Monsters - Chapter 39 – The Chicken Dance – Part 1 of 2

 

Monsters

By Karen Singer

 Chapter 39 – The Chicken Dance – Part 1 of 2

 They sat around the table.  Carol, Brandy, Susan, her father, and Janice.  They all wanted to know what Brandy had found out about who was behind the Vegas problems.  But instead of telling them, Brandy asked a question first.  “What’s been happening in Las Vegas since I’ve been gone?  I know that Lozano and Beastman are off the board now, but what about the others?  Morrow hired me to look into it, but is he even still there?”

“As far as we know,” Susan replied.  “Actually, since you were taken, all that got put on a back burner and we’ve barely had time to follow what’s happening.  I do know that the attacks slowed way down for a while, but recently they’ve started again, especially against Allingham and Morrow.”

“The next two smallest organizations,” Carol noted.

“Exactly,” Susan replied.

“How bad has it been against Besinski?” Brandy asked.

“We don’t know,” Susan told her.  “I haven’t heard about him or Geovelli.”

“You probably won’t,” Brandy replied. 

“You think they’re behind it?  Both of them?” Susan asked.  “I was getting convinced we were dealing with an outside source here.  Someone else trying to take over.”

“No.  From what little I heard while I was at the breaking place, I think this whole thing is about something else.”

“Something else?”

“Yes.  I have no proof, and they didn’t come out and say it, but from the few things I overheard, I think the one person behind it all is the one person we never even considered.”

“Who?”

“Romo Geovelli.”

“But he’s the biggest boss in the city!” Carol exclaimed.  “Why would he do it?”

“We’ve been looking at it all wrong,” Brandy told her.  “This isn’t about someone smaller trying to take over.  It’s about Geovelli trying to get back everything he lost when the others moved in.  From what little I know about Vegas, there’s always been criminal bosses behind everything going on in the city.  But there’s never been so many before.  It’s only recently that men like Beastman and Morrow have moved in.  Allingham too.  As they moved in, what happened to Geovelli’s business?  He had to lose some, probably a lot, to each of them.  I think all this is about Geovelli wanting everything back again.  And as for Lozano, the Mexican, I know he was around for a long time, but his pipeline of drugs had to be a big target for any of them.  Even Geovelli.  But you may want to do a check on how much drugs are back on the street.  Unless I miss my guess, the drugs are back again, except they’re all coming from someone else.  And I’m betting it’s Geovelli.”

“We’ll check,” Susan told her.  “If we’re going back to the business of what’s happening in Las Vegas, then we’ve got some catching up to do.  I’m sorry to say it, but it’s a shame that Brandy killed Beastman.  We’ll never get the answers out of him now, but we’ve still got his top men out in the barn.  Hopefully, at least one of them will know something definitive.”  She looked at Brandy again.  “Is there anything else that makes you think it’s Geovelli behind the mercenaries?”

“A few things,” Brandy admitted.  “When we were looking into how the men were killed, it seemed like all his men were killed differently.  Not necessarily by mercenaries, but other ways, including several of them with a knife.  There may be a good chance that none of his men were killed at all, or just a very few.  They might have been sent away somewhere for a while instead to make it look like they’re dead.”

“It’s possible,” Susan admitted.  She looked to Janice.  “That puts the burden on you to prep the men for questioning.”

Janice chuckled.  “Burden?  Susan, you know how I love destroying men.  And right now, I’m trying to build the biggest flock of chickens I can, to release somewhere.  I just still need to find the right place for it.”

“I’ve got a suggestion,” Brandy replied.

“Oh?  Where?”

“Right in front of Geovelli’s office building…or maybe inside it.”

“That would be difficult to arrange,” Susan noted.

“Yeah, but it will certainly catch his attention.  He hired Janice once, and after seeing what she was capable of doing, it scared him to death.  If he thinks we know he’s behind the mercenaries, he may consolidate his forces in one place and slow down the attacks.  Sorry Janice, but he wants to stay as far away from you as he can.”

Janice smiled.  “My dear, don’t be sorry.  I’m delighted I made such an impression.”

Carol looked at Susan.  “Susan, if Geovelli hired Mom, then he’s one of your customers.  You always do everything possible to protect your customers.  I know, because you’ve tasked me with doing some of that.”

“Yes,” Susan said.  “I’ve been sitting here thinking about just that.”

“I think…” Mr. Wu spoke up.  “that Susan and I will need to discuss this situation.  We have not just two rival customers involved, but three.  Omar Besinski is also on our client list.”

“So what do we do?  Cease all operations?” Carol asked.

“For now,” Mr. Wu replied, “continue looking into it.  Either way, we need to know who’s behind the mercenary attacks.  It may be that we can stop them without touching any of our clients.  Let us talk.  We’ll have to let you know.”

Brandy looked to Carol.  “In the meantime, maybe we should take a ride into Vegas and look around.  Did you by any chance find my bike?”

“Don’t worry, we’ve got it here.  But forget that.  There’s more important things we’ve got to do instead.”

“What?”

“You’re out of shape.  We need to not only get you back in shape, but we’ve got to get you a new riding suit like I’ve got.”

“Like that mask that covered your entire face?”

“That was the gas mask feature.  It worked pretty well too.  But the new suits have other features as well.  And after that, we’ve got to train you in some new weapons.  If we’re going after the mercenaries, then there’s a good chance there’s more of them than there were.  You and I need some weapons practice.”

Brandy smiled.  “Cool.”

 

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The fear wasn’t entirely gone.  It didn’t take Brandy long to realize that.  She first noticed it when she and Carol went out the back door for another walk and headed toward the barn full of men.  But the fear was only a small thing now and she was not only easily able to push past it, she was determined to conquer it.  By the time they returned from that first simple walk, her fear had become anger.  She was going to do whatever it took to conquer it completely!

They started by walking and doing stretching exercises, followed by some light sparring together.  But by the next day, Brandy’s determination had them jogging instead of walking.  She had put one of her old bras on along with a sports bra over it to hold her breasts in place.  If that didn’t work, she had decided she would bind them up.  So far, it was working…or perhaps, helping a lot.  She pushed past it her problems and pain. 

Carol ordered another black motorcycle exactly like the one she was riding now, and she also ordered Brandy a new riding suit and helmet like she had. 

Two of Beastman’s men were able to confirm that Geovelli was the one Beastman was working with…until Geovelli started killing the men in Beastman’s organization.  It wasn’t until then that Carol and Brandy realized that it wasn’t Geovelli that had started that little war, they had.  Beastman had just thought it was Geovelli so he started fighting back.  But after that, Geovelli had sent the mercenaries after him.  Either way, both Carol and especially Brandy, were glad Beastman and all his men were now gone – forever!

Four days after Carol and Brandy started working out together, a man arrived from China. 

“This is Master Wong,” Carol introduced him.  “He’s one of my martial arts teachers.  I asked that he come to help train you again and to possibly help us work better together.”

Wong didn’t say much other than to bow to both Carol and Brandy.  But he didn’t need to say much, his long staff that he carried all the time said much of it all for him.  Under his help, over the next week, both Carol and Brandy seemed to become one single fighting force.

And then Wong left, only to be replaced with a team of military advisors.  That was when the weapons training really stepped up.  Brandy not only became a much better shot, but she was now experienced with a much wider variety of weapons, and she could also shoot fairly well from a motorcycle.

For three full weeks the two women worked hard every single day.  After two weeks, Brandy was mostly back to her old fighting form…only better.  Her other physical problems didn’t bother her much either.  But she was aware of the fear she still held deep down of all the men around her.  Would she ever be over that?  She could only hope.  It made her angry, which only seemed to make her try harder than ever.

It was a week into their workouts before Carol and Brandy spent the night in bed together.  The time was tentative.  Scary for both of them – only because neither of them knew what problems Brandy might face.  But Carol was more tender than she had ever been before and took things much slower.  In the end, it was still magical.  Brandy hugged Carol to her and cried.  “Thank you, thank you,” she cried as she held her lover.  “You showed me I can still love like we used to.  Just…please…give me a bit of time till I’m back fully the way I was.  I’m trying though…because I love you.”

Carol kissed her and held her tenderly for the rest of the night.  Then in the morning, before their workout, they did it all over again.

 

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Susan called everyone together for a meeting.  “We found the mercenaries,” she told them all.  Once Brandy told us it was Geovelli behind them, and then Beastman’s men confirmed it, we were able to do a much broader search.  They’re staying on a large ranch owned by one of Geovelli’s men, not Geovelli himself, which made them harder to find.  But we managed to steal a few satellite images of the ranch that show everything pretty well.”

She pulled up a satellite picture on her computer so everyone could see.  “They’re all camped out here,” she said as she pointed to the tents off to the side of a building.  Our best estimate is that they’ve got about thirty men there now.”

That’s more than we thought,” Carol noted.

“We think after you took care of some of them, they brought in more.  Or maybe they’re getting ready for a bigger push against the bigger organizations that are left.”

“Possible,” Carol agreed.  “What’s the terrain like around there?”

“Mostly dessert.”

“Rocks?  Hills? Trees?”

“Some, but not many.  Mostly, their camp is surrounded by nothing.”

“Which means they have a good line of sight.”

“A night mission?” Brandy suggested.

“Maybe,” Carol said.  “We need to think about it and discuss it.  Let’s see if we can get more maps and pictures too.”

For two days Carol and Brandy worked with the military advisors on a plan.  To most of them, a nighttime raid sounded like the best thing, but in the end, Carol decided to do it in daylight – just after dawn.  The only problem was, after considering everything, their best possible option was to do it all in a way they hadn’t expected.

 

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