HAVING A BLAST AT THE LIBRARY

Part 1 – A Plan to Steal History

Chrys Kent, the shapely and pretty dark-haired Head Librarian for the University’s Acquisitions Department, looked stunning in the faux eyeglasses she wore as the television camera zoomed in for a close-up.  She didn’t actually wear eyeglasses, but the studio director thought glasses would make Chrys “appear more intelligent and academic” if she wore them for the television interview.  Chrys resented the implication behind the director’s words, but she nevertheless agreed to wear them because alumni and other potential donors would see the interview and, Chrys hoped, open their wallets to generously fund the college library. So there she was, wearing the fake eyeglasses and dressed in a black skirt and white blouse, as she sat across from the television talk-show host answering questions excitedly about the University’s latest addition to its already vast collection of antiquities -- six ancient scrolls that had been purportedly saved from the Library of Alexandria in Egypt when the Library burned down sometime before the year 642 A.D.  The scrolls now in the college library’s collection had not only been saved from the fire that destroyed the Library at Alexandria, but these very scrolls were supposedly some of the 200,000 scrolls Marc Antony had given to Cleopatra as a wedding gift in 31 B.C.

Richard Devlin was only half paying attention to Chrys’s talk-show interview as it played on his flat screen TV. Mainly, Devlin was thinking lewd thoughts about the comely college librarian, but he sat up and paid greater attention when he heard her mention the word “priceless” as she talked about the scrolls.  Devlin, who was a supervisor in the local power company’s cable department, had been a classical history major twelve years ago when he graduated from college, but, rather than going to graduate school or pursuing a career that would make use of his degree, he instead took the lazy way out and obtained a part time summer job reading gas and electric meters with the utility after college graduation. Devlin eventually worked his way up from being a meter reader to being a lineman and he was now a supervisor in the power company’s cable department, overseeing a team of workers whose job was to install and, when necessary, repair heavy duty power cables in the town’s underground power system which serviced commercial customers such as the community theater, the college, banks, restaurants, dry cleaners, pharmacies and other stores in the downtown area.  

After listening to the pretty college librarian talk about these priceless scrolls, Devlin switched off the television and turned on his computer to search the Internet.  After a few searches on Google, Devlin came across a series of articles about the growing black market trade of illicit antiquities.  He read with fascination that people worldwide were willing to pay obscene amounts of money to own ancient antiquities and there were middlemen who procured such antiquities for these collectors.  Devlin knew he was in a dead end job with no hope of making a lot of money.  He had always looked for easy money, playing the horses and illegally betting on sporting events, but the only luck he had was bad luck.  He was way behind on his bills and he was ducking his bookies, who had extended him credit but were now wanting to be paid in full with interest. Just days ago, they had sent him a message by slashing two tires on his car and leaving a dead rat on its hood. As he replayed in his head how Chrys had spoken about the priceless scrolls, Devlin decided then and there to make contact with these middlemen, steal the Alexandrian scrolls from the college library, sell them on the black market for a small fortune, and, in one fell swoop, pay off the dangerous money-hungry bookies, and still have a pretty penny left over for himself. He also knew exactly how he would go about pulling off this tremendous theft.  

Exploding manholes had long been the bane of the power company’s cable department because, after each such incident, Devlin and his team had to repair the damage. Devlin knew from a November 2011 episode of Mythbusters that an accumulation of gases in underground power systems often caused manholes to be launched into the air. These explosions, along with the occasional manhole fire, occurred because of the aged condition of the underground electrical system. As the insulation on the high powered underground cables burned off over time due to the electric current running through them, they produced combustible and explosive gases like hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane. The problems worsened in wintertime when salt and ice melt added to the deterioration of the cable insulation. If ignition of those gases occurred, pressure would build up and trigger an explosion. Devlin planned to cause a series of simultaneous manhole explosions and fires throughout the downtown area and then take advantage of the ensuing chaos to steal the priceless scrolls from the college library.  

Devlin spent the next six months laying the groundwork for his sensational theft.  He studied maps of the area north of the library and chose which ones would suit his purposes.  He also did additional Internet research about how to legally make homemade incendiary bombs (and he was actually amazed at what he found using Google and YouTube about making such devices).  During this time, he also used his role as a supervisor in the cable department to schedule maintenance of the chosen manholes and power cables that ran through them. He made sure that he was always the last one out of certain manholes following their routine inspections and, after the rest of his crew had gone to the surface, Devlin not only placed small homemade incendiary charges of varying intensities in these manholes, but he also sabotaged the cable’s insulation to speed up the production of combustible gases. He calculated that the gases would slowly build up over time and be ready to ignite when he was ready to set off the incendiary charges. Devlin chose the manholes he tampered with based on their locations in relation to the college library.

Devlin had a different plan for the library. During a routine servicing of the library’s basement electrical system, he planted a small improvised explosive device within the library’s mechanical room which would simulate an explosion similar to the ones he planned to trigger in the manholes. He planted similar devices inside other businesses along the avenue when they were serviced by the power company, choosing them because they were several blocks from the library but also because they were unlikely to be occupied in the middle of the night when he planned to commit his sensational theft.  He was, after all a thief, not a killer.
 
Devlin planned his coup for an evening in the middle of winter when he could arrange to be working a late shift and checking for problems in the downtown area.  His preparations were finished by late October, so all he then had to do was wait a few more months and let the explosive gases slowly build up in the chosen manholes.

Part 2 -  Stealing More Than History

The following February, at just after 1:00 AM, Devlin sat in his parked utility van on the main avenue one hundred yards away from the campus library.  It was his night to work the night shift. He made sure there were no people or traffic on the avenue and the he pressed a series of numbers on the screen of his Smartphone. Seconds later, a series of explosions occurred, all north of the library. Some of the explosions sent manhole covers soaring in the air; some explosions shattered windows and doors to businesses along the avenue; and some explosions triggered fires in stores or manholes up the avenue but far from the library.

Devlin calmly picked up the microphone in his utility vehicle and called his dispatch center, but when he spoke, his voice was excited and agitated. “Dispatch!  This is Unit 145!  There have been a series of what appears to be major electrical faults along the avenue near the community theater!  Manhole covers have been blown off and there are flames coming from manholes and business establishments along the avenue.  Request emergency services to respond ASAP. I am proceeding to Electric Substation A-2 to turn off power to the local grid and will await further instructions.”

“Roger that,” came the staticky response over the radio.  “Advise when power grid has been taken offline, 145.  Notifying emergency responders now and will advise them that power to the grid will be suspended shortly.”

“Acknowledged!”  Devlin cut off the microphone and put his truck in gear, but, instead of driving to the Substation, he instead pulled into the parking lot behind the college library and killed the engine.  Now, it was all a matter of timing.

* * * * * * * *

At 1:00 AM, Chrys Kent, dressed in a white button down blouse and tight-fitting black skirt with black pantyhose, was working at her desk in the library’s basement offices.  Because she was the only one in the building – the custodian had long since cleaned up and gone home after locking the doors – she had earlier kicked off her high heels and made herself as comfortable as she could before plowing into her work.  As the Head of the Acquisitions Department, she didn’t often work this late, but she had a lot of work that she needed to get done. The February Board of Trustees meeting at the University was days away and she needed to finalize various reports for that meeting, including a detailed list of recommended purchases for the library’s collection and a budget request for the new fiscal year.  

Chrys was rubbing her tired eyes and reaching under her desk for her shoes when she heard a strange rush of air and then her world was literally turned upside down.

* * * * * * * *

When Devlin triggered the explosive catastrophes along the avenue, he also triggered the improvised explosive device in the mechanical room in the library’s basement.  Devlin exited his truck and, wearing his utility worker tool belt, he descended a small flight of stairs at the back of the library.  He used his power company passkey to enter the mechanical room door at the bottom of the steps and, once inside, he was impressed by the destruction caused by his IED.  The blast had destroyed most of the equipment in the mechanical room (as well as destroying all evidence of the IED) but it had not caused a fire.  It had though caused heavy damage to the library basement in the vicinity of the mechanical room. The door to the mechanical room was blown out and this enabled Devlin to get from the mechanical room into the main basement area of the library.  Once there, he saw the further effects of the explosion -- tables, cabinets, chairs, book shelves, books, computers, and other equipment in the basement office area were blown all over the place. Wires and air conditioning duct work hung haphazardly from the heavily damaged ceiling.

The library’s archives room, which was located at the opposite end of the basement, was relatively undamaged by the blast. Devlin made his way toward the archives room and, as he traversed the field of debris and destruction, he spotted the still form of a dark haired woman on the floor near an overturned desk.  He did a double take as he recognized Chrys from her television appearance months earlier. At first he thought that he had inadvertently killed her with the explosive device but, he when he leaned over to check out the breasts he had admitted months ago on television, he saw the slight rise and fall of her chest and realized that Chrys was merely unconscious.  Somewhat relieved, he remembered his goal and continued walking to the archive room. Once there, he hurled a chair through the glass wall of the archives room rather than bothering with its locked door.  He entered the room and did a quick walk through the archives room before he screamed in anger and frustration.  The priceless Alexandrian scrolls he had come to steal were not there.  

Devlin was in a foul mood but then he remembered something – the unconscious librarian!  He made his way back to where she lay near the overturned desk. Devlin up- righted a fallen chair and then he grabbed the unconscious librarian under her arms to pull her away from the desk.  He kicked aside debris from the explosion and then laid the librarian face down in the cleared out space.  He knelt beside her and reached into a pouch on his tool belt to remove a large roll of black electrical tape.  He crossed Chrys’s wrists behind her back and wound the tape around and around her wrists until they were completely secured.  He then wound the tape again and again around her upper arms, securing her elbows together.  

When he was finished, he lifted the young woman from the ground and placed her on the seat with her bound arms draped behind the seatback of the chair.  He looked at his watch and saw that only a few minutes had passed since he detonated all of the explosions.  Devlin took out his Smartphone and typed another series of strokes on its touch screen. Almost immediately, most of the undamaged lights in the library went dark, leaving the room lit only by the library’s emergency lights.  Devlin used his phone again to send a text message to his dispatch center:  “Power grid at Substation A-2 now offline. Returning to downtown area to lend assistance.”  He smiled and pocketed the Smartphone before turning his attention to the captive librarian who was starting to stir.

Devlin stood in front of her and slapped Chrys’s face, first her left cheek with his right palm and then her right cheek with the back of his hand.  “Wake up!” he hissed at her.

Chrys opened her eyes and was disoriented initially.  She tried to stand but Devlin shoved her back into the chair.  At that point she realized something was terribly wrong and also that her hands had been bound behind her back.  She felt a strain at her taped elbows too and struggled to pull them apart until she realized that her efforts were only causing her breasts to jut forward against her white blouse.  She looked around, appalled at the destruction which had left the library basement a shambles. Looking up at the man in front of her, Chrys angrily said, “Who the hell are you and why am I tied up?  Let me go now!”  

Devlin replied by slapping her again just as he had a minute ago.  “Shut the hell up!  The only thing I want to hear from you is the location of the fucking Alexandrian scrolls.”

The reality of his demand hit Chrys hard. “The scrolls?  They’re priceless!  You can’t seriously think I’ll tell you where they are.  Screw you, you bastard!  Now let me go!”  She struggled in earnest to try to pull her hands and arms apart but Devlin had taped her too well.

Devlin snickered and sneered.  “Oh, you’ll tell me where they are.  It’s just a matter of persuading you.”

“Per. . . .persuading me?” she asked with a nervous tone in her voice.  “What are you going to do?”

An evil smile appeared on Devlin’s lips as he reached down and tore open Chrys’s white blouse.  A utility knife from his tool belt suddenly flashed before her eyes as he sliced apart her white lacy bra.  After he replaced the knife in its pouch on the belt, he used his index finger to move the lacy cups from the bra aside to expose her ample breasts.  His fingers caressed each breast in turn.  “Oh, I think you’ll tell me what I want to know soon enough.”

Chrys recoiled in the chair, trying to move away from the man who had exposed her and was now touching her breasts, but there was nowhere for her to go.  She was trapped.  “Please. . . .no . . . don’t,” she pleaded. But her pleas were ignored as Devlin continued to fondle and caress her breasts, eventually sitting on her and straddling her lap so he could face her.  He used both hand to stroke her full breasts.  He felt himself grow aroused as he opened and closed his hands over the librarian’s breasts and he knew she felt his arousal as he sat on her.  She was powerless to stop him and this excited him more.  Eventually, his fingers found her nipples.  He rolled them between his index fingers and rubbed them teasingly.  She gave an involuntary moan as her nipples hardened under his touch.  “Stop!  Stop!” she pleaded again only to be ignored again by her captor.

“The scrolls,” Devlin said.  “Where are they?  Tell me!”

Despite her perilous situation, Chrys shook her head with defiance and bit her lip as she refused to answer.  Devlin shrugged.  “Have it your way,” he said as he reached into one of the larger pouches in his tool belt and removed an ominous looking device.  Chrys didn’t know what it was, but she didn’t like the look of the two alligator clips at the end of two wires that ran from the black plastic box in Devlin’s hand.  The box was about the size of a pack of cigarettes.  “This is a portable battery charger, but unlike the ones that carry small charges, this one is an industrial caliber charger. It can deliver a charge of about 1500 volts for a short period of time, but I don’t think we’ll need a lot of time before you tell me what I want to know. And, believe me, you will be telling me what I need to know.  I need the money those scrolls will net me.  I need that money badly!  And I’ll do whatever it takes to get it!”

Chrys struggled even more as Devlin teased her left nipple some more with his fingers before attaching one of the alligator clips to the base of the hardened nub.  The captive girl visibly winced as the teeth of the clip bit into her sensitive flesh.  “Take it off!  Take it off!” she begged as she shook herself from side to side in an effort to dislodge the clip, but her efforts were futile other than to further arouse her captor.

“Whoa!” Devlin exclaimed.  “Shake them boobs for me!  Look at them jiggle!”  He cupped both of her breasts again, letting their weight rest on his palms. He squeezed and fondled them as he licked his lips while staring directly at Chrys and grinding himself against her leg.  “But time’s a wastin’ and there’ll be plenty of time for us to have fun later.  Let’s get your other nipple connected to the charger.”

Chrys continued her futile struggling and pleading but Devlin ignored her and instead lowered his mouth to her right nipple and began sucking on it.  He then trapped it between his teeth and licked its tip with his tongue till it was hard and ready to be clipped like her left.  Chrys gave an audible scream as Devlin bit hard on her nipple before attaching the second alligator clip to its base. “Last chance, babe,” he said.  “Where are the fucking scrolls? Tell me!”

Her eyes were tearing from the pain of the alligator clips, but she kept her mouth shut and shook her head, determined not to help him steal the priceless antiquities. “Suit yourself,” Devlin said as he turned a knob on the battery charger. Chrys’s body suddenly rocked with pain and she would have toppled over in the chair if not for the weight of Devlin straddling her and keeping the chair upright. Devlin dialed back the knob after a few seconds as he watched Chrys hyperventilating while more tears spilled from her eyes.  Her tormentor waited for her to settle down and then he looked her in the eyes and said, “Tell me where the scrolls are. Sooner or later you’re going to tell me, so why not avoid the pain?”  

Chrys just shook her head, causing Devlin to sigh and turn the knob on the black box for a second time.  The current from the battery charger flooded into her nipples for a good ten seconds this time and she screamed again.  She was crying more profusely now but the battery charger had done the trick.  She slumped in the chair, defeated, and nodded her head weakly.  “No more.  Please.  No more. . . .I’ll tell you. . . .I’ll tell you. . .”

“Good!  Where are the fucking scrolls?”

She sobbed and nodded in the direction of the archives room.  “The bookcase . . . along the left wall. . . .the books in the center of it are a façade. . . The scrolls are behind it. . . Please. . . .Please don’t take them. . . . Please. . . .They’re priceless.”

Devlin laughed.  “I know they’re priceless!  That’s why I’m taking them.”  He removed the alligator clips from her nipples, causing her to moan and wince in pain as the blood flowed back.  “You’ve been very helpful, Miss Librarian,” he said as he replaced the battery charger in the tool belt’s pouch.  “But now you need to shut the hell up.”  Devlin took a wider roll of electrical tape from his belt again and, before Chrys could protest, he pressed an unfurled portion of the tape against her lips and then wrapped it around her head eight times, covering her mouth completely and taking away her ability to speak. When he finally smoothed out the tape across her lips, all she could do was make muffled noises and whimpering sounds.  Devlin tested the effectiveness of the tape gag by pinching Chrys’s right nipple.  She bucked beneath him and tried to scream but the gag did what it was supposed to do and she was unable to make much noise.  

Devlin finally climbed off her lap and waggled a finger at her. “If you’ve lied about the scrolls or if you make any attempt to get off this chair, I’ll put those alligator clips on again but this time I won’t turn the juice off after ten seconds. Do you hear me?”

She couldn’t speak so she nodded her head as vigorously as she could, fearful of receiving such treatment.

Devlin gave a curt nod and walked back to the archives room.  He examined the bookcase against the left wall and then pulled books from its center away, dumping them unceremoniously on the floor.  Eventually, he found the set of phony books she had mentioned and saw that they were actually a hinged box.  He figured out how to open it and there they were – six ancient scrolls resting on top of a black silk bag.  Devlin gently moved the scrolls aside and then placed them into the silk bag.  After he collected them all, he returned to the devastated office area and saw that the raven-haired librarian had not moved from where he left her.

He held the silk sack in his left hand and grabbed Chrys’s left arm with his right.  “I have the scrolls, so let’s get going.  Get up,” he ordered as he pulled her arm upward.

Chrys made muffled protests from behind the gag and vehemently shook her head, but Devlin ignored her and roughly pulled her to her feet, freeing her still taped hands and arms from their place behind the seatback. “You didn’t think I was leaving you here to tell the cops, did you?  No fucking way.  You’re coming with me!  With you gone, hopefully they’ll think you were in on the theft.  But either way, babe, you’re coming with me. We have unfinished business after all,” he said as he eyed her exposed breasts and nipples.  Chrys continued shaking her head and mewing behind the tape gag, but Devlin pulled her away from the chair and then shoved her in front of him, maintaining a tight grip on her arm as he directed her through the rubble towards the mechanical room. Chrys’s high heels were still somewhere under the toppled desk so she was forced to walk through the destroyed library in her pantyhose covered feet.  She did her best to resist and protest, but, with her hands and elbows taped behind her, she was no match for Devlin, who pushed and prodded her through the mechanical room and up the steps that led back to where he parked his utility company van.

At the top of the steps, Devlin glanced from side to side.  He saw no one in the parking lot, but he heard plenty of police and fire department sirens in the distance.  Smiling to himself, he pulled Chrys after him till they were at the rear of the van.  Devlin opened the van and set the silk bag on a shelf to the left of the door.  He then lifted Chrys and pushed her face down into the van, He climbed into the back of the van and pulled the door closed behind him.  A yellow dome light cast an eerie glow inside the van.

Devlin grabbed Chrys’s left ankle and pressed it against her left thigh.  He used his body weight to hold her bent leg in place like this while he reached for a large plastic zip tie from a bundle along the wall of the van.  He wound the nylon restraint around her ankle and thigh before threading the pointed tip of the tie though the case and ratcheting it tight, binding her left ankle to her thigh.  He had a harder time with her right leg because Chrys realized what he was doing and struggled, but, in the end, he secured her other leg with a second zip tie and left the librarian with her legs frogtied and her hands and arms still secured behind her back with electrical tape.  

Devlin smacked Chrys on her backside and then began rubbing his palm back and forth between her legs as he explained what was going to happen next. “We’re leaving here and then, Ms. Kent, you and I are going to spend a few hours getting better acquainted before you and your precious scrolls make your rendezvous at the airport outside of town.  My buyer wanted the scrolls and anything else of value that I might find in the library.” He rubbed the gusset of her black pantyhose harder, eliciting a moan as she tried to avoid his hand.  “I’d say you qualify as ‘something of value,’ Ms. Kent.”  He gave her backside another smack and then grabbed the silk bag containing the scrolls before maneuvering from the back of the van to the driver’s seat and driving off into the night.