Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2021 21:01:59 GMT -5
Chapter 3: The Rescue
Diogenes Knox Compound/Estate
England
October 15th, 2021
Meghan Strader 4:34 AM GMT
Meghan couldn’t have dreamed of the current situation that had taken hold of the Strader family; her oldest child was kidnapped, and her peers coming to stand by her side had blown her mind. In front of the Knox Estate, half a kilometre away, she had a blueprint of the house laid out on the hood of an old black 1979 Cadillac Eldorado with her brother John on her left and Tony Savage of all people on her right. If John cut his hair and shaved more often than every couple of months, she could see a resemblance. It was almost like the soldier in Tony kicked back in when one of his staff had been taken at the OCW event, Masters of Macabre. The irony in a name like that only realized after the events of the evening. She speaks calmly and well collected to the two men who wait on the plan that Tony and John helped put together.
“Alright, Matthew is going to send me a text when he has Dio incapacitated. When that happens, you two are gonna shred through the front door with the door shredder rounds Tony provided,” she says, referring to the Mossberg 590 Shotgun that Savage held proudly in his hands and to John’s Kel-Tec KSG. “From these plans, there is an area that’s visible from the back of the compound but was conveniently left off the official blueprints submitted to the county. Also, remember we have the earpieces that Tony brought for us to communicate with one another."
“In my experience, it’s a holding/torture room of sorts,” Savage replies tapping the area where it should be. “But from what Knox has told us about Dio, it’s a whole different kind of torture room,” the disgust drips off his words, and no one has to be a mind reader. It makes them all sick to their stomach.
“Is he sure the guards will follow him up to meet with this slime-bucket?” John asks, reaching into his kutte to grab his Marlboro’s. He offers one to Savage, who declines with a wave of his hand, but Meghan takes one. He lights her cigarette and his own.
“Yeah, Matthew brought along an insurance policy that will have all eyes on them. As far as that gross piece of shit is concerned, he has no clue any of us know about Victoria.”
“Smart young woman to get ahold of Atara Themis,” Savage points out with a nod of approval. “Because of Atara, we have this shot. Maybe the family could cut the kid some slack?”
Atara Themis 4:40 AM GMT
The Greek Goddess decided she couldn’t sit back and do nothing. She was in all black, fitted to her womanly curves. She looked through a pair of binoculars that she ordered off Amazon through Victoria’s Prime account as she had her iPhone the henchman had carelessly left behind, and Johnny got her anything she needed but didn’t want him to talk her out of going.
“Don’t worry, Dove, your Aphrodite Incarnate is coming,” her honey rasped voice says out loud to herself. “I know they told me to stay back, but we have a date for the Louvre Museum.”
She sits by a rental blacked-out Porsche 911 Turbo, waiting for the light show she was sure was going to come.
Victoria Strader 4:45 AM GMT
“Should just be about shift change for my guard. Rory should be coming on soon.”
Victoria had her personal belongings stripped of her and was left with nothing but bodysuits with connections that would monitor her vitals and test her endurance. However, she was given a pink negligee teddy and shuddered at what could possibly come next, but she wasn’t sticking around to find out. The mental and emotional tests that came after the physical exams would’ve broken a weaker-minded individual. Still, she was the byproduct of two of the most stubborn people on God’s green earth but knew with whatever the sick uncle had planned next; it was only a matter of time before she broke.
“I am not the best klepto, but at least they didn’t see me grab that syringe of sedatives.”
Her plan was simple: wait for the incoming shift change, create a disturbance for Rory to investigate and stick him with the syringe. He had been nice to her when no one else had been and didn’t want to hurt him. From listening to her MC President Uncle, she knew that sometimes men and women in the underworld get stuck where they are, but it doesn’t mean they are all pieces of trash.
“Sorry in advance, Rory, but I need to get out of here. Back to my life. Back to my career. Back to my family. Most importantly, back to my Atty.”
She sits on the edge of her bed in that black tracksuit she pulled back into her signature ponytail.
Tamika and Cara Strader 4:55 AM GMT
Tamika and Cara were growing restless sitting on the plane. They had rented a small room in a fleabag hotel to shower and stay fresh. They had an oversized suite in a classy Liverpool hotel, but that was all a distraction; it made everyone watching think something else. It was the very reason Meghan asked Cara to maintain a social media presence. It was hiding in plain sight.
“Matthew should be arriving at the Diogenes’s place now,” Tamika says out loud, without realizing it. Jake, who was usually quiet and observant, spoke up.
“Aunt Tamika, Cara, my babe, don’t worry. They are going to get Victoria back,” he says as confidently as he can.
Cara smiles at him, giving him a soft kiss on his lips.
“We know, waiting is just the hardest part,” Cara replies.
A second later, as Tamika is about to say something, her phone beeps. She looks down, and the screen illuminates her face as the Strader sneer creeps across her mouth.
“It’s a Go. Let’s keep the faith, kids,” Tamika says with a grin as she gets up to tell the pilot to make sure the plane is fueled and ready to go.
Meghan Strader 5:00 AM GMT
Meghan cocks the .45 long slide with laser sighting, nods at Tony and John as they rush the front gates of the estate.
KAPOW! KAPOW! KAPOW! KAPOW!
Splinters of wood and steel fly through the air as the gaudy red double entrance of the house explodes from the shredding slugs Tony had brought. John and Savage nod at one another as they move from cover and enter the large main foyer as guards come from the top of two staircases on either side of the foyer from the upstairs and dead centre of the main floor through double-sided oak doors.
“John, Tony, lookout!”
Listening to Strader Matriarch, Tony is able to mow down a line of henchmen running down the stairs trying to fire their AK-47’s.
KAPOW! KAPOW!
Their bullets are sent in every direction, but the intruders, as they fall from gunshot wounds, on the other side, John rolls forward, unleashing a few rounds of his own with Meghan firing off as well.
KAPOW! BANG! KAPOW! BANG!
They all nod at one another to keep moving forward with the plan.
“Ok, boys, cover me. I am going in,” she says, and before either of the men can protest, she has taken off through the doors on the main level. John looks over at Tony and shrugs.
“You get used to it after a while,” he says with a chuckle.
Savage shakes his head as he reloads, keeping his eyes open.
Victoria Strader 5:05 AM GMT
“What the hell is going on out there? Why isn’t Rory answering?!”
Victoria stands there, pounding on the door relentlessly.
“RORY! WHAT IS GOING ON OUT THERE?!” she yells at the door, frustrated.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Click
“Finally, Ror- - -”
“Atty?!”
“DOVE!”
The new embrace immediately, their hands finding their way to one another’s faces as their lips lock in a tender yet passionate kiss.
“Babe…”
“I told you, I’m not a pig, Dove,” she says with a smile. Victoria smirks with tears rolling down her face. She kisses her one more time.
“What are you doing here? What’s going on out there, Atty?” Victoria asks, looking out into the hall to make sure it is clear.
“Your mom and dad have created a distraction with the help of Uncle John and Tony Savage,” Atty replies, running her index finger down Vee’s jawline. “Your sister and aunt are at a small makeshift airstrip not far. We gotta go, though, Dove.”
“Atty and the whole family, including Knoxxy, have come to get me…”
“Wait, Tony Savage as in the CFO of us weirdos in OCW?” She asks with a slight wink to show she still has her sense of humour.
“Yes, it really bothered him you were taken, and the authorities weren’t doing anything, which eff them because I called them right away and have done nothing,” she says with an annoyed sigh.
“Wow. Ok, let’s get the hell out of here.”
John Strader and Tony Savage 5:07 AM GMT
A hale storm of bullets are flying over the heads of Savage and Strader, who look over at each other from their cover on either side of the foyer.
“Remind you of the war?” John asks across as he turns around, firing off a couple of rounds that catch their intended target as the henchman falls over the top railing and hits the floor but not before...
CRASH!
A pile of debris breaks the guy’s fall, but he most likely is dead. Tony looks over with a side grin.
“Nicer battlefield.”
John laughs as Tony takes his turn firing up towards the top of the left-hand staircase.
KAPOW!
The shredding slugs rip through the guy and also hits the guy behind him, splattering blood.
“Yeah, I feel ya. I’ll have to tell you over a pint about the time I road the pan head down to Panama to save my sisters and old man from a very angry cartel,” John says to Savage as they stand up and meet in the centre of the foyer.
Savage shakes his head.
“Do you all go looking for trouble?”
John shakes his head no.
“Don’t have to. It finds us everywhere.”
Savage lets out a small scoff as he shakes his head.
“Yeah, I’ll say.”
The two stand waiting for Meghan and Victoria as they overlook the piles of injured and fatally wounded.
Meghan Strader 5:12 AM GMT
It had been ten years since Meghan held a gun in her hand, but it’s like riding a motorcycle her old man would say, you never forget. She had a henchman by the collar with the gun jammed up in his neck under his chin.
“WHERE IS SHE?! TELL ME YOU SON OF A BITCH,” she yells in his face. He looks up, and her icy blue eyes would give him frostbite if they could.
“*cough* I told you, I went to find Miss Strader when everything started happening to keep her safe, and she was gone already,” the henchman replies to her, the pleading she could hear in his voice.
Meghan starts to squeeze the trigger.
“If you think I am afraid to pull this fucking trigger, you have another thing coming!”
“MOM!”
Meghan’s eyes go wide as she looks up and sees her daughter standing there with Atara at her side.
“Victoria! You are ok!” she says, resisting the urge to run to her. “Atara, what are you doing here?! No, never mind. Let me finish this piece of shit off, and you can tell me on the way out,” she says, glaring back down at the henchman.
“No, mom, don’t! That’s Rory; he’s been really good to me; pretty sure he knew I called Atara too, don’t kill him,” Victoria pleads.
“Is this true?” Meghan asks, jerking the man up slightly by the collar.
“*cough*Yes, I have a granddaughter her age, and it’s been making me sick of what Mister Knox has been doing. Let me go, and I can show you a way out,” Rory says with another cough.
Meghan looks up at the lovers, and Victoria nods. Meghan looks back down as she presses the index finger of her left hand to the earpiece Tony Savage had provided for communication.
“John, Tony. I have Victoria, and she’s not alone… yeah, Atara is here… I don’t know, John, it’s not important right now. We have an alternate route out of here; you and Tony get out now and meet us back at farmer’s field. I will message Knox now.”
Meghan lets Rory up as she goes straight to her daughter and embraces her.
“Don’t forget to message dad,” her daughter says to her as Atty makes a side-eye as Meghan looks at her daughter apologetically.
“I know, I have a lot to explain, but later, we need to get out now.”
The three women go to follow the guard, but Victoria hands him the syringe.
“Stick yourself with this and you'll go to sleep after we are gone back in my room. Tell them I did it,” she says as he smiles down at her.
“Thank you, Miss Strader,” he replies, placing a grandfatherly hand on her shoulder.
Tamika and Cara Strader 5:35 AM GMT
Tamika and Cara stand on the makeshift runway a farmer had built for his single-engine plane that actually had tarmac laid down and even a small tower so he could teach his children how to fly and observe the sky. He also took in small planes and private jets for the 1% looking at properties to purchase to build their modern-day castles. John had found him through the president of the Liverpool charter of the Brothers of Mayhem, Spike, which was also conveniently close to the target, thankfully. However, John figured the Knox family must use it from time to time; knowing that, he had a cover story about the family looking at land to buy for a new estate but said they were the Stratten family. Meghan found it funny they used the maiden name of their step-mother, Amy Lee Stratten.
Tamika looked at her phone as the plane's engines had turned on behind her. Cara stands there, her right hand providing a meal of fingernails for the nervous sister. In the distance, they could see a couple of sets of headlights.
“Cara, go tell Captain Stacy to get ready,” Tamika commands, and Cara is on the move instantly and is running up the steps of the luxury black steel-coloured plane.
Tamika greets the Porsche 911 and Cadillac Eldorado and is floored to see Atara Themis but doesn’t question as she runs to Victoria, nearly toppling.
“Goddamnit, kid, we’ve missed you! You never call,” she says jokingly with her green eyes filled with tears. Victoria squeezes her back.
“I know. I’ll try to do better next time,” Victoria says with a tearful chuckle. Atara clears her throat.
“Umm, no. We won’t be doing this again, will we Dove?” her steel-blue eyes flutter at Victoria.
“No, we won’t.”
Victoria turns to Tony Savage and hugs the OCW CFO.
“Thank you, Uncle Tony,” she says. He gives her hair a bit of a tussle.
“Don’t mention it, kid. You all need to get out of here now,” he says, pointing to the plane.
“We owe you one, Tony,” Meghan says to him with a thankful nod. “Not sure if we can ever repay it, but we will try. You have my word.”
Savage nods and looks over at John as he walks to the Eldorado.
“You owe me a pint and a story about Panama.”
John smirks and salutes him as he leaves the escape. The family and Atara board the plane, and Victoria is reunited with her sister Cara in a hug. Victoria walks over and hugs Atty from behind, snuggling her lips into the Goddess’s neck. Almost as if on cue, they tell the country of England off together.
“England, suck my butthole.”
Atara looks at her girl from the corner of her eye and snorts, which is the absolute sweetest sound Victoria has ever heard.