The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Ninja Vigilante: Beginnings

Chapter 6 : The Beginning (mc)

Alexis leaned back in her newly assembled swivel chair inside the safe room. At that moment, a few files at the social security administration including a motion for summary judgment that could have quickly end one woman’s hopes of getting disability checks were now on route to a geology surveyor in Hawaii. Combined with a few rerouted emails and assignment to the docket of a judge that was approaching retirement and had a reputation for generous sensibilities, Alexis was fairly certain she’d just repaid a favor to her first informant. With that task taken care of, she turned to the mystery of Joseph Lindsey.

The most likely Joe Lindsey that she could find in the area was one who had recently died, a grad student at the prestigious Cromwell-Lawrence Institute of Technology (or CromTech). Aside from that there was a 73 year old retiree who was now in Alabama, a newborn, and a waitress named Josephine who was born Joseph. Realistically, the only promising leads left were among the dead. ‘What would Jake Rameri know about some dead scientist, and why would he think I’d care? Unless maybe he was murdered?’

Resolved to investigate, she packed up the Suit in her canvas shoulder bag, and headed to her sporty little two-door. She thought briefly about telling Keri that she was going on a day trip, but Keri was busy dyeing her pigtails; This time they were going to be purple, blue, pink, and green. Alexis didn’t really want to deal with the oppressive stench of the dyes that already wafted into the living room.

Besides, she wasn’t sure that she’d want to chit-chat much anyway. After last night Keri probably wanted to talk about going out again tonight. Alexis had finally acquiesced to her pleas of letting Keri help her “get out there a little” and they went to this great club called “Myth”. But when they got there, the building was closed due to some kind of police investigation.

There’d been a proclaimed sighting of that Vigilante and some alleged illicit activities reported. It was all over the news but somehow Alexis and Keri had both missed it. Undeterred, Keri dragged Alexis around various nearby clubs trying to find one that would admit a non-drinking age patron until they ended up at a bar that didn’t card for entry but wasn’t serving Alexis. The night was a bust and Keri swore she wanted to make it up to her.

Alexis didn’t want to give her the opportunity to make it up to her just yet.

Instead, she drove to a movie theater outside of town, changed into the Suit, and slipped out a bathroom window to go to the graveyard a few miles away. Dressed in the Suit morphed into form Alpha, the tall silent and stony she stood in daylight over the grave of ”Joseph Lindsey 1984-2009“. Intermittent breezes rustled a few fallen leaves and died.

Ninja Vigilante’s arrival did not go unnoticed. The husband of an older couple who’d lost a daughter to pancreatic cancer noted the out-of-place, imposing figure’s arrival. He pointed the ninja out to his wife. They watched the figure approach a grave and stop. After a few moments the masked crime fighter must have been overcome with grief, as he got down on his knees, then placed his hands flat on the ground. He knelt there silently mourning the fallen. The man and his wife exchanged looks, feeling a connection with the obvious grief of the Vigilante they’d only heard of on the news. His wife smiled at her husband with a tear brimming in her eye and pulled away to approach the young man despite her husband’s hushed protestations.

Alexis’ hands were pulsing periodically at varying frequency, while the receptors listened and formed an ultrasonic scan of the earth below. Her minimap display informed her of the approaching woman. She decided to finish the scan and pretend she didn’t see her woman coming. The woman, reluctant to intrude on grief, ended her tentative steps a few feet away.

“Did you lose a loved one, too?”

The ninja pulled his head up in thought, then turned his head to regard the woman. After a moment of silence he looked forward again responding in a baritone, “Yes.”

“Was he family?”

The figure stood up in a single push and planted both feet firmly into the soil. “I didn’t know him.” Unseen by the woman who approached were the small filaments that dug from the bottom of the ninja’s heels into the earth, forcing there way deep into the soil.

Encouraged by his honest response, the woman approached. “My husband and I, we lost a daughter, it is still very hard, but there is comfort in the word of our Lord Jesus Christ. God has a plan for us all.”

‘Oh lord.’ “This man was wiped off the face of the earth by human hands. I will see that justice is done.”

“He’s in the Lord’s hands now, you don’t need to seek vengeance. You’re coming to save him, but you can’t he’s in God’s hands. But maybe God has sent me to try and save your soul. You have a choice.”

The dark figured intoned as a preacher in a sermon, “For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. I have been changed. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall...”

The Ninja’s hand opened and a black blade warped and grew until it shimmered steel. “...by the sword.”

The man quickly collected his wife, and they said no more. He nodded nervously and led her away.

Alexis smiled. ‘That was kind of fun. Darn, I should have made black wings.’

While she’d been busy freaking out the religious woman, the Suit’s filaments confirmed what her ultrasonic scan hinted at. There was no body in the wood and brass coffin just 5 feet beneath her feet. She had both found and not found the right Joseph Lindsey.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the lab/prison, the right Joseph Lindsey was not monitoring his errant project. Rather he was working with Ms. Cummings.

“How about this one, what do you feel when you see this?”

He held up a picture of a hand drawn puppy chasing a ball.

“It’s a puppy and a ball.”

“Yes, right, but how does it make you feel.”

“Uhm... bally?” she furrowed her brow in concentration, then touched her face. “Lips curl. Happy puppy?”

“Happy, do you feel happy?”

“Yes master, your puppy is happy.”

“Wait, you’re not a pup—”

“How is your work with Ms. Cumbucket going along?” The obnoxiously loud interjection (and her subsequent eponymously elicited orgasm) came from behind. The combination of it all made the now clean-shaven Joseph Lindsey jump.

“Jesus CHRIST, doesn’t anyone knock?”

“No,” the hooked-nosed man in the lab coat replied. “So how’s this waste of time going?”

“That’s a first,” Joe sneered with irritation for his visitor’s ‘concern’ with his patient.

“What?”

“You give a shit?”

“Hey, guy can be interested in finding out why the local fucktoy seems to be coming up here a lot.”

Ms. Cumming’s gaze flitted curiously between them like a lost bird even as she shuddered in ecstasy.

“So you’re here to, what, catch a show?”

“It’s a free country.”

“Yeah ‘free’. Who the fuck are you anyway?”

“John fucking Doe, I’m in here same as you so what difference does it make. We both have got lab coats and at least one of us likes to bang bitches. Hey Cumslut, spread them legs.”

Joe turned back to Miss Cummings, “Well, sorry to disappoint maestro, but I’m doing work here, there’ll be no show.”

“Yes, I heard. Strange way to waste your time. It isn’t supposed to have too much memory or habit, now all of a sudden it’s got a routine where it comes,” she shuddered again, but this time Joe paid enough attention to note the lack of sweat and odd lack of moisture between her legs (given her usually drenched nature). John Doe continued without missing a beat, “...to see you. And when it gets here you are doing work instead of doing it? She’s usually balls deep in blow jobs or ass out in the air and perfectly happy.”

Joe snorted at that last word.

The visitor continued, “Why—I have to ask myself—is some jackass try to break the final product?”

Joe frowned, “Break?” He shot back a frown, “I’m not the one who broke her.” He grabbed his own bottle of water and handed it to her, “Listen honey, you’re a little dehydrated right now, here take this.” She peered at the bottle with bafflement.

“And fuck yourself while you’re at it,” the interloper suggested.

Joe gritted his teeth and balled his fists, fighting to keep down the boiling blood in his temples. “Look pal, I’m working on a technical implementation here, this is a pragmatic engineering operation—not a fantasy show or diddle fest. If you would, please, back off.”

“Could’ve fooled me.” Miss Cummings was now dry-humping the bottle.

Joe softly guided the squeeze bottle away from her nethers, popped it open, and guided it to her lips, “Go ahead and suck on it. And pay no more attention to the dickless wiener behind me.” That cleared up all her confusion. She beamed and took the water bottle in both hands sucking the fluid out without using any teeth. Joe turned back to his visitor, who grabbed Joe up by the lapel.

“Take some advice there’s people a lot meaner than me who get off on the job I did on Ms. Cumcatcher. Don’t mess with it.”

Joe grinned when he saw the security guards step in and patted his assailant, drawing his attention away from him and onto the guards. “Mister Randell, come with us.”

Mr. Randell glared at Joe. Joe smiled and waved bye-bye with one hand up and the other tucked behind his back. Randell let him go and turned to leave without any resistance. “Don’t be a moron Joe.”

“Hey Randell, know the difference between asshole and opinions? You’re a fuckin’ asshole!” He gave Randell a victorious middle finger and turned back to Ms. Cummings.

In a sweet voice, breathless from chugging much needed water, she asked, “Am I broken?”

Joe’s eyes softened as they hers and he smiled, “Not for long sweetie. We’ve still got work to do on the programmer, but we just got very very lucky.” He held up his other hand showing off pass-card with Ezekiel Randell’s name on it and offered it to her. “And you can stop diddling now.”

“Okay.”

* * *

Two evenings later, Ninja Vigilante perched on the roof of a tall office park building behind a dilapidated strip mall with a second-run movie theater. There wasn’t much in terms of traffic; the strip mall parking lot wasn’t exactly overflowing. A few vans and Ford’s of varying colors were parked around the carbon copy office buildings.

Joe’s trail was much colder than Hina’s had been. Still, she managed to get a hold of the record of the last known GPS fix of a cell phone that was registered to Joseph Lindsey. It was more of a file fragment than an actual record, but she’d been lucky enough that cell phone company computer systems regularly back up images of their servers and subsystems even if they don’t keep actual records due to privacy considerations. After that it was a matter of figuring out what his IMEI was then cross-referencing the backups backwards through time until she got a match. Spending so much time in the safe room was productive, but sequestering herself also meant ignoring Keri which could lead to roommate drama. ‘No time to worry about the small stuff now, especially not with a GPS fix.’

That GPS fix led her here. Although she was supposedly on top of an active office building, there wasn’t the usual signal mishmash coming out of it. So either the building was deserted (unlikely given the presence of cars) or much of the building was RF shielded.

“I hate going in blind.” The unusually high-end rooftop surveillance cameras offered an opportunity to solve that issue. Extending a few filaments from the Suit’s fingertips, she snipped into the short gap of exposed coaxial cable to tap into their monitoring system. Almost immediately, the camera went dead.

“Crap.”

For a moment she thought about modifying the cutting pattern to match a local bird’s beak, but then a feeling came over her—a hunch. He’d be on the eighth floor. ‘Of course, they’d want him high off the ground, but not on the top floor, that is a buffer, and the ninth is probably security. Probably. Maybe.’

Though prudence would prefer delay to gather more intelligence, she still felt this nagging certainty that she was right. She needed to trust her hunches more. They’d gotten her this far.

‘I should trust my hunches. I needed to help him, there’s no doubt about that.’

The more she thought about it the more certain she became. If they even began to suspect anything they’d definitely move him. If they moved him she might not be able to find him. It had to be now. Now was the time. She just had to trust her gut.

She nodded and steeled herself, ‘Suit—Climbing mode.’

Confirmed.

Her gloved hands, knees, and feet grew tiny claw grips and she skittered along the vertical building wall down toward the 8th floor.

* * *

Joe hit the auto-continue script command and halted terminal access, shutting down windows as fast as he could. He took a deep breath and shook out his fingers. Time to put on a show.

Right on schedule the door burst open, “Jeez can’t anybody knock?!”

A confident feminine voice replied, “Knock knock, Joseph Lindsey?”

He stood up and turned with quiet confidence that matched—no—exceeded her own. He was impeccably dressed (in khakis and a button down white shirt with the neck open at the collar and a loosened tie—wait was that really impeccable?) and had an aura about him. He spoke.

“If you’re here to kill me, I welcome it, let’s get it over with.”

She cocked her head, “Can the drama Joey Lawrence, I’m here to save your ass.”

He stalled for a moment, “Oh, right, okay, then.”

“You coming or what?”

“Yeah—just thought you’d be taller, I mean,” He stopped and gathered himself for a moment, and then orated, “But no I can not leave without my life’s work. It would be too dangerous to leave in their hands.”

She stretched her arms out in disbelief. ‘Who the hell is this guy?’

Identity Confirmed: Joseph Lindsey

‘Don’t you be a wise ass too, Suit!”

Error: Unknown Command.

Neural Net Prompt...

In the lower right side of her vision, the Suit then displayed an green anthropomorphic donkey with a cap and gown and flashed a big X across it. She chuckled. ‘Wow, attuning to my sense of sarcasm. That must be what’s taking all the extra ram. Cool.’

She strode towards him, hips swaying slightly, at an annoyed pace, “Look Joey, you’re what 25? 26 max? This isn’t your life’s work unless you plan on dying right now, and if you keep this pompous act up, guards are going to come and yeah, it might happen. So shut the hell up and come with me.”

“I am telling you I can’t leave this here!”

“Then take it!” She snatched up the laptop, rending it from its docking station with a snap and clatter, and tore the hard drive out of the desktop tower. His jaw dropped in a mixture of admiration, shock, and fear.

“G- give me,” he stammered.

“Take them, look if it’s that important that no one else has it, we’re torching the place, ‘kay?” In a flash she ripped a few pieces of metal from the remains of the AWG as if they were paper and shorted the outlet to start a fire with the shirt torn right off Joe’s back. For a brief instance she thought about getting him naked but shook it off immediately. “Put those in a bag of some kind.”

The blaze spread quickly, causing foul smelling smoke to start filling the work area. Alarms shrieked the instant the smoke hit a detector. “Ready?” she asked.

He nodded. Just then the door burst open and a gunshot fired and glanced off her shoulder, sparking as it hit the Suit. She grabbed the bag from his hands and shoved him towards the right wall, following behind and providing cover.

This wall wasn’t solid; The EMag field sensor array showed a series of pipes in her display overlaid with the wall. She hunkered over, picturing herself as cannonball and exploded forth, launched by filament aided legs. She blasted through the wall, sending drywall flying in tatters leaving a woman sized hole.

She turned back in a flash, “Come on!”

He tripped his way through the dusty drywall powdered hole as she heard more footfalls and jangling signaling. More security incoming. The hall lights went out. Two seconds later, the emergency lights came up as they turned the corner.

“You wanna live?”

“Yeah.”

“Keep up.”

She dashed down the hall, knocking out two guards and taking a shot the the chest that flattened against the Suit and a miss that left her ear ringing slightly. They either came from elevator or stairs—she reached a nondescript metal door which to her at that point most likely meant emergency stairwell.

He caught up as she held the door open for him, motioning him to hasten.

“Where we going? The roof? We can’t do the roof, they’ll have it secured.”

‘He’s right. Smart and cute. Focus, you need a way out.’ Her mind kicked into overdrive. ‘Ninth floor is security, can fight through, might cause fatalities, builing on alert—fire evac. Eight floor two partitions, one has no windows, all on lockdown fire’s spreading, no fire containment system? Weird, bad. Can’t take Joe through the air vents. Have to go through the wall. Reinforced... Might be too much to do without filament damage, can’t do the computations now. Need something hard.’

‘Suit, were any of the guards wearing jewlery? Halt that, were there any diamonds in your scans?’

Seeking...

Diamond Dust on drill bits in metal container.

Diamond chips in watch 34.5 meters bearing 190 degrees.

‘That’s near Joe’s room.’

“Play dead, I’ll be right back.”

“What?”

“All right, follow,” she said unable to disguise her irritation. She then sprinted back with full filament aided acceleration, ripping up tile as she dashed, and pouncing off the walls, blowing by two guards so fast, they couldn’t even get shots off. Joe wasn’t fast enough to follow.

One guard yelled into his radio, “It’s heading back to the lab, go go go!”

Two guards and several people in lab coats went running and various orders were being shouted out. She ducked into the room the Suit indicated. Just as it had predicted she saw the watch sitting peacefully on the desk.

“ACH! Vat are you- Put zat down, zat iss an Adolf Lange & S?hne. Thief!” A crazy old man yelled at her as he ran back in the room where fire was spreading, apparently to get his watch!”

She turned her head to face him as she smashed the thing to bits and extended filaments to collect the diamonds.

“No!!!” He yelled in shock and disgust at the instant destruction of his favorite timepiece, but two men in lab coats came running in to collect him.

“Doctor, we have to get out of here!”

She didn’t bother to reply and dashed right by them once again at full speed. She retraced her scratched tile and ripped drywall path back to Joe with tiny diamonds in hand.

“This is going to take a lot of juice,” she muttered under her breath. Ninja Vigilante stood with arms stretched forward palms facing forward when her suit went opaque. Four tendrils whipped out with diamonds at each tip, forming like helicopter blades. Then they bent 90 degrees towards the wall and extended forward. Her body stayed still while they rotated at incredible speed turning into a black cylindrical blur. She anchored her leg against the other side of the wall with amazing flexibility and pressed forward.

“What are you doing?!” He yelled as the concrete buzzed and shrieked.

She muttered under the din, “Unless you’re a genius in metallurgy, chemistry, and building materials, just let me handle it.”

“Shit!” Joe threw his body against the door right before two gunshots rained down from a floor above.

One painfully grazed her back knocking her forward as she yelped out. She responded by pulling her arms back ripping a huge chunk of steelwork and concrete and heaving it up. The shooters dodged the hulking boulder of a projectile that smashed the emergency light and shattered into a cloud of dust and rocky debris. In the darkness, the Suit anchored itself to the floor and wall, and with a terrible screeching and yawning of metal and cracked concrete, she pried open a 4′x2′ hole in the wall. Smoke poured in from the hall into the darkened stairwell, and she snapped back at him, “Do you want to live?”

“Yes, I get it, fuck, stop asking me that!”

“Close your eyes.”

“Oh, right.”

He did, and she felt this utterly bizarre urge to kiss him. It was damn near a compulsion; she shuddered for a moment shaking the thought out of her mind. Then she grabbed the makeshift bag of computer goodies out of his hands and defenestrated Joe through the makeshift window, diving right after him.

He was expecting soft pliant lips on his and got a fast shove though a hole in the wall. ‘So this is what a bug in mind control coding looks like.’ Had he the time to think, that thought might have gone through his head. Instead, the first and only thought to pass through his head when he felt the cold air whipping at his face was clear, lucid, and simple.

“AHHHHHH!!!”

As she hurled him, she latched a few filaments from her right arm onto a torn reinforcement bar and sailed down after him, letting the filaments unwind as she fell. Around the fifth floor she kicked out a couple filaments from her left to wrap around his two girdles (pelvic and shoulder), forming a harness. As they passed the fourth and third floors she ordered the Suit to brake their fall, and they both felt the pull of a gradual slowdown.

“How you doin’ there champ?” she asked as she latched onto the wall with her knees feet and forearms. She took his blubbering as evidence of consciousness. “Great, now you get to be a big baby for the rest of the way down.” With that, the harness he was in pulled up and strapped onto her back like a giant baby carrier.

The comically oversized, shirtless baby crossed his arms in a pout, ‘Well, she didn’t kiss me, and instead of wanting to make a baby with me, she made a baby of me. But at least I’m free... kind of. Great.’

* * *

She’d unharnessed him when she got to her first manhole and dragged him into the waterways below. Again forced to keep up with her on foot, Joe wished he’d spent more time jumping rope or doing something to keep in shape. He imagined he’d probably look a little more seductive if he wasn’t doubled over, winded and wheezing.

He gasped, “How... did you find me?”

“Well, it got easier when I stopped looking for a corpse.”

“Did you... get one of the messages?”

She regarded him in silence.

“I tried to send out messages... a bunch of different ways.”

“Explain.”

“Well I couldn’t, one second,” he arched back and stretched out his back and torso, took a few more breaths, and finally caught his breath. “I couldn’t send out emails saying, ‘Hey I’m kidnapped, come get me.’ They gave me a lot of leeway with internet access, but monitored what I was doing. So I improvised.”

“How, and with less bragging and more specifics.”

“Alright, I used search engine caches to find user names of people who frequently logged on to missing persons sights. I figured one of them might be willing to help. I traced back user named to email accounts with similar handles and made raw bitstream modifications to junk mail that made it through our spam filter and sent that to them with minor information inside. I guess you got one of my messages.”

“Interesting. Resourceful actually. But no I didn’t get the message.”

“Oh. Uhm... so how did you find me?”

“Did you ever get any communications back from the people you sent messages to?”

“No, well maybe they sent them, but I didn’t get anything through the email filters.”

“Didn’t try to contact your family?”

“No, they think I’m dead. Probably safer that way.”

‘Hmm. That explains how Jake the Snake got wind of his name.’ She smiled, “Probably.” She sauntered off and grinned to herself when she heard his footsteps pick up again.

Minutes later, she checked her rear view display and saw his eyes boring a hole in her tush as she climbed up a short ladder with him right behind. He’d been sneaking subtle peeks at her the whole time, but this was straight ogling. Maybe it was the thrill of the gunshots and the daring escape, but she found herself enjoying the attention.

“Eyes forward, soldier.”

She looked back over her shoulder and cut off his blubbering denial, “Look, I get it, you’re a guy—been held in captivity and I’m the first woman you’ve seen. I’m not offended.”

“You’re killing me,” he complained, “verbally and cardio-vascularly.”

“Maybe,” she replied with a flippant smile in her voice. “So when you aren’t ogling your rescuers, what exactly do you do?”

“Well... research.”

“What’s your domain of expertise?”

“Well, it’s a pretty focused mix of math, emag, physics, biosystems, and signal processing mixed w—”

“Pretty focused? That’s one hell of a vague answer for pretty focused.”

He perked up and declaimed once more, “Well, I’m not sure I can trust you.”

“Already trusting me with your life. And stop saying well. It’s dry.”

“... okay.” He continued with the dramatic tone. “Maybe my life is worth less than my secrets.”

“A real throw yourself on the sword kind of guy huh?” Ugh. She kept going back and forth with this guy. On one hand there was some kind of magnetism about him that seemed to send her mind wandering in interesting directions. On the other hand, every time he opened his mouth and uttered some melodramatic soap opera b-movie emo banality, it just ticked off her cheese-o-meter.

“Sometimes, if it is to protect my country. Where did you get your tech? Are you a Chinese operative? Russian? Mossad?”

“Sexist,” she declared.

“Huh?”

“That’s sexist, you’re assuming I couldn’t do it all myself.”

He paused. “Fair enough.”

“Give me your wrists.” A low rumbling echoed from down the tunnel.

“Why?”

She just held out her hands in response. He put his wrists in them and she spun around, wrapping his wrists around her shoulders. The subway train came roaring through with a deafening sound and she leaped onto it so quickly, Joe felt as if his arms would be dislocated from his sockets.

“Jeebus H Christ, stop doing that!”

She smiled. The train put their conversation on hold for the duration. Still it felt nice to have his arms wrapped around her. Sure he was a little prone to bombast and theatrics, but he was kind of cute when he did it. And he was kind of hapless, like a puppy stumbling over his own feet while he chased his tail. She even let herself snuggle against him a little. ‘God I really haven’t been on a date in a while. Maybe I am just a little lonely. Oh God, is Keri right? Do I need to get out more? No, there’s more to it. He’s one of the first genuinely sweet guys I’ve met since I’ve been on patrol. And he’s a little like me. Tech-minded. There are so many fantasies I need to not be thinking about. At all. Bad idea. Right now, don’t think about purple giraffes!’

The train came to a stop and she helped him off the side before sliding off. It was time to question her lead.

“Know anything about drugs?”

“Never smoked pot. Never even tobacco.”

“I mean chemically.”

“Nah, not much of a chem guy.”

“All right, well you seem to be a nice enough guy, but I’m going to have to ask some tougher questions now. Who the hell was keeping you prisoner?”

“Well, I’m not really sure.”

She crossed her arms.

“Well I can tell you who they said they were but fuck if I know for sure anymore.”

“This is your second warning. Stop saying ‘well’. Just tell me the best that you know.”

“They said they were part of the US government. I believe that. Anymore specifics are probably bullshit.”

“What were you working on that’s so secret that you’re death is faked.”

“I- I’m not going to tell you. I’m sorry. Look if you’re going to kill me and take the stuff just get it over with. Otherwise, I just want to live and be left in peace.”

She cocked her head at him. She wanted so badly to take off her mask so he could see her flabbergasted expression, “Joe, I could have downloaded your laptop any moment during this escape without you even being aware. But I haven’t because you’ve got some notion that what you have is so important that no one else can see or have it and I’m respecting it, for now. But if that information is really so dangerous, then perhaps I ought to kill you and destroy the laptop. I just want one good reason why I should let you, a prisoner of the government, go with lots of technology.”

He smiled at her, “Well, the only difference between you and me is I was a prisoner, and they want to make you a prisoner.”

She could feel it in her bones, that what he was saying was absolutely true. She was an outlaw as was he, and her Suit was as important to her as his laptop was to him.

She turned silently and walked a few steps, then stopped and looked back, “Come on, let’s get you home.”

They kept making their way on through the remainder of the day and into the night. Half the time he thought she knew where she was going, and half the time she seemed to change her mind or pause and change direction randomly. Joe had given up on small talk for a while by the time she came to a full stop.

“Welcome to your new home.”

“Great. Wonderful. Where’s the way up?”

“Right here.”

“We’re underground.”

“It used to be a logistics and health station when they were building the subs. There’s a line in from the water main, and a sink.

“We’re underground.”

There’s a breaker that’s active with no monitors, and if you’re bright you can probably tap into the phone or cable lines—but I wouldn’t recommend it if you want to stay off the radar.”

“Yeah, yeah-yeahyeahyeahyeahyea.... listen. We’re Un Der Ger-ROUND.”

“Indeed, Einstein. Don’t tell me I rescued the janitor.”

“How do I get food?”

“You’ll find a way.”

* * *

Amidst a sea of smoke, wailing detectors, and chaos, most people were concerned with self-preservation in what might have been the next big terrorist attack on a building that was clearly not up to fire codes. No one gave a second look at Ms. Cummings when she swiped an ID card and gathered some items. Then she simply walked out during the evacuation with the same vacuous look she always wore. Yet behind the empty stare was a clear sense of immediate purpose. Get to a terminal, get further instructions, and don’t forget the programming helmet.

* * *

Being in the Section Director’s Office was always an unsettling experience. Just the secretary alone was creepy enough. Her eyes had a kind of maniacal sheen like she wasn’t all there and was intensely present all at the same time. But to be heading to the Director’s office with bad news was pretty much a guarantee of a really bad day.

“Captain Panetel, report.”

“Sir, there was a break in at facility Echo Bravo Bravo, sir.”

“Hmm, I assume Mister Lindsey has flown the coop?”

“Sir, yes sir.”

“Hmm. Incidentals?”

“Sir, about 17 personnel are in intensive care, the escapee, and one unaccounted for, details are in the report, sir.”

Director Hayes kept gazing out the window for a few uncomfortable moments. “Leave it on the desk, Captain.”

Sweeter words were never uttered to the captain and his “yes, sir” couldn’t hide his relief. His relief was cut short in one swift verbal slash.

“A moment, captain. There was one unaccounted for. Who?”

“Uhm, it didn’t say, sir,” he quickly flipped back through the report, “only mentioned a- uhm, test subject Bravo Echo Tango Hotel Zero One Zero.”

“Hmm, interesting,” another uncomfortable pause, “Thank you captain.” The captain hesitated. “Dismissed.”

The door clicked shut leaving the director in stony silence within his oak and leather office. The only sound was his deep intake of breath. Everything was going as anticipated, more or less. Every plan has specific steps and phases. Now it was time for a phone call.

“This is Director Hayes, authorization twelve danzig castle. Initiate plan Tabula Rasa, our asset is in play. Shut it down and clean it up.”

* * *

Alexis returned to her apartment still thinking about the strange prisoner she’d rescued as she checked the news reports online.

Jake, the club owner with all the under-aged prostitutes was in custody, but only on minor weapons charges. Apparently, the car theft charges didn’t stick—not surprising—and he had succeeded in maintaining an affirmative defense that he was running a shelter for the kids. None of the teens had been very cooperative with law enforcement, especially since some of the cops had harassed them when some of them had been vagrants. Now the connection to Lindsey made sense. Jake wasn’t giving her anything of use. He just found something of interest while he was searching for more victims on missing persons sites. He was trying to trade a wild goose chase for a get out of jail free card. Her mouth soured as she thought about him.

Then Alexis thought about Abbey and the guy in jeans. Then she thought about Lisa. A wholly unsatisfied knot turned in Alexis’ stomach. The snake’s defense attorney was a real pain too. It wasn’t the first time she saw his name come up on the docket, representing a low-life she’d put out of business.

‘Small victories for now. I’ll pick up the big fish in due course.’

* * *

Somewhere underneath the city, Joseph Lindsey was tightening pipes with a wrench and singing, “It’s the morning now... it’s the evening, it’s everything. I click my heels and I’m th- Underground! Underground! Ooooh!” Alone, or nearly so, he had no shame in diving straight into falsetto. He pushed himself out from under and burst into song, “We can be happy underground!”

An unkempt Ms. Cummings regarded him with a small, quizzical smile.

“Watch this!” With a great flourish he pushed a small hand lever and listened for the amazingly satisfying flush, “We have achieved toilet!!”

Ms. Cummings smiled at him and munched again on her protein bar. Sometimes he felt like he was reaching her, sometimes he felt as if he’d never see her think anything coherent that wasn’t programmed in.

“Well, I guess it’s time we get names now. We have a lair, we have a co- I mean a PC system that can monitor our arch nemesis and manipulate her, and now we have a toilet. We should get names—supervillain names. What should mine be?”

“Joe?”

“No, I mean a new name.”

“Master?”

He smiled at her brushing a few strands of hair away from her lips with tenderness. “How about TechMaster? Or TechNick? My middle name is Nick, you know.”

“Technique?”

“Yeah, you’re right, sounds like a girls name. Hey, it could be your name if you want it. Do you like that name?”

She appeared lost in thought, and his eyes brimmed with hope. But then her eyes just glazed over again.

He sighed in disappointment and thought about his own supervillian again, “Hmm, well I like gadgets.”

“Your name can be Gadget?”

“Meh, too Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers.”

“Gadgeteer?”

“Uhm—no. A world of no. Let’s just say I’m not amped about that name. Hmm, Tactech? Like tactics but with tech?”

She looked at the toilet. “Joe the Plumber?”

He burst into a fit of giggles. “Hey, why not Tom the Mad Scientologist? Oh lord.” He snickered, “Okay, give me a second. Phew, breathe, hehe. Okay, how about you, what name would you like?”

She smiled at him with a moment of lucidity, “I’m Beth.”