The little girl lifted the Band-Aid and pressed it into the correct position over the cut. “There,” she said in satisfaction. “All better. It has little unicorns on it.”
The corners of Visola’s eyes squinted as she looked at the child. “Unicorns?”
“Yes. You know, magical horsies with a big sword on their face.” The little girl lifted her finger to her forehead to simulate a unicorn’s horn. “They use their magic to help your boo-boo go away faster.”
Visola lifted her hand away from her bullet wound to touch the Band-Aid on her face. Her lips parted slightly and her eyes displayed great pain at being unwittingly forced to remember.
“Mama, will you come play with me and Tuskany? We’re going to go hunting deep under the ice. I’m going to help him kill all the fish he wants to eat!”
Visola had been reading one of Vachlan’s screenplays, and she looked up in confusion. “Tuskany?” she repeated.
“It’s the name of the narwhal that Daddy got me! He has a sword on his nose, and it’s made of ivory. Like me!” Ivory laughed as she touched her own nose. “Come play! It’s going to be so much fun!”
Visola frowned. “Your father and I agreed that we were going to get you pygmy killer whales,” she said, rising to her feet. “Those are much more appropriate pets for you and your brother. Narwhals are slow, boring, and dumb.”
Ivory gasped. “No! Mommy, you need to meet Tuskany. He’s very smart and strong, and sometimes he even has swordfights with other narwhals. With his nose!”
“I’m going to have to talk to your father about this,” Visola said.
“No! It’s my fault. I told Daddy that I don’t want a dolphin. I want my Tuskany. He’s my best friend. Please, don’t take Tuskany away, Mama.” Ivory had tears in her eyes at the prospect of losing her beloved pet. “Daddy got a narwhal for me because I begged him. He’s the best daddy in the whole world. He knows how much I love Tuskany.”
Visola felt her heart softening. Was it so bad to let her have the narwhal? It was impressive that such a young child was showing such strong indication of firm-decision making, and fighting for what she wanted. Visola admired her resolve… It also seemed like it had been a point of bonding for Vachlan and his daughter…
“Don’t you like the unicorns?” asked the little girl with worry.
Visola stared at her, and in her altered state, her mind mixed the present reality with past memory, creating a cocktail that was difficult to swallow. “Ivory?” Visola whispered.
“My name is Suzie,” the little girl said. “I’m four. Have you seen my mommy? I’m hungry. She said she was going to bring food.”
Noticing that her body had been frozen, Visola forced herself to move. She slipped her backpack off her shoulders, and dug inside it for her protein bars. She pulled one out and ripped the wrapper off, before handing it to the little girl. “It doesn’t taste very good, but it’s healthy for you.”
The little girl eagerly took the protein bar and took a giant bite. “Yay, food!” she said with her mouth full. She took several more large bites, giving the impression that she had not been eating well for some time. “Mommy always makes me eat things that aren’t tasty because they’re good for you.”
Visola watched the little girl eating the protein bar, and she felt emotion for the first time in weeks. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “Your mother—she loves you. More than anything. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that your mother left you all alone.”
“It’s okay!” Suzie said happily as she finished the protein bar. “I’m a big girl, and I had Teddy. Do you want to hug Teddy? He always makes me feel better.” The little girl ran to retrieve her bear, and quickly returned. When Suzie thrust her small arm out toward Visola, with the teddy bear hanging from her tiny fist, Visola flinched and recoiled.
“I can’t,” Visola said, fighting back a wave of emotion. She pushed the bear away. “I can’t.”
“You seem sad. Teddy always listens when you tell him your problems.” The little girl gave a solemn nod, and shoved the bear toward Visola again. “If you give him a hug and tell him what’s wrong, you’ll be happy again soon!”
After a moment of hesitation, Visola found her hand reaching out to grasp the teddy bear. Her black glove smeared blood on the teddy bear’s light fur. As she stared at the toy’s innocent face, her insides contorted with memories of home. She found that her shoulders were beginning to tremble.
Suzie moved closer to Visola, examining her cheek, where she had placed the Band-Aid. “Does your ouchie feel better yet? I want to be a doctor when I grow up, so I have to start practicing!”
Visola looked up sharply. “A doctor?”
“Yes!” the girl said happily. “So I can help lots of people.”
The world started to spin around Visola. She reached out and brushed her fingers delicately over the child’s messy hair. She could not help seeing another little girl that she had known long ago, looking back at her with wisdom and kindness; a mirror that showed her a better version of herself. The apartment, the city, and the entire state, continued to revolve around Visola like a growing hurricane; she realized that she was the solid center of a dark and menacing storm. It was suddenly very clear. For the first time, she could see her wrath in a physical form, churning around her in a giant vortex from which nothing could escape. In her lust to destroy everything bad that had ripped the good out of her world, she was also extinguishing all the tiny, sacred bits of innocence that still existed in the world. She had become exactly like her enemy. And she could not stop. She could not stop the icy venom and vitriol that was running through her veins. She could not stop the bile and bitterness from spiraling out of her heart, and sucking everything around her down, down, to the center of the maelstrom where it would be crushed under the pressure of her pure, unadulterated hatred.
She would be the worst tempest that Florida had ever seen. From her understanding, they had seen a few—but nothing like her. She would be the typhoon that dumped the wrath of the sea down on all of America. She could not stop now. If anything, she should stop playing around and get on with it. The water did not stop flowing when it found itself traveling downhill in a torrent. It continued, for it was all it know how to do. It continued, engulfing everything in its path with utter indifference.
The sound of heavy footsteps was heard in the hallway, along with male voices. Visola looked up, immediately at attention once more.
“I’m scared,” Suzie whispered. “Where’s my mommy?”
Visola bit down on her lip. She reached out and grabbed her backpack, slinging it back over her shoulder. When a knock sounded on the door, Visola was startled when Suzie lunged forward and threw her arms around Visola’s neck, hiding her face in the large woman’s armored chest. Visola instinctively put her arms around the young girl, returning the hug and lifting her off the ground. She carried the child across the apartment, walking soundlessly to the bathroom. She laid Suzie down in the bathtub, and placed the teddy bear beside her.
“I need to go,” Visola said, prying the child’s arms away from her neck. “Just stay here and hug Teddy very tight, and you’ll be okay.”
Suzie nodded nervously.
On second thought, Visola moved into the child’s room and forcefully ripped her small mattress from her bed. She dragged the mattress into the bathroom, and began sliding it over the girl’s small body.
“Don’t leave me alone,” Suzie said softly. “Please. My mommy is gone. Please stay and take care of me.”
Visola’s heart ached. She leaned down and placed a kiss on Suzie’s forehead. “You are strong, and you are brave,” she told the child. “Teddy will take care of you until your mother comes back.” Shoving the mattress firmly over the bathtub, Visola knew that child would be protected from any explosions or gunshots that would shortly occur. When she turned away and moved to the door of the apartment, she took several deep breaths. She made a fist and slammed it into her chest to try to get her heart to st
op hurting. It stung worse than the bullet holes.
“Is someone in there?” shouted a man from the other side of the door. “Open this door now, or we’ll break it down!”
“I’m coming out,” Visola responded. “This is Visola Ramaris, and I’m… surrendering.”
“Walk out of the apartment slowly, with your hands behind your head!” the man shouted.
Visola grimaced, putting her bag of weapons down and staring at the ammunition regretfully. It was saddening to see so many bullets that had not been fired, grenades that had not been tossed, and the remote for several bombs that had not been detonated. She really had hoped to put up more of a fight, and kill a few dozen, or several hundred more men before calling it a day. Unfortunately, she was no longer in the mood.
Unlocking the door and stepping forward, Visola placed her hands behind her head as she walked out into the hallway. She found that over a dozen guns were pointed at her, and this made a cold sweat break out over her neck.
“Hey, fellas,” she said quietly, but she could not even try to sound flippant and funny. In the next moment, Visola felt her head being slammed against the wall, and her knees being kicked out from under her. Her wrists were grabbed and shoved behind her back, where they were clamped together in electronic, heavy-duty handcuffs. Her boots were pulled from her feet, and her ankles were cuffed as well. A man yanked her up by the hair, forcing her to stand, while another kicked her in the gut.
“Hey! Roger, what are you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m kicking the shit out of this bitch.” The soldier continued to assault Visola with his foot.
“Stop it, man! She surrendered. She’s cuffed.”
“Like I fucking care! She caused the deaths of over a dozen civilians, and at least fifty of our men! Some of those guys were my friends.” Roger spat on Visola as the other soldiers dragged her away. A few soldiers restrained him. “Fucking cunt! Fucking cocksucking cunt! You better suffer! They better leave you in the dirt to bleed out while your entrails get picked at by vultures. They better torture you damn good before they kill you!”
“They have already tortured and killed me,” Visola said softly to the angry young soldier.
Two large men dragged her to the stairway and began to shove her up the stairs. Her ankles were cuffed together, so she could not climb in the traditional fashion. She tripped forward and fell against the stairs, and the men hauled her up like a piece of luggage. Since her armored boots had been ripped from her feet, her toes were vulnerable to the impact of the edge of the stairs as she was forcefully dragged up. She had to endure sixteen stories of this before getting to the roof. She could tell that the men dragging her were making sure that she incurred many more injuries than necessary. She did not blame them.
“Hold up, man,” said one of the soldiers on the 48th floor. “Once we hand her over to the CIA, they’ll take control of the situation. Let me have a little fun with her first.”
“Dude, let’s just get this over with. We have strict orders…”
The other soldier made a fist and punched Visola in the face. He drew his arm back and punched her again in the same spot. Seeing that her lip had broken, and that she was bleeding, he punched her yet again. He then put his face very close to hers, and sneered. “You’re lucky, bitch. If it was just you, me, and my army buddies, I would really make you bleed. We all would. But the fucking CIA wants you alive for information, so you won’t be getting gang-raped today. You should thank your heathen whore of a god.”
“I will thank her,” Visola told him with a smile. “You punch like a girl, and you probably fuck like one, too.”
The man immediately drew his fist back to deck her again, but the other soldiers restrained him.
“Relax, man!” one of them said with a chuckle. “She’s just getting you riled up so you do something stupid. Let’s just follow our orders so we can go home and change out of our smelly armor.”
The man spat on Visola. “You’re lucky! You’re lucky, bitch!”
“Honey, you’re the lucky one,” she told him. “If you were allowed to rape me in front of your buddies, you’d probably get performance anxiety. It would be even more humiliating than the way you punch.”
Some of the men laughed at this.
“You’re a riot,” said the man holding her, as he continued to drag Visola to the top of the building. “I don’t know how anyone can be so calm and make jokes in a situation like this.”
“This is just my average day at the office,” Visola told him. “I’ve been in tighter spots.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “I honestly can’t imagine anyone being in a tighter spot.”
“Normally, I’d make a dirty joke about what you just said,” Visola told him. “There’s lot of potential. But I’m just not in the mood right now.”
“That’s understandable.”
A few seconds later, Visola was dragged out into the open air of the roof, where a helicopter was waiting, along with a few military men, the director of the CIA, and Agent Jackson Poole. The man that was holding her shoved her forward, and she fell to the ground inelegantly, landing painfully on her face.
“This is her?” said the director of the CIA in surprise. “She’s just a woman. You made her sound like a fucking poltergeist.”
“Don’t underestimate her,” Jackson warned.
“Agent Poole,” Visola said in greeting, twisting her body on the ground to look up at the man. “I said that I would only meet you here if you came alone. It looks like you brought the cavalry.”
“It looks like you were expecting the cavalry,” he responded. “It looks like you intended to kill the entire cavalry, when I thought we agreed that we would discuss things peacefully.”
“I guess we don’t trust each other,” she told him. “What with you killing my sister, and me holding your entire family hostage. By the way, your dog died. I forgot to feed him.”
“Gizmo’s gone?” Agent Poole said in a horrified voice.
“I might have forgotten to feed your wife too,” Visola told him. “I can’t remember.”
“You… you monster,” he whispered.
The director of the CIA patted his back in a comforting way. “Don’t worry, Agent. We’ll find your family and make sure they’re safe. We’ll get it out of her.”
“Good luck,” Visola told the director. “I know how to keep a secret.”
The director pulled out his gun and shot Visola in the chest. He then shot her again, five times.
Visola lay lifelessly on the ground. She saw stars, and for a moment, she thought she was dead. Finally, she gasped for breath. She groaned and rolled to her side, coughing and clutching her ribs, trying to ease the blinding pain. She looked down at the bullets and saw that none of them had pierced her armor, but they still felt like they had gone directly through her. She felt like she had been hit in the chest with a sledgehammer—or Vachlan. Or Vachlan swinging a sledgehammer.
“Okay,” she said, after a minute. “I’m ready for more.”
The director glared at her, before turning to the military men. “Rough her up, boys.”
The men immediately complied, moving over to Visola and beginning to kick her wounded body. She took the beating without making any cries or complaints, and only made small grunts when they kicked her chest, and knocked the wind out of her lungs. When she seemed so limp and unresponsive to the blows that she might be unconscious, the director spoke up.
“That’s enough, men!” the director said. “We want her alive. Check her vitals.”
A soldier crouched down to put his hand against Visola’s neck and check for her pulse.
After a moment, she stirred and smiled. “This reminds me of my honeymoon,” she told him.
He blinked in confusion before looking up to the director. “She’s alive, sir.”
The director nodded. “Good. Strip her down. Knock her out. Do a full cavity search and body scan—make sure she hasn’t swallowed anything
she can use later. Make sure there are no tracking devices on her.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What’s the plan?” Agent Jackson Poole asked his director.
“We need to get her to the west coast, where we still have power. I don’t feel comfortable here, so close to a sea-dweller strong point. Bimini is a real threat. If they knew we had her, they could probably all rise up out of the water and sink Florida within a day. But even worse than that, is the threat posed by the Leviathan. If their organization really has the forces we think they have…” The director scowled and turned to his other agents. “Let’s just get her to the middle of the desert. Where proximity to water won’t be an issue.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And for god’s sake, put out a press release and tell everyone we’ve captured her. Give the American public some security in knowing that this maniac won’t be causing them any more trouble.”
“Many of them can’t watch their televisions, anyway, sir.”
“Whatever. For the ones that can.” The director moved into the helicopter. “Let’s get out of here. We neutralized the threat. It’s been a good day, boys.”
Even as Visola felt her armor being removed from her body, and the cool air against her bare skin, she smiled. She felt a needle being jabbed into her neck. Just when you thought you’d gotten too old for this sort of thing, she mentally told herself, with a bit of fondness. Here you are again. Just when you thought that you had finally gotten to a good place, a peaceful place—just when you were happy. The demons will always come stalking you from the dark of the night, and you will always go stalking them right back to show them who’s boss. You won’t ever be able to let anything go, and this will always be your life, right up until the day you die. You will always be going head to head with your demons, until one finally takes you down. But I don’t think today is that day.
Maelstrom Page 15
