The High Cost of Free Play

The chase pressed on and Amber watched excitedly as Jayne closed in on her prey, matching Lefevre turn for turn, weaving her vehicle through traffic at a breakneck pace. She began to slow slightly to make a rather wicked turn.

As soon as Jayne Spectre saw the action, she saw her chance. Drawing the pistol from the holster in her thigh she pointed the gun out the window and unleashed a flurry of gunfire that shredded one of her quarry's tires, sending the sports car spinning from the road and into the side of a museum with the loud crunch of metal.

Amber watched Jayne park smoothly, open her door, and step from her vehicle casually and fluidly, as though this was just just a typical day for someone like her. Her weapon drawn while using her free hand to brace the wrist of her gun hand she moved slowly forward towards the smoking, broken vehicle as the wail of sirens grew closer.

Close enough to peer inside now, Lefevre was cut and bleeding, but still in the moment enough to stare dagger into Jayne as she approached. No weapon apparent, Jayne relaxed her guard only slightly. "Where is Robyn Wile?"

Lefevre smiled through her pain and shook her head slightly, though that seemed to cause her pain. "Who?"

"Where's Fawn Kirby," she demanded to know.

Lefevre coughed, bringing up a bit of blood. "Awww...we know how this works, don't we? With my dying breath I give you a bread crumb and you parlay that into a little fucking and a little shooting until you finally find out who you're even looking for."

"Well," she wheezed, "I'm dying so, to hell with it. Besides, it'll make the game way too long that way."

Jayne looked happy to be done with it despite her crazy musings. "Sorry that you think it's a game dear, but it's quite real for me and those poor girls. So who am I looking for?"

"I serve Dr. Tamara Tabico. We all serve Her whims. We are all Her thralls. Find Her and you'll find the women you're looking for...and more, my dear Ms Spectre, much more." The scene ended with Jayne holstering her weapon and looking at the camera with viscous determination.

Amber stared on for a moment as the screen switched back to the generic wheel combinations of the game. Looking down at the screen she was happy more for the fact that her initial play amount was almost where it began than she was at the fact that she'd now banked enough to have nearly covered her travel expenses getting here. I should have plenty left to see how it all comes out.

The only way to get back to the bonus was to play, so she played. She would spin and spin, immediately slapping the button before the play finished if her play didn't hold the potential for a win with the jewels. When the diamonds appeared however, Amber happily relaxed and let the jewels fall.

When emeralds filled all rows but the forth Amber just let her mind go blank as the jewels fell. It wasn't even that hard to let herself go that way. The jewels sparkled so nicely. The graphics were superb, so there was no reason to insult the people that put them together by ignoring them.

They were so complex. The diamonds and emeralds would appear together and it was like a perfect dance that she could almost read when she was relaxed enough. It felt good to be that relaxed. She spun over and over, one hour turning into two simply spinning frantically waiting for the jewels, then relaxing when they came to her. She could almost...read them; the patterns were just that intricate to her eye.

When emeralds started mixing with rubies on the pay lines she started feeling warm all over. It was as if the emeralds pacified her while the rubies did wonderful things to her, the red light oozing over her brain and down through her body like a fierce and tender lover, touching all the points that lovers knew and a few even Amber hadn't known until the light touched them. She looked down at the credit count left on the card and she was happy even though her face was mostly expressionless at this point. I have enough to play forever.

Emeralds and rubies co-mingled even as the Jayne Spectre bonus appeared. The notion of seeing what happened to Jayne next brought her back. So excited was she that she paid no heed to the pain as her neck muscles protested the movement.

She had to watch as a beautiful snow-capped mountain range appeared. Somewhere in an unexplored corner of the French Alps...

The camera closed in and focused on Jayne creeping through a building, clearly concerned with stealth, winding her way towards only she knew where just then. Amber watched Jayne, dressed in form-fitting black, crane her neck around the corner before turning back to tweak what looked like a fitness watch that displayed, apparently, what the hall cameras were seeing and Jayne manipulated the images.

Once her watch was feeding the empty hallway to the security cameras, Jayne moved, going into one of the rooms to find Fawn Kirby in her cell, if it could be called that. The walls were medical white and concrete but it was well-furnished. The bed was plush, a dresser with a makeup vanity and a desk went with it. A large television hung on the wall displaying two women in the throes of lust.

Fawn Kirby, blonde goddess, was on the bed as well. She looked very little like a prisoner as much as a woman ready for a boudoir photo shoot. Her hair was straight and her makeup immaculate with dark eyeshadow and cherry lipstick. Her rail thin but toned body was clothed in only a white belly shirt and bubblegum pink, thigh-cut panties. Kirby looked up in shock.

"Are you ready to go home, Ms. Kirby?"

She stared disbelieving for a moment before, "Thank God someone finally came."

"The computer systems here were helpful that way. Follow me, we'll collect the other I came for, get you somewhere safe, and then I'll handle the good Dr. Tabico."

"How are we getting out of here? This place isn't exactly what one would call accessible."

"I've carved a path to the helipad, but I'm not certain how long it will last, hurry up now."

Fawn scrambled from the bed. "I sure hope you have," she began,"I'm not exactly dressed for the weather."

"One issue at a time. I'm sure the facility will provide what we need as we go. Speaking of going..." A hint of irritation crept into her voice.

Fawn stood almost at Jayne's height, her eyes a study in gratitude, "I don't know how to thank you."

"That's really not..."

Fawn stood on her tiptoes and kissed Jayne, inhaling sharply as she smeared her lipstick over her rescuer's, whimpering as she did.

Jayne took her by the shoulders and pushed her away firmly. "Ms, Kirby..."

She found her self-control again in a rush of embarrassment that made her shy away from the gaze of those gray eyes. "There's something I have to tell you before we go."

The irritation became full-blown annoyance. "Ms. Kirby..."

"You're drugged now," she said with a coquettish smile, a hint of wild sneaking in behind in her green eyes.

Jayne's brow knotted, puzzled for a moment until the realization took hold. She stepped back, wanting to make her way to the door, but the second step became a stagger and her turn turned into a near- complete spin with Jayne propping herself with a hand to the wall.

Amber watched, truly fearful for Jayne now. She couldn't look away.

"Wha--" Jayne closed her eyes and pulled them back open through sheer force of will. With some effort, her eyes found Fawn's "Why?"

Her lips kissed each word as though she were making love to each syllable. "I serve Dr. Tabico. I am Her thrall."

There wasn't really time for her mind to ponder the words as she desperately tried to think of a means of escape while her limbs tried to pull her towards the floor.

Fawn watched her with a smile as Amber watched the screen as her game screen was almost entirely blacked out, save only the emeralds which would flare so brightly that their reflection could be seen in Amber's eyes even as her own were captured by the screen. She empathized with Jayne and she could feel her strength fade with Jayne's. Relaxed. Calm. Aroused. Aroused at the powerful secret agent surrendering. That's it, Jayne, let yourself go. You don't have any choice. They're so much stronger than you. Sleep now, fight later.

Amber watched Jayne slump to the floor, her eyes on the television screen just before they slammed shut realizing that the two women fucking one another senseless on the screen were Fawn and Robyn.

The scene went to black with the closing of an iris and there were several seconds where there was nothing but Amber and the lingering, slow pulse of the jewels, their light like little fingers rippling just beneath her direct line of sight.

The iris opened again and Amber barely stifled a gasp at the sight of Jayne, fully nude, ankles, wrists, and head restricted by stainless steel cuffs. Amber's mind drifted to Traci for an instant, now being able to glimpse the sort of body that was hidden beneath that business suit. Spectre's pussy lips flared obscenely as she was well and truly stuffed by a thick dildo that gleamed as brightly in the overhead light as the cuffs did. The toy looked to be connected by cables to a larger machine, but there was no hint of it.

The sight tugged at Amber physically by planting warmth between her legs and a flash of envy in her heart.

Jayne's eyes focused on the sight ahead of her that the camera cut away to reveal: a score of young women, including Fawn and Robyn who shared several things in common. All were stunningly beautiful, any one of whom could have been plucked from Fawn's modeling circles to be there.

All were dressed in the same way, sharing minimalist attire in the form of thigh-high platform boots with five inch heels that buckled just above the ankle, the knee, and, finally, at the lower thigh. All were so glossy black and form fitting that they appeared almost poured on, and the same could be said of the leather gloves that each wore to the elbow.

The other commonality that Amber noticed right away as the camera did a slow pan of their faces were the eyes. They were a strange combination of empty, blissful, and maniacal, as though they were completely devoted to the idea of being empty, save for what their Mistress wanted to put there.

Amber liked certainty in her life at this moment and her mind took note. She jumped when sinister music broke the silence and the women parted in the center of the line to reveal a woman in a white lab coat. Tall in her own right, though lacking heels she was dwarfed by the women behind her. Her hair was pony-tailed and dark, which just made the shock of white that ran through it stand out all the more. Her eyes were such a dark brown they seemed almost black if the light hit them just so and they carried with them an intensity that suggested that she didn't need machinery to enthrall someone.

"Hello, Ms. Spectre. I hope you're not too uncomfortable."

Amber's eyes widened at the realization that it was the same wetly sexy voice as the one that congratulated her on her big wins.

"Dr. Tamara Tabico, I presume?"

For her part, she smiled coyly. "Is it the lab coat that always gives me away? I bet it's the lab coat."

"Or perhaps it's the hint of megalomania in the eyes," Jayne offered defiantly. I've studied your dossier: recluse, failed neuroscientist, general laughing stock. It's quite sad, really."

"I'm familiar with you, too, Ms. Spectre, not that there's much to be familiar with what with you being fresh out of agent school and all. Should I be insulted that they didn't send one of their elites after me? I could make use of one of those men. You know the type: tall, rugged, devil-may-care."

"I'm sorry you're disappointed," she said, though her tone suggested otherwise

Dr. Tabico walked slowly to Jayne and touched her belly, making her and Amber's belly quiver in response before she gently squeezed a breast. "Oh, did I say I was disappointed? No, no, no, no...not at all. Indeed, I dare say I might have selected you to come and get me."

The doctor glanced to her slaves, then back to Jayne as she spoke. You know, I've always thought about the boots and gloves thing myself, but they always seem to wear it all much better than I could. Then again, I'm still young and fit, I could probably pull it off. What do you think?"

"I think you've gone to a lot of trouble just to enjoy a fetish or two. Plan to take over the world, do you? I mean, that does seem to be the endgame for most of your ilk."

She walked slowly around the table, continuing to Jayne as she went, "Oh, I'm well on the way to that already with a president here and a prime minister there. Those that circumstance won't let me take directly? Their spouses, sons, daughters, and friends weave together a lovely network of both surveillance and influence."

"And where do you think I fit into your plans, Doctor?"

Doctor Tabico made her way back to her chorus line of slaves before turning to face Jayne with a flourish. "I don't know yet. Perhaps I'll send you back to work where you can find ways to help me. Perhaps I'll just keep you as a bath time playmate." She smiled. "Whatever I decide for you, you'll love it, even if the very idea would have made you retch yesterday."

"Doubtful."

"That's the elegance of my work," she said proudly, "you'll see."

Jayne struggled for an instant before resigning herself "We may as well get on with it then."

Doctor Tabico turned to walk away before she froze and turned back with a grin, as though she were about to commit a grievous error and stopped herself in the nick of time. "I've seen this before, haven't you? Now that I've filled you in on some of the details of my sinister plot, this is the part where I leave you, seemingly helpless, while I go off to plot more evil, get my nails done, or whatever it is that the evil genius goes to do while a threat to everything just sits there unattended."

"You escape, which leads to my inevitable defeat, and, quite probably, the spectacular destruction of my facility." She sighed deeply, ready to go that extra mile to do things right. "Since you're already here, I'm already here, and I've already put so much money into this place, why don't we skip all that, and I personally fuck your mind into a puddle of compliant goo."

Amber's eyes followed the doctor to a mammoth computer console straight out of a cheap 1970s science fiction film, complete with levers, oversized knobs, with chili pepper lights of various colors and an old CRT screen. Coming in behind it, she touched it like a lover, though there was also a bit of showing it off like a game show hostess in the way that her hand drew across the top.

She sat in the chair, flipping switches and turning dials with practiced ease. In response the machine thrummed to life, the bass hum vibrated through the machine as well as through the slot in a way Amber could feel. It added to the dampness of her pussy and weakness of her mind.

"I am, of course, well-trained to resist mental torture."

"Resist away."

Arms moved from behind the chair with a soft whir as long narrow cones touched themselves to Jayne's temples, pulsing orange light.

Jayne sounded fearless. "Might I ask what the audience is for?"

The monitor flickered to life in front of the doctor's eyes as she spoke. "They're just here to watch. They love to relive their own surrender by watching others fall it seems, so, when it suits things it's something I allow. It seems to be a common side effect, actually," she said with some satisfaction. "No matter how many fall to me in my line work I never seem to have a problem finding thralls that want to watch the next one."

Jayne's voice carried the barest hint of disappointment. "You might have at least suggested that they were all here to prevent my escape."

Tabico's voice had what sounded like genuine sympathy. "No offense meant, Ms. Spectre, but..." She lost herself in her machine for a long while.

"But?"

She came back to the moment on her own. "I've been doing this for a while and there have been many in that chair before you." Sympathy gave way to pride. "No matter how many have they've had at their backs with them. No matter how high the mountains they've climbed or deep the valleys they've traversed. No matter how clever or well-armed they were or thought they were when they decided to take me on; everyone loses to Tamara Tabico in the end."

"If it's any consolation though, they're all happy when I'm done. She smiled at her reflection in the monitor as she finished the thought, "Whether they want to be or not."

Tabico flipped a switch, then the screen split to display Jayne on the left and a graphical representation of a brain on the right with five hotspots laid out as though on a die, each flashing red with instructions beneath that read. "Lose twice and you both lose."

Amber trembled all over. The thrum of the machine teased her skin even through her clothing so that she didn't think twice about the instructions. She didn't even think once about the fact that the reels had changed all on their own to a mix of all the jewels and they brightened in a rhythmic wave of let to right, then right to left.

She had to be good. She had to help Jayne. She reached to touch the upper left node and the screen flashed brightly before the words, 'You Lose' appeared.

Amber failed and felt crushed.

For a moment.

Her finger didn't leave the screen, not because it couldn't, which may or may not have been true insofar as performing the physical action, but she was chained to it all the same as current passed through her. It was warm, tingling, and teasing. It slowly poured through her, flooding her. She watched Jayne's face contort as she tried to resist something she had no experience feeling. Amber could relate.

Dr. Tabico's voice hummed lustily. "Ooooooh...sorry, not sorry; one more chance to resist me."

The camera showed Amber Jayne's body and she saw her nipples stand proud and heard the vibrator pulsing so intensely that Amber could feel it there herself.

Amber wasn't sure she was sorry either as she picked the middle node.

'You lose.'

The heat poured through her again as she watched the orange light at Jayne's temples flare. Jayne's back bowed and she shrieked in orgasm. Amber's mouth dropped open and she shook, finger on the node as she came with Jayne so intensely she didn't make a sound.

The doctor's voice returned. "Awwww...it's all over for you, you know."

Amber did know.

"You know what you have to do, right?"

Amber knew that, too.

She hit the next node and watched with satisfaction as the flow of energy around it slowed. Jayne came again and Amber came with her; again silently and even more intensely than before as she read the two words that doomed her to servitude and bliss.

"Very good. You knew you were never going to win, right."

Her finger stayed at the node. Yes.

Tabico's response was perfectly timed, as though she were waiting for the thought. "And why is that?"

Her pussy dripped and her mind happily bathed in the thought. Because everyone loses to Dr. Tabico in the end.

She ached to touch the other nodes and did, loving the way the brain dulled at the touch.

The screen faded to black and Amber looked down at the play screen and surrendered to the repetition of spinning over and over to give her all rubies in all the rows and she let the bonuses count up, the lights and sound their own perfect things. She just spun, let the money count, the lights flash and let herself be subsumed by the red, glittering lights and the way they spoke to her.

Hours went by with no notice of anything else. All rows eventually filled with the bonus symbol with a several silenced shots. Knowing what to do, she pulled her payslip and headed to the exit and through a narrow corridor that was well lit enough that it made her eyes burn and tear after hours in near black. Amber blinked and wiped it away, not letting it interfere with where she had to go and what she had to do.