Mindy's Muse Ch. 03

"Make contact Seventeen, and report."

Dirk and Jonathan walked in character up by the window men. They had placed the window on the pavement in front of the building, and Mindy was nowhere to be found! They had the glass right in the way of the door, and Dirk was just about ready to pull out his ID and blow the operation wide open, when one of the plain clothes detectives, came zooming by him and Jonathan on a skateboard and went right into the window, breaking it in to thousands of pieces. Luckily it was not a regular window, it had been made especially for this operation with two light layers for the l e d to turn the clear glass into black. The window men were cursing him and he got his skate board and with a "fuck off dudes" ran, then skate boarded away.

Dirk and Jonathan used this distraction (Dirk made a mental note to commend the fast thinking detective) to get inside the building. Of course they were met by six of the biggest, meanest looking thugs they had ever seen.

"This is a private building, no bums allowed, git yer dirty, smelly asses outta here before we toss you out on yous heads."

Dirk grabbed Jonathan's arm, to take him out, as Jonathan was ready to take them on. Dirk knew that would be useless unless they used weapons, and that might endanger Mindy, since they didn't know where she was and who had her.

Out on the street, Dirk called in. "Top Cat, Seventeen here, Muse is loose, building is heavily guarded. Use the heat scope as well as the locater and advise."

Martha sat in front of all the monitors, and was following Mindy's signal, through the building she entered. She was very concerned for at several times, it seemed there was some sort of interference that blocked her signal, like they had some blocking device.

Luckily, she was able to look over at the thermal screen and between the times the regular signal came through, and following their heat outlines, they could see that three others had Mindy in their control and were leading her upwards, probably the stairs.

Dirk and Jonathan burst through the doorway of the 'headquarter' van and ran to the monitors.

Dirk noticed the in and out signal from the electronics in and on Mindy, so was also following her on the thermal display. He noticed right away they were headed for one of those oversized ducts that David had pointed out as probable tunnels. They lost both the electronic and the thermal activity for a second.

"Focus on the next building about halfway up with the thermal scope," Dirk commanded.

"Do you want to fill us in on your thinking for that command Detective?"

As usual, Martha was a bit irked when someone else to over.

"I brought over the building plans and thermal printouts for David to look at last night, and he saw a problem with some of the ductwork. He said it was way too large for the units it was there to supply and were probably the tunnels Pain and his crew use to get throughout all the different buildings.

The duct they are in now connects this building with the next, about halfway up, so that is where they will probably come out. But I think they are working their way to the roof. Alert all your rooftop squads."

"Do any of the sound instruments work?'

"We're having trouble with their transmission as well. We think by the little bit of information we have been able to get, that three men have her in their grasp, and they must have gagged her too, for we heard a grunt, a beginning of a scream, and then nothing."

"Have you checked all the building roofs in the area? Do you have people ready? Is there a helicopter ready?'

"Dirk, what are you saying?" Martha was a bit worried, as she had not gotten a helicopter, not even thinking about a roof top escape.

"DO YOU HAVE A HELICOPTER READY?"

Dirk screamed.

"No", whispered Martha.

Dirk got right on his radio and got through to the captain and had him pull some strings, and the Seattle force had a helicopter on a roof just a few blocks away, and their crew had been put into high alert.

"Thank you," Martha once again whispered, looking down at the floor.

Dirk told Martha to get a hold of all her rooftop scouts and have them check every roof in the area for a room or little building on top of the roof that would be large enough to hide a helicopter.

** * * **

David was trying to hold Mia and Christine as they were both in tears. Vivian was beside herself as well, they all sat around the radio like their predecessors when they heard the news about Pearl Harbor. As the tears streamed down all three women's faces, David and Kory tried to keep the positive thoughts going.

"Dirk will know what to do, don't worry, they have every entrance and exit of all these buildings stalked out and guarded, they WILL find her."

He tried his best to muster a forceful positive tone, but it was difficult, as it looked pretty dark right now as they heard all the frantic activity on the radio.

** * * **

Mindy was beyond frightened. She hadn't seen the glass window ruse coming and had been taken totally by surprise. She felt the two sets of strong arms grab each of her arms and lift her into the building. Once inside they put her back on the floor, but she felt the gag being tied over her mouth and a cloth sack put over her head as soon as the gag was on. She knew there were at least three men taking her.

"Stand her up straight and let me wand her for devices."

She could sense movement all up and down her entire body, and could hear beeps, and then the rip of her clothes as some of the tracking devices were removed. She hoped the sack over her head would protect the ear rings, but when she felt the hood being taken off, she knew they were not long to be in place. She was thankful they were careful, and even thought she heard one of them say, "be careful, you know Pain wants her in perfect condition."

The ear rings were removed, carefully, but her heart sank when they were gone. She hoped Jonathan and Dirk were close enough to have seen the well planned abduction and were following her. She could feel the fear trying to take over her, and she tried fighting it, but when the hood was replaced over her head and she was once again in total darkness, it was very difficult not to give in to the fear.

She knew they hadn't gotten every device, and the pill was still inside her, and she hoped that was working as designed. She knew that Jonathan would be beside himself, and hoped Dirk would be able to contain him and not let him do anything stupid. By the feeling of the hands that held her, and the ease in which they lifted her, she knew these were very strong and forceful men. Jonathan wouldn't stand a chance against one of these guys, let alone three! And as she let her mind roam a bit, she knew there would be more. Pain never did anything halfway, and his design of the quick abduction was an indication of that. She knew it was going to be a surprise, for all of the force had talked about how this bait plan could possibly take days before Pain made his move. For it to happen within just a few minutes of her return would catch a lot of those in her protection team by surprise.

She felt herself being whisked away, into some sort of strange tunnel that made sounds echo and smelled very strangely. They had to lift her up to get her into this tunnel or whatever it was. When all three of the men had gotten in, she heard a strange metallic sound that must have been the door or entry into this tunnel. She wondered if this was the fake ductwork she had heard Dirk and David talking about. If that was the case, then she hoped the thermal scanners were picking up their body heat.

They had walked her along this tunnel for some time, when they stopped her and she heard that strange metallic sound again and figured they were getting out. She heard one man's feet slam on what she figured must be the floor, then felt herself being picked up and then lowered into the waiting arms of the man who had gotten out. He held her there as she heard the other two men jump down, the last of whom screamed as he landed.

"Oh man, I twisted my ankle, shit, it really hurts!"

"Shut up and keep her moving, we can't stay in one place too long or they'll find us. If you can't make it, leave now."

"No! I made it this far, I want my share!"

"Then shut up and help us follow the plan, and get a move on."

Mindy made a point to remember where the man with the twisted ankle was as he held her. She could feel the exaggerated movement of his limp in the way his arm moved up and down while he held her as they walked. She soon heard the sound of what she thought was an elevator door open with a whoosh. They took her inside, and she heard the whoosh of the door closing, and her guess was right, as she felt the elevator going up. It was an old one, for it didn't move very fast and there were a lot of creaks and squeaks.

She felt the elevator make its stop, heard the doors open, felt the men taking her out. Even with the hood on, she knew they must be on the roof for she could feel the outside air on her exposed body parts.

"Ok, hold her out here for a while, walk her around, make sure their scouts see her."

Hmmm Mindy thought, they are trying to throw the team off by showing her up on this roof. She wondered what that meant.

"Ok, over to the helipad building."

Mindy felt herself being taken quickly. She heard what had to be a large door of some sort opening. She was surprised when she heard an extremely loud noise, that mixed with the high winds, and the men pushing her head down could only mean a helicopter. But instead of lifting her into the helicopter, she was pushed into what felt like another elevator, because when she stepped in, she could feel a little 'jiggle' in the floor. She heard that telltale whoosh, and this time the elevator was some sort of express elevator, for she felt like they were almost free falling they were going down so fast.

She wondered what was in store for her, and if Dirk and the others would be fooled by the helicopter ploy. She really hoped they could follow the signal the pill she swallowed was hopefully putting out.

** * * **

"Did you see that?!?!?" Dirk heard one of the rooftop scouts scream into his radio. "That roof just slid off, and the four walls just fell back and the helicopter took off!"

Dirk had alerted the Seattle's force copter and they took off to follow the suspected escaping helicopter, but he was reticent to go full force with the helicopter. There was a faint signal, probably from the pill Mindy had taken, and the thermal imagining showing three heat sources going down at a very fast clip.

"Twentyone to Top Cat, I'm down by the parking garage entrance and a very new Lincoln limousine with completely tinted windows just pulled into the garage's back entrance at a very high speed."

Just what Dirk had worried about, their attention had been taken by the helicopter ploy and Pain must have had a very new, high speed elevator put in. He called Martha on the radio to try to get any available unmarked patrol cars ready to follow this limo. He had '21' give them the description and license plate, so everyone close enough was on the alert. He grabbed Jonathan and ran out to the street to get the patrol car he had ordered for himself.

They were close enough to be able to follow the limo when it came out.

"Everybody in regulation patrol cars stay away from the garages exits, I don't want him to think his little distraction didn't work. By now he's heard his helicopter is being followed in the sky, and I think you need to send some of the patrol cars with their lights and sirens following the flight of the copter in the streets. Let him think he has us hook, line, and sinker."

The police helicopter followed Pain's decoy, and the patrol cars made quite a ruckus in the downtown traffic with their lights and sirens going. They were coming from all areas of the city, being fed the direction of the copter by radio, if they didn't have a visual.

Dirk was happy with this, and he and Jonathan waited in their non-descript sleeper car for the appearance of the limo. He watched his portable screens for the thermal activity, and he could see a figure getting put into the car. The car must have been lined for stopping any signals in or out, for as soon as she was put inside the car, all signals stopped.

** * * **

"Well well well, here is my little Mindy now. Take off her hood and gag."

Mindy felt the hood being lifted and the gag being untied and was repulsed by what she saw, but she kept her face from showing anything. She knew the 'plan' was being tested to its fullest with this new wrinkle and she thought she might have to play along with him for a bit to bide her time.

"You sure have made a big deal of getting me into your damn car Pain. Why didn't you just ask me instead of all the secret agent shit?"

"Tsk tsk, such language from such an accomplished lady, is this the talk they teach you in college?"

"They didn't teach me anything that would help me, it was all just shit, so that's why I quit, they are just as big of bigots and assholes there as everywhere else."

"I was really surprised you thought it would be different. What happened to your boyfriend?"

"He split, he thought he was into me, but when he started getting some of the hatred and hostile treatment, he split. Someone even told his co-workers he was gay cause he had a transgender girlfriend. He couldn't take the abuse and broke it off."

Pain gave her a rueful smile and nodded his head.

"Then, someone passed around that I was transgender at my school too, and it became too hard to go there anymore too. I don't suppose you had anything to do with these occurrences," Mindy said sarcastically, and with as much hatred as she felt she could put into her voice. She knew full well he hadn't, for neither thing had actually happened.

"Nope, it wasn't me, but I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it."

They drove in silence for a while, until Mindy couldn't stand it anymore.

"What the hell do you want with me anyway Pain?"

"My dear Mindy, I have a proposal for you, do you want to listen to it?"

"Well, I appear to be a bit of a captive audience Pain, so why don't you fill me in?" Once again sarcasm reigned supreme.

"I'm so glad you're so interested. My plan has basically three parts to it." With that he reached over to pick up some sort of large binder type book and handed it over to Mindy.

"What the hell!!???? How did you get these? These are all my designs! Why do they have that label on them? And 'PA MI'? What brilliant business mind came up with that? And how did you get my designs, and SHIT these look like they are in production! You stole these from me!"

"Slow down little one, your name is listed as the designer on all of them, look at the bottom of the page, under the caption."

Sure enough, Mindy saw her name as the designer.

"One of the girls over there is working for me, and she smuggled your designs out. I do have just a few connections around here, and I got one of the local underground sweatshops to make them for me, for us, it's our label. We're partners."

"You've got a lot of nerve calling me your partner Pain, you tried to kill me, what am I supposed to think about that?"

"Don't be ridiculous Mindy, that was just a warning. If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead."

He let that one float out with his own anger behind the words, and she could tell he was deadly serious. She decided to pretend to want to listen to what he had in mind, hopefully to kill more time for Dirk, Jonathan, and the rest of the force to catch up to them.

"You know, you are actually starting to make quite a name for yourself as a designer, and there is quite a clamor for your current designs, and a demand for new ones. I always knew you were special, even when you were just that scared little girl, who didn't know what to do with herself."

Mindy wondered if all that was true, or if Pain simply strong armed the stores to take her designs. Either way, she thought it was cool that her name and designs were out there, even though they got out there in the wrong way.

"OK, so that is the first part, you said your plan was in three parts."

Pain leaned his substantial body over to reach for a paper folder. Once again he handed it over to her.

Mindy gasped as it was a pamphlet, with her name on it, for pre-op instructions for SRS.

"What is this?"

"I'm paying for your surgery, I'm flying you to the best surgeon in the field, and you will have a private room with a twenty-four hour nursing staff at your disposal throughout your recovery. You will finally be the complete woman you've been dreaming about."

Mindy gasped as she looked over the pamphlet and saw that she was already scheduled for two days from now.

"You can't be serious! No surgeon is going to go through with this surgery without having me under his care for more than two days."

"He has been given all your medical and psychiatric records for the past few months. He knows you were working on getting your surgery soon, and your records indicate you are ready. He will give you a physical when you get down there to double check, but he is convinced you are ready."

"He is convinced, or you convinced him?"

"My my, such a hostile little thing, even when shown all these wondrous gifts!"

Mindy bit her tongue and pretended to think about it, as if she would ever even consider such a thing. She was glad to see her little pretense seemed to calm Pain down. He sat back in the limo seat, that must have been made especially for his girth, for it fit him like a glove, although it took up half of that seating area of the limo. He even reached over to the little ice bucket with a bottle of champagne cooling in ice, took out the bottle, and popped the cork with a loud pop, and a loud laugh. After pouring two glasses, handing one to Mindy, he looked deeply into her eyes and smiled.

"Now, for the third part of the plan. After the surgery, you will be coming back to live with me as my woman."

"I'M NOT GOING TO BE YOUR WHORE PAIN!" Mindy screamed.

"Shhhhh, shhhhh, I don't want that either, I want you as my woman, my wife if you will. Live with me, share our lives together. I have my businesses, and you'll have yours, but we'll be together. I want you Mindy, I love you."

Mindy was speechless and sat there staring at him with her mouth wide open. That was the last thing in the world she thought she'd be hearing from Pain.

"I, I, don't understand Pain, your wealth and power must make it so you can have just about any woman you want. I'm sure there is a long line of beauties dying for the chance. What did I do to you to make you so interested in me?"

"From the very first time I saw your scrawny little ass trying to hone in on my territory, I knew there was something special about you, something within you that was so similar to me. I know how hard your life was growing up knowing you were a woman. I know all the teasing and taunting you must have gone through. Imagine growing up a fat black child in a predominantly white area. You don't think I got made of fun of, and was the brunt of all sorts of attacks my entire childhood? I know what it's like, I've lived it, lived through it, and have come out on top. You can't imagine how much fun it is to see how so many of the kids that made my life a living hell on a daily basis have failed. I've even been able to use my wealth and power to break many of their little businesses they tried to make work."

"You can actually do that?" Mindy was in awe. She couldn't help it. Here she was with one of the most wanted, notorious drug lords in the area, who's power sprouted out of just the drug business geometrically into so many different fields. If he wasn't such a ruthless killer, she might be impressed at the empire he built, starting from nothing.