Undercovers
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

I met Marcus Tench when I was in the army. He had been the victim of an attack in his barracks. It was clear that he was small and slightly built, perhaps even effeminate, so he had been bullied mercilessly from boot camp, but he had stood up for himself and it had turned into a massive brawl with multiple injuries, most of them to him. It was enough to involve the MPs and I was the lieutenant in charge of the camp detachment. I interviewed him and others and Marcus impressed me with the way he refused to back down even against massive odds. I remember thinking that here was a guy they should be happy to have in their trench in a pitched battle, but to my thinking, he was a bit “girly”.

I spoke to him about the modern United States Army being inclusive, but I did suggest to him that perhaps he should be looking for another deployment. He said that he had his reasons for wanting to be amongst men like those who had attacked him, but he was open to ideas. Although it is not the job of military policeman to do this, I asked him about his skills and I ended up finding him the ideal place within my own corps.

He was great with figures but he was not interested in clerical work in logistics so I suggested that he apply for a job in the Military Police Investigations Division. It was not my area but I knew that they were busy on our base looking for theft of supplies. It sounds duller than it was, in particular as some weapons had gone missing and finding the culprits had high priority. Marcus ended up spending his time well and receiving commendations and a corporal’s stripes.

I stayed in touch with him throughout those years and I suppose that we became friends over that time. He was intelligent and determined and he was the kind of person who you could count on. I respected him and he respected me.

Straight out of the army I learned that he had joined the Los Angeles Police Department. With his skills and background, he went straight from the Police Academy into detective work specializing in fraud and money-laundering. It was similar to what he had been doing in the army - you still need to find what was missing, where it went, and who made it happen.

My background in the military was protection and I left the services to go into private security, also in Los Angeles. I resumed my friendship with Marcus and he even helped me (off the record) with some information available from police records. I enjoyed his company, although we must have looked like a mismatched pair.

He told me about a case that he was working on, and it did spark my interest. Maybe as a test, the captain in charge of the Fraud Department had referred Marcus to a guy called Egor Velsky. He was a prominent entrepreneur and philanthropist in the city, with wide influence in the Police Department so any inquiries would stay off the record. There had been tip offs that Velsky was heavily involved in illegal businesses and that he was just using his charitable trusts and foundations to launder money. It was the kind of case where a detective could never approach or question the key “person of interest” but somebody was needed to work secretly to find where his money was coming from with a view to building a case that could not simply be swept away.

There was no doubt in my mind that Marcus Tench was just the guy for the job. He was tenacious and brave. He understood that if he was discovered it might be curtains for him.

Officially Marcus was doing other work, but it was clear that the Velsky case filled his spare time. It was all about going through the public records of the charities and looking for sources of money, while leaving no trace that it was the LAPD behind this. He was slowly building a body of material, but he said that to tie it back to Velsky he would need to access the records of Velsky’s management company. He had the entire structure laid out, but he needed to find a way in. It was tightly secured, and he discussed the whole thing with me. My honest assessment was that the only way in was infiltration.

Marcus said that Velsky’s whole team were trusted colleagues but the only potential weakness that he had found was a lengthy email correspondence between Velsky’s accountant Howard Jaine and his potential Ukrainian mail order bride, Tanya. Howard had been sending money and waiting for her to arrive but it seemed clear to Marcus and me that this was a scam. There was no Tanya – just an image and an untraceable bank account

He thought of it as a way in but he had a problem. As he said it – “All we need is a Tanya.”

I just looked at him and suddenly it all seemed to fit. I simply said – “You could be Tanya.”

He just laughed, but it was as if I could see him as a woman, even as he sat there. Maybe I had even seen that image before, back in the army, but now it seemed to me that he could pull it off. All he could see was that I was serious.

“That is a crazy idea, Cam,” he said, but I could see that he was thinking about it. The problem that he had was that he was driving this case all by himself because he knew that Velsky had connections in the police department. Simply taking what he had in search of a female officer to play Tanya was not an option. It seemed like the only way was to try this. He could simply say that he was going undercover for a week or two in pursuit of his yet-to-be-named high level target.

“Hey, you could pass as a woman,” I assured him. “Plenty of guys can, with a little help from hormones and stuff like that. And the fact is that you need the skills on the inside and that means it has to be you. You need to make sure that the Department is fully behind you. You need back up.

“There will still be risks, but you are right – who else would be prepared to take those risks?” said Marcus. “I am committed to catching Velsky. I have to be all in.”

It is difficult to say it, but when I went home that night and went to bed, I could not get the likeness of Marcus dressed as a woman out of my head. Perhaps I had glimpsed that image in my mind’s eye a few times, but then he was just a regular guy. Now, somehow the thought of him skipping down the street in a dress and heels became an unshakable image. It was not an image of a man I had once served with in the army wearing a dress and bad wig and red lipstick – rather it was the dream of a woman with a woman’s body and Marcus’s face prettied up.

I never saw him as Tanya, although I now fully understand how he would have looked. All I know about what happened next, I learned much later.

I must confess that I did not fully understand the extent to which Marcus and his captain were running this alone for fear that the Velsky Organization might learn they were being investigated. All that he said was that he would be checking in with his LAPD superior daily.

I found myself worrying about my friend in a way I never had before. He was a woman now, or trying to be one. That made him vulnerable. I wished that I had made him promise to stay in touch with me as well as his captain, but I knew that any communication would put him at risk. Marcus was simply out of reach, and my only thoughts of him were becoming strangely erotic.

The real Tanya was not even Ukrainian, but she was tracked down by the LAPD and found to be scamming several men. I understand that she was arrested but that is barely relevant – her email address was taken over by Marcus who announced that following the successful granting of the visa paid for by Howard she would be arriving in Los Angeles off the flight from Warsaw next Wednesday. Tanya would meet Howard in the concourse at LAX rather than at Arrivals for the simple reason (unknown to Howard) that she would be arriving at the airport by cab.

It was an emotional meeting by all accounts. Howard was thrilled with the standard of her English and even more thrilled by her appearance. It was nothing like the glamor shots that had been sent, but as Tanya explained – “That was not me. We use models to hide our identity. The internet is not safe.”

Tanya explained that she was brought up Catholic so there should be no sex before marriage, but she was prepared to be flexible. The real reason was that she was hiding male genitalia but Howard (of course) had no idea. Respecting her wishes Howard made his spare room available to Tanya and he spent the following days and weeks courting her during the periods he was not at work. It was those times when he was absent that Tanya valued, picking locks and hacking systems to get access to more information to add to a growing volume being sent directly to LAPD with a copy going to her old army buddy, just to secure it elsewhere.

Then Howard suggested that it was time for Tanya to meet his boss. Velsky was throwing a party and Tanya was invited together with other wives and partners. Howard was determined that she look her best with a trip to the salon and a new dress. Tanya was looking forward to meeting the object of her interest and was fearful but excited.

A message was sent through to the captain in charge of the Fraud Department. It was the last message he was to receive from Marcus Tench.

She (the new Tanya) had good reason to fear Velsky. He was totally aware of his accountant’s foreign mail order bride and had probably already formed the idea that she presented a security risk, aggravated by the fact that all checks on her origins had drawn blank responses. He had decided that the best policy was to meet Tanya and then get Howard out of the way while he drugged her and interrogated her “in the old style”.

Months passed and I had heard nothing from Marcus, so I contacted the LAPD. I was told that inquiries were under way and that Marcus’s superior would contact me. At his invitation I went to see him about a week after the party when all contact had been lost.

“I saw in Marcus somebody who could help me crack this case, but the truth is that even with all the evidence he has gathered we have nothing that we can use to pin charges on the key players,” he told me. “Now we have lost contact with him, and I fear the worst, but any probable cause I have to burst in looking for him would be based on information obtained without warrant. We are simply powerless.”

I suggested – “We need to advise officers to look out for him, and Tanya as well.”

“Who is Tanya?” the Captain said.

Like I said, Marcus was my friend, and I felt that he would never have abandoned me so I could not abandon him. He had not shared the whole story with his own superior so it seemed that it was up to me to do something, and with my background I could undertake something that few men would.

I spent a good amount of my time and resources trying to get information about the Velsky Mansion and the events of the evening when my friend went missing. I illegally gained access to CCTV footage from inside the party and other hallways, including images of an unconscious woman being carried away. I identified some of the security personnel through my own contacts and tried to get information by getting them drunk. It took months and even over a year of effort.

I decided that it was time to follow him into the lion’s den. I needed to somehow get into Velsky’s security team. By that time I had been out of the army for years and I had a record as a top operator in my chosen field, but that is not what I wanted. I needed to create a new identity with a record of violence and dishonesty in order to join a criminal enterprise. I knew how to do it within my industry and after years in the military police I had a name of a suitable rebellious soldier that could be checked out without disclosing his recent death under an alias.

It was almost 2 years after Marcus’s disappearance that I gained access to the Velsky Mansion and I was able to start looking for clues about what happened that night. I started by talking to some of those who were on duty that night, and the first pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place.

“I remember that day. The accountant Howard Jaine turned up with this Russian lady,” one man told me. “She was a knockout and as smart as a whip. I mean the accountant was a fat slob, but this girl had everything. The Boss, I mean Mr. Velsky, he took a shine to her immediately. I guess he wanted her for himself. One of the guys on the detail put something in her drink and we took her down to the basement. The accountant went home alone. The word is he is still crying about it 2 years later, but what are you going to do – right? The Boss is the boss. What you have you only have because of him, so I guess it is all his to take away.”

“So, is she still there? The Russian girl? Or is she dead? Or taken away somewhere?” I could barely conceal my anxiety, but I tried to pass it off as morbid curiosity.

“She is still here somewhere. It is just that the inner security team say that she can never leave their zone. I haven’t seen her. The word is that the Boss enjoys her company, if you know what I mean?”

It seemed impossible to believe that Marcus was still alive. This must be somebody else. It had to be a real woman. Surely if it was found that Marcus was a man, at the very least questions would be asked, and his death would have to follow. Still, I needed to be sure.

As it happened the security arrangements were not that good, and I could easily penetrate the inner compound. The mansion had a wing built over a gully on the property, with a large basement and an enclosed courtyard above that. I managed to get through the heavy locked door to this wing in the middle of the day when the supposedly best men on the team were having lunch in the kitchens.

In the middle of the courtyard was a swimming pool and terrace very much smaller than the main pool with a view over the Pacific. There were only two loungers and on one of them lay a woman wearing a bikini and sunglasses and reading a book. She was tanned and had her long honey blonde hair tied up in a messy bun. She had perfect breasts under small triangles and an even smaller triangle cupped an equally perfect pubis. This was not Marcus, but there was an air of loneliness about her that somehow convinced me that she might also be a prisoner. I decided to take a chance.

I walked up to her, and she looked up at me. With her mouth open she dragged her sunglasses from her face. She simply said - “Cam, you came to find me?”

“Marcus, is that you?” I could not believe it. I had to cast my eyes down the body again to confirm that it was not male, and yet I could see that the face was his, except that it was the face of a beautiful woman. My gaze went straight to her crotch by instinct. The body seemed perfect – a woman head to toe.

“Can you get us out of here?” she said, because this was a “she”. She sounded like a woman too – high pitch and soft tones. She added - “I just need to get one thing.”

“I really think that we need to leave now,” I said. “This part of the house is guarded but not at lunchtime. I have jammed the door open, but they will notice when they get back.”

“The door is always locked while I am a prisoner here, but this side of that door I have the run of this place … except for the levels underneath here where I spent my first few months.” She was on her feet and slipping a robe over that wonderful body and some cork wedges on to her pedicured feet. “Go to the door and wait for me there.”

I watched her hurry away, and I did, despite all that I knew and the urgency of our circumstances I felt myself become aroused by the sight of her. Strangely, as some soldiers will know, adrenalin can have this effect – or that was what I told myself.

It seemed that we were still safe, but I was worried. Then it struck me that I needed to cover her. She was somebody who could stand out in a huge crowd, so surely she would be noticed. I hoped that she would find something plain and masculine to wear, but it seemed to me that more might be needed. In a small steel closet near the door were some raincoats for security staff and I took one.

I seemed to wait for too long, but as I looked out into the main mansion corridor, she crept up behind me. She had not been thinking. She was wearing a floral dress and heels, and she had clearly taken a moment to brush her hair into a high ponytail and apply some makeup. My idea that she could pass for somebody on the security team with me, went out of the window

“You had better put this on.” I offered her the coat. “That is hardly practical”.

I don’t have anything else,” she said. “Forgive me but I don’t get out much. But the good news is that most people have never seen me – only the inner security team. So, I suggest we get to the other side of the mansion and just walk out the front door.”

In the end our escape was just that simple. I had a car parked in the staff carpark and we drove away, headed to my place. The hard part had been the months getting it. Getting her out took only minutes.

“I have evidence on a thumb drive,” she said, holding it up. “It has the evidence that we need to convict that malicious beast, Egor Velsky.”

“Surely you are all the evidence we need,” I said. “He has you as a prisoner for two years. That is kidnapping … and then there is Grievous Bodily Harm - I am guessing that he has mutilated your body as well?”

“Do you call this mutilation?” she said, lifting the skirt of dress and almost having me lose control of the car. “I have to tell you, Cam, yes, he emasculated me, and then turned me into a woman for his own pleasure. And yes, he raped me almost every day, but I don’t want him prosecuted for that. In between the forced sex he treated me like a woman, and I liked it. Maybe I stopped fighting to be a man, but I have never stopped fighting to see him locked up.”

“So, you are not going back to being Marcus?”

“Look at me! How could I? I am Margot now, although Velsky always knew me as Tanya, the shemale from Eastern Europe that he stole from his accountant. I have a lot to do to find my place in the world as a woman, but trying to be a man now seems impossible. I don’t have the equipment anymore, and I have become very attached to what I have instead.”

“But you have the evidence of his crimes that you were looking for?” I asked.

“Yes, and we also have confirming evidence from a very disgruntled Howard Jaine – I am sure that I can have him turn state’s evidence on Velsky. I have been building this case by collecting data for the last 2 years. It has kept me sane through all I have been through. We need to pull it altogether you and me, before we take it to my Captain. We want to make sure that Velsky will not be able to interfere.”

We drove up to my place. I could see my neighbor watching as I escorted a pretty woman up my path. It was a look of envy that made me smile.

“Marcus … I mean Margot, I haven’t been thinking,” I apologized. “We should be talking about counselling. You have been raped. So … you have a vagina and he forced himself into that? You must be traumatized?”

“I love my vagina,” she said. “As a man you never think what it might be like to have one, but even as Velsky forced himself on me I decided that I preferred it. I was never a great performer as a man, but as a woman I have found my talents. It is just that I have never felt what sex as a woman is really like without it being forced. I have to say that I have imagined that it could be something wonderful. I have dreamed about it. I have to confess it, Cam, you have been in those dreams.”

I suddenly found myself very close to her, just as she pulled out her ponytail and let the flood of lightly curled honey blonde tresses bounce around her shoulders.

“I am not sure whether you will believe this, but it is true. I know those dreams. Those dreams have kept me looking for you these past two years,” I said. “From the moment that you told me that you were going undercover as a woman I had an image of you as that woman that I could not get out of my head. I gave up trying. It was just too good, but – as it turns out – only to be bettered by real life!”

I took her into my arms and kissed her, and within minutes I was making love to her, frolicking like teenagers under the covers.

It has been like that almost every day since.

And Egor Velsky. He is rotting in jail, where he belongs.

The End

Author’s Note for Morfe:
This is another story commissioned by Morfe and following the plot line as far as it went. I have apologized for not including more chapters about Margot’s ordeals in becoming female and also a female police officer, ending in her special night glammed up at the police ball, but as I explained I covered much of this in my story “Inside Crossover”. I think that the story should end when they each learn they are in one anothers dreams and then find themselves in bed together. Am I right? 4000

© Maryanne Peters 2025