"Quite an impressive résumé, Doctor Ryan," said the man behind the desk. "PhD in psychology and an MD as well, with a background in therapeutic medicine, a very impressive list of certifications in hypnotherapy, a stellar record in private practice...really, an applicant of your caliber doesn't come along very often, especially not to a non-profit shelter like ours. I think I can speak for the entire staff when I say that you'd be an amazing addition, and we'd be very happy to have you. There normally wouldn't be any openings, of course, but your application caught my attention as soon as it crossed my desk."
He paused. "Which is what you knew would happen." He looked at the application for a long moment, then crumpled it into a tiny ball and threw it into the wastebasket. "There. Now that we've got that out of the way, why don't we talk honestly about the real reason you came here today?"
Michelle Ryan fixed her green eyes into an icy glare. "Certainly, Doctor Pollard."
"Please, call me Kyle," he said disarmingly.
"Doctor Pollard will do nicely," she responded, refusing to rise to the bait. "I've been looking into your shelter, Doctor Pollard, and I've been finding out some very interesting things about the women you treat. Of course, as a private shelter, you don't have to make your records accessible, but some of my colleagues have been recommending women to you for quite some time, and encouraging me to do the same. I'm not one to refer my patients lightly, so I did quite a bit of digging. I'm sure you can guess what I've found."
Doctor Pollard smiled engagingly. "No, actually I can't. I think I've done a very good job of covering my tracks, so I'm very interested to see just what you've uncovered. Obviously enough to anger you, or you wouldn't have come here. Obviously not enough to prove any wrongdoing, or you'd have brought police. Please, enlighten me."
Michelle frowned. He didn't seem intimidated in the slightest by her veiled threats. Instead, he seemed to be enjoying a private joke at her expense. She pressed on. She'd already shown her true colors by confronting him; no point in backing down now. "You actually have done a good job of covering your tracks. It was only my personal connections in the psychiatric field that led me to Gina Bartlett. She's doing quite well for herself, as I understand it. A genuine phenomenon in the adult film industry. Which is somewhat surprising, as I originally heard her name in conversation with a colleague of mine about rape survivors and their intimacy issues."
Doctor Pollard raised an eyebrow. "Violating a patient's confidentiality?" he said archly. "How unethical. I should report you for that."
"I know," Michelle said dryly. "Not only do I talk with my colleagues about their patients, I also watch fetish porn. I'm clearly a hopeless case. I'm also clearly the only person outside of Doctor Fischburne who would connect the patient that he referred to you with the woman who's currently taking it up the ass every day for Savage Video. But interestingly enough, I'm actually the only person who would connect the two, period. When I spoke to Doctor Fischburne, he didn't remember Gina Bartlett. The name just didn't ring a bell."
Doctor Pollard stroked his goatee. "Perhaps you were mistaken. Doesn't sound like the sort of thing a rape survivor would do, does it?"
"I could be mistaken. But I've done enough work with hypnosis to recognize the signs when I'm speaking to someone who's following a post-hypnotic suggestion. Which is the next interesting thing. All those colleagues of mine who keep trying to tell me to send you patients? They all exhibit those same signs. They also couldn't remember exactly who they'd referred to you already. Oh, some of them tried to tell me it was a confidentiality issue, a breach of therapist/client ethics to tell. But when I pressed, they weren't quite sure who they'd sent your way." Michelle folded her arms. "Now why might that be? You've got a very impressive record of hypnosis certifications yourself, Doctor Pollard. Perhaps you can tell me?"
Doctor Pollard seemed anything but upset at the implications of her question. "Now, Michelle, I'm not the only person on staff who has a background in hypnotherapy..."
"No, and that's another curious thing. All of the colleagues I talked to? None of them have backgrounds in hypnotherapy. They're all versed in conventional therapeutic techniques. My friends in the field who both knew you and had hypnotherapy certifications? They've all left their practices to come work for you, either at this shelter or in some other capacity. And 'some other capacity' is all I could find out. You have a lot of people affiliated with you, Doctor Pollard. A lot of very good hypnotists. And oddly enough, every patient who's passed through the doors of this shelter that I know of either wound up doing porn, or disappeared completely." Michelle stood up. "You're right. It's not enough to prove wrongdoing. But you'd better have a good explanation, or we'll see what CNN makes of it all."
Doctor Pollard leaned back in his chair. "I have to say, Michelle, I'm more than a little disappointed in you. Here I invited you to talk honestly about the real reason you came here today, and all you can give me is a little lecture on morality?" Michelle heard the office door open behind her, and even as she turned to look, she knew who she'd see. "You didn't even mention Cindy's name."
It took her a long moment, but she finally turned her gaze away from the blank-eyed nude woman who stood in the doorway. "Let her go," she said in a tone of low menace.
"You must love her very much, if you were willing to come beard me in the lion's den, as it were, to get her out." Doctor Pollard gestured, and the girl approached the two of them, still very much in trance. "Which is what I knew would happen. That's why I took her. I've been wanting to obtain your services for quite some time, Doctor Ryan, but you've proved to be remarkably hard to get a hold of. I needed to get your full attention. And Cindy, here...well, I originally intended her as bait, but I should have known that any woman you'd be attracted to would have quite a bit going for her. She's going to be a fine addition to my staff. No formal hypnotic training, of course, but you'd be amazed at what she picked up after a few years living with you."
"Goddamnit, I said let her GO!" Michelle lunged for him, wanting desperately to grab him by that ugly tie of his and drag him across the desk, but Cindy was right there, holding her effortlessly and pushing her back into her chair.
"It sounds like you've guessed most of it, by the way," Doctor Pollard said as he pulled several lengths of rope out of a drawer. "I knew that leaving a few pointers behind when we procured Cindy would work wonders." Michelle struggled, but Cindy didn't even seem to realize it was her girlfriend she was holding down as Doctor Pollard began to tie her to the chair. "But in case you need me to spell it out, yes, the shelter is a front for my real business. Human traffic. The girls who come in here are desperate, damaged. They need someone to trust so badly that it takes almost no effort at all to bind them to my will. I hypnotize them, I condition them, I...oh, it's a bit of a charged term, but let's go ahead and say it, I enslave them. Then I do with them whatever I want. Some, I keep here as personal servants. Others, I rent out or sell. And women like you, women with special skills...you become my lionesses. You find women that the shelter doesn't bring in. You'll help me enslave other women, Doctor Ryan. And you will love it."
"Not going to happen," Michelle said firmly. "You can't hold me here forever. People know where I am, people I trust. If you keep me too long, they'll start making a fuss. And I don't care how good of a hypnotist you think you are, you're not going to break me easily."
Doctor Pollard's eyes widened. "People you trust, you say?"
