The Beasts of Juarez

by R. B. Schow

  “Codrin gave me a lead.”

  “Well, I can tell you this, you can’t forget the family and you have to find Esty. So yes, the job has doubled, but you have to do it yourself, so just suck it up and accept that.”

  “Easier said than done,” he said, wiping his brow.

  “As a friend, I’m telling you to pull yourself together and try to think. In the meantime, I’ll see if I can get a hold of the family’s bodyguard and send him down to you.”

  “The bodyguard is in the hospital with broken ribs,” Yergha said. “So he’s a no-go.

  “I’ll get Atlas as quickly as I can. If I call, pick up quickly.”

  “I don’t need you to tell me how to answer my phone, Cira,” he said sounding a bit too testy. “I’m just saying, all I care about is Esty right now.”

  “If you talk to Leopold, you better change your tune. Right now you sound like you’re trying to bail on the job in the first twenty-four hours so forgive me for treating you like an amateur.”

  “We’re all fucking amateurs!” he shouted into the phone.

  “Right now, it’s just you,” Cira said softly.

  He bit back on the panic, the fear, the hysteria, and he tried to calm himself. It wasn’t working, though.

  “There are other elements in play here,” she said, trying to assure him.

  “Well, call me when you can get them in order because I’m on my way to get Esty back. And as far as the wife and kids go? They don’t exist until I’ve got Esty.”

  “You’re your own worst enemy, Yergha.”

  With nothing more to say, he hung up the phone. He closed his eyes, took three deep breaths, and told himself to pull it together. When he opened his eyes next, it was with the burning determination to find Esty and lay waste to the guys who took her.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  LEOPOLD WENTWORTH

  Leopold’s plane touched down at the private airstrip just outside Blacksburg, Virginia. The landing was smooth, his wait for a ride virtually nonexistent. A black-on-black Range Rover with tinted windows was waiting to pick him up just as it had the last time he was there six months prior. The same driver held the Range Rover’s back door open for him.

  “It’s a pleasure to see you again, sir,” the driver said.

  “You as well,” Leopold replied as he climbed inside the vehicle and buckled up.

  When the driver got inside the Range Rover, Leopold said, “No Isabelle?” He tried to say this in a manner that conveyed his disappointment.

  “She told me to tell you that you aren’t important enough for her to waste her time on a car ride and small talk. She said you would understand.”

  Leopold drew a deep breath then let it out slowly. “I am ever the child looking for his mother’s approval. It seems as though Isabelle Norwood will not be a suitable mother-figure after all.”

  The driver seemed to tense up. Leopold laughed and said, “It’s okay, my friend. I didn’t expect her to be here.”

  “Your asset is in training right now with people who are as inaccessible to Miss Norwood and our facility as Miss Norwood is to you.”

  “Well isn’t that something,” he said.

  “Indeed it is, sir.”

  As they approached one of Blacksburg’s many ridges, he recognized the one that housed Monarch Industries’ primary facility. His phone suddenly buzzed. Fishing it out of his pocket, he checked the caller ID then took the call.

  “Leopold here,” he said.

  “Leopold, it’s Esty. We picked up a tail the second we got into Juárez.”

  “Jesus, that was fast,” he said. “Driver, please pull over.”

  Without further prompting, the driver pulled the Range Rover onto the side of the road and out of the way of traffic.

  “Where are you?” Estella asked.

  “I just arrived in Virginia,” he said, “but I’m about to go out of range.”

  After a brief but precise call with Estella and Yergha about their concerns with Juárez, and with the possible tail they picked up, he hung up and said to the driver, “We can go now.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  They entered Monarch Industries by the same route as last time and just as before, Isabelle Norwood was there to greet him. When he first met her, she had appeared to be in her early- to mid- sixties. For some unfathomable reason, she now appeared to be younger than that and still quite handsome for an older woman.

  “It’s been too long,” Leopold said as he got out of the SUV.

  “For whom?” she asked. Her voice was less pinched and gravelly than he remembered. What kind of youth transformation had she managed for herself?

  “Me, of course,” he said, extending a hand. She took it, gave it a firm shake then smiled. “It would be rude of me not to tell you that you look amazing.”

  “As do you, Leopold. I must say, the younger women suit you.”

  Grinning, certain that he had kept his private life private, he wouldn’t let her make him stumble. “There is no greater diet than dating twenty-five-year-olds.”

  “Says a true narcissist,” she teased.

  “And yet here I am, working my ass off not to pine over you. Is it strange that I’m even more attracted to you now than I was last time I saw you?”

  “It would be strange if you weren’t,” she replied as if the statement was nothing. “Let me show you to your girl. She is with a special set of people right now, people someone unfamiliar with the kind of work we do here will not understand.”

  “I understand a lot of things, Miss Norwood.”

  “I’m sure you do,” she said with a laugh.

  They walked through a maze of hallways and corridors, so many that he found himself slightly lost, or turned around. It was baffling to think that behind every door, or every set of doors, were assets born and raised for the ravages of war, for the brutality of covert ops, and for assassination squads of all measure.

  “And here we are,” Isabelle said.

  The second she opened the door, Leopold saw the bald-headed assassin he had purchased six months ago doing hand-to-hand combat with the most beautiful girl Leopold had ever seen. She had lightly-browned skin, long brown hair, and…purple eyes? He couldn’t pull his gaze from those deep amethyst eyes, or that mesmerizing face.

  If there is such a thing as love at first sight, Leopold thought, this is it. Swallowing past a lump in his throat, he turned to Isabelle and whispered, “Who is she?”

  “You can think of her as a guest trainer,” Isabelle said. “Be quiet and let them train.”

  The two women were ferocious in their combat, and even though Kiera worked smoothly, swiftly, and with an extreme amount of power, there was something slow and clunky to her when compared to her trainer.

  With this young amethyst-eyed brunette, there was a grace and fluidity unmatched by any human he’d ever seen before, save for the great martial arts masters. These same masters had taken decades to perfect their art. But in those final years, when they were at their peak of discipline, much of their youth and the vitality had waned.

  Yet this young woman seemed to have an understanding of tactical combat, the fluidity and polish of a master, and the kind of youthful vitality you never see in even the most skilled of combatants.

  “She is an impossible creature,” Isabelle leaned toward Leopold and said.

  “She most assuredly is,” Leopold replied. His heart was crushed, stomped, and beaten with the need to know this young woman.

  “How does she look to you?” said a handsome man who suddenly appeared behind them, seemingly out of nowhere.

  “Where did you come from?” Leopold turned and asked the man.

  “Many places before this, but only moments ago, I came from down the hall.” He spoke with a slight German accent, his features handsome but stern, like he didn’t do much smiling. “My name is Dr. Enzo Holland. You must be Leopold.”

  Leopold reached out and took the man’s hand, enchanted. “It’s my pleasure t
o meet you, Doctor. Are you working with Kiera or are you here in a different capacity?”

  “Kiera’s trainer is my protégé, my experimental weapon if you will. I’m afraid that I’m nothing to her but a hindrance these days, for her evolution is far beyond anything I can teach. Yet for some reason, she has taken a liking to your Kiera. So to answer your question, yes, I am working with Kiera.”

  Just then, Kiera’s trainer stepped past an impossibly fast kick, checked the outside of Kiera’s knee, then dipped down and rammed a shoulder into her body. The sideways attack lifted Kiera off the ground and put her on her ass.

  “If you’re going to fire your weapon fast, be sure to retract it faster,” the brunette said. She offered a hand to Kiera, which the young woman took, and then both women turned to face Leopold.

  “Hello, Kiera,” Leopold said.

  She nodded her head without saying a word.

  “Is she still not speaking?” he turned and asked Isabelle.

  “She speaks many languages,” Isabelle replied, “but we often find that words get in the way of action. As you know by now, our assassination models are geared more toward kill-tactics than any kind of socialization.”

  “And what is your name?” he asked the amethyst-eyed brunette.

  “Savannah,” she replied. “You’re Leopold, I assume.”

  “I am,” he said.

  “You’re the one who owns Kiera?” she asked.

  There was a tenor to her voice, a surety that made him question if he was hearing confidence or disgust. At that very thought a subtle smile broke across Savannah’s mouth, almost like she could read his mind.

  “No one really ever owns anyone,” he said tactfully. “I have, however, opted to use the skillset she possesses to do some good in the world.”

  “Using violence for good, that’s novel,” Savannah said, looking over at Holland, who was frowning at her. “I don’t know anyone else who thinks like that.”

  “Savannah is her own master now,” Holland said.

  “How old are you?” Leopold asked her.

  “Don’t you know it’s not polite to ask a girl her age?” Savannah asked affably.

  “That rule doesn’t count if you’re a younger woman. And you, my dear, are much younger than I am.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  Now he was certain she was disgusted by him. He could see it in her eyes, how she positively reviled him.

  “Bingo,” she said, looking right at him.

  He flinched as if punched.

  “Are you a fighter, Mr. Wentworth?” Savannah asked. “I know you’re not, but let’s see what you say.” There was something unusual about her eyes, something fiery and unreal. He was used to challenges, but he didn’t like this one. Not one bit.

  “I came for Kiera,” he said.

  “To save some girls, I’m sure,” she replied. “Buy one to save many, is that it?”

  “What’s your problem?” Leopold asked.

  The insides of her purple eyes seemed to glow orange for just the slightest moment. Then his heart began to overheat, causing him to fold forward against a slight but searing pain.

  “Savannah,” Dr. Holland warned.

  She broke her stare for one moment, glancing over at the doctor. The heat then dissipated rather quickly.

  “What the hell?” Leopold asked.

  Savannah breezed out of the room like a furnace—turbulent and untouchable.

  Isabelle looked right at him and said, “She killed you a hundred times in her mind before you even realized you were in danger.”

  “How is someone like her even possible?” Leopold asked, his heart still having trouble returning to its original rhythm.

  “Genetics,” Holland replied, his German accent now more noticeable.

  After what just happened, he wanted no part of these people. “Kiera, it’s time to get your things.”

  “I have one more shot to administer,” Holland said. “It will only take a few minutes. After that, she is all yours.”

  Kiera walked past them, no acknowledgment of them at all. Leopold turned and watched the girl walk down the hallway with Holland in tow.

  “She’s even more robotic than ever,” Leopold said. “At some point, we’re going to have to socialize her whether you want to or not.”

  “When she’s ready,” Isabelle said.

  “Well, I’m ready.”

  “You’re not a killing machine, Leopold. You’re a little man with big dreams and a decent enough bank account to finance them.”

  “My account was never considered decent, except maybe in college. But even then, it was a work in progress.”

  Waving a dismissive hand, which she was good at, Isabelle said, “You happened to come at the right time, Leopold. The push for peace by the last administration damn near destroyed our business. The world, however, is entering another war phase, as you are seeing in Syria, North Korea, and China. We have paying clients once more, men and women of distinction who command hundreds of billions of dollars, trillions even. So when you come in here thinking you’ve got a nine-inch cock because your account boasts nine whole figures, you need to understand that, comparatively, a dick that small would never get past the front door, let alone in front of someone like me, Dr. Holland, or even someone as skilled as Savannah Swann. You are in the heart of a lion’s den that pumps out world destroyers, so please consider your presence in this facility a mighty gift from God, or whatever other entity you people worship these days.”

  “I am humbled by this place for—”

  “Be quiet, Mr. Wentworth,” she said. “No one cares about your opinion, your wants and desires, or even your interests here. No one but me. And I only care barely, and only to the extent required by our contract.”

  “Flattery will get you everywhere, Isabelle,” he said without expression. He was working hard to still the anger inside of him, but the woman had just triggered his adrenals.

  “Well, with me, it will get you nowhere,” she replied. “If you’ll kindly return to the front of the facility, I will have Kiera meet you there. I trust you know your way back.”

  “Actually, I don’t.”

  She was drawing an irritated breath when Savannah suddenly appeared. “I can take him from here, Mrs. Norwood.”

  “Be nice,” Isabelle told her.

  “I’ll be nicer than you were,” she said as if she cared very little for the woman. “Let’s go, Mr. Wentworth.”

  Leopold said goodbye to Isabelle who was already walking away and paying him no mind. Catching up to Savannah, he wanted to say so many things, but there was no time and he didn’t know where to begin. And, truthfully, he was scared of her—not only of what she was but of what she could do to him.

  “Just ask,” she finally said.

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “Just ask the question burning a hole in your mind, Leopold Wentworth.”

  “And what question is that?” he challenged.

  She glanced over her shoulder at him and said, “What am I?”

  Nodding, he replied, “Okay, what exactly are you?”

  “Something you wouldn’t understand,” she said. “This is one facility of many like it. I was born into this clandestine world in the foothills of northern California. This isn’t my world anymore, but it is a world Kiera is moving into. There is something special about her.”

  “How so?” he asked.

  “She will never be like me, but of all the girls in here, she has the best chance.”

  “Because of her genetics?” he asked.

  “Yes. And other things. But those are things I cannot discuss with you due to the NDAs that I signed.”

  “Again…what are you?” he asked.

  She stopped and looked at him. Her eyes bored so deeply into his that he thought he felt her crawling through his mind, seeing him, knowing him, understanding all the little things that made Leopold Wentworth the man he was and would one day become. And then th
at feeling dissipated and her gaze went from hypnotic to congenial inside of a split second.

  “I am what this universe never wanted, something untouchable and mean, and yet there is a heartbeat in my soul that yearns for some sense of normalcy, which is a life I gave up long ago. I cannot change who I am, nor would I, but I can help people like Kiera come into her own. She has a chance at normalcy.”

  “That’s both intriguing and noble,” he said, nearly speechless.

  “I wanted to be here to meet you, to tell you that since you own her—because you are technically a slaver when it comes to her—you have the right to free her at some point. Work with that in mind, Leopold. That’s what I wanted to tell you.”

  “I didn’t know I would be here, which meant Isabelle didn’t know I’d be here, yet somehow you knew?”

  She smiled and said, “Follow me, your ride is waiting.”

  When they reached the front of the facility, when she was just about ready to leave him, he found that he wanted to ask her so many things that he couldn’t seem to choose just one. And then the moment was gone.

  She seemed to sense this. The gorgeous creature stopped, turned and looked at him, and then she walked back and said something that rocked him to the core.

  “I know what you do, Leopold, and what you’re going to do. Bad things will happen in the days ahead. If I was you, and I have been you before, I would kill every last one of those monsters. Gut them, skin them, set their fucking lives on fire.”

  When Savannah said this, firelight glowed in her eyes and Leopold’s body suddenly felt supercharged and ready for war, almost like he’d plugged into a power source he didn’t understand.

  Savannah nodded, and he nodded. Then, without another word, the amethyst-eyed girl turned and left him to contemplate oh so many things. On the way out, she passed by Holland and Kiera. To Leopold’s surprise, the powerful young woman barely even acknowledged them.

  Holland saw him and knew something had changed. “What exactly did she say to you?” he asked.

  “Who?”

  “Savannah?”

  “I don’t know any Savannah,” Leopold grinned, winking at Dr. Holland who did not find him amusing. He then looked at Kiera and smiled. “Even if you’re a robot, I’m glad to see you.”