Hollow Dolls, The (38 page)

She wanted her tongue to be there to pierce the
flesh open, drink from that vine. She had so much more to do. Winnie’s desires
rose to some delirium beyond existence. Blood was some drunken Dio-fucking-nysian
wine flowing in her veins. It sang dark melodies in worship to whatever evil
existed.

She’d
broken away from Alejandra. That was pure Winnie and Mel knew.

“My
dark princess.”

Mel
whispered it over and over, like a mantra with her eyes closed.

Mel
realized that what had been happening this whole time. Since they’d come across
the ocean. It was a communion.  It was their vows. This memoir was the record. It
had been a wedding ceremony in progress the whole time.

Winnie
returned out of the darkness along the wharf carrying a paper bag. Groceries?
Seemed odd. Mel’s intuition told her Winnie was up to something. She saw the
confidence in Winnie’s walk and felt herself letting Winnie be the top, taking
charge of Mel. She stretched her legs inside the car and it swirled around
inside her body. Winnie didn’t need help. Not now. Mel felt something strange
shift inside herself about Winnie and their balance of power. She watched
Winnie walk along the wharf toward the yacht. She’d grown up.

Mel’s
chest felt vacant. Another weird occurrence. She started the car automatically,
just to get away from whatever was happening inside her. She drove home. The
dash clock said it was four in the morning.

She
sat at the butcher block where Walter had served her breakfast. She drank some bourbon,
snorted a Libby and drank back a water. Afterward, feeling more normal again, Mel
glanced into the chrome kettle reflection at herself. It was like someone had
turned on a tap.

It
was the first time she’d cried in her life. For real. She was afraid of losing
Winnie. Again, out of nowhere Walter appeared clear as day standing there with
that fucking apron on, smiling like Santa Claus. Now tears rolled over her
cheeks with that special warmth.

“Thank
you! Oh great Man-Rabbit for forcing me to learn love!”

Mel
wiped her nose on the back of her bare hand and there was so much it stuck
between her nose and her hand and she stood up and wiped it on her jeans. “Now
my heart’s working you fucking bastard!” She threw the empty bottle of Jack
against the living room wall. Somehow it didn’t break. “Epic fail Mel!” she
screamed.  It felt like her heart would leap out of her throat as she yelled.
The exertion made her calm down. “Fucking epic,” she muttered, then opened
another bottle.

VanCity News

SIX DEAD—LI INTERNATIONAL

PRIVATE JET CRASHES IN TAIWAN STRAIT

Stay tuned for the noon report with Jim Richardson.

Kim Li was at the helm of Li International. The heiress takes the
throne.

And now Alejandra would want to claim her protégé. Mel admitted to
herself that Alejandra had executed a brilliant plan taking control of Kim Li.
She would become one of the most powerful leaders in the child slave and opium
trades worldwide. If Kim Li could only have stayed away from her. Mel switched
over from the news to Kim Li’s feed and flipped through the recordings that
were broken into half hour segments.

She saw Kim Li at an inauguration ceremony. It was in a convention
sized room filled with about a hundred men. The wall behind the head table was
decorated with crests and titles behind the key players that read, ‘White Paper
Fan’, ‘Administrator’, and ‘Incense Master’.

It was Kim Li’s takeover within the triad which was the real power
structure of the Li Corporation. It was like the VP being sworn in the day
after the assassination. These guys didn’t waste time. Mel flipped through and
realized she was at the last file. She fast forwarded to the end and found Kim
Li down at the club. She was sitting in a booth going over some papers. Mel
checked the date of the log as the numbers spun by and realized it was live. Kim
Li was down there right now!

She burned a few Tweetie feathers on the way down. When she rushed
in through the alley door, there sat Kim Li still in the booth. It felt like
magic. Like it was so right. Mel grabbed a few shots at the bar and snuck up on
Kim Li who had her nose buried in some papers.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

Kim Li looked up and Mel swore she’d fallen for her all over again
that moment. Only worse...or better.

“Sit,” said Kim Li, perfectly calm.

Mel set the shot down, they clinked and washed them down.

“New day, new territory,” said Kim Li.

“She killed my dad,” said Mel.

Kim Li looked unaffected. Mel wasn’t sure if it was just the usual
emptiness. Kim Li kept her eyes on Mel like she was in a poker game. She
gathered her papers together on the table then reached across and put her hands
over Mel’s.

“I’ll kill that bitch,” she said.

“No,” said Mel. “She’s mine.”

“I’m not under her spell any more Mel. I don’t know where she is
right now but she won’t get near me. I’ve got security up the yin and the yang,
baby. I’m sworn in as Dragon Master of The Triad.”

“I know. I saw it.”

Kim Li looked at Mel wanting to ask then saw the wisdom in Mel’s
eyes and just left it. They’d been through enough together. She didn’t need to
question her.

“Kim Li. I want us to work together again.”

Kim Li smiled.

“Get Winnie. Get rid of that witch Alejandra. Then come see me.”

“Here.” Kim Li reached across under the table and passed Mel her
Ruger with two extra clips. “You might need this.” At the same time she bent
across the table and Mel met her half way. They kissed slowly. Not as long as
they both wanted.

They stood and walked their separate ways. As Mel moved toward the
back exit, she saw Kim Li’s two body guards join her on the way out the front
door.

Mel waited for the cover of darkness. It near midnight as she sat
in Tweetie down at the Coal Harbour parking lot. She’d been watching the yacht
for an hour and nobody came or went. The lights were on the whole time. She was
assuming that Winnie and Alejandra were in there.

She felt it—time to move.

Mel made her way out to the yacht and crept along the deck up to
the door. It was slow going because if she shifted her weight too quickly,
Alejandra would feel the movement inside. Through the small door window  she
peeped in and saw the back of Winnie’s head. Then she ducked back down. Mel
kept sneaking peeks and saw Winnie was chatting away to Alejandra but nothing
else moved. No other security came or went. She’d been on the site for an hour.
Mel did a belly-crawl along the deck. She could take a shot at Alejandra
through a port hole. What if she had security back-up on the periphery she
couldn’t see?

Mel decided her best shot was surprise. Go through the door, gun
high and ready to fire. She took a few deep breaths. Ready. She turned the door
handle and rushed in.

The first thing that hit Mel was that blood smell again.

It was not what she’d expected. Not at all. Yes, Winnie had been sitting
at a small table talking. Alejandra was trussed up on a coffee table beside
Winnie. A table bolted to the floor because it was a sailing vessel.
Alejandra’s leg had flesh exposed. Part of the muscle tissue had been removed and
a fair amount of blood had dripped onto the floor around her limb.

Her eyes! Alejandra had a ball gag stuffed in her mouth on top of
a heavy cloth which would muffle any screams. When Alejandra saw Mel her eyes
bulged, her nostrils flared as she breathed violently. Her arm had some similar
cuts with flesh removed half way down past the shoulder. Both limbs were tied
off with tourniquets so tight that they’d begun to dig into the flesh. Alejandra
wanted to talk to Mel. To tell her something. It was in her eyes, imperative,
her brow knitted with pain.

Winnie turned and looked up to Mel.
“She’s a bad wolf Mel.”

“Win,
are you...eating?”

“Just
a little Mel,” said Winnie looking shy. “Alejandra showed me. Lauren too.”

“I
see.”

Mel
saw within her dark princess a sister alter had flowered. Perhaps someone like
Nigreda.

“I’m
not crazy like my mother,” said Winnie.

“I
know that,” said Mel.

Winnie
had blood around her lips and on the corners of her mouth. Mel kissed her.

Fiona took Mel’s hand and the wooden bracelets on her arm slid
down to her wrist making a sound that was too delicate.

“Hi Fiona,” said Mel. “Long way from home.”

“I prefer Phoenia now that I’m free of Lilly,” she said.

“Phoenia. Of course,” said Mel.

“I like it in Canada,” said Phoenia.

Alejandra had been passing in and out of consciousness. Mel saw
the syringes, the surgical tubing and vials.

“Meth,” said Winnie. “We didn’t want her to miss anything.”

‘We’ve been waiting for you,” said Phoenia.

A long-haired chocolate Havana cat jumped into Winnie’s lap,
crawled up and licked some of the blood from her cheek over and over while she
purred.

“Pia!” said Winnie.

She stroked her back and Pia jumped down, satisfied..

Mel took Winnie by the hand and led her into a small bedroom down
some stairs. They sat on the bed.

“My princess,” said Mel, her heart practically bursting with love.

“I’m sorry that she got a hold on me,” said Winnie.

“It’s okay. We’re together now.”

Winnie laid on top of Mel.

“Together again at last!” she squealed. Winnie always knew what
she wanted most, but her psyche was unattached. Like a double agent she could
float from one side to the other without hesitation. Double agents were always
playing both sides and what did they gain? Only the agent could ever know that.
Or perhaps even they didn’t know. Perhaps it was all a compulsion driven by
their detachment to float freely and take whatever the eye spied.

Before they left the yacht Mel pumped Alejandra with a hefty shot
of meth so she’d stay awake for the end. Alejandra’s eyes went wide wanting to
say something to Mel. She groaned with her dried out throat, but Mel wouldn’t
giver her a chance.

“So long sister,” said Mel.

Alejandra screamed madly under the ball gag. Her breath and saliva
escaped the tight edges around her lips. It was a look of madness that Mel knew
said only said one thing.

I have something I MUST tell you.

It was too late.

“I can’t let you have any last words Alejandra,” said Mel.“ You go
in silence.”

Mel set a candle burning by the wooden shelf. Winnie took up her
laptop.

They parked up on Georgia Street and watched the yacht catch fire
inside. The porthole windows popped. The flames crept out to the exterior. A
fire truck raced down to the dock.

Winnie sat in the middle beside Mel with Pia purring away on her
lap. Phoenia was on the other side by the passenger window.

More emergency vehicles came flooding down. A tug pulled up nearby
shooting a stream of water a hundred feet into the air that arced down onto the
nest of flames. There was a dark double rainbow in the mist.

Everyone
had gone to China to see Kim Li’s new operations in the Li Corporation and the
underlying Triad network. Winnie brought together everyone’s account of the
events that occurred that day along with her own. Mel believed that Winnie’s
account was the most accurate way to present the China visit. This is exactly
how Winnie sent it:

“Where is Miss Hayes?” said Huáng.

“Oh, she wanted to rest up,” said Kim Li. “How is
the operation progressing in Myanmar?”

Huáng opened a live CCTV feed onto the large screen
in the room, using his iPad as a controller. The screen showed security men
stationed outside a long array of army style barracks. Some young girls were
being ushered back and forth by armed guards.

“These are the new buildings in the compound at
Kunlong. We are delivering an average of two hundred units per week now,” Huáng
said proudly. He referred to slave units.

“Very impressive,” said Kim Li.

“The girls are all bonded to the Li house in a
modified geisha method,” Kim Li explained. “Several floors of the hotel are
reserved for their training where the apprentices watch the graduates perform
dance and sex rituals.”

“And here is our hotel in Bangkok,” she continued.

Huáng changed camera feeds several times and
switched through the various sections of Bangkok’s  Hotel Boutique Jade, a
private facility for elite businessmen who used the Li escort services.

“And finally, our offices on the top floor.”

At the end of the presentation, Kim Li excused her
cousin.

“Nice job. Thanks cuz. That’s it for now.”

“Would you like me to bring refreshments?”

“No thanks,” said Kim Li. She kissed Huáng on the
cheek. “Close the door behind you.” She said it gently with respect.

“But we were going to take all this down—your
uncle’s operations?” said Mel.

“This is the dichotomy of the new world order Mel,
where good and evil walk hand in hand for the greater good. The Li Triad is
working with the Russians now. We have World Health Organization watchdogs. Soon
our girls will all be government inspected beef.”

“Very funny,” said Mel. “I don’t trust the
Russians.”

“Next stop, Bangkok,” said Kim Li. “The jet awaits.”

Kim Li, Mel and Phoenia lounged in The Hotel
Boutique Jade in Bangkok. In the penthouse suite a long wall of windows looked
out on the city. Kim Li got on the house phone to order food and refreshments. Mel
was confused. This was the very thing that she and Kim Li were originally
planning to dismantle. And yet here they were in an expanded luxury operation
of a child slave trade.

“Mel. Wake up! Let’s have a drink and celebrate,”
said Kim Li.

“Phoenia, how about some cognac?”

“Yes Mistress.”

Kim Li took Mel’s hand and led her over to the
circular couch in the center of the suite which surrounded a fireplace.

“You’re with me now Mel. When in Rome, right?”

“I’m good,” said Mel.

Georgy paused the high definition video feed that he
and Huáng were watching from the office in Guangdong. Phoenia’s stream of cognac
from the spigot to the tumbler halted in a still image on a HiDef monitor in
the offices of Li International. The still image on the screen was rendered in
such clarity that it looked like the shiny epoxy resin props used in professional
advertising photography. Phoenia was motionless in all her beauty, as were Kim
Li and Mel.

“Huáng. Switch to two-way,” said Georgy. “Time to
send a message.”

Huáng sat at his desk with his legs duct taped to his
chair. He connected to Kim Li via Skype while Georgy held a handgun against his
temple. Huáng bowed his head in shame while the Skype message was connecting to
Kim Li.
He’d failed her.

Kim Li’s face materialized on the screen along with
the rest of the scene in The Hotel Boutique Jade where the girls were finishing
up. A big screen in Kim Li’s penthouse flickered on when the transmission
connected to them showing Georgy’s face. Everyone was a bit confused except
Mel.

 “Hello Mel. Perhaps you can convince your friend
Kim Li to get her ass back here by 6pm. If not, Huáng dies.”

The screen went black.

 “What the fuck is going on here!” demanded Kim Li.

“Georgy must have been following right behind
Alejandra all this time,” said Mel.

“Are the Russians backing Georgy?”

“No,” said Mel. “According to Jack, Georgy went off.
He’s a whack job, but he’s also a torture expert and an assassin,” said Mel.

Kim Li contacted the security office at Li
headquarters in Guangdong to make sure they would stand down. She didn’t want
them to rush in and end up getting Huáng killed.

“Georgy only has control of Huáng’s office. We
should be able to rush him and take control,” said Kim Li.

The Li jet landed in Guangdong by five pm. It was
almost a three hour flight from Bangkok. They still had thirty minutes before
the six p.m. deadline.

“Here,” said Kim Li, handing Mel a Ruger.

“You take the right side when we go through the
door,” said Kim Li. “Shoot anything that isn’t Huáng and don’t hesitate,” she
said.

They entered the building through the front and
approached the security desk where three men were on duty.

“Hello Miss Li.”

Two of the men came from behind and held guns on
them. It had been a trap. “Let’s take a trip upstairs,” said one of the men.

One of the Russians held a Mac 10. He brought them
upstairs. Kim Li and Mel stumbled in the door as he pushed them through. Georgy
stood in front of Mel. He eyed her up and down.

“So we meet again,” he said. “I hope you’ve been
drinking your water!” He laughed rigorously. Mel glared at him.

 “Kim Li. Come here,” said Georgy, yanking her by
the arm. “And tie that one up on the table.” Georgy pulled Kim Li to Huáng’s
side at the computer while two of the four men in the room brought Mel to the
table. They laid her flat out and tied her down to the table top.

“Now Huáng. You will change your security codes to
these ones I’ve written down,” said Georgy. “And Kim Li, you will sign these
documents placing me as the new Dragon Master of Li International. Neat, clean
and sexy! Just like Lilly always said.” He laughed again.

Georgy pushed Kim Li into a sitting position beside
Huáng where the documents sat waiting.

“Why should I?” said Kim Li. “You need me anyway. This
won’t give you complete control you moron.”

“Moron,” said Georgy. “How do you girls say... So
ten years ago kid, this isn’t high school.”

“Start the drip,” said Georgy.

Above Mel, a small tube was suspended from an
intravenous bag. One of Georgy’s men inserted the needle into Mel’s vein and
taped it down.

“That is my special brew of hemlock poison in that
bag,” said Georgy, as he walked over to Mel.

“I added some salvia for old times sake. At your
weight it will take about fifteen minutes to reach a lethal dose,” he said, “So
Kim Li, if you want your friend to live, you’d best do as I say.”

Georgy patted Mel’s bum and rubbed in between her
legs.

“Such a shame,” said Georgy, fondling Mel’s breasts.
“And don’t worry, Jack won’t be coming to save you. My men will have him cut
into pieces by now. He’ll be scattered like Osiris.”

 “You sick fuck.” It was all Mel could say.

“He was working with us all along while he sucked on
your little pussy,” said Georgy, pinching Mel between her legs. “Think of it
this way. You die a goddess. An Isis to your Osiris. Not bad for little slut
from Vancouver, eh?”

“Ok, don’t be fucking stupid take that thing off
her,” said Kim Li.

“Georgy walked back over to Kim Li.

“Sign the papers and tell your cousin to enter these
codes. He does the retina scan and I release Mel. Simple,” said Georgy.

Downstairs on the main floor, the pizza had arrived.
A perky girl who’d recently turned nineteen carried in four pizza boxes and set
two on the security desk. She opened one and the men gathered to get slices.

“Georgy sent me,” she said. She flashed her hazel
eyes and big smile at the Russian man at the desk.

Her overfilled bra formed an inviting cleavage for
the hungry, horny Russians. She smiled coyly. The one in charge looked. She pushed
her chest up on the desk counter beside the pizza.  

“I’ll be back down in two minutes,” she said and picked
up the other two boxes. “We could have a slice together.” She winked at the
head guard. He licked his lips and took a piece from the open box that the
other two security guards were already enjoying. The three men began gorging
themselves on the cheesy goodness and enjoying the view. One of the guards
smacked the girl’s butt.

“She’s cute, yes!” he said, and they all laughed.

She was disarming and charming. A little nymph with
a British accent, clear white skin, rosy cheeks and a popcorn nose. It was
obvious to the guards she was ready to suck and fuck every one of them in the
nearest closet.

“I’ll take them up,” said one of the guards. “Then
we have little party huh.”

“Georgy wouldn’t like that,” said the girl.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m his go to girl now. He wants me personally
handling all his little chores. He brought me in from Club Lick, didn’t he tell
you?”

“Club Lick?” said the guard. He smiled.

That was her pass.

“So! You dance. We can lap dance?”

One guard grabbed her from behind by the hips and
gyrated his crotch against her ass. The girl turned and smiled at the guard and
did a grind back against him, fluttering her eyelashes. “Soon as I get back,”
she said.

She pulled away and the men all laughed as the girl
walked toward the elevator with the other two boxes. The three guards watched
her ass cheeks move up and down.

“Goryachaya zadnitsa!” said the guard and the others
laughed.

“Hey, Club Lick.” he said. The girl stopped at the
elevator.

He made a V and stuck his wiggling tongue between his
fingers. They all laughed and had more pizza while she made her way upstairs.

“Fine,” said Kim Li. She signed the papers. “Hurry
Huáng, do it,” she said.

Huáng did the retina scan and entered the codes.

“There. See? Not so difficult,” said Georgy.

“Now let her go,” said Kim Li.

“I think it will be better for all if Miss Mel
retires now,” said Georgy.

“She is not such a good girl anymore.”

The hemlock continued to feed from the intravenous
bag. Mel pulled against her bindings.

Kim Li made her move.

She lunged for one of the guards guns but Georgy had
been a step ahead and tripped her as she turned. Kim Li writhed on the floor
while Georgy stepped on her stomach.

“Now-now, just sit still little babushka,” said Georgy.
“This will only take another few minutes.”

The pizza girl had made her way down the hall and
stopped at the door outside of Kim Li’s private office. She listened by the
door for a moment. Her eyes turned to a crystal sharpness. She entered.

“Pizza’s here,” said the girl. She smiled and walked
right over to the long desk where Huáng sat.

Time expanded.

The girl’s years of training had kicked in.

She read every body, every detail in the room as the
seconds stretched and her eyes glanced around.

One friendly tied down on a table.

Six male targets.

A friendly held down at the foot of a seventh male
target.

A third male friendly at a computer.

Two of the men reached into their coats for weapons
as she set the pizza boxes down and popped the lid open.

“It’s on guys,” she said.

It was all distracting enough that them men were
moving slowly.

The girl grabbed two black Glock 17’s with
rubberized grips from inside the box. She spun on one heel with her other foot
barely touching the floor guiding her balance perfectly like a ballerina. She
fired continuously for six seconds.

She double tapped the two men with weapons drawn
first.

In continuing motion she took out the other four men
who were reaching for their weapons. All with double taps.

Four more kills.

Eight shots fired.

Total kills: 6.

Total shots fired: 12.

Bonus points: mega.

On the eight second mark Kim Li grabbed Georgy’s
foot and twisted it like hell tearing cartilage and dropping him to the floor.