The Adventures of the Jade
Dragon
Episode 7
Chapter 23
Life’s a Gas
Gas? There was no other
explanation. Li Mei felt her
knees weaken. Quickly she held
her breath hoping that it was not too
late. She had held back in the
attack on Zhuang’s henchmen.
Why work up a sweat when there were three superheroines in the room
to do it for her? But now she
was in trouble, as were Jahlen and
Elenah. The two other women were
staggering, unaware that they were being
poisoned.
“Zhuang,” she
thought. She had seen him push
a button on the wall and then he had
disappeared. Her chest convulsing,
she moved toward the place she had last seen
him.
There. An innocent looking mark
on the wall must be the button he had
pushed. Desperately she stabbed
her finger into it. There was
a slight click and a panel in the wall swung
open. She pushed into the dark
space within, allowing the door to close behind
her. Only then did she take a
deep breath, sucking in as much air as she
could. It was not entirely dark
in the room. A single bulb provided
dim illumination. She noticed
a large lever in the down position.
Acting on a hunch, she pushed it upwards, guessing that this was the
lever that had released the gas into Zhuang’s audience
chamber.
She waited a few minutes and then feeling her head clear, she took a deep
breath. Releasing a catch on
the secret panel she pushed it open and reentered the audience
chamber. As she had surmised
every person in the room was now unconscious and sprawled in various attitudes
about the room.
Everyone with the exception of the Jade Dragon and
Scorpion. They hung limply
in their chains, their arms almost
dislocated.
Traces of gas no doubt lingered in the air, but she was certain that as soon
as Zhuang felt it was safe he would send his men into the room to recapture
the unconscious women. The first
thing was to make that difficult for him.
She had to move fast, she couldn’t hold her breath
forever. She did, however,
have excellent control over her breathing and could
go much longer without taking a breath than average.
She dashed over to the area around Zhuang’s
divan. If she understood anything
about Zhuang she would find what she needed over
there. It took her a few seconds
to spot it. A cat burglar with
her level of skill didn’t need much
time. There was a tiny bronze
lever next to the divan, within easy reach of the position Zhuang assumed
when lounging upon it. She gave
it a flick and was rewarded with a rumbling
sound. Thick steel doors descended
to seal off the entrances to the room. That should give her more than enough
time to do what she wanted. She
only had to worry about Zhuang or some of his men returning through the secret
passage. Now she needed another
breath. Probably the air was
clear enough by now, but she couldn’t take any
chances. Quickly she returned
to the hidden room and exhaled. She
spent and few seconds breathing deeply and then taking another deep breath
she returned to the room.
First on her order of priorities was the rescue of
Elenah. Picking up the tall beauty
she slung her over her shoulder in a fireman’s carry and hauled her
to the secret room. Taking another
breath she returned and picked up Jahlen.
She wondered as she did so if she was doing the right
thing. After all, she was saving
a woman who only a few days ago had tortured her more brutally and painfully
than she had ever been tortured in her
life. But there was something
about her. Ever since she had
looked into those frightening yellow green eyes she had been strangely
captivated. She set the mysterious
villainess beside Elenah. Both
women were breathing regularly. No
doubt they would soon sleep off the drug.
Now it was time to collect her
prize.
She reentered the room and made her way to the Jade
Dragon. She would have to
hurry. Already she could hear
noises on the other side of the door.
It took her only a few second to release the Jade Dragon from her
chains. Without returning to
the secret room she then dealt with
Scorpion. She took a bit longer,
as the clips had to be detached from her
nipples. Li Mei nodded
approvingly. Chen really knew
how to make things painful for his
victims. Scorpion’s breasts
were badly stretched and the teeth of the clamps had cut into her flesh.
She glanced over to Chen’s
limp body. She had something
for him before she left.
She returned to the hidden room for one more
breath. She suspected that the
air in the room must be clear by now, but she did not want to take any
chances. She would have to hurry
though. It was always possible
that Zhuang or his henchmen might show up in the hidden
passage. By now both Elenah and
Jahlen were stirring. She took
a few minutes to help revive them, gently slapping their faces until their
eyes opened. Both women were
quite confused for a minute or so, but Li Mei was patient with
them. She had to
be. She needed them for the next
part of her plan.
Jahlen experienced a moment of panic as she regained
consciousness. Her last waking
thought had been her escape from her chains with the help of the Black
Leopard. They had been attempting
to get away from Zhuang’s audience chamber, and then she had felt a
strange sensation come over her.
Too late she realized that she had been
gassed. As her eyes refocused,
she was aware that the petite oriental who had tortured her so effectively
and painfully was now trying to slap her
awake. Reaching up, she caught
the wrist of her rescuer, signaling her return to
wakefulness. There was no exchange
of words, just a glance between her and her former
torturer. There was an understanding
in that quick exchange. She would
cooperate with the oriental villainess.
At least for now.
Now that her two companions
were awake, Li Mei explained her plan.
Elenah frowned. She just
wanted to get as far away from Zhuang’s HQ as she could, but Jahlen
smiled. It was the sort of thing
she would have approved of if she had thought of it
first.
Together the three women entered the
room. Loud crashing noises outside
the main door told them that Zhuang’s men were trying to force the
door. Between the three
of them they hoisted the limp bodies of the Jade Dragon and Scorpion from
the room. They left the bodies
of the other three heroines where they lay, but before Li Mei departed, she
performed two tasks. One was
the arduous one of collecting all the canisters of film that Zhuang had stolen
from her and placing them where they would not be found right
away. She hoped that eventually
she would be able to come back for them.
She found a suitable hiding place in the back of the one of the cupboards
containing various unused torture
devices. From the look of it
no one had made use of the equipment in
years. With any luck Zhuang would
never think to look there and would probably suppose that Li Mei had taken
the film with her.
Her last task was more pleasurable and took a little
longer. Elenah was frantic
by the time Li Mei had finished, certain that if they delayed any longer
Zhuang’s men would break through the door and recapture all of
them. Jahlen on the other hand,
was quite pleased to help her out and did not seem to mind the delay in the
slightest. Finally finished to
her satisfaction, Li Mei was ready to
leave.
Li Mei had given Elenah the task of scrounging up some suitable clothing
for them. The leather outfit
Zhuang had provided her with was alright up to a
point. But she wanted something
to cover her breasts more adequately.
The Italian villainess managed to find a few appropriate
outfits. For reasons Li Mei could
only wonder at, Zhuang had a complete wardrobe of women’s clothing,
most of it tight fitting and very
revealing. Quickly she changed
her top and replaced it with a form hugging black silk
blouse. It would do until she
got back to her lair. Elenah
and Jahlen chose suitably comfortable outfits and then the trio headed for
the secret passage.
Li Mei didn’t worry about the other unconscious
heroines. She left them for Zhuang
to deal with or vice versa.
Nova’s belt was gone.
Zhuang must have made off with it.
It would have been interesting to stay and see what was going to happen
to them when Zhuang’s men broke in, but she had other
plans.
Between the three of them they managed to haul the two pregnant heroines
through the secret passage. Elenah
helped a little, but it was Jahlen that was the greatest
asset. The woman possessed amazing
strength. Li Mei made a mental
note to encourage Elenah to develop her physique a little more, and another
never to underestimate Jahlen.
Whenever possible Li Mei scouted
ahead. She had no idea
where the passage went, and at any moment she expected to run into some of
Zhuang’s henchmen. A short
distance along the passage divided.
Not knowing what would be the best choice the three women took the
right hand fork. They went along
for only a few seconds more and the passage divided
again. This time they took the
left fork, reasoning that taking the right would bring them back the way
they had already come. Then the
passage divided several more times.
“We’re going to get lost,” Elenah
wailed. Li
Mei just looked at
her. For a villainess, her companion
was something of a whiner. One
thing the Black Leopard was not worried about was getting
lost. The cat burglar had an
almost unnatural sense of direction.
Actually the twists and turns of the passage were
reassuring. If Zhuang did send
his thugs into the labyrinth it would make it more difficult for them to
find her. Still, she did not
want to wander below Zhuang’s HQ indefinitely, and it was a relief when
the passage went straight for a few hundred feet and then sloped upward,
ending in a metal door.
The door was locked, but it took Li Mei only a few seconds to pick the
lock. Cautiously, she edged the
door open. She found herself
in a dark alley. During her stay
in Zhuang’s HQ she had lost track of day and
night. The darkness was a relief
to her. She had moved within
its soft embrace for so many years that she felt quite at
home. If any of Zhuang’s
men were hanging about they would have a hard time finding
her.
They set down the bodies of the two sleeping
heroines. They had bound their
wrists and ankles just in case they woke up, but the effects of the gas seemed
to be quite powerful. They slept
on like two babes. Li Mei was,
however, getting tired of lugging the two gravid females
around. They were carrying quite
a few extra pounds and it was time to find some other form of transport for
them. She slunk out into the
darkness, motioning for Jahlen and Elenah to stay
put. Creeping to the end of the
alley she spotted a parked car. It
was some sort of Ford. The make
did not matter. It would get
her where she needed to go.
Silently she returned to her waiting
companions. Quickly she explained
her plan, and then dragging the two unconscious heroines with them, they
crept up to the car under the cover of
darkness. Once more her
burglar’s skills proved useful in breaking into the
car. But once in, she had to
make a painful admission.
“Can either of you drive?” she
asked.
Jahlen nodded as did Elenah. Both
women looked at her curiously, and Li Mei found herself
blushing. She had never found
it necessary to learn to drive a car.
One of the Pussies had always done that for
her. “Then let’s get
these cows into the car and away from here,” she said, covering her
embarrassment.
It turned out, however, that although Jahlen could drive she knew nothing
about starting a car without keys.
Surprisingly, it was Elenah who solved the
problem. “Move over,
kids,” she said disdainfully.
Crouching under the dashboard she ripped out a couple of wires and
hot-wired the vehicle. With a
roar the engine came to life. With
the Jade Dragon and Scorpion safely stowed in the back seat, they headed
for the Black Leopard’s lair.
PREVIOUS
CHAPTER WIZARD'S
LAIR MAIN PAGE
L'ESPION'S
STORY PAGE
NEXT
CHAPTER