The Deadly Disk

by Bill K.

by Bill K.

CHAPTER EIGHT, "Bargain With the Devil

 

The Nissan pulled up to a darkened, empty building in a seedy portion of the city.  Once the building had housed a gas station and garage, but that was years ago.  Now weeds grew up through the cracked concrete, the windows were boarded up and the sagging building echoed with the sounds of the present and the ghosts of the past.  Huan got out of the car first and checked the neighborhood over.  When he was sure it was safe, he signaled to Xia.  She emerged from the car and pulled out Cindy, gagged and her arms bound, struggling impotently to pull out of the Chinese agent’s grip.  Though she dug in her heels and fought every step of the way, Cindy was hustled into the building and the door locked behind her.  Xia shoved her down on the concrete floor of the garage, then turned to her partner.

“{This is the best you could do}?” she asked pointedly.

“{On short notice, yes},” Huan said, looking down but bristling at the rebuke.  “{I assumed you did not wish to compromise the location of another safe house.  I further assumed that you wished something small and easily defended, in a remote location with easily surveyed grounds, in a neighborhood in which no one would care what happens here.  The owner was easily bribed and the people here will not concern themselves with us}.”

Xia scowled.  She hated when someone besides her made sense.

“{Very well},” she sighed.  “{I can be consoled by the fact that I will not have to spend much time here}.” 

She crossed over to Cindy, whipping a length of rope out of her bag.  Cindy cowered on the floor, fearful of what this woman intended for her now.  Xia knelt down at her feet and swiftly tied her ankles, taking great care to pull the cord tight so that it bit into the woman’s exposed flesh.  Cindy whimpered in pain and was ignored as Xia leaned over and bound her victim’s legs together above the knee.

“Pampered Americans,” sneered Xia as she tugged on the knot.  “I could take twice the discomfort you have received without whimpering like a child.  Your decadent lifestyle has made you all soft.”  She sneered again, then calmed.  “You will excuse me,” Xia said to Cindy with a malicious glint, taking a cell phone from the bag.  “I must make a call.”

 

“It was all a lie!” moaned Susan, staring wide-eyed in terror and humiliation at the barrel of a gun.  She sat on the floor, her arms and legs tied.  Shondra Lockwood towered over her, holding the gun, preparing to fire it and snuff out her life.  “You were just pumping me for information!”

“I’m sorry,” whispered Shondra.  “Not all of it was a lie, but right now that doesn’t mean much to either of us.  The bottom line is you know too much.  The agency doesn’t want anyone who can reveal what’s on that disk left alive to tell anyone.  I don’t want to do this.”

“Did you shoot the poor man who gave me the disk?” Susan asked, her disgust plain.  “Was he going to talk?”

“I didn’t shoot him.”

“Would you have?”

“That was Dr. Dressendorfer,” Shondra revealed.  “It wouldn’t make much sense to shoot him.”

“So who did?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe it was the Chinese agents.  Maybe it was Armand and Marie.  Maybe it was a third party none of us know about yet.  I’ll deal with it when I can.”

Her finger began to close on the trigger.

“If you shoot me, you’ll never find the disk!” Susan said desperately.

“Maybe so, maybe no,” Shondra replied, unmoved.  “At least nobody else will have it.  You’ve seen what’s on that disk.  Maybe that’s the best solution after all.”

Susan jammed her eyelids closed, fearing at any moment the impact of a bullet in her skull.  She wondered as she trembled helplessly at Shondra’s feet what it would feel like to have her head ripped open by a few ounces of lead.  Would it hurt?  And what would death be like?  She’d seen death many times in the ER, but always from the other side.  What would it be like?

When nothing happened, Susan became concerned.  Was Shondra prolonging it intentionally, gaining some twisted pleasure from watching her terror?  Could she be that deranged?  Susan would have thought not, but now she wasn’t sure about anything concerning Shondra Lockwood.  She relaxed her eyelids.  They slid open and her eyes peered up timidly from beneath them, expecting at any time to feel a bullet slam into her skull.  But Shondra wasn’t there.  A furtive glance found her at the window, staring out aimlessly, the pistol dangling from her right hand.

“Thank you for not killing me,” Susan whispered timidly, praying the sound of her voice wouldn’t set the woman off.

“It’s OK,” Shondra replied, her voice choked with emotion.  She refused to look at Susan.  “After all, you saved me from the fire.  Least I could do.”  Shondra sighed deeply.  “Got into this game for all the right reasons, you know?  I wanted to protect the innocent, kill the bad guy.  I just wanted to keep my country safe and to keep the people in my country safe.  That’s all.” 

Shondra turned to Susan and made the nurse utter a low gasp.  Tears were streaming down the cold hard agent’s cheeks and the haunted look of terror in the woman’s eyes couldn’t have been worse I she had just confronted Satan himself.

“Where did it go wrong?” Shondra asked.  “What happened?  You’re not one of the bad guys, yet I was going to splatter you all over this room.  That’s not right!”

“You won’t get an argument from me,” offered Susan.  “But you didn’t do it.  You saw it was wrong before you took the fatal step and went too far.  Hang on to that.  That’s your lifeline.  It means you’re not a lost cause.  It means you can over.”

Shondra emitted a chilling, derisive giggle that sent the hairs on Susan’s arms rising.

“I wish I didn’t know what you don’t know,” Shondra said, awash in the ghoulish humor of the situation, humor only she saw.

“Why?” Susan asked warily.  “What happens now?”

“What happens now is you run!” snapped Shondra.  “You grab your sister, you empty your bank account and you head for the furthest place from here you can find.  If you’ve got any relatives you like, you run as far away from them as you can, too!  And when you get there, you find a hole and you pull it in over you and you pray that the agency doesn’t find you!  Because if they find out you know what you know and that I didn’t terminate you for it, they’re going to terminate us both!”

Susan stared at the woman, unable to believe that she was completely earnest.

“No,” Susan shook her head.  “No, this is America…”

“And America has rules,” interrupted Shondra, “but there are parts of America that ignore the rules!  Believe me, I know!  But if you want, you stay here and wrap yourself in the flag!  See just how bulletproof it is!”  She knelt down to untie Susan.  “You’ll get a phone call one day and find out it’s your last!”

The phone rang.  Shondra already had her gun up and aimed before she realized it was just the phone.  It rang two more times before she decided on a course of action.  Shondra brought the phone over to Susan and held the receiver between them so they both could hear, then directed Susan to answer.

“Hello?” Susan asked hesitantly.

“Suzie!” cried Cindy on the other end, openly distraught.  “She says you have something she wants!  She says mmmpph mmmmmmfff!”

“Cindy!” howled Susan.

“Susan Hitchcock?” asked another voice, this one more calm and controlled.

“Yes!  Where’s Cindy!”

“We have your sister.  Bring the disk to 1284 Mithoff Street in one hour or your sister dies.”

“Cindy?  Cindy!” Susan shouted into a dead connection.  “Oh my God.  Oh my God!” and for a moment it seemed panic would consume the nurse.  Then Susan seized control of it and stepped on its neck.  She turned with determination to Shondra.  “Untie me, quickly!”

“What are you going to do?” asked Shondra.

“What do you think I’m going to do!” spat Susan.  “I’m going to give her the disk!”

“Susan, you can’t!”

“The Hell I can’t!”

“Is your sister’s life worth potential global Armageddon?”

“Right now, yes!  You might be able to watch someone you love die for the greater good, but I can’t!  I’m going to give them the disk, get my sister back safe and alive, and then I’m going to pray like Hell that I haven’t made things worse!  Now untie me, damn it!”

“I can’t,” Shondra said resolutely.

“Can’t?” demanded Susan.

“I can’t let you do this.  It’s too important.”

“Somebody help me!” screamed Susan.  “Somebody hrrrppff mmmmpphhh!”

Shondra thrust the packing deep in Susan’s mouth, filling it up.  Then she took a second cloth and tied it over the struggling, fuming nurse’s lips to keep the packing in place.

“I’m going,” Shondra told the still struggling woman.  “I know you hate me right now and trust me even less and I don’t much blame you, but this has to be my fight.  This is why I joined up.  I’m the one that’s trained for this sort of stuff.  I promise I’ll get your sister back safe.”

Shondra stood up and checked the ammo supply in her gun, the hidden compartments of her belt and in the black shoulder bag she had.  Satisfied, she turned to the door, only to find Susan squirming toward it.

“Girl, do I have to lock you in the closet!” snapped Shondra, seizing Susan under the arms and dragging her back.  Susan let loose a string of curses that the gag smothered.  “All right, if you insist.”

Flinging the closet door open, Shondra dragged the fighting woman into the closet and deposited her face down on the floor.  Getting some more cord, she tied a loop around Susan’s ankle ropes between her ankles, then pulled them back until the cord could be tied to her wrists.  The effect of the bondage was to bow Susan, with the opposing pull of her arms and legs drawing the other limbs taut.  This greatly reduced her ability to squirm.

“Now stay put!” huffed Shondra.  “I’ll be back with your sister.”

The door shut on Susan, muffled curses echoing in the cramped chamber.

 

The empty garage was silent.  Huan was at one end, watching cautiously for anyone who might approach.  Xia was at the other end, doing the same.  Trundled off in a corner, beside a stripped and rusting tool cabinet, was Cindy Hitchcock.  She had long since given up hope of slipping her ropes.  Instead she sat fearfully in the corner, knees brought up to her chest and prayed that this would all end quickly.  Her short, thin skirt was scant protection against the cool concrete floor, nor was her bared midriff comfortable against the cinder block walls.  She was tired, she was hungry, she was scared out of her mind and it was all the fault of that damned CD.  Why hadn’t Susan turned it over to the police when she first got it?

“{It will be time soon},” Huan said.  “{What if she does not come}?”

“{Then I will think of something else},” Xia replied, “{and she will mourn her sister}.”

Just then Huan’s attention was seized by a crash, coupled with the roar of an engine.  He looked out of his vantage point to see a large van crashing through the gate of the chain-link fence that surrounded the property.  Without stopping, the van sped straight for the garage’s metal rolling door.”

“{Look out}!” was all he could get out before the van slammed through the aging rolling door, ripping it loose from the wall. 

The van slammed to a stop as the door rolled off of it.  Rolling out was Shondra Lockwood, her gun drawn even as Huan managed to squeeze off two shots.  They were errant, as was her first shot, but the second one hit home and Huan crumpled to the floor.  Shondra was already locating the second source of fire, Xia on the far side of the garage.  The van shielded her from Xia’s fire, but it also prevented her from hitting the Chinese agent.  Boldly circling around the van to the passenger side, Shondra tried to gain a sight line on her adversary.  She spotted Cindy out of the corner of her eye, pulled up in a ball behind the empty tool cabinet so she wouldn’t get hit. 

A few more hopping steps brought her out of cover, her gun raised to return any fire that might come.  Xia was trying to climb out past the crashed van through the hole in the rolling door. 

“Stop now!” Shondra bellowed, squeezing off a single shot.  It exploded a fragment of metal above Xia’s head and the Chinese agent froze.  Shondra jogged to cut the distance between them.  “Hands behind your head!  Lock your fingers, NOW!”

Xia complied, part of her looking for a mistake to exploit while the other part fearing her imminent execution.  Shondra stopped just a few feet from her, the gun pointed at the woman and held rigid by Shondra’s arms.

“Face down on the floor!” Shondra demanded.  “Face down on the floor, NOW!” she roared when Xia didn’t respond quickly enough. 

The Chinese woman complied.  Once she was down on the floor, Shondra backed to the van and pulled out the shoulder bag, keeping her quarry covered at all times.  With one hand she ripped open the bag and pulled some rope from inside it.  Straddling her foe, she buried the gun into the base of the woman’s skull.

“Hands behind your back,” snarled Shondra, an intimidating picture when she was angry.

Xia complied and felt the cord bite into her wrists.  Shondra was not gentle, pulling the cords tight around her wrists, drawing her elbows back, lashing her arms to her torso with rope above and below the Chinese agent’s breasts.  Not once did Xia whimper or groan.  She seemed almost defiant about it.  The final touch was a roll of tape pulled across Xia’s mouth and wound behind her head, under the long black hair and around and over again.  Xia was not only gagged, her lips were crushed to her teeth.  Shondra got off her back and roughly hauled her prisoner to her feet, then shoved her over to where Cindy was cowering.  She forced Xia to kneel, then knelt behind Cindy and began to untie her.

“Don’t be afraid,” Shondra whispered.  “I’m the cavalry.  I’m going to take you back to your sister.”

 

Susan lay on the floor of the closet in frustration.  There was no way she could move, due to the way she was tied, and there was no room in this cramped closet to move around in if she could.  She’d tried yelling, but all that had netted her was a sore throat.  The gag had absorbed most of the noise she made.

So all she could do was wait, hope Cindy was all right and would be rescued, and hope that nothing bad happened here.  Alone and bound, there was little she could do to help herself if the place caught fire.

Susan shuddered.  Just thinking about fire brought back memories of the previous night.  The memories faded, though, when the throbbing ache in her arms, shoulders, back, thighs, calves and ankles returned with a vengeance.  The position she was bound into was very stringent and not very forgiving.  She felt like she had cramps in her cramps.  If Shondra ever returned and if she ever untied her and if she was able to walk again after enduring this position, she was going to put her foot right up a certain black secret agent’s behind.

The door opened outside the closet.  Susan perked up.  Were they back?  Had she succeeded?  Was Cindy safe?  Susan began to mrrf into her gag, unconcerned that the noises she made were gibberish.  Footsteps walked over to the closet and Susan anticipated deliverance.  The door opened and framed in the doorway was a handsome dark-haired man with graying temples.

“Well well,” commented Armand.  “What have we here?”

 Chapter Nine 

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