The Last Horizon (19 page)

One thing clients like him had in common was that they were all married, had families, and used their business trips to cheat on their wives.
Money seemed to be no object for them to have their fantasies fulfilled…no matter how depraved. She was their girl. The girl that never flinched. The girl that never judged.

You’d never know it by looking at him, but this one was kind of a freak; that was always the case with his kind, straight-laced and conservative in appearance, with a dark u
nsettling fetish lurking behind an expensive suit.

H
e always tipped her a lot of money on the side to “be treated extra special.” Extra special meant that he would snort some crunch, have her tie him up face down on the floor, and have his ass spanked until it was raw and tears streamed down his face.

He liked to
beg, and always insisted she wore spiked heels so she could dig them into his buttocks and tell him what a naughty little boy he was and how he needed to be punished for his impure thoughts.

“You look ravishing tonight, Summer.” He smiled as he sipped his wine.

“Thank you, Eli.” She blushed.

“I’ve been looking forward to seeing you again.”

“So have I.”

“I really enjoyed our
last meeting.” He grinned. “I can’t wait to get you alone.”

“Patience. I promise it will be worth the wait.”

After they finished their dinner, they retired to his room on the thirteenth floor and he removed his dinner jacket and sat at on the bed.

“Did you bring desert?” Eli
asked happily with a tone of anticipation in his voice.

Summer handed him a small vile filled with crunch. He smiled as he unscrewed the cap that had a tiny spoon built into it, took a scoop of the powder, and inhaled it sharply into his left nostril.

“Ahhh! Quality!” He snorted another dip of dust and exhaled loudly as he stood up and completely undressed.

“Oh baby, you
are
a scorcher tonight.” He caressed Summer lovingly with his eyes as he fondled himself.

“
I’ve been
really
bad and I think you need to do something extra special to me!”

Summer took a step closer to him and slapped his face hard. “I saw the way you looked at our waitress
during dinner and I could tell you were having those dirty thoughts.”

“No. I didn’t mean it.”
He pouted as he cast his gaze down at the floor.

“
Hey, look at me when I talk to you!” Summer hissed. “You were having thoughts, you dirty little chubby!” She scowled and smacked him again.

“You know what happens when you have
those thoughts, right?” Summer said menacingly as she circled him slowly.

“I couldn’t help myself!”
Eli whined shamefully.

Summer
pushed him down to the floor. “On your knees, pizzle! Who do you adore?”

“You.”

“Say my name, piglicker!”

“Mistress!”

“
Get on your stomach…NOW!

“
Yes Empress.” The man rolled over submissively.

Summer
stood over him and tied his hands behind his back with his neck tie as he sprawled on the carpet. She grabbed the man’s belt, folded it in half, and gave his ass five or six hard lashings.

“Oh god!” He yelled. “Harder! Punish me, Mistress!”

“Shut up, you pathetic ass goblin!” Summer ordered as she crossed the belt on Eli’s buttocks a few more times with everything she had. His skin was red, and the belt left sharp welts. Tears ran down his cheeks as he took deep breaths and trembled.

“
I swear, your ass is hairy enough to pass for a throw rug,” Summer’s nose crinkled with disgust, “and it smells like burnt mushrooms, you filthy scrub!”

“Oh yes! YES! I’M SO DIRTY!”

“You need to use cream rinse!” Summer whipped him several more times.

“I
need cream rinse.” He whimpered feebly.

“I want to hear you beg!” She
charged as she leaned over him. “What do you want from your Mistress tonight?”

“Pudding.”

“What?” Summer growled as she leaned in closer. “I didn’t hear you, piglet!”

“I want some pudding, my Empress!”

“You have to earn your pudding, you grubby little twat hammer.”

“Command me, Mistress.”

“I want to hear you sing.” She stood up above the man and pressed the stiletto heel of her left shoe into his buttocks as she balanced herself on her right foot. “Sing me my song you shitheel.”

“I'm a little teapot, short and stout, here is my handle,
here is my spout…” his voice shook with pain…

“
With feeling, you miserable knob-gobbler!” Summer put her weight into her left leg and dug the heel of her shoe into his ass cheek…

“Oooh my go
d that hurts!” He cried loudly.

“Sing dickweed!”

“…when I get all steamed up, hear me shout, tip me up and pour me out…”

“I said with feeling!” Summer
removed her foot and began wailing on his ass with the belt with all her might…

“
…I'm a clever teapot, yes, it's true…”

“MAGGOT!” She continued to crucify his butt as his voice weakened and s
weat poured from him…

“…h
ere's an example of what I can do…”

“LOUDER! Bitch!” She screamed as the belt smacked loudly against his skin and sweat flew in every direction…

“…I can turn my handle into a spout…I want my mommy!”

“Stop crying
, bitch!” Summer whipped his ass harder then stood up and jammed her heel into his butt again with her full weight behind it…

“…t
ip—me—up—and—pour—me--ouuut! MOMMY! I WANT MY MOMMY!” He blubbered in agony.

“Wh
at are you?”

“I’m a filthy mud-bunny.” He whimpered.

“WRONG!” Summer shouted. “You are a bag of shit!” She slammed her heel into his ass and twisted her foot.

He moaned with
his eyes half-closed in ecstasy and passed-out on the floor. Summer took a deep breath, bent down and untied him, and stepped away from Eli’s sweaty body.

She calmly wal
ked to the dresser and took a moment to fix her hair. Summer glanced up at the reflection of the man as she touched-up her lipstick.

She went over to the bed and picked up
Eli’s pants and pulled his billfold out of the back pocket. Summer counted out four thousand credits, put it in her purse, and left the room.

Chapter 11

Kurlie

L
arron and Vince looked exhausted when they came to see me. I could tell from their glassy-eyed expressions that they hadn’t slept in days, but Vince looked excited as he walked into the room, sat next to Larron, and set three burned-out SCaT pads on my desk.

Hackers. I don’t know what it is about them
, but they all seemed the same: rogue brainiacs that got their ya-ya’s off on sleep deprivation as they tested network security codes and exposed the vulnerabilities of mega-corporations by deciphering and dissecting their firewalls, hijacking identities, and disrupting the flow of daily life, and for what? A jab at the establishment? To bring chaos into the lives of people by reminding them that no matter how safe they thought they were someone was always around to put the hoodoo into their existence? Odd people.

“So, have you made any progress with Scott’s identity?” I asked optimistically.

“Here’s the story Mr. Montrell,” Vince replied apprehensively, “every time Larron and I tried to get the goods on Scott we hit a wall. We think his profile is phony, someone’s gone through a lot of trouble to make-up certs for this guy.”

“The man doesn’t exist…well no shit. What the hell am I paying you for? Tell me something I don’t know.
”

“Oh he exists all right, just not in the way you and I exist.
When you told us how Tommy was killed, Larron and I suspected that any information dragnet on a Fenmore Scott would trigger a trackware that would backwash the probing system.” Vince pointed at the damaged SCaT pads. “As you can see, we tested the theory and some hardware got smoked.”

“So instead of trying to find something out about Scott’s past,” Larron interceded, “we decided to
look at what was going in and out of Nexus, we hoped we could pick up some leads.”

“Ship manifests for the corporations
importing goods to the planet were easy to harvest.” Vince smiled.

“We didn’t find anything useful there,” Larron continued, “so we focused on
the blackmarket for anything out of the ordinary; we found drugs and weapons…basically the kind of contraband you’d expect to be brought into a planet that’s still being developed.”

“Then I
found a small encrypted packing list for a cargo drop that was made in Northern Icarus.” Vince said excitedly.

“
It took us a day to crack the script but we finally managed to decode it.” Larron cut in. “Everything on the list is impossible to get on the street, so someone paid a fortune to get these items.”

“Talk to me guys.”

“Black Swan with imploder rings and a transmitter.”

“What’s Black Swan?”

“It’s a plastic explosive used exclusively by the Terekian military. You have to have connections to get this kind of tear-ass swag and the device it takes to detonate it. An ounce of Swan can level a city block and leave a thirty-foot deep crater in the ground.”

“What else?”

Larron and Vince looked at each other quietly.

“What else did you find on that list
, goddamn it!”

“A
Kirsten Automatic assault pistol, and armor-piercing hollow point rounds. All this was purchased in Fluture last month.”

“
Shit! Any idea who made the buy?”

“No sir. We looked into it, but it was a dead end.”

“I’m being played as a pawn.” I slammed my fist on the desktop and made the hackers jump. “If he’s there to take someone out, I don’t want to be implicated. The last thing I want is to have law enforcement on my ass for landing him in Fluture.”

“Anything else we can do, Mr. Montrell?” Vince asked.

“I want you boys to break-off your search and lay low here for the rest of the week, all you’re doing is bringing the heat on us when you try to pinpoint this moolie.” I turned to look for one of my bodyguards. “Egone, where are you?”

“Yes boss?”

“Get a hold of Max at Gateway and find out when Nikki’s supposed to get back to Earth.”

“You got it, boss.”

“Listen to me, Egone,” I said harshly, “the moment Nikki touches down, I need you and six guys to be waiting at the Inter-port to take out Scott.”

“We’ll be ready for him, Mr. Montrell.”

“No room for mistakes, understand? Don’t underestimate this bastard. I want you to take him by surprise and I don’t want Nikki hurt, either, get it?”

“I’ll handle it, boss.”

“Whatever his business is in Fluture, I don’t want to know about it. As far as I’m concerned, he’s Nexus’ problem.  I could give a damn whether or not he makes it back to Earth. I’m done with this son-of-a-bitch, and I want him dead…”

I
jogged down the corridor and made my exit at the side of the building. I slowed to a brisk walk as I approached the lobby of The Orchid.

I
noticed a shift change with the valets, and the one that had greeted me was gone for the night. Even at this hour, the place had people lounging around and clients flowed evenly in and out of the casino.

I could cross Herron off the list, now
I had to figure out how to get to Charon…I take him out of the picture, then Kurlie’s tie to Nexus is broken.

I reached for my SCaT pad and was going to call Scotty when someone tapped me on the shoulder from behind.