The Asshole App

22. CANDY SHOP

A/N. Warning! Sexual references in this chapter!

Sticky and sweet
My sugar is raw
Sticky and sweet
My sugar is raw...

Candy Shop- Madonna

In the forty-ninth floor stairwell, Evie put down her briefcase and the package she'd claimed was a picture. She ripped off the paper, exposing two Glocks strapped to a picture frame. She deftly removed them and handed one to Vince, holstering the other one. "Do you feel comfortable using that weapon?" He asked.

Evie nodded. "My father insisted I learn to shoot when I was twelve." She bit her lower lip, uncertainly. "Vince, I've never had to use a gun on anyone."

He nodded, opening the briefcase Evie had set down. "You probably won't need it, but I prefer you to be armed." He pulled the hacking equipment from the briefcase and inserted a slim metal filament into the stairwell key access pad. Depressing the button on his headset, he alerted Ray. "CENTIEN's security system is hot-wired. We're online-let's get this show on the road, soy boy!"

Satoshi moved from her computer, allowing Ray access to the keyboard. A few minutes later, Ray high jacked CENTIEN's system protocols, shielding his actions from surveillance. The restricted red access light on the door turned green and Vince removed the AK-47 from the cleaning cart's green trash bin. Slinging the weapon over his shoulder, he pushed open the stairwell door. Cautiously, he and Evie climbed the flight of stairs to the fiftieth floor. On the landing, they heard a pulsing beat emanating from one of the offices. "What's that noise?" Evie asked. Holding his Glock in front of him, Vince entered the hallway, with Evie following on his heels.

"Someone's in my office." Ray's voice buzzed in their ears. Remotely, he unlocked the heavy metal door for them to enter. They stepped into a disco-fever nightmare. A video of a blond woman wearing a black Dominatrix outfit, holding a whip, was projected onto a wall-to-wall screen. Flashing rainbow colored strobe lights and surround-sound speakers turned the office into a bizarre 1980's dance fest.

"Oh my God." Evie shouted, spying Denis Lear. She ran over to where CENTIEN's senior financial officer, his eyes bulging, was hanging from a doorknob. A red scarf was tied around his neck.

"Lift him up, Vince." Evie cried. "He's choking."Putting his arms under Lear's pits, Vince raised him off the floor to halt the scarf's garroting effect.

Swiftly, Evie untied the silken scarf. Lear wheezed, spluttering and coughing. "Evelyn," he croaked.

"We arrived just in time. Why would they do this to you, Mr. Lear?" Her hands shook with rage. Vince found the sound system control and shut off the offensive music.

"I tied it myself." He wheezed, rubbing his neck. "She's had me locked up here for days, listening to her devil music. Performing unnatural sex acts on me." He laughed, mirthlessly. "Candy Shop, I used to really dislike this song, but now that she's shoved it down my throat so many times, I can actually stand it. Oh God, she filmed everything."

Vince watched the movie being projected on the screen. "Is that you?" Onscreen the Dominatrix whipped Lear's naked ass.

"Turn it off," Lear moaned. She's been using me as a sex slave for days. She's going to show it to my wife."

"Who?" Evie asked, incredulous.

"The new CEO, Madonna. She's Ray's replacement. She and Meryl Streep pooled their stock and overrode the board's authority, performing a soft coup."

Vince was skeptical. "Damn, where I come from men would pay good money for this kind of torture. If it's so bad, why haven't you tried to break outta here?"

"Stop it, Vince." Ray shouted into the headphones, "He's obviously in shock from being molested."

Evie looked at her former boss. "Mr. Lear, why haven't you tried to escape? Why would you stay here?"

It's because of that." He pointed over her shoulder to a DARPA dog with a demonic head. "I saw that thing tear a leg off a security guard." Two meters of quivering steel nosed its way into the office's metal doorframe as a mechanical Doberman crept towards them, its eyes blinking bright red.

"Great balls of Satan!" Vince yelled.