The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

There I was again.

The beach was warm. Water slapped against the sand. The sound of the waves capping was almost in sequence with my heartbeat. The beat of my heart. It felt as though I was part of the waves. A constant gentle throb that rolled through me as though I was the beach itself.

My world was pulsing in a pattern matching the waves it seemed. Dreams on the beach sleeping under the sun. While I listened to the waves.

The sea is life. Each beat of the heart fit the life of the sea.

Neuman was furious. He did not like being followed. Especially with the delicate nature of his tasks. Shutting down operations would be a huge pain. Explaining why he might shut them down would be a worse pain.

Instead, he made a few calls. There were others he knew likely to have these two wildcard detectives trying to shadow them. Others who would be angry if he hadn’t tried to fix this. He could not deal with them without help. They would help too.

“Hello, District Attorney’s office, George Wesselman here.”

“Hi, Captain Neuman here.”

“What can I do for you today?”

“I need a little wizardry,” he said.

“Can you meet in,” George said, “thirty minutes? The usual place?”

“Sure. See you then.”

Maybe they could arrange a little visit to the boss for the hound dogs. He seemed to have a way of persuading people to join up.

She felt naked when Ben had lifted her chin, looked into her eyes and told her to ‘lose the dress.’ When she had peeled that away and only had her shoes, lacy bra and thin black panties, his fingers had taken a grip of the panties on either side of her hips. Then he ripped them off rather than just pulling them down. The bra he left on her.

Being nude was not bad at all. That was easy and simple. She felt her very being was exposed. She felt strongly drawn to him. Beside her Ginny remained quiet and still. The other woman seemed elegant in her submission. She felt herself drifting into need. An intense need. Needing him to be pleased. If he was pleased being exposed deeply to him would bring her joy too. She still could feel her own wetness on her thighs though.

“For kneeling presentation position,” he gently began. “you need to be on your knees, with your ankles crossed behind you, knees as wide as necessary for ease of access to my pet.”

“Should I...”

“Do not speak until you are told you may,” he applied some gentle pressure on her shoulders to encourage her to her place beside Ginny.

She was lost in following his guidance. It felt to her as though he’d taken her in his hand. Despite how strongly independent she’d always been, all this was right for her. With him.

Ben stepped behind her, “Rest your hands on your knees, palms up.”

Her hands moved into place. She noticed she had done that. Yet it felt like she was in a hazy warm place with her own movements being removed and aside. His hand reached down and cupped her sex from behind her. A jolt of fire seemed to radiate from his touch. She heard a moan then realized it was her own sound, a sound of pleasure.

Ben enjoyed the soft down like feel of her thin pubic hair. Softly he squeezed her there. With one quick movement he let one finger slide into the wet opening, tracing along her folds and plunging in.

Celia gasped. Her nipples stiffened sharply, muscles all responding with the hunger within her.

She thought briefly about moving to help his movements but felt a compulsion within her, not to move until he told her to. The movement of her hips… she could not help.

With Ginny he’d become accustomed to feeling her response and finding the places to touch to unleash her hunger. Here he was reaching through his experiences to find the perfect places to stroke her. His other hand moved slowly over her bottom while his finger moved in her, then back again, a slow finger fuck at most. She began to pant, control clearly not her own.

“Pet, move around in front of Celia and hold her hands.”

Celia’s head had lowered further if that was possible while in the kneeling position. Her hair had tumbled forward as well, so Ginny’s movement around her was more like a blur than anything else. But she felt the soft hands grip her own. There was a squeeze, the other woman assuring her, also it came across as intimate participation. She lifted her eyes to Ginny’s, seeing nothing but warmth and affection there. He was playing her body, one hand in her sex, the other stroking her back and her breath racing with her heart.

Ben kept slowing down every time she seemed to be getting close. The hand on her back fought with the hooks on her bra, releasing the link while she was undulating. One of his fingers brushed lightly over her clitoris. She responded almost violently in reaction, struggling so hard to remain in place for him.

“Take this off her,” he spoke over her shoulder to Ginny. The soft hands holding her let go, pulling the lacy thing down off her arms. By then her arms were trying to flail, but those hands gripped her, weaving fingers to fingers in front of her so she leaned in against the other’s arms.

“You will not cum, angel.” She could not see how she could avoid cumming at this point, she felt so close.

With effort she grunted out a simple, “Yes Sir.”

And she tried. Fingers now, he’d added another, playing inside her sex. Between the response of her body and the way she felt lost in a trance like mental state, her body was wracked with need to release.

“Please Sir,” she cried out, “please may I cum!?”

“Not yet little angel.” He stroked his thumb softly along the crack of her ass. Slowly he worked it in between the clenching and unclenching cheeks. Her head flew up as his thumb touched the small pucker.

“Oh!”

She was trying to hold on. Ginny’s fingers gripped hers firmly as she’d been directed. She could feel the sweat on her back forming. Humping his fingers at this point, trying to get them to brush her clit she kept straining…

“Oh god, please SIR, please!” The words came out elongated and almost as a wail.

“Now,” he said.

Release. Wild abandon and maddeningly animalistic spasms. She felt the fire roll over her in tidal waves. She was shaking and writhing maniacally as she let go. He drew her head back to his chest. He held her as she continued to quake helplessly in his arms. Ginny held her hands but Celia was focused knowing she was in his grip. Lips brushed her forehead and she felt the fire that was him. The aftershocks didn’t stop for a few minutes.

She struggled to regain her breath, he motioned his head towards the other room to Ginny. The soft hands on hers slipped reluctantly away. The woman’s fingers brushed her cheek softly. Ginny stood, moving away from Celia. Leaving her where she was safest, in Ben’s arms. She felt thoroughly spent, as though he was consuming her.

It was just a beginning for the night.

The sense of compulsion with him just felt so right to her. The pull was powerful, giving a greater completion to her. It was a feeling of finally being safe and… home. When he permitted, she clung to him.

Arms wrapped around her as he lifted her. The weakness in her arms and legs didn’t matter so long as he held her. Once in the bedroom he laid her down on her back. A tap on either leg by his fingers and she opened herself to him as he was directing. Penetration was sudden and deep. Her back arced in the pleasure he was permitting her.

She spun into orgasmic bliss as he took her sex with his cock. His strength was enough for her. Hunger and his desire was more than enough to force her, taking from her every thing she had to offer. Her voice cried out as he brought her to ecstasy. She felt more than aroused, more than excited. It became her purpose to have him take her. As the evening wore on, she found herself as staggered by his expert touch in drawing intense orgasm after orgasm from her.

When she was drowsing on the edge of sleep in his arms hours later she tried to remember. It had never been so intense or powerful before. She wondered if what she had done was the right decision. Had she made a good choice? Then she glowed with the thought she’d pleased him. She had pleased him, hadn’t she? Somehow having pleased him gave her feel an internal glow of happiness.

Two white yet gray from filth vans were following Cain. He had seen them but it didn’t register it was him their attention was on. He was focused on keeping eyes on the Captain he was trailing earlier. The man was walking at an even unhurried pace this time. If he could keep eyes on without being spotted, all was good. He could stick to this guy. Probably.

The Captain had walked to One Police Plaza and had come back to the street only a few minutes later. He was in the company of another officer. Cain looked at the time. Just before noon. There would be a lot of people out on the streets for lunch, he could walk a little closer without giving his presence away. The subjects of his surveillance headed down Pearl Street, going downtown after they passed under the bridge. He kept himself to the east sidewalk, across the street from them. If they were going for lunch, he didn’t know of anywhere along here they’d be going. Unless they were headed to the South Street Seaport, he supposed.

As he followed along, the two vans shadowing him suddenly sped up, one screeched to the sidewalk in front of him, one behind. Men, several of them were piling out. Surprised he started to draw his firearm but was tackled before he could raise it. A sack of some sort went over his head and his hands swiftly bound behind his back with a plastic restraining tie. They forced his legs together as well and bound them in the same manner. He called out for help as loud as he could.

With rough manhandling, the gang accosting him lifted him into one of the vans. There was the sound of the doors closing and movement on the road.

What few people saw this made calls to report it, but they could only give vague descriptions. The responding officers were unsure if it was real or a stunt. They’d investigate as though it was real. It might have helped if the event happened closer to video surveillance.

Hyman Wraight had been on crutches with leg braces a couple years when he lost control of his hips. Frantically he’d gone to doctors for an explanation. There were no qualms about reading their minds as they tried to analyze what was going on with him. Their puzzlement left him more frightened than before he became a telepath.

Several neurologists puzzled over it for a time. He endowed a new lab facility to perform research specifically into his problem. Money didn’t mean anything to him anyway. Easily he could discover what these specialists thought to be the best experts. In short order he arranged to meet them. Soon he had bent their minds enough to want to work the problem.

While that was going on, he had his pet Russian expand their influence within the police and city administration. It happened sometimes they’d come across the touch of other telepaths without actually finding them. Once he knew what to look for there were far more people who’d been affected than could be accounted for by him and the Russian.

Locating those other telepaths out there was as high on his priority list as curing this paralysis he was experiencing. Even if he did have one at hand already. He didn’t want to destroy Georgiy. The man was proving to be invaluable in spreading his influence. Another like the Russian had to be found, someone without qualms about what they did, to join in the search.

Either way, he took the time with Georgiy to teach him how to capture another mind to allow telepaths who were found to be brought to him. It took some additional controls on the other telepath to prevent him from trying to be independent again.

That effort turned out to be beneficial as Georgiy reported a cluster of manipulated people who had been used in brutal ways sexually, and as well as punching bags. All of them left with deep mental scars. Neither the Wizard or the Russian gave a shit about the damage done. They just wanted to bring this telepath into their fold.

Among the things they learned quickly was what he looked like, and his name. Carlos. His victims couldn’t speak about him, but mental probing gave them all they needed. These victims proved to be so damaged they were virtually unable to care for themselves. It took scanning three women and two men before the information they needed about him was picked from crippled minds.

Carlos had come to New York because he believed it would be easier to disappear among millions of people. His home had become very hostile. There were people who he hadn’t controlled who knew what he could do. He was hated and hunted there. So much of the countryside could conceal a sniper he was unable to spot before they got a shot off or two. He’d been lucky about misses a half dozen times before he concluded the risk was becoming too high.

The dark haired telepath was full of anger and hate. The source of his raging fury could be traced back to being orphaned, turned loose to live on his own in the streets, pelted with rocks by gangs of kids, being refused even by whores, and when he turned to the male prostitutes, they too ended up telling him to take a hike. When his mental power came in, he had let loose like a rampaging bull. Attempts to arrest him went the same way dealing with any mentally powered fiend would have gone. Police lost many among their ranks to damage he wrought. Here in New York, they didn’t know about him at that level, yet.

He’d learned one thing from his homeland. Pacing himself and finding different locations within the city was helping him conceal his activities. Except from those who could also slip into the minds of other people.

Georgiy found him while passing through one of the red light districts. At the time Carlos had just finished ripping the mental guts out of a pimp. A hooker was on Carlos’s arm when he spotted Georgiy.

Completely without any understanding of other telepaths and having been on a rampage for his own selfish purposes, he had never developed a defensive shield. Well, almost none. He simply didn’t hear the surface thoughts of those around him, principally because he just didn’t care what was being thought about. He unconsciously established protection against that.

The battle was over before Carlos even knew it was happening. The Russian forced him down to his knees with his hands bowed in prayer. Minutes later Carlos was totally loyal to Georgiy and his boss. The built in conditioning applied to the Russian was implanted in Carlos too.

The Wizard was very pleased Georgiy obtained another ruthless associate forced to loyalty. Separately and on his own he’d managed to snag another low level telepath who would be unable to creatively support his effort. Hyman took hours turning a young telepathic boy into an empty husk. What he really needed was a means to sort out the more likely subjects to examine for telepathy.

So he did something he hadn’t done in a while. Cracking the books on sociology and psychology, he tried to figure out what indicators were necessary to identify likely candidates. He tried a visit to the city’s universities to see if he could find what he needed. One professor seemed to be trying to model demographics by criminal traits for some reason. It didn’t seem like a stretch to imagine telepaths’ criteria could be applied to an algorithm looking for criminals. This gave him the idea of checking the police to see whether they’d already developed a process for some of this.

He found an expert in the police department who worked with social forensics. Anticipating he would run into trouble with this he had the Russian go with him. Soon, the man was anxious to work on the problem for the Wizard, but needed resources. The budget and approval of personnel in the police required more delicate a touch than simply creating a handful of followers, simple loyal serfs.

Hyman had to work his way up the food chain to find the team approving budget and manpower allocations. Having done this before with the company he’d taken over from Karen, and the company where he’d been working, the only problem was the time it would take. When he was done there was a very secret intelligence organization, with more than a little extra manpower to call on if they found someone.

On the first attempt to snatch a suspected telepath, he learned quickly they’d gotten a normal. It also occurred to him a telepath wouldn’t allow zealous followers to just capture them. Procedure had to be developed to ensure they were picking up actual telepaths. Also, so they could be captured with low or no risk to his new search team. He assigned Georgiy to periodically check the subjects the police thought were telepaths.

Sadly, Carlos wasn’t strong enough for such tasks. It would take a bit of work with him to make it possible for him to help with that. He was ideal for dealing with issues with other gangs and normals. He was totally without conscience and liked violence. That freed up time for the Wizard. The Russian ensured the dark haired man would be terrified of Hyman. It made it easier to make him want to prove his loyalty. The Wizard liked that.

Hyman’s opinion was simple. People should be afraid of him

Shaw tried to turn but couldn’t. His wrists were bound together and if he struggled with the plastic hard enough he might cut into his arm. Light was barely coming through the cloth over his head. He fought to at least get into a sitting position with mixed results. Finally he got to a point his back was against a firm vertical surface.

There were sounds of other movement he heard. Was it footsteps? Maybe. The hood made it hard to be sure what he was hearing.

“Hello?,” he thought someone might come, explain what the hell they’d taken him for. Realization hit him his head was throbbing. Right. They, probably this bunch working with the telepath, must have clubbed him unconscious.

“Who is that?,” came a muffled but familiar voice near him.

“It’s me. Kevin.”

“Oh great. We’re both wrapped up like Christmas presents.”

“Somebody tried to perform brain surgery on me.”

“A bunch of goons dragged me into a van. I only saw them for a couple moments before they’d stuck this bag over me so I couldn’t see. They drove for what seemed like an hour or more before tossing me into … where ever this is.”

“I think we both know who we can thank for our comfort at the moment though.”

“One thing is certain though.”

“We’d be loose at the moment if we had gotten in range of that boss man.”

“Only physically, but yeah, that was my thought too.”

“Is there anything close to you…,” Shaw tried to squirm about, feeling around for anything that might prove useful, “with a sharp enough edge it might cut these things?”

“I haven’t found anything yet. I can’t move much though.”

“Dammit. So Ben is going to be completely on his own. You and I are in deep shit now.”

“There’s one other person who we know can help him.”

“Oh. Right. No names. The cockroaches may be listening.”

“Remember the Gorta twins case?”

“What about it?”

“At least that time you weren’t tied up with me.”

“Ri-i-i-ght.”

Ben had escorted her back to her own apartment in the morning. Gripping her hair, he held her in a long deep kiss, which once again woke her own desires. That pull to him had grown immense now. Until he had taken the kiss, she had believed she’d been thoroughly sated. Her eyes closed when he released the kiss, then her hair. She staggered after a moment when his lips did not return to hers.

She knew he had some kind of appointment downtown in the finance district. Oh, right. It was his means of working his investment portfolio. A shower was waiting for her and she needed to visit her own employer today to ensure the orders and invoices were being properly handled.

A sigh of disappointment came from her as he got onto the elevator, disappearing from her sight.

Cleaning up and applying the small amount of make-up she used didn’t take too long. The trip downtown was uneventful. At her desk though she found herself looking at the fashion offerings and wondering if these would please Ben if she wore them. There was a nice looking outfit with a nice short white skirt and a top that would expose her abdomen in front but her back between her shoulders in the back. She wondered if Ginny would fit in one just like it in black.

Shaking her head she tried to focus on what work she had to get done. Then she might wander out to the sales floor and see what she could find that both she and Ginny could wear to please Si… Ben. The thoughts of the previous night haunted her with each message she sent.

Thinking of him had been regular before last night. The draw to him in her thoughts were now even more frequent. Sharing this with the woman who’d bonded with her as she surrendered herself to him, brought her to a new realization. That connection with Ginny too was something she wanted to do to please Ben.

She called Ginny to ask her to join her. She’d decided to get the other woman something to match up with her. If she found an outfit for Ginny, she wanted to be sure it would fit well. Tightly and enticingly well.

Anticipating Ginny’s arrival she concentrated on finishing up the few things she had left to do. It wasn’t terribly long before her friend showed up.

“I’m pretty much finished now,” Celia told her.

“Cool, so you wanted to go shopping?”

“As it happens,” she grinned, “I have a delightful discount here. Wanna check it out?”

“I’m game for almost anything. Sir is off doing what’s supposed to be making money. I’m happy to spend the bit he gives me for clothing he’d like.”

“That was my plan. I really did think a few of the newer blouses and dresses might give him an eyeful.”

Ginny grinned. Clearly she approved of the idea. The chance to do so at discount just made it that much more enticing.

“Okay, let’s go,” Celia closed and locked her desk drawers. Grabbing her purse, she led the other woman out of the office to the sales floor. Ginny’s eyes widened at the array of options available.

“Yes, I know, they look good, don’t they,” said Celia.

“Oh yes! I want one of them, one of them, one of...”

“How about we actually be a bit more selective than that,” chuckled Celia.

“Oh, okay. I suppose.”

Ginny and Celia tried to avoid being giggly as they shopped. They couldn’t help but act like a couple young schoolgirls though as they tried out a few outfits for the purpose of pleasing their ‘Sir.’ By the time they finished, they’d chosen three outfits for Ginny and four for Celia. Somehow it seemed like a small party.

After collecting their purchases, at Celia’s discount, they headed back uptown.

Once home, they were a bit giddy as they started the adult version of dress up had them emptying closets for suitable attire to arouse Ben. Celia brought some other clothing from her own apartment to share with Ginny, looking to see what kind of choices would work best.

Of all the foolish things, thought the man who’d quietly been watching Ben’s movements, why would the detectives leave him alone at this point?

Checking the weather he had decided he could get by with just his sports jacket today. It wasn’t as warm as he might have preferred wandering the lower Manhattan canyons. Hungry and a bit chilled, he dodged into a coffee shop.

He was struggling to understand how it was Ben had no one with him as they wandered down to the Finance District. He’d seen Ben do this before though. Clearly Madison was wandering about to soak up the type of inside information he’d use for quick turn around profit in any of a couple markets. The thing he was mostly likely following was the mergers or perhaps new offerings for quick turn around profit.

This was a bit dull to watch. So instead, he perused a few other things in the area to look for indications of anyone showing an interest in himself. Since One Police Plaza was nearby he started looking for information on the whereabouts of the detectives. It was during this his earlier question about the detectives was answered.

So, he learned, they’d been following subjects they believed tied to their troubles. Painfully, he learned they’d been noticed. He almost banged his head on the table where he was having coffee and a danish. No, no, no. He’d have to do something about this. Dammit, he had other priorities to worry about. Why now? He felt torn.

Perhaps, he thought, you can be in two places at once when no one knows you’re there to begin with.

Ben answered his phone.

“Hello?”

“Hi Ben, it’s Sergeant Toomey.”

“Oh, did you find something?”

“No. No. I’m looking for the detectives. Are they with you?”

“I haven’t seen them. I thought they were trying to follow some of their leads.”

“Maybe they’re just in a tunnel or something, but I was trying to call them and they’re not answering their cell phones.”

“Uh. I don’t have their cell phones.”

“Wise ass.”

“Yes, yes. I hear that all the time.”

“If they contact you, let them know I’m looking for them.”

“Sure thing,” Ben quickly added, “was there something new?”

“They were supposed to check in with me regularly. They’ve missed a couple calls is all.”

“Okay. I’ll be sure to have them call you if I see them.”

Ben was puzzled.

Alison thought she could get used to this telepathy thing. Having learned to use it with Ben’s help, she was able to do a better job guiding her patients through their problems. That itself was a wonderful thing to her. The twenty-something young woman she’d been working with for three years was able to have a breakthrough because she could help her connect some of the memories with the emotional state she was in.

Most importantly right now, it had proven adequate for her to take control over the three teams of men who had been following her. She now had a very good idea of what they were doing at all times, and had set them up to be bodyguards. It amused her mildly to have created double agents. They were police officers, so protecting the public should be their job anyway. They’d been altered before to work for the group looking for telepaths. Now she did what she could to keep them sending in truly boring reports about her doing dreadfully normal things.

When she finally had a spare moment, she called Ben. A woman answered the phone. Probably Ginny, she thought.

“Hello.”

“Hello. I’m looking for Ben Madison.”

“He’s not here at the moment, may I take a message for you?”

She gave it a moment of thought. He’d told her these people were already after him.

“Just tell him his Doctor called and needs him to come in for a consultation.”

“Doctor?”

By that time though, Alison had hung up.

Clothing was draped over most surfaces available in the room. Ben’s eyes widened looking at the assemblage of all manner of women’s dresses, skirts, blouses, and a noticeable but modest collection of shoes. Plus it appeared, a few night gowns and lingerie, with a decided emphasis on the sensual side.

“Pet? What’s going on here?,” he called out.

Ginny popped out of her bedroom, followed by Celia, both of them giggling with mischievous expressions. They strolled up to him, then both knelt, looking down but only trying to suppress the fit of giggles they seemed to have been in.

“Master,” she started, “we’ve only been checking each other’s wardrobes.”

Looking at them he saw Celia was in one of Ginny’s short red skirts, hardly able to contain her bum, with her legs in stockings lending a delightfully smooth shapely appearance to them, and a soft blue blouse that was thin enough he could see her nipples through it. Ginny was in what appeared to be a knee length skirt he did not remember seeing before, also wearing stockings, with another blouse that was thin enough the pink hue to it did not conceal her nipples either. They did look enticing, the both of them.

“I took Miss Ginny shopping with me while you were gone,” as an after thought she added, “Sir.”

He looked around the room at the clothing all about.

“Uh. So.”

With a smile, he realized they were trying to decide what might please him the most. He touched nipples through the thin fabric of their blouses. This elicited some light moans as they tried to press into his hands. Yes, it was about pleasing him, he thought.

“You look delightful and this is,” waving a hand at the fashion strewn about, “a wonderful mess. Did anything else happen today?”

Ginny looked up at him.

“I took a phone call for you.”

“Who was it?,” he wondered if Toomey had called here first.

“All she said was she’s your doctor and you need to see her for a consultation.”

“Oh?... Oh. That’d be Dr Moore.”

Now it made sense to Ginny. She knew about him helping Dr. Moore with telepathy.

“Okay, I’m going to run off for an hour or so to see what her problem is. Maybe you’ll have finished up with the fashion sampling by the time I get back.”

Ginny smiled, “Yes Master, we’ll clean up. We were just having fun.”

“A lot of fun,” added in a giggling Celia, “Sir.”

Ben shook his head but he was smiling. Good, he thought, they enjoy each other’s company even when I’m not here. He headed for the door. Then paused.“Stuffed shells for dinner, pet.”

“Yes Master,” she replied, grinning.

After the door closed behind him, the women giggled conspiratorially together.

He got out of the taxi in front of Alison’s apartment building. Seconds later he knew where the two men assigned to watch her were. Shaking his head he walked to the intercom and pressed the button for Alison Moore’s apartment.

It took a couple minutes but presently the woman’s voice came from the speaker, “Who is it?”

“Mighty Mouse,” he responded.

“You have an impulse issue we might want to talk about some time, Ben.” The buzzer for the door sounded and he opened it.

“I like my sense of humor,” he muttered to himself as he entered the building.

He found her standing at her door on the second floor. Her style of dress seemed a little frumpy, not that it mattered to him.

“I’ve got the watchers following me again.”

“I noticed that. I also noticed you already took care of it, pretty much.”

“There have been six of them total. I don’t know if I should go near their sergeant. It seems their boss was disturbed that he didn’t remember having told them to stop.”

“Oh, great. What would you like me to do about it? I can visit the precinct and stop the sergeant, again. I’m not sure though that the captain he reports to is the man in charge and I’d bet on his boss asking why they got pulled a second time.”

“I’m not sure what I want you to do. Are you any closer to finding the man behind all this?”

“Not really. To add insult to injury, it appears the two unaffected detectives who know about me have dropped off the radar.”

“Maybe your bad guy is trying to pick off people now, to isolate you?”

“It’s a thought. I’m not sure what I can do about that though.”

“It depends. I would think you have a couple options.”

“Like what? Last time I recovered a kidnapped friend it almost got me killed. Close enough anyway.”

“So don’t be foolish. If you know something is a trap then don’t stroll right into it. You cannot possibly predict every backup plan they might have.”

“I still get the impression you have a couple suggestions.”

“Best plan is to find and stop this man you’ve been looking for.”

“To do that, I have to know where he is.”

“Then you have to contemplate defensive actions.”

“Yes. But it’s no use me hiding out. I have people to protect that I care about.”

“I have to admit, I was counting on you myself to help protect me,” Alison said. “I may be older at this point, experienced in dealing with people. Not telepaths though. I’ve only started learning how useful it can be.”

Ben nodded and walked to the window. Looking outside he could see one of the tails that had been watching for Dr. Moore. He looked at her, his expression one of concern and thought.

“I could leave all the people hanging where they are in hopes no one thinks I need to guard them.”

“Or you could bring us all to where you’re going to be,” she rolled her eyes. “Just how many people is that?”

“I’d have to call Janet. Celia and Ginny are already at my apartment. I probably should call Officer Toomey to offer him a spot as well.”

“It’s starting to sound like a bit of a crowd.”

“I’ll call Toomey first. He may have heard from Cain and Shaw.”

He pulled out his cell phone and instead tried the number he had for Cain without getting an answer. So he tried Shaw too without getting a response either. He sighed, this wasn’t exactly looking good. On the third ring Toomey answered.

“Hey Sergeant,” he said.

“Hi Ben,” some sounds in the background gave the impression the officer was out in public.

“Have you heard from the detectives yet?”

“Nope. Not a peep.”

“Let me explain what I’m doing. I’m trying to get the people who might be grabbed in order to influence me and put them under one roof. That way if someone comes after any of us, I have my talent to help protect us. You would be one of those people.”

“I appreciate the sentiment. I don’t think you need me there though. I think the problem could be the detectives were noticed tailing our people of interest. That’s what I think. Unless they’ve given me up, I doubt our bad guys even know I exist. Mostly. Other than shooting that woman.”

“I really do think it would benefit you. I don’t think anyone from our bad guys will come to my apartment anymore. Not after what happened to their assassins.”

“Wait, what? Assassins?,” a shocked Toomey replied. “What assassins?”

“Sorry, I thought I’d updated you. Four separate attempts were made to shoot me. Before they could set up I managed to, hrm, let’s say I detected them. I neutralized them and sent them on their way.”

“You couldn’t find someone to arrest them?”

“I couldn’t be sure that arrested killers wouldn’t be let out by the influence of your friendly suspect list.”

“I’ll grant you that. But now they’re still on the loose!”

“Not exactly.”

“You did something to them, didn’t you? What did you do?”

“I sent them to hunt down the brokers they work through. Probably by now they’re all dead from infighting among people in the dark market for that kind of person. If not, well, they’ve been turned loose with a grudge against those markets.”

“Ouch. Not a little cold blooded yourself, are you?”

“Oh come on. I just changed their target. They and their new targets are killers. If it clears away some of them, it is not letting justice go unattended.”

“Fine. Fine. Tell you what.”

“What?”

“If I get the feeling I’ve been compromised, I will join you. Otherwise, I’m going to keep looking for the detectives.”

“That will have to be good enough, Sergeant. You have my number.”

With that, he called Janet to meet him at his place. She, unlike Toomey, was almost excited to go to his apartment. Not a huge surprise, he supposed.

He turned again to Dr. Moore, “I guess we should get out of here. We can bring your committee of double agents with us, or lose them. I prefer to keep them where we can see them. What do you think?”

“I’ve had them sending in lame reports about me anyway. They can be kept sending in really dull material. I say we let them follow along.”

“Okay Doc, that’s the way we’ll handle it.” He made a quick call to Ginny, letting her know there would be two more place settings for dinner.

Alison gathered up a few things and they started on their way.

Though the sign over the door read First Precinct, the building no longer housed much. For a long time it had been the NYC Police Department Museum, but hadn’t since hurricane damage in 2012. Rubbing his hands together because of the chill.

He concluded the hooded coat would have been much better than the sports jacket he wore while he looked at the rusticated facing of the building and the wrought iron bars over the windows. Three doors on one side, one door on the other, and no indication of how he could enter the place.

It was no time to be subtle though, so he found someone in the building to open the door for him. The main door being the only real option for this person, he felt a little bit exposed entering the place. As soon as he was in, he sent his friendly doorman on his way.

Shortly, he found stairs to the subterranean levels. Guards, he wondered? Guards indeed. Two well armed uniformed officers sat outside the door he was looking for. At one time, this had been an active police station. He wondered what purpose the room behind that door once served. At the moment though, he knew the purpose it was found suitable for now was.

The two officers dozed off through his helpful manipulation. He did a little search and came up with a pair of nail clippers. He wondered if that would do the job, doubted it, and continued searching until he came up with a pocket knife in one of the pockets. Perfect.

What wasn’t perfect was that though he came up with keys as well, none of them would unlock the door. He yanked at the door handle, frustrated. They were supposed to have the keys, dammit. He didn’t really want to bring another person down here, but he had to have the keys.

Leaning against the door, he started his least active scan to find someone in the building who would have the keys for the door. It wasn’t terribly surprising to find the man he designated the doorman had a full set of keys for all doors and cabinets in the building. He directed the doorman to come join him. He might take the shortcut of smashing the door open himself if his skull was strong enough.

Soon though, the key turned up with the man who had let him in the building and the door was unlocked.

Shaking his head he looked at the men with hoods over their heads, bound up so they could barely move. The place looked like it had been a small file room once upon a time. With all the cabinets gone, it probably was seen as a perfect place to hold a couple prisoners well out of sight of those not involved in the kidnapping.

First he walked over and pulled the hoods off both men. Fortunately for Cain and Shaw the light in room was fairly dim so their eyes adjusted quickly.

“I’m a friend,” he said, turning Shaw first so he could reach his hands.

Cain looked at this fellow in a brown corduroy jacket. Who in the world thought that might be stylish? The man had dirty light hair, broad shoulders, was wearing a pair of khaki slacks, along with a pair of rubber soled shoes. The man had unfolded a pocket knife and was sawing the binding plastic from Shaw’s wrists.

“Who are you?,” asked Cain.

The man stood up and looked at him. As he turned Cain so he was able to reach his wrists he said, “You can call me Robert.”

“Robert, do you have a last name?”

“For tonight, I should think you wouldn’t care.”

Shortly the man naming himself Robert cut the remaining straps holding the detectives. The three of them walked out of the room and he touched the detectives’ shoulders to have them wait a moment. He had the fellow with the keys lock the room up tight again. Then sent him on his way back to the duties he was performing before having been summoned.

He took an extra moment to surreptitiously alter the guarding men so they would think they’d both been awake their entire shift.

“Okay, let’s go.”

“You’re one of the telepaths, aren’t you?,” queried Shaw.

“Yes. I’m on your side though. Let’s get out of here. We should go uptown before anyone notices you are gone.”

“Do you know Ben?” Cain watched the man.

“Yes and no. I know of him but we have not met,” he sounded a bit exasperated. “This should not have been necessary, but they were going to take you two to the other big telepath. Then you’d have been double agents in dealing with Ben.”

“And you’re...”

“On your side, as I told you. Come now, we have to get out of here.”

Both Shaw and Cain took a little time to look for their guns and badges. They weren’t there though and Robert told them that whoever had them was not in the building. When they got to the street it took a bit of walking from 100 Old Slip to a more frequented street to flag down a cab. Robert did not seem relieved though.

Cain and Shaw felt much better though, being able to sit up straight and flex their arms.

When Ben and Alison reached his apartment, it was close to time for dinner. He could smell the garlic from the sauce already. The table was set, if awkwardly, with five place settings. Though he could tell Ginny had set her little tray up to the side, he gathered the other two women talked her into assuming she would also be at the table.

“Hello everyone,” he said while smiling at Ginny and Celia who had knelt down as soon as he had gotten the door closed. Janet looked confused by their actions. She seemed to give it some thought and a bit clumsily she too got on her knees.

“Doctor Alison Moore,” he started, “This is Janet, Celia and Ginny. Everyone rise. I see dinner is almost ready.”

Alison was interested in the way the women before her had knelt to Ben submissively. From what he’d told her before, Janet had not offered to submit, yet she seemed to be responding almost the same as the other two. Each of them offered her a hug and warm greeting, not something she was accustomed to. At her age and in her profession she was very cautious about physical contact.

“We’re pleased you could come Dr Moore,” Ginny said in a respectful tone.

“I think I’ll be a bit better off here as will you,” she responded.

“If everyone just sits down, I’ll bring the food out. Dinner really is ready and just needed you here Master, before setting it out.”

Everyone but Ginny took a seat, until Ben told her to sit to his right at the table. Her ingrained desire to be strictly obedient to her sir was nearly instinctive now. They all chatted about incidental things for a bit, but finally the topic came around to the problem causing them to all be at Ben’s apartment.

“What happened to make you have us all here,” asked Janet, “did something change?”

There was nodding interest from Celia and Ginny. He pushed his chair a little bit away from the table and took another sip from his water glass.

“I’m not sure how much of this I’ve explained already to who so I’m going to start with Roosevelt Island.”

Alison sipped from the wine Ginny had gotten her. Janet was the one most out of the loop, so she was the most interested in the start of the explanation. All four of them were curious if there were other details than what they were aware of.

“Detectives Cain and Able, I mean. Shaw.” of the four women, Alison was the only one to give him a glare.

“I really think we need to talk about your tendency to be so impulsive.”

“Foo, my sense of humor is an acquired taste. You get used to it.” He just grinned, “anyway, they had a tip to where this Wizard guy is hiding out so we all went to try bearding him in his den. The guy had fled though.”

“So, he was scared of you?,” asked Celia.

“I don’t know that, but he has been trying to neutralize me for a while now. So it might seem that yes, he is in fact afraid I can do something to him. Perhaps he thinks I have a batch of telepathic allies. The only other telepaths still around I know are Alison here, and the one that went missing that worked for the Wizard. I’m not sure about that one either.”

“I’m sorry to have interrupted, Sir,” Celia said, when his eyes were on hers. He did like looking in her eyes.

“It’s okay, pet.” For some reason having him refer to her as ‘pet’ sent thrills through Celia.

“So the detectives had a list of possible people of interest they gleaned by watching the building the day before. Talking to the maintenance man there I learned the population of Roosevelt Island is much smaller than I thought.”

“So the idea I had was to find out where the less populated parts of the city are because this Wizard guy may have problems with the surface thought noise. I shut it out, but I’ve found so far there seem to be different levels of success for telepaths dealing with things. Like me not knowing the woman was at the restaurant. The other officer who is helping out is still trying to collect useful data on that.”

“The detectives have been trying to tail their list of suspects to see if a useful location can be ferreted out by simple surveillance. But the Sergeant called me today to ask if I’ve seen them. They both appear to have vanished. Under the theory the Wizard may be trying to pry away friends and people who are helping, gathering people I care about here seemed a good idea. Not to mention Alison here is another telepath who can help with anything not involving a stronger telepath.”

“Sir?,” Celia spoke up.

“Yes?”

“You’re just trying to locate where this Wizard guy is?”

“Yes. Then I’m going to try to take him down. If I can’t, we’re all pretty well doomed anyway, and if I do, it will relieve the problems we’ve been having.”

“And, correct me if I misunderstood,” she went on, “the detectives are following his, um, not to be redundant, but his followers?”

“Yes.”

“May I speak frankly?”

He focused on her and she gulped. “Yes Celia, speak frankly.”

“You’re being an utter dolt.”

Taken aback, “What?”

“Unless I missed something, you’re the big telepath in the room, and you’ve been a little, er, stupid?”

“How so? I didn’t think I’ve done anything to expose you guys...”

“Yeah. Right. The detectives had a list of people they thought might lead them to the Wizard. First, if they get close enough to the other telepath, what makes you think they won’t end up mind controlled?”

Ben was nonplussed, he had no idea what to say. She was right, of course. That may very well be why they’ve gone missing.

“Okay, granted, you’re right about that. They and I both failed to register sufficiently how much risk there was for them. As the telepath in the room, that makes it my fault. But you said ‘first.’ You mean there’s more?”

“Yes,” Ginny perked up, she’d caught on too. Celia continued, “You have the list of suspects. Why don’t you, personally, go poking around in their heads to find the new hideout for the boss guy?” Celia was positively smug. Ben turned red.

“She’s got a good point,” Alison added.

He sat there stunned after she’d said it.

“Hey, Earth to Ben, Sir?” Celia said as he zoned out for a moment.

“I’m here, I’m here. I guess I got so caught up in … I overlooked the obvious.”

Celia was doing her best but she was still smirking. Ben walked over and gave her a kiss. “Thank you, you woke up the dinosaur in my skull.” She decidedly enjoyed the attention but getting one over on him was amusing her.

“Alison, if you can keep your, bodyguards, or if you prefer street spies guarding the place. And you are a telepath, you should be able to manage any non-telepath that comes to create trouble. I’m going to go see if I can check a couple of the names on the list.”

Over the objections it was too late, he shortly left the apartment in the hands of the four women. Dammit, he could have done this the very day they stormed the medical building. He felt embarrassed not to have thought of it.