“Place it on the table then you may leave.” Ulla waved her hands toward the gun-metal gray bed.
“My name is Rae and I’m not an it.” I raised my head to stare at the evil woman. “I am a human being.”
“You are what I say you are.” Ulla strolled to the wall behind her and pressed on it. A cabinet sighed as it opened fully. She ran her fingers lovingly over the shiny pliers, knives and picks before selecting a scalpel. “I wonder if you can still scream without your tongue.”
The minions tossed me face first onto the table before flopping me onto my back.
“Careful.” Ulla tsked. “I’m the only one allowed to play with my new toy.”
The metal oozed between my fingers and seemed to shrink wrap around my body. I tried to turn my head and wiggle my toes. Nothing doing. Great, escaping just got a tad bit harder. Too bad the CeeBees couldn’t interact with the bed and reverse its quicksand attraction. “I am a person, not a thing or a toy.”
At least my mouth still worked. Unfortunately, I think that’s because Ulla wanted it that way. That and the full view of my body and what she did to it.
The door snicked shut as the minions backed out of the room.
A low rumble shook my form-fitting coffin.
Moments later, Ulla appeared followed by the rolling torture kit.
“You should feel flattered.” She stroked the flat side of the scalpel down my cheek.
Try as I might, I couldn’t turn my head away from the knife. There had to be a way out of this.
“You’ll be the only double in my collection.” Ulla carefully returned the scalpel to its slot on the cabinet. Her tapered fingers stripped off my sock then danced over my bare foot and caressed my arch.
I didn’t feel a thing. Still. What were the CeeBees up to? Was the numbness a side effect of rigging me to explode? “What collection?”
Ulla stroked the bright pink flesh of my baby toe.
But I knew and my belly quivered from the knowledge.
Light blazed in her wide blue eyes. “I’ll show you.”
Not interested. But if it bought me time, I’d gawk at her fanaticism.
Ulla skipped to the opposite wall. This time when she pressed the whiteness, a drawer slid open. She reached inside and pulled out a long strand of pearls. They clacked together as she toyed with them. “This is my collection.”
I watched it sway back and forth. The beads didn’t seem as shiny as pearls and some where more oblong than others. And what exactly was that black dot on most of them? Ulla didn’t seem the type to put up with imperfection. Oh, no. It couldn’t be. Even she couldn’t be that depraved.
Cupping her hand under the necklace, Ulla scooped up the pearls then sorted through them. She grasped two between her thumb and forefinger and held them up for me to see. “These are yours.”
“Mine.” My mind blanked for a moment before I faced the ugly truth. “That’s what you did with my toe.”
“Yes.” Ulla rubbed the ‘pearls’ against her cheek and smiled. “I take them out to remember.” She blinked. “Oh yes, I need to record our time together. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that the first time, but the Creator gave us both a second chance.”
What higher power would really provide an opportunity for more of Her creations to suffer for the entertainment of others?
“You’re sick.” I jerked on my arm. It didn’t budge. Crap on a cracker! I wanted out of here. Instead, a strange lethargy invaded my limbs and I relaxed into the form.
Ulla sniffed and cradled her beads. “Only those truly evolved humans can appreciate my art.”
“It’s not art; it’s torture.” I fought off the fatigue sweeping through me. Ulla couldn’t be responsible for it. Sadists don’t want their victims to be comfortable. It could only be the work of the CeeBees. But why? And when I was going to explode? “Only devolved Homo suckus do that crap.”
Frowning, Ulla returned her necklace to the drawer. “There was a reason we left your ancestors behind.” Returning to my side, she leaned down and whispered into my ear. “Your kind weren’t fit to scrub our toilets.”
I’d like to shove her head in a toilet and keep flushing it until she drowned.
Ulla straightened, sauntered to the torture cart and pulled a cell phone from its place on a velvet shelf. “But thanks to such advances at Guantanamo Bay, we see some potential in the detritus on this planet.”
Keep quiet, Rae. Don’t give her the satisfaction of a reaction. “Not everyone supports what went on there. Most people on the planet strongly object to it.”
“Yes, but enough people agree with the tactics that we can control the rest.” She tapped the screen of her cell. “And most of those people are in power.” Part of the wall slid open and three metal sphere’s shot out. The cannon balls hovered in the air above me then a sliver in the center retracted and dime-sized lens pointed down at me. She smiled down at her cell’s screen. “Good everything is working properly. Shall we begin?”
Fear soured my mouth when she picked up the scalpel. Gotta keep her talking until the CeeBees get ready to explode. “You’re not going to bore me with the details on your plans to take over the world are you?”
Ulla’s forehead wrinkled. Absently, she twirled the blade in her fingers.
“Actually, it’s your husband Rudd’s plan, not yours at all.” I licked my dry lips. “Although I’m sure you’ll try to take credit, but enough people know the truth that it won’t work and you’ll end up looking like a fool.”
She bared her teeth at me then lowered the knife to my pinky toe. “What do you know of Exposure?”
Nothing, but I filed away the name for later to look up when I was rescued. I’d be rescued. I had to be rescued. Positive thinking. “Enough to know I don’t want to listen to all the details again. You have a most annoying voice.” I wrinkled my nose. “Too nasally. You might want to get that checked.”
Rage frosted her eyes and white dotted her knuckles from her grip on the scalpel. “I’m going to enjoy killing you very slowly.” She drew the knife across my toe. “I might even beat my old record of sixty-two hours.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. Blood wept from the gash and ran in rivulets down my foot. Mercifully I didn’t feel a thing. At least not physically, emotionally I wanted to scream. Okay, CeeBees do your thing. Make me go boom.
Nothing. Little blue bastards. I settled for a yawn then stared at the ceiling. Unfortunately with my head locked in place, I could still see the sadistic bitch in my peripheral vision. “Let me know when you’re ready for a break.”
Ulla bared her teeth and plunged the scalpel in my chest. The blade bent like a sapling in a gale.
I looked down. Now that was interesting. Guess the CeeBees hadn’t deserted me after all.
Growling, Ulla chucked the bent scalpel across the room. “You won’t be laughing once I deactivate your CeeBees.”
“I’m afraid you won’t have time for that.” Victor leaned against the wooden door until it shut. A soft smile played with his lips as he spun a square key fob on his index finger. “Rae.” He winked playfully but anger flared in his sapphire eyes when he spied my toe. “It’s nice to see your death was only temporary.”
“Victor.” I whispered, half afraid I was hallucinating, I blinked. When I opened my eyes, he was still there smiling. Such a gorgeous man. My hero.
Ulla yanked a white box from her cabinet of tricks. “Don’t get too chummy, Victor. She’ll only be alive for a few more days, then who knows.” Pivoting, she faced him then pressed the button on the side of the box. An electrical current sparked across the tip. “Maybe I’ll get to play with you.”
In one smooth motion, Victor caught his key fob, aimed it at Ulla and pressed the opal in the center. A ball of blue light hit her squarely in the chest.
The tazer in her hand clattered to the ground.
“What insolence is this?” Only Ulla’s mouth moved.
Oh boy. I would have clapped had I bee
n able to move my hands. This was my kind of rescue.
Ulla’s left eye twitched. “You will be executed for using a confinement ray on your betters.”
“Actually, you are to be executed.” Victor stuck his hands in his pockets and walked closer. The hovering cannon balls swooped lower to surround the flesh statue. “Ulla Torunn, for crimes against Earth’s Fourth Empire and the Astral Presidium Guarda, you are hereby sentenced to death. Execution is to be carried out immediately.”
Ha! ‘Bout time. Holy Toledo! I didn’t remember being this blood thirsty. Those CeeBees must have rewired me wrong.
“Crimes!” Ulla bared her teeth. “What crimes?”
Victor cleared his throat. “You have illegally stolen confidential documents that could harm the Realm’s assets and territory with the sole purpose of handing them over to APres Guarda’s enemies.”
“That’s a lie. Rudd did that.” Ulla’s eye twitched again. “He forced me to get onto that UED flight. He downloaded the files. Check their signature; they clearly indicate his computer traces. I killed my husband to protect APres Guarda and I stayed to make sure my husband’s treachery didn’t harm Operation Exposure. And look at this thing, this UED steward. She’s proof Rudd gave away our secrets.”
“That’s a lie.” I shot her a dirty look before focusing on the cameras pointed in my direction. “Layla brought me to Ulla. I didn’t discover this place on my own or through any documentation. Ulla ordered me brought here in trade.”
Take that you fat cow! With a satisfied smile on my face, I settled back against the table.
Victor bared his eye teeth. “You ordered a known UED steward brought to an APres Guarda safe house?” He shook his head slowly and ran his thumb over the opal in his key fob until it glowed red. “She’s infected with CeeBees.”
Ulla pressed her lips together for a moment. “You don’t know that.”
“You do.” I crowed. The victim had become the witness for the prosecution. “Layla even offered to help study the CeeBees in exchange for her son.”
“Lies.” Ulla flinched. “You can’t believe anything she says. And the turncoat’s son was executed upon discovery he was treating property without the owner’s authorization.”
My mouth dropped open. Layla’s son had been dead all along? Ulla was the worst possible monster.
“Regardless, she is infected-a fact evident in the toe she regrew. A fact you ignored.” Victor raised his hand. “Sentence will be carried out.”
Ulla narrowed her eyes. “If you do that, you’ll die too. I’ve hooked this safe house’s self-destruct switch to my vitals.”
Oh, no, she didn’t. I tried to lift my head but remained glued to the table.
“She’ll die too.” Ulla smirked. “Are you prepared to sacrifice her? Again.”
Bitch! Of course she’d rigged the building to blow.
“I am a faithful officer of the APres Guarda.” Whistling, Victor sauntered closer and pressed the opal.
A red burst slammed into Ulla’s chest. Her face contorted in a mask of agony then the muscles liquefied and drained from her face. For a moment, she just stood there. Slowly, her knees buckled and she collapsed. Flesh slapped the linoleum and a faint gurgle filled the silence.
I shuddered. Victor had used the Scrambler.
Yellow lights bathed the white walls.
“Ten minutes until self-destruct.” Ulla’s voice haunted us from the grave.
Of course, she’d want to herald the end.
“Let it be recorded that sentence was carried out.” He spoke to the cannon balls. “Now return to your positions and relay Ulla’s execution before this place blows.”
The metal spheres bobbed across the room.
Exhaling a sigh of relief, I eyed Victor. My hero. I knew I couldn’t be attracted to someone who was bad. “You going to release me now?”
Frowning, he shook his head. A lock of jet black hair dropped across his brow. “Sorry, obecht.”
Leaning down, he kissed my forehead. His soft warm lips lingered for a heartbeat before he pivoted about and left the room.
Glued to the table, I could only watch him go.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Victor!” I yelled at the closed door. My ears strained in the silence. Crap on a cracker! The man really wasn’t coming back. Some hero he turned out to be. I wiggled then squirmed but the metal form holding me in place didn’t budge.
“Nine minutes thirty seconds until self-destruct.” Although dissolving somewhere on the floor beside my bed, Ulla had used her nasally twang for the countdown.
Panting, I stopped struggling and stared at the white ceiling. Obviously, I needed another plan, like yesterday. Anything to get out of here before the place exploded.
My fingers started to tingle, then my wrists. The sensation traveled up to my elbow before my toes joined in. Great. Leave it to the CeeBees to blow me up now. Uncooperative buggers.
A silver camera sphere drifted over to me and hovered near my head.
I stared into the lenses. “What do you want?”
The floating cannon ball floated toward my feet.
“Yeah, you better run. As soon as I get out of here, I’m going to use you for batting practice.” If I get out of this. I tried to lift my hands again. My fingers left the metal. Hey, they moved. I tried again but couldn’t lift my palms.
The camera ball ignored my empty threats and dipped below the table.
“Coward.” I clucked my tongue in time to my heartbeat. Okay. So what did I have to work with? A hero that didn’t save me from blowing up. CeeBees that only cooperated when their agenda meshed with mine. And a form-fitting torture table that wasn’t about to let me go. All of which added up to a giant clusterfuck.
My attention drifted to the implements of torture lovingly displayed in the rolling cabinet. Even if I could move my arm, I didn’t know how I could use the pliers, clamps, knives, chisels or picks to free myself. Heck I didn’t know if the stupid bed had a release button within reach.
So…
Right. Positive thoughts. I’m positive I’ll be charred Rae in a little over nine minutes. What an extraordinary long, yet too short span of time. I drummed my fingers against the bed. The pinging of metal was overly loud in the silence.
Wait a minute! The top part of my palm came up. Hope leant wings to my spirit. Maybe the CeeBees were working to free me after all. I kept drumming. Ten seconds later and my palm came up. Yes. Yes. Yes! I might just survive this after all.
The camera sphere bobbed above the bed.
I flipped it a double bird. “See I told you I was going to get free.”
I just hoped the CeeBees unzipped me before time ran out.
The canon ball sank out of sight.
I lightly slapped the warm metal. Right then left, right then left. Who knew? Maybe my wiggling helped. Humming Freebird, I stared at the ceiling. So what did I plan to do once I got free? Find Victor and knee him in the ‘nads came to mind. The dirty rat should have released me. I raised my hand and my forearm came off the table. Haha. Success. I wiggled my toes. My feet rotated freely at the ankles. Soon. Soon I’d be free.
“Nine minutes until self-destruction.” Ulla taunted.
“Bitch.” I resumed humming. As soon as I was free I’d reward my faithful CeeBees with Funyuns and grape soda. Saliva flooded my mouth and my stomach growled. Boy was I hungry. “Hurry up and release me guys.”
Bending my arm, I snapped my fingers in time with my humming. I so wanted to be moving on.
The camera ball zoomed up in the air. Its lenses swept over me before they turned toward the door.
“What—” Before I could finish, my hands and feet once more returned to their secure and locked position. “No. This is the wrong way.” I tried to lift my finger. Nothing doing. “You’re supposed to free me not chain me down again.”
I focused on wiggling my toes. No response. Why had the CeeBees freed me only to bind me again? Did everything from another pl
anet have a sadistic streak?
The door creaked open and a blurry face peered around the corner. Brown eyes stared at me before dropping to the ground. Breaths fogged the mask in rapid succession.
So whoever hid behind the door had spotted Ulla’s body. Right now, I didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. “Can you release me?”
The brown eyes flew to mine for a moment before fingers with chipped and torn nails wrapped around the wooden door and pushed it open further. The woman standing on the threshold cradled her unborn child. “The Mistress is truly dead?”
“Yes.” I flinched as the silver cannon ball darted around my head. “And we have to get out of here. She rigged the building to explode.”
As if on cue, Ulla’s voice snaked into the room. “Eight and one half minutes to self-destruction.”
The woman remained in the doorway.
“Will you help?” Like now? Please God, don’t send me two saviors who leave me behind.
Pushing the mask on top of her head, the woman crept closer. “I will try.”
The sphere dropped to the foot of my metal prison and the woman stopped.
I gritted my teeth. Oh for crying out loud. “Use one of those wrenches on the cart and whack it out of the way.”
The woman shook her head. “It is a capital crime to destroy APres property.”
For Pete’s sake. “The property is going to be destroyed in eight minutes anyway.”
She still didn’t move.
A low growl rumbled through me. “Just release me and I’ll take care of it.”
Eying the sphere, the woman tiptoed over the slush that was Ulla then bent down to pluck the Smartphone from the corpse’s pocket. Her fingers trembled as they hovered over the blue screen. Taking a deep breath, she tapped near the top screen then close to the bottom.
The metal warmed underneath me before melting into a flat surface. “Thank you!”
The cannon ball dropped to the floor with a clang. It bounced twice, spewing metal across the floor, before coming to a stop near the wall.
Pushing with my hands, I levered myself up then scrambled to the bottom of the bed and dropped to the floor. My knees bucked from my weight. Catching myself on the edge of the bed, I locked my legs to keep upright.
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