Mistress of Siren Cove Ch. 19-21

This is the last installment of a romance/fantasy about women who have the power of the siren and use it to control and take pleasure from men. It is set in the real world of today. It focuses on one of these women, who seeks to find a man who can see past her siren allure and love the real woman he finds inside. It is an allegory of modern love, which often focuses too much on the superficial. There is sexual activity in this story, but none of it is explicit. Everyone is over 18.

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Chapter 19: Planning the Rescue

Elysia and her mother dressed quickly, not bothering to clean themselves of the signs of the Goddess they still wore. Exhausted and hungry as they were, they went to the office of the Mistress and pulled up maps on the large screen of a computer. Both remembered well the place from which the energy emanated, in the mountains of Peru. Recalling their visions, they both agreed on the place. They still carried the remnants of the enhanced power received from the Mother, and as they focused on that spot, it seemed to glow in their minds with the evil feel of the cultists. Their power was no longer strong enough to feel Connor's energy, but even when their power was at its greatest the night before, his energy was weak.

The Mistress made a call to a contact within the United States government, who was authorized to provide the Palace with real-time high resolution satellite imagery on a priority basis. Access was authorized by a high official who was married to one of the island women. They did not abuse this access, not wanting to bring suspicion down on the official who was under the siren's control. They called for priority access only when in great need. Otherwise, they waited in a queue like everyone else.

It took a bit of time to reposition the satellite, but eventually, it was done. They saw what seemed to be a large building on the side of a mountain. It was grey concrete, stained and difficult to distinguish from the mountainside on which it sat. The satellite feed was powerful, and they could make out armed men at the entrance.

Both women focused all their power on what they saw and confirmed that the cultist energy came from this place. They watched as a truck traveled toward the edifice and a great door opened to let it in. They could see no courtyard, so guessed that the vehicle was headed into a garage at the base of the building. They strained for any sign of Connor's energy, but there was nothing.

The Mistress made a call and a few minutes later a woman was admitted into the office. She was an average-looking woman named Mallory, who had come from off-island. Mallory was a retired colonel with the U.S. Marines and had been recruited to run their off-island operations.

"Good morning, Mal," said the Mistress. "We have a job to do. Important. Whatever you are doing, drop it now, and you may also have to pull some of our people out of the field for this one."

Mallory saw the serious look on the face of the Mistress, and the look on the face of her daughter. She knew there was trouble. She also saw that the faces of the two women were marked with the signs of the Mother Goddess and appeared to be exhausted almost to the point of collapse.

"Yes, Mistress."

"Mal, we believe a group of cultists is preparing to attack us. What you see on the screen here is what we believe to be their headquarters, in the Peruvian mountains. This is a real-time satellite feed of the building. We also believe that they have captured Connor Bechner, who has the rare trait of being immune to the siren power. The Goddess Mother has come to me and my daughter and told us that the cultists will try to become like him, meaning, we believe, that they will try to use him to become immune. With this immunity, they will try to attack this island and destroy it."

"The Mother has told us to use our own scientific knowledge to figure out exactly what they are going to do so that we can defeat them. Assemble a team and make plans to get to this stronghold of theirs and neutralize them. Start now. Elysia and I must now eat and rest, and we will review your plans this afternoon."

"Before we go, mother," said Elysia, "can I suggest to Mallory to ask our scientific people to investigate the possibility of the cultists studying Connor's blood to find a genetic mutation that gives Connor this immunity? The cultists might be able to use this information to develop some kind of gene therapy to provide immunity to their men. I think that something like this is what the Goddess Mother was referring to when she said we should use science. What do you think?"

"I think that is a very good idea. Perhaps this idea of yours is what my mother meant when she said that your twenty years in the United States gave you the strength that would help us. Few are familiar with these technologies on the island, and I barely know anything about it. Please do as she says, Mal. You will probably have to work with our scientists here, and experts in this technology in the States."

Before she left, Mallory got the exact coordinates of the building that still appeared on the monitor. When she was gone, the Mistress called for food. They did not talk much as they ate. Both were spent and looking forward to sleep.

"We are strong, daughter, and we will defeat this evil. Go to your room now, and rest. Before I sleep, I will go down to the pool to let the water absorb the memory of what we have learned and what we are doing. I must do this before the memory fades."

Elysia walked slowly back to her room. She greeted the nanny and Lorelei, and then told the nanny she had to rest and should not be disturbed. This disappointed Lorelei, but the nanny distracted her, and they left Elysia in peace. Elysia took a shower to wash off the markings of the Goddess, crawled into bed, and slept for six hours. Then she got up, showered and dressed, and as she was eating a little lunch, received a message to come to the office of the Mistress. A few minutes later, she was at her mother's door, holding her lunch tray.

***

Connor stepped onto the small plane, as he had many times before, eager to see his colleague and hear what he had to say. He was a little surprised that the man wanted to meet in person, but it had happened before. This one was old school, past retirement, but brilliant. He was used to sharing his work with others at the lab, or perhaps at a conference. Email, teleconference, and even the phone made him nervous. His work had been stolen from him in the past, and he would never allow that again. He was willing to use email to set up meetings, but that was about it.

After the usual pleasantries, his email read, "I need to speak to you immediately. I think I have had a major breakthrough and I need to discuss it with you. You can use this technology in your own research, as long as I retain the patent. I can be in Bermuda on Thursday."

He knew the man well. They had spent several years working on similar research tracks, and the man had always been generous. He decided to go. Two nights later, he took the first flight out. He knew the pilot, but not the co-pilot. There was nobody else on the plane, which he thought was unusual. However, he put that thought out of his mind and speculated about what he might learn. The flight seemed to be taking a long time, and he asked the pilot how long it would be.

"Settle in, Mr. Bechner, it's going to be a while," said the co-pilot.

"What do you mean?"

"Settle in, I said," and pointed a gun at Connor.

Shocked, Connor looked at the pilots' dash and saw they were headed southwest, not east.

"South America?" he asked, concerned.

"Settle down and keep quiet!" said the woman.

Hours later, they landed at a small airport, refueled, and then took off again. As dawn came, they were over land, and then he saw mountains in the distance. Finally, they landed on a small strip next to a town. He got out and they led him to a truck that was waiting for them. They traveled a narrow road up a mountain for an hour until they came to a large grey concrete and steel building. A large garage door opened, and they drove into a parking area. Connor was led to an elevator that opened onto a bare, uncarpeted hallway. He was then led to a room and locked in.

"Rest now, Mr. Bechner. We'll bring food to you in a few minutes. Just get comfortable, you're going to be here for a long time."

Connor had no idea who these people were, or why he was there. Apparently, they wanted him there for some reason, but what?

***

Elysia and the Mistress sat side-by-side, facing a large monitor, which showed a dozen faces of the people who were attending this teleconference, including Mallory. One man was unknown to her, whose panel was labeled John Holberg. He was muted and appeared to be looking through his notes and periodically consulting with someone off camera. After a few more minutes, Holberg looked up.

"I'm ready," he said.

Mallory spoke up, "Thanks, everyone, and especially Dr. Holberg for meeting on such short notice. We suspect the possibility of some kind of gene therapy being used to give men a genetic trait that can be used by an enemy group to hurt us. We reached out to the doctor to get a sense of whether this is possible, and if so, how long it would take for them to do this. Dr. Holberg, I'll now turn the conference over to you. All the people you see on the screen are known to me, and enjoy my complete trust, so please feel free to speak candidly."

"Thank you, Colonel Jacobs. Everyone here? Good. I assume none of you know me, so let me introduce myself. I'm Dr. John Holberg, and I teach genetics. I've been asked by the Department of Defense to brief you on possibilities associated with gene therapy. It's my understanding that a male in his thirties has a rare genetic trait, and that a particular group may be trying to provide others with that trait. It is my further understanding that a group whose members enjoy this genetic trait could have the ability to penetrate a secure area to destroy it, which can have dire consequences for national defense."

"I must admit I have no idea what any of this means, or what the trait might be. My instructions are to discuss with you whether it is possible to transfer this trait, and how long it would take. I understand that the group will likely have many human volunteers, will not be under any moral or ethical restraints, will not be concerned about the long-term health of the individuals receiving this trait, and all individuals involved will be adult males."

"The bottom line is, yes, it's possible. We mapped the entire genome over twenty years ago. In simple terms, we can locate a specific mutation of an individual by comparing that person's DNA to the human genome, looking for differences, which we call variants. We then analyze the variants to determine their function. In this case, we would look for whether the variant produces the desired trait."

"Once we have identified the variant, we can use its genetic information to edit the DNA of blood cells, so that they replicate the variant. We would be quite cautious about doing this in any reputable lab, but for the sake of this discussion we assume that the group doing this work has no constraints. The modified blood cells would then be grown in the lab."

"Once there is sufficient blood, a target individual would undergo a process where the blood in their body is removed and replaced by the modified blood. Here, you run the risk of the body rejecting this blood, in which case the individual could die. However, once again, if there are no constraints, and there are plenty of volunteers, this could be done. If the individual survives, then you would test the individual to determine if they have acquired the desired trait."

"Ordinarily, this process would take a long time. However, where this process is not constrained, there are sufficient willing, or unwilling volunteers, new AI techniques are used, and the group has a lot of luck, who knows?"

The Mistress spoke, "Thank you, Doctor. What would be the absolute soonest this could be accomplished?"

"There's no way to say. I guess the minimum time would be two months; however, I have no experience working in the environment you describe, so, once again, this is just a guess."

"Very well," said the Mistress, "two months. Thank you for your time. We are now going to discuss this amongst ourselves."

"You're welcome, call me any time." The doctor then disappeared from the screen.

"Well," said Mallory, "now we know. We don't know why the cultists have taken Connor Bechner, but the idea of using his blood to transfer his immunity to their own people seems the most likely. We're still pursuing other ideas, of course, but this is the one we're going to plan for. The doctor says a minimum of two months. I believe we should plan for one month. The doctor is familiar with normal conditions. We, however, may be dealing with forces, including magics, that he has never experienced. Our effort, then, should be to breach this facility and stop what they're doing, within one month. If we don't do this, and many of their men acquire this trait, they could take this island."

"We could appeal to our friends in the military for help to safeguard the island," she continued, "but then we would be exposing our existence to the world, which would likely prevent us from accomplishing our mission in the future. Ultimately, we may have to ask for protection to save the island and prevent the release of Karnos, but I think we have time to solve this problem ourselves. For now, all other off-island missions are on pause."

"Thank you, Mal," said the Mistress. "My daughter and I have had a chance to get a little rest, and I have consulted with my predecessor Mistresses. Gene therapy, which is as good a term as any for what the doctor described, seems the likeliest way they can get at us. So, what do we do next?"

"Mistress, we don't know enough to make a complete plan, but tonight, with your permission, I'll send two of my operatives to the town below the cultist location. Both speak Spanish and should fit in. They'll be wearing our special shielding coats, to hide their allure until they need it. This is a relatively rough place, and the shielding coats won't look too out of place. We've been watching the facility, and there's a man who has traveled to the town and back in a truck. Maybe he's collecting mail. We'll know more by the time the women are there. We'll try to bind him and get more information on what we are facing."

"OK, Mal, who are you sending?" asked the Mistress.

"Antoinette and Janice. Janice has special forces training and will be able to protect Antoinette if needed."

Elysia was shocked to hear Antoinette's name and was about to protest. Connor and Antoinette were her closest friends, and she considered Antoinette as much a mate as Connor; but she knew that Antoinette was one of the best field operators they had, and this task was as important as it got. She bit her lip, tried to push down her fear, and said nothing. She knew that Antoinette would want to go and would not like it if Elysia tried to stop her. That evening, Antoinette and Elysia made love like they would never see each other again. They both wanted to remember this night, no matter what happened.

"I'm so afraid for you, Antoinette. I know you want to go, and I know you should go, but... oh, it scares me. You know I'm going to do everything I can from here to keep you safe."

"I know you will. I am scared, too, but, really, have you seen Janice? She's about as bad-ass as they come. All I have to do is find this guy, drain his brain, and I'm done. Janice will watch my back the whole way."

Chapter 20. Peru

Antoinette took off from the airstrip at 8 p.m., and Elysia went to her mother's office. They spent the next two hours focusing on the live image of the cultist headquarters, the town at the base of the mountain, and anything that moved on the road. They were hoping for more energy signs that were useful, but there was nothing. What they did find, however, was a small military base outside the town. This was something that might be useful. They also met with Mallory to select more team members to be sent after they had gotten information through Antoinette.

It was a long flight, with a stop to refuel, and Antoinette landed at noon the next day at the little strip just outside of the town. They found waiting for them a car to take them to a little hotel they would use as headquarters. The Palace had rented every room in the hotel, to accommodate the entire team they would be sending. Antoinette and Janice shared a room. They did not expect anything to happen until the next day, so they walked around the town, ate at a small restaurant, and sat in their room, watching the people in the street.

The next day, at 10 a.m., they sat at a sidewalk café, with a good view of the post office. The man from the cultist building ordinarily showed up there between 10 a.m. and noon. The satellite was able to provide a good picture of his truck, and an OK picture of his face. At 11:15, he pulled up at the curb. Antoinette waited as he visited the post office. When he came out, she approached him, singing, and whispered in his ear, "Come with me."

She led him to her room, opened the door, took his hand, and led him to her bed. Janice followed, keeping an eye out, and shut the door behind them. They did not want to delay the man long, so Antoinette immediately undressed and told him to do the same. He was not naturally good-looking, but as the power awoke in her, he began to seem as handsome as any man she knew. Their joining was intense, as it had to be to create a bond. To him, this was pleasure beyond anything in his experience, with a woman of incredible beauty. Unfortunately, it was soon over, and Antoinette spoke the words of binding.

Now under her control, she said, "I'm Annie, what is your name?"

"Adam Wickham."

"Well, Adam, we don't have much time, and I need information." She took out a photo of Connor and showed it to Adam. "Have you seen this man in your building?"

"Oh, yes, Annie. He is in a room on the third floor, where all the doctors and such work. They keep the door locked."

"How did you see him?"

"They made me go in two days ago to ask what he needed from the town. He told me he needed some clothes and something to read, so I got those things for him."

"Did they say what he was doing there?"

"No, Annie, they didn't say anything about that, just to get him anything he wanted."

"OK, you need to go now. You will not tell anyone about me, and you will come to this room tomorrow at 11 a.m., do you understand? Repeat my instructions."

He said he understood and then repeated her instructions. He came as ordered the following three days until he was securely under her control. When he came on these days, they spent longer in bed. It was not necessary for the binding, but Antoinette and Janice had little to do, so the additional pleasure he provided to Antoinette, and then to Janice, was worth it.

They learned that he did odd jobs around the building, including driving down the mountain once a day to collect mail and buy minor supplies. On Antoinette's orders, he asked if he could see Connor again to find out if he needed anything. Connor seemed to be in good health according to Wickham. Wickham had no idea what they were doing with Connor but was assured that it would help in their efforts to release their god, Karnos, from his prison. Wickham was very passionate in his worship of this being. A simple farmer's son from northern England, he had befriended a strange traveling man who told him about Karnos and told him that he could have wealth, women, and everything else if he joined in his worship. Wickham left the farm, following his new friend, and ultimately ended up in Peru. He had been there for five years.