Rete and Trident Vol. 02 - Pt. 07

This is part six of a seven-part story. See Author's note of Rete and Trident Vol. 2 - Part 1 before reading this.

***

Chapter 25

Matt Gilbert looked tired. I'd been able to sleep on the private jet all the way back from Vancouver, so I was comparatively well rested.

"The trip was mostly a bust," I reported. "Smith and Srinivas spent every day at the conference and every night at a bar in Vancouver about a ten minute walk from the hotel. The whole time that I monitored them, I got nothing. They were either doing diplomatic shit or they were trying to pick up women.

"On Friday, they slipped me at the convention center. I had to call Étienne to track their cell phones. Where they were was in an exclusive neighborhood in Vancouver called West Grey Point. The houses all had high-walled yards, driveway gates, swimming pools, and tennis courts. There's no way in hell I could have stayed close enough to them to monitor their meeting. I asked Étienne who the house belonged to. He wouldn't tell me who they were. He just said they were untouchable."

Gilbert nodded solemnly. I guessed that he'd already had this conversation with Étienne.

"The two had breakfast together the next day. During this breakfast, they stated that they did not have possession of a sample. This drug is in a different category than traditional ones. There are drugs, like rohipnol, which knock the victim out and make them defenseless. There are drugs, like the meth and GHB cocktail that Kimsu Theron gave to Riley, which ramp up sexual arousal and take away inhibitions. This thing is in a category by itself. It makes people compliant, but it doesn't seem to affect their function.

"These two guys went on and on about how shockingly effective the drug was. Their contact used the 'blue goo' to induce a young woman and her mother to have sex with each other. They were compliant without a hint of resistance. 'It was like they were hypnotized,' one of the guys kept saying, They said they wished they'd had the drug for their week at the bar. These two psychopaths were excited about the prospect of using it to commit rape."

"Shit," said Gilbert.

"Smith and Srinivas were invited back next month to get a sample," I said. "Their supplier is really slow-playing it. Smith and Srinivas speculated that the person in charge is concerned that the Glaukopis guys will reverse-engineer it."

"The Secretary is going to take that poorly," said Matt. "I'm going to have to make the case that we have to let them get a hold of the blue goo."

"We do?" I asked.

"We need that sample. We need to know what it is, Pete," he replied. "Is there anything else we need to discuss?"

"There's one other thing to discuss," I said. "It's only tangentially relevant to the mission."

"What's up?" he asked.

"I caught your daughter having sex with our contact, Nil Onoral," I said.

He looked devastated. "Did you really?"

"Yes," I replied. "Apparently, she's having sex with Onoral's bodyguard boyfriend, too. Sunny, who is Olivia's girlfriend now, is so angry she's spitting nails. She had a confrontation with Olivia over it. It didn't go well."

At 8:30 AM, I got a series of angry texts from Sunny describing the confrontation she had with Olivia over the phone. Sunny had blistered her over the phone and Olivia had been defiant.

"Shit," said Matt.

"I'm going back out to the location where Olivia is cohabiting with Nil," I said. "I am going to attempt to bring her back. This will end the training p prematurely, but we don't have much choice there."

"Has she compromised us?" he asked.

"In what way?" I asked.

"Has she told anything to the CIA person about your real identities, mission, or your history?" he asked.

"I do not know," I replied.

"Shit!" he said dejectedly. "Bring her back forcibly if you must."

"The CIA agent's bodyguard boyfriend is a former Navy SEAL," I said. "He's Olivia's lover now. How do you think that is going to go?"

"Pete, you need to listen to me. We cannot let a loose end like that dangle out there. Bring her home, or..." he didn't finish the sentence.

"Be explicit here, Matt," I said. "Don't make me read between those lines."

"Bring her home," he said. "If you don't, make sure the three of them are never found."

He started to cry.

"It would go better for all of us if you don't fail," he said.

***

When I opened the door to the apartment in Cathedral Heights, the lights were on. I'd gone there because the tracker in Sunny's favorite purse told me this was where I'd find her.

Sunny instantly walked out of the bedroom wearing a night shirt. She saw me and fell into my arms, blubbering and crying. "How could she do that to us?" she asked over and over.

I picked her up and carried her back into the master bedroom, where she'd obviously spent a fitful day there. I held her until she regained control. It took a while.

When she settled down, she became angry. "Why the hell didn't you tell me right away, Will?" she asked.

"I was afraid that you'd do what you did. Sunny, calling her up and confronting her about it was foolish," I said. "The way you should have handled it was to not confront her over the phone. You should have let me go out to their boat, tell her she is needed for mission stuff, and then bring her back here."

"Why do it that way?" she asked.

"Because doing it your way, she became pissed off, defiant, and she might not choose to come home," I said. I made eye contact to make sure I had her attention.

"This is a serious life-or-death issue, Sunny," I said. "If Olivia doesn't come back home, Matt Gilbert's hand will be forced. He cannot leave that kind of loose end dangling."

Sunny's face changed as she made various realizations about what I'd just told her. She would not be against the concept of Nil and Renzo never being found again. However, she didn't want Olivia to face the same fate.

"I'm sorry, Will, but when I saw the footage of her having the threesome with the both of them, I really lost control," she said. "Worse, about a half hour after I chewed her ass out, the woman went around, found the cameras and destroyed them. I'm sorry, Will."

"The cameras don't really matter," I said. "They were throw aways. Once we confirmed that they were having sex, they were useless.

"What are you going to do, Will?" she asked.

"Matt Gilbert sent me out there to bring her back," I said. "That's my plan."

"I arranged for Sloane to seduce Zoeller's wife," she said.

"Are you asking me if you can, or are you telling me you did?" I asked.

"I'm telling you I did," she replied.

"Fuck," I said. "I gave all of the Albas my personal guarantee that I wouldn't ever ask them to do seductions for me again."

"Sloane knows that you didn't ask her to do this. She is doing this as a favor to me," she said.

"You told her that Olivia was cheating on you?" I asked.

"I did," she replied.

"Cripes almighty," I said. "I hope you know what you're doing."

We made love that night. I had misgivings about it because Sunny's heart clearly belonged to Olivia. However, I still had it bad for Sunny and she needed comforting, so I gave it to her in the form that she asked for.

I made honest-to-God love to her. In my addled brain, I thought that maybe she would feel my love and that it would console her. When I came inside of her, I was staring longingly into her face. She'd had four huge orgasms before we got to that point and her passion was spent. Her face filled with wonder as she watched my facial expression as I came.

That was the moment where I knew for sure that I'd reached her. I'd never before communicated to her so thoroughly and completely what I thought about her. After it was over, she said, "Oh my God, Will. You love me."

It wasn't a question. I didn't answer because I didn't have to.

***

The next morning, I got up early. Olivia was just waking up as I left.

"Bring our girl home, Will," she said.

***

I'd ordered a bunch of stuff a month before and it all came in while I was in Vancouver. I wanted to pick those items up before I went to the Avanta.

There were four boxes that the superintendent of the Crystal City apartment building was holding for me. Two of these contained the air gun and associated parts and accessories that I'd ordered. I ordered them from a dealer that Renzo recommended. He assembled the gun from a kit, tested it, and calibrated everything so it was ready to go out of the box.

It was shipped in a very nice rifle case. There was a hand pump and an electric pump for filling the air tanks. I ordered two spare tanks along with an entire case of 9 mm slugs. All of the accessories went into a waterproof duffle bag.

I'd also received an inflatable kayak like they had in the Avanta. After seeing how useful it was, I wanted one for the Blue Escape. I left this in the box, which was heavy as shit and difficult to lift. For the kayak, I ordered a pump that would run off of a boat's DC electric system.

***

I took a ride share to the Columbia Island Marina, which is right outside of the Pentagon. I stashed the Blue Escape there when I'd travelled in from the Avanta before my Vancouver trip.

I pulled all of the cargo out of the car and let the driver go. It was only then that I used my access code to walk down to the docks.

It took me two trips to get all of the cargo onboard.

Before I left, I used the GPS trackers I hid onto the Avanta to get their location. They were currently in a cove off of the Big Annemessex River on the Maryland Eastern shore. It was just north of the border between Maryland and Virginia.

The chop on the Chesapeake was up and it was going to be a long way out there. I laid in a course with the GPS system and if I obeyed the speed zones on the Washington channel, I wouldn't be there until it was almost dark.

I ran over to the marina store to get a couple of days of food, water, and supplies. I would need fuel after the long all-day run, so I made a fuel dock reservation for the big marina in Crisfield, Maryland. I wanted my fuel tanks to be as near full as possible for my trip home.

There isn't much to say about the boat trip. It was slow on the Potomac and it took a long-ass time. The chop on the Chesapeake was worse than advertised and I had to boat through afternoon squalls. It was bad enough, that I did most of my piloting from inside of the boat.

I got to Crisfield about an hour and a half before sunset. There was a line of boats waiting. As I pulled up, I was asked if I had a reservation and to my surprise, they put me at the front of the line. A five-minute phone call earlier in the day saved me more than an hour that afternoon.

When they pulled me up in front of a tri-hull pontoon boat, I thought the guy driving the pontoon boat was going to have a conniption. I stayed out of it and let the marina workers handle it. As the guy shouted, it became clear he had an eastern-European accent.

I finally looked over at him and he was wearing a tracksuit with leather loafers. This guy was clearly no boater and he was inappropriately dressed for the weather and conditions. He spoke with a thick eastern-European accent. I started thinking of him as 'Borat'. This was peculiar enough that my spider senses were tingling.

While I was waiting, four guys who were dressed just like Borat came down from the marina store. Each one of them had an empty five-gallon gas can in his hand. They were talking and busting each other's balls in a language I'd never heard before. This wasn't Russian. It sounded like Russian and Italian had a love child.

To ride in a pontoon boat on the Chesapeake in the current conditions would be absolute madness. Pontoon boats simply do not handle waves and chop very well. Their hulls float on top of the water and have no way to slide through waves.

After I filled up my boat, I tipped the guys at the fuel dock a hundred each, which was highly appreciated.

I then ran into the store to pick up a poncho. It was looking like it might rain later and all of my foul weather gear was on the Avanta.

I went and grabbed a poncho. As I was checking out I asked, "What's with those guys with the gas cans?"

The guy at the register said, "Those idiots rented my pontoon party boat for the next 24 hours. In this weather." He paused to let the idiocy of that sink in.

"You're on that Jeanneau?" he asked.

"Yep," I said.

"Did you come across the bay?" he asked.

"Yep. Five foot short-period chop the whole way. Totally nasty," I said.

"I tried to warn them they're going to be out for twenty minutes and then come back in soaking wet and half-drowned, but they would not be denied," he said.

"They claimed they were going up the Big Annemessex," he said. Hearing that made my guts turn cold.

"I almost laughed," he continued. "Even if they go up the Little Annemessex channel, the bay off the Tangier sound will be a rough ride for them. When they get there, there's nothing to look at but farmland and the fishing isn't for shit this time of year."

I nodded.

"How deep is the Little Annemessex channel?" I asked.

"What's the draft in your Jeanneau?" he asked,

"Three feet," I said.

He shook his head. "I wouldn't chance it in this wind."

I knew the arms dealer named Silviu Sulak was after her. As I walked back to the Blue Escape, I googled what language was spoken in Moldova. The answer was "Romanian". At that moment, I was morally certain that these guys were Sulak's crew and that they were after Nil. The adrenaline rush I got made me shake.

I ran through some quick calculations in my head. The Blue Escape was a lot faster than the pontoon boat, but I had to go around James Island, and they would use the Little Annemessex channel and head straight there. The way I calculated, no matter what, I would get there first. The issue was whether or not I would have enough time to roust Nil and Renzo and get the Avanta out into open water before the bad guys showed up.

I considered calling Renzo to warn him, but I wanted to be on the scene to guide them through the decision making before they panicked and did something only a lubber would do.

I tore off around James Island like my hair was on fire.

***

Chapter 26

In the hour before sundown. the weather suddenly broke and the setting sun broke through the clouds in the West. I was making my way up the Big Annemessex river. Following my GPS plot, I knew that I would find the Avanta just around the next bend.

As I made my way around the bend, a boat suddenly popped into view, but it wasn't the Avanta, like I expected. I didn't recognize this boat. What I saw was a sport powerboat. It was roughly a forty-foot stern-drive bow-rider. It had a partially enclosed pilot house and a completely open stern with an enormous platform. It made me wonder how miserable it would be to be in a boat like that in a following sea.

As I more fully rounded the curve, I saw that it was tied up to the Avanta. I immediately had an "oh shit" moment. It could be that Nil and Renzo had visitors, or it could be that the bad guys were in two groups and the first group had already taken control of the Avanta. My guts twisted at the thought that Silviu Sulak might have already taken Olivia captive. I didn't want to just pull up and charge in like a bull. That would make me a sitting duck.

It would be best to reconnoiter before I stuck my nose in. I immediately reversed the props and turned back downstream. Just before the bed was a cove that looked like a good place where I could anchor. I dropped my hook. Before the boat even stopped moving, I slit open the box to the inflatable kayak. It took ten minutes to get the pump hooked up and inflate the kayak all the way. While that happened, I grabbed my new air rifle, charged two of the air canisters, and loaded two magazines with the 9 mm slugs.

I dropped the kayak into the water and then carefully loaded it with my gun and other supplies. I paddled for the shore near the bend. The land stuck out like an isthmus, and I crossed the base of the isthmus overland. On the other side, I had a pretty good vantage on the Avanta. The Highfield dinghy was not on the swimming platform. It was in the water tied up alongside the Avanta.

It was nearing dark now, and the interior lights were on in the Avanta's salon, allowing me to see inside. The scope camera was attached to the rifle, I turned it on because it had a bigger screen than the scope. I figured I could review the footage if there was a detail I couldn't make out with the scope. With the rifle scope, I could see one person on the fly bridge and two in the salon. The fly bridge guy was the lookout. The two men in the lounge were bored shitless and were dicking around with their phones.

As I looked at the guys in the salon, I realized that the weird shape on the dining room table was actually Renzo. He'd been hogtied and was face down with his arms and legs behind him. He was gagged, and he looked like he'd had a rough time. They'd clearly beaten the shit out of him.

Five minutes later, as it got darker, I got a good view into the master cabin window. I saw two men standing up and walking around. I saw Nil on the couch, not moving. It wasn't hard to assume she'd been tied up. I did not see Olivia, which meant she was either on the bed, on the floor, or not in that cabin. I was worried sick about what that might mean. I had to remind myself to calm down, carefully reconnoiter, and to be certain. Flapping in panic would do me no good.

As I observed, the thought passed through my mind unbidden: How in the fuck did a former Navy SEAL get taken unaware in broad daylight? I asked this question because the powerboat was fucking conspicuous and could easily be heard from a long way off.

I started to make plans for how I would get on board. I would need to take out the lookout first. Then, if I could create a diversion, I might get all of the bad guys up in the cockpit, or some combination of cockpit and salon.

I wasn't sure how much time I'd have before the pontoon boat would arrive. It was almost dark.

I made my way back to the kayak, and as I did, I could see the pontoon boat coming up to the bend. In an instant it was obvious that if the pontoon boat got to the Avanta. all was lost. The distance from the high ground on the isthmus to the pontoon boat was about fifty to eighty yards from me at its closest approach. It would take them more than a minute to go around that bend. I did some calculations. One bad guy every ten seconds wouldn't be so tough, would it? asked myself.

I sat on my butt and stabilized the gun on a boulder. I got into a comfortable shooter stance as Renzo had taught me. As the boat came into view, I saw that there were three groups of seats: front, center, and back. Two were in the back section, one was driving at the center console, and two men were sitting in the bow. All of them were soaking wet, shivering, and miserable.

I set up my scope for eight yards and waited until the range in the rangefinder reduced down to 80 yards. This was agonizing because the pontoon was godawful slow. I aimed at the head of the guy furthest away in the aft section. He was slowly moving across the scope. I judged the necessary lead and then I set up the rifle in front of where they were headed and let the head come into the release point. I breathed as Renzo had laboriously taught me and gently squeezed the trigger until the trigger released. It felt smooth and I instinctively knew the shot was good. I kept the head more or less centered in my scope. I waited for about a slow two count and then all of a sudden, a black circle appeared on the man's temple. I expected a huge splatter of blood and a violent movement of the body. I got neither. He just stiffened and then slumped over. There is a lever on the side of the gun which advances the magazine to the next pellet and resets the trigger. It is analogous to working the bolt on a rifle. I smoothly activated the lever and then pushed it back forward.

I panned a few degrees to the left to target the other guy in the back. I judged the lead, set up in front of him and let his head slowly move into the release point just like the first shot. I squeezed the trigger and the gun jumped again. I waited for another slow two count and a black dot appeared just above his ear. The same exact thing occurred: the man stiffened and then slumped. I worked the lever.

I moved to the center section. This was taking longer than I expected and I was running out of time. I decided to shoot the driver next. I guessed they were at sixty yards now. This was as close as they would come to me. I adjusted the scope, and by now, the boat was lined up in such a way that the driver's head was moving away from the scope rather than across the scope. This was an easier shot because I didn't need to lead. I carefully took aim and squeezed the trigger. After a slow one count, the black dot appeared on the back of his head and he slumped over. I worked the lever.

A second after I shot the driver, the boat veered to the right in a current and ran aground. The motor continued to run, but the boat was going nowhere. With the boat not moving, shooting the last two guys was like shooting fish in a barrel.

The one on the left was turned back to see why the driver had run them aground, so the pellet I fired at him caught him in the side of the head just behind his ear. In the scope, I saw his mouth open up and his eyes bulge when the pellet hit. That was fucking gruesome and I got a jolt of adrenaline from it. He then slumped over. I worked the lever.

I was down to one man. He stood up and turned around to see that the three guys behind him were all slumped over. I took careful aim and fired. He bent to shake the arm of the driver and I presume the pellet passed right over him. He heard it though, and stood up all the way and looked in my direction. He had horrible instincts. I was able to quickly line up and take a completely stationary shot. My last was the easiest. The pellet hit him right in the bridge of his nose. His eyes bulged and they instantly went bloody. He fell straight down.

I realized I'd shot five men in cold blood and I hadn't even waited to see if they were actually bad guys. I shoved my doubts right back down into my belly and said to myself Of course they were bad guys, idiot!.

I considered my next move, which should be to take out the lookout on the fly bridge of the Avanta.

I trudged back to my earlier vantage. I used the range finder and saw that the Avanta was at 110 yards. I could see the stationary head of the lookout as he looked to the rear of the fly bridge, where he expected the pontoon boat would come from. The canvas wall with the plastic window had been rolled up to allow for a better line of sight for the lookout. Piece of cake I told myself.

I carefully lined up my shot and squeezed the trigger. It felt like a good release, but the pellet never hit him or any other part of the fly bridge that I could see. I backed off the scope to use the rangefinder. Once again, I got 110 yards. I then looked at the scope and realized I hadn't adjusted the scope from the shot I took at the pontoon boat.

I adjusted the scope, but for some reason, the cumulative effect of everything I'd done to that point started to overwhelm me. My heart was racing. I fought to still my heart. I zeroed the stationary lookup out in the scope and squeezed the trigger. The gun didn't fire. I panicked as I tried to figure out why. I ran through everything in my head and realized I hadn't worked the lever after the last shot.

You're fucking up! I said to myself. Pull your shit together, asshole! You need to get to Olivia! I worked the lever and tried to still my racing heart. I was horribly nauseated at this point and was fighting the urge to vomit. I lined up the second shot, but I jerked the trigger. The pellet hit the roof of the fly bridge and ricocheted off. I could hear it from a hundred and ten yards away.

I fought the urge to scream in frustration. I worked the lever and I saw the lookout stand up. He walked to the edge of the fly bridge roof and stood on a couch to see if something had landed on it.

In his position, he was in much better light as he was backlit. I lined up the shot and took it. I aimed for his head, but the shot hit him dead center in the back of his neck. His neck exploded and blood shot everywhere. For one absurd second, he held onto the roof of the fly bridge, and then he fell over onto the cushion in which he was standing.

I worked the lever and moved the scope down to the salon. None of the three guys in the salon even reacted.

I got the shakes for a few minutes, I'd been losing it for the last couple of minutes and seeing the guys neck explode, causing him to exsanguinate in a fountain of blood had shaken me up. What do you expect, you fool? I said to myself. Did you think the black dots on the skulls of the other guys meant they were taking a nap?

When I pulled my shit together, I walked back across the isthmus. I took the kayak out to the pontoon boat and idled the motor. I looked at the corpses. With the exception of the guy I shot in the face, the only visible injury to any of the guys was the precisely 9 mm hole. There were no exit wounds. The slugs were 9 mm hollow-points, traveling at subsonic speeds with less velocity and force than the average rifle bullet. They had enough force to penetrate the skull, but not enough to exit. I guessed that they bounced around in the skull until all of the energy was spent. Their brains were like eggs that had been scrambled in the shell. I dragged the driver off the console seat and dumped him on the floor. I got in the driver's position, and carefully worked us off the sand bar in reverse. I went around the bend very slowly. It was pitch black by then.

I tied the pontoon boat up to the sport boat of unknown origin. In the rear of the bow rider, there were a couple of dozen cinder blocks, a net made out of nylon rope, and a bunch of nylon line. I realized that this was for throwing the bodies overboard. I felt a surge of relief when I confirmed that this was a bad guy boat after all. I then remembered that I'd seen the bad guys had Renzo and Nil tied up. I realized my brain was soupy and in the stress, it wasn't working right.

I needed a distraction to get the bad guys out of the salon. I decided to set the pontoon boat on fire. It had four five-gallon jugs of gas in it, so it would burn like a beacon fire.

I started putting the bodies into the sport boat. I was willing to leave a burned out pontoon boat behind, but I didn't want to leave corpses. If I survived, I would dump those overboard weighted down by their own cinder blocks and nets.

When I got all of the bodies off the pontoon boat, I got back on it and slowly drove it over to the bend where it would be visible from the salon. I grounded the boat hard on the shore of the bend. I took off my sweatshirt and cut it into strips with a knife. I used the strips to make Molotov wicks in the gas cans.

I made one wick eight feet long. I soaked it in gasoline and when I was ready, I lit the end on fire with a lighter I salvaged from one of the dead guys.

I quickly got into my kayak and kayaked a couple of hundred yards over to the Avanta. By the time I got there, the Pontoon boat was just starting to burn. I got off the kayak onto the swim platform in the left sugar scoop. I adjusted the rifle scope for a close range shot.

I began to despair that the guys in the salon would ever come out to examine the fire, but they finally did.

I shot the guy in the front first. The shot went right into his forehead and he stiffened and then crumpled. The guy right behind him looked right down at me with a confused look. He must have heard the gun fire but didn't know what it was.

His shot went in right under his left cheek. He fell over, I started looking for the third guy, but he was nowhere to be seen. I second guessed myself. Did I see two guys or three guys in the salon? I just didn't know for sure. I just couldn't remember. I was losing it.

I slowly crept up the sugar scoop steps into the cockpit. I looked through the glass into the salon. The only person I saw in the salon was Renzo. I started to go over to the port side walkway to see if he went that way, when something slammed into me from behind. The barrel to my gun got jammed between a fly bridge support and the wall to the back of the cabin. I felt the rifle barrel bend. I fell to my knees. I let go of the air gun and I reached for the pistol in my pocket. I got kicked in the shoulder. I dropped the pistol and my arm went numb. I instinctively rolled which saved me from, getting stomped in the face, and I lashed out with my feet instinctively and caught the guy in his inner thigh near his nuts. He flinched and went down to one knee with an "oof". I looked for my pistol, which was nowhere in sight.

I scrambled in a half run, half crawl over to the toys locker where I'd stashed my pistol the day I first came on board the Avanta. I lifted up the hatch and reached inside. I couldn't feel the gun where I'd taped it in place, I reached further and I got kicked in the hip. I rolled to my back to see what was coming next and I accidentally fell down into the locker. It knocked the breath out of me. I was trying to catch my breath, when I saw a silhouette in the hatch. He was holding my rifle like a club and was looking down into the darkness of the locker. I looked to where I taped the pistol. It wasn't there. Fuck! I raged in my head.

I needed a weapon. I looked for one. I saw a pole that was clipped on the wall next to me. The silhouette jumped down into the locker. I raised up the pole between us. The pole jolted and was pulled out of my hands. I heard a godawful noise and I was suddenly covered in blood. I scrambled up.

There was a godawful sound like Darth Vader's breathing when he was dying in Return of the Jedi. I reached over and cut the locker light on. The pole I used was a fish gaff, which is a pole with a sharp steel hook at the end of it that is used to pierce a large fish so that it can be pulled on deck.

I'd somehow gotten the hook into the man's throat as he fell. It tore his throat out. I was covered in blood. By the time I really realized what happened, the breathing noises stopped. He was dead.

I shut the lights off and crawled out of the locker. The fire on the pontoon boat was dying down now. I looked and looked for the pistol I dropped, but I could not find it.

I realized that I only saw three bad guys, which meant the other two I'd seen in the master cabin were still there.

I snuck in the door to the salon. Renzo stiffened when he heard me and saw me come in. I held a finger to my lips. I walked over to the wet bar and retrieved the pistol I'd hidden beneath the counter in the drawer. Thank god it was still there. It was one of the throw-away glocks.

I slowly approached Renzo and I whispered, "Is Olivia alive?"

He did his best to shrug with his arms and feet bound behind him.

"How many guys are in the master cabin?" I whispered.

He held up three fingers in the hand tied behind his back.

"Three?" I whispered to confirm.

He nodded.

"I've got to clean my eyes," I whispered. "I'll be right back."

I got no more than three steps away when Renzo whined like a dog and begged for me to untie him. I was over to him in a flash and I slapped his face.

"Shut the fuck up!" I spat in a harsh whisper. "You had one job, which was to make sure no one got on this boat. So far, I've killed nine assholes already and there are three more below. You're a former teams guy and you were taken unaware in the middle of a day?"

He looked ashamed.

"I'd be willing to bet everything I have that the reason all these men got on the boat was because you were in that cabin fucking Olivia and Nil instead of keeping your eyes and ears open."

His head sunk. He wouldn't meet my eye.

"Jesus Christ, Renzo," I whispered harshly. "You are married, and not only is having Nill on top of that not enough for you, you had to take Olivia too? I swear to God, you greedy fucking asshole, if I live through this, you probably won't."

He looked very alarmed by that.

"Now, either you shut the fuck up and let me do this, or I will slit your throat and let you bleed out like the last guy."

I grabbed my own shirt to dramatically demonstrate that's exactly what happened. He just nodded at me.

I went down the port side stair into the hull. My cabin, and Olivia's cabin had both been tossed. Instinctively, I knew I wasn't likely to find anything useful.

I went in the bathroom, shucked my clothes, and quickly rinsed the blood off of me in the shower. I was giving myself a quick dry with the towel, when I noticed my Epi-pen and inhaler on the counter. It gave me an idea.

I threw on a pair of black sweats, a tee, and a black hoodie.

I then stepped into Olivia's cabin and found her inhaler on her dresser.

My plan was to use the Epi-pen and inhalers to assault the master cabin. The pistol, which could accidentally shoot Nil or Olivia, would be the last option.

I walked upstairs and turned off all of the lights in the salon. I closed the window shades until it was absolutely pitch black. I crept down the steps to the master cabin. I squatted and then knocked on the master cabin door. The guy who opened the door would be looking from a lit room into the darkness. There was a good chance that I wouldn't be seen until it is too late for him.

The door opened up and I thrust forward with the Epi-pen. It went right into the guy's shoulder. I let it go and it just hung up there stuck in his muscle. I kicked him with both of my legs and he stumbled back wondering what just happened.

As I waited, I put an inhaler into each hand.

Ten seconds later, he collapsed. I jumped down into the cabin from the steps. There was a bad guy not three feet from me. He was staring at me in confusion. I raised the inhaler and activated it. There was a crack and the sound of compressed air releasing. The salt went right into his eyes from three feet away. He screamed so piteously it made the hair stand up on my arms.

I heard the pop of a gunshot from right behind me at close range. I whirled to see a portly man in his late fifties standing there with a gun. He was utterly terrified and had fired blind. Between us was a low dresser that acted like a partition between the bedroom and the sitting area. I threw myself to the floor and rolled three times until I slammed against that dresser. The guy I shot in the eyes was still screaming, but less loud now. I could hear two women screaming from behind gags. Olivia is here and is alive! I thought to myself.

I scrambled around the side of the dresser. I looked and waited for the other guy to come into view. After maybe fifteen seconds, the guy suddenly peered over the edge of the dresser. I fired the second inhaler straight up from a distance of two feet. It was a bullseye. Not only did I get his eyes, the salt also went down his throat and he was coughing and gagging so hard he was immediately immobilized. He dropped his pistol right down on top of my head.

I popped up and surveyed the room. One man down and tranquillized. Two men shot with the inhalers and incapacitated. There were no other men in there. Nil was still in the couch where I saw her before. She was tied up and gagged.

I looked around the room and spied Olivia on the bed. She was tied up and gagged also. She was terrified and had no idea it was me. I pulled the hoodie down from over my head and the look of relief and hope on her face when she recognized me was stunning to see.

I looked over at Nil and made eye contact with her. She finally realized it was me. The look of relief in her face was also palpable. I pointed to the guy I incapacitated last. He was the oldest one there.

"Is he the boss?" I asked. "This is Silviu Sulak?"

She nodded.

I pulled my lock blade out of my pocket. I opened it up and walked over to the first guy I shot with the inhaler. I cut his throat. It was bloody and awful. I fucking hated the way it sounded and blood fountained everywhere.

I then went over to the guy I tranquilized with the Epi-pen. I cut his throat next.

Lastly, I went over to the boss, who by then was crawling around blind. He was patting the floor and frantically looking for his gun, which I'd thrown across the room into the head.

I bent over and grabbed his hair. "Do you speak English?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"Why are you trying to murder Nil Onoral?" I asked him.

In a scratchy and coughing voice, he said, "She killed two of my brothers and stole millions from me." He had a thick Eastern European accent, but it was comprehensible.

"How much did she steal from you?" I asked.

"One hundred fifty million dollars," he said.

"How did she steal it?" I asked.

"She take the numbers to my bank account and use them," he said. "Money gone."

I looked at Nil, who nodded.

"How did she kill your brothers?" I asked.

"Bomb. Explode in the car," he said. "Nothing left but bones and ash."

I looked at Nil, she would not meet my eye.

"Why did she do this to you?" I asked.

"It was double cross of double cross," he said. "I deal arms. My CIA contact want me to double cross her. Buy missiles, kill her. Put missiles in cargo container. Ship to Limassol. He pay me two hundred million to do this."

"Limassol?" I asked.

"Port in Cypress," he said.

"Before I can kill her, she double cross me," he said almost resignedly. "She kill my brothers, steal my money, and drive off in truck with weapons. Airplane crashed the next day. We think she is dead like brother and double cross come from somewhere else. We find out later she was double cross bitch."

I looked at Nil. She was staring at me at this point. "Is that the gist of it?" I asked. She nodded.

"Do you still have the missiles, Nil?" I asked.

She shook her head vehemently.

"Did you sell them to the Ukrainians?" I asked.

She nodded.

I pulled on Sulak's hair. "Who told you where she was?" I asked.

"Same CIA contact that ask me to kill her," he said.

"Do you know his name?" I asked

"No," he said. "He use code name of Wolf."

"What did he look like?" I asked.

"Caucasian," he said. "One hundred seventy-seven centimeters. Fifty years old. Blonde hair turning gray. Gap in tooth in front. Heavy smoker. Skin like leather. He is American, yet does not speak as you. Accent is different."

"Do you know this guy?" I asked Nil.

She shook her head.

"Is there any reason why I should let this asshole live?" I asked her.

She shook her head again.

I slit his throat in front of her. His blood splashed all over her. She was tied up and couldn't get away. It was unintentional, but it was fitting.

***

Chapter 27

I left Nil tied up in the sitting area with Sulak's corpse. I went over to Olivia on the bed. She was looking at me and mewling from behind the gag. I cut the bindings on her feet and then on her wrists. Her limbs were asleep and so I vigorously rubbed them to help restore the blood flow. I tugged off her gag

"Will! Oh Will!" she said. "Thank God, you saved me! I knew you would come for me!" She was hysterical and blubbering.

When she could move her legs and arms again, she thrust herself into my lap, hugged me and sobbed and trembled for several moments as I tried to settle her down. She hung onto me for dear life. I clung to her just as tightly. Somewhere in there I started to cry.

The moment I realized Olivia was in jeopardy, I couldn't breathe. It was like the life had been sucked out of me. Now, for the first time, a tsunami of relief washed over me. It was a profound fucking moment. So many times in the last few months, I thought I would throttle her myself. Then, when the chips were down and I realized she could die, I was so sick with worry I was almost debilitated. I thought my heart was a stone, but it was not. I still loved this woman with my whole heart.

Eventually, the heavy emotion passed for both of us.

"Did those assholes hurt you or rape you?" I asked.

"No!" she said. "They slapped me around some, but they didn't rape me. The old guy said they were going to assault me and kill me when the rest of their men got there. We need to get away before they get back here, Will!"

"They're dead," I said.

"They are?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. "I watched them boat in. I killed them. I killed them all."

"How many men were there?" she asked.

"Twelve. Five on the river. Four outside. Three in here." I said. I didn't have to count. The numbers were right there in my head. Some part of my consciousness had automatically filled in the ledger.

"They said they were going to gang rape me while Nil watched so she could see how they were going to destroy her and her baby for what she did to them." Olivia's voice was haunted when she said that.

"But they didn't actually do that?" I asked.

"No, they didn't get that far," she replied.

I couldn't help it. I had to ask. "How did they take you all unaware? when they got on board, were you in here fucking Nil and Renzo?"

Olivia started crying inconsolably again. "Yes, I was, Will."

I was surprised she admitted that.

I let out a deep breath. "Olivia, what are we going to do with you?" My disappointment creeped into my voice. "You know you promised Sunny you were hers. You submitted to her. Submissives don't get to unilaterally decide for themselves to leave their mistress and enter into polyamorous relationships. Poor Sunny is devastated."

"I don't have an excuse, Will," said Olivia and then she sobbed "She pushed and Renzo pushed. I knew it was wrong, but I just gave in to them. I don't know what is wrong with me," she said, sobbing so hard she was nearly blubbering. "I'm so sorry, Will. I was so horny and so lonely. I just wanted to feel good."

I wondered if I had been willing to have sex with her if that would have prevented her from falling to Nil's seduction.

I took several breaths to get myself under control. "If you live through this, I'm going to send you to an online therapist I've been working with. She's got some fresh new ideas and I think you would benefit from her care."

"Why won't I survive?" she asked. "Are you going to kill me?"

"Me? No," I said flatly. "Sunny is a different story. She's that pissed. What she chooses to do with you is her decision and not mine."

Olivia cried for a minute. I let her. It didn't last long because she didn't have a lot of energy left.

I asked her the million-dollar question. "Please don't lie about this. I need to know, really know: did you tell Nil or Renzo any of our secrets?"

Olivia immediately responded, "No! Never! Those Echelon-Lima-Nine briefings scared the shit out of me. I would never do that."

"You didn't give up our identity, our history, or our mission?" I asked.

"Absolutely not!" she said with sincere authority. I believed her. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Olivia, I've been talking to my psychologist about you. She believes that you are behaving compulsively and thoughtlessly. She thinks you need a severe shock and immediate negative feedback to stop your compulsive behavior. After this fucking disaster, I'm inclined to agree. The next month or so, if Sunny allows you to live, will absolutely suck for you."

She started to cry.

"Hush," I said. "Stay here and be quiet. I have to deal with Nil now."

***

I walked over to Nil and pulled her gag off.

She immediately asked, "Is Renzo alive?"

There was real desperation in her voice. She actually loved that fucker.

"Yes," I replied. "They hog tied him then beat him up pretty bad. He's lying on the dining table in the salon. He's alive for now. He was very pissed when I didn't cut him loose."

"Are you going to cut me loose?" she asked.

"Why bother?" I asked. "You're next. We'd just have to tie you up again to execute you."

Nil broke down and started to cry. "Why are you going to kill me?" she asked.

I sat down on the other end of the couch from her.

"You stole two people from their committed partners, Nil. You lied and seduced, and worked on them, and got them to abandon their vows for you. I'm not so concerned about Renzo. I doubt he was much of a father or a husband in the first place.

"Olivia, though, that was fucking horrible," I said. "You knew that she had a history of infidelity that was haunting her. You knew that seducing her would destroy her and destroy the relationships she has with every single person who loves her. You already had a lover and didn't even need her. You knew all of this and you did it anyway. You are a fucking cancer and a parasite on society,"

Nil sobbed. "I'm sorry," she said.

"Bullshit," I replied. "We both know that's not true. You're only sorry for what you did to Olivia because you are going to get punished for it."

"So that's it?" Nil asked. "You're just going to kill a pregnant woman?"

I scoffed. "Nil, I'm not going to kill a pregnant woman. I don't like the idea of being the murderer of a pregnant woman."

Nil looked at me in confusion. I pointed at Olivia. "She is going to do it."

Nil was utterly horrified. "Her?" she asked.

I took my time to frame my reply properly. "By buying into your madness, in choosing to betray her lover, and in choosing to jump into a three-way romp with you and Renzo, Olivia allowed you to sever her from everyone in her life that loved her."

Nil blanched as she realized that this was true.

"There is no more fitting punishment for Olivia for this treachery than by being forced to be the one to sever you from everyone that ever loved you, including the child in your womb." The way I said that was so cold, it made Nil shiver.

Nil and Olivia both began to howl in dismay. Olivia came over and dropped to the floor on her knees in front of the couch.

"Please, Will! No!" she begged. Instinctively, she knew not to touch me.

"You are going to have to kneel before Sunny and convince her that your fling with Nil is over and you've put it behind you. Have you considered how much easier it will be to make your case if Nil is dead at your hand?"

There was a very long pause as Olivia thought through it.

Nil sensed a chance and suddenly broke in. "Please Will, don't do that to Olivia! It was me and not her. Kill me if you must, but don't make her do it. You are right. I did deliberately seduce her. I preyed on her weaknesses. I ingratiated myself with her. I manipulated her and worked on her until she gave in. It was one hundred percent my fault and she doesn't deserve to live through a horrible nightmare because she was a victim of my treachery."

I was surprised by this. I had Nil pegged as a complete narcissist. A narcissist would have blamed her lover for her own actions. In this case, Nil was actually quite moved and was working to get Olivia off the hook. My picture of Nil and her motivations changed.

That's when Olivia spoke. "Please, Will. I'm the one who deserves to die. I was a treacherous unfaithful wife to you and I was an unfaithful partner to Sunny. I am guilty, not her. Please, Will. Nil is pregnant. To kill her child would be the most awful and shameful evil act. Please don't ruin yourself making that decision, Will. I will gladly lay down my life, but please don't take the life of her child."

Fuck! I said to myself. I didn't expect this out of either one.

"Olivia, I risked my life to save you. You should know that I don't actually want you dead," I said. "What happens to your life is Sunny's prerogative."

"Please, Will," begged Olivia. "I will trade my life for Nil and her baby. If you don't want to be a murderer, then take possession of me instead. Please."

"You forget that I had possession of you for years, Olivia," I clarified. "I've been trying to forcibly dispossess myself of you for half a year."

"A wife is not a possession, Will," Olivia said. "I will be a possession to you. I will give up any effort I am making to get back with you. I promise that I will be your slave. I will be an owned object. You deserve that from me already. If you allow me to bargain for Nil's life by giving you this, I promise you that I will be your willing owned slave forever."

Her proposal shocked me. I briefly considered what owning Olivia would mean. I confess I'd been envious of Jillian for her relationship with Greta. After what just went down, I couldn't deny that I still loved Olivia. If she was my slave, I could have her, but wouldn't have to treat her as my wife.

"Do you really understand what it means to be owned?" I asked. "You'd have no rights in perpetuity for the rest of your life. You'd have no volition or decision capability in our relationship at all. Are you sure this is what you want?"

"I will do anything to remain in your life, Will," said Olivia. "If giving away my rights in perpetuity keeps me with you, I would do that."

I scoffed. "At this point, you've betrayed every person who ever put their faith and trust in you, Olivia. Most people would say that I would be crazy to give you another opportunity to shatter my trust again."

"If you made me a regular part of your life, Will, I wouldn't act out. I'm not asking you to trust me. Over time, though, I will show you that I can be trusted." She was excited. She was convinced she'd found a way to get me back. I didn't know what to do or where to go from there.

I was bailed out because Nil interrupted. "Are you going to kill Renzo?" she asked.

"I am thinking about it," I admitted. "With your confession that you were the mastermind of the seduction, his guilt reduces, so maybe not? If I allow him to live, he will suffer, though. I've already got someone working on his consequences."

"Who?" asked Nil.

"Sunny," I replied. "That's the woman that Olivia belongs to. That's the woman you and Renzo stole Olivia from."

"What consequences will there be?" asked Olivia. She was very concerned.

"Sunny is making arrangements to have a sparrow seduce Renzo's wife," I answered.

"No!" cried out Nil. "That poor woman doesn't even have anything to do with this. Why drag her into it?"

"You stole her man from her without a care, but you object when others undertake to steal her?" I asked incredulously. "Physician, heal thyself."

She understood the reference and looked abashed.

"If the sparrow manages to get to Renzo's wife then I guarantee you it will be a positive and uplifting experience for her," I said. "Our sparrows are fucking amazing. What Renzo's wife will get out of it is all the ecstasy that she can tolerate. It is a just punishment for a Renzo, too. He helped to take a woman away from her lover. Now he gets to experience what that is like when it is done to him. The punishment actually fits the crime."

"When are you going to do this?" asked Nil.

"Not my call," I responded. "Sunny is handling it. If I know her, it will happen soon," I replied. "She'd already made the arrangements before I boated out here. It will likely go down before we get back ashore."

An idea suddenly occurred to Nil. "As I took two lovers from their partners, that is what should happen to me. right?" asked Nil. "That would be a just punishment? If so, then murdering me is an injustice. My punishment wouldn't fit the crime."

It was a good line to use off the cuff like that. Nil was very smart. I needed to keep that in mind as I jousted with her.

"Hmmmm...." I replied as if I was actually considering it. "We could make the punishment fit the crime for you by killing Renzo and leaving you alive. You would know what it is like for someone to take your loved one. It seems that Renzo is all you really have at this point. If you disappeared off this boat tonight, I doubt anyone would even notice."

Nil really didn't like contemplating this.

"Please, Will," Nil begged. "Can we make an accommodation?"

"Like what?" I asked.

"We cut a deal. You get a free shot at Renzo's wife. You get a free shot at me. That will balance the scales."

"For how long?" I asked.

"Perpetuity," she said.

"What else?" I asked.

"Three more things. I will give you half of Sulak's money. That's seventy-five million. I will tell you the full arms dealing story, so you'll have total leverage over me. I will put my half of Sulak's money into a trust and will name you as the sole trustee. If I ever touch her again, the trust is yours."

"What would you get out of this?" I asked.

"Renzo and I live," she said. "We all get a promise of no retribution. We all live and let live. God knows you already saved my life at great peril. I owe you everything anyway."

I looked at her full in the face and said. "I have the exact same problem with you that I do with Olivia."

"What's that?" she asked.

"After all that has happened, how can I possibly trust you?"

***

Renzo, still hogtied and gagged, was lying on the cushions of the Bow-rider sport boat. The dead bodies of Sulak's men surrounded us and were stacked up on the deck and in the cushions of the cockpit. The weather had blown itself out and the chop was less than half of what it was previously. When I got us to the GPS coordinate I was aiming for, I waited until the depth finder started sounding 90 feet. I went another half mile or so to the middle of the channel and cut the motor.

We were in a deep channel between Clump Island and Fishbone Island in the Tangier sound. There was a pretty good stretch here that was ninety feet deep or deeper.

I double checked, and the dinghy from the Avanta was still attached by the tow line that I rigged.

Renzo watched as I used the nets and nylon line to tie all of the corpses together to the cinder blocks. I did a thorough job and I used exceptionally strong knots. The nylon rope would not rot, so there was a pretty good chance these bodies would fully decompose without floating away. The crabs at the bottom of this part of Chesapeake bay would eat well for a few weeks.

When I was done with all of the bodies, I wove the end of the line around the bindings of Renzo's hogtie. He hadn't expected this and he groaned.

I started throwing the cinder blocks over. When I did this, Renzo started struggling mightily. "Hush," I said. "If you shut up now, I promise you I will give you a chance to plead your case before you go over the side."

He stopped struggling. I put all of the cinderblocks over the side.

I then walked over to the couch and removed Renzo's gag.

I opened a bottle of water and slowly poured it into his mouth. He swished and spit, and then started drinking with evident thirst.

When he had enough, he said, "Thanks."

"What gave you the right to fuck Olivia?" I asked.

Renzo looked confused. "She wanted to. She offered to."

"All of the cinderblocks are in the water," I said. "You have about three minutes before I start to push the corpses over the side. You have until then to really answer my question. You will notice that I tied you to the very end of that line. You will be the closest to the surface, but you'll still be fifty feet down."

After about a minute of considering, Renzo said, "I had no right to fuck her."

"I warned you off," I said. "I told you she had a serious girlfriend. You did it anyway. I would like to know why."

Renzo sighed. "The truth is that I wanted to. She's absolutely stunning, Will. I know the two of you have a bad history, but that history means nothing to me. God, watching her work out with such abandon made me so hot. I made it clear to her that I wanted her and she said it was okay."

I took that in for a minute. "Interesting rationale," I replied. "So, if I wanted to fuck your wife, or if I wanted to fuck Nil, and they thought it was okay, then I would have the right to have them?"

This brought Renzo up short. He didn't know how to respond to that. "I... I don't know."

I laughed. "Well, let me tell you another thing that you don't know. Olivia's girlfriend Sunny, she's the one you stole Olivia from, has an interesting role in our operation. She runs a squad of four women who are sparrows. Have you heard the term 'sparrows', Renzo?"

He nodded. "They are women spies who seduce for the purpose of blackmail."

"Just so," I replied. "Well, Sunny thinks your wife, whom you haven't shown much loyalty to while you're out here fucking around with Nil, is lonely and is tired of being alone. She thinks your wife would be an excellent mark for a targeted seduction."

I paused and then added, "My guess is that this has already occurred. Probably tonight."

"Fuck!" replied Renzo. He fought at his bindings again. He felt so impotent at that moment, I could see part of him break.

"I want you to know this, Renzo," I said. "Earlier tonight, Nil bargained with me that I would get free access to Nil and your wife in perpetuity in exchange for letting you go. Her exact phrase was this would 'balance the scales' for you two taking Olivia. I am convinced that if I exercise this privilege, you'll kill me and damn the consequences. Am I wrong?"

"Fuck!" said Renzo again.

"So, Renzo, I need the answers to some questions. I know that it is a difficult thing to process, so take your time and think it through," I said. "I'm going to ask you questions, Renzo. I want honest answers, okay?"

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Are you okay with this? If we cut this deal, and I fuck Nil and your wife, am I suddenly going to find myself at the end of a rifle or taken captive by you and some of your Teams buddies?"

"Do you want to fuck them?" he asked.

"Not especially," I replied. "The only attraction there is that it would give Sunny and I some payback for your greed in fucking with Olivia. To paraphrase Nil, the punishment of another man fucking your women fits that crime perfectly. Do you see it the same way? You better agree."

"I agree," said Renzo.

"That's what I thought you were going to say," I said. "I have decided to be scrupulously fair about this. You only took one woman from me, so I am only going to take one of yours. I don't want both your wife and Nil. So which one do you want for me to take?"

"My wife," he said. There was no hesitation. "If she'll have you, then take her."

"Jesus, Renzo," I replied. "I guess I should have known that wedding vows didn't mean shit to you, but God damn. She's your wife and the mother of your children."

"I love my wife, Will. She's a good woman and has been a good mother to my children, but Nil is my soulmate," he said. He emoted. He sucked at emoting and his crying was ragged and pitiful.

"Renzo, I hate to break it to you, but Nil is a complete fucking psychopath," I said. "You know that right? She took you from your wife. She took Olivia from Sunny, and she two-timed you with Sunny while you were off doing your gigs."

"She did?" he asked. He sounded shocked.

"Renzo, she and Olivia were fucking from the moment you left the boat," I said. "You want me to send you the video?"

"No," he said. "I believe you."

"And that's the one you want to keep for yourself?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied. Again there was no hesitation. He had it so bad he was willing to accept a sociopath who would sleep around on him at the drop of a hat.

"Well, if that's the way you feel, then you owe it to your wife to be honest with her," I said. "You should tell her that your heart belongs to another. You've got to spend more time with your boys, too. They are at a vulnerable age. They need their father's presence in their lives."

"I will," he said. "If you let me live, I promise I will."

He was being honest. He wasn't the type of guy to lie that way.

"I want your personal word of honor that there will be no reprisals from you, Renzo," I said, keeping my voice cold. "I saved your ass tonight. Those cinderblocks I dumped overboard were to sink your corpse and Nil's corpse. If it wasn't for me, you'd already be crab food. I think you owe me a little fucking gratitude for saving your ass. That gratitude will manifest itself by accepting your punishment with grace and humility. If you attempt a reprisal against me or Sunny, I will see to it that everyone in your life that you love dies. I will start with Nil and your unborn child. I will finish with your wife and children."

I made sure we were making eye contact.

"Have you seen enough about how I operate to convince you that I can and will do this?" I asked.

"I have," he admitted.

"I have one thing that you and Nil don't have: I have a team behind me. I've got over a hundred assets, access to nearly unlimited money, and I have hundreds of powerful people blackmailed to do my will. If anything happens to me, I promise that Nil, your unborn child, and your sons will all pay the price before you do. You will be killed last."

"I understand," he said.

I reached down and used my knife to sever the lines which had him attached to the string of corpses. When I did so, he let out a trembling sigh of relief. I stood up and rolled the body closest to the cinderblocks off the platform. It was Sulak himself. He went into the Chesapeake with a thunk.

I quickly made my way over to the driver's console and stood so I wouldn't get caught up in the lines and the net and pulled overboard.

One by one, the corpses were pulled off the platform and into the water. I watched them slowly disappear.

When the corpses were gone, I walked over to Renzo.

"I'm going to cut you loose," I said. "Don't touch anything on this boat with your hands that you don't have do. You don't want to leave your fingerprints or DNA behind."

I cut the hogtie binding. I helped Renzo straighten out his arms and I even rubbed them a bit to get the circulation going again. After a few minutes, I left him to it.

I pulled on the tow line and brought the Avanta's dinghy right up to the platform. I helped Renzo stand up and walk across. I dumped him on the seats in the front. I did a factory reset on the GPS unit of the Bow rider. All the course and waypoint information was completely wiped. As far as the computer was concerned, the boat materialized in Tangier Sound.

I started the boat. I left the throttle at zero, but I put the boat into gear.

I climbed on the dinghy and started it up. I cast off the tow line from the back of the sports boat and then motored up to the side of the boat nearest the driver console. Using the fish gaff I used to kill the guy on the Avanta, I pushed the throttle all the way up on the sports boat.

It zoomed off.

"It'll be the Flying Dutchman" I said. I stripped the float material off the gaff and dumped it overboard. I then stripped off my nitrile gloves, wrapped them around my locking blade and dropped it over the side too as Renzo watched silently.

I motored us back to the Big Annemessex River as fast as I could. After a few minutes, Renzo came and sat next to me behind the console.

I said to him, "As soon as we get back to the Avanta, I'm taking Olivia with me on the Blue Escape. I left her with instructions to pack us up and be ready to go when I got back. We're getting out of dodge as soon as possible. You'll have about three hours to get out of here before first light. You don't want to be anywhere near this area when dawn breaks. Wipe the GPS records from the Avanta. You were never here."

Renzo asked, "What about the burned out pontoon boat that ran aground a quarter mile down stream from where we're anchored?"

He'd been very curious about that as we motored out to dump the bodies.

"We'll leave it where it lies," I said. "It is burned out and there isn't any evidence on it. It will add to the mystery."

***

Chapter 28

Two weeks later, I walked Olivia into the office building in DuPont Circle. The office we were looking for was on the third floor.

I stepped inside and the receptionist escorted us to a conference room where Nil and Renzo were already seated.

We greeted our lawyer and their lawyer with handshakes. We were offered coffee. I turned it down for both of us.

The lawyer then brought out the contract. She explained the terms to us. It would make Olivia and I the trustees of Nil's trust. There was another document which was a behavioral contract. If either Nil or Renzo violated the terms of that contract, or if Olivia or I should die, ownership of the trust would be transferred to Olivia and I.

It was more or less, the terms I worked out with Nil on the Avanta.

We signed the contracts and a notary made it all official.

To my surprise, their lawyer then said, "Ms. Onoral and Mr. Zoeller have asked us to leave the room so that they can speak with you in confidence for a few minutes. This conference room is yours to use as long as you need it. No one will disturb you here.

After the lawyer left, Nil sat up straight. "I wanted to personally apologize to you Olivia for taking advantage of you and seducing you into violating your promises. It was a horrible and shitty thing to do to a friend. It was a selfish act on my behalf and I apologize from the bottom of my heart for it."

She then turned to me and gave me a similar apology. It was simple, heartfelt, and I believe, honest. Giving the apology was not part of the deal and I believe she was acting in good faith.

When Nil was done, to my surprise, Renzo also apologized. His words weren't as flowery, but they were just as honest.

This gave me an opening.

"As a gesture of my goodwill, I thought I would present to you this gift," I said.

I pulled out the box that I brought and set it in front of the two of them. They opened it up and it was my air gun. It was the one with the bent barrel.

They both looked at me in amazement. "This was the rifle that saved your lives," I said. "I killed eight of Sulak's men with that. Seven head shots and one neck shot."

Renzo looked down and saw the scope camera.

"Was the scope camera running?" he asked.

"It was," I replied. "I'm trusting you to be damn careful with that video, Renzo. It is incriminating as hell. I decided to leave that in there for you so that you can take a look and see how well your student did. I'm a little embarrassed about my efficiency, especially on the sixth guy. No doubt if you were using that video to instruct me, you'd chew me out a new asshole."

He chuckled.

"I think that it is important to note that if you hadn't been a good instructor to me, we'd probably all be dead now. There's a certain karmic justice to it. You instructed me with your whole heart on how to use that weapon well. I used the skill you taught me to save your life. I decided to think of this as a personal lesson for me: you get out of life what you put into helping others."

This actually made Renzo extremely emotional. He fought the urge to emote. He still sucked at it.

Nil broke the tension by saying, "I'm extremely grateful you saved our lives, Will, but did you have to be so messy when you did it? I've had three different crime scene cleaner companies out to the Avanta. They've spent hours and hours scrubbing with brushes and black lights trying to get the blood out of the master cabin, the fly bridge, the cockpit, and the cockpit toys locker."

"Where did you tell them the blood came from?" I asked.

"We told them that the blood was from a butchered tuna," she said. "They bleed like crazy."

"You told them you butchered a tuna in the master cabin?" I asked.

"We told them it was drunken renter situation," she said.

"This worked?" I was dubious.

"People who clean up crime scenes aren't known for the perspicacity, Will," she said.

Renzo asked me for the story of my assault on the Avanta from my perspective. I hadn't told anyone about it, not even Olivia. I did my best to tell it like it was, spending more time on my fear and fuckups than on my triumphs.

After we finished that discussion, Nil invited us to dine with them. They had lunch reservations at a really nice restaurant.

"You are going back out in public again?" Olivia asked Renzo and Nil. "Not trying to lay low anymore?"

"Now that Sulak is no more, it removes the threat against my life," said Nil. "That worked out better than I possibly could have hoped for, by the way. My CIA minders are thrilled that he's out of the picture. He was a dangling loose end on the missile deal. I'm no longer persona non-grata with the agency. Despite the cloud which hangs over it, my CIA minders now consider my Moldova mission to be an unqualified success. I took the missiles. I got them to Ukraine. The double-crossing arms dealer who was charging the Ukrainians extortionate amounts of money, got an unexpected demise. It was a win-win-win."

She then leaned closer to us and whispered and said, "No one knows anything about the contact named 'Wolf' that Sulak was talking about. A lot of people at the agency have asked me how one pregnant woman and one ex-SEAL took down a twelve-man hit team with zero casualties."

"What did you tell them?" I asked.

"Nothing," was her response. I liked that. There was one thing I could be certain about when it came to Nil: she could keep a secret. As long as she kept her mouth shut, Renzo would too. Renzo did what he was told.

Despite the personality flaws of our hosts, the lunch that we had after signing the contract was exquisite and the company was surprisingly convivial and pleasant.

***

A few days later, I took Sunny, Olivia, and Sloane to Jillian's club for the ceremony.

Jillian walked us into one of the private rooms. She was wearing full latex. Greta, on a leash behind her moved with a conscious fluidity. She looked almost elegant as she knelt at Jillian's feet, close enough that Jillian could reach her without having to bend over.

I leaned over to Jillian and said, "I must congratulate you, Jillian. Greta was quite creditably graceful as she knelt before you. She is making excellent progress. Bravo!"

Greta heard what I said, and stiffened in pleasure.

Jillian reached down and caressed Greta's hair. "We've been doing a lot of mirror work. We are working on the kind of slave I want her to be. She's quite dedicated, and I've had to reward her so much I'm afraid I will spoil her."

She pulled Greta's chin up to look at her. Greta's expression was adoring.

"You're not going to get spoiled are you?" she asked.

"No, Mistress," said Greta.

"Your outfit suits you, Will," Jillian said with a smile.

I really didn't see myself as the type of Dom who would wear leather or latex, nor did I see myself in dark bespoke suits. I'd settled on an old pair of tight jeans and the owl mask. Wearing this but leaving my chest and feet bare made Sloane and her Alba companions cream when they saw me. Sunny told me that it was because it was masculine, raw, and unpretentious. It felt comfortable for me. It was natural somehow.

"It drives Sloane and Olivia crazy," I said. My ironic smirk was intentional. I felt Sloane unintentionally brush her hair against my hand.

"Greta too," said Jillian. "If I would let her, she'd be begging me to bring you in for another play session."

"That would be fun," I said, causing Greta to stiffen again. "The next time we play, I'm going to ask you to show me how to put those lovely radial stripes on Sloane's tits." Sloane shivered when I said that. Her hair brushed my hand again.

I looked down to where Sloane was kneeling at my feet,. She was completely naked and she looked utterly sumptuous. She'd carefully prepared her hair in an up-do and she'd coated her self in oil so that she shone in the dramatic lighting in the room.

We'd had a really good session earlier in the day and she was radiant from the class five orgasm I'd given her. I did nothing but intensive obedience training for an hour. She dropped right down into subspace. I had to apply very little pain to get her to orgasm so hard that people were sticking their heads into the dungeon to see what was going on. I was gradually retraining her to realize that her addiction to pain was really an addiction to subspace.

The fact that Sloane was my sub earned me a lot of respect from the other Dominants. I'd received a slew of offers to play together. I turned them all down. "We're still getting to know each other," I said. They all responded with a knowing smile. When I started bringing the other Albas to the club, they would likely lose their minds.

Sunny marched into the private playroom with Olivia crawling behind her on a leash. Olivia had to scramble to keep up with her. I'd never seen Sunny so pissed. Whenever I'd seen Olivia in her presence since we got back, she'd been exactly like this. I guessed it would take some time for Sunny to work her anger out.

Olivia was totally naked. Most of her skin was covered with welts and fading bruises. Sunny had paddled, slapped, pinched, and flogged her relentlessly. Olivia just took it because she knew she'd earned it.

Sunny was wearing an amazing halter-neck backless wrap mini dress. She'd shopped for that dress all week and had been delighted when she found it.

Sunny took Olivia over to the St. Andrew's cross and shackled her with her hands over her head. When Olivia was fully restrained, we turned off the overhead lighting and turned on a black light. Sunny's new glow-in-the-dark tattoos appeared. On both of her upper arms, she had a stylized line image of Athena with an eagle on her shoulder, holding a spear with an Alba pierced on it. Each fimage went from shoulder to elbow.

What was really impressive, however, was her back tattoo, which the dress displayed to perfection. It was a photorealistic image of an eagle taking an owl in mid-flight. Greta had outdone herself. The detail in the feathers of the two birds was pretty amazing.

Sunny also took the liberty of putting tattoos on the backs of her hands. They resembled a lesser, simplified version of the wrangler marks on the backs of my hands. Sunny had a conversation with Matt Gilbert and he authorized her to get the tattoos. Given her role in our operation, they fit. The Albas would see her tattoos and understand the symbolism.

Sunny had shown me the tattoos when she showed off her dress to me the day she bought it. Olivia, however, had never seen them. Neither had Sloane. I heard them both gasp. Olivia, who'd spent a lot of time with Sloane as a fellow-sub, identified with the Albas more than she identified with me or with Sunny.

"Sir," Sloane whispered to me. "Those tattoos?"

"The organization authorized them," I said to her. "Now, be quiet and observe."

For the next half hour, Sunny laboriously caned parallel lines from her calves up to the top of her ass, Jillian-style. She would make one hard whistling strike every minute or so, giving time for the pain of each strike to soak in before she gave the next. The whole time she did it, she whispered to Olivia how disappointed she was at her lack of self control.

While Sunny caned Olivia, Jillian whispered into my ear. "You are not instinctively cruel, so it will take you a while to adjust to this. Eventually, you will come to the same conclusion about corporal punishment as all the other dominants: corporal punishment, if properly administered, can be quite therapeutic.

"It will make your submissive keenly aware of their mistakes and the pain will give them the release that they need from their guilt. It will allow you to work out your anger and it will help you put it behind you.

"It is also a useful feedback mechanism to keep compulsive behavior in check. People with compulsive behavior often lack negative feedback. This is an effective way to provide it. You will see."

I knew the theory behind what she was saying, but it was hard for me to buy into it.

"I've never told you this, but you weren't the first person that Greta was tempted to cheat with," Jillian whispered. "She actually allowed herself to be seduced by a male dominant about three years ago. I was so angry I was in a rage. I beat her ass so badly it took her a month to heal. She was devoted to me after that."

When Sunny got to Olivia's lower back, she turned Olivia around. She put parallel lines up her thighs to her breasts. For the breast strikes, Sunny put a piece of leather in Olivia's mouth and let her bite down on it.

When Sunny was finished, she unbuckled Olivia and had me pick her up and carry her over to a massage table. While I did this, Jillian cleared the room, taking Greta and Sloane with her.

Sunny spent time snuggling with Olivia, soothing her, and rubbing aloe salve into her welts to ease the pain. While she did that, I stood over Olivia and ran my fingers through her hair gently. Sunny and I had planned this. I was to be present and commanding, and a tad bit aloof. Olivia loved having her hair messed with and my presence in her aftercare would be a profound experience for her.

When Sunny finished rubbing in the salve, she went down on Olivia. This was only the second time in all the time they'd known each other that she'd done this. Within three minutes, Sunny brought Olivia to a massive orgasm as Sunny squeezed the welts on Olivia's ass.

Olivia was transformed by the experience. The combination of pleasure, pain, and intimacy had completely rewired her brain. Olivia looked at the both of us with utter reverence.

After the aftercare was over, Sunny attached a leash to Olivia. They followed me down the hall to the ceremony room. Many of the dominants I'd become acquainted with were in attendance. They all had their subs with them and they were all dressed up in their best gear.

Sunny led Olivia up onto the daïs. I followed her up there.

On the daïs, Sunny had Olivia kneel. She took off Olivia's leather collar and handed her a large jewelry box.

"Make your request," Sunny commanded.

Olivia opened the box. It contained an infinity collar, which is a solid ring with a hidden hinge in it. It was about 5mm thick and was made out of tungsten carbide. It was extremely heavy.

Olivia set the collar gently on the floor before my feet. She then dropped her head to the floor, with her ass to the audience. She raised her ass up high, giving the audience a candid view of her striped ass and dripping sex. There was an amused murmur from the crowd.

Sunny nodded to me and said, "We're ready, Will."

I saw Sloane in the front row alongside Greta. Both kneeling before Jillian. Sloane looked so jealous, she could spit. I made eye contact with her and mouthed the word, 'soon'. She shivered.

I looked down on the collar and considered it for at least two minutes. I commanded to Olivia, "Look at me."

When she met my eye, she was radiant. She could not believe her fortune at this moment.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked her. "Your life won't be easy. I am a very angry man and I will be unbelievably demanding."

She replied immediately. "Master, I've never been more sure of anything in my life."

I picked up the collar and unlatched it. I placed it around Olivia's neck. It had a very small lock which worked with a miniature key. I locked it and checked it twice.

I then turned to Sunny and handed her the key.

Before I released the key to her, I said. "Sunny, I give you control of my slave for a period of one year. Be aware that she's a willful brat and will try to top you from the bottom. I expect you to be firm and resolute with her. Spoil her and you will answer to me at your peril."

This brought a few murmurs from the crowd.

"I will," Sunny answered in a clear loud voice.

"Come", I said to Olivia. "Are you ready for this?" I asked.

"Yes, master," she replied.

I had her lay on the floor face down and I hogtied her. While I did this, Jillian, Greta and Sloane mounted the daïs to assist me.

Sloane brought the straps from a chain hoist to me. I put the straps under her body. I pulled the chain until I lifted Olivia's face up to my height. I kissed her lips lightly, which startled her.

I attached a nose clip and made sure it was secure. I then took the hose with the snorkel mouthpiece and told her to open her mouth. I had her bite down on the mouthpiece. I let her adjust and relax her jaw.

After a minute, I asked, "Is the seal tight?" She nodded.

I then started attaching sensors to her, and I put in a pair of waterproof swimmer's headphones so she could hear us.

Jillian and Greta carefully rolled the plexiglass tank box underneath Olivia's body. I reversed the chain and dropped her down into the water, Greta reached in, removed the straps from the chain hoist, and strapped Olivia's body to the bottom of the tank.

While she did that, I fiddled with the hose to get it securely attached to the air intake ports. Greta carefully doublechecked everything. Jillian stepped in and handed me a phone that showed Olivia's respiration and blood oxygen levels.

"Looks good," she told me.

Jillian and I lowered the lid and latched it shut.

Sloane brought in a sheet cake and placed it on top of the plexiglass box, along with a stack of plates, and a tray of champagne flutes. The cake was decorated with a menacing owl and it said, "Congratulations Ascalaphus!"

I turned to the crowd. "I would like to invite everyone to come have a glass of champagne and a piece of cake while you greet my new slave!"

I looked over at Sunny. She was already fucking with the air vents. She was also speaking quietly into the microphone that fed into Olivia's headphones. Olivia was in the tank nervously staring at her.

***

Matt Gilbert and I were in Secretary Bollard's office. I was there to brief her personally about my trip to Vancouver and to answer questions on the current state of the Glaukopis..

"Yes, Madame Secretary. Smith and Srinivas intend to return to Vancouver next month to pick up the sample of 'blue goo'."

"This is the behavior control drug?" she asked.

"We think it is," interjected Matt Gilbert.

"Didn't PT Hill's crew down in Darden County use mind control drugs?" she asked. "Isn't this the same stuff?"

Matt looked at me. "No, Madame Secretary," I replied. "The drug used by PT Hill was called 'Go Juice' and was a cocktail of methamphetamine and GHB. It was designed to increase libido while at the same time, lowering inhibitions. With 'go juice', they could only get you to do something that you wanted to do but were inhibited against it.

"The 'blue goo' actually makes the user pliable to the controller's wishes. It is a mind-control drug. Smith and Srinivas were bragging to each other about the demonstration they received. Their contact dosed a mother and daughter and forced them to have sex with each other. Neither one were the slightest bit interested in each other. They described it as if the women had no aversion or resistance to it. They just did what they were told. That's a different thing entirely."

"Is this stuff scopolamine?" she asked.

"Perhaps?" Matt replied. "Scopolamine ultimately makes the user lose consciousness. You only have a short time window to nudge them into doing what you want them to do before they're incapacitated. What Smith and Srinivas described was hours of compliance. Isn't that right, Will?"

"It is," I replied.

Bollard's expression was grim. "We're going to have to warn Deputy Director Rosa Mullins," she pronounced. "Matt, I've got to take this up with the President and get him to add her to the Echelon-Lima Nine clearance. I'll need to coordinate with you to put the brief together."

"Certainly," he responded.

Bollard asked. "Your report says that the Albas and stray Owls are in hand?"

Matt fielded this one. "We've delegated our new team member, Sunny Park, to take control of the Owls. They are firmly in hand and aren't a risk to be co-opted by other networks."

Bollard nodded at this.

"Will has also worked very diligently to bring the stray Owls in from the cold. Just to level set, the term 'stray owls' were the Owls who were under the control of Glaukopis members who we've executed. We did it by having Will show up and telling them he was their new controller. The women all bought it without any fuss."

"Good," said Secretary Bollard.

"We do have two issues that need to be discussed at policy level."

"What are they?" she asked.

"The first issue is that this solution won't scale," said Gilbert. "Will already has twenty Owls reporting to him. He's supposed to have a three hour meeting with each Owl twice a month. That's sixty hours of meetings for twenty women. If we keep executing Glaukopis members, we will have to assign their Owls to a replacement controller. We aren't going to be about to assign them all to Will. That is a solution that doesn't scale."

Bollard nodded.

"Will is the only agent I trust with this," said Gilbert. "I don't think I'd trust any other agent at the DHS."

"Why not?" asked Bollard.

"Almost all of the remaining Glaukopis members are having sex with their Owls," he said. "The Owls are habituated to it and it is part of the milieu."

"Are these women blackmailed into sex?" she asked.

"Some of them," said Gilbert. "If the ones we've already dealt with are any indication, a little under half of the women were being forced into something that they didn't want to do. We proactively instituted a policy where controller can no longer force the owls to have sex. For the ones being forced, the new policy should provide relief. The others, though...."

"What about the others?" asked Bollard. Her expression showed that she knew the shoe was going to drop.

"Those women actively want to have sex with their controller," he said. "They act as if it is their right. We were not prepared for this eventuality and don't have good procedures in place. My guess is that most DHS agents would end up having sex with these women. If they chose to do this, it would be difficult for us to detect and counter what they are doing."

Bollard thought about this for a while. "Have you come up with options?" she asked.

"Option one is to slowly continue the executions and redistribute Owls to the remaining Glaukopis guys. The sex would continue, but it wouldn't be DHS agents doing it."

Bollard's face twisted in disgust.

"Option two is to make a major policy change in how the women report to their controllers. Maybe we do away with the concept of a controller, or change it to make it so that sex cannot occur. That's a huge change for the Glaukopis organization. There's no telling how the Owls would react to that."

Bollard nodded. She could foresee the problems this would create.

"Option three is to do structured buy outs of the Owls. Just as a corporation will buy people out to retire early, we could buy Owls out of the organization. The problem with this one is that a lot of these women are making major bank doing the Owl thing. My guess is that you'll only get so many takers who are willing to leave the money behind."

Bollard nodded.

"Option four is that we don't execute any more controllers and we let the organization ride as-is. Eventually, the Owls and controllers will age out and without recruiting new ones in their place, the problem solves itself over the long run."

Bollard shook her head. "Option four is a non-starter. We cannot be found to be in possession of a domestic spying ring. I have a limited shelf life and I need to wrap this up before I retire. We've got to get this done soon, Matt. We have no choice at all about that."

Matt said, "This is a policy issue, Madame Secretary. We don't want to bore Agent Archer with this discussion. We need to figure this out at our level and leave Will and his team to do their jobs."

Secretary Bollard suddenly looked over at Matt Gilbert's hands. "What's that on your hands?" she asked.

"Secretary Bollard, that's a product called Saniderm," Matt replied. "It is a film that gets placed over the skin after getting a tattoo. It is supposed to let the skin heal hygienically."

"You had your tattoos applied?" she asked.

"Yes, Ma'am. I have several meetings coming up. The most important is the Glaukopis annual meeting with the Swiss bank that the Glaukopis partners with. This annual meeting is a huge deal for the organization. We aren't sure how well informed they are, so I wanted to have the tattoos in place, just in case."

Matt Gilbert and Secretary Bollard talked through a bunch of issues related to the structure and administration of the Glaukopis. It was interesting to hear. I'd been running around like a rooster with his head cut off getting the Albas and Glaukopis members dealt with. Apparently, Matt was just as busy.

The Glaukopis was a registered 501(c)(2) and a 501(c)(10). They did a lot of charitable work with the children of government employees who were deceased. However, the vast majority of their assets were held in secret and were not recorded in their IRS filings. Gilbert spent an incredible amount of time with government lawyers trying to figure out how exactly to legally seized the Glaukopis assets. The issues in doing so were so significant that Bollard and Gilbert had decided that wasn't going to happen. The best solution was to shut the organization down from inside and give the assets away as charitable donations.

Secretary Bollard then advanced the agenda to the last point. "Agent Archer," she said. "We've finally got our ducks in a row. Next week you will be named an Assistant Undersecretary under Matt. We have to publish this posting publicly, of course, but we will do it quietly and not make a presentation out of it."

"I don't have to go through confirmation hearings?" I asked.

"That's an astute question," she said with a smile. "The level you will be on is not considered an executive appointment. You won't have to bear the indignity of being frog marched through the gauntlet of Senate overview."

I breathed an internal sigh of relief.

"Secretary Bollard, might I ask under what identity I will be appointed?" I asked with genuine curiosity.

"It will be done under the identity of Peter Kintrell," she said with a smile.

I was poleaxed by this. My identity was legally declared deceased. I wasn't sure how resurrecting that identity was even legally possible.

I asked the secretary, "How will the two of us coming back from the dead be received?"

Secretary Bollard replied, "It will be assumed you were in clandestine service. The fact that you were declared dead when you are very much alive will cement into the minds of everyone that you were in clandestine service. That is one-hundred percent true. If anyone asks you about your previous service, including the esteemed members of Congress, you will be able to rightly and justly respond, 'It is classified and I am not at liberty to say.'"

I almost laughed at the cleverness of it.

"Everyone will assume you were in clandestine service anyway, so we might as well make it blatant. Give them what they want," she said with a shrug.

"What about Olivia?" I asked.

"Who?" she responded.

"Olivia Archer is the cover identity you give to my wife," I replied. "Undersecretary Gilbert's daughter."

"She will assume her previous identity as well," she said. "I was told that you two had reconciled to an extent and this wouldn't be an issue."

I looked over at Matt who gave me a sheepish smile. I explained the situation to Matt and he gave a simplified version to the Secretary. Shit I said to myself.

"Secretary Bollard, it is true that we've reconciled some, but it isn't as easy as you suppose," I said.

"How so?"

"Olivia and I have no physical relationship any more, and Olivia is in a full-blown physical relationship with Sunny Park. To keep our security clearances, we would have to be 'out' about our unusual relationship. That will draw a lot of speculation. It is bound to attract a lot of scrutiny."

Secretary Bollard shocked me by saying, "Do what you have to and let the chips fall where they may. If I can have an assistant who wears a bun in his hair, I can have another that lives openly as a member of a polyamorous throuple."

I was so stunned that she said this, I couldn't respond. The entire premise was just so wrong, I couldn't even mentally begin to address the wrongness of it. Publicly, Olivia might legally be my wife, but in private she was my slave and not my wife. She would have no rights at all. I was going to date and fuck whomever I wanted whenever I wanted. I owed nothing to Olivia, but she was completely subject to my every whim. I turned the care and maintenance functions over to Sunny. Fidelity enforcement was Sunny's responsibility now.

How do you explain those circumstances to an older traditional and morally conservative woman like Seneca Bollard? All of this flashed through my mind in an instant and I realized just how fruitless it would be trying to explain all of this. I decided that I would be wasting my breath if I tried.

"You and your wife will appear on the org charts at the same time,"continued Secretary Bollard. "It will be assumed that she was under cover with you, so her past and history will be protected by the Federal Secrets Act, as well." It was clear that Secretary Bollard was proud of her solution.

"Madam Secretary, there won't be any way to hide the family connections," I observed. "I would be reporting to my father-in-law, my wife would be reporting to me. That's legally nepotism. That doesn't even address the romantic relationship between me and my two direct reports."

"I've talked with the legal eagles about this," Bollard replied. "There is an executive order which recommends you be hired for this position. The order cites exigent circumstances and specialized insider knowledge. They say that this will grease the skids and keep the accusations of nepotism at bay.

"As far as your relationship goes, on the org chart, Sunny Park is still part of the Workforce Health and Medical Support Division. That's part of the office of the Secretary. She is on permanent secondment to me. Your wife will be assigned to the Management Directorate, and will also be on permanent secondment to me. Neither one are in your reporting chain or division.

"Madame Secretary, I have one more question," I said. "Won't it be obvious to insiders that Matt's daughter and I were the ones who burned the PT Hill operation to the ground?"

"Yes," she answered with an evil smile. She'd already considered this.

"Won't that make us a of the foreign power who backed PT hill's operation?" I asked.

"Yes, that is a distinct possibility," she admitted. Her expression was wolfish. "I would like to draw out Kimsu's controller. You two are going to be our bait."

***

At seven o'clock that night I returned home to the Crystal City apartment. Sunny was at the kitchen table studying. She'd completed her coursework on her PA degree and was preparing for her certification exam.

She rose up as I walked in, and kissed me. "I made galbijjim for dinner. There's plenty left if you want some."

"It smells heavenly. What is it?" I asked.

"Braised short ribs," she said. "I found a really good instant pot recipe."

While I was fixing my plate, she asked, "How were Sloane and Tabitha tonight?"

"Sloane did great tonight," I said. "All the stiffness and pain from the injury is gone. She was perfectly limber. Tabitha is coming along nicely. Between the last session and this one, she bought into the program. I got her to drop and she seriously got off tonight. You were right. Having Sloane there already submitting to me made everything so much easier. It's amazing how easily influenced they are by each other."

As I sat down to eat, I asked, "Where is Olivia?"

"Bedroom," she replied. "She's in her net meeting therapy session with Cassie right now. She always comes out of those with her head in a much better place. Cassie must be really good at what she does."

"Did she take that unopened package with her?" I asked. "Cassie wanted her to unbox it during a therapy session."

"She did," answered Sunny. "What is it?"

"Chastity device," I answered. Sunny looked over at me with a concerned look.

"Olivia told Cassie that she masturbates three to four times a day and has sex with you just about every night," I said. "Cassie says that's like 95th percentile libido for a woman. She was pretty certain that with that kind of libido, a regime of denial would make her utterly compliant within a week. 'A little hunger focuses the mind beautifully,' is how she put it."

Sunny was concerned, "Does that mean we can't have sex?"

"You can have all the sex you want with her and there's nothing wrong with her servicing you," I said. "Olivia, however, is going to take a break from orgasms for a while. She just doesn't get anything in return. If you are worried about her availability, I'm always available too."

"That's separate" she said. "I have no intention of curtailing what we do."

"I am delighted to hear it," I said. "The chastity device Olivia got attaches with a belt. When she adjusts to wearing it, Cassie suggested that we get her one like in the picture I took of Victoria. We'll have to get Greta to pierce her for that."

Saying that made Sunny visibly horny.

"How'd the rest of your day go?" she asked.

"I got some news today that kind of freaked me out," I admitted.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Olivia and I are going back to using our real names," I said. "The ones we were given at birth."

Sunny looked up."You know, I don't even know your real names?"

"I'm Peter Kintrell. Most folks called me Pete. Olivia is Riley Gilbert Kintrell. Everyone calls her Riley"

She stared at me open mouthed. "Can I still call you, Will?"

"I suppose you could," I replied. "Or, you could use a nickname like 'Boss' or a term of affection like 'Sweetie'. It might be best, however, if you just call me Pete. The bottom line is this: Our unusual relationship makes us vulnerable to blackmail. To keep our security clearances, we will have to be out, loud, and proud about our relationship. If you want to continue sleeping with Riley and I, we will need to be very public about what we do.

"I'm ready for that level of commitment," replied Sunny. "Are you?"

Something strange happened to me out on the Big Annemessex river. I faced the loss of everything and that put into tack sharp focus exactly what I did want. I wanted Sunny and I wanted Olivia. To get them both, I took Olivia as my slave. Now that I have Olivia in my possession, if Sunny wants her, and she gave every indication that she did, she had to be involved with me.

Further, my time on the big Annemessex taught me something about myself: I now knew, without a shred of doubt, that I am a total fucking sociopath. I murdered my way out of a sticky situation and aside from a few moments of panic in the act, I didn't feel the slightest bit of worry or guilt about it. I hadn't even experienced one nightmare or one sleepless night. In the aftermath, I casually threatened the life of my friends and allies, one of whom was a pregnant woman, to get what I wanted. It was some Tony-Soprano-level selfish sociopathic narcissistic bullshit.

I had no doubts whatsoever about my own level of commitment. With Olivia in my possession to act as handcuffs for Sunny, I had no doubts about Sunny's level of commitment either.

I didn't answer. I just looked at her until she shivered.

The End