~o~O~o~

~o~O~o~

 

---

 

Author's Note: For this chapter, I blame Elrod. It's completely new and goes in --what I hope is-- an unexpected direction as the Trekkies get involved. Extra special thanks goes out to Elrod for letting me use his Star Trek characters, especially Danni. We were talking about story ideas and he sent me what he had for a possible MAU Star Trekkie sequel. His idea matched what I was already writing. So, with his permission I adapted and for Danni's scene, copy and pasted what Elrod had already written. It was probably a rough draft by Elrod's standards, but it seemed darn good to me! hehe.

~o~O~o~

 

 

The Director of Intelligence for the People’s Liberation Army of China nearly spat out the first sip of tea.  As usual, he grumbled, it was too cool, so cool in fact, that the steamy aroma he found almost sensual was completely missing.  He pressed the button on his phone.  

"Get in here!" He snapped harshly to his weak willed aide.  

He let off the button, sitting back in his chair and carefully arranging his face into his most menacing frown.  Just one of the tools to encourage underlings to work harder, he mused.  And he waited.  The frown deepened as time passed, until it was no longer a theatrical device to intimidate; his aide should have been in his office within seconds of his call.  He stabbed the button again.  

"Get in here!" His voice conveying genuine irritation.

As he started to sit back, he heard noise in the outer office, some type of commotion.  Instinctively, his hand reached into a desk drawer, fingering his People’s Liberation Army QSZ-92 pistol – just in case.  He leaned forward slightly, his shoulders tensing as if his entire body were coiling to strike.  He hadn't gotten to where he was, especially in the intelligence section, by being slow – or careless.

The arguing in the outer office grew in intensity, and suddenly, the door burst open.  The hapless aide, still arguing, was trying desperately to interpose himself between the intruder and the door.  It was a losing battle; despite extensive training, he was outmatched by the sheer determination of the intruder.

"Director Liú," the young, well dressed intruder’s shark like grin lacked the instinctual fear most visitors to his office displayed.  His voice carried an eagerness that seemed strangely out of place with what should have been a confrontational, even violent, situation.

The director, his pistol half drawn, recognized the voice and face of his visitor. It was Gang Zhào, his sleeper agent who was currently filling the role as the decadent, but useful CEO of Tomachi Heavy Industries. In his opinion, the man was filling the role far too well and probably needed to have his loyalties reevaluated. The man looked a healthier and younger than he remembered. He relaxed – a bit.  "Let him in," he barked to his aide.

Startled but obedient, the aide stood to one side.  "Yes, sir," he replied hesitantly as he slid from the doorway and snapped to attention.

Director Liú frowned as Zhào strode confidently into his office, stopping directly across the desk.  His grin nearly split his face.

"Zhào-běnguān,” Director Liú purposefully used the suffix to remind his uninvited guest of his lower status, “This is highly irregular," he chided, his eyes narrow.  He was still on guard; it was not unheard of for a disgruntled agent to resort to violence.  Rare, but not impossible.

Zhào glanced meaningfully over his shoulder at the aide, then back at Director Liú.  "I figured it out. It’s working again," he beamed.

The director's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.  "Are you sure?" he stammered.

The other nodded.  "I’m positive..."

Director Liú snapped his jaw shut, his gaze unconsciously dropping to Zhào’s groin.  He felt his enhanced penis began to harden as he fondly recalled testing the strange alien machine on the man standing in front of him. He reasoned it wasn’t gay sex if his partner was technically a woman. Judging by the man’s bulge, he had either resorted to stuffing socks down his pants or he had fixed himself and with that realization, he turned his gaze on his aide.  "This is a private meeting," he snapped suddenly.

The aide's eyes widened, then he nodded his assent.  "Yes, Director," he replied.  He obediently spun toward the door while inside, he seethed with resentment.  He was a loyal aide, a trusted assistant to the director of intelligence, yet he was being dismissed like a new office girl.

"And," the director added, stopping the aide, "you will deactivate the phone tap and the recordings.  Measure 2.  Understood?"

The aide nodded.  "Yes, sir."  He stepped stiffly out of the office, closing the door behind him.

The director waited a moment, giving his aide time to secure the office.  "You are positive?"

Zhào’s predatory, shark like grin returned as he glanced to a spot next to Director Liú’s desk. Director Liú turned his head to look and noticed the air ripple for a for a fraction of a second as the figure of a second person appeared in his private office. The person wore a strange, high tech suit with a full face mask.  The person removed the face mask, revealing a man whose face matched his own.

“What’s the meaning of this?!” Director Liú reached for his pistol as he turned angrily back to his smug visitor.

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with Liú,” Zhào’s smile grew larger as realization began to form in the eyes of his former boss.

Director Liú raised his pistol to fire, but never made it. The man wearing his face fired a strange pistol shaped device. The device made a slight, low pitched humming sound as a bright red beam shot out, enveloping his body with a bright glow. His eyes widened with pain and horror as a strangled scream fought to escape his lips. Before he could utter a sound, his entire body turned to ash. His pistol clattered onto the desk as the late Director Liú’s clothes deflated and pooled in his overstuffed chair.

“Worth every year it took to get the damn thing working again.” Zhào chuckled as he waved away the small cloud of ash that was quickly settling to the floor and lightly coating the top of the desk. He turned to the man wearing the late Director Liú’s face. “Get dressed. We have a lot to do before the conference and we have to time things perfectly because we won’t have another chance to make as many replacements until next year.”

“Yes sir.” The man said as he quickly stripped off his strange suit and after a moment’s pause to shake the former Director of Intelligence clothes in an effort to remove as much of what was left of the man from his clothing. He was only partially successful, but reasoned he could always leave the office early and take a shower at his new home.  Taking his place behind the desk, he calmly looked up at his smiling boss.

“Okay ‘Director Liú’, the device should reset in a week and the conference is less than a month away. It’s time to activate our plans.” Zhào smiled at his subordinate.

~o~O~o~

As far as meetings go, Janice decided the current one was fairly boring and that wasn’t something she could often say.  Her job was to take the meeting’s minutes and so far, she didn’t have much to write about. Dave Hummel, her boss and the National Security Advisor, usually had a little more ‘actionable intelligence’ or juicy details and this one was proving to be a real snooze-fest.  

The current discussion was over a supposedly, reliable intelligence asset who sent a warning that the Chinese government was getting ready to initiate an operation to replace key government officials, bankers and CEO’s with clones of some kind.

It took all of her self control to not laugh out loud and her reaction to the science fiction plot.

George Welch, the Director of the CIA was less diplomatic. “This is a load of shit. Who in the hell vetted this joke of an intelligence report?!?!” Mr. Welch scoffed, slamming the report down on the conference room table before leaning back in his chair.  “A machine that can instantly turn a person into anything they want and make high tech gadgets?  Seriously, what the fuck?!?!”

“George, it was one of your guys who sent us the report.” Craig Newborn, the Director of the NSA patiently and with barely disguised satisfaction reminded his sometimes ally and sometimes enemy, depending on the subject matter.

“I just have one word for you, Snowden.” Mr. Welch taunted his colleague using a low blow, betraying how pissed he was.

Janice thought the two men were going to start duking it out, but their little tiff was interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the President of the United States.  Everyone in the room instantly stood.  “Mr. President, I didn’t expect to see you here. I thought you had a meeting with the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs?”

“I did and still do. Jack’s right behind me.” The President pointed to the report that the CIA and NSA Directors almost got into a fight over. “We’re here because of that.”

Her boss’s face paled. “Sir, I apologize. We just received it and we’re going over it. We had no idea it was so poorly vetted.  I take full responsibility and will personally work with George to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.”

The President chuckled, surprising her boss. “Dave, it’s okay. You couldn’t have known and I was just briefed on the report. It’s a real threat, but first, let me introduce you to our subject matter experts. Hell, I didn’t even know we had experts on this topic until,” he glanced at his watch, “thirty minutes ago.”

The President motioned for two dark suited gentlemen to enter the rapidly shrinking conference room. Janice decided that if anyone could pull of the Men in Black look from the movies, these two men would be it. One of the identically dressed men carried a large, old fashioned plain black briefcase that was handcuffed to his wrist. Briefcase man stepped forward and placed his briefcase on the table. It made a solid thunk sound as he set it down, indicating it must contain a large amount of paperwork. Despite the presence of the heavy hitters in the room, the man appeared completely relaxed.

“Hello, my name is Agent C. My associate here is Agent D. Yes, those are our names and no, none of you, except the President, has the clearance to know our real names.” Agent C’s statement stunned and surprised everyone in the room. All heads turned to the President for confirmation. He acknowledged them with a tight smile and a nod of his head.

Without saying a word, Agent C pressed his thumb against a built in scanner. The case began slowly beeping. To Janice, it sounded like a countdown and her fears were confirmed when Mr. Welch hastily pushed himself away from the table in an attempt to put some distance between himself and the beeping case. Agent D raised his eyebrow at the Director as he calmly pressed his thumb against the same scanner. It beeped again and the case clicked, signaling it was unlocked.

“Gentlemen,” Agent C turned to face Janice, “and ladies. What I am about to tell you does not leave this room. This is classified Ultra-Violet-Omega-One and any leaks will traced and the guilty charged with Treason and fully prosecuted under the Espionage Act.”

Janice never thought any of the men in the room feared being prosecuted for a leak because people who reach their level don’t get charged, for anything. Hell, the Director of the NSA lied to Congress, under oath and nothing happened to him. If it had been her, she’d be sitting in a jail somewhere, but the looks on their faces told her they feared what they were about to learn. She decided the meeting just became a lot less boring.  

Satisfied that he had everyone’s attention, Agent C opened the case. It made a hissing sound, telling Janice that the contents had been vacuum sealed. Agent D, reached forward and helped the handcuffed Agent C extract a square, gray metal object and set it in the middle of the table.

“What have here is known Morphic Adaptation Unit or MAU for short. This one has been deactivated and is considered safe. It is an Extraterrestrial Device that is capable of making gross changes to the human body. I know it doesn’t look like much, but here are some photos of the device in its open configuration.” Agent C extracted a folder from his briefcase and handed out a set of four photos showing a device that to Janice, looked like a small phone booth. “When activated, this small box will transform to look like the device shown in the pictures. Our scientists and researchers have been analyzing this device for over a decade and we still we have no idea how it can do that. The best guess is that it uses some form of nanotechnology to rapidly reassemble itself. The metal is an unknown element and is impervious to all known methods of analyses. We haven’t been able to even put a scratch on it and trust me, we’ve tried everything, including a nuclear device.”

“Your report states that the Chinese are planning on cloning or duplicating people and this,” he pointed to the alien box again, “is how they will do that.  When in its activated form, the user of the device only has to place their hand on the small, three digit claw print shown on this picture here,” he handed out a second set of pictures showing a fuzzy, cell phone picture of the mentioned item, “and imagine how they want to look, along with any high tech gear or equipment they can imagine. If the user knows enough about the item in question, the MAU will create it for them and it will work.”

Agent C pulled out a round cylinder that looks exactly like a toy, Star Wars lightsaber. “Yes gentleman, we have confiscated working lightsaber.” He pressed a stud on the side and the toy came to life, complete with the trademarked sound effect and glowing beam of bright light. Agent C carefully swing it back and forth a few times, but it looked like the jaded sceptics in the room were having trouble believing him.

Noticing and expecting the disbelief, Agent C pulled out a small steel bar that was approximately two feet long and an inch in diameter. “This is a solid steel bar. Would anyone like to examine it?”  

No one accepted his offer.  Smiling, he handed the bar to Agent D and as Agent D carefully held the bar at both ends and well away from his body, Agent C slowly brought the humming lightsaber down, against the bar, as close to the center and away from his companion's body as possible. The lightsaber effortlessly passed through the bar, cutting it cleanly in half. Pressing the stud on the side, the lightsaber deactivated and Agent C carefully placed it back in his briefcase.

“That is a sample of the kind of devices this machine is capable of recreating and no, we have not been able to reverse engineer a working lightsaber.” Agent C sighed with frustration. “Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, this,” he pointed to the MAU, “is not the only device on this planet. This particular MAU was discovered in a farmer’s field last year and since the Agency was activated by President Truman, we have captured a number of these devices. The exact number is classified. The fact that so many have been found tells us that there is a large probability that there are more that haven’t been found and activated. We also haven’t been able to capture a working MAU either. Until activated for the first time, they are dormant. Once activated, the expand for use and will work for approximately four days. At the end of the time limit, they shut down and will not reactivated and no one has been able to discover how to reactivate a previously active device.”

Once again, Agent C reached into his briefcase of wonders and pulled out another folder. From the folder, he pulled out a stack of ten to fifteen, high quality color pictures depicting an even mix of fantasy alien creatures as well as, a few, easily recognizable movie stars. Two of whom were now dead. “All of the subjects pictured here were human and a currently alive and well.  The female centaur subject was a male who raised horses in New York. He found and played with the device. Our agents found her and a deactivated MAU a week later.  The various aliens you see were also human until they found a device and the four day window ran out, trapping them in their current forms. Many of these people now work for us, trying to find a way to reactivate the machine so they can return to being a normal human being.  Miss Monroe here was a male school teacher and film buff who got a little too curious about his favorite movie star and like the aliens and fantasy creatures, got stuck after the four day window expired and yes, she is a fully functional female now. The changes the device can make are very comprehensive.”

“Evidence suggests that the devices entered Earth’s atmosphere somewhere between fifty to sixty years ago, but due to the reports of mythological creatures going back all the way to the Greek and Roman era, a few may have been found and used as long as a few thousand years ago. If the Chinese have found one, or more of these devices and are using them, the threat in your report is 100% credible.”

Janice found the idea of transforming herself into Princess Leia or Cleopatra rather exciting, but she noticed how uncomfortable the idea made the men in the room look. “Umm, sorry, but I know you said that it can make them look like someone else, like a famous movie star, but what about fingerprints or other genetic markers?”

Agent C grinned. “Excellent question Miss Moer!”

Janice wondered how the man knew her last name.

“They don’t, but evidence suggests that if the users of a device had a sample of genetic material from their target or physical access to the target, the machine could make a perfect copy.”

Mr. Welch cleared his throat and leaned forward, his gaze fixed on the alien box. “Is there anyway to identify someone who has used the device?”

Agent C glanced over to his silent companion.  "Unless the changes were ... unusual?  No."

"Damn," her boss swore.  He closed his eyes, sighing heavily.  When he opened them, he glanced around the room, returning his gaze to the President.  "Sir, we have a problem, a very big problem."

~o~O~o~

The swirling energy pattern stopped abruptly when Danni lifted her head.  For a brief moment, she felt disoriented, but she regained her composure and began methodically scanning with her enhanced senses to determine what had interrupted her regeneration cycle.  As she sat up, she almost instinctively smoothed the front of her suit.  Even after nearly two years, she flinched as her hands pressed the wrinkles out of the fabric, momentarily brushing across her breasts.

The door crashed open - Danni expected no less, given her location – and a Klingon woman stepped in.  Klingons, she thought with a smile, were never ones for tact or subtlety.  "What is it, Kleng?" she asked directly.  Of the Klingon women, Kleng was the most easily recognizable, mostly because she had the largest bust by far.

"The gate alarm is sounding," Kleng answered.  Simple, direct answers.  

"And?"  Danni was curious as to why she would have been bothered with such a triviality.  The force field would easily keep out intruders – and keep in the rather unusual and fierce beasts the Klingons used for sport hunting.

"Martok thought you would be interested in the 'guest'," Kleng answered.  "His behavior is quite unusual."

Now curious, Danni followed Kleng through the hall to the control room.  Martok and two other Klingons sat at the display, staring at the monitor; they paid no attention to Danni's entrance.

Danni looked at the monitor which displayed the compound's front gate.  To the outside world, the gate looked like a normal ranch gate in a heavy timber fence, the gate astride a normal dirt road through a sparse pine forest.  In this case, looks were deceiving.  The gate and fence were purely for show.  A stout force-field protected the Klingon compound against all intruders.

Danni watched the gate.  The man stood at the gate, patiently watching the camera.  After a few moments, he went what appeared to be a security keypad by the gate and pressed a single button.  Then he stood and stared into the camera again.

"Well?" Martok asked simply.

Danni frowned.  "Curious."

Martok roared with laughter.  "You spend too much time with the Vulcans!  You're starting to sound like them!"  He glanced at the monitor.  "Do you recognize him?"

Danni nodded.  "Our friend from the agency," she answered.

"That's what we thought.  Shall I have him brought in?"

Danni thought for a moment.  This was highly unusual.  The man was acting as if he knew what Danni would do.  "No," she said after a moment.  "I'm going out to meet him."

Martok frowned.  "Is that wise?  It could be a trap."

Danni smiled gently.  "I think I can take care of myself."

One of the Klingons reflexively rubbed his jaw at her words.  "That's an understatement," he said softly, not meaning to be heard.  However, in the quiet of the control room, it was audible to all.  Danni and Martok roared with laughter.

Danni strode easily down the path toward the gate.  Beyond the gate, the man stood in a precise military parade rest.  Danni reached out and touched the inner control pad, and the gate opened.  Still the man stood, watching her.  She felt the tingling of the force field; any other person would have been knocked on their backside, but her Borg implants and systems easily shunted the energy aside and let her pass.

"You would be?" Danni asked easily as she stood facing the man.

The man straightened, then stood in a more casual stance.  Even then, his posture had a distinctively military appearance.  "Let's try this a bit differently," the man suggested.  "You would be Danni.  With an 'i'.  But you used to go by Dan or Danny – with a 'y'.  You discovered a unique attache case at a WorldCon two years and three months ago.  Being a curious and intelligent graduate student, you quickly discovered that the attache case was really some type of alien device that had the capability to change a user's form.  In your case, your knowledge of nanotechnology and Star Trek led you to change – inadvertently – into the form of Seven of Nine, a cybernetic being from the show, and unfortunately, you also discovered that you could no longer change back into your normal male body.  Since that time, you have helped not fewer than seventy-four Star Trek and Star Wars fans to permanently alter their physical forms to suit their ... desires."  He watched Danni's mouth drop open.  "How am I doing so far?"

Danni's head spun.  This guy knew way too much.  "Who are you?"

"Maybe we should go to a more secure location to finish this discussion?" the man suggested.

~o~O~o~

Sadie’s circuits overloaded with pleasure as she and Michelle enjoyed the night together in each other’s arms.  As much as she might try to complain about being a female Transformer robot, it did have some perks and linked sex with her vivacious wife was one thing she would never grew tired of. The only downside to having sex was the need to restrain their voices a little. Waking the babies was bad, but she was thankful that the little munchkins weren’t mobile yet.   

“I love you…” Sadie whispered into Michelle’s ear as her wife worked to control her breathing.

“That. Was. Incredible.” Michelle gasped. “Can we do that again?”

Sadie smirked. “It’s 1AM love and we both have to get up early this morning. I know your body is capable of it, but you’re still human and need at least a little sleep.”

Michelle pouted and sighed with frustration. “I know, but you’re going to be gone for a whole week!”

At promptly 5AM, Sadie’s optics opened and she reluctantly left the shared bed. Opting for comfort and ease of use, she elected to use her own camouflage to produce her clothes versus spending the time to dress herself in real clothes. Heading to the garage, she topped off her tank with a shot of Helium-3 from her generator and then, she brewed a small pot of coffee for Michelle and after waiting for the pot to finish, she delivered the fresh cup of caffeine goodness to Michelle.  

Waking her with a kiss, Sadie softly spoke into Michelle’s ear. “Rise and shine my love!”

“Mmmmphhh, just one more hour…” Michelle pleaded softly.

“Sorry love, but I did warn you and you didn’t seem to complain when we went a second round.” Sadie snickered as she gazed down at her disheveled wife, finding her even more beautiful.

Michelle huffed with annoyance and sat up. “Fine, I’m up!” She growled.

Sadie rewarded her with a long, passionate kiss before skipping out of the room with a smile on her lips. Her last stop before leaving was at her children’s room.  She quietly kissed baby Jessica and baby Greg goodbye.  “Bye you two. Mommy will be back as soon as possible. You be good for Mommy while I’m gone.”

The parental nouns confused her, but what else could she use? While the adorable pair were less than six months old and couldn’t understand her, she found speaking to them to be a calming experience.  She found herself smiling as little Greg sleepily grabbed her finger and tried to suck on it.  

Her smile faded as she stepped into the garage. She was not looking forward to spending a week in Hong Kong and away from her wife and children, but the conference was a big deal for Rogers International.  Every major corporation with business in Asia were going to be there for an international business conference and since Mr. Rogers was expected to be there, so was his executive assistant.  

As a woman, she wasn’t too pleased with the Asian business culture and was not looking forward to being viewed as a merely an ornament by the male dominated culture.  American business men were bad, but the stories she heard about foreign business leaders made her thank her lucky stars she was American.

While in Hong Kong, she had a few surprises planned for Mr. Rogers.  The first surprise was Jenna. Her movie was opening in Asia and she was scheduled to be in Hong Kong while they were there.  Jenna had already promised them tickets to the big, star studded premiere event and Sadie was pretty sure Mr. Rogers would find it interesting since the big Hollywood style movie openers always drew a veritable who’s who of the local business leaders.

For her second surprise, she had installed Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and Korean language programs. The programs were good, but to help with the spoken language, she had also spent the last couple of weeks listening to native language broadcasts to become more proficient with those languages.  She was looking forward to seeing the expression on her boss’s face when he found out she could speak the language.

She drove her economical five year old and paid off Toyota to Mr. Roger’s house, where she parked it next to cars worth more than ten times her own and walked over to his chauffeur driven Mercedes limo.  As she approached, Liam, the chauffeur got out of the driver’s seat and stowed her small, rolling carry-on bag that contained her laptop prop and a bare minimum of fresh clothes for the week.  If she had been a real woman, the clothes wouldn’t have been enough for more than two days, but she didn’t really need them and not having any luggage would’ve been unusual to say the least.  

“How is your morning Missus Williamson?” Liam, the chauffeur politely asked from the front seat as they both now waited on Mr. Rogers.

Sadie sighed, with sadness and frustration. “Oh, it was okay, but not looking forward to leaving Michelle and the twins for a week and how many times have I asked you to just call me Sadie?”

Kurt chuckled. “Lost count ma’am.”

“Grrr…” Sadie found herself smiling despite her frustration with the man. It was like a game to him to always be ultra polite and use her formal name. The two chit chatted for five minutes until she spotted Mr. Rogers walking out the front door with a giant rolling suitcase in tow. She could fit three or maybe even four of her bags into Mr. Rogers suitcase.  Nancy followed behind with his briefcase and handed it to him with a kiss as Liam held the car door open for him.

“Morning Sadie. You take good care of Kurt. Don’t let him get into any trouble.” Nancy leaned over and smiled at Sadie as Mr. Rogers sighed with resignation.

“Will do ma’am-” Now Sadie was doing what Liam did to her after Mrs. Rogers specifically asked her not to. “I mean Nancy.”

“Thank you dear and I’ll be checking in on Michelle and the twins for you. Don’t you worry!” She grinned, wagging her finger at Sadie.

~o~O~o~

Going through security was a little stressful for her. Sadie was worried that the metal detector was going to have a meltdown when she passed through it. She had an Agency supplied fake doctor’s note to use just in case, but her ECM easily defeated the system, preventing the scanner from uttering a peep. The flight was long, but flying first class on an international flight wasn’t that hard of an ordeal compared to flying coach.  Sadie might have enjoyed it more if the offer of complimentary champagne wasn’t a nagging reminder that she wasn’t human. After all the time and parties she had been too, Sadie thought that she would be over feeling sorry for herself, but no, it appeared that the little reminders liked to occasionally surprise her.

The fourteen hour flight drove Sadie a little crazy. Not only was it boring, it was so frustrating to be relegated to a snail's pace when she could’ve flown herself in less than three hours. Thank Cybertron she had full access to the communications satellites to surf the web, but after eight solid hours of reading online fiction stories, visiting news sites, watching movies, catching up on office work --less than five minutes--, and reviewing the profiles of all the major corporations with Mr. Rogers she sighed with resignation. “I’m sorry Mr. Rogers, but I’m feeling a little tired. Do you mind if I take a nap?”

Mr. Rogers chuckled. “Not at all Sadie. Go ahead. I was thinking about doing the same. I’ll wake you before we land.”

Sadie leaned back in her seat, closed her optical sensors and entered standby mode.  She wasn’t asleep. She had all sensors running except for visual, but to any human observer, it looked like she was sleeping. She would’ve gone into hibernation mode to help make the flight feel faster, but she didn’t want to risk being completely dead to the world, relying on her internal alarm to wake her. Instead, she called Michelle to see how her day went and how the kids were doing.

She spent an hour on the phone with Michelle and even though it had only been less than a day, Sadie already missed her and their children a lot.  Greg had never been an overly clingy man, but as Sadie, she was already feeling homesick.  It surprised her a lot and made her realize how much loved Michelle. As she was saying her goodbyes and I love yous, she surprised herself by how much her voice cracked with emotion.

“I’m sorry Michelle. I can’t believe I’m almost crying here. I feel like such a wuss.” Sadie felt her optics beginning to lubricate, but she quickly halted the process and initiated the cleanup cycle. It wouldn’t be good to be seen crying why she was supposedly taking a nap.

“It’s okay babe. I feel the same. I miss you and the babies are missing you too, but hey, we’re a team and we will get through this together. It’s only a week.” Michelle giggled unrepentantly. “Think of all the sleep you’ll be able to get caught up on without me or the babies waking you up in the middle of the night!”

“Michelle! You know I don’t really sleep and that’s not why I’m almost crying.”

“Oh, I know, but seriously. We’re fine. Nancy has already called and insists on stopping by tomorrow night. She’s bringing me dinner. Plus, your mom and even my mom is stepping up to lend a hand.”

News that Michelle’s mother was offering to help was surprising. She didn’t take the news that her daughter was marrying another woman well and Michelle getting pregnant almost right away almost caused the poor woman to have a stroke. Her mother refused to speak to her daughter for almost six months and it took the combined efforts of her brother and father to get the poor woman to see how much she was hurting her daughter.

“Your mom, seriously?” Sadie asked, skeptically.

“Yep,” Michelle sighed, “but I’m not sure if she’s honestly getting over it or if she sees this as a way to drive a wedge in between us while you’re away.”

“She’s your mom…”

“I know, but we’ll see. I do miss her, but I just wish she wasn’t so set in her ways because I’d love to be able to tell her the truth like we were able to do with your family.”

Sadie chuckled. “Yeah, well, my family is a little more out there than yours. Instead of football games and church every sunday, we went to sci-fi conventions and played video games together, but your brother did surprise me.”

“Nathan surprised you?”

“Yeah, I expected him to be the one against his little sister coming out as a lesbian, but he was the most cool with it all.  Jocks aren’t known for their tolerance, ya know?”

“Yeah, well Nathan and I have always been close and he’s not as close minded as you would expect.”

“I guess not and it is kind of cool getting to go to his football games for free.” Sadie laughed as she thought about how nice it was to sit in the team’s section during a game.

After the call, she ‘woke’ herself and checked on Mr. Rogers. He was lightly snoring away in his seat. She spent the remaining hours of the flight catching up with her reading via the old fashioned way with a real book and reading it word by word versus simply scanning it into her memory.  She found the exercise surprisingly relaxing and enjoyable.  

As they were exiting the plane, Mr. Rogers glanced back at Sadie and sighed. “I don’t know how you do it Sadie, but even after spending fourteen hours on a plane, you look like you just stepped out of the salon.”

“Oh, well,” Sadie nervously giggled, feeling a little guilty and pleased at the same time, “it’s not easy and why do you think women spend so much time in the bathroom?”  She prayed Mr. Rogers would simply chalk it up to another mystery of the female species.  He seemed to accept it with a sceptical grunt.

Hong Kong was amazing. The airport was nothing like she was expecting.  It was very clean and new-looking while the security and customs people were friendly. Not at all like the airports back home.  As a six foot tall, redhead with green eyes wearing three inch heels, she received even more attention than she did in the States and it wasn’t just the men checking her out, the women did also. She overheard more than whispered comment about her being a movie star or a supermodel, but she kept herself from displaying any hint that she understood their language. She didn’t want to embarrass them or let Mr. Rogers know what she was capable of just yet.  

She was worried they were going to have to take a cab, but a young man holding a sign with the Roger’s International company logo was waiting for them outside of baggage claim.  He seemed friendly enough, spoke English and escorted them to a late model Mercedes sedan. Once their luggage was stowed in the trunk and the pair were seated, the driver turned back to face them. “I will take you to your hotel now. First time to Hong Kong?”

“Yes.” Sadie nodded enthusiastically as she started to get a little excited to be seeing a new place.

“No.” Mr. Rogers replied with a grin for his assistant’s enthusiasm.

“You will like. Lots have changed. Hotel is very nice!” The driver grinned, turning back and starting the car.  He spoke into his radio in Cantonese, “~I have Rogers xiānshēng and his xiaomi. She is very pretty. Leaving airport now.~”

Sadie almost chewed the man out, but she decided to maintain her composure and not expose her knowledge. She was pissed that the driver called her a xiaomi. Slang for a female secretary hired more for looks than skill, implying that she was Mr. Rogers’ mistress.

“What’s wrong?” Mr. Rogers asked, noticing her slight tensing.

Sadie sighed with resignation. Less than an hour in Hong Kong and she was already having to deal with gender stereotypes. “Oh, nothing. I just remembered that I forgot to call Michelle when we landed…”

The hotel was very nice. She and Mr. Roger’s shared a massive two bedroom suite with a commanding view of the city. She shuddered to think how much it cost per night.  After the xiaomi remark, she wasn’t so sure that sharing a suite with her boss was a good idea, but the damage was done because while the hotel staff were polite, she understood verbal inflections they used when they addressed her as Williamson Xiǎojiě. Officially, the honorific after her name denoted Miss, but the way the staff said it, they might as well have called her a slut.

Under the guise of settling into her room, Sadie performed a scan for listening devices and cameras. She didn’t expect to find anything. So, when her sensors pinged from multiple hits, she almost called for Mr. Rogers. She detected not just one, but three audio bugs spaced around the room and one micro video camera centered over her bed.  Annoyed by the camera, she quickly burned it out with a focused laser burst in its optical sensor, but she decided to leave the audio bugs alone for now.  Cameras burn out all the time and she didn’t want to tip off her opponents --whoever they were-- just yet.

Under the guise of familiarizing herself with their shared living space, she scanned the rest of the suite for bugs and found plenty to be concerned about. Ten audio bugs and three video bugs were hidden in the main living area. She left all of the bugs alone and decided to join Mr. Rogers outside on the balcony.

Sadie found him appreciatively sipping from a glass of scotch and looking out over the city. She joined him at his side, sighing as she took in the beauty this strange and exotic city had to offer.  

Mr. Rogers casually took a sip from his drink and turned to her with a smirk. “So, you going to tell me why her acting even more like an Ice Queen to the staff here?”

“What?” Sadie gasped, surprised that he would refer to her by her old office title. “I’m not!”

Sadie sighed and anxiously glanced back toward the interior of their suite. “Well, okay, but lemme check a few things first.”  She scanned the balcony area and was pleasantly surprised to find only one audio bug. She disabled it with a quick burst of microwave energy and closed the balcony door to block any of the bugs from inside.  

She noted her boss’s bemusement at her cloak and dagger behavior, but she was feeling a little peeved about the bugs, the sexism and being away from home didn’t help. “We’re bugged. Don’t ask me how or why I know, but there are three audio bugs and one video bug in my room. I disabled the video bug. There are also ten audio and three video bugs in the living room area and I have no idea what’s in your room. There was a bug out here, but I disabled it. So, besides the bugs, what is pissing me off is how the driver and the staff are addressing me-”

Mr. Rogers choked on his drink and held up his hand for her stop.  After he got his coughing under control, he motioned for her to come closer. “What?” He whispered into her ear.

“The staff are calling me your mistress!” Sadie huffed, crossing her arms with annoyance as she ignored the question her boss was probably more worried about, the bugs and how she knew about them.

“No, not that, bugs?” Mr. Rogers anxiously asked, keeping his voice low.

“Yeah, we’re bugged out the yazoo here, but you don’t need to whisper. I disabled the one that was out here. I guess they just didn’t expect us to use the balcony.”

“Oh,” Mr. Rogers straightened and glanced down at his drink, “how did you know?”

“Umm,” Now it was time for Sadie to come up with something suitably plausible and technical enough to fool her boss. She pulled out her smartphone. “I have an app that uses the camera’s photo sensor to scan for other cameras and an app that uses the phone’s built in radio to scan for other radio devices. Isn’t it amazing what these new fangled phones are capable of these days.” She giggled as he seemed to be accepting her story. “Not at all like those old fashioned rotary things you grew up with, huh?”

“Your phone can do all that?!?!” Mr. Rogers gasped as he reflexively reached for the alien --to him-- device.  
 

Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between her phone and something like Boeing’s new Black Phone, a phone that might actually do what she claimed her phone could do,  Sadie let him look at it.  He turned it over in his hands a few times before reverently handing it back to her. “I never knew. I might have to get one of those now.”

Sadie laughed. “Yeah, but then you wouldn’t need me and people would be calling you all the time!”

Mr. Rogers grimaced. “Good point.” He tipped his glass to her. “Maybe I’m just too old to try something like that. So, what do you think we should do about the bugs?”

Sadie shrugged her shoulders. “Beats me. Is it normal for you to have your rooms bugged?”

“No.” He shook his head with disgust.

“Okay, then I will disable them all. Maybe they are just left over from the previous guests and not really active.  If new ones show up, then we will know that someone is out to get you.”  Sadie turned back to enter the suite.

“Sounds good, can I watch?” Mr. Rogers asked, following her inside.

It took Sadie a little less than five minutes to disable all the bugs. It would’ve gone faster, but she had to pretend to use her phone to find and remove the bugs. With their privacy secured, Mr. Rogers freshened his glass of scotch and gave her a glass, insisting that she join him.

“Now, why are you upset by how the staff is addressing you?” Mr. Rogers returned to the topic Sadie was hoping he would forget about.

“Well,” She delayed her reply by taking a sip of the scotch. It was very old and expensive stuff and she pretended to savor it. “For this trip, I decided to learn a few of the languages we might need during any negotiation and I overheard what the driver and the staff think of me.”

“You did what?!?” Mr. Rogers almost dropped his drink.

“I learned Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Japanese, but I haven’t had a lot of practice speaking any of them…” Sadie tried to minimize her feat.

“Okaaay,” His expression mirrored both astonishment and skepticism, but he didn’t challenge her statement, “and what did you hear them say about you? I heard the staff use the “miss” honorific with your name, but was there something else?”

It took her a couple of minutes to explain what the driver called her and how the staff purposefully misused the honorific to imply she was a slut at best and his hired escort at worst.  

Mr. Rogers sighed heavily and shook his head with disappointment. “I’m so sorry Sadie. I normally come to these things alone because of the sexism. Nancy came with me once and it was not good. I was hoping they had advanced a little in the last ten years.”

“It’s not your fault sir and I can handle it. It just came as a surprise to find out that it’s as bad as everyone said.” Sadie grinned with predatory anticipation. “Besides, I think it will be fun to take advantage of their misconceptions during your negotiations, don’t you agree?”

Mr. Rogers face lit up with glee. “Oh yes, very much so and I know just how to take advantage of the distraction I am sure you will cause!”

The first day of meetings went pretty much how she expected them to go. The older generation of CEO’s treated her with disdain, like she was beneath their notice while the younger generation openingly leered at her. Mr. Rogers liked dealing with the younger CEO’s, the ones who viewed Sadie as eye candy, because they made the most mistakes during negotiations. Over the first three days, they met with the CEO’s and executives from over fifteen large corporations. While most spoke English during the negotiations, they often switched to their native tongue when conversing among themselves, assuming that neither Mr. Rogers or his pretty secretary would understand their words. The secrets she learned proved to be invaluable to Mr. Rogers and costly to his suppliers and competitors.

For Jenna’s premiere event, Mr. Rogers wore a tuxedo and Sadie activated a little green dress that complemented her eyes and hair.  She kept her heels down to three inches, she didn’t want to tower over her boss. She still drew a lot of attention to herself and Mr. Rogers, but since it was a movie premier, most of the comments she overheard were complementary in nature.

During the after party, Mr. Rogers made a few new contacts within the Hong Kong government and much to Sadie’s surprise, he even seemed to enjoy the movie and commented on it during the ride back to their hotel. “Thank you very much Sadie. Your friend Jenna is a beautiful and talented woman. Did she really do all of her own stunts and can she really fight?”  

“Yes and yes. She’s the real deal.” Sadie said, feeling proud for her friend’s accomplishments.

The night would’ve been near perfect if not for what Sadie found when they returned to their suite.  The bugs were back, meaning someone had planted them sometime during the day.  The new bugs were also more sophisticated. They were voice activated and after she extracted one, she discovered it was programmed to store the audio for up to an hour before activating their transmitters to send the take to who ever was listening, making them harder to detect.

In addition to the physical listening devices, she also discovered that a laser microphone was aimed at their window from the building across the street from their room. In order to get the best sound pickup, the beam was focused on the large picture frame in the living room.  She limited its effectiveness by closing the blinds and turning on the suite’s excellent music system.

Mr. Rogers was not happy with the news, but with only two more days left in the conference and with how little time they spent in the rooms discussing sensitive business information; he was willing to put up with it.  

The next afternoon, Mr. Rogers was scheduled to attend an uncharacteristically open tour of Tomachi Heavy Industries main factory complex. The tour group included five other CEOs who ran similar businesses. Her boss didn’t trust the CEO of Tomachi at all. He didn’t trust his competitors as a rule, but Gang Zhào he trusted far less than any other. The man was ruthless in his quest to lead the world in electronics manufacturing. Sadie didn’t like him because when she met the guy, he proved himself to be the most sexist out of all previous CEOs. During the meeting with the man, he assumed neither Mr. Rogers or she could understand his Mandarin Chinese when he laughingly made crude comments to his second in command about why old man Rogers hired her and how good in bed she had to be.

Besides herself, there was only one other female on the trip. A pretty, Japanese executive assistant and translator for one of the Japanese CEOs. Sadie thought the woman carried herself with a certain grace that reminded Sadie of Jenna, but she refused to follow the stereotypical mindset that meant the woman was a ninja. The group was at the halfway point in the tour and taking a small break for refreshments when the woman approached her.

"I am Yoshida," the woman bowed politely and continued after rising from the bow, "it is a honor to meet a fellow assistant to men of high position."

Sadie returned the bow, "It is a honor to meet you, I am Sadie Williamson, and may I say it's a pleasure to meet a fellow aide?"

The woman smiled, politely nodding, implying she agreed with Sadie. “Yes,” Yoshida glanced around the room, her gaze lingering on the window opening to a large factory floor, “I feel very lost here amongst all this confusing machinery.”

Sadie thought she detected a hint of sarcasm in her reply and there was something about the woman’s eyes that told her she was far more than another pretty face. “Yes, I agree. It’s a good thing we have all these men here to explain things to us, right?” Sadie mimicked the woman’s tone and body language.

Yoshida smiled with bemusement as she caught Sadie’s meaning. She looked like she was about to reply when Mr. Gang Zhào himself entered the room accompanied by two large and armed security guards. “Greetings my esteemed colleagues!” He smiled magnanimously. “This is the fourth and final day that I can offer this unique, one of a kind, special tour, but,” he sighed with regret, “for trade secrets purposes, I must ask you to leave your assistants behind.”

Mr. Rogers and the other CEO’s didn’t look very comfortable with the idea, but neither did Sadie.  She glanced over to her new friend and noticed a fleeting look of concern cross her face also.

Mr. Zhào noticed the discontent in the room. “Don’t worry, they will be well taken care of and provided refreshments until your tour is complete. If you do not wish to be separated, I will have to regretfully deny your unique chance to get in on the ground floor with a technology so advanced, it will change the world!”

Only one of the CEO’s declined their host’s invitation. Regretfully, Mr. Rogers was not the one. Sadie didn’t know why and couldn’t imagine what might go wrong, but she had a bad feeling deep in her spark about Mr. Zhào groundbreaking technology.

~o~O~o~