Laura woke up to the sound of knocking at her door. She rubbed her face and glanced at the clock. It was missing. In fact her entire office was missing. Everything around her was white, like a sketch of a room that had not been filled in. Her glasses were sitting on a white nightstand by the white bed. She put them on as she stood up and found the room an absolute blur as if the prescription were wrong.
The knocking came again.
"Um . . ." She looked around as she put the glasses back on the nightstand. "Come in?"
The lock clicked on the other side of the door and a moment later a police officer stepped through the door.
Or perhaps not.
The young woman was dressed in the blue and black uniform but the fit was off, her chest strained against the material so hard it threatened to burst open. Cops on duty weren't usually allowed to wear pink lipstick either and they didn't tend to keep their lips parted so carefully. As she closed the door behind her Laura thought she seemed more like a porn director's imagined version of a policewoman than the real thing. When she turned back, however, her eyes held the same lucid intelligence as any of the state inspectors Laura had ever met.
"Master apologizes for the delay," said the young woman. "He will be here as soon as he is done with his meetings. They came up very suddenly."
Laura was sure she knew the woman but it was hard to place her. "Detective Haas?" Laura reached up to adjust her glasses before remembered they were gone. "You look different. Very different."
The woman started to frown then her face brightened. "I'm glad you remember me, call me Amy."
Laura took a seat on the bed. She'd met the detective a year before. "The last time I saw you I think you said you were looking for a missing reporter who'd spoken to me. She was talking about stuff in the water supply and conspiracies and . . ."
Amy nodded. "I . . . um . . . they caught me. Master made me tell him about you. He was very impressed."
Laura looked warily around the room. The detective was between her and the only exit. The white room was made of nothing but soft materials. There were no weapons. She kept talking. "So they kidnapped me."
"Not exactly, no. Please, you don't need to be frightened." Amy folded her hands demurely. "Other people in your position took bribes when they were offered and looked the other way when the others put Bliss in the water supply." She shook her head. "You're a lot like master, ma'am, you want the people you're responsible for to be happy and safe."
"And so you kidnapped me."
"No, ma'am, please let . . ."
Laura rose from the bed. "What did you do to me?"
"Master could explain better," said Amy shrinking back.
"Tell me!" An aggressive rage boiled up inside of Laura like she had never experienced before. The room shook. She could hear her heart pounding in her chest as she advanced on the detective. "Why am I here?"
"I . . ."
"Tell me!"
Amy's mouth moved wordlessly and her eyes fluttered wildly. A moment later she collapsed on the floor.
All the anger flooded out of Laura. "Amy?" She rushed to the young woman's side.
The detective stirred. "Sorry ma'am . . . I'm bit . . ." She took a ragged breath. "I didn't know what to. . . you said to . . . I'm sorry . . . please . . . I'm sorry . . ." The color had gone out of her skin. Her arms trembled when they tried to hold her weight but she kept straining to raise herself. "Please . . . I'm . . . please . . ."
"Lie back," Laura said pushing her into place. "Calm down."
Amy responded instantly.
"Are you okay?"
"I don't know, ma'am." She closed her eyes. "I was so scared that . . ." Her breathing began to quicken again.
"Quiet. Relax." Laura checked Amy's pulse and temperature. She checked that the woman's eyes could move and focus properly. Her breathing was fine as well so long as she wasn't speaking. There was nothing physically wrong with her, not a stroke or an aneurysm. It was more like massive stress. "Stay where you are." She heard Amy murmur in assent as she went to grab a pillow for her head. "I need you to stay still. Does that door open?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"My name is Laura. You can call me Laura."
Amy's brow furrowed again. "I'm not . . ."
"Okay, never mind that for now. Do whatever makes you comfortable."
"Thank you," said Amy. A tiny smile played at the corners of her mouth. Color slowly returned to the detective's cheeks over the next few minutes. "You didn't have to stay." Her lips parted and she looked up at Laura with sleepy eyes. There was a momentary struggle behind the detective's eyes before she began rubbed herself through the fabric of her pants. "If there's anything you want master said . . ."
Laura started to shake her head in polite refusal but something stopped her. Something had to have been done to her to make her so compliant and so hypersexual. She had no intention of taking advantage of the vulnerable woman lying beneath her.
Yet Laura couldn't help wanting to touch the vulnerable girl.
When she placed a protective hand on Amy's cheek it was as though her hand passed through the skin and flesh and bone to something underneath. She pulled away. She repeated the movement and dragged her hand up along Amy's face. The material was like a tangle of aetherial threads. Beneath the girl's brow it was a complex mass of knots and loops. She traced along one of them and Amy moaned. Laura stopped and tried a different thread. It made Amy fingers tense. Each thread was a different sensation or emotion. The convolutions became images and the knots held memories.
The whole of her mind was tangled up in the skein of threads.
"It is unique isn't it, Doctor Silva?"
Laura jerked away in surprise.
A clean shaven man in an expensive suit was standing in the doorway. She'd met him before a few times, he worked for the government or some powerful regulatory organization. Actually, he'd never specified, which seemed strange. He continued talking without waiting for a response. "Working with it safely takes time."
"What is it?"
He raised his eyebrows.
