Dress Off 03: Tess Trueheart

"Showbiz!" she exclaimed.

Michelle and Claire suddenly broke out into an almost military style march towards the door, pushing their way through the crowd, seemingly oblivious to the occasional quick grope that the audience members snuck in while being unceremoniously shoved aside. Bree quickly gathered up their clothing before making as if to head off after them. As she was about to leave, she cast a quick smile around an audience whose members collectively combined complete confusion with total arousal.

"Thanks everyone," she said with a quick wave, and a nod of her head indicating the pile of clothes she was carrying. "Don't worry about these, the girls and I have just got to get changed in the car for our next performance. Enjoy the rest of your night!"

Bree turned on her heels and strutted out of the hall, her tall long legs carrying her gracefully to the now open door to the street outside where Michelle and Claire waited. Every pair of eyes in the room watched as Bree's tight white panties and perfectly defined, entirely naked back disappeared from sight. It was only then that a collective intake of breath erupted into frenzied conversation as everyone tried to digest what had just happened. Even through the hubbub though, the sound of the front door closing echoed through the hall, and a ripple of silence rolled through the hall one final time as those nearest the exit nudged those further away and directed their attention to the door itself.

Resting innocently on the door handle, evident to even the furthest patron at the darkest corner, was the unmistakable sight of three delicate pieces of white, red and black material.

************

"Ladies." A fully dressed,smartly attired Bree Carson smiled sweetly as she looked into the suddenly confused eyes of Michelle and Claire.

"What the hell's going on here?!" Michelle exclaimed, looking around them in shock. It was if they had suddenly dozed off for a moment, only to wake up a few seconds later to find themselves in a completely different place, and no-one else around. The room they were now in looked for all the world like a small changing room, with a wall of mirrors and a couple of cheap looking seats strewn haphazardly in front of a narrow table built into the wall.

"Well, I've got some great news for a pair of budding entertainers such as yourselves." Bree glanced down a clipboard in her hand and theatrically ran a finger down what seemed to be a list of names before tapping it expectantly on a pair midway down a sheet.

"What have you done to us, you little bitch?!" Claire snarled, confusion giving way quickly to a bubbling anger. She went to move her towards Bree but confusion rallied to the front of her mind again as she realised that she couldn't actually control her legs.

"Now, now, it's just a little hypnotism - nothing to get too stressed out about. Yet." Bree said, maintaining a friendly smile as she gave Michelle and Claire a chance to take in their surroundings.

Both women were completely naked, with the only exception being a strange earpiece that they each wore in their right ears. Michelle and Claire looked at Bree with undisguised hatred as they took in the enormity of their current predicament.

"Give us our clothes now, and maybe we let you walk out of here. There are two of us, and soon to be less than one of you." Michelle's eyes flashed as she delivered the ultimatum, while next to her Claire struggled to make any headway on closing the gap between her and their blonde tormentor.

"Well, that's hardly constructive, it is girls?" Bree said, admonishingly. "Besides, I'm guessing that you're finding it a little hard to move right now, and I'm sure you'd love to hear why."

Bree took a moment to pointedly stare at the women's breasts, knowing that neither woman would be able to cover them up, and grudgingly admitted to herself that both of these women were rather beautiful. They clearly worked out, and the flat tummy and well-toned thighs, along with milky complexion of their smooth flawless skin, made Bree half-wonder who'd finish first when what she had planned went down.

"You see, while we battled it over the pool table, a fun little device of mine was broadcasting a hypnotic message. Nothing like a good game of strip pool to keep the audience focussed on the visuals, and keep the background noise from other games or conversations down to a minimum. Of course, the subliminal message is easy enough to ignore if you know what to do, or if you've got half a brain, but sadly for you I guess you don't qualify under either of those categories. The upshot of it all is that you fine upstanding ladies are both hypnotised, and we've just spent a rather constructive thirty minutes putting together a modest show. Well, perhaps 'modest' isn't quite the appropriate word. Nonetheless, we're in the perfect place for it though. The Roxbury," Bree continued, waving a hand around her, and lifting her eyes to the ceiling, "has witnessed the start quite a few sparkling entertainment careers."

Michelle and Claire's eyes widened considerably as they realised they were in a changing room of the city's foremost theatre. They also realised that there was a dull, constant noise coming through the ceiling, which they'd previously missed by virtue of having greater concern for their missing clothing. The noise could only mean though that there was a show going on upstairs, and they had absolutely no doubt that it would be a full house.

"You're not going to make us go out there looking like this." Michelle said, "Not because of one stupid pool game."

"No, absolutely right. I'm going to make you go out like that, because of what you did to someone I know." Bree replied, the smile beginning to fade now and an icy calm settling into her voice.

"Who?!"

"Tess Trueheart. Let's just say she's a fellow employee of a certain company who innocently contacted you a while back thinking you both had a problem that our services could resolve to everyone's - eventual - satisfaction."

"So, girlfriend of yours is she?"

"Well, you know how it is, us blondes have got to stick together. Anyway, it turns out you didn't actually have a problem, but were being paid by someone to get Tess out into the open. Tess was taken right in front of you, and not only did you not do anything to help, you were actively complicit in her abduction. That doesn't endear you to me, unfortunately."

"So what? It was a job. It's not our fault your friend's an idiot." Claire said.

"Now, now, stop making it so easy for me to rationalise your imminent humiliation." Bree snapped back, fire in her eyes for the first time all night. She gathered herself and continued on.

"Luckily for you both, this isn't a simple mission of revenge. I need to know who hired you, and that means that you both stand an outside chance of not being on stage in eight minutes in front of this city's elite, staggeringly under-dressed for the occasion."

"Let us go right now!" Claire shouted, furious at Bree and furious at her own legs for refusing to move.

"Yes, I'll let you go in a few minutes. I'll send you both on your way. However, before you head off you might want to hear my proposition." Bree tossed a pad and pen on the table in front of Claire, and let their anger simmer for another few seconds before continuing.

"Thanks to a conversation we all had before you just woke up, the hypnotism will compel you to head out on stage in a few minutes - I think act one is about to finish shortly so you won't have to share the stage - and rather dramatically masturbate for all to see."

Michelle and Claire's mouths dropped open as they listened on in horror.

"You will fondle your breasts. You will moan and groan like no woman has moaned or groaned before. You will massage and rub your moist wet pussies until you've almost achieved the noisiest climax those people have ever witnessed, and just when you're on the edge of finishing yourselves off, you'll turn to each other and finish each other off with your tongues. Don't worry about any interference. The security guards are all going to be busy with another distraction elsewhere in the building, so I suspect I can buy you enough time to finish the performance before you're rudely interrupted by any prudes who don't like your modern take on the performing arts."

Bree paused for effect.

"However, there is a tiny sliver of hope." Bree said brightly, waggling her finger at them.

"So all we have to do is give you a name and number, and you give us our clothes back?" Michelle whispered, a lot of the defiance now knocked out of her. It was more than a little worrying that she couldn't actually see either of their clothes in the room, and from Claire's frantic glancing around, she could tell the same realisation had come to her too.

"Oh god no." Bree laughed breezily, a glint in her eye as she flashed a wide smile at them both. "I tossed your clothes in a bin after we entered the building and unless you want to spend an hour searching this building in nothing but a pair of shoes, I reckon you might want to forget you ever owned those particular pieces of slutwear."

Michelle and Claire stared back at Bree incredulously. "You said you had something we wanted! We want our clothes!"

"No," Bree replied, waving the finger at them again, "You think you want your clothes. What you really want is the secret control word that will stop you from going out onto that stage and masturbating in front of a rather large audience of this cities movers and shakers. The good news is that the word is encoded into those special earpieces you're wearing, or as I like to call them - your entire outfit!"

Michelle and Claire involuntarily touched their ears to feel the tiny buds of salvation.

"Of course," Bree continued, "it's not quite that simple. The earpieces have a random timer in them. I reckon it'll take you four minutes to get to the stage. The timer is set to go off anytime between one to seven minutes after you leave this room. Even I don't know when!" Bree clapped her hands and shared an excited smile.

"It'll be fun to count down the seconds though, won't it! Four minutes to the stage. Maybe one, maybe seven minutes until the control word sets you free. I reckon those are pretty good odds. Better odds than you gave Tess. Of course, should you feel that professionally you can't reveal your employers, then I'll just take my property and send you on your way." The note of finality in Bree's voice conveyed to her unwilling audience that Bree wasn't about to wait for protracted deliberations.

Michelle and Claire glanced at each other, a look of helplessness in both their eyes, and Claire reached for the pen and paper to write something down.

"Of course," Bree chimed in, "our little conversation before involved me implanting another secret control word that I can use at any time should the name and number on that pad prove to be less than useful. You don't want me to have to come and find you both again, because I have a very active imagination when it comes to novel ways to embarrass."

Claire paused slightly, and seemed to shiver slightly, before continuing on with writing down a name and number.

"What if they gave us a false name though?" she whined.

"Life can certainly be unfair at times can't it." Bree commiserated with clearly fake compassion, hands perched on her hips.

Claire sulkily flung the pad at Bree, who took the pad and grimly smiled at the contents. She took in the details, taking care to memorise them now, and then raised her head to address the two naked women in front of her.

"Great doing business with you both. Please feel free to keep those earpieces on as you head off for your appointment with the stage. You'll forgive me if I don't wish you good luck, as I'm rather hoping those timers run a little long."

Bree opened the door to the changing room, and took one last long look at the stricken ladies.

"Showtime" she said, simply. Michelle and Claire felt their legs begin to move, and they marched out in the empty corridor beyond, their hearts racing at a million miles an hour as they silently pleaded for the earpieces to spring to life.

Bree watched as they walked quickly down the hallway, hands obediently by their side so that their completely naked bodies would be on show for all to see. She allowed herself to smirk in satisfaction at having exacted some retribution for Tess' capture, but it settled back into a grim expression of determination when she reminded herself that Tess Trueheart was still in the hands of the enemy.

"Mitchelson." She said, speaking into the microphone hidden in the collar of her sleeve.

"Go ahead Carson." came the immediate response from her partner, who'd been silently monitoring the whole situation.

"Has the security alarm at the back door been triggered?"

"Yes, the security guards are already on their way. They'll be investigating my amusing little setup for at least ten minutes, so Michelle and Claire should have an unimpeded run."

"Good."

"Did you set those timers going?"

"Oh!" Bree said, raising a hand her to mouth in mock horror, "I'm such a terrible agent aren't I? There's always some small detail I forget to take care of."

Bree continued staring down the corridor for a few more moments as the nude women started up a set of stairs, breasts undoubtedly jiggling in front as they bounced on up to a waiting crowd. As the last bare foot passed out of sight, Bree then turned and started back to her the car where Mitchelson waited, humming quietly as she went.

*********************

"Agent Carson and Agent Mitchelson were able to acquire a name and number thirty minutes ago, and we have traced both to an old disused facility of ours in Vancouver."

Stacey Shackleton stirred in her seat as the shadowy figure at the other end of the video conference cut right to the chase. Normally, these mission briefings were dragged out a little bit, but after what had happened in the past 72 hours, it was clear that this was no ordinary missions.

"Our agent is alive and in one piece, of that we are certain. Unfortunately we are also certain that the ransom demand - should they bother to go through with one - is one we cannot meet."

Special Agent Shackleton crossed her arms thoughtfully, and gazed into the middle distance. She and her red-headed companion of six months were otherwise alone in the room, with the laptop sitting in front of both of them, and a crackling fire keeping out some of the cold that had been ever-present this winter.

"Would it be fair to say that they already knew that we'd track down their stooges and that this trail we've stumbled on is one that's been deliberately laid down for us?" No-one who met the brunette beauty was ever in doubt of her natural and effortless good looks. However, it was only as you got to know Stacey Shackleton that you realised that those perfectly pert breasts and finely crafted backside were but two parts of a trifecta that also included a sharp and incisive intellect.

"You'd be right Special Agent. The person who captured our agent is known to us, just as we are clearly known to them. We are under no doubt that we were allowed to trace the message to there, and that of course it is a trap."

"If it's so obvious," replied Stacey, "why would they possibly think we'd care to walk into it?"

"Because Agent Shackleton, the organisation that has taken off with your colleague knows that we have a certain affinity with those who work here. They know that we have a certain fondness for them that means we'll do whatever we can to get her back. And in this case, that affinity and fondness is ..." the cloaked voice paused for a moment, "... particularly high. There were those on the Committee who thought you shouldn't be involved, given the connection. I took a different view. I'm pulling you off your current assignment, so that the both of you can take a trip and see if you can't cause a reversal of fortune."

Stacey Shackleton took a big breath in and rubbed her face with her hands, taking in the enormity of the current situation. Beside her, Agent Erin Masterson coughed politely. Stacey waved the inevitable question away, signalling that she'd fill Erin in shortly, and turned her attention back to the laptop screen.

"Of course Director, we'll pack immediately. Do we know what physical and mental state Tess is likely to be in? It's only been three days, Tess wouldn't break under torture."

"Everyone breaks under torture eventually Agent Shackleton, although in this case we believe that Tess' captors won't employ any of the usual interrogation techniques. They have, well let's just say unusual tastes and somewhat contradictory beliefs. Those beliefs should at least keep Agent Trueheart relatively safe for now, even if very far from comfortable. A full mission briefing is being downloaded to your computer now. Good luck. We'll be in touch."

The Director's abrupt sign-off didn't even wait for acknowledgement from Stacey or Erin. This mission was time-critical, and the clock was already ticking. Stacey looked across to a still confused Erin.

"Come on," she said, grabbing the laptop and heading towards her bedroom to pack, "I'll fill you in on the way to the airport."

*********************

As Stacey fought their way through the late afternoon traffic, Erin finally finished up on her mobile and dropped the phone back into her backpack.

"Flights are booked, and I've got us rooms at a motel near the old safe-house. Now how about an answer to that question of how you know Tess Trueheart? Have you worked with her before?

"In a manner of speaking." Stacey gave up on the lane she was currently in, and darted into faster moving traffic beside her, merging between two expensive-looking cars with split-second timing, She waved distractedly in half-apology at the herd of suddenly honking drivers around her, and tapped the steering wheel impatiently as the airport finally came into view ahead of her.

"Well there's an answer that illuminated absolutely nothing." Erin could see the concern on her mentor's face. The lane they were in began to speed up again though, and Stacey finally let go of some of the tension that the late-afternoon crawl had added on top of what the mission had already provided. The beautiful brunette special agent took a moment to look across and throw a weak smile at her passenger.

"Sorry Erin." Stacey could see that Erin was eager to help, and she reflected that it had been a weird couple of months for the duo. Agent Erin Matthews, the most junior hire of Decider Enterprise's latest small batch of 'graduates', had taken three long weeks to forgive Stacey for her own role in Erin's need for a new life. Inevitably though, after that initial period of anger, their relationship had suddenly snowballed into a deep friendship forged from a common experience. As Erin realised that Stacey had once experienced the same intense, naked embarrassment as she had, Erin and Stacey bonded, and they'd settled into their roles of mentor and student with mutual respect.

"I've known Tess in two lives. My past life, and my current life. She helped me become what I am today, in several ways." Stacey couldn't help but reflect that this meant Tess was one of the main reasons that she'd once been left on public display, completely naked, outside a busy city cathedral, unable to cover up or escape, with many an amateur photographer experiencing the photo shoot of their lives. It had to mean something that this fact actually made extracting Tess from her current predicament all the more important for Stacey Shackleton.

*********************

Harrington walked into the meeting room and strode purposefully to her seat without even acknowledging the two other people sat at the table.