Captured
Chapter Two
Heading to Tanya’s location should have been easy. Two kilometers due west, gave or take a few degrees, and they’d find her waiting for them at the edge of a convenient clearing. “If she’s in bad shape,” Val pointed out, “we can always risk dropping a chopper in. You’re gonna have to carry her while I hold off the army. Can you do that?”
“I carried men three times my size down a ten-story building, Val.” The medic was new to the team, and eager not to seem it. “Tanya’s a featherweight. I don’t know if that girl even eats.”
“Okay, we’re almost here.” They dashed across a dry creek bed, scrambling up the opposite side without making a sound. Val squatted and held out the GPS for Ellie to see. “We’ll head down here and then loop our way back to her. If anyone’s in our way, we’ll see them before they see us. Stay low and follow the edge of the trees.”
“Crap.” For the first time, Ellie allowed herself a moment of fear. “You don’t think they took her, do you?”
Val patted her submachine gun. “If they tried, you and I would have heard about it by now.”
“Well, where the hell is she?”
“Are we at the point?”
Val looked at the GPS unit with disgust. “These stupid things I swear. Stay down! We’re gonna have to comb for her. You go right, I’ll go left. Go ten meters then parallel me north.”
Ellie swallowed, hard. “Okay. I can do this. We’re gonna find her.”
“You already did, Ellie.” They looked up to find Tanya casually pressed against a tree, her boots firmly wedged between trunk and branch. “Honestly, haven’t you two seen Predator?”
“I thought you were hurt, Jungle Queen.” Val held out her hand. “Get down here so we can get our asses home.”
The blonde ignored her offer and let herself drop from the tree, catching her outstretched hands on a branch and, after swinging on it for dramatic effect, landing on the ground in a crouching stance. “Ah... shit...” Her face turned red as she rolled onto her side. Her hands wrapped around her lower right leg as she waved it back and forth. “Ah... dammit... ow! Why the hell did I do that?”
Ellie dropped to her knees. She had the med kit out before she hit the ground, retrieving a compression sleeve without a second of rummaging. To Val, she looked like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat.
“Well,” Ellie placed a gentle hand on Tanya’s leg, just below the hem of her shorts. “I don’t see any bruising. No cuts. You might have just pulled a muscle pretty bad, Tan.” She offered her shoulder. “Here, grab me, I’ll pull you up.”
This time, Tanya took up the offer of help, allowing Ellie and Val to lift her to her feet. “If you guys will let me lean on you for a bit, I think I’ll be fine.”
“Soon you will all be fine, I assure you.”
He stepped into view as the women wheeled around to face him. “You’ll both soon know just how good my Tanya really feels.”
“Víbora! You bast—urk” Val barely had time to raise her submachine gun before Tanya, quick as a cat, delivered a chop to the back of her neck that sent the brunette crumpling to the ground. Without a word, Tanya retrieved her gun before pointing it squarely at Ellie. The irony of finally acquiring a weapon, only to aim it at the wrong side, was lost on her.
“Tanya?” Ellie’s cry came out as barely a muffled croak. “You... why? Why?” Her hand reached for her sidearm. “You sold us out! Why?”
“Because she looked into my eyes, Ellie. Just as you are looking into my eyes. Deep into my eyes. Look deep into my eyes, Ellie.”
Ellie’s posture changed instantly, arms falling to her sides, sidearm instantly forgotten, her head drooping until her chin was barely above her chest. Her eyes widened as they glazed over. “Your... your... pretty...”
“Deep into my eyes, Ellie. Let go of your thoughts. Let go of your mind. Falling under my spell. Falling into a trance. A deep, deep trance.”
She managed to raise her head, just an inch or two, enough to mount a brave defense. “You.. your...” Then the light drained from her eyes, and her face smoothed into placid acceptance. “Your eyes... they’re... so...”
“You’re in a deep hypnotic trance, Ellie. Completely under my control. As deep and obedient as Tanya. Helpless to resist my will. Hypnotized and helpless, Ellie.”
Deeper. Ever deeper. Submit. “Help... yes...“
He crossed his arms and smiled, a conquering king standing before his submissive, fallen foe. “Tanya,” he said, eyes still hammering his will into the hypnotized medic. “Come here.”
“Yes Master.” She was by his side in an instant.
“Ellie, listen to me and obey. You’re in a deep hypnotic trance, and you must obey.”
Obey. Obey. Obey. “Yes. I must obey.“
“In a few minutes, Tanya is going to wake you up. When you awaken, you will not remember being hypnotized.”
Sleep. Forget. Obey. “I will not remember being hypnotized.“
“You will remember that you found Tanya in the jungle, and rescued her.”
A slight smile. “Yes, I found her.”
“You will help her get to the rendezvous point. You will help her to safety. Do you understand?”
Devoted. Loyal. Slave. “Yes. I understand. I have to... help... Tanya. Safety.“
He gently pushed the two girls together, the better to capture both of them with his gaze. “Now ladies, you will not remember the orders I am about to give you.” Their sleepy eyes looked into his. “But you will obey them.“
“Look into my eyes, Val. Look deep into my eyes. Very, very deep.”
“Yes, Master. I am your slave, Master.”
“Very good, Val. Now listen to—”
“I will resist the urge to bash in your ugly face the moment I get out of these restraints. I must not kick you in the balls repeatedly.” She struggled, again, against the ropes that bound her to her chair. “Did I miss anything? I don’t want to miss anything.“
He sighed. “You’re proving to be a difficult nut to crack.”
“Get me out of this chair,” she snarled, “and I’ll show you a thing or two about cracking nuts.”
“Val, Val, Val. Why do you resist me? I’m offering you peace of mind. The certainty of knowing that you’re always doing the right thing, for the right reasons, for the right people. No more guilt, no more sleepless nights.”
“Right. No more free will. Just hours of fucking you between missions where I steal from orphanages, or whatever the fuck you’re up to this week.” She sucked in her cheeks and swirled her tongue, hoping to generate enough spit to hit him, but the air was dry, and so was her mouth. She settled for a dry ptooo. “Just what I’ve always wanted.“
“Mmmhmm. I see. And what have you done with your free will lately, Val? Going on missions? Doing exactly what your superiors tell you to do? Carrying out your orders without even wondering why you’re being asked to carry them out? Perhaps your superiors are the ones raiding orphanages, hmm?“
“At least with them I don’t have to fuck my boss. Although I’d absolutely choose Jesse over you if it came down to it, El Vibrator.”
He bent forward until his face was inches from hers, and she silently cursed her lack of saliva production. She was looking directly into his eyes. Blue, cold, hard. A hint of bags beneath them. The two of them shared an awkward silence. Finally, to her relief, he pulled away and stood.
“In rare cases, certain willful individuals are able to resist my powers.” He began to circle her chair, rotating in and out of her field of vision. “It’s my poor fortune to discover that you are one of them. Hmm. This is inconvenient.“
“Oh well, right? You tried, and that’s what counts. Now untie me so that I can go home.” She pulled against the ropes again, noting with satisfaction that this time, they didn’t hold her quite as fast. “Or are we going to sit here all day while you gaze at me like a lovestruck teenager?”
“Or, we can try other options.” He swept into view again, standing in front of her while he snapped his fingers. “Tessa? If you please? I need you here.”
She could hear the sound of squeaking behind her, a sticky wheel of some kind. It grew louder until it finally passed her, rolling to a stop next to El Víbora. A steel cart, loaded to overfilling with wires, cables, and electronics, pushed along by a tall, thin woman in a lab coat. The electronics were what frightened her the most. Torture by electric shock wasn’t fun for anyone, ever. She swallowed her growing ball of worry and scoffed. “Of course, you have a mad doctor. Why am I not surprised?”
“Tessa isn’t mad,” he replied, placing his hands on the woman’s shoulders and spinning her around for Val to see. She was pretty, middle-aged, hair done up in a hasty bun. No glasses, and a tiny part of Val expressed disappointment at that.
“Not mad in the slightest, Val. Tessa worked at Harvard before I lured her to one of my hotels. Now she works for me.”
“Great work, Charlie’s Angels. Did you look into her eyes, too?”
“Indeed! She was helpless to resist. Her incredible mind belongs entirely to me. She was a neurologist before she came to me. Would you care to guess what her area of expertise is now, Val?”
She frowned. She doubted that it was anything good, or anything that would end up in the pages of a fancy medical journal. “Psychological torture? Mind control? Brainwashing?”
Tessa bent down and attached a pair of electrodes to Val’s arms. She struggled again, but the ropes didn’t seem to be any more slack than the last time. Certainly not slack enough to escape whatever was being planned for her. She’d have to ride it out and hope for the best. Above her, watching, El Víbora looked smug.
“All three, Val. All three. Now, which of them should we try first?”
She felt pain—sharp, burning pain—in her arm, and looked to her left just in time to see Tessa tucking an enormous needle back into the pockets of her lab coat. That doesn’t seem like a good idea, she could poke herselllllllffff ohhhhh... shhhiiit…
“It’s a lovely little drug that we developed ourselves, in the very lab you destroyed today. If only you had thought to destroy my warehouses as well, Val. If only. Oh well, right?”
“You sick... oooooh, that feels good.” Her eyes briefly rolled into her head. “Nnnnnn... nnnnnot gonnnna help... you...”
“Help me? First, I’m going to help you. Because I need you to be a team player again. On my team.“
He was very blurry. When did he gets so blurry? “When Jesse gets wind of this, she’ll—“
“Be completely under my control, I assure you. All of your friends will be, soon enough. At my command and willing to undo the extensive... damage that you’ve caused to me.“
He stroked her long hair. “You see, Valerie, this whole thing was a trap from the start.”