Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
VIOLENCE WARNING: The two stories in the Savage Gang saga, and especially the second story, involve a gang practicing extreme violence toward everyone — women, the elderly, the protagonist, etc. The stories contain mature sexual content and violence as well. I am placing this warning on all chapters, including those without such violence, so you can choose whether to continue.
CHAPTER 42
Rocco Lynch and his men knew exactly where to go in the arena, thanks to a sniveling fight promoter. They had cornered the man two hours earlier in the parking lot of his suburban Hershey hotel, forcing him to reveal the event’s logistics, and to share his understanding of the arena’s layout. He had done so willingly — after Lynch broke his arms.
They left the man unconscious in the trunk of his car, and advanced to the arena, where they took down two security guards near a service tunnel entrance. The gang’s attack was so overwhelming the men didn’t have a chance to sound an alarm. From there, Lynch and his men followed the maze of tunnels underneath the arena, before climbing through a manhole cover into a maze of back halls.
Televisions hung from the ceiling, showing the pre-fight weigh-in, as Lynch and his men snuck toward their destination — the weigh-in room. Lynch’s biggest concern was timing, because of the large law enforcement presence at the arena. The police here weren’t yet cowering from the gang, like many of the cops in Harrisburg. Lynch and his men needed to get in, make a splash, and get out before reinforcements arrived, or before anyone stumbled upon the fallen guards at the entrance to the tunnels.
He nodded to his men, and they trotted down the hall. His small team — Vick Dillard, Mike Mitchell, and Smash — would be enough. The training and abilities of these men exceeded the skills of anyone they would encounter, including those of the mixed martial artists, who were some of the toughest fighters around.
As they rounded a corner, two large bodyguards looked up in surprise from their post in front of the door to the weigh-in room. They were large, but not as massive as Lynch and his men. The bodyguards moved into defensive positions, but couldn’t even raise their weapons before Lynch and another gangster plowed into them, leading with elbows and knees. The bodyguards crumbled under the onslaught, and Lynch’s men trampled over them, flowing into the room after Lynch kicked in the door.
As they entered, interrupting the weigh-in, six fighters looked up in surprise from a line against the far wall, where they had been waiting for the fight officials. Their surprise turned to uncertainty and confusion as they stared at the gangsters. Several camera operators and the television host turned at the noise, and murmurs filled the air.
The confusion allowed Lynch and his men to close the distance before the fighters could react or retreat. Lynch was the first one to them, heading straight for a fighter known as T-Bone. He was the current champion and extremely popular among the fans, and would be the toughest opponent. T-Bone, clad in bright blue shorts and sporting a blue dog bone tattoo in the middle of his chest, raised his arms, palms out, as if to say, “Wait a second” to Lynch.
Lynch swung at T-Bone’s lower stomach, and the fighter, his eyes widening, moved both hands down to block the blow. In his surprised and unprepared state, he never saw Lynch’s move for the feint it was, and as he dropped his hands, Lynch planted his other fist into T-Bone’s face. The fighter staggered back, and a moment later, recognition of the threat crossed his face. The fighter reversed direction and charged at Lynch, snarling.
Perhaps T-Bone thought he faced an untrained brute, or perhaps he still operated in a confused fog. Whatever the reason, he wasn’t ready for an opponent of Lynch’s caliber. Lynch pivoted to the left, causing T-Bone to slow and change direction. As he did, Lynch’s booted foot shot out, driving into T-Bone’s left knee, hyper-extending the joint. The fighter howled as the blow shredded ligaments and tendons.
While T-Bone dropped to the ground, Lynch stole a glimpse to his left and right. This was going as expected. With the element of surprise on their side, the gang members had several other fighters on the ground writhing in pain.
Lynch turned his focus back to T-Bone, who rocked back and forth on the ground, both hands holding his injured knee as he grimaced in agony. Lynch grabbed him by the hair and drove three punches into the fighter’s chiseled face, spraying blood and a few teeth around the man.
“Please stop!” T-Bone pleaded, spitting out mouthfuls of his own blood.
Lynch scowled as he kneeled next to the man. He grabbed the champ’s left arm and yanked it down over his knee. A sickening crack filled the air before the man toppled onto his back and flopped around in agony.
After giving T-Bone one final kick to the ribs, Lynch looked about, confirming the fighting was over. The remaining opponents were down for the count, and the television host cowered in the corner near the camera operators, who had caught it all on video. Lynch strode to a table in the middle of the room and snatched a belt and trophy. The belt was the championship belt and belonged to T-Bone. The trophy was for the night’s champion.
“I think we earned these,” Rocco sneered at the nearest camera. “You’re next, Sapphire Angel. We’re gonna break your little body in half.”
Rocco turned, leading his men from the room. They retraced their path from earlier, trotting as they came to the manhole cover. Rocco pulled it aside and watched as his men dropped into the tunnels below the arena. He dropped in after them, before they hoisted him up far enough to pull the manhole cover into place.
By the time the authorities realized where they were, they would be clear of the arena. With a grin on his face, they slipped away into the darkness.
Seconds after the attack at the arena unfolded on her television screen, Beth jumped to her feet, reaching her right fist toward the base of her neck. Feeling woozy, she sat back down in the chair. What was she thinking? Even without a concussion, the gang would be long gone before she got to Hershey. And even if she were at the arena, she was in no shape to face the gang in her current condition. They would put her on the receiving end of a beatdown on live television.
She watched the broadcast to the end, hearing the masked man’s taunt directed at Sapphire Angel. Beth clenched her fists before wiping away a tear of frustration. The whole thing had taken only a minute or two, but it was enough to fill her with a sense of helplessness.
“Damn it,” she muttered. She might not be able to face the gang, but she wasn’t going to do nothing. Her visit to Olivia Lockheed, as Sapphire Angel, wouldn’t involve any strenuous activity, and might get her one step closer to stopping the gang.
She rose from the chair, allowed the room to settle, and took a few tentative steps. A moment later, she tested herself by pacing around the room. She was far from stable, but the longer she was on her feet, the more she could keep her bearings. Her last act in the room was to fluff the covers to make it appear — perhaps only a little — like a body slept in the bed.
A few minutes later, she heard her ride pull up in front of the house. Fortunately, the guest room sat in the front of the home, while the kitchen and the master bedroom sat in the rear. Stanley’s office was in its own corner near the kitchen. The home’s security rivaled that of Fort Knox, but she knew Stanley wouldn’t activate any of it until he went to sleep. Mrs. Devor often griped about his paranoia, and the inconvenience caused by an active alarm system.
She took careful steps to the door, opened it, and looked left and right down the hall. Beth stepped into the corridor and tottered to the stairwell, squeezing the railing as she descended one slow step after another. At the bottom of the stairs, she could hear the television coming from the den in the back of the house. She staggered to the front door, turned the lock, and eased it open. After stepping outside, she used a key, given to her by Stanley months earlier, to relock the door. Moments later, she wobbled through the chilly night air to the car.
Once inside the vehicle, the young male driver confirmed her destination, and she was off for her meeting with Olivia Lockheed.
Olivia Lockheed pulled her leather corset tight and slid the leather mask over the top of her head, covering her hair and the top half of her face. Narrow eye holes allowed her to see. She laid her other implements out on the bed, including a whip, before sniffing the air to test the strength of her concoction.
The incense had been burning for over an hour, and a haze filled the room. Olivia had learned long ago how to fool the smoke detectors in hotel rooms, so she didn’t worry about the sprinklers going off. She felt a slight buzz come over her from the incense, but, for reasons she didn’t know, it affected her less than others. Perhaps she had developed a tolerance, or perhaps it was for other reasons, but incense, drugs, and other substances affected her in unique ways, or not at all. The key, though, concerned how it would affect Sapphire Angel. If she came.
Lockheed’s message had instructed the superheroine to call her, but that message had been a ruse. From her study of the stunning super lady, she knew a phone call wasn’t the heroine’s style. Sapphire Angel liked to operate by surprise, so she would learn where Lockheed was staying, and pay her an unannounced visit. Lockheed was counting on it.
The FBI woman’s only concern was whether the gang would spoil her evening and come after her here at the hotel. If Sapphire Angel could discover Lockheed’s location, then the gang might find her as well. But she doubted they would try to kill her here, if they even tried at all. They had countless other opportunities to knock her off in public, and hadn’t done so. For some reason, they didn’t want to be associated with her death. She wouldn’t be the first agent killed by the gang, but such deaths were rare, so perhaps the gang wanted to avoid such an extreme step, here in Harrisburg. Lockheed would need to consider if that was it, or if there were some other reason.
But not tonight. Tonight was the night she got her hands on Sapphire Angel and showed her who was in charge.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (this book - Book 4)
.........At first, I questioned what possible reason there could’ve been for the attack on the fighting club’s participants other than for Lynch to save face with Savage regarding the (mostly) failed bombing on T.L. “Tip” Grim’s gun shop. And then I learned that the skirmish was actually taking place in real time AND that Beth was actively watching it all on TV as it unfolded, and then I went “Oh. Oh, that’s what’s up.” Gotta hand it to them; even though they’re the bad guys and all, they know how to put on good actions scenes, like Gravik and the Skrull Resistance in “Secret Invasion”.
Could there have been a way for Stanley to only activate a specific portion of the security system, or does it operate on an “all or nothing” mechanism? Would’ve been useful to keep Beth from sneaking out, even if that technically would’ve been wrong. I get that Stanley, his wife, and all of the others only want to keep Beth safe amidst her superheroics, but again, like with Conner, I feel like they’ve yet to strike the proper balance between letting her fly and holding her close. Kind of like parents with their children as said children start growing up, even though that’s admittedly not quite that good of an analogy.
(sigh) We were so close, you know? We were THIS close to something resembling cooperation. It looks like Beth’s remarks to Lockheed combined with Beth taunting Lockheed over the latter not getting Sapphire to help her---and Sapphire’s one attempt to recruit Lockheed---really didn’t help Lockheed’s opinion of Sapphire, as I just saw in the last section of this chapter. The torture devices, the weird incense, AND Sapphire’s current state as a result of Lynch’s gun shop attack really don’t make this look good for her. She literally just barely got out of an explosion alive a while ago, and now she’s going to be walking right into Lockheed’s sick obsessions while not being at peak condition. Wonder if the Savage Gang will burst in and it’ll become a hectic three-faction fight; now THAT’D be interesting! I get that we’re still a ways away from the end, but I, for one, am invested for the long haul!
(gasp) Or maybe Stanley, Mrs. Devor, Conner, and Ethan could all realize that Beth is missing sometime soon and then go on some kind of rescue mission to extract her from Lockheed’s place. That would depend on Stanley having something to discern Beth’s location, but judging from everything else he’s pulled off, it doesn’t seem like such an impossible task.
Wonder if the next few chapters are going to have a “Raven Tristan & The Drugs” or “Roy Valik & The Experiments” feel to them once again; would continue the once-per-novel trend of Sapphire being captured and thoroughly humiliated for several chapters by someone from an enemy faction before managing to escape. I swear, she’s already been through so much; I can’t fathom how she’s still going. I’d have thrown everything in at this point!