Mother Most Superior had set the city on fire with her words. Smoke fumed out the windows of the US Social Agent Building, and its glass doors were smashed. A riot girl had Athena’s spear in her hand, raised high above her head, dancing on top of an overturned van. The girls surrounding her, chanted from the street, “Hail to God! We are free!”
The police were gone, mostly. The majority crawled into the nooks and crannies of the city’s concrete, hiding, and others ran away through the subways. Some had actually joined in with the riot.
Social Agent Rue led Rose and Clover to the executive elevator, a secret only known by Miss Magnolia and her rich friends. Small, cylindrical, and silvery, it barely had enough room for the three of them, plus the little one, who had her butt forced to the patterned carpet floor by Nancy. The black-teared girl had yelled curses, when Nancy had thrown her over the shoulder and unloaded the girl into the elevator like a sack of potatoes. Miss Narcissus was still complaining, but under her breath now, after Clover had promised to shoot her if the girl didn’t shut up.
Clover was wounded in the leg, but she didn’t whine about it. She had taken a shot from the Black Top girls before she made it into the elevator. Tassel Rue had nailed two Black Top girls herself, forcing the security girls to take cover, which gave the other Social Agents time to get to the elevator. Nancy wanted this to be over. But there was too much work to do. A girl’s work is never done.
“Now, what?” Clover asked, holding her leg.
“We are going to the Ninety-ninth floor,” answered Rue, “Magnolia’s private office.”
The trip down took just a few seconds. When the elevator stopped, gently and silently, the doors eased apart. And they all entered, with Nancy pulling Natalie along behind them.
There was a slender figure in a midnight-black gown and matching heels, facing out the huge window that took up the entire wall of the office. Her back was naked where a design was cut like a diamond shape into the dress. Her hair, just as dark as her dress, or close enough, was up in a tight bun, which left the neck uncovered, and revealed a necklace of silver and colored gems. In her right hand she held a glass of champagne. Nancy could smell the girl’s flowery cologne from across the room.
“All dressed up with your drink,” Nancy said, her voice very curt. “Tell me. What’s the celebration?”
The girl turned her head, not fast; she wasn’t jolted by the voice of another person. She had a thin, elegant face, attractive but not overly pretty. Her brown eyes were deeply highlighted by eye shadow, and her long lashes were blackened just as much. A pair of dark tear streaks went down her cheeks. “Love,” answered the girl like she didn’t mean it. Her scornful, and sad tone gave that away.
“Where’s Miss Magnolia?” Rue asked while pointing her gun at the black-dressed girl.
“Right here.”
“No, your sister Lucy. The real Magnolia.”
The brunette motioned to the floor behind the desk, and repeated, “Right here.” Nancy shoved the black-teared girl onto a couch right beside Clover, who was putting pressure on her wound with her hand.
Rue and Nancy walked around the desk. And there, they found Miss Magnolia on her back, in her black and white gown with her diamond necklace tangled tightly around her neck. Her eyes were still open in shock.
“I had to say goodbye to my sister tonight,” the black-dressed girl said. “She wasn’t happy, neither was I, at least, not with each. When I told her the plan wasn’t going to work, she got upset. And she was already in one of her moods. So, I was forced to strangle her with her own diamonds, in self-defense, of course.”
“Of course,” Nancy said, “and now you’re the richest girl in America.”
“Who could think of such a thing right now?” The rich girl said slightly amused. “But you’re right.”
“Tell us about the plan,” Nancy demanded, “what went wrong?”
“I changed the package. And hid theirs, deeply and safely… away.”
“You did this to save men?”
“I did this for one man.”
Lady Diamond. Nancy remembered the story that Page Tulip had told earlier. “Okay. Where’s the real package now? You need to turn it over to us immediately.”
The girl then moved to the desk, switched her empty champagne glass for a half-filled one on the desk, and said, “My sister won’t be needing hers, I suppose,” and took a sip. “You are not safe here. Security will come soon, and General Iris, I imagine. But I offer you a fair trade. The teenager for the package.”
“No way, safety maid,” said Natalie. “She’s gone boy-crazy or something.”
“No,” Nancy answered, “She’s under arrest. And in my custody.”
“And where will you take her? The Social Agent Building is gone. And the Social Agents will be gone by the morning. All of them. Mother Most Superior has seen to that. It’s time to stop playing little miss federal officer. Tomorrow afternoon, the Lady General of the Department of Safety will announce the dissolution of the US Social Agents. I have this on good authority from the capital.”
“Hmph,” Rue said, “you girls were just leading Dandelion on about becoming the director.”
The rich girl cracked a grin behind the glass she was sipping.
“Still, no,” Nancy said, “now, tell us where the package is.”
“Time’s running out, social agent,” the rich girl said, “if security shuts off the power, you won’t be able to leave in the executive elevator.”
“Rose,” Clover spoke up, “Lilac said the package was the priority, and nothing else matters.” Those were the director’s orders, and Nancy had to agree. The package was the reason they were all here, after all. There was a sudden annoyance in realizing that Nancy was going to have to let Miss Narcissus go, again. Though, the girl didn’t seem happy about being traded.
“Don’t,” the black-teared girl demanded. “She’s bad, really bad--” Clover slapped her hand down on the girl’s mouth, “shut up.”
“Let’s drop her,” Rue said.
“Yes, drop her,” said the rich girl, Miss Magnolia. And she was Miss Magnolia, the only one now. The rich girl must want Natalie as a bargaining chip with the Queen of Spades, obviously. The general will be just as ‘upset’ about the failed plan as the former Miss Magnolia, Queen of Diamonds, was. No wonder Lilac didn’t want her girls investigating into this spider’s web.
“Fine,” Nancy said, but she wasn’t happy about it.
Miss Magnolia motioned to let the black-teared girl go. “Don’t worry Natalie, my dear, I can use you.” Clover released her. The black-teared girl was nervous and hesitant, but slowly moved toward the desk. Turning back to Nancy, she stuck out her tongue to Nancy.
Miss Magnolia pulled out a drawer and retrieved a golden ring of keys. “There,” she said, tossing the ring on top of the desk.
Nancy picked the keys up and examined them. “And?”
“And you girls will need those when you go down to the bottom level, the real bottom level. The workers call it the ‘troll cave’ or something ridiculous like that. Move east on the bedrock. Use the keys for all the locks. You’ll meet a girl with the package. You might need to open her up a little, but she’ll give it to you, just tell her Lady Diamond said so, if she does ask. Then keep moving east. It will be a little run, but a social agent should have no issue. You will eventually meet where the water comes in, at the shoreline. This will be the exit for you. From there, do as you will.”
“We’ll be back to arrest you if you are playing games with us,” Nancy had to say. Clover chuckled and Rue just groaned.
Nancy and Rue turned and left then. Clover followed behind, now limping more heavily. Blood was seeping out, turning her leg’s right pant leg a darker color, almost blue. She said, “I got it,” as she entered the elevator.
Natalie Narcissus rolled her eyes at Nancy as the elevator doors smoothly shut. Miss Magnolia’s voice was heard calling out, “Now fix me drink, or I’ll have you thrown out the window before your mom gets here.”
Nancy pressed the button for the bottom level. The elevator traveled down with a nice whoosh, quiet and steady.
“Not sure if we should trust her,” Clover commented, “but we have nothing to lose now.”
“She’s no man-killer, at least, no matter what else she is,” Nancy said. “The priority is the package, regardless.”
“And when we get the package?” Rue asked.
“We take it to the capital and show them what the Sicarii have been up to.”
“Hmph.”
When the elevator stopped, the doors slid open. There was nothing but darkness and the cold still air outside the elevator. They pulled their flashlights out and shined them. It was an empty place except for the concrete ceiling and primeval ground. The chipped, broken rock floor seemed to go on forever. But no trolls so far, thought Nancy.
Checking her tech-watch, Nancy said, “East is this way.” They all started to march, with their boots crunching over the rocks.
About thirty feet forward, an altar of stone was seen. A dark red stain covered the entirety of its top. Around the base were bones, seemingly human from the looks of them. I don’t want to see this now.
Rue picked up a skull, half-broken and missing its jaw, and curiously eyed it. “So it’s true.” She then laid the skull on the altar, on the tip of its head, and tried to spin it. “I’ve been hearing stories about Miss Magnolia’s troll cave.”
The Queen of Diamonds must have had her private blood parties down here. Nancy wondered if the new Miss Magnolia had wanted them to see this for a reason. But it didn’t matter now, those boys were already dead, and they needed to save the rest.
“I vote, we keep on walking,” Clover said.
Rue walked on, not saying a word, followed by Nancy, who was struggling to get what she saw out of her mind.
The first set of doors they came to was padlocked closed. Nancy placed her light under her arm and fiddled through the golden ring of keys. She was forced to try nearly every one, until finally a key turn in the lock. Clover was beginning to breathe heavily, and the girl was slouching more and more.
“Clover,” Nancy said, “are you good?”
“Good to go,” the social agent answered, and pressed on, but a bit slower.
Beyond the double doors they entered a tunnel lined with rock, just like a cave. They hadn’t been walking through it long, before they discovered a girl’s corpse. Rue’s light was the first to spot it. The body was that of an unknown girl, probably twenty or close to that. The skin was red to purple colored, meaning she had been deceased for a while. Each social agent sniffed near her, and they came up with an average of six hours dead.
“Taking a guess,” mentioned Clover, “this is our girl with the package.”
“Hmph. But no package.”
Nancy shined her light tighter on the body. She noticed a bulge in it’s abdominal. Crouching down, and feeling with her gloved hand, the bulge felt solid. “Something is here.”
Rue slipped out a folded knife from her jacket and held it out to Nancy. “Cut it out.”
“Gross,” Clover said.
“Alright.” And Nancy began slicing. But before she was a fifth of the way done, she found stitches, like from a C-section. She kept cutting.
“How’d they get it in there?” Clover asked.
“How do you think?” Nancy answered.
Clover didn’t respond back.
The dead girl must have been killed by a crude job at smuggling. At least, it looked that way to Nancy. She had seen this before, but with smaller things like bags of pills, or even a small handgun. They were more professionally done though, so the girl could survive.
Finally, after cutting away enough, she stuck in her hand, and pulled out a small case, plastic wrapped and covered in dark blood. This must be it, she thought.
“Congrats, there’s our baby. Well, her baby actually,” Clover said.
“Funny.” Rue said stone-faced.
Nancy removed the bloody plastic wrap, and then found a place for the case inside her coat. “If this is the real package with the virus, then the General will be coming soon.” Nancy shined her light down the tunnel again, and started in that direction. “C’mon. We need to keep moving.”
As they marched, Nancy felt a change in the ground, and she didn’t believe the feeling was just because it was uneven. They were ascending. It was a slight slope but still there.
As they went, Clover kept saying, “I’m fine,” every time she began to lag behind. Rue grumbled each time she said it too. The wounded green-gloved social agent was getting weaker. If we don’t reach the shoreline soon, Clover might be “just fine” permanently, thought Nancy.
Twenty-two minutes later, or close to it, they arrived at another set of doors. These were of steel, over seven feet tall, and locked, of course, with more chains. Nancy could smell the sea now and also more of that burnt gunpowder smell.
Clover plunked down on her butt while Nancy searched for the right key. The girl’s wheezing had become so ragged, she hadn’t said anything in the last few minutes, not even an “I’m fine.” Rue groaned and put away her light, then heaved Clover up on her back. Clover didn’t say anything and let her eyes close, but kept breathing.
The metal doors creaked apart, and the dim blue light of the night sky came in. Outside the doors, was a wooden sign that read “Keep Out, Property of Magnolia Incorporated” facing the tunnel’s outlet. Spray painted red over the text was an image of a poorly drawn creature with fanged lips and bat-like wings eating those words. It reminded Nancy of the lobby in the Noir Belle Hotel. The social agents moved on.
The echo of waves crashing through the cave provoked an even older memory in Nancy. Florida Dreams. She remembered that day on the beach with her mother, and the rocket fire in her mother’s eyes and a smile on her face. One of the few smiles that Nancy could still remember about Mother. Another one was when Nancy won the federal lottery. But those smiles were long lost now, and so was mother.
Clover mustered up a little strength to say, “Yay! We found the beach. But I’ll have to borrow a swimsuit, girls.”
Seeing the end of the tunnel, Nancy and Rue instinctively picked up their pace and made their way in less than a minute. At the end, when standing in the moonlight and city light, the girls switched off their flashlights.
Clover had closed her eyes again and had stopped moving. Rue put Clover down softly on the sand and checked her pulse. “Well,” said Rue, “she’s still kicking.”
“She needs a sister-doctor.” Nancy said.
“Hmph,” Rue thought for a second, “we’ll have to remove her uniform, and one of ours too to go back into city.”
“I’ll go. You take the package.”
“No, the Sicarii are hunting you. No one cares about me. The diamond queen didn’t even ask my name, neither did her sister for what matter.”
Nancy didn’t want to argue, not with the veteran social agent, at least. “Do you still have your AP magazine Rue?”
Rue nodded, pulled a magazine, and handed it to Nancy.
After undressing Clover and binding her wound tighter, Rue lugged the girl over her shoulders and started walking. Clover had lost a lot of blood, and was fading in and out of consciousness, but she found it in herself to tell Nancy to keep her cap badge safe. “Don’t lose it please,” said the freckled-face girl, weakly, as she was carried away down the dark shoreline. Like mine, you mean, Nancy thought. She pocketed Clover’s badge, and made sure to switch magazines for her handgun.
A moment later on the beach, the wind started to viciously whip the waves against the rocks as if the night, itself, was angry. Nancy quickly re-tightened her cap to keep it from being lost from a strong gust. The noise of the wind was so loud; it almost hid the rising sound of copter blades beating against the air. Looking up she saw a spotlight hovering above the tide’s edge, searching the beach, and was closing in on Nancy. The noise became near deafening as the double rotary copter approached. But before the copter got too close, Nancy took cover behind an old wooden table near the beach. She maneuvered behind it, without crawling under it, just in case she needed to run. Where would I run anyway? The tunnel would be a trap for sure. Eventually, the copter’s spot light revealed a small boat rocking and banging against a short dock not far from Nancy. Maybe there, she thought hopefully, I could take the boat, and if I need to, I can dump the damn package into the water.
The spotlight soon stopped again when it found Clover’s uniform bundled up on the sand near the tunnel. The copter descended, zeroing in on the clothes and blasting sand away, while the spotlight grew wider underneath. Nancy figured she had to make a move before it landed. And this was her best chance while the spotlight was focused on one place. All I have to do is drop the package in the sea and let it take it away.
But before Nancy moved, a metal figure pounced down on the sand before the copter’s landing. The silver and crimson achilles suit beamed under the spotlight. In its armored hands, it carried a heavy machine gun, one exactly like the weapon from the basement. The suit was for a junior grade officer, and was probably for one of Iris’s lieutenants. But Debra Flax had been captured earlier, and the other Sicarii had been killed through the visor by Nancy’s bullet. This suit’s visor looked intact from Nancy’s position. It could be Iris in that suit, thought Nancy.
The achilles suit put down it’s gun, and lifted Clover’s uniform jacket to analyze it. Nancy knew the Sicarii just confirmed social agents were here. Iris would certainly intensify the hunt on the shoreline now. Nancy wasted no more time behind the table and dashed as hard as she could toward the dock.
When she got within a hundred yards, she heard heavy gunfire from behind her. Nancy cringed in anticipation. But the pain of bullets striking her body never came. She turned back to see what was happening. Another achilles suit had appeared from somewhere and was fighting the silver and crimson one. The new suit’s colors were clearly gold and purple. The armored figures smashed into each other and wrestled until the machine gun fell to the sand. God and Holy Mary, thought Nancy, Foxglove must have made it and got the suit in the basement. But then Nancy remembered the armor in the basement was silver and crimson. Who could this be then? She decided the answer didn’t matter right now because she still had the package and had to work to do. Getting rid of the virus was the priority no matter what. She turned away as the suits were knocking each other around in a stirring storm of sand under the copter.
Nancy sloshed through the waves taking a direct line to the boat. A dozen steps in, more or less, the waves began smacking up to her chest. Bad idea, she told herself. But she needed to get to the boat and the gate to the dock had looked locked from the beach. When she heard more gunfire, she plunged her head under the water’s surface for a second and braced again for bullets. But none came this time either. She poked her head up and looked back. The copter had moved and gunfire was raining down from it to the beach.
Nancy kept pressing on deeper as the tide rocked her. When her feet slipped off the sand, her heart pounded until she found traction again. Above her, the moon moved from behind the clouds, and it was large, full, ugly and bright. It reminded Nancy that she didn’t have a mother to save her anymore. She was all alone now.
When a terrible sound of metal breaking and of something massive crashing erupted, Nancy jerked her head around. The helicopter had went down in the sea with its blades striking at the water. Soon the blades stopped moving and the engine sputtered to a stop, while the cockpit sunk down below the waves. A girl in armor climbed out on top of the machine. Nancy could not tell which achilles suit it was in the dark, not that it mattered, she didn’t know who was inside either armor. Nancy kept moving, rocking in the water.
By the time she approached where the boat was tethered, her shoulders barely came above the water line. The boat shifted chaotically and thrashed on the water. Nancy’s hands kept slipping when she tried to get a grip on the boat. Frustrated, she hugged a pillar of the dock and attempted to pull herself up. But just as she grabbed the dock’s floor, the boat smashed against her, causing her head to smack on the pillar. She fell and sank down in the water.
A sudden rush sucked her under the boat and away from the dock. She was dazed, but she could still see the ugly moon staring down, laughing at her through the rippled water. With another strong rush, the sight of the moon was gone and everything was black. Nancy was no longer sure if she was looking up or down or wherever else. She clawed out but hit nothing. The undertow took her more, and it even stole her uniform cap with the duped badge. Her mother had told her not to go past her belly button, but she had disobeyed, once again. But she needed to get to the boat and to make sure the Sicarii never got the package with virus back, and make sure he was safe, everyone was safe.
As her body floated away into the deep, she worried less and less than she thought she would. Perhaps she just hit her head too hard, or maybe she just didn’t care anymore. This could be a dream, she thought, but she remembered she could tell a dream. In her dreams, she wasn’t a social agent and she always got saved in the end. Nancy took out the case from under her uniform coat and let it go. She didn’t want it to be recovered if her corpse was found floating somewhere. Nancy watched the package disappear into the black. It’s gone, she hoped.
Clover’s badge was still in her coat pocket, but that would be lost as well, along with her, unless they actually did find her dead body later. She hoped Clover would forgive her, but then again, Clover may never have made it to the hospital. The girl might be as good as dead, too, along with the other social agents that had died tonight. Stop worrying, you’re done now. Nancy decided to let herself go peacefully and without crying like her mother did, probably, when she was sucked into the black by the moon.
A few seconds passed in the dark, cold water, before a piercing light, tiny at first, but growing larger, came at her. Behind the light was a mask, really a visor, and a silvery hand. It’s her again, but that can’t be. This isn’t my dream. Nancy was seized by the achilles suit of purple and gold. She was pulled straight up out of the water by the armored figure, and they both landed in a shallow part near the shore. Nancy spat out the cold, salty sea from her lungs and took a long breath. The girl in the achilles suit held Nancy in her metal arms and marched to the beach. Looking through the visor Nancy saw eyes as blue as the Idaho sky.
“Oh, Alex,” Nancy wept, hugging around the suit’s neck, “no one is ever going to believe you.”
At that moment, there in the night’s chill, cradled and wet, she saw that ugly laughing moon again, but she wasn’t going to care anymore. She ignored it. The odd scent of fresh cut grass came back now, just as the spent gunpowder smell faded away, right when the moon disappeared behind dark clouds. Her mother had told Nancy once that men used to be all the cops and all the soldiers and even all the astronauts. “Once upon a time,” her mother had said. But Nancy had a hard time believing that when she was a little girl. “How could girls keep boys safe if they did those jobs?” She had asked her mother, and her mother answered, “They didn’t need to.”
Nancy, now calm, let her eyes close. Today was good. Tomorrow will be better.
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Thank you for reading Safety Maid: Nancy Rose. If you could, please take a moment to leave a review at your favorite retailer or book review website. I appreciate all reviews, whether they are small or large, negative or positive.
And don’t worry, this isn’t the end for the safety maids. The next book will pick up after this one, and will feature a different safety maid—as an outlaw. Read the preview chapter at the end of this book to find out who it is. Also, you can go to williamwire.net and check out sample chapters from my upcoming books.
Thanks!
William Wire