Chapter 11
-oOo-
Hearing the Hunter laugh, Pete smiled in the darkness to himself. It had only taken this one guy to overturn the arguments, the despondency and the terror which had hung over all of them until his arrival. Pete felt a twinge of guilt, but he couldn't help feeling grateful that Dean was with them. He sincerely hoped the man suffered no further harm at the hands of the daemons Crap! Listen to me, daemons, as in, daemons, all the way up from Hell. Shit! Hell! Actual Hell! I'm never gonna sleep right again! not just for Dean's sake, but for all their sakes. They needed him.
-o-
Sam looked around the bar's medium sized kitchen then at Debs.
"I um, I'm not generally the cook at home, Dean's better at that stuff than me."
"Ok. Well. Lunch isn't bad, usually me an' Craig would do it between us, as well as serving in the bar. Let's see...Can you throw salad together?"
"Yeah, I'm fine with that."
"Great, and baked potatoes just need piercing and..."
"Those I can do."
"How about fries? You know how to make proper ones? From scratch? And butter bread rolls? Open cans?"
Sam nodded.
"Ok, then you're hired 'cos that's about all you need to be able to do. Dessert comes down to ice cream, cheesecake out the refrigerator, or pastries. We don't bake them, they've been delivered already. I suggest the first thing is to get the baked potatoes in the oven, we don't microwave here, and don't worry, I'll be helping. You'll be fine. Oh, your hair? Make sure you cover it, always wear disposable gloves to handle the food and don't use veg knives or chopping boards for meat products or visa versa. See? Now you've even had training!"
-o-
Debs gazed around the kitchen before turning back to Sam.
"You don't have to do this, you know that, right? Craig an' me can cover it like normal. I mean, old Nympho don't roll up on that bike of hers till the evenings."
Sam shrugged.
"I've nowhere else to be, might as well do somethin' useful. Anyway, it'll help it look like I really work here if I've had time to get familiar with everythin', I hope."
Debs grinned mischievously.
"I could start acting real bossy if you like, make it look more authentic?"
-o-
Jethro was using his turn guarding the yard and the merchandise to give the second storage unit a freshen up, before making a start on setting everything up in readiness for the upcoming auction. Nat had enforced onto him that she wanted the place doing properly for what she was calling the 'Auction of the Century'. Unlike previous occasions, they were even going to put out a couple of rows of chairs at the front, facing the podium, so those big number players who wanted to be there in person weren't having to stand huddled with the average bidders, or those who came with no intentions of spending this time around, but were there simply to see the Winchester brothers being sold off, and how much for. His cousin had pulled the night watch, while Jethro himself would be providing back up for Natalie when they went out to bag Sam Winchester and add him to their sales list.
-o-
The sound of a car being driven through the yard stopped Jethro's cleaning efforts and he swapped mop and bucket for a gun before peering out from the unit he was working on. He relaxed when he spotted Natalie's car, both her and his cousin climbing out of it. Jonah went to the trunk, while Nat strolled directly over to where Jethro waited outside the front of the unit.
"Hope you both come to give me a hand?"
-o-
"I 'ave something!"
Dean's head turned in the direction of the excited voice.
"What's your number pal?"
"Numero onze...Apologies, eleven. I am Henri."
"Well ok, Onri, you wanna start passin' it along? Can people say their cage number as it gets to you so I can track it?"
Dean waited, listening to the sounds of shuffling and muttering.
"Twelve? Yeah, twelve. 'Lo. Danny. Danny boy. Real happy you came at last."
"Thirteen, Jonathan."
"Fourteen, James."
"Fifteen, Brett."
"Sixteen, Joe."
"Thanks, and seventeen, me...Seriously hopin' that's your hand I've gotta hold on there Joe!"
-o-
Reaching out in the dark, Dean found the hand of his neighbour and the small. precious piece of metal grasped between his forefinger and thumb. Taking it, Dean used touch to assess what he was holding, finding he had an over sized staple, the kind used on wooden packing crates. He frowned, Dean would have preferred something with more flex, metal staples this size could be quite brittle and rigid.
"Ok, let's give this a go."
Joe was curious.
"You done much of this lock pickin' stuff before then?"
Shifting his position, Dean felt for the padlock to his cage and began to carefully work the mechanism.
"Some, yeah. No guarantees I'll get it with this staple, but I'll give it my best shot."
There was silence as the men all listened and waited on Dean. They could hear the occasional quiet scrape and scratch of the staple catching on something, after five minutes, that sound was joined by low muttering from Dean.
"C'mon...poke...it thing...Stupid ass...juss...bendy...help...Damnitt..."
The men all heard a distinct ping followed by silence, then Dean's growling voice.
"Doucheovvajerkinweaslin'staple!"
Martin couldn't help laughing.
"Um...You ok down there champ?"
Dean mumbled in answer to Pete.
"Prong pinged off into orbit somewhere, no problem...I hope."
About to try again, Dean paused as a single soft brushing noise began, and was soon joined by more of the same kind of sound. He smiled to himself and went back to his task, while his companions again slid their hands over the floor area as far as they could reach outside their bars, searching for an alternative to the staple.
-o-
"Got you, you sonovabitch!"
Hearing the triumph in the Hunter's voice coming from the next cage, Joe hissed excitedly.
"Dean? You dunnit pal?"
"Yup."
While Dean began to carefully extricate his stiff and aching body from the cage, an excited wave of sound rippled around the unit, Joe raised his voice a little to ride above it.
"Am I next, man?"
Dean was lying on the floor, appreciating being able to stretch out. Although he couldn't be seen, he shook his head at Joe's question.
"Sorry Joe, no. Nobody else gets out till I've made sure it's clear outside. Don't worry though, I will be back an', if it's safe, I'll give every padlock a go, an' I'll keep at it till everybody's out. You've got my word, nobody gets left behind...Not even my pals Douche an' Asshat."
"Um, well, Douche? That'll be me. Number nine. Adam, an' I'm real sorry 'bout stuff I said. Stress, y'know?"
"Yeah, I know how that is."
'Asshat' chose to stay quiet. It didn't matter enough for Dean to comment.
-o-
Dean's news had naturally caused some murmurs of disappointment and confusion. Needing everyone to stay on board, Dean raised his voice to reach all the captives.
"Listen. Pipe down, all of you! There's a reason I'm not gonna try gettin' you all out right away. I have to know there's time to set about pickin' every lock, an' that means checkin' there's nobody around out there. I can't take the risk of Ugg an' Thugg walkin' in here before everybody's free. Believe me, I'd not be the only one they'd 'have a word with'. So far, if they're around an' spot me, then it's only me they'll be mad at. Understand?"
Joe spoke up for everyone.
"An' what if there is somebody around? What then?"
"Believe me, if I gotta chance to take 'em down, I will. Otherwise it's plan B, an' we get outta here tonight instead. Now, everybody hang tight while I go take a look. Be right back."
-o-
Natalie stepped back and considered her handy work critically. Jonah paused next to her.
"Lookin' good boss."
The female daemon had improvised and stood a single metal file cabinet at the front of the auction room, lining it up centrally facing two rows of unmatched chairs. She had then disguised the cabinet by completely hiding it beneath the folds of a large velvet cloth of the deepest blue, creating the impression of a tall lectern, behind which she, as the auctioneer, would be stood on the day of the sale.
"Hmm. Not too bad. Just needs a final flourish."
Holding the flat of her right hand out, facing what would be the front of the lectern, Natalie closed her eyes. She stood stock still, only her lips moving in silence to indicate that she wasn't a dummy made of wax. Without warning, there was a loud hiss followed by a sudden, powerful flare of light, the outermost edge being such a brilliant white, pain erupted in both Jonah's eyes as he stared at it, forcing him to swiftly turn away. From that piercing pure white, the colour of the flare moved through different shades of red, gradually deepening towards the central point of the eruption, where the spluttering spectacle culminated in a scarlet so intense it looked like it would melt anything unlucky enough to be touched by it. After a final, scene stealing, flourish, the flare of light blinked out, leaving behind a scarlet sigil so vivid, it appeared to glow and pulse against the background of midnight blue.
-o-
Jethro had stopped to watch the show, safely off to one side. Dragging his awestruck stare away from the new born sigil, he focused instead on the face of the calm looking she daemon, and whistled through his teeth.
"Holy Lucifer Boss! Where'd you learn that?"
Hiding her inner delight at the male daemon's reaction, Natalie placed her hands on her hips and gazed at him haughtily.
"We might be business partners, my pet, but never make the mistake of thinking you know me. I'd been in this game for decades before I decided to take you two on. I have contacts that you wouldn't believe, and I am always very, very good to the right ones...They can often be extremely grateful in return."
Jonah moved closer to the sigil, twisting and turning his head as he inspected it.
"I ain't never seen this one, what's it do?"
Natalie tossed her hair over one shoulder.
"That's for me to know...Both of you, go scout round the yard an' what's left of them other buildin's, I want somethin' like a mini stage fixin' up for the merchandise to stand on while my buyers look 'em over. An' it better not look shoddy when it's done!"
-o-
Navigating in total darkness, Dean used what he could remember of the storage space layout along with the row of cages themselves to guide him vaguely in the right direction for the door out of the storage area. Once he ran out of cages, he shuffled the rest of the way, feeling ahead with his feet and keeping his arms stretched out in front of himself like some Zombie out of The Evil Dead. Dean could imagine how hilarious Sam would find the sight if he could see it. He paused as his foot nudged against something, using the same foot, he gave the thing an experimental shove. The object was light and easily slid over the floor out of his path. It's light weight and the sound it made when Dean moved it suggested empty cardboard box. He very nearly did a swallow dive at the next obstruction when his foot suddenly sank into something soft with a slightly springy, stodgy feeling that enveloped and tangled itself up, around, and over his foot, stalling Dean and unbalancing him. Reaching down, he untangled his foot from within the tumbled pile of blankets. Before finally reaching the metal side wall of the unit into which the door was set, he managed to stand on the end of a hosepipe, send a discarded bottle of water rolling and sloshing away from him by accidentally kicking it, startle himself by crushing a disposable plastic drinking cup underfoot and, in addition, stubbed a toe against a wooden table leg. At which point he heard Pete's dry voice.
"A word of advice my friend...If you see any of our hosts out there? Please, don't try sneaking up on them!"
A ripple of tension releasing chuckles and sniggers came from the rest of the caged men.
"You're a funny man, Pete. Remind me to hire you for my brother's birthday party."
-o-
Arriving at the side wall, Dean ran his hands over it, feeling for the door as he side stepped along. He was beginning to think maybe he was moving in the wrong direction, when he finally felt the door's frame, and then the handle, beneath his searching fingers. There were no sounds of life from the other side of the door. Holding his breath and biting on his lower lip, Dean turned the handle, silently praying that the door wasn't locked, releasing his breath again when he found it wasn't.
"I'm at the door an' gonna go through to the next area. Back in a few."
-oOo-
Chick xxx