Samantha began jogging, she kept a slow even pace and concentrated on her breathing. She ran the same route that she always did, hoping that those three guys would see her again. Everyone agreed that they would attack her in the wooded area because it provided the most cover. She had just headed into the woods. "Any sign of them?" She heard Jack's voice in her ear, the headphones were set so that she could hear any of them as they talked to each other. Jack offered again, "You can still turn back Samantha, it's not too late."
Infuriated with Jack, she whispered toward the receiver, "Shut up Jack, shut up and let me do my job. It's not like I'm going to break." She hoped that the suspects hadn't seen that outburst, it would have looked mighty strange to see her yelling in a whisper to thin air. The command had shut Jack up though and she refocused on the task.
As she neared the edge of the woods she spoke, "I guess it's a bust guys, I'm out of the woods, literally." But as she came into the clearing, just like yesterday, the three were upon her and they did not want to jog today.
"Well, well, little miss priss is back today, we didn't scare you off huh?" the big one taunted.
"Yeah, you're gonna pay for running off on us yesterday, we had to get off on your jacket instead, I don't think you're gonna want that back," the skinny guy stated.
"Or need it back," laughed the third.
Samantha interjected, "So what do you guys want?"
"We want you," the big guy, the obvious leader, intoned. "And we're going to have you this time." He pushed her hard to the ground and she tried to break her fall with her hands, but he kicked them out from under her and she landed on the side of her head, momentarily stunned.
She recovered and struggled to get to a standing position. She knew that she needed to keep up their rage, "Three on one huh, that doesn't seem fair to me."
"Life's not fair, bitch," and with that one of them kicked her while she was rising; the full force of his shoe landed in her gut and rib cage; she gasped for breath and fell over backward. Two of them pounced on her, determined to keep her on the ground this time. She heard a voice in her ear, "Let's get them now, she needs to be out of there." It was Martin pleading with the team.
She yelled, "No," as much to her tormentors as to the team, she wasn't ready for them to rescue her yet.
The operation leader held his ground, "Not until she gives the signal."
She hadn't gotten enough information on them to quit yet, despite her aching ribs. "So you do this often? Or am I your guinea pig?"
The guys couldn't help but brag, "Yeah, just last week we took a woman out here joggin' just like you, we buried her up on top of that hill."
Samantha gasp, she hadn't expected to hear that they had killed someone. Again, Martin's voice telling the team to execute the takedown, but nobody was listening. Samantha's inner voice was telling her to keep calm, keep these guys talking. They would talk themselves right into the death penalty.
"You didn't kill anyone, you're just trying to scare me. You're nothing but two-bit punks running around the streets," but she had said too much. The big guy pulled out a gun and pointed it at her and the heavy set guy pulled a knife.
"Oh, yeah, if I've never killed no one then who's blood is on this knife," the heavy set guy asked. Samantha's eyes widened, indeed there was blood on the knife and the gun looked very real. But, she reminded herself, that there were several armed men and women on her side hiding in the park who would come any time she said the word.
"If you're so tough then who else have you killed?" Samantha tried to sound frightened, which wasn't difficult.
"Timmy stabbed that homeless woman not too long ago," answered the skinny guy.
"And then I shot her," said the leader. "And then we buried her over by them trees while she was still breathing." He let out a slow cackle and Samantha's breathing sped up again.
She tried to think, what else do I need on this tape, what else? Motive? Is there a motive? "But why go after me, you don't know me, I haven't done anything to you."
"Why ask why?" stated Timmy, the heavy-set one. "We seen you 'round and thought you'd be a nice piece of ass."
"Yeah, Jojo didn't want to kill you," the leader said, pointing at the skinny guy, "he wanted to keep you around for special occasions, but you got away yesterday and we had a talk. We can't keep ya no matter how much we wants to." The leader continued, "Now I'm gonna go first and see just how tight your pussy is, then Timmy, then Jojo is gonna spend some time with you, cause he really likes you, you see."
In her ear, Martin's pleas again, "OK, we have enough, go get them."
"No we wait until her signal," the operation leader repeated.
She was glad that they still had confidence in her calling the shots and that gave her the strength to continue. The leader undid his belt and pulled down his pants, he reached for Samantha's pants and as much as she knew she shouldn't fight back, she reacted instinctively. She kicked out to his unprotected groin and connected solidly. The leader doubled over in pain, but rebounded quickly and slapped Samantha across the face.
Immediately, Martin's voice again, but Danny trumped him and told everyone, "Samantha knows what she is doing, trust her."
"You'll pay for that bitch. Timmy, Jojo, hold her down." Looking directly at Samantha he said, "I do like my women feisty."
Samantha struggled against her captors she needed them to say, on tape, how they were going to kill her. "So when you're finished with me, then what? You got a gravesite for me?"
The leader, almost on top of her now, couldn't help but continue to brag. "Oh, pretty lady, we got one all dug for you and we're real good 'bout keeping you alive to see the first shovel of dirt on your head. You see, Timmy just stabs you in the arms and legs, but not enough to let you bleed out quickly. Then I does the shootin', usually the gut, nothing too major there to kill you fast. Jojo, he's a bit squeamish so he just does the shovelin'. And we all laugh to see you struggling for last bits of air, but it ain't no use, you may as well give up now and enjoy your last few fucks."
As he said these last words, Samantha used a free leg to strike the leaders groin again and to yell out the signal to her teammates. Everyone responded exactly as planned. The gun and the knife were secured without incident. The guys were taken totally unaware. Immediately they were removed from the scene so that the undercover agent could be tended to in peace.
Samantha's team rushed to her side and prevented her from even sitting up, her face was already bruised where it had hit the ground and she was bleeding from a split lip from when he had slapped her. Vivian covered her up with a blanket to prevent her from slipping into shock from the event. Jack radioed in the ambulance that was waiting nearby and Martin crouched near her head and looked at her. He took off his transmitter so only she could hear him and he whispered in her ear, "It's over Samantha, it's over." She looked into his face, filled with concern, and let one solitary tear slide down her face and only Martin was allowed to see it. He reached over and wiped it from her face, knowing she hated to cry. He didn't want her to feel embarrassed at a time like this.
Danny knelt by her side and she reached out for his hand. "Thank you Danny, thank you for your confidence," she tried to express the gratitude she felt for him when he told everyone to trust in her. Danny looked confused, he didn't know what he had done to deserve any extra recognition so she told him, "You believed in me and made the team believe in me too. Instead of being worried about me, you knew I could handle the situation, thank you."
Danny responded, "Samantha, we all knew you could do it, maybe I just put my confidence into words." She released his hand and let him continue about his business. Martin had heard this exchange and realized that all of the worry and fretting that both he and Jack had been doing was not what Samantha had wanted or needed. She needed for us to stop worrying about her and tell her that we had faith in her abilities.
The paramedics arrived and shooed everyone away from Samantha. Jack had already gone elsewhere, he had to be the team leader and was needed, but Martin was in charge of the undercover, along with Vivian and Danny. Martin hovered nearby and heard Samantha's answers to the paramedics questions. Yes, she was in pain. Apparently it was from when she had been kicked, he began to worry about internal bleeding and damaged organs, but he needed to leave the medical stuff up to the doctors. Perhaps it was nothing.
The paramedics loaded Samantha into the ambulance and took off for the hospital. They said they would need to admit her and run some tests to rule out any substantial damage. To Martin, that didn't sound good. He climbed into his government vehicle and went to meet Samantha at the hospital.
TBC
