Assassin Affairs (35 page)

“Which
one of you double tapped those two rounds into that gangster's
crotch?”

“I
did,” said Kristie. “He tried to rape me.”

“No
explanation is needed, honey. What do you say we take this kissing
session to the next level, you two?”

“That
will never happen,” said Kristie.

“Tsk,
tsk. I'm a patient woman. Okay, Julie, tell our new friends what you
know.”

“I'm
part of a group of people that gain fame by hacking government
agencies, the more secret the agency, the more the fame. Kacey won
the computer hacker of the year award and made the cover of Hacker
Magazine!”

“That
explains why our enemies would want to have control of her,”
said Pepper.

“May
we get dressed now?” asked Karlee.

“That's
up to Julie,” said Renée. “Ask her.”

“I
want to add in a tasting,” said Julie.

“Not
today,” said Renée. “Soon though hopefully.”

Kristie
took her turn and asked, “Julie, may we put our clothes back on
now?”

“No,
you need to mingle among us awhile first. We don't want Renée
to have all the fun.”

“Where
are my clothes? I'm getting dressed!” announced Karlee.

“Good
luck with that,” chuckled Julie. “I hid them.”

Several
hours had already passed and dawn was breaking. Two of the Royal
Guards barged in unannounced with the girls' breakfast, accompanied
by Princess Lei.

“Everyone
on your feet in the presence of Her Royal Highness!” ordered
one of the soldiers.

“What's
going on here?” she asked, ogling the two naked guests.

“Just
a little female-bonding, Your Highness,” she responded, with
the hint of a giggle. “These are the Americans I told you
about.”

“They've
hidden our clothes, Your Highness.”

“Well,
how did they get them in the first place?”

The sisters
blushed, speechless, as her armed, over-sized Laotian guards gave
them an intimidating glare and as she walked behind them. She pinched
each on her butt, peeking over their shoulders to see their response.

“You
Americans are such a fun and unusual people. I wish to visit America
one day,” the princess declared. Then she turned and looked at
the clothed prisoners.

“You
five, what is the penalty for causing Royal displeasure?”

“Prison,
Your Highness,” they responded in unison.

“And
if you piss-off Pepper?”

“Prison,
Your Highness.”

“I
just dropped in to see if the accommodations are satisfactory.”
She ogled the nude sisters as she asked, “Is there any reason
for me to be displeased?”

“No,
Your Highness.”

“Good,
carry on then. Pepper, stop by my chambers when you have time. Good
day, everyone.” She and Pepper exchanged a sultry glance.

As soon as
she was gone, Pepper said “You two, she said she wants to visit
America. It may not seem like it, but you may have just helped shift
the balance of world power in our favor. That's a big deal, an
Oval-Office-big-deal,” she beamed. She then glared at Julie.

“Fetch,
Julie!”

Julie
retrieved the clothes, and the eight of them continued bonding over
breakfast.

“The
sisters have us all wanting to help them, isn't that right, ladies?”
asked Pepper.

“Yes,
ma'am.”

“I'm
initiating Operation Kacey. We'll use Renée's Colorado cabin
as a base. Due to the media coverage of the Oscars, these people
probably have made the connection between you and Kacey, assuming
they even have her. Become brunettes, start wearing glasses. Renée,
start putting out feelers; find us some connections. We can sell you
as anti-government. You're all over the Internet as mob-connected.”

“They
probably made what connection?” asked Julie.

“She's
our little sister, but it was a well-kept family secret until
yesterday. We've never met her.”

A look of
dismay spread across the room.

A few days
later, they were unpacking in the remote cabin.

“There's
not room for eight people here,” observed Karlee. “There's
just one bedroom.”

“The
five of us will take the bedroom. You three bunk out here,”
said Renée.

“We'll
leave the door open, though,” Julie suggestively added.

“If
we're going to sell this, we'll need our guns, Pepper,” Renée
requested.

“Guns
are on their way,” said Pepper. “I've had nine sleeping
bags shipped here, so no one needs the bedroom for anything except
storage. We're going to build a fire tonight and all sleep out here
together in the main room.”

“It's
my cabin, so my rules,” declared Renée. “You guys
can have Julie if you want.”

“If
that's how you feel, I'm confiscating this cabin under the RICO act,”
Pepper said.

“Actually,
it belongs to my step-dad,” said Jessie.

“No
difference; he's as guilty as the rest of you. You all made that
family hit together for Cicero. That subjects you to the RICO act.”

Renée
continued to insist things be done her way. The sisters felt uneasy
at being outnumbered and were glad everyone was unarmed, for now.

Tired of
the arguing, Ashley offered, “Pepper, do you want me to kick
her ass for you?”

“I
thought you'd be taking her side on everything.”

“Nah,
I'm happier taking orders from you. Last year, I got tired of all
Renée's domination bullshit and showed her she's not so
tough.”

“You
did?”

“I'm
a martial artist. I used pressure points to make her be submissive.
We went to the sundeck on her roof and I had my way with her. Jessie
and Laura came up to watch the sunset, and watched us, too.”

They nodded
their confirmation. When no one else objected to Pepper's directions,
Renée relented. A fire was built, pizzas were devoured, and a
few joints were rolled.

“We're
glad you're cool with the marijuana, Pepper,” said one of the
five.

“I
can bend the rules. A tree that does not bend in the wind, breaks.”

“An
Asian proverb?”

“Probably.
I'm American, I don't know.”

As the
flames flickered and as everyone got more relaxed, Julie asked
“Karlee, Kristie, have you ever killed an innocent?”

“Do
you consider bankers with their big bail-out bonuses innocents?”
asked Kristie.

“NO,”
came the united response.

“Well,
then we haven't.”

“Everyone
in this room is a murderer. We can do some serious bonding over that
for starters,” Pepper informed the gathering. “We're
going to discuss several of the hits you all have done. I've spoken
at length with most of you, and used the Patriot Act to access many
of your private emails, so I already know many of your secrets. Let's
put our cards on the table tonight, so that we all can know who we
will be working with, who we will each be entrusting our lives to, as
we work together to rescue Kacey and other projects.”

“Is
that why the ninth sleeping bag?”

“In
case one of you wets the bed, we'll have a spare,” she said
sarcastically.

“Who
wants to go first? Shall we start with the hit on Misty's family or
the hit on the banker? Details on Wanda and the Lieutenant Governor
are also on the agenda tonight.”

The group
of young woman exchanged a few startled, blank stares.

“I
know more than any of you think, and I already have you incriminated,
each of you, so you can speak freely. I'm the one in control here,
you are
all
mine, so now let's get comfortable with that fact
and move forward with some story sharing,” said Pepper.

“What
do you know about the banker?” Karlee asked.

“You
thought it was the man's wife that hired you. Wrong, it was me. I
know Alexei the same as you and Laura do. I spent a year with him a
long time ago. As you know, he gets contracts from mobsters and
governments alike. When it's our government, it's often from me. You
both murdered the man. I can nail you for it if you won't work with
me.”

“I
have a license-to-kill,” Karlee responded dismissively.

“Who
do you think signed-off on that, Missy?”

“The
NSA.”

“They
requested it, I authorized it. It can go away just as easily. Of
course if it does, those digital voice matches of you at the
Lieutenant Governor's will come back to haunt you.”

“That
was you?!” Ashley blurted out. “I saw you on TV, that was
so cool!”

The sisters
squirmed uncomfortably as Pepper redirected the conversation.

“Which
one of you pulled the trigger on Wanda? I have my suspicions, but
want to know for sure.”

“It
was Jessie,” Ashley informed her. “She pretended to be a
college student returning home with a load of dirty laundry. When the
two of them passed in the underground garage, she dropped the
clothes, turned around and pumped two rounds into the back of Wanda's
head. She dropped like the sack of manure that she was.” They
high-fived one another.

“How
did you meet the woman who hired you?” asked Pepper.

“We
kidnapped her from a high-end shopping mall for ransom, then took her
back to Renée's place for an evening of sex. The next day she
offered us a lot of money to kill her business partner Wanda. We did
our research and took the contract.”

“I
want to hear more about this night of sex,” requested a curious
Kristie.

“It
was what we call a tasting party. It was like a wine-tasting, only
different, if you get my drift,” she said with a suggestive
wink.

“Renée,
tell us about the Misty hit. That's where Ashley came on board, isn't
it?”

“Misty
was white-trash. She was Cicero's private call girl. Like all men, he
did his thinking with his dick and gave her a big diamond engagement
ring. To make a long story short, she ran off with her boyfriend,
kept the quarter-million-dollar ring, he put out a hit and they went
into Witness Protection. When Ashley had been researching her
Master's Thesis, she saw me in all the photos with Cicero and wanted
to meet me. She had already wormed her way into Misty's life and
become her brother's girlfriend, and when an opportunity opened up,
she anonymously tipped Cicero, who called on me to take care of it by
giving the entire family flying lessons from a hi-rise condo.”

“She
left out the fun stuff,” said Ashley. “When they invaded
the condo, they made us all strip. Jessie had the hots for me and
pulled me aside, saying that if I could make her smile, she'd be my
friend and I might survive the night. There's only one way to do
that, and they rearranged the dining room chairs so that everyone
could watch. Fifteen minutes later....”

“It
was well over an hour,” Renée interrupted.

“Oh,
well I lost track of time. Anyway, an hour later, she whispers that
the hit is only for the family and if I push Johnny off the balcony
for them, they'll let me live, otherwise I join him. I lured him out
there with the promise of first-time sex before we died. While we
worked up the courage to do it on the ledge, we stood together on a
bench. When Renée, Jessie and her now step-dad Danny gave me
the signal, I pushed Johnny over the edge. When his mom heard him
scream, she rushed out onto the twenty-story balcony, followed by
Renée, who pushed her off, too.”

“Oh
my gosh, you guys are lethal!” said Kristie. “Then what
happened?”

“They
fired a fatal round into the dad, he had already been knee-capped,
and then had Misty and her fiancé get up on the ledge. Renée
informed them that Mr. Cicero's wedding present was flying lessons.
They held hands as she taught them how to fly off a hi-rise balcony.
I thought I might be next as I cowered nude in front of them, but
they threw me my clothes and took me with them. The rest is history.
What about you, Pepper? Tell us what kind of woman we'll be taking
orders from.”

“For
me, it's all about power, not sex. I use sex as a tool to get what I
want, with a man or a woman. I'm a power-whore. My plan is to run the
CIA, and this thing with the princess is going to lock that up for
me. Once I'm CIA Director, I'm going to use that as a platform to
take me into political office just like H.W. did.”

“Who's
H.W.?” asked Julie.

“The
first George Bush,” said Laura. “He went from CIA
Director to Vice-President to President.”

“I
need an off-the-books team to help me along my journey to power, and
that's where you guys come in.”

“You've
got us on the official CIA payroll,” Laura pointed out.

“Not
yet, but I plan to, and you'll be coded as black-ops and top secret,
so even an act of Congress won't reveal details.”

“Oh,
this is cool. I'm liking it,” said Jessie.

“You're
quite the manipulator, Pepper,” said Karlee. “Are you
behind our sister's abduction?”

“I
can neither confirm nor deny, but what I can tell you is that I know
she's close to here. We'll all be working together on a need-to-know
basis, and you now know everything you need-to-know. Oh, and Renée,
in case you have any ideas of not cooperating, I have an IRS team
ready to investigate your Uncle Chip, aka Charles Cicero. If anything
happens to me, or if you piss me off and somehow avoid prison, I send
in the IRS to do an extensive audit, informing Cicero that you ratted
him out as part of a plea agreement. That's how the government took
down Capone, so he'll believe it.”

“Yeah,
I get it. I'll be a good girl. I just want the chance to spend time
with my dad.”

“That
goes for us, too,” added Karlee. “Once this is done,
we'll need family time with our parents, all five of us together!”

“That's
fine, we'll all be getting what we want. Don't worry, ladies. Any
questions?”

“I
have one,” said Julie. “Will you make the sisters take
their clothes off again? That's what I want.”