Lisette and the Cyber Geeks
by
Brian Sands
Code Name Eternity, "The Box," Raffish Didclips
Chapter Nineteen The Gang’s All Here
Lisette was never able to explain adequately how the idea came to her. But, as Madame Vellum burst into the small hut with her assorted gang hard on her heels, Lisette raised her face to them and smiled in feigned relief.
"Oh thank goodness you found us!"
Madame Vellum came to a halt and stared.
"Eh?"
"It was horrible ..." Lisette burbled. "That man ... I don’t know who he was ... tied us up like this ... took us away ... He’s gone now ... Left us here ... to die of cold ... alone ... bound in the woods. We were terrified for our lives ... a dastardly desperate man ..."
The circle of villains gathered around, frozen in various poses according to their reactions: disbelief, belief or ... alternative emotions. Red Vellum’s mouth was drawn into an ironic "that’s a likely story" smile. Alvina Gamms had a puzzled look as though she half-believed Lisette’s story. Dorothea Wimple was examining the thin ties of curtain backing with the disgust a professional might hold towards an amateur where tying up was concerned. The voile strips by now were embedded in the two young women’s bare flesh. Sigrid’s visage was stony, but a glint in her eyes suggested that she might even be feeling a little sorry for the young women’s plight. The expressions on the faces of Priscilla Moons and Bombadil Kidd radiated pure lust at the sight of Lisette’s and Chérie’s naked breasts. Doc Legato, who brought up the rear as usual, had a cruel predatory grin on his baby face.
Lisette continued in an attempt to follow up her advantage of surprise over the villains.
"I think he’s gone. He went somewhere. Oh please untie us. It’s been hours. I promise we shan’t run away."
"Well!" Madame Red Vellum lowered her pistol and slipped it into the pocket of the suede jacket she was wearing. "Check them over please, Alvina. Then I’ll make up my mind what we are to do with them." She eyed Lisette with a sort of icy humour.
All the gang were muffled up against the approaching chill of the night. They looked ready to travel. Lisette thought of Sir Justin Hoffnung’s quip about the nondescript shed being a transit lounge. Then it hit her. Of course, this is the pick-up point! Just as in the war stories, and especially in those espionage movies, the gang is planning to exit the country from this abandoned airstrip. And all along she had been thinking that Vellum and company intended to depart decorously from Heathrow, leaving her and Chérie bound and gagged somewhere, in a hotel room or an old warehouse. She had seen enough of imprisonment in warehouses and cellars to last a lifetime. An ancient shepherd’s hut was scarcely an improvement.
In contrast to the travelling attire of the gang, which was a variety of heavy jackets and overcoats, Lisette and Chérie were positively underdressed for the part. Lisette’s slender body was covered with a thin patina of black potting soil that had been ingrained into the pores of her skin in some areas, smudged in others by the blanket in which she had been wrapped. On other parts of her body sweat-streaked grime formed interesting dendritic patterns, especially between her ripe pointed breasts and along her thighs. Her different body areas were transected by the bonds of thin curtain voile that cut painfully into her tender flesh. Chérie’s body had similar markings.
None of this disarray was lost on Priscilla Moons, who was licking her lips with her tongue in a very suggestive manner, while the movements under Bombadil Kidd’s greatcoat were unmistakable in their nature. Lisette felt sickened and hoped that she would not fall into the hands of either of them.
Mrs Alvina Gamms had inspected Lisette’s bonds and was now investigating those of Chérie. She looked up as she delved a hand into the pocket of her smart tweed jacket.
"Our young lawyer is in need of a respite, Madame," Gamms stated. "By the look of her, she won’t get away if her hands are freed."
"Go ahead, Alvina," replied Vellum. "I trust your judgement."
Mrs Gamms was already fitting a key into Chérie’s cuffs. Lisette heard a sharp click and was rewarded by the sight of Chérie relaxing for the first time as the rigidly styled cuffs were removed. Sigrid knelt beside Chérie and began to knead and massage her arms and hands. Chérie nodded weakly in thanks.
"Won’t you please untie me too?" asked Lisette as sweetly as she could. Gamms was cutting away the rest of the bonds from Chérie’s body.
"Well, I don’t know about you," said Madame Vellum with a slow smile. "I’m really quite surprised that you were not able to free yourself."
"I’m exhausted," replied Lisette. "I- I don’t have much fight left in me."
"Oho! A likely story! ... All right, for a little while ... Alvina dear? ... And, Dorothea, will you find something to cover our two young women? It’s getting cold. And it will cease to be such a distraction," she added disapprovingly as she narrowly observed Kidd’s obvious antics.
"Alvina dear" set to work on Lisette’s bonds as soon as she had finished with those trussing Chérie. The young lawyer sat with her head bowed, ruefully massaging her arms anew when Sigrid moved on to her legs. Dorothea Wimple rummaged inside a large duffle bag that had been placed just inside the door and produced two overcoats. As Sigrid moved to massage Lisette’s arms back into circulation, Wimple helped Chérie to stand and placed one of the overcoats around her shoulders. The young lawyer hugged the garment close about her neck gratefully. Then Lisette was brought to her feet to stand beside Chérie. Sigrid helped her arms into another spare overcoat and buttoned it up for her.
"Th- thank you," said Lisette through chattering teeth. The cold had started to get to her.
"That’s enough mollycoddling, Sigrid love," interposed Madame Vellum. "Bind her arms behind her, then her wrists. Better still, use some of your Japanese knots but don’t make them so tight that they’ll cut off circulation."
"Ya ... Ziss liddle mices vill be ver’ secure, but nod hurt zo much, ya?"
"God, when we get to the Continent, Sigrid dear, I vant ... no, I want you to begin taking basic English lessons. Undt, no, and start with the more unusual plurals and their singulars."
"Ya, Madame. I dries mein best!"
"I’m sure you do."
Vellum, Gamms, and Wimple watched with professional interest while Sigrid trussed Lisette’s arms behind her, using fresh ropes from the back pack she carried over her broad shoulders.
Sigrid raised Lisette’s arms gently until her wrists were crossed high up between her shoulder blades. Cord was then wound three times around her wrists in one direction, then three more times vertically in what Lisette had experienced before as crisscross and quite inescapable bindings. Holding the young woman’s arms in place with one hand, Sigrid looped another length of cord between her bound wrists and passed one end over Lisette’s shoulder. The opposite end of cord went over the prisoner’s other shoulder. Sigrid snugged the cords firmly so as to take up the slack, then passed them down to meet in a tie between Lisette’s breasts. The ends were next taken away in opposite directions below Lisette’s bosom and wound around her upper arms. There followed several more turns of cord around Lisette’s body, anchoring the first loops in place, trussing her upper arms, and holding her wrists so that they could not be moved. Except for the cords at her wrists, the whole affair was bound securely over the coat, so that its sleeves as well as its bulk around the lapels protected the prisoner’s arms and her lissome body beneath. Sigrid did not pull the cords excessively tight, only tight enough to make sure that Lisette would not be able to get her hands or arms free.
"Excellent work," said Vellum softly. "I don’t think there will be any further escape attempts, will there?"
Lisette shook her head.
"No. You’ve got me this time," she replied resignedly.
What can I do? she asked herself. I can’t move my arms at all!
Madame Vellum looked across at Chérie.
"I think you had better bind her too. Get her into that coat properly and secure her arms at the elbows. Let her hands free. Her wrists are too damaged by the handcuffs. She won’t be able to use her arms anyway."
Without a word, Sigrid turned to Chérie and performed the services as instructed. While she worked on the young lawyer, Madame Vellum clapped her hands decisively.
"Right, everyone out. Check the car. Make sure all the things you need to take are with you, and wait by the side of the strip. The plane should be here any minute ... Sigrid dear, follow us when you’ve finished. Oh and bind their legs too. They can wait here. I’ll have some final words to say to our young Revenue expert before we leave."
Everyone left. Lisette stood quietly to one side and watched as Chérie’s arms were tied behind her. Sigrid pulled the girl’s elbows back as far as they could go without undue discomfort and tied off the knots. Additional lengths of cord went around Chérie’s torso. By the way Chérie flinched, Lisette suspected that some of the loops were pressing directly into her breasts. But, although those cords were tied firmly, they were not as tight as on previous occasions in Chérie’s captivity.
Chérie was the first to be sat on the floor, where her ankles were bound with more cord and her legs attached to her wrists in a half hog-tie so that she had to sit side-saddle with her back against the wall. At that point, Priscilla Moons re-entered the hut.
"Madame needs you, Sigrid darling," said Moons with a slightly affected air. "I’ll take over from here and be with you shortly."
"Ya, okayyy." Sigrid rose to her feet and looked down at Chérie. "Zey must be qviet too. Ze zound dravels long vay in der nicht. Zey must be like liddle mouses, especially zis one." Sigrid indicated Lisette.
"I will make sure of that, fraken." Moons was delving into her own kit bag.
The small hut felt as large as a church once Sigrid’s bulk had passed through the door.
"Now that we are alone, I have a proposition to put to you, Lisa Rivers."
"Wh- What do you mean?"
Lisette could think of no better response.
"Ah, first things first ... There seems to be no tape handy but this should do nicely."
Moons held a large cotton bandana in military green that she began to fold over from a triangle. She stepped up to Lisette and raised it to her lips, then she paused.
"Just covering your mouth is not enough. As our Norwegian colleague said, sounds travel at night. No, there has to be some packing to fill that pretty mouth, and I think you have just the thing."
To Lisette’s consternation, Priscilla Moons knelt before her and from under the greatcoat took the side strings of her panties in both hands. She pulled the black panties down to Lisette’s feet. Lisette gave an aggrieved yelp.
"Be quiet!" said Moons in a matter of fact voice.
She tossed the panties to one side and turned to Chérie.
"Now your turn."
It was more difficult to remove Chérie’s panties because her legs were tied together. But Moons produced a small clasp knife. Every villain must enter the business equipped with a pocket-knife, thought Lisette inconsequentially.
Priscilla Moons finished the job by the simple expedient of cutting the side strings of Chérie’s panties, then pulling the lacy cloth through in a manner that made Chérie arch her back and give a yelp of her own.
"You shut up too," said Moons sternly. In fact, you can be first."
At first Chérie turned her head to one side and closed her mouth stubbornly. But her resistance was short-lived. Moons pinched off her nose with the forefinger and thumb of one hand and waited patiently for the young lawyer to run out of air, the bunched up remnants of Chérie’s panties held ready in her other hand. With a groan of defeat, Chérie parted her lips. Offended gagging sounds ensued as the cloth was forced between her teeth and into her mouth. Moons then bound the green bandana tightly over Chérie’s lower face, covering both her nose and mouth as far as her chin. A second bandana was then bound over Chérie’s eyes and she was left. Lisette watched with sympathy as Chérie shook her head from side to side, faint retching sounds coming from beneath her gag.
Priscilla Moons stooped and took up Lisette’s panties from where they lay. She shook them out to rid them of excess dust, grasped Lisette by the rope binding her upper arms and propelled her to the far side of the hut. Lisette gave the woman a withering look. But the effect was lost on Moons as she regarded her prisoner triumphantly, as though Lisette was a prize just won in a raffle.
"I’ve been wanting to get you alone to myself for a long time," Moons crooned softly in Lisette’s ear. "Your friend does not need to hear what I have to say, therefore the blindfold which will serve to block her ears, and I will speak to you softly here. But first ... I hope you don’t attempt any pitiful resistance." And Moons brought the bunched panties to Lisette’s lips.
"In they go," muttered Moons as she stuffed the silky textured cloth into Lisette’s mouth. "I don’t expect that they taste very nice, do they? But then you only have yourself to blame. Now ... purse your lips over them ... There!"
Another green hued bandana was tightened over Lisette’s mouth to hold the gag. Moons stopped short at covering her nose, preferring to bind the cloth very tightly from against her upper lip to where it overlapped Lisette’s chin.
"Perhaps I should have swapped your panties with those of your lawyer friend, Lisa, or shall we call you by your more preferred name, Lisette Ruisseau? Still perhaps we’ll swap them around later ... Comfy now?"
From rolling about in the van, Lisette was assailed by an admixture of her own sweat with that of dead flowers and potting mix. The woman’s right, she thought gloomily. Though I hate to think it, it’s miles better having my own body scents to smell, and to taste, than those of someone else’s! But I’m not enamoured of it either.
"This is what I want you to know," said Priscilla Moons in a lowered voice, her lips very close to Lisette’s ear. "You’re a sweetie and I’ve fallen madly in love with you. So what I’m going to do is to take you away from here. I’m not going with the others because there are things to do before the business is completely wound up. And I’ll take my chances with the police, because, after all, I’ll have you safely locked away somewhere - and your interfering friend - so you can’t blab to the authorities straight away. I’ll have my little fun with you, and you may even grow to enjoy it, then, believe it or not, I’ll let you go. I could not bring myself to harm such a pretty little thing like you. Deal? Though it doesn’t matter, but all you have to do is nod your head."
Lisette shook her head vehemently.
"Too bad. But time will tell ... Wait. Someone’s coming!"
Lisette heard footfalls outside, and the low-pitched murmur of conversation. The door of the hut swung open and Doc Legato entered, his hands as usual thrust deep within the side pockets of his greatcoat. He was accompanied by a thick-set man, balding, grey at the temples with a heavy dark moustache. The military style flack jacket worn by the stranger suggested that he was the pilot, though Lisette had not heard the sound of a plane landing.
The newcomer raised a monocle to his eye, the better to observe Lisette.
"Is this cargo too? I have no room for so many people. And that otter woman? No, no.. Impossible!"
"Yair, well," said Legato, "They’re not coming. The boss wants to keep them here so they won’t yap ter the police."
"Ah? A pity. That one," he indicated Chérie, "is worth something.
Against her better judgement, Lisette felt a trifle aggrieved at not herself being worth something. And how can he tell? Chérie’s face is concealed under the blindfold and the gag. Then the realisation hit Lisette in the pit of her stomach. There really was a white slave trade! It was not a story invented by Madame Vellum to frighten her.
That woman now appeared in the doorway. She greeted the pilot.
"Ah, Spicer. We scarcely heard you arrive."
"Best to cut the engine and glide the rest of the way," said the man laconically. ‘Your assistant has just told me that these two women remain here?"
"That’s right. Priscilla and Doc will hold them for a few days more until they leave the country."
"That platinum blonde we can use."
"But you can’t see her face!"
"No matter. The boss said one of the customers requires a platinum blonde."
"Hmm. We have to negotiate, but not from here. You can make another pick-up."
"Madame, I have my own plans," interposed Priscilla Moons.
Madame Vellum looked at Spicer and shrugged.
"She has authority now that Alvina and I are leaving the country. You must take it up with her, but at a later date. Time is pressing, and I am sure you want to leave."
Spicer nodded, but his gaze lingered on Chérie as they exited the hut.
"Come on," said Priscilla Moons to Lisette, "I’ll put you into the car first. Very, very special treatment for you."
The chill air of the night struck Lisette across the eyes as Miss Moons towed her, stumbling, out of the hut. Above them a ceiling of heavy cloud obscured the night sky. In the near distance the trees were ghostly dark shapes. That’s where the cars must be hidden, thought Lisette. She was right. Moons conducted her along a narrow track and in less than half a minute they were standing beside the Flowers R Us van.
Priscilla Moons looked around them in the almost pitch darkness, then thumbed the switch of a small keyhole torch in order to illuminate the side door of the van. As if in response to the light of the torch, another came on some distance off among the trees. Moons gave a faint gasp, then relaxed visibly as the figure of Doc Legato emerged from the shadows.
"What are you doing here?" asked Moons. "I thought Madame put you in charge of the other car."
"She sent me here to fetch her purse, din’t she?" rasped the boy, "An’ they needed the car ter be close ter the plane. It ain’t half a fair walk ... Come on. Hurry up with that key, then I c’n get back. They’re waitin’ fer me."
Neglecting the side door for a moment, Moons went to the passenger’s side and opened that door. Doc Legato plunged into the cabin and began scrabbling around, searching the glove compartment, the map pockets inside the doors, and beneath the seat, swearing under his breath as each investigation yielded no result. He emerged, his hat askew, and looked wildly around. Moons and Legato stood bathed in the faint glow of the interior light facing each other.
Lisette watched in fascination. She knew it was hopeless to attempt to run off into the trees with her arms so tightly bound up behind her, and she could not leave Chérie alone with these people. With Madame Vellum and the other women gone, there was no knowing what Legato would try to do. She remembered the game he played at the warehouse when the adventure began. He might easily have strangled her.
"I don’t know where it could be," said Priscilla Moons. "Perhaps Madame was mistaken."
"Nah, she can’t be ..."
Legato stopped abruptly. In the distance was the unmistakable sound of a light aircraft engine coughing into life.
"Bloody hell ... the bitch! They’re leavin’ widdout me!" Legato shrilled.
He turned and began running back towards the direction from which he had come and was soon lost to sight. But already the roar of the engine was louder. Lisette pictured the plane with its pilot Spicer, Madame Vellum, Sigrid, Alvina Gamms, Dorothea Wimple and Bombadil Kidd trundling ever faster along the old airstrip. She felt a sense of satisfaction in knowing that Madame Vellum was abandoning this most unsavoury of her henchmen. But this was tinged with alarm at the thought that the fellow would probably return and become one of her captors.
Priscilla Moons seized Lisette and bundled her into the driver’s cabin. She reached in across her prisoner, switched on the interior lamp, then fastened the passenger’s seat belt around Lisette’s body and waist. The roar of the plane’s takeoff sounded as though it was almost overhead.
"Have to take the risk," Moons shouted above the din. "I’ll lose precious minutes if I can’t find you on the way back ... Stay put. I’ll fetch your friend. With any luck we can lose the bastard."
Lisette nodded. Her legs were not bound. But Moons with all her faults, including her Sapphic interest in Lisette herself, was far preferable to the vicious sallow-faced kid. She waited impatiently, dreading Legato’s return at any moment. She asked herself again what would he do? There was the other car. He could be looking for that. She fervently hoped so. The vehicle would be at the far end of the airfield. The sound of the aircraft was now a thin insect buzz in the distance.
Just then, Priscilla Moons with Chérie in tow stepped out of the darkness into the faint glow of the cabin lamp. Lissette saw that Chérie had managed to work the covering gag down so that her nose was free. Either that or Moons had done it for the young lawyer.
"Get inside, quick!" said Moons. As Chérie scrambled with difficulty into the back of the van, her arms still tied behind her at the elbows, Moons added, "Lie down on the mattress and make yourself comfortable. We’ve got to get out of here."
Obviously satisfied that Chérie had obeyed, the woman slammed the door shut and ran to the other side of the van and into the driver’s seat. She looked across at Lisette as she turned the starter motor, and switched on the headlights, and smiled.
"You’ll be safe with me, Ducky," Moons exclaimed as the van bounced along the track. Then, apropos of nothing she added, "Who needs men, that’s what I say."
They were probably retracing some of the rough across-country track taken when they arrived, but the route seemed shorter. As the van reached the sealed surface of the main road, the distant sounds of police sirens started up from somewhere far behind them. Priscilla Moons eased the vehicle onto the road and they were on their way. The woman drove rapidly, but she clearly knew her vehicle and controlled it smoothly along the highway.
After several minutes had passed, Moons looked across at Lisette.
"It’s a long trip, so make yourself comfortable. When we pass through a village or two, you are to bow your head and sit as low in the seat as possible so that no one will notice you. If you don’t, I’ll stow you in the back, tie your legs and hog-tie you into the bargain. Understand? I see from the mirror that your friend is lying in place quietly. She’s cooperating nicely. So you should too."
Lisette nodded.
"And in case you’re wondering where we’re going, there’s a comfy caretaker’s cottage hidden away in the grounds of the flower farm. Nobody will think of looking for us there."
Lisette settled down for the long journey. Surprisingly, she had managed to get used to her gag. She put this down to the fact that the panties filling her mouth were not quite as large as the packing her captors normally used on her. She was suddenly pleased that she had worn a brief string-sided pair, rather than something more extensive. But her arms were already stiff and useless, tied up behind her, squashed between her body and the seat. On the other hand, she could move her wrists a little. The cords were not cutting off circulation, so she had to be thankful for small mercies.
As the road unwound ahead of them, like a ribbon lit faintly by the moonlight that filtered intermittently through the heavy clouds, Lisette had the uncanny feeling that they were being followed.
To be Continued ...
ã Brian Sands 2004