"Mm?" Church grunted back without looking. He was examining the contents of Allison's purse.
"Well," Xyggy said thoughtfully while he stuffed a handful of candy coated chocolate pellets into his mouth, "this says that all you have to do is call a number using one of those things...AND...they'll BRING the food TO YOU! What WILL they think of next?!" Xyggy ended with a goofy laugh and almost choked on the red-vine that he'd begun to devour.
"They've thought of a lot, Xyg, we're in the past, remember? Come over here and wake her up, I found his name on this device."
Xyggy hopped off the stool he'd been perched on, "right-o! Let's see what Mrs. fancy pants 'as to say for 'erself." He grabbed a plastic cup filled with soda and scurried over to Allison—who was at this point still unconscious in a dining chair and secured at the wrists with zip-ties. Xyggy lightly slapped Allison twice before opting to hurl the beverage at her face, "wakey, wakey!" Xyggy crooned. She came to sputtering for breath and a moment later made eye contact.
Recognition lit up Allison's eyes as her last memories before going dark came flooding back. Her face contorted to the same expression of shock and disgust as before, "son of a BITCH!" Her fury took the form of a thunderous kick between Xyggy's legs. With his small stature, even seated...her foot found its goal. His eyes almost left their sockets and his cheeks bulged like he was holding back a mouthful of vomit. Silently...his hands met his groin and he keeled over sideways. Allison hadn't even bothered to take in her surroundings before unleashing a series of shrill cries for help. The rhythm to her melody of screams was the clattering of the chair's wooden legs on the concrete floor while she tried to wrestle herself free.
There was one last clamorously screechy "h-e-l-p m-eeee!" from Allison before the blade being torn from Church's sheath rang out. He placed the tip a millimeter from her throat and in his most relaxed and even toned voice said, "Shut up."
She obeyed.
"You okay?" Church asked Xyggy as he stood up to nudge him with his boot. Xyggy answered with a collection of whimpering noises to which Church casually replied, "You'll live. You should've tied her legs like I told you." Xyggy responded with another squeal. "Do it now," Church advised.
Xyggy dragged himself to task with one hand on his jewels at every opportunity. Allison looked on without a word, but her stare dripped venom. When Church was satisfied with Xyggy's work, he found a discarded dishtowel and used it to gag Allison. It was old, crusty and dirty...but Allison's pleas to be spared from its germs stopped the moment Church touched the handle of his sword. Next, Church positioned a table—containing all her belongings—one meter from Allison. He helped Xyggy to a seat and then took one for himself. When they were all comfortable, he dialed.
* * *
Back at the hotel...
"Hi Allison, what's up?" Remi answered as he climbed out of bed.
"Hello Allison!" Jane called out from across the room, the smile in her voice evident. She'd even begun to wave at the phone but stopped awkwardly when she realized that the caller couldn't actually see her.
"This is not Allison, but she is here with me," Remi recognized the voice as belonging to the man called Church and suddenly he felt as hollow as if his heart had fallen down to his ass, taking everything between those two points with it. "Listen..."
Remi heard a slight shuffle and then a muffled voice...then Allison yelling, "Remi! Remi! Get me out of here! They put a dirty—"
There was the sound of the voice being muffled once again before Church spoke, "you know what we want?"
"Yes."
"No tricks, no bullshit, no law, we take the device, you take the woman. You know what happens if things don't go exactly like that?"
"Yes."
"I don't think you do..."
* * *
At the Pizzeria...
Church stood and began pacing around the room, Allison's cellphone in his left hand to his ear while he randomly swung patterns in the air with sword in the right. "What happens is that my friend here...you've met Xyggy haven't you?" Church asked, pointing the katana at Xyggy.
"Yes," Remi answered.
"Well he's going to take Allison here and start carving pieces off of her an inch at a time. He's going to go slow, so she gets to experience as much of it as possible. If she looses too much blood or passes out, we'll cauterize the wounds, wake her up and start again. When there's nothing left but her head, I'm going to send you a picture of it...because you'll never find it. Instead, since the postal service is so good around here, I'm going to send you one piece of her every week for the rest of your life. If you don't want to find out whether or not you'll be able to put her back together, you'll do what you're told."
Allison had been hanging on every word and when Church pulled the crusty dishtowel from her mouth, she screamed exactly what was expected of her, "Remi! Please! They mean it! Remi PLEA—"
Church replaced her gag and spoke to Remi, "we'll send you a location for the meet within the hour." He cut the call and tossed the phone onto the table, "let 'em sweat." He turned to Xyggy, "maybe there's coffee back there," he said and stomped off to the storeroom.
Though Allison had only her nostrils to breathe through, she was noisier than ever with her heavy, panic induced breathing. She regarded every movement around her with fear, jumping at the slightest sound, wearing a wide-eyed look of abject terror. Xyggy stole a glance at her out of the corner of his eye...albeit with slight apprehension, but when he noticed her anxiety he cracked a smile and backed it up with a goofy laugh. "Ssshhh," he said with a finger to his lips and let out a snorting chuckle. "'Ol' Church is just teasin' a bit. The post's always been a bit shoddy innit? Prob-ly won't even 'ave to kill you even a little bit." He leaned back into his chair with his arms behind his head, deep in thought. He looked back at Allison through squinty eyes, "you any good in the kitchen then?"
* * *
The hotel...
"They have Allison," said Remi. His arm fell limply to his side before he dropped the cellphone to the carpet with a dull 'thump'. His face was the blood-drained pallor of defeat, the weakness in his legs began to show and he would've fallen to his knees were Jane not there to catch him.
"I heard everything, Remi," Jane said as she carefully sat him down on the heart-shaped bed.
"What the hell is going on, Jane?" Remi slowly shook his head in disbelief.
"Though some facts remain unknown, Remi, we can safely—"
"I didn't mean it like that!" Remi barked angrily, suddenly overcome with rage. Jane fell silent. Remi's mind waded through a sea of blame, every thought marinating in despair. 'This is my fault,' he thought.
Slowly, Jane's straight-faced silence turned to a barely suppressed grimace, as though she were attempting—rather poorly—to hold back a flood of emotion...her quivering lower lip was the signal that a dam was about to burst...and then it did. Tears began gushing from her eyes and she let loose the cries of a five year old who'd scraped a knee, complete with sniffing, facial expressions and heaving for breath.
Remi had been all set to have the hard talk with Jane...'I really wanted to help you, I really did. I feel like we've become such good friends in such a short space of time, you're a real person to me...I think you know that...but the truth is that you're really not. It's been four days that we've been together but in the last twelve hours I've gotten in to more trouble with you than I have in my whole life. We've been shot at, attacked by a sword wielding maniac, my apartment has been torn to shreds and now the only other person in the world who means a damn to me is being ransomed...for YOU. I know this is going to hurt, but I can't take any chances with Ally's life. I have to make the trade.' That had been the plan, but the prepared monologue escaped him the moment she began crying. Instead, his annoyance prompted him to ask, "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm crying, okay? It must be my estrogen simulator. I'm crying!" Jane managed to say through her gasps for air.
"What on earth for?"
"Because you...yelled at me and...I was only trying to help and I don't know why...you're being so mean to me and Allison...is in trouble and it's my...fault she's in danger!" Jane was able to force out just that much before a brand new torrent of cries exploded out of her.
"You know that you don't breathe or make real tears right? So what's the point of this?" Remi asked impatiently.
"Why do you have to be so mean, Remi?" She paused to huff a few more breaths and wipe her eyes. "Just because the data in your brain is biological and the data in mine is digital...that doesn't mean that I don't have feelings!"
Remi instantly felt a tsunami of shame engulf him and he was forced to look away.
A series of sniffs later...Jane continued, "I'm going to give myself up to them. It's one of my directives that I cannot allow the loss of human life to occur whether by action or inaction."
Remi felt terrible. 'So much for having to convince her,' he thought.
"But I want you to know, Remi," Jane said, hesitating for just a moment before wiping her nose on his shirt, "I've had the best time of my life with you and I'm going to miss you so much!" Jane quickly put her face into her hands as her tears and wails began anew.
At that point, instinct took over for Remi. "I'm sorry for yelling at you, Jane. I'm scared too," he said as he put his arm around her, "we'll figure a way out of this. There's got to be a way where everyone walks out of this alive...and we're going to find it, I promise." It wasn't until the words left his mouth that he recalled all the times he'd been manipulated by a woman's tears before, but he knew Jane couldn't possibly be doing that!
Thank you for reading!
Watch out for the next installment of Jane 8086...coming soon to wherever good books are found!
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Jane 8086 Part Five Page 2
