Chapter 8

Artemis arrived at the Texas A&M dorms before dawn. Six of the dorm buildings were arranged in a rectangle as two Us consisting of three buildings each facing each other with an open quad in the middle. The rectangle ran southwest to northeast. She knew that her target, being a freshman was most likely in one of the six dorms on the quad. She considered her options. The two buildings on the northeast side offered the best concealment for access to and escape from the roof. She settled on the northern most building.

She approached the building cautiously. Once against the back wall, she drew a special arrow from her quiver. The arrow was constructed from materials that were both very strong and very light. The head of the arrow was a collapsible grappling hook with a 4 inch radius when expanded. Attached to the arrow was a reel of what looked like light weight fishing line. It was however strong enough to support around 600 pounds. The reel contained almost a 1000 feet of line and had a built in electric winch. The exposed end of the line was also attached to the arrow.

She removed the reel from the arrow and attached it to her bow. She hit a button on the reel which disengaged the winch. She pulled out a few feet of line, then fired the arrow up and at an angle that would take it over the roof of the building. When the arrow reached the apex of it’s arc it fell back down onto the roof. The grappling hook opened on impact.

She pressed a second button on the reel. The winch engaged and began pulling in the line until all the slack was taken out of the line and the tension on the line was equal to her weight. When the winch stopped she gave her bow a couple of tugs to make sure everything was secure, then started the winch again at full power. The winch slowly pulled her up to the roof.

Once on the roof, she reset the controls on the reel to allow line to play out at a controlled speed and removed it from her bow, setting it down at the edge of the roof. Her exit plan was that once she had a panic going in the quad, she would come back to this side of the roof, reattach the reel to her bow and jump off the roof.

She hunkered down at the edge of the roof facing the quad, confident that no one would look up enough to spot her, and waited for her target to appear in the quad.

Valarie slowly came to. Her entire body was sore and covered in scars from months of torture and abuse. She was lying on a dirt floor and the light was dim. She was in some kind of pit or enclosure, the space was around 50 feet by 25 feet and was surrounded by a poured concrete wall about 15 feet high, with a larger space of some kind above the enclosure. She could make out cameras around the top of the wall.

She was lying on one end of the enclosure, above her head, around 4 feet off the floor was a lever, another foot above that was a red light. Above the light, around 8 feet off the floor was a shower head.

On the opposite end of the enclosure was a 4 foot by 4 foot steel door that was attached to tracks on either side and a winch on the top of the wall. Something on the other side of that door roared.

Valarie stood up.

Lights came on somewhere above the top of the enclosure. A male voice began to speak, but she couldn’t see the speaker.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the cunt in the pit has graciously volunteered to risk life and limb for your amusement. Behind the steel door is a male Siberian tiger. Eventually, the cunt herself will open the door, releasing the tiger into the pit.”

“However, before that happens you have a decision to make. Rather than water, there are two four gallon reservoirs that contain liquid scents. One is the scent of the tiger’s natural prey, and the other is the scent of a female tiger in heat. In a minute you will be asked to vote on which of those two scents should be fed to the shower head. Once all votes have been cast, the appropriate scent will be released into the pipes flowing to the shower head and the light below it will turn green.”

“When the light turns green, the cunt will pull the lever, dowsing itself in the selected scent, and after a 30 second delay, opening the door to release the tiger. The cunt herself will have no way of knowing which scent was selected. However if you decide to give her the tigress in heat scent, and she isn’t cooperative, the beast may kill her anyway.”

“Please begin voting now.”

Valarie stood calmly awaiting her fate. As the minutes ticked by, she began to get aroused. She didn’t know if she was going to be sex or dinner, but either way, her audience would enjoy the show.

Finally, the light turned green. She pulled the lever and she was doused in the strong odor of urine.

The door at the far end began to rise. She moved out away from the wall and knelt to wait for her fate.

The tiger burst into the enclosure, roaring. It stopped, sniffing the air. It’s nostrils flared and it looked at Valarie.

The beast stalked deliberately towards her. It circled her. Then it was face to face with her. It roared.

Valarie trembled. She knew that the only hope, no matter how small it was that she had to survive this lay in total cooperation and total submission to this animal; no matter what her fate. She lifted her chin, exposing her throat to the tiger.

The tiger turned it’s head sideways and placed it’s jaws around her neck.

Valarie felt the fangs of the tiger press into her neck and she expected it to rip out her throat. Instead, it released her, apparently satisfied that she would submit.

The big cat started to lick her body, her face, her breasts, it’s tongue slowly descended down her abdomen to her crotch.

Her position wouldn’t give the cat the access that it wanted and it backed off and swatted her with one paw, it’s claws scratching her arm.

Valarie got the hint. She turned her back to the cat and knelt, placing her head on the ground and her ass in the air.

The cat placed a front paw on her back, between her shoulder blades, and thrust into her. If fucked her hard and fast.

Valarie woke up in her bed screaming in orgasm. There was no fear this time, only intense sexual arousal. She knew intellectually that she should be more afraid this time then ever before. Prior dreams had included extreme torture; but even the prior night’s dream, where she had been forced to deep fry her own hand, had not included such an imminent prospect of death.

“Why? Why doesn’t this frighten me anymore?” she screamed aloud.

‘Because,’ came a voice in the back of her mind, a voice that was Valarie’s voice but wasn’t Valarie, ‘you know deep down inside that your time is almost over and there is nothing you can do to stop it. You have finally accepted your fate. Soon, this slave’s time will come.’

Matt and Molly woke up Friday morning and started getting ready for class. Matt checked the Time Lord email and Ms Rohn was up to 79 cracks in her mirror.

Matt arrived at his history class. Professor Rohn was dressed in a very sexy little black dress. Her behavior towards her male students had changed dramatically; where before she was belligerent at best, she was now respectful, almost deferential. After class ended and the students started to leave, they were buzzing with gossip and speculation as to what happened.

The Professor tried to talk with Matt after class, but he walked away. He didn’t want her to break too quickly.

When he was finished with class for the day, Matt had a few things he needed to pick up from his dorm room before he, Molly and Hercules headed to Houston.

He entered the quad from the west corner, and headed northwest because his room was in the building on the northeast side of the northwest end.

When Matt was just about to the halfway point on his walk across the quad he heard William’s voice shout, “Matt!”

Matt looked to his left and he saw William on the far side of the quad waving. Matt waved back and William started to cross the quad in Matt’s direction. Matt turned and walked over to meet him in the center of the quad.

“Will, what’s up?” Matt asked when they were finally face to face.

William responded, “I wanted to thank you for cluing me in on Jenifer. We’ve talked and we are going to get together like you and Molly. I thought you should be the first to know.”

William paused and asked, “I was wondering if you knew where we could get some ... um ... toys?”

Matt frowned as he heard the last word of Will’s question stretch out. No one was moving, time had stopped.

Artemis was crouched on the roof, watching people milling about in the quad. It was afternoon by the time her target appeared. She frowned. He entered the quad from the west and was headed straight for the building she was on. It might be a problem if she had to fire into his line of sight.

However, once the target was halfway across the quad, someone shouted his name and he moved to the center of the quad. That was perfect, now the full track of her arrow would be out of the target’s line of sight.

Artemis stood, assumed an archers stance, pulled an arrow from her quiver, placed it on her bow, and drew the bow. She stilled her breathing as she sighted in on the target. She released the arrow and watched it fly towards the target.

Matt was worried. This was the first time since he discovered his powers that a full time stop had initiated by reflex. Why?

He concentrated on what he had heard and seen in the last few seconds. There had been a barely audible twang and the whistling sound of something cutting through the air. It came from his left and and behind.

He turned and immediately saw the arrow hanging in mid air. It had a carbon fiber shaft and a viscous broad head with blades that were curled into a circle around the shaft of the arrow. This was a killing weapon, not a misfired target arrow.

He studied the orientation of the arrow, figuring it’s path in his mind. It had come from the roof of his own dorm building and would have hit his heart if his subconscious mind hadn’t detected it.

He plucked the arrow from the air and started to walk towards it’s source but stopped after a few steps.

William! He could go back and position the arrow where it won’t hit anyone, but restarting time would give the archer a chance to fire again. There was nothing else he could do without William noticing something.

He walked back to William, considering his words carefully. He whispered in Will’s ear, “You won’t worry about my disappearance. For now, you won’t tell anyone about it. You know that I am alright and that I will explain what happened on Monday.”

Matt turned once more and ran towards his dorm building. Once in the building, he grabbed a couple of folding chairs from the rec room and headed up the stairs.

Matt stopped on the landing at the top floor. One of the other guys in the building was the son of a locksmith. That guy was also an amateur astronomer. He had managed to make his own key to the roof access door and kept it hidden on top of the emergency light at the top floor landing in one of those magnetic key boxes.

Matt took the key and unlocked the door to the roof.

Out on the roof, Matt found a woman, perhaps a year or two older than Ruth, standing in an archer’s stance with a bow in her hand.

He looked her over. She was tall, though not quite as tall as Matt, around 5’10” to 6’. She was slender and had short blond hair in a bob. She was wearing a long sleeve and full leg, but tight fitting, outfit in an urban camouflage pattern. From the tight fit of the top, he could see that her breasts were decent sized but not large, probably a C cup.

He set the folding chairs down, leaning against the roof access door for the moment, then released the arrow so it would impact the roof around a foot to the archer’s side. He set the two chairs up facing each other far enough back that they wouldn’t be seen from the ground, with the far chair facing the archer.

Once that was done, he walked over to the archer, he pulled out a pocket knife and carefully cut the bow string. He pried the bow from her fingers and tossed it aside. It wouldn’t go anywhere until he restarted time, but it would be far enough by the time she recovers her wits. He removed her quiver and tossed it in the opposite direction. He read the interrogation script to her.

He sat down in the chair facing the archer and re-started time.

Artemis became aware of several things simultaneously; her target and her arrow had vanished, her bow and quiver were gone. As she tried to gather her wits she heard her bow land on the roof off to her right and her quiver and arrows clattered off to her left.

She sensed the presence of her target behind her and spun to face him.

Matt watched as the archer turned to face in his direction. “What?! How?!” she asked.

He was impressed that she hadn’t screamed.

“You’re supposed to be a mind-controller, how did you get up here so fast?” the archer demanded to know.

Matt grinned and said, “Come here and sit down. Answer my questions and I may answer a few of yours.”

Artemis walked over and sat down, her eyes wide in surprise. “What? How? Have you turned me into a slave already? That shouldn’t be possible!” she said in a normal tone.

“Well,” Matt said, “I was going to make you answer my questions first, but I suppose I can get a few of yours out of the way first.”

He paused to think. He knew he faced an organized enemy now. It was probably best to not reveal anything about his capabilities, even if he did enslave her in the end, as there might be others monitoring them. Still the urge to brag on his powers was strong. He finally settled on being cryptic.

“To address your questions in order:” he continued, “Your bow and arrows are quiet, but they aren’t quite silent, and the arrows are slower than sound. I heard your bow and the arrow’s movement through the air. I dodged the arrow and brought it up here with me. As to how I did all that so quickly, lets just say that I can walk between the moments.”

“No, I haven’t made you a slave yet. I’ve just made sure that you will sit there and answer my questions truthfully until I decide to end our conversation. You also won’t be able to do anything to draw attention to us.”

“Why shouldn’t that be possible?” he asked.

“Because,” she answered, “I can see you aren’t using any kind of device, I am naturally resistant to hypnotic induction and I have been trained to resist telepathy. If you were a hypnotist, I would have been aware of your presence behind me before you had me under; and if even if you were a strong enough telepath to overwhelm my defenses, I should have been aware of the effort.”

“Good thing for me that I am neither a hypnotist nor a telepath.” Matt responded. Then he asked, “Who are you?”

“I am Artemis.” she replied.

Matt shook his head. “What is your legal name?” he asked.

“Diana Rossi.” she answered.

“Why did you try to kill me?” he asked.

“I was sent to assassinate you.” she answered.

“Who sent you and why did they send you?” he asked.

“I...” Artemis struggled not to answer, but lost the struggle, “I was sent by the Matriarch. The Jade Dragon was one of our agents, but she vanished. An investigation into her disappearance turned up your name as a suspected mind-controller and the Jade Dragon’s last target. The Matriarch decided that you were enough of a threat to require dealing with you sooner rather than later, despite the unknowns.”

“So, you are an agent of the Matriarchy, an assassin.” Matt stated. “Why do you work for them? Are you just a mercenary? Do you believe in their cause of female world domination?” he asked.

Artemis stared defiantly at Matt and said, “I’m no killer for hire. My father was a telepath, a mind controller. The Matriarch rescued me and my mother from my father when I was 14. He had just started in on me when The Matriarch found him. My mother had been under his influence for too long. She couldn’t handle being without him, or dealing with the things he’d made her do without his constant control. She committed suicide.”

She paused, she looked down and frowned. A single tear rolled down her face. Then she took a deep breath and continued, “The Matriarch took me in, finished raising me. She taught me how to protect my mind from telepaths and to resist hypnosis. At 16 I discovered both an uncanny ability to track people and animals and an uncanny ability with any sort of ranged weapon. I don’t need to believe in The Matriarch’s cause, I believe in The Matriarch. I joined The Matriarchy as soon as I graduated from high school.”

Matt’s brow furrowed and he frowned. “I, see.” he said. “I can not allow any possibility of you returning to the Matriarchy, so my only choices are to kill you or to enslave you, and unlike you, I am not a killer. Very well then it’s done. This conversation is over for now. Stand up.”

Her eyes went wide, “What? Why should ... Aaaa!” she screamed, and jumped up. “What the hell did you do to me? All of a sudden it felt like the chair was covered in broken glass, but as soon as I stood up the pain vanished.”

Matt laughed, “You must obey any command given by me or any representative of Chronos Enterprises. Failure to obey will result in pain. The pain will continue until you obey.”

He stepped up to her and slapped her face. “Now you have been punished for not standing immediately.” he said. He looked around. There was no way he could take her down through the dorm building.

“How were you planning to get off this roof?” he asked.

Artemis pointed to where the grappling arrow was, “I was planning to rappel down.”

Matt smiled, “Good, do so. I will meet you at the bottom.” Then he vanished.

Matt was standing in the shadow of a tree on the back side of his dorm building. He saw Artemis approach the edge of the roof.

She looked around, making sure no one was watching, then she bent and it looked like she picked something up. She fiddled with her belt, then she backed up to the edge of the roof. She slowly leaned backwards and walked backwards down the wall.

Matt looked closely and he realized that there was some kind of spool attached to her belt with a very fine line. It looked like it was little more than fishing line, but it had no trouble holding her weight.

He waited until she was standing on the ground and started to detach the spool from her belt. He stopped time, stepped up to where he was right behind her and restarted time. “It took you long enough to get down here.” he scolded her sternly.

Artemis jumped and screamed when she heard his voice right behind her. “How... ? How did you get down here so fast? How did you sneak up on me like that?” she babbled.

Matt bent over laughing. Finally he recovered and waved away her questions saying, “Apparently the vaunted huntress is far too oblivious for her former line of work.” “Follow me.” he ordered, then he turned and walked away.

He led her to his car. He looked around as they approached his car. There were only a few people around in the parking lot and none were paying any attention to either him or Artemis.

“Get in the back seat.” he ordered.

He got into the drivers seat, pulled out and headed towards Molly’s apartment.

Matt pulled into the parking lot at Molly’s apartment building. Molly and Hercules were waiting for them with all of their bags for the weekend.

Matt got out of his car as Molly approached. Matt gave Molly a hug and a quick kiss.

“Who’s that in the backseat?” Molly asked.

“An assassin sent by the Matriarchy.” Matt answered. “I’ll explain more latter.” He looked at Hercules and said, “For now, I don’t want to reveal more to her than absolutely necessary.”

Hercules nodded and barked.

Matt loaded their bags in the trunk of his car while Molly let Hercules into the back seat and then got into the front passenger seat.

Hercules stretched out on the back seat, pushing Artemis up against the back driver’s side door and laid his head in her lap. Artemis sat stiffly, trembling slightly as she stared at the massive dog.

As Matt opened the front driver’s side door to get in, Artemis attempted to push Hercules’ head off of her lap. Hercules growled as soon as her hands touched his head and she pulled her hands back as if they had been burned.

Artemis looked at Matt and pleaded, “Please, get him off of me.”

Matt glared at her for a moment and she shrank back into the seat.

“From now on you will address me as Master.” he ordered, nearly growling.

“Like hell I wi...” Artemis started to say indigently, but the statement was cut off by a scream of pain. She brought her hands to her throat as if she was choking.

“Hmm,” Matt said, “that was an interesting reaction.” He leaned into the car and locked eyes with Artemis. “Anytime you disobey a command, you will experience psycho-somatic pain, at the limits of what you can imagine. The pain will stop when the disobedience stops.” he told her.

“Will you address me properly now?” he asked.

She nodded, and managed to answer with a shaky voice, “Yes Master.”

He grinned at her cruelly and asked, “As to your request, there are not a lot of options available, would you prefer to spend the trip to Houston sucking his cock?”

Matt savored the incredulous look on her face as she answered, “N ... n ... no Master.”

“Well, perhaps you would like to spend the next five or six hours tied up in my trunk?”

Artemis’s face went pale and she again stammered, “N ... n ... no master, I’m fine.”

Matt got into his car and pulled out of the parking lot, headed for Houston.

Molly observed, “Master, you are reacting very differently to this one than you did to Jade, less ... detached.”

“Yes,” Matt replied, “I’ve never had a desire for an unwilling slave before, but something about her makes me feel predatory. I’m not sure why though and that bothers me a bit.” He paused for a moment then said, “I’m sorry, I forgot to introduce you. Molly, our guest in the back seat is Artemis; Artemis, this is Molly, your seatmate’s name is Hercules.”

Matt pulled into a parking garage across the street from the bank. He parked his car and rolled down the windows then ordered, “Artemis, stay put. Hercules, see to it she stays put. Molly, come with me.”

Matt and Molly got out of the car and walked to the bank. When they arrived at the lobby, David Barrister, Matilda Victorsson and Susanne Renik were already waiting for them. Matt and Molly exchanged greetings with the three of them.

A middle aged woman in a business suit approached Matt. She held out her hand and said, “You must be Mr. Murphy. I’m Janice, I am the personal banker assigned to your trust accounts.”

Matt shook her hand and replied, “Yes, I am. Call me Matt. I presume you have already met Mr. Barrister. This is Ms Renik, my real-estate agent; Ms Victorsson, corporate counsel for the company I have set up to run out of the property I am buying today; and this, is my girlfriend Molly.”

After they shook hands, Janice handed Matt a business card and said, “Please follow me to the conference room where the closing is being held.”

Matt stopped time and used the loyalty script on Janice.

Janice led them to a conference room. There were three people already in the conference room, all men. Janice handled the introductions; the men were Mr. Weirick from the title company, Mr. Barnak from the GSA, acting as the real-estate agent for the government, and Mr. Kertzman from the DOJ.

Matt was concerned about the way Mr. Kertzman was looking at him and Matilda. He briefly considered using the loyalty script, but decided it was better not to mess with government employees.

The closing went quickly; mostly Matt learned because he was paying cash, not a mortgage. While he was going through the paper work and signing everything, Matilda inquired about the state of the utilities and Mr. Barnack informed her that both the power and water were on, but they would need to have phone service turned back on.

As soon as they had finished signing all of the paperwork, including the cashier’s check from the bank, Matt was handed a set of keys.

On the way out, Susanne pulled Matt aside. “The inspection on the ranch property went very well.” she told him. “The house was in perfect condition, not surprising considering it’s brand new. The barns and other outbuildings are older and, while none need immediate repairs, there are a few normal maintenance issues that will need to be done over the next few years. The full inspection report has a suggested maintenance schedule.” Susanne handed Matt a copy of the inspection report.

Matt skimmed through the report and said, “Good, we can move forward with the purchase then. When can we close?” he asked.

“The Hall’s would like to close as soon as possible, would next Friday be okay with you?” she asked back.

“Yes, that works just fine. Set it up and send me the details.” Matt said.

Matt pulled up to the warehouse address. The lot was fenced with a rolling gate across a driveway wide enough for two lanes of traffic. The gate was closed and padlocked.

Matt got out of his car and unlocked and opened the gate. Then he got back in his car and drove onto the lot, getting his first good look at the lot and the warehouse. He drove around the warehouse inspecting the lot and the outside of the warehouse. The lot was around 300 feet wide and 1500 feet long. The warehouse was situated to one side of the lot, he estimated the width of the building at 230 feet and the length at around 1100 feet, counting the office area at the front. The office section was not quite as wide as the warehouse itself. The whole building was two stories high. There were two vertical rolling door entrances, both large enough for a truck, one on the side at the front and one in the back.

He had just finished his drive around the building and parked his car when another car pulled into the lot. He got out of the car and when Matilda got out of the other car, he signaled Molly to stay in the car.

Matt walked over to Matilda and told her, “I got a text message from my mother on the way over here. I had asked her to arrange for food and tables, since I didn’t know what would be here in the way of furniture. She will be here shortly, and she has a food truck and rental furniture set to be delivered within the next hour.” Then he asked, “Where do you think the best place is for us to set up to do a ‘meet and greet’ and briefing for the recruits?”

Matilda thought a bit and then answered, “The old operation didn’t use much of the office space. A third of the first floor is open plan space, intended for cubicles. We put in a stage and used it for the auctions. It would be perfect. There is a secure door down on the other side intended to be an employee entrance. The food truck could be set up over there to make for a shorter trip.”

“Let’s do that,” Matt said. “I have an unexpected guest with me. It’s okay if she has a general idea of what we are doing here, but for now I don’t want her to know any more about me and the details of the operation than absolutely necessary. I also have someone else with me that you haven’t met yet, but a proper introduction will have to wait until the unexpected guest is dealt with.”

Matilda replied, “I think we can handle that. We should be able to secure her in the kennels if the FBI didn’t do too much damage. While we are waiting, why don’t I give you a tour, I’ll start with the kennels.”

Matt walked back to his car with Matilda following. Once he got there he opened the drivers door and ordered, “Molly, Artemis, Hercules, time to get out of the car.”

As they all piled out Matilda greeted Molly, then she saw Hercules. “What a beautiful dog!” She exclaimed then she reached down and scratched his head. Hercules sat and waged his tail.

Matilda looked back up and said, “Who’s the blond?”

“An assassin sent to kill me; I’ll explain later.” Matt replied.

“Give me the keys and I’ll take you on a tour.” Matilda said. Matt handed her the keys and she led them over to a door Matt had missed before that led straight into the warehouse. It was a solid steel security door. Matilda unlocked the door and led them inside.

“How did you avoid getting caught when the operation was shut down?” Matt asked as they entered the warehouse.

“I wasn’t here when the raid went down.” Matilda replied. “All the real books were kept off-site. What was here were decoys for the authorities. I used an alias, my real name wasn’t on any of the paperwork No one who worked on-site on a regular basis knew my real name. There were four of us at the top of the organization and they didn’t get any of us.”

She led them to the row of kennels on the near side and began narrating like a tour guide, “On either side of the warehouse is a row of 80 10x10x6 kennels formed by steel posts set in to the concrete and chain link fencing around the sides and over the top. To reduce cleanup efforts while maintaining the level of humiliation for the inventory, squat toilets were installed into the concrete floor of each kennel.”