Master of Plagues, D. B. Reynolds [best books to read fiction .txt] 📗

a little girl.
“Stop! Stop!” hollered the innocent and helpless juvenile female, coming from right inside apartment 1022. “No, no, let me go!”
The apartment Stuart wanted to search for was down the hall. Major real estate player Sebastian Plettenberg lived in apartment 1028. Saving a ten year old girl from being rigorously violated by a group of sadistic sickos was far more important than dropping off a set of real estate property documents for his father. Stuart closed his eyes tight and vigorously rubbed the center of the magical talisman. A strong, radiating glow formed around the talisman. Telepathic messages were sent straight to General Rahmaanteen and his army. The general received the message within seconds. Upon the request of Stuart, they superordinarily appeared inside of apartment 1022. Kent and his five culprits restrained Aleksis down on the bed by her feet and hands. Aleksis was half-clothed. Her pretty and young face was flushed. She cried enough tears to stain the pillow underneath her head with big wet circles.
The band of six sickos were just about to make their move. A cosmic glow spilled into the bedroom. Kent and his buddies looked over by the door and couldn’t believe their eyes. Aleksandra ran over to the corner and stooped down. She covered her face in shame. The room converted to a crippling silence after General Rahmaanteen and part of his army stepped inside.
“What the hell!” Kent muzzled, moving away from the bed, his mouth almost dropped to the floor.
“You’re sicker than the sickest of the most sickening men on this Earth,” General Rahmaanteen spoke in defense of Aleksis.
“Who are you and where’d you come from?” Kent wondered, scared stiff after witnessing a phenomenon he wasn’t supposed to.
“I’m your worst nightmare, Kent. Not only are you and your buddies here conniving thieves down on Wall Street, but now you’re trying to steal the innocence of this beautiful little young girl.”
Kent shook while his mouth trembled with fear. “But……but……rats aren’t supposed to talk. You’re the biggest damn rat that I’ve ever seen in all of New York City. Somebody has cursed this apartment with that voodoo hoodoo junk.”
General Rahmaanteen whisked across the room and grabbed Kent into a tight chokehold. “Kent, you are nothing but a plague to our society. We have come to rescue this little girl. We have been sent by our master to correct your wrongs. My army and I will now plague you with pain and suffering.”
Stuart showed up at the opportune time.
“Who is your master?” Kent asked in a gargled voice. “What are New Yorkers feeding you damn rats these days?”
“None of your business, you sorry sicko.”
General Rahmaanteen released the chokehold and signaled with his large paws. The soldiers in his army knew their orders. The lieutenant and the colonel grabbed two of Kent’s friends and started working them over. There they were, in full action, striking powerful blows to their faces and chests. They kicked them in the mid-section and along the kneecaps. The master sergeant and sergeant snatched two more of Kent’s friends and pounded away at their faces and other sensitive body parts.
Another soldier pulled the fifth culprit by his shirt collar and struck him dead in the center of his mouth. Three of his front teeth went flying out of his mouth and onto the floor. Bloody noses stained the expensive carpet in the bedroom. There it was. A bedroom brawl between normal-sized human males and super-sized rodent males.
General Rahmaanteen bloodied the nose of Kent and blacked both of his eyes. But the general was far from done. With his tail having the thickness and durability of a rodeo bullwhip, he whacked Kent with several lashes up and down his body. Puffy red welts bubbled to the surface of his skin. Members of the army also used their mighty tails to give Kent’s posse of five burning licks up and down their bodies. Boy were they in pain! They too had many stinging welts to smolder to the top.
“Had enough yet, Kent?” the general asked, holding him up in mid-air.
Kent responded in a slurpy voice. “How is it so that a bunch of giant-sized talking rats have come into my apartment and have taken over? This just can’t be real. This just can’t be happening to me.”
“Oh, it’s real alright, buddy,” the general assured Kent. “This nightmare you’re witnessing is happening while you’re still awake.”
“Somebody put a spell on me.”
“You put a spell on yourself.”
General Rahmaanteen sent telepathic messages out to more of his army. Seconds later, several more colossal rats appeared inside Kent’s apartment. They’d been ordered to absolutely wreck every inch of space around his luxury apartment hideway. One soldier went into the kitchen and destroyed the granite countertops and kohler fixtures.
The central water filtering system got ripped out from the sink. Water gushed onto the floor and destroyed the expensive marble tiles. Two more soldiers paraded through the living room and destroyed Kent’s expensive sofa and table sets. Ripped sofa fabric and broken pieces of glass and marble were scattered all over the carpet.
General Rahmaanteen growled at Kent with his long sharp incisors. “Kent, it deeply angers me and my master that this ten year old girl Aleksis would be lured to your apartment to satisfy you and your buddie’s sexual perversions. Right here in New York City, a four month old baby was raped until she was murdered by her very own father. My master cried many, many tears for that baby. Why do humans have to be like that? Don’t they know that it’s a terrible sin? You and your dirty friends didn’t follow through with your plans, but you’ve put a lifetime scar on Aleksis.”
Kent spit blood onto the general as he tried to speak correct English. “Why should you care? You’re nothing but a stinking rat, anyway. Rats don’t give a damn about nothing but biting people and spreading diseases. Every since you and your army popped up in my apartment, you’ve spread nothing but filth in here.”
“Who do you think you’re talking to?” General Rahmaanteen snarled, slapping Kent a few times in the face with his whip-like tail.
He released Kent and stepped over to the corner where Aleksandra was stooped down in a curled position. “Young lady, how could you do such a horrible thing? How could you try and sell your sister to a bunch of savages like these? I do not wish to bring harm to you, but these men are sick and need severe punishment of some type. It’s bad enough to place yourself in harm’s way, but to place your baby sister in harm’s way, that’s unspeakably unexcusable. How do you know that these men weren’t going to beat and rape you after they were going to beat and rape your sister?”
Aleksandra spoke with reluctance. “It just doesn’t seem real to me. Rats aren’t supposed to talk. Rats aren’t supposed to get as big as you are. No one would believe me if I told them that I talked with a rat bigger than a football player. No one would believe Mr. Sturgis and his friends if they told them that they’d talked to humongous rats. Yes, I’m sorry for trying to sell my little sister to these men. But, we come from the poorest part of Russia and desperately need money. My family and I are starving and can’t find any other way to make money.”
“Know one thing, young lady. There’s a such thing as pride and dignity. Don’t ever sell your pride and dignity no matter what. They should never be for sell. Right now, my army and I have to leave. But, before we do, I want you to call 911 and tell them what almost took place up in this apartment. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
General Rahmaanteen and his soldiers tied Kent and his buddies up with ripped apart sheets. Their hands and feet were bound together tightly to make sure they wouldn’t try and make a getaway. The colossal rats faded away like material going back into the spiritual world. Aleksandra found a cordless phone in the front room and dialed 911.


CHAPTER—12

BROKEN, BUSTED AND BOOKED

After Aleksandra punched in the three magical numbers of 911, then explained her situation in full details, members of the elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit arrived at The Marquis Belvedere in record time. Coming into apartment 1022 hit them with the surprise of a lifetime. Detectives from the Midtown North Precinct there in Manhattan were stunned to find Kent Sturgis and his five perverted partners tied up with bloody noses and blacked eyes.
“What the heck happened in here?” asked lead SVU detective Karen Catalina, staring down at the six men who looked like subjects of a brutal robbery and assault.
Other detectives scoured the apartment to begin their search for clues and evidence.
Kent rolled over on his side in agony. “Help! Somebody help me, please!”
Karen Catalina lifted him up and sat him on the side of the bed. “Who are you, sir?”
“I’m Kent Sturgis, investment banker with a top firm down on Wall Street,” Kent explained, his eyes barely open enough to see Karen clearly. His mouth was busted all up from multiple punches.
His status meant nothing to Karen. She wanted to get the investigation underway. “Sir, we received a call that a young girl was in the process of being gang raped by six men. Would you happen to be one of the men who attempted to rape this young girl?”
“Not me, detective,” Kent denied, lying straight through his busted-up mouth. “Detective, you probably won’t believe me, but a bunch of rats, I’m talking rats bigger than ‘Mean’ Joe Green, came in and took over my apartment. These rats talked good English like human beings. These rats had a glow around them like they had supernatural powers. They’re the ones who beat us up and then tied our hands and feet together.”
Karen glanced over at the bedside table and saw a pile of white powder substance. “Sir, could it have been all that cocaine you snorted that had you hallucinating? Everyone knows that rats don’t talk, let alone grow to sizes bigger than ‘Mean’ Joe Green. God knows there are enough of them in this city.”
“Detective, I’m not lying,” Kent defended, all hysterical behind the takeover of General Rahmaanteen and his army. “These rats had big muscles like a body builder. One of them was like the leader of some army from outer space.”