Chapter 7

How could a woman dye her hair such a hideous color!?! Two women were sleeping in the room. There was a double bed and two naked women, one White and one Black were sleeping on it with their arms and legs interlocked. The White woman had died her hair a bright green and it actually seemed to glow in the dark!

Here were two candidates to tell them where they could find Spoiler Banes, so Nemesis waved Nightmare to follow her and they entered the room. Both had their guns drawn, and, when the two women woke up, they gasped in fear and horror, but did not make any other noise. Nemesis said, "We're here for information, and you two might live through this if you tell us what we want to know. Where can we find Spoiler Banes?"

The two women on the bed looked at each other in terror, and neither one said anything. Nemesis prodded Green Hair with her gun muzzle and said, "I can tell that you are scared, and you ought to be, but you need to be more afraid of us than of Spoiler Banes or his gang. NOW, ANSWER MY QUESTION!"

The Black woman answered, "We don't know where the Boss is! All we know is that word has it that he has a condo somewhere along the river, but we don't know the address."

"Okay, we'll settle for that, right now. How many people are in the building right now?"

"I don't know the answer to that, because I don't know how many are out working. But about 40 people live in this building, and I guess that about half of them are here now."

"You girls better get some clothes on real quick and be ready to run outside. I'm going to burn the building down so you better be out the door pretty damned quick. Come on, Nightmare, let's go!"

Nemesis pulled two thermite grenades from what she laughingly called her "Utility Belt" and activated them. She rolled them down the hall and pulled the fire alarm as the two heroines ran out the door to the street. They moved quickly to where their car was parked and got in. Nemesis backed them up enough so that they could watch the fun as people ran out of Spoiler Banes' headquarters building.

It only took a minute or so for smoke to curl out of the building and for the sprinkler system to go off. The sprinklers were no match for the thermite grenades, so the building was going to be badly damaged even if it didn't burn down. The women could not help laughing as they saw people pour out of the building. Many of the men were naked, but they were oblivious to that as they rushed to escape the fire.

That was all they wanted to see, and they did not want to be caught up in the crush of fire vehicles and police cars as they showed up to fight the fire, so they left to return home. They still had the problem of trying to locate Spoiler Banes. They did not even know Spoiler Banes' real name, so they were going to have a hell of a time finding him. However, it did appear that they had punched a hole in the boat large enough to sink the incipient protection racket for now. On the other hand, they knew enough psychology to know that Spoiler Banes was not going to roll over and give up just from this one set back. They would just have to be patient and wait for him to show himself again before they could attack, but they did not expect that to take very long.

They went to bed knowing that they would have a new adventure to face on the morrow.

At last! Phil told them that they could come down to the R&D lab to look over their new car. What woman doesn't get excited over the idea of a new car? Both women were so excited that they rode in to the office with Phil. There was considerable frustration on their parts while they waited for Phil to unlock the door to the special secret workshop where the car was hidden.

They went in and were almost disappointed when they saw what he had prepared for them. It looked about as ordinary as an ordinary car could look. It was a Ford Taurus on the outside, and the paint job was a light absorbing matte black so that your eye tended to slide right past the car without noticing it. It dawned on Nightmare first that this was exactly what they were looking for, and she punched Nemesis in the ribs and gloated, "They got it exactly right!" Nemesis was embarrassed that it had taken her a few moments to recognize the advantages of a car painted like this. She applauded and agreed that the exterior appearance was perfect.

Phil raised the hood and showed them the supercharged engine inside. They were amazed at how much seeming junk was stuffed under that hood. Besides the super engine, there was air conditioning and powered this and that that was normally found on a family car. However, they were also pleased to see the combination machine guns/grenade launchers hidden behind the parking lights. Phil commented that the trigger controls and gun selectors were on the steering wheel next to the automatic speed controls.

Inside the car, they found two seats, but the rest of the car was taken up with all kinds of accessories. There was a small tank to hold oil that they could drop onto pavement to make it too slippery for a following vehicle to maintain traction. There was also a hopper of calthrops that could be dropped on the road by pressing a button on the center console. He had a litany of other devices that were controlled from the center console.

There was even an escape device set up for both the passenger and the driver, and it would operate safely at any speed between zero and 150 MPH (miles per hour). It was a multi step operation in which the press of a button started the sequence. The first thing that happened was that the top of the car was blown off. The second thing that happened was that the two seats acted as ejection seats and rocketed straight up from the car approximately 200 feet. At their maximum altitude, the seats threw out parachutes that were deployed in plenty of time to allow a safe landing. The final stage was the safety belt release which required the operation of one lever at the chest. That, in conjunction with their body armor, was sure to put them back on the ground in fighting condition!

Phil did warn them that activating the escape device would damage the car beyond repair, so that they would be without transportation until a new car could be built. Therefore, he cautioned them not to experiment with the escape device! It had been adequately tested by the R&D lab people and was guaranteed to work; otherwise, double their money back!

The women were overjoyed with their new toy! Phil was mobbed with kisses and hugs of appreciation. The women had to drive right then, so they climbed in, and Phil opened the garage door so that they could drive away. It was a good thing that Phil acted quickly because they were through the

doorway before the door was fully raised. Phil chuckled at the women's enthusiasm as he walked back to begin his regular workday.

Naturally, Nemesis had claimed the right to drive the new car first. She was already thinking of it as her "Batmobile." Fortunately, the R&D lab was located on the edge of town so that it did not take her long to reach a section of Interstate where she could open up the engine and let it fly. She was delighted when she found that the car was stable even when the speedometer was indicating 160 MPH. Fortunately, they did not see any cops as she was driving like a madwoman down the highway. She drove like this for about 20 miles before surrendering the car to an anxious Nightmare.

There was no improvement in observation of the speed limit when Nightmare drove. She also approved of the handling characteristics of the car and was already looking forward to an opportunity to give it an actual field test. There was no telling when such an opportunity would arrive, but Nightmare hoped that it would not be too far into the future. The tires they were using were the same grade as those used by NASCAR, so they were confident that the tires would hold out at any speed they chose to drive.

The car was in much better condition than the women when they got home. The women were still so pumped up with their new car that they hunted up Sam to help them relieve their feelings. He was quite agreeable to service both of them, but he was surprised at the ride he got. It was a lot more vigorous than he was used to from either woman.