“Mr. Connor?”
“That would be me.”
“We have taken care of the bill. Would you follow us please?”
“No, unless you plan on taking me to where Dr. Blakely was taken.”
“Make no mistake Mr. Connor, you will go where we want you to. It just so happens we will be taking you to the same place, and you would do well to do as you are told, if you want your girlfriend to get through the night.”
Connor smiled and sat down in the only other empty chair. He looked at his hosts, and then drank a sip of his now cool coffee. “I do not want anything to happen to Dr. Blakely, so if you three will be kind enough to show me the way, I will follow.”
“Now you are being reasonable Mr. Connor. We paid your bill, so why don’t we get started.”
“By all means gentlemen, let’s.”
Karen came to; tied up in a plain wooden backed chair. Her head ached, and she felt sick to her stomach. Her feet were tied to the legs of the chair, and she could move nothing but her head. She remembered a man sitting next to her, and then a sharp poke with a needle, then nothing else until now. She was in an empty warehouse. Only one bank of fluorescent lights provided illumination.
There were men milling around with what looked like machine pistols. Five men in suits sat around a long table, directly in front of her. When they saw her lift her head and look around, they stopped talking, and waited for her to speak.
“How did I get here, and what do you want with me?” Karen asked, as she wondered if Connor were dead.
The man in the middle of the group smiled at her condescendingly. “We do not mean you any harm Dr. Blakely. We just needed to get Mr. Connor’s
cooperation. He needs to work for us directly, and unfortunately, he does not wish to cooperate.”
“Where is Thomas?”
“He will be here shortly Doctor. It may seem a bit heavy handed, but we intend to use you to get him to cooperate. It would be in your best interest if you would convince him to join us.”
“Let me get this straight,” she said wonderingly, “you are having Thomas brought here, and you plan to threaten him with my well being?”
“Precisely.”
Karen burst into laughter. She could not help herself. The thought of these men bringing Connor to an isolated warehouse, to threaten him, made her lose control. Her laughter angered the gray haired man at the center of the table.
“You are in no position for levity Doctor,” he told her angrily.
Karen regained control of herself. “Sorry, have you ever seen the movie The Outlaw Josie Wales with Clint Eastwood?”
“I detest western movies Doctor. Make your point. You are beginning to try my patience.”
“Well, the main character’s Indian sidekick gets captured by Comancheros, and when his sidekick sees Josie Wales on the ridge with the sun at his back, he smiles. Another captive asks him what he sees. He tells her ‘Hell is coming to breakfast’.”
“What in the world does that story have to do with any of this,” one of the others asked.
Just then the side door on the warehouse opened, and Connor walked in ahead of the men who had brought him. He saw Karen, tied to the straight back chair, smiling over at him. Connor looked around, and Karen noticed the deadly cold look he used in the interrogation room had settled into his features. When he looked back at her again, he smiled warmly. Connor walked over to her casually, and knelt down next to her.
“You look even more wonderful tied up,” Connor joked.
Karen giggled, “When they told me you were coming, I told them about The Outlaw Josie Wales, where Wales comes for his buddy being held by the Comancheros.”
Connor looked at her admiringly and touched her face softly. “You are really getting good at this. Did they listen?”
“No.”
Connor shrugged as the man at the center of the table spoke to him. “You two make quite the lovely couple. As you can see Mr. Connor, we mean business. We want you under our direct control, and we do not want to have to go through the center and Quenton.”
Connor leaned over and whispered in Karen’s ear. “I will have to lay you on your side in a minute. Just relax and keep your eyes shut.”
“I would not miss this for the world.”
Connor stroked her hair and stood up. “I will not work for anyone but Quenton. If you release my friend and I now, no one will have to get hurt.”
The gray haired man in the middle laughed. “We know how talented you are Mr. Connor. I have a small army here, and you will be taken out if you even breathe heavy. Do not threaten me again.”
“Okay, but I really was just trying to help you stay alive. I am not going to join you.”
The man in the middle gestured, and the three men who had brought him came forward. Connor saw the one who had talked to him walk over by Dr. Blakely, while the other two came up behind him.
“Pardie, cut the Doctor’s left ear off and hand it to Mr. Connor.”
As Pardie began taking out his knife, the two men behind Connor began drawing their weapons. Connor’s outstretched fingers passed through Pardie’s forehead and into his brain. As Pardie’s corpse fell to the floor, Connor gently laid the chair Karen was tied to on its side. The two men who had been drawing their weapons, now fired at where their eyes had last seen Connor.
Karen involuntarily squeezed her eyes shut at the noise of shots being fired. The screams of dying and panicked men reverberated around her. She opened her eyes finally, but could only see the area in front of her. There were motionless bodies everywhere within her range of sight. The chatter of automatic rifle fire ended as abruptly as it had begun.
The resulting silence echoed in her head as she adjusted to it. Only minutes had passed, but it had been a lifetime for many in the room. Karen felt her chair being righted. The ropes around her snapped off of her as if they were threads. She rubbed circulation back into her arms as she stood up and turned to find Connor smiling at her. He had a bloody furrow from his lower cheek up to the top of his hairline on the right side of his face.
She placed a hand along his jaw line and looked at his wound with a professional eye. It had begun to heal, even as she watched. Connor took her into his arms and kissed her lightly on the lips.
“Are you alright? I was afraid you might get hit by a stray shot,” Connor asked.
“They actually hit you,” Karen replied. “You must be slipping.”
Connor laughed. “It was the damn Champaign. It throws off my timing.”
Karen glanced around the smoky room at the incredible scene. “Did you leave anyone alive?”
Connor smiled. “Of course Doctor, our man at the table still breathes. I only gave him a mild concussion, and he sleeps peaceably even as we speak. Quenton will have a heart attack when he hears about this. I will just have to explain it to him in the morning. You do not appear concerned with all the recently deceased.”
“They were going to torture me until you agreed to do what they wanted. How upset should I be?”
“A woman with some common sense, logic, and who can quote from The Outlaw Josie Wales. As in the song Lady In Red, ‘I have been blind, you are amazing’.”
Tears began to form at Karen’s eyes. She grabbed hold of Connor, and buried her head in his shoulder as she clung tightly to him. “God, I cannot tell you how glad I am to see you. When I woke tied up in that chair, I thought you had to be dead.”
Connor hugged her back. “Not dead, just stupid. I should never have left you alone in the restaurant to answer the phone. I knew no one could have known where we were, without bugging us, or your car. I cannot tell you how pleased I was to find you alive. Shall we question our survivor, or have you had enough for one evening?”
Karen pulled back and kissed Connor on the mouth. She held nothing back. The passion of it brought a response from Connor he thought gone forever. She drew gently away and said, “I have a better idea Thomas. We can stash him for the evening at
my place, and take him in blind folded to the complex tomorrow. Quenton will know more about the questions we should ask, and we would not have to think about him tonight. You can stay with me overnight.”
“A magnificent plan my dear, except the fact I could move swiftly with the information we get from this clown, and wipe out anyone, and everyone in on this, before morning.”
Karen nodded thoughtfully. “Although I am sure you could extract every item of information this guy has, I would be willing to risk a little danger, so Quenton could see him.”
“I can do both. How about I see if he has anyone higher up on the ladder, or someone who can be a danger to you?” Connor asked. “We may even get a name high enough to dump this guy and go on.”
“Can you do it gently, without damage Thomas? I do not think so.”
Connor laughed. “Oh ye of little faith. Come along my lady in red, and I will show you how one of these bad boys react when they awaken in the middle of the scene around you.”
“Okay, but I bet you cannot get him to cooperate without the mojo.”
“You are so on,” Connor said. “What will the wager be?”
“If I am right,” Karen replied. “You have to stay and make love to me all night, and none of your mind meld orgasms.”
“You are right, I lose, let’s go.”
Karen laughed and pushed Connor away. “No fair, let’s see how you do.”
“My heart is no longer in it.”
“Come on,” Karen urged. “What happens if you win? What do you
get?”
“Same as you, only with the mind meld too.”
Karen shrugged. “You are right, I lose, let’s go.”
They both laughed, and Connor drew her over towards the table. “You have a seat right here, I will bring our buddy around for a talk.”
Karen hopped up on the table and struck a seductive pose with her legs crossed. Connor paused, and watched her for a moment. ‘You keep this up, and I will have to cheat a bit on our bet.”
“Promises, promises, get to work.”
Connor went around the table, skirting the bodies strewn around. He bent over, and picked up the unconscious man. He carried the two hundred pound man around to where Karen sat as if he had a small sack of sugar. Connor righted the chair Karen had been tied to, and sat the man in it. Slapping him lightly, and shaking him gently, Connor managed to bring the man back awake gradually.
The man opened his eyes groggily, and looked up at Connor. Terror replaced the confusion on his face, as he surveyed the nightmarish scene around him. He saw Karen sitting on the table watching him intently, with a slight smile on her lips.
“You should learn to watch more westerns,” Karen said quietly. “I guess you can see what I thought was so funny now, huh?”
The arrogance and the cunning of the man began to slip back into his face. Connor could see him turning his situation over in his mind, and figuring all the angles as to why he still lived, and what would be required of him to survive. Connor looked over to Karen, and he saw the same recognition come into her eyes. She glanced back at Connor and shrugged.
“I didn’t say the man was intelligent Thomas. I only thought we should let Quenton talk to him.”
“Tell this man you work for me Dr. Blakely. We can all come to some kind of an arrangement without Quenton. Surely you would be interested in a position far above your station now. I.”
Karen’s laughter interrupted the man’s monologue, and Connor watched the petty rage begin to rise in him in spite of his situation. He began to get off of his chair and move towards Connor. Connor’s voice stopped him abruptly.
“One inch further Sir, and you will never walk on those legs again. Sit down and do not move. I do not need to tie you up, because I will break pieces of you off until you stay where I want you. Are we clear?”
The man looked into Connor’s cold, dead interrogation stare and wilted before it. He nodded his understanding.
“I’m sorry I interrupted your offer there,” Karen chuckled, “but you still do not understand. Thomas does not take orders from either Derek or me.”
“What do you want from me then? Why didn’t you just kill me with the rest? I thought you kept me alive to make a deal.”
“I did,” Thomas replied. “You tell me if you answer to anyone higher up the food chain, and where I can find them right now, and I will let Quenton finish questioning you tomorrow. I also need to know if you have anyone out there waiting on the outcome of your little question and answer session here.”
“I run the entire operation. I wanted you directly in my control and under my orders. If I had known you were some kind of mutation, I never would have tried this.”
Connor nodded. “You are doing well so far. Why set this up yourself? You could have gotten one of your other minions at the table to front for you. Better yet, you could have ordered Quenton to approach me with any. oh, I see. You had a new game in mind. I was never supposed to interrogate Hutchison. Quenton set that one up all on his own. When you found out Hutchison and his old gang had died, you became worried.”
“We thought Quenton had his own private army set up. Quenton told us about Hutchison after the fact. When his gang turned up dead the next day, we decided to move.”
“The Red Chinese, and old Pierre have some pretty impressive funds. How much did you sell out your country for?”
The man remained silent as he looked in horror at the anger building in Connor’s face. Connor stepped towards him, but Karen’s voice stopped him.
“Thomas,” she said softly. “You promised to do this without any extras.”
Connor turned to her, and the anger had dissipated. She felt the rise of pleasure within her. “Thomas!”
Connor chuckled and turned back to the man in front of him. “Now then, two more questions: who the hell are you, and do you have anyone out there set up to kill both Karen and I later, after you got what you wanted?”
“My name, for all the good it will do you, is Gordon Whitney.” He hesitated for a moment and Connor cut in.
“Tell us who and where you have someone waiting.”
“We had an army here. We did not think anyone else would be necessary.”
“You are lying.” Connor turned to Karen. “You win my dear. I have to find this clod tonight, and I have other things on my mind besides two-bit traitorous bastards.”
“Told you,” Karen replied smugly.
“You will pay for that.”
“Ooooooohhhhhhhhh…I am so scared.”
Connor smiled and turned back to Whitney. “Last chance to do this the easy way. Who and where?”
Whitney started to speak, but looked again into Connor’s face. He saw a promise of death and worse there, and he no longer thought he had any real way out of this. The man knew he lied before he could get the sentence all the way out. He knew a con when he saw one. This was no con.
“If you refused to cooperate, even after we tortured Dr. Blakely, I would have turned you both loose, and taken you back to the restaurant to pick up your car. We planted the bug on Dr. Blakely’s car. If I did not call off the man, he would be waiting at Dr. Blakely’s house to finish you both off, and make it look like a burglary.”
“The truth shall set you free, at least in a manner of speaking. I win Doctor.”
“Oh no,” Karen said, pretending terror. “Whatever will happen to me
now?”
“Oh, you will so pay for this,” Connor laughed.
Karen hopped down off of the table. “I guess we had better go and get my car. How will you handle this now?”
“Well, you will have to stay in the car with this loser, while I talk to the assassin he has waiting for us. The only question I need to ask revolves around whether you want me to break pieces of Mr. Whitney until he will for sure not be any threat, or simply bind and gag him in the backseat. You pick Gracie.”
Karen looked at Whitney’s face. “As a practical matter, I would rather
you bound and gagged him. He would be awful noisy all broken up.”
“Not if I paralyze him.”
“Tempting as you make it sound Thomas, please just tie him up.”
“Very well then, come along Gordie. Get your keys out, and hand them to Karen here. She will be chauffeuring us back to the restaurant. If you wish to stay active, be a good boy, and do not do anything rash.”
Whitney stood up slowly, and fished into his pants for the keys to his car. He then reached out, and handed them to Karen. “It’s the Mercedes parked just outside the main entrance.”
“After you Gordie,” Connor gestured, and Whitney walked ahead of them. “If you go for any of the numerous firearms lying around, I will rip off whatever extremity you reach with.”
Connor had already collected the pieces of rope, which had held Karen to the chair. When they reached Whitney’s Mercedes, Karen opened the doors. She slid behind the steering wheel and Connor got into the backseat with Whitney.
“Do you recognize where we are Karen?”
“Yep, we’re only fifteen minutes away from the club.”
“No one seems upset about the gunfire around here.”
“It was probably pretty muffled inside the warehouse, and I don’t see any residences for a block or so.”
“Drive on Tonto.”
Karen giggled and started the Mercedes. She backed it out of the parking slot, and drove out of the warehouse area. By the time they reached the restaurant, Connor had Whitney tied up to the point he could barely move. She parked the big car along the street in front of the restaurant. Connor got out of the car, and opened Karen’s door.
“You go give them the claim check and give the guy this when he brings it out front.” Connor handed her a fifty-dollar bill. “That should get your face stitched into his memory banks.”
“The claim check was in my purse.”
“I got Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum to let me leave your purse with the greeter. I already gave her a fifty to watch it for us until we returned. Just tell her you want the purse Mr. Connor gave her.”
American Mutant Page 7
