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Night Owl II

“Bird In A Gilded Cage” by Martin Maenza

She stepped forward, the sound of her boot heels clicking against the concrete of the alleyway. She reached out her white gloved hand.   “It’s okay now,” her voice said in a reassuring manner. “These thieves won’t hurt you any more.”

“Why thank you, my dear,” the male voice replied. It wasn’t weak or frail as she would have expected. It didn’t seem distressed at all; it sounded rather confidant and assured.

She briefly felt the tips of the victim’s fingers glided across her open palm. They were thick and there was something to them that caused a slight resistance against her gloves – a material layer. He was wearing gloves perhaps?

The hand then grasped hers firmly. With her enhanced strength, it wasn’t anything to be worried about but it was unexpected.

As was the sudden surge of electricity that emanated from the grip and coursed through her entire body!

She screamed and fell backwards.

“Night Owl!” a familiar voice called. It was the voice of the User, her close friend and lover. His words echoed as she tumbled down, down, down…

“Uhhh!” The raven haired woman lurched up suddenly, sweat beads running down her forehead. Was that a dream or…?

There was a slight throbbing in her head. She rubbed her temples. No, no dream. That was real, that happened! But how long ago? How long was I out?

It took Crystal Tofana only a few more seconds to get her orientation and to realize things were not as they should be.

First, the bed she was laying in was totally unfamiliar to her; the mattress firmness had an entirely different feel to it. And the sheets were not your typical cotton brand. The thread count was easily a few hundred higher, giving it a totally different softness. And there wasn’t that smell from the dryer sheet to them either. This wasn’t the apartment she and Jerry shared. And it certainly wasn’t a hospital bed.

Where am I?

The next thing she did was reach down beneath the covers, only to realize what she was wearing. The feel of the garment, against her bare hands, was soft too, with a smooth surface and texture. No doubt it was satin of some kind. She reached further. And it was short! Definitely not a hospital gown!

Where are my clothes? What happened to my costume?

Looking about the room would yield her little clue, for after all she was blind.

She had been that way for the past four years, since a tragic accident that resulting in her losing her sight. That was a hard time for her. Not only was she suddenly and permanently deprived of one of her senses – a most crucial one, but her entire professional career was ground to a halt as a result.  Prior to the accident, she was one of the most promising rookies on the Los Angeles police department; still in her early twenties she was already a decorated officer. After the accident, she was relegated to a desk job, clerical tasks mostly. She knew the captain of the precinct wasn’t doing it out any sense of pity; he liked her well and was trying to allow her some connection to her former life. But she really longed for more.

And she would achieve that two years later after her path crossed with someone who would help her achieve that goal. Mystifier was on a case that brought him to the City of Angels. A former arrest of Crystal’s escaped from prison and hooked up with an occult group. The criminal kidnapped her as payback, and she was to be offered as a sacrifice.  The super-hero sorcerer rescued her at the last minute, breaking up the ritual and capturing all involved.

Still, Mystifier saw something in her, a fire that could not be extinguished despite her handicap. He offered to help her, to see if something in his books of spells could somehow heal her. Alas, he could not bring back her sight with any type of clarity, but he was able to boost her other senses to compensate. The magic also gave her enhanced strength and the ability to fly.   She would no longer be just a victim.  She soon after became Night Owl, taking the name after a heroine who operated on the west coast during World War II.

True, her being Night Owl was directly connected to the situation she was now in, but thinking too much about the past was not going to help her in the present. I need to find out where I am and why.

Crystal pulled back the sheets, swung her legs out over the side of the bed and placed her feet on the floor. Hardwoods. As she stood, she let her other senses help her. One of the side-effects of Mystifier’s magic left her with a strong sense of spacial awareness. Though she couldn’t actually see the room around her, she got a feeling of things within it just the same. Things actually appeared as sort of shadows to her, set against an equally shadowy backdrop. Still, there were nuances to the shades of gray and she had learned how to interpret them; her “sight” allowed her to roughly tell where people and objects were.

She moved about the bed, keeping her right finger tips gently touching it as an anchor point.   Her left hand, meanwhile, was out slightly to help her feel what else was around. Her finger tips brushed up against something tall with some small, cold metal knobs. A bureau of some kind no doubt. She turned to face it, reached out and pulled two of the knobs to open the main doors out. She then reached inside and felt the clothes hanging inside. There was something longer, a robe made of the material similar to the nightgown she currently wore.

I guess that’s better than nothing, she thought as she gently pulled it from the hanger. She noticed the hanger was one of those padded kinds. Scented too. Someone has a taste for the finer things.   She slipped one arm into the garment and then the other, and then she pulled the front closed and tied it gently off.   This at least helped her to feel a bit less naked and vulnerable.

She continued her circuit around the bed and noticed a difference in temperature on the floor.   Her left arm felt it too. Warmth, coming from a window no doubt.

She moved in that direction and felt a small ledge bump against her leg just above the knee. Atop the ledge was a fluffy cushion about an inch and a half or two thick. A window seat.

Crystal reached further in and felt the glass panes of the window. Running her hands carefully along them, she found a set of metal handles on the frame and a latch. She flipped open the simple hook and drew the windows in towards her. They folded back along the frame in two sections on each side.   Perhaps she wasn’t a prisoner after all.

With the opening came the clean and fragrant air outside. And there were sounds of birds in the not so distance, chirping happily.   She took in a deep breath, to help further clear her head. As she did so, she could pick up various hints of flowers outside, probably part of a garden of some kind. There was sweetness to them, smells that took her back to her youth. She detected yarrow, catmint and possibly the subtle scent of sweet alyssum. My Nonna used to grow those in her garden, she thought. She always said they reminded her of…Italy?

Crystal felt a brief second of panic. Maybe she wasn’t in New York City any longer, or even in the United States. Could someone have kidnapped her and taken her to Italy? How long was I unconscious? Perhaps that pounding in my head wasn’t from the initial shock but possibly from being drugged? Who did this?

With anger building inside of her, Crystal’s first thought was to flee! Take off and get away to someplace safe and then figure out what was going on. If she was indeed in Italy, she wouldn’t have a language barrier at all. She spoke Italian fluently.

She moved towards the window to climb out, only to feel a slight sting as her hands hit metal bars.   They ran the full length of the opening on the outside of the window and were spaced a few inches apart, hardly wide enough to fit a limb through but little more. So I am a prisoner!

Crystal reached up and grabbed two adjacent bars, one in each hand. Not for long! She used her enhanced strength, to exert force to try and pull the bars apart.

As soon as she made the attempt, though, she felt an extreme shock course up through her body starting down at her right ankle! It was a surge of electricity that ran across her entire nervous system like bolt of lightning. “Aaaaaaaaaaaah!” she cried out, releasing the bars and crumpling on the window seat.   She lay there, disoriented and confused for a few moments until the pain subsided.

Finally, when her head cleared she reached down to her right leg. Indeed, there was a circular item about an inch in height and a half inch in thickness tightly encircling her ankle. It was lightweight in nature which is probably why she hadn’t noticed it to begin with – much like one would tend to stop noticing a ring worn on their finger or something. Crystal felt around its entire circumference, looking for any kind of seam or catch.   She could barely find a seam, but there was no catch. There were only two slight circular indentations, about the size of a ballpoint pen, on the top and bottom edges. Must be some kind of tool required to get it on and off. Let’s just see…

She placed her hands on each side of the cuff and tried to use her enhanced strength to pull it off.   Again, the surge of electricity coursed from it through her body. “Aaaaaaaaaaaah!” she screamed out in pain again.

After a moment, she recovered once more. Great! It’s like some kind of shock-collar and I’m the bitch being trained what not to do.

There was a slight clicking sound across the room as a doorknob turned. The door opened with a very faint squeak of hinges needing a little bit of lubricant.

“I heard your screams, my dear” a male voice said in a matter-of-fact way. “I see that you’re up. Good! Breakfast will be ready soon. You must be hungry.”

Crystal struggled to place the voice. It was vaguely familiar. It sounded like the man who was being mugged in that alleyway, the man who she and User were trying to help - the man who ended up ambushing her instead!

She then heard his footfalls as he turned to walk away. “Wait,” she called out. “What’s going on? Who are you?”

When she got no answer, Crystal rose from the window seat and made her way across the room to where she had heard his voice. She got to the door which was still wide open and carefully stepped out into the hall.   Like the bedroom, the floor here too was hardwood. No shock. That’s a good thing. Clearly there are places I can and cannot go then.

She could sense the closeness of the walls around her, thus requiring no need for the added guiding hands.   Wherever she was, she knew she’d need to learn her way around quickly – if she had that much time to even do so.   It made her very uncomfortable when she did not know her surroundings.

Her sense of smell picked up odors coming from the left up ahead. Clearly that is where the man had gone, and he had said something about breakfast. Her stomach growled in response, and she had to agree with it. I have no idea how long it was since I last had something to eat. That was incentive enough for her to investigate further, even if that was what her captor wanted. She decided she might as well get something to eat and perhaps find out more of who was behind this and what he wanted.

The hallway opened into a large room. Crystal could feel the warmth coming down from above her. As she looked up, she could see lesser gray tones which she attributed to bright sunlight. That’s probably some kind of skylight then.

“I wouldn’t recommend it if I were you,” the male voice called from across the way as if he could read her mind. “I don’t wish to see you suffer further pain,my dear. It doesn’t become you at all.”

Crystal turned to where the voice was coming from. It was the same source as the wonderful aromas. “You have a funny way of showing concern, mister.”

“Come, sit,” the man said.  “You don’t want your food to get cold, do you?”

She paused and considered.   “How do I know you aren’t trying to poison me?” she asked.

The man said, “My dear, if I had wanted you dead you would have been so a long time ago. Now, please sit.”

“Who are you?”

“Sit, and then we can talk while we eat.”

Crystal started to move forward, again, cautious due to being in unfamiliar surroundings.

“The chair is three paces to your left,” the man said, obviously picking up on her hesitations.   “Here, allow me.” She heard him move about and slide a chair across the floor.

Does he…? she wondered to herself.

“I am sure it’ll be difficult at first,” he said. “But you’ll learn your way around in time. I want you to be comfortable and at ease.”

She moved forward the distance he had said. He took her arm and guided her to sit. Her hands ran down the length of the armrest. The thick wood was carved in a very stylized way.

“I see you already found the robe,” he said as he pushed her seat forward to the table. “Good. I have other clothes coming for you later today now that I know your measurements.”  He moved back to his seat and sat. “You will find a bathroom across the hall from your bedroom for your use. There are fresh linens and toiletries. Just let me know if you don’t find something you need and I’ll arrange for you to get it.”

“Sounds like you thought of everything,” Crystal said dryly as she moved her hands up, and they brushed up against the edge of the table. It too was carved in a similarly stylized way. From touch alone she had no way of knowing what kind of wood it was though, or the color of the grain and what not. Still, she could imagine what it was like based on her many years of having her sight prior to the accident.

“It’s a standard place setting,” the man explained. “Fork to the left, knife and spoon to the right with napkin beneath them. Bread at eleven. Coffee at one. Do you take cream or sugar?”

He knows I can’t see! she thought. I must have tipped him off. Was he observing me the entire time I was moving about the bedroom? She felt vulnerable in his knowing; this entire situation left her totally unnerved.   She felt trapped, confined, and that was something she didn’t like.

Still, Crystal tried her best to keep a straight face, a skill she learned in her teenaged years playing poker with her father and older brothers. She couldn’t show him weakness for that would be something else he could use against her. “Black is fine,” she said flatly.

“Very good,” the man said.   He picked up his fork and knife and proceeded to eat.

Crystal too did the same. On the main plate before her were eggs Florentine made with spinach, onion, oregano, and parmesan cheese.   There was also a small bowl of mixed berries, very fresh. The bread was fresh baked, still warm from the oven, with a light covering of cinnamon-butter. Everything tasted surprisingly wonderful, but she wasn’t about to compliment him on it.   She kept herself restrained, taking her time rather than gobble it all down hungrily. She knew she would have to play a game while she bided her time.

After about five minutes of silent eating, the man said “I believe you had some questions for me, Night Owl.”

Crystal realized he already knew about her blindness, so he was clearly already at an advantage. He also knew about her powers – her strength and being able to fly. Pretty much game-set-and-match for him. Plus the cuff on her leg seemed to prohibit her from using them, unless she felt like getting another round of shock treatments. She needed to even things up a bit.

“You know who I am. Who are you?” she asked.

“That’s right, I never got the chance to introduce myself to you the other night,” the man said. “I am known professionally as the Assassin, but you may call me Antonio if you like.”

What I’d like to do is clean your clock, she thought. But she knew instantly that would do little good.   If he went to all this trouble to get her here, simply beating him up wasn’t going to give her freedom. And, if anything, it might just anger him instead.   No, better to just go along and figure out a plan.

Still, that name rang a few bells with her. Back when she was living in Los Angeles, she had heard talk of a hitman-for-hire who went by the name ‘the Assassin’. That does explain a bit. Like how he got the jump on her and User, and the hi-tech ankle bracelet she was wearing.

Then another thought hit her. Jerry! Was he the target of this killer? Had he succeeded? If Jerry hadn’t been the target, then was I the target? And if so, why did this creep keep me alive? It didn’t make any sense.

“The Assassin, eh?” she asked instead. “You used to operate out of the west coast, right? Why New York City then? Did you need a change of scenery, or perhaps someone was after you?”

Antonio chuckled.   “No, my dear,” he said. “I simply go where the assignments take me.   London, Paris, Hong Kong, Chicago, Miami…have gun will travel.”

“Who hired you then?”

“Who hasn’t?” he replied with a slight laugh. “You mean for my most recent job? Sorry, dear, that’s client-confidential. You understand. We all have our little secrets, though some are easier to ferret out than others.”   He took a sip of his coffee. “So, calling you ‘Night Owl’ seems so formal. Perhaps you’d rather me call you by another name.”

“No,” she said coolly.

“Well then, my dear, I’ll just have to use other terms of endearment until you change your mind.”

Not likely! she thought.

“So,” she said calmly, putting down her fork, “clearly you went through a lot of trouble to get me here...” Crystal made a gesture in the air. “…to some place possibly out of the country. Why?”

“Well, my dear,” the man said. “The truth is someone of your exquisite beauty shouldn’t be merely snuffed out with the pull of a trigger, no matter how big the price tag.”

“So someone offered you big money to take me out,” she said.

“They got their money’s worth,” he replied.

“And thus I’m your prisoner,” she concluded. “As long as I’m here, I’m not out there and you look like you did your job.”

“Exactly,” he said.   “See, I knew you were smart as well as gorgeous.”

“And your little device will keep me confined to the premises, right?”

“It’s a precautionary measure to be sure,” he said. “It’s a much easier way to keep you from trying to run off. I’d really rather not have to shoot you myself if I don’t have to.   The world is such an ugly place.   It needs beauty to balance it out.”

“So, you designed the cuff yourself then?”

“No,” the man said with a head shake. “I know some guys who do some development for the government. That’s one of their neuro-shock restraining cuffs that they provide to Stronghold.   As long as you keep things nice and cool, you’ll be fine. So, no exerting unnecessary strength and no flying. Otherwise – bzzzzzzzzt!”

Great, she thought. So that explains that and pretty much means I’m going to be stuck until I can figure something out.

Despite all the odds stacked against her, she was still concerned about User. She needed to know more about the night they were ambushed.   “So, how long was I out,” she asked, “between that night in New York and now?”

“A couple days,” Antonia replied. “Long enough for me to take care of a few loose ends and for us to travel.”

“And you kept me drugged the entire time.”

“Sorry about that, my dear,” he apologized. “But I knew what you were capable of so I had to take precautions. Believe me though; I took good care of you until we could get settled here. I made sure to handle everything personally as far as you were concerned.”

Crystal got the chills all of sudden. She thought about the nightgown she was currently wearing, which was most definitely not the costume she had been wearing before. Brrrrrrr. This creep had to have undressed me and dressed me at least once, or more! God only knows what else he did – the freak! I don’t know how many showers it’s going to take to help get rid of that awful feeing!

“And where’s here exactly?” she asked.

“My own private villa in the country,” he said.

“Which country?”

The man chuckled. “I don’t think it matters, my dear.   As I said before, you’ll be staying put for a good long while anyway. We both will, in fact. I’m a bit overdue for a vacation anyway. Hopefully over time you’ll behave so I can allow you access to the grounds. There are some nice gardens with fountains, and a walking path around a pond. I wouldn’t want you to have to be cooped up in here forever.”

So, I have some say in the matter. Good to know. Crystal thought a second and then said, “You know, someone could come looking for me.”

“Really?” he said.   “No, I don’t think so. If you’re talking about your friend the User, I doubt he’ll be in any shape to go anywhere any time soon. The traps I set in that alleyway were designed specifically to slow him down and take him out of commission while we could make our escape.   I’d expect he was in the hospital a good long while after that run in.”

So Jerry wasn’t the target – good! It was a small consolation in this otherwise horrible situation to know that the man she loved was at least still alive.

“Still,” the man continued, “even if he were up and about, I would expect him and the rest of the world to think you dead. I’m counting on it. Those who hired me wanted the woman in the Night Owl costume eliminated, and that’s what I provided. As far as they’re concerned, she’s dead.”

That explains why my costume is gone, she thought. After he knocked me out and got away from Jerry, he must have taken my costume and put it on some other woman of similar height, build and hair style. He then killed her, making it look like he finished the job he was paid to do. Sick bastard!   If anyone finds the body, they’d assume she was me. Only my closest friends know who I am under the mask, so only they would know the truth.

Still, she was counting on those friends to rescue her. If only there was someway she could help them find her. This guy seemed to have all the angles covered, so most likely there wasn’t a phone or radio or anything anywhere she might have access to. She would need to find time to explore when he was occupied. This was going to require time and patience. She had to see what else he knew about her and her relationships.

“That just might make a few folks angry,” she said. “What if they, your clients that is, come looking for you?”

Antonio laughed. “They wouldn’t have any reason to think they hadn’t gotten what they paid for. I made sure of that. And, even if they did, they’d have to find me first. I’m pretty damned good at disappearing when I want to.   And, even if they found me, they’d have to get to me. Believe me, my dear; this place is very well fortified. Any person who tried to take me here would be an idiot. I have what’s called the home turf advantage.”

That last bit bothered Crystal a bit. He was right to feel confident after all. The world was a big place. Without her costume and her communicator, she had no way of alerting User and the others on how to find her. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack. No, she realized. If she were going to escape, she’d need to figure out a way by herself. She just needed to stay alive and keep this man from figuring out what she was up to.

She would have some tough days ahead of her.

(to be continued)