The Nine Towers of Ku

1 The Nine Towers

The splendorous red, yellow, and lavender wildflowers and encapsulate the nine towered castle like, tan brick mansion that was at the center. The mansion sat on a thousand-acre plot. The driveway to the house ran for close to a mile from a small local highway. The isolation of the place was why Liam had purchased the property. It was exactly what he needed to do the style of recruiting that he had in mind. He knew that this place would allow him to operate freely and effectively.

He had been given a free hand at how he carried out his assignment and did not have to report his actions to Laticia, his sympathetic, softhearted boss. Soft hearted except when it came to following the rules and the adherence to lawful protocol. She was too by the book for him so he kept her in the dark as much as he could.

Liam did not have any of that sensitivity. He was a patriot did what he needed to do to get things done. He did what he thought was good for the Country.

He sat on the stone precipice and took in the nine towers where he had chained eighteen drug distributors. It had taken him close to a year to carry out the task of getting the top distributors from nine major cities, so some of his guests had been chained in the house for a year. He wished he could have moved faster but he had kept them well fed and encouraged them to exercise.

His goal was to either enroll them in the elimination of key international agents or to eliminate them and find the dealers from their regions that would. The choice was to work for him or die. He had abducted his victims first on the west coast, then the east coast and finally down the middle of the country. He had seventeen young males of various heritage, color, social standing, and he had one very good looking but very obstinate young lady that he was going to enjoy whether she agreed to his demands or not. He smiled as he thought of her as the icing on the cake.

He had an additional top drug dealer from each coast and from St. Louis chained in the downstairs part of the house. They enjoyed the comfort of the main downstairs bedrooms that were located around the base of eight of the towers.

This day, he had packed a picnic lunch and had hiked to where he was sitting so that he could contemplate the action that he would be taking over the next few days. The seclusion of the house had given him the luxury of not having to hurry but now it was time to take action in a methodical and swift manner.

He knew that he would enjoy the action and did not care how his recruits chose their fate. They were probably not aware of the price of saying no but that was what made it so exhilarating for him. He knew and that knowledge seemed to glow in his mind and excite his entire body.

One choice gave him a recruit that he had bent to serve him. That choice was less appealing to him than a rebellious no, but it was the choice he needed to carry out his mission.

The other choice gave him the same enjoyable taste equivalent to a box of top-quality Danish chocolates melting in his mouth, when he pulled the trigger of his forty-five and blew their faces off as the bullet put into the back of their skull exited in the middle of their face taking the soft jelly of their brains with it. It so excited him that he often had to suppress ejaculation.

Even sex was less exciting than pulling the trigger and enjoying the pattern made on the floor or the far wall. He always stood for a few minutes to take in the splendor of the red and white splatter.

The field of wildflowers surrounding the mansion seemed to augment the colors that were floating in his mind as he contemplated the coming few days and played various scenes in his head.

He knew that he would have a fair number of defiant noes and that often the second person having seen the result of a no would readily say yes.

Each day he would take the yeses and put them on flights back to their home towns with the first set of instructions that they were to carry out. He figured it would take him three days to empty the nine towers.

He contemplated all yesses from the top distribution leaders. They most likely would hear the gunshots that followed the noes, and they were in their positions because they knew how to negotiate, were more interested in living and to have a chance to money, they would make than in being defiant.

Once his recruiting was done it would take him a day to clean the place and get it ready for the next cycle of recruits. The recruitment would end when he had a sufficient number of distributors following his orders. Once they were all in place, he would focus their distribution to get the drugs flowing to the foreign agents he would target. The drugs would be both legitimate and illegitimate. He had doctors on his payroll that would provide him the legitimate drugs and he would have his recruits deliver those drugs but with the desired modification that would make them deadly.

He planned to carry out the elimination of the foreign agents in a swift and deadly manner.

He finished his lunch and went back to the house.

He entered via the back door that led into a grand kitchen that featured a hooded six burner gas stove at the center. A massive refrigerator with a black exterior that matched the black marble that embraced the gas stove stood directly behind it.

Stainless-Steel clad pots and pans of every design hung on the left side of the stove and a large set of nonstick utensils hung along the other side.

A set of twelve premier knives rested in their oak wood holder to the right of the stove. It was definitely a kitchen that had been designed for a chef.

He walked around the island to the refrigerator and helped himself to a beer. He gave a laugh as he thought about the fact that he had a huge supply of hot dogs and eggs but not much else. He fed boiled eggs and hot dogs to his captives. He also threw in an orange and apple per day for each of them. They did not go hungry, but they did not get meals prepared by a chef.

He grilled steaks, baked potatoes, and made salads for himself and his three most important recruits. He intended to gain their support both through coercion and also by feeding them well. He wanted them to understand that he was not trying to muscle them into submission. They would have the same choice to make as those chained in the rooms above them, but he did not expect to shoot any of them. He expected them to be smart enough not to say no.

He put the water on for the hot dogs, took out the buns and condiments that were designated to the eighteen upstairs guests and added an apple for each.

The upstairs always got served first. That way he could focus on doing a good job with the four downstairs meals.

For his three downstairs guests and himself, he had the steaks marinating. He would dry fry them and then melt blue cheese over them. He had mashed potatoes to go with them as well as a large helping of asparagus spears. He would also provide each of them with a glass of beer.

He ate by himself. He did not want to have any social connection with any of them.

The next morning, he distributed the boiled eggs and an orange to the upstairs guests.

He prepared two over easy eggs and a large sausage patty for the downstairs breakfast.

This was the day that he would ask the crucial question to each of those that he held captive. He smiled as he thought about the fact that he was going to go by a FIFO order for all the people he had been holding in his human inventory.

He went upstairs and removed the breakfast dishes from each of the tower rooms. Then he returned to the first room where he was holding Orson Ambrose and Sebastian Cassidy who were his Seattle captives. He addressed them by their full names and told them it was time for them to choose to serve him or not. He had them kneel and stood behind them.

He pulled out his forty-five and asked Orson whether he was willing to do as he would be instructed to do.

Orson told him he was a bastard and should go to hell.

Liam smiled and pulled the trigger and watched the mix of blood, brains, and hair spray across the room. He stood for a long time enjoying the sight. He knew what the answer he would get from Sebastian and wanted to enjoy the answer he had received from Orson.

He stepped behind Sebastian and asked the same question.

Sebastian shook his head up and down indicating that he would do as told.

Liam pushed a mop and bucket in front of him and told him to clean up the mess his partner had made. He then pointed to a body bag that he carried into the room and told him to put his buddy into it and to clean the room. He let him know that he would be released and get to go home that afternoon.

His next two captives were the two from L.A., Elisa Amos, and Mateo Garcia. He went through the same routine. He was surprised that Elisa and Mateo both agreed to follow his orders. He had expected Elisa to say no to his request and had been prepared to take her to the bedroom before shooting her. Instead, he felt somewhat relieved that she had said yes. He had come to like her. She had a survivor attitude. He figured she would do well when she got back to L.A.

He informed the two of them that they would be returning to LA that afternoon.

His San Diego two, Thiago Bandello and Osvaldo Comonte ended up being a repeat of the first two. He shot Thiago and after enjoying the moment, gave Osvaldo the job of cleaning up and putting his buddy in a body bag.

He went to the next set of rooms that held the six that he had abducted along the east coast. Riggs Melville made the mistake of saying no. His buddy, Rowan, was eager to say yes.

The two from New York were both agreeable to doing as they were told.

It turned out that the Miami two followed the no-yes pattern and Dante Cruz ended up in the body bag.

He then went from the two in New Orleans, the two in St. Louis and the two in Chicago and got all yeses. He wondered if the shots from his forty-five had been heard by all those saying yes. He decided in the future to use a silencer so that he could get an honest answer to his question.

He then went downstairs and had the three leaders kneel in front of him. He asked the L.A. leader whether he would work with him to take out some bad international spies. He got the agreement that he had expected.

He let him know that he would be driven to the airport with four young drug runners. Two of whom were from L.A., one from Seattle and one from San Diego. He suggested that they all chat and agree to work together. They would all have first class tickets to L.A.

He did the same with the Miami leader and let him know that he would be flying out with four of the young drug runners.

He asked Mylo for his answer and then let him know that he would be leaving the grounds with six young distributors who seemed eager to be back in the field.

Unknown to Liam, a trespasser hunting rabbits and squirrels had been sitting almost in the same spot where he had lunch the day before. This hunter had heard the shots and had called in the shootings. The hunter was asked if he was sure about the shooting and that he should come to the station to put in a formal report. The hunter thought about it and decided that he might get sued for trespassing and decided to go back to his car and go home.

2 The Occupants

O

rson could not remember a time in his life that he was not mad. His father had beaten him regularly for the smallest of excuses. His mother was a junky who was seldom coherent. He was often left on his own to feed himself whatever he could prepare. He ate lots of canned soups, peanut butter and jelly and salami sandwiches. He ran away from home at the age of twelve and never looked back.

He found home at a soup kitchen that let him work for some food and sleep in one of their cots that was available for the homeless. Then the soup kitchen closed, he was out on the street making his way as best he could. Dumpster diving was his main source of food.

He watched the drug pushers distributing and periodically getting into gun fights amongst themselves. Then one day the gunfight was all around him and one of the pushers died in his arms. Before dying he learned where his supplier could be found, he was also handed a roll of money to give to that supplier. It was more money than he had ever had.

It lasted him almost six months.

Then he went looking for the drug supplier. It wasn’t hard to find him, but it was hard to convince him that he could be a good distributor and trusted to bring the cash back to him. He was given a high school as his distribution territory and was soon bringing in more money than had ever been produced there. He was rewarded by being assigned the local university where he had the same success. His final step up was to the central downtown area where he was just getting started when he was snatched off the street and put in the back of a panel truck into a cage.

His captor was a large dark-haired, bearded guy with piercing black eyes who simply said that he was going to be given the opportunity of a lifetime.

The real outcome was that he spent almost a year chained in a room with another Seatle drug distributor.

Sebastian had first met Orson in the Seattle city center where they were both distributing their drugs. They had territories adjacent to each other and agreed to cooperate and help each other. It turned out they had similar family experiences, so they related well to each other. To have ended up in the same cage in the back of a panel truck had been a surprise to both of them.

Orson was the angriest about having been kidnapped. Sebastian was upset but figured it did no good to get angry he wanted to get even. He wondered why and wondered what the reason might be for the kidnapping.

It had been almost a year and the only thing that he had gleaned during that time was that their kidnapper wanted he and Orson to become subservient to him. He knew that there were at least four more captives. Two he had learned were from the L.A. area and two were from San Diego. Elisa was the only female in the group, and she was a person that he would never want to have mad at him. And she was really mad at her abductor.

Elisa was not mad she was furious and was determined to take revenge on the person who had thrown her into a cage like an animal and then had kept her chained for close to a year. It was enough time that she had figured out how she would eventually repay her abductor. His size and capability would not prevent her from getting even. If he ever let her loose, she would wait until the moment he let his guard down. Then she would take him down and she would put him through much worse treatment that he was putting her through. She was no stranger to killing. She had buried both of her parents to repay them for their years of abuse. She had almost a year to examine various scenarios for her pay back and she kept adding tortures that she would inflict on him. If she managed to get him in her clutches, he would end his life blind, tongueless, earless and have no gentiles and he would be screaming as he died. Her pastime was visualizing each of the barbarous things she would do.

Mateo knew Elisa well and he knew not to get her mad. He had many a beer with her. He had been present when she was fondled by a drunk as they sat at the bar.

She had gone into action and had hit the guy in the throat and then when he fell to the floor, she had kicked him in the side of his head and stomped on his face. The EMT’s had put him on a board and taken him to a local hospital where he remained for more than a month.

Elisa had ignored the entire process and had returned to nursing her beer as if nothing had happened.

He was surprised to find the two of them in the same cage in the back of a truck. Later and for almost a year, they had shared the same common area where they were chained by their ankles to two rings in the floor. He had listened to her describe all the things she planned to do to their capture. She had also warned him to agree to whatever conditions that they were given for their release. She said that saying no might be what got them killed.

Thiago had been walking along the broad walk enjoying the setting sun before going to distribute his wares when he felt a gun on his back and was told to walk into the parking lot where he was put into a cage in the back of a panel truck. He was surprised to see four other people in two other cages before the back doors were closed and everything went pitch black. He asked if he should start yelling. He heard a feminine voice advise him to keep quiet. He felt the truck moving and short time later it stopped. Not long after the back door opened, and a second person was put into the cage with him.

Osvaldo had been approached, shown a gun by the person standing in front of him and told that he should do as he was told or get shot. He figured he was being robbed and offered to give up the money he had. He had been told to keep it but to do as he was told. He had walked as directed to the back of a panel truck and had gotten in. He was put into a cage with a person who looked to be Mexican or from some Latin American area. He got in and said hi.

The doors were closed, and all was black and then the truck drove off. Several hours later the truck stopped, and the back doors were opened. Their abductor entered and introduced himself as a member of the CIA and let them know that they were being recruited and their cooperation would be the ticket for their release.

He then escorted them into the rest area bathroom and said that the next stop would be several hours away. He let them know that if they gave him any trouble, they would be left at the rest stop as a body for the police to find later. The ride lasted for two days and then they were taken into a house where they were separated two to a room and chained to rings that were in a central area between the two bedrooms. The central area was about ten by ten and had a table and two chairs.

A day after they had been chained, their capture came in with a cooler and said that it was a week’s worth of food.

Osvaldo tried to figure out if he could get the chain off his ankle but realized that the clasp was held in place with a rod that had no key.

Riggs had just finished a bowl of fake lobster tail and spaghetti when a dark-haired guy sat down next to him and suggested that he accompany him out to the parking lot. He figured he was being robbed and wondered if he should try for his gun. But that idea was short lived, and he felt a gun pressed to his back and his thirty-eight lifted from the back of his pants. He was led to the back of a panel truck and told to get in. He took in the two other cages and figured that he was part of some drug distributor pick up scheme.

Not long after, the door opened again and a second person who he recognized as another distributor that he did not know personally but who had had seen on the street. He was put into the cage with him. He learned his name was Rowan.

Then there was a several-hour drive which had him wondering where they were going. A short time after the truck came to a stop, he found out from the person to be put into the next cage, Ezekiel, that they were in New York City. An eastern looking fellow was the next person put into the van. He introduced himself as Boaz and asked if anyone knew what was going on.

The drive that followed took them all the way down to Miami. It was a logistical nightmare of periodic stops at rest areas and eating take out from fast food restaurants. In Miami, the third cage was filled with a Dante Cruz and a Kenji Mochizuki. On the long drive that followed, the two of them shared the fact that they made most of their money during the spring break. They distributed so many drugs of every variety that the rest of the year seemed like vacation.

None of them had any clue where they were going but they all figured it had to be north. They talked and realized they were all drug distributors. All they had been told was that if they cooperated, they would live to do their country a big favor. The implied threat of saying no was very plain.

Thank you for reading this far.