Slicer took Lysergic Oldham back out into the warehouse.
“Listen up!!" he called out.
“Whats up, Slicer?!” Lysergic whispered.
“I’m going to officially introduce you,” Slicer whispered back.
Warts and Slimy walked over, the Keamy twins, as always, stood cautiously by. Mod wandered over, more alert now, but the look on her face towards Lysergic let Lysergic know she was not welcome here. Braincase stopped looking over the journal and poked his head out of the copy room door. Binary was back to scribbling numbers.
“I’m going to take a few moments and tell you who our guest is,” Slicer began, “her name is Lysergic. She was and is a friend of mine. You are to treat her with the up most respect as our guest. She is under my personal protective custody.
She was snatched by Lamp Post and forced to work for them. She was assigned to retrieve the journal…”
“I knew it,” Braincase mumbled to himself.
“…however, she doesn’t trust her employers and will not return to their employ. So consider her one of us from here on. Any questions?”
“What is going to be her “job” around here?!” Mod bitterly asked.
“I don’t know, now,” Slicer replied, “we’ll worry about that later. I just wanted you to know who she is! Okay?!”
Everyone but Mod nodded. Mod gave Lysergic the “evil” eye!
“Slicer, could I get my charms back that you had confiscated,” Lysergic asked.
“Yeah, babe. Sure,” Slicer replied, then turning to Warts and Slimy asked, “where’d you put her stuff?”
“Back in the “holding” room, Master,” Warts replied.
Lysergic nodded and headed to where Braincase had removed the tracker.
Slicer followed Braincase back into the copy room.
Lysergic found all her “stuff” in a cardbord box.
She took out the Helsing .454 Silver Special and checked. Full clip. Still intact. She noticed the garroting wire reel (still rolled up), the two throwing knives, the pouch with her herbal cigarettes (she immediately grabbed those and placed the pouch around her upper arm), as well as the tracking device. She placed the tracking device in the pouch (she wasn’t ready, just yet, to give that up) and picked up the three chain necklace amulets, Teresa Malick had given her. As she placed the amulets around her neck, she noticed the blue charm was, once again, intensely glowing.
‘Another warning?’ Lysergic wondered.
Just then she heard someone come into the room. Thinking it was Slicer, she turned around and smiled, only to see Mod standing before her, with a psychotic look on her face. She was holding a bayonet. It looked to be pretty sharp.
“Hi, Mod!” Lysergic said, as cheerily as she could, considering the circumstances, “Nice knife! Where’d you get it? I might be interested in buying it off you. Would you consider selling it?”
“Well, if you’re thinking of buying it,” Mod replied, in a voice that, not very successfully, tried to mask the inner rage within, “maybe you should try it on first!”
Suddenly, Mod stepped forward, thrusting the knife at Lysergic’s chest!
Lysergic immediately threw up her left arm, deflecting the strike, while placing Mod into a neck hold with her right.
“YOU BITCH!!!” Mod cried out, “SLICER LOVES ME!!!! HE’S MINE!!! YOU CAN’T TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME!!! YOU CAN’T!!!”
Mod continued to wildly swing the bayonet, but Lysergic kept her under control.
“Settle down, Girl!!!” Lysergic replied, “nobody is trying to take anybody away, okay?! Like Slicer said, he and I just knew each other a few years back. That’s all!”
“YOU LYING SLUT!!!!!” Mod continued to cry.
Lysergic realized you couldn’t deal with a crazy girl (she should know), so she clipped her heels together, activating the two imbeded toe blades and kicked Mod in the shins.
“OWWWWW!!!!!!!” Mod cried out, as she dropped the bayonet. Lysergic quickly kicked it back out the door, and wrestled Mod to the floor.
Slicer, Warts, Slimy, and the Keamy twins quickly entered the room.
“What the F***K is going on here?!” Slicer angrily asked.
“You’d better control your girlfriend, here!” Lysergic replied, “or I’m going to have to break her neck!”
Slicer nodded and turned to the Keamy twins.
“Take Mod into the other room!” he ordered.
The twins grabbed a hold of Mod, who was still struggling, and dragged her away, as her shins bled from the wounds Lysergic had delivered.
“I’M THE ONE WHO REALLY LOVES YOU, SLICER!!!!” Mod continued to cry on her way out, “ONLY ME!! NOT HER!!! NOT THAT BITCH!!!”
“Get Braincase to tend to her wounds!” Slicer commanded.
Soon some semblance of peace was re-established.
“What do you feed that girl?” Lysergic asked.
Slicer shrugged, then glanced down to Lysergic’s bladed shoes.
“That the latest fashion for all you hip, cool, chicks on the go??!!” he amusedly asked.
“I never leave home without ‘em,” Lysergic replied, smiling. She then clicked her heels and the blades quickly retracted.
“Nice!” Slicer replied, then reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked to Lysergic to be the journal.
“Braincase has suggested the changes,” Slicer explained, “and Binary has made them. The completed copy is in my backpocket. This is the original and I’m giving it to you to hold on to for now!”
Slicer handed the original journal to Lysergic. She placed it in the thigh holster that carried the .454.
“You, Braincase, and me, are the only ones who know the copy has been changed,” Slicer said, “I told no one else. The less who know, the better. I’m getting ready to call Savo, to tell her the Journal is ready for delivery. If all goes as planned, as soon as we get the money, be ready to split. We ain’t gonna hang around here, no matter what happens!”
“What about your Groogs?” Lysergic asked, “what about Mod?”
“I’ll deal with Mod,” Slicer replied, “and the Grogs as well, just start getting ready.”
Lysergic nodded, as she took the .454 and placed it in the thigh holster, along with the journal, re-strapped the throwing knives to her ankles, and placed the garroting reel in the pouch.
“I’m ready to roll!” Lysergic smiled. Slicer nodded.
As they walked back into the warehouse, Lysergic noticed Mod still hadn’t settled down.
She was being held by one of the Keamy twins (Demetri, Lysergic thought) but she was shaking her head wildly and her eyes had that "far away" look. She was mumbling. Braincase was preparing to bandage her shins.
Mod noticed that Slicer and Lyseregic had just stepped out of the room.
“YOU WON’T HAVE HER!!” Mod screamed, as she instantly kicked Braincase away, grabbed Demetri's rifle and using the rifle’s butt, knocked Demetri out! She then turned and aimed the rifle at Lysergic.
“TIME TO DIE, BITCH!!!!!” Mod screamed out, as she pulled the trigger.
Next: Chap. Thirty-Two “Down to the River”