CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: Monkey Wrench

The Modular gunfire was so loud in the garage that she did not hear the car until she stopped shooting at the Successor. She whipped around to see a black Jeep Cherokee speeding towards her.

Normally, Taeyeon would have reacted in the one second that she had. Every muscle was tensing to throw her body out of the Cherokee's way. But, behind the wheel, she saw Seunggi's face.

What the ?

The headlights of the Cherokee flicked on and the high beam blinded her. 

The Cherokee rammed into her. She had been leaning all her weight against her good leg, and it snapped on impact. She cracked the windshield like the shell of a hardboiled egg before rolling off the hood. She dropped to the concrete asphalt, hurting all over. A few of her ribs had to be bruised. She groaned, disoriented.

The driver got off, and it was indeed Seunggi. His thigh was bandaged and he limped towards her. She felt for her Colt Modular. It was on the ground, ten feet out of reach. She reached for her mic to turn it on and ping Jessica, but Seunggi cocked his gun to get her attention. "Don't move."

"Who the are you?" she asked, trying to push herself up.

Instead of answering, he visciously kicked her under the knee of her broken leg. She screamed.

To the Great Successor, the traitor asked, “Should I kill her?”

“Not yet,” the Successor said. 

Seunggi bent down and flipped her around. He unclipped the mic attached to the collar of her shirt. She had no legs and only one arm, but he had still underestimated her. She grabbed his wrist with her good hand, twisted it hard, and yanked him down. She let go of him as he fell forwards and grabbed him by the throat. She dug her nails in to rip out his larynx. He thrashed and fell on top of her, banging on her broken leg.

The shock of pain loosened her grip, and he shoved away from her. He coughed, gasping harrowing breaths as he massaged his throat.

A loud bang went off, and the concrete two feet away from Taeyeon's ear exploded. A complete miss, again. The Great Successor was holding out his Sig Sauer like a boy afraid to kill a cockroach. He readied for a second aim.

"Wait," Seunggi rasped. He coughed and cleared his throat. "Wait. Didn't you want her alive? Let me handle this."

Seunggi pointed his handgun at her as he approached. Taeyeon knew that he would not miss. His neck was red. "Now, if you ing move, I will blow your head off."

He took the mic that had fallen off her collar and pulled at it until the wires popped out of the radio connected to her belt. Then he dug out her earpiece and chucked it aside.

He rolled Taeyeon back onto her stomach. She felt vulnerable immediately and turned her face so that she could see them. Seunggi and the Successor were watching her as though she were a snail they could step on at any time.

"Is my father doing well?" the Successor asked.

"He is still fighting for his life."

"Holy hell, we're at a precipice, aren't we?" The Successor sighed. He paced about. "After all these years, must I ascend to nothing? I can't end like this. I won't!"

He moved towards Taeyeon, but Seunggi stopped him. "You still have us. Become the Supreme Leader and rally your troops. We will prove victorious, for your sake."

The Successor scoffed. “I have no Marshals. No bodyguards. The soldiers aren’t like you. They won’t hesitate to stab me in the back once they see that I have no power.”

Seunggi nodded slowly. "I still think we should leave."

"And go where? I can't go back to Pyongyang alone. Without the Marshals, it must be total chaos there. Without my father, I have no support. My brothers, uncles and cousins have to be rallying their own campaigns for control. So, tell me, where can I go?"

"We don't have to stay here. The Chinese-"

"Will only ally with the one in power. They'll hand me over as soon as Pyongyang gets organized."

Seunggi said, "You don't have to go there as the Successor. We'll escape through China and lead normal lives. Haven't you always wanted to visit America? We can do that now."

The Successor sighed again. "Seunggi, I am pleased that you're back with me, but you know that I don't want to go anywhere if it means losing this."

"I'm sorry."

"Then make me feel better."

Blood was leaking from the stab wound in her shoulder and her mangled leg. It smeared across the concrete as Seunggi dragged her further and further from her target. Her broken leg fell out of line. They stopped at a car lift, where a Bugatti was resting on the horizontal frame, raised three feet off the ground.

He let go of her, then limped to a tool rack standing nearby. She had enough time to bend for the tanto. She slipped it out and bit the handle between her teeth as she grabbed a pillar of the car lift with her good hand and pushed herself up. She managed to stand, although there was no way she could move a step in any direction. She took the tanto from .

From the tool rack, Seunggi picked out a bunch of black cable ties. He tucked his handgun into the back of his waist band and drew a large, arm-length pipe wrench from the rack. He walked to her, unfazed.

She slashed outwards and almost nicked him, but his reach was longer than hers. The head of the wrench caught her lower jaw. She dropped the tanto, and fell to the ground. He cinched her wrists tight together with a cable tie, then looped another tie around one rail of the car lift's horizontal frame, at the front of the Bugatti. He connected the two loops with a third tie. 

He pressed the button to raise the car lift up, and her hands went up with the rail. Because of her ribs, it hurt as she was stretched upwards, so she stood up, although not really since both her legs were bad. She fought back a scream, but it just leaked through her teeth. Her breathing was uneven and sweat rolled down her face. had been hot and dry, now it was hard and sticky. She swallowed and clenched her teeth hard. Don't be afraid.

Seunggi went back to the tool rack for a pair of scissors. He cut her shirt off. He unhooked the connecting radio at her belt and popped out the batteries before throwing it into the trash bin. He came back and started taking off her bulletproof vest, ripping the velcro apart. A large red bruise covered her torso where the Jeep had hit her. Seunggi felt under her sports bra. The bullet wound from yesterday had torn open and was trickling blood through the bandages.

He started taking away the last of her equipment. As much as she hated him, she had to talk to him. "Yoona trusted you."

Seunggi smiled. He relieved her of her combat knife. "Yes, and I shot her in the leg twice so that she wouldn’t be able to escape. I also shot myself because I reckoned that someone like you would be especially distrustful, and you did buy my story."

"You hit yourself in the bone?"

"That was unanticipated. Soft-nosed bullets are ty," Seunggi said. "But I shouldn't have worried because you're ing stupid. You think I could have run all that way with an injury like that? I obviously shot myself right before I went to meet you guys. Too bad the idiots at Mansudae couldn’t close it out when I delivered all of you on a plate.”

“We killed the Nation Marshal in the end,” Taeyeon said. She spat at him, knowing that it was dumb but unable to hold back. As expected, he kicked her in the shin of her broken leg. She cried out. Tears stung her eyes.

“I told them where to wait for you, but they still failed. Incompetents,” Seunggi said. “Just like you. Look at yourself now.”

He found the last magazine for her Modular and put it into his pocket.

"Seunggi," the Successor said. "Hurry up. This is dissatisfying."

"Just a moment. I'll make it worth your while." He unbuckled her belt and yanked down her pants. He patted down her compression shorts. He unlaced her army-issue boots and slipped them off. He lifted the soles and confirmed that the boots were simply shoes before dumping them. He tugged off her socks and checked her feet.

She watched as Seunggi picked up the wrench and walked back to the Great Successor. He handed the wrench over. She started breathing harder. She yanked on her restraints, but the car lift remained staunch even as the gash in her shoulder ripped wider.

The Great Successor hefted the wrench in his hand. Tested a drop into his other hand. His eyes lit up at the weight. He looked at her.

“She managed to defeat all my bodyguards even though they were supposed to have the advantages she has. They were given the same genetic enhancements, yet all four of them did not perform as well as one little Southern prick.”

“That’s true.”

“Explain this to me.”

“It is quite simple. She’s had more time to get used to the changes in her body. That’s all.”

“How inane. I'm losing everything because of this?"

She tensed up as he swung it right into the side of her body, connecting with where she thought her ribs were damaged. It knocked the wind out of her lungs. She gasped for air, struggling to stand on her feet. 

"Did that hurt?" the Successor asked. "Don't make me laugh. The pain you feel is nothing compared to mine."

She pulled away from him, but the wrench always caught her right where it wanted to. He was skinny and unused to physical labor, but he was still a man. And her fear invigorated him. He beat her faster and harder and worked up a relentless frenzy. They heard her bones crack. Breathing became short and painful.

Then he stopped and stood back, panting from the effort. She stiffened as he traced an open weal with two fingers, fascinated at how the skin seemed to stitch itself if he pinched it together. 

He was so close to her. This was her only chance. If she let this go, he was going to start hitting her again. She was going to be even weaker the next time.

She strained forward abruptly, catching him in the face with her forehead. Her intention was to break his nose into his brain, but she failed. He jerked back in surprise and wiped the sweat and blood that had grazed his mouth. He sneered at her pathetic attempt and slugged her in the face with the wrench.

Her legs gave out and she hung with her whole weight straining against the cable ties, even with the broken ribs and ripped shoulder. Her chest was stretched tight and she could barely breathe.

He beat her several more times, to no effect. Blood slid to her toes. He stepped close to her and gripped a fistful of her hair. He yanked her face up, but she simply stared back, reactionless, mouth half open.

He let go of her. "She's already done. Our men last longer. So it's really only because of the time advantage, Seunggi."

"Of course, sir. She's not North Korean."

"Well, I'm bored." He hit her again over the head and watched her eyes. "Do they not pass out?"

"Never. They're either dead or alive."

The Successor slapped her cheek lightly. "It's the least you can do."

He put the bloodied wrench on the floor and went to a back shelf. "I've always wanted to know what it would be like if we used something stronger than water, but they always give out so fast."

He returned with two translucent plastic cans, a gallon each, filled with purple liquid. He set one can on the floor and held the other. He read the label. "Concentrated cleaner dissolves grease and attacks soil on contact." He glanced at her. "You look dehydrated. Are you thirsty?"

She had used degreaser before, in bootcamp. She was on duty to clean her training platoon's tank after they had driven through a week of mud. For four hours, she scrubbed furiously with water and soap to no avail. Then the supervising sergeant came by after dinner, wondering why she was still at it, and told her to use degreaser. The dirt slopped right off. If she drank this, her stomach was going to dissolve to pulp. The Chimera enzymes and nanorobots would patch it back together. It would be slow.

She started panting hard again. Hanging entirely on her wrists, she could not breathe in enough air. She needed to stand properly, but her feet were useless. Her vision turned black, but she could hear and feel everything. He uncapped the can and put the opening under her nose. She twitched soundlessly.

"What's up with her?"

"She's suffocating," Seunggi said. He limped to them and pushed her back until her chest was no longer stretched by her hanging forward. Slowly, she could see them again. He held her still by one strap of her black sports bra. 

The Successor picked up one of her discarded socks. He pushed her head so far back that opened, and she screamed as he shoved the sock down .  She could barely breathe around it. Then he poured the degreaser into . The cotton sock soaked it up and expanded. She gasped harder. Most of the corrosive solution went into her stomach. Some of it went into her lungs. It was like a hot poker scraping .

She struggled and gagged, but Seunggi's grip was stone and the sock was in the way. The Successor continued pouring the whole gallon into . She inhaled all of it, desperately gulping for air. Her stomach filled up, a swarm of locusts eating her insides.

The Successor dragged the sock out of . It was stained with blood. He put the bottle on the ground and picked up the wrench. He bent his knees in a wide stance, a batter making a grandslam, and swung the wrench into her stomach. Insoluble degreaser surged out of her stomach and expelled from . Some splattered on the Successor's clothes, but he looked pleased.

A gun shot exploded in the enclosed garage. The Successor stumbled into Seunggi. Another shot was fired, and the Successor's upper arm burst into blood. He screamed and fell to the ground, dropping the wrench. Taeyeon saw a neat hole in his back, where a bullet had been stopped by his bulletproof vest.

Seunggi quickly took out his handgun and pressed it into the side of Taeyeon's head. "Shoot again and she dies!"

Jessica stepped out behind a car near the door Taeyeon had come through earlier. Her Glock was pointing at the Successor, who was snivelling like a baby. "Seunggi, or whatever your name is, step away from her."

Seunggi only pressed his handgun harder into Taeyeon's temple. "It is Seunggi. Put the gun down."

Taeyeon was hanging forwards now, so she was suffocating again. She lifted her eyes up to Jessica's. Just shoot.

Seunggi was scared. Taeyeon could feel the barrel at her head shaking.

But Jessica was scared too. Like Taeyeon's, her hands did not shake under duress, but Taeyeon could see it in her eyes. For ’s sake, if you weren’t going to kill the Successor, why the hell did you come out?

Jessica looked between Seunggi and the Successor. Objectively, she had the upper hand, but she could not risk it. She put the gun down.

"Turn off your mic and take it out," Seunggi said. "The earpiece and radio, too."

Jessica did so. She put them on the floor. Seunggi smirked, stepped away, and swung his aim around at Jessica. To the Successor, he said, "I shouldn't kill her either, right?"

" that and waste her!" The Successor clutched his arm, bawling tears.

Taeyeon strained at the cable ties again, but Seunggi did not shoot Jessica. "I have a better idea." He glared at Jessica. "Take the bullet out and patch him up. Do a nice job of it or I'll kill the both of you immediately."

Jessica walked over to the Successor and gave him the same treatment that Taeyeon saw her give to Sooyoung earlier. When she was done, the Successor stood up and backed up all the way to the Cherokee.

"This better be good. She nearly killed me, Seunggi. Me!"

"Don't worry. She'll get what's coming to her." Seunggi kept his gun on Jessica as he limped to the Successor's side. They were far enough that if Jessica rushed at them, Seunggi would be able to gun her down easily. He checked the Successor's arm. "Are you okay?"

"It ing hurts!"

Meanwhile, Jessica made her way to Taeyeon, who was asphyxiating silently. She held Taeyeon up like Seunggi had. "Hey, let me untie her."

The Successor and Seunggi stared.

"Don't be ridiculous," Seunggi finally said.

"She's clearly not going to be making trouble for you. I'll use that pair of scissors over there." 

Seunggi raised his gun. "No, you won't."

"Fine." Jessica took a few steps back and pressed the descent button on the car lift. The other three individuals in the garage were united in a stunned silence. She helped Taeyeon sit on the ground. The pain lessened immediately. Her arms could bend now, so breathing was easier.

“You ing idiot,” Taeyeon forced out through grit teeth. Jessica ignored her and looked at Seunggi, the Successor and around the room, thinking.

If Jessica had a plan barging into the garage like this, it had to be out the window because Taeyeon could not see how a successful strategy involved losing the only gun between them. She wished that Jessica had killed the Great Successor. Seeing a bullet crush his skull would have been a great way to die. 

She could see Seunggi deliberating on how to make Jessica pay. He had been utterly coldblooded towards Taeyeon, and she had no doubt that he would be just as effective against Jessica. Then there was the Successor, equal parts and sadist. He was a wildcard. Taeyeon was not going to let them have their way if she could help it. Jessica had to get home.

Those were just pretty words. Taeyeon had no arms or legs. She could barely talk. It took all her effort to just stay alert. The Successor, even with his horrific shot, was handling her however he liked. She was just dead weight, and they had no guns, no radio.

A/N: Thank you so much for all the comments/upvotes last chapter.. How did you feel about this one?