Jezebel's Ladder

by Scott Rhine

  Alarms of all kinds were going off around the complex. “What’s going on?” Maverick demanded into his headset.

  Jezebel responded, “The Virus is helping.” The corporate computer systems were under attack to add to the confusion. There could be only one reason for this.

  Before she could explain, Maverick shouted, “Shut up, bitch! I'm trying to hear my lieutenant.”

  Dumbass, she thought, already planning her escape.

  When Steve kicked in the door, she tried to smile, but the movement hurt her face too much. Reflexively, Maverick threw the dagger, and it struck Jez’s guard high on the right shoulder. A normal-sized man would have been pierced through the heart. As it was, Steve cursed and his gunshot went wide. The pistol dropped from his twitching fingers.

  Maverick kicked the pistol aside as Benny strode through the door. The head of Fossil security wrapped his well-muscled arm around Steve’s neck, positioning him as a human shield. Lifting Steve off the floor, the mercenary said, “Drop it or he’s dead.”

  Steve rasped and kicked like a man swinging from the gallows. His face was turning red.

  Benny held his gun up. “I think you should throw him out in the hall, and the two of us can settle this like men.”

  “No grenades?”

  “We used all the flash-bangs and smokers on the dogs.”

  Maverick grinned at the prospect.

  Jez said, “Don’t do it, Benny! He’s murdered two dozen people, and you played a boxer in a movie.”

  Maverick back-kicked her in the stomach so hard she gagged. “Thirty, actually.”

  “Let’s dance,” Benny said, laying his gun on the floor and stepping to the side.

  Maverick tossed Steve out the door and into the far wall hard enough to give him a concussion. Rolling his shoulder, he said, “I’m going to enjoy putting you in your place, pretty boy.”

  They traded a few feints, Benny trying hard to analyze the more-experienced fighter’s style. On the first, solid body blow the actor landed, the mercenary didn’t react as expected. Instead, Maverick trapped his arm and twisted. The elbow cracked.

  “One limb down, three to go,” the mercenary said with glee.

  As soon as the distracted Maverick had his back to her, Jez looped her legs over the pipe and swung herself up. While the men circled in earnest, she spit out the hair pin and went to work on the handcuffs. Shuffle, whoosh, slide, tap. This was the ultimate test of the new Simplification combat techniques. Benny had the evasion techniques down, but couldn’t seem to hurt the mercenary. Normal techniques like a kick in the groin didn’t slow him in the least. As Maverick ducked a fist, he took a knee to the face, bending his nose to the side. His eyes watered, leaving him at a disadvantage.

  “Kick boxing?” asked the mercenary.

  Benny grinned. “Tan’s been teaching me. His whole village does it. That’s why we were filming… Aaargh!”

  While he’d been gloating, Maverick grabbed a steel baton from the tray and broke his left wrist. “Two down,” announced the mercenary.

  In answer, Benny head-butted him in the jaw, making him stagger back. Her hands free, Jez dropped onto her torturer’s back, and clamped her left arm around his eyes. “For crimes against the Union of Souls,” she began.

  Maverick slammed her back into the wall. The storage pegs made her whimper as they snapped. Benny ran over with a bellow and kicked him in the solar plexus. This knocked the wind out of him long enough for her to do what she required. Peeling back her bandage, she exposed the paragraph. “I sentence you to forced reflection.”

  When she touched the paragraph to his temple, Maverick went rigid. In the span of three heartbeats, he collapsed.

  Benny stared in wonder. “You escaped and knocked him out.”

  “Good to see you,” Jez said with tenderness.

  Over the open link, Weiss said, “I told you she just needed a distraction.”

  “When Maverick wakes up in a few hours…” Benny began.

  Jez shook her head. “He won’t be waking up. He didn’t pass the test. He’s stuck in a coma indefinitely, examining the stain on his own soul.” She tried to stand, but her feet betrayed her, causing her to collapse with a gasp of pain. “Can’t walk.”

  Instinctively, Benny reached out to help her, but she shrieked, “Don’t touch me! You’ll be reformatted, too. Let me cover up. Give me his gloves, jacket, and armor. Don’t touch the inside.”

  While Benny used his chin and elbow to grab the jacket and body armor, Jez peeled the headset off the vacant-eyed mercenary, “I’ll monitor their frequencies and keep my radar out for Rexes. They’re weakest in the south.”

  Benny said into his comm set, “Did you hear that? Have a vehicle waiting for us. We’ll be outbound in one.”

  When the actor handed her the mercenary’s clothes, she said, “Kick over that garbage bag of clothes he cut off me, and I’ll tie together a couple slings for you.”

  She used the gloves to fold both pages into the vest’s left pouch. When she opened the pouch, she said with disgust, “Dog biscuits. The prick was nice to dogs.”

  Benny snorted, “You want to stay on the good side of those vicious brutes. Wait, Cornflake wants to talk to you. Switch headsets with me.”

  Nena said, “I’m so glad you’re alive! The dogs respond to Czech commands. The word you want is ‘sedeti.’ It means sit.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us before?”

  The secretary sighed, “Nobody asked. I only know because I used to give the boys table scraps. I don’t want my friends to hurt each other. The commands might not work unless you smell and dress like the owner first.”

  “We’re already ahead of you on that. Doc, can you talk me through some first aid?” With a few hints from Weiss and the steel pipe from the floor, Jez tied crude splints and slings for both of Benny’s arms. As she worked, she told the doctor what she had done to Maverick.

  The doctor absolved her. “Although, you broke the requirement of having three judges to pass sentence, he confessed his crimes to all of us. You did the right thing for the community. What do you think the penalty should be?”

  “I don’t think I should be permitted to judge other actives anymore.”

  “A bit harsh, but you wanted us to set a high standard. Agreed,” said the doctor. “We’ll do the paperwork later. Now, on to Steve’s knife wound so we can get you out of there fast.”

  Jez searched the instrument table on her knees till she found the smelling salts and the field bandages. Benny didn’t like it. “That stuff’s dangerous.”

  “We’re out of time,” she said.

  After he was patched up, Benny couldn’t carry her in his arms or give aid to Steve. She couldn’t crawl far in her condition. They solved the problem by having her ride piggyback. He was the feet and she was the hands. Together, they made a whole person.

  He carried them out to the hall. She slapped a super-glue bandage on Steve’s shoulder wound. Once they woke the guard up, he retrieved his own weapon. He also passed Benny’s weapon to Jez, which she holstered without comment.

  They were silent after that, except for what they needed to say to escape. Steve covered their rear, clenching the pistol in his off hand. They changed direction several times in the maze of corridors when Jez sensed a Rex nearby or Benny heard orders over the radio. It took till the fire trucks arrived for them to reach the dew-covered lawn.

  Only one dog greeted them and he was happy for the treats Jez gave him.

  Someone had ordered an extra ambulance. In the confusion, they were driven away with no sirens and no incidents. Jez collapsed from exhaustion, with her head resting on Benny’s chest.

  As the paramedic tended to Steve’s wound, the guard whispered, “You are one lucky bastard.”

  Benny said, “I know.”

  Chapter 21 – Debriefing

  The helicopter only had room for two passengers. Benny sent the two most injured and stayed with the caravan. “I can wait a few hours
to get these fractures set. I’ll meet you at the hospital in Dallas. Butterfly can share a room with Starlet.”

  When the crew of the Life Flight saw the state of the victims, they didn’t begrudge the long trip. Dr. Weiss took possession of the Override and Ethics pages. The recorder and all Maverick’s other possessions went to Crusader’s men. Steve refused morphine and would not give up his gun until relieved of his duty at the Dallas hospital.

  When Jez woke up, she was in a hospital gown and had a cast on each leg. Sunlight poured through the cornflower-blue curtain hanging between the beds. “I am getting so tired of this.”

  The perfect girl-next-door with long, black hair slid the curtain back. Sunlight blazed even brighter behind her. Jez was going to complain until she saw the stitches along the side of the other woman’s face. The scar was terrible.

  “I’m so sorry,” Jez told her. “You’ll never be on the big screen again, will you?”

  “Unlikely,” Claudette admitted. “You’re another one of Maverick’s victims. What did you do wrong?”

  “I told him he was a pervert, and he broke my feet so I’d never dance again.”

  Claudette began to cry for her. “They’ll have to build us our own wing soon.”

  Looking at her in this moment of vulnerability, Jez could see why even Dirt Bag’s heart might melt for this woman. Jez threw all the rules about debriefing out the window. “No. He’ll never hurt anyone else.”

  The actress sat down on Jez’s bed. “That feels like putting an ice cube on a fresh burn. It gives me shivers of relief. Does that make me a bad person?”

  “I’m not a judge anymore. I just turned a man into a vegetable out of revenge.”

  Claudette laughed. “Little ol’ you?”

  “I’m Jezebel Johnson, your ex-husband’s first female agent. I also recently blackmailed him for a leadership position.”

  “What did he do?”

  “It’s what he didn’t do: what needed done. Do you know about the pages?”

  The starlet nodded. “Just his first one. He got secretive after that.”

  “Believe it or not, he was trying to save your life. Women usually don’t survive indoctrination. I’m kind of a freak. I’ve collected and mastered more pages in a month than he has since he started. I promised I wouldn't tell people the truth if he let me make the rules for a while.”

  Claudette whooped. “Keep kicking deserving asses like that, sister, and you’re gonna have a long line of people buyin’ you drinks.”

  The noise caused a security guard to peek in their door’s little window. When he saw Jez sitting up, he dialed a number on his cell phone.

  “I gave that up… mainly for Benny’s sake. If you want to repay me, tell me a little about yourself and him.”

  The actress raised an eyebrow. “Jealous?”

  Jez nodded.

  Claudette laid a sympathetic hand on her arm. “Don’t be. We were friends for years, like cousins. My momma would shoot me if I dated a non-Baptist. Besides, he doesn’t like tall brunettes.”

  “Pull the other one. His dad told me some stories about women of every hair color and skin tone.”

  The actress gasped. “You’ve met his biological father? I’ve only seen him from a distance at award parties.”

  “Bernie’s a character, an unrepentant bigot and hedonist, but at least he didn’t pinch my ass like his poker buddies did. He knows how to treat a lady.”

  They chatted about Benny for a while, Claudette telling several anecdotes about their misspent youth in Hollywood. Lunch was wheeled in while they giggled over pranks he pulled on his tutors in the trailer on the set. Without warning, she said, “You really love him, don’t you, honey? I can tell by the way your eyes get all soft.”

  Jez struggled. Eventually, she said, “Yes, but it’s complicated. I’m not ready yet for what he deserves. He rescued me, and I want to jump his bones right…”

  “Hon’, no one expects sex after a man like Maverick assaults you, at least not till the casts come off and scars heal.”

  “There are more scars.” Even though Claudette was a virtual stranger, Jez poured out her whole story, starting with her dad’s early death. She even related her history of lovers: her first time with her first dance partner, her second at prom, Chance, and the blur afterward. She avoided mentioning details about the pages, focusing on personal issues.

  Claudette was a very good listener. When it was all out, the actress said, “You’re his Ruth.”

  “Huh?”

  “The Bible, dear. You’re going to have to get yourself a copy if you hang around Benny much longer. He wants to be a deacon some day. I recommend one where James Earl Jones reads. Ruth was a widow, like you, who comes to a strange land. She survives by gleaning the fields of a nice, older man. Her mother-in-law, Mara, tells her how she can have the nice man as a husband.”

  “What’s the catch?”

  “You have to be sure and make a commitment for life. Benny is a friend, and deacons aren’t allowed to get remarried.”

  Jez sighed, and redirected the discussion to something that bothered her. “If that’s so important to you, why did you break up with Fortune? He still loves you in his own twisted, dysfunctional way.”

  “Whoa, Captain Blunt. Did Elias or Benny tell you this?”

  “Fortune’s actions.”

  “Funny, his actions tell me the opposite time and again.”

  “He made the password to his most secure vault your name. Has he ever had a mistress, or been with another woman since you broke up?”

  The actress considered this. “No,” she said, stretching it to two syllables. “His work was his first love.”

  Jez looked toward the door to check for eavesdroppers. “I can’t excuse what he’s done, but I might be able to explain a great deal. I’m guessing he went off the deep end about three years ago.”

  “Yes.”

  “Claudette, would you like to be a part of the Ladder Project? Within five years, we plan to have a colony in space. I can do your intake session, but you have to be willing. It’ll feel like you’re the only kid in your grade who’s been told about the Birds and the Bees. There are a great many things you won’t be able to talk about with people outside the project. Elias has had three assassination attempts against him this year. Hell, even I’ve had a couple now.”

  The actress stared at Jez. “He never told me.”

  “I believe that was a colossal mistake on his part. He’d be a lot farther along with your help. We don’t have time for him to be a sexist idiot anymore.”

  After she got done chuckling, Claudette asked, “Why would you trust me?”

  Jez shrugged. “I like you. Benny trusts you, and so does Fortune. Someone in our organization sold me out to Maverick’s people to be tortured. You are one of about three people I know didn’t do it. You’d make a good recruiter and a better sounding-board. Besides, you own 10 percent of his company, and that’s a good stick to get his attention with. He needs to start with some ethics restructuring now if we’re going to make it into space by the time he needs us to.”

  “Darlin’, I am going to love being your friend.”

  “I sincerely hope so.” Because the truth she wanted to share could be harmful to the actress as well as others, Jez found that she could hold it back. For the first time since getting assaulted with the ethics page, she felt like she had a choice. Maybe it was just time stabilizing her, or she was adapting due to the torture. “We can still be friends either way, but I need your decision about joining before whomever that security guard called shows up.”

  Claudette sat up straight and said, “Reporting for duty, sir!”

  Jez held her hand while she explained, “I’ll start with the important facts. I talked to a doctor who’d read Fortune’s file. It’s my business because we have some of the same symptoms from the same root cause. His page can give him genius insight into mankind’s problems, but at a high price. Think of a diabetic whose ability
to produce insulin burns out after years of too much sugar. Using the page releases poisons into the body, and eventually the body wears out. I’ve been rationing my use, but Fortune didn’t know about the side-effects till it was too late. At his current rate of abuse, he has about three years to live. If we can get him to abstain, he might last as long as six.”

  The starlet was crying again. Jez kept talking to fill the void. “He’s known about his prognosis since before your divorce, and wanted to hide it from you. It’s not much, but I want to make his remaining years as pleasant as possible. I can help him reach his goal in five years. You can give him the will to live long enough to see it.”

  Claudette was holding her, weeping openly, when Crusader arrived.

  He had on pressed khakis and a long-sleeved, pastel-green, dress shirt. The former police officer looked like he wanted to begin an interrogation. The obvious emotion in the room made him uncomfortable. “Mrs. Fortune, could you please take a walk for an hour? I’d like a few moments alone with Miss Johnson, and the doctors told me she shouldn’t be moved for a while.”

  Claudette started to get up, but Jez stopped her. “I'm training her to be my replacement in recruiting. She stays.”

  Crusader’s brows shot up. “You don’t do things halfway, do you? I may have to ask you personal questions about your experience that…”

  The starlet interrupted, “My experiences with Maverick were just as personal. I may be able to add details. Besides, you might be the traitor who turned her over to that monster. There’s no way I’m leaving a woman who can’t defend herself alone with a man in those circumstances.”

  Crusader started to argue, but Jez countered with, “We do it my way or I faint and trigger the monitors. The doctors will carry you out.”

  “Never make demands you can’t enforce. You’re learning.” After sitting in the padded guest chair, the head of security said, “I’ve read the reports from all the other survivors and listened to the recording of your interrogation. Now I want to hear it from your side.”