Urban Prey Page 2

  She had her keys ready. More learned behavior, he guessed. She aimed her remote at a light-colored sedan. He saw the interior lights come on. Then, somewhere in the cavernous garage, a car alarm began to sound, blaringly loud, repetitive, insistent. At the instant she turned her head towards the sound, two men clad in black, right down to black ski masks covering their faces, burst out of a patch of deep shadow between a black van and the wall. The bigger of the two grabbed her around her neck with both hands while the second seemed to clamp his hand over her mouth. That could get you bitten, but he took his hand away almost immediately and Ron could see a strip of silvery duct tape sealing her lips.

  Even in the dimness, he could see her eyes, wide with shock and fright. Her hands clutched at the hands around her neck, but when the smaller man grabbed her coat and yanked it roughly off of her, she lost her grip. As soon as her coat was off, she tried to pry those hands from around her neck again. If she was making any noise, even with that strip of duct tape across her mouth, the car alarm was drowning it out. The two men seemed to be working together in complete silence.

  The bigger man used his grip around her neck to try to bend her over backwards. She fought that, and he quickly switched to pulling her forward and down. She couldn’t recover in time. Very quickly, she was lying facedown on the dirty concrete. She’d put her hands out to keep from landing too hard, but it hadn’t seemed to be necessary. The bigger man held her down with a booted foot on her hair and helped his compatriot drag the woman’s arms behind her. They secured her wrists with a plastic police restraint. A moment later, her ankles were similarly bound.

  A gray van pulled up as they were getting her back to her feet. The wide cargo door slid open and she was all but thrown inside. Her coat, purse and dropped keys were tossed in after her. Then the two men climbed into the van. It began to move again before the door had slid completely shut. It rolled away slowly. The car alarm fell silent.

  “Wow,” Ron breathed. The whole thing had taken less than twenty seconds, he was sure. “I’m impressed.”

  “That was our best team,” Hines grinned. He wasn’t whispering any more. “No muss, no fuss, no interfering bystanders.”

  “I’m properly impressed,” Ron nodded. “Now what happens to her?”

  Hines chuckled as he opened his door. “Before that van hits the street they’ll have her ass up and her panties down. She’ll get one Hell of a ride. C’mon, let’s get outta here. Places like this give me the creeps.”

  “Where are we going?” Ron opened his own door and extricated himself from the cramped back seat.

  “Next stop is the office,” Hines replied. He slid back into the driver’s seat.

  “The what?” Ron got in next to him and shut the door.

  “The office. That’s what we call it, anyways. I’m gonna give you the tour.”

  “Where is it?”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Hines chuckled as he put the car in gear and pulled out of the narrow parking space with much less care than he’d used when backing into it.

  “What about her car?” Ron asked as they pulled out into the street. There was a lot of traffic there, as always. It was getting dark out, and most of the cars had their lights on. Snow flurries blew down the street. Pedestrians turned up the collars of their coats and hunched their shoulders against the cold, cold winds.

  “That’s covered,” Hines answered. “We got her keys. They get turned over to one of our decoys. She picks up the car and takes it to our garage.”

  “One of our what?”

  “Decoys. There’s about half a dozen women workin’ for us on the outside. Maybe more, I dunno.” Hines shrugged as if the real number was unimportant. “One of ‘em’ll dress up a little to look like our latest customer there and take the car.”

  “You said: ‘to our garage’.”

  “Yeah,” Hines chuckled. “When the little lady is set free, she gets her car back, all cleaned and serviced…just like she was.”

  Ron laughed. “Who came up with that idea?”

  “Dunno,” Hines shook his head. “Been doin’ that as far back as I can remember.”

  It was a nice touch, but it wasn’t one he would have expected. Ron settled back in his seat as Hines weaved his way through the traffic. He didn’t know the city, and he had no idea where they were going, but he was very interested now in seeing the ‘office’.

  ***

  They drove to an older part of the city, down by the river. Most of the buildings here were old factories or warehouses. Some were boarded up, some looked as if they were about to collapse. Every so often there would be an open area, strewn with litter and stripped abandoned cars, overgrown with weeds and small, sickly-looking trees. If there was a fence, it was always chain-link, sagging, torn and useless. Half of the streetlights were out. In the dark, he couldn’t tell if they were broken or just burned out, but he’d be willing to bet they were broken. There didn’t seem to be any people around, but more than once he felt as if they were being watched.

  Closer to the river, things seemed to improve a little. The buildings were still old factories and warehouses, but it looked like some of them were in use. There were lights in some of the windows, and fewer of the streetlights were out. There was still a lot of room for improvement, though.

  “Here we are,” Hines announced. He drove up to a building that looked no different from all the other buildings in the neighborhood. All Ron saw was a dark brick wall, four stories high, scarred with undecipherable graffiti. At street level there were two wide overhead doors, both shut tight, both likewise covered in spray-painted scrawls. Further up were grimy factory windows, the glass set in metal frames. On the second floor, one of the panes had been broken. Cardboard had been taped up to cover the jagged hole.

  “Doesn’t look like an office to me,” Ron commented. He looked around the area, out of habit. It didn’t feel quite safe here. If you stopped moving, something could try to sneak up on you.

  “No, it doesn’t,” Hines agreed happily. He took what looked like a cell phone out of his pocket and hit one of the buttons. One of the overhead doors began to rise. It made a grinding, rumbling noise, as if it was not well maintained. In spite of that, it went up quickly and smoothly. There was barely enough clearance when Hines floored the gas. The car shot forward. Almost immediately, Hines hit the brakes. Behind them, the door clunked to a halt and then began descending. Hines killed the lights before Ron could get a good look at the interior. Then he switched off the ignition.

  “What…?” Ron began. It was so dark inside now that he couldn’t see anything at all.

  “Just wait,” Hines said. Ron couldn’t even see his face, but he was sure the other man was grinning. The moment the door closed, lights came on inside. Bright lights. Ron blinked at the sudden glare. Once his eyes had adjusted, he got out of the car for a look around. The first thing that struck him was how clean everything was. The floor had been painted a glossy gray. The walls were painted the same shade of gray, but flat, not glossy. The room wasn’t very large for a factory or a warehouse, maybe twelve feet long by ten feet wide, but the ceiling was two floors up. Off to the left, at street level, was a steel door. Above it was an identical door. A metal stairway, starting on the wall to his right, led up to it. He looked back, expecting to see the inside of the patched window. He could see no windows at all, on any of the walls.

  “What the Hell is this?” he demanded.

  “This is the employee’s entrance,” Hines replied. “C’mon, I’ll give you the tour.” He went to the lower door and opened it. “After you,” he nodded.

  When he stepped through the door he got another surprise. The hallway was wide, clean and well lit. The walls were more cinderblock, painted a pale yellow. There was a drop-ceiling overhead with recessed lighting.

  “Don’t look anything like you’d expect, does it?” Hines chuckled as he pulled the metal door shut behind him.

  “Not a thing,” Ron nodded. “I’m gu
essing the exterior of the building is just a shell.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “What about building security?”

  “No problem at all. The place doesn’t look like it’s got anything worth stealin’ to begin with, but there’s enough traffic to make some people curious. Every so often, some dimbulb tries to break in. If they get in, first thing they see is another wall. Most of ‘em give up right there. If they don’t, well, inside the shell we got cameras and alarms.”

  “I don’t imagine you can call in the police.”

  “Nah,” Hines shrugged. “We take care of it ourselves. I’m not real clear on the details, but I’m told they never try to come back and they don’t talk about it to anybody afterwards.” He walked past Ron to the next door. “C’mon. They’re expectin’ us.”

  The next room was an office, complete with cubicles. About half of them were occupied. Ron could see computers, phones, all of the electronic paraphernalia of a modern business. Before he could get much of a look, a woman came out of a side office and approached them. She looked to be just shy of fifty, but a very well tended and cared-for fifty. She was tall, dark-haired, smiling, and dressed in a conservative business suit.

  “You must be Ron,” she said as she drew near. “Welcome to the office. I’m Carla Bessemer.” She held out her hand.

  “Uh, yes. Hi.” Ron took her hand and shook it once.

  “Surprised?” Carla grinned up at him. The look on her face suggested that he was more surprised to see a woman in charge of the place than he was by the place itself.

  “Very,” Ron replied.

  “I’m the head proctor here,” Carla went on. “Basically, I supervise our clients and make sure they get no less and no more than they bargained for.” Her smile grew a little crooked. “Well, at least not too much more,” she said. “Sometimes they need a little help in pushing their own envelopes. I’ve heard a lot about you, Mr. Smith,” she went on. “I must say you’re even taller than I’d expected.”

  “I get that a lot,” Ron smiled. He had the distinct impression that the head proctor was coming on to him. Well, he got that a lot too.

  “We’re about to process some new arrivals,” Carla went on. “I’d be happy to show you how we do things. I have to supervise some of the early stages anyway.”

  “That would be fine,” Ron nodded. “I don’t know how you handle things here. All my work has been outdoors.”

  “So I’ve heard,” Carla almost purred. “I’d like to hear about how you do things out in the wilds some time.”

  “Maybe after I’m done with the job they’ve given me,” Ron said. She wasn’t that much older than he was, and she was still a very attractive woman. The company was pretty lenient about staff members fraternizing when they were off duty. He wondered what she was into.

  “Well,” she took his arm. “Come along with me and we’ll start the tour. Would your friend like to come along?” She nodded towards Hines.

  “Nah,” Hines shook his head. “I’m good. I wanna hit the cafeteria anyway. They got some great food here.”

  “That we do,” Carla smiled. She turned to Ron.“When we’ve completed the tour, why don’t we stop by there for coffee?”

  “All right,” Ron agreed. She was pressing against him very gently. He could feel the warmth of her body, and the yielding softness of her breast against his upper arm.

  ***

  “I reviewed your file, Mr. Smith,” Carla said as they walked down another hallway. She still held his arm, but she wasn’t pressing against him any more. Well, she’d already made her point.

  “Please, call me Ron.”

  “Thank you, but I really couldn’t do that,” Carla demurred. “I rather like calling you ‘Mr. Smith’.”

  “Uh…all right.” Now he had a better idea of what she might be into. “Where are we going again?”

  “They’re just bringing in some new clients. I thought you might like to see the initial processing.”

  “What does that involve?”

  “It would be easier just to show you,” she smiled. There was a door at the end of the hallway. She opened it. “After you.”

  They entered a small room, not much bigger than a passenger elevator and she closed the door behind her quickly. One wall had a large window, which seemed to be made of some kind of one-way glass. Through it, he could see a much larger room. It was dimly lit, but he could just see that it had a bare cement floor with drains set in it at intervals. He could also see chains hanging down from overhead trolleys. Apart from that, the big room was featureless and empty.

  The walls looked like any other warehouse walls he’d seen.

  “I don’t see anything…” he began.

  “Hush,” Carla whispered. She stood alongside him, and once again he could smell her perfume. It was faint and flowery. It seemed to suit her.

  Harsh, bright lights came on in the larger room. He heard a door bang open somewhere. Then five men entered, hustling along three struggling, bound, gagged and blindfolded women. They were still clothed, but they looked as if they’d had a very rough time: Skirts were hiked up, blouses torn open, and one of them was missing her shoes. As she was half-dragged, half-shoved across the room, he noted she’d lost her pantyhose as well. He thought he recognized her as the woman from the parking garage. The hair looked like the same short cut and color.

  “Excuse me,” Carla murmured. She reached past him and flipped a switch set on the wall. Suddenly, he could hear everything that was going on in the big room. Gagged or not, those women were making a lot of noise. It sounded as if they were complaining and pleading at the same time. The men…they were a mixed bag, he noted: Black, white and Latino, all about average height and build…just laughed and made rude comments. They handled the women pretty roughly as they made them stand in a line in the middle of the room, very close to one of the drains. Then they backed away.

  “What…?” Ron began.

  “Sssshhh…” Carla shook her head. “You’ll see.”

  One of the men unreeled what looked like a firehose from a wall stanchion. He aimed it at the line of women.

  He’d been expecting the women to be bowled over by a blast of high-pressure water. Instead, the water came out in a fine mist. The women squealed and shrieked as they were thoroughly wet down. One tried to step away, but she was warned back into place by one of the men. In a few moments, all three women were thoroughly soaked, shivering and sobbing. The man wielding the firehose shut it off and stored it away while three of his compatriots removed the women’s blindfolds and untied their hands. The fifth man, the Latino, stood in front of the women, hands on his hips. He gave the captives a brief chance to compose themselves. All three of them looked bewildered and fearful.

  “You bitches get your clothes off!” the Latino bellowed. His voice echoed in the room. “NOW! Or you get the hose again!”

  That brought another round of wailing from the women, but they began to undress as they’d been ordered.

  Carla leaned closer. “The room is heated,” she said in a whisper that tickled his ear. “But the water is very, very cold. They’d probably want to get out of their wet clothes anyway…” she chuckled, “Not necessarily in there, of course. But we start getting them used to taking orders from the very beginning. The cold water makes them a little more pliable for now.”

  “And later?”

  “Ah…later,” Carla kept whispering. “Later, they’re naked and helpless and surrounded by rough men. They learn to obey, one way or another.”

  “What did those three sign up for?” Soggy clothes were accumulating on the floor at a gratifying rate. The Latino kept barking at the women to hurry up.

  “Ahhh,” Carla breathed. “They have a deluxe package. Two weeks. Well, ten days, actually.

  They’re going to be trained to be sex slaves…straight, oral and anal. It ought to be very interesting for them.”

  “I think I recognize that one,” Ron pointed. When the shorth
aired woman had removed her skirt, he’d noticed she had no panties. She must have gotten quite a ride in that van. “Do those women know each other?”

  “I should think not,” Carla replied. “They each came here from a different part of the country. Until tonight, I doubt they’ve ever met.”

  The women were all naked and shivering now. One of the men collected their jewelry, even a belly ring worn by one of them. The collection of rings, earrings, watches and necklaces all went into a canvas bag. Another man began handcuffing the captives. There was more wailing and sobbing, but none of the women put up even a token resistance.

  “We’re very thorough,” Carla continued.

  “Now what happens to them?”

  “Considering that they have all been…used…already, now we’ll put them all in a cage and let them rest and dry out a little before beginning their training.”

  “You put them all in the same cage?”

  “Oh, yes! The room their cage is in is a little on the chilly side, so they’ll have to huddle together for warmth.”

  “What if they don’t do that?”

  “They will,” Carla laughed. “You see that one? The one you thought you recognized?” She pointed, as the women were being collared and chained together by their necks. The chains looked heavy. The men took the opportunity to fondle their captives. The women squirmed and whined at the rough handling. It earned one of them a hard slap on her cute little ass. She yelped and stopped struggling.

  “Yes. What about her?”

  “She’s done this once before. Even if the others are reluctant, she’ll probably talk them into it. In any case, the cage has only one mattress in it, and one blanket. Sooner or later, naked or not…” Carla shrugged and smiled. “You break down one inhibition and it’s a lot easier to break down all of the others.”