by Finian Blake
“That is Victor’s wife, Valentina and Dennis’s wife, Tanya. This stash belongs to the Generals. Look all of the addresses are from the U.S, mainly Chicago and LA.” The next faces really shocked Anna. Vladimir and his wife Margarita were sitting in the back ground applauding the proceedings.
“Those two were not supposed to be involved. I have to contact Alice.” The Lear Jet was out over the Atlantic, so there could be no contact. Anna called to leave a message on Alice’s recorder finding it full. Grace’s recorder was also full of messages. Anna was frantic calling the airport checking for flights. The last flight for the U.S left an hour ago and she was stuck in Spain, while her daughter was in danger. She decided to study the films with the others.
Lynn went to work looking for anything she could get on the adoption agency run by Vladimir and his wife. It seemed that they were a licensed operation with a number of complaints against the agency. They would promise to help a family adopt an infant. As things progressed, there would always be additional costs. Medical attention, clothing, legal fees and gifts to officials were always on the list. The babies were supposed to be from Russia. Vladimir and Margarita would deliver enough babies to keep a hardcore investigation from being conducted. They were using the pregnant whores to keep their promises, so they actually managed some adoptions. The pregnant girls in the film made sense now. All of the women in the film appeared to be under age, which fit with the prisoner’s statement that they were targeting runaways. The disturbing thing was that there were so many snuff films. There were at least fifteen different victims that Sarah and Susan counted. Alex and Anna found the film that Laurita made of Maria’s snuff which was particularly gruesome deciding to destroy it, since everybody in that film were already dead and there was no need of keeping it for evidence. They did not want to further traumatize Liliana. Susan was thoroughly upset seeing that Dianne’s signature was all over their operations.
“It looks like Laurita passed on some of Dianne’s traits to our Generals. These are animals of the worst sort. Alex you must shut these vermin down without delay.”
After reviewing the films, they were able to come up with a reasonable diagram of the room. They searched the Mansion one more time. Ramon, Lynn and Liliana agreed to go over the property and prepare it for rent. It was agreed that if the phone rang that Liliana would impersonate Laurita. Laurita treated Liliana like part of the furniture and she would discuss the most intimate parts of her plans in front of her maid. Alex suddenly understood why Laurita wanted to kill Liliana. Lynn stayed behind with Liliana and Ramon to coach her on the business details so that she would pass for an accomplished business woman with Susan and Alex flying back to the Inn to finish the arrangements. Frank and Suki were waiting for them when they returned. Anna booked the first flight out of Madrid direct to LA having tried to leave messages with Francesca’s secretary. Anna changed her mind chartering a quick flight to Paris so that she could take the first flight to LA wanting to gain every minute possible.
7.
PANIC DRILL
Sarah flew directly into Chicago with Francesca in order to prepare the contact points for meeting Alex in Chicago. Frank and Suki let Mark finish planning the operation for Chicago with Alex. With Frank and Suki back they had ten people for the job plus Alex could arrange some outside help from other sources. Susan would send the two containers of equipment out to Dulles airport on Everywhere Air and they would arrive in the late evening. Alex was going to Dulles to pick up the containers and drive them to Chicago. Anna flew up to Paris to catch the Concorde to Dulles and then chartered a Lear Jet to LAX which got her home two hours earlier than the direct that left three hours later. The rest of the team would arrive on the following day from Manchester on commercial flights. Anna spent the night fuming in her hotel room. She called one more time before leaving the hotel. The machine picked up and delivered a different message. It was a woman’s voice.
“We left a note with your neighbor. You need to come home.” Anna called Grace. The same woman’s voice answered.
“Grace is tied up and you need to come home quickly.” It would be twelve hours before Anna could get to the house. Alex called and offered to meet Anna in LA.
“No, go pick up the package. I have a feeling that they took Alice to Chicago. You need to be there as soon as possible with the equipment.” Alex’s flight from London left at the same time as Anna’s flight did from Paris.
Grace and Alice arrived in LAX around noon. They caught a limo to their houses. Grace went to her house and Alice went to her house agreeing to meet on the patio for lunch after they unpacked. Alice sat down and started to listen to her messages, which took the better part of an hour. There were numerous hang up phone calls that filled the cue quickly. Grace made a quick trip to her office to catch up on business and by one the women had caught up with the messages. Alice had three hang up phone calls while she was waiting for Grace. After her long trip the calls proved to be an unwelcome problem. Grace picked up some steaks on the way home and came over to Alice’s place. They settled in to barbeque on the patio.
“Alice, my assistant found an architect that was interested in doing your clinic. He had some plans that were refused by another customer when they ran out of money. The plans seemed to be what you had in mind. The plans were for a large two story building that was forty thousand square feet. That will require a foot print of about one third of an acre, leaving a little over an acre for landscaping and parking. The design was rated for a strong seven plus earthquake. He says that the construction should withstand better than a seven point zero earthquake without damage. I know that you wanted a single story, but the design has potential and it will double your square footage. The plans are finished and he doesn’t want to lose all of that work”
“We can look at anything,” Alice said. “Why don’t you set something up?” A woman in a sundress was walking down the dock with her husband. She walked up to the gate.
“I was looking for the restaurant that is supposed to be just down the way. Do you know where there is one?”
Grace replied, “There are no restaurants on this dock. What is the address?”
“I don’t know. It was called the Harbor View. Do you have a phone book that I can use? It was supposed to be in this area.” Alice went inside to retrieve the phonebook leaving Grace on the porch with the couple. Grace turned to watch Alice walk in the house. The next thing she knew a fowl smelling rag was placed over her nose and mouth and within a minute she was unconscious and the woman called into the house.
“Your friend seems to have passed out.” Alice came rushing to Grace bending over to see what was wrong. She did not notice the smell of the chloroform until the rag was over her face rendering her unconscious in less than a minute. The woman rolled her in the house and her husband pulled Grace in the house.” They bound and gagged Grace to a chair with duct tape handcuffing Alice’s hands behind her back. The woman turned to her husband.
“Vladimir I am going to leave a message on Grace’s recorder. Check the house for other people.” After leaving the message on Grace’s recorder, Margarita went back to leave a message on Alice’s recorder after which she went upstairs to pack a bag for Alice and when she returned Vladimir was groping the unconscious Alice.
“We promised Victor to deliver her unmolested. Grope her friend if you must.” Alice awoke to see Grace bound to the chair with some of her clothing cut away being groped by a strange man and shredded on the floor. A strange woman walked in the kitchen carrying the large suitcase that Alice had failed to unpack. She grabbed Alice roughly by her hair.
“Vladimir is going to stay with your friend. If you make any trouble he will kill her after he has had his fun. Where are your car keys?” Vladimir was in the process of removing Grace’s blouse with a pair of scissors. Alice knew that there was no chance of escape and even if she could Alice could not leave Grace behind.
“They are on the counter.”
“We are goi
ng to take a ride. When we get to where we are going, I will call Vladimir and he will leave. In the meantime, Vladimir will make your friend uncomfortable.” Alice looked over and saw him heating a knife on one of the stove’s burners. Margarita produced five pills and held them up to Alice’s mouth. “Take these or I will let Vladimir brand your friend.” Alice opened her mouth and Margarita roughly shoved the pills in forcing a full glass of water on her to down the pills. She moved Alice to her car in the garage. Margarita taped her feet and knees together making sure that she could not run. Buckling her into the passenger seat Margarita put a scarf over her hair tying the loose ends around the head rest of the passenger seat and topping it off by putting a pair of opaque sunglasses on Alice. When Margarita went back in the house to talk to Vladimir, he had cut away graces clothing so that there was nothing but a pile of shredded cloth on the floor.
“Leave now!” She attached a note to Grace’s breasts with a piece of duct tape and pushed him out the door.
Vladimir protested, “I don’t mind entertaining her!”
“What if someone saw us? Go get our car and I will meet you at the house.” He left reluctantly. Margarita climbed in the driver’s seat. “Vladimir is making your friend uncomfortable. Are you going to cause trouble?” Alice shook her head silently. “I am sorry that it was not your mother back there. We would have made her very uncomfortable.” Alice was regretting that she did not heed her mother’s advice. “So, tell me Alice do you like sex?” Alice shook her head no, but she had a feeling that what she liked would not matter.
“I was waiting until I was married.” Margarita ran her hand up Alice’s thigh.
“A twenty-year-old virgin you are a rare commodity.” Margarita drove calmly. “We are going to take a long trip. If you cooperate, you will not be molested, but if you cause problems I will let Vladimir practice all of his darkest fantasies on you.” Margarita tried to put her hand between Alice’s legs and the tape at her knees prevented Margarita from making much progress. Alice tried to move away. Margarita back handed her across the face. “I will do whatever I want and you will not try and stop me. If you understand that we will get along just fine.” Vladimir put an extra piece of tape across Grace’s mouth pinching her nose closed to stop her breathing laughing as she struggled violently. She was about to pass out when he released her nose.
“If I had more time I would make you very uncomfortable.” He laid a cactus from Alice’s counter on graces naked thighs laughing as he left. It took Grace several minutes to wiggle the cactus off of her legs spreading the nettles over the tops of her thighs, and the hair like needles from the cactus would drive her mad for the next twelve hours. She spent her time worrying about Vladimir returning.
Alex’s flight landed in Dulles two hours before Anna’s flight landed in LAX. He went right to work renting a white Ford Econoline delivery van proceeding to Everywhere Air’s office. He was thankful when he saw the Everywhere Air 747 had arrived. Ben the foreman had the customs people waiting. They opened the lower cargo door of the plane removing the LD 3 container that held the two cardboard D containers from the doorway. The forklift operator unloaded them and Alex flashed a NSA ID badge that Sarah had made for him.
“Open them up and look at what you need to I need to get these to the lab. You guys have your job to do.” The inspectors looked at the NSA badge reviewing the paper work. Bold letters were stamped across all of the papers, ‘CLASSIFIED NEED TO KNOW’.” With the service that this man received they knew that this shipment was nothing to screw with.
The senior agent looked at Alex, “You are cleared.”
“You can look if you want,” Alex waved at the shipment. “It’s your job after all. I am not trying to make your life miserable. I’ll just stand back so you can do what you must. After that I will do my job and be on my way.”
“We were told that there was a sensitive shipment on board. You are cleared. Say hi to the boys at Langley for us.” Alex waived the forklift toward the van.
“Thank you gentlemen, I will see you another time. Both containers have evidence of an atrocity in Afghanistan, so they are all going to be inspected closely anyway.” The younger inspector looked at the other.
“Why did you let him off the hook so easy?”
“Those shipments are career killers. He knew that if we looked inside we would be checking piñatas on the border in Arizona or looking for illegals crossing the border in the desert outside of Brownsville Texas. It’s not what I want to do for the rest of my career. He asked us three times to look inside. Do you really think that he is hiding something?”
“I guess not. He did ask us to look inside.”
“I received three calls to be sure that we meet this flight and inspect this shipment when it came in. Somebody has got a bug up their ass to move this shipment. The one thing that I don’t want is the bug up their ass to crawl up my ass.”
Alex was on the road as soon as the doors to the van were closed. He could be on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in an hour and a half. The farther he could get from DC before rush hour the better he liked it. Alex wanted to be off the beltway before rush hour reached its peak. He would try to call Anna from a rest stop. If he humped it he could be in Chicago by six AM. The worst part was getting through the Belt Way and there was only thirty miles of that. With his NSA ID, he decided to push hard. Alex went hammer down. He was stopped by the Virginia State Police just north of Dulles. Alex flashed his NSA badge.
“I have a classified shipment that needs to be delivered ASAP. Write me my ticket and let’s get going.” He handed the officer the paperwork with CLASSIFIED stamped on it.”
“Don’t you boys have helicopters?”
“I know what my instructions are. I can take the ticket, but I can’t be late.” The officer thought a minute. He heard of these unmarked vans with rental plates on them. They were known as ‘Black Box’ shipments. The government used plain unescorted vans with rental plates on them to move sensitive shipments. He could write the ticket, but it would just be voided later.
“You are going to kill someone driving like this. Follow me and I will get you through the belt way.” The police car turned on its emergency lights and siren, and Alex fell in behind the police car. When they turned off the Beltway, the officer waved Alex on. At least he would not have to clean up the accident that was sure to have happened.
Anna’s flight got in around two o’clock. She rented a car and drove straight to Alice’s house using her key to get in the house. Anna found Grace taped to a kitchen chair. Grace had a note taped to her breasts. WE HAVE THE UPPER HAND NOW. WE WILL TRADE ALICE FOR THE OTHER GIRLS. CALL US WHEN YOU GET THIS. Anna gently removed the tape from Grace’s mouth leaving Grace to remove the tape from her breasts. They surprised us both. We were barbequing and they asked to borrow a phone book. I thought that nobody would find me.” When Anna cut away the tape Grace started to rub the tops of her thighs nonstop. “That bastard dropped a cactus in my lap. I thought that I was going to lose my mind.”
“Describe the two people.” When Grace finished the description Anna knew that it was Margarita and Vladimir, plus the number on the note was a Chicago exchange. They were taking Alice to the other Generals. She took some time to be sure that Grace was alright.
“You cannot call the cops. If you call them, we will not be able to do what we need to do.”
“You want me to ignore this!”
“No Grace, I want you to help me with this. I will exact a revenge that they never contemplated.”
“Take me with you! I want some ass! I want some time alone with Vladimir.” Grace alternated between rubbing her breasts and thigh’s. Removing the duct tape from her breasts and mouth had been a painful exercise.
“No, you are better off here.”
“If you do not take me with you I will get moody and call the police.”
Anna could not afford to gamble that Grace was bluffing, “All right, do you promise to do what I say?”
&
nbsp; “Yes…” Grace started to contemplate her revenge.
“Pack a bag. We will be gone for about five days.” Anna picked up the phone calling Francesca’s number.
“I need some fast transportation.”
“It will take some time for Alex to get to Dulles.”
“I am here in LA. They grabbed Alice, when she got home they left a note. I have to get to Chicago.”
“They took Alice. Who are they?”
Do you remember the Generals from the Afghanistan deal?”
“Yes…”
“Well they think that they were cheated when my daughters went with me instead of whoring for them.”
“You said that Alex paid them an extra million dollars for the girls.”
“Yes, they still feel cheated. They kidnapped Alice and want the girls back in exchange for her. ‘Mercury’ gave them all of the information that they needed. I always thought Alex was paranoid hiding his identity from ‘Mercury’, but now I’m finding out that his paranoia did not go far enough.”
Francesca needed to shake out some facts, “What is Alex going to do about this?”
Anna was quick to answer, “He wants to kill them all.”
“How many are there?”
“We figure somewhere around twenty or thirty.”
“He is going to do that all by himself?”
“No, we have help this time.”
“What can I do for you?”
“I just need to get to Chicago fast. They are not expecting something massive yet.”
Francesca did not hesitate, “I will be at Long Beach Airport in forty minutes.”
“We can have you there by ten PM.”
“Thanks you are a true friend.” Anna hung up wishing she could talk to Alex. She went to her house and opened Alex’s weapons stash. She selected her two Glock 9-17 and two .38 revolvers with silencers for each. She went into her suitcase and pulled three purses out of it. Each purse had a different look to it, but the end of the bag was identical on each purse. There were three CO2 darts in the flap and the pistols would slip in the other end perfectly. The CO2 cartridges were the same type that pellet guns used. Before closing the door of the safe she noticed two .32 caliber pistols grabbing them as an afterthought. They were small and would be easy to hide. Anna was flying out privately, so she was not worried about security. She was about to climb into the shower when the phone rang. She picked up the phone hoping that it was Alice and knowing it was not. It was Alex calling from Frederick Maryland.