The Bureau of Pleasure Control Ch. 09

Their leader was back.

Once the room had fallen easily silent, Carmen raised her hand to the crowd.

"I hope you've all had a restful homecoming."

There were laughs and a few affirmative replies.

"Are we getting back to work?" Zach asked.

Carmen smiled at his enthusiasm.

"The world is about to change," she announced. "Not quite in the way we'd originally planned, but we're tough, we're adaptable, and our work will be the determining factor in whether that change turns out for the better, or the worse. There will be uncertainty. There will be risk. There will also be opportunities to make more progress than we have in a generation. I will be leaning on all of you hard in the coming weeks and months."

"Shit yeah!" Piper shouted from behind Zach. "When do we start?"

#

"If you wouldn't mind." Rose nodded expectantly at Kristen's tablet. "I'll have three rounds today, please, with suction and penetrative vibration."

This was it. This was the point where Kristen had to work a miracle, or not.

"What time is it?" Kristen asked, rolling onto her side, pressing her thighs together for comfort and grounding.

"Don't worry, I didn't keep you unlocked long enough to go into debt," said Rose.

"No, really, what time of day?" Kristen asked.

Rose checked her own tablet. "A little after three," she answered. "Why?"

"I was just thinking," Kristen took her shot. "Your husband usually does a late half day in his office on Mondays. Do you think he'd like to come downstairs for a quick break and join us?"

Rose let out a short, sharp, telling snort of air.

"No," she said, "I don't think so."

"I'm sorry," Kristen lied. "I didn't mean to hit a sore subject."

"Not at all," Rose lied back, shaking a sudden stiffness only partway out of her shoulders. "It was a kind suggestion. But no, I'm sure he wouldn't be able to get away."

Kristen let the silence hang for a few seconds.

"If you don't mind my saying so," she broke it gently, "it always seemed like a conflict of interest to me. You, having to live under the control of the Bureau your husband manages."

Rose narrowed her eyes in preparation to repeat an especially well-worn lie. "We all have to live under the control of the Bureau."

"Of course," Kristen acknowledged quickly. "Only, for the rest of us, it's impartial. For you... don't you find yourself thinking about your point supply when you disagree with Director Daimler at home? Do you ever worry that it holds you back from standing up for yourself when you need to?"

"Never!" said Rose. "My husband has always been more than generous." Her eyes widened for a split second, recognizing what she'd just said. "I don't mean to say that he plays favorites, of course. I have to earn my points through hard work and discipline just like anyone else, but he... he always takes care...."

The two points she clearly wanted to make came to blows with each other on their way to her mouth.

"I completely understand," said Kristen, putting her hand on top of Rose's. "I'm sure he does whatever he can to take care of the people he loves, just like any warm-blooded human being. Especially one who can't afford to spend much time with them."

Something tightened in the general area of Rose's tear ducts. Kristen would not have been able to tell had she not been sitting so close.

"What would you know about how my husband spends his time?" asked Rose.

"Only what I can read in your files," said Kristen. "I know that when you spend points, it's almost never together."

Rose shook her head, tossing her hair out of the way again, as if the subject were attached to it.

"It happens when you get older," she said. "People get complacent, they grow apart."

"Yeah." Kristen nodded reassuringly. "Sometimes."

"What do you think you'd do in my position?" Rose demanded, instantly defensive. "Chase after him, begging for attention like a puppy? As if everything else I do for him isn't enough to prove that I'm still invested in us?"

"No, of course not," said Kristen. She drummed her fingers on her chin in thought. "Have you ever considered officer training?"

Rose arched one of her narrow, penciled-in eyebrows and laughed. It was an airy, controlled, intentional sound.

"I don't mean working as an officer, obviously," Kristen giggled along as if her own dream job were absurdly far beneath this woman. "But the training does teach us certain skills that can be applied in other ways. I've noticed quite a few people lately, mostly successful women in long, stale marriages, coming to the Bureau for more than just temporary release. They come to learn how to command in their lives the way officers do in the visitor room."

This was a lie too. There was no such trend, as far as Kristen knew, and the flicker of interest that crossed Rose's face prompted a matching flicker of guilt in Kristen's stomach.

Kristen wasn't sure exactly when she'd started feeling sorry for Rose Daimler.

What must it be like to get VIP pleasure on demand just because of your marriage -- to someone who never wanted to be there to share it with you?

Under those circumstances, Kristen thought she'd probably be just as defensive as Rose was, just as uptight, just as hungry for a scrap of power that didn't involve asking, do you know who my husband is?

Rose wasn't hungry enough to cancel out her skepticism, however.

"Officers have the ability to command because they're empowered with control over pleasure access," she said.

"Yes," said Kristen. "And no. There's so much more to it than that. And you'd be a natural, if you're interested. It's not something you can take up casually, though. The first lesson is pretty intense."

"And that would be?" Rose prompted, with the hint of bravado Kristen had been hoping to draw out.

"Deprivation," Kristen answered. "Three whole months. You shouldn't feel bad if it's too much."

Rose laughed out loud. "I'm supposed to get my husband's attention by denying myself? And here I thought you might actually be onto something. The trainee deprivation period is a glorified hazing! Its only purpose is to make sure you're committed enough to serving."

"No," said Kristen. "That's what I thought at first too, but no. It teaches you things."

"Oh yes, like empathy?" Rose derisively parroted the Bureau handbook.

"Yes, like empathy," Kristen confirmed humorlessly. "Which is exactly what you need."

Rose's jaw dropped ever so slightly open.

"You think I don't have enough empathy for my husband?" she scoffed. "He's the one who--"

"You can't rewire a circuit without understanding why it works the way it is," said Kristen. "If you try, you'll just end up poking live wires in the dark. It's the same with people. Getting in someone's head to comfort them, getting in their head to influence or even control them -- good, bad or neutral, it all starts with the same skill. And believe me, the deprivation period puts fucking training wheels on that skill. When you can't make yourself feel, chances to make other people feel stand out like neon. And best of all, when your turn to receive finally does come back around, you might even find you don't have the patience to bullshit about it anymore."

"What do you mean 'bullshit about it'?" Rose asked, unable to take her eyes off of Kristen.

"My husband's always been more than generous," Kristen mimicked. "No, I don't think he'll be able to get away. Can you imagine being so desperate that you can't say okay when he asks how you are anymore? Can you imagine him asking you what he can do to make you happy, and instead of saying nothing and rolling your eyes at him for not knowing, you tell him, in explicit detail, exactly what you want him to do?"

Rose let out a sadder sharp breath. "And if he still doesn't want to?"

"Then you come here to me," said Kristen, "And say, 'I'd like to fuck myself into a stupor, please, while I contemplate whether my marriage is over, or whether it was a sham to begin with.' Even that's going to feel better than the bullshit, don't you think?"

Rose smiled grimly.

"I do hope you have some curriculum planned for this arduous three months," she said. "Something a little more engaging than sitting back and waiting for me to go mad?"

Kristen grinned back at her. "Oh, yes. Have you ever heard of the motivation z--"

The door to the VIP room beeped and slammed open.

"Oh my god, Commander, it's called knocking!" Kristen snapped.

She'd smooth things over later with a successful session report.

That might have worked, only it wasn't Commander Hawkins in the doorway.

"He had no right to do this to you, Kristen," said Officer Brixton, re-slamming the door behind him. "You're a trainee, for fuck's sake."

He stepped dramatically between Kristen and Rose.

"Mrs. Daimler, it is not my trainee's fault--"

"Wait--" Kristen started, barely audibly, through a panic-tightened throat.

"--that the unlocking function is temporarily unavailable."

#

Kristen didn't get to witness the full extent of Rose's response to this outrage.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," Officer Brixton told her. "We're in the process of finding a resolution to this situation that doesn't involve negotiating with terrorists--"

"I don't give a fuck who you have to negotiate with!" Rose shouted. "You will open this lock now."

That was about as far as the conversation went before Rose called her husband, and Officer Brixton called for backup. Within seconds, security guards from Commander Hawkins' new department arrived to take Kristen by the arms and escort her firmly back to the trainee barracks.

They tossed her onto one of the bunks at random and marched out.

Once they were gone, Kristen relocated herself to her own bunk and waited uneasily, as the rest of the trainees were herded back into the empty barracks around her, one and two and three at a time.

Kristen shrugged off all their questions. She doubted any of their superiors would take kindly to her repeating what she knew. Plus, she was getting very good at shrugging off questions, so good that it was almost a habit.

Hours passed. The curiosity and nerves of the other trainees gave way to boredom and restlessness.

Cara complained that she was missing a piercing session that she was supposed to be assisting with.

Most of the rest took the opportunity to catch up on sleep, study for class, or curl up with their personal tablets to watch movies or other recreational feeds.

Kristen only lay in bed, rigid with vague anticipation, listening the snippets of conversations and TV shows, until the moment when every sound on every tablet abruptly gave way to a single, affably authoritative voice.

This is a public service announcement from Privalock, Inc.

"What the hell?" multiple trainees responded aloud to the interruption to their feeds.

"What is this?"

Trainees got up from their bunks and gathered in the aisles between them to watch over the shoulder of the nearest person with an open feed.

Kristen followed suit, leaning in between Cara and Will for a better view.

The voice on the tablets continued in near-perfect unison across the speakers.

At Privalock, we know you have a choice of pleasure management services. The question is, did you know that? It's true! Starting today, Privalock points are now legally interchangeable with Bureau points for all third-party transactions. And, when you switch to Privalock, you trade in harsh Bureau visitor conditions for our new, members-only club and spa facilities, where you can enjoy your well-earned indulgences in comfort and privacy. We also make it easy to port your existing chastity device onto our network, or choose from our own line of cutting-edge comfort models. Ask about how you can earn two percent rewards on saved points. That's right, rewards! We believe there's more to life than discipline and denial. Privalock is here to provide gentle structure and balance, so that you can meet your goals and enjoy your life to the fullest.

Because we're not just a chastity service. We're a pleasure company.

We know what you're thinking. It can't be that simple. There must be some catch, some qualification I don't meet. There's no way a private company can really liberate me from Bureau monitoring. We understand your doubts, and we mean to put them to rest. In...

3

The voice stopped abruptly, replaced by a three that filled the entire screen.

2

No one in the room seemed to be breathing.

1...

Click.

The click was not on the TV, but in the room, and in surround sound. It took a moment for Kristen to realize that it was actually dozens of clicks, so closely synchronized that it was impossible to separate them all by ear.

The chains that held her device in place went slack under her tunic, then retracted away, letting the pelvic plate fall to the ground with a clang.

A chorus of similar clangs followed around her.

***

Thanks for reading! If you had a good time, show me some love with your ratings, follows, favorites, and/or comments, and let me know if you want more Bureau of Pleasure Control!

As promised, a plot summary of Artemis scene: We meet Calvin, the client who hired Artemis to compromise the Bureau's servers to blackmail them into allowing his new company, Privalock, to exist. He originally promised her total freedom in return, but is now reneging and only promising her a freer life under the control of his company instead of the Bureau. He points out that he's still her best option and makes her give him a handjob while she's still locked up.