by Michael Todd
Katie giggled. “That’s true. We’ll have to look up some ghost movies tonight. There have to be some good ones. Oh! Like The Sixth Sense.”
Pandora just stared at her with a curved mouth and lifted eyebrows. “Haven’t seen that either.”
Katie and Pandora began their descent to the street below. Katie wagged her finger. “We are definitely going to watch that one. You have to see it once in your life.”
The two landed on the sidewalk outside the bank, and without skipping a beat, Katie opened the door and the two strode in. Several people looked over, recognizing them, and the bank’s VP came running over to help. “Why don’t I take you into my office so we can do this discreetly.”
Katie nodded. “We would appreciate that.”
They went to the banker’s office and he sat across from them, putting his palms together and pressing his fingertips to his lips. “So, tell me. What are you looking to do today?”
Pandora flipped her hair back. “I want to start with a bank account. After that, we’ll see.”
He nodded, springing forward and grabbing a pamphlet about the different options. Pandora glanced at Katie, who leaned over and tapped the Silver checking account. “That would be good for her.”
The banker smiled, taking the pamphlet back and opening a drawer, then pulling out a folder of paperwork. “Excellent. This won’t take too long. I just need two forms of government-approved ID.”
Katie pursed her lips. “Actually, that’s part of the problem. I’m assuming you know her story?”
The VP nodded. “Oh, yes. Started out as a demon, Damned you, started working with you, both achieving great things, and now she is branching out as an angel.”
Pandora smiled broadly at hearing her accomplishments. “Yep. So, you see, I’ll be fine, right?”
He kept the huge smile on his face, but he shook his head. “Oh, no. I can’t give you an account without at least one form of ID. I’m sure that, as much as you have helped this country financially, someone will agree to take care of the problem.”
They sat there at the desk talking to each other, Katie sulking more than Pandora. She couldn’t help but feel she was the reason this had gone to shit. “Angie should be doing this. She’s much better at this sort of thing.”
Pandora poked her in the arm. “Um, I could be wrong, but don’t you run a giant-ass corporation? Besides, they are right; I am technically not an established person here. It’s like I don’t exist.”
Katie sighed. “One, you do exist; trust me, I have to hear you each day. Number two, yes, I own a huge corporation, but I am only successful because I know enough to hire smart people to work the scene for me and take care of payments and stuff like that.”
“She wouldn’t probably have been successful either,” Pandora sighed.
Katie shook her head. “We’re going to fix this, and I am going straight up the ladder. Right to the top. I’ll call Brushwood and ask him to get you all straightened out.”
Pandora nodded, glancing at the banker every few moments. “Or I could just live inside you all of the time. It worked before, so why wouldn’t it work now? I mean, I was comfortable, and you didn’t seem to mind the ability to eat as much Jessie Rae’s or Italian or Mexican food as you wanted while I was making you fit with huge tits. Of course, everything changes, I suppose.”
Katie reached over and touched her arm. “Things do change, and beyond how I feel about you being inside me all the time is how you should have the opportunity to have your own life. You don’t have to be in me all the time. I think it’s important that you allow yourself to have time for yourself. I know it might seem frightening or uncomfortable, but I want you to be your own person. Well, you already are your own person, but to rely on yourself and look to me only out of necessity, not because you think you can’t do something without me. Come on, you love the freedom. Besides, it will help if you are a legal person.”
Katie pulled her phone out. “Here, I’ll call the general right now. Maybe he can expedite something, and we can wait here to set it up.”
Katie leaned back in her chair, waiting for Brushwood to answer the phone. Pandora slowly looked at the bank employee sitting there. Not only was he engrossed in the conversation, but also, he was obviously weirded out. Pandora was tired of apologizing for that. She whistled to get his attention and blinked at him. He cleared his throat and nodded, whispering, “I’ll go work on some stuff out here. When you need me, just yell.”
10
The general didn’t answer the phone, and Katie knew better than to think the IDs would come the same day anyway, so they told the banker they would be back when they had the proper identification. Stepping outside, they took off straight up to get away from the people who had started to gather for them outside. Somebody in the bank had leaked their location, but that was normal for them. At that moment, though, neither of them wanted to deal with it.
They flew up to the roof of the bank and landed. Katie folded her wings and walked to the ledge, stretching her arms over her head. Pandora came up next to her, shaking hers over the whole thing. “Banks never used to be that way. As long as you paid the bank owner, they would let you open any account you wanted. Everyone had access.”
Katie scoffed. “Welcome to capitalism, where they make the good stuff available only to those they deem financially important enough.”
Pandora crossed her arms. “That is actually bothering me a lot. I am a real person. I might have started as a demon, but now I am on Earth. I can have children, I can fall in love, I can hold down a job, and I’m sure I could pass a college course, too.”
Katie put her hand on Pandora’s shoulder. “Trust me, I completely agree with you. In fact, even when you were in me pretty much always, I still never thought of you as an alien to this world. You had to acclimate and make your choice, and you did that just like a human. You paid the penalty for not making the right choice, and you pretty much have experienced the full range of human emotions and issues along the way. You don’t have to convince me. I already know all that.”
Pandora sighed. “But you aren’t the one who needs to get me this stuff.”
Katie nodded, looking out over the city. “You’re right. You are, but like every other person on Earth, we have to take that leap to do better. For right now, as soon as I get in touch with the general, I’m going to see if he can’t get you some sort of ID, even if it’s special-citizen status.”
Her phone began to vibrate at that moment. The number was unknown, so she knew it was someone important. She stepped back off the ledge to the roof and answered, “Hello?”
“Katie, it’s General Brushwood. Sorry I missed your call. What can I do for you?”
Katie glanced at Pandora. “We were out today, and because Pandora is on her own now, she wanted to set up a bank account so she could be given some money and handle it herself. Problem is, she doesn’t have any ID, mostly because she was not born here. As you can imagine, it’s probably exhausting for her to be someone who is not technically considered to exist by the very country and world she serves.”
The general listened intently, giving small verbal cues that he was still with her there. “I understand all of that, and having an ID and everything that goes with it is something that, in my book, she totally deserves. I know I can do something for her, but unfortunately, I am going to have to take care of it later. I know that’s terrible, but I have a bit of an issue going on right now.”
Katie scrunched her brow. “Uh-oh. Anything I need to be aware of or help with?”
He paused. “Not right this second, no. But if what I am thinking is true, there is a very good chance that I will call on you, so please don’t go far, and keep your phone on you. I will say that it has to do with a possible new Leviathan, and if it is awake, it didn’t get that way on its own.”
Katie shook her head. “What? What the fuck!”
Brushwood chuckled sadly. “That was my reaction exactly, not going to lie. This
blindsided me. Anyway, I have a couple of phone calls to make. I will keep you updated, and as soon as I can get to it, I will get Pandora something. But if this goes down, I will need both of you.”
Katie glanced at Pandora. “Of course. Pandora and I will make sure we stay by my phone. Be careful, General.”
They hung up, and she looked at Pandora. “He’ll work on it soon. Right now, he is on some sort of trail that means we could be called up to Leviathan stomp again.”
Pandora rolled her eyes. “Oh, so I’m enough of a person to kick ass, but I can’t open a checking account without a little picture of myself and a huge entity acknowledging my presence? I don’t know, dude—that sounds a lot like hell and Lucifer.”
The tech sat at the computer typing quickly, watching the load on the system fluctuate as she allocated different sectors to different jobs that needed to be completed. It was a really old system, but she liked to create and expand technological programs. It was the only way up.
The phone rang and she reached over without looking, putting it to her ear. “Hello?”
“This is General Brushwood.” He cleared his throat. “I need to speak to whoever there is using a stolen program to trace specific entities without prior authorization.”
The tech stopped, looking up with wide eyes. “Uh, I think you’d better speak to Powell. He has been in charge since the beginning of the project.”
The general coughed. “All right, put him on.”
The tech told him, “Actually, he isn’t here right now.”
“WHERE THE HELL IS HE?”
Powell grunted as he swung from the beam. Leather straps bound his ankles, and his head hovered just feet above the ground. He could see the shiny leather thigh high boots of his dominatrix as she stepped up in front of him. She ran the riding crop over his thigh softly before snapping it hard against his leg. He groaned and laughed at the same time.
She walked around him, dragging the crop across his skin. As she pulled back, he prepared himself again for the stinging pleasure he would receive. However, before she could follow through, his phone began to ring. He lifted his head, watching as she walked across the room and picked up his phone. “Secure call?”
Powell’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, shit. I need to take that. I usually don’t, you know that, but this is important.”
She pursed her lips and walked over to him. “Fine, but extra punishment for you afterward.”
He smiled as she handed it to him. He was still hanging upside down. The blood was collecting in his head, and he was struggling slightly to get his thoughts together. He wasn’t sure specifically who it was, but any time a secure call came through, he knew that it was work in some form or fashion.
He pressed the Answer button. “Hold on, securing the line.”
He pulled the phone up in front of him and blinked wildly as he pressed the button to secure and waited for the system to fully cycle through and give him a green light. “This is Powell.”
“This is General Brushwood, World Council, among other things,” he stated gruffly.
Powell winced. “Yes, General, I am very familiar with you, although I am a little surprised to be getting a call from you. What can I do for you today?”
The general was breathing heavily. “I think you know the reason I am calling. And if you don’t, think really long and hard about the last unauthorized mission you sent out. That will answer it nicely for you. I don’t have time given the state of affairs in this country to wade through your bullshit, so I am giving you the chance to tell me everything that happened from beginning to end, no details left out. Then, and only then, will I consider not reporting you to the federal government for acts of treason.”
Powell gasped. “I… Treason? That is absurd.”
The general didn’t waver. “Then you better start talking and make me understand.”
Powell put his hand over the phone and looked at the dominatrix. “I need you to lower me and leave.”
She tilted her head back and laughed loudly. “Are you mad? You don’t tell me what to do, you fool.”
Powell held his temper and put the phone back to his ear. “General, I think that…”
Brushwood cut him off. “That was your one free chance. The next words that start coming out of your mouth better be the truth, and nothing but the truth from beginning to end. If you think you are incapable, I can send some MPs to pick you up in your dungeon right now, but they won’t be nice enough to let you change before you are brought to our offices. I’m pretty sure you don’t want to go to the brig in leather chaps and nothing else, do you?”
Powell glanced at his domme. “No, sir. Okay, so you want the truth.”
Before Powell could hesitate again, the domme whipped him hard across the back. He bowed, the straps twisting as he slowly turned in a circle. “Right. So we were hired to use the program that was stolen from Katie the angel’s technology guy. One other guy and I worked on it until we figured out the system and found a sleeping Leviathan in Iraq. We sent our guys in to destroy the beast.”
The general grumbled. “But that was not what happened, was it?”
Powell sighed. “No, it wasn’t. The team disappeared, and we assumed at that point it was the Leviathan. So we sent a second team.”
“And?”
Powell’s nostrils flared. “And they haven’t gotten back to us. We lost contact about ten minutes after the helicopter landed. They are all MIA right now. We have not sent anyone else in. My coworker and I were given the okay to make all decisions and keep everyone we could out of it, so we did, and then were at an impasse on where to go at this point.”
The general laughed. “No shit. You are at an impasse, all right. Do you tell your people how badly you fucked up and risk the very good chance that whoever these men are will dispose of you, or do you tell the big guys so you can help the troops you sent out as rat bait? They will put you in prison, or possibly worse. Seems like a no-win situation for you.”
Powell sighed. “Yes, General, it is.”
“And where are you at this point?”
Powell glanced at the domme as she circled him. “I’m carefully considering the situation.”
She reared back and whipped him again. He shoved his fist in his mouth to muffle the groan.
Brushwood was silent for a moment. “Give me the location of the Leviathan. I am sending my own men in to hopefully minimize the hell you just set loose on this planet. And don’t try to leave the country, I’ve already flagged you. I’ll deal with you when I’m done making sure the people of this country are safe.”
Korbin’s room was dark as hell, the blinds down, the curtains pulled and the door to the rest of the house shut. He had put in a hell of a day’s work the day before and was enjoying sleeping until the sun began to rise. There was no way he would be able to handle that job if it weren’t for the amazing sleep he was getting here. He was working fifteen-hour days with no days off to try to get the fort up and running.
His phone rang, echoing through his bedroom. Korbin groaned and rolled over, slapping the table to locate his phone. He pulled it up in front of his eyes and squinted, waking immediately when he saw the general’s number on the screen. He clicked on the bedside lamp and put the phone to his ear. “General. Is everything okay?”
Brushwood sighed. “I’m so sorry for waking you up, Korbin. I know you are working hard, and I wouldn’t call unless it was important.”
Korbin rubbed his eyes. “Of course. It’s part of the job, and it’s a usual thing for me these days. Is Katie all right?”
“Oh, yeah. Yeah. I actually haven’t even talked to her about the issue yet. I called you first. There has been a breach, and someone went in search of a Leviathan with no authority. I have over a dozen soldiers MIA right now, as well as a possible Leviathan on the loose.”
Korbin’s heart fluttered. That was not a good thing. “Shit. What can I do to help?”
The general cleared his throat. “I was hopin
g you could send a team of Damned to check out Al Fatsi, Iraq. It is a little bit outside of it, and I will send the exact coordinates. I believe that is where the first team went missing. Hopefully, there are clues as to where the rest of them went.”
Korbin threw the covers off and stood up, then flipped the lights on and grabbed his glasses, pulling his roster of Damned out. “Yes, of course. Anything that I can do. We are in Bahrain, so that is only a few hours away. And with the military choppers they have here, it’s probably even less time.”
“Excellent,” the general replied. “I knew I could count on you. I’ll send over the coordinates so you can go straight there. We don’t know anything about what you will be facing. Nothing. So, make sure you go as prepared as possible.”
Korbin ran his fingers over a small trinket on his dresser given to him by Katie. “I can call Katie and Pandora too. Since this is probably a Leviathan, they are going to want to know. I think we’ve all learned not to take these things lightly. And if it is a Leviathan, we are going to most likely need them to fight it.”
The general had another call to make. “Of course. Do what you think is best. And thank you. Keep me updated.”
As soon as Korbin hung up, there was a knock at his bedroom door. “Come on in, Brock.”
Brock opened the door, rubbing his eyes. “I swear I wasn’t eavesdropping, but the walls are really thin. There’s an issue?”
Korbin nodded. “There may be another Leviathan, and there are currently about a dozen soldiers MIA. He is asking for a team of Damned to go scope the situation out. And of course, Pandora and Katie if it is necessary.”
Brock nodded. “Have you picked who will be going in?”
Korbin looked down at his list. “I was just looking, but I think I want to go in for sure. These Damned are not experienced enough to face a Leviathan on their own. I feel like I would just be sending them to their deaths.”