Author's notes:

I'm rather busy RL right now and as I've said before the new chapters might take a little longer to finish. Sorry about that.

About the language and notation:

The Baylon language is a predecessor to Latin, which is why it looks like Latin at a glance.

Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"

Some warnings:

This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

P.S. I haven't gotten an editor yet, so any mistakes are mine. Interested editors are welcome :)

P.P.S. While you're here anyway, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)

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Chapter 31 -- Desperate times

Tuesday evening, 27th of June 2000, Malaga, Spain

---------- Department 55 ----------

It wasn't often Hector Zavala was furious, but as he looked around in the trashed hotel room, he could feel the rage starting to build inside him.

While he had been in Sevilla to give a report to his superiors, the Americans had disappeared and from the looks of it, they had all been kidnapped by local police officers from the security detail. To make it even worse, both Maya and Agent Rao had disappeared as well, and it had taken hours to even notice that they were gone.

"Any thought, sir?" asked the nervous looking police officer, that had accompanied him.

"Oh plenty." Sneered Zavala. "But that'll have to wait. Security tapes?"

The police officer paled a little but said, "The recordings show all seven officers from the security detail transporting what looks like laundry baskets to the back entrance of the hotel, where they were loaded into an unmarked white van. Some of the officers looked like they had been in a fight and were badly beaten up. We got the license plate but haven't found the van yet. Strangely, we found the officers at home, and they all claim that they haven't done such a thing, but they don't remember anything that has happened since last afternoon. Several of the wives say that the men were called out to some emergency. The wounded officers have been committed to a hospital under guard. The others are in a holding cell at the police station." He paused. "We don't even know why they did it, sir."

"Shit!" exclaimed Zavala. This was unmistakably the work of Parker, but they haven't been prepared to have their own people used against them and Parker had clearly used his mind controlling ability on the security detail. Looking at the police officer, he said, "They didn't do it of their own free will. They were manipulated into doing it."

"Is that even possible, sir?" the young officer wanted to know, and Zavala nodded as he came up with the usual explanation for mind control. "Yes, with hypnosis and memory alternating drugs. We just didn't think of guarding the guardians... hm ... Who beat up the security detail?"

"As far as we know, Miss Chai was late for the evening tea where the rest was drugged, and the kidnappers shot her with tranquillizer guns." Said the police officer. "There were a few misses and we collected some of the darts from the wall. Those darts don't work immediately, and Miss Chai must have attacked the kidnappers or fought them trying to escape, accounting for the wounded kidnappers."

Zavala nodded.

Another officer came into the room from one of the adjoining rooms, carrying two phones. "Sir, it looks like the Agents phones were tossed here... Meaning we can't even find them, using the cell signals." The officer handed the two phones to Zavala, who took them with a sigh. That had been one of his plans for getting Maya back... along with the other victims.

"Anything interesting in them?"

The officer shook his head. "Unfortunately, not."

Zavala felt like cursing but calmed himself down. "Very well. Let me know if you find anything else."

The officer nodded and walked back into the room he came from.

Sitting down by the table, Zavala started to examine the phones or rather their call history and SMS log. Maya's phone held no surprises, as the last numbers she had called was Agent Rao and himself, and the SMS log was empty. He took Agent Rao's phone and did the same.

Interestingly, according to the names in the phone, the last number called belonged to Ivan Kolba.

He knew Sheena had seduced the young man, which in his opinion was a foolish thing to do, but as he had discovered himself, Department 55 didn't operate under the same regulations as the rest of Interpol, and Sheena could pretty much do what she wanted to get information, as long as she didn't break any laws. As Ivan Kolba wasn't an official suspect in the case, having an intimate relationship with him wasn't illegal.

Yet another police officer came into the room and judging from the officers' facial expression, it wasn't good news.

"We found the van, sir, but it was empty and nobody in the area has seen anything."

"Where?"

"In the parking lot at Avenida de Europa." Said the officer, making Zavala nod slowly. As the road going through an industrial area, Avenida de Europa was close to both the harbour and airport, while being outside the city center and away from the tourists. Almost the perfect place to change vehicle, which meant that the victims could be anywhere by now.

Department 55 had two Tracers, Psychics that could trace people over an entire city, but one of them was on a vacation cruise in Alaska, while the other was working a case in Australia, and it would take at least ten to twelve hours before any of them could arrive in Malaga.

At that time, Maya, Sheena, and the Americans would be long gone, if Parker pulled his usual disappearing trick.

"Thanks." Zavala said with a sigh. "Keep trying to find those witnesses. Somebody must have seen something."

"Yes sir." The officer said and left the room.

Zavala looked at the phone again, debating with himself as the name Ivan Kolba kept creeping into his mind. If Kolba was the unknown psychic, they had been looking for and if he was able to trace people, he might be able to find the abducted women in time, if he wasn't hindered by the police.

It was an awful lot of 'if's', but it was all that he had. Unfortunately, due to it being an ongoing case, he wasn't allowed to tell Kolba directly that the Americans had disappeared, because judging from the pictures Luis had found, as well as Sheena's mind probes, Kolba had been fond of them all.

Zavala cursed as bits and pieces of a greater picture started to fall into place. This wasn't about art or money. It was about the Americans and if Ivan Kolba was inserted into the equation, it suddenly started to make a lot more sense.

From the pictures, they knew that Kolba had been in the American's house. He might even have spent the night of the kidnapping attempt in the house. Why Kolba avoided the police, was anyone's guess, but if he had walked to Malaga, he could have stumbled over Curtis again, as the farm Curtis had lived on, was right on the path from the house to Malaga. At least when you walked cross-country.

That fitted with what Maya had said about Curtis having recognized his killer, because if Curtis had kept the house under surveillance as evidence showed, he would have recognized Kolba.

Then there was the encounter with Parker on the square. They had assumed that Parker had walked away because he had detected the police, but the kidnapping of the two agents clearly showed, that Parker wasn't afraid of Interpol. However, Kolba had been there as well and that might have been the reason why Parker had walked away.

Added to that, the American women were exactly the kind of women Parker liked and if he were able to use mind control on Maya and Sheena, he would have two associates, who knew exactly how Department 55 operated. The children could be used as hostages in case the American women acted up or resisted the mind control.

Zavala looked at his assistant. "Go find the tech. We need to figure out if those tranquillizer guns can be traced."

The young officer nodded and hurried out of the door.

Zavala looked at the phone in his hand and then called the communication department. It might be useful to have Kolba's phone traced just in case they needed it later.

The communication officer complied with his request, informing him that the phone was near the harbour and gave him the estimated pier number.

Zavala thanked him, before taking a deep breath.

"Desperate times calls for desperate measures." He mumbled to himself and pressed the call button on Rao's phone.

---------- Ivan ----------

The Irish Evening on Wave Dancer started right on schedule, and I smiled to myself when Mr. Smith showed up. Julian handed him yet another beer token for being one of the first to arrive and then sent me a smile and a nod as Mr. Smith walked directly to the bar.

I nodded back and was about to go over to him when my phone started to ring.

Recognizing the number in the display as Sheena's, I answered it with a "Hello beautiful."

There was a brief silence, before a male voice said, "Hello. Who is this?"

"I'm Ivan... who're you?"

"Agent Hector Zavala, Interpol... May I ask why your number was in Sheena Rao's phone?"

"Well, because I gave it to her."

"Do you know where she is? It's an emergency."

"I'm afraid not and before you ask, the last place I saw her was at hotel Fuengirola." I answered as my mind raced. The only scenario I could think of, where a police officer would use Sheena's phone and ask where she was instead of asking her personally, would be if she had disappeared and left her phone behind. It was highly unlikely that Zavala and Honeycutt didn't know about me. Even if Sheena for some reason hadn't said anything, Roberta would have, which made it more than likely, that Zavala knew who I was, before he made the call.

However, if I were the police and one member of my force had disappeared while involved with someone new, I would have taken a much closer look at that person instead of just calling him and there was no reason to expect that the Interpol was anything short of competent.

That meant that they knew who took Sheena and that somebody was most likely Parker, given that they were searching for him. Unfortunately, it also meant, that they, or at least Agent Zavala, felt that was something special about me and the fact that they haven't dragged me in for an interrogation made it likely that the only reason for Zavala to call me, was to alert me that something was wrong.

That, however, only made sense, if Zavala thought there was something I could do to help, again implying that they might have a hint that I wasn't just a normal tourist. All this boiled down to the fact, that even if I found Sheena, I had to get away from Malaga as soon as possible, if I were to avoid an interrogation by the Interpol.

There was another slight silence, as if Zavala were trying to think of something to say or trying to find a way to say something, but then he just said, "Thank you. Please ask her to call if you see her."

"I shall do that." I said and with a short goodbye, Zavala hung up.

Looking at the phone, I remembered what Julian had told me about tracing and how the police could trace most cell phones if they were turned on and they knew the number. Both of which was the case of mine right now. With a sigh, I switched the phone off and pocketed it. This new technology was extremely useful, but it did have some irritating drawbacks.

I looked at the partying people for a moment. I didn't know Julian's plan and as I wasn't part of it, I might as well go check up on Sheena. I walked over to Julian. "I need to go check on someone."

"The woman from yesterday?" He guessed with a grin, making me smile back. "Yes."

"That's cool... but remember..." he leaned closer and continued in a whisper. "...the party stops at two and we leave shortly after that, without waiting for anybody."

"I know... See you later."

"Good luck."

--------------------

To Julian's credit, he had managed to persuade the owner of the ship to give me a cabin and I had moved the suitcases from the harbour terminal to the cabin earlier, so I walked down there and changed my clothes. I had been unprepared when I had met Curtis and I wasn't about to make the same mistake with Parker.

When I walked out of the cabin again, I was dressed in Iron Silk clothes, with a silk scarf in one pocket and gloves in the other. Discarding my sword as being too long, I had hidden the Diucultro ('long knife') under the coat along with two of the knives I had found in Curtis' house, since they were expendable. I had decided to keep the hat on, as it hid my white hair. The bag on my shoulder contained all the documents, my value pack and most of the money I had found, just in case Julian got curious and decided to look in my suitcases. The money would also be useful if I needed to bribe someone.

I left the ship, and spent a few minutes trying to determine if I was followed, but there wasn't anyone in sight, enforcing my suspicion that Zavala needed me to be able to move around in the city as I pleased. Otherwise, it didn't make sense to just call me and ask for Sheena.

I was about to search for Sheena's mental pattern when I received a mental call from Zena. Despite being focused, it was weak, and it felt like she was drunk, which was highly unlikely.

"< Ivan... Help >" was her first words, causing a shiver to run down my neck.

"< What's happening, Zena? >"

"< We've been kidnapped. All of us that is >" she sent back. "< And the two Interpol agents are here as well. It sucks! >"

No wonder that Zavala had called it 'an emergency', I thought and turned my attention back to Zena. Despite her situation, she seemed remarkable calm and combined with the feeling of her being drunk, I guessed that she had been drugged.

"< Don't worry, I'm on my way >" I sent as I started walking again. "< Where's Cyra? >"

"< Right next to me, but she's sleeping. Mom, Karen, and Rita are in another room, but I can see the female Interpol agents from here >" There was slight pause. "< It was the police that drugged us! Why did the police help the kidnappers? >"

"< Mind control >" I sent with a mental sigh. Zavala's statement about an emergency, started to sound more and more like an understatement. This was more of a major catastrophe for the police than an emergency.

"< Oh... >" She paused and then asked. "< Like the Ambassador and the Madjay in the story? >"

"< Exactly like that. Are the police still there? >"

"< No... The Mentat from the Square is behind it. He's in the room next to us, but I recognized his mental pattern when he used his powers earlier >"

The last sentence came with a feeling of having done well and I wholeheartedly agreed. The Twins command over their mental powers grew faster than anything I had experienced before.

"< Excellent done, Rascal. Can you send me an image of your surroundings? >"

"< Sure, but I don't think it'll help >"

The image showed the interior of some kind of warehouse, filled with crates of various kinds, neatly placed on row after row of huge metal shelves, that effective hid most of the interior from my view. A new image followed as Zena had turned her head to give me another angle.

This one showed Sheena along with a red-haired woman, I recognized as Agent Honeycutt. Both were naked, chained to a wall and from the limb way they were hanging, they looked to be unconscious.

"< Ups. Forgot that they were naked >" said Zena with a mental giggle.

Despite being older than Sheena, Agent Honeycutt had a well-shaped body and a set of breasts that rivalled Marias. However, there was nothing else of note in the image she had sent me and the next one just showed a sleeping Cyra and the interior of the warehouse again.

"< Have you seen anybody else in there? >"

"< Yeah... When I woke up, I could hear some women and a man talk in the room behind me, but they're quiet now >"

"< Excellent. I'm gonna use your mental pattern to find you, so just relax, keep focusing on me and pretend that you're still asleep >"

"< Okay... see you later >"

It took me a glass to track Zena's mental patterns to an old yellow building near the industrial harbour and I spent some time scouting the place. It looked like an old warehouse of some kind and the only windows were placed so high above the ground that it was impossible to look inside. Besides an empty car, the whole area was deserted and looked like it was rarely used.

Taking the silk scarf from my pocket, I used it to cover the lower half of my face. I might be undetectable to powers, but any camera would see me just fine and I didn't want to be recognized. The last piece of preparation was a thin pair of black leather gloves and then I was ready.

Staying in the shadows, I silently walked around the building, until I spotted a normal sized door on the backside. Unguarded and out of sight from the main road, it looked like the perfect entrance to the building, but after taking a closer look, I discovered two wall-mounted boxes, that I assumed was the security cameras Julian had told me about, pointing at the area of the door.

That was bad news, so instead of using the door, I walked to the side of the building, placed the cumbersome bag behind an empty trashcan and slipped into Vis meditation for a moment to activate a power that allowed me to jump the five meters up there, landing in a crouch, so I couldn't be seen from the ground.

Most of the buildings from ancient times would have access to the roof from inside the building, but this one didn't. Instead, there were four boxes with semi-transparent plastic, which I assumed was to allow sunlight and air to enter the building. Unfortunately, they weren't transparent enough to see through and cutting them open would alert anybody inside the building.

With a shrug, I moved to the edge of the roof again and looked down. The windows weren't that far below the roof and there was a window still, I could stand on.

It took a bit of manoeuvring, but eventually I was crouched on the still and had a secure grip on the window frame, enabling me to look inside the warehouse without losing my balance.

Besides the metal shelves filled with crates that I had seen in Zena's mental communication, there was two rooms in one end of the warehouse. One only had a door, but the other room had large glass windows facing the warehouse and while it looked empty from where I was standing, I could see several TVs in there and all of them showed the ground on the outside of the building.

I moved a bit, so I could see more and discovered Zena and Cyra laying on a mattress. Both looked like they were sleeping and there was a chain going from one of their ankles to the wall, preventing escape.

Some distance to the left of the Twins, I spotted Sheena and Maya hanging naked from their chains, but the rest of the warehouse looked empty.

My eyes drifted back to the Twins. "< Don't move. I'm here >"

"< Hey! >" they answered in unison, so Cyra must have woken up while I found my way.

"< Have you seen other people in there, besides the Interpol Agents? >" I sent. "< I don't want to use area affecting mental powers so close to another Mentat >"

"< There's at least two guards in here, if not three >" answered Zena. "< But they keep walking around, so I don't know where they are >"

"< Still good to know... I'll stop talking to you now, but no matter what happens, lay still and pretend to sleep >"

"< Will do >" Cyra sent, echoed a moment later by Zena, who added. "< Be careful, Ivan. They have guns >"

I was about to answer when the office door was opened, and Parker came out. I immediately cut of the mental communication and to my relief he didn't even look at the Twins but walked directly over to the two naked women and studied them for a few moments, before he placed a hand on each woman's head.

As it was a lot easier to use mental powers on people you touch, I guessed that he was trying to break their mind-shields or at least weaken them.

That would take time, so I ignored him and looked at the window again. It could be opened from the inside, but not while I was on the window still. I moved to the right until I was in front of the next window and then used telekinesis to open the first one, using as little power as possible to avoid being detected.

A low howling sound started inside the building and I realized I had just triggered one of the modern security systems, spoiling any chance of surprise.

Inside the building, Parker let go of the women and hurried towards the office, while shouting something.

Reacting on instinct, I reached out with my mind, took hold of him after he had run past the Twins and smashed him into the wall before he could reach the door.

That turned out to be a bad move. While looking solid, the wall was made of some thin material and instead of knocking him out, my telekinetic assault sent Parker through the wall and out of sight.

Cursing silently, I removed the long knife from inside the jacket and dived through the open window, flipping in the air, so I landed on my feet.

There was a clicking sound and the crate next to me almost disintegrated as a rain of bullets hit it.

I rolled to the left and caught a glimpse of a black dressed woman, carrying a gun of some kind that was pointing in my general direction. I could see the flashes of light as the guard fired and missed again, but the sound was different from the booming sound I had heard when Curtis had shot me. This one made a loud clicking sound instead, but it wasn't nearly as loud as Curtis' gun and I doubted that it could be heard from the outside.

Judging from the effect on the wooden crate, it was still deadly, so I drew a throwing knife and with a flick of a wrist sent it into her throat, making her go down. As she died, she either managed to pull the trigger on the weapon or cramped up with the same result, sending a hail of bullets through the warehouse.

I glanced over at the two agents and the Twins, but they all looked unharmed. Unfortunately, the twin's presence, along with possibility of cameras inside the building, would seriously limit the powers I could use. Not only weren't the Twins ready to see the full effect of Ars Mentalis, but there might be cameras inside the building, and I didn't want anybody else to see any obvious use of Powers.

The only redeeming factor, was that Parker was a criminal and had kept his powers hidden, making it unlikely that the alarm was connected to any form of law enforcement.

Kneeling behind one of the steel pillars that held the roof, I took a moment to activate Pugna Promptu, allowing me to parry or dodge attacks that I couldn't even see coming. Due to the speed of bullets, I didn't know if it would be of any help against guns, but at least it couldn't hurt.

Then I went into Mutatur Tempus Mente (Baylon: "Time shall be changed in the mind."). My brain accelerated and everything else slowed to a crawl. Mental Power surged through my body, making me faster and stronger.

A trio of guards dressed in dark clothing came into view, as they looked from side to side in an effort to see me, guns following the direction of their eyes. Their clothing was somewhat baggy, but from the shape of their legs and hips, they were all women, just like the first guard.

The way they moved reminded me of crossbowmen and I realized that a modern gun was a faster, handier, and deadlier version of the Lescarian Lian nu, or repeating crossbow, that had been the cutting edge in weapon technology the last time I visited Lescare (China).

It also meant that I was at a severe disadvantage until I could get into close combat with them and getting there without being hit demanded a distraction.

Reaching into my jacket, I took one of the large knives from Curtis' house and sent it flying across the room, aiming at the rear-most guard and augmenting the throw with some Vis.. She must have had sensed or seen it coming, because she tried to dodge away and instead of hitting her in the chest, it hit her point first in the shoulder.

The force of the blow caused her to stumble backwards a few steps, until she slammed into one of the huge shelves. Startled the two others turned around and to my surprise, they fired their weapons per reflex, killing their comrade in a hail of bullets.

Activating the adrenaline in my body to make me even faster, I moved across the floor with lighting speed and hit the nearest guard in the back of the neck. As it was designed to do, the Diucultro effortlessly cleaved flesh and bone, killing the guard as her head was chopped off.

The second guard heard it and was trying to turn around, when I took her weapon arm off with a vertical strike, followed by a horizontal stab that penetrated the side of her chest all the way to her heart as I moved past her.

Pugna Promptu warned me that an attack was eminent, so I continued to move as bullets flew through the place, I had been a moment before and the sound of broken glass hitting the floor reached my ears.

Through a hole in the office wall where there once was a window, I could see Parker who was standing up, radiating disbelief and rage, as he pointed a gun in my direction.

He wasn't alone: Two scantily clad women was standing right in front of him, making him difficult to hit at a distance. Luckily, they weren't armed, but just stood there like a living shield.

A strong mental attack hit me but bounced of my mind shield and for a heartbeat, Parker looked at me in stunned disbelief. I took advantage of his shock by reaching out with my mind and ripped the gun out of his hand, sending it flying.

Parker sneered and even half hidden behind a woman I could see him making a gesture with his right arm. A large crate was catapulted towards me, driven by an invisible force, proving that Parker could use telekinesis. I used telekinesis to deflect it, since I didn't have time to dodge that big an object.

Needing to remove the two women, I used a telekinetic push that sent both of them flying backwards with surprised yells, bashing into Parker and knocking him over, before they hit the wall in far end of the office and crumbled onto the floor.

Then I moved again, jumping through the empty window frame as Parker came to his feet.

An office chair came flying towards me, but I caught it with my mind and sent it in Parker's direction instead.

He dodged it with surprising agility and a heartbeat later a mental attack hit me, going for my body instead of my mind. The weaker shield around my body crumbled under the shockingly powerful attack, and pain shot through my body like liquid fire going through my veins, making me stagger for a moment, until I blocked out the pain, as I had been trained to do.

Seeing me stagger, Parker smiled triumphantly and reached out with his hand. Something came flying through the air again, but this time he was calling an object to him. Unfortunately for him, I was still in the slow world of Mutatur Tempus Mente and had time to recognize the object as Parker's gun. It passed within striking distance and I hit it with a reverse swing of the long knife.

Magical forged Adamant met a modern weapon as the two weapons clashed. Adamant won, and half the gun sailed through the room while the other half ended up in Parker's hand.

He looked at the broken gun in shock and before he had a chance to recover, I had closed the distance between us. Not knowing how badly damaged the gun was, I broke his shooting arm with the flat of the blade, before hitting his jaw with the knife's pommel, knocking him out.

He collapsed on the floor, but just to be safe, I followed up with an Ars Mentalis attack, that sent him into a lengthy coma.

Two high-pitched screams vibrated through the office as the scantily clad women saw him fall and charged me. Running bare-handed towards an armed person was a headless move and I realized they were mind controlled and not really a match for me.

Not wanting to harm them more than necessary, I repeated the Ars Mentalis attack I had just used on Parker, stretching it out to include both and sending them into a coma as well. They hit the floor before even coming close to me, like puppets whose strings had been cut.

A gasp made me look to the right. The office was bigger than it had looked from the window and I discovered that I had an audience. Five of them to be exact.

To the other side of the office, there was a large cage and inside it stood five young women. All of them were dressed in dirty dresses, that looked like they had been wearing them for weeks, but even with the dirt, it was clear that all of them were insanely well-formed and good-looking women in their early twenties.

Two of them looked like they came from the same area as Sheena which meant Bharat (India). Another looked Persian, while the next had the beautiful golden dark brown colour I had only seen on people from the west coast of Africa. The last one looked European with light brown hair and fair skin.

So much for a quick rescue without people seeing me using powers.

Sheathing the long knife, I projected calmness into them, lessening any possible fear, before I signaled that they should be quiet. Then I reached out with my mind and searched the warehouse for mental patterns that would indicate more guards.

There was none, but the Twins must have felt the power, because as soon as the search was over, Cyra mentally said, "< Tell me you're ok!>"

"< I'm fine and you're safe >" I sent back to both of them along with a feeling of calmness. "< The kidnapper is knocked out and there're no more guards... But there're some persons in here that I need to take care off right away, so it'll be a few minutes before I come out again >"

Even over the mind-link I could feel the tension leaving them as Cyra said, "< That's okay... we can wait >"

I closed the link and turned my attention to the scantily clad women and studied their minds. That was bad news: Their thought patterns had been altered so much that it had destroyed their personality and free will. In Baylon times that had been known as Abdere (Baylon: 'Seized' or 'taken'), indicating a person that have had their soul taken away from them. Making an Abdere had been considered murder, since that person could never be the same again, but only restored to a certain degree depending on the victim and the power used.

The two women was compelled to protect Parker at all costs and if woken up, they would attack me again, so I let them stay in the coma. A simple memory wipe removed any recollection of the last couple of weeks, meaning that I could leave them to the police. They had Mentats as police officers and it couldn't be the first time, they had encountered mind-controlled people.

I had just finished the memory wipe when the brunette in the cage whispered, "Who're you?"

I walked over to the cage, doing a did a quick check on the mental patterns of the women in the cage as I walked, expecting to see a repeat of the other women. I was wrong.

The women in the cage had fairly normal thought-patterns, which would explain why they were not only in a cage, but also chained. The thought-pattern of the brunette was especially intriguing, as it showed a lot less strain than I would have expected from someone locked up in a cage.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to examine that right now, so I turned my attention back to the matter at hand, which was replying to her question. The woman had used accented English and not Spanish, so I answered in that language. "Doesn't matter. The police will be here soon. Then you can all go home."

The reaction to that statement surprised me, as they all looked at me with a bleak expression on their pretty faces.

"Don't send us home." The fair-skinned brunette pleaded. "We'll be killed or thrown into prison!"

Strange as it sounded, her statement rang true as if she firmly believed that herself. "Why?"

"Well, Riya and Ayanna are no long virgins." She explained as she indicated the two Indian looking women. "It will bring shame to their family if they're allowed to live." She grimaced. "They're broken property and an embarrassment."

It wasn't the first time, I had heard that, as it had happened in ancient times as well, but to encounter it two thousand years later was almost unbelievable. In fact, I wasn't sure that I believed it myself, but from the look of fear on the women's faces, there was no doubt that they believed it.

The brunette continued. "The rest of us were framed for crimes we didn't commit, and we're all listed as deserters or traitors and are wanted in our home countries."

'Deserters or traitors.' The words rang in my head for a moment. "Wait a minute... You're all soldiers?"

"If we weren't, we couldn't really be deserters, could we?"

The sharp answer caused me to chuckle. Despite everything that had happened, the brunette had spirit, but I needed to know if she would be a danger to me or not. "Quite right... so where're you from and what happened to you?"

She stared at me for a moment and then sighed. "I was in the army in Ukraine but caught my boyfriend selling things on the black marked. Next thing I knew, he sold me. Oh... I forgot to mention that he's a police officer and I'm now a wanted criminal in Ukraine, since I got the blame for everything he had done. Good enough?"

I nodded slowly, while trying to remember where Ukraine was located from the map in the atlas.

To my amusement, I realized it was part of the old Scythia, where women were renowned for being warrior-like, and that the brunette looked somewhat familiar, because she reminded me of Xanthe, an Amazon princess I had known many years ago. More things that haven't changed much over time.

"Good enough... What can I call you?"

"Petra."

Looking at the next, who happened to look like a taller version of Agent Rao, I said, "You?"

She saluted me as she said, "Riya, Combat medic, 7th Sri Lanka Army Woman's Corps, sir." She hesitated, but then added. "Both me and the pilot was taken when our helicopter was highjacked." Again, I used the map to locate the place she was talking about. It was the Island I knew as Cinnamon Island.

The other Indian said, "Ayanna, 153rd Air Defence regiment, Pakistan." That turned out to be the area around the Indus river. "I was taken along with a shipment of electronics."

"Esther, Police Officer, Israel Border police." Said the Persian beauty with the sparkling grey eyes. I had expected her to say that she came from somewhere in Persia, but on the other hand, the Persian Empire had ruled that area of the world for centuries before the romans took over. With a sigh, she added, "I was drugged and kidnapped while shopping:"

The African woman was last, and I noticed she had the same slim nose, high cheekbones, and straight black hair as Rita, though her skin tone was much darker.

"Delina, Communication specialist, Gambia Armed Forces."

Located on the east side of Africa, Gambia was a small country around a large river as well as a place I had visited a long time ago along with the Carthaginian Admiral Hanno the Navigator.

"I was convicted for a crime and fled the country. Unfortunately, I trusted the wrong people and ended up being kidnapped like the rest."

Nodding slightly, I sighed. "You'll have to stay there for the time being, but I'll be back."

They didn't object, so I walked over to Parker, quickly searched his pockets until I found a bunch of keys and then left the office.

Zena and Cyra waved at me as soon as I came outside, and I threw the keys over to them. "Here you go, Rascals."

"< Thanks >" they replied with wide smiles and got to work on the locks with the keys, while I took advantage of the distraction to drag the dead guards out of sight of the Twins and retrieve my knife.

When I returned both girls ran over to me and gave me a hug.

"< Thank you! >" said Zena mentally, filling the link with gratitude and relief.

"< Yeah, thanks >" added Cyra as she did the same, but her eyes wandered over to the pool of blood where the dead guards had been.

I hugged her again. "Easy Cyra. It was them or us and I prefer us."

She nodded. "< So do I >"

"Good, because some people don't give you a choice and then all good intentions in the world doesn't matter one little bit."

To my surprise, Zena broke the hug, turned her sister's face, and looked her right into the eyes. "< Stare contra malum.... Remember? 'Someone has to take a stand against evil.' >"

Zena's use of the Ordo Gladius motto brought a shadow of a smile to her sister's face and after a little while, Cyra nodded. "< I guess so >"

Zena smiled and gave her twin another hug, before looking at the sheathed sword in my hand and then at my face. "< You're an Inquisitor, right? >"

Instead of just answering, I winked at them, whispering, "That would be telling, and I don't tell."

That brought the smile back on Cyra's face and Zena mentally said, "< I guess that is fair... Can we go see Mom and the rest now? >"

I nodded, and they led the way into a room without windows.

There wasn't much in the room except for some mattresses on the floor. Alice, Karen, and Rita were laying on the mattresses, and like the Interpol Agents, they were as naked as the day they were born. They were also chained to one of the big metal columns, effective preventing any escape in case they woke up.

"Wait here." I told the Twins and walked over to Alice and quickly examined her. She was unharmed but drugged to the point of being unconscious. However, the Salamander Vis Power I had used just a few days ago, was already neutralizing the drug and she would wake up in a couple of hours, just like Zena and Cyra had woken up long before the kidnappers had expected. Since it would be highly inconvenient if the three women woke up before I was gone, I reached out with my mind and made sure she didn't wake up before mid-morning.

"She's unharmed... come over."

Cyra and Zena rushed to their mother's side, while I switched my attention to Rita and Karen, with almost the same result. I guessed that Parker had been too busy with Sheena and Honeycutt to do any mind tampering. Like I had done with Alice, I made sure they didn't wake up until mid-morning.

"< Why're they all naked? >" asked Cyra curious.

"To remove traces and to rob them of their dignity." I said with a shake of my head. "The last one is an old trick to keep people from escaping, but I doubt it would have worked. Your mom, Rita and Karen are way too confident to be bothered by that sort." Cyra and Zena nodded proudly as I stood up. "Open the chains but let them sleep for now."

While they opened the locks and removed the chains, I took two blankets that had been left in a corner and spread them over the women.

"Good job. You already got the keys, so go ahead and free the Interpol agents as well."

"< They're Inquisitors as well, aren't they? >" asked Cyra as we walked over to the Agents.

"What do you mean?" I said neutrally.

Zena rolled her eyes. "< The Mentat from the Square tried to break through their Mind Shields, but couldn't, despite them being drugged. Only Mentats would have Shields that strong >"

I shook my head. "That's not entirely true. It is possible for a non-Mentat to have an incredible strong natural shield, even when drugged.... But otherwise, you're right and they were hunting the Mentat from the Square." I smiled at them. "Now please open the chains."

While the Twins attempted to find the right key, I checked on Sheena and the other agent, trying to determine if Parker had succeeded in whatever he was trying to do, when I interrupted him.

To my relief their mind shields were intact, just as the Twins had said, and their thought patterns weren't tampered with.

Their physical state was the same as Alice, Rita, and Karen, but without the Salamander Power, they would be out for at least a day more, if not two.

Something in their energy lines caught my attention and after a quick examination, I realized Parker had given the women's sex drive a small boost. It was purely biological and undoing it would take at least an hour, so I decided to just leave it. It wasn't anywhere near a level where they couldn't control it themselves, making it a minor inconvenience at worst and not something I wanted to spend energy on.

There wasn't space for more people in the other room, so after Cyra and Zena had unlocked the chains, I carried both agents into the office one by one and placed them on a sofa there.

"< Ehhh Ivan, you are aware that there're five women in a cage looking at us, right? >" asked Cyra uncomfortable as I placed Agent Honeycutt on the sofa and covered both agents with a blanket.

"< Yeah... and I will free them as soon as I'm sure Parker's pacified >" I replied as I lifted Parker up from the floor, placed him on the desk and sat down in the chair next to it. "< I need to concentrate on this, so please don't talk to me >"

"< Yes, sir >" answered Zena with amusement in her mental voice.

"One moment more." I said to the women in the cage and placed a hand on Parker's head, reached out with my mind, smashed right through his mental shields like a boulder through thin ice and immobilized him, before I started to absorb knowledge. Mind-images and information began to flow into me at a high speed.

To my surprise, I discovered Parker and Curtis were father and son. Curtis was the result of a drunken one-night stand, Parker had had with yet another Psychic in his youth, though Parker haven't known about that until Curtis was about twenty.

The discovery that he had a son, and that Curtis was a Psychic, had changed Parker's life.

Until that point in time, Parker had been all about amassing wealth and real estate, but after discovering that the children of two psychics might become psychics themselves, Parker's goal in life had become to establish a dynasty of psychics that would eventually rule the world.

With a sigh, I quickly examined the plan, which Parker had divided into five stages.

The first stage had been amassing wealth, but Parker was, according to himself, already one of the riches persons in the world, so that stage was finished.

Now, they had moved on to the second stage, which was finding women with Psychic abilities to have children with.

Third stage was training the Psychic children and mind controlling as many influential people as possible.

Fourth stage was inserting the adult and loyal Psychics into the governments of the most powerful nations in the world.

The final stage was several options, but mostly it was to give Parker the total dominance of the world, with Curtis as his 'crown prince'.

Given the extensive nature of the plan, I took a closer look at Parkers mental powers or rather his own perception of those powers. The mind control ability and telekinesis were no surprise, but that he had the gift of Precognition was.

As the ability to foretell the future, Precognition was a gift so rare that I only knew of one Baylon and one human, that had it, and that was the king who had made the decision to move Baylon from its home dimension to this one to save it from destruction. The human with the same ability was Alexander the Great, who had used it to carve out an Empire that had rivalled the later Roman Empire in size.

Like both of them, Parker had no control over the visions he had been getting, but they were focused on Parkers interests, which was real estate, something called the stock market and smuggling. It was because of those visions, that Parker had been able to be as successful as he was.

Unfortunately for Parker, his visions never included people, causing him to bring Curtis in on the plan and together, they started looking for women with mental powers to have kids with. To my surprise, they had found two such women and the Twins would have made a nice addition to their 'collection'. The search also revealed that at least some of the kids I had seen in Curtis' photo album was still alive, though Parker didn't know exactly where they were, as that had been Curtis' 'project'.

After the botched kidnapping, Parker had discovered that the two Interpol agents were Mentat and decided to use them as well, despite the danger of kidnapping police officers.

That startled me a bit. As far as I had understood from people of this age, Interpol was supported by a lot of countries and was not something to be taken lightly. Just to make sure, that Parker didn't know something about Interpol that I didn't, I delved into that subject.

It didn't take long before I discovered that Parker was well and truly insane.

After years of being a highly intelligent and powerful Mentat, capable of foreseeing some of the future, in a world of mostly non-Mentats, he now considered himself a god-like being, in the line of the old Greek demigods. Ironically, it was a fate he shared with Alexander the Great, who had been a genius with delusions of grandeur and dreams about conquering the world, who had been driven insane by his visions.

Normal people were no longer real to him, but pieces to be used or discarded at his convenience. He did have some respect for organizations but believed that he could outsmart most of them and mind-control the rest.

Having limited time, I changed the subject on my search and started looking through Parker's mind for information about the women in the cage.

I found the information quite easily and it related to information on his criminal activity.

My theory about them being smugglers turned out to be at least partially correct, as Parker and Curtis were heavily into both counterfeit medicine and slave trade, or human trafficking as it was called now, through an organization Parker had named Erebus.

Apparently, there was still a lot of slavery going on in the world. Some of was for sex and it was almost exclusively women and children, that was made slaves.

Using their ability to control people, Curtis and Parker had made this their specialty, as they smuggled many different goods, among them counterfeit medicine to Africa and art to Asia, accepting slaves as part of their payment.

Taking only the most beautiful young women, they had examined those women for psychic abilities and if the woman didn't have any, Parker and Curtis would use their mental abilities to turn the women into willing and loyal sex slaves, that were sold to rich people around the world.

Some of the women had been former soldiers and after mind controlling them, Parker had used them as his personal bodyguards or for sex if no other women were available when the need come over him.

The five women in the cage were an extension of that activity. Not satisfied with the looks of his current guards, Parker had wanted to create a whole squad of beautiful women that could function as both bodyguards and sex partners. To that end, he had asked his contacts for beautiful women, that were tall, beautiful, fit, buxom, combat trained and had special skills, offering a huge bonus for everyone chosen. The better the skills, the bigger the bonus.

Out of the hundreds he had been offered, he had picked the five women in the cage and had them brought to Malaga, where he and Curtis had started the mind control. Fortunately for both them and me, the work had been interrupted by the botched attempt to kidnap the twin and Curtis' death.

With a sign, I mentally dived into the information to figure out, why Parker had chosen those five, besides their natural good looks.

As it turned out, Riya was chosen for her medical skills, but was able to fly a helicopter as well. Delina was not only a communication officer, but also extremely good with electronics. Petra was a crack shot and a Military Police educated bodyguard, with good leadership skills. Like Delina, Ayanna was good with military electronics, but her real specialty was surveillance systems, while Esther not only had counter-terrorism training, but was also a sniper.

"Hey!" a female voice called, interrupting me. Turning my head, I saw the one named Petra looking at me. "Would you let us out of here?" There was a slight pause. "Please?"

With a sigh, I stood up and walked over to the cage. "Just to be perfectly clear: If you chose to come with me, I'll do my best to protect you, but you'll do as I say, and it will be for good. There will be no change of mind later. Got it?"

The responding "Yes sir!", was almost a chorus.

"You still want to come?"

"Yes, sir!" they repeated in unison.

"Good." I said with a nod as I activated a mind-trick and added. "I'm the Dream Master. "

They all looked at me with wide eyes, but then nodded slowly.

The last, and rather strange, sentence along with the mind-trick was something I had picked out of Parkers' mind. A trigger had been placed in the women's heads along with a loyalty codex, so that they wouldn't run away, if given the chance. As a loyalty codex takes time to develop, he had planned to keep them locked up until he was sure that the codex worked and then use the trigger to activate the loyalty codex. According to Parker, the Loyalty Codex wasn't quite done yet, but as I didn't have the time to wait, I would just have to take the chance.

Another reason for activating the loyalty codex was to save their lives. Parker had been a firm believer in not leaving any potential witnesses behind and if the loyalty codex weren't activated within a week of being completed, it would release all the energy in it at once, frying the brain of the victim.

Distasteful as it were, it left me with no choice. If I haven't activated the Loyalty Codex, there was a good chance that at least one of them would leave the warehouse, while I was busy with Parker.

Like Healing, mind reading at the level I planned to use, made you unaware of the surroundings and they could easily have sneaked out or even attacked me, spelling for them later. On the positive side, being forced to activate the Codex had provided me with someone to guard me, while I worked on Parker.

Another point to consider, was that the TV screens in the office showed the whole warehouse and was clearly visible from the cage. It wasn't fair to them, but it was highly likely that the five women had not only witnessed my fight with Parker, but also witnessed me taking out the guards, using powers not normal for this world. That meant, that I before I could allow them to go back to where they came from, I would have to remove Parker's loyalty codex. That would take a lot more time and energy than I had right now, so they would have to come with me and then I would have to see it I could undo Parker's work later. There had been plenty of room on Wave Dancer for five more guests and as Parker had planned on bringing everybody along, they were even expected by the crew.

"Any combat experiences?" I asked, since I had met all too many people who had spent time in an army without getting training or experience.

"Yes." Said Petra. "Kosovo and Angola. Both was supposed to be peacekeeping missions, but we did get into combat."

The dark-skinned Delina nodded. "Same for me, but in Côte d'Ivoire and Congo."

After a moment of hesitation, the Persian looking Esther followed, as she shortly said, "Counter- terrorism."

I looked over at the last two, but they both shook their head. "Sorry, no combat experience."

That caused me to smile. "Don't be sorry." I used Parker's key to open the door, before giving the bundle to Petra. "Unlock everybody."

The brunette looked at me with surprise written in her face, but then smiled as she said "Yes, sir." and went to work, while I used the wait to relax a little.

"What's the plan?" asked Petra as soon as she was finished, bringing my attention back to her. She really was remarkably beautiful. "How're we going to get out of here, where are we and..." She nodded in the direction of the Agents and the Twins. "...who are they?"

I chuckled at the amount of questions. "First of all, we're in Malaga, Spain and we're leaving by boat."

She grimaced. "Hopefully better than the piece of shit cargo ship, that brought us here."

"Almost certainly." I said as I removed the scarf from my face. They would see my face at some point anyway and I felt ridiculous wearing it.

"Thank you." Said Petra and raised her eyebrows in surprise when she saw my uncovered face. To my surprise, there was a slight spike of lust from her, as she said. "Wow... you're younger than I thought."

I sent her a grin. "Thanks, I think."

She smiled back. "You're welcome. What's your name, by the way?"

"Ivan."

The brunette tilted her head. "Russian?"

"Not even close." I smiled. "To answer your questions from before, the two unconscious women and Cyra and Zena are all victims just as yourself... there're three more victims in the room next door, but they are drugged and out cold."

For a moment, she hesitated, but then finally asked. "Ivan, what the hell have we become involved in? The scumbag over there had mental powers belonging in a movie and we saw you taking out both the guards and him, using the same kind of powers. What's going on?"

By now, all five women were looking at me and there was telling silence in the room.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the Twins exchange knowing grins.

"He and I are both Mentats." I explained. "As in we have some mental powers and unfortunately, controlling people was one of his specialties." I nodded towards Parker. "That scumbag runs a human trafficking operation and tried to kidnap somebody I know, so I stopped him and his partner. Then he kidnapped the people I've mentioned, and I went after him. Basically, he's a bad guy and I'm a good guy." I shrugged "We don't have time for a longer explanation right now. I'm not done with the scumbag yet and that'll take time."

"What do you need to do?"

I fixed my eyes on her. "To destroy any memory of you as well as his ability to use his mental powers. I want to make sure neither he nor the police come for you. That's going to take a lot of concentration, so while I do that, you're going to be in charge and make sure nothing disturbs me."

"Killing him would be easier." The dark skinned Delina remarked, giving me the feeling that Parker would be dead, if she got her way.

"Yes, but the police need someone alive to blame for all this." I explained.

Petra nodded and to my astonishment, the simple statement along with the explanation and delegation of responsibilities seemed to make the women relax.

A piece of information from Parker entered my mind and I walked over to a closet, opened it, and took out a suitcase. "There're some fresh clothes for all of you in here. You can change while I work on the scumbag here but stay in the warehouse."

They all nodded.

That settled, I turned my attention back to Parker, placed my hands on his head again and activated an even stronger Ars Mentalis trick to read his mind in detail.

Parker had set up the way the criminal organization Erebus ran, and I shook my head in wonder as I studied it. I've seen spy organizations set up with less security and it was clear that Parker was a masterful organizer.

As far as people knew, Erebus was controlled by someone named along The Dream Lord with his two trusted business partners, who went under the names The Nightmare and The Dream Maker.

Parker had used an idea from a film called 'The usual suspects', where an unknown criminal mastermind runs a criminal organization. However, Parker had added two imaginary business partners with the only purpose of being able to assume the identity of one of them if the needed, while keeping the appearance of The Dream Lord hidden.

Directly under the top three, was an assembly of people who took care of running Erebus, using the directions given to them by the three leaders. All communication was done in code using electronics. All members of the Assembly, as well as the few people that needed to know the real identity of Parker and Curtis, had been mind-controlled for complete loyalty.

Leaving the trafficking of adult people to Parker, Curtis had dealt with child trafficking.

Parker had found the whole thing disgusting and only tolerated it because he needed Curtis help with his plan to establish a dynasty of Mentats and because it brought in more females that could be tested for psychic powers.

With a sigh, I started to examine that part of the operation in detail. It was just as revolting as I had thought it would be and I sighed with relief when I was finished and went back to absorb information about the other parts of Erebus.

When I was finished learning everything I could, I had a splitting headache, but on the bright side I had memorized just about everything about their operations, complete with names, code words, passwords, bank account numbers and everything else.

Then I started on the legal part. Invented a long time before Curtis even entered the picture, the legal businesses were controlled entirely by Parker and had been started when Parker had used his mind-controlling ability and a lot of money to take over a privately-owned company, by forcing the owner to sell it to him. In the following years, the company was reconstructed, creating a 'mother company' named Starlight Merchant Group that controlled a lot of other companies under it.

The setup was almost the same as Erebus, except with a little less secrecy. The main difference was that Parker had people to run the business on a daily basic and only became involved in the big decisions as something called a Chairman, meaning that only a select few actually knew that Parker owned the company. True to form, the few in the know were mind-controlled to loyalty and secrecy.

One of the companies under Starlight Merchant Group was called Dream Escapes and caught my attention because it owned a dozen sailing yachts and earned money by renting them out. Among the clients was Erebus and Parker had used that as a way of transferring money from his illegal activities into his legal ones, without anybody noticing. They did that by smuggling rich people from India, Africa, and Asia to new and better counties, but instead of using ordinary ships, as they did with the counterfeit drugs and ordinary sex-slaves, they used chartered luxury sailing yachts for this purpose.

As sailing ships, the fuel-cost was minimal and as luxury yachts, they were rarely searched and could dock at one of the many houses they rented from yet another company, called Dream Holidays.

That wasn't the reason why I noticed it. It was because it was by using one of Dream Escapes yachts, that Parker had planned to leave Malaga and he had been waiting for a yacht named Dream Weaver to arrive, so he could use it to leave Spain.

The yacht had arrived in the morning, so he had made his move and kidnapped the people he wanted, with the intention of taking them along as he left for Costa Rica in the morning. It was also the reason why the five women in the cage was here and not in the safe house, where Curtis and Parker normally kept their slaves while they were being trained.

At that point I stopped paying attention to the information I was absorbing. Not only because trying to remember all the different names was close to impossible, even with a perfect memory, but also because I had discovered a major flaw in both their organizations: Parker and Curtis had isolated themselves to a degree, where nobody knew they ran it except those who were mind controlled. I had all the information, as well as the ability to use that mind control to transfer their loyalty to me, which made it possible for me to seize it all, without anybody being none the wiser.

That left me with a dilemma: I really just wanted to take it easy while I tried to understand this new age, but that would mean leaving a lot of children to one of the worst fates I could imagine.

I ran the advantages and disadvantages with the various solutions through my head and sighed when I realized that the only way to both save the children and shut down the human trafficking, was to take Parker's place as the head of both operations for a while.

Besides, there was a certain poetic justice in taking Parkers companies away from him the same way he had taken it from others.

The thought brought me back to Parker. Considering the number of people, he had destroyed, he really deserved to die as Delina had suggested, but it would be better if Interpol got hold of him instead. The international police could stop the child trafficking in Europe, as well as rescue some of the children, and since they haven't used any of the yachts or houses for that, nothing else would be affected, giving me time to examine Parkers and Curtis' children and save those in Costa Rica.

An idea hit me at the same time as the memory transfer was finished and while the idea was utterly distasteful, it was both a fitting punishment and would allow me to turn Parker over to the police (so they could use the information to save even more children), without fearing he would come for the Twins later... or anybody else for that matter.

Grinding my teeth against the pain of the growing headache, I reached into his mind again and did to Parker what he had done to so many women over the years: I destroyed his free will and personality, making him an Abdere, ensuring he would answer any question the police would ask him. Then I used a high-powered Ars Mentalis trick to slowly and deliberately erase everything about his past, Starlight Merchant Group and Erebus from his mind, leaving only knowledge about Curtis' child trafficking organization and the world in general.

Next, I turned my attention towards Parkers mental powers. Permanently disruption the connections in the mind would take more time and energy than I had, but I erased his knowledge about how to use mental powers. It wouldn't make the abilities go away, but without any knowledge or training, they would be nearly useless and that meant that the police couldn't use him as some kind of 'attack dog'.

Just in case some idiot decided to re-train him, I made sure I could enter his mind at any time, ensuring that if we ever had a mental combat, he would be defenceless. As an added benefit, that would also allow me to make mind contact with him whenever I pleased, enabling me to keep him under observation.

It felt like the room was spinning when I done, and I leaned back in the chair, waiting for the thundering headache and the accompanying nausea to lessen just a bit. It was the most complete mind-wipe I had ever done and despite that Parker without a doubt deserved it, it left me sick.

The TV screens in the office still showed the areas by the doors, but the picture looked a bit lighter than before, indicating that dawn was near.

Remembering Julian and the party, I lifted my sleeve, looked at the watch and swore. The work with Parker had taken a lot longer than expected and it was now four o'clock in the morning, which meant that Wave Dancer had left along with my suitcases and that I had missed the transport out of Malaga.

I shrugged for myself. I would have to use Parker's plan, assume the identity of one of the leaders of Erebus and sail away on Dream Weaver.

It would have been nice to be able to sit down and wait until the headache was gone, but we needed to get out of the building while it was still dark and people weren't working, and time was catching up on us.

On the positive side, Parker had been ready to leave Malaga for good and besides the few things in the warehouse, everything important had been packed and delivered to Dream Weaver.

The brown skinned Delina must had seen me leaning back and asked "Done?".

Looking up, I discovered that she changed her clothes and cleaned up, looking extremely good in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt under a light summer jacket.

"Yes, I'm done." I said tiredly and looked around.

Petra and Esther were sitting on the floor, talking with the Twins, who used pen and paper to write on, while Riya and Ayanna were relaxing on two office chairs. Idly watching the screens showing the area outside the warehouse. All four had one or, in Petra's case, two, guns within reach.

I wasn't surprised. Trained soldiers don't like to be unarmed in a place of danger and given what the five women had been through, they most likely felt safer now that they had weapons.

Like Delina, they had washed while I was reading Parker's mind and were also dressed in new clothes, looking a lot like the other tourists in Malaga, only better.

Hearing my voice, Zena looked at me. "< What were you doing? You have been holding that guy's head for hours! >"

Since short-ranged mental communications didn't take any energy, I answered. "< I was getting information to rescue some children and making sure he didn't kidnap more people >"

Answering mentally instead of verbally was a mistake, as I was hit with a spike of pain as soon as I had finished the sentence, making the room spin for a moment.

Fortunately, Zena just nodded and gave me a thumps-up sign.

"Are you sure, he can't remember anything?" Asked Delina with a frown.

"Yes. It's gone for good."

"Okay. We're ready to leave when you are."

"We need to take care of the security system and..." I started, but Delina interrupted me. "Ester and I have already disabled that and removed the recordings. We have also cleaned everything we have touched or used and stuffed the dead guards into some crates." She lifted a small plastic bag with Parker's destroyed gun. "Riya found this. I guess you want that to disappear."

"Right." I took the bag and pocketed it before I walked over to the same closet as before and took out yet another suitcase. According to the information from Parker, this suitcase contained valuables, like money, credit cards and papers, including the fake passports for the five women.

Petra looked thoughtful at the suitcase for moment. "I'll find the car that brought us here. A lot easier than walking."

"Good idea." I said, "Just be discrete."

She nodded, stood up and placed her guns on a table, before she took Parker's bundle of keys and walked out the door, while Esther started to clean up.

I waved the Twins over. "Listen girls, I have to disappear now."

They nodded, and Zena sent "< I guess that means, that we're to tell the police that we didn't see anything? >"

I nodded, but with the headache, I didn't dare try to answer her using mental powers, so instead I quietly said, "That would be for the best. I don't want to be a wanted criminal."

"< We'll try >" Cyra sent and gave me a hug. "< But it won't be easy to fool mom >"

I considered that for a moment and Cyra was right. Alice knew the Twins all too well and seemed to have a well-developed instinct for when they were up to something. "Don't mention any use of Powers, but if you really need to, you can tell her that I helped you, if she promises not to tell the police... and please wait until the two Interpol agents isn't around anymore." Remembering that Karen already knew about Vis, I added. "If necessary, you can tell Karen as well."

"< Okay >" said Zena as she joined the hug "< Come visit us in LA as soon as you can >"

"Don't worry, I will do that." I promised with a smile.

Cyra looked a bit insecure. "< What if more guards come? >"

I gave her an extra hug. "Relax, honey. I read his mind and he doesn't have more guards or mind-controlled police officers in Malaga... Just to make the waiting easier, I'll make you sleep."

"< Can we at least move the mattresses into the room where mom is? >"

"Sure." I answered with a smile. "Come, let's go move them."

After a moment of hesitation, she nodded and followed me.

As soon as the mattresses were placed, the two girls lay down on them, while I placed Parker's phone next to them. "Alice, Rita and Karen should wake up around nine... Would you like to sleep until then?"

"< Yes please >" sent Cyra with a little smile. "< and safe travels, Ivan >"

Zena nodded "< Yeah... safe travel and call when you can >"

"I will do that. Sweet dreams." I said and used a Vis power to make them fall asleep. After a moment of consideration, I used another Vis power on them, that would ease the memory of the whole kidnapping. It wouldn't make the memories go away, but it made them easier to deal with.

As I rose to walk out of the room again, I noticed Delina standing in the door, watching me with a thoughtful expression in her face.

"Yes?" I asked as I came nearer.

"They're ... eh ... Mentats as well, yes?" she said in a low voice and even though it was phrased as a question, it was more of a statement. "You were the only one speaking and yet the three of you had a conversation."

There was no way I could think of to deny it, so I just nodded. "Yes, but please keep it a secret. If people know, the Twins will be in danger."

"Can I tell Petra?"

I sighed. It seemed like Petra was the unofficial leader of the five and keeping things from her was likely going to be difficult. "Yes, but only Petra and she can't tell it to anyone else."

"I promise." Delina said with a smile, as the door opened, and the subject of our conversation walked in. "The car is ready. Let's get out of here."

-------------

As soon as I had retrieved my bag, and everybody was in the car, Petra drove us to the centre of Malaga. Just in case somebody gave the police a description of me, I placed the jacket and hat in the bag, since they were the most distinctive features now.

On many levels, the women's situation reminded me of my own when I had just awakened:

They quite literally had only the clothes they were wearing, and they needed go shopping to get all the things they needed. On the bright side, they all spoke English, proving that I had underestimated how much that language was used.

Petra parked the car near a shopping centre that looked like it was open despite the early hour and we left it there with the keys in it after the women discretely wiped it for any fingerprints.

I took a bunch of money from the bag and handed them to Petra. "Take this and buy everything you needed for two weeks of vacation, including a suitcase and a bikini. I'll meet you at the café over there in two hours."

She took the money, flipped through the bills, and whistled softly, before looking at me. "And if we take the money and run?"

I laughed and said, "then my life would be a lot easier."

The Ukrainian smiled at that. "True. See you in two hours."

Looking from one to another, I suddenly realized that keeping a low profile was going to be close to impossible for five sexy women. "Ladies, you'll need to go in smaller groups. The five of you together is too much beauty in one group to not be noticed."

Smiles appeared on their faces.

"We'll handle that." Promised Petra.

I nodded, took the suitcases from the warehouse, and walked to the harbour.

---------------

A little while later, I was at the dock, heading towards Dream Weaver. There had been a mind-image in Parker's mind of the yacht, but it was only by seeing it with my own eyes, that I understood the sheer size of it, as it was one of the biggest sailing yachts in the harbour.

Sleek lines combined a ninety cubit (138 feet/ 42meter) long shining blue hull with a white superstructure and an enormous mast.

To my pleasant surprise, the yacht was built in the in the same way as the Baylon Geminus or double hulled ship: Instead of having one hull, Dream Weaver had two hulls connected by the superstructure, making it a lot wider than single hulled ships. It was, however, bigger than even the largest Geminus or any other sailing ship I had ever been on.

I've sailed many different ships in my time, since it was usually the fastest way to travel in the old days and the biggest sailing ship I had ever been on, was a roman ship plying the grain route from Alexandria to Rome. Back then, I had found the ship enormous and while Dream Weaver was about the same size as the grain ship, it looked at lot more elegant than the clumsy merchant ships of the past.

From Parkers knowledge, I knew that it was called a catamaran now and it had been his favourite yacht. Just from looking at it, I could understand why: It was breathtakingly beautiful.

As Parkers favourite yacht, he had used it several times, posing as the The Nightmare, and the crew were mind controlled for secrecy and loyalty, which suited me just fine.

A young man spotted me standing there with suitcases and came over to me. "May I help you?"

"Yes, indeed." I said with a smile as I activated a mind-trick and added. "I'm the Dream Master. "

Even with a face tanned from the sun, the young man in front of me managed to become white as he saluted me. "Welcome, sir. I'm Mark... the deckhand."

"Thank you, Mark. I would like to talk with Captain Wolf."

"Certainly, sir. This way."

It didn't take long before I was looking at a stocky middle-aged woman in a white shirt with four golden stripes on the shoulders. Her brown hair was set in a ponytail and as she came walking up to me, she took off her sunglasses and placed them in a pocket, looking at me with pale grey eyes. From Parkers memory, I knew that her name was Denise Wolf, originally from Germany and married to the ships engineer, Karl Wolf.

Unlike Mark the Deckhand she smiled when I gave her the code line and extended a hand. "It's so nice to meet you, mister ... ehh..."

I smiled back as we shared a handshake "Oh... please just call me Ivan."

"Certainly, Mr. Ivan." She glanced at the suitcase. "I know it's your yacht, but may I give you a tour of the ship, while the crew takes your luggage to the owner's stateroom?"

I could feel the pride in 'her' ship emanating from her and nodded. "Yes, that would be nice."

I had found the house Alice and the rest had been living in, to be luxurious, but compared to Dream Weaver it was plain and I was in awe most of the tour. The yacht had an owner's suite, six staterooms with full size bathrooms, entertainment systems everywhere and even a small pool. It also had a salon the size of two living rooms, a den to relax in and a huge aft deck, complete with a large oval dining table, sun beds and two different seating areas with chairs and sofas.

The ship was an incredible blend of sailing ship and luxury hotel, and while Captain Wolf used a lot of terms I didn't know, I did understand that despite the luxury, it was a fast and efficient vessel.

In my mind, it was as if someone had taken two large ships, removed the super structure and then slapped a two-story house on top of them, before equipping the whole lot with a single giant mast.

The eight-person crew was surprisingly small for such a big ship, but after having seen the controls, I realized why: The rig was largely automated and most likely a lot more complicated to sail than the ships I had sailed in the past.

"I understood from the message that you wanted to sail across the Atlantic to Costa Rica." Said Captain Wolf when we were seated in the incredible comfortable sofa group and something in her voice made me look closely at her. "Yes, is that a problem?"

"Not as long you let me sail her." She smiled a bit. "The hurricane season has started, but we still have time to sail south of the main belt and so far, it has been a quiet year. Just be aware that I'll turn around if we run into trouble. Thankfully, we're faster than most storms."

"Captain, it's your ship and if you say it's too dangerous, you're probably right."

That seemed to please her. "Thank you, Mr. Ivan. When did you want to leave? We're done loading unless you have something extra. We'll need fuel, but we can get that in the Canaries."

"I would prefer to get under sails as soon as possible, but we'll have some guests aboard. Five of them to be precise."

Captain Wolf smiled again. "Not a problem. The usual kind?"

Reaching out with my mind, I connected with hers to see exactly what she meant with 'the usual kind', since the information from Parker wasn't clear about which ship that had been used for what. One of the downsides with reading minds is that the information is only as good as the memory that was being read.

As it turned out, she meant smuggling people and she was actually proud about it, since she saw herself as one that helped people to a new and better life.

Considering that the people who were normally transported by yacht, was the kind that could pay for a new life in another country, she wasn't wrong about it, though this case was different.

The simple trick made my vision blur, so I retreated as fast as I could. I really needed sleep, food, or both.

"Yes and no." I said and briefly explained that they were female refugees that would be killed if they returned home, and that the previous transporter had dumped them on me.

"Don't worry, sir. We'll have the staterooms ready for them." She paused for a moment. "Do they have passports?"

"Yes... The usual kind."

"Good. Just leave it to me... It won't be a problem."

"Thank you. Oh, can we get a late breakfast when we get here? I'm starving."

This time she chuckled. "I'm sure the chef can arrange something."

--------------

The rest of the morning went smoothly. I met up with the women at the shopping center and guided them down to the harbour.

Captain Wolf had gathered the crew to help and since they were all there and I had gotten some energy back, I used the opportunity to repeat the code phrase 'I'm the Dream Master', while broadcasting the mental trick, making sure they all knew whom I was. Most of them looked slightly worried, but not overly so and I was pleased with the outcome, as I walked down to the owner's cabin to unpack my belongings, before I ate a late breakfast.

Since the police knew my name from the fake passport I had shown Sheena, I hid in a secret compartment while Captain Wolf greeted the two officials that had been sent to check the yacht. I was prepared to do some Ars Mentalis to get them to leave, but Captain Wolf just showed them around without them finding anything and they left the yacht without any incidents.

Then I went down to the cabin again to meditate to make up for the lack of sleep.

When I got out of the meditative state again, the gentle motion of the ship told me that we had left the harbour while I was meditating and were now in open water.

Yawning, but feeling a lot better than before, I walked into my extremely luxurious bathroom and took a quick shower, silently praising the wonders of techno-magic, that enabled me to not only have a private bathroom aboard a ship, but also a shower with hot water.

The feeling of luxury stayed with me as I walked back into the bedroom to pick out clothes. The size of it was so much bigger than any other cabin I had ever been in and that included the short visit to Wave Dancer with Julian.

Taking the clothes from the closet, I dressed in shirt and jeans and was putting on shoes, when I got a mental call from Cyra and Zena. "< Hey... Can you hear us? >"

"< Yes. Is there a problem? >"

"< No >" sent Zena. "< We just woke up and wondered if it's okay to wake up mom now >"

"< Sure >" I answered. "< Are you okay otherwise? And sorry for the quick farewell >"

"< No problem and we're okay >"

"< Just bored >" added Cyra.

I sent some reassurance through the link as I said, "< Wake up your mom, Honey >"

"< Okay... We'll do it now >" sent Zena, adding, "< But remember to visit us as soon as possible as you promised >"

"< No worries... I'll do that >" I sent back. "< Take care, Rascals >"

"< You too >"

The link faded away and I walked out of the cabin.

When I came to the top of the ship, called the flybridge, I could feel the wind in my hair, see the white sails over my head and couldn't help smiling. They could keep their modern inventions. For me this was real traveling.

"Hello, Mr. Ivan." A feminine voice said, causing me to take my eyes off the sails and look down. Delina and Petra were standing at the railing, watching me and for a moment, I just stood there, admiring their good looks. As I had discovered in Malaga, many of the women of this age were beauties compared to most of the ancient world and the five women from the warehouse were stunning.

Their attractiveness wasn't really a surprise as Parker had chosen only the most talented, beautiful, and well-shaped women out of the hundreds he had been offered and according to the information from him, he had been offered only the very best.

Colours aside, they looked similar. Both had arranged their hair in a ponytail, showing off their beautiful faces and their almost identical summer dresses didn't do anything to hide their voluptuous hourglass bodies. It was tight around the chest, where generous round breasts pressed against the cotton, followed the lines down the body to show a slim waist and flat stomach and then flared out to accommodate wide hips and cover the upper part of a pair of long legs.

Activating my memory, I recalled the parameters Parker had set for what he thought would be his bodyguard/sex doll squad. Good looking women, at least 170cm (5'6") tall, fit and combat trained, with at least a natural C-cup in breast-size. I had wondered what exactly a C-cup was, but looking at them as I were now, it looked like a sizeable pair of breasts. They also needed to be extremely good at what they were doing in the army, as Parker expected only the best from his guards. That made me wonder what 'extremely good' meant to Parker, but as that was a personal preference, I really had no idea, so I guessed that I would just have to find out later.

"Hello Ladies." I said with a smile, as I walked over to them. "I hope you had a pleasant trip so far."

That got a chuckle from Petra. "Better than the others. They're all seasick."

"In this?" I blinked in surprise. Unlike most single hull ships, Dream Weaver moved and a level plane instead of tilting to one side, and the ships gentle motions wouldn't even spill a full glass of wine.

Delina nodded and added. "Esther lasted the longest, but she walked down half an hour ago."

For a moment, I considered using acupuncture to make their seasickness go away, but then remembered that using Vis without some way to generate it, wasn't a good idea. As it was now, I had already used too much in the fight against Parker and his gunmen and I could feel the tiredness in my bones. If the Salamander power hadn't returned me to the physical condition, I had been in before the long trance, I would have had a lot more trouble rescuing everybody. Pushing the thought away, I said, "I hope they get better soon."

Petra nodded. "One of the crew came with some pills for them."

The arrival of a stewardess stopped our conversation as she asked if we wanted something to drink or eat. During the tour of the boat, Captain Wolf had presented her as Patricia Spencer, so I used her name when I ordered. They didn't have any cider, so I went with tea, while Delina and Petra asked for soda.

When the stewardess had walked away, there was silence for a while as we just watched the waves, but then Petra looked at me and said "By the way, thank you for lending us the money... It was very kind."

"It wasn't a loan." I said with a smile. "It was a gift."

For some reason, she blushed. "Thanks again."

"You're welcome."

Delina looked at me. "Why do you do this for us? I'm grateful, but I don't understand it."

It wasn't the first time somebody had asked me that question over the years and the answer had been the same every time. "Because I can and it's the right thing to do."

"That's noble of you." Petra said slowly. "Aren't you worried that the guy's partner is going to chase after you?"

"No... Curtis, as his name was, is dead."

"Are you sure?" Delina shivered a bit.

"Yes." I said, "He tried to kill me two days ago but ended up dead instead."

A muted exclamation of surprise made me look to the right. Patricia the Stewardess was standing within hearing range with our drinks in her hands, looking at me with a mix of relief, fear, and awe on her face. Reaching out with my mind, I connected with hers for a moment, trying to find the reason for the exclamation. It wasn't hard to find as Parker had used her for sex several times and while she had liked it while it happened, she had felt badly used afterwards, as she was lesbian and presently in a relationship with Joanna, the yachts chef.

In general, both Parker and Curtis had the reputation of being dangerous men to be around and while she was glad that they were gone, that made me even more dangerous than them.

Not knowing how to react to that, I sent her a smile and turned back to Delina and Petra again.

They were looking at me with almost the same expression in their faces as Patricia and before I had a chance to change the subject, Delina said, "Thank God, they're both gone!"

Petra nodded "Agreed!"

Patricia was smiling widely as she handed us our sodas and tea and then walked away. That didn't worry me. Part of the Loyalty Codex Parker had used on them compelled them not to keep 'the Master's' secrets and by using the trigger, I had transferred that loyalty to me.

Apparently, the small break was enough for Petra to clear her head, because when Patricia was out of sight, she tilted her head a bit and lowered her voice as she asked, "So, what can Mentats do? How do you move that fast and..." She stopped abruptly, when Delina hit her in the side with an elbow and said, "Shut it, Petra. You saw the fight and you know what the Scumbag did."

The Ukrainian rolled her eyes. "Besides that, Delina. It has to be useful for something else than fighting and controlling people."

I watched them for a moment, but then said, "I'm not going to show you much, since you really don't need to know, but..." I switched to mental communication as I continued. "< ...there're a few things that might be good for you to be familiar with >"

As always, Mind-talk with non-Mentats was more complicated than talking with a Mentat, since you not only had to send your own thoughts, but also listen to the target's thoughts, as they couldn't send thoughts themselves. It also made it abundantly clear, that the sender was a telepath, so with a few exceptions, I haven't used it since Baylon disappeared, but after what they had seen, it would be a minor thing.

Both women looked at me slack-jawed, causing me to smile as I continued. "< First of all, never mention Mentats openly. You never know who might be listening in without your knowledge >"

That caused them to nod in unison.

"< Can you hear our thoughts? >" asked Petra mentally.

"< Yes, but only when I do like this and focus on it. Also, I can only hear the answers you formulate in your mind >" I drank some of my tea. "< Basically, it's the Mentat version of a cell phone >"

"< Very useful >" Delina thought, followed by Petra's "< Can all Mentats do that? >"

"< I honestly don't know >" I said with a shrug. "< I haven't met that many Mentats, so it's impossible to answer >"

"< What about Cyra and Zena... the Twins from the warehouse? >"

"< They can, but they're not skilled enough to talk with non-Mentats yet... That'll come >" I did a quick scan of the area, but nobody was watching us. "< I'll show you one more thing >"

I reached into a pocket, took the bag with the two pieces of Parkers gun along with my cell phone and placed the content on the top of the railing. With my mind, I lifted the two gun-pieces and cell phone, making them do small circles in the air. Both Petra and Delina laughed softly as the objects moved in a complicated pattern that looked like a dance.

"Awesome!" Mumbled Petra and Delina nodded in agreement. "< Is that how the Scumbag threw stuff at you? > "

"< Yes, it's the same ability >" I answered and sent the three objects flying away from the yacht until they landed in the ocean. I needed to get rid of them anyway and now was a perfect opportunity. A thought hit me, and I added. "< By the way, the guns you took from the warehouse needs to be ditched in the ocean as soon as possible. From now on, everything has to be legal >"

"< Consider it done >" Said Delina with a nod, but Petra added. "< If we get some new ones. I don't like being without a weapon for the moment."

"< That will have to be later, when we can do it legally >"

She hesitated for a moment, but then accepted it with a nod, before asking "< When you lift something with your mind, does the size or weight of the object matter? >"

To my surprise there was an image sequence of a small greenish and wrinkled little man using telekinesis to lift some kind of vehicle out of a swamp. Puzzled, I took a quick look into her mind to see where the image sequence came from and discovered that it was from a movie called Star Wars and the little green man was called Yoda.

"< Well, this is not a movie, so size and weight matter when you're lifting something >" I replied with amusement. "< Anyway, I don't really have more to show you... at least not that I'm willing to do here >"

"< Too bad but thank you for the explanation >" thought Petra.

Delina verbally added. "Yes. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

There was silence for a moment, until Delina laughed softly. "You know... it's kind of difficult to find something to say after that... So, I think I'll go tell the others that both scumbags are neutralized." She sent us a smile and walked away, leaving me alone with Petra on the flybridge.

Leaning against the railing, I asked. "How are the others by the way? Mentally I mean."

The Ukrainian woman sighed. "We've been talking a lot, but losing their virginity really hit Esther, Ayanna and Riya bad. They'll feel better knowing the scumbags are dead."

I nodded slowly. "I hope so... hmm... may I ask why you are so relaxed about the thing?"

Petra snorted. "I'm not as relaxed as I seem. If you hadn't made sense in the warehouse, I would have wasted that scumbag."

"Oh, I believe that, but you're still more relaxed than the others."

There was silence as she turned and looked out on the ocean, but finally she sighed and asked. "Have you ever been really drunk and done something stupid, only to regret it the day after?"

That made me laugh. "Yeah, a few times."

"Good, coz then you know how I feel about it... Somewhere in here," she pointed at her head. "I know that he used his powers to control me and make me do as he wished, but it's too strange to really matter. In my head, it just feels like I drank too much vodka, lost control and had sex with some idiot." She shrugged. "I've done that a few times when I was younger and I don't see any reason to regret it more now, than I did back then... Besides, it wasn't like the sex itself was that bad, even if it did feel strange not being able to control my own body."

I shook my head slightly, as I marveled at the way she had handled being mind-controlled. Not many people were able to do that, and it showed an adaptable mind, as well as a high resistance to trauma. Both invaluable to soldiers and I had no doubt, that she had done well in the military.

"You don't approve?" she asked anxiously, clearly haven seen me shaking my head.

"Oh, I do approve." I said sincerely. "In fact, I admire the way you have handled it. I don't think many people would be able to handle it that well."

An expression of disbelief crossed her face. "You really mean that?"

"Yes." I thought about how to express it and then continued. "Being able to take something as relatively unknown as mind control and relate it into something known, is a huge help in overcoming it. Very few people can do that, I think it's awesome and it's something you should be proud of."

She sent me a dazzling smile. "Thanks."

There was silence for a moment as we just looked at each other, but then Petra leaned in and gave me a soft kiss. "Thanks for saving us."

"Oh, you're welcome..." I started, but before I got further, she took a step forward, bringing her up against me and kissed me again. This time with a passion, that wasn't gratitude, but pure lust.

Surprised, I did a quick scan of her mind, just to ensure that this wasn't a way to thank me for saving her. It wasn't. Naturally, having saved her didn't hurt, but more importantly, being tall and well-trained I was exactly her type. Added to that, I had mysterious powers that reminded her of her favourite movies, and was good-looking, relaxed, and polite. All in all, I was everything she found attractive in a man.

I left her mind and kissed her back. Her soft lips feeling wonderful against mine, igniting my own lust for her. I won't accept sharing pleasure as a reward for saving somebody, but being kiss by a beautiful woman, that really wanted me, was another matter and one I welcomed, along with the feel of her lush body against mine.

Her lips firmed up in a smile as she felt my erection. A heartbeat later, our lips parted, as she drew back. "Ivan, this is gonna sound strange considering my situation, but I want you. Let's go to your cabin."

------------------

Once inside my cabin, Petra pushed me into the bed and ever so slowly unbuttoned the front of her dress. "I like men with a commanding presence and are normally more than happy to let the man take the lead, but after the last few weeks, I need to be in control this time. Can you live with that?"

She looked intensely at me and smiled when I nodded and lifted my upper body to rest on my elbows, so I could see what she was doing.

"Good." She said and pulled the dress over her head, revealing her underwear clad body.

I was stunned. As I had noticed on the flybridge, she had an hourglass figure, but unlike the models I had seen in the magazines in the hotel, she wasn't slim or thin. The shoulders were wide for a woman and along with the muscular, yet feminine, arms, they spoke of regular and intense training. It also gave her a strong and powerful presence.

Petra undid the bra and casually discarded it. Her breasts sat high and proud on her chest and were just as gorgeous as the rest of her, being round, full, and smooth. Her eagerly erect nipples were surrounded by perfectly round pink aureoles that were speckled with charming little goosebumps.

The waist was slender and though mostly hidden under the smooth skin of her flat stomach, her abdominal muscles were well-defined, and the waist curved out to generous hips. As I looked, Petra hooked her thumps in the panties and pulled them down. My eyes followed the movement down her long, well-shaped and muscular legs. Just looking at her made my dick even harder.

I suddenly realized that Petra reminded me of Verina. She had the same solidness about her and radiated the same quiet strength as my 'old' Baylon lover. She was also just as beautiful, though her face was different from a Baylons and reminded me more of the warrior princess Xanthe.

"You are gorgeous." I stated as Petra straightened again, and my eyes returned to her face. "Not to mention incredible sexy."

"Thank you." Petra said with a smile. "Your turn to undress."

With a chuckle, I got off the bed and took of my clothes while looking at Petra to see her reaction. She was smiling and licking her lips, as she let her eyes roam freely over me. They widened a bit when I pulled down my pants and underwear at the same time, letting my hard dick spring free, before stepping out of them.

"I might be sexy, but you're smoking hot." She finally said, walking over to me.

"Thank yo.." I started to say but was interrupted by a kiss. Her body pressed against mine and I discovered that it was softer than it looked, yet firm, warm and a pleasure to hold when I put my arms around her. The same could be said about her lips. They were soft, yet firm, against mine and that she opened her mouth to let her tongue play against mine didn't hurt the impression.

My hands caressed her back, sliding down to grope her firm ass, making her moan into my mouth. In turn, her hands found my cock and examined it approvingly for a moment, squeezing it slightly to determine its hardness.

Still kissing her, I removed a hand from her ass and moved in in between us, to grasp one of her breasts. The perfect mound overflowed my hand and I massaged them gently, making her moan again, but I sensed that she wanted it a little rougher, so I sank my fingers into the firm flesh. She groaned into my mouth and the kiss got hotter.

We stood like that for a while, groping and caressing each other, feeling the arousal rise, but eventually, Petra broke the kiss, slid down my body, dragging her magnificent breasts over my skin, until she was kneeling before me, still caressing my dick.

She took a heartbeat to kiss the tip before she breathed, "Oh, that's a nice dick." and kissed it again, opening her mouth to slide her lips over the head. I groaned a thanks as she slowly teased me with her tongue, while her fingers were sliding up and down the shaft, teasing it with feather-light touches.

Despite feeling a powerful need to fuck her mouth, I stood still, enjoying the oral attention, as she played with her tongue, lips and hands on my hard cock, kissing, licking, and caressing it. Instead of trying to make me come, she took her time doing it, giving off small moans of pleasure all the while, and I could sense her arousal rising steadily and swiftly.

Eventually, she stopped, stood, and gave me a searing kiss, before leading me to the bed. Since she wanted to be in control, I had expected her to ask me to lay down, so she could mount me, but instead she lay down on the bed.

"I need you inside me." She said in a whisper, spreading her legs. To say that she was wet would be an understatement. Under the well-trimmed triangle of light brown hair, her pussy was drenched, drops of juices running in between her buttocks, ending on the bedspread.

As much as I wanted to taste her, I nodded and put a condom on, before I positioned myself between her legs, the head of my dick lightly touching her lower lips. The position brought our heads to the same height, so I leaned down and kissed her, getting a satisfied groan from her, and a heartbeat later, she threw her arms around me.

I kept my position there for some time while we kissed, until Petra moved her hips beneath me, causing the tip of my dick to slip in between her lower lips to rest at the opening. With another satisfied moan, she began moving her hips, teasing herself with the head of my dick.

It felt incredible and became even better when she lifted her legs and crossed her ankles behind my back. Feeling her ankles press down on my ass, I pressed my hips forward, sliding my dick into her drenched pussy. As wet as she was, I had expected it to go all the way in, but I only made it halfway, before she gasped as her muscles clamped down on my dick, grabbing it firmly. Whatever training she was practicing was evidently one that had affected the muscles in her crotch as well, because her inner muscles were extremely strong.

I stopped and returned to just kissing her, until I could feel her relax. Then I pulled almost completely out and then thrust into her in a single stroke that only ended when I had completely buried myself in her.

Petra yelped and groaned. "Easy now. You feel huge and I'm not used to it yet." She paused as a shiver ran through her. "But it's very good."

"Right back at you." I moaned, as the shiver was echoed by her inner muscles, resulting in my dick being caressed.

It became even better, as I began to thrust in and out of her with long slow strokes. Her inner muscles were still caressing my dick and the added sensation of sliding in and out of her tight wet tunnel was sensational.

Judging from the expression of pure pleasure on Petra's face, she thought the same. The hands moved from my back to my hair, as she pulled me in for another lengthy kiss. I kept slowly fucking her as we kissed, and each stroke felt incredible. Not only was she extremely wet, but she was also getting closer to an orgasm, making her quiver with pleasure, and every thrust still encountered the same delicious resistance from her inner muscles.

We continued the slow climb towards orgasm, until Petra broke the kiss with a gasp, saying. "Faster! Harder!"

Since I was resting my weight on my elbows, I shifted my arms so I could take hold of her shoulders and held her still, as I started to pound her with long, fast strokes, my pelvic bone slapping into her clitoris every time I buttoned out in her.

Petra gasped, arched her back and the screamed, as a powerful orgasm ran through her body, causing her to shiver and shake, her hips jerking against mine. Absorbing the Vis energy she had released, I kept fucking her throughout her orgasm, and almost as soon as the first one had faded, Petra looked at me with a shocked expression on her face. "Coming ... again!"

The second orgasm was just as powerful as the first and Petra shrieked her pleasure out, while releasing a wave of Vis that almost as big as the first one. Her muscles clamped down on my dick, while her legs closed around my hips, preventing me from moving, while spasms ran through her and her inner muscles milked my cock.

We both lay still for a while after that, enjoying the feel of each other, until Petra unhooked her ankles and lowered her legs, whispering. "Roll over."

I did as she said and a moment later, she was on top of me, closing her eyes in pleasure as she impaled herself on my dick. Then she started to move, rising, and lowering herself on my dick.

The erotic sight of a gorgeous woman riding me, her large well-formed breasts bouncing slightly with her movements, combined with the sensation of her tight pussy around my dick, was a sensory overload, that caused me to shiver and groan, and I could feel my orgasm approaching.

Petra opened her eyes and looked at me, smiling widely when she discovered, that I in turn was looking at her.

I let my hands wander over her body until I reached her tempting breasts, when I ran my hands over her stiff nipples, before I started to caress and fondle them. Petra let out a groan of pleasure and shuddered, increasing the speed of her strokes.

A tickling sensation started in my balls and I knew that I would come soon if she kept that tempo. Fortunately, she was close to coming as well, and worked her hips faster, chasing her climax.

I gasped as the sensation became too much and I felt my seed rushing up to fill the condom. Petra felt it as well and after an few additional strokes, she came with a loud groan, her body jerking and shaking. Her energy spent, she collapsed on top of me, kissing me deeply, before she placed her head on my shoulder and relaxed, as she said something in a language I didn't understand.

Reaching up, I caressed her back. "Sorry, I didn't catch that."

Chuckling, she raised her head. "In English, it would be something like 'Holy shit, that was awesome!"

"I have to agree." I said and gave her a kiss. "It was really good."

Smiling, she lowered her head again and for a moment, we just lay there, enjoying the afterglow of the orgasms. Even draped over me as she was, her soft and curvy, yet firm, body felt incredible against mine, and I luxuriated in the feeling of her breast against my torso.

I don't know how long we lay there, but finally Petra sighed. "I better get back to the others, before they start to worry." She kissed my shoulder. "Can I borrow your bathroom to take a shower? I smell like sex."

"Feel free." I said with chuckle. "Do you want company out there?"

"Tempting, but no." She answered with a smile. "I need to hurry."

"Sad, but fair." I said and admired her flawless body as she got out of the bed and walked to the bathroom.

Removing the condom, I placed it on the bedside table and stretched out on the bed. Not only was Petra a gorgeous woman, but she also had released enough Vis to wash my tiredness away.

It didn't take long before Petra came out of the bathroom again, fully dressed and looking good.

"Thanks for saving us, Ivan." She said and walked over to give me a kiss. "And thanks for a wonderful night." She chuckled. "I have to say that this day ended a lot better than it started."

With a final kiss, she turned around and walked out of the door.

Laying back down, I chuckled slightly. In a surprisingly short time, I had gone from having nothing except the things I had brought with me, to laying in a luxurious bed in a magnificent sailing yacht, after having rescued the people I cared about, and having had sex with yet another attractive woman.

I whispered a prayer of thanks to the Goddess of Luck and relaxed in the bed until I fell asleep.