Fabula, sed vera Ch. 01

Five minutes later I placed her in the passenger seat of the car and then walked to the other side and got in behind the wheel, where I leaned back and relaxed for a moment.

Nu Tian looked at me with frightened eyes. "Why are we not driving?"

"Because I need a few moments to relax." I said as I reached into the glove compartment and took out two chocolate bars. "You want one?"

"No, I want to drive to the house!"

"You will have to wait a bit." I removed the paper from the bar. "I'm not used to fighting and I need to stop shaking, before we drive anywhere." I looked at her and said mildly. "Take it easy, Tian. You will get to the house."

She shook her head. "You do not understand. If I am not there before midnight, they will kill my sister!"

I glanced at the clock as I took a bite from the chocolate bar. Technically it's not a chocolate bar, it's a protein bar designed for people who work out a lot, but they are covered with chocolate and taste really good. I developed a taste for them during rehab and I must admit that I eat quite a lot of them. Especially when I've used up a lot of energy like right after training or like right now.

"It's only ten o'clock, so we got more than enough time." I took another bite. "Is your sister in the house you're going back to?"

"Yes. We share a room." She shivered. "When they took me out on the street today, two of them stayed in the house with Fei. It was supposed to be her first turn tomorrow."

I thought about the complications for a moment. "Has anybody besides those eight guys you talk about seen you or your sister?"

She shook her head. "Not that I know."

I sighed. "Excuse me for asking, but how did you end up in a situation like that?"

It took me a while to get the story out of her and tragic as it was, it was a story that had been in the news many times before and most likely would be again: After normal childhood and youth in a small city in China, her family had died in a mudslide, leaving the two sisters with some money.

Having nothing to hold them in China they had decided that they needed a better life in the west instead of being married to some idiots in the city. So, they contacted some smugglers that promised to deliver them to a new life in England for a large amount of money. However, the new life the sisters got was one of slavery and prostitution.

The only thing that differed from the usual story was that they had arrived less than a week ago and that the guys that had bought them were a bunch of amateurs when it came to the slave trade. Sad as it was, making slaves out of people is a craft that takes an expert, just like it takes a dog trainer to train a dog.

On the bright side, the person she described as the leader sounded a lot like the guy with the baseball bat, which hopefully meant that the leader of the gang was currently becoming one with garbage.

I ate one more chocolate bar, while Nu Tian was talking and when she was finished I felt a lot better. The fact that it took almost half an hour to get the story out of her also helped, and when she was finished with the story, I took out my cell phone and switched it off, while I remembered it.

Where we were going, I didn't need people to call me and besides that, cell phones can be traced, which I needed even less.

Then I started the car, and we were off.

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The drive to the house had taken less than fifteen minutes, so we were in good time when I parked the car under a broken streetlight on the other side of the road some distance away.

Nu Tian made a motion for the door, but I stopped her with a hand on her arm.

"Please sit here for a moment." I said as I took on my gloves and took the cane from beside the seat. "I will go have a look."

She looked at me in surprise. "Why?"

I smiled a bit. "Because you can't walk without help and it will make me feel better if I do."

For a moment she looked like she was going to say something, but then she just nodded and handed me the cane.

I opened the door and got out of the car, while looking at the house.

There was light in some of the windows, others were shut up with boards, the walls were cracked in several places and in general the whole area looked ready for some city renewal program. On the bright side, the street was empty.

I walked slowly past the house down the road while studying it discreetly, looking for some kind of security measures. Not that I was certain that there were any, but it was what I would have done, if it were me that was about to engage in something like slavery.

As it turned out it was a wise move because I discovered two security cameras on the front of the building and one on the side.

I stopped to brush some dirt off my jacket and at the same time concentrated briefly on heating the nearest camera. It went up in smoke two seconds later and I continued walking down the road as I used Cryokinesis (My ability to cool things down) to cool the camera down again so it wouldn't set fire to the building, while wondering if the gangers in the house would come out to check the camera or not.

The greatest problem with trying to save Nu Tian's sister wasn't the two gangers by themselves. I was pretty sure that I could handle them if I took them by surprise but doing it without people seeing and perhaps even filming a telekinetic in action, was quite another matter. This wasn't a dark back alley, where the only possible witnesses were a few junkies.

I wondered if I should call the police. Unfortunately, calling the police would require that I explained how the five other gangers came to their final rest in a garbage container, which I couldn't do. At least not in a way that would satisfy them.

I continued to walk, but nothing happened at the house.

Guessing that they weren't watching the security system at all, I fried and then cooled the other two cameras, just in case they were recording, while I walked a bit further down the road.

When I was out of sight from the house, I stopped to think for a moment. I needed to get inside the house without getting shot or killed and without using obvious powers. The gang members' head piercings meant that I couldn't use telepathy either and to make matters worse I was running out of time.

An idea from a movie popped into my mind and the thought was so crazy that I started to smile.

Bluffing was a gamble, but it might just work, and it wouldn't be the first time I have relied on it. Of course this time it wasn't just a business deal, but a question of life and death. Thinking it over for a few minutes I quickly made a plan and then started to walk back to the house.

When I reached the door, I knocked on it with the cane and waited.

A few moments later the door was opened just a bit and a dark-haired young man showed his pierced face. "What the fuck do you want?"

"Good evening." I bowed slightly. "I represent the Yu family of the Wong Triad and I would like to have a moment of your time." I smiled pleasantly at him. "And I have to advise you to take that moment, since it could spare you from a premature and rather violent death."

He blinked a few times in surprise, while I wondered if I had used too many long words, but then he stopped blinking and growled. "Explain!"

"I am not sure that this is the place to explain such things, since it concerns the two young women that are presently... eh... guests in this house."

That got his attention and he opened the door up, holding his right hand hidden behind his back. "Get in."

Smiling politely, I stepped into the hallway and heard the door close behind me.

Then I felt a gun being pressed against the back of my head and the guy growled. "One wrong move an' you're dog food, smartass!"

I remained calm. It wasn't likely that he would try anything before I had a chance to say anything. "Shall I raise my hands, or should they remain where they are?"

"Walk through the door and shut up."

Obediently I walked through the door that he indicated and found myself in a living room. Or perhaps I should say, the remains of a living room, because it had certainly seen better days, which was a shame since it was a nice room by itself. It even had a fireplace, but then again I had discovered that most homes in England have one.

"Put your hands on the wall."

I placed my cane against the wall and then placed my hands there as well.

He searched me for weapons, but as I didn't have any, all he came up with was a chocolate bar in my inner pocket.

He held it up, but before he could ask anything I said, "It's a chocolate bar. You may have it if you want to."

He took it with a grunt and stepped backwards. "Turn around but try anything and you are dead."

I turned around at the same time as he shouted. "Alex! We have company!"

That wasn't in my plan as I had hoped to get them one at a time and by surprise.

The words 'Malum consilium quod mutari non potest' (Latin: 'A plan that cannot be changed is a bad one.') ran through my head. I did however have another plan ready, so I waited in silence as heavy footsteps sounded. Then a door opened, and a large skinhead dressed in military boots, camouflage trousers and a black t-shirt walked into the room. As the others he had three piercings in the forehead.

He stopped when he saw the other guy pointing a gun at me. "What the fuck is going on, man? What's that Suit doing here?"

"He said something about the girls an' some Triad thing that you might wanna hear."

That got the other man into action and he walked closer to me. "Start talking, Suit."

"As I told the other gentleman, I represent the Yu family of the Wong Triad and I have been asked to talk with you. " I tilted my head a bit. "You do know of the Wong Triad, right?"

They nodded slowly as I knew they would. The Triads is the Chinese version of the Mafia and like the mafia, has been made famous and infamous by countless movies. More to the point, the Triads were operating here in London and while I had no idea if there was a Wong Triad, the name sounded Chinese enough to make them pause.

"Good. Now I know that you have two young girls as your guests here, but unfortunately, there has been a slight mistake as the two girls are not the ones that you were supposed to have." I made a slight pause to let it sink in and then continued. "Your guests happen to be the daughters of a prominent member of the Yu family and said member is very concerned about getting them back."

The one that was called Alex took two steps forward and to my great delight took hold in the front of my jacket. "That's a fucking lie. They said that they were from a poor family!"

I could feel that he wasn't going to change his opinion about that no matter how good my story was, so I slowly placed my gloved hand over his and said in a cold voice. "I will ask you nicely to take your hand off me."

My attempt to intimidate him didn't work out. It's hard to intimidate people like him when you're not physically imposing, which I am not.

He chuckled. "Or you would do what, Suit?"

I concentrated for a short moment and hoped that the guy wouldn't hear anything as the safety on the gun softly clicked over to 'safe', while I said. "For the last time, take the hand of me."

"No suit is going to order me around." He declared and lifted his other hand as if to hit me.

With telekinesis, I grabbed his hand right where my hand was and squeezed.

He screamed and let go of me as the pressure made the bones in his hand break into so many pieces and he went to his knees as I let go of his hand again both telekinetically and physically.

The other man looked at me in shock for a moment and then tried to pull the trigger on his gun. It didn't work and at the same time I made a small grabbing motion with my hand as I reached out with telekinesis to grab him. To my amazement he must have felt the pressure because he avoided it and continued to try firing the gun.

Shifting my attention to the weapon, I got hold of that instead and yanked it out of his hand. It landed in the far end of the room.

He looked wide eyed at it for a moment and then followed it in a jump that ended rather sudden when I sent the table into him with a slight motion of a hand. Both man and table crashed into the wall with a loud bang.

A fist connecting with the bullet proof vest made me step backwards and reminded me that I shouldn't ignore an opponent if I wanted to stay alive. Not even an opponent whose right hand was crushed.

The guy named Alex was struggling to his feet, while looking at me with both fury and pain in his eyes.

Reacting on instinct, I made a short pushing movement with my hand as my brain sent out a Slam attack. The Slam attack is something that has been used as a defensive move in my family for a long time.

It's a simple attack, since all you have to do is to send out energy the same way a shield is created, but instead of gathering the shield around you, you send it into the opponent. If you're strong enough, it will push your opponent away from you, so that you have time to do something... like finding your gun in your pocket or something.

It doesn't do that much damage, so pushing the opponent away is all that it is good for. Unless you are a very strong telekinetic like me, in which case they might not get hurt by the blow itself but hitting a nearby wall sure as hell would.

Alex was no exception to that, since he hit the wall with enough force to break his skull before he fell headfirst to the floor with a wet smack.

I stood still for a moment, trying to catch my breath. Using telekinesis on living people always takes a lot of energy.

Then I went to see the other guy and as I had expected, he was dead as well. I sighed. I would have preferred to keep him alive, in case I needed to ask him some questions, like if I couldn't find the girl, but it's difficult to control how hard a flying table hits or how much damage a body takes when hitting a wall.

I checked his wallet just to see if he had any ID and found a driver's licence in the name of Allan Richards as well as four hundred pounds. I pocketed the money and placed the wallet in his pocket again before I walked over to the other guy, while avoiding stepping in the blood on the floor and looked at the body with a sigh. I've seen worse at the hospital and during my education, but it still wasn't a pretty sight.

I listened for a moment, but no one came running, so I looked at his wallet as well.

The ID said that his name was Alex Schmidt and the five hundred pounds in the wallet told me that he most likely earned his money in a less than legal fashion.

As before I took the money and dropped the wallet on the dead man, before I walked out of the room in search of the girl.

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She wasn't on the ground floor, but it was not entirely fruitless, since I did find a room that held the recorder system for the security cameras on the outside as well as one that had been hidden in the hallway. I took the tape out of the machine and placed it into the inner pocket of my jacket, while thanking them silently for using a system that ran on small DV-tapes instead of the big old VHS-tapes.

The thanks grew a bit more sincere when I discovered that there were six more tapes that also went into various pockets, as they might show the police that two women were here. If it had been a VHS system, I would have needed a bag.

I took the stairs to the second floor and started my search again. The first room was a bedroom, but it was empty.

The next room had perhaps been a bathroom once, but now it looked more like a crazy scientist's lab, with chemicals and glass everywhere. I haven't seen one before, except on television, but I guessed that it was a drug lab for making homemade drugs.

Next room was a bedroom that was dirty, but empty and the same with the room after that. That left only one room and the door into that room was locked with a bar on the outside.

Smiling to myself I quietly removed the bar, but then stopped. If the girl really was in there, I needed to clean the place up before I got her out.

Placing my hand on the door, I concentrated for about ten seconds and then sent my sense of sight forward. It sounds strange, but when done correctly, I can usually see through things if they're not too thick. The door wasn't and a moment later I could see the inside of the room.

A young Chinese woman was lying under a blanket on a dirty bed. She might be sleeping, because she was very still, but in any case, she looked battered and bruised and was chained to the bed. On the other side of the room was another bed with chains, but this one was empty.

Satisfied I retracted my senses and walked downstairs again to do some cleaning.

First, I lifted the two gangers into the kitchen one by one and placed them on the floor in a corner, where they were out of sight from the living room. Then I searched them to find the keys to the chains that held the girl, but the only keys they had were house keys, which I pocketed, since the door upstairs might be locked with a key as well as the bar.

There wasn't much more I could do, so I walked out of the kitchen and was on my way to the stairs, when it suddenly dawned on me that I never looked in the room under the stairs.

I opened the door and found myself on the top of a staircase. The house had a basement.

Feeling like hitting myself for not thinking about that earlier, I found a light switch and turned on the light before I slowly walked down.

The staircase ended in a small hallway, with two doors.

There was no way I would go in there blind, so I touched the door, concentrated, and sent my sense forward again. It was a storage room, with some closets and racks.

Retracting my senses, I stepped over to the other door and did the same there.

Behind the door lay what looked to be a SM dungeon, complete with just about everything a sadist or a masochist could dream of.

Normally I don't mind stuff like that as long as the people using it all liked it, but somehow, I doubted that the acts committed in there had been between 'consenting adults', which made the room transform from a room of sex-games to one of torture.

The worst part was that it wasn't empty.

A slim brunette with large breasts was blindfolded and bound to a table, while a naked man, with the same piercings as the rest of the gang, was whipping her breasts with a leather strap. There were bleeding wounds on her shoulder and judging from her facial expression she was screaming in pain, but no sound penetrated the door.

I looked at the walls again. They and the ceiling were covered with some kind of soundproof material... which along with the woman's scream explained why the guy hadn't heard the noise from the fight upstairs.

I considered my options for a moment. Though highly unlikely, there was always the remote possibility that this was a sex-act between two people, who liked that kind of games.

Unfortunately, my powers do not work through doors or other solid materials unless another part starts the mind contact, so I had no way of knowing for sure if it was torture or sex that was going on in there. At least not until I opened the door and found out, and there was no way in hell I would let that shit go on if it wasn't sex.

I waited until the guy had his ugly ass in my direction and opened the door as slowly as I could to avoid making noise. A well-known sensation rippled down my spine: A disturbance in the force as we say in my family. It was the sensation of somebody else using psychic powers.

I blinked in surprise as I realized that not only was the bastard enjoying causing pain and terror to the woman, but he was also loving it so much that he read her emotions with telepathy while doing it! That was really sick.