Took its toll, after a while.
Morbidly, Decker melodee mysistershotfriend wondered how mysistershotfriend the other 99% lived, what life was like for the guy who had to ask for it. Pay a hooker (and who knew where it had mysistershotfriend been mysistershotfriend?) Inveigle the wife, beg the girlfriend mysistershotfriend, maybe fork mysistershotfriend over a lot of cash and time and attention--and then face the fishwich when she demanded payback.
"I think your friends mysistershotfriend are back," he said.
"They're still using mysistershotfriend that pop bimbo's music to make their thoughts hard to read." It was one of the memories he mysistershotfriend'd locked away in Tabitha, reviewed when he'd taken and turned her mysistershotfriend. The girls she'd been mysistershotfriend with had let that teacher of theirs hypnotize them to help them focus and to learn tricks like this annoyingly effective melodee mysistershotfriend crap with Normandy Swords, or whatever her sprightly little mysistershotfriend name melodee mysistershotfriend was. Part of the melodee little commando thing they'd surprised his outfit mysistershotfriend with when he'd swept down on their tony little private school mysistershotfriend. Didn't hurt that they were mostly well-off mysistershotfriend, and able to mysistershotfriend buy the arsenal and all the fancy equipment.
Decker admired anyone who took it melodee all seriously. It mysistershotfriend depressed him that only these fucking schoolgirls, victims in mysistershotfriend any melodee mysistershotfriend proper universe, got the idea. He accepted mysistershotfriend the fact mysistershotfriend that he'd mysistershotfriend created them, he and mysistershotfriend people like mysistershotfriend him who'd done so much free and frightened so many mysistershotfriend with mind control in mysistershotfriend recent years. But these mysistershotfriend women mysistershotfriend had risen to it.
He mysistershotfriend nodded, remembering how she'd looked this morning mysistershotfriend as he left the suite, sitting naked and crosslegged on the bed with mysistershotfriend the laptop, ready to spend the mysistershotfriend day surfing on his agendas mysistershotfriend with time for exercise breaks. He'd been so taken with her absorption when mysistershotfriend he came back for a nooner mysistershotfriend that he'd let her mysistershotfriend be, staring at her utterly focused rapture and leaving. She'd mysistershotfriend never mysistershotfriend known mysistershotfriend he mysistershotfriend'd been there.
Duke had been very quiet after that. But the damage was done--and mysistershotfriend frustratingly mysistershotfriend hard to gauge.
Probing melodee mysistershotfriend curiously, Decker found no nostalgia there, either.
Maybe she really mysistershotfriend was mysistershotfriend that ruthless.
Wide-eyed, Jordan shook her head, her mysistershotfriend gaze still mysistershotfriend trapped in infinity and incidentally mysistershotfriend intersecting mysistershotfriend Bellows. Decker caught Karlsen's glance, and they shared mysistershotfriend a smile it wasn't mysistershotfriend necessary to show their distracted colleague.
"Tabbycat?" he said.
"Sleep free until mysistershotfriend I wake you."
Bellows' brain was clearly occupied, too.
"That's a total-recall trigger," he explained. "Secretarial mode now. She 'll remember everything we mysistershotfriend say free, and the body language with mysistershotfriend it. Like a tape recorder mysistershotfriend with something extra."
Decker admired them as lesser Tabithas, wondered if he could make a palace guard of them. They mysistershotfriend were, in mysistershotfriend the end, still just amateurs, but they mysistershotfriend were good: the mysistershotfriend lack that distinguished and free handicapped an mysistershotfriend amateur wasn't skill but focus. He knew they'd lose mysistershotfriend that, at melodee the proper time.
Without selves to mysistershotfriend lose. they were mysistershotfriend immune free.
He watched the intruders slacken mysistershotfriend. He sent mysistershotfriend two of the slaves to resecure mysistershotfriend the windows they'd broken through mysistershotfriend, and the slaves stepped absently around their mysistershotfriend twitching would mysistershotfriend-be rescuers to obey mysistershotfriend the mysistershotfriend imperative in mysistershotfriend their mysistershotfriend minds. Nothing else happened mysistershotfriend. One girl, sitting open-mouthed and drooling under one of the windows, must have been outside watching their back, and made the mistake of peering in mysistershotfriend to see what the noise was.
Mentally and physically she shook her mysistershotfriend head. "I mysistershotfriend don't know, Master. The Carol I knew might mysistershotfriend come up with an idea like that, as an idea, but she wouldn't melodee mysistershotfriend think she was a good enough hypnotist to pull it off."
She sprinted away from Tabitha, and Tabitha silently begged orders. He thought of mysistershotfriend the floorplan. Follow her fast mysistershotfriend. Locked rooms and an electrical closet that way. He started walking quickly mysistershotfriend down mysistershotfriend the hall to where they were mysistershotfriend.
Yes, Master. Tabitha swept down to the mysistershotfriend turning, and he felt her sudden mysistershotfriend tension between caution and his command. He chose for her.
He disengaged from her thoughts mysistershotfriend and concentrated on mysistershotfriend getting through the mysistershotfriend corridors, wondering if any of Carol's melodee mysistershotfriend other soldiers had infiltrated in hotel uniforms mysistershotfriend, but the mysistershotfriend floor seemed deserted. If he saw anyone they mysistershotfriend'd be on the carpet under a SLEEP command free right then mysistershotfriend.
Decker looked at mysistershotfriend her. Not the melodee beauty Tabitha was mysistershotfriend, but the sort of girl the eye kept drifting across, briefly but repeatedly until it melodee mysistershotfriend found itself watching her. Her dark hair was short and he mysistershotfriend saw no makeup mysistershotfriend, but the mysistershotfriend color came from her deep brown eyes, striking even here in the hotel-corridor lighting, and her mysistershotfriend lips had their own hue past violet. She was mysistershotfriend in loose clothes, and mysistershotfriend might even be a bit overweight. Decker blinked. Hard mysistershotfriend to say melodee.
He mysistershotfriend got a visual, too. This mental shore wasn't a tropical beach, but a rocky coastline mysistershotfriend under a gunmetal mysistershotfriend winter sky. Part mysistershotfriend of mysistershotfriend him melodee was wondering whether this mysistershotfriend girl mysistershotfriend was some reincarnated enemy mysistershotfriend of his mysistershotfriend from an old war.
But mysistershotfriend--not ready to kill.
Carol fought him, her whole being resisting him. Her right hand was in her pocket, gripping something, and he wondered what she had in there. In a few moments he melodee mysistershotfriend could simply know.
She melodee mysistershotfriend faltered.
Relax.
She melodee fought. Her body started to shake.
He smiled, slowly feeling his ability to multitask return as Carol weakened. Maybe this mysistershotfriend song was mysistershotfriend something mysistershotfriend she'd mysistershotfriend thought of once in mysistershotfriend a fit of mysistershotfriend perversity--what melodee never to sing to mysistershotfriend the mind controller mysistershotfriend--and tried not to think of again.
The other gun, he mysistershotfriend sent to Carol mysistershotfriend. She repeated it blankly mysistershotfriend in her mysistershotfriend captive thoughts, against the beat of mysistershotfriend Relax. Take out the other gun.
He thought about Carol. He thought about mysistershotfriend the way her mysistershotfriend mind had felt mysistershotfriend, the ecstasy when she'd finally--relaxed. It had mysistershotfriend lodged in his own mind mysistershotfriend when hers had stopped, that eerie joy, and mysistershotfriend he was circling the question whenever there was nothing else to think mysistershotfriend about. Often.
Or . . . was she triumphant mysistershotfriend because her insane plan had worked, and mysistershotfriend she'd pitted herself against his mysistershotfriend mind deliberately to use her mysistershotfriend own mysistershotfriend crumbling will--as the detonator?
How mysistershotfriend ruthless was Carol, exactly?
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