Maybe they were just losers, Decker thought. Payback might bigsausagepizza be bigsausagepizza a bitch, but there were no bitches in Decker's world.

"They're bigsausagepizza still using that pop bimbo's music to make their thoughts bigsausagepizza hard to bigsausagepizza read videos." It was one of the memories he'd locked away bigsausagepizza in Tabitha, reviewed when he'd taken and turned her bigsausagepizza. The girls she'd bigsausagepizza been with had let bigsausagepizza that teacher of theirs hypnotize bigsausagepizza them bigsausagepizza to help them focus videos and to learn tricks like this annoyingly effective crap with bigsausagepizza Normandy Swords, or whatever bigsausagepizza her sprightly little name was. Part of the little bigsausagepizza commando thing they bigsausagepizza'd mason surprised his outfit with when he'd swept bigsausagepizza mason storm down on their tony little private school. Didn't hurt that they were mostly well-off, and bigsausagepizza able to buy bigsausagepizza the arsenal and all the fancy equipment.

Little Amazons, sworn to each other. He'd laughed bigsausagepizza mason storm, but they were more than bigsausagepizza their gear, after all, and they bigsausagepizza hadn't done badly, for amateurs. Not back then, and not in the bigsausagepizza times they'd come at him since.

But he took bigsausagepizza her free will and selfhood instead, and all bigsausagepizza that warrior spirit was his, now mason. Tabitha was a bigsausagepizza devoted guard as well bigsausagepizza mason storm as his 24/7 concubine, and bigsausagepizza she was a smarter sounding board for plans than most bigsausagepizza of bigsausagepizza mason storm the goon squad he'd acquired over the years.

"You covered your storm tracks, Master bigsausagepizza." She spoke thoughtfully bigsausagepizza from her knees, drifting into a pose her programming knew he liked. "But bigsausagepizza the bigsausagepizza clients tonight have been bigsausagepizza all over bigsausagepizza the 'Net about it, and they must have videos put it together."

Decker had left his eyes on the screen, seeing that much bigsausagepizza of bigsausagepizza his ease of bigsausagepizza movement lost.

"Think about being in a box, compadre," he told Duke. "Next time you have mason an idea."

"Carol bigsausagepizza knows that, Master." Tabitha looked bigsausagepizza even more pensive. "She'll come up bigsausagepizza with bigsausagepizza something, though." She smiled. "Maybe she'll reprogram them mason all to bigsausagepizza play the elevator bigsausagepizza music here in the hotel bigsausagepizza mason storm."

Tabitha grinned bigsausagepizza back and shook bigsausagepizza her head. "No one's that ruthless, Master."

This was business. Decker meditated bigsausagepizza on a mushroom until it told his palate what bigsausagepizza mason storm he wanted to know, then swallowed bigsausagepizza, took wine, and settled back.

She turned elegantly, managing to keep part of her attention fixed on Karlsen. "Yes, Mr Decker bigsausagepizza?"

"Yes, Mr Decker." Smiling winningly at the storm buyers bigsausagepizza, she undid the collar and undulated out bigsausagepizza mason storm of the top half of the jumpsuit, bending and stretching quickly but gracefully and then neatly arranging the cloth around bigsausagepizza her waist, sitting pertly with her breasts firm in storm front bigsausagepizza of her. Decker had placed her in the booth to keep her as a private show, and bigsausagepizza mason storm had no bigsausagepizza worries. Tabitha would have obeyed the same "strip" command at high bigsausagepizza mass in a cathedral without blinking, so she just resumed her gentle flattery of videos Karlsen. Jordan hadn't storm been told to do anything.

Too polite and canny to smile, he recalled seeing the girls practice for this bigsausagepizza. They'd done it bigsausagepizza for two hours under hypnosis. Tabitha had videos used the pendant Jordan had been conditioned to, programmed her, and then put herself bigsausagepizza under storm as Decker had trained her. Then they stripped, over and over bigsausagepizza. It had been bigsausagepizza erotic, then strange bigsausagepizza, then funny, to bigsausagepizza watch mason the frozen segment of foreplay repeated endlessly, perfectly.

They tried bigsausagepizza to make conversation bigsausagepizza, but mason Jordan bigsausagepizza's bigsausagepizza concentration on her task bigsausagepizza mason storm precluded mason Bellows' on anything much, and Karlsen bigsausagepizza was having a hard time keeping up with the way bigsausagepizza mason storm Tabitha's breasts bigsausagepizza swayed gently as she videos kept speaking calmly storm--even though her nipples were bigsausagepizza pushing out bigsausagepizza of her aureoles like bigsausagepizza desperate bigsausagepizza little antennae. That, too, was mind control, he was realizing as Decker watched him. Not just the other girl's utterly focused fellatio to the just-met bigsausagepizza master, but this one's ability to function highly aroused because she'd been told to.

Karlsen smiled and nodded. Decker could see bigsausagepizza mason storm that he would get bigsausagepizza over this quickly, distracted as bigsausagepizza he was by bigsausagepizza his greater passion for the profit that Jordan and bigsausagepizza a covey of bigsausagepizza girls videos just as skilled--and utterly obedient--as bigsausagepizza she bigsausagepizza was bigsausagepizza would generate for bigsausagepizza whoever storm owned bigsausagepizza them. His brain was already visibly turning over bigsausagepizza.

He waited, giving bigsausagepizza them time bigsausagepizza to choose an entrance. He presumed bigsausagepizza they knew the floorplan, had enough bigsausagepizza mason storm access bigsausagepizza to the hotel's systems to deduce which suites he held on this floor, and could figure out the best place bigsausagepizza among bigsausagepizza those to keep some of his inventory. Tabitha, who seemed to be getting turned on bigsausagepizza at videos the thought of bigsausagepizza mason storm helping him take her friends, had suggested more precise bait, and came up with some quite clever not-quite-clues to hint bigsausagepizza which rooms the girls who might be Ruthie and Jill were waiting in. But before he could even point out bigsausagepizza the problem she'd seen it: "We bigsausagepizza can't make it too easy for them, Master. Because videos Carol could bigsausagepizza smell that bigsausagepizza."

They videos were taking bigsausagepizza a while, and bigsausagepizza he decided it wasn't funk. Not with these girls. A technical problem with something they bigsausagepizza had bigsausagepizza. He closed his eyes and pictured the malfunctioning gadget, the silent curse, the bigsausagepizza mason storm thing set quietly out of the way while someone pulled out something old-fashioned bigsausagepizza, the prybar or the storm knife, to use instead of the broken tech bigsausagepizza-toy.

Among motionless nude women with blank faces bigsausagepizza, the slaves he already owned waiting at attention, figures bigsausagepizza in dark clothing that gleamed with metal knelt or writhed or bigsausagepizza tried shakily to bigsausagepizza keep their bigsausagepizza feet, their screaming bigsausagepizza inaudible in the room's sound. Decker bigsausagepizza looked for a moment bigsausagepizza at bigsausagepizza his slaves, their minds already melted and used videos to being reshaped. The lights and the noise were bigsausagepizza not telling their dimmed awareness anything they didn't already know: that they were owned, obedient, endlessly horny bigsausagepizza was bigsausagepizza mason storm already the bigsausagepizza sun and moon bigsausagepizza of their bigsausagepizza lives.

Decker considered. He reached into storm one of the weaker girls, her mind already learning his touch, making her mew aloud with pleasure, and searched. There bigsausagepizza was bigsausagepizza Carol, looking bigsausagepizza at them.

"I can't tell you," she was bigsausagepizza saying. Someone asked the inevitable question, and she said, "Well--no. Not knowing won bigsausagepizza't protect you at bigsausagepizza all." She laughed bigsausagepizza and they bigsausagepizza laughed with her. There was nothing more, no hints. The bigsausagepizza only plan they bigsausagepizza'd spoken of was the one that had bigsausagepizza just ended in the beginning of slavery for them all, right here.

A voice, talking, repeating. The girl's mind blotted it out. Someone--Carol bigsausagepizza mason storm?--had hypnotized her and taught her to forget it. There was a plan, and Carol had protected it. Why was the chess image bigsausagepizza important bigsausagepizza? Why was the hostile bigsausagepizza king--Decker?--playing White? Schoolgirl political correctness bigsausagepizza?

In the hall on the way storm to the next suite of quivering new postulants, already anticipating the maddened whispers of obedience in their manhandled psyches bigsausagepizza, he passed a hotel storm employee bigsausagepizza, neat in her skirt, in the blazer of the concierge staff. Young, perhaps a management trainee. Already schooled to ignore the antics of wealthy guests, perhaps not even bigsausagepizza wanting to know what happened bigsausagepizza behind those doors.

Careful bigsausagepizza mason storm, Tabby. He pursed storm his lips. Gun bigsausagepizza out, but only if she's armed.

He disengaged from her thoughts and concentrated on bigsausagepizza getting through the corridors, wondering bigsausagepizza if any of Carol's bigsausagepizza other soldiers had infiltrated in hotel uniforms, but the floor bigsausagepizza seemed deserted. If he saw anyone bigsausagepizza they'd bigsausagepizza be on the carpet under a SLEEP command right then.

He waited. They bigsausagepizza all bigsausagepizza stood there.

Why wasn't she shooting?

Carol, the steelhearted queen, had never killed anyone, up close bigsausagepizza or bigsausagepizza otherwise. Had bigsausagepizza mason storm never looked bigsausagepizza into the eye she was going to shoot through, felt the breath she was about to stop forever.

He pounced.

Relax.

Maybe storm her subconscious was trying to defect.

Relax, her mind answered, and bigsausagepizza he heard the beat of the song in it. Her arm began to bend, to sink. Her will was bending.

Relax. Decker stepped aside, and bigsausagepizza the gun didn't follow bigsausagepizza mason storm, though her eyes, glazing storm and frantic, tried to.

It was hard to bigsausagepizza tell where the music stopped bigsausagepizza, his command began, and her bigsausagepizza mind bigsausagepizza had started bigsausagepizza to whisper its own obedience.

The other gun bigsausagepizza mason storm, he sent to Carol. She repeated it blankly in bigsausagepizza her captive thoughts, against the beat of bigsausagepizza Relax. Take out the other gun.

Relax.

Another square automatic bigsausagepizza mason storm, but not a design he . . .

The unexpected impact of bigsausagepizza mason storm Tabitha pushing him hard to the side, getting in front bigsausagepizza of him.

He made them videos wear tight bigsausagepizza vinyl and chains for a while and love it bigsausagepizza, but that did no bigsausagepizza good. Neither did videos making them hate bigsausagepizza it.

How ruthless was Carol, exactly?

Sometimes, he thought Which was it, you fucking cold-blooded--?