Chapter 90

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Ken saw Jerry hit Jane hard enough to knock her cold and started forward. Someone tried to grab him but their hand somehow missed. A chorus of yells arose as chaos broke out in the camp. Groups of people ran towards each other, screaming and clashing together, but Ken wasn’t concentrating on any of that. He sensed that Eric and Sensei were heading for where Jane had been taken, so he concentrated on finding Bosh. Unfortunately, no one told any of the Tankers that Ken and Bosh had a meeting.

Well, it was unfortunate for them.

Ken seemed to be unstoppable, which shouldn’t have been possible with so many people all trying to jump him at once. The fortunate ones missed. The not so fortunate ones ended up on the receiving end of a fist. Or a knee, or elbow or foot. Most of them didn’t get back up once he hit them.

Things got more serious as people began to realize what a threat he was, and instead of fists, they started pulling out knives and pipes and bats. Ken hadn’t seen anyone with a firearm yet, but he figured it was coming. Probably once the Tankers realized that they were losing. For now they were confident in their numbers, although truth be told, other than the people unfortunate enough to cross his path, Ken had no idea how the overall fight was going.

Somewhere deep in his brain he realized that that was a mistake. But he was a little too busy to figure out why it was a mistake or how to how to rectify it.

Two people came at him, one from either side in a coordinated attack that was probably more by chance than design. He grabbed the incoming pipe, realizing too late that the end of it was lined with short, stubby nails. That hurt, but didn’t keep him from pulling the pipe out of the guy’s hands while spinning out of the way of the next attack. The person closing from the other side overshot since Ken wasn’t where he thought he’d be. The attacker’s knife hand went numb as his wrist was shattered by the pipe in Ken’s hand. In the same motion Ken continued the swing and hit the former owner of the pipe in the head, dropping him. He looked up and saw Bosh and continued in that direction.

This was not Eric’s idea of fun, and he made his way to his goal with determination. He knew where Jane had been taken and managed to get to the door with a minimum of trouble. A minimum for him. For the four men he’d put down, not so much. The door he’d seen Jane dragged into was locked, but the frame didn’t look overly sturdy, so he kicked hard and down it went. Actually, it was sturdier than he’d thought, but Eric kicked very hard.

There were two short screams from inside when the door went. He didn’t know if any of the Tankers were in there, so he moved inside quickly. He needn’t have worried.

“Cindy,” he said with relief even as he moved over to Jane, who was just starting to stir, “you okay?”

“I’m fine!” she replied, still struggling frantically against the chains, “but Jane’s hurt!”

Connie saw the woman they Tankers been whipping dragged in. She was in pretty bad shape - naked, of course, her skin bleeding and cut everywhere. The two men dumped her, locking her chain to the wall and walked out without saying anything. Connie could hear the roar of motorcycles and people outside and pulled at her own chains, hoping that she’d be able to figure a way out of this. The chains weren’t going anywhere though, and apparently neither was she.

“Jane,” yelled the girl, losing her composure for the first time since Connie had been locked in her with her. “Jane, wake up. Jane!”

“Stay calm Cindy,” said Connie.

“Fuck calm,” growled the girl, pulling hard on her chains. To Connie’s surprise, she thought she saw the wall mount give a little -- clearly it hadn’t been anchored as well as hers.

“It’s gonna be okay,” soothed Connie.

“Fuck okay,” said Cindy, still yanking hard on her chains. Hard enough to make her wrists bleed. “My Priestess needs me.”

“Your what?”

But she got no answer as the girl continued to yank and pull on the chains. One of the restraints on the spreader bar actually snapped to Connie’s utter shock.

“I will kill them ... I will...” growled the girl as she continued to fight against the metal, the cuts on her wrists now coating her arms with blood.

“Cindy stop!” said Connie, “You can’t get loose and you’re just hurting yourself!”

The girl ignored her, but a few seconds after that Connie stopped worrying about her, and looked up in shock as the door literally flew inward, the metal bent and buckled. Someone had a battering ram?

But no ... no, there was just this man there. A really, really, really big man. And he didn’t look happy at all.

“Cindy,” he said while moving over to the other woman, “you okay?”

“I’m fine!” snapped the girl, apparently discounting the blood streaming down her arms from her torn wrists, “but Jane’s hurt!”

Jane was rapidly coming out of it. Why she’d been unconscious when she’d been brought in, Connie had no idea, but it hadn’t been that long before the giant had destroyed the door.

Jane sat up.

“Eric,” she said, shaking her head and working her jaw. “Fucking Bosh. I swear I’m gonna kill that asshole.”

“Get in line,” said the giant, reaching for her.

“Cindy!” said Jane noticing all the blood, “what did they do to you? Eric, get her loose.”

“I’m sorry Jane, I failed,” said the girl as the man, Eric, abruptly changed directions heading for Cindy.

“We need the key,” put in Connie, who was starting to get irritated by being ignored.

“No need,” said Eric squatting down.

He grabbed the chain that was attached to the wall and gave it a sharp yank. It pulled out like it had been screwed into rotted wood rather than sunk deep into cement. Connie stared in shock as he actually snapped the chain on the girl’s shackles, then twisted off the remaining end of the spreader bar shackle with one huge paw.

Her attention shifted to Jane as the naked woman stood and closed her eyes. With a sharp motion she snapped the chain that had her wrists locked together, then grabbed the chain attached to the iron collar around her neck and pulled, snapping that.

“What ... the fuck...”

“Get Cindy and ... whoever that is, out of here,” said Jane to Eric.

“Uh ... Ken said you’re supposed to come back to the van with me,” said the giant in a slightly worried voice.

The woman turned around and smiled at him. Corrine paled and almost pissed herself in fear.

“I have another errand to do,” said Jane softly. “Be very, very careful. There’s someone out there, I think, someone dangerous. I don’t know who they’re here for, but if it’s one of us, I’d rather not be shot.”

“What?” asked Eric.

“Up on the hill,” said Jane. “I spotted something up there earlier. Looked like a flash from a sniper scope.”

“I can go...”

“You,” said Jane, “will do as I said.”

“Yes ma’am.”

With that the woman slipped out the door moving as if she hadn’t spent the afternoon hanging from her wrists and being beaten. Then the giant was squatting next to Connie, taking her chained wrists in his hands.

“And who,” he said, “are you?”

“My name is Connie, and I’m a federal agent,” she said, finally admitting to it. He was a way out of here, but she needed him to understand she was in charge. “You need to find a key for these.”

Connie allowed him to take her wrists. She had no idea how those other chains had been broken -- they’d probably been rusty or something. But these were fine and there was no way...

SNAP.

She stared, almost beyond shock at this point, as with one twist he actually broke the lock.

“H ... hholy ... shit,” she whispered, feeling her insides go cold with fear.

The chain around her neck met with the same fate, as did the shackles on her ankles.

“Well miss Federal Agent,” the man said, “it’s time to go.”

“Oh I don’t think so asshole,” came a voice that, had Connie not been already numb, would have killed any hope of escape.

Cracker wasn’t the brightest bulb in the gang, but he was very big and very good with his pipe, which he currently had in one hand.

Eric turned around and looked at the man standing between him and the door.

“You need to leave,” he said.

Cracker just laughed. With no warning, he charged, pipe overhead and swinging down. He was much faster than he looked.

Apparently, so was the other man because he actually caught the pipe. It stopped as if it had hit concrete, the motion abrupt enough that it caused Cracker to yelp in pain.

“Shit!” he said, backing up slightly. Then, with a snarl, “You’re dead now, asshole.”

He took a swing with a large fist, but somehow the big man avoided it, wrapping Cracker up and pushing him away.

“I don’t really want to hurt you,” said Eric. “This is over. Just let us go.”

“Oh it ain’t fuckin’ over,” hissed Cracker. “Besides, you ain’t takin’ these cunts. Me and my dick gotta date with them tonight.”

“Okay, now I want to hurt you,” said Eric.

He moved. As in moved so fast that Connie had a hard time tracking it. But he didn’t try to tackle Cracker. No, instead he slammed him with some kind of double fist move in his chest. She actually heard the snapping of bones in the man’s chest as something broke, and Cracker flew into the wall. He didn’t get up.

“Nice job,” said Brent, walking into the room aiming a gun at them. “Hope you can take a bullet.”

Suddenly he collapsed in a ball of pain and Connie saw Cindy standing behind him.

“Hope you can take a kick in the balls,” she said in a sweet voice.

George was prepared for a lot of things. But he was not prepared for a naked chick in the middle of a gang fight. At least not this one. She was supposed to be chained up with the other two. Well, she wasn’t getting away, although she was moving incredibly fast. He managed to get a hand on her anyway -- George had always been fast.

However, being fast wasn’t enough, and he suddenly found himself on the ground looking up at the sky, wondering the hell he’d gotten there. Then, as the pain in his arm set in, he looked at it and began to scream.

George wasn’t the only casualty, but Jane didn’t bother to take more time than she had to as she used every bit of cover she could find to make her way through the fight, then up to the ridge where she was sure there was someone very bad waiting to hurt the Circle. She ignored the hot dirt, ignored the sharp rocks and sharp underbrush that cut her skin as she quickly and silently made her way. She was sure she was making all kinds of mistakes with her cover, and made a note to herself that she needed to spend more time learning stealth. She wasn’t bad, but her skills were nowhere near where they needed to be.

Jesus Christ what a cluster fuck, thought Jeremy. He liked a challenge, to be sure, but this was crazy. Still, the money had been too good to pass up, and he had a rep to maintain. With all the shit going on down there, this was the perfect place to take his targets. In the end it wouldn’t matter -- if he didn’t get them here, it’d just be somewhere else, but the aftermath of this site would make perfect cover for his work.

Something caught his eye as it flashed out of the building he’d been watching. One of his targets was in there, and he’d been planning to get her when they brought her out. But now someone had left the by the door, but he didn’t know who. What with all the chains she had on, he doubted it had been her. Still, he wondered who it had been. He used his spotting scope, still trying to keep an eye on what was going on by the building and finally managed to catch a glimpse of the person as she was grabbed by someone. Shit that dude was fast.

In the blink of an eye, he went down though. Literally. Jeremy had blinked and missed what the woman did, but when he focused on the man he winced. That arm was definitely going to require reconstructive surgery. Probably would never be right. He knew he should try and catch sight of her again, but she wasn’t a target. She was the woman they’d left hanging in the sun most of the day -- Jane Whitestone. Shit. That was one tough chick. Well, she was probably trying to find a place to hide and looking down there, he couldn’t blame her.

He refocused on the door. If the Whitestone had been freed, surely his target would have been as well. She’d be along soon.

He’d tried to take out Ken Whitestone when the fight had started, but the man was just too damned fast. Every time Jeremy thought that he had a bead on the guy, he moved and it took Jeremy precious seconds to find him, at which time he moved again. When he’d noticed some big dude break down the door to that room, he figured it’d be his best chance to get the fed chick.

He could take Whitestone and Bobby once things calmed down a little bit. They’d drop and no one would know the difference, but he hadn’t been sure how he was going to get to the Fed if the fight went to the Tankers. Fortunately, the big guy, Eric, was going to solve that problem for him. He figured the guy was getting the little girl and Jane, but he couldn’t imagine the man leaving the fed in there. He signed when he saw one really huge biker go in there, while another one waited just outside with a gun. So much chaos. Then that man raised his gun and stepped inside. Perhaps he’d do his job for him? Jeremy had no idea what went down, but a short time later, Eric poked his head out looking around. He turned and said something. It was time.

Jeremy centered himself, concentrating on the door. He saw the little girl the bikers had made strip. Jeremy liked women. He liked playing very rough with women. He did not like people who did things to little girls. He was a killer, not a monster, and seeing the naked girl was almost enough to make him offer to do Bobby for free.

“Well hello there,” came a voice to his right.

Jeremy was a trained killer. It was all he’d ever been good at and he was very, very good. He quickly rolled away from the voice, getting to his feet. He left the rifle -- it was too big to be of much use in close quarters.

“Nice rifle.”

It was the Whitestone woman. Jane. He pulled he pulled his knife. He had another gun but he didn’t want to use it. It wasn’t silenced.