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The War on Drugs: Business Before Pleasure: Chapter Five (Explicit Ending)

Note: this Chapter of "Business Before Pleasure" contains explicit sexual material and is for mature audiences only.

Chapter Five

October 25th, 7:00 PM

Erin spun around the room, her ponytail whipping through the air, her arms flailing from her sides.  Loud noises surrounded her, and she brought her own voice up into the din, shouting out loud, trying to hear herself.  She stepped with bare feet onto one of her recently removed boots, tripped over it, fell into a table, but prevented herself from falling to the ground by placing wobbling, blurry hands on the back of a chair.

She laughed.  She was drunk.  And she was dancing.

The music was so loud that it completely masked the first knock at her door.  The second knock was louder, but still well within the background, and Erin only turned her head slightly, thinking it was coming from across the hallway.  The harsh series of rat-tat-tats that followed cleared up the confusion, and Erin pushed on the touchscreen of her tablet to turn off the music.

"I'm a popular girl tonight," she giggled, stepping toward the front door.  She leaned her face down toward the crack.  "Who is it?" she said, in a high-pitched voice.

There was no answer.

"Anyone there?" she asked, peering through the peephole.  The hallway was empty.  Or so it seemed.

Erin set her ear against the door, trying to listen to the other side.  She heard no voices; just a small scraping sound.

"Too drunk for this shit," she muttered, opening the door slightly and sticking her head out the door.  "You can come out now!" she yelled.

She felt cold steel against her left temple.  The night's euphoria immediately withered away as she  heard a familiar voice.

"Back into your apartment, Miss Steele."

Erin wandered backward slowly, pulling her head back through her front door, and raising her arms as she settled into her apartment.  Following her, a pistol aiming at her chest, was Brent Hammerson.

"You again, huh?  Didn't you learn your lesson?" Erin said, vaguely slurring her words.

"I never learn," Hammerson smiled.  "Now don't fucking move."  He shut Erin's front door behind him and, with the gun still pointed at her chest, quickly turned the lock.

That was the time, Erin thought a second later.  His back was turned.  She could've-- should've-- been on him right then.  But the red wine had slowed her reaction time and apparently clouded her judgment.  "Shit," she thought.  "This could be bad."

Hammerson gestured with the gun.  "Into the main room," he said.  "Slowly."

Erin did what she was told, her arms bent at right angles, her hands in the air.  She faced Hammerson, glared at him, trying to think of what to say next.  Her thoughts kept going astray.  She was feeling now the coldness of the wood floor on her bare feet.  She was seeing now the overhead light, how it seemed to swing in a wavy, hazy pattern.

"Hammerson, leave," she said.  And then she decided to admit it: "I'm drunk."

Hammerson grinned.  "Yes, I can see that, Miss Steele.  Normally I don't like taking advantage of drunk girls.  But in your case, I'll make an exception."

Erin frowned.  "Taking advantage?"

Hammerson nodded, and made a show of cocking the pistol.  "Now strip."

Erin was afraid it was going to go this way.  "No," she said.

Hammerson sighed.  He took a hand of the pistol and ran its fingers through his slicked-back hair.  "Come on, babe," he said.  "I don't want to kill you.  But I'll do it.  I've done it before to girls who haven't given me what I've wanted."

Erin didn't know whether to believe him.  On one hand, he was a ruthless drug lord; Erin had seen the drug houses, the goons he hired, the cruelty of the whole enterprise.  On the other, he was kind of shrimpy-- he didn't seem capable of murder, not with his own hands.  He was too attractive to be a killer, anyway...

"Don't think that," thought Erin.  "Stop thinking about him that way."

"Just consider it a second date," Hammerson said, smiling.  "Now.  Strip."

Erin stared at him.  She drew in a deep breath and exhaled.  

Red wine.  A stranger in her apartment.  A gun trained on her chest.  Had she been on a mission as the Blue Lynx, this would have all added up to disaster.  But she was not the Blue Lynx now.  She was Erin Steele, a young woman looking for good times on a lonely evening.  There was no reason why this couldn't all be... Fun.  Right?

"No," she told herself.  "How can you think that?"  Hammerson wasn't here for "good times."  He was here to force her into sex.  He was here with a gun pointed at her, and who cares how hot he is, she thought: he's a scoundrel, a villain, your arch-nemesis.

Erin had to get at his gun.  But at this point, she realized, that would mean playing along.

She pulled her purple V-neck sweater out from her pants.  "Fine," she muttered.

"Stop!" Hammerson yelled.

Erin dropped her hands from her top's lower edge.  "What?"

"Do your ponytail first."

"What?"

"Do it!"

Erin sighed.  She reached her hands up behind her head, pulled out the hair tie, and shook her long black locks loose.  Her hair fell in silky waves along her face and neck.

"That's better," Hammerson said.  "Now your pants."

Erin eyed him, scowling.  His arm seemed to grow more rigid as it pointed toward her lower half.  She undid the button on her black jeans and pulled the flaps open so that the zipper came down.  She eased her pants off of her butt and tugged them down her thighs, pushing them to her ankles.  She stepped out of one pant leg and then shook off the other.

She looked back up at Hammerson.  His jaw had slackened, his eyes had one thing in mind.  The purple sweater came down far, but it didn't hide the crotch of her black panties.

"Now the sweater," Hammerson said, agog.

Erin brought her hands back to the lower edge of her purple V-neck and started to pull it up.  She knew that Hammerson was looking every step of the way, that he saw the lacy, wispy wings of her panties wrapped tight around her hips, saw the little pink bow on the front of the panties, saw her perfect stomach with its delicate bellybutton, her bra that matched her panties in color and style, her well-formed breasts laying in wait behind that small strip of wire and fabric...

She knew that she was hypnotizing him.  It was time to make a move.

She pushed her sweater up past her head, felt the neck-hole brush her hair up against her face.  She gathered the purple fabric into a soft bundle, stretching her arms up and over her head.  And then, with a small wink and a grin, Erin hurled the sweater at Hammerson.

It hit him in the face, but it obviously didn't hurt him.  What did hurt was Erin's elbow suddenly striking him in chest.  It sent him spinning around, the gun turning with him but not firing.

"ARGH!" Hammerson yelled, throwing the sweater from his face.  Erin kicked him in the ankle and he dropped to one knee.  Erin threw her hands at Hammerson's body, shoving him to the floor near her couch and coffee table.

He still had the gun.  She had to get the gun!

Erin jumped on top of Hammerson, pushing his hands away from her face, reaching for his gun arm, trying to pin it to the ground.  "Give me that!" she said.  She could feel the roughness of his wool suit against her bare thighs and bare stomach.  She caught the hand that held the gun, tried twisting in around.  Hammerson roared, stretched his arms and legs, seemed to be looking for something.  Erin focused on the gun.  She could see Hammerson's fingers seem to loosen their grip.

And then she heard a crash and, simultaneously, felt a crack on her neck.  The wine glass exploded against her skin, leaving just a sharpened stem in Hammerson's fingers.  "Oooh," Erin moaned, her arms suddenly weakening.  She felt lightheaded, and then, a second later, fell face first onto Hammerson's body.  She was unconscious.

****

She had a headache.  That was the first thing she knew.  Something about drinking.  Something about fighting.  Something about being struck at the base of her skull by... A wine glass?

"Ooh," she muttered.

She was cold.  Not freezing, but chilled.  She could look down and see her body, naked except for her bra and panties.  She could see a faint glimmer near her feet, metallic rings that made her feel even colder around her ankles and wrists.

"Oh shit," she thought.

Erin laid on top of her queen-sized bed.  It was still made, and the soft plush touch of her burgundy comforter (she had a thing for burgundy) caressed her bare back and legs.  Her head rested on a matching pillow, her thick black locks of hair spread out around her.  The light in the room, her bedroom, was dim, with just a single standing lamp in the corner providing a view of the scene.  It all would have been comfortable except for the metal handcuffs that shackled her wrists and ankles to the bedposts, rendering her spreadeagle.

Erin shook at the cuffs.  The chains rattled, but the shackles seemed sturdy.  She brought her body up from the mattress and pulled.  "Ungh!" she cried, forcing her body away from the bedposts.  She thought she heard a creak, the bedpost starting to splinter, but she couldn't turn her head around to see if anything was happening.  Her head began to pound with her effort, and she eventually fell back into the comforter, sighing.

"Shoot," she thought.  "This is bad."

The bedroom door opened, and Hammerson strolled in, smiling in a way that Erin had never seen before.

"Hammerson!" Erin cried.  "Let me go!"

Hammerson shook his head and sat down on the bed near Erin's ankles.  He drummed his fingers along Erin's lower leg, his smile locked in place.  He hadn't made a sound since he walked into the room.

"Hammerson!" Erin said.  "What's the meaning of this?"

Hammerson's gaze left Erin's legs and fell on her face.  He placed his hands on Erin's thighs and began rubbing them, up and down, massaging in slow and steady motion.  Erin squirmed as his hands moved closer to her panties with each repetition.

Erin scowled.  "Hammerson, don't."

Still silent, and still grinning, Hammerson rested a single soft hand on Erin's crotch.  Erin inhaled sharply.  Her body tensed up.  Thoughts ran wild in her sore, still drunk head.  And then, Hammerson spoke.

"I got you."

Erin's breathing rate had increased.  She felt the tips of Hammerson's fingers resting near the pink bow of her panties.  They weren't churning or rubbing or moving at all.  They were just waiting.  She stared at his hand, and then at Hammerson's face, which seemed to be on the edge of laughing hysterically.  His eyes were shining in the dim room, glittering with some sort of cruel understanding.  "Why?" she thought.  "Why is he acting so strange?"

And then it hit her, struck her harder than an exploding wine glass.  She knew.  She knew that he knew.  And she knew what was coming next.  She closed her eyes as if preparing from impact.

"I got you... BLUE LYNX."

Erin shuddered.  Hammerson laughed.

Her immediate reaction was to hide her face.  She flung her head around, trying to kick locks of hair up and over her eyes.  But nothing stuck, and Erin finally plopped her head deep into the pillow, staring at the wall, a look of desperation forming in her eyes.

"Don't cry, my little pussy," Hammerson giggled, his hand still curiously still atop her crotch.  "You had to know this was going to happen someday."

Erin turned her eyes back on Hammerson.  "You have... No proof," she stammered.

Hammerson sighed.  "So that blue leotard hanging in your closet, the one I found while I was looking for something sexier to slip you into?  That's just, for what, cosplay?"

Erin shook her head.  "I..."

"And those boots," Hammerson said, "And that utility belt on the floor near the leotard.  That belt with all those weapons in it.  Those weapons are just fake... That's what your saying?"

Erin couldn't speak, couldn't move.  So Hammerson smiled and continued.

"And this," he said, removing Blue Lynx's mask from his pocket, and setting it delicately on Erin's face.  "That's just another coincidence, I guess."

Erin tried to shake the mask from her face, but the blue fabric seemed to cling like velcro to her flushed, clammy skin.  It was hopeless, and she knew it.  There was no coming back from this.  Hammerson knew who Erin Steele was, and knew who the Blue Lynx was: and now he knew that the two were one in the same.

Hammerson admired Erin, clad only in her underwear and Blue Lynx's mask.  He hadn't stopped smiling, and his free hand remained motionless on her crotch.

"Face it, Erin Steele," he said, "I know your secret.  Your life of fighting crime is over.  You'll be lucky if I don't put you in jail over this."

He was right.  It was all so horribly true.  She was putty in his hands now.  The Blue Lynx had been domesticated, been reduced to a lapcat.  She could go to jail.  They would believe Hammerson, he had power...

But why wouldn't they believe her?  "I'm Mayor Steele's daughter," Erin thought.  "I'm not done yet."

She smiled at Hammerson.  "Alright, you've got me," she said, a cheeky tone entering her voice.  "But I've got you, too."

Hammerson's smile twitched, and Erin felt a tap on her crotch.

"You know who I am, sure," Erin said.  "But I know that you're a drug lord.  You're the cause of all of the city's drug problems.  I have photographic proof.  And I now also have a story of you cuffing the mayor's daughter to her bed."

Hammerson removed his hand, brought his fingers nervously through his hair.  "What?" he said.

"You want to blackmail me, fine," Erin said.  "Just remember, playing nice isn't my style, either."

Hammerson placed his hands on the bedspread.  He looked away from Erin.  His smile was now a frown, and his once-arrogant silence was now the hush of a man in panic.

"How about this," Erin said.  "You keep my secret, and I'll keep yours."

Hammerson looked at her.  His expression was blank.

Erin waited for a response.  "I have him," she thought.  "He's thinking about it."  Hammerson really did have more to lose than she did.  She was, after all, the mayor's daughter.  It wouldn't be hard for the press to weave a story about a lost, lonely young woman pushed to insanity during troubled times.  The Blue Lynx would go away, yes.  But Erin Steele would be back.  Whereas Hammerson could have no such recourse.  He wasn't exactly a beloved figure in the community.  And his crimes were terrible, extensive, unforgivable.

"Yes," Erin said.  "This might just work."

And then Hammerson smiled.

"You look positively stunning in that mask," he said, leaning toward Erin.

Erin grimaced.  "Wait, Hammerson," she said.  "Don't you get it?"

Hammerson began removing his suit jacket and unbuttoning his shirt.  He was laughing.

"Oh no," Erin thought, watching Hammerson unbuckle his belt and drop his pants.  She yanked on the handcuffs, bounced her body on the mattress, searching desperately for a weakness in the bed frame.  "Why can't I break free?" she wondered.  She felt the wine in her head, the aches in her neck and body.  And she looked at Hammerson again, who was now looming over her in just his navy boxer briefs, his chiseled body outlined in the shadows of the dim room.  Her body went rigid with fear.

"I don't care," Hammerson said, quietly.  "I don't care what happens to me."

In a flash, Hammerson was back on the bed, crouched on top of Erin, his hands clutching her biceps, his legs straddling her legs, his hot breath wafting into Erin's nose.  He spoke softly and slowly between heavy breaths.

"I only want... To fuck you."

And then he was on her, kissing her neck and upper body, dipping his groin toward her lower body.  Erin gasped as she felt his hot lips on her bare skin.  And then, almost instantly, she felt her muscles slacken, felt her fear dissipate.

She knew it was powerless to resist.  And she realized that she didn't want to resist.

"Yes," she muttered, shutting her eyes and pushing her chest up into Hammerson's face.  Hammerson clawed at her bra, fingered beneath it, eventually moved his hands behind it.  Erin arched her back so that Hammerson could reach her bra clasp.  He fumbled with it, but after a few seconds, Erin felt the release, felt the fabric fall away from her spine.  And she soon felt Hammerson's hands on her breasts, soft hands pushing the bra up and away from her chest.

"Can't get it off," Hammerson said.

Erin placed her lips near Hammerson's ear.  "Uncuff me," she whispered.

"Not yet," Hammerson said softly, shaking his head.  He moved down Erin's body, dragging his fingers along her sides, until his hands rested on the waistband of her panties.  Erin sat up from the pillow to watch him, his head lowered into her crotch, his fingers bunching up the sides of her underwear.  She kept watching as Hammerson tugged the panties down Erin's hips, gliding them down her thighs, and finally letting them stretch across her spread-out knees.

"Uncuff me," Erin pleaded again.

"No," Hammerson said.  He was staring at her pussy, cocking his head slightly.  And then his head was down, stuffed between her thighs, so that Erin could only see the top of his slicked back hair.

And then, Erin felt it.  His tongue.

"Ohhhh," she moaned.

Hammerson was hot and wet against her.  With calm hands, he shoved Erin's panties further down her legs, then moved to embrace her bare buttocks.  He cupped Erin's ass gently and plunged his tongue into her again and again.  She could feel his breath against her sex, hear his low groans as he explored her.  And she was getting so wet.

"Ohhhhh," she moaned.  "Ohhhh... Brent... Brent..."

Hammerson was too occupied to respond.  His tongue was working Erin from the inside, making her body shiver and shake.  Erin pressed her thighs to his ears, held his head firmly between her knees, tried to let him get deeper.  And he did.

The rush of pleasure was almost too much.  Warm waves flowed through Erin's legs and lower body.  "Ohhh," she moaned.  "Ohhh."  She felt herself nearing climax.  "No," she whispered.  "Please, Brent, uncuff me."

Hammerson lifted his head from her pussy, licking his lips.  He set his hands on either side of Erin's legs.  "Alright," he said.  "Just promise me you'll be a good girl."

"I'll be a good girl," Erin whispered.  Her face had turned bright red.  Sweat had plastered locks of hair to her face and neck.

Hammerson smiled and quickly dropped to the floor.  He returned with a small key and immediately began working the cuffs on Erin's ankles.  She watched as the left cuff unlocked, then the right one.  She let her feet rest on the bedspread.  Before moving to the wrist cuffs, Hammerson pulled Erin's panties down her ankles and off her feet.  He let the fabric drop to the floor, then brought his attention to Erin's wrists.

"I'm so wet," Erin cooed, watching Hammerson undo the wrist cuffs.

"I know," Hammerson said.  There was a final CLICK, and Erin's hands were free.

To do what?  Doubt raced into her mind-- fight him, fight him, get him off, get him out-- and almost immediately raced out.  She wanted this, she wanted to succumb.  She needed Hammerson to fuck her, this instant.

"Come on," Erin said, lifting her arms in the air, letting Hammerson pull off her bra.  Seconds later, Hammerson pulled off his boxers.  Erin's mouth gaped as she looked at his erect cock.

"We're naked," she whispered, looking into Hammerson's eyes.

"Not quite," he responded.  He reached up and pulled Blue Lynx's mask off Erin's face.  "You look better without this," he said, flinging the mask against the wall.

"Yes," Erin said.

She pulled Hammerson's face toward hers and kissed him on the lips.  Hammerson was back on her, holding her wrists to the burgundy comforter, his abs driving into her stomach, his hard cock pressing up on her thighs.  He pushed and pushed until she felt him penetrate, and then she was bouncing along the bedspread, letting him drive into her again and again.

"Oh!" Erin cried out.  "Oh! Oh!"

It was so good.  But it hurt, too.

"Let me... on top," Erin said, her voice catching on her breath.

In a fluid, powerful motion, Hammerson traded places with Erin.  She was now straddling him, her bare thighs seeming to shine in the room's dim light, bucking up and down on Hammerson's cock.  She leaned back to let him in further.  His hands were climbing up her torso, coming to rest on her bobbing tits.  He kneaded them together, still thrusting his cock into her, panting.

This was perfect.

Erin reached a hand down to her clit and started rubbing.  She placed one hand behind her butt for balance as she intensified the motion.  She closed her eyes, let her mouth fall open, let her hair fall down her bare back.  "Brent," she moaned.  "Brent..."

"Erin," Hammerson moaned.  "Erin..."

He had moved a hand around to her butt and was gently pinching her left buttock.  His other hand remained on her right breast, squeezing and releasing.  His cock rammed up and into Erin.  She moaned.  She increased the rate of her rubbing.  She was almost there.  Her moans grew more intense.  Hammerson's moans followed suit.  She felt it all over, all over her body, and her "Ohhs" gradually morphed into "Ahhs!," and her self-massaging had become furious, and Hammerson's cock was up in her, and pleasure had enveloped her completely, and she arched her back, and she threw her head back, and cried out, "I'M COMING! I'M COMING!"

"ERIN!"

The voice was startling.  Erin nearly leapt off of Hammerson, diving into the comforter, throwing the sheets up over their two sweaty, naked bodies.  She peered out from the bedspread.

Margot stood in the doorway of the bedroom wearing a black cocktail dress.

"Erin, what the fuck are you DOING?" she said.

Erin was silent.  Hammerson cleared his throat.

"You're Brent Hammerson!" Margot cried.  "Erin, what the fuck?  Erin!"

"Could you leave us alone?" Hammerson said.  "We're in the middle of something."

Margot blinked.  "The middle of something?"

"Listen, babe," Hammerson said.  "I know about the Blue Lynx thing.  So just chill out, okay?"

Margot stared into the bedroom.  She saw their clothes on the floor, saw too Blue Lynx's costume and mask.

"Jesus Erin.  I said 'have fun.'  And I come back here and you're fucking with the enemy."

Erin hadn't made a peep.  She stared at Margot with embarrassed eyes, hiding the lower part of her face and her body beneath the sheets.

"Why don't you get it on this?" Hammerson said.  "Come on, lighten up."

Margot sighed.  "So this is it then, Erin?  This is how the Blue Lynx ends?"

Erin shrugged.

"Fine," Margot said, dropping her dress to her ankles, revealing a skimpy purple thong and nothing else.  "Let's fuck, then."

THE END

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The War on Drugs: Business Before Pleasure: Chapter One

Chapter One

October 27th, 7:32 PM

The factory was dark, dusty, damp.  There were ceiling lamps every ten yards or so but none of them seemed to do much good.  The large men in balaclavas who patrolled the building's mostly empty halls walked in and out of darkness thousands of times every day.  Their footsteps echoed on the concrete floors; that and the creaking and wheezing of a few old machines were the only sounds to be heard at most times of the day.  The place almost seemed haunted: a study in black and white and brown, with a team of identically clad thugs going up and down its paths, the same routine every day, staring straight ahead, but occasionally looking out from the railings on the higher stories to see a vast expanse at the building's center, a darkened rectangle notable for abandoned conveyor belts, moldy boxes, and the small team of people who sat at a round table in low light, sifting and cutting and sorting and working on God knows what.

"What the hell are they doing there anyway?" one of the guards said quietly to himself.  He looked out at the factory, his hands tightly gripping an automatic rifle, and shook his head.

"Don't know why I'd do this if the pay wasn't good," he muttered, with a small, mirthless laugh.

And then, something hit him.  He felt a sharp twinge in the back of his leg, and he fell down on one knee.  Suddenly, two spandex-clad arms were around his neck, pulling it gradually into a kind of sleeper hold.  He dropped the rifle to the floor and tried pulling away the gloved hands of his attacker.  But by the time he had set his fingers on whoever it was, he felt weak.  Seconds later, he slumped to the floor unconscious.

Blue Lynx stood up from the guard and looked at his prone body.  "That's four down," she thought.  "Can't be too many more."

She pulled the guard by his ankles into a nearby room, hiding his body from what little light shone in the factory.  She walked out of the room and shut the door, and then moved to the railing where the guard was standing, looking down at the small group huddled around the card table.

"And they're still there," she thought.  "Good."  She crept down the hall, using the darkness for cover, looking around for guards, and looking for a way to descend to the ground floor.  She found a staircase.  It was brightly lit, but it looked empty, and Blue Lynx bounded down its steps as quickly as she could.  One floor, two floors, ground.  She exited the stairwell through a door looked for more cover, eventually darting behind a large pillar holding up one of the second story walkways.

"Everything's going according to plan," she thought.  "Now, if I can just--"

The voice started out small and then grew into whine, the cry of a young woman in distress.  The voice seemed familiar.  It was accompanied by heavy footsteps and a shuffling sound.  Then, the scoot of the folding chairs around the card table as the small group came to their feet.  And finally, a pair of hands clapping.

Blue Lynx looked around the pillar, and gasped.

The person clapping was the woman who had been sitting at the table.  She was dressed almost entirely in leather, with bleached blonde hair and stilettos that were several inches off the ground.  She was grinning, looking at the three people who had walked into the room.  Or rather, the two who had walked, and the third who had been dragged.  The two were guards-- large men dressed in black, with sleeveless shirts and balaclavas and machine guns, guards just like the ones Blue Lynx had been taking out for the last half hour.  And the third was a girl, a pretty girl in a striped sweater, black leggings, boots, and large-rimmed glasses.  Her arms were being clutched mercilessly by the guards, and she shook her head and kicked to try to escape, but to no avail.

It was Margot.

The guards released their grip on her arms and pushed her to the floor.  Margot was able to soften the fall with her wrists, but she still cried out in pain on impact.  The woman in leather walked over to her, smiling.  As she got nearer to Margot, she pulled out a small pistol.  Margot looked up at her to see the gun being pointed directly at her face.

And then the blonde woman called out in a shrill, ear piercing voice.  "BLUE LYNX.  WE KNOW YOU'RE HERE.  COME OUT, OR I RUIN YOUR CUTE LITTLE PARTNER'S GOOD LOOKS FOREVER."

Blue Lynx froze, gritted her teeth, tried to think of a plan.  She scanned the open area of the factory.  There had been two guards and the blonde woman sitting at the table.  The once-resting guards now stood in a wide circle with the other two guards, all of them watching the blonde woman wave the gun at Margot, who was on her hands and knees, a terrified look in her eyes.

She could come up from behind the first guard, tackle him, and... No.  The others would see her immediately.  The light was a little better in the center of the factory.  Well, why not use a smoke bomb, then?  She could throw it in the middle, and... No.  The blonde woman might pull the trigger then simply out of spite.  What if she threw something at the blonde woman's gun, one of her Lynx Darts, and took her out, and... No.  She had been able to incapacitate the guards one-by-one, but she probably wouldn't have a chance against four of them at once.  These men were huge.  And all armed to the teeth.

"I'M GIVING YOU TO THE COUNT OF THREE, BLUE LYNX.  THE COUNT OF THREE BEFORE I PUT A BULLET IN THIS BITCH'S BRAIN."

What to do?  What to do?  Blue Lynx clenched her fists.

"ONE."

How did Margot get caught?  What happened?  Why?

"TWO."

Shit.  Shit.  Shit.

"THREE."

Blue Lynx stepped slowly from behind the pillar, waving her arms and calling out.  The guards and the blonde woman turned to see her emerge from the shadows, her arms at right angles, her hands in the air.

"Don't shoot," Erin said.  "I surrender."

On to Chapter Two

The War on Drugs: Business Before Pleasure: Chapter Two

Chapter Two

October 25th, 6:02 PM

Slender, radiant, full-featured Erin Steele sat chin-deep in the tub, looking at her toes sticking up from the surface of the hot, bubbly water.  She picked up the glass of red wine standing near her head and brought it gently to her lips.  She tipped the glass slightly, letting the liquid flow liberally into her open mouth, tasting the sweet and bitter tones of her favorite evening treat.  "Ahhh," she exhaled, setting the glass back on the rim of the tub.

It had almost been two whole days since "The Night at Hillbilly Manor," as Erin and Margot were already referring to it; forty-eight hours since the wildest, weirdest, and most perilous night of Blue Lynx's young superheroine career.  Erin didn't like dwelling on the details-- the gas attack, the knockouts, Jackson's sexual advances, and her secret identity being revealed-- but on the whole, the trip to the country had to be counted as a major success.  The young women had discovered a major hub of the city's underground drug operation.  They had incapacitated two nasty, pathetic drug manufacturers; Margot had called the cops once they girls were finished taking photos of the site, and Jackson and Clayton were now in custody.  And they had discovered that it was none other than Brent Hammerson, the main political rival of Erin's father, Mayor Steele, who was in charge of the drug house and, most likely, several others.

Her body still ached from that night-- Clayton's knockout punch still rang in her head, and her wrists were still pink from the ropes-- but it was all worth it, right?

Right?

Erin had to admit that, for the first time since donning the costume of the Blue Lynx, she felt fear.  She could have been seriously hurt that night, or killed.  If Margot hadn't shown up when she had, Erin's secret identity would have almost certainly been sent to Hammerson.  When the two women had come home, bruised, exhausted, still high on adrenaline, Erin slipped out of her costume immediately and crashed on the couch.  She had a dream then, a nightmare.  Jackson tearing off her mask, then her clothes, pressing his body to hers, conquering her.  She had woke up in a cold sweat, screaming.  Margot had shaken her.  "Erin!  Erin!  It's just a dream!  It's just a dream!"

But that night had not been a dream.  It had been exciting in places, and horrifying in others.  Exciting when she had sprung through the window and first attacked the thugs; horrifying when those same thugs had her tied up, helpless, were exploring her body with their filthy hands...

Erin tried to drown her thoughts in the wine.  She wiped her lips with a soapy, bubbly hand.  "This isn't right," she thought.  "This isn't me.  I'm not supposed to be afraid.  I'm not supposed to have doubts.  I'm the Blue Lynx.  I'm a fucking superhero."

The city didn't have any time for her worries or whining, after all.  Just because one house can been taken off the map didn't mean the drug crisis was over.  Hammerson was still out there.  He still had more power than just about any man in the city.

"Bastard," Erin said, out loud.  She reached over and unplugged the drain of the tub.  She stood up and out of the tub, her smooth skin glistening in the lights with tiny bubbles, and walked over to her towel.  She had dried off and wrapped the towel around her breasts when she heard a knock on the door.

"Margot?  Can you get that?"

And then she remembered: Duh.  Margot can't get that.  Margot was gone for the night.  On some kind of date.

"Excuse me if I don't want to get punched in the face every night," she had said as she told her plan to Erin.

"But, we've got to go get him!" Erin had replied.

"Who?" Margot said.

"Brent Hammerson!" Erin said.

"Oh stop," Margot said, waving her off.  "Hammerson can wait.  Christ, I've not even had a chance to repair your costume.  Go out and have fun, Erin."

Well, she hadn't gone out, but she was having fun.  A night alone with a bath and some wine wasn't a bad thing, not by far.  But who was knocking on the door?  Who knocked on doors anymore?

Erin went to the front door and looked through the keyhole.  She didn't see anyone.  Either the knocker had left... Or he didn't want to be seen.

Another knock came.  So Erin, keeping the chain lock in, opened the door and peered outside.  Where she saw, in a gray suit with slicked-back black hair, Brent Hammerson.

On to Chapter Three

The War on Drugs: Business Before Pleasure: Chapter Three

Chapter Three

October 25th, 6:15 PM

"Good evening, Erin Steele."

Erin's eyes widened.  Oh shit.  Had he figured it out, somehow?  Did he know that she was the Blue Lynx?  Her instincts told her to shut the door, to lock it, to just fill the bath back up and sit there all night.  But the look Hammerson gave her was not one of premeditation or hate or even much arrogance.  It was more a look of... Expectation.

"Um," Erin said, deciding to play dumb.  "Do I know you?"

"You ought to," said Hammerson, a smile spreading across his face.  "I'm the guy who's always fucking with your dad's agenda."

The "fucking" was kind of weird.  What the hell was this?

"Oh yeah," Erin said.  "Brent Hammersmith."

"Hammerson," he said.

"Sorry," Erin said.  "Don't really follow politics much."

"No?" Hammerson said.  "You really should.  That's the problem with young people these days.  No sense of attachment to their community."

Listen to him.  The problem with young people?  "What is he, like, ten years older than me?" thought Erin.  And attachment to community?  That was pretty rich coming from the guy who was more responsible than anyone for the destruction of the community in the past few months.

"Alright, thanks for the lecture, Mr. Hammerson," Erin said.  "Now can I ask what you're doing here?"

She watched as Hammerson's eyes momentarily moved from her face and down her still wet, towel-clad body.

"Miss Steele," he cooed.  "I need to have a talk with you."

"Well, your timing is atrocious," Erin said.  "I'm naked under here."

Hammerson grinned.  "You can get dressed if you like."

Erin drummed her fingers on the door frame.  "How about you tell me what you want, first, and I'll decide if it's worth my time."

"Young lady," he began-- Erin hated being called "young lady"--, "As I mentioned before, me and your dad have had our share of disagreements.  I come here tonight seeking a sort of... Reconciliation."

"Doesn't sound like my problem," Erin said.  "Why don't you talk to my dad about it?"

"I've tried, Miss Steele, I've tried," Hammerson said.  "But he just doesn't listen.  I need some sort of mediator.  I need you, Miss Steele."

Erin sighed.  This whole thing felt like a trap.  At this point, she was pretty sure that Hammerson didn't know about Blue Lynx's secret identity.  But there was no question that he definitely wanted to get into her apartment.  Was he planning to blackmail her?  To get her to say something horrible about her father?  At the same time, Erin sensed in this bizarre encounter a golden opportunity.  If, in fact, Hammerson did not know about the Blue Lynx, then Erin held all the cards.  She knew that he was a drug lord.  And if she could press him in the right places, maybe he'd reveal more about his operation.

"Huh," Erin said.  "Well I guess I'm not doing anything tonight."

Hammerson smiled.  "Consider it a date."

"I won't," Erin said.  "Wait outside."  She shut the door and locked it and went to her bedroom to get dressed.

On to Chapter Four

The War on Drugs: Business Before Pleasure: Chapter Four

Chapter Four

October 25th, 6:25 PM

When Erin opened the door again, she was wearing a tight purple V-neck sweater tucked into black jeans with brown boots, her still-wet hair tied back into a ponytail.  Hammerson flashed a smile.

"You look great," he said.

"Uh huh," Erin said.  She pushed the door open and gestured Hammerson inside.  When he walked in, she noticed he was carrying a bottle of wine by the neck.  Hammerson saw her looking at the bottle and lifted it up.

"Something to break the ice," he said.

"I'm done for the night," Erin said, tersely.

"No you're not," Hammerson said.  "It's 6:26."  He walked into the kitchen and placed the bottle on the small table in its center.  "You can't tell me you won't have a least one glass with me.  It's good shit."

Erin shook her head.  She had killed off half a bottle already tonight.  But the buzz in her body was telling her one more drink couldn't possibly hurt.  It might even make the night kind of fun, in a weird way.

"Fine," Erin said.  "Corkscrew's in that drawer."

Hammerson removed the corkscrew and popped the cork off the bottle.  "You got glasses?" he asked.  "Or are we gonna do this straight from the bottle?  Because I'm cool with that.  I know how you young people are."

Again with the "young people" thing.  Hammerson was a condescending fuck.

"I got em," said Erin, opening a cabinet and bringing out two fresh wine glasses.  She set them on the table and Hammerson poured the wine, filling each glass nearly to the brim.

"Big glass," Erin said.

"Well, you're a big girl," Hammerson said.  "You can handle it."

He lifted his glass and gestured for Erin to do the same.  Sighing, Erin lifted her glass up toward Hammerson.

"To political compromise," said Hammerson, clinking his glass to Erin's.

"No," said Erin.  "To justice."

She wasn't sure if that sounded too forward.  But Hammerson just laughed.

"Yes, to that too," he said, swallowing a big gulp of the drink.  Erin set the glass to her lips and took a sip.

A sparkle came to Hammerson's eye.  "Let's sit down.  On the couch, that looks nice," he said.

"Right here is fine," said Erin, sitting down abruptly at one of the table's chairs.

"Okay, your house, your rules," said Hammerson, taking the seat perpendicular to Erin.  He took another large gulp of wine, and let out a long, satisfied exhale.

"Alright, Mr. Hammersmith," Erin said, placing her hands on the table.  "Before we get any further, I have to know: how did you know where I live?"

Hammerson licked the wine from his lips.  "Hammerson," he said.  He set his hands on the table next to Erin's hands.  "And if you want to know something, it's not hard to figure it out, not anymore."

Erin frowned.  Was that some sort of veiled comment about her secret identity?  She decided to run with it.

"I guess so," she said.  "What is a secret these days?  What is privacy?"

Hammerson nodded.  "Good question, Miss Steele.  Good question."

Erin sipped her wine and continued.  "I mean, for all the people of the city know, you're some kind of criminal mastermind."

She watched as Hammerson's body gave off the slightest shudder.  He drank from his wine, this time sloshing it around in his cheeks.  He swallowed.  "That's a ridiculous notion."

"Well I don't know," Erin said, starting to enjoy herself, "It seems like every time my father tries to crack down on drugs, you're standing in his way."

"Funny," Hammerson said, eying Erin suspiciously.  "I thought you said you didn't care about politics."

"I know what he tells me," Erin said.  "And he tells me there's this hotshot kid who's always blocking his drug reforms."

"Kid?" Hammerson said, his cheeks reddening.  "He says that?"

"Yep."

Hammerson smoothed his hair back with his hand.  Erin could see his hair gel reflect the light; the top of his head might as well have been a mirror.

"Funny guy, your father.  But that's exactly what I wanted to talk about."

He leaned closer to Erin now, placing his elbow on the table.  She could smell the wine on his breath.  He acted so smooth and confident, but he was obviously a spoiled, insecure brat.  "God, I can't wait to take this guy down," Erin thought.  Still, he wasn't bad looking.  "No," Erin thought.  "Don't think that."

"You see, Miss Steele," Hammerson said, "The world is complicated."

Erin couldn't help but roll her eyes.  Good looking.  But condescending and stupid as hell.

"Sometimes we think we're helping when actually we're hurting.  And that's what your dad is doing.  He's got a good heart, and so do you," ("Spare me," Erin thought.) "But this new plan of his, it's totally reactionary.  One drug house in the country does not a massive operation make.  And just because a little girl in spandex is involved doesn't mean the cause is righteous."

Erin sipped her wine and set the glass down.  "You're talking about Blue Lynx?" she said.  A dangerous path to continue down, she knew.  But her body felt warm and her lips were loose and why not?

"I don't like using that name," Hammerson said.  "It's stupid.  She's an insane vigilante."  He held his glass over his head and drained the rest of the wine.

"Seems like she's done a lot more to solve the city's drug problem than you ever have," Erin said.

Hammerson almost spat out his drink.  "Oh come on," he said.  "Not you too."

"I'm not saying she's always right," Erin said.  "But desperate times call for desperate measures."

"Please," Hammerson said.  "You sound just like your father.  It's all a publicity stunt.  An act.  That bitch doesn't care about the city.  She's just a dumb girl with nothing better to do."

Erin now set down her empty glass.  "Wow," she said.  "Sounds personal."

"It is," Hammerson said.  He was clearly getting heated.  His hands can dropped into his lap, and his gaze had finally left Erin's face and chest to concentrate on the wall behind her.  He lifted the wine bottle and started pouring another glass.  "I met her once, you know."

This seemed like a slip on his part.  Where was he going with this?

"She's beautiful," he said, pouring wine into Erin's glass, eventually filling it, once more, to the brim.  "Like, amazingly hot.  If you don't mind me saying."

"Wait," Erin said.  "How did you meet her?"  She reached out for the glass.  It was surely a mistake to drink so much, especially when talking about the Blue Lynx.  Oh well.  "To each their own," Erin thought.  "Some people go out on dates.  And some people invite their arch nemeses into their apartment for a few drinks."

"It's a long story," Hammerson said.  "But the basic idea is..."

He stopped.  He stared at Erin, and then slumped back into his chair.

"Never mind," he said.  "I don't know why I'm telling you this.  Forget about it."  He picked up the wine glass and brought it to his lips.

"Mr. Hammerson..."

"Call me Brent," he said.

"Okay, Brent," Erin said, leaning toward him.  "I think I know what your problem is.  I think you have a thing for the Blue Lynx."

"No," Hammerson said, sitting up straight.  "That's ridiculous."

"You clearly have thought a lot about her," Erin said.

"No," Hammerson said.  "She's my enemy."

"Isn't it possible that she's thought a lot about you, too?" Erin said.

Hammerson stared at Erin, at the curve of her breasts in the purple V-neck sweater, and her lush, wine-stained lips, and her big eyes, and her gorgeous black flowing hair.  And without warning he grabbed Erin by the back of her head and pulled her toward him for a kiss.  Their lips connected, and Erin felt herself melt.  She grabbed Hammerson by the arms and continued locking lips, sticking her tongue in his mouth, feeling his hands as the moved from her head and down her back.  They stumbled out of their seats and stood in a slightly crouched position, still kissing, Hammerson placing his hands on Erin's butt and pushing her into the wall of the kitchen with a hard BANG.

It was if the impact woke Erin up.  She pulled her head back from Hammerson, looked at his closed eyes and strange, probing tongue, and shoved him away.  He now stood several feet from her, gawking at her, his eyebrows furrowing but his mouth remaining in some kind of ecstatic open smile.

"Come on, baby, what's up?" he said, moving toward her.  "What happened?"

"You need to leave," Erin said.

"But I haven't got what I wanted yet," Hammerson said.  He was coming near with with clumsy, drunken footsteps.

"Go," Erin said.

"You need to talk with your daddy," Hammerson said.  "Tell him about all the threats to the city."  He got within a few feet of Erin and, abruptly, cupped his hands around her breasts.

Erin didn't say anything.  She socked Hammerson in the stomach with a quick, hard jab, then delivered a cross to his defenseless chin that sent the larger man to the floor.

Hammerson clutched his face.  "Oww!  What the fuck?"

"Get out," Erin said.  "This date is over."

Hammerson picked himself up and pulled down on his tie.  "Goddamn.  I didn't know a girl could hit so hard."  He continued stroking his face.  "Jesus."

Erin watched him as he messed with his hair and brushed off his suit.  She didn't find him attractive, not now.  But what had come over her just seconds ago?  It was Hammerson who had initiated the contact, of course.  But Erin had been leading him on.  And she had let him kiss her and caress her without a single thought about how he had nearly put her to death just two days prior.

"No one gets to know about this," Hammerson said.

"We'll see about that," Erin said.

"Miss Steele," Hammerson said, trying to find his composure.  "You invited me in.  We had a few drinks.  You can't say this wasn't, in a way, consensual."

"Just leave."

And Hammerson did.  Erin went to the front door and locked it.  And then she laughed.  "Just.  Wow," she thought, as she walked back to the kitchen table and refilled her glass of wine.

On to Chapter Five

OR

On to Chapter Five (EXPLICIT ENDING) 

The War on Drugs: Business Before Pleasure: Chapter Five

Chapter Five

October 26th, 10:35 AM

Margot and Erin sat across from each other at a small booth in the corner of Lucky's, the girls' favorite spot in the city for brunch.  Erin was talking rapidly, frequently taking sips from her coffee, while Margot was mostly silent, alternating between nodding and shaking her head.

"So then I got pretty drunk," Erin said.  "Turned on some music, danced around, passed out on the couch."

"Yeah, I saw you," Margot said.  "Not the first thing I want a man to see when I bring him back to the apartment, but, okay."

"And that was it," Erin said, taking a sip of coffee and setting the mug down.  "That was my night with Brent Hammerson."

She laughed.  In retrospect, it really was quite funny.  Though Erin left out a few parts when relating the story to Margot, mainly the part when she got kind of into Hammerson's kisses, and almost seemed to lose herself for a second.  Margot set her elbows on the table and put her hands on the side of her head.

"You should've called me," Margot said.  She didn't seem amused.

"Oh, don't be such a party pooper," said Erin.

"I'm serious," Margot said.  "Hammerson is a dangerous man.  I know you're smart and tough, Erin.  I believe in the Blue Lynx.  But even superheroes need back-up.  And you don't just sit down and have a drink with the enemy without my knowledge."

A waiter arrived at the table and passed out plates to the two girls.  "The spanish omelette for the pretty young lady," he said, setting a bright yellow platter in front of Erin. "And the oatmeal for the, well, equally pretty young lady," he said, putting a bowl of brown mush in front of Margot.

"Thank you," the girls said in unison, waiting for him to leave.  After a long, creepy look, he did, and Margot continued.

"I don't know how you could be so reckless."

"Reckless?"  Erin said, cutting off a piece of her omelette.  "I was doing my job.  If we want to beat Hammerson, we have to know about him, right?  Figure him out."

"Listen," said Margot.  "Research?  Investigating?  That's not your job.  That's my job.  We don't need to have dates with slimy, smug drug pushers to know what to do next."  She scooped a spoonful of oatmeal into her mouth.

Erin frowned.  "Well, you've not exactly been anxious to get out and fight.  Someone's got to do something, here."

Margot shook her head.  "Listen, Erin.  I've been doing work.  I just haven't told you about it.  You needed time to rest.  The Night at Hillbilly Manor.  It was scary.  You don't get over that in a couple hours."

In an instant, visions of the night sprang into Erin's head.  The gas.  The rough hands of Jackson and Clayton.  The searing pain of ropes tied tight around her wrists.  Her mask being peeled away from her face, inch-by-inch, while she just looked on and watched.  Jackson pulling her V-neck down and examining her breasts.  She stuffed a piece of omelette in her mouth and chewed.

"No," Erin said.  "I'm ready to fight.  I need to fight.  If I don't get out there... I mean, this is why I did that stuff with Hammerson last night."  She paused, looked at Margot.  "I'm anxious.  I need to do this."

Margot listened, took a sip of her coffee.  She swallowed and stared at Erin.  "Okay," she said.  "I trust you."

Erin eyed her intently.

"That night in the country?  I put a tracker on Hammerson's car."

"What?" Erin said.  She almost stood out of her seat.  "You did what?"

"While he and the thugs were harassing you, I slipped away and put a tracker on his car.  It barely even took a minute."

"Oh Margot!" Erin said, elated.  "You're incredible!"

"I've been able to make a map of his movements," Margot said.  She pulled her phone from her pocket, showed it to Erin.  "See?  Alright, so I see now how he did spend a bit of time at our place last night."  She frowned at Erin for good measure.  "But this is the place I'm really interested in right now."  She scrolled the map to the city's northeast corner and tapped a glowing dot.

"What is it?" Erin asked.

"It's an abandoned factory," Margot said.  "I'm thinking that Hammerson and his crew have taken it over for their operation."

"Oh wow," Erin said, reclining against her seat.  "That's incredible, Margot."

"So you wanna go get him, tomorrow night?," Margot asked.  She took a long sip from her coffee and smiled at her friend.

"Margot!  I love you!"  Erin said.

On to Chapter Six

The War on Drugs: Business Before Pleasure: Chapter Six


Chapter Six

October 27th, 7:00 PM

From the outside, the factory was both imposing and decrepit.  The imposing part came from the building's past: decades ago, it had been the major hub for manufacturing in the city; Margot's uncle had even been employed on one of the assembly lines, back in the day.  But the decrepit part came from the present: years of abandonment and subsequent neglect had put cracks in the factory's concrete walls, jagged holes in its windows, small plants and mosses growing in weird places in the parking lot.  It was here in the parking lot, hundreds of yards from the factory itself, where Erin and Margot sat in Margot's car, Erin putting on her Blue Lynx mask and pulling things out of her backpack.

"It's dead," Erin said, looking at the building.  "You'd never expect there to be a drug operation inside."

"Unless of course you looked at those cars," Margot said.  She pointed at the vans nearer to the factory.  "That's not suspicious at all."

Erin fastened the button flaps on her utility belt and straightened it.

"You've got the Lynx Darts?" Margot asked.

"Oh yeah," Erin said, patting one of her pouches.  "Should be fun using em."

"Well, ideally, you won't have to," Margot said.  "This has to be a stealth operation, Erin.  My intel tells me that there's about eight guards in there.  I imagine they're armed, too.  Hammerson visited this place several times in the past couple of days.  It's important, for sure."

"I know, I know," Erin said.  She looked at her mask in the mirror, tilted it.  "That's why I'm going through the roof."

"Right," Margot nodded.  The Lynx Darts-- small projectiles, like jacks, to be thrown at baddies for temporary incapacitation purposes-- were just one of the new inventions Margot had given Erin for this difficult mission.  The other was a pocket-sized grappel hook with a sturdy, floss-like line.  It could get a superheroine up a five story building, if need be.  The girls had practiced using it this morning.  It wasn't perfect, and obviously, a poor throw could mean dire things for the Blue Lynx.  But when it worked, it was exhilarating, both for Erin to use and for Margot to watch.

"It's like Batman," Erin giggled.

"As long as that doesn't make me Robin," Margot said.

Erin shook her head, smiled, and put her hand on Margot's shoulder.  "Okay.  I'm ready."

Margot brought out her phone.  "Okay.  I'll be tracking you every step of the way."

"Wish me luck," Erin said, stepping out of the car and shutting the door quietly.

"Good luck, Blue Lynx," Margot said, watching her friend step away into the dark.

She shivered.  It wasn't that Margot was nervous.  She knew that the last mission, The Night at Hillbilly Manor, was an especially unlucky one for the two women, full of bizarre flukes.  (Who had ever heard of a gas trap that went off minute after a wrong password was entered?)  But she nevertheless felt... Chastened by the experience.  Like she had lost her superheroine partner virginity, or something.  She worried for Erin.  In a one-on-one, fair fight, the Blue Lynx had few rivals; Erin was a true master of the martial arts.  But Margot was coming to realize that villains didn't have to fight fair-- that they'd be especially tricky now that they knew about the power of Blue Lynx.

And what the hell was Erin doing, inviting Hammerson over for drinks?  Okay, he had surprised her.  But she hadn't exactly turned him away.  Again, Margot knew that, if it came to blows, Erin could kick Hammerson's ass all over their apartment.  But how easily could she have slipped, verbally, and told Hammerson something about the Blue Lynx's secret identity?  The more confident Erin got, the more her judgment seemed to fail.  Margot hoped Erin wouldn't have to make any big decisions inside the factory, that the mission would be as simple as in, take the bad guys down, and out.

She looked up at Blue Lynx's dark silhouette, saw her creep nearer to the factory.  A glint of light suddenly shone in the superheroine's hand, and then she was off, flying through the air, zipping along the grappling hook line and up to the roof of the tall building.

"Wow," Margot thought.  "That really is awesome."

She turned her attention to her phone.  The red dot that was the Blue Lynx was moving quickly.  Margot imagined her finding the fire escape, scooting down the ladder, breaking in through a window, sneaking around.  In her mind, she saw the Blue Lynx tackling the thugs one-by-one, descending the floors of the factory, getting to where the drugs were made and taking the photo evidence they needed.

She followed the dot intently, became almost hypnotized.  She had lost track of time watching it move around and around, and jumped a little when she heard a single BANG on her driver's side window.  There was a man outside, a huge man dressed in black, a balaclava covering his features, carrying a rifle.

"Hey," he said.  "What's going on in there?  Open up."

"Shit," Margot thought.  "Oh shit shit shit."  What to do?  She had to come up with something.  She was just hanging out?  She was lost?

"Come on, get out the car," the man intoned, banging on the window again.

Margot set her phone in her lap and rolled down the window.  "Hi," she said, nervously.  She tried to smile.  "Um, can I help you?"

"Get out of the car," he said.  "You're not supposed to be here."

"Oh," Margot said, as girlishly as possible.  "I was just, um, sketching the factory.  Ruins are so beautiful, don't you think?"

The man tore open the car door and grabbed Margot by the front of her striped sweater, pulling her up and out of seat with a single powerful jerk.  As she was dragged from the car, her phone dropped from her lap and landed on the ground.  The man pushed the front of his rifle into Margot's stomach, and she backed into the backseat door, holding her arms up.

"Please," she said.  "I'll leave.  I didn't know this was, umm, a bad place."

Still holding his rifle at Margot, the man bent down, scooping up her phone.  He eyed it skeptically.  "What the hell is this?  'Blue Lynx Tracker'?"

Margot could feel sweat dribble down her spine.  "Umm," she started, "That's my--"

"You're coming with me, Missy," the guard said, pocketing the phone.  He slung his rifle around his back and, before she could even flinch, brought his arms around Margot, clutching her in a bearhug.  He lifted her off of her feet and swung her around, eventually setting her stomach-down on his broad shoulder, holding her there with a single muscular arm.  Margot started screaming.

"Help!  Help!" she said, beating on the guard's back with her small fists.  "I'm being abducted!"

"Shut up," the guard said.  "No one can hear you out here anyway."

He poked her in the ass with a rough finger and, slamming the car door behind him, began walking toward the factory.  Margot kicked and punched and screamed but the guard was unfazed.  He pulled a radio from his other pocket and brought it to his face.

"I found the Blue Lynx's partner," he laughed.  "I'm bringing her in."

On to Chapter Seven

The War on Drugs: Business Before Pleasure: Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven 

October 27th, 7:42 PM

And now here Margot was, on her hands and knees, surrounded by massive thugs, a leather-clad blonde woman pointing a gun at her; watching as Erin stepped out of the shadows, holding her hands high, and announced her surrender.

"Well boys, what are you waiting for," the blonde woman said, holding the gun steady.  "Get her."

Blue Lynx remained still as one guard moved around her back, and another remained at her front.  The guard behind her suddenly wrapped her in immense, hairy arms, pressing Erin's arms tightly to her sides, lifting her boots inches off the floor.  Erin's instinct was to kick her feet out wildly, and the guard at her front had to struggle to get a hold of her ankles.  Eventually he found a grip, though, and now Erin could only squirm as the two guards, chuckling slightly, walked her over to the blonde woman, one man squeezing Blue Lynx's upper body, the other man grasping her legs.

"Watch her for a sec," the woman said, nodding at Margot.  The two unoccupied guards stepped toward her, and the woman, dropping her gun to her side, seemed to skip toward Erin.  Margot could barely see through the hulking black bodies now leering over her, but the words of the blonde woman came loud and clear, once again in a shrill, piercing voice.

"So you're the Blue Lynx," she said, placing her hand on Erin's chin, admiring her captive's body, which was struggling fiercely in the awkward sitting position created by the grip of the two guards.  "What a treat it is to finally meet you."

"And who are you?" Blue Lynx replied.  "90s Bondage Bitch?"

"Ha," the woman said.  "Now now, my dear.  Is that any way to treat your host?  You can call me Sunny."

"Sunny?" Blue Lynx said.  "What kind of name is that?"

"Oh, you don't like it?  I don't think it's much different from the Blue Lynx, really."

She stepped in closer to the guard/heroine tangle, moving her hand to Erin's bare throat.  She exerted a tiny bit of pressure.

"You see," she continued.  "People hear 'Blue Lynx' and they don't necessarily think 'Bad-Ass Babe Who Could Kick My Ass.'  They think they're getting a little cat, but they're actually getting a ferocious tiger.  Well." Sunny glanced up and down Erin's helpless body.  "Most of the time, anyway."

Erin struggled, and the guards laughed.

"Sunny's the same way," Sunny said.  "It's a nice sounding name.  Pleasant.  Until you really get to know me..."

She clamped down hard on Erin's throat and pushed down.  Erin immediately started to choke.

"And then you find," Sunny said, through Erin's panicked coughs, "That I'm more like the sun than anything.  Powerful.  Deadly.  Capable of destroying your entire world."

She released Blue Lynx's throat and smiled, watching as Erin shut her eyes and wheezed.

"I'm hot, too," Sunny said, flipping her bleached blonde hair back.  "And now that we've been introduced, let's get you trussed up.  Guards."

She clapped her hands and the two guards marched the still-coughing Blue Lynx over to a skinny pillar near the middle of the room.  The guard at her ankles brought her boots down to where the pillar met the ground while the other guard secured his hands around her forearms.  As the first guard pulled out rope and began binding Blue Lynx's legs to the pillar, the second guard wrenched the heroine's wrists behind her and around the pole, fastening them together with some rope of his own.

It had taken just minutes, Margot thought, for Blue Lynx to transform from a ruthlessly effective stealth warrior to a tightly bound, imperiled prisoner.  "And it's all my fault," Margot told herself.  "I got too wrapped up in my stupid phone!  I let them ambush me and use me as bait!  And now Erin's screwed."  She watched the guards stand away from Blue Lynx and admire their work.  "I've got to think of something," she thought.  "There's got to be--"

The guards surrounding her grabbed her by the arms and legs.  She struggled as they hauled her, with little effort, toward a second pillar just feet away from Erin's.  She felt rough rope drive itself into her ankles, pull itself around her wrists.  The bonds pulling her to the pole forced her chest forward, so that her ample breasts now seem to fight with her tight striped sweater.  She sighed helplessly as she looked ahead, at the two pairs of guards taking turns looking at their captives, pointing at them, making rude remarks, and at the mysterious blonde woman, Sunny, who shook her head at the spectacle, rolling her eyes.

"So now that you're both tied," Sunny said, addressing Margot and Erin.  "I've got to call my boss.  Let him know who dropped in."

"You mean Hammerson?" Erin said, loud and clear.

Sunny paused.  "None of your business," she eventually said, removing her phone from her pocket.  She pressed the touch screen and brought the device to her cheek.  After a few seconds, she pulled it away.  She cursed.

"No reception," she said.  "This fucking factory."

Erin laughed.  Margot wished she had anything near that kind of courage, right now.  She was petrified.  But then that's why she was usually in the car, wasn't it?

"I've got to go outside," Sunny growled.  "Guards, keep an eye on these bitches.  But don't fucking touch them or doing anything, alright?  Not until the boss gets here.  You hear me?"

The four guards mumbled their collective assent.

"Good.  This will take a few minutes."

And Sunny walked away into the shadows, leaving Erin and Margot, wrists and ankles tied, in the company of four bulky, black-clad, machine-gun-toting guards, all of whom were grinning, chuckling, licking their lips, eying the masked superheroine and her dorky but hot friend with steady, salacious stares.

On to Chapter Eight

The War on Drugs: Business Before Pleasure: Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight 

October 27th, 7:50 PM

Erin could see the guards' eyes, darting from her to Margot and back again, and knew that they had no intention of obeying Sunny's orders.  But she had to try... Something.

"I wouldn't want to get on her bad side," she said.

"Too late for that," one of the guards replied, making the other three laugh.

"And don't worry, little missy," another said, through laughter.  "We're not gonna doing anything, you know, too rough.  With you and your friend, I mean."

More laughing.  Why did all these thugs think they were so damn funny?

Erin decided to change the subject.  "So this is the drug factory."  She looked around at interior, old and decaying and enshrouded in shadow.  "This is where Hammerson has you manufacturing product."

"Something like that," a guard said.  It was hard to keep them straight.  And probably unnecessary, at the end of the day.  What were they to Erin except four giant goons she had to take down?

"You, umm, like the work?" Erin asked.  Anything to stall.

"It pays well," a guard said.

"Boring as shit, though," said another.

"Until a night like this, when we get visited by a superheroine.  And her cute friend."

"Cute, but not too smart," said a guard.  "I found her outside in her car.  Just goofin off."

Erin turned her head toward Margot, but Margot couldn't bring herself to return the glance.

"Cute, But Not Too Smart," said a guard.  "That could be the name of your memoir, Blue Lynx."

The guards once again shared a laugh.  Erin frowned.

"I've taken down scum like you before," Erin said.  "And I'm going to do it again.  Tonight."

"Just not at this very moment," a guard said.  And the four men erupted in laughter.

"Keep laughing," Erin thought.  Behind the pillar, her tied hands were working furiously, already finding small nooks where the guards hadn't quite sealed the deal.  She just hoped that she wasn't showing her efforts with her upper body, which the pressure on her arms had pushed forward.  And she had to keep talking, she reminded herself.  Keep talking.

"You guys act pretty big and macho," she said.  "So why are you taking orders from a little lady named Sunny?"

"What are you saying, Blue Lynx?" one of the guards said, dryly.  "You're saying that just because we're big, we're not enlightened?"

The four laughed for what seemed like the thousandth time that night.

"We respect Sunny.  We respect most women," said another guard, walking calmly up to Erin, and then placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Just not you."

The guard slipped his forefingers underneath Erin's spandex, resting them on her collarbone, and grinned at her.  She could feel the tips of his fingers slightly touch the strap of her bra.

"What are you doing?" she said.

The guard brought his fingers out and then pinched the side edge of Erin's V-neck.  He pulled the fabric away from Erin's body, letting the spandex stretch back and forth, and turned around to his fellow guards.

"Stuff is pretty stretchy!" he said.  The men giggled.

"I wonder how far we can stretch it," the guard said, yanking the fabric past Erin's shoulder, pulling it down onto Erin's arm, letting it pinch and grip the skin, so that the "V" was now a big oval that left her shoulder bare but for a thin black bra-strap.

"That's pretty far!" one of the other guards yelled.

"Stop," Erin said.  "You better stop, right now--"

But the guard just grinned and pinched the other side of Erin's V-neck, wrenching it too over her other shoulder, snapping it against her bicep, so that Erin now appeared to be wearing a strange blue shoulder-less dress.  The air of the factory felt cold against her mostly bare upper body, and Erin shuddered, looking in the guard's eyes for an idea of what he planned to do next.

"Take off her bra!" one of the other guards said.  They had all stepped closer to observe their co-worker, and his object of study, more closely.

"That's a good idea," Erin's guard said.  And Erin felt the guard brush the straps of her black bra off of her shoulders with firm, patient sweeps.  The straps flopped over onto her arms, resting delicately on top of the bunched up "V" of her costume; the lace of her bra cups now edged slightly over the rim of her spandex costume.  And the guard's smile grew wider, until it stretched almost as impressively as the edge of Erin's outfit across the top of her chest.

It was embarrassing, but it was a distraction, too, and Erin hadn't stopped attacking the ropes that bound her wrists.  The guard's perverted touch actually made for nice cover; he must have thought her struggling was a reaction to him.  Well, in a way, it definitely was, but it had purpose beyond that, too.  "Don't stop," Erin thought.  "Just focus on the ropes.  Let him ogle your body.  Who cares..."

But she as felt the guard's hand moving past her neck and around her back, searching for the clasp of her bra, Erin lost sight of the task at hand.  "Stop!" she yelled.  "Stop!  Pervert!"

"Yeah," another guard said.  "Why don't you stop so one of us can have a chance?"

Erin's guard dropped his hand from Erin's back and turned to face the other three.

"Come on, guys," he whimpered.  "You can feel her up.  Just let me do this part.  Please."

"I don't think so," another guard said.  "Sunny will be back soon.  It's my turn."

The harassing guard sighed.  "Fine."  He stepped away from Erin, sheepishly, and allowed another guard to step up to the bound, struggling superheroine and her mostly exposed upper half.

"Take me instead!" Margot suddenly cried out.

All four guards turned to look at Margot, shaking her head frantically, a somewhat crazed, scared expression on her face, and laughed.

"Margot," thought Erin.  "Shut up!"

"Look guys, she's lonely," one of the guards cooed.  He walked over to Margot and pushed his finger into her belly.  "Listen little girl," he said, pressing her belly after each couple of words.  "It's not that we don't like you?  You're pretty hot.  It's just that, you're not a superheroine.  You're just some girl.  We've had girls before.  But a superheroine?"  He stopped tapping Margaret's stomach and turned back toward Blue Lynx.  "That is a truly special occasion."

"But you said it yourself," Margot continued.  "I'm her partner."

What was she doing?

The guard turned back around toward Margot.  "Yeah, you're right," he said, placing his hand on the pillar next to Margot's head, and sinking close to where she stood.  "So I'll tell you what.  You give us just a few more minutes with your babe over here."  He slid his other hand under Margot's sweater and glided it up her stomach, revealing her stomach and then, eventually, the lower edge of her leopard-print bra.  "And then we'll be over to take off your bra, too."

He dropped the sweater and Margot shuddered and the four men howled with laughter.

Another guard had arrived in front of Blue Lynx.  "Just look at all this cool super stuff," he said, opening and closing random flaps on her white utility belt.  "Like, what does this crap even do?"

He pulled out a Lynx Dart from one of Erin's pockets.  Erin glared at him.

"You stick that one up your butthole," she said.

The men liked that one, and rewarded Erin with more peals of thunderous laughter.  The man placed the Lynx Dart back in Erin's pouch and snapped the flap shut.

"What I don't understand about superheroes," he said.  "Is why they gotta keep their identities secret."

A look of fear momentarily seized Erin's face.

"Yeah," another guard said.  "What does this bitch have to hide?"

Erin didn't mind the guards halting their exploration of her body, but this was decidedly not the direction she wanted to go.

"You don't want to see my face," she said.  "I mean, what do you really care?"

"All I'm saying," the guard closest to her said, drumming his fingers on the buttons of Erin's belt, "Is why would you keep your face a secret, if it wasn't important?"

The guards behind him mumbled.  "That's a good point," one of them said.

"No, it's not," Erin protested.  "Just, don't."

The nearest guard laughed.  "I love it when women tell me to stop," he said.  He looked back at his cohorts.  "What do you say, guys?  Do I take off her mask?  Just a little peek?"

The guards cheered, and the guard turned back to face Erin.

"You got to give the people what they want," he snickered, placing one hand on Erin's hip and the other on her face.

"Don't!" Margot yelled.  "Please!  Don't--"

But the guard didn't listen.  He pinched the lower edge of Blue Lynx's mask and, as if the top of the mask were a hinge, flipped it up, revealing Erin's frightened gaze.  Her upper arms, her shoulders, her neck, and her sweat-glimmering, wide-eyed, beautiful face were now completely bare, for all the world to see.

The War on Drugs: Business Before Pleasure: Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

October 27th, 7:56 PM

Unmasked!  The word fluttered into Erin's mind, came to roost, and slowly took hold.  Her mask had been on her face and now... It was not.  Alright, it still was, technically: the guard was holding it above her brow.  But that was so, so beside the point.  The point which was was this: her face, her secret identity, had been exposed.

Unmasked!  Done!  The Blue Lynx was no more.  There was only Erin Steele, the daughter of the mayor, in a silly blue spandex outfit.  Erin Steele, helpless young woman, cruelly bound to a pole, waiting for Hammerson to show up and deliver the final blow.

Unmasked.  Her identity was revealed.  And her superheroine career was...

"So who is she?" a guard asked.

He stepped in closer to Erin to take a look at her face.  They all did, one-by-one, squinting, scratching their heads.  And they all stepped back with puzzled looks.

"I don't know."

Erin blinked.  What?  How could they not know who she was?

The guard who had unmasked her stroked his chin.  "She looks a little familiar.  But I can't come up with anything.  Huh.  Funny.  I figured she wouldn't been like, a celebrity or something."

Did these goons not watch the local news?  Had they never seen her at any of her dad's events?

Erin had something to work with.  "Nope.  Just a girl."

"But," one of the guards said.  "You got so nervous when you were about to be unmasked."

"Yeah, well," Erin said, searching for a convincing story.  "Umm, I figured we might have had a college class together, or something."

"We did not," said another of the guards.  "I would've remembered that face.  It is gorgeous."

"Thank you," Erin smiled.

"So what's your name, then?" a guard asked.

"It's, uh," Erin said.  "Barbara.  Barbara Garden."

"Shit," the same guard said.  "That's familiar, too."

"Well then, Barbara," the unmasking guard said, returning Blue Lynx's mask to rest on the bridge of her nose.  "I guess that's that."

Erin let out a long sigh.  "Jesus," she thought.  "I guess it's true.  Nobody follows the news anymore."  She couldn't believe her good luck.

"But we still wanna see your boobs," the guard laughed, wrapping both of his hands around Erin's neck, and plunging them down her back.  Erin twisted her body within his reach as the man groped around the edge of her ruffled spandex for the clasp of her bra.  She could feel his fingers locate the clasp, feel him unhooking her bra, felt her skin prickle as the eyes and hooks separated, and heard the delight of the other guards increase as the man worked his hand to the front of her body, preparing to pull her bra off and leave her bare breasts exposed, to ride high on the folded over, stretched out "V" of her costume, when suddenly a door slammed and a screeching voice ground the proceedings to a halt.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" Sunny screamed, charging at the guards.  She pushed through the three bystanders and pulled the final guard off of Erin.  She looked at Blue Lynx, with her costume pushed down her arms, her bra unfastened but still loosely on her breasts, and her mask slightly askew, and then turned around to look at the four men.

"I leave for ten minutes.  NOT EVEN THAT," she yelled, pointing a sharp fingernail toward the guards.  "I say, don't touch her, don't fucking DO anything.  And I come back here, after a call with our FUCKING BOSS, to see you fucking IDIOTS treating our guest like some kind of cheap WHORE!"

She stamped her foot, fuming.  The guards seemed to hang their heads in unison.  Erin, watching from her pillar, still working the ropes, couldn't help but smile.

"All of you, LEAVE.  NOW.  Go home.  You're through for tonight.  You'll be lucky if you still have a job next MORNING."

Sunny pulled out her gun and pointed it at the guards.  "COME ON!  Go!  Do it!" she hissed.

"Sorry, ma'am," one of the guards mumbled, as the four picked up their guns and slowly walked away.  They stepped into the darkness of the factory and, seconds later, Erin could hear the door open and shut as they left.  She was still smiling.

"So much for the hired help," Erin laughed.  Sunny stared at her, and then gave a small smile.

"It's men," Sunny said, "Fucking men."

She smoothed out Erin's bra and reclapsed it behind Erin's back, sliding the straps back onto Erin's shoulders.  She then lifted the spandex from Erin's arms and set it back near Erin's neck.  The "V" neck was now more of a hastily scrawled "U."  Sunny sighed as she finished putting Blue Lynx's costume back together, and then placed her soft hand on Erin's cheek.

"How dare they," Sunny said.  "I wanted the first crack at you."

The soft hand morphed into a solid palm that slapped Erin across the face.  Erin grunted with the impact and turned her head to the side.

"How's the boss doing?" Erin said, bringing her gaze back to meet Sunny's.

"He's good," Sunny said.  "He's actually coming here now to meet you.  He says that you two have unfinished business."

"He's right," Erin said.  She now had the ropes loose enough around her wrists so that she could probably pull free.  But she still couldn't do much so long as her boots were tied.  Maybe she could start kicking, pulling, making a little effort here and there...

"He wants to take off your mask," Sunny said.

"And what about you?"  Erin said.

"Me?  I don't care who you are," Sunny said.  "Well, I do, so long as the boss cares.  But personally?  I think you're just fine with the mask on."

Suddenly, Sunny balled her hand into a fist and sunk it into Erin's stomach.  The impact forced Erin's face forward, coughing.  It was a pretty good punch.  And, fortunately for Erin, it had allowed her to covertly kick her ankles against the ropes.  She could already feel them starting to give.

"I think this is exciting," Sunny said.  "I've been waiting for a girl like you for years."

Erin breathed in and out, trying to collect herself.  "A girl like me?"

"Yes," Sunny said.  "A superheroine.  This town has plenty of villains.  Tons.  But a costumed vigilante to stand against them?  That's always been in short supply."

"You're a villain, then?" Erin asked.

Sunny laughed.  "I can't deny it.  I won't deny it.  I love being bad."  She spun her pistol around her finger, then brought it back to her side.  "What I want is a good girl to be my foil."

"So you're saying," Erin said.  "That we're rivals?"

Sunny nodded, grinning an evil grin.  "Like Batman and the Joker."

"Or Batgirl and Harley Quinn," said Erin.

Sunny pointed at Erin with the gun limp in her hand.  "You get it," she said.

Erin waited her Sunny to drop the gun, and then said, "So you can fight?"

Sunny smiled.  "Oh yeah," she said.  "I can fight."

"We'll see about that!" Erin cried, tugging her body away from the pillar, ripping her ankles and wrists free from the ropes, and lunging at Sunny.  She threw her fist up in the air and then down at Sunny's face, connecting with her rival's chin.  The force pushed Sunny to the ground, flinging the pistol out of her fingers.  The gun clattered against the floor somewhere in the shadows of the factory.

"You... bitch," Sunny said, pressing her hand to her face.

Erin pulled Sunny up by her arms and then kneed her in the stomach, putting her back to the ground.  Sunny groaned and clutched her abdomen as Erin walked in a circle around her opponent.

"Where's your fight?" Erin asked, grabbing Sunny by her leather jacket and again bringing her to her feet.  She ran, making Sunny run with her, and then threw Sunny's body against one of the larger pillars.  Sunny hit the pillar with a loud THUD and fell to the floor.  She sprawled on the ground, spreading her fingers out, a mean wince taking over her expression.

"Thanks for fixing my costume," Erin said, tugging at her stretched-out V-neck, and she kicked Sunny in the head.  Sunny's eyelids fluttered, and then her eyes rolled back into her skull.  She was unconscious.

Erin exhaled.  She placed her hands on her hips, looked at Sunny, and then looked around.  The factory was silent, mostly empty, dark.  The guards had left, and Sunny was unconscious.  What was left to do except take some pictures and wait around for Hammerson?

"Erin!" Margot cried.  "Untie me!"

Erin turned around.  Oh yeah.  Margot.  She walked over to her friend, her hips sashaying confidently as she looked around at the scattered drug paraphernalia.

"You escaped," Margot said.  "I can't believe you escaped!"

"Hey, I'm a superheroine," Erin said, bending down to unravel the knot of ropes at Margot's boots.

"I thought we were done for," Margot said.  "And when they took off your mask..."

"Got lucky there," Erin admitted.

"But they got away," Margot said.  "Aren't you afraid that they'll say something?"

"They didn't take a picture," Erin said, looking up and winking at her friend.  "What could they possibly say?  She's pretty?"

The girls giggled.  Erin finished untying Margot's legs and then moved around behind the pillar.  She worked at the ropes calmly, almost with satisfaction.  It was much easier to untie this way.

After a couple of silent minutes, Erin asked: "So what happened in the parking lot?"

"Oh Erin," Margot said, bowing her head.  "I'm so sorry.  I just let him... He came and I didn't see him... And then he had me."

"It's okay," Erin said.  "But next time, we have to hide your car better."

Margot nodded.  She felt the final ropes drop from her wrists.  "I agree."

The girls stood in the factory, taking it its shadowy immensity.  Erin watched Margot rub her reddened wrists.  She was still shaking, still torn up about being captured, Erin supposed.

"Margot," Erin said, clapping her hands on her partner's shoulders.  "How about you go get the car?  I'll stay here and take the photos.  And you can stay there until I come out with Hammerson.  Sound good?"

Margot tried to smile.  "Okay."

"Cheer up," Erin said.  "We all make mistakes, right?  And I guess we're even now."

Margot looked at Erin.  "Even?"

"You saved me once, and then I saved you."

"Oh," Margot said.  "Okay."

And with that, she walked into the shadows.  Erin heard the telltale door open and shut.  It wasn't as dramatic an exit as going through the roof, Erin thought, but then again, Margot wasn't the Blue Lynx.

Erin pulled her phone from one of her belt pockets and began taking pictures of crates, pills, syringes, the table in the center of the room covered with papers, more pills, more syringes.  It was a gold mine of evidence, an even more damning photographic record than Hillbilly Manor...

That night came back to her.  "Yes," she thought.  "Margot did save me."  She needed Margot, obviously.  If not for Margot, she would still be strung up in that backwoods barn like a farm animal, watching helplessly as gross rednecks dragged their dirty fingers along her body.

At the same time, Margot could not get captured again like she had been tonight.  If the baddies had Margot, then they also had the Blue Lynx.  It was that simple.  Erin wasn't about to negotiate for her friend's life.  If Margot was being used as bait, then the choice was clear: Erin would surrender every time.

So Margot had to be more careful, that was that.  Erin sighed.

She snapped another photo, then looked back at her work.  There were forty pictures.  That seemed good.  Erin retrieved the phone number of the Tip Hotline for the local newspaper, then attached the photos to a text message.  "DRUG FACTORY ON NORTHEAST SIDE," she typed out with gloved fingers.  "LOVE, BLUE LYNX."

She clicked send.  But the e-mail didn't send.

"That's right," Erin said aloud, shaking her head.  "That connection that Sunny was going on about.  Guess I'll go outside."

She placed her phone back in her utility belt pocket and began walking toward the door, when she heard it creak.  First open.  And then shut.  And then she heard... Footsteps.  The sounds of... A scuffle?  And two voices. She heard two voices.  A man's voice, deep and low, and a higher, feminine voice climbing above it.

Erin stopped.  The man's voice was taking shape, forming words.

"Alright Blue Lynx," the voice intoned.  "I have your partner here.  Got a gun to her head.  Step into the light where I can see you with your hands up."

No.  Not again.

The voice laughed.  "You really should be more careful."

Blue Lynx stepped into the light and could see, ten yards away, also stepping into the light, Margot, one arm around her neck, a gun pressed to her temple.  Behind her, holding the gun, a shadow slightly cast on his sinister smirk, stood Brent Hammerson.

On to Chapter Ten