Mamba

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Mamba

Trafford Publishing

Chapter One

Setting her empty wine glass down, Paula exited her tent and strolled across the compound to her lab. Upon entering the large tent that served as her laboratory Paula flicked on the lights. She needed electricity to run some of her equipment and the portable generator was running now. Unless she gave orders to the contrary, Manswana would shut off the generator when she retired for the night. While relatively quite the generator still made too much noise to sleep at night and generally she only ran it for a few hours each day to conserve fuel and to maintain the relative quite she was used to. The fluorescent lights flickered for a moment and then came on bathing her lab in the harsh artificial light. Her lab consisted mostly of cages lined up on folding tables along the walls with a large heavy wooden workbench in the center of the tent. There was a small refrigerator in one corner that she used to store some of the anti-venom she was working on and a few other things that required refrigeration. Paula found that it would stay cool for about fifteen hours if she didn't open it before the generator had to be turned back on to supply power to it again. She rarely opened it and then only when the generator was running.

Consulting a chart, she started to feed her pets. All the snakes were not fed on a daily basis. It would often take them days to digest a meal from a single feeding. She named all of the snakes after men and her favorite one was named Baron. He was due to be fed again tonight. Putting on a heavy leather glove she opened one of the cages and removed a large live rat and walked over to the Plexiglas cage where Baron lay coiled in a corner. Baron was a Black Mamba. A big one, over eight feet long. It was one of the most deadly snakes in the world. A typical byte from the Mamba delivered over one hundred milligrams of venom. Only ten milligrams could kill a human adult. This one she knew would deliver almost three hundred milligrams. She knew this as she had milked it several times now. Paula unlatched and opened a small door in the top of the cage and dropped in the rat.

"Feeding time?"

Startled she spun around. The Baron Von Kessler stood just inside the doorway. "Yes. Come and watch if you like."

The Baron walked over to the cage and peered inside. "What do you have there?"

The Baron had been drinking more than just wine. Paula could smell the strong odor of alcohol as he neared her. "That is Baron. I've named him after you. Baron is a Black Mamba, like the one that killed your son. Watch it's getting ready to strike. Watch his mouth when he bites and you will see why he is called a Black Mamba."

The rat sensing danger had retreated to the far corner of the cage. The Mamba rose up slightly, flicking its forked tongue out sniffing at the air. It suddenly struck from across the cage and then retreated to the corner again to wait. The strike was lightning fast and the strike was over in the blink of an eye.

"Jesus, that was fast." The Baron had jumped back even though he was perfectly safe. He could see that the inside of the snake's mouth was black as coal. "His mouth was black I think. I only got a glimpse of it. I expected a Black Mamba to be black."

"No they are a light and sometimes a dark gray like our friend here. Sometimes an olive color. They are called Black Mamba's because of the color of their mouth."

"What is he doing? He's just sitting there."

"Rats can bite too and Baron knows that. He will wait a couple of minutes for the venom to take effect and then eat the rat. If that was a bird he would have held on to it until it took effect otherwise it could fly away before the venom kicks in."

"They are that smart?"

"I wouldn't say it is smart, it's more like instinct." Noticing that she had not latched the door again Paula was about to reach up and latch it when the Baron grabbed her spinning her around to face him.

Pulling her to him he smiled. "You've been out here for almost a year now Paula. It must get awfully lonely at night. Why don't we retire to my tent for the night?" He bent down and kissed her.

Paula shoved him away and stepped back. "I'm not that lonely Baron." Paula hated almost all men, she did love having sex with them from time to time, but it was under her conditions, one of which was that she slept with a man only when she wanted and never the same man twice. When she first met the Baron a year ago, she had found him attractive at first, but she found that the way he had looked at her today disgusting and shunned his advances then as she did now.

The Baron stepped forward grabbing her around the waist and pulled her to him again. "Come now Paula. I've just deposited another hundred thousand in your account. Don't you think that I deserve a little thanks for my generosity?"

She tried to shove him away, but his grip was too strong. "I'm not your whore, you fuck."

The Baron grabbed her by the hair tilting her head back exposing her neck. He kissed her neck, then ran his tongue slowly up her neck to her ear. "Of course not, but I traveled all the way here just to see you and I intend to do just that." With that he ripped open her shirt exposing her breasts.

"Let me go or I'll call Manswana. You don't want to know what they do to rapists out here in the jungle."

The Baron rubbed one of her breasts. "Manswana is sleeping off a bottle of wine I doctored up for him. He is going to be out for hours."

Paula managed to get an arm free and reaching up, scratching four deep groves in the Barons cheek. She stepped back when he released her.

The Baron had a shocked look on his face as he felt his cheek. He could see blood on his fingertips when he pulled his hand away. "You fucking bitch." He lashed out slapping Paula hard across the face.

Paula had tried to dodge the blow but it had been too quick and unexpected. She had expected a reaction, but not this. He had struck out at her with his full strength, not holding back a bit. The blow stunned her and she could taste blood. She felt blackness creeping in momentarily as she stumbled back into the mamba cage. Recovering slightly she tried to run for the doorway, but he grabbed at her shoving her back toward her workbench.

He swept aside some of the containers on the table and with one hand around her throat he started undoing her pants. He had trouble getting them past her boots, but finally managed by stepping on the crotch of her pants as he lifted one of her legs free. Dropping her legs he fondled one of her breasts and licked at the other.

The Mamba cage and table that it was on had tilted back against the tent wall when she had bumped into it. Paula watched in horrified fascination as the table the Mamba cage was on slowly tilted forward again. Momentum kept it going and the table flipped forward with the cage crashing to the ground. The unlatched feeding door flipped open.

Intent on Paula, the Baron had ignored the noise and ripped away her panties. Picking her up he set her on the table edge and forced her down by her neck. His grip around her throat was tight and darkness kept coming and going as he undid his pants dropping them to the floor around his ankles. Ripping away his shorts to expose himself he took her while standing by the edge of the table. She tried to resist, but his grip was too strong. Every time she moved, he would squeeze her neck and the blackness would creep in. She raised an arm in an attempt to scratch him again and he swatted it away and slapped her hard across the face. The Baron pawed at her breasts, grunting loudly with each thrust. Out of the corner of her eye Paula could see the Mamba's head emerge from the cage and slither forward toward them.

Ordinarily a Mamba would have slithered away rather than attack, but Baron was angry now, having been shaken up when his cage fell to the ground he also felt threatened. A Mamba was aggressive usually only when it felt threatened. A Mamba rears up when it bites often biting as high as three or four feet up. It would strike a large threat two or three times then quickly retreat to avoid injury to itself. Barely conscious now she raised her legs up from the floor away from the advancing Mamba, wrapping them high around and above the Baron's hips. If the Mamba did bite, she didn't want to be the one bitten.

The Baron misinterpreted her actions. "Oh, yes. That's more like it Paula." The Baron continued to thrust and she kept her legs up high wrapped around him.

With his hand around her throat she couldn't warn him even if she wanted to.

The Baron was about to ejaculate, but then suddenly yelped in pain. He released his grip on her and stepped away from Paula almost tripping with his pants around his ankles. There was a puzzled look on his face. "What the hell?" He looked down behind him only to see the Mamba slither out the doorway.

Paula shoved him back and slid down off the table. The Baron did trip now, falling to the floor with a hurried panicked glance at the door. Paula quickly pulled on her pants but didn't button her shirt back up as most of the buttons now littered the floor of the tent. Instead she stuffed the shirt in her pants. "You have just been bitten by one the deadliest snakes in the world ass hole. Probably more than once."

There was a look of terror in the Baron's eyes now as he examined the back of his thigh. There were four blood-ringed holes in his thigh one bite about three inches below his buttocks, another just below his buttocks. There was a third bite high up on his buttocks. He rose up and tried to grab at her. "The anti-venom. Get the anti-venom quick."

She shoved him back. "Pull up your pants and sit down stupid. Try not to move around too much."

The Baron located a chair and limped toward it. Sitting down he said. "It hurts like hell."

Picking up a towel off the workbench, Paula pulled up another chair and sat down facing him. She really hated him now and wiped off her breasts and neck where he had slobbered on her. He still hadn't pulled up his pants and she could see that his erection was quickly fading. A plan had formed in her mind now. "In a few moments you are going to start to feel a tingling sensation in your arms and legs."

Panic filled his eyes when he saw that she had calmly sat down a few feet away and was not scrambling to his aid. "Get the anti-venom."

"I will in a minute, but we have something to discuss first and we have to do it quickly because pretty soon you are going to start losing muscle control and I need you to tell me something before that happens."

He started to rise. "I'll get it myself. Where is it?"

Paula pointed over to the refrigerator. "In there, but you better pick the right one. You pick the wrong one and it will probably kill you. Will you please pull up your fucking pants? I am tired of looking at your genitals."

The Baron jerked open the refrigerator door. There were several bottles inside marked 'Anti-Venom' and then a couple of letters and some numbers. "Fuck you. Get used to it because I'm going to finish what I started you bitch. Which one is it? They are coded."

"Yes, I know. They are all coded. Now sit down you fool. Moving around only makes the venom work faster."

The Baron glanced at her again and finally staggered back to his chair and sat down. He could only take short steps with his pants around his ankles and she laughed at his stubbornness by refusing to pull up his pants. "What the hell is so funny?"

"I wish I had my camera. I suppose you think that one shot of the anti-venom is going to work and then you are going to fuck me again is that it."

"Yeah, I'm going to fuck you again and this time I'm going to finish what I started."

"Oh, I think you got all of me that you're going to get Baron. Now it's my turn to fuck you."

"Fuck you. What do you want?"

"You already did fuck me ass hole."

"I didn't finish so I haven't fucked you yet."

Paula smiled now. "Oh, you're finished alright. Rape is defined by penetration, not ejaculation. You just raped me you son of a bitch and now you are going to pay."

The Baron sneered at her. "Yes. Yes. How much do you want?" He sneered at her. "I think about ten bucks should cover it." He had no intention of paying her anything. As soon as he got the anti-venom he would finish what he started and then kill her and then strangle Manswana in his sleep. In the morning he would claim that Manswana killed her and then tried to kill him.

"You know, now that you mentioned it. I like the number ten. You are always bragging about your millions. I think about ten million ought to do just fine."

"Are you out of your fucking mind? You weren't even that good and I didn't even get off. Ten million for a lousy piece of ass? You can go to hell."

Paula smiled at him, but her eyes didn't change. They were an ice cold blue now. "It is either a ten million dollar piece of ass Baron, or in your case it just might be a piece of ass to die for."

"I'm not paying you anything you bitch."

"Then do it yourself ass hole. The anti-venom is in there; just pick the right one. For your sake, I hope you know how to use it." Paula stood and headed for the door.

The Baron looked back at the still open refrigerator. "All right. All right. Ten million. I'll transfer it to your account as soon as I get back to civilization."

Paula returned to the chair and sat down again. "And you must think I'm some kind of real dumb shit if you think I am just going to just sit around here waiting for it to happen. I don't think so Baron."

"I will. I will. I promise you, just get the anti-venom." He wiped away some saliva from this chin.

"You have a numbered account in Switzerland. I want the number."

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Don't try that shit with me. We both know you do. You were bragging about it earlier when you were trying to lure me into your tent. Now what is that number?"

"No one knows about that account or the number, not even my wife. You're crazy if you think I am going to trust you with that number sister."

"You're choice smart ass. I see you are starting to drool and it's not that hot in here. You are starting to sweat too. Those are all symptoms of the Mamba venom. It is already taking effect. Soon it will be too late and the anti-venom won't work in time. It's been what three or four minutes?"

She lied to him now. Not wanting him to know how desperate she was for time. "In about thirty more you are going to be as dead as your son, but in about twenty more you are going to get confused and paralysis is going to set in to the muscles that control your breathing. Once that happens you are no good to me and the anti-venom will be too late, so you better make up your mind real quick like Baron."

She knew that once he started to drool, it was already too late. He was going to be dead in another ten or fifteen minutes. With the amount of venom the Mamba had pumped into him, he would be dead before the anti-venom did any good, but she needed answers before he could no longer speak. His only chance with that size of snake would have been a slim one at best and only if he had been given the anti-venom within the first minute or two. That slim chance had passed, as she would have immediately needed to apply a tourniquet to prevent the venom from spreading. She knew she only had a couple minutes more before it would be too late to get any information out of him.

"You bitch."

"No, I don't want to be called names Baron and I already know I'm a bitch. My daddy taught me how to be a bitch when he raped me. All I want to hear from you is the number and for your sake it better be the right number because I can check real quick like."

"How? We are in the middle of the fucking jungle."

"There is a phone line not one hundred feet from here that runs into Impfondo. I can tap into it with my laptop. I've done it before when I needed to go online and Manswana has rigged a phone jack for me. I will go online to your bank and verify the number and transfer the ten million before you get the anti-venom that's how ass hole."

"But that will take time."

Paula smiled again. "That's right. You've got precious little of that and you are wasting it."

Panic filled the Baron's eyes. He wouldn't be able to trick the bitch. He was just going to give her a phony number, but if she checked he would be dead. "Alright, but just ten million you bitch."

He rattled off the number and Paula copied it down. "This better be the number shit head, because you won't have time for a second try. Now what is your password?"

"What password?"

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Mamba by J. R. Brice Copyright © 2011 by J. R. Brice. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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