grew louder as they continued into the bleak abyss. Red, Diamond, and Emerald shared bewildered looks, but Pearl merely traipsed into the unknown, undeterred by the odd noise. “Here come the Men in Black… they won’t let you remember…” Feeling their hard stares, Pearl froze, then peered over her shoulder. “What?”
“Wouldn’t we be the Bunnies In Black?” Diamond giggled.
Emerald rolled her eyes. “You’re supposed to be the brains of this operation. They’re gonna hear us, genius.”
“Em, seriously, these walls are almost soundproof.” Pearl knocked on one. “The stuff in this passage is intense if the outside is any indication. I’m almost positive the only noises able to get out are the ones on the really pitchy frequency like Di heard.”
“Unless there’s aliens hiding out in here?” Red shrugged.
“Think they’re cute like ET?” Diamond asked. “I’d phone home for them if they hadn’t destroyed my phone.”
“I know whatever’s controlling Hef is a testy-ass bastard. Wait till I tell you what I just had to-” Emerald stopped abruptly as a momentarily blinding light lit up the end of the corridor.
Inside was a large, oval-shaped craft. The metal of the craft looked reflective and shimmered with brief rainbow streaks. Little lights covered the craft, bleeping and humming softly. The girls froze.
“Wow!” Diamond exclaimed
“Shit, that’s huge,” Emerald muttered.
Red was speechless.
Pearl’s grin grew as she put the sunglasses back on and began pressing a second button on the frames, snapping photos of the far-advanced technology. She was like a kid in a candy store, and she couldn’t get enough. “I can’t believe this!” She ran up the ramp toward the open door of the hull. With a cautious gaze within, she stepped inside, holding the button on the glasses to record. “There’s so much I can — we can — learn…”
“Wow, who knew the movies had it right?” Red said softly, just taking it in.
“You okay?” Diamond asked.
“Yeah, I’m alright.” Red glanced at the ground and fiddled with her ruby ring.
“Damn, that girl just got her form of crack,” Emerald mused, watching Pearl with amusement. “It’s like a nerd at a Star Trek convention or some shit.”
Pearl picked up two small items, then ran back down the ramp. “You guys, we should take as much as we can! Who knows what these things do! It’ll be so–” She caught their gazes and froze. “Focus. Okay, focusing.”
A loud crash came from the end of the passageway. Emerald pulled out her gun and gritted her teeth. “Great, what is it now?”
***
“Um, ladies, I think you have company,” Jay warned as he peered around the corner just in time to see a large group of Playmates headed towards the grotto. He’d managed to sneak onto the Mansion grounds through the staff entrance. All he’d had to do was grab an apron — a pink one with the Playboy Bunny emblazoned on the front in white rhinestones — and the guards around the Mansion merely assumed he was a kitchen worker. From just outside the kitchen doorway, he could hear murmurs of a security breach and a call for all personnel briefed on “the project” to report to “the headquarters.”
“What’s going on out there, Jay?” Brian asked as he, Mulder, and Scully watched the scene unfold from the surveillance van.
“The girls must have tripped some sort of silent alarm.” Jay glanced at the feed of the girls on his watch, then peered around the corner again and saw that even more Playmates — and several large guards — were on their way into the grotto. “They’re way too outnumbered. I’m going in there.”
“Just watch out,” Brian reminded Jay, as he, too, watched the Playmates surround the undercover agents. Mulder and Scully exchanged a glance before looking back at the screen.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Jay said with a sigh as he crept across the lawn to the pool area. Thankfully, the secret entrance had been left open by the last person to enter it. After a quick look around to make sure he wouldn’t be spotted, Jay raced toward the girls.
***
“There’s too many of them!” Red screamed, struggling to jam her elbow into the ribs of one of the Playmates who had latched onto her back. She ducked as another Playmate took a swipe at her head.
“And it’s impossible to fight in these damn heels!” Emerald called out, throwing the Playmate that lunged at her into the wall.
“Not when you’re used to it!” Diamond shouted as she kicked one Playmate in the stomach and turned around to punch another one.
“Not all of us wear stilettos all the t–” Pearl’s reply was cut off as the Playmate who had snuck up behind her wrapped her hands around her throat, choking her. Unable to breathe, she struggled against her attacker, trying to pry the woman’s hands off her but to no avail. Then, suddenly, a shot rang out, and the Playmate’s grip inexplicably loosened. Sucking in a grateful breath, Pearl glanced back over her shoulder and saw that a bullet had pierced the Playmate’s chest. As the woman slumped to the ground, Pearl spotted her mentor, Jay, a few feet behind her, firing his gun left and right at the Playmates and guards.
“Took you long enough!” Emerald snapped at Jay as she managed to subdue another Playmate and punch one of the guards. Jay shot the guard just as he was about to attack Emerald again.
“You’re welcome!” he called back, throwing in a few punches at the attackers who now surrounded him.
***