Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 19: Hackers of Reality
Part 6: Drag You Down With Me (Final Revision)
Part 6: Drag You Down With Me (Final Revision)
19 october 2014.
shira’s apartment. Shira wakes up screaming. Kira rushes in to leap on her; they hold each other tight, writhe together as in pain, cry as hard as they can. The girl with the violet eyes shakes the sobbing twins desperately, crying out “Calm down! Please calm down!”
The twins sit up side-by-side. The girl embraces Shira from behind, kisses her neck, caresses her breasts comfortingly; Shira sighs, “God I love you.” The girl spins onto Shira’s lap to kiss her deeply and stare into her eyes. “Shira, what’s wrong?”
Kira leans against her sister and rests her head on her shoulder. “It’s Karen. Somebody’s got her, and we can feel everything she does.”
“They’re torturing her!” cries Shira. “And we can feel it...”
A chill goes down the girl’s spine; her blood goes cold. “Falconer—”
Together the twins blurt, “Falconer?!” Shira goes dead calm, eyes wide, gaze hard. “She knows we know.”
The girl tries to comfort her but trembles with fear for her. “We can save her, love. We can do it. We have to.”
“I know the way.” A smile forms on her lips. “And I’ve got the bomb.” The lovers fall back together onto the mattress; overwhelmed by emotion, they kiss with extra violence and tears. Kira throws herself onto them and cries with them.
telesphere. Karen is bound and gagged. Someone kicks her forward. It is Alan Fleer, in full uniform, the one-star flag of the American Empire behind him.
Admiral Fleer: Attention, liberal traitors of Cascadia. You have betrayed America for the last time. I have possession of one of your own. If you do not surrender collectively and unconditionally to the eternal dictatorship of Jesus America immediately, I will treat her the way a traitor should be treated. She will suffer the torments of hell while she still lives. Then she will die.penguindrome. Colette screams — Daisy gasps in horror — Polly faints — Fiona runs out crying — the girl with the violet eyes howls with heartbreak and outrage — Shira’s eyes narrow, her face hardens, Kira averts her eyes and tries not to cry — Jennifer says, “Our move. Think fast.”
I will do the same to all of you, one after another, until you surrender your petty wills to my dominion. You will also bring me the head of Shira Thomas. You have only twenty-four hours.
ESPNBC: Admiral Alan Fleer has announced he has put the liberal traitor Karen Kubota under his personal custody—
[the eight-bit mask of Spanner appears in front of a pixilated and jerkily animated Imperial flag]red house. A knock on the door: Angela. Desiree and Luna's nudity doesn't faze her. With a huge smile she holds out the papers. “Guess what?”
Spanner: Well, well, well. Big Al was never a subtle one. He’s publicizing his latest crime. It’s a kidnapping. He’s got a hostage, and she’s a pretty one, mmmm, mmm. Considering what you’ve already seen of him, bets are he’ll use her as a play toy. Maybe, just maybe, he might even drink her blood. He always wanted to be a vampire like the Beckets, with their amazing superpowers. That’s why he married one.
But before Big Al has his fun, he has a use for her. I wonder what his demand is? Chances are, you already know. In fact, he’s just bragged about it to the whole world.
Desiree says, “You did it.”
“Jackie Boy now owns the name without the kid. Your daughter is now, by her request, legally nameless.”
The now nameless child leaps screaming with joy into Angela’s arms, making her drop the papers. Desiree diligently picks them up, then trades them for her daugher; they hold each other tight and dance around together, celebrating a young girl’s faith in the freedom of anonymity.
penguindrome. The girls huddle together. Jennifer says, “Okay, let’s figure out a way to get Karen out of that man’s clutches.”
Shira says, “I’ll call J.T.”
“That’ll only get us in trouble.”
“Not if Chief One-Eye’s sister or nieces are in trouble.”
The violet-eyed girl says, “I’ll see if I can get Rachel to get in touch with Charmian.”
“What about Spanner?” asks Polly.
Shira and Kira look at each other with a wicked gleam in their eyes, then at Polly. Together they reply, “Let him loose.” Shira raises her phone to her ear and calls Sparks.
angela’s car. Angela makes a call to the now nameless child’s father, Jacques-Louis Stenbeck. “Hello, Mr. Stenbeck?”
“Who the hell are you?”
“Desiree Richter-Thomas’s legal counsel. I’d like to inform you about your daughter.”
“Are you bringing her back?”
“In a sense. You now have complete ownership of her name and number. What you don’t have is the kid. She now has no name.”
He goes into a screaming tantrum, swears in banlieue French, and throws his phone. She laughs.
Spanner: Alan Fleer is holding a beautiful hostage. [show school picture of Karen] He is demanding unconditional surrender. He is threatening to kill Karen Kubota, a high-school peace activist, if the so-called liberal traitors of Cascadia don’t surrender to him and his god unconditionally. He is an Admiral of the Imperial Navy, yet he is acting exactly like a terrorist.penguindrome. The violet-eyed girl calls her cousin Rachel Brinkman. “Hel— uh, what are you doing?”
[show official Navy picture of Fleer in front of the flag, complete with medals]
Guess what? He is a terrorist. The uniform, the medals, the honors, the patriotism, the years of faithful service? All lies.
In my hands I possess the death of Alan Fleer. If he brings harm to young Karen Kubota, if he rapes her like he did the victims of the Revolution, if he orders an attack on the so-called liberal traitors of Cascadia, I will show you his true nature right here on this channel. I will expose him to the burning sun of public awareness. And then, like a vampire in sunlight, Alan Fleer will die.
You have already had a preview of his death. Here’s more.
[Eden Fleer spyvid: a naked Honey Sue Falconer sodomizes him with a cattle prod connected via electrical clamps on his penis to a car battery; he begs her to up the voltage, and she complies]
“Does Charmian know about Karen?”
“Karen? What happened to her?”
“The Admiral kidnapped her. He’s holding her hostage, torturing her, and demanding Shira’s head.”
“That’s impossible! Why would he hurt Karen?”
“Student Union, remember? Rachel, Charmian won’t listent to me. Please tell her. Please?”
church of america seattle. Normally Drusilla would not allow something as frivolous as a phone call to interrupt her meditation. But this time her intuition tells her it’s important. Through the intercom she tells the acolyte on phone duty, “Let him through.”
Jacques Stenbeck says, “Miss Becket?”
“Is this important, Mr. Stenbeck?”
“Your prodigal daughter just had her lawyer call to tell me I no longer have a daughter.”
“Did she murder her? She would do it to spite me.”
“She says I have ownership of only her name. The kid has no name.”
Her blood goes cold with rage. “Like Leila Shelley?”
“Yeah.”
She pauses to think. No plan comes to her. Yet. “Please tell me more.”
marshall brinkman’s house. Rachel tries to get Charmian on her personal phone. “Oh come on girl, please pick up.” At last she does. Rachel sighs in relief. “Charmian! Is Karen there?”
“Why would Karen be here? She’s not—”
“She is there. Your dad kidnapped her.”
“No he—”
“Yes!”
Charmian falls silent. She takes in a sharp breath. “It’s about her, isn’t it.”
“Shira knows.”
The call suddenly ends.
red house. Desiree gets the call she dreads: her mother. She answers. Drusilla says, “Your gangster just told me you stole your child’s name.”
“That was entirely her choice.”
“You know how important one’s name is to the soul’s mission.”
“And so does she. That’s why she rejected a big name for no name at all. She knows that you, the gangster, and your pet fanatic no longer have any power over her now that you no longer have a name to control her by. This is the metaphysical meaning of the anonymous beauties’ slogan, ‘anonymity is freedom.’”
Drusilla ends the call by throwing her phone. Desiree laughs.
admiral’s house. The Admiral confronts his wife, Eden Becket Fleer, in the bedroom. He snarls, “So you have been spying on me.”
“Only because you’ve been cheating on me,” she hisses.
“A man has his sovereign right!”
“Stop fooling around with that woman and publicly repent, Alan, or I’ll destroy you.”
“You’re betraying me! Spanner is a terrorist!”
She slaps him as hard as she can.
He tastes his own blood. He punches her so hard she hits the wall. With murder in his eyes, he hits her again and again.
drusilla’s mansion. Drusilla calls her niece Eden on her 1920s-style gold-and-Bakelite landline telephone. She gets her husband instead. He is unusually edgy. “What do you want, Drusilla?” he snaps.
“I am talking to my niece. Bring her here.”
“She’s not here.”
“Alan, don’t evade.”
“Drusilla, she is not here!”
“You mean, ‘no longer with us’?” In the most blood-chilling voice she hisses: “Alan Marcus Fleer, you are dead.”
admiral’s house. Charmian picks the lock on the door to the basement and sneaks down. Her eyes take their time adjusting to the darkness. “Karen?” she whispers.
“Charmian?” comes the weak reply.
Even in the darkness, Karen is a heartbreaking sight. “Oh my God, it’s true...” Then she turns toward what Karen is staring at with such horror. She approaches the lump in the darkness. When she recognizes it, her heart sinks to the floor and her blood goes cold—
Dorian and Julian hear her scream. They steal the basement key while their father’s preoccupied on the phone. They run down with a flashlight, see Karen, run over to her and hug her. Then they see what she’s looking at—
In the corner they find Charmian unconscious. Next to her, they find their mother — naked, bloody, dismembered, dead — rope burns, saw marks, signs of torture—
Nameless Reporter: Update in the kidnapping of high school cheerleader Karen Kubota by Admiral Alan Fleer! Reports are coming in that he—black tower. Brinkman, Becket, Everson, and Litton watch Spanner’s piratecast on the big screen above the entrance. Litton says, “I agree with the terrorist.”
[the picture distorts as Echelon successfully jams the KCUF News Team signal, only to be replaced by the eight-bit image of Spanner with a one-star American flag “waving” in the background using color cycling]
Spanner: Looks like Big Al’s finally outdone himself. Word from the grapevine says he’s killed his wife. She took video of his crimes of adultery so she could blackmail him. He rewarded her by torturing her to death and cutting her up into pieces, the way his daddy taught him back in fascist Argentina. You know, like this:
[home movies of young Alan Fleer torturing, raping, murdering, and then raping attractive political prisoners]
If you can’t stop yourself from having fun at the expense of pretty girls like this, then you’re already dead. [a creepy grin appears on his helmet] See you in Hell, Big Al.
Brinkman narrows his eyes at him. “In what way?”
“Al’s fucked.”
“I say good riddance,” says Jack Becket. “Next time I see the bastard, I’ll bite his head off for what he did to my sister.”
“Y’all need a new fourth man.”
Everson grits his teeth. “And you’re volunteering yourself?”
“I’m here and he ain’t. Better yet, he ain’t coming back. Ever. So say goodbye to your late comrade.”
Brinkman shakes his head. “Call Currie.” Litton glares at him resentfully. But he picks up the phone to call Admiral Currie.
slasher hunters van. Lars watches the adultery videos stream on his monitor. “You guys have to take a look at this.”
Arisa’s jaw drops as she leans over his seat to watch. “That’s what he lost his shit over?”
“I’d understand if he’d attacked Shira,” John Peck says. “But why Karen Kubota?”
“You know something about her, Brandi, explain it.”
“Karen’s the head of our Student Union. That should be explanation enough.”
Lars asks, “But getting at Shira through Karen? That’s what I don’t get.”
“They’re cousins who think of themselves more like sisters.”
Arisa rolls her eyes. “And we all know how much Shira loves her sisters.”
“Now think about this: what would Shira do?”
A light goes on in the others’ eyes.
telesphere. The hottest new virtual band on the Darknet, Spanner and the Monkeywrench, remake the most celebrated of all game-over songs (“You Are Dead” by Game Over Man) with new lyrics in a video with instruments and polygon graphics swiped from Guitar Hero. “This one’s for Big Al,” says their infamous lead singer.
Spanner: You think you’re so bad, guess what, you suck,admiral’s house. Karen and Charmian cry together. “It’s all my fault,” Charmian sobs, “I didn’t mean to do it...”
Band: You are dead, dead, dead.
Spanner: Now you’ve run amuck and now you’re out of luck,
Band: You are dead, dead, dead.
Spanner: You sold your soul for thirty pieces of gold,
You’re so so deh-head!
Now your reputation is turning to mold,
You’re so so deh-head!
Spanner: Now you just got caught cutting up your wife,
Band: You are dead, dead, dead.
Spanner: You got a pretty hostage you can cut with your knife,
Band: You are dead, dead, dead.
[repeat the chorus]
[cartoon Fleer head with X’ed-out eyes and lolling tongue appears, and in front of them the undulating words “AL FLEER IS DEAD!”]
Entire band: You are dead, dead, dead,
You are dead, dead, dead,
You are dead, dead, dead,
You are dead, dead, dead...
Spanner: Sorry, Big Al. You blew it! You were gonna take it all. You had all those wimp-ass liberals trembling in fear! But then you had to blow it. Y’know, if you’d just kept your cool, you wouldn’t be in this situation. Now your wife is dead, and everybody knows you did it. Sucks to be you, Al. Have a nice death.
Band: You are dead, dead, dead,
You are dead, dead, dead...
Karen tries to comfort her through the pain and trauma. “It’s not your fault. I always knew you had a good heart.”
“I love you, Karen.” She kisses Karen’s cheek.
A bang on the door. Heavy angry footsteps down the stairs. Charmian goes stiff. She says with cold malice, “I have no choice.”
“Please don’t—”
“It’s the only way to save your life.” She goes over to the gun rack she picked open and chooses a pistol.
The light comes on. Fleer has a knife. He hears a gun cock. He turns to see his daughter, pointing a gun at him, hot tears and cold hate in her eyes. She fires—
Sparks, Kowalczyk, and Perry follow the SWAT agents down into the basement. They find four sisters hugging a Karen now free. Vivian is missing. Christian wails over the slumped figure of Admiral Fleer, dying of a bullet wound to the gut. With one last gasp the man who would be military dictator of Cascadia says: “Ain’t no fucking way in hell the bitch is gonna get me to say ‘Nam-myoho-renge-kyo’...”
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[Revision 4 Final, 3/21/13: Most scenes retained from Revision 2, including some originally from 19.5 and 20.1; heavily edited to fit Fourth Revision continuity.
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