The Mind Element Ch. 05

Chris refocussed on Talia. It was almost as if he could see inside her head. Randall Ness had really screwed her up with what he had done. The golden threads now looked more like a tangled ball of wool, intermingling with her natural thoughts. It was a right-old mess, Chris thought, and he realised with a weary sigh that the only way to mend the damage was to disentangle it, thread by thread. Still, he was now certain it was possible. So he commanded Talia to sleep and then directed his thoughts toward what looked like a loose end and gave it a mental tug.

It had taken him almost three hours to restore Talia's mind to something close to what it had been before Randall Ness had interfered in it. Not that it was exactly the same; Chris developed a theory as he worked that some part of Talia's mind had always known exactly what had been happening the whole time Ness was controlling her and that those memories would still be there. He drew Fay's attention to this and she confirmed that did seem to be the case, because what she detected most from the slowly recovering Talia was a deep and abiding hatred for her former lover.

Finally, Chris was done, and with the gentlest of commands of his own, he told Talia to wake. She opened her eyes.

"Who the hell are you people?," she asked, "and what am I doing on this bed?" Then memories and understanding came rushing back and her next comment was angry. "Where's that bastard, Randall? I want a word with him."

"He's gone," said Chris, "I think he's in the air by now on his way to the States. My name's Christopher Ward, by the way."

Talia had lost interest in who they were; her thoughts were on Ness. "Yeah, I remember - he abandoned me!" She still sounded more angry than upset, "I'll get the bastard. I know how to make him pay!"

"How?" said Brigit with genuine interest. She was rather impressed by this display of feminine fury.

"Kiss and tell," replied Talia. "Randall's a billionaire and the press love stories about what the rich get up to. I'll sell my story - should be worth a fair bit too, "she sounded a bit happier at this thought, "how an innocent secretary was seduced by the old goat, how he's got a couple of other mistresses - and him a married man and father. I reckon after that, I'll be on all the talk shows!" Talia was beginning to sound quite enthused at the idea of this new career - a mix of revenge and money-making in one happy bundle.

Brigit grinned at her. Chris merely said, "I'll buy you an air ticket for the next flight to California." No doubt for Ness this would just be a minor irritation from which his wealth would extract him, but the idea of even slightly annoying Randall Ness was not an unwelcome one to Christopher Ward.

After Talia, the process had got quicker with experience. For one thing, most of Ness' victims were much less affected than she had been - Talia's ideas about Ness had been pretty tangled even before he did anything to change them. Mostly Ness had simply installed a wish to obey him, and it was relatively easy to remove.

Fay had insisted for some reason that he did Carter Jackson next. After that they had started working their way through the staff, beginning with the scientists Ness had left behind. While Chris and Fay were busy with that, Brigit, Matsu, Freya and Marco had tried to see what they could make of the experiments Ness had been conducting and the equipment he had built, but only Marco had any knowledge even slightly relevant, and they had made little progress. However, Chris freeing the scientists changed that.

Learning from the experience with Talia, Chris had restored each freed subject to close to their original state, but not quite. He had left each with a clear knowledge of what Ness had done to them and a hostility to it that ranged from resentment to hatred, depending on each person's character. Hence the freed scientists had been more than happy to cooperate in revealing Ness' secrets.

As he and Fay worked their way through the rest of the staff, Chris had made a few other amendments. Some particularly violent individuals among the guards who Fay reported as guilty of significant crimes he had told to go and confess to the authorities once he was safely far away. In others, who were unpleasant people without being quite so far gone, he had implanted a wish to reform their ways. This was only prudent - he didn't really want to be surrounded for the next few days by a band of criminal thugs.

Finally, they had arrived at this point - a dozen more to do and then they could think about getting off this island. Chris leant back in his chair, stretched and sighed wearily.

"Poor Jenny, it always seems to be her," he muttered.

"What?" said Fay, looking up from the next personnel file.

"She was kidnapped and imprisoned by the Creature - he even arranged a wedding! And now Randall Ness has got her."

"Well, at least he won't try to marry her," said Fay.

"No, but he might try other things," said Chris darkly. That thought still troubled him.

"I don't think so," said Fay. "As I have told you, she is under a higher obligation to you; she wouldn't obey him in that way and would defend herself if necessary. And Ness didn't do anything like that to Matsu when he had her captive."

"Maybe you're right," said Chris gloomily, and then sighed again. "Come on, we've got a job to finish. Who's next?"

Fay told him, but her thoughts were on Chris himself. He needed to be brought out of this depressed mood. She decided she should talk to Brigit about it.

*****

A week had now passed since the failed attempt to rescue Athena and Chris, Brigit, Matsu, Freya, Fay and Marco had left the island and were back in Manilla, along with Carter Jackson, who Fay had insisted they bring with them. Chris found him a pleasant enough young man, who seemed eager to please, and seemingly very embarrassed by his involvement - indirect as it was - in the abduction and imprisonment of Athena, Matsu and now Jenny.

But Chris would have preferred not to have anyone connected to Randall Ness around, no matter how apologetic they were. Jackson was here because Fay had argued forcefully that they needed him, without being very clear as to why. Even lacking her ability to read minds it was obvious to Chris that Fay had some interest in Jackson she had not revealed. He wanted to know what it was to be certain it presented no risk, and that was the only reason he had agreed to Jackson accompanying them. As soon as the chance arose he intended to take Fay aside privately and ask for the truth.

In fact, it was surprising how quickly Fay was becoming a key advisor to them all, especially on personal matters. Her ability to look into the thoughts and emotions of others, gave profound insights. And so it was that Brigit found herself consulting the purple-haired girl about her own husband. She might have been reluctant to do that, but the stakes were high and more important than personal pride. And she found herself pushing at an open door, as Fay had similar concerns.

"Fay, I want to talk to you about Chris," Brigit had begun, "I'm worried about him. Ever since Jenny was captured his mood has been low. I think her blames himself, although we all know it wasn't his fault. This fretting isn't good for him, nor for us. We need our Master at his best to work out what we do next. Do you know how I can help him?"

Fay nodded, "You're right about that. I spent hours with him during the deprogramming of Ness' staff and he is gloomy. I think it's not too bad, not depression or anything, but he can't snap out of it on his own. What he needs is a confidence boost. He needs to be reminded he is the Master of Elements and what that means."

"And how do I do that?" asked Brigit.

"I have an idea," replied her friend, "but it will need Matsu and Freya to agree."

Fay explained her thoughts and Brigit listened with growing amusement. "I didn't expect to be given such pleasant advice," she said with a laugh. "Matsu will happily do that for Chris and as for Freya ..."

Fay laughed as well, "Yes, I suppose it will do Queen Freya good as well. I hope it works."

"Oh, we'll make sure of that," said Brigit with a smile. "My dear husband won't know what's hit him!"

*****

When Randall Ness' daughter Chloe was eight, she had developed a brief enthusiasm, as small girls sometimes do, for the idea of pony riding and, under pressure from her mother, her wealthy father had bought a ranch about an hour's drive from the family home in rural California and stocked it with a string of ponies for her and her friends to play with. However, after she had fallen off a couple of times, Chloe had soon moved on to other interests.

Ness had sold the ponies but kept the ranch, figuring that real estate always had value. It was complete with a main house and subsidiary bunk house and several barns and stables for anyone who fancied playing at cowboy. Randall had had these maintained, but otherwise the place had sat empty for the last half dozen years. This cluster of buildings was surrounded by extensive grounds, so they were well away from the nearest roads and other habitation.

Now he considered it a fortuitous purchase; perhaps his daughter's whim had done some good after all. The place was perfect - with some modification - for his current purposes. Handily placed near his home and with the capacity to be sealed off from prying eyes, there was plenty of space to house the scientific research he still wanted done together with his bodyguard, his two prisoners, and his harem, without the difficulties that keeping any of those at his home or his businesses would have raised.

He would need to expand the accommodation as well as getting the place fenced off, but none of that presented great difficulties given his ability to throw money at the problem. However, establishing somewhere safe - by which he meant underground - for research into elemental powers, was another matter. This was where Jennifer Kitaka came in; she had the potential to do in hours what might take months otherwise.

Randall Ness arrived at the ranch a week after getting back to California, to see how Jenny was progressing with the plans he had given her. It was midday, but he had been there two nights before to see her put up the perimeter fencing, and it had been an amazing sight. He had purchased a large quantity of metal posts and mesh fencing, as Jenny had said there were not enough of the right sort of minerals in the area for her to work with, but had left the task of putting them up to her. Precisely twenty-one minutes after she had started work, the nine-mile perimeter of his estate was surrounded by a heavy, twenty-foot high, metallic fence.

Watching massive metal posts fly everywhere and embed themselves firmly in the ground and mesh fencing unroll and wrap itself from post to post before fastening itself in place had been so spectacular, but also downright weird, that Ness had found himself laughing at the sight. So bizarre was it that, although the work had been undertaken at dawn to minimise potential viewers, he wasn't worried if anyone had seen it. What Jenny had done was, in any normal sense, impossible and who was going to report seeing that? And if they did who would believe it? As it was, he just had puzzled neighbours who got up in the morning to find a fence standing where none had been the evening before.

Ness was hoping Jenny would have worked similar marvels with the subterranean space he needed for laboratories and accommodation and he looked forward to seeing her progress but he also had other business at the ranch today.

His stretch limo stopped outside the main house on the site. To its left-hand side were to be seen several tents - temporary accommodation for the growing number of staff he planned to base here. Jenny was standing outside the house, waiting for his arrival and dressed in blue overalls. Randall Ness climbed out of the car, accompanied by three women: Samantha Meyer, his bodyguard as well as harem member, Haley Wood, his brand new twenty-one-year-old personal assistant, and Professor Athena Makris, looking pale and anything but her usual elegant self in jeans and tee-shirt, but still happy to be on her feet and seeing some actual sunshine. Around her neck was a curious collar with a box-like attachment and her hands were bound in front with metal handcuffs.

"Samantha, take Miss Wood into the house. I'll join you and Lucia shortly," Ness commanded. He had been looking for a replacement for Talia Hendry in the role of 'blonde cocksucker', as he thought of it, and happily for him, if unfortunately for her, had found one immediately. Visiting his Californian business headquarters and passing through an open plan office on the way to his private one, he had spotted Haley, an intern. Looking hopelessly young and inexperienced, having recently left university, it was only her third day in the job, but she was slim, pretty and certainly blonde enough.

Haley was surprised and very nervous when told that the company owner himself, the legendary Randall Ness, wanted to see her in his office. Arriving promptly for this interview and wondering what it was about, within five minutes she was Ness' mind-controlled slave, and two minutes after that was on her knees sucking his cock. She proved not to be a direct replacement for Talia in that department, as she clearly lacked experience, but Ness felt the potential was there and he would enjoy overseeing her training and giving her plenty of opportunity to practice. Suddenly promoted from intern to 'special personal assistant' he had whisked her away to join his harem.

Sammy and Haley having disappeared into the house, Ness noticed Jenny and Athena looking at one another with a gaze that seemed to speak volumes, albeit he couldn't read all of it. A mix of pleasure, relief, concern, longing, fear and a dozen other emotions he guessed. He smiled reassuringly at the African girl and spoke to her.

"I have good news Jenny! Your brilliant idea worked, so there's no need for Athena to be drugged any more. I have a similar collar for you, as I think it best you wear one when the two of you are together. I don't want you getting any ideas about freeing her. Come here and I'll lock it on you."

Reluctantly, Jenny did so. Losing access to her abilities, even temporarily, was a little like having a limb cut off - they were part of who she was. But there was nothing in the obligations of a Mistress of Elements that prevented it, so she was forced to obey the command Ness had given her. He fastened the collar round her neck and then pocketed the key.

Jenny's 'brilliant idea' as Ness called it, had arisen from her wish to save Athena from being constantly sedated which, even though the drugs used were basically harmless, was still taking a physical toll on her. Jenny had proposed that as Ness' scientists had shown that an electro-magnetic field disrupted the ability of the Mistresses of Elements to use their powers, if Athena was fitted with a portable EM generator, then it might temporarily neutralise her abilities. She advised that the strength should be kept as weak as possible, given that EM radiation had the potential to be carcinogenic, although this had not been proved.

Ness had seized on this idea since it solved several immediate problems. A little trial and experimentation with Jenny had proven the concept and established the lowest viable EM strength and then, to his delight, Randall Ness suddenly found he had a cheap and easy way to restrain the dangerous Athena. He had agreed to Jenny's request to make as little use of it as possible, given the risk of side effects, and had urged her to complete the work on the holding cell for Athena, where there would be no need for the collar.

For this reason, among others, Randall Ness was looking insufferably smug and jovial as he removed Athena's handcuffs and said, "Well ladies, I'll leave you for the moment, I expect you have a lot to catch up on. I'm going into the house to spend some quality time with my little harem and give young Haley a practical demonstration of her new duties." He laughed at that happy thought. "When I've finished fucking what's left of her brains out, I'll be back for a tour of your work, Jenny, in a couple of hours."

When he had gone, Athena and Jenny hugged each other for some time without saying anything. Finally, Athena spoke, "I'm so sorry about this; sorry for everything."

"It should be me apologising to you," Jenny said. "I was supposed to be rescuing you and look what happened!"

There was so much Athena wanted to know about what had happened while she was imprisoned but she asked the most pressing question on her mind. So loaded a question, it only needed one word: "Master?"

Jenny looked at her solemnly, "He'll come for us, with the others; I know it. And this time they won't fail." Her faith was absolute and Athena, comforted, hugged her again.

*****

It was early evening the day after Brigit had talked to Fay. Chris had taken himself, alone, to the hotel bar to think. He was supposed to be planning their next move, based on the information they had found on the island, but his mind was continuously drawn back to his fears for Athena and Jenny, his responsibility for what had happened and self-doubt as to his ability to get them back. It made for a gloomy combination. He hadn't seen Brigit, Freya or Matsu since not long after breakfast - they had said something about a visit to the hairdressers and then shopping - and he always tended to slide into introspection when they weren't around.

Actually, the glimmerings of an idea had come to him after they left the island and returned to Manilla, but it wasn't much comfort either. His mind couldn't help but work on it and start to flesh out the details, but what he was thinking was dangerous and the more sensible part of his thoughts kept rejecting it as a possibility. As for the girls, he knew they would hate it. That was another reason he was content to be alone, apart from a glass of scotch - he didn't want Fay reading these particular thoughts until he had worked them through to his own satisfaction.

And that seemed likely to take a while. It was hard to concentrate on future planning, when his mind kept circling back to Athena, Jenny and his own failures. He was still pondering his troubles and telling himself that an evening spent drinking whisky wouldn't help at all, when he was interrupted.

The bar area was slightly raised up but fairly open apart from a few wooden rails and pillars and overlooked the marbled and elegant hotel lobby. At one end of that were the hotel entrance doors and at the other the elevators up to the rooms, with a reception area about half-way along on one side and the hotel bar on the other. Chris was suddenly aware of a disturbance in the lobby, as if something of interest was happening in the spaciously open area. At a table near him were sat two Americans, clearly businessmen of some sort, and he heard one say to the other, "Jesus! Will you look at that!" So Chris looked.

Coming through the lobby from the direction of the elevators and heading for the bar, were three women, or perhaps three goddesses; they certainly looked it. They were in no particular hurry, seeming fully aware of the stir they were creating.

Leading the way was a redhead, and her long hair was indeed magnificent, curled into ringlets and tumbling over her shoulders. Indeed, all three - redhead, blonde and raven black - looked superb in that respect. She was wearing a red dress, clearly expensive and theoretically respectable enough, but its tight figure hugging lines, low cut front and above the knee hemline combined to leave no one in doubt of the lady's physical charms.

Aside from the dress, she was wearing red tights - or were they stockings, Chris wondered; he thought perhaps they were - high heels and a modest collection of jewellery, of which the most notable feature was a gold ring with a large ruby. Her face was beautifully made-up and the cool expression she was maintaining for the benefit of the other guests was offset by a mischievous twinkle in her green eyes. The lady was clearly enjoying the stir she and her friends were causing.