Thirty Four Minutes DEAD

by Kaye, Steve Hammond

  The couple didn’t exchange any more words before they left the Designation, and as they approached Vain’s car, he stole a quick glance at Marcia. She walked with a purposeful stride, her eyes looking ahead with a forthright determination. Vain opened the car door for Levene and as she took her seat, she flashed him a smile that was both elegant and sexual at the same time. Her ivory-white teeth and long black hair proved to be an excellent complement to each other when she wanted to secure a person’s attention - Levene’s appearance left an indelible impression on the beholder.

  Levene directed Vain to proceed toward London’s West End, and after an hour, as the car neared her intended destination she added more definition concerning where she and Greg would be spending the night.

  “I thought we could go to my ‘London Retreat’ Greg - a little two bedroom mews house that I bought four years ago. I wanted my own piece of London and when I acquired the house, it was a little dream realised for me. I haven’t been there since just before the Venison exploration, but I employ a housekeeper Miss Arnett to come in twice a week and look after the place. She airs the house and makes sure that both the freezer and real fire log pile are well stocked. Miss Arnett never knows when I’ll turn up because even I don’t know that due to my MC project commitments! She’s nearly seventy but I guess she’s what some of you Brits call a ‘real diamond’; I wouldn’t replace her for the world. The house should be reasonably warm, but I thought that we could throw some logs on the fire because I’ve found that early May in England involves nights that are a bit chilly usually. Still, we’ll probably create enough warmth ourselves won’t we, Greg?”

  Levene’s London hideaway was situated in close proximity to the West End theatres, but the discreet Mews houses had been constructed in cul-de-sacs that enjoyed a quiet serenity which was oppositional to the bright light culture nearby. The houses dated back to the late eighteenth century and although their interiors featured twenty-first century luxury, their exteriors preserved a halcyon London quality from the era of their construction. The facade of Marcia’s property was the same as the neighbouring houses with white stone dominance, black wood complement and brass embellishments proving to be three features of structural uniformity. When the couple entered the house, Vain realised immediately that Levene’s personality came to the fore with regard to the interior design.

  Black wood furniture, similar to the type favoured at Alvettis was used frequently, and on occasions peacock feathers appeared in black glass vases. Some ‘Burne-Jones’ wall hangings and a tiled ‘Morgan’ fire place highlighted Levene’s affinity with Pre-Raphaelite art, but these expensive art treasures were subdued in their impact when compared to the animal furs splayed out on the white walls. The six furs included pumas and a tiger but the most prominent coat was that of a polar bear, complete with head and paws. Vain asked about the necessity for the collection but Levene’s answer challenged his expectations.

  “Only two were specifically ‘shot to order’ for me - the tiger and the polar bear. Fur wall-hangings seem a bit morbid nowadays, but they fulfilled a purpose for me at the time. When I started my collection, I was way down in the CIA ranks, stuck in a department concerned with criminal psychological patterns. I was very young, power-hungry but obviously female. At that time, it was more of a ‘man’s world’ than today, and my struggle to rise was set against a bedrock of misogyny. The furs weren’t the centre-piece of my retaliation but they served to make me feel better at the time. You see, as a non-wearer with regard to furs, society expected me to whimper, protest and sob as the fur trade survived - what did it expect of men at the same time? It expected some to be appalled like most women, but it also expected a minority to reap the commercial benefits associated with the fur trade and to actually shoot the fucking animals. With this collection, I was doing my shooting! I was fighting the double standard”.

  After her explanation, Levene lit the real fire which had been prepared by Miss Arnett and then poured Vain a glass of the red wine that they both favoured. Whilst she undertook these tasks Vain was left to reflect on her reply to his question. His eyes kept returning to the polar bear’s head, and a chill ran through him as the words ‘shot to order’ kept replaying in his mind. When Levene returned to the lounge she handed Vain his drink and then after noticing the apparent unease that the polar bear had instilled in her lover, she placed her jacket over the animal’s head. She turned to Vain and in a softer voice she invited the communion that both of them had desired since his initial rebuff on the night of project celebration some months previous.

  “I guess the holding back is over now. I’ve made love with a certain Mr Vain many times in my mind but tonight is going to be our incarnate realisation. I love you Greg, now and for all our tomorrows. Without each other life is just a skin-deep fixation. Open me up - free me”.

  When Levene had uttered these words her long fingers dimmed the lights to a degree of illumination that prepared the couple for their release of intimacy. Her fingers loosened Vain’s clothing and while her hands were at work, Greg echoed her movements by carefully undoing the buttons, which were the last bridge to their union. Whilst the synchronised loosening took place the couple entwined tongues in the savage style that they had made their own. This time both of them traded a tiny blood bite on the lips of each other, and as the teeth had only made a faint penetration, the blood just coated the lips, remaining within the mouths for the most part; a bitter aperitif that added to the intricacy of the mirrored sexual deliverance. As Levene’s clothing dropped to the floor she pulled Vain’s head downward to direct his attention toward her breasts, and his tongue proceeded to trace lines around her nipples, fluctuating in pressure, led by her touch as her nails ran down the smooth skin of his back.

  The woman’s hands proceeded upward to massage Vain’s shoulder blades, leaving faint lacerations when his tongue excited the erogenous area around each nipple. As the couples mutual touch quickened, all garments except their respective briefs were discarded. The symmetry that choreographed the undressing had remained synchronised to the last. Vain started to massage the silken material of Levene’s underwear with his left hand and she arched her back as his fingers gently kneaded the soft flesh below her pubic mound. For a couple of minutes Marcia broke their symmetry, tilting her head backwards and temporarily ceasing to claw Vain’s shoulders. The gusset of her briefs became saturated as she approached orgasm and her hand wildly reached out for Vain’s penis just before she came. Levene translated her ecstasy into powerful hand strokes, pulling hard on her lover. She let out a guttural cry when she reached the peak of sensual release and after her delirium subsided, she turned her attention to Greg, crouching down on him, taking his penis deep into her mouth.

  Levene’s tongue greedily flicked along the sensitive end of Vain’s erect penis, whilst her hands rubbed his testicles with a force that was only just short of a painful threshold. Vain looked downwards as his partner became engrossed in her oral stimulation. Her cheekbones were accentuated by the dimmed illumination and as she turned fellatio into an intricate performance, Gregory Vain shut his eyes as he anticipated a powerful ejaculation.

  Levene’s technique revolved around a heated pressure, which seemed to emanate from within her throat and her teeth were used simultaneously, nipping the thick veins, which ran through to the swollen foreskin.

  Vain felt that he was going to cum on numerous occasions but when Levene sensed an approaching climax, she altered the method of oral pressure and intensified the massage that she was directing to her lover’s testicles. The woman teased her partner for a forty-minute spell, before finally conceding to his desperate thrusts. Once Levene stopped restricting intake in her throat, Vain indulged in ‘mouth fucking’ his partner at breakneck speed and when he had passed the point of ‘no return’ Levene pulled out his penis, directing his semen across her face and breasts.

  It had been the most powerful ejaculation that Vain had experienced, and as his project colleague
fastidiously licked his semen from her breasts, he lay down on the floor, reflecting on the sexual excellence that he had just received. Levene however was in no mood for reflection, and as she ran a comb through her tousled hair, she broke the silence, which the couple had lapsed into.

  “Time to return the service, Greg. Lick me like it’s the last time!”

  After uttering these words, Marcia knelt down and reverse-straddled Vain’s face, looking past his legs to the fur hangings on the wall. From his spatial position, Vain saw her perfectly proportioned buttocks drop down toward him and beyond this vision was the smooth skin of Levene’s back, complemented by the mane of black hair that he had come to adore.

  Vain placed a cushion under his head to enable him to gain a slight elevation that raised his mouth upward towards Levene’s vagina. As his tongue started to probe the tight confines of the favoured destination, Vain recognised the distinctive taste that he had experienced second-hand in Alvettis, but this time there was an unlimited supply!

  As his tongue reached deeper, Vain’s two day old chin stubble made contact with Levene’s clitoris and the effect sent the woman into a frenzied state, moaning in a shrill pitch, tightly squeezing her nipples until her nails turned temporarily white. Vain didn’t employ any teasing tactics like Levene had done. He had thought ahead to the ultimate coital union and thus his tongue hammered through at a frenetic pace, bringing his partner to a state of climax in a matter of minutes.

  It was now Marcia’s turn to shudder into temporary submission, but Vain decided to implement a slight manoeuvre to enable the long awaited copulation. He skilfully pulled his body through the arch afforded by Levene’s kneeling legs and gently pushed her onto ‘all fours’ so that he was kneeling behind her. Taking his freshly erect penis in his hand, he entered the woman from behind with a thrust that was stronger in terms of impact than any previous single stroke performed by the couple. He felt that his entry was deeper than any penetration he had experienced before and Levene used her powerful, compact vaginal muscles to invite every inch of Vain’s sizeable penis. When he came, Vain felt as though he was using a ‘life supply’, and whilst his first ejaculation had been shot in the open, this semen consignment was released ‘within’ for a duration that seemed to fully savour their completion, holding the moment like a sacred occurrence.

  The couple drifted into a contented sleep after their energetic love making, lying sprawled out on the thick-pile burgundy carpet. Levene awoke Vain the following morning, and the first thing the couple did involved a continuation of the previous night’s sexual activity. When the MC project pair climbed into Vain’s car later that day, their collective fatigue couldn’t stop them sharing a celebration French kiss outside Levene’s London hideaway.

  Levene had asked to drive Vain’s car for the return journey to Designation B, and Greg had made no objection concerning her request. A short distance before the project base, the car’s progress was halted by a long tail back. Neither of the project pair suspected anything problematic at this stage, but suddenly a group of individuals started flitting between the halted vehicles and then the couple did start to become suspicious.

  Most of the people who snaked through the traffic peered into vehicles, to be met with indignant curses from the infuriated drivers. When Vain noticed that some of the individuals wore press identity badges, he informed Levene and she encoded an emergency call signal on her ‘Comm-Lynx’. As two of the figures approached Vain’s car, a cold sweat started to form on his brow. Both individuals had tabloid newspaper titles emblazoned on the camera cases that they carried. One of the two seemed to recognise the project pair, and he broke into a run as his rival reporter let out a triumphal shout when he too recognised who the pair were. After this dual recognition, a mad scramble ensued until thirty reporters laid siege to Greg’s vehicle.

  The pressure of the jostling reporters started to rock the car, and Vain opened his window halfway, to be met by a barrage of questions. He realised that the media avalanche that Denison had expected after the global MC revelation had started. The crowd swelled to over fifty, and scuffles started to break out between angry drivers and loud-mouthed reporters. When Gregory Vain had opened his passenger window he had initially shouted that the reporters had made a mistake and he had been quite adamant in his denial of MC project involvement. It didn’t take long however for the project pair to realise the futility of any further denials and Vain closed his window as howls of protest emanated from the journalistic ranks. When the car started to tilt dangerously, the project pair decided to implement the ‘power authorisation’ that MC project affiliation enabled them to call upon in situations like the one they were experiencing and both project members thus reached for their concealed firearms.

  After brandishing an Uzi through the car window, Vain intimated that he was going to get out of the vehicle. Upon seeing the weapon, the crowd withdrew a few metres and then Vain got out to read a brief statement that all front-line MC project personnel carried.

  As cameras clicked repeatedly, Vain started to read, whilst his left hand directed the gun toward the crowd.

  “As a member of the Memory-Camera exploration project, I am empowered with the highest authority from both the defence forces of Britain and the United States of America. This authority empowers me to contravene conventional forces of law and order. As a member of the said organisation, I can use a firearm if I have ‘reasonable cause’ for alarm, with regard to my safety and MC project security. As a collective force that bars MC project safe passage, I must warn you that if this form of obstruction remains, I will be forced to use the weapon that I am permitted to carry. You must disperse to enable my access”.

  After he had read the statement, Vain turned to get back to his car. Questions seemed to come from every direction but one cut through the homogenised verbal chaos, being heard quite easily by Gregory Vain.

  “People claim to see a lot, Mr Vain. Christ; the devil; aliens! Are you going to visually determine truth here?”

  As Jess Wheeler’s security unit arrived to break the crowd up, Vain couldn’t resist one sarcastic reply line to the journalist who had been heard above the rest.

  “Write me an X-file. Fuck you”.

  The reason Vain had singled out the one journalist for satirical attack was because she had actually got quite close to areas that Vain wished to explore in future MC project directions. He didn’t want any sensationalist reporter stealing any credit for future exploration areas.

  Wheeler’s unit created a convoy to guide the project pair back to Designation B and as they entered the building, Denison met them. He was quite jovial in his tone and apparently not angry that the media had again detected the same two MC project personnel. His words were carefully selected to dispel any fears that Greg and Marcia may have had after this second detection.

  “Hey folks, hang those long faces! It was just a matter of time until those bloodhounds sniffed you out. You may have had shit for brains in Washington but things have changed. After the global MC revelation, we knew that media relations would be kinda different. I mean we were fucking lucky before global exposure, you know. Four years back we had to wipe a pack of reporters in Cincinnati, then New York, and of course you know about Lassiter’s Washington press unit. Christ, Wheeler’s boys must have ‘retired’ over fifty reporters by now! You handled press detection perfectly - real pros and so long as you keep that up, you’ve got nothing to fear from me. Go and settle back in. Check out the other front-liners. They’ve been working solid on both main vault and mindsight extension explorations”.

  Vain and Levene parted to go back to their respective rooms. Both Ko-Chai and Tavini were out, and thus Vain was free to envisage the headlines of tomorrow’s press on his own. He had settled back into his room when a knock on his door broke his train of thought. He was pleased to see that it was Diana Fearston who had sought his presence. He had tremendous admiration for this woman and was glad that she was his closest understudy.
Fearston had been working solidly during the past week on both individual work and front-line team explorations with Hannah Nichol and Marco Sant. After a courteous greeting she proceeded to tell Vain of a significant finding that she had discovered in the membrane that separated the main visually-determined MC vault and the ‘mindsight’ extension.

  “I’ve been working with my team to an intensive level of late Greg, and I have also had the opportunity to further my own neurological research. Our team have undertaken twenty-five mindsight explorations after you guys unlocked Braddock’s vault-extension visuals, and one exploration presented me with an enigma that could well upset Leif a bit! I carried out the explorations with Hannah and Marco but I was left to assess the screened results on my own. Braddock heard Levene read a passage from Revelation, but we opted for a fictional piece written by Hannah about a bad LSD trip. It was quite short, describing a series of powerful recurring visuals that envisaged hallucinations in their magnitude. The three key descriptive images concerned the allegorical figure of death in stilettos, a taxidermist devouring entrails from dead animals and blood from an angel’s veins lapping around the fires of hell. Each subject had the passage read to them three times as with Braddock, but they didn’t view their mindsight visuals afterwards. I was the sole reviewer”.

  Diana Fearston paused for breath and Vain felt that his understudy shook a little as she continued.

  “The first twenty-one screenings showed a great deal of commonality Greg, with every subject mentally rendering the three key images in their minds. Personal translations meant that slight variations in depiction occurred, but most imagery was created and stored along very similar visual lines. Subject 22 radically altered my concept of visual storage though, Greg! The mindsight visuals of Subject 22 initially tied in with the previous explorations, with the female volunteer rendering both death and the taxidermist along similar lines to the rest.