Chapter 1

First up I have to tell you that I am a copper through and through. Not only that but a detective. I had been in the force since I left school and it is ingrained into my psyche. My name, at birth, was Ethan Gerald Davis and you may surmise that I was born in Wales. I was born in Cardiff in 1986 and joined the force in 2005, after I had finished High School in Bristol, where my parents had moved because of my fathers’ work.

I had thought of other careers but found that I could not sing, nor could I act very well, and my size was against me in some other professions.
You see, I was, at that time, just on six feet tall and lanky with it. The kinder folk at school called me ‘beanstalk’, some called me ‘twiggy’, but the one that hurt most was ‘supermodel’ because most of my height was leg. I did do well at some sports, well, high jumping is a lot easier when you are taller than the bar and I was good on short distance running. All of these attributes stood me in good stead at the Police Training College where I did well in the physicals, well enough to offset some of my deficiencies in the academic subjects. I was good enough to graduate as a beat copper in Bristol and spent my days trying to keep the rowdier elements of our city in place, as well as trying to get a grip on the drug trafficking that took so many of our young to early deaths.

I was noted for my good reporting that led to several arrests by the detective division and found myself back at the College some evenings for further training. One of the things I excelled at was my shooting. So much so that the force decided that I needed to spend some time with the SAS to sharpen my skills and become proficient in looking after myself. This included an interesting course on withstanding deprivation and mind control. I discovered that the thing you need is to concentrate on just one thing that means the most to you as your old self and you would be able to ‘snap back’ when you were free again. Well, that’s how they termed it.

When I had completed the courses I was sent back to my old station where, believe it or not, there were no vacancies for an armed response officer. I was considered too valuable to be wasted back on the beat so they put me into the detective division as a Detective Constable. On my first day in that job my life changed dramatically as I fell in love. Well, it had to be a superior officer, Gwen Leeds, my sergeant, a girl on a fast track career who had some spectacular successes as a DC and so was not a lot older than me. The problem was, as I was quickly told by the other DC’s, she did not like men. I thought that it was such a waste as she was not only beautiful, clever and had legs to die for; she was also the same height as I was in her flats. I had always had problems with girls who did not like the fact that they only came up to my arm-pit, even wearing heels.

I did not let my unrequited love get me down; rather, I used it to keep my spirits up and to give me impetus to please her. I was able to solve some baffling cases, well, not so baffling if you know where cats get to when they are randy and where kids get to when they are bored. We had a few smash and grab cases on the go and Gwen and the DI were deep into a series of disappearances of young boys, all about nineteen. Usually, parents only bother with contacting us if the child is still happy at home but some of these kids had just vanished, even leaving their personal treasures.

Gwen and our DI were out following a lead one day when they came up against a rather angry man with a rifle. They had wanted to talk to the owners of a house where it was said a number of the missing boys had been seen before their disappearance and luckily had been standing on each side of the front door when a shotgun blast exited between them. I gathered that they had dashed back across the road where they sheltered behind their car and called for assistance. The Armed Response Squad was well over the other side of town in a stand-off with a domestic disturbance and hostages. As I was closer I called back to say I was on my way.

I parked in another street; put my bullet-proof vest on with the big POLICE sign on the front and back. I opened my secure boot and took out the assault rifle that I was allowed to carry with me and then made my way to where they were holed up. As I scuttled towards them behind cars that now had bullet holes in them and broken windows, I heard them call to him to give himself up, only to be answered by another blast from his shotgun that rocked their car. So that meant that he had at least two guns and would be considered a real danger. I put my radio on silent and put the bud in my ear so I could talk to my superiors without having to shout. The DI told me that the back-up was not coming and it was down to us before the uniformed arrived. He gave me permission to injure but not to kill.

As I lined up for a shot, a young girl dashed out from an alleyway next to the house and straight into the path of a truck that just happened to take this time to go by. The man in the house leaned out of the window and I put a round into his right shoulder and he staggered back inside the room. I could hear the DI calling up ambulances as I raced across the road, making sure there wasn’t anyone at the window. Gwen had got their battering ram out of their car and, as we reached the front door together, I added my momentum to hers and we went through that door like it wasn’t there. She ducked down as I quickly checked the immediate downstairs rooms and then went up to the next floor. I found the shooter in the front room, on the floor and quite dead and I called it in on the radio. There was an odd smell in the air.

I checked the other front rooms and then the two of us held our places until the uniforms arrived to help us clear the property. Gwen came up to join me and said “You didn’t have to kill him”. I told her I hadn’t and pointed out the bullet damage to his right shoulder only. She bent down and had a sniff of the odour I had first noticed and, when she stood up, said “I wonder why a normal crook has a suicide tooth?”

Back downstairs I led the clearance team through the house to a back door that was swinging open. It led to the passage where the girl had shot out of. We went down this passage to the road where there was a whole fleet of vehicles with flashing lights. The girl had already been put on a stretcher with a sheet fully covering her and the uniforms were interviewing a shaken driver. Gwen told the DI about the suicide pill and he ordered the clearance team out of the house and to secure it until the forensics team arrived. My part in it was over so I went back to my car, secured the rifle and took off the heavy vest. I sat in my car and made notes in my report book as it was still sharp in my mind and drove back to the station where I knew I would have to hand in my rifle for the investigation team to check. I signed out a fresh one and checked it over before putting it in my car.

Back in the office I sat at my desk to fill out my incident report and Gwen put her hand on my shoulder as she walked past, saying “Well done, back there, we certainly did the business on that door.” The next day saw the three of us in the chief inspectors office, relating our take on the events. The forensics team had confirmed that the shooter had suicided and the only thing I had to worry about was a discharge report. They had found the two long guns and a couple of pistols as well as a lot of evidence of drug use in the house. There were signs that the young girl may have lived there as one bedroom had clothing, make-up and personal items, including an ID that showed her as Betty Wade, aged nineteen. He told the others to get back to their own investigation and told me to follow up Betty Wade so that her parents could be notified.

Back at my computer I found that there were no signs of a Betty Wade. I tried Elizabeth and other variations but there was nothing close. The girl did not exist. I went down to the morgue where her body was stored and had a chat to the medical examiner. She told me that they had just checked the body to sign a death certificate as ‘Accidental Death’ as all of the boxes were already ticked; three coppers saw her death. I asked her to have another look while I was here and she pulled the body out of the cold room and a couple of orderlies lifted it up on the examination table. We both gowned up and she turned on the lights and recorder and proceeded to have a proper look.

“That’s strange” she said as she checked the torso, and then said “That’s even stranger” when she got to the groin area. She got the orderlies to put the body under the X-Ray machine and, when the films were developed, said “Good pick-up, Ethan. This girl has not always been a girl. The surgery was so good you would never see it but you cannot alter the bone structure, nor can you add the essential internal bits that women have.” I asked her if we could run a fingerprint set and a DNA swab. I knew that the fingerprints would be ready soon but the DNA result may be a couple of weeks to get back. In the meantime we wrapped Betty in a shroud and put her back into storage.

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 2

I carried on with my case-load for the next few days. The fingerprints did not match with anything we had on file but were close in a couple of cases. I took notes of these and waited for the DNA.

Gwen and the DI were off getting as much data out of the house as possible and I asked if I could have all the results on the room that Betty was in. A couple of weeks later the DNA report came in and I ran against our data base. Amazingly I got a 95% positive match from a break and enter where the culprit had cut themselves on a piece of broken window getting out. There was a long list of likely suspects that had been compiled at the time but there was not enough evidence to pull any of them in, especially as they all said they were at a football match in London on the day in question. I asked the examiner if there was a small scar on an arm and she checked, getting back to me that there had been a small laceration on the left arm.

I retrieved the case notes on the B&E and found that the team had spoken to all of the suspects except one but all of the others had sworn that he was with them. That one was a certain Albert Ward, then aged sixteen. I went over to Gwen and asked her for a list of her missing boys and there, in the middle, was one Albert Ward. I said “I think you may have seen that one die outside that house the other day.” She wanted to know why I said that and I took her through the evidence trail I had, which caused her to whistle, saying “So we may be looking for girls as well, now.”

I was side-tracked by other cases for a few days but was able to get some good photos of Albert from the examiner so I could go asking about him / her. My first port of call was the parents where I had the task of informing them that he was now dead and that they would be surprised when they retrieved the body for burial. They assured me that he had been a total male in every way and would have never changed into a girl voluntarily. I took a couple of pictures of him away with me and noted that, although there were similarities, the feminine version could have been his better looking sister, not Albert in a dress. His parents did tell me a few places where he hung out over the week-ends so I went to the usual Friday evening haunt, a video game parlour.

When I asked about Albert I got some guarded answers but they opened up a bit when I told them that he had died in a vehicle accident. I found out that he was generally well liked, if a bit of a tear-away. He had no history of violence but always stood up for himself as well as looking after some less well built. I was told that everyone was surprised when he stopped turning up at the Friday evening sessions but had thought that he may have been caught and was spending some time inside. I then asked if they had seen Betty and showed them her picture and was told that she had been around a couple of times and that one of Alberts friends, a certain Julian Banks, had been very tight with her, until he stopped coming as well.

On Saturday evening I went to the pub that Albert had frequented. Showing the picture I got much the same answers as the night before. Showing the picture of Betty had no return. I was not surprised as it wasn’t the sort of pub that a young girl would like. On the off-chance I asked if there had been any regulars who had suddenly stopped coming and the landlord told me that there was quite a big group, about half a dozen, who had been good regulars but he had not seen a few of them for a while. The barman was able to give me a list of some of the names and when I checked with Gwen on Monday we discovered that all of the Christian names featured on their list so we pulled up the most likely among the locals and the two of us went off to speak with the parents.

The first was home to Leslie Johnson and we found out that he fitted the same mould as Albert, a bit moody but not violent, a strong personality but did not throw his weight about and that he had just disappeared. We asked to see his room and also got permission to search. We found his weed stash which we bagged, and an interesting note taped to the underside of his underwear drawer that just said ‘My friends are leaving and I may be next. God, I hope that the Surgeon doesn’t get me! If you find this and I have gone, look for the enforcer at the half-way house’

Gwen said that she thought that the house we searched may have been the half-way house as questioning the neighbours had come up with the fact that several different young girls had been seen there for two or three week periods before they were gone. One, a typical aging crone that all policemen love, even had a list of vehicle number plates that she had seen. These had been checked; some belonged to a local locum service whose records, when checked, showed that a certain Mary Smith was very susceptible to minor ailments. Another couple, which she had said were ambulances, belonged to large vans that had been written off from the London area. All of the rest were from vehicles that had been reported stolen and later found burnt out.

Our second visit was to the grandparents of a certain Julian Banks that I had been told about on Friday. He, too, had just upped and gone and, when we were allowed to search his room, we found a diary in which he professed his love for Albert since they were young and his wonderment when he turned up as Betty, complete in every way. He described, in great detail, a night of unbridled sex they had enjoyed. This was entered into the book the morning he was last seen. A few days further back he wrote that Betty had told him that she was for ever grateful to ‘The Surgeon’ and that she would love it if Julian could meet her benefactor. I took the diary with me when we went back to the station, for a little quiet reading.

The next day I sat and read the diary. It showed that Julian had been infatuated with Albert and admired his dominant attitude. He had been distressed when Albert disappeared. The diary was full of daily notes and I picked up a trend that should have been followed the day he disappeared himself. He worked part-time at a video store and usually had a visit to a cafe on his way to work. I took my picture of him with me and went to visit the café and found out that the owner remembered Julian well, especially the day he collapsed. I got him to describe the day and he told me that Julian had been sitting by the window with his raisin toast and coffee and suddenly fell off his chair. He said it was lucky that a couple of paramedics were at another table and were able to treat him, taking him away in their ambulance. Outside, I checked the street for CCTV cameras and saw one at the road junction further down.

Back in the office I got in touch with the road traffic division and asked for any recordings they had from that camera on that morning that showed an ambulance. Later in the day they sent me a photo taken from a sequence where an ambulance had come from the direction of the café and turned left. It was a good picture and clearly showed the driver. He was the shooter from the house we raided. There was no identifying numbers on the side of the ambulance; instead, there was the logo ‘We change lives, for the better.’

On a hunch I looked at the list of missing boys and checked the reported dates of their disappearances. Albert had gone some eight months before and had reappeared three months ago, just two weeks before Julian went. I surmised that any ‘new girls’ showing up at the moment would have been taken around five months ago and found four that fitted the bill. There was a pair of brothers in the list, Terry and Tony Smith, as well as a Michael Young and a Jerry Howard. I made copies of their photos and took them along to our in-house artist, asking him to give me his impression of what they would look like, feminised. I gave him the before and after shots of Albert to give him some idea of the work done. He gave me a long look as he told me they would be ready the next day.

In the afternoon I had a meeting with Gwen and the DI to show them the photo of the ambulance and to describe the time-line of Julians’ abduction, because that is what it must have been. I had checked all the local hospitals and none had admitted him that day. They were quite excited by this turn of events and I was instructed to carry on with my investigations. The next day I got a call from the artist and went to his office to see what he had come up with. One by one he showed me his take of the changes and I could see that every boy made a good looking girl, so it could mean that they were targeted for that reason only.

He then showed me another picture he had done. I looked closely at it and wondered where I had seen her. She was really pretty in an angular way and I asked him who it was. He said “Ethan, I hate to tell you this but that is a picture of you if you had gone through the same procedure. You fit the mould, if not the age range.”

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 3

I had to sit down and catch my breath. I said “That can’t be right; I don’t look girly, do I?” He said that it was not that I looked girly now, it was the fact that some small adjustments to my facial bones, that any competent cosmetic surgeon could do, would give me the look he had drawn.

He then got me to look at the other boy’s pictures again and pointed out the similar procedure that could be carried out on the four, and was definitely carried out on Albert. He then said that it was not the look that counted, though, the person would have to be fundamentally changed in order to appear totally female. I said that no-one had picked Betty as Albert except his friend Julian, who was besotted with both him and then her. If anyone would see through it I thought that Julian would.

Back at my desk I put the picture of me in a drawer and fanned out the others so I could look at them and memorise the new looks. I then went out to my car and went to see each of the four sets of parents. Except for the two brothers, the boys had nothing in common. They hung out in different places, with different crowds and I could see no link, until I searched each ones rooms. In the rooms of the two brothers I found that they had been attending a drama class put on by the local council and that they had taken part in a play just two weeks before they disappeared. It was part of a week-long festival of arts that had been held in Salisbury.

With the other two boys I found out that they, also, had been taking drama lessons and had been in a comedy sketch at the same festival. On a hunch I sent emails out to all of the big police stations between Bristol and London, asking them if they had been looking into any cases of missing teenage boys. An hour later I got a reply from Southampton that they were, indeed, looking at a spate of missing boys, about twenty, all told, over the past three or four years. Reading came back saying that they had a dozen open cases on their books as well. I opened up the search area and sent out more emails but the only replies I got were about the usual cases of runaways, no sudden disappearances. I got back to Reading and Southampton to ask if they could send me pictures of their boys as they may be linked to a similar case here. I told them that they would be brought up to speed should my investigations pan out.

When I got emails with all of the pictures, I took it them down to our artist who said that 90% fitted the mould of our cases and would email me the drawings when he had done them. I was moving forward on this so asked if I could have a meeting with the DI and DS with our Chief Inspector. In that meeting I took them through my investigations so far and they were happy that I had drawn a link with other areas. We decided that the culprits must be based in southern England and it must be a substantial building as they seemed to take groups of about four, every three to four months. Gwen and I were tasked with bringing the other stations up to date with our own findings and we did that over a couple of days, going in her car and having meetings. I must say that the other detectives were a bit disbelieving until I showed them the drawings of our cases and then the drawings of their own. Nearly all from Southampton fitted the mould and they would now be looking for girls.

I put a call in to the SAS headquarters and asked if the officer that conducted the brainwashing courses could ring me. When he did call I told him of the basics of our cases and he said that one of the basic conditions of someone going under cover was to be given a name that was similar to their own, so that they would react to it as they would normally. The case with Albert was clear, he may have been called Bert or Bertie and the move to Bett or Betty was just right, even going from Ward to Wade fitted the pattern. I gave him the Christian names of the most recent four and he immediately came back with Terri, Toni, Geri and Michelle. He said that Julian was an easy one and Julie, Julia or Juliette would fit. He then said that this was also basic in brainwashing; you give the victim a set of facts that were close enough to reality that they accepted them as truth after a period.

This was interesting but did not really move my investigation forward. It would be no good for me to be looking for Teri and Toni Smith, or Smythe, as they did not exist. I had to admit that it was a very clever way of creating an army of willing slaves as the only reality they knew was the one you presented to them. If they thought that they had been crooked in the past life you presented to them, then it was very likely they would be crooked into the future. I could see from my investigations that some of the girls retained portions of their memory, maybe this was an accident or it could be on purpose. My only problem was that I could not imagine what all of these late-teen girls would be good for unless it was prostitution and my enquiries to the Met had not come back with any sudden influx of fresh girls on the game.

I still had my usual case-load to follow and it left the evenings for me to start looking for the four new girls. This generally consisted of visiting pubs and clubs where they may feel safe to be in public. It may seem like heaven to some lads to be on an endless pub-crawl with a warrant card but it is sheer boredom most of the time and the only time you actually get to have a drink is the last call of the night. It was not this activity that brought a small break-through, but something that happened in my usual daily duties.

Gwen and I were following up leads on a B&E case where a country house had been pillaged. We had a short list of locations where we knew that stolen goods were offered and had just walked into a particularly shady pub near Glastonbury when Gwen told me to hold on while she went to the toilet. As she got to the door, it opened and another girl walked out. It took me a second or two to make the connection but I was sure that this was the feminised Leslie Johnson from the list of missing boys. She was certainly no longer a boy and she walked past me with a waft of perfume and that gait that says “I have it all and I know you want it’.

She walked outside and looked out into the car park as if she was looking for someone. I walked out of the pub and called “Lesley!” She turned to me with a smile that quickly vanished to a look of surprise and shock. It was then that I felt a blow to my head and my world went black.

The next thing I knew was waking up in a hospital bed with a worried looking Gwen beside me. I had a splitting headache and a pain in my arm. As I opened my eyes Gwen smiled and said “Thank God you are awake, at last!” I had the sudden hope that she may give me a hug but all she did was pat my arm and said “I’ll go and get the doctor.” By the time that my eyesight and reflexes were measured and I was allowed to leave, I had found out that when Gwen didn’t see me as she left the toilet she came outside and found me lying on the ground with blood pouring from my scalp. She had called an ambulance and had stayed with me for the six hours it took for me to be stabilised and stitched up. I told her that I had seen Leslie Johnson and had just called out when I had been hit from behind. She took me home and told me to stay there for the next couple of days and she would organise meals for me while I recovered.

Back at home I took to my bed and went off to sleep for about twelve hours. It may have been the effects of the painkillers I had been injected with. Next morning my phone rang and one of the female PC’s I worked with asked me whether I wanted Chinese, Indian or pizza for lunch. I opted for pizza as I thought I may be a bit too shaky to handle the others without a mess. About one there was a knock on my door and Gwen stood there with a pizza box in her hands. She asked me how I felt and I told her that I felt like I had gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson. We shared the pizza at the kitchen table and she told me that she had gone back to the pub this morning and had found out that the girl I saw was really known as Lesley and the barman thought that she worked at a big office in London. He had said that she spoke about being a secretary and the shit she had to put up with. When asked about her companion he had said that it was a biggish bloke who acted more like a minder than a boyfriend but that the bloke was always tight-lipped.

We surmised on the economics of converting boys into wage-slaves and decided that it really did not stack up. Even if you took all of their income it would not fund an operation of this size. Gwen then told me that a finance officer in London had just absconded with over two million pounds from the company he worked for and disappeared into thin air. Now that would begin to fund the organisation but could also be pure co-incidence. We would need to look at his staff records.

After a couple of days at home I was fit enough to go back to work but had to spend a week in the office before I had my stitches taken out and then needed to see the police doctor before I was able to resume normal duties. It was a couple of weeks before I felt able to resume my search for the new girls. In the meantime I got the staff records for the missing finance officer I saw that a couple of the names on it were very close to names we had of missing boys but further enquiries found that the girls in question had left and I then found their addresses were fiction.

When I did resume my evening search I spread my net a bit wider. I figured that if the Bristol house was now compromised they may have others elsewhere. I pondered the locations and decided that I would have a look around Swindon as being within our likely area but big enough to hide strangers in plain sight. I struck lucky on the fourth evening. I was in the saloon section of a rather up-market hotel and, through a space behind the bar, I saw a table in the lounge section where four girls where sitting. They all looked lovely and very feminine but I was certain that I was looking at Terry, Tony, Michael and Jerry.

I got my phone out and, trying to look like I was checking my messages; I took a couple of pictures of the group and then sent them to my computer in the office. I deleted the pictures and left the hotel to call Gwen. As I was standing on the pavement outside a couple of drunks rolled out of the hotel door, singing loudly. I turned away from them as they passed and then felt something sharp in my side. They stopped singing as I fell down and one pulled out his phone and called for the ambulance. I was unable to move a muscle as they told the gathering crowd that I had been a bit too much into the hard stuff and that they had called for help.

When the ambulance arrived I was lifted onto a gurney and put inside. A very pretty paramedic sat next to me as we pulled away and prepared a syringe to give me an injection. As she pushed the needle into the back of my hand she said “You got too close this time, constable, you will now get to meet the surgeon. I know she is very keen to work her magic on you.”

As I lost consciousness my last thought were that I would never see Gwen again and there was so much I wanted to tell her.

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 4

I was in a dream, I knew it was a dream as I was floating but my body was on fire. I felt no pain, just every nerve ending was screaming. There were also sounds of speaking in my head, strange words that my dreaming brain made no sense of.

Then I was still, no longer floating and no longer burning, but the words kept coming and I resigned myself to them. When the words stopped there was silence before the soothing music began. I could tell that there were words to this music and my dream-self sang along with them, even if I did not understand what they said. Much later, or so it seemed, I could hear a regular beeping sound and my brain shot to a sketch about the machines that go ping. I wondered if I was the woman in that sketch who was in labour. I finally opened my eyes and looked up at a white ceiling and there was, indeed, a machine beside me that went ping at regular intervals. After a few minutes of just lying there I tried to move my right arm and there was a sudden beep-beeping sound from somewhere and then a face appeared above me and a kindly voice said “Thank God, you have woken up at last. Just lie still, my dear, and I will get the doctor for you.”

When the doctors’ face appeared he looked relieved that I could see him. He told me to follow his finger and I moved my eyes about to his satisfaction. The nurse gave me a drink from a baby bottle while he looked at the machines, no doubt checking all of my vital signs and then said “Well young lady, you have given everyone a bit of worry over the past couple of weeks but it looks like you have turned the corner. What do you remember about your accident?” I thought hard and then said “Nothing.” He then asked what about the time before the accident and again I had to reply “Nothing” “Right” he said “we have amnesia here and we need to find out how far it goes.” He then proceeded to ask me about the country, the year, the political scene, the pop charts and almost everything under the sun. We discovered that I knew where I was, roughly when I was, and the general things that went on outside this room. The only thing I couldn’t remember was who I was and how I got here.

Finally, he sat back and said “The name on this chart is Bethany Geraldine David. Does that ring a bell?” I gave it some thought and agreed that there was something there that seemed familiar. I did agree on my date of birth but when he told me that I was in this bed because of an accident at a fashion shoot I was so shocked I cried out “You just have to be joking!”

“No, I am not” he told me “you were at your first shoot when a lighting boom fell on your head, knocking you out. When you were unable to be brought round they took you to a hospital where it was found that you had swelling happening on the brain. They kept you stabilised but you were in a coma until this morning. Well, actually, they thought that you may be coming up as there were signs of normal brain activity so they shipped you here to this hospital so you could be near your friends when you came around. They have been notified and I expect to see them soon as, at least one of them has been with you every day you have been here.”

Friends!!! I have friends! Well, I will just have to see who they are and whether I like them in the future. The doctor then told me that I may be able to leave the hospital in about a week if I can force my limbs to operate normally. He ordered the nurse to take me off the machines and get me to the stage where I can get out of bed and then he left me to suffer the indignities of having various tubes removed from my body.

When the machines were wheeled away and I was able to move without setting off alarms, the nurse helped me to sit up in bed and I looked around the room. I was obviously in a private room in a hospital and I asked the nurse which hospital it was. She told me that I was in the Royal London and not far from my home in Barnes Street. I was learning more about myself with every passing minute. I was given some time to rest and reflect on my situation when the door burst open and a girl rushed in and gave me a big hug. “Oh Beth” she cried “we never thought you would come round, how are you feeling?” I said that I was as well as could be expected seeing that I had only been born for a couple of hours. She exclaimed “What! You are grown up already!” I took her hand and explained that the doctor thought I had amnesia as I found it difficult to remember who I was and how I came to be in here.

I said, gently, that I did not know her at all, no matter how well she knew me. “Oh, Beth” she cried “I am Julia Binks, your best friend since we started sharing the flat. We work at the same office here in London; or did. They could not do without you any longer and laid you off when the sick leave expired. They did, however, give you a decent payout which was put into your bank account.” She leaned over me and pulled a Get Well card from the shelf behind me and I saw it had been signed by a bunch of people I have never heard of. I asked her what I did and she told me I had been a secretary to a finance manager and she worked in the trading section. She then told me that Ritchie, our friend, had got me to do an interview for a modelling agency and it was at the first shoot that my accident happened. She looked on my head and ran her fingers over the scar, saying “at least it doesn’t show now, it must have been horrible at the time but the couple of months you have been asleep has allowed it to heal nicely.” I ran my own fingers over the scar and could count the stitches with my finger.

She looked at me and told me that my hair had grown nicely since I had been in hospital and ordered me not to cut it short again as the longer look suited me better. She also decided that, at the first opportunity, I was well due for a facial and manicure. We chatted a bit and she told me some of what she had been doing and then I became quite tired and she went, saying “I’ll bring you in some decent stuff to wear from your room, that hospital gown looks just terrible on you.” For the moment, I couldn’t see anything wrong with it but, there again, who am I to say what suited me, and I had not had a chance to see what I looked like yet. I went off to a natural sleep, on my side, for the first time in ages.

When I woke up I needed a pee, so I pulled the bedcover back and tried to swing my legs out, finding that I was having great difficulty moving them. I pressed the call button and a nurse came in and ordered me back into bed and gave me a bottle thing to pee in. That was a relief! She told me that I was going to see the physiotherapist this morning and I needed to get my legs working properly. She told me I was lucky I didn’t actually try to walk as she would have needed help to get me off the floor. After a light breakfast I had my session with the physio, doing leg bends, stretches and lifts until I could do no more. I also had to do arm lifts and squeezing a soft ball to get my hands working again. I had a second session after lunch and it all seemed a bit easier. Julia came in that evening and I was changed into a soft nightie and she took a brush to my hair.

The next day I was taken to the exercise room and was able to totter a few steps in the parallel bars as well as lift weights while sitting in my wheelchair. I was told I was doing very well and, as a reward, two nurses helped me have a wonderful shower and hair wash. It made me feel much better and I slept like a baby that night after Julia had brought in a clean nightie and some clothes for me to wear when I was discharged.

The day after that I walked without holding on to the bars and everyone clapped. I was told that I would be allowed to go home in a few more days, at this rate. Home, now that’s a thought, I wonder what it looks like. When Julia came in that evening she told me that she had arranged a session with the hospital salon on the next afternoon and that I was certain to feel human after that.

The next day I was able to walk unaided for about ten minutes in the morning session and the afternoon one saw me able to sit down and get up from a chair unaided. I was given a shower after that session and taken down to the salon for my make-over. It was very relaxing to be given a proper hair wash and style, as well as having my finger and toenails properly looked after. I had the feeling that it had been a long time since I had been pampered like this but I was not complaining. When they had finished I had my first good look at myself in the mirror and a quite pretty girl looked back at me. She had a slightly angular face and her hair was now in a very feminine style that reached down past her ears, which, I noted, had a couple of holes in each side. I had the immediate thought that I had seen her before so was satisfied that she was me.

Over the next couple of days I reached the point where I did not need the wheelchair and was able to look after myself. Julia had brought in a fluffy gown with matching slippers and I was able to move around the hospital quite freely, getting as much exercise in as I could. She told me that Ritchie would pick me up on my discharge day as she could not take time off her work. When that day arrived I was given a full check by the doctor who pronounced me as fully fit to leave. I was able to change into my going out wear, with a help from the nurse and found myself in a long dress and flats as I had been told that heels will need some practice as I had not worn them for a long time. The nurse also helped me to put on my make-up as I had got out of practice with that as well.

When I looked at myself in the mirror I had the thought that I certainly was model stock with my height and looks and then a thought struck me – I wonder what Gwen would think of me now?

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 5

I put the rest of my stuff in the small bag that Julia had brought in and was taken down to reception to be signed out. I really did not know what my future held now.

I sat, waiting, just inside the main entrance for a few minutes before a very handsome man in a good suit walked in and came straight over to me saying “Beth, darling, it is so good to see you again. Julia has told me that you have some trouble remembering so I am Ritchie Frazer. I live in the flat across from the two of you and we are all great friends. I hope that you will come to regard me as one in the future, even if you do not remember all the good times we have had. There are a couple of other girls that we all get together with, Tess and Toni Smythe, who also live in the flats, and I hope that we can all go out for a meal together when you feel up to it. Now, come, I will take you home.”

He picked up my bag and led me out to a taxi that was waiting outside. We did not have to drive far before we came to the Tower Hamlets and pulled up outside a building with a number of letter boxes in the wall. Ritchie had chattered away on the trip, saying how sorry he was to have got me into the modelling agency and I had to tell him not to worry as it was not his fault. I leaned over in the seat and gave him a kiss on the cheek and then he turned to me and gave me a gentle kiss on my lips. When he pulled back he said “Beth, darling, we have had some really nice times together and I can’t wait until you feel strong enough to sleep with me again.”

When we arrived at the flat he opened it with a key on his ring and when I looked at him he told me that he had the keys to our flat, as well as the Smythe sisters, as he was our ‘to do’ man when we needed help. Inside he showed me the general layout and took me into my room which was really nice and had a good view along the street. He put the bag on the bed and pointed out that my handbag was on the side table and that no-one had disturbed anything in it. When I looked I saw my purse with some money inside, my driving licence and some loyalty cards. There were also my keys and a bank transaction card and a credit card. There was also an ID from the place I had worked at and he took it, saying he would get Julia to return it to them.

I said that I would need to find a job and he said that the Smythe sisters had told him that there would be a position coming vacant in the office where they worked and he thought that the interviews would be in a week or two. “Until then, Beth, you need to settle back into normal life and get strong enough to take on the world the way you used to.” At that he took me in his arms and kissed me long and hard. I automatically put my arms around his neck and, when his hands roamed to my buttocks, I felt a need that I knew must be fulfilled. We undressed and we made love on my bed and I was in heaven, crying out as we both came.

After we lay there for a while, cuddling and kissing, he said “Welcome back darling, I have waited a long time for that.” He then got up and went into the bathroom, coming out to dress. Before he left he said that there was food in the kitchen and that he would love to stay some more but he had an appointment elsewhere. Left to myself I pondered on what had just happened. So I was a previous secretary, a sometime model and had a boyfriend with benefits and I could get very horny at the drop of a panty.

I went into the bathroom and had a good, long shower and when I came out I inspected my wardrobe and drawers, finding a lovely array of lacy underwear and a good assortment of clothes, mainly short hemlines. I could see that Julia must have picked the long dress especially for me to not feel too exposed. I was now ready to expose myself to the world so dressed myself in a black bra and panty set that gave me a somewhat full breast line. To that I added a short denim skirt and a silky blouse. Heeding the warning about heels I went with a lowish pair of pumps. I made sure I had my keys in my bag and let myself out of the flat, going down to the street. I decided that I would just do a block for my walk and I strolled along, taking in the sights and sounds of the real world after my time in hospital. It was wonderful and I felt very refreshed and alive when I got back to the flat again.

I made myself a light lunch and then looked in my room for traces of my life. All I found was a school leaving certificate from Cardiff in my name and another certificate from a secretarial college in London. Well, the Cardiff bit felt right and explained why I had a slight Welsh lilt to my speaking. There were a few photos of Julia, Ritchie and a couple of other girls but none from my own childhood. When I asked Julia about this she told me that I had said that I had an abusive father and that I had burned all of my previous life in a ritual bonfire so that I could put it behind me. It was certainly behind me now as I could not remember a thing. She told me that it may have been the best thing to come out of my accident.

Over the next week I explored my immediate area and found the supermarkets, picking the Sainsbury’s on Ratcliffe Cross Street as my choice. We were close to the Limehouse DLR station so that was handy if I got myself a job in Canary Wharf.

The day after I had returned I met the Smythe sisters, Tess and Toni, and they were great fun to be with. The four of us would go out in the evening for a meal as it looked like none of the others liked cooking. We went to the White Horse and the Queens Head but the Crown on Brinton Place was our favourite. I was, by far, the oldest in the group, and, as such, made sure that the others did not get into trouble. They all liked a drink and we staggered home a couple of times singing silly pop songs. We had our share of flirting and we all had been kissed and cuddled by some lads at times but made sure nothing came of it.

In my second week back Tess told me that I needed to fill in an application for an interview. She helped me with my resume as I could not remember where I had worked and I was surprised when I got the reply to go in and see them. It was an office down near the Cross Harbour DLR Station in Turnberry Quay. When I fronted up in my office wear, a good skirt suit, I met a very nice man who asked me a few things. I explained that I had been laid off because of my accident and had problems remembering my past and he sent me to another office to have a test on my secretarial skills.

I was amazed that I could touch type at a reasonable speed and could even master the steno duties. Filing was no problem and I was able to take notes on the run. When I went back in to see him he told me that he was very impressed with me and that I could start on the Monday morning. I was to report to his PA and would be taking her place when she went off to get married as she had said she would be emigrating after that.

I went to the HR office and filled in the forms. I had the data from my previous employer and it was all easy to complete. I asked the girl in that office where all the important places were in the local area and was given directions to the OkiDoki Nail and Beauty Salon and a couple of reasonable places to eat lunch if I did not bring my own. When I walked out of there I had a bit of a walk around the area and made sure of my bearings. Back at the flat I announced that I had the job and that I was taking everyone out for a meal. Ritchie came with us this time and we left early, leaving the other three in the company of three stock-brokers. Back at the flat he made sure that I was well and truly satisfied before he left.

Over the weekend he took Julia and me into the city and she helped me get a few more items of clothing that would be suitable for a PA of a Finance Manager. I had a great time trying on a large number of dresses and skirts before making my choices. I paid for everything from my bank account rather than putting it on credit and was very happy when I put it all away. The three of us went out for a meal that evening and, when we got back to the flat, we had a threesome in Julias’ bedroom, with Ritchie performing magnificently and then Julia and I having lesbian sex while he looked on. We had a group hug before I went to bed and I was sure that I heard Julia calling out “Yes yes yes” before he left in the early hours.

Monday morning I made sure I looked right and got to the office nice and early. I met Sandra, the departing PA and we spent the rest of the day going through my future duties. My boss, Adrian Miller, was a very busy man and there were a lot of people that I needed to get introduced to and everyone was very nice. Over the next two weeks I fitted into the system and was able to give Sandra a thank-you gift when she had her leaving party. Once I was one on one with Adrian we hit it off and I found that I was almost able to be in his head, making sure that his working life went along seamlessly.

He was a married man with a couple of children and I got to speak to his wife a few times when she rang in with questions for him. She seemed like a nice lady and I felt rather bad when Adrian took me out to lunch one day, telling me over our meal, that he wanted to take me to Scotland for a business weekend at a Scottish Estate. That weekend he made a pass at me and I let him. We did finish the business with a good result for the company but came back as lovers.

Over the next few months I worked hard and made sure that there were no troubles with my work ethic. I saw a lot of Tess and Toni as they were in the general secretarial pool and often brought us tea and biscuits while we worked. With Adrian it was a case of the odd meeting in the country that needed an overnight stop. I always made sure we had separate rooms, and that I never stayed the night with him in case the staff questioned an unused bed.

One day he told me that he was starting to feel as everything was getting on top of him and that he needed to have some time off away from the office, his family and me. I offered to have a look to see if I could come up with a retreat or something where he could be alone for a few days. I mentioned it to Tess and, that evening, Ritchie dropped in with a brochure from a wellness clinic in Essex that he said did a good job. I rang them the next day and got the rates. When I spoke to Adrian he agreed to go so I made a booking for him from the Saturday for a week. I then had to rearrange his appointments so he could have the time off. I don’t know what he told his wife but she did call me and ask me if I was going with him. I told her that I was definitely not and she seemed mollified.

I was able to handle all of the problems and queries during the week he was away and expected to see him back on the Monday, bright and cheerful. What I didn’t expect was the dour face that greeted me and the feeling of anger that emanated from him. This was not the man who had left only a week ago and he carried on in the same vein for some weeks until, one day, he declared that he was divorcing his wife as he had found out she was two-timing him with her tennis coach. He said that it was because he had not been a good husband for a few months and she had told him to go back to his floozy in the office. Well, I had not been his floozy since he had his wellness session and it was unlikely to restart any time now!

A couple of weeks later he asked me to book him into the wellness centre again and when he left the office that Friday evening he was carrying two large briefcases. I went in on Monday morning and was quietly sorting out problems when I was called up to the Managers Office. When I got there he had a couple of burly guys with him who I immediately picked as detectives. I was sat down and asked about Adrian, his whereabouts and his behaviour lately. I answered that he had been fine but seemed to get very depressed. I told them that he had a week in the wellness centre and it wasn’t long after he got back that he divorced his wife. They asked me if I was the other woman and told them that the wife had another man. When they asked me about our business trips I could show them my diary with all of the bookings for separate rooms and they took notes to the times and places. They then asked me if he had been carrying anything when he left on Friday and I told them he had two briefcases. I also told them that he was booked into the wellness centre again and they told me that they had checked the diary and he had not shown up. He was now on the run with five million pounds worth of bearer bonds.

As I walked back to my office I wondered what Gwen would think of this and then wondered who the hell Gwen was and why was she on my mind.

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 6

Back in my office I got stuck in to sorting out the problems. I was sure that the company would appoint a new Finance Manager and they would probably not want me around as I was now tainted.

Later that day I was surprised by Tess telling me that she and Toni had got a better job with an import / export company in Southampton and would be moving in a month. They had given in their notice and would be leaving the company in two weeks. We went out for a meal and drink that evening and I told them that it would not be the same without them. Julia assured me that I would be all right and I had a bit of a sob when I said that it would be unlikely that I would be in the PA job for long.

A couple of days later I had a letter when I got home, it was from HR at the company and it told me that I would be required to continue as the PA to the new Manager until they recruited their own. Then, they said, I could move to a lower position in the company or take a lump sum as severance pay. They assured me that I was, in no way, connected with Adrians’ crime but that the customers may not see it that way. For the time I had been there the lump sum was very generous. Interestingly, another letter in that days post was from a modelling agency who wanted me to go into their office to be interviewed for the upcoming spring and summer fashion shows. I rang them from work and got an appointment time, then told HR that I would be taking that day off.

I made sure that I was clean and tidy and dressed with care when I went to see the agency but made sure I had a minimum make-up as I knew they would do it themselves if they wanted to take some pictures. The interview went well as they knew all about my previous experience and I was given a two hour photo session with various dresses. They liked my height as it was to be the new look for the season. When we checked the proofs they offered me a full-time job which I agreed to. The next day, back at the company, I told HR that I would take the lump sum.

The new Finance Manager was a woman who was very short with me from the moment she walked into the office. I was sure she thought I was complicit with the crime. She did not take long to bring in her choice of PA who was just as nasty so I showed her the books, the diary and where the coffee machine was and went down to HR to tell them to give me the money as I was walking out today. They gave me a cheque and I signed the termination papers and walked out of there. On the train home I had a sneaking thought that they could stick their job where the sun doesn’t shine now.

The following Monday I started work as a model. For a few weeks I was in-house doing shoots for the new seasons catalogues and then, as the weather improved, I was taken out to country locations for shoots. I found I needed a car and was able to find one at a reasonable price. I think I paid more for a garage space but that’s how it is in London. I was busy in the season with fashion shows in various stores and developed quite a following with my height and lanky looks that screamed ‘sports star’. I always seemed to end up as the one in the mini skirt with legs that went to heaven. It took a little while but I was able to master the highest heels they could throw at me which magnified my look. I was earning good money and amassing a good wardrobe from the shoots and everything was going well.

I was still going out for meals with Julia and having the odd night with Ritchie. It did not even bother me when they found Adrians’ body in his car, at the bottom of an old quarry when the water dried up in the hot summer. There was no sign of the briefcases. One night, after we had made love, Ritchie turned to me and said “Beth, I wonder if you can do me a favour?” I said that it depended on what it was. He said that Tess and Toni had sometimes helped him with a little sideline of his. He located horny, married men and the girl would be introduced to them, and then taken to a hotel room where she would press the button on a little key fob once she was in a compromising position with the mark. He would rush in and take photos and would then take over the blackmail. He said that he had a particularly tasty fool in his sights and he needed a girl to be the bait. He said that this guy was a bit of a snob and a supermodel would float his boat.

I said “Just this once.” Two days later saw me walking into an upmarket hotel in a little black dress. I saw Ritchie by the bar with another man and walked over to them, giving Ritchie a kiss on the cheek when I got there. He introduced me as Beth David, the model, and the guys eyes lit up. Ritchie made his excuses and the guy took me for a meal. Afterwards we went up to his hotel room where he poured a couple of glasses of champagne. As we drank he said “To us and a successful night”. I thought that this was an odd turn of phrase and then started to feel a little giddy. The bastard had slipped me something in the drink and I was so angry I pushed him in his chest. He stepped back and his foot caught on the rug and he fell, banging his head on the bedside table. He was out like a light and I had enough strength to press the button I had been given.

Ritchie rushed in with his camera and pulled up short when he saw the guy on the floor and me still dressed. He asked what was going on and I said “The bastard slipped me a date rape drug and I am starting to lose it. I am already so horny I could scream, do me now, please and then take me home and do me again.” He needed no second telling and, while I pulled up my skirt and dropped my panties, he was out of his trousers and shorts and we lay on the bed and he gave me a seeing to. I don’t know what the drug was but, as the mark was lying next to the bed snorting, I was on my back with my legs firmly gripping Ritchie to me and having the most tremendous orgasm. Afterwards he helped me into the bathroom where I tidied myself up before I just became a zombie. Ritchie found me in the bathroom and helped me put my panties on again and we left the room with him half carrying me. The mark was quiet now.

When we got back to the flat he undressed me and put me into bed but I pleaded with him to take me again, which he did, with a bit of difficulty. I then went off to sleep for twelve hours. Luckily, I did not have a shoot or show the next day until the evening so, when I woke, I was able to have a good shower and tidied myself up. After a large lunch I was able to calm down enough to be able to get myself ready for an evening catwalk. The make-up artist told me that I had to stay off the strong stuff as it made my eyes puffy but she was able to make me look normal.

Things carried on for some weeks and the summer shows were over. One day I was just getting home from the shops when a couple of coppers stopped me and asked if they could come inside and chat. Once I had put my bags on the kitchen bench I sat down at the table and they started asking me questions. They wanted to know who I was as I was not the person I said I was. I told them that I was the only person I have ever been and that they were crazy. They threw a name at me and I said I had never heard of him and then one pulled out a picture of me walking into a hotel and told me that he had it on good authority that I had been seen dining with the person and that the man had been found by the staff, the next day, lying next to the bed with his neck broken. What did I have to say about that?

I said that I didn’t know what he was talking about and he told me that there had been a wet spot in the bed that was good enough to get a DNA trace and that they had obtained a DNA trace from a glass I had used at the recent fashion parade. The two were identical so why was I lying? OK, time to come clean. I told them that I had, indeed, gone to his room and he had given me a date rape drug in a glass of champagne. They nodded at this. I told them that I had pushed him backwards and he had hit his head as he fell but he was certainly alive after that because I could hear him snore. One said “What were you doing while you could hear him snore?” and I had to say that I was being royally ploughed by a friend as I needed to have sex, something the guy on the floor was aiming for. “Was the friend a certain Ritchie Frazer?” asked one and I just nodded.

They allowed me to put my shopping away and then took me to Scotland Yard, leaving me in an interview room for over an hour. No doubt they thought I would be a quivering mess when another detective came in and sat down at the table. “Would you like to make a confession now?” he asked kindly. I answered that I had nothing to confess, I had already told the other two detectives what had happened and I was willing to sign a statement based on that. He told me that they had me ‘bang to rights’ as Ritchie had spilled everything about me being the ringleader of a blackmail gang. I had to laugh at that and told him that the ploy was number five in the Hendon Handbook. He said “How do you know what they teach there?” and I had to say it was just a guess as I suddenly could not think of why I said it.

He tried to get me to admit that I was involved in the murder but I kept on telling him the truth; the guy was alive after I had pushed him and after that I was a zombie for a couple of hours. I cheerfully admitted that I had taken part in Ritchie’s silly attempt at blackmail but it had been as a favour for a friend and nothing else. After about another hour of this he sat back and just glared at me. It was then there was a knock on the door and another policeman walked in. This one emanated authority and just told the poor constable to leave the room.

I thought that this was looking serious but he just sat down and said “You know you are so much more beautiful in the flesh than those fashion adverts. I would have never thought it could be so. Back in Somerset we have been following your modelling career with much interest.” Just then one of the local detectives barged into the room and demanded that his prisoner was not the person she said she was and that I was to be held in custody until hell froze over. The new guy just looked at him and said “There is no way you are holding this lady; she is an integral part of a multi-county investigation that has been running for a couple of years. It is from her work that we have arrested a number of human traffickers and even a couple of bank robbers, although she doesn’t know the details just yet. I suggest you go and talk to your super as you will not be holding our Bethany.”

I looked at him with amazement and he told me that all will be revealed in the next few hours but, before that, he was going to take me to dinner as he said that he could hear my stomach rumbling. He led me out of the building and we got into a car, with a uniformed police driver. He told the driver to take us to The Queens Head, near my flat. I was keeping myself well in check at this turn of events When we got to the Queens Head we went into the dining area and he led me to a table where a couple were already sitting with drinks in front of them. They both stood as we approached and the woman was easily as tall as I, while the man was close to it himself and had a military air about him.

My saviour said “Bethany, it is time I introduced myself. I am Chief Inspector Jackson from the Somerset Police, this gentleman is Major X from the SAS and the lady is Detective Sergeant Leeds, also from Somerset.” The man shook my hand and the woman gave me a kiss on the cheek and said “Call me Gwen.”

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 7

I had to sit as I was feeling quite odd, as if someone was shouting at me inside my brain. They sat down and I said “Gwen, for the couple of years I have been thinking that there are things happening that I should tell you but I don’t know why.”

She told me not to force things and to answer the Majors questions while we ate in a relaxed manner. I was good with that so, while we had our meal, the major asked me about my memories, especially from when I woke up in hospital. As I described my week or so there he asked which hospital it was and I told them. I said that I had been transferred there from somewhere else so I could be near my friends when I woke up. I said that Julia had been a great help and Gwen pulled out an artist’s sketch, asking me if it was Julia. When I looked at it I said it looked like her but the artist had got the hair wrong.

The major asked why I was in hospital and I said that I had been hit in the head at a photo shoot and had been in a coma for a couple of months. I leaned forward so they could see the scar on my scalp. The Major commented that the reality that I had been given was absolutely brilliant seeing that the scar was from the time they had coshed me outside a pub. As I got into my story I mentioned Tess and Toni helping me getting the PA job and Gwen produced a photo of four girls in a hotel and I pointed out the two sisters.

When I described working for Adrian Miller and the events as they unfolded the Chief Inspector asked me if I had been involved with his crime. I told them that I had had an affair with him but that had stopped after he had been to the wellness clinic. Gwen noted the name of the clinic when I told her. They asked me if I made his tea and I protested that this was below a PA and it was Tess or Toni that kept us in tea and biscuits. Gwen asked me if I enjoyed having sex and I had to say that I really did. When she asked if I had experienced lesbian sex I had to admit that Julia and I had been quite close at times, particularly after we had been out drinking. She then asked me if I liked being a girl and I told her that I didn’t know anything else but admitted that I was not happy about not remembering my younger days.

The Major asked me if there was anything odd that I remembered and I told them it was the recurring thought that I should remember things for Gwen. He asked me what the earliest memory I had of that thought was and I sat and went back into my limited past. All of a sudden I sat bolt upright, knocking over a glass of wine. “I remember being in an ambulance and the nurse told me that the surgeon was looking forward to meeting me and that I told myself to tell Gwen that the surgeon was a woman; just before I blacked out.”

Gwen said “Bethany, that memory is before you woke up in London; it is a memory that is actually pre-Bethany. Go back to that moment again and try to think about the events that led up to it, here, look at this picture of the four girls again and see if it helps.” I was almost getting a headache with this but I tried hard to please them as they were trying to be helpful. I looked at the picture and then said “I took this, didn’t I?”

The Chief Inspector said “I think we have gone far enough for a public place. Bethany, can we all go to your flat and have a nice cup of tea to discuss this further?” As we walked to the flat Gwen linked her arm in mine and I had a sudden feeling of love and acceptance, as if this is what I lived for. At the flat I made the drinks and we sat around the kitchen table. I said that Julia was usually here by this time of the night and Gwen suggested that we have a look in her room to see if she was all right. When I knocked on her door there was no answer so I went in and her room looked like a bomb had hit it. On closer inspection we could see that she had left in a hurry, leaving her dirty clothes on the floor and pulling out drawers and leaving them open. Her wardrobe was empty and it was easy to see that she had just filled her cases and fled. I checked my room, which was as I had left it except for an envelope propped against my perfume bottle.

I took it out to the others and took out the note it contained. It was from Julia and she wished me luck but she had been told to get away and never come back. I looked at the others and said “OK, this is really messing with my head. Please tell me, straight out, what is going on.”

Gwen took a folder out of her big handbag and put it on the table. “This is your work on a baffling case from over two years ago. Read it and see if anything brings your memory back.” I opened the folder and read about missing boys, about Albert and the others that had gone. As I read the names of the boys with the likely names if they were girls I saw that Julia was there and also Tess and Toni. There were the artist’s drawings and they were very close. Finally there was a picture of me but the hair was a bit wrong. When I read who had written the report the blood drained from my face and Gwen rushed to support me before I fell off the chair. When she had given me a shot of spirits and I regained my composure she told me that the photo had been found on my computer in the office a couple of days after I had disappeared. They had tracked the GPS records on my car and had seen that it had been parked outside a hotel near Swindon. When they looked in the hotel they could see where the picture was taken from and, on interviewing the publican, had found out about a patron who had collapsed outside and had been taken off in an ambulance.

They had put a team into the local area and had also traced the GPS movements after the car had left the hotel. I was told that whoever took it was a bit of an amateur as they had driven it to a couple of houses before using it as a getaway car in a bank robbery the following day. It had then been dumped in an old quarry in Wiltshire where it had been retrieved a week later. When the houses it had been taken to had been raided they found the bank money at one, along with the robbers. At the other there were signs of it being a half-way house for four girls but it was empty when raided.

I took this all in and was starting to get flashes of memory and the Major looked at me and said “It’s snapping back, isn’t it?” I nodded and asked “am I that Ethan Davis?” Gwen held my hands and said “yes dear, you were, but you are Bethany David now, through and through.” I had to agree as I still felt like me, not some other me. It was difficult to comprehend but I said that it didn’t seem to matter as I had made my own life and was happy with it.

The Major told me that the brainwashing that I had been subjected to was some of the best he had ever seen and that he would love to examine me further. I told him he was a naughty boy and he laughed. The two men said goodnight and left, leaving Gwen and I to tidy up Julias’ old room so that Gwen could stay with me. It was all in vain as, when it was time to go to bed, I kissed her and we both slept in my bed, eventually.

In the morning I loaned her a nightie and gown to wear while we had breakfast. I was just about to drink my tea when I started giggling. Gwen asked me what I had thought of and I told her that I had suddenly remembered wishing that I would, some day, be sitting having breakfast with her while she wore a nightie and gown and that I had never thought that she would be wearing one of mine. This made her smile and she said “You really did love me back then, didn’t you?” I had to admit to falling hopelessly in love on day one and had done all I could to make her happy with me. She looked a bit sad and said “The other guys in the office used to call you my puppy and some even used to call you Fido.” I giggled and told her that if they saw me now they would call me Lassie.

I asked how my disappearance had been handled and she said “Well, we told the lower ranks that you had been killed before your car had gone into the quarry and there was a nice service for you. Your parents were very upset but not as upset as they would be if they saw you now. The upper ranks were told that you had been sent deep under cover and that they should go along with the death news. You are still classified as an officer but your weapons certificate has been withdrawn as you have not kept up with the required practise. I very much doubt that you would be accepted back in Bristol so I suspect they would ship you to some god-forsaken dale in the far north. If you do get reassigned, it would be at the sergeant rank and there will be a nice nest-egg of wages for you.”

I pondered this and said that I would not be likely to want that and then said “What if I am still in the game, what if they don’t know that I have remembered. I could still be useful to them, they just have to realise the fact sometime. I can support myself with the modelling and there were never any problems with me living here.” I thought a bit longer and asked, “Was I a good copper?”

She said that I had been one of the best and was the hardest working one she knew. I started to think about things from that standpoint and came to the realisation of what had been wrong over yesterday and the activities of the Yard boys. I said “They never did have Ritchie in custody, did they? It was all a fishing expedition. All they had was the photo of me going in with the victim and probably one with me being carried out by Ritchie.”

She agreed with that so I said “Then where is Ritchie now?” She said that she had been told that Ritchie was known to them and had form, they did not have a current address for him and that there was an APB out for him. I said “But he lives just across the corridor.” She asked me if I had access to his flat and I told her that we had matched keys as we were going backwards and forwards all the time. She then asked me if the sisters had lived close and I told her that they used to be next door but had moved to Southampton with a new job. Gwen went to her big bag and pulled out a can of pepper spray and some handcuffs and told me to get my key.

We went out into the corridor and she said “Right, let us take this systematically. If you have a master key, let us see how many of these rooms it opens as Ritchie would have been the minder of any girls that lived here.” I opened the door to the room where Tess and Toni had lived. The flat was empty and getting a bit dusty so we closed it up and moved on. The next one opened as well and it looked like someone was living here but not recently. We had a look around and I saw a photo of the other two girls from the one I had taken. We had a rummage in the drawers and came up with their names. One was Michelle DeJong and the other was Geri Coward. There was also a note telling them which train to catch for their new job in Scotland.

My key did not open the next door so we went over to the other side of the corridor and my key worked on the second one we tried. Gwen said that it looked like they had a block of five flats with three used by other girls. This one had the look of a place that was currently lived in and Gwen took photos of the pictures on the sideboard and made a note of the names we found. Neither of us recognised them and Gwen thought that they may be girls from other areas as there were still a number of outstanding cases in Reading and Southampton. We made sure not to disturb anything and left, moving on to the door we did need to open. When I unlocked it, Gwen led the way in, pepper spray at the ready, but the place was still. We found Ritchie in the kitchen, sprawled in a chair with a hole in his forehead and the splatter of blood and brains on the refrigerator behind him.

Gwen called her boss and told him we needed a forensic team but to do it covertly as she thought that I still have a chance to learn more. While we waited in my flat I remarked “You know, this group must only pay peanuts to the grunts on the ground. Ritchie had to do some blackmail to make ends meet, the guys in Swindon did bank heists. The only ones that have the investment in them are the girls. I am sure that none of those would be terminated until their usefulness was over.” Gwen wondered if they were sold to traffickers overseas when they got too old or too well known. She said “You are a case in point; you do not participate in the crimes directly but provide cover. You diverted Adrian while the sisters drugged him with something that brought on depression and there you were to be given the address of the very place he could be subjected to mind control. It may well be that there is something in the offing that a supermodel is going to be an ideal person to have in place.”

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 8

There was knock on the door and the Chief was there with the team, all in civvies. I gave him the key and pointed out the four doors it opened and Gwen and I went into my bedroom to shower and dress while they changed in my lounge.

We both had showers and I loaned Gwen some clean underwear and a proper dress to wear. She commented that she normally didn’t wear a dress as the pants kept the guys away. We both took extra care on our hair and make-up and, when we looked at ourselves in the mirror, we looked like a couple of sisters as well as a couple of supermodels. When we walked out to the lounge there was a noticeable intake of breath from the forensic team. The Chief said that we had better stay clear for a while and, right on cue, my phone rang. When I answered it was the modelling agency who wanted me to come in for an urgent shoot. I said I could and the girl on the other end said “do you have any tall friends as we need another one like you.” I said “Funny about that, we will see you as soon as we can get there.”

Turning to Gwen I asked “Do you have an alter-ego that you can channel for the rest of the day?” She said that she had gone undercover once and had been called Wendy. I said “Right Wendy, it is time for you to see life from the other side of the lens.” We took my car to the address I had been given and, on the way there; I asked how they had latched on to me with the modelling. She said that it was the artist who had been looking through magazines waiting to see his doctor. He had taken the magazine into the office and had rummaged through my old desk until he found his sketch of me. He had taken it to Gwen and her DI and then the spotlight had been turned on me and my activities. “I have to agree with the Chief; though” she said “you are much more beautiful in the flesh as well as being the most wonderful person I have met in a long time.”

When we arrived we got out of the car and I told her that she was now Wendy, the model, and to carry herself as if the world owed her a living. “Just follow my lead” I said “these folk just love being part of our world but it is us who provide the means.” We walked into the building and straight into the studio where Jack, an old friend now, looked up and did a double take. “Beth, darling, how on earth did you manage to clone yourself? This is wonderful; the customer is going to be very happy today.” He told me that Jenny had everything ready to go and, with the two of us here, we would be finishing a bit earlier than he thought.

When we walked into the dressing room, Jenny came over and gave me an air kiss, then she went to Wendy and gave her one each side, saying “Welcome, I am Jenny and I make you beautiful. In this case though, you both make my job much easier. “I introduced Wendy as a friend from way back and mentioned that we had played volleyball together in college. Jenny told us that today we were modelling the next seasons evening wear so she would work on me first and then Wendy while I was being photographed. She did not need to take a lot of time with me and I was soon heading out the door in a glittering sheath and high heels. Jack got to work and we had nearly finished when Wendy made her appearance in a short, red dress and a blonde wig on. She looked stunning. Jack clapped his hands and said he wanted us to do a set together. Once that was over with I went off to get changed, leaving Wendy to face the lens alone.

When I got back she was just finishing a shot where she was half-crouched and showing plenty of cleavage. I could see that she was enjoying herself. We carried on through the morning and only stopped for a light lunch. Jack asked her where she had modelled before and he was startled when she told him she had never been in front of the camera before. “But you are a natural, like Beth here, the camera loves you” he cried. In the afternoon we did a set of daywear shots and Wendy was surprised when she was told to pick an outfit to take with her. We both put our own dresses in a bag and wore a couple of outfits that would take the next season by storm to go back to the flat in. Wendy said “I think that we are likely to give the team a heart attack when we get back.”

The team was changing back to civvies as we arrived. There were a few murmurs of ‘hubba hubba’ as we let ourselves in. The Chief was almost afraid to speak so we sat ourselves down and Gwen asked them how it had gone on while we were busy working. We were told that there had been good prints and hair samples from the two empty rooms and quite a bit of good traces from Ritchie’s. He had been killed with a nine millimetre round, possibly from a silenced gun and had been dead since yesterday. He had obviously really pissed someone off with his half-baked criminal activities. The fact that Julia had been told to get away, proved that the girls were worth more than the hired help.

After the team had left, the chief told us that they had erased any traces that they were there and that I should ring emergency services and report finding Ritchie’s body this evening, so that he could be taken away in the usual fashion. He suggested I call the DC that had spoken to me yesterday morning so he could get some credit. Gwen told him that we thought there was a future scenario where I was to be drawn back into the system and that it could be as a model, rather than a secretary. I had been left alone and, if the Yard doesn’t need me for anything more, I would still be seen as clean. We still needed to find the top players in the gang and it wasn’t going to happen without more groundwork. I suggested that he reactivate Gwen as Wendy and that she should stay here with me and we could do modelling together. I told him that I was certain the agency would be in touch when they saw the pictures from today.

He hummed and harred but finally agreed to our plan. He said he would notify our DCI that we were both under cover and not to contact us. Gwen said she would need to get some of her clothes from home and I told her that I had plenty of contacts in the trade and that we would outfit her in a style suitable for the model she is going to play. ‘Tomorrow” I said “we go shopping.”

The chief left and the two of us went out for dinner, being well looked after in my favourite pub where they thought that two of us was far better than one. When we got back to the flat I opened the door to the other flat and let out an ear-piercing scream, Gwen joining me a few seconds after. That setting the scene, I rang the number that I had been given by the DC at the yard and told him that I had just found Ritchie in his kitchen and that he was dead. I sobbed realistically and it was only ten minutes later we heard the sirens approaching. When he came up the stairs I pointed to the open door. Within a half an hour the place was alive with SOCO guys and I was questioned why I didn’t tell him before where Ritchie lived and I answered because of two reasons – he had not asked me and he had also told me that Ritchie was in custody. Gwen stayed in her room until everyone left, coming out to say “Well, that put the cat among the pigeons.”

I had given her some more night and day wear to go along with and suggested that we both get a good night of sleep as we would never know when things got busy again. We kissed and I almost gave in to my desires but we went to our separate rooms for the night. In the morning we were both showered and dressed before breakfast and, after we had tidied up, we took the DLR into the city. We went to a big department store where I had been on both their catwalk and their catalogue. When we got up to the fashion floor the floor manager saw us and hurried over. “Beth, darling, it is so wonderful to see you, how can we be of service?” I explained that Wendy needed a full wardrobe of current clothing suitable for a model and that she may well be in their next catalogue as well. We got the full treatment and, when we walked out of there, she had been fully outfitted from top to bottom with the latest styles. They would deliver the packages to the flat and I put it all on my account.

After lunch we went to the salon that looked after me and my beautician was in seventh heaven to work on us both, making sure that Wendy had the full treatment. When we walked out she was stunning. My phone had rung while we were in the salon and it had been my agency, they wanted to see us both as soon as we could get there. Wendy was a bit on edge when we got there and said “What if they don’t want me?” I told her that they would have to be blind and certifiable if they didn’t sign her on the spot. As we went into the office there was a smattering of applause from the girls there and Wendy was signed up at a base salary that was twice that of a DS. We gave my address as hers and told them that Wendy was just up from the country and would let them know her bank when she had an account.

As we rode the DLS back to Limehouse she said that she still could not believe that she was good looking enough to work as a model and I told her that she already had a head start compared to me. That made her laugh. When we got back to the flat there was a pile of boxes outside my door and we took them in, emptied them and Wendy hung away her new look. There was a knock on the door and a uniformed courier had a package for Wendy. She signed for it and, on opening it, found a full set of paperwork for her character. She told me that she had always used her lesbianism as a shield against the world but now realised she could be an ‘out there’ woman and not have to hide any more. I told her that she had always been beautiful to me and kissed her. It was a couple of hours later when two, freshly showered and dressed, girls went out for dinner. We were hit on by a couple of guys and I took the lead to keep them at bay while allowing them a good evening with a couple of gorgeous girls. Back at the flat I told Wendy that it never harms to have some friends around who think you are wonderful company.

Over the next few weeks we worked hard in our profession and became known as the ‘Sporty Twins’ in the trade. We did a few catalogue shoots and even one swimwear shoot. We were a knockout in bikinis and this led to another shoot in the South of France where we were able to spend some time putting the swimwear to its proper use.

It was here where Julia came back into my life.

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 9

Wendy and I were playing another couple of models in a game of beach volleyball. With our height we were the current champions but this game was getting too close for comfort.

There was a good crowd watching us and I noticed several guys standing oddly as four bikini-clad models jumped about. We did win in the end but it had been a good work-out. I hugged Wendy after she hit the winning spike and then we went and hugged the losing girls.
We were all in Monaco and had been for a week now. The shoots were all ultra-glamorous high-end fashion and we had spent a lot of our days draped over roulette tables in outfits that even we could not afford to buy. This was our day of rest and the game was the last one for the day so we all went to our rooms to shower and dress for dinner. Of course, being well known models meant that every night we were at some chic party or another. Tonight we were expected to show at the mansion of a French financier with an eye for lovely ladies. What I didn’t expect to see, when we walked into his ballroom, was Julia hanging on his arm.

As we were being introduced I saw Julia look like the proverbial deer in the headlights when she saw me. I guess that she had put London behind her for good. I had to admit that she was absolutely looking the part, with her designer dress and perfect make-up she was several levels above the London version. I led Wendy over to the buffet and whispered in her ear that our hostess was the previous Julian Banks in the flesh. Now, in all of her investigations, she had never actually been close to one of the surgeons’ creations other than me so she was surprised at just how good the final product could be.

We spent the evening being chatted up by well-heeled guys wanting a piece of the action and, I must say, Wendy was getting very good at the game. I was starting to think that she may be turning bi! There was a band playing in one corner and the two of us were dancing with a couple of the better looking guys when a waiter came up to us and said “Excuse me gentlemen; but your hostess would like to have a word with these lovely ladies. She will return them to you in a little while.” The guys were OK with that and the waiter led us to a side room where Julia was waiting for us. She looked at me and said “OK, how did you not get arrested? I was told that you were going to be locked up and that I could get caught up in it if I stayed around.”

I asked her if we could sit down as these heels were getting a bit painful so we sat in easy chairs next to a false fireplace. I firstly introduced her to Wendy and told her that Wendy was now staying in her old room. I then told her that all the police had was a picture of me going in with the victim and one of me being half carried out by Ritchie and there was nothing they could hold me on. I asked how she had been warned to leave and she said that a friend of Ritchie had phoned her at work and told her to go home, pack her clothes, and get to the Eurostar terminus for the next train to Paris as the game was up. When I asked about the timing, we discovered that it had been before I had been approached by the detectives. There must have been a leak at the Yard. I could see that Wendy had also taken this point. Julia told us that she was particularly instructed not to try and see Ritchie as he would be unable to help her. I reckoned that he must have been dead by that time. Julia asked how Ritchie was doing in jail and we had to tell her that he had been shot dead. She almost broke down at this and sobbed “I didn’t know.”

I asked her about her current position and she told us that she was the PA for our host as well as being his lover. She then stunned us by saying that Tess and Toni had left their job in Southampton and were working with her in the head office in Paris, still in the steno pool, though. She commented on Wendys’ height and I told her that we were now the ‘Sporty Twins’ in the fashion industry and that we were doing very well. She said that she was sorry she had run out and that it had weighed on her mind ever since. “You were so kind to me, Beth” she said “we had a lot of fun. I will try to keep in touch.” She dried her eyes and we all went back to the party. Wendy and I went back to our guys and we did, indeed, end up in separate hotel rooms with me getting some much needed sorting out. I only hoped Wendy was appreciating the one thing I was sure she had never had before.

Around two in the morning I got back to our room and found Wendy sitting on the bed, weeping quietly. I went to her and held her close and told her that everything was all right and that I was here to help her get over the experience. She said “I don’t want to get over it. I want to do it again, dammit!!! I am afraid that you won’t want me anymore! I became a lesbian because I was afraid of the power that men have and now I am so gorgeous I now have more power myself. That poor boy would stop at nothing to please me and I like it!” I held her close and kissed her wet cheek and told her that she was no longer just a lesbian and nor was I. I said that we were a couple of bi girls and that she will have a lot more fun in life as long as she makes sure she doesn’t get pregnant. “My God” she cried “I’ve never had to bother with that before, I had better get something in the morning from the chemist. It’s all right for you; even the surgeon couldn’t give you that problem.”

I stood up and undressed and then helped her undress and we fell into bed giggling, which turned into an hour of serious loving. We both looked haggard when we fronted up for breakfast and our make-up girl commented that she would need the heavy duty foundation today. She said that she was glad she didn’t get invited to the parties as she would never have the stamina for the late nights. It was fortunate that our shoot today was to be swimwear and on a yacht so we had a bit of time to make ourselves presentable for the camera. During a break we were swimming around the back of the yacht and Wendy said that we needed to contact the chief about the sisters and the parallel with my own experience. I told her that we may be in danger if Julia reports back to her minder in Paris and that we needed to take a lot more care in the future.

That evening we went for a walk to the casino and called the chief from a public phone. We told him about our discussion with Julia and he said that he would get the gendarmes` to start surveillance on the sisters and anyone else they may meet. He told us that there would be a package in our wardrobe when we got home and to make sure we carried the contents in future. We all agreed that the plant at Scotland Yard may be the reason I had not been contacted since the ‘arrest’. When we did get home we found a couple of nine millimetre pistols, ammunition and a cleaning kit so we were now not just beautiful but dangerous as well! We just had to go looking for a new handbag each, so that we could carry our weapons at all times. We ended up with stylish cross body ones with a zip closure so that no-one would accidentally see the gun in them. We bought three each in different colours as it just does not do to carry one bag all the time.

After the Monaco shoot we had a couple of weeks off and the chief got a message to us that he wanted to update us on the investigation. We met him and the Major at a posh London restaurant for lunch. As we ate our lunch we were given all of the latest details. The operation in Paris was just getting going but the French police had identified the ‘go-to’ man already, a low-life thug. They had reported that the target financier was acting quite normally at the moment. The company where Tess and Toni had been working in Southampton had undergone a take-over and restructuring and the manager that they had been looking after had been made redundant. The company where Michelle and Geri worked, from the flat along from mine, was being watched closely and the chief told me that the PA to the finance manager was none other than Lesley Johns.

I asked about the wellness centre that Adrian had gone to and the Major smiled and told us that the police had raided the place, only to find that there had been a sub-contract division that had now closed down, leaving some very tasty mind bending equipment behind. He said that he had been able to commandeer it all and his team was learning some new tricks from it. The rest of the wellness centre was just as it should be and totally above board. The hospital that had sent me to London was also uninvolved but my own case had been organised by a medical practise that was no longer open.

They also said that there had been no cases of teenage disappearances for a couple of months so it looked like the gang was laying low and just concentrating on current projects. I asked about other cases of finance officers disappearing with funds and was told that three of them had gone through the wellness centre and all had disappeared with substantial funds. The names of all the staff in every company had been looked at and, in every case, there was a PA or high level secretary who could possibly be one of the earlier kidnapped boys. All had vanished.

Wendy and I took a week off in Bristol and it was fun, but a little sad, to be walking around and only being recognised as fashion models, not as previous police detectives. We stayed well clear of our old station. Wendy was very quiet for a couple of days and then announced that she did not intend to return to the force as she was having more fun in her current position and also earning more money than the Commissioner. I knew that I could never return as Ethan was dead and buried. We had a drink to our future and allowed a couple of guys to take us home for a foursome. It was a blast!

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 10

Back in London we were working hard and everything seemed going well. I had not been contacted by the gang so I thought that I may be free of them. A couple of weeks later the chief let us know that the Scottish project had been wound up after the target had been sent to a retreat in the hills.

All three girls were in custody, the man had been shocked at how he had been led and the Major was busy transporting another batch of mind-bending machines to his HQ. The staff at the retreat had all been taken into custody and interviews were progressing. All in all it was a successful break-through.

We made sure that we stayed alert and Wendy had noticed a couple of odd men looking at us. Having men look at us was not unusual but it was when they ducked out of sight when we looked directly at them. A couple of weeks later we heard that Julia, Tess and Toni were in a French prison being interrogated and that the financier was in hospital being treated for attempted suicide. The French police raided a clinic just outside Paris but were unable to arrest anyone because they had either bitten a suicide pill or had been killed in the gun battle that occurred. The Major was unhappy that the French Secret Police had snaffled his prize equipment before he could get to it.

We had taken to wearing jeans and boots during our home time and it made the cross over bags look more natural. Mine had a dangle off the strap which looked like a doll but was an alarm button, which I had to press once for ‘track me’ and twice for ‘help’. We both carried the guns all the time with a full load plus one in the chamber so were ready to defend ourselves to the end, if need be. It all came to a head as we were sitting at a table outside a local café and I looked up the road to see an ambulance held up in the traffic. “Look sharp, Wendy” I whispered “I think we are about to go for a ride.”

Just then a guy came out of the café with a topcoat draped over his shoulders. He looked like an extra from a mafia movie but it turned serious when he showed us the Uzi sub-machine gun he held under the folds of the coat. “Just stay calm, ladies, you are going for a ride in the nice ambulance that is coming down the road.” He growled. We kept our silence as the ambulance pulled up and a guy opened the back doors from inside before going back into the vehicle. Our gun toting chap told us to get in and take a seat on either side of the vehicle and to stay quiet. We could see the one who opened the doors had made himself comfortable near the front, with an assault rifle pointing at us. The Mafiosi kept well back as we got in and only climbed in himself when we were wearing our seatbelts. As he closed the doors we pulled away and headed for our ‘final’ destination.

This was confirmed when the chap with the rifle started gobbing off, saying “the boss wanted us to knock you out when we took you but we decided to have a bit of fun with you before we shoot you. You have cost the gang dearly and there are a few of my friends who are dead now because of you, bitch.” He snarled, looking at me. “I told the boss not to give you the treatment but just to put you in your car when it went into the quarry. But no, she wanted to ‘have a little fun’ with you.” They were so sure of themselves they didn’t think about searching our bags.

We headed North West out of the city and I rearranged myself in my seat, giving my fob a single push as I shifted the bag onto my lap. They stayed quieter now but were giving both of us some very close inspection, as if they were deciding which part to eat first. At last the ambulance pulled into a side lane and drove up to the edge of a wooded area. From where I sat I saw a sign proclaiming that there were open mines in the area and to keep out. We pulled up in a clearing and the driver got out and came around the back to open the doors. He said “Got a text, when we are finished here we need to go to the Windsor house to pick up a new one.”

The guy with the Uzi climbed out and moved back from the doors, the Uzi now in full view. He told us to unbuckle and get out, slowly, which we did. When we were moved away from the doors the one with the assault rifle also got out and told the driver to get back into his seat and keep the engine running. I thought that they were very careful but were far too cocky for their own good. Wendy and I were ordered to start walking along a track into the wood and not to make any moves to escape as we would be shot.

As we walked I heard the two of them behind us discussing what they were going to do before they threw us into a mine shaft. We got to a bend in the track which put us out of sight of the ambulance and I said quietly “give it a few seconds and have a look at your nice shiny watch, then cry out and let me put my arm over your shoulder”. This she did and when I put my arm over her shoulder she told me that the reflection in her polished watch face had shown that the guys were strolling along with their guns pointing down. While we were close she used her, now hidden, right hand to open both our bags and she took her gun out. I said “see that muddy bit in the track up ahead, when we get there we go either side and then use maximum force.

It worked like a dream, the goons were so taken in the idea that we were theirs; they stayed as they were when we separated. I put my right hand in my bag and, as we got away from each other I said “Two, One, Go!” and we spun around in unison and fired. Wendy put two into the body of the rifle carrier and I put two into the head of the machine gunner. They both dropped like stones. I picked up the rifle and checked that it was in working order and told Wendy to give me thirty seconds and the to limp out of the wood to head for the ambulance calling out for help.

I used my thirty seconds to sprint into the cover of the trees and find a position where I could see the front of the ambulance. On cue Wendy came out from the wood with a pronounced limp and crying for help. As expected, the driver pulled out a gun and got out of his cab to deal with her. I waited until he was well clear of the vehicle and I shot him in the head with a three shot burst. His head exploded like a pineapple at the range. I then pressed the call button twice.

While we were waiting we held each other close and I asked Wendy if she had used her gun before, to which she replied that she had not and would be happy never to do it again. After a few minutes the armed response team screamed up and tumbled out of their van, taking up defensive positions. I laid the rifle on the ground and we put our pistols down as well. The Inspector in charge came up to us and asked how he may be of help, to which I replied that there was a couple more bodies along the track and that I thought that the mine shafts in the wood could do with a looking at. He took possession of our pistols and the rifle for the incident report as we knew we would be interviewed later about shooting someone.

We sat on the back ledge of the ambulance while his team did their thing. They were quite excited at the Uzi as it would be a good one to keep. After about a half hour the chief joined us, with the Major not far behind. We told him what had happened and he went to look at the three bodies himself. The Major told me that my skills had not departed when I changed sex, an interesting fact that he had wondered about. When everyone was happy I told the chief about the pick-up that the driver had mentioned and wondered if we could take the trip ourselves. We had a look at the driving cab and found a very nice GPS unit. Working through recent trips we found the location of the Windsor house, as well as a location in Kent that seemed to be the origin and destination of a lot of trips.

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 11

The chief and the Major had a confab and it was decided that Wendy and I could ride with a police driver to do the pick-up. The armed response boys would find a spot near the house before we get there so they could clear the house afterwards.

We were given another pistol each, as well as a couple of Tasers and our driver was told how to act when we got to the Windsor destination. We also had a couple of the armed lads with radios. The Major took the location of the Kent premises and told the chief that he would put a team around it before we got there. We left the scene and I hugged Wendy, telling her that she had done well, so far. She was still a bit shaky and we spent the time travelling to bolster our nerves. While we were on our way we heard that the search team in the woods had discovered bodies in the mine shafts. Luckily we didn’t join them.

When we arrived at the house our driver pulled up outside and beeped the horn. They were obviously waiting for us as the front door was opened and two guys came out carrying a stretcher with someone on it. Wendy pushed both of the doors open and I jumped out with a Taser in each hand. The guys didn’t even have time to react before I zapped them. As they dropped I dropped the Tasers and took the pistol Wendy gave me and we rushed into the house.

I could hear the armed boys pulling up outside as we entered. There was a goon in the hallway trying to pull his gun from his waistband. It looks good but it does slow one down in a tight situation. One of our companions took him out before he could get it free and we carried on into the house. I didn’t find anyone else on the ground floor and left the upper floors to the tactical boys. When they came down they had one of the detectives from the yard who looked scared. I told the inspector to take particular care of this one as he was one of ours who had gone over to the dark side.

When I got back to the front door Wendy was organising the help for the lad on the stretcher. Our back-up ambulance had arrived and she was telling the paramedics what the kid may have been subjected to and they made notes before taking him away. Another had turned up for the guy we had shot. The chief arrived now and told us that things were looking good for the Kent premises.

Before we left, I looked at as many of the ambulance GPS locations as I could and we listed about six that seemed likely houses. The chief got on to his radio and organised simultaneous raids as we raided the Kent place. Wendy and I got back in the ambulance with our two armed friends and we headed for Kent, now sporting a pair of assault rifles ourselves. As we drove, the radio was alive with chatter, letting us know that teams were getting into place at all of the locations. The Major came on to tell us that the house in Kent was a big place with new outbuildings. He had already got some of his men close to the doors and would be ready when we arrived. He told us that there was an armed guard at the gate who was wearing body armour. There were armed guards at the back, by the outbuildings.

I opened the hatch between us and our driver and asked him to pull over and let one of us into the passenger side. Wendy said “You are not having all the fun” and took a Taser with her when she left me in the back. I looked out of the back window as we pulled away again as there was a convoy of cars behind us, filled with coppers armed to the teeth. Wendy got the driver to have his window right down when we arrived and to make sure he was very slow as he went past the guard. It worked well as the gate was opened for us and she rose up from her crouched position just as the guard realised that he didn’t recognise our driver. The Taser barbs in his neck put him down before he could react. We carried on and the convoy followed us to the building. I heard the chief call ‘Go’ on the radio as we pulled up to the front doors. We piled out of the back and joined Wendy as we got to the door, which was swinging open. There was a goon there and I hit him in the head with the rifle stock as we went through. I could hear the SAS and our tactical guys behind me and thought I heard some gunfire from around the back.

We went through the house like a whirlwind and went faster when I saw a sign pointing to the operating theatre. I burst in as the surgeon was about to make the first slice on a lads genitals. She had not heard the commotion because of the music she was playing while she worked. She had fury in her eyes as she turned towards me, bringing the scalpel up and snarling “You!!” So I shot her from the hip with the bullet going up through her body and ending in the ceiling. I swung the rifle towards the assistants and said “there is a round in this for each of you if you do not do what I say. Bring that lad around as easy as you can and the rest of you on the floor with your hands on your heads.” Actually, one of the nurses had already slumped to the floor in a dead faint. Wendy and I kept the peace here while the team went through the whole place. The chief came in and said ‘You didn’t have to kill her” I told him that she had a knife in her hand and that the last time she had done that near me I had lost my balls. The tactical guys with us nodded with a grimace.

After a couple of hours we were gathered in the main dining room for a de-briefing. The chief said that the surgeon had been a well-respected one in the battle injury field and most of our captives were her team. He said that initial questioning found that they were all in it for the experience but mainly for the money. They had found two other lads in side rooms that had been pre-prepped for their own operations and all were being looked after before they were returned to their families. This meant the one we were to pick up had been number four.

The boss of the SOCO team came in and reported that they had found a computer in the office that looked like it had a full description of everyone who had been worked on here as well as the results of all the criminal activities. The chief got a phone call to tell him that the other six raids had done well, resulting in the arrest of a number of gang members as well as the recovery of ten girls who were demanding to know why they were being arrested. The Major had a big grin on his face when he got back to us and he told us that the house and outbuildings had been classified as top secret and that he had a fun time ahead for the next few years.

The tactical inspector took yet another gun from me and I also surrendered my pistol, as did Wendy. The chief took us home in his car and, on the way, told us that we had cracked a big one and everyone will be very happy about the result. He looked at me and added “Especially as we do not have to have a trial with the surgeon; that would have been a real bun fight in the papers.”

When we got to the flat we let ourselves in and undressed. I said, “I love you, whether you are Gwen or Wendy.” She said “I love you too, Beth, and the new me would have been able to love Ethan as well.” At that we cracked up and fell into bed to release the tensions of the day. The next day we had a scheduled photo shoot and were well dressed and looking like a million dollars as we went to the location, having a good day in front of a camera.

Eventually all the hullabaloo died down and we had a meeting with the chief. Our part in the action had been kept secret and he handed us both official letters that showed that a committee had decided that all of the kills we had made had been rightful. He then gave us an invitation card each to a presentation of medals the next day in Whitehall. After that he gave us both a packet which had the proper certificates and other paperwork in each of our new names. He explained that strings had been pulled and that we were now officially Bethany and Wendy and I was also the owner of the five flats on our floor. The gang had put my name on the paperwork so that I could be set up as a fall guy if things went bad for them. The last thing he gave us was our promotion papers. We were both now Detective Inspectors (Acting). He said that this would give us a better pension when we resign but not to do so until after the medal presentation.

The next day we dressed carefully in modest skirts, hose and jackets and made our way to the address in Whitehall. It was not a big affair as we were still technically under cover but the records would show that DS Gwen Leeds and DS Bethany David were recipients of the Police Medal for Bravery. A high level politician pinned them on our lapels and shook our hands. At the cocktail party afterwards we had some interesting conversation with the politician who praised us for, not only our bravery, but also for our beauty and poise. He told us that his daughters were fans of ours and he was sad that he wasn’t able to tell them about meeting us. I promised to send him invitations to our next big fashion show that he could pretend came about through his office.

On our way home I turned to Wendy as we sat in the taxi and said “Well, it looks like all we have to do is resign, now.” She said that it would be a wrench but she didn’t think that her career could get any more exciting than the last case. We held hands quietly until we got home. As we went into the flat I said that as we were now landlords we had better get some tenants in to add to the income and she said that we would need that when the modelling was over. I held her close and told her not to worry as we had a lot of modelling to come, in the years ahead, together.

Marianne G 2020.

This was the original end to the story but I started thinking about it and decided that there was more to say, so it continues for a few more chapters.

Chapter 12

A week or so later the chief got in touch and asked us if we could try to get a three week break from modelling as he wanted us to attend a course. As we still had not got around to resigning we were intrigued about this and called the agency to see if we could get the three weeks break.

It worked out well as they wanted us to have a full month on location in a months’ time so we got back to the chief to let him know when we were available. He gave us an address in Hereford that I recognised as being a house that I had been staying in when I did my firearms training with the SAS. I told Wendy that she may find the three weeks an interesting experience. After we had tidied up the few shoots that we had been contracted for, we took my car and headed west.

When we arrived at the house we were greeted by the chief and Major X, my brainwashing expert. We were shown where to put our bags and met the two of them in the lounge with a cup of tea. It started with the Major explaining that he had found that there were three distinct levels of brainwashing that had been used by the gang. The first was the lowest and was mainly used on the target business man. The equipment at the wellness centres was only able to provide this level of influence. The second level was for ‘new girls’ who had been on the edge of illegal activities before they had been taken. This level left them with some knowledge of their personality but removed all vestige of their own history; so ending up as total girls who were able to be trained to administer drugs and to keep tabs on the target so as to determine the best time to go for the ‘wellness’ phase.

The third level was the one I had suffered through. It took away all personal memories permanently. I still could not remember anything about my life before Bethany unless it was something that I had been trained in or had been shown positive proof of. This was why I could remember my earlier days of the case but nothing of the essential me that was there at the time. I ‘knew’ that I had loved Gwen but would not have given her a second glance unless I was shown that she was, indeed, the girl I loved. The gang was lazy in that they had not bothered to give me any imaginary memories to overlay the blankness so I was destined to go through life as a new-born the day I woke up in the hospital. I wasn’t needed to know more as I was there merely as a distraction.

The Major said that the equipment found in Kent was able to go all the way to level three and he knew that it was here that all the girls who were destined to be the centre of attention had spent up to three months. He said there are records of six others who had gone down this path, other than me. Lesley and Julia had been the only two left alive as remains of the other four had been found in the mine shafts. The chief added that they had identified seven missing businessmen among the bodies so the gang had made quite a bit of money. He said that all the money recovered had been returned, in part, to the companies who had lost it.

He told us that he could not get any access to Julia as the French police still had her but he had been able to get Lesley transferred into his custody. He said that she had volunteered to undergo tests with the equipment in Kent and that it had been very interesting. The records found in Kent had given the full details of our time there and he had found out that every new girl who went through the system had been given a coded phrase which was unique to them. He said that he had not been able to find out what the phrase did but expected that it would be something like a suggestion that hypnotised people are given to get them to perform some unusual act.

He had been able to remove the code from her brain and had spoken the words several times to her with no effect. He wanted me to come with him to Kent so that he could remove my own code. While we were to be away, Wendy would be given a crash course in firearms training and then we would both be given a course on unarmed combat, SAS style.

The chief then told us that there had been ten girls found in the raids as well as two with Lesley. He said that all those with links to the crimes would have to go through the courts but he was sure they would be given suspended sentences as they could be proven to be under mind control. There remained four girls who were all found in a house in Manchester who were not fitting any mould at all. All four were transgendered but had all their memories and had never been subjected to the brainwashing, although there was no proof of that. They showed up in the Kent books as purely there for the operations.

He said that all four had been contacted through a TG website and offered the operation for free if they would work as girls through a temping agency in Manchester. Of course, all four took the offer and had been living at the house while working in various offices as temps. They had no links to any odd behaviour or illegal goings-on so everyone wondered just what they had been destined for. They had told the investigators that it was an easy life as they did not pay rent and only needed to keep a couple of resident guards happy, something they all had wished for anyway. He wanted the four girls to stay with us in London, two each to two of the flats.

I told him that we had not yet been able to clean the flats out and he offered to put a team onto it so I gave him the master key. He said that he would organise a complete change of locks for the five flats and that both he and I would have a master. He wanted us to leave the other two flats vacant as there may be some of the other girls who would be able to live with us as well; the two from Scotland would be sent to us once the Major had checked out their brains. The government would find them all safe work to do so that they could all be assimilated back into normal life.

The next day Wendy was taken off for her first day of weapons training and I went with the Major for a quick helicopter ride to Kent where I saw, as we landed, that it now resembled an army camp with some huts and a proper helipad. He took me into the rear building where I was shown the machine used for brainwashing. It looked like a modified sunbed with speakers and output jacks added inside. There was also tubing for a mask and inputs for drips. I was told to go into a change-room and take everything off, including any jewellery, and put on the cotton gown supplied. I then laid in the contraption, had a mask put on me and my head was lightly clamped in place. When the top was closed down he must have added something to the oxygen mix as I was put into a sleep while he worked his magic with the equipment. Afterwards, he told me that my code words had been ‘cauliflower oysters’ and that if anyone said that to me in future I should start breaking heads. Lesley had been ‘Hawkeye havanah’. Afterwards he showed me the brainwashing equipment in more detail and it struck me that we had not arrested an electronics or software wizard when we rolled up the gang.

I commented on this and he nodded, saying “this is something that worries me. Whoever made this lot is a genius and we are still learning things it can do. I have an idea that it can be used to give the subject some knowledge of things that would be totally new to them.” I said that I had been surprised that when I went for the PA job I could touch-type and that Wendy had told me that I had been a pure one-finger pecker before. I came to realise that the case was still well and truly alive as we had got the brawn and the surgeon with her team; but we still needed to find the brains.

I contacted the chief about the financial dealings of the gang and he said that there had been regular payments into a bank account off-shore which had been emptied and closed down after I had been saved from the Met and before we had made the raids. It looked like the brains had left the building after the tip-off from the Yard detective. The Major assured me that anyone could be given the training to work the system and that it was possible that one of the gang that were killed defending the brainwashing building may have been that person.

I asked if I could look at my record while I was here and it made interesting reading – not! There was a complete list of the changes that had been made to my body and then a full description of the brainwashing. As I looked through the list of memories I had been given I could see some items in abbreviations. ‘TT’ could be my touch typing; comb would be hairdressing while cosm could be the ability to put on make-up and ST&GR could be style and grace which I would be forever thankful for. The code words were listed and the last item in the list was FAT.

I sought out the Major and showed him the item. He said that they had thought it may have been short for some ability such as filing and typing. I pointed out that there already was a typing module and wondered if the session may have been subliminal fire-arms training. I said that I had been wondering about this as I had not fired a gun in years but when I did have to I hit everything I aimed at. He said that he had looked at the body of the guy I had shot in the mine site and that I had got the first one between the eyes and the second was under the chin which would be the case with his head snapping back from the impact of the first hit. He said that Wendy had put two into the other guy and that were at least six inches apart.

We stayed the night at the house and I used the surgeons’ bedroom, rummaging through her drawers and picking out a very expensive and beautiful nightie to wear. In the morning, once I was dressed again, I took a pair of scissors from the vanity and cut it into small pieces that went into the bin, so severing my link to the one who changed me so well. We had a look at the records of all the patients that went through the place and I was the first to get the FAT option. There only followed four others, all true TG volunteers, who had a couple of sessions in the brainwasher to give them skills that would allow them to find work as well as turning them into unknowing assassins. The four that we would host were following these but had not been through the brainwashing as their visit was after the date of my ‘arrest’. I wondered if they had been taken somewhere else. All eight were listed only by their male names. Of course, it would be no good going looking for them as they would have now reverted to their preferred femme name which may be nothing like their old one.

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 13

On the way back to Hereford we discussed the situation and decided that the four TG girls we did have needed to be tested to see if they had been subjected to extra training. The problem would be that we didn’t know their individual code phrases.

It was lunch time when we arrived so we joined Wendy at the firing range where the instructors told us that she was good and would be ready for long gun training. We all had lunch and brought her up to date on the findings in Kent. I was then going to see just how good I had been trained. They had the results of my previous training to check against and I was not sure if I would be as good as I was then. My first go at a 25, 50 and 75 metre targets were all spectacular with each two shots from a standing position getting into the inner rings. They then set up the range without me looking on and gave me a 9mm with a full load and told me to wait until I was given the go order and to consider it as a live situation.

When I was given the order I spun around, bringing the gun up and saw that there were five man sized silhouettes at different distances and proceeded to empty my gun. There were gasps from the onlookers when the gunfire echoes faded as I had put two shots in each of the target heads in under six seconds. I ejected the clip, jacked the slide back and put the gun on the shelf. Taking my safety glasses and ear muffs off I said “That was fun”.

The Major told us to take a break while he made a couple of phone calls. I predicted that one would be to the chief to get the four TG girls to join us to see if they absorbed the training. Later in the day Wendy and I were taken to the rifle range on the army camp and I proceeded to put shots into the inner rings at longer and longer distances, ending up with a Barrett M99 snipers rifle and getting three in the inners at a thousand metres and more. The Armourer commented that I had been given the ability to breathe properly for a sniper as well as being able to gauge wind speed and direction. Wendy had run out of contention at around the four hundred metre mark.

We had a meal in the mess with some of the regiment who were at home for a while and then went back to the house for a sleep. The next morning we were joined by the chief and the four TG girls from their safe house. They were excited to be out and about after some weeks tucked away and even more so when they saw who they were having breakfast with. They all knew of the Sporty Twins and it helped break the ice. After we had eaten we took them into the lounge room and sat them down for a question and answer session.

I first asked them all how they had come to be in the position they were in now. The first to answer was Wanda, a good looking brunette and every inch a girl. She said that she had always thought of herself as a girl while she was growing up and that being the only child of a single mother she had been able to test out her feminine side, going out dressed to Gay clubs and TG dance clubs. She had been approached by another girl and asked if she would like to be transitioned for free. She would only have to work for her benefactor for five years and would be given training to allow her to work in a female oriented job. This was what she was doing when arrested.

The second to tell her story was Mallory, a similarly feminine redhead, whose own story was more of being forced to live as a boy by her father. She said that he had given her an air-rifle to try to get her to grow up more manly and was beaten for propping it in the corner of her bedroom with a plastic flower in the barrel. She was also spoken to at a TG dance club. The third was Jean, a bit of a tomboy-looking brown-haired beauty with a definite female weightlifters body. She said that she had been spoken to at a café where she had been having a coffee after a weight-lifting session and that the rest was similar to the others. The last was Valerie, a stunning blonde, who said that she had been on the game and had been approached by a man at her usual spot and offered good money and the chance to be a real woman, which she agreed to on the spot. None of these girls had been able to go and get their old belongings when they left.

I asked them about the operation, where it was done and what happened afterwards. They all had the one story here. They had all been taken to a doctors’ surgery where they had stripped, laid on a gurney and had been injected, not coming around until some weeks after that. They all reported that the scars were all fully healed and that they were able to immediately act like a normal girl and that there had been a small wardrobe of clothes for them to start with. They had all woken up at the same place, the house where they had been living when arrested. They all said that they had been dilated while sleeping and that one of the minders had made love to them within a week of waking. I remembered my own experience and realised that it was all part of being assured that we were women now.

I then asked them if they had any skills now that they knew they didn’t have before. They all said that they were better at typing, all of them being computer literate before, and Valerie said that she had noticed that she was far more aware of her surroundings now, which had all of the others nodding in agreement. I could see the Major looking very serious now; it was looking like the brainwasher was building a small army of assassins. I asked them if any of them had any experience with guns and it was only Mallory who nodded as she had the air-gun which she had never used. I then reached into my bag and brought out four pistols which I placed on the coffee table in front of them.

“Right” I said “these are standard issue 9mm pistols. They are semi-automatic and can empty the magazine in about eight seconds. They have nothing in the magazine or breech. Now, I want each of you to pick up a gun.” They all looked a bit strangely at me but did so, all picking up a gun as if they had been bred as soldiers. I asked them to close their eyes and field strip the weapon. In twenty seconds there were four piles of pistol parts on the coffee table. The chief was totally amazed at this as he had not yet been brought up to date with my own skills. I then asked them to open their eyes and reassemble the pistols, which was completed in less than thirty seconds, pretty good for a beginner.

It was now time for show and tell. I took the guns back and gave them to the Major. “Girls” I said, seriously “I have to tell you, in confidence, that I also had the operation you had and was known to have been subjected to brainwashing. I was also given the skills to work as a PA in an office as well as the ability to shoot very well. We will take you now to a pistol range where we will see just how well you can shoot”. I held my hand up “I know you think you have never shot before, but, believe me, I think you are going to be surprised at what you can do.”

We all got into an army truck the Major had called up and went to the pistol range. Wanda was first and I pointed to the Armourer standing behind her with a pistol in his hand. “This man has a loaded weapon in his hand. When we give you a gun and ammunition he has been ordered to shoot you if you swing your gun around and try to point it in any direction other than down the range. Your brainwashing has made you an assassin and we do not know if you have been given any orders yet, so we are making sure. Nothing personal about it and I would be sorry to have any of you shot as you all seem like nice girls.”

The Major put three man targets out at 50, 75 and 100 metres and I gave Wanda a pistol and magazine, stepping back quickly. She faced the range and loaded the gun, cocking it and bringing it up to put three shots in each target, all inside the rings. She then ejected the clip, jacked the last round out and put the gun down. I asked her why she didn’t fire the tenth round and she said that she deliberately left it for some reason. She was staggered when she saw the results of her shooting, as were all the other girls when they had fired their own guns. We all got back into the truck and, with the covers down so the girls could not see where we were going, we went to the rifle range. Here they all were easily able to match my results from yesterday.

The Major then said that he had set up a final test where the six of us would be finally set an interesting task. We went, again in the covered truck, to a place where they had a complete village built. The Major explained that this was where they trained troops going to Afghanistan. We were to start at one end of the village and were considered winners if we left at the other end. In between there were pop-up targets that only dropped again if they were hit in the inner ring. Every two seconds they were upright was considered enough time for one of us to be shot.

We were given a belt with webbing, carrying three extra magazines for the assault rifles we were also issued with, as well as a 9mm in a holster and four extra magazines for this. The Armourer said that we had so much ammunition because there were over fifty targets that are usually activated and allowances had been made for misses. He then told us that everything that happened in the village was recorded so that it could be played back later to tell us where we went wrong. He said that he would tell us over a loudspeaker if one of us had to leave.

We were offered a set of fatigues each but all elected to go in with our dresses on as fatigues would not feel right. Only Wendy was tempted but resisted the chance to be back in trousers. Again, it was only Wendy that started with the assault rifle in her hands; the rest of us had slung it on our backs and only held the pistol. We worked our way down the village street, shooting at targets as they popped up. In a couple of cases there was another target behind the first when it dropped again and several times there were simultaneous targets on either side of the street.

We finally made our way to the other end where we found that Wendy had gone through two and a half magazines for her rifle while each of the rest of us had shot two magazines of our pistols. We divested ourselves of the rifles, pistols and webbing belt, giving them to the Armourer who had a very strange look on his face as he took them from us, looking rather better when he made sure he had everything. If I had been asked, I would have said that he looked a bit fearful.

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 14

We went now to the Officers Mess where we were allowed to freshen up. We were then taken into the mess hall where a long table was set for dinner. The Major told us that we would be joined by some of the officers and invited NCO’s that were in the camp at the moment. “Many of these men have served more than one rotation overseas and all had been down that village street so there may be some comments about it later” he said, with a wicked grin on his face.

We made ourselves comfortable and then the doors opened and about twenty of the hunkiest guys you would ever see came in. None had any insignia on their fatigues but one, an older man, came up to the Major and shook his hand, saying “a little bird has whispered that you have something for us that will change our lives forever.” The Major just smiled and told him that he would see what the future holds after dinner.

The dinner was an interesting affair as they were quite taken with having six beauties gracing their table, especially as Wendy and I also graced some of their lockers as pin-ups. When we had eaten the Armourer took to his feet and proposed a toast to the Queen. When we had all sat down again he stayed standing and said “Ladies and Gentlemen. I am about to show you all the film of your little walk in the village today, it will be on this big TV in the corner so I ask you if you could all turn your chairs so you can see it easily.” When we had rearranged ourselves he then said “Colonel, how many targets are there in the village?” The Colonel said there were a hundred and twenty five in total but usually there were only about forty or fifty used in a training session.

The Armourer then said that what he was going to show us may be some sort of record then and the screen lit up with six girls, looking stupid in webbing belts over their dresses; standing at the starting line. The expected sniggers from the hardened soldiers were soon silenced as the film proceeded. We did our thing walking through the village. On occasion I heard muttered oaths from the soldiers. When we reached the finishing line the soldiers all clapped and we looked very embarrassed. The Major then told the soldiers that we had put paid to all of the hundred and twenty five targets that the village had, including the forty five that were civilians. He then told them that we had, between us, expended fifty seven rifle bullets and a hundred and two pistol rounds. Wendy looked a bit sheepish and said that she had set the rifle to three-shot bursts and was sorry she had wasted a few.

The Colonel then asked the one question that needed no answer as far as I was concerned – “Why did you kill the civilians?” The Major answered for us, saying “Five of these girls have all been subject to a very advanced brainwashing regime. Four of them had not seen or handled a military weapon before today and the other two are serving police. The brainwashing has made them into assassins and any target to them is just a target. In that village street there were no second thoughts, no regrets and no hesitation – a target popped up and was shot at. Now, before you ask if we can train our men to be so good I have to say that, so far, all those who have reached this level of competence have had to become female to do so and I am not sure yet if that is a prerequisite for achieving the skills – any volunteers?” There was general, if strained, laughter among the troops at this.

The next day the four girls were going to be taken to Kent with the Major to see if he could come up with any answers about their code words. Before they left we were sitting around the kitchen table and I pulled out a notepad with four boys names on it. I said that there had been four other TG girls who had been operated on and all had been subject to the same training that they had. I said that I would give them each name slowly and asked them if they could recall knowing the boy, or if they knew the boy after they had been made into a girl.

The first name drew blank looks from all. The second had Wanda thinking carefully before saying that he had been at school when she was there but a year ahead. She said that he had always been considered a fag by the other boys but had managed to get to finish the final year. She had seen him at one of the gay clubs she had been to and had called himself Tamsin at that time. The chief was busy writing this down. The third name had Jean lifting her eyebrows and she said the he had been a strong weight-lifter but had disappeared a year or so back. She said that everyone called him two-ton Tess behind his back as most thought he was well gay.

The fourth name made Valerie gasp. When I looked at her she said that she had met him a few times on the streets. He was a convincing girl at the time and she called herself Serena. She had disappeared but Valerie said that two days before she had been approached, she had been in Liverpool and had seen Serenas’ picture in the newspaper. It was a story about a shooting and a fire at an import-export company. She said that the story was that Serena had shot the husband, wife and son who ran the business before setting the place alight and then shooting herself in the head. It was thought to be a murder/suicide due to a love triangle as no other reasons could be found. The chief asked Valerie what the company dealt in and was told that the main imports were sunbeds.

Wendy and I looked at each other thinking the same words –‘Tidy up’. No doubt the main reason for the four deaths was destroying the sales records. The chief got on the phone to a friend in the Liverpool force to ask if he could get all the case notes and records of the event as it may be useful in an on-going national case. The girls all then gave us hugs and said that they were looking forward to living in the flats with us and left with the Major. The chief had a car come for him and he went off, thanking us for an interesting, if frightening, experience and the extra information which may help him track the unknown girls, now just three strong. Wendy and I were picked up in a Land Rover driven by the Armourer who was quite jovial on the drive to the camp, saying that he wished that he could have photographed the looks on the soldier’s faces as they watched the film last night.

Today we were to start our two weeks of unarmed combat training. Wendy was pretty good at it as she had been on plenty of police courses. I had a basic knowledge, or so I thought. I found out that ‘comb’ on my record was more than hairdressing after I had nearly killed the instructor. After this I was only allowed to go up against guys who were so heavily padded it was amazing they could still move around.

After that first day Wendy stayed with the course and I was sent off to the Brecon Beacons with a couple of very experienced soldiers to see if I had picked up any more skills that I did not yet know I had. It was a good few days in the wild, trying to stay out of sight and living off the land. I found out that although I could kill a rabbit with a .22 I had absolutely no idea of how to skin, gut and cook it. On the fourth day the guys told me I was on my own and needed to be back in Hereford in two days. They were then choppered out, leaving me with just the camo fatigues on my back and the instruction that I could do anything except break the law or try to borrow money.

It was an interesting couple of days, but I did walk into the gates of the camp within the time frame. The fact that I did so with my hair perfect and wearing a designer dress and heels after getting out of a vintage Jaguar raised the eyebrows of the guards. I gave the driver a farewell kiss and picked up a plastic bag from behind the seats. I gave the bag to the officer in charge and asked him if he could take care of the fatigues it contained. When he started winding up to give me a blast one of the other guards just said the name of the combat instructor I had sent to hospital and he quickly calmed himself. I just said that us girls have a few survival skills none of the SAS were taught.

I was taken to the unarmed combat building where I was told that Wendy was now very good. After she had finished her session and showered I waited for her to put on her own dress and heels as we were now deemed to have finished our course, some days early. A corporal escorted us to the main administration building where we were shown into the office of the commanding officer. He was a grizzled veteran who we had not met before and was quite charming, in a menacing way. He ordered up tea and we sat in the only easy chairs in the camp while he looked at our records.

Finally he put the stack of files down and said “Ladies, you have given this camp quite a shake up over the last couple of weeks. Wendy, I know you have not been subjected to any brainwashing but you are an exceptional person in that you would qualify for the try-out period to join the Regiment. Your shooting and unarmed combat skills put you in the top twenty percent of our usual recruits. Bethany, I have to say that if I had not been told that all of these results were verified I would have thought that it may be April the first. I have viewed the film of the six of you in the village and I must say that I have never seen such skill and reactions from any soldier I have had the pleasure to command. Should you visit us again, we will issue the two of you with a full kit, including the beret, to wear while you are on site. I thank you for showing us what we may be up against if this brainwashing monster is not apprehended; I don’t think even the Regiment could go up against twenty or thirty of you without resorting to heavy artillery.”

He shook our hands and called up his personal driver to take us back to the house where we packed up our bags and I drove us back to London. When we arrived I phoned the agency to tell them we were back and they said that there was a problem with the shoot. The other models had all been in Spain for a shoot and had all come down with stomach problems and were unable to go off again for a while. I was told that they could do a week of shooting in a studio but needed to come up with four more models as soon as they could and did I know any more good looking girls who would be available on short notice?

I told them I would ring back and the called the chief to see if the TG four were able to be freed to take on a modelling job, perhaps going overseas. An hour later he rang and said that the Major had finished with them, after hopefully working out the code problem and that they would be delivered to the flats in a couple of days, their passports would follow in about a week. I thanked him and rang the agency to tell them I would bring four girls into the studio to do a test shoot in three days time.

I took my master keys and we had a look in the other flats, seeing that all had been cleaned thoroughly and the old refrigerator which had been bullet damaged when Ritchie had been shot had been replaced by a shiny new one. I thought that we had better leave this flat empty for the moment and we made up beds in two of the others. I hoped that the four girls would take to the modelling as it would keep them firmly within our view. I knew that the training they had received would give them the style and grace that I had been given so I thought that all would be well.

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 15

The girls were delivered with their luggage a couple of days later, excited at being in London but also wondering why they were with us so early. I explained that the agency we worked for had an urgent need for four models to take part in a long photo shoot and that I had volunteered them for the job.

They were all a bit apprehensive as none had ever considered that they could be feminine enough to be a model but I told them that models come in all shapes and sizes these days and not to worry. They settled themselves into the two flats, with Wanda and Jean in one and Mallory and Valerie in the other. I was starting to think of those two as Mal and Val. We all went out for a noisy dinner at our favourite hotel and had a laugh about the ‘village walk’ and Wendy told them about me nearly killing the combat instructor, with a warning that they may also have the same level of training and not to get angry with anyone.

The next day we all went into the agency where the girls were inspected, measured, and found suitable to go to a test shoot. With the new experiences of professional make-up and some wonderful dresses to wear, they all got into the swing of things quickly. I was starting to think that adaptation to any situation was one of the side effects of the brainwashing. We had lunch supplied on the run and, by the end of the day all the girls had been fully accepted as the replacements. The agency was really happy with Jean as they had a range of outdoors outfits that suited her heavier frame perfectly. They were all signed on to the agency before we left.

We were told that the main shoot would be starting on the Monday morning and that a mini-bus would be sent to the flats in the morning. This left us with the weekend to get ourselves fully sorted. We went for dinner at our favourite hotel and I asked for a table away from other diners as we needed to discuss things. After we had eaten I asked the girls if they knew what the Major had been able to achieve. I was told that by knowing my own codes and having records of the brain activity when the words were said, he was able to pin-point the place in the brainwashing where the codes were inserted, over-riding the instruction with a blank space. He was not able to actually find out what the words were but was sure that none of the girls would react when they were spoken.

Saturday morning we all went into the city and I took them into the store where we had outfitted Wendy. The floor manager nearly fainted when we told her that the four girls needed some outfits as expected from models and to put it on my account. Wendy spoke up then and said to split the four between our accounts and that she would be looking for a couple of items herself. We all had a good time, having to stop for lunch at the store café, before winding up around three. The manager said that all our bags would be delivered later that afternoon and we went back to the flats. The bags did arrive about an hour after us and there were six, very well outfitted, ladies who went back into the city in two taxis for a dinner with the chief and the Major.

The Major brought us up to date with his work on the four and told us that he was getting much more proficient with the software now and was sure that all the girls had been cleared of the codes. The chief gave us the good news that a Tamsin had, he thought, been located working at an electronics store and that the stores records had been obtained quietly to see if there were any links to big supplies to one company. So far it was not looking good. He did tell us that investigations into the murders and fire were looking good as they had tracked down a driver who did contract work for the company and he was giving them a list of places he had delivered to. We all had a good meal and went home satisfied with the progress. The four were slowly becoming part of the investigation team after being considered as victims, much like my own situation.

The Sunday was a day of rest with each flat organising their own breakfasts. I had told everyone that we would be going for a run after breakfast and we all took the DLR down to Canary Wharf where we had a good work-out in the mainly empty streets along the waters’ edge. There was a café open, near to where I used to work, and we took a couple of outside tables and put them together. I told the four new models that the following week would be the hardest they had worked as a lot needed to be achieved in the time allowed. Only perfection was to be shown on the printed pages and perfection takes a lot of work to achieve. I told them to start Monday in casual outfits and minimal make-up as everything gets done at the shoot. We had a good lunch and I told them that they had the rest of the day off but not to eat too much this evening.

Next day we were picked up and taken to an old film studio where they were able to recreate various settings with good accuracy. That day, and all that week, we modelled everything from dungarees to designer dresses. During this time there was also pictures taken of bags and accessories that went with particular dresses as there was to be a separate catalogue for an accessory company. There was a whole day where we had nothing but swimwear and were all very happy to be working under lights. Another whole day was made up of sportswear. On the Thursday we arrived home to find that there had been a special delivery of four brand new passports which made all the girls squeal with delight.

On the Friday afternoon we were given our choice from the collection and told that we would be picked up on Monday morning to be taken to Heathrow for a flight to Mexico and the location shoot. We made sure that we got some running in during the weekend as we all had the compulsion to keep fit, even Wendy. On Monday morning we met up with the rest of the team in the departure lounge. We had two photographers, a lighting man, a couple of gofers and four girls for dressing and make-up. The clothes and equipment had been freighted over the weekend.

When we arrived in Mexico City it was hot and we were happy to be driven to an air-conditioned hotel in air-conditioned taxis. The guys went off to pick up a rental truck for the equipment and a mini-bus for us. When they got back they found all of us girls in bikinis sitting around the pool with cold drinks. They went to their rooms to change and joined us. We discussed the outline for the rest of our stay and we models found out that we would be doing a number of shoots in various small villages that had interesting backdrops. Following that there would be a few days in a northern desert area where we would be in front of large cacti. We would be finishing this part of the shoot in the border town of El Paso. We would then be driving to Dallas to do a number of days with the city as the backdrop and there would be a delivery of designer dresses and accessories for us there.

It started well with us staying at the hotel and going out in the mini-bus to various locations. The clothes were mainly outdoors and sporting wear. We then relocated to Torreon for the cactus experience. Here we had a car load of armed guards who were to keep us safe from bandits. While we were shooting at a little village halfway between Torreon and Monterrey I had the oddest feeling that something was wrong. I commented on this to Valerie who told me that she had the same feeling and that the last time it had happened was when she was on a street corner in an earlier life. We looked around us and I noticed that one of our guards was chatting quite happily to a guy who looked every inch a bandit. Valerie said that the way the guy looked at us was if he was working out which one of us he would ravish first.

A few days later we left the area to drive north; it would be two days travel to get to El Paso. As we were getting close to Chihuahua we came across barriers across the road with a couple of armed policemen waving us towards a detour. One of our gofers was driving the mini-bus and he followed the guards’ car onto the detour. I stood up and looked behind us and noticed the barriers being folded up as the van left the road so I told the girls that we were about to be kidnapped. We got the dressers and make-up girls to the back of the bus and told them to make sure they kept down.

The guards pulled up next to a large van and 4X4 truck and, as we stopped with our van behind us, a couple of guys walked out from behind their van and sprayed the car with machine gun fire. Our driver was now praying for a holy intervention as the guy we had seen in the village got out of the truck and walked to the door of the bus, indicating for the driver to open it. Behind us I could see the two ‘policemen’ pull up behind our van and pull our two guys out at gunpoint. If they were not killing them I expected that they were needed to be the ones to tell the story of the kidnap.

The leader said, in perfect English, that all the men in the bus should get out and go and sit on the ground alongside the two from the van. Once that had happened he said that all of us models would be taken for ransom, as well as the good times we would give his men. We were told to get out of the bus and walk towards their van. We did so and I noticed the rest of the gang was following us, leaving our men sitting. They obviously thought that they were on to a good thing and were positioning themselves to choose one each. Once we had the whole gang around us to put us in the van the leader opened the back doors and pulled out a bag of cable ties. That’s when I broke his neck and the others went straight into action, killing the entire gang in less than ten seconds without a shot being fired. Only Wendy had not killed her opponent; just stunned him, so Mallory did the honours.

Our guys just looked on with their mouths open. I told them all to stand up and told them that we were a special military force under cover and that they would all be subjected to the Official Secrets Act once we got back to England. I got a box of disposable gloves from our make-up girls (who were taking the whole thing better than the blokes) and, with the help from our guys, we heaved the gang into the back of the van. There was a can of fuel in the back of the truck and I doused the bodies liberally and then closed the doors. We parked the ‘police’ car right alongside and took all the petrol caps off. With rags we had cut from our dead guards we stuffed them into the fuel pipes and then told our drivers to take our vehicles back towards the road.

When our vehicles were clear we took off the gloves and tossed them into the back of the truck before taking a lighter we had found in the cab and lighting each of the rags. As we walked to our bus the four vehicles erupted into flame, the van giving a whumph as the petrol soaked bodies ignited. Wendy went to our van to make sure that our two guys in that were absolutely understanding of what was expected of them. Once the bus was under way I made sure that our party was on the same page, telling them that nothing had happened while we had been travelling north. I made sure that I showed them my warrant card which listed me as an Inspector of Police and told them that Wendy was the same rank. As we reached the main road again there was a loud explosion behind us. Wendy said “I gather there was some dynamite in the truck. That will make a real mess of the crime scene.”

We stopped for the night at a motel some couple of hundred miles north and had a quiet dinner. Wendy and I told the studio people that as far as they were concerned, our guards left us behind a long way back and we had not seen or heard anything out of the ordinary on the drive north. The next day we arrived in El Paso, crossing the border into the US without any problems as the agency had supplied us with the correct paperwork. The others were a little shaky at first but we completed our shoot in a couple of days. I had the feeling that it would be a good result as everyone was totally immersed in the job to keep the memory of the attack from overwhelming them.

When we got to Dallas I called the chief from a pay phone, asking him to set up an interview at immigration for the five guys and four girls from the agency and to make sure SB was in on it with a bunch of Official Secrets forms to be signed. I said I would fill him in on the reasons when I saw him. The photo shoot finished with a session at one of the stately homes in the area and all of us models had to change into five different dresses during the day, each being more elaborate and expensive than the one before. With the last dresses on we were taken to a high-end club where we all flirted outrageously with society twits and their fathers, while the wives looked on wistfully at our attire.

Next day we flew to New York, then into Heathrow, where we were all diverted into interview rooms, even before we had retrieved our luggage. I explained to the chief and an SB officer about the kidnap attempt and the outcome. The SB guy went off to make sure that the agency people were totally aware of what a secret is and the consequences of breaking the code of silence. The six of us were then taken to get our luggage and then cleared through customs and onto a waiting mini-bus to take us back to the flats.

Marianne G 2020

Chapter 16

The next few days were quiet and Wendy and I got around to cleaning out the flat after the weeks it had been collecting dust and we did a bit of shopping to restock the pantry. I then had a phone call from the agency asking if we could all go and see them the next day; they would send a mini-bus at ten. We let the other girls know to be ready.

When we got into the agency we were taken into a meeting room and shown the proofs of the previous months work. I had the feeling that the pictures from El Paso onward had a bit of an edgy look to them. Our photographers were chatting in a corner so I went over and spoke to them about this. I asked if they felt a bit changed after their little experience and they both said that they now had a much better idea of what being alive really was as they were not lying out in the desert riddled with bullets. It had altered their view of their surroundings and agreed that the pictures showed it.

The agency manager came in and called us to order. She said that the customers were very happy about the results of the shoot and that they had decided to have a fashion show to coincide with the launch of the catalogue. It would be in six weeks’ time and a big venue in London had been booked. We were told that the six of us would be the main models and that it would be a similar format to the catalogue – swimwear, outdoor wear, casual wear, day and cocktail dresses and top of the line dresses. As the catalogue was a joint venture between the fashion house and the accessory supplier, the second half would see us on the runway with bags and accessories.

She told us girls that there would be some shoots for us between now and then but she would make sure we had a clear week before the show to be ready for it as she was expecting some high powered guests in the audience but nothing had been settled yet. She congratulated the four new girls on such a high class shoot and told them they would go far. Of course, this meant that we would have to go out to lunch to celebrate.

The following week the chief and the Major took Wendy and me to a quiet dinner to keep us in the loop with the case. We found out that the unknown new girl had been located in the records under her old name and that a school picture had been obtained. It was with our artist to be aged and feminised to see a likeness which may help. The girl in the electronics shop, Tamsin, turned out to be a keen electronics buff- on the outside. An undercover officer had been able to befriend one of the other salesmen and had been told that Tamsin used to buy up big quantities of parts on her shop discount and take them home with her but had never spoken to the others about her projects. The chief suspected that this was how the sunbeds had been modified without a delivery trail. She was now being closely monitored.

The third girl was still unfound but investigations were under way with as many weightlifting gyms as they could contact. The arson/murder case had brought up a delivery point for a distributor who said that he had taken delivery of six beds for a cash buyer and had not taken any details. He was now being investigated for tax evasion. The Major thought that the six was to allow for rejects as the modifications needed to be highly accurate to ensure that the electronics were spot-on. He also told us that he thought that the FAT software had a rider which told the subject to shoot herself after achieving the result asked for. This was why Serena committed suicide and also answered the question about our four girls leaving one in the weapon at the shooting range. As they had the codes blanked now I suspected that they would now empty the weapon.

The Major asked us to fully relate the episode in the desert and he was very pleased with how quickly the four girls found their skill for the first time. We were able to tell him that, as far as we could see, it had not affected them at all. I did tell them that we were likely to all be on a runway in a big fashion show in just over a months’ time and that I would keep them in the loop with this. The Major raised one eyebrow so I said “Just think about it, five assassins on a raised platform with a crowd of high level celebrities in front of them. The last walk is all in designer dresses with handbags – can you think of a better situation for a little mayhem?”

A couple of weeks later we were at a fashion shoot in the studio when the agency manager told us that the big show would have a couple of royals as guests, as well as several diplomats. Now this was news that the chief needed to hear. When Wendy rang him with the news her said that he would have to work with the SB and the Met on this. He would redouble his efforts to find the two earlier girls who were still loose and that Tamsin would now have a tail on her around the clock. It was a hectic couple of weeks and then we were at the point of the run -through and organisation for the show. I had the feeling that things were coming to a head.

The chief had given us the drawing of the first name on the list, now aged and feminised, and it was a shock to meet her, face to face, at the first run – through. It appeared that Duncan Ditchburn could not forget her roots as she was now Dee Dee Shackleton, the owner of the accessory company supplying the bags for the show. We made sure we hid our surprise and immediately called the chief who said he would put a bug on her car and a tail would be provided by the SB. A couple of days later he reported that she had been seen having lunch with another couple of women. One had been identified as Teresa Cann, a paramedic who was scheduled to be present at the fashion show, while the other was Elaine Barnette, the owner of Elaines House of Elegance and Beauty, the fashion house that was presenting the show.

When we received photos of the three taken at that lunch, we showed them to the other four girls. Jean immediately picked Teresa out as the ‘Two Ton Tess’ she knew from the gym. It all got a bit more complicated when Tamsin showed up as an extra model, having left her electronics job the previous week. The police where now in a state of confusion as we now had eight girls who had been subjected to the brainwashing, all in one place with a room full of bigwigs. It would be easy to put a stop to proceedings before the event but there was no proof of intent.

The six of us met with the chief and the Major on the Thursday night before the show. We were told that we would have new dressers for the event, four police women who had the prior experience. They would have hidden radios so that the SB teams spread through the building could be kept in touch with what happened behind the scenes. We were told that Elaine Barnette would be the announcer for the parade, with her and Dee Dee joining the rest of us on the catwalk at the finale. Wendy said that it would be impossible for normal forces to subdue anyone who had the combat training and suggested that the chief organise sharpshooters with knock-out darts that had quick-acting drugs on them.

The problem for the police was that the guests would never allow themselves to be subjected to a frisk search and metal detectors was also not allowed, so we had to hope that we had all of the suspects already in our sights. I was sure that all the weapons were already on the premises. On the morning of the show the chief called and told us that Elaine had appeared out of nowhere some ten years before and was the operator of a range of tanning and beauty salons as well as the fashion house. All of her premises were now being watched and, if what we thought happened today, all would be raided, along with all of the premises that Dee Dee was linked to.

In the afternoon we prepared for the show. Our dressers were well trained and had been brought up to speed by the agency, now in the loop. The audience had so many high fliers it almost made my eyes water. The main point of interest was two brothers with wives known to be fashion icons who had pride of place, surrounded by their own security. It looked like every diplomat in town was taking this opportunity to be seen with their wives or girlfriends and the stalls literally reeked of money. I had sent our friendly politician four tickets and he was there with his wife and daughters.

The first part of the show went as planned, the swimwear and casuals creating some interest and applause. We then got into the day dresses, followed by the cocktail and evening wear with accessories and bags added to the mix. There was a short break before we were to do the final parade and then we were to all be on the runway together. Elaine took this opportunity to check us all out before we commenced and when she got to me she said quietly “Cauliflower oyster, you are to kill the royalty at the finale, the gun will be in the bag. Goodbye.”

What she didn’t know was that I had a small microphone embedded in a barrette and that our dressers were monitoring it as well as everything being recorded in a control van outside. Our other four girls were similarly equipped and had been told to kill certain other dignitaries before trying to kill as many as they could. This was the proof we needed and three of our dressers produced the dart guns and shot Elaine, Dee Dee and Tamsin where they stood. We found that all of the bags except Wendys’ and Elaines’ had 9mm pistols in them. Tamsin had a Mac10 as well and I suspected that she would have been told to kill any of us who may be still alive after the mayhem. All the guns were collected by our dressers, now wearing disposable gloves, and put into evidence bags.

The agency manager was ready to take over the microphone and we went out on to the runway as if nothing had happened with her giving the commentary. It was just that we were now one short for the final. At the end we all went out and stood in line, lapping up the applause, while there was a bit of drama near one of the exits when a certain paramedic fainted and had to be carried away. Before we went to an after-show party, the chief told us that all of our captives would be taken out of the building quietly in the early hours and gave all six of us a handshake which turned into a hug.

The show was deemed to be a huge success and there were pictures in the Sunday paper with a glowing report that ended with the note that it was odd that Elaine and Dee Dee were not on the runway for the finale and had not been able to be contacted. I noted that all of the photos had been taken by our agency photographers and that the agency was well mentioned in supplying the wonderful models. All in all it was a good day and we were happy at the thought that we may have wound up the case, at last.

Later in the week, the chief got the six of us to visit him in an office at New Scotland Yard where we were congratulated by a high ranking Met officer and an un-named member of the Special Branch. Everyone was happy that the entire operation had been completed without any questions from the audience. They said the royal protection officers were very happy with it as well. We were told that the raids had found the six sunbeds with four fully operational and that the Major had taken possession of these and all of the software that had been found. Everything had been taken to Kent which was now officially the counter – brainwashing centre for the military. Of course, if they call it counter anything they mean that they will be trying to perfect the systems for themselves.

Elaine had been secluded in a secure mental facility for a very long interrogation. She had been found to have been Elija, the surgeons’ son who had disappeared after being beaten up in the toilets of a good boys’ school by some boys from well-connected families. Closer investigation of the surgeons’ records showed that he had been her first transgender operation. Dee Dee, Tamsin and Teresa had all been taken to Kent to undergo a long period of sessions designed to remove all of the compulsions to follow the wrong orders, after which they would be released with help to be fit for work.

The six of us came out of it very well, all being on the A List when it came to modelling. Elaines’ business was kept as a fashion house as a cover with Wanda and Jean taking over the management, while Mallory took over the beauty salons to manage and Valerie was now the manager of Dee Dee’s Designer Accessories. Dee Dee was allowed to come back as the head of the company but was to be monitored, although the records of the night of the show had her being whispered to as well. They were over the moon as their futures were now totally secure. The only caveat was that they needed to find work for the other girls we had in the system. There was still Lesley and the girls from Scotland, Michelle and Geri, as well as Julia and the Smythe sisters when the French let them go.

A few weeks later the six of us were taken to Hereford by army helicopter and kitted out with full dress uniform of the Regiment. At the dinner that evening the Major related the basic history of the case to the assembled men who applauded us for saving the life of their future Commander in Chief. The Colonel then showed the ‘Village Walk’ film as many here had not seen it. There were gasps as it progressed. At the end of that the CO stood up and asked if there were anyone present who did not think that we deserved to be honorary associates of the Regiment and there was silence. He then took each of us and presented us with our insignia that would, of course, never be worn.

The following day we were taken into a secure room and told that we would be a special secret task force for the protection of the country, with Wendy as our CO and our day jobs being a perfect cover. As the other girls were released they would be brought into the group. The Major told us that he had discovered a way to add skills to the brainwashing and we would all be subjected to sessions to learn other languages first. I took on Russian which came in handy during another operation a couple of years later. But that’s another story.

Marianne G 2020