The Paranoid Thief (26 page)

“What the hell are you doing?”

Jill dropped her shirt without regard of
where they were, and reached out for him. “John, please hold me, love me, I
need to feel your arms tight about my body, taste your lips on mine,
feel
the warmth of your passion on my skin.”

“Jill? Now is not the time for this,” he
stressed, eyes wide to her behavior. “I’ve perhaps ten more minutes and we can
go.”

“But that’s such a long time,” she
complained, her wide eyes and swollen lips exposing her desires. “Could you not
spend a few moments and love me?”

“Control yourself!”

But in answer to his request, Jill took his
head in her hands and forced her lips on his.

Randolph grabbed her shoulders to push her
away, but she
slid
her arms around his neck, making
it that much harder to dislodge her hungry mouth from his. At the same time she
worked her leg up and down his.

Stunned and confused, Randolph got her lips
off only to have her nuzzle his neck. Fearful of being found out, he took her
head with considerable strength and pushed her away. “Will you stop
it!
We’re going to be discovered!”

“I’m sorry. I can’t control this, I need…I
need so desperately to feel you deep inside, the rock hardness of you between
my thighs, please, John, can’t you tell I’m on fire for you?”

“Yes I can, but—”

“Then shut the hell up and screw me damn
it, before I burst into flames!” she demanded loudly.

Wide-eyed and shocked that she said that
with such volume, Randolph used all his strength to separate them and prepared
to strike her to render her unconscious.

But before he accomplished that, the lights
came on and a voice from the door said with amusement, “I really underestimated
how well that stuff works.”

Randolph blinked repeatedly, and snapped his
head toward the doorway as Jill reapplied her body to his.

Still at the doorway, Mr. Hilden remarked
further, “I must admit, I’m very impressed.”

With their discovery, Jill whimpered in
misery before she slid down Randolph’s body to the floor at his feet, seemingly
in immeasurable distress, still trying to unbuckle his pants with trembling
fingers, which Randolph grabbed to keep her from accomplishing.

Feeling a lead weight pole-vault into the
pit of his stomach, accepting these as his last minutes on earth, he still
couldn’t help but feel the fool inside as he asked, “What’s wrong with her?”

The two men he’d seen earlier, accompanied
by two other redundant guards, spread out about the room with pistols raised.
Mr. Hilden remarked easily, “Nothing a man’s dick won’t solve.”

Still puzzled, Randolph watched Mr. Hilden
stroll confidently over to his desk, assured in Randolph’s defenselessness, and
lit an overpriced cigar. “You see, she’s under the influence of a powerful drug
I’d placed in the ventilation system earlier. This remarkable drug makes women
horny as hell.”

Ill-tempered at Jill's constant efforts in
clawing at his belt, trying to get his pants off, Randolph slapped her hands
away and kneed her to the floor as Mr. Hilden chuckled.

“It’s an illegal drug, if you hadn’t
guessed.
One that some of my associates request from time to
time if their desires cannot be met by position or ego.”
Mr. Hilden
ignited his cigar, and took several starter puffs as he strolled over to his
open safe. He eyed Randolph’s handiwork, made a face of disgust to the
destruction of his paneling, and closed the safe.

With an amused look to Jill’s half-naked,
shaking body, Mr. Hilden explained, “The drug was originally designed to induce
frigid women with the desire for sex. However,” Mr. Hilden remarked, toeing
Randolph’s small bag of tools, “a lab assistant with a grasp of understanding
in economics felt the black-market was a more profitable proposal for
himself
, and the rest is history.”

By this time Jill’s pain became very
evident to Randolph as her tears rolled unchecked down her cheeks, and she
pleaded for him to end her agony. But Randolph had more serious matters to
consider as two of Mr. Hilden’s men motioned him to turn to the wall, all the
guards thus far totally ignoring Jill.

“Now, please don’t be a bore, Mr. McCann,
and do as my men direct. I give you my word I’ll make your deaths relatively
painless.”

Before he capitulated, wishing nothing more
than to stall, plead, or beg—anything to gain him time in considering other
possibilities than receiving a laser burst through the brain pan, Randolph
asked, “How did you know Jill would be with me?”

“An educated guess.
Once an acquaintance passed over the video of your anti-climatic escape, I couldn’t
help but note how well Major Wander worked with you. And seeing as I’d set you
up so Mr. Stanton could take out the rather bothersome Henderson family, I felt
it a good bet you’d set aside your reputation this one time and accept her help
in eradicating me.”

“In truth, I had thought about it. Jill
told me she could have taken you out more than once in her surveillance, but I
wouldn’t hear of it, unfortunately my principles are far stronger than you give
me credit for.”

Mr. Hilden waved his cigar in a dismissive
gesture. “A weakness I dare say in your genetic make-up that made you useless
to me, save for that one job.”

“So why me?
What
was so detrimental to your empire you’d waste an entire family and servants
over?” Randolph wished he could do something about Jill’s whimpering
,
her hands still working to draw his pants down, which
forced him to keep his own busy in keeping the pants in place.

Mr. Hilden tapped off the ashes of his
cigar before drawing in a long lungful of flavored nicotine,
then
expelled the smoke Randolph’s way. “I had no real choice. Their underage
daughter was very persistent one evening at a party I was holding. A rather
enticing prospect, I might say
,
had she been of age.
However, as she wasn’t, she received my negative response unwell and upon
slipping me a Mickey, got her wish.” He took another draw, and watched Jill’s
antics with normal male interest.

“Her desires were of course guided by her
father, a rather embarrassing blackmail plot he concocted in his political
ambitions to hold sway over me, or face arrest for statutory rape once I was
proven the father of her growing child.”

Not having turned around, Randolph began
forming an ideal about what to do. But he still needed time to develop it out.

“So why the whole family?
Why not simply take out the girl? And above all, why involve me in this?”

Mr. Hilden leaned back on his desk, eyes
looking off into space a moment before returning them to Randolph, deciding to
be gracious. “You really don’t know the depths of the world you inject yourself
into, do you?” He took another puff before signaling one of his guards to pour
him a drink. “Disposing of the girl singularly would only dispose of future
irritating expenditures on lawyers in family courts, while doing nothing in
protecting my wealth and reputation from countless innuendos from Mr.
Henderson, his family and servants. Thus my response was really none of my
doing, but a pragmatic resolution in countering his ambitions. And as for you,
well, let us say there are some very influential people I have gained monetary
and positional gains from in disposing of a tiresome threat.
A
rather fortuitous side effect which made the whole episode acceptable.”

While Mr. Hilden took a sip of his drink,
Randolph sought one more stalling action. “So what tipped you off we were here?
I know I hadn’t missed any security system and even though Jill’s outburst was
loud, it wasn’t enough to carry into your room.”

“Knowing full well you could surpass any
system you set your mind to, I bought a simple low-tech baby monitor and set it
on my desk.” Mr. Hilden moved his hand to indicate the simple black speaker box
with his cigar. He took another sip of his drink, obviously enjoying the look
of pain on Randolph’s face.

To be
out witted by a simple sound amplifier.
Randolph scolded himself, losing
his train of thought.

Though Randolph ranted within, he still saw
Jill’s apparent need for sexual release over-ride her repulsion of the men near
at hand. Clawing her way up Randolph’s body, she turned to the men in the room
and unfastened her pants in a manor to draw all male eyes.

“Please, sir,” Jill began, stepping out of
her pants, dropping them behind her only after freeing up the two pistols from
their concealment. “I can’t take this burning desire any longer, I need a man!
I’ll die if I can’t get a man inside me!”

The demanding tone in Jill’s voice lent a
certainty in Randolph’s mind to whom of Jill’s personalities now stood before
him. Not a simple-minded average woman, or a doped-up female on pheromones, but
a cold-blooded killer. One who expertly thumbed off the safeties to two pistols
behind her back while Mr. Hilden and his men eyed her as nothing but a
sexed-crazed woman in heat.

This mistake only registered on Mr.
Hilden’s face when Jill stretched out her arms to either side, leveling pistols
and firing in a swiping motion, taking out the four guards with precision accuracy
before aiming at Mr. Hilden, telling the man in deadly calmness,

“One move and I’ll cut you in two.”

Still unable to stare on her bare form
without disbelief at such a personality, Randolph saw Mr. Hilden’s forgotten
cigar fall to the floor while Jill, standing stark naked without shame, ordered.

“Randolph! Quit gawking at my ass and make
certain the bodyguards are dead.”

Startled out of his amazement, Randolph
noted how tense Jill’s shoulder muscles were, and got the impression she was
fighting something off with a tremendous force of will.

“Now damn it all, before I kill him,” she
ordered Randolph like a drill sergeant.

Goaded into motion, Randolph moved to the
unmoving men and removed all guns while checking for pulses. His heart sank as
he found not one. Although he hated the deaths, Randolph consoled his beliefs
they aided Mr. Hilden in killing others. Removing the last of the hardware, Randolph
told Jill solemnly, “They’re beyond any-one's help.”

“Good. Now tell me, do we really need this
piece of garbage alive?”

Randolph took note of the quiver in her
voice, but before he could answer, Mr. Hilden’s clinched jaw, telegraphed his intent
to Jill’s military training. Jill deftly burned off his arms as they came up,
and brought the gun handle down on his cranium as he passed, felling him in a
wasted heap of unconscious flesh on the floor.

Randolph swallowed his heart. “Damn, Jill,
I’m so glad you’re back!” Wanting to hug Jill like never before, Randolph
halted his approach when Jill turned, her face contorted in pain. Uncertain if
she was in full control of her mind, Randolph backed away, raising his hands to
show he was of no danger to her.

Jill dropped the guns on the closest chair
and demanded in an angry screech, “Damn it Randolph! Quit backing away and drop
your pants. I can’t take much more of this!”

Before Randolph could react, she cleared
off the desk with a swipe of her arm, grabbed his shirt, and jumped on the
desk’s edge, gathering him into her arms, wrapping her legs tightly about his
torso before he could step out his pants.

Feverishly locking her lips on his own,
with demanding force, Jill fused every inch of her skin with his, deftly
stripping his clothes with fast moving hands.

In spite of the fact there were four dead men
and one unconscious lying in the middle of the floor, Jill’s expert
manipulation of her body forced Randolph’s mind into another world where she
could work through her demanding need for sexual release with her chosen
partner.

Randolph sat heavily in the desk chair when
Jill’s needs finally subsided enough to let him go. Collapsed like a rag doll,
filling his lungs with great gulps of air to reintroduce oxygen into his blood,
he barely noticed Jill did the same lying a-top the desk.

Only after Randolph was able to breathe
semi-normally did he set to work reapplying his clothes before clearing out the
safe. Though he was bothered by his performance with such carnage sprawled
about him, Randolph was pragmatic enough to move around the bodies and help
Jill into another chair so he could turn on Mr. Hilden’s personal computer and
hard wired unit.

Now
is not the time to fall apart.
And taking his own advice, he preceded to
take advantage of this once in a life time opportunity. After cracking his
fingers over the desk, Randolph dropped chip after chip into Mr. Hilden’s
private computer and saved file after file on his own disk, skimming each for
what he was looking for.

Mean while, as Randolph involved
himself
in the computers, Jill stood and stretched out her
lithe body in an effort to work out the soreness which would develop later
before putting on her shirt. While doing so, she took notice of Mr. Hilden
stirring, picked up one of her guns and sprayed him with a wide beam to keep
him unconscious. After which she lower her arm in irritation at her inability
in controlling her body’s desires. In disgust with her action that could have
gotten them both killed, Jill tossed the pistol into Randolph’s bag and started
pacing the floor without bothering to put on her pants.

While Jill paraded before him in agitation,
Randolph located Mr. Hilden’s assets, bank accounts and investments. Now able
to work on the computer hooked up to the hard line, Randolph entered passwords,
and moved right into the online broker and proceeded to make Mr. Hilden a
pauper. With fingers flying, he sold off stocks, bonds and investments,
switching next to online banking and initiating maximum loans on all
properties, vehicles and registered insured valuables.

As each delivered payable credits, Randolph
dumped all acquired funding into Mr. Hilden’s bank account before transferring
the credits into his own Switzerland account. After this, he remembered Mr.
Hilden’s company ties, and ignoring Jill’s impatience, her eyes imploring him
to finish up, he broke into the company’s accounts and payrolls, dumping all
funding into Mr. Hilden’s bank account before rerouting to his own. Then only
after leaving an electrical foot print in the accounts did Randolph refinance
the building to its absolute maximum.

As for anything else possible, it would
have to await another time, for when he glanced up at Jill, he saw her glaring
at him to move it, or she was going to beat the shit out of him.

Acknowledging her need to leave, Randolph
eliminated any foot prints of his own work and with Jill’s help, rearranged the
room to appear as if Mr. Hilden had an argument with his staff.

The ruse, of course, would fool no one, but
as the over taxed courts liked things simple, he would aid them to follow the
simple assumption.

Randolph then gathered up all chips and
disks, dumped all in his bag, and pulled out his homemade DNA scrambler. Activating
the timer while Jill reinserted herself back into her restricting clothing by
force of will, he drew up his own remaining clothing and steered Jill to the
security room. After disabling all active measures and eliminating all video
feeds and sound files of their night’s work, he made certain no one was about
watching the place at five in the morning. Gaining the front porch, and
gathering up Jill’s little deterrents, they both heard Randolph’s little toys
go off throughout the home. Only then did the couple walk out the front gate,
arm in arm, across the street and right on through the park, looking very much
like any other loving couple out for an early morning stroll.

Upon clearing the city limits two hours
later, driving a brand-new
Arjentay
air-car, the
latest model with all luxuries included, Randolph had to smile, picturing Mr.
Hilden’s face when told by the hospital he held no insurance to cover the cost
of reattaching his arms.

Still smiling with the knowledge he now
held all the names of the people who screwed him and his brother, he remove his
eyes from the road momentarily to admire how lovely Jill looked in the brand
new dress she’d purchased while he paid for the car.

Jill saw him looking and smiled as well,
but shortly became serious. “So how do we rescind the orders to have us
killed?”

“That’ll be handled on its own when the
stock market opens in a few minutes.” When Jill’s face bore puzzlement, which
was only natural for one uninformed with the financial world, Randolph went on
to explain, “All the dealing I preformed a few hours ago will be tallied up in
the accounting firms precisely at 8:00 a.m. when the markets open. You see,
although all corporations work 24 hours a day, there’s a down time between 3:00
a.m. and 6:00 a.m. every morning so all financial programs can tally up the
day’s activities for tax purposes. It was during this window of opportunity I
sold off and hocked everything Mr. Hilden owns. Thus the programming will
automatically tally all the activity to post on yesterday’s board, this morning
at 8:00 a.m.”

“So how does that stop an assassin if he’s
already taken the job?”

A
rather pertinent question unless you have knowledge of the beast,
Randolph
reminded himself before answering her. “If the man’s a pro, he’ll check the
stock market at eight to make certain Mr. Hilden can pay the fee. If he’s not,
there’s nothing I can do about it, save to say I tried.” As Jill mulled this
news over, Randolph decided it was time she remedied his concern of her antics
back in Mr. Hilden’s home. But being tactful, he asked her in a mild but
curious tone, “Jill, I’m still puzzled over what happened to you in Mr.
Hilden’s home and why you let your other self out at such a time?”

Jill looked sideways at him as if debating
whether to tell him or not, but after only a moment of silence, she said, “That
jerk was right about those pheromones he used, and it hitting the black
market.” She bit her lip, as though remembering something awful. But then she
took a deep breath and confided in him. “I was a sophomore in school when some
rich joker put several bottles of that concoction in the air circulation unit
one hot and rainy day. It wasn’t till the trial I learned he was horny as hell
for his history teacher and hoped it would make her horny enough to screw him.
It also came out that he hadn’t been given instructions on how much to use and
had done no research into whether the unit moved air throughout the school.”

“You don’t mean?” Randolph asked in shock.

“Yep.
Within a half
hour, three thousand girls along with one hundred and sixty-two women teachers
and supporting members were affected. And the closer they were to the
originating source, the worse it was for both sexes.”

“I take it you were in school that day?”

“I was in the same damn room as the teacher
he wanted to screw,” Jill admitted with remembered feelings, turning her head
away, too embarrass to face Randolph while she bitterly recalled the event. “At
that time,
me
and my other self were still working out
our personalities, and as there was two of us within one skull feeling the
effects, it took twice as much sex to alleviate the fire.”

Jill sat awhile without talking, her
shoulders shaking as if she were silently crying.

Believing it might help her to heal, Randolph
prompted her gently, “And this happened all over the school?”

Jill glanced his way after wiping her eyes
then busied her hands by brushing out her dress. “In verifying degrees, of
course; there was hardly a boy or girl not affected in some way.” Jill paused
yet again and seemed to debate on continuing her tale that would reopen the old
wound further, but then confessed, “Randolph, when you guessed I’d gone to see
my family, I really went to see my daughter.”

Randolph turned to look at her with an
Oh?
He wished he could have gathered her
into his arms, but his mind and hands were needed to guide their air-car
through the highway of daily commuters. Still, Randolph wanted to show her some
support by words if nothing else, but before he could, Jill went on.

“It was for my daughter that I joined the
corps. You see, Mother and I were on the poor side after Daddy ran off with his
busty secretary. And not having the credits for an abortion, it was the only
thing I could do to lower my mother’s financial burdens for any hospital bills
accrued in my birthing her.”

“But, but surely the courts made the
prankster’s parents pay for all medical bills? After all, you did say he was
rich.”

“No, I said his parents were rich. Once the
lawsuits started piling up in the courts, his parents disowned him, only
spending enough credits on a high class lawyer to get him out of serving time,
which the slick-talking bastard did,” Jill said hotly.

Randolph heard the words law suits with a
capital S. Sensing where this was going, he still asked the obvious. “You
weren’t the only one hurt…”

“Seventeen girls, one teacher and two boys
committed suicide,” Jill began, reciting the numbers as if it happened
yesterday. “Two hundred and sixty-three girls, twenty-five teachers, six supporting
faculty members and twenty-two boys were institutionalized, of which seventeen
will never leave. Two hundred and five girls, twelve teachers and supporting
members tested pregnant, along with a thousand or so miscellaneous medical
bills for injuries and psychiatric treatments.”

As the traffic thinned enough for Randolph
to pull over, he pulled to the side and gathered Jill into his arms while her
tears ran unashamed down her cheeks. After some minutes of her body heaving
with pent-up emotions, Jill regained some control and pushed from Randolph’s
comforting embrace.

“My mother and daughter think I’m dead.”
Jill sniffed, with eyes downcast. “And as much as I want to hold Miranda in my
arms, and ask for my mother’s forgiveness, I know I could never do so without
causing
them
both any more pain.”

“Well, once I sort out some of these chips
and disks, I’m sure we’ll have enough for Senator Sterling to proceed on his
promise of clearing your name.”

Jill allowed a small smile to touch her
lips, which seemed to slow her tears.

When it appeared she was in better control
of herself, Randolph gave her a hug before shifting to get them back into the
flow of traffic, and on their way.

“Randolph, as this unemployed prankster
pays no money to anyone as the courts directed, and his parents pick up all his
bills, keeping him in the luxury he was born into, do you think you could
persuade them into making some amends for his deed?”

Randolph smiled, then chuckled, and gave
her one more reassuring hug before moving out onto the road, promising, “My
love, it would give me the greatest of pleasures to redirect all his parents’
holding and liquid revenue into his name, so the court’s can seize and disperse
all credits obtained to all victims named in this deviants sexual adventures.”

Upon hearing her lover’s commitment to
force this well-to-do family into making restitution to those whose lives had
been forever changed by their pampered son, Jill leaned in and kissed
Randolph’s cheek before she snuggled up as close as the vehicle would allow.
But before she allowed exhaustion to carry her away into the land of dreams,
she curled her lips into a content smile, knowing full well her lovely paranoid
thief was even now involved in running down the list of normal items they would
both need for this new collaboration.

END