Avenging Minerva
Chapter 1 by Orpha Creed
Minerva and I had been together for the better part of a year. She was my best friend, lover and a constant source of entertainment and deviltry. If you'd like to know how we came to be together, you are invited to read "Tending Minerva" in the "Lesbian, Adult Friends" section of "Nifty Archives." If not, I'll simply begin by saying that we continued to share my beachfront apartment a little South of Huntington Beach near Highway One. Commonly, when I returned home from my work at Berkley University, she was usually sitting out on the balcony with my usual vodka-rocks sitting near my chair. I have fond memories of sitting down, kicking off my shoes and putting my feet up on Minerva's lap while sipping my drink as Minerva massaged my tired feet and recapped her experiences of the day. She was a slender little waif-like pixie of 24 who was indeed a free spirit in the true sense of the word. She was intelligent but without a lick of common sense. She teasingly told me once that: "a parasite had entered her brain through her ear and ate the good sense node while she was swimming with her parents in Zimbabwe." After I really got to know her, I began to believe her story. She had small breasts with unusually large nipples that changed significantly in size when responding to my gentle teasing or the warmth and texture of my long, wet tongue. I had come to know her body quite well in the short time that we were together and my biggest pleasure was to spin her up to the point of her exploding with ecstasy & screaming pleasure.
I guess you could say that I took her away form a large, muscular butch who had turned mean hearted, most probably from being a junkie and pumping steroids to achieve greater muscle definition and bulk. Being at the highest level in a little known ancient martial art form, I was able to quite easily subdue Cary when she came around to cause trouble. Unfortunately though for Minerva and myself, I allowed myself to become a little too complacent with regards to Cary, underestimating her capabilities and cruelty. By the way, my name is Dr. Orpha Creed, a non-practicing M.D involved in research and writer. At age 44, having survived through the dark period of my live and a very unsuccessful heterosexual marriage, I had come to enjoy my own company with the exception of my friends and colleagues; that is until I met Minerva a few months ago and a very strong bond had formed between us. Well, enough of the preliminary "setting of the stage" bullshit. Here's the story:
Orpha was on the phone talking to Minerva's mother in Bakersfield. "Martha, I just don't know what to tell you to make you feel better. The police said they'll continue to investigate Minerva's disappearance and keep me well informed. I'll call you if learn anything about her and that's a promise!"
Orpha hung up the phone. "The female police sergeant had all the earmarks of being a bigot when she took the report of Minerva's disappearance," Orpha thought to herself.
Minerva's Mother really never approved of her daughter's lifestyle but she had come to at least respect her relationship with Orpha, who contributed to her stability and general well being.
After two more days of waiting for word, it became apparent to Orpha that the missing person's report had flown down a black hole. The Cops had gone through the exercise, said all the right things that people want to hear and just turned their back on the case.
Orpha sat on the couch in the great room staring at Minerva's belongings spread out on the floor. She went through the desk where Minerva wrote comments and doodled as she talked on the phone. "Nothing unusual here," Orpha said out loud in frustration.
Orpha lifted Minerva's only set of car keys from a hook inside a kitchen cabinet. She bounded down four flights of stairs to the parking garage and opened Minerva's car. Like her room, her car was a mess of discarded clothing, magazines, candy wrappers and general trash. The glove compartment contained the usual owner's manual and registration.
She went through every scrap of paper, continuing to pull everything from under her seat. "Well, what do you know? A picture of Cary with a number written on the back," Orpha thought to herself.
Orpha dialed the number. "Outer Darkness," A husky female voice boomed on the other end.
"Is Cary there please?" Orpha asked politely.
"Cary who?"
"Uh, I don't know her last name. I met her the other night and she gave me this number to call her," Orpha responded timidly.
"Get fucked bitch," the husky voice bellowed, followed by a dial tone.
Orpha grabbed the L.A. phonebook from the desk and began thumbing through the yellow pages under bars, nightclubs or anything she could think of. "No listing for Outer Darkness," she thought to herself in total frustration.
8:00 AM Wednesday, Orpha called in at Berkley and made arrangements to take a two week leave of absence. She slipped into a pair of Minerva's jeans, a dingy, worn sweatshirt and a pair of sneakers. She opened a locked drawer by the side of her bed and lifted a 9 mil Beretta in a shoulder holster. She grimaced at it for a few seconds; then slipped it back in the drawer re-locking it.
9:30 AM, Using the stairs, Orpha ascended to the 19th floor of an office building across from the downtown L.A. Post office building. A receptionist sat at a desk just inside the door of the stairwell. As the receptionist looked up, Orpha picked up a trashcan filled with shredded documents, dumping them in a large canvass bag that she picked up in the stairwell. She then slipped into the outer office with the name "Jane Daniels, Chief Administrator" on the door. Orpha was dumping the contents of the trashcan when the inner office door opened and a woman came out with an arm full of files. She glanced at Orpha, nodded and left. Orpha could see Jane Daniels sitting at her desk in her private office so she quietly slipped in and sat in one of the plush leather chairs across from her desk completely un-noticed.
Jane was startled as she looked up and saw Orpha. "How in the hell!" She reacted as she pushed jumped in her chair with an expression of extreme alarm. "Mamba?" she blurted out as she stared wide eyed at Orpha.
"I've not been called that for about 9 years now Jane," Orpha responded with a gentle, submissive smile. "Maybe we should forget that code name and refer to me as just Orpha now."
"Yea right, I'd heard that you were in the L.A. area but you don't stay very long in one place."
Orpha smiled and nodded her head in agreement.
"What ever happened dear? I heard that you resigned from the agency and just disappeared back in about 92. I never thought they would let you leave. I've never seen a field operative who handled themselves as skillfully as you did. When you were on a mission, you were indeed the phantom of phantoms in the true sense of the word. I wondered if they would resurrect you and send you after Sodom after the Gulf war or use your special talents to go in after Osama."
"No dear, people like me fell out of favor with the administration and were permanently deactivated. It all started with the Nixon fiasco and gradually got worse with subsequent administrations. I didn't really mind though, I made a lot of money and invested it fairly wisely. I guess you might say that I'm now semi-retired and enjoying it."
"So what brings you to see me?" Jane asked.
"I need to use your computer and some passwords to access police files. I'm trying to locate someone who mysteriously disappeared." Orpha responded as she continued to tell Jane about the phone conversation with the "Outer Darkness."
"Outer Darkness? What in the hell are you doing screwing around with that horrible cult? I thought you said that you were retired from covert, clandestine activities. They are one nightmarish group of bitches for sure Orpha! The Bureau has a file on them the size of a Buick down on the next floor."
"I don't have time to sift through tons of hard files Jane, I need to move fast and there might be a life at stake." Orpha reacted as she pulled out the picture of Cary. "I think that this woman has something to do with the kidnapping and possible death of a friend of mine and she may be a member of the Outer Darkness group. Can you check it out for me for old times sake?"
Jane took the picture, made several entries in her terminal, then swung the monitor around so Orpha could see it.
"That's the bitch. Cary Francis Hemler is her full name with about seven aliases listed," Orpha responded as she stared coldly at the picture on the screen. "Please scroll down so I can read the entire file."
Jane complied, then hit the print command. The printer started spitting out page after page of text.
"I owe you one Jane," Orpha committed with a frown as she stood, gathered the 12 printed pages and headed for the door.
"If you want me to call it even dear, you can keep me in the loop on this one. I'd love to get my claws into some of these nasty bitches. They're into just about every illegal and immoral activity imaginable. We never had this conversation if anyone asks and please be very careful Orpha!" Jane ordered as Orpha bounded through the outer office door.
"You sound just like you did in the old days Jane!" Orpha responded with a broad grin.
Continued on chapter 2