Monsters
By
Karen Singer
Chapter 18 – Monster Headaches – Part 1 of 2
Carol and Brandy were still sound
asleep, still naked, still entwined in each other’s arms…when the soft buzzing
sound of Carol’s cellphone vibrating on the nightstand woke them up. After another night of intense lovemaking, it
was surprising that either of them woke up enough to hear it, let alone both of
them.
“What now?” Carol complained as she
rolled over and grabbed her phone.
“Yeah?” she said into the device.
“Carol,” Susan Wu’s voice came
back. “We were able to get hits off of
the fingerprints from both of those bodies last night.”
“Already?” Carol asked. “It’s only…” she checked the time. “Ten o’clock.”
“Some of us wake up and go to work
earlier!” Susan replied sternly.
“And some of us worked most of the
night,” Carol replied. “Sorry. It was a long night. What did you find?”
“Both of the men you shot were
Canadian. We haven’t been able to trace
who they were working for yet. It looks
like they’ve pretty much farmed themselves around to whoever needed them…just
like most other mercenaries.”
“Yeah. No surprise.
But Canadians? Why not. They’ve got a pretty good military training
program too.”
“Yes. So watch your back!”
“Don’t worry. I intend to.”
“Wait a minute,” Susan suddenly
said. She paused a moment then said,
“Here’s your mother.”
“Carol?”
“Hi Mom. What’s up?”
“Our nice lunch and afternoon got
interrupted a few days ago. Any chance
you and Brandy can come today and we can try it again?”
Carol thought about it. “Let me check with Brandy.” She looked over at Brandy. “Any problem with taking a day off and going
to see my mother again?”
“No. And maybe when we get back tonight, we can
both check out Lozano’s warehouse where you were last night. I have a feeling they’re going to want to try
it again.”
“True. Good idea.”
She pulled her phone back to her mouth.
“We’ll be there, Mom. We just
have to get back so we can work again tonight.”
“Well, this time, try to save
someone for me to play with,” Janice replied.
“I’m sitting here day after day with nothing to do, and Mr. Wu is still
putting up objections to me going all the way into Las Vegas for some
fun.” She lowered her voice to a
whisper. “He’s going to have to give in
pretty soon. I won’t stand to stay here
much longer.”
Carol chuckled. “Don’t worry.
We’ll see you for lunch. We can
talk about it then.”
“Perfect!” Janice replied
happily. “I look forward to it.”
“Me too, Mom.” She hung up the phone. “Lunch again.”
“Okay. I didn’t have a better plan anyway.”
Thirty minutes and a combined
shower later, the two girls were dressed in their usual riding suits and
heading toward the elevators.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
His phone started vibrating. He answered it. “Yeah?”
“They just called for the bikes.”
“Thanks.” He hung up and spoke to the man next to him. “That was the parking attendant. They called for their motorcycles. They should be out soon.”
The second man nodded and looked
out at the hotel across the street from the top of the building they were
sitting on. “Not soon enough for
me. First they were just targets, but
now we owe them for last night. Killing two
of us just won’t stand.”
“No, and I want them more than you
do. Especially since someone grabbed
their bodies before we could get to them.”
“Who?”
“We still have no idea. Maybe one of those women.”
The other man shook his head. “How? Two of our guys…and they’re just women.”
“But they said they were deadly.”
The other man laughed. “So am I.
And I’m pissed.”
“Me too.”
It was nearly five minutes later when
one of them saw the motorcycles being driven to the front of the hotel. “Bikes are there. Still don’t see the targets.”
The other man now poked his head up
over the edge of the roof. He pulled his
rifle in place and aimed the scope at one of the motorcycles. The other man did the same. “I got the one on the right, he said.”
“Got ya,” the other man replied as
he set his distance on the scope.
“There they are!” the first man
said as he spotted Carol and Brandy coming out of the hotel. “They’re even wearing the same damn riding
suits. We couldn’t miss them if we
tried.” He watched as they sat on the
bikes and started pulling their helmets on.
“Now!” he said.
Two almost simultaneous shots rang
out. They watched the women literally
being blown from the bikes.
“Targets are down. Let’s move!”
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
There were screams seemingly
everywhere. The chaotic commotion was
everywhere as well as people ran for their lives. In moments, the only things left in front of
the hotel were two motorcycles lying on their sides…and two bodies not far from
them. Then one of the bodies moved…and
groaned.
Carol’s head was ringing. She was totally disoriented. She didn’t have a clue what had happened or
what was going on. She was too stunned to
do more than groan at the pain in her head as she did her best to sit up.
She pulled the motorcycle helmet
off her head and breathed a sigh of relief as the weight of it was gone and
cooler fresh air washed over her. Her
hand reached up to rub the side of her head…when her eyes caught sight of the
body lying on the sidewalk in front of her.
No! “Brandy!” she yelled as she
scrambled toward the body. No! She couldn’t be dead. She reached Brandy and called her name
again. She pulled Brandy’s helmet off
her head, noting as she did the large crack and gash in the side of it. “Brandy!” she yelled. She was relieved to see Brandy still
breathing. “Brandy!” she yelled again as
she shook her friend.
Brandy was literally shaken out of
her comatose state. She opened her eyes
to see two of Carol sitting and holding her.
“What…”
“Come on!” Carol urged as she tried
to pull Brandy to her feet. “We’ve got
to get out of here.” She could already
hear police sirens, and they were coming closer.
It was a monstrous effort for
Brandy to get to her feet. Her head was
still pounding and spinning. It hurt
something horrible. Carol shoved her
helmet into her hands and pulled. “Come
on!” she urged. Brandy followed the best
she could. Not knowing where they were
going.
Carol led them back into the hotel. Carol waved off the few people who tried to
help them. She kept moving towards one
of the restaurants, then through the kitchen, then finally out through a side
door. The police sirens had
stopped. She was sure they had stopped
in front of the hotel. But now they had
run out one of the side doors. She did
her best to keep Brandy following her away from the hotel. Fortunately, Brandy seemed to be moving just
fine now.
“What happened?” Brandy asked as they
rounded the corner of a building and started walking the sidewalk along with all
the other people there.
“We got shot!” Carol whispered.
“It feels like it,” Brandy replied
as she rubbed the sore side of her head.
“Let’s grab a cab,” Carol suggested
as she flagged one down that was just passing.
A few moments later, they were heading toward the Chinese restaurant.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
“We got shot! Both of us.
In the head!” Carol said into her phone once they were safely inside the
restaurant.
Next to her, Brandy was using her
cellphone as well. “Ralphie! Get out of there. Now!
Just get out and stay away from the room. I’ll call you as soon as I can. Just go!”
“Yes, Miss Brandy,” Ralphie
replied, hearing the urgency in her voice.
“Right away.” What had happened?
Brandy put her phone away and
listened as Carol told Susan about how the motorcycle helmets had saved their
lives. The helmets were damaged, but the
bullets hadn’t penetrated all the way through, saving their lives. A minute later, she watched as Carol put her
phone away. “I called Ralphie and had
him get out of the room. I have no doubt
that the police are going to go up to both of our rooms and search them.”
“Yeah. You’re right.
Good thinking.”
“The only interesting thing I can
think of that they might find, are some of those reports that your people put
together on what’s been happening around the city.”
“And when the police find them,
they’re most likely going to try and blame us for some of those deaths too.”
“No doubt,” Brandy agreed.
“Susan is sending a car for us. We’ll go back to where my mother is for now while
her people watch to see what happens.”
“Any chance your mother has some
pain killer there? My head’s still
aching.”
“Mine too,” Carol replied.
She got up and found Mama Suz in
the kitchen where she usually was. “Any
aspirin or Tylenol around?” she asked.
One of the people working in the
kitchen brought a bottle of Tylenol.
“Thanks,” Carol told her. She carried the bottle back to Brandy. They both took a handful of the pain
relievers, hoping they would work.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
“What do you mean…disappeared?”
“They’re gone. Both of them.
They just disappeared.”
“But we had confirmation that both
of them were dead.”
“Evidently not. Or…someone grabbed their bodies already. Just like they took the two from the rooftop
behind Lozano’s warehouse last night.”
“So they could still be dead.”
“That’s what I’m betting.”
“But we can’t be sure.”
“No.”
“Damn!”
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