Chapter 5

"Normally, I wouldn't do this, but you have been so cooperative that I am going to call for ambulances. You three are among the very few to see us and live. Enjoy that thought while you can." Nemesis called 911 and gave the necessary information. They dropped cards and left.

Once they were out of hearing range, Nightmare said, "As I see it, we have a problem. We can go after Banes right now, or we can keep looking for bad guys. I vote that we keep looking; otherwise, innocent people could be hurt this very night while we are not around. We can see to Banes tomorrow before dark."

"Yeah, that's a very good point. OK, it was your idea, so you lead the way." Nightmare nodded and led the way over the roof tops to the next parking garage. They didn't find anything, and Nemesis commented, "We may have caught the early birds. There may be a lull until people start exiting the restaurants."

They went back to the rooftops and began a slow patrol around the area. Of course, there were other restaurants scattered about the city, but this was the concentration of them where muggers liked to work. All they could do was to keep patrolling until something showed up. Nemesis commented, "You know? I wish that we had some way for people to call us when they were in trouble. The problem is that I have no idea how that can be done. I think that I will ask Phil to look into it, though I don't know that he can come up with anything."

There was nearly two hours of delay before any action showed up. The situation was now more nearly back to normal as far as the muggings were concerned. They found their first crime just after 9:00 PM. Two couples were walking past an alley two buildings away from a popular Greek restaurant, one that was on all of the lists given to tourists as a recommended place to eat.

The two couples were just about to climb the stairs to the elevated commuter tracks when a man stepped out of the shadows and ordered them to head for the alley. He was holding a gun, so there was no question of the people obeying the order. They went, but there was considerable justifiable trepidation.

Nemesis and Nightmare saw them enter the alley where three other men were waiting. All of the men had guns, and they had the look of people ready to use them if they were not obeyed. The men were ordered to hand over their money and credit cards, and the women were ordered to strip.

One of the male victims got very agitated at this, but he was quickly subdued when he was clipped from behind by a gun barrel applied to the temple. One of the women yelled at him to cooperate as she began removing her clothes. Nemesis and Nightmare had not acted, yet, because they wanted to see just what direction this mugging was headed. As the women started removing their clothes, the direction became obvious and the two vigilantes acted.

They drew their silenced guns and carefully took aim at the two men who looked the most dangerous. They would hit the other two with their second shots. There was the expected breathy whoosh from the two suppressed Glocks and two men fell with fatal bullet wounds in the gut. Immediately, there were two more shots to follow up the first ones, and four men were now lying on the ground. Nemesis kept them covered while Nightmare scooted down the fire escape and ran to check on the downed men.

She broke their elbows to make sure there would be no surprises from that quarter and waved Nemesis to join her. The victims were checked to be sure that they were OK, and the man who had been hit by the gun barrel was still in considerable pain. Nemesis called 911 and explained the situation. She handed out cards to the victims before leaving the scene. They were back on the roof keeping guard until the EMS showed up. The cops were along moments later, and the vigilantes left to do more hunting.

They found four more such scenes before they quit that night after the restaurants had closed for the evening. This was a surprisingly busy evening; the "boss" must be the impatient type!

The next morning, Jane deliberately "slept in" while Sarah sounded out the three men about sex. The men were getting ready to leave for work, but they all did agree to help Sarah out if Jane did not object. Sarah was a happy camper when she went to "wake up" Jane.

The two ate breakfast and discussed how they might go after Spoiler Banes. The first item of business seemed to be a scouting expedition to take a look at Banes' headquarters. Once they saw that, they could decide on their next step.

The two heroines set out in the SUV just after the morning rush hour. They were wearing their armor under normal clothes so that they would not attract too much attention, yet they would be protected if they had to go into action on short notice. The address they were looking for was easy to find, and there was enough traffic on the street that they were not noticed as being unusual, except that they were both White and upper middle class.

The SUV attracted more attention than did the women, since most of the traffic was either pimpmobiles or junkers. Nightmare commented, "We are going to need a different vehicle if we will be doing much of this kind of work. I can feel the jealousy and avarice in almost every person we pass."

"Yeah, I had not considered that. If we have time, let's look into a replacement this afternoon. Oh, look, there is the place we are looking for." They were passing and abandoned movie theater. The ticket kiosk had been removed and the windows were boarded up, but the marquee was still there and the wide entry doors were still in good condition.

There were four young men in "uniform" lounging in front of the entrance, but they were obviously guards, if you knew what to look for. There were no guns in sight, but there were short sections of pipe and heavy chain within arm's reach of all of the men. Guns would have forced the police to pay attention, but there was no law against short pieces of pipe or chain lying about. Also, the men could have pistols concealed under their loose shirts, and a casual observer would never notice. Therefore, it looked like a very peaceful scene.

Just as they rode by, a woman stuck her head out the door and said, "Hey, Ace, the boss wants to see you. Get your lazy ass in gear!" She laughed to show that she was just making a joke about Ace's laziness. Ace gave her the one-finger salute as he got up and went inside. The other three men laughed, and there was obviously no ill will among these people.

Well, Nemesis and Nightmare were not going to learn much by simply driving by. They were going to have to investigate on foot, and the question was what would be the best way to do that. There was a narrow alley completely around the former movie theater which was there as a firebreak. The alley was just wide enough for a fireman in full regalia to pass between the buildings, and the fire escape had to be at the rear of the structure.

Nemesis said, "This place is too public for us to visit during the daytime. We need to come back at night. Let's go see Phil right now about a new car. I have a couple of ideas in mind that his department will have to work on." Jane Foster called her employee, Phillip Ambrose, about a meeting as soon as it was convenient. Of course, whenever she showed up was convenient, so Jane drove to his office building and parked.

The two women walked in, and Phil immediately recognized that this was a special visit. He led them to a private office that could be secured and did so before letting them say a word. "OK, ladies, this room is as secure as it is possible to get in this day and age, so what can the R&D Department do for you this time?"

Jane said, "We were out looking over Spoiler Banes' headquarters this morning and realized that the SUV is too conspicuous in that kind of neighborhood. Therefore, we want your people to come up with something that looks like a run-of-the-mill car several years old on the outside, but has the performance characteristics of the Batmobile under the outside shell. Also, we'd like whatever you can do to give us some James Bond gadgets while you are about it.