A Quiet Strength - Paying the Piper
by Anon Allsop

-Part Two-

-One-

Power does strange things to a person's mind, it can move someone from the quiet shadows into a ruthless, overbearing tyrant! The new 'Parker' found this to be true, only with it came a deadly companion.

For awhile, Leigh had convinced everyone that 'Parker' was just as he seemed, A first officer aboard one of New Earth's finest star ships. But that distinguished record the real Parker had cultivated over the years, began to unravel more and more over time.

As a lesbian, Leigh was a perfect match for Elise, separated only by common interests. In other words, they were almost mirrors of each other. Once the transfer had taken place, they continued their ways, almost as though playing some strange sordid game.

Both women found it strangely satisfying to share intimately, passions that prior to her change, completely alien. It was around this time that strange twisted nuances began to overcome Parker's conscious and unconscious thoughts.

Perhaps it was a once feminine mind unable to absorb the constant barrage of male hormones that suddenly washed into it with the transformation. Whatever it was, Parker became increasingly aggressive when he was with Leigh's former lover. The aggression growing exponentially over the course of several weeks until all control seemed
to be at risk!

There also was a strong sense of entitlement that overcame Parker the longer he was in his 'new' male body. Somewhere deep in his mind, he decided that any woman single or not, had been placed on the planet for his needs and his alone.

Parker didn't care one iota that she may be married or engaged, in 'his' mind, if she existed, she existed for him. The power that seemed to draw him the most, was the ability to create a life... not within him as when he was female, No, god no, heaven forbid should that have happened.

Once, in a fit of anger he chastised Elise saying that all women were created to spread their legs for men. Now that he was one, he was never going back! In fact, he'd kill himself before ever returning to a female body.

He smirked as he thought of that little bitch whom he stole this body from, wondering what was thinking as she watched her stomach swell out with growth. She caught a laugh as she imagined him in the full throws of pregnancy. 'Better him than me!', He thought.

-Two-

As weeks fell into months, Parker was slowly drawn into displaying more and more of a forced physical abuse to the women that he had attempted to dominate. A once docile relationship he had with Elise, suddenly was torpedoed into beatings and altercations that more than once upon her that required medical attention.

Elise no longer contacted Parker, she feared him and had filed a restraining order which caused his arrest on more than one occasion. Whether it was the power that affected Parker's mind, or an overload of male hormones, it was as though his testosterone was stuck somewhere between high and overdrive.

The constant in and out of legal issues had caused the military to remove his commission, and then he was severely reprimanded for insubordination to his commanders. Propelled into a downward spiral, Parker began to drink heavily, the abuse was passed out like a dealer with a deck of cards.

Morally bankrupt, Parker hid in the shadows, lurking and wanting to make Elise pay. Not accepting of the fact that he was his own worse enemy, Park chose to blame Elise for all his trouble; totally forgetting that everything went back to that fateful day when he forcefully transformed the original Parker into his old body.

He waited in an alley, he knew that Elise would soon be coming past after leaving her job as a late night restaurant server. Soon he heard the clicking of heels, he knew that she was close. He stepped out just as she passed, the look of love she once had for him, now became a look of terror.

"It's your fault, bitch!" He screamed as he grabbed at Elise's hair, dragging her into the alley where he threw her against the wall. "You did this to me you whore!"

"Please... I beg you, let me go!" The female cried as he spun her to face him.

Unbridled rage morphed Parker's face as he screamed at the girl, "No woman will have me...you have made my life hell! I blame you bitch!" He grasped her jacket with his fists and forcefully slammed her against the bricks several times. In one last burst of fury, he forcefully grabbed her face and shoved her violently against the bricks, the impact caused her to suddenly slump.

As the girl went limp, he grew fearful that he had killed her. He lowered her down into the shadows, he tried to support her, but when he pulled his hand away from the back of her head, it was covered thickly in blood.

Realizing what he had just done suddenly leapt into his thoughts, in panic he scrambled to his feet and paced back and forth in the dark. Fear of being convicted with murder, threatened to tear him apart. Quickly searching, he found an old tarp. He covered her up quickly, folded the ends in, and rolled her up in it.

He slunk away in the dark, desperate to hide her body from prying eyes. Down below an ancient monorail trestle, he placed her, throwing branches to conceal what he had done. Into the night he slipped away, hoping and praying that he left no incriminating evidence behind.

-Three-

Max Augustus passed his secretary and placed a coffee on her desk, the cute woman thanked him as he walked toward his office. He opened the door an tossed his keys onto a table, and turned on the light.

As he hung up his suit jacket, he was followed in by his secretary. "Mr. Augustus, a man was in here earlier this morning... he said he found this." She held a camel colored clutch.

Max instantly recognized it as his daughters, "It's Elise's. Who was it, and where did he find it?"

"He works at the same restaurant that Elise works, he was in the alley emptying trash into their refuse container." She sat it on his desk as her boss looked it over. "He said he found it about halfway into the alley, against the wall."

Opening it, he pulled out her credit holder. "Looks like everything is in here... she may have just dropped it." He spoke, sounding hopeful.

"That's probably it, sir. Is her com in it?" She asked, knowing a woman would not be found without her purse, let alone her communicator.

"No, her com isn't inside. Maybe I'll give it a ping, hopefully I can catch her before she goes in to work!" He quickly walked to his chair and pulled it out, taking a seat and began to scroll to her number on his own com.

He sat listening or several agonizing seconds, "... She's not picking up." He studied his secretaries face for a moment, unsure of what to do next. "I'll try her again..." Once again nothing, his face clouded over with worry.

"Ping her work, she may already be there and just has her com off?" His secretary suggested.

Max nodded, "Good idea." He quickly scrolled through his contacts and found the restaurant, it happened to be one of his favorites. "Hi Franco, Max Augustus here..." He politely waited for his friend to convey his greetings, "Hey, I'm trying to get hold of Elise, would she happen to be in?" Again a lengthy silence, "Okay, well as soon as she comes in, have her give me a ping."

Max's face grew with even more concern, his secretary was still standing beside his desk. Max glanced up at her,
"She's already over an hour late for work." He was trying to maintain his fatherly composure, drumming his fingers anxiously against the surface of his desk.

He hesitantly picked up his com again, "Hold all my messages, Deb. I'm going to contact a buddy of mine on the security force. I know I'm supposed to wait for 24 hours but... damn it, this is my daughter, and I'm getting worried!"

"I'll close your door and give you some privacy, let me know what's going on if you can." She stepped out and
gently closed the door behind herself.

"Detective Mike Tate please." He waited until his friend came to the com. "Hey Mike, Max Augustus here." The distraught father fiddled with his pen while he listened, "The reason I'm calling is... Elise is missing and...well, no it hasn't been 24 hours...but, but I thought that maybe you could help me out. It would be a personal favor to me..." He began to nervously bang the pen against his elaborate desk. "Well, Elise's clutch was found in an alley not far from where she worked... no, nothing was taken." Again the pen was tapped fiercely, "I tried pinging her com but she isn't picking up either. To top it off, she is over an hour late for work. I'm really worried Mike, it's not like her."

Max put the pen down and pushed it away from him, horrible thoughts began to race through his mind. "Mike, Elise was dating a dirt-bag awhile ago... guys name is Parker or some such thing. She has a restraining order on him... yeah, he got to roughing her up." He sought out a scrap paper and began to write Mikes com link down. "Thanks Mike, let me know if you hear anything. I have your com, if she contacts me, you will be the first one I call."

As their conversation ended, Max folded the paper and placed it into his credit holder. Slowly standing, he walked back out to his secretary's desk. "I'm going to cruse past her apartment, maybe she is feeling under the weather or something."

The secretary watched a very worried father hurry out of the office, straight toward the elevators he walked. Inwardly, she said a prayer for him and Elise.

-Four-

Max stood with his back to Elise's door, he had been banging on it for awhile. In frustration he folded his arms and stared out into the parking lot, trying to think of what to do next. Suddenly his com began to buzz loudly, he had turned up the sound so he wouldn't miss any communications, and it startled him.

He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at its face, it was Elise. He sighed greatly with relief as he accepted her ping. "Where the sam hell you..." He paused as he listened to the voice. "Who is this?"

His heart fell into his stomach as the person on the other end answered, "Where did you find her com?" He rubbed his temple, trying to massage the headache he was getting away. "Can you wait? I'm not too far from there, I can come by and pick it up. I appreciate it, thanks."

As soon as he hung up he quickly removed Detective Tate's number and dialed. "Mike...Max again. I just got a ping from a kid who found Elise's com. I was wondering if you wanted to meet me there? Huh? Oh, where the kid found it. Where? Yeah, that might be helpful. He found it on the embankment near the old monorail trestle near York Street and Worthington. Alright, I'll see you in a few... thanks, Mike."

-Five-

There were two teenagers waiting along the edge of the road, Max pulled up and stopped. The older looking of the two handed the com over through his open window. "So, where did you find the com?"

The boy walked about halfway down the embankment, Max had to open his hatch to be able to see where the youth
stopped. "I found it laying about right here." He pointed to a spot near where he was standing, "I only noticed because the sun reflected off its face."

Max reached back and removed his credit holder, opened it and began to fish out a few credits. "You don't have to pay us mister, we figured whoever lost it would be looking for it."

He smiled and pushed his credit holder back into his pocket, "One question though, how did you know to ping me?"

The boy smiled, "That's easy. We scrolled through the contacts until we found one marked 'Dad'."

Max smiled at the youngster's ingenuity, "Good thinking." As they were returning to the top, Detective Tate pulled up in his unmarked craft. As the man opened his hatch and stepped out, Max held up the communicator. "They found it about half way down the hill."

The Detective studied them quietly, "Was the com on when you found it?"

The older youth nodded, "It still has a full charge."

He looked at Max, "Did you get their information, just In case we need it?" Max shook his head 'no'. "Boys, I'm going to need your names and addresses. This com may be part of a crime investigation and we want to be able to ask more questions if we need to."

"Yeah, sure." The older boy began to speak to the Detective as Max stood at the hill and looked down toward the water that ran near the bottom. The second boy had begun to relay his name and address in the background as Max fought back the tears of worry.

After moments passed, he felt movement beside him. Glancing up, his friend Mike stood near. Beyond the two, the boys were walking on down the road. "We'll find her Max." Mike tried to reassure his friend.

"I'm scared for her, Mike." He looked up, tears clinging to his lower lashes, "Elise is all that I have since her
mother has passed." Mike grasped his friends shoulder, giving it a slight squeeze.

"So, now what?" Max asked, wiping his eyes.

"You wait here, I'm going down there to look for clues. Somehow, Elise, her clutch and comunicator got separated. Her com got down there, maybe there is a lead that we can use?" In the officer's hand he held several small wires
with white flags.

Max stood at the top as the Detective slowly picked his way down the steep incline. "Found some deep tracks, looks like a boot." He pushed a flag into the ground. "Here's another one." Beside it was placed another flag.

The trail of little white flags grew longer until they were all the way to the bottom. "Here is the same set of tracks, but this time, there going back up." He crouched low and studied it, finally he stood back up, holding his own shoe against it to judge the size. "Man's boot, around a size 11."

Max watched as the Detective followed the flags down the hill with his eye and then again where the trail led back up. Slowly he looked to the left, he glanced quickly back up the hill at Max.

The officer's body language suddenly changed, Max could feel his own heart begin to race. "What is it? What did you find?"

Detective Tate said nothing, he slowly inched toward the base of the trestle, his hand clutching the phaser that was behind his back cautiously. Max moved to where he could still see the officer, he was moving brush. "Did you find something?" Max shouted.

Tate crouched down and began to fuss with a tarp, he quickly stood and moved a few feet away. "Max!" He shouted, "Call for Medical rescue, it's your daughter, it's Elise!"

Max started down and the Detective waived him off. "Don't come down here, we need this evidence!"

Halting, Max shouted back down as he was making the important call, "Is she alright? Please God, let her be alright!"

Mike had returned to the girl, "She's bad Max, barely breathing, she has blood matting the back of her head... looks like somebody beat the hell out of her!"