Xora 3: Shell Game

by Brandy Dewinter

 

Chapter 8 - "Dark Blonde"

 

*"Calm down,"* Titania ordered smugly. *"There's no need to panic."*

The condescension in her mental voice did NOT reduce my irritation, but I was so relieved to hear the humor in it that I nearly forgot my anger. Well, forgot some of my anger. A little of it.

*"Don't *do* that to me, Titania. It was *not* funny."*

*"It wasn't meant to be funny,"* she claimed. *"I was busy taking care of that powder and didn't have time to explain."*

*"You had time to do the lockup thing,"* I pointed out. *"And why did you take away my sight?"*

*"There was no way you could fake the rigidity the other girls showed, and you know it. And if you'd have been paying attention, you'd have noticed that the girls closed their eyes. I was just making sure we looked right."*

I sighed and let it drop. She was . . . well, the bad thing is she was probably right, and the worse thing was that it wouldn't have mattered if I *had* been right. She was not likely to relent in thinking she could just make those sorts of decisions about us, regardless of any argument I might make. And the worst thing was . . . I knew I often did the same thing.

Instead of arguing, I asked, *"What did you find out about the drug?"*

*"Not much, yet,"* she admitted. *"Mostly I've been careful to keep it out of our system. I encapsulated it and moved it into one of your 'storage volumes.' But I haven't been able to determine what it does."*

*"What about the other girls? Can you tell from them?"*

*"Oh, good idea,"* Titania said, but then she did nothing.

She picked up my thought and explained, *"I'm slipping a tendril out to each of them, and I'll take blood samples. Maybe I can tell from that."*

It was a long, frustrating wait while she did her work. There had been a lot of times since we had joined when I had felt . . . ineffective, but I hadn't felt as helpless even when we were sitting in that nasty swamp on Teton. I was essentially blind, paralyzed, and, well, useless.

*"No you're not,"* Titania assured me. *"Even if it's just your mind that's helping, that's valuable. After all, you're the one who suggested I check the other girls."*

*"What did you find?"*

*"Not much, so far,"* she admitted again. *"I can make a pretty good guess on how long they'll be out, though. It should last most of the night, based on how quickly their systems are metabolizing this stuff."*

*"Good. That gives us a chance to do some snooping around."*

*"Ah, well, yes and no,"* replied Titania. *"I don't think *you* can snoop around. But Tryx could."*

*"Tryx is busy with Mordant,"* I reminded her.

*"Yes, but you're not."*

*"I thought you just said . . . oh."* Well, sometimes I'm a little slow.

Titania informed me of another development. *"Okay, the lights just went out in the common areas. I think that probably means everyone has gone to bed."*

Her giggle was deliberately lewd and had its expected effect on me when she said, *"Some of them may even have gone to sleep."*

Sensing my reaction, she laughed again. *"Girl, you should have agreed to go with Mordant. You need to get yourself a little action. You are *way* too horny."*

*"Tell me about it,"* I replied through the mental equivalent of gritted teeth. *"I could use a little help, here."*

*"Why don't you just go find that toady guy? I'm sure he'd, ah, 'help' you all you want."*

Well, that was effective. The thought of sex with that unpleasant man took care of my arousal in a hurry.

*"You're welcome,"* Ti said, smugly claiming credit for my recovery.

I stifled what I wanted to say in return and got back to business. *"Okay, if the villa is dark, let's get moving."*

*"Just a minute,"* Ti replied. It was more than that. How much more was hard to say as I lay there in my rigid, dark, prison. But eventually the room went from pure black to merely darkened and I was able to move again.

Only, as expected, it wasn't me. In a nearby mirror - Mordant had a lot of those around, and what they said about his ego was obvious - I saw Tryx sway smoothly to her feet. That resurrected my arousal between one heartbeat and the next. The blonde in the mirror was more beautiful than any woman had a right to be in the dead of night, but what really made the image . . . distracting was the accenting emphasis of stockings, a miniscule thong panty, and a half-cup bra that offered up her, ah, *my* 'girls' as blatantly as, well, as blatantly as Tryx's personality seemed to demand. Starburst, those puppies were even *bigger* when you were wearing them!

	These puppies were even bigger when you were wearing them!

*"Not a word, Titty. Don't you say a damn word,"* I demanded. Not that it helped. Her amusement at my . . . discomfort came through just fine without any words at all.

*"I presume there's a reason for this?"* I asked, waving my hand at the - well, 'clothes' is probably too generous - that I seemed to be wearing.

*"That's what Tryx had on under her dress,"* Ti explained. *"The dress itself is too restrictive to move in easily, but you shouldn't be impeded much by her lingerie."*

*"Is this really what she was wearing under her dress?"* I asked.

*"Yes,"* confirmed Titania, *"only hers were real. Not part of Bee, I mean."*

*"Why would she do that? It seems sort of . . . needless, and risky. Real stockings that sheer would be too easy to damage."*

*"I think that's the point,"* Titania observed. *"The sense I get from Bee is that Tryx likes to dress in, um, fragile clothes when she's trying to be particularly seductive. The need to be extra careful makes her move in a dainty, gracefully feminine way."*

More of that 'being' pretty as well as 'looking' pretty thing. I'd have to think about that.

*"Oh, I expect you'll be thinking about it a lot,"* Ti snickered. *"Tryx has always had that effect on you."*

I was once again saved from the need to find a suitable response by an external situation. I had been moving through Mordant's villa as she spoke, carefully trying doors without opening any of them. That was sort of the point. If the door were unlocked, I figured there wasn't anything important in the room behind it, at least, not something important to the mission. Interior doors in personal residences didn't open automatically as you approached them, of course. Like a lot of really rich people, Mordant liked to hide ultra-modern convenience behind a veneer of antiquity. Room temperature was computer controlled and you could have lights just by asking for them, but the doors to each room had old-fashioned knobs you actually had to work by hand. That was good news for me, because I could carefully test each handle to determine if it would turn. Those that turned were unlocked, and I moved on as soon as I checked.

But as Titania was making her unnecessary reminder that I would be thinking of Tryx in her scanties - a lot - I found a doorknob that wouldn't turn. The unwanted expertise with locks we had gained on Machovia was finally useful and it only took a moment for Titania to have us inside.

*"Paydirt,"* I exclaimed.

*"The room is clean,"* Titania observed in confusion.

*"Another expression,"* I explained tersely as I moved to the desk in what was obviously an office or study. In a few minutes, it was also obviously a dead end. The place was too sterile to provide any clues. There wasn't even a computer terminal, except a standard vid. Maybe Tryx, the real Tryx, had known this villa was too temporary to have any important clues about Mordant's organization. If so, she hadn't told me and I had wasted a good sneak.

Then it didn't seem like quite so good a sneak when I was caught halfway back to the room where the drugged girls were.

"What are you doing here?" a sharp voice demanded. Turning, I saw the girl I knew was Cheya, the touchy redhead.

"Looking for the, ah, powder room," I claimed nonchalantly as I took an unnecessarily deep breath. After all, Tryx's philosophy was: If you got 'em, flaunt 'em. I most certainly had *them* and there wasn't any better way to assert my 'Tryx-ness' than by being, ah, proud. "I didn't want to disturb Oslo by using the one by the bedroom."

"How thoughtful of you," she sneered while she tried unsuccessfully to drag her eyes back up to look at my face. "Usually it takes a new girl three or four doses of thionite before she's that focused on pleasing him."

*"So that's what it's like when people talk to your boobs,"* I snickered silently.

*"Like you didn't know already,"* Titania laughed. *"What's the matter? Feeling a little jealous are we? I can make them permanent, you know."*

*"Don't even start. My back is already hurting from lugging these things around."*

*"I can fix that too,"* Titania offered, and my invisible corset stiffened even further.

"Thionite?" I asked Cheya, trying to get back on the mission. Supposedly, I didn't know what that was.

"His powder," she explained, then showed she was in its thrall as much as anyone when her eyes gleamed as she said, "It's . . . wonderful."

Her eyes tightened and she said, "But there's not really enough to go around. You and your dark-haired girl-toy should leave. Now."

"Why? You can have your silly powder, for all I care. I'm having fun with Oslo without it. He's quite a man."

"He's a *man*," Cheya spat. "And like all men, he's disgusting."

"Then why do you stay?"

"It's worth it." A hunger gleamed again in her eyes. "There's nothing in the universe like thionite. Now, do like I told you and leave, or . . ."

"Or what?" I asked countering the menace in her tones with careful nonchalance in my own.

"Or I'll . . . . convince you to leave. The hard way," the redhead replied, no ambiguity in her threat now.

"Not that I couldn't roll you up in a ball and stuff you down a disposal chute," I made my own threat, "but I don't think that's what Oslo wants. Just tell me where the ladies' room is, or I'll find it on my own."

*"Who are you trying to fool?"* asked Titania. *"She looks like she eats women like you for breakfast - and enjoys it."*

*"I'm trying to fool *her*, of course,"* I snapped. *"Now shut up or help."*

*"Help how?"*

*"If you don't know, then start by leaving me alone!"*

Cheya was, well, it looked like she was swelling up. It was probably just her muscles tightening, but it made her look like a coiled spring under a lot of tension. I was trying to decide how to respond to the impending attack, respond in some way that didn't get either one of us hurt, when my partner intruded on my concentration again.

*"Shake her hand,"* Titania said.

*"What?"*

*"Shake her hand,"* my symbiont repeated, and then I understood when I felt my hand become very stiff.

"Look, um . . . I don't think I got your name . . . neither of us want to upset Oslo. Why don't we just shake hands and be on our way?"

I stuck my hand out to the glowering redhead, and I could see the calculation in her mind. I looked pretty delicate in my dainty stockings and silly excuse for a bra, and Cheya's disdain for man had enough undertones of envy for them that even I picked up on it. She clearly thought a 'manly' test of strength would be a good way to intimidate me without doing anything Mordant could fault. Gripping my hand firmly, she started to squeeze.

That, of course, did no good at all. Titania had made my hand as hard as a bar of hull metal, and Cheya could have stood on it without leaving an impression. After a few minutes of fruitless struggle, Cheya stepped back in anger. Before she could do anything else, I let a growl into my - that is, Tryx's - normally dulcet tones and made my own threat.

"Next time, Red, it'll be my turn to squeeze."

Then I turned my back on her, trusting Titania for any warning we might need, and ostentatiously opened the nearest door. Sometimes, luck happens and it actually turned out to be a powder room. I was in with the door closed before the shakes started.

*"Fix that, will you Ti?"* I asked. She did, flushing the excess adrenaline from my system until the tremors stopped.

*"You really were scared,"* Ti observed.

*"Yes."*

*"I don't understand how I missed that,"* she said. *"I was monitoring, of course, but I thought you were about to attack her, not that you were scared."*

*"Sometimes, the difference is razor-thin,"* I said, knowing it to be true. *"I'd have been better off - physically - if we had actually fought, like what we had to do with Sstton's goons on Teton."*

Titania considered that for a moment. Then with an invisible shrug, she deliberately tried to lighten the mood. *"Well, at least one thing went right."*

*"Pray tell, what could *that* be?"*

*"Looking like Tryx, of course,"* she claimed. *"Cheya obviously knows you - that is, you as Xora - got some of the drug. If you had been found wandering the halls as yourself, the whole mission might have - what is the expression? - gone down the tubes. But Cheya accepted you as Tryx with no question."*

*"I should hope so, with the way I've been waving these bad boys around all night,"* I replied, but of course she was right. That's why Jonesy paired us on this mission in the first place. In truth, it wasn't the worst fate I could imagine. And my imagination started running around in excited circles at the idea of looking like - of being - Tryx.

*"Advertising again?"* Titania teased.

I didn't dignify that with an answer. Well, beyond the all-too-obvious one, or two as the case may be. *"We need to be getting back to the room with the cushions. Is Cheya still out there?"*

*"No, I don't think so,"* Ti reported. *"I'm pretty sure she's not, in fact."*

Carefully opening the door confirmed Titania's perceptions, and we made our way back to the room with the still-rigid blonde and brunette. I placed myself as nearly as possible like I had been before we went on our fruitless scouting expedition, and reluctantly let Titania lock my limbs into matching stiffness. At least this time, she let me close my own eyes.

After a few minutes - at least, what I assumed was only a few minutes, though it was hard to tell in my isolated state - Titania made another report. *"Okay, your appearance is back to normal, and I've reinserted my probes into Breen and Kyla. They're good for another hour or so, anyway. Based on the fatigue elements in their blood, they are going to be very, very tired when they recover from the drug itself, so they'll probably fall into a natural sleep after that."*

Sleep seemed like as good an idea as any, so I let what little perceptions remained drift away. My next sensations were very much more pleasant.

"Did you sleep well?" Tryx asked, and I awoke to find my head cradled in her arms, my lips near the nipples exposed by her delicate bra. Her outfit was indeed the one I had appeared to wear the night before.

Even as I was trying to keep my eyes from crossing - and my tongue from lunging out of my mouth - Titania was working with Bee to share our mutual reports. After catching up on my nighttime excursion, including that the needed evidence on Mordant was probably not in his villa, Tryx informed me that she and I would be breaking up. It wouldn't be 'official' for another day or so, but she had let Mordant believe he had already replaced me in her affections. Things had worked out well, as far as she was concerned. Mordant had moved me immediately to the drug-controlled dependence, while she had convinced him she was with him due solely to his manly charms.

However, despite his apparent acceptance of my attitude, he was angry with me. I had made him face the fact that not all women found him desirable. True to form, he was going to punish me for revealing the lie in his life, just as he was going to reward Tryx for supporting it. Part of my 'punishment' was to be disguised as a gift - and the other girls would certainly consider it to be one. I was due for another dose of the powder that evening.

*"How did that go?"* asked Tryx via our link.

*"Titania handled it,"* I reported. *"If you get a dose yourself, the thing to remember is that you need to go into a rigid muscle lock for at least a couple of hours. Bee can, ah, help you with that. Afterwards, you fall asleep."*

*"What's the effect?"*

*"I don't really know. Titania walled it off very carefully. But based on the, um, condition of my . . . companions, there must be some sexual stimulation involved."*

Breen stirred and I changed tracks by responding to Tryx's spoken question. "I slept very well." Then I decided a further response was in order. "Oooh, that powder is wonderful! We have got to get some for ourselves."

Tryx let a look of worry show on her flawless face, coupled with a flush of embarrassment. "We'll have to talk about that later," she said. "For now, I just wanted to check up on you, and let you know I'm going to be spending the day with Oslo."

"With Oslo?" I whined, on cue.

Tryx responded to my whine with bubbly enthusiasm. "Oh, yes. He's a very interesting man. We talked for a long time last night."

*"Talked? Is that what she's calling it?"* sniffed Titania.

*"Why Titania, I think you're jealous,"* I teased.

*"Hardly. But you'd think that Tryx would be a little more honest, at least with you."*

*"Oh, of course. We're just undercover Federation agents on the trail of a big-time drug smuggler, with who knows how many people eavesdropping on us. Of course every word she speaks will be honest."*

*"Why are you defending her?"* demanded Titania.

It was a good question, actually. *"Maybe now that I've *been* her, at least for an hour or two, I feel more sympathy."*

*"I think Counselor Ardala might want to talk about that with you,"* she cautioned. *"Be careful you don't identify too closely with her."*

*"Not much chance of that. She's . . . well, I've said it before. She's the most beautiful woman in the galaxy. I could do worse."*

*"Even though she's blonde?"* Ti challenged me.

*"Okay, now *that's* a good argument against being Tryx,"* I laughed, trying to defuse a discussion that threatened to go a lot deeper than I wanted right then.

Tryx sent another silent message with a warning. Mordant had been interested in my background, more than she had expected, and since we hadn't set up a deep cover story for either of us, Tryx had stayed pretty close to the truth on our past. Supposedly we were Federation bureaucrats, not Field Agents, which was a standard cover set up by Admiral Jones. For anything else, we needed to keep the story simple, and therefore rely on what had really happened. The last thing Tryx sent through the link was even more ominous. She said that Mordant was planning something more for me, but she didn't know what it was.

The other two girls were stirring, and the look of contentment on their faces was almost justification for their dependency. Almost. But that gentle look had barely appeared when it was replaced by a hunger that seemed undiminished from the night before. Now that Tryx had done her duty to her supposed lover, she swayed gracefully to her heels and left me with them - a memorable exit since the, ah, view from behind was as spectacular as the one I had seen as I awoke.

In other circumstances, the image of three beautiful women sprawled nakedly across soft, inviting pillows would have been inescapably erotic. That would not have been my first impression at encountering the scene, though. The other two girls had been so . . . consumed by their experiences that they had lost any sense of refinement or glamour. They had drooled on themselves, and their arousal had dripped down their legs to create a musky pool on the cushions. From the acrid scent, it wasn't only feminine lubrication that had escaped from them. The combination was not even desirable, let alone erotic. And as I stirred on my own cushions, I realized I had made my own contribution to the . . . ambiance of the room.

*"Thanks a lot, Ti,"* I grumped.

*"Just taking care of business,"* she replied unrepentantly. *"I couldn't let you look, ah, suspicious, could I?"*

*"Right now, I'd prefer suspicious,"* I said, not at all impressed with her thoroughness.

It did, however, establish my membership within the sisterhood of thionite addicts. Breen and Kyla shook their own tangled manes and stretched to relieve the aches and pains of their extended rigidity. It wasn't hard to keep up with them - neither was moving very quickly - and without much in the way of coherent conversation we ended up in what was obviously a communal shower and changing room. Showering with beautiful women was, to be honest, one of *my* adolescent fantasies, but the plodding, mechanical way they cleaned themselves kept it from measuring up to my dream.

Breen was a bit more cheerful than Kyla though, part of her naturally exuberant personality. She was at least willing to point out some robes that would allow me to cover a nudity that seemed not to bother her much at all. My pace through the showers was a bit faster than theirs and so I was able to take advantage of Titania's magic on my makeup instead of pretending to use the real cosmetics that were in generous supply around the room.

The changing room was as much ladies' lounge as bathing facility and there were couches and comfortable chairs scattered about, with plenty of mirrors. I was - literally - distractingly beautiful, even to me, and so while I was waiting for the other girls to finish, I decided to have a, um, 'planning' session to keep my mind focused. It's really convenient when your partner 'lives' with you - all the time.

*"Why, thank you, Xora dear. Sometimes it seems you think I'm a terrible burden."*

*"Sometimes I do, Titty babe,"* I said, laughing to let her know I was teasing. *"But you're a convenient burden, and every now and then you're worth it."*

*"Oh,"* she said archly. *"Like now?"*

Well, I asked for it. She did her lick/nibble/caress thing, and then she did the 'tweak the entirely inappropriate place' thing, and then. . . . well, I decided to surrender gracelessly with an internal screech at that last one. And no, I'm *not* going to tell what it was.

*"So, Xora dear, you were saying?"*

*"I . . .am . . . going . . . to have . . . to figure out . . . how to get . . . you for that,"* I gasped.

*"Not on your best day, and my worst,"* she promised smugly, and she was probably right. *"Now, do you want to tell me why you started that?"*

*"Seems to me that you started it,"* I muttered, but before she could respond again I went on. *"I don't know. Maybe at some level I wanted a reassurance that you were still there, still . . . you. I was really frightened last night when things went dark after I opened that drug, and it was pretty serious business after that. I'm glad to see you're still your . . . polite self when you, um, let your hair down."*

*"But more than that,"* I continued, *"I think it's that we did a good job last night. While Tryx was playing games with Mordant, we found out that we'll need to get an invitation to his private moon - or at least confirmed it since I always thought it was likely. And we managed to - well, this one was really you - managed to masquerade as Tryx pretty well. Maybe it's just that last night we were more effective than Tryx. Anyway, I was feeling pretty good now that we're cleaned up, not naked, and looking as pretty as you have made us."*

*"Goodness, girl, the competition was supposed to be between Bee and myself, not between you and Tryx. Are you saying you want to show her up, too?"*

*"Damn right. I've been thinking about, um, about us. You and me, and what we can each do. Tryx may have the advantage of a lifetime of sensual femininity, but that may be a weakness - or at least a limitation - as much as a strength. I - we- have a unique perspective on things and I'll bet that ends up being an advantage of our own. Together we'll knock her socks off."*

*"Sheer stockings, lacy garter belt, and all,"* Ti confirmed.

 

 

 

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© 2003 by Brandy Dewinter. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, compilation design) may printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without express written consent of the copyright holder.