Keep This Secret Pt. 02

Chapter Two explains how David stumbled on the discovery that changed everything. It tells us more about the way he treated Mary, and why he came to regret it. Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you did something important? Ask yourself this question as you read what happens next.

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I was still seething the next morning. Going to work felt good because it gave me a chance to think of something other than how much Mary hurt my feelings.

My job is to conduct research, and I love everything about it. If you do it well, you get to experience these magical little moments when you discover something novel. For a while, you get to be the only person in the whole world who understands something entirely new about the mysteries of nature. These discoveries are usually small things. Science progresses in baby steps, with researchers making tiny contributions to humanity's understanding.

Most people don't know this. In school, we only read about huge discoveries made by people like Albert Einstein, Galileo, and Louis Pasteur. The books make it seem that discoveries like that happen all the time. In the real world, very few of us get to experience the feeling of discovering something big.

I tried to stop being angry when I unlocked the door to my lab. That would have been a lot easier if I'd had any idea that today was the day I would experience the feeling of discovering something big.

"Hey guys! Are you glad to see me!" I said to my dogs. At the sound of my voice, four big standard poodles got up, came to the front of their crates, and started wagging their tails happily. I unlocked their crates and led them to the little outdoor enclosure where they always go to the bathroom in the mornings. My lab has a door that leads to a grassed area enclosed by a chain link fence. The very best part of my day is when I get to the lab and spend 15 minutes playing fetch, paying compliments, and rolling around on the ground with four of the best dogs in the world.

Standard poodles are famously intelligent and have a pleasant disposition that makes them easy to care for in the confines of a lab. They just need daily exercise and personal attention from me and the student assistants who come to the lab seven days a week to take the dogs for walks, play fetch, feed them, and attend to all their other needs. I love dogs, which is part of the reason I decided to use them for my experiments. Don't start thinking my dogs are ever subjected to anything painful or invasive. I could never do that kind of research. I consider my dogs to be members of my little family, and that's how I treat them.

I could talk a long time about how much I love Sam, Fred, Billy and Steve. I have a lot of fun with them, and so do my student assistants. My lab is more like a comfortable home than some clinical facility. Sometimes, after a particularly long day, I spend the night in my lab. I've got a big air mattress I use. When I stretch out on it, my four dogs settle down all around me. I sleep best when I sleep in the lab.

As I expected, the dogs did a great job of expelling all the negative feelings I felt about Mary. I gave them breakfast, then began preparing for the day's work.

Once again, we're at a part of the story where I want to go on, and on, and on about the amazing things I study. But I know most people don't care about that stuff, so let's make this quick. In the years I've been working on this, I've learned that certain frequencies of sound waves played in certain patterns stimulate certain parts of the brain. Did I use the word "certain" enough times? I'm trying to make this simple. Believe me, you do NOT want to hear me explain how excited this all makes me. Basically, I've proven that when I play these sounds for dogs, they become extraordinarily obedient and trainable. I've taught my dogs to do amazing things. Did I mention that I've got a video of them dancing in a line like the Rockettes? I'll post that on YouTube after I publish my work.

There's a lot more to this, and I'm trying to figure it out. Dogs can hear these sounds, but people can't. The frequencies are just too high. But people are affected. I've listened to the sounds myself many times, and the best way to explain it is to say that it feels like a slightly altered state of consciousness. It seems to make it very easy to concentrate. I've never let anyone else listen because that would constitute human experimentation, which is strictly illegal without going through a lengthy process of approval.

I'm rambling. Sorry.

My breakthrough happened after the arrival of Victoria, my favorite student assistant. She is very good with the dogs, and that's a big part of the reason I like her so much. Dogs can tell if a person is a good person, and my mutts are crazy about Victoria. She's always happy and kind when she's with the dogs, and she does a good job making sure she gives them enough affection and exercise. The university doesn't pay her enough.

On this particular day, Victoria helped me train Billy to sit on command. No big deal, right? I was trying to see if Billy learned faster when my sound generator was on during training. I don't let the sound affect me during research sessions. I've got a special pair of hearing aides that have been tuned to block high frequencies but allow me to hear most other sound. Everything was going pretty well. I was doing the training, and Victoria was using a stopwatch to measure the amount of time it took for Billy to learn the trick.

I swear, I'm about to get to the point.

I forgot that Victoria was hearing the sounds. Very sloppy. I didn't have extra hearing aids for her, and I'd just given no thought at all to the fact that I should have taken precautions to prevent her from hearing the sounds. We got to the end of the session, and I announced that I was going to order pizza.

Now, I always offer to share my pizza with Victoria. It's nice to eat with another person, especially someone so charming. I enjoy hearing about Victoria's life, which mainly consists of studying for her MBA and working multiple jobs to pay her tuition. I realized that one reason she liked having pizza with me was because she doesn't have enough money to pay for food. When I learned that, I made sure to always order pizza on the days Victoria was working.

Here's the crucial detail you need to know. Victoria is a vegetarian. She'll eat dairy, eggs, and sometimes she'll have a little fish. But she won't eat meat under any circumstances. That's a hard limit for her. I'm a meat eater. Because of that, I always order a pizza that is half pepperoni, half veggie.

On this particular day, I said something like "Pepperoni is wonderful. I love pepperoni." before I ordered the pizza. I don't remember the exact words, but I said that I was very hungry, and I was looking forward to eating pepperoni. I said this in front of Victoria. Are you with me so far?

When I went to order the pizza, I asked Victoria to confirm that I should order half veggie, half pepperoni. What she said next shocked me so deeply that I will never forget it.

"I love pepperoni," she said. "I'm very hungry, and I'm looking forward to eating pepperoni." She said this with enthusiasm. Victoria seemed to have suddenly abandoned her long-held beliefs about eating meat, and she even sounded happy about it. I would have been less surprised if she'd announced that she was an alien from the Andromeda Galaxy.

I instantly realized that Victoria had been exposed to the sound generator, which was still running. I knew those tones promoted obedience and quick learning in dogs. Had they made Victoria open to the idea of eating meat?

I shut off the machine as quietly as I could. Victoria was putting the dogs back in their crates, so I don't think she noticed. "Are you sure you want pepperoni?" I asked, wondering if the effect would go away after I shut the sound off.

It didn't. "Yes! I love pepperoni!" she said.

Yikes.

My mind was going in a thousand different directions. I'd believed all along that my research would eventually lead to therapies that affected the brain. But I hadn't expected to discover anything so quickly, and I certainly hadn't imagined the effect would be so powerful. I was afraid to tell Victoria what had happened because I had no idea if the shock would damage her. At that moment, the only thing I knew for sure was that I had no intention of letting Victoria eat any damn pepperoni. I ordered a whole veggie pizza, thinking that I'd blame the pizza shop for messing up our order.

For the next several minutes, I watched Victoria closely. She had always been a happy, upbeat person, but she seemed a little happier than usual. She started singing to the dogs as she gave them their lunch, and the dogs wagged their tails happily as they basked in the attention of their second favorite human.

I was still processing my shock when the pizza arrived, and I pretended it was not what I ordered. "The pizza shop must have messed up," I said. "This is a veggie pizza, not pepperoni."

"Oh, that's fine," she said. "Veggie is fine. We can order pepperoni next time." With that, Victoria picked up a slice and began eating with gusto. "Ummmm!" she said.

I'd previously determined that exposure to what I'd been calling my sonic stimulator raised levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that promoted feelings of pleasure and contentment. Victoria had been exposed for more than half an hour; it appeared that her brain was marinating in dopamine. I asked her some questions about general things. Classes. Grades. Her responses were coherent and intelligent, if a bit more chipper than usual. Her cognitive function seemed fine, thank God.

I wasn't enjoying my pizza very much, but I went through the motions of eating it so Victoria wouldn't suspect that I was concerned. I was worried - very worried. I could not live with the guilt of forcing Victoria to abandon her long-held opposition to eating meat. That's when I turned the sonic stimulator back on.

"You don't really like pepperoni, do you?" I said. "You've always disliked eating meat. You still feel that way, don't you?"

"You're right. I don't like pepperoni. I don't know why I said I liked it. I could never bring myself to eat any."

I shut the machine off again. Had I restored Victoria to normalcy? I couldn't be sure, but I hoped so. She seemed perfectly normal as she grabbed her backpack and hurried off to class.

After she left, I sat quietly in the lab and thought about the enormity of what had happened. The human brain is still very mysterious, and I'd just made a discovery that uncovered a big part of that mystery. I was going to change the world. It was easy for me to imagine all kinds of ways to use my discovery. It could help alcoholics, smokers and drug addicts conquer chemical dependencies. Victims of trauma could be given assistance healing. Learning of all kinds could be accelerated. The list went on, and on, and on.

I was going to win a Nobel Prize. I was going to go down in history for making a Big Discovery.

My first instinct was to call my mentor, the brilliant scientist who'd been my thesis adviser. He was one of the few people qualified to understand the full implications of what I'd done. He'd be so proud.

But then, I decided to wait. I was experiencing a magic moment that many scientists have talked about. I'd made a major discovery, and I was the only person in the whole world who knew what I'd just learned about the operation of the brain. I decided I would wait a day or two before telling anyone. I wanted to prolong the experience. My life would start to change quickly after I published my results, and I wanted to enjoy a period of private happiness to quietly contemplate everything that was about to happen.

I thought about a lot of things that afternoon. Most of my thoughts involved scientific things that fascinate me but bore the hell out of most people. At some point, I realized that the next step in my research would move to clinical trials on people, not dogs. I realized that it was going to take a long time to get permission for that kind of research, and I didn't want to wait. Was there a way to hurry things along?

I am not proud of what happened next.

You know what I thought about Mary. She'd manipulated me, humiliated me, emasculated me, and hurt my feelings. Mary was the perfect little guinea pig. I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I called her. "Mary? This is David. It's so good to hear your voice. I got your message about the new restaurant you'd like to try. I'd love to take you there. I'm anxious to see you because I have a present for you. I'm sure you'll like it. When can we go?"

The word "present" got Mary to focus on my invitation. As I knew she would, the idea of a free meal in a fancy restaurant, AND some kind of gift, caused her to go into full manipulator mode. "Let's go tonight!" she said. "I've got the perfect dress to wear!"

"Great. Can I pick you up at six? I know that's a little early, but I'm anxious to see you."

Six was fine. It gave me plenty of time to prepare.

I was dressed in my best suit when I picked up Mary. As promised, her dress was perfect. It clung to her beautiful, sexy curves, with lots of cleavage in front and a huge expanse of skin in the back. If the back of her dress had been cut any lower, it would have displayed butt cleavage. Mary looked like a movie star. She spotted the small, gift wrapped box I put on the back seat.

"Is that for me?" she asked.

"It certainly is," I answered. I am not a mind reader, but I'm absolutely certain that Mary was imagining all the things that might be in that box. It would be a big surprise.

When I made our reservation, I explained that I needed a quiet table where we could have a private conversation. The hostess led us to a corner booth that was perfect. We sat down, and I got out my cell phone and put it on the table.

By now I imagine you've figured out that I wanted to play my sound patterns for Mary. There was a minor problem; the sound generator in my lab was too big to carry into a restaurant. Instead, I created a music file that contained 30 minutes of output from my sonic stimulator. Most people don't know that good cell phones can reproduce sound frequencies far higher and lower than can be perceived by the human ear. I labeled the file "Mary's Song," which wouldn't attract undue attention if someone got hold of my phone and started scanning the files in my music player. They'd think someone had mistakenly recorded 30 minutes of silence.

I unlocked my cell phone and started playing "Mary's Song."

"You look very beautiful tonight. Everything about you is perfect. That dress flatters your lovely physique," I said.

She looked like a kitten who'd just sniffed catnip. "Thank you, David. You look very handsome."

And then I got down to business. "I'd like to discuss something important, Mary. We've been dating for a while, and it has been absolutely wonderful. I like you very much, and I can tell that you like me."

"Yes," she said. "I like you very much."

"I believe it's time for us to take our relationship to the next level," I said. "I've gotten to know you well enough to know I want our relationship to become more intimate."

"Yes," Mary said. "We want to become more intimate."

"I want to kiss you, and you want to kiss me back."

"Yes. I want to kiss you."

"I want to hold you in my arms, and you want to be held."

"Yes. I want to be held."

This was easier than I thought. My work with dogs made me a bit of an expert on training animals to do tricks, but training Mary was much simpler.

"You want to go home and make love," I said.

"Yes. I want you to take me home and make love."

The whole thing took less than five minutes. It seemed improbable that it could work so well, so I decided to take some time to reinforce the message.

"You will feel wonderful while we're making love," I said.

"I will feel wonderful."

"You are glad that we've decided it's time to become intimate."

"I'm so glad."

This went on for a while, and I studied Mary's face as she repeated one suggestion after another. She looked at me with a sultry gaze and a sexy little smile that made it clear she was happy being told what to do. She leaned forward toward me, and I got the feeling that it wasn't a coincidence that her posture gave me a marvelous view down the front of her dress. She wasn't wearing a bra - she couldn't in a backless dress like that - and I noticed that her nipples looked like hard little pebbles visible through the silky fabric. Her hands slowly reached across the table so she could grasp my hands tightly.

I finally decided that everything had worked exactly as I'd hoped. It was time to go home and get her out of that lovely dress.

"I think it's time for your gift," I said. "I'm not sure if you actually need it, but I wanted to get it just in case you do. Mary, are you on any kind of birth control?"

"No," she said. "I haven't been with a man in a long time. I haven't needed any."

"We'll set you up on some kind of birth control in a day or two," I said. "In the meantime, I hope you like this."

I put the little gift-wrapped box on the table in front of her. She unwrapped it carefully, as though she wanted to tear the wrapping as little as possible. It was a box of three dozen condoms. It was the nice, expensive kind, with high-end lube and a contoured fit.

She giggled. "Three dozen," she said. "Aren't you afraid we'll need more than this?"

Va va voom.

We left as quickly as possible. I opened the car door for her, and before she slipped inside she pressed her body against me and kissed me for the very first time. It was the most passionate kiss I've ever experienced. Her tongue went so far down my throat she could probably tell I'd had pizza for lunch.

"Take me home," she whispered.

She didn't say much during the drive to my apartment, but we were less than halfway there when I felt her hand touch my leg. She rubbed up and down slowly, touching me from my knee to the top of my leg. It wasn't long before she started rubbing the inside of my thigh, and after that she started caressing my cock and balls. It felt amazing. I started driving a little faster, trying to get home as quickly as possible.

That's when Mary unzipped my pants, unbuckled my belt, and reached inside my boxer shorts. Her touch made me so hard my cock began to ache. No woman ever did anything like that for me. It made it almost impossible to concentrate enough to drive.

We finally pulled into my garage. Mary opened her door before we'd come to a complete stop. She strode to the door rapidly, arriving there much sooner than me, because I was struggling to keep my pants from falling down. As soon as we were inside my apartment, Mary reached for the spaghetti straps that held up her dress. She eased them off her shoulders, and that beautiful dress fell to the floor around her feet. She stood there in a tiny pink thong, stiletto heels, and nothing else.

"David, please don't make me wait," she said.

"Follow me," I said, taking her hand and heading toward the bedroom. She grabbed her box of condoms, then hurried along behind me.

I want to explain something about what happened next. I enjoy reading erotic fiction, and there's an entire sub genre devote to the notion of mind control. These stories typically feature some guy who learns a magic spell or invents some kind of love potion, and he uses it to seduce women who've treated them badly. Maybe the main character is some nerd who was scorned by some cheerleader in high school, so he turns her into a compliant sex slave and ravishes her mercilessly. In most of these stories, the guy is sufficiently angry with the woman that he forces her to do all kinds of things that range between the kinky to the disgusting. Things like rough anal sex, forced deep throating, whipping, facials - that kind of thing.