Ingrams & Assoc 5: Personality Flaws Ch. 04

April sat, shivering. She'd endured the daily rape – although to her, it was still the first – and she'd eaten. But it was still cold. She'd found herself in a new clinical issue T-shirt and what her friend Megan laughingly described as 'granny panties'. At least they were clean.

She'd eaten, and it was later that the door opened and Marcus Baker was framed in the door. It was just him, and he stood in the door, talking to someone outside, then turned to her, giving her his ghastly smile.

Something happened to April in that instant. She felt longing for this man, for her to please him and at the same time, she had sudden full and instant recall of everything that had happened to her. Every detail, spilling into her consciousness like being dropped into bitterly cold water. All the rapes, all the visits from Baker, the slow seduction, his pleasuring her, and her hunger to pleasure him in return. The slow way it had started with him masturbating her, to her encouraging him, to her being allowed to suck him, a lackey by her side holding a stun prod next to her ready to jolt her if she decided to use her teeth. How it had moved to him fucking her, slowly, carefully, and her pleasure at his touch.

The evening programming sessions, with the screen. She could remember everything drilled into her from those video sessions, how the messages were repeated in a variety of ways, from pure video, to music, including random images as well as weird coloration settings.

She remembered the injections, the incense, the instructions to forget each new day, but with the subliminal programming remaining in place, and being built on, session to session – she remembered it all.

The recall was instant and brutal and it was almost physical, the way it hit her. It was like a cold bucket of water being dumped on a sleeping human – that sudden and painful instant awareness, which you are powerless to resist.

She gasped and lurched forward and Baker's eyes narrowed in a frown. The thing for April was that she was struggling with both the realization of what had been done to her, but also with the results. Even knowing what a repugnant human being this man was, she still wanted to please him, to be what he desired. Knowing you are programmed doesn't stop you from actually being programmed.

For the first time she suddenly understood the look that she had seen on Lee Hicks' face when she'd first seen him in the cage. The look of pure agony and disgust, which then turned to longing and desire when his eyes hit the person he was programmed to want. She got it, understood it in the root of her personality. She knew where it came from.

And with that, her irresistible will, her need for justice, her hunger for revenge, it burst forth from the back of her mind, where it had been relegated, overcoming the programming. She just suddenly realized she could do what she needed to. She also understood instinctively she would only get one chance at this. She had been here for weeks now, and her programming was almost complete. It was only the time bomb of the small compulsion that Chandra had installed, buried deep, to remember everything when the time was right. She didn't know how Chandra had done it, but he had programmed her with a key that unlocked when her brain sensed opportunity. The time was right. The time was now. The time was right because, for the very first time, Doctor Marcus Baker was alone, and the door was still open.

April knew her behavior was off, so she did the only thing she could think of – she threw herself at him, prostrating herself at the ground. It threw off his suspicions, made it hard for him to look her in the eyes and most importantly, it kept him in the doorway.

"There there, little girl," he murmured, crouching down to look at her, drawing her up onto her knees, looking concerned at her. She looked up at him, saw his eyes and realized she could easily be lost in them, and did the only thing she could.

She head butted him as hard as she could in the crotch, driving her head into him.

He 'oooofed', and doubled over instantly. She stood, driving the top of her head into his rapidly descending face, and feeling his nose crack.

His face jerked up, spraying blood everywhere, and she took one last strike at Baker, driving her knee into his crotch a second time, just to make sure.

Baker collapsed onto the floor, drawing into a fetal position, his hands between his legs, whimpering.

April looked down coldly. She was operating on pure emotion, and she had none for this man. She knew what he was, what he'd done to her, and she had to fight herself to not just beat him to death there and then. While it was a nice idea, she needed to get out. "Soon', she promised herself. Doctor Marcus Baker and her would meet again, and he'd get his.

She stepped over his prostrate body and as she did so, an alarm went off, warbling loudly.

She knew there was someone else outside the door; Baker had been talking to someone. She needed to be aware.

Outside the door was a standard corridor. There was an LCD monitor outside the door, showing the inside. There were obviously cameras everywhere, so they knew she was out and they'd be sending everyone and everything they could at her.

She needed to move. It didn't matter where, just move. Don't think, just move and react. Trust her instincts and training.

She lurched forward, and suddenly stopped as she saw a shadow flicker around the corner. A man came around the corner, wearing white and holding a stun prod. His eyes widened when he saw April standing, hands and fingers at the ready, a wild look in her eyes. She saw him at the same moment and instantly recognized him as one of the men who had raped her repeatedly. Taking this guy down was going to be an absolute pleasure. The power and strength to do it came to her, courtesy of the anger that flooded her on recognizing this man.

He leapt forward, yelling, thrusting the stun prod out at her stomach. She easily sidestepped, turning her body so she was face to face with him. Without even thinking about it, she took his outstretched arm, and held it so the prod pointed away from her, and then she viciously elbowed him in the face for a second time in the time she'd known of his existence. And then a third time, and then a forth, for good measure. By this point, the blood was spurting and he was entirely out on his feet.

Because she was running on full adrenaline, and because she remembered all that this man had done to her, she took the arm she was holding and broke his wrist, twisting his forearm so the entire forearm shattered. It would never be the same again, even with steel implants. It was a malicious act, but April remembered the sadistic glee he had taken in raping her, and as far as she was concerned, he was just lucky she didn't rip his balls off in the process. The fact that she didn't have a tool to do it, and it would take too long was entirely co-incidental.

The man himself just dropped, the sudden pain too much to cope with, and he passed out instantly.

April let him drop and paused only to pick up the cattle prod. It wasn't much of a weapon, but it was something.

She had no idea where she was going, only that she had to keep moving to get out. She passed other rooms with small LCD monitors outside, displaying the interiors. Most rooms were empty, but there were one or two where the monitors showed people inside. When she first saw an occupied room, she actively hovered for a moment, debating pulling them out and taking them with her. But then she considered that she had no idea of the state of their conditioning; they may well try to stop her, and she'd have to subdue them as well. Plus, they would be a drag. It would be better to get out without having to worry about someone tagging along, and then come back later with proper reinforcements.

She rounded a corner and suddenly found herself facing a huge wall-sized window. It was either early morning or twilight, as the sun was just at the horizon. It was hard to tell what direction she was facing because of that, but London was spread out in the distance, lights twinkling. She could see the shard in the distance, and the top of the London Eye, and the Telecom tower, among other landmarks. She just wasn't familiar enough with London to be able to tell where the tower block she was in was located. But it was London, - that much was obvious. She was up high. At least the thirtieth floor.

As she stood and stared at the view, she suddenly became aware of motion reflected in the glass. It was blurry and indistinct, and she turned and as she turned, she dropped into a crouch.

It was just in time, because two cattle prods reached out and almost collided with her head, intended for where her chest had been a moment before. There were two men moving up on her, and both were armed with the now ubiquitous cattle prods. She knew she couldn't deal completely with both men at once, but if she went after one, the other could prod her. She needed a plan. Improvising, she leaned back in her crouch, falling on her back, freeing up both feet, that she then planted, one foot per man, on their shins, kicking out as hard as she could. She had enough force and enough resistance, her back being pushed up against the window, that both men fell in heaps after one of their legs were effectively removed from under them.

April sprang to her feet, still running on adrenaline, but with no clear plan of how to deal with both men. She leapt up into the air and came down hard on the ankles of one of them, who was trying to get up. She landed with a sickening crunch, and the man howled in pain, immediately dropping the prod and sitting up to reach towards his mangled feet.

While it had been particularly effective in removing one obstacle, when she landed, April landed awkwardly, her balanced disturbed by landing on the unevenness of the man's ankles. She fell sideways, and she did her best to reach out and steady herself on the fall, but in doing so, she also dropped her cattle prod. By the time she had rolled and started to get up, she was aware that the other man was already up and reaching out for her, with his electric weapon.

And, in the speed of the moment, she understood that she wasn't going to be able to get away. She had nothing to defend against the prod, and if it touched her, it was game over. Her escape was done.

But then there was a soft 'putt' noise, and suddenly the man dropped on the floor, his eyes widening with surprise and then pain. There was another noise and a small black object bounced off his chest at great speed, a gasp of air escaped him as it did so.

Then she looked back, past the body of the shot man, and saw another figure, this time swathed in black, with body armor, a helmet, a GoPro camera attached to the helmet and a face covered in ski mask. He was holding a large caliber weapon of some sort fitted on a harness that went around his body.

He came slowly out of the corridor, out of the corner, moving slowly and precisely. While noticing April, and covering her with his weapon, he moved immediately to the incapacitated man on the ground, and, slinging the gun around his body by the harness, he pulled out a small air syringe, similar to the one Baker had used on April, and leaned down and pushed it against the man's neck, injecting him with something or other.

After checking that the man was not recovering consciousness, he quickly moved across to the other man, the one April had already incapacitated, and repeated the action with the syringe. Then he grabbed his weapon, and took out a small shell like object from a belt pouch, and reloaded them by breaking the barrel off from the main trigger housing, almost exactly as you would reload a double barreled shotgun. He carefully removed the expended shell casing from the weapon, before shoving the replacement shell in its place. He even picked up the small projectiles they had fired, putting them in another pouch in his jerkin.

After this work was performed, he grabbed his weapon, and then turned his attention to April, recoiling in surprise when he studied her face. His immediate statement shocked her.

"April? Is that you?"

April, by now, was standing and having picked up the stun prod, was holding it protectively in front of her. She was in a combat stance and ready to start slashing and prodding the moment she felt threatened, gun or no gun. She was taking nothing for granted, not after everything she had been through.

The man dropped the large weapon, which then slung around his body, joining another also slung around him, and spread his hands, saying, "April, it's me... We are so glad to find you."

Slowly, he moved his hands up to his face, rolling back the balaclava, and April looked into the wide smiling face of Dan Boutrous.

"Dan?" she said, hesitantly, still clutching the stun prod. "Is that...really you?"

"In the flesh, darlin', in the flesh," he replied, delightedly. He then moved his hand to talk into the palm, saying excitedly, "Hawk three, hawk three to Trap. I have the dove in hand. Repeat, the dove is in hand. I need back up to get her out. I'm on floor twenty-seven, quadrant two. Repeat, floor twenty-seven, quadrant two."

He turned his attention back to April and said, "We've been looking for you ages. So glad we finally found you. I guess you are responsible for the alarm, right? That's why we came in. We've been watching this place for a few days now, trying to figure out the best way to get in..."

He suddenly realized that he was babbling, and he needed to get April out.

Dan noticed April studying his weapons, and said, proudly, "Attenuated Energy Projectile. Plastic bullets, basically. Incapacitates but doesn't wound."

He patted the gun.

"Standard issue with the Met Police firearms unit. I'd be happy to show you..." then he realized the situation – this was no place for weapons pride - and returned to the issues at hand

"But let's get you out, first," he said. As he did so, another movement drew their attention, as another man in white stepped around the corner, brandishing a shotgun.

Dan immediately raised his weapon, going down on one knee to both steady it and also to present less of a target. A shotgun was a scatter weapon and the smaller he could make himself, the better if he was on the receiving end of a blast.

The shotgun swung up, aiming more at April than him, but thankfully Dan was well trained, and his AEP weapon spat first, the man falling as the large 37mm plastic bullet struck him just below the rib cage, driving the air out of his lungs and pushing him backward.

April saw it coming and also did her best to make herself as small a target as possible, driven as much by fear as by training. She could tell that the evening was taking a toll on her and she would need serious help when – if – they go out of there. In the meantime, she had to keep it together. She was also aware that the constant adrenaline surges and drops were making her reactions slower and slower.

Dan immediately raced to the man, and repeated his earlier actions, injecting him with something that was clearly designed to put the man into medically induced sleep, and then reloaded the weapon he'd just fired, so it was ready for use. The other AEP gun still lay slung around his body, ready for action if required.

Dan looked back at April, who was cowering behind him, clearly terrified and clutching her stun prod. He stood, then unhitched his Glock 21 hand gun. It fired .45 caliber rounds, and was the ultimate in stopping power at close range. It was something he always carried with him, just in case, plastic bullets and "no casualties" orders be damned. If it came down to it, he was going out firing real bullets.

He handed it to April, butt first. He was aware she had hand weapon training, and he ratcheted the slide to ensure there was a round in the chamber. He also handed her a second loaded 13 round magazine.

"You see anyone in white before I do, you take them out, OK? Don't wait for me. Shoot them as many times as you need to."

April nodded wordlessly. She was scared, and as the adrenaline was wearing off she was entering into the early stages of shock.

Dan looked her over and wasn't reassured by what he saw. She was white, shaking and he needed to get her out as soon as possible.

She did gesture at Dan, looking him up and down, questioningly.

"Ex Met Firearms Division," grinned Dan, understanding the unspoken question. "London coppers version of your SWAT teams."

He gestured to her and started down the corridor, the direction he came from. They encountered one other man – armed with a hand pistol - on the way to the elevators, and Dan took him out with the AEP gun, stopping over him to ensure he stayed down, and reloading. He was aware of what this facility was, and as far as he was concerned, no one deserved any kind of chances at all.

They arrived at the elevators which were along one wall, against another large full length window looking out over the London skyline. As they arrived, the doors opened, showing an angry looking Marcus Baker and two other men, both armed with pistols. The two sets of people looked at each other, somewhat stunned. The two men were wearing the ubiquitous white scrubs, while Baker was wearing the same sweat pants and a black T-shirt he'd been wearing when April had escaped. His nose was swollen and his eyes had the first hints of being blackened and his T-shirt was stained with his own blood from April's earlier attack.

Both of Baker's henchmen whipped up their weapons, as did April and Dan. Every one fired at once in a cacophony of noise. Dan was trained, and there was no chance he'd miss and he didn't – his man was hit in the throat by Dan's large projectile weapon and fell backwards. However, because he shot at the same time, he actually hit Dan with a real bullet. Dan fell back, clutching his shoulder.

April did her best – she hadn't done any shooting since she was first recruited, so although she knew what to expect, she was more than a little shaky. However, since the target was literally six feet away, and she was still running on adrenaline somewhat, and she and Dan had been expecting trouble and the other people had not, she got her shot off first, as the other man was raising his arm. He got off a shot too, but it was entirely wild, and took out a sconce light on the wall.

Her bullet caught him in the shoulder, the stopping power of the large round spinning him around and slamming him into the elevator wall. The impact knocked the man out instantly, and he collapsed, showing the exit wound which was considerably larger than the incoming bullet hole.

April instantly swung the gun on Baker, who raised his hands, and looking down at the bodies next to him, grimaced. He looked back and April and stepped over the body next to him gingerly. He moved around from the elevators to stand in front of the window.

April had dropped to examine Dan – he was bleeding from a shoulder shot and his teeth were chattering – he was cold and it was obviously oncoming heavy shock. April gingerly pulled him up a little, and examined the wound, all the time keeping one arm pointed at Baker, the pistol trained on him. The bullet had gone straight through Dan, with a clean exit. It was a small caliber bullet, but the wound was painful, and it made Dan moving his arm almost impossible, which was a problem since he was right handed and it was his right shoulder that had the wound.

"I'll be alright," muttered Dan. "I've had worse."

"Liar!" exclaimed April lightly, finally feeling like she was more under control and could actually offer something useful in the situation, rather than just tag along after Dan.