The Coffee Shop Pt. 05

"Eight, sir."

The Sergeant's voice snapped me back out of my recollections. I looked at the Sergeant's face. There was a boyish almost innocent quality to it, as he started to grin. Again I wondered how such a young looking man could be a Sergeant.

"Seven, sir."

Lying on the floor was a most undignified position for a Marine. (Yes, dear reader, I am sure you can come up with a lot more undignified positions for a Marine, but let's not go there, okay?) At least the floor appeared to be clean, and the Marine would not get that nice class C uniform of his dirty.

"Six, sir."

I was so looking forward to the Marine finishing his count. I swallowed a few times, as nervousness suddenly hit me. I could understand feeling excited, since it is not every day that I hypnotize a Marine. But nervous? That did not make sense. I had done ordinary hypnosis many times with many different kinds of guys in the past. I knew what I was doing.

"Five, sir."

"Deeper and deeper, Sergeant. The deeper you go, the better you feel. Always going deeper, always feeling better," I said. I did my best to shrug off the nervousness I was feeling. I didn't have time for it right now.

"Four, sir."

'You are getting so close, boy,' I thought to myself. The last of my nervousness melted away in the anticipation that I started to savour. Each new guy I hypnotized was like a special treat, but this guy was different. He was a Marine after all.

"Three, sir."

"Going so deep. You are such a good Marine, Sergeant. You know how to follow orders and carry out your mission. Your mission now is to go as deep as you can, and to let yourself go to that special place in your mind where you can be relaxed, carefree and happy," I said. It flashed through my mind that I might have been pushing the Sergeant a bit too quickly. I had to keep reminding myself that despite how well the Sergeant was responding, this was still only ordinary hypnosis I was doing. If I pushed too quickly or piled on too many suggestions it could boomerang back at me and he could snap out of his trance.

"Two, sir."

"You're doing an excellent job, Sergeant. Deeper and deeper," I told him. I was delighted to see that smile on his face get slightly bigger.

"One, sir."

"Nice and deep. So very relaxed and comfortable, aren't you Sergeant?" I asked him.

"Yes, sir," the Sergeant answered.

"I think you'd be more comfortable sitting in the chair, Sergeant. So when you hear me snap my fingers, your eyes will open and you will feel yourself go down just a bit deeper into this state. You'll find it easy to stand up. You will look about and when you see one of the chairs you will walk over to it and sit down in it. A few moments after your butt comes in contact with the chair seat, every muscle in your body will suddenly feel like loose rubber bands and your body will sag as you sink down in the chair going ten times deeper into hypnosis as you just let go completely. You'll know that no matter how relaxed and limp you feel though, there is no way you can slip, slide or tumble out of the chair. All that you can do is to sink deeper into hypnosis the longer you sit in it. Nod your head when you understand your orders, Sergeant." I spoke the last few words in a firm commanding tone of voice.

The Marine nodded his head almost immediately. SNAP.

The Marine's eyes popped open as his body jerked once. He slowly climbed up off the floor, as if he was not sure exactly what he was doing or why he was doing it. The confusion on his face was not at all unexpected, and in truth, it was exactly what I had been hoping to have happen to him. I had given him a lot of instructions and his mind was having to deal with them while his body was carrying them out. He was being overloaded mentally, and that is exactly what I needed to have happen.

He looked about the room and spotted the chair next to me. A look of determination crossed his face as he walked over to the chair. He could see the objective of his mission, which is important to any good Marine. He stood in front of the chair, and then turned about and sat down, with his feet planted firmly on the floor and his hands resting in his lap. He looked right at me, but he didn't say anything. A second or two later his head dropped to his chest and his body toppled forward until he was bending forward at the waist as far as he could go. His head was hanging between his knees, which were spread wide apart. His arms were hanging down limply at his sides. His khaki tie was hanging down from his chest, with only the bottom half of it dangling below the level of his head. That sight puzzled me for a moment until I remembered that the Sergeant's tie was fasten half way up his khaki shirt by a clip.

I quickly walked over to him. I knew I could not leave him like that, as all the blood would rush to his head and give him a headache. "Sitting up in the chair now Sergeant," I told him as I placed my hands on his shoulders and start to push his body back up and up. My efforts were superfluous, as the Sergeant lifted his torso with ease and sat up normally in the chair. He raised his head up into a normal position. An expression of utter relaxation was plastered on his handsome face. His eyes were closed and only the slightest hint of a smile brushed his lips.

"About ten seconds after you feel my fingers touch your forehead, Sergeant, your will slouch down into your chair, letting your body go as loose and limp as you can imagine, while at the same time knowing that you can't slid out of the chair. All you can do is continue to go down deeper and deeper into hypnosis, because the deeper your go the better you feel and the better you feel the deeper you go," I told him. I didn't need to take him deeper or make him collapse into the chair. I just wanted to see him do that. He was such a handsome man, and I do so love to hypnotize handsome men and control them. Hey, I wasn't going to be able to have my usual super hypnotic fun with the Sergeant, so I'd settle for what I could arrange.

The Sergeant nodded his head in silent agreement before I could ask him if he understood and agreed with my instructions. I had hoped this would be the case. Military men are such good subjects, or so a few hypnotherapist contacts of mine have informed me. Turned out they were correct. Back to business.

I walked over to the now docile Sergeant and firmly placed the fingers of my right hand on his forehead, pressing down firmly so that I was sure he could feel my fingers on his forehead. An automatic scan of his mind using my mental powers confirmed that the Sergeant's mind was still shielded from my powers. 'I wish I could just reach into your mind and make you my willing slave Sergeant', I thought to myself. It was a foolish wish, I knew, and maybe a bit mean too, but that didn't stop me from wanting it to come true. As I stood there waiting, hoping actually, for the Sergeant to respond to his instructions to go deeper, I examined his mind shield. It felt like many of the menial shields that I'd encountered amongst the gifted, and yet there was something slightly different about it. As I started to consider that thought, I began to feel vaguely uneasy.

My attention was diverted in an inarguably delightful manner, as the Sergeant slumped down into his chair, his body going completely limp, and breaking the contact between my fingers and his forehead in the process. I took a couple of steps back to get a good eyeful of the Sergeant.

A youngish handsome, physically fit, muscular, trim and slim Marine Sergeant sits before me in a chair, slumped down, which his head nodded forward, his chin resting easily on his massively muscular chest. His hips, bum and torso are thrust forward on the chair so that he is sitting halfway out of the chair. His big strong legs are spread wide apart at the knees giving a clear view of his crotch and the front of his pelvic area. the snug fit of his navy blue uniform dress pants shows that he has more than a passing sexual interest in hypnosis. I think the military term would be that his flagpole is at half mast, if you get my meaning. (I hope you do not expect me to draw you a picture to explain that last sentence, dear reader, 'cause I'm a terrible artist.) I would have guessed that his legs were open at a sixty or seventy degree angle, although his feet were only a few inches apart. His arms were hanging down at his sides.

Carefully I walked over to the Sergeant, and grabbed hold of his left wrist with my right hand. I lifted his left arm up slowly. It was very loose, and moved easily. I raised his left arm up until it was halfway up his chest and let go. As I expected, his left arm dropped back into place, swinging back and forth a few times before it came to rest. There was no question. The Sergeant was very deeply hypnotized and very comfortable. Step one of my mission was accomplished.

"Nice and deep, Sergeant, aren't you?" I asked him.

"Yes, sir. Very nice. Very deep. Thank you, sir," the Sergeant answered softly.

"Good boy. Now you just stay there like a good little Marine and enjoy yourself until it is time for me to wake you up. I'm sure you'll have no objection to enjoying the peace, relaxation and calm of your hypnosis trance," I told him, in a firm strong voice. I knew that Marines, even hypnotized Marines, would respect and tend to comply with instructions if they were given in a way that suggested authority or command.

"Sir, yes sir! I'm your good little Marine, sir!" Barked the Sergeant.

I wasn't expecting exactly that response, but it was okay. The important thing is that for the next few minutes the Sergeant's mind would be occupied with how good he was feeling. Now I could get back to the Sergeant's mind shield. I had no intention of trying to remove it or to drain it. Not only would such a course of action been unethical, but I doubted that I'd able to do so without the Sergeant noticing, which was sure to disrupt his hypnotic trance. I was curious about the mind shield. It didn't feel the same as previous mental shields generated by other gifted persons that I'd encountered in the past. While I knew that all mental shield were functionally the same, and that each was unique to the person who generated it, this shield just didn't feel right. All I had was that vague uneasy feeling, but over the years I'd learned to trust my feelings and my instincts.

I pushed the Sergeant's head back up until it was in a normal position. He sighed as I moved his head, but otherwise he did not react. He was content to hold his head in the new position. I placed the fingertips of my right hand on the Sergeant's forehead. Slowly I released a mental probe down through my fingertips and began a surface scan of the Sergeant's mental shield, centimetre by centimetre. I took my time, making note of how the shield felt and any variations in texture. As expected the shield was a sphere enclosing the Sergeant's brain. The sphere was smooth and flawless, like a highly polished cue ball. Nothing out of the ordinary. My examination had lasted only a minute or so, but that was enough time to determine that I could not drain or break through that shield without setting some type of mental alarm. It would be like trying to poke a fully charged electric cattle prod into a sleeping grizzly bear. Not the brightest of ideas, if you catch my drift.

Then I felt it. A very faint energy pulse moving along the shield, just below its surface. If I had not been examining the shield surface at that precise moment, I would have missed the pulse. As the pulse move from the front to the back I felt the shield become just a bit firmer. That should not have happened. Shields were generated from within the brain. A firming pulse should have moved outward from the center of the brain to contact the entire shield surface simultaneously. Even when reinforcing one section of a mental shield, the initial pulse is first applied to the entire shield. Something was definitely not as it should be. I glanced at the clock on the table. It read 42. I had plenty of time to dig a bit deeper into this mystery.

I increased my concentration and began my examination of this mental shield again. I took nothing for granted this time. I flicked my eyes at the clock as I progressed. This might take a lot of time, five even ten minutes. I know that doesn't sound like much to ungifted people, but it is a very long time in terms of the mental effort required. since the pulse seemed to appear at the front of the shield I started my examination there. In less than ten seconds I found it. A hair thin thread of mental energy that was fasten half way down the bottom front of the shield. The thread did not seem to be anchored to the shield though. When I delicately tried to nudge it, the end of the thread moved around the shield surface while never losing contact with it, like an ice skater moving about the surface of a frozen pond in the middle of winter, gliding effortlessly.

Stranger, and stranger. I had never seen anything like this before. No wait. I had. There was something vaguely familiar about this mental thread. After a few moments of intense effort I recalled the memory to my mind. The thread was like the mental tracer that Mary had planted in my mind a year or so ago, when I was doing my training with her. She had been surprised that I'd been able to detect it, much less remove it. This mental thread was much like that one, only it seemed to be a conduit as well that carried the mental energy that reinforced the mental shield about the Sergeant's mind.

The question was if this external mental energy was sublimating the Sergeant's mental shield or if the mental energy was providing the mental shield around the Sergeant's mind. There was a simple way to find out. I snipped the thread. I watched as the Sergeant's mental shield slowly faded way over the next few minutes. It appeared to be gone completely now, which suggested that the Sergeant didn't have any mental capabilities like a gifted person, which in turn suggested that the Sergeant's mind had been protected from my probing by some other person. Three guesses who that could have been, and the first two guesses don't count. Since this entire event was a test by the Council of Coins, it was logical that the shielding of the Sergeant's mind would have been arranged by the Council. I was surprised to say the least. Until now, I had no idea that a gifted person could shield a normal person's mind, which only proved that I still had much to learn about my super hypnotic and mental abilities.

Unless I was wrong about the shield. I could be wrong. It might be that the Sergeant was a very weak gifted person. We all had different strengths of mind. I knew of only one way to be sure, and I was reluctant to undertake it. I would be violating the privacy of the Sergeant's mind, and I wasn't at all happy doing that. Presuming that this man was in fact a Marine Sergeant, he had served his country, and in the process probably risked his life many times, and so at the very least, he deserved my respect. Need I remind you, dear reader, that this Marine Sergeant was a seriously handsome hunk? That was part of what fuelled my reluctance to probe his mind. I was not completely sure that it wasn't my lust for the Sergeant that was tempting me to probe and take control of his mind. A part of me wanted the major league stud muffin slumped in the chair in front of me, to be under my control. It was perfectly understandable, but that didn't make it any easier to deal with.

Sometimes, though, a person has to do things that he really would rather not do. I mentally gritted my teeth and turned my full attention to the hypnotized hunk before me. Gingerly I sent a probe into the Sergeant's mind.

It seemed this was my day for surprises. The surprise of having to drop by The Coffee Shop for a test by the Council of Coins was one surprise. Having the test involve me being alone (supposedly, but I strongly doubted that was the case) with a major league stud muffin of a man in a Marine Sergeant's uniform was the second surprise. The third surprise was the result of my mental probe. The Sergeant was not gifted! He had no mental abilities associated with 'the gifted'. His mind was like an open book to me. All I had to do was turn the pages to find any information that I might want. In a few seconds I knew the access code to the door, and the Sergeant's recent history for the past two years or so. Mental communication is much faster than the spoken word, so information can be exchanged literally at the speed of thought. My wish had been granted. I could easily make the Sergeant mine, if I so wanted.

I thought carefully for a few heartbeats, composing my thoughts. 'You are enjoying being hypnotized by me Sergeant. You are amazed at how powerful a hypnotist I am. It both surprises and delights you to find a powerful man who can dominate your mind like this. You follow all my suggestions easily. It seems normal and natural that I am able to take you very deep into hypnosis. It does not concern you at all. Everything is as it should be, Sergeant,'. I could see my projected thoughts enter into the Sergeants mind. They were easily understood and accepted. If I didn't know better, the Sergeant seemed eager to accept my mental commands. I put that done to his military training. (As I mentioned earlier to you, dear reader, guys in the military are used to following orders from an authority figure. My mental commands had nudged the Sergeant's perception of me so that he saw me as an authority figure.)

I could have woken the Sergeant up, walked over and opened the locked door, and then left. I would have passed the Council of Coin's test. The Sergeant would not have cared much, though technically he would have failed in his mission. He would also have wondered how I figured out the access code. It would have been a loose thread left hanging, and while it was probably a minor loose thread, it could still lead to questions to which I did not have any answers.

I lifted my fingers from his forehead and moved my chair back a couple of feet. I wanted a little physical distance between us while I gave the situation some careful thought. The last thing I wanted was my thoughts to leak into the Sergeant's mind and be interpreted by him as new commands to follow.

"Just sit there so comfortable and continue to relax and go deeper Sergeant," I said to him as I started to mull this minor problem over in my mind.

"Sir, yes, sir," the Sergeant responded. "This feels great, sir. If there's anything else you want me to do sir, just ask."

"You could give me the access code for the door, Sergeant," I said. I already had that information, but I was curious as to how the Sergeant would respond to a direct question.

"I am sorry, sir, but I cannot do that, as it goes against my orders and my mission," the Sergeant replied in a stern voice. "I'm a Marine first, sir."

"But Sergeant, I have hypnotized you. I have taken a big strong Marine like you, and put you so very deep into hypnosis that there is nothing you wouldn't do for me. Isn't that right, Sergeant?" I was pushing the issue, but I wanted to know how the Sergeant was going to resolve all of this.

"uhm...err....I guess so, sir," the Sergeant said hesitantly. The silly goofy grin on his face had melted into confusion. He was trying his best to resolve two powerful and conflicting directives, his Marine training which drove him to follow and obey his orders, and my super hypnotic control of his mind which drove him to obey me.

"So tell me the code, Sergeant," I said sternly. I was putting pressure on him. It was unnecessary. It was a bit mean, too.