Life as a New Hire Ch. 38

"Get in," I pulled the covers half aside as I scooted to the middle. She hesitated a second before coming over.

"I came in to see if you wanted a bite to eat ... and to tell you Buffy came back and she was pissed. She wanted to see you until we told her you were asleep," Javiera told me.

"Is she still here?" I stifled my own sympathetic yawn.

"No, she stormed out," she sat down on the bed beside me. I let my head fall down on the far pillow. "Care to tell me what that was about?" she added.

"Internal politics," I was losing interest in this conversation fast.

"Cáel, if you want to talk with someone ~ semi-normal and off the record ..." she trailed off. "I'm already going to spend the rest of my life as a fugitive, or in a deep dark hole," she tried to joke. "Keeping a few of your secret isn't going to ..."

All I did was stare at her. She was an experienced and gifted criminal prosecutor and that made her a good judge of a person's soul. My soul had been taking a serious beating and she knew it. For that matter, Javiera had never seen me far from pain – my Father's murder, Charlotte's death and now this latest unspoken malady.

"I'll lay down for a bit, if you don't mind?"

I raised the sheets halfway up once more. She kicked off her low heels then sidled in.

"You are naked," she stiffened slightly. I knew the source of her misconceptions. I wasn't a neatnik and I certainly didn't act like one.

What I was, was a man who didn't think his lady friends wanted to be walking all over his dirty undies. Given a chance, I put my clothes in the hamper unless I planned to put them on ~ in say, a few hours. I had decided to sleep until morning, I had my jeans, t-shirt and tennis shoes already set aside and had already showered.

Sneak out without too many complications was my plan, so I had tossed my used clothes into the laundry basket. That meant when Javiera didn't see my clothes scattered about, she assumed I had something on.

"You are getting arou ... hard," she noted with tired playfulness.

"I don't mean this as an insult, but you don't want to imagine the female form that doesn't get the same reaction from me, Javiera. I'm tired and unless you initiate something, I'm going back to sleep.

"Okay." It took her a few seconds but, she put her head down on the pillow beside me.

She was even getting the warm spot where I had been sleeping. I noisily stretched my arm out, up and around, giving her plenty of time to roll on her side, facing me, and rest her head on my shoulder. I thought she was worried that her hand resting on my chest would ... and I slept. An hour later, Riki showed up.

Without the lights on, she initially mistook the sleeping Javiera to be a sleeping, post-sex Javiera.

"Cáel?" she whispered.

"She's asleep and totally clothed. Do you need me, or her?"

"You," she came and sat down on the side of the bed opposite Javiera.

"The Georgians and Armenians are sending separate commissions to meet with you," she began. I must have looked really tired. "You are their Prince, right? They want to make some ground rules and bring some issues to your attention. I'd like to bring in some of the UK and US experts on the region to help out."

"Make it so," I proclaimed loftily and quietly. She got the reference.

"Aye, aye Captain," she smiled compassionately. The 'Beat Puppy' look is a serious lure for any babe with a mothering instinct.

"Come on," I yawned. "Crawl in."

"I shouldn't," she demurred.

"I'm about to fall back to sleep and I don't want to do it alone," I moped. Yes, I had a woman asleep on the other side of me, but Riki had her sight-inhibiting 'sex goggles' on.

"I'll be right back," she kissed me (on the cheek). Off she went and quickly she returned. I barely registered her snuggling in on the other side. Sleep took us.

"The Dali Lama is currently meeting with The Great Khan and it's going out over the BBC, Aljazeera and CNN!" Lady Fathom loudly proclaimed as she flipped on the lights while the grey-black skyline showed the first signs of pink. "I've proven my diplomatic brilliance yet again. Cáel, you know what this means," she began stripping. "The rest of you can stay or go, your choice."

So I got my four-way.

(Monday, August 15th ~ 28 Days to go)

My kidnappers' plan was equal parts sinister and simple. The only item that tipped me off that anything untoward was happening were the blank lenses worn by the little girl walking my way. Ten years old is a bit early in life to be exploring your beatnik heritage. Only when she got close did I pick up on her tear streaked cheeks and the white-knuckled hold she had on her book bag.

Before then, I had been the anchor point/mom-teacher distracting device that allowed Aya and her Squirts to become unsworn peace officers for the first through six graders who were at the park, pool and outdoor athletic facilities attached to the private school. There were a few kids actually attending summer classes, but most of the youngster hanging about were doing so because this was a 'public' place.

That meant that only the right quality of people were allowed in. The other security guards asked me about Yasmin. I told them she was finished with her orientation at Havenstone (a lie, the real 'Runner' orientation took a minimum of one year) and would soon be working on a temporary project in her native Brazil. I neglected to mention that we would be engaging in nefarious activities that would very likely involve varying levels of pain and death.

Even though they knew me, I was still searched. My Conceal Carry permit didn't cover me leaving the vehicle, so they took my boom-boom. They missed my knife in the arm sheath. I didn't care.

I managed to bring in four 'sweet' water pistols so I could dispense summary humiliation to any mouthy punks who thought they could pick on Aya and I couldn't stop them because I was an adult. I'm not much of an adult. I'd also tricked the Martial leader of the Amazon Host, so these entitled bullies seriously hadn't a clue who they were screwing with.

I could place a wet spot on a crotch (guys), or shoot them in their mouths (girls) form ten feet. Turning around only meant you got a soaked butt instead. Sadly, that brought me to the attention of two Eight grade girls who liked to play Call of Duty (there is a video game that doesn't have scantily clad babes? And people play it? Just kidding.)

Anyway, these were two girls who knew Aya by reputation (her Father was a spy), and Europa (because she was a bad-ass.) It was all harmless fun until one asked me if I'd ever been to Romania. I knew what was coming. They showed me some video, included shoulder cam footage from my team, the Romanian Mountain Hunters and the Mycenaeans.

Yes, I was that guy. Yes ... the strange girl showed up and my Spidey senses were tingling. I had four security types (2 Amazons and 2 FBI HRT members) in separate locations outside the school grounds. There were eight security types on the ground and four NYPD patrol cars within two minutes. I should have been safe.

With shaking hands, she handed me her MP3 player. She was clearly sniffling with near hysteria. The MP3 had five files with my name on them Instructions #1~5.

"Please," the little girl pleaded softly. "Please, do what they say, or they'll kill my Mommy." Aya and one of her Squirts, seeing one of their classmates standing next to me were on their way over.

I was about to wave her off then I took a second look at her glasses. They had spy cams on each side. I was already being watched. The rest was basic. The little girl was wired to explode. The girl's backpack had the equivalent of an omnidirectional child-size Claymore mine – kill radius 5 meters, or so they claimed. Aya was within three meters already.

I was being observed. No direct communication with the kidnappers was permitted. Either I complied with each and every step laid out on the MP3 player, or the child and mother detonated. It got better; they wanted Aya and me, not just me. Worse, it was all very solid spycraft. I would only communicate a given message to my guardians while a second phone was also on, so they could listen in to what I said.

The mom and her minivan were waiting for me at the school U shaped drop off station. I waved good-bye to the guards. I contacted my security to let them know I was on the move. They were concerned. I was insistent and they followed along. At the appropriate moment, an auto accident separated my team and Mini-van Mom sped away.

At stage #5 of the instructions, Aya and I stripped naked with remarkable aplomb. It wasn't that we weren't afraid what would happen to the mother and child (and a tad worried about ourselves) ... but we had one another and that was what mattered most. We were given fresh cloths and a time table to get ready to depart.

At the parking garage exchange point, I was happy to see that while they were binding up me and Aya (hands behind our backs, ankles and gags), they were also binding up the mother and child, plus removing and disarming the explosives. We'd never know if they were fakes, or not. They stuffed us in the trunk of a new sedan.

That vehicle only traveled a few more blocks before we took a sharp incline then came to an abrupt halt. The sedan's engine cut off and a different sounding engine – a diesel – started up. After that, I was in the Land of the Lost. I'd lost all bearings. The thing was, I already knew the identities of three of the four kidnappers – I'm an ass man and no two asses are the same.

None of that was helpful at the moment. We were taken out of the trunk at our final destination. The kidnappers' sedan was in the back of a large panel truck. That had shaken off all immediate chances of being tracked by traffic cams. There were four Seven Pillars Commandoes present who cut our feet free and removed our gags before taking us out of the truck. Those four took us down the ramp, exposing us to our new setting; an aircraft hangar with close to thirty 7P's.

There was only one of the old kidnapping crew in evidence – Felix Melena unmasked. I looked at him, he looked at me, snorted, grinned then shrugged. "It pays to be on the winning side," he joked.

"Turning traitor will only make you their dog instead of Havenstone's," I countered calmly. I was raging ... Goddess, I was dying for a chance to be in a situation where unleashing my rage would do some good. This wasn't it.

"Yeah, but I'll be a dog who can fuck bitches, not some lap pet like you, Nyilas," Felix snorted. To an outsider and a person who only looked at the superficial Melena, his actions and attitude were plausible, even expected.

To an insider like me, this was an impossibility. There was no way Felix could have gathered the access to pull this off. A Havenstone insider would never trust Felix as a pawn. And Felix wouldn't betray me for the most important of all reasons (to Felix). How could he reverse his martial defeat at my hands if I wasn't around anymore?

He was a bastard and a huge prick, but he was a self-confident machismo kind of man too. I shouldn't have been surprised that Katrina would risk her own niece in whatever ploy she was working on. I still didn't know if she, or Alal, was the smartest, most convoluted thinker I had ever known. Felix's other three assistants weren't around because they were Amazons and that would have looked fishy.

In the crowd of Han, five people stood out. Of least importance was the grizzled looking Chinese fireplug with grey-white, short-cropped hair and a scar running through his right eye. It was milky and blind. I had little doubt he thought Spetsnaz training was for pussies too. He led the twenty-four other Seven Pillar Commandos. I recognized the gear.

I surveyed the next four ~ I'd get to the girl last. Two were a bald, senior-junior member team of Gong tau necromancers. The younger guy looks like he was happy to be past the 'twisting the heads off heads of kittens' phase of his training and into the true, 'I get to help humans suffer and die' main program.

The older guy had far more extensive tattooing: much more than the junior member and more than the guy Saku had killed for me at Summer Camp. He looked at Aya and I as if we were nine year old virgins on a pedophile auction block. He was unhealthily happy to see us.

The last duo were fraternal twins. Without a doubt, Han Chinese. The woman was tall for a female of the type and as tall as her brother ~ 1.75 meters and slight-muscular builds (f 58/m 64kg). They had tight black bodysuits on, hip-holstered pistols and twin Jian swords on their backs. Both had their long black hair braided down to their belt loops.

Everyone looked down on Aya, both physically and socially. I earned a greater level of hostility from the commandoes ~ I'd turned some of their buddies into briquettes. I was a curious skin rash to the warlocks; an unexpected infection they meant to scrape off the flesh of their Pure Han world. The twins were intense and not my biggest fans.

Felix stepped up to the leader, who clearly looked as though he was dealing with a form of life even lower than me. I was loyal to my side, no matter how misguided. Felix was a traitor. He handed four objects to the guy: my Amazon honor blade, a clear baggie with one brownie and five fortune cookies, and two tiny objects – memory cards.

"What is this?" the male asked. His English was 'English', not 'American'.

"The chips from their phones and this is his 'Amazon' token. I believe it has some value to him," Felix explained. "The treats ~ he values them for no reason I know of, yet he is never without some."

"I did not ask for these, Traitor," the boy-twin sneered. Then he tried to punish Felix by stabbing him in the chest with a two-fingered strike. He was fast. Felix was an eye-blink faster and parried the blow. Felix took two steps back before setting his fighting stance. My co-worker was grinning evilly.

"If that's the best you got Chang, Chung, 'whichever frying pan noise you are'," Felix laughingly mocked him, "you had better keep Cáel's hands and feet bound, or he's going to escape and be coming back for me by day's end."

That bravado was a risky play on his part.

It would help the 7P's believe Felix was a cavalier savage overlaid with a thin veneer of civilization. Obsequious traitors would be the norm, thus easily to consider suspicious. Felix was playing the role of a revenge-oriented opportunist. He was making it easy to want to kill him, which no sane double-agent would do.

To prove my point, six commandoes pointed their QCW-05 Chinese Suppressed Submachine Gun his way.

"You are a poor judge of my tolerance, Rat," the man glared, "and remarkably incapable of accepting your miniscule worth."

"I know me and my partner delivered the man and Katrina's niece when you couldn't get close, Chuckie," Felix taunted him. "Was that the Dali Lama and the Great Khan chatting away this morning? With Cáel's fiancée sitting in the background?" he continued happily.

"Go," the man dismissed him. They waited until Felix mounted up on a motorcycle I hadn't seen before and departed before another word was spoken.

[Mandarin] "His time will come, Brother," the girl spoke up (girl as in a woman in her late 20's). "You will feed him each word – each insult." He looked her way. There was some true affection there. It wasn't incestuous, just familial respect and love. "Do you know what I am saying," she looked my way.

I kept looking at her because that was natural. They had my life in their hands, so observing the two people clearly in charge was logical. I didn't even indicate that I knew she was asking a question.

[Mandarin] "Kill the girl. She is no longer of any use to us," she said next.

This wasn't even a stress on my acting ability. Aya had multiple uses, so verbally threatening her as a lure was idiotic in the extreme. No one was moving to follow those orders, so I maintained my 'confused' face.

"My Sister wished to know if you speak Mandarin," the brother translated for me.

"Hi, I'm Cáel," I greeted him. "Who are you guys?" He looked to one of the two goons holding on to me. I received a painful kidney punch. I discovered a whole new super-power. It hurt for about two seconds then nothing.

"I asked you a question," he repeated.

"No, I don't speak Mandarin," I lied so well it came across as a dour confession.

"Yet you know the secretive language of the Earth & Sky," he stated.

"Yes, I do. I have a thing for dead languages. Maybe in a few more years, I'll pick up your Mother Tongue as well," I bantered.

No punishment was immediately meted out, so I suspected no one close to me, besides him, spoke much if any English. Jian Bob (my new name for him) didn't relay my insult. I wasn't worth it. He went straight for the reason for our get-together.

"You are going to die, Mr. Nyilas. That is a given," JB began.

"We both know you have done enough damage to our cause to be worthy of elimination a hundred times over. I'm going to show you respect by not lying to you about your possible fate. What you can do is save your young companion. We understand you two are close," he appealed in a very polite manner. Aya snickered.

"Cáel, these people are mentally challenged," she giggled to me, "or hideously misinformed."

"I know, I know," I smiled down at Aya. "Still, they have gone through a great deal of effort to insult our intellect today, so let's humor them a little longer." Jian Bob issued several casual orders.

In short order, a third man had hold of me by the jaw with one hand while trying to hold my eyelids open with the other. One guard held her by the shoulders. A second held her right hand, extending her ring finger. A third man held a knife to her top knuckle. A forth stood close with a small blowtorch.

"She may be a small person, Mr. Nyilas, but she can still die by the Death of a Thousand cuts," he explained.

"I love you, Aya," I told her softly.

"I love you too, Fehér mén," she succeeding in keeping most of the fear from her voice.

Neither one of us could stop this. Aya certainly didn't expect me to compromise the Host for her benefit. She was as much an Amazon as the first Epona.

"First, I wish to know what alerted you to the attack at the Summer Camp," Bob began the interrogation.

"We know you were responsible. We want to know what happened." I looked into his eyes and waited patiently. He nodded to the guard, who shoved my face toward Aya's extended finger until I was less than a foot away.

[Mandarin] "Do it."

The guard cut the top part of the digit off – one knuckle. I looked at the flesh and bone being cut away. In a clinical manner, I noted how sharp the blade was. I saw the blood shoot forth and heard Aya's little voice cry out in pain. I was pulled back and pointed at Jian Bob again.

"Do I need to repeat the question for you?" he said.

"No, I caught it the first time," I grimaced. "It tells me that you haven't the slightest idea who you are fucking with." Bob made a slight hand gesture and the blowtorch cauterized Aya's stump. Her little lungs belted out a terrible screech that wound down as her feet gave out and she hung limply in the guard's grip.

[Mandarin] "Revive her." The blowtorch guy, clearly not his first day on the job, snapped some smelling salts under her noise. Aya revived, sobbing and in a great deal of pain.

"Cáel," she whimpered. "I have found my stillness. I'll be okay now." Her sobs subsided.

"Shall we try this again?" JB remained coolly polite, almost urbane.

"Nah," I joked, "we are both pretty good over here."

[Mandarin] "Again." Off went another digit of her ring finger. This time her scream was much more exuberant and forceful. We all know it hurt like Hell, but the world had turned.