Paperback 6
That’s good, Veronica.....just make sure the matrix continues draining evenly...that’s it.
Kim....please be ready to remove her face mask and feeding tube. Remember, smooth, constant motion. She might be in deep hypnosis but we don’t want any unnecessary pain. Darla, you can take the electrodes from her soles and palms.
Amara, I appreciate your concern, but I am busy. You can give me my injection later. I’m fine, thank you.
Noelle, please be ready with the robe...I want it snug on her as soon as the sponge bath is complete.....we don’t want her catching a chill, do we? However, I must confess she’s quite breathtaking “Au Naturale.”
You, my dear.....just stay as you are. Soon, you’ll be breathing fresh air again, and we’ll have all of the conduction matrix sponged off of you. And we’ll get this beautiful robe on you. Just stay in your happy place, calm and relaxed....focusing on my voice.
Thank you for your patience. If only I could instantly brainwash you like Matt Gunner described.....just pointing a machine at your bare soles and flipping a switch. No, it takes a lot more than that. The soles are the best entry point......but they aren’t the only ones. That’s the reason for the total immersion in the matrix. That was my first breakthrough....but you required a second.
I’d hoped to have finished reading you the book while you were in the matrix......but you are still quite receptive.......Yes....by the way you’re looking at me....I can tell the bond between us is set. We still have plenty of time to kill....and well...my physical limitations prevent me from joinining these ladies as they prepare you.....so I haven’t anything else to do.
Amara, please wheel me closer.
Now, I am again skipping a few pages. Nader, the internal security chief, is naturally suspicious, and we don’t really need to hear about him and his efforts. Back when I was a boy reading the book for the first time, I read these final pages with both prurient interest, and dread. Every page of our barefoot super spy enslaved was pure gold. But, I had no doubt that when it came to the final test of assasination, Stella would break free of her hypnosis. These kind of stories have their formulas and tropes, after all.
Chapter Eight
STELLA GOES DEEP FOR CYNTHIA
Stella melted into the embrace of her lover, her bikinied body becoming one with Laura’s. Their kiss was long and passionate, with Stella’s tongue intermingled with her sister slave’s. Finally, Laura pulled away from Stella, and gazed deeply into the older agent’s eyes.
”You do love me, don’t you, Darling?”
”Yes, Sister......with all my heart and soul.” Stella’s tone was utterly submissive.
”You know what we.....what you must do?”
”I’m going to kill the Director for you and Sister Cynthia.” Stella’s hypnotized voice sounded almost matter of fact.
Laura smiled. “That’s my good girl.” She purred and kissed Stella again. Then her voice became business-like. She pointed, and Stella’s gaze followed.
”He’s there, on that anchored yacht. We’re going to swim out to the boat, board it, and make our way to the main cabin. Once we are there you’re going to kill him with this.” She handed Stella a P•O•W•I•E• issue speargun.
Stella stared at the weapon, then looked at the yacht. “He’ll have a security detail guarding him, Sister.”
”Don’t worry about that, My Love....Sister Cynthia has thought of everything. You just focus on your task, we’ll take care of the rest.” Laura made sure to rub her foot against Stella’s so that the yellow ribbon pressed against her bare skin.
Soon, both women were underwater in scuba gear, towed by ultra silent water sleds. Laura lead the way. They wore no swim fins as the sleds did all the work.
Stella tried to focus on the task on hand, but she kept seeing an Asian woman’s distraught face reflected on the inside of her face mask. She would shake her head, and find Laura’s ankle in front of her so she could gaze on the ribbon and be again reassured.
Finally, they arrived at the yacht’s dive platform. They let their gear and the sleds sink to the shallow bottom and pulled themselves onto the platfom. Stella gripped the speargun, and Laura carried a small automatic pistol. Laura stepped up a short, metal ladder and and found the main deck empty as expected. She looked down and saw Stella, still as a statue, looking down at the water’s surface.
“Hideko Yamasawa.....you’re Mistress Yamasasawa...”. Stella whispered.
”What are you saying?” Laura hissed.
Stella’s reverie was broken by Laura’s toes gripping her shoulder. Stella turned and looked up at the yellow ribbon now inches from her face. Laura was still on the ladder stretching her leg down.
”C’mon, Stella, snap out of it. Time to focus.....on my ribbon, on my voice, focus and obey.....get up here....the way’s clear.”
”Yesssss, Sister.” Stella smoothly stood and followed the yellow ribbon up the ladder. But though she appeared calm, her mentor’s face appeared in every porthole, every reflective surface, causing her mind to race.
In the large main cabin, the Director luxuriously stretched his naked body on the king sized bed. Next to him, a beautiful woman, in a nearly transparent teddy, lay face down. He was about to say something to her when the cabin door opened. Stella strode in, pointing a speargun at him. Laura followed closely, the pistol ready in her hand.
”In the name of the Sisterhood, I pronounce you guilty of crimes against all women and against my sister, Laura.” Her voice was robotic and empty. “Having found you guilt...having found you.....I......I”
Her voice grew shaky then distraught. “I hereby sentence you....you....I.....What are you saying Mistress? What?” Stella seemed to be looking at wall mirror.
Laura angrily commanded: “Obey, Stella...you must obey. Kill him.”
Stella wildly shook her head, and both life and tears filled her eyes.
“I’m sorry Laura....I love you...but I can’t..My Mistress is right.....I just can’t.” Suddenly, she pointed the gun to the deck and pulled the trigger.
There was a loud click but the spear stayed in the gun.
Stella stared at the gun, then looked up at the Director.
”I don’t understand....how did I get here......What am I...I...”
The Director looked sad. “You’re such a disappointment, Stella.” He turned to the woman next to him. “I think you better send her back to dreamland.”
Cynthia sighed and turned over, and stretched her long leg so that her blue ribbon was directly in Stella’s line of sight. The post hypnotic trigger was so powerful all of Stella’s new found free will immediately faded. The speargun slipped from her loosening fingers and fell in a thud next her bare feet.
The Director crossed his arms in annoyance.
”Well, she failed, Cynthia. More to the point, you failed. You said you could turn any woman into a perfect assassin. Any woman. Even Stella Stryker. So.....is it worth trying again? I hate to waste such a great asset.”
Cynthia got out of bed and stood next to the zombie-like Agent. Her voice was clinical. “Sadly...no. We must accept that she is one of a very few extraordinary women who we cannot completely control. There is some force...some personality aspect, that affords Agent Stryker a residual ability to resist extreme commands. You’ll never be able to trust her. I must reluctantly admit defeat. But she can still aid our research. We must give her the Fourth Test: Self Destruction.” She looked at the Director for his approval.
”Damn shame....I never even got a round in the sack with her. All right, damn it....you’re the scientist. Do what you must.
Cynthia took Stella by the hands and sat her on the bed. She moved the unresisting agent back until Stella’s heels rested atop the foot of the bed. Cynthia’s went over to the nightstand and took out a portable Svengali Device.. She motioned to Laura, who also had been triggered at the sight of the blue ribbon. Laura took the device, plugged it in, then positioned herself by Stella’s feet. She then began to push the Svengali device against Stella’s soles.
The effect was again immediate and profound. Stella emitted a low moan as her eyes rolled up in her head. Cynthia crawled onto the bed and positioned herself behind Stella just in time as she fell backward. She began speaking quietly in Stella’s ear.
”You failed me, Stella. Failed me....failed Laura......failed the Sisterhood.”
Despite her entranced state, tears filled Stella’s eyes.
”I’m sorry, Sister.....I’m so sorry.”
”Shhhhhhh, my love.....you can still prove yourself worthy.”
”How.....How, Sister.....please.....I’ll do anything.”
”Oh...it’s so simple. You just need to go back to the swim platform, and step into the water. You need do nothing else. You’re not even going to swim. You’ll just let yourself sink to the bottom. Will you do this for the Sisterhood...for Laura....for me?”
”Anything, for you, Sister......anything.”
Cynthia smiled. “Laura, why don’t you take your gun and make sure Stella keeps her promise.
”Yes, Sister.” The dark haired beauty answered, her voice devoid of feeling.
A few moments later, Stella stepped out onto the warm wood of the outer deck. She felt so light, so free. Nothing could penetrate her sense of contentment. Nothing mattered. Laura had been her great love, now Stella barely registered her presence.
Sister Cynthia, and her blue ribbon, had given Stella a second chance, and that commanded her complete obedience.
A familiar, accented voice called out to her, but she ignored it.
Soon, her bare toes gripped the hot rungs of the ladder, then felt the relief of the cool seawater washing over the swim platform. Stella did not hesitate as she stepped off into the bay.
Stella sank into the dark depths, a contented smile on her face. But soon the air in her lungs was gone, and she began to inhale seawater. But still she kept her arms and legs motionless and she kept sinking.
Now...reading this the first time..,,..I hated this. Sure, I was glad Stella was still hypnotized, but I never wanted her killed. I never want that to happen to any hypnotized woman. That’s why I hated that Buffy episode, or vampire movies where the girl gets completely drained.
I would never do that to my ladies. You can tell by their smiles....how pleasant I make their enslavement. Under my hypnotic patronage, they are perpetually content so long as they obey me.
Of course, they’ve been very good to me. As you can see, I’m not well. Doing research away from traditional laboratories had a price. I had to work with toxic substances developing the matrix....the goo in which you’ve been immersed. Also, I had to explore differing types of electromagnetic radiation.
Driven by my obsession....I ignored safety protocols, cut certain protective corners. They say nothing worthwhile comes free.....I suppose my ravaged body is proof of that.
Yes, my ladies take very good care of me. But, sadly, I found there was something they couldn’t provide.
Love. True devotion of the heart, not the workings of subconscious programming. I grew afraid that Svengali, the original one, was right when he said making love to the mesmerized Triliby was just him talking to himself. I suppose the low point came was when I realized what I had with Noelle was truly lost...that not even my skills and my art could bring it back. I was destined to live what time I have left surrounded by beautiful, empty, flesh robots.. Once this would have been my fetish dream, now I thought about killing myself.
But then I had an epiphany. I stopped thinking like some pathetic 19th Century poet. I was a scientist....a great one in fact. What is love other than a electrochemical reaction. This was a scientific question, one a genius such as I was born to solve. For motivation, I chose to return to the novel that had set me on my life path...a driving force in my life long before Noelle.
But enough about me....have we seen the demise of Stella Stryker?
Suddenly, a pair of strong arms wrapped around Stella’s convulsing body. All was black, until she she sensed lips pressed against hers. Then she felt rhythmic pressure on her chest. Suddenly Stella was wracked with coughs, and seawater poured out of her mouth. When her vision cleared, she saw Agent Lindsey looking down, concern on her face. She tried to rise.
”Stella....give it a minute......I was almost too late.”
”How did.....wait..it’s all coming back......the Sisterhood hypnotized you.....then me...we’ve been.......”
”Brainwashed.......Stella. Cynthia......the Director....they’ve made us do bad things.”
Lindsey sound as if she was about to cry.
Stella slowly propped herself up on the swim platform. “So why are we awake?”
”I’m not sure about you....but you’ve been resisting...maybe the shock of drowning was the final straw. Me....well...I owe it to her. She used her own hypnosis to free me,” Agent Lindsey looked up at the metal ladder. Stella followed her motion, and had the shock of her life.
The woman standing on the ladder was covered from head to ankle in a tan ninja suit. Only her pale bare feet were exposed. Stella didn’t need to see her face. She pushed Lindsey aside and jumped to her feet
”Mistress Yamasawa.....how? You’re dead......I saw you die.....I....”
Her mentor’s voice was as commanding as ever, even as she whispered: “Stupid Girl. Lower your voice. Have you forgotten you are on an operation?” She pulled her mask up, her expression softer than her tone, “Stella Kun...you know that the Art of Deception is at the Heart of Ninjitsu........But there is no time for this now. You still have your mission to complete.”
Stella forced down the million questions she had. “You’re right as usual, Mistress. Time to put an end to this cult. I can’t wait to see the Director’s face when I arrest him and his hypnotist girl friend.”
Mistress Yamasawa came down the ladder, and stood in front of Stella.
”Yes, Stella Kun....we should talk about that. I have a few thoughts.”
Let’s take a break from the book......The girls are done with your sponge bath and drying you. The Conduction Matrix quickly breaks down once it’s exposed to air. Noelle will just put your robe on, and we’ll sit you in this nice comfy chair while I finish reading the book.
I was so angry with Matt Gunner for that last scene. Sure, I was glad Stella didn’t drown. But, even my unsophisticated teen brain felt insulted by the cheap trick of Mistress Yamasawa rising from the grave just in time to save Stella. Worst of all, BOTH Stella and Laura Lindsey were snapped out of hypnosis! He could have at least kept one under for the remainder of the book. I thought Stella’s awakening due to the trauma of nearly drowning particularly contrived.
I was so mad, I nearly stopped reading and threw out the book. Sometimes, in the dark of the night, I wonder how my life might have been different had I done just that..........
But, enough of that depressing drivel. You’re going to help me banish such regrets.
Oh, how I have looked long and hard for you. Women who fit the physical description are relatively easy to acquire. But ones with the requisite skill set you possess, now, that was a challenge. I needed a true bodyguard, deadly in both armed and unarmed combat. A true Femme Fatale.
To be honest, I wasn’t even aware Denmark had Special Forces, let alone beautiful operatives such as you. Their loss, my gain.
Of course, I couldn’t throw the book away, how could I? It had more great hypnosis scenes than any other three books put together. Besides, when I reread Mistress Yamasawa’s last line, my instincts told me to keep on going.
The Director stood in the bathroom, having second thoughts.. Stella Stryker was arguably the best spy in the world. Even if she couldn’t be trusted as an assassin, she had passed her other tests. More importantly, he had long lusted for her and wanted to see if the legends of her sexual skills were true. He was about to call out to Cynthia to cancel her suicide and bring her back to the stateroom when he heard the door to the cabin open and close.
”Damn.....too late.” He could hear Cynthia quietly talking. He assumed Agent Lindsey was reporting Stella had drowned herself. Well, she was also attractive, maybe she could provide some consolation.
He stepped out of the bathroom. It wasn’t Laura. The man was older, his dark crew cut replaced by wild, straggly, greying hair. He had a pointed goatee. Instead of his lab coat, the man wore an old, tattered suit and heavy shoes. Despite all of that, the Director recognized him.
”Manx........how the Hell.....”. He simultaneously lunged for a pistol on the nightstand.
The man smiled with broken teeth. “I prefer Svengali, now.” He nodded to Cynthia, who had silently crept up behind the Director. She plunged a hyperdermic needle into his neck, then guided his paralyzed body onto his back on the bed.
The Director could only move his head, and saw Cynthia standing with arms loose at her side. The injector was still in her hand. He found he could, with difficulty, speak.
”You.....you brainwashed your own daughter?”
Manx laughed. “She’s no blood of mine. Just a pretty, clever girl I molded into bait for you.”
The Director tried to bargain.
”Listen, Manx, it’s not too late...you and I can still work together.......”
Manx’s laugh now was less pleasant.
“It’s far too late for that. You took my Laboratory, my home, my livelihood, took it all away. You even tried to murder me.....forced me to live like an escaped animal for years. But, you underestimated my brilliance. With what meager resources I had, I improved my prototype. Then, I found lovely Cynthia.
Oh...it took time and much effort using my crude device, but I was eventually able to program Cynthia into my cats paw. Seducing you with her body and with her knowledge...The secret to mind controlling any woman.
Thanks to the two of you, I now had to access to P•O•W•I•E• resources so that I could perfect the Svengali Device. Once that was done, I let you recruit my army of Trilibys. But now, I am happy to say, I have no further use for you.”
Manx raised his voice. “Stella Kun , please come in now.”
The Director turned his head, and saw Stella walk into the cabin. She was holding a pistol. She appeared awake, but unnaturally calm and uninterested in what she saw.
”Stella won’t kill me.....she won’t kill anyone for you.” His voice was filled with a false confidence.
”Oh...my Triliby, she can be willful...and I too was at first confounded at her reluctance. That is until I realized her old Ninja Mistress had hypnotically implanted herself into Stella’s subconscious as a kind of guardian angel. Once I understood this, the rest was easy.”
He turned to Stella, and pleasantly said:
“Stella Kun?”
She turned towards him, a carefree expression on her face.
Manx firmly said:
“Kill the Director. Now.”
”Yes, Mistress Yamasawa.” Her voice was calm, and even.
The Director yelled, his eyes wide in panic:
”STELLA....Stop........he’s tricking you
....that’s not your Ninja......”
Stella casually raised the pistol and shot him in the head.
EPILOGUE
Nader strode towards his new office. His secretary, looked up:
”Good Morning, Acting Director.”
He nodded, and she hit the button so he could enter his inner sanctum. He was all the way to his desk when he realized he wasn’t alone. Nader reached for the alarm button under his desk, but stopped when the figure raised a pistol. He slowly pulled his hand back, and made his voice faux pleasant.
”I would venture MI6 wouldn’t approve of this, Trenton.”
The handsome man emerged from the shadows. He was dressed all in black.
“Oh....I resigned from MI6 when they agreed to join your outrageous ‘Kill Order’ for Stella. Really, Nader....I expected more from you, even though you’re a deskbound, narrowminded toady. Stella has saved your country and the World from disasrers countless times....and you want her killed?” Trenton’s urbane Oxford accent belied the real anger in his voice.
”I know you’ve carried a torch for Stryker, ever since the caper with Lord Agathon.* But face the facts. She’s the prime suspect in a theft of classified equipment. The Director orders her investigated, then is found shot dead, the gun covered with her finger prints. She and her accomplice, Agent Lindsey, have disappeared without a trace. There’s no doubt...Stella Stryker has gone rogue.”
Trenton lowered the pistol. “But, Nader....your own report suggests she may have been compromised.....brainwashed. Surely, if that’s true, she’s a victim, not a traitor.”
“It doesn’t matter......brainwashed or not.....she’s a deadly operative working for the bad guys...and no one is safe from her. Plus, there’s the matter of all the sensitive information In her brain. We have no choice, she must die.
Trenton smiled. “I know a lot as well, Nader. For example, I know about how you and the Director lied to the President about the Bratslavian election.**
Congress would be interested as well, and dare I say, so would the Washington Post.
Look.....your grubby secret is safe.....all I ask is ten days. Share what intelligence you have on Stella and her whereabouts, and I’ll find her. If she’s truly a traitor, I’ll kill her myself. But, if she’s not, I’ll bring her back to the fold. P•O•W•I•E•......you....I....we all owe her that much.”
Nader glared at the British Agent. Then he sighed.
”Ten days it is, Trenton. Not a second more.”
READ THE THRILLING CONCLUSION TO “THE SVENGALI SAGA” IN “STELLA STRYKER 24: OPERATION RESCUE”
I was overjoyed. The book ends, and Stella is still hypnotically enslaved. Even better, there was a sequel, promising more barefoot hypno goodness.
I went back to “Theodore’s” to find it, and had no luck. I checked three other used book stores, had no luck. I....I’m not proud of this...took money from my mother’s purse, and went to the biggest new book store in town....and, I had no luck. I finally gathered the courage to ask a clerk to order it.
When I returned a few days later, he told me “Stella Stryker 24” was never published. Worse, he said Diamond Publishing had gone out of business. I later found out the failed TV series had been their last gasp.
I was devestated for years by this news. Later, I played with the idea of paying Matt Gunter to finish it, but I still had no luck. By the time I was rich enough, he was deep in dementia. I even considered taking a female writer into my service and programming her to write like Gunter.
But time heals and fosters wisdom. After I had my dark epiphany about Noelle, I realized I didn’t need her, and I didn’t need any sequel by Matt Gunner, or anyone else. This was already my perfect hypnosis story. Stella is forever deep in her hypnotic enslavement, barefooted and obedient to her Master. There would be no rescue....no awakening.....no defeat for the hypnotist.
No, I decided I alone could create a living sequel. I think it came to me one morning as I looked in the mirror. I realized my illness had transformed me until I rather looked like Dr. Manx....gaunt with long, stringy, thinning hair and sunken eyes.
But, if I was Manx......I needed my Stella.
You see...you had to be different than my other ladies. I had to have your heart, not just your obedience. I wanted what Laura Lindsey had with Stella, true, albeit hypnotic, love.
After years of trial and error, I realized it
wasn’t about cognitive persuasion, but to a more fundamental behavioral attachment..
Imprinting. Creating an utterly receptive state so that your mind would latch onto the first strong presence it sensed.
While you laid in my matrix, your nervous system bombarded by my hypnotic pulses, your mind became that blank slate. By staying in close proximity, by giving you the sound of my voice, I’ve imprinted myself upon you. I’m quite literally the center of your universe now.
Reading the book to you, that was really for me. I could have read you the phone book or a car owner’s manual, and the effect would have been the same. I imprinted myself upon you and now I own you heart and soul.
Now that you belong to me, I’ll teach you. You’ll become her, in every way. Her voice, her manner, her personality. You will truly become her.
With you at my side, I’ll finally have what I’ve been seeking: my first love.
You’ll protect me, care for me, and love me for whatever time I have left.
It has to work, this is my last hope.
I’ll finally be content.....my emptiness filled.... I’ll be saved by you, Stella.
You don’t mind if I call you that......
Of course you don’t.