Chapter Twenty
He watched Reacher's brow wrinkled from her place on the floor as this mysteriously psychotic woman graciously lifted the serpent's head with her fingertips and planted an affectionate kiss on the creature's nose. The python flicked its tongue back at her as if to return the kiss, and Ular giggled somewhat wickedly as she directed her attention back to Reacher. She shivered and swallowed the rising amounts of stomach contents threatening up her throat. She wiggled the binds behind her back and looked at him from the corner of her eye.
Ular moved towards the door, reaching a hand out and wiggling her fingers to the awaiting guests outside the room. Reacher looked away for a moment to the ground, trying her best to move her wrists as much as they would to loosen the binds. Apparently the ninja-guard watching over her did not appreciate this, for he took two heavy strides towards her and slammed the heel of his hand at the base of her neck. Her neck popped awkwardly and her teeth slammed down on top one another, sending a chattering clap through her jaw line. Spasms of fireballs rocketed down her spinal column, rattling all her discs and vertebrae's, until a second later she realized she was heading into a collision with the wooden floor again. She rolled onto her side to save her chin and her shoulder smacked onto the floor.
At this, Ular stalked over and swung her leg overtop Reacher's body to straddle her. She squatted down and seized Reacher's jaw line with her hands, her dark eyes scanning around her face for any trace of intimidation. Finding now, she roughly released Reacher's face and slammed her head into the wooden floor with a thunk. A man hurried to her and placed a long strip of black tape across her mouth, much to Reacher's resistance.
"Leave her alone," he growled at them. A chuckle erupted from Ular's throat and she turned to face him. She flaunted towards him, crossing one foot over the other as the heels of her boots clacked tauntingly on the floor with each stepped. She unwound the serpent from around her neck and set him on the floor, the creature motionless for a moment. She then knelt beside the serpent, tossed a smile in his direction and then rapped her knuckles rhythmically on the floor three times. Batman stopped and looked up at her, and then her creature. She got up slowly and approached him.
"Oh, rest assured," she chuckled, intertwining her fingers and pressing them around her mouth. She sauntered up to him and placed her hands on his shoulders. "I will leave her alone. But Jamal, I'm afraid, has taken quite a liking to your friend here." She gestured to the serpent, who slowly slithered his way up over Reacher's leg and around the front of her. "And Azana just loves dinner guests." Ular looked over her shoulder. "Bring her in."
Batman gave his full attention to the door, where two men hastily hustled in and took to the back wall, in line among the others. They're expressions were hard to read—somewhat of obedience, somewhat of obligation. But, as one of the men looked frantically to the door but snapped back to attention as Ular tossed a look to the door, something told Batman that this was a threat—a threat to men trained to be threat itself. She then turned back to him, the red jewel embedded by her temple catching the light and glaring back at him. A smile crept onto her face and she traced around his mouth with a long, green fingernail. She rapped on the ground again twice, and then looked over her shoulder.
"You see, Batman," she looked to Reacher, who stared horrifically at the serpent Jamal now slowly climbing up her body. Reacher began to wriggle in her binds, the animal cringing back but then taking coarse again when she ceased. Ular laughed and pressed a fingernail to her lips, as if suppressing a girlish giggle. "People believe that snakes do not have the ability to hear, or have ears for that matter," she knelt down in front of him and scanned his eyes with her own, then took his jaw in her hands and directed it towards Reacher's body. "but I can tell you that they do. Oh," her voice moaned as if in immense pleasure, "they do. You see, serpents have fully formed inner ear systems. Those systems are complete with a cochlea. With snakes, however," she chuckled, "that cochlea is connected to the jawbone, for lack of better description." She got up and approached Reacher, rolling her onto her back carefully, so that the serpent rested precariously on her breast. "With nothing more said," Ular giggled, "if you walk past a snake that's resting with its head on the ground, the vibrations from your footsteps will vibrate on the animal's jawbone, thus shaking the snake's cochlea, so the animal can hear you move." She rolled her attention to Reacher.
"I know this." Batman said darkly. "What's your point." It was more of a command than a question, which is how he intended it to be. He then shot a look to Reacher, who began to tremble as Jamal, the hideous creature, ascended up over her breast and towards her neck.
"My point is," she got up and faced the other direction, "I, in all my years of snake charming and research," she stepped aside and allowed him full-view of the creature to which her statement was directed.
He jolted in his place, whether he meant to or not. He had every instinct to shove himself off of his knees and off the floor. He'd never been horribly afraid of serpents, not to the extent Reacher was, but had distanced himself from the creatures as to avoid discomfort. But, his gaze was fixated on the creature in front of him, and he felt the organ he remembered as his heart pound heavily, like a weight, along his ribs. He then looked to Reacher, who eyes widened at him and begged for information—anything which could save her from her attacker.
Before him, where Ular knelt and cooed, sat perhaps the biggest serpent he'd ever laid eyes on. He knew they grew to huge sizes and he thought they never ceased growing, but he'd never imagined seeing one this large before. He swallowed a heavy and dry breath, then looked to Reacher and began to frantically think of a way to get them both out of this.
The creature was multi-colored, black, grey and a stone color green which he'd never really seen on any animal before. Its eyes were pits of dark, unforgiving black that were threatening and cold—seemingly like those of a serial killer. It had to be as wide as fore of his own thighs and nearly fifteen feet long—easy big enough to kill a dog, coyote, or even a small child. Nonetheless it was large enough to kill a full man, given it constricted tight enough. He raised his chin slightly to appear less intimidated; if not for his sake, Reacher's. Ular chuckled and began to stroke the animal's head. She continued with her statement.
"I have discovered a way to…" she looked for a word, "teach these magnificent animal's to obey commands. And Ra's has provided me with all my subjects." She extended a hand to gesture to her pet monster, Azana. "And Azana is my prize pupil. Using the vibrations that tickle the cochlea in the snake's jawbone to my advantage, I have trained this animal's from birth to recognize commands. It's like training a dog really—you tell them something and reward them. With Jamal I have told him to claim his territory." She gestured to the serpent sliding off Reacher's breast and onto the floor. "And I have told Azana," she rapped a rhythm on the floor for a few moments and then stood, "to kill them both. As far as she is concerned she is the biggest creature in the room, and this is her territory. She will kill Jamal if I do not rescue him, and she certainly will kill your friend here—since she is now thoroughly soaked with Jamal's scent. You see, African rock pythons are aggressive," she chuckled, "and have extremely large teeth. I feel that she will find it quite a challenge to devour your lady friend—before she kills her."
Ular allowed Jamal to slither into her palm, and she retrieved the animal to the box from which it came. By this time Batman was steaming, anger possessing him like mad dogs on a steak. His breathing was labored, and he looked to Reacher, who was pale and pleading with him to do something—though her eyes were filled with an emotion he had seen only in Rachel in his younger years.
That emotion had been desire.
Ular commanded something in her language, which he made out to be Indonesian, and she walked to him, then gazed lovingly at her creature who'd taken to the wall, ever eyeing Reacher as if plotting to finish her off slowly. Ular smiled at him and tipped his chin up, letting her long fingernail trace his skin tenderly. Then she tipped her head to the side and bent foreword, whispering in his ear with hot breath, "I never really much enjoyed bats," she giggled seductively, "but I'm sure I could." She pointed to her pet and touched his jaw with her mouth. "Play nice." She let her tongue run gently across his skin before he jerked away, hitting the floor with a thud. She laughed and shooed away her men.
"Ra's, my darling!" she called to the outer hallway. Instantly Ra's strong form enveloped the doorway, and he looked to the both of them, confusion dotting his features. He then rushed Reacher, but Ular stopped him with a claw-like hand to his chest. She stood on her toes to plant a kiss on his lips. "Come. We have much work to do before sunrise."
"I told you I wanted her alive," he hissed, tossing aside her hand as if it were nothing. Insulted, Ular shrank towards the door and gestured to Azana. "I need her alive if we have any hope of keeping my blood in this is League. My only blood has-"
"—hush now." She sauntered around him as Batman used his shoulder to push himself back to his knees. She took Ra's face in her hands and kissed him passionately on his lips, then pulled away and looked down to Reacher. "There are others. Others which are better—"
"—I wanted her!" he bellowed. "Let your pet play," he glared at the beast, "only enough to keep her alive. And then I want her brought to me. Alive." He pointed a finger at Batman. "And you, my friend, will live only to see her brutally ripped away from you. If you have no dignity to claim what you love, than you have strength to keep it." He glared at him and turned towards the door. He paused to glance over his shoulder. "I will have her. And you will rot in a cell watching her thrive under me, maybe as she would have if you would've claimed her."
"You can't claim women, Ghul! You can't force their love." he shouted at him. The beast screeched a breathy hiss at them and coiled farther into a ball. Ular waltzed towards the door, stepping out and leaving the three of them.
"I know that." He said slyly. "The real question is: do you, Bruce? All this time you have desired someone who was not yours. Forced her to recognize your intentions. But, she has slipped away from you." He looked to Reacher. "All the while you've had someone screaming at your face, begging you to love her, starving for any piece of attention you might toss her. She will come to adore me. To love me. And you, Bruce Wayne," he shook his head. "Will be a memory."
He slammed the door into place, voice silent. Though his words echoed like a rocket blasting into orbit around Batman's ears.
Jonathan Crane stepped aside as Ra's descended the stairs, Ular beside him. He ordered something to his men in Tibetan, and Crane hastily moved over as they rushed passed him like black night. He smoothed his hair and handed the receiver to Ra's, gesturing by nudging it forward. Ra's looked at it and then at the scientist, expecting a report.
"Everything is in place. The vaporizer is calibrated. Everything is set to systematically erupt at the exact moment you press that button. It's all done."
"And you're sure the toxin is prepared?" He asked coolly.
Jonathan nodded, looking up the stairs. "Yes. What has he done with her? Is Marianne—alive? Did he keep her alive, or is she dead?"
Ra's looked to the receiver and then whispered something to the woman, who walked over to the table of weapons and grabbed a Velcro case. He nodded and chuckled, then took the case from Ular and pulled out the Baretta.
"Dr. Lancer has been…" he rolled his eyes to the ceiling and slammed the magazine into the grip of the handgun. "…accounted for."
Then he pointed, and Jonathan heard three bangs before all light vanished from his eyes….
…before he closed them.
Scientific Snake Information Provided By: Karen Hopkin of Scientific American