The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

April 28th, 2021

Valhalla Shores.

Even the name sounded pretentious as fuck, Andy thought to himself.

The location was on the south side of Pacifica, and the entire area had been walled off, and not in a discreet way, either. Highway 1, which had originally run down almost right against the coastline, had been diverted to run around the newly erected walled-in city of Valhalla Shores, so it could run up to the waterfront.

It looked less like a modern city and more like a military base, with razor wire and gun towers atop the fencing.

“Jesus,” Andy muttered beneath his breath. “It’s Fortress California.”

“That’s some pretty intense external security they’ve got going on here, boss,” Melody said, trying to scope out the perimeter while Lexi was attempting to find the place to drive into. It was almost as if they’d gone out of their way to hide the entrance on the north side, and he had to expect the entrance on the south side would’ve been just as difficult. “This isn’t light local security. This is Fort Knox level shit here. I’ve been on forward operating bases with less intense borders.”

“How the hell you expect we’re going to get onto this base, boss?” Lexi asked him.

“I’m Civilian Oversight for everything Quaranteam related, Lexi,” Andy said with a grin. “That means I’m supposed to be showing up around this stuff and poking my nose into everything. I’ll bet you $20 we’re on this base within twenty minutes.” He grabbed his iPad and flipped the leather case to open it, taking out the Pencil to make it look more like a clipboard.

“You’re on, boss,” Lexi said.

“I’ll take a piece of that action,” Melody said. “If you don’t have clearance, you don’t have clearance, so they’re just going to turn us away.”

“Watch me Karen, Mel,” Andy laughed, as the Model X finally found a gate to drive up towards, a couple of soldiers approaching the car, as Andy rolled down the window.

“You can’t be here, sir,” the woman whose nameplate read Martinez said. “This is a highly restricted area.”

“Of course it’s a highly restricted area,” Andy said, putting on his best indignant face, as he pulled out his wallet, hanging it to the woman. “They’re doing Quaranteam serum research in there, which is why I’m here. I’m Andy Rook, a member of the Civilian Oversight Group for all Quaranteam research, and I’m here to do a surprise inspection of your base and what you’re working on in regards to the serum.”

“We don’t have any notice to expect you, Mister Rook,” Airman Martinez said, looking a little nervous, looking at her partner, who offered a little shrug. “I’ll have to call the C.O.”

“You do that,” Andy said, swiping on his tablet over to a stopwatch app. “Meanwhile, I’m just going to start a timer here, so that I can put in my report how long I was delayed at the gate, if there’s an attempt to cover up whatever it is you’re working on in there from the people who are supposed to goddamn know about it.” He was actually relishing the opportunity to get into the role of a pompous asshole who assumed his presence was allowed anywhere. He swiped back from the stopwatch app to his notes app. “Let me get the names down. Martinez. Aaaaaand White. Got it.”

“You don’t need to write our names down, sir,” Airman White said, as Airman Martinez had gone into the booth to call to the base’s commanding officer. “We’re just doing our jobs.”

“Oh I’m sure you are, Airman,” Andy said, continuing to scrawl notes on his iPad. “But you’ll have to forgive me, I’m just doing mine. And when the President of the United States of America says she wants you to be part of the team keeping an eye on what’s being done in terms of Quaranteam serum research, you can imagine that made me take it all very deadly seriously.”

“Yes sir. Sorry, sir. I’m sure it won’t be long, sir.”

“What’s been made worse is the fact that I’m also afraid you’re keeping American citizens hostage here, and not letting them out, nor even letting them make phone calls,” Andy said, not looking up, still focusing on his scribbling on the iPad. “My friend Phil Pak lives within these walls, and he didn’t show up at my wedding, nor has he returned any of my phone calls for months now, so I’m starting to think that I should contact the President and have an entire platoon of Air Force Security Services come down and pry this place apart down to the studs.”

“I’m certain that won’t be necessary, sir,” Airman White said nervously. “It’ll just be a few more minutes. I’m sure the General is just explaining where to take you first.”

“I hope for your sake that’s true, Airman, because the longer this takes, the more I’m going to suspect you’re all trying to conceal something from me, which I can’t imagine the President is going to react well to.”

“Sir, as far as I know, they don’t have anything to hide from people here, but we’re just gate guards, not scientists,” Airman White sighed. “Look, here comes Martinez now.”

“Alright, Mr. Rook,” Airman Martinez said. “The first thing I’m going to do is temporarily confiscate your cellphones. They’ll be returned to you when you leave the base. Then I’m going to hop into my Jeep and lead you over to the General’s Office and take you in to see her. After you’ve met with her, I’m going to be your escort and I’ll accompany you to any part of Valhalla Shores you want to see, including going to visit your friend Mister Pak. Is that acceptable to you?”

“It’s a start,” Andy sighed, as he, Melody and Lexi handed over their cellphones, which were put into a small bag by Airman Martinez that she handed over to Airman White for safe keeping. “Let’s get going.” He rolled up the window as Airman Martinez moved over to head to a Jeep parked next to the booth, as White started to open the gate for them to drive in. Once they were past the gate, Andy held out his hand, and Melody reached into her pocket, grabbing her wallet before pulling out a twenty, putting it in Andy’s hand.

“I’ll pay you when we’re back home, boss,” Lexi said. “Right now, I’m on high alert.”

The inside of Valhalla Falls was not at all what Andy expected to see. In almost every direction, there were very new condominium complexes, stackable buildings three or four stories tall, with rows of garages on the ground floor, or small businesses on the ground floor instead. None of the structures could’ve been from before the lockdown, and everything felt almost uncomfortably new. While the places could show signs of individuality here and there, there was a strange conformity to the structures, as if most of them were built off of the same template, with the same amount of room. There were some variations here and there, but for the most part, the uniformity felt off-putting.

“Talk about a McCity,” Andy muttered to himself. “Don’t get me wrong—I like the first floor commerce, upper floors real estate, but, c’mon… a little variety ain’t gonna kill ya.”

“Looks like it’s only part of the town, boss,” Lexi said. “If you look out that way, looks like a lot of unique homes, well, more like mansions, like a more open-air version of New Eden.”

“’Cause that’s what we needed more of,” Andy grumbled.

The car continued in through the city, although Andy could see a number of soldiers in camo, either training or patrolling, he couldn’t be quite sure, as they approached the center of the city, where a series of five buildings eight or nine stories tall made a central spire, a helipad on top the tallest in the center. The five buildings were all sharp lines and no curves, wedge angles all over the place, with one-way mirrored glass on all the exterior surfaces, wedge like corners jutting out in the mid sections every other floor, like the building was some off-kilter rotation puzzle. The exteriors had been painted grey, or maybe had just been left as exposed concrete, but there were streaks of dark brown along them, the effects of the ocean air slowly attacking the building’s facades.

There was a sign in front that said “Opprimo Research—an Air Force, National Security Agency, Invincible Strategic Investments, Mandible Technologies & Ingsoc Communications partnership” with each of the five organizations’ logos beneath it.

“That’s not ostentatious at all,” Melody said.

“Designed to intimidate on sight,” Andy replied. “A modern form of brutalist architecture. Or did you mean the list of the companies?”

“Well, you’ve got military, informational security, financial appropriations, a science-is-all thinktank and a media conglomerate with a very strange name,” Lexi said.

“It’s not strange at all if you know where it comes from,” Melody said. “It’s from Orwell’s 1984, and Ingsoc was Oceania’s political system, one that venerated the ruler above all else. Cult of personality taken to the extreme, if you will.”

“Sound familiar?” Andy asked, as Lexi parked the vehicle next to where Airman Martinez had parked her Jeep, in an area marked Visitor Parking that looked like it had never seen a single vehicle parked in it before. “You best not be trying to keep me from anything, Airman Martinez,” Andy said as he got out of the car. “I’ve got to make a report about this mess to the President within a week, and so far, I’m starting to feel like I’m on rails.”

“Just a little bit longer, Mister Rook,” Airman Martinez said. “You need to meet with General Ibanez and she’ll clear us to go wherever you want within the base and see whatever it is or whoever it is you want to see while you’re here, so you can see we’ve got nothing to hide.”

“How many in your Team, Martinez?” Lexi asked, walking on one side of Andy while Melody walked on the other. They’d relaxed a little bit, seeing as they were on a secure base, but still wanted to make sure they were doing their duty as his protectors.

“Eleven, ma’am.”

“You happy?”

“As Larry, ma’am.”

“Who’s Larry?” Melody asked.

“Just an expression one of the other members of my Team taught us, ma’am,” Martinez said. “She’s former UK military. I just liked how it sounded. Ma’am.”

“Carry on, Airman,” Andy said as they made their way into the building. They were stopped at the entrance to the building, and needed to check in, being issued RFID visitor passes that they were told to keep on them at all times, so the base could keep track of where they were going.

Andy wasn’t surprised that people were looking at them quite intently, but he was surprised at how little information about what this company was or what they were doing was visible anywhere. It was the most bland and nondescript building inside he’d ever seen. The walls, the floor, the lack of artwork—it was like looking at an empty movie set that hadn’t been dressed yet, far too immaculate to be used or lived in, and yet, the place had clearly seen foot traffic. The floors seemed a little less new, less shiny than the rest of it.

People were walking these halls.

They walked down the hallway and past a second security gate, still being escorted by Martinez who didn’t seem intent on leaving their sides the whole time, and up to an office that had no prestige, no pomp, no circumstance, nothing marking as a position of power, just a door that read “General Ibanez” on it.

Martinez knocked on the door before a voice inside said, “Come in.”

The Airman opened the door and gestured for Andy, Melody and Lexi to head inside.

The office was a welcome change of pace from everything they’d seen so far. It was a well-decorated room, an American flag on one side, a desk in the center, with a single computer on top of it and a telephone. There were a couple of thick red cables running from the computer and the phone into the wall. Behind the desk sat a woman in her early forties, dressed in military uniform. She looked up at Andy like he was just another person passing through, not judgmental, nervous, or angry. “Mr. Rook, I presume?”

“That’s me, General,” Andy said to her. “I would apologize about being unannounced—”

She laughed softly. “Don’t worry about it, Mr. Rook. If you told us in advance, it wouldn’t be a surprise inspection now, would it?” She stood up from her desk as she looked over his two bodyguards. “I’m guessing this is your security detail?”

“Alexis Coleman, formerly of the CIA, General,” Lexi said.

“Melody Park, former Army Ranger, ma’am,” Melody added.

“Couple of very capable people you got there, Mister Rook,” the General said. “How’d that happen?”

“One’s a recommendation from a member of my staff, the other’s a rescue,” Andy joked. “Melody joined our family after wanting to leave her previous partner, who’d been one of the people that had been manipulating the Oracle system over at New Eden.”

“Which one?” the General asked.

“Covington, ma’am,” Melody answered.

“Ah,” she said, bouncing her eyebrows. “The utter asshole. I remember reading about what he’d done and I do not blame Dr. DeMarco’s taking off of his hand in retaliation for what he did to you ladies. We aren’t doing anything like that over here at Valhalla Shores, despite all the secrecy.”

“So let’s start there,” Andy said. “Why all the secrecy?”

“There have been elements of the kind of research we’re doing in some of the elements of what Dr. Marcos and Dr. McCallister invented, and we’re pushing the boundaries of things that the nanobots are capable of,” the General said. “But it’s mostly been theoretical because we haven’t had a lot of luck getting the sort of results we’d like. You want to sit and talk here, or you want to walk and talk through the research facility?”

“I don’t want to take up too much of your time, so let’s walk and talk,” Andy said.

The General stood up and started walking out of her office, expecting Andy and his team to keep up, Martinez following right behind, forming a little protective bubble around Andy reflexively. “You’re a part of Oversight, Mister Rook, and I know you have a fairly large Team,” the General said, “but how much reading have you been doing into what the nanobots are capable of?”

“I’ve been experiencing a lot of it,” Andy said. “From the sort of weird transmissible orgasms my wives had on our wedding day, to the fact that a couple of my partners can basically track me short range by smell, but all of that’s been in my reports to the Quaranteam research community, which I expect you’re a part of and have access to.”

“Have you experienced any sort of… I suppose you might call it empathic or telepathic communication between you and any of your partners, Mister Rook?” the General asked him as they made their way down a very non-descript hallway to an elevator.

“I… I can’t say that I have,” Andy said, as he watched the General insert her badge into a slot in front of an elevator door that opened for them. “Has that kind of thing happened?”

“Rarely, but we have enough reports into it that we’re researching the matter,” the General said with a smug smile. “You are, of course, familiar with what we’re calling Team DNA, for lack of a better term currently, yes?”

“The idea that each individual team has its own identifiable makeup of nanobot development that could function as an identifying characteristic for that team, like a group fingerprint? Yes, we’ve been aware of that for a few months now.”

“It goes a bit further than that, I’m afraid, Mister Rook, although we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of it,” Ibanez said, pushing a button that said 4, as the elevator began to slowly lift upwards into the building’s heart. “We know the nanobots that are part of a Team are swapping information all the time, working to improve and synthesize better group function solutions for the Team as a whole, but what we’ve only just recently discovered is that they aren’t only doing that when nanobots are being exchanged, but, in fact, when they’re in near proximity to each other. Think of it like having an RFID chip and reader inside of your body that’s constantly checking against nearby people, and then sending small databursts when it’s a recognized and trusted source.”

Andy looked at Melody, then Lexi, then back to the General. “You mean the nanobots in my system are talking to those in my two partners’ here… right now? Without me knowing it?”

“That is, in fact, the working theory, Mister Rook,” she said with a slight bristle of amusement. “The range is extremely limited, we’re talking a matter of a couple of feet, tops, but it’s a way for the nanobots to be updating software and hardware without having to wait for a sexual intercourse exchange. Little buggers are far more active than we expected them to be.”

“What kind of information?”

“That’s part of what we’re still trying to determine here,” the General said with another soft laugh. “We’re still not entirely sure. We’re referring to a cluster of nanobots unique to a Team as a Swarm, and we think each Swarm does its best to look after every member in the Team, so it’s constantly relaying status updates. Have you noticed that some of your partners seemed to have unusual swings in their need cycles? Not so often that you get worried, but just often enough that you wonder why one them needs to be fucked a little bit sooner than you’d had scheduled?”

“I’d been chalking it up to ‘shit happens,’ but you’re telling me that’s not the case?”

“It might be ‘shit happens,’ but it also might be that particular partner was fighting off an infection and needed an injection of additional resources with which to fight that battle. Or that they have highly important information that they need you to distribute to all the other members of the Swarm as quickly as possible, since you function as the Hive.

“What kind of information?”

“Pregnancy has usually been the biggest cause we’ve seen in terms of information transfer,” the General said as the elevator doors opened, revealing a large open-concept lab workspace with several workstations scattered around the floor. “But that’s partially what we’re researching—what other kinds of information could we get members of the same Swarm to communicate across short distances without saying a word? That’s the military use, obviously, but there’s also plenty of practical applications, especially if we can get the nanobots to be sending status reports, which we think we may be able to. That would mean a person could walk into their doctor’s office, put their hand on a scanner, and we could pick up a full internal and accurate report on what’s going on inside of that person in terms of problems or needs. We currently think that information is being kept by the nanobots, but we haven’t yet determined how to get it to give that information to us.”

“It’s more complicated than we originally thought,” a doctor in a labcoat said to Andy, offering her hand, “because as it turns out the nanobots communicate in their own actual language, and we haven’t figured out how to translate that into anything we can use yet. I’m Doctor Abernathy, I’m one of the Head Researchers in the nanobot relay research team here at Opprimo. Would you like a demonstration of one of the things we have been able to get the nanobots to communicate across?”

“As long as it’s not harmful,” Lexi said.

“Come over here, ma’am, and hold onto this signal booster,” Abernathy said as she lead Lexi over toward a small metal box with a couple of handles on it. “Hold onto this.” Lexi did as instructed. “Now, I assume you’re both paired with her. Tell me what you feel.” The doctor reached up beneath the back of Lexi’s shirt, and Andy and Melody both shivered.

“Are… are you drawing an A on her back?” Andy asked.

“Very good, Mister Rook! It seems you and your Swarm are very much in synch with one another,” Abernathy replied. “That didn’t take much in the way of time at all!”

“You can imagine how we might find ways to communicate information across short distances in ways that can’t be intercepted useful,” the General said.

“Yeah, I can see that. But that can’t be the only thing you’re studying here,” Andy said. “There’s a whole lot of buildings here.”

“Of course not,” Abernathy replied. “Although nearly one of these whole buildings is dedicated towards breaking down how the nanobots language works. They’ve made basically no progress in that regard, however. But we’ve been studying to see if we could trigger a post-imprinting regeneration, something which we’re starting to see a little bit of results in. We haven’t been able to do it reliably, but we have, once, been able to trigger a regeneration in a person completely independent of the imprinting/pairing process.”

“Any idea how?”

“We’re trying to investigate every possibility, but we’d basically fallen back to Operation: Grasping At Straws when we got the result which helped an already paired woman trigger a regeneration, which regenerated a foot she’d lost in combat,” Abernathy said.

“That said, we proved it can be done,” Ibanez said. “Which is only encouraging our researchers to double down on their efforts. Can you imagine the kind of strategic advantage we would have if we could get our soldiers to just need a couple of days and a few very calorific meals before they could be deployed again, and that’s after losing multiple limbs.”

“Not to mention the number of illnesses we could defeat or at least delay,” Abernathy said. “We’ve seen the serum destroy or repair hundreds of various illnesses and ailments that modern medicine has no idea what to do with. We owe it to humanity to keep researching those solutions, now that we know this sort of thing is within our grasp.”

“We’ve got not just dozens but hundreds of various research projects going on here, Mr. Rook,” General Ibanez told him. “I certainly don’t have time to walk you through all of them, but I can have the progress reports for everything we’re working on sent over to your secure email account, and you’re welcome to go anywhere within the base you want, talk to anyone you want. We don’t have anything to hide. I just ask that Airman Martinez accompany you, so we can make sure you aren’t stumbling into a door with sensitive research that we may have forgotten to mark or something. It’s just as much for your safety as it ours, I assure you.”

“Alright, General, I can agree to that, as long as you aren’t attempting to separate my security detail from me.”

“Last thing I would want to do, Mister Rook,” the General said with a soft laugh that almost put Andy at ease. “I know how protective I am of my Team’s man, and I wouldn’t dare stand between a woman and her man. Your detail can accompany anyone you like. Any other questions before I take my leave of you?”

“Just one—my friend Phil Pak lives here, and he hasn’t been able to leave, nor has he been able to return phone calls for over a month now,” Andy said. “What the hell is going with that?”

“Well, because we’re constantly running tests on most of the residents of Valhalla Shores, we require them to remain within the borders, or at least we’ve been operating that way for the last few months. We’re hoping to be able to lift those restrictions within the next few months and allow our residents to come and go a great deal more freely.”

“That doesn’t explain why he hasn’t called me back.”

“Oh, that’s actually very easy, Mr. Rook,” Dr. Abernathy said. “It’s the same reason your cellular phones were confiscated at the gate. Because we’re working with communications frequencies, we don’t have any cellular towers near to the base, and we do not allow cell phones anywhere on the base. All of the five central buildings here are Faraday cages. Hell, we’re trying to avoid as many stray signals as we can anywhere near the city, so you’ll notice we’ve had to go out of our way to have everything wired,” she said, gesturing to a computer terminal, as Andy noticed it also had thick red wires running out of the back of it. “In fact, your visitor badges might be the only RFID tags we have within the base. We’ve been in the process of getting a series of landlines installed, but as it stands right now, we only have a few, which are specifically for the base’s use here. Your friend probably didn’t know your phone number by heart, and so he didn’t have a way to reach you from here. What’s your friend’s name?”

“Phil Pak.”

Abernathy typed into the computer, pulling up some kind of registry program. “Yep, says here he’s in the office today, so he’ll just be in the next building over. You should definitely stop by and see him, I’m sure he’ll be glad to see a friendly face,” the doctor said with a smile. “As important as our research is here, there’s no denying it’s been a bit lonely being isolated from everyone and everything. It’s been especially hard on the people who are used to having up-to-the-minute information on everything, because we’re sort of on a signal sanctuary out here. That means we’re getting our entertainment and news in via landlines.”

Andy thought it would also be a great way to control the flow of information in or out of a modern base or even a modern country. It sounded like the sort of thing he’d heard China had been doing to prevent ‘cultural contamination via the Internet’ back before the giant collapse. He wondered if they were ever going to get any information on what was going on inside of the Chinese borders, but at this point, it was starting to seem like that part of the world almost didn’t exist. “I’ll head over there next,” Andy said. “Maybe he can give me the nickel tour of the rest of Valhalla Shores.”

The General nodded but shrugged. “There’s not a whole lot to see, truth be told, beyond the five research centers,” she said. “Just residential places for those researchers to stay and commercial places for them to eat and relax. We’ve got a movie theater, but it seems like even though they’re partnered up, they still don’t trust large gatherings of people.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen that for myself,” Andy said. “I even did a little book tour to try and encourage people to come out of their homes some.”

“How did it do?”

“Mostly went pretty well.”

“Although shots were fired outside of one event between two different groups of protestors,” Melody added.

“I think you and I have varying opinions on what ‘pretty well’ means, Mister Rook,” the General said to him.

“Those sorts of protests are happening all over this country right now, General, although maybe you haven’t heard as much about that in your little ivory coastal tower here,” Andy said, realizing the words were a bit more heated than he’d intended seconds after they’d come out of his mouth. “Sorry about that. I was trying to do the right thing in encouraging people to start picking up the pieces of their lives, but yes, I wasn’t thrilled about the shooting either. It seems that trying to do the right thing carries with it a certain level of risk in these modern times, I’m afraid to say.”

“Understandable, Mister Rook,” the General said. “Anyway, as you can see, we’re not up to anything nefarious over here like Mister Covington or Dr. McCallister were. This is genuine, good, clean, beneficial research that benefits our civilians, benefits our military or benefits our species. No downsides. And with that, I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Airman Martinez.”

As the General made her way back down the hallway, Dr. Abernathy looked at Andy with a soft smile. “Any other questions about the sorts of research we’re doing that I might be able to answer for you, Mister Rook?”

“Are you doing any research into the imprinting/pairing systems?”

“No, we’re strictly focused on the communications systems between nanobots and trying to trigger regenerations without pairing,” the Doctor told him. “Dr. Marcos has a giant head start in trying to understand the pairing systems, and he has Doctor Merriweather with him, so they’re going to be ahead of everyone else in that line of research, so we’re leaving it to them.”

“Also, you don’t see any way to exploit that system for financial or strategic gains,” Lexi said.

“Not any more than we already are as a country, Ms. Coleman, no,” Abernathy said with a smile. “But we focus where they tell us to.”

Andy nodded to Airman Martinez. “Let’s go see my friend Phil Pak now.”

They headed back down the elevator and out of the building over to another one of the buildings, this one marked “Structure C” on the outside, although it didn’t look remarkably different from any of the other four on the outside except for the sign at the front, and a red ring around the front doorway. There was a security guard at the front desk who looked like she’d been bored since the first time she’d sat down at it, and this was far from her first time at the desk. “Looking for Phil Pak,” Martinez asked the desk guard.

“Third floor,” the desk guard said.

As they walked down the hallway to the elevator, Andy decided to try and talk to Martinez a little bit. “What about you, Airman? You finding it lonely here in Valhalla Shores?” he asked her.

“It is what it is, Mister Rook,” she said flatly. “I’ve got my Team and I’ve got my pitbull, so that’s good enough for me to get by without complaint.”

“You’re not frustrated by not being able to make calls to family?”

“It’s temporary and it’s for the greater good,” she said as she pushed her access card into the slot to let the elevator open for them to step in. “Sometimes you gotta take one for the team, Mister Rook.”

“I think Andy knows a lot more about that than you do, Airman,” Lexi said, seeing slight intended where Andy had simply written it off as disrupted routine. “So maybe let’s lay off the judgment of people you’ve only just met, hm?”

“I saw the television special, ma’am,” Martinez said. “How come you two weren’t featured in it?”

“Neither of us had arrived in time, Airman,” Lexi said, keeping her tone even keeled. “Team Rook’s gotten to be quite the sizable team.”

“Define sizable.”

“Twenty-two, plus Andy,” Melody offered.

Martinez let out an appreciative whistle. “That is a lot of fucking.”

“That it is, Airman,” Andy agreed as the elevator doors opened. “That it is.”

Once the elevator doors opened, instead of laboratory equipment, they were confronted with something far more insidious and insipid—wall to wall cubicles.

It was just like a million other Silicon Valley startups he’d ever been in, with the same types of constructed felt walls erected to keep everyone segregated to their own little fiefdom, away from the prying eyes of their neighbors and coworkers.

To be honest, Andy had expected something significantly better from the National Security Agency, but he guessed they were expected to work semi collaboratively. They walked down three rows before stopping and peering in, where (Lesser) Phil Pak was looking at his screen intensely. “If that’s my sandwich, you can just leave it on the desk,” LP said, not looking up or even realizing Andy was there.

“Don’t make me have to explain to everyone why you’re called Lesser Phil,” Andy said with slight scolding to his tone, a subtle laugh cutting beneath it.

“Andy!” LP was quite the contrast to (Greater) Phil Marcos—LP was Korean-American, while GP was Filipino; GP was relatively thin, while LP was significantly more rotund; GP was Andy’s height, while LP would be lucky to be measured at 5′3″; GP had a lustrous head of magnificent long black hair, while LP had alopecia, or at least he’d used to have alopecia, as LP now sported a stylish short hair cut with actual hair care product in it, which Andy guessed was the result of a regeneration between now and the last time Andy had seen him, which would also explain the lack of Coke bottle bottom glasses LP had usually worn. “What the fuck are you doing here, man? How the fuck did you get in?”

“I’m part of the Civilian Oversight Group for all things relating to the Quaranteam serum now, so I decided I’d better find out what kept my friend from attending my wedding,” Andy said, giving LP a long hug. “How you been, man?”

“Great!” LP said. “Other than I can’t get outta here, really great. C’mon, I’ve got to take you to see Brandy, because if she finds out you were here and she didn’t get to see you, she’s going to shred my asshole into kimchi.” LP tapped a button on his phone to mark him as ‘out of office’ and then started leading Andy back towards the elevators. He glanced at the women surrounding him as they did. “Your security detail?”

“Jesus, where are my fucking manners?” Andy said with a chuckle. “Ladies, this is Phil Pak, a.k.a. Lesser Phil. LP, this is Alexis Coleman, the head of my security detail, and Melody Park, one of my bodyguards. Airman Martinez is one of yours, on loan from the front gate to make sure I don’t stumble into whatever nuclear missiles you have hidden on base.”

“Ha ha,” LP said. “I wish we were half that cool. Can I ride with you?”

“You can ride with me, Mr. Pak,” Airman Martinez said.

“C’mon,” LP said. “Lemme have a few minutes with my friend alone.”

“No can do, Mr. Pak,” Airman Martinez said. “You know how important OpSec is here. I can’t leave anyone alone with the guests at any point during their visit.”

LP sighed, rolling his eyes. “Fine, I’m riding with you. Let’s head back to my house.” He moved to get in the front of the Jeep with Airman Martinez as Andy, Lexi and Melody got back into their Tesla.

During the drive across town, Andy tried to surveil the place as well as he could, but the uniformity made it hard to remember much of anything. As they drove by an open field, however, he saw several women out doing yoga in a field on mats, and there was something… odd about them. They seemed to be moving in perfect synchronicity, each of them in exact lockstep with all the others in their movements. Normally when looking at any exercise class, there were one or two people who were just a few steps behind everyone else, but not here. There was also an incredible similarity in the hairstyles and outfits that all the women had—ponytails and bangs, yoga pants and sports bras, even though the variety of sizes, hair colors and skin tones made it clear they were individuals.

When they got to what seemed to be LP’s house, Andy wasn’t all that surprised to find it a nice large structure with a certain sense of modern style to it. Brandy, LP’s wife (from before the pandemic), was waiting to meet them, and Andy was a little surprised to see she had her hair in a style matching those of the women he’d seen doing yoga on their way over, ponytail and bangs. She was also dressed similar to them—sports bra and yoga pants, all in soft pastel colors. “Andy Rook!” Brandy said. “God, it’s fucking good to see you! Come in, come in! I know you can’t stay long, but I need to introduce you to all of our new partners and hear how your wedding went!”

For the next couple of hours, LP and Brandy did their best to get caught up with Andy, and get to know both Lexi and Melody, as well as get some news about what had been happening on the outside, and for a little while it was almost like a perfectly normal visit between old friends. Towards the end of the visit, Airman Martinez insisted it was time for Andy to be leaving the base, and Andy moved to hug Brandy, then LP before they got back in the car, following Airman Martinez to the gate, turning in their IDs, getting their phones back and then starting to drive back up towards San Francisco.

They were all the way at the Bay Bridge when the three of them spoke. “You okay, boss? You’ve been completely quiet since we left Valhalla Shores.”

“Trying to figure out what to do next.”

“What do you mean, boss?” Lexi asked him from the driver’s seat. “It was odd, but I didn’t see anything that set off panic bells.”

“Mmmm.” Andy paused then spoke again. “Except when LP went to hug me goodbye, he tapped me nine times before he let me go—three short taps, three long taps and then three more short taps, all on the small of my back, where nobody could see.”

“S.O.S.?”

“Something’s not right over there, and I need to figure out what it is.” His pocket started to vibrate and he pulled the phone from his pocket to see Ash’s face on the caller ID picture, so he answered it. “Hey babe, we’re on our way back to New Eden now, just crossing the Bay Bridge.”

“Well, don’t come to the manor,” Aisling said to him. “Niko’s water just broke, so we’re on our way to the hospital. Meet us there.”

“Aren’t we like a week early?”

“Baby’s coming whether you like it or not, Mister Rook, so you best get your shit in gear.”

“Heard, we’ll be there doubletime.” He hung up the phone, still somewhere in shock between what had just happened with Lesser Phil and hearing that his son was going to arrive a whole hell of a lot sooner than planned. “Lexi, Niko’s water just broke. We’re heading the hospital.”

“Roger that, boss. Baby time, here we come!”