61 Days in River City
CHAPTER 7
DAY 32
The Collapse of Mr Tsi
It was early morn but not so early as to conflict with Mrs. Hanson’s daily and very public visit to court. Mr. Tsi led his charges from their apartment, on the floor below Mrs Hanson, out and down the street towards the rank where his minibus was waiting. It was a fair way deliberately. Mr. Tsi wanted his charges to see the outside world in as natural a setting as possible.
“Follow me,” he ordered when they left the building and had congregated near the entrance. There was no response and he didn’t expect any. He turned and started walking., knowing his charges would follow, and follow they did. They naturally arranged themselves in rows and walked lockstep. It looked unnatural. Mr. Tsi’s nurse, Zoe, brought up the rear. She was there to protect him only, but her checking the charges weren’t straying didn’t interfere with her main duties, so she accepted this auxiliary role. She giggled when they all lined up and started marching. The click clacks of her stilettos on the sidewalk were very loud.
They were nearly at their bus when Mr. Tsi collapsed. There was no warning. His muscles simply stopped mid stride and he fell in a heap on the sidewalk.
“Stop,” yelled Zoe at the women. They all stopped before they could walk over him. “Stay where you are,” Zoe again ordered them. They had been programmed to obey Zoe whenever Mr. Tsi wasn’t around or was unconscious or asleep. Once they were safely immobile, Zoe raced round them to deal with her main charge. She had checked his eyes and was checking his pulse when a voice said,
“Can I help? I saw it happen when I was passing. Is he okay?”
“Zoe looked round to see Omega Girl standing there looking concerned.
She smiled at her. “Thank you but it’s under control. That’s what I’m here for.”
Omega Girl looked at the women. “These are the mind controlled women that trial is all about aren’t they?”
“Yes. Mr. Tsi here is in charge of their treatment.”
“Is that wise? I mean he has you to look after him? Surely some other person would be better at this?”
“You’d think, but no. Mr. Tsi here is a world master on mind control and he’s taken on the duty of curing these women. That’s where we’re going now. No one else can do this, that’s why he’s doing it. But he also needs me because he has an extreme form of sleep sickness that makes him collapse at odd times. It’s not harmful to him, but I’m here to ensure his safety and the safety of these women if he has a turn.”
“Oh,” said Omega Girl. “I see. Does he need to be taken to a hospital or somewhere?”
“No thank you. He’ll come out of it when he’s good and ready. All I have to do is make sure he’s safe. The girls can wait. They don’t care right now. They just want to obey orders. Please don’t worry about us. We’re all fine.”
Omega Girl smiled, nodded and flew off wondering about that nurse. She sounded and acted competent, but she looked like a stereotypical nurse on a porn film. Those boobs for instance. And her hourglass shape and stilettos? She wondered if Mr. Tsi had any input in the decision to hire her in particular. She just knew that that nurse would always have offers.
About half a minute after Omega Girl left, Mr. Tsi opened his eyes and looked at Zoe.
“Omega Girl?” he queried.
Nurse Zoe giggled and nodded.
“Okay then. The drama’s over. Let’s get these students to their skydiving class.”
DAY 35
It’s Not What You Know, It’s Who You Know
“Here?” asked Sonia.
“Here,” came the answer. “We wait now. Wait and watch.”
They were out and about as Shield Maiden and Pinnacle now, but in a different part of town and they were extremely careful not to let anyone see them before they were ready. Because of this, Sonia/Pinnacle felt emboldened to add a holster and decent sized handgun to her outfit, together with a couple of ammo belts arranged in traditional display across her shoulders.
Very Lara Croft. It suited her.
Shield Maiden/Vicky’s outfit suited hiding all sorts of equipment. She was very pleased with herself. They also carried a large bag with them filled with empty airtight bottles and a supply of handcuffs.
They waited and watched, gas masks ready, for hours, spraying their area occasionally. Then it happened. The old warehouse they were watching erupted in activity. Doors and windows burst open and belched vast amounts of people out into the courtyards surrounding the building.
Shield Maiden/Vicky and Pinnacle/Sonia donned their gas masks and swung into action. It wasn’t difficult,. Their victims were disorientated, blind with tears streaming down their faces and vomiting while trying to get away from the site. They had them all cuffed to each other and the last one to a metal railing when they heard the shout, “What the fuck are you doin’?”
A tall, skinny woman exuding nervous energy was approaching.
“Just thought we’d help,” said Shield Maiden/Vicky, removing her gas mask, wig and helmet—the smell had greatly dispersed by now and she’d taken care her face was the same as last year’s. Sonia/Pinnacle removed her own head covering.
Heroin stared and nodded at them when recognition came. Rectum rounded the corner to see what was happening. She took in the captured criminals cuffed to the railings, still retching, mostly dry heaves now.
“Looks like they’ve done us a favour,” she eventually said. “There was never any way we could’ve taken ’em all. These two’ve mopped up for us.”
“Yeah, but we got the ring leaders.” Heroin wanted that totally understood.
“We saw what you were up to and decided to help,” said Shield Maiden/Vicky. “And don’t worry. We don’t want any credit either. You can have it all.”
“How’d you know we was here?” Rectum asked, leaning on a wall and opening a takeaway.
“It’s not difficult,” answered Pinnacle/Sonia, wondering where that takeaway came from. “We know how you operate and we know how criminals operate. Just reading the papers over a few weeks told us you’d be here tonight. We knew what to look for.”
Heroin nodded while staring at her.
“You’re really gonna piss her off wearing her outfit. You wanna be careful ’bout that.”
Sonia smiled. “We know, but we thought it better not to show ourselves, especially after last year.”
Rectum added, “And if you’re seen, Pinnacle’ll get the blame.”
Sonia smiled in acknowledgement.
Rectum’s phone must’ve vibrated.
“What?”
She listened then hung up without saying anything else.
“We’ve been evicted again,” she told Heroin, who shrugged. She was more interested in what these two wanted.
“Who’re you supposed to be,” Rectum asked of Vicky.
“Shield Maiden.”
“Who’s she?”
“She’s new. Nobody knows if she’s a hero or a villain. She’s got a good costume though.”
“Yeah. I see that. Lots of room for stuff.” Rectum’s talk included some spray from the food she was eating.
Heroin got close enough for her smelly breath and bloodshot eyes to register strongly.
“Waddaya want?” she demanded.
Sonia and Vicky smiled. Vicky answered, improvising quickly off their prepared elevator pitch.
“Just a quick favour. Nothing really. And we can suggest a place to call home as well. Well, maybe we can. Depends.”
Rectum and Heroin weren’t impressed, so Vicky elaborated and they relented to the point of talking about it.
Viking The Saviour
The gang of teens backed away from the man with the gun. Each of them automatically began filming the robbery. The old woman with the shopping bag was just about beside herself in terror while the man with the gun grabbed her purse. He was confident. If there wasn’t enough in the purse she’d tell him where the rest was. The man with the gun suddenly dived onto his victim knocking her onto her back with him on top, unmoving. The old woman was having trouble breathing because of his weight until, suddenly, the weight was no more and she saw a giant of a man looming above her. The giant with the yellow hair bent and gently helped her to her feet again. He didn’t say anything but bent down, picked up her purse and handed it back to her. Then he sniffed and his head turned abruptly to stare at the gang.
He removed his axe from the back of the dead robber and strode over to them. His smell hit them first. They backed away and he growled at that. They got the message and stayed.
“Whaddya want man. We aint done nothing,” said the leader when he was a few feet away. He was answered by big blondy sending him sprawling with a sweep of his mighty arm. He scattered the others in this way until he came to Jamil. Grabbing him by the shoulders he twirled him round and grabbed his backpack and removed it. Jamil was lucky he didn’t take his arms with it. Ripping the backpack open the giant grabbed the cans there and opened one then drank the beer inside. Cheap warm beer flowed into his mouth until the can was empty. A mighty belch followed before another can was opened. The gang backed away until it was safe for them to turn and run.
The police eventually arrived and followed the trail of cans until it ran out.
Valery
Three weeks into his programme, Chenggong had his first success. One of the women balked at jumping out of the plane. They had all taken the training and were now jumping from a few thousand feet three or four times each day. And the safety procedures were heavily emphasised. As were the dangers, together with graphic pictures and recordings of what could go wrong, all emphasised by Chenggong’s mind. Each day they were learning more and more—acrobatics, how to steer themselves while in flight etc. And it got through to Valery. She balked.
Chenggong immediately took her out of line and let the rest jump. He set her down in the observation seat to let her see again the height and picture the dangers. Once landed he arranged for the divers to be taken to their apartment while he personally took Valery to his lab where he hooked her up to his equipment. She was still compliant but her results told him something in her mind had changed. Quickly, he made a recording playing on her fears and hooked her up and didn’t bother using any drugs because he wanted her as conscious as possible. He stayed with her all night and got his breakthrough in the wee hours.
She screamed. Loud and hard. A scream of primal terror. Chenggong quickly went to her and held her tight.
“It’s OK. You’ve had a bad dream. That’s all.” That calmed her almost instantly, but nowhere near enough. She still shook and couldn’t get past the terror in her brain. Eventually she started to notice where she was.
“Who are you?”
He smiled at this. “I’m your doctor. You’ve been through a hard time but it’s over now. How do you feel?”
“Terrified… I don’t remember… Doctors don’t do this…”
“This one does. You need to be held and I’ll hold you for as long as it takes. And this is part of the hospital. An experimental part. There are people watching us right now, making sure I don’t behave inappropriately. How’re you feeling now?”
All the while he gently projected trust in him into her brain.
“A little better. What happened? Who’s she?” Valery was looking at Zoe watching them from her corner seat.
“Ah, that’s Zoe. She’s my nurse. I have a condition that requires her. She’s not important now. I’ll explain later if you’re still interested. Now it’s more important to get you focused on the here and now. So I need to keep you awake a while to prevent you relapsing. What were you frightened of?”
She was calming down now. More important, she trusted him. She was still frightened but she didn’t know why. She tried to think back and frowned. “I don’t know, but I’m still scared. What happened to me?”
“Not yet, Valery. It’s important I ask you some questions first. Are you game for that?”
She was calming down fast and he deliberately didn’t facilitate that.
“OK then.”
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
She was puzzled at that because she couldn’t remember anything recent. All her memories were those of something a long time ago, but she didn’t have anything after them.
“Do I have amnesia?”
She was uplifted at his smile. “That’s an excellent question, Valery. I’m really happy you asked that. It shows you’re going to make a full recovery. And, to answer, it looks like you do have amnesia. An unusual form of it perhaps, but loss of memory is still loss of memory. So, how about answering my question? Do you remember what it was?”
He hoped she’d snap back at that one. Her files said she had a temper.
She snapped back. “Of course I remember. What kind of dummy d’you think I am? It was ‘what can you remember last?’” She looked at his face closely. He was letting emotions show through more than usual, but still they needed reading and she read them. “You wanted that reaction!” she exclaimed. “Why?”
“To see if you’re behaving normally according to your nature. And you are from what I’ve gleaned from your records.”
“What happened to me?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure, so more tests are needed. One thing I can tell you though, you have amnesia. And to get back to my question, what’s the last thing you can remember?”
Valery was now visibly scared. “The last thing I remember is going to my car in the parking lot. It’s dark and late. I can’t remember anything after that.”
“Good. That’s very good. It’s so good I’m going to forward you to the hospital tomorrow morning. They can take over now. You’ll be in good hands and you’ll get back to your life.”
“How long?” She was very scared now.
Chenggong added a drug to her line. “This is to make you sleep. You’re going to need it. When you wake up you’ll be in the hospital and there’ll be no expense spared either, I’ve made sure of that. Don’t worry about that at all. There’ll be absolutely no expense for you.”
He watched as the drug entered. “As for how long,” he looked straight into her eyes. “You’re not stupid. Quite the opposite in fact. You know from all this it’s been a long time.”
Her eyes showed relief as he confirmed her fears. Relief and more terror. “It’s been five years plus. Don’t worry, you’ll remember all this when you wake, but the sleep will help you cope. The doctors there can help you far better than I can now.” He watched her slowly drift off into the first real sleep she had in over five years.