The Plumbers

“What the hell do you mean, they failed again?”

Big Mike banged the desk with his fist as his assistant brought in the news he really did not need to hear right now.

“This was a fail safe, fool proof plan to get a large ransom.  What the hell went wrong this time?”

“I don’t know, boss –we need to wait until they come back to get the full report.  All we’ve seen so far is this picture which was e-mailed to us.”

Big Mike looked at the photograph placed in front of him.  It showed two women, who he recognised as undercover agents he had sent in to execute the proposed kidnapping.  The red-haired woman in front was looking at someone, presumably the person who had captured them, with anger over the blue tape over her mouth.  Her wrists had been bound together in front of her, and her blue top pulled up slightly as ropes around her back and neck held her legs up against her chest.  Her ankles were also bound together.

Behind her he could see her dark haired companion.  She was flat on her back, and her wrists were bound above her head over a pair of black elbow length gloves she was wearing.  She had been stripped to a black camisole top and panties, and her ankles were also bound together.  Blue tape covered her mouth as well.

“Dammit – have we retrieved them yet?”

“In process now.”

“I want to talk to both of them when they get back.”

Deh and Em looked at their boss as he listened to their tale.

“So, you were about to execute the plan when you were jumped?”

“That’s right,” Em replied.  “Three women, wearing stocking masks, overpowered both of us and left us there while they did the actual kidnapping.  We had no chance of stopping them.  We’re sorry, boss – if there had been any chance at all….”

“It’s all right girls, this wasn’t your fault,” Big Mike said with a smile.  “Go and rest now.”

As the two women left, Mike’s assistant came back into the room.

“How many is that now?”

“Three by my reckoning – and that’s three to many.  IT was bad enough with Stacy.”

Stacy was Big Mike’s sister, a tall statuesque blonde who made a speciality of securing kidnap victims for him.  The last time she had tried this, however, the victim had somehow been forewarned and managed to turn the tables on her.  Big Mike had again been sent a photo anonymously by e-mail,

Stacy was standing in the front room of the victim’s house, wearing a pink floral bandana style top and blue jeans – the same sort of clothes her victim would normally wear.  This person, to whom she bore quite a striking resemblance, was standing behind her – fixing a white gag over her mouth.  Stacy had been securely bound with ropes around her wrists and upper body, as well as her ankles, and was plainly angry at the situation.

“She was not pleased about that one, I can tell you,” Mike scowled.  “The question is, what am I going to do about it?”

“Do you think we have a leak somewhere in the organisation?”

“Possibly – but I can’t trust anyone here to look into it.”

“Not even me?”

“No offence, but I have to be sure.  Have a look at this.”

Pressing a key on his computer, Mike swung his screen round to show his assistant a link to a remote camera somewhere.  It showed a couch, made with some sort of tiger skin pattern, and on the couch was a young naked blonde woman.  She was wrapped in several layers of brown rope, so that she was very tightly hogtied, and white tape was smoothed over her mouth.

“My god, Mike, you think I’m the source of the leak?  That’s my wife – she has no idea what it is my job entails.  Please, by all that is holy….”

“Not my doing, but I believe you.  She will just think your house has been robbed, nothing more, and I’ll replace everything they took.”

Mike picked up his phone and made a call.  “Thank you, but you can move on to the next target now.”

“Who…. Who did this to her?”

“Who do you call when you have a leak in your pipe work,” Big Mike asked.

“Easy, I call….. Oh lord, you called in The Plumbers?”

Big Mike nodded, and his assistant sat in the chair.

“How long did they say it would take?”

“Twenty four hours.  I’m sorry, but I had to be sure about you first.  Now, they’ll go and ask the next person who may know something of who would do this.”

“The Garda Commissioner?”

Big Mike nodded.  “We had an agreement with him – he needs to be reminded of that agreement.”

The white painted house sat just off the main street, and most people in the area knew that the Assistant Commissioner of the local Garda lived there,  He’s refused extra security, saying it would just draw attention to the fact he was there, but it was a fairly open secret.

The white van drew up onto the driveway and three men got out, carrying tool bags with them.  Walking up to the front door, the rang the bell and waited,

It was answered by a young, brown haired woman wearing a black sundress with white polka dots.  It was strapless, with a length of cord securing it above her breasts, and barely covered her bottom.

“Yes?”  Was all she managed to get out before she was pushed back into the house by the three men.  Her stunned silence was made complete as they tore strip after strip of white tape off a roll and smoothed it quickly over her mouth, before pushing her onto the floor and wrapping tape from her wrists up to her elbows.

“Jo, who was at the door,” a voice called out from the rear of the house, and as one of the men wrapped tape around her ankles the other two made their way to where the voice had come from.  Jo was silently thankful for the fact she had some tights on as the tape was wound tightly around her legs above her knees, and she was helped up into a sitting position.

As the man left, Jo looked over her should in the direction the others had gone, only to see her mother been brought through from the kitchen into the room, and one of the men carrying a kitchen stool with him.

Her mother was young looking for her age, and was wearing a blue sundress, short sleeved and going to just above her knees.  Her wrists had already been secured behind her back with silver duct tape, and several layers were over her mouth.  One of the men took a length of white rope, and started to wrap it around her arms and chest, going above and below her breasts, before passing it around her neck and shoulders to further secure them.

She was helped to sit on the stool, and as her bare ankles were tied together more rope was passed around her waist and secured to the back of the stool.  Her ankles were then secured to the crossbars of the stool with more rope, before a small thin piece of cord was used to tie her big toes together.

“Our apologies, ladies, but we need to have a word with the man of the house,” the leader of the three men said as the two women struggled to get free.  “Try not to get too upset, and this will all be over soon.”

Commissioner Wiggins was in his office when his secretary called.  “You have a call from your house, sir,” she said.

“Hello , Love, what can I do for you?”

“I don’t think you love me,” a male voice replied, “but I do think you should listen to your wife.”

“George, please, they have me and Jo.  They say they won’t harm us, but they want to ask you a question.  Please, tell them the truth or mmpgfcddsfd.”

“What do you want,” Commissioner Wiggins asked with a tremble in his voice.

“Our client is very upset that his work has been interrupted recently, and he believes you know who has done it.”

“Big Mike?  I know he has had problems, but they’re not my doing.  I leave him alone, that’s the deal.”

“Nevertheless, Commissioner, you know who is doing it.  Now, unless you want Jo here to have a…. Uncomfortable time.”

Commissioner Wiggins winced as the muffled sounds of the two women he cared most for in the world calling out reached his ears.

“All right – I may have an idea of who is behind this, but leave my family alone, understand?”

“Of course, Commissioner – you will just have been yet another victim of a robbery.  Now, we want names and addresses.”

“So it wasn’t the police either?”

“No, it looks like a small independent gang that have been watching you and anticipating your plans.  As we see it you have two choices – we can take them out for you, or you can talk to them.  Which do you prefer?”

“Bring them to me – I would like to meet these most enterprising people.”

The three blondes were sitting on the bar patio, enjoying the summer sun.  They weren’t dressed in a way that would attract attention – one was wearing a light grey sleeveless dress, one dark trousers and a purple jumper, and the third a brown coat dress. 

“So, who do we hit next?”

“There’s a very wealthy looking house that they’ve been watching for some time – I could try and find out when they plan to hit and get us in there first.”

“Maybe – who wants another drink?

The one in the grey dress stood up and made her way to the bar.  As she walked into the lobby area, two men stood up from a nearby table and approached her.

“Excuse me…. Hey, what are you doing?”

They grabbed her by the arms and pushed her out of a side door into an alleyway beside the bar.  Quickly producing a pair of handcuffs, they secured her wrists behind her back and slapped tape over her mouth.

“Our client wants a word with you and your friends,” one of the said as they made her stand against the wall, and one of them returned to the bar.

“What’s keeping her?”

“I’ll go and see what’s happening.”

The brown dressed woman stood up and made her way into the bar area, only to be grabbed and pushed into the alleyway to join her friend.  While this was happening, the third blonds were startled by a dark haired man sitting down beside her.

“Can I help you?”

“Yes – you can be very quiet while you listen to what I have to say.  I know what you and your friends have been doing, and my client wants it to stop one way or the other.”

“I… I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes, you do.  Your two friends are with two of my friends right now.  You are going to stand up and walk out of here with me to join them, or they die before you have a chance to explain yourself.  Understood?”

She thought for a moment, then nodded and stood up.  Accompanying the man, they made their way to the side alley, where the other two women were standing gagged and waiting.  The third blond was quickly silenced and secured in the same way, before the three were roped together around their waists.

“Come along, ladies – there’s a man who wants a word with you.”

They were led to a waiting white van, and made to sit in the back as the door was closed on them.

Big Mike and his assistant watched as the three women were led into the room.

“Recognise them?”

“Yeah – the one in the brown dress works for one of our cover companies.  She must have found a way of monitoring what we were up to and tried to cut herself in.”

“Hmmm – so the question now is what to do with them.”

“They could disappear?”

“Yes – but then we’d never know how they did it.  No, I think we have a lot to learn from them.”

“So what do you want to do?”

“Offer them a job if their methods are good – otherwise the plumbers get an unexpected bonus.”

With that, they left the room and made their way to meet three most enterprising, but now terrified ladies.