Sea Monster's Revenge Page 23

  "Ah, yes. Saintly Evita."

  He leaned forward, angry. "Don't you insult her!"

  "Carlos. You, a pimp, worshipping a woman?"

  He settled. "She did much good in her life."

  "Yes, after she got over her sickness she lived a long and virtuous life. But do you really think Juan Domingo gave up his addiction to little girls?

  "Doubtless they were all dull as cockroaches. He probably got rid of them when they grew too old. But I'm smart. Very smart. You have no idea."

  She got up, stretched. "I'd be discreet. Who knows, I might even become friends with his wife. We'd have a partnership. She would take care of him at the opera—boring things, operas—bear him children, run charities. I would keep him satisfied in private. Cure his addiction to little girls. Addict him to me."

  The Blond Bimbo From Hell picked up the pistol. Ejected the clip. Ejected the cartridge in the chamber, catching it on the fly with a movement like a striking snake. She pressed the cartridge back in the clip, reloaded the clip into the pistol, and jacked a cartridge into the chamber.

  "I'm going to sleep. I sleep very lightly and wake quickly. Don't try anything foolish, my dear dear Carlos. I wake cranky if surprised."

  Candy slipped under the covers of the bed nearest the front door and quickly was (it seemed) asleep. But she lay awake a while, thinking. And an organ she had grown several years ago where her tonsils once had been emitted a scentless biochemical which lulled everyone but herself to deep slumber.

  For whatever reasons in the following two days Carlos did not fight the mental and emotional chains she was wrapping around him. Nor did Juan and Felipe, whose devotion to her (helped by a little biochemical persuasion) soon verged on the doglike.

  Then on Saturday morning very early Candy was on a jet to Argentina.

  Chapter 25 - Trip

  Puerto Rico to Argentina

  The trip to the Ponce International Airport was the first clue Sylvia/Candy had that her ideas about the prostitution ring that Carlos was part of were in error.

  Carlos drove his rental car to a service gate at the ‘port and was waved through by the guard when he showed a badge. He parked at an area which included a small corporate jet with Calderon Enterprises in large blue letters on its white side. Then he pulled Sylvia’s small pull-along suitcase from the trunk of the car just as if she were a lady to be treated politely—an attitude he had not before shown .

  The jet was the next clue. It was one of the new all-electric aircraft, powered by a superbattery rather than a petroleum-based fuel. It used “induced paramagnetism” to float the craft above the ground. The bottom of the plane when taxiing, taking off, and landing was given one magnetic charge and the surface—which could be dirt or grass as easily as concrete—was given a like charge. Like charges repelling, the plane floated, just like those maglev trains which had been so popular before paramaglev vehicles began making them obsolete.

  The jets worked on a similar principle, except that the air coming into the engines was given an opposite charge from the insides of the engine. Opposite charges attracting, the air was pulled into the engines. Once inside the engine reversed its charge, pushing the air out of the engine.

  Though now she thought of that process, the scientific/analytical part of her theorized that the interior was made up of lots of alternate pulling and pushing sections to keep the air moving faster and further at each step along the way.

  Electric jets were still more expensive than petrol-based engines, though that would reverse as they came into wider use and became more efficient. So Calderon Enterprises was a rich outfit to own (or lease) such a jet. She did not think prostitution rings were that profitable. Carlos and the company were more than they seemed. Or not what they seemed.

  The next clue came when a bus pulled up beside the rental car and about two dozen beautiful blond women came out. All of them were in their late teens or early twenties, as expected. But they were dressed expensively (though in a few cases in bad taste) and seemed happy and excited. None seemed drugged or terrorized. Though Sylvia supposed they had been fooled about what awaited them, a not-unusual way to recruit unwary women to a location where they could be terrorized into becoming whores. Still, the situation put at least a small crimp in her understanding of the prostitution ring.

  Along with the young women came an older one, at least thirty years old. She was also blond and attractive, though she had an air of efficiency and sophistication about her. She was stylishly dressed in a blue jacket and skirt and lilac blouse with a lacy collar. Her shoes were low-heeled pumps which looked expensive. The outfit was a nice combination of business-like but feminine.

  The woman shepherded the younger women to the aircraft loading stair but did not follow them. She came up to Carlos and air-kissed him formally near both cheeks. Then she turned to Sylvia.

  "Candy, I believe. I'm Diane. Carlos is much impressed with you, dear."

  Sylvia smiled sweetly at the woman and gave her a limp girlish hand. The two shook.

  "I'm sure he exaggerated a tad. Men are so impressionable. Let a woman fail to be impressed with their tough-guy ways and they are the ones impressed."

  The woman urged "Candy" into a companionably arm-in-arm pose and they walked to the boarding stair, leaving Carlos to trundle Sylvia's luggage along behind them.

  Shortly everyone was seated and buckled up in the small aircraft. A single flight attendant made the usual safety announcements and the craft took off. Sylvia found it interesting that there was no wheel-up sounds, there being no wheels. The engine made only a near-silent hissing noise since it had no furiously spinning moving parts. In fact, no moving parts at all .

  The plane was only about two-thirds full, so soon after it was air-borne some of the passengers swapped seats and chatted with each other.

  With her variably-sensitive hearing Sylvia was able to get some idea as to why all these women would cast their lots for life in a foreign land, Argentina. Though to Puerto Ricans nowadays that country was no longer so foreign, given the presence of Space Island's Argentine personnel. Most of them seemed to think they were going to work in the Calderon Enterprises TV and film studio at their destination.

  This was Puerto Iguazú at the very northern tip of Argentina where it butted together with Paraguay and Brazil. This tri-state area had recently been popularized in several thriller and action-adventure movies as full of international criminals. Sylvia had looked it up on the US State Department travel web site. It had said that there was some slight truth to the sensational rumors, but tourists were unlikely to encounter any such criminals.

  At first the other women ignored "Candy" but she soon caught first one woman and then another alone. Wide-eyed and interested she soon was hearing all about them and other women. A good listener was always appreciated.

  Three hours brought them to Panama and a brief layover for a swap of the moderately discharged superbatteries which powered the jet for fully charged ones. The jet's passengers got a chance to stretch their legs in the concourse and get an early lunch before re-boarding. By that time Candy had become a mascot to (as they thought of themselves) much more worldly women on the trip. They gave her fashion and makeup advice, to which she listened with rapt attention.

  Seven hours brought them to Rio de Janeiro. Halfway through the trip Sylvia sat down beside Carlos while he was staring out the window at the cloud-covered world below them, apparently neglecting some computer "paperwork."

  He glanced at her and returned to his staring.

  "I don't understand," she said. "Why did you send Felipe and Juan to discourage Maria from...whatever she was doing?"

  "I didn't," he said. "That was their idea."

  Crap. That was what Sylvia had guessed.

  She said, "And you went along with it?"

  "I didn't know about it till she showed up." And then he hadn't, she guessed, wanted to admit that he was not fully in control of his men. Crap . Macho pride.

  "
Something to do with work they were hired to do two or three years ago," he said, still lost in his thoughts. He had mellowed to her in the days since they had met, lulled a bit by her biochemical persuasions and by the fact that she had kept in the background while he was busy going about his managerial functions.

  "So these women think they are going to be starlets and workers in your Argentine movie studio. Do they know they're going to be doing soft porn? And maybe hard porn later?"

  He grinned at her, his broodings forgotten.

  "Did you think we were running some kind of prostitution ring? Sure, our studio turns out soft porn. But that's only one of our sidelines. We do Spanish-speaking soap operas and game shows and reality shows. We stay away from the hard stuff. There are some scary guys in that business and we don't want them to think we're competition.

  "Why do you care, anyway?"

  She shrugged. "I don't. But I like to know what's going on around me. So I don't get caught up in messy situations."

  She turned the conversation to himself. It was a subject he much loved to talk about. Like most people .

  Back in her seat later Sylvia brooded a bit herself. She'd actually gotten hold of threads to the people who had kidnapped her and then let them loose. The two thugs were back in Puerto Rico, no doubt already free-lanced out to someone else.

  But Carlos had mentioned scary guys mixed up in "hard stuff." That offered at least some possibilities. Maybe this trip would not be a waste after all.

  And she wondered whether he had been perfectly truthful about having no involvement with rough-traders in prostitution. How otherwise was he able to say he could sell her to some rich pervert as if she had no choice in the matter?

  Still, she was on her way to a possibility of better tracing sexual slavers. She might as well follow through with her efforts.

  With that thought she let herself lapse into a doze then sleep. She dreamed of clawing bad guys guts from their bloody bellies and tearing their throats out with her fangs.

  Chapter 26 - Arrival

  Tri-state area, Argentina

  The plane landed in Rio de Janeiro and all the girls (as they referred to themselves) were escorted to an airport hotel just outside the airport proper. Sylvia/Candy went along with them, shepherded by two women, Genie and Luz, who had semi-adopted the seemingly younger and innocent girl they thought her to be. Sylvia was touched and let them play Mommy.

  There was a popular night club at the hotel. Most of the "girls" went down to the club to dine and stayed to dance and (a few of them) romance.

  Sylvia went with them, as did Diane, who continued to chaperon them. The woman kept three of the women from retiring elsewhere to have sex with men they met there. One of the men objected strenuously. Sylvia moved close up ready to intervene in case of violence but Diane handled it. She led the man to the bar where she told the 'tender to put the man's tab on her corporate credit card.

  Turning from the bar where the objector was ordering a drink she almost collided with "Candy."

  "Oh! Sorry," Diane said. Her eyes narrowed. "What were you trying to do?"

  "I was curious how you would handle the situation."

  "Well, be curious from a distance."

  The next day a bit before noon the jet came down through the clouds to cruise over the tri-state area where Paraguay from the west and Brazil from the east met, along with a long north-pointing finger of Argentina.

  The land was moderately hilly and very green with lots of near-jungle forest and open grassland. As well it should. Two rivers came into the area from Paraguay to the west and two from Brazil to the east and north. They combined and flowed south through Argentina.

  It also rained often, she'd read online during the flight on a seat-back slate computer. She had spent several hours studying the terrain, maps, and area to help prepare herself for getting around there. Though there was no rain forecast for the next few days.

  The plane made a large counterclockwise fish-hook approach from the east and landed from the south. Looking out the windows Sylvia saw trees on all sides hurry by as the plane slowed rapidly, then taxied to a halt.

  Pulling her small suitcase behind her she joined the other women down the aisle and the ladder, all of them eager to get off the plane. The air on the tarmac was hot and humid. This was on the cooler side for the area, however. Autumn was approaching here on the "bottom" side of the world.

  The airport building was a small two-story construction more like a large barn than anything else. Diane made sure the girls had their passports out and ready to hand them to Customs. This was a single bored young man in a sloppy blue uniform, who perked up a lot when faced with so many gorgeous blonds. He was more interested in ogling and quickly stamped the passports as the women passed single file through a gate. The women were bouncy and giggly after being cooped up for so long and put on a good show for him, some smiling at him.

  As did Sylvia, the last woman off the plane. She was in another of her Pervert's Delight costumes, tight pale blue shorts and tennies and a short-sleeved flowered blouse tied above her belly button. She give him an air kiss from her cherry lips and giggled as he almost fell off his stool.

  "Not nice," said Carlos, following her. He was smiling, however, likely as happy as the women to be off the plane. Too, he was now in home country and feeling very much in charge of matters.

  Which might mean he took action against her, possibly indirectly by (say) fooling or bribing local police into arresting her for something. So she would have to plan ahead and stay alert to threats. She had been conditioning him both biochemically and behaviorally to feel favorable to her, but there was a limit to such methods. Also, he was only one member of what she thought of as the Calderon Gang.

  There was a bus waiting for Carlos and the women outside the airport building. The bus driver was dozing in his seat but quickly sat up and grinned at Carlos when he stepped up through the open bus doors. The driver got busy helping everyone store their luggage.

  When everyone took seats Sylvia ended up sharing with "mommies" Genie and Luz. Carlos and Diane took a pair of seats up front, but Diane remained standing in the stairwell beside the bus driver's seat.

  "I know you're all tired and want to settle into your hotel rooms, but I think you'll enjoy seeing one of the great natural sites anywhere: Iguazú Falls. We're going to treat you to lunch at a hotel nearby."

  She sat down and the bus started up.

  The bus took a road away from the airport. Dense forest was on all sides. A mile or so further east the road ended in a T. The driver took the left-hand turn, then a couple of miles further a right turn. A mile further and this road bent to the left and traveled northward between a wide chasm on their right and a large Victoria hotel on their left.

  The chasm held a river which ran roughly north and south. It was fed by the Iguazú Cataracts which poured over a land fault on the opposite (Brazilian) side of the chasm. There were more than two hundred white streams pouring down nearly three hundred feet, some of them narrow, a few of them quite wide.

  Even inside a well-sealed bus a couple of hundred feet in from the near edge of the chasm the sound of the water striking the river bed below was a loud hiss and rumble. The sound did strange things to Sylvia's belly.

  The Victoria chain was a world-wide chain of several hundred four- and five-star hotels. This one would not have shamed any of its siblings. It was more than a hundred feet long, four stories high, and placed parallel to the river. Thus every room on the eastern side, especially the topmost, had a clear view of the cataracts a quarter mile away.

  The bus pulled into a curving driveway in front of the hotel. Diane stood up when it came to a stop.

  "You can leave your luggage in the bus. We'll be returning to it after lunch."

  The bus door opened and she and Carlos exited. So did all the women, a merry bunch despite any trip fatigue.

  Inside the high-ceilinged and fashionably furnished lobby a concierge in a dark green
uniform smiled at Carlos and called him "Señor Calderon." Then he led them grandly down a long hall to the right to a dining room entirely walled on the exterior side with tall windows.

  "Fan-cy," said Genie.

  "I'll say," said her friend Luz. Sylvia nodded and tried to look awed to keep up her façade with the two. She and her friends took menus from one of the several waiters who had hurried to help the women.

  Food ordered, the three women looked out the nearest tall window toward the cataracts. White clouds could be seen rising from the waterfalls.

  A lot of women had wine with their food. This led to even higher spirits and for a time the dining room was almost so noisy that Sylvia thought Diane might hush them. But as the food disappeared the noise quietened more than the food demanded. Sylvia was first puzzled at the sudden quiet. Then Genie and Luz began suggesting jobs they might take at the hotel. Hostess and waitress was the most popular possibility.

  Reality was setting in. Most had come here thinking they would be able to take some kind of acting job, a low-level one but a foot in the door nevertheless. But the actuality was overwhelming fantasy and hopes.

  Sylvia looked over at Carlos and Diane, talking and smiling near one window. She wondered if this was part of the routine to dishearten the women and make them more pliable.

  Fury rose like a tide within her and her claws and fangs began to tingle, ready to erupt, readying her to tear him and Diane into bloody hamburger.

  She fought down the impulse. There might be a time for that, but that time was not now.

  After the lunch they all returned to the bus, after everyone had refreshed themselves and their makeup in a restroom. Then for the next ten or fifteen minutes they traveled west through forest. The trees began to thin out and Diane stood up again in the stairwell.

  "Next you're going to see Lago Eva Perón. It was created many years ago by dredging a canal from the Parana River which runs south from here toward Buenos Aires. It's a famous vacation spot, as you'll soon see."