The Mind Element:

Author's note: All characters are over 18, as established in earlier Chapters or in "Master of Elements" to which this is a sequel.

The Mind Element Chapter 3

"Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour does the body." Lucius Annaeus Seneca

It was twenty minutes after Matsu Chen's escape from captivity and Colonel Baker was standing in Randall Ness' office. His uniform was soaked so he was dripping water all over the expensive carpet, but Baker had been too furious to bother with changing it before bursting into this private sanctum without invitation. His anger had overridden all fear of Ness.

"I told you that those thugs of yours would let us down; now three of my men - good men, one with a wife and kids - are dead for no reason."

"Yes, I concede you did tell me that," said Ness, remaining calm, "but I would remind you that I told you repeatedly that these women are dangerous and you never accepted it. You should have listened to me - and to her. Miss Chen gave you fair warning to leave and you didn't believe her any more than you did me. So that makes you also responsible for your men's deaths."

This reminded Dan Baker that he had no idea what had just happened. The girl must somehow have known the place was about flood, although how he had no idea. But he didn't want to concede his confusion to Ness, so, holding onto his anger, he added: "Whatever your game is, it's over. That girl you wanted so much must have drowned."

Ness shook his head. "No, it's much worse than that Colonel Baker. She has escaped, and no doubt will find out where she was held and will soon tell her friends. Then we will be besieged. However, all is not lost; in fact I think this event can be turned to my advantage. Matsu Chen was never my main interest and while you were busy losing a prisoner, I have been making progress on my real aim. I have received some most interesting findings from my laboratory on those rings the two women wore."

Baker was finding his employer's calm demeanour in the face of the death of three of his men intensely annoying and was in the mood to tell him so. This job was no longer worth it, regardless of the money.

"I don't give a flying fuck about whatever it is you think you're doing here Ness. I'm done. Me and my remaining men are leaving at once. I'll refund you the advance you paid me, less my expenses to date."

"I don't think so Colonel Baker. Look at this." Randall Ness picked up a curious device from the desk in front of him. In his anger Baker had not even noticed it previously, but he looked now. It was a little like an electric torch, but a diamond ring had been wired onto the front for some reason. Ness switched it on and a bright light shone through the gemstone, which defused it into curious patterns, then he suddenly swung it up to point the beam of light into Dan Baker's face.

"What the hell are you doing," the mercenary said angrily. But he didn't look away.

"Professor Athena Makris has many remarkable powers, and this ring is linked to them. One of those powers, Colonel Baker, is mind control. A little inventive experimentation and it seems that a beam of light projected through this diamond has some remarkable effects. Not as powerful as those Athena could achieve but I've found out they are strong enough. Repeat after me: 'I am your servant'."

"I am you servant", Baker docilely said, realising, to his own surprise, he meant it.

"I am your Master and you will obey me in all things," Ness said.

"You are my Master and I will obey you," echoed Baker.

"You will defend me to the death and would willingly give your life to save mine," added Ness. Colonel Baker, looking shocked and bewildered, agreed that was the case. Randall Ness smiled at him benignly. Mind control was proving just as pleasurable and useful as he had imagined it would be. "Colonel, send your men in to see me, one at a time please. They will be joining you in total devotion to my welfare."

"Yes Master, it shall be as you command," said Dan Baker. Subservience didn't come naturally to him, but he knew he had no choice. He must serve this man and obey his orders. He went to find the first of his men to send in to see their new Master.

Ness sat back with considerable satisfaction. The escape of Matsu was annoying, especially as he would have liked to test whether she could be controlled, but his intelligent and complex mind was thinking through the consequences and seeing ways it could be turned to his advantage. The discovery of the properties of the ring was a huge leap forward, although he suspected it only gave him a fraction of Athena's abilities. She remained vital to finding out more about this powerful new weapon.

*****

The Filipino fisherman Juan Santos was having a curious day. In his mid-sixties he was retired and the fact that he owned a small boat which he took out to sea and sold what he could catch was more in the nature of a hobby than a serious business. This was reflected in his use of rod and line rather than nets and also that he did it because he enjoyed it; for one thing it gave him a few hours of solitude away from his wife.

Today had seemed like a nice day of calm weather ideal for his purpose but it had not turned out quite that way. The first thing that happened was the sea itself began to behave oddly. There seemed to be a strong current where there had never been one before and it was pulling his boat toward the private island of Senor Ness, and Juan certainly didn't want to go there. Randall Ness had bought the entire island about five years ago and one of the first things he had done was to make it known to the locals that visitors were not welcome. Given that Ness was generous with bribes and so had the loyalty of various local politicians and the police, it was best to stay away.

Juan put his engine on and regained some distance between him and the island, but then the current had vanished just as suddenly as it had appeared. Still perplexed, Juan switched his engine off and started preparing his equipment. Before he had got as far as actually commencing fishing, the next peculiar thing happened. A small female hand grasped the side of his boat, followed by another. Given that he was floating at least three miles from the nearest land this was a surprise. His amazement was increased when a very attractive and completely naked girl in her early twenties hauled herself into his boat and lay there looking weary but happy.

The girl spoke to him in a language he knew enough to recognise as Mandarin Chinese, although he didn't speak it. He tried Spanish in response, guessing that she was unlikely to know Tagalog, but the girl shook her head and instead asked, "Do you speak English?"

"Enough. Where have you come from?" Juan asked.

"I'm not actually sure, although if you can tell me the name of that island over there it would help. Can you take me to a town? I have some friends I need to talk to - urgently."

"Sure... umm, here, take my jacket. You don't seem to have any clothes on and it's distracting; you're young enough to be my daughter. Anyway, I sure hope my wife doesn't find out that my fishing trip involved catching a beautiful young woman." The girl laughed and accepted the jacket, while Juan started the engine and turned toward his home port. "I'm Juan Santos by the way. What's your name?"

"Matsu."

"Matsu? Isn't that the name of a Chinese sea goddess?"

The girl smiled. "Yep, that's me... well more or less," she said and waved her hand. The boat began to move faster; a sudden current had appeared out of nowhere and was carrying it along in the direction Juan had chosen. He stayed silent; what he had just seen was impossible, so perhaps it was best ignored.

"So... these friends of yours, they Chinese gods too?" said Juan, hoping this was a joke.

"No, that would be ridiculous," said Matsu. Juan gave a small sigh of relief. "They're Celtic, Norse, African and Greek goddesses," she continued, grinning at his look, "Not sure where Chris fits in though."

Juan shook his head; this was just one more weird thing to add to today's collection. He decided he would just tell his wife it had been an uneventful day in which he had caught nothing; she would never believe the truth.

*****

When Ness had started his career in software his motivation had been the joy of making new things, never seen before in this world, that were useful and even fun. Software development had been for him a constant journey of discovery, but one where he had always been focussed on the end user. It had been a wise choice. People had wanted his products, he had prospered, employed staff, diversified, become in time fabulously wealthy. But as he did so, he slowly lost contact with his pleasure in the act of creation. Something new was needed in his life.

Money itself never became his driver. It was a useful way of keeping score as to his success and he liked what you could buy with it, but after a certain point he had more than he could realistically spend. Power, however, he found was addictive. To exercise authority and have his instructions followed was a pleasure in itself, especially as he was so much cleverer than those around him. It was then he began to wonder about the ultimate power - the ability to influence people's minds so they simply had to obey you. No more arguments with people dumber than you, no more indecision. If he issued a command it would be obeyed.

It had become an obsession and for a long time a seemingly unachievable goal, but now all those years of effort had paid off. Ness was in possession of a working mind control device and, naturally enough, using it had proved irresistible.

After his scientific staff and Baker's mercenaries, Ness had next decided that it was best to take control of the rest of the security personnel - he didn't want any more incidents like the one that had resulted in Matsu Chen's escape. And after that he concluded there was no reason not to do the same to the rest of the staff. His base on this island currently contained 137 people, not including Ness himself, and within three days every one of them was effectively his slave, obedient to his slightest command. He found the sense of power and control this gave him exhilarating.

Sex was another thing that had never been a great motivator for Randall Ness. In his geeky youth female companionship had been elusive, but the work he loved and spent long hours on had compensated for that. Then his growing wealth had resolved the problem. Randall now had a trophy wife back in California looking after their three children, and three mistresses - one at his main company HQ in Silicon Valley, one based near his European centre of operations close to Brussels, and a third one who travelled with him and was currently here on the island. This arrangement sufficed to meet his physical desires and needs and he had been content.

However, the decision to mind control his mistress on the island had changed this. Her name was Talia Hendry and she was 26, good looking, blonde (although that owed more to chemistry than nature), large breasted but otherwise with a classically curved figure, around 5'6" tall and 125lb in weight. Talia had been working as a receptionist at one of Ness' companies when he had spotted her and she had been happy enough to give herself to the role of his mistress in exchange for a glamorous lifestyle and a lot of money. Ness didn't actually like her much, but she was good in bed and that was enough until he discarded her for someone else and she waltzed off with her cash.

When he had used the device to mind-control Talia, Ness, to his surprise, found their new relationship very much to his liking. As the newly subservient woman knelt at his feet he realised he need never buy her affection again; she would simply obey any order he gave. Her 'boundaries' were irrelevant too; whatever he desired she would do without question. The simple fact of that degree of power was hugely arousing to him and the sex that had immediately followed him controlling her had been the best he could remember in years.

It also gave him ideas. Among those 137 personnel, there were some 23 women. Most were not to his taste but, while mind-controlling them, two had caught his eye. Since all were now effectively his slaves why not make use of this fact? Ness was conscious that he must not get distracted from the task in hand - his agents had already informed him that Christopher Ward in Manilla was in contact with the escaped Matsu Chen and he had to assume they would come for Athena soon - but he could still spare a little time to play with his new toys.

Had a psychiatrist ever examined Randall, he might have diagnosed sociopathy and a degree of misogyny - Ness had never given much attention to women as people, hence his lack of concern about fidelity to his wife - but also concluded that he showed no trace of psychopathy, sadism or indeed madness of any kind. In fact, Ness was mentally high-performing by any standard. Hence, when it came to exploiting his new female slaves Randall felt no need to physically or emotionally abuse or humiliate them. Rather it was the absolute control he exercised that Ness found arousing.

So it was that Randall found himself in his bedroom sat on the bed naked with three equally nude women kneeling at his feet. One was the blonde Californian Talia Hendry. The other two were also Americans. One was a Latina scientist called Lucia Torres. If Talia was something of a bimbo, Lucia was the architype of the hot geek; intelligent, serious and complete with nerd glasses, but also good looking if she bothered to try - which since Randall had ordered her to, she did.

Lucia was the opposite to Talia in looks - six inches shorter, dark haired and olive skinned to Talia's blonde and pale, and slender and small-boobed compared to Talia's generous cleavage. Randall had controlled her as part of Doctor Gupta's science team, but been immediately struck at how hot she was in a geeky way, just his type in fact, given he admired intelligence.

The third new slave was different again. Among the guard force he had recruited for the island were half a dozen women; he had known he would have female prisoners, so this had seemed a sensible precaution. Samantha 'Sammy' Mayer was one of these. Ex-USA army, she was 5 foot 10 inches tall, 24 years old, and strongly built, her brown hair cut short and with several tattoos adorning her arms and, at first glance, pretty butch. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she was an out and proud lesbian.

However, underneath the macho attitude and appearance, she was also naturally good-looking and had a fit and toned body that would be appreciated by any admirer of the female form - whether straight or gay. Randall had made her one of his concubines not just because of her looks, but to see whether his new mind control powers could overcome something so core to someone as their sexuality. The answer was yes - in a rather specialised way. Sammy still thought of herself as a lesbian, but had somehow mentally classified her new Master as a special case that did not count.

This varied but pleasing trio were now patiently awaiting their Master's orders. Today Ness was minded to toy around with Sammy's personality a bit more, just to see the effect, but the others could make themselves useful while he did it.

"Lucia, my shoulders are aching; give them a massage," Ness ordered casually. He loved the way the girls hurried to obey.

"Yes Master," the Latina said, and got up on the bed, knelt behind him and began to massage his neck and shoulders. When she moved close to push down hard on a knot, Randall could feel her pert breasts and stiff nipples brush against his back.

"Talia - blowjob."

"Yes Master," the blonde replied and moved to kneel between his spread legs, swiftly getting her mouth and tongue to work on his cock which, under her care, began to fill with blood, swelling into a firm erection.

"Ah Talia, that's one thing you have always been good at," he groaned, closing his eyes in pleasure. "You're a fine cocksucker."

Talia gave a small moan of pleasure round the dick embedded in her mouth at being praised by her Master. Her tongue lashed at its head as she bobbed faster up and down on his cock. Then she lifted her mouth off the now rigid erection and used her tongue to bathe its length with long, eager licks. "Thank you Master, I'm so glad my mouth pleases you," she said, her blue eyes soft with submission and longing as she gazed up into his face.

Lucia's slim fingers never paused searching for and digging into the knots in his shoulder muscles. Randall Ness thought that if this situation was just a minor side benefit of his search for mind control powers, it was still a very pleasant one. He looked down at Talia, who had resumed sucking his cock. He ran a hand across her soft blonde hair. She was fingering herself, aroused by pleasing her Master.

"You know Talia, you are much better like this than before. I think with my new powers I could almost completely erase your mind. You'd like that, wouldn't you? To just be a brainless sex doll for your Master forever?"

Talia gave another desperate moan round his cock, her eyes closed and one hand between her legs as she stuffed two fingers into her dripping pussy. Enslavement by her Master was such a turn-on for her, given the way Ness had twisted her mind. She was so aroused by the idea of being a mindless cum-dump for him that, desperately but inescapably, she climaxed around those thrusting fingers.

Ness laughed gently, knowing what had happened, but held Talia's head in place. The silly slut still had a job to do, while he turned his thoughts to toying with Sammy.

"So Sammy... I don't like that name. I will call you Samantha and that is the only name you will use in my presence."

"Yes Master."

"You are a pretty girl, Samantha, but a pretty girl should have long hair, not that crew cut. Let your hair grow naturally."

"Yes Master."

"And make-up, nice feminine make-up, eye-shadow, lipstick, all that stuff... you need that. I will instruct Talia to show you how."

"Yes Master."

"And more feminine clothes. I think you would look good in a summery pink dress with flowers on it; also nice sexy lingerie - lacy panties, stockings and suspenders, that sort of thing - and high-heels."

Sammy managed to look uncertain at this. She had never worn a 'summery pink dress' in her life - even as a kid she had preferred jeans and a tee-shirt - and she owned none of the things Ness had mentioned. "Umm... I'm sorry Master, but I'm a soldier. I don't have any of that stuff," she said apologetically.

"That's alright, when we get off this island and back to the States I'll buy everything you need. In fact, I think I'll make you my personal bodyguard. It would be amusing to have someone in that role who was also a good fuck-toy when I wanted."

"Won't your wife object to us, Master?" Lucia asked from behind.

"Not once I've mind controlled her as well. It'll do that bitch good to value me for something more than money. I'll do the kids too. Spoilt and lazy brats - I'll stick some work ethic in their heads; get them doing 12 hours schoolwork a day, seven days a week. That should get them into Princeton or wherever suits best."

His train of thought about all the people in his life who would be much better reduced to mindless puppets was interrupted by the job Talia was doing on his cock. Her hand was stroking up and down on the shaft, which was slick with her saliva, while her mouth never slowed, bobbing up and down on his cock head. Unless he did something to stop her he would cum, and he really wanted to fuck Samantha and remind the lesbian just how much she craved his cock. But one thing first, just to show his control: "Talia - deep throat."