by Tristan Vick
Looking over at Kevin, the woman asked, “And just who might you be?”
“I’m nobody.”
Starring at Kevin with a blank gaze, Mia finally smiled, as if she’d caught the joke. “So tell me, Mr. Nobody, what is it you want?”
“I want the two girls your men are holding captive. That’s all. You let them come with me, and you can go about your business here.”
“Wait just a minute!” the Admiral grumbled in outrage.
Kevin looked over at the Admiral with a cold glare. “Like I said, Admiral,” Kevin reiterated, “I’m not here for you. Just my people. No offense.”
With a nod of her head Mia signaled one of the guards and he sucker punched the Admiral right in the gut and silenced him.
“Sorry for the interruption,” Mia informed Kevin. Scowling at the Admiral, who clutched his gut, she added, “It won’t happen again. You have my word.”
Kevin shrugged, as if to say it was no big deal.
Looking back up, Mia bit her bottom lip and sized-up Kevin. She liked what she saw. He was fit. Had blue eyes. Spoke decent Japanese. She could see herself tying him to her bed post and having her way with him. In a seductive sounding voice, she said, “So, we both get what we want then, do we?”
“That’s right,” Kevin affirmed, flirting back with her.
“What is to stop me from killing you on the spot and taking what I want?” Mia asked him.
“Because,” Kevin began, “I know your type.”
“My type?” Mia laughed. Intrigued, she asked, “What type would that be, exactly?”
“Power hungry. You have the need to dominate everyone and everything in your world. If you kill me now, then you’ve simply given up that control. I’d never have been under your dominion, and that would eat away at you from the inside.”
Biting her finger as she stared into his blue eyes longingly, Mia asked, “Are you sure we haven’t met before?”
Just then four more guards rushed into the room and took formation behind Mia, who raised her hand, a silent gesture ordering them to hold up.
“Your orders, Mistress?”
“Patience, gentlemen. We’re in the middle of a very stimulating conversation.”
The soldiers held off, but Kevin knew they would take him out the moment she gave the order. He had to stall long enough for his plan to work.
Grabbing Kevin by his collar, Mia pulled him closed to her and looked deep into his blue eyes. “I’ll give you back your women, but only if you fuck me. Right here. Right now. In front of my men and everyone present. Deal?”
Kevin hesitated, looking around at the room. Her soldiers were well trained and didn’t show the slightest twinge of emotion. Meanwhile the Admiral was slumped over; he appeared to be holding his gut, but was more likely conserving his energy.
“What’s the matter?” Mia laughed. “Don’t tell me you’re shy?”
Looking back into Mia’s eyes, Kevin answered, “Deal.”
Forcing her lips to his, she crammed her tongue into his mouth and let out a sensual moan. Suddenly Kevin felt genuinely drawn into her passion, and before he knew it, he was kissing her back.
What was it with him and strong women that wanted nothing more than to torture him? he wondered. Maybe he really was a masochist.
As their tongues danced a sticky tango, Mia’s hands slid down and stroked his throbbing member, then she began unfastening his belt. She wanted his cock in her mouth so badly, but before she could even get his belt off, several explosions sounded outside.
Shoving Kevin off of her, Mia turned toward her soldiers and ordered them to see what was going on outside. Three of the soldiers left the room, leaving only her bodyguard and the two which restrained the Admiral.
Looking back at Kevin Mia smiled. “This is your doing isn’t it?”
Kevin slowly drew out his sword. This prompted her bodyguard to draw his gun and aim it as Kevin’s head.
“No, wait!” she ordered. “Let me punish him.”
Pulling a long, tactical machete from the guard’s leg holster, Mia turned toward Kevin and smiled at him with lips that dripped pure psychosis. “I was going to suck your cock until you begged me for mercy. Now, I’m thinking I’ll chop it off and feed it to the dogs instead.”
“We’ll see about that,” Kevin said, taking his stance and tightening his grip around the handle of his sword.
Mia smiled at him again, as if this was the most fun she’d had in ages, and then, letting out a furious scream, she lunged at him. Their blades clanged and sparks flew as tempered steel scraped against tempered steel.
When his position was right, Kevin pulled out a throwing knife and threw it at Mia, but she easily dodged the projectile and it swiftly passed by her head.
“Ha! Missed me,” she exclaimed as their blades came together with a twang.
“I wasn’t aiming for you,” Kevin said through clinched teeth.
Mia looked over her should and saw one of her guards fall to his knees then do a face plant right into the concrete floor. Kevin’s blade was securely lodged in the unfortunate man’s head.
Taking immediate action, the Admiral grabbed his remaining captor’s arm, locked his wrist, twisted, and then bent the guard’s arm around as though he were manipulating a simple mannequin. Threading his finger through the soldier’s trigger guard, the Admiral squeezed down and caused the guard to shoot his own compatriot who stood opposite them.
Almost as quickly as it has started, it was finished, and all three guards were lying on the ground, dead.
“Thanks for distracting her long enough to give me time to catch my second wind,” Admiral Sakaguchi said. He seized the soldier’s gun and quickly checked the clip, did a bullet count, then slapped it back in. Pulling back the slide, he loaded a fresh round into the chamber.
Mia looked over at the Admiral, then back at Kevin. Screaming with rage, she lunged, thrusting her blade forward. Kevin’s blade deflected hers with a sharp clang. Looking at him with her over-sized green eyes, her straight blond hair falling across her shoulders, Mia asked, “Who are you…really?”
“Like I said. I’m nobody.”
Swinging his sword, just like Saeko had taught him, Kevin knocked the blade out of Mia’s hands and kicked it toward the Admiral.
Throwing up her hands, Mia said, “Fine. Looks like you win. Now what will you do with me? Will you tie me up and spank me? Gag me? Choke me? I deserve it. After all, I’ve been such a naughty girl.”
Kevin squinted at her. He wondered what had gone so horribly wrong in her life to make her like this. “No, thanks. I think I’ll just take my people and be on my way.”
Mia narrowed her eyes at him, but managed a slight smile. “Be careful,” she warned him. “You don’t know what you’re playing at.”
Kevin smiled back, and replied, “Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea.” Without so much as a warning, Kevin cold cocked the psychotic bitch with the hilt of his sword and watched as she crumpled to the floor. “By the way, the tying you up part is not such a bad idea after all.”
Leaning up against the door frame, Admiral Sakaguchi looked over at Kevin who was busy tying up Mia Nishimori, and asked, “Shall we find your people and get the hell out of here?”
“I’m already on it,” Kevin answered, securing the knot. Then, without any further delays, he went over to the door and poked his head out into the hallway and did a quick scan of the corridor. Luckily for them, none of the guards were returning to check on things. Looking back at the Admiral, he said, “It’s all clear. Follow me.”
44
Bushwhacked
The California and Nevada Border, Off Highway 190
Sneaking up to the bright yellow tent, Juno quietly slid a large custom machete out from the short, black tactical vest that she had put on over her bare breasts, which bulged out of the top of the half zipped garment. In addition to her new vest which showed off her midriff, she had on spiked wrist cuffs, and black fishnet stockings
that ran down into rugged black boots. Her heavy leather belt was designed to hold several different sized weapons and fastened with a large chrome skull belt buckle with red painted eyes, completing her Gothic ensemble. Throwing up her fist, she motioned to the four men following her to ease up.
“The bitch and the cunt are mine, you all take down the Cowboy,” she whispered menacingly through her teeth and clenched jaw.
Spinning her index finger in the air, Juno gave the signal for the others to surround the tent. The sun had already been up for about an hour and she wanted to be done with this before it got too bloody hot out for them to do their killin’.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Juno said in her normal tone of voice. No Earthlander could allow her brethren to succumb to such a dishonorable death. without retribution Being gunned down at point blank—it wasn’t honorable. And being an Earthlander meant you were family. They killed her family. So as far as Juno was concerned, she would repay them the favor in full. They’d be sorry they ever left her alive—she’d make sure of it.
Ignoring the blond bangs which fell across her eyes, Juno raised the blade high above her head. The outer side of it was serrated, like shark’s teeth, while the inner edge was honed sharp and hungry for blood. “For honor!” Juno screamed, and they all pounced on the tent and vigorously thrashed at it until nothing remained but shreds of yellow ribbon.
Satisfied that she’d done her worst, Juno rose her hand and called out to her men to stop. Kicking the shards of fabric about with her boot, she stomped around on the ground only to realize they’d been duped. It was completely empty. “Hold up. We’ve been conned!”
Angered by the deception, the Earthlanders scanned the desert in every direction looking for signs of the people that had murdered their friends.
“But that’s impossible,” an Earthlander with gold teeth said. He wore a necklace of human teeth strung around his neck as a trophy of all the lives he’d taken. “We kept our distance. There’s no way they could have seen us coming.”
“Well, there’s no way they could have gotten very far either,” Juno snapped. “Fan out and find them. Kill the man and the dog, but leave the woman alive.”
“What about we rape her after we catch her, boss?” a greasy looking man with long wavy hair and a gangly frame asked.
Juno smiled. “As you wish.”
The men grew excited and howled up at the sky like a pack of wolves and began laughing, tickled by the thought of the hunt and the bounty they’d soon get.
Just then one of the men shouted out, “Over here!”
Juno walked over and put her arm on her pal’s shoulder. “What is it, Shorty?” she asked. They both looked down at the footprints that lay in the shade of their shadows.
“Tracks,” Shorty answered.
“Good. Goood,” Juno said. Standing up, she looked out across the desert, and brushed her long blonde bangs behind her ears then rubbed the sweat off from the rest of her shaved head. Addressing the group, she added, “We’ll track them to the ends of the earth if we have to.”
Tramping over the remains of the tent, the small band of assassins began following the footprints, passing a sand mound with dune grass growing out of the top of it. Nothing unusual for the desert, which is why they didn’t pay it any attention to it.
Suddenly, Gordon Longstaff appeared out of nowhere, like a deathly specter rising up from the depths of Hell itself. Sand ran down his hat and his duster jacket, like sands running through an hour glass that was just about out of time. Luckily, Frank and Alyssa had a solid hour head start; now it was just him and these clowns.
The Earthlanders were none the wiser to the presence that had materialized behind them. Gordon Longstaff was like a terrible desert djinn of ancient Arabian lore. And just like the djinn, the moment you saw one you were already as good as dead.
Longstaff raised his Colt LE901 rifle when one of the Earthlanders, the man with the tooth necklace, just happened to look back. Screaming out in fright he yelled, “Holy shit! It’s an ambu—”
BADDA, BADDA, BADDA!!!
Longstaff let the muzzle of his gun cool off from the warning shots he fired. He took pleasure in seeing all five Earthlanders practically jump out of their boots in fright, as if they’d been bitten by a copperhead. Each and every one of the Earthlanders spun around to face the smoking muzzle of a semi-automatic rifle.
Gordon Longstaff grinned when he met Juno’s ice cold gaze. “Juno, Juno, Juno,” he sighed in disappointment. “You really should have just let sleeping dogs lie.”
“You don’t intimidate me,” Juno bluffed. Still a little shaken up by getting bushwhacked, Juno put on a show of courage and raised her knife and wagged it threateningly at Longstaff. “I’ll tell you what, spook, I’m gonna have my men hold you down while I cut me large slices of your face meat, then I’m gonna force you to eat it. How does that sound, whiskey-dick?” Juno lapped at her lips and made a grotesque sucking noise on her teeth, attempting her best impression of Hannibal Lecter, for added effect.
Clanking two large machetes together, the Earthlander with the necklace of teeth added, “His teeth are mine!”
Ignoring the tooth collector’s morbid comments, Gordon Longstaff kept his eyes fixed on Juno. “There’s just one problem with your plan, Juno.”
“Yeah, and what would that be?” she asked with a chortle.
“You and your band of rejects here brought knives to a gun fight.”
Bursts of gunfire popped in the air like fireworks going off too close for comfort. All four of Juno’s men were dead before they ever hit the dirt.
Juno stood in wide eyed shock as she looked at Longstaff in complete fear, her bravado completely out the window. As they stared at each other, a single bead of sweat rolled down her sternum and slid in between her breasts.
“Do you know why I left you alive back in Vegas?” Longstaff asked her.
“No. But I’ll tell you one thing. That was your first big mistake.”
Ignoring her deflection, Longstaff continued. “I left you alive because I wanted you to follow us here.”
“Wait…here?” Juno asked, looking around at the barren landscape of sun scorched earth. “But why?”
“I needed you.”
“Needed me? You’re not making any sense, jerkoff.”
“You see, you start with the worm. Once you catch a fish with it, you reel it in and then you use that little fish as bait to draw out the bigger fish. I needed you to be the bait.”
“The bait?” Juno asked, completely confounded. “What are you talking about? We’re Earthlanders! We are Anarchy! We have no master.”
“You think that, but it’s not true.”
“What are you playing at, whiskey-dick?”
Longstaff smiled. “You know something, Juno, it’s a real pity. You truly are a beautiful and resourceful woman. In another lifetime, well…”
“Well…what? You’d have fucked me? You could have had me yesterday and none of this would have ever had to have happened!” she screamed, pointing down at her fallen comrades.
“I was merely going to say I might have asked you out on a date. You know, get to know you better. I’m sure that under all that décor there’s a woman inside who deserves being treated like a lady and not as some kind of plaything for the boys.”
“You are…you’re really beginning to piss me off. I mean…what I mean is…I…” Juno’s voice cut out. She wasn’t expecting to be complimented. Especially not in a way that was so flattering. It had been ages since she’d received any kind of genuine kindness. But before she could process it her defenses shot back up. Nobody was that nice. Doubting his sincerity, she suspected it had to be some kind of trick. “Oh, I see what you’re doing. You’re trying to lull me into giving up another camp,” she said accusingly as she wagged her blade at him.
“Nope, no trick, Juno,” Longstaff informed her. “Just the truth.”
“Go to hell!” Juno screamed, and she lu
nged at him.
BLAM!
Longstaff bowed his head and took a moment of silence. Shame. He didn’t want to put her down, but in the end, he was left with no choice in the matter.
Fishing out a piece of origami paper neatly folded into a Japanese paper crane, the one Alyssa had prepared for him, he walked over and bent over Juno’s dead body. She lay flat on her back gazing peacefully up at the blue sky. A red dot the size of a cherry marked the spot on her forehead where the bullet had drilled into her brain. A small trail of blood trickled down her face.
Reaching over her, Longstaff tucked the slip of paper into the upper left breast pocket of Juno's black tactical vest and then said, “It’s too bad you people never learn. It’s not the snake that kills you, it’s the venom.”
Gordon Longstaff rose back up and slung his rifle over his shoulder. A slight wind kicked up his long, dusty jacket and it flapped in the breeze as he looked around at the pile of dead bodies. What’s done is done, he told himself. The Earthlanders had taken the bait. Now the rest was up to Alyssa.
Adjusting his cowboy hat, the shade of the brim darkened Gordon’s eyes as he turned and double timed his way toward Armargosa airfield.
45
No Rest for the Wicked
Mt. Gongen: Eastern Yokohama Region, Japan
Mia Nishimori opened her eyes to the sight of blurry figures standing around her. Sitting up, one of her men cut the rope from her wrist and she rubbed her head. “Where is he?” she snarled.
“The prisoners escaped,” one of her minions replied.
Mia rose to her feet and looked around.
“What are your orders, Mistress Nishimori?”
“Get the chopper prepped. I want that little asshole’s head on a silver platter.”
“Yes, ma’am,” her elite enforce replied with a salute. Then he took his leave. As he exited the room, another soldier entered and brought over Mia’s black cloak and draped it over her shoulders. Without so much as acknowledging his presence, she waved her hand and dismissed him.