PART B
(IV) FESTIVAL OF MARTYRS
For hours Nina drifted in and out of delirium. She only had vague impressions from her brief periods of lucid consciousness: being chained to a squeaky iron bed, sucking water from a cloth offered by Little Feather, coughing from the heat, moaning in pain when her bandages were changed.
And her feverish mind was full of images from her past, as if her very life were flashing before her eyes. She remembered staring down from the balcony of her father's house while her hated Aunt Hypatia entertained a group of men--German men she had decided. Hypatia had pretended it was her own home even then, years before she had taken it from Nina by doctoring Roman's will. It was at that moment that Nina decided she would oppose evil tyrants wherever she could.
Then she saw herself bound hand and foot and wearing only a black bikini, hanging inverted over the icy water of the Chinese Torture Tank. Victor Petrov, Roman's manager and murder, spoke gleefully of her imminent death, which was carefully staged to look like an accident during an unsupervised rehearsal. He told her she was foolish to interfere with the affairs of the Order and that he had long looked forward to killing Roman's brat daughter. Then he lowered her into the water and bolted the lid closed. Nina could remember clearly the vibrations of the electric wrenches and the distorted view of the empty theater from within the deadly confines of the Torture Chamber. Victor and his men appeared bloated and distorted as they retreated, turning out the lights and leaving Nina to die alone in the tank beneath the single ghost light remaining on the darkened stage. It was there she learned to never give up hope.
Then she saw herself in the loft of the Spirit Theater with Kimberly Osborne, better known to the rest of the world as the superheroine Aquagirl. Only hours before Nina had rescued Kimberly--bound hand and foot with her legs trapped in a tub of quickly curing cement--from the hold of a yacht owned by the drug tycoon Ilyia Dragos. Nina had saved Aquagirl from a watery grave two miles beneath the surface of the open ocean, and the beautiful college post-doc was expressing her gratitude beneath the satin sheets of Nina's king-sized bed. After relieving the initial tension generated by Aquagirl's close scrape with Dragos, Nina had handcuffed herself to the athletic, blonde vigilante at both wrists, forcing the two to cooperate in order to continue with their lovemaking. At almost dawn Kimberly had completed the job, slipping a twin-shafted dildo between them and then cuffing their ankles together. Almost as mirror images of each other the two young vigilantes struggled beneath the silk sheets, enjoying for the first time another who shared the same passions for danger, violence and justice. It was there that Nina learned the connection between the Silk Specter and her own sexual identity.
Then she was standing before the Oracle, the Oracle of the Spirit Theater. His voice haunted her feverish dreams.
"�But beware, their living seed is death to mortals, and their offspring are as snakes in the desert."
The Silk Specter's eyes snapped open, confirming many of her feverish impressions of her surroundings. She was in a small bedroom, perhaps one of the hotel rooms over the old saloon. Through the cracks between the boards covering the window she could tell it was still daylight, and the hotel room felt like an oven. Nina had been stripped naked and chained to an iron bed frame. The mattress beneath her was filthy and smelled of urine. Little Feather sat in a chair near the bed, wearing little more than Nina. A bandage was on Nina's leg covering the two puncture wounds fully five inches apart.
"You're awake," Little Feather smiled, with a look somewhat akin to admiration. "You have defeated the poison." She knelt near the bed, and squeezed a rag full of water into Nina's parched mouth. Little Feather wore only a white bikini bottom. She was adorned with an armband on her left bicep and a gold chain bearing a large green gem stone. The stone danced between her round breasts.
"How long was I out?"
Little Feather just smiled. "Only 14 hours. Today is the day of the Council."
"Great," Nina rested a moment, "Wouldn't want to miss the excitement."
"Had you not awakened, Mariposa would have slain you in your bed before leaving for the ceremony."
The Ceremony! Joey would have to ride the buffalo into the circle to claim himself as Nahoc.
"What about the albino buffalo?"
"The truck ran out of gas just down the road. Joey has the buffalo."
Nina's heart sank.
"And Pop Sanchez?"
"He was not found. He will surrender or die in the desert."
Not good, but at least Pop was still at large. She almost hated to ask the next question.
"So what happens next?"
"You will die for Mariposa's entertainment. I am to alert her as soon as you regain consciousness."
"So why haven't you summoned her yet?" Nina could see that look in Little Feather's eye, just like Kimberly Osborne's on the night of the rescue.
"I've never seen anyone do what you did to Joey Dakota back in town. And Billy Bare. And Snake Eyes. I've never seen a true female warrior. Men are built for combat, woman for pleasure. You are built for both."
Nina could tell that the little minx was getting ideas. Perhaps that could be of value. "Little Feather, do you want me?"
"Joey would not be pleased. He greatly looks forward to your death."
"Do your people honor a last request?"
"Yes, but only before combat is joined."
"Then take me, Little Feather. If you would see me honored, give me one last taste of earthly pleasure."
Little Feather was being drawn in as she ran her hands across Nina's smooth, young body. The heroine�s breasts were firm orbs, inviting to the touch. Her stomach a flat plain marked with subdued ripples, curving gently to her dark pussy where her further treasures were concealed by her delicate outer lips. After warming up slowly, Little Feather descended with soft kisses to Nina's most inviting sex. She worked her tongue skillfully across the petite vigilante's clitoris, using a gentle touch to open her lovely enemy's soft pussy. Nina writhed deliciously as Little Feather's caress did its work. Warmth oozed from her crotch filling her with tingly pleasure.
At last Little Feather could stand the Silk Specter's gyrations no more. She looked up uncertainly and her raven-haired prisoner knew this was her only chance. The slim Indian's desire for satisfaction was too strong, and Nina pressed the advantage.
"My arms, Little Feather, free my arms. I want to touch you. Its okay, I'm still bound at the ankles." Little Feather hardly hesitated. She reached up and slipped out the pin securing each wrist manacle to the bed frame. Then she mounted Nina, with her own crotch only inches from the teenage avenger's face. Nina responded by using her own skills in female stimulation to send Little Feather into new realms of pleasure.
Both women became enraptured in their work, Nina gently nibbling on Little Feather's clit and Little Feather fully probing Nina's tight sensitive pussy. In fact, neither of them noticed the approach of Joey Dakota and his men until Little Feather was roughly pulled off the sexy adventuress.
"Uhh, uhh, uhh, Little Feather. I think the Silk Specter might be enjoying that too much." Men roughly chained Nina's wrist cuffs back to the bed frame, while Nina struggled weakly. Finally she defiantly locked eyes with Joey Dakota. " I had something in mind more like�THIS!"
Joey lashed out with a leather strap and struck Nina across the stomach. The Specter moaned and tried to bunch up defensively. Of course, it was futile and Joey struck her twice more to illustrate the point. Nina's whimpers were still quieting as Joey turned his attention to Little Feather.
"You will get your punishment later. She gets hers now." He threw two pairs of steel cuffs at the terrified Indian along with the Specter's mask and bikini underwear. "Put that bitch into these cuffs and bring her sexy ass up to the snake pit pronto."
Little Feather eagerly took up the manacles and moved towards Nina, grateful that the green-eyed crime fighter was the target of Joey's wrath instead of her.
"I must admit, you've made quite a nuisance of yourself, Silk Specter," Mariposa preened. "I'm going to enjoy watching you die."
Nina stood on the brink of a large pit, easily 50 yards across and 25 feet deep with steeply sloping natural clay walls. She wore only her mask, a dirty bandage on her thigh, and the nylon bikini underwear she normally wore under her costume. Her legs were free, but her arms were now tied behind her back with hemp rope. Little feather had pulled the masked teenager's matted hair back in a dark ponytail.
The Specter stood before the imposing Priestess Mariposa, a sun-baked severe-looking woman whose brown eyes were hard and merciless. She was flanked by her bodyguards, two shapely Indian women in black leather body suits with long whips coiled at their belts. Joey Dakota, Billy Bare, and over 20 recently bandaged Apache Lords lined the lip of the pit, ready to enjoy the show.
"Give it up, Mariposa. I don't know what story Joey Dakota has been feeding you, but this crazy scheme will never work."
"Ahh, but I beg to differ. I still have the buffalo, despite your pathetic rescue attempt last night. I have the fastest gunslinger in the world to serve as Nahoc, the invincible warrior chief of the Hicsoc Nation. In a few hours my German friends will be arriving with enough weapons to take all of Oceana by force."
"Until the first detachment of Marines land and slaughter your entire people."
"Oh yes, a regrettable sacrifice. But by then I will be long gone with the wealth of an entire city at my disposal." Her cruel laugh chilled Nina to the bone. She really intended to sacrifice her entire race for profit.
"That's madness."
"Indeed. And let me now show you just what madness I have in store for you. The trailer please!"
A large dusty trailer was maneuvered to the far side of the pit. Even from where she stood Nina could faintly distinguish the coppery smell of fresh blood. The snarls and howls that came from the interior of the trailer were savage yet strangely familiar. Carefully, two heavily armed gangsters opened the door of the trailer. The snarls of the beast within the cage were terrifying as the men goaded it with cattle prods until it was finally forced out of the trailer, down the sloping walls and into the pit.
"My god!" Nina caught her breath.
It was Misha, but hardly the Misha Nina remembered. She had been blooded, and her chops still dripped from her last meal. Her feline eyes were wild as she charged the walls of the pit. Her attempts to escape were almost successful and many a hand strayed to his pistol butt, just in case. Misha roared and sprang into the air with unrelenting fury.
"I was a little something we picked up last night. Since her capture I've been feeding her raw meat and wortwood bark. I'm afraid the poor thing is quite mad with blood lust. And after the tiger has torn you limb from limb and feasted on your entrails, we'll fill in this pit as the final resting-place of the Silk Specter. "
"And the worst part is I'm allergic to cat dander!" The Silk Specter was irritatingly calm for a woman only moments from grisly death. Mariposa's face clouded over in frustration.
"Little fool! If you think you can save yourself with courageous words then you are sadly mistaken."
The Specter met her gaze, wearing her trademark secret smile.
"We'll see. But I think you'll miss me when I'm gone."
"Don't flatter yourself, imp. I'm afraid you've no allies among the Apache Lords. Throw her in!"
Mariposa's guards each grabbed and arm and propelled the slim heroine toward the pit. Nina tried to stop her forward progress, to maintain her footing on the edge of the precipice. But then she toppled over, pitching and rolling down the steep, unforgiving wall until she came to rest face down at the bottom of the pit. The Maid of Mystery lay motionless as a cloud of dust briefly enveloped her. It seemed as if the fall had knocked her unconscious.
But on the far end of the pit, Misha took note of the small woman's plunge. She came bounding over, roaring madly, eyes wild with blood lust. Less than 50 yards stood between the Silk Specter and grisly death!
Nina started showing some life, but apparently far too late to save herself. With her arms bound tightly behind her back, the Specter bunched her legs up in a fetal position. Slowly, she slipped her bound arms under her body so that her wrists were bound in front of her rather than behind her back. Then, at the last possible moment, Nina rolled to her back and forced the stout rope running between her wrists into the tigers mouth, wrapping her own legs tightly around the viscous beast's neck.
"Resta, Misha, Resta." Nina tried her old verbal commands on the animal, but they seemed to have no effect. Her only hope was to stay close to the tiger's own throat and to avoid the long claws. Misha's breath was hot with blood and claws passed only inches away from the Specter's exposed back. If she could only get the deadly cat to sever the ropes�
The tiger realized that she would have to get rid of her clinging passenger in order to make the kill, so she moved quickly in circles while shaking her head, hoping to throw Nina off. The Specter's injured leg ached fiercely and her vision was graying from frequent blows against the ground, but still she hung on for dear life. And she could see the rope fraying within the confines of the cat's blood-caked mouth. If she could just hang on!
But finally the fearless teenager's strength failed her, and the next thing the Silk Specter knew she was flying free. She had been bucked from the cat, but the extra force of teeth against rope had parted her wrists. The raven-haired adventuress did a graceful tuck in mid air and landed on her feet, but her left leg could not absorb the impact and she fell to the ground again, choking in dust.
She was dead, as if the outcome of the contest had ever been truly in doubt. Nina tried to catch the cat in mid pounce with her legs and fling Misha away but the weight of the cat was simply too much. 300 pounds of clawed feline death settled in on Nina's 108-pound body, and the blood-caked face of the cat Nina had known for years pressed close. But Misha didn't strike immediately. It was almost as if she were savoring the quick victory over her fiery adversary.
This gave the Silk Specter an opportunity for a last desperate gamble. She managed to slip an arm free and pulled the mask off her face to maximize her appearance as Nina Blackstone. Then she put on her best scowl and slapped Misha on the snout with an open hand.
"Bad Misha! Baaad Girl!" It was a disciplinary swat that Nina had dished out a thousand times in practice, virtually the worst punishment Misha had ever endured since joining the act. And the simple rebuff seemed to work! For the first time, Nina saw a dawning look of recognition on the face of the drug-crazed tiger. Misha reared up, staring down at her mistress with a childish look of trepidation. Nina squinted her eyes in feigned anger, willing the deadly blood-soaked cat away from her.
Then there was a loud CRACK and the familiar whiz that one only hears when shot at and missed. Misha's body suddenly shivered then went slack, falling back on poor Nina with crushing weight. It was all the masked avenger could do to pull her filthy body out from beneath the steaming, reeking corpse.
When the Silk Specter painfully regained her feet, she could see Joey Dakota standing on the lip of the pit, still holding a Winchester rifle against his shoulder. He had brained the big cat with a single shot.
"What is the meaning of this?" Mariposa's eyes narrowed with malice. "The beast was about to finish her."
"The emerald, Priestess. That Silk Specter bitch has the emerald."
He pointed towards Little Feather. Sure enough, she still wore the leather thong Joey had given her around her neck. But the huge green emerald--the centerpiece of the Amulet of Teczcatlepulca upon which the arming of the Hicsoc Nation relied--was gone.
Four men dragged the battered Silk Specter chained hand and foot to the small courtyard behind the saloon. After her narrow escape from Misha's jaws in the snake pit, the lovely vigilante had been rebound and rinsed clean under a squeaky water pump. Now the late afternoon sun glistened off her tanned body and the water still dripped from her long black ponytail as she was led to confront the wrath of her sadistic captors. Her black bikini top had been ripped off by the eager hands of her bathing assistants and she now wore only her mask, her black nylon g-string, and a pair of pumps provided by Mariposa.
"Welcome to the shooting gallery, Darlin'," Joey greeted her. "Your place of honor is right down there."
The "shooting gallery" was actually a long and narrow open-air courtyard, well suited to its name. At the far end of the galley was an ancient horse-drawn carnival wagon belching smoke from a rusty steam engine. Dim yellow bulbs flickered dimly along its perimeter and much of the paint had flaked away revealing bony-white wood. Nightmare circus music with many flat tones and broken keys radiated from a hurdy-gurdy within the wagon. Nina shuddered from its evil aura.
"I found that wagon on the abandoned ranch of Enrique Shafez, better known as Enrique the Worm," Joey explained as the Silk Specter was ushered through a group of armed men towards the wagon. "He was a roustabout for Dr Edmund Malvent. He ran some kind of traveling show in Central America."
"The Fiesta Los Martir," Nina commented as she was taken toward the wagon. The evil show of Dr Malvent was renowned in the shadowy corners of magic circles. Countless innocent villagers were put to protracted deaths for the entertainment of the decadent Latin gentry at the turn of the century.
"Say that's pretty good Slick, the Feast of Martyrs. Well, this was Enrique's contribution to Dr Malvent's Midway. He called it Jacob's Ladder."
Nina could now see that the side of the wagon facing the gunslingers was opened wide into a sort of bizarre shooting gallery. A number of moving and stationary targets were arrayed around two heavy vertical wooden beams with iron crossbars that did, in fact, resemble a ladder. Nina could see heavy manacles waiting for her above and below the rungs. Chains from the manacles led to rusty screw-winches within the wagon. Nina could vaguely make out the words "Jacob's Ladder" in Spanish along the top of the hellish wagon.
"Tightrope once offered me $100,000 for it. The damn thing fires itself up all the time and stinks to high heaven every Halloween, but I keep it around for kicks. I've killed a man or two on it, and it ain't pretty. Help her in there boys, she ain't your homecoming date, she's a damn vigilante!"
The men removed several of the lateral bars that comprised the ladder and positioned the Specter between the two vertical posts facing the leering posse. The bonds which held the semi-naked heroine were removed only to be instantly replaced by the heavy leather manacles of the Ladder. Her feet were secured tightly to the ground, with the first bar of the ladder just behind her ankles. Nina's arms were stretched high overhead with the top ladder rung situated just in front of her wrists. The next bar comprising the "ladder" was precisely positioned just behind the joints of her elbows. Others rested against her shoulder blades, the small of her back, and at mid-thigh.
The men replaced the rungs they had removed, leaving Nina sandwiched between alternating bars, one in front and one behind, along the length of her stretched body. As the men secured the bar just in front of the teenage avenger's breasts, the Specter came to understand the chilling fate that awaited her. Each cross bar was situated on a short lateral track. The bars behind her would move forward, the bars in front of her would move back, and by the time all of the bars had traversed the short tracks her bones would be snapped in a dozen places. The maddening music suddenly took on much more sinister tone.
"Don't pull her too tight just yet, boys, we want to make this last, " Joey had approached and now stood inches away from the sexy avenger. "Now Slick, since you're so smart I suppose you already got an idea how the Ladder works. See those targets there," he steered Nina's face up towards a line of rusty ducks moving along a belt over her head. " Every time a gunman hits one of those you get stretched a little tighter. Every time you hit one of these," Joey indicated a line of small circular targets to the immediate right and left of the ladder, "that shifts one of the bars in a direction that your sexy bod just doesn't go. 'For long you'll look like one of them fun house mirrors."
"Bringing out the heavy guns now Joey?" Nina's voice was level even as they positioned the final bar just over her abdomen. "Time is running out, and without that emerald there won't be any party."
"I'm not worried about that." Joey drew his .44 and checked the cylinder. "I've never killed no party girl on the Ladder before, but I imagine you'll fare 'bout as well as the men. So I'll make you a deal, you tell me where you stashed that emerald and I promise the next bullet will go through your pretty little head."
"Doesn't sound like much of a deal."
"True, but then again, you don't have your own bones sticking out of your body at 20 different places like you will in about an hour. I promise you, a bullet to the head will be quite a bargain."
"Fuck off."
Joey smiled. He ran his fingers down Nina's arm and across her breasts.
"Mariposa was right, you are a tough bitch. Should have romped with you when I had the chance. Alright Snake Man, fire up that puffer belly and lets get to shooting."
Nina hung her head as the men loaded up their weapons. The rumble of the steam engine became more pronounced and the music reached fever pitch. The bars already rested sung against her and Nina could easily imagine what effect their motion would have on her body. Her death would not be quick or pleasant.
"She hides her fear well." Billy Bare noted grudgingly as Joey rejoined the crowd. Joey ejected the cylinder of his pistol and adding a bullet to the chamber normally under the hammer.
"Yeah, she's a real cool customer. Almost a shame to bust her up."
With that he leveled his pistol, and took careful aim. The Silk Specter stared at him defiantly, struggling almost subconsciously against the inescapable bonds. Most of the targets were less than eight inches away from her body. If any of these men fired a wild shot�
As she now knew from all to frequent experience, the bullet arrive just slightly before she heard the bark of the pistol. It hissed like and angry hornet, striking one of the moving ducks just over her head. Then there was a rusty creaking from behind and Nina felt her bonds draw noticeably tighter. She pulled desperately at her manacles and Joey fired again. This one hit another duck, and Nina was again stretched tighter. A third shot and the tension drew her off her feet, taught between wrist and ankle manacles. Nina's eyes were wide as the horror of her predicament was driven home with each deadly round.
"Now she's getting the idea." Joey fired again. So close did the bullet strike to Nina's body that the doomed heroine threw her head to the side with a yelp. The target was hit and the bar behind Nina's back pushed her abdomen forward. Joey fired again and she was pushed farther forward.
"Alright boys, time for open season. Load up one round and everybody hit her, firing squad style. No sense in asking her any questions until she's sporting a few compound fractures. Hit whichever target you want, but no funny stuff. I got one round left, " he waved his pistol. "For the one that hits her instead of the target. Take your aim!"
Nina pulled desperately at her bonds, as ten pistols bore down on the torturous shooting gallery. The cuffs were thick and brutally tight, and Joey had already drawn all of the slack out of the chains. The dim bulbs flickered evilly and the sinister music promised the Maid of Mystery that nothing would save her from this death trap. It was only a matter of time before she would gladly exchange anything for an end to her suffering on Jacob's Ladder.
Still, the Silk Specter struggled courageously in her chains, hoping beyond hope for any advantage that might save her from her dire predicament. The waiting was a torture unto itself, and Joey delayed for long moments, enjoying his captive's delicious struggles.
"Fire!"
THE SITUATION LOOKS GRIM FOR THE SILK SPECTER, GENTLE READERS. CAN ANY POWER ON EARTH SAVE HER FROM JACOB'S LADDER? IS OCEANA DOOMED TO PERISH IN FLAMES? DON'T GIVE UP HOPE, THE CATACLISMIC CONCLUSION IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER!
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(V) THE QUICK AND THE DEAD
Ten shots rang out in rapid succession, filling the courtyard with noise, smoke, and deadly lead. The Silk Specter, chained and stretched taught amidst the rungs of Jacob's Ladder, had no where to turn her head as bullets struck all around her. The machine groaned in response to the multiple hits, stretching her painfully tight, forcing her pelvis forward and pressing both the knee and elbow bars firmly against her locked joints. The teenage avenger's green eyes betrayed the shock and horror of her predicament despite her struggle to maintain self-control.
"Now she's getting the idea. Let's hit her again. Fire!"
Nina let out a yelp of fear and pain as another volley of rounds struck home. The men seemed to migrate naturally to the targets near to Nina's upper body where she could better appreciate the rounds striking only inches for her defenseless body. When the din finally died down the Maid of Mystery was firmly and painfully crushed among the filthy, rusted rungs, chest pushed forward with her collarbone on the verge of snapping. Her breath came in ragged gasps as Jacobs Ladder compressed her ribcage. Nina hung her head and gasped for the air that she could barely inhale.
"Well, that should about do it�"
"Again!" Mariposa's eyes glowed as she watching the shapely vigilante struggle in the tightening fingers of the Ladder. "Shoot her again!"
"Priestess, she's all out of tricks. She's ready to tell us what we want to know."
"I don't care. I want you to break her wrists, then her ankles. The Silk Specter must pay for her insolence."
"You're the boss. Hand me that Winchester, Snakeman." Joey bore down on the doomed heroine, aiming for the target beside the Specter's slim wrists. "You boys, order arms."
To his surprise the Silk Specter looked up to meet his gaze. Her face was youthful and delicate, but behind the violet-black mask her entrancing green eyes still glowed with inner fire. Perhaps Mariposa was right. It would take a lot more than just a hard squeeze to break the Silk Specter.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Nina struggled hopelessly as the bar behind her wrists was pushed forward almost to full extension. Her wrists burned fiercely with a throbbing unnatural pain that one only experienced under torture, though the force was not quite strong enough to snap her bones. But any movement of the bar at mid-forearm would stress her slim wrists beyond the breaking point and that was where Joey was aiming next. Panting heavily the Silk Specter stilled herself for the first of what would be many broken bones before she was at last allowed the mercy of death. She only hoped she could maintain her silence through the ordeal. At least Mariposa's plan would be thwarted.
Her salvation came from a most unlikely source. Even as Joey bore down on her for the crushing shot, a heavy-set greasy desperado interrupted his concentration.
"Boss!" The man's voice was a girlish squeak as he found the business end of the rifle suddenly pointed at his head instead of the Specter. "Don't kill me! The Germans, they're here with the guns!"
"Damn!" Joey carefully released the hammer and lowered it to the strike plate. "Great moments in bad timing. Another 10 minutes and she'd a been willing to tell us who popped her cherry." Joey handed the rifle to the densely tattooed Snakeman and turned towards the suffering Specter. Nina threw her hair to one side and stared at him defiantly. "If you think this is going to keep you alive one minute longer, you're wrong. See, I think you and this Hans have a little history. He'll probably throw in a free F-16 just for the opportunity to watch us squeeze the location of that gem out of your dyin' body."
"Then go for it," Nina panted with maddening resolve. "Better bring all your troops when you tell Hans that crap about me stealing your gem."
"Christ, you talk! Come on, Priestess, lets go bring Hans back."
Nina's warning had little effect on Joey, but Mariposa seemed to consider it carefully.
"Yes, let us go�but perhaps you should bring your men. As a show of strength."
Joey was clearly incredulous that Mariposa would even suggest such an act of cowardice, but by the time he had turned to face the priestess, he had regained a facade of composure. Clearly, he chaffed at Mariposa's leadership.
"Sure. Whatever you say. Come on boys, lets go bring Hans around to the party. Toby, you better stay and watch Slick."
The entourage of men led by Mariposa filed out of the room, leaving Nina alone with Toby and the infernal wagon. Thick smoke from the wheezing steam engine set Nina to coughing with excruciating results. By the time she had regained her composure she noticed that her dimwitted guard was observing her strangely. She knew by the gleam in his eyes what was coming next, and this added to her feeling of complete vulnerability.
"I ain't never capped a superheroine before," he walked towards Nina with evil intent. "They all as sexy as you?"
"Well, we're not nearly as cute broken into a dozen pieces."
"You're in one piece now." Toby touched Nina's defiant breasts, then worked his way down across her abdomen, feeling her pussy beneath the sweat-soaked g-string. Nina was revolted by the unwanted caress, and turned her eyes upward toward the sky. She saw her wrists tightly restrained in stout cuffs of � new leather! Suddenly, she saw her first real glimmer of hope since her capture.
"Toby, kiss me. Kiss me one last time." Toby promptly bent forward and began delicately kissing Nina's breasts. "No, on the lips Toby. Haven't you ever kissed a girl on the lips?"
Toby straightened up, looked at her awkwardly and knelt forward to kiss her. He was drunk and bristly, and smelled like he hadn't bathed in weeks. Still, he was fully diverted as Nina put a lip lock on him like she normally reserved for her most passionate lovers.
Now, let's see: push it slack, rotate both limbs in the same directions, then TWIST!
True to Mad Mary's words, the leather cuffs snapped free. She almost had to bite Toby's lip to keep him occupied while she unthreaded her arms from the crushing steel bars, but then she gave him a good double chop to the antivertibral nerve bundle. The beefy man dropped like sack of potatoes.
"Wow, I didn't know I was that good a kisser."
Painfully, the Silk Specter began weaving her arms through the lower portion of Jacob's ladder, straining for the ankle cuffs. She had to escape before Toby regained consciousness or Joey Dakota returned with his army of horny executioners. But the insane music from the demonic hurdy-gurdy was blaring in her ears and she could hardly concentrate. She stretched and strained to extend her arms just a little further!
Then her heart lurched. She could feel the press of the bars getting tighter--Jacob's Ladder was slowly closing of its own accord! Nina just managed to remove her arms and straighten up before becoming snared while doubled over, but her legs, pelvis, and abdomen were still trapped between the rungs. Desperately, the Specter struggled and strained against the fiendish machine as her body was relentlessly squeezed to the breaking point. The possessed steam engine revved to full power as her ankles, thighs and lower back were forced slowly forward even as her knees, calves and pelvis were pushed back. For the third time in less than 24 hours, the Silk Specter was moments away from death, and the pain was electrifying. She closed her eyes and clenched her teeth, determined not to scream.
But suddenly the pressure released and the insane music wound slowly down. The star-crossed heroine opened her eyes in amazement. Little Feather stood at the controls of the twisted circus wagon. It was she who had pulled the plug!
"My god, thank you!"
"You have great courage," Little Feather pulled a lever and Nina's bonds slowly relaxed. The Indian woman quickly unlatched the chains, allowing Nina to fall to the floor.
"They'll be here any minute." Nina warned. "You'd better go."
"I am already Mariposa's prisoner. I will be punished for losing the emerald. But her bodyguards make poor wardens. Still, Joey's suspicions must be allayed."
Little Feather unzipped Toby's pants and pulled them down to his ankles, while the Specter rolled tenderly up onto her knees.
"Wait a moment." Little Feather pushed her hand between Nina's legs. Her fingers came back glistening with the teenage dynamos own juices.
"You must enjoy your work," she laughed gently as she smeared the slippery fluid along Toby's weakening shaft. "Joey should just shoot you next�"
Little Feather look up startled to find herself alone. The Silk Specter had vanished.
"�so I think this will still work out for all of us. You see, we got her strung up on an old carnival wagon I picked up in Central America."
Joey strode around the corner leading Hans and a legion of neatly dressed German thugs. Hans looked down at the end of the room where Jacob's Ladder still belched acrid smoke.
"She seems to have lost weight, Herr Dakota." Joey did a double take when he noticed that the Silk Specter was no longer strapped to Jacob�s Ladder. Toby was rolling around groaning near the wagon with his pants at his ankles.
"Well goddamit!" Joey stormed down the courtyard toward his framed henchman. "Toby did I tell say you could dip your wick while the rest of us was staring down 50 German storm troopers.
"Joey, I�I," Toby stuttered. Joey shook his head. The gunslinger drew his gun, fired his last round into the man's head, and reholstered his pistol in the blink on an eye.
"Good thing I always keep a spare round�"
"So this woman you claim was the Silk Specter." Hans was calm despite the high tension in the air. "Is she gone?"
"I don't know what to say, Hans. She can't be far, lets just go track her down."
"That won't be necessary, Herr Dakota. I think you'll find her quite difficult to locate. But if you're story about Little Feather is true, then we needn't bother. Can you take me to her room over the Saloon?"
"You think you know what she did with the gem?"
"If it really was the Silk Specter, then yes. You might say we share a bond closer than family. But if I can't produce it, you may wish you hadn't used your last bullet."
The warriors danced with reckless abandon, more passionately than even the oldest could remember ever performing the ancient ritual. Priestess Mariposa had passed out the dream pipes just as in past years and they had smoked, then words of summoning were spoken and the war drums started pounding. The next thing they knew, over 1,000 Hicsoc warriors, stripped to loin cloths and ceremonial war paint, were dancing madly around the huge ceremonial bonfires that ringed the Counsel Grounds. The tension in the air told all the Hicsoc warriors that this would not be an ordinary Gathering. Whispers spread through the assemblage like wildfire: he's coming tonight.
The savage group was assembled on a broad paved plaza littered with weatherworn statues and commanded by a circle of huge stone totems resembling strange creatures from Hicsoc legend. At the center of the ring of totems was the Claw, a huge geyser that was to the Hicsoc the gateway into the Underworld. Once every five years the geyser would erupt, sending a pillar of boiling water hundreds of feet into the air. That was the coming of Nahoc, the God of Vengeance. It was on these rare occasions that the Hicsoc gathered, on the night before the geyser�s eruption, to perform the Ceremony of Deliverance.
The Claw spewed foul steam into the fading twilight as the drums suddenly reached a crescendo followed by oppressive silence. The men froze in placed like the myriad of small statues dotting the plaza, then turned to face their Priestess Mariposa standing atop the alter near the billowing geyser.
"Mighty Nahoc! On this the most sacred of all nights, your people have gathered just as you have commanded! We await the coming of your chosen leader, the invincible war chief who will lead the Hicsoc Nation to dominion over the white devil! As a people we are mighty. As the arm of Nahoc, we are INVINCIBLE!"
These same words had echoed over the barren hills every five years for generations. But this time they were about to be answered.
"I have heard the cries of my people! In the name of Nahoc I come!"
The crowd let out a collective gasp. Suddenly a strange man broke into the circle of bonfires. He was tall and bony, his face deeply tanned from the desert. He sat astride a milky white buffalo, just as the legend had promised. His eyes were blue-gray like his ghostly mount and they foretold death to any who would challenge him.
"Nahoc!" One man yelled.
"Nahoc the Conqueror!"
"Nahoc Whose Touch is Death!"
"Nahoc! Nahoc! Nahoc!" The crowd chanted with ever-increasing fervor. The men could hardly believe their eyes, but their warrior king had finally come!
The gaunt man approached the altar and Mariposa fell at his feet. He disregarded her after a cursory inspection and turned to face his army.
"I am well pleased, Nation of Hicsoc! You have remained true to the old ways. You have cleansed yourselves of outsiders--purified from their evil influences! Now I have come to restore the land to my people!"
The men cheered hysterically. Their eyes were bright with enthusiasm and madness. Though Mariposa pretended to be prostrate before her Lord, secretly she smiled. The tainted dream pipes were working better than she had imagined.
"You're no champion!" Came a voice, light and feminine, put still penetrating the mob with amazing clarity. "You're a pretender!"
The crowd gasped again, the shouts dying in their throats. The mob of huge men parted in confused silence to reveal the Silk Specter. She was dressed in her "night suit" � tight black catsuit, knee-high leather boots with high heels and long black leather gloves. A glossy eye mask covered her youthful face, and a long black cape billowed behind her. She wore a broad belt with the mirrored S's that were her trademark. Slung low on her left hip, no longer concealed from view, was her sleek 9mm Glok.
Mariposa's smile turned sour. She stood up.
"Here is one who challenges your authority, mighty Champion! Shall we strike her down?"
Joey picked up on the subtle snare quickly. Mariposa was covering her ass. If he was defeated by the Silk Specter or asked the Hicsoc to intervene, it would be a sign of weakness. He would surely be slain as an impostor. Mariposa was already distancing herself from him.
"No, let her come forward and die. Or flee and die. It makes no difference." Joey stood up and swung his holster into quick draw position.
The tension was heavy in the air. The light from the huge bonfires played off the Specter's sultry hair and silken costume as she approached her showdown with Joey Dakota, one of the fastest guns crime had to offer. The sulfuric cloud of the Claw billowed out from behind the gaunt, handsome gunfighter, and Nina knew she was facing the greatest challenge of her short career. If she could capture or wound him, then every Hicsoc warrior would know he was a mortal man. Mariposa's plans to loot Oceana would be thwarted. If she failed, she could only hope that Joey's shot would be lethal. Inside, Nina tingled with anticipation.
"You never should have come back, Silk Specter. You're too young to die."
"That's funny coming from you, Joey." Nina had only narrowly escaped three of Joey's fiendish deathtraps.
"No I meant�" Nina almost completely missed his move. It was that fast. In slow motion, she saw his hand dip toward his gun, and she knew she was already beat. Still, her cat-like reflexes took over and she went for her gun. The caped crime fighter had just cleared her Glok from its holster when Joey fired. Even as she brought the gun to bear, the high-tech ceramic weapon disintegrated in her hand. The force of the blow turned the shapely vigilante completely around and threw her flat on her face. By the time she had scrambled to her knees Joey's gun was at her back.
"What I meant is you're too young to die yet. But you know, " his hand came down, striking the Specter on the back of the neck with the butt of his pistol. Nina fell in a heap. "I think that time�s comin�."
The Hicsoc were obviously impressed with Joey Dakota's handling of the Silk Specter.
"What are your commands, mighty Champion?"
"First, I have a little present for each and every one of you: a MAC-10 machine pistol with 500 rounds of 9mm ammunition. As an added bonus, I'm going to make an example of my little friend here. Tonight she will suffer. Tomorrow, if she lives, she will be the bride of Nahoc, the first victim of our conquest against the white man!"
The men resumed their wild cheers, now utterly confident that Nahoc had truly come. Somewhere far off, the dazed Silk Specter could hear their bloodthirsty cries for vengeance and knew that she had failed to save the Oceana. And she would be the Hicsoc's first victim.
The warriors of the Hicsoc encouraged each others' madness as the weapons were distributed from the back of the Germans' tractor-trailers. The Silk Specter, bound with heavy chains to a one of the many life-sized statues that dotted the plaza, watched helplessly as more than 1000 naked warriors lined up to claim the weapons that would make them better armed than the entire Oceana police force. The once packed tractor-trailers rapidly emptied as the long line of Indian warriors streamed past. All of them gave the Specter a long hungry look as they walked by the totem to which she was tightly bound. Some even paused to grope and taunt the doomed gringo until driven off by Mariposa's guards. Many spat on her or pointed their unloaded guns at her beautiful head in simulated execution. A large ball gag ensured that the Silk Specter accepted the humiliating abuse without complaint. But the Maid of Mystery could hardly contemplate her own fate when confronted with the devastation this army would cause when set loose on the city she had sworn to defend.
So Joey Dakota came by to remind her.
"You're quick on the draw, kid," Joey pulled the ball gag from the Silk Specter's mouth. "I had you beat, but you still almost cleared your iron. Let me give you a pointer: in a shoot out between two quick-draw artists, whoever draws first wins. You never should have let me make the first move."
"I'll remember that, next time." Nina smiled defiantly.
"Sorry, Slick," Joey started massaging the Specter's taught body through the thin fabric of her catsuit. "But there's only one showdown per superhero. Besides, I don't think that hand of yours will be working a pistol for some time."
Nina's heart sank. Since she had awakened tied to the statue she hadn't been able to feel or see her hand. At least Joey's comments hinted that it was still there. Her future as a one-armed crime fighter, or magician for that matter, would be dim. That is, if she had any future at all.
"Its still there," Joey correctly read the expression on her face. "Not that its going to matter in about 30 minutes. Once we get those trucks unloaded Mariposa is going to be taking you down to her playroom for little warm up." The men were already unloading the last box of weapons and ammo. The only other box in the truck was full of useless claymore mines. That meant she didn't have much time. "If you're a religious girl, I'd start making peace with my maker."
"Thanks for the advice Joey, " Nina was surprised at how cool her own voice sounded, "But why don't you just look out for yourself."
"Damn you're a spunky bitch," Joey put his hands on Nina's hips, and kissed her with an animal magnetism which the teenage avenger found irresistible.
"I hear you're quite a ladies man," Nina sounded sultry as Joey pulled away from the kiss. "So how come you never fucked me?"
"Well, you never asked." Joey looked over Nina's young body then over at the steaming mouth of the Claw. "Besides, you look pretty fucked to me�"
He gave the Silk Specter a final kiss that she eagerly participated in with eyes closed. When she opened them she was surprised to see Mariposa standing behind Joey flanked as usual by her leather-clad assistants.
"A final kiss goodbye? I hope you found it sweet, Silk Specter. For now you are a Bride of Nahoc and in four hours you will be cast into the Claw where the flesh will be scalded from your living bones. But first, you must prove yourself worthy."
The Specter's face showed concern tainting her resolve as Mariposa ran her fingers through the masked cutie�s soft black hair. The evil priestess showed every sign of being far crueler even than Joey Dakota and Billy Bare and Nina could see that sinister look of desire on the face of the sun-baked hag. Nina's body tingled at the thought of the sexual tortures that the sadistic bitch must surely be capable of. The crotch of her catsuit was wet with helpless anticipation.
"Take her to the Lodge of Supplication!"
The Lodge of Supplication was a squat, sturdy 15-foot dome of rock and mortar with a small steel door that bore a sinister resemblance to a kiln. The interior was stiflingly hot, and so dense with steam that the actual dimensions of the room were indiscernible. The four electric torches hung on the stone walls only succeeded in creating a hazy world of dense twilight. The sounds of footsteps on the wooden floor were almost immediately consumed by the oppressive atmosphere.
The Silk Specter, stripped naked except for her mask and a sweatband holding her hair off her face, was suspended some two feet in the air in the midst of tripod of thick wooden poles. An intricate web of rope bondage held her suspended in a kneeling position with her ankles lashed to her thighs and knees pulled wide. Her arms were secured behind her back at the wrists and elbows, bound to a short wooden pole running between her arms and her back. Ropes attached to the pole bore the majority of Nina�s weight, terminating at a pulley system secured to the summit of the tripod. Another system of ropes secured tight thigh and waist ropes to a slipknot around her throat, forcing the sexy vigilante to push her chest forward and head back to avoid asphyxiation. Wires around the base of each round breast and secured behind her back ensured that Nina's perky mammaries maintained just the right orientation for the ordeal Mariposa had in mind.
But the deadly, inescapable bondage was only half of the scene. The courageous crime fighter was also ensnare in a complex web of strung beads. The long strands of marble-sized bony white beads were strung taught from anchor points on the tripod and criss-crossed her slim body in an intricate mesh that concentrated at her breasts and crotch. The slippery beads were almost cool to the touch despite the terrible heat of the chamber.
"Now this is a trap infinitely better suited to a girl of your obvious talents," Mariposa--stripped to a loincloth like her other assistants--loomed out of the darkness. "No more nonsense with torture wagons and wild animals."
"Aren't beads a little old fashioned?" Nina quipped. "Don't you have a keno machine of doom or something?"
"Bead-making was the only vocation left to my people after the White Man took our land, raped our women, and hunted the buffalo into near-extinction. But I fear you will soon discover that our skill in beadcraft is now disturbingly advanced, Silk Specter."
Nina tested her bonds, then stopped suddenly with a shiver. Even the slightest movement caused the beads to slither across her naked body, and the sensation was like a dozen soft, cold fingers.
"Intriguing, isn't it? I call your bondage a Widow's Web. The beads up against your most tender flesh are called Ahut Hucmut--the devil' caress. The slightest movement will set a unique set of strands rubbing against your luscious body. I'm afraid you will find even the most subtle struggles most--stimulating."
Mariposa ran her fingers across the Specter's firm abdomen and down to her crotch, which was criss-crossed by six long strands of slippery beads. Pushing two strands aside the mad priestess gently rubbed the trapped heroine's clitoris, which was wet from sweat, steam and Nina's own juices.
"I see you're getting the idea already."
"So you were the mastermind behind this caper all along, not Chavez or Joey Dakota." Mariposa didn't pause in her expert stimulation of the sexy superheroine. If Nina wanted answers she would have to work for them.
"Greedy men like Chavez are blinded by the lure of easy wealth. The fat dolt has been entertaining the fools of Oceana with his buffalo heard and his bastardized Indian ceremonies, keeping the Water Patrol and Port Authority distracted while my German friends unloaded hundreds of crates of weapons and ammunition. Your pussy is so delicate--so innocent."
"And Dakota?"
"Yes he and his biker friends make excellent attack dogs. I will reward them handsomely when Oceana is in ruin. You're so wet, Silk Specter, you must find danger quite exciting. It seems I've found your weakness."
"Mariposa, listen to me. Joey Dakota and Billy Bare are mass murderers, and you've just given them influence over the entire Hicsoc Nation. You're setting yourself up!"
"I appreciate your concern for my safety, especially in light of the fate I've planned for you. But I think you overestimate the power of the male mind. You yourself are my proof. The entire law enforcement community of a great city is arrayed against me, yet the only one to even uncover my plot is a teenage girl."
"I'll be 20 next month."
"I doubt it. You will almost certainly die in this very chamber, having proven yourself unfit to serve as a Bride of Nahoc. And if by some miracle you survive until dawn I will hurl you into the Claw where you will die in the scalding embrace of Claw. When I seal that door you will be a dead woman, Silk Slut. And your final hours will be a haze of pleasure, exhaustion, and pain."
"I think I'd prefer just the pleasure."
"Ah, but even your western philosophers understand that you can't have one without the other. But I'm afraid our interview is at an end." Mariposa produced a black ball gag and held it close for Nina's inspection. "The walls are thick but not that thick. I must meditate before the coming of Nahoc."
Nina was powerless to resist as the hag forced the ball gag deeply into her mouth and secured the strap behind her head. The sheer tightness of her cruel bondage was mute evidence that she was not supposed to survive her ordeal in the Lodge of Supplication. In three hours so bound she would almost certainly lose the use of her arms and legs permanently.
"Life is a struggle Silk Specter, and so is the Lodge of Supplication. You see, your bonds are actually secured to counterweights just beneath the floor. The weights are just slightly lighter than your body. Only by straining against the Widow's Web will you be able to prevent yourself from sinking."
Mariposa started backing away until she was but a shadow lost in the suffocating haze. Nina tried to struggle in her bonds but the movement sent the beads oozing across her most sensitive flesh. Her efforts were reduced to gyrations of unwanted pleasure.
"Your pleasure-tomb is almost complete, but it seems I'm forgetting something. Oh yes, remove the floor boards!"
Nina's eyes were wide with horror as the planks were pulled ponderously aside to reveal a broad pit of bubbling, sucking mud two feet below the wooden floor. The boiling mud bath was the source of chamber's stifling heat as well as choking humidity and a the heat wave blew against the Specter's exposed pussy like steaming breath. But that wasn't all, for protruding from the mud to almost the level of the original floor was a long rudder shaft, precisely positioned beneath the Maid of Mystery.
"Insidious, isn't it Silk Slut? If you relax for more than a minute in the next three hours you will slowly submerge yourself in a bath of boiling mud! And I should tell you that, though the Ahut Hucmut beads are quite stimulating, they are ultimately unfulfilling. You will find orgasm as elusive as the desert wind. But to ensure your death is humiliating as well as painful I've added a dildo beneath you, suspended on a float. Once impaled you will experience climaxes beyond your wildest dreams. But they will be climaxes of doom since the dildo will also prevent your effective struggles against the Widow's Web!"
"MMhhhh!" Nina moaned while Mariposa cackled evilly. The teenage avenger's body was already dripping with sweat yet craving the cold touch of the beads.
"Do not beg for mercy now, my dear. I have none. Remove the pins!"
Mariposa�s henchwomen removed the long steel pins that prevented Nina�s bonds from playing out over the pulleys attached to the tripod. For a moment the sexy crime fighter was suspended by inertia, but then she began slowly sinking toward the deadly pool, just as Mariposa had promised. The long strings of beads slipped slowly across Nina�s body and the raven-haired adventuress shivered under the delicous caress. Her downward trajectory quickened and Nina reflexively strained against her bonds. The slide of the beads in a dozen different directions was electrifying, but the portion of her mind that wasn't paralyzed by pleasure or panic noted that her downward motion had indeed stopped. Nina was numb with fear as she realized that she would have to stroke constantly against the Widow's Web for over three hours in forced masturbation or die in the scalding mud.
"That�s right, Silk Specter, only the constant motion of the beads across your body stands between you and death. Endless stimulation without a single orgasm to soothe your red-hot desire."
Based on the waves of pleasure washing over her, Nina could hardly believe she wouldn't climax. It felt as if she was only moments away from her first screaming orgasm. But minutes passed as the shadowy form of Mariposa enjoyed Nina's delicious, powerful struggles. To the green-eyed vigilante's amazement the orgasm that seemed imminent simply refused to arrive. And already her head was dizzy from the exertion. She would be lucky to last an hour in the withering heat.
"I would enjoy watching your protracted death, but I must prepare to conquer your city. Ladies, please gather your lamps. I understand specters prefer to lurk in utter darkness. I'm sure you will find your sense of upward and downward movement quite confused in your current predicament. The touch of the dildo against your pretty little cunt will be the only portent of your doom."
One by one the torches disappeared and all the dim shapes around the Silk Specter faded into inky black. Only the sounds assailed her � the hissing steam, the bubbling muck, the click of the beads as they slid against each other, her own soft moans as they slid against her. Only a small dot of light was still visible in the direction of the door to the sweat lodge. Then even that disappeared with a heavy clang and the grinding of iron-on-iron as huge bolts were slid into place sealing her in the torturous deathtrap. The sadistic women walked laughing into the cool night, leaving the Silk Specter alone to struggle in the embrace of the Widow's Web until such time as her strength or courage wore out and she allowed herself to be consumed by the sucking mud.
====
(VI) THE BRIDE OF NAHOC
Time had no meaning for the Maid of Mystery within the Lodge of Supplication. Her bondage was fiendishly tight and the mesh of sinister beads rubbed endlessly across her ultra-sensitive body in response to her desperate struggles. Every combination of movements would produce a different combination of sensations as the web stroked her breasts, crotch, inner thighs, sensitive throat--everywhere. Denied of any light, the Specter's eyes played tricks on her in concert with the sensations coursing through her dehydrated body. Blobs of deep blue would fill her empty vision when the movement of the beads was minimal, quickly lightening in color as the movement started. Sparkles filled her eyes as the fiendishly erotic trap reached its maximum effectiveness, and she would throw her head back screaming into the gag. Worst of all, despite the endless grinding of the beads and the torrent of self-inflicted stimulation, she hadn't experienced a single orgasm. Just as Mariposa had promised, the Silk Specter was starving for release. Death at times seemed a small price to pay for a vigorous romp on the unseen dildo. The torture was exquisite.
But the teenage dynamo was not without hope. One of the first tricks she had ever performed before an audience was the old chair escape, where a member of the audience would tie her to a chair as tightly as they cared, and she would free herself in less than a minute. The trick behind the escape was simple--tying a person�s wrists securely to a hard surface like the arm of a chair was impossible if you knew how to hold your wrists at the proper angel. Of course, Nina had done this instinctively while being bound to the short trapeze, so she had been able to free her arms shortly after Mariposa closed the door. But the teenage crusader was still bound by a myriad of tight knots and now suspended in total darkness with only the friction of her soft flesh against the icy beads holding off a slow descent in the suffocating mud. And to make matters worse, her head was swimming, and not just from the action of the beads. The events of the last few days were taking their toll: Nina was on the brink of passing out, and even a moment of oblivion would be fatal.
Once her wrists were free, the Silk Specter went to work on the ropes securing her ankles to her upper thighs. It was like conducting two symphonies simultaneously in the dead of night, stimulating herself rhythmically against the web while also working at the expertly tied bondage. And despite the terrible danger--or perhaps because of it--her pussy ached to be filled. Her head swam from exhaustion, passion, and fear, and at any moment the courageous cutie feared the touch of the dildo which would foretell her slow plunge into screaming, orgasmic death.
Then the ankle ropes came free and the Silk specter was confronted with yet another torture. If she straightened out her cramping legs, the ropes around her thighs would tighten the slipknot at her throat. Her muscles were all but incapable of supporting her legs, but by shear force of will she held them up and picked urgently at the thigh ropes. But it was too much: the rhythm of her forced masturbation was interrupted. She was falling apart --her head was spinning and brilliant colors danced before her eyes. Her delicate fingers twitched ineffectively against the ropes.
"MHHHHHHHH!" The touch of the dildo against her burning pussy was electrifying. At first her swaying pelvis just glanced the awaiting phallus, but then she was caught, slowing sinking onto its knobbed shaft. The orgasm, which Mariposa certainly intended to be her last, tore through her without apparent sign of letup. Her body went fiercely taught and the noose pulled tight around her throat, trapping her last breath of fetid air in her lungs. Each fraction of an inch of the knobbed shaft entering her cunt produced new waves of pleasure that paralyzed all action. Just as Mariposa intended, the Silk Specter was powerless to save herself as the dildo pulled her inexorably into the mud. She could almost see Mariposa�s face now, laughing in sadistic glee�
Suddenly the Specter clamped down on the dildo with all her waning strength. The slow descent stopped and along with it the progressive waves of passion. Stabs of ecstasy radiated out from her crotch as the Silk Specter dug fingers of steel into the ropes around her thighs. They yielded in less than 15 seconds to her desperate grasp, and this released the slipknot allowing the fearless avenger to finally exhale. After taking a half dozen desperate breaths, the Silk Specter reached out her hands, wrapped them in as many strings of beads as she could seize, and pulled!
At first her efforts seemed ineffective, but then with a primal scream she started to lift herself almost reluctantly off the dildo. Her slight weight helped her here, and once she got moving it was a simple if electrifying matter to lift herself free.
Though it had been difficult to see in the final moments before her entombment, she was fairly certain that only the wooden planks directly beneath her feet had been removed. Now free from her restraints, the Specter could easily affirm that this was indeed the case. Swinging nimbly from the web of slippery beads, Nina's bare foot touched down on the rough, wet surface of the timber floor. She released the Widow�s Web and rolled onto the floor, beyond exhaustion. With quivering fingers she reached up and removed the ball gag from her mouth.
"Nice try Mariposa," Nina panted. "But I want the man I marry to respect me for my mind."
The Maid of Mystery lay motionless for long moments trying to regain her strength. But it was almost impossible in the suffocating chamber: she would have to escape soon or die anyway from simple heat stroke. Nina had just rolled onto her knees to feel for the entrance when she heard a tiny knocking at the door. Alarmed, the Specter quickly homed in on the source of the tapping and took position to one side of the heavy iron portal. Nina's heart leapt into her throat as the bolts slowly, almost stealthily, slid into the open position. Were they coming for her so soon? Could she really have been in the Lodge of Supplication for three hours, or was Mariposa just checking in on the fate of her captive? Nina could hardly think straight, but she would fight until the bitter end, and she certainly would not endure the bitter end alone. With the mud pit so close at hand, it would be a simple matter to hurl two or three acolytes to their deaths before they got her.
The door slipped open. The first touch of cool air was like heaven, but the Silk Specter stilled her own breathing, poised to strike.
"Neena? Neena?"
"Pop!" Nina could hardly believe her ears. Despite her better judgement, the naked superheroine leapt through the open door and into the surprised arms of her friend and mentor. "What took you so long?"
Only then did she allow merciful darkness to overcome her.
"So how did you find Black Magic?"
The Silk Specter slipped into her spare lightweight costume, a halter-top body suit of violet-black wet-look spandex, high-cut at the hips with a mock turtleneck collar. Her legs glistened in ultra-sheer transparent hose that also served to keep the narrow crotch of her sexy costume in a respectable position. She clasped the collar closed behind her neck and picked up her sparsely equipped spare utility belt.
"A little bird told me." For anyone else that would be a stupid put-off, but not for Pop.
"And how did you get past the security system?"
"Beneath the armor, smoky glass, and fancy paint, she is still a Chrysler."
"Hmmm, remind me to have that looked at when we get out of here."
Despite water and salt tablets Pop had administered, Nina still felt weak and light-headed as she bent over to adjust her thigh-length boots. Her hands, now encased in glossy gloves that ran up to her biceps, were still shaking slightly. At least the coolant that flowed through tiny capillaries in the boots and gloves finally managed to halt her sweating.
"Okay, you�re no longer naked. Let's get out of here!"
"No," Nina's response was flat, "I'm going back to the Claw."
"Are you crazy, chica? Over a thousand Hicsoc pistolaros are sleeping on the Plaza. We need to alert the police!"
Nina shook her head. "The police won't be able to do anything with two hours notice except magnify the bloodshed. We have to stop Mariposa before she reaches the city."
"Neena. You're crazy. You're in no shape to fight! Let's go!"
"Pop! I think I know how to defeat the Hicsoc. I need your help--desperately--but I'm going back with or without you."
Pop again found himself staring in awe at the woman before him. Nina Blackstone could hardly stand upright, and Pop could only imagine the horrors she had endured as Mariposa's prisoner, but still she was resolved to return once again to confront her enemies. The Silk Specter looked gorgeous and deadly in her fresh costume and mask, but Pop could see that the face behind the mask was etched with fatigue. Nina was his student, and the orphaned daughter of his close friend. He couldn't prevent her from returning, and if she went on alone she would certainly die.
"Very well, Neena. Or should I say, Silk Specter. But you must promise me one thing."
"What's that?"
"If you force me drive off in any other cars, please make sure you fill up the tank!"
After the Silk Specter had scouted out the area around the Claw, she and Pop Sanchez went to work saving the world. Fortunately, supernatural awe and fear of the impending eruption had prevented any of Mariposa's warriors from camping too close to the Claw. Despite her gimpy leg and numb hand Nina had been able to easily slip into the last of the semi trailers, purloin its remaining cargo, and rendezvous with Pop at the edge of the huge geyser undetected. Pop was surprised to note that the Specter had traded her usual black cape for a backpack now loaded with deadly claymore mines. He also couldn't fail to notice the teenage avenger's pronounced limp.
"Es loco. The men are everywhere."
"Don't worry, Mariposa gave them some kind of drug." The Silk Specter handed Pop a long coil of rope. "Just take this rope and tie it off on one of the stone totems."
"What are you going to do?"
"You're going to lower me down into the Claw."
"What?!" the old poacher hissed. "What kind of drug did Mariposa geeve you?"
"Look, that sweat lodge you found me in is heated directly by the geyser. I was in there over an hour. I can take the heat for another 20 minutes."
"Es muy demente--imprudente--necio bello," Pop muttered to himself as he moved to tie one end of the rope to a stone totem even as Nina tied the other end to her own waist. Presently, Pop returned and eyed the slim, tightly clad vigilante before him, as if sizing her up. Then he lifted up on her black backpack and moaned.
"For a minute I thought this was going to be easy. That rucksack weighs as much as you do."
"More!" the Specter kissed Pop on the cheek. "But I'll shed the load quickly. Just lower me down a little at a time and help me repel around the circumference of the geyser. Start me down about 15 feet. Hope you took your Geritol this morning."
"Hey, where's your gun?"
Nina looked at him with a calm that couldn't hide her regret.
"Lost it. Dakota shot it right out of my hand." Her fingertips were still numb from the experience.
"Here," Pop pulled his trusty knife out of his boot and handed it to the Specter. "A girl foolish as you needs protection."
"A knife Pop? How is that going to help me?"
"That's no ordinary knife, Neena. If is blessed by the breath of the Sirocco. It has the power to kill even the gods!"
The knife in her hand looked more like a prison gaff than an enchanted weapon. The blade was sharp but uneven from decades of sharpening, and the electrical tape covering the handle was already peeling. Still, she would humor the old man.
"Ahh--yeah, okay. Thanks." Nina slipped the knife into her glove and then promptly forgot about it. "Lets get this over with."
Pop braced himself as the Silk Specter leaned out into the plume of the geyser. Instantly she was blasted with a wave of all too familiar heat and a thrill shot up from her sore crotch as memories of the Widow's Web assailed her � she could almost feel the cold slippery beads on her body. The footing on the slimy, uneven walls was treacherous and visibility was nil. Her chest heaved as she struggled to extract oxygen from the polluted cloud, and what little fluid she had managed to replace after her ordeal in the Lodge of Supplication began to quickly drain out through her pores. The heavy backpack threatened at any moment to send her screaming into the depths of the earth. Every instinct told her that what she was attempting was impossible; that she should turn back as Pop had suggested. But the teenage avenger paused only long enough to suppress her fears, then continued the descent into the blistering depths.
After a dozen carefully placed steps, the Specter's feet touched on a region of dressed stone that was much smoother than the natural shaft. Just as she had suspected the central channel had once been pocked with a network of smaller vents similar to the one feeding the Lodge of Supplication. The raven-haired daredevil repelled to a level just below the masonry, then slid her gloved hand along the slimy face feeling for an appropriate cranny. The boarder between natural rock and ancient brick provided an excellent perch, so she withdrew a dense anti-personnel mine from her pack and nestled it into the fissure. After groping briefly for the arming mechanism she withdrew the pin and held her breath. The lethal device was now armed and the next slight impact would set off the seven pounds of high explosives nestled in the fragmentation case.
With her first mine in place, the Specter worked her way slowly down the geyser shaft and whenever she encountered one of these primitive stone works, she selected another claymore from the backpack and wedged it among the rough stones near the sealed vent. She noted as best she could the location of each mine in her near-photographic memory, knowing that her survival depended on her successfully stepping through her own minefield to escape the pitch-black hellish abyss. But despite the artificial cooling of her costume Nina's ability to concentrate withered even as the number of randomly placed mines grew greater. By the time her backpack was nearly exhausted the fog-bound heroine was forced to confront the fact that she had made a terrible mistake. Despite her own courageous words Pop was right: she had no business attempting such a dangerous mission. Her left thigh burned like fire, and on several occasions she lost her footing altogether--only Pop's safety line preserved her life. It was almost impossible to concentrate on anything but the task and hand, and Nina's sense of disorientation was getting worse. Of course, her own admission came far to late to save herself. She was committed now to see her plan to the bitter end.
*Nina.*
The Silk Specter stopped dead. A deep resonant voice seemed to echo in her head, chilling her to the bone. But then there was nothing, just the hiss of the geyser, the pounding of her own terrified heart, and the rushing of the blood through her ears.
"Must be more out of it than I thought," Nina quipped to herself. "Better get out of here before I start seeing Elvis."
Finally, more than 80 feet into the Claw, the Specter took up her final mine and wedged it home against some of the most ancient stone work she had yet encountered. At first she was flushed with victory � her trap for Mariposa was set. But in the next breath she had to confront the fact that the trap was set for her as well. She was exhausted, dizzy, and disoriented. In the endless choking night of the geyser her senses had completely abandoned her, and only the tug of the rope told her which direction was up. She was now trapped over 80 feet down in the throat of an active geyser with a maze of sensitive explosives between her and her next breath of fresh air.
Little did she realize that her problems were only just beginning.
*Nina Blackstone. Descendent of Colossus the Magnus.*
The voice this time was undeniable, and the sexy vigilante was suddenly gripped with supernatural fear. Every instinct in her body told her to start climbing up as fast as her exhausted muscles would carry her, regardless of the peril. But the pattern of mines was intricate and erratic. The chance of her successfully ascending from the Claw with no mental map was very low. And if in her blind stumbling she detonated a mine, she would die and Pop would fall into the hands of Mariposa.
*Nina Blackstone, Knight of Artimis, servant of the White, surrender to me!*
All around the Silk Specter that walls of the Claw began to glow faintly green and the once blistering steam turned suddenly cool. The white vapor also took on a luminescent green tinge and seemed to slowly clump into denser tendrils. The rumbling, inhuman voice emanated from everywhere and nowhere at all. The masked avenger tried to convince herself that it was all in her mind, but the fact that she could now see her own booted feet planted against the wall was chilling proof that this was no illusion.
"No!" the Specter insisted. "You're not real!"
*You are doomed, Nina Blackstone. You no longer belong to the world of the living. You are my mine!*
"Mhhhh! Get away from me! Mhhh!" Nina moaned. The tendrils of steam were becoming rapidly more solid, and converging eagerly on the shapely intruder. The spandex body suit and hose were apparently invisible to the supernatural manifestations that began lapping at her with wet tongues fantastically more arousing than the Widow's Web. With terrifying certainty Nina knew the name of her new inhuman attacker.
"Nahoc! What are you doing to me?!"
Heedless of the risk, the Silk Specter tried to pull herself upward, desperate to gain any margin that would inch her towards the world of sanity. But the throat of the Claw was now bright with glowing tendrils and they all eagerly sought Nina out to grasp and lap at her with unclean hunger. Despite all that she had endured, her young body was quickly awakened by the inhuman caress of the ghostly tendrils. The brightest and most substantial apparitions slithered their way up her legs like slimy chains, lifting her from the safety rope and spasmodically encircling her waist, wrists, and chest. In horror she noticed the safety rope fall away from her waist; only her desperate grip on the line prevented her from plummeting into the bottomless void.
*I have watched you from afar, Nina Blackstone. I have controlled your every move! Surrender to your new master.*
"God! My God. Ahhhh!" The Specter's moans filled the subterranean shaft as the less corporeal tentacles went to work on her erogenous zones. Every inch of her body was manipulated so as to maximize her sexual stimulation and arousal. A dozen tongues concentrated on each nipple, a half dozen on her clit, another thirty on each labia. The Specter had no idea her body was even capable of generating such sensations of fathomless pleasure. The ghostly appendages had not yet even entered her tight pussy and she was already rushing towards a mind-numbing climax.
"Ahhh! Ahhh! My GODDDD NO! AHHHHHH!" A mighty orgasm ripped through the young heroine, and the safety rope slipped free from her hands. But instead of falling, the tendrils accepted her entire weight and bore her out to the center of the channel. Once suspended over the abyss, bright tendrils appeared in force, wrapping themselves tightly around the Specter's limbs and spandex-clad body. Soon, she was suspended spread-eagled in the midst of the Claw, legs spread wide and chest thrust forward. Every inch of her body was assailed with delicate kisses that seemed to penetrate deep into her flesh.
"God no! Can't � stand � the � AHHHHHHHH!"
*Nina Blackstone. Commit yourself to me. Die so that I might live.*
"F-fuck you." was all Nina could manage under the unimaginable stimulation of the tongues that now seemed to number 1000. The onslaught was nothing short of torture--her own human sexuality was being used to efficiently break her will. And worst of all she knew that the sensual overload she was enduring was merely foreplay preparing her for supernatural rape at the hands of Nahoc the Conqueror. It was a rape she could not possibly survive, but one the masked heroine was powerless to resist. Indeed, death seemed to be the only fitting conclusion to the pleasure that threatened to swallow her at any moment like the rising tide.
You're�you're�immortal! Nina forced herself to think. Why�me?
*Blackest sorcery reduces me to a ghost in the world of men, but through you--a Warrior of Light--I will be made flesh. Then will I drink deeply the blood of the White Man.*
The Silk Specter's mind reeled at the implications of her fate--a fate far worse than death. Nahoc planned to use her as his vessel! All of Mariposa's evil scheming was nothing more than a ploy to draw her here, to suffer the lethal mating with an unimaginable nether-being! Nina herself--or some being carved out of her life essence--would lead the Hicsoc Nation. All the players in this adventure--including the Specter herself--had merely been acting out a scripted drama for the amusement of greater powers. The brief glimpse into transcendent reality slashed through the Specter's spirit like a lightening bolt. Resistance now seemed not only impossible but pointless and she felt herself rapidly sinking into her new reality of pleasure and pain. The tendrils sensed her weakening resolved and redoubled their efforts to crush her spirit in the tide of her own passion.
"Please�AHHHH�Nahoc. Please!" she heard herself begging the entity. "No more!"
As the intensity of her "preparation" drove her tortured mind far beyond the limits of mortal orgasms, the Specter noticed dimly that her previous reality had faded into nothingness. She was no longer even in the geyser, but was now suspended high in the night sky over the Council Plaza, completely enveloped in a towering spectral visage that was the essence of Nahoc on earth. The doomed vigilante could see the Hicsoc warriors scattered all about the plaza sleeping soundly, and could even make out the tiny figure of Pop Sanchez holding the rope on the lip of the Claw. The countryside for as far as she could see was lit by a patchwork of dim green arteries feeding the glowing conflagration. And at the center of the spectral geyser was forming a new manifestation: an appendage much brighter and presumably more material than all the other tendrils forming Nina's prison. Nina watched between the twin-peaks of her own rock-hard breasts as the new horror rose regally to meet her in the sky. The smaller tendrils began pulling her sleek legs farther apart in preparation for its arrival and worked with limited success to move aside the slim crotch of the Specter�s shimmering body suit. She could guess the purpose of this new implement of her destruction.
"You�AHH AHH�must take me�AHHHHH�as a mortal?"
*I choose to take you as a man. A Knight of Artimis deserves no mercy. Here in my realm beyond time, I will take you endlessly for the next 500 of your years. I will rebuild and crush your mortal form as clay on the potter's wheel. Then will I rebuild you to suit my needs and as my ravaged champion you will lead my army against the world!*
Nina couldn't speak, couldn't think, couldn't even breath. The thought of countless years as Nahoc's doomed "mate" with every atom of her being singing with immortal pleasure was unfathomable.
The lethal tentacle had finally reached the level of her face. It hovered before her eyes, glowing bright with malice, as if taunting the young woman doomed by supernatural trickery to serve as the vessel for the true Warrior King of the Hicsoc. The tendril itself was actually made of an infinite number of smaller tendrils, each writhing and twitching in concert. The crude form of a human penis waxed and waned as the unearthly member twitched and writhed. The thought of being impaled on the huge phallus was both horrifying and intensely desirable. She closed her teary eyes against the sickening sight. She could only hope that no trace of her original essence would survive her transformation after 500 years so she would not have to bear the burden of the atrocities Nahoc would certainly inflict on the world.
The praedial gods are liars that tell the truth. Nina's eyes shot open as another voice echoed through her tortured subconscious. Among their own words are sown the seeds of their destruction.
Desperate with terror, the Silk Specter managed to look once again out over the panorama far beneath her, frozen in time. She could now better see the veins of green radiating out from the Claw and into the surrounding countryside. She now knew instinctively the meaning of a praedial god--one spawned from the land. The spectral phallus was almost certainly the central point of Nahoc's presence on earth. It was along that shaft of blazing light that the mad god of the Hicsoc was at his most material. Then her mind grasped onto a last desperate hope.
"Take me�as a man, will�AHHHH�you? Well let's see if you think with your dick, just like all the other men!" With a flick of the wrist Nina produced Pop's knife, and ran it against the tendril holding her arm. The semi-corporeal tentacle parted easily against Pop's "enchanted" blade. Then the Maid of Mystery seized the huge glowing phallus in one gloved hand and hacked laterally at it with all her strength. It was like cutting flesh and even oozed spectral blood, just as the Specter had hopped.
Nahoc's response was immediate and gratifying.
*AHHHHHH!!!!! NOOOOOO!* Nahoc shrieked in inhuman anguish. The severed appendage dissipated quickly in her hands as the tentacles holding her body writhed in sympathetic pain.
*Human bitch! I will feast on your soul! I will quench my thirst on your life's juices!*
The wind swirled instantly around the Silk Specter with tremendous force as Nahoc marshaled his forces to crush the impetuous mortal. But it was too late--the killing blow had already been delivered by a 107-pound human girl. Denied his focal point in the material world Nahoc's power rapidly ebbed. The tendrils grew dimmer and Nina found herself dropping toward the desert far below.
*NOOOOOOO! I shall not be defeated! I�shall�not�depart! OHHHHHHHH!* Nahoc's moans slowly faded until they became one with the howling wind. The supernatural glow abated further and the tendrils defocused into a hazy mist. The pleasure-tongues--which had already lost much of their strength--rapidly degenerated into simple points of pressure, then cold drafts of air.
The statue-strewn Plaza grew rapidly larger as Nina's rate of descent increased. The last remnants of unearthly power still attempted to grasp at the falling mortal but they only served to break the fall of the woman they desperately wanted to destroy. Then like Icarus--who also defied the gods--the Silk Specter fell to the ground and landed hard on the parched desert, leaving a bewildered Pop Sanchez holding a slack rope.
Day broke reluctantly under a brooding gray sky � the sort of day that occurs only a few times a year around Oceana. It was almost as if the Claw itself had overnight completely concealed the azure blue behind a heavy blanket of corruption. Great gouts of steam poured from the open mouth of the geyser in anticipation of the eruption that was only minutes away. Painted men lined the plaza brandishing their weapons, awaiting the awesome spectacle that would signal the beginning of their conquest of the White Man. A ragtag convoy of trucks, jeeps and motorcycles waited on the twisting dirt road leading away from the sacred grounds to transport the hoard to the Oceana. It was altogether a fitting day for the destruction of the world's most exotic city.
"Today is the greatest day in the history of the Hicsoc Nation!" Joey's voice was hoarse from shouting, but his eyes blazed with malice and his black gloved hands were clenched in fists of rage. "The crimes of 500 years will be repaid in kind: treachery for treachery, suffering for suffering, invasion for invasion! Today the white streets of Oceana will run dark with blood!"
Joey's pearl-handled pistols appeared in his hands as if my magic and the crowd shouted wildly. The very earth pulsed and vibrated. The Claw was a physical presence, eliminating any doubt but that Joey-Nahoc would lead them to victory.
"Who among you doubts their courage?!" The men moaned in despair that their leader could suggest such a thing. "Who doubts their own resolve?! Who among you will stand at this nexus of history and shy away from vengeance? It is he who is corrupted by the blood of WHITE men!"
The men looked about at each other somewhat suspiciously. The warriors would mow down a group of school children in cold blood rather than be accused of cowardice or impure lineage. The wily gunslinger knew this and was more than happy to use their own arrogance against them. Any remaining inclination toward mercy or humanity was being rapidly whittled away by Joey Dakota
"The eruption of the Claw is the sign, and just as Nahoc's water breaks across the land so shall the fury of the Hicsoc be unleashed against our enemies! To the vehicles, sons of Nahoc! Nothing blocks your way to victory!!!"
"Wrong Again, Joey Dakota! Dead wrong!"
The men stopped in their tracks even as they turned toward the vehicles. Standing directly in the middle of the road atop the rise marking the boarder of the Counsel Grounds stood a young woman clad in a tight-fitting black costume. Her dark cape swirled about her in the wind and her dark hair glistened like patent leather. She was apparently unarmed, but stared down at the small army with contempt etched onto her masked face. The men instantly recognized her as the same woman who had challenged Nahoc the night before. They had all seen her sealed into the Lodge of Supplication, from which no woman had ever emerged alive.
"Well now Silk Specter, back from the dead so soon?" Joey dismounted from his armed jeep some 50 yards from where the Specter stood. "I suppose it was too much to hope for that you had just boiled to pieces in the sweat lodge. I should have just shot you."
"Games over Joey. Surrender now and I might let you live."
Suddenly the quaking earth became more noticeable as the Claw gained power. Five years of slowly building geothermal fury was about to be unleashed.
"Funny, I was about to say the same thing. See, once the Claw erupts my first order is going to be to blow you into pieces. But if you surrender I might just give you one more romp in the sack. After of course, I break your arms and legs."
"Joey, how you talk. You make a girl feel positively unloved. Ready for the last round up?"
Joey Dakota just smirked at her mildly. With a chill Nina recognized it as the look Joey always wore the moment before her gunned someone down. The Specter's heart beat in her chest like thunder, and she fought the foolish urge to dip her hand to her empty hip. Still, she held her ground.
But suddenly, the geyser erupted like the ignition of a rocket, sending a thick jet of steam and water high into the brooding sky. But something was wrong. The raw outflowing of power was hampered by a series of muffled pops from somewhere beneath. Then the earth began vibrating in earnest, and all the Hicsoc knew something had just gone terribly wrong. Joey felt it too and looked back in confusion, momentarily taking his eye off the sexy crime fighter he had moments before intended to kill. All around him, the statues dotting the landscape unexpectedly flew into the air as if they were blow-up dolls, revealing the myriad of smaller vents that had been sealed off over the centuries to focus the geysers power on the Claw. The land mines planted by the Silk Specter had ruptured the ancient masonry sealing off the sub-shafts, efficiently converting the awesome Council Plaza into a boiling, seething cauldron of death.
The vast assembly of warriors, bikers, and acolytes collectively dismissed their visions of world conquest and started fighting for their lives. They scampered in a disorganized route for the hills surrounding the plaza. But before they could make much progress, huge sections of the parched earth melted away as the weakened channels leading to the lesser geysers ruptured under the sudden pressure. The men sank into the muddy quagmire moaning and crying to Nahoc for salvation.
Joey was stunned, even more so when a hand suddenly wrenched his gun from his grasp and bore down on his forehead.
"Games over Joey. You lose."
The Specter noted with satisfaction that armored personnel carriers from the Oceana Special Crimes unit appeared on the hills surrounding the enclave, and two sleek black helicopters broke from cover and hovered overhead. Commando's dressed in black body armor fanned out from the tracked vehicles and trained their automatic weapons on the mass of humanity assembled around the Claw. Under normal circumstances the puny paramilitary police force would have been mown down by the assembled might of the Hicsoc Nation. But as it was not a shot was fired--Mariposa's men were more than happy to surrender after losing their weapons and a good deal of their flesh to the boiling geysers. The officers from the Special Crimes Unit quickly began dispatching details of men to arrest the stragglers that were fighting their way out of the horrible pit.
"You're one sorry son of a bitch, Joey Dakota." Nina pulled the hammer back on the pistol. "I hope you enjoy a few life sentences here in the United States."
"We'll see, Slick," Joey smiled disarmingly. "For your sake you'd better hope you're right."
Commando's suddenly arrived on the scene where Nina held Joey at gunpoint. The defeated desperado was efficiently searched, cuffed, and herded into a waiting paddy wagon. Nina followed the progress of the gorgeous outlaw until she noticed that Pop had pulled up behind the wagon driving Black Magic. Her heart leapt at the sight of her friend and the powerful car. The Specter wrapped her arms around the filthy Mexican and pecked him on the cheek.
"I see you managed to rouse the cavalry."
"Chavez was captured by the Port Authority. He told them everything. I just needed to lead the charge. Strange how things worked out."
"Maybe not so strange. Lost track of Mariposa."
"Probably drowning in mud." Pop inclined his head towards the pool of reeking marsh, which now bore a striking resemblance to the floor of the Lodge of Supplication. Except that this mud pool was now littered with dead bodies.
"The world should be so lucky. Come on, I think the police can clean up here. I'll give you a lift into town. I need about 14 hours of sleep and Katrina needs a therapist. Tomorrow we'll get you a new truck."
"Neena," Pop looked earnest as they walked back to the car. "This might not be the best time, but thank you for saving my life. Joey would have killed me."
"That's okay Pop." Nina flashed her mysterious smile. "I owe you a few. Besides, Dad would never forgive me if I let anything happen to you. Oh and here." Nina produced Pop's ancient blade. "Thanks for the knife. It worked great."
Mystified, Pop held up his blade. It now seemed to have a greenish tinge, and he could almost swear it was faintly glowing. With a sudden surge of icy fear that he could not begin to understand, the hardened poacher threw his prized knife into the boiling mud, and then hurried to join his young friend in the car.
THE END