Chapter 14 – Eastern Promises, Part One

The layout was standard : a small entryway, the closet on the left with the bathroom on the right. Opening up into a small refurbished room with barren gray-white walls and a moldy ceiling. On the right was the queen sized bed flanked by two nightstands. The plastic sheeting covering the bed carefully tucked and tightened by the obsessive Lifeng.

On the left was a long dresser with a broken wall clock. In the corner was a shabby table with an office chair. At the far end of the room, the sliding door overlooked the rocky shoreline and crashing waves, invisible now in the evening. The room's sparse layout was reflected back from the rain-streaked glass by the flickering light fixtures.

The two men secured the unconscious young woman to the bed-frame, head to the base, feet to the front. They threw aside the empty holster rig and remaining boot. Lifeng had attached the handcuffs and shackles to the metal rails and it was merely a matter of stretching the slack limbs and snapping the hinges tight so Revy was spreadeagled and at their mercy. They looked at each other with feral eyes and uncontrollable smiles.

"Why wait?" said the taller of the two dacoits. A knife suddenly appeared in his hand. "She's practically naked anyway? Those two don't care if we get a head start..."

The knife slashed up the black tanktop, flicked down through the shorts at the hip. The second man tossed the fragments of clothing aside to the floor with eager, trembling hands.

"I'm first," snarled the taller man. He straddled Revy and fumbled at his belt. "Give her a head start on what she deserves..."

"Get. Off!" shrieked Lifeng. She stood in the shadow of the entryway supporting Liling who leaned against her. There was a clatter as she dropped the items she cradled in her free hand to her feet. The albino raised one of Revy's Beretta's and pointed it. "Now!"

Quickly the man did as he was told.

"How dare you?" snapped Lifeng, her finger twitching on the trigger. "She's ours. Now get out and get the boat ready. We'll be just a minute or two." Though she had expected them to behave this way, seeing the attempted rape of her prize infuriated her.

The two men stepped sullenly past them out of the room. Lifeng closed the door with a slam. She helped Liling to the side of the bed and then spun about.

There was a small gasp from Revy and her fingers suddenly twitched. Liling looked away.

"Men! They're slobs!" The albino darted about picking up Revy's discarded clothing. "Gyahh, this stuff reeks, what she'd do wade through garbage to get here?"

She flung the clothing into a pile on the floor of the open closet space. With the sole of her boot she pushed the two dropped guns up against the pile. Then with small, nasty smile she bent and fished out the cigarette butt she had retrieved from the other room.

"Lili, about thirty minutes north of here, there's a little resort town with a great restaurant." Lifeng said licking her lips. "We should go and celebrate afterwards."

"I'll pass," said Liling slowly. She reached into the bag by the side of the bed. "Can I use this?"

--

Her thoughts were slippery, sliding away into red and black lump of pain that throbbed and pulsed with the regularity of a hammer strike. There was a dim awareness of being pulled and then a heavy pressure against her chest that suddenly was released. Someone was shouting and nothing mattered.

Then suddenly everything was real as something intently hot and painful stabbed into her. Lifeng had lit the cigarette butt and thrust it up one her nostrils with a wet sizzle. Revy snapped her head about with a squeal as consciousness returned with the smell of tobacco, flesh and blood.

Panting, Revy stared up at the two women who sat on either side of her on the bed. The black haired one she knew as Lucy held a blood stained cloth to her nose with an expression that mixed dread and anticipation. The white haired albino whose smile stretched from ear to ear was twirling something metallic in one hand and pinching the smoldering remnant of the cigarette butt in the other.

Revy realized bleakly that these two were going to tear her to pieces. Revy had no illusions about what was about to happen. She accepted the reality; everyone broke, everyone screamed in the end. The Sword Cutlass specials had been her protection, a lethal charm -- and the guns had failed. If she had been a little slower a few weeks ago, Jumbo could have finished her off quickly with a thrust to the heart, not the leg -- and she could have been spared this degrading miserable end.

Still, Revy mustered her usual bravado. Maybe if she really pissed them off, they'd kill her quicker...

"A freak and the squeak," she slurred, glaring at them both. "Where the fuck d'ya get that costume from? A comic book convention? Are you perverts? Figures, you both look like perverts to me?

Lifeng blinked. "Is it speaking to us? Whatever. How typically American...this has nothing to do with sex."

"For couriers, the Lagoon Company certainly are a murderous bunch," The metal object in Lifeng's hand stopped spinning, and Revy saw that it was a scalpel. "Chen, Wu, Chulunn... not to mention some old friends of yours from Luak's gang. In the end though it didn't matter - Dutch dead. Benny dead. That earnestly dull man of yours, what was his name, Rock? Dead.... Oh, I'm sorry, did that hurt?"

"You killed Ayi Lijuan ten years ago and fouled up our lives," burst in Liling, lowering her head. "We're the Aisin Gioro twins, descendant of royalty - and because of you that insufferable brother of ours took over the family business and ruined our inheritance. Well, you know what they say? Payback's a bitch - and there's two of us."

Revy sneered and closed her eyes.

"She's not listening to me!" hissed Liling.

"Hold it's head," said Lifeng.

Lifeng spun the scalpel again, and then lowered it to Revy's face. Lifeng wasn't interested in plunging the blade into the eye. Instead with a flick of the wrist, she cut enough of the flesh on the eyelid to open a small cut that would bleed heavily - just enough of an implication to get Revy's attention. It did, with a deep intake of breath Revy tried twisting her head from Liling's grasp. She opened her eyes, blinking spastically to keep out the blood.

"Look at us when we speak to you, or I'll cut your eyelids off," Lifeng warned, her voice trembling with excitement. "You'll want to see this. I had it taken off that rusty old bridge."

Lifeng jerked the noose over Revy's head, tightened it around her bruised throat and pulled. Revy's legs began to jerk on the mattress, straining against the shackles. Her body moved in convulsive lunges. Her face went purple, eyes bulging. There was a anguished gurgle.

Lifeng let the rope go loose, smiled as Revy gasped air into her lungs. Her head flopped to the mattress.

"My sister wants her turn," said Lifeng gaily.

Liling's swollen face broke into a smile as she touched the prongs of a taser against Revy's.

Revy's body went entirely rigid as she spasmed, the flesh of her wrists and ankles tearing as she arced upward. Her mouth was open in a scream but nothing came out. It just went on and on.

Liling switched off the current and Revy sagged, shaking uncontrollably. Her body was soaking wet from her own perspiration and a mixture of tears, snot and blood rolled down her cheek.

"Oh fuck you, fuck you!" the words were barely audible as she forced them out. "Just fucking kill me already. Just fucking get on with it."

"No," said Liling. She touched the prongs again to Revy's flesh.

--

"What do you mean the door's locked?" said Eda. "You've got to be kidding. Dutch? Dutch! Can you hear me? We made it but we're stuck on the rooftop of the Nova. Don't do anything."

"No, it won't open," snarled Rock pulling at the handle. "That damn guard you kicked over the side must have had the key."

"Or maybe the idiot wasn't meant to get off..." murmured Eda. She strode over to the edge facing the ocean and peered down, raising a hand over her brow as a shield against the driving rain.

"Damn." Eda stepped back shaking her head. "We got company. A lot of company"

Rock pulled out the gun and stepped back, "I'll just shoot out the lock."

"NO! You idiot!" Eda snapped. "Holy Mary, mother of God. We just pulled off a miracle and you want to throw it all away? It's like breaking into a house and then banging the pots. We won't make it down the stairwell."

"But Revy's down there," protested Rock. The gun fell to his side.

"You don't know that," said Eda. "We wait. If and when all hell breaks loose, then we'll know Revy's here. Her idea of a plan is to kill faster than the other person. For now though, just keep the gun out of the rain."

--

"You should stop now," said Lifeng coolly, easing up on the rope. "Heart's probably about to blow."

"Why doesn't she scream? Is she that tough?" said Liling disappointed. She put the taser aside. The only sound was the rain pelting against the sliding door and Revy's coughs and gasps of agony.

"You can't," Lifeng replied. "All you can do is shake and crap yourself when you get tasered. Fortunately it hasn't done that."

Lifeng stood up and stretched, "I guess we still got some time left – nothing from the lookout yet. I'm bored. Lili, get the hacksaw and surgical tubing out."

She leaned over Revy and slapped her, "Hey, hey! None of that. Stay with us okay? Now, my sister and I had a promise that we'd feed you to the sharks out in the Gulf. It's not happening. You get to live if you can stand the shock of us cutting off your hands -- Two-hands -- They won't be calling you that anymore. Maybe they'll call you Stubs."

"Tzao-gao," said Liling. She looked ill.

Lifeng giggled. "I know. Isn't it clever of me?"

"No, that's not... I mean," Liling stammered pointing.

Jin Cheong stood in the entryway.