| General Fiction posted March 23, 2025 | Chapters: |
...45 46 -47- 48... 
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Inside the house
A chapter in the book The Devil Fights Back
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 47
by Jim Wile
The author has placed a warning on this post for language.| Background Three intrepid women team up to conquer medical challenges. |
Recap of Chapter 46: Fran and Dana arrive at Brian’s house, and Fran tries to reassure Brian and Julia she will get Johnny back. She plans to go alone and will call in backup after she scouts the place out, but Dana convinces her to ride along with her with a promise to remain in the car.
Unbeknownst to them, Marie stows away on the floor of the backseat and makes her presence known when they are almost to the house where Johnny is. Fran is exasperated at now having two civilians but makes them both promise to remain in the car while she scouts out the house.
She hears Johnny through an open window rasping and wheezing—in the throes of an asthma attack—and she now decides she can’t wait for backup. When she gets back to the front door, there is Dana with a gun to help, and against her better judgment, she decides to breach the front door with Dana.
Chapter 47
Fran turned the doorknob and quietly pushed the door open. She entered quickly, pointing her gun left then right as she scanned the entry. There was no one on the stairs to the second floor either. She quietly whispered, “Clear” to Dana, who stepped in behind her and eased the door closed. Standing in the entry, they could hear Johnny in the next room much clearer now, and he was definitely wheezing and coughing between sobs. The sound was heartbreaking.
Very quietly, Fran peeked around the corner into the living room where she heard it. The quick glimpse took in Johnny sitting inside a dog cage with his back to her and a man sitting at a desk in front of a computer monitor. No sign of Woody, though. He might still be in the kitchen.
Before they had a chance to enter the room, they heard the sound of a pump-action shotgun being pumped and a voice behind them saying, “Don’t move a muscle, or I’ll blow your heads off. Have I got your attention, ladies? Now, slowly bend down and place your guns on the floor.”
There must have been surveillance cameras after all, thought Fran. Miniature ones that couldn’t be detected. These two wouldn’t have had time to install them. The place would have been well-prepared ahead of time. Israel probably had several places around the Charlotte area prepared like this, not knowing exactly where the kidnapping would go down and wanting to get his captive locked down as quickly as possible.
Fran and Dana did as ordered and placed their guns on the floor. As she did, Fran glanced back to see someone who had to be Woody with the barrel of a shotgun aimed at them.
“Alright, use your foot and slide them back towards me. Stay facing forward.”
By this time, the one named Billy had come up next to Woody. He held a pistol aimed at their backs and said, “Well, well, well. Saw you coming a mile off. Come to rescue the little guy, have you? Well, good luck with that. Did’ja think you broads were going to get the better of us? Well, think again.”
“Billy, shut up,” said Woody. “You talk too much.”
“Hey, you’re the new guy here. You don’t tell me what to do. Now, you do what you want with this big one here. I’m taking the other one into that bedroom over there.”
“Just shut the fuck up and frisk them? They may have another gun hidden on them.”
Billy reluctantly ran his hands up and down both women, stopping only to squeeze their breasts as he ran his hands over them. He didn’t find any other guns.
“Satisfied now, Woody?”
Woody said nothing.
“Listen, guys,” said Fran. “Can’t you hear that baby coughing and wheezing in there? He’s having an asthma attack. If you let that baby die, you’ve lost your leverage. Why don’t you let me give him his asthma medicine? It’s in the diaper bag.”
“I’ll do it myself—later. First, I’m taking you down to the basement.”
Woody walked towards Fran and placed the end of the shotgun in the middle of her back.
“Now walk forward into the living room about five steps and turn left. Good. Now walk forward again, and we’ll turn left again down at the end of the room.”
As they passed through the living room, Johnny was now facing them inside the dog cage. There was a blanket on the bottom, but that was it. He was watching them go by. Fran thought she saw a glint of recognition in his eyes, but couldn’t be sure. He was crying and wheezing, and her heart went out to him.
“Alright, down the short hall and open that door on the left. Flip on the light switch. That’s it; now head on down the stairs.”
Fran did everything Woody said, but her mind was going a mile a minute. She planned to make her move as soon as she hit the basement floor and Woody was still on the last couple of stairs. She would quickly turn to the left, out of the way, and grab the barrel of the gun, but Woody saw this coming and stopped a few stairs short.
“Move away from the stairs a few steps and turn around so your back is to me.”
Fran hesitated for a moment, weighing the odds.
“Do it, or I’ll blow your head off!”
She did what he said, and he came down the last couple of stairs and applied the gun to her back again.
“Now walk forward. You see that steel support post? I want you to get around the other side of that with your back against it and your arms behind you.”
Fran hated to comply, but she didn’t have much choice with the barrel of the shotgun firmly against her spine. As soon as she took her position and reached her arms back, Woody clamped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists that he had fished from his pocket.
“How could you betray the Kendricks like this, Woody? Were you in on it from the start?”
“Why should I tell you?”
“Because I’m Brian’s sister, and I think he’d want to know.”
“Huh. You a cop?”
“No, FBI.”
“No kidding!”
“Yeah, and when I bust you, you’re going to jail for a long time. And you know, they don’t take too kindly to kidnappers in gen pop (general population), where you’ll end up.”
“Yeah, well look who’s handcuffed to this pole, and look who’s free. I don’t see that happening.”
“Well, you never know. I called the Sheriff’s Department for backup before we came on the property. They’ll likely be here any minute now.”
“Yeah, you’re full of shit. Not like you Fibbies to call in the locals for help. You think you’re a bunch of hotshots who can go it alone. Thought this rescue would be pretty easy, didn’t you? Well, I got news for you. We were well prepared. That computer in there has a picture for each of the cameras we got trained on the outside. No one gets on the property that we don’t see first.”
“So, answer my question: Were you in on it from the start?”
“You don’t need to know that.”
Why exactly was he doing all this, he wondered? After all, he liked Fran’s brother and his family. That Julia was a real sweetie. He liked the kid too. But working his ass off to pay all that alimony to two ex-wives was wearing him down.
Israel knew who he was from that surveillance camera on the lamp post picking up his license plate number when he came to interview for the job. After he got it, they got in touch with him and offered 250 grand to be their eyes and ears and do whatever they asked him to do. Well, it seemed like the money problems were solved.
That warning in the park when those two guys came and threatened Julia? That was pretty sweet the way he played the hero in that little scene. They had all just hoped Brian would cave and quit the trials then, but when he didn’t, it was time to step things up. When this is all over, and he gets paid, he wouldn’t be sticking around. He would head to some tropical island where it’s tough to get extradited from.
“No idea.”
“There should be instructions that come with it. If you just can’t figure out the spacer quickly, then use only the inhaler. Don’t forget to shake it first. Put the mouthpiece in the baby’s mouth and squeeze a puff out with your thumb and forefinger. Shake it up and give him another puff in 30 seconds. You got all that?”
“I’ll figure it out. Now, there’s something I gotta do first to keep you from calling out in case anyone does breach the premises. I’m going to put a gag in your mouth.”
“Ah, Jesus. Just get up there and tend to the baby, would you?”
“Shut up.”
Woody went upstairs and retrieved a ball gag from a box of supplies in the kitchen and went back downstairs to place the gag on Fran.
Before he put the silicone ball in her mouth, Fran said, “Don’t forget to help the baby. He’s my nephew and my godson. I mean it, Woody. Now hurry.”
“Don’t sweat it. That’s where I’m going next.”
He gagged Fran and went back upstairs, leaving her totally helpless. How the hell am I going to get out of this? she thought. And is Johnny going to survive it?
(4 more chapters to go)
 Recognized |
Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.
Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is a confidential informant (CI) for Fran and works in Big Pharma.
Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.
Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.
Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.
Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.
Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.
Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.
Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.
Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.
Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.
Woody Sandbulte: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.
Nick Burwell: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.
Harvey Briggs: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.
Billy: One of the kidnappers.
Picture courtesy of Flux-Pro 1.1-ultra
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