Sea Monster's Revenge Page 27

  Time to reassure the captives. Or as much as they could be at this point.

  She keyed the microphone connected to the prisoners' room and spoke into it, gentling her voice a bit.

  "Ladies, this Maria. I was with you earlier. We have the security control room secure and some of us have begun to kill or capture the rest of the compound. The situation is still fluid, so please stay where you are. Rest. We will keep you apprised of the situation. Now I must sign off."

  She keyed the channel off.

  "Now, Raul, we will talk."

  Chapter 31 - Consolidation

  Raul was eager to talk. The human female wore the same clothes as the black monster which had rampaged into the room, might be the very same. The corpse lying a few feet away, stinking of meat, blood, shit, and piss was a powerful additional inducement.

  The mansion or "big house" held the top brass of the kidnap ring, while the "little house" (one of the two-story buildings which she had thought might be an apartment or barracks) held the muscle. Raul was a "soldier" and lived there with the other soldiers. Cleaning people, gardeners, and other servants came in during the day, except for some trusted (or intimidated) servants who lived in the big house. Guests came in on weekends and occasionally during the week and did business and partied and sometimes stayed overnight at the mansion.

  Guests were sometimes treated to overnight possession of the best-trained captives. A fact that threatened to cause a change to her warform. The darkening of her olive Maria skin toward matte black caused Raul to shrink away from her as far as the ergo chair would go.

  Landline communications passed through the security center and could be cut off from there. Sylvia had Raul show her how, and she double-checked his remarks in the fat printed notebook on the console which was the operating manual for the center. She then switched off those communications. Though of course anyone with a cell phone would not be affected.

  The existence of the manual meant that Raul was only a convenience. She did not need him. Nor did anyone else she might enlist to manage the compound.

  Which reminded her. Time to get some help, if it existed. And she thought it did. At least one of the kidnapped women, the one who'd turned on the light, still had some fight in her. And so did at least a few others, to judge from what she had been seeing on the four cameras monitoring the women. Two of them were sitting by the comatose woman, talking quietly and keeping an eye on her. A half-dozen were still chatting in the group in the corner which Sylvia had noticed earlier. One of those was the woman who'd turned on the light.

  She flipped the switch to the speaker in the prison area.

  "Maria here. I need at least three of you but not more than six to come to me in the security control room. On the way you will see some dead men. Bring me all their weapons. Wait a minute and I'll tell you how to get here."

  She stood and went to a supplies cabinet in one corner of the security room. She took a handful of white plastic tie-wraps from a box and strapped Raul's wrists and ankles to his ergo chair.

  "If you try anything while I'm gone you will regret it."

  She extended her claws from a human-looking hand and traced a path across his closest cheek with her claws. He shuddered and shrank from the cold bony caress.

  Back in her seat she saw a group of women in the video screens waving at her.

  "Very good. Now here's how to get here...."

  When she felt that they understood she switched off the security console, stood, and put the master key into one of the pockets of her shorts. She knelt by the corpse, wrestled the gun belt off it, and strapped the belt with its holstered pistol around her waist. She tucked Raul's pistol inside the belt and checked both pistols. She put the long rifle in the weapons locker against one wall, locked it, and put the key to it into a pocket of her shorts.

  She dragged the corpse into the hallway and dropped him near the second man. She took the short automatic weapon from him and looped the strap over a shoulder. Then she retraced her path to the basement. Halfway there she met seven women, not the "six max" she had specified. She said nothing about the numbers. That the women had not slavishly followed her orders was a good sign. She needed helpers with initiative.

  The women had just passed the two ultra-violently killed men and retrieved their weapons, two submachine guns.

  "Do you know how to use those?" she said to the two gun-bearers.

  "No," said one. "But I can learn."

  "Good. First lesson. Keep your fingers out of the trigger guard until you want to fire it."

  Sylvia made sure of that condition. Then, "Second lesson. Only point them at someone you want to shoot."

  Gently she pushed the nearest gun-barrel upward. The mouth of the woman holding it tightened but she said nothing.

  At the T-junction to the cross-hall Sylvia motioned everyone to stop. She listened, heard no one in the cross-hall, then stepped into it to double-check, submachine gun ready to fire, saw she was still alone.

  She beckoned the women to follow her. They did, stopping short at the sight of the dead man lying by the security center door.

  Sylvia did not. She was busy listening at the closed door. Hearing nothing alarming she opened it, but stood to the side of it with her gun ready. Finding no threat in the room she entered it.

  Raul was lying on his side. He had tried something while she was gone.

  Sylvia righted his chair and picked it up as if it were a toy, jerking a cut-off scream from the man.

  "You remember I said you would regret it if you tried something?"

  Then she threw the chair up in the air. This time the scream was not cut off.

  She caught the chair casually and set it gently down on the floor.

  "Ladies, meet Raul. I hope you don't mind if I kill him slowly in front of you."

  She grabbed Raul's belly and extended her claws enough to penetrate his clothing and (just barely) his skin. Then she withdrew her hand.

  Sylvia turned on the security console, quickly scanned the view screens. No one was visible in them except the kidnapped women in the basement.

  "I want two of you on this console. Raul will help you learn to use it. Won't you, my heart?" The endearment was accompanied by a smile. It surely looked sinister on Maria's hard face. He nodded vigorously.

  The two women with guns crowded forward.

  "Put your guns down there." The monster pointed toward a nearby table against a wall. The women looked stubborn.

  "Don't worry. You'll get something better for a chair sitter."

  Sylvia went to the weapons cabinet and unlocked it, leaving the key in the lock. She removed seven pistols, loaded as apparently all weapons were, along with belts and holsters for them. To that she added seven snap-open pouches, each holding two clips of cartridges for the pistols. Back at the console she showed the women how to thread the pouches and holsters onto the belts, holster and unholster the weapons, and a few other basics. All the seven crowded around her, eagerly watching her instructions.

  The two console volunteers happily sat before the console. With glowers at the soldier they positioned him between him and themselves before the console.

  Sylvia handed out the rest of the pistols to the other five women. She then locked the two submachine guns in the weapons locker but left the key in the lock. Fully automatic weapons in untrained hands were too likely to hurt friends.

  Sylvia had been keeping an eye on monitors. It was nearing 5:00 in the morning. Daybreak was only an hour or so away and there might be some early birds to complicate matters. So far she had seen none, but that did not mean there weren't any on the way. She needed to get out and intercept such. More importantly, she needed to complete securing the compound.

  She looked at the seven women, all eagerly belting on weapons and practicing drawing them. She had already had to interfere three times to keep them from accidentally firing a weapon. She called for their attention.

  "Right now you're more danger to yourselves than
to the enemy. I'm going to leave you for a while and trust you to correct that. Please try not to kill anyone except by intent. Stay quiet until I come back. I'm going to take care the rest of this shit-hole. Don't be scared if you see someone who looks like this all over."

  She lifted a hand over her head, popped out her claws a little way, and turned her arm black.

  There were gasps at this.

  One woman shared the other's amazement but hid it well. This was Issa, short for Issabella, who had turned on the light in the basement. Sylvia was beginning to think of her as the women's leader.

  The woman said, "Will that be you?"

  "Sometimes. But I have helpers, some of them very different from me. So don't be too eager to shoot strangers.

  "Now, while I'm gone, stay in here. Be quiet. Learn from Raul and this manual. Do not phone anyone just yet. We don't know who might be in the pay of these people. Or who might be listening to your loved ones' phones."

  Sylvia went to the weapons locker, stashed inside it the extra pistol at her waist. She added ammunition for her holstered pistol in the form of a second two-clip pouch which she threaded onto her gun belt. She slung a sack of clips for the semiautomatic rifle over her shoulder, the pouch opening positioned to make it easy to reach into it.

  She checked her weapons to make sure they were loaded and the safeties on, looked about her to see if she had forgotten anything, then spoke.

  "I know you've suffered horribly. But that's over. It's time to think of the future. Of getting back at the people who did this to you. Then of going home. Don't torture Raul. That's my job."

  She smiled at Raul. Even from Maria's mouth it must have looked predatory, and he surely remembered how she had looked in her monster form. He shrank away from her, clearly terrified. His reaction was not lost on the women.

  Sylvia said goodbye to the women and slipped out the door.

  Her first stop was the "barracks." It was to the east of the mansion, its south side with a view of the lake. There was a patio there with plastic garden chairs and several red-and-white umbrella-shaded tables.

  She left the mansion in her Candy persona. Her hands free, her manner casual, she was innocuous in appearance despite the weapons, looking like a kid playing dress-up. She turned right and eastward and crossed in front of the mansion, turned right again and walked toward the lake, turned left along the back side of the barracks and tried the glass-fronted double doors leading onto and off the patio.

  It was unlocked as she had guessed. These people knew themselves to be bad guys to mess with. They weren't afraid of intruders.

  Just inside were tables on each side of the door. A few plates and beer bottles lay upon them. There were several open-faced cabinets with food and drink supplies. Other cabinets contained other supplies, brooms, mops, a vacuum cleaner, laundry supplies, and so on.

  She slipped into the next room. A big kitchen with two big refrigerators.

  Beyond was a living room area, low-lit by a lamp in one corner. Beside a sofa on the floor a naked man slept, an equally naked young blond woman beside him on the floor. She was staring glumly at the ceiling, awake. He was asleep.

  "Candy" put a finger to her lips as the woman turned her head. The man began to wake and sit up.

  Sylvia was by his side in a few swift steps. She grabbed his throat intending just to silence him but crushed it accidentally. He gurgled and spasmed and the odor of piss and shit arose from him.

  If the monster had expected horror from the woman she would have been disappointed. The woman's face showed only satisfaction. She turned away from the man and stood.

  Sylvia spoke very quietly, something less attention-getting than a whisper. Though there was no one but the woman on this level, apparently, to hear.

  "This site is being raided. The innocent will be returned to your families if you wish it. You will be given medical and other attention as soon as this area is fully secured. Do you understand?"

  The calm and somewhat formal delivery of this speech did what Sylvia had hoped. The woman calmed .

  "Until I come back downstairs you will sit in that chair and say nothing and do nothing. Disobey and we may take you for the enemy and kill you. Understood?"

  "Can I put on my clothes?"

  "Yes. Need to use the bathroom?"

  "I can wait. Kill them all, would you?"

  Sylvia nodded and quickly mounted the stairs. The woman had registered as sincere to her extrahuman senses. Though she might be wrong and the woman was even now frantically trying and failing to phone the main house over the disabled landline phone to warn of attack. Or over a cell phone.

  There were eight apartments on the top floor, four on each side of a hall. Most of the doors were open, three not.

  The first open door showed no one in the bed. The first closed door, when she put her ear to the crack of the door jamb, was to an empty apartment. The second open door showed three occupants, two men and a woman, a man alone on one double bed, a man with a woman on the second bed.

  She reined in her urge to kill the two men and ghosted to the three occupants. A touch to bare skin was enough to put each of them into a coma. The woman would wake if someone tried hard to awaken her. The two men would never awaken without Sylvia's intervention.

  All the other open doors were onto occupied apartments. The monster repeated her performance at each. One man was already awake in bed but still sleepy. The sight of a gun-wearing nymphet was not alarming enough to awaken him to resistance before she plunged him into coma.

  That left two closed doors. They led to rooms both of which, to Sylvia's senses, registered as occupied. One door was locked. She skipped it. The second closed door was unlocked. Unfortunately the man inside was up and dressed. On his belt was a holstered pistol. He grabbed for it.

  There was not time enough for any other response. Sylvia drew her own pistol before he did and pointed it at his face. He continued to draw. She put one shot into an eye-socket and turned and raced to the locked door.

  She was already in slow time. She pushed off from the opposite wall and took two long steps toward the locked door and kicked it completely off its hinges. Inside two men were dressed for work. She shot one who had a gun out. The other had only placed a hand on his gun butt when she pointed a gun at this face. He froze. She glided to him and put him into coma.

  Two pistol shots a minute or so apart might alert others to danger.

  Sylvia/Candy whirled and ran downstairs, taking the last half dozen steps in one leap.

  The woman in the easy chair was standing upright, her face showing alarm. Sylvia spoke reassuringly.

  "It's alright. I'm going to leave you now. Go up and wake up the rest of the women. Get dressed, eat if you can, but stay in this building. My people may be in a gun-battle soon and if you go outside you may be killed."

  She did not wait for a reply but opened the front door and stepped cautiously outside.

  The mansion was to her left now. A look at the windows in that building which she could see showed no one. That might not last.

  Her manner unhurried she returned to the big house, her weapons holstered and slung and her hands free. Anyone seeing her might not be galvanized to action, even though her Candy persona had guns.

  Inside the mansion she assumed her Maria persona while running to the security center.

  "It's me," she called as she neared the door. It opened to show one woman holding a gun pointed at her. The woman quickly twitched it to the side and apologized.

  "No problem," said Sylvia/Maria.

  Inside she saw that the room had been changed a bit. All the women now had weapons holstered or slung, depending on weapon type. Two had retrieved subguns from the weapons locker but seemed competent in their use. Two women were monitoring the view, leafing through the users manual and comparing notes with Raul. He had one hand free so that he could point, perhaps. They only glanced at her briefly.

  "We heard shots," Issa said, coming up to Sylvia.<
br />
  "Two men matched reflexes with a mere woman. They lost."

  Issa grinned.

  Sylvia briefed them all about the barracks situation.

  "I forgot to tell the woman there not to kill the men in a coma. They might have useful information. And they can always be killed later."

  Raul ducked his head at that. Sylvia felt no need to reassure him. For one reason, she was not sure she was going to let him live. And she felt no need to comfort a criminal such as he.

  "Now, we're going to clean house here. What can you tell me about the occupants? Raul, you first. Oh, by the way, don't try snatching a gun with that free hand. All you'll get is a bullet. I'll kill you if no one else does."

  Mostly from Raul, but also from several of the women, Sylvia discovered that there was a boss who had the top floor all to himself. It included an office which four people manned during the day. Those four lived on the second floor in luxury apartments. At least one of them traveled frequently. Six additional apartments on the second floor were for guests. Three were occupied by a cook, his teenaged son, and their helper. All three seemed to be captives or held to obedience by threats to hostages.

  The first floor was also for entertaining and for "training" the kidnapped women. Only women cowed enough not to appeal to the hired help were allowed there. Sylvia guessed that this was a test of the indoctrination of the women. Any who "broke training" disappeared.

  Sylvia guessed they were taken into the lake at night and drowned. The contaminated servants suffered other fates—or were rewarded for turning in the rebels.

  "That's enough," the monster said after having to rein in her rage the third time. "Now I'm going upstairs."

  One of the women at the security console had been waving at Sylvia for the last few seconds. Now Issa said, "One minute." This was to Sylvia and the woman.

  "There are some people at the front gate. They work here. This is what we want Raul to say." She held up a short typed script, apparently created on the computer and printer in the corner.