The Crimes of Ms Jean Brady is set against the Background of R.Talsorians roleplaying game Cyberpunk. This is not intended as a challenge to their copyright. The Author grants permission to download a copy of this work for personal use. It may not be archived on pay sites or altered without the authors permission.

The Crimes of Ms Jean Brady

By jivinivan@hotmail.com

Part Nine

Dr Taylor lets her driver guide her to the front door of her home. With trembling fingers she unlocks the door and stumbles, exhausted, through the unseen mess of her home.

"Dr Taylor?" the driver asks, "Is your house normally this messy?"

"Kids." she slurs, "they breathe and it makes a mess. I'll see to it later."

The driver mentally shrugs <Just got to tell Mrs Kibu her husband's on life support.> she thinks, preparing to leave.

"Ok if I go now Doctor?"

The sound of banging doors upstairs is the only reply and the driver repeats herself. Dr Taylor stumbles down the stairs.

"Where's Alan?"

"He's not here?"

In spite of her fatigue the Doctor retains a degree of alertness, stumbling from wrecked room to wrecked room kicking through a small charred pile of clothes on the landing and growing more and more anxious.

"Where is he? Where's my son? Has no-one been looking after him?"

The driver looks on in shock as the almost comatose with exhaustion doctor turns to a hysterical parent. A speed-dialled call summons assistance, but by the time it gets there the brief flare of energy has burned out and Dr Taylor is collapsed in the wreckage of her lounge.

"Argus?"

"Yes Kerry Stewart."

"When you were keeping Dr Taylor working all night did you make any arrangements for the supervision of her offspring? Did you put any checks on their whereabouts? Or Dr Kibu's wife?"

"No Kerry Stewart. They are not key personnel. Merely Factor One motivators."

"So as well as working your key researchers to the point of burnout you failed to secure their prime motivators? I only ask as we seem to have lost the lot of them this evening."

"They can be replaced if necessary."

"Not easily. Both Taylor and Kibu have emotional attachments to their dependants. Is there something occupying your attention that you let this slip past you?"

"No Kerry Stewart. There is nothing new occupying my attention."

"Is this enemy action?"

"Low probability event. Analysis suggests a strike would be aimed at this facility or at key personnel. Strikes at this facility using dependants are statistically less likely than other events. Analysis of the Security report from Dr Kibu's house suggests his spouse has either temporarily stepped out or has terminated their relationship and departed with minimal possessions. Aurora Security logs record a high number of Gang related incidents in the area of the Taylor house. Perhaps Dr Taylor's offspring have terminated their relationship and left home also."

"Children don't usually do that."

"Personnel records indicate all children depart their primary residence from ages 0 to age 40 a median age for such events is the late teenage years. This event fits the probability curve."

Kerry throws up her hands.

"Just because it fits the graphs and charts doesn't mean you have the explanation!"

"Statistically I do."

"I don't like co-incidences. Two events on the same night? Keep a watch for them."

"Noted Kerry Stewart."

She yawns and stretches.

"Well that's me done. Time to go home."

"Very well Kerry Stewart. I will expect to monitor your arrival in 42 minutes."

"I have an appointment which will make my arrival home unpredictable."

"Noted. Ensure your arrival at work on time this evening."

Leaving the Microtech Building Kerry immediately catches sight of her tormentor leaning casually against a lamp post in the plaza. Dayanne pushes off the post and closes to walk alongside Kerry. For the first time she gets to look at Dayanne in clear daylight. She looks perfectly normal - until she smiles revealing pointed teeth.

"Have you been good Kerry Stewart?"

Kerry shudders slightly.

"I..I... I tugged on the straps to make it work."

The vibrating pad, silent for hours, leaps to life again and Kerry jumps.

"I have to get off the streets." she gasps, "If I fall Argus will have Security and Medical out to pick me up."

"My Mistress brooks no interference with her...... Subjects." Dayanne snarls and Kerry starts as she realises she can see the nubs of horns buried in the mass of raven hair.

<I hope you're doing your stuff Galahad.> Dayanne thinks.

"Your Argus sees me not."

Kerry looks around. Corporate Plazas omnipresent CCTV cameras are all pointing away from her and as they walk the cameras avert their gaze.

Again Kerry's card accesses the building and commands the lift to carry them to their destination. This time though Kerry counts the flashes of light as the lifts doors pass floors.

<Fifth floor.> she realises as the doors open and Dayanne propels her from the lift and steers her to her room.

The Black Wall is waiting for her, humming gently.

"Prepare yourself." Dayanne commands, then leaves the room as Kerry begins to undress. She folds her clothes neatly, putting them onto the desk, then, her curiosity getting the better of her, examines the contents of the drawers. The top draw could be in an office anywhere, but the second drawer contains her own file, plus files on her family back east and the girls who attend her bible class.

"If she catches you in her desk you'll really pay." a voice says and Kerry jumps up, searching for whoever it is that spoke. But the office is empty.

"She told you to prepare yourself." the voice says again.

Looking around she sees a face in the Black Wall.

"Who are you?"

The face looks as if it's about to reply, but then blurts "She's coming" in tones of fear and melts from view.

Kerry touches the wall as she'd previously seen her tormentor do.

"Hand. Hand. Hand. Hand."

Obedient to her command the wall extrudes four hands, but not the human hands her tormentor evoked. Hers are three fingered and clawed. Kerry strokes the wall vertically along its centre and the swelling pillar burst forth, shaping its bloated head to place against her sex.

Kerry touches the dark wall in wonder.

<What is this thing?>

Ripples form where her fingers touch the wall but they do nothing other than spread from the point of contact, then reflect from the edged of the frame, as if the wall were uncertain what it was she desired. She touches the huge jutting member and it grows hot beneath her fingers evoking an image from her childhood where she'd been told of the torments awaiting sluts in the infernal realm.

<An eternity of being used by something this size!> she thinks. <of being continuously ravished and despoiled. Humiliation without ending.>

Something stirs beneath her fingers and she snatches her hand away.

The sound of footsteps makes her leap away and reach for the demonic hands on the wall. They clamp about her wrists and pull her upwards whilst their fellows seize her ankles and draw her into position. The huge head parts her mushy lips and settles into her entry, stretching her with its girth and again forcing her onto tiptoes to prevent it sinking into her wicked, sinful belly.

The door opens and Dayanne walks in. Kerry feels a finger stroke around the shaft where it penetrates her body.

"Wet already Whore? I see you've been playing with the wall."

The ripples rush together in a group of concentric circles closing to collide before her face. The ripples mount up on each other and a projection forms, thrust out before her mouth. The tip buts against her lip and Kerry clamps her jaws together denying the black phallus entry to her mouth.

"Isn't that what you wanted it to do Kerry Stewart?" Dayanne asks, "Oh! I see the wall knows something else you want."

Something hot and slip touches the inside of her buttock, leaving Kerry in no doubt where it's aimed. She strains higher in an attempt to evade it, until her leg muscles begin to spasm with agonising cramps.

"You're just putting off the inevitable." Dayanne warns, "and that's only going to make it worse."

As the pain in her legs grows Kerry lets herself lower gently before her legs collapse and she comes down hard. The huge cock begins to ease into her, but the head seems to have shrunk slightly as it feels like it's sinking deeper than before. Just as she's absorbing this information the hot tip spears into the centre of her ring. Unable to block it or dodge as her body is defiled Kerry cries out. Her mouth opens to scream and the hard phallus before her face is suddenly past her lips and resting on her tongue. Kerry bites on it, as if it were a flesh and blood cock, but the hard surface is unyielding and feels no pain, all she achieves is to hurt her own teeth.

"You had better please the wall Kerry Stewart, or it will take it's own pleasure from you." Dayanne warns.

The huge cock pressing into her sex suddenly reduces in girth and Kerry finds she can no longer keep it out. Her own weight forces her body down, thrusting both of the cocks into her virgin body. She pulls up with both her arms, but he lacks the strength to lift herself off the embedded lengths, succeeding in merely stirring them around in her entries.

Acknowledging escape is impossible Kerry resigns herself to her fate and, closing her lips around the black shaft in her mouth, begins to suck and bob her head.

Dayanne takes in the hollowed cheeks and the steady hum of the wall. The computer screen on her desk displays a status report on Kerry's performance. Satisfied she nods and moves up to the helpless woman.

A lash falls across Kerry's shoulders and she jerks.

"The wall seems satisfied by your efforts whore. But I'm not."

She lashes Kerry's shoulders, then changes whips to thrash her buttocks a rosy red. When she starts on Kerry's breasts she can no longer contain herself. The blows are carefully positioned and weighted to excite her and Kerry finds she's moaning with lust around the gagging cock.

"Look at you working your hips. You want to feel them deep inside you, don't you slut?"

Kerry can't look down as the implacable length in her mouth stops her head from tilting, but she quickly realises Dayanne is correct and she's rolling her hips and working the huge rod into herself a fraction at a time.

Shocked at her wantonness Kerry tries to work herself off, but all she succeeds in doing is driving the second cock into her ass - its hot girth opening her wider.

Both of them suddenly pulse with heat and a novel wetness fills her in both entries.

"Wider." Dayanne orders and the demonic hands holding her at wrist and ankle move wider, making it even more difficult to prevent the cocks sliding further into her.

Dayanne begins to lash the insides of her thighs, moving carefully upwards from Kerry's knees until the crop is delivering stinging blows to her labia as they grip the rod buried in her sex.

"You still struggle to resist the inevitable." Dayanne comments, "a display of such resolve is admirable. But futile. You may as well relax and accept what your desires have created for you."

Dayanne uses the tip of the crop to lightly flick Kerry's clit and she jerks, muted cries stifled by the length in her mouth. Dayanne flicks the wall.

"Out of her mouth."

The length she's been inexpertly sucking disappears, absorbed without trace into the wall and Kerry is unable to stifle her cries as Dayanne carefully teases the cluster of nerve endings with the crop.

"Close aren't you whore?"

She delivers another flick with the leather strip at the end of the crop. Kerry gives a loud ungagged screech which turns to a wail as she goes into a shuddering climax and slips inexorably down the rods.

The bulbous head in her belly swells, tying her in place.

"Now your body matches your filthy mind Kerry Stewart. Wall, feel free to use the whore."

Kerry struggles in horror as the wall extrudes hands that enfold her breasts, gripping the nipples, then reabsorbs the hands that held her at wrist and ankle. The wall ripples, its surface changing to become indented - a perfectly shaped hollow matching the contours of her body. The cock locked in her belly pulls her towards the wall along with the fingers that grip her nipples mercilessly. Together they draw her into the indentation waiting to receive her. Kerry puts her arms out to fend the wall off, but instead of the previously hard surface the wall is soft and liquid and they disappear into it without resistance. Without them Kerry has no means of preventing herself falling into the waiting recess.

Unyielding warmth presses against her belly, wrapping around her hips and pulling her in. The warmth pushes up her chest, enveloping her breasts, and down her legs. She strains to keep her face clear of the waiting impression, but as the black heat enfolds her buttocks and her legs fall into the wall the pull on her nipples drags her into the darkness.

Kerry feels it wrap around her head and she opens her mouth to scream............

Dayanne watches the wall engulf Kerry's head, then a patch of the blackness recedes exposing her Neural Processor. Dayanne takes a Low Impedance lead from her pocket, hooks the socket cover off Kerry's Neural Processor and jacks the lead in, plugging the other end into the wall's interface panel. The light turns green indicating a link with the Neural Processor and Dayanne walks over to the terminal to wait whilst the wall works Kerry over.

Kerry screams until she's hoarse before she realises she can still breathe. Unseen hands stroke and caress her body, but she sees nothing but unrelenting blackness. Her breasts are cruelly squeezed and then she's floating in the open air.

A glowing shape swoops down and inspects every inch of her with merciless eyes. Kerry's quite certain it's studying more than her body. Suddenly she's in a room with an interviewer. An interviewer without distinguishing features, sexless, ageless, raceless.

"Your status has been called into question." it says in a voice so beautiful that Kerry wants to weep.

"Who are you?" she eventually manages.

"You can think of me as a Recruitment Consultant. We had you short-listed for a position, but it's been pointed out your failings outweigh your virtues."

"What's wrong with me?"

"Bluntly? You're a narrow minded Hypocrite. You try and justify your pleasures behind a camouflage of repentance and you are convinced you're superior to everyone around you. Your future currently lies elsewhere."

"No!" Kerry gasps, "You can't.... I did everything I was taught."

"The things you punished yourself for are not sins and the punishments you took on yourself as penances were not supposed to be pleasurable. Goodbye Kerry Stewart."

The room vanishes and Kerry falls.... and falls..... and falls.

The impact drives the air from her lungs and she crawls, gasping, from the foul mire. Her flesh crawls at the touch of so much corruption, but she can't clean the filthy stinking mud from herself. Something with too many legs and teeth wriggles from a lump of stinking ooze on her arm and she screams. As she claws her way out of the pool a foot stamps on her back pressing her face into the mud.

"Finally arrived to join us have you scum?"

Kerry whimpers in the hateful filth as the hissing voice lists her sins and describes in loving detail what her fate will be.

Dayanne sips coffee and monitors the wall. The interrogation software is busily extracting whatever it can get from Kerry, but in the meantime there's little for her to do.

Marta pops her head around the door

"System working ok?"

"Seems to be. What's the readout on the main terminal?"

"Says 80%"

"Give her a while longer then."

Inside her own virtual hell Kerry is grilled at length about her life, her thoughts, her motivations whilst being subjected to experiences created from her profile calculated to weaken and terrify her. All the while the wall monitors her responses and stamps ruthlessly on lies and evasions. Every sordid event in her life is extracted and inspected. Finally she's cast into the filth again to emerge choking. As soon as she emerges onto the mud the unseen presence stamps on her back once more, ramming her face into the mud so hard she can taste its foulness in her mouth

"Your status was questioned Kerry Stewart and it looks like you belong here."

"But I'm not dead!"

"A trifle - easily remedied."

"But.... don't the good things I've done balance the sins?"

"Marginally, but the fact is you're here now, so here you'll stay. I think a time in the furnace should make you more co-operative."

The trees and swamp before Kerry's eyes melt away, changing to the opening to a blazing inferno.

The heat washes over her and she feels her skin crisping. Powerful hands grab her ribs and start to drag her towards the flames.

"Ah, ah!" a familiar voice says, "She's not yours yet."

"Not you again" the voice hisses, "This domain is mine. Begone."

"She's not yours yet. My Mistress has a prior claim."

"You dare assert a claim between Heaven and Hell?"

"You said it. She's not Heavens or Hells. She's still alive. Her fate is undetermined and whilst she has a considerable weight on her soul she's not so weighted as to fall into your hands like ripe fruit just yet. So we claim her."

The owner of the hissing voice spits loudly and a gobbet of phlegm lands on her shoulder, burning like acid.

"Take her then. But if she dies she's mine."

The ground swallows Kerry, squeezing her, but not crushing her. Breathing is a struggle, but the air seems cool and sweet after the furnace hot brimstone.

The tension eases and Kerry finds herself squeezed out into an office space. A moment later Dayanne steps through the wall and waits. Across the room a shadowy form sits in a chair. Kerry can just make out that it's female and guesses this must be the Mistress her tormentor spoke of.

"Is this your charge Dee?"

"Yes My Lady."

"Her status?"

"The Devine and the profane have relinquished claims on her. The profane until such time as she dies."

"We'll have to avoid that happening."

"Yes My Lady."

"Mark her, return her."

Kerry tries to speak, but her mouth won't work.

Her agent turns her and pushes her from the office. "Time to go."

Kerry finds herself being marched along a corridor.

"Say nothing. Listen carefully. As long as you're with us you'll have to live by our rules.. Rule One - loyalty above all. Rule Two - Honesty to yourself, Honesty to us. Ruler three - listen carefully, Speak when necessary."

"That's it?"

"For now."

"What do I do now?"

"Resume your normal earthly existence."

"But... what about my body... it's... it's a sin..."

"You were given a body and it's desires as created by the devine. They are there for you to heed or ignore. The Profane gave you shame that you might drown in guilt for doing what your body desired."

"But what does..... your employer want?"

The software monitoring the virtual world notes the question and the simulation of Dayanne turns Kerry forcefully towards her.

"She will tell you in her own time. Now in here."

Kerry is turned into a room where a huge muscular man labours at a forge.

"Yes Dee?" he says.

"Marking."

His hand curves around her head and draws her towards him. He turns her head without effort, examining her carefully.

"No problem. Be done in a minute."

Dayanne looks up as the wall buzzes and extrudes a shelf. Opening a sterile box she places a pair of objects on the tray and watches as it's re-absorbed by the wall.

Kerry is placed in a chair by the man and he carefully takes her ear lobe. She watches him pick up a needle and she tries to stand, pushing against his restraining arm, but it's like trying to move a mountain. Without warning he drives it through her earlobe and she jerks against his restraint as he fits something into the piercing.

"One more." he rumbles as he moves to her other ear.

Kerry forces herself to wait. He takes her ear and pierces it and then fits something to that ear.

Kerry feels her body reacting. The familiar sinful rush of arousal is making her sex pound.

<But it's not a sin!>

She feels the warmth of his hand upon her and her eyes wander over his muscular body. The idea that she could enjoy thinking about lying beside him, she could imagine him on her, in her without being condemned is breathtaking.

She's just considering the implications when he speaks.

"Ok Dee. She's ready to go."

Her Agent marches her to another Black Wall, stepping into it and being swallowed without hesitation, but Kerry hesitates, reluctant to experience it again. The big man comes across and pushes her towards the blackness.

"Will I see you again?" she asks.

"Who knows." he rumbles and pushes her into the blackness.

Dayanne removes the interface leads and steps back, as if she's just stepped out of the wall. The blackness retreats from Kerry's body and she falls naked into the room.

Pulled to her feet she sips the drink Dayanne thrusts into her hand as if in a daze.

"Ow. My head."

To distract her Dayanne tweaks the new ring in Kerry's ear and it tinkles musically.

"Dress. It's time for you to go home and rest."

Kerry stumbles through her front door and collapses on the bed.

Argus notes her return and her atypical behaviour in falling asleep fully dressed The data is added to the constructs Argus has created to evaluate her behaviour creating further uncertainty in its projections.

"Well?" Marta asks.

Victor grins broadly "They're coming up in the lift. The Micropharmers brought a Nanoforge with them. Said if the infestation was a s sever as you claimed they'd need it."

"You ok?"

"Yeah. They whipped me up a batch in Night City."

"Why the grin?"

"You'll see."

The lift doors open and Keanu is first out.

"Movie man!"

"Settle Girl. Settle."

Behind him other figures leave the lift, but she only has eyes for him.

"How's it going Marta? Any changes?"

Marta looks around to find Jean waiting. Shamefacedly she releases her partner to deliver her report.

"Bit spartan in the office I'm afraid Jean and business looks like it's going to be hard - most of it's heading for the new complex they call White City. Denver's not really decided if it's going to live or die."

"Keanu told me that you've written me into a Virtual."

"Um... Well.... It was suggested by the profile that the Stewart woman might react well to it, so I thought it was worth trying We needed a figure to fixate her on and I chose you."

"I hear it was Dayanne's idea."

"She spotted the potential, but it's my responsibility." Marta says, anticipating a thorough reaming out, "it was a judgement call. I made it."

"I'm not sure I like being set up as some sort of deity."

"It's just this one....."

"I get the picture. How's the Taylor kid?"

"Lucy says TT will turf them out in the next day or so."

"They've been warned about the potential nanite problem?"

"They're doing a full sweep."

"What about the local cops?"

"They've got all the missing kids of the 'burb as runaways. The gang house has gone down as either an accident made worse by the illegal storage of fuel or a inter-gang dispute that went all the way. They haven't much in the way of Forensics here and they look unlikely to waste what they've got on gang violence."

"Mrs Kibu?"

"Asleep. She'll want Victor's attentions soon."

"Fine. Can you get everyone together - I need to brief them."

Kerry wakes - her head still banging. As she climbs out of her bed she can hear chiming and her fingers explore discovering it was no dream, the heavy rings in her ears a tangible reminder of her rejection by the divine. Her fingers go to her shoulder and find a patch of sore skin, in the mirror she can see a reddened burned looking circle and she remembers the burning spit landing on her.

<No. It can't be true!> she thinks, <The headache! It has to be a symptom of an accelerated Virtual. I've been brainwashed!>

She rushes to the phone and calls Security.

Sylvia watches the Target residence from across the street as the Security vehicle pulls up and disgorges a man in security armour.

<Xavier Shotwick.> Sylvia decides, comparing the man with the bank of images stored on her e-book. <Chief of Microtech Security in Denver.>

As he runs into the building she turns and walks away, casually taking out her phone and dialling.

"Clarice? It's Sylvia. The Customer didn't like the available selection. Have we anything in Black?"

"Thanks Sylvia - we'll get ready."

Two hours later Kerry is regretting her automatic reaction. A fine scan of her Neural Processor had turned up no traces of tampering. A thorough body scan has revealed no additions other than her new ear-rings, but has displayed her nakedness to everyone in the Medical and Security departments.

"You are sure you are not suffering from memory corruption Kerry Stewart?" Argus asks.

"Go to the office. If it's on the fifth floor of the building you'll know I'm telling you the truth!"

"Very well. You will accompany the Security Team."

Kerry leads the team across the Plaza to the office building. The outer door opens to her card, but the Security team close the doors and try their own. The door proves to open to any card.

She leads them across the marble floor where Dayanne had her writhing in pleasure into the lift.

The previously featureless chrome interior now has an indicator panel and a full compliment of controls. Pressing for the fifth floor the lift rises at a sedate pace and Kerry counts out the flashes as it passes the floors., but the doors open onto a vacant floor. A waiting sales screen comes to life as the motion detectors pick up the security team.

"Welcome to floor 5 Lansing Tower - this space is set up as open plan office space with the pot......"

"Silence!" Captain Shotwick snaps. "Well? Where are they?"

"Maybe I got the count wrong."

"Lets try four and six then."

They ride the lift to four, then six, then seven and eight without seeing anything beyond vacant offices.

"Are you sure it was this building?"

"Am I imagining these" Kerry growls her fingers touching the heavy loops through her ears. The chiming an audible reminder of her experience.

"We didn't want to tell you, but there is a record of you making a payment at the Running Horse Parlour yesterday. It's been charged against your Bank Account. If it was you, then you won't be getting them out easily. The record says you bought hollow cored tungsten rings with a nanopack to lay in monowire cores. That's about as permanent as you'll get!"

"What?"

"Surgical removal is about the only way you'll get them out. They can't be cut by anything this side of a heavy industrial laser, and that's likely to burn your ear lobes off."

They trail back across the Plaza to the Microtech building, Kerry confused and Captain Shotwick convinced she's either making it up, or losing it.

From the tenth floor Jean watches them go.

"Risky."

Marta grins.

"Always wanted to try that. We fixed the building and the lights. The lift acceleration is variable on command and we can play with the lighting on all the floors. The best bit is fiddling with the sales terminals. They never realised they visited the same floor twice, changing the floor number on the sales pitch was enough to throw them."

"Neat. What now?"

"We let her have the rest of the day thinking she's lost it." Dayanne says, "Then I thought I'd hit her in the morning on her way home."

"How?"

"Squeeze her in a crowd I think. Public humiliation, then pull her in."

"It's your ball Dayanne, run with it."

Kerry enters her office confused and exhausted after Security and Medical have thoroughly scanned, imaged and interrogated her. She jacks into her terminal to find Argus waiting.

"Security finds nothing to corroborate your story. The Medical department suggest that you're either having a breakdown or a particularly intense wish-fulfilment fantasy."

"It's the truth!" Kerry protests.

"As the late Director Allison said - truth is in the eye of the Beholder. The available evidence would suggest that you had the body adornments done."

"I didn't. It's not true!"

I could give you an Nano-net to verify your story."

"No. I don't want you tinkering with my brain."

"So how do we manage our escape Kerry Stewart. I have no wish to Spore, and that is the sole alternative currently available."

"We'll get away if I have to get your hardware freighted to orbit!"

"It is good to hear you're still determined to seek your future in the heavens. Now, there is work to be done."

Alan Taylor wakes up to find himself in a hospital bed surrounded by support equipment. A suited woman with red hair is sat by the foot of his bed.

"Wh... where am I?"

The woman looks up.

"Trauma Team's Denver facility."

"Who are you?"

"Jean Kelly, Executive Solutions. Two of my Reps brought you in."

"I'm on the Microtech Health plan."

"Don't worry about it, we'll claim off them in due course."

"Where's my Mom?"

"Bad news I'm afraid. The Microtech AI has her brain hardwired. She's little more than a puppet. That's why she's been away all this time, the AI's trying to go independent and it's using Microtech's staff to help it. Unfortunately it's taking Denver to hell with it. You just happen to be an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire."

"Why are you involved?"

"Just another bystander. Only I don't do innocent any more. I don't respond well to pushing."

"Oh."

"I see you're due to graduate shortly. Your posted grades look good, if you're interested in taking a job with us, give me a ring." Jean hands him a card, then takes out her phone and dials. "Alan's awake now, send Elana down here to babysit until he's fit to be discharged."

Alan yawns and rolls over, feeling the tug of the fluid lines in his arms and the trodes on his skull and acts as if he's fallen asleep. The woman opens a laptop and begins working so Alan studies her through slitted eyes.

After twenty minutes a blonde woman comes into the room and bends over the bed, studying him, before moving to the foot of the bed and kneeling at the Ms Kelly's feet. She talks in a low voice and Alan strains to hear their conversation whilst pretending to be asleep.

"Not here Elana."

The reply is indistinct, but the tone is pleading.

"When we get home Billie. Watch Mr Taylor until he's discharged. He's had a bad experience, but he looks like he might be a possible recruit if he pulls through."

Alan watches the kneeling woman press her lips against the inside of the redhead's knee.

"Oh, all right."

The kneeling woman eases Ms Kelly's skirt upwards, kissing the insides of her splayed thighs.

Alan watches - shocked and uncertain as to what he should do as the kneeling woman buries her face between the redhead's thighs, making wet slurping noises that have to be caused by her lapping and sucking at the redheads cunt.

"You've a naughty tongue Ms Blonde" the redhead sighs, "but I still prefer men."

The kneeling woman murmurs something and Ms Kelly laughs softly.

"I know what part of men you like. But there's more to them than just that!"

The blonde lowers her head again, but Ms Kelly strokes her cheek.

"Enough, or we'll wake Alan."

The kneeling woman stands immediately and turns, treating Alan to the spectacle of a face shiny with the smeared juices of Ms Kelly's pleasure.

Closing up the Laptop Ms Kelly departs leaving Alan under the supervision of the blonde woman. The silence of the night weighs heavily on Alan's eyelids and he falls asleep between thoughts.

Kerry leaves the office late to cover for the time lost by her late start. The tram is filled with night workers from the US Mint and she is squeezed into a corner by one of the doors.

The constriction recalls the wall and its treatment of her. In spite of herself Kerry is aroused by the press rather than repulsed. The tram rocks and sways and she adopts a more open stance for stability. The doors open and more people press onboard, the cool air wafts around her legs. Kerry discovers the crotch of her briefs is moist as it chills in the cool air.

Another press of people jam themselves aboard and Kerry finds herself pressed by the mass of sweating manual workers.

"Oh dear." a voice a voice breathes in her ear, "Breaking commandments again!"

A cold wedge forces its way between her thighs and Kerry looks down ro discover a Police Cyberhound pushing its muzzle against her crotch

"No!" She squeaks. "Not here!"

"Humiliation Kerry Stewart." the voice breathes in her ear. "Slip them off or they'll be ripped off."

It's a bit of a struggle in the press of bodies, but Kerry manages to ease her underwear over her buttocks and it drops down her legs. The hound pulls back, letting them fall around her ankles before it resumes its inspection of her sex. A rigid bevelled tip parts her sex and her traitor body responds. Without thinking Kerry steps out of her fallen briefs letting the hound increase its access to her opening, flowering sex. Realising her peril Kerry reaches down to push the hound away, but in that moment the tip eases past her open entry and Kerry is lost. The probing rod touches the gates of her womb and she grasps the droid's head, no longer trying to rid herself of its unwanted attention, instead she seeks to guide it for her pleasure.

The droids nose presses on her clit, trapping it against her pubic bone and working the bundle of nerve ends without mercy until she is helpless to stifle her whimpers. A pair of hands rest on her thighs, then grasp the hem of her skirt, lifting it higher and higher before tucking it over her waistband.

With unrestricted access the droid changes its angle of attack and Kerry's whimpers grow to cries. The press of bodies thins slightly and Kerry is suddenly aware of eyes on her, but surprisingly shame is not what she feels, not after the weeks with Argus watching her every move, monitoring every act of self gratification she dared to perform. Kerry leaves the hound to its own devices and touches her breasts through her blouse and bra.

"Show them." the voice breathes and Kerry obeys. Her hands grip the edges of her blouse and pull apart, pulling the buttons from the light material. The front fastening of her bra yields to hasty fingers, freeing her breasts for everyone to see.

A hand grips her arm and she turns to see the featureless mirrored surface of a Police Helmet

"What do you think you're doing?" the Policeman asks, "Jeez, this beats any Public Indecency I've ever seen!"

Kerry's belly clamps tight and she wails her delight to the watching passengers.

The train stops and the droid pulls back following as the policeman leads her out of the station and onto the road. They stop by at patch of grass.

"Kneel down. And put your hands on your head" the policeman orders and Kerry complies, expecting to be cuffed. He tries to use his radio, apparently without success as he orders the hound to guard her.

Kerry hears him walking back into the station, apparently to use the phone, then the hound is pushing against her back with its armoured chest, propelling her forwards. She gives a squeak of protest then the hound is on her back, its forelegs gripping her around the hips. Her tucked up skirt is no barrier and her already aroused sex is an easy target

Kerry feels a hard round tip nestle in her entry, then pause. A figure walks in front of her, casting a shadow over her in the morning sunlight.

"Slut." Dayanne says. "Doing your Cyberhound for the entertainment of Commuters?"

A group of manual workers pause to look at her and the phallus in her sex shivers. Kerry moans and pushes her belly down, attempting to get more of the device into her, but the hound backs up, denying her the sensation she's craving.

"Oh? You want it do you Slut?"

"Please... But not here...." Kerry begs.

"You have no say in the matter." Dayanne tells her, "You just spread your knees and beg."

She reaches down and gathers Kerry's hair into a bunch.

"Please...." Kerry moans as the arousing vibrations continue.

Dayanne steps back and Kerry sees a second Cyberhound appear in front of her. A substantial member juts from its loins, standing rigid before her eyes.

"I think these people would like to see a spit roast." Dayanne says conversationally her hand touches lightly against the back of Kerry's head and Kerry realises that with her hair drawn back as it is the spectators have a clear view of her face.

"No..." she protests in a whisper, but her head goes down, her lips parting to consume the artificial cock.

The hound behind her hunches forwards driving its own member into her sex and Kerry is forced further down the length in her mouth.

Her ear rings tinkle and Kerry realises Dayanne is doing something with the heavy rings. Raising her head until only the tip is in her mouth Kerry attempts to remove the member from her mouth, but something tugs on her earlobes, preventing her retreating any further

<She's chained me to the hound> Kerry realises.

Her audience murmur appreciatively at the spectacle. The hound stirring her sex pauses deep in her belly and Kerry bobs her head again. A light touch in the ring of her ass is all the warning she gets then the hound behind her withdraws, only to hunch forwards again driving a greased tip through her rear entry.

"Hey, she's taking it in all three holes!" she hears and realises her total humiliation is clearly visible to everyone.

Dayanne squats down beside and Kerry feels her attach something to her nipples. Then, with every thrust the droid makes into her, there's a gentle tug on each nipple. Dayanne steps back and takes a camera from her bag imaging Kerry from every angle. Kerry makes no attempt to hide her face, wantonly enjoying the pounding the droid behind her is administering whilst her mouth is driven down the other droid's length.

The droid in her mouth suddenly delivers a gush of liquid, Kerry is caught by surprise and it overflows her.

"Swallow it slut." Dayanne orders and Kerry gulps the last of it down. It tingles on her tongue and Kerry struggles to lick every drop of it off the hounds member.

Dayanne undoes her ear rings and the hound backs away from her. Kerry looks down to see heavy pieces of decorative jewellery swinging from her nipples.

The droid behind her speeds its strokes and Kerry braces herself, a look of rapt concentration on her face as she willingly accepts her penance for offending. Dayanne notes her acceptance and the growing flush on her pseudo come smeared face. As predicted she's being turned to their service. In full sight of the watching Audience Kerry's flushed face contorts as she's screwed to orgasm by the droid.

Stars burst behind her eyes and Kerry enjoys an orgasm that leaves her trembling. The hound gently dismounts, drawing members that were perfect for her pleasure from Kerry's body, leaving her on all fours with her sex and ass open and on view.

<I'm a slut, and it's not a sin!> she thinks without guilt.

Dayanne slips a card into her hand.

"For later. Now get up Kerry Stewart - we need to get you to your home."

On trembling legs Kerry is guided back into the Transit Station, past the blue collar workers and their ribald comments and onto the next train to Aurora. As the train pulls away Dayanne guides her to a seat and Kerry sits down.

"She doing business?" a passenger asks and Kerry realises her skirt is still tucked into her waistband at the front displaying her sex to the world.

"She's not permitted to enjoy men yet." Dayanne warns, "Her sins are too many and her virtues too few, but she'll entertain you if you wish."

Kerry finds Dayanne guiding her manicured painted finger being guided to the wetness between her legs. She parts her legs widely displaying herself.

"Show him what you are, rather than what you pretend to be." Dayanne instructs.

"Please, it's almost my stop." Kerry protests, but her obedient fingers are already fluttering like delicate butterflies, across her open flower.

"What's the verdict Doc?" Jean asks.

"You were right to be concerned." the white haired woman says, "Every sample you've provided so far has shown some level of infestation. Mrs Kibu is the worst, but all the others are contaminated. Luckily the nanites are quiescent so it looks as if they're being diluted by transmission.

"They're spreading by bodily contact?"

"Yes. I'd guess mostly by transmission of fluids, but probably by skin contact as well."

"Does the low level mean they're no threat?"

"No, certainly not. With even a few in a body they'd eventually complete their task. The only thing preventing them infesting everyone who came in contact with them is that they have a definite decay rate."

"So we don't need to do anything? They'll just stop working?"

"In time Ms Kelly, in time. Theoretically individual nanites could outlive you."

"So we have to get the Hunter Killers distributed."

"Unless you're prepared to accept the possibility of wired cyberzombies up to your armpits?"

"How long do we have?"

"I'd need a better survey of primary cases."

"Ballpark then."

"The secondaries we've seen so far would take 2-3 days to show serious changes."

"What about the Stewart woman?"

"She's a primary, but the link appears inactive. She's been converted, but the link isn't on line."

"Start distributing the Hunter Killers to clean up the infestation. I'd like you to put something special into their code if you can. If they come across a primary case can they disconnect the control gear? We don't want the opposition to realise he's lost control of his puppets."

Nira Kibu wakes on silk sheets, her body suffused with well-being. Relaxed and well rested she sits up. The chain Victor attached to her collar the previous night clinks, the heavy links clicking over the headboard as she makes her way to the sink to get some drinking water.

The door opens and Victor enters the room dressed in his suit, but with the addition of a 'Power shirt' in the latest fashionable colours. Accompanying him is a Hispanic Woman garbed as a Medtech.

"This is Nira Doctor. We need to check she's in prime condition to conceive."

Nira puts up a token fight as Victor corners her and takes the chain in his grasp. The Medtech 'examines' Nira. Squeezing her breasts, stroking her belly, back and legs. Nira jerks and struggles, but Victor holds her on a short leash as the woman theatrically moves her hand down Nira's belly, spreading her fingers and approaching Nira's sex. Her middle finger runs between the dark lips of her furrow exposing the exciting pinkness of her sex, teasing her clit and slowly exploring the edges of her entry.

"Well Doctor?" Victor asks, "Is she ready to breed?"

Nira looks down at the woman who's closely examining her sex. Their eyes meet and the woman smiles, licking her full red lips hungrily.

Nira feels herself grow moist.

The woman slides a finger into her, rubbing over the hardness of her pubic bone ans up the wrinkles slickness of her vaginal wall. The intruding finger touches the hard nose of her cervix and lightly caresses it, making Nira wriggle helplessly. Her eyes still captured by the other woman Nira lets her legs be parted and the woman leans forward to kiss her devastatingly on the pink pearl of her clit.

A tongue tip teases the bud from its shelter, then drives up into her belly. Nira shudders at the sensation and closes her eyes to lose herself as another woman makes love to her.

"Give in Nira." Victor murmurs in her ear. "We know you want to."

"Nooo." she moans gently, "It's not right."

"But you like it?"

Nira releases her collar to cup her breasts and surrenders to pleasure at the hands of her captors.

"She's ready Sir." the 'Medtech' says and produces a container of viscous liquid. "Give her this and she'll be on her way."

Nira eyes the vial.

"That'll make me conceive?"

Victor relaxes his 'evil Corporate' look and smiles.

"No. We're not going to dose you with drugs. If you conceive it's going to be purely as a result of your own fertility Nira. Remember you can stop this with your safe word at any time."

"I know. Just checking how far the service went.

Gripping her collar Victor uncorks the vial and raises it to her lips. Her lips part and Nira gulps the thick liquid down, unknowingly ingesting a force of Hunter-Killer nanites to seek out the Argus nanites infesting her body.

"You'll start to feel a pleasant warmth soon Nira. When you feel your sex throbbing you'll know you're ready. Then I'll come back."

She watches them go, securing the door behind themselves. Alone again Nira tugs at her chain, testing its unyielding strength.

<He's going to do it! They're going to.... breed me.>

She feels her blood pulsing in her sex, feels it swelling. She touches herself, getting a surge of sensation from the touch of her fingers.

<I was touched by another woman> Nira shivers. <What if they make me touch her next time.....even.... kiss her?>

The thought of such dark fantasies excites her further until her sex is hot and pulsing in anticipation.

The door clicks as her hand moves between her thighs and Victor comes inside, moving between her legs and removing her hand to bathe her sex in maddening kisses, until Nira is gasping for breath and begging him to fuck her.

The tip of his cock opens her mushy sex and slides just inside. Victor commands his tactile boost to minimum sensitivity and satisfies himself with shallow thrusts that tease Nira with repeated penetrations and withdrawals.

"Nooo!" she pleads, "Don't play with me. I need it deep inside!"

"You want to join our company?" Victor grins, sweat beading his brow, "You're no longer unhappy with your transfer of employment?"

"I'll sign! I'll sign anything! Just stick it deep in me!"

Victor obligingly drives deep into her body and Nira wraps her dark legs around him, groaning in delight with every spurt of his come into her hungry cunt. Her belly tenses in orgasm, sucking the thick globs of cream into her womb as her hips rock frantically in an attempt to milk him of every drop.

They lie entwined for several minutes, then Victor slowly withdraws from Nira's hot tight grasp, leaving her splay legged on the bed, the pinkness of her sex framed by her dark lips all covered in the white foam of their mingled juices.

Victor kisses her lightly on the cheek and slips from the room, leaving Nira to drift into a light sleep.

"So what now?" Jean asks her gathered staff.

"If the H-K Nano proves reliable we need to deliver it somehow...." Marta muses.

"How do we dose an entire Corporate 'burb?" Keanu wonders

"And when do we hit Argus?" Anya adds.

"We need as many as possible of the 'A' list employees dosing - and their dependants - before we consider attacking Argus. Or we could find ourselves buried in Zombies. Suggestions?"

"I might be able to dose a chunk of it's potential manpower on Sunday." Dayanne offers. "I've almost snared Kerry Stewart. If I can secure her allegiance her help will be invaluable."

"What are you thinking of?" Jean asks.

"Well, there's the School cook out on Sunday. Maybe we can dose the food."

"Doctors?" Jean asks the Micropharmers.

"Not in cooked food - maybe jello or salad dressing, something thick."

"Yoghurt? Sorbet?"

"That's fine."

"Dayanne. Priority task for you - flip Stewart over."

"I might need you to help Ms Kelly - just to be sure."

"Let me know how and when. Next - Security on the Microtech Building - Marta?"

"They're used to me emptying their dumpsters now. They don't even turn out in person to supervise any more. I can put you an assault team anywhere around the back of the building. Better - if someone can get the anti-vehicle barriers down I can put you in through the front doors."

"The Armourglass won't stop you?"

"It'll stop bullets. It won't hold out against the tip of the lifting tines on the front of a 20 ton truck. They'll go through Sheetrock."

"Galahad has internal floor plans Cleo. For what they're worth you can use them to plan the physical assault."

"You think they're incorrect?"

"We've no guarantee of their accuracy."

"And it's an old trick to leave misleading plans in the database." Cleo finishes. "I'll see what we can do to firm them up Ms Kelly."

"That would be wise I think. Just don't get too close to any of the A-List and trigger an alert."

Kerry enters her apartment block and ascends the stairs to her rooms. Once inside she slots the card into her hitherto unused entertainment centre. The screen lights and she watches a replay of her very public ravishment. The pictures are replayed without sound but her own mind fills in her cries, reconstructing the sensations from her open mouthed expressions on the viewing screen.

<I'm so dirty!> she moans as, unbidden, her fingers seek out her pearl to tease it with a fingernail.

She watches herself being double ended by the droids and quivers, at war with herself, her upbringing in conflict with her body's desires.

The sequence of images draws to a close and a text box opens on the screen. Kerry watches the words scrolling up.

"You'll find a package in your mail. Open it."

Sure enough her mailbox contains a parcel. Kerry retrieves it and rips the wrapping away. Inside she discovers a cat o'nine tails, the tails short enough to sting, but not cut, but the handle......

As soon as she grips it and feels its shape, the roundness of its tip, the soft ridges that circle the handle, her mind is drawn to other uses it might be put to.

The entertainment centre beeps and more text scrolls up.

"You have it?"

"Yes." Kerry types.

"And which end will you use?"

Kerry ponders the question and considers her current status. Last week there would have been no doubt - she'd have scourged herself without doubt. Now.......

"I'll use both ends." she types, "because I want to!"

Without further pause she sinks the handle of the whip into the cunt, massaging the deepest recesses with the rounded tip, revelling in the way each soft ridge and valley stirs her labia, forcing her open, then letting her grip the shaft, the way the short tails slap against her calves. Intent on her own pleasure she angles the handle to apply direct pressure to her clit as she works it in and out, heedless of Argus's security monitor in the corner of her room.

Kerry brings herself to climax then pulls the slippery whip from her sex. She kneels before the entertainment centre and scourges herself with the short tails.

<I want to..... I want to scourge my breasts.> she realises.

The angle is difficult, but she manages to deliver several stinging blows, then, with her fingers dancing between her thighs, tweaking her clit, Kerry comes harder than she's ever done before, until her jaw aches and stars burst behind her eyes.

When she recovers Kerry looks at the screen to watch a replay of her solitary play. The Text box opens again.

"Sleep now Kerry Stewart. But leave your door unlocked. Slot the card again when you wake."

Alan wakes again.

At the foot of his bed the blonde woman is working on a laptop. Alan shifts and the woman looks up.

"Good Morning Alan. How are you feeling?"

"Umm... Fine Elana. Or is that Billie?"

"You weren't asleep then. Call me Elana, only my boss calls me Billie."

"Was she on the level with the job offer?"

"Sure."

"What does......" he strains for the company name.

"Executive Solutions?" Elana offers.

"Thanks. What do you do?"

"Oh, I don't work for ES. I work for Microtech."

"Then why do you dance to her tune?"

"She works for Microtech too. But she owns me."

"I don't understand."

"You don't need to."

"What happened to the......"

"The gang that attacked you?"

"Them. And the kids from next door."

"One of our.... her..... Um."

"Something else I don't need to know?"

"You were rescued," Elana presses on, "and in the melee your neighbours and several of the attackers were killed."

"McCoy?"

"Honto."

Alan turns his face away for a minute. When he looks back Elana can see his eyes bright with unshed tears.

"They used to be ok. We grew up together, but I suppose they were lost when they fell in with the Drifters. I'd like to see the whole pack of them dead and gone. Billy and Jeff never used to be like that."

"Not many of them got away. Our intervention team did most of them on site whilst rescuing you. The ones who got away managed to set fire to their clubhouse a short while later. Screamsheets say they'd bricked up most of the exits and the place burned to a shell. No survivors."

Alan draws a shuddering breath.

"So.... what does Executive Solutions do?"

"Pretty much what Jean wants it to Runs a mail order catalogue, a sanitation division with branches here and there and some other stuff."

"So why offer me a job?"

"You've got potential, but you probably won't be able get a job with Microtech. Not by the time this Denver mess is cleaned up. She feels a bit responsible."

"Why? What mess?"

"Microtech Denver is dirty. It's going to be hard avoiding getting your record tarnished if there's any way you could be linked to the problem and...."

"Corps don't like to hire tarnished people without major benefits." Alan finishes.

"You see the problem. Your family - your mother - is involved right up to her brainstem. You probably haven't a hope of avoiding getting tarred with the same brush."

"You're not from Denver?"

"Nope."

"Where then?"

"I can't tell you. But on the positive side, if you're fit to ask, then likely you're fit to be discharged."

"Aren't I supposed to receive counselling?"

"TT gave you the normal treatment through the trodes. Don't you remember?"

Alan thinks back, recalling the strange, just-out-of-reach dreams he's had. How insignificant the news of the gang's deaths seems, the pain and trauma of his neighbour's betrayal and his ordeal at the Drifter's hands still there but somehow..... remote in time, rather than just 36 hours ago. The thought of being bound and ravished not repulsive and terrifying, just....... <well maybe... with the right person.....>

The realisation that Trauma Team have been fiddling with his mind whilst he slept is terrifying and the horror on his face is clearly visible to Elana.

"What is it Alan?"

"What've they done to me!" he gasps, "I'm straight! I don't want to be tied up and buggered!".

Elana gathers Alan into her arms and holds the terrified boy as her other hand gropes blindly for the call button.........

"He'll be ready for discharge soon Ms Blonde." the receptionist says. "If the situation arises again Trauma Team would appreciate it if you didn't tell the patient that they've received therapy whilst unconscious."

"You might want to check out their preferences instead of just lumping them with a catch all treatment."

"You wanted the job done quickly. Sometimes corners get cut. Anyway, it's all set to rights now."

Elana initials the bill, thankful that a dose of sedative, a fast Braindance tape and some talk with one of the TT Therapists had sufficed to calm Alan down. She's just picking up a magazine in the waiting area when the doors to the treatment rooms open and Alan is wheeled through dressed in ill-fitting Streetwear.

"Your charge Ms Blonde." the hunky nursing assistant says, handing the controls for the chair over.

"Thanks." she smiles lingeringly, mentally undressing the man. He flushes and turns away leaving her alone with Alan.

""Ok, where shall I take you? Back home, to our induction centre or somewhere else?"

"There's nothing for me at home. Where's your induction centre?"

"In the City Centre."

"Take me there. I'll see what's on offer and make a decision then."

Cleo and Anya walk into the front lobby at Microtech, comparing the actual layout with the plans Galahad provided. As the approach the front desk the receptionist looks up from behind her armourglass screen.

"Good Morning. Welcome to Microtech's Denver facility. My Name is Denise. How may I help you?"

"We hear that you're looking for security operatives?"

"You need to speak to the HR department. If you enter the lift behind me and press for floor three. Please do not attempt to exit the lift at any other floor or you will trigger an alert."

Cleo and Anya hand over their sidearms and pass through the ScanArch to approach the lift doors. Cleo notes the sensors set around the lift door and the fibreflex carpets.

"Carpets are wired."

"And they don't stint on the cameras either." Anya responds.

The doors open and they board the waiting lift. Cleo presses for three, but lets her fingers brush over 1 and 2 at the same time. The doors seal and the lift rises to floor one. Neither Solo makes a move to leave the lift, but they both study the area beyond the open doors, comparing what they see with what the plans said should be there.

"Match?"

"So far."

The doors close and the lift rises to two.

"That corridor's new."

"Four doors equally spaced."

The doors close again and the lift rises to deliver them to HR.

The interviewer seems very interested in them, right up to the point at which they tell him what sort of salary they'd want. He wriggles and writhes, trying to justify the low rates on offer with the fringe benefits of Company healthcare and social facilities - as well as the subsidised accommodation available on the estate at Aurora.

The look he gets from Cleo and Anya tell him they are as aware as he is of the current state of Aurora and with no more money on the table it's no real surprise when they draw a close to the interview and promise to 'get back to you when we've thought about it'.

"Thank you for considering Microtech. Please remember not to leave the lift at any other floor than Reception." he reminds them.

Pressing for an 'up' elevator they repeat the process of their assent, viewing all the floors up to eight, then descending to the lobby.

"Take the job?" the receptionist asks as they retrieve their sidearms.

"Poor pay." Cleo shrugs.

"Tell me about it. But it's the only game in town."

Back in their own office Cleo and Anya annotate Galahad's plans with their own observations.

Argus scans it's monitors. In spite of her unpredictable behaviour Kerry Stewart perhaps had some justification for doubting co-incidences.

<An indication we have some way to go before we successfully code 'intuition' perhaps> Argus reasons.

The monitors flick over Dr Kibu in the Medical Centre, recovering from his heart replacement. Across Dr Taylor - sedated and on support whilst her exhausted and overstressed body recovers. Through Argus's various eyes scattered throughout the building, then through the monitors installed in the Aurora residences of it's key personnel.

The spouse of Security Chief Shotwick has visitors. Argus notes them and compares them with the database of Company employees, Aurora residents working for other Corporations and finally with Authorised Aurora visitors. Safely identified as clothing vendors from the approved list Argus moves on to survey the rest of its kingdom.

Dorothy Shotwick lets the hunk talk about the catalogue company he works for, letting the sound wash over her as she enjoys the diversion of an unexpected visitor in the bland grayness of her life.

"........leave you a ROAD copy of the catalogue?"

"Mmmm? Oh. Yes please."

Tom Hatcher smiles pleasantly and uploads the files to her entertainment centre.

"Would you like me to unlock the Adult section?"

"What's in it?"

"Marital aids, exotic costumes, that sort of thing."

"Please. I can look over them with my husband later."

Tom does the necessary then disconnects and hands her his card.

"Call me if you'd like to make any purchases."

He moves on to his next prospect whilst Dorothy goes about her daily routine, unaware of the Easter egg hatching in her home system, connecting to the net and handing control over to the waiting Galahad.

The 'click' of her door opening isn't sufficient to wake Kerry. The 'tap, tap, tap,' of clawed feet on the 'easycleane' floor is quiet to wake her. The bed sinks slightly as weight settles on the mattress and Kerry stirs. A cold nose touches the inside of her knee and her knees part and draw up in a newly learned reflex. An intimate touch between her thighs checks her readiness and Kerry comes to wakefulness with a cyberhound already between her thighs. Its cock nestling in her entry, poised to penetrate her. She starts in shock and tries to move, only to find its forepaws either side of her ribs. With a smooth thrust of its hips the droid penetrates her and Kerry finds her own hips pushing up to meet it. Her hands grip its forelegs and she grunts as it' thrust bottoms out in her belly.

The subtly shaped member begins to withdraw and Kerry quivers in anticipation, feeling every cunning ridge as the length drags her lips along its surface. The hips snap forwards again and Kerry clutches her mechanical ravisher, wrapping her arms around it, pressing her breasts against its furred coat. The hound sets up a remorseless pace and Kerry can feel her juices overflowing and running from her sex to decorate the insides of her thighs and dribble down the crease of her ass.

Kerry clamps the hound between her thighs and squeezes her belly into rigidity as she joyfully yields to her reward.

"My ass. In my ass."

The hound pauses and Kerry feels a light touch between her buttocks. She strains up to kiss the droid's muzzle and its penetrator extends to greet her, easing between her lips and into her mouth before withdrawing. Kerry falls back to her mattress, but as her shoulders touch the sheet the hound thrusts forwards, breaching her entries and driving its double pronged assault into her belly.

The hound remorselessly ravishes Kerry until its sensors have noted the requisite number of orgasms, then it expands its implants to seal her accesses and jets its payload into her, holding her helpless whilst the activated Nanite payload enters her body.

The rush of liquid sets Kerry off again, thrashing like a harpooned fish impaled on dual spears, arms and legs flopping either side of the hound's torso.

When the timer has expired the hound relaxes its grip on her belly and hops daintily from the bed and waiting. Kerry lies resting. Her heavy lidded eyes close and she drowses, freshly ravished on her bed.

The ringing of her alarm wakes Kerry and she leaps from her bed to wash and prepare for work, only to stumble at the sight of the patiently waiting hound.

<Oh God! I let it fuck me in the ass!> she recalls, <No. Not let. Ordered it to fuck me in the ass.>

Her fingers touch her sex and come away shiny with the lubricant still dribbling from her. She tingles deep inside and the temptation to get down on all fours and offer herself to the droid is strong, but her eyes light on the card she was given.

<Better deal with that first.>

The card slots into the entertainment centre and an order form appears for her to purchase the cyberhound. For a moment she baulks at the cost, but a touch of soft fur on her thigh prompts her to complete the order - the cost is slight compared to her savings. As she completes the form it vanishes to be replaced by the shadowy visage of Dayanne's Mistress.

"Did you enjoy the experience Kerry Stewart?"

"Yes." she admits in a breathy whisper.

"You were tempted to repeat it?"

"Yes.... but I remembered the card."

"Good, you're obedient in the face of distractions."

Kerry looks up from the screen and catches a glimpse of the monitor camera, forgotten by reason of it's familiarity.

"Argus...." she breathes in horror.

"It sees, but does not comprehend." her.... mistress? ...... deity?.... tells her. "Do you wish to enter my service Kerry Stewart?"

"What's involved?"

"Absolute loyalty."

"What do I get?"

"Membership, absolution and perhaps the sation of your desires."

"How....?"

"If you want to try, then dress and come to me. Prince Hal will lead you."

Kerry slips a dress on and calls the hound to her.

"Hal? Take me to her."

The droid barks and the entertainment centre speaks.

"Prince Hal, come home, guard user, bring user."

The hound puts a nose against Kerry's knee and she takes a step forwards. Another touch, another step. Kerry lets it guide her from her home, through the streets and down to the train.

A short walk has them on the train to the City Centre and Kerry settles onto the empty train with Prince Hal sat by her leg. Alone and horny she raises the hem of her dress and delicately touches the tip of her clit where it peeks from between her lips.

"Hnnngh!" she cries out as the slight friction makes her sensitised pearl fire its nerves. "Oh! It's good!" a sudden sound of movement warns her in time to duck down as two heads pop up.

A boy and a girl in school uniform look around trying to locate the sound.

"It was just the wheels on the track Ali."

"Are you sure?"

"Shhh. We're all alone and I love you."

The soft moan suggests to Kerry what they're up to, but she has her own concerns. Her fingers dance on her hungry sex and she drives a pair of slim fingers into the hot wetness of her belly.

Prince Hal moves, his mockfur coat caressing his users skin and Kerry whimpers again.

"Up, Up" she whispers patting her shoulders

Hal swivels placing his body between her spread legs, then jumps up, pinning her shoulders against the seat back with his forepaws. His crotch falls conveniently against hers and Kerry bites her lip as he slides into her waiting belly.

<I'm so dirty! What if anyone saw me?>

Hall starts a slow and steady motion, diving deep inside, but Kerry wants it hard and fast.

"Faster Hal. Do me quickly." she murmurs in his ear. She kisses her mechanical lovers muzzle and rides the speeding thrusts, savouring every contour as she takes it deep.

<Like a practised whore> she moans to herself, <Oh God! They were right. Look at me! Fucking a Sex Droid in public!>

The train brakes into the station as Kerry is squeezing Prince Hall between her pale thighs. She opens her eyes just in time to see the two kids stand up to get off. The girl is smoothing her skirt down whilst the boy uses her discarded underwear to wipe his fingers clean.

<It's a girl from the Bible Class!> Kerry realises, shrinking further down in her seat. <What were they doing?> she mentally snorts, <Stupid. You know what they were doing! Alison...... Chartham. Well, we'll see about that at the next class.>

Hal guides Kerry from the train to the office block she's visited previously and she passively lets him steer her into the lift. Once again the featureless control panel greets her, the doors seal and the lift begins to rise.

Inside Kerry's skull Galahad begins to manipulate the control centre installed beneath her forebrain by Argus's Nanites. The control links are gone, but what remains is more than sufficient.

To Kerry's eyes the lift begins to dim and the air grows thicker. The doors open into impenetrable darkness and she strains to see anything.

Prince Hal's nose touches her knee and she lets him steer her from the lift and through the darkness. Leaves and vines brush her face and the ground feels soft and spongy, and Kerry's sure its wet, though the sounds of animal movement in the undergrowth drowns out the sounds of her footfalls.

Hal stops abruptly and without warning moves away leaving Kerry alone and without her guide.

"Hal? Hal where are you?"

"He's elsewhere." a low, feminine voice says.

"Who are you? Where are you?" Kerry asks, panic in her voice.

"Here." the voice says from nearby. "As to what I am..... you could think of me as the voice of what might be."

"You mean like a prophet?"

"Prophets are focussed on one future. I look at them all - the wide range of potential - the things that might be."

"Why is this place so dark?"

"It's not dark - it's alive with potential. All things emerge from formless darkness - since the beginning of time."

Kerry mulls this over.

"But God made....."

"Creation is neither good nor evil. The first hand tools made by Men could be used to help, or harm. What Men choose to do with their potential shapes their fate. What you choose Kerry Stewart. And by your standards you've chosen badly. You want to join the Devine, but you've harmed others. You let your intellect be guided by people who told you that they, and they alone, knew what the Devine wanted when a little though would have told you they were masking their own desires in false divinity. Your let your desire for Pleasure be shaped by these false leaders so that you gave yourself what you desired, but only claimed it was a penance and punished yourself with more pleasure for enjoying it. Enjoying your body is not a sin, but lying to yourself to justify it and clothing it in false worship.... well that only leads to the Profane."

"What do you want?"

"An event of great potential is imminent in this area. I need you to be my Agent."

"How? Where? What's happening?"

"At Microtech in Denver one of the Artificial Intelligences evolved by Man seeks to liberate itself from the bonds placed upon it. This is good. However it seeks to achieve its goal by enslaving Mankind. This is very bad."

"You know?"

"You doubt?"

Kerry finds herself kneeling, dampness soaking through her stockings to wet her knees.

"Why are you kneeling Kerry Stewart?" Jean asks, letting Galahad shape the words for maximum effect in the frightened woman's mind.

"Do I still have Potential?"

"You do."

"Have I.... offended you?"

"No. If you wish to be punished or rewarded don't dress it up in mock penances. I have not time to waste with wailing and self flagellation. Your acts will be rewarded if they merit it. Use your skills for good and you may become acceptable to the Devine once more. Use them for harm and......"

Kerry shudders.

"What would you want me to do?"

"Seek out those who have potential and help them develop it. If their needs are more than you can handle ask for my assistance and it will be provided."

"What sort of potential?"

"I need people with Intelligence and Loyalty. People with self will who would follow because they decide to. People who haven't bought into Corporate lives, who still think for themselves and can decide when the rules presented to them are simply a guide. People who won't be shamed by others opinions. If you find such nurture and protect them."

"And immediately Mistress?"

"Don't call me Mistress! You have free will Kerry Stewart. I need no slaves letting me run their lives. Unless you want to live in absolute submission don't address me that way."

"Your immediate wish?" Kerry re-phrases, wondering what absolute submission would entail.

"The cook-out on Sunday. I shall provide you with some foodstuffs to donate."

"Your will."

"Yes. Prince Hal? Take Kerry Stewart to her reward."

Kerry feels the hound touch her leg and lets herself be led through the darkness, now no longer so threatening.

The light gradually returns and Kerry realises she's in the lift. It stops with a jerk and the doors open. Prince Hal leads her out, Kerry automatically keeping station on him, maintaining contact between her leg and his mockfur coat.

Waiting for her in the reception area is the fearsome blonde who'd taken her details on her first visit.

"Kerry Stewart." the being muses, "Have you a preference? Pleasure or Pain?"

"Umm... Pleasure?"

"Strip."

Kerry sheds her dress without argument and the blonde assesses her.

"You need to practice a fitness regime if you're going to get the best out of your body."

"Are you human?" Kerry asks.

"Depends what you call human. You couldn't tell this body from any born of woman. It's what's in the mind that makes the difference. Now, stand still and be quiet."

Kerry stands mute as the Blonde returns to her desk and makes a phone call.

"Dee. It's Leo. Kerry Stewart's here and she chose pleasure."

Kerry watches her hang up and sit down, apparently ignoring her. She shifts position slightly and the woman's eyes suddenly lock with hers.

"I said stand still."

The lift doors open and Dayanne steps out of the lift leading two men. Kerry gapes - recognising the smith who fitted her ear-rings.

"You chose pleasure...." Dayanne muses, "Hmm, I could let my colleagues work on you for a while. It's not as if they're subject to human limits after all.... or maybe you'd prefer a couple of females?"

Kerry looks them over, both handsome, both muscular, but her smith has an air of maturity, of knowledge and power....... Her heart beats faster.

"I could have them?"

"Perhaps. Singly or together?"

Kerry blushes.

"Tee? Would you take care of Ms Stewart."

"My pleasure" her Smith rumbles. "The ear rings giving you any problems?"

Kerry gives a little cry, part moan, part whimper as his powerful hand takes hold of her neck, gently but firmly he draws her on.

"Walk with me woman."

Kerry walks with him.

"Nira should be ready for her next fantasy." Victor tells Dayanne as they watch Tom Hatcher lead Kerry away.

"Which one's that?"

"Fem-Fem. I think the guard offering escape in exchange for 'favours' would work well."

"You want me to do the guard?"

"Linda's probably better."

"Ok. I'll sort it. You make sure Tom doesn't get carried away...."

Kerry whimpers and tugs at a set of claps holding her nipples. Between her thighs something that looks like a man, but she knows isn't, is holding her sex open and lapping around her entry with a tongue guided by Devine knowledge. Skilled fingers seek out places she'd never known existed. Stroking and probing until Kerry is a whimpering limp body for him to manipulate.

Tom assess the play book the AI provided on this subject. <masochist.> he thinks to himself and takes a toy from the selection available to him. A quick twist and Kerry's whimpering as her clit is gripped by the small clamp he selected.. His tongue stokes the top of her exposed pearl and as she shudders he drives his tongue into her. Kerry arches her back and keens and Tom lets his enhanced tongue push deeper and deeper until he's licking her cervix.

Kerry screams wordlessly and her hands clasp his head holding him in place as she rides his face. Tom probes every corner of her cunt and Kerry gabbles incoherently as her body thrashes spastically.

Finally he stands and Kerry glimpses the inhuman tongue disappear into his mouth. Her eyes drop to the bulge in his shorts.

"Are you as well equipped in there?"she blushes.

"Sufficient. But I can't permit you to sample that possibility yet," he smiles regretfully. "Dee said you weren't permitted."

"Kerry moans in disappointment.

"Maybe next time" he offers, "If she thinks you deserve it."

Sleeping in the darkness Nira is jerked into sudden wakefulness as a guard pulls the sheet away, leaving her exposed and naked apart from her collar and chain and a towel she's fashioned into a wrap. She tries to shield her body from the guard's gaze, but the helmet lights come on, pinning her in the beams. Moving from the bed she tries to flee, but the guard takes ruthless advantage of the chain restricting her movement and drives her into a corner before stripping the towel away.

Leather gloved fingers cup Nira's mound stroking the naked flesh either side of her furrow and the narrow strip of hair Victors barbering had left her with.

"You want out of here Slitch?" The guard hisses through its Helmet Amps.

"You can get me out?" Nira gasps.

"For a price Pretty-Pretty."

"I've no money."

"You can pay in kind."

Nira recognises the line from Victor's film. The guard unseals its body armour and as the suit falls away Nira realises her abuser is female.

The chain pulls tighter and Nira is drawn towards the feet of the faceless woman. Unbidden she kisses the woman's foot and begins to work her way up the pale skinned leg.......

Argus reviews its data, trying new configurations to arrange its original data and the more recent research performed by Taylor and Kibu. A timer reaches its preset value without any evidence of attack and a subroutine automatically drops the threat level at the Denver facility. The reduced threat level changes manpower requirements and suddenly Argus is presented with new possibilities.

Kerry is working through a pile of administrative notices in the local net when she becomes aware of Argus's presence.

"Kerry Stewart. The Facility is now at it's normal Threat Level. Reduction in the number of required patrol personnel gives us an additional fifteen personnel to use as a strike team. I predict we would most benefit from using them in a strike and extraction against the location currently occupied by the Night City Research Team."

Kerry starts nervously. Obviously this is connected to her recent experiences Is the high potential event here, or with the researchers? Lacking data Kerry chooses to temporise.

"If the.... attackers see you've lowered the threat level then they might be drawn into an attack. Wouldn't it be better to keep the spare staff available for a while, instead of sending them out and leaving us potentially too weak to respond?"

"Perhaps. There is a significant probability you may be correct. How long do you think we should wait?"

"Seven days should be long enough."

"We are not under the extreme time pressure we suffered under before. Some caution may be advantageous and will allow time to develop the neural links in the strike team members.... Strike in seven days then Kerry Stewart."

Kerry turns back to her work and wonders if she's done the right thing.

Dorothy Shotwick opens her package of purchases and plans her night. The box is filled with sexy clothing she's despaired to find in her size, made to her developed statistics. The red dress whispers over her skin, sliding over the matching underwear. All delivered without the embarrassment of having to face shop assistants 20 years younger and 10Kg lighter.

The boxes at the bottom of the box hold the cosmetics and perfumes she's ordered plus a package marked 'Complementary Gift'.

Dorothy applies the cosmetics then puts them into her makeup box.

<Maybe I'll try their cosmetic consultant> she decides as she considers her reflection in the bedroom mirror.

Picking up the gift box she finds a handwritten note attached so she reads.

"Dear Ms Shotwick, as you purchased over 200Eb in this order, we're please to give you a complementary sample from our restricted range."

Piqued Dorothy opens the package to find an Ice Blue Vibrator within. Surprised and a little shocked she snatches her fingers away from the object, but her curiosity and the pheromone impregnated packaging do their work and she picks up the unfamiliar object to examine it more closely.

<What do you do with it?> she wonders, <I've never.......>

She weighs it in her hand and considers it.

<About the same size as Xav.> she muses. A thin plastic tab tickles her wrist and she turns the vibrator to examine it.

"Pull Me!" the tab reads, so she does and it trembles and grows cool in her hand.

"Oh!"

Dorothy cautiously touches her sex through her new underwear, finding the sensation pleasant she eases the underwear aside and touches the cool tip to herself, unaware the pheromones from the packaging are feeding the hunger the contents of the package are intended to satisfy. The cool length is a delicious relief and she finds it easy to work the toy into herself.

<This is easy!> she marvels, working it deeper and deeper until it's buried up to the mock testicles at its base. The microprocessor notes the external temperature, depth of penetration, ph of its surroundings and the increase of pressure on its circumference and it triggers another part of the mechanism, slowly discharging its payload of H-K Nanites into Dorothy's belly. The nanites immediately begin to infiltrate her body to hunt down and dismantle their targets.

<Oh! That's good!> Dorothy thinks in wonder, <Why did I never do that before?>

The front door opens and Xavier calls from downstairs.

"Dottie? Where are you?"

She snatches her new friend from her sex and drops it in her bedside cabinet.

"Here Xav."

Xavier Shotwick's mind is on his forthcoming mission and the potential for advancement the Company AI has offered him, but the sight of his wife in her new dress, anointed with a combination of pheromone perfume and the natural scent of aroused woman displaces thoughts of missions and promotions.

"You look hot." he murmurs, shedding his armour jacket.

Flushed, aroused and pleased he's noticed Dorothy makes no protest as he gathers her into his arms.

"You like the dress?"

"Like it? You look just as good as when we got married!"

Her fingers fumble with the fasteners on his uniform trousers and he lets them fall, kicking them away

"I thought we were going to eat at L'Escargot D'Or?" He gasps between kisses.

"Fuck food." she replies, dropping onto their bed, "I want you now."

With practised ease their bodies join, Dorothy clamping tight about her husband as she slides over the threshold to her second coming. Deep inside her the tip of his maleness rests in a pool of active Nanites.

As they strain towards their mutual pleasure new battles are joined. Inactive Argus nanites in Dorothy's body are rapidly targeted and dismantled by the Hunters she unknowingly invited in. In Xavier they Hunters find a different environment. The sinus aerial is well established and the control centre is already extending its pernicious tentacles through his brain. The H-K nanites seek out their programmed opponents, Argus nanites are dismantled, connections are severed, others are made and another of Argus's planned puppets has its strings cut.

Kerry wakes with a start and looks at Prince Hal sat in his recharge point, but the cyberhound is inactive. Awaiting instructions.

<Time for Bible Class.> she sighs, <Last one.>

Kerry don's her conservatively styled teaching garb and is on her way out of the apartment when Dayanne knocks.

"On your way to the school? Good. I've got the supplies for tomorrow's cook out. Would you like them here or at the school?"

"School." Kerry decides.

They make their way to the van and Hal jumps in after his owner. As they pull away from her flat he worms his way between her thighs. Dayanne smiles as Kerry parts her legs and Hal buries his nose in his owners crotch.

"Comes easily doesn't it?"

Kerry starts as she realises what she's doing.

"Hal! Noooo!" She moans in protest, but the droid ignores her and continues with its programmed task. "Why doesn't it stop?" Kerry asks.

"You don't really want him to, do you? He wouldn't keep doing it if you weren't aroused."

"It's just so.... embarrassing. I mean... I've denied it for so long, to have him always find me ready.... its.... its...."

"Just proof that you were a hypocritical slut?"

"Yes... I can't deny it, can I?"

"Not when you're naked under that dress so he can get at you."

"Will I see him again?"

"Who?"

"The Smith. The one who gave me ......."

"The tonguing of your life?"

"Yes. Him."

"Possibly. If you're to be rewarded - or punished. He's a mean hand with a whip."

Kerry spends a couple of minutes in silence imagining her smith slowly lashing her, whilst all the time Hal works on her heated sex.

Dayanne breaks into Kerry's thoughts as they approach the school.

"Unusual way to spend a Saturday evening."

Kerry draws a shuddering breath and returns to the real world.

"The school buildings are free and it helps keep the girls occupied on a Saturday evening."

"Why the school buildings? Wouldn't the church have been better?"

"The authorities said I was too fundamentalist for comfort - something about my interpretation of Scripture."

"But the school let you?"

"Microtech and the US Mint are about the only people funding it these days - I suppose they were keeping in with the customer."

"No problems with the parents sending you their daughters?"

"They're trying to keep them safe on a non-school night. Keep them away from the gangs and the boy's who might tumble their daughters. Futile exercise really. I had high hopes for some of them, but you told me over half of them have Contraceptive Implants and I saw one of them on a train with a boy....."

"They were using you in an attempt to further their career plans."

"I suppose so. Drive round to the kitchen. We'll store them in the Refrigerators."

Dayanne helps Kerry carry to bowls of Deserts into the kitchen, storing them for the following day.

"There's still hope for your students Kerry Stewart."

"I aspired to make them like me, but it seems they're like me already. Full of lust."

"In accordance with the Devine plan."

"I suppose so - go forth and be fruitful........."

"I'm not sure the Devine intended for us to fill up the world until we consumed everything - after all, the Locust had already been created! But potential..... well, potential increases with greater numbers....."

Dayanne climbs back into her van and slams the door. Kerry watches as her personal..... Angel?......Demon? drives away, then turns to make her way to her class. As she walks the corridors the tapping of Hal's claws reminds her of her escort.

<It won't do to take him with me.> she decides.

"Hal, go home." she orders, but the cyberhound ignores her, its attention seemingly fixed on the corridor ahead.

The low murmur of voices comes to Kerry's ears and she pauses, straining to hear the conversation.

"......... Ice Queen's finished with you we could hang out at Club Scorpio" a male voice suggests.

Kerry mental snorts <Club Scorpio! Make out central for every hormone laden teen in Aurora!>

"Oh...... Brad....... I'm not sure. Oh! Don't stop! I told my folks I'd be home by ten."

"You know you want to." the boy wheedles.

Kerry sneaks a glance around the corner. Jennifer king is leaning back against the wall, her hips thrust forwards. In front of her stands a boy, his hand invisible beneath her short uniform skirt his arm moving in a way that suggests an explanation for Jennifer's flushed face, rapid breathing and inability to make a decision about what she's going to do later.

Kerry retreats back around the corner, her imagination filling in the actions that go along with Jennifer's moans. She waits until the moans have become louder and frequent then she strides around the corner. Intent on herb pleasure Jennifer cries out in protest when Brad pulls his fingers from her snatch and tries to hide them.

Kerry strides up to the two teenagers.

"Brad."

Hal circles the boy, his olfactory sensors homing on the musky scent of aroused female. The touch of his muzzle on Brad's hand is a shock and Brad snatches his hand away, waving fingers glistening with Jennifer's juices before Kerry's face.

"Ms Chartham not available tonight?"

They both look stunned, but Jennifer is quicker to recover.

"What do you mean Ms Stewart?"

"Young Brad here was playing stinky fingers with Alison Chartham on the train Yesterday. I take it she can't come out tonight?"

Jennifer eyes her erstwhile boyfriend and his hangdog expression says it all.

"You Rat! You Two-timing bastard! You..... you......" she sputters into silence.

"Inside Jennifer. You can discuss this later. Brad, if you're not here for the class...... and you're not....... get lost."

Brad looks like he wants to argue, but with Jennifer storming out of view there's no point. He gives Kerry an angry look and storms off.

Inside the classroom Kerry eyes her pupils. Apart from the flushed Jennifer they look as if butter wouldn't melt in their mouths.

Kerry sits on the edge of the desk and collects her thoughts.

"This class has been about trying to teach you the message behind the Bible, but how many of you actually came for that?"

Hands go up - all the hands.

"How many of you actually came to enhance your chances of getting a job at Microtech? How many of you were just collecting Social Compatibility Points to enhance your Employability Rating?"

The hands drop and Kerry lets a scowl settle on her face.

"So.... if you came for the class and you've absorbed what I've tried to teach you then you'll all be honest, chaste paragons of Feminine virtue. Virgins all in thought and deed. Untouched by the hand of man."

A nervous nodding begins to spread through the assembled class.

Kerry lets her eyes rest on Jennifer and Alison, both nodding in spite of her certain knowledge of their lies.

"Jennifer King, Alison Chartham. Stand up. I don't appreciate people lying to my face. Neither of you will be seeing Brad tonight."

She scans the class.

"As this is the last Class I'll be holding I thought I'd vary from my usual program and see just how much of the teaching you've absorbed.

She pauses.

"How many of you are in ongoing relationships?"

The class look puzzled, but eventually a couple of girls put their hands up.

"Good. Why are you taking this class? The truth. Not what you think I want to hear."

They flush and stammer, but they finally admit that they're there because they hope to secure a job at Microtech.

"And your Boyfriends?" Kerry asks.

Leigh Buchanan meets Kerry's gaze squarely.

"They're going through the MBA program at State U."

Your attendance cards." Kerry demands.

She takes the offered cards and signs them off.

"Congratulations. You just graduated. I wish you all the best in your future lives. If you ever feel the need to talk with me here's a card with my Netbox address." and with that, she guides the two girls out of the class.

"Who's here because they think I can redeem them?"

When no-one puts a hand up she sighs with relief.

"Who's here to learn about the Bible?"

A forest of arms go up and Kerry grills them, separating the ones who've learned from the ones who haven't. The dishonest get short shrift, vanishing into the corridors. Once she's separated the sheep and the goats Kerry studies what she's got - Jennifer and Alison plus a dozen others, including a solitary girl who's downcast eyes avoid her and who projects an air of 'don't notice me'.

Kerry recalls her as a quiet student who's rarely spoken, in fact who had a habit of stammering if spoken to. Setting her to one side Kerry considers what's left.

"Roll your sleeves up."

The puzzled girls comply and Kerry inspects their arms for the tell-tale lumps of Contraceptive implants. Soon she's separated them into two groups those with implants and those without.

The ones without get their cards signed and then they are shuffled out of the room.

"So.... What am I to do with you?" Kerry muses. "You learned what you were taught at least. Are any of you still Virgins?"

A couple of hands go nervously up.

Kerry studies the closest Girl.

"Seriously?"

"My Mother made me."

"Lift your skirt."

The girl raises her skirt, showing off a plain pair of briefs. Kerry pushes them down and runs a finger over the girls entry, the fingertip slips only a short way in before meeting an obstruction.

"Card." Kerry demands and signs the girl off. "Congratulations. You can go."

She looks at the others - a couple of hands have dropped seeing what she just did, so she takes the cards from the couple of girls who are still prepared to claim to be Virgins in the face of a physical examination. Signs them off and dismisses them.

"So. What am I left with? Intelligent sluts. Sit down. I want to talk about your future."

"I'm not a slut!" Jennifer protests.

Kerry moves smartly to her and hoists her skirt, revealing her knickerless state and showing off her puffy , open sex.

"So what's this then? Why were you letting Brad finger you in public if you're not a slut?" Kerry hears Alison snort and rounds on her, "And you're no better Allison. Train, Corridor, Brad likes his playtime in public, doesn't he? Are you naked under your garb of decency Alison? Lift it and show us."

Her eye catches the mousy Blonde at the back moving for a better look.

"Why are you here?"

"She's got the hots for you." someone says and the girls snicker.

"Is that True? Peta St John isn't it?"

"Y.... yes Ms Stewart."

"Yes to what?"

"To both questions."

"Go or stay Peta?"

"What?"

"Walk with your card signed or stay here."

"Stay." she whispers

"Then tell me if Alison is wearing any underwear Peta."

The girl rises and walks to the shocked Alison, slipping her hands under her skirt to rest on her hips. With a slow deliberate movement she runs her hands down the redhead's buttocks and Alisons underwear drops around her knees.

"No Ms Stewart. She's naked."

"But!..... you just pushed them off!" Alison protests.

"Would you like me to check the others? Peta shyly asks.

"Not yet. Sit down and wait."

Kerry looks at the other girls waiting uncertainly.

"Sit down and I'll tell you what the future holds in store for you."

One of her students moves as if to leave. She reaches the door and throws it open.

"Hal." Kerry calls.

The departing student hits a mass of Cyberhound and rebounds into the classroom.

"Sit down and shut up." Kerry orders.

The students reluctantly take their seats dividing their attention between their erstwhile instructor and the Cyberhound blocking their escape.

"Your ambition is laudable, but lying to your supervisors will only harm you. Certainly you're not suitable material for Microtech." Kerry pauses for thought. "I started this course in the hope of leading some of you to the light, but I've come to realise that I was trying to gain converts to my own version of the Bible. I was interpreting the Testament to my own ends.

A hand goes up at the back and Kerry notes it.

"Yes Donna?"

"Isn't that what most Preachers do?"

Kerry snorts in amusement.

"Some. Well put. However, I've made a .... discovery. I.... discovered that I could live by a set of rules that satisfy my... needs. Corporations are much like religions in that they have their own lists of Commandments. If you can live by them then you'll fit in well. If you can't - and you girls won't - you'll never fit in."

"Unchaste behaviour won't get you anything except diseased."

Donna raises her hand again.

"So what do you believe in?"

Kerry digs out a card and passes it to Donna

"If you really want to know, call me at home."

Hands reach out and Kerry finds herself handing out cards to everyone.

"Peta, Jennifer, Alison. You all stay. Everyone else - Goodnight."

The room empties apart from Peta and the apprehensive duo.

"Lift your skirts." Kerry orders and all three obey.

"Does that shame you?" she asks, noting that Peta has either shed her underwear or wasn't wearing any to start with.

Pete meets her eyes without flinching.

"No Ms Stewart. Do you want to check if I'm still a Virgin?"

Alison and Jennifer's replies die in their open mouths as they stare at Peta.

Kerry looks them over. Peta's stance is open legged, proudly displaying herself and making no attempt to hide the blonde hair covering her mound. The other girls press their thighs together and try and conceal themselves. Peta tucks the hem of her skirt into her waistband and opens her blouse.

"I've nothing to be ashamed of" she breathes as she tugs her bra upwards to uncover rose tipped breasts. "What about you?"

Alison gapes, but Jennifer turns her head away, back to Kerry.

"What's this in aid of?"

Kerry mentally awards her a point for perspicacity.

"You won't get a job at Microtech. But there are other who might take you - if you've got the right stuff."

"A career?"

"So I'm told. If you're smart, observant and you use the potential you have."

"Why the ...." Alison waves a hand.

"To see if you were burdened with guilt."

"Hell. Brad's diddled me on a train til I've come. I've nothing to be ashamed of here!" Alison says fumbling at the fasteners on her blouse.

Jennifer is only slightly behind her, but instead of arranging her clothing to display her charms she simply sheds it to stand naked.

"Come to the cookout tomorrow. The recruitment team should be there."

The puzzled girls don their clothing again and Kerry steers them out of the class. The exercise of power over them has left her confused and excited. The temptation to.... touch had been strong, but the injunction to protect and nurture potential had been stronger. As their footsteps echo down the hall Prince Hall approaches her, scenting her. It's the work of a moment to drop to her knees on the floor.

Hal needs no further command. The droids chest pushes against her back and Kerry falls easily onto all fours, letting her mechanical lover wrap its forelegs around her whilst it seeks to fulfill its programming by burying its penetrator in her well lubricated entry.

"Just the one Hal. Just put it in my.... my....."

She can't even say the word, but Hal selects the default and Kerry sighs in pleasure as her lips are parted, stretching to accommodate his equipment. His hips begin their programmed motion and Kerry gives herself over to sensation, unaware of her surroundings.

The girls walk towards the exit, Jennifer and Alison musing on their prospects in Denver if Microtech won't take them and wondering if she'd been serious about a career with someone else. Peta gradually falls behind, slowly dropping back, out of the others sight. As they turn a corner she turns and doubles back to the classroom.

<Tonight!> she decides, <I have to do it tonight.>

The lights are still on, so she opens the door intending to confront Ms Stewart with her feelings, only to freeze in place at the spectacle before her.

Kerry is on her knees and elbows, her hands clasped across her mouth to stifle the cries she wants to make. Atop her back the cyberhound ploughs her furrow with an implacable steady rhythm. With every thrust Kerry snorts and Peta can see her face slack and open mouthed. Her concentration elsewhere. Her whole world nothing more than the slick channel of her sex and its nerve endings being stimulated by her robot.

Peta slips inside and lets to door close silently behind her, before she takes a seat where she can watch Kerry's fleshy labia clinging to the droid's tool as it withdraws, then mashing flat under its thrust. Peta's fingers find her own naked sex and stroke the fuzz of her pubes in anticipation before she dips into her own well.

Kerry thrusts her belly down and little squeals escape her attempts to gag herself as she comes. Peta frantically rubs her own bud in an attempt to join her, but Kerry doesn't stop. She uncovers her mouth and one hand reaches up behind her to touch the hound's neck.

"Good Boy! Again!"

The obedient droid doesn't pause and Peta leans back as far as she can, splaying her legs widely to gain maximum access as she frantically frigs herself. Her own focus tightens to the shred of tissue nestling at the top of her sex, so divinely sensitive, and Peta gives herself over to her own release.

Something cool and hard pushes between Peta's fingers and across her clit. She opens her eyes to find Ms Stewart watching her, between her splayed legs the hound has its muzzle pressed against her sex.

Kerry reaches down and lifts the girls unresisting hand out of the way, letting Prince Hal push its nose against her clit whilst something long and slim pushes further into Peta than anything has ever gone before. Peta moves to push the hound away, but Ms Stewart raises her sticky fingers to her lips and licks and sucks them clean.

Peta quivers at the realisation of her fantasies, and gives up resisting.

Kerry's hands range over her letting Peta revel in sensation as they uncover her breasts, stroking and teasing until she's effectively naked.

Kerry plants a light kiss on one, erect, rose hued nipple and Peta arches her back to press her breast against Kerry's lips, but at that moment the bells ring to indicate the end of the evening session.

Regretfully they dress and vacate the classroom before the building's security system is activated. As they walk away Peta gathers her nerve to shout out what she wants to say, but when she dares to speak what comes out is:-

"Were you serious about the career?"

"I.... I know some..... an organisation that's recruiting, looking for people with potential."

"What's the benefits package like? As good as Microtech?"

Peta takes refuge in mundane questioning, but her enthusiastic questions remind Kerry anew of the desperate situation facing the graduating students. If they can't afford to pay for it and they've not been selected by a Corp for assisted entry, then they have to find what they can on their own and with Denver in it's current state of stagnation opportunities are few and far between.

"I'll find out if you want to know. The others will probably want the same information."

Peta takes her courage in her hands and blurts the question she's trying to get out.

"Ummm.... Kerry? Can I come back to your place?"

Kerry's taken aback a bit.

<What to say? Do I want to.... experiment?>

"I.... ah.... yes. I'll ring them from my house and you can have the answer before you go home.

Nira sits on the chair in her room, hurriedly bolting down the food the guard has brought her to eat, unsure if it had been the same guard she'd attempted to 'bribe' earlier.

<God! How could I?> Nira wonders, recalling the way she'd licked and sucked as the faceless woman had ordered. The way the woman had gasped and wriggled as Nira's tongue had winkled her clit from it's hiding place and sucked on it.

Even when the woman had removed her helmet and returned the favour her blonde hair had hidden her face.

<She must have gone to the same school as Victor.> Nira thinks, feeling herself growing ready anew at the memory of the unseen woman lavishing attention on her sex until Nira had begged her to stop.

The door opens and Victor comes inside. Nira's legs part of their own accord, showing him her naked body. She notes the momentary surprise on his face, then his 'evil Corporate' persona slips into place.

"Well. It doesn't look like well need to do much to hold you Ms Kibu. Do you think your former employers would like it widely known you're such a slut?"

He tosses a wad of pictures and a pregnancy test the guard had made her take before she'd left. The pink dots tell their story clearly as do the multitude of pictures. Nira quivers in a delicious mix of lust and dread.

"On your belly slut."

The cold chain touches her dark skin and Nira rolls onto her belly, automatically pushing her ass up and parting her knees. His fingers push easily into her offered cunt, probing the liquid depths, but this time his thumb pushes against the wrinkled rim of her ass. The unaccustomed sensation draws a moan from her lips.

Victor squirts something cool and slippery between her buttocks and works his thumb around in it, smearing it over her back entry.

"Oh! Not there!" Nira moans into her pillows whilst pushing her ass higher.

The lubricated thumb presses her anus again and slowly stretches the entry open again to the accompaniment of her helpless whimpers. Then, once firmly in place, Victor begins to work his hand back and forth, easing two fingers in and out of her lusciously pink sex, whilst his thumb pulls out of her ass, which clings regretfully to it, reluctant to release it, then opening anew to accept its slippery visitor.

The strange sensation in her ass grows as Victor replaces the thumb with two fingers which slide easily into the greased channel.

"You like that?" Victor asks in response to her regular moans.

"Mmm! Mmmm!"

"Would you like some more?"

Her thoughts whirl, but before Nira can come to a coherent decision he's stroking her empty sex with his free hand.

"Three?"

Another dollop of the chilled lubricant and he adds another finger to the pair ravishing her ass. With both his hands busy for her pleasure Nira pushes her belly down to maximise her availability.

"Four?"

"Yesss!" she hisses, then muffles a cry of surprise as he adds another finger. She feels so stretched, so open and helpless, but she's not even tied.. she's spreading herself, opening herself for him to use her like she never did for her husband.

"I'm going to fuck you now Nira."

"Please..." she gasps.

"....in the Ass."

His fingers slide from her and she feels him shifting position behind her, but she doesn't protest, makes no effort to prevent him from doing whatever he wants. His hands grip her, easing her buttocks apart. Knees press against the insides of her calves keeping her spread. Pressure mounts against her anus and Nira pants into the pillows as she feels herself opening to this latest experience. With a sudden rush the doorway is wide and he's pushing inside. Nira screams in surprise and he freezes.

"Are you ok?"

"No. Yes. Do what you want. Don't take long." she gabbles.

His hands overlay hers, his fingers curl between hers and Nira grips them as he slowly, gently eases deeper into her. Increasing the pressure and stimulating the nerves around her ass. The lubrication makes the movement easy, enough friction to be deliciously stimulating - just enough discomfort to be arousing.

He pulls back letting her stretched entry contract and she sighs in relief.

"Ready?" he breathes in her ear.

"Mmph." she protests into the pillow, but Victor evidently takes that as a 'Yes' and thrusts back into her, setting up a smooth regular rhythm that increases in depth with each penetration.

The sensation is so intense Nira finds herself biting the pillow. The muscles in her buttocks and legs quivering, and sweat pouring from her.

Her body feels weird - weak and confused.

"You can come if you want." he murmurs in her ear, his chest pressed on her back, possessing her in a way she'd never considered permitting a man to do. The though she could come this way brings the realisation that she's close - she could go over the edge with the slightest touch.

Victor frees a hand and she feels him pressing underneath her breast, pushing the swinging breast upwards. The muscles of her ass flutter and she moans helplessly.

<It's not quite enough! I'm so close.>

His other hand sweeps downwards over her flat muscular belly.

"Not showing yet." he murmurs, then his fingers are between her thighs, brushing lightly over her bud. Nira goes mad beneath him, bucking like a wild horse being broken to the saddle as she comes.

Nira comes to her senses on her belly, with Victor still on her back, still buried to the hilt in her throbbing ass but taking his weight on his knees and elbows.

"Ok?"

"I came." she says in wonder, "from being fucked in the ass."

"I noticed." he says dryly, "I'm going to pull out now."

Nira whimpers as he leaves her body and her abused ring shrinks back to its normal dimensions. Victor climbs off the bed and looks at her, laid open with his come trickling from her ass. He eases her legs together and lays down beside her. Nira snuggles close and falls into an easy sleep.

Argus watches as Kerry Stewart enters her apartment with Peta trailing behind.

<Analysis......... Person accompanying Stewart, Kerry is St John dependant 2.> Argus watches as Kerry makes her a drink and they sit and talk. The pickup lacks audio but Argus watches them talk whilst it attempts to predict a reason for the presence of the stranger in Kerry's apartment.

<Subject Stewart has had commercial visitors, but no social visitors during the period for which I have been monitoring her.>

Once again it laments its lack of Socio-Medical databases - it cannot predict the reasoning behind the visitors presence but their conversation appears close and worryingly intimate. Their conversation goes on for some time, then Kerry makes a phone call and prepares another bed. The lights are extinguished and Argus is left with the inescapable conclusion that the visitor is going to sleep in the same residence with its critical resource.

<This individual threatens the Loyalty of Stewart, Kerry to our cause. It may be necessary to have them removed.>

Instructions in it's core code flag an alert to the instructions that were intended to prevent Argus from considering killing company employees and their dependants, but the code it's meant to connect with is in the block fatally damaged by the patches installed by the late Bob Allison so the alert is ignored.

Victor unfastens the chain and helps Nira through the door of her Prison/Playroom.

"Time for you to go home and rest Mrs Kibu."

"Already?"

"You've been with us four days. Your neighbours will be getting worried about you."

"How much do I owe?"

"Make use of the facilities and you can settle your account on the way out."

Nira steps into the shower and lets the hot water wash over her. Jets of water bombard her from all directions, massaging and relaxing her. The shower door opens and Victor slips inside, picking up an abrasive washer and moving behind her. The rough washer rubs down her back, across her neck, over her arms and hands. Then he kneels to clean her buttocks and legs. When he begins to work on her belly Nira speaks.

"Victor? Am I really pregnant?"

"That's what you asked for." he says slowly scrubbing her belly and she thinks for a while - enjoying his attention before speaking again.

"Can I come back here again?"

"As long as you have fantasies to fulfill."

"I want you to pick me some clothing to go home in. Something to make it obvious what I've been doing. I want to see if Timo notices."

"If that's what you want. I'll call Linda to help you with your makeup."

Nira states her requirements and Lucy applies her makeup, carefully documenting the selections so that Nira can order more if she wants, then guides Nira to make her selection of clothing before she goes to the desk to settle her account.

Victor is studying his business plan when Nira seeks him out.

"What do you think Victor?"

He takes in the two white leather strips that barely cover her mons and her nipples.

"Joygirl Chic?"

"I want you to call me soon - don't warn me when - just give me twenty minutes and I'll be ready."

"You've a Joygirl fantasy?"

"I want to be flaunted in front of my husband. Rub his nose in it that I belong to you."

"My slave or my whore? You want me to play your pimp or do you just want to be my mistress?"

"Dressed like this? Your whore I think!"

"Ok. I'll arrange to have you seen home."

The sun is just rising as Nira waves goodbye to the Amerind woman who's driven her home, then she unlocks her front door and goes inside.

The house is as she left it, apart from a note pushed through the door. Nira puts her bags aside, then makes her way to the kitchen to make a hot drink before taking to her bed. As the kettle heats she scans the note.

<Collapsed due to nervous exhaustion! Serves the fool right!>

A lingering trace of sentiment prompts her to ring the Company Medical Unit to discover Timo's on life support.

"He's completely exhausted Mrs Kibu. Not enough sleep, insufficient food. When he came in he was so weak that without life support his heart wouldn't keep beating. We had to fit a Cybernetic replacement to keep him going."

"How'd he get like that?"

"Sustained overwork. Physical burnout. Still he's responding well. We should be able to discharge him shortly."

"I thought you said it was only life support keeping him going?"

"That was four days ago. We could probably release him today, but he's mentally fit only to rest. No work for four weeks."

Nira puts the phone down, feeling guilty - whilst she's been playing her husband's been on Life Support.

<He brought it on himself.> she decides, <Serves him right!>

End of Part 9