Her breath showed in the chilly air and so did her tension. She should have brought some back up, but she was alone. She had a can of pepper spray in her pocket and a few months of self defense training to keep her safe. That was all. She looked at each person who came near, wondering and hoping that this was the person she was supposed to meet, but they all passed her by until one man stopped and sat down next to her. He was probably the most handsome and confident man she'd ever seen. His clothes and his cologne were top shelf. He removed all lingering doubt when he looked Mary in the eye and said her name.
"What kind of help are you going to give me?", Mary asked.
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a card. "This is the name of one of the best doctors. Go see him. He'll be expecting you."
The man stood up and straightened his coat. Mary reached out to stop him before he walked away. "What about what you want?", she asked.
He smiled down at her, a sight that nearly made her melt. "Take your son to see the doctor. Once you realize that I am going to help you, then I will contact you about what I want. Now, go and see your son. I'm sure you don't want to leave him for too long."
Mary stood up to get to her car. He
was right. She didn't want
to be away from Timmy for long, but she didn't have to worry about his
safety. Timmy was in one of the safest places in town.
Across town, Timmy was pulling with all his might. His entire body was dedicated to the effort. His nose was scrunched as he yanked and pulled, but no matter how hard he tried Jan Caufield's right arm wouldn't budge. They had been arm wrestling, but that had changed. Timmy was out of his seat pulling on her arm from the side as hard as he could. Jan's peak was like a granite mountain standing firm against his onslaught. He couldn't move her arm at all. The only evidence that he was doing anything at all was when he would yank. The fibers of her muscle would tighten momentarily. He could make out the tight striations of her biceps on her dual headed peak. It was the most rock hard hunk of muscle he'd ever seen. To make it all worse, Jan wasn't even paying attention. She was reading some text for her semester final. "Are you tired yet?", Timmy asked and yanked again. Her arm didn't move a millimeter.
"Nope", Jan replied absently and turned the page of the book with her left hand. If she had known that baby sitting was so easy she would have done it years ago.
Timmy already had both of his hands wrapped around Jan's much larger hand. He took a deep breath and squeeze tight before pulling both his feet off the ground. He was disappointed when Jan's arm still didn't move. All that happened was her ungodly peak just peaked a little more with the added weight. She'd been at this for several minutes and by now her pump was serious. Jan's arm was spectacular from all angles.
"Is this as big as it gets?"
Jan glanced at her right arm before shaking her head. "Nope."
Finally Timmy gave up. "You win." He went back around the table and sat down where he'd been before.
He was having a good day. He almost felt normal which was good. When his mother had told him that he was going to stay at Jan's apartment for a little while Timmy had nearly panicked. Timmy looked up to Jan big time and the idea of being weak and sick around her was more than he could take. He didn't want Jan to know that he had cancer. To him Jan was a super hero. She had all the traits. The only thing she needed was a cape.
"What are you studying?", Timmy asked.
"This is for poli-sci class. It's got to be the most boring stuff on earth, but I have to know it."
Before Timmy could ask another question there was a knock at the door. "I'll get it!", Timmy yelled with enthusiasm, but Jan got up quickly and held him back.
"No, I'll get it." Jan stood up started for the door.
"What if it's bad guys!?!", he asked with his youthful excitement.
"It's not. It's your mother."
"How do you know?"
"Because I can hear her", Jan replied with a grin and opened the door. Mrs. Rogers was standing there. "Come in."
"I hope Timmy wasn't any trouble."
"No, not at all."
Mary watched her son get his coat and gather his things up. He looked like himself for the first time in days. She was sure it was because of where he was. He refused to look weak and sick around Jan, but this seemed to be genuine. It was a school night though, so Mary didn't stay long to talk. It was a pretty long drive to Mary's home. Along the way Timmy faded off to sleep.
The next morning Mary called the number on the card to set up an appointment with this new doctor. To her surprise the doctor told her to bring in Timmy that afternoon after school. She did so gladly. The doctor and his staff were kind and curious, but his diagnosis was no less serious than the other doctors Timmy had seen before. The only difference was that this doctor was going to do everything in his power to treat Timmy.
A couple of days later Mary was at work. Her supervisor called her to the desk for a phone call. "Did you like the doctor?", the mysterious man asked as soon as Mary said hello.
"He was wonderful", Mary replied quickly, but she secretly wondered how the mystery man knew where she worked. The meeting was brief. The man took what he wanted and Mary was left hoping and praying that everything worked out because she'd done all that she could do.
Morgen Stern couldn't have been more pleased with himself. He sat in front of a computer at his Four Seasons suite looking at the information that had been intended for the Broker's eyes, but the Broker was already too powerful within the underworld circles. He was a man who couldn't be crossed right now. Of course most people didn't know that Caeda, the Broker's greatest weapon, had recently retired. Morgen could have leaked that news, but it wouldn't have mattered much. The Broker was too entrenched right now. Of course Morgen bore his long time partner no ill will, but Morgen was ready to gain some traction himself. That was why he'd made the deal with the widow.
Morgen now had a list of the names of politicians, clergy, and business leaders who were on the Commission's payroll. People would kill entire cities to keep this information secret, but Morgen had his hands on it. It was all stored on a simple flash drive. Morgen laughed and took mental notes as he scrolled down the list. He knew some of these people, and now he had them over a barrel. Morgen's normally disciplined mind was going a hundred miles an hour. He needed to celebrate and to let off some steam. He wanted to throw open the windows at this five star hotel and shout his triumph to the masses, but instead he made a phone call.
An hour later there was a discrete knock on his door.
"Hello Mister Stern. My name is Melody", the perky but tastefully dressed brunette said as the door opened. Her face lit up as soon as she saw Morgen and his excruciatingly handsome face.
"Come in", Morgen bid her. "You're quite lovely", he told her, but she felt like it was a lie. Next to a man like Morgen, she felt like a troll, but that feeling went away quickly. He gently took the coat from around her shoulders. He looked at her and smiled while she appraised him like the professional she was. She knew right away that she wouldn't need to work too hard. This man hadn't called for a fantasy. This man simply wanted some fun with a woman who knew how to please him without being an embarrassment.
Morgen smiled and went back to the closet. "Are you hungry, Melody?"
She debated her answer but knew that he wanted honesty. "I am."
Morgen's grin could soften the hardest heart. He pulled her coat off the hook. "Then please, Miss Melody. Tell me what's your favorite restaurant in town. Reservations be damned."
Melody laughed and slid her arms into the soft sleeves. Morgen opened the door and took her arm as they went towards the elevator. He was in the mood for celebrating. He made sure to take the flash drive with him before they walked out. They went to the newly opened Redwine's Steakhouse. Melody had no idea how they had gotten a table, but they ate a wonderful dinner and afterward gone back to Morgen's hotel.
Melody felt like she was floating on clouds after making love to Morgen. He had taken his time with Melody because he liked her. He now sat shirtless in front of his computer with a glass of wine while he once again looked over the files on the flash drive. Melody came off the bed naked. Morgen turned to see her young body as she walked towards him. The money was next to the bed, but Morgen wasn't going to insult this young woman. Instead he indulged her. She ran her hand around his back and neck. He clicked off the screen on his laptop and allowed her to sit on his lap. "You were wonderful", he told her and it was true, but his voice said that it was time to go. Melody pushed some hair from her face and rubbed Morgen's chest one more time before standing up. She dropped her dress over her head and pulled it down. She saw the money in an envelope, then slipped it into her purse and started for the door.
"It was a very nice evening", she said.
Morgen turned to face her. "I'll always ask for you." Melody smiled demurely and walked out the door. Morgen went back to his computer. There were other files on the flash drive, and Morgen checked those out. In the corner was an icon that looked like some sort of extraneous thing, but Morgen clicked on it anyway. The hard drive light started blinking rapidly. A program was launching and it took over his computer. A three dimensional image appeared on his screen. Morgen used to the touch pad to rotate the image. It was a long time since his school days, but he knew a molecular chain when he saw one. Good thing he was in Atlanta. He was close to Benny's operation, and Benny had people who knew about things like this.
"Settle down, sweety", Dr. Jeffrey Long called out to his six year old daughter. "Daddy's trying to work." Jeff was sitting at his home looking over the new mind control program that had been stolen from the Warrmer Institute some months earlier. It was quite complex and it promised to do all sorts of things, but there were parts of it that just didn't fit. Benny wanted the program ready for testing within a matter of months. That put lost of pressure on Jeff and his team considering they were still trying to make heads or tails of this. As he was about to stand up, and call it a night, he looked down at this screen. He'd scrolled down so that only a portion of the entire formula was visible. It was the first time he'd isolated this part of the formula, and what he was seeing was brilliant and disturbing. In an instant, Jeff Long realized that the rest of the stuff on this file was crap put there to hide this part of the formula. This sequence was the real data. Everything else could be discarded. When it was mixed in with everything else, this portion of the sequence blended in. It was like chemistry snow blindness, but Jeff had his eyes open now.
"What the hell is this?", he asked out loud and searched to see if there were any other hidden gems, but there weren't. Just this one section of pure genius that might have gone unnoticed if not for a fortunate accident. Jeff's heart was racing in his chest as he looked at the most elegantly simple thing he'd ever seen. He needed more computing power.
He ran for the door and grabbed a coat. "Honey, I have to go back into the lab for a while. I'll be back later", he told his wife and shut the door before she had a chance to say three words.
Jeff left his house in suburban Atlanta and drove to a converted poultry plant an hour away. He rushed to his lab at the hideout and booted up his machines. He'd called his assistants, and three of them met him there. "I haven't seen anything like this", one of Jeff's assistants said once they had isolated the model for the previously hidden chemical chains. Four very smart men stood around the monitor dumbfounded. "Go get Benny", Jeff said to one of the assistants. "We'll keep working on this while you go."
It took a few minutes for Benny to get to the lab, but when he did, he was just as awestruck as the rest of the men. "I don't know what to make of this", Benny admitted after half an hour. Benny was a genius, but not with chemistry. "Put it on the laptop. I want to show it to X-424", Benny said.
The other men looked at him. "Sir, wouldn't it be easier to bring her here?", an assistant offered.
Benny turned to him. "Of course it would, but she doesn't like this room so I don't make her come here."
The men behind Benny gave each other strange looks. X-424 was a Femme. They didn't have likes or dislikes. One of them got the courage to ask, "Sir, why would we show this to a Femme anyway?"
Benny grinned. "Because she's at least as smart as any of us assholes, maybe smarter." The group went back down the dusty halls towards the pool house. None of the men knew why this particular Femme liked to swim, but she did. That's where Benny had left her an hour earlier. The group walked into the pool house and all except Benny stopped in stunned surprise.
X-424 stood on the pool deck as naked as the day she was born, her lean athletic body on full display. Water cascaded from the top of her head, running down her body's powerful athletic lines pooling at her feet. The men had never seen a more perfect example of the female form as was standing right there before them. Unlike a regular Femme there was an air of unapproachability with X-424. She knew the men were there, and she was aware of them staring at her, but she didn't care. They would have to wait for her to finish what she was doing, and wait they did.
She raised her leg up and put her toes on a rail then started toweling one leg. No one could say for sure which was better, the sight of the cut bulge of her calf muscles from behind or from the side. Everything about her was like it had been ordered out of a catalogue. The assistants' jaws dropped just watching the muscles of X-424's back and glutes and hams. She had the most perfect back. The taper of her swimmer's lats down to her tight waist and hips and her taunt powerful ass. It was as if God had wanted to make a woman who could cut through water like a shark. Her body was a finely tuned machine and the assistants were almost busting in their pants. They had never worked with X-424 before. Like a torture session, X-424 dried off her entire body slowly and deliberately. Only Benny knew that she was indeed doing it all on purpose. Finally she wrapped a soft robe around her awesome body.
"I have something I want you to look at", Benny announced and approached her. She turned to face him. "Did you have a nice swim?"
She wanted to nod or to say yes, but Benny had to look into X-424's bottomless brown eyes for the answer. He saw it there. Swimming was satisfying to her a way she couldn't even express.
They set the laptop on a table and X-424 made sure her hands were dry before she touched the keys. "It's a complex molecular chain", she said at once. They already knew that, but then she pointed out some things that the men hadn't even noticed. "It's not complete. You see these receptors here are purposely constructed to connect to something. This is only perhaps a third of what it's supposed to be. There's more to it."
The men leaned in and they realized at once that she was right. They hadn't even considered that this wasn't complete. It was so genius that they thought that it was intact. It wasn't and they knew that they couldn't begin to figure out what to add.
"Benny!", Morgen Stern called out. All the heads turned towards him as he strutted closer to them. "I thought I might find you here. What's with the pow wow?"
"We found something interesting in that stuff that X-424 stole from the Warrmer Institute in Chicago."
Morgen stepped closer. "What pray tell."
"Some sort of biochemical formula that was hidden within the rest of the stuff. It's pure genius, but it's not complete." Benny had no reason to keep the truth from Morgen. He could get it if he wanted it anyway.
Morgen smiled broadly and reached into his pocket. "I think I might be able to help you with that. He handed over what he had. He'd transferred the file to a flash drive by it self. They put it in, and looked at what he had. They were even more awestruck. They were sure that what Morgen had was in someway related to what Jeff had found because it was brilliantly simple yet profound. X-424 worked on it for a while, but looked up at Benny defeated. "These two fragments are related, and they possibly fit together, but I can't figure out how. You need someone better than me at this. You should take these to Moira Kelly."
"Moira Kelly!?!", Benny growled.
"Yes", came X-424 emotionless voice. "I would say take them to Ian Brooster, but he works for the Institute that I stole them from initially, but Dr. Kelly is his equal anyway, and she's in this area."
"I know that you can't take it", Benny declared. "She nearly killed you the last time to dealt with her." X-424 was a powerful Femme soldier, but Moira Kelly had spent more than a decade enhancing her strength to levels that no super soldier had yet attained. She was one of the strongest people ever. "You take them Jeff."
"But, Benny, I... What about my family? These things were stolen, and I might get caught."
"My god Jeff! You are such a pussy."
Jeff's face flushed. Morgen Stern stepped forward to take his flash drive from the laptop. "I'll take it gentlemen." Everyone knew that he was the one to do it. He had the looks of a Greek god and a way with women that made other men jealous. "He slipped the two drives into his pocket and turned for the door. "We'll see if this stuff is important or not. I'll let you know."
Moira Kelly, Ph.D, sat on a stool with a pencil in her hand and a notebook on the counter. Her long strawberry blonde hair was pulled back out of her way while she worked. She wore conformable clothes under her gleaming white lab coat. He keen blue eyes were glued to the paper while she worked out a problem. Most people would have worked this out on a computer because most chemists wouldn't have tried to work it out in their heads, but Moira liked to work the hard way sometimes. It kept her sharp. Her face brightened when the pieces fell into place. She wrote in her book. She would transfer this to the computer soon, but not yet. She had more thinking to do.
Morgen Stern wasn't authorized to be on the campus, but that wasn't a problem. Morgen was gifted. He could make people do whatever he wanted them too when he wanted them to do it. Some simple suggestions from him and not only was Morgen allowed on campus, but he was escorted to the proper building. He walked inside and found Moira's state of the art lab rather quickly. He had never met Moira Kelly. All he knew was that she was brilliant and really really strong. The shallow playboy inside of him wondered what she looked like. From what he had learned he expected Dr. Kelly to be an ogre.
He opened the door and was very pleasantly surprised. Moira looked up quickly, and Morgen was forced to pause for a moment to study her face. He couldn't see the body hidden beneath her lab coat, but her face was enough to keep his attention. She had hair touched with fire, crystal clear blue eyes, and a timeless Celtic beauty. When Moira stood up from the stool he got a quick look at the shape of her six foot tall frame. She moved like an athlete and had a body to match. She was wearing a skirt and he could see that she had legs that made men drool.
Moira was assessing him at the same time. He was probably the most perfectly handsome man she'd ever seen. He walked like a king, and his dark suit fit him a like a tailored glove. His blond hair lightly brushed the collar of his shirt, and his gaze threatened to swamp her completely.
"Can I help you?", she managed to ask.
Morgen could think of a thousand things that he would like to do with Moira Kelly. He extended his hand. She shook it reluctantly. "You must be Dr. Kelly. I've heard great things." Morgen could hardly take his eyes off of her. He could feel the strength of her handshake. He loved a strong woman. He imagined taking her right there on the counter, but that would have to wait until some other time. He was here on business. "They say that you're the woman to talk to about something I've run across."
"Okay, but 'they' are often wrong." Moira tried to distance herself from a quick fantasy that had popped in her head about being taken right there on the counter in her own lab. She was engaged to the man she loved. She couldn't just let any good looking man make her so hot.
"Would you look at this please? I don't know much about chemistry myself, but I've been told that you are a whiz."
"Let me see what you have", Moira told Morgen, trying to gain control of this situation. This was her lab after all.
Morgen handed over the disk. As soon as she popped it into the slot the program opened up and Moira's jaw dropped. She was looking at the most profound thing she had ever seen, but it was all crude. To Benny's people it had been above their head, but not Moira's. The people who had been working on it had made small errors. They hadn't realized how these two fragments fit together, but Moira did. Her excellent mind put the two sections together right away. She started filling gaps with the only chemicals that could possibly fill them. Moira was on automatic for two hours.
She typed furiously. Morgen Stern sat on a stool out of her way. She was indeed brilliant. He could see her mind working behind her eyes. She was like an artist and chemistry was her canvas.
The more Moira worked on the two fragments the more questions came into her mind. Finally though, she had connected the two pieces in the only possible way they could have been linked. She took a step back and looked at all that she had done and shook her head. She was looking at something that an hour ago she wouldn't have believed could have existed. She turned off the computer and turned around. She had a serious look on her face.
"Are you finished?", Morgen asked.
"No, its going to take much longer to work this out. It's missing another piece. I might be able to figure it out or I might not, but I need to know some things before I go any further. Like where did you get this from?"
"I don't even know what it is, Dr. Kelly. Is it a poison or something?"
"No, it's not. As a matter of fact this stuff is actually edible, but it would interact with human physiology in a way that I have never ever seen. If you had asked me if something like this was possible yesterday I would have laughed, but here it is. I need to know everything you know about it."
"I'm afraid I don't know much."
Moira crossed her arms across her chest. "You're going to have to do better than that. You walked in here and handed me these two fragments. You knew they were something special because you went though some trouble to get them to me."
"How special?"
Moira looked directly into Morgen's eyes. "Let me see if I can explain this to you. What you brought is like finding a schematic for a cold fusion reactor. It's that groundbreaking or maybe even more so. This would turn the world of biochemistry on its head. You need to tell me where it came from. Who did it? I need to know everything."
Morgen was in deep thought for a few moments before he flashed Moira one of his smiles. "Ok. I'll tell you what I know." He explained, but left out many of the details, like the fact that Moira had almost stopped X-424 from stealing part of this from the beginning. He didn't mention any names of people or of places, but he didn't have to. The more he did explain, the more amazed Moira became.
"Are you telling me that the two fragments you brought me come from two different scientists working in two different places at two different times, and with relatively minor adjustments those two pieces fit together like a long lost puzzle?"
Morgen shrugged. "If that is the truth then so be it. I have told you everything I know."
Moira didn't know what to say. This sort of thing just didn't happen in science. It was so close to impossible that she didn't even want to think about the odds, but part of her understood. In the two hours that she'd spent working on the formula, it had felt like she was tapping into something bigger than her. She could only guess that the two people who'd come up with the fragments had felt the same way. This was bigger than all of them.
"So are you going to keep working on it?", Morgen asked.
Moira shook her head slowly. She didn't know if she wanted to or not. This was perhaps the opportunity of a lifetime, but there was a danger. She could feel it, but she couldn't quite put to words what she was afraid of.
"I'll fund whatever you need", Morgen enticed her further.
"Whatever I need?"
"Money is no object."
"I don't even know what this stuff is, and I can't make any promises that I'll figure this out. I'll tinker with it though." Moira didn't want to put her whole self behind this because she had already let a quest take over her life once before. She wasn't going to let that happen again.
"Suit yourself. You can do as much or as little as you want, just make sure you don't discuss this with anybody except me." Morgen left and closed the door behind himself.
Moira could hardly wait for the door
to close before she
turned on the monitor to get another look. The formula leapt off the
screen at her. She could hardly believe that this had come from a human
brain. It was like reading prophesy in chemical code. She got to work
on it though. In a few days Moira was ready to actually mix up what she
had come up with so far. It wasn't complete, but she needed something
tangible to work with. She had all the ingredients necessary except
one. It was an archaic compound only made by one company because other
chemicals had usurped its use. This formula called for it though, so
Moira put in an order. The company took his order like any other,
except this invoice got CC'ed to a computer terminal in Palm Beach,
Florida.
Unlike the chilly weather of more northern environs, the windows in this estate were open letting in the warm ocean air. A woman in a willowy gown with a bikini beneath breezed by the computer on her way to the terrace. "You have a message", she told her benefactor in Spanish accented English.
Martin DeBraya gave her a scolding look before he stood up from his chaise and entered the house. All of his women knew better than to be near his computer. He knew that this young kitten hadn't touched it, but he was considering punishing her anyway until he opened the message. His eyes bucked from his head and his knees went weak. He'd waited most of his life for this very moment, so had his father. He picked up the phone and dialed his father's number. Martin waited breathlessly for him to pick up. "Hello", Retired US Federal Judge Alphonse DeBraya answered.
"It's been ordered, Pop."
Silence.
"Did you hear me?"
"Yeah, boy, I heard you!" The old man was coming out of his seat. There was a reason their chemical supply company still manufactured what was considered an archaic substance. The DeBraya family was very powerful and very wealthy, but their most prized possession wasn't their money, or the Rubens hanging on the wall of Martin's office. It was a scrap of vellum covered in Latin. It was the last surviving scrap of the last incarnation of the Great Recipe. It had been discovered and lost many time over the ages, but the one thing that the DeBraya family knew was that one chemical was needed to make it. That was what was written on that vellum, and that chemical had just been ordered for the first time in many years. This had to be it.
They met up at Martin's winter home in Palm Beach. The old man could hardly contain his glee. When he was a young man his father had shown him the scrap of vellum with the Latin on it. He'd told young Alphonse that one day this scrap would allow them to rule the world. They might have taken the first step towards realizing their birthright.
"What have you found out about the scientist who made the order?", the old man asked.
Martin pulled out his pda and showed his father a picture. He whistled before Martin started talking. "Her name is Moira Kelly. She's well educated and very good at chemistry. She was off the radar for more than a decade, but now she's back on the scene and making a name for herself."
"We need to get our hands on her research. If she's gotten this far then we can finish the rest in house. We have to get to her before someone else stumbles onto what she's found."
"Agreed", Martin began, "We'll send some of our people to convince Dr. Kelly to give us what she has."
"If she doesn't cooperate?", the old man asked with a raised eyebrow.
"They'll be very persuasive."
Like a normal evening Moira Kelly was working, but unlike her usually quiet atmosphere, Moira had put on an album of soul music by O.V. Wright that her former student Jan Caufield had given her. It was perfect for this sort of work because for Moira this was becoming almost a religious thing. She cranked up the music and tapped her pencil while she thought. She was interrupted when there was a knock at the door. She wondered if it was Morgen Stern. She hadn't heard from him in a while, and she had some things to tell him. Instead a man in a plain dark suit walked in. She would have to send a letter to the security people about this. This was supposed to be a restricted laboratory.
"Dr. Moira Kelly?", the man called out as he entered the room. He was a few years older than she with a receding hair line that actually enhanced his rakish good looks. "Sorry to barge in on you", the man apologized. Moira noticed that he had a slight accent. "My name is Spencer." He held out his hand. Moira was trying to pull her mind into the moment. She was still stuck thinking about the mysterious formula. She finally reached out and shook Spencer's hand.
"I know you're wondering why I'm here, and I won't waste your time, although I must say I love your choice of music. My dear departed father used to play American Soul when I was a lad. I think I know the words to every one of those songs to this day." He smiled and so did Moira, but hers was more out of politeness. "I came here on behest of my employers. They're offering you a job, Dr. Kelly. They are willing to triple your current salary."
Moira took a half step back and frowned. "I don't understand."
Spencer leaned against a counter. "It has come to our attention that you're working on a project of singular import. I'm not a chemist as it were, but I have been told that anybody who saw this formula would know it's special, the same way anybody knows a miracle when they see it."
Moira already knew what he was talking about. She didn't know why, but her guard went up. "Why are they so interested in this?"
"Because it's special, perhaps the most special stuff on this earth." The man paused and looked Moira over again. "You have no idea what you're working on do you?" Moira didn't respond. Spencer grinned. "I can't really overstate this, but let me try to put it to you this way. You're in danger. There are people willing to kill you for this research. I don't know how you have gotten this far, and to be honest I don't care, but if you accept my offer we will protect you and make sure you're well compensated."
Moira's mind raced, but something didn't sit right. She was working on something special although she still had no idea what it did. She wasn't sure he did either, but she did know one thing. She wasn't just going to hand it over for money. "I'm sorry Mr. Spencer..."
"Just Spencer."
"All right just Spencer, I don't think I'm ready to accept right now. I love working here, and I love teaching. Sorry."
Spencer stood up quickly enough to make Moira flinch. "Okay, but it doesn't change what I said. There are people willing to kill to get what you have." Moira was shaken as she watched the man leave. She had good reason to be scared, but she wasn't completely helpless either.
A couple of weeks went by and Moira forgot all about Spencer. Ian Brooster, Moira's fiancé had come down from Chicago to spend a few days. She loved every moment of it. She did regret not telling him about the formula that she was working on, but if there really was danger she didn't want him to be a part of it. She kept it a secret. His time with her passed without her mentioning it at all. He went back to Chicago, and she went back to work. The day after Ian left, everything would come to a head.
Moira put the key into the lock of her front door and pushed the door open with her leg. Her hands were full with her grocery bags and a briefcase full of papers left to be graded from one of her classes. She nearly dropped her cell phone, but she managed to get inside with everything intact. She was glad. This had turned into a long day, but Moira had her mind set on fixing herself a nice meal for one and then taking a hot bath. She walked into her house and frowned when she saw the light on the living room. She didn't remember leaving them on that morning. She stepped into her home and stopped cold as soon as she walked into the doorway to her living room. It was wrecked. All of her furniture was over turned. All of her pictures and knickknacks were on the floor, and all of her files had been pulled from their boxes. Her floor was covered by them. To make it all worse, a man was stooped rifling through one of the boxes. He turned slowly, seemingly unconcerned about her.
"Spencer", Moira uttered in shock. She was frozen with disbelief, anger, and violation. She wanted to scream; she wanted to fight, and she wanted to cry all at the same time. Spencer looked at the tall beautiful doctor with a bit of annoyance. She was home early. They were planning on being finished at the house before she arrived, but oh well. Plans do change.
While Moira was locked on Spencer, he saw a change come over her. She was half a second away from dropping her bags and attacking him, but she was too locked in. She didn't notice a second man come in through the open door behind her. He plunged a syringe into her neck and depressed plunger before she even had time to scream. The drug went straight to Moira's brain. Her body went limp, and her bags fell to the floor. The two men let her drop right next to them.
Spencer looked at his assistant then down at Moira before three more men appeared from other rooms in Moira's home. They all looked down at the unconscious doctor, but only as a curiosity. Spencer lifted a dedicated two way radio and pressed the button. "Did you finish at the lab?", he asked his men who were ransacking Moira's laboratory back at the University.
"We have it all. Some of it's encrypted however."
"Very well. Take what you have and meet us at the rendezvous." He put down the radio and looked at the men around him. "Take up Dr. Kelly and let's go. There's nothing else here."
Moira opened her eyes slowly and nearly vomited from nausea. Her head spun and her vision was blurry. She hadn't felt this bad in a long time. She tried to get a feel of her surroundings, but it was hard. She was inside because she could see a white industrial type ceiling above her, but she couldn't look at it. The lights were too bright. She also knew that she was sitting on a cold hard floor. She could hear machine sounds near her, and voices, but her ears were ringing on top of her other problems. She tried to rub her face, but she couldn't move her arms. She tried again quickly. Only then did she feel the steel bite into her flesh. She looked down her body and saw that her entire torso was encased in thick steel cable like a metal mummy. Her arms weren't under the wrap however. Her hands were flat against her thighs palms down with strands of thick wire wrapped around her hands, forearms, and thighs binding her arms to her legs. Moira pulled up a little, but she only managed to give herself pain. The wire was extra strong and wrapped really really tightly.
"Are we awake, Dr. Kelly?", Spencer asked from where she couldn't see.
"Let me go", Moira mumbled. Her head ached, and her vision was blurred. Both were a beneficial side effects of the drug they'd used on her.
"Oh, now why would I want to do that?" His voice was cheerful, just to rub it in. He came near her and squatted down. "I went through a lot of trouble to tie you up in the first place. Look to your right and left."
Moira turned her head as far as she could. She saw that both ends of the cable wrapped around her body extended out. Off to her right she saw the cable attached to something big. She quickly turned to her left and saw a similar arrangement. She squinted through her still hazy vision to make out what the cable was attached to. When she figured it out, the surprise must have shown on her face because Spencer laughed.
"Impressive aren't they. Like I said, I have a fascination with Americana. These are my monster trucks. I haven't had a chance to take them out on the track yet, so I figured that I'd test them out."
"Test them?"
"The engines I mean. On you." He made a motion with his hand, and the engines that had been idling, revved up. The cable wrapped around Moira's torso tightened like a massive steel snake. Her face set in surprise and pain. The bones of her upper body compressed against each other as cartilage was flattened in joints. The pain was like nothing Moira had ever felt. The air left her lungs in one painfully long wheeze. The cable vibrated with power and her bones popped and ground together as the cables tightened still more. Moira pulled up on her arms, but she couldn't get them free. The wires just made the pain that much worse. After about thirty seconds of pure agony, he ordered the men to take their feet off the gas. The engines went back to idle, and the pressure let up.
Moira took a welcomed and painful breath. Her head pounded fiercely and her ribcage hurt terribly. "Why are you doing this?", Moira asked weakly.
"Because I told you that there are people willing to kill to get their hands on your research. I simply neglected to mention that I'm one of them. I have all the data from your lab and from your home."
"Then why don't you let me go? I won't tell anybody. Just let me go", Moira cried out then struggled with the cables a little.
"Don't tire yourself out. You aren't the first extraordinarily strong person I've dealt with. It's become a specialty of mine."
Moira gasped. She was embarrassed about much of her recent past including the more than ten years she'd spent making herself superhumanly strong. She worked very hard to keep her strength a secret, but despite Spencer's torture device, Moira knew that her strength was a weapon. It wasn't her greatest one though. That was her mind. "How do you know about that?", Moira asked while she went to work planning an escape.
"I know a lot about you. The people I work for are very interested in your research. I need the codes to your encrypted files."
Moira gave him one of the long alpha numerical sequences that unlocked one of the blocks of encrypted files. Spencer grinned at his easy triumph, but Moira was just buying time. She knew that unlocking that batch of files wouldn't help them much.
Spencer had thought that this would be more difficult. He was nearly giddy as his men input the information. All his excitement went away when his computer guy looked up with disappointment. "There's nothing here but numbers and fragments. None of it makes any sense."
Spencer took a handful of Moira's long blonde hair and snatched her head. "Stop fucking around with me, Dr. Kelly before I really hurt you! Give me what I want!" Moira tried to look at him with her unfocused eyes, but she didn't say anything. He toss her head roughly. "Give her another dose boys!"
The engines revved, and the cable tightened. It hurt and burned as the steel slipped past itself to crush her. Spencer stood close. He heard the pops of Moira's body and the involuntary wheeze that escaped her lips. The pressure forced blood to Moira's head and her face turned bright red. Moira felt her body getting warm like her blood was boiling. She heard laughs from off to the side as the pain went to new heights. Moira could feel crunching inside. Finally it let up.
Moira was in tears from the pain. "Why are you doing this to me?", she cried out.
"You poor poor thing. You don't even know what you're working on. You've somehow stumbled onto the most important thing on Earth right now. The Great Recipe. People have died by the millions in a quest for the Recipe. Civilizations have been built and taken down by the substance that you're working on. The information you have is as close as mankind has come to regaining the knowledge of the Recipe in centuries. My employers have been waiting for someone, anyone to get as close as you have gotten. They are so close to having the Recipe that they will stop at nothing to have it."
"Recipe for what?"
"For...." He stopped and smiled. "You almost had me, Dr. Kelly. I tell you what. You give me what I want, and I'll explain everything to you. Plus I will let you go."
Moira knew that he was probably telling the truth. If she cooperated they would let her live because they had yet to do any permanent injury, but that could change. "Perhaps I should test my engines out again?"
"No no.", she blurted quickly. Her mind was clearing and she was thinking about how to get herself free. They had wrapped her tightly, and those monster trucks were powerful enough to cause her internal injury. She didn't want to get squeezed again, but that was going to happen if she couldn't figure out a way to get loose. "I need to see my notes. Just let me go."
"Nice try. I can see that you are prepared to play games. I'm a gentlemen and I've been taking it easy on you, but I should show you what these engines can do."
The engines powered up from idle and the cable tightened like a deadly steel corset. Moira could taste bile and blood mixing in her mouth as the squeezing went beyond what she had experienced before. Spencer look on for a minute before he walked away to consult with some of his cohorts. Moira didn't know that he had left, and she didn't care. She had to get free before these men killed her. She didn't know what else they had in mind for her, and despite her great strength, trapped like this she was as vulnerable as anybody else. She had to get herself free.
The trucks pushed the engines even more. Every muscle in Moira's upper body flexed hard to try to protect her innards, but she was fighting a losing battle that way. She needed her hands. Moira's face changed from one of pure pain to concentration and effort.
Moira pulled up on her arms at the same time that she flexed her quads. She flexed them as hard as she could pouring more and more strength into her powerful gams. Her legs grew in size as Moira forced more strength into them, but that forced her tender forearms and hands against the hard steel wire. Her flexing legs made the steel wire bite into the flesh of her arms hard enough to draw blood, but she had to flex even harder. She needed more strength. Her face was already as red as beet, but Moira had just begun her assault. The trucks were squeezing her body like a tube of toothpaste in a vice, but she had to ignore the pain, all of it. She pumped her legs harder and harder until she couldn't stand the pressure being put on her arms anymore. Now it was time to bring her arms into the struggle. Moira rolled her shoulders forward and pulled up. Her deltoids rippled and separated as she put her enhanced strength to the test. With her thighs flexed to their max, and her arms pulling with great power, it was only a matter of time. Moira could feel her body getting stronger, and she was going to need it. She knew that she was stronger than steel wire. She just had to fight the pain. Her hands hadn't left her thighs, but her muscles were flexing so hard they had pushed the wire so that it no longer cut into her.
Spencer and one of the men came around a big pillar to get a look at their prisoner. Spencer was about to stop the trucks and speak to her again, but he hesitated. Something wasn't right. He noticed the powerful muscles of Moira's sculpted body set hard in effort. He could see the hints of veins creeping up her neck and the steel bursting strength of her shoulders as she tried to resist his wire. He looked on, fascinated, for half a minute. He was ready to laugh off her attempts when he saw the first failure. A wire snapped and a piece of it shot clear across the huge building pinging against the wall. Moira's eyes were closed, but she felt it give. She could feel that her muscles were winning.
"No bloody way", a man exclaimed as he watched a piece of wire fail.
"That stuff is what they use to make bridge cables out of. I got it myself", another one said.
Moira could hear them. Their disbelief only made her try all the harder.
Spencer gave the order to stop the trucks. He shouldn't have because when the pressure of the cables stopped, it allowed Moira's lats to flare to their full and impressive width and it allowed her to fill her lungs with precious oxygen. With her air replenished, Moira screamed over the rumble of the idling engines and burst through the wires, breaking them in one powerful move.
"Holy shit", a man exclaimed under his breath. He'd never seen anything like it.
Spencer clapped slowly. "Very impressive, Dr. Kelly. I do believe that I underestimated your raw strength."
Moira hung her head and took deep breaths despite the pain in her ribs. She was tired from her exertions, but at least her hands were free. She reached up and wiped some sweat from her brow. With her hands free however, Spencer kept his distance.
"I should have doubled the amount of wire."
"Wouldn't have mattered", Moira began and slowly lifted her head. She looked like a different woman. They didn't see her as smart or as vulnerable. They just saw her as dangerous. "I would have gotten out anyway. You can't hold me here."
"Oh, but I can Dr. Kelly. I still have you where I want you." Three men walked over so Moira could see them. These were huge men, like bulls. From the way Spencer was acting, she could tell that they were as strong as they looked. "Go introduce yourself to Dr. Kelly boys."
The first one came over and stood near her. He pulled his fist back and punched Moira like she'd been hit by a Cadillac. She saw stars and blood ran from the cut he'd opened near her lip. A second man came over. This one punched her in the side of the head. She blacked out, and only came to in time to see a third punch coming her way. Moira moved her head, and the man's fist hit the massive support pillar behind her head hard enough to chip concrete and shake the entire structure. He curled up from the pain. Moira reached up with her long arms and snatched him off his feet. She forced him to the ground and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her biceps flexed, and for the first time Spencer saw how impressive they were. He had no idea how hard they were. The man getting choked did. His spit and gagged and struggled to get free, but Moira had it locked in. She only held it for a few seconds before the others came to free him. They pried at her arms with their own super strength, but the amazon wouldn't let go. She just dug it in tighter. The man was turning blue. His neck was compressed where her jagged muscled biceps were pressing in on him. He fought with everything he had, but it wasn't enough. Moira had never wanted to kill a person, but as she squeezed this man, all her anger came out. She didn't just want to kill him, she wanted to rip his head off.
She was well on her way, but Spencer got an idea. He motioned for the drivers to slam on the gas. The monster trucks came alive and the thick cable around Moira's trunk tightened. The pain was so sharp and quick that Moira lost strength in her arms just enough for the three powerful men to pry her arms apart. They still had to struggle. Finally though their friend rolled out of her near fatal embrace. He coughed and gagged and tried to bring air to his lungs and brain to his brain. The trucks stopped letting off the pressure. Moira laughed as the men pulled the man to safety, which simply meant away from her.
Spencer stepped in front of her. "That was a very stupid thing you just did, but I'm willing to let is slide. No harm no foul as they say. Tell me what I want to know and we can salvage this."
"Or what? You'll hurt me more?"
"That's the idea. Even you have limits Dr. Kelly."
Moira scowled. He was just out of her reach, so she cleared her throat and spit all the accumulated phlegm on Spencer's face. "I'm not telling you a damn thing! When I get my hands on you, you'll be sorry!"
Spencer was stunned for a moment. He was beyond angry now. "Take it up a notch, squeeze this bitch until she talks or dies!", he yelled.
The big engines revved sending more than a thousand horsepower pulling in opposite directions. This time blood bubbled to Moira's mouth and ran down her chin. Spencer saw her agony, but he no longer felt even human to human sympathy for her. We all make our own beds, and Dr. Kelly had just made hers.
Through the pain though, Moira reached up and took hold of the cables that extended to the back of the trucks. It was like she reaching out for help. Her hands shook and were unsteady, but finally she took hold of the cables. The men knew that there was so much tension on those cables that it would take thousands of pounds of dead weight to just bend them at this point. They could see the fight going out of Moira so they didn't believe that she had that much left in her. Her torso was getting smaller by the second, and the cable getting tighter and tighter.
Moira took a good grip on the cable, but she was going to need more than that. She needed some slack. She knew that there was only one way to get the slack she needed. The men watched the tendons and muscles of Moira's forearms work. They could tell that she was holding onto the cable as hard as she could, but they had no idea what she was about to do next. Moira closed her eyes and prayed that she was strong enough to save her own life. After mentally counting to three, Moira curled her arms. Her biceps swelled to bursting as she strained to do what couldn't be done. She needed more strength. She pulled harder. Her biceps surged upward gaining thickness and mass. Veins shot up her neck as Moira's face went beyond red. The cables flattened a little from her grip, but she needed to pulled harder. Moira muscles burned and ached, but she pulled harder still. Deep striations spread like a wave throughout her arms and shoulders and back. Cuts that would make any normal bodybuilder envious split and sliced her swelling muscles. The heads of her delts were beyond ripped, but it was her biceps that did most of the work. Her arm was barely at ten degrees, not even enough to make a difference.
She lost control of herself. Her eyes blacked out as she poured everything into curling her arms. All the strength she could muster went to this one action. Her biceps were red and throbbing with each beat of her heart. More strength, more power, and more muscle. Her arms moved some more. Her peaks went higher and higher as her arms rose. The thick striated and vascular masses of muscle were getting denser too.
The engine sounds changed like they had taken on heavy loads. There was a deeper growl to them. The men in the trucks had no idea what was going on. They just kept up their steady pressure. No one really thought much of it until the impossible happened. The five and a half foot tall tires of the monster trucks, which had been pressing against the concrete floor applying tons of crushing force to poor Moira, moved backwards.
Spencer and his men turned in time to see the most spectacular sight of their lives. Moira's arms were almost at ninety degrees. They were beyond ripped, the skin was so hot and red that the individual fibers showed through in an orgy of muscle and veins. She wasn't finished. She threw her head back and yelled. The cable around her torso was forced to reverse itself. Pecs and lats and abs flared with newfound power. Her body took on its real shape despite the best efforts of the engines. They had more left though.
A bead of sweat made its way down Spencer's forehead. "More power he yelled", but not before Moira had pulled the trucks back enough to allow her to wrap her arm into the cables on both sides. Now she had the grip she needed to do some real work. The guys pushed the pedals and the turbo charged engines did their work, but it was too late. Moira's already impossible arms grew again to challenge the trucks. The tires went forward pulling cable tighter, but they had to fight. Deep etched and cut biceps rivaled the power of the two huge machines. It was Moira versus the trucks, and with another howl of agony filled power, Moira drew the trucks backwards again.
"Push them to the floor!", Spencer yelled and backed away. He could feel the power coming from Moira's body and the tension on the cables. Creaks and groans came from the steel, but that was Moira's plan. The drivers pushed the pedals to the floor, and the trucks surged forward so hard that Moira's arms were forced straight. With her arms wrapped in the cable, he thought the trucks would rip her arms off, but no. Her face set in such inhuman effort that he'd never seen the equal, like she was trying to move a mountain by herself. Slowly and painfully, Moira's arms curled again. Smoke and rubber flew as the huge tires were being dragged backwards. The machines were moving against their will. Smears of hot rubber were left on the concrete floor as Moira's massively thick, ripped, exploding biceps dragged the two monster trucks backwards. Her biceps were like twin nuclear bombs over powering both trucks.
Steam came from the trucks hoods. The engines were redlined and failing. Moira's arms were past ninety degrees. Her biceps were so high and hard that the peak was touching her wrists as she brought her arms in. The engine of the truck to her left was only a few seconds from blowing, but it didn't get a chance. The cable itself had been pushed past its limit. It snapped with a sound louder than a shotgun blast. The truck to her left rocketed forward like jet on an aircraft carrier slamming into one of the thick walls. Moira was yanked to her right as the second truck took off too. She spun in the air like a top, but the cable unwound from her body. She landed on the ground and rolled to a stop against the pillar not far from where Spencer's men were gathered. The second truck crashed with a boom and lots of smoke further away. She'd hit hard and the men hoped that she had been injured, but when she started to push herself up they knew better.
"Get her!", Spencer ordered to the three strong men he'd brought. They jumped her, trying to keep her down. Moira pushed up hard and rolled onto her back. That surprised the men. One of them lost balance and fell next to her. She didn't bother with him. There was a man right in front of her. She opened her legs and pulled him forward between her knees. Once he was in the right spot, Moira closed her legs and squeezed her long muscled stems as hard as she could. A wave of hot iron hard muscles flexed up along her legs from her ankles to her hips and beyond. The big man had raised his arm to punch her as her squeeze was starting, but before he could even through the punch, Moira's squeeze had sapped his strength. His fist fell harmlessly against her chest. Moira's glutes flexed tightly as she lifted herself off the ground to gain more leverage. The man was choking and clawing for air. His waist was barely half of what it was supposed to be. Moira was crushing him to death. While she crushed one man, Moira reached out to get a grip on the strong man next to her. He pulled out of her reached and squared to hit her. Moira moved her head. His punch grazed her cheek. She reached for him again, and this time caught his wrist. The man tried to pull away, but all he did was slide Moira and his choking friend along the floor. Moira's bicep once again flexed to pull him closer to her. He resisted, but there was no use when Moira got her other hand on him. Moira had two of them, but not the third one. He was off to her left where she couldn't see. He stood up and drew back his leg before kicking forward like he was trying to launch a soccer ball across the ocean. The tip of his steel toed boot was flattened against Moira's exposed middle. She felt her rib crack. Moira yelped in pain and lost her grips on both men. The one between her legs fell on top of her, completely unconscious.
The other one grabbed Moira by the neck and yanked her off the ground. With a growl of rage, he threw Moira into one of the support columns as hard as she could. She hit so hard that she bounced off and landed twenty feet away. Both of them went after her. Moira was seeing double and her rib hurt, but she lunged at one of the men and buried her fist deep into his gut. When he bent over, she grabbed the back of his head and slammed his face into her knee. He fell back in serious pain and short a couple of teeth. The other one kicked Moira in the side of the head. She staggered backwards, but he stayed on her. He loaded up his right hand and sent a sharp hook to Moira's already injured rib. She went down hard.
Spencer and the other regular men weren't sitting idly by. They had grabbed their guns. Moira might have made herself super strong by taking her special chemical cocktail for ten years, but bullets still worked on her. As soon as the strong men were finished with her, Spencer and his men would fill her full of holes. They weren't going to get the information from her. They'd have to get it some other way. Spencer was inside and not worried about the outside. He was too much in the moment to realize that he hadn't heard from his lookouts in nearly fifteen minutes. Moira was so much to handle that he didn't know that there were people outside, and some of them were ready to come in.
"It's getting serious in there", Agent 1 reported into her communications device.
"Roger that, prepare to enter", the controlling agent said. The entire team got ready to do their jobs. All of them wore black urban assault gear and armed for the occasion. They were about to go into an unpredictable and hostile situation, but it wouldn't be the first time for any of them.
"Are you ready?", Agent 2 asked Agent 1 personally since they were standing next to each other. Agent 1 nodded, and put her hands at the base of the reinforced sliding door.
"Okay we're killing the lights! GO! GO! GO!", the lead agent ordered. Agent 1 grimaced under her hood and powered up. The special doors were set deeply into the concrete wall, but Agent 1 had a universal key. Her thighs and back and shoulders and arms all flexed with steel bending power as she literally ripped the entire doorframe and housing from the side of the building. Concrete and steel and dust fell all around her, but in a manner of seconds there was a huge breach. Agent 2 and the rest tossed flash grenades into the large space and a moment later the assault team entered.
Moira was bleeding from her nose and mouth as she fought off her attackers. She wasn't going down easy, and Spencer's men couldn't get a clear shot at her. One of the strong men had armed themselves with a big steel bar. He swung it at her trying to drive her to his friend who stood ready to bludgeon her with a pole of his own. Moira was trapped. The man to her left made a move. Moira ducked his swing, but she couldn't escape the second one. He hit her in the side of the head. She went down, and despite her best effort she couldn't make herself get up. Then the lights went out. Everyone paused. There was a huge cracking sound like the building was being torn apart by a giant. The emergency lights came on with a series of echoing clicks. A second later they heard the tinks of the flash bang canisters rolling along the floor. Men started shooting before the canisters had even exploded. Then they went off. Moira had been too dazed to close her eyes and she was blinded.
The room filed with smoke and with armed black clad figures. They spread out like the smoke itself, just shapes that never stayed still long enough to be seen clearly. Spencer's men fired in all directions, but the figures were everywhere at once. Moira saw some of Spencer's men go down with shots to their chests. Their guns fell silent, but the building was racked with gunfire and ricochets. The lead flew in all directions, and the air was chocked with the smell of gunpowder. Moira heard men scream and curse as they were taken down. Not all of them were being killed she could tell, but her senses were out of whack. She blinked her eyes and look through the smoke and haze. She saw one of the black clad figures. This one was a woman, a tall one.
Agent 2 moved like a trained soldier with her gun tucked in on her shoulder and her eyes searching for threats. She moved with one foot over the other, never making a false step. One of the strong men saw her too. Moira tried to warn the woman, but she could barely make a sound. Before Moira could muster the strength, the strong man was on the agent. Moira could hardly bare watching. That man was strong enough to tear a normal person in half.
Agent 2 turned with her rifle and fired, but it was too late. The man swung his pole and knocked the barrel of her gun away so the bullets went harmlessly past him. She put up her hands to fight hand to hand. Moira wished she could have gotten up. This agent didn't stand a chance. The strong man threw a punch, that the woman blocked, but the blow was so hard that it knocked her backwards. He then hit her in her flat toned stomach. The agent bent forward a little. She was dazed so the man took her by the shoulder and spun her round. He then took her by the neck and tossed her straight up in the air. Moira could hear her squeal from the pain. While the agent was in the air, the strong man pulled his pole back and swung at her like a baseball player. Moira could feel the wind come off his mighty cut. The solid steel pole hit the young agent in the center of her back making a terrible cracking sound. She went flying across the building like a rocket. Her spine was snapped in half from the single blow. Moira grimaced as the young agent's broken body was bent backwards at an impossible angle.
Then something amazing happened. While still in the air, the agent forced her legs forward in one quick violent jerk. She didn't land in a heap, but upright and poised. Her body looked as intact as it had before. She took a couple of steps to stop her sliding before she turned and ran at super human speed at the strong man. Her anger and rage was in every one of her movements. Her long legs covered the distance in only a very few strides. The man swung the pole. Agent 2 ducked it and drew back her fist. She wove close to him like a boxer and landed a sharp left hook to the strong man's kidney. Moira could tell that the Agent packed a real punch because the man doubled a little. He dropped the pole and reached out for the agent. He took her at the shoulders, but the trained young woman thrust her arms up knocking off his hands then she sent a palm strike to the center of his chest. He fell backwards against a table, but Agent 2 didn't give him a moment to regain his balance. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck. With a quick insanely powerful move, the young agent broke the strong man's bull neck. The body fell near Moira with his dead eyes looking up at the ceiling while the rest of the body laid belly down.
"Clear!", Agent 2 yelled loudly enough to be heard inside the entire building.
"Clear!", was repeated six more times before the assault team allowed themselves to relax.
Agent 2 calmly went to retrieve her submachine gun. She checked it to make sure it wasn't damaged before putting the strap back over her shoulder. Agent 2 was tall and athletically lean. She moved with grace and confidence as she made sure everything was as it should be in her area. Moira blinked her eyes a couple times because this girl looked familiar, or at least she moved in a familiar way. She had a mix of height and great proportions that was rare. She looked like one of Moira's former students, but it couldn't be her, could it?
Moira turned her body a little and gasped from the pain. Agent 2 heard her and moved in quickly. She went down to a knee and carefully rolled Moira over. The doctor could feel the agent's tender touch as she put her on her back. Moira couldn't see the woman's face, but she was more confused when she saw Agent 2's eyes. They were the deepest blue almost violet, and they sparkled even in this low light. "Jan?", Moira uttered weakly.
"No", Agent 2 replied with a chuckle.
Then another agent walked up. This
young woman was even taller
than Agent 2. She looked down at Moira and the crouching agent and
asked, "Did she say Jan?", Agent 1 asked.
Agent 2 nodded at Agent 1 who shook her head and walked away. Agent 2 turned back to Moira. "We're with Special Programs. You just take it easy. We have paramedics coming to help you right now." She gave Moira a reassuring pat before she stood up. Moira was still confused until out of the corner of her eye she saw Agent 2 pull off her hood. A tumble of rich auburn hair fell to the center of back. She went out of sight to confer with the other agents.
The paramedics came and loaded her onto a gurney. They hooked up and an iv and took her outside to a staging area. There were blue lights and red lights all over the place. It turned out that most of Spencer's men had lived, which was the plan. While Moira lay there with blankets over her and an oxygen mask on her face a man came up to her.
"Hello, Dr. Kelly, I'm Special Agent Harry Wills with Special Programs. You took a hard bump to the head, but I think you'll be okay. We'll take care of everything. We've been tracking those guys for weeks. I wish we'd been ready to take them down a couple of hours earlier. I would have saved you some trouble. We'll find out why they did this to you. Don't you worry." He patted her on the shoulder and walked away.
Moira lay there for a while until she saw Agent 1 standing not far away from her. This agent was stunningly beautiful even without makeup and her sandy colored hair tied up in a bun. She looked familiar too, but the attitude was different. Moira couldn't see what the young woman was doing, but she looked completely absorbed in it and detached from the world around her. It was like she was above it all, and only put up with other lesser people when she felt like it. She was strong, beautiful, important, and everyone knew it.
Moira stopped thinking about Agent 1, and she forgot her own pain. One thought popped into her head. Her heart began to race and she began to sweat. "I need to call my fiancé!", Moira called out to a man passing near her. "Please, I need to call Ian. Anybody please, I need a phone." People just kept walking past her, busy with this big bust. There were injured people to treat, finger prints to take, interrogations to begin. Everyone was just too busy.
Agent 1 glanced in Moira's direction so quickly that anyone watching wouldn't even have noticed. "Hey, Hey", she interrupted her boyfriend of the moment. "I'll talk to you later."
"Are you just going to drop me like that?", the rich playboy asked her.
"I said I'll talk to you later."
"You better call me back quick", he warned. She ended the call.
Moira was about to break into tears of frustration when she looked up and saw Agent 1 standing there extending her phone. Moira looked at the phone then up at Agent 1 who beautiful face was anything but engaged, but she handed Moira the phone. The doctor hadn't even known that Agent 1 was paying attention at all. It was hard to tell.
"Talk as long as you want", Agent 1 said with a quick smile before walking away.
Moira dialed the number and waited for the answer. Ian answered his phone in his more official sounding voice because he didn't recognize the number.
"Oh Ian!", Moira cried in relief at hearing his voice.
"What's the matter?", he asked with concern.
Moira broke into tears as she spoke to her husband to be. Ian listened and got angry, before it all made sense. Then he became very afraid. He knew what this was all about.
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