The Entity Pt. 03

A wealthy gentleman with his starlet. Or so the local population assumed.

"Really? A thoroughbred?" Teddy was excited.

"Yes. We take the train tonight and we'll be in Kentucky for the Derby by Wednesday. I plan on buying a stud."

"But I already have a stud, father." She'd teased and pouted but really enjoyed the idea of getting back to the states for a few weeks.

Checking into the Sealbach hotel on Fourth Street, he'd rented the entire top floor. "We want our privacy don't we, Teddy?"

The Derby ball and owners seats at the race track had been fun. Mint Juleps and southern cuisine had sated part of their appetite. Rides on the riverboats and carriage rides through the parks had helped with others. Digging through the fossils at the falls, knee deep in mud, finding all manner of wonderful things in the slime and backwater of the Ohio River had been a fabulous, sunny Sunday. A wonderful two weeks. Two weeks that dreams were made of.

It was diagnosed almost six months later. The doctors in Mexico had recommended they return to Los Angeles, to a clinic that specialized in his problem.

She still recalled how virile and handsome he'd been when she left him at the entrance. "You go on home now, dear. These doctors here at Waverly seem to know what they're doing. It's going to be alright."

But it hadn't been alright. Nothing had been alright since. After the burial she'd charged the lawyers with running the empire and slipped into quiet seclusion where she'd languished until finding her newest inspiration.

*****

"Wake up, Tammy."

A hand shook her shoulder as sunlight streamed across the bed.

"It's ten in the morning and we need to go to my office."

Tammy rolled onto her back and peaked up at Linda, already dressed, urging her out of bed. "I've made some juice and there are fresh croissants on the counter. I'm going to get a newspaper. Go through my closet and see if you can find anything to wear. You may not get a chance to go shopping until later this afternoon. I don't think my bras will fit you but you can probably wear my panties. Dig around and find what you need. I'll be right back."

With that Linda was gone and Tammy pulled herself from between the soft cotton sheets and padded to the bathroom. Fifteen minutes later she found herself rummaging through Linda's closet, hair combed out, a red, silk thong in hand.

She could hear Linda start talking as soon as she came in the door. "Not much happened last night. An article about the ATM's and the hit Wall Street has taken with the exchange going to hard copy and using their computer system only as a back-up. It's amazing how they're playing this down. Someone in Washington must be working overtime."

Tammy found a black 'A' line skirt and white, baggy; cashmere sweater she thought would do and padded through the kitchen on her way to get dressed. Not quite as self conscious as she'd been the previous night, she thought nothing of Linda following her into the guest room, croissant and Starbucks in hand.

"Here's breakfast. I'm going to pack up the laptop and get the car out of the parking garage down the street. Just pull the door closed and meet me in front of the building."

*****

"Hi, Tom. This is, Tammy Spalding, from Akron Banking in New York."

Tom looked up from the desk he'd commandeered at the redhead standing beside Linda. "Where have you been, Slick? I got worried when you were late and had people calling your house. Are your phones not working?"

"Sure. I just disconnected everything last night," Linda replied as she fidgeted slightly before continuing, "Listen, we need to show you something. Let's go to the conference room on the third floor. Bring a chat cam."

Tom stared at empty space for a second before he realized Linda and Miss Spalding had turned and left. He grabbed a chat cam from an abandoned workstation and headed up to the third floor.

Linda was sitting in front of an open laptop talking to Tammy when he walked in.

"Listen," Tom explained, "someone needs to go over and tell the Captain you've arrived. I got worried and let him know you were MIA."

"Send one of your people, Tom. This is too important," said Linda.

Sticking his head out the conference room door, he flagged down the first person that walked by.

Linda and Tammy were both watching the laptop go through its boot-up process when he finally closed the door and took a seat. Linda spoke first. "Watch, Tom, you won't believe this."

As soon as all systems loaded a chat box appeared.

'Tammy, is, Linda, there?'

Linda sent,'This is, Linda. Who are you?'

'I see you're at the office'appeared in the chat box.

Linda glanced at Tom and typed again.

'Yes we are. Where are you?'

'Everywhere.'

Tammy and Linda both watched Tom.

"What is this, Linda?" Tom asked more than a little bewildered.

"It's the, Entity. Well, that's what I think."

'You shouldn't be afraid, Linda. I would never hurt you.'

Tom's chair creaked a little as he leaned back tenting his fingers while regarding Linda, Tammy and the laptop.

"The Entity got in touch with Tammy first. She seems to have brought him to us," Linda waited for Tom's response.

"Ask the, Entity, what he wants," Tom directed.

Linda typed and everyone held their breath while waiting for the response.

'I want you to find me and destroy me.'

The three just stared, first at the screen, then at each other.

*****

Michael felt gentle warmth at first, then the relief of weight on his body. A cacophony of sound invaded his senses followed by a blurry light that refused to focus.

He thought he'd asked, "Where am I?" But neither the voice nor the jumble of sounds he actually heard made any sense. His tongue felt clumsy, fat and uncontrollable in his mouth.

What might have been a face leaned close and said, "Wait a few minutes. You've been gone a very long time."

Weight. Yes, the comfort of weight. He could feel his limbs; shift a little in his bed.

Light from a window came into view as the face moved away. Other things started to take shape. The slats of a blind, an overhead light, small flashing lights on equipment beside his bed.

"Michael, can you hear me?"

The voice wasn't familiar to Michael, nor was the place. He was sure it was a hospital but something about it looked very old, not at all like a modern hospital. The smell was wrong. There didn't seem to be the heavy undercurrent of disinfectant, stale water and human discharge that were standard in every hospital he'd ever visited. There was the smell of fresh paint, polished floors and flowers.

A feeble, "Yes," was all he could manage.

"Good, Michael, that's good," the head returned, features a little sharper this time, "Michael, can you touch my hand?"

The outline of a hand, fingers spread, appeared in the sunlight streaming in from the window. Michael willed his arm to move and was rewarded with a heavy, lethargic response. His eyes dropped to his estimation of where his hand was. He could see it tremble, and with the aid of a visual, he could finally feel the shaking.

He strained with all the concentration he could muster as his trembling hand came off the bed and waved in the general direction of its destination finally making contact.

"Great, Michael!"

The voiced seemed to boom in Michaels ear. Suddenly, everything took on a waving, liquid look and gently spun around the ceiling light.

"Nurse, two cc's."

With that the room slowly faded. Michael's last thought was, 'I'm alive ... I think."

*****

Scanner Bob was crossing Missouri. The shiny, new Mercedes looked as rumpled and dirty as he did. Paper bags, wrappers and leftovers from a string of fast food eateries, were strewn from floorboard to seat to back window.

Maybe I can make this last a long timethought Bob.Maybe I can have her beg into the phone for the mistress. Bob knew what it meant to beg. How humiliating it could be. How degrading. He smiled at the thought, also at the knowledge that no matter how much Tammy begged, his mistress would not be gentle. His mistress would command him to do her bidding.

Pulling off at a Thunderbird truck stop Bob filled the car with gas and cleaned the windshield.

Inside at the register, while paying for his purchase, his eyes stopped on a display of carbon steel hunting knives. Some were six inches in length, others more than a foot. All anodized black with vicious looking serrated teeth on one side and a razor sharp cutting blade on the other. A new thought came to Bob. A thought that made his skin crawl with thousands of goose bumps. The ring of his cell phone brought him out of his blissful reverie.

A voice barked, "Where are you!"

"G G Getting gasoline. Missouri I think," Bob answered.

"We have to get this finished," Mrs. Bunger, his mistress, continued. "This is getting way out of hand. The FBI showed up at my husband's office a while ago."

"YY Yes, mistress," Bob stammered.

"Stop stammering you idiot." With that Bob heard a cracking sound over the phone and immediately became aroused.

Shelly Bunger and her husband had trained Bob well. He'd never realized what bliss could be found in a few clothes pins and a small, leather whip.

It had all been innocent in the beginning with an invitation to their house for a late night meal followed by a little too much to drink. Then Shelly disappeared while her husband pontificated about banks, their owners and directors, and how much money flowed. "It's like a river, Bob, a god damned river of money."

Shelly re-appeared dressed in leather head to toe. Knee high, patent leather boots with long, pointy heels. What appeared to be leather hot pants. A shiny zipper that ran from the front beltline, between her legs, and up to the beltline in the back of the absurdly small shorts. Something, Bob realized, that would let someone part the pants in two allowing quick and easy access. A black leather bustier that, unfortunately, exposed much more than Bob thought he'd like to see.

While Bob thought the outfit might look great on someone like Miss Spalding at the office; on squat, overweight, 63 year old Mrs. Bunger, the outfit was gaudy and more than a little revolting.

But the Bungers' had shown him the light. Mr. Bunger quietly slipped from the room as Shelly started showing Bob how the small leather talons on the end of the whip each had a metal piece tied to it.

"Do you know what they do?" she asked Bob, her breasts threatening to spill from their perch as she bent lower so he could inspect the whip.

Bob sat, mesmerized and ashamed. He fought the sensation in his pants when he suddenly noticed Mr. Bunger had returned and, more importantly, was stark naked. He no longer recalled how quickly it had all turned nasty; he only recalled how good it all felt.

"Watch this, Bob," Shelly said.

Mr. Bunger fell to his knees facing Bob, Mrs. Bunger behind him, the whip flicked across his shoulders.

"He'll do anything I want, Bob."

Snapand a red welt appeared on Mr. Bunger's right shoulder.Snapagain, and a little blood appeared.

"Unzip his pants and take his cock out," Mrs. Bunger commanded her husband.

Scanner Bob quickly panicked.Who are these people? Shelly stepped in front of him as he tried to set his drink on the side table, his intention to escape obvious.

Snap, and Bob felt the whip through his pants on his thigh. "Sit down, Bob, we aren't finished yet," Mrs. Bunger barked.

Bob had obeyed. Bob had obeyed many commands that night from Mrs. Bunger as his transformation commenced. Bob had finally learned exactly how the zipper of her leather shorts worked. He'd also learned, much to his chagrin, how well Mr. Bunger had been trained to give pleasure, no matter who was receiving it. Then Bob's training became earnest and Mrs. Bunger became Mistress. Not just any mistress; his mistress.

Mistress leaned close to his ear and whispered as the whip played across his now limp, exposed cock, "First you'll please him. Then you can please me," her words a command.

His attention snapped back to the phone when his mistress barked, "You're at a truck stop aren't you?"

"Yes," was his immediate reply.

"Good. Go find two truckers and make them happy. When you've finished, don't shower, don't wipe your hands or face off, and get back in you're car and get going."

Bob's body shook with inner rage and pleasure, a strange pair of bedfellows, he thought. He hated the humiliation of the act, the searching and begging involved in his assigned task. At the same time, his body reacted with excitement. Excitement that was now becoming visible.

Turning back to the cashier, he accepted his change and pointed at the longest, blackest, sharpest, meanest looking knife in the display. "I'll take two of those please," Bob said, "and do you have a holster or sheath for them?"

Yes, it went without saying that even in his mistress's absence, he would do as he'd been commanded. He would even enjoy it, every wet, sloppy minute of it. But he also knew that someone else would do the same for him. He knew that Tammy would bend to his will. Every wet, sloppy,bloody, hour of it.

*****

'Do you have a cam, Linda?'

"It's been asking for a cam. It wants to know if it's really me," Linda said.

Tom looked around the room, glanced at the door and contemplated a second. "I see no reason why we can't oblige," he replied, "I think we're pretty safe here.

With that he connected a small, grey ball on a cable to a USB port in the back of the laptop and set it on the conference room table on a small tripod. Immediately, Linda could see the three of them in an image on her screen.

'Hi, Tom, it's good to see you.'

Linda typed,'We gave you a cam. Will you answer some questions for us?'

'Yes,'was the simple reply.

'Are we in danger,'Linda typed.

'No.'

'Where are you?'

'Everywhere. Nowhere,'came up on the screen.

'Are you dangerous to other people?'

There was a hesitation this time as if the answer was being contemplated.'Not to anyone of importance,'appeared.

Tom pushed back from the table, stood, and started circling the room in contemplation. Stopping beside Linda, he bent over the laptop and typed,'What happened to the flight out of Denver, United 1167?'

'I was learning.'

'Did you want to kill the people onboard?'

'No, I told you I was learning.'

'What about Miss Jenny Gee? Was that you?'Tom typed.

'Yes. They're both hypocrites. They deserved what they got.'

Tom fell into his chair again and drummed his fingers while looking at Tammy and Linda.

Tom finally slid the machine in front of him and typed,'Is the world safe right now?'

'Most of it. It's in no danger from me.'

Looking at his watch, Tom typed again,'If we leave will we find you here later?'

'The three of you can always find me. Just turn on your computer and I'll be there.'

'One last thing. You seem to know the three of us. How is that?' Tom typed.

'Tom, you're a co-worker and close personal friend of Linda. I need Tammy's help. I found her through her family tree and Linda is more than a friend.'

They all three traded glances and finally Tom typed a final message,'Can we take a break. Meet again in two or three hours?'

'Sure, Tom, you want to discuss it with the, Captain, don't you?'

Tom made an exasperated sound and replied,'Yes.'

'One other thing, Tom,'the machine sat idle, waiting for acknowledgement.

'Yes,'Tom typed.

'I like the name you've given me. It sounds like a movie. The Entity. I like it.'

Repeated attempts brought no further response from the machine, from the Entity. Finally the laptop was shutdown and closed.

*****

Tammy held her skirt down as the wind buffeted the tiny sports car. Linda was intent on traffic and shifting. She finally pulled into the parking lot of a shopping mall and pulled into the first place she found.

They strode through the mall, past fountains and store fronts, purposefully, until Linda chose a store and turned in.

"You should be able to find what you need here," Linda said.

Tammy went to the lingerie department and picked up some sensible, cotton undergarments, heading for the dressing room.

Linda pulled the curtain back and stuck in an arm laced with several sexier sets. "You're not made for cotton," was all she said.

Almost an hour later they left their purchases at the store to go eat.

"Tammy, what did the Entity mean byfamily?" Linda asked over her salad.

"No idea," was all Tammy responded as she picked up a slice of pizza. Before taking a bite she asked, "What did he mean bymore than a friend?"

Linda continued chewing as Tammy took a bite of pizza. "He's said a couple of things that indicate a certain familiarity with me, but I just don't know," responded Linda as she separated her own slice of pizza.

Noticing the ring Tammy said, "You're engaged." It was more of a statement than a question.

Linda stalled with a big bite of pizza, looping an errant string of cheese into her mouth and chewing while Tammy distractedly watched one of the restaurant workers go from table to table collecting trays.

"I was engaged, well, I think he was going to ask, a year ago," Linda finally replied, seemingly flustered by the question, "And then something happened."

Tammy waited for more and decided there would be none. Taking another bite of her pizza she studied Linda's seemingly hurt expression and wondered what had happened as they finished lunch and headed back to the car, stopping at the store to pick up their packages.

She also wondered exactly how the Entity definedfamily.

Chapter 8

CNN – The presidential candidates continue in a dead heat as polls show less than a two percent spread in popularity as Election Day grows nearer. Democratic presidential hopeful, Arthur Wright, spent his morning shaking hands at retirement homes in several cities in Florida this morning calling for a complete overhaul of the social security system. Kerry Richards made the rounds of local hospitals in Chicago, including one veteran's hospital, shaking hands and kissing babies. In an impromptu speech on the steps of Memorial hospital, Richard's said it was time for unfulfilled Democratic promises of public health care to be given more than lip service. With that he reiterated his plans to take public health care from buzz word to reality.

*****

Theodora dreamed. The scan always woke up memories. Most memories long lost jewels that shined in her minds eye. At some point, she'd decided just being scanned was worth the price of admission.

The scan was a weekly routine, had been for a year as they prepared. She insisted nothing be missed, up to the moment of re-birth.

The first step in her journey had been at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago. Labeled 'A Century of Progress', the fair celebrated the 100 year anniversary of the city of Chicago and was considered a testament to the industrial and scientific achievements of man up to that moment.

People hushed in wonder when lights were first turned on at the opening ceremony using energy created from starlight drawn from the star Arcturus. The rays were focused on photo-electric cells in several observatories around the country and transformed into electrical energy, then transmitted to Chicago and the fair.

She'd marveled at the GM Futurliner, gawked at the Italian city, wondered at the frumpy dress of the actors in the English village and wandered lazily, recalling a trip she'd made to Paris that was very similar to 'The French Streets' exhibit.

But it had been the Hall of Science that caught her eye with its exhibits dedicated to the major sciences of mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology, geology, astronomy and medicine.