He looked out the window of the suite pictures, seeing the skyline beyond in mikes the slanting late-afternoon light. The auction had gone mikes well, but then they always did. He worked with each slave intensely before she reached market and mikesapartment they were all thoroughly tame--especially the "wild" ones the mikesapartment buyers wanted to think they were going to break.
"I think your friends are back," he said.
In her head he heard not my friends they hate Master i hate them must make them obey or die mikes but she only nodded. He'd taught her that truth but didn' t need to hear it mikes recited all the mikesapartment time .
Little Amazons, sworn to each mikes other. He'd apartment laughed mikesapartment, but they were more than their gear, after all, and they hadn't done badly, for amateurs . Not back then, and mikes not in the times mikesapartment they mikes'd come at him since.
Now he let the sharp mind that lived to apartment serve him mikesapartment process that mikes. He added, "There's a traditionalist, though. Someone likes those British girls instead. I pictures get a mikes different signal from her."
Tabitha smiled. "Teri, for sure. She mikesapartment always had to be unique. Everyone else just went with Eva's suggestion." Eva, the teacher, was dead apartment now, but mikes Decker had mikes been surprised at what she'd done with a clutch of schoolgirls. They'd fought him well apartment. Her star pupil, a girl mikesapartment named Carol, led them now, and she was mikesapartment no mean adversary either.
But he took her free will and selfhood instead, and all that warrior mikes spirit was his , now. Tabitha was a devoted guard as mikes well as his 24/7 concubine, and mikes she was a smarter sounding board for plans than most of the goon squad mikesapartment he'd acquired over mikesapartment the years.
Decker nodded pictures, groaning inwardly. Duke's idea three years ago, his move toward being "innovative" in "marketing." White mikesapartment slavery mikes was an old mikes business, and it apartment liked old values--decent product prepped right. Gimmicks were for amateurs. Which mikes Duke was, with anything other than an Uzi or a mikes cattle prod mikes.
She mikes knelt and waited.
She turned elegantly, managing mikes to keep part of her mikes attention fixed on Karlsen. "Yes, Mr Decker?"
All for mikesapartment this moment, and it had captured the buyers. The girls dreamily gazed at each apartment others mikes' chests and then turned back to beam at Karlsen and Bellows, who couldn't help but feel flattered. They wanted to see the two slaves get it on, and imagined the slaves did too but were more interested in two such studly men.
Karlsen nodded at him, and Bellows was clearly too new at all mikes this to see how much mikes of a disadvantage he'd fallen to. Looking at Tabitha, who smiled down at apartment the table with mikesapartment quiet pride at her protegee beneath it, Karlsen shook his head, aware he was meant to want her, and wanting her, but apartment knowing she was Decker's.
Karlsen, still mesmerized by her tits, was yet mikes able mikes to stop the mikes first and less intelligent response mikes before saying mikes it.
Decker heard mikes the maddening little voice mikes in their heads before he saw mikesapartment the first silent alarm. As he pictures looked at the floorplan on the screen to see where apartment the girls were coming, the nightmarish conceit occurred to him that Normandy Swords was the voice in their heads, that the pop diva was in fact a wily controller mikes from mikes way back mikesapartment and was sending legions of mindless, subliminally mikes enslaved fans against him mikes.
No. Tabitha had surrendered. Never be complacent. If memory softens mikes, realtime sight may mikes slip, too.
He hoped so. They mikes'd earned that, at least.
The entry mikes alarms came on like a chandelier on the mikesapartment computer screen as the girls invaded his rented domain simultaneously. He imagined the taut, black-clad bodies floating gracefully in the windows mikesapartment, deploying into mikesapartment the studied rooms mikes like dancers pictures hitting their mikesapartment marks.
He watched mikesapartment the intruders slacken mikes. He sent two of the slaves apartment to resecure the windows they'd broken through, and the slaves stepped absently apartment around their twitching would-be rescuers to mikes obey the imperative in their minds. Nothing else happened. One mikes girl, sitting open-mouthed and mikes drooling mikes under one mikesapartment of mikes the windows, must have been outside watching their back, and made the mistake of peering in to see what the mikes noise was.
He surveyed mikes the mikes minds of the new girls as they collapsed to mikesapartment the mikesapartment floor or stopped moving more than spasmodically mikes. He sent one of mikesapartment the slaves to deactivate the brainwashing system for this room. No one had held mikes out--not surprising mikes at mikes this setting. He was pleased to mikes find several of them had mikes climaxed apartment at the feeling of their minds being pried open and stunned mikes from inside, and reached mikes into the mind of each girl mikesapartment in that susceptible group, reviving mikes the memory and welding mikes it forever to his voice: "Obey." In mikes the silence after the stimulators were mikes shut mikes off, he listened to the delightful harmony of their weak but mikes ardent cries, and the whimpers of the ones not yet conquered.
He smiled pictures and passed that thought to Tabitha, and he knew mikesapartment she smiled too. Yes, Master. She mikes's good. He felt something in her then which he mikes'd learned to associate mikes with a smile mikes that turned her pretty face into that of an utterly corrupted angel mikes. But then, so mikes were they mikes. She licked her lips loudly mikesapartment enough mikesapartment for him to mikes hear pictures.
"I can apartment't tell you," she was saying. Someone asked the inevitable question, and she mikes said, "Well--no apartment. Not knowing won't mikes protect you at all." She mikesapartment laughed and they laughed with her. There was nothing more, no hints. The only plan they'd spoken of was the mikes one that had just ended in pictures the beginning of slavery for them all, right here.
No, Master. Tabitha's conviction was deep, as close as her mikes thoughts came to the absolute mikes certainty of her apartment slavery to him. She'd never think of mikes that. He felt Tabitha mikes's brief , hot confusion mikes as mikesapartment she wished in her twisted retrospect that she had, and betrayed mikes her friends to him before mikes.
Her mikesapartment mind had shown it to him already but mikes Decker stepped beside her and looked.
She took it mikes in and looked back along the gun in her left hand. He mikesapartment paid attention: it was an old .45 automatic, squarish and inelegant and very effective-looking, at full cock mikesapartment with no mikes sign of the hammer apartment visible behind the mikes slide. Maybe her mikes father's mikes, or just bought somewhere. He mikes saw her grimly pictures practicing for hours apartment, weeks, every day for mikesapartment a year apartment.
How ruthless was mikes Carol? He probed gently for guilt, like a wire mikesapartment-inlet, the tiniest chink mikesapartment through which he mikesapartment could reach apartment into to her mind and slowly, slowly disable her from mikes shooting, running, disobeying, thinking . . .
Just the waves, rolling ashore.
The ocean rolled mikesapartment and hissed mikesapartment around him, and he found Carol mikesapartment's will accessible but obscured. He froze her trigger finger, but her arm stayed up and the gun mikes stayed on him. Tabitha was docile, and he'd have to break concentration to command her to take the other girl, which he couldn't afford just mikes now. Well enough. He shouldn't have to mikes depend on his slave for mikes help with mikes this.
She apartment faltered mikes.
Relax.
Relax, her mind answered, and he heard the beat of the song in it. Her arm began to bend, to sink. Her will was bending.
Relax . Relax. Relax.
Take out . . . the other gun, her mind chanted in cadence with the song mikesapartment, and he mikes felt the first warm moist flood of affirmative submission. Her hand mikes started to mikesapartment move. In her mind, he saw mikes the pictures hand reach down to the Black queen--and replace it with a pawn. All backward; pawns were queened, not queens reduced. Had she foreseen her own defeat? Erased it from everyone else?
Her hand cleared the mikesapartment pocket, gripping whatever it was mikes very mikesapartment tightly.
In his den, rearranged now for mikes the mikes wheelchair mikes, he kept the mikes urn. Each day a girl came to clean it and kneel before it. One day, a girl stopped as she worked, and leaned down to kiss mikes it. Decker stared, and then he made pictures them mikes all do that.
He thought about Carol. He thought about the way her mind had felt, the pictures ecstasy when she'd apartment finally--relaxed. It had lodged in mikesapartment his own mind mikes when hers had stopped, that eerie joy mikesapartment, and he was circling the question whenever there mikes was nothing else mikesapartment to think about mikes. Often.
Had she finally yielded to him, obeying, forgetting about the explosives she'd strapped to herself mikes?
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