Author's note: This story is primarily a continuation of "Paradise Obtained", but also includes characters from "The New Neighbours/The Good Master" and "The Friday Night Games Club".
This is the culmination of my 'Haller universe' stories, so is not the best place to begin. I would recommend reading the other stories first; doing so will add depth of character background and make various things clearer.
All characters are over 18.
A Serpent in Paradise: Chapter 02
Geoff Mills' decision to have the people he had enslaved at the Swiss research centre cover his escape had paid dividends. By the time that Albrecht Haller became aware he had gone, considered what Geoff might do next and contacted those who believed could help, Mills had already moved on.
He slid through the chaos of countries and governments trying to work out what do about the coronavirus pandemic with ease. Far from borders representing an additional problem, he was able to use the confusion to his advantage, employing his genuine scientific qualifications, as well as an array of fake identifies, to claim to be travelling as part of the reaction to the crisis.
So it was that he and Ilse Hoffman had travelled from Italy to Austria, then on through Hungary until arriving in Romania. Geoff Mills knew exactly where he was going and why. He had already secured one member of Matthew Mitchell's harem and he was confident he was about to bag two more -- and one of those was Mitchell's fiancée. Mills assumed she should prove a valuable bargaining chip.
*****
When Albrecht Haller told Matthew Mitchell that Geoff Mills was loose and might be targeting his women, Matt's first reaction had been bewilderment. He had never heard of Mills and had no idea why this man had anything to do with him. Haller had briefly explained that Geoff Mills was another who had researched mind control techniques and worked for him, but also that he was rogue and dangerous. Haller suggested his interest in Mitchell and his harem would come from wishing to understand more about Matt's min control methodology.
Matt's immediate thought had been to set off at once for Italy; if Ilse was in danger, he must go to her. Matt hadn't realised until that moment how much pain the thought that one of his girls might at risk would cause him. He found that he cherished them all, in ways he had not quite previously grasped, and was desperate to protect them. However, Haller counselled against this.
"You need to know more about your enemy before you confront him," Haller had said. "You should talk to some people with first-hand experience of Mr Mills and his ways. They may be able to give you valuable insights. I'll give you the address of Michael Roberts. Go and see him and his ... associates. I'll tell him you're coming; also, I'll send my special representative. She will meet you there tomorrow."
On that cryptic note Haller had rung off. Not for the first time, Matthew Mitchell cursed the day he had got involved with Albrecht Haller. It was true that he owed him a lot but Matt also suspected that this situation was, in some way or another, Haller's fault. He pledged that one day he would find out exactly what it was that the mysterious German was actually planning and determine for himself whether or not he agreed with it.
While Matt had been speaking to Haller, Georgia had been busy. Presented with a crisis she immediately started trying to organise a way to control it and, as so often, Matt was grateful for her calm intelligence. She had managed to contact Delilah -- never an easy task if she didn't want to be found -- and asked her to join them at the hotel. Once she had understood her harem sisters were at risk Delilah had immediately agreed.
Georgia had also spoken to all the other girls -- regardless of whether it was day or night where they were -- and with one exception told them to be wary but stay put; she had no way of knowing that in Svetlana and Nicoleta's case this advice would put them in danger. The exception was Millie. The Australian former soldier was currently in western Germany, near enough to be summoned to London to join them. Matt recalled once thinking that Georgia, Millie and Delilah would be his first-choice team if ever a problem presented itself and, by good fortune, they were all near at hand.
In between, Georgia had made repeated efforts to contact Ilse without success. Even phoning the villa achieved nothing; no one was answering. She tried the Italian police but they had no information. Finally, she managed to get through to the local newspaper and from them learnt that Ilse had suddenly left two days off, shutting up the Villa and laying off the local staff. The redundancies were the reason the paper was aware of this.
Matt realised that Millie wouldn't be able to reach them tomorrow -- this whole coronavirus business was disrupting travel -- so it would just be him, Georgia and Delilah to visit Michael Roberts. Who Roberts was and how he knew about Mills, Matt couldn't guess; Haller had told him nothing useful in that regard. And who Haller's 'special representative' might be was another mystery.
Meanwhile Georgia, who had been thinking hard about how Ilse could have fallen under Mills command so easily and apparently without the use of force, offered the theory she had formed to her Master. "Matt, how do you suppose this Mills character could have won Ilse round?" she asked.
"Well, Haller said he had a mind control method. I suppose he used it on her," Matt replied.
"Maybe, but there is another possibility. Haller implanted trigger phrases in all of us girls. Perhaps Mills has gained access to them." Georgia looked at him steadily; what she had just mentioned carried bad memories for her.
"Oh my god," said Matt in dawning realisation of the implications of Georgia's suggestion. "Then you would all be vulnerable to instant and complete control"
"No, not all of us. For one thing, I broke that programming as you may recall, so I think I'm safe. And after it was revealed and you talked to Haller about it, he stopped doing it, so Megan, Tasha and Svetlana never received the trigger programs," Georgia noted.
"As far as we know," agreed Matt, "although we can't be sure. Still, you're probably right, but that still leaves Delilah, Kanako, Millie and Nikki vulnerable."
"We should ask Haller if the programming can be removed, whether by him or you," Georgia said. "Also, given I managed to break it, perhaps Delilah could do the same. If that works, then maybe it would be possible for the others too. But I'll warn you, it wasn't easy; trying nearly broke me."
