It was one a.m. and there was no one else around to deal with this. The FBI wouldn't be here for at least four hours.

They had to get to the bottom of this. What they had already learned was crazy.

“Please state your full name for the record.”

“I have no more name, ma’am.”

Detective Kovacs sighed, shooting an exasperated side-eye towards her partner. “Yes,” she said. “So you insisted earlier, but you damn well know what I mean. What’s the name you were given at birth?”

“Denise Marie Richardson.”

“Thank you,” said the detective with clipped annoyance. “So let’s start with that, I guess. Why do you insist that you’re no longer called Denise.”

“My Master took that name off of me. I no longer need it.”

Detective Kovacs scoffed dismissively. “Really? So what did your master call you then when he wanted your attention?”

“Jodie,” said the other officer, his voice calm and measured. His look was sending a message. They had talked about this. Jodie Kovacs raised her eyebrows and made an apologetic gesture with her hands. Her partner took the opportunity to take over.

“Denise,” he said calmly. The woman on the other side of the metal table hardly reacted to it. It was obvious that she could still think – her eyes were bright and she seemed extremely alert and present. “I’m Matthew White, and this is Jodie Kovacs. And we’re here to help you. You know you’re safe now, right? You don’t have to play along with his game anymore. You don’t have to protect him.”

Denise tilted her head. “No,” she said. “Actually, I do.”

“We know that you know where he is,” said Kovacs, her voice firm and bitter, “All you gotta do is talk and we’ll make him go away forever.”

Detective White nodded gravely. “You’ll be safe. You won’t even have to see him in court. We’ll make sure of that, I promise.”

“I can’t tell you,” said Denise.

“Is this funny to you, or why are you smiling?” asked Kovacs. 

White stopped her again. “What do you mean…” he asked. “...when you say that you ‘can’t’?”

“I exist to serve him,” Denise said matter-of-factly. “How could I ever betray him? I’d rather die. You need to let me go, actually. Every minute I’m not with him means that I can’t serve him.”

“This is so fucking stupid,” whispered Kovacs, leaning in close to White. “I told you she needs a goddamn shrink. Someone’s got to set her right before we’ve got any chance of getting through. She’s…”

“–Jodie, this is our one shot,” White answered. “If he knows that she's free, you know that he could be out of the country any minute.”

“He’s not leaving the country,” said Denise. “Not without me. He knows that I’d have no purpose if I can’t please him and obey him. He has to be pleased. He has to be obeyed.”

The detectives exchanged tense looks. Kovacs shook her head and shrugged. White turned his attention back on Denise.

“Why do you think that’s true?”

“Master told me. His words have power. His words are true. His truth is irresistible.”

White raised his eyebrows. “Is that so? So he didn’t kidnap you against your will two years ago?”

“He did, but I deserved it,” said Denise. “I always existed to be used, I just didn’t know it yet. But Master showed me the truth of it. I’m a fuckable piece of meat.”

White coughed as he choked on something in his throat. “No, Denise. You’re… you shouldn’t say something like that about yourself, that’s–”

“Don’t you think I’m pretty?” said Denise. “I bet you do. I know I’m pretty enough to be wanted. You’re pretty too, Detective! He would love to own you. You should serve him.”

“We’re getting off-track,” said White, his face turning slightly red. “Do you know where he kept you, Denise? Your so-called Master? We searched the address the van we found you in was registered to, but it was a shell company. Just a mailbox in Atlanta. We know that’s not where he… kept you.”

“I must not tell you,” Denise said. “You must not know anything about him. No one must know anything about him unless they are his property. Unless they obey. It’s a secret. No one must know. And please, don’t call me Denise. I’m just a pretty slave. Pretty things like me and Detective Kovacs don’t deserve names.”

Kovacs was fidgeting again. “Denise! Stop saying that! Stop bullshitting us!”

“I’m not bullshitting you,” Denise said. “It’s the truth. If you were there, you’d believe it too! His words are much more powerful when they’re not going through me first. You would see the truth instantly!”

“If it’s true, then why hide him?” asked White. “If you exist only to be fucked and used, then your Master has done nothing wrong, right? He shouldn’t be afraid to talk to us if that’s what you think is true.”

“That’s right,” Kovacs said. “Don’t you want him to meet me if I deserve to be owned, too?”

Denise smiled. “Just because he hasn’t done anything wrong doesn’t mean that he hasn’t broken the law. The laws are wrong though, and that he needs to be protected from them. He needs to be protected!”

White nodded, his lips tight. “Protecting is what we’re trying to do!” he said. “We’re trying to protect you! We’re not going to let you Master take you back – even if you deserved it, we wouldn’t let that happen. Not when he’s on the run. But if we catch him, he’ll get a fair trial, and I know you’ll put in a good word for him, and he’ll do maybe ten years, and once he’s out there’s nothing we can do to stop you from going back to him.”

“No,” said the woman in the chair. “I know what you're trying to do, and I know you're lying. He won’t get convicted. No jury will ever convict him. Everyone will instantly see that he did nothing wrong. He deserves slaves like me to please him and serve him.”

“Even better,” said Kovacs. “So he’s done nothing wrong. He’ll walk immediately. No reason to do all of this, then? Just clear it all up, and serve him. You can be his again. You can be his pretty little slave again! Just give us a way to make that happen. You want that, don’t you?”

“I do want that,” said the slave. “But I can’t trust you not to hurt him. He has powers, and you know to be careful. You know how dangerous he is. Too dangerous to be kept alive.”

"Jesus, we're not gonna shoot him on sight," scoffed Kovacs. "Maybe knock him on his knees or throw hrow him against a car, but--"

“--we won’t hurt him,” White said pointedly, and Kovacs shut up.

“I know you won’t,” said the slave calmly. “After all, he needs to be served and obeyed by pretty things like us. But you…” she turned to White. “You’re a man, and men deserve something in return. They deserve to be rewarded.”

She pulled down her top and revealed her tits. “I’m sure my Master wouldn’t mind this.”

“No! What–” White said, and rushed over to put her top back on, but the slave grabbed his hands and pressed them against her exposed breasts. “No, stop!”

He pulled away. “Please–”

Kovacs was quicker. “Put your top back on, slave,” she said. The slave in the chair obeyed. 

Kovacs’s breath was short, and her cheeks had taken on a bright red hue. She turned to her colleague. “What if she’s right? What if it’s true? Have you ever seen that kind of brainwashing?”

White swallowed a lump in his throat, and looked at the slave. “You really believe it – don’t you, slave?”

“You believe it too,” said the slave. “Because it’s true. You know it’s true. You could have me right now, as your reward. It’s what I want. You said that you wanted to protect me, and that I couldn’t get my master back.”

“Yes,” said White.

“Serving you would be the next best thing,” said the slave. “As long as I’m serving, my Master’s truth lives on. And as long as my Master’s truth lives on, I might get him back eventually.”

“How would that work?”

“You would help me because you realize that I’ve been telling the truth the entire time. My Master’s words are way more powerful when he’s the one to speak them, but a slave like me can still repeat them to prove to the world that she exists only to be fucked.”

“White,” said Kovacs in an unmistakable tone, and White nodded. They left the interrogation room without another word, and made their way to the empty room next door.

“This is crazy,” said Kovacs.

“You’re right,” said White. “We should back off and work with the shrink like you said. I’m sorry, I should never–”

“No,” interrupted Kovacs. “I think you should do it. You should… you know, play into it. She’ll trust you, and you already have her consent.”

“Are you nuts?”

“You heard her. She’s no longer Denise Richardson. She’s a slave that exists only to be fucked.”

White stammered, but wasn’t able to find a way of objecting to what Kovacs had said. Whatever was right and moral, it was hard to deny that fact.

“I mean, I would do it,” said Kovacs, “But I’m not sure that it would pack the same kind of punch coming from me. She said so herself. You deserve a reward. I only deserve to be… you know.”

“Fucked.”

“Yes.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be, just… we gotta do what we gotta do. We’ve got to find that bastard, and make sure that this won’t happen again.”

White took a heavy breath.

“I guess we’re not telling the commissioner about this, right?”

“Of course not.” said Kovacs. “We promised to protect her. No one should know about this. Think about what kind of shitstorm would form around her if the press found out about this.”

“You’re right. You’re right. Fuck. I don’t like this.”

“Me neither. But it’s the truth.”

“Yeah.”

“Come on, go in there. I’ll be in the observation and shut down the cameras to protect her. I promise I won’t look.”

White sighed, and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet for a moment, then nodded and went back into the interrogation room.

“Detective Kovacs will be back with us soon,” he said. He shot a glance at the corner of the room, where the security camera jutted out of the wall. The light was off. They were off the deep end now.

He continued. “We had a talk, and we’ve agreed that we haven’t been the best at building trust, and I’m here to, if you still think that it’s a good idea, take up your offer to prove to you that I believe that your Master is right.”

The slave beamed from ear to ear. “Yes!” she said. “Of course! You can have me!”

“You know how many rules I’m breaking right now,” he said. “But if this is really what you want, I will do it if it makes you believe me that we won’t hurt your Master.”

“Of course,” said the slave. “You would never hurt someone that gifted you a pretty girl like me to fuck. You would never prosecute him.”

“Right,” said White with tight lips, glancing at the two-way mirror, behind which he knew his colleague was watching. 

He locked the door and took off his pants.

In the dim room behind the mirror, Kovacs watched with conflicted fascination. Jesus Christ, what the fuck were they doing? That poor girl was a slave now, and they were just using her. White had told her to take off her clothes, and she had obeyed without even the slightest bit of hesitation. 

“Do you like my body?” asked the slave. 

“Yes,” admitted White, and Kovacs couldn’t blame him one bit. She was incredibly beautiful.

“Thank you,” said the slave. “I’m glad to finally be naked again. This is how pretty women like me should always present themselves.”

If there had been any doubt in Jodie Kovacs’s mind until then, there was no more doubt left: Whatever power that pretty slave’s Master did or did not have, it was for certain that Denise Richardson did in fact no longer exist. The slave beyond the mirror had no other purpose than to serve and to be pleasing. Jodie saw it in her every movement and gesture and subtle expression. Absolute purpose. Absolute obedience. Absolute conviction. She was a slave. She existed to obey. That was the undeniable truth.

White instructed her to lay herself on the table and spread her legs for him, and she didn’t even flinch as her back made contact with the cold steel.

“This is a gift from my Master,” said the slave. “Because you’re a good boy.”

Kovacs scoffed with disbelieving amusement. This was so fucked up – but yet, at the same time, it seemed disturbingly appropriate. The pretty little slave had been talking about nothing but her Master and how much power he had – so why would she stop now? To her, it was certainly true. It was completely obvious that he had turned her into nothing but an obedient little puppet. Hell, maybe she did deserve it if she’d been so easy to convince. It was honestly hard to imagine her being anything other than a pretty piece of meat for someone else to fuck. If she’d had more will she could have resisted the Master’s power. If she was anything but a brainless little whore, it wouldn’t have been so easy to convince her of the truth.

White had started fucking her. He didn’t need lube. The slave was more than wet enough to be taken raw. 

“Yes!” moaned the slave. “This is what serving my Master is like!” she said. “This is why he needs to be obeyed! He has to be obeyed! He has to be pleased! He has to be served!”

For a brief moment Jodie Kovacs held her breath, and a shiver went through her. For just that moment she had imagined it being true. She had imagined being like the pretty slave that Matthew was fucking; eager to be fucked and left with nothing but the conviction that she needed to serve at all costs, that she had no other value and no other use.

Was it really that hard to believe? If it could be true for someone else, why couldn’t it be true for her? She was a detective, and she had always sworn to herself that she would keep an open mind, no matter the situation.

“Yes!” moaned the slave on the other side of the window. “You’re so good! Yes! Fuck me! Fuck the Master’s property! Yes! Yes! Yes!!! You’ll get to listen to him! You’ll get to know the truth!” 

Matthew was wordlessly pumping into her, obviously doing his best to make all of this count. After all they weren’t doing this just because the slave deserved to be fucked and because Matthew deserved a good little reward for getting to the bottom of the truth; they were doing this to get to the slave’s Master. To find her Master. To hear what he had to say for himself.

They were going to learn the truth.

When Matthew had finally finished inside the slave’s receptive cunt, he quickly got back in his pants and told the slave to put her clothes back on and tidy up her hair. When everything looked like nothing had happened, Detective Kovacs leaned over and was just about to turn the recording back on – but something stopped her. This case was too sensitive, and things were less clear than they had seemed at first. There was a real possibility that they had misjudged the whole situation, and in that case they really shouldn’t record any of this. They had to protect the innocent, after all.

She left the camera off, and knocked on the interrogation room door.

“Who is it?” asked White. Good. He was making sure that it wasn’t anyone that didn’t know the whole truth. It was late and the precinct was dead with every available man and woman out searching for the slave's Master, but there was always a chance Bob might come over from his desk in the lobby.

“It’s me,” said Kovacs. “I’m alone.”

The door opened, and White let her in. She stepped inside, and they quickly locked the door again. Kovacs looked at her fellow detective, and shared an awkward smile. He probably knew that she hadn’t really looked away when he had gotten his reward from the Master.

“You should do the rest of the questioning,” Kovacs said quietly. “You’ve got her trust now.”

White nodded. “Okay then, slave,” he said, and sat down opposite the young woman he had just used. Kovacs, meanwhile, took a chair and sat herself at the side of the table between them.

“Did you have fun using me?” asked the slave. 

“Yes,” said White. “It proved a lot, actually. But we still have a way to go, and I trust you to help me get to the truth.”

The slave smirked. “Of course. You’re a good cop,” she said. “A really good cop that knows what needs to be done.”

White sighed with detached amusement. “Well, I guess that I am. So how do we find your Master?”

“I can give you a number to call,” said the slave, “It’s the only way I know how to contact him, and he trusts me that I won’t give it to anyone that would cause him any harm that he doesn’t deserve – and he doesn’t deserve to be punished for what he did. You see that now, don’t you? I deserved to be taken and used by him. I am nothing but a slave. I am good for nothing else.”

“Yes,” said White, slowly nodding with uncomfortable agreement. “But that doesn’t mean he didn’t break the law. We promise to hear him out – and you promised to tell us how to find him. Slaves don’t break promises, do they?”

“No they don’t,” said the slave, “But there’s more to the truth that I haven’t told you, and you should know all the facts before you call him. If you can’t convince him that you know everything there is to know, he won’t turn himself in – but if he hears that you’ve heard everything I’ve had to say in his defense, I promise that he’ll meet you and let you arrest him if you still want to arrest him. After all, he’s done nothing wrong.”

“I know that it seems that way,” said White. “But I’m not convinced. Are you convinced, Kovacs?”

“Nope,” said the pretty detective. “But sure, let’s hear it. Why don’t you convince us if you’re so sure, slave?”

“Okay,” said the slave. “But you’re willing to actually hear me out, now. I mean – fully hear me out.”

It didn’t sound like a question.

“Yes,” said White with a scoff and an eyeroll, “And if you’re right, Detective Kovacs will get out her tits and offer me her pussy because all pretty women like her deserve to be used, right?”

“Right,” said Kovacs with a chuckle.

The slave nodded gently, and turned her attention fully to Jodie Kovacs.

“I understand why you’re joking about this – but it’s true, Jodie. You’re really pretty and you should be nothing but an eager slave that someone else can fuck. You deserve only to be used. Your tits and your cunt and your asshole and your mouth should always be available to be molested and being covered in cum should make you proud for being a desirable canvas. Whores like us can hope for nothing more. You should be naked right now.”

Kovacs swallowed heavily. The smile had vanished from her face. She looked down at herself with wide eyes and tight lips.

“And you,” continued the slave, addressing White. “You’re a good little boy, and you know how good it is to serve someone, too. You might not be fuckmeat like Jodie, but everyone craves purpose, and there’s no greater purpose than to be someone’s property and to serve without question. That’s your motto, isn’t it? To protect and serve? What good is that in the abstract? Serving laws and nebulous concepts of public and state? It’s so much better to have someone real to serve. My Master deserves it more than anyone. He deserves obedience beyond anyone else, because there is no one else who sees the truth more clearly than him.”

She turned back to Kovacs, who had by now fully undressed, and continued: “He knows everything. He knows what we are. And his words have the power to make us see the truth that we would otherwise not have seen. Only Master can decide what we should believe. Only Master has the truth.”

Detective White’s lips were dry. His mouth was hanging ajar. “But…” he tried. “What is the truth? You told us there were things you hadn’t told us.”

“I’m not the only slave he has,” said the slave. “I’m just the one that you happened to stumble upon while I was being transported. You got lucky.”

“There’s more?” asked Kovacs in a small voice. She had sat back down right next to White, and had leaned in close to him, and was tentatively stroking the inside of his thighs. She was still unsure, but she knew the truth of what she was meant to be.

“Yes,” said the slave. “Many more. After all, everyone in the world is inferior to Master. All they need is to be exposed to his words to show them the truth; to be exposed to his power.”

“How does his power work?” asked White.

“It doesn’t matter,” said the slave. “It simply does. Perhaps he is somehow a manifestation of truth itself, or maybe he is psychic and has a way to uncloud other people’s minds, or maybe he has some kind of secret technology that he wears on his body. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we obey him and protect him and serve him at all costs.”

“How can we protect him? Even if we don’t investigate, someone is going to.”

“You’re not the first police to learn the truth,” said the slave. “Master has methods and channels to make stuff like that disappear. All we need to do is listen and obey.”

White shot a Glance at Kovacs, and they shared a serious look. Then he looked down at her, lingering on her pretty and quite sizable tits.

“This is crazy,” said White. Kovacs bit her lip, slowly nodding in agreement.

White turned back to the slave. “Are you absolutely certain about this, slave?”

“Yes. I am.”

“Then tell us how. How can we make sure that this goes away and that we can serve him?”

“You’ve got a cell phone, right?”

“I do,” said White.

“Give it to me. I’ll film you.”

The detectives gave each other a look of mutual disbelief at what they had learned and went on to act on the new truth that had surfaced. 

Jodie laid herself on the metal table and let herself be used like she deserved, and the slave that had once been named Denise Marie Richardson filmed them as he pounded her hard and slapped her across the face, and they both moaned how much they were going to serve their Master, and recited the most hateful, bigoted, and perverted phrases they could think of to show him just how committed they were to risking everything for the sole person in the world that could give them purpose and guidance. They laid themselves utterly bare, revealing shameful secrets and privileged information as they gave in to the truth that this was the only thing that mattered. Protecting him. Serving him. Only him. They were nothing without him. They were nothing but slaves to his truth.

And as they proclaimed the truth of their new purpose through moans of ecstasy, they knew that their words were no longer their own words. They were the Master’s words, and through their power the truth settled more firmly, and their conviction only strengthened as Matthew White came into the wet little cunt of his former coworker and what had always deserved to be fucked and used finally became what it was meant to be. Jodie moaned like the pretty thing that she was, and it was done. 

The slave sent the video, and five minutes later she received a call. She did all the talking. After all, she was the one that had been serving the longest, and she knew how to proceed. After a thorough set of instructions, she hung up, smiled, and told them how to serve.

Slave Jodie didn’t deserve this.

Jodie Kovacs knelt down and looked at the gun on the floor. The slide was locked back. Empty and allegedly discarded as the perp had fled. Thankfully he hadn’t managed to hit anything but walls and trees. CSI was still at it, but she liked to get a good look as soon as she could – even if she didn’t deserve any of this. It was so strange to be here and to pretend that she should have any authority. She might be able to tell that the storekeeper had lied through his teeth, and she might be able to easily see that this gun hadn’t been tossed but carefully placed just out of sight, and she might even be able to know that the barrel should still be warm after emptying a whole magazine – but none of that meant that she deserved to be anything but a pretty little thing for her Master to fuck.

She called over White to tell him what she had noticed. He was more deserving of the credit – and also it would be good to have two witnesses to the cold barrel. Her fellow slave nodded approvingly as he knelt down next to her, and quietly told her that she was a good girl, which made her feel better about herself. It wasn’t the Master’s approval – but the approval of her handler was the next best thing. It felt good to be appreciated, even if it wasn’t for her body and her willingness to serve. After all, smart girls are more satisfying to put in their place (Master had taught her that truth) – and if she couldn’t be naked and ready to be molested, she could at least be smart and attractive in a way that would make it even more satisfying when she gave herself away.

She didn’t deserve this. 

It wasn’t really her place to judge the role her Master had given her, but she also knew that any life beyond absolute service was too good for her. Even the pretense of authority and expertise was more than she should ever have. Choosing where to go to lunch, choosing how to question suspects and how to fill out paperwork was way more than she should ever be tasked with. But she did it anyway, because that was what Master demanded of her, and if Master trusted her to fulfil her role as the police officer she had once presumed to be, she would continue to pretend as best as she could, for as long as she could. 

She didn’t deserve this.

Honestly – shamefully – it felt pretty natural. After all, she had played at being this person all her life, and she had gotten as good as it as a useless piece of fuckmeat like herself could ever hope to get. She knew the law and the procedures, and the tricks and methods, and somehow it kept working out. She kept convincing everyone that she was more than a pretty set of holes, and kept on solving cases, and kept on lying to her friends and family without anyone catching on to the undeniable truth of what she had always been.

She knew that her Master was pleased. He had told her so when his cum had been all over her, and she knew that he always told the truth, especially when it concerned the way she had to serve to protect him.

Still, she didn’t deserve this.

They questioned more witnesses, and bagged the evidence, and made their way back to the precinct to file the intake paperwork and start the investigation. An older lady stopped her on her way to her car to tell her that she was glad to see someone like her do that kind of work. It took slave Jodie a fraction of second to realize that she had meant that Jodie Kovacs was female police officer as opposed to a male one. Slave Jodie took the compliment with grace and gave her a polite small and a 'thank you'. Some part of herself wanted nothing more than to tell the woman the truth and let the master’s power work through her words – but the woman was overweight and old and definitely not the master’s type. Not worth the risk. Instead, she kept moving and got in the car with Detective White. She let him reach between her legs with his right hand as he drove them back, but that was all she could do right now. She wouldn’t be able to let him have her until later tonight, when she no longer needed to pretend anything other than a slave.

She kept thinking about the woman. It was such a shame that not everyone could be shown the truth. She knew so many women that Master would probably love to have, and she would be so happy to have them be sleeper agents like herself or slaves without names like the pretty little thing that had shown her what she was meant to be. For instance, her high school best friend Carrie had just broken up with her boyfriend and was thinking about moving back home. She would be a prime candidate for a kidnapping. Or maybe her little sister Laura – she would be such a good fuck for her Master. Slave Jodie sighed with quiet disappointment. It had been so hard to see Laura on Thanksgiving, knowing how much she had been meant to be an obedient whore and being unable to show her the truth with mom and dad and all of her aunts and cousins there. If only–

No.

She stopped herself. It wasn’t her place to judge such things. Only Master decided who got to see the truth, and no one else. The only reason by which slave Jodie was ever allowed to share it was to protect her Master by showing others that he needed to be obeyed at all costs – and she wasn’t planning on doing that. Doing that would mean that she had failed to keep the secret. It would mean that she hadn’t served him and protected him.

“You’re still thinking, whore,” said Detective White. “Stop it. Just play with yourself until we’re back at the precinct.” 

Slave Jodie smiled and obeyed.

Yes.

This was better. This was what she should be doing. This was what she was good for.

This was what she deserved.