Tai Anne Roper

by Nicole Sutter

She could hear street noises outside. Traffic. People. The clang-clang of a Muni trolley. It felt like morning. She remembered Shakira coming for her in the dungeon of The Brickyard and then...

"Ah! And so my Bride has awakened!"

Tai looked up to see Shakira standing in the doorway of the bathroom. She had just washed her face and changed into a pair of tight jeans and a tee shirt.

"Where are we?" Tai asked as she got out of the bed and went to the window. She was stiff as hell.

"A hotel in The City, owned by a man who is also Hindi and a disciple of the Kali-Ma. Most fortunate was I to find him!"

Tai frowned as she pulled aside the curtain and saw that the windows were barred. She also saw the street down below. It looked like the area around Market Street, south of the Civic Center. A little run down at the edges with a plethora of cheap no-tell hotels along the avenue.

"I need to call someone," Tai said. "Let'em know I'm okay."

"I cannot allow that, Tai Anne," Shakira replied firmly. "As you Americans say, 'we are far from being out from under the trees.'"

Tai squinted at her. "You mean, 'we're not out of the woods yet.'"

"That is what I am saying." Shakira said. "In fact, I need for you to stay in this room while I secure transportation back to Mama Jane's commune."

Tai crossed her arms in front of her breasts. "I am not going back to the commune, Shakira."

"Correct!" Shakira smiled. "You will be going to the Temple of Kali located within the commune! There you will learn the proper discipline and ways of ritual submission, to be the Bride of the Avatar!"

"Look, Shakira," Tai said, scratching at her long, greasy hair. "I don't wanna argue about this, k? Now the fact is, I have unfinished business here in SF. I have to talk to my friend Iwana Binder, and I somehow gotta make peace with Paige and her crew at The Brickyard. But first, I really need a bath..."

Shakira nodded to the adjoining room. "There is a bathtub in there. But..."

"No buts," Tai said as she made it to the door. "I gotta go to the bathroom real bad, I gotta take a bath... and I gotta talk to Iwana." She slammed the door behind her.

Shakira sighed and went to her backpack in the corner. She went through the contents and finally pulled out a long length of rope. Thick, handmade hemp made in India. Humming to herself, she loosened the knot holding it together and let it run out into a big pile on the floor.

Tai exited the bathroom.

"That was quick."

"There's a rat in the bathtub," Tai said. "A big one."

"Yes, the owner of the hotel is a fundamentalist Hindu, and does not even believe in killing rodents or cockroaches," Shakira said. "Most unfortunate to also be the owner of a hotel, eh?"

"Or his guest," Tai said. "I'm gonna need to borrow some of your clothes."

"I have nothing you will be wearing, except this rope." Shakira indicated the mound of hemp before her.

Tai frowned. "Huh?"

"Come now," Shakira said. "Surely you have heard of the 'Indian Rope Trick'?"

Tai's eyes widened as she saw the mound of rope suddenly start to shift and wiggle on it's own. Snake like, one end of the rope began to rise into the air.

"Shakira!" Tai was amazed. She saw no wires or smoke or mirrors. "How are you doing this?"

"Through the power of Mother of Us All, anything is possible," Shakira replied.

"Wow!" Tai reached out to touch the end of the rope, when suddenly the rope grabbed her. She squealed as it twirled around the inside of her arms and around her wrists, circling and tightening on her body.

It squeezed her waist and encircled her breasts and drew her shoulders back while the other end looped and cinched together her ankles and knees and then anchored at her belly before squirming between her legs and up between her bottomcheeks to form an achingly tight crotchrope.

In less than a minute, Tai Anne Roper was teetering on her tightly drawn together feet, bound hand and foot.

She pulled hard at the rope, only to have it fight back and tighten on her even more.

"Do not fight it, my Bride," Shakira advised. "You are now helpless for as long as I wish you to be!"

Tai's hands were still in front of her, now held tight against her belly. She watched as the thick hemp unraveled into thin strands that began to weave her fingers together. Other strands moved over her face and through her hair forming a rough harness.

"Shakira," Tai cried. "Why?"

"As I have been telling you before, my dearest, you are not yet knowing your own mind." Shakira easily scooped her up into her arms and carried her effortlessly to the bed.
"You are much too kidnappable a girl! You fall into rope and chains with almost amusing regularity! So I have decided it is best to keep you as my slave bride. And as you Americans say, 'that is what was written by the woman!'"

"You mean, 'that's all she wrote.'" Tai growled.

"Exactly." Shakira kissed her long and deep. "I do love you, Tai. Once you are safe within the Temple, and welded into your permanent chains and harness, you will learn the joys of eternal submission... to me. In time, you will not even desire to wander even a few steps from your home... or your loving wife."

"But..."

"No buts." Shakira made a twirling motion with her fingers and the thin strands now jumped into Tai's mouth, filling it until her cheeks ballooned out.

"Fmmmph! ummmph nmmph!!!" Tai shook her head, and the hemp tightened around her mouth.

Shakira playfully tweaked Tai's nose. "I will return for you soon, my beloved!"

She grabbed her purse and was out the door, locking it behind her.

Tai Anne Roper moaned in frustration as she looked around the room. Well, that was fun! Getting rescued only to be kidnapped again! She pulled at her bindings. Jiminy Crickets! Why do these things always happen to her!

She stopped her squirming as she noticed a telephone jack in the far wall. A slender landline from the jack ran across the room and under the bed.

Naw, it can't be that simple, Tai thought. But maybe Shakira hadn't spotted it, or known that even in cheap no-tell motels there's a phone in every room.

Tai rolled off the bed and landed with a thump on the floor. Sitting there under bed was an old, rotary dial telephone.

Tai looked heavenward. Thank you, Jesus! And Alexander Graham Bell...

***

"Come along, Drew," Jeb said. "Rise and shine."

Drew Thrasher groaned and rolled over in her sleeping bag. "I shall rise... but I refuse to bloody well shine!"

Jeb laughed as he sipped his morning coffee. "That's what you get for being a Brit! Any people who insist on starting their day with tea instead of java deserve what they get. Now I understand how Jerry caught you blokes napping at Dunkirk..."

Drew threw her pillow at him and got up. They were still in the deserted officespace across from The Brickyard. She went to the bathroom while he looked over the monitors from the night before.

"Anything?" she called out.

"Some phone traffic, but nothing else," Jeb replied. "Hurry up, we gotta get a move on."

"It's only seven-thirty!" Drew called back.

"You know the first rule of a 'meet'," Jeb replied. "'Get there before they do.'" He pulled out his cellphone and dialed up Iwana Binder, only getting her voice mail. Strange.

"Do you think the good sergeant will get her 'sistahgrrl' back?" Drew came out of the bathroom, brushing her hair. She was dressed casually in black knit slacks, a white cotton blouse and black blazer.

"I think Iwana is a force to be reckoned with." Jeb pulled on his leather bomber jacket. He wore a denim buttondown shirt and a crisp pair of Docker khakis. Like every other San Franciscan he wore a pair of Doc Martens.

She watched as he checked his silencered Hk-23 pistol and slipped it under his belt near the small of his back. An old concealed carry trick of the agency.

"Talked to your wife this morning?" Drew asked as they took the elevator down.

"Yeah, she and the girls made it to the safehouse," Jeb replied. "They're sitting around bored playing Yahtzee while daddy plays his spygames."

In the parking garage, Jeb got behind the wheel of the Mercedes. They exited on Notoma and found their way onto the hustle and bustle of Market Street, passing the Civic Center complex.

It was yet another crisp, clear cookie-cutter of a day in The City. Except it was also Monday, and the morning rush hour traffic was murder, as always.

Again Jeb tried to get ahold of Iwana. Nothing. He decided to drop by the North Beach Motorlodge on the way.

"Maybe she's trying to ring you up?" Drew asked from the passenger seat. She had the windows rolled down and a pair of sunglasses on, trying to look oh so California.

"I have a feeling she's gonna try to 'cowboy' this all by her lonesome," Jeb replied. "In which case..." his thoughts were interrupted by his cellphone chirping.

"See?" Drew said.

He clicked on. "Yes?"

"Mmmmph fmmph lmmmph..."

"What? Hold on, dammit." Jeb steered the Mercedes into a curb.

"What is it?" Drew asked.

"Gagtalk," Jeb replied. "And I'm rusty as hell!" He turned back to the phone. "Alright, now whoever this is, give me two 'mmmphs' for yes and one 'mmmph' for no. Got it?"

"Mmmph, mmmph!"

"Is this Iwana?"

"Mmmph!"

"Tai? Is that you Tai?"

"Mmmph, mmmph!"

"Thank Christ! Do you know where you are?"

"Mmmph!"

"Shit. Are you on a landline?"

"Mmmph, mmmph!"

"Okay, hang tight I'm running a trace." Jeb pulled his briefcase from the backseat and opened it up to reveal a small monitor screen and keyboard. He plugged the cellphone in and started tapping away.

"Is it really Tai?" Drew asked.

"Hope so... There!" he unplugged the phone. "Tai, lissen up! I have you! You're in room 514 of the Belfour Hotel on Market, my ETA is three minutes. Are you alone?"

"Mmmph, mmmph!"

"Just hold on tight, babe. If someone tries to move you, stall 'em. I'm on my way!"

Jeb dropped the phone and sawed the wheel hard left as he punched the gas pedal. The Mercedes cut across five lanes of traffic to a chorus horns, squealing brakes and two fender benders.

"Is she close?" Drew asked, keeping her eyes closed as he weaved through traffic at dangerous speeds.

"Damned close. She's in a fleabag of a hotel on Market called the Belfour. I know it."

"What do you want me to do?"

He tossed a comm unit and an earmike to her. "Stay in contact, keep circling the block til I need you. This is it. Stay frosty."

"Roger that."

Jeb barely brought the car to a halt before he was out and running up the sidewalk to the seven story Belfour Motel. Definitely a faded rose of The City, with cracked red brick, dirty windows and several derelicts passed out by the front doors.

Jeb hopped over them and entered the lobby, where some of the long-term residents were napping. The owner also had a sideline going in the lobby, selling racks of swords, cutlasses and 'fantasy daggers' all made of cheap Pakistani steel, along with velvet paintings of tigers and Elvis, not to mention those big ass ceramic elephants.

"Can I be helping you?" A young East Indian man said from the check-in desk as Jeb tried not to trip over an elephant.

"Yes, I'm... Harry Lime, with the San Francisco Department of Health." Jeb flashed his Blockbuster Video card at the man. "I need to do a followup inspection of the premises."

"Please! I am being only the clerk!" the young man shouted as Jeb took to the stairs. "You will be wanting to speak to the owner, Mr. Prabha! Sir? Sir?"

Jeb was already on the second floor, moving fast. By the time he was on five, he was winded but still holding his own.

Fifth floor was deserted except for a young punk sitting in a folding chair guarding the hallway. As he spotted Jeb walking towards him he grinned and flashed a long, razor sharp machete he had in his hand.

"Sorry, pops," he said. "Scissors cuts paper."

Jeb drew his pistol and placed the barrel against the kid's forehead. "Rock breaks scissors, asshole. Now blow."

The kid dropped the machete and took off. Jeb put away the piece and continued down the hallway. None of the rooms had numbers on the doors, but only one was secured by an outside padlock and hasp.

"Tai Anne! You in there?" Jeb called. He thought he could hear a frantic humming from within. He backed up and put a solid, straight kick into the door, right at the knob.

"Oh, shit!" Jeb limped back and lined up for another shot. Damn. Ten years ago he could always pop a door on the first try.

Second time was the charm. The door was knocked back on its hinges. Jeb entered and kicked the door shut behind him.

Tai Anne Roper was on the floor beside the bed. A telephone with the receiver off the hook was by her face. She was bound and gagged quite skillfully from head to foot with a heavy rope. Her eyes where wide and grateful as Jeb dropped to one knee and flicked open his Gerber tactical folding knife.

"Don't worry, babe," Jeb said. "I'll have you outta this... in a jiff... what the fuck?!"

The razor sharp blade of the knife was making short work of the rope, but the rope also seemed to reweaving itself back as he cut through it. He kept at it, now slicing away at the rope and tossing it into a far corner, where it writhed about like dying snakes.

"Jmmf! Bmmf hmmf eww!" Tai hummed away, wild-eyed at him. He sighed and sliced the rope away from her cheeks and pulled a big ball of hemp out of her mouth.

"Yes?"

Tai licked her lips. "Jeb, behind you!!!"

Jeb turned in time to see another East Indian sneaking through the broken door, raising a long bladed, Khyber sword above his head to swing down on him.

Jeb moved in, catching his blade hand and judo flipping him onto the floor. He put him out with an elbow to the face and relieved him of the sword.

Tai was struggling out of what was left of the rope as three more rather ordinary looking East Indian men came through the door, all were armed with long swords --no doubt taken from the display downstairs-- and they all looked eager to use them.

Jeb raised his own sword, keeping himself between Tai and the men.

"I am Mr. Narwahari Prabha, owner of this fine hotel and establishment!" An older man wearing glasses stated. "I am also a follower of the Kali-Ma! Surrender yourself, and give to me the Bride of the Avatar!"

"I am Jeb Stuart, freelance do-gooder!" he replied. "And if you want this girl, you gotta come through me! En garde!"

The three men screamed "Kaaaaaaliiiii" and rushed him.

Watching the swordfight from a corner, Tai swore she could almost hear Erich Wolfgang Korngold's sweeping theme to the Robin Hood movie --the good one starring Errol Flynn, not the crappy one with Kevin Costner and the black merry man-- as steel clanged against steel and swords flashed.

Jeb parried a blade and kicked a man hard into a wall. Another blade was twirled out of Mr. Prabha's hand to land embedded in the ceiling. He then got the brass hilt driven into his jaw, and he hit the floor.

The last man faced off Jeb who suddenly lunged at him shouting, "Have at you!!!"

The man screamed like a woman, dropped his sword and ran out of the room.

Jeb turned back to Tai Anne Roper, using his sword to relieve her of the last of that pesky rope.

"Jeb!" Tai said as she gave him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. "You the man!"

"Come now, I've been rescuing damsels fair since 1983!" Jeb replied with a smile. "Now get some clothes on!"

Jeb watched the hallway while Tai went through Shakira's things trying to find something to wear.

"Tai! Today, please!"

"I'm trying! But nothing -ugh- fits me!"

"Then make it... fit." Jeb looked back into the room and gulped. Tai was wearing a small, short-sleeved, white cotton shirt that had already split at the back and had to be knotted between her breasts, giving her miles of bulging cleavage and a bare midriff. A long, blue cotton scarf was wrapped low across her hips and knotted off her left hip, barely covering the juncture of her thighs.

"No sh-shoes?" Jeb asked.

"She has feet smaller than Barbie's," Tai replied, grabbing one of the swords off the floor as she ran to him.

"Then let's away!" Jeb said. He and Tai moved into the hallway and down to the elevator and stairwells.

The elevator was coming up to stop on their floor. The doors opened just as the doors to the stairwells opened to disgorge a dozen men all armed with swords, bats and sticks. The elevator gave up seven more.

They were all local merchants and working stiffs, dressed in tee shirts and dungarees. All were East Indian by descent and Tai knew they were all to a man faithful followers of the Kali-Ma.

"Who are these guys?" Jeb asked as he backed up with Tai peering over his shoulder. He drew his pistol and aimed it at the group. They kept coming. He fired a round into the ceiling. They kept coming, now chanting, "Kali-Maaaaa... Kali-Maaaa..."

"Y'know those things aren't worth a damn if you ain't gonna use 'em!" Tai hissed. "What now, kemo sabe?"

"Run like hell!"

Tai and Jeb took off down the hallway with the gang of men in hot pursuit. Jeb kicked in another door to another room, yanked Tai in and managed to get the door closed behind him.

Tai went to the window while Jeb barricaded the door with a dresser, a desk and whatever else he could find like Larry or Shemp used to do in Three Stooges shorts. The crowd on the other side was getting unruly.

"Fire escape!" Tai called. She got the window open and crawled out onto the rusty, rickety landing, looking down at the alley below. Jeb was right behind her.

"Were going up," He said, pushing her up the ladder heading to the roof.

"Up? Why up?" Tai whined.

"Because they won't think we'd go up," Jeb replied.

"They won't think we'd go up, 'cuz it's stupid!" Tai retorted. But she started up the ladder, with Jeb going up right behind her.

"Nice view," he said.

A two story climb later put them right on the roof. Thank God it was still a cool morning. The tarmac was easy on Tai's bare feet.

"Now what?" Tai asked.

"I'm working on it," Jeb growled back. Nothing on the Market Street side, and the building to the left was too tall, while the building to the right wasn't tall enough, but the building behind them was just right.

Jeb ran over to the ledge. There was an eight foot gap between buildings. "Okay, we jump together, you take my hand and..."

"Kowa-bungaaaaah!" Tai shouted as she got a running start and easily made the jump to the other building, landing in a tuck and roll.

"Woooohoooo!" Tai got up and did a little happy dance. "Your turn!"

Jeb was backing up when the door to the roof burst open and five followers of Kali came screaming like banshees at him. Another sword fight began.

"Jeb! I'm coming!" Tai called. That's when the door on her roof burst open and four more Kali-ites showed up.

Tai had left her sword on the other roof, but the men facing her had no desire to injure the Bride of the Avatar. One grabbed Tai from behind while two more came at her with rope in their hands.

"Not today, buster!" With the man still holding her from behind, Tai kicked out with both feet, hitting both men hard in the chest and knocking them down. She drove her elbow into the ribs of the guy holding her and then jabbed him in the eye with her thumb.

A spin kick to the face put down the fourth guy. Meanwhile, Jeb had driven back his attackers enough to make the jump over to Tai's roof.

"Are we having fun yet?" Tai asked.

"I can't take you anywhere!" Jeb grinned. He saw that his guys were a little leery of making the jump he had just navigated. "C'mon!"

They made it to the other building's fire escape. Heading down and taking the point, Jeb keyed his comm unit.

"Drew, you copy?"

"I'm here. Two cop cars just showed up at the front of the Belfour."

"We'll be coming out of an alley on the Duboce Street side. ETA two minutes."

"Roger that."

Jeb made the final jump to the alley. It was filthy and reeked of urine and was littered with broken glass.

Tai hung there for a long moment, her bare feet dangling over the shards.

"I gotcha!" Jeb grabbed her and tossed her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. He took off running down the alley with Tai's makeshift skirt riding up to her waist.

The tan Mercedes screeched to a halt in front of them just as Jeb made the sidewalk, huffing and puffing.

"Now there's something you don't see everyday!" Drew smirked.

Jeb dumped Tai into the backseat with legs flailing and dropped into the shotgun seat himself.

"Drive," he croaked.

Sure," Drew replied as she floored it. "Whoooooops!!!" She twirled the steering wheel and instituted a textbook bootlegger's turn as a dozen or so men fanned out across the street to stop them. She burned rubber all the way down Duboce and made the turn onto Dolores on two wheels.

Jeb leaned back, trying to catch his breath as two SFPD black and white units flashed by in the opposite direction. They were now safe in the Mission District.

"Y'know," Tai Anne Roper said as she leaned forward and looked at Jeb. "You're pretty agile... for an older guy."

"Breakfast anyone?" Drew asked.

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