Dark Web

They met up the next morning at a pre-designated coffee place and Samantha had discovered that Peter had been attending Longfield academy but couldn't manage the routines and discipline. He'd left and had come back to see one of the lecturers, regarding some research work for him. She also discovered that Peter had no money worries, because he had won a life-changing win on the National Lottery and being without any family, had left him with a large disposable income. Samantha wondered about dating him, but he had cut her to the quick, by declaring that he didn't want a girlfriend or partner in his life. This shocked Samantha, but it was clear that he wouldn't be persuaded, but Peter insisted that they kept in touch and did so. They even met up on occasion, and he was happy to help her with her studies and usually ended up sharing her bed. It wasn't until Samantha had been posted to Hertfordshire Police HQ, that their relationship became more complex.

Samantha stood, naked, looking at the A4 pages adoring the walls of their little love nest, "You've amassed a lot of information here, P" Sam teased him, by not using his full name. Peter ignored her, still in the throes of his post-coital glow.

"I have a working theory for you." Peter announced, sitting up. He glanced at Sam's naked bum and smiled. He couldn't ever imagine enjoying another bum, as pleasant as hers. He waited for Sam's reaction.

"What?" Samantha asked, looking at him intently.

"I believe I have worked out a piece of the puzzle," Peter replied, pulling open the think duvet, inviting Samantha back into bed. She returned to the futon.

"Explain?" Samantha snuggled into his chest and kissed him. Pete gathered her up in his arms and lay back, her breast squashed close to his mouth and kissed flickered her nipple while talking.

"These attacks on middle aged or mature women have been poorly reported because the women, were told not to, or should I say instructed, not to by post hypnotic suggestion." Peter whispered, still kissing her.

"What?" Samantha looked at him, enjoying the feel of his lips on her body, but now suddenly intrigued by his statement.

"Well think about it, over two years, only three reports of an abduction, and rape of very precisely chosen women. Whoever this gang is, they are very careful, very clever and leave no physical evidence. The only women to report their assaults, did so only after days of the attack. Even close vaginal examinations revealed only minor bruising and tearing, not the usual treatment by abductors. They are essentially unhurt, often described as evidence of rough sexual intercourse, possibly consensual." Peter recalled the phrase from the reports, furnished by Sam.

Samantha shifted, "Hardly unhurt!" Peter stopped kissing her and looked at her with a scolding look.

"Keep your female emotions out of this for a moment, I know they were assaulted and I'm unsympathetic, but these men are not run-of-the-mill opportunistic kidnappers. Everything is planned and I think I have discovered a possible motive, beyond the sexual gratification." Peter lay back and Sam propped herself on her elbow and brushed her fingers over his hairless chest.

"Go on Peter." Sam urged.

"The lack of reporting suggests coercion, the threat of releasing the filmed footage of the rape. I think it's footage of the sex, I think the women were hypnotised into performing these acts, combined with threats and possibly even some drugs to make live action pornography for distribution on the dark web."

Samantha leaned in closely, "What? I mean what's your evidence?" Samantha nudged him.

"I suspect that the group has conducted more of these abductions that have ever been reported. I think the post-hypnotic suggestion, to not report their attack failed with Anna Greene and the other one." Peter sat up and climbed out of the futon and began pointing at the papers on the wall, Sam joined him and pulled on her jacket, still revealing her breasts invitingly.

"The reporting was always at least two to three days, and any physical evidence was completely obliterated by the victims showering," Peter pointed to the transcript of Anna Green, "you will notice, no emailed footage and not DVD sent through the post and so that was enough for her to make the report to the police." Peter tapped the page.

"She was still very brave though," Sam intoned.

"Yes, very brave and very much out of character with others, I am certain there's something I'm missing." Peter sighed.

"So, what is the new piece of the puzzle?" Sam asked.

"I think they are financing their lifestyle from payments from the dark-web. I think they filmed the women they use and sell it online. They might even live stream it," Peter signed, "the ultimate live sex show. That's why the abduction only last for four hours".

Peter pulled at a piece of paper and showed Samantha." You see if they are doing this to order, I mean selecting women by request, as it were, they're fulfilling a gap in the market." Samantha looked down the page, outlining the victim's specific physical types, Peter continued, " You see, the biggest growth in the porn market is for mature women and the sex is rough and humiliating. Their clients want to see it,as it happens and not with porn actresses. Acting is still acting, but ordinary women doing things that they would never normally do is the biggest draw, to certain quarters, on the dark-web." Peter sensed Samantha's tension and revulsion.

"Ugh, what scum bags want to pay for this?" Sam looked up at Peter.

"Men."

After dressing and ordering Chinese, the two of them looked over the typed proposal that Sam would offer to detectives in the morning.

"You must make it clear, that with the filming and the taking of the trophies, the panties, the gang are selling footage possibly live as the sex is performed. You should make it clear that the victimology is for divorced or single mature women. They probably search the online dating sites, and the free ones with no account tracing. They have at least half a dozen fake profiles on sites to lure potential victims into chats. Your detectives should try all the usual free-dating sites but also any adult-only hook-up sites too." Peter knew this would be a mammoth task, the number of date sites had grown exponentially since the lockdowns. The public restrictions had only been relaxed for 8 months and then these abductions began.

"That's a lot of sites and a huge number of man-hours," Samantha groaned, "they'll never get the funding for the searches."

Peter stood up at the sound of the bell to the downstairs door, "They will need to or these men will continue and probably just get better at it."

Upon returning with the white plastic bag, peter spread out the translucent plastic containers on the table and fished out the disposable forks and chop sticks. He went to the fridge and took out the chilled white wine and picked up two Hi-ball glasses and poured out two drinks.

"What about the hypnosis angle?" Samantha asked, " surely the threat of having the films distributed or the taking a family member would be enough to silence most women, don't you think?."

"Possibly, but you forget that women are more willing to sacrifice themselves, to prevent things happening to others." Peter pointed out, "also, there must be many films showing violent rapes, think of the existence of snuff movies. I think these women are selected to suit the clientele. It's even possible that the gang are contacted during the sex, to be directed by the audience, like ordinary live stream shows."

"Ugh men are disgusting!" Samantha pronounced.

"Yep," Peter agreed, " and I think these guys have cornered a market by making it accessible to everyone and not just the super-rich." pater suggested.

"What do you mean?" Samantha asked.

"The well-heeled man can have whoever they want! Or can they?" Peter suggested, "remember, if they offer their particular services to the widest possible audience, they can bring their prices down to with reach of ordinary men." Peter tried intently to pick up an eggroll with chopsticks.

"Ordinary men, who would not be able to pay for this 'service' can, now commission their very own movie about a woman that they know or have fantasized about?" Samantha pieced together Peter's suggestion.

"See, you are not as dumb as you look," Peter smiled and promptly lost the eggroll from the sticks and it fell to the floor.

"Hmm" Samantha replied, "not as dumb as you look."

The next morning, Samantha sat in the office of the DI at the Head Quarters of the Hertfordshire police. In her hand, a manilla file containing the sheets, taken from Peter's wall and some other hand-scribbled notes. Inspector Drummond, often called 'Bull dog' by the subordinates, came into the room, Samantha instinctively stood up and waited for her superior to sit down. The Inspector was about fifty, grey-haired but still attractive. He had a full beard and was dressed in his Dress uniform, having just returned from another one of the endless meetings, he was in charge of. Samantha had approached him on two other occasions, bypassing her sergeant, regarding information about cases that had been shelved or were pending further investigation. The Inspector knew Samantha was ambitious and didn't want to pass high value intel along the chain of command, knowing that others would attempt to take the credit for her ideas. People were still people, even other police officers.

"So, Constable Archer, you asked to see me? I must be somewhere in an hour, what have you got?" Drummond said quietly, motioning Samantha to sit.

"Yes sir. I have pieced together some ideas regarding the three abduction and sexual assault cases, that have been reported since January 2021." Samantha breathed and tried to calm her nerves.

"Oh, on your own time I assume. I doubt Sergeant Hollis isn't keeping you busy in the collators' office." Drummond extended his hand for the manilla file. He looked through the sheets and then looked up to Samantha. Without saying another word, he picked up his desk telephone and pressed the speed dial button,

"Jack, Martin here, could you pop in for moment? I have Samantha Archer here with another hot tip for us." Drummond smiled at Samantha, who felt even more anxious. Jack was the Detective Inspector at the station and a gruff but capable officer. Samantha had seen him around the station, he had been fast tracked to his current rank but had the respect of all the officers he had worked under him and was pegged to achieve further promotion.

Within a minute or so, a polite knock heralded the arrival of Jack Markham, the well-built 36 year old, former fire-arms officer (ARO) and recently promoted to the HQ. He came in and stood behind Samantha.

"Ah, PC Archer has been doing some sleuthing on her own time, has she?" Markham intoned.

"Sir? " Samantha, suddenly losing the power of speech, sat still and looked at Drummond.

"Don't be mean, Jack. PC Archer has some interesting idea for us. Quite the Nancy Drew, aren't you?" Drummond smiled and motioned for Jack to sit.

For the next ten minutes, Samantha filled in the gaps of the pages,that Markham and Drummond, had been scanned through earlier. She outlined the suspicion that this group had successfully covered up multiple attacks and that by the use of either drugs or hypnosis or both had somehow coerced women not to report their attacks. She also made a point of indicating that the victims were especially chosen to fulfil some market on the dark-web and that the attacks were probably not police-officers despite the obvious use of the phrase 'brother-officers' but they shouldn't rule it out.

Markham was the first to speak, "this is pretty thin on only three reports over 20 months." he looked over to Drummond, " but your observations hold some merit."

Drummond chimed in, " is this all your work? You haven't shown anyone else this material?"

"No sir. "Samantha lied. Peter was outside of the police and wasn't a journalist and would not be someone that might blow her cover.

"This dark-web stuff is a problem," Markham sighed, "Cyber-crime will need to be brought in on this. The indecent assault investigation can be handled from here." Drummond looked up and nodded. He looked at Samantha.

"PC Archer, do you want to be re-assigned from the collator's office? "Drummond asked flatly, already knowing the answer.

"Yes-sir, "Samantha replied, just too quickly, "I do. I think I could bring some valuable insight..."

"Very well, "Drummond interrupted, " No need for your CV and testimonials. I will put you on temporary transfer to DI Markham's team. You will remain in uniform, but he'll bring you up to the fourth floor." Drummond turned to Markham, "Put a couple of your people together with PC Archer and get onto the County people too, this will be a task force operation. I'll send you an OVC order and a code-name by the end of the day."

With that Markham stood and tapped the chair, on which Samantha was sitting, "Come along Officer Archer, you have work to do."

It took three long, gruelling days for the new OVCTTC to set up the new five-man task force. Drummond had given the operation a name; 'McKenna' in deference to the hypnotist, and Samantha and another WPC had been assigned to collate as much raw data from the three known attacks. She was so busy, that she hadn't spoken or texted peter about the case but resolved to see him at the first opportunity.

Peter, on the other hand was deep into researching methods of hypnosis and associated drug use. It had been a two days of reviewing videos and thesis on hypnosis and suggestion. It was far more involved than he could have imagined. Hat he initial uncovered made him despair, as young person more susceptible but then he learned about pre and post hypnotic suggestions and concluded that this group had indeed been using an advanced practice of sensation hypnotic suggestion. He was actually impressed, with their preparation, and also what these men were actually doing.

Peter didn't have access to dark web sites, his technical knowledge wasn't that good but he had pieced together the gangs plan. He surmised that that had they had either branched out into getting these normal women performing sex acts that they wouldn't normally be capable off by implanting or suggesting 'a sense' of threat, combined with a overwhelming submission and after taking them and filming their abduction, they were selling the streaming online as a live dark-web event. They didn't need to use violence, as that was easily achieved, by less adept rapists and the end results were only for extremists, who watch actual violent rapes. Peter surmised that such an audience would be small, and perpetrators would be caught, because of the physical evidence that would be available to police.

No. the second operation, unlike the rape filming, was a subtle market for men (or women). He supposed that they would take to take these women for a few hours, after somehow implanting a pre hypnotic suggestion, and then taking them without fuss. That's why the most recent case, had reported that the dogs had been put back into her house, safe and sound.

Peter was exhausted when he looked at the clock. It read 02.33. But her mind was still buzzing from his discovery. It was clear as crystal to him, these men had selected victims, used some sort of ruse to meet the women before their abduction. This was probably to confirm that the target was able to be hypnotised and controlled. Once they had the pre-suggestion in place, they abducted her for a few hours and then filmed their acts, as live stream and a recorded movie to sell to willing dark-web clients. There was no need for violence, hence the low level of physical trauma, the women suffered. Somehow, the men had made them willing participants, through the suggestion. It would only come out in their subconscious.

Why any of the women had come forward, was a mystery. Had the conditioning broken down or had it been something even more sinister. Peter pondered the possibilities; how does one sell the idea of rape fantasy of ordinary people and make it real? How do you ensure that your client doesn't assume the people are just actors. No-one would buy into this unless the victims were the ones that made it special. The attacks had been reported on the news and the papers, both paper and online, but with no leads, the trails went cold, and the journalists found new stories to tell.

After caving into tiredness, Peter turned off the lights and slumped onto the futon. He woke after three hours, with a fogginess but one thought crept through the mire. The men were clearly choosing victims, not by chance, they had names from their clients. It was revenge, pure and simple. These guys were taking commissions!