Mercury Decending (Mercury Black Authority Book 3)

by Finian Blake

  “What would that be, mom.”

  Anna fumbled for a second, “Don’t do it again.”

  Rich choked at her words. Alice answered before he could get his comment in, “I promise mommy.” Anna realized how unnecessary that piece of advice was. All three of them laughed. Anna took Rich to bed. Alice crawled in on Anna’s side and put her arms around her mother. Not a word was said as they fell asleep holding each other.

  Sarah prepared Cherry for the trip. Angela was very close to Cherry’s size so Angela loaned her one of Beth’s button front dresses allowing her to look like Sarah. Frank and the others met Sarah and Cherry in the garage. Assholes one and two pulled up in their vans. Sarah, Cherry, Frank, Mark, Brent, Ryan, and Tom loaded in the first van to go to Ohare Airport. At the last minute Suki decided to stay. She would stay at the clinic with Nadia to help the nine girls settle in. Suki had the feeling that Angela would not be of any help with the girls. Francesca, Frank, Lori, Connie, Grace, Alice and Anna loaded in the second van to go to Palwaukee Airport. Anna desperately wanted to pick up Edward from the Inn, but knew that he was safe with Susan. She had to be certain that Alice was alright. The two vans started out for their respective airports. Rich walked Suki, Angela, Nadia and Wanda back to the building. It was time for the final touches. They went up to the third floor to get the girls. The mood was much better since all of the girls were dressed in proper clothes and make up.

  “We are going to take you to a clinic where you can get proper care.” The chorus came back hard. “You said that you would stay with us. You’re going to dump us!” Rich was not surprised by their reaction considering past history.

  “We can’t give you the care you need here. I found a clinic that will give you the medical care you need. One of us will stay with you until all of the arrangements have been worked out and approved by all of you. Nadia, could you take the first day? I am going to need Angela and Suki tonight.”

  “Of course I would. I wouldn’t want to keep Angela from her true love Troy.” There was a little teasing tone in her voice. “I will be happy to camp out if the girls approve.” The overwhelming response was yes since they had no doubt that Nadia was up to the job. They elected to take three cars instead of one van. Suki, Angela, and Wanda went in the first car with three of the girls that were in the best shape. They took a fifteen-minute head start and Wanda drove to the fire house. As soon as Angela stepped out Troy was summoned. He was wondering why the chief decided to visit the station today. Suki stepped out and opened the trunk. She pulled out the six infrared scanners presenting them to the Chief, but the Chief was not paying attention to the scanners. Suki was wearing a bright blue silk button front dress with a three quarter length skirt. The silk clung to her every curve. She wore a pair of high heel ankle boots that matched her dress, and her long hair flowed loosely down her back.

  “I was impressed by the way they pick up the body heat. The specs say that the battery is good for two hours of continuous use because they are using the latest integrated circuits. We tested them at two and a half to three hours.” The Chief was impressed by her evaluation.

  “You had somebody do the evaluation.”

  “No, I did it myself. I am an electrical engineer. I hold patents on several inventions. I thought we could discuss the units over a nice lunch. I also wanted to talk to you about your international exchange program. Angela was hoping that Troy would qualify. I believe that our fire brigade in Manchester is part of the exchange. I was wondering if there might be anything that I could do to influence your decision.”

  “I would be happy to discuss anything you would care to bring up.” The chief said without hesitation.

  Suki teased back seductively, “Let’s see what you can bring up. I have two more cars joining me in a few minutes. Could we drive thru the area with the burned out buildings.”

  “Troy and I will be happy to escort you through. Will your friends be joining us for lunch?”

  “No they will be going to another appointment after we drive through.” The Chief held the door for Suki to enter his car. Suki allowed her skirt to ride up giving the Chief a good look at her legs. He had Troy take Angela in his car. “Troy will take up the rear. The arson team is still doing an investigation and the FBI, ATF, DEA and NSA are conducting an investigation so everyone that comes through must be escorted. There is still a question about all of the explosions and their source. The arson team has the street blocked.” When the other cars appeared, the Chief took the lead and the procession drove to the scene of the fire with Troy taking the rear.

  The Chief turned on his emergency lights when they reached the barricade. He drove slowly down the street idling past the buildings which were now two hollow brick shells. He stopped by the arson investigator for a quick report.

  The investigator nodded toward Suki, “Can I talk in front of her?”

  The chief was not in the mood for protocol, “She just donated those twenty infrared detectors that we were discussing, so I personally don’t care what she hears.”

  The investigator yielded to authority. “This was a nasty fire. It was definitely arson. All of the floors collapsed into the basement and the updraft from the explosions turned the brick shell into a blast furnace that even melted some of the metal items.” The inspector pointed toward Victor’s building, “and the garage behind that building didn’t burn. They found several boxes of files that upset the whole alphabet soup with all of the agencies showing up. They had an armored car remove the files due to the high level that blackmail items referred to, so only the forensic boys are left here which is still a small army. Hell even the state department is here looking for the Russians. There were a few detonators and some detonator cord of Russian manufacture that were in the second garage. I shudder to think where that may take us.” The inspector returned to his report, “The inner supports in these old buildings were all wood and were wrapped with detonator cord as were the gas mains. There was a fire safe with several thousand dollars’ worth of drugs and some cash in it. The good news is that nobody was in the building at the time. There were no signs of remains. The surrounding buildings lost some windows, but otherwise there was no damage. Both of the buildings belonged to some nasty criminals. Are we looking at some kind of a feud with another group? All of the neighbors said that there was a party going on and still there are no bodies in the building or vehicles outside of it. This was not a simple case of arson. Most of the weapons that we were able to retrieve were Russian by their markings and the explosive seems to be of Russian origin. The shell casings that did not melt have Russian markings on them.”

  In the following cars, the girls were stunned by the extent of the damage. Each building was an empty shell with the brick shell remaining but none of the interior structure survived the intense heat. They were happy to see their former dungeon was a burnt out hulk which produced quiet cheers in all of the cars. The Chief pulled to the side and the three cars drove past. Troy pulled up next to the chief.

  “I am going to show Angela the fire house. You and Suki are on your own for lunch.”

  The chief looked at Suki. “Are we still on for lunch?”

  “Yes, do you have a place that we can have a private conversation? I hate interruptions.” Suki looked at the Chief’s pants detecting a bulge. She ran her long nails over the bulge. “How long has it been since you have practiced a hose drill?”

  The chief swallowed hard, “It has been a while.”

  Suki unbuttoned her skirt to reveal her nylon hose, “Maybe we could practice with these. I have no commitments for the next few days.” The Chief put the car in gear and the tires squealed as the car pulled away from the curb with the emergency lights and siren coming on half way down the street. Suki had promised Angela that she would talk to the chief about the international exchange program. Angela had a suspicion that he would agree to everything she suggested and then some.

  After the drive by, Rich drove to John’s bar having John close the
back room. It was a Monday afternoon. He wanted to get the girls out to a normal lunch before they went to the clinic. The girls still looked like they were in rough shape. John’s place was the one restaurant where Rich had some control. They took the back room and settled in at their tables. He pulled John to the side.

  “I want these ladies to have anything that they want. They were prisoners at the Russians place and were badly abused.” There were no other customers in the bar at the time, so John went to the door and hung a sign in the window: PRIVATE PARTY.

  “They can use the whole bar. There is no need to use the back room.” Just the act of walking around the restaurant without restriction felt strange to the girls. Even after their rescue they were restricted. They were happy to see Angela walk in with Troy. Louise cooked anything that they desired in an effort to pamper them. The group lingered three hours before leaving. Rich decided that since they would not be around the old neighborhood that he would use the name Alex again.

  After a pleasant afternoon they drove to the clinic. It was next to a small hospital out past Naperville. Wanda flashed a U.S Marshal’s badge to check them in identification and was shown into the Director. Wanda started the conversation.

  “All of these ladies are material witnesses in a sensitive ongoing investigation. None of their names are correct.” Alex wanted to use false names other than the ones that Wanda was going to create for them so they would not waste valuable resources. “Someone will be with them at all times. Alex and Nadia will stay with them tonight. We need to get medical and psychological help. All of the guarantees are in place and we will pay for double staff in the ward while they are here.” The director walked in to the admitting room and had the staff start processing everybody. Within the hour, all of the ladies were checked-in. Janet, who was expecting quadruplets, went into labor on the way to her room. Crunch time was here. Nadia was a life saver. She sat with Janet while Alex relayed reports to the girls. Janet was able to deliver all four infants without serious complication however two of the babies were marginal but expected to improve. The director had the two largest rooms in the ward converted into a nursery with Alex paying for all of the extra equipment necessary for the conversion. They offered to put Janet in a private room, but she insisted on remaining with the others. About two AM, Nadia heard a struggle in the next room. She was up like a shot. Nadia ran full steam into the other room. She grabbed the figure standing over the struggling girl. She held the nurse face first to the wall with a hammer lock. The noise brought in the charge nurse.

  “What is going on in here? This is my nurse, and she is just giving the patient a shot.”

  “Your nurse needs to be more considerate. She scared the shit out of this young lady.”

  “And who are you?”

  “My name is Nadia I am their bodyguard. These women need to be treated with kid gloves. If they are not, you will have a major problem with me.”

  “I am Sally the head nurse, and this is my ward. My nurses follow my instructions.” Nadia stepped up to the charge nurse towering over her by over a foot.

  “Then we must come to an agreement.” Nadia picked up the hypodermic replacing the needle with a fresh one. She soothed the girl and administered the shot. “That is how you are supposed to do it.”

  “This is a hospital and you are not allowed…” Nadia took the nurse by the arm and led her down to the nurse’s station.

  “Like it or not, I did it. These girls have been through hell, and nobody is going to create another one for them. They are people not meat. You will be providing care for them so let’s make it loving care.” The conversation carried on back and forth until an understanding was reached. When Nadia went to leave the nurse’s station, she saw Alex standing in the shadows. “Why didn’t you step in?” Alex put his hands on her shoulders.

  “I gave you the job, and you were doing it skillfully. If I interrupted it would look like I didn’t trust you or did not have faith in your judgment. I am here to help, not to criticize. You can make the calls and I will write the checks. If you want my help let me know.” The charge nurse walked up beside Alex watching Nadia walk down the hall.

  “Where did you get her?”

  “She is on loan from the Russian army.”

  “Smart ass,” Sally the head nurse returned to the nursing station and went back to her paper work. There was no trace of an Eastern European accent in Nadia’s speech. The director told Sally that this was a special deal for the government, and they would be given full cooperation having an unlimited budget, and there was a huge bonus for the hospital and staff at the end of the stay. Alex had already donated several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of equipment for the temporary nursery which would stay with the hospital.

  Suki came out to the clinic to relieve Nadia in the morning, but Nadia insisted on staying. She developed a bond with the girls taking a very personal interest. Her personal experience with the generals made Nadia, redouble her efforts. She would stay at the clinic for three more weeks with a few breaks that were provided by Alex. Angela came out for support at critical times, but she otherwise stayed with Troy.

  Since she was not needed in Chicago, Suki decided to take a trip to LA to visit with Alice for a few weeks. Before she did, Suki called Susan up in England. Susan and Lynn were preparing to take Edward out to LA for Anna with his brothers in a few days. She had delayed wanting to be sure that Alice was settled in but now it was time to return things to normal. Anna was sure that her baby was being thoroughly spoiled and was thrilled to hear that Susan and Lynn would be bringing Edward back personally along with Adam and Noah. Suki flew into LAX spending half of the day with Jeff and Cassandra while waiting for Susan, Lynn and the children to show up. Alice and Anna picked them up and drove everybody back to Huntington Beach. Anna was thrilled to have Edward home again throwing a barbeque on the patio to celebrate the reunion.

  Alice confided in Suki, “I still can’t stay alone in my house. Things are moving along but I still have this one barrier.”

  “I’m out here now. Let me figure out a security system. You thought that you couldn’t be touched in your home. Now you think that you will never be safe. I will set up a security system for you, Grace, and Anna.” Suki designed a stainless steel fence and entry gate system disguising it as a Spanish arch with a fully enclosed double entry. She planned a full alarm system with electronic monitoring. The townhouses were linked in blocks of six units. Anna talked her other neighbors into making similar improvements offering to pay for them.

  Anna acquired Tasers in addition to the other weapons that she already had. Finally, Suki found a martial arts studio that Anna, Grace and Alice could use doing a full interview to make sure that they met her standards. The studio that she finally selected offered her a job after she spent some time on the mat with the instructor. Suki was highly skilled in combat martial arts, and she did not hold back as she would for sport. Brent had done his job to the max. The instructor was also surprised at how advanced that Anna’s talents were.

  While all of this was going on Anna used Margarita’s information to close the adoption service. She managed to refund all of the money to the families trying to adopt babies from the general’s funds supplementing with the funds from ‘Mercury’. Janet decided to keep her four babies since it would be impossible for her to have any more and Anna made arrangements for her to move out to Huntington Beach so that she could personally help Janet. Two of sick girls miscarried since they were so sick by the time that they received help nothing would help and the other three decided to keep their children since they were sure of Alex’s support. Margarita’s baby farm was permanently closed. There were almost thirty couples that were extremely disappointed, but at least they received their money back.

  Suki decided to invest in Alice’s Clinic, so they decided to erect another building on the other one-and-a-half-acre lot at the other end of the property with Jeff and Cassandra speaking up for a half of the forty thousand square
feet. This would also be a three story building. Alice decided to keep the one-acre lot in the middle as a covered parking garage for tax purposes and to keep Alex’s promise to the seller. The three separate properties would remain separate. The architect created a mirror image of his plan, so that each building would cover a foot print of 14,400 square feet including the thirty by thirty court yard in the center this would take a footprint of one hundred twenty feet on each side. With three stories in each building, that meant there would be a total of eighty thousand square feet available on a four-acre complex. Alice would have just under eleven million dollars invested in the property with an estimated finished value of seventeen million.

  Anna was talking to Lynn and Susan. Susan put Anna’s hand on her abdomen.

  “Our time with Alex was just what we needed. Noah and Adam should have sisters this time. I am sure of it.”

  Anna embraced them both, “Alex promised me that we could try, but we were distracted by events.”

  After two weeks Alex was getting restless. He wanted to return to Huntington Beach. The three girls that were kidnapped were reunited with their families. The five older runaway girls elected to start a life on their own using the stake that they were given. Alex was working on setting up a situation for them and they elected to move to Huntington Beach to be close to their support. That left sixteen-year-old Cathy with a serious problem. She had an abused background. Her mother’s boyfriend had been molesting her before she ran away, and she refused to return home. Alex arranged a phone call to have her at least report in to her mother only to find that the situation at home had not changed. Cathy would not return home even though her mother wanted her to return. Alex was left with a legal dilemma. He made life and death decisions in the past, but he had a problem with this one. Alex put Wanda and Nadia on this problem since all of her problems seemed to come from being molested by Gregory. Gregory sold her to the other generals and the outcome was horrific. Cathy needed supervision and could not be turned out on her own. Wanda finally agreed to make a set of British papers and Cathy would return to Manchester with her new sister Nadia. The only thing that remained was for all of the accounts to be arranged, so that Alex could have Lynn transfer the money. He called Lynn up to have her put five hundred thousand in each account. It would be another week before all of the arrangements could be completed. That would exhaust the funds that they claimed from the generals. He would have to consult with Liliana about the other twelve million dollars that he was holding back for the victims. If he bumped it up to a million dollars each which would be seven million dollars, he could still return seven million dollars to the fund. He called Lynn up and had her add the extra half million to each account making certain of Cherri and Cathy’s deposit of half a million dollars.