Chapter 15

Now it really hit the fan! I don't quite know how to describe the people who were doing it, but we were being verbally attacked from all sides by people who were sure that we had precipitated the apocalypse by training people in how to defend themselves. "That's the job of the police!" was the most often heard criticism, but these were mostly the same people who were screaming about a fear of a "police state" and how their taxes were high enough already, so we didn't need more police.

We didn't let it bother us, except that Ajax was fearful of what might happen if we ran up against policemen. We tried to reassure him that all of our encounters with the police so far had been amicable, and we were going to work to keep it that way.

Nevertheless, the local patrols did seem to help with the crime problem in the highrises. The newspapers reported a significant drop in drug pushing there, and crime in general seem to drop inside the buildings. Of course, that said nothing about the almost corresponding increase in crime at night outside the buildings. That was our job, and we set out to remedy the situation as best we could.

Ajax and I donned our disguises, and Martha dropped the three of us off at an especially dangerous location. This time, the danger was so great that we walked about two paces apart so that we would have plenty of maneuvering room. Phobos stayed close behind us, too.

We were soon jumped by a gang of mixed gender who attacked us without warning. Fortunately, Ajax happened to be looking in their direction as they rushed us, so he was able to shout a warning to me. I was not worried about Phobos seeing what was going on; he was too alert to fail that way. The enemy's weapons this time were knives and clubs, neither of which could do much damage to our heads or torsos, but the clubs would be dangerous to our arms and legs.

Ajax really showed off his virtuosity with a baton. He broke at least 13 arms and legs on his own, and Phobos and I took care of 26 more. I think that Ajax was singled out simply because of his size, but the attackers had no idea just what kind of buzz saw they had run into. Two of the attackers managed to escape, but that might work to our advantage in getting the word around about how dangerous it was to attack seemingly defenseless pedestrians.

We assumed that these were not rapists simply because they had not tried that, so we satisfied ourselves with nailing hands to ankles and putting nails through elbows and knees. Nobody looked to be in mortal danger, so we were deliberately slow to call of EMTs. We figured that they should suffer some of the torment that they had meant to dish out, turnabout being fair play, and all of that. I let them suffer for about 15 minutes before putting in the 911 call, but I still wished that there was some way we could inflict more pain, either physical or emotional, on these vicious brutes.

Ajax associated them with the people who had killed his grandparents, so he especially wanted to mark them for life. I could see him thinking about it as we walked away from them.

We talked about it quietly as we continued our patrol. Ajax wanted to do something like we had done earlier when we cut the noses off those would-be rapists. I wasn't so sure about that. It wasn't because I didn't want to ruin their beauty, but I wondered if it would become some kind of badge of glory to have a docked nose, something like the proudly displayed battle scars of antiquity. That's when I remembered something that I had read; namely, that it was difficult to walk and nearly impossible to run without your big toe. A person could still work at an honest job without being able to run or walk without a limp, but he would never forget the experience if we found a painful way to remove the toe. I would discuss the idea with Phobos after our patrol ended.

The rest of the evening patrol was quiet, so we quit early and headed home. During the drive, I mentioned my idea to Phobos, and he replied that he had heard the same thing. He and Ajax thought that it was a good idea, and Phobos had just the tool for the job. He said that a small pruning tool would be adequate to cut through the joint, and a battery powered soldering iron would cauterize the wound enough to prevent excessive loss of blood. We resolved to give the idea a try on our next patrol.

The next night, we visited a different highrise complex, looking for trouble. This night was a little slow getting started, but we found some action before even Ajax could get bored. This time, as we passed a clump of bushes, we heard the unmistakable sounds of rape going on. We broke up the party of three men in the process of raping a young Asian woman. A Black man was holding her left arm and a White man was holding her right arm. A Black man had penetrated her and appeared to be just about finished, judging from the noises he was making.

Without waiting for any command from me, Ajax ran up and knocked the rapist away from the poor victim. He charged in and caught the rapist with a shoulder block that would have made any member of the Patriots offensive line proud to claim. The rapist almost literally went flying from the force of the blow. Ajax rolled to his feet and promptly broke both of the rapist's knees.

I took care of the man on the left and Phobos handled the one on the right, in both cases with broken knees. Once that was done, I asked the girl if she could talk to me. She mumbled something that I thought sounded like a yes. I asked her name, and she replied, "Mary Liu." I asked if any of the rapists had ejaculated into her, and she said that she thought not. The man whom we caught mounting her was the first one to try, and he never had a chance to finish.

The men were in such a hurry that Mary was not naked. She had all of her clothes on, except for her panties, but they were beyond further use, since they had been cut from her body.

The rapist were all writhing on the ground in pain from their broken limbs, but they were just getting started on the road to pain. Mary sat and watched as we nailed their hands to their ankles and cut away their clothes. Each one was wakened with smelling salts and allowed to experience the joy of having his balls crushed. Mary took delight in performing that chore. Once she had finished, I woke up each man and did my famous penisectomy. Now it was time to try the big toe removal.

There was no room for a tourniquet since we wanted to cut off the toe flush with the end of his foot, so we skipped that step. There didn't seem to be enough bleeding to be a serious problem before the EMTs arrived, so we didn't bother with cauterizing.

I rammed a nail into each knee and elbow, but Ajax was standing there holding the soldering iron and wondering what to do with it. Phobos suggested that he give it to Mary and she could brand the forehead of each man with the word "RAPE." She was delighted with the idea and proceeded to get busy on the job. That only took a moment, so we walked away, and I called 911.

I had asked Mary if she wanted to go to the hospital with the EMTs, but she begged off, since she was already late getting home. Her parents would be worrying about her by now, so she wanted to go to the apartment, but was afraid to walk there by herself. That was a reasonable fear if I ever heard one, and I volunteered to walk with her to her apartment door. I put on my disguise so that I would not frighten the parents and we left for Mary's apartment.

When we got there, Mary used her key to open the door. Who should be standing there but her father. He never even glanced at me, but began yelling at Mary for being late. Mary started crying, the first time she had done so tonight. She was crying so hard that she could not talk, and her father kept yelling at her to explain why she was out past her curfew.

Finally, I lost my temper and shouted, "SHUT UP, YOU FOOL! YOUR DAUGHTER WAS RAPED! CAN'T YOU TREAT HER ANY BETTER THAN THIS?" Uh-oh, I had said the magic word.

"DAUGHTER, IS IT TRUE THAT YOU WERE RAPED?" he shouted at her. All Mary could manage was to nod her head yes. That was when he shouted, "GET OUT OF HERE! YOU ARE NO LONGER A VIRGIN! YOU ARE RUINED AND WORTHLESS! YOU ARE NO LONGER MY DAUGHTER! I DISOWN YOU!" He pushed her out of the door and slammed it in her face.