Master of Plagues by D. B. Reynolds (reading rainbow books .TXT) 📕

CHAPTER—1

CONSPIRATORIAL

Eight egotistical NYU graduate students promised to get one of their classmates some of the best sex of his life just before the big graduation day. The woman they promised to set him up with, a true knockout with charm and wit, awaited him inside some cheap motel just a short borough from the NYU campus. The major lowlife player in the prank was Anthony Greenstein. At five-foot-ten and a hundred and sixty pounds, Anthony was the proud owner of a lean and muscularly frame, highlighted by glistening blue eyes and a clear, robust complexion.
A head of thick black hair accented his boyish good looks. Never would Anthony shed the arrogant demeanor he’d been groom to carry through life. He enlisted the services of another major prankster named Megan Piccirillo. Megan had to be one of the cutest Italian girls in all of New York City. With a body to put a Greek goddess to shame, she loved shaking her long black hair with thick roots from side-to side. Her natural olive skin glowed like a setting Carribean sun. Anthony and Megan decided to pick out some old motel right at 720 East 33rd Street in the Bronx. The name of this rathole was called The American Shore Motor Lodge. The neighborhood was beyond bad. The people were much worse. Drugs and prostitution and murder flourished. Total disenfranchisement ruled the atmosphere. Gunshots suddenly erupted from in front of a rundown building just across the street. Another drug deal in the Bronx, New York had gone sour.
Four masked gunmen pumped a volley of slugs into a slickster who’d thought he’d gotten away with stealing their drugs and money. The price some silly fools had to pay. For such an affront, it was business-as-usual in this particular section of the South Bronx. Another body was sprawled out in the street in his own pool of blood. Long after neighbors peeked out their windows, someone decided to call nine-one-one. Forty minutes would be the maximum time before police arrived to process the murder scene.
Anthony and Megan were scrupulously cautious of being robbed or losing their lives. The gunshots were heard quite clearly from inside the room they stood. Emergency vehicle lights spilled into every residential and business window within the vicinity. The hotel room Anthony and Megan occupied was infested with the biggest rats and cockroaches. Large ratholes were chewed into the adjacent walls. Final arrangements were made to make the prank a success. Coming from a wealthy Jewish background, Anthony had no problems paying for the room. He threw in a little extra to make some of the disgusting hotel undesirables disappear.
“Anthony, what was the shooting outside all about?” Megan asked Anthony, frightened from the unexpected outburst of violence.
“This is the Bronx, sweetie,” Anthony nodded his head. “Anything goes in this borough.”
“Think it had something to do with drugs?”
“Dope, money, territory, take your pick.”
“All of Manhattan isn’t exactly pristine.”
“You’re right, Meg. Manhattan isn’t exactly a borough to raise priests and choir boys.”
“Maybe we should’ve came with some extra added security.”
The chaos out on the nearby street had escalated. The street dwellers only wanted to heat things up by arguing with the NYPD and other neighbors.
“Meg, do you remember what to do?” Anthony asked Megan, speaking to her as though they’d rehearsed for a major Broadway play.
“Like clockwork, Anthony,” Megan responded, eager to play out her part.
“Stuart should be here shortly.”
“Who’s driving him over here in the Bronx?”
“Taylor and John are bringing him here.”
“And to think, graduation is only three weeks away.”
“Having this kinda fun before getting our diplomas is cool.”
“Gosh, I wonder if we’ll ever see one another again?” Megan questioned Anthony, sad they’d eventually go separate directions.
“I’m sure we’ll all keep in touch.”
Megan hummed to Anthony. “You know, Anthony, Stuart has got to be one of the weirdest guys I’ve ever known.”
“Weird doesn’t even begin to describe Stuart,” Anthony examined. “That guy would rather fool around with a bunch of animals than spend an intimate evening with a woman.”
“He’s like the Dr. Doolittle of the Twenty-First Century.”
“Alright, let me hear that seductive voice of your’s.”
Megan cleared her throat. She massaged her neck with her three middle fingers. “Hey, Stuart, come closer to the bed, baby.”
“What else?”
“Don’t be shy, Stuart. I won’t bite you, I promise.”
“And after that?”
“C’mon, Stuart, get over here and get some of this good stuff.”
Anthony snapped his fingers with aggression. “Perfect, Megan! You’ll do great.”
“Trust, I have the kinda voice that’ll charm Wall Street brokers out of billions.”
Anthony and Megan stepped over by the king-sized bed and pulled the covers back. Underneath was a Centerfold Fantasy Love Doll by Topco Sales.
“Must say, she’s a beauty,” Anthony approved, proud of the sex doll he’d handpicked.
“She’s every horny, dorky, nerdy and lonely guy’s dream.”
“There’s none finer. She’s got curves to even put your body to shame.”
“Her measurements are a perfect 36C bust, 24 waistline, and a 36 hips.”
“No man couldn’t ask for more. How tall is this beauty?”
“A lean and trim five-feet-seven,” Megan chuckled, looking down at the masterpiece of a mechanical sex doll. “Now, I’m jealous of a doll that’s not even living or breathing.”
“I made sure it came with remote control features.”
“How technological of you.”
An irritable squealing noise shot from one of the corners of the room. The noise suddenly sent Anthony into a wild frenzy of fright. The sound of a creature in search of a meal resonated deeper into the room.
“What the hell’s that?” Anthony inquired of Megan, chills jolting through him.
“Doesn’t sound like anything we’d be interested in,” Megan feared, clamping the arms of Anthony with her icy cold hands.
“This room is starting to give me the creeps.”
“Must I remind you what borough of New York City we’re in?”
The biggest rat one could’ve imagined jumped on top of a night table. The critter stood right up on it’s hind legs. It’s razor-sharp teeth flashed right before Anthony and Megan. A pair of menacing, glowing eyes stared straight at Anthony, like he’d owed him some big money.
“Where’d that big giant rodent come from!” Anthony cried out, his back literally to the wall. “Megan, I hate rats! I hate them! I hate them! I hate them!”
“Anthony, this is New York City. What the hell did you expect?”
Megan reminded her classmate how New York City was flooded with big rats. Food and garbage were plentiful to keep them growing larger and larger.
“The Greenstein household has never had to deal with living around huge rodents.”
“Welcome to the real world.”
“Rats turn my stomach inside out. They carry real nasty diseases.”
“Anthony, let’s finish setting up here in the room. John and Taylor are gonna be bringing Stuart over real soon.”
“Rats just give me the------.”
“Anthony!” Megan fizzled, stopping him in mid-sentence. “I hate ants, buddy. Always have and always will. Ants have given me the creeps since I was a little girl. You surprise me by acting like you’ve never seen a big rat. When our ancestors got off the boats here in New York, the rats got off with them. Now, let’s finish getting things set up.”
The humongous rat seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Walking into the low lit room was another prankster in the major plot. Dana Potts strutted across the room with her mouthwatering hips. Her lucious curvy backside swung any direction it desired. Quite sexy and attractive, she couldn’t’ve been prouder of her mocha brown skin and her shimmering hazel eyes. Being a mixture of Nigerian, Brazilian, and French, she had to be one of the finest specimens from the female gender.
“Got the goods?” Anthony asked Dana, staring up and down the walls and ceiling with weary eyes.
“Paranoid, Anthony?” Dana smiled, holding a large brown sack in her left hand.
“One of the biggest rats in all of New York City was just in this room. There’s a hole in one of these walls the size of a bank vault. Like I told Megan, I hate rats more than anything on this Earth.”
“Better call the Pied Piper,” Dana joked, sliding the medium-sized bag to the floor.
“I’d call a thousand of them if I could. I’d give up the Greenstein fortune to rid the world of every single one of them things.”
Dana added more into the brief conversation. “Anthony hates rats and I simply hate bees. My grandmother had a farm way off in the country. Talk about bees, there were thousands and thousands of them around that farm.”
“Now, we know one another’s phobias,” Megan clarified to her fellow classmates. “Anthony hates rats, Dana hates bees, and I hate ants. Everybody’s got a fear of something. Dana, I see you came in with the bag that we requested.”
“All twenty pounds of it.”
Dana did her part to help complete the prank designed exclusively with Stuart Duffelmeyer in mind. She lifted the bag into the air. A hole the size of a dime was punched at one of the corners. A couple of fresh maggots crawled out.
“Where’d you get those creepy-crawly things?” Anthony questioned Dana, twisting all about in the face.
“Will’s Bait and Tackle Shop in Queens.”
“Eeeeeky!” Anthony shivered. “Take a guess, about how many of those slimy things are in that bag?”
“The owner at Will’s told me that there are thousands of