Rhythm

Chapter 7 – Tied Up in Traffic

Special Agent Kinter’s cell phone rang and he answered it after quickly checking the caller.

“Talk to me, Kinter. Why don’t we have this guy in custody?” Said a female voice in his ear.

“We hit traffic on East 8… An accident.”

“Are you kidding me?! I want this guy locked down!”

“So? What do you want me to do, grab a chopper and land on his fucking lawn? Or maybe you would prefer I bring the local police in on it again? I’m sure they would be happy to get over there in just a few minutes…”

“Damnit, I hired you…”

“You hired me to clean up your mess, and keep things quiet.” He interrupted. “So either let me do my job, or tell me to fuck off. I’ll send you a bill.”

There was a disquieting silence on the other end of the call.

“Fine. What’s your ETA to his house?”

“Right now?… About noon tomorrow. The freeway is a parking lot, and we’re stuck smack in the middle.”

“Fuck!”

“What did you expect during rush hour? Relax. He isn’t going anywhere either, not in this mess. We’ll do this right and have your data back safe and secure by morning.”

“You better, Kinter…”

“Just sit tight. I’ll let you know the moment we have him.” He hung up.

“Was that the bitch?” Asked Hess from the driver’s seat.

“Yeah. I gotta tell ya, man, working for chicks like Grain is really making me miss Iraq, you know?”

“Heard that. You wanna pull plug?”

He considered the idea.

“Nah. We need the cash, and she certainly seems to have a line on that.”

“No shit. How does that always seem to happen? She’s even pretty. A little like Shift.”

“Hey, don’t even think about it. Grain is corporate, a killer, and smart as well… Too smart.”

“You think she might try to clean us?”

Kinter stared out the window into the fading Southern California twilight. There was a faint brown haze along the skyline. It meant a brush fire was burning somewhere.

“Maybe. This job stinks, Johnny. Keep your eyes open, and your gun handy. We may have to move fast.”

“Oorah!”

—

“What about taking it public? We could take it to a news station…” Ethan was picking through the last of the beans and rice while they talked.

“And do what, show them how it works? You can demonstrate that in front of the cameras if you like…”

He frowned. “Okay, bad idea. So what do we do with it?”

Taking a deep breath, she looked to her computer screen. “If this is the future, then one thing is certain… I want to know a hell of a lot more about this beast.”

“I thought you did a pretty damn good job so far, do you really think you can take it apart anymore?”

“No, not the technical aspects… But, I want to know it’s limitations and vulnerabilities, functional perimeters, stuff like that. We need to know the extent of what we’re dealing with.”

“And how do you propose to learn that?”

“Testing.”

“Testing how?”

Shara crossed her arms over her desk and held his eyes. “I want you to monitor me while I listen to it again, in a controlled manner.”

“Wait, what?! Are you crazy?!”

“I have to answer some questions, Ethan. It’s the only way I can form a defense against something like this. I have to know if it can be resisted, or blocked. Does it have a time limit? How fast does it fade? Stuff like that.”

“I don’t like it. Suppose it kills you this time?!”

“It won’t. I’m not going to touch the second file, only the first one.”

He wasn’t convinced. “It’s too dangerous.”

“You prefer to wake up some morning to this tune on the radio and have your brain erased?”

“Then let me do it…”

She gave him a coy look. “That’s very gallant of you, Ethan, but no.”

“Why not?!”

“For one, we have no idea if it affects males the same way as females.”

“I’ll take that risk.”

“Sure, and what happens if you go bonkers and get too physical with me? I’m pretty sure you can hold me off, even if I were pumped up with sexual adrenaline and nearly out of my mind. But I don’t want to get hurt by you.”

“I would never cause you intentional harm, Shara. I mean it.”

“I know you do, Ethan, but you don’t know what this music does to you. You don’t have control. It turns off the sane, rational part of your brain and leaves you swimming in pure lust. No, it has to be me.”

He sighed, knowing that she was right.

“Alright. What do we need to do?”

“Okay,” she said, going right into geek mode, “the first thing I need to do is set up a camera to record whatever happens. Why don’t you clear the table while I get this ready.”

“A camera? Uh…”

“What’s the matter? Afraid video of us having sex is going to end up on the internet?” She was grinning as she stood up on a chair and positioned a ball-like device on top of one of her flat-screen monitors, adjusting it so that it could take in most of her room.

“I… You are a hacker.”

“Fair point. Relax. I would never let that happen. I promise, Girl Scout honor.” She held up her hand with her fingers split in a V.

“Isn’t that the Vulcan sign for ‘live long and prosper’? I thought the girl scouts used a three finger salute?”

She giggled. “So they do. That’s okay, I was never in the scouts anyway.” She hopped down and came over to stand in front of him, her hands falling casually to his waist. “As much fun as it would be to make sexy movies with you, I really do need to record this. I’m going to be… distracted. My memory of events could be easily compromised. Besides, there’s no guarantee that this will be a repeat of this afternoon, stud.”

“Hey, about that. Um, how do I say this? If you… I mean… aw hell, if it turns out you’re pregnant…”

She reached up and put a finger on his lips.

“Thank you, Ethan. You are ever a true gentleman, but you need not worry. I track my timing very carefully, and I’m not ovulating right now.”

“You know what my mom says they call girls who use the ‘timing’ method?”

“Mothers? Yeah, I heard that one, and for most girls, that would be pretty accurate. But I’m not most girls.”

“No, you’re certainly not.” He agreed.

She giggled happily. “I could show you my spreadsheets if it would help convince you, complete with standard deviation and statistical projection based on twenty-two possible variables?”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Good. So, relax. No matter how much stamina the little wrigglers have, there’s just no target to hit right now. Are you ready for the first test?”

“I guess so… Um, don’t you want to put something else on?”

She looked down at herself. “Frankly, if I’m about to get all squishy and sweaty again, the less clothes the better. I’d do the tests naked…”

She saw Ethan’s eyes grow wide, and she smiled.

“… but I think that might throw off the results.”

He sighed in relief. It was going to be hard enough keeping his hormones in check as it was.

“For the first test, I’ll sit here in my chair and let you run things from my laptop. You’ll have complete control of the music. Just use the space bar to stop and start playback. Did you bring your headphones?”

He reached for his backpack. “Yup. But don’t you have your own?”

“I do, but mine aren’t isolating… Er, they don’t block sound in or out, so you might get some ‘leakage,’ and I don’t want to risk us both being affected by this thing.”

“Could be fun…” He said, grinning.

She looked surprised, and was momentarily at a loss for words as she obviously thought about the idea. “We’ll have to save that for another time.” She replied, somewhat reluctantly. “For now, I just want to test that first thirty second section. I want to try to resist it, now that I know what it’s doing. You control playback, and regardless of what happens, I want you to stop it after thirty-five seconds. Got it?”

He nodded. “Got it.”

“I’m turning on the recorder,” she tapped a key on her desktop computer and a small, red light appeared on the little ball at the top of her monitor, “and re-engaging audio on my laptop.” She pulled out a plug from the side and inserted the headphone jack. Then, taking the headphones from him, she settled them over her ears, leaned back in her chair, and took a deep breath.

“Okay, I’m ready. Go…”

Ethan tapped the spacebar on the laptop.

“Alright, I hear the music. The volume is good.” Shara’s mouth dropped open, and Ethan thought she seemed to be leaning forward slightly. “Oh man… ughnn… I can feel it… pushing me… I’m trying to resist, but it’s… umm… not working…” The girl seemed to be struggling, her face tense. He checked the time, his finger hovering over the space bar to stop playback.

All at once, Shara made a soft gasp and visibly jerked her head back. Amazed, he watched as her whole body seemed to settle into the chair and she let out her breath in a long sigh. Her eyelids drooped as her previous intensity appeared to drain right out of her in seconds. In the span of a few rapid heartbeats, she went from fiercely determined, to complacently relaxed. He even thought she looked slightly stoned.

“It… It’s got me…” She breathed, swallowing. “Ughmmm… I can feel it… locking me in…”

Ethan was so entranced by her now sultry voice, that he failed to notice the playback was now past forty seconds.

“Shit…” He cursed, quickly hitting the space bar.

Shara visibly jerked again, as though she were pulled out of a light sleep. She blinked several times, and took a number of deep breaths before she noticed Ethan at her side.

“Shara? Are you okay? Look at me.”

She did, and after shaking her head a few times, managed to get her eyes to focus more clearly.

“Whoa… That was… interesting.” She replied, rubbing her face. “Did you stop me late?”

“Sorry. I got a little distracted myself.”

“It’s okay. I could tell you went over, the music was starting into the second section and was already inserting arousal patterns. My nipples are hard.” She commented, her hand rubbing her chest idly over the robe.

“Uh…”

“Relax, Ethan. I’m alright. Really. The pattern was only there for a few seconds. I’ll tell you what though, whoever put this together was a real master. I never stood a chance at resisting. Oh, I’ll try again anyway for the next test, maybe throw in some distraction of my own, but I’m not betting on anything working. That first thirty seconds is amazing! It just sucks you right in, and then hits you with a wicked little jolt of pleasure when you finally slip into sync.”

“The first hit is always free…”

She met his eyes. “You have no idea. So let’s review what we now know…”

“Did we really learn that much?” He asked, taking his seat by the laptop again. Shara swiveled back to her own computer and reviewed herself on the video recording, silently mouthing a “wow” when she saw herself break.

“Huh? Oh, sure! Lot’s actually. For example, we now know that the first section, we’ll call it the ‘grabber’, is critical. It’s unlikely that the music would have much effect on you if you started listening in the middle… though I wouldn’t be surprised if they threw in some reinforcement ‘grabber’ patterns at specific intervals throughout the piece, just to make sure you stayed in sync, so we probably shouldn’t count on that possibility as a means of evasion.”

“If you say so.”

“I do. We also know that the music can be interrupted without triggering any major effects in the listener, at least up to forty seconds. I’m not surprised that it took me a bit to snap out of it though. My brain had to break the pattern it was in. Next time, I suggest snapping your fingers and possibly spraying me with a light mist of cold water.” She got up and went through a door into what Ethan saw was a bathroom. She came back out with a small spray bottle. “Use this. That should help cancel the pattern more quickly, especially if I’m dug in really deep.”

He picked up the bottle and set it next to the laptop.

“Okay, I think we’re ready for the next test.” She proclaimed, as she reset the video camera.

“Already? Don’t you want to rest a bit first?”

“Not really. I don’t think it will make much difference, now that my brain patterns have altered again, and frankly, I sorta want to get on with it before I change my mind and chicken-out. As much as I like you, Ethan, and very much enjoyed our coupling earlier, this is a bit embarrassing. It’s a little like finding yourself suddenly walking down the street without any clothes on. There’s nothing you can do about it except walk faster.”

“Right… So what’s the plan?” He asked, taking his position at the laptop again.

When he looked back to Shara, she was biting her lip.

“You’re not going to like it…”

“As if I’m ever going to like exposing a friend, and lover… to potentially deadly music that hacks into your brain and drives you insane, all while I sit here and watch?”

She just looked at him, her eyes a little sad.

He sighed. “Go on…”

“I want you to restrain me.”

“Say what?!”

She was digging in a drawer. “The next step is to go through the whole thing, with me commenting on each stage.” She took out a corded device which she plugged into the laptop. “Here, put this headset on. Don’t worry, I’m only using the microphone input, not the earphones. I want you to communicate with me. Keep me talking, encourage me, try to keep me focussed as best you can. The headset will merge the sound with what I hear. There’s a chance your voice will disrupt the patterns, so I’m only giving you half volume.”

Ethan adjusted the headset so that the microphone was near his mouth.

“Like this?”

“Perfect. Now use these scarves to tie my hands and feet to the chair.”

He took the light scarves, and just stared at them.

“We need to do this, Ethan. I need to know if the sequence requires actual intercourse to reach the final phase. The music is twenty-eight minutes long. I want you to let it run the full course… or until I have an orgasm and pass out. No matter how much I beg you, you have got to let it run, do you understand.”

“Is this really necessary?” He asked, coming over to her chair. “What if something goes wrong? How will I know?”

“Well, I guess you’ll have to use your judgement. If I start bleeding from my ears or something…”

“Don’t even kid.”

“… Otherwise, I want you to keep the music playing even if I beg and plead for you to stop it.”

“I don’t know…”

“I’m also probably going to ask you to untie me to have sex. Don’t give in!… as much as you might want to.” She added, staring at her lap. “If you do, you’ll ruin the whole point of the experiment and we’ll have to start all over again. Do you understand?”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Okay. Tie me up, Bruce.”

Ethan gave her a look, then wrapped one of the scarves around her wrist, and then the arm of her chair, following her suggestions on the knots. When that was secure, he moved to her ankle on the same side, then her other leg, and finally up to her wrist on the other side. He slid the loop over her hand and was preparing to tie it off when he stopped and made one final entreaty for her to change her mind, though he did so in silence, with just his eyes.

“It’s going to be fine, you’ll see. Besides, I always wanted to try bondage…”

“Oh god.” he exclaimed. “Last chance to change your mind, Shara.”

“I’m good. Do it.”

With that, he pulled the knot closed and locked off her last chance of escape.

“Don’t forget the headphones.” She mentioned, smiling.

He settled them on her head and then tapped the microphone near his mouth.

“Test… test. Can you hear me okay?”

“Yup, perfect. The camera’s already rolling, so I’m good to go when you are. I have to say, being all tied up has me more than a little aroused to begin with. Maybe when this is all over, we can play around a bit, you know?”

“Virgin this morning, remember?” He quipped. “Here it comes.”

He tapped the space bar and started the music. In front of him, Shara took a deep breath, letting it out slowly through her mouth. In seconds, he could already see her struggling to resist the ‘grabber’ section.

“It’s working on me again… I can already feel myself starting to slide into it. I’m fighting…”

“You’re doing fine, Shara. I’m right here.”

She met his eyes, and smiled briefly before her breathing started to deepen and her body trembled slightly.

“Ughm… It’s… It’s c-close… I can’t h-hold on much longer… It’s p-pulling me inughnnn…”

Ethan recognized the jerking snap as she gave in to the music and fell in sync. Like before, she made one long exhale as her whole body relaxed.

“It’s got me…” She said, weakly.

“Coming up on thirty seconds. You almost made it that time.” He said through the mic while he smiled encouragingly. “First section ending…”

“Oh! I can feel it. It’s dumping on the pleasure. Mmm… Not sexual though, just… feels good. There was a bit of sex right as I broke through, but it quickly turned to general warmth. It’s insidious… mmmm… If it jumped to sexual arousal right away… ohh… you might think something was wrong and stop. I feel really good, Ethan. Ughn… Time?”

“Approaching the minute mark.”

Shara made a slightly concerned face. “It’s… changing again. The pleasure is still there, but… ughnn… gods, this thing is tricky… mmmm.”

“Talk to me, Shara. Tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s turning on the arousal.” She said, licking her lips. “Not a lot, but it’s growing. The pleasure isn’t sexual yet. Mmmm… That’s the trick. It sucks you in, makes you want it… uhh… without being… threatening. I’m trying to resist… but the pleasure moves around… pulses in waves, so you don’t see it building until it’s already peaked and moving on… mmmm… Shit that’s nice… I’m getting used to it… I think it’s an addiction cycle.”

“You’re doing great. Coming up on two minutes.”

Shara’s breathing was deepening. “S-s-something’s changing again… mmm… ahh!… oh my god… UGHN!… uhhh…”

“Shara? Speak to me…” He noticed that the girl’s eyes were starting to roll in her head.

“It… mmmm… It’s a bait and switch… ahhh! Oh god…”

He frowned. “A bait and switch? What do you mean? Stay with me, Shara.”

The girl was visibly sweating, her hands pulling at the restraints.

“Ethan! Ughnn!… All the p-p-pleasure just turned s-sexual… Oh god… oh god… mmmmm… mmmm… ahh… okay. It’s back to… normal now. But it left me really, really horny… god, I’m so aroused. I don’t think I can do this, Ethan…”

He looked at the girl who was actively squirming in her chair, her hair starting to plaster to her face from the perspiration.

“You can. Just hold on. Keep talking to me.”

“How… long?”

He checked the laptop.

“Just over three minutes.”

She looked disgusted. “Oh my god, this thing has got me this worked up… mmmm… in only THREE MINUTES?! Shit… shit… ughnn… it’s building the regular pleasure again… the soft stuff… ummm… Oh no… ughn… ughn… like it did right before it zapped me s-sexually… It’s about to change, I can feel it… Oh Ethan, I already want it… Fuck I want it… ummm! UGHN! Holy shit! Ummm!”

Shara’s eyes were glassy as her breathing became ragged, her body undulating in the seat.

“Shara… Shara, keep talking, okay? Try to keep talking. What do you feel? Try to remember the experiment. We need this information…”

“The… test… mmmm… Right. I see it now, Ethan. It is like a drug. Ughn… I think the pattern… ahh… is addiction. It addicts you… to… to… fuck, I can’t think straight… it addicts you to arousal. It… mmmm… it tricks you into wanting it…”

She lifted her head and looked at him, and her eyes grew wide and she began to really pull on the scarves.

“Oh crap…” mumbled Ethan, recognizing the lust. “Shara?”

“I want it, Ethan… I want you… ughnnn… let me go and take me to bed…”

“No, Shara. The experiment, remember?”

She looked pained. “We have enough data… ahh… let’s have sex, please? You can tie me to the bed.”

He swallowed, a little afraid. She seemed a lot more aroused than she was when she had first stood over him in his room, and only six minutes had passed. Was something wrong?

“Ethan… I… ughhnn… I can’t go on. Please… make love to me. Take me to the bed and fuck me, please! It’s getting worse… oh god… ughnn ughnn… h-help me!”

He was sweating as well, and hard as a rock as he sat on the cushioned spool. It didn’t help that he had no way to know if she was really in danger. Suppose the effects were additive? The more times you listened, the worse it got?

He saw that the girl was staring into her lap, her eyes droopy. She was panting and squirming, her wrists pulling at the restraints.

“Shara? Speak to me.”

It was a moment before she responded. “Ughnn… the m-music is changing… again… ughnn…”

“Changing how?”

“Oh god… ughnn… It… it’s all sexual p-p-pleasure now. Ughmmm… I think it’s… trying to push me over the… ummm… edge.”

“The edge?” He asked, honestly confused. She did seem a little more in control of herself, however.

“Ughnn… An orgasm, you dolt! Ahhh! Ughnn… It f-feels like someone is… ummm… touching me. I can really… feel it. Shit!… ughmmm… Ethan, this is c-creepy!” She was staring down at her own chest.

He swallowed, more than a little aroused himself. “Uh, describe it.” He offered, realizing after the fact that his request sounded a bit perverted.

She was panting hard, her head rolling around as she obviously fought to hold onto control. “Oh god… It feels so good. M-m-my nipples… mmm… like someone is sucking on my… ughnn… nipples, licking them…”

“Er… what? How can you…”

“Ummm… They just n-needed to record s-s-someone having… ughnn!… sex. Oh god… ummm… really g-g-great sex. Ahh! Ahhh! AHH!”

“Shara?”

“M-my lap! AHH! They’re in my l-lap too!” The girl was straining vigorously against the bonds that held her. “Ughnn! In… in… inside me! UGHN! UGHN! Oh GOD! I can’t hold b-back! Ethan!… UGHN! AHHHHH!”

Suddenly Shara was jerking and spasming as her head slammed back against the headrest, and her body arched hard upwards. She made three punctuated gasps, then collapsed forward, unmoving.

Ethan was up out of his chair at once.

“Shara! Shit…” He checked for a pulse and found one, rapid, but slowing. Untying her hands and feet, he tried to wake her from the chair without success and ended up carrying her over to the bed. He got the spray bottle and misted her face while snapping his fingers near her ear. He was just starting to panic when the girl stirred and he breathed a deep sigh of relief.

“You scared the crap out of me.” He said with a half smile as she focussed on his face leaning over hers.

“Well,” she replied, catching her breath, “at least we know what happens if you can’t get relief… wow.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That good huh?”

She laughed. “Yeah, that good. But don’t worry, Bruce. I still prefer the real thing.” She put her hand on his cheek. After a moment, she looked down.

“Well, so much for my shower. Help me up. I think I might have pulled my shoulder out of joint when I came…”

He lifted her into a sitting position, then, after letting her rest for a few minutes, helped her into the bathroom to clean up.

He waited by the laptop, staring at the screen with a frown. He was considering some of the implications that Shara had mentioned when her voice called out to him.

“Ethan, could you come here a moment, I need you to see something…”

He thought maybe her wrists had been chaffed by the restraints, but his breath caught when he tapped the door and then slowly opened it enough to peer inside. The girl was standing naked in the shower, a wide smile on her face.

“Uh… Shara?”

She wiggled her finger at him to come closer. “I may have just had one of the most intense orgasms of my life, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still wicked horny, stud. Come in here and help get that damn tune out of my head.”