Dr. Snip Ch. 12

At last via his spy eye, he saw a laundry basket being wheeled out of the rear entrance and being loaded onto a van.

Steve had learned a good lesson from his time with Omega the King's Storm trooper.

Omega was basically a robot with a human brain; his eyes were video cameras that could see in various frequencies.

The one that had been most useful during their mission to rescue the King had been Omega's infrared detector.

This could detect body heat from a distance, and Steve had acquired a set of 26th Century Infrared goggles so he too could detect the body heat of a person.

He jumped to a position in the rear of the building where he had a good view of the laundry basket.

Lowering the goggles he stared intently at the innocent wickerwork container full of sheets for washing.

As he had hoped there was a heat bloom from within the basket.

He could have intervened at this point, but wanted to see if there were any other people involved in this dirty business.

The kidnapped girl was blissfully unaware of what was transpiring.

She had been drugged and was sleeping deeply.

Had Steve seen her struggling in the basket, he would have intervened immediately to save her the stress and fear.

He had a few ways to follow the van, he could have jumped to its roof and hung on.

He had done this once before, and that was once too many times for him.

He had learned that no matter how fast the van drove it couldn't escape him.

He simply followed it using short jumps, never allowing it out of his sight until it turned into a driveway about a mile from the snatch point.

Standing under a shady tree he phased into invisibility, and watched as the basket was rolled into the garage of the building.

Ivan was humming a happy tune, as he rolled the basket through the garage and into the house.

Things had gone well, he had targeted this specific little girl a few days ago and had become familiar with the family's routine.

He knew that they left their children safely sleeping, while they sat outside with friends just a few hundred yards away.

Every half hour they popped back to see if everything was OK.

Ivan had simply waited until they left and forced the door into the girl's room.

Placing a drug soaked cloth over her face; he had placed her in the laundry basket he had brought along for that purpose.

Ivan stole children to order, he was very good at this and had never been caught.

The buyer for this little girl had been very specific, and Ivan considered himself fortunate that he had found the perfect girl.

He had no idea why the buyer wanted her, and couldn't care less.

Ivan worked for money, end of story.

His partner was waiting for him in the bedroom, her name was Elisha and she was from Morocco.

She was useful in calming the young victims fears, the sight of a friendly female face worked wonders.

She also didn't care what happened to the children, once they had been handed over to the buyers.

Dr. Snip stood quietly in a corner of the room, invisible behind the phase field.

He watched as she arranged the girl neatly on the bed, and checked her pulse.

'She will be fine Ivan,' she said smiling at her lover and partner in crime.

'Good, she must not be damaged or we will not get our full money,' he grunted in reply, sitting down in front of his laptop to contact the buyers agent.

Elisha went out into the kitchen leaving the little girl un-observed for a second.

Snip had seen enough, and still phased he gently picked up the child and jumped back to her room.

He laid her back on her bed and tucked her in.

With a rare smile he brushed a lock of her hair away from her forehead, and losing the smile he jumped back to the kidnappers.

Elisha had just returned from the kitchen and was astonished to see the bed empty.

Ivan was concentrating on his computer and hadn't noticed anything.

'Ivan, where is she?' asked the woman.

'Huh, where is who?' he replied looking up from the screen.

'She is safe and well,' said a cold dead voice from the doorway, ' unlike you two,' it continued as cold as a glacier.

Dr. Snip hated child abusers, most of them were male, but now and then he came across a female involved.

The hatred he held for male predators, was a pale flicker compared to the disgust he felt for the female who actively assisted in harming children.

Ivan couldn't believe what he was seeing as a big man in a black leather greatcoat appeared in the corner of the room.

Stepping towards Elisha he drew a big sword, and without any warning thrust his sword completely through the woman's body.

Snip's eyes were cold chips of ice as he watched the shock on Elisha's face transform into blankness, as her life left her.

Snip pulled the sword free of her body, to allow it to slump to the floor.

'What? Who? Why? Spluttered Ivan stunned into incoherence by the visious attack on his lover.

'There was a good chance that a jury would have let your girlfriend off lightly, I couldn't take the chance. Anyway I was being merciful to her,' explained Snip calmly.

'You will soon wish it had been you instead of her.

I realise I have been rude in not introducing myself, before killing your girlfriend.

My name is Dr. Snip, I have just rescued your victim and you are now going to tell me everything you know about your buyer.

You can tell me this whilst remaining in one piece, or you can tell me this minus various parts of your body, it matters not to me.'

Ivan was stunned; this man was standing there ignoring the bleeding body of his lover.

The man was conversing calmly with him, as if Elisha's death was of no importance whatever.

Looking into Snip's eyes Ivan saw the terrible truth.

Snip didn't care about Elisha, and he didn't care about Ivan.

Ivan was in the presence of a monster, he had heard stories about this Dr. Snip and now he knew in his guts that they were all true.

'Fuck you Snip, go to hell,' he snarled in defiance throwing himself at the big man in grief and rage.

His body hurtled across the room, his head intending to hit Snip in the belly and wind him.

Ivan found himself sprawled on the floor; Snip had seemingly flickered to one side.

Ivan screamed in shock and pain, as the sword slashed through his Achilles tendons on both legs crippling him instantly.

'Naughty naughty, that was very rude of you Ivan, tell me who your buyer is and we will see what happens,' remonstrated Snip calmly.

'Fuck you,' repeated Ivan stubbornly.

'Are you right or left handed Ivan?' asked Snip politely.

Ivan dragged himself to a wall and sat against it staring at this cold-blooded killer.

'The reason I ask Ivan, is that you may want to use the keyboard in a minute, and I would hate to remove your favoured hand,' explained the man standing over him.

Ivan experienced a churning in his guts as he watched Snip carefully wipe Elisha's blood off the shining blade of his sword.

It was the calm reasoning manner of Snip that broke Ivan's will.

He had heard about the rapist that Snip had captured, if captured meant amputating both arms and legs.

He knew in his guts that Snip would do the same to him.

Ivan's buyer wouldn't pay him now, so Ivan owed him no loyalty.

He told Snip the web address of the Agent, and waited while Snip fed in the details.

'I will make the meeting instead of you Ivan, if you want to live in one piece you will cooperate fully,' warned Snip coldly.

With Ivan's full compliance, Snip arranged to meet the agent in two hours time at a lonely spot in the country.

The girl would be exchanged for cash then and there.

Dr. Snip was considering killing Ivan, but decided that he might need him in case things went pear shaped.

Where to put Ivan until he knew it was safe to kill him?

Snip suddenly smiled to himself; and without any explanation jumped them to Egypt.

Ivan woke up after passing out from time shock and found himself lying on a cold stone floor, it was black totally black, there was no light at all.

His hand found the blessing of a torch that had been tied to his wrist by Snip.

Switching it on he stared in incomprehension at the world famous sarcophagus that he had seen many times in pictures.

He knew that grave robbers had damaged this sarcophagus, during its long lifetime deep beneath the Pyramid of Cheops.

However this one in front of him showed no such damage, and shining the torch around the room he could see golden objects and grave goods surrounded it.

Stone blocks weighing many tons sealed the room.

Somehow he had been transported here and it seemed that he was in the distant past, between the time of the sealing of this tomb and the arrival of the grave robbers.

The dim light of his torch showed Snips final mercy to Elisha, her body was laying neatly on top of the stone box.

Knowing that Ivan would be safely confined until he needed him, Snip jumped forward to the meeting place to confront the Agent.

The meeting place was a lay-by on a country road well away from the main roads.

It was too beautiful a place to be used for such a filthy purpose.

Steve waited under a tree until at the appointed time a large new motor home pulled into the space and stopped.

The silence as the big diesel engine died; was broken by the song of nearby birds in the trees.

'Cooeee, are you there?' called a clear happy voice from the driving seat of the motor home.

Steve stepped out of the shadow of the tree, and approached the front of the vehicle.

A motherly looking woman studied him approaching, and suddenly her face went white with shock.

He could see that she recognised him, and the engine of the big motor home burst back into life as she frantically tried to drive away from him.

Seeing the front of the vehicle bearing down on him, Snip phased and drew Excalibur.

Standing his ground he lunged forward, the star blade encased in the phase field plunging through the radiator of the vehicle and deep into the engine block.

The impact threw Snip backwards, but the engine died in a scream of sheared piston rods and a spray of coolant as the engine block disintegrated.

As Snip stood up and switched off the phase field, the woman jumped from the wrecked motor home and tried to run away.

Her breath was slammed out of her, as she ran straight into the big man as he appeared in front of her.

'How far do you think you can run with no feet?' she heard a cold voice ask as she lay breathing heavily on the dusty ground.

'I give up, please don't hurt me,' she panted in fear.

'Move and you die' said Snip, meaning every word as he walked towards the vehicle.

He stepped up into it and walked along its length, it had all the family bric a brac that one would associate with a holiday trip with the children. Three young kids were sleeping in the bunks.

Only the box of pills on the side of the galley counter indicated that they were all drugged, to keep them quiet as the motor home travelled across the borders of the countries.

Leaving them sleeping peacefully, he walked back to the woman who had not moved from the spot where he had left her.

Squatting down next to her he studied her coldly.

Outwardly he seemed glacier cold, and without emotion.

However he was boiling with an inner rage at this excuse of a woman who would be involved in this business.

'Listen very carefully, your life depends on it,' he said as a preamble.

'Tell me everything you know about all those kids, I intend to return them to their families with or without your help.

If it is without your help, then you will be dead in the most unpleasant way I can think of.'

The frightened woman almost wet herself at this threat.

She had heard of the monster that called himself Dr. Snip, and her imagination threw up a far worse death than Steve could ever have thought of.

Her greatest fear was of dark underground places and big spiders.

Her will collapsed, and she took him to her motor home and handed him the files on the children present.

The motor home was fitted with a top of the range communications rig. Steve contacted the local police and informed them of the situation.

Upon hearing him identify himself, the policeman on the other end of the phone screamed for his superior to take over the call.

Steve had to repeat the details again, and promised to stay with the motor home until the police arrived.

Whilst waiting for the police to arrive, he had a quiet chat with the terrified woman.

He ordered her to tell the police everything she knew, on pain of a horrible death.

If she lied to protect herself, he would come for her wherever she was and kill her.

Such was his reputation, that she believed this without question.

She still remembered him killing her motor home with that big sword of his.

How the fuck had he done that to her home.

She found herself longing for the sound of the police sirens, and breathed a sigh of relief when the police finally arrived.

Steve climbed into the motor home when he saw the police arrive, to say goodbye to the kids.

They had woken up sleepy and confused, but cheered up when he told them that they were being returned to their families.

Looking out of the windscreen he waved to the approaching police, and stepping back out of sight he jumped back to the pyramid to fetch Ivan.

He found Ivan dead, lying beside Elisha with his wrists cut.

Snip was frankly puzzled; it appeared that perhaps Ivan had thought he had been left here for good to die a lonely protracted death.

Then again he could have simply wanted to die so as to be with his lover.

Either way he had cut his wrists and climbed up to lay down beside her until blood loss had killed him.

The softer part of Dr. Snip that was Steve, hoped that there had indeed been a spark of love for Elisha in Ivan's heart and he hadn't wanted her to lie here alone.

He grinned to himself as he pictured the eventual grave robbers digging their way into this chamber to find the two bodies where there could be no bodies.

He took a last look at the grim tableau, and jumped to the top of the pyramid to catch some sun.

Sitting on the very peak, he scanned the four names of the buyers he had coerced from the woman Agent.

The woman Agent had fallen over herself to tell him about her clients, and the uses that they wanted the children for.

She was a hairs breath away from death when Snip heard the grisly details, but he restrained himself from gutting her by sheer willpower.

He knew she would be put away for a long time, and decided for the moment that that punishment would suffice for her.

However the punishment for the four buyers was another matter.

His face broke out in a smile as he thought of a suitable death for the four men.

All four men were very rich and powerful, and beyond the law to all intents.

He waited until they were alone in their various homes, and approached them individually.

He told them that Ivan and Elisha, the actual kidnappers, wanted a secret meeting to discuss the final payment as the police had arrested the Agent.

He waited until they started to bluster that they had no idea who these people were, before he jumped them to meet the two kidnappers.

Soon four disorientated men were staggering about in the Egyptian tomb wondering out loud as to what was happening.

Light was provided by a lone candle, that Snip had placed in Elisha's cold hands.

He explained the situation to the four men and told them to make the most of the candle, because once it was burnt out there would be no more light for them ever.

Then with a sense of loose ends neatly tied Snip jumped out, leaving the four to die of thirst and terror.

He had an appointment in the 26th Century, but first he jumped in for a quick visit with Alison to tell her the news regarding the missing children.

After basking in her delight at the news, he jumped to Gloria's house to see how she was getting on with the preparations regarding his elevation to the peerage of that Century.

Gloria wasn't there; she was with the King's advisors discussing the finer points of the forthcoming pageant.

Steve saw his dimensional twin Stephen, walking moodily around the lake that occupied a part of the estate that Gloria's mansion nestled in. Seeing that Stephen looked agitated Steve walked over to him.

'Hi Stephen, how are you keeping?' he asked.

'Oh Hi Steve, nice to see you again, I'm keeping very well thank you.

In fact I am so well that I am starting to shake.

I must tell you that I am desperately in love with Gloria.

She is the answer to all my dreams and I think that she loves me too.

Agent Black, or Angel I should say, has been a bit hesitant in discussing Gloria with me.

I assume its because Gloria is her mother, and it could be some 26th Century taboo to talk about matters like this.

You are the only person I can talk too.

Am I stepping on your toes here Steve, I know that you are very fond of Gloria and she of you.'

Steve listened with a wry grin on his face, as Stephen babbled on about his love for Gloria.

He also loved the Queen of Sex, but not like this version of himself.

It was almost impossible not to love her, she was beautiful and sexy and very very friendly.

She would fuck you as soon as look at you, and she had the means to make you desire her above all other women.

Steve had quite a bit of experience regarding the opposite sex, and had fallen in love with Angel and Alison before meeting Gloria.

Despite this experience of falling in love, he had been swept of his feet by Gloria.

Stephen however had been alone for years, and was very vulnerable to any kind of female attention.

Gloria didn't know this, and used the full power of her charms on him.

It was like her cracking a peanut with a sledgehammer.

Stephen was so deliriously happy that it was causing a conflict with his dark side.

He was physically starting to shake, from the wash of emotions that was threatening his self-identity.

Stephen was darkness compared to Steve's light, and when Steve was also Dr. Snip he was still light compared to Stephen.

Steve didn't like what he did as Snip, although he accepted it and took responsibility for his actions as the Vigilante.

Stephen loved what he did, and couldn't wait to go out and slaughter his prey.

Steve was a troubled man, but Stephen was a very dangerous psychopathic sociopath.

This newfound joy was threatening his worldview of himself, and his self appointed mission.

'Can you make my excuses to Gloria please Steve; I simply must get away for a bit.

People to kill don't you know,' whispered Stephen urgently to Steve.

'I understand Stephen,' replied Steve gripping his twin's shoulder firmly.

'Go get them Tiger,' he said bowing to the inevitable.

With a grateful grin Stephen vanished back to the 20th Century to do what he loved best, killing.

There was a Storm trooper that he had a score to settle with.

Steve was saddened, that his twin was finding it hard to simply accept the love on offer here.

Even though Gloria was pregnant with Steve's child, he knew she could and would make his dark twin Stephen a very happy man.

Steve wasn't a fool, and had already seen that Gloria was smitten by Stephen.

Steve was fully loved up by Angel and Alison, and although he loved Gloria it was not the sort of love she craved.

He had hoped that Stephen could give Gloria the love and attention she deserved.

Still it was early days yet, and he would just have to wait and see what happened.

His attention was caught by Gloria; who suddenly appeared in front of him.