Monsters
By
Karen Singer
Chapter 29 – Dead Ends – Part 2 of 2
Janice gratefully finished off
what was left of her glass of cold iced tea as she watched the men leading the
first of the mercenaries away.
Mercenaries. Soldiers. She had destroyed the minds of dozens of them
over the years. They all thought they
were so tough, but in the end, they fell to her methods just like everyone
else. As the man was led away to be
questioned by the experts, she set her glass down and headed for the house to
take a short breather while they set up the second mercenary in her workroom.
As she approached the back
patio, she saw Susan sitting out there just putting her phone down. She took one of the seats next to the
oriental woman. “How’s business?” Janice
asked.
“Business is fine,” Susan
replied. “I just finished talking with
Brandy’s uncle. Carol wanted me to let
him know that Brandy was missing.”
“I’m surprised Carol asked you
to call him.”
“And I wouldn’t, normally.”
“Carol hates men.”
“I know,” Susan replied. “Just like you.”
“I’m afraid I made sure of that
since the time she was born. A decision
I still don’t regret. As much as I hate
what Carol has become, I’m also quite proud of her.”
“With good reason,” Susan
said. “She’s one of the premier
assassins in the world.”
“And evidently, so was Brandy,
the woman she loves.”
“Yes. Just not on the scale that Carol has
achieved. But in many ways, the two of
them were very much alike.”
“Danger,” Janice said. “For many people, no doubt Carol and Brandy
as well, danger is a drug. A drug they
can’t do without.”
“And no doubt, they both saw
that danger in each other. It’s probably
what attracted them to each other in the first place.”
“Perhaps,” Janice agreed. “In Carol’s case though, I’m actually glad
she found someone she could love. I was
worried that maybe she would go her entire life without feeling that
emotion. Even for as brief a time as it
was.”
Susan looked at her and nodded
her agreement. “True, I guess. When I lost the woman I loved, I sent you
after her. A decision I’ve never
regretted.”
“Yes. My first job for you. And now look where we are.”
Susan laughed. “I’m afraid that because of Maria Alverez and
her secret empire, you’ve become an entire division for our company.”
“True,” Janice admitted,
thinking of all the people and equipment that Wu Enterprises had developed just
to back her up. “Maria has invested a
lot of money in my services. I always wanted
to be wealthy, but I never imagined being as wealthy as I am now.”
“And how much has Maria made
because of it?” Susan asked.
“Since she now secretly owns all
the major drug lords and every politician in South American and beyond,
probably far more than even you know about.”
“Exactly.”
“What did Brandy’s uncle say
when you told him?”
“He took it rather well. He’s flying out to Vegas to talk with some of
the people he knows.”
“I wish him luck. If Carol hasn’t turned up anything so far,
I’m not sure that he will.”
“I doubt he’ll turn up anything
either. I have no doubt that him coming
out here will be a complete waste of time.”
Janice saw one of the Chinese
men come out of the barn. He stopped
when he saw her and motioned to her.
“Well, it looks like soldier number two is ready for me now. Back to work.”
“Good luck,” Susan wished her.
“Huh! The bigger they are, the harder they
fall. And they all fall down before
me.” Janice walked off the patio and
headed for the barn and her next victim.
She turned before she got very far though. “Susan,” she said. “Would you do me a favor please and call
Brandy’s uncle. I think I’d like to meet
him. Offer him one of the rooms here to
stay in for a night.”
“Here?” Susan almost fell out of her chair. Janice hated men. All men. She barely put up with her father and the men
working for them, most of whom were mostly kept away from Janice whenever
possible.
“I’ll extend the offer,” Susan
replied, still trying to overcome her surprise.
“Thank you,” Janice said before
turning and heading toward the barn.
Susan could only wonder why Janice
would want to meet…Vinny.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Bullet holes. Scattered around. Easily missed. But not if you knew what and where to look
for them.
The call had come in last
night. One of several. Gunfire.
A lot of gunfire. The police had
responded, but by the time they got there, it had all been over. As Detective Corbin’s practiced eyes searched
the buildings in the area, he had to wonder why the police hadn’t gotten there
sooner. He had his suspicions. Two suspicions. Either one, or the other, or…both! Most likely both. One, the police in the area had been paid to
look the other way and to stay away. And
the second and more likely scenario, once they had heard all the gunfire, they
had simply gone somewhere else for a while until it was all over with. As far as Corbin was concerned, it could have
easily been a combination of both scenarios.
They police had been paid to look the other way, and once they had gotten
near the area, they had simply gone somewhere safer for a while – until it was
all over.
There was one building without
bullet holes along the front. But
instead of bullet holes, he saw something far more concerning. Blood.
Several large spots of it staining the sidewalk. Several places where the front of the
building had been splattered with it.
People had gotten shot there. But
unlike the buildings across the street, there were no bullet marks in the front
of the building. Whoever had been shot
here, had been shot by someone who knew how to shoot – well! And the men who had been shot, had returned
fire, but their bullets had gone wide and hit the buildings across the street
instead.
He pushed his way into the
building, and stopped. It smelled like
blood. It smelled like death. And it didn’t take him long to find the first
body. Or the second, or the third. “Shit!” he muttered. He backed out of the building and pulled out
his phone. As far as he was concerned,
the building was too dangerous to simply walk through just then. He called in a S.W.A.T. unit to search the
building for survivors…and further danger.
A block away, Carol sat on her
motorcycle and watched as the police wandered around the area. She saw the one man go into Beastman’s
building, and she saw him come out and make a phone call. Something had happened here. Most likely it had happened last night while
she was messing with the mercenaries in another of Beastman’s locations. Her mother was now playing with the
mercenaries she had captured last night.
It would be later this afternoon before they would have any information
out of them.
In the meantime. Carol had come back into Las Vegas to
continue searching for Beastman. Had he
been killed? She hoped not. She wanted the pleasure of doing that
herself. She started her bike and left
the area. The police were in her way
right now. And from what little she had
seen, she was guessing that there was no one left alive in that building
anyway. So where was Beastman? She prayed he wasn’t dead yet, because he
seemed to be the answer to her more important question. Where was Brandy?
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Vince Beastman walked around the
suburban house that one of his men had recently purchased. It sat in one of the worst black
neighborhoods just outside of Las Vegas.
There was nothing special about it.
If fact, it was pretty much a dump.
But right now, it was probably the safest place in the city for him to
be. There was no way it could be traced
to him so there was no way anyone could know he was staying there.
He had three main buildings left
in the city. All of his people, all of
his whores, all of his drugs, everything his organization had was locked up in
those places. Except him and his three
closest friends. He was out away from it
all where he could stay safe while he ran operations. All the buildings he had left were in the
process of being turned into fortresses so those damn mercenaries couldn’t get
at them. It was the only move he had
left to make. That…and revenge. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see a method for
revenge just then, but he was determined to find one.
“Boss!” one of his men said as
he put his cellphone away. “All our
places are set.”
“Good!” Beastman replied. “How about the hookers?”
“They’re still going to run some
of them, but like you said, we’re going to have lots of men hidden nearby. If they try anything, our guys will be
ready.”
Beastman nodded. “Good.”
“Boss,” another of his men
said. “What are we gonna do? He’s wiping us out like he did the Mexican.”
“I know!” Beastman replied,
totally frustrated with the situation.
“Trust me, I’m open to any ideas any of you man have.”
None of his friends had any
suggestions for the problem at all.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
It was mid-afternoon when Carol
drove her bike into the driveway of her mother’s mansion. Her maid, Susannah, greeted her at the
door. “Your mother finished a little
while ago,” She told Carol. “I
understand that Mr. Wu’s men finished with the first man and are now
questioning the second one. Right now,
Miss Wu is out on the patio behind the house with your mother.”
“Thanks,” Susannah,” Carol
replied. She headed for the back of the
house. As she went out the back door,
she saw her mother and Susan Wu sitting together. She also saw Mr. Wu heading from the barn
toward the house.
“Carol dear. You’re back,” Janice called happily. Come join us?”
Carol went over and hugged her
mother briefly before taking one of the seats.
Mr. Wu was just then climbing the steps.
“No luck in the city today?”
Janice asked.
“It looks like someone has been
doing their best to wipe Beastman off the map.
The place where I grabbed those two mercenaries wasn’t the only place
they hit last night. And from what I’ve
seen, it looks like Beastman is doing his best to beef up security as much as
possible.”
“That sounds logical,” Susan
noted. “What else would he do?”
“True,” Carol replied. “But between his security, those mercenaries,
and now the police sticking their noses into things, it’s making answers even
more difficult to find.”
They all watched as Mr. Wu took
another of the seats.
“Any news yet father?” Susan
asked.
“So far, it looks like this
second man only knows what little the first one did. Both men were in the military together. They both came from Michigan. They both were in Special Forces
together. And now they’re both
mercenaries for hire. They’re all
staying at some big ranch, but they don’t know who owns it. Just that it takes them nearly an hour to get
back and forth to the city. And like the
first man said, they’re given specific targets, and then told to take them
out. Right now, their mission is to
simply kill everyone inside the buildings they’re being taken to. And neither of them knows who is ultimately
paying their bill.”
Carol shook her head. “So even the mercenaries are a dead end.”
Mr. Wu smiled. “Perhaps not quite.” He noticed everyone’s attention to that
detail. “They’re being led by someone
named Colonel Houghton. The background
check our people are running on him right now says he used to be American
military before he turned to private contracting.”
“How do we find him?” Carol
asked.
“We’re still looking. It will be several hours yet before we know
anymore.”
“Colonel Houghton,” Carol
mused. “I never heard of him.”
“You rarely work in the states,”
Mr. Wu reminded her. “We’ll give you the
entire file on him as soon as we have it.”
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Ralphie strolled down the
sidewalk. Since he had left the cab, he
had noticed things in the area were subtly different. Tonight, he had a far more exacting quest
than he had before. He was on a mission
to find Sally Sweetlips with the hope that she would know something
about where Brandy might be.
His mind barely registered the pain
in his feet from his very high heels.
This pair of shoes seemed to hurt more than some of his other
shoes. But he had worn nothing but very high
heels for so long that he barely thought about that irritation anymore. The dress he was wearing was black with a
short skirt that had a slit where his left leg poked even further out of it
with each step he took. The top of the
dress was low-cut and tight, prominently displaying is fake boobs. As always, he was a walking embarrassment.
But would that embarrassing life
continue if he couldn’t find Brandy? He
wasn’t even sure why he was still looking for her, except that it might be
possible that if Brandy turned up dead, then Vinny might just decide to end his
life. He hopped not, but with mob bosses
like Vinny, you never knew. His bigger
worry was Brandy. If she finally turned
up alive, and he wasn’t around, and he wasn’t still doing just what she wanted,
then he had no doubt that she would go out of her way to make what remained of
his life a total living hell. Brandy
scared him far more than Vinny did.
As he approached the area where he
had talked with that one hooker last night, he noticed some changes. The pimp watching the girls was
different. And another difference he was
quick to pick up on. There were three
muscle men watching everything and everyone too. No, not just three. More.
He wasn’t sure how many men were casually standing around on the
sidewalks, on both sides of the street.
Men who were acting casual, but weren’t.
Why?
He spotted the woman who had
suggested he find Sally Sweetlips. He
headed straight for her, well aware of the looks the men in the area were
giving him. They made him far more nervous
than he already was. He walked up to the
prostitute.
“Hey you! Get your flaky ass outa’ here!”
He turned. One of the goons was heading straight for
him. “Is Sally working tonight?” He
quickly asked the prostitute.”
“Yeah,” she’s here,” the prostitute
replied.
Ralphie felt the goon grabbing him
and pulling him. In seconds the man
shoved him hard. “Get your ass out of
here!” the man ordered as Ralphie fell to the pavement.
Ralphie looked up at the
prostitute. “Where is she?”
“A few blocks further up,” the
woman called to him.
“Shut the fuck up and get back to
work!” the man yelled at her. He turned
and pointed at Ralphie, still on the ground.
“And you get lost!”
Ralphie picked himself up and
hurried away, in the direction he needed to go to find Sally. He had no idea what she looked like, only
that he needed to find her. He moved two
blocks further. He recognized a few more
of Beastman’s prostitutes, as well as a few women who were working the street
that he hadn’t seen before. Was Sally
one of them?
He walked up to the first
prostitute, one he hadn’t seen before.
“I’m looking for Sally Sweetlips,” he said to her.
The woman looked him over
questioningly. “Nice dress,” she said.
Ralphie ignored the
compliment. “I need to find Sally
Sweetlips. Is she here?”
“Hey! You!” another angry male voice yelled. “Get the hell away from here.”
Ralphie looked up to see another
man hurrying toward him.
“Where’s Sally?” he asked the
prostitute desperately.
“The other end of the block,” the
woman told him. “She’s the blonde
wearing the orange outfit.”
“Thanks,” Ralphie replied before
hurrying away from her…in the direction of Sally Sweetlips. Hurrying that way though, took him right past
the man who had yelled. As he hurried
past him, the man reached out and pushed him.
Ralphie stumbled but didn’t fall.
“Get out of here!” the man
ordered. Stay away from our girls!”
Ralphie hurried on…directly toward
Sally Sweetlips. She was easy to
find. She was also the most enthusiastic
whore out there. Ralphie had never seen
a woman put so much energy into trying to find customers. “Sally?” he asked as he walked up to her.
She turned to him. Ralphie noted how surprised she was to see
him. But that surprise quickly left her
face as she came right over to him and put her arms all around him.
“Aren’t you just the sweetest
thing, Sister? Love your outfit. Bet I can make you feel better than you’ve
ever felt in your life.”
She was now running her hands up
and down his body. “Uh…I just need
information.”
“What you need sugar, is some of
what I can do for you. I promise, I can
do things that make you forget about every woman you’ve ever had before…or
man,” she added quickly.
“Uh…I just need some information,”
Ralphie said as the woman dropped to her knees and began running her hand up
under his skirt.
“What the fuck are you doing!” and
angry voice yelled. “Yo! Sally!
Get your ass back to the streets and find a real customer.”
Before Ralphie knew it, he was
grabbed and pulled away from Sally by a large black man. The man pulled Ralphie around, then punched
him in the stomach. Ralphie doubled over
in pain, trying to catch his breath.
“Get your ass out of here and stay
out of here!” the man yelled. He kicked
Ralphie in the rear end, sending Ralphie down to the sidewalk again. “Go!” the man yelled. “Get!”
Ralphie did his best to pick
himself up and leave. He was still bent
over, his stomach still in pain from the one punch the man had landed. He had no choice but to hurry out of the
area.
How was he going to get to talk to
Sally? How?
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