Seven Summits 11

Tamiko and Helena watched with disbelief as more and more cars filled the yard. They guessed that it was some three dozen people who soon began to form two groups. The smaller one consisted of chauffeurs and bodyguards, and they stood together, some of them smoking, as they obviously were currently off-duty. The other group, some 20 men and a few women, gathered around the grey-haired man with the mask, and it somehow looked like a break during a conference meeting.

All the people were wearing cloth masks, most of them black or white, and the girls could tell that these people were rich. The host’s Mercedes looked plain in comparison to some of the other cars, and the way the persons were dressed and behaved just showed they belonged to a class that lived after the credo »We don’t talk about money, we have money«.

What was making the whole situation eerie wasn’t just the masks, it was that these people didn’t look as if they were involved in a crime – well, maybe rich people’s crimes like large scale bribery, but nothing like kidnapping or White Slavery. Sans the masks, none of them would have looked suspicious if they had approached at a bank or company.

Tamiko balled her fist when from around the corner, another person approached. It was a woman wearing a hoodie, baseball cap and sunglasses, but she had recognized her immediately, from the way she moved, and from the jeans she was wearing: this was the blonde thug, one of the women that had left her and Emily bound and gagged.

She approached the grey-haired man and seemed to report something, also handing him a clipboard. Then, she rushed back to where she had come from, and the man raised his voice, so the girls in their hideout could understand him, too:

»All right, friends, I was just told that everything’s arranged now! If you now will excuse me for a minute or two, I will have a last look, and then, you may come, see – and lose your money!«

There was some polite applause and laughter, and he then followed the woman around the corner. Tamiko patted Helena’s shoulder and made a gesture that could only mean that they should try to get around the house from the other side.

They sneaked back into the corridor and stepped out to the back yard. Here, the remnants of the kennels would offer them some cover, though the last few hundred yards to the fence would be open range. Tamiko pointed at the house’s corner.

»Yini’s there! And Eileen, and the other girls!«

Helena nodded. She just was calculating how long it would take them to withdraw, put their clothes back on, and then run towards the commercial area, where they would find someone with a phone. Then, if the Police would believe them, they would-

Her thoughts were interrupted when two persons crossed the corner. It was the two villainesses, and they were approaching their hideout.

***

Frank Herbert, the CEO of Herbert Inc., had, despite his aristocratic upbringing, not been able to hide his excitement when Milena had shown him the arrangement. For the first time, he could see the girls for real, his Seven Summits. He had watched the pictures and videos many times, so often he could now tell who was which, even with the girls being gagged and blindfolded: Anna Rose in her deckchair, her unbound lower legs slightly flailing; Maureen on the balancing board, standing there, with her big boobs thrust out; Aurora and Beatriz, balancing on the seesaw; Eileen and Salome, back to back in the frame of the sling, and finally Yini, cowering doggy-style on a bench. He soaked in the view for a few moments, enjoyed the faint moaning of the seven girls; then, he went to the corner and called his guests before he positioned himself beside the laptop Sabrina had arranged for him on a small desk.

***

»One last favour my ass!«

Sabrina looked at the costume in the cardboard box that was lying on her camp bed. She and Milena had to share a room at the abandoned animal shelter, and the blonde patted her shoulder.

»Come on, we will wear masks, and besides, none of them will look after us! Now, put on your dress, I will see if the drinks are cold!«

»Coke in plastic cups, what a miser!«, Sabrina commented as Milena walked along the corridor. She gave the costume one last contemptuous look; then, she tugged her T-Shirt from her jeans and pulled it over her head.

With the black cotton covering her head, she didn’t notice the motion behind her, and when the T-Shirt came free, her nape was exposed. The edge of Tamiko’s hand hit her, and with a surprised croak, she collapsed on the bed.

»Ouch!«, Tamiko whispered, massaging her hand. However, she showed a satisfied smile as she now checked if the black haired villainess had indeed passed out. This knock-out chop, she had rarely trained and never used in earnest so far.

»All right, one to go!«

The panty-clad Japanese sneaked onto the corridor, listening for the kitchen from where she could hear a humming, accompanied by the characteristic hiss when a Coke bottle was opened. Tamiko made a gesture to Helena to have an eye on Sabrina, and the brunette nodded. She looked at the unconscious woman, and, fearing she would recover and grab her wrist when she did so, pulled the gun from her belt. Helena had never fired a real weapon before, but she hoped that she would look impressive enough, though she felt rather like a pin-up girl as she noticed her reflection in the mirror, a petite girl in nothing but damp panties wielding a gun.

In the kitchen, Tamiko could see a tray on the table, and on it some two dozen plastic cups half filled with Coke. Beside it stood a second tray with empty cups, and the door of the fridge was open. From behind it, a jeans-clad butt protruded, as Milena had bent forward to get the bottles from where they had been stored. Tamiko flexed her shoulder muscles and raised her hands.

She had stepped on a creaking tile, and Milena raised. When she saw the nearly naked Japanese, her mouth opened, but before she could act, Tamiko kicked against the fridge’s door, trapping her, and then, the edges of both her hands hid the blonde’s carotid arteries. For a second, she stood like petrified, staring at Tamiko; then, she collapsed, dropping the Coke bottle she had been carrying. It landed on the floor, but since it was made of plastic, no harm was done.

Tamiko looked anxiously out of the window. In her ears, the sound of her kick had been as loud as a shot, but the group of chauffeurs and bodyguards still stood together, obviously laughing at whatever one of them was just telling them. The other group had disappeared; most likely, they were behind the corner now.

»Okay, time to take care of these bitches!«, Tamiko thought, putting the unconscious Milena over her shoulder.

***

»My dear friends, may I have your attention, please?«

Frank Herbert had allowed his guests to walk around and to admire the girls for some minutes. Of course, the captives had noticed the arrival of the group, and they had started to squirm and moan. However, though they raised some emotions, mercy was not among them.

The guests had looked, commented and also taken some photos, and Frank had allowed them to enjoy the view, knowing it would help his course.

»Now, dear friends«, he began when the group had turned their eyes towards him, »may I introduce the Seven Summits to you?«

He pointed at the swing frame.

»Representing Africa, Salome from Tanzania! I think you can distinguish which of the two I am talking about!«

A few people politely laughed, and Frank added:

»She proudly represents the Kilimanjaro with 36D, as does her European counterpart, Eileen from Russia! As you know, I call the Elbrus the highest European Summit, not the Mont Blanc!«

»Putin likes this!«, one of the guests joked, and again, a few people chuckled. Frank smiled and bowed towards the interrupter whom, despite the mask, he recognized as the CEO of a large company in Frankfurt.

»On the bench, representing the Mount Everest, though she’s the most petite – Yini from China, featuring 32B!«

There was a little debate among the people, for the summit of the Mount Everest was actually located in Nepal. However, since the mountain was partially Chinese, the majority decided that Frank had not broken the rules of his own bet.

»On the seesaw, Aurora from Argentina – she’s the slightly less petite one, 34C and representing the Aconcagua! On the other side, Beatriz from Chile, 32C, though smoking hot, she represents Mount Vinson from Antarctica!«

There was no debate this time; though it was disputed, Chile occupied the part of Antarctica where the summit was located, and since the continent had no population, they had decided in advance that a girl from Chile would count.

»Another 32C, another continent! On the deckchair, Anna Rose from the USA, representing the Denali, aka Mount McKinley! And, last but not least, and with a stunning 36DD the highest summit around here, Maureen from Australia on the balancing board!«

Some applause followed, and Frank smiled under his mask.

»So, dear friends, may I ask – have I won my bet? Do you agree that I brought together one pretty girl from each country where one of the Seven Summits is located?«

The clapping and cheering answered his question, and once the crowd had calmed down again, Frank patted the laptop beside him.

»Now, as you all know, the fun of mountaineering is not just looking at the mounds, but to reach the peak! So, who wants to place a bet who of the girls will reach the peak first, and who will be last?«

Almost everyone wanted, and when Frank noted the sums, he quickly calculated that, since it was usus among them to give the host of a gambling game 20% of the sum, he would maybe even amortize the money he had to pay to Milena and Sabrina.

When all bets had been placed, he told the crowd to gather around the girls. The guests fell silent, and though there was still some moaning and whimpering, Frank didn’t have to raise his voice as he called »Let the games begin!«, clicking on the big red »START« button on the display.

The synchronous twitching of seven nude bodies told him that every connection worked. Several electronic devices came to work at the same time, starting their devious work.

Anna Rose gasped when the vibrator between her legs started to buzz and began to move back and forth, rubbing over her labia, whilst the part touching her pubic mound went up and down, massaging her clit. She increased her squirming and the flailing of her calves, and she screamed into the panties and sock filling her mouth.

Beside her, Maureen drew more attention. Once the post her legs were leashed to and that was pressing against her private parts began to vibrate, the girl squirmed, and thus, the board on the spring swayed, causing her big, thrust out boobs to bounce and bob in a way that would have drawn the attention of anyone interested in girls.

On the seesaw, both the vibrators and the ear pods came to life, at least blocking the noises of the crowd and their own moans from Aurora and Beatriz. They squirmed a bit, and the seesaw moved slightly up and down, but more people watched Salome and Eileen beside them.

Both tall and busty girls were wriggling and moaning as if they were already reaching climax. When their shared vibrator had started to buzz in their rears, both had reflexively tried to part their butts, pressing harder against their equally shared crotch rope. Worse, however, were the plastic pinecones that also were vibrating now – two of them touching Salome’s sides, the other one Eileen’s soles. When the tickling triggered their sensitive nerves there, the girls lost all control and began to twitch, spasm and squeal.

Though she had been anticipating it, Yini had not been able to oppress a groan when the clamps sent painful shock waves through her earlobes, nipples and big toes. She tried to count down the 20 seconds, but failed as she had to bite down hard on her gag not to scream, and when the shocks ceased and the vibrator started, Yini indeed felt relief, combined with the knowledge that as long as the butterfly was flapping its wings, there would be no pain.

»If I let it happen, there will be no pain at all!«

The thought had to face a strong opponent: Yini’s self-control, and her wish not to succumb to these bastards. However, whilst the attacks of the electro shocks were slowly, but surely weakening her strength, the Siren song of surrendering was blooming from it.

Frank once again smiled under his mask. It was more or less the same game for all the girls, though in different variations: they were facing fear, the humiliation of being exposed and photographed in public, and pain, and the only temporary escape was located between their legs.

»When they all have climaxed, I will know how Dick Bass felt when he first finished the Seven Summits in 1985!«

***

At their room, Sabrina and Milena had kept some of their equipment, and this, combined with vengefulness and the more rational need to keep the two still and quiet had caused Helena and Tamiko to go a little over the top when tying up the two.

They had started by stripping the two naked, and then, they had tied their arms at wrists and elbows, making their joints not only meet, but crushing them by using tape rounds both above and below the joints. Three zip ties enforced the tape bonds, and Tamiko used two smaller ones to tie Milena’s and Sabrina’s thumbs before encasing their fingers with tape.

Tamiko now took off her panties and crammed the still damp cotton into Sabrina’s mouth, adding Milena’s black bikini briefs on top. Helena handed her one of her wet socks, and Tamiko forced that into the villainess’s oral cavity, too, before she secured the gag with some ten rounds of tightly applied duct tape.

Meanwhile, Helena also peeled down her, or rather Eileen’s panties. Eileen had been wearing them for one and a half day before they had been used to gag her, and then, Helena had worn them. So, they would taste interestingly, and in addition, they were quite substantial. She gleefully stuffed them into Milena’s mouth, adding Sabrina’s black thong and noticing that her sock wouldn’t fit in, too. So, she pressed it over her lips before she sealed the blonde’s mouth with ten layers of tape, too.

When they had also hooded the girls, Helena wanted to tie their legs, but Tamiko pointed at the two plastic bags with zip ties.

»I have no idea what they did to Yini and Eileen, but I know what they did to us, and I don’t want them to get away with the nice treatment in a German prison!«

With a little dismay, Helena watched as the Japanese tied one of the big zip ties around Sabrina’s waist, so the plastic cable almost disappeared in her flesh. Then, she connected two more and threaded them through the tight belt, bringing them between Sabrina’s legs. Repeatedly, she tightened the cable binder, and it found a way between her labia and buttocks. When she twitched and mewed, Helena thought she was waking up, but then, she realized that the line of fire was so tight Sabrina felt it even in her unconscious state.

»I – I can’t!«, Helena stated when Tamiko handed her the zip ties. The Japanese brushed over her cheek and handed her the tape roll instead.

»Do her legs«, she said softly, pointing at Sabrina. Whilst Tamiko applied an equally tight crotch rope on Milena, Helena tied Sabrina’s legs at the thighs, above and below the knees, at her ankles and finally her insteps. Each round was secured by a zip tie, and a final cable binder tied her big toes.

Two minutes later, Milena’s legs were tied the same way, and the girls turned their victims on their bellies, hogtying them by connecting their ankle ties to their elbows. Tamiko looked at the two who were now beginning to slightly move and moan.

»Do you think they can get anywhere soon?«, Helena asked, and Tamiko showed a frighteningly sardonic smile.

»Better safe than sorry!«

Taking two more of the long cable binders, they turned Sabrina and Milena who now whimpered, as they were obviously fully aware of their agonizing crotch ties, onto their sides. Helena suddenly lost all sense of mercy, and so, when Tamiko threaded the zip tie through Sabrina’s crotch rope, she did the same to Milena. Placing the girls face to crotch, they then closed and tightened the cable binders around their mouths, so they not only were further immobilized, but had to breathe into the other’s womb and smell her womanhood.

»Now, where are their phones?«

After a short search of the villainesses’ clothes, they knew that there were no cell phones. Unbeknownst to them, Sabrina’s was lying beside the discarded neck rings she had controlled with it, and Milena’s was in use to play the music Aurora and Beatriz had to listen to. Tamiko looked outside the window, where she could see the group of chauffeurs and bodyguards.

»We can of course still run for the fence, get to the tractor company and call the cops! However, I fear they might miss these two lovebirds before!«

According to the trays, Milena and Sabrina had been meant to serve drinks. Helena picked up a mask from the box on one of the beds.

»They were supposed to wear this!«

The mask was an opaque black silk hood, with openings for the eyes. Tamiko checked the rest of the costume, and she scoffed.

»If you are suggesting what I think you are suggesting, at least, no one will look at our eyes, and recognize they have a different colour!«

***

After some minutes, the grassy area behind the corner had become a little quieter. Most of the guests stood in front of the girl they had placed a bet upon, or just watched the one they considered the most beautiful. A few had even sat down, ignoring the damage the grass would do to their Armani suits. Frank himself hadn’t placed a bet, but he was watching the squirming and moaning girls, too. These had not calmed down, and now, all of them, even the strong Yini, were glistering with sweat.

Anna Rose was a romantic who loved romantic novels, and like her heroines, she would have preferred to escape the horrors of reality by fainting. However, her body and mind were too strong for that escape, forcing her to endure the constant massage by the buzzing and moving vibrator, accompanied by the comments from the unseen crowd.

»Go, go, Anna Rose!«, one of them cheered, and in the girl’s confused and frightened state, these words triggered a memory of more innocent times. Of course, she had been a cheerleader at her old High School, and there, people had also cheered to her, applauded to her performance whilst also enjoying her looks and her scantily dress.

Though her current predicament sounded like a perversion of this, the thought was somehow soothing. The crowd wasn’t real, they were somewhere out there where she couldn’t see them. Here was just her, Anna Rose, dancing for her team.

She reflexively flailed her legs, and when she heard another cheer, she felt a wave of relief and joy flood through her body. It was a pleasant feeling, and it helped against the fear and humiliation. The joyful wave ceased, and it tried to find something to connect with. Anna Rose relaxed her cramped thigh muscles, and when the vibrator brushed over her clit again, she reared up the little she could, and with a sigh, she closed her eyes under her blindfold.

Maureen was also haunted by a memory, though in her case, it was less innocent, even a bit naughty. A few weeks ago, on the party where Eileen’s friend had filmed her in the progress, Eileen had done electric bull riding, and she had performed well. Some had explained that by her Australian heritage, considering that she came from a farm and had learned cattle breaking before walking, others thought that she was just good at balancing. The truth, however, was that she had gotten slightly aroused by the bucking thing between her legs.

Usually, Maureen was a bit shy, but there was also another side in her: the outgoing Maureen who liked the attention her good looks, and especially her ample breasts, drew, and who loved to be the centre of interest. Usually, the catalysator for this side was alcohol, but obviously, the irrational situation of being naked, bound, gagged with another woman’s used panties, blindfolded and exposed to a crowd had also this effect.

The post between her legs wasn’t s vivid as the electric bull had been, but it was shaking and swaying, and she could increase it by moving around her upper body. Of course, this made her boobs bounce and bob, but suddenly, Maureen had a very pragmatic thought:

»I am a 36DD, and with that damn armbinder, I am forced to thrust them out like a ship’s figurehead! They will stare anyway, so fuck the bastards!«

Maureen reared up in what she hoped looked provocatively. Due to the heat and her initial panic, the girl was covered with sweat, and the post consisted of smooth metal. Thus, the slippery allowed her to move up and down a bit, so she could control how hard the buzzing bulk pressed against her womanhood. This also reminded her of the electric bull, and Maureen felt a blissful tingle grow within her loins.

»Uuuhmmmm!«

Aurora mewed as her side of the seesaw slowly moved downwards. There was no danger of getting hurt, she knew that her knees would just touch the sand, and then, after a while, she would move up again. However, gravity was a bitch, and so, when moving downwards, her womb pressed harder against her vibrator, and the girl wasn’t indifferent to it. Aurora knew that the tingling pain in her nipples didn’t just come from the clamps, but from the fact they had grown hard, thus increasing the bite of them. It wasn’t a completely bad pain, so to say, just like when her ex had playfully squeezed or bitten her there, and she-

»Mhmm? Mph!«

Where had that thought come from? Aurora shook her head, trying to shoo the memories of her ex. They had separated on good terms, and the reason had been her moving to Germany, definitely not his qualities as a lover. How he had-

Again, she moaned as the memory sent a warm tingle through her loins, and when the seesaw slowly moved up, she reflexively moved her pelvis, rubbing against the buzzing toy between her legs.

Beatriz was getting the same treatment, but whilst Aurora still was relatively quiet, she was constantly moving and wriggling; not so much because of the massage, or from her attempts to break free, but because, by sheer coincidence, the playlist Milena had chosen was currently playing some of her favourite songs. Despite her plight, Beatriz couldn’t help moving to the rhythm, and somehow, her love of music and dancing, the sensual massage and her wish to escape the terrifying reality built an irritating – and exciting – melange within her.

Salome’s screams had died down to a faint whimper, but this was due to sheer exhaustion. Still, the vibrators dangling at her sides were teasing her, but even this attack, an attack that had caused her to squeal and twitch, causing her 36D boobs to bounce, much to the audience’s delight, had lost its impact compared to the buzzing toy inside her anus.

She never had experienced such a thing before, and when once a tipsy friend had confessed to her that she and her boyfriend occasionally practiced anal sex, she had considered it gross. However, she had to admit that she had been a bit too premature in her judgement.

At first, she had screamed when the intruder had been pushed inside her; then, she had felt irritation from its mere presence, and a slight relief that, despite being bigger that a thumb, it didn’t hurt. It just felt very, very strange, and whenever she or Eileen moved, this feeling increased.

When it had started to buzz, she had reflexively tried to escape, but tied as they were, her buttocks remained glued to Eileen’s, and the vibrator would also continue to impale her. And to her dismay, it wasn’t a bad experience. To be forced to it, being kidnapped, being watched by a crowd, all these things were bad, but the butt plug itself was – exciting.

Salome felt the touch of the knot in the scarf tied between her and Eileen’s legs, like a finger gently rubbing her clit.

»If I move forward, I would feel it more intense – and if I then move back, the butt plug will get in a little deeper!«

Their bondage, standing back to back with their hands tied above their heads, allowed some swaying back and forth, and this was what Salome now did, enjoying the effects of it.

Eileen, of course, had to do the same, and she was in a similar mess as her unwilling companion. She had also screamed and wriggled when the vibrators at her soles had started to buzz. Usually, she could escape a tickle attack, or her tormentors would stop after a while (on one terrible occasion at school, they had only done so when she had wet herself), but here, it just continued, no matter how much she spasmed and squirmed, and no matter how much she whimpered and squealed through the panties stuffing her mouth to the bursting.

Still, the tingles shot up her nerves, but she was also exhausted and trying to cope with the vibrator in her rear. Like Salome, Eileen was a »backdoor maiden«, and unlike the Black, she still considered the butt plug irritating. In her case, thrusting her pelvis forward was a matter of escaping it a bit, though it had consequences on the scarf teasing her front.

In fact, the tingles coming from her soles seemed to somehow meet and entangle with those growing in her womb, and Eileen felt that she was not just following Salome’s movements, but rubbing her clit against the knot on her own accord. She let out a sigh, half from surprise, half with pleasure, when the scarf slid between her moist labia, and when she realized she now could not only get an additional inch away from the anal plug, but also intensify her play with the knotty rope, she reared up, letting out a deep groan of pleasure.

Yini had known before that Sabrina had spoken out a simple, but terrifying truth: she was strong and could bear a lot of pain, but every man had his breaking point. For a while, she had endured the waves of pain shooting through the sensitive spots where the clamps bit her; had even tried to find satisfaction in enduring it.

»As long as I am suffering, I am not defeated!«

However, she already was defeated. Yini hadn’t yet given in to the teasing by the butterfly vibrator, but she had allowed to get kidnapped without even a glimpse of a fight, and since then, all she had done had been following humiliating orders.

»If Tamiko would see me like this, she would be disappointed!«

Tamiko! The image of the Japanese appeared in front of her inner eye, and as usual, she felt the painful joy that accompanied seeing her. Tamiko! Yini had learned to know her some months ago, and the Japanese had no idea that her moving from Hamburg to Würzburg had been initiated by her, not by her company.

She had left Hongkong not only because the pressure of the Chinese government became stronger, though the town officially still was autonomous. She had escaped her parents who considered her to be old enough to finally settle down and found a family, at best with the distant cousin they had selected for her and who was working at a car company in Shanghai.

Being 32, Yini had reached the age to found a family, and she would have loved being in a relationship, but her significant other would not be the man from Shanghai – or any other man.

From puberty on, Yini had felt that she preferred girls, and for some time, she had tried to fight it, even had a few unfulfilling relationships with men. However, though there had been changes, coming out as a lesbian was not accepted well by the Chinese society, and thus, she had left for Germany – and ran into Tamiko.

Yini hadn’t dared to confess her feelings to Tamiko, and she wondered whether the Japanese had an idea. There had been quite a few hints: the way Yini always tried to keep up the contact a little longer when they hugged; the devotion she had shown when Tamiko had allowed her to braid her beautiful hair; or during training, when she lacked in her defence, so Tamiko got the upper hand and got her under control, their heated bodies pressing against each other, only separated by their Gis.

The memory made Yini sigh, and as on keyword, the clamps stopped hurting her, and the vibrator took over. Yini groaned, and she tried to keep the image of Tamiko as she wriggled her hips. No, she didn’t want to associate Tamiko with pain, but as long as the butterfly buzzed, thinking of her was a pleasant and soothing bonus.

Under her, the display of the box registered a change in the signals coming from Yini’s body, and so, the vibrator accelerated, and its next interval would be longer.

***

Helena gulped when she looked at herself in the mirror. The cloth mask hid her entire head, so, nobody could tell it wasn’t Milena in her costume. Tamiko also looked convincing, since her skin was quite fair, and she had forced her long mane into a tight bun to fit under the hood. It could go, despite Milena being bustier than Helena. However, the reason why nobody would take notice of their heads was the design of their costumes.

Above the waist, she and Tamiko wore only black corsets consisting of black leather. These weren’t too tight, but they didn’t cover their breasts, just uplifted them a bit. Below the waist, not much was left to imagination either. They wore black thongs, fishnet stockings with garters, and black boots with stiletto heels.

»You look like a hooker – so, they will believe we are them!«, Tamiko stated, looking down at the bundle of two naked and hogtied girls that were squirming and mewing to her feet. She hugged Helena, but kept some distance, so their breasts didn’t touch.

»It’s the best we can do to get quick support! Now, let’s go!«

»Yeah, let’s go, before I lose my courage and start thinking!«

They walked into the kitchen, Tamiko grimacing under her mask as she didn’t like how the thong felt in her cleft, and Helena staggering once in her high heels. Each of them took one of the trays, and Tamiko once again nodded.

»Desperate situations acquire desperate measures!«

Helena took a deep breath. It wasn’t that some people would see her boobs; but if that was the outfit the mysterious boss required from his henchwomen, she feared for what they would have done to Eileen and the others. After all, the two women now stashed in their room had been quite inventive when it had come to embarrassing and torturing their victims.

»Right now, I would definitely pay a fortune for something more modest – maybe, Eileen’s new little dress!«

Tamiko opened the door with her elbow, balancing the tray, and they stepped outside the building. When they then approached the group of chauffeurs and bodyguards who hadn’t yet noticed them, Helena forced herself to straighten up and to sway her hips, knowing it was crucial that she would look the role she played.

***