by marat
Chapter
Eleven
Commissioner
Warren stood at the high iron gates that marked the property line of the
McLeod-Slaughter mansion. Dressed less fashionably than she was usually seen in
newspaper photos, she was still easily recognisable by the crown of dark blonde
hair piled atop her head. Her tall, thin frame belied her tenacity and the
strength she brought to any brawl, whether political or hidden away in a back
alley.
One of
the guards approached her. Many among Gouyannou’s mob knew her well and had
even spoken with her during her occasional visits to the several headquarters
the gangland chieftain had used scattered about the city of Mitropoulos. She
smiled as the capo, a no-longer-young
man named Mihaliki, approached her whistling a sad theme from a recent popular
film.
‘How are
you this morning, Jimmy?’ she asked, as he unlocked the gate and let it swing
noiselessly open.
‘Well,
ma’am, well,’ he said, smiling warmly. ‘What brings you out here this early?’
‘There
are momentous events taking place inside. I’ve been invited,’ she said softly
as she passed onto the walkway leading toward the mansion. She quickly added,
‘Won’t you be joining us for your boss’s triumph?’
‘Yeah,’
he replied slowly, ‘he wants all of the mid-level management present for the
climax. But only the top echelon is invited for the preliminaries.’
‘Well,
I’ll see you later, then.’ As she walked toward the entrance, the police
commissioner turned back toward the hoodlum and added, ‘Make sure you come by
to see me before the session’s over.’ Jimmy was very bright, and she saw a
future for him if he would just realise his potential.
Gouyannou
apparently also recognised how bright he was. He had frequently talked of
grooming him for bigger things.
‘Will
do, ma’am.’
*****
As Lynn
stepped out of the apartment, she caught herself. Fear for her own safety
tugged at the athletic blonde. If Crimson Flare were indeed again in trouble,
would she be able to contribute anything at all? Would she accomplish nothing
more than putting yet another victim in Gouyannou’s hands? It was even possible
that her presence would further endanger the Champion of Mitropoulos.
She
paused, holding her key in the lock. This might even be a momentous decision,
although it did not seem so right now.
No. She
would have to go. If Crimson Flare’s life was being threatened, she had to be
there to try to help her friend.
*****
On the
main floor of the mansion, Fareed Gouyannou paced triumphantly. All eyes were
on the great man as he surveyed his kingdom. He had captured Mitropoulos’
greatest defender. Currently, his prisoner was beginning her humiliation in the
depths of the prison beneath his feet in the cells of what would soon be his
palace.
Hushed
silence followed him around the ballroom. Gouyannou bathed in its luster,
exulting in his triumph. With the defeat of Crimson Flare, his victory over the
other heroines protecting Mitropoulos was only a matter of time, for was not
this Champion of Women nothing more than the greatest of the obstacles to
absolute power? Defeat the strongest, and the rest will fall. That was
Richelieu’s lesson of La Rochelle. Defeat Crimson Flare; destroy her power;
humiliate her before the world. Do this, and the rest of Mitropoulos’ heroine
corps will give in to his primacy.
‘Sealing’s
half hour will be up in a few more minutes,’ he announced. ‘Who’s next?’
There
was a rush of bids, quickly mounting to a stratosphere of thousands of dollars.
Crimson Flare’s ‘second honeymoon’ cost the buyer $13,000.
He paid
the cash to Gouyannou and impatiently waited for the door to the cells to open.
*****
Maria
bit the neck of Bruce Sealing, desperately seeking to distract him long enough
for Crimson Flare to free herself from her bonds. At the touch of her lips to the
soft, sensitive flesh, the rogue cop inhaled harshly and then groaned. His
embrace became much tighter and he pulled her petite, muscular body against
his; his heightened senses felt her firm breasts crush against his chest. He
plunged again into her, his prick hardening still further, almost to the point
of pain. Maria responded with her own moan, and the two embraced even more
tightly.
Against
his most fervent desire, Sealing felt himself coming inside the lovely Maria
Blakeman. Something in his mind told him that he must restrain himself until he
could also bring the other hostage into play; he should spread the wealth among
both of the lovelies whom he had purchased. But the sensuality of this
dark-haired beauty was more than he ever imagined. He searched for the bound
Champion, fruitlessly, for he couldn’t focus on the wall where the powerless
masked Maiden of Mitropoulos lay. His eyes seemed to be rolling in his head as
he searched for her. Then Maria kissed him full on the mouth; a long, lush, wet
kiss, and her tongue thrust itself as deeply into his mouth as his manhood had
rammed itself into her sopping wet sex. The odours of the grappling couple swam
into his nostrils, and his excitement at the sensuality surrounding him
escalated still more. He entwined his legs around her long silken legs and he
felt his captive stiffen in his grip.
Dizziness
enveloped Maria as she fought against the pure desire for carnal pleasure that
wrapped the policewoman in its spellbinding embrace. She must not give in to
her own desire! Crimson Flare must have the time she needed to escape!
But
Maria could not hold off the physical demands of her own body. She slid her
legs up to his hips, and she locked her heels against his thighs, just below
his ass. Then she pulled him toward her and deeper into her simultaneously. As
his engorged prick traveled even that small distance, she felt the raw
sensation of sexual stimulation.
‘Ghah!’ she breathed, almost choking in
ecstasy. ‘Grrrooouuuughhh!’ she growled, animal-like, and this time when
she kissed him, she did so because she wanted to taste his sweat, to tear away
at his skin with her nails, to pull his body fully into hers to create a single
organism.
Sealing’s
mouth slid down from Maria’s and clamped against her throat. His lips, teeth,
and tongue played over the soft skin, and he enjoyed an oral satisfaction he
had not experienced since infancy. The salty sensation of her perspiration
excited him no end, and then he shifted his attention from her neck to her
nipple as the irresistible urge overcame his desire for yet another partner.
His head pitched awkwardly downward and he wrapped his mouth around the brown,
marble-hard aureole. He squeezed her with his teeth, not biting her but rather
enjoying the supple firmness of the mammary. Brushing his tongue across the
teat he felt the soft and hard contrasts of this amazing woman’s body in that
microcosm.
He
moaned a long anguished sigh. He knew that his half hour was soon coming to an
end.
And he
still had to fuck Crimson Flare! The thought flashed across his mind like a
bolt of lightening.
Where
was she?
Releasing
his grip on Maria’s breast, his lifted his head to search for the other
captive.
Suddenly…
he knew where she was.
*****
The
weakness that had gripped Crimson Flare as a result of the bonds at her wrists
did not, as she had hoped, gradually diminish as the ropes were cut away. In
the earlier manifestation of her weakness, as the ropes had been cut, there was
a gradual increase in her strength, so that the cuts became stronger, cleaner,
and deeper as she freed herself and the heroine could feel her progress in her
own body. As a result of the recent changes in her body and in her weakness,
however, now she remained in that same dreadfully weakened condition throughout
her bondage, and it was only when the final strand was cut away that Crimson
Flare’s immense power returned, all at once.
And,
also as a result, dizziness attacked the beautiful masked Maiden with a
suddenness and a fierceness for which she was unprepared. She placed her gloved
hand back against the wall to steady her swaying body; she closed her eyes as
the room swirled.
But that
dizziness was only brief.
Her
strength came crashing back to her and Crimson Flare, the Champion of Women,
quickly rose from the floor. She briefly looked down on the ropes that had
stolen her strength, but then she turned her attention to the writhing couple
only two meters in front of her. She stepped up behind Bruce Sealing, whose
treason had brought her down, and grabbed him by the hair.
*****
Maria
skreaked when Bruce Sealing was plucked from her embrace. There is no other
word to describe the sound that issued from the throat of the ecstatic young
woman as the man was pulled from her arms and from inside her so suddenly. The
violent movement had a sensual, sexual, erotic element for Maria Blakeman, and
she found, when she returned to awareness, that her own fluids had not yet
ceased. Her breathing was ragged and excited and she desperately tried to
return a modicum of control over her own body.
It took
a few minutes to do so.
When
awareness came back to the policewoman, she saw only the results of Crimson
Flare’s work. The broken body of Bruce Sealing lay in the corner of the cell,
an arm and a leg each bent at an impossible angle; his eyes were closed and his
countenance was a fearful grimace, facing straight ahead.
Crimson
Flare seemed subdued. She was speaking to Maria, though Maria only now became
aware of what the heroine was saying.
‘…I
usually do. But what he did, threatening not just me—I could probably take
that, understand that—but he also put your life in danger, maybe even killed
your partner already…. But, even so, it was just a flick of the wrist…. Lynn and I have learned that my strength is
much greater than it was. I didn’t realise…’ She stopped and sighed.
‘Uh,
Crimson Flare?’ Maria interrupted, embarrassed. ‘Are you all right?’
‘All
right?’ the masked Maiden asked, absently. ‘Yes… yes,’ she went on, ‘yes,
finally I am all right.’ Her voice became stronger, her eyes clearer as she
spoke. ‘Are you OK?’
‘Yes.
Now.’
‘We need
to bring this to an end,’ the heroine said evenly. ‘The police were supposed to
be here to handle the arrests, once I had freed you and Tim. They were even
supposed to get all the credit for destroying Gouyannou’s gang.’ She paused,
her anger evident. ‘Apparently, they’re not coming.’
‘What
are you going to do?’ Maria sounded worried. ‘You’re all alone here.’
‘What I
should have done about all criminals when I started. Do you know I went for a
year before I even injured a criminal? It was months after that before I
finally killed one. And that was unintentional.’
She
stepped toward the door of the cell, opened it slightly and looked out. The
hallway was quiet and empty.
‘This
mob must be fought with the same weapons they use.’
Maria
didn’t like what she was hearing. ‘Then what will make you different from them?
If you use the same weapons and tactics, don’t you see you’ll be the same thing
they are? You have to stand for something better, the same thing you’ve always
stood for. It was that something better that made me become a cop.’
‘But
what they did to you… to Tim… by the way, is he still alive?’ From behind her
mask, Crimson Flare looked accusingly at Maria.
‘They
beat and…’ her voice dropped, ‘…raped… me. Tim’s life may only be hanging by
the slenderest thread. But we’re cops. We signed on to take the chance that we
would be putting our lives and safety in danger… that we could make Mitropoulos
safer, better.
‘You put
on that mask and costume to do the same thing. You must have understood that
there was danger in doing so. Or did you assume that your strength and power
would save you from that?’
The
heroine paused. ‘I…,’ she said softly. ‘I think… we should finish this later.’
Maria
looked sharply at the heroine: her heroine. No one had exercised more
influence over her in her entire life. Now, Crimson Flare stood before her and
the two of them were going to be locked in a desperate battle for their lives.
They would be dependent on one another. There was no room for doubt about the
actions each would take. One misstep could kill them both.
‘Can I
trust you to do the right thing?’ Maria asked, almost hesitantly.
There
was a long pause. Finally, Crimson Flare smiled at her friend and said, ‘Hey,
if you can’t trust a superheroine, who can you trust?’
*****
In the
ballroom, patience as the first half-hour neared its end was starting to wear
thin. Sealing should return shortly, in the next few minutes. When the second
‘winner’ would disappear to the cells, Sealing, everyone knew, would regale
them with his triumph. Most of it probably would be true, or at least that was
the hope.
Gouyannou
smiled. Favours dropped from his fingers like fruit from trees in autumn. Even
though Sealing would be the centre of attention upon his return, they all knew
where the power was, where the opportunity to take so much pleasure in this
experience had its source.
And here
was another worshipper at the altar! ‘Commissioner Warren! How nice of you to
drop by!’
‘Fareed,’
the tall woman smiled.
They
clasped hands and embraced, each offering an air-kiss. They were both smiling
broadly throughout the conversation.
‘So
you’ve finally got that masked slut under control?’ Warren asked softly. ‘It
seems she slipped free of you earlier.’ She was thinking of the call received
at police headquarters as she was leaving, on which she had prevented any
action being taken.
‘She’ll
be dead in an hour. What are your plans?’
The
Police Commissioner seemed to ponder the question briefly, then spoke quickly.
‘Her body will be found at the scene of this morning’s explosion and fire at
the Huddleston Armaments plant. I’ll see to it that she’s blamed for the
destruction that has put a serious crimp in our nation’s defense projects.’
‘There’s
a fire at Huddleston? No, I would have known about that.’
‘It will
occur in about two hours.’
‘Ah,’
replied Gouyannou breathlessly. He didn’t trust Warren. By playing both ends
against the middle, serving as both Police Commissioner and a contact for the
Mitropoulos underworld, she was taking a measure of risk. But the
risk-versus-rewards ratio, for her, was very high. Political power and money! Even Gouyannou did not
realise that kind of return.
*****
Lynn
pulled up down the block from the mansion. Then she sat in her car, suddenly
realising that she didn’t really have a plan. What was she going to do? Rush
into the mansion and save Crimson Flare and the others? Even Karen wouldn’t be
so reckless.
The high
iron gate, the patrolling sentries, the weapons they carried: all militated
against any action whatsoever.
But she
couldn’t do nothing! She sat back in
her seat, staring at the estate. The fence, the gate—those weren’t the way to
go. She stepped out of the car and suddenly realised that her casual,
pastel-coloured clothing were also not going to help things.
On the
other hand, it allowed her to move freely down the street. Dressed as she was,
she’d arouse no suspicion from the sentries.
She
walked toward MacLeod-Slaughter, on the other side of the street, looking
indifferently at the house and the guards. They seemed to pay little attention
to her. Once the gate was behind her, and the guards out of sight in front of
the house, she sprinted across the street and began to investigate whether
there was access to the grounds somewhere along the iron fence and hedges that
marked the edge of the property.
Then,
from inside the house, came the sound of muffled gunfire.
End of
Chapter Eleven
Comments, questions, suggestions
welcome: contact the author at marat1793@comcast.net
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