He started to speak when she cut him off, “You accept, or you die, which is it?”
“I accept, I accept!” He groaned as she pulled the knife from his leg.
“Ok, no time like the present to tell me why you are trying to get into this house. You were trying to get into this house, right?”
“Yes,” Jaime answered, trying to get past the pain as his leg slowly healed, “It is rumored that Anton left a fair number of valuables hidden in the house as well as books about his experiments into the serum. We wanted to be able to look around.”
“Hmm, we never found anything like that,” the woman said. “Any ideas where it would be?” Jaime shook his head. “Damn,” she spat. “What about your friend, what’s his take?” she asked him.
“Marcus is in it with me. We would split it sixty-forty,” he answered.
“Who get’s more?” she followed up.
“Me,” He grated out.
“Well, that tells me who the smarter of you two is,” she said, “How many more Forsaken are trying to get back into the business that you are aware of?”
He shook his head, “I don’t know any in this area. They all left when Michael came in.”
“Why didn’t you two guys leave?” she asked.
“We aren’t very powerful, and figured keeping our heads down and avoiding turning anyone, would keep us off the radar.”
“Not the wisest idea, but I suppose it was smart enough. You’re still here,” she said, thinking about his comment, “How did you get your blood?”
“Prostitutes in exchange for sex,” he told her.
“Prostitutes traded their blood for sex with you?” she asked, surprised.
He tried to smirk to her, but failed, “Yes, the soporific in our bites turn them on when they can’t enjoy sex anymore. It’s one of the few ways they can still get an out-of-this-world orgasm, and I speak very persuasively.”
’That’s just…well, cunning.” she acknowledged.
“I am a cunning linguist,” He said and smirked at her.
Tabitha rolled her eyes, “Ok, times up.” She said as she looked behind him, “Ryu, would you open all of the doors leading outside and have our guys make sure he can find his way appropriately?”
Jaime felt his leg. It wasn’t healed all the way, but he could probably get going. Once out in the night, he should be able to figure out some way to hide, Marcus would be on his own.
There was a nod from Hirotoshi letting Tabitha know it was ready. She walked behind Jaime, “I’m going to cut the ropes holding your hands. Then, I’ll give you ten seconds to get out of the chair. If you make it out earlier than ten seconds, well that just works out better for you. Ready?”
Jaime thought she was a little too nice, “Ready for what? Are you going to stab me after you cut the ropes?”
“No, but if you besmirch my honor again with a question like that, I’ll sever your Achilles' tendon and then tell you to run, how about that?”
Jaime shook his head but kept his mouth shut.
He could feel a knife make its way between the ropes and then a quick cut, then another before a hand grabbed the ropes and pulled them off of his hands. “You have ten seconds,” she told him.
Jaime pulled his arms around, biting back the pain he felt as his arms screamed from the torture of being so tightly tied. His hands, barely working, helped push and pull ropes. He was slowly getting his feeling back when she told him, “Ninety seconds.” He struggled up out of the seat and began pushing himself towards the door. Half walking, half dragging his body towards the stairs, he started his way toward freedom.
Tabitha and Hirotoshi started cleaning up the rope pieces and chair as they listened to Jaime make it up the stairs and turn the corner.
A few seconds later, they heard him scream in horror and then pain.
“God,” Tabitha stood up and stretched, “You would think he didn’t appreciate the beautiful morning sun.”
Hirotoshi grunted his agreement.
What seemed like an eternity later, but was probably more like half a minute, the screaming finally stopped.
“Ok, let’s bring in contestant number two,” she said.
Fifteen minutes later, there was another scream of horror and pain.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Las Vegas, Nevada - USA
Johann stepped into the country club on the west side of Las Vegas near the Red Rock Casino and located the men’s locker room. Walking in, he searched for and found locker one-one-four. On it, was a six-digit lock. He found the code that had been sent to him by text message and used it to open the locker. Inside was a small aluminum locked box about four inches wide, two inches tall and six inches long. Picking it up, Johann thought if felt pretty solid.
He closed up the locker, walked out of the room, and went to his rental car. Las Vegas was already getting hot.
—
Leonard pulled his cowboy hat off his head, wiped the sweat and put it back on. He was walking back to his two double-wide trailers on his own hundred and twenty acres of rock, sand, and cactus at the foot of the mountains when he saw the dust trail from a car heading his direction. He figured by the time the car arrived, he should be at the door waiting for him.
Leonard had received a text the day before that he should expect a male with payment today, and it looked like the messenger was going to arrive in about ten minutes. He was driving pretty slow.
Leonard pulled his .380 Colt Mustang and checked the chamber. No reason to be foolish.
He continued to the deck of the first mobile home and used the hose to wash off his face. He had been digging a large hole in the back forty, and it had been hot and sweaty work.
He waited for the rental car to come to a stop and a man to push open his door. The new arrival was holding an aluminum case in his right hand as he stepped from the car.
Leonard stepped off the porch and started walking towards the man. He felt a flash in his eyes and put up a hand to block the sun reflecting off of the other mobile home’s window, not realizing that the sun wasn’t hitting it.
“Hello!” He called out to the new guy, “Name’s Leonard.”
“Mine’s Johann,” the man told him while blinking his eyes, adjusting to the brightness of the sun. He pulled out dark sunglasses and replaced the set he had used for driving. “I was told to bring this package to you, and you would know what to do with it?” He held up an aluminum box.
Leonard put a hand out, and the stranger placed the box in his hands. It felt full and didn’t chink when he shook it, so Leonard told him, “Yes I do young man.” Leonard put the visitor maybe in his late twenties or early thirties, with dark hair. “We have some little ways to walk, you want some water?”
Johann begged off from the offer.
“C’mon then, no need to waste time unless you want to. We all have our parts to play in this little game, and your boss is going to want to know you did your job.”
“I imagine he will,” Johann said, “How do I tell him?”
“You won’t, son. I’ll deal with that by texting him. I’ve got something for you to do after you are given your next orders, capiche?” Leonard told him as the two men walked away from the mobile homes and out into the desert. They stopped and talked for a few moments close to one of the forty-foot tall cactuses that grew on Leonard's land. The older man said, “That’s why I like it out here. It tests you. If you forget who the apex predator is, then mother nature is going to kick your ass. Maybe kill you for your stupidity. Keeps you alive, it does.”
Johann agreed, and the two men continued walking. They made it to a dried-out stream bed before Leonard said, “Where we are going is just around the next bend. If you allow me a second to catch my wind young man, we will get there, and then I’ll give you the what you need before you head back. I imagine you will be told what the fuck to do with it.”
“Should I go ahead?” Johann asked.
“Well hell, if you need to be going somewhere fast,
let’s do this, you take the lead, and I’ll carry the rear,” Leonard told him. Leonard held back just a bit so that when the young man turned the corner, it blocked him from seeing Leonard take out his .380. He held it up and walked around the bend holding it out in front of him.
But the area was empty.
What, did you believe that you were the apex predator, Leonard Martinez? A man’s voice spoke into his mind.
The pistol shots could be heard for a half-mile in most directions along with the screams. The only problem was that the closest humans were twelve miles away.
Twenty minutes later, Barnabas walked back to the two mobile homes and stepped into the second, a white one with green trim, heading for the safe that he knew to be hidden under the kitchen sink.
QBS Polarus - Mid-Atlantic Ocean
“This piece of trash’s name is Johann. Johann, meet Mark, Sia and Giannini.” Bethany Anne was speaking to the four of them on the Ad Aeternitatem. Richard and Samual were getting something to eat while the reporters had a few hours with Johann. “Johann has decided that he would like to be as helpful as possible so he is going to answer each and every question you have, honestly and directly.” She nodded to the man, who seemed to show little emotion.
“What’s wrong with him?” Mark asked.
“He has been under a lot of mind probing lately, and now he is under a compulsion to tell the truth, no matter how bad he doesn’t want to do that,” Bethany Anne supplied.
“Is this what you did to Silvens-Werner back in Colorado?” Mark asked.
“Yes, I gave him a compulsion to tell the truth.” She admitted.
“Can it be broken?” He questioned further.
“Not by him, not now,” She said.
“Why?” Mark pressed.
“Nunya,” Bethany Anne answered.
“What?” Mark asked.
Sia slapped him in the arm to get his attention, “It means none of your business. Don’t ask.” Mark put up his hands in surrender.
“Ok, so how long is he going to be like this?” Mark continued.
“As long as you have questions for this session, then he is going to a penal colony without parole. I would suggest not leaving out any questions the first time since there will not be a follow-up.” Bethany Anne told them as she walked out of the room. “Do ask him about his Congressional contacts,” she added as she slipped out.
Mark turned back towards Johann like Mark was a dog and Johann had just become a juicy steak.
—
“So, a dead end, huh. He was just a hit man to kill Johann and destroy that loose end?” Bethany Anne asked Barnabas as he flew back in a Pod. “No, I get it. He would take the contracts and handle it. Nice sum of money in chips, though. I should tell Johann he was taking twenty-five thousand and walking to his own funeral, so to speak. Hand the guy his money and then walk to the grave. You have to give it to the guy, a couple of dollars in rounds and some shoveling, and he would be good to go. Then he drops off the rental car, goes into town on a bus to play for a while then change casino tokens to cash. Nice way to get paid and hard to track. True, ok, see you soon.”
Bethany Anne slid her phone into her pocket and considered who was next on the list. Annoyingly, she couldn’t find Stephanie Lee. The woman had gone back to China and so far, hadn’t come back out. She had a list of people to go through and somehow, some way, was going to finish it.
Come hell or high water, her justice would be complete.
QBS Polarus - Mid-Atlantic
The meeting room held Bethany Anne, Barnabas, Dan, Stephen, Captain Thomas, the Queen’s Guard, Peter, and a handful of others. Most of them were sitting in the chairs in the back. In the front, in shackles, sat Johann.
He tried to glare at everyone and snarled, “You won’t get away with this!” He had been given a nice dinner and had a nap. He could remember answering all of the reporter’s questions with the truth.
It was infuriating, to tell the truth when the lies came into his mind first. He just couldn’t speak them.
“Well, perhaps you might have thought of that when you decided to send a bomb into our offices?” Bethany Anne stated, walking in front of him before turning around and walking the other way.
“That wasn’t me,” he argued, “that was Stephanie Lee!”
“Johann, we both know you are part of the group that pushed to take whatever actions necessary to acquire our technology for your bosses.”
“Yes!” Johann grabbed ahold of the idea, “Why aren’t they on trial here? I’m just the…” He started to argue before Bethany Anne cut him off.
“You are just the little parasite that wanted to move up the ladder. Remember some of them have already paid a price. Or are you forgetting Sean Truitt?” She asked him.
Johann shook his head.
“Unfortunately, you have nothing with which to bargain. I know what you know, and now the reporters know who to go after as well. You don’t know the main guy, although you suspect a lot. The evidence has already been placed before this court.”
“Then why am I even in this jacked up setup?” He spat, “You have me, and are going to kill me. Why even put me through this?”
Bethany Anne turned and caught his attention. Her eyes went red, her fangs descended, and Johann struggled to push back against his ropes to move as far as possible away from the thing standing five feet from him.
“Believe it or not,” She spoke, barely constrained anger coloring her voice, “This isn’t about you, Johann. This is to show those that follow me, that I’m capable of delivering justice when what I want is revenge. Hot, painful, ear-shrieking revenge where it takes days to dismember your body. That is what I crave when the nights are lonely because you took my love away.” She hissed at him, “What you get is justice and a sentence, not what I believe you deserve, but justice is what the future is built on!”
Johann heard everything she just said and realized there were some things worse than a quick death. He wasn’t ever supposed to meet up with those who were affected by what his group did. They were all nameless faces.
Now, the face had a name and red eyes and vampire teeth.
He was a dead man talking.
Fifteen minutes later, Johann was sent to the Etheric without the torture Bethany Anne’s emotion’s craved, but her intellect argued was just.
This time ... intellect won.
---
Captain Thomas handed the chair and the shackles to a seaman who took them from the room.
Bethany Anne took the front while everyone took a seat, “Two of the three leads of what we are calling the Black Cabal are now sentenced and sent to the Etheric. We are missing one, Stephanie Lee. She has disappeared into China, and that isn’t a small area to search. So far, she isn’t sending any messages we can locate.”
“What about Phillip Simmons, the US agent?” Gabrielle asked.
“This time, there was a Pricolici involved, so I had intended to have a particular Pricolici deal with it, but she’s pregnant.” Bethany Anne smiled. “So, it became a male Pricolici issue, and those two drew straws. The problem is that some shenanigans were going on between the two…”
Bethany Anne was interrupted by a snort and a ‘go figure’ from Eric and a ‘wasn’t me’ from Peter.
She continued, “Ok, enough interruptions. So, I’ve told the two of them that they are to bring Phillip to Barnabas. As the Ranger on this operation, he has to make sure Phillip doesn’t have more information we need to know. Barnabas, when do the three of you leave?”
“Tomorrow late in the afternoon. From ADAM and Frank, Simmons has the weekend off, and he is going to go backpacking.”
“Bad timing, that,” Scott quipped, “I believe there is a one-hundred percent chance he is going to find his nightmares in the forest.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Or two,” Gabrielle added.
“Well,” Dan asked, “Anyway we can put cameras on the guys and beam the video back to the ship? It would
make a hell of a show.”
“I’ll pop the popcorn,” Darryl said, as a huge smile lit up his face, and Bethany Anne turned to look at him.
“Seriously?” She looked around the room to a bunch of interested faces. She turned to look at Peter, “Are you OK with this, Peter?”
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