Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (Book 4)
Savage Vengeance (Book 5 - this story)
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 29
Olivia Lockheed couldn’t see or hear as the gangsters marched her through the tunnels. After what seemed like hours, but was probably much shorter, she climbed a metal ladder and felt the cool night air on her face. A few moments later, they pushed her into a vehicle — the van again, it seemed — where she lay on the floor. After a short drive, the van came to a stop, and a gangster untied her wrists and removed the hood and earmuffs.
He gave a nod toward the van’s side door as another gangster slid it open, so she crawled toward the door and climbed out of the vehicle. She was in the driveway of the safe house. She looked over her shoulder, watching as the van backed up the long, curving drive, until the light from the headlights disappeared from sight.
She stepped inside the house and closed the door behind her, but turned to look through the glass pane of the window. Were the gangsters hiding out of sight, or had they left? Perhaps Savage figured she would be too afraid to betray him, and decided his men didn’t need to monitor her.
Lockheed thought of the deal she had made with Savage. It might keep her alive. But, against all logic, one aspect of the arrangement bothered the FBI woman. Control. Olivia Lockheed craved control. This desire for control manifested itself in how she treated her sexual conquests. It also had shown itself in her dealings with Sapphire Angel. And now this craving — this obsession with control — was bubbling up, even as she contemplated how to deal with the Savage Gang.
Lockheed walked down the hall of the safe house and entered her bedroom, moving to the dresser. She smiled upon seeing the small, square object on her dresser — the monitor for the tracking device. She slipped a hand into her pants pocket, putting two fingers into the small change pocket and feeling a small circular item. She pulled it out.
The tracking chip. She stared at it, and a smirk came to her face. Lockheed had powered it on and taken it to her meeting with Sapphire Angel, hoping she might get a chance to use it. Wishful thinking, perhaps, given the heroine's tight costume. And when the heroine had remained out of reach on the stage at Italian Lake, any hope had disappeared. But Lockheed hadn't shut it down after the meeting, and the gangsters hadn't found it when doing their sloppy search of her.
The conniving FBI woman powered on the monitoring device and slipped the chip into a slot on the side of the device. A moment later, the screen lit up, and another grin came to her face. _Jackpot!_
Lockheed opened the top dresser drawer and retrieved a black pouch with thick fabric, secured at the top by Velcro. She opened the bag, pulled out her phone — her normal smartphone — and powered it on. When the screen came to life, she dialed a number. After two rings, the voice of her boss, Howard Vincent, answered.
“Hello, Olivia,” he said, his voice tentative.
“So how long has it been, Howard? How long have you been on their payroll?”
Vincent was silent for a few moments before speaking.
“That doesn’t matter, Olivia. You should focus on the present, which is more important. Maximus Savage told me about your visit. Can you really deliver Sapphire Angel to the gang?”
Lockheed twisted her lips in a frown.
“Howard, I need you to listen to me. This isn’t going to go down how Maximus Savage wants it to go down. I’m calling the shots. The sooner you get that through your head, the better off you’ll be. I’m always in control.”
Another pause on the line.
“Maximus Savage won’t like this, Olivia. It’s a very dangerous to play games with him.”
“It’s not a game. I’ve let other people dictate things for too long in this city. That changes now. So here’s how it’s going down. You can tell Savage I had a tracker on me. The idiot smashed my burner phone, but he didn’t find the tracker. This means I know where he is. I tracked where they took me, directly to his hideout.”
“You what?” Vincent asking, his voice rising in surprise.
“I know where his damned hideout is. And in a moment, I’m putting that information somewhere safe. Somewhere that, if anything happens to me, it will be released.”
“Olivia —”
“No, Howard!” Lockheed snapped. “You’re going to listen to me. You tell Savage I have the information, but nobody else will ever see it, so long as I stay alive and well. My safety is the price for him — the price of not needing to relocate his operations.”
“Are you s —”
“I’m sure!” she yelled.
Vincent sighed. “Fine, Olivia. I’ll tell him. But maybe he’ll decide to move his home base, and then you won’t have any leverage.”
“I’ll take that chance, Howard. My safety is a small price for him to pay to keep his machine running smoothly, if he’s smart. And, despite his appearance, he’s smart. And I have something else he wants — a way to deliver Sapphire Angel. You can tell him that our deal is still on, but with a change. I’ll deliver Sapphire Angel to him, but he won’t dictate how. I’m going to march her right into his hideout.”
“Olivia! That’s insane! Why would you want to do that?”
“I have my reasons, Howard, including making this is as believable for her as possible. I understand her. She’ll see through this trap if I fabricate things, including if I lead her somewhere phony. I can’t blow this.”
In reality, Lockheed had another reason, but she wasn’t about to reveal it to Vincent. Her main reason for leading the superheroine to the hideout was because Lockheed wasn’t comfortable with her choice — her betrayal of her FBI oath. She could keep her options open if she lead the superheroine to the gang. Sapphire Angel could take the gang down, if the heroine knew what to expect before she got there.
“Ohhh,” Vincent groaned, and she could picture the old man rubbing his temples. “Olivia, you don’t know Savage as well as I do. He won’t take this well.”
“I don’t care how the hell he takes it. And tell him to get his men away from the safe house, if they’re still here. I can’t have them following me and screwing up this whole thing.”
“Oh, fuck,” Vincent muttered. “Fine, Olivia. I’ll tell him.”
Lockheed hung up the phone, moved to the window, and opened the curtain. She stared outside, her body tense. The next several hours were going to change her life, one way or the other. She needed to decide which path to take — lead Sapphire Angel to the gangsters so they could finally beat the unbeatable superheroine, or take a different course, and let the heroine do what she did best — take them down.
Megan Lawlor stepped inside her townhome, closed the door, and locked it behind her. She leaned against the door, closed her eyes, and smiled. It felt good to get back in the game. The ordeal with the Savage Gang had turned out to be a career booster. Her station manager had been eager to get her back on the air, much to the surprise of her agent — so eager, he had assigned her to fill in as an anchor for both the evening news and the late news.
She flicked the wall switch to turn on the lights, smiled, and took a deep sigh of satisfaction with her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes, she saw two gigantic men sitting on her sofa. She tensed, noticing the masks and armor of the Savage Gang.
“Don’t bother running,” one of them growled. “There’s someone else in the vestibule out front. You won’t get far.”
“Wh… what do you want?” she asked, her voice trembling. In her mind, she was right back to her kidnapping, tied to the bridge at Italian Lake, freezing to death.
“I’d say we’re here to make you an offer, but this isn’t a negotiation. You don’t have any options.”
Lawlor didn’t answer, standing tall and staring at the man. He continued speaking in his deep voice.
“There’s going to be the showdown of the century soon. Sapphire Angel versus Maximus Savage. You’re the supposed expert on Sapphire Angel, right? How would you like the scoop and a front-row seat?”
Lawlor’s eyes opened wide, and a moment later a grin spread across her face.
“Count me in,” she said.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (Book 3)
Savage Dawn (Book 4)
Savage Vengeance (Book 5 - this story)
OHHHHHH BOYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!
Yeah, baby! This is what I’m talking about! Olivia Lockheed “likes” Sapphire Angel way, WAY too much, right? I get that the narrative is trying to emphasize the fact that she’s at a crossroads: allow the Savage Gang to take down Sapphire Angel so she (Olivia Lockheed) will live, or expose the Savage Gang and their hideout to Sapphire and have HER take them all down, like she always does, but at the risk of death by the Savage Gang if Sapphire somehow fails. And considering Sapphire has already “let” Savage escape twice already……yeah, no, never mind, this decision actually isn’t as easy as it first sounds like. (cracks up) I started out sounding so confident and then it literally just deflated the further I got into this paragraph. And there’s also the matter of Sapphire likely not wanting to associate with Lockheed again after the latter’s perceived “silence” following her abduction by the Savage Gang.
I personally think Olivia Lockheed should go the “heroic” route and rat out the Savage Gang to Sapphire Angel, even if it ultimately costs her her life at the end of it. It’d be an amazing way for her to (potentially) go out on a good note for once, after everything she’s done to Sapphire over the course of these past few novels. Maybe there’s still some way for her to get Sapphire to hear her out regarding the Savage Gang’s whereabouts, but if she can’t, oh man…..it’s not gonna look good for her.
So Megan Lawlor’s so set on covering Sapphire Angel that she’d turn to the Savage Gang—the very people who abducted her and held her captive on a bridge in the middle of a snowstorm at the climax of the previous novel—in order to accomplish that goal? Jeez…..the lengths people will go to in order to have the last laugh in workplace rivalry, am I right? Though I remember you specifying that it wasn’t exactly that……wonder what her competitor Ryan Addington would have to say about this, if anything? Maybe he’ll find out that she’s now collaborating with the Savage Gang and mass-report her on it, thus soiling her name, utterly disgracing her, and leaving him as the sole credible news authority on Sapphire Angel? Dang…..can’t believe that. And with how quickly she agreed to their deal…..it’s more heartbreaking than anything else. She used to be such a valiant news reporter…..she better not be the Savage Gang’s foothold on the news networks; if she is, they could have someone on the inside to spread misleading information everywhere on television and no one would be able to do a thing about it.
Sapphire’s definitely going to discover soon that Lawlor’s thrown in her lot with the Gang and be all like, “Are you serious? I RESCUED you from them!” or something to that effect. But time will tell, I suppose!