Monsters
By
Karen Singer
Chapter 20 – Monster in a Cage – Part 1 of 2
There were a few people standing
out in front of the grocery store next to Beastman’s building. People with kids. People laughing and enjoying themselves. Like Lozano’s buildings had been, Beastman’s
building was dark as well. Carol parked
her bike right in front of it. There
were no fancy cars out front now. There
were no cars at all. She climbed off her
bike and pulled her gun. One of the
adults in front of the store panicked and started pushing everyone away,
getting them around the corner. Probably
making sure they all got home safely.
Good!
She tried the front door. No surprise.
It was locked. She went down the
alleyway between buildings and came out at the back. No cars there at all now. She found that strange. She expected that even at night, in fact all
night long, someone would be there. But
like from the front of the building, the rear seemed to be just as
deserted. She tried the back door. Locked.
She climbed the fire escape and tried all the other doors. Locked.
From the top floor on the metal
fire escape, she climbed up onto the railing, jumped, and managed to catch her
fingers over the edge of the roof. She
pulled herself up. Just another flat
rooftop. She looked all around and saw
nothing. There was an access door there
that was also locked. Even though the
door was built to swing outward, a few good kicks broke the moldings and the
door swung inward.
She made no more noise as she
descended the steps to the floor below her.
She didn’t risk a light. She had
spent countless hours training and working in the dark. It was all second nature to her now. As an assassin, she was a child of the night.
Her footsteps were slow and careful
as she made her way through the entire building, checking every room, every
office. Nobody. Why was it totally deserted? It wasn’t that late at night. Still, she continued on. Room by room, floor by floor, she checked
everywhere. Searching for any sign at
all that Brandy had been there, or anything that would tell her where they had
taken her. Nothing. Nothing at all. By the time she reached the bottom floor, she
was ready to scream her frustration. Her
training and experience kept her silent as she continued searching.
She finally exited through the back
door on the ground floor. She had
discovered nothing but an empty building.
Where had they taken Brandy? What
had they done with her? She had wanted
to find someone she could interrogate.
Anyone! But the building had been
empty. Too empty.
With no place else to look, she
headed back toward the hotel. On the
way, she stopped where Brandy had parked her bike. Her heart dropped. The bike was still there. Brandy was still missing.
Where was Brandy? Was she still alive? Had they hurt her? She was desperate for an answer. Knowing that Brandy had been taken and was
now in enemy hands, made her sick with worry.
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Her spinning head ached enough to
start trying to pull her out of her unconscious state. Even as far under as she was, she realized
she was bound, hands behind her back, her feet bound to her hands. Hogtie.
Despite her spinning head, she forced herself to open her eyes.
“She’s awake!” a man’s voice said
as she realized she was lying in the back of a car. Not a trunk, an SUV.
A man reached over the seat and
held something in front of her face.
That smell! She blacked out
again.
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She didn’t notice that the middle
of the bed was sunken-in. She didn’t
notice the general age and shabbiness of the room. Carol sat on the bed and stared at the wall,
not seeing anything. The only thing she
wanted to see, was Brandy. Or maybe
Beastman in the sights of her gun.
The building may have belonged to
Lozano, but because of the gas, she had no doubt that it was Beastman who had
taken her. She should have killed him
the first time she got her hands on him.
The next time she found him, she would kill him. Or do something worse to him, turn him over
to her mother. A fate she knew was a lot
worse than death.
Her mind roamed back over the
day. The buildings belonging to Lozano
had been empty. Both of them. Why?
It made no sense. The building
belonging to Beastman had also been empty.
Why? It was always so frustrating
to be faced with a puzzle and have no possible answers to anything.
Where was she going to get those
answers? She had no doubt what she’d do
once she had them. She would literally
kill everyone she came in contact with until she found Brandy. And then she would probably keep killing. Punishing all of them. Killing was what she did best. She wasn’t just good at it. She was one of the best.
The game she and Brandy played was
a dangerous one. Carol knew that someday
she would get killed. She knew that
Brandy lived with that fact as well. It
was a given in their profession. You
could only live so long, and when your time was up, that was it. In the meantime, like Brandy, she was
determined to live the way she wanted, doing what she wanted to do. Flouncing around wearing pretty dresses all
the time and acting like a total airhead wasn’t on her list of ways to
live. She was too aggressive. Too interested in hurting. Too sadistic.
Too much of a killer. Those were
the things she lived for. And as they
had discovered time and time again, she and Brandy were exactly alike.
But she was certain that Brandy
hadn’t been killed. Not yet anyway. There had been no blood in that lobby where
she had discovered the gas and Brandy’s broken cellphone. She hadn’t even seen any bullet holes in the walls. And when dealing with someone like Brandy, she
would have expected to see lots of them.
So her gut feeling told her that Brandy was still alive, for now, but
she had been taken. She had no doubt that
had been the purpose of the gas. To
knock Brandy out so she could be captured.
If Beastman had captured her, like
she was sure had happened, then she had a feeling that Brandy would be in for a
very rough time. Because Beastman would
be out for revenge, and killing Brandy quickly wouldn’t give Beastman the kind
of satisfaction she was sure he wanted.
So Brandy was most likely alive,
but captured. She had to hang onto that
thought. Alive! That was all that mattered. Now all she had to do was find her. But how did you find someone who was being hidden
somewhere in a city the size of Las Vegas?
It was too large a city. There
were too many people. And she didn’t
have the first clue where to look, other than starting with Beastman, who for
now, had seemed to disappear, just like Lozano and his men.
Had something happened to Lozano
and Beastman both? They were the two
smallest criminal organizations in the city.
Had whoever been controlling the mercenaries sent their soldiers to wipe
out both organizations at the same time?
It was possible. Someone who was
smart enough might just do that. By
taking out both smaller organizations at the same time, neither one would have a
chance to hear about the other and possibly hide. Two organizations at the same time would give
whoever controlled the mercenaries a big boost towards taking out the other
organizations. The riffraff would be out
of the way. The bigger organizations
would see what had been done and be scared, possibly forcing some of them to
make mistakes. But if it wasn’t Beastman
who had taken Brandy, then who?
She didn’t have an answer to
that. Besides, it had been the smell of
the gas that had solidified Beastman as the culprit for her. The smell had been the same that Beastman
himself had thrown against them in his own building. And just getting a tiny whiff of that stuff
had nearly knocked her out.
The building Brandy had been taken
from had belonged to Lozano. She
couldn’t think of a single reason why Lozano would want to kidnap Brandy. Besides, she herself had killed two of the mercenaries
who had been there to kill Lozano’s men.
Lozano should be very happy to have her and Brandy around. No, the building might have belonged to
Lozano, but she was certain he wasn’t behind Brandy’s capture. Someone else was. And for now, everything pointed to Beastman
wanting revenge for what Brandy had done to him. Brandy and her. But Brandy had been the one unlucky enough to
have been captured.
She sat musing things over for
hours. Finally, she laid back on the bed
without bothering to get undressed. She
was still in her riding suit, her hand never straying far from a pocket with a
gun. She stared blankly at the ceiling
thinking about Brandy and who might have taken her. She stared blankly remembering Brandy and the
times they had together.
Brandy and her were so much
alike. Opposites attract, but she and
Brandy had been drawn deeply to each other even though they were the furthest
thing from being opposites. She
remembered talking to Brandy about so many of their experiences in a world that
would do nothing but horrify anyone else.
And as she laid alone on the bed, she particularly remembered making
love with Brandy, over and over and over.
Magical love. She had thought
from the beginning that Brandy would be sensational in bed, and she had been.
Would she ever share a bed with
Brandy again? The thought of losing her
permanently brought tears to Carol’s eyes.
Carol wasn’t someone who cried.
She never had been. Especially
not anymore. But there were tears in her
eyes now. She hurt deep inside from
something that wasn’t physical in any way at all. She hurt in a way she never had before. A way that was difficult for her to
understand.
She finally came to one inescapable
conclusion. She didn’t just miss
Brandy. She loved her, with everything
she had.
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Sudden burning pain and an odd loud
noise near her left elbow! Ouch! It immediately pulled her awake. She was in an awkward position. She tried to move, tried to pull her arm away
from whatever was causing that pain, and she couldn’t.
“Damn it, she woke up again,”
someone near her said.
She opened her eyes. Her head was spinning.
“It’s too soon. She’s not secure yet! Grab her!”
She realized she had to free
herself. Despite her woozy head, she
started struggling. Hands grabbed her
and held her down all over, crushing her body against her knees. Then someone was in front of her again. That smell.
And blackness.
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She woke up in the same position
she had fallen asleep in, flat on her back and staring at the ceiling. There was a numbness in her now. A numbness that took some of the ache off
something else. The ache of worry about
Brandy.
There was light filtering around
the sides of the heavy window curtains.
It was morning. Morning, after
one of the worst nights of her life. Was
Brandy still alive? She could only
hope. Last night she had been sure that
whoever had taken Brandy would want to punish her, not kill her quickly. She prayed Brandy was still alive. She prayed she would find her. She also prayed for a way to find her. She had nothing. Nowhere to look except the few places she had
already looked.
The numbness remained with her as
she grabbed her motorcycle helmet and went outside. She climbed on her bike and was soon leaving
the parking lot. She stopped for
breakfast at a decent family restaurant where she knew she could get a good
meal. Sitting there waiting for her
food, then later sitting there eating her food, without Brandy, made her feel
more alone than ever. In a life that she
had spent so much time alone, she had never felt so alone before. A piece of her was missing. She would do anything to get that piece back.
The food and hot coffee seemed to
kick her brain into gear a little better.
For the first time since she had discovered that Brandy had been taken,
she started to realize just what help she would need, as well as how simple it
would be for her to get that help. Simple
to get, but she knew she would have to wait for it. Hours!
Too many hours.
She picked up her phone and made a
call to Susan. The code to reach Susan
seemed to fall off her lips so easily.
It didn’t tax her brain at all.
Once she reached her, Carol asked Susan to have her people get her a
report of every single business, building, and possible hiding place that Vince
Beastman was even suspected of having. As
she suspected, Susan confirmed that it would be well after lunch by the time
she got that report. Carol also told
Susan where Brandy’s bike was and asked her to have it picked up and taken
somewhere safe.
And then Susan imparted one little
bit of news to her. “Carol, something
happened in Las Vegas that night you were staying here. We still don’t know what happened exactly,
but evidently there were major attacks all over the city. We’ll let you know more when we find out.”
Major attacks? All over the city? Maybe both Lozano and Beastman had been taken
out. But if so, what about Brandy? No.
She had to hang on to the hope that Brandy was still alive, but
captured. It was all she could do.
She paid for her breakfast and got
back on her bike. Until she got the
report, she would spend her time going back and forth between the locations she
knew about for Lozano and the one location she knew about for Beastman.
Someone had to show up at one of
those places…eventually.
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Ralphie was getting hungry. Brandy hadn’t called him at all last night,
which wasn’t all that unusual. Especially
since she and Carol were sharing the room next door. But he did expect to hear from her this
morning since she had given him instructions before he left the mansion to not
only unpack their bags for them, but she had wanted him to roam the red light
districts again searching for information.
He had done that, but now he still had to let Brandy know what little he
had found. Pretty much nothing.
He had heard the motorcycle come
back last night, and he had heard the motorcycle start up and leave earlier
that morning. He looked through the
window. No motorcycles in the parking
lot. Brandy had gone out already. Knowing it was inevitable, he got dressed in
his least embarrassing dress, and walked out of the room, heading down the
sidewalk for the closest place to get something to eat. A fast-food place.
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