Eighty-one: Secret exposed

By the time Kiran returned, he found us giggling together over a story I had just told her. I saw him in the doorway, releasing a huge sigh as a weight lifted from his shoulders. He rolled his shoulders back and stepped into the room followed by a few other men.

"I see you two have met," he bent over Aylissa's hand and brushed his lips against the back of it. He took one look at my tangled predicament and tired expression and kissed my forehead. "Did she hurt you?" he whispered, lifting me back into bed.

"No," I whispered back in his ear. What was a lie?

"Good." He spoke in his normal voice. "You fell out of bed again? I've told you so many times to wait until someone comes to help and not try to do things yourself." He turned back to the other men. "Father, gentlemen, this is Jean Wallace, whom you have heard about."

The men looked down on me and I could see disgust in some of their faces.

"Hello, Jeanie," said one man, stepping forward to brush his lips against the back of my hand. I found I didn't much like it. "What, you don't recognise your old boss?"

"Mr Barrel," I gasped, wincing when I tried to get up too fast and the room spun for a loop. I'd almost forgotten what the former CEO of Ibis Industries looked like. The memory was from another era. Another lifetime.

He pushed me back down, gently.

"You look terrible, girl," he said with a quirk to his lips. "You haven't been taking care of yourself, I hear."

"Not my fault, sir," I told him.

"I know. I've heard," he grinned and looked back at the other men. "You have more to thank her for than you know," he told them, puffing his chest out. I had a feeling. A bad one and I grabbed his arm.

"No," I told him, eyes wide and pleading. "Don't tell them."

He gave me an amused glance and shook me off, straightening up.

"She was the one who sent you the information about the moles in your midst and the security grid around the Department of Defence. If she had followed my exact instructions, she'd have been the scapegoat and be in a prison cell far away right now. Except, I underestimated her and she had her own ideas which led the investigators in circles, so that they never found out. Even covered her tracks by crashing the entire internet. Yes, Jean, I know that was you. I even helped cover up for you when I saw what a marvellous job you'd done. You provided enough distraction and upheaval across the world that I had time to send the complete packet of information in a more secure manner across the border. We really should thank you for that."

I covered my face with my hands. My government would never believe that I was never a spy now, once the word got out. And word would get out. I knew it would. They'd make sure it would. He would make sure it would.

My entire body burned with anger. I shook so hard, I thought I might explode like a faulty pressure cooker. The big, fat slimeball slug. Everyone else probably thought I was panicking. In reality, I just wanted to kill the big bucket of lard.

The men made amused and surprised noises. I guessed they were all looking at me in a whole new way now, but I wasn't about to peek and find out. This was bad enough.

"Although I don't thank you for nearly destroying my company after that. You covered your tracks too well for me to point anyone in your direction. You're lucky that I was your referee for your new job before you pulled that stunt or I'd have made sure you never worked in the IT industry ever again."

God help me. He knew about that too?

"Is she a double agent?" murmurs came from within the group.

"Oh no," Mr Barrel laughed. "That's what makes everything so amusing. I checked. She's nobody's spy. She's just a cold hearted, selfish, little bitch." I wanted to sink through the bed and through the floor and under the ground if at all possible. Or stab a knife in his heart. "She was getting revenge on a few of my boys when they'd played a few too many tricks on her. After all I'd done to try and help her too," Mr Barrel continued.

Harassment. That was what it had been and you still don't think it was anything serious. What a bigot. I couldn't believe I had once trusted this man. A knife in the heart was too easy a death for him. A slower, more tortuous death would be better. Unfortunately, I was not the murdering type and couldn't come up with something suitably horrible.

"I suppose we should thank her for the recent attacks on our computer networks too. The code had her fingerprints all over the programs. Nearly fried the entire system. Good thing we'd just backed everything up."

I waved my arms.

"That wasn't me. Wasn't me. They wouldn't let me near the computers."

"But you did help them quite a bit," Mr Barrel caught my wrists, "or I wouldn't have seen your codes mixed in there."

"It's your fault for sending so many prototype viruses that it was plain what you were aiming for. Your spyware was just out in the open -"

"For you, maybe," Mr Barrel's grip tightened on my wrists. "Not any of the other wannabe nerds, but thanks to you, or perhaps your lack of involvement in the final attack, they didn't realise what a big door they left open for us. Now we can see everything they're about to do."

I looked away, trying to shake his grip off. I had a feeling I'd have bruise marks later.

"Gentlemen, if I may," Mr Barrel said, "I'd recommend you never, ever let Jean Wallace near a computer if you want to win the war. We're almost there. Don't let her go into play. Keep her isolated. From what our sources have told us so far, we have seriously underestimated this young woman too many times. She's far too devious."

"She just wants to go home," Aylissa piped up. "Could we just send her home?"

Everyone looked at a man that looked like an older version of Kiran.

He drew a deep breath, deep eyes boring into mine. What I saw there was contempt. Contempt and disgust. Oh, I was in trouble. Big trouble. Deep trouble.

"Take her family into custody."

"No," I gasped, my voice building up into a desperate scream. I'd been able to keep my family out of this for so long. And now they were in trouble because of me. "No. No! Not my family! They have nothing to do with all this. Please!"

"If she's so dangerous, then who knows what her family are like," Kiran's father rumbled. "She's also more likely to behave if she knows there will be serious consequences for any further attempts to escape or help our enemies. Son, I know your thoughts, but no. Twice royal or not, this woman, will be a slave for daring to betray the people of her own blood. Do you understand me? A woman like that has to be kept on a tight leash."

Kiran sat next to me to keep me from falling out the bed while I screamed and begged for my family. He glanced at Aylissa and bowed his head. He covered my mouth with his hand to silence me. I could feel the tension in his arms.

"She's lucky she can't walk or I'd have her executed. She deserves everything that has happened to her so far. Don't," Kiran's father jabbed his finger in Kiran's direction. "I know what you want to say. Don't ask me again. I won't have it. Dr Eisor will have her and you can do as you like to her afterwards. She doesn't leave this apartment without you to keep an eye on her. You've done well so far. Keep it up. Don't break your winning record. Come. You too, Aylissa."

They all left the room and I was left alone to cry and wish I was dead. I must have cried myself to sleep, because when I woke up, I found myself alone with Dr Eisor and he was singing.

"Good morning, darling," he sang, and bubbling with excitement, while he worked. Everything from my neck down was numb and I couldn't move. "I've finally got you where I've wanted you all along. Kiran's begged me not to put the silver stripe and I can't do it anyway, because of what I did before. However I can embed some more of these and tweak a few things and you may be my best creation yet. Whistlor has offered to try you out, although since I know you're still a virgin, there won't be much he can do to you. You'll be all Kiran's. I still have some measure of control though. I can punish you with pain or unpleasant experiences if you disobey. And if you ever get too far away from where you are supposed to be, I can do a lot of things to you. Like cripple you or blow you up."

Dr Eisor made wild shapes in the air with his arms, grinning like a loon.

"Isn't that exciting?" he asked. "It'd be a pity to completely condition you, because I like that fiery spirit of yours. Kiran would be mad if I messed with you too much, but you will have to learn certain responses and how to satisfy all a man's needs and leave him wanting more. If you are a success, I can start a new line of models and become even richer than I already am. I can now also make sure you never walk again."

I rolled my eyes, unable to do anything much more than that and grimace. Oh and cry. My eyes were aching while they continuously streamed, while internally I was throwing everything I could at my motor controls to try and make my body move.

"Oh, darling, why the face? It'll be wonderful. You get used to it. They all do. Once you've accepted your new lot in life, you'll learn to love it. You won't have to think or worry about anything besides keeping both Kiran and Aylissa both happy and satisfied. Learning to serve people and be a slave won't be hard for you. You already have the right mindset that will help you settle in. Don't cry. You'll love me when you're done, because you'll need to see me regularly for fine-tuning."

I closed my eyes and tried to tune out of the horrible man's babble. Something must have happened to him when he was younger to make him like this. Perhaps he'd been emasculated at some stage and now had a vendetta against all the females of the world.