Chapter 71: Into the Fire

When I woke up this morning I had a short list of things to do: see Tony about the corporate filing and Christine's sexual harassment suit; farther down the list was talking to Rod and Rebecca about someone called The Black Queen -- who she was and why she might be interested in me. I had put that conversation off because I knew Rebecca would want to know about what I had learned at the church and why I had needed a background check on Tony on a Sunday. I had confirmed during the conversation that something was wrong and that it was something I couldn't discuss on the phone, not even my phone, but then it turned out that I couldn't tell her anyway and I had blown the whole thing off to spend the night with the girls.

Now suddenly time was my enemy.

Rebecca was drugged; I had no doubt of that. As soon as Rod had started showing me the images, heck even before that, as soon as he had called I had 'felt' for her and she wasn't there. My first thought on seeing the video of her being taken was that I should have confided in her. If I had told her the truth I might already know where she is. All she would have had to do was call out to me and I would have known something was wrong.

"Jimmy, you don't know that," Jamie said. "She's not Amber or Lizzy or Allison. We're friends but I don't know that we've given her whatever it is we gave them, whatever piece of ourselves, of you really, that's necessary for that to work."

"We could have tried," I said. "I could have trusted her more."

I was pacing the conference room in Tony's office trying to decide whether I should finish up here first or head straight back to LA.

"Stop for a second," she said. "Just sit down and breathe, you're not thinking clearly."

I guess I didn't sit fast enough, because she suddenly took control and sat us down, then faded back again.

"You're reacting, Jimmy, letting your emotions get in the way. This is why Rebecca taught you to compartmentalize. You need to set all that aside so you can concentrate on what needs to be done. Think about who it is we're going after; we can't afford to be distracted. Now, first things first, she didn't want you to trust her more. She didn't want to know more about what you could do because the more she knew the more of a danger she became to you. So stop with the self-recriminations. Second, she's sedated or we'd already know where she is, so we have time. Then there's the depressing part. Jimmy, we can talk all the shit we want but there is a damn good chance we're not coming back. God, I can't believe I'm the one thinking logically here, it is so not me. There are other people counting on us. Our family needs to be taken care of. I don't know about you, but I'm not planning on telling them we're going in."

"No, me neither, they'd just worry. Except Lizzy of course, we can't possibly hide it from her and I don't want her to come looking for us while we're busy." I took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm good, thanks for the kick in the ass. Walter!"

"My Lord?" he answered. "I was just about to call you. Yuri Khvlek, the one you call Boris, is dead."

"He's what?" I said.

"Dead, my Lord. As I said I was about to summon you. Someone came to his hospital room a short while ago and injected something into the fluid bag attached to his arm. Shortly after that he ... crashed I think is the term the doctor used, and they were unable to revive him."

"Did you get a look ... never mind, I'll deal with that later, right now I need you here." I pulled him to me and he was already kneeling when he appeared.

"Forgive me, My Lord, I have failed you."

"Get up Walter; we don't have time for this. I need you to find someone." I pulled up the image of Amy from the hospital surveillance camera. "This is Rebecca's sister Amy..." Then an image of a much younger Amy in her white dress " ... this is how she appears here. She's in a coma but seems to move pretty freely around this realm; we suspect she has actually been using my power to do it, but we're not sure. In either case, I need you to find her because if she figures out what is going on she may try to avoid me. This is critical Walter, Rebecca has been taken by the same man that took Angela, but for now at least she is drugged and I can't locate her. My only chance of getting to her before he starts hurting her is through Amy. Go."

Time to get to work. I picked up the phone and called Janelle, Tony's receptionist. "Hi Janelle, it's David Malcolm, could you send Mark back in please, and please tell Mr. Cicarelli that I need to see him as soon as he's free. Please tell him it's urgent. Thank you."

It didn't take long to finish up with Mark. Tony was more than a little surprised at the change in me when he came in. "Must have been some phone call," he said when he saw me.

"Yeah, it was. Tony, something has come up and I'm going to need to leave. In the event I don't come back there are some things I need you to take care of for me..."

Five hours later I was on a private jet to LAX hoping hard that Tony was everything he seemed to be. If not, if he read the information I left him instead of just forwarding it ... Of course if I didn't survive this little adventure it wasn't going to matter. There was one more thing I needed to do.

Fortunately the FBI was spending our tax dollars well; the seats on this plane were almost as comfortable as my mom's old rocker-recliner. Rod had arranged for my transport to LAX. A car and anything else I needed would be provided when I arrived. I had to give them credit, the bureau doesn't mess around. One look at my driver's license and the local agent that had met me at the airport didn't even ask. A couple flashes of the badge later I was escorted to a private hanger with a jet already warming up out front. Five minutes later I was in a long turn westward relaxing into my seat and trying to ignore the money being spent to carry one sixteen year old kid four hundred miles. But considering what was at stake I considered it money well spent. Driving would have taken a lot longer even if Rod told the cops I was coming and they left me alone. It's not like you can do triple digits all the way to the beach even with a get out of jail free card. We are talking about Southern California after all, and sooner or later, traffic evens it all out.

Before the plane even leveled off I was asleep, or as asleep as I ever am — Jamie would keep an eye on things in case there was actually someone on the plane besides the pilot and they had a question. Or if Rod called, you never know. Lizzy was out introducing Amber to the crowd. Fortunately the time difference made it later there and gave them an excuse to leave when I called. It was an abrupt exit to be sure and more than a few heads turned following them to the door. As usual, Lizzy, could tell something was wrong so as soon as she was in the cab she put herself out and came to meet me, instructing Amber before she left to watch and wake her if anything came up or when they got close to the school.

"Jimmy, what's wrong?"

"I'll get to that, tell me about meeting Amber."

She let the scene play out as she told me about it. Amber's plane had landed midmorning and after the initial delay getting her luggage and the long cab ride, she finally arrived around two in the afternoon. Lizzy was in class for another hour but she had already arranged things for Amber. It had been a rush to get things ready between classes but she had pulled it off. The package I had sent her was waiting at the student services office and she had taken it directly to her room, selected a few items, wrapped them up in a box with a sheet of directions and set the package in the middle of Amber's bed.

The next part was her imagination filling in the blanks based on how things turned out.

Amber had arrived and been escorted to her room just like any other student, except most new students don't have presents waiting for them. She was shocked to find the package but took it in stride, assuming correctly that it had been left by her new master. Her instructions were very specific; she was to unpack and put her things away and then strip down to her underwear, it was to be a matching set of bra and thong only, lace trimmed, or else she must be naked. She was to don the waist chain, the black leather collar, and put on the blindfold. She was then to kneel in the center of her bed with her hands cuffed behind her and wait. The last instruction on the page was that she was not to lock the door.

"Jimmy, you would have been so proud of her. She didn't even ask who it was when I opened the door, she just knelt patiently with her back straight and her eyes averted, even though she was blindfolded. I could see she was nervous but at the same time she just radiated pride and love. God I just wanted to jump her right there."

"No doubt," I said. "So then what happened? Did you announce yourself or play with her a little first?"

"Don't be silly," she said. "I played with her a lot; brushing her lightly with my hands, kissing her here and there. She loved it. She didn't have matching undies so she was naked except for the blindfold and chain, which is absolutely beautiful by the way; I just love the little cat on the end. Oh, and the collar, of course. I sucked on her nipples and let her suck on my finger and she was so wet it was running down her leg before I even touched her below the waist. I got her off twice before I let her know I was a girl. Of course, she may have figured it out by the kiss. Heck, she could probably smell me; the place just reeked of hot pussy. Finally, I took off my clothes and moved her so she was lying across the bed with her head back over the side and her mouth open. I figured that position would raise doubts even if she had figured out I was a girl and she would be expecting a cock right up to the moment I sat on her face. She didn't even flinch though, just moaned and started eating me. I was so hot I came in seconds and then I had her sit up again. I unlocked the cuffs and she just moved her hands to the front and laid them in her lap, waiting. I knelt on the bed in front of her and told her to take off the blindfold.

"The look on her face when she saw it was me was indescribable. Oh, Jimmy, if she didn't love you before ... I could see her trying to hold back, but the tears just flowed and, oh god, mine were right behind them. Then I reached and pulled off her collar and she flew into my arms and cried and laughed and kissed me and oh my god, I was so not looking forward to practice. I'm glad the shorts are baggy because panties were out of the question. She came to practice with me, sitting up in the bleachers watching me run my ass off. She had her collar on but no one gave it a second look until we got to Frankie's."

Frankie's was the restaurant / bar / pizza place where I had met her, and according to Lizzy you could have heard a pin splash into a puddle of spilled beer when she walked in holding Amber's leash. Then the whispering and the stares began. Richard was dumbfounded. Carol could hardly speak, and excused herself to the ladies room a few minutes later. Apparently she wasn't the only one; Lizzy had it on good authority that there was a line in both restrooms.

"Okay, you're caught up, now what's wrong?"

"I'm on a plane to LA to go after the Sandman. Lizzy, he took Amy for bait and now he's got Rebecca."

"He took Amy? That no good, chicken-shit-son-of-a-bitch-bastard!" She swore, then she took a deep breath and said, "Well, he's fucked now! There is no way in hell he can hide from you now. He'll have Rebecca drugged, but you're going to use Amy to find him aren't you?"

"I'm going to try," I said. "I'm not sure it will work, but I have Walter looking for her anyway. I'm going to try to wake her up and follow her back to her body. She may not be too happy with the idea, but her body responded that night Rebecca showed up in the same dream. If I have to I'll force them together and see if that is enough."

"Jimmy, it could kill her."

"We don't know that, and right now it's the only shot I have at locating Rebecca before the Sandman starts hurting her. I don't have weeks to track her like I had with Angela. If he knows about the money it's going to get ugly fast."

"Rebecca will never forgive you if..."

"I know, and if I find her and I have to choose, I'll save Amy, but if I can't find her they're both dead anyway so I have to try."

"What do you mean? Rebecca wouldn't have gone to him unless he promised not to hurt Amy."

"True, very true, but when we first met, back when Amy first recruited me for this whole adventure, she told me that without my help Rebecca would die and that without Rebecca she couldn't recover. So if I do nothing they both die and if I can only save one, she lives but never recovers. That's not what I consider an improvement, but, if I can pull it off, they both live."

"Do you really think you'll need Walter?"

"I don't know. Amy will do anything for her big sister, but at the same time, in this world anyway, she's an eight year old girl looking at the possibility of pain and death, it's hard to say."

"I love you," she said. "What can I do?"

"That's it really. Whatever happens, that's enough. I don't need to tell you beyond that. I know you'll take care of Amber either way. Be there for Allison if you can. There is some information I need to leave with you just in case. Rod will make sure you're notified if things go wrong and if that happens then the information I'm planting will move to where you can reach it. If that happens, then I want you to walk away from the rest."

"Jimmy, how can you say that? Walk away from Samantha and those other poor girls? How can you even..."

I cut her off. "Lizzy, you can't help them. You can't even be near them in a dream; to meet one in person would be just that much worse. Just try to protect Allison, because she won't walk away no matter what I say. She'll tell you the important stuff; maybe your gift will be able to help her save some of the girls. If it can, then I'd relocate them as quickly as possible, preferably out of the country but at least out of the state. If it becomes clear that you can't save them then Allison will know what needs to be done. Hopefully it won't come to that, but I don't know if anyone else will be willing to do what it takes to stop it."

"They'd have to die, wouldn't they?"

I took a deep breath and nodded. "We think Hightower has a suicide command implanted in all of them. Murder-suicide in the case of the adults; kill the kids and then kill themselves. On top of that, we suspect that if anything happens to Hightower himself they will all kill themselves. What I am hoping is that if you can somehow get the girls away you can find a way to cancel the suicide command. But it's tricky. We think the command may trigger from other causes as well. After the incident with the girl going to the police there may be an inhibition about law enforcement or a command to kill themselves if they are taken and the truth discovered. It would be tricky because you wouldn't want them to suicide because they got caught shoplifting or something, but based on what I've seen, I'm pretty sure he could pull it off. Anyway, if you can't ... disarm them for lack of a better term, then someone has to kill Bastion, and if we're right then they will all die and it ends here. Either way it will end, it's just a matter of how much blood gets spilled in the process."

"You're sure that's how it has to be?"

"No, but based on what we know about him and his abilities, it seems very likely. The only way to be sure is to test it, and if I survive this mess, I plan to find out soon, but for now ... if you can't save them then the only option is to stop it from spreading any further. It's a brutal and cold hearted solution I know but..."