Chapter 44

TYCOON

I sat on what is possibly the most uncomfortable chair in the world. It was a standard NHS visitors chair and had thus been designed to maximise the discomfort of anyone desperate enough to sit on it.

I did have an excuse though; I had been beside Amber's bed for nearly six hours now. Melissa thought about going to sleep under the bed but when she saw the state of the floor she decided to stay awake. She sat on my lap. Gerry had come to the hospital with us but had been replaced by Sandy. And after two hours here Sandy was looking for someone to kill.

A doctor strode into the mini-ward, he was accompanied by two rather large male nurses. I presumed that they were from the psychiatric ward, they looked that sort, eyebrows joined in the middle and knuckles dragging on the floor, that sort.

I smacked Melissa's bum, it was fun so I smacked it again. "Go and help Sandy." I told her as she sleepily moaned at me. Melissa looked over at Sandy, and then the men Sandy was going to 'have a word' with and perked up considerably.

"Oh thanks, Master! Some fun at last." She must have thought I'd arranged this just for her personal entertainment. I went back to watching Amber, the noise might wake her and I wanted her to see a familiar face when she woke.

There was some scuffling noises behind me, then a couple of thuds followed by a squeaking voice telling someone that they couldn't do that.

Amber stirred and tried to move, it was obvious that she was in a great deal of pain. Apparently her OBs were OK, I'd taken pictures of her charts and sent them to Em for her to decode for me, but she was in a bad way. Her right arm, jaw and three ribs were broken. She'd been kicked repeatedly in the face chest and back. Someone had pulled off her panties and was in the process of raping her when a trainee police constable had noticed the group in a back alley. Being a trainee he didn't know better and decided to investigate. I believe that he had saved her life.

Now I had to get her out of here and get her proper care. All anyone in this place had been worried about since we'd arrived were their precious rules and procedures. This particular doctor had been one of the worst.

It was five thirty in the morning and I hadn't seen a nurse since just gone midnight.

Amber opened her eyes, I smiled at her, "Hello Amber. I'm glad to see you awake at last."

She recognised me and wept. "I wanted to be free, that's all. I just wanted to be free."

"OK, I free you. What's your name freewoman?"

"Sandra, why do you care."

"I care because I want to know what to call you. One of my guards is called Sandra."

"Well, now you've got two so live with it."

"I would like to move you out of this hospital and into one where you will get proper care and treatment."

"You're my owner so do what you fucking well want," she turned her head away from me.

"Well, that's where you're wrong. I don't own you, you made your choice and that was to become a freewoman. I would like to help you do that, just as I helped Gail, or as you knew her, Sunlight."

"Of course you would..."

"YES HE FUCKING WELL WOULD!"

Gail was standing behind me. "Listen you stupid prat, he is the one we heard about, the one who gives slaves a choice. He gave you the choice and you ran away. He heard that you'd been hurt and has been sat here for six hours waiting for you to wake up. HE WANTS TO HELP YOU, YOU STUPID CUNT!"

I'm beginning to learn about female emotions, I think Gail might be a little upset. Possibly.

"But I want to be free." Amber whined.

"YOU ARE FREE! HE'S FREED YOU! Now speak to him like a freewoman to a freeman."

"But he's going to kill me."

"FUCK FUCK FUCK!" screamed Gail.

I rested my hand on Gail's arm, "What would you expect the Count to do, Gail?"

She stopped dead and looked at me. "He'd tease her like a cat with a mouse, giving her hope and then snatching it away. He'd hurt her, again and again, then she'd die with everyone watching. She'd die screaming her lungs out." Gail sagged down and then went to Amber. "You poor girl, you poor, poor girl."

Gail turned to me. "Paul, please try and help her, please don't give up on her!"

I leaned forward and gave Gail a kiss on her cheek. "I don't give up on my ladies. Amber was one of my ladies for a short time. I won't give up on her either.

"Gail, I need to move Sandra somewhere safe. This hospital is a total disaster. Can she share your apartment until she's well? Dr. Ross and Em will need access though, I'm sure that you know neither Dr. Ross, Em nor security will give me access to Sandra unless there was a real emergency."

Gail looked at Sandra for a moment, "Will you come to my home? I've made it quite nice. I know that you've got much better taste than me and you might find my decorations tacky or something, but I would like you to stay with me for a while though, just till you get on your feet of course."

Sandra nodded and Gail leant down and kissed her cheek.

I pulled out my phone and started calling.

Ross was beyond angry, he was furious. He looked at the state of the bedding on Sandra's bed and went white lipped with rage.

"Nurse!" he called.

The two nurses who sat talking at the nurse's station ignored him. He went over to them and tried to show them his Great Ormond Street Hospital credentials.

"Can't you see we're busy!?" one of them snapped.

"Oh but I really think you'd be wise to talk to this doctor," said a new voice.

"Sasha!" I cried. "Oh boy do we need you."

The nurses looked up and saw that they were being videoed. "You can't take pictures or videos in here, it's against the law," yelled one.

Sasha almost purred, "Which law? Is that the same law that allows you to run this CCTV monitoring system?" she pointed to the abundant CCTV cameras all around the ward. I noticed that none of the cameras were pointing at the nurse's station.

"Anyway, it's against hospital policy," the other replied.

Sasha gave one of the nurses her card. "I suggest that you get one of the hospital's senior administrators down here to speak with me as fast as you can. You never know, that might even save your career, though I doubt it."

The nurse looked at the card, shrugged and then dropped it into a waste bin.

"Ah well, so be it," Said Sasha as she reached into the bin and carefully extracted her card, then placed it into a small ziplock plastic bag. "Thank you for your fingerprints and DNA," she said to the now worried nurse.

I left Sasha and Ross teaching the two nurses the 'effect' part of cause and effect. I could see that their nursing careers were going to be so ruined that they'd be lucky to be admitted into a hospital, let alone enter as any sort of member of staff.

Gail and I walked round and found a gurney in one of the corridors; it was possibly the one Sandra had been brought up to the ward on.

We took it back to Sandra's bed.

"Sandra, do you want to leave this hospital?" I asked her quite clearly.

"Yes, I do." She replied.

"Sandra please could you say out loud what you want to do."

"I want to leave this hospital as soon as I can."

"OK then, let's go."

Ross saw what we were doing and came over to help. The nurses tried to come too but found that brushing past Sandy didn't work. It was like trying to push a wall to one side. Sandy however found it very easy to sit the nurse down again. The other nurse couldn't understand how the little girl did it. The girl was just holding her wrist, but her whole arm was on fire, the nurse whimpered quietly and sank to her knees. She looked up at the smiling little girl beseechingly, "Please stop it, please."

"Go and sit down until we tell you that you can get up. Next time you lose the arm." Melissa smiled at the now terrified woman.

With Ross's help it didn't take us long to get Sandra onto a gurney and start wheeling her out. Once off the ward no one thought to try and stop us. Melissa held my hand and skipped along as we walked beside Sandra's gurney.

There was an ambulance waiting just outside A&E, Ross recognised the driver so he commandeered the vehicle. Neither driver nor paramedic seemed to mind too much, "Just glad to be driving a patient away from that shit hole," commented the driver.

"Yeah," the medic added, "she might get better now." He turned to Ross, "Doc, not that I'm an expert on these things of course, but I'd replace any casts or bandages as soon as possible and redo all the bloods etc."

"Oh I intend to, Mark, don't you worry," Ross replied. "I just need to get her into a safe, clean environment first."

I think that the medic was surprised, and pleased, that a top consultant like Dr. Ross would remember a mere paramedic.

I parked the beaten up old VW Polo on a side street and shuffled my way to the nearby pub. This was just off Whitechapel Road, only a mile from the heart of the city's financial district. I wasn't too worried about the car being stolen, Sandy and Elastic had worked on it for nearly a week and it was tricked out better than any of James Bond's Aston Martins.

The lights in the bar hurt my eyes (I had taken eye drops to dilate my pupils half an hour ago) and I squinted as I came in. The landlord had seen me before, to him I was just another sad old druggy who came, bought a pint, scored some Brown and left. Usually leaving most of the pint behind, well that was only beer, I had a wrap of Brown in my pocket.

"Money," said the landlord, generosity wasn't one of his faults.

I carefully placed the exact price of a pint onto the bar. He took the money then started pouring the beer. I picked up the glass, noting the overly generous head and went to sit at my usual table. The landlord could see that I was desperate for a fix, I assumed that he hoped I wouldn't shoot up in the toilets, but my assumption wasn't a certainty.

Finally the people I'd been waiting for came in. Harry Sheffield, wannabe crime lord, part time drug dealer, full time thug and total idiot, came in first. He always came in first, he was the Boss and the Boss was first in all things. Harry was togged up in his best suit tonight, he must be going Up West, to the West End. A year ago I would have been impressed with his suit but, having been exposed to really good quality, I could see where the seams pulled and where the jacket didn't quite fit. Still it wouldn't affect the outcome of this evening, not one little bit.

Hardman One and Hardman Two followed him. Both dressed in lounge suits, white shirts and black bow ties, clip on bow ties I saw. One of the hardmen always stayed with Harry, always. I wondered if Bint Two, who came tottering in on ridiculously high heels after the men folk, objected to them watching, probably not from the look of her. She was dressed in essence of Tart. I was glad it was Bint Two tonight. I had a 'feeling' about Bint One. I thought she was an undercover cop. With the way I feel about the police it wouldn't have changed anything, I would just have felt bad for a while after it was all over.

"Mr Sheffield, Sir!" I called. Harry likes being called Mr, I was holding up fifty pounds.

With a sideways glance that would have been hilarious in a comedy film, Harry told Hardman Two to see to me.

Hardman Two gestured towards the back door. He wanted me to walk ahead of him which was fairly sensible, up to a point that is. I walked out and when Hardman Two was silhouetted in the doorway I shot him. He hadn't seen me take the silenced gun out of my jacket pocket because I was in front of him. It did mean a hole in my jacket but I wouldn't be wearing this for much longer and then it would be burnt.

Hardman Two fell with a thud. I saw that he was mortally wounded but not dead yet. I knew the silenced shot wouldn't be heard inside. I dragged him out a little further, poured a little water over my face to simulate a sudden sweat, and raced back inside.

"Help! Help!" I waved frantically to the landlord, he sent his wife to see what I was going on about. He continued wiping a clean glass with a dirty cloth.

As I'd hoped Hardman Two was moaning a little and Mrs Landlord ran to see what was wrong. I shot her in the base of her spine and when she fell on the floor, I shot her again in the back of her head. I shot Hardman Two in the forehead too. He had served his purpose. Just the landlord to go. I poured a bottle of blood over my head and let it run down over my face. Then I lay slumped against the wall and waited. It took three minutes before landlord came out. He saw the three of us laying dead in his yard, in shock he came out for a closer look. I shot him as he bent over his wife. I put another round in the back of his head just to ensure that there were no enemies behind me.

I got up and put a couple of drops of the neutraliser into my eyes. My eyes would be back to normal in five minutes. I would just have to make do until then. A new magazine in my gun and I was ready.

I walked into the bar and started toward Harry Sheffield and his group. Bint Two saw me first, I shot her in the head before she could make a sound. She slumped against Harry's back. He'd turned away from her as he talked to Hardman One. Hardman One saw me and opened his mouth, I put a bullet into it, and another in his forehead when he lay dead on the ground.

"Hello Harry," I said and shot him in his foot.

Harry's screaming was the signal for Melissa to come in, she bought a 'bag of toys' (her words not mine) with her. A number of my girls started a party in the car park, loud screams of joy and a thumping disco overwhelmed any noise I might make. The girls helped themselves to drinks and started an impromptu bar outside. They even moved a till out there and, I'm told, made an absolute bundle. I'll have to pass on that tip on to the landlord, or rather the next landlord.