A Loner Mentalist Pt. 08

"None the less, there are eight evil hackers on that screen."

Jack huffed and concentrated on them. They all did bad things, ranging from gathering social security numbers and selling them, to outright credit card fraud and electronic theft. Jack made notes and decided to tip the police off about seven of them. The eighth, he would feel no shame in enslaving.

George Henderson was a vile son of a bitch and Jack could plainly see that. The man thought of himself as the unrecognized master of the universe and treated everyone and everything like shit. He stole money wherever he could get it and he hit on every young female he saw. Since he was a fat slob, they all passed on his rude offers of being his fuck toys. He believed that made those women evil and he would avenge himself by hacking their social media accounts and making fake posts and tweets that got them into trouble, or broke up their relationships. He would cyberstalk them for years to come, thoroughly enjoying the mess he made out of their lives.

Whenever he found that his programming and electronics savvy gave him power over another human being, no matter how small, he exerted it to their ruin, just to make himself laugh at the pain and misery he caused. He even murdered a waiter by hacking into his medical records and removing the bit about his allergies. In George's mind, the waiter had deserved execution by penicillin shot for not licking George's boots when he came into his restaurant one evening.

"This is a very sorry excuse for a human being," the dog said.

"Amen," Jack agreed and noted George's private cell number. The call was coming as soon as his high was over and then George was going to go the way of the Chicago crime family mentalists and their misogynist, mind-rapist ways. As Jack thought about those assholes, a movie played on the screen, revealing a new set of assholes. Jack frowned, his fists tightening in rage. "Oh, someone's going to get their ass raped with a spool of barbed wire," he declared darkly.

**********

The men were sitting around the mahogany table and sipping their champagne when the door opened. A bound young woman was shoved into the opulent room without much ceremony. Her mouth was gagged and she was drawing deep breaths through her nose, but she didn't look particularly scared. A tall, thin man entered after her. He grabbed her by an elbow and unnecessarily held her still for the men to view.

The men downed their drinks and got up to walk over to the girl. "Well, well, well," said the oldest of them. He lifted his gaze and smiled at the tall, thin man. "Jerry, you finally did it. You brought us a girl that really looks like a movie star."

Jerry smiled an ugly smile and shoved the girl forward. "Found her at the mall."

Two of the men grabbed her and held her still. "Holy fuck," said one of those two men. "Look at this bitch! She looks so much like Megan Fox, I just wanna make a call and check if this isn't the real deal."

"Don't be dumb, Hank," said the oldest of them. "She's obviously got tits twice the size of Megan Fox."

"I dunno," Hank said. "Fox is a MILF nowadays. Tits grow for breastfeeding, ya know. Tits grow." He chuckled.

The oldest nodded at Jerry. "Thank you, Jerry, that will be all." Jerry nodded back, turned on his heels and left the room, closing the doors behind himself. "Now, my dear. Let's cover the basics, shall we? Our names aren't important and neither is yours. We're all going to have some fun." He gestured at another member, who was filming things on a small, digital camera. "Mike's going to film everything so we can all look back on this night some day and remember it fondly."

The girl flinched when Hank grabbed her tits and gave them a big squeeze. "Play nice, bitch," he snarled.

The oldest one took the girl by the chin and turned her head towards him. "Listen to me, girl! Listen! This can go one of two ways. You can play nice and have some fun with us. If you do, you'll be going home with Ben, the driver, and he'll give you a nice, fat envelope when he drops you off. Or, you can choose to not play nice. We'll still have our fun with you, but we'll be sending you home with Jerry. Jerry...well, you already know he isn't as nice as Ben. He certainly won't be giving you an envelope when he finally does bring you home. So, what'll it be? Are you going to play nice?"

The girl squeezed her blue eyes shut and nodded her head as best she could in his grip. He pulled the gag out of her mouth and said, "Now, let's hear you promise you'll play nice and be a good girl for us!"

The girl worked her jaw loose. All five men were eating her up with their eyes. She gulped and licked her lips before saying, "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!"

"What," Hank barked out, laughing.

The girl could see that the face of one of the five men changed. He looked confused for a moment and then seemed to adopt a calm, neutral expression. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!" Mike, the camera man, seemed struck with a sudden indecision, before he lowered his camera and turned it off.

"As far as pleas for mercy go, that one is fairly...out there," said the oldest man.

"Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!"

The oldest man put his hand over her mouth, even as she saw the third of the five adopt a blank expression. "Well, I guess we don't need your mouth to have our fun, do we now?"

"Let her go," Mike said.

Hank gaped at his friend. "What?!"

"Let the girl go," piped in the guy in the back. The third one nodded in the affirmative.

Hank and the oldest man shared a bewildered look. "What the hell has gotten into you three?" Hank demanded.

Mike shoved him aside, while the other two men grabbed the eldest and took his hands off the girl. "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice," she said.

The old man looked pensive for a moment and then calmed down and settled into a neutral expression. Hank looked panicked as he shoved Mike aside. "I'll fucking kill you, you fucking bitch!" His advance on the girl was stopped by the other two men. "Get off me!"

The girl said, "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!"

Hank's face betrayed confusion, for a moment, and then he calmed down and backed away. The other two men let go of him.

Mike stood up and said, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm done with raping. Why are we doing this, anyway? Paying assholes like Ben and Jerry and Thomas to lure girls to us and then filming ourselves as we rape them? When did this get fun?" The other guys murmured assent. "We have all this money and power between us...and look at what we use it for. I'm disgusted by what we do. I'm disgusted by who I've become. I'm done."

"You said it, brother," Hank added. "It's time we put an end to all this." The others murmured their heartfelt agreement. "Let's all go to the police and confess our crimes. It's high time we paid for them. I know I'm looking forward to it."

The others worked to remove the zip ties from the girl's wrists. The oldest among them said, "Wait a minute! What about the girl?"

"What about the girl?" Hank asked.

"Ben, Jerry and Thomas are down the hall. They won't just let her go. They won't stay cool while we confess and stick them in prison."

"Relax, gentlemen," the girl said, "my boyfriend is coming here and he'll take care of your men outside."

"Are you sure," Hank asked. "They're all former special forces operators. Tough as nails and completely remorseless."

"Yeah, but only Tom and Jerry are wearing their dog tags," she said.

"What's that got to do with anything," Mike asked.

The girl smiled warmly and put her hand on his arm. "Don't worry! It's all been covered." She gestured at the table they had been sitting at when she first arrived. "What's going on here? Were you playing cards?"

"Omaha Hold 'Em," Mike said.

"Let's play a few hands," she said.

The men agreed and moved to the table. Hank brought a chair for her and pushed it in for her. "What's your name, Miss?"

"Mia. Mia Newman."

Hank smiled a charming smile. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Newman."

Mia smiled. "You have no idea, Hank."

**********

The taxi pulled up in front of the mansion and Jack told the cabby what the code for the front gate was. Jack read both the code and the address in Hank's mind when he restructured it. The cabby leaned out of his window and typed it in. The gate slowly swung open and the taxi drove up the tree-lined drive. Two large men came out of the mansion even before the taxi had a chance to park.

Jack slipped into Ben's mind as soon as the man saw the taxi. He ordered him to remove Thomas' dog tags. Ben reached over and yanked the thin, metal necklace, ripping it out of Thomas' shirt.

"Hey," Thomas cried out.

Jack made holes in his cloak in the shape of a pain around his neck from the necklace being pulled off and found himself inside Thomas' mind. He projected orders to remove Jerry's dog tags. He sent the same order to Ben, too. The men turned around and went back inside the house. Jack told the cabby to wait and went in after them.

As soon as he came in, Jack saw the three men fighting in the hallway. Most importantly, Thomas had a dog tag necklace in his fist. Jack said, "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice," and felt through the hole in his cloak that three men had just heard him say that name. He selected the angry, surprised mind and found himself in Jerry's head. He sent the man the order to stop fighting. He sent all three the orders to wait for the police and confess all their wrongdoings to them after they arrive.

Jack went through the hallway and opened the door he knew Mia was behind. Her face lit up when she saw him and he felt a flutter of relief deep inside of his belly, too. She jumped up and rushed into his arms. He held her close.

After they calmed down, he made sure none of the men could remember him, or Mia. He had Hank, who was playing the host for the evening, erase the security camera footage. Mike had already erased his own, handheld camera. Jack and Mia took the cab back to their hotel, leaving the villains to call the cops and turn themselves in.

His relief at finding her safe and sound gave way to anger as soon as they were back in their room. He shook a finger at her. "You will never do that again!"

Mia held her hands up in an innocent gesture. "But, babe, we were a pair of superheroes! We got the bad guys!"

"No, I was the superhero, you were bait. You could have gotten hurt. What the hell were you thinking?"

Mia spread her arms. "Come on, Jack! You knew I wouldn't get hurt. And this was such fun! A gang of rapists taken down!" She karate chopped the air and struck a fight pose "Hiya!"

"This was stupid in the extreme!"

Mia adopted a more serious expression as she said, "Oh, come on, babe, it wasn't that bad. It all worked out in the end."

"You shouldn't have done that!"

"What? Gone out and saved an innocent girl from getting raped?"

"You put an innocent girl in danger!" Jack stopped and took hold of himself. His anger had been tempered by the sheer panic he had felt when Mia had left the room, but now that she was safe, it was back in full effect. "How could you've fucking done this? What was going through your head? Seriously, tell me what was going on inside your brain to make you go out, all alone, and offer yourself as bait for these maniacs!"

"Hey," she said, defensively, "if I'm too much bother for you to work with, then-"

"Work with?!" Jack's tone of voice was utterly incredulous. "You call that working with me?! Holy fuck! I shudder to think what would happen if you decided to work against me one day!"

"I let them take me and I led you straight to them."

Jack's mouth fell wide open. "Led me straight...led me straight to them?! Are you fucking kidding me!? You snuck out of the room while I was taking a dump and only sent me a text message after the fact. What if I hadn't seen it? Answer me this, Mia! What would have happened if I hadn't checked my phone and seen your text to listen for you saying Beetlejuice three times?"

Mia faltered for an instant. "But youdid see it, so-"

He got in her face, eyes ablaze with anger. "They would have been gangbanging you right now!" He hooked a finger under her choker. "And I wouldn't have been able to find you unless they took this off your neck."

Mia licked her lips and looked down at her feet. "Well...uh..."

"God alone knows which cunt they would have given you to afterwards! Jerry would have left your corpse in a ditch at the side of the road, somewhere." Jack blinked away the tears that were misting up his vision and drew deep breaths to keep calm.

Mia scrunched up her mouth and lifted her gaze to meet his. "You couldn't find them because they were wearing military dog tags! You said they were out right now, in that mall, looking for their next victim and you couldn't find them! I had to go-"

"I could find them! I was going to find their employers, who did not wear dog tags. I was going to eat more pot cookies and look for them again, just as soon as I took a shit. The only reason I told you about them was because my high ran out. It ran out just after I saw that they always turned off all the phones before they went to a random, foreclosed house to get their rape on, but it ran out right before I could see which fucking house it was this night. I was going to eat more cookies and learn which house it was in half an hour. But I couldn't do that and listen for you saying 'Beetlejuice' three times at the same time, now could I? And where the fuck did you come up with Beetlejuice, anyway?"

"It all worked out in the end. You found me and you took their minds and-"

"Oh, my, fucking, God, Mia! Are you not listening to me, or what?! What if they had taken a different girl and not you?! Huh? What then? I didn't eat cookies, cause I was running around the mall, looking for you and listening for you saying 'Beetlejuice' the whole time. If you hadn't been the one they took, then some other girl would have been taken and raped. Hell, by the time you got your head on straight and called me, the poor girl could have already been dumped on the side of the road."

Mia's face fell when she finally understood she had almost been a hindrance and not a help. "But, it all worked out in the end," she said in a small voice.

Jack wiped his face and sighed. "This was...I don't understand what the fuck possessed you to go off and do such a thing."

"I wanted to be useful," she said in a small voice. "I wanted to help."

"I appreciate the sentiment, Mia, I really do, but...you cannot be pulling off things like that. You just can't."

"I'll do better next time."

Jack rolled his eyes. "There isn't going to be a next time."

Mia's lip quivered. "Don't send me away. Please, I-"

"I'm not sending you away. I'm saying that you will never, ever know anything about my work with mentalists, or any criminals I happen to come across. I just can't trust your judgment."

She burst into tears and ran into the bathroom. He heard the lock and his shoulders slumped.First she wants me to violate her mind on the off chance it would make her telekinetic. Now she hauls off to be taken by a bunch of rapists, hoping to lead me to them despite being insulated against mentalism...it's like I'm dealing with a five year old that dreams of being a superhero! I wouldn't be surprised if she tied a blanket around her neck for a cape and started leaping over furniture while making whooshing noises.

He could hear her sobbing in the bathroom, so he fell heavily into the couch and turned on the TV. He surfed the channels aimlessly. At length, the bathroom door opened and Mia slowly came out, her face hanging. "Sorry, I'll never do that again," she mumbled.

Jack sighed. "Look, Mia, I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have blown up at you like that. It's just..." He patted the cushion next to his. She sat down and he gently took her hand into his. "If you're bored on this trip, or you want to feel more useful, or whatever...tell me! We'll talk about it and work something out. Ok? I'm not comfortable using you as bait, but there could be other roles you could play. So long as we have to talk about it first, ok? Make a plan and stick to it. I'm a little bit proud of you for going out and taking the place of an innocent girl. I'm super pissed off at you for doing that without talking it out with me first. That's what you did wrong. Running off with half a thought for a plan and leaving me to panic and play catch-up."

Mia sniffed and nodded. "I understand. I won't do anything without your permission again."

"It's not my permission you need to have before you try and play the hero. It's myknowing assistance that you must have. Ok?" She nodded. He put a finger under he chin and brought her face close for a tender kiss. She leaned into him and they hugged as they spent the evening on the couch, watching TV.

Jack stretched and called his dogs to him. They padded closer to his bed with their paws smacking wetly against the floor. Jack sat up in his bed and looked over to see exactly why they were making the wet noises. His eyes grew wide when he saw the dogs covered in blood from snout to tail. Blood that came from their victims, not them. It was horrible to see Spot and the three musketeers look at him with love and trust, while wearing a thick coat of human blood. They cocked their heads at his shock. He could feel them asking him why he was unhappy. Did he want them to butcher more people at his command? All he had to do was think the thought and they would tear the throats out of anyone he wanted. They came all the way to his side of the bed and shook the blood out of their fur.

Jack startled awake in his bed as he felt the red drops splatter against his face and make him wet from head to toe. He wiped his face and looked at his hand. It was wet with sweat. He sat up in bed and realized it had been just another nightmare. His dogs were in the RV, except for Spot, who was sleeping next to the door. Jack lay back down with a sigh of relief.

He could see out the corner of his eye that it was already dawn outside the window. He lay still for a while longer, but got up when he saw that sleep wasn't returning. He picked up his phone and called the hacker.

The phone rang seven times before George Henderson answered it with the words, "Whoever this is, I'm going to end your life for calling me this early. And then you'll kill yourself. But first, how the motherfuck did you get my private number, you early-rising sack of pigeon shit?"

Jack calmly said, "I am calling you to end your reign of tyranny." He made holes in his cloak in the shape of his words and felt George's mind through them. He made another hole in the shape of wanting to incessantly chant the words balaclava and dichotomy. He projected his power through them and hung up the phone. He moved to the couch and sat cross-legged on it. He closed his eyes and focused. He made holes in his cloak in the shape of chanting those two words and locked on to the panicked mind of George Henderson. He took his time reshaping it from the ground up.

By the time Jack was done, it was already mid-morning and Mia was sitting in a chair opposite him, drying her hair. "Morning," she said.

"Morning." He craned his neck this way and that. All the changes he made to George left him mentally exhausted, particularly since he did them all in one sitting. He yawned and got up. He felt confident he'd be in able to search for mentalists by the time they drove to Minneapolis. "Hungry?"

"Yes."

"Me too. Order us some breakfast while I shower. Ok?"

Mia nodded. "Where are we going today?"

"Minneapolis." He sighed and frowned. "I, uh, I have to tell you something."