Back at the warehouse.
"What's that?"
"Bottle of champagne. We can celebrate when Linda gets back."
"There may not be a celebration. I can't raise Tina on the radio."
"They don't always work the way you want, you get interference in these parts."
"No it's like she's not clicked on. And she's supposed to check. Go get Frosty, we need him to ride out and take a look."
Spec walked away holding the bottle he'd added knockout juice to. When this was over he was going to dump a couple of guys and add some females to his warehouse supplies. There should be a buyer.
But he was stuck taking orders from the little ape. Maybe when the guy was knocked out, Spec would wait for him to come to before he killed him. Let him know who the real boss is.
"Open your mouth for the gag."
"No way, you'll have to knock me out again."
"You want to be brained again, fine with me."
"Aren't you nurses suppose to heal not harm? "
"Have it your way."
Christy got up and walked from the light of the fire. Tina watched, then lost sight of her. Christy came back and stood behind her. Tina twisted in the ropes to look.
"What's with the tent peg?"
"You gagged me with it, remember?"
"You going to break my teeth shoving it in my mouth? You've turned mean. Guess it was always inside you," said Tina.
"There's a reason to gag you. This is a big wad so open wide," said Christy.
Tina pressed her mouth shut.
Christy put the peg and towel wad in one hand and used the other to grab Tina by the hair and bang her head back against her right thigh. Tina kept her lips closed.
Christy kneeled behind the bound gal and wrapped her left arm around Tina's face forcing the thumb side of her left wrist against Tina's nose. She grabbed her left hand with her right and squeezed toward her chest, putting Tina's nose in a vise. It stopped her breathing and started pain on her nose.
"Damm you you slummmph arggur," said Tina.
The second she opened up Christy jabbed the towel wad over Tina's mouth and got it between her teeth. Tina bit on the cloth to shut it out. Christy released her vise on the nose and got the peg at both ends and powered it on top the towel gag. She pulled hard with both hands, upping the pressure on the wad while pinning Tina's head back. She kept Tina's head against her chest while letting the peg pressure the gag in. Tina grunted and bit and tried to shake the towel out. The vise grip was too much, Christy got more and more of the gag in.
It was past the front teeth, then wadded up on either side. Tina's mouth cranked open, wider and wider.
Christy dropped the peg and pulled a rope length from the shirt pocket. She whipped it around Tina's mouth, touching only the gag wad. She yanked it back, hitched it tight. She finished the knot and let go of Tina's head.
"Akuk. Yewguk. Mummp," grunted Tina. The sound didn't carry far in the cave.
Christy stopped and watched Tina struggle, then sat in front of her.
"That was rough, but the best I could do. I'm sure you could think up worst ways to be gagged. It's not a can."
Tina rubbed against the ropes, shrugged her head to try and shift the gag. They stayed put.
Christy got up to add wood to the fire.
***
"I can find Granite Peak in the dark, but where are we suppose to land?"
"Keep flying, it's near the Peak, and we'll spot it."
Eve kept her Hiller Raven pointed where she believed Dugway Proving Ground to be. She knew it was described as being in the shadow of Granite Peak, but had no idea of how spread out it was.
She spotted something.
"What do we have? Do you see it?"
"Yes Eve, I believe you've got us at our destination. Fly over it."
Eve sent the helicopter toward the spot. As they flew closer the light showed up like a white tablecloth spread atop a garage grease pit.
"Get a closer look, then land well away," said Linda.
Eve dropped, and now she saw it. A neighborhood lit up like a stage show. Seven rows of seven columns, with forty- nine houses. From here each house looked like a cube.
"Out of the light but not so we have a long hike. Put this down."
***
Christy let the fire burn down, keeping enough embers, she hoped, for an easy start in the morning. In the last of the light she gathered up the rifle, parking it on a corner away from Tina. She'd removed a few ropes; she checked those left on. Tina was still knotted pretty good. As it got darker Christy couldn't see the gagged woman's face. She shifted blankets over them, once again they huddled against the night cold.
"Ur ahruh soumm."
"It's not easy sleeping with a gag on."
"Artug guhof."
"You'll manage. Get what sleep you can, we leave just before daybreak."
Christy listened to angry moist sounds. In the dark she felt around the nude body of the woman wrapped next to her, found her head and put both her hands over the roped mound of toweling stuffed in her mouth. Christy gripped hard and said," That's enough."
***
"Wait till the rotors stop, watch your head."
"Thank you for your kindness Miss Regis."
Outside the Raven Linda pulled a pistol.
"Kneel and put your hands behind you."
"No thanks, on this end you need me. You're not tying me up again, unless you can fly this back alone."
"Do as I say."
"Let's save time arguing. You want me to carry that for you?"
Linda, besides the pistol, held a small wood box.
"That would be nice. It's very dark out here. I suppose you think you can lose yourself in the night, fly off without me."
"But I need to find Christy."
"So glad you remember her. I'll put this down here, let me back away and then you can carry it. It's not a bomb, but please treat it as if it were fine China. Of course we're heading for the light."
They did, and the first thing they came upon was a generator powering the hundreds of bright bulbs around the homes ahead. A circle of lights, much like a bullseye target.
They came to the first house in a row of seven. It was all plywood, five feet high, eight windows; one door in front, all closed. In front ten feet from the house was a trench, looked to be maybe ten feet long, couple of feet wide, four feet deep. In the bottom were wooden boxes with little things inside. Guinea pigs.
"Put the box down."
Eve bent to do so and as she started to straighten up Linda chopped her on the side of the neck. Eve dropped and Linda flopped hard atop her, pinning her face down. She pocketed the pistol and from another pocket pulled rope and one of the gags from the shack.
"No I won't shoot you. But remember you are not running this job."
She pulled Eve's hands back and tied them wrist over wrist.
"No need to discuss who's in charge now. Raise your head up."
Eve came to her senses enough to do that. She couldn't fight as the cloth was pulled around her mouth, sunk past her lips and front teeth and tied behind her head. Linda grabbed her by the hair and shoulder and pulled Eve to her knees.
"Take a look around, this place won't be here long. Just don't trip over the cute little pets."
Linda took her box, while Eve shook her head to clear it. The ropes were tight and why bother anyway. She looked closer at the house. Just like all the others she could see. In between the trench and house was a five-foot high wooden platform. In the night air all the guinea pigs boxed there were still.
Without arms it was tricky to stand up. Eve managed it and walked around the trench and up to the door of the fake house. She gave it a kick and it opened. She ducked her head in, saw guinea pigs setting up home inside, the only furniture the boxes they were in. She looked at the ceiling and there seemed to be a ventilator leading to the roof.
So the guinea pigs and the homes were for an A-bomb radiation test. But the place was lit up like the bomb was supposed to land right on top this spot. And that would pulverize everything, nothing left to sample. If the bomb was supposed to land off center, and this was the site to test the blast wave, why was it lit like the bullseye?
Eve chewed on her gag and backed away from the home, then staggered away from the side of the trench. Linda was off planting the box, Eve thought, so she must know more then Eve what was heading this way. And they were coming back to pick it up.
Eve knew enough about A-bomb radiation to know it wasn't nice to be around. She'd heard rumors about the strange things it could cause to happen to humans exposed to too much. The rumor was confirmed as she saw the giant frog holding the Thompson Machine Gun.
Of course it wasn't a giant frog, but the goggles of the white radiation suit spooked her. Eve backed away.
"Hold it," said a female voice under the suit.
They wouldn't shoot an unarmed woman, not one bound and gagged. She would give up, but knew the life of Christy depended on her getting Linda and her sample delivered. Eve turned and ran around a corner of the nearest dwarf house.
She heard a shot, a pistol shot. Linda must have bumped into one of the frogs. That's the only way Eve could give a name to them. If Linda was shooting then it was all haywire. Eve had to get back to the copter, use something to cut her hands free. She ran in the bright light, then made the mistake of looking back.
The white frog wasn't aiming the Thompson, but an automatic pistol. Aiming to hit Eve. She turned frontward and kept running, almost out of the stage of bright lights. Just before she heard a gunshot there was a pain in her bottom.
Eve's right leg gave way, she stumbled and landed and lay in bright lights, then darkness.
***
Now we're nice and quiet again," said Joy as she finished gagging Chelsie with the shower cap and her belt.
Both girls slumped on the bed, the knots and gags doing their job.
"Don't look so blue. Listen kids whatever happens, I'm here too."
Joy sensed rather then saw movement from the bathroom. She turned and picked up her derringer from the dress top as Tommy swung a nylon stocking at her head. The end of the sock held something that clunked deep in her blond hair. The gun fired and she and Tommy fell to the floor.
Tommy stood and looked at the woman on the floor, then at the two on the bed. They squealed to beat the band, but not much beat its way through their gags.
"Holy Moly. Is she dead?"
More sounds from the bound and gagged duo, as they beat their heels on the mattress.
The gun was on the floor. The bullet had knocked through the top of Eve's bedroom dresser, wood chips from that were scattered on the blonde woman's back.
Tommy bent to look. No blood and she was breathing. And moving.
"Criminey," said Tommy.
He'd hid in the shower, holding the nylon stocking that had traveled with him into the bathroom. Remembering a story from 'Manhunt Magazine', he'd taken a new bar of Ivory soap and pushed it to the end of the stocking for a handmade blackjack. When he'd smacked Joy the soap had cracked in two, switching her lights to dim. But she was brightening up.
"Got to tie her up. With what?" He looked at Rosie and Chelsie, at the stocking in his hand. He shook the soap out the open end and sat on Joy's butt.
She raised her head.
"Oh Christ! What the heck?"
She groaned and then got the message someone was parked on her backside.
"Hey you jerk."
Tommy was thinking, "How to do this? All right, crossing turn up over her wrists. Working end around the standing part. Frapping again and again. Knot and another knot."
It was the quickest he'd ever done anything. The echo of the shot still traveled in his brain, plenty of reason to speed things up.
He checked how secure it was. He wasn't sure. He crawled off to grab up the pistol.
"Hey buster thanks for getting off, now untie me. What are you doing with that?"
"You sit still."
"Sure after you untie me. I've got a headache, lucky you didn't put me in a coma. Be careful with that gun."
"I'll find more to tie you up with."
"You must be Tommy. I'm Joy Karn, I'm a friend of Eve."
"Quit trying to pull loose. I'm warning you."
"Point that some place else. Get your finger off the trigger."
Tommy waited, then stood and put the gun on the dresser.
"Good idea. Hey you tied this pretty tight."
Tommy picked up the scissors Joy had left on the floor. He looked down at her. She wiggled her hands, and her panty-covered bottom.
"Knot feels pretty tight, good idea to cut this off," said Joy.
Tommy ran out of the bedroom. Rosie and Chelsie yelled at him, which didn't make it further than the bedpost.
Joy yanked on the nylon binding her hands. She'd been tied better. This wouldn't take long.
Tommy knew if you needed binding material, in a pinch a phone cord does the trick. It'd been tougher to yank from the wall and cradle then he figured, but the scissors helped.
He tripped on the way back in and landed next to Rosie. When he raised up his face brushed against her right breast, but he didn't notice as he slid to the floor and started to sit on Joy. She used her right leg to kick him in the stomach. He flopped back on the bed.
"Hey Buster, just get this over with and let's talk. Put down that cord."
He moved and she kicked him with her left foot.
"What do you plan on doing with that?"
"Tie you up more until we find Eve Regis. And guess I'll have to gag you."
"If you want to lose some fingers," said Joy.
"I'll use that gun."
"No you won't. Come on kid, I know I tied your girlfriends, but now that you're here I know everything is square. No need to do this."
"Yeah there is. Now don't fight or I'll hit you again."
"Knock it off will you? Please take the stocking off me bub."
Tommy thought about it, put the scissors nearby, then hopped over Joy's heels and landing just above her knees.
"Jeez kid you're breaking my legs."
They felt strong under Tommy. And they had packed a wallop when she'd kicked. No way he wanted her arms and hands free.
"Hold your arms still."
"You mean like this?" Joy jerked her arms around. Tommy caught hold of the nylon and pulled her hands to the small of her back. He sat sideways and put his right knee on her right forearm.
"You're doing a good job. This your first time?"
Tommy kept working on stringing the knot.
Joy gritted her teeth. A few more seconds and she'd have been free. To bad the kid hadn't hurt himself running with scissors.
Tommy eased off her back, finished the phone cord binding, and then stood up. He prayed it held until he put more on.
He put the scissors on top of the dresser and looked toward the bed. Chelsie and Rosie had stopped talking into their gags while watching Tommy work on Joy. Now they stayed silent, letting their eyes send the message: "Tommy you dummy untie us!'
He didn't pick up on that, paying more attention to how they were bound. He looked them up and down, figuring what else to add to the blonde.
He opened a dresser drawer that held underwear, bras and such. He didn't touch that. The next drawer held stockings.
"Eve is not going to like you messing those up," said Joy.
"I can buy her new ones."
"You make good money at the Diner?"
"Hold your legs down."
"Oh you know better then to ask me that."
Joy began kicking her legs up and down, bending at the knee. Tommy sat to her right, then got to his knees and scooted to sit on her upper legs, facing away from her.
"I can't breathe," said Joy as she was pressed more into the bedroom floor.
He caught her ankles and crossed them over one another.
"Quit fighting and I'll finish and get off."
"You look like a quick finisher."
Tommy didn't catch what she meant. He used the nylon to tie her ankles, making a firm, small knot. The he turned around and ran another stocking under her legs, and tied it up top, just above her knees.
Joy felt him get off her legs. She turned so her head rested on its left side. Here was her idea. The kid had her for now. Play along and let him get big ideas from binding and gagging her. The knots felt tight, but Eric in the past had done her up better. Given time she'd do a Houdini. So if he just bundled her up a bunch and they stashed her in the closet, she'd go to work getting free. So let's get this part over with.
Tommy picked up Joy's other nylon, the one with the run in it. He laid it on the dresser, got the scissors, and picked up one of the towels Joy had brought in to gag the two on the bed. He cut it, ripped it, balling up a piece and shoving that inside the nylon stocking.
"That's the gag?"
"I don't mean to hurt you."
"I know you don't Tommy. Stick me out of sight and sound. Wait to see who else shows up. That's a good plan. Bet your friends will be glad you finally untie them. Probably wanted that right off the bat. Good thing you kept your head and tied me first."
"I'm going to roll you over. Are you going to fight?"
"Nope."
"Are you going to let me gag you?"
"You hold the cards buddy. Do you have to put that all in my mouth?"
"I don't know. Look just don't fight me all right?"
"Sure, just take it easy."
He put the gag to one side and rolled Joy over. Her left breast slid out of her bra.
"I didn't mean for that to happen."
"I'd hope not. No they have a mind of their own. Tell you what, it's time for me to take it off anyway. When you're full figured like me, well you need to ease up. At home I usually walk around in the nude."
Tommy began to turn red. He picked up the gag and fiddled with it.
"Go ahead and take my bra off will you? It's big enough to use for a gag."
"No I better not."
"It's almost off anyway. The hooks are there in front. If you want, use the scissors to cut the straps. I may get cold so when you stick me in a closet, cover me up will you?"
He put the gag down.
"How do you unhook it?"
"There's four tiny hooks, yes right there where you've got your hands."
He fumbled with the fastenings. Then they came undone.
He thought of melons. He shouldn't be seeing this.
"You devil. Don't let your girlfriend know about this."
"I don't have a girlfriend."
"You'll get lucky. I need to sit up," said Joy.
"First I've got to do this," said Tommy.
He picked up the gag.
"Will you open up?"
Joy gave a tiny smile, then threw her lips open. Tommy took the stocking gag by the ends and put the wad in the middle on top her mouth. He let loose of the right end and started pressing the towel and stocking in her mouth.
Joy lost her smile. This gag wasn't a good idea. She tried to tell him. Too late.
"Hey! Cargug um juff olog," she said as he kept adding the wadding like it was part of a family recipe and her mouth was the mixing bowl.
His fingers were slick from drool flowing over her lower lip.
It took him a minute to tie the gag behind her head
Devoted burlesque patrons always noticed Joy overflowed her costume, and now the gag she wore overflowed her mouth. Wasn't much Tommy could do, just yank the ends as tight as possible. He gave the wad one more shove.
"Ikut eyay," yelled Joy. At least it started as a yell, trailed off into a mumble.
"That'll hold you Commie."
Joy made angry noises that she was not a Commie. It came out as goo ah gug guddy, oh."
Tommy sat against the bed and rested. Rosie and Chelsie were chittering through their gags. Since he couldn't understand it, he ignored them for right now. He figured he was in a lot of trouble.
To Be Continued