Chapter 4: Evil Woman

As noted, missions continued to keep Michael’s family busy. Their next one was really nasty. Magnolia Amora Lestrange headed a particularly virulent branch of Earth Firsters, composed exclusively of women. A self-proclaimed disciple of the long dead Marie Catherine Laveau, she sought to assume the dead woman’s title Voodoo Queen of New Orleans as a means of consolidating her power.

‘Queen’ Lestrange, as she styled herself, was a hate-filled Firster because her CAP was too low to be a sponsor, and she’d be damned if she would be anyone’s slave. She was very smart and had high sub-scores in many desirable areas. On the other hand, her sub-scores for such areas as loyalty and integrity were so low as to be nonexistent. She made sociopaths look virtuous.

She had a core group of twenty-two followers, with a wide range of motivations. Some, like her, simply resented not scoring high enough to qualify for extraction. Several, like the twins Madeline and Mary Hammer, were out and out lesbian man-haters. Most were simply opportunists who enjoyed having slave labor, slave studs, or the proceeds from owning slave prostitutes. For the opportunists, Earth First was only a name they used to organize. None of the twenty-two had any redeeming feature.

Possibly, they would never have appeared on the harem’s radar but for an extraction at a conference in New Orleans for Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) and Lamaze instructors. Cathleen and Sunny had identified the conference as a prime opportunity to fill colony requests for birthing assistants, and they intended to siphon off a share for their own colony’s needs. They were there to cherry pick and select prior to the larger extraction coming down.

In a major error in judgment, Queen Lestrange and her sycophants infiltrated the conference. She hadn’t anticipated an extraction, she was planning a kidnapping - actually, multiple kidnappings.

Somehow, Lestrange had learned of the colonies’ need for midwives, and she intended to make money from that knowledge by kidnapping the participants and selling them to the Confederacy. She reasoned that the Confederacy considered concubines to be sex slaves, so they should be more than willing to buy prime pussy - especially talented pussy. She also wanted to handpick some prime stuff for her own needs - white slavery in a whorehouse.

Her plan was reminiscent of the harem’s earlier operation at the Firster kidnapping of the entire girls’ school. Lestrange’s crew had planted gas canisters they would trigger remotely. When the participants collapsed, the women would enter the conference hall though a basement service entrance and load the sleeping men and women into large delivery trucks to haul them away. If some of them suffocated from being stacked one upon another, what the hell, every shipment had some spoilage!

In their meetings, Cathleen and Sunny found they were learning new aspects of their profession. Dora alerted them, <There is some sort of device planted in each of the conference rooms. Looks like canisters, so be wary of gas. I’m sending in the Nerds for disposal and two back up teams.>

Dora was ‘silent’ for a short while, then <The Nerds grabbed their gear and should already be through the transporter my drone dropped upstairs. Patricia, Naomi, Hannah, and Richard are backing them up. Rachel, Carole, Michael, Ginger, and Katie were in conference. Katie will hold the fort and the others should be suited up and through within five more minutes.>

<Okay, we’re ready to direct operations, if we can figure out what they will be, > Cathleen responded.

<I know you Loves are packing and wearing Kevlar, but don’t do anything stupid, > that, a plaintive ‘voice’ from Dora. <Remember your nanites will take care of almost any knockout agent, let’s hope they aren’t using something deadly like chlorine.>

<I’d evacuate the building, but that would probably cause whoever is doing this to trigger the gas.> said Cathleen as she saw Billie enter the room. <Oops, too late, people are dropping.>

Cathleen looked over to Sunny who was checking one of the fallen attendees. Sunny gave a thumb’s up and passed on through Dora, <She’s breathing fine. Looks like knockout gas.>

<Dora, tell the teams to split into twos and spread into each meeting room. Let’s play dead and see what happens. ‘Deputy rules’ - stingers preferred, deadly force authorized. We can always memory wipe any bad guy survivors.> Cathleen positioned herself where she could see the main entrance and motioned Sunny to cover her back. She laid down with a stinger in her left hand and her favorite pistol in her right -- tucked close to her side, mostly hidden from sight.

About five minutes later a gas masked head peered into the room. Three similarly masked women followed the first and began checking a few bodies to assure they were out cold. <My drones count fifteen in the building and one standing watch at a truck outside, > announced Dora.

Each team silently counted off to Dora the total in their view, and when her tally matched the number reported, she informed Cathleen who gave the go ahead to commence operations. Fifteen bodies dropped and were quickly disarmed. <They have walkie-talkies, > warned Dora. <Best to get to that outside guard quickly.>

Using Dora and her drones to track the guard, Michael and Hannah exited the building and stunned her when she turned her back. They dragged the unconscious guard back into the building, and the gray interdiction field for the preplanned extraction cut the conference off from the outside world.

Queen Lestrange was beside herself when the word of the pickup arrived. Two thirds of her group was gone, and she had no idea if their kidnapping attempt had started, or if they would be killed for possessing weapons during a Confederacy extraction. Worse, she saw dollar signs bolting right out the window. She felt a need to take her frustrations out on someone, so she walked into the next room and kicked the young woman she was breaking in to be her personal slave-attendant.

She didn’t think that - given the circumstances -- the Confederacy would hunt for her. US marshals were not even a glimmer on her horizon. But for her hubris, she could have escaped well ahead of the retribution headed her way.

The interrogations of the captured (potential) kidnappers revealed appalling information - they weren’t just potential kidnappers, they were responsible for something like three years’ worth of men, women, and children missing from the greater New Orleans area.

With Dora’s help, interrogation teams were able to sift falsehoods from truth. In many cases she ferreted information by reading body language when specific questions were asked. Law enforcement teams, made aware of where to look, were able to verify and act.

One significant fact surfaced early. The captive kidnappers were terrified of Queen Lestrange and her ‘magic.’ They so feared her that they all volunteered for the Earth Defense Force’s Jackass Company to keep from facing her. Hannah’s earlier on-the-spot inspiration was once again proving useful in preventing the tying up of time, courts, and prisons. Recent legislation also helped.

Upon the landing of the Sa’arm, many states, Louisiana included, quickly passed laws prohibiting the early release of felons convicted of violent crimes. Instead, when the arrival of the Sa’arm units was imminent, felons were to be issued water, rations, weapons, and ammunition and told for each Sa’arm killed, six months would be taken off the killer’s sentence. Bleeding hearts who protested were given the opportunity to select one felon apiece who would live with them in their home with the selected felon to be their sole responsibility.

So far in Louisiana, there had been no applicants...

Coordinating the raids on the queen’s various Firster operations had proved complex and time consuming. The harem, in their roles as deputy US marshals, was taking on the Queen’s lair while other agencies went after various brothels, businesses, drug stashes, and other elements of this Firsters’ network. Some twenty-five to thirty men, women, and children were being held in the Queen’s combination brothel and training facility.

The extra few days proved useful. Dora was able to slip her drones into each of the locations, giving the raiders much information on the opposition to be encountered. Eavesdropping also provided the location of other, secondary properties where prisoners - slaves - were held. This was a very nasty crowd, the core group supported by an as-yet-undetermined number of almost as evil underlings. The Jackass Company might just become the Jackass Battalion!

Queen Lestrange lived in a late 1800’s mansion located several blocks from the French Quarter and somewhat closer to the Mississippi River. Records show that following Hurricane Katrina, Lestrange purchased most of the property between her headquarters and the river. Many properties were purchased at distressed prices, and there were reports that other sales were coerced or fraudulent.

The building had been restored to its original glory, and subsequently, fronted as a bed and breakfast. In reality, it had a few rooms dedicated to that purpose, but the majority was used to break captives into sexual slavery and train them into prostitution and perversions as purchased by favored clients. It was no coincidence that Queen Lestrange resided on the third floor where she could supervise and participate in the evil activities.

Dora’s drones were able to infiltrate most of the mansion. Exceptions were the Queen’s personal rooms and several others where slaves-in-the-making were sequestered. Lestrange’s security, the product of a paranoid personality, was phenomenal. Penetration was going to require subterfuge and some forms of brute force.

It was just after midnight when the hard faced, leather attired, man entered the lobby of Queen Lestrange’s lair. He carried a braided leather quirt that he rhythmically smacked into his left palm, and with each impact, the mixture of women with him cringed or shuddered. All were clad in transparent, harem-style clothing that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. At their rear was a plain-faced but voluptuous woman also clad in leather and carrying a quirt. At the tip of each lash, her quirt had tiny brass balls that clinked.