by Alex Siegel
Marina pointed her gun at his chest. "Mr. Hastings, it's so good to finally meet you. You're a very difficult man to find."
Peter Hastings raised his hands and backed up. "You're that woman!"
"Yes, and if you twitch, you're dead."
She followed him into the room and closed the door. She quickly glanced in either direction to make sure they were alone. Peter didn't seem to have any luggage, but a large backpack was on a desk. There was also a laptop which was open and turned on.
"How did you find me?"
"I employ excellent hackers," Marina said. "They followed your electronic trail to here."
"Impossible! I'm the best hacker in the world, and I didn't leave any trail."
"Obviously, you're wrong on both counts. I have many questions for you. You can answer them here under civilized conditions, or I can take you somewhere else and extract the answers painfully. Don't think for a second that you'll be able to resist. I've broken much tougher men than you. Quite recently, in fact."
Peter smiled in a crooked manner. "Tears and blood mixed with dust. Loops of steel and leather. Flies buzzing in the moonlight. The smell of vodka. Begging for mercy, enclosed in solid iron."
Marina's eyes widened. Memories of childhood trauma flooded her mind like a dam breaking. Her uncle had murdered her parents when she was fifteen. Then he had chained her like an animal in the basement until she had finally escaped three months later. During her imprisonment, he had abused her in every possible way, and he had used her body to satisfy his most sadistic desires. He had stuffed her into an old, iron stove whenever she had tried to fight back. The experience had left her insane.
The words Peter used were like a key that unlocked all the bad feelings at once. Marina was suddenly fifteen and helpless again. Her days were full of terror and suffering at the hands of a beast. Death was the only possible escape, and conveniently, she was holding a gun.
Marina placed the muzzle against her own temple and applied pressure to the trigger. She just needed to squeeze a little harder, and the nightmare would finally end. She would find the bliss that she had sought her entire life. Any normal woman would've succumbed.
But she wasn't normal. A supernatural monster lurked inside her, and it absolutely refused to die.
She dropped the gun on the floor.
"I... am... Marina Pavlova," she said in a harsh, tight voice. "I am a commander in God's army. The Lord's flaming sword lights my way through the darkness. His anger keeps me warm at night. His breath gives me the strength to rise again and again. I am His servant forever. The tricks of His enemies have no power over me."
Peter's eyes were wide with fear. "That's impossible! How are you doing that? You should be dead already."
Marina's feelings of impotence gave way to the purest rage she had ever felt. He tried to run, but she was on him like an animal before he could take two steps. Her razor sharp, black fingernails ripped into his flesh. He tried to push her away, and she bit off his finger. Blood sprayed onto her face, and the taste incited her to greater levels of violence. Soon, she had his guts in her hands. With a gleeful smile, she pulled out his intestines like a giant, wet piece of spaghetti.
The madness finally passed, and she looked down at the mess she had made. Peter Hastings, a.k.a. Ice Crusher, had a face that looked like chopped hamburger. He wasn't merely dead. He was really, most sincerely dead.
Damn, Marina thought. I needed to interrogate him. She could feel God's approval though, and she knew the mission was over.
She ran into the bathroom and washed off as much blood as she could. Her clothes were soaked, so she stripped down to her underwear. She used her fingernails to slice a bed sheet and create a crude shawl. It looked strange, but she only needed to get back to her car without attracting too much attention.
She grabbed Peter's laptop and stuffed it into the backpack. After one last look around, she ran out of the hotel room with the backpack in her arms. The real maid would get a very nasty surprise when she came to clean the room.
* * *
Marina was relaxing in her private office in the north-west corner of headquarters. She hadn't redecorated yet. The original dark green carpet was still on the floor, and the wooden furniture was still blue. She hadn't even removed the collection of historic batteries. Now that the mission was over, she could finally think about new furniture.
She took out her phone and called Aaron.
"Hey!" he said. "It's been a couple of days since we talked. I was starting to get a little worried, but I knew you were busy, so I didn't call."
"The good news is we won," she said. "God's army defeated His enemies one more time."
"That's fantastic! Your first successful mission as a commander. Congratulations."
"It doesn't feel as good as it should. We were left with a lot of unanswered questions. The bad guys were killed before we had a chance to properly interrogate them."
"None of your people died," Aaron said, "right?"
"One of them got shot, but she'll heal."
"That's the most important thing. Live to fight another day."
"We lost some civilians," Marina said. "A guy named Mr. Pickle murdered the families in two houses just to set a trap for us. He planted a nerve gas bomb which killed two cops later. Some FBI agents died, which was my fault."
"In the war between God and His enemies, the innocents always suffer the most. That will never change."
She looked up at a shelf attached to the wall behind her chair. Imelda had just installed the shelf, and Ice Crusher's laptop was sitting on it. Her enemy's computer was her first mission trophy. Every time she saw it, she felt a prick of pride.
"I just wanted my first command to be perfect. It was anything but. I even got chewed out by Ethel, but don't ask. I'm too embarrassed to explain. I'll have to mark the whole thing down as a bitter learning experience and move on. At least I earned some respect from my team, I think. My new headquarters is coming together. I wish I could show it to you." She sighed deeply. "When will I see you again?"
"That's tough," Aaron said. "We're desperately trying to get the Rosemont Tower Hotel finished so we can move in. That place is going to be perfect for us. I'll make a deal with you. As soon as I'm done with that project, I'll come out to San Francisco."
Marina frowned. "That will be months from now."
"I know. It hurts to think about. We'll talk every day until then. I also want to set up a secure video conference system so we can actually see each other."
"That's a wonderful idea." She paused. "When you do come out, we can make a little training exercise out of it."
"Oh?"
"Two of my legionnaires have never met you. They have no idea what you look like or what you're capable of. We could arrange a confrontation..."
Aaron chuckled. "You're an evil woman."
"And you love me for it," Marina said.
"I do. Absolutely. And you're already thinking like a commander. I'm sure you'll be a great one."
THE END
Table of Contents
Title
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five