Chapter 6

For the hundredth time, Sebastion Stodder looked around the lavish confines of his cell. There wasn’t much else for him to do.

He was almost disappointed by what he saw. It just didn’t look the way a cell ought. Hell, the room was better than Sebastion’s own quarters. His own little dorm certainly didn’t have such an impressive view of the outside. Didn’t make it any less a cell. Normal rooms didn’t have bulletproof glass.

The sun was particularly warm and bright today, barely a cloud in the sky. It was beautiful out. The window was practically a torture. Didn’t keep him from looking outside.

“Have you been listening to a word I’ve been saying,” a sharp voice cut into his daydreaming.

“I-” Sebastion started.

“Of course not,” drawled the voice, “If you could actually keep your head on straight for more than fifteen seconds, I wouldn’t need to be here.”

The speaker was William Henry Mason esquire, a stern, hawkfaced man of middling years. He was Sebastion’s advocate for the upcoming hearing. Not exactly his lawyer. He wasn’t headed for courtroom, but the Brotherhood did believe that someone should speak for the accused. At least when the defendant was one of their own.

Sebastion wondered what he’d ever done to deserve this. Damn the Brotherhood, anyways, with all their promises of wealth and glory. Same to their hardass teachers, if you could call them that. Those bastards threw him off into the deep end then acted shocked when he couldn’t manage the impossible. What the hell had they expected, anyways. They were the ones that should have been exiled to that boring, dead end duty.

Most of all, he cursed that damned girl. If only he’d never laid eyes on her.

All he’d wanted was a little break, a tiny reprieve from the tedium they’d stuck him with. Was that so bad? Who could blame him for taking advantage when some cute young thing showed up all hot and eager. Ok, maybe he should have suspected something when he woke up, but she was good, real good. It was hardly the first time he’d been tired afterwards.

“In a way, your little ... incident at the harbor is fortunate. Better pray that it’s enough.”

“What, but-?” Sebastian started. Fortunate? It got him stuck with that stupid desk job in the first place. He wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for that.

“Yes, I do believe the council will settle for a charge of gross negligence,” Sebastion winced. That would just about kill any last dreams of a future here. “But, fortunately they don’t consider you competent enough to warrant treason charges.”

“T-, Treason?” said Sebastion. How could they possibly think that? What in the hell had he done to deserve that? Sure, he’d tried to cover it up, but he was careful. He went back twice and doublechecked everything. Nothing missing, nothing broken, no harm done, right? So why not save himself the embarrassment?

“A data dump. A full, backup dump of the records, and you just let her walk in and take them. Yes, boy, it’s a distinct possibility. You had one simple job to do, and you couldn’t even manage that.” He paused a moment to regain his composure. This was the most riled Sebastion had ever seen the man.

“Not that you could ever stop a real attack,” he continued, with emphasis on the you, “but even you should have been able to raise an alarm.”

Sebastion mumbled a reply. What was the point? They were determined to screw him over no matter what he did.

“Fortunately, I don’t think you have to worry too much. One look at your record, and no one will doubt that your failings were incompetence rather than disloyalty.”

“What are you doing,” Jessica asked the maid. Lisa was perched on a stool in front of the laptop, typing away at who knew what. The stool was used out of necessity. The maid’s poofy skirt would not handle a normal chair very well, and she was under strict instructions to maintain her uniform. This was the most recent uniform, one of several that Conrad had bought, each a variation on the classic maid look, just different enough to add the spice of variety. Honestly, Conrad spoiled her. The girl was lucky that Jessica handed control over her finances to him. Were she in charge of spending, Lisa would not have enjoyed such frivolities. Not that Jessica complained when her own gifts from Conrad arrived.

Lisa jumped up from her seat, quickly shutting down what she had been working on. Surely it wasn’t that nonsense from earlier? Jessica thought she’d outgrown that silly obsession. Time she put a stop to that.

“Do you have no chores left to perform? I can always find additional duties for you.”

“Yes ma’am, I mean, no ma’m,” said Lisa, “I was just taking a quick break in between, ma’am, I didn’t mean to slack off.”

“See that you don’t,” Jessica said. Lisa’s skin flushed a rich crimson, and her breathing quickened slightly. The girl actually enjoyed the reprimand, was excited by it, even. Jessica had to admit, the girl did look rather fetching. She especially enjoyed the heaving of her lush bosom. Today’s uniform was particularly thin in front, and Jessica could see those delicious nipples standing at attention beneath the flimsy fabric.

That settled it. The girl was getting out of hand, and it was time for additional encouragement. Encouragement Jessica would find most enjoyable.

At her orders, Lisa dutifully followed into the living room. The recliner would be a particularly comfortable place for the lesson, but not quite yet. At a harsh word, Lisa was on her knees, staring up at Jessica. She could see the desire written across the maid’s lovely face.

“You’ve been a bad girl, haven’t you,” Jessica said. Lisa eagerly agreed.

“Yes, mistress, I’ve been a bad, bad girl. I’m sorry mistress.”

Jessica let her continue for a minute, allowing the remorse to sink in.

“But you can change, can’t you?”

“Oh yes, mistress, yes,” said Lisa. Her skin was totally flushed now, a small trace of perspiration making her smooth skin glisten. Jessica was particularly drawn to the way that cleavage shone. Though she was making an effort to remain still, Jessica could see her writhe slightly in discomfort and the unfulfilled need stoked by the scolding. She let her squirm for a while, until the maid’s eyes were wild with desire. With a smile, she allowed Lisa to touch herself, though she remained kneeling. Positive reinforcement was important, after all.

“I think you can be a good girl from here on out, don’t you agree?” she said. “Tell me what you will be?”

“I’ll be good,” Lisa said, fingers plunging in and out. “I’ll be a good girl.”

Her eyes were locked onto Jessica’s, and it was clear the girl believed it. There was an intense, utter look of devotion in her expression that left no doubt as to Lisa’s sincerity. Still, further demonstration wouldn’t hurt.

Jessica stepped back from the kneeling maid, sprawling herself onto the recliner. Her legs parted, hiking up the short but exquisite dress she wore. There were no panties, Conrad preferred her without them. All it took was a curt, dismissive wave to send Lisa between her thighs.

God, that girl had an amazing tongue. Jessica leaned her head back, eyes closing involuntarily. Oh yes she did.

“Who is she?” The monitor showed a blurry image, taken from the security footage. The young woman in the picture appeared disturbingly innocuous. Most of the shot was of her long, brunette hair. Attractive, but so were any number of girls. This shot, caught her from the side, at least offered a solid profile of her face. Her clothes were rumpled and askew, evidence of her tryst a few minutes prior. They’d interviewed the man, but he proved useless.

“We’re not sure sir,” the officer told Hubber. “We’ve been searching the database, but no matches yet.”

“And our spies?” He knew what the answer would be, but had to ask anyways.

“Her description has been circulated, even the pictures to our more trusted agents. A few false leads, but nothing that panned out.”

“How in the blazes did she get this far? The system was supposed to be secure.”

“She had a login, sir, a high level one,” he said.

“Whose?”

The officer broke eye contact, looking around nervously.

“Nobody’s, sir. An administrative password, an older one. There were any number of people who knew it.” Hubber suppressed a snarl. There was no shortage of smart people in the Brotherhood. He wouldn’t be here if that wasn’t the case, but it amazed him sometimes just how idiotic those intelligent people could be. Unique, traceable logins should have been an absolute no-brainer on a secure system. Did anyone besides himself have even the slightest inkling of counter-espionage?

“Find her. Keep on it until you’ve found our missing data. I want to know who sent her, who they’ve been working with, and above all, how the hell they did it.”

He turned and strode away. He was not about to watch years of effort wasted right before the final push. Not when they were so close. Fortunately, their thief would find the most critical records missing. One of his first tasks after rising to the directorship was a massive purge of the main records. Those idiots had actually been keeping top secret data inside the central database.

No matter how many times read, the words on the screen remained cryptic as ever. Derrick Stone, first lieutenant in the Guardian Defense Force, refreshed his browser out of habit, just to see if anything changed. He furled his brow as the same enigmatic message appeared.

For several years now, he’d been a member of what the rest of the controller population referred to as simply The Guardians. Joining hadn’t made him popular with those same controllers, but Derrick was never one to shirk away from doing the right thing. He’d never really regretted his choice. They were doing good work, important work. Why wasn’t that a comfort anymore?

It was those blasted emails from Lisa, the last of which he’d puzzled over the past twenty minutes. They had been growing ever more erratic, and he was getting worried. The letters were getting more crazed by the day, full of rambling warnings about how “they” didn’t want her looking into this anymore. Given the state of those messages, Derrick should have been worried about her mental health. Except ... except there was no way she’d faked all those documents. He still wasn’t seeing whatever bogeyman had concerned her so, but there was something about them. A nagging hint that concerned him.

Concerned him enough to kick it up the ladder. That was where things really started to get dicey. It wasn’t long afterwards that the memo came shooting back down the ladder, dropping onto his head like a bomb from the heavens. “Back off!”, was the heart of its message, for all that it was couched in officious jargon. “Back the fuck off now!”

“What’re you up to?” Asked a voice from behind.

“Letter from your girlfriend back home?” the voice chuckled, “Or maybe it’s a boyfriend.”

It was his roomate. Though the government sprung for all the latest equipment, training, and all the high tech gadgets they could ask for, they were terribly stingy when it came to living quarters. At least for newbie officers. Joseph Moretti, Big Joe to his friends. Despite the constant ribbing, Derrick was definitely counted among those. At just under six and a half feet tall, the hulking brute of a man made an interesting pairing with the relatively diminutive Derrick. (Relatively. he was almost six feet tall himself). The two struck up an unlikely friendship after a particularly nasty day of training, and had maintained it ever since.

“It’s nothing,” Derrick said, “just reading something, that’s all.”

“Fine, don’t tell me. Anyways, you’ll have me out of your hair soon enough.” Derrick noticed a note to his friend’s voice, an agitation covered by his brash entrance. Derrick turned around, to see Joe holding up a slip of paper.

“What’s-?” Derrick started.

“Transfer,” said Joe, “I’m getting shipped the fuck out of here first thing next week.”

“Where?”

“Texas,” he said, “The fucking border division. Technically, I’m getting promoted, or at least on the fucking fast track for it, but man, fuck that place.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Derrick said.

“Tell me about it,” Joe plopped down on his bunk, leaning back against the wall, “What the hell do I know about scanning for some ugly ass drug smugglers humping their asses across the desert.”

It’s me, Derrick realized. It’s because of whatever the hell I stirred up. Come to think of it, his buddy Carlos had been shipped out for duty slightly early, and Elisha’s unit just got selected for an oversees training mission. They were isolating him, moving away his friends and allies. What in the hell had Lisa gotten into?

Derrick looked at the screen, then to Joe. Maybe Lisa was in even deeper crap than he’d realized. Still, did he dare bring anyone else into it? Fuck it, if he couldn’t trust Joe, he might as well give up now.

“All right,” he said, “You want to know what I’ve been reading the past couple days?”

Elizabeth’s masters were unhappy, so therefore she was unhappy. She’d just returned to the main office after a long road trip with the diplomatic teams, helping them shore up the last of their alliances. Many times, Elizabeth had served as a personal incentive, one last sweetener to help close the deal.

Even if some of their tastes sometimes ran to the extremes, Elizabeth hardly minded. Her body was there to be used. And if these men loved the novelty of a fully powered adept at their most intimate beck and call, that’s what she was there for.

That was hardly the only use her masters had for her. Elizabeth’s talent as a scanner were put to the test. These were delicate, delicate operations. Even some of their staunchest allies didn’t realize the full scope of their burgeoning network. The absolute last thing they needed was eavesdroppers, or even random interlopers, to foul up negotiations. That called for some serious counter-surveillance, and Elizabeth’s skills was second to none.

As always, she was proud to contribute to their cause. So if the trip left Elizabeth exhausted, it also left her quite pleased with herself.

That didn’t last long. Upon her return, Elizabeth was quickly reclaimed by Master Hubber, and therefore thrown into the middle of his fruitless investigation. She’d done her best to ease his spirits. That, at least, had been pleasant work. Not that she would ever be dissatisfied with any Brotherhood member that allowed her to service them, but Master Hubber was a particular favorite. Elizabeth did good work, but it wasn’t enough. He wouldn’t be satisfied until the intruder was caught, so neither would she.

They were in the security office again this morning, and she followed three steps behind as he swept through the room barking orders. As usual, there was no good news to be had. None of their agents recognized the mysterious intruder, and the entire search had been nothing but a mess of dead ends. It was like the girl had appeared out of nowhere. Worse, all evidence suggested that she had help from the inside. High level help.

As Master Hubber stopped at yet another desk to hand out orders, Elizabeth looked around. It wasn’t exactly out of boredom, not quite, but at the same time, there was a definite unease. She was here to help her master, but outside of relieving tension there had been nothing for her to contribute.

The cubicle walls were covered with the usual office knickknacks. A few mundane posters, some tacky comics that lacked any sort of humor. Not that she’d ever say so to him. Even a lowly office worker in the Brotherhood was infinitely above her, no matter how poor his taste. The rest of his desk was unkempt and scattered with papers, many with half forgotten notes scribbled along the margins.

The only thing that looked terrible out of place was a large, grainy black and white photograph pinned near his computer’s monitor. Naturally, that was the only thing interesting enough to draw Elizabeth’s attention. It only took her a few seconds to recognize the location. Heck, she even knew which camera it came from. The only curious part was the person in the picture. Hmm ... it didn’t look like anyone from the Brotherhood. Well, maybe a bit like Anne, that cute little slave they’d brought in for training last month, but no, now that she looked at it the jawline was all wrong. Then why did she look so familiar.

No, it couldn’t be.

Could it?

“Lisa?” Elizabeth said. Conversation suddenly ceased, all eyes turning towards her.

“What did you say?” Hubber asked.

Elizabeth told him.

Lisa was being disobedient. She hated it. All she wanted anymore was to be a good little servant for Miss Jessica and Master Conrad, but this was too important to let go. The Brotherhood had to be stopped. No matter how much she wanted to slip away into wonderful obedience, Lisa couldn’t rest until her goal was complete. At the moment, she was painstakingly cross referencing property listings with supply invoices. Personnel assignments and major equipment transfers had been cunningly excised, but they had forgotten about shipments of basic staples. Food, toiletries, cleaning supplies, all of those had to be bought, and they at least gave a picture of how much a building was being used.

There were several anomalies, buildings whose supply use was well below their stated occupancy. By cross referencing gaps in the records of a few critical researchers, Lisa could figure out who was working where. Or at least get an idea. It was tough to be exact. Even so, she was starting to get an idea of where they - crap, Master Conrad was coming, she could hear his footsteps approaching.

Lisa hurried to shut everything down. She didn’t want to be caught slacking again. With the computer closed, Lisa hurried over to the unkempt corner of the room. She’d deliberately kept this one untidy, just so there’d be an excuse if someone came by.

When he came into the room, Lisa immediately turned and curtsied to him. There was no subterfuge in that. Face to face, it was hard to think of anything besides eager obedience. Inside, Lisa cringed at her deception, sure that his piercing eyes would see right through it. The last thing in the world she wanted was to disappoint him. It didn’t help that he was so stunningly gorgeous. If he permitted it, Lisa could have spent hours just kneeling and staring at him.

“How may I serve you, master?” Lisa said.

“Oh, by all means, don’t let me interrupt your work,” he said with a smile. Reluctantly, because it would mean turning and looking away from him, Lisa went back to work dusting the bookshelf. As little as she liked it, there was no real question of disobedience. An order was an order.

It was slow, tedious work. The feather duster was a beautiful accessory to her uniform, but it wasn’t made for efficiency. Lisa was so focused on her job that she didn’t notice Master Conrad’s footsteps until he was right behind her. A little push, and her skirt was flipped up above her behind. Lisa smiled. She loved this part.

He pushed inside her hard and fast, with little in the way of warning or foreplay. That was fine by Lisa, she was already excited enough by his presence, and she’d take him any way he wanted. Lisa braced herself against the shelves, knocking the books onto the floor. No matter, she could clean that later.

“That’s right, take it slut,” said Master Conrad. “You’re nothing but a cock hungry slut, aren’t you?”

“Oh yes,” Lisa cried, only too happy to agree with him as long as he would fuck her. “Give me that big thick cock, Master.”

After a few moments of this, his pace slowed down. He said something else to her, but Lisa couldn’t quite make it out. The room seemed to pull away somehow, and the only thing left in the world was herself and her Master.