Idle woke up slowly in an unfamiliar space. It had been a long time since she'd done that. Katherine's bed was comfortable and warm and... big. Hard to get out of. Especially given how warm it was. But the day needed to start, and she didn't want to be stranded so far from home, even with a way to get back.

She could hear the shower, and took a guess as to where Tailor was. That motivated her movement, and she made her way into the bathroom. It was warm and steamy. The mirror had fogged over to a significant degree, the tiles were damp with condensation. The curtain was closed, and it was clear from its movement that someone was behind it.

"Tailor?" Idle said, her voice raised to cut through the noise of pouring water.

"Idle," Tailor responded, pulling the shower curtain aside.

"Jesus, do you have to look so fucking gorgeous all the goddamn time?" The water pouring off Tailor's gentle curves glistened in the soft bathroom light. Her silver hair almost seemed lively even with the weight of the water in it. Despite that, Idle couldn't keep her eyes off Tailor's breasts.

"So for some reason, I woke up naked," Tailor said casually.

"I might have had something to do with—"

"I remember I was having a dream," she continued, as if Idle hadn't spoken at all. "A walk down a forest path. A pleasant lunch. A little pool."

"That sounds like a—"

"The dream got blurry then. Something about my bed. An interruption. And when I start to think about that," she fixed Idle with a cool glare, "I start to get muddled up about which part was the dream."

Idle grinned and shrugged. "Mind if I join you?"

"In the shower?"

"No, for a three-course meal at the Paladin. Yes, in the shower, corpie."

Tailor's serious expression softened and cracked. Without a word, but with a smile, she held a hand out to Idle. Taking it, Idle carefully stepped into the shower, flinching involuntarily from the scalding spray.

"Oh, so you do back away from something."

"Fuck off, it's hot."

Tailor practically pounced, pushing Idle roughly against the wall of the shower and kissing her deeply, ferociously. Idle was taken aback for a moment before returning the energy, her arms wrapped around Tailor's wet back and tangling in her hair. The two of them stood there a moment, breathing in each other.

"It is hot," Tailor said.

"No fucking kidding," Idle replied. She couldn't keep the smile off her face.

The two of them started kissing again, and again. Hands moved and caressed. Chests pressed against one another. Several moments passed in blissful making out, careful not to slip on the wet ceramic. Somehow, Idle wound up seated in the tub, pulling Tailor closer, feeling the shower spray on her lower legs. Her eyes were directly aimed at Tailor's well-groomed slit. Unfortunately, logistics prevented much more than a few kisses on her thighs, and so it had to be a finger, traced along each of those lower lips before teasing the clit gently, feeling the wetness that wasn't entirely from the shower.

She even smelled perfect. If Idle hadn't been so turned on, she'd have been angry about that. Tailor's effortless beauty was still infuriating.

Over the sound of falling water and gasps, pants, and moans, Idle could hear the sound of Tailor's hand sliding down the tiled wall. A perverse intent formed in Idle's mind, to see if she could literally sweep Tailor off her feet. Not that that would be all that difficult, so Idle added the corollary to not just grab Tailor's legs and pull her down.

It hardly seemed to be necessary to physically trip Tailor. Her knees seemed a bit shaky already. She was weaving. Her legs were trembling. She reached up to grab the curtain rod, and as she cried out loudly enough to hurt Idle's ears, the rod, not meant to support a person's weight, least of all a person in the throes of orgasm, came loose from the wall and tumbled with a huge clatter to the floor, thankfully dropping clear of the tub. Tailor, deprived of her handhold, gave a small shriek and fell on top of Idle, landing a bit roughly on top of the other Alterist. Idle, for her part, saw the inevitable occurring and braced both to keep herself safe and to keep Tailor from getting injured. One knee bounced off the side of the tub, and judging from Tailor's gasp it was a painful blow, but otherwise most of the corpie's weight landed on Idle's softness, forcing some of the air from her lungs. She suspected she might bruise from catching an elbow to the shoulder, but otherwise the damage felt minor and temporary.

The two of them stayed still for a moment, as if any further movement might cause further collapse. Tailor broke the silence.

She laughed.

And Idle couldn't help but join in, half-lying in the tub, soaking wet, hurting from where Tailor had struck her on the way down. Water, no longer contained by the plastic curtain, splashed its way over the edges of the tub and onto the floor. The two women, now unfettered, laughed uproariously, unable to contain their glee at the destruction of the moment.

"Oh jeez, I have to get to work," Tailor said, still giggling.

"Is that all you ever think about?" Idle complained jokingly. "It's always work, work, work."

Tailor carefully separated herself from Idle. "That is a mess," she said, looking at the disaster of a curtain and the water running down. She quickly shut off the shower.

"Let it dry, it'll be fine."

Tailor sighed, but still smiled. "Maybe I should get you to clean it up."

Idle chuckled. "Think I'd do a good job?"

"Depends on how I ask."

"It might."

"Alright. I was mostly done when you came in." Tailor got to her feet and stepped out of the tub. "I'm going to dry off. Do you want a ride with me?"

"Yeah, that'd make life easier, even if you are taking me to a shitty cop shop."

Tailor opened the bathroom closet and tossed Idle a towel. "Where are you headed after?"

"Home or Midnight's. Haven't decided." Idle stood up slowly, checking for injury. Finding nothing worse than maybe a couple bruises, she started to dry off.

"That's... I had figured that. I was wondering which you would choose."

Idle shrugged. "Probably grab Midnight, go for lunch, then head to my place. I'll have to text her." She patted down her sides. "Why do you care?"

"I... because I do, Idle. If nothing else, I want to see this mystery through. Solve the problem. Get your roommate back. I don't know, maybe make friends. Go for dinner sometime. Explore..." She trailed off.

Idle raised an eyebrow. "Explore? Explore what, Tailor? Explore things like what knocked your shower curtain down?"

A moment of silence. Tailor had turned her back and Idle couldn't see her expression. "Yes. Definitely. And maybe more. I... admit I'm very curious what you can do with Alteration gear."

"Oh you are, hm?" Idle started drying off her hair. "Maybe you'll have to join us after work."

"I plan to join you tonight, anyway. We have to see if we can get into Spin's laptop and get at whatever was on their phone."

Once again, inserting yourself into our lives. Idle found it much less irritating than she had only a couple days ago. She even found herself looking forward to it. Besides, she admitted, if she doesn't show up, Midnight and I would be too distracted with each other to actually accomplish anything.

"Fine," Idle said, tossing her towel into the wreck of the curtain on the floor. "Bring us dinner."

Tailor laughed. "You got it. Meet you at your place, seven o'clock?"

"Yeah, whatever. We'll be in touch. Let's get clothes on and go for a drive."

"Right." Tailor turned back and discarded her towel the same way Idle had. "Let's go. I want to stop at Central on the way and get Spin's pill bottle. They might need it."

"Yeah, good plan. We getting their phone back, too?"

Tailor shook her head. "Not yet, anyway. I can pick it up on my way over if they're done with it."

"Got it."

The two women returned to the bedroom. "You know, Idle," Tailor began, opening a dresser drawer, "I tried to wake you three times."

"Oh yeah?" Idle plopped her shopping bag on the bed.

"Three times," Tailor repeated, pulling on a pair of simple white panties. "I was ready to write you a note for how to set the alarm and just leave."

"You still could," Idle replied, dumping her change of clothes. "I didn't exactly get a full shower."

"You don't seem too worried about it."

"I'm not." She started with her deodorant. "I'm fine. Just that if you wanted to let me flood your bathroom—"

"That's alright, I'll just give you a lift." Tailor had her underwear on. "You can shower at home, or—"

"At Midnight's, yeah. Probably." Idle shrugged, pulling on her panties and grabbing the denim shorts she'd brought to wear. "You mind if I just leave yesterday's clothes here?"

"No, it's fine, I can bring them over another day."

Another day. That sounds really great. Why does that sound so great? Idle put on her bra, but not before noting Tailor's sideways look at her chest. "Sure."

"Need breakfast?" Tailor moved to her closet and pulled out a grey knee-length skirt.

"Hm. Wouldn't mind." Idle grinned. "Win over the chubby girl with a meal, is that your plan?"

"Like you need me to win you over. You'd drag me right back to bed if I gave you the chance."

Idle put on a long green t shirt and grabbed her socks. "Fuckin' right."

Tailor sat on the bed to pull up her stockings. "It's... really, really refreshing. To find someone so—someones so openly sexual. And someone who's so interested in me and my pleasure."

Idle, finishing dressing herself, kept a strategic silence, wondering if Tailor would say more.

She obliged, moving back to her dresser and taking a brush. "I loved him," she said, a little under her breath, before heading back to the bathroom and the mirror. Idle decided not to follow and instead got herself in as much order as she could before heading downstairs to sit in the comfy armchair in the living room. She could hear, softly, the sound of a hair dryer from upstairs, and then the sound of Tailor walking down the stairs woke her up.

I'm gonna need to get some rest. Can't be sleepy tomorrow for my match. Idle got to her feet as Tailor landed on the main floor.

"Ready to go?" she asked her host.

"No jokes about how long I took?"

Idle looked Tailor up and down. Far from the woman who less than an hour ago, in a moment of orgasmic excess, pulled down her own shower curtain, the Tailor she saw was excellently put together; contained, professional, looking very much as she had when Idle had first run into her at her workplace. "Trust me, Tailor, it was worth the time."

Tailor looked a bit surprised, and blushed. "Thank you, Idle," she said. "We should probably go, since we have a stop on the way."

"After you."

Midnight was having a slow morning. Despite having uninterrupted rest, she still felt tired. She hadn't done her stretches and her body felt weirdly out of sorts because of it, but she couldn't muster the mental energy to exercise. The backlog of messages and emails from only a couple days danced in front of her eyes.

It made her look at the cheap secondhand helmet sitting on its little stand.

Which made her think of Spin.

Which made her think of Idle.

Maybe she'd overdone it this past weekend. But that wouldn't be every weekend. And it was pretty great. A nice treat. A beautiful start.

A very beautiful start. Hopefully to a very beautiful relationship.

She picked up the helmet. Looked at it. It was such a simple thing: a padded plastic shell, a bit thicker than a bike helmet, worn in a few places from use and heat; a collection of wires on the back connected to a pair of universal connector outputs; speaker packs hidden in the foam, sitting over the ears; a clear printed-plastic visor in front with microtrace electronics capable of making stunning patterns of light. She'd heard of experiments that played with smell and taste, but didn't know if they were real or just rumoured. But it didn't matter.

This was hers.

This was what half a decade of obsession with Alteration had bought her. This device and the machine it was attached to, paid for with her own money, after years of work on her other obsession. Her feet kept her fed, and that was a wonderful thing.

This helmet was where she first experienced Alteration, first through some very mild, very simple automated programs, something that was strongly recommended against without supervision, something she admitted now to herself was dangerous and stupid. Then it was supervised connections with real people on the forums, then unsupervised connections... She knew from stories from others that she was mostly lucky, she'd barely had a bad experience.

A message popped up on her phone. Idle.

Up in 5

Idle was coming up.

She hadn't got dressed. She'd slept naked.

She unlocked the door to her apartment. She made sure her phone wasn't silent.

She started to do her morning stretches.

She didn't bother to dress.

Lunch break.

Katherine walked out of the office, headed for her car, then turned aside and decided to walk.

She couldn't remember the work she did.

Tuesdays were always rough. Wednesday mornings were Katherine's day for her AlterLogic 'treatments,' and Tuesdays, the start of a new week of work and the end of a week's worth of programming, could be challenging, and this morning was particularly hard.

The Alterations got thin, this time of the week. If she could have rescheduled her life, rearranged things, she would have.

But...

God help me. This weekend.

That weekend had completely thrown her rhythm off.

And it was wonderful. And it was terrible.

And it was frightening.

She walked. She didn't care where. She knew that her programming would get her back to the department on time. She wasn't even looking. It didn't matter.

Nothing mattered.

Tears came.

Tears came because nothing mattered.

Her job didn't matter.

Her house didn't matter.

Her life didn't matter.

Her sister, her nieces, her family, they mattered.

And her new friends.

And one of her new friends was missing her roommate.

That mattered.

That really mattered.

And she was sitting in a small, dark office, assessing the mental state of people she couldn't see or hear, and it mattered so little that she wasn't even allowed to remember her reports. She had no coworkers, not really; she only saw her colleagues at AlterLogic when she went in for her weekly treatment sessions, and she barely engaged with the police who likely didn't want her there at all.

What really mattered was very close to slipping from her fingers. Or at least it felt like it was. It was so very, very tempting to just walk off the job, keep walking, make her way across town and—

I share in a duty.

Tears.

She wasn't paying attention to where her feet were taking her. She didn't have to pay attention.

She didn't have to look at her phone to know that it was time to turn back.

She knew where she was going.

There was only one place she could be going.

Her eyes were dry and she was ready for an afternoon's work precisely one minute before she returned to the office, which was five minutes before her break ended. The rest could wait. She shared in a duty.

The programming was thin, but it wasn't broken. And tomorrow it would be renewed, and would last another week.

Midnight slumped into Idle's arms, naked, sweaty, and tired. "H-how..." she gasped. "How long was..."

"About an hour," Idle replied, looking a bit ragged herself. "A solid walk for about an hour with my eyes on your cute little ass the whole time. Well, and other places." She was just as naked as Midnight.

Midnight giggled. "I hope you were watching the info screen at least a little!"

"Uh huh. Safety's important." Idle ran her hands down her lover's back. "Bedtime?"

"Ohmigod please yes," Midnight gasped, feeling a strange desperation welling up inside her. Despite her exhaustion, she just wanted more. More Alteration, more sex, more Idle.

And for her part, Idle was happy to oblige. They'd spent the late morning together in her apartment before catching a popcar back to Idle's home, had a quick bite of lunch, and then had resumed the wild hedonic fuckfest that had begun their day together. When Idle had needed a break, Midnight had asked just how deep Idle could take her.

She had been starlight.

She knew she came at least once during her long walk. Maybe twice. Just from walking, and from Idle's voice echoing in her... not just in her head, but in her whole self, it seemed. She knew at one point there had been a pause to the voice, and she knew (because the voice had told her) that Idle was taking a break from talking to throw herself in the office chair and masturbate, but the pause had seemed so short, just a moment.

She had been so, so far away. Starlight. Mist. She had dissolved into nothingness and she kept walking. She had gone so far, so deep that she had touched some distant part of herself, a voice that was unfamiliar and yet woven into the fabric of her being.

This is where you're meant to be. At her side. Under her spell.

She had nodded, whispered "Of course it is."

Give yourself to her, complete. Be her companion, her guide.

"I will."

And help the other one see just what you see, and do what you do.

No hesitation. "I will."

That part of her was so far, so deep, so distant, and yet so close, all the time. Just beyond the point of memory. Like an optical illusion, she could only see it, only remember it, when she wasn't looking for it. She was able to stare directly at that voice for that one crystal clear moment, a moment she could remember even now long after the memory of what had been said in that moment had faded.

She knew what she was going to have to do. She didn't remember that she knew it.

And as Idle's tongue grazed her lower lips, she didn't need to remember.

A polite knock woke Idle out of sleep. She and Midnight were in bed, and the dancer seemed completely unaware of the call to the door. Then again, the dancer had used a lot of energy that afternoon. And that morning. Best to just let the poor girl sleep a while longer.

Idle disentangled herself from her lover and from the sheets. It wasn't like Idle hadn't been an active participant, but Midnight seemed to be trying to break some sort of record, and for all Idle knew, she had. The two of them had collapsed, exhausted, into the bed around half past four, and judging from the angle of the light in the windows, they had been there at least a couple hours.

Idle made her way to the door as the would-be guest knocked a second time. Figuring who it might be, she hadn't bothered with clothing, and checking through the peep hole, she found she was right.

"Tailor," Idle said, opening the door, being gratified by the slightly shocked look of her perfectly-arrayed friend. "How did you get in the building?"

"Idle," Tailor replied, walking in. "I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised to see you naked." She was carrying two large paper bags which, from the look and smell of them, were full of food. "One of your neighbours saw me with my hands full and let me in. Burgers and fries. I need something just awful this evening."

"Rough day?"

Tailor nodded. "Also you weren't answering your phone."

"That's because it's out here, and all the sex was happening in the bedroom. I'll go wake Midnight, I'm sure she's hungry." Idle grinned. "We've had a busy day."

"No doubt." Tailor's mild tone left Idle unsure if she was being sarcastic. "I need to use the restroom anyway, you two go ahead and get started."

Idle ducked back into the bedroom. "Midnight, honey?" she said, shaking her bedmate, "Tailor's here, and she brought supper."

Midnight took a deep breath and stretched, slipping out from the covers and giving Idle a wonderful view of her chest. "Should I dress?"

"Nah."

The dancer giggled. "Alright. I should probably wash up though."

"Tailor's in there right now. You can use the kitchen sink for your hands and we can get plates and stuff out."

"I'll get plates and stuff," Midnight insisted, spinning out of the covers and to her feet, "you relax."

Idle smirked. "Not like I'm gonna argue..."

She made her way out to the living room and sat down, waiting for her two guests. Midnight emerged first, light on her feet and quick to get to the cupboards. "We need anything but plates, knives, forks?"

"Probably not even the knives and forks, but I could definitely use a drink."

"On it!" Midnight grabbed a glass and went to the fridge, and delivered a soda to Idle at the same time that they heard Tailor step out of the bathroom.

She emerged to the main room of the apartment just as naked as the other two. Idle stared, and saw Midnight doing the same.

"I am so tired of that formal dress. I'm ready to burn it." She sat in the comfy armchair and crossed her legs with a sigh.

"Doesn't explain why you ditched the underwear," Idle pointed out.

Tailor shrugged. "When in Rome..."

"I'll get a plate," Midnight said, a bit hushed.

Idle pouted at Tailor. "I don't have that effect on her."

"You don't have that effect on me, either," Tailor teased. "Doesn't mean you're not gorgeous."

Idle flushed a bit with pride. "Thank you." She opened a bag of food.

"The half-eaten cup of fries is mine, I got hungry and grouchy on the way over."

"Grouchy?" Midnight asked, bringing over the plates.

"I—"

"Had a bad day at work?" Idle asked.

"You might say that," Tailor replied, graciously taking a place from Midnight. "No one broke any equipment today—"

"Sounds dull."

"—but I'm starting to wonder just..." She shrugged. "Just how long I can keep doing something I don't even remember doing."

"Got the work blues, corpie?" Idle asked as she dug out that half-eaten cup of fries Tailor had mentioned.

"Something like that." Midnight ferried the fries between Idle and Tailor. "Thank you. It's just..." Tailor sighed. "I don't know. I guess like you said—"

"Got a taste of the edge and you want more."

Tailor nodded, pouring her fries onto the plate. "You could pass me a burger."

Midnight again played courier between the food on the coffee table and Tailor in the armchair. "So what do you wanna do about it?" Idle asked.

Tailor shrugged, unwrapping her meal. "I have my weeklies tomorrow morning, that'll probably sort everything out."

"Trusting corporate hypnotism to make you feel better?" Idle asked, getting her own food out and serving Midnight as well. "Seems a bit iffy."

"To me, too," Tailor confirmed. "But what else can I do? I don't want to make a decision on this right now, you know? Everything's shaky. So much is different."

"Get on the treadmill, I'll sort it out for you," Idle suggested with a lascivious wink.

Tailor, and Midnight, laughed. "I think this is something I have to work out myself, not just let you answer it for me." She took a bite of her burger, thoughtfully. "It'd be really nice if you could just Alter me into a solution, though."

"Probably couldn't just do that with standard gear, anyway. Get into some of the fancy medical stuff, that can be close to actual mind control."

"And that's why you need a certification and a license to even get to the console," Tailor said.

"You ever want to do that?" Midnight asked.

Tailor nodded. "It's... I guess it's kind of a dream. Not because of the control element—"

"Bullshit," Idle cut in.

"—but because it would let me help people so much more directly."

"Like Spin does?" Midnight asked.

"Exactly." Tailor sighed. "But it's such a risk. Management isn't technically allowed to fire me if I go looking for other work, but..."

"So walk," Idle said. "Fuck 'em. Turn your back on the damn cops and hit the br—"

"I would love to." Another long, slow sigh. "That's the thing, Saturday morning I didn't want to, not at all. Even Sunday. But since yesterday, and after today it's..." Tailor shook her head, looking thoughtful.

"What's on your mind?" Idle asked.

There was a moment of silence as the three of them ate their supper.

"I don't actually know," Tailor finally said. "Too much. Though..."

"Though?"

"Well, after we try to find out what Midnight doesn't know that she knows..."

Idle ate the last of her burger. "Look, Tailor, if you're never going to finish a sentence we'll be here all night."

"At the very least, a little Alteration to help calm me down wouldn't be a bad thing, right?"

"Sure wouldn't!" Midnight cut in. She put her half-finished plate on the table. "I'm gonna go wash up and get ready, okay?"

"You do that," Idle said, grinning. She turned to Tailor as Midnight headed down the hall. "So, we've finally convinced you to—"

"You've convinced me of nothing," Tailor argued, "I just need a brain break."

"Interesting that you'd turn to my treadmill for that."

"Hm, yeah, about that..."

Idle got up to put dishes away. "You're going to have to actually complete a thought if you want me to understand a fucking thing."

"Sorry."

"Just tell me what you're—"

"I don't think I want to be on the treadmill again."

"There, was that so hard?"

"Could we use your brainhack chair?"

Idle shook her head. "It's set up for brainhack, with everything accepting external inputs, and without my computer genius around I'd rather not do the reprogramming."

Tailor nodded. "It's just that I took a long walk this afternoon already. And after this weekend I'm pretty physically worn out."

"Okay, that at least I can understand. God, I don't know where Midnight gets all that energy from!"

"She's an athlete." Tailor shrugged. "And she's young."

Idle smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, she is."

They heard the toilet flush. Tailor handed her plate to Idle and stood up, brushing a few crumbs from her chest and stomach. "I think I'll follow Midnight's lead. Can you get her warmed up? I might be a bit."

Idle grinned. "Sure, and then after we'll put her on the treadmill?"

Tailor laughed. "Just get her into a trance and we'll discuss the next steps together."

"Got it!"

Deeper

Each step, each swirling colour, each word in the headset, even when they weren't, were

deeper

Every moment, every breath, every heartbeat, pointed in one direction, which was

deeper

Deeper was deeper than the deeper before. And deeper was a bigger leap into deeper than the previous deeper had been relative to this

deeper

And finally, she ran up against a part of her self. A vital piece of her fabric, the part of her that made her her, and she was so deep she could touch it.

There were things well within that fabric, woven in there tightly, by someone other than her; looking, she could tell that they were different, but if she wasn't looking, they felt right. They felt like part of her. She looked for some of them, because they were things that her friends wanted, and she left some of them behind, didn't speak of them, didn't remember them. Even if they were things that her friends might have wanted, they were hers, woven into that part of herself and bound much tighter than the other things.

Some things just didn't need to be shared. Even with herself.

That was what she was told. That was what she would believe. It was what she would do.

She started to come up, but not all the way up, not all the way. Almost all the way. Far enough up that the machine could loose its hold on her without hurting her. But there was something she would still have to do, someone she still had to be, before she would finish waking.

She was walking, but it wasn't in place, not anymore. There were swirling colours, a glowing monitor, but they were smaller, less impressive, less hypnotic. More interactive, or at least more responsive to her typing. She had sat, at some point, and she was feeling the tiredness in her legs, which she hadn't felt at all a few moments before, despite walking. The monitor seemed to react to her typing, changing from one screen to another, and to another. Her hands moved without recognizing the words, her eyes connected with shapes and patterns, and slowly she came up, out of the deep.

Midnight took a deep breath. "Did I do okay?" she asked. She was sitting naked in the office chair, in front of Spin's computer. Katherine was standing beside the chair.

"You did beautifully, Midnight." The other woman gave Midnight a kiss on the top of her head. "I had to send Idle away, though. Something on the computer, some pattern or picture or words, seemed designed to trigger something in her. It didn't seem to bother you, maybe because you were already under."

"Or because the letters jumbled up and don't make sense." Midnight stood up. She'd been walking a long way, a long time, and her muscles resisted. "Did we get to what you want?"

"I really don't know," Katherine replied, looking at the screen, "but you got us to something. A list of recordings."

We gave them what they were looking for, but not what we don't want them to find.

Midnight blinked, hearing that voice internally, but she didn't know what it meant, and before she could ask Katherine, the voice had faded past her memory. It made her feel good to hear it, so she just assumed the warm glow she was feeling was from pleasing Katherine. She did enjoy pleasing Katherine.

She thought about how much more she could please Katherine, how much happier Katherine would be if she were more... well, more like Midnight. Devoted, adoring... Katherine had sat down, and Midnight had stood, at some point in the exchange (so much of the moment was just passing her by!), and Midnight wondered if there was some way to trigger Katherine with the laptop the same way she'd said Idle had been triggered. Just idle (haha!) fantasy, but as she stood and watched, her addled and pacified mind not even bothering to work out the text on the screen, that fantasy loomed larger and larger, and felt less and less like fantasy.

She tried to think about something else, but all she could imagine was the two of them, Midnight and Katherine, naked, on their knees in front of Idle, slowly sinking deeper and

deeper

"Are you alright, Midnight?" Katherine asked.

Neither of them had spoken for some time.

"I'm fine," the dancer replied, and even in her own ears her voice sounded slow and airy. She sounded hypnotized.

"I'm going to be at this for a little bit. You did great getting us in here! I just have to make sure we don't get locked out again."

Midnight noticed, for the first time in what felt like an eternity, that they were both still naked.

"Could you go check on Idle for me?" Katherine asked. "I sent her to the bedroom. She seemed a little lost."

Midnight nodded, and the fantasy she was having shifted as she walked out of the room.

Three women on their knees.

Idle was their leader, but she, too, was under someone else's thumb.

Kneeling between Katherine, vision of perfection, and Idle, bright and full of energy, even in her mind, made Midnight feel delightfully small and insignificant. Just a dancer in a chorus line, a singer in the background.

Just following orders.

Like she was doing now, walking in to see Idle lying naked on top of her covers, resting peacefully.

She lay down beside the brainhacker, careful not to disturb her. They'd had a long, energetic day together.

Midnight's eyes closed, and soon fantasies became dreams.

Spin's computer had been accessed.

Perfect.

Ben knew that would lead to Alter programs, which would lead to a conclusion, which should lead them absolutely nowhere.

The other programs, the one he'd placed on Spin's computer, were will hidden. He would know if they'd been accessed. They hadn't been.

Midnight had done her job perfectly. Keep them running. It just had to go on until tomorrow.

The rest could be taken care of after the match. Once that was done, everything that was necessary for him to take the lead in Caden's leaderless community would be in place.