Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 Lilah and her master get down to business; A sequel to "My Brief Career"
and "My New Career"

   MC MF MD HU

   My Real Estate Career By D.Holzer [DHolzer2@Cox.net] "That was easy
enough!" Lilah exclaimed, standing, nearly naked, over the unconscious body
of Johnny, neophyte high-school Mind-Controller.  I had been in the file
room down the hall, checking through the records when she called me.  I had
"convinced" the high school staff that we were State auditors.

   "What happened?" I had figured this for an all-day job, and here she had
the boy slumped at her feet in the first hour.

   "Well, I found out the prettiest girl in school was a cheerleader named
Angela.  I asked her who was the last boy on earth she would ever date. 
Then I had 'that creepy nerd, Johnny' called to the office here."

   "We got as far as 'call me Lilah', when he tried Mind-Control on me -
'Now take off all your clothes, bitch!' So I did.  By the time I got down
to my black satin thong, his eyes rolled up and down he went."

   "How long will he stayed drugged?" I wondered aloud.  Lilah always
carried her own flask of knock-out brew on these jobs.

   "He didn't have any of the spiked drink I offered, he just fainted." She
grinned proudly.

   Couldn't blame the kid for that.  Damn, Lilah looked really hot wearing
nothing but that thong.

   "Wow.  Looks like you don't need me along at all." I told her.

   "Oh no!  I was so traumatized by the whole encounter, I think I'll need
at least 6 hours of continuous, vigorous sex to work out the tension, maybe
more."

   It's nice to feel needed.

   We spent the next couple days cleaning up Johnny's mess.  Luckily, he
was just starting out.  His older sister didn't realize that, thanks to
her, he was no longer a virgin.  He hadn't even gotten that far with Angela
yet.  It was all (relatively) fixable.  A while back we ran into one kid
who wiped out memories wholesale, replacing them with a robotic persona of
"I am your worthless slut".  That was depressing to try to reverse.

   "How come they're all such jerks?" Lilah asked, "You're a
Mind-Controller, and you're VERY nice."

   "We're going after the low-hanging fruit here." I guessed, "The nice
ones, the smart ones, and the really, diabolically, evil ones are going to
be much harder to find.  They don't follow the pattern, leave a trail of
carnage, or they're much better at hiding it."

   "No girls either, I notice." Lilah challenged.

   "They seem to go after their college roommates.  Maybe they mature
later."

   Although cutting off the next generation of Evil Mind-Controllers by
smothering them in the cradle (so to speak) was a worthwhile thing itself;
we agreed that we would have to come up with some ideas (besides checking
out all the local High Schools) to find the more sophisticated villains. 
Of course, that's not the way we came across our next case.

   We were having lunch in a relatively upscale restaurant near the campus.
As we waited, I handed Lilah my latest nifty prop for our crusader biz. 
She took my new business card and looked at it closely.

   "The Realtor?" She asked, "I thought you were making plenty as a
financial advisor.  Does this mean we finally get to go house shopping?"

   A side note: The main difference between a struggling money manager and
one making an 8-figure annual income (assuming reasonable competence, and I
am quite competent) is how much your wealthy clients like and trust you. 
My clients now REALLY like and trust me.  They also zealously refer me to
all their wealthy friends and business associates.  I'm always a bit amused
at accounts of Evil Mind-Controllers who work their butts off enslaving
girls to sell to shady underworld figures, all the while claiming they do
it "just for the money".  Bull.  They do it because they like to.  I've
been rolling in money since becoming a Mind-Controller.

   "It doesn't say 'Realtor'.  It says 'Retaliator' Maybe I shouldn't have
used that heavy Gothic font.."

   "Not the way you spell it." She replied, "But I didn't think you would
advertise yourself as 'The Retailor'."

   "I did them on the computer, I'll just have to fix that when we get
home. Do you think that's a great title or what?  Preserves my secret
identity and all."

   "You've been reading too many comic books.  You'll never have an
occasion to give out one of those cards."

   Just then an incredibly beautiful girl approached our table.  She
hesitated for just a moment, then asked Lilah: "Excuse me, are you a model?
Or would you be interested in doing any modeling?  The Agency where I work
is actively searching for new girls, and I get a big bonus for new
recruits." She offered a card.  (I almost gave her one of my new cards,
just to show Lilah.)

   "Thank you." Lilah took the card, smiling, "I've always wanted to give
it a try." After her lovely recruiter turned and scurried away, Lilah
turned to me and said happily; "She called me a girl!"

   Lilah was only 26 and looked much younger, so I had always thought of
her as a "girl".  I guess it counts for more coming from a stranger.  So
now I'm wondering if she prefers being thought of as a "girl" or as a
"woman", and how much trouble I would get into if I got it wrong. . . .

   ". . . .  need to look into." Lilah was saying, "Did you hear how flat
her voice got when she said 'recruits'?"

   "I'm sorry, I missed the first part of that.  What's up with wanting to
model?  I thought you were applying for med school."

   Lilah patiently started over, she usually didn't jump on me when I
drifted.  "I was saying - that girl is a mind-slave of some sort.  Her
voice was wrong, and she had that look - I think I'm getting good at
recognizing it.  I was playing along so we can follow up."

   "She was certainly pretty enough." I observed, "This is something we'll
need to look into." Lilah gave a huff, and glared at me.

  
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   Lilah visited the "Rapture" Modeling Agency that afternoon.  I waited
for her outside.  Most of the precautions we had taken to try to make Lilah
resistant to mind control would not work for me - I had no way to use
Mind-Control on myself.  So far, she had been able to obey or ignore at
will the commands given to her by other Mind-Controllers.  But none of them
knew she would resist, or had any reason to try any clever tactics or extra
effort.  In contrast, she had gotten ever-more-sensitive to my commands. 
Now she was doing stuff for me as soon as I thought of it, without my
having to add any extra "oomph" to my thoughts at all.

   Lilah hadn't hit the panic button, (speed-dial on her cell phone), and
soon strolled out again and crossed the street to where I was waiting.

   "Everyone in there is under some level of control, but no one tried
anything with me," Lilah reported.  "A new owner just bought the agency,
combined it with several others he also bought recently and re-named them
all.  The manager, Edna, told me I would have to do a final interview at
his house before being hired.  She treated it as merely a formality."

   "Sounds like he is our guy." I agreed.  "Did they schedule an
appointment for you yet?  Do we have time to check out the place tonight?"

   "I'm supposed to meet him tomorrow morning, so it looks like tonight is
it."

   Leave it to Lilah to make a reconnaissance mission into a fashion
opportunity.  She had me dressed in an all-black suit with a black shirt.
Matching shoes, belt, tie and buttons were black also, with no gloss.  She
was in a one-piece black catsuit that fit like she'd been dipped in dark
chocolate.

   "I thought the idea was to look inconspicuous," I objected.  "How would
we explain that outfit if we're stopped by the police?"

   "You could dress like Snappy the Clown, and, if the police ask, just
'oomph' their minds to believe everything is ordinary."

   "That doesn't avoid the fuss of having neighbors across the street or
passing motorists constantly calling in suspicious person reports."

   "It will be well past midnight." She argued, "Besides it might be -
Dangerous!"

   Ahh.  Her real reason came out.  Ever since she confronted Larry
(Lawrence, Laura, whatever) her first Evil Mind-Controller (if you don't
count me), Lilah was REALLY turned on by adventure, excitement, and danger.
It made her horny beyond belief.  If you're thinking I could just use
Mind-Control for the same effect, then you have no concept what Lilah was
like when coming off an adrenaline rush.  Mere words, like fanatic, urgent,
enthusiastic, wild and relentless, don't begin to convey the mood she
worked herself into.  My crusade against Evil Mind-Control has its rewards.

   So she wanted to dress up to heighten the drama of what would probably
be a boring evening.  Tonight we just wanted to scout the scene.

   The house we arrived at that night was a mansion straight out of a
gothic novel.  It was in an older neighborhood and well back from the road,
set amidst a semi-wilderness of scrub and trees.  (I think it was
landscaping gone to seed rather than native woods).  The estate had a new
gate, and a rather impressive perimeter wall.  Lilah and I parked down the
road and moved in closer to see what we could find.  Lilah had a (black)
bag full of gizmos she bought at the Spy Supply.  I had vetoed wearing
black ski masks, but they were in the bag, along with the camera,
flashlight, bugging devices, cell phone, pepper spray, her flask of
knock-out brew, and some tissues.  She let me borrow her night-vision
binoculars from time to time.

   The gate was automatic - in other words, no guard.  Getting past
mechanical / electronic security was actually much tougher (for me) than
getting a human to let me in, then forget doing so.  We started around the
wall to see if there was a break or another gate.  I had the NV Binos, and
I admit I was using them to look at Lilah's backside.  She looked
incredibly hot in that bodysuit, sneaking along just a little in front of
me and off to the side, doing her whole stealth / spy act.  I was totally
surprised when I walked straight into somebody.

   I had bumped into a young blonde woman, and dropped the binoculars.  The
moon was out, but in the shadows neither of us had seen the other.  She was
wearing a dark T-shirt and jeans, and recovered from her surprise a little
quicker than me.

   "Back off.  Sit down.  Put your hands behind your head.  Stay there."
She snapped.

   This all seemed very sensible to me, and I complied at once.  I was just
sitting there looking at her (she seemed very pretty, but it was dark) and
trying to figure out why I was just sitting there.

   Lilah materialized between us.  She had an enormous automatic handgun
pointed right at the blonde's face, about 12 inches from her nose.

   "Release my Master right now, bitch, or nothing on this green earth will
stop me from blowing your head off!" Lilah sounded angry, she blinked
twice. "Oh, don't try that again!  I'm immune.  Start talking and keep
talking, no more silent commands.  And I'd better like what you say."

   There's Mind-Control and then there's mind control.  Lilah's method
produced an instant change in her target.  The blonde went from confident
to totally panicked in about 3 seconds.

   "You can get up!  You're released!  Don't shoot me!  I'm just here
looking for my roommate!  She works for your Agency and nobody has seen her
in days.  I wasn't going to rob you or anything like that.  Last I heard,
she had moved in here with you.  I was thinking of sneaking in to see her,
kind of a prank, is all.  I'll just go now.  Forget I was even here." She
took a half step back and began to turn slowly.

   "Bullshit." Lilah pronounced.  "You're a Mind-Controller, I can tell. 
You're not telling me everything.  Let's start with 'What is your name?'"

   "Julie."

   While this was going on I picked up the binoculars and stood up.  My
head felt foggy, like I was about to faint.  I'd never been the target of a
Mind-Controller before.  I remember thinking that was the first time Lilah
ever called me "Master".  I managed to move into her field of view.

   "I'm OK." I announced, "I think Julie is telling the truth, mostly. 
She's here for the same reason we are - to rescue people in that house. 
Why don't you lower the gun a little?" I didn't know Lilah even had a gun,
till now.

   "You're not Larry?  The owner of 'Rapture Modeling'?  The guy who lives
here?" Julie asked.

   "No, we hunt Evil Mind-Controllers." With a little flourish, and a smirk
directed at Lilah, I pulled out my card and handed it to Julie.

   "The Realtor?" She asked.

   "Yeah, are you here for the open house?" Lilah couldn't resist.  I was
actually tempted to punch her shoulder, but she was still holding that gun
. . . .

   "Uh, that's supposed to be ' The Retaliator'.  I meant to reprint those
today."

   "Lots of privacy, gothic turrets, security wall, unfinished dungeon . .
. " Lilah continued.

   I pinched her butt.  Her outfit practically begged for it, anyway.  That
stopped her.

   We stood in the dark and compared notes.  Julie and her roommate Lisa
were models and college students.  When Rapture bought out the agency they
worked for, Julie quit to study full-time, but Lisa kept working.  Julie
had been using Mind-Control to have sex with Lisa, but Lisa remembered it
only as a series of erotic dreams.  Shortly after her "Transition
Interview" with the new owner Larry, Lisa announced she was moving into his
house, and there had been no word from her in over two weeks.  Julie had
come looking to sneak in and met us instead.

   Another side note - His name actually was Larry.  Obviously writing
about two consecutive Evil Mind-Controllers named Larry will confuse the
casual reader, so I will call him something more exotic and film noir -
Dimitrios.

   We talked for some time, coming up with a plan.  Julie was just as
curious about our Mind-Control experiences as we were about hers.

   "So, like you're his total Mind-Slave and you're happy with that?" She
asked Lilah.  "I could never quite bring myself to do that to Lisa."

   "Incredibly happy." Lilah answered at once.  Julie turned to me.

   "And you just told her 'You are my Slave' 'You must obey me' and she's
been yours ever since?"

   "Uh, I don't think I ever actually told her to obey me at all.  And the
word 'slave' never came up." I suddenly felt I had been cutting corners on
standard industry practice.

   "But the first thing you did when you saw her was 'push' her to have
sex, right?" Julie was looking lustfully at Lilah, not me.

   "Well, no.  See, she had these frequent migraines, and . . . .  "

   "Are you blind!?  Or gay?  Just look at her, she's the most delicious
thing I've ever seen.  And you didn't . .  "

   "Would you two quit talking about me like I'm not sitting here.  With
the gun.  I'm not a 'speak only when spoken to' kind of slave." Lilah
snipped at Julie.  "And if we've all agreed on the plan already, we can go
home now."

   On the drive home, Lilah rode in Julie's car to give directions.  When
we parked, I heard her saying; "Yes, frequently and with wild enthusiasm."
But I don't know what they were talking about.  When I opened the door to
our apartment, I was surprised to see Kim, in her full maid uniform,
waiting just inside.

   Yet another note: I think I already mentioned discovering that Lilah's
friend Kim was very submissive, and wanted to stay with Lilah and me after
we rescued her from the Evil Larry.  (The previous Evil Larry, not the
current Evil Larry who I am supposed to be calling "Dimitrios".) She not
only had a huge crush on Lilah but was completely into the whole "I am your
meek, humble, worthless slave" mind-set.  If the Previous Evil Larry had
not been so totally clueless, she would have been more than delighted to be
his slave forever.  If I got rid of her submissiveness, though, I would be
changing her original personality more than the Previous Clueless Evil
Larry ever did.  But I already had Lilah, and had decided not to become an
Evil Collector of Mind-Slaves.  We compromised by hiring Kim to come over,
dress up as our maid, and cook, clean and serve whenever we entertained. 
Lilah had phoned her that night on the way home.  Kim lived downstairs in
the same building, and had a key to our place.  I think Lilah was trying to
impress Julie.  I kept hoping that Kim would get a boyfriend / girlfriend
who was into the whole Domination thing.  Neither of us was sleeping with
her.

   Julie was, in fact, impressed.  Kim had prepared drinks and snacks (on
15 minutes notice).  Kim (and Lilah!) were laying it on thick with "Yes,
Master", "At once, Master", "I obey, Master" etc.  We had never entertained
another Mind Controller before.  I could get used to this.

   We worked on our plan, but mostly we were going to improvise.  What we
spent most of the night doing was preparing our defenses.  Lilah pointed
out that the series of commands that I had "oomphed" into her to make her
resistant should work for Julie as well.  And since Julie was also a Mind
Controller, she could "oomph" (she used the term "push") the same commands
for me.

   Normally I found the little extra "oomph" that I added to my commands
simple and easy.  But that night, working from the list that Lilah
retrieved, it was real work.  Lilah and I had come up with a number of very
clever, subtle, and powerful commands to enable her to recognize and resist
any Mind-Control attempted by someone other than me.  We had implemented
the program over the course of several weeks, but now Julie and I did it
all at once.  I was sweating and had to take several breaks, and Julie was
having an even harder time.

   It was actually quite a turn-on, sitting, and staring at Julie and
programming her mind, even as she was doing the same to me.  It didn't help
that after 40 minutes of sweating she took off her T-shirt, and was wearing
just her sports bra.  She was incredibly beautiful.  She had long
golden-blonde hair, deep ice-blue eyes, blindingly white, perfect teeth,
and a tall, slim athletic figure that had more than adequate curves.  More
than once I was actually tempted to surprise her with some sort of "Be Mine
Forever" command.  And all this with my devoted Lilah, the most beautiful
woman alive on this earth, sitting right across from us, with a gun!  (Not
sitting there holding it, of course.  But knowing she had one, somewhere
nearby, really worked its way into my thoughts.)

   My feelings about Julie were mixed, because I also resented her.  It
wasn't fair.  I am not ugly, but when I walk into a crowded bar heads do
not snap around to look at me, as they do for Julie.  And nearly all those
heads are filled with thoughts of how much they want to do it with her. 
She can have just about anyone or anything she wants, what does she need
with Mind-Control?

   We managed to work through the whole program.  I know you are curious,
but a lot of Evil Mind-Controllers may be reading this, so I am not going
to give any details of our immunity program.  Lilah keeps a copy hidden /
secured / encrypted (whatever) but none of us can remember the details
(deliberately).  Kim had already made up the spare bed for Julie, and we
all got some sleep before heading out to Dimitrios' again, late the next
morning.

  
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   Lilah had an appointment, and someone buzzed us through the gate.  At
the door we were greeted by a girl in a maid's uniform eerily like Kim's.
Lilah remarked to the maid that I would be waiting for them, without
further explaining me or Julie.  The maid showed us to a room and left to
fetch Dimitrios.  Our plan (such as it was) was abruptly scrapped when we
heard a woman screaming just down the hall.

   Following the sound, the three of us burst into what must have been a
huge ballroom once.  In between screams we heard a woman shouting: "You
have no name, you little slut!  Remember that, or Master will have to
punish you himself!  You're nothing but a nameless slave!"

   The huge room was full of naked women, scattered, kneeling around the
floor haphazardly.  Most were motionless, just staring straight ahead.  One
girl rocked slowly from side to side.  Another made soft semi-musical
mumbling noises.  There must have been 25-30 of them.  On the far side of
the room, an older woman (mid-thirties, my age), conservatively dressed,
was gesturing with some sort of hand-held device.  Each time she pointed it
at the girl in front of her, the kneeling girl screamed.

   "Stop it!" "Drop it now!" [double oomph!] Julie and I yelled together.
We were trying to get across the room to them without stepping on anybody.
"That's Edna, my old boss," Julie said.

   "Master is going to be very angry at this!" Edna said, "Very, Very
Angry!" She turned, and before any of us could stop her, stepped through
the heavy door at the far end of the room, slamming it behind her.

   The girl Edna had been punishing looked up at me as I hurried up. 
Meeting my eyes, she announced defiantly "My name is Christy." I was
impressed, given the numb state all the other girls were in.  I guess I
paused a little too long, I almost didn't hear her next whisper: "Christy?"

   One of the hardest things I've ever had to do was not stopping right
then and there to help Christy.  Julie was going from girl to girl, looking
for Lisa.  Lilah tried the door that Edna went through (it was locked).  I
did what I could for Christy, given that Edna was running off to "Master"
and ruining our surprise.

   "Christy, be strong [oomph].  We're here to help you.  You can hold on
[oomph]." It was the best I could manage on the spur of the moment.

   The gal in the maid outfit came in just then, and Julie was all over
her. "Where are the rest of the girls?  What have you done with Lisa?"

   "Everyone else has already been shipped out.  Master is going to be
angry." (We'd heard that already.)

   "Tell me where that door goes.  [oomph]"

   "It's the back stair to Master's office suite."

   "Show us how to get there.[oomph]"

   I know we shouldn't have split up, but a lot of hasty decisions were
being made.  When we looked around, we could see that the room was
splattered, all over, with blood.  There was a table by the door with a
pile of clothes on it and under it.  There were devices and equipment best
left undescribed.  The place stank.  You would think that with a such large
number of slaves, there would be no trouble keeping the torture room clean.
Julie stayed to get the former slaves dressed and hustled out the door,
while Lilah and I headed up the (front) stair, following the maid's
directions, to confront Dimitrios.

   He was alone in his office, sitting behind a big desk, when Lilah and I
got there.  He swiveled his chair to face us, a smug look on his face.

   "Who are you?  What are you doing here?" Dimitrios asked.

   I couldn't help myself (no, I don't mean I was Mind-Controlled), I
tossed my card onto his desk.  He looked at it closely, a bit confused.

   "I'm not looking to sell.  I have a negative equity since I took a 2nd
mortgage to buy the Agency."

   Damn.  I forgot to re-do those cards last night.

   He looked up and his smug look evaporated.  Lilah was pointing her
gigantic gun at his face.  (OK, it looks much bigger than it really is,
guns can be like that.) "Bastard." She said.

   "I might be convinced to list with you after all . . . .  "

   I didn't see it, but that was when Edna came in from behind us through a
side door, with her own gun, and took away Lilah's gun.  Then she handed
Lilah's gun to her boss, reaching across the desk.  Now they were both
pointing guns at Lilah and me.  This was going to be tricky, I could
"oomph" only one of them at a time.

   Meanwhile Dimitrios was talking; "You two have made a terrible mistake
coming here.  I am a sadist, a master torturer, as you are going to be
discovering first-hand.  And when I get through, my victims obey me
completely, willingly, almost eagerly.  Isn't that right, Edna?"

   "Yes, Master."

   I don't think Dimitrios even knew he was using Mind Control.  He thought
his victims were reacting to his infliction of pain and discipline.

   Inspiration came to me slowly.  "Edna, you are free of his commands
[oomph]." I concentrated on her, "Remember what you were like before him
[oomph].  Your will is your own [oomph].  Resist and ignore any commands he
has given you [oomph]." This was abrupt, but I was desperate.  I was
gambling that Edna hadn't been a junior torturer before Dimitrios got hold
of her.

   Slowly, without a word, she turned her gun from us to him.  She still
looked confused.  He looked at her, still smug.

   "You know how you've enjoyed teasing, tormenting, and torturing all
those girls." He told her, "Stripping them of their memories and their very
personalities.  I made you enjoy it.  You love it now, you can never go
back to being nice and warm and friendly.  Now you live to destroy people."

   She pointed her gun at him, he pointed his gun at her.

   "Put the gun away, Edna.  We have two new victims here.  I'll let you
supervise personally.  Think of how they will scream," he said.  He was
really on my bad side by now.

   "You are free of him.  [oomph].  He made you do things you didn't want
to.  Now you can do what you want.  [oomph].  You can do the right thing.
[oomph]." I normally took several days at this sort of thing, gradually
easing away the control commands, but I was in a hurry.  Edna still hadn't
made a decision.

   With his other hand Dimitrios reached in his desk drawer and pulled out
a remote control on a long cord.  He pushed the button.

   "Let me make this easy for you, Edna.  I installed this last-ditch
defense.  There's enough explosive here to blow up this house and leave a
crater all the way to the outer wall.  "Now that it's activated, I can stop
the clock for 10 minutes by holding down this button.  Time enough to enter
the code.  After that, Kaboom!  We all go!  It's a dead-man switch.  Shoot
me now and we all die."

   What kind of idiot would install something like that?

   Edna shot him in the head.  He shot her in the chest.  Her aim was
better, but he had a bigger gun.  They both fell, dead, to the floor.

   I threw myself behind the desk and grabbed the dead-man switch even
before the dead man dropped it.  At the same time I "oomphed" Lilah.

   "RUN!  [OOMPH!!] DOWN THE STAIRS, OUT THE DOOR, THROUGH THE GATE! 
[OOMPH!!] KEEP GOING TILL YOU'RE CLEAR!  [OOMPH!!] WARN EVERYONE! 
[OOMPH!!!]" I yelled at her loud enough to rattle the windows.

   When Lilah was gone, I followed the cord to a device plugged into his
computer.  Stepping over Dimitrios, a saw a little red display on it that
said "08:20" it was counting down in minutes.  On the computer screen a big
flashing message read "Enter Code:".  I had enough cord to look out the
window.  Out on the lawn, Lilah and Julie were herding all the former
slaves out the front gate.

   I guessed at a code-word and typed it in.  Nothing.  I hit "Enter", the
screen blinked and came back "Enter Code:".  I tried again.  Everything I
could think of.  None of them worked.  With "00:12" left, I typed in
"Dimitrios".

  
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   Since you're reading this, you know I didn't blow up.  I know it would
be more dramatic if "Dimitrios" was the right code, but of course it
wasn't. (It really was the last thing I typed in, though.) The device
really was wired up to a shitload of explosives.  When it got to "00:00" a
buzzer went off, I just about jumped out of my skin, and - nothing
happened. Dimitrios was a better Mind-Controller than he was a
Demolitionist, and he was a truly lousy Mind-Controller.  He'd wired it
wrong.

   Poor Edna.  I had failed miserably.  Thinking back, there were dozens of
commands I could have given that would have turned out better, and two
people (OK, one person plus Dimitrios) would still be alive.  I think she
believed him when he told her that he had changed her irreversibly.  She
didn't want to live with who she had become.  But one of the bright spots
of my career is discovering that with care and patience (and "oomph"),
almost everything is reversible.

   It was a little embarrassing to make a grand gesture like that and then
not blow up.  Sure, I earned big points with Lilah, but she was already as
devoted and fanatically loyal as anyone could expect.  In fact, over the
next week, she tried to kill me several times a day with incredible sex. 
Then she asked me, afterwards, when I was utterly exhausted and unable to
move or think clearly: "Did it occur to you that you could have ordered me
to hold the button while YOU made your escape to safety?"

   "No." I answered, but we both knew I was lying.  Of course I had thought
it.  In that moment I decided I would rather stay and try to guess the
code, knowing she would be safe, than order her to die and then try to live
with myself.  (If I had actually blown up, that would have probably changed
my mind.)

   This was by far our biggest mess to clean up, ever.  Fortunately Julie
helped out a lot.  The police put it down as a double homicide, and did not
question why Edna was shot with Lilah's gun.  The motive was (supposedly) a
dispute over their joint pornography / prostitution / slavery ring.  We
tried to spare Edna's reputation, but that was a little difficult without
exposing the whole Mind-Control thing.

   We found some of his notes, along with some Agency records.  There were
12 girls missing, one of them Lisa.  It looked like she had been sent to
Bangkok or Dubai (or possibly Rio de Janeiro).  I promised Julie that we
would help her find Lisa, wherever she was.

   We spent several weeks working with the formerly enslaved fashion
models. They were badly messed up.  Presumably Dimitrios only used his
Mind-Control "oomph" in conjunction with punishment, discipline and
torture. He made his victims feel like nameless, inadequate creatures who
deserved pain and humiliation.  I can't say his death bothered me too much.

   When Lilah came to me and said "We have to talk" I thought it was about
helping one of the victims.

   "My life has been going better than I could have ever imagined," she
said "And you're a big part of it.  But that has to change now."

   Oh No.  I had been waiting for this.  I'd never actually forced Lilah to
stay with me, and her constant reassurances had buried my fears that she
would leave me.  I thought the timing of this talk was a bit odd, I guess
some people resent feeling gratitude.

   "From now on, I don't have my own life in which I 'fit you in'." Lilah
went on, "Now I exist ONLY to please you and make you happy.  You said the
other day that I couldn't be more devoted, but that's just not true.  I'll
just have to try harder; much, much harder.  I want to frighten you with my
intense and ever-growing loyalty.  And every day I will get better,
whatever it takes, I promise."

   10 seconds along, and she'd met her first goal of frightening me.  My
only (irrational) complaint about Lilah was that she was constantly taking
herself to places before I could "push" her there with Mind-Control, and
then went out beyond where I was willing to "push".  It takes some of the
fun out of it.

   "We also have to talk about Kim." Lilah wasn't done.  I had been hoping
to match up Kim and Julie, but didn't want to bring it up while Lisa's
abduction was still Julie's top concern.

   "I don't know if you've been insanely clever, or just inept but lucky,"
(that was not purely rhetorical on her part, every once in a while I AM
clever), "but you have managed to hit every single note on her warped
xylophone mind." Lilah scolded.

   "I haven't 'oomphed' her since that first week." I defended myself, "I
was hoping that she'd improve with time.  I know she had a big crush on
you, even before Larry got to her."

   "She knows you're a Mind-Controller.  You rescued her from Larry.  You
helped her recover, then you callously ignored her.  She sees that I'm your
slave.  You had her act as our servant, then you callously ignored her
again.  Somewhere along the line she has decided you're the most wonderful,
dominant male she could ever hope to be the slave of.  She'd crawl through
broken glass to get a kind word from you."

   "That doesn't sound like a sequence that would make someone love me." I
observed.

   "Something in that girl got really twisted, from way back." Lilah said,
"Go figure.  The thing is, you've been stringing her along till she's ready
to explode."

   "I was thinking of setting her up with Julie." I offered.

   "We had a long talk, and I think we've come up with a good solution,"
Lilah told me, "But first you have to talk to Julie, she'll give you the
details." She gave me a mysterious grin, but refused to explain further.

   Julie looked exhausted.  She had interrogated every former slave, combed
through the records, and tried to piece together clues to where Lisa had
been sent.  She smiled when she saw Lilah and me, the two of them
exchanging knowing looks and nods right in front of me.  Lilah left us
alone.

   "That girl is so in love," Julie said when Lilah was gone, "I don't
think I could peel Lilah away from you with a bucket of paint thinner and a
putty knife, Mind-Control or no."

   "We've been through a lot together.  But despite what she says, she's
not really a Mind-Slave.  I've never 'oomphed' her to stay with me."

   "Yeah; Lilah, Kim and I had a long talk yesterday," Julie said, "About
you, about us.  You've got a talent for inspiring loyalty.  I want to learn
that.  And I want to join the cause and help, but Lilah says you'd have a
problem with that."

   "We can combine forces, I don't see a problem there."

   "No." She explained, "I mean that I want you.  And I want Lilah and Kim,
too.  And you're not ready to 'combine' that closely."

   "I don't want to become another Clueless Evil Larry." I said, "And I
don't want to hurt Lilah."

   "So part of you wants it, but the rest of you is afraid it will get out
of hand.  Sounds like a job for Mind-Control., you know, to adjust your
attitude."

   "I'd rather you didn't." I said, suddenly worried she would try
something.  "I like my own beliefs and values the way they are now, thank
you."

   "Too late." She was grinning at me as she sprang her surprise.  "I
already 'pushed' you last night, after dinner when you weren't expecting
it. Lilah helped me write up the list of commands.  Now you can remember
everything."

   She was right.  Now I remembered a long session last night, Julie
"oomphing" ideas into my head.  The wording of the commands had Lilah's
touch all over them.  She knew exactly how to avoid frightening or
upsetting me (without just over-riding my feelings).  I would completely
accept having sex with Lilah, Kim and Julie, or any possible combination of
2, 3 or 4 of us.  I would view this acceptance as a unique exception that
would not alter any of my moral values.  I would not remember any of it
until talking to Julie today.  And I would have to say "Julie, I accept"
for any of the commands to take effect.  If I said "Julie, I decline" all
of those commands would disappear.

   Julie was looking at me as all this sank in.  At least for now, my
attitudes were still my own.

   "Lilah made you put in that 'accept / decline' command in, didn't she?"
I asked.

   "This isn't a trick.  We want you to have a choice." She said, "And how
DO you get women to become so devoted to you without Mind-Controlling
them?"

   I was not about to reveal my secret "inept-but-lucky" strategy, so I
gave her one of those zen-riddle type answers.

   "What do you think?  Isn't that what you're doing right now?"

   As a suitably confused look crossed her face, I said; "Julie, I accept."

   I bought Dimitrios' House.  The bank had foreclosed on his estate and
nobody wanted to buy the scene of a recent double homicide / torture
chamber.  And he had been really slack on the maintenance (what did he have
all those slaves doing?) Not only would a few simple renovations really add
to the curb appeal, but the whole neighborhood was getting trendy and
upscale.

   The place had 14 bedrooms, but filling it up with nubile young female
Mind-Slaves was not the plan.  Just the four of us.  Neither was it to
become the nerve center and headquarters of my vast conspiracy of Fear and
World Domination.  I just thought the Real Estate would appreciate nicely.
   I also got my cards re-done.