The Adventure of the Happy Cat
By Jeb
Part Four
In all her life, Sophie had never wanted anything as desperately as she wanted to cry out, to warn Kat, but her courage was simply insufficient to deny the glittering blade that hung an inch away from leaving her with a single eye, or half a face. Instead, she watched in the darkness as the black-clad figure slid along the wall from the entryway to the kitchen. Kat paused, called her name again, and took a step into the darkened living room, pistol in a two-handed grip.
What happened next took seconds, and felt like an eternity: In the darkness beside her, Sophie saw the blinding white light of a camera flash… a flash which slightly dazzled her from the corner of her eye, and which Cain and her minions knew to look away from, but which Kat took full in the face. The red-haired agent shouted something, something that disappeared in a gulping sound as, from behind, Juno Briggs slammed a fist into her lower back, sending her sprawling to the floor, the gun spinning from her hand, to land next to a pair of expensive black leather pumps that rested on the carpeting. As Kat went to hands and knees, her tearing eyes saw Erika Cain’s smooth helmet of blond hair as she bent down to pick up the gun in expensively-manicured fingers. The woman straightened back up in her chair, pointing the gun with a casual, deadly air, the camera she had used sitting on the tray beside the laptop. Juno Briggs turned the lights on, causing Kat to blink furiously again.
“Nice to finally meet you, Agent Forge,” Cain purred, “though I have to admit I had thought it might take longer than this to have you on your knees in front of me.”
“Cain.” Kat’s voice was strained from having the breath knocked out of her, and Sophie saw her blinking back tears as her eyes began to adjust. Their eyes met as Kat took in the sight of the helpless Sophie, displayed like Cain’s prize catch, and both women came to the hard realization that Cain had won—with Sophie a captive, Kat was completely powerless.
Kat started to push herself upright when Juno Briggs placed a booted foot in her back, keeping her in place.
“A moment, please, Agent Forge.” Elegant nails tapped here and there on the keyboard as Cain studied the laptop. “All right, Juno, she’s alone.”
Alone? Sophie nearly shrieked into her gag. How could she have taken the chance of coming here alone? God, she really didn’t believe me!
Kat started to pull her legs under herself, but Briggs’ meaty paw seized the collar of her black leather jacket and hauled her brutally upright, throwing her against the wall.
Sophie glanced around as best she could manage with the knife at her face and her head still held tightly, and it didn’t take any special training to recognize the hopelessness of the situation: Kat was dazed and still blinking tears from her eyes; she had lost her gun, and standing between her and the door to the entryway was the imposing form of Juno Briggs. To say nothing of the small detail of a certain young woman in skimpy spandex who was going to be cut into pieces unless Kat did exactly what she was told.
For her part, Kat realized her foes had things perfectly triangulated: there was the barest chance she could overpower Briggs, or get the gun away from Cain, or reach Minh before she could use the knife on Sophie… but unless she could manage to be in all three places at once, it didn’t matter. Keeping an eye on Minh and the knife, she growled. “Don’t hurt her. You’ve got me, you don’t need her. I’ll do what you want.”
Erika Cain’s smile widened, and she seemed to squirm slightly in her chair, as though the agent’s surrender had set off a delicious tingle inside.
“Let’s not kid ourselves, shall we? Pretty little Sophie IS the reason you’re going to do whatever I want. And what I want you to do now is to let Juno, here, get you all nicely bound up. You belong to me now.”
Kat glared at the tall woman as she approached, but they all knew she was completely stymied.
“Lose the jacket, doll.” Juno Briggs was smirking; she clearly enjoyed forcing the lovely agent’s submission just as much as Cain did.
Kat moved slowly, letting the garment slip off her shoulders and drop to the floor. Sophie wasn’t sure what kind of weapons or gadgets secret agents carried in their clothes these days, but clearly their captors were taking no chances.
“Face the wall and spread ‘em, sweetie,” the tall woman gloated. Kat seemed to hesitate, and Sophie knew that, on her own, the redheaded agent might well have taken a desperate risk to avoid capture; but with Sophie in danger, she had no choice.
As Kat leaned into the wall, Juno Briggs began running hands up and down, probing along the black denim-clad legs for weapons; she seemed to be taking especial care that nothing was hidden along the smooth curve of Kat’s buttocks.
“Get your hands off me,” Kat snarled, but the only response she got was a frightened squeal from behind Sophie’s gag: Minh had yanked harder on her fistful of the girl’s hair, and moved the knife blade right up against Sophie’s cheek, grazing the skin just below her right eye, reminding Kat of her need to cooperate. Kat stiffened, paralyzed by the threat, and Briggs laughed, pressing herself up against the redhead’s back.
“Just relax, sister,” she breathed contentedly into Kat’s ear. “You’re not gonna make any trouble, because you don’t want your little friend sliced up like Swiss cheese. So quit pretending you’ve got any choice in the matter, and do as you’re told… and my hands will go wherever it damn well pleases me to have ‘em.” She drove the point home by running her palms along the front of Kat’s black turtleneck sweater, mingling her frisking with some pawing of the agent’s breasts. Juno knew her business, though—in addition to her own lewd pleasure, her groping of the agent had produced a few small devices that Sophie presumed might be used as weapons, or devices to aid an escape. These, Juno tossed into Minh’s bag, then once more pressed her body up against Kat’s.
“OK, honey—that’s taken care of. Now, we’ve got plenty of time to get to know each other better.” She punctuated the last comment by yanking Kat’s left arm up and back behind her. The red-haired agent winced, her cheek now pressed up against the wall, as Briggs fastened a shining mental handcuff around the imprisoned wrist. That was quickly followed by the matching cuff, as Kat’s right arm was pulled back to meet the left. The chains on the cuffs seemed very short, and Kat had very little room to flex her arms as they were captured behind her back.
Even that bit of leeway was reduced when Briggs took a second pair and fastened them to Kat’s upper arms, clamping them tightly above the elbows, forcing her arms and shoulders painfully together. Briggs spun Kat around to face her, and Sophie could see that having her arms drawn so painfully back forced Kate’s breasts up against the front of her black sweater, as though inviting her captor to molest them further… which, of course, she did. Kat winced, and deliberately looked away as Briggs fondled her.
“So who’s the mole?” Kat gritted at Erika Cain, trying to ignore the pawing she was receiving from Briggs.
“Mole? How melodramatic.” Cain smiled. “Really, it was child’s play to put together a list of your regular informants and snitches. Grease a few palms, feed them a story about a trip to Europe, and—presto!—Miss High and Mighty Fed is suddenly chasing her own tail without even knowing it. And as for your little friend here… well, the fact that absolutely no one had heard of her just reinforced her importance to your operation. Shame you didn’t work harder to hide her from us.”
“She’s not part of any operation. She’s not in this—she’s a kid who got mixed up in something she shouldn’t have, and it’s all my fault. Why not just kill me and be done with it? Let the girl go.”
Cain chuckled. “Oh, heavens—kill you? You don’t really think you’re getting off that easy, do you?’ She glanced at Briggs. “Gag her.”
Juno smiled, and pulled another of the heavy sponges from Minh’s bag. Kat reluctantly opened her mouth, realizing she had no choice but to submit to being gagged.
Briggs placed a palm on the top of her head, keeping her steady as she filled Kat’s mouth with the thick, coarse material. As she had with Sophie, the woman then plastered heavy tape across Kat’s lips, sealing the gag in place. She reached down and grabbed Kat’s left breast through her sweater, grinding the nipple with her fingers, and the agent’s anguished moan disappeared into the mouth-filing gag.
“That’ll do for now,” Cain smiled.
“Just testing.” Briggs shrugged.
“Of course,” Cain nodded with amused indulgence, “Now get her over here again— on her knees, if you would; that seemed a wholly appropriate posture for her.”
Though Kat was certainly in no position to refuse, Briggs roughly threw her forward, anyway, then kicked at the back of her knees. Kat stumbled forward, landing hard on the carpeted floor, barely able to keep her balance with both arms cuffed behind her. She raised her head, tossing auburn tresses off her face, glaring over the gag at Erika Cain, though her blond captor was hardly intimidated. Instead, she smiled with satisfaction at the two prisoners, bound, gagged, and wholly at her mercy: one kneeling, cuffed and gagged at her feet; the other hogtied and gagged on the table beside her.
“I imagine you’re curious as to what happens next.” She paused for a moment, as though her gagged prisoners might actually answer. “I doubt either of you have heard of Sister Rosetta, but you’re going to make her very intimate acquaintance shortly. Sister Rosetta runs a very… specialized… auction house in San Francisco, and I find myself in the fortunate position of being able to offer her some prime merchandise.” She reached out to where Kat knelt, in impotent fury, and ran a long fingernail along the edge of the tape that was adhered to her cheeks. “And when I say prime… well, when I tell her that I have a senior Federal agent… one with detailed knowledge of her agency’s anti-crime and anti-terrorism plans… I shouldn’t be at all surprised to see the bidding go to seven figures from certain governments or independent factions.”
She clutched Kat’s chin in a painful grip. “You see? You will personally be financing my operations for the next ten years. As you languish in a Lebanese prison, or a North Korean interrogation cell, be sure to remember that.”
Kat did her best to maintain a defiant glare, but the evident completeness of Cain’s victory over her was rapidly sinking in. Cain held her face a moment longer, watching the first flicker of fear start to show in her captive’s eyes, then laughed and released her.
The elegant blonde stood up and took a step over to where Sophie still lay, bound, gagged, and helpless on the table.
“But we’re not forgetting you, dear Sophie. While some of Sister Rosetta’s clients will doubtless be interested acquiring Agent Forge for ‘political’ reasons, you may rest assured that the vast majority of her clients are far more interested in pleasures of the flesh. I have no doubt you will also bring a very good price.” She smirked at the terror in Sophie’s eyes, then decided to enhance it. “I understand that many of them regard American girls as far too headstrong and independent… they enjoy ‘re-educating’ them.” She let that terrifying though sink in for a moment, then turned to her minions.
“Time to get going,” Cain spoke briskly as she closed up the laptop, and retrieved the cat statue that she was evidently keeping as a souvenir. “Get them ready to move.”
Briggs took a length of clothesline from Minh, and tied a knot tightly around the kneeling Kat’s booted left ankle. She let out about a bit of the line, then attached her right ankle similarly, so there was perhaps a foot of play between the two bound ankles.
Briggs then reached down with her left hand, twisted fingers deeply into Kat’s thick auburn mane, and dragged the captive agent to her feet. The hobble made it difficult for Kat to keep her balance; Briggs made it worse by using her grip in Kat’s hair to force her to bend over, her head at the woman’s waist, so that she was bowed painfully, bound and gagged, and completely in her enemy’s control.
In the meantime, Minh had loosened the bonds holding Sophie’s legs up over her back. The imprisoned girl groaned into her gag with relief, and was so glad to no longer be a human pretzel that she offered no resistance as Minh used a length of cord to hobble her, too. Minh was just helping her up from the table when Briggs seized her by the hair, as well, forcing her into the same stooped-over posture as Kat.
Able to see little beyond the floor, her back and shoulders aching from the unnatural posture she was forced to maintain, and terrified of stumbling lest Briggs rip out a handful of her hair, Sophie focused on keeping her steps regular, barely noticing the route they were taking down the back stairs and through the alleyway behind the complex. Minh’s electronic surveillance had enabled their captors to choose the time and route that would allow them drag Kat and Sophie along unobserved.
As she was dragged along, Sophie tried twisting her wrists, to see if she could get some slack in the bonds, but Briggs simply gave an additional vicious yank on her hair, and Sophie abandoned the effort in pain and misery.
In a few moments, they stood before an enormous dark-colored SUV. The back door was opened, and Sophie felt blessed relief as Briggs let go of her hair, and Minh took charge of her, pushing her up and inside. She forced the bound girl to kneel on the floor, facing the bench seat, then bent her at the waist and made her lie her upper body face-down on the seat. She lifted Sophie’s bound arms off her back, sending pain shooting through her shoulders; Minh then pulled the seatbelt across Sophie’s back, and buckled it tightly, the belt digging into her back, pressing her face-down into the cool dark leather; she was just able to turn her head sideways enough to breathe. As she did, she saw Juno Briggs handle Kat the same way: the captured agent was also forced to kneel on the floor, bend over, and be fastened down to the seat with the lap belt.
Sophie heard the front doors slam as Minh and Briggs got in the front. She felt a hand press on her back, and a pair of long legs, and a near-perfect ass, both clad in expensive Italian silk, settled themselves down on the seat between the two captives.
“Let's go, Juno,” came Erika Cain’s smooth, smug voice. “I need to make arrangements for delivery of our... merchandise.”