Chapter 1: The Road We Are Given

Professor Logan was working late in his office at the college on Friday night. It was raining cats and dogs outside, with even the occasional flash of lighting with the accompanying roll of thunder to rock the windows of his office, when there was a loud knock on his closed office door. It was 9:30pm by the clock on the wall he noted looking over at the wall clock, long after official school hours. By this time the college campus should be dissected, the last night class over at 8pm, everything done for the week, everybody headed out for a long weekend off campus. In fact it was about time for Eddy the regular night watchman to make his rounds and check up on him Professor Logan noted absently.

Paul Logan was a psychology professor at Walker State Junior College, in Alabama. He had started out teaching psychology at the big State U where he had originally graduated. Back then he was considered one of the up and coming new voices of psychology some said, but ten years ago he had a disagreement with the head university administrator at State U at that time. An administrator who was gone from there now too. Paul had been here at WSJC ever since then and liked it for the most part. For one thing there was no demand to stay on the cutting edge of the field. No push to compete for grant money to do new studies. No pressure to publish or perish in the rat race academia had become.

He was 52 years old now, 6 foot 1, 180 pounds, and a confirmed bachelor for a few years now. He thought he was in decent shape for his age and tried to run a lap or two every week or so to prove to himself he still could. He wore thick wire rimmed glasses still, he had tried soft contacts years ago, but couldn’t get used to them. He also still had most of his long curly brown hair and continued to wear it in a now unfashionable ponytail still. The knock was repeated, louder this time and more persistent he noted.

“Enter.” He called out loudly to whoever was out there in the, by this time, dark unlighted hallway. At that point the door opened wide.

“Professor Logan ... Professor Paul Logan?” The girl, well woman by her voice on closer examination, standing in the doorway asked?

Standing outlined in the doorway to his office was a woman just short of 6 foot, with long dark wet stringy hair plastered to her dripping wet face at the moment. A large ugly pair of white plastic eye glasses framed her face, and she was in a bulky clear plastic raincoat that latched up the front. At the moment it was dripping water onto his floor he saw.

“Yes, that’s my name ... what can I do for you Miss? Your not one of my regular students here at the college are you Miss?” He questioned her because her face, from what he could see of it anyway, seemed much older than his regular young college students.

“No Professor ... I ... I was sent here as a ... a ... gift, tee, he, he.” She giggled with a detectable edge of hysteria in her voice for anyone to hear that really listened.

“You say you have a gift for me young lady?” Professor Logan questioned.

“No! ... Yes! Yes, Professor I’m the gift.” She blurted out all at once in a rush of words.

“So your the gift?” Paul had to laugh at that.

“Yes! Professor I’m the gift.” She said again, this time defiantly the Professor noted.

“How did you get here Miss ... you look like your half drowned.” The Professor questioned her.

“I was supposed to have gotten here much earlier, but there were delays Professor. Then the damn Uber driver, who was supposed to wait for me, let me out in front of the building, and left when I turned my back, stranding me here. I then discovered that all the doors were locked, except for this side door which I finally found, tee, he, he.” The almost hysterical giggle was back again the Professor noted. “You have a reputation Professor of working late, so I took the chance of you still being in your office late on Friday night.” She giggled again.

“Maybe you need to take off that wet raincoat and have a seat on the coach out there in the outer office Miss ... Miss...” The Professor directed her.

“Lucy Hale, Professor.” She answered back meekly this time.

“Well Miss Lucy Hale hang your wet raincoat up on that coat rack over there.” He said, pointing to the coat rack in the far corner of the room. Removing the plastic raincoat revealed her light white sheer low-cut sleeveless white blouse displaying a lot of her above average breasts and narrow waist. The short dark brown wrap around skirt she was wearing displayed her narrow hips and long shapely legs well too he acknowledged to himself as he got up and started to work. Her body itself appeared to be dry, though her low heeled shoes were soaked to the bone he observed.

“You have to be chilly in that getup Miss Lucy Hale.” He said over his shoulder as he started to rummaged through some of the filing cabinets against the far wall. Finally he came up with the folded green Army wool blanket he had used at a football game several years ago, and never managed to take back home. Also a couple of big white fluffy cotton towels for the wash room. The college didn’t furnish actual linen, only paper towels which he didn’t like. He even managed to come up with an extra pair of his large Dockers socks and pair of size 13 red tennis shoes. If you wanted towels, or anything else the college administration said, you had to bring your own from home, if you wanted them? He chuckled to himself as he worked.

“You look to be half drowned my dear, and it’s certainly not that warm in here. You may want to cover up and warm yourself.” Paul said, as he poked the armload of folded blanket, towels, and other things he had hunted up at her.

“Wait here and I’ll steal us a couple of cups of hot coffee, or would you prefer coco, and some stale donuts from the cold box in my esteemed colleague’s office. I’m sure he won’t begrudge us a bite on a chilly miserable night like this Miss Lucy Hale. Then we can discuss all this like reasonable adults.” Paul told Lucy as she stood there all goose bumps and shivering in the cold chilly air of his outer office.

“Coco if you have it Professor.” She answered up brightly.

“Coco for you it is then Lucy my girl.” He then hurried off down the hall on his own self-appointed boy scout errand of mercy for wayward waifs caught out on miserable rainy nights like this. In awhile he was back with a loaded stainless steel tray. On the tray were two steaming oversized white mugs and half a dozen glazed donuts along with some other things.

By the time he was back Lucy had hung the raincoat up to dry, taken off her wet shoes and slipped into the oversized pair of socks he had given her, The wool Army blanket was now draped around her as she huddled on the far end of the long tan imitation leather couch in his outer office. At the moment she was working very hard on drying her hair with the towels as her small feet waved in the air out from under the blanket in his large Docker socks.

“Now we were discussing a gift I think you said?” Paul started once again as he sat the tray down on the coffee table, then took his seat before her on the other end of the long coach.

“Yes, Professor. Doctor Raymond Floyd gifted me to you...” She stated again, but the Professor interrupted her.

“Young lady human beings are not “gifted” to other human beings. It’s just not done, even in jest. People are not property that can be “gifted”, young lady. Slavery was abolished years and years ago for one thing. Hell even prostitution the world’s oldest profession, and human trafficking is illegal today. Now what is this really all about ... or is this some kind of a joke at my expense young lady?” Paul addressed her sternly this time.

“Ray, Doctor Raymond Floyd, said you would say that Professor. He said you had great ethics, but very little understanding of basic human nature, or any common sense either for that matter Professor. Your Don Quixote approach to life almost got him kicked out of college and medical school he told me.” She elaborated.

“OH! Yes, yes, I certainly remember young Mister Floyd now. I remember him very well indeed thank you Miss Hale. Brilliant student, near genus actually, but no morals at all. He thought he was perfectly entitled to take advantage of the volunteer test subjects he had charge of simply because they volunteered. There was that one poor girl? The one he convinced with that hypnosis thing he had supposedly developed, that she was a stripper, and ... and, well other things. Her, and the other poor girls involved, in what he called The Experiment, would do all sorts of odd things when someone rang their special bell, or uttered obscure phrases to them. What was her name? ... it was right on the tip of my tongue just a moment ago ... I ... I had it just a second ago ... Hay ... Hall ... Hell ... Hale ... yes, yes, Hale, that was it Hale ... Lucy Hale. Lucy Hale? That’s your name Miss? ... are you related?” Paul asked, concerned now that he suddenly realized the truth of who was sitting right in front of him.

“No Professor, that was me ... still is me I guess ... Ray was able to ... to ... with the hypnosis, and drug he discovered you understand, to get me to sort of follow him when he was forced to leave State U, after the unpleasant stink you made for him there. He is always telling me I was one of the most susceptible and responsive females he has ever met, and he would never let me go. I know what he trained me to do ... to be really ... with the hypnosis Professor. Believe it or not the old ME’s still in here somewhere, ha, ha. She doesn’t much like what I’ve become, but the ME he created loves it all now. At the moment I’m pretty much all the old ME I think. Free will and the other stuff included.” She ran down or paused, it was hard to tell which, at that point.

“I’m terribly sorry Lucy, I honestly thought that you and the other girls were all freed from your ... your ... compulsions by the college’s medical staff after the closed door hearings concluded. I knew the college wanted to avoid the public scandal of what happened to you and the other girls after Mister Floyd’s little Experiment ran wild on campus. Well I guess, victims of Mister Floyd, better describes you and the others better Lucy. There was also the issue of the damage to all your reputations to consider too Miss Hale.”

“Mister Floyd’s lowlife shyster lawyer threatened to make all your names and the videos available to the public news media if we insisted on prosecuting his client criminally. I know it was the hypnosis that made you, and the other girls, do all those ... those things on the VCR tapes. As a Psychologist I know they were all done against your will really, but Mister Floyd’s lowlife shyster lawyer pointed out that all of you had signed waivers, extensive legal waivers to participated in The Experiment.”

“Mister Floyd himself was already demanding his right to a jury trial by his peers if it went any further, and it would have been awful hard to convince the average man or woman on a jury that the sex on those VCR tapes was involuntary after watching them Miss Hale. I thought the deal we made was in the best interest of everyone involved Miss Hale ... Lucy.” Paul paused, very red faced, and looked at her inquiringly.

“I don’t blame you for anything that happened back then Professor.” Lucy started. “When you discovered how we were being used and abused, ha, ha, you didn’t take advantage of us like most of the Psychology Department did, tee, he, he. Even some of the female teachers in the Department took advantage it turned out, tee, he, he.” Lucy laughed, but Paul could tell it was forced.

“At the time you discovered what was being done to us it was just the Department itself, but Doctor Warren, that pig, and Ray too I’m afraid, intended to ... to ... to pimp us out to some of the bigger fraternities and the jocks on campus. It wasn’t the students so much as the older alumni and the big money donors and sponsors of the college you have to realize. Their plans, well Doctor Warren’s plans really, kept getting bigger and bigger, more grandiose as time went on. Doctor Warren and Ray actually had plans for some of the sororities themselves. If you hadn’t interfered when you did Professor a lot more women would have been hurt, tee, he, he.” Lucy told Paul what she knew.

“In the end a deal ... a “plea bargain” it was called, was worked out by me and the college’s Human Resources Department.” Paul, the Professor, started to explain to Lucy what had been done.

“Mister Floyd signed a sealed confession that the college held to make sure he complied with the agreement. Mister Floyd was supposed to have removed all the compulsions from you, and the other volunteer subjects had been given. All the ... the ... the sex video tapes were supposed to be turned over to the college and destroyed, and the college agreed to provide counseling and medical treatment for all of you that participated in The Experiment.”

“The Experiment you were part of was actually sanctioned by the head of the college’s Psychology Department, Doctor Jones. There was even reason to believe the head college administrator himself, Doctor Warren, participated personally in the Experiment. Though I admit none of the tapes we had confirmed that, but the rumor still persisted on campus that there were other VCR tapes you understand, but there was nothing else I could do, and I was soon forced out of State U.” The Professor looked embarrassed as he paused this time.

“Doctor Warren, the head college administrator, wanted me blamed and fired as his scapegoat after I turned whistleblower on what he had allowed to happen in The Experiment. He claimed I was responsible for the lack of supervision, but all the paperwork showed it was his project, his responsibility from start to finish. I had nothing to do with The Experiment at all. I just had the bad misfortune to accidentally stumble into the middle of it and discover it was going on in the Department. I had no ideal how to stop it when I discovered it so I reported it to the proper authorities.”

“Luckily that was our own Campus Security staff, Tom Snider, head of our Campus Security. He had experience, as a former State Trooper and ABI Agent, with the more brutal aspects of prostitution and human sex trafficking. After his fast low key investigation he was all for turning it over to the FBI and federal prosecutors, but somebody higher up the state chain of command interceded for the university at state law enforcement level, and blocked the notification of the feds. They also blocked the arrests and prosecutions because of the scandal it would have created for the university I was told latter.”

“Finally Doctor Warren was forced to resign, but I was forced out too. No good deed ever goes unpunished you know, ha, ha. I was a constant thorn in the side of the university, an embarrassment to the college as long as I stayed there in the psychology department it seemed. I guess now I was too trusting of the college to do the right thing. I should have followed up on you and the other girls myself, but I was assured by the college itself and medical staff personnel that you and the other girls were OK.” Paul told her honestly.

“It wasn’t your fault Professor the medical staff personnel truly did try to deprogram us. They may have even succeeded with the other girls, I have to hope so, but me ... well my other self anyway ... was too deeply programed to be helped. In fact I unluckily found out it didn’t want help. Even if you had found me back then Professor, by then I would have just told you I was fine. I was programed that way, tee, he, he.” Lucy giggled again.

“So explain to me Lucy why your really here now, that was some ten years ago? And call me Paul. I feel ancient when you still continue to call me Professor.” Paul sat back in his end of the couch to listen to her story.

“We, Ray and me, left the East Coast here after the issue you made of Ray’s Experiment at State U, If you check the records now Prof ... Paul you’ll find that everything was deleted in the file, well they call it redacted. They just take a big black felt marking pen and mark over it. There’s no record now that me, or Ray, or the other girls for that matter, were ever at the university, ha, ha.” She started explaining.

“We, Ray and me, finally wound up in Phoenix, Arizona where he became a medical doctor, and finally specialized in Clinical Psychiatry after his residency was over. The Army recruited him Pro ... Paul, for work on some of the experiments he was proposing to the different secret covert arms of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Defense Department, NSA, CIA, and other domestic agencies that are nothing but alphabet letters. They call them feasibility studies of viability Professor. You outline the project, the result you expect, then fill in the budget amount needed to prove your theory.”

“It seems that the agencies, especially the clandestine covert agencies, always have to have undercover agents, ha, ha. It also seems that one or other of the different clandestine covert agencies are always trying to make their own undercover agents either more resistant to the current brainwashing techniques, or developing new ways to extract information from captured agents. I don’t think some of the ... the volunteers, for the lack of a better word for them ... agents actually realize what they are really volunteering for, or what they came out of the program as Paul. The end result of Ray’s process was a very patriotic agent that follows any order when activated. Some times there is very little difference between a very patriotic agent and a sex slave I found out...” Paul butted in.

“Miss Hale I would think that...” Paul started and was cut off by Lucy.

“What if you were convinced by your commanding officer, that as part of your cover in your undercover assignment ... an assignment that you were volunteering for remember ... might require you to perform acts that you might ... well certainly would consider, I think the term they used was “Morally Reprehensible” Professor. That as part of the assignment you might at some point be required to have sex, among other objectionable things, to gain their trust. To help you with these issues and your cover they could hypnotize ... program you and implant your cover story deep in your brain. In the end quote unquote...”You Wouldn’t Just Believe Your Cover ... You Would Become Your Cover”.” Lucy paused and looked at the Professor searchingly for a while before continuing her story.

“Heck they could even make it where you didn’t even have to remember those “Objectionable Things” you had to do for God and Country after your assignment was over. That they could make it where you just forgot all those bad things you had to do after you made your report. Of course this would only be done if you volunteered to submit to the hypnosis and other things. After all it was your decision, wasn’t it?, ha, ha...” Lucy looked at Paul searchingly again, then went on.

“Think about it Paul, she, the agent, has consciously agreed to have sex on demand. Her conscious mind has agreed to this Paul. Not subconsciously because of the hypnosis Paul, consciously. When the role she’s playing requires it she will have sex on demand. From there it’s easy for her superiors, with the help of hypnosis, and her active suggestible subconscious, to corrupt her loyal patriotic duty into other things.” Lucy laughed at the shocked look of distaste on Paul’s face.

“Believe it or not Paul, I was Ray’s personal walking talking prime sample of what he could do with any female. He bragged about how easy it was to turn any female into what I had ... I guess I have become. He used to enjoy showing them, his select clientele, how well I was trained as a courtesan ... that’s just fancy language for a prostitute Professor. I was really just a whore ... well his personal well trained and educated whore anyway. A whore that would do anything he told me to do and love it all.”

“After his little demonstrations of how well I was trained for his colleagues and potential customers pleasure he would wake me up. The ME that had just been used and humiliated like that, knowing that I ... ME ... had been used ... used ... used like a whore, remembering it all. I actually wanted to attack him, to kill him, well at first anyway, but I couldn’t, my programing wouldn’t allow it. I was too well trained for that. All I could do was stand there and impotently rave at him very vocally, and finally breakdown and cry. Which they all thought was extremely funny.” She paused to take a drink of the hot coco Paul had brought back at that point.

“Help yourself to a donut Lucy. There’s even more cream and sugar for your coco if you want it.” Paul urged her, but she continued.

“By this time I was Ray’s personal assistant, confidant, secretary, chief cook and bottle washer, and cheap fuck when he wanted me, I traveled everywhere with him, did everything with him, heard everything that was discussed with him. I know everything Professor. I even admit the sex was good with Ray by then, but that might only be true because of the hypnosis you understand Professor. It’s hard to be discriminating and entirely subjective about the sex when you know you have a trigger to have a long satisfying orgasm on command. One little word and you have the best orgasm you can imagine. Of course you also know that wasn’t the only thing he programed into me, or my only trigger, tee, he, he.” She giggled almost uncontrollably again.

“He had also made several others just like me by that time. We were all sort of like fancy party favors, or samples of what Ray could produce. Samples that Ray gave away, no, no, that’s untrue, Ray never gave away any of his personal toys to his friends or business associates, but he did loan us out, tee, he, he. His latest new boy toy was a female Army First Lieutenant that thought she was part of the people actually running the project they were working on at the time she met Ray. She was a top West Point graduate, head of her class in fact, and a real piece of work Professor. Extremely intelligent, some of her classmates described her as a cold hearted ruthless bitch. Very beautiful on the outside, but as cold as a fish on the inside, tee, he, he.” Lucy laughed at the memory.

“As the Brigadier General that ran the show at that time said to Ray privately, she had all the compassion and empathy of a Great White Shark smelling blood in the water. She actually treated the other female recruits under her command worse than any of the men did, if that was even possible, ha, ha. When Ray interviewed her he discovered that she was very susceptible to hypnosis, almost as susceptible as me, ha, ha. He offered her to the General as a sex toy and the General accepted.” She explained.

“With Ray’s hypnosis process and his drug, that he perfected with me back at State U, there are actually two different personalities created. The original, and the hypnotized version that is awakened by the hypnotist’s trigger. I guess you could describe them as a split-personality. In my case I know everything that either of us does. We’re both aware of each other. I just can’t do anything about it when she takes over and makes me say and do things I don’t want to do. In the Lieutenant’s case she doesn’t know about the other personality, but the other personality sure knows about her. She was the General’s personal assistant for awhile, but the General’s wife found out about her somehow and put up a fuss. So now she’s TDDY, temporary detached duty, assigned to monitor Ray’s latest project. The General still visits her regularly and fucks her.” Lucy paused to drink more coco then continued.

“Ray offered to do the Brigadier’s wife the same way he did me and Natlee, that’s the Lieutenant’s name, but it turns out she’s the daughter of a four star Army general and the Brigadier doesn’t want to screw up his career path if something were to go wrong...” Lucy paused and Paul put in his snide commit at that moment.

“I’m surprised that the Brigadier could resist another sex slave?” Paul added out loud without thinking.

“Ray was surprised too Professor.” Lucy answered back with a knowing smirk. “Then Bert, that was the Brigadier’s name, explained that Linda, that was his wife’s name, was the apple of her father’s eye. The focus of the four star’s entire life now it seemed since her mother had died 3 years before of cancer. Daddy simply doted on Linda now it seemed. Since she practically lived at Daddy’s estate out in the county now, Daddy was bound to notice the changes Ray would make in her, Bert told Master.” Lucy explained.

“While Linda wasn’t exactly frigid, she only allowed Bert sex with her in the missionary position when she wanted it, ha, ha, and that wasn’t very often, ha, ha. She had become even more bossy since her mother died, ha, ha. Ray laughed and told Bert that wasn’t a problem, he could turn her into a real Daddy’s Little Darling, and have her seduce her father for him. You could tell that pig Bert thought about it, thought about it real hard, but in the end he was too damn chicken to do it, ha, ha.” Lucy laughed at the memory of Bert turning Ray’s offer down.

“Anyway Ray says that THEY, even he doesn’t know who THEY are really, have decided to clean up all their lose ends on these covert projects. Get rid of all the people that know too much, and have developed diarrhea of the mouth while talking to the press and selling their book deals. It seems that several people close to the sitting President are telling tales out of school about the special projects they know about. Why do these assholes have to publish their personal memoirs and giveaway all these state secretes Paul?” Lucy asked Paul and then paused before going on.

“Anyway they have to go before the next election it seems. Ray noticed a pattern of “unnatural deaths” and “bazaar accidents” that were anything but natural he says. He notified some of his compatriots and business associates, now they’re all mostly gone or dead now too. Me, him, and Lieutenant Natlee are the only ones left it seems. Ray says there’s no running or bargaining with these people Paul. THEY have no mercy.”

“And yes, he tried to go public with it, reasoning that if everyone knew the secret it wouldn’t be a secret any longer, ha, ha. But the legitimate press won’t report it ... won’t even listen to it, ha, ha. So like the Mafia him and Natlee have gone to the mattress on his estate in West Virginia. The place is a mine field that it would take a small army to breach, but then he figures THEY have a small army, tee, he, he.” She was back to that almost hysterical giggling again Paul noticed.

“Now your asking yourself, why me? Why her? Why any of this? Right Professor? Well the truth of the matter is he did come to ... to ... to love me he said when he had to face that we all might ... probably would ... die. No it didn’t start out that way. He really was as you said at the beginning ... at the hearings ... he was a, “self-absorbed entitled elitist yuppie bastard that thought about nobody but himself. He really didn’t seem to care about the harm he did to others. He had never wanted for anything in his entire life. Never had to really work for anything. It was all given to him on a silver platter, ha, ha...” The Professor broke in at that point.

“Are you sure that was all?” Paul asked her.

“OK, Professor I don’t delude myself, I admit it might also have been pride of ownership too ... I was like a prized possession ... a rare expensive watch ... a prize winning dog ... or a full blooded race hoarse ... or a rare art object, but whatever, in the end he wanted to save me if he could. That has to count for something Professor?” She almost sobbed, then was back to being defiant.

“Of course there was also the fact that he honestly hated your guts Professor, tee, he, he.” She giggled almost uncontrollably again. “He contended to me and Natlee that your high and mighty ethics. Especially your self-righteous tiresome moralizing of right vs. wrong. Your better than thou goodie two shoes approach to life was only for people like you that couldn’t do what he could do. If you could have done what he could do, you would have done just what he did, tee, he, he.” Lucy was giggling uncontrollably now.

“Yes, Lucy, now that certainly sounds like the Raymond Floyd I got to know from 10 years ago. It’s only natural for a real man to want to fuck anything available if you could. Only right to take everything you could, if you were smart enough to take it, and strong enough hold on to it. Sort of a revival of the “Might Makes Right Theory Of Life” with Raymond. Well it was sort of “Brains Over Brawn” I guess with Raymond Lucy, ha, ha.” Paul huffed back angrily.

“Giving me to you to protect was sort of a ultimate test ... maybe challenge is a better fit, for you Professor. Of course there was also a revenge element added to the challenge Professor, ha, ha. Ray said that the only way you could survive this and save me, save us both for that matter, was to become like him, ha, ha. That was his ultimate revenge on you Professor. To survive and save me, to save us both, you would have to become just like him, tee, he, he.” Lucy giggled almost out of control.

“Yes, now that certainly sounds like the Raymond I remember so well.” Paul conceded.