Chapter 7

A rather attractive woman who looked to be in her early thirties approached her after the guys were done. She looked over at me as she stood towering over Danielle. I nodded and the woman pulled her skirt up and pushed her pussy into Danielle’s face. Danielle didn’t miss a beat. Supporting herself with one hand, she used the other hand and her mouth to pleasure the woman. The woman was talking on her com unit, and a couple minutes later, a boy that looked to be twelve or thirteen showed up and watched the scene. It quickly became evident that the woman was the boy’s mother as she instructed him in the bare (pun intended) essentials of sex. A minute later, the boy was behind Danielle, pants unzipped, fumbling around trying to fuck her.

Using the hand she’d been using on the woman, Danielle reached behind herself and guided the boy into her. I could tell from the surprised look on his face that this was his first time. Danielle thrust back against the boy and seconds later, he grunted and pressed himself as deeply into Danielle as he could. Mother Nature taught him what nobody else had to this point. Danielle turned her attention back to the mother as the boy got up and walked back to his mother. Danielle pulled the boy over and sucked him back to full hardness and said something quietly to him, obviously telling him to go again. Both mother and son came at almost the same time, and then Danielle laid down on the floor to rest. I had Renee help her to the restroom to clean up and dress.

Mother and son approached me. “I think my son is smitten with your slave. I was going to introduce him to the pleasures of the bedroom tonight and stopped by to get a couple of things to help. Then, this opportunity presented itself. Thank you.” When they left, I called James. I’d seen how much the ladies were loading onto the store’s grav sleds and knew it wouldn’t fit in the shuttles. The owner gave me permission to use one of the loading bays on the roof, so I transmitted the coordinates to James, asking him to send a freighter and to load a two-person shuttle on the freighter for me to use to get home. This shopping trip was definitely going to take longer than I had anticipated, and Stan and I had interviews to do.

Renee and Danielle made their way back to me. I gave Danielle a bottle of EB that I just bought from a cold drink dispenser in the shop. “Ohmigod that was so hot,” she gasped. “It was almost like getting raped. And when that boy used me...” she sighed happily. “I even got his cherry,” she giggled.

“Glad to be of service,” I teased. I explained that I had to get going since Stan had scheduled some special interviews this afternoon and evening. I also explained that one of our freighters would be on the roof to hold their purchases. They should have two of the “guys” fly the shuttles to the roof, too. Then I made Renee’s day. I told her that since they were spending the day shopping in Paris, I expected every one of them to get two formal dresses, two elegant party dresses, and whatever other clothing they felt they might need for school, everyday wear, and whatever. They should check out what was available here at the store, and “perhaps” run through the fashion district here and then in New York on their way home. I also asked her to supervise the purchase of clothing for the “guys” for when they were in public, including a tux, a regular suit, dress slacks, dress shirts, and regular work jeans and shirts. Both ladies kissed me goodbye and then pouted when I removed their leashes. Kyle manned the cargo sled at the first floor entrance to the elevator shaft and took me up to the roof.

Twenty minutes later, I was back inside my lab. Gathering the things I wanted to take with me to the interviews, I had James assign another dozen “guys” to go with us for security. Stan had set up eight meetings. The first was in town with the top three women of the group. If they felt it was legitimate, we would meet next in Los Angeles, then Lima, Lagos, Tehran, Warsaw, Bangkok, and finally Peking. I thought about the all-female special forces teams and decided that even if we didn’t get all or even most of them, if we could get a few of them we could improvise. I called Richardson Robots, the android factory in town and put in an order for twelve dozen female androids. I asked specifically to have them modified so they were all different. Most androids had the same body shape and size with only differing facial features to distinguish them. I asked to have the heights vary from 5’6” to 6’. I wanted every different skin color included, and didn’t want uniform “C” cup breasts, choosing to have half with a slightly smaller cup size (bigger boobs would have been more of a problem for warrior androids). I also ordered hair colors and styles to differ since most androids had blonde hair. I knew he’d have to import a lot of them from factories in countries already producing androids with different ethnic features, but felt it was better for him to deal with everyone than me. I offered an additional twenty percent for every one delivered in twenty-four hours or less.

Then I ordered twelve dozen used male and twenty-four dozen used female androids from each of two different companies that acted as major clearinghouses in the states. One was in Atlanta and one in San Francisco. I was killing two birds with one stone here. I wanted more help available if we needed to use the weapons we would build, and with this many used androids from both coasts, I was hoping to find out a lot more about the people doing the spying. I also ordered two dozen used male and two dozen used female androids from each of twelve different clearinghouses across the globe in countries that would provide a thorough mixture of ethnic looks. I warned James to expect them, and asked him to have the androids remaining here start making a thousand android matrices and to fill as many as they could. The androids would all need to be processed the usual way when they got here.

Finally, I spent an hour and jury-rigged something I’d been thinking about trying. I took a power supply and cloaking hardware from the shipment and made a crude control box for it. When I put it all together and tested it, it actually worked. With the rheostat on the control box, I could make a shield just a few feet across, or increase it to over a hundred feet. I borrowed James and fitted him for a temporary harness out of cargo straps, then ran it inside and had a couple of the domestic androids stitch it together securely. Again, James was a great mannequin and test dummy. There were a couple of alterations I could see that I wanted to make on the harness, but it would work for now. The hardware weighed in at roughly two hundred pounds, a prohibitive weight for a person, but only the equivalent of a twenty-pound load to an android. Hell, this was lighter to James than the backpack I used for my college texts when I was ten. At James’ suggestion, I added a second rheostat to the control box. The original one was the primary control and would rapidly adjust the size of the field. It was, however, difficult to make fine adjustments. The second rheostat made the fine adjustments after the main one was adjusted. At the lowest setting for the main rheostat, the field could be adjusted from one foot to ten feet, perfect for what I wanted tonight.

When Stan came looking for me I showed him my new portable shield. I figured that after we upgraded it like we would the shuttles, it would shield and cloak a Special Forces team until they were in position. I also told him about my orders for androids and that I was planning to train most of them for combat. Some I’d train to any crew-served weapons we came up with, and the females I’d use to supplement or replace the Special Forces troops if we couldn’t get them all.

Stan and I arrived at my place half an hour early, along with android Fred who was wearing the harness. I noticed that there were already three freighters on the other roof unloading used androids. Adam was meticulously checking each one to make sure it was turned off before allowing the sled to be loaded on the freighter. “Looks like you guys will be busy for a while,” I chuckled to Fred.

“Mike,” Fred started, his tone of voice telling that he had something serious on his mind. “What happens if one of us is destroyed in a fight?” His question was so innocent, so childlike. Yet, it was electrifying. It was at this moment, the point where he expressed a fear of or concern about death, that Fred officially became a sentient being. The thought sent chills through my body, but I forced my attention away from what had been accomplished and towards what had been asked.

“I honestly don’t know, Fred. I mean, I don’t even know what happens when I die. For a couple of centuries, scientists have felt that that the odds of life just happening and then evolving so rapidly to the point we’re at now and then stopping is a mathematical impossibility unless the process was guided or helped along by a greater power. I believe there is a God, but there are so many conflicting religions that I don’t know which to believe. One religion believes that when we die, we simply cease to exist. Others believe that our spirit leaves our body and goes somewhere else when we die. There are lots of versions of where one’s spirit would go based on the religion’s definitions of right and wrong. Another religion believes that our spirit is reborn again in another form after we die. What happens to you is even more of a mystery. Do you have a soul? I don’t know Fred, and there is no experiment I can do to find out. What I can do is to give each of you going into battle a media cube. You can store your personal experiences and personality on it. If anything happens to you, we could put that into another body.”

Fred didn’t say anything right away, but I could tell he was thinking. “That might work,” he said finally, the hope in his voice discernable.

We left the shuttle open, knowing that our three guests would check inside for a trap before coming downstairs. I was pretty sure they’d been watching us arrive and had seen Stan go straight inside, alone. Fred and I were cloaked, our cocoon of stealth verified by Stan when he turned and swept the rooftop with his eyes pretending to be looking around. If we’d been noticeable, he would have told us. Fred and I finally went inside and picked an out-of-the-way corner to wait for our guests. Craig was also waiting inside. Fred smiled when I rolled my eyes. “Who’s on the roof, David?” I asked.

“No, Doug,” he laughed.

Craig, Fred, and I waited, cloaked, in the corner. Precisely on time, the three women arrived. Expecting the possibility of trouble, only one entered and surveyed the room, then thoroughly checked the other rooms for bugs and people. Only when she was satisfied that it was clear did she go back up and bring the other two back with her. Stan sat patiently the whole time, understanding what they were doing and why. When they finally sat down, he began his explanation. He told them we were looking for the best security force available. They would be responsible for training additional troops, and for at least one major rescue, probably many more. When pressed he told them that the rescue was of one hundred fifty-eight UN troops held captive by pirates. As I expected, they wanted to know why we didn’t just let the UN handle it.

“Two reasons,” Stan said. “First, we can’t possibly tell them. If we did, we’d have to explain how we got the information. That could be ... embarrassing.”

“And the other reason?” the brunette, who seemed to be the leader, asked.

“Who would they send in to rescue them?” Stan asked.

“Grudner,” all three women answered almost simultaneously, and then chuckled at some private joke.

“So, is the person we’ll be working for the obvious one?” she asked.

“Yes, but if you hadn’t at least figured out who he was he wouldn’t have agreed to hire you,” Stan answered, grinning. I’d told him that if they didn’t figure out who I was by at least finding out who owned the place where they were meeting us, I didn’t want to hire them.

“So, when do we get to meet the mysterious Doctor?” the youngest (looking) of the three asked.

All three women practically jumped and turned towards the door to the roof when Stan asked “How about right now?” They jumped again when I started laughing at them, albeit sans cloaking.

“What...?” the leader asked.

“Portable battlefield cloaking and shielding,” I commented nonchalantly. All three ladies hurried over to examine the device.

The Oriental looking woman tried hefting it. “Shit, it weighs a ton,” she complained.

“Two hundred pounds,” I corrected.

“How are we supposed to lug that around for very long?” the leader asked.

“You don’t. You have an android carry it.”

This time the ladies were staring at Fred. “Can’t be, he moves too naturally,” she challenged. I had Fred take the harness off and lift it with one finger.

“How?” she asked again.

“Just one of my many secrets. Imagine a company of mixed human and android troops. One of these portable shields can shield an area as small as one individual or up to a thousand feet square. You could use multiple small shields and shield groups of eight to ten. To train the androids all you have to do is show them something and have them do it correctly once. They don’t forget. Train ten of them for a day, each in a different topic. At the end of the day, they download their training to a main computer and all the androids upload it. Suddenly, they all know everything you taught those ten today. They are faster, stronger, and their senses are amazing.”

“Damn, that’s a scary thought,” the youngest woman commented.

“Why are you doing this?” The leader asked suspiciously. I explained about Vonna, her sister, and mother, and about the developments from then to the present. Then I explained about my hope to bring attention to the way the concubine laws were abused and stop as many of the abusers as I could.

“You’ll definitely need an army, then, a big one.” she commented. Seeing the confused look on my face she explained, “The Russian Mafia is behind that. They traffic sex slaves of all ages and all sexes. If you try to stop it, they’ll try to stop you. It will end up being a battle between you and them. Count me in. I want to be a part of anything trying to stop the Russians.”

“You just don’t want Grudner trying to rescue the captives,” the Oriental woman teased.

“By the way, I’m obviously Mike Miller,” I said, introducing myself.

“I recognize you. I’m Gwen Ruiz, used to be Colonel Ruiz.” Motioning towards the Oriental woman, she said, “That’s Stephanie Cho, formerly Major Cho, and Robin Martel, formerly Major Martel.”

“Welcome, ladies, Fred was wearing the shield, and Craig stays here and monitors the place. Doug is on the roof next door and lets us know when supplies arrive. We use the roof next door as a staging area and then have our two freighters shuttle cargo to the estate.”

“It must be some estate if you need freighters to bring in supplies,” Robin commented.

“You won’t believe it until you see it,” Stan laughed.

We headed for the roof. Each woman spoke only one word into her com and looked expectantly to the sky. Shortly, three shuttles approached and landed. The women in each shuttle debarked sheepishly.

“Aaaaahhhhh, the reinforcements, welcome ladies,” I offered making a sweeping bowing motion. Gwen introduced them as the seven squad leaders, Dayo, Claudia, Lan, Amala, Savina, Naila, and Marisa. They wanted to see where they’d be training so I programmed the coordinates and a password into their shuttles. I noticed them watching the rooftop we used for freight as a cargo ship was unloaded and then reloaded into one of ours.

“Holy shit,” Stephanie commented several minutes later when they piled out of their shuttles. The ten women looked around incredulously.

“I didn’t even know this place existed,” Gwen gasped.

“What is it?” Stephanie asked. I told them the base’s history, watching as their eyes widened the more they heard. James met us and showed them a holographic image of the layout of both bases, including the underground tunnels and weapons we found. Finally, they grudgingly agreed that we needed to get going to Mexico City for the next interview.

Claudia made the introductions to the seven women in Mexico City that showed up for the interview. Fifteen minutes later, she and the seven women, as well as Stan, were on one of the newly modified shuttles headed to the estate and the rest of us were on the way to Lima where Marisa made the introductions to the eight women remaining from her squad. Shortly, they were on the way to the estate to join Claudia and her squad and we were headed to Lagos to meet Dayo’s squad. All nine of her squad were there and agreed to join us, as did the nine members of Naila’s squad in Tehran.

We didn’t fare as well in Warsaw with Savina’s squad. Only five of her squad showed up. One of the girls, Kateryna, seemed off somehow to me. All the other girls had been suspicious of me, but Kateryna was afraid. I could smell it. To all outward appearances, she was perfectly normal, but to my heightened senses, I could see the tiny nervous twitches and reactions. I stopped Savina before she boarded the shuttle and told her. I had Fred com the pilot and tell him to use a level six cloak on the shuttle and block any and all types of radio transmissions in or out. Then I commed Kevin at the estate and told him to block and get a fix on any unknown transmissions.

I told the six remaining women my observations on the way to Tehran. I also told them that there had been a chemical smell around her, one I couldn’t identify. “She’s doped” Robin commented to a murmur of agreement from the others.

“You mean she’s using drugs?” I asked. Robin explained that there were a number of chemical cocktails a person could take if they were concerned that they might be captured and given drugs to force them to truthfully answer questions they were asked. The cocktail would allow the physical side effects of the truth-inducing drug such as a lack of coordination, slurred speech, or sleepiness, but would allow the mind to stay completely drug-free.

I called and talked to Greg about the doping. He knew of the practice and explained that the doping usually wore off after six to eight hours depending on the person’s metabolism. “So, we wait eight hours and question her ourselves?” I asked the women.

“No need, we know who she’s working for,” Robin said tersely. “She brought us an employment offer that seemed too good to be true. It was double what we could make on our own. Turns out it would have been working for the Russian Mafia as their enforcers. She was pretty upset when we turned the offer down.” Everyone else was nodding in agreement.

“So, now what?” I asked.

Gwen spoke up. “It won’t be pretty. We take a very dim view of anyone turning on us or trying to harm any member of our team, especially one of our own.”

“If I could make a suggestion?” I asked. Gwen motioned to me to go ahead. “Fred, can you imitate Kateryna’s voice?” His imitation was perfect.

“I suggest having two of the male androids cloak and watch her, literally, all night. Their observations of her mannerisms and the way she moves could be programmed, along with Kateryna’s voice, into an android created to look just like her. We drug her tomorrow evening and extract the whole story from her, along with contacts, protocols, and passwords. Then we let the android report to whomever she’s supposed to report to and tell them what we want them to know. If she makes com or computer contact, I’ll include a little something to help us keep track of them.

“They’ll spot any attempt to hack into their system or any virus or worm you send,” Stephanie warned.

“Do the Russians use new equipment or old equipment?” I asked.

“They always have the newest equipment. In fact, by next week, they’ll probably have all new computers with your newest invention in them,” Gwen answered, almost bitterly.

I smiled. “That’s even better. The operating system for any computer built in the last six years has a back door I can use to get in. Nobody will ever know I was there. I can download any information from every computer connected to their entire network and they’ll never be aware of it. That way we’ll know everybody in their organization, where they are, how many troops they have, what they’re doing, and anything else we need to know.”

There was a brief moment of stunned silence while they digested that information. “I’m glad we’re on your side,” Gwen commented.

“No shit” Robin agreed. I had Fred contact the estate to appoint two cloaked observers for Kateryna. He assigned the duty to Kevin and Scott, relaying her image so they knew who to watch.

All nine of Naila’s team were there and joined us. Amala’s team in Bangkok, as well as Lan’s team in Shanghai were each missing two members and were shuttled to the estate. It was pretty disorienting shuttling through the day backwards, through the sunrise to arrive at the estate just before dinner time the day before. There were two excited, albeit somewhat confused groups waiting for us. I made the group introductions, introducing the troops to my women, explaining that the troops were here to help protect everyone. To the troops, I explained that the women were all here voluntarily, seeking protection from what we would be fighting. The troops relaxed when I explained that the ladies were free to leave any time they wanted and were free to lead their own life in the meantime. All I asked was that they worked or attended school, which I would pay for.

Everyone retired inside for dinner, although several of the women had already eaten at some earlier point today, yesterday, or tomorrow. I was disoriented enough that I wasn’t sure. I announced that anyone with special dietary requests was free to talk to one of the domestic androids and we would make every effort to accommodate their needs. The seating arrangement was interesting.

We now had three times as many tables as before, and the women arranged it so each squad was surrounded by civilians so the squads could talk freely and ask them any questions they wanted. Vonna warned me that there were plans for after dinner. I told her that I needed an hour or so first to do a couple of things. The three leaders were amused by Penny’s constant attention to me. Renee explained that Penny had been following me around ever since her firsting. The women all grinned knowingly.

Near the end of dinner, I announced that I’d been warned there were plans for the evening, and that my presence was required. That drew enough giddy laughter that I knew something was afoot. I promised to be there, but it would be an hour or so because I needed to make sure our new guests were settled in first.

I offered the troops a choice of staying in the estate or the barracks. They decided on the estate for tonight, and would look around tomorrow before making a final decision. I had one of the domestic androids show our new guests the facilities, including the massage room and beauty parlor. While they were getting settled, I had Stan, Greg, and James accompany the three leaders and me on a private tour. Once inside my lab, I explained in much greater detail just what we had available.