Liquid fear

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Doc’s turned all his monkeys loose.

Kleingarten had seen the security system in Briggs’s office, and he knew some of the cameras were infrared and thermal imaging. It hadn’t taken long to put two and two together when Briggs had explained the “lights-out” trick.

But damned if Kleingarten was going to wait by the door until it was over.

It was a little dangerous moving around all that shop junk in the dark, but he was reluctant to use the penlight on his keychain. The entire factory could be viewed via the monitors, but Kleingarten had cased them enough to know that if he clung to the left side of the main corridor, Briggs couldn’t see him until he reached the end.

That’s assuming he ain’t busy eating Chinese.

If the Slant was the only reason for the horror show, Kleingarten could have saved Briggs the trouble. He could have picked her up right after the car crashed into the coffee shop, whisked her away while she was confused, and delivered her right to Briggs’s little torture chamber. Or even nabbed her before all the noise.

But something bigger was going on than just a Looney Tunes genius playing games, and Kleingarten wanted a piece of it. Once he figured out what it was, he’d turn the tables on Briggs, gallop in like the cavalry, and rescue the senator.

Sure, he’d have to explain why he’d pretended to side with Briggs, but there was enough clusterfucking monkey business going on to keep everybody confused for the rest of their lives.

He came to the end of the corridor-he’d counted the steps ahead of time, right after Briggs had told him the plan-and debated whether he should sneak or just make a run for it. About twenty-seven steps to the right would put him on the fourth and final row, and Briggs’s office was about thirty more steps. He squinted between the arms of some sort of metal drill press and observed a faint greenish glow.

So Briggs is watching him some TV.

Something heavy, what sounded like a stack of harrow disks, collapsed and fell in the middle of the factory, slamming to the floor. A man shouted in pain.

Sounds like Roland Doyle. After what he did to that woman in Cincinnati, he deserves a little punishment.

Wait. Wasn’t that David Underwood who did the killing?

Aw, fuck it, Briggs must be scrambling my skull, too. Except I’m too smart for that.

Kleingarten took advantage of the distraction, knowing Briggs would check the commotion on the monitors. He crouched and hustled, his Glock in his hand. Though he believed he was the only one armed, the night had already been full of surprises, so he was ready for anything.

He hadn’t had this much fun since he’d murdered the porn star’s shrink.

Briggs’s cage was ahead, and in the glow he made out the two forms. He didn’t have to worry about Briggs seeing him on the monitors now, because the doc was busy pulling the pants off the woman in the chair.

Kleingarten wasn’t one for peep shows, and he definitely didn’t want to see the doctor’s naked ass when he got down to business, but Kleingarten needed to see where the cameras were focused. The cage door was closed and a thick lock held it in place, and the security system controls were inside. Nobody was getting in or out of the Monkey House unless Briggs said so.

The Slant was staring ahead, eyes like marbles, though her fingernails dug into the arms of the leather chair. In the radiance of the monitors, she was blue-green instead of brown mustard.

She was already naked from the waist up, and her breasts looked like they had tiny bite marks on them, though it was hard to see in the bad light. Briggs was breathing heavily, and Kleingarten noticed some sort of harness on his head, reared back so the lenses were pointed up.

Night vision. Why the hell didn’t I think of that? Must be slipping in my old age. Yep, definitely time to retire.

As he edged closer, the doc flung the woman’s pants to the side and stroked the insides of her thighs. “Just like old times,” Briggs said, his voice husky.

And that’s when Kleingarten saw what was playing on the main monitor.

The scene was of the same factory, but it wasn’t dark. He recognized Roland, Alexis, and Wendy, though they were clearly younger, leaner, and wearing filthy clothes. They were closing in on a naked woman he didn’t recognize. She looked eighteen, chubby but short, maybe a hundred and ten pounds soaking wet.

And she was plenty wet. Even in black and white, Kleingarten could tell it was blood.

The chubby teen turned and tried to climb up an empty tool tree that resembled a pegboard, but her own blood caused her to slip. Roland was the first to grab her, but Wendy was right there. The camera zoomed out, and Anita stood to the side, naked and also damp with blood, her hand stroking between her legs as she watched. Wendy yanked the girl by the hair until she turned to face her attackers.

“This is why I’ve always loved you,” Briggs murmured as he licked Wendy’s legs. “A woman who can do something like that, she deserves a little scientific observation.”

Kleingarten was sickened. He’d killed people, sure, but that was for money. Most of the time, anyway. To do shit like this just to get some jollies…

But he couldn’t look away, as on the screen the younger versions of the Briggs monkeys grabbed the bleeding woman, Roland on one side and Wendy on the other. And as gorgeously perverted as Anita was, it was the woman approaching the victim that sent a chill up Kleingarten’s spine.

Dr. Alexis Morgan, the suave, polished, educated big shot, grinned as she stood over the cowering teen. Her lips moved, obviously giving a little lecture, probably some horseshit learned from Briggs. The eyes of the three were wide, bright, and crazed, like that picture of Charles Manson where the swastika was carved in his forehead.

Alexis held a thick and pointed piece of machinery in her hand, and something dark dripped from it.

She lifted it as the teen struggled, but Roland and Wendy held the girl tight. Roland punched the girl in the kidney and the fight seemed to go out of her.

Kleingarten thought a soundtrack must have come on, because he heard the victim moaning, and then he realized it was the Slant. Briggs was doing something to her, and she loved it, because she was watching the screen and purring like a hooker on the clock.

Jesus. This Seethe is some powerful shit. Fucks you seven ways to Sunday without a rubber.

As Alexis jabbed the piece of broken metal at the teen, a blur of movement came from the left side of the screen and slammed into her, causing her to drop the weapon. Alexis and the man wrestled, and then Kleingarten recognized him as the albino monkey, David Underwood, only he was a hundred years older now.

It sounded like the Slant was having an orgasm inside the cage, and Kleingarten had had enough. He aimed his Glock between the bars at the top of Briggs’s head.

Fuck. If I kill him, I won’t be able to get out, and I don’t know where he’s keeping all his joy juice.

On the screen, Anita wallowed on top of David, laughing, and Alexis had retrieved her jagged weapon. This time the chubby teen just closed her eyes.

Everybody onscreen looked as happy as sharks at a seafood buffet, except the person about to get killed.

“Party’s over, Doc,” Kleingarten said.