Mercury Decending (Mercury Black Authority Book 3)

by Finian Blake

  “Hi, how are things out there?” The dejected sound of her voice told the story. “Who am I talking to?”

  “You are talking to Noah.” Anna smiled. He was using his business name.

  “The bastards got Alice. I was going to call them in Chicago and find out what their demands are. How are things on your end?”

  “The containers came through perfectly. I made it to Harrisburg and stopped at the Salvation Army store. I need some well-worn clothes so that I can blend into the scenery. I will pick up some clothes for you while I am here. Those handmade clothes that Beth makes will stand out like a shit house in the fog.”

  “You better get something for Grace too. She will be with me.”

  Alex could not believe his ears. “How is that going to work?”

  Anna spoke quietly into the phone. “She was going to the police if I did not take her with me. She wants to shoot Vladimir in the balls. He took some liberties with her while she was tied to a chair.”

  “I will get a few things for her. What are you going to do about Vladimir and Margarita,” Alex asked?

  “It looks like they are taking Alice to Chicago. My guess is that they are driving out there. They can’t take her on public transportation and they are too cheap to charter a plane. If they drive, they should get there tomorrow about six PM. I will be there tonight about ten AM. Francesca and Frank are going to fly me out there.”

  Anna wanted Alex’s thoughts, “What about Alice?”

  “You will not like it but I need three days to put things together. If you delay three days, we can come up with something solid. Frank will be in with the team tomorrow afternoon. Sarah and Wanda will have the layout. We can line up the help we need and hit them while they think that we are still in Manchester.” I will meet you for breakfast over by Wanda’s place. I have to roll. See you in Chicago.”

  Anna showered and made the call that she was dreading. Victor answered. She did not pretend to sound collected.

  “You bastards snatched my daughter. You will give her back!”

  Victor’s smug tone enraged Anna. “We have the advantage. You played your games when we were in Pakistan and had the advantage. Now you will play our games. We want the girls back.”

  “We paid you for them,” Anna protested.

  “You forced the deal on us. Nobody forces me into a deal. I will tell you what the deal is,” Victor said with authority. “I will trade Alice for the six girls and Seraphina.”

  “I can only get Nadia, and Seraphina. The other girls are married.” There was silence on the other end of the phone. “Bring Nadia and Seraphina with you. We will negotiate for the rest. What happened to my team that I sent out to England? I have heard nothing from them.” Anna thought quickly.

  “They were busted when they picked up their equipment. MI 5 arrested them as Russian spies along with some farmer and his wife that they were watching as suspects, and they are still being held.” There was no illusion of cordiality between the two callers. Victor decided that he would exact his retribution on this bitch.

  “Bring Nadia and Seraphina and we will discuss the rest.” Victor demanded.

  “I will need a few days to get them out here. I cannot tell them that I am bringing them out to Chicago as a gift for you.” Victor had Alice, and Anna’s request made sense. He needed to call ‘Mercury’ when they captured ‘Hermes’, so that she could witness her revenge.

  “Bring them to Chicago in four days. Call me back and give me an exact time. Remember we have your daughter Alice. If you try any funny business, we will pimp her out to every aids riddled pervert we can find. Call this number in three days and we will make arrangements to meet.” Victor hung up the phone and turned to his wife Valentina. “This bitch was nowhere near as tough as she thought she was. Anna is living off Gregory’s reputation. Once we separate her from Noah we will squeeze her for everything. We can show her what we think of her daughters then.”

  It took Margarita a day to prepare the RV. Vladimir was driving out from California and would not be out there for two days. They had to keep Alice handcuffed and could not risk public transportation. The RV was an older Winnebago and it was not well equipped mechanically, so on the mountains it would only make 35 miles an hour on the uphill grade. The handling sucked on the curves so that even on the downhill sections travel would be slow too. Vladimir wanted to check it out before leaving. Margarita stripped Alice down to her bra and panty tying her to the bed in the back bedroom. She brought in a load of food for the trip and found Vladimir groping Alice.

  “If you do that again, Victor will shoot us both when we get her to Chicago. He promised her to Anna unmolested!”

  “He will never let her go. He has to kill Anna or she will kill him.”

  “Will you bet your life on that?” Margarita sat down next to Alice on the bed holding five pills to Alice’s lips, “take these.” Alice shook her head refusing the offering. Margarita held her nose until Alice opened her mouth to breathe shoving the pills in and forcing a bottle of water in her mouth. “We can do every time or you can just take the pills. When we get to Victors place we will use injections.”

  Alice was still choking on the water, “What the hell were they?”

  “Two of the pills were hormones to make you lactate and the other three were fertility drugs. If your mother does not claim you we will put you to work like the rest of our cows. You will do what we tell you or you can be forced that is the only choice you have.” She put her hand over Alice’s mouth pinching off her nose. Alice thrashed around until she passed out. She awoke to Margarita’s smiling face. “I can do this as often as I like. The only words I want to hear from you is yes mistress.”

  Alice recognized the hopelessness of her position, “Yes mistress.” Vladimir fired up the engine and started out to Las Vegas, which was their first stop.

  Margarita slapped Alice firmly across the face, “Remember it is better to give than receive.” She laughed wickedly at her joke and walked off to join Vladimir.

  The phone rang at Juan’s Mansion. Liliana had observed ‘Mercury’ answering the phone many times. Lynn was listening to Liliana on the ear piece.”

  “‘Mercury’, we are secure.”

  Victor started without preliminaries, “I have Alice as promised. The team was intercepted before they could pull off the raid in England. We need to set something else up.”

  Liliana played her role to perfection, “I want Susan’s tits. That was not a casual request or a figure of speech. You promised me this would work.”

  “There were unforeseen circumstances.”

  “Then my end of the deal will not be seen either. Do you have ‘Hermes’?”

  Victor was getting pissed off. “No, but we will have…”

  “Then you will have my end, when you deliver.” Liliana wanted to keep Victor off balance.

  “I need those politicians that you promised. We can’t go against the syndicate while they are protected. How about a gesture of good faith?”

  “I gave you a gesture when I gave you all of my information on the Inn and ‘Hermes’. You missed, and now I have to look over my shoulder. He kills people and they are never seen again. I give you hard information and you give me excuses. Did you even get Anna?”

  “No, but we will have her in four days. We have her daughter Alice.”

  “Call me back in four days and by that time you should have more than excuses.” She tapped the receiver against the body of the phone so that it would seem that she had hung up. Liliana was glad that Laurita treated her like the furniture when she talked on the phone. Liliana did a letter perfect job of impersonating ‘Mercury’. Lynn gave her, a thumb’s up signal. Ramon was holding his hand over his mouth to stifle the laughter. Back in Chicago Victor threw the phone against the wall before he could hang up.

  “That fucking bitch, if I did not need her I would fly out and kill her myself. I lost twelve good men, and she will not even give me a crumb.” Valentina put her
hand on his shoulder.

  “We still need her, but after she takes over Susan’s operation we can eliminate her. In four days we will have Anna, Nadia and Seraphina. We can then trap ‘Hermes’ on our home ground.” They did not realize that the connection was not broken.

  “Yes, Noah will be at a disadvantage here. We have fifteen people and I can recruit more. Our advantage is that we will do what the others will not even attempt. Call Dennis and Tanya, and have them come across the street for a conference.”

  Valentina said, “You didn’t mention that those fifteen included Dennis, Tanya, you and I. We barely have enough people to secure both buildings.”

  The generals had two brick six flats across the street from each other. The idea was that they could cover each other’s front door. They kept a sniper in the front apartment and a guard in the garage at the rear of each property. Victor kept his men in the apartments and the whores locked in the basement dormitory.

  Two of the apartments in each building were empty. Twelve of his best men were being held in England. The basement of each building was converted into a combination dormitory and dungeon. They did their filming in these areas. There were two female assistants in each house that kept the girls in line. There were six to ten whores depending on circumstances. They fed the whores fertility drugs, so that they would have multiple births when they became pregnant and hormones kept them lactating. These women fed the adoption service run by Vladimir and Margarita. ‘Mercury’ turned them on to snuff films. Her friend Dianne made thousands of dollars off of just one genuine snuff and their customers paid thousands of dollars each to attend the parties. The right to snuff a victim was auctioned off bringing thousands more. Valentina and Tanya stocked their supply of whores from the runaways on the street. Many of the girls were under eighteen and nobody was over twenty which was considered as being an old lady. Tanya and Dennis walked into Victor’s office.

  “Victor, did you contact ‘‘Mercury’?”

  “Yes Dennis, the bitch is not going to deliver until we deliver ‘Hermes’. The raid was intercepted before they could hit their target. Without her connections we can only move small amounts of drugs, and we cannot challenge the Syndicate. Noah moved ten thousand pounds of heroin when we did our Afghan deal. Even if he wholesaled it was worth seventy million over a period of thirty days. With that kind of a turnover we could own this city and go national.”

  Valentina gave victor a progress report. “Vladimir and Margarita are in Las Vegas. That stinking RV is worthless in the mountains. It is large and underpowered. The cheap bastard bought an old RV and the way that Vladimir drives we will be lucky to see him in a month!”

  Victor was discouraged by their progress. “I presented our terms to Anna. She will deliver Nadia and Seraphina personally, so we need to set up a snuff party for them. Margarita says that Alice is still a virgin. She will bring a good price for the first rape. I will arrange the auction. We can make a huge profit with three snuffs and Alice’s auction. Anna believes that we will let her out of here with Alice. Tell me Valentina are any of the girls ready to pop?” Valentina was forever chasing the bottom line because her background was accounting. Everyone and everything was profit and loss. She was a true bean counter.

  “We have two girls that are a few weeks to a month out. One is expecting twins and the other is expecting quads, and we can send the merchandise back with Margarita. This will be a very profitable week.”

  “We have to worry about ‘Hermes’.” Victor was losing patience. He was more concerned with the drug side of the operation. “‘Mercury’ wants him dead, and we need to secure Anna as bait to catch ‘Hermes’.”

  “What about this fellow Noah? Where does he figure in? All he did was to supervise the deal in Pakistan.” Dennis was trying to get a better picture. Victor lost patience.

  “Noah is the same person as ‘Hermes’. He is the one that claimed that Anna was the brains behind the operation. I know Anna. She was Gregory’s driver. He is hiding behind her just as Gregory did. It seems that he is quite attached to her. The two real targets are Susan and Noah. We can deal with Anna as we choose. ‘Mercury’ claims Susan took over Dianne’s operation. She wants Susan’s tits. ‘Mercury’ literally wants someone to cut off her tits and bring them to her. Noah is the one that knows about our real identities and protects Susan. If we eliminate Noah, the whole game falls in place. He processed ten metric tons of heroin to pay for our arms deal.” Victor looked at Valentina. “What is the street value on that?”

  “If we cut it the wholesale value is one hundred thirty million. The street value is two hundred fifty million if it is pure. If we step on it a second time, and retail it, the profit will be worth three hundred fifty million. With that kind of a bank roll we could own the city.” Valentina pressed a button on her desk as Victor continued, “My question is do we want to kill him or exploit him. Anna seems to be our key.” A very pregnant girl in lingerie and eight-inch platform high heels walked in the room. There was a wide leather strap with a small paddle lock around each ankle holding the shoes in place. “This cow decided to run we had to give her these shoes to slow her down. Run and bring drinks for all of us cow. We are thirsty.” The girl left immediately barely able to walk on her stilts. “Heroin in Afghanistan is going for three dollars a gram. Ten metric tons would cost us thirty million. That would give us a profit of at least two hundred million after expenses. The problem is that we have to get it here. Noah seems to be able to do exactly that. Sleep on this and let me know what your ideas are.” The girl brought in a heavy tray of drinks with a bottle of vodka and a breast pump on it. Valentina took the pump from the tray and applied it to the girl’s breasts. After filling the container she poured four small glasses half with breast milk and half with vodka. “This is a Momma Martini made with milk fresh from the cow.” The girl was in tears. Valentina got up to leave. “Sleep on my suggestion. I am going to give this cow a reason to cry.” They could hear a scream from the hallway after Valentina closed the door.

  Anna met Francesca and Frank at Long Beach Airport, and the Lear Jet was in the air quickly. After reaching cruising altitude Francesca came back to the passenger cabin.

  “Anna what is going on?”

  “Those bastard Generals that we brought over from Russia have kidnapped my Alice and want me to deliver Nadia and Sarah to them for her release.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I am going to kill them and everybody connected to their operation. They have no intention of releasing me or Alice. They know exactly what I will do after we are clear. The generals sent a twelve-man team to hit the Inn just as you left the continent. We detected them and brought that move to a dead end. After some interrogation we found out ‘Mercury’ and the Generals were behind it. I am sure that Alice and Grace told you about that.” Anna pointed to Grace. “They left Grace taped to a chair for twelve hours without worrying if she would ever get lose. Noah is on the way with a team of our own. We will all be in Chicago by noon, tomorrow.”

  “What can Frank and I do?”

  “I am not sure. You are welcome to talk to Noah. He will be in Chicago for breakfast. He is driving out from Dulles with our equipment. Sarah is collecting intelligence now. Nadia, Angela, Suki and the “Old Men’ are on their way. Grace will do whatever she can. Sarah and I talked Noah out of doing something about them when we did the Afghan deal. Back then we were determined to do the right thing then.”

  “What are you going to do now?”

  “I know what the right thing to do is, and we are going to do it.” Francesca patted Anna’s hand.

  “I will do whatever Noah feels is necessary. When we get to Palwaukee I will clear our schedule. I am sure that Frank will want to help.” Anna pulled her purse out and showed Francesca how the gun fit in the special compartment. She showed Grace how to fire the CO2 charged darts. There were three purses and Anna also remembered to bring the medical kit that she put together. There were several s
mall vials with knock out drops and poison. The wide belt of her outfit could accommodate all eight vials.

  Wanda met the Jet when it arrived at Palwaukee Airport. Francesca made so many trips to Palwaukee that her company rented a small hanger. Wanda moved her van up to the Lear in the hangar and waited for the door to open. She was pushing fifty, but her dark brown hair showed no grey and the only sign of aging was a few wrinkles around her eyes. She wore a fitted sweater and stretch pants displaying that she still had all of her feminine curves.

  “I left Sarah back at my place. We were not sure how many people would be coming, but I have accommodations for everyone. Come along you must be tired.” The van was quickly loaded and Wanda drove out of the hangar. They drove in silence to the hot dog stand where Noah had first met her years ago. The van pulled down the alley pulling into a brick garage next door to the eatery. The garage was connected to an ancient brick six flat by a covered walk way. Wanda discouraged all conversation until they were out of the van.

  “Vehicles are easily bugged. We will not have any discussions in any vehicle other than ‘how’s the weather’ from now on.” Wanda led the way into the six flat showing everybody to their apartments. Sarah joined the tour.

  “There are four empty apartments with two bedrooms each and two with three bedrooms. I have you in with Noah, Suki, Nadia and Angela. The “Old Men will share two apartments on the second floor. We will save the top two apartments to cover any emergency guests. They each have three bedrooms plus sleeper couches. Frank and Francesca can take the front apartment on the street. Sarah told me that you two tend to stay to yourselves. I own the building, so we will not have to deal with other tenants. Grace did not hear her room assignment.