It had been depressingly easy for Webmistress’s men to capture Spinnerette once she realized that Rhyme had deserted her… she hadn’t tried to run, she hadn’t put up a fight, she hadn’t even spoken. Webmistress told her minions to “just freaking stick her somewhere where she can’t reach anything”, and so they had put her in an empty storage room, where she sat in the corner until Webmistress came in to deal with her.
She came alone, without guards. She told herself that she didn’t want her boys to see her executing a woman.
Spinnerette looked up when the door opened. She’d removed her cowl, leaving her face exposed. Her eyes were red and puffy. Her hair was ridiculous… the cowl was open on top, so her hair normally came out through it, but it looked like a muffin.
“L-l,isten,” she sputtered. “Before you… before you kill me, I just want to say that I know I fucked up. I know it. I was… I was stupid, and I heard what I wanted to hear, and I fucked up bad because the truth is, I’m in l…”
“Shut up,” Webmistress said, stepping into the room and letting the door close behind her. “Don’t say another word.” She paced to the center of the room and then turned her back on the wretched figure. “I freaking swear to God, Janie… I always said you couldn’t disappoint me more… you just had to prove me wrong.”
“Listen, I…”
“Shut up!” Webmistress said. She spun around… teetering a bit. Her leg was mobile, but the gyros were fried. “This isn’t a game… I can’t fuck around. Do you understand that? Do you understand that I have to kill you now?”
“I… I know,” Spinnerette said. “I just want you to know…”
“I don’t want to know that!” Webmistress yelled. “You were supposed to be my second in command, my sidekick, heiress apparent, my strong right hand… the one person in the world, the one woman in the world I can count on.”
“I wanted to be…”
“It was all a lie, though,” she said. “You never believed in my philosophy. You took my vision and turned it into something sick and tawdry and cheap…”
“It’s not cheap!” Spinnerette protested. “I l…”
“If you say that word, Janie, I swear to God I am going to have you delivered to your girlfriend in the Pantheon in pieces,” Webmistress said. “Now will you please shut up and let me think? God!” She turned her back on her henchwoman once more. “Let’s see…” With much effort, and after swallowing twice, she put on her smooth voice, her villainous villainess voice. She slowly turned around. “I have already this day meted out more punishment than I intended for an act of betrayal. My operation has suffered incalculable losses at every level. Should I now cut off my nose to spite my face?”
“I don’t…”
“Do not speak!” Webmistress said, managing to sound imperious. “I may just show you mercy… not, you understand, because you deserve it, but only to correct the imbalance of earlier. But that is not to say that you will escape unpunished for your transgression. No, you will be punished severely… and you will be tested, as well. Trust will have to be earned. Failure will not be tolerated. You may come to wish I had killed you… and perhaps some day I will. Your life belongs to me, wretched… thing.”
With that, she fell silent, staring down at Spinnerette with the haughtiest look she could muster… even with the computer-assisted feedback offline, that was still fairly haughty. The silence stretched on for several seconds.
“Um… am I supposed to say something now?” Spinnerette asked.
“Put your freaking cowl back on,” Webmistress said. “I don’t want to see you with it off again. Ever.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Spinnerette said, putting it back in place.
“And wake up the smart boys… assuming their pods didn’t get fried… and put them to work on fixing everything,” Webmistress said, heading back for the door. “And get everybody else on clean-up.” She paused as the door slid open, though she didn’t turn around. “Oh… and… Andrea… that traitor, Markham… was… I… she’s in the auxiliary control room. Go take care of her, before it’s too… before you do anything else.”
“You mean, help her or kill her?”
“God, figure it for yourself!” Webmistress said, her voice echoing behind her as she stormed out. “I’m trying to run a serious criminal enterprise here, I can’t work out every little detail… that’s why I have a henchwoman.”
“Janie?” Markham said weakly, seeing the masked face looking down over her.
“Spinnerette,” she corrected. “Webmistress sent me to take care of you.”
“Oh, thank God,” Markham said. She coughed, blood bubbling on her lips. “I wasn’t even… I mean, I hadn’t… but it’s okay. If she’s forgiving you, I must be…”
At point blank range, the spider’s leg crossbow bolt went right into her skull and stuck out the back. She didn’t have time to look surprised.
“Shouldn’t have betrayed her,” Spinnerette whispered. “I shouldn’t have either, but you don’t even love her.”
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