by Noah Rain
“You hit him with the horse tranq?” the Latina asked, turning around and leaning over her beanbag chair.
“I had to put him out with something,” Scarlett said, blushing.
“Yeah,” Darla said. “But a horse tranq? Man, you must have pissed her off.”
“She didn’t seem upset with me,” I said.
I was beginning to have the impression that it could have killed me. Or maybe even that it should have killed me.
“You said yourself he’s got to have a ridiculous chemical tolerance not to be affected by the mist, Nina,” Scarlett argued. “Shouldn’t that extend to other substances.”
“Apparently,” Nina said with a shrug and without looking up from her computer. “Could have let me run a few tests first, is all.”
“Yeah, Scar,” I said, putting a sarcastic emphasis on what was apparently her pet name around these parts. “All you had to do was ask, and I’d have been happy to help out with your little science experiment.” My eyes flashed across the sharper-looking tools scattered around Nina’s furiously-typing hands, and I swallowed.
“You know how Sascha operates,” Scarlett said, not speaking to me. The three other women all made the same exaggerated mmhmm sound as if they were talking about their mother.
Scarlett leaned forward.
“Seriously, Konnor. Nina’s just going to run some tests. Blood tests and stuff. There’s something about your condition that’s rendered you immune to her mist. Sascha thinks you can help us design something better.”
“Seriously, Scarlett,” I whispered back. “I would have fucking let you. What’s with the damn cuffs and the rest of it?”
“Something about creating a stress trigger or—”
“The subject needs to be stressed enough to release the right mix of adrenaline, pheromones, and a touch of interleukins in order to get what we need.”
The speaker was unfamiliar, and the voice came from behind me. I hadn’t heard a door open, but now I heard one close. She had a soviet accent, and that one did send a few chills up my spine, checking at least one of her conditions off the list.
“Don’t worry about it, Konnor Kayde.” I heard booted steps, and then felt someone touch my right shoulder. Scarlett stepped backward and allowed the newcomer to sweep into my field of view. “We’ll be done with you soon enough, and then we’ll send you back to your miserable and meaningless Jaxton life, where Vash or some other Syndicate will gladly knock you off their list, given your seeming allegiance to the Guilders of Silk City.”
She was blonde, and tall, and wearing the same sort of tactical suit Scarlett had been. She was middle-aged, but she looked to be in excellent condition. She had startling blue eyes, but they left me feeling cold rather than electrified, and her grip was stronger than it had any right to be.
“So,” I said. “You’re Sascha, I take it. The one who’s after my super-secret superpower?”
Sascha looked back at Scarlett. She smiled at me without humor.
“Nina is the one looking for the secret, my boy,” she said. “But don’t worry.” She tapped me on the lips. “You don’t have to tell us. I know you couldn’t even if you wanted to. But blood talks.”
It sounded like an old, familiar saying to Sascha, and I didn’t want to ask where she had heard it.
I must have glanced at Scarlett, and Sascha caught it.
“Oh, boy,” she laughed wickedly. “She is wonderful, isn’t she? Don’t worry about it, Konnor. It’s better you’ve fallen into my lap than one of the Suits, or one of the Syndicates. Cooperate, and you’ll be set free, hopefully with all your mental faculties intact. Don’t … and, well, maybe it isn’t better for you to be in my lap.”
“Fuck it,” I said. “You need me to release adrenaline, you’ve got me pissed off. Check. You need me to release pheromones, I’m freaked out enough, so check there, right? I don’t know what the fuck an interleukin—”
“Family of glycoproteins specifically classified for their anti-inflammatory and immune responses,” Nina recited like a robot.
“Okay … that. Well—”
“You have no control over those,” Sascha said. “We’re already incubating your blood. Then we’ll spin it in a centrifuge. And … well, Nina knows the rest, but that’s the base we’ll use for the serum.”
“Thought you already had a serum.”
“My girls tell me it doesn’t work on you,” Sascha said. “Not a wink. Which makes you the first.”
“What sort of sample size are we talking about?” I asked sarcastically. “Surely Darla hasn’t fucked every Suit in Silk—”
Sascha was just as strong as she looked. She hit me so hard I didn’t know if it was a slap, a cuff or a hook, but the end result was a serious case of whiplash that had me seeing blurred lines all over again, even if I didn’t feel the pain from the strike.
I felt something grip my chin and my vision cleared to see Sascha smiling at me.
“Your stay with us can be as pleasant or unpleasant as you’d like it to be,” Sascha said. “Willing or otherwise, you’ve got yourself caught up in a war. Lucky you, it happens to be the right one.”
I frowned.
“The Syndicates and the Guilds have been fighting for years,” Sascha said. “You know this. I know this. Every sorry fuck in Jaxton and every faux celebrity in Silk City knows it. But that’s nothing but a proxy war. Phony and false, with no winners and plenty of losers. The war you’ve stumbled your way into happens to be bigger than that. Above it, below it. Behind it. We’re going after the system itself.”
“So Scarlett said,” I said. “You’re going to bring the system down by blackmailing every Suit in Silk City. As if they haven’t all thought of the same shit a thousand times over. As if you aren’t just another in a long line of blackmail operations that’s going to last just as long as it takes for some Suit to get sick of it, and decide all the secrets in the world can’t stop him from paying an extra sum to one of the more combat-specialized Guilds out there. Enough money to exchange tasers for bullets.”
Sascha winced as I spoke out of turn, but then she forced a tight smile onto her face, allowing the transgression. I didn’t think she would suffer another.
“And here Scarlett had me thinking you were just a mindless weapon in waiting,” Sascha purred.
A weapon?
My look must have shown my confusion.
“An elite hand-to-hand champion who can’t feel pain, is immune to the most advanced coercion formula known to man, and whose muscles seem to be as tightly wound as carbon fiber.” She pressed her fingers against my chest, and ran her hand down my stomach, and then lower, stopping to hook two through the band that held my boxers up. “A weapon if I’ve ever seen one. One could almost use you as an example to prove the conspiracy theorists right. What have they been putting in the food these last few generations?”
“More a happy accident, I think,” I shrugged. “Few knocks on the head and some severed nerve endings. Useful in a fight. But I don’t see what it has to do—”
“If it was as simple as some severed nerve endings, it wouldn’t take the same amount of chems as it takes to put down a horse, Konnor,” Sascha said. Nina laughed. “You are special. Either genetically, or through some accident.”
“So what?” I said, getting to the point where I didn’t much care if Sascha socked me in the jaw again. “You’re going to use my blood to synthesize a new formula? A new serum? What could you get out of another one that you don’t already have from the Suits? What more secrets do you think they’re—”
“You aren’t as stupid as you think you are,” Sascha said. I didn’t quite know how to respond to that, so I didn’t respond. “Earlier, you implied that we were operating on a fool’s errand. Secrets are useful, yes? But only for so long. Secret-keepers are valuable, yes? But only when they have a modest collection o
f secrets, and only when the balance is maintained. But what if it wasn’t just Credit PIN’s and vault locations we had access to? What if it wasn’t just private transgressions …” Darla giggled, “that we could send to the Pearls, resulting in high-profile divorces and massive credit rating drops? What if we controlled the minds that made the system? What if we controlled the system itself?”
I just looked at Scarlett, at a loss. It sounded like the rantings of a mad woman, but then, I was chained to a pole in a hidden laboratory surrounded by five of the most attractive women I’d ever seen … and I was frightened.
“We’ve been fighting the Suits for years,” Sascha continued. “We could erase entire Guilds and ruin some of the biggest careers in Silk City with little more than a phone call to the nightly reports. But threats only make bitter enemies if you carry them out. We’ve dealt in threats and implications for years, and some of the Suits are getting wise to it. If the Vixens are all bark and no bite, or all bite and no bark … neither works. The former suggests fear. The latter suggests desperation.”
Sascha looked at Scarlett.
“Some of us want to hold a detonator to the whole system, and blow it to kingdom come,” Sascha said. “But control is the key. Control the system, and we can elevate the people.”
Or enslave them even more, I thought but didn’t say. “And you think I’m the key to getting that control?” I sounded as doubtful as I’d hoped.
“You’re the only person not to have a reaction to Nina’s chemicals,” Sascha reiterated. Nina growled—literally growled—from the front of the room. She did not appreciate the reminder, as if her coercion smoke not working on me was a personal affront.
Sascha stepped back and crossed her arms, looking me up and down again. Her eyes lingered on the down for a little while, and she smirked.
“And here you are, Konnor Kayde,” she said. “A perfect little miracle fallen into our laps. If there’s a way to extract whatever it is about you that makes you exceedingly difficult to hurt, and impossible to coerce, Nina will pull it out, analyze it, and reproduce it. In other words, if we can crack you, we can crack anyone. And I know you said you’d help willingly, but you see, we can’t have that.”
“How do I pretend to be unwilling, then?” I asked. “How do I pretend to resist answering your questions?”
“There are always questions one doesn’t wish to answer.” Sasha stepped forward and tapped me on the side of the chin. “It’s just a matter of prodding. But don’t worry.” She leaned in and quite shocked me by planting a kiss on my lips. And yes, she did get her tongue involved. It was forceful and violating, but I couldn’t help but picture taking control of Sascha in the way she wanted to control the world. Maybe I’d fuck her in the ass just to teach her a lesson, as soon as I was out of these chains.
Sascha broke away from me and licked her lips like she was a tiger.
“There is one more chemical the body produces that is of interest to Nina, and might make your stay here a bit more enjoyable,” Sascha said.
“What’s that?” I asked derisively. Scarlett was looking away with her arms crossed. I didn’t know if she was angry at me, Sascha or just embarrassed by the whole thing.
“Oxytocin,” Nina piped in from the front.
“That’s the one,” Sascha said. With that, she walked past me, her boots clacking against the polished tiles. “Nina’s in charge.” When the door slammed shut, I looked at Scarlett.
“What the fuck is oxytocin?” I asked.
“The love chemical,” Scarlett said. She didn’t seem to be joking, so I didn’t laugh.
“That’s putting it simply, yes,” Nina said.
“My favorite chemical,” Darla said with a wink. She was leaning over the table next to Nina, staring at me hungrily. She didn’t try to hide the direction of her gaze.
“In short, just before orgasm,” Nina said, holding up one finger like she was a teacher while the other one continued to type away, “your brain releases a surge of oxytocin, which, in addition to feeling very fucking good, is one of the most powerful natural painkillers in the world, and—if you believe me—the potential secret to mind control.”
“Mind control,” I laughed, blinking hard as I wondered again whether or not this really was a vivid dream or nightmare. “You think orgasms might be the key to mind control?”
“You ever fuck someone?” the Latina asked from her place on the couch.
“What was your name?” I asked, annoyed.
“Carmen. So, what’s the answer? You ever fucked someone?”
“Yup,” I said, staring at Scarlett, who blushed and wiped a stray bang away from her face. I was angry with her, and betrayed, but damn it if she wasn’t still beautiful.
“You ever feel like spilling your guts to them while the cum’s drying?”
Hmm. I shrugged. It was a fair point.
“So, which one of you girls is going to try to make me cum first?” I asked, not knowing how literal Nina was speaking.
“Darla,” she said, again without looking up. “But first, we’ve got to make the injection. Oxytocin comes from your brain, and we’ve stimulated the interleukins in your blood. Adrenaline should be up considering your current circumstances. But none of it works without my formula.”
“Fun as that sounds,” I said with an exaggerated yawn, “and it really does sound fun, I’m going to be a hard pass on that.”
“Konnor,” Scarlett said. She looked worried and uncomfortable. About what, I couldn’t know for sure. “The sooner you work with them, the sooner they let you go.”
“Wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Carmen said. “He was on his way to being a Guilder, and a pretty dangerous one, if what you said about his skills is right, Scar.”
“What did you say about my … skills, Scar?” I prodded.
“She said that you’re the most powerful striker she’s ever seen, and that you shattered military-grade resin with your bare hands,” Nina said. She was very matter-of-fact, that one. “If I were to guess, I’d say the same condition that numbs your skin and increases your chemical resistance has also removed traditional limits our brains place on our bodies.”
Scarlett and I looked at each other, and Nina sighed and looked up from her screen.
“It means you’re strong and fast,” Nina said. “Not impossibly so, but enough that, if you fought another version of you, other you wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Interesting.
I decided to put that bit to the test. I’d been working at the cuffs the whole time, and found myself no closer to making a super spy-level escape than I had been before. But, a herculean escape might not be as far beyond me as I’d thought, and judging by the small links in the cuffs I’d been fingering, these ones weren’t made for law enforcement purposes.
I winked at Darla, guessing they were hers, flexed my core again, and pictured bringing both of my hands around to make the loudest clap anyone had ever heard.
To my absolute shock, it worked.
One quick, violent motion, one slight hitch of resistance as the weakest link broke, and both of my hands swung forward so fast I stumbled and fell, landing on my hands and knees. Blood trickled down my wrists, which still had both cuff links attached like bracelets, but the cut didn’t look as deep as I’d feared.
“Impressive,” I heard Nina say. I didn’t want to beat up a bunch of chicks, but if any of them got in my way, I’d do whatever it took to get out of there. Nobody was going to experiment on me.
A shadow fell over me and I tensed, looking up to see Scarlett looking … not at me. I followed the direction of her stare and only recognized Carmen at the last second. Her tight pants were apparently quite flexible, and her face was nonchalant as she slammed a knee against the side of my chin, dropping me cold.
Four pairs of hands wrangled me, grabbing my wrists and ankles. They
were surprisingly strong given their appearance, and I was still feeling the effects of the horse tranquilizer. I fought, or tried to, but the attempt was feeble.
“Careful with him,” Scarlett said.
“You in love with him or something, Scar?” Carmen asked. “He’s fine. He’s a pro. I’m sure he’s been hit harder than that.”
“He isn’t a Suit or a Guilder—”
“He tried to join the Guilds last week,” Darla said, surprising me with her callousness. “He might as well be one of them.”
I went in and out of consciousness, and when I finally came to, I was staring up at the ceiling. Nina leaned over me. She was even cuter up close, and her green eyes sparkled like gemstones. Of course, I was also probably drunk and concussed. My eyes widened a bit when she held up a thick syringe of what looked like blood, albeit with a purple tint.
“You’ll enjoy this,” Nina said with a wink. “I promise.”
I didn’t feel the needle, but I did feel the rush that followed it.
Nina was right, as it turned out. Much as I tried to resist, I ended up enjoying my captivity more than any freedom-loving man should.
Chapter 8
Stress Test
“He’s strong.”
“I already told you he was strong.”
“No. I mean, he’s really strong. Those cuffs are Darla’s. Cold-rolled steel.”
“I’ve seen people break cuffs before, Nina.”
“Not like that. I think Sascha’s right. Something about his neurolink. It’s like normal mental limits have been removed. Like his body doesn’t know when it should stop.”
“Couldn’t that be bad?”
“In some cases. Sure. If he tried to lift a bus, he’d probably break his back before he knew anything was wrong. But, in a fight, with his skills. Damn. Handful to say the least.”
“He went down easy enough.”
“He’s drugged, Carmen.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I didn’t know who was speaking when. I opened my eyes and closed them as a bright light stung the back of my retinas. I groaned.
