Dreams and Desires (64 page)

The afternoon of his return from his trip to Omaha, Ramón took the time to recheck the functioning of the weapons he had developed for dealing with the renegade. The six inch long filament with a series of three inch long, flexible, extending arms had been forged in the kiln he had built, powered by the small fusion reactor he had created. The metals, a combination of platinum, silver and aluminum, had been treated and coated with the special chemical formulas he had refined. Hardings’ access to several top secret military processes and substances had been crucial. The other piece of his unlikely looking weaponry was a simple, marble sized, ceramic ball. It was made from a combination of crystals Ramón had the girls in the lab grow from organic materials and the coating used on the B-1 bomber developed to reduce the electronic signature of the plane. It had taken several attempts to get the right combinations, and it too, had been processed in the nuclear kiln. Its weight and size disguised its mass, a compression of substances 100 times that found naturally on earth. Ramón had developed a process to remove the gravitational properties of the substances so the ball, which should have weighed about 75 pounds, came in at only a little more than an ounce.

Since the hunt for the renegade had begun in earnest, Ramón would now carry his weaponry with him at all times. He put the marble in his pants pocket, and slid the filament into a slim pocket he had had sewn into the waistband of his pants.

Kelly had been dosed with her special dream formula late in the afternoon. It was now after 6 P.M. and the dream man was ready to call it a day. He had told Adele he wanted to be alone with his familiar tonight and that she and Chandra should sleep at her apartment, which she still maintained although rarely used.

The enthralled woman was lying almost comatose of the bed in the special room he had had built for her. Natalie and Cindy were with her, lying naked on either side of her on the bed. They had been lightly caressing her and stroking her head softly while she drew in the essence of the Whole through her dazed dreams. Rather than take the time to draw the vital mists from her, Ramón ordered the two young women to dress Kelly so he could take her home. One of the security men would take the girls to Hardings’ house, where they were living. There was always the chance Shabazz had not learned his lesson and would be lurking about.

Once Kelly had been dressed and adorned with her winter jacket, Ramón fastened her wrist bracelets together in front of her and led the swaying, barely conscious woman from the lab. He had become quite an adept driver over the last few weeks and he was quite capable of navigating Kelly's silver Sentra back to the farmhouse.

Kelly sat dazed in the front seat of the car as they sped their way home. Traffic was light, it being after rush hour, and they made it home within twenty minutes. As soon as they got back into the house, Ramón undressed her and, after binding her arms behind her, brought her to her bed. Before laying her down, he made her drink another draught of his potion.

Ramón sensed his familiar's dismay as she drank down a tall glass of the dream making liquid. She was already suffused with the mists of the other dimension, but the process of finding and neutralizing the renegade was in progress and his need for an increased flow of power was acute. When the glass was empty, he gave her a strong message of reassurance and affection and laid her naked body down. He was sorry to make her suffer, but there was little choice. Before leaving the room, he placed the blindfold she wore every evening over her eyes and connected her bound wrists and ankles together. He went into the lonely, quiet kitchen and made himself a cup of tea.

Jonathan received the news that his agents had successfully followed the pursuer to his destination with glee. It was just a matter of time now. The Apache crew had already arrived at the Dulles airport and were preparing for their mission at a safe house a few miles from the industrial building to which the pursuer had been followed.

From his agents’ reports, the building looked like a hard nut to crack. There were security guards and plenty of people around. There was no assurance the pursuer's familiar was inside. He might have her stashed somewhere else entirely. It would not do to capture him and lose his familiar. Blackthorne wanted to sweep the board, win all of the marbles. He ordered his men to wait until nightfall. If the pursuer didn't leave the building by 3 A.M., the Apaches would storm it. If he did leave, one of the agents would follow him and see if he led him to the valuable, enthralled woman.

In the meantime, Jonathan had a new toy to play with, one who had already given him much valuable information.

When Jackie had parted from Ramón at the airport, she had been walking on air. Needless to say, she had never met a man like that before. Ramon's delicate reshaping of her mind had left her unquestioning about the unusual nature of his powers and the dedication with which she had served him. His control of her would fade over the next few days and she would not recall much more than the fact she had enjoyed a good fuck with him. Ramón had not seen much need to make any significant refinements to the mind of the capable, well adjusted, liberated woman. But everyone could use a little boost in their confidence and self image and he had given her that.

As she was waiting to board her flight to Chicago, two security officers accompanied by a hard looking man in a cheap suit and narrow tie had approached her. He flashed a badge and asked her if she would mind coming with them to answer some questions. She was made to understand that having posed the issue in the form of a request was a polite formality and her compliance was mandatory. Since 9/11, any kind of disturbance at an airport was considered a serious offense and Jackie didn't want any legal hassles from trumped up ‘resisting’ charges or ‘assault on an officer', the two tags cops gave you after they smacked you around and cuffed you, so she obliged them. She wasn't about to answer any questions about her business in Omaha. Ramón had given her strict commands about that. Name, rank and serial number was all they would get.

When they entered the security offices, Jackie was made to remove her down filled, winter jacket at a metal detector and was then led down a long hallway and into a small, windowless room. The only furnishings were a cheap, Formica covered table and some wooden chairs. She was about to turn around and protest at being held incommunicado and to demand an attorney when she felt her arms being gathered behind her back. Cold, steel handcuffs were slapped on her wrists. When she tried to struggle in protest, she felt a jab in her arm and then an intense, agonizing jolt that made her body go liquid. She had been Tasered!

Two men took hold of her arms to prevent her from falling to the floor and a third slapped a wide piece of heavy tape across her mouth. A hood was pulled over her head and cinched tight around her neck. In a trice, she was dragged out the door of the little room, down the hall and out the rear door. A car was waiting for her there and she was shoved into the back seat. The door slammed and it pulled away.

Jackie regained her equilibrium slowly. She knew she was in car and it was moving fast. A large, bulky man sat on either side of her. Her instinct to fight took over immediately and she began to kick her legs and squirm her body frantically while screaming out behind the tape over her lips. The men grabbed her arms and held her fast to the back seat and she felt a sharp, painful jab to her solar plexus, driving all of the breath out of her. Her body went limp and her mind fogged over as she moaned and her chest heaved for air.

Before the frightened PI had time to recover, the car skidded to a halt. The doors flew open and she felt herself being dragged from the car into the 20 degree Nebraska air. She was clad in only her faded and worn, brown and red, Chicago Bears Superbowl XX t-shirt, her tight, bright blue denim jeans and a pair of Khaki work boots she had brought because of the impending wintry weather. The cold struck her fiercely with its icy hand. She was pulled up a steep set of metal stairs and through a doorway. She could hear the loud whine of a jet engine. Her body was thrown into a cushioned seat and a buckle came across her chest. Her feet were manacled to the legs. She heard a large, metal door slammed shut. A few, long, agonizing minutes passed and then she had the sensation of movement. The whining got louder and louder until it seemed to become a roar in her ears.

She was in a plane, she knew it. She had been kidnapped and was being flown somewhere. It had to have something to do with the man who had hired her and the girl at the psychiatric hospital. She had crossed some unknown line. Her shoulders ached from her confined arms behind her and her body still felt sickened from the dose of electrical charge she had been given. Was the man here too? Had he gotten away? How long would it be before somebody knew she was missing? Where were they taking her and what would they do with her when they got her there? All these things ran through her panicked mind. She struggled in her bonds and cried out from behind her taped lips until a hard hand cuffed her head and told her to ‘shut the fuck up!” in an angry, coarse voice. The plane's motion had stopped for a few minutes and then, suddenly, it began to rush down the runway. As she felt it lift off into the air, a terrible knot formed in her stomach. She began to pray.

It was an hour and a half flight from Omaha to the New Mexico panhandle. Jackie had a long time to experience the gnawing terror of being kidnapped. The men who were with her on the plane were mostly silent. The rare voices she heard spoke in a strange, guttural language and the sounds of a foreign tongue made her apprehension all the more keen. Her unhappy reverie was disturbed only once when she was unhooked from her seat and a strong, vice-like grip on her arm led her to the cramped bathroom. Hooded, her tight blue jeans and panties pulled to her ankles by unseen hands, she gratefully released her bursting bladder.

A hand roughly wiped her pussy clean and then frog marched her back to her chair, her jeans and panties still around her ankles. Jackie unhappily sensed the staring eyes of the men in the plane on her half naked body as she shuffled down the aisle between the seats, hooded and bound. She was pushed back down callously into her chair and strapped back in. Jackie struggled futilely and yelled through her taped mouth as her heavy work boots and socks were removed and the jeans and panties pulled free of her feet. It took two men to do it, and she could hear them laughing over her muffled protests. Their arms were strong and forceful and her resistance was easily quelled. She spent the rest of the flight clad only in her t-shirt and bra with her legs manacled wide to the feet of the chair. Her mind was distraught with apprehension and focused on her exposed and vulnerable sex.

Surprised, but happy she had not been further molested on the flight, Jackie's heart sank as she felt the plane slowing and circling to land. When it rolled to a stop, she was pulled from her seat and led down a metal stairway onto the tarmac. Wherever she was, it was warmer than Omaha, although the air was still crisp. She did not have long to suffer the cold air on her exposed lower body. She was pulled into a car which sped her away. About fifteen minutes later, she was dragged out of the car and led into a building. Two strong men held her bound arms as she was led across a polished, hardwood floor and brought into a room. She could hear the door opening and shutting as she passed through it. The room was warm and there was a plush rug under her naked feet.

The frightened PI was made to stand, half naked, hooded and her hands still bound behind her, for about ten minutes before she heard the door opening and shutting again. Her heart beat wildly in her chest and her throat was constricted and tight with fear. The deep voices of the unknown men who held her prisoner had been chuckling and chatting amiably in their strange language. She resented being the object of their apparent derision. Now she sensed the men in the room coming to attention and she knew she would soon learn the purpose of her abduction.

Jackie had imagined all kinds of things on her terrifying trip. She had first thought that some secret government organization had taken her prisoner. But the unfamiliar language of her captors had put paid to that idea. If the men were government agents, they would have been speaking English. There had not been an American voice in the crowd. She moved on to the idea she had been captured by terrorists. But she had been brought through the airport security office. It was doubtful that terrorism was so powerful and rife in Omaha, Nebraska that they would control the airport security offices. Was the government in league with some foreign power that Ramón had somehow angered?

As she stood in the middle of the unknown room, in the unknown house, which for all she knew be anywhere in the United States or even Canada or Mexico, she knew she was about to be interrogated. Jackie was well versed in interrogation techniques and she was aware that one of the purposes of keeping her body exposed was to increase her mental vulnerability. She resolved to tell them nothing. She was an American citizen, after all. She wasn't some Arab terrorist that could be held incommunicado indefinitely. They had to let her go eventually. And when they did, she would create a whole world of shit for them. She knew plenty of cops and reporters, even some FBI guys. She could almost imagine the headlines in the Chicago Tribune.

But it did not turn out at all like Jackie expected. Whoever had come in took a few minutes to examine her. Darkness all around her, she felt his eyes assaulting her half nude body. The other men had all turned quiet. And then, she felt a probing of her mind. It started out as a small tingle in her brain, something she thought she was imagining in her fear. Then, it became all too real. It was like someone was inside there, rifling through her memories. She tried to twist away and scream, but her body would not obey her. She was rooted in place, unable to move a single muscle, incapable of making a sound. The mind that was probing hers announced itself. She could feel its malignant intent towards her and its immense power. A wave of dreadful unhappiness flowed through her as if she had been injected with some poisonous fluid. It was like a hand had seized her brain and was squeezing it. She cringed in abysmal fright.