Chapter 3: The Heiress

Eight weeks later Mike found himself in another town waiting in a mansion. This one had been difficult but not impossible to gain entrance to. He had located the safes and computers. The thumbprint encryption on the computer was proving difficult but the palm print reader on the safes had been easy to bypass.

He waited while the tracker on her caddy indicated she was approaching. When she entered the front door, she was greeted by a knock out dart. He got the thumb key out of her purse. He debated removing her thumb for unlocking the computer but decided against it. After unlocking the computer, he secured her to a stout welded frame with wire. He had found out she knew martial arts. He continued to work on her computer. She showed signs of waking up, a while later.

"What the hell are you doing? You work for my company, get away from my computer," she ranted.

Suddenly she saw him reach over with a stiletto and press in on the underside of her jaw. She decided to stop talking.

"Hello, Shannon. You are a foul creature of evil. There are only two reasons you are alive, at the moment. One is out of respect for the company you grandfather founded and your father continued until his death. Didn't you wonder why your father set up the company to be run from a board of directors instead of being your little play toy? He knew what kind of person you were, but he didn't have the heart to deal with you."

"I always knew he was soft. We could have had so much more if he had pushed a little. People are weak. We could have ruled this country if he had wanted to."

Mike stiletto reminded her to be quiet.

"The purpose of the company was not to oppress the people, but to solve problems the legal system could not do anything about. You have turned all the parts you could, into something ugly.

"Now we get to the second reason you are still alive. You are going to sign all of your stock over to me along with an irrevocable power of attorney. This will buy you the ability to see the dawn tomorrow. With the papers in the vaults and everything else, I need four more days to go through everything.

"Each day you cooperate buys you the ability to see the next dawn. When you stop cooperating, you stop breathing. You see the frame you are in is custom made. I can slip a board into these grooves. Raise your butt, yes like that. See? Now you have a chair. Let me show you on your left arm, these wires ratchet. Each ratchet stop lets them get tighter, and not retract. If you are really bad, I can tighten them enough to cut through both flesh and bone. Your lower legs and lower arms are all set up that way.

"If worst comes to worst. I can always use my knife ... I always keep it sharp. On the flip side I may give you water, or even feed you, if you are even a little bit polite." Her eyes looked like they held a question. "You can speak, as long as you aren't rude."

"What if I have to go to the bathroom?"

"I have another board with a catch basin attached. Your actions will determine if I use it, or let you sit in your shit. I have to admit I will be surprised if you make it until tomorrow. You see, if you start threatening people, I start ratcheting. Certain people equal more then one ratchet. I honestly don't believe you can control yourself. You have never been disciplined, and it has ruined you."

He went back over to her computer and started working on it.

She was stunned. He was right she never had been disciplined in her life. She started to open her mouth to cuss at him when she realized she didn't know what the penalty would be. She started to open her mouth and threaten his family when she realized they were the people that were worth more than one ratchet. She opened her mouth and shrieked out her rage. She did make sure her shriek had no recognizable words in it.

He looked up and said, "Congratulations I was sure by now I would have had to hurt you. I may have to change some plans. Maybe you can learn something. I will have to see about legally caring for you when this is over ... provided you last that long."

Hope, she had a shred of hope to hang on to. She remembered his file. He actually believed in good and evil. He did not believe that any one person was all good or all evil, but he refused to take a mission where the target was mostly innocent or good. She realized right then that by his definition she was mostly evil. She started crying silently. She did not want to appear weak but her tears ran anyway. He glanced up.

"What do we have, here? Regret? I didn't think you had it in you. I warn you, you will still sign the documents I give you, without question, and without making a mess of them today. In payment, you get to live through the night."

She sat there, quietly and in misery, for an hour and a half.

"Excuse me. I have to go to the bathroom."

"You're doing pretty good considering. I had guessed I would have had to rip your clothes off and beat you with a crop, already. As it is, you still have your dress on to cover your modesty. Be glad you wore a dress today instead of a pants suit. Ok now lift your butt let me switch boards. Ok now let me move the back of your dress up. Ok there you are do what you need to do. You have been polite to me, so I will be polite to you. I will wipe if you ask me to."

He turned his back because watching anyone go to the bathroom was not his idea of fun. When she stopped making noise, he turned back. Her face was red.

"Do you want me to wipe?"

Her face got even redder, and she nodded. He did this gently, and then got rid of the mess. On his way back, he brought her water in a glass with a straw. He warned her not to damage the straw. He hadn't expected any need to be nice, so he hadn't brought anything to care for her. The straw came from a cup in his car. He had washed it out for her.

She couldn't believe it. As far as she knew if she had been a target, she didn't think he would have thought twice before pulling the trigger. Yet he was being nice to her because she obeyed a few rules. She would show him, she would obey everything he said without question. She would answer all of his questions with the truth not a story. Maybe, just maybe she could earn his respect. She only had four days. She needed to start now.

"Excuse me; do you need any help going through those files or anything?"

He looked at her suspiciously, and asked, "Why would you help me gather evidence to convict you of serious wrong doing? It is more logical that you would try to hide it, not reveal it."

She shrugged her shoulders as best she could. Her left arm was starting to ache.

"Could I earn for you to loosen my left arm a little if I told you something that you will never figure out without destroying it?"

"Ok, I will be the judge of what you tell me. If I feel it has enough value, I will reduce the pressure on your left arm."

"Deal. Lift up the printer. Do you see a piece of metal sticking a little way out near the back?"

"Yes."

"Gently pull it out without bending it. If you bend it, it's not my fault."

"OK."

"Now pull out the bottom left desk drawer."

"I have already checked the bottoms of all the drawers in the house."

"Good you're thorough. I made this hard to find. Dump every thing out and turn it over. See the little crack in the frame on the back?" "Yes." "Gently line up the bends on the piece of metal and press slowly about an eighth of an inch, be careful and don't break it, there won't be a click or anything. Push on the drawer bottom in the front. If you have done it right, it will pivot off."

Mike shook his head. Sure enough, it pivoted off. In the revealed space, there were small, carved pockets. Each pocket was exactly the size to hold an SD memory card. There were seventeen cards in place with space for twenty. He admitted to himself that he would never have found them. He dug one out and was ready to stick it in the memory slot on the front of the printer.

"Stop! If you do that wrong, it will erase itself. It won't be my fault, now that I have warned you. So if you do destroy the data please don't hurt me."

"Ok so what do you want so you can tell me how to read them?"

"Well I think I earned that you loosen my left arm a little it is throbbing and starting to be quite painful. I will sign anything you want, tonight. Just move a table near me so I can write legibly.

"I would like some dinner tonight. The instructions on how to read those I will give you tomorrow, to kind of buy my life for the night. What do you say? I will also promise if I can think of anything tomorrow, I will tell you."

He thought a minute. He had to admit he might have ruined the data if it was booby trapped like she said it was. He grinned at her.

"You know you are spoiling all of my well thought out plans. First, I am surprised I haven't really had to hurt you, yet. Second, I didn't believe there was anything you could do that would make me concerned enough on how you felt to consider loosening any of your restraints. Listen carefully ... I know you have martial arts training. To protect myself I am going to rig you something that will kill you if you move wrong. I don't believe that you have become 'good', overnight. I am afraid somewhere here is something to trick me."