Jezebel's Ladder

by Scott Rhine

  Claudette raised her eyebrows. “Wardrobe malfunction.”

  “Oops. I’ve gained a little bust-line since the pageant days,” the blonde said, casually adjusting her wardrobe. “I just got back from dinner. Danny took me out for sushi. The guards practically pulled a gun on our waiter to get the bill quicker and broke several traffic laws getting us back. What did you need so badly?”

  “I need Oobie to ring this parking lot constantly between eight and four this morning. Box the compass once a minute. If you make the dives about thirty-five minutes each, it should be no problem for him. When the convoy arrives, have him follow it into the parking garage. He has sole access to channel two if you find anything suspicious.”

  “Why don’t you tell him yourself?” Nena asked.

  “Because I don’t want him to see me like this. The last two times he saw me hurt, he was unable to dive for a prolonged period. I can’t risk that. Oobie adds over 20 percent to our odds of survival,” Jez explained.

  Nena grew chilly, and walked out. “Congratulations on the promotion.”

  When Benny kissed Jez goodbye and stepped out a minute later, the former beauty contestant was still standing by the stairwell a few doors away. “Problem?” he asked.

  The tiny woman stood much closer to him than necessary to ask, “Mr. Hollis, you’ve been with a lot of women. Am I sexy?”

  His mouth felt dry as he squeaked, “I’m two-and-a-half times your age, twice your height, and my girlfriend is currently controlling a team of men with guns.”

  She smiled coyly and turned back and forth, giving him a better view of the wardrobe malfunction area. “Not for you, silly, for Danny. He’s the first boy I’ve ever liked who hasn’t tried to bang me like a bass drum on the first date.”

  Benny took a deep breath and inhaled warm, vanilla perfume. It didn't make him feel any less aroused. He tried very hard to maintain good eye contact. When all else fails, use the name of your girlfriend in the conversation. “Jez has been coaching him. I think the working theory is that the longer it takes to get there, the longer the relationship will last.”

  “Jez likes it slow, but I want it fast,” Nena pouted. “Can I show you something up in the room?”

  He tried to loosen his pullover collar. “I have someone waiting for me in the parking lot.”

  The girl smacked his hip playfully. “Relax! A few of the guards got a copy of Jez performing as a showgirl. She’s wearing a lot less than I am now. I’ll show you on my laptop.”

  “Sorry,” he said, sliding around her toward the exit.

  She sighed and took a memory stick the size of a lipstick tube out of her purse. “Fine, take my copy. I think you need to be prepared. The press is going to find it soon.”

  Reluctantly, he accepted the device and ran out the door into the dark as if he had stepped on a mound of fire ants.

  ****

  Precisely at eight, Nena reached Daniel’s door. She handed a coffee mug to the older guard seated in the chair. He smiled and thanked her. To the younger, she said, “I’m heading in for my shift. Jez said that I count as the second guard tonight. We’re shorthanded, and they need you downstairs for the arrival prep.”

  He nodded and left. Daniel was already sitting on his bed, in a gray University of California sweatshirt and pants with a “Joe College” Snoopy logo on the front. He was proud of his new status and wanted to look more mature. She didn't have the heart to tell him that Snoopy spoiled the college-man image.

  She tripled-bolted the door and made sure all the windows were covered. He had one hand on the swing bar mounted from the ceiling to make it easier to sit up. He watched her every move through the room with relish, the dessert they had been too rushed to order.

  She placed her purse on the bed table next to him as she told him in sultry tones, “I have good news and bad news.”

  Nena could have told him anything and he wouldn’t have blinked. Everything sounded sensuous in her soft, Dutch accent. Daniel had already given himself the facilitator injection for the night and felt more mellow than normal. He didn’t want to speak and ruin the buzz.

  “Bad news,” she announced. “I just talked to Jez. Because of a last-minute glitch, the operation has been delayed till tomorrow morning. You have tonight off.”

  “If that’s the bad news, what’s the good?”

  She slid closer to him so he could smell the warm vanilla mixed with cherry lip gloss. He clenched the swing bar so tightly, he thought it would bend. “Oh, with the evacuation of the first floor, everyone has to double up rooms tonight, including you.”

  “What poor slob am I sharing a bedroom with tonight?”

  Her hot breath tickled his ear as she whispered, “Me.”

  His heart monitor went wild, and she disconnected the power strip to all the monitors with her high heel. Then she kicked her shoes off. “I hope that’s acceptable.”

  The room was completely silent for a long moment while he struggled to find any coherent thought in the flood of hormones, like a man grasping for flotsam in a capsized ship. He heard himself stammer, “Would you like to start by kissing? I’m supposed to do it till you moan.” He was prepared to bang his head against the bar to knock himself out as penalty for his own stupidity.

  Then she slid against his side like a cat asking to be stroked. “Yes.”

  The first kiss made him lightheaded. He gripped her neck and locked his fingers in her hair, pulled her tighter so the exchange would continue. She made yum sounds like she was enjoying him more than the $200 meal they’d just finished. A taste of the champagne she had ordered stroked the tip of his tongue, and he felt drunk.

  They devoured each other for twenty minutes before there was a loud thump outside the room door. “What was that?” Daniel asked. When he pointed to the door, he noticed he had makeup smeared on his little finger.

  “Hush,” she said. “Close your eyes. This is going to be a formative experience in your sex life, the encounter against which all others will be measured. I want it to be as memorable as possible.”

  As soon as he shut his eyes, he heard her say, “Phase two.” Then he heard the rustle of silk hose sliding down her legs. He gripped the bar again and sucked in a panicked breath.

  “Hold perfectly still,” she commanded. The tingle that her voice caused was still traveling down his spine as she tied his hand to the bar with her stocking.

  He asked, “What…?”

  As she tied the other hand to the same bar, she said, “No explanations. Tonight, you are allowed two words only: more and stop. You may only use the second word once and the evening is over. If you trust me, I can make this last all night.”

  “More,” he gasped.

  Nena straddled him on the bed and tucked her head through his arms. He could feel her heat through his thin, nylon sweatpants. Not being able to grab her and throw her down was driving him wild. She set a slow, measured pace, sliding her body across his as they resumed their frenzied kissing. When she bit the place where his shoulder and neck met, he moaned incoherently. She chuckled and pulled back to examine him again.

  “I think you’re ready for phase three,” she announced.

  ****

  Benny was halfway home before he tried the memory stick in his laptop. His specialized antivirus software came up immediately, but the screen was already flashing with activity. He had to pop out the battery to kill the unwanted program. He cursed and hit the speed dial button for Jez.

  “Miss me already?” He could tell her attention was divided between multiple headsets, radios, scanners, and phones.

  There was a knock at Jezebel’s door. After checking the peep hole, Claudette undid the chain and greeted their guest. “Dr. Poldark, so glad you could come.”

  “Someone is handing out cylindrical memory sticks with nearly naked movies of you to the guards,” Benny said without preamble.

  That got Jez’s attention. “Is Trench Coat trying to undermine me again?”

  The head
psychiatrist pointed at Jez and whispered angrily to Starlet.

  “It’s a Trojan horse,” Benny said.

  Jez cursed. “It’s probably a bug as well. Dump the damn thing in water as soon as you can.”

  Jez overheard the tail end of Poldark’s tirade. “Paranoia, irrational orders, and magical-thinking. She hasn’t been cleared for command duty. That outpatient has no right kicking me out of my room or giving anyone orders around here.”

  The woman in the wheelchair ignored him as she tried in vain to reach one of the guards from the control room. Frustrated, she dialed a cell phone number from memory. Still no answer. Her third attempt picked up. “A virus is attacking our computers. It’s riding the memory sticks with my movie. I don’t care if you watched it, just don’t use them. And find out what’s going on in the control room. Tell them I'll roll in there and kick their asses if they’re sleeping.”

  Poldark was livid. “You will do no such thing. You will accompany me to my clinic for a substance-abuse evaluation. I have already filed a complaint, and the agent in the hall has agreed to drive you there.”

  “So I missed my AA meeting. I’ve been kind of busy,” Jez said, punching in another phone number.

  Claudette said, “I’m going to my room to change into something more comfortable. I’ll let you two work this out.” Her expression shouted, I told you so.

  Poldark leaned over to examine Jez’s eyes. “Are you taking the meds you stole? They’re extremely dangerous in the wrong dosage.”

  “I’m not high, but I am suffering from a twelve-day menstrual cycle.” She didn’t mention that the stresses of over-computing brought it on. Her fuse was too short to sit through another lecture. “What meds and when did I supposedly steal them?” she demanded.

  The psychiatrist said, “You took all my Thorazine, an assortment of narcotics, and Lord knows what else. Your access card opened the pharmacy at 12:45 today, immediately after you demanded the additional clearance.”

  Jez was flummoxed for a moment. “I’ve been in the Dallas area for almost a week. I lost my badge at… Hell.” Over channel one, she broadcast, “Don’t eat or drink anything! We’re being poisoned!”

  That common delusion was the last straw for Poldark. He reached out for her arm. “We’re going to get you help, Miss Johnson. Guard!”

  When the lights went out, she instinctively fired the Taser hidden under her blanket, knocking Dr. Poldark out.

  ****

  Nena grabbed the ends of Daniel’s pants and tugged. He chinned himself on the bar to make the removal easier for her. “Close your eyes again,” she said, standing at the foot of his bed.

  He obeyed the letter of the law, but slipped out of his body to watch the former beauty queen wriggle out of her dress like a snake leaving its skin. When she bent over to pick her favorite dress off the floor, he almost shouted hallelujah. She was wearing only a black thong that stood out in stark relief against her pale skin. Her curves were perfect and he wanted this moment to last forever so he could adore her from every angle. More than her body, her desire to make him happy and the pleasure he saw in her face excited him like never before. This feeling was the part the magazines could never give him.

  This is the happiest moment of my life, he thought.

  Her hair slid aside to reveal cute freckles on her back. Then the transformer at the corner of the parking lot detonated. Every light in the building went out, along with most of the communications.

  That’s when he saw her cluster of freckles glow. Pressure built in the back of his brain. The pattern reminded him of something important—the dogs, Seth, and all Wannamaker’s clones. The glow patch was his signature, how he knew the experiment worked. The tidal wave of horror swept over him.

  Nena was an enemy agent who had access to almost anything on the project as his secretary, an agent he had let tie him down. The Fossil invasion was starting two hours early.

  He dove, searching for the only person he knew he could trust in this maelstrom. He popped straight down to Jez’s temporary apartment.

  Her living room was lit by a tiny, travel night light that had rechargeable, battery back-up for power outages, part of Jez’s emergency, overnight bag. She hated tripping over strange furniture in hotel rooms.

  There was a man prone on the floor, and Jez was smacking her new Taser, trying to get the green light to come back on. “It takes a minute,” he explained. This time, Jez could hear him. “Nena is the mole. She’s a Fossil clone. She’s got me tied up…”

  Almost verbatim, she started to recite his information onto radio channel two.

  Muffled shots whistled in the hallway. A body fell against the door, knocking it open.

  “We’ve been breached!” she announced. Another Nena walked through Jez’s door in the same black dress, but with a Fossil headset and body armor.

  This Nena was almost identical, but having a recent view for complete comparison, Daniel blurted, “This one’s a little bigger in the behind than mine.”

  Her arm muscles weren’t as toned either. Oobie was about to guess aloud that his Nena attended morning exercise sessions when the newcomer shot the radio out of Jezebel’s hand. The bullet was a pancake round that shattered the communications gear. Only a few metal and plastic fragments entered the target’s hand.

  Clamping the hand with her blanket, Jez howled. The Fossil agent tossed the Taser across the room with her free hand.

  Gritting her teeth, the acting head of the LA office said, “Nena, are there nine of you?” All the badges, all the scatter-brained lapses where she forgot trivial details made sense now. She had alibis for all the thefts and betrayals because she was legion.

  “I’m Una, the oldest. There are only five of us now. You’re talking to Oobie, aren’t you? Tell him to go back to Trina. We’ve gone to a lot of trouble to help her with this mission, and we don’t want to lose her, too.”

  “What?” Mainly, Jez was trying to keep the woman talking. She knew Claudette was in her bedroom, trying to assemble her shotgun in the dark while making no sound. Her friend needed cover and the Ladder Project needed information.

  Una spoke to the air beside Jez. “A while ago, we replaced the red syringe by your bed with a morphine overdose. Master Sam, Dr. Wannamaker, ordered us to put out the eyes of the enemy, keep Daniel occupied and safe for the invasion. Convert Daniel if possible, but give him the red injection otherwise.”

  He felt like vomiting. Weiss had already stopped the lethal injection once, but he wasn’t here tonight. The Houston doctor knew or might guess too much, and would have told someone the truth.

  “You twisted bitch,” Jez snarled. “Stealing, poisoning, and lying I expect. But pretending to like an innocent boy…”

  “It wasn’t pretending, not for Trina. She was raped when she was fourteen. All that hand-holding shit for months was just what she needed. Damn you for getting her hooked with those horses. Because of this crush, she volunteered to keep him occupied on a date. If she doesn’t succeed, Master Sam is going to terminate her. We already lost Dexy to the sick depredations of that monster, Maverick. I don’t want to lose another sister. Get back where you belong, Oobie! The next wave will be here any time.”

  His recall key had been changed today; they couldn’t force him to go back. If his side won, he and Trina were probably both dead.

  He told Jez, “It’s too late for me. If she’s going to kill you, I don’t want you to be alone.”

  The woman waving the gun asked, “Is he still here?”

  “Yes,” said Jez. “He won’t go. He wants to be here for me when I die. He thinks of me as his sister.”

  Una roared in frustration. “What is this, high school? I won’t kill her as long as I get three things: the new password to the safe, all her computer files on the Fountain of Youth, and that butterfly necklace.”

  Without batting an eyelash, Jez said, “The password is W-H-A-C-K-A-M-O-L-E. My laptop is right over there. If you bring it over, I’ll give you ac
cess to anything you want.”

  Una called someone on her headset and relayed the password. “Why is Octavia laughing?”

  “It’s an arcade game. The object is to smack a mole over the head,” Jez explained. “There is no Fountain of Youth.”

  Oobie saw Claudette creeping out of the dark recesses of the bedroom with a shotgun aimed. She was waiting for Una’s pistol to be aimed somewhere other than Jez’s heart. The woman in the wheelchair hadn’t seen Starlet yet. Oobie popped over to the door, pretended to look out the opening, and shouted, “Rescue is coming down the hall!”

  Jez echoed, “Down the hall? No, it’s too soon! They’ll ruin the trap.”

  Una spun to fire at the entry way. Starlet blasted her hips with buck shot, pumped, and hit her again in the upper body as she fell.

  Given the damage, Una had to be dead. Claudette removed the pistol and kicked her side to make sure.

  “You were supposed to give her a chance to surrender,” complained Jez.

  “You’re welcome. I guess I’m not cut out to be a judge either.” Into her own radio, Claudette said, “This is Starlet. One Nena down, four to go. One is holding Oobie hostage, and the other three are probably on their way to the HQ safe. I have Butterfly and we’re going off the grid.”

  Jez told Daniel, “Go. I don’t want you seeing the rest of this. I also don’t want Trina killing you when the shooting starts. Keep her occupied till this is over. Try to keep her alive. If she hasn’t hurt anyone, we can ask her to read the Ethics page and question her after its over.”

  He nodded and popped back to his body, dreading what torture might be facing him.

  Chapter 25 – Siege

  Benny dunked the offending memory stick into his tea thermos and screwed the cap tight. Suddenly, his driver pulled off to the side of the road. “Sir, the apartment building has been breached. I didn’t understand all of it, but evidently Ms. Horvath poisoned some people to soften us up. Butterfly and Starlet have gone to ground.”

  Tan and the driver looked at Benny for instructions. The actor wanted to drive back and defend his friends and co-workers, protect everything he had worked so hard to construct the last five years. However, he would be useless, a liability from both a strategic and physical standpoint. He growled and wanted to break something. He promised Jez he would start the project over, but what kind of man would let his injured girlfriend fight his battles for him?