Eight hours later found the two assassins sitting in the same Humvee in the parking lot of the same diner they had visited earlier. Inside, Li groaned and leaned back in his seat as Virginia kept a watch on the restaurant with her binoculars. “Ginny, can’t we at least get a take out order? I’m starving!” he whined.
Virginia glared at her brother, his elder by two minutes, and roughly threw a bag of animal crackers at him. “Chow down and shut up.” She growled as she resumed watching the diner through the binoculars. Li shrugged and began to eat the cookies. The plan they had devised was simple. Wait for Domino (or Dominique) to get off work, then jump out and grab her by force. Once they had her, they would take her undercover to a shed they had rented with the last of their monthly salary (since the risk of bringing her to HQ was far too great) and re-indoctrinate her into the Team. It had been Virginia’s hope that enough bombardment of symbols and Team dogma would restore Domino’s memory, and even if she wasn’t fully there, her mere presence would enable their cadre of Rockets to act. They had told nobody of their encounter, not even the old guard loyalists, They wanted this to be theirs. The glory, the recognition, the praise they would receive when Domino returned and reclaimed the team… with Virginia and Li as her seconds! Virginia was lost in thoughts of the lower Rockets fearing her as they had feared Domino… Addressing her and her brother as Mistress and Master… and the glorious day when the three of them would order the rebuilding of the resort if only to lock the Morgans and that idiot Ketchum kid who called himself a gym leader in its deepest bowels.
Li’s voice, speaking through a mouthful of cookie bits, jarred her back to reality. “Look! Check it out!”
Virginia focused her binoculars and smiled. The last patrons were leaving the restaurant, and “Dominique” was waving goodbye to them with a tired smile as she pulled the glass door closed and locked it, turning the neon “open” sign off. She turned away and walked back into the main part of the diner to begin the day’s closing procedures.
Virginia lowered her binoculars and turned to look in the seat behind her. There sat the rope, duct tape, and a bottle of chloroform she had brought for this mission. She could hardly believe that she was about to attack her true superior in this way, but it would all be forgiven when everything was said and done…
After about thirty minutes of waiting, the diner doors opened again and the manger let the hostess and Dominique out for the night. Virginia watched carefully as the manager closed the doors behind his employees and locked them. Dominique waved to the hostess, who waved back and climbed into a small green car and drove away. Dominique thrust her hands into her coat pockets and began to walk to her bus stop. Virginia tossed the coil of rope into Li’s lap and grabbed the bottle and a rag. “Let’s move.” She said curtly. Suddenly, Li was all business as he limped out of the humvee and held the rope behind his back as he walked up behind Dominique.
“Excuse me, Miss!” he called, trying to sound pleasant. Dominique turned around tiredly and saw the man from earlier approaching her, not noticing that his female companion was slinking through the shadows behind her…
“Oh, it’s you again.” Dominique said cautiously as Li approached her, the rope held tightly behind his back.
“Hi! Listen. I’m sorry about earlier. I realized after I left that you weren’t who I thought you were.” Li said cordially.
Dominique shrugged. “No problem. Forget it.” She said, hoping that was all the man wanted.
“Hey, listen, maybe you can help me, yeah? I’m trying to find out when the next bus comes up this street…” Li began, his eyes scanning the darkness as he saw his sister padding behind Dominique, the rag dripping with chloroform and waiting to be clamped over the mouth of their target…
Dominique looked at the man strangely.. She didn’t necessarily mind that the world was so full of odd individuals, but she did have to wonder how they all managed to find her day after day. She nodded after a second and stepped closer, ready to tell him when the next bus would be due.
That was when Virginia made her move. In one swift motion, the chloroform-soaked rag was over Domino’s mouth and held in place tightly as Virginia held her superior’s arm with her free had and Li threw the rope around Domino’s upper body. Dominique’s eyes opened wide with terror as her mind registered what was happening to her. This stranger and someone else, probably the girl he had been with, were attacking her! Somewhere, a primal instinct told her body “Time to choose! Fight or flight?” her body replied with “Flight! Flight! Flight!” but it soon realized this to be impossible. The world, already dark with the moon high in the sky, was growing fuzzy and unrecognizable around her, and she felt her legs give way as she began to slump down. She was dimly aware of her assailants carrying her cautiously to a vehicle, and placing her in a back seat. Somewhere, some part of her mind burned with indignation at her plight, then all was gone as she slipped deeply into unconsciousness.
It would be hours before Dominique awoke, and her mind was filled with strange, unrecognizable images as she endured her chemically-induced sleep. Strange images of a man, first with black hair, then with gray, who spoke to her with no voice. Next, images of strange people in indistinct clothing, one with blonde hair, one with red, one with blue, and one with green. Lastly, a particularly terrifying image of a woman with long brown hair and a red head band and a young man with red hair who both seemed to be bathed in blood. The image of the frightening pair was enough to jolt Dominique out of her nightmares and back into consciousness with a yelp. Dominique looked down and realized that she was secured tightly to a chair in a room with three solid cement walls, a big rolling door, and a single bare light bulb above her head. At a folding card table sat the two people she remembered from the diner, who were watching her intently as they sorted through the contents of a large file box between them. Upon discovering that their prisoner had awoken, the two grinned and stood up to walk toward her cautiously. Dominique shivered at the sight of them.
The woman spoke first. “You must forgive us this disrespect, Mistress, but I think you’ll agree it’s necessary.”
Dominique looked at her with confusion. “Please, I- I’m not this Mistress you think I am. I- I’m just a waitress… I don’t have anything to give you.” She said in fear, despite the growing sense of outrage in the pit of her stomach.
The man smiled and placed his hands on Dominique’s shoulders. “Oh, Mistress, you have only forgotten. But we know…” Now the man’s face was suddenly an inch away from her own- “We know what you are and who you are and what you have to give us.”
Dominique felt a tear roll down her cheek as she tried to sort these events out. “I swear, you’re wrong. Please, you must let me go!” she begged.
“Shhh, shhh, shhh. All in good time, dear Mistress. All in good time.” The woman said as she walked behind Dominique. Next, the waitress heard a click and a whirr as a slide projector was turned on. Suddenly, bare cement wall Dominique was facing held a large black square with a large red letter R in the center.
The man stepped forward and saluted the letter. “That, Mistress! What does that letter mean to you?” he demanded.
“The letter R?” Dominique asked uncertainly. “Uhhh… Roses… Robust… Red… Radishes… Rockets…”
“Aha!” the man pounced suddenly. “What made you say Rockets?”
Dominique shuddered. “I don’t know!” she yelled.
“Next.” Virginia said as she advanced the reel. Next was a picture of a black tulip. “What is that object?” she asked.
“A flower?” Dominique answered.
Virginia sighed and hit the next slide, which contained the design schematic from Rocket R&D for Domino’s old weapon of choice, her electric tulips.
Dominique stared at it, not comprehending its meaning at all.
Next, the slide turned to a picture of a man in a red suit with slicked down black hair. Dominique gasped. “I- I know him… At least I think I knew him… Who is he?” she asked. This was the face she had seen in many a dream, but had never known his identity. Li looked at her, intrigued.
“Yes. You do know him. You knew him once, not all that long ago. What was his name?” he asked.
Dominique stared hard at the picture, but the name escaped her. Finally, she shook her head. “I- I can’t know. I have no idea.” She said finally.
Virginia scowled, and advanced to the next slide, a picture of Annie Masterson in a Red Rocket uniform. Again, Dominique’s face held a glimmer of recognition. “That woman…” Dominique whispered. “I know her, too. That red dress, that hair… It’s all a blur in my mind.”
Hmmm, Virginia thought. Interesting… She advanced to the next slide, which showed Michael Morgan in his own short sleeved Red Rocket uniform. Now Dominique’s face broke into a look of shock, which turned into a look of intense anger. “That face….” She growled.
Virginia stepped forward. “Yes, Mistress?” she asked hopefully.
“I don’t know who that is… but… I can tell right now… that I feel angry. I feel… outrage. Whoever that is, he can’t have ever been a friend of mine… right?” she asked uncertainly.
Li smirked as Virginia returned the look and advanced to the next slide. Now an image of Mistress Domino herself in her Master Class Red Rocket Uniform appeared, her face serious and determined. Dominique’s eyes grew wide. “That’s… that’s me.” She said in a whisper. “What do you know about me? What do you know of my past?” she asked.
Virginia smiled. The return was beginning. “We know all about it, Mistress. What matters is for you to know.” She answered calmly.
Dominique tried to stand up, but was reminded that she was immobilized in the chair. Her fear was slowly fading and being replaced by an anger, an anger at the audacity of these two who wanted to keep her their plaything as they dangled shards of her past before her like worms on a hook. “Tell me! She demanded, enraged by their calm manner. “Years of my life have been lost from my memory! I want them back! Give them to me!”
Virginia smiled. “Your fight is returning, Mistress. That is excellent. You will need it in the battle to come.”
Dominique looked to the ceiling. “What battle?! What are you talking about?! I only want one thing… my past back to me, my memories back where they belong!”
“And that’s what we’ll give you, Mistress.” Li said reassuringly as he advanced to the next slide.
The rest of the night went in a similar fashion. The woman in the chair was barraged with pictures, recordings, and Team Rocket doctrines and training materials until dawn’s light, and each time she showed a glimmer of recognition. However, by morning she was still unable to make a solid connection between all these puzzle pieces. It was as if she had been given a million pebbles and had been told to mold them together into a replica of Michelangelo’s David. Morning found Virginia and Li sitting at the table as Dominique stared at the projection of herself in the uniform, staring at it as she struggled in vain to make sense of all the iconography and teachings of this militaristic organization to which she had supposedly once belonged.
“Still nothing, dammit.” Li muttered in disgust. “Great plan, sis.” He said acidly.
Virginia looked at her brother angrily. “Like you had any better ideas. Besides, you wanna keep trying, or you wanna go salute that Morgan idiot as our boss?”
Li slammed his fist on the table. “The problem is that all this junk isn’t enough. We’re giving her little pieces. What she needs is a major part of Team history to jog her memory back.”
Virginia glared at him. “I thought of that. But we can’t exactly march her into the Headquarters, can we? Morgan and the loyalists would shoot us dead in a second.”
“What then?” Li asked. “Everywhere we could go is overrun with Morgan and his toadies.”
Virginia stared at the table. Slowly, she came to a realization. “Waitaminute….” She said in a low voice. “I’ve got it! The Resort!”
Li cocked an eyebrow. “Now you’ve got memory loss? In case you’ve forgotten, the Resort is gone.”
Virginia snarled at him. “I know that, you idiot. But the remains are still there. That was where Domino had her accident, that was where the Boss died, that was where everything happened. Just being by the ruins may be enough to bring her back, and you know Morgan hasn’t touched that island since then!”
Li’s face lit up as the idea hit him. “You’re right… nobody is there anymore!” His eyes narrowed as he chuckled and looked at their captive, who was still transfixed on the picture of herself that had been taken less than a year prior to this moment.
Virginia and Li stood up and walked to Dominique’s side. “Mistress, I think we have the key. You must accompany us.” Virginia stated.
Dominique broke her gaze away from the projection, and turned to look at Virginia. “No.” she said softly.
Li looked at her strangely. “No?” he repeated, confused.
“All this… all this stuff, I can’t make any sense of it. Perhaps it’s better if I never do. Maybe… Maybe I was meant to forget it all.” Dominique said resignedly.
Li looked to his sister, unsure of what to say back. Virginia had clamped her arms across her chest and was glaring at her former superior, one eyebrow twitching dangerously. “Meant… meant to forget?” she said in a quivering voice that hid a burning outrage.
Dominique offered no reply as she looked to her lap.
“Meant to forget!” Virginia screamed. “Oh, no, no, no, not a chance!” Now the former assassin was an inch from Dominique’s face. “You were never meant to forget! It’s only a plot to keep you away, and it will not succeed! I won’t allow it to succeed! You will accompany us!” she screeched.
Dominique suddenly looked up to glare at her captor, confused and angry. “I will not, you psycho!” She said suddenly, outraged by their treatment of her. “You act like I was once your superior. If I was, then I order you to release me now!” Inside, Dominique quivered, and prayed that her tormentors could not see through her bluff.
For a moment, the respect ingrained in Virginia for Domino almost won over before she realized that Domino was buried under this false front of Dominique. “Sorry, Mistress.” Virginia said simply as she walked to the table and opened a kit of medical supplies. From inside, she withdrew a syringe and a bottle of PDT-9, a potent knockout drug which was one of the many products of Rocket research that had been more or less put to rest under Michael’s rule.
Li silently rolled the sleeve on Dominique’s waitress uniform up to expose her arm as she squirmed in the ropes and whimpered at the sight of Virginia approaching her with the needle. Li had to admire his sister’s strength in this instance. Even with the factor of her amnesia, Li doubted that he would have had the strength to jam a needle loaded with a drug into Mistress Domino’s arm. Then again, Li had always known that Virginia was the stronger of the twins, even if he had vowed to never admit it to her face. Li’s face remained expressionless as Virginia shoved the needle in expertly, having administered several similar druggings in the past, and jammed the plunger home. The pair watched in silence as Dominique’s eyes glazed over and her head slumped in the chair. Had it not been for the ropes, she surely would have fallen to the floor in a heap.
With that, Virginia tossed the syringe over her shoulder and grabbed the medical kit off of the table. She tossed it to her brother, who caught it and carried it out to the Humvee. Virginia yanked the bed sheet they had used as a tablecloth off the table, sending the boxes on the table flying. She then walked to Dominique’s slumped form, and produced a razor-sharp jackknife from her boot. With a flick and a swipe, the ropes were cut, and Dominique slumped down to the bare concrete floor as the projected image of Domino watched with a determined smirk. Virginia’s face remained emotionless as she wrapped her Mistress in the bed sheet. Li reappeared in the doorway, and helped his sister pick up the bundle by the legs. Together, they quickly and silently carried the limp body to their vehicle and loaded her into the back seat. Virginia then climbed into the driver’s seat and produced a steel lockbox with a stenciled red “R” which she passed to her brother. Li nodded and walked back to the storage shed. Once inside, Li retrieved a brass key from his pocket and opened the box. Inside sat eight custom made MHB’s, a compact and cheap form of high explosive used often by the assassins in the heyday of the Team. Li smiled as he reached to the corner of the box and removed the green plastic tube of detonators from the foam packing and popped it open. With well-practiced precision, Li set the detonators in place in each MHB, and wired them to the small digital timer he pulled from the lid of the box. He pressed a few buttons, and the device began to beep quietly as Li stood up, took one last look at the image of Domino still emanating from the running projector, and left, closing the door behind him. He walked calmly to the vehicle, the situation very well in hand. “Ten Minutes.” He said simply as he climbed into the passenger seat. Virginia smiled, and started the engine. She calmly pulled out of the public storage facility and drove away in the direction of the Team airfield close to headquarters. They were about six miles away when the shed they had been in was suddenly consumed in a massive explosion, which eradicated all evidence that they had ever been there.Part Three: Flight Of Deception