Saturday, May 27th, 2017
The A31, just outside East Ham
21:56 GMT+1 (20:56 GMT May 27th)
Gunfire flew in every direction.
It turned out that the BMW X5s had minimal armour protecting the men shooting from behind the vehicles. The gunfire was intense as the two groups attempted to wipe out one another. NIGHTSHADE executed some low-level passes in an attempt to scare away the enemy but that did not seem to do anything more than to piss them off and attract bullets which were fired in NIGHTSHADE's direction. Chief engaged with the Maximi, but it was difficult to get in safe shots which did not endanger those shopping at a Sainsbury's superstore less than twenty yards from then firefight. Aboard NIGHTSHADE, Jasper cringed at the thought of the next morning's headlines – they would not be good! He would have a lot of explaining to do as a result of the night's activities.
On the ground, Noxa and Polaris were doing their best to kill the enemy of which only two had been killed to that point. Together, the two friends planned a frontal assault on the enemy before things got majorly out of hand or the civilian authorities arrived on the scene. The pair moved down the central barrier separating the two carriageways of the road, before they stopped beside the concrete base of an overhead sign which stretched across the opposite carriageway. The concrete served as a good barrier for any bullets which were sent in their direction. The two girls were swiftly joined by Aegea and Pyrrha.
"Can we help?"
"Of course," Noxa responded. "We need to bring those men to close battle and end this before any civilians get hurt. Custos and Necis are going to make an approach from the right and we, including you two, will come in from the left. We will close with pistols and then take them down in close quarters combat."
"Simples!" Polaris commented.
"If you say so," Pyrrha considered.
"Let's go!" Aegea suggested as she moved out from cover, her pistol in her hand.
Polaris shrugged as she backed up Aegea with Noxa moving onto Aegea's flank. Pyrrha came up behind, her Walther PPQ M2 Navy SD Pistol spitting fire. The fourteen-year-old found it was suddenly so much easier to take the life of another human as a man fell to her bullet. Did that make her a bad person? No, she reasoned; it simply made her a good vigilante.
"Oh, fuck!" Aegea exclaimed as one of her bullets claimed a life. "I think he's dead!"
"That's what happens when you put a bullet into someone's head," Noxa pointed out as she found herself too close to their targets and she holstered her pistol.
There were but six men left and, as luck would have it, there were six vigilantes, each eager to maim at the very least.
..._...
For Aegea, the knowledge that she had taken a life upset her, but for the moment, she pushed the unhappy emotion to the back of her mind, and she focussed on a bearded man who was grinning down at her.
Aegea instinctively knew what she had to do, and how she should fight. She was surprised at how Viridian's teaching suddenly came to the fore as she holstered her SIG Sauer P238 Compact pistol. Without conscious thought, she spun and delivered a nasty kick to the man's left cheek. The man appeared surprised at the strike which had left a vicious cut on his cheek. Despite the blood, the man pulled a knife and he slashed at Aegea. The girl dodged the blade before she spun and kicked the man again, only the man responded by reversing his blade and driving it into Aegea's left knee. The man's expression of amazement as the blade simply snapped off made Aegea grin beneath her mask as she rammed her right armoured gauntlet into the man's face, smashing his nose to a pulp. The man screamed out in pain, a scream which was rapidly cut short as Aegea took her own blade across the man's throat.
A few yards away, Polaris was stunned to see Aegea's unique fighting style in action for the very first time. It was ferocious, quick, and obviously remarkably effective. The man whom Polaris had selected was a good fighter. Not that that gave the man much of an edge against such a seasoned fighter as Polaris. Yes, the man had a good two feet in height on the young vigilante, but Polaris had skills the man would die for . . . and well, he did. As for Noxa and her friends, they were happily wading into the fight. The ruse had been perfect, and the men were not able to stand up to the abuse they were receiving. They were mercenaries who preferred to use their firearms as their primary source of killing, not that they could not fight in a dozen different ways, just as well as the vigilantes. However, the vigilantes were trained to make use of a vastly different style of fighting which caught the mercenaries unawares and assisted in their rapid demise.
"Necis, stop molesting that corpse," Noxa directed. "The police are here; we need to go!"
"Oh, right...," Necis replied as she stopped stabbing the already dead mercenary and she dropped the body to the tarmac. "Got carried away!"
Leaving dead and gravely injured mercenaries strewn across the carriageway, everyone ran for the Range Rovers as the police vehicles began to arrive in a flurry of blue lights and sirens.
A short while later...
Wayne Enterprises Site B
East India Dock Basin
22:20 GMT+1 (21:20 GMT May 27th)
The helicopter was already inside; the tail and main rotor blades having been folded and a small remotely operated aircraft tug having been used to pull the helicopter inside and out of sight.
Several rounds had stitched across NIGHTSHADE's port engine cowling, during the escape, but the engine did not appear to be damaged. Keira and David were already up beside the portside engine, examining the damage. Even before the helicopter had stopped moving inside the hanger, Jasper had pushed their blindfolded, bound, and gagged prisoner down the ramp and then secured him to a steel beam, in a distant corner of the warehouse. Jasper then took the all-important file and he walked over to a portacabin which would serve as their base of operations. Inside, he dropped the file onto a desk before he sagged into the accompanying chair.
Just minutes later, the three Range Rovers pulled up inside the warehouse and the outer doors were closed and secured. Eric and Ewan had spent some time placing small security 'packages' around the exterior of the warehouse and the site in general to warn them of anybody approaching. The warehouse was to be their home for the next forty-eight hours or so and was believed to be totally off the grid and unknown by even the British Government.
"So, we have the file," Lynn commented as she joined her husband.
"Finally."
"Do they know what is in it?" Lynn asked her husband, somewhat cryptically.
"We're going to have to tell them," Jasper conceded.
"They are going to be really angry, especially Olivia."
"Yes, I'm concerned with Olivia's reaction."
"We'll have to gauge her mood . . . Jessica too."
Jasper nodded, dreading the task ahead.
..._...
Stripe and Ajax had a job to do before they were allowed to strip out of their combat suits.
A short distance from where Jasper had secured their prisoner, a twenty-foot container sat all alone. The double doors at one end were open and ready. Inside the dark green container, the floor was covered in three inches of sawdust. A black plastic bucket sat in one corner, but other than that, there was not a single other amenity in the steel container. After they had checked over the container, inside and out, as well as checking the four internal cameras and four external cameras, they made for the prisoner. The man was stunned by his situation and he had no idea where he was, nor did he have the vaguest idea about who had him.
Stripe yanked off the man's blindfold, but before the man could see much more than a dazzling blur from the bright overhead lighting, Ajax slapped a piece of padded duct tape over the man's eyes, then another above and below to secure the blindfold in place. After disconnecting the man from the building's structure, Stripe shoved him to the floor where Ajax took a knife to the man's clothing. It did not take her long to assemble a large pile of destroyed clothing, leaving their prisoner naked and shivering with cold and fear. The man was still secured with steel handcuffs behind his back. He tried to struggle, but he was held firmly. Together, Stripe and Ajax shoved the man inside the container before Ajax ripped off the blindfold and then slammed shut the double doors, securing them. Stripe's final act was to flip a switch on a box secured to the side of the container.
Inside the container, dazzling lights began to strobe on and off at random intervals along with loud and random blasts of white noise, both designed to disorient the prisoner until his interrogation.
..._...
Craig and Olivia joined the others in a pair of double-stacked portacabins, one of which was equipped with changing rooms, an armoury, and showers.
Due to the lack of space, the facilities were unisex and allowed no distinction between age or sex. For the likes of Harper, it was the very first time she had showered with her big sister in many years. Indeed, Keira had some fun at Harper's expense, embarrassing the younger girl. However, Rylee also suffered as her mouth dropped open when her own mother appeared, just as naked as the rest. Naturally, Simon was there to assist Rylee with washing her back and Rylee returned the favour, well aware that her mother was watching every movement. The behaviour and banter in the showers and changing rooms was much improved over the previous evening as the objectives for that night had all been met without any injuries. It was rare for Diana to shower with the others as she was superconscious of her legs, or lack of legs. However, Jordan was there, and a plastic bench had been placed under two of the showers to allow both to shower without their legs. The stares had long since passed and they were pretty much ignored as they showered. For Scarlett, it was just as difficult, even if it was just a missing hand. The stump irritated the girl and she hated others seeing it; to Scarlett, it was a personal failure. Electra was another who was not overly keen with mixed showers due to her scars. Jordan had been there, and he remembered Electra as she had fought alongside their target, the then Stephanie Walker. The boy respected Electra for how well she had fought, despite her having been an untrained Yellow. There were a few comments when Mary appeared in the shower, mainly from Electra who ensured that everybody was looking in Mary's direction – especially the boys. Electra was also very quick to point out that Ewan could not keep his eyes off the Princess – certain parts of her, anyway.
Kate was glad to be able to wash off the sweat accumulated that evening. She was the eldest Predator and she was looked up to by all the others, despite her wobbly beginnings as a punished Marauder. One of her tasks was to ensure that every child younger than her was safe and uninjured. After showering, Kate went around everyone, speaking with each in turn to ensure that there were no issues to be sorted and that all were healthy. She also ensured that all found a bed in the upstairs portacabin and got their heads down as it was approaching midnight. Lynn had produced gallons of hot chocolate to provide an aid to sleep and all took the opportunity to sip at the hot, sweet chocolatey drink. Simon, Rylee, and Tanya had seized bunks together with Simon in the middle. On the opposite side of Rylee, Harper sat in bed drinking her hot chocolate. Beside Harper, in the next beds were Diana and then Scarlett.
While the others had been getting themselves ready for bed, two of their members were unhappy with another member of Vengeance.
..._...
Craig and Olivia were walking across the warehouse, talking.
"Somehow, they knew where we were," Craig growled. "Yet again!"
"Someone betrayed us," Olivia hissed as she watched Amber moving about with her clipboard. "It could only have been someone who was sly, conniving, sneaky."
"Yeah," Craig agreed as his eyes followed Amber.
Jasper appeared from the portacabin and he listened to the pair. He was very aware that there had been a betrayal – again. He had mixed views over Amber, but he trusted her, to a point. However, he could think of nobody else who might betray them, and she had been in the perfect position to betray everyone, not to mention that she had a chequered past.
"Olivia, I think you know what needs to be done," Jasper commented as he continued on past.
Olivia nodded; it was her turn to go ballistic, just as Craig had done with her the previous year. "I know how to handle this," she growled menacingly as she advanced on Amber.
Amber saw Olivia coming towards her, but she was a little slow in reading Olivia's expression and figuring out that she was in deep shit. Amber backed up and she found herself coming to a halt with her back against a Range Rover Sentinel.
"I did nothing!" Amber stated. "Nothing!"
"That is total bullshit," Olivia said as she stabbed the girl in the chest with the first finger of her right hand.
"Ow!"
"Nobody else would betray Vengeance – it can only be you; you're a sneaky, conniving bitch!"
"No!" Amber said as she clutched her clipboard.
Amber's eyes flickered around the warehouse, but no one came to her aid. Every face she saw showed anger. Even the adults simply stood to one side, leaving Amber to the mercy of the vengeful vigilantes.
"You're a fucking mole!" Olivia yelled, her face just inches from Amber's. "Fucking admit it you cowardly bitch!"
"I am not a traitor . . . and I am not a coward!" Amber retorted as fear really began to take hold. "I've not done anything to hurt anybody."
Olivia and Craig were joined by Dakota who had come down to see what was going on. There were many curious faces looking down at events from the dormitory windows.
"Strip her!" Olivia ordered as Amber was grabbed by Dakota and Craig.
The clipboard clattered to the floor as Amber's arms were held against the Sentinel, pinning her. Amber began to struggle as Dakota and Craig went to work, pulling off the struggling girl's clothing, throwing her blouse onto the dirty concrete floor. Her trainers were pulled off her feet, followed by her socks. Dakota pulled down Amber's jeans, yanking them off, and throwing them to the ground. Then, as Amber stood there in just her underwear, Olivia produced a large combat knife and ignoring the struggling, pleading girl, she proceeded to cut off Amber's bra followed by her knickers. Olivia threw the scraps of material to the floor as the thirteen-year-old girl sobbed with humiliation and the horror of what was happening to her; she knew that she was innocent – to a point – and that she had not betrayed a soul. Not that her pleading made any difference as she was then paraded naked before her peers, not one of whom gave her even the remotest sympathy. Then Craig slammed Amber's front up against a steel support column and pulled her hands away from where they were trying to cover her groin and her breasts. A set of steel handcuffs were used to secure Amber's hands behind her back and a blindfold was secured over her eyes.
Unable to cover up, and shaking with fear, Amber was then led the length of the warehouse, past the helicopter to a dark, dirty corner. Amber stumbled as her bare feet negotiated the uneven, dirty concrete floor, and she was shoved hard enough that she fell to the bare concrete, grazing both of her knees. Amber, full of fear, backed away from Olivia until her bare back touched the steel support which made up the corner of the warehouse. Olivia reached down behind the girl and she wrapped a chain around the support and then secured it to Amber's left wrist with another set of handcuffs.
"Good night, bitch!"
"You can't leave me here . . . not like this!"
"I can do what I damn well like!" Olivia spat. "Have a good night's sleep, traitor!"
Amber was left, naked, bound, blindfolded, shivering, and very much alone in the corner of the warehouse, to sob herself to sleep.
The next morning...
Sunday, May 28th
07:45 GMT+1 (06:45 GMT May 28th)
Amber had spent the night, naked and cold, lying on the bare concrete in a dark corner of the Wayne Enterprises warehouse.
Her hands were bound behind her with steel handcuffs and she was blindfolded. When she awoke, she found that she was shivering. Her limbs and body ached from sleeping on the rough concrete – not that she had slept much; she had been far too scared to sleep. She had no idea what was about to happen to her, but she figured that it would not be good. Then she started as she heard footsteps crunching on the loose bits of rubbish which littered the concrete floor of the warehouse.
"Hello?" she ventured, unable to see who it was coming towards her. "I need to pee."
"So, piss!" came the nasty response.
It was Olivia.
"I really need to go . . . please!" Amber begged as she struggled to sit up, but even that was hard as she found herself sitting on something sharp but without her hands free and the blindfold, she could not find clear concrete to sit comfortably.
"You get fucking nothing – piss on the fucking floor!"
Amber gave in and she sobbed as she had no choice but to ease her full bladder. She felt the hot liquid under her bottom as it pooled beneath her. She sobbed harder as she heard Olivia laughing.
"You dirty bitch!"
A few moments later, Amber screamed as she was soaked in freezing cold water.
"There, you're clean again," Olivia hissed.
Amber sat there on the wet concrete floor, shivering with the cold.
..._...
Scarlett was given the job of feeding Amber.
So, after she had enjoyed her own breakfast, she took a bacon roll and a bottle of water over to where the naked girl lay on the floor, a chain ensuring that she did not run away. Scarlett felt for the girl, but she knew that Amber could have betrayed them, and that she could not be allowed to continue betraying them.
"You really fucked up, Amber," Scarlett said, and the girl looked up at her. "I have some food and drink for you."
Scarlett put the food and drink down before she reached behind Amber and freed the girl's right wrist, the left wrist still being secured to the steel support. Amber shook the freed wrist and she cringed with the pain as she moved the arm to the front of her body. Scarlett then pulled off the blindfold and Amber blinked in the bright lights. Amber's eyes were very red from hours of crying.
"Here," Scarlett said as she handed over the bacon roll.
Amber all but crammed the food into her mouth and she smiled her thanks up at Scarlett before she then downed most of the bottle of water.
"Thank you, Scarlett," Amber said mournfully. "I've done nothing . . . please believe me."
"I can't, Amber, I'm sorry."
Scarlett left Amber to her sorrows as the day began in earnest.
..._...
One person was not provided with breakfast.
His name was Anton Riddle. The man lay in the sawdust, desperate for the sounds and the lights to cease their relentless torture. He had slept for mere minutes during his almost nine hours of incarceration. He knew that he was in deep shit, and he knew that he was probably going to die. The sawdust was there to absorb the blood, he knew. The assault had come so fast and so completely out of the blue that he had no idea who it was that had taken him captive. However, he figured that it had to be a paramilitary organisation, maybe Vengeance. If it was Vengeance, then he knew that he was dead. Vengeance had a reputation and rumours of how vengeful they were had circulated before the summer, but then their reputation had leapt due to the limited survivors who remained to tell their stories after a tussle with Vengeance. Indeed, entire teams of men and woman had vanished during the previous October with extraordinarily little visible damage to Vengeance. Indeed, seeing Vengeance nonchalantly patrolling outside Number 10 Downing Street had been an eye opener to any who chose to take on Vengeance.
Somewhere around ten that morning, the lights and sound cut out. A moment later, the twin steel doors were opened, and the man looked up from where he lay in the sawdust. For a moment, he thought he was seeing things, but then he realised that he was looking at a young girl of maybe eleven or so. The man had no idea that Rylee Clarkson was actually twelve and would have been very annoyed to be referred to as an eleven-year-old. The girl was dressed in a strange suit that could have been some form of custom armour and she wore lightweight boots on her feet. Her hands were encased in a set of gauntlets which made the man wince – he knew that he was in for a world of hurt. He watched the girl move in his direction. He saw the girl stare down at his groin and smirk.
"Bit wimpy, if you ask me," the girl commented as she held her first finger and thumb about two inches apart.
"Funny little bitch, aren't you?" the man responded.
"Yeah, I am," the girl responded as she kicked the man in the groin.
The man screamed out in agony, but he was unable to grasp his equipment due to his hands being securely bound behind his back.
..._...
Rylee reached down with her left gauntlet and she grasped a fistful of pubic hair attached to the man's balls, and she tugged.
The man bellowed at the pain, glaring up at the girl. The girl released his tackle before she stepped back. The man did not struggle as two women rushed into the container and dragged the man to his feet. Keira unfastened one handcuff as Lynn pulled the man's arms up above his head and used a second set of handcuffs to secure each wrist to an eyebolt welded to the roof of the container. Each eyebolt pulled the man's arms at angles away from his body with his feet barely touching the ground. Lynn reached down and she secured his feet into cuffs on chains secured to the floor of the container. The two women stepped back; their expressions blank of all emotion and the girl stepped forward again. The man was caught unawares as the girl drove her fist into his stomach, eliciting more pain than he had felt in a long time. Then came another punch and another, both into his tortured stomach.
Rylee moved on rapidly, landing a punch in the man's face before she returned down below and drove a fist into his left kidney.
..._...
Amber was beginning to wish that she still wore the blindfold.
People were looking at her, walking past just to look. It was humiliating and degrading. Not being able to see the looks would have made it so much easier. Despite having a hand free, Amber did not bother covering up any part of her body; it was way too late for that.
Amber had no idea why Olivia hated her so much. It was obvious that there was some deep-seated hatred in the girl for her. Yes, she had heard a story about Olivia going through something similar to what she herself was enduring, but she did not think that Olivia would make her suffer just for the sake of it. Amber respected Olivia for her integrity, so she knew that Olivia genuinely believed her to be guilty of treachery. Maybe Olivia was right; it had to come out eventually, she thought. Would she be next to suffer whatever it was that the prisoner was suffering? She could hear the screams and bellows of pain as someone tortured the man. How could she stand up to torture?
She had no idea, but she knew that she would probably fold within minutes, if not mere seconds.
..._...
Anton Riddle breathed through the pain which reached to every corner of his body.
He knew that being punched, surprisingly hard, by a little girl was nothing compared to what was coming . . . and he was not to be disappointed as a smaller girl stepped into the container. She wore a similar suit to the older girl and the adults, only, she carried several blades in holders on either thigh. Behind her, came another girl, this one much older and she placed a leather holdall down on a free patch of sawdust.
"Hello, Anton," the younger girl said. "My name is Harper. I am going to ask you some simple questions that even a dick with a tiny dick can answer. If I think you're lying; I make you suffer . . . do you understand?"
Anton nodded.
"I don't think you do, Anton; let me give you a sample of what might happen to you should I think you are lying . . . oh, let me point out that I was taken and tortured eight months ago. They tortured me to the point of insanity, and I so want somebody else to suffer like I did. You ever been burnt, Anton, with a naked flame?"
Anton shook his head emphatically, then his eyes went wide as the older girl passed over a blow torch.
"We picked this up for only fifty-five quid – a bargain!" Harper grinned as she ignited the blue flame. "Propane – gives us a temperature of over seventeen-hundred degrees."
Without a moment's hesitation, Harper applied the very tip of the flame to the man's testicles, singeing the hair and eliciting a blood-curdling scream of agony for the mere half second the flame was applied.
"Wow, the smell of hair burning is almost as bad as flesh – don't worry, I became used to it as they stubbed out cigarettes on my chest."
Harper applied the flame to the man's stomach for a single second before she moved it to his chest, singeing the chest hair and adding a second dark circle to the man's body. As the man shook with the pain, Harper turned off the torch.
"That was fun!" she grinned. "Now, Anton, who do you work for?"
Anton was not far from his pain threshold and he was struggling to remain conscious.
..._...
A metal folding table had been brought in and Lynn was seated behind the table taking notes.
"Okay, so you're a mercenary," Harper recapped. "We still don't know who you work for . . . and you know what that means..."
Harper pulled out a razor-sharp throwing knife from the collection on her left thigh.
"When I was taken," Harper went on in a conversational tone, "they seemed to enjoy cutting me – just small cuts. They had to be small, I suppose, as there isn't all that much of me. Anyway, they hurt luck fuck!"
Harper sliced the tender skin of the man's stomach four times, in neat parallel lines. The man tried to pull away as his skin was sliced to a depth of about half an inch. He could feel fresh blood running down his stomach and into his groin and down his thighs.
"I . . . I work..."
"Yeees," Harper prompted.
"For . . . work for the..."
"Do I need to cut you again?"
"Gémeaux," the man panted through his pain.
There were one or two raised eyebrows around the container at that comment.
..._...
As Rylee stood outside the container with Simon beside her, she cringed at how dark Harper was behaving.
Both were very aware that Harper had suffered badly at the hands of Scarlett's father, but for Harper to talk about it so easily and so openly was surprising to the pair. The man was being left to rest, and everybody trooped out of the container, with Kate slamming the doors shut and securing them.
"What?" Harper asked her friends as she found them looking at her strangely.
"A bit cavalier, in there," Simon commented.
"Oh, that."
"Yes, that," Rylee confirmed.
"I needed to get the point across to that bastard – anyway, it helps me to come to terms with what I endured."
Harper grimaced as she looked down at the ground for a moment.
"Come on," a voice said, and Scarlett appeared from beyond the container. "I know that look." Scarlett looked over at Rylee and Simon. "Harper went a little far and she's remembering a little too much of her time with my father."
"What were you doing behind the container?" Simon asked.
"Feeding our naked traitor," Scarlett commented.
Simon stepped behind the container and he looked down at Amber who was sitting on the bare concrete, just as naked as before. Her face was streaked with tears and she glanced up at Simon before she quickly looked down at the ground. Simon recognised the signs of humiliation and he turned to Rylee.
"Give me a few minutes, 'kay?"
"Okay," Rylee said as she gave Amber a brief glance of her own before she turned back to Harper.
..._...
Simon sat down next to the naked girl; his eyes fixed on a point on the far wall.
"You're in a bit of a bind, Amber," Simon said conversationally.
Amber looked up and she was surprised to see the boy staring up at the far wall rather than at her naked body – was her body that uninspiring?
"What are you doing here?" Amber almost whispered.
"I thought you might want somebody to talk to," Simon replied. "I've not known you all that long, but I don't think you're a traitor . . . maybe you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I know humiliation, so does Rylee. You're amazing at organising, Amber – thanks for that; you kept us alive with your attention to detail."
"Fat lot of good it did me," Amber responded quietly. "I hate everybody looking at me – only you won't look at me . . . thanks."
"I've seen dozens of girls. I've seen more snatches than most boys can dream about. I've even touched one. I've seen boobs galore – yours are nice, by the way."
Amber simply shrugged.
"You hang in there; I'm sure they'll sort things out.
Amber began to cry which Simon took as his cue to leave.
..._...
After lunch, Kate pulled open the doors to the container.
The man hung there, his chin resting on his chest. Kate turned to the girl who stood beside her.
"You sure about this?" Kate asked.
"Yes, I am."
Scarlett Radford stepped into the container, her nose wrinkling up at the stench of sweat, blood, urine, and human misery. Kate walked in behind Scarlett, a bucket in her hands. She stepped past Scarlett before she launched the contents of the bucket over the man. The cold water snapped the man to consciousness and his head came up, weary eyes staring all around. Scarlett stepped forwards. She raised her right hand and she showed the man her articulating fingers.
"Very Terminator, huh?" Scarlett began, determined not to bottle out.
The man's eyes followed the hand as Scarlett moved it upwards to the man's left arm. She reached up and she gripped the arm, just above the left wrist. Then she squeezed. The electrohydraulic systems in the hand closed the fingers at her command and the man began to make sounds as he felt pain shooting up his arm.
"Ow! Ow! Ow!" the man exclaimed as his skin was penetrated and Scarlett's artificial hand continued to crush his limb.
Scarlett winced as she heard the man's Radius and Ulna cracking under the extreme pressure. It took only another second before there was a loud crack and the two bones fractured. The man screamed and screamed as he pulled on his damaged limb, desperate to protect it from further harm. Scarlett stepped back, wiping her hand off on a towel which Kate had provided. The entire operation had unnerved Scarlett, but she had volunteered to do it and she had been keen to see what her hand could do.
"That was fucking awesome!" Dakota exclaimed as she looked at the mangled arm. "Here, Kate."
Kate took the hypodermic needle and she stabbed the man in the upper arm, injecting a pain-relieving drug and a minor sedative into his system.
..._...
It took about twenty minutes for the man to calm down and become properly lucid.
"Now," Kate began. "What can you tell us about why we are being attacked?"
"We were told to recover a file. I do not know what is in it."
"How did you know where we were?" Kate continued as Lynn sat at the same table taking notes.
"We were told to be at a certain place at a certain time. You missed the other teams by just two hours. Two hours earlier and you would have found many more in the house. Maybe you would all have been killed."
The man forced a laugh, even as Kate punched him in the mouth. Kate grinned as the man choked on his own blood. Kate was about to punch the man again when a voice interrupted her.
"May I have a go, please?"
"Mary, he's not a toy," Kate pointed out.
"I'm not frightened by a bit of blood, Kate," Mary retorted. "I've taken a life before . . . just not face to face."
Kate looked past Mary to where Ginny stood with Harper. Both nodded and Kate waved Mary forwards to stand beside Scarlett.
"He's all yours," Kate said.
Mary was extremely nervous – it was the very first time she had seen a naked adult man. Her eyes took in every part of the man's body before she focussed on the injuries which Harper had inflicted earlier that morning. She wore her FCCS2 and her gauntlets to protect herself from the blood. Then she grinned as she reached down to take hold of the man's penis.
"Bet you've never been touched by a Princess before," Mary said evenly. "It's bigger than I expected but as far as I am concerned, you are an enemy of the Realm which means I want to make sure that you never have children. Scarlett, would you hold his dick out of the way, please?"
"Okay," Scarlett replied as she took hold of said item of flesh with a look of barely concealed dismay on her face.
Mary reached behind her, and she produced a small knife from her back pocket. The blade glinted in the bright lights as she placed the blade on the two items dangling between his legs, just behind his penis. The man shuddered as he felt the cold steel blade somewhere decidedly delicate. Mary smiled enormously as she flicked the blade, and something splatted into the sawdust below. The man did nothing for a few moments, but then he screamed, and his body shook as the shock of the amputation flooded his nervous system.
"You're cold, Princess," Kate pointed out as she watched the blood flowing steadily from between the man's legs. "I think he's on his period," she quipped.
"Move!" Harper growled as she pushed past, firing up her blowtorch and swiftly cauterising the wound. "Can't have the twat dying on us."
The man's screams were short-lived as he passed out very quickly.
..._...
"So," Craig summarised. "We've been targeted, directly, by the French – Gémeaux?"
"Gémeaux is a shadowy underworld organisation which is rarely heard from," Jasper explained. "It is the French arm of the Axis of Evil."
"Doesn't sound good," Harper commented as Rylee nodded.
"We've been targeted before," Jasper conceded, "but not like this. Mindy is not happy with the way things are going, but we all know what's at stake."
"I want to grow up," Harper said quietly. "I don't want to be vaporised by some selfish bastard who wants to nuke the planet. We need to put an end to this, and soon!"
"Well said, Harper," Kate said.
"I think it's time to see what our traitor has to say," Olivia suggested.
"I want her to stew a bit," Craig said coldly.
Jasper nodded his ascent and he watched grimly as Olivia and Craig headed off to see Amber.
..._...
Amber found herself dragged to her feet and all her bindings removed.
For a moment, she felt hope, but she saw no respite in the faces which glared at her as she was dragged, still naked, towards the green container. She began to struggle; she knew what the container was used for and she began to scream and beg for mercy. It took all of Craig's strength to force the girl forward, but then Amber's legs gave way and the girl sank to the ground, fear controlling her emotions as she shook, and tears ran down her face while she pleaded for her life. Craig had no problem with the girl thinking that she was about to die; she deserved to think it as far as he was concerned.
The container doors were open, and Amber stopped sobbing as a bad smell reached her nostrils; she could smell urine, excrement, sweat . . . and death. Then, as Craig pushed her closer to the container, the fear came back with a vengeance and she struggled as violently as she could. Then she felt the sawdust beneath her bare feet, and she stopped dead, refusing to move as she saw the dead body lying in the sawdust just six feet ahead of her. The body was a mass of blood and bodily fluids, open wounds very evident. Without warning, Amber found herself shoved hard in the back and she fell forwards, landing face down atop the naked corpse. She screamed as she felt the blood and other bodily fluids splashing over the front of her body. She felt the squelching and she freaked out, big time. She rolled off the corpse, vomiting down her front, across her thighs, and over the corpse. She tried to move, to escape the horror, but then the steel doors to the container were slammed shut and her last sight was of the corpse beside her as the lights were switched off.
Amber began to scream.