Ricardo gave a thin smile. He would push Uno for a Jessica spanking, no rods, just the flat of his hand. Five whacks would do it. Ricardo was sure Uno would agree because he never really appreciated what Ricardo could do with his bare hands. Baby Jessica was going to be in for one rough week. Ricardo thought he could break open her butt flesh with less than five whacks, raise a deep purplish bruise with three precise hits and then split open the puffy flesh on the fourth. The fifth whack would be for his personal pleasure. She might not even feel it, at least not at the time of delivery. Ricardo thought she would probably pass out on his fourth whack.
At 11:15 AM, Ricardo pulled up outside Jacob's. He stopped a few meters from the sitting Jessica who was furiously staring at her nails. Alfonso was the sole person on guard duty inside the store.
"Ricardo," the compadre called out wearily. "A whole shitload of stuff has happened while you went off to play with yourself. Where the hell have you been muchacho? Go upstairs and report in to Uno immediately, and I'd get ready to eat some humble pie if I were you."
Ricardo's body totally relaxed and he weighed the risks against the satisfaction of putting a 38-calibre round right up Alfonso's fat nose. Then he'd shove the pistol up the Baby's cunt and start explaining to her exactly what a total fuck-up she was on guard duty. And if there was one word of backtalk, just one, he'd pull the trigger, he really would.
"It's not quite the right time," he thought calmly. "Let the situation develop." He said out loud. "Jessica has just fucked up on guard duty."
Alfonso stared at him and then decided to cover for his girlfriend. "Nah. She mentioned to me five minutes ago she saw you coming."
"That's right, I did," came an offended voice behind Ricardo.
"I'll remember this," Ricardo said darkly. "Nobody lies to me and gets away with it."
Alfonso gave a weary shrug. "Hey Ricardo, give it a rest. Jessica and I are supposed to be in the middle of our sleep cycle, and Uno still has us scheduled to start our regular shift at 4 PM."
Ricardo shook his head. "Are you fucking insane? We're at war. If Uno put you on guard duty now, then you're supposed to be on guard duty now, not dozing off." He turned angrily away and continued to walk the Mall, in the direction of the Mex Grocer terminal store five kilometers distant.
"Hey muchacho!" Alfonso called out. "I told you to report to Uno!"
"Oh man, the guy is really asking for it, and he's so stupid, he deserves it double," Ricardo thought, but he simply replied over his shoulder, "I need to get some new rods." He calmly walked an extra hundred meters to a nearby hardware store.
He took his time in the store, letting his thoughts drift for a bit, idly looking at the merchandise before finally selecting two aluminum dowel rods, a thin one and a much fatter one a full inch in diameter. It was 11:31 AM before he slowly walked up the spiral staircase and through the second floor of home. As expected, he found Uno in the lounge. Hernando and Jenaro were with him.
The top man started to blither, taking twenty minutes to tell a story that Ricardo thought could have been said in five. So Alfredo was dead. No great loss. But Uno's analysis of what had happened this morning seemed a little strange. And Uno was so fixated on his own battle that he hadn't even asked Ricardo about his disappearance. Not that Ricardo had much to report.
Ricardo felt so disgusted with his leader's performance that he felt like spitting. But instead he calmly tried to point out the flaws in Uno's reasoning. "My sighting of the cunt this morning, it was absolutely minimal. It's really a stretch to think of it as a diversion. I don't think she wanted to be seen. And Brandi and Kiyoko, what did they really accomplish? They scared Jessica but didn't hurt her. They seized the second floor here but didn't defend it. They had one stupid little gun battle with Alfredo and then they left."
"Alfredo died in that battle!" retorted Jenaro.
Ricardo shook his head and glanced at the elevator and continued. "You've missed my point. What was the purpose of our enemy's mission? To show us we had a weakness in our defenses?! It makes no sense!"
"What do you mean?" asked Jenaro. "There was blood from Brandi or Kiyoko outside in the corridor, in the vestibule and in front of the elevator. Not much blood maybe, but at least Alfredo managed to hit one of the cunts. And then they took off, back through the elevator we think. Want me to show you the drops of blood? They're right there," he said, pointing with his hand to the floor in front of the elevator. "We also dragged Alfredo's body into the vestibule. Do you want to see it?"
Ricardo ignored the offers. "You think that was the point of their mission?! To have a stupid duel with Alfredo?!"
Jenaro stared back without understanding. "It makes sense to me!"
"Jenaro," Ricardo said softly, "Remind me later never to put you in charge of anything."
"Hey, now wait a minute!" Jenaro said angrily, and he looked for Uno to support him in putting this upstart muchacho down. But Uno was motionless, sitting like a stone and just staring at Ricardo, and without the top man's backup, Jenaro sputtered something unintelligible and then shut up.
Hernando though wouldn't let the issue of insubordination go. "Ricardo, we have an extra gun now that Alfredo is gone. Do you want the gun to be yours? Do you want to make compadre, frat boy? If you do, you'll have to show a little respect for your elders." With Uno and Jenaro by his side, Hernando thought his retort was safe to make and he expected Ricardo to back down, but all he got was an emotionless stare from their last muchacho. Ricardo's eyes seemed to be cold, gray whirlpools, and Hernando blinked and turned away. He was surprised that he felt like burping, and then was mildly confused when he realized it was not a burp he suppressed but a hiccup.
"It's time," Ricardo thought silently. "Now is the moment." He stretched his arms and sides, preparing his muscles for what he suspected was about to occur, and then said out loud, "So now you think you have to defend the elevators too, huh? You've got Alfonso and Jessica at Jacob's, Diego and Amber in the library, and you three are on guard here? How the fuck do you think you'll be able to keep that up?"
"Ricardo, watch your fucking language," Uno said wearily. "Jenaro is a compadre, you are a muchacho."
Ricardo relaxed as he turned to his leader. "I am aware," he whispered simply.
Uno blinked, not quite understanding Ricardo's response but deciding to accept it as an apology. It was a monumental error. Uno went on, "And besides, I never said Amber was with Diego."
It was Ricardo's turn to blink. "That's true, I just assumed. So Diego is solo right now. What did you do, lock Amber up somewhere? Why?"
Hernando blushed and spoke up. "Oh, we didn't mention that part yet. I was the last person to see Amber when I yelled at her to stay put when you took off this morning. When we got back down, the door to Jacob's was lowered and Amber was nowhere in sight. We think now it was Amber who lowered it."
Ricardo felt stunned, as if an elevator shaft had just opened up beneath him. "So you think she's hiding in the Mall somewhere?"
"Yeah, she's got to be, yeah."
Ricardo felt almost dead inside. He was working with such stupidity. And then the feeling of death began to curl and turn livid. "So why didn't you move Alfonso to the edge of the locked stores?"
Hernando looked to Uno for support and for the first time seemed troubled. "Well, we assumed Amber feared you so much, when you ran in one direction, she would run in the other. There are a lot more places to hide down the other end, and besides, Amber couldn't escape with you down the other… oh shit…"
Ricardo stood up and looked at the time on the elevator display, a few minutes before noon. "There're a few stores I need to check near the Eckhart Pharmacy, even though I'm probably too late. They would have been her perfect places to hide, totally invisible from your observation post with your fuckhead position and fucked-up observers. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm saying you're a bunch of fuckheads, all of you."
Uno decided he could not tolerate this level of insubordination. He started to pull his gun out, the group's only 45-calibre pistol.
Ricardo became a twirling flash of light, whipping his body into a tight spin and then lashing out with his thin aluminum rod, having the far end of the rod snap out and crack against Uno's temple just to the side of his left eye. Uno's head jerked from the blow and he dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Ricardo wasn't finished. He jumped up into the air and positioned his thick dowel rod in midair and let the full impact of his weight come down through the rod as a hammer blow against the already cracked bone in Uno's skull. The dowel drove through the weakened bone and traveled through the width of Uno's brain, killing him instantly.
Ricardo glared at the stunned faces of Jenaro and Hernando. The two men trembled and bowed their heads, declining to challenge his authority. "That's not good enough," Ricardo said in a calm voice. "Give me your pistols." The two men handed them over without protest. "Now kneel before me and swear your devotion. Bow your heads to the floor. Worship me."
Time: Friday, February 1, 2019 12:28 PM
"Charles?" Emily asked came over the Leophone. "I have something to report."
"Aw Emily, don't tell me he's trying to run us down again. That would be totally ridiculous." Ricardo had appeared with Alfonso about twenty minutes ago in front of Eckhart's. At the time Charles and his Amber-rescue team had already completed their extraction and had been biking steadily at 30 kph for a half hour. Mandy was an absolute dynamo powering the side-car with a slightly shell-shocked but grinning Amber inside.
Charles, Tom, and Mandy had debated a bit during their slow tracking of Ricardo as he returned home earlier. Mandy had brought with her three locks and she was eager to install them on the inside arc as a symbolic tweaking of Uno's nose. Charles had debated the benefit of that compared to leaving Uno wondering where Amber was and having him waste time searching the six kilometers of stores Black Mall had left to them. But in the end Charles agreed with Mandy's assessment. Uno would find the humiliation unbearable. So they closed and locked the three stores after Puppets Galore! And a little over a half hour later, it was Ricardo and Alfonso who had received their message.
"What's our position?" Charles asked Emily now.
"Oh, you're doing fine, approaching the forty-four kilometer mark. If you maintain your pace, expect to reach the sky-bridge in fifteen minutes."
"Sounds good. Thoughts of a quick shower and some sleep are looking mighty attractive."
Mandy who was biking furiously on his left with the side-car looked over and gave him a quick nod. It had been a very long night.
"Charles," said Emily. "We know who the extra male death was. It was Uno. We think Ricardo killed him."
"Ah…" Charles biked in silence for a while, lost in his thoughts. "What makes you think it was Ricardo?"
"Ricardo has the other five remaining members of Black Mall dragging Uno's body on a sheet. We think they're going to dump it in the locked area of the Mall. Uno's head… It's pretty ugly, all caved in over the left eye. A number of the former slaves are saying only Ricardo would be that vicious. And Ricardo is obviously in charge now. He's collected all their guns. Ricardo is the only one armed. He's got Uno's 45."
"The poor souls," muttered Charles. "They've got nothing we want anymore, and a true psycho lunatic for a leader. May God have mercy as they rot."
"Yes… Charles, there's one more thing to report. The population counter is now at 010:099. It appears a woman has died today too."
"Huh? Who?"
"We don't know. We did a head count here. It wasn't one of us, and we can see Jessica pulling the sheet. You should see her face Charles. It's crazed with fear. I think Ricardo has her believing she'll be tortured if she doesn't pull hard enough."
"With that guy, it's not an idle threat," Charles muttered, and then got back to Emily's earlier point. "So some woman from Party unknown has just died."
"Yes. It's a reminder of how completely we've been ignoring the plight of the other Parties. The surfaces areas of the hexagon are dangerous places to wander, and deadly if you don't know what you're doing."
Charles nodded. "But now we have five new additions to our team."
"Yes, and not everyone needs to be involved with exploring Maddy's new world. I think we'll have a very interesting meeting tonight, discussing our next steps. See you soon Charles."
"Yeah. Take care Emily." Charles sighed as he biked. Their work today had been fantastically successful, but there was no feeling of celebration in his heart. He just felt so tired.
Chapter 46.
One week later.
Time: Saturday, February 9, 2019 8:22 AM
Jada woke and stirred, kissing sleeping Mark around his face until he sighed and smiled at her. Jada then sat up and stretched and admired the views of the pine park out the eastern windows. Sunrise seemed just a moment away.
Jada and Mark had married yesterday in the early evening, or more precisely, Toshi, Frida, and Jada had a joint marriage ceremony with Mark in the lounge. Everyone in their group except Madison was there. It was a very touching ceremony, and Jada, Toshi, and Frida all had tears in their eyes as they hugged each other. And later that night Jada had retired alone with Mark for her honeymoon. Toshi and Frida had insisted that they had a year's worth of intimate memories with Mark and it was now Jada's turn, especially since Jada and Mark would not be together after Monday morning. Jada accepted their kind gift without protest.
Paris! She had never been there in real life, but now she felt very familiar with the city's layout. Jada and Mark had spent more than a subjective week there in a three-hour link, playing and laughing as they explored each other's bodies and minds. And then very early this morning they consummated their marriage in reality, offering each other their virginities.
So much had occurred in the last week. Weighing heavily on all the members of the new society was the decline of the master census counter. The death of the unknown woman on February 1st had not been the end of it. There was another on the 2nd, two downticks on the 4th, and then one a day for the next four days. The census counter was currently at 010:092, and nobody was expecting the count to stabilize. People from parties unknown were dying, and the prime focus of their society was to save as many as they could.
Why the new deaths now, after all the weeks of relative stability? Were there other ways besides the Mall for the six groups to reach each other, and if so, had an interparty war broken out? Was one group fighting within themselves, or trying to do something that had lethal risks involved? Perhaps the most likely conjecture was that at least one group of partygoers was trapped somewhere without food. After seven weeks of fasting, they were starving to death.
This week had been spent in an intensive effort to prepare for a hexagon-wide search and rescue mission. They had also transported their six large kayaks down to Madison's location, one per day, along with large amounts of food and survival gear. Today would be their last day of preparation and training. All three janitors had been pulling in long hours as teachers, training the new recruits not to make the mistake that Madison had. And early tomorrow morning on February 10th, three volunteers were scheduled to descend and join Madison. The next day they would begin practicing with the kayaks in the nearby lake.
The group of twenty-five had voted and adopted a simple division of labor. There were five search teams of four people each, with one team was assigned to every Mall area except Black Mall. The final five people were called Team-0 formed a central control team and were not expected to be involved with exploration.
Team-0 was headed by Kiyoko and included Lynn, Akiko, Toshi, and Holly. Akiko and Lynn were working on a communications project to activate a supply of two dozen Leophones found in a Blue Mall Radio Shack, and that work was considered to be so potentially beneficial, no one wanted to risk the two on exploration missions. Kiyoko was the janitor of Black Mall, and since they were not exploring Black Mall territory, she was the natural choice to stay behind and be a resource to give advice to the exploration teams without janitors. And as for Toshi and Holly, both women were pregnant and were considered too valuable to risk.
A month of rapes by Uno's fraternity had resulted to two pregnancies. Holly had been vaginally raped repeatedly by Geraldo and Segundo, and once by Ernesto. Who was the father of her child was uncertain, but regardless, she was carrying a priceless and irreplaceable genome, and she would work in the Hilton complex along with Toshi as monitors and helping Lynn and Akiko any way they could.
Team-1 was headed by janitor Emily and would explore the surface around Red Mall. Her team included Ashley, Frida, and Ann.
Team-2 was headed by Jada and would explore the great underground world with Madison, Tom, and Mandy. Part of the selection process for Team-2 was to pick people in top physical condition which included Jada and Mandy, and there was also the added bonus that Jada was a world-class swimmer and Mandy was a world-class kayaker. Tom was a natural fourth for the team. He was physically very fit, an excellent shot with a pistol, and had spent years doing extensive canoeing in upstate New York. He was also determined to be with Madison. Team-2 would be the best armed group.
Team-3 was headed by Mark and would explore the surface area of Blue Mall with Cassidy, Paige, and Whitney. Team-4 had the obvious choice of leader in janitor Aggie and would explore Green Mall with Amber, Charles, and Brandi. And finally Team-6 was headed by Fatima and would explore the surface area of Yellow Mall with Heather, Allison, and Hannah.
Their society only had three working Leophones, and one would be dedicated to Jada's expedition. The other four search teams would share the remaining two phones, and communications between the search teams and home base was considered absolutely essential. Thus at most two search teams would be away exploring the surface at any one time. On their off days, the other teams would pore over satellite maps of their coverage areas and plan their new missions.
Over the past week, there was one other issue that had been investigated, the advancement of Mark's, Toshi's, and Frida's minds. In a triple mind, the three could experience an accelerated time of around two hundred. The society tried many combinations of replacing one of the three with another person, but it seemed all three minds needed to be advanced for a triple link.
But binary links between advanced and non-advanced minds were possible, with typical time acceleration of twenty to forty, and Jada and Mark thought their linkage was pushing the acceleration to a factor of sixty. That was also the value Mark could achieve with Toshi or Frida alone. And in his battle with Alfredo, Mark had demonstrated a brief ability to accelerate subjective time without the benefit of another mind. The experience had left him very tired, and the risks of attempting it again were unknown. The group had decided not to pursue the issue for now.
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