The Soak

Dedicated to EnglishDamsel


Of the many perks associated with owning a large, profitable casino-resort, being called away from a penthouse gala attended by the city’s most beautiful people was not one of them.

Such an occurrence explained the sour expression on Severna Strickland’s face, as she rode down in her private elevator from the top floor of her building to the sub-basement, where her chief of security had discreetly summoned her.

Arriving in the expansive security suite on the lower level, Severna navigated through the rows of monitoring equipment attended by uniformed female officers. Her stiletto heels clacked sharply on the tile floor. No one met her stark gaze, nor dared to enter her set upon path. In a moment, she stood before the woman who had called her.

“You know where I was and who I was with,” Severna said. “So I can only imagine that you have a staggeringly important reason for asking me to leave my own event.”

“Yes, Ms. Strickland,” said the security chief.

“Please enlighten me.”

“It’s best if I show you. Will you come this way?”

Severna nodded curtly. Then the chief led her to an adjoining room and opened the door so that she could enter.

Stepping inside, Severna saw the typical furnishings of an interrogation room. She knew the features well, having designed them herself:

By the door, beneath a mirrored window, stood a table stocked with shelves and baskets for holding a subject’s personal effects. In the middle of the room resided two chairs, in which interrogators could sit, and a wide table, on which they could place whatever they needed to do their job. Against the far wall was set another chair, where the subject would sit.

Larger and much more customized than the other two, the subject’s chair rested on a central pole that could be raised and lowered, much like in a barbershop. Its contours cradled the human body, not so much for comfort, but as to make leaving the chair without aid more difficult. Slots in its head and arm rests, and in the front of its seat, housed retractable restraints.

A woman sat in this chair, which was raised up a meter off the ground. Restraints around her forehead, wrists, and knees held her firmly in place. She had long black hair and a beautiful face. A sleek evening gown accentuated her toned, shapely body. She wore nothing on her legs and feet, which hung limply above the floor.

Severna eyed her for a moment, taking note of the woman’s elegant beauty and overt sexiness. Then she turned back to the chief.

“Aside from her being gorgeous, why do I care about seeing this woman? There were plenty of gorgeous people upstairs at my party.”

“She was wearing these when we caught her,” the chief said.

She indicated a pair of black stockings and designer high heels on the table by the door. Severna picked up a shoe in one hand and a stocking in the other. Scanning them for every detail, she began to notice oddities in each.

“The heel of this shoe detaches,” Severna said. “Hm. A surprisingly sharp weapon. Well balanced, too. Equally damaging if thrust or thrown.”

The chief nodded in agreement.

“And this stocking feels different I’d expect. There’s a plastic or metal mesh woven into it. Have you analyzed it?”

“Yes, Ms. Strickland. It’s a passive receiver. It pulls in wireless signals. The other shoe has a decoder and storage device in its heel.”

“Well, well, well,” Severna said. “You didn’t interrupt me for nothing.”

“No, Ms. Strickland,” the chief said.

“Have you interrogated the subject about these items yet?”

“We have questioned her, but we have not employed any special methods.”

“And what did she have to say?”

“She claimed to know nothing.”

“Do you believe that to be true?” Severna asked.

“It’s possible,” the chief said, “that she is a dupe, who was given these clothes to wear without knowing what they contain or do. But the weapon in the heel makes that scenario unlikely. It’s also possible that she has been mentally conditioned to carry out an assignment without being aware of it. However, it’s most likely that she is a knowing spy, who is simply lying to us.”

“It shouldn’t be difficult to find out the truth from her.”

“No, Ms. Strickland, not at all. But before I ordered a special method interrogation, I wanted to bring something else to your attention.”

“Yes?”

“About ten minutes before we caught this woman, we intercepted a coded transmission coming from inside the casino. We have decoded the signature and are currently working on the rest of it.”

“What was the signature?”

“English Damsel.”

“Oh my,” Severna said, smiling for the first time since she had been pulled away from her party. “If you have caught that ever elusive operative, then you have done very well indeed.”

“We don’t know yet that we have,” the chief said. “But it won’t be long before we find out.”

Severna did not immediately respond. Knowing that her boss was mulling over something, the chief stood silently and patiently waiting. As she had done the entire time, the woman in the chair sat quietly and calmly, observing the scene before her.

“My guests can do without me for a while longer,” Severna finally said. “Make the preparations. I will carry out the interrogation myself. Alone and in private.”

“Very good, Ms. Strickland,” the chief said with slight bow. “I’ll take my leave and text you when everything is ready. Do you have the remote control app on your phone?”

“Yes.”

“All right. You’ll hear from me shortly.”

The chief exited the room and shut the door behind her. Severna took her phone out from her purse and started the remote control app on it. She tapped a button, and the door locked behind her. Tapping another button caused the outside pane of the window to darken so that no one could see in.

Then she moved to stand directly before her captive. Both women sized each other up.

“Are you really the infamous English Damsel?” Severna asked.

“Look,” said the woman in the chair, her voice even but tinged with impatience. “I’ve answered all of the questions that your security officers have asked me. I told them the truth. I didn’t hold anything back. And I’ve done nothing wrong. I know this is private property, so you have the right to expel me if you don’t me here. But you can’t hold me against my will. You’re not the police.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

The woman in the chair groaned in frustration.

“No, I’m not this damsel person you keep mentioning.”

“But you are English. A Londoner. Upper class. Yes?”

“Yes.”

“We’ll determine quickly enough if you are who you say you’re not.”

Severna’s phone chimed. She read the text from the chief and smiled.

“We’re ready to begin,” she said to the captive. “I won’t threaten or scare you with any of the horrors of my interrogation methods. Because there are none. But I will say that the methods work. Infallibly. You will answer all my questions truthfully.”

“I already have.”

“No, I don’t think so. Not that it matters either way. I enjoy interrogating people such as yourself. That is, attractive women. I get off on it.”

“That’s sick.”

Severna shrugged.

“One must find pleasure where one can,” she said.

Then she pulled both chairs out from behind the table in the middle of the room. She sat down in one and put her feet up on the other. With each foot as leverage for the other, she loosened then kicked off her shoes. She wiggled her bare toes and sighed contentedly.

“I’m ready,” she said. “How about you?”

Not waiting for a response, Severna tapped a button on her phone. A hum sounded from within the ceiling, directly over the woman in the chair. She looked up warily. A panel above her head slid silently open, revealing an object inside that was masked in shadow.

The object began to descend along an extending rod. Once below the ceiling, it revealed itself as a transparent dome-shaped helmet. Circuitry and small LED lights graced its top and sides.

“What the hell?” the woman in the chair said.

Clearly the helmet’s path would end with it resting over her head, and clearly this realization unnerved her. She squirmed within her seat as much as the restraints allowed her, which wasn’t much. Only her bare feet had any real leeway, and she flexed and kicked them uselessly.

“Our special method interrogations have several levels of intensity,” Severan said, watching in anticipation as the helmet neared the captive’s head. “We call level one a rinse. It places the subject into a heightened state of suggestibility and forces her to answer all questions truthfully.”

The woman in the chair gritted her teeth. No doubt, Severna thought, she was steeling herself to resist the described effects.

“Level two is a soak. In addition to the effects of a rinse, the subject’s memories and perceptions can be altered, and short-term post-hypnotic suggestions can be applied. Level three is a wash. In addition to the effects of a soak, the subject can be conditioned to behave and act in ways counter to what she would normally do. Beyond level three, well...it gets a little ugly with a scour. That’s when a subject’s personality and memories are overwritten.”

As if to punctuate Severna’s point, the helmet slid into place over the captive’s head. She grunted audibly, as she gave a last ditch effort to avoid it. But being barely able to move, she could do nothing. Now, she glared at Severna through the clear material that covered down past her nose.

“But a scour isn’t necessary,” Severna went on, oblivious to (or at least uncaring of) the woman’s stare. “Nor, I think, is a wash. No, for now, I think a soak will do just fine. We’ll get to the bottom of who you are and what you’re doing here. And we’ll make sure that you don’t remember what has happened to you in this room. And then, if all is well, we’ll release you. None of this will hurt you or cause you harm. In fact, I can make it so that you enjoy it very much.”

“Screw you,” the captive said.

Severna laughed.

“Don’t make me subject you to a wash, my dear. Or screwing me is exactly what you’ll end up doing.”

The woman held her tongue.

“Good girl,” Severna said. “Now, let’s begin.”

She tapped her phone.

The helmet lit up and began a low, rhythmic humming. The woman looked around nervously, and then tensed suddenly as if electrically shocked. She then giggled, as if tickled, and then tensed again. Her defiant glare had transformed into an expression of surprise and confusion. The different sensations continued to bombard her for roughly a minute, eliciting the same reactions from her each time.

Then, the woman’s reactions began lessening in severity. Her eyes drooped closed, and she had a hard time opening them up again, as a pervasive drowsiness took hold of her. The last thing she saw before surrendering to sleep was Severna grinning unabashedly, her dress hiked up over her waist and her fingers inside her panties, probing herself in time with the humming of the helmet.

When Severna saw that woman had succumbed and was now entranced, she didn’t stop touching herself. But she did begin the interrogation..

“Are you the spy known as the English Damsel?”

The woman sighed.

“Yes,” she said.

“Were you spying on my casino?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“To find evidence of your criminal dealings.”

“Did you find anything?”

“I’m not sure. I collected information, but I didn’t have a chance to analyze it before your security officers captured me.”

“Is the information on the storage device in your shoe?

“Yes.”

“Who sent you to spy on me?”

“I don’t know.”

“Explain.”

“It was a contract assignment, given to me via a neutral, anonymous party.”

“Hm.”

Severna removed her hand from her underwear and thought for a moment. The English Damsel sat perfectly still, with her eyes closed and a sleepy smile on her face.

“Listen to me very carefully,” Severna said after a time. “You didn’t collect any information from the casino.”

“I didn’t collect any information from the casino,” the English Damsel said.

“Your equipment worked well. There just wasn’t anything to find.”

“My equipment worked well. There just wasn’t anything to find.”

“You completed your assignment to the best of your ability.”

“I completed my assignment to the best of my ability.”

“You weren’t captured by my staff.”

“I wasn’t captured by your staff.”

“You weren’t interrogated.”

“I wasn’t interrogated.”

“You never saw or spoke with me.”

“I never saw or spoke with you.”

“Do you have a room at the resort?”

“Yes.”

“You’re going to wake up in your room later, thinking that everything has gone very well and according to plan.”

“I’m going to wake up in my room later, thinking that everything has gone very well and according to plan.”

“Excellent,” Severna said, feeling that everything had indeed gone very well and according to her plan.

Yet, now that she knew all that she needed to, she felt keenly unsatisfied. The interrogation had taken almost no time at all. She wanted it to last longer, to get more enjoyment out of it.

Perhaps, she thought, a soak was not enough for someone as extraordinary as the English Damsel. No, she quickly decided, it most certainly wasn’t.

Moving her hand back down inside her panties, Severna tapped her phone with the other one. Immediately, the lights within the helmet brightened, and the rhythmic humming grew louder.

With her eyes still closed, the English Damsel drew in a sharp breath, then let it out in a long, wavering moan.

The wash began....