Jezebel's Ladder

by Scott Rhine

  Then the bottom of his thermos shattered. Tea sprayed the floor of the limo. The driver whipped out a 45 but could see no holes in the windows. The attack had come from inside the car. Tan looked at the pocket where the memory card had been and back to the mess. “I think you are smart to listen to Miss Jezebel.”

  Benny sighed. He would stay out of the melee till the dust cleared, but he wouldn’t sit idle. “Lose whoever might be tailing us and go the Four Seasons Hotel. We’re going to start making more eyes and ears tonight if we’re going to stay alive tomorrow.”

  The driver waited for an opening and then U-turned at break-neck speed across five lanes of traffic.

  ****

  When the memory cards received the assault signal, a small charge inside detonated. Cards that were plugged into computers rendered those computers unusable. The seven devices that had been kept in men’s hip pockets caused painful, debilitating, upper-thigh injuries that were not fatal, but sowed panic and confusion among the Ladder Project personnel. The man who’d used his inside vest pocket for storage incurred the most damage. Two comrades pulled him off the front line in a futile attempt to save his life. To call them demoralized would be an understatement.

  When Jez saw the first guard bleeding from a hip injury, she knew that their defense was doomed. Taking Starlet’s headset, she ordered, “Everyone who is inside the apartments, fall back to the basement. Retreat to the basement laundry room.” They would make their stand there until her reinforcements arrived.

  Unfortunately, Nena had known the frequencies. The emergency call would make the listening, enemy troops pour in faster. Shortly after her announcement, their channels were jammed by interference.

  While Jez held the flashlight, Claudette carried the shotgun and pushed Jez’s wheelchair to the elevator. “Oh, fudge,” the Bible-belt belle exclaimed when she found that it had no power either.

  “We’ll take the stairs,” Jez decided, trying to sound upbeat. This was followed by gunfire in the stairwell. The sharp crack made both women jump. “Or we can hide in that nice room over there.”

  ****

  Daniel rejoined his body, ready for anything, except what greeted him. A pair of sugar-cookie-scented candles burned by the door. The faint, yellow flames illuminated the entrance, but left most of the room veiled in shadow. Nena, or Trina he supposed, sat naked at the end of his bed bawling and sniffling. “I don’t know what I did wrong. I tried everything the way Quinn told me.”

  Silently, he lifted the bar he was tied to off the hook that held it to the ceiling chain. He knew from his training that he should seize the element of surprise and choke her with the bar. Instead, he acted on instinct by grabbing the tissue box from his headboard and extending the box toward her.

  The movement in her peripheral vision caused her to level a gun at him. When she saw it was Daniel, she softened. “Now I’m all red and puffy; it’s all your fault.”

  He wanted to protest, but it seemed futile. “I’m sorry. It was a big shock, Trina. I saw Wannamaker’s signature and freaked. At least now I know why you beat me at my favorite video game.”

  While she blew her nose and recovered her dignity, he untied the stocking on his left wrist with his teeth. The smell made him giddy again. Trina said, “Our egg donor was an Olympic gymnast and marksman. Master Sam did everything he could to give us an advantage, even a pheromone boost. We can’t turn it off, even if we want to.” She had avoided elevators for five years because some men couldn’t handle the concentrated doses in enclosed spaces. “You were the only guy who ever treated me like a friend. Wait. You called me by my real name.”

  He smiled. “I had a little talk with Una. I agreed to stay here till the assault is over, whoever wins.” Small-arms fire could be heard periodically throughout the complex. He focused on her eyes. “And don’t worry; you’re still perfect.”

  She licked her lips and looked down shyly. “You’re just trying to be nice. We’re freaks, and I know it.”

  He shook his head. “I am terrified, but just talking with you…” With his one, free hand, he gestured at the raging erection he was sporting.

  Trina grinned. “Well, I sort of cheated. I spiked your medication. I wanted our date to last all night.”

  Panic crept in again. Daniel asked, “Did you put anything else in it?”

  “An experimental drug called Nova our company is developing. Master Sam uses it all the time; I stole some of his. It makes male orgasms ten times more intense. I…uh…wanted your first time to be special. I thought if you liked it, we could do it again.”

  He swallowed hard. White spots appeared at the corners of his vision. “It was already special, because you are.”

  She stared at the door, uncomfortable with the compliment. “You’re trying to make me cry again. What are we going to do while the fight is going on out there?”

  After he untied his other wrist, in a hungry voice, he said, “More.”

  Trina knocked him flat with her enthusiasm, but he was able to hold on tight with both arms. They attacked each other with such frenzy that neither noticed when the charges in the nearby headquarters detonated.

  When she slid on top of him, Daniel gave a shuddering gasp, certain nothing could feel better. Seconds later, she proved him wrong with every sinuous move she made.

  ****

  A horde of hired gang members ran like Vikings across the darkened parking lot toward the apartment building’s front entrance. The Fossils used hired hands for this attack because actives might have been detected too soon. From his observation post on the top floor of HQ, Crusader signaled the men on the roof of the storage garage. Machine guns fired into the crowd. The battle had been joined. Fossils weren’t the only ones capable of surprises.

  It would be a brutal exchange, but the head of security thought the Ladder Project could make a clean sweep of the thugs. On the radio, his guard at the clinic’s back door said, “Boss, the loons in Ward Seven are going ape-shit. This Ragnar guy keeps shouting that zombies are coming. It’s getting all the others worked up.”

  Instinctively, he drew his sidearm. Pacing Benny’s office, the heart of the trap, Crusader warned his men, “Incoming.”

  Then the explosives Nena had been hiding in the HQ for the last month triggered. She had put double the amount necessary near the support beams, on the assumption that some of the packages would be found and disposed of before they were needed. The explosion was intended to take out the front security desk and shatter the glass entryway to allow for easy access. Instead, the whole face of the building turned into shrapnel, peppering attacker and defender alike. Without the supports, the ceiling of Crusader’s third-floor office swung down on him like the jaws of a predator. If he had remained at the window, he would have been a permanent part of the debris. Instead, he was merely dazed and partially buried. Unfortunately, he’d dropped his pistol in the collapse.

  Insulation and dust filled the air. Still, there were far more defenders than the Fossils were expecting. What had been advertised as a quick smash-and-grab became a smoke-filled King of the Hill by moonlight. Already inside, Octavia and her sister Quinn used the distraction to sprint up the back stairs.

  Crusader used his new talents to ignore the pain and push against the rubble that had him pinned. Pushing straight up didn’t work. No one on the radio was answering. Why? Communications could be jammed. His headset might be damaged. Maybe the ringing in his ears meant he was the defect in the equation. Perhaps everyone was too busy to chat at the moment. Whatever the cause, he had to assume he was on his own.

  Running a hand over the headset, he found no breaks, but his hand came back red. He couldn’t wait for help to arrive. Engaging adrenaline overdrive, he pushed the beam on his leg sideways. It ground slowly to the left. Even with the added abilities from the new page, his chest was pounding from exertion, and sweat dripped into his eyes as he rose shakily to his feet. He was going to feel that tomorrow.

  The sheer number of soldiers
swarming the parking lot below told him that the Fossils had committed everything they had to this gambit. Jez had been right. He owed her a drink, or whatever you bought an ex-drunk, to apologize for being an asshole. Johnson was a handful. Still, he envied Hollis the adventure she presented.

  When Crusader saw the matched set of Nenas split off from each other, he thought the head wound was causing double vision. Moving in perfect synchronization, each was dressed in identical, commando-Barbie gear and had her blonde hair back in a tight bun. Without hesitation, the one closest fired a Taser at him. He blocked with his glove, grabbed the cable, and jerked the weapon out of her hand. While she was still gaping at the feat, he swung the cable like a whip across her face, leaving a bright, scarlet slash.

  “That’s going to scar, beauty queen,” Crusader gloated.

  Then he realized only one girl had the mark. There were actually two separate Nenas. The other launched an elegant flying kick. He pivoted just enough to dodge the blow and redirected her trajectory with a shove. The unmarked woman landed painfully in a pile of broken glass and wiring. Now there was a Nena on each side of him, both bleeding and pissed. One was giving instructions to the other, but he couldn’t hear a word. That explained one problem.

  Surrendering to the flow, he blocked the first punch and hopped over the other’s leg sweep. He probed both, and the marked girl’s reactions were slower. She couldn’t see as well on her injured side. Their second attack was better coordinated. He hopped one kick, only to have another catch him square in the back, bruising the kidney and snapping a rib. He clamped down on the pain and switched to defense.

  Watching them fight was like having a front-row seat at the ballet. If they hadn’t been kicking his ass, he’d be throwing roses for the performance. They must have practiced together for hours a day, but choreography was predictable. Seeing their rhythm, he was able to foresee and block nearly every blow.

  Frustrated, Quinn drew her pistol to finish the job. He grabbed Octavia by the neck and backed away. Quinn wouldn’t fire into her sister. Octavia scratched at him with her French-manicured nails, but she smelled fantastic. He shook his head to clear it.

  The gun barrel moved to track his forehead. She was going to take a shot soon. Blast. Out of options, he jumped off the ragged edge of the building, taking one clone with him.

  Quinn screamed with anguish as another sister vanished. Over the radio, Master Sam said, “Focus! Get the pages or you’re next. You women are weak.”

  Tears pouring down her face, Quinn marched over to the safe and tapped the code. It unlocked as promised. When she swung the door open, however, the flash blinded her. Fortunately for her, there was no one left to close the trap. Groping around inside the safe, she found it empty.

  Kneeling on the ground, she sobbed. All the time, all the loss had been for nothing.

  Master Sam blustered, “What is your problem?”

  She told him.

  “End your life,” he ordered. “I don’t care how. Use fire to eliminate all evidence of your existence, you useless piece of garbage. I’m never building another woman.”

  None of her sisters answered on any of the channels. Too depressed to bother with the fire, she held the pistol to her own head.

  The speaker on the desk said, “Man, that pissed me off and I’m not even a woman.”

  Quinn hesitated. With a heavy, Dutch accent, she said, “Who is there?”

  “I am the Virus, the fire that burns away the impure. If I can break it, it is not fit for Heaven. I am the crucible of technology.”

  She trembled. Was she already in Hell? She was slowly regaining her vision as vague, watery blobs. “You helped Jezebel escape.”

  “I found no fault in her. I can help you escape as well.”

  “At what price?” she demanded.

  “One you won’t mind paying. Kill Wannamaker. You know where he is, and he’s been polluting my planet for long enough.”

  She nodded. “But I have to obey his voice. I’ve been conditioned.”

  “Turn to channel thirteen.”

  As she did so, Master Sam’s voice came over the headset. “I declare that your old life is over; your new name is Sedna, the goddess of the underworld. You now answer only to that name. Can you do it?”

  Quinn/Sedna nodded. “He’ll probably kill me, too, but I can’t stand the thought of being alone.”

  In his own voice, Virus whispered over the radio, “The last one is safe with Daniel—happy. Jez and Una sort of arranged it together. I’ve steered everyone else away.”

  That hope gave the last active clone the courage to wander half-blind through the carnage, guided only by the voice of a maniac, but that was normal for her.

  ****

  As the sounds of battle intensified, so did the speed of Daniel’s thrusting. The months of exercises had built his endurance. Now Trina was the one chanting, “More.”

  When he felt himself on the precipice, he tried to hold back longer. He wanted to share the mind-blowing experience with his partner. Then, he heard the banging on the door followed by the angry roar of a power saw. He knew of only one way they could be together. Daniel grabbed the ribbon from Olive the reindeer’s collar. The tingle from the Collective Unconscious page traveled up his arm. He kept the page there to boost his abilities and for emergencies. Buddy once used it as a link to talk to him in a coma. This application was only slightly different.

  He placed the page at the base of Trina’s spine. After overcoming the initial shock, he was able to open himself up to her, turning the alien fabric into a conduit to broadcast everything he was feeling, physically and emotionally. Seeing the look of pleasure on her face pushed him over the edge. It was the highest rollercoaster he’d ever ridden. Then the Nova filled both their senses.

  They were still locked in bliss when the Ladder rescue team reached them. Neither was responding.

  When they reached Ward Seven, Crusader leaned over from his bed. A mass of bandages and bruises, Crusader’s range of motion was limited by an IV. “Oobie’s in theta and somehow dragged her with. Get Butterfly.”

  When they finally located Jez at 2:00 a.m., she was getting her right hand bandaged by an angry Dr. Poldark. The guard wheeled her between Crusader’s and Daniel’s beds.

  Sizing up the situation, she shook her head. “We changed all our hypnotic keys after my capture. I don’t have his new key and neither does the Doc. We might tell someone accidentally, due to the Ethics page. The only person who can revive him is Benny.”

  “Why’s the kid making that face?”

  She swallowed. “Una, Nena number one, told him that no matter who won, at least one of them would die. Daniel couldn’t bear that, so he wanted to relive their last moment in a loop till someone killed them both. I felt the flare from a distance when it happened, but now I can see them like a single star, glowing, entwined. It’s beautiful.” After a pause, she asked, “How long has it been?”

  Crusader shrugged, “Six hours.”

  “Oh, that could cause permanent damage,” she replied.

  “A six-hour orgasm? It might make everyday life pale in comparison, but I think Oobie can take it,” he chuckled.

  “No, you have to operate on Trina immediately, an emergency appendectomy. The Collective Unconscious page is fatal to women otherwise. Now those two kids are linked at such a deep level that if we don’t save her, we could lose them both.”

  Crusader shook his head in exasperation, giving her a glimpse of the bandage taped to the far side of his head. “Living with you is like solving that fox, goose, and grain problem every day.”

  She laughed. “Try being in my shoes, uh, casts. What do we tell the cops?”

  “Handled,” said Crusader, handing her a press release. “It’s already on the wire, and the east coast is showing footage on the morning news. A meth gang tried to steal a large quantity of chemicals we purchased for our legitimate space program. Our guards caught them in the act, and the chemical tanker exploded
in the crossfire, damaging several nearby buildings.”

  She winced. “No one is going to believe that.”

  Crusader smiled. “We just happened to have several NCIS officers among the first responders. It’s the official story. By the way, you owe Midas Project a big favor.”

  Every ambulance in the district had already been sent out, so Poldark had to use his own car to transport the girl. Before he would leave the ward, Poldark insisted, “Put some clothes on her. Do you know what this is going to look like?”

  “Put some makeup on those freckles before someone sees them. Have Benny convince the ER people,” she said.

  “Where is he?” Crusader complained.

  “You go with Trina, I’ll find my boyfriend,” she said. No rest for the wicked, she thought.

  Chapter 26 – Peace

  After coming up empty for two hours, Jez took a map with her to visit Ragnar. “We’ve stopped the zombies,” she announced.

  He nodded, transfixed by Daniel’s radiant aura.

  “We might be able to help you organize your problems if you’re interested,” she offered.

  When he didn’t answer, she said, “Trina and Daniel are dying.”

  “Triniel fades? No.”

  “The people that can help them have been reading pages tonight. If you could point out the direction of the flares…”

  He grabbed the map and circled a five-block region in blue crayon. Only then did she notice the large, winged pattern Ragnar had drawn on the wall. He left her to write the name Triniel under his angel.

  Even with this help, it took till 6:00 a.m. to track her emergency seed-group to the right hotel. Then, it took another hour for Claudette to push her past the right door. “In there,” Jez said. “Ten of them.”