Disclaimer : Anyone who is under the age of 18, along with anyone offended by stories of a sexual nature or containing sexual situations or offended by the idea of mind control in any fashion, please do not read this story.
The people, organizations and events in this story are fictional and do not represent anyone or anything from real life.
Feedback and criticism is appreciated and you can email me at closetcontroller@gmail.com
The Slaver Chronicles — Book 1 — Sam
Chapter 6 — Terror
Tuesday morning I was just settling into my work routine when my cellphone rang. The caller ID said Kristen was calling from home.
“Hi babe.”
“Sam it’s Jim. You gotta come home right away. It’s Kristen, she’s in trouble.”
“Slow down Jim. What kind of trouble?”
“I can’t talk about it on the phone. You have to come home, right now!”
He hung up the phone.
Something was really seriously wrong. I had to go.
I turned to my coworker “Doug, family emergency, I gotta go.”
“Wait you can’t leave now we’ve got ...”
But I was already out the door and didn’t hear the rest.
I jumped on my bike (oh I forgot to tell you I have a motorcycle, a Suzuki GS 500) and ripped out of the parking lot. I was cutting corners and running red lights all the way home. It’s a miracle I didn’t get pulled over.
When I pulled up in front of the apartment building there was a large moving van blocking half the driveway. I swerved around it and pulled up in front of my apartment.
Everything looked normal and quiet but I knew something had to be terribly wrong for Jim to call me.
I opened the door and burst into the living room and was immediately tackled to the floor and gagged. Someone showed me an automatic weapon and someone else waved a long knife in front of my eyes. I didn’t struggle.
My hands were tied and I was dragged to my feet.
What I saw in my living room were three Middle-eastern looking men and one woman. The woman wore a long loose fitting dress and had a scarf covering her head and face, leaving only her striking green eyes visible. All the men were dressed in blue jeans and were accessorized with automatic weapons.
I looked quickly around and saw Kristen and Jim lying on the floor near the door to the other apartment. Neither one was moving.
A man in a San Diego Chargers jersey cuffed me across the head and I went down hard. They dragged me back to my feet.
My head was spinning from the blow.
“Where is it?” The man in the jersey said threateningly and ripping the gag from my mouth.
Now looking back on it and analyzing it I am struck by this opening question. I always thought such enigmatic questions were a fiction of Hollywood. Why in the world would this guy imagine that I had any idea what he was talking about? Anyway, I digress.
“Where is what? Who are you?”
He grabbed me by the lapels of my black leather motorcycle jacket and slammed me against the wall so hard it made my teeth hurt.
“You will ask no questions, you will only answer my questions. You may live if you tell the truth.”
I looked over at Kristen then nodded. “I don’t know what you want.”
“You received a letter. It is mine. You will give it to me.”
Letter? What letter could he be talking about? I didn’t know so I had to ask. Hopefully I wouldn’t get pounded for it. “What letter?”
I did get pounded for it. A fist in the stomach and I went down like a sack of potatoes.
And of course they dragged me back to my feet gasping for air. If they would just stop beating me long enough for me to get some inkling of what they were talking about I might be able to help them.
“The letter was in Arabic. It was sent to this address by mistake. Give it to me now or I will cut your heart out and feed it to the dogs.”
It amazed me that feeding my heart to the dogs was supposed to make any difference to me. I mean, it was the removal of the organ that was fatal, what happened to the bloody thing after that was of no consequence whatsoever.
But now I knew what they were after. I remembered the letter. But what had I done with it?
“Right. I remember the letter. Just let me think about where I put it.”
He raised his hand like he was going to strike me again but one of the other ones barked something in Arabic and he stopped.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Ok. Let me think.” I was thinking out loud now trying to remember where I had put the letter. “I remember I was going to shred it but I changed my mind. I decided to get Fadi from work to read it to find out what it said.”
I hit the floor so hard I saw everything spinning around. There was a knife at my throat. “I will kill you now.”
“Wait! I didn’t show it to anyone. I said I was going to, I didn’t say I did! I was just trying to remember where I put it.”
“Try harder infidel dog or you die.”
Just too cliche. But he had the knife so I didn’t laugh.
“Ok, ok. Just help me get up so I can think.”
Once more he pulled me to my feet. You would think he would be getting tired of that.
“All right. So I was going to take it to Fadi so I put it aside someplace. Is it ok of I walk around so I can remember better?”
He motioned to the others and they raised their weapons in my direction. “Don’t do anything foolish or you die.”
“Right.”
I walked over to the kitchen table. “My computer used to be right here. I would sit here and go through the mail. If I wanted to set something aside I would put it someplace nearby.”
I looked behind me at the kitchen. Tried to imagine having the letter in my hand and turning around to put it...
“Did you look on top of the refrigerator?”
The one in the jersey push past me and searched the top of the fridge. Suddenly his hand came up with an envelope. He opened it and looked inside. “It is here.” he said victoriously and the others all became more tense, full of expectation.
“You, sit.” He pushed me into a chair.
He turned to the woman. “Gag him and tie him to the chair.”
She set about her work with ruthless efficiency.
“When we are finished striking at the heart of the Great Satan this will be a good place to hide. We may have a use for him so do not kill him unnecessarily.”
“What about them?” she asked with a gesture toward the prostrate forms of Kristen and Jim.
“We only need one hostage, they are of no consequence. Leave them as they are. If they die it is the will of Allah.”
He turned back to me. “If there is any trick. If we find agents waiting for us at the meeting place,” he held up the envelope “I will call her, and she will kill you. Do you understand?”
I nodded my head.
“Good. Adiva, you will stay here until we return victorious.”
“Yes, Wasim. As you wish it.”
The three men hid their weapons in duffle bags.
I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to gather my thoughts.
That’s when she slapped me, hard. I swear I felt my brain ricochet inside my skull.
“You will not move. You will not make noise. If you do anything I do not like I will cut you.” She showed me a wicked looking knife.
I nodded agreement.
“Good.”
The three men exited the apartment and she set the deadbolt behind them.
Then she sat down on the sofa and started to shake and cry.
I didn’t know what that was about but at least I would have a few minutes to think. I looked over to where Kristen and her grandfather lay on the floor. They were clearly hurt but I had no idea how bad. I had to get an ambulance here as soon as possible. But how? It was no use trying to break the bonds on my hands they were too strong. I thought about breaking the chair by lifting it up and dropping hard on one leg but it would probably take more than one attempt and she would knife me before I could get untied.
Wait. I could use my gift. But I’m gagged. I can’t give her instructions. She’ll just sit there immobile until the others got back, then they’ll kill me.
I had an idea, a combination of ideas. I focused on the woman, thinking about controlling her, I let my focus shift to the center of my brain. My eyes became unfocussed and Wham! My face exploded. It seemed not as bad as my previous two experiences. Is it getting easier?
I still couldn’t see. I could barely breath. And I couldn’t wipe my eyes or blow my nose. I raised up the chair and fell down hard on the left rear leg. It pulled loose from the chair but the chair didn’t come apart. I did it again, and again, and again. I kept pounding and pounding at the chair. Finally I felt the back of the chair loosening. I fell on it again and felt it give way. One more time and I would be loose. I raised up and fell with my full weight as hard as I could and the back separated from the chair.
The ropes slipped off the rails in the chair back they had been tied to. I still had my hands tied behind my back but I was no longer fastened to the chair. I went to the kitchen and fumbled with the drawers until I found a sharp knife. I used it to saw on the ropes. Now on TV it just takes a few quick saws and the ropes are severed, in real life I found it to be a much bigger job. My arms and hands were really tired by the time I got the ropes cut.
The first thing I did was ungag myself. I grabbed a towel and wiped my eyes and blew my nose.
I checked the woman. She was still on the sofa, but she wasn’t moving.
I ran across the room to check on Kristen. She was breathing but I couldn’t tell how badly she was hurt. Her arm was lying in a funny position and I figured it was broken.
I checked Jim. He was breathing too. A small pool of blood was under his head where it had run down from a bad gash.
I pulled out my cell phone and called 911.
I told the operator we had been attacked in my home and that I needed an ambulance for two people. I told her to send the police because the attackers were terrorists and were on their way to carry out another attack. I gave her my name and address and she tried to keep me talking, but I had other business.
I hung up and went over to the woman. “Adiva, can you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“When the police get here you will cooperate fully. You will answer any questions honestly and you will help in any way you can.”
“I am your master and you are my slave but no one else can know of this. You will obey if I give you a command or a suggestion. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“I am going to count down from three to zero. When I reach zero you will awaken and be yourself except that you will always obey my commands. You will not remember being in this trance state and if I, and only I say ‘my six armed goddess’ you will immediately return to the state you are in right now. Do you understand all of these instructions?”
“Yes.”
“Ok. Three. Two. One. Zero.”
When she woke her hands went to her mouth and she gasped. “Master. What have I done? I am so sorry.” She began to cry.
“Don’t cry. Do you have any medical training?”
“Yes. I was taking nursing at the university before they took me away.”
“All right. Get over there and see if you can help Kristen and Jim.”
She jumped up and ran over to them. She started feeling for a pulse and doing other doctory things that I don’t really understand.
“You said they took you away from the university, why did you go with them.”
“They kidnapped me. They said they would kill my family if I did not help them. They said they knew where my father lives. I could not bear to lose my mother.”
“How are they?” I said motioning to Kristen and Jim.
“I can do nothing for them except make them comfortable. I have no equipment.”
“Ok. Change of plans. Help me pick up all these pieces of chair. Take them into the next room and hide them in the bedroom closet. No, wait. I’ll get the chair cleaned up, I don’t want your fingerprints on those pieces. You just keep a watch on my friends.”
I heard the ambulance siren getting close now.
I quickly cleaned away the remnants of the broken chair.
I heard the ambulance pull up in the parking lot.
“Listen Adiva. When the police ask you what happened here you are going to tell them that you had been pretending to be sympathetic to these men’s cause but you were just waiting for a chance to escape. When they left you here alone with me you saw your chance and helped me escape. Do you understand?”
“Yes Master.”
“In every other respect though you are to tell them the truth. Ok?”
“Yes Master.”
“And don’t call me Master.”
I opened the door and the paramedics came in. I pointed to my poor Kristen and her grandfather and they went to work.
Just then a police car rolled up. Two police officers got out.
Another car pulled in and a pair of plain clothes cops got out.
The first officer to reach my door was a tall blond woman. She grabbed me and wrestled me to the ground. She cuffed me and rolled me over. The other officer was doing the same to Adiva.
“Who are you? What’s your name?” she asked shaking me.
“Sam Williams. I live here.”
“Do you have any ID?”
“Back pocket. Left side.”
She snaked my wallet out of my pocket and checked inside.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing Kelly?” this from one of the plain clothes officers.
“Securing the scene of the crime Jonny.”
“Jesus Christ woman, this man is so obviously the victim I have to ask myself what you’re thinking.”
She took out a key and removed my hand cuffs, but no apology was forthcoming.
“Sorry Mr. Williams. Kelly gets a little overenthusiastic sometimes. I’m Jonny Leftwich.” he reached out to shake my hand. The blond uniform stood back and glared at me.
“Can you tell us what happened here Mr. Williams?”
I told my story. Carefully rearranging the part about how I escaped, changing the part that Adiva had played.
“Do you know what their target might have been?”
“No. Let’s ask her.” I suggested.
They did. She said she did not know. They hadn’t told her. She believed they didn’t even know. All was to be explained in the letter.
“Do you remember anything else that might help us?”
I thought for a moment. I went to the front door to look out. “There was a moving van parked out front when I got home. It had a mural of British Columbia on the side.” I turned to Adiva. “Is that what they’re driving?”
“Yes. It is a rental. But they also had a white pickup truck.”
Jonny did a fist pump, “Yes! Mr. Williams, that little piece of information could save a lot of lives today.” Then he got serious. “Wait a minute.” He turned to Adiva. “What was in the van?”
“Fertilizer. Wasim’s brother has a farm near Fresno. He gave us fertilizer.”
“Crap! That van’s a rolling bomb. We gotta find it quick.” He was on his cell phone in a heartbeat.
The paramedics were wheeling Kristen out on a gurney, Jim was on a gurney too, he would be going out next. “How are they?” I asked as they passed.
“The girl should be ok.” One of them volunteered. “Not so sure about the old man. Looks like he’s got a bad concussion.”
After taking Kristen out they came back in for Jim. As they took him out I fell in behind the gurney to accompany them to the hospital.
Jonny Leftwich grabbed my arm before I could get out the door. “Hang on Mr. Williams, you can’t leave yet.”
“But that’s my girlfriend and her grandfather. I have to go with them.”
“No, you don’t. They’re in good hands, there is nothing you can do for them until they wake up. And an agent from Homeland Security is on his way. He wants to talk to you.”
“Oh man! Come on Leftwich, I already told you everything I know. This isn’t going to do anyone any good and it’s just wasting my time when I should be with Kristen.” I was pretty hot under the collar.
The big female officer took a step forward but Leftwich waved her off. “Look, I’d let you go if I could. But HS carries a big stick and the agent specifically told me to keep you here until they arrive. I have no choice and neither do you. It’ll be over faster if you just do what they want. Ok?”
I took some deep breaths to try to calm myself. I looked out the doorway to where they were loading Jim into the ambulance. I put my hands against the door frame, leaned hard against it and closed my eyes. More deep breaths.
“Ok. But as soon as they’re done with me I’m out’a here.”
“Fair enough. They should only be a few more minutes.”
The ambulance pulled out and a black Chrysler 300 pulled in.
A man and a woman got out. The man was blond, about thirty-five, well built but with a little bit of a beer belly developing. The woman was younger. Maybe in her early thirty’s, long black hair and short, maybe 5′ 2′. They introduced themselves as Larry Grossman and Sue Tudor.
The man took the lead. “Ok Mr. Williams, what’s your story?”
I went through the whole thing again from the moment I received Jim’s phone call at work. Being careful again to mention that Adiva had freed me rather than tell the truth about that part of the story.
They searched the apartments carefully and came back to the living room. “I found some wood splinters on the kitchen floor Mr. Williams. What were they from?”
“Oh. One of the chairs broke a couple of days ago. It wasn’t part of this.” I said as calmly as I could, waving my hand in the general direction of the kitchen table.
He nodded. “You say she cut you lose.” He gestured toward Adiva, then to the knife laying on the kitchen counter. “Is this the knife she used?”
“Yeah.” I said without thinking.
“Why didn’t she use her own knife?” Oh this guy is good.
“I don’t know. I guess maybe she was excited about finally getting away from those guys and got nervous.”
Fortunately Adiva was still there and could hear the conversation so we could keep out stories straight.
“Ok Mr. Williams, you can go now. But don’t leave town.”
“I won’t.”
I was out the door in a flash, had my helmet on and the bike started in the same motion. Slammed it in gear and burned rubber getting out of the parking lot.
I pulled up to the hospital and cruised through the parking lot looking for a space. One of the best things about riding a bike is that there is almost always a space I can park in no matter how full the lot. Sure enough I found someone’s Escalade that was taking up a space and a half, leaving a nice large space for my bike.
I walked toward the main entrance of the hospital and just as I was going to go in I glanced up and my heart froze. There was the moving van, parked right in front of the hospital.
I looked up H Street and saw a white Ford crew cab speeding away from the hospital.
Crap! I had to get out of here... No. Kristen was in the hospital! Shoot! What can I do?
I pulled out my cell phone and dialed 911 while at the same time doing the opposite of what I wanted to do. I walked over to the van and looked in the window.
The 911 operator answered.
“Ma’am this is a real emergency. If it is at all possible I need to be patched directly to detective Leftwich of the police department.”
“I’m sorry sir, I’m not able to do that.”
“All right then. I don’t have time to hash this out with you so just find a way to tell the police and Leftwich in particular that I found the bomb parked in front of the Hospital and I’m moving it to the wharf.” I hung up.
I tried the passenger side door, it was open. The odor of fertilizer hit me as it opened. Yep, this is it.
I checked inside. It was a manual transmission. I climbed into the driver’s seat, took it out of gear and released the emergency break. It started rolling. I didn’t want to start the motor if I could help it, the electrical system could be hooked to the detonator somehow (Well how would I know, I’m a computer technician not a demolitions expert, and my imagination was running wild at the moment).
The van picked up speed, rolling down hill toward the wharf.
I could see cars zooming by on the cross streets ahead. I stood on the horn trying to get everyone’s attention so they could get out of the way.
As I crossed Marina Blvd. I clipped the bumper of a Honda Accord and barely missed a pedestrian.
I was really rolling now and I didn’t want to stop but the traffic ahead was stopped, waiting for a light to turn green. The opposite lane was almost clear so I crossed over and drove the wrong way. The few cars that were coming toward me in that lane saw me and got out of the way. I was flashing my lights and blaring the horn all the way down.
I crossed under the freeway and headed for the waterfront. Just a quarter mile to go and I would be in an area where there were almost no buildings or people.
I realized I was holding my breath and let it out. Just a few more seconds.
I applied the brakes and they hardly slowed me down. Shoot! The engine’s not running so there are no power brakes. I stepped on the emergency brake pedal and the van screeched to a stop. I jumped out and started to run.
I hadn’t noticed there was a police car behind me. They pulled up behind the van with their lights flashing. I ran right past their car before they had a chance to get out yelling “BOMB! There’s a bomb in the van!”
Apparently they heard me and after a moment’s hesitation jumped back in the car and threw it into reverse. When they got even with me they stopped and yelled “Get in.”
I did and their tires squealed putting more distance between us and the van.
Suddenly there was an impact, like all the air between us and the van compressed, my ears popped, the windshield became a spider web of fine cracks and the van was replaced by a fireball. I felt the police car accelerate from the pressure of the explosion, but we were far enough away that we were safe and the officer behind the wheel kept it under control.
Then little bits of steel, plastic and road gravel started pelting the car. I was glad I was inside.
As the dust and smoke began to clear a little I noticed an old warehouse type building on the left side of the road had collapsed, I hoped no one was in it.
The car stopped and the officers got out. The driver opened the back door and I climbed out only to be thrown to the ground and cuffed.
“I’m really getting tired of this.”
It took a while to arrange but the officer who cuffed me was finally talking to detective Leftwich.
I remembered something and motioned that I wanted to talk to him.
The officer frowned and nodded, unlocked the cuffs and gave me the cell phone. “Leftwich?” I asked.
“Yeah. Sorry you keep getting hassled for this Williams.”
“Call me Sam. Listen I just wanted to remind you that the terrorists said they were going to use my apartment to hide out after the attack. They could be showing up there any minute.”
“Thanks Sam, but we’re professionals here, I’ve already got it covered.”
“Ok, just wanted to make sure. See you.”
I hung up the phone.
The officer approached me with a grimace. “Look mister, I’m sorry but I thought you set that thing off.”
“No problem officer, you were just doing your job, but can I go now?”
“Not yet Mr. Williams.” came a voice from behind me.
I turned around to find the Homeland Security guy approaching us with his partner close behind.
“So Mr. Williams, what happened here?”
I groaned. Would I never be able to get away from these people long enough to go see my Kristen?
“Well you see agent... " I had to do a mental search for a name for a moment. “… Grossman, it was like this.” And I proceeded to recount my experience from the time I arrived at the hospital.
“So you just happened to spot the moving van that every police officer in the city was searching for right in front of the hospital?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly right. Why? Don’t you believe me?”
“I don’t know what to believe in your case Mr. Williams. That cock and bull story you told about that woman cutting you lose was a crock of BS, but I still don’t know why you’re protecting her. And this looks like the kind of thing someone would pull for publicity.”
“You think I did this. I wouldn’t know how to do something like this. And why would I want this kind of publicity?”
“I don’t know. But you’re real popular right now.” He motioned to the crowd gathered behind the police barrier. “NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX and CNN all want to interview you.”
“Oh crap! Listen, you gotta help me. I can’t do an interview right now, I need to get back to the hospital.”
“Sorry, you’re on your own.” He turned to leave and then turned back. “And don’t...”
“Leave town. Yeah, I know.”
As the agents walked away the officer who’d cuffed me came up behind and said “Hey mister, I heard that last part. I can give you a ride to the hospital.”
“Hey, thanks officer, I owe you one.”
“No. I think we all owe you one.”
On the way to the hospital the radio came to life and there was a lot of chatter that I couldn’t understand. But I heard something about shots fired and officers in pursuit of a white Ford crew cab. I could tell the officers were tense and paying rapt attention.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“They’re after the terrorists. It won’t be long before that run them to ground. I hope they resist arrest and they kill every last one of them.”
Which is exactly what ended up happening. But it took about an hour and a half and I didn’t wait around to hear it all.
In front of the hospital I jumped out and yelled “Thanks again officers.” and was running through the front lobby headed for the elevators.