"The Exchange": a post-apocalyptic roleplay (closed)

[HumanBean]

"The Exchange"

A post-apocalyptic roleplay

(closed)​

William "Billy" Ferraz
Corporal (2 years in service)
22 years old
5' 8", solid build

Billy lowered the night vision binoculars, let his eyes adjust to the normal darkness of the night, then very carefully and very quietly withdrew from his viewing position to join the men hiding in the rubble thirty yards behind him. He handed the field glasses off to one of the others, drank from a canteen handed to him by a third man, and gave his report.

"There are never fewer than two men on the entrance, sometimes as many as six,," he whispered. He glanced about himself at the variety of firearms they carried and added, "They're all seemingly well-armed. I saw AR-style rifles, AK's ... even a standalone, though, I couldn't tell if it was a grenade or smoke launcher."

He sipped from the water again, then continued, "People are coming and going; I saw at least two dozen civilians -- men, women, and children -- come and go. Most carried shit with'em: packs, boxes, sacks over the shoulders, while others were pulling or pushing carts or bicycles with baskets or anything else that would carry shit that might be sold or traded. One guy was leading a pair of goats, small ones, whaddaya call'em ... kids? I saw a woman with a carry pole over her shoulders ... water bottles, 10-liter size, maybe. They were empty when she got here, but filled when she left about twenty minutes later."

"So, it's the Exchange then," Ricky Tyler asked, clarifying, "this trading post they talked about?"

Billy shrugged his shoulders, something his friend could barely see in the low light of the half full moon. "Seems so."

"What's the plan, Corporal?" Vincent Clark asked. He reminded Billy and the others of the state affairs: "You're in charge. Your call."

Billy stared at Vincent for a moment, then glanced around to meet the gazes of each of the others. "I didn't ask for this, you know."

"None of us want it," Walt Peterson said, yet another reminder of that state of affairs. He clarified, "Command, I mean."

Billy didn't begin the current mission in charge, of course; he was a lowly Corporal for Christ's sake. But after the deaths or disappearances of their Lieutenant, their Sergeant Major, and their Sergeant -- as well as eight other men -- Billy wound up the only one of two Corporals who had any interest in giving orders and, with any hope, getting the remains of the Squad out of this fucking mess.

The Squad of 16 men who'd entered the remains of the city 6 days earlier had been reduced to the 4 men currently present by ambushes, IEDs, other-than-combat accidents, and unexplainable vanishings. All four of them wanted nothing more than to get the fuck out of this place. But that had turned out to be much harder than getting in here had.

Getting into the once thriving, now destroyed city had been a simple matter of being dropped by helo into what had once been called Olympic Park. Getting out, though, had initially required convincing the Lieutenant that the mission was blown, something he'd refused to admit even after they'd lost four men and a significant portion of their equipment, as well as their planned track to their destination.

After a Molotov Cocktail dropped into their midst from above burned the Lieutenant and the Sergeant to a crisp -- they'd already lost the Sergeant Major -- it seemed that the idea of continuing forward was moot. Unfortunately, escaping this madness wasn't as simple as simply turning around and running back the way they'd come. The city was a maze of damaged and destroyed buildings, each harboring its own dangers, including men, women, and even children armed with an assortment of weapons they wouldn't hesitate to use to kill and then rob a group of well-resourced soldiers who were out of their element.

Billy had involuntarily taken command after Ricky Tyler, the other still-living Corporal, had more than willingly passed on the opportunity. Unable to find a safe way out of the city, Billy had decided to look for this trading post they'd heard of from some of the less violent civilians they's met.

The Exchange, if as described, was the only place in what had been the downtown business district where you could safely trade goods and services without fear of being robbed, cheated, or killed. Billy presumed that this supposed security had something to do with the armed men he'd spied upon outside the entrance he'd been studying through the binoculars for close to an hour.

The trading post didn't seem to be housed in a single building; the descriptions they'd been given, as well as the condition of the mostly destroyed buildings in the area, seemed to indicate that the Exchange existed in the below-street-level floors of two or three or more adjacent buildings.

"So ... what's the plan, boss?" Ricky asked. "Are we going in full force?"

"No," Billy said without hesitation. "No, we're not here for that. We need help. We're not going to get it by going in blazing."

"Then what?" Walt asked.

Billy considered the options for a moment before beginning to shed his gear. Asked what he was doing, he said, "That one guy we talked to, the guy with the eye..." One of the civilians they'd met had had an eyeball nearly falling out of its socket, the results of some sort of infection that Billy was sure would eventually kill him, painfully more likely than not. "He said you have to pay a toll just to get inside, right? So, I'll take something to pay the toll but not take anything we can't afford to lose ... like most of the shit on me now."

"You're going inside?" Ricky asked, adding what he feared, "Alone?"
"We don't want them knowing about all four of us," Billy said as he continued stripping his equipment off. "They learn who we are, they might think we're a danger. They think we're a danger, we're dead."

"I'll go with you," Ricky said, immediately beginning to lose his gear, too.

"No!" Billy said just as quickly as his friend had offered. "I'm going alone. I'll play the lost, wandering, lone former soldier ... gather some info ... maybe make a friend. Ya'll stay here in the shadows until I get back."

"And if you don't get back?" Vincent asked.

Billy grabbed a handful of dust and scrubbed it into the leather surface of his boots, trying to scuff them up and make them look less new and government-issued. He did the same to his trousers, then mussed his hair with his dirty hands as well. He looked to Vincent, then to the others. "Do I look like a desperate vagrant?"

They gave him a variety of responses, after which Billy answered Vincent's question: "If I'm not back before dawn, backtrack ... and hope you find a way out of here."

Ricky started to object, but Billy stopped him with a raised hand. "We're fucked if we try to get out of here without help. We may be fucked if we try to get help from these people ... from this Exchange. Either way, we're fucked, or at least possibly so. This is the best option." He looked off toward a doorway they'd already checked, then ordered, "Get back down into that hole we found, keep quiet, get some rest ... ya'll need it. Eat what's left of the food. There's enough for one last meal."

"Last meal," Vincent murmured. "Nice choice of words."

"I'll be back," Billy said with feigned confidence as he stood. He pulled his sidearm, a Beretta 92FS, and -- unnecessarily, as he always knew its condition -- checked that the clip was full and that there was a bullet in the pipe. He'd shed his rifle and final remaining grenade; he'd kept his knife, too, though he'd slipped it inside his boot and hid it beneath the leg of his trousers.

"Gimme that," he told Ricky, gesturing for the man's first aid kit. He opened it, took out some of the more vital bits of equipment, drugs and the like, and handed those items back to his friend for safe keeping. He explained, "The toll. Hopefully it will be enough to get me through the doors."

(OOC: Continued in next post, due to the 10,000 character limit.)

 

[HumanBean]

(Continued from previous post.)

The others once again argued obligatorily against Billy doing this alone, but in the end he turned and wandered away from them into the night. He made it a block or so before a high-powered spotlight swung to settle upon him. He shaded his eyes with his left hand while the right fell upon the but of the holstered Beretta. He's stopped instinctively, but now -- lifting his right hand out away from his weapon -- Billy continued forward, carefully making his way through the rubble while continuing to prevent the spotlight from blinding him.

"Stop there!" a male voice called out after Billy had covered another thirty or forty meters. He did, listening to a pair of footsteps each approaching from both the left and right. One of the nearing men said, "Keep your hands up. We're going to disarm you. Relax."

Billy held his right hand out as directed, continuing to use his left hand to block the light in the hopes of seeing what was happening around him. He nearly commented on the fact that the civilians who'd come and gone hadn't faced this treatment. Realizing that that would indicate that he'd been watching the goings-on for a while, he said only, "That's fine. I'm not resisting."

A hand went to Billy's holster, and the semi-automatic pistol was pulled. The man took the first aid pack, then patted his belly and the small of his back, looking for other weapons; Billy would have frisked wrists and legs, too, but in this case he was delighted that the man skipped those steps.

The spotlight fell to the ground before him, and a man near the device commanded, "Come forward."

With the two men who'd come out to meet him flanking him, Billy made his way to the entrance of the building. The man at the door asked, "Who are you, and what're you doing here?"

"William Ferraz," he said, correcting, "Billy. I'm looking to trade."

The man at the door -- a huge man called Tiny, despite being 6'6" and well over 300 pounds -- studied Billy for a moment, then said, "Don't look like you have much to offer."

Billy gestured for the bag. It was handed to Tiny instead. The man opened it, poked around some of the enclosed items with his big, fat fingers, then closed it up again. Tossing it back to the guard from whom it had come, Tiny gestured what apparently was permission for entrance. The man with the bag gave Billy a soft, urging push forward, saying, "Head inside."

Billy did as told, using the low illumination of a string of Christmas-style lights mounted along the wall to find his way. If it had been the pre-War era, he might have thought the space he was entering was a typical commercial business lobby. The space was large, maybe 30 meters wide by 20 meters deep, with high ceilings at least 8 meters above his head. Billy imagined that once upon a time, the space had been open and spacious to accommodate the hundreds or even thousands of customers and staff parading in and out all day long.

This being the post-war days, though, things were different. The floor of the lobby was now cluttered with boxes and crates and gear and machinery and every sort of good that had value to someone for some reason. A dozen or more armed men watched from various locations as Billy was escorted through the labyrinth; others stood or lounged about, civilians who Billy figured had some purpose here, including an old man cooking over a fire, a pair of women whose clothing and appearance screamed whore, and some children who were picking through a pile of debris, seemingly gleaning for things of worth.

Billy realized that the location had once been a bank when he found himself standing at a teller's window, complete with a still-intact, bulletproof transparent sheet between him and the guy on the other side. The man beyond the window looked Billy up and down, then asked, "Toll?"

The guard pulled open a gate -- in the old days, it had been used for night deposits -- and tossed Billy's first aid bag inside. Billy quickly said, "That's valuable, worth more than toll into ... well, into whatever this is."

The man beyond the window -- Billy would learn he was called the Gatekeeper -- opened the bag and looked through it. He took about half of what was in there, then looked Billy over again before gesturing to the Guard escorting the visitor. He gestured an extended finger toward Billy' waist, asking, "What's he got there?"

The Guard opened one of the pouches on Billy's belt, an action that got a negative reaction from Billy. The Guard warned softly, "Relax."

The guard pulled one of the ammo clips from the pouch and set it inside the recess under the edge of the glass before the Gatekeeper. The man-in-charge took the clip of 14 rounds to his side of the glass and set it aside. He tossed the medical bag and its remaining contents into the deposit gate and slid the container to Billy's side for its owner to retain it.

The Gatekeeper opened the teller's drawer, dug in it, and tossed some items into the recess, gesturing Billy to retrieve them. He did, finding they were poker chips branded with the casino name, The Utopian. Billy asked, "I take it this is your currency?"

Nodding to the Guard, who then turned and departed to return to his duties outside, the Gatekeeper said, "You can trade whatever else you got on you inside or use the chips or both. If you got a service to offer..."

The Gatekeeper didn't finish his statement, knowing he didn't need to. He nodded his head toward a door on the wall to Billy's left, an entrance which was guarded by yet two more armed men. The man beyond the glass said, "You're new to the Exchange, so I'll tell you the same thing I tell all newcomers. Be good."

Billy studied the man a moment, repeating his words with an inquiring tone, "Be good? Do you, um ... want to elaborate on that?"

There was no reaction from the Gatekeeper other than a hard, cold stare. After a moment, Billy looked to his chips, wondered just what the value of them was, turned, and headed for the entrance to the Exchange.

 

[PennySaver]

Penny (image below in text, 5th paragraph)
Brothel Whore (with plans to become much more)
20 years old
5'6", 34C-26-36 (tight, firm body)
Deeply brown, sparkling eyes

The newest visitor to the Exchange would find himself navigating a maze of descending staircases and long passageways. Each was dark, illuminated only by more strings of lights. Each was also watched over by armed guards. Some of the guards were conspicuously stationed. Others were hidden behind doors that they could open in a flash to deal with troublemakers.

Finally, the man named Billy would pass through a guarded door and find himself in what the residents and merchants called the Bazaar. To most, it was an assault on their senses. One moment, they were in darkness and near silence. Suddenly, there was noise, activity, and lights.

The Bazaar occupied the 3rd level down of the bank's five level parking garage. In between the supporting pillars were dozens of booths. They sold or traded anything and everything available in the city. Fact was, just about anything and everything in the city of value was here now, would eventually arrive here, or had already left here.

There were services, too. Off in one corner of the level was a place to bath, get a haircut, and more. In another was a clinic. If Billy turned to his left, he'd come upon an Evangelist spreading the word of God. Oh, it wasn't Christianity or Islam or any other recognized religion, of course. Such ancient religions had been partially blamed for the collapse of society. You wouldn't find them in the Exchange. But, in a sense, it was still 'soul saving'.

Turning to his right, though, would send the newly arrived soldier toward a different sort of 'soul saving'. He would find himself standing before a staircase, guarded as was nearly everything in the Exchange. And standing in the middle of that staircase he would see Crystal.

She could be found standing here often. She called it the Perch. From here, she could take a few more steps downward to the Bazaar for shopping. Or she could descend a few more steps upwards to her place of business. More importantly, from the Perch, she could see each and every newcomer to the Bazaar.

This night, she saw Billy Ferraz. When he looked up to catch sight of her, she smiled invitingly. He was handsome, seemingly fit and healthy. He didn't have the worn and weary look of many who came in from the Wasteland that was most of the formerly great metropolis. He'd done his best to make himself look as if he belonged out there. But Crystal saw through the dirt and scuff he'd feigned before entering the Exchange.

There was something about this man that drew Crystal to him. She lifted a hand, turned it over, and curled a finger invitingly. She glanced to the bottom of the stairs to guide him to her. The Guard there made eye contact with her. He spotted Billy, understanding Crystal's desires. Stepping aside, he opened a gate guarding the staircase and nodded his head to the man.

Would Billy take the invitation? Crystal could only hope.

 

[HumanBean]

After so many dark corners, doorways, staircases, and hard case guards staring him down along the path through the maze, Billy began to worry that maybe Ricky had been correct in asking to accompany him into the trading post. Billy could be detained and disappeared down here, and his Squad would neither ever know what happened to him nor find his body.

Then, with only muffled, joyous-sounding music reaching him from beyond that final door being a clue to things to come, Billy was suddenly in a new world. The Bazaar was unexpected and unimaginable; he'd seen pictures of such marketplaces in pre-war books and magazines, but never before had he seen anything like this with his own eyes.

He saw people selling and trading goods, of course. But he also saw animals: monkeys, birds, dogs, cats, an alpaca, and those goats he'd seen earlier or maybe a different pair, he could be certain. Out in the world, non-human animal life wasn't as plentiful as it had been before the collapse of civilization. Some people kept goats for milk; others raised fowl for eggs; guinea pigs and rabbits were common in some places. But the variety of creatures Billy saw here as he wandered about was incredible. They weren't necessarily future food here; they were pets and mascots and, it would seem, treasured.

There was so much color, in the clothing, in the decor, in the lighting. The music was live; off to one side, Billy saw a man playing a mandolin-like stringed instrument, while a bit further on a boy was using a variety of common items to create percussive rhythms, and yet a third location featured a pair of girls singing in a language Billy couldn't identify. They all had one thing in common, of course: a receptacle into which passersby dropped items of value, from coins to edible morsels to the lower denomination of poker chip Billy himself had received in exchange for the clip of bullets.

He looked to the chips again. He was unfamiliar with a casino called The Utopian. Of course, he'd never been much of a gambler, beyond the occasional Texas Hold'em game with the guys on the base. Additionally, Billy was unfamiliar with the currency's nationality; there was no Dollar, Pound, Euro, or other familiar indicator on either side of the chips. The Gatekeeper had given him eight chips in total: 1-25, 1-10, 3-5's, and 8-1's, for a total value of 58 chips.

Billy had no idea of the value of the chips, of course. A 50-round box of 9mm ammunition cost the Force about $50 US these days, or a buck a round. The Gatekeeper had taken 14 rounds, as well as the clip in which they'd come. Billy did the math in his head: $1 per round; $14 for the bunch; another $16 for the clip just to round the figure to $30 total; $30 got him 58 chips; so, conversion rate is 2 chips to the dollar.

He decided to test his calculations and the value of goods in the Exchange -- he didn't know the name Bazaar yet, of course -- by approached a vendor; the man was roasting some sort of long, skinny burrito-like item over a small, open, woodchip fed flame. Billy had pocketed the chips, not wanting to flash his newfound wealth in this unknown, strange place, and now he pulled out one of the smaller valued ones, flashing it at the vender. The man donned a sour expression and held up 2 fingers. Billy retrieved a second chip, offering them outward. The vendor took the chips, penetrated much of the length of the item with a wooden skewer, and turned it over to Billy.

The soldier turned away, studied the food -- wondering what the fuck ingredients it might be made of -- and carefully tried a bite. It was surprisingly delicious: salty, crisp, pork-flavored, with tiny chunks of ingredients that might have been onions, peppers, carrots, and other things Billy couldn't identify.

He continued to wander about, taking in the people, the goods, the activities. Billy suddenly wished the other Squad members had come with him after all, not because he felt he needed protection but because he would have loved to share this experience with them.

Then, as he was casting his gaze all about him, Billy looked upwards and saw a beautiful woman looking down at him from the middle of an ascending staircase. He had a mouthful of whatever it was that he was eating, and he just froze in shock at the sight of her. She was incredible, and Billy took a long moment to take in the view before his senses returned to him and he finished chewing the food in his mouth.

Billy's first thought -- once he was actually able to think -- was that she was obviously a whore, particularly when she curled a finger at him, inviting him to join her. She looked to an armed Guard who opened a gate; he also gestured Billy to make a trek that way. Billy looked back to the woman again, taking in her perfect face, her perfect tits, her perfect everything.

He wanted her, of course; what man wouldn't? But he wasn't here to get his cock waxed; he was here to look for information or resources that might help him get the Squad out of the city without any further loss of life. Maybe she can help? Billy found himself wondering. I mean, in all the old movies and books, the whores knew everything worth knowing, right?

He realized suddenly that his cock was hard as a rock when its swelling put it in an awkward position. He felt his face burning with a blush; Billy had never been much of a ladies man, so this ... this whatever this was ... it was causing him a little bit of distress. He'd only had four lovers to date: one long term lover his senior year of high school; one short term dalliance the summer before he was supposed to go to college but then didn't; a one-night stand with an older woman he'd met at a bar outside the military base; and a hooker he'd picked up at yet another bar the night before he deployed.

Billy made a decision quickly: he'd go to the woman, chat a bit, determine whether or not she might be of help to him and his men, then tip her for her help; he wouldn't have sex, because his men were awaiting him out in the dark of the wasteland. He glanced at the half-consumed food item, found a child nearby who was also looking at it, and offered it out. The kid snatched it without a word, turned, and disappeared into the crowd without a word.

Looking back to the woman, then the Guard, Billy headed to and up the stairs, casually reaching down at one point to rearrange his crotch for better comfort and less conspicuousness...

 

[PennySaver]

Crystal liked the way the newcomer looked at her. There was shock in his expression. But it was the desire that interested in her more. She watched him move to and up the staircase. She studied his movements. He moved with purpose. He saw everything around him. The Guard, the stairs, Crystal herself, the other patrons. She could see in his body language and his shifting gaze that he was aware of his surroundings like so many people could only hope to be.

He was military. She knew that. But, who's military? The metropolis area hadn't had a functioning government in over two decades. There had been several attempts by powerful militias to bring portions of the city under their control. The downtown area in which the Exchange existed had been one of those neighborhoods. All attempts had been failures.

Ultimately, the Exchange and most of the city blocks surrounding it came under the control of the Council of Nine. It was a loose confederation of like-minded men and women. Their goal was peace through commerce. As Crystal's father had taught her, 'It's all about the money'.

So, did this new man work for the Council? Crystal doubted it. She knew most of the Enforcers employed directly by the Council. Of course, there was a worrying possibility. He might be employed by a particular Council member for that member's purposes only. Infighting did happen, of course.

There was always someone wanting more than they already had. More than their share. Power. Money. Territory. The equitable division of these and more were always being ... modified. Sometimes this modification came about via mutual agreement. Sometimes it was accomplished by force. More often than not the source of change was somewhere in between.

In the end, a balance that satisfied one and all was usually reached. Usually.

Crystal smiled to Billy as he neared her. She turned and ascended the stairs, unhurriedly. Her wrap rode high enough on her waist to present a gentle, erotic swaying of her full ass to the man as he followed. At the top of the stairs, she led him down a long hallway. It was illuminated in a soft red.

Pairs of doorways flanked the hall. There were no doors. Closely dangling lengths of beads provided what little privacy there was. Doors, it had been learned, led to behaviors of which the management sometimes disapproved. Whores sometimes got hurt, even killed behind closed doors. Sometimes, patrons did.

Crystal peeked back over her shoulder as she led the man. Would she see the man looking through the open doors? Would he take interest in the goings-on between whores and patrons? The naked redhead on her knees with a cock buried deep in her throat? The blindfolded, gagged man bound to crossed wooden beams being whipped by a woman in leather and chains while a dwarf sucked his balls? The busty, bald woman strapped to a platform while a half-dozen men licked honey from her flesh from head to toe and all points between?

"This is me," Crystal said as she reached a room at the end of the hall. This one, unlike the others, was sealed with a door. She pulled a heavy key from inside the waist band of her skirt and unlocked, then opened the door. She said with a seductive tone and a devilish smile, "Welcome to my parlor."

Her room was one part brothel work space, one part personal bed chamber, one part resource storage. A massive canopy bed sat along one wall. Multiple dressers and wardrobes filled most of two others. Crates and boxes filled with who-knows-what occupied another portion of the space. Some of the stacks reached the ceiling.

Along one wall was a claw-footed bathtub, a bubbling hot tub, a large shower with multiple and varied water dispensing heads, and even a small steam room. It should have been obvious to anyone entering this space that Crystal was not your common whore.

She made her way toward a wet bar. "What can I get you to drink? I have whiskey, wine, beer ... clean water, cold or room temp'. I even have some OJ ... orange juice."

She clarified about that last one because not everyone in this portion of the world knew what an orange was anymore, let alone that it was often juice for drinking consumption. "I can make tea ... or coffee."

Crystal listened for the man's choice. She poured herself a wine and crossed the room back to him with the glasses before her. She sipped from her own container as she looked up into his eyes. She smiled again, then inquired, "So ... what can I do to make you happy this evening?"

 

[HumanBean]

Following the whore up the stairway reminded Billy of how long it had been since he'd put his dick inside a woman: too long! The way her ass moved from side to side was hypnotic; at one point the toe of his boot caught the step before him and he very nearly fell forward on his face. He grasped the handrail and paid more attention to his ascent, though, honestly, he still found it hard not to stare at the flesh before him, barely hidden beneath a second-skin of thin fabric.

The hallway was yet another shock for Billy. He was poorly experienced in normal sex, so the acts he witnessed as he slowed to take long peeks through the beaded doorways caused his eyes to widen and mouth to fall open. He came to a full stop at one opening, unsure of what he was seeing but desperately wanting to understand. He would come to realize that it was a kiddy swimming pool, about 6 feet in diameter and a foot deep, in which half a dozen or or more men and women -- naked, their bodies slick and shiny with some sort of oil -- were haphazardly engaged with one another in orgy. Billy watched with fascination as cocks were sucked, pussies were licked, anuses were fingered, and more. It was near impossible to tell which body was pleasing which other body, with it almost appearing in some instances that all of the bodies were pleasing all of the others simultaneously!

"This is me."

The whore escorting him pulled Billy from his ogling of the scene. He moved forward, catching up, and passing into her own realm. It was not at all what Billy was expecting, which had been a simple room with a simple bed and maybe some simple sex toys. Crystal's room was extravagant and well resourced; Billy wondered at the value of the boxes and crates of goods stored off to one side of the room. Fucking richer than shit, he thought to himself. How many cocks does one suck to have all this?

"Welcome to my parlor," she told him.

"Thank you," Billy responded, unsure of what else to say. He scanned the room for indicators of whether or not this woman was a simple whore or something more. For all he knew, she ran the brothel or even the Exchange itself. He complimented, "It's nice. It seems ... comfortable."

By that, Billy meant Fuck, you're loaded! Billy -- his squad, his friends, everyone he knew -- were relatively comfortable out there in the world. They ate regularly, even if the food wasn't always the best; they had roofs over their heads and beds in which to sleep, warm and sound, even if some of the other amenities of the pre-war, pre-collapse period had vanished or become limited only to the Elite.

But out there, they were surrounded by poverty, desperation, disease, and more; and the story they'd been fed regarding the city into which they'd infilled was that life here was even worse. And yet, looking around himself now, Billy was almost envious of what he was seeing. This woman, this whore, had a wealth of resources at her fingertips: food, medical supplies, clothing, bedding, booze; Billy hadn't seen any weapons, any firearms, but he couldn't help but wonder whether or not some of the closed crates were filled with them as well.

Of course, for all Billy knew, none of this was hers. Maybe this all belonged to someone else; maybe it was stored here simple because it was more convenient or more secure. He wanted to know, of course. But asking about it didn't seem a very prudent thing at the moment.

"What can I get you to drink?" she asked, listing off some of the options. "I can make tea ... or coffee."

"Coffee?" Billy asked with genuine surprise. He hadn't had a real cup of coffee in over two years, and even then, it had been the second brewing of the same grounds. "I would kill for a cup of Jo." He smiled to her, then added, "But, I'd be happy with a beer." As she retrieved his choice, he told her, "My name is Bill."

Crystal brought him a bottle of beer. It was ice cold and already dripping from condensation. He sipped from it, then showed the surprise in his face. "Good. Very good. Thank you."

They stared at each other for a moment as she sipped their respective drinks. Then, his hostess asked, "So ... what can I do to make you happy this evening?"

Billy knew that this was coming, of course, and yet he was still hesitant at responding. This was not a world in which he was knowledgeable: even out at the base or in the town surrounding it, he had no idea how to progress through the steps of dealing with a prostitute. He felt a blush fill his face again, causing him to turn away for a moment, as if wanting to survey her room a bit more. When he turned back, sipping again at his bottle, he studied the whore a moment before admitting, "I, um ... I don't do this ... you know ... pay for sex. Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying I have a line of women waiting to give me free sex ... though ... I mean ... I have been with women before. I just mean ... well ... I'm not sure how to do this ... here ... with you."

He set his bottle down, reached into his trousers' pocket, and pulled out the chips; they had sort of been stacked on their side in the bottom of the pocket, so they came out neatly in one handful. "I, um ... I have these. I got them downstairs when I paid to get in here. I, um ... I have to be honest. I ... I don't know how much these are worth, really. I mean..."

Billy looked the beautiful woman's body up and down again, gave a visible sigh of delight at what he was seeing, and confessed, "I have no idea what it costs for ... you know ... what you can do."

 

[PennySaver]

(OOC: This includes a little back stepping for Crystal to address questions and comments Billy made.)


The man scanned the room with seeming interest. Crystal looked to see if any particular item seemed to catch his attention more than the others. None did, as far as she could tell. He told her, "It's nice. It seems ... comfortable."

"Relatively so," she responded, smiling again. She was indeed comfortable. Of course, she'd become so by letting strangers shove their cocks into her holes. Prostitution was only one part of her income flow, though. And though she would never tell those with whom she worked and lived, it was not longer the largest part. Wondering how he would interpret the comment, she added, "I work hard."

"Coffee?" Billy asked with surprise when she offered the beverage. "I would kill for a cup of Jo."

They traded smiles. Crystal turned to put on the pot, despite him saying, "But I'd be happy with a beer."

"One beer coming up," she said as she lit the gas burner beneath the pot.

When she returned to stand with him, he told her, "My name is Bill."

"Crystal," she said, handing him the cold bottle. They sipped their drinks together, and he complimented the flavor. "They brew it here in the Exchange. Actually, there are three brewers, making their own products. They sell and trade it here, and they take it out to some other locations. It's one of the more profitable products, I've been told ... when they can get the ingredients, that is."

When she asked Billy what she could do to serve him, he got flustered. "I, um ... I don't do this ... you know ... pay for sex."

This response was not unexpected. Even men who partook of prostitutes regularly told the next whore they met that they didn't partake of whores.

"Don't get me wrong," he continued, stumbling over his tongue. "I'm not saying I have a line of women waiting to give me free sex ... though ... I mean ... I have been with women before. I just mean ... well ... I'm not sure how to do this ... here ... with you."

Crystal took a couple of steps to again be near Billy. She looked up into his eyes. "Billy--"

She used that name despite his introducing himself as Bill. It just seemed more intimate. She continued, "--I bet back home where you live, there is a line of girls waiting to give you free sex. You're a handsome man. You just aren't seeing it is all."

She reached out a hand to gently pat his muscular chest. With his military gear discarded, the fitness of his torso and arms was so much better displayed than usual. She traced a finger across his pecs, adding, "Here, though, of course ... payment is a necessity of life."

Billy set his bottle aside and pulled a handful of chips from his pocket. He explained about receiving them, then added, "I have no idea what it costs for ... you know ... what you can do."

That, of course, was a mistake on his part. Billy should have inquired about her charges before he let her know how much he had. Crystal stepped forward, gestured politely for the chips, and asked, "May I...? ...count them...? ...see whacha got?"

She took the handful of chips, examined the denominations and quantity of each, then gave a bit of a frown. She said with a tone of disappointment, "It's not much, is it?"

He had 58 chips, which around here were called Credits. Billy himself had calculated that those Credits were worth about $30. Here in Crystal's bedroom, that would normally have gotten Billy a hot bath, a blowjob, a fuck, and a good night's sleep.

Of course, he wouldn't be getting that tonight. Crystal didn't normally consider herself a conniving cheat. But if she could get Billy's chips without having to put out that much effort, she sure as hell was going to cheat him blind.

"How about we start with a hot bath," she said, taking Billy's hand in her free one. She walked backwards in the direction of the tub, leading him. Casually, she set the entire stack of chips on a table as she passed it. "Then ... we see about making you feel good ... very good."

Crystal didn't want Billy considering the legitimacy of the deal she was offering. Near the tub, she let her wrap fall from her shoulders. Next, with a hand reaching up behind her, she unfastened her strapless top. It literally popped forward like a spring releasing tension, falling to the floor between them. Her bosom, young and firm, showed virtually little sag as it was freed for his viewing. Her nipples were large and ever-pert. Their areolas were wide, dark, and surrounded by the little bumps that some people knew had a name, the Montgomery Glands.

She smiled at Billy's reaction, delighted in his own apparent delight. Crystal didn't stop there, though. She pushed the skirt off her hips, letting it slide down her thighs and past her calves. She wore no underwear, and now stood naked before the soldier. Her flesh from her arm pits to her other pits to her toes was devoid of hair. There were no tan lines. She accomplished this by sunbathing nude in a little roof nook private to only the brothel's whores.

She turned slowly and fully around, wanting Billy to see the whole of her now nude body. She wanted his mind on her form and what she was going to do with it to please him, rather than on the money she'd taken from him without true negotiation.

"Do you want to undress yourself?" she asked, looking him up and down. "Or ... shall I do it?"

She didn't give him an honest attempt to answer the question, though. Stepping closer to him, Crystal would begin undressing Billy if he didn't stop her.

 

[HumanBean]

"May I...? ...count them...?" Crystal asked about the chips Billy had presented. "...see whacha got?"

He didn't hesitate to turn them over. It didn't seem like much money to him: 58 chips, or roughly $30 back on the base. Despite knowing what he knew -- or what he thought he knew -- about post-war life in the city, it didn't immediately don on Billy that he might be able to get so much sex for so little money.

Crystal suggested, "How about we start with a hot bath. Then ... we see about making you feel good ... very good."

Billy's mind was spinning with the possibilities; his eyes were again crawling all over Crystal, feeding those possibilities. Then, suddenly, the beautiful whore was standing before him naked. As she'd hoped, any thoughts about negotiating a price for her services failed to materialize. She was simply incredible: perfect tits, perfect hourglass figure, perfect ass; her flesh was as smooth as a baby's bottom, and she presented just the slightest hint of pink folds between her thighs.

Billy opened his mouth to speak, not that his brain had actually decided upon words to share with her. After she had finished her full spin for his complete survey of her, all he was able to produce was a soft, whispered, "Wow."

"Do you want to undress yourself?" she asked Billy. "Or ... shall I do it?"

The words still failed to come to him, and a moment later, Crystal had her hands on him, undressing him. His belt was unbuckled, his snap unfastened, his zipper lowered. The whore lowered slowly to her knees to untie Billy's boots, helping him out of them and the socks that seriously needed to be burned by now. His pants came off next, and as Crystal rose high on her knees again and took its waistband in her hands, his boxer-briefs were the next item to be shed from his body.

Billy's cock flopped out over the elastic waistband of his underwear. He blushed again; he felt stupid and immature about it, but later he would consider that it was an involuntary reaction for which he should have no shame. He looked down at his erection as it pointed directly at Crystal's face. He was secretly proud of his cock; he'd seen the penises of other men in high school college, the gym, and the service, so he knew that it was above average in length and girth. It was also straight as an arrow, and -- when hard like this -- rather animalistic-looking, he thought, with thick, full blood vessels meandering just under the skin.

He looked into Crystal's eyes, wondering whether or not he could decipher her thoughts on his manhood from her body language and words.

 

[PennySaver]

Crystal giggled playfully when Billy's cock flopped out before her face. Any closer to him and it might have slapped her atop the nose. She finished undressing him, less the shirt which she told him to shed on his own.

"You have a beautiful cock, Billy," she said with a sincere tone. She took it in one hand and squeezed tightly. "Long and thick and beautiful. When you get home again, you should make more of an effort to use it. The girls'll appreciate it, I promise."

Crystal stood again, releasing her hold on his manhood. She took his hand instead, leading him toward the already filled bathtub. She ran a hand through its water, testing the temperature. She looked to Billy, saying, "It's perfect. Shall we?"

She entered the large tub, then waggled her fingers to Billy. Once he'd entered, Crystal reached to a string on the wall and pulled it hard. A moment later, a young woman knocked on the door, then entered. She came to the tub, smiling to each of its occupants.

"This is Gretchen," Crystal told Billy. "She helps me with things."

It wasn't much of a job description. But it was what Crystal offered in explanation to Billy. Crystal told the girl, "Launder Billy's clothes, please. I need them back tonight."

Looking to Billy, Crystal asked, "Do you need to check the pockets first?"

If he said yes, she would have the clothes brought to Billy. If not, Crystal would hurry the girl away. Smiling to Billy again, she said, "How about I wash you ... and then you can wash me?"

She stood from the water, carefully moved around to behind Billy, and went to work softly scrubbing his backside. It was all very erotic, with her hands caressing over his soaped skin softly, unhurriedly. She poured water over his head and applied a locally made shampoo that smelled of roses.

Once done with his backside, Crystal moved back to before the man. She slipped between his parted knees to wash his face, neck, chest, belly. She scooted back a bit to deal with his legs and feet.

"Sit there," she told Billy.

Crystal gestured to a ledge that was just a couple of inches beneath the water level. When he moved up to sit there, she found him more hard than not. Moving up between his thighs again, she lathered up her hands, grasped his cock and balls, and carefully but thoroughly washed them. Long before she had finished, Billy was once again hard as a rock.

She pulled the tub's plug to drain some of the now conspicuously dirty water. As the level lowered, Crystal turned on the water and adjusted the temperature. Using the hose, she rinsed Billy's body off from head to toe. The splashing of the water from him made a mess about the tub's base. She only laughed it off. "Gretchen'll clean it up tomorrow."

She brought the hose to Billy's crotch. She rinsed him off there, using her hands far more than was necessary. Then, turning the water off again, she positioned herself closer to him and began massaging, groping, stroking, and finally sucking his cock. She wasted no time, going to work with energy. Her head bobbed up and down in his lap. One hand helped her mouth give the impression of a much deeper insertion into her mouth. The other hand fondled Billy's nuts, heightening the feeling.

She wouldn't stop until he'd exploded and filled her mouth with his seed...

 

[HumanBean]

Billy had never taken a bath with a woman, but he expected that this could be incredibly erotic. Then suddenly, he and Crystal weren't alone, and that was a bit awkward and embarrassing. Billy tried to be casual about hiding his still mostly erect cock from the older teen -- he would later learn that Gretchen was of age, not that that really meant or had ever meant much to many people.

Crystal tasked the girl with washing his clothes, which amused Billy. It would never have occurred to him that such a service would be provided by a whore in a brothel. When the naked woman before him asked if he needed to check the pockets of his clothing, Billy contemplated their contents, then shrugged. He'd pretty much emptied them before leaving the squad out in the city; the only thing he had on him that might raise suspicions was the thin but deadly knife in his boot, but Crystal had already spotted it when she'd undressed him and her only reaction to it had been to look up into Billy's eyes with a knowing expression, as if to say Everyone packs one of these ... hell, I pack one of them.

"How about I wash you," she suggested, finishing, "and then you can wash me?"

The next many minutes were simply magical. When Crystal stood to move to his backside, her generous curves shone magically from the room's lights illuminating her wet flesh. Billy believed that she was probably the sexiest woman he'd ever seen naked, and it was hard to let her move out of his sight even for a moment.

The bath was incredible. The feel of Crystal's hands on his body was relaxing and yet stimulating at the same time. Billy's cock would begin shrinking, then harden again, then repeat. When she moved back to his front side, the effect was even more startling. At times, he'd get so hard, his tip would rise to almost break the surface of the tub's water. She didn't pleasure his manhood, though, as she had for only a moment when she'd first stripped him; the contact between her and Billy's cock was only incidental, with her arms sometimes grazing it as she washed his chest, his belly, his thighs.

Then, she gestured to a seat that was nearly out of the water and told him, "Sit there."

It was then that she grasped his cock with a soap-lathered hand and began massaging his balls with the other. Billy's head rolled back and to the side as he moaned loudly. By the time she finished washing the Corporal's privates, Billy was primed and so close to orgasm that he feared he would spurt all over Crystal's face. He twitched in her hands, and looking her in the eyes he said, "My god, Crystal ... that feels ... so good."

She stopped suddenly, causing Billy to frown playfully; another twenty seconds, and he would have been done. She began emptying the tub, set the water temperature, and rinsed him with hot water streaming through a shower head on a hose. Billy laughed; they were making a mess, water splashing all about the tub. Crystal only said, "Gretchen'll clean it up tomorrow."

As she continued spraying away the suds and dirty water, Billy couldn't help but wonder about the hierarchy of the brothel and of the Exchange itself. He wanted to ask Crystal about her position in the establishment, about whether she was just a common prostitute or something more akin to a madam. He resisted, though, not knowing how he would make such an inquiry without offending Crystal, should it turn out that she was the former and not the latter.

Billy's cock had begun to relax a bit again until Crystal brought the hose to his crotch. The feel of the hot water and her hands upon his bulbous head, his shaft and his balls excited him again, and he moaned again as she cleaned him with a delicate touch. He murmured softly, "That feels incredible, Crystal ... my god..."

But it was only going to get better. She moved up between his thighs again, massaging, groping, and stroking his cock. And then, she lowered her head and took nearly the whole of Billy's shaft into her mouth. His head fell back -- it literally went thump against the wall behind him -- and he groaned out with great pleasure.

In reality, Crystal was using one of her hands in addition to her mouth to make the feeling of being deep throated more real, but Billy couldn't tell the difference. Of the four women he'd slept with in the past, only one had ever taken his cock into her mouth, and she'd only blown him, and that had lasted maybe a minute or so before she came up to fuck him instead.

Deep throat or not, Billy was heading for heaven ... and, both sadly and thankfully, it turned out to be a short ride. Crystal's head had only bobbed in his lap five or six times before he let out a great grunt, feeling his cock jerk violently, spewing forth great gobs of cum. His entire body reacted, trembling down deep as the euphoria or orgasm exploded through him. His head swam and again fell back to the wall, this time remaining there as he felt his balls tense again and again, expelling his jizz with force.

Billy lost all sense of now, simply laying back into the wall and seat as his body reacted to the greatest orgasm of his life. When he was finally able to achieve thought again, he lifted his head, looked down to Crystal, growled a pleasured sound, and said only, "My ... god ... wow."

At this point, even as his body was still trembling deep down to the core, Billy would have done anything Crystal asked of him.

 

[PennySaver]

Crystal wasn't really that surprised when Billy began blowing his load so early in the blowjob. She was damn good at what she did. And she'd sensed that it might have been a while since Billy had gotten any. Finally, she had the feeling that Billy might not have had much experience with oral sex. He was young, not that that always meant anything. Crystal had been young when she's first had a cock in her mouth. Hell, she'd been young when she'd done a lot of things.

She'd felt a slight twitch in his shaft, telling her Billy's orgasm was imminent. She pulled her mouth back, keeping on his bulbous head between her lips. Then, stroking him long, hard, and fast, she excited his cock into jerking over and over and over again. She might have been surprised that he'd cum early, but she was surprised at how many times he shot wads of his hot, sticky goo into her mouth.

Crystal didn't particularly like the taste of cum. Most women didn't, though, they would all say they did. Men liked to think women yearned to swallow their seed. Maybe some did. Crystal didn't, though. She feigned a liking for it because she got paid to like it.

She peeked up to Billy's face as he was still spewing forth. His head was back, his chest was rising and falling dramatically. He was happy. So happy. And he was distracted by the pleasure that was overwhelming his senses. Still stroking his full length to lengthen his orgasm, Crystal turned her head away and inconspicuously spat his massive load of cum into the waters of the tub. If she didn't have to swallow, she wasn't going to.

She wrapped her warm, wet lips around the head of Billy's still twitching cock and returned to sucking on it while stroking him. Only when he rose his head to look down on her, did she pull away. Crystal sat back on her haunches and smiled up to Billy. She licked her lips and cleared her mouth. She wanted him to think she's consumed what he'd produced.

"My ... god ... wow."

She giggled. "You enjoyed that...? I'm happy."

No longer deep in hot water, Crystal found herself feeling a chill. "Let's get out."

She stepped out of the tub, found a large towel, and wrapped herself. She offered a hand to Billy, helping him to follow her out. She said softly, "Come with me."

Crystal led Billy to her bed, used the towel around her to dry him off, then pulled the bedding back. "Will you sleep with me tonight?"

They slipped into the bed. Crystal laid next to Billy, caressing his muscular chest and slipping a knee up to rest atop his thigh. It was all meant to feel very romantic and less erotic. It was her hope that Billy would simply drift off. From here, she could see the spilled stack of chips on the dresser. It had been enough to get him laid as well as blown. But Billy didn't know the realities of the Exchange's brothel. Crystal was taking advantage. It was something she did nearly as good as sucking and fucking.

She snuggled up close to him, kissing him on the lips, whispering, "Will you sleep next to me? I don't want to be alone tonight."

 

[HumanBean]

"You enjoyed that...?" Crystal asked as Billy was still high on the euphoria of orgasm. "I'm happy."

"Me, too," he responded unnecessarily; his happiness at the moment was a given.

"Let's get out," she suggested.

They stepped out of the tub and crossed to the bed. Crystal used the towel that had been wrapped around her body to dry the both of them off; Billy, for his part, just stood there with a still-beating heart, admiring the perfection of the woman responsible for the greatest sexual experience of his life.

"Will you sleep with me tonight?" she asked as she pulled back the bedding and urged him to join her. "I don't want to be alone tonight."

Billy had been expecting neither an invitation to her bed nor a second one to spend the night in it. As Crystal herself knew, he had no idea that the money she'd taken off him should have bought him far more than just a bath and a blowjob. He'd been expecting Crystal to diplomatically tell him to hit the road so that she could move onto the next paying customer.

"Of course," he answered regarding her question, then responding to her statement, Billy said, "I don't either ... want to be alone, I mean."

She curled up tight against Billy, and he wrapped an arm around her and cinched them up further. She felt so incredible against him, only causing his cock to harden once more. He couldn't help but wonder whether she'd be accepting of him rolling atop her and slipping inside her for a second go round. But he was very satisfied with what had happened between them already, and as he marveled at having her in his arms, Billy's consciousness began to fade away. He'd never been the type to cum and pass out before, but this night he fulfilled the stereotype many women thought of their male lovers.

His last thought was of his squad, huddling in the dark out in the ruins of a building down the street. He really should have been with them, updating them on their situation. But honestly, their situation hadn't changed much; the squad was still on the razor's edge regarding their survival and escape from the city, and the only thing that had changed thus far was that Billy had emptied his balls into the mouth of an incredible whore.

 

[PennySaver]

(OOC: I use the phrase "of age" below because it fits with the dialogue. "Of age" in my writing ALWAYS means at least 18 years of age!)

Crystal snuggled up tight against the soldier's body, caressing her hand upon his chest to ease him toward a relaxing sleep. Looking down his form, she watched as the bedding tented over his crotch by his hard-again cock slowly lowered. After a few more minutes, she could tell from his breathing that he was deeply asleep.

Still, Crystal didn't hurry out of the bed. She was comfortable, too. Being a whore didn't mean you didn't enjoy the comfort of a warm body beside you.

But eventually, she did slip carefully out of the bed. She stepped into a modest nightgown and soft slippers. She crossed to the wall near the wet bar. There, she looked back to ensure that Billy was still soundly asleep. She reached up and lowered a small picture mounted on the wall. It was a signal, activated by someone while Crystal had been performing oral sex on the soldier now soundly asleep in her bed. From the opposite side of the wall, a string had been pulled that had lifted the little 5x8 frame up a few inches. It was so subtle that someone not looking for it wouldn't notice.

Reaching behind the dresser there, Crystal pulled a handle. A secret door opened to a secret passage. She entered it, closed the door behind her, and traveled the length of it to a small room. There, Crystal found Victor Lavrov sitting at a small table with Crystal's servant, Gretchen. Victor was flirting with her, leaning in close to whisper to her while toying with a silk flower pinned to the lapel of her blouse.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked with a hard tone. Before the man could respond, Crystal told Gretchen, "Go finish the laundry. Go!"

The girl hopped up and scurried away. Once she was gone, Crystal looked to Victor and chastised, "Keep your hands off of her. In fact, keep you filthy mind off of her. She's just an innocent girl, and I won't have you--"

"She's of age," Victor cut in, "and if she wants to spend some time with me--"

"She doesn't," Crystal interrupted.

Victor ignored her, continuing, "--and maybe earn a few credits learning what it takes to be a successful whore like yourself--"

"Why the fuck did you call me here?" Crystal again cut him off. "Get to it, so that I can get back to my client."

Victor was a senior member of the Exchange's Security Force. The services he and his kind provided were vital to the protection of this world they'd created. Crystal didn't work for him or owe him anything. However, he wouldn't have interrupted her work unless his own work had uncovered something he felt important to her.

Victor picked a pack up from the floor and set it on the table. He dug into it, pulling out a pistol, a grenade, and some other military items. He set each on the table for Crystal to see as he explained, "Your client ... is part of a group of men surveilling the Exchange. Our scouts caught sight of them a few hours ago ... a hundred meters west of the National Bank entrance. They sent this guy inside--"

Victor nodded his head off toward the way by which Crystal had arrived, indicating Billy. "--for reasons unknown at this time. What we do know is that they are looking for someone they think might be in--"

"How do you know this?" Crystal asked, "About them looking for someone?"

"Because after your guy came into the Exchange to get a taste of what you have to offer..." Victor continued. He looked her up and down with a hungry expression. He'd been wanting to fuck Crystal for years. She wouldn't have it and had made that very clear to him. Whore or not, she had her rights. Plus, she knew people who would cut Victor's balls off if ever he touched her without permission. He continued, "...I sent some men out to ... collect his friends. They weren't happy about it, of course. But after dropping a couple of flashbangs into their little hole, they were more cooperative."

"Where are they now?" Crystal asked with concern. "Are they okay? Were they hurt?"

"Why do you care?" Victor asked with an accusatory tone. "Are they friends of yours?"

"No ... of course not," she answered. Crystal thought about Billy laying in her bed right now. She'd wanted to make some casual inquiries about his reasons for being at the Exchange. It was information that she'd hoped to gather herself, for herself. That might not be possible now. "I..."

Victor waited for Crystal to finish her sentence. When she didn't, he prodded, "I what?"

She delayed her answer by crossing to a cupboard, pulling out a bottle of whiskey, and pouring some of it into two shot glasses. She set them on the table and sat down across from Victor. Her nightgown fell open a bit, showing off a good deal of her cleavage. Victor didn't fail to notice this. He ogled her tits a moment before looking back up to her, expectantly.

"I think I can get what you want to know from him ... if you'll allow me to try," she told him, negotiating. "He was ... very thankful for what I did for him tonight. I think that ... given time ... I might be able to uncover the truth behind his reason ... their reason for being here."

Victor lifted his shot glass and downed the contents in a quick, single swallow. He grimaced a bit at the cheap liquor's burning. He set the glass close to her, indicating a desire for a refill. Crystal pushed her own glass toward him instead.

"You're not going to have that kind of time," Victor told her. "His guys were waiting for him to come back out to join them. That's not going to happen, of course--"

"Because...?" she urged.

"Because they're here," Victor told her, downing the second shot. He clarified, "They're in a cell in "B" Section. So ... he's going to leave here tonight ... or in the morning ... expecting to rejoin his men out there ... only to find that they aren't there."

"You didn't answer," Crystal reminded him. "Are they alright? Did you kill them?"

"No, no, nothing like that," Victor said. He indicated he wanted another shot. "They're fine."

Crystal considered the situation as she refilled both of the shot glasses. "You leave him to me ... and I'll get what you want to know from him."

"Seven hours," Victor said. He took one of the glasses but didn't yet drink from it. "He's going to want to get back to his men ... probably before sunrise at the latest. You're good at what you do, Crystal--"

Again, Victor ogled her body with a hungry expression and a devilish grin. He continued, "--but I'm good at what I do, too. I need to know what he's doing here. I'll give you until sunrise--"

"Eight o'clock," she negotiated. "I want him to get a good night's sleep and a full breakfast."

"And another go'round between your thighs?" he asked.

Crystal ignored the implication. She said, "He'll be

(SORRY SORRY -- I wasn't able to finish this. Come back in a couple of hours for more. I have a doctor's appointment.)

 

[PennySaver]

(Continuing the post above...)

Crystal ignored the implication that she was simply looking to engage in more sex with the soldier, presumably to cash more Credits. She told Victor, "He'll be more likely to trust in me if he's happy. A good night's sleep, a full and hot breakfast ... and if I decide it's appropriate, another servicing of his long, fat cock."

She tossed that last bit out with a tone that implied that Billy was better endowed than most men. Specifically, she meant Victor. She'd never actually seen his cock, thankfully. But the comment about the man in her bed didn't rely on that kind of information.

"I'll make you a deal--" Victor began.

Crystal cut him off, though: "I don't have to deal with you. You have no author--"

But Victor did the interrupting this time, telling her harshly, "You will get something of value from this man by oh-eight-hundred ... or I will get it from him. And if I have to get it from him, I'll get something else, too." He looked to Crystal's bosom again, implying that it was she that he wanted. But then he told her instead, "If I leave this man to you and you fail ... you'll send your girl to me ... to my bed--"

"Fuck you, Vic--"

"--where I will demonstrate to her what it means to fail me."

Crystal was burning inside with fury. But although she didn't work for Victor, although he had no authority over her, over Gretchen, over any of the whores in the brothel, Crystal knew that he had the power to do exactly what he was threatening.

Victor held up one of the shot glasses, waiting for Crystal to clink her own to his as he asked, "Deal?" When she didn't comply, he drank down the whiskey and said instead, "Then ... an understanding. I get what you promised ... or I get what I want."

He stood, slammed the shot glass upside down on the table, ogled Crystal's cleavage again, and departed.

Crystal remained where she was for a long moment, fuming. She was an important person within the brothel and even within the Exchange as a whole. But she was still just a whore. And Victor was a senior officer in the Security Forces. If he came after her or, worse, Gretchen, there was really nothing Crystal could do to stop it.

Eventually, she returned to her room. She peeked through a peep hole to ensure that the man in her bed was still asleep. She passed through the secret doorway, set her wind-up alarm clock to 6am, shed her robe, and slid carefully into the bedding again. Billy murmured and shifted about but remained asleep. It was quite a while before Crystal herself could close her eyes and drift off to sleep.

A handful of hours later, her alarm went off. She silenced it quickly, but the man sleeping beside her awoke. She smiled to him. She whispered as she gave him a soft, erotic kiss, "Good morning, lover." Another kiss, and she told him, "I'll arrange some breakfast."

Sliding out of bed, Crystal padded across the room naked. Her firm, pear shaped ass swayed with purpose. She donned a robe, turning to face Billy to give him another viewing of her delicious front side. She pulled a rope near the door, then made her way to her own little kitchenette. She turned on the heat beneath a pot of water. "The coffee is instant. Does that work?"

A knock at the door was followed by Gretchen entering again. Crystal gave a food order that sounded like it could feed a family of four. When the girl was gone, Crystal returned to her bed. She sat just outside of Billy's reach and studied him for a moment. Then, pointedly, she asked, "Why are you here, Billy? Not here, in my bed, but in the Exchange? I know you have a reason, a purpose. There are others here who know this, too. And ... they are not nice people ... like me. They want to know why you're here, and ... if I can't tell them why ... if you won't tell me so that I can tell them ... they'll hurt your friends..."

She hesitated, knowing that this would result in a response from Billy. She told him with sadness and concern in her voice, "They have your friends. They caught them last night, and they're holding them. I don't know much, but I've been assured that they are fine ... for now. And they'll continue to be fine ... so long as you are honest with me."

A knock at the door caused Crystal to flinch in fear. Gretchen entered with a tray of food. Harshly, Crystal ordered, "Drop it and get out." The girl did as said and turned to leave. But Crystal stopped her with a softer tone, saying, "Gretchen, I ... I want you to stay in the kitchen until I call for you. Understand?" The girl looked confused. She had a great many duties, and mornings were very busy for her. But Crystal demanded with a harsh tone, "Stay in the kitchen until I call for you!"

The girl left. Crystal looked back to Billy. After a moment, she said, "I have to tell these people something, something they will believe. Or ... you will be hurt ... your friends will be hurt ... Gretchen will be hurt. Maybe even I will be hurt."

She moved closer to Billy, taking one of his hands in her own. "Please. Talk to me."

 

[HumanBean]

Billy had never been so sexually satisfied before, and he'd drifted off into such a sound sleep that he probably could have slept through Crystal doing handsprings on the bed, as opposed to simply slipping in and out of it for her secret rendezvous with the security officer. It was only the combination of the old-fashioned bell alarm and her movement several hours later that were enough to bring him back to life. He smiled with great joy at the sight -- and feel -- of Crystal still laying next to him as he returned to the conscious world.

"Good morning, lover," she whispered to him, meeting his lips with her own for a soft, erotic kiss, followed by yet another. "I'll arrange some breakfast."

Billy reached for Crystal as she began sliding out of the bed, not wanting her to go. Then, he caught sight of her incredible body and found himself fine with her departure -- for now. She was, beyond a doubt, the sexiest woman with whom he'd ever made love.

Made love? he thought. Okay, it was a blowjob. And you paid her for it. But ... she did call you lover.

As Crystal wandered slowly away from him, her wonderful ass swaying with each step, Billy found himself in absolute awe of her. His previous lovers had been pretty in face and body or one of the other; none of them had been ugly in any sense. But Crystal was like a goddess compared to them.

She's a whore, he reluctantly reminded himself. Keep your head on straight. And ... you haven't even fucked her yet! Jesus! What's wrong with you?

Then, suddenly, Billy's stomach rolled over painfully as a second and much more important thought came to him: the Squad. He sat up in the bed quickly and looked for a clock. He found the alarm Crystal had silenced but couldn't see the face from where he was sitting. He looked for a window and -- Fuck! -- saw the morning light spilling in through the semi-sheer lacy drapes.

Morning was here, dawn had arrived, and the plan with the Squad had been for them to backtrack out of the city if he wasn't back by dawn. Had they done as ordered? Billy was conflicted about whether he hoped they'd followed his orders or delayed performing them.

He wanted to think that they would obey his commands, even if he was only a Corporal and even if he had only been in command for a bit more than a day. But at the same time, he hoped that they had remained hidden in place, giving him a couple of extra hours to surveil the Exchange and gather the necessary intel to accomplish the mission.

Watching Crystal slip a robe around her delicious curves, Billy couldn't help but remind himself that she and what she'd done to him and with him last night had not been the mission. It had been the greatest night of his life, yes. And he still hoped that it was the first step in gathering the intel for which he'd entered the Exchange. But Billy couldn't help but feel that he'd failed his Squad by becoming attracted by the whore.

"The coffee is instant," she told him. She pulled on a rope dangling from the wall that reminded Billy of the calling devices in old English manors. She asked, "Does that work?"

"Instant coffee?" he responded. "You had me at the word coffee. Yes, that would be perfect."

Billy sat there simply watching Crystal walk about, the bedding barely hiding his swelling cock as it threatened to make itself known beyond the edge of the gathered sheet. He wanted so badly for her to come back to the bed and take him deep into her again, whether it be mouth or pussy, he really didn't care.

He flinched at a knock at the door, then casually pulled the bedding up to hide his groin as the younger woman from the night before entered. Gretchen the chamber maid -- the descriptor Billy imagined for her -- gave him a weak but polite smile before turning her attention fully to her lady. They exchanged some words about breakfast before the girl again departed.

Crystal returned to the bed, which overjoyed Billy to no end. His thoughts were divided between needing to get back to the squad and needing to once again put his twitching cock back into the woman's warmth and wetness. Then, all thoughts of fucking Crystal went out the window with her beginning her interrogation of him.

"Why are you here, Billy?" she asked. "Not here, in my bed, but in the Exchange? I know you have a reason, a purpose."

"Purpose?" he responded. "My purpose ... was that I had things to trade ... and I thought maybe--"

But then she told Billy something that made his skin crawl: "There are others here who know this, too. And ... they are not nice people ... like me."

Billy tensed at this. He'd known that there would be people watching him simply because he was a stranger, visiting the Exchange for the very first time. He'd tried to appear as if being just another wanderer from the Wastelands, but his weapons and clothing and freshness in appearance had probably been dead giveaways for anyone whose job it was to keep an eye out for such people as Billy.

"They want to know why you're here," Crystal continued, "and ... if I can't tell them why..."

Billy suddenly had a thought that very quickly flushed all of his feelings toward Crystal right down the drain: his night with her, his wondrous and unforgettable night with her, had all been a ploy by her to get information from him. The plan, of course, had been for Billy to make a contact and gather intel. But now it was feeling as if he had been played instead.

Crystal continued, "...if you won't tell me so that I can tell them ... they'll hurt your friends..."

Billy's heart skipped a beat: the Squad. He reached out and grasped Crystal by the arm, just above the elbow; he wasn't trying to hurt her, of course, but he could tell by her reaction that he'd gripped her too tightly or frightened her or both. He relaxed his hold a bit as he asked with a growl, "What are you saying...? What about my friends?"

"They have your friends," she told him, a sense of sadness and concern in her tone that Billy sensed but didn't immediately believe was sincere. "They caught them last night, and they're holding them--"

"Where?" he demanded. "Where?"

"I don't know much," she told him, still seemingly sincere, "but I've been assured that they are fine ... for now. And they'll continue to be fine ... so long as you are honest with me."

(Sorry, another long post over 10,000 characters. Continued below.)

 

[HumanBean]

Billy realized that his heart was pounding hard and fast. They had his Squad; someone had his friends. Billy's immediate thoughts -- thinking backed by experience -- was that right now Ricky, Vincent, and Walt were bound to chairs being beaten or strapped down to tables being water boarded for information about their mission to the Exchange.

He suddenly felt sick to his stomach. Looking to Crystal, letting his eyes take in the curves of her cleavage and recalling the joy of emptying his cock into her mouth the night before, Billy felt as though he'd betrayed his Squad in the worst of ways. While he was getting his knobber polished, his friends were getting theirs squeezed in a vice, figuratively or literally or both!

Gretchen returned with a platter of food, but Crystal ordered her out of the room with haste. Before the girl left, though, the whore ordered the servant to remain in the kitchen until called upon. Billy sensed the urgency in Crystal's command, but he didn't have the facts -- the threat to Gretchen's body, to her purity -- to understand the situation.

"I have to tell these people something," Crystal returned to her conversation with Billy, continuing, "something they will believe."

He tried to head off the direction of the conversation by telling her, "There's nothing to tell. I came to the Exchange because I needed supplies. I traded -- involuntarily, I might add -- some ammunition for what you people consider money--"

He glanced toward the dresser upon which his chips had been laid, only to see that they were long gone by now. Again, Billy felt as though he'd been played by Crystal. He looked to her, continuing, "I came for supplies; I found you instead."

They looked into one another's eyes for a long moment, and Billy considered adding more to his bullshit story. But both Crystal's expression and next words told him that she wasn't buying it: "Or ... you will be hurt..."

Billy released a bit of a snort; he'd already been hurt, of course, learning that the greatest night of his life had been one big fucking lie.

Crystal continued, "...your friends will be hurt..."

That affected Billy much more than the woman's previous statement, of course. Billy couldn't get out of his mind the image of his Squad bound, beaten, even killed ... because he got distracted by a wondrous pair of tits and an hourglass figure.

Again, Crystal continued, "...Gretchen will be hurt."

That caused Billy's expression to show a bit more confusion. He had no clue as to why the servant girl would be harmed because of what he and his men had been up to. Even if he had known of the dynamic between Crystal and the security man, Victor, Billy would have found himself less moved by it than by what was happening to his friends.

Then, Crystal finished with, "Maybe even I will be hurt."

He had released his hold on her arm earlier in their slow but serious conversation, and now Crystal moved closer to Billy and took one of his hands in her own. She said with a tone that seemed sincere, maybe even a little desperate to him. "Please. Talk to me."

Billy didn't immediately react to what Crystal had said, but eventually he slid out of the bed and just stood there for a moment, naked, staring toward the window and the brightening day outside. He looked around and found his laundered clothes, hung neatly over the back of a nearby chair. He moved to them, snatching up item after item in the appropriate order and began dressing.

It was only when he was down to donning his footwear that he turned to face Crystal again. He sat on the chair, snatched up one of the boots ... and then paused to more seriously consider his situation. His thoughts were all about his men, his friends; what was happening to them, were they in pain, were they ... dead? He realized that he had no choice but to tell Crystal what she needed to know, then see where the chips fell.

"We're looking for someone," he began. He slipped on a boot and began to lace it as he continued. "A woman. A young woman. She's the daughter of a man ... a scientist. He works for the government--"

The government, Billy thought for a moment as he pulled the laces of one boot tight and snatched up the second boot. There had been many governments since the war began and, ultimately, the Collapse occurred. All you had to do to call yourself the government was put together an armed force, capture some territory, gain some followers, and collect taxes. Most governments had also garnered some sort of support from beyond their borders, but even that wasn't mandatory.

He continued his explanation, "At least ... he did work for them. He stopped when his daughter was taken hostage."

Finished with his boots, Billy stood and looked around for the rest of his gear. Then, he remembered that he'd left it all with the Squad in an attempt to look less like a soldier and more like a wastelands nomad. He looked back to Crystal. "She was taken by people who, we learned, had brought her here ... to the Exchange."

Billy studied Crystal's reaction for a moment, to look for signs that she had knowledge of what he was telling her. He continued, "My squad of 12 men--" He almost said now down to 4 but kept that information to himself; let the people who had the rest of the men believe there were others like him out there, ready to attack.

He went on about the mission, "--was tasked with locating her and bringing her out alive and unharmed. I came in last night to surveil the Exchange ... to gather intel ... to make a connection who might help me find the girl." He took a couple of steps closer to Crystal, looked her in the eyes, and said with a tone that was both sincere and a bit more dramatic than real, "I'd hoped that last night I'd found that person."

 

[PennySaver]

(Don't worry about the length. I love your posts!)

Billy had scared Crystal when he grasped her arm the way he did. She was no stranger to violence, of course. She was a prostitute. Plenty of men found beating on a woman as good a release as getting their rocks off. Of course, here in the Exchange, you only beat on a woman once.

But he released his grip on her, got up to dress, and began explaining his reason for being here. Crystal liked to think she was well informed about the goings-on in the Exchange. Men liked to talk about their lives and jobs while or just after getting those rocks off. Ironically, it was the reason Billy had taken a chance on her last night. He'd presumed, correctly as it was, that a whore would be a good source of information.

Crystal had heard some things about a female being hidden away in one of the more secure areas of the Exchange. But listening to Billy, she realized that she didn't know all he needed to know. Of course, if she had, would she have imparted said information to him? In a place like the Exchange, as with many places, information was power.

Crystal had rose from the bed and crossed to her kitchenette's stove. The tea pot had begun to whistle. She pulled it from the burner, extinguished the flame, and poured water into the mugs that already held the freeze-dried coffee. Billy came to her, saying about seeking an informant, "I'd hoped that last night I'd found that person."

She wanted to help him. She really did. Partially because she liked him. Sure, he was just another brothel customer. But there was something about him that made Crystal think that he might be as valuable to her as she might be to him.

Beyond that, though, there was the girl. Crystal hated the idea that some girl was being held hostage by people like Victor. She didn't know whether the asshole who'd threatened her last night was involved, of course. But she wouldn't put it past him. The Exchange's Security Force sometimes operated almost like cells of a terrorism network: the left hand often didn't know what the right hand was doing or even if there was a right hand at all.

"I haven't heard of this girl," Crystal said, handing out a steaming mug. She gestured Billy to sit at the little dinner table on which Gretchen had set the platter of food. She sat opposite him. "But I might know a guy who might be involved."

She carefully sipped. It wasn't the best coffee in the world. In fact, she couldn't even be certain that it was coffee. She'd been told it was, of course. But honestly, Crystal couldn't be certain that in her life she'd ever had real coffee. Curious about his opinion, she asked Billy, "Taste okay?"

She began distributing some of the breakfast items onto two plates. "I can ask around. It's ... it's not the kind of thing you just go up to a Security Officer and ask outright. 'Hey, have you heard of a kidnapped scientist's daughter?' Making an inquiry like that could get you hurt."

She nibbled at the toast. The bread was made right here in the Exchange. Almost everything was, of course. Ingredients came from the outside world. But most production, be it bread or bullets, was performed right here.

"I'll ask about your friends, too," she continued. "That'll probably actually be easier to do. The Security Force retrieves people from outside the Exchange all the time. It's common enough that making inquiries like that won't raise a red flag."

Crystal studied Billy for a moment. She recalled what he said about his hopes for her last night. She told him bluntly, "I'm just a whore, Billy." She paused for his reaction, then continued, "I like to think I'm a good person, though. I'll help you find your friends. And if I can, I'll help you get them released. I don't know the situation, of course. But I'll try. It's probably best that you don't go telling anyone else what you're doing here. Your friends might have already spilled the beans. But if they haven't, maybe a different story than searching for a scientist's missing daughter."

They ate in silence for a bit. Hoping to relieve the stress of the moment, Crystal smiled rather devilishly to Billy and asked, "Did you enjoy last night at least?"

 

[HumanBean]

"I haven't heard of this girl," Crystal told Billy.

That was disappointing, of course. He'd taken a chance on her, putting his Squad in jeopardy, and all he'd gotten out of it was a blow job ... and unbelievable blow job, but still.

Then Crystal told him with a hopeful sounding tone, "But I might know a guy who might be involved."

"Who? What's his name? What's he do?" Billy inquired quickly, desperate for information.

She gave him no more answers, and he contemplated pushing harder. But Billy had scared her earlier, he was sure. Crystal was the only contact he had in the Exchange, and with his men captured and his own identity known to whoever had them, Billy had to play this carefully.

They sipped at their mugs of coffee, with Crystal asking, "Taste okay?"

"Actually, it's fantastic," he answered, sipping again. "I haven't had a cup of coffee in months, and I haven't had instant freeze-dried since my days in Chile." He wasn't sure whether he should have been talking about his previous duty stations, but it was too late to take it back. He finished with a simple, "Thank you."

"I can ask around," she offered, expanding on what she could and couldn't do to get more intel for him about the girl. When Billy asked about his men, Crystal said she thought she had a better chance there. Then, with a self-deprecating tone, she told him, "I'm just a whore, Billy."

"Don't," he murmured softly. "I..."

He wasn't entirely sure what he'd been planning on saying, and as he hesitated, Crystal added, "I like to think I'm a good person, though."

Billy knew exactly where she was coming from on this subject. Ironically, he'd very recently been called a whore as well. Oh, it wasn't because he was sexually servicing others for money, of course; it was because he'd sold her services as a soldier -- and a sometimes killer -- for that money instead. He liked to think of himself as serving his nation in its armed forces, but in all honesty, he was little more than a military contractor; the government for which he worked didn't have the true legitimacy it needed to be recognized by the United Nations, and that detail right there sometimes weighed heavily on Billy's mind.

"I'll help you find your friends," Crystal promised. "And if I can, I'll help you get them released."

They chatted more on that subject. After a long pause in which Billy contemplated his next move, Crystal smiled at him and asked, "Did you enjoy last night at least?"

He very nearly spat the partially chewed piece of toast all over the table and Crystal. He chuckled to himself, then answered, "Last night was ... incredible." He returned her wide smile, telling her, "I wish we didn't have this mission and the safety of my men hanging over our heads, because..."

He let his eyes fall to the cleavage that Victor had ogled so hungrily a few hours earlier, then looked back up into her deep brown eyes. He drew a deep breath and released it in an audible sigh before telling her, "I'd love nothing more than to take our clothes off and get back into your bed."

They shared a smile, but then Billy's faded as the mission and the Squad returned to the forefront of his thoughts. "I need to know about my guys. And, if possible, I need to know about the girl. Please, Crystal ... you have to help me. I'll do anything. Anything I can."

 

[PennySaver]

"Who? What's his name? What's he do?" Billy inquired quickly.

Crystal hesitated. She couldn't tell Billy about Victor, of course. The reason might not have made sense to Billy, though. She couldn't put Billy on Victor's trail because Victor would learn. He'd kill Billy. He'd rape Gretchen. And he'd mess up Crystal herself, making her worthless in her chosen profession. That latter part was not a maybe. Victor had made that threat in the past.

When she asked Billy if he'd enjoyed the night before, he responded with obvious delight, "Last night was ... incredible."

"I'm glad," Crystal told him. "You might not believe this, but I enjoyed it, too. Most men are just ... well, customers. But with you ... well ... I was truly happy to make you feel good. I mean that."

He talked about priorities, finishing, "I'd love nothing more than to take our clothes off and get back into your bed."

"We could," she offered. She saw the way his eyes found her cleavage. Smiling wide, she lifted a hand to pull her robe open. She flashed him a firm tit and its ever-pert nipple. "Just for a while?"

She could see in Billy's face that he would have loved to take her up on her offer. She contemplated adding that it wouldn't cost him anything. In the end, though, they stuck to their current situation. Crystal stood and moved closer to Billy. She leaned over him, kissing him on the lips. When they parted, she told him to eat his breakfast.

"I will go talk to some people who might be able to help us," she told him.

She checked the clock on the wall: 7:50am. She had ten minutes to report to Victor or there was going to be hell to pay. She probably should have told Billy about the deadline and the consequences of not reaching it. Instead, she dropped her robe and slipped into a simple but body hugging set of clothes not too unlike the outfit she was wearing yesterday when she attracted Billy's attention. She told him, "In the meantime, you stay here. I'll be back."

 

[HumanBean]

Billy was disappointed that Crystal wouldn't identify the man or men holding his Squad, but considering her place here and how she didn't know much about him -- beyond the taste of his cum and how he moaned loudly when he orgasmed -- he could understand why she wouldn't risk speaking about him or them.

They spoke about the previous night and whether or not he'd enjoyed himself, and Crystal told him that she had enjoyed it, too. He had always been a good poker player, able to read other's faces to determine what might be going on inside their minds. But try as he might, he couldn't get a read on Crystal. Was she being sincere? Did she really enjoy the night with him? She pleasured him, of course, but he hadn't done anything for her. How could she have enjoyed it? She'd done all the work and gotten nothing more than a mouthful of semen. Internet porn wanted men to think women yearned for a mouthful of the sticky stuff, but -- despite his lack of experience with women and, particularly, with blowjobs -- Billy knew well enough that cum was not favored by every woman, even a professional like Crystal.

He told her he wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed with Crystal, and she in turn said, "We could, just for a while?"

He was so tempted, so very tempted. But he had to get to him men, to learn whether they were sitting safe and secure in a cell or strapped to walls, chairs, or tables being tortured.

"I will go talk to some people who might be able to help us," she told him.

"Thank you, Crystal," Billy told her. "I ... I know that this puts you in danger ... but I really need this."

She dressed again, giving Billy little flashes of her beautiful female curves as she did so. Whore or not, Billy was thrilled to count her as one of his lovers. He was already hoping that once this mission was over -- hopefully without any deaths or serious trauma suffered by his Squad -- that he could spend some more time with her ... quality time between the sheets or, maybe, back in the hot water of that bathtub.

"In the meantime," she said after giving him a wonderfully erotic kiss, "you stay here. I'll be back."

"Thank you," he repeated. He gestured his extended fingertips toward the floor before him, clarifying, "Right here."

He watched her leave, waited a long moment to ensure that she wasn't going to double back to catch him doing what he was about to do, then stood and began surveying her quarters. Billy found a lot of things of interest, but really, none of them told him anything more about her. As he'd suspected when first arriving here, she had a wealth of resources, most of them in crates and boxes along one wall. If Crystal were to find herself trapped here, she wouldn't starve, Billy could see that. Some of the food was pre-war, pre-collapse. Sure, their use by dates had passed long ago, but from what Billy knew about the ubiquitousness of preservatives from that era, they were probably perfectly healthy even today.

But there was more than just food and drink. She had suitcases full of clothing, mostly women's but not entirely. She had a crate formerly used to house military rifles filled with first aid kits bearing national ID tags of several nations, as well as the International Red Cross. Billy poked through several of them, looking for the morphine and other pain killers that were often stripped from recovered kits; there were none.

Billy left Crystal's stash and poked about in other areas. He opened her dresser drawers and looked beneath the neatly folded stacks of clothing. He found some interesting things there but was unsure as to whether or not he should be surprised.

He stopped his search suddenly when he heard a knock at the door. It swung open, again revealing the servant girl, Gretchen. She was carrying yet another platter of food, telling Billy, "Crystal didn't want you getting hungry and wandering out, looking for a meal."

She set the platter next to the previous one. She looked over the breakfast items there -- most of them untouched -- and gave Billy a glance.

"Didn't mean to waste it," he apologized.

"You didn't," Gretchen said. "Nothing goes to waste here in the Exchange."

She didn't explain that there were people living just outside the confines of the establishment who waited near specific exits for the remains of such unfinished meals. Just as before the Collapse, there were plenty of street people who weren't picky about eating the leftovers of people who had it much better than they did.

"Excuse me ... Gretchen, right?" Billy asked as the girl was heading for the room's exit. "Do you mind if ... can I ask you something?"

She stopped and turned, and Billy suddenly realized that he didn't have a specific question in mind for the girl; he was on a fishing trip for intel, and he wasn't going to get that by sitting here alone in a room that wasn't providing him with any information. He gestured her to sit on one of the couches in Crystal's little sitting area; he took the platter from Gretchen and set it on the nearest horizontal space large enough for it.

"I'm not sure if you got my name," he began. "Bill." He smiled. "Billy. Everyone calls me Billy, including your lady. Gretchen, right?"

He smiled even wider at his use of that word to describe Crystal; he was still remembering the call rope she'd used to signal Gretchen earlier. He decided on some warm up questions: "So, how old are you? Have you always lived in the Exchange? Is your family here, too? What do they do? How long have you worked for Crystal? Is she, like, your boss or just one of many people you work for? How do you like it here? Have you ever been out there, beyond the Exchange? If I stick around for a while, what else could I do here? I mean, like, is there a bowling alley or a casino or a pool?"

(OOC: If some of those questions don't work with the answers Gretchen has for him, just act like they weren't asked. Also, you can throw in some followups if you think he would have asked them. Feel free to put some words in Billy's mouth; I trust you.)

After that little chat, Billy decided to get serious. "Gretchen ... I'm going to trust you with something ... some information. I'm going to trust you not to discuss this with anyone, not even Crystal." He waited a moment for her reaction. Would she say she couldn't keep secrets from the Lady for whom she worked? Either way, Billy went on, "I'm here in the Exchange looking for a friend of mine. A girl, about 20 years old..."

(OOC: He describes her physically, but because we haven't chosen a picture for her, I'm going to skip that part.)

With a more serious tone and a lower volume, intended to give a sense of secrecy in his inquiry, Billy explained, "She is here in the Exchange ... but not by choice. She was taken from her father, the man for whom I work. It's my job to find her ... to get her back to her father, safe and sound." Again, he gave Gretchen a moment to consider what he was saying. "I'm being paid a lot of money to find this girl and get her home to her father."

Billy leaned in closer again, reached out to take one of Gretchen's hands in own, and continued, "I've asked Crystal to help me with this, but ... I'm concerned that maybe, just maybe, she's not in a place to help me ... that she's afraid it might put her in some sort of danger. I don't want to put her in danger, and I don't want to put you in danger, either." He gave her hand a little comforting squeeze. He finished, "But ... if you thought you could help me find this girl and get her home to her father safely, I would make it worth your while. I'd split what I'm being paid to find her with you ... fifty-fifty. Gretchen ... it's a lot of money. Life-changing money."

(OOC: The next part only happens if Gretchen's answers above would give Billy the impression that she wanted out of the wasteland that is the city surrounding the Exchange.)

Billy smiled to her again, and with a sincere tone promised, "And I could get you out of here ... take you with me, back to the world beyond the Exchange ... beyond the wasteland. With the kind of money you'd have, you could buy your own place ... have good food and nice clothes..." He smiled more broadly still, finishing with, "...have a servant of your own to bring you breakfast and dinner and wash the clothes of the men who would want to visit you, not because they were paying for your company ... but because you simply liked them and wanted to spend time with them."

He was pretty certain that Gretchen's fate here in the Exchange -- specifically here in the brothel -- was that of becoming a whore, once she was properly trained in the art of pleasuring men. If Gretchen herself thought the same, perhaps she would find escaping the Exchange with Billy and his Squad beneficial.

 

[PennySaver]

(OOC: Gretchen's picture is below. There is a nude version of this available for when the time comes.)

Crystal wanted to trust Billy with all her heart. He'd joined her in her room last night to collect information, sure. But she'd also invited him to her room for the same reason.

She left her room and took a circuitous path that ended with her in the secret passage adjacent to her room. She removed a piece of tape that covered a peep hole. And for the next many minutes, she watched Billy.

Crystal wasn't really worried about what he might find. There was nothing here to compromise her. Crystal watched his reactions when he opened drawers with special contents. An automatic pistol was in one. Another had throwing knives.

Billy paused over another. He removed the clothes carefully. He lifted the false bottom that Crystal had always been concerned wasn't hidden well enough. She wondered whether Billy would steal any of the more than 60,000 Credits stored there.

Billy returned the false bottom and clothes without touching the chips. There were more secrets to be found. But Gretchen arrived with more food. The girl was about to leave when Billy invited her to sit.

Crystal turned her head to press her ear to the hole in the wall. She listened in on the conversation closely.

"So, how old are you?" Billy began.

Gretchen was visibly nervous from the start. "I'm 18. I will be 19 soon. Next month."

"Have you always lived in the Exchange?" Gretchen only nodded. "Is your family here, too?"

Again, Gretchen nodded. "My mother and father own a cafe here. My siblings work there, too."

"How long have you worked for Crystal? Is she, like, your boss or just one of many people you work for?"

Gretchen hesitated here. Beyond the secret doorway, Crystal was curious about the answer, too. She said, "I work for Crystal, mostly. I work for my parents sometimes, too. When they need me."

Billy seemed to be happy with the answer. He moved on. "How do you like it here?"

Again, Gretchen only shrugged.

"Have you ever been out there, beyond the Exchange?"

She shook her head. But she added, "I wouldn't feel safe out there. I don't know anyone. And I don't have any money. Crystal says you have to have lots of money to be safe out there."

Gretchen decided to ask Billy a question. "Are you going to stay here? I mean ... it's nice here, isn't it?"

She had no idea that Billy had only just entered the Exchange minutes before coming upstairs to the brothel with Crystal.

"If I stick around for a while," Billy asked, "what else could I do here? I mean, like, is there a bowling alley or a casino or a pool?"

"Yes," she said simply. She could see it wasn't sufficient for him. "Yes, there are all three. And a movie theater. And an arcade, with carnival games where you can win things."

Then, he donned a more serious expression and tone. He told her he was going to trust her with some information. He told her about the scientist's daughter.

Then, he told her, "If you thought you could help me find this girl and get her home to her father safely, I would make it worth your while. I'd split what I'm being paid to find her with you ... fifty-fifty. Gretchen ... it's a lot of money. Life-changing money."

Gretchen couldn't help but smile at the thought of so much money. She wasn't the type of girl who had a lot of career prospects in the Exchange. She could become a whore, obviously. She was startlingly beautiful, with a flawless, exotic face and smoking hot body. She would make a fortune after Crystal trained her for such a career.

She could become one man's woman. More than two dozen men had approached Gretchen's parents about her. Some had wanted her as their wife. Some had wanted her as the consort. Her parents had flatly turned some of the offers down. Either the dowry's offered or the men themselves had simply been unacceptable.

Other offers had been politely put off for the time being. Gretchen's parents weren't ready to lose their daughter to a man who would literally own her, body and soul.

Crystal had had a hand in the decisions, too. Gretchen's parents greatly respected Crystal for the friendship and guidance she'd shown their daughter. And, of course, there were the resources that Crystal had offered the family over the years when times were tough. There was no certainty that a husband would benefit the family the way Crystal had.

"And I could get you out of here," Billy went on. "Take you with me, back to the world beyond the Exchange ... beyond the wasteland."

Gretchen had smiled at the thought of life changing money. She didn't smile at this, though. The Exchange was her world. She knew and understood this place. And money or not, she couldn't be certain that leaving here would make her life better.

Billy continued, "With the kind of money you'd have, you could buy your own place ... have good food and nice clothes ... have a servant of your own to bring you breakfast and dinner and wash the clothes of the men who would want to visit you, not because they were paying for your company ... but because you simply liked them and wanted to spend time with them."

By his words, Billy was insinuating that Gretchen's future in the Exchange was going to be spent here in the Brothel. True, that was one possibility. But there were other possibilities, too. Gretchen was no idiot, though. She knew that her future in the Exchange was that of a woman answering to and serving either one man or many, many men. She would never be fully in control of her life.

Crystal was what Gretchen wanted to grow up to be. Crystal answered to no one. Oh, sure, the brothel had a Madam. And Crystal showed the Madam her the respect due her. But Crystal had long ago achieved a position in the Brothel that gave her incredible amounts of control over her life, her job, and her future. Gretchen wanted that. It was why she had served Crystal for so long.

"I can't," Gretchen said. She stood tall in a quick move. She studied Billy for a short moment, then stepped away from him. "I ... I won't tell Crystal that you asked me to do this. But ... I can't help you. And I don't want to leave the Exchange. This is my home. My parents are here. My siblings are here. Crystal is here. I'm sorry."

And in a flash, she turned and headed for the door.

Still listening in from beyond the secret door, Crystal couldn't help but smile with delight and pride. She turned her eye back to the peeping hole. Gretchen departed quickly, just short of storming out. Crystal watched Billy for a moment. Then, quietly, she slipped away.

An hour later, she returned to her room. Smiling to Billy, she asked with a devilish smirk, "Did you miss me."

Crystal pretended to only now realize that food had been delivered. "Oh, did Gretchen stop by?"

She listened to his response. She told him, "I talked to some people about your friends. They are indeed being held by Security. I didn't see them, but I've been assured that they are not being tortured or otherwise harmed."

She put the water on for coffee again. Turning to Billy with a serious expression, Crystal told him, "I don't know if I can get them released. My contact in the Security Force, Victor ... he wants to meet you and talk with you. I can't stop him from doing that, obviously. As I said earlier, I am just a whore."

As she prepped two mugs of freeze-dried coffee, Crystal said, "You have two choices as I see it. First, you talk to Victor. Second, you disappear into the Exchange. Either could be dangerous, Billy. Either could get you hurt. Either could get you killed."

She looked into Billy's face. "I can help you with the first, talking to him. I cannot help you with the latter. I can ... direct you a bit. Give you a hint of where to go and what to look out for. But I cannot help you. Victor ... he would ... punish me."

The tea pot began to whistle. Crystal took it off and poured the two mugs full. She took them to the table in front of the couch where Billy was sitting and sat near him. "You must decide."

 

[HumanBean]

Billy found it difficult looking upon Gretchen without imagining the two of them naked together in Crystal's bed. To be honest, at one point he even fantasized about the three of them being entangled together, mouths and hands all about each other's erogenous zones. He limited the number of times his gaze fell to her delicious body, yet still felt as though the girl had departed feeling as though he'd been hungrily ogling her. It is a whorehouse, he reminded himself later. What does a girl who looks like that expect?

He was disappointed to say the least when his offer to get her out of the Exchange and out to the real world with more money than she could imagine was met with, "I can't. I ... I won't tell Crystal that you asked me to do this. But ... I can't help you. And I don't want to leave the Exchange. This is my home. My parents are here. My siblings are here. Crystal is here. I'm sorry."

And just like that, she was gone. Billy didn't try to stop her; he feared that such an action might be misunderstood as being forceful, whether he laid hands upon Gretchen or not. Instead, Billy just sat there in silence for a good ten minutes or so, reviewing the girl's answers, body language, emotions, and expressions. Neither Gretchen nor Crystal had found reading him very easy. On the other hand, Billy was very good at reading others. And he didn't believe for a moment that he'd failed with Gretchen; he knew that he could get to her if he failed to get anywhere with Crystal.

He moved to the table to eat on the food the young servant had delivered, then found a book to read from while awaiting his lover's return. Almost an hour had passed between Crystal's departure and reappearance. She gave Billy a devilish smirk and asked, "Did you miss me."

"Absolutely," he said, returning the smile. When she asked about the lunch platter and whether or not Gretchen had stopped by, Billy became concerned about whether or not the two women had already had a chat. He decided that keeping things close to the truth was best and told her, "Yeah. Nice girl. We sat and talked a while ... about life in here ... life out there, where I come from."

"I talked to some people about your friends," Crystal reported. She told him that his three squad members were being held, were not being mistreated, and -- quite possibly -- were going to be hard to free. "My contact in the Security Force, Victor ... he wants to meet you and talk with you."

They talked about Billy's situation over another cup of coffee. Crystal admitted that she couldn't help Billy much, beyond introducing him to Victor. She feared punishment, and Billy told her that he understood and accepted her stance.

"I'd like to meet this guy ... Victor, right?" Billy decided. "Right away, please. I need to see my men. I need to see that they aren't being harmed. Can you arrange it?"

Crystal told him they could go right away. Billy was a bit surprised and, honestly, hesitant to go see the man right away. He wanted more time to look around the Exchange, to investigate; after meeting Victor, he might very well find himself being shown the door, long before he was able to gain some important intel. But Crystal said it was something they should do sooner than later, and Billy agreed.

"I need to ask something of you before we go," he said. He stood, drained his mug of coffee, and turned to deliver the cup to the kitchenette. Housekeeping wasn't really the purpose of his delay, though. Billy's path took him near one of the dressers he'd searched earlier, and on his way towards the door where Crystal stood, he pulled one of the drawers open and fished out a little .38 Special he'd found earlier. He flashed it to her peacefully, then asked, "May I take this with me? I don't know this guy Victor. I can't trust him, like I trust you."

If she told him it wasn't a good idea or flat out refused, Billy would return the weapon to the drawer as he'd found it...

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[PennySaver]

"I'd like to meet this guy ... Victor, right?" Billy said.

"Yes, Victor," Crystal confirmed. "He's a high-ranking officer in the Security Force. I could probably arrange something for tomorrow morn--"

But Billy cut in, "Right away, please."

Crystal considered trying to talk him out of such an immediate meeting with Victor. She had thing she wished to speak to Billy about before moving ahead.

But Billy demanded, "I need to see my men. I need to see that they aren't being harmed. Can you arrange it?"

Crystal hesitated before answering. This could throw her own plans for the soldier right out the window. But, she told him, "Of course. We can go now."

Billy had demanded to see his men immediately. Yet she sensed that perhaps he'd hoped she would tell him it wasn't possible.

In a roundabout way, he ended up at her dresser, pulling out one of her firearms. "May I take this with me? I don't know this guy Victor. I can't trust him, like I trust you."

Crystal had an immediate answer for that. "Absolutely not." She made her way toward him without haste. "They'll check you for a weapon before you ever get close to Victor. And he'll know you got it from me."

She took it from him and put it back. Then, moving up against him, Crystal stood on her tippy toes and kissed Billy on the lips. It was a long, soft, but erotic kiss. She pulled away, backed a step while smiling to him, and turned, having said nothing in explanation for the embrace.

"I understand where you're coming from, though," she told him as she opened a drawer in the kitchenette. She turned and lifted a foot up onto a dining chair. Pulling her skirt up to nearly her waist, she began strapping a tiny two shot Derringer to her thigh. She looked to Billy with a devilish smile. Her explanation was short: "Just in case."

Crystal headed for the door. She waited there for Billy to join her. Before she opened it, she moved close to him. Reaching for his crotch, she very eagerly groped his cock. She continued pleasuring him until he was fully swollen. Looking down, she found the front of his slacks tented outwards.

"There will be people in the hall acting as if they are just standing about," she explained, "but they are actually watching you." She patted his rock-hard erection. "This will make your reason for being here appear more legitimate."

She laughed as she opened the door. Grasping Billy's hand, she led him out into the hallway. They passed the doorways through which he'd seen such lewd acts the day before. Some of them were being repeated again. Some others were new. Crystal paid no attention to them as she led the man.

They didn't go immediately to see Victor. Crystal took Billy through the Bazaar instead. She pointed out some of the booths that offered more interesting products or services. A tattoo artist called her name and told her she was due for a new paint job. She waved him off, laughing, and continued onward.

"I'm afraid of needles," she told Billy, "but I did him a favor, so he gives me temporary tattoos from time to time." She looked to Billy's own tattoo. "I get that touched up for you for free. Or get you something new. Maybe something erotic ... in an exotic location."

She let her hand graze his groin again. He was still a bit hard, which made Crystal smile. They continued onward, and she chatted with a number of people along the way. Before she'd left the brothel, Crystal had retrieved some of the chips Billy had given her last night. She paid for some products and arranged for deliveries. She bought some snacks and alcoholic drinks that she and Billy consumed while wandering.

They wound up near the wall near the staircase Billy had descended to get into the Bazaar the day before. She stopped them there and took a moment to survey her surroundings. She looked up into Billy's eyes with a serious expression. She told him, "Grab me."

Billy obviously didn't know where Crystal was going with this. She repeated and expanded, "Grab me. Forcefully. Grab my forearm like you're trying to control me."

Then, without warning, she slapped him across the face. She screamed, "Bastard!" She slapped at him again, with more force...

 

[HumanBean]

Seeing more of the Bazaar seemed helpful to Billy. He was, after all, in the Exchange looking for not just the missing girl but for general intelligence about this very different world. He was surprised at the variety of goods and services available to those with money. There were the usual goods: food, clothing, jewelry, and household items. Something missing from this Bazaar but found at many marketplaces out in under-policed communities of the world were firearms, grenades, rocket launchers, and the like.

Billy could have asked Crystal about the discrepancy but let it go; his own weapon had been taken upon entering the Exchange, so the assumption was that for the Security Force to maintain the peace, they simply weren't allowed. Thinking about firearms made him think about the Derringer on Crystal's inner thigh; thinking about her inner thigh began to stiffen his cock again.

He couldn't help but notice the large number of panhandlers and people selling the most basic of small items in a desperate attempt to earn a living. He found himself looking down upon a little girl, maybe six years old, sitting in a makeshift wheelchair; her left foot was missing below the ankle and her right twisted beyond use, both malformities obviously from birth defect.

Billy felt immediate and personal sympathy for the little girl; his own much younger sister had been born with defects that had led to her death before age six. Billy wanted to give the girl something of value, but he'd left nearly everything of value with the Squad before entering the Exchange and then turned over all of his Credits to Crystal for a night of pleasure with her. He caught Crystal by the elbow and drew her attention to the girl, whispering, "Good deeds are the path to heaven."

They continued onward, and at the tattoo artist's booth, Crystal offered to buy him more body art. He laughed it off, telling her, "I'm like you: I don't like needles." He gestured to the tattoo on his right arm, explaining, "I was nearly unconscious from Tequila when I got this one, but I don't think I could even do that again."

Billy picked up on Crystal's change in mood and body language at one point. He looked about himself for potential dangers; there seemed to be a heavier presence of Security Officers nearby, though he couldn't see any particular reason for it.

"Grab me," she instructed, adding after he gave her a confused expression, "Grab me. Forcefully. Grab my forearm like you're trying to control me."

Billy liked to think he was quick to recognize threats and defend himself against them, but the slap that stung him face and twisted his head sufficiently enough to stun him came without any chance of avoiding it.

"Bastard!" Crystal screamed at him with a volume that instantly drew attention from all directions.

She reared back to slap him again, but this time Billy was able to intercept her swinging hand. His instincts kicked in, and he swung her around with the intercepting hand, reached the other arm around her waist, and easily lifted her off her feet. Crystal screamed bloody murder at him, while Billy himself -- picking up quickly on her intentions -- hollered loudly back at her, "You fucking cheating whore!"

Crystal struggled in Billy's grasp, reaching her free hand back to claw at him; she found an ear and pulled at it, then slapped him again several times. Billy -- unsure of her precise plan -- simply held tight to her, wrapping her captured arm up tight to her body while trying to get hold of the second arm.

Then, before he really knew what was happening, two -- and then four -- of the nearby Security Officers were on him. They easily wrenched Crystal from him, pulled his arms around behind his back ... and off they took him...

 

[PennySaver]

Billy picked up on Crystal's intentions intuitively. Even as she was swinging to slap him a second time, he was fully engaged. She found herself spun halfway around and lifted right off her feet. He cried out close to her ear, "You fucking, cheating whore!"

"Let me go! Let me go, you fucking bastard!" she hollered as she struggled. She could have broken free of Billy's hold, of course. He wasn't the first guy to manhandle her, and he wouldn't be the last. But, of course, this grappling was entirely intentional and of her making. She kicked her legs and reached back, finding an ear. "I'll kill you, you fucking bastard!"

And then, it was all over. The reason for staging the fight between whore and patron here was the proximity of the Security Office. In a flash, Billy was in custody and being hauled off toward a nearby unmarked door. It was opened by yet another Officer. They hauled the still-struggling Billy through it.

She was still hollering profanities at her presumed attacker when a young Security Officer approached her. "Are you alright, Miss Crystal?"

His question left no doubt as to his familiarity with her. "Did he hurt you? Are you harmed in any way?"

Crystal took a moment to inspect herself for injury. Her movements and shifting of clothing flashed a bit of normally concealed flesh at the Officer. "No. No, I think I'm fine, thank you."

She looked up to him. His gaze was conspicuously on her generous and well displayed bosom. Caught ogling, he quickly raised his gaze ... and blushed.

"I ... I assume you'd, you'd like to press charges ... against your assailant, Miss Crystal?" he asked, fumbling over his words. He was desperate to divert her attention from his ogling.

"Damn right, I do!" she said, growling, "Fucking animal just reached out and grabbed my..."

Crystal ceased speaking. She instead reached both hands up to cup her breasts as if inspecting them once more. She pouted out her lower lip. With a whining tone, she mused, "I think I might be bruised."

The young Officer was once again staring at Crystal's tits. Once again, he pulled his gaze upwards. He apologized with great embarrassment, "Sorry. So sorry, Miss Crystal."

She smiled to him while reaching a hand into the crook of his arm. She turned him toward the nearby and still open Security Office door. "It's perfectly okay, Sergeant. I don't mind--"

"Corporal," he corrected quickly. Then, more softly, he clarified, "I'm a just a Corporal, Miss Crystal. Though, with any luck, I might be a Sergeant one day."

"I'm sure you will, and I'm sure it will be very soon," Crystal reassured him. She brought her other hand up to rest upon the man's bicep, squeezing it flirtatiously. "You're a good man, Sergeant-to-be. A good man, one who cares for those who can't defend themselves ... women, children, the elderly ... they are one-in-a-million. You are one-in-a-million."

He visibly blushed again. Feeling brave, he laid his free hand upon Crystal's first hand, still grasping him around the elbow. "I do my best to serve, Miss Crystal."

She stopped him short of the office door. She turned to face him and pressed up closer. He couldn't help but glance downward again as the bosom he hungered for pressed against uniformed chest.

"You should come round my place for a visit," she offered with a suggestive tone. "We should get to know each other better."

The man looked absolutely shocked ... then chuckled nervously and blushed yet again!

Crystal giggled. She asked softly, "You know where to find me, yes?"

"I, uh ... I ... I--" The man couldn't get the words out. He glanced in the direction of the brothel, located on the far side of the Bazaar. Looking back to Crystal, he confessed, "I'm not sure I could ... well, you know ... the, um..."

He was close to saying outright that he couldn't afford to be with the Exchange's most exclusive practitioner of the sexual arts. Whore or not, the Officer didn't want to offend Crystal. He instead started, "I'm just a Corporal. I ... I don't have much ... you know..."

Crystal gave his hands a gentle, comforting squeeze. She filled in, "You're afraid you can't afford to be with me."

The man hesitated, then nodded.

Crystal gave him another squeeze, stood on her toes, and kissed him on the cheek. She looked about as if wanting to ensure no one was listening in. She spoke just loud enough to be heard by him over some nearby musicians. "Maybe you'll do me a favor sometime soon, and ... I'll do you a favor in return."

She shifted her lower body close enough to cause contact between her belly and his groin. She wasn't surprised to find that, like Billy earlier, the man instantly hardened. She finished with, "Maybe?"

With great eagerness, the man nodded his head. Crystal turned him again toward the door. As they continued forward, she said, "For now, I'd like to talk to your Commander about this ... heathen who molested me. What's his name ... your Commander, I mean, not that animal?"

"Colonel Lavrov," the Officer said. He clarified, "Lieutenant Lavrov."

"Colonel ... Lavrov, yes?" Crystal asked, feigning a lack of knowledge of the man she knew more personally as Victor. "Yes, please, I'd like to talk to him about this man."

The Corporal escorted Crystal into the Security Office. He found her a comfortable chair and offered her a drink. He very proudly said, "We have real coffee."

"Thank you, I would love a cup," she said in that still flirty tone. "Sugar?"

The young man brought her a mug. "The Colonel is busy at the moment, but he's aware that you are here. Is there anything else I can do for you, Miss Crystal?"

She reached out and caught his hand, standing, once again close to him. She looked around the office. There were other officers of varying ranks doing varying tasks. Regardless of whether they were busy or not, each was peeking Crystal's direction for a look at Miss Crystal.

"When I'm done here with the Colonel," she whispered, as if not wanting anyone else to hear, "maybe ... if you're not busy protecting frightened women and children elsewhere ... maybe you could escort me home. I'm ... I'm still trembling down deep."

Opening the man's hand, she pressed it firmly into her cleavage. With a feigned tone of desperation, she asked, "Can you feel it? It's pounding with fear." She gave him a moment to enjoy the feel of her firm orbs against his actually trembling hand before moving it away. "You'll get me home, yes?"

Again, the Corporal's head nodded up and down with energy. Crystal again rose on her toes and kissed his cheek. Just then, Victor appeared in a nearby doorway. Their eyes met, and Crystal found him lightly shaking his head in dismay at her charming his underling. Crystal thanked the Corporal and headed off. She glanced around the room and found every pair of eyes on her. She gave them a parting gift by putting a little extra swing in her hips and bounce in her ass as she disappeared into Victor's office.

(OOC: At this point, Victor is to be written by my more than capable partner, HumanBean. Have fun with him. )