Satyr Play 02 Pt. 01

Sigrid opened her arms, and Meixiu moved into her embrace.

"Me too," she sighed.

Chapter 10

Henry found himself once more staring at his computer screen at work as the sunset.

He'd gotten a break early on in the day when the net he'd placed over the NSA firewall detected an intruder. He was running VRL's intrusion detection algorithms on a third party network. This would not be detectable to them, outside of a slight lag, as it reviewed incoming traffic. He had the intruder's feed captured and analyzed and found password attempt entries. He set those aside for later use. He logged the identity of the owner of the workstation, and when the intruder pulled some files, Henry detected them as his signature files. He appended a flag byte on each signature as they transferred. Inert on their own, if the files were added to data packets sent through the Internet, they activated other capabilities. Most important of these was the breadcrumb trail the data packets left.

He now believed he knew who the intruder was.

There was silence for hours as this 'Kent' fellow from the NSA planned his next move. When the data packets next appeared it was on the dark web.

Henry's eyebrows rose. Kent had to be going off script. Henry doubted Kent's employer sanctioned his new activities. But then, they might. He watched Kent engage with some pretty subversive accounts, and slowly a picture emerged of the man's plan. He was recruiting them but being cagey about it. He wasn't disclosing the target of his attack which just increased their interest.

Henry was almost tempted to let them try. It would give his firewall a true test.

There was a knock on his door, and Henry looked over to see Mr. Duncan standing there.

"Hi! You're just in time to see our NSA snoop, whose name is Kent by the way, attempt to hire the dark web's most notorious hackers to crack our firewall," Henry said.

"WHAT?!?" Roy barked and rushed around to stand behind Henry. He peered at the screen which was only showing a grid of encoded packet data. "I can't make heads or tails of this! What's it say?"

"It says it's time for me to shine a light on Kent so these evil doers can see who they're truly dealing with," he said.

"They aren't going to see who it is that's telling them, are they?" Roy asked in a worried tone.

"Are you nuts? Unlike Kent, these guys have real potential to be dangerous. No, I'm going to make it look like Kent sent a packet without stripping the ID from it. They will immediately backtrace it, and voila, the NSA is trying to set them up." He glanced at the screen and fired a packet off.

He pointed to the screen. "Here, I'll color code this." He entered a couple of commands, and the text blocks in the interface changed colors. "The blue ones are the hackers Kent is trying to hire. He's the shit brown one. The yellow ones are incidental accounts, browsing the boards. This red one is me or my seemingly legit connection to the board. I'm watching this overview from a signal piggybacking the legit connection.

"The blue ones are disappearing!" Roy noted.

"Yes, they are. They've seen Kent's true identity. I think we'd better-" He stared at the screen then shut down the window.

"What happened?" the security chief asked.

"Well, one of the dark web hackers is more paranoid than expected. They tried following my legit account and discovered it led to a dead account in Germany. It was safer to shut down before he or she discovered my piggybacked link.

"So... how will you know if it worked?" the big man asked.

"We keep an eye on the activity reports for our firewall. That's always been our first line of defense and early warning system," Henry said as he shut down his laptop.

"You drop a bomb then you just go home?" Roy asked incredulously.

Henry blinked tiredly at him. "Yes. I'm tired. It's past time for me to go home. There is nothing I can do outside of trusting the firewall will hold. They could still knock out the services that give us our connection, but we should be fine."

He saw the big redhead was not happy. "Look, if one of those dark web hackers decides to stick his nose where it doesn't belong and becomes a nuisance I have ways to deal with that, but there's no sense in starting a war we don't need to fight. Right now, the worst they will think is that I'm one of them and I just saved their asses," Henry assured him. He saw the man was more comfortable with that. Henry snorted. "You know that Kent opened a backdoor in the NSA's firewall for his personal use? The balls on that guy!"

Roy snorted as well. "That's something the NSA would like to know."

"Oh, they will. According to Kent's email logs, he has a bestie at work named Graham. This bestie is going to report him," Henry said.

"Why would he do that?" Roy asked curiously.

"Because Kent sent him an email from his work PC bragging about it and included the connection details. To save his ass, this fellow Graham will have to report it," Henry shrugged.

Roy grinned at Henry. "Masterfully done. You surprise me!"

Henry frowned. "What's that phrase? All's fair in love and war? I don't love Kent."

Roy scowled. "Wait a minute, email logs! I told you not to hack into the NSA network!"

He looked into the eyes of the other man. "I didn't. I just followed Kent in when he opened his connection, and I left before he did."

The security chief fixed his eye on Henry. "I had no idea you could be this devious. You're making me wonder if our firewall has hidden access too."

Henry rolled his eyes. "I'm done saying it. Either you believe I have integrity or you don't." He made shooing motions to the bigger man. "I want to go home, and I have to lock my door. Unless you have backdoor access to my new door handle." Which, of course, he did.

Roy snorted in amusement and left the room. "Good night, lad."

"Good night, Roy."

The chief smiled back at Henry's use of his name, but his smile dimmed as he saw the weariness in the young man's body language as he walked away down the hall to the elevators.

Roy would ask Sigrid if she knew what was up with the boy. Though he wouldn't admit it, he worried about him.

-=-

"NO! NO! NO!" Kent raged.

His dark web contacts disappeared one after another in rapid succession.

He sat there looking at the screen wondering what happened. He had them all primed. He was about to deliver the payload, a nice juicy target for them to attack with riches within. Then they just left.

He had nothing. Tomorrow when he went to work, he'd stand before the Director, his supervisor, and the two agents and tell them he had nothing to give them. The firewall remained impervious. Could he do it? Yes... maybe, but not without more time and perhaps exclusive access to the Decryption Engine.

He slumped back in his chair and closed his eyes. He just needed a moment... He'd come up with another plan...

As Kent slipped into an unconscious state, he missed the flicker of lights on his router and the gentle whir of his dark web PC's hard drives spinning up to speed as his visitor had a look around.

Chapter 11

Henry felt a weariness seeping into his bones. He needed sleep. He needed seven hours of uninterrupted sleep.

He'd almost nodded off in the train and was dragging himself the last block to his condo. All he could think of was his comfortable bed waiting for him.

As he approached the front door of his building blue and red lights began lighting up the area around him, and he heard a single whoop from a police siren. He stopped and turned to look back as a police cruiser pulled up to the curb next to him. The passenger side window rolled down.

"Henry Gable?" the officer asked.

He nodded.

"Get in." The man gestured to the back door.

"Excuse me?" Henry asked, beginning to wake up.

The cop sighed, pushed open his door and got out. He was a large, physically intimidating man with an angry look in his eyes. He reached back and opened the door. "The captain wants to speak to you. Downtown. Get in."

Henry looked back at the man in concern. "Am I being arrested?"

The man sighed. "No. Get in."

"No, I don't think so," Henry said and turned to leave. He'd have to call-

Rough hands grabbed Henry, spun him, and launched him into the back seat. The door slammed shut, and he saw the big man pick up the shoulder bag he'd dropped and walk behind the cruiser to drop it in the trunk.

"You- you can't do this!" Henry said to the officer sitting behind the wheel.

"Save it for the captain."

Henry cursed under his breath that he'd left his cell in his bag. The big officer got back in the cruiser, and they pulled away from the curb.

He kept his mouth shut as saying anything might make his situation worse. Besides, they weren't speaking to each other as they drove.

Once they arrived at the station, the big cop opened his door and gestured for him to get out. He glanced back to where his partner was getting his case from the trunk, but the big one pushed him forward and guided him inside.

As they made their way through the station, Henry spotted Mary Carsten sitting at a desk. The expression on her face was not happy. She also looked exhausted.

They reached a door and shoved Henry inside.

"Sit down. The captain will be with you in a moment."

Henry took a chair. He could see the big man was looking for an excuse to manhandle him again.

He wasn't sitting for long before the door opened and an older man in a suit stepped inside. Henry gauged him to be in his sixties. He was maybe 5' 6", but he was wide shouldered and looked very strong. His face held a scowl as he took the chair across from Henry. He ran a hand through his close-cropped grey hair then fixed his eyes on Henry's.

"I'm Captain Lowes. Last week you were taken into custody by officer Carsten during a disturbance on the Path system. An orgy had broken out on one of the cars. The one you were inside. Officer Carsten failed to deliver you to the station house for questioning. The next morning Officer Jeffrey Carsten was found dead in the bedroom. Evidence found at the scene indicates she'd engaged in intercourse with an unknown male." The man stared at Henry expectantly.

Henry's nerves were buzzing as he relived the shooting once more. "Charges?" he managed to croak through his tight throat.

The captain's scowl deepened. "One of my best officers died under suspicious circumstances-" Henry almost blurted that the death was a suicide but he caught himself at the last second. "and you're involved!"

"This is where I tell you I want my lawyer," Henry said as his hands began to shake.

There was a terrible crashing sound outside and angry shouts. The captain shot him an angry look then went to the door. He yanked it open to see Mary fly over a desk to crash to the floor on the other side. Henry jumped to his feet and looked over the captain's head to see where she'd landed. She was instantly back on her feet, rushing around the desk and snarling at the big cop who'd manhandled Henry.

"Is that the best you've got little man?" she sneered, and the cop threw a punch at Mary who tried to dip under it, but the huge fist struck her in the temple. Mary's head rocked back, but she immediately countered with a right to the man's kidneys. The cop grunted in pain then threw a series of body blows against Mary who just grinned and flattened the man's nose with a sharp crack. As he stumbled back in pain and shock, Mary followed up with a punch to his solar plexus and a shove which tumbled him over a desk to collapse on the floor, groaning.

"Who else wants a piece of me? Huh? Fucking cowards!" Mary growled at the angry faces around her.

The captain barged out into the open area. "Officer Carsten, stand down."

Henry spotted his shoulder bag on the floor and hooked the strap with his toe as he stepped back into the interrogation room. He probably only had seconds. He dug out his cell and sent a quick text.

Snatching the cell from his hand, the big guy's partner glared at him as he stuffed it into the shoulder bag and left the small room once more, slamming the door shut. A few minutes later the outer squad area had quieted down, and the cop returned to drag Henry from the interrogation room. He was pushed down some hallways, then pushed into a holding cell. He was surprised to see Mary Carsten was in the cell to his right. In the cell to his left, the big cop was holding a bloody rag to his nose and glaring at the two of them.

Turning his attention back to Mary, he noticed she no longer looked exhausted. After the beating she'd taken, Henry had expected her to be a mess. Instead, she looked bright-eyed and alert. She caught his eye and made a tiny shake of her head. He looked away as he'd gotten the message loud and clear. No talking.

He settled himself back on the bench and closed his eyes. He stretched his legs out in front of him and crossed his arms over his chest. His exhaustion came crashing over him, and he let it pull him down.

His last conscious thought was his hope that his text reached its destination.

Chapter 12

Siobhan was doing her best to keep from bursting into giggles as she watched the tall, handsome man in the finely tailored suit try futilely to pick up Marisa.

When he'd first approached them, martini in hand, doing his best to pull off a suave James Bond impression, they'd both looked at him with interest. He had a classic strong jaw, sensual mouth, and cool blue eyes which probably served him well in the past as his confidence was evident. As he passed his eyes over the two women, they could tell he was evaluating the option of bedding them both.

Then he opened his mouth, and the illusion broke.

"What brings two fine bitches to this club?"

Siobhan's stomach turned immediately. Bitches? Really? She rolled her eyes as she turned to her companion and caught the flash of challenge in Marisa's eyes. She watched a vacant look come to the happy blonde's eyes.

"You're cute!" Marisa giggled with her best airhead impression.

Seeing he'd lost the option of a threesome, the tall man focused his attention on the stunningly lovely blonde. She was wearing the most tantalizing perfume. It made his heart race and his extremities tingle as he swelled in his silk boxers. Fuck! He wanted her more than anything in his life he realized. He blinked to clear his thoughts and get himself back on the script. The bitch would be his!

"You- you're ravishing!" he blurted then clamped his treacherous mouth closed.

Wide eyes blinked at him blankly. "Ravishing? What's that mean?" Then she hit him with another burst of giggles which jiggled parts of her anatomy which jiggled very well indeed if his rapt attention was any indication.

Pulling his eyes back to hers. "I- I mean you are exquisitely lovely," he said, forcing himself back onto the script he'd developed. He'd won his way into the beds of many women with his routine, but he was inexplicably clumsy with it tonight. Perhaps it was his intense need for her. He needed to calm down but he couldn't. He needed her.

"Oh! You're a pretty boy, too!" Marisa giggled.

"Thank you. Why don't we-" He froze as her words sunk in. "Boy, too?"

Big but vacant blue eyes looked into his then dipped down. He followed them with his own, barely managing to get past the beauty's outrageously delectable cleavage, over her tight stomach to see the swell of her hips and the definite outline of a sizable cock pressing against the tight fabric of her dress. His eyes widened in shock as he realized she was larger than he was.

"I can't wait to be deep inside you!" she breathed quietly just for him. For a moment, just the tiniest second, he contemplated it.

Siobhan could no longer suppress her laughter as the man quickly walked away towards the exit, his face burning. She looked down with amazed eyes to watch the bulge on Marisa's dress smooth away. "Oh, you have to teach me that trick!" she gushed to her friend.

Marisa smiled and shrugged, drawing a cute pout from Siobhan. She couldn't tell her friend that her ability to control her glamor in these limited ways was entirely due to her new connection to a realm of Wild Magic. She'd filled her in on some of the details but not the dangerous ones.

While Marisa was by no means a wielder, she'd discovered the strength of her link and the strength of the magic itself had given her a little more control as well. She couldn't do much, but she was learning to have fun with it.

Besides Siobhan didn't use a glamor so, moot point.

She glanced around the room as she took a sip from her drink. She was hoping she would meet some nice healthy man she could take back to her place and fuck silly. She wasn't too hungry tonight, but she needed to confirm if feeding from a Human gave her the same level of energy she received before her change. Henry's energy was so potent; she was worried she might become addicted to it like her mother was quickly becoming.

Another worrisome fact was that when Henry made those delightful little gestures of affection like kissing her hand or even when he just held it. Afterward, she felt the sensation of having fed, a little. Worse, she couldn't tell if she was feeding off his life energy, something she never wanted to do! He certainly showed no signs of a drain, nor was there any discernable diminishing of the strength of his lifeforce.

She had no one she could ask about this, so she kept it to herself and did her best to protect Henry from her needs. This brought her back to tonight. Someone in this upscale club had to be- Siobhan touched her arm as they both spotted the handsome black man walking up to them with a friendly, confident smile on his face. Marisa's eyes flicked over his shoulder where she saw a group of four men watching him approach them with smiles of anticipation on their faces. So, they were his posse? Interesting!

She directed her eyes back to him as he approached their table. She heard Siobhan make a quiet purring noise. She liked what she was seeing. Marisa did too.

His suit was correct for the club's theme period, and he looked very good in it. He also approached at a comfortable pace, another sign of his confidence.

Marisa had her seer vision clamped down as tightly as she could as she didn't need it to detect a healthy subject.

"Hi, I'm Nate. I'm not disturbing a private party, am I?" he asked with a flash of pearly white teeth.

"Not at all Nate. I'm Siobhan, and my friend here is Marisa," she said with a smile of her own.

"The club has an interesting motif, but I think that lovely Irish accent isn't going to fool anyone into believing you're Russian," he teased.

"What accent?" she asked with a coy smile, and he nodded with a smile of his own.

He looked to Marisa. "I don't know what you said to the fellow who just left, but it was very effective."

She smiled. "He sealed his fate when he called us 'fine bitches'."

Nate winced then shook his head. "How do these Neanderthals continue to survive in this day and age?" he asked sadly.

Siobhan grinned at his response. "Think you can do better?"

Nate smiled at her and held out his hand. "Nate Walker. Freelance Creative Copywriter."

Siobhan was impressed in spite of her natural caution with smooth-talking Romeos. She shook his hand, and there was nothing limp about it at all.

Marisa shook his hand as well and gasped involuntarily as her talent flared. Potentials flashed across her sight as she looked into his surprised eyes.

Nate leaned towards Marisa and cautiously sniffed. His mouth dropped open in shock, and then he smiled excitedly. "I found you!" he gasped quietly in awe.

Marisa pulled her hand back in a daze as she forced her talent back into its paused state. His scent backed up the visions her mind had shown her. He was an Incubus! He was also- No! The visions were only potentials. Her thoughts were in turmoil as it tried to deny the images she'd seen. She wasn't ready.