A Cup Angst Ch 10

A day after they had killed the last member of the Syndicate, Jamie and his gang were back home in Bastion. They had spent most of the night engaged in an orgy. Nova came into Jamie's room and started to wake him. Jamie groaned and grumbled, but the gynoid did not relent.

"What," he mumbled.

"Jamie, someone just tried to cancel the nonexistent contracts on Samaras' family," it said. Jamie grunted and heaved a big breath. He tried to resume sleeping but a nagging feeling in the back of his mind kept him half-awake. "I have already tracked the attempt back to the person responsible and have an image of her for you to see." Jamie grunted again. He had killed Samaras himself and had exterminated his entire villainous organization in the last two months. Nova's claims made no sense.

Jamie squinted up at his gynoid. Its claims really did make no sense. "What," he said, sleepily. "What did you say?"

Nova held up his laptop and showed him the still image of a beautiful, young woman on the screen. Her pretty face was marred by an expression of pure hatred. "Hold up, hold up, hold up," Jamie said, still struggling to get his bearings. He wiped his face. "This chick just tried to get Samaras' family offed?"

"No, Jamie," the gynoid said, "she tried to cancel those contracts three minutes ago. I intercepted the emails."

"There are no contracts," Jamie said, confused. "We never sent either version out. Why the fuck would this chick try to undo them? They're not real." Jamie regarded the image on the screen with a skeptical eye. "That makes no sense, whatsoever. Do we know anything about this chick?"

"No, Jamie," Nova said. "I am running her face through several databases in order to identify her."

Jamie grunted in acknowledgement and began to shake Felicity, who was lying next to him, asleep. She let out a few noises of protest, but then finally opened her eyes. When she saw it was Jamie who was trying to rouse her, she immediately woke. "What's up," she asked.

"Can you recognize this chick from any of the minds you've read," Jamie asked.

Felicity looked at the image on the screen for a few seconds before shaking her head no. "No one we've interrogated has ever seen this girl," she said. "Why do you ask?"

"She just tried to cancel the fictitious contracts on Samaras' family," he said.

Felicity's alabaster face screwed up in confused disbelief. She cast another dubious look at the screen. "How did we get this image," she asked.

"I traced the email back to her laptop in Sacramento and engaged the integrated webcam," Nova said. "I am connected to it right now. The microphone is picking up no sound and no one is in view of the camera."

"Well," Jamie said, "Let's bring someone on to the stage. Does her laptop have an audible new email alert?"

Nova checked the settings of the remotely hacked device and said, "Yes."

"Good," Jamie said. "Send her an email confirming the cancellation of the contracts. Let's see what she does." He pointed to his own laptop. "And switch this to the live feed."

They watched the live feed from the other laptop's camera. It was identical to the still image of the girl, except that it didn't contain her. Within a second, they heard a chime indicating a new email had arrived. Jamie and Felicity took the time to sit up in bed and prop some pillows between the headboard and their backs.

A different, older woman's face showed up on the screen and she vanished in a moment. They heard a woman's voice call out for master. Jamie and Felicity shared a look. "Jamie," Nova said, "the woman whose face just appeared on the screen is Marin Hunter, the resident of the Sacramento address this computer is at. The other girl has no discernible connection to her."

Jamie scratched his beard and yawned. He had never been a morning person and waking up to a mystery was not his idea of a good morning. Finally, the beautiful girl showed up in the frame again and sat in front of the computer. Jamie was surprised that the older woman called her "master". She opened the email and read it, looking very relieved. She whispered something Jamie couldn't quite make out. "The fuck was that," he asked.

"She said, 'Thank you, God' in Greek," Nova said. Jamie's brow drew down upon hearing that. He was starting to develop a distinct dislike for this gorgeous girl. First, she was canceling fictitious contracts that no living person knew about, and then she was whispering in Greek? It did not bode well. The girl on the screen was tugging away at the laptop's clit and clicking. "She has just accessed Samaras' hidden bank accounts that we had drained."

Jamie's brow rose. He looked to Felicity and said, "Didn't you say-"

"I did," she said. "No one but Samaras himself knew about those accounts! They were his personal stash!"

Jamie turned his attention back to the screen and saw the girl's face scrunch up in hatred. She roared and hissed in wrath. Doubtlessly, she was displeased with the fact that the funds, that had been there, were donated to UNICEF. Jamie smirked at her impotent rage until she picked up the laptop and threw it against the wall. The image on their screen shorted out.

"Well," he said, "I definitely don't like this chick. She knew two things that no one but us and Samaras had known. And Samaras is dead. We need to go to Sacramento and investigate further. Nova, get some breakfast ready and load our grab bags into the cars! Felicity, you go wake up everybody else!"

They left the room to go about their tasks while Jamie went to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. He didn't, not for even a second, suspect that this girl might have gleaned the information from them. Not only did Jamie have so much faith in his slaves and A.I., but he reasoned that if she had somehow gotten the information from them, she would have known already that the hits were fake and the money taken. He concluded that Samaras must have somehow passed the information on to her. He lathered his face with shaving cream and found himself musing on the idea of Samaras passing along information he had only gained right before Jamie had killed him. He wanted to know how the hell that was done.

In the middle of breakfast, Nova announced it had identified the pretty girl. Her name was Caitlin Ford and she was identified from the national database of missing persons. Her family had reported her missing two months ago. Nova recited the girl's life history and Jamie and his gang just shook their heads at this new information. Caitlin had absolutely no connection whatsoever to the former Syndicate.

After breakfast, they piled into their cars and drove towards the airport. They were just pulling into the parking lot when Nova, driving the lead car, took the walkie talkie and said, "Jamie, another internet connection has been established from the Hunter house in Sacramento. It's a different computer, an older model, and it has no webcam."

Jamie picked up his walkie talkie in the second car and said, "Maintain surveillance."

"Jamie," Nova soon said, "someone at the Hunter residence has just downloaded detailed instruction on how to drive to your parents' homes from Sacramento."

"What the fuck," Jamie yelled. "What the fuck is going on!? We erased the Syndicate from existence! We destroyed each and every copy of that information that they had. No Syndicate successor should be able to know that!"

"Unless Ben Johansson told on us, again," Sandra said.

Jamie punched the dashboard and screamed in anger. Ben had stopped using all electronics and vanished from the face of the Earth while Jamie and his gang were knee deep in Syndicate blood. It was only later, when they reached the top brass, that they learned he was the one that had passed information on Jamie's group to the Syndicate. Jamie had been considering whether or not to abduct and torture the rest of the Johansson clan to flush the traitorous, old fart out, but now he firmly decided he'd exterminate Ben's entire bloodline, minus Helena, particularly if the old coot was still trying to get their families killed. "Blood for blood," Jamie thought to himself.

Everyone got out of the cars and looked to Jamie for instructions. "We fly," he said, "but not to Sacramento. We're going home to lie in wait for this Ford chick and the Hunter woman. They'll lead us to Ben and we'll fucking go to town on that old motherfucker!"

Everyone nodded. They loaded their gear onto the plane and took off. A cargo plane had been hired to fly their warded cars to their destination. They sent advance warning to the ex Syndicate enforcers that were watching over their parents.

Jamie and his gang spent three days in their home town, catching up with their families and friends. They each stayed with their own family. Ray and Felicity staked out the Mitchell residence and Nova backed Helena up at her mother's house, being on hand for Jamie the whole time. It watched the city streets through the traffic camera system.

When Marin Hunter's car drove into town, Nova spotted it and alerted everyone. The ex mercenaries were guided to intercept and follow the navy blue Toyota Camry as it weaved through town. They reported that only the young girl was in the car. In a matter of minutes, it became clear that the car was headed to the Jacobs or Worth residence. Jamie went outside to meet and greet the new arrival.

He saw the car slowly rolling down the street and stepped to the edge of the sidewalk, turning to face it. As soon as he did, the car's engine roared to life and the windshield blew out to pivot over the roof and fly away. It was all the warning Jamie needed. He sent a stored power spirit to seize the girl before she could fire off an offensive spell against him.

Amazingly, the spirit encountered difficulty in taking her over, as if she was already seized by a malevolent spirit of equal or greater power. The car swerved this way and that as it was getting closer. Another stored Jamie flew off and seamlessly joined the first in its efforts. Jamie could now see that the girl was indeed possessed by a powerful spirit. His spirits of sorcery succeeded in deleting it from existence and took control of the girl. The car skidded to a stop right beside Jamie. He leaned over the hood and looked in through the missing front windshield.

"Hello there," he said to the incapacitated girl in the driver's seat. Her big, blue eyes blinked tiredly a few times. The indented corners of her thick, succulent lips rose into a grin and then she passed out. Jamie opened her door, gently moved her to the passenger seat and then drove the car around the corner to Helena Worth's house.

He parked in the driveway and Nova got out to carry the girl inside. "I've called everyone here," it said. "They should be arriving in minutes."

Caitlin's eyes blinked open for a moment and tried to focus on the people standing around her bed. It was too much effort, so she closed them again and just enjoyed the soft mattress under her. She let her hands glide over the soft duvet cover and sighed. It had been so long since she had the simple pleasure of choosing what she touched and how. The voices above her were commenting on how she was waking up. She let out a bitter snort. Her nightmare was one from which she would never, ever wake up. She was doomed to be a prisoner in her own flesh for the rest of her life and-

Her eyes shot open with sudden realization. She lifted her own two hands before her eyes and stared at them, incredulous. She was in control of her own body. She gasped and sat up in bed. She propped herself up with one arm and then the other, exchanging them with glee. She laughed her gladdest laugh ever and felt tears roll down her cheeks for the first time in months.

Her face was her own. No longer was it a mask upon her soul that tried to force her to feel the spirits' emotions. The emotions on it were those that she truly felt, and right now, she was overwhelmed with relief. Her tears and laughter increased. She shook her head in disbelief. She was free at last.

"She's nuts," said one of the redheads standing over her, with a hint of a scottish accent. She twirled a finger pointed to her temple. "Completely gone off her rocker."

Caitlin laughed some more in response. She had survived. She was still herself, still sane. For months, she had been subjected, non-stop, to the worst, unbelievable horror and she was still sane, coming out of it. She lay back down and hugged her sides. She half rolled this way and that, upon the bed and laughed a laugh of heady relief to the people standing over her.

She started noticing the expressions on their faces. They ranged from openly hostile to mildly amused. Her ecstasy at regaining her freedom began to give way to a creeping unease. She realized that she had no command of her magic and began to feel fear. Her laughter died out. She wiped the tears from her eyes and tried to get out of bed. One of the men standing over her, the brown haired one, lay a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down. He sat beside her and she nervously bit on her lower lip.

"Lie down," Jamie said. "Just lie back and relax. We've got some questions for you to answer."

Fed up with her enforced, months-long inability to speak, Caitlin spilled everything that had happened to her ever since that day when she got possessed by the first spirit. She talked a mile a minute and brooked no interruption. Jamie and his gang couldn't stop her, even if they tried. Once she started in on the stuff about the vampires, they didn't want her to stop. They settled down on the bed and surrounding seats and nodded along as she kept talking. They didn't try too hard to keep track of what she was saying, knowing that Nova was recording everything, anyway.

Caitlin spoke incessantly, heeding no interruptions, except to sip some water they brought her, and went into great detail. By the time her tale was done, her voice was hoarse. She smiled a wide smile of triumph. She had managed to recite each and every name she had ever seen on an envelope the first evil spirit had been mailing. By doing so, she avenged her enslavement in her own, little way.

When she told of how Samaras had possessed her the other day, everyone's jaw dropped in amazement. They had no idea it could be done. It also explained all the actions she took against them.

Jamie wore a frown while she was reciting this part of the story. He should have had Samaras raped by the twins, too. The man had managed to try and fuck with them from beyond the grave. "Well," Jamie thought to himself, "at least the fucker's deader than dead, now."

When Caitlin finished her lengthy testimony, Jamie put on a bemused smile. He checked his watch. She had been talking for two and a half hours, without pause. He couldn't help but chuckle at the accomplishment. All throughout her recitation, he could sense no deception or hostility coming from her. Actually, her emotions towards him and his group could only be described as gratitude. His gut instincts told him that the girl was telling the truth and that they should let her call her folks and help her go home. His recent experiences told him to have her raped by the twins, just to make sure.

Jamie wrestled with whether or not to go through with it. He considered all the possible outcomes. If she was raped and had a secret plan to hurt them, he'd be very justified in his actions. If she was raped and innocent, then he'd wipe her mind and, for her, it would be as if it had never happened. They'd know, however. They'd know how she reacted when pinned down and forced against her will. They'd have intimate knowledge of her body and her mind, exposing all of her secrets, without her ever knowing about it.

He considered the flip side of the coin. What would happen if he didn't have her raped? If she was innocent, then he was doing the right thing. If she was somehow colluding with the Syndicate, then... Jamie's brain kicked into high gear and he logically reviewed her actions and testimony. Everything he knew about her pointed towards her telling the truth. He mentally kicked himself for ever doubting her or his instincts. He felt ashamed for having considered raping her, even if he was going to remove the memory of it from her mind immediately afterwards.

"Well," he said, "thank you for that detailed and exhaustive recitation, Miss Ford-"

"Please," Caitlin croaked and reached out to squeeze his forearm, "call me Caitlin. You saved me from a fate worse than death, I think that qualifies you to be on a first name basis with me."

"Thank you, Caitlin," Jamie said. "This is Helena, and we are currently in her home. She will show you where the amenities are and give you use of her phone so you can call your loved ones and let them know you are all right. If you need anything, just tell her. Oh, and here's your magic back."

Caitlin nodded in gratitude. The feeling of her power being at her disposal again, after so much time, was an intoxicating delight. "Don't worry about the vampires," Jamie said. "We are going to pass all the names on to Section and we will go hunt down the casters that performed the ritualistic sacrifices and stop them." Caitlin shot him a look that obviously questioned his sanity. "We've memorized all the names you spoke, Caitlin. Nova, show her!"

Nova began to recite the names Caitlin had told them but soon stopped when Caitlin raised her hand. "You are going to go hunt vampires," Caitlin asked, her tone incredulous.

"Yes," Jamie said. "We've already caught a fresh one, last year, and we did it with about a quarter of the power we now wield and less equipment than we now have. Don't worry, we are going to go all Pokémon on the fucks and catch 'em all!"

Caitlin stared at him in mute shock. Helena took her by the arm and tugged a few times to get her attention. "Come on, I'll show you where the bathroom is. You need to get your story straight before you call your folks." Caitlin opened her mouth to say something to Jamie but reluctantly let herself be led by the tall blonde. She felt very sad that these attractive, young people, that had saved her, were hell-bent on getting themselves drained by a vamp.

As soon as they left, Sandra closed the door and said, "Do you actually believe her story?"

"Yes," Jamie said.

Sandra's face made an incredulous expression and she said, "What? You believe that this spirit that was possessing her had no problem finding and contacting dozens of casters in the first few weeks but then suddenly couldn't find more than one a day for two whole months. That doesn't make sense!"

"Well," Jamie said, "it does when you factor in the evacuation Section ordered. Many casters left the west coast and are roaming the country even now." Jamie sighed. "We should definitely go and put a stop to this menace. We were going to go do it, anyway, we just got sidetracked by our parents being kidnapped."

"Aw," Rose said, "you said you were going to take us on a pleasure tour of the whole world. We only got to go to Paris for a split second!"

"If you think I can go around the world and have fun while murderers are on the loose," Jamie said, "then you clearly haven't been paying attention to anything I've been saying or doing."

"Dammit, Jamie," Sandra said, "Rose has a point! Life is for the living! We are supposed to enjoy it and not run around taking down bad guys. It's not our job! We are not getting paid to do it. We never took an oath or made a promise. It's not our fucking problem!"

Jamie looked at her and Rose, standing there with arms crossed. They looked like they were going to issue an ultimatum at any moment. The twins just watched and waited for his response. "Funny how I didn't hear a single word of complaint when our families' lives had been on the line," Jamie said. He held up a hand and the girls' protests died on their lips, correctly interpreting it as his order to be quiet. "It is my problem, Sandra! It is my problem because I can't go have fun while I know that hundreds are dying and I could have stopped it.