Jennie touched the pendant on her necklace as she waited. It was a golden square with an upraised musical note, and was really quite pretty. Touching a pendant was something she did when she was nervous, and feeling the ridges of the gold calmed her slightly.
The Winnebago was in sight, and she tensed for a moment. Then she waved, trying to look demure and desperate.
It wasn't hard. Her clothing had been meant for a semi-formal outing in an urban setting. Her flats weren't as difficult as high heels, but walking on gravel was still a trial. The wind kept trying to do nasty things with her calf-length, crinkly skirt, although for her purposes a show of panties was probably all to the good. She was wearing an untucked, white dress shirt over it. Three gold bangles adorned one wrist, and a length of iron pyrite beads was on the other. The overall effect was of a young college student with a touch of hippy still in her clothes sense.
Jennie tensed, and waved harder as the Winnebago started to slow. It pulled over beside her, and a man got out of the side door.
If she had really been a hitchhiker, alarms would probably be going off. The man who had stepped out looked harder than forged steel. His hair was cut in an extremely unflattering buzz cut that made his head look like a pea stuck on his outsized body. His arms had been toned and built up almost freakishly, and Jennie assumed he was a bodybuilder. But presumably, even perverted rapist kidnappers needed something to occupy their time between victims, and he didn't seem like the sort to read.
But Jennie was playing the naïve little fool, with just a touch of desperation, so she pretended not to notice the way he was eyeing her chest.
"Please, sir, can I get a ride to Albuquerque? My boyfriend and I had a fight and he left me here…" She lowered her gaze, as if embarrassed by the circumstances. She had decided on that story as she and Axl were circling around the Winnebago, out of sight in the scrub desert. If the perverts were particularly observant, that story would explain her flats much better than hitchhiking.
The effort seemed mostly wasted. He gave her a smile that was surprisingly warm, and motioned toward the door to the back of the Winnebago.
"We'd be glad to." His voice was husky, deep. "Get right in." Giving him a grateful smile, Jennie did just that.
The interior of the Winnebago wasn't particularly neat. Jennie wrinkled her nose at a noxious odor, covered up incompletely with air freshener. Then she stiffened as something hard and cold touched her back.
She didn't have to feign a surprised gasp, although she'd been expecting it. It still came as a shock, being held at gunpoint, and she didn't have to pretend to be afraid. It hadn't been very long ago that she would have been terrified.
"Get in the back." His rough voice was hard, brutal. She shivered, following his orders. She didn't want to give him a reason to hit her… her flesh was much too firm for a human, and if he broke his fist on her he would undoubtedly figure things out. She wanted to make sure there was no chance of the woman and child being shot when she took them out.
He shoved her through the door to the bedroom, and she stumbled, falling to her knees. Two other women were there, and looked at her with wide, terrified eyes. She saw that she and Axl had made a slight mistake… they'd thought the child would be young, but she was actually a teenager, only slightly less mature looking than her mother. Both had bright red hair and green eyes. The mother was a bit on the plump side, but still pretty enough. The girl was beautiful, or would have been if her face hadn't been parchment white. Their feet and hands were both duct taped together, and duct tape covered their mouths to muffle any screams. The walls were enough to make most woman scream… they were decorated by posters depicting hard core pornography, all of it degrading and frightening.
"Stay there, bitch." She moaned softly, pretending to be utterly terrified, too petrified to move. Soon, he was duct taping her hands together.
"Please, I'll give you all my money, you don't have to…" She thought a protest was in order, and kept her voice soft and breathy.
"Shut up!" He snarled at her, raising his hand, and she flinched back. He dragged her over to the other two, with a little surreptitious assistance from Jenny. He still grunted in surprise at her weight, before letting her drop. Then he taped her feet together as well, and put duct tape over her mouth.
She waited quietly until he left, and the Winnebago started to move again. Axl would be following at a discreet distance. Then she raised her head, and yanked her hands apart.
The duct tape parted like rotten cord. The mother watched wide eyed as she stripped away the tape on her feet, but the daughter seemed to be in shock, lost in her own mind. Jennie crawled over to them, and tore away the duct tape from the mother's mouth. No doubt that hurt like hell, but there was no help for it.
The woman winced at the pain, and then spoke.
"Who are you? How did you do that?" Jennie started pulling away the rest of the tape as she explained.
"I'm a Maverick Hunter. My partner and I came across your car, and your husband told us what happened. Are you and Marjie alright?" They looked untouched, but that might not be true. But the mother nodded.
"We're fine. George, is he…" Jennie looked at her, unwilling to put the bad news into words in front of the daughter. But the mother evidently read it from her expression, and her face twisted with grief. Then she took a deep breath, calming herself. "What's your plan?"
"I'm going to go up there and force them to park. If they give any resistance, I'll kill them." The mother actually looked slightly relieved at that. Maybe she'd been worried that Jennie wouldn't be able to bring herself to hurt a human, even animals like these.
"Be careful. They have a shotgun." Jennie nodded as she peeled away the last of the tape. The mother immediately started freeing her daughter, as Jennie carefully opened the door.
The engine of the Winnebago was very noisy and would probably muffle any sound from her movements. She was still cautious, and stopped only to strip away her civilian clothes, depositing them on a moderately clean couch. Then she activated her flash case and called back her armor, grimacing at the feel of it on bare skin. Putting on her casual clothes had meant removing the jumpsuit that usually served as padding.
Slipping through the rooms like a ghost, she reached the front, and frowned. The door to the cab was closed. She couldn't open it without alerting them… then she shrugged and flung it violently open.
"What the hell- Holy SHIT!" The man in the passenger seat, the one who had brought her inside froze as a buster was leveled at his face.
"Pull over." She ordered in a voice as cold as liquid helium. The driver, a much smaller, weedy man, was already obeying.
"What are you, a Maverick?" The bulky man asked, face pasty white. She gave him a look similar to the one she would have given a cockroach.
"No, I'm a Maverick Hunter. One of the ones you two tried to run off the road earlier. But don't think I won't kill you if you give me any trouble." She didn't want to, but that was solely for her own benefit.
Fortunately, they didn't seem to doubt her. As soon as they parked, Jennie forced them outside.
"I have them, Axl." She spoke into the communicator. "Come in, I need you to tie them up."
Your wish is my command, lovely. Be there in a minute. She smiled at his reply… she could easily see his dust plume as he headed towards them at full speed. The mother of the pair poked her head cautiously out of the Winnebago. Jennie didn't move her eyes from the men as she spoke to her. "Can you get the duct tape?"
"Oh yes." She ducked back in to fetch that, and came out just as Axl skidded to a halt and hopped off his bike. Axl took the roll from her with a smile, and started binding the offenders, giving one a hard smack as he tried something. The man yelped in pain, although nothing was broken.
"The police will be here soon." Axl said as he stepped back.
"Do we have to wait for them?" Jennie winced at the thought of all the interviews they would probably be required to give… they would certainly be taken back to the police station to give statements.
"'Fraid so, lovely. This sort of thing doesn't happen much, but we're supposed to give local police full cooperation in stuff like this." Axl shrugged, then grinned. "Hey, it'll be air conditioned and we'll have coffee." Jennie shook her head with a small laugh.
"I suppose that is a bit of a plus." Then she glanced over at the woman and her daughter, who had both left the Winnebago. "Would you two like something to eat?" She had a sandwich, a few oranges and a granola bar in her backpack for lunch. But she could share it, and they might be waiting for a while…