“What are you doing? You can’t do this.”
Owen ignored him and pulled two zip ties from his backpack, then secured the man’s ankles together, running one through the other as he latched it. The roll of tape was next, and unlike earlier when he had to be quiet ripping a strip off, Owen made certain the sound was clearly audible to the man on the floor.
“Stop it. You can’t do this to me.” Kuellen’s voice had gained a higher pitch in the extremity of his fear, the sound bouncing around the small room, overpowering the music. Owen taped Kuellen’s calves together first, then his thighs, before moving to run a final strip of tape around the man’s upper arms, inches above the elbow. “Please.”
Bitter bile rose in Owen’s throat, and he stifled his body's automatic reaction, his implacable gaze trained on the man's face.
“He’s a log.” Owen pushed up from the floor as August flipped their captive over. He placed his boot over Kuellen’s groin this time and shifted forwards, pressing hard enough the man groaned and whipped his head side to side, the only movement Owen had allowed him to retain.
“The boy?”
“Safe.” Owen looked around August’s back, directly into the camera. “Y’all watching? Y’all see this? Ain’t the first time we’ve met, motherfuckers.” He stepped towards the equipment in the corner, the light on the camera blinking as it streamed live. “I made you all a promise last time, and this is me making good on that. Gonna find you and kill you all.” He snapped his mouth closed, switched to the throat mic, and asked, “Alace, can you see who is watching this shit?”
“Already on it. I’ve dialed in on Georgia, Texas, Montana, and three back in Jersey. Counting Warrant and Kuellen, that’s eight total, which is what we thought based on their attendance at the auctions. None of them have disconnected. I’ll track them all down, Owen. You do what you need to do.”
“I’m coming for you.” He returned to normal speech for the sake of the camera, staring down what he hoped was a pipeline of terror connected directly to the screens these perverts sat in front of.
“You think you’re so smart, all scattered like you are in different states.”
He wouldn’t say where they were, because the omission would leave them believing they were still safe. If one member of the ring got spooked and moved, it was likely the rest would remain in their bunkers, feeling protected until he came and busted down their door.
“I’m the big bad wolf, and you’re all just little piggies. Gonna blind you now, little piggies.”
He ripped off another piece of tape, leaning close as he secured it lightly to the camera lens. He wanted light and shadow to still enter, knowing the play of bright and dark would be more terrible than severing their visual channel altogether.
Closer yet, he breathed on the microphone attached to the setup, then hoarsely whispered, “Gonna let you hear everything, though. I want you to imagine this is you, helpless on the floor. Got you under my thumb, subject to anything I decide to do. Listen to it. Listen, and think about what’s gonna happen to you when I find you. Gonna blow you all down in the end.”
“Jesus, Owen. You’re scary.” Alace chuckled darkly in his ear. “Gave me goose bumps.”
“Yeah, well, they made me angry.” He turned back, seeing August’s cheeks had risen behind the mask, indicating approval of Owen’s tactics. Still using the throat mic, he said, “Need to hook all your guys up with the same gear, boss lady. Would make this mission a tad bit easier.”
“Is this the point where I get to remind you that you went rogue on me, striking off on your own and scaring Doc half to death?” Her mention of Doc gave him pause, wondering what she meant. “He called me, you know? That’s why you’ve got the help you do have. So one, don’t bite the hand that feeds you, and two, don’t ditch the partnership again.” Welp, that explains everything. “Do you think Kuellen knows anything that doesn’t also exist in his data?”
“Doubtful. He is an angry intellectual, but obsessive. Have you seen the organization of his porn videos? Each is categorized in multiple ways, from sex acts to age of participants, even type of vocalizations. I have no doubt his network of perverts exists inside his computers.” The man had continued to sputter, trailing off into more groans as August leaned more weight into the leg pinning him to the floor. “I think I go for dramatic effect, then we toast him and dispose.”
“Owen.” Alace’s voice was lower, quiet, as if she was guarding her words, and it brought him back to full alert. “He’s got the video of you and Warrant. It’s titled End of a Friend and is filed under remarkable deaths. He’s got you on video. It’s been downloaded—” She sucked in a gasp. “Nearly two thousand times.” He flinched at the knowledge. “Let’s finish this. I want to take it down, and then track each of those downloads.”
“Can you do that?” Owen flinched again, this time at his verbalization of doubt in Alace’s abilities. “Strike that, of course you can.” Straightening his shoulders, he locked gazes with August and held until the big man nodded, taking a big step backwards, ceding the scene to Owen.
Kuellen’s face was pale. He was sweating profusely as Owen knelt and put one knee directly in the center of Kuellen’s chest. Leaning forwards, Owen pressed hard to rob him of air. Aloud, he said, “You’re dying today. Any last words from the pervert in the room?”
“I can pay you.”
“Oh, I’m sure you can. What you don’t realize is I’m not interested in a payout.” Owen shifted more weight to his knee. “Payback, now that’s another thing.” He feigned surprise. “Hey, you know how focused I am on an eye for an eye.” Owen shook his head back and forth, tracking the size of Kuellen’s pupils as they widened, darkness engulfing his eyes. “You gotta know I saw what you did to that boy’s mouth.” Thumb flicking the safety strap away, Owen tugged his knife free of the sheath. “Hold his head.” When August moved, Owen shifted so the toe of his boot dug into Kuellen’s dick. “Gonna get messy. Real messy.” A pair of pliers appeared in front of him, and Owen took them with a silent thanks. He gripped the tip of Kuellen’s tongue and pulled hard, earning a muffled scream from the man. It was loud enough for the live-stream listeners to hear. He did it again, harder, eliciting a louder scream. “Equal force effects equal resistance. Now let’s see how well I can do with my carving technique. Thanksgiving was never my favorite holiday.”
Selecting a point on the surface of the extended tongue just behind the teeth, Owen sliced decisively through the muscle. Blood pooled around the blade immediately, swelling as he neared the tip. By the time he was finished cutting through the organ, blood was filling Kuellen’s mouth, choking off his inhalation and cutting off his screams.
It didn’t take long. Between Owen’s weight controlling his breath and the suffocating blood, Kuellen was dead within minutes.
Owen stood and walked back to the video station, got near the microphone again, and whispered, “That’ll be you, sooner or later. That’s gonna be you.” Using the throat mic, he told Alace, “Cut it. Shut it all down.”