The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

The Convention

The Meeting After the Meeting

“This is not what I am used to,” Tony grumbles, looking askance at the cheap décor of the hotel restaurant.

Sawyer shrugs. “Take it up with the lady when she gets here. Sure is taking her sweet time about it, and if I hadn’t trained my darlin’ Miss Behave up right, she’d be aching right now.”

“Next year I’m selecting the restaurant. Neither of you has any taste.”

“You say that every year, and every year we play the gentlemen and let her take her pick. And she’s got a real knack for finding places that’re better than they look. S’pose it’s part of her business.”

To those not in the know, it might seem odd that all the conversation takes place between the two men, with nary a suggestion from the two gorgeous women standing with them- or, indeed, any indication of their presence. But those in the know would recognize the unique style of Sawyer Samuels and the imposing figure of Tony Horn, and in turn recognize the beautiful blondes as their enthralled servants.

Two brunettes, both in their fresh-faced twenties, enter the restaurant, as if Tony and Sawyer’s complaints have conjured them up. The one in the front wears her auburn hair in a severe bun that draws attention to the square line of her jaw and the straight lines of her body. Her shorter companion has a body to die for, but a plain, serious face obscured by round glasses and long hair.

The first woman approaches Tony and Sawyer and bows to them. “Mistress Mary regrets to inform you that she will not be able to join you for dinner as planned. She has sent us in her stead. Anything you need to report can be reported to us.”

Sawyer bursts into laughter. “You’ll do, lady, you’ll do,” he wheezes out between guffaws.

“Our party is now complete. Please seat us,” Tony says to the nearest waiter, and the six of them are whisked to a table in the back, safely in shadows.

As they sit down, the auburn-haired woman adds, “We’d prefer not to be disturbed, so please arrange for the waitstaff to leave us alone unless we signal.” Her gaze never leaves the waiters, and he nods dumbly. Once she and her group are alone, the tension runs out of her face and body.

“Rose, you’re the living end. Who was that little show for?” Sawyer asks.

Tony and Rose exchange a look. “Surely you recognized Sarah Lancaster’s handiwork in the young lady wearing the Illinois sweatshirt,” Tony says.

“Or Natasha Fatale over there from Northern State,” Rose continues, indicating a long-legged brunette near the bar.

“The... gentleman... at the table near the door is undoubtedly a scion of the Clay line.”

“And look who just joined the tall drink of vodka at the bar. Anastasia Alyova Belyayeva of the Atlanta Peaches.”

“That is not a proper patronymic,” Tony says reprovingly.

Rose lets the barest of smiles touch her lips. “She wasn’t properly fathered, so I’d say we’re even.”

“And I think that guy by the potted plant- the one with the big flashy ring- was on the flight with us from Denver,” the second brunette says quietly, as if she doesn’t want to be caught speaking out of turn.

Rose looks over cautiously and nods. “Good eye, Elaine. Yes, I think he’s an amateur who works out of Hollywood. You guys know the kind, probably better than I do. Now that we’ve established everything, let’s get down to brass tacks.”

“An apt turn of phrase as regards Miss Mackey and her methodology, for I assume that this is your concern.”

Sawyer gives a little shudder. “That ain’t natural. I’ve been in this business longer’n you been alive, maybe even longer’n Tony here, and I’ve seen some things that would give you the cold sweats in the middle of the night, but that woman beats ‘em all to hell and back again. I never saw someone so cold-blooded about doin’ her work in front of God and everyone.”

“Cold-blooded is not the word,” Rose snaps. “We need to take her down as fast and as hard as possible.” There’s unusual passion in her words, and her knuckles are white as she grips the table.

“She’ll burn herself out. Her kind always do. Used to call ‘em shooting stars- fast and bright and hot, and then they crash down to earth.” Sawyer signals for a waiter to come by and take their orders, ending the conversation for a few minutes until the coast is clear again. He sips his whiskey and continues, “She’s playin’ with fire. It’ll burn her, and she’ll go down.”

“That’s not enough. She could cause incalculable damage before that happens. It would take a miracle of programming and skill just to restore the ones she’s already taken. Even our resources might not be enough, even with Major Tom’s government connections. We have to take her down before she kills again.”

“Breathe, my lady,” Elaine murmurs, running her hand along Rose’s back. Rose slaps it away.

“Hell’s bells, Rose, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so het up,” Sawyer remarks. “Not ‘round here, in any case.”

“Mackey’s made this personal. Mick Griffin was scum, but he was my scum. He bent the knee and swore loyalty to me, and I promised in return to protect him. And I failed to do so. That unusually megalomaniacal, egotistical bitch took him, changed him into I don’t want to know what, and destroyed him, and there’s nothing I can do about it except take revenge on her. Even if she weren’t dehumanizing her thralls, I’d put her at the top of my list.”

“But she is dehumanizing them, and therefore is not your concern alone, but a problem for all of us and our scattered allies,” Tony reminds Rose. “You are correct, she will have to be dealt with as soon as possible, but we must be careful how we allocate our limited resources, and I must remind you that many of our allies are involved in the tangled skein of Ram Manufacturing.”

Rose releases a string of obscenities better suited to a dockworker, quieting as Elaine’s gentle touch calms her, though her seething continues as Elaine speaks. “I don’t know if this is a normal spike in activity, or a cycle I haven’t been in the business long enough to know about, but it seems like more controllers are going into dehumanization, or at least using deeper control. It’s not just the big things, the way you described the demonstration. It’s the little things, too.”

Sawyer stares at Elaine as if she’s started speaking in tongues. Tony settles his chin onto his hands and says, “Please elaborate.”

A slight blush rises in Elaine’s fair cheeks under the unexpected regard of two masters of the craft, but she soldiers on. “I don’t know if either of you had noticed in the time you spend at the booth, but our lady has left us certain orders that make us stick out a little less among the other... subjects. If someone asks any of us-except for Mary, of course- to fuck them, we have to do it, with one catch: it has to be done politely. It can be phrased as an order as long as they say please, or it can be made as a request, but if a bald demand is made, we can and will refuse.”

“And are authorized to use force as necessary to defend ourselves if the refusal is not taken seriously,” Rose adds. Sawyer’s gaze turns to her, and she shrugs. “Remember the role I play here. Even subordinate controllers were ultimately slaves in Ann’s outfit. It heightens the disguise.”

Elaine waits until she’s sure that Rose is done, then continues, “Two years ago, I was propositioned thirty times, four of them successful, and Lena was propositioned eighteen times, two of them successful. Last year, it was twenty-six with two successful for me and eleven with one success for Betty. This year, the numbers were even more ridiculous. I was propositioned forty-six times, and Chantel thirty-three.” She pauses dramatically. “With no successes. Not a single person even thought of saying please this year. Seventeen of those seventy-nine tried using hypnotic force- Erickson’s handshake trick, shiny objects, confusion inductions, you know the tricks of the trade better than I do. We repelled them all, though Chantel did send one guy to the emergency room with a broken hand. She was a little on edge.”

“I’m not surprised. If I’d known Ellis would come out of his hole, I would have brought Della instead.”

“Ladies.” Tony’s voice is firm, and Elaine and Rose give him their full attention. “To answer your previous question, while there does tend to be a cycle in styles, I’ve never seen it taken to this extreme before. I suppose it was inevitable that dehumanization would become more popular, given the rise of technology. The methods are there and easier to obtain by the week, and the idea is more and more popular in mainstream culture. As we have all learned, power corrupts.”

“Don’t understand the appeal m’self,” Sawyer says. “Why take a nice soft gal and toss a whole bunch of metal on her, anyway? Takes all the fun out of things.” His hand reaches under the table, and a moment later, his thrall squeals and giggles.

“Control,” Rose says, at the same moment that Tony says, “Power.” Rose cedes the point and the floor with a graceful hand gesture, allowing Tony to continue, “The two greatest forces in the world are the equal, opposite, and inevitably connected powers of creation and destruction. Both are part of all our everyday lives. And our business is perhaps more involved in them than most. Our peers destroy minds and create new personas. We, and our allies, prefer not to destroy, even if we do create—” he gestures at Syndrome next to him. “Though for now she is a different person than she was before, when our business is concluded, she will return to her previous self, with Syndrome’s skills in the back of her mind for her to draw on.”

“Tony, you longwinded swindler, get to your point so we can call the waiter over and order dinner. I’m hungry enough to eat this table,” Sawyer says with a dangerous note in his voice.

“However, some are intoxicated by the power they hold,” Tony says as if Sawyer had not interrupted. “They take creation and destruction to new levels. Take, for example, Miss Mackey’s demonstration. In a few short minutes, she did both. She destroyed JJ Reed, an independent young woman, and created Express unit #4, a robotic thrall bound completely to her will. The normal levels of control are not sufficient for Miss Mackey and her ilk. They want more than the human body and mind can give. So they destroy what they find displeasing and rebuild it in a more gratifying image.”

Sawyer shakes his head, but says nothing until after he and the rest of the party place their orders and the waiter leaves. “Kids these days. Want everything on a silver platter. Ain’t no challenge in shuttin’ their free will off. Back in my day, you proved your power by how fast you made ‘em want to be yours, and how much they wanted it. You didn’t take their will, you tricked the suckers into givin’ it to you. ‘Scuse me, ladies,” he apologizes, as Elaine fixes him with an angry look, Rose glares a hole through the wall just above his head, and even Syndrome and Miss Behave look vaguely irritated. “Jumpin’ Jehosephat, you’d think we’d never talked shop before!”

“You rarely remind us of how long you’ve been in the business, and how you once preferred to go about it,” Tony replies.

Rose takes a deep breath, then another. When she finally speaks, her voice is quiet, measured, and full of slowly simmering rage. “I was perilously close to being one of those suckers myself, Sawyer. I would have been if not for a unique combination of natural gifts. Think for a moment where this operation might be if Ann Abbott were still the mistress of Colorado. Think of what you’ve been able to do with the Bower as a fallback, or with Gardener Retrieval Services as the jumpstart to an elimination. Remember that I came into this business out of self-defense, not self-gratification. Then, if you want to start a fight, look me in the eye and say so.”

“Easy there, Rose!” Sawyer says, hands in the air. “Ladies, seems like you all missed my point. Back then, it was all about the show. You didn’t give ‘em a show, it didn’t matter what you had. I’ll say that for Jo Mackey- she knows how to put on a show, but that’s all I’ll say for her. She’s a sick’un, and she’ll do more damage than a twister before she’s done.”

“But first, the matter of Ram, as we do have many of our resources on both sides of the Atlantic enmeshed in the investigation, and the scale of their predations makes them a more dangerous foe than Miss Mackey. The... abruptness of her arrival has shaken us, but we must remain focused. Sawyer, have you been able to obtain a sample of Ram’s wares?”

“A sample? Hell, Tony, I ain’t even found an order form yet! You got to know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody, and I haven’t worked my way that far down the food chain. Some mighty unpleasant folks down that way. The kinds of guys I wouldn’t have had any dealings with even before I took up with your business.”

“Such secrecy does not bode well for us. And you, Rose? Have your leads panned out?”

Rose shakes her head. “Not yet. We keep arriving a day late and a dollar short. They’ve gotten cagier. They almost have to repeat the mistake that turned us on to them for us to move any further ahead, unless you’ve heard something from Interpol.”

“Alas, I have not. I fear that their wares are being peddled in places where we have few connections. I would almost commend them for their courage in opening new markets, were their ways not so repugnant.”

“It’s not just the victims who are becoming less human,” Elaine says softly, as if she’s been mulling it over for some time. “It’s the controllers, too. I mean, I gave the stats showing the sharp decrease in manners in the last couple of years, but it’s more than that. I saw a lot of people interested only in the power they could get. Like they didn’t remember they were dealing in people- or worse, like they did and they enjoyed it. How human is that?” She looks at Tony and Sawyer. “I don’t think either of you would have gotten into what you call the business if you were starting today. You wouldn’t have enough of an edge, no matter how good you are now. My lady only got involved because she had no other choice, and even she occasionally does things that... make me uncomfortable.”

“You got a good eye, kid. Good eye and a keen mind. I like that in you. Don’t look at me like that, kid. Might not act it sometimes, but I do know how to look beyond a pretty package- though you got a pretty nice package yourself, don’t mind me sayin’ so.”

Elaine smiles shyly. “Call it a blessing from St. Joseph,” she laughs. But something haunted remains in her eyes, making her serious face even more pensive. It’s Rose’s turn to reassure her, whispering in her ear until she nudges Elaine out of this mood.

Fortunately, the food comes a few moments later, and any serious discussion is tabled while they eat. “Once again, my dear lady, I must extend my apologies. As Sawyer can tell you, I questioned your selection of this restaurant, but despite the look of the place, they serve some of the most authentic French cooking it has been my pleasure to enjoy. You have once more proven that appearances can be deceiving.”

“I’d gladly take credit for the find, but Miranda- you remember her, the little brunette Mick brought to me summer before last- told me about it before she moved out. She decided to go into archaeology, you know. She’s on a dig in... Greece, I think? No, Turkey- they think they’ve really found Troy this time. But she was originally from Chicago. She knows all the spots and gave me a list. I do my best to use my resources to the fullest before I have to give them up.” Rose smiles faintly.

“Ah, that reminds me- I had a chance encounter with a young lady in New York who happened to mention your name- a Corinne Novak?”

“Oh, she did marry him! She was Cori Webber when I found her...”

The conversation soon descends into light social fare as the three controllers catch up on common acquaintances made in their line of work. While there are enough former (and even sometimes common) subjects to discuss, there are also old friends and allies whose paths they had once again crossed: the Thompsons, mischievous Mistress Madeline, Devin and Philomela, Professor Weis, the inscrutable Marie Bouchard, and others doing what they could to make the world a safer place. Elaine eats quietly, her hands unsteady enough that every so often her fork misses its target and squeals against the plate as her gaze darts around the room, watching each spy in turn.

Perhaps Tony catches some of Elaine’s discomfort, or perhaps his patience has worn thin. He signals sharply for the waiter to clear the empty dishes and bring the bill. “Rose, Sawyer, we will not have our usual discussion regarding payment. Because of the current economic climate, I find I am more advantageously placed in terms of funds than even our clever businesswoman.”

Rose laughs. “As if you’ve ever let the lady pay anyway.”

“And you’ll never hear me complaining if someone’s of a mind to pick up the check,” Sawyer agrees.

“Then it is settled.” Tony slips several large bills into the leather holder and hands it to the waiter. “We would greatly appreciate if you and your colleagues did your best to forget that we were here this evening.”

“No problem, sir,” the waiter replies after looking in the holder. “Have a good night!”

The group leaves together, Rose once again adopting the subservient body language of a traditional thrall as they pass the spies scattered throughout the restaurant and enter the empty lobby. Sawyer shakes his head. “All the money in the world won’t do that boy a bit of good if those Russkies or Clay’s brat get their paws on him. Shoulda let me put some kinda lock in his head.”

“He will know nothing that they deem of interest, and he is neither attractive enough nor disposable enough for them to risk delving so deep that they must keep and use him. Rose’s... little show, as you termed it, will assure her and her subject’s safe passage. You are known as an ineffectual eccentric easily bought off with beautiful women and blue pills- if you can forgive my bluntness.”

“No need,” Sawyer laughs. “I’ve been tellin’ that tale long enough it oughta be believed.”

“And I am feared enough that only someone on the level of a Lancaster or a Barnevsky would dare, and they would not have gotten where they are without the cunning to execute a better plan. As well, should someone dare, we are all more than capable of defending ourselves, both through our own skills and through those of our servants. We are, of necessity, well prepared to deal with our less scrupulous colleagues.” Tony checks his watch. “I regret that I must now take my leave of you- my flight tomorrow is early and I have many notes to download from Syndrome. Sawyer, I hope to hear news from you soon regarding Ram. Rose, as always, it has been a pleasure, and Marlee will be waiting for you in the airport lounge when you and your young lady arrive for your flight home.”

“Take care of yourself, y’hear?” Sawyer answers, returning Tony’s firm handshake. “And you too, Rose. I think I’ll be gettin’ on m’self. It’s awfully late for an old man like me to be out. I think I’ll have Miss Behave here put me to bed one last time ‘fore she heads home herself. Don’t be a stranger.”

“Harder advice than you think,” Rose says with a laugh. “I’ll do my best, though. Try not to wear the girl out too much- that goes for both of you.” She hesitates, then thinks better of whatever she might have said and lets the men leave, the beautiful blondes following them docilely. “C’mon, Elaine. It’s been a long day.”

She heads for the elevator, Elaine following along behind her.