The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

The beauty pageant starts: The beauty pageant is boring: He said ‘Good luck’: The tubes: The beauty pageant results: Honored guests: The auction: The Paris division start operations: The Paris division collect their first specimen: Lip readers are useful: The Franchise runs away: The Strip: Alicia worries about Kylie: Selling prices are not understood: The Steeplechase: Alicia is happy: Bidding was brisk: Alicia makes a prediction: The enemy attacks:

Georgia was quick and professional in getting the excited audience focusing back on her after the High Wire Act. “It’s now time for the Beauty Pageant” she announced while the excited competitors walked on the stage dressed in the outfits they wore to the show.

“There are a number of rounds, just like a traditional contest,” Georgia went on, “culminating in their bikinis. Then we’ll all discover the prizes,” she said with a grin.

Alicia thought this was a bit out dated, but she was confident things would change. And on looking at the competitors again, wondered where Vickie was. But she never got past wondering and sat back with her attendants to enjoy the show.

This scene was intensely watched and bookmarked by Dr. Hart who had hastily added it to her worksheet when Victoria J. McMurray was removed from the games by Dr. Martinez.

And the show was, as Alicia thought, outdated and, well, a bit boring. OK, she had a personal interest but even so. The girls paraded themselves before the judges and then around the audience in the outfits they wore to the club. Then there were ball-gowns, then casual and then questions. After which they showed themselves off in bikinis. Their expressions told everyone they were loving this and lapping up all the attention.

Alicia thought the questions hilarious. All the competitors had to answer questions on world peace and family and relationships with quick one paragraph answers which were obviously unprepared. She was proud that, in her opinion, Kylie and Pat held their own in every round and said as much. Melissa agreed but Jeffrey, amazingly, commented on another contestant, Barbara S Kelly, who, in his opinion, had performed better. Alicia decided she liked that. She wanted proper conversation with people who had their own opinions and Jeffrey, at least, looked like being a proper companion. Melissa then excused herself and showed Alicia a drop down menu that took her to the up to date odds being offered on the games. And she could also make personal bets with any of the members if she so chose. Alicia looked closely at the odds, noted that a lot of others agreed with her, consequently her friends both showed bad odds. But she had a small $100 bet on both Kylie and Pat anyway. After all, they were her friends. She looked at Jeffrey, daring him to say something.

“Good luck,” was what he said.

Were they still her friends? A moment’s reflection made her realize they still were. She smiled when she realized they would be even better friends from now on. If they ever met again that is.

The show was so slick it seemed to end quickly. Now there was just the judging and the winners’ announcements. Georgia told the competitors to leave the stage and dress in the outfits they wore coming to the show while the judges deliberated. There was a comedian, a good one, who came on for ten minutes or so until the judges and the girls were ready. Once he finished, the girls came back on stage dressed in the clothes they arrived in, all looking very excited and enthusiastic. Georgia, pointed out the clear plastic tubes around the stage which had just popped up from the stage and instructed each competitor to enter one so she could be ‘flown’ around the audience while the judges announced the winners. Again Alicia wondered what the club were using as each girl complied quickly and enthusiastically. In fact she started to compare what the Franchise could do to these girls with the ‘love potion’ they were prepared to offer to their members. She didn’t get that equation to balance, but decided not to mention it, well today anyway. Perhaps in the future.

Dr. Hart noted and bookmarked this cogitation.

Once the tubes were all occupied and the doors closed the competitors were shown the arm-tubes with the lever at the ends. This was their emergency stop in case they felt woozy or sick. Putting their arms down the arm-tubes and pulling the levers at the end would stop the canister and lower it to the ground there and then.

Once the competitors were slowly circling the audience, smiling and waving in their own little tubes, Georgia announced the judges’ decision. Alicia’s two friends did very well indeed, coming second and third, while the winner was Jeffrey’s choice. Alicia looked at him to see if he would crow about it. He just shrugged. Alicia liked that. She was starting to like Jeffrey.

Each girl was placed, right down to the last one, a girl called Betty J. Arthur. It was this girl’s tube that was brought back to the stage while all the others kept on circling. Ms. Arthur was brought to Georgia who announced that as Betty J. Arthur was last, she was the first to be sold. Ms. Arthur was held by her arms and carried to a collar on a pole which had appeared through a trapdoor. Ms. Arthur was locked in by simply fastening the collar round her neck and her head was pulled back by her hair so a ball-gag could be inserted and locked. The girls circling the audience started screaming, but they were simply raised higher so their cries didn’t disturb the event at all. They ended up just a little background buzz. Nothing really.

Suddenly, on the main screen and repeated throughout the area, a leaderboard appeared.

“And there are the up to date positions of our brave contestants,” Georgia announced. “Now girls,” she said, “you get your position in the game as your score, therefore it’s the lowest score you need to be aiming at. You will really want a low score if you get to the end games.” Alicia wondered if the competitors could hear this as they were so far up in the rafters. ‘They must know what they’re doing,’ she thought and dismissed that consideration from her mind.

Georgia spoke on, with a big smile on her face,

“Right, Ladies and Gentlemen, before anything else, I would like to introduce you to our honored guests, who each represent an allied business to ours. They are not in direct competition with us, so we do tend to co-operate with each other…

“First we have representatives from the Luv R Ranch” announced Georgia in an impressed voice. “Raison Ailleboust” she said as a spotlight centered on an immaculately coiffured chubby blonde lady who stood up to acknowledge the crowd’s applause. She appeared to be in her late thirties, but UTH research, detailed on the tablets, had her at 48. And “Marie Sevcikova.” Generous applause greeted this brown haired lady in her thirties, 33 to be precise. Again, immaculately groomed. She appeared to be the junior partner of this duo and the UTH research team had already confirmed this.

“Next we have Xiu Juan Ho” announced Georgia.

It was at this point that Alicia noted Georgia was pronouncing these names very well indeed. At least Alicia assumed so, as she couldn’t tell. In any case it was an order of magnitude better than most American announcers. Alicia was taking special note of these people as possible future contacts and made a mental note to meet with them tonight if an opportunity arose.

Jeffrey also pointed out to Alicia the information would be in her tablet whenever she wanted it.

“Ms Xiu comes to us highly recommended and is a representative of TLC Corporation. That’s ‘The Ling Corporation’ if any of you were wondering,” she went on. And her colleague is, Joanne A Reid. Both Ms. Xiu and Ms. Reid stood and bowed to the audience as they were applauded.

“Now we have Tikhon Kovalyov and Sviatoslav Baranov of Brothels Anonymous” Georgia announced. Two men stood and acknowledged the crowd’s applause. These two were markedly older than the previous guests, Mr Kovalyov looked in his 60s and Mr. Baranov in his 30s.

“Adam Sandness and Mille Olaussen of The 42 Club” announced Georgia. A man and a woman stood to receive the applause. While the man appeared to be in his 50s, the woman seemed to be in her early 20s if not her late teens. UTH reports put Mr. Sandness at 59 and Ms Olaussen at 27. Alicia made a judgement as to why this age disparity, as did a lot of people.

“And lastly, Morihiro Hanada and Kiho Miura of C.F. Incorporated, that’s California Films Incorporated,” announced Georgia. Again there was a distinct age differential, but not as marked as the previous guests. Mr. Hanada was and looked 50 while his colleague, Ms. Miura looked to be in her early 20s, but was actually 30. They both stood and bowed, again to the audience’s applause.

Once all the guests were introduced, Georgia reminded the audience that all relevant information was in their tablets. She went on to say,

“Each of our guests will be participating in tonight’s entertainment by bidding on the loser of each round. Ms. Arthur here is the loser of the first round so she will be sold first. Now, your tablets also contain information on each company that is bidding tonight as well as a complete biography of each lot and our bookie has already laid the odds, so if you want to participate, go ahead.”

Ms. Arthur was wheeled to the front of the stage, close to the bidders. Georgia started off the auction with the traditional bidders opening line,

“Now, what am I bid for this fine specimen of womanhood? Look at her ladies and gentlemen, check out the statistics and biography you already have. Our first loser is an exceptional specimen, just look at her, so let’s not have that traditional low price for the first auction of the evening. Think of your businesses, this lot is definitely worth a lot to each one of you, that’s obvious. So let’s set the first bid at $5,000. Any bids for $5,000?

Bidding started at $2,000. She went to Brothel’s Anonymous for $9,000. Ms. Arthur (looking as if she would be so indignant being sold for that price, but still crying, which rather spoiled the effect) was removed from the collar and taken off backstage where she was prepared for shipping to her new home.

“And let’s hear it for Mr. Leon Arthur Who donated Ms. Arthur for tonight’s entertainment,” Georgia went on excitedly. Spotlights highlighted a man with a naked beauty at each side at the back of the hall and the audience applauded enthusiastically.

“Can you tell us why you donated such a magnificent gift,” Georgia asked him.

“I want to relocate to New York and she didn’t,” he answered. The crowd applauded.

Alicia knew she had no experience at all with selling people but she thought that was an awfully low price. She decided to wait and see what the others sold at.

Jeffrey coughed gently and started talking when he saw he had permission.

“One thing I feel you should understand, Ms. Travistock. We don’t sell our own, or do anything to them against their will. All the lots tonight are not members of this club. I thought I would mention this as Ms. Arthur is obviously married to Mr. Arthur. Or she was.”

“Thank you,” replied Alicia. “I had assumed that already, but it’s nice to have it confirmed.”

“That’s what we’re here for,” responded Jeffrey, indicating himself and Melissa. “Please feel free to ask any question at all. We will answer fully, or, if we cannot, for whatever reason, we will get someone who can.”

Alicia smiled at him and cast her attention back to the stage.

Once set up, with suitable cutouts, their new Paris clinic started running normally for public consumption while planning an abduction of their own for test purposes. They settled on a young lady who regularly took a walk in a park on the outskirts. The operation was a success. Dr. Martinez watched the whole thing live through hidden cameras in their ambulance, on their operatives and recordings taken by other employees in the streets. They zapped her with a taser like gun which scrambled the signals from her spine to her brain. This appeared to be the function of the original, which they developed easily from spying on the Propofol gang. Two ambulance operatives carried her on a stretcher to the ambulance in sight of concerned onlookers and she was driven away, but not far. They parked up in a quiet neighborhood and set to work on their captive.

This young girl was quickly stripped and hung on a Propofol harness they had copied. She was supported by a plastic coated steel back which curved upwards and split in two at one end. These two sections split and supported her legs, giving them total access to her vagina and anus, while the straight section supported her back. Her arms and legs were fastened to ropes attached to the upper corners of the frame. This meant she was totally accessible for their staff while not taking any weight on her wrists or ankles.

The effect of the disabling gun was obviously wearing off when the nurse, a highly experienced one in their employ, approached with a syringe. The nurse just started giving the drug when the girl woke up. The recordings showed she was fully conscious in an instant and somehow contrived to immediately free one arm (later investigation of the recording showed the girl to have dislocated her thumb in order to achieve this). She twisted and drove stiffened fingers into the nurse’s throat, resulting in the nurse collapsing and slowly drowning in her own blood.

The second nurse immediately tried to jump on her patient who simply removed the syringe from her arm and stabbed the second nurse straight in her eye. She went down screaming.

Their third, and final, employee, the driver, was in the driving seat, keeping a lookout. As he approached by clambering over the seats, the girl managed to free her good arm, free herself from the Propofol support and free one of the straps attached to her legs. The Franchise used quick release straps in order to speed up the whole process, and this worked against them. She didn’t have time to free her other leg so she slipped off the harness and swung down and up towards the driver, who was now in range. On her upswing she grabbed hold of their driver’s testicles with her good hand and pulled and twisted, dragging him down to the ground. She then proceeded to twist them off. He screamed all through this attack but was close enough for the girl to shut him up by finishing him off, while still upside down, with straight fingers to his throat with her damaged hand.

The girl showed Olympic athletic ability by freeing herself quickly and dealt with the second nurse, who was now whimpering on the floor, with a quick bare footed kick to her temple, killing her instantly.

Their examination of the recording proved to them that this girl was highly trained and very deadly. They also concluded, because of her reaction under extreme stress, that she was very experienced. This proved to be a problem, as they estimated her age to be in the early twenties. It was thought she must have been recruited into whatever organization she was in at an extraordinarily early age. Even so, her abilities bordered on the impossible.

She quickly dressed herself, being careful of her injured hand but showing no indication of the pain she must be suffering from, opened the rear doors and left, closing them behind her. Their street cameras picked her up again drunkenly walking back to the park, obviously her adrenaline spurt was wearing off, where she headed into a dense grove of trees, presumably to sleep off the drug. Dr. Martinez was amazed at this foresight, especially after such an experience, but more than that, was preparing to cut off his new Paris clinic in order to protect himself and his Franchise. This was a very expensive failure he was responsible for.

But the story didn’t end there. Eleven minutes after that girl left the ambulance, it was opened by another girl, this one had a remarkable beautiful face, but her beauty was marred by excessively big breasts. Those and the clothes she wore turning her more into a slut than a beauty. She looked around at the carnage with, he thought, remarkably astute and penetrative eyes, then closed the doors again. She was next seen meeting up with a Goth girl on the outskirts of the park. It looked like the Goth was hurrying towards the ambulance and this was confirmed when the slut stopped her and pointed towards the park instead.

The cameras followed them slowly taking the exact route, including the weaving, the original girl had taken. To this date they didn’t know how she was following her colleague so accurately. It was then Dr. Martinez told the cameraman to set off the drone. Once activated, his street employee manipulated it high over their targets, who eventually found the now sleeping girl.

They approached warily and had a small discussion before attempting to revive and question her. The slut and the Goth both, at the same time dived on her. The slut taking the legs and the Goth her arms. As soon as the first contact was made the unconscious girl started to writhe around but her colleagues knew how to deal with this as they pinned her arms and legs until eventually, some of their words got through. Once the injured girl realized who it was, she stopped struggling and the other two got off her. Then it was a fast question and answer session.

It was then Dr. Martinez had the drone maneuver lower down so they could get recordings of their lips, an idea that paid dividends. He could see the two rescuers talking urgently to the girl and the girl responding, presumably detailing what had happened. After a short while the drugged girl looked alarmed and said something to the Goth, who immediately left and scanned the surroundings for watchers. She did see one whom she ignored. Dr. Martinez later determined, by deduction, that he was one of theirs. How many operatives did they have on an instant’s notice? The Goth also included the skies in her scan and eventually saw the drone. Dr. Martinez immediately told the operator to set it on auto-hover and get out of there. That worked and he escaped unharmed. The Goth positioned herself under the drone and looked in vain for the operator. Then the drone died. They still didn’t know how.

Dr. Martinez used his lip readers to later work out what these three females were talking about. The French lip reader could work out the Goth girl, who was apparently French but speaking accented English, but nobody could lip read the other two. The images were sent round the firm and Merry, then a recent acquisition, who had non-voluntarily taken the lip reading course, came up with the answer. They were speaking broad accented English. The drugged girl was a Geordie and the voluptuous one was a Glaswegian. They were talking English in deference to the drugged girl who wasn’t thinking too straight apparently. The conversation was all about the attack and their immediate safety as well as getting as much information as possible about their attackers. From then ’till now nothing more had been heard of them.

They were named The Parisians by the hierarchy and the individual operatives were code named The Ninja, The Slut, The Goth and Street Man. Now, for the moment, Paris was forbidden to all employees, both for work and pleasure.

“Up there is the scoreboard,” announced Georgia. “These scores will be important for our contestants later,” announced Georgia. “Please note our scoring system is one where the lowest score is the leader.”

“Now on to our Second Game, which we call ‘The Strip. Competitors,” she shouted at the remaining competitors who were looking on frightened and scared, and who had been lowered to circling just above the audience and the floor they all stood on had turned transparent, “You will be disqualified and automatically sold if you start before the hooter. The game is to strip off all your clothes and jewelry. Once you have divested yourself of all your clothes and trinkets, and that includes your wedding rings as you’re not married any more, and thrown them out of the top of your tube, put your arms into the arm-tubes and pull the lever at each hand. That will set your time and light your green light. Well, all except the last one, who will light a red light. Anyone not totally naked will be disqualified and sold, as well as anyone with any clothes at all puddled in the bottom of the tube—and that includes your trinkets. And Audience—all items that drop to you from heaven are yours to keep. I hope you are into ladies panties,” she laughed. “That’s all well and good, but we have it on good authority that some of the jewelry coming your way is worth a lot of money. So watch out for manna from heaven.”

“Are you ready?” she shouted to the girls and immediately set off the hooter.

All the girls frantically tried to remove their clothes and jewelry but were hampered by the tube they were in. Alicia thought her friends would do well here. They were the youngest after all and therefore probably more limber. She watched in amusement as the competitors tried to undress themselves fast. A few were too fast and had dropped items of clothing to the bottom of their tubes. Eventually they worked out to remove all their clothes and jewelry then pick up the dropped items with their toes. The frantic obsession of the competitors together with the looks of panic on their faces struck deep in Alicia’s brain. She liked this. Liked it a lot.

Near the end Alicia noted Kylie was frantically trying to remove her bra. It was stuck and she couldn’t unfasten it.

“Strip it off like a jumper,” Alicia shouted at Kylie. She couldn’t understand why Kylie was doing this. Kylie could lose and what would people think of Alicia when her friend couldn’t just strip off a bra? What was Kylie thinking about?

If she had a bet on she looked like losing and friends just didn’t do things like that to friends, especially when her other friend already had a green light. But Alicia soon saw the funny side of things. After all, she didn’t have a bet on. Alicia smiled at Kylie because Kylie was such a snob about clothes yet here she was just about ripping off her bra to throw it out of the top of her tube and the look on her face was priceless. In the end Kylie managed the task literally seconds before the last light turned red. Kylie vomited then to the enjoyment of all. The vomiting Kylie was shown on a loop for the next few minutes which the crowd loved. They were getting into the swing of things now and were enjoying themselves immensely.

The positions came up…

The leaderboard changed…

“And Patricia Anderson improves by one place to take over the lead,” Georgia commented. “Jacqueline Roberts improved an impressive five places to fourth—Way To Go Girl. And Johanna Hall also made impressive gains, four places to second overall. The biggest loser is Kylie Hofer who dropped two places down to fifth equal from third. Watch out Kylie, this sort of performance will not get you to the winner’s enclosure. Concentrate girl. You don’t want to be sold, do you?”

Alicia was very pleased for Pat, but started to worry about Kylie. Her bra was a problem, but she should be able to overcome things like that and not just flap about it. She hoped Kylie would buck her ideas up. Alicia didn’t want her friends being sold this early on. That would be embarrassing. They should at least wait until the later rounds and one of them should win. That would be good, she thought. But, best of all would be if they helped each other all the way through and then competed against each other in the final. Alicia thought that would be the ideal finale to her evening. She could return home extremely happy if that happened.

Then the auction began. The loser, Barbara S Kelly looked to be a fine specimen of womanhood, tall, toned and obviously very well looked after judging by her overall taught look. Her donator, one Mrs. Trelawney, old money obviously, stood and took the applause when her donation was announced. She looked very pleased with herself. When asked she said, “She was trying for my job.” That pleased the crowd who again applauded and shouted some comments about job stealers.

The bidders were also impressed with this property and they competed with each other with alacrity, taking her price up to $27,000 before being bought by TLC.

Alicia wondered why this one fetched $27,000 while the first lot went for a mere $9,000. Those prices were still far too low but the discrepancy was baffling also. She searched her tablet for the bidders and found them. Apparently TLC were high end pet manufacturers. They sold human pets who literally were pets. It was a purely organic, highly labor intensive process as no drugs or Mind Control was used in the creation of the pet. The end result was a pet who would recognize certain hand gestures and words and would perform according to such instructions. All performances included sex, of course. Otherwise the pets were completely docile and mute. (Although still containing all their speech apparatus, pets, it appeared, just didn’t have the capacity to think about speech at all). Such pets were sold only to the uber-rich—purely as a status symbol, Alicia assumed. She wouldn’t be buying any when she reached that status.

Brothels Anonymous, on the other hand, were as the name suggested. They dealt in basic sex for cash or favors and consequently required multiple females, preferably as a job lot at a far cheaper rate per unit than TLC normally paid. Their motto seemed to be—never mind the quality, feel the width.

Ms. Kelly was being rolled out back stage when Georgia announced the next game.

“Next we have The Steeplechase”, she yelled above the crowd’s noise. “Bring all the competitors into the starting tube”, she ordered to someone. The tubes holding the remaining competitors were lowered from the heights and began rotating around the room again. One by one individual tubes were brought over the starting tube, when the girl’s tube bottom suddenly wasn’t there and the competitor fell the remaining few feet onto a padded floor.

Mary was playing close attention to Alicia during this episode. What she saw still confirmed her opinion of Alicia.

Each competitor barely had time to get up before the next one was dropped in. Very quickly the starting tube was crammed full of naked terrified women. Most were wondering how they could get out of this. A few were wondering how they could stand up.

“When the hooter goes”, instructed Georgia, the door will open and you will be looking at the course. All you have to do is get round it and not be last. Also”, she emphasized, “anyone not completing the course will be disqualified and sold. Running into the audience is an automatic disqualification. You will be disqualified and sold if you interfere in any way with the drones. The course is obvious as there are ample signposts telling you which way to go. That’s it. Competitors, are you ready” she called out unnecessarily.

While Georgia was milking this moment for the crowd’s entertainment, Cassie, sitting next to Mary, in the control room, activated the infrasound generator in the starting tube, tuning it to resonate at 19.9Hz, 0.3 Hz and 9 Hz. The effect was instantaneous. Those women wanted to get out of there.

Georgia prevaricated a bit more to get the competitors psyched up for the race, then gave the signal to open the door.

The competitors next to the door fell out and the rest were so close behind they fell onto the ones who were already down. It was mayhem from the start and the crowd loved it. But the competitors were still in range of the sonics and scrambled to their feet and started to run towards the first obstacle, the wall.

At eight feet high it was impossible without the climbing wall holds that were conveniently there. But, there were only five sets. Consequently, when the first group of competitors started climbing, they were perfectly positioned for the stragglers to pull them off the wall. Once down it was the stragglers who could climb, which they did, but only after ensuring the downed ones stayed down by judicious stomping.

Eventually some started to get to the top but were confronted with an eight foot drop to a water trough. Most hung by their hands and then dropped feet first into the water. Now they had to quickly negotiate the next obstacle which was another wall. But this wall was unclimbable as it was covered in barbed wire. The only way anyone could see was to dive down into the depths of the pool and go under the wall. They had to choose quickly as people were dropping in all the time and their lead was evaporating while they dithered.

They eventually dived down and found the way through was, indeed, under the wall. They emerged at the other side with a runway through the audience before them. On climbing out they started off along the course. Alicia admired the way the second wall bunched them all up together again. They were now running in a line with the last one still able to contend for the lead.

Alicia was enjoying this spectacle very much. It was live in front of her and she could see and hear and smell the competitors as they frantically tried to gain an advantage on anyone in reach. She could also see overviews and close-ups on her tablet and on the giant screens fitted along the walls. Nothing was missed and everything was being recorded by the multitude of fixed cameras alongside the drone cameras which were able to get right into the action.

However, she only realized her table was directly on the track when the first two competitors went racing past her. In fact, she was so close she could reach out and touch them, and some people were doing just that. Alicia saw the competitors’ faces when that happened and shook her head. Didn’t they know this show was for the audience? Competitors that tried to shake off their audience wouldn’t last very long.

Alicia heard the main group before she saw them properly. All she saw before they rounded the bend and pelted past her table was a few heads bobbing up and down. When she saw those, she eagerly watched for the pack and was not disappointed. They were noisy, grunting and wheezing and swearing and smelly. The smell was surprising and hit her before they arrived. It was exciting watching them approach her table and then sweep past. She saw Pat overtaken by being smacked in her face from one competitor, but Pat had the presence of mind to grab that bitch’s hair once and pull hard, bringing her down. Pat took that opportunity to stomp on her stomach as she went on with the race.

Alicia loved the fact her friends were performing and competing for her entertainment and vocally egged them on. Just after Pat stomped on that bitch, one of the competitors fell (well, probably was pushed) directly onto Alicia’s table, sliding the table into Alicia and spilling all the drinks. Alicia screamed at her and threw the remains of her drink into that stupid bitch’s face. Then she pushed her back so that she fell onto her back on the track, where the last two of that pack took the opportunity of getting a good solid stomp in while they could. Alicia screamed at her to get up and back into the race. It took her a few seconds before being able to get up and stagger after them. Alicia adored the look of sheer desperation on her face. ‘That’ll teach her to fall on my table,’ she thought, her soaked clothes totally forgotten.

They came to a fork and the signpost said to go right, which they did. Alicia noticed that it would be easy to reverse that signpost and wondered if the competitors would notice that as well. She felt sure her friends would, after all, nobody could say she had stupid friends. However all the competitors would be able to see the signpost being changed so they all went the right way.

Alicia was totally enjoying how the ones with large tits were coping with the race. A couple were running while holding their tits, while the others were just letting them swing—sometimes those tits gave themselves a clap. ‘That must hurt’, she thought.

Rounding that bend directed them on to the upper levels, so these athletes had to run up the bespoke staircase set up for them. It appeared that the designers had studied medieval castles because those stairs were all at different heights and lengths, making it impossible to get into a rhythm. And they were steep. This suited two of the athletes, Kylie and Tanya according to the commentator, who surged on ahead. Presumably they were both far fitter than the rest.

The action was captured by cameras at fixed positions as well as camera drones that flew in very close to their faces at times in order to get an impressive close up. The girls tried to ignore them, but it became apparent that a few girls were afraid of them. It was these girls that seemed to attract the most drones.

Kylie was ahead and near the top but now going very slowly when Tanya grabbed hold of her ankle and pulled. Kylie fell down to the step below Tanya, who then stopped and jumped onto Kylie’s stomach. Kylie vomited up the rest of her stomach’s contents while Tanya went on alone. Alicia screamed in rage at Tanya, who went to the top alone. Just past the top the route did a zig zag and a step after the zag the road gave way underneath Tanya and she fell down a spiral tube, much to the delight of the audience who applauded this unexpected event. Tanya bottomed out on a crash mat. Getting up quickly she looked around. The only item there was a rope ladder back to the top. So Tanya started to climb. When she was well on her way, she saw another competitor spiral down onto the crash mat. This was Kylie who followed Tanya up the rope ladder.

The crowd was surprised when the rest of the competitors didn’t trigger that particular trap, but went on running and wheezing over it. Tanya emerged through a trapdoor in the track just after the last competitor past and went running after them. Kylie emerged a little later to continue the race in last position by about sixty feet.

The competitors quickly arrived at the down leg. This was steep and a test of the athletes’ leg muscles. The first two discovered how difficult this was by falling and rolling down to the next bend. They were overtaken before they managed to get up. All the while Kylie was catching them up, her athletic training paying off for her. Tanya had already caught the pack up and was now somewhere in the middle. The other competitors didn’t show any signs of recognizing that something was off here. They just ran as if their lives depended on it.

Once back on ground level, they immediately faced four cloth tunnels, just like dogs face at Crufts. The leaders didn’t hesitate but dived straight in and crawled through, followed quickly by the rest. The tunnels were rather small and their progress was easily discerned. Alicia winced at the thought of crawling through those tunnels.

Dr. Hart immediately picked up on that and made a note. She also bookmarked the recording. ‘We’ll probably have to desensitize you sometime’ she thought.

On emerging into the open air again, the contestants faced a large pool filled with baby lotion. The first ones jumped in and started to wade across but were jumped on part way across by their rivals whose basic tactic seemed to be get close and pull their hair until they fall backwards into the lotion. The scene turned into an erotic fight of some kind with, somehow, Tanya Hoelscher and Mary Hitchcock pulling themselves out of the pool at the far end on their own. They ran off together.

The rest all seemed to manage to get across and emerged from that trial at about the same time and off they went after the two leaders.

The race now consisted of a number of blind bends, some doubling back on themselves, but all coated in some invisible friction negater. The first two had long since discovered this and were warily progressing, but the following pack discovered it anew by slipping and sliding straight into the audience. The audience loved this and laughed heartily at these escapades, seeing them trying to get back quickly from under a table they just crashed into and hoping against hope this didn’t count against them.

Two competitors, Gladys Elmore and Marcy Freeman, were near the end of their tether and were dropping back markedly now. This was noticed by Jacqueline Roberts who looked like she thought nothing about it, until, a few bends on, they came to a tee junction. It was signposted to the right and they all followed that. But crafty Jacqueline turned the sign round so it pointed left. Fortunately the words ‘Race Route’ were printed on both sides. Having taken that time Jacqueline went off in pursuit of the other competitors.

Strangely, Mary Hitchcock, who was second at the time, had the same idea just before Jacqueline, but the sign was fixed in the one position and she couldn’t move it. Perhaps her efforts freed it from whatever was sticking so Jacqueline could move it easily.

When Gladys and Marcy arrived at the tee junction, they took the left turn. They were eying each other up and it was obvious they knew the other had to be beaten at all costs. But their energy levels were so low they seemed not to be able to do anything about it. A few paces down the left route a trapdoor opened beneath their feet and they disappeared from the audience’s view.

The race ended round the next bend, as soon as Jacqueline Roberts crossed the finish line.

“What an incredible spectacle”, shouted Georgia to the crowd. “Let’s have a big hand for all the magnificent contestants who gave us such a great thrill”, she cried. The audience responded enthusiastically.

“And Pat Anderson retains her lead overall after a very strong performance. The biggest gain came from Mary Hitchcock—congratulations Mary”, Georgia said, “a sterling performance you should be proud of”.

“But, oh dear Jacqueline. You cleverly changed the sign and fooled Gladys and Marcy, but you fooled them into disqualifying themselves. And that means you are last Jacqueline. You were too clever my dear. You will be sold as well”.

Two employees took hold of Jacqueline’s arms as she screamed abuse it Georgia and the whole crowd. The crowd loved this and screamed back at her. In all the noise she was taken off to the stage to be collared with Gladys and Marcy.

After a while, once the audience had quietened down somewhat, Georgia said, “And let’s have a big hand for the gallant losers, Jacqueline Roberts, Marcy Freeman and Gladys Elmore, who will be sold off now”. The audience went wild again.

The competitors were immediately taken off backstage, while the scoreboards changed…

Alicia was happy her friends had made it through to the next round, then realized she had missed their sponsors’ acknowledgements. No matter, it was recorded.

Bidding was brisk. Jacqueline Roberts and Gladys Elmore went for $8,500 and $9,000, with the main bidders being Brothels Anonymous and The 42 Club who won one each. But Alicia was interested in the bidding for Marcy Freeman, who was sold for $20,500 to The 42 Club after a fierce fight with TLC.

What was it about this Marcy Freeman that fetched so much while the others, much the same in Alicia’s eyes, went for much less. And, Alicia was noticing a difference between the bidders. Some, The Luv R Ranch and Brothels Anonymous made bids on every lot, but would only go so far and no higher. This implied to Alicia that their profits per unit were lower than the others. This also meant that these firms’ profits would be more in the quantity side, while the higher bidders went for quality.

Not quite, she thought. That’s only true if their profits are comparable. She needed to see their overall profits before making such a judgement. But she could make working assumptions, to be confirmed or denied when additional facts came her way. And she assumed her initial hypothesis was correct. It felt right and that was all she had to go on.

She checked those firms out from the information on her tablet.

Brothels Anonymous were, basically, a stereotypical brothel operation, operating in Russia and Eastern Europe. This would imply, at least to her mind at this time, she reminded herself, a low cost per unit with as many units as possible would be the way to go. She reasoned these people would be out of the remaining auctions as, she assumed, the last batch would tend to go for higher prices.

The Luv R Ranch, on the other hand, had a very different modus operandi. Their girls fought to the death in all or nothing fights televised for their patrons. ‘Those patrons must pay high fees to make this work,’ Alicia thought. ‘They must go through a lot of girls.’ Even with uber-rich patrons, Alicia assumed they couldn’t afford to pay a high price for their merchandise. ‘And how on earth do they get away with it,’ she thought. ‘They must have a lot of bodies to account for and dispose of. After pondering for a while, Alicia decided if she was in charge, she would set up an operation in some third world country, or in some desperately poor area in a second or perhaps first world country, and simply abduct the girls to order. That would keep their costs down to a reasonable level she thought. And without a full cost analysis she recognized she was speculating here, she hoped it was informed speculation though. But that would mean they were prepared to pay way over the odds here, in this auction. Was there some agreement between them and the Franchise? She wondered whether or not there was a hidden quid pro quo there. If there was, she would never discover it tonight, so she filed it as interesting speculation, to be reinvestigated if and when additional information was available. It also might explain the very low prices each girl was selling for.

Mary noted her intense thinking and, from the context as well as knowing what Alicia was checking on her tablet, correctly deduced the broad thrust of her thoughts. She made a note and bookmarked it, adding another mental tick on Alicia’s checklist.

Or, perhaps, The Luv R Ranch had another, more profitable use for the merchandise they were bidding for here. That was another interesting thought she filed away for later. Perhaps she could see some sort of a pattern in the items they were bidding for. She decided to check that out later. There wasn’t the time to do that sort of thing now. And besides, it would be obvious to all and sundry what she was doing. Alicia preferred to have more information than others thought she had. She felt more confident that way.

Anyway, based on that introspection, Alicia made a working prediction that The Luv R Ranch would want fighters at the lowest price possible and others, for some other purpose, at around 8 to 9 thousand dollars, no higher. As soon as she worked that out she realized they would want Kylie for their operation. After all, Kylie was a highly proficient Tai Kwan Do expert. OK, she wasn’t competing at the highest level, but she was winning competitions and was tipped to be future Olympic material. Alicia checked the betting and by the odds realized a lot of people had come to the same conclusion. It wasn’t worth her while to bet at those odds. She made another mental note not to underestimate her UTH colleagues at any time.

Alicia realized Georgia was announcing again.

He was there. Dr. Martinez immediately flipped over the button’s safety cover and stared at the screen, his thumb hovering, ready to press.