Then they were in the room with the gold. They formed a line. Jaako, who was the youngest and the strongest, started the first pallet floating toward the yawning opening. It was like a bizarre bucket brigade as each member of the team gave each pallet an adjustment and a shove, sending them through the fourth-dimensional opening.
They sent sixteen pallets through before Noel’s phone rang. “Get out! Get out! They’re opening the time lock on the vault!” came Cumming’s voice.
“That’s it, we’re done,” Noel yelled.
“But there are still seven pallets,” Mollie yelled from her position at the edge of the door.
“Tough. We’re done.” Noel made a swooping gesture like a woman herding geese, and they all tumbled through the doorway. It irised closed behind them.
And Noel realized he was cold. His breath steamed. They were not in the Congo any longer.
Kisangani, Congo
People’s Paradise of Africa
“Do you like the food?” asked Alicia Nshombo.
“It’s fine.” Actually, it was pretty disgusting. Michelle wasn’t even certain what she was eating.
A table had been placed in the center of the compound, and Alicia and Michelle were seated side by side. A big fire had been built in the middle of the open area. The guards kept adding wood to it, though it was already hot as hell.
“Oooo, entertainment,” Alicia said, clapping her hands like a child. Several of the guards came into the clearing leading a group of men, naked but for small loincloths. Their bodies had been painted with leopard spots.
Across the fire, Michelle saw other men carrying large drums. They sat down and started playing. Then leopards came into the clearing. There were at least twenty. They batted and clawed at each other, roaring and hissing.
“Isn’t this fun?” Alicia said, smiling.
“Well, it’s something,” Michelle replied. One bubble is all it would take.
“I have been doing some thinking,” Alicia said. “In New Orleans, you absorbed a nuclear explosion.”
“You know how rumors are.” Michelle poked at a mysterious piece of meat on her plate. The leopards rolled in the dirt. The men in loincloths began swaying to the beat of the drums.
“Hmmmmm, and our Tom was the cause of that, wasn’t he, Miss Pond?”
Michelle dropped her fork. “What do you want?”
Alicia pouted. “You aren’t being any fun. Did you enjoy your visit to my hospital? The one for the survivors. I am very proud of those. The animals who prey on our women deserve to be punished. It’s women who do all the real work.” She started gesturing with her knife. “Men are very stupid about sex. They use it as a weapon. They use it as punishment.”
“And what about the children?” Michelle asked. “Are they being punished, too?”
“Oh, there must be sacrifices when you’re building a nation.” Alicia put her knife down and wiped her mouth with her napkin. “May I call you Michelle? Michelle, you are a very powerful woman. Oh, yes, I know these things. Even here we see the CNN. Our Tom is very powerful too, but it may be you are his equal. He tried to kill many people in New Orleans, and yet you saved the city.” She popped a morsel of food into her mouth. “Tom Weathers is unpredictable and dangerous. He has been a great help to my brother, but now he is turning the world against us. My proposal is simple. Kill Tom Weathers, and I will not kill your pretty little friend.”
“Maybe I don’t care if she gets killed,” Michelle said. “Maybe I have reasons for being here that have nothing to do with her.”
Alicia rose from the table. “Don’t be silly, my dear. If you did not care about her you would have killed me already.”
She walked close to the fire. Nine of the leopards stopped biting each other and began mewling and purring. They wove themselves around her, and she reached up and undid her kerchief. Her hips swayed to the drums as she undid her dress and let it drop to the ground. Her breasts were pendulous and hung down to her waist. One of the leopards came close. Alicia let it nuzzle and lick her nipples until they hardened, then she pushed it away.
The men in loincloths moaned. They crawled toward Alicia. She proceeded to lick and bite them across their chests and backs until they bled. Each time a man was bitten, he started shaking and convulsing.
The drums beat in time. The leopards started mounting each other. Alicia snapped her fingers, and the men she’d just bitten rolled on their backs and ripped their loincloths away. They were tumescent. One by one, Alicia straddled them. She fucked each one until he came. When she was done, she sauntered back to where Michelle sat. Her thighs glistened.
Behind her, naked men and women crawled into the firelight. The drums beat louder, and the cats ripped and clawed anyone in reach. Bodies slid against each other, hands groping breasts and buttocks. Mouths licked and sucked.
“Do you like our entertainment?” Alicia asked. “It will go on all night. You should stay and watch. You can give me your answer about Tom Weathers in the morning.”
Steunenberg Barn
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Noel felt his body morphing back to his normal form. Wherever he was it was daylight outside. He smelled animals and manure. Instinct replaced conscious thought. He threw himself sideways, hit the floor (it was dirt and straw), rolled to his feet, and drew the gun from his shoulder rig and the gun from behind his back. There was the roar of a shotgun blast but it was muffled because his ears were still ringing from the alarms.
The muzzle flash showed him Jaako being blown backward, erupting blood as the pellets took him full in the chest. Noel quickly narrowed his eyes and sought for the shadowy form behind the shotgun. There. He double-tapped. The figure folded over, gave a grunt, and fell to the ground.
Mathias went scrambling into a stall. The cow and calf inside began lowing in alarm. The wooden side boomed as the cow kicked at the intruder.
“Shit! Somebody’s got a gun!” someone else yelled.
Noel whirled and fired two shots at him. From the grunt Noel knew at least one bullet had found a target.
Off to his right Mollie screamed and cried out, “Daddy!”
Noel sprinted toward her. Someone reached out and grabbed the back of his jacket, bringing him up short.
“Got her… uh him!” one of the brothers caroled in triumph. His captor was behind him. It was a bad angle for a gun. Noel went limp. The sudden loss of resistance took the young man off guard, and he nearly dropped Noel. It allowed him to bend over enough to reach the sheath in his boot. He dropped the Browning Hi Power, pulled the knife from the sheath, flipped it until the blade was pointing straight back, and drove it deep into the boy’s belly.
The boy added his screams to Mollie’s; there were curses coming from the father…
Guess I didn’t kill him. Pity. Noel reached Mollie, flung his arm around her throat, and pulled her tight against him. Her screams became a gurgle as he laid pressure on her windpipe.
“Mollie? Mollie, honey?” Mr. Steunenberg called out, panicked.
“I have her and I will blow her brains out unless you throw down your guns and turn on a goddamn light.” There was the sound of things hitting the straw. Halting steps moved to the side of the barn, and suddenly fluorescent lights sprang to life.
“Mathias, secure their weapons,” Noel ordered.
The Hungarian emerged from the stall. Now Noel could see the carnage. Jaako was well and truly dead. His chest looked like raw hamburger. One brother lay on the straw with a sucking chest wound, victim of Noel’s first shots. The Steunenberg paterfamilias clutched at his thigh, blood seeping from between his fingers. Another brother lay on the straw, hands clutching at his stomach. He alternated whimpers with calls for mama. Still another brother, this one maybe fourteen or so, cowered against a giant bale of hay.