Dress Off 03: Tess Trueheart

"The prisoner has so far not been cooperative. As we expected."

"So what next? We can hardly continue your method of extracting the information indefinitely. We've already received reports that the two women you used to entrap Agent Trueheart have been spoken to by the enemy."

"Yes, yes, of course they have." Harrington said dismissively, still not even bothering to acknowledge the other speaker with as much as a glance.

"Well," the other speaker continued, already realising this conversation was going to be like extracting blood from a stone. "It's not going to take them long to figure out who we are. The false trail you laid probably isn't impenetrable, and they have annoyingly intelligent operatives."

"Oh, they know who we are. Come on, why even bother with a false trail. Especially when they'll be so kind as to obligingly send us a Plan B free of charge?"

"What?! You mean to actually gave those two idiots you employed the direct number of the Vancouver site?!"

"Sure, why not. Seemed more impressive than a tawdry calling card, and Tess being Tess, I feel the urge to acquire some leverage."

Harrington leaned back in her chair, and took a moment to smooth out a barely visible crease in her jacket, and then reached into her pocket to extract a small usb drive.

"It doesn't matter that they know who I am. It matters that they know what I have, and who I have."

She stared at the USB drive again for a full minute, almost trying to decipher it's contents by shear strength of will. Then she grimaced, put it back in her pocket and seemed to snap out of whatever thoughts she was having. Harrington looked up for the first time, and flashed a grin at the others.

"By the end of the week, we'll have the inside gossip on at least half of Decider Enterprises motley collection of targets, and our beloved and benevolent boss will have all the control he's ever wanted."

"And I," she continued in far quieter voice, once again turning her attention to the far wall, "will have all the revenge I've ever wanted."

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

Stacey and Erin stood in front of the nondescript building, blended into the drab street, situated in what could only be called one of the more anonymous areas of Vancouver. It was seven at night, and the Vancouver winter was not missing an opportunity to reinforce it's reputation as really rather cold. The two women had come straight from the airport via a couple of stores for supplies, and the coats they'd brought from home were beginning to feel a little flimsy in the face of a determined chill.

Erin half-turned her face towards Stacey, without taking her eyes of the front door to the building.

"Well, looks cosy."

"It's an old facility, hasn't been used in years. It's from the old days before the organisation decided that nobody would expect us to hide out in somewhere as obvious as five-star hotels, so we may as well hide out in comfort."

"Yes," said Erin, "I noticed that this place might struggle to pick up five stars. Or one star. Or a positive review of any kind."

Stacey looked across at Erin and raised an eyebrow. "Come on Erin, you know not to judge a place by the facade outside. For all you know this place could be a palace behind that door." Stacey gestured towards the door with the graffiti and the suspiciously clean padlock, and then shrugged her shoulders and adjusted the hood on her jacket to help keep the cold wind out. "Of course in this case, you'd be right, but that's entirely beside the point."

Stacey looked in both directions to see if anyone was watching, and then smoothly pulled some bolt cutters from her backpack. She was about to break the lock when Erin grabbed her arm and pointed at what Stacey had assumed was an old poster advertising some local gig that someone had plastered on the wall. Erin's finger pointed at a very recognisable symbol - the logo of Decider Enterprises.

"So," said Stacey, "it's one of own safe houses, of course it would have some identification on it."

"True, but didn't the graphic design department manage to ram through a change in the logo about three months ago in a blatant attempt to justify the actual employment of a graphic design department?"

"Yes."

"And didn't you say this facility had been abandoned for years."

"Yes."

"So how come the logo is the god awful one that the graphic design department foisted on us?"

Stacey stared at the poster, gave Erin a friendly squeeze on the shoulder and ripped the poster off the wall. As she did, a couple of earpieces fell to the ground, and Erin quickly kneeled down to retrieve them. Handing one to Stacey, neither delayed in putting them in an ear, and neither were surprised when the earpieces suddenly started humming.

Seconds later, the dark silence of the deserted street was jarringly replaced by unmistakable sounds of a woman experiencing an orgasm.

"Our mutual friend, Special Agent Tess Trueheart," said a female voice "a very special guest of mine, and it's always so rewarding to catch up with those who play such an important role in who we are today." Stacey quickly looked at Erin to make sure she was getting this too. Erin nodded, and glanced sharply around her, trying to make sure that she wasn't distracted from any visual signs of immediate danger by the voice in her ear.

"I can reassure you that Tess is thoroughly enjoying her stay, and I'd like you to join us too. Eventually. If you want to see dear old Tess, I'd be certainly happy to arrange that." The voice certainly seemed business like, and purpose evident in the tone suggested they were dealing with someone who'd been around the industry.

Twin shafts of bright light illuminated the both of them with impeccable timing just as the voice finished, easily drowning out the dull light of the street lights infrequently scattered along the street. Stacey put a hand over the eyes to try and make out the source better, and instantly realised they were the headlights of an approaching car.

"The car", the woman in the earpiece chimed in, "will take you to your next destination. I assure you this car is your best opportunity to find Miss Trueheart."

The car pulled up beside them and stopped. It was a black sedan and naturally the windows were tinted. The doors didn't open, and there was no signs of life from within, or seemingly any inclination for anyone inside to step out and challenge them.

"Now in case certain ideas are popping into those fiendishly clever minds of yours, I regretfully have to say the driver is but a poor slob with no real idea about any of this. He knows a destination, so that which he'll show you willingly is all you'll ever get out of him."

Stacey and Erin shared yet another look, and both were looking up and down the street to see if there was anyone else looking. The headlights had ruined what little night vision they had though.

"Ignorant as he is though, he makes up for it in paranoia. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to feed your belongings through the passenger side window so that he can keep any eye on them during the trip. An entirely unnecessary precaution I'm sure, two upstanding ladies such as yourselves would surely not cause harm to someone so lowly as to be positively innocent. but I suppose I should humour him anyway." The voice contained an air of levity that suggested the speaker had little regard for those she employed.

Stacey took off her backpack as the passenger side window slid half way down. The car was dark inside, and Stacey could barely make out the driver, but she threw the backpack on to the passenger's seat and indicated that Erin do the same.

As Erin reluctantly handed the backpack over, the voice piped up again.

"Of course, I'd personally take your guarantee that you have no weapons hidden in those coats of yours, and would gladly let you keep them." The voice paused for a moment as Stacey stared blankly ahead. "But you know how underlings can be. They don't share our mutual respect and understanding of honour. So, I'm afraid the coats will be going in the car too.

Stacey had already half-removed her coat as the voice was speaking, and shoved it through the window, before mentally cursing their new tour guide and making a move for the rear doors.

"Wait up" said the voice. Clearly whoever was speaking to them could see them. Were they watching from a nearby building, or through a camera? Stacey wished her teeth would stop chattering so she could her herself think.

"You see, you have a certain reputation that unfairly precedes you, and the driver is frankly nervous that you could use some kind of material to restrain him while he's concentrating on his driving. Somewhat unlikely I'm sure we can all agree, but I suppose it would be a health and safety issue for the driver to be unduly affected by nerves when driving at night. Perhaps you'd be so kind as to deposit anything that might conceivably used to restrain him in the passenger seat as well."

The voice gave this a moment to settle in, and then helpfully chimed in with a clarification.

"In case you're wondering, that's pretty much everything you're wearing."

Erin had just deposited her coat through the window as they both realised what was to come, and she openly swore.

"Now, now" admonished the unidentified woman, "I'm sure we can all agree with the old principle that it's better to be safe than to be sorry."

"Panties?!" Stacey replied, knowing that who ever was speaking to her could hear also her every word. "Panties?! I'm going to restrain someone with my panties?!"

"Well, clearly they could be used as a gag while you rough up the poor man for information he sadly doesn't have to divulge."

Stacey cast a look to the heavens, and then gave a look to Erin that said in no uncertain terms that whoever they were dealing with would pay for this, but that right now they had no option but to play along.

As shirts and jeans found their way on to passenger seat, Erin started to jog on the spot to keep warm in the sharp cold of the winter night. Clad only in bra and panties, Erin began to rub her shoulders to massage some heat into them, only to notice Stacey giving her the signal to strip entirely as quickly as possible.

"Sooner we do this, the sooner we're in that car and on our way" Stacey said. Erin could only helplessly agree, and moments later her bra was off and Erin's gorgeous, ample breasts felt the full unfiltered effects of the wind.

"Fuck!" she swore, surprising even herself. She shivered again as Stacey unhooked her own bra and showed off a pair of nipples that looked like they could cut diamonds in their current state.

Stacey grimly agreed with Erin's one word assessment of the statement, and after only the briefest of pauses to reflect on the predicament, she hooked her fingers on both side of her panties and pulled them down. Bending at the waist to remove them, she let out a tiny and undignified shriek as a gust of wind blew right into her backside and between her legs.

"Fuck!" she screamed, echoing Bree's earlier thoughts, and she quickly stood up, placing a hand on her ass as a feeble attempt at a windbreak.

"Put them in the car please, ladies." the voice calmly commanded.

Stacey and Erin dumped their panties in through the window and quickly went to open the rear doors. Locked. Stacey tried the handle again, running on the spot as she did, breasts bouncing freely, the only saving grace being that the street was still mercifully empty. Still locked. Somebody's enjoying this view, and that somebody, Stacey reflected, was going to pay severely for this in the not too distant future.

As the passenger side window slid up and closed, the voice crackled into life again.

"Fantastic, thank you for your cooperation ladies. I'm sure you're keen to get to your destination, and I've now instructed the driver to take you there directly."

Thank God for that, thought Stacey, now open the damn door.

Before she got a chance to try the handle again though, the car suddenly pulled away from the street and started to cruise down towards an intersection in the distance. Another random car drove past in the other direction, and honked to indicate that Stacey and Erin had been spotted. They two women looked at each other, jogging and hopping on the spot, completely nude, exposed, cold, and without any documents, gear, or supplies. It went without saying that strictly speaking they'd both been in far more compromising situations than this before. They trained to handle compromising positions. However, they didn't train to do it when their finely trained minds were otherwise distracted by a Vancouver winter night, and they both could see that the other was beginning to feel the old sensations of acute embarrassment. They felt like amateurs, and that only helped to exacerbate the problem.

"Ladies, if you'd be so kind as to follow the car, the driver will ensure he goes at a suitable speed such that two fine specimens like yourselves will be able to keep up with. I certainly", said the mysterious voice, with a note of mocking concern carrying through the earpieces, "wouldn't suggest you stand around in the cold admiring the surroundings if I were you. It'll get a bit chilly out there in an hour or so..."

Stacey and Erin stared at the car as it pulled gently away into the distance, with a sinking feeling in the pits of their stomachs, teeth chattering, and their entire skin covered in goosebumps. Another pair of headlights turned a corner behind them, and the muffled sound of a party of revellers approaching from the opposite direction jarred Stacey and Erin out of their trance and into action. With nowhere to go but forward, and hoping that the enemy was more interested in merely humiliating them rather than actually causing them to die of hypothermia, Stacey and Erin began to break into a run. Destination unknown. Duration uncertain.

"How far do you think they'll make us run?" Erin stuttered through clenched teeth as they turned into a more brightly lit street at the first intersection.

"Don't know." Stacey replied, "But do you really think they got us in this state to have us run along some half-deserted back roads of a quiet part of town?"

As Stacey ran on, with her brown hair caught in the wind and flowing behind, and the wind ceaselessly pushing against her bare chest and crotch, she gave her companion a brave smile. Erin returned the smile briefly, and swept her own red locks out of her eyes. She pushed her shoulders back in a show of determination even as the old nervousness and embarrassment threatened to break through, aided by the relentless cold. Stacey gave Erin a friendly pat on the bottom in encouragement, as a distant pair of red lights guided the two naked beauties ever onwards into the night.

**********

To be continued in 'Dress Off 4: The Rescue of Tess Trueheart".