Page 37 of House Divided
“Colonel,” said Enoch calmly, “I have every confidence in the ability of my troops to infiltrate your planet’s command structures.”
“Holy hells, Immanuel!” muttered General Marwan, shaken. “You’ve certainly made your point.”
“Thank you,” replied Enoch politely. “I have begun the process of resuming contact with my troopers and should shortly have a better sense of which ones are in the best position to assist us in inflicting some significant damage on our enemies. I should have the relevant information ready to share with you within the next few hours.”
“Excellent,” said Cornelius. “Miss Marx, I understand that your brother has also sent someone planetside to offer assistance?”
“That is correct,” replied Madeline. “I will keep his name confidential for security purposes at the moment, but I can tell you that he is in the capital, at the headquarters of the Pleasure House, and is awaiting our signal.”
General Marwan shook her head. “Remind me never to play poker with either of you. Or try to stage a coup against you, for that matter. If I ever doubted whether or not I’d chosen the right side, those doubts are gone.”
Madeline smiled. “I’m glad to hear that, Heba. For what it’s worth, I’m glad you chose our side.”
Cornelius concluded, “In the absence of any further business, we will reconvene in a few hours, once we have updated information. At that point, we will begin planning our strategic response to this bloody series of events. Thank you all.”
The various attendees filed out of the room. Aurelian moved near Madeline. “If you two will follow me, I have some living quarters set aside for you,” he said.
“Send the information to my data tablet, please,” replied Madeline, “Enoch and I will be staying behind for a little bit. We have some things to discuss.”
Aurelian glanced at them both then said, “Of course,” and left the room.
Once the two of them were alone, Madeline locked the door before turning to Enoch in fury. “How dare you!” she shouted angrily.
Enoch tilted his head and looked at her quizzically.
Madeline strode forward to stand in front of him. “You’ve been contacting your troopers since we landed? When the hell were you doing that?”
Enoch knit his eyebrows. “While we riding in the transport carrier. We use a simple tap code, so I was doing it while we were talking. Why has this upset you?”
“Because you’re holding cards back, dammit! We’re supposed to be planning this together! And you knew—youknew—the whole time we were sitting in that meeting that one of your troopers had even infiltrated Mawan’s command staff! And you didn’t tell me?”
“I would warn you to stop shouting at me,” growled Enoch in a low voice.
“Why didn’t you tell me, Enoch? I looked as clueless as everyone else!”
“There wasn’t the opportunity,” he replied. “I wanted to employ his presence to maximum effect. Madeline, stop shouting at me. I won’t warn you again.”
“These people already distrust you because of what they’ve heard about you! Enoch, it was a stupid move that you only did to feed your ego!”
“Myego?” demanded Enoch, his voice rising.
“Yes! Your big damn ego!” shouted Madeline.
She had barely finished the sentence before Enoch sat down suddenly in one of the conference chairs, pulling her over his lap. He held her legs securely between his own.
“No, dammit!” she cried. “Don’t you dare! What if someone comes in here?”
Enoch placed a firm hand on her wriggling bottom. “The door is locked, and the room is secure,” he said calmly. “I did warn you, Maddie.” He brought his hand down on her bottom, hard, giving her five smacks in quick succession.
“Ow! Who in the hell do you think you are, you asshole?”
Smack!
“I’m your man, and you’re my woman.”Smack!“I warned you about what would happen if you kept shouting.”Smack!“Keep swearing at me, and your pants and panties are coming down, and this will be on your bare bottom.”Smack!
“Goddammit, Enoch!” Madeline shouted, furious and beginning to hurt.
Enoch sighed. “You cannot say that I did not warn you, Maddie.” He lifted her up long enough to unfasten her pants then firmly pulled both trousers and underwear down past her knees. He was so quick that Madeline did not have time to react, and a moment later, she was once more over his lap, her bare bottom high in the air.
