Malice Aforethought

Chapter 16
A Dish Best Served Cold

The afternoon traffic on the M2 was heavy for a Saturday, so Elly diverted off onto the surface streets, working her way to the airport. Her newest ‘client’ had phoned her an hour ago after arriving in from London. She could hardly wait to get Daniel back to the house so her boys could have a new playmate. They were very lonely after not having anyone to share their fun with for days. She’d thought about bringing them along for the ride but she knew that was a bad idea. It was usually best to get clients back to the house, behind the locked gate, before revealing her little family.

She was crossing through the relatively quiet suburb of Edenvale when the car in front of her decided to be extra cautious and stopped for a yellow light that they could have both made it through easily. Ugh, drivers like that frustrated her to no end. And worst of all, the sudden stop had left her no room to manoeuver. She hated being trapped like this with all the vendors who hung out at intersections hawking their wears to the stopped motorists.

As she waited for the robot to turn green something odd happened. The reverse lights on the car in front of her lit up. And a second later it roared backwards. Elly had only enough time to scream “Shit!” before it slammed into her front side, bending the fender and crushing the grill instantly. Focussed on the car in front of her Elly barely noticed the movement to her right as a man who’d been hawking umbrellas dropped his merchandise and stepped towards her door. When Elly looked over he was already in mid-swing and she could just make out the spark-plug in his hand, its porcelain tip sharpened into the perfect instrument to smash reinforced glass, before she realised with stomach-churning horror that this was no accident.

Ramming the clutch down Elly slammed the gear shift back and towards herself, throwing the car into reverse just as her window shattered with a deafening bang, showering her with glass. Her assailant leant in the shattered window, grabbing not for her handbag or smartphone, but for the keys in the ignition. Luckily Elly was already flooring the gas at that moment, rocketing the car backwards until it crashed into the car behind her with a terrific jolt that flung the man out of the window and onto the pavement. But Elly didn’t let off the gas. She kept the peddle to the floor, forcing the car to continue reversing, smoke pouring from the spinning tyres as she pushed the car behind her back into the one behind it. That finally stopped them both.

Her assailant was climbing back to his feet slowly, dazed and bleeding from gash on his cheek. He looked pissed and his eyes focussed on Elly as her car jolted to a stop. She rammed the gear shift back to first and punched the gas again. Nothing happened. Her wheels spun but the car didn’t move. It was impaled on the car behind her. The man was standing again and reaching into his waistband. There was no time left. Punching the seatbelt release with her left hand Elly reached into her own waistband with her right, feeling the cold grip of her Glock. She threw open the door and stepped out onto the street. She could see the gun in his hand now, a semi-automatic like her own. She didn’t wait for him to point it at her. She drew hers, hoping the violent shaking in her limbs wouldn’t ruin her aim. This was what all those hours at the range had been leading up to, what she’d always dreaded but nevertheless prepared for.

He saw that she was armed too and there was an instant of surprise on his cold face before he began to raise his weapon. She didn’t give him the chance. The recoil was familiar, but the sound was not. Firing at a range, always with two layers of ear protection, was a lot different to the piercing, high-pitched snap of gun shots in the real world.

He fired too, she could see the flash of his muzzle, hear the whine of bullets passing nearby. But he missed. She didn’t. The man crumpled to the ground like a sack of potatoes. She breathed again, for the first time since she opened the door. She breathed and tried not to collapse herself, as her legs shook violently and she felt like she might vomit, her ears aching and ringing like she’d been front row at a rock concert. And then the passenger door of the car in front of her popped open. The car that had intentionally hit her. She’d forgotten for a brief second about that car, focussed as she was on the man with the gun. Now she saw a man emerging from it, a man who was wearing a ski mask.

Elly knew then that this was about more than stealing her handbag or even her car. This was no smash and grab, no trick of fate. She wasn’t in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were here for her. She knew that even before she saw the distinctive and instantly recognisable barrel of the AK-47 assault rifle appear around the back of the car.

Dropping to her knees Elly scurried backwards just as the gunman opened fire. Bullets snapped through the windscreen of her disabled car, ricocheted off the metal bonnet and roof, wined through the air just over her head. The staccato of automatic rifle fire was not an unfamiliar sound in this city, but it was much closer than she’d ever heard it before. And it was terrifyingly loud.

Elly made her way down the line of stopped cars as quickly as she could. Reaching the last car in the line she raised herself high enough to look inside, pointing the barrel of her gun at the cowering driver and ordering, “Get the fuck out! Now!”

The man opened the door, pleading with her not to shoot. She shoved him aside and climbed in the car just as the man in the mask rounded the front of her minivan. Gun still in hand she let off a couple un-aimed rounds in his general direction, forcing him to duck while she got the car into reverse and punched it backwards and to the left, using the row of cars to temporarily block his line of fire. She knew it could only last a couple seconds, but it was long enough to spin the car around the other direction and get it into first. The sound of gunfire was slightly more distant, but the snaps and cracks of bullets hitting the body of her stolen car let her know the danger was far from over.

Elly ducked as low as she could in the car until she was several hundred metres down the road. Finally she sat up enough to check the mirrors. The gunman was gone and the car didn’t seem to be following her, at least not yet. Of course that didn’t solve the problem that someone was now out to get her, she’d shot a man already and was now driving a stolen car that she’d hijacked at gunpoint. These were all very serious problems but before she could deal with any of them she needed to get home and get the boys and all of her money out of there. And it was as she thought about her secret safe, racing across the Linksfield Rd intersection, that she caught a flash of movement to her left. She saw the grill and lights of the SUV an instant before the passenger side window turned to smithereens and the door caved in with explosive force. Clinging desperately to the steering wheel Elly could feel the car rolling over and knew she was just along for the ride now. The roof hit the pavement with an awful metallic thud and Elly’s world went black.

**

There were people around her when she began to return to her senses. She could make out blurred faces looking down at her. There was a loud drilling sound very nearby and someone was covering her with a heavy blanket. Her eyes stung but she managed to wipe them, feeling clearer by the second. She tried to look to her right but found herself immobilized but a stiff collar around her neck. Her head was pounding, her ears still ringing and she felt nauseas, but somehow she was alive.

“It’s okay miss, just hold still,” a man in a uniform ordered her.

“What’s happening?” she asked, glad to find her voice.

“You were in an accident. An SUV ran the red light and broadsided your car. We’re cutting your door open now so we can get you out. It will only be a minute now.”

Elly did a quick inventory of her body. She was sore in a number of places, but there was no acute pain anywhere. She wiggled her toes and found them intact so she wasn’t paralysed at least. The roof of the car was only a couple inches above her forehead and it was completely caved in on the passenger side. For that matter the passenger seat had been twisted ninety degrees onto its side and was pressed against her. It dawned on her just how lucky she was to be in one piece. But now she was in even deeper trouble. They’d realise her car was stolen very soon, and if they hadn’t already found her gun, they would any minute and then they’d start to connect her to the shooting that had happened only blocks away. Her money and her boys were back at home and she had no way to get to them before Jonathan’s guys did. It was all a fucking mess.

“There we go!” a male voice yelled as the drilling noise cut out. Three men then wrenched her door open and paramedics got her onto a backboard and then a stretcher. She told them she didn’t think she was hurt badly and tried to explain her need to get home urgently but no one was listening. Before she even knew it she was in an ambulance, sirens blaring, on the way to hospital.

“Please, I’m not hurt that badly,” she continued to plead, now to the young paramedic sitting in the back of the ambulance with her.

“Just stay calm miss, you’ve been through a lot,” he urged.

Elly stopped complaining. There was something odd about the man’s accent, something foreign but familiar. “What did you say?” she asked.

“I said you need to relax now Elly. You’re perfectly safe here with us.”

Elly swallowed hard. She knew the accent now. It was Kiwi. And the voice was all too familiar as well. Slipping off his hat the paramedic leant over her so she could finally look into Aiden’s smiling face. “Hi there Elly, nice to see you again. I’m afraid you made this much harder than it had to be. We had no idea you were armed of course.”

“Jesus Christ! How… how are you…”

“There wasn’t supposed to be any shooting, but you can’t really be surprised that Jonathan’s men reacted that way to you shooting one of their own,” he continued, ignoring her babbling.

“Jonathan?” she gasped.

“Oh yes, I know him too now. Brutal son of a bitch ain’t he? Don’t worry though, his part in this is done now.”

“You’re adult again!” she finally blurted out.

Aiden had a good laugh at her expense then said, “Yes, I certainly am. In fact I was already back to my old self before you dropped me off at that hell-hole in Hillbrow.”

“That’s impossible! You gave in, you were gone. I tested you a dozen times. I’ve never failed to take a man back to toddlerhood,” Elly insisted.

But Aiden was just shaking his head. “The only reason you thought you succeeded was because I let you take me down. You know the reason I let you take away my adult mind? It was because for a moment, just a moment, I actually trusted you and thought you would care for me the same way you did Eric. And it took you what, a few days to betray that trust? Just like you’ve done to so many other young men who’ve been foolish enough to fall for you as a girlfriend or a mummy. Well I’m afraid your days of messing with peoples’ minds are over now.”

Elly wanted to shake her head, but the neck brace wouldn’t allow it. Tears streaked down her cheeks nonetheless. “I… I never meant…”

Aiden shook his head. “Save your crocodile tears Elly. I know you’re crying for yourself, not for your many crimes. But on the upside at least all that is in your past now. You’ve been replaced… by me.”

“Wha… what?!”

And now he wore a smile as sinister as any she’d seen. “That’s right sweetie. You see I have the advantage of being able to work on both boys and girls. And since you were helpful enough to upload your programme to my iPhone and thus to my cloud, I now have the means of regressing them as well. So thanks for that. I have to say it’s a hell of a programme. Klerk had never seen anything like it either, and that’s a man who knows his brainwashing. He said it was something that had to be developed by a government. Very sophisticated stuff, well beyond your run of the mill hypnosis to say the least. I can see why you were able to command such a high price. But as I said, those days are over.”

“This isn’t fair!” she pleaded, struggling against the restraints. The news that her secret weapon was now in hostile hands was a real blow. That was her insurance policy and now that it was gone Elly knew she had nothing left to bargain with. “My boys still need me!” she pleaded desperately, out of good options.

“Your boys? You mean the lucky two who got to have all your love and attention while you caste the rest of us off?” Aiden demanded with anger in his voice. “You think I give a shit about them?”

“Eric was your friend Aiden,” Elly reasoned. “Don’t you care about what happens to him?”

Aiden’s face softened and he nodded. “You’re right, I cared about Eric, I really did. But betrayal takes a man to places he never imagined he could go.”

“You can’t do this!”

“You have only yourself to blame. It was your suggestions that made me feel such powerful attachment and trust for you. I was willing to accept a life as your devoted little boy, but that was nothing but a lie. And it only makes it worse that you duped so many others the same way. Now Klerk has offered me something even better. How was it you put it? The chance to help people live out their fantasies. And it seems only fair that I start with you Elly.”

“What? No, that’s not my fucking fantasy!” Elly yelled, flopping about on the backboard to no effect.

“Shh, shh. You can’t fool me Elly. I saw how much you enjoyed regressing all those men, regressing me. I saw the look of ecstasy in your eyes as you reduced them to slobbering fools. I know how you felt because I feel it too. And just like me, deep inside you there’s a secret desire to have it done to yourself.”

“No! No!”

“If you can’t be quiet I’ll have to sedate you dear,” Aiden warned, holding up a syringe. As Elly quieted he said, “That’s better. Now don’t be so distressed, this will be a huge relief for you. You’ve got yourself in quite a pickle Elly, with the gangs after you, the police soon to join them of course. So many things to worry about, it will be an incredible release to have nothing but silly toddler thoughts in your pretty little head.”

Elly was crying again, so Aiden stroked her arm gently. “You have such a beautiful body, such amazing breasts. I mean, I know from personal experience,” he chuckled. “It will be lovely when you feel free to show it off, once you’re my little nakey princess.”

Elly looked wildly about for some kind of escape route, but without being able to free her hands or legs from the stretcher there was nothing at all that she could do. The siren had stopped now as well and she knew they weren’t actually headed for a hospital of course.

“Do you think you’ll enjoy munching on your toes as much as the boys do?” Aiden asked, still giving her that awful grin. “I think you will,” he answered for her, jamming the needle into her arm without warning.

“What the fuck!?” Elly screamed as he pressed down the plunger.

“Don’t worry princess, it’s not actually a sedative, just a powerful paralytic. We can’t have you closing your eyes and missing your special show,” he explained, looking at his watch. “It’s quite fast acting, so we really do need to wrap this little chat up. If you have anything intelligent you want to say while you’ve still got a working mind, now’s the time.”

“You’re no better than me!” Elly roared, her heart pounding with panic and rage.

“I’m sorry?”

“You talk about giving people their fantasy and all that bullshit, but it’s a god damned lie. You get off on seeing people mentally reduced to idiocy, totally dependent on you for everything, stripped of all their independence. You say I betrayed you and all those other men, but what the fuck makes you so morally superior?”

Aiden paused and took in Elly’s accusation. And then he nodded. “You’re absolutely right my dear. I know it’s a lie. We’ve both taken part in a trade that is morally reprehensible and the fact that I was thrust into it rather than seeking it out hardly makes my part in it now any less complicit. But at least in just a few hours you won’t even remember your role in this, your conscience will be clear, you’ll be free. Although I guess that doesn’t really give you much consolation, since I doubt you’ve thought much about what you’ve done anyway. You just thought you were giving us stupid men what we really deserved and I bet you didn’t lose a wink of sleep over any of it.”

Elly tried to respond but her voice failed her and she found her lips had gone numb. Aiden watched her losing battle for a moment, waiting as the drug took full effect, leaving Elly helplessly staring up at the ceiling.

Seeing that she was ready, Aiden leant over the paralysed woman so she could see him well. “I guess there is one big difference between you and I Elly,” he said. “You can call me a liar, but at least I don’t lie to myself. Thanks to you I know who I really am now,” he explained quietly. Then he leant so close she could feel his breath on the side of her face as he whispered, “I’m the bad guy.”

And with that Aiden flicked a button on the remote hidden in his pocket and the whole ceiling of the ambulance was lit with swirling colours.