The building itself was a standard, mid-level cubicle rack.  The developers 
 hadn't had Divine Assassins in mind when they bolted the cubes to the 
 exterior steel-pipe frame.  There were no windows--who would have wanted to 
 look out on a landscape of more cube racks, dreary plain commercial 
 buildings and factories?--but there were other ways in.  Carefully he 
 calculated the location of the woman's cube, and unleashed his brace, the 
 claw locking on the top of the steel framework.  Seconds later he was 
 crouching on the roof, lifting the vent hood from the top of the air duct 
 nearest his prey's cubicle.  With his back against one side and his feet on 
 the opposite side, he descended with rapid speed to the fourth level. 

  The out-vent panel was fastened only with pressure clips; one sharp blow 
 with the heel of his hand was enough to pop it out.  As he emerged, he 
 noticed there was no one in the corridor; the smell of food cooking in the 
 communal kitchen and the sharp chemical tang of air freshener were all the 
 character the drab passage had.  He knocked on the door politely.  A 
 bodyguard poked his head out, and Kai dragged him out into the hallway by 
 his hair, and then snapped his neck. 

 Kai stepped into the doorway, and discovered that the cubicles were not what 
 they had seemed.  Inside was not the tiny room that he had expected, but a 
 large ante-room, expensively furnished.  A second bodyguard stood up with a 
 surprised look on his face, and fired his clustergun.  As the antimatter 
 fizzled around him, Kai aimed and lopped off the guard's head. 

 He moved quickly into the palace-like center chamber, and a tall blackhaired 
 woman stood up with a gasp.  She was slender, with steel gray eyes and a sneering 
 mouth painted dark red.  She looked him up and down with fire in her eyes. 

 He asked, "Are you Aura Torben, the daughter of Ring Torben?" 

 "Fuck you," she snarled. 

 That was not the correct response. 

 ********************* 
 Part 2 

Kai crossed the room to examine her more closely, asking again, "Are you Aura Torben, the daughter of Ring Torben?" 
 
 The woman stood her ground, the fire in her eyes increasing.  "Who wants to know?" 
 
 "I am Kai, an assassin for the Divine Order.  I serve His Divine Shadow.  I have been sent here to find Aura 
 Torben, the daughter of Ring Torben, and determine by any means available his location."  Kai lowered his 
 voice into Menacing Tone #6. 
 
 Her eyes lowered, and she looked him up and down, unafraid. "Oh, really?  I have no idea what you are talking about." 
 
 Kai examined her more closely, taking scent and temperature samples.  He concluded, "You are Aura Torben.  You fit her specifications exactly.  Height, weight, coloring, body temperature, bone structure, vocal pattern, iris pattern..."  He paused for one last exam. 
 
 "Look into my eyes," Kai commanded. 
 
 Aura, taken by surprise, met his hazel eyes as Kai performed a retinal exam. "...retinal pattern, all match that of Aura Torben, 
 daughter of Ring Torben.  You are she." 
 
 Aura looked away, caught.  Her pride would not let her react any less. "So?" 
 
 "You know where he is.  You know how many people he commands.  You will tell 
 me, or I will hurt you until you give me the information." 
 
 Her eyes flickered around the room as she digested his ultimatum.  She knew she was facing a Divine Assassin, and that meant her death unless she cooperated.  Unless... unless...  Aura had a sweet and simple thought, and smiled to herself.  "Have you been commanded to kill me?" 
 
 "I have not been commanded to kill you." 
 
 "Then you can't kill me." 
 
 "I am not responsible if you die under my questioning."  Kai's voice was flat and certain. 
 
 "But if I die, and you don't get your information, then you will fail in your mission." 
 
 "I have never failed in a mission." 
 
 Aura smiled to herself. "Then you can't kill me." 

 Kai stepped forward and focused his eyes on hers.  "You are wasting time.  Tell me where he is.  Tell me everything you know." 

 She straightened her back and looked directly back into his eyes.  "No. And you can't kill me." 
 
 Kai tilted his chin down, looked up menacingly, and modulated his voice to a deep rumbling whisper, "But I can make you *wish* you were dead." 
 
 ********************** 
  Part 3. 

Wish she were dead? Hardly.  She grinned at him, and it was not a nice grin. 
 "Not likely, assassin. Dream on." 

 Aura expected an immediate answer, but the assassin paused, and a beat 
 passed before he spoke again. "I do not dream.  I perform my function." 

 Aura sneered and looked down at Kai's crotch, suddenly reaching out and 
 grasping the hard mound between his legs.  "I bet you can't perform at all." 
 The response was not what she expected; the assassin's face remained calmly 
 remote, even as he raised his hand and struck her on the face.  Her head 
 snapped with the blow.  "Talk." 

 Aura licked her lip and tasted blood... and she liked it.  "No."  She found 
 herself moving backward anyway, until she was pinned against the cold wall. 

  Kai grasped the fabric of the front of her dress, holding her captive, and 
 then backhanded her on the other cheek.  "Talk." 

 "No." 

 And it went on like that.  Slap.  "Talk."  Silence. A beat, and then -- 
 Slap.  "Talk." Silence.  Slap.  Then Kai ceased to speak, but kept slapping 
 her face from side to side.  Slap. Slap. Slap. 

 Aura felt the rhythm of the blows become clocklike in their regularity; her 
 brain was getting cloudy, but her body was enflamed, the pain becoming 
 crawling higher and higher up her back, and when it was at its peak, she 
 converted it into pleasure -- just as her father had taught her. 

 Perhaps Kai sensed this, for he stopped hitting her.  "Will  you tell me 
 now?" 

 Her mouth curled in a feral grin.  "Fuck you," she hissed. 

 Kai understood there was a time factor to this encounter, and it was taking 
 too long.  He seized Aura by the hair and twisted, forcing her up and to her 
 knees.  Then the true beating began. 

  He struck her across the face, forehand, then backhand.  Before, she 
 passively took the blows, but now she fought him like a tiger, beating at 
 his knees to try and bring him down, twisting her head to bite savagely into 
 his hand. 

 When he reached down to pull Aura to her feet, she dug her fingers into his 
 hair and pulled, ripping down the right side of his intricate hairdo.  Kai 
 paused, and tenderly touched the curtain of hair now tumbling to the side of 
 his face... then kneed her in the stomach.  When she doubled over 
 breathlessly, he let go of her hair and stood...then kicked her in the ribs. 
 He heard three rips snap.  She collapsed, her hand on the broken ribs, and 
 sprawled on the floor, her breath coming raggedly. 

 He stood still, his face blank, his dark eyes watching her recover. Aura 
 tried to muffle her sobs, but couldn't help it... she gasped, licked her 
 swollen lips, breathing heavily.  "What... what's your name again?" 

  "Kai." 

 "Whoo," she giggled, "That's a good name. Mmphhhhh," she murmured.  Aura 
 wiped her mouth and saw blood on the back of her hand. "Oh...heh..." she 
 licked the blood off her hand, "Good job, too."  She looked up and smiled, 
 her teeth bloody. 

  Kai's eyes narrowed as he analyzed the situation.  He looked her up and 
 down, and then examined his hand.  He concluded, "You...enjoy...the pain." 

  "Yes." 

  "When I hurt you, you enjoy it."  His head cocked to one side, analyzing 
 this puzzle. 

  "Yes.  And you can't kill me. " 

  Kai pursed his lips, examining...analyzing..."Then I will have to find 
 another way to persuade you to tell me the location of Ring Torben." 

********************** 
 Part 4. 

Ring Torben's daughter watched smugly as calculations passed behind the assassin's dark eyes.  Then, he 
 squinted, looking her up and down. 
 
 "Take off your clothes," he said in the same cold, remote tone that seemed to be his natural 
 speaking voice. 

 She was taken back for a second, but regrouped quickly, sneering at him.  "Why?  Don't tell me you really can perform?" 

 "It is not necessary for me to perform," he answered.  "Take off your clothes, or I shall remove them from you." 
 
 She had to obey.  His dark eyes made it a compulsion...a *need* to obey all of a sudden.  This man -- this 
 *dead* man -- this assassin had a voice that conveyed power.  The deep tone rolled over her, through her, 
 and suddenly the need to fight him was gone.  She wanted to be naked, to feel him on top of her.  She wanted him to hurt her in that bad way that was oh-so-good... 
 
 She felt her heart start to pound as she removed her black dress, stockings and boots.  She liked feeling his 
 eyes on her body... seeing what no man except her father had seen.  Finally, she stood before him naked and uncertain, her hands covering her breasts and groin. 
 
 Kai's face was solid as stone.  Only his eyes roamed over her, looking at her carefully.  Then, he tilted his head to one side, his lips pursing slightly as he made a decision -- and once the decision was made, he picked her up and moved to the bedroom, dropping her unceremoniously on the bed. 

 "My father will be very unhappy if you rape me," she gasped as she hit the mattress. 

 "You are not able to be raped," he responded, pulling a length of black cable form a hidden pocket in his 
 clothing. "Besides, your father's happiness is not of importance to His Shadow." He tied her hands together, 
 and then strung the cable to the headboard, imprisoning her arms. 
 
 He pulled her legs apart, splaying her open before him, and then inspected her woman's parts.  She expected him to slap her, hurt her.... but he only reached forward and touched her left interior lip gently, and then caressed her clitoris with the tip of his long white finger. 
 
 The pleasure rocketed through her body, and she responded the only way she knew how -- with a display of anger.  A look of pure hatred.  "You don't dare--" she started, but her voice trailed off... 
 
 Kai had reached into another hidden pocket and took out a matte black metal cylinder, 
 thick and long.  Her eyes widened as she took in the size of the object.  There was no question as to its 
 purpose -- it had a large bulbous head and was irregularly ribbed down the sides.  At its flared base there 
 appeared to be a hinge for attaching it to...to *what* she wondered, her heart beginning to pound harder. 

 That *thing* looked like it was going to *hurt*.  "I can take pain," Aura spat at him.  "I enjoy it, remember?" 

 "Yes." 
 
 The assassin put aside the cylinder and knelt between her spread legs, parting her labia with long, cold fingers.  She could not help flinching, expecting pain, and she gasped again as he stroked her labia and caressed her clitoris.  The pleasure... the pleasure... where was the *pain*?  She could deal with the pain, but pleasure.... oh, this was horrible!  She did not know how to deal with such agonizing pleasure! 
 
 For the first time, she couldn't meet his eyes; she squeezed hers shut, gritting her teeth as she felt herself grow aroused, her clitoris swelling to a hard little button.  When she felt what must have been his cool, wet tongue following the path of his fingers, she tried to clamp her mouth shut to stifle a moan, but the agony was 
 incredible.  He began to suck and lick on her clitoris, making it throb and pulse with tenderness.  Oh, stop! she cried to herself. 
 
 And the evil assassin stopped.  "Tell me what I want to know." 

 "No," she forced past her gritted teeth. 

 Those cold hands, that cold tongue, moved up her body, slowly...oh, so agonizingly slowly! His cold mouth 
 found her breasts, and he teased her nipples into hardness with his teeth before sucking them pink with blood. 
 He caressed her breasts, one in each large hand, until they ached with pleasure, using his thumbs to flick her 
 nipples. Make it stop, she thought, make it stop... 
 
 ************************* 
 Part 5. 
 

 Kai paused. "Tell." 

 "Fuck yourself," she gasped, her voice quivering with excitement. 

 She could feel his forelock against her skin as he bent again to his work.  He licked her right ear, and she could hear the sounds his tongue made as it teased her, but he had no warm breath to tickle her sensitive lobe.  Then, she felt his forelock again against her cheek as he pressed his lips against hers... So soft, so silky...his cool tongue was tracing the contours of her lips, teasing her with an almost-kiss.  "Son of a bitch," she cursed into his full lips.  "Mother fucker, cocksucker, cum-swallower, whoreso--urgh!"  Kai cut her last curse off by thrusting his tongue between her parted lips, covering his mouth with his own. 
 
 This was Aura's first kiss, and she was being kissed by a cold dead man, an animated corpse. 
 
 All her insubstantial dreams of kissing seemed the shadows they were, as the reality of flesh on flesh, even living flesh on dead flesh, caused a delirium of delight.  Tight buds of pleasure burst into blossom, filled her with splendor...and agony.  Pleasure and violence were mixed as his cool moist lips caressed her own, growing more and more insistent, demanding the response Aura instinctively gave. 

 Then, Kai broke off the kiss. "Tell," he whispered, looking deep into her eyes. Aura now could see that his 
 dark eyes were actually hazel, with flecks of gold.  The eyes of living places, of forests and glens, green with 
 life.  But -- he was dead.  Dead and cold.  No, no, no. I must escape, she thought. I must not let this happen.  He was so tender, so almost... loving... that his caresses tormented her with their intensity. 
 
 No, no, no! Aura could only shake her head furiously from side to side.  Her body burned 
 with volcanic fire, an unbearable urge.  She had learned from her father to turn pain into pleasure, but she 
 hadn't learned what to do with this...this softness, this coaxing, this unrelenting pleasure! 

 She opened her eyes as she felt the bed shift.  Kai was sitting back on his knees, reaching for the tool he'd 
 brought.  Beautiful, she thought unwillingly, taking in the fine bones and smooth skin of his pale face; the full lips and silken hair.  Men had never been anything but tools to her--she was a Torben, after all.  But this one... he was beautiful. 
 
 He took the metal shaft, and after a brief glance into her eyes, placed it against his own mouth and inserted it, 
 swallowing it deeply.  She could see his tongue at work, sucking on the black metal, making the shaft moist. 
 Then he removed the shaft from his mouth, and his fingers were at her crotch again, teasing moisture from her to lubricate her entrance.  He looked up at her again. 
 
 "Will you tell me now?" 

 "No..."  She could hear the tremor of fear in her own voice and cursed herself silently, falling limply back on the bed.  This would hurt, she reassured herself, and that she could deal with.  She heard the sound of his clothes rustling, a pause and then a *click*, and she looked down and saw the tool now attached between his legs.  She began trembling with fear, and that felt good... so good... her body tightening as the magic of his kisses left her. 
 
 ********************** 
Part 6. 

Aura expected pain... but Kai paused, and took her left foot in his hand and began to massage it, flexing it, 
 caressing the instep with his other hand, and then made a circle with his hands and moved it up her calf, palms and fingers cool and soft as they moved up, up, squeezing, encircling her knee now, then spreading and caressing her thigh, fingers pressing, fingertips digging into the soft flesh that began to glow and tingle, and the tingle spread again throughout Aura.  It was now in her blood, in her bones, a delicious delectable torture that grew and grew and grew until she could feel a warm fountain within her, brimming, and soon to brim over.  She knew then that she was lost. 
 
 Her fear was gone now, gone completely, and she made a soft moaning noise and his hands continued their sweet torture, roaming over her body, caressing here, stroking there, a soft pinch on her nipples, a squeeze of her buttocks.  Aura writhed on the sheets and the cloth made music underneath her.  There was music within her too as his fingers and hands fanned out, bringing pleasure from her skin. 
 
 Finally...slowly... he touched her secret area with his fingertips, rubbing in delicate circles, and she closed her eyes and drifted into a blissful void... full of pleasure as pleasure was meant to be enjoyed.  She floated far, far away, and then she heard him move and felt his knees between her thighs. 
 
 He grasped her hips and forced her open, and then she felt his artificial shaft touching her opening, entering 
 carefully, slowly, slowly, becoming a part of her.  Aura felt that panic possess her anew and she opened her eyes to see him grimacing as he concentrated on moving deeper, deeper, brutally impaling her and meeting resistance. 
 
 One last push... and there was terrible pain as she was ripped asunder and she knew she was going to die as the magic died and the music died. 
 
 And then... she felt something new.  He began moving within her, and something incredible happened... the pain turned into pleasure and she was surprised.  She felt it turn without her having to use her mental techniques.  It was natural.  It was beautiful. 
 
 She began to move as he moved and the beauty came, shimmering beauty, shattering beauty, being ridden by this beautiful man, and she wrapped her legs around him thrusting into his thrusts. 
 
 She was no longer a tiger, but a kitten, purring.  This was the urge she had felt for so long, filling an aching void she had never been aware of.  Her cunt muscles closed around the shaft, grasping at it, only to feel him withdraw slightly and pause. 
 
 "Tell," he whispered. 

 She could not even say no.  She couldn't open her mouth for fear of letting her moan escape.  The shaft moved further into her, slowly and almost gently, then pulled back, only to fill her again.  Delicious tension ran through her thighs, her flanks, her whole body.  "No," she gasped.  "Stop!" 

 "Tell me." 

 "I can't!"  The oblivion was almost there, almost within her grasp...she felt her whole body crying out for it, begging her for it, needing it so badly that it became a taste in her mouth, a fire in her heart. 

 "You can," he coaxed, and the thrusting began again.  She began to helplessly utter soft moans, and her hips were wildly bucking to meet him  -- and she could feel that soaring oblivion looming just ahead, waiting for her with shuddering intensity. She wanted it -- no, she *needed*-- that oblivion, that ultimate pleasure, more than anything in her life ... she began to beg incoherently for more, more, more... 

 Kai stopped, the metal tool buried in her, perfectly still.  "You need to climax," he told her.  "If you do not tell me, I shall not give that to you." 

 ***************** 
 Part 7. 

Her breath harsh and rasping, she could not hold on any longer.  "Please!" 

 "Do you like pain?"  He reached up and grasped her right nipple, twisting it. 

 "Yes..."  she gasped, her toes curling as the pain-pleasure overtook her. 

 "I will give you pain and pleasure, more than you have ever imagined.  All you have to do is tell me where your father is and how many men he commands." 

 Her body twisted with longing,  all else seemed irrelevant.  "Please..." 

 "Tell me."  He gave a small thrust to remind her how he possessed her, held her with his strength, and 
 controlled what was the most private part of her body. 

 "Phoebus 27," she gasped. 
 
 "Where?" He thrust again, once. 
 
 "In the center of the planet." 
 
 "In the center?" He thrust again, and twisted his hips a little to reward her. 
 
 "In the molten core." She spoke quickly, so close to orgasm she was trembling. 
 
 "How many men?" He thrust several times as a reward, and she writhed, undulating underneath him, her heels digging into the bed.  Her senses soared higher and higher... 
 
 "I...don't...know...." she gasped. 
 
 "Guess," he murmured, thrusting strongly now, her muscles growing tight around his artificial shaft. 
 
 "Fif...fifty...thou..thousand," she moaned. 
 
 He rewarded her again with quicker, faster thrusts, tilting up with his pelvis, accommodating himself to her, 
 stroking her clitoris with his long fingers. 
 
 "Weapons?" 
 
 "Robot-controlled ion weapons!" she growled.  "Now fuck me!" 
 
 But the evil assassin stopped.  He was completely still. 
 
 She writhed underneath him, thrusting against his artificial member, looking up with desperate, glowing eyes, 
 gasping with need... but his face was cold and impassive.  He was making another decision -- then he spoke. 
 
 "I have accomplished my mission.  It is no longer necessary for me to be here." 
 
 "Damn you," she hissed between clenched teeth. "FUCK ME!" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Have mercy on me! Please!" Aura Torben begged as he withdrew from her body. 
 
 "I have never... shown... MERCY." 
 
 ****************** 
 Fin. 
 8/26/01