Chapter 4: Rapist

(Still five years ago)

Alex was so tired that she had to look at the screen twice to be sure of what it said. 'Subject Found' said Master PC. She couldn't believe it; she'd been looking for this SOB for months, every day. Twice a day. Now, when she was in the middle of dealing with Ambuster, he has to show up.

Okay. Okay. Concentrate. Don't lose him and don't do something stupid, she told herself.

'Display exact location' she ordered the program. She got a pair of GPS coordinates. That was useless.

'Translate location to miles and direction from User's location.'

'Subject is 74.8 miles south-southeast of User, ' MPC replied. That was better – more useful. She passworded the record – just in case – then she noted the name: Elias Jarred Thornton. Got you, you bastard.

Her focus was intense. She had lusted after retribution for a long time. It seemed forever: Nothing else filled the spare moments of her mind.

She looked at the display. He seemed to be driving. Maybe he's coming from Houston; that would explain why he was out of range before. She changed windows and entered 'Houston rape' into the search engine. Yup. There it was. A blonde volleyball player was found bound in masking tape, naked, and dumped in the parking lot of a nail salon. She entered the identifying details of the rape victim into MPC.

The victim was Tamara Josephine Rhen, nickname Tammy, originally from Austin, Texas. She was not pregnant, but the very pretty girl had been slashed cruelly with an 'X' on both cheeks. The Duct Tape Rapist had struck again, and was getting more violent.

Bastard's gonna pay, Alex promised herself.

They had bandaged Tammy's face and she was now asleep. Alex passworded that record, too, and entered instructions that the cuts would heal at five times the usual rate, there would be no scars and blood flow and nerve sensation would be normal after healing. Alex entered other instructions in Tammy's record: how she would mentally deal with the rape, the kidnapping, the cutting – the whole experience. Tammy would be calm and have perfect memory of the situation.

Now, for the bastard himself. Alex entered some instructions for him. He would stop for gas, if he needed it. Otherwise he would proceed directly to the Campus Motel. That was within walking distance for Alex and she wanted to deal with him personally. He would check in under his real name and go to sleep, waking only when Alex arrived. He would be docile and passive, making no move against her or anyone else. On seeing her, he would know that his little crime spree was over. He would feel that his arms and legs were tied to the bed and he would be unable to talk or move.

Alex knew that it would be another few hours before he got to the Campus Motel, and she was tired. She tried to sleep but couldn't; she was just too keyed up. She sat up in bed and argued with herself.

What am I doing? I'm becoming what I've promised myself to eliminate. A User of people.

He had raped her. She knew from extensive reading that rape wasn't really about sex. It was about control and power.

The bastard said he was going to come back again, she thought. He was trying to control me even when he wasn't physically on top of me. We'll see what control means, motherfucker!

The regular police weren't designed to deal with this kind of animal. They couldn't protect people from him, they could only try and arrest him after he'd already ruined somebody's life. Or several somebodies.

So I'm supposed to save the world from every rapist that's out there? Well, yes. But I can't catch every one. That's impossible. Then cull the herd. Catch what you can catch. That's one less S.O.B. to be bothering normal people. You're not normal anymore, you know that, right? Yes, now I can do something about it.

She was so tired.

In the end, she called up her own record, programmed herself to get into bed and go to sleep until 7:30 a.m., when she would wake fully refreshed. Ready to hit 'Send' she hesitated, and then modified the command: 'unless there is an emergency, ' then she'd wake immediately. Obviously, she didn't want to die if there was a fire or something.

At 7:30 the next morning, her eyes popped open. Alex was rested and decided what she was going to do. She wanted Elias Jarred Thornton to die, and she wanted to see it. She thought about it again and popped a stick of gum into her mouth, before breakfast.

Would killing him turn me in to the kind of animal he was? she asked herself. It took her but a fraction of a second to decide: No. He deserved it. He was a killer and a rapist. She didn't want some do-gooder lawyer to find a loophole for him to wriggle out of.

So you're going to be judge, jury and executioner? When there's somebody out there, who'll fuck up some innocent girl, YES. When there's somebody out there who'd fuck me up, Hell Yes!

So what you really want is revenge is that it? Is that so wrong? He raped me. Took my virginity. Okay. So maybe that's not such a big deal. Says who, it's not a big deal? It was my fucking virginity! Mine! He decided not to kill me. But he could have. Who made him judge, jury and executioner? Better me than him to decide!

I had a fucking abortion because of him. I killed my own baby – but it was his too. I just couldn't keep it. She sobbed and cried for a long time.