literature

Sapphire III: Chapter 7

Deviation Actions

Published: Jun 26, 2009

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Literature Text

7.  Shadows of an Intruder</i>

November 21st, 1989

Early the next morning, sunlight filtered through the bed's pink canopy, waking up Alec.  He checked the time and tried to go back to sleep, but his stirring woke up Élodie, who gently laid her hands upon Alec and cooed, "Bonjour, cherie."

"Ah, good morning," Alec sleepily replied.  "Sorry if I woke you."

"It's nothing."  She leaned in closer to his ear.  "Wasn't last night fun?"

"Well, between showing the high life of an acrobat, and living it --"

"I was talking about making love."

"That's what I meant.  I tell you, I didn't think half the positions you were in were even possible for this sort of thing!"

"And there's more where that came from."  She aggressively rolled on top of him.  "I want to do it with you again.  Right now."

Alec was surprised at the suggestion.  He pushed her back aside and assertively told her, "Um, can it wait?  Like until after we're married?  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it as much as you, but it almost feels like too much of a good thing, you know?"

"But Alec, you have no idea how long I've waited for this moment!" she cried insistently.  "I haven't slept with a man since I left Nikolai, over seven years ago!"

"Goodness, you've got great self-control.  What kept you so... disciplined?"

"I don't know...  It's hard enough being a single mother."

"...And you didn't want to throw anything else into the equation?"

"Exactly.  But most of all, I guess I was just holding onto the hope that someday I would meet Nikolai again."

"I know what you mean.  When Ivanka was kidnapped, I couldn't bring myself to start seeing other women again.  Although, there was this one funny story about this girl I met in Japan...  I shall have to tell you about it sometime."

"Oh, that reminds me, I have a funny story of my own.  It's from when I was dating Nikolai.  He was luring me to sleep with him, see, and we thought we'd show off our best moves to, shall I say, spark up our imaginations.  So he lay on his side on top of my bed, then he took his leg up behind his head and pushed it down, all the way to his little tiger-striped underpants."  She swooned and sighed contentedly at the thought.

"So, did it get you...?"

"Yes, but that's not the funny part.  When he tried to pull his leg back from behind him, it wouldn't budge!  Turns out it was wedged in between two of the bones in his spine that were poking out of his back.  I had to massage him for a long time until his leg came free!  Of course, by then, the spark of love was gone for the moment."  It was apparent that she was pining for Nikolai yet again.

Shrugging away the memories, Élodie rolled over to the side of the bed and, brushing the curtains aside, dug into her nightstand's drawers for a moment.  When she rolled back up, she held up a cigarette and lighter that she had just procured, lit it, and took one pull from it.  Alec looked away, sulking in subtle disappointment.  "Is something wrong?" she asked him meekly.

"Ah, it's nothing, I've just never been much for smokers."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"No, it's nothing big.  But if we're going to be together, I might have you quit."

"Aw, but you still haven't seen me smoke with my feet!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, I do it in a backbend, so I can do the whole thing using only my toes.  I can even do it in a handstand!"

Alec savored the thought of this stunt before replying again.  "...OK.  I'll check that out for you, and then I'll get you off the stuff.  Deal?"

Élodie only needed to think for a second before answering.  "Deal.  For you, Alec, I'll do anything.  I'd bend over backwards for you!"

"Quite," Alec said, laughing along with her.  But their laughter was cut short when, suddenly, David barged into the room.  "Beg pardon," he apologized breathlessly, "but there are armed intruders breaking into the house."

While Élodie drew her hands up to her face in worry, Alec asked, "Okay, just calm down, David.  Did any of them see you?"

"Yes, but I caught one of them and tried to interrogate him."

"Did he tell you what they were after?"

"Well... you and Madame."

"Oh God..." Élodie whispered.

Alec thought that these might be sentries sent by Aeolus, or whoever was truly behind the conspiracy, but he had to make sure.  "How about who sent them?"

"I tried to ask him that, but one of his own men shot him.  Lucky he got hit and not me."

"Not necessarily; it might have been to keep him from talking.  Let me come with you, I want to try and get some answers of my own."

"But what should I do?" Élodie asked anxiously.

"Well, just... hide, I guess.  Remember, you can fit in a lot of places Alec or I couldn't."

"Right," said Alec.  "You do that, and David, you start patrolling.  Just let me get dressed, and I'll join you in a minute."  With naught but a nod, David left the room and let Alec and Élodie prepare for the trying situation ahead.  Alec dressed in his suit from the party, sans jacket and tie, along with the shoulder holster containing his Ruger pistol.  Meanwhile, Élodie simply slipped on her nightgown and rummaged under the bed, presumably to make space to hide in.  But as Alec left the bedroom, he looked back and saw to his astonishment that she was in fact scrunching herself into a tiny box no taller than her knee.  Once she was all the way inside, he pushed the box under the bed for her, he dejectedly thought, Another day, another trick she wants to show me... I can't wait for the circumstances to change...

---

Constantly wishing for some peace and quiet, Alec stalked downstairs to the third floor, gun drawn, when he saw the first shadows of an intruder.  By tracking the movements of the shadow, he was able to stay hidden while following its path.  Eventually he caught up with the robber, a nondescript man, muffling him with a hand over his mouth.  "I heard you were looking for me," he whispered menacingly.  "Well, here I am.  Now you wouldn't be so kind as to tell me who you're working for, would you?"

The robber hesitated to answer, so Alec moved his hand over his neck, clenching it tightly.  Expecting an initial lack of cooperation, he aimed his gun at the man's head, but before it even touched his crew-cut hair, he whispered frantically, "It was Boris..."

"Don't tell me.  Boris Rubanenko?  He's dead.  I don't want to hear that excuse again!"  And he shot the robber straight through the head out of frustration.  Whoever these men are working for, he thought angrily, </i>you'd think they could come up with better excuses.  I mean, the man's been dead for two years!  Certainly they don't hide the truth in Russia like they used to anymore!</i>

Alec was still fuming as he entered the grand hall, only to witness David in a struggle with three other men.  From the looks of things, he was losing, so Alec hid on the balcony and fired a shot at the tussle below.  The shot missed, but it was enough to break up the fight temporarily.  David was dragged away by two of the men he was fighting, while the third stayed behind to give suppressing fire.  Alec easily felled the straggler and bounded down the stairs in pursuit of David.  But as he made his way across the main hall to rescue the manservant, he was knocked down by yet another figure.  When he got back up and took a look at who had brushed with him, he saw to his surprise that it was in fact a woman!

This new lady was clad in a muted violet cloak and veil that left almost none of her body visible, and made it near impossible for Alec to discern her identity.  There was a powerful grace to her movements, however, that seemed familiar to him, but there was no time to stop and try to make a connection.  As soon as he was back on his feet, she started running towards him.  He tumbled into her path, knocking her down, and started to run after David, only to change course suddenly, rationalizing that if she was after him, he should lead her away from his troubled friend.

Alec's impromptu diversion tactic was working; as he sped aimlessly around the mansion, he kept looking back periodically, verifying that his veiled pursuer was still following him.  Eventually, after he passed into a dark corridor and ducked behind one of the suits of armor, he remembered about the information he was trying to get out of the intruders, and chose to stand his ground.  He intended to tackle her when he passed by him, but somehow, she seemed to know where he was hiding, as midway down the hall she headed straight for the suit of armor he was hiding behind.  Just before she could collide with him, he tried to push the armor into her.  It took a great effort, but he managed to topple it over, bringing it crashing down onto her.

Once he made out her face from the mess of metal and cloth that lay at his feet, Alec pointed his gun at the woman as he proceeded to remove her veil.  What he discovered when he pulled off the veil and hood of her cloak shocked him yet again -- his pursuer was none other than Khina Sabiri, Boris Rubanenko's old wife!  The Persian bandit leered at Alec spitefully as he asked with evident surprise, "Khina...?  What are you doing here?"

"Aw, come on Al, you already know!"

"...Yeah, that's right," Alec admitted.  But how did she know?  Did someone tell her about the kidnapper whom David accosted earlier?  "So who sent you?"

"You tell me where El's ran off to."

Khina's constant display of disrespect annoyed Alec greatly.  "You're in no position to be asking me anything, you hear me?" he shouted.

Yet despite the rage spewing forth at her, the anger showing in Khina's face grew more and more subdued.  Before Alec could wonder what was going on in her mind, all the armor that lay around her suddenly flew out into him, as if shot off by an explosion!  There was no way she could have lifted up all the armor in one go, but was it possible...?  Was she a Psychic?

This concept haunted Alec as he found himself chasing Khina out the door of the mansion.  He fired two shots in her direction, missing both times, but she hastily swerved and headed into the vineyard, with Alec trailing closely.  The low light made the practically bare trees which held up the rows of grapevines seem spooky, but worst of all, it was difficult to keep track of Khina as she led through him through the maze.  Occasionally, she would duck beneath the foliage, making Alec lose sight of her completely.  Then, just as she stood back up, he would see her and try to shoot her, missing when she ducked back down again.

  This pattern repeated, almost ad naueseum, until Alec finally spotted Khina again, escaping into a garage.  She led her past the Jaguar and some farm machinery, and into the wine cellar.  Here, Alec fired three more shots; two crashed into the kegs crammed into the wall, but the third hit Khina in the shoulder and briefly knocked her down, wine from the newly damaged kegs leaking onto her.  But as she lay awkwardly kneeling on the cobblestone floor, she covered the wound with her hand briefly, then got up again, throwing something onto the floor, and continued on back into the mansion.  On his way past the spot where she stumbled, Alec saw that the object she left on the ground was in fact a bullet.  Did she heal her wound magically?  Then it was very possible...

Their chase brought them back into the main hall, where Khina suddenly stopped to stand her ground.  Alec charged at her, putting all his momentum into his shoulders in order to ram her, but she remained facing away from him, charging up some sort of wispy blue energy between her hands.  Before he could so much as register what she was trying to do, she turned around with lightning speed and smashed a hand into his head, transferring the energy into him.  Even though he had managed to knock her down again -- with less success than expected -- he staggered away from the attack half-stunned.  He had only moments to register what had just happened before clumsily falling to the ground, face-up and unconscious.  She had placed a sleeping curse on him, proving once and for all that she was, in fact, a Psychic.

---

Things were not going much better for David.  The two bandits who took him away after Alec's intervention had dragged him into a vast kitchen.  One of them pinned him by the shoulders on top of a counter, and asked a light question as if to put hostage at ease.  "So, do you cook here?"  But David kept mute, the expression and image of his face suggesting he would not talk easily.

The second captor continued talking as he scanned around the kitchen, seemingly aimlessly.  "Well, that's good you're here.  You can make breakfast for yourself... as soon as you tell us where Élodie is.  Or else you'll never make another meal again!"  Just as he said this, he pulled out a wooden rolling pin and poured a bottle of brandy over it.  Holding it by one handle, with a rag soaked in water placed before his hand, he pulled a lighter out of his pocket and held it open beneath the rolling pin.  At first, David could not understand what his captor was going to do with it, but soon learned the hard way.  He flicked a flame from his lighter, brought it up to the rolling pin, instantly setting the alcohol-soaked wood ablaze, and smashed it onto David's face!

David howled intensely from the brutal blow.  Had he been able to inspect the damage done to him, he would have discovered that nearly the entire left side of his face was charred, if not bruised and bloody, and the edges of his hair and beard were smoldering slowly from an errant ember.  The pain inflicted upon him was so great, he seemed to have no control of his actions as he blurted out one word, "Bedroom!"

"Come again?" said the captor who had just hit him.  His patience was visibly waning, for at any moment the rolling pin in his hand would so completely catch on fire that he would be unable to hold it.

David could sense this as well, and so attempting to spare himself even more pain, he shouted, "Top floor, under the bed.  That's where Élodie is!"

The captor pinning David onto the countertop looked at his comrade, who softly ordered him, "Uhm, you go up there and check it out."  As he let go of David, tossed him hard onto the floor, and started to leave, the other man added, "I'll stay here and rough him up."

This was not exactly the outcome David had wanted, but he chose to use the transition to his advantage nonetheless.  The tough bandit grasped him by the shoulder, dragged him up, and drew his fist back, but before he could connect his punch, David pulled the man down with all his might, flipping him over and onto the floor from the momentum.  Once down, he tried to get back up, but David took a pan and struck him on the face several times until he fell again, unconscious.

His captor subdued, David raced upstairs bent entirely on rescuing Élodie.  He was confident that he could make up the lost time, but when he broke into her bedroom, there was nobody around.  Remembering what he had told Élodie, he threw himself under the bed and haphazardly pulled out all manner of boxes in search of his mistress.  But no matter how big or small the box he looked in, she was nowhere to be found, nor was she hiding in the spaces behind those boxes.

No matter how unlike Élodie it was for her to disobey orders given by him, he abandoned her bedroom to search in any other potential hiding places he could find, from the gym to the wine cellar.  An hour had passed until he was forced to consign to the fact that Élodie had been abducted.  But how could the one man have found her and escaped before he got up to the bedroom?  This question was one of the many that hung on his mind throughout the rest of the morning.  Among the more pressing concerns, he wondered how in the world he could explain all of this to her son Claude.