The following is a continuation of the saga based on edrider73's 2014 story, "Revenge in Advance," in which a wife purchases an insurance policy that ultimately details the revenge her husband would face if he was caught cheating on her. In a nutshell, Oscar, the husband in the story, learns that if he were caught cheating, he would essentially be kidnapped, humiliated, beaten and sexually assaulted. The story continued with my first post, "Revenge in Advance, A Sequel," in which Oscar escapes his wife's plot and gets his own revenge, followed up by "Revenge in Advance, Derby's Dose," a tale of what happened when one wife's revenge went too far. The story continued in "Revenge in Advance: Pat," in which Oscar arrests and confronts the woman who started his odyssey.
Many thanks to edrider73 for giving me permission to write this sequel and any others that may come from that story. Also, many thanks to those who offered comments and constructive criticism on my previous stories. And please remember, this is a work of fiction, not a docu-drama...
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Chapter 1:
Oscar Warren closed his eyes as the airplane left the runway clawing its way into the sky. He thought back over the events of the last year. It was exactly a year ago today that Pat Witherspoon died while in custody at Fort Apache.
At the time, Pat was one of the most senior field operatives for the Mutual Marital Assurance Society, or MMAS, a secretive company that manipulated gullible wives into spending $1,600 for "insurance" ostensibly designed to keep their marriages intact and their spouses faithful.
The "company," if it could actually be called that, was set up by one Mona Larsen, a man-hating attorney whose experience with a cheating spouse sent her over the edge. Not content with getting her own revenge, she set out to spread the pain, punishing other men in the most horrific ways imaginable.
Unfortunately, her desire for revenge eventually turned into a quest for political control. No longer content with just punishing adulterous spouses, she now sought to remake society to fit her worldview. For Mona, men were second-class beings to women, and existed only to serve the female of the species.
Mona needed powerful allies to make that happen, and she set her sights high. Working with her shadowy co-conspirators, Mona decided it was time to target the most powerful man in the world - the President of the United States, a man well-known throughout his political career for his womanizing.
Things were on track until Pat was arrested by a joint task force made up of federal agents and private interests based out of what was known as "Fort Apache," an abandoned Army base renovated specifically for the task force's use. Oscar, the federal officer who made the arrest, was the husband of a woman who fell for MMAS' machinations and Pat's chemically-enhanced hypnosis.
After attending a "spa weekend" with three of her female friends, Oscar's wife, Renee, spiked his food in an effort to take control of him and ultimately emasculate him. Her gullibility, complicated by her own ignorance, however, nearly killed him. Now, she was serving a 30-year-sentence for attempted murder.
After that episode, Oscar was recruited into the task force and had spent the last year and a half helping to bring down MMAS.
Although Pat was dead, her computer and personal files provided a gold mine of information which indicated that Renee, along with a number of other women, were nothing more than guinea pigs for MMAS' plan to emasculate American males and reshape society to fit Mona's twisted ideology.
According to Pat's journal, a number of wives were subjected to questionable procedures that included the use of non-FDA approved compounds used in conjunction with deep hypnosis. The goal was to make the women compliant with whatever MMAS operatives like Pat suggested. This explained Renee's behavior after her "spa weekend," and her attorney used this new information in her appeal.
But Oscar was torn. Even though he still had feelings for his now ex-wife, he wasn't sure that he could ever trust her again. What would happen if something innocuous triggered her programming?
Apparently, the courts felt the same way, and had ordered Renee to undergo intensive counseling with specialists attached to the task force for at least a year to ensure there would be no relapses. That was six months ago and other than some complaints from Renee about headaches, things seemed to progress nicely.
Pat's files also included extensive client lists from around the country. As far as they could determine, there were at least 10,000 active paying clients. Additionally, the files included video snippets of the punishment to be meted out in the event a claim was filed.
Comprehensive notes of what appeared to be meetings with Mona and her allies were also found. No names were mentioned, but there were a number of initials used and it appeared that Pat employed a peculiar form of shorthand that required a good bit of translation. FL, LS, DA, ML and NC were the five sets of initials most often used in the notes. ML was generally believed to be a reference to Mona, and researchers were busy scouring the Internet for anything that would tie Mona to anyone else.
After Pat's death, Bill Jackson, Oscar's friend, boss and mentor, said he should take time off to be with his children. He did, and spent a month with the kids traveling the country, starting at Disneyland. The next three months after that vacation saw Oscar undergoing advanced training in everything from marksmanship to martial arts with agencies whose existence was kept secret from the American public.
MMAS had also "gone dark" after Pat's death, taking on no new clients. Claims from existing clients, however, were still being processed. That meant husbands, some of whom really weren't cheaters, were still in danger of being kidnapped and sexually abused by contractors working for MMAS. So Oscar spent much of the last eight months doing what the task force called "interventions."
In fact, Oscar had just finished one intervention and received a short message to meet Bill at the Watergate Hotel in the nation's capitol - right now. That's why Oscar was currently in the air headed for Washington, D.C.
"Maybe I ought to write some stories about those interventions," he thought to himself as the plane began its approach to Dulles International Airport. "I could maybe call them the 'Warren Files,'" he mused. "But who would believe them?" he asked himself.
Chapter 2:
Oscar grabbed his luggage and was heading for the exit when he saw a man dressed in a chauffeur's uniform holding a sign that read, "Oscar Warren." He made his way to the man and identified himself.
"I'm Oscar Warren," he said. "Who sent you?"
"Bill Jackson sent me," he said. "I'm to take you to the Watergate."
Oscar followed the man to a limousine and got inside. The driver handed him an envelope.
"That's a key to the room. The room number is written inside the envelope," he said.
They made their way to the landmark hotel and Oscar carried his baggage to the room. He entered and looked around to see if he could spot Bill. Sure enough, his friend was by the window, talking on his cell phone. He waved Oscar in as he spoke.
"Yes sir, we'll be there in about an hour. Right. Goodbye," he said to the other party. "Good to see you made it, Oscar," he said, shaking hands.
"What's going on?" Oscar asked.
"We're on our way to brief the president and the First Lady," Bill said. "I hope you thought to bring a suit."
"Of course," Oscar said, opening his clothing bag.
"Good," Bill said. "Get changed because we leave here in twenty minutes. I'll brief you on the way."
Oscar quickly cleaned up and threw on the only suit he owned. He never thought he'd actually be meeting the president and had mixed emotions. On one hand, he really didn't like some of the man's policies and he certainly didn't approve of his womanizing. On the other hand, he did appreciate some of what the president was trying to accomplish and felt he often got mistreated by the media.
Regardless, Oscar thought, he IS the president. And how often does an average fellow get to sit down with the most powerful man on earth?
Oscar put the final touches on his tie, grabbed his briefcase and followed Bill to the waiting limousine.
Bill brought Oscar up to date on the latest findings as they made their way to the White House.
"As you know, our tech guys have been scouring the Internet trying to find any connection between Mona and the others listed in Pat's notes," he began.
"They've run into several snags, however. It seems that any photo that might show her face has either been photo-shopped, scrubbed from the Internet, or flagged by social media. We've had several techs get banned by different sites just for clicking on them.
"We're not sure, but we think NC is a reference to Nina Carlilse, a very high-level bureaucrat in the Treasury Department - specifically, the area of Treasury that controls the Secret Service. There's also another NC, one Nancy Caputo, a prominent - and very wealthy - lobbyist who works for a women's rights group.
"Like I said, it could be a reference to either one or could possibly refer to both. We're just not sure and there's not enough context in the notes. So we're keeping an eye on both just to be certain.
"We think DA could be Debbie Abernathy, the senator from New York who led the charge to get that congressman kicked out of office. You know, the one caught sexting his interns. He disappeared and we're not completely certain where he ended up but we believe he worked for Mona after being removed from office.
"The rest are coming up blank. We can't tie anyone with those initials to Mona whatsoever. And there's more.
"We've gotten some chatter that indicates MMAS may be going live again. And it looks like the president is definitely a target. I know you're not crazy about the man, Oscar, but if he is compromised or hurt by MMAS the way others have been, it could spark armed unrest.
"Now, as for our briefing, I'll do the majority of the talking. Let's not mention any names to either the president or the First Lady. I know she wants to hear about what MMAS has done to other victims, so I'll let you handle that since you've seen it first-hand.
"I also want you to put some of that fancy training of yours to good use. Be extra observant. I want to know if you see anything that could give us some clues.
"Any questions?" he asked.
"None so far," Oscar said.