Cassandra’s chambers exuded an intimate authority, the jasmine scent heavy in the air. Once a comfort to Sarah, now it tethered her to memories where consent and control blurred. The holopad bathed her face in soft silvery blues as she monitored streams of district consciousness data for a report to her keeper.

Sarah focused on keeping her heart steady as her fingers brushed the edge of a communication console slightly out of sight. She’d spent days planning the message, coding it to look like an innocuous systems query. But the urgency of the message 'Norman Reeves, hurry' would make it stand out the most she dared. The word wasn’t for Cassandra’s eyes but for Ava’s. A desperate signal was sent knowing that Cassandra’s monitoring systems would likely catch it, eventually.

As the message vanished into encrypted channels, Sarah barely had time to exhale before Cassandra’s voice cut through the room like a blade.

“What are you doing?” Cassandra asked, her tone low, measured, but carrying a sharp edge. Sarah turned as she covered her returning arm motioning toward the displays. Cassandra's tailored suit was a masterpiece of elegance and precision. Her eyes were ice, searching Sarah for cracks in the mask she wore so carefully.

Sarah didn’t flinch. “Depot and hospital patient data,” she said, gesturing toward a nearby console. “Stabilized faster than expected. I thought you’d want to know.”

Cassandra stepped closer, her presence commanding without effort. “You’re distracted, pet,” she said, brushing a strand of Sarah’s hair back with a deliberate, almost tender touch. “It doesn’t suit you.”

“I’m not distracted,” Sarah replied, but the words came too quickly.

Cassandra smiled faintly, her fingers tracing the edge of Sarah’s jaw. “No? Then show me. Show me how focused you can be.”

The challenge hung in the air, heavy and electric. Sarah’s pulse quickened—not from fear, but the charged tension between them. Every instinct urged her to back away, to deflect Cassandra’s sharp gaze before it cut too deep. Instead, she stepped closer, tilting her head in deliberate submission.

“What would you like me to do?” Sarah asked, her voice soft, her gaze unwavering.

Cassandra’s expression shifted, revealing amusement under her icy demeanor. “Now what are you doing?” she repeated, the words slower this time, almost teasing. “Are you trying to distract me?”

“Is it working?” Sarah asked, allowing a hint of a smile to touch her lips. She stepped closer, close enough to feel the warmth of Cassandra’s breath, the subtle charge in the air between them.

Cassandra’s hand moved to Sarah’s chin, tilting it upward. “You think you can outmaneuver me, don’t you?” Cassandra murmured, her voice a velvet trap. “Such a bold little pet.”

“No,” Sarah said, her voice dropping to a whisper. “I’m not manipulating you. I’m giving you what you want.”

The room felt impossibly still, the only sound the faint hum of the holopads. Cassandra studied Sarah, her sharp gaze reading every micro-expression, every breath. Slowly, she smiled, a smile of cruelty refined.

“Very well,” Cassandra said, her tone mellifluous and commanding. “Kneel.”

Sarah obeyed, parroting as expected, "You like it when I kneel before you don't you." her movements were graceful, deliberate. She knelt before Cassandra, her head bowed, not in fear but in acknowledgment of the moment’s gravity.

"Yes," Cassandra reached down, lifting Sarah's chin. "And when you look at me my pet."

"You like it when I look at you when I please you," the floor was cool beneath her knees, grounding her as she surrendered, not to Cassandra’s power but to her own decision.

"Yes my pet, I do," Cassandra’s hand moved to Sarah’s hair, her touch firm but not unkind. “Good girl,” she said softly, the words a reward, a binding.

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

The hum of Ava’s motorcycle faded into the quiet night as she killed the engine, coasting to a stop just outside the perimeter of Norman Reeves’s estate. The crescent moon hung low in the sky, its pale light revealing the shadowy outline of towering trees and a sprawling mansion beyond. Ava scanned the perimeter, her helmet HUD overlaying sensor readings on the scene ahead.

“Sarah, this better lead to something,” she muttered as she cut power to the bike, coasting down the lane before resting beneath the overhang of an old oak. 'Norman Reeves, hurry,' was the only message she had gotten from Sarah all day. She had been worried after hearing Kai's arrest and Sarah's new owner, but councilman Reeves was a high-risk target. 'And for what? Too thin and risky a thread to pull on', she thought to herself. 'Probably compromised her, too.'

The mansion loomed ahead, all glass and steel, its grounds meticulously manicured. Ornamental gardens framed the estate, dotted with marble statues and a reflecting pool. Thermal cameras and motion sensors swept the property with machine-like precision. Ava’s eyes locked onto a dim light glowing from a second-floor office window, her instincts narrowing.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Her lips tightened as she muttered under her breath, “What are you hiding, Norman?”

Ava activated her stealth module, producing a weak disturbance in the air as light bent to cloak her. Slinging the collapsed rifle over her back, she scaled the estate wall with fluid precision. Landing on the other side, she moved in silence, blending seamlessly into the shadows.

The grounds stretched out before her like a painting of opulence—hedges trimmed to perfection, the quiet trickle of water from fountains breaking the still air. Ava weaved through the estate’s defenses, timing her movements with the rotation of thermal cameras. Her rifle came out expanding, targeting the motion sensors. One precise EMP shot at a time, she disabled them, with any luck masking their failure like a minor glitch.

She approached the mansion. Her cloak shimmered faintly under the dim moonlight when she scaled the side of the building. Landing lightly on the second-floor balcony outside the lit window, she crouched and adjusted her mask, tuning her audio to the room within.

Inside, Norman Reeves paced his office, muttering to himself. “What’s she up to?” His voice was low, worried, as he ran his fingers through his thinning hair. “I knew I shouldn’t have listened. Damn it, Norman. You should’ve stopped when you had the chance.”

Ava’s sensors picked up a faint signal embedded in the window frame—a surveillance frequency she recognized instantly as Cassandra’s. The same one she and Charlie isolated in captures that morning from Nova and Sarah. 'Clever,' she muttered, 'she is everywhere.' Pulling out a disruption module, she tuned to the signature and activated it, suppressing the feed. It would be detected, a necessary risk.

The surveillance link cut, Ava engaged a localized EMP on the door causing its electric locks to disable. She slipped into the room, only a faint fading whine behind her.

Oblivious to Ava’s silent approach, Norman paced the room, his movements frantic. Stopping before the Abacus, he stared at it with an expression that wavered between fear and regret. “That thing will destroy more than the TruthGate,” he muttered.

“Boo,” Ava whispered, her voice a blade in the quiet, as she locked one of Norman’s wrists in a constraint. He spun, his yelp strangled by shock. She closed the other end on his other wrist.

Her voice distorted slightly through her mask, "Time for answers.” Her presence was imposing, as she pulled forward on the cuffs pulling him off balance, twisting and pushing him into a chair. "Sit," she said hovering over him in the dim light.

Norman stumbled and fell into his chair, fear etched into his face. Ava wasted no time. She pulled a flex-lock from her belt, securing his wrists to the chair in one swift motion. He didn’t resist, too stunned to do anything but comply.

Ava’s gaze flicked to the Abacus on the desk. “How on earth did you get that?”

Norman swallowed hard, his voice trembling. “That is mine and hard-earned," he said.

"Start talking," Ava growled, slapping his face with her gloved hand. "Every lie will earn you another."

"No need for that!" Norman cowered. "It's my life's work."

"I don't think so, you are lying," Ava said and slapped him again, harder.

"Seriously, stop that! That really hurts," Norman had not been hit since he was a small child and felt overwhelmed by the experience. "Please don't hurt me."

"Start telling the truth then, you monster," Ava placed placed her hand on his chest pushing him into the chair as she leaned in staring closely at his face.

"Look, I will tell you everything," Norman told her of the exhibition ten years ago, when Cassandra helped arrange an archeologist and a team to recover the device from the underground.

“I’m not here for your memoirs, Norman,” Ava snapped. “Get to the point!”

"What? Cassandra arranged for a transit engineer named Kai to lead a team. I found the energizing Stylus and approximate location of the Abacus based on dark matter signatures after the Great Transit disaster. It was a simple operation, Kai took the Stylus close and retrieved the Abacus. We didn't realize it would explode engineering that poor girl, Sarah I think."

Ava couldn't imagine anyone making up a story like that. She remembered hearing Sarah and Kai had met, but nothing about the Abacus, and certainly nothing about it exploding.

"Exploding," Ava said, moving her hand to his neck to apply pressure to his carotid artery. "Don't stop now."

Taking a deep breath, "The Stylus creates some sort of energy build up to charge the Abacus field. If it stays too close for too long, the Abacus releases energy in giant shockwaves. Look we didn't know." Norman began to feel light headed, "I paid handsomely to the family members of the three that died..."

Ava released her grip, her skepticism giving way to reluctant belief. “I see.” She straightened, her voice colder now. She stood up, leaning back. "Why is Kai being brought before the council?"

"I wish I knew, Kai returned the Abacus yesterday. She has data tying it to the signature of the TruthGate. I would never betray my friend Kai. Look when Cassandra heard I'd loaned it out, she got really weird. I just didn't notice the missing Stylus until yesterday. Look, whatever Cassandra is up to, I'll be lucky to survive," Norman looked down, worried about how this was going to shake out.

"I have to play along," Norman continued. "She said the warrant was the key to maintaining order in the city.”

“And you believed her?” Ava’s tone was cold, sharp.

“She’s persuasive,” Norman admitted bitterly. “But after the TruthGate collapsed...” He trailed off, his expression tightening. “I knew I’d been played somehow.”

“What about the Stylus?” Ava pressed.

“It’s gone,” he said with a defeated sigh. “According to security footage, it disappeared from my collection over a week ago. Cassandra must have taken it. She’s the only one who knew I had it. The Stylus must have caused the overload. She’s using this... all of this... to solidify her control.”

Ava stood, her mask concealing the storm of thoughts raging behind it. Men like Norman sickened her, weak-willed tools of destruction, complicit in so much ruin. She knelt before Norman, slowly untying his shoes. He stiffened, his breath hitching as she slid her hands down his legs to remove his socks. “What—what are you doing?” he stammered, a nervous tremor in his voice.

“Relax,” Ava said softly, menace curling beneath her words. Her gloved hands moving pushing out his knees as her fingers delicately lingered on his, deliberate and unsettling, before slowly tracing down to his feet as she removed his socks while staring into his eyes. Keeping eye contact, she crawled up onto his lap as he let out a low, involuntary moan.

She leaned closer, one hand securing his throat while her gloved fingers traced the edge of his jaw as it opened in another moan. She stuffed his socks deep into his mouth securing with a restraint around his head. “Thanks for the information, Norman. Try not to choke on your own cowardice.”

She rose, recalibrating her cloak. With a final glance at the Abacus, she disappeared into the night, leaving Norman bound and silenced, alone with his fears.