I was up in doggie position when Ivan finally came, panting hard and sweating. He fell forward onto my back, but held himself up to avoid crushing me with his weight, his hairy chest tickling my back. Reaching up, he gently squeezed my right nipple, then rolled off and onto his back on the bed.

“Oh, fuck, Katja. You really are the best,” he gasped, then extended his arm out. I rolled over and snuggled into his body, and we cuddled together.

“I’m sure you say that to all your conquests, you dog!” I said, punching him playfully in the side.

He chuckled there in the darkness. “Well, maybe,” he said, then turned to face me, “but you really are unique. I’m so glad we bumped into each other.”

Ivan had run into me at a trade show in Berlin, where I had been extolling the services that Phantom Investment and Technology Group could provide to the CEO of a Serbian investment group.

I noticed Ivan out of the corner of my eye, so wrapped up my spiel, handed the Serbian my business card as “Director, Business Development,” and told him I’d be in touch to explore ways we could work together. His eyes lingered on me for a moment, then he smiled and said he looked forward to it.

Ivan just stood there, waiting and smiling, then, when the Serb was gone, said, “Katja! Look at you! You’re a grown woman, and still stunningly beautiful!” He held open his arms and I moved straight into them, kissing him on the cheek – which he followed with a strong buss on the mouth.

“Ivan! What are you doing here? This is a musty old financial trade show! You’re an important mover and shaker. You don’t need something as rinky-dink as this!”

He told me why he was there – meeting with potential venture partners, again. He was on his way to other business meetings but took the opportunity to stop in to meet his potential new partners who had a booth at the fair.

All of which I knew. My “bumping into” Ivan like this was about as accidental as the sun rising that morning. And, as I knew he would, he invited me to dine with him that night so we could “catch up.”

Which we did – in bed, later that night. All according to plan…

A very eventful two years had passed since I had been recruited – or blackmailed, as I had described it to my Controller – into the Organization. Yet, because of my emotional involvement in tracking Miriam’s killers, I had been kept away from most of the developments in her case.

Specifically, I had been kept away from Mr. Action and Mr. Money, both of whom I would have loved to interrogate using more, um, active measures than the Organization had. Instead, they had been turned into double agents and were now feeding information to us – just not to me. I wasn’t an analyst at that time. I was a field agent, making and executing plans, collecting information and feeding it back to headquarters, and generally being a pair of arms and legs in the field for the Organization.

But I so wanted to question Action in particular. He was the one that had accosted Mistress at DeCoven – and been humiliated when I’d taken him down, a girl half his size, and a naked slave at that time. He was certainly the type who would hold a grudge, so perhaps he had fingered Miriam as a threat to the Syndicate in some way, which would have answered the burning question: why Miriam? Why had the bad guys gone to the trouble to murder her with enough care that they might have gotten away with it – if it hadn’t been for Hans and me?  Yet, I was denied the pleasure.

Instead, I had spent the two years working focusing on human sex trafficking, because of my background in the sex trade, plus money laundering and financial fraud because I was good with numbers and logic. The results were professionally satisfying, and I got almost uniform praise for my efforts – but they weren’t why I agreed to join up.

Oh, true, occasionally I was called in to provide some information about Miriam, her death, or her activities, and I could usually learn something from that. I suspected all along that it was their way of letting me know that progress was being made. But I wasn’t involved, even as an analyst, and it chaffed that I was being kept from actively hunting those I was after. And the information collected was in bits and pieces, glimmers and dead ends. The Syndicate seemed to work on a need-to-know basis, so it was hard to assemble a decent working picture of their operations.

The only thing that kept me in line was that I knew that I could never match the resources or information that the Organization had developed about the Syndicate, which was our catch-all name for the group that arranged Miriam’s death.

As it turned out, the Syndicate was a sprawling criminal empire, based in Europe but working globally, with tentacles into every kind of illegal or illicit area where money could be made, stolen, or extorted. Plus they had working relationships with other criminal organizations around the world. As a result, much of my work focused on cutting off – or at least trimming back – some of the Syndicate’s tentacles, then feeding any information gleaned back to head office to coordinate with other agents working in related areas.

But things seemed about to change. I was called to head office for a briefing and new assignment with Hauptmann Dieter Heinz, my Detachment Commander, who had been with me from my first official day in the Organization. My old friend Victor, who had “persuaded” me to join the Organization, gave the briefing, and it was there that I first heard the name Aleksandr – “Sandr” – Smirnov.

His name had been picked up by the Organization several times from different sources – always in a vague, unfocused manner. It was thought that he might be central to the Syndicate’s operations, but he was difficult to reach or even research as he lived and operated in Moscow – which was very definitely not within the Organization’s purview. He traveled abroad rarely, always without warning, and always with a legitimate passport under a different name. This made him very difficult to intercept. Plus, he was well-connected with the Kremlin, so simply grabbing him without adequate justification would likely cause a diplomatic ruckus.

I sat, listening to Victor tell me all this, my Detachment Commander at my side. Once Victor had finished, there was silence. Finally, I asked the obvious question: “So, what do you want me to do?”

Victor grimaced. “Find out more about him, of course. Enough that we would have grounds for detaining him – once you bring him to a jurisdiction where we can arrest him.” He pushed a file folder across the desk to me. “Here’s all we’ve been able to compile about him.”

I picked up the file, leafed quickly through it, and saw that there was very little real information. Most of it was rumor and speculation. There wasn’t even a photograph of him. When I finished going through the file, I sat there, then looked at Victor. “How?” I finally asked.

Victor shrugged. “I don’t care how Aloisia,” he said, using my nom de guerre, “This individual may be on the ruling council of the Syndicate. He might be implicated in your … friend’s … death.”

I sat up, then stopped to think, gazing over Victor’s head. My first reaction was to rush off to Moscow, to go after this goon. But that’s not what Victor wanted. He wanted information so they could legitimately arrest Smirnov, and that would take time. What’s more, Smirnov would have better protection than most prime ministers. If I was going to get close to him, it would have to be a slow, subtle approach, one that would be above suspicion.

I’d need to have him come to me, rather than me go to him.

 “This,” I said, holding up the file, “is going to take time – and resources. How much backing will I have?”

Victor sat back, looking smug, “As much as you can justify. Come up with a plan, then we’ll talk budget.”

Always a bureaucrat, I reflected. I asked about resources, he talked about budgets. Oh, well. He had never stinted on the needs of a good operation.

So now I had to come up with a plan.

I spent several weeks thinking things through and talking them over with Miriam in my head. I also discussed certain aspects of operating in Russia with Gregor, my de facto father, who had rescued me from the streets of Rotterdam and was a Russian who had spent years in Soviet gulags. He helped me think the way Russians think, which, to be honest, is neither obvious nor easy. Of course, my discussions with him were entirely hypothetical – not that I fooled him in the slightest. Or tried.

I discussed some of the more public aspects with Ingrid, who had turned out even better than I had expected as Chief Operations Officer of Valkyrie Group. We had become extremely profitable, and our reputation was spreading. I kept a low profile, and was often away, which meant that if Ingrid hadn’t been good, the entire venture would have failed. I made sure she got the recognition and the rewards she deserved.

Our sex lives together had pretty well ceased at this point. I found that as she assumed her role in Valkyrie, she started to become more corporate and proper. For her, that meant she wanted to keep the office separate from the bedroom. I liked Ingrid a lot, but I understood and respected her opinion.

Besides, there was always Krystol, and she was going to figure into my plans. She had access to the underground societies of people who had money and sexual appetites that went far beyond plain vanilla, and her connections reached inside Russia, as well as just about everywhere else in Europe.

Finally, I went to Victor with my plan. I proposed opening a new, financial services company, the Phantom Investment and Technology Group. It would carry on legitimate financial services, including cash management, pension fund management, foreign exchange transactions, and investment capital for moderate-risk, high-return investments. However, under the covers, Phantom would enable money laundering for high net-worth individuals and small- to medium-sized enterprises – including aspiring illegal organizations.

Victor frowned when I suggested that we would actually do money laundering – until I pointed out that we could maintain complete records of what was transferred, where, when, and to whom. That would allow the Organization to press charges well within the statute of limitations – plus highlight aspiring new crime groups, enabling him to close them down before they became significant. It would also allow us to identify other money laundering operations along the way.

But the real focus of the operation was two-fold. First, to bring our operation to Smirnov’s attention. And second, to bring me to the attention of his dick.

To contribute to the second goal, as the “Director, Business Development,” of Phantom, Katja DeJung would ride again, using her bedroom skills to persuade potential clients to get into bed with Phantom as well.

Once I had Victor’s approval – and most of the resources I had requested, including staffing for Phantom Investment and Technology Group offices – I set up offices in Frankfurt, Geneva, and Luxembourg, each with a token two staffers – but able to call on resources from much larger, legitimate corporations that quietly cooperated with the Organization. The Managing Director – in effect, the CEO – was a fellow operative with an impressive demeanor, financial training, and the right kind of family background. He was to be the public, official face of Phantom.

Meanwhile, I used a special cell I had created earlier in Valkyrie to jump-start a social media presence for Phantom and me, and to start rumors of its “other” services in the right places, as well as to plant rumors that Katja DeJung had round heels, and could be enticed into bed for the right deal. She was clearly an ambitious woman who didn’t mind sleeping her way to success.

I also was sent to Geneva for a crash course in finance, foreign exchange – and money laundering. It helped enormously that Miriam had required me to learn and understand the basic principles of business and finance, and that I sat on the Board of Wolf Enterprises. Otherwise, what took weeks might well have taken months.

However, I didn’t tell Victor of the entirety of my plans – nor would he have wanted to know. By this time, he was willing to give me a longer leash and some discretion over my operations. I had proven myself capable and creative, and produced success without fanfare – all things he appreciated.

I gave operational control and coordination to Hauptman Heinz. I trusted him completely by this point, and it freed me up to take action on the front line, rather than worry about the day-to-day running of Phantom.

Accordingly, now that Phantom was up and running smoothly, I went to see Krystol. It was time to slip back between the sheets of Europe’s secret sex societies.

I had been working with Krystol off and on the whole time I had been employed by the Organization – and, no, I hadn’t told Victor. Aside from it being none of his damn business, it also gave me a significant resource that I had used on a few occasions to locate, and occasionally snag “persons of interest.” But if he knew about it, officially, he might have been forced to disapprove of it – officially – because Krystol ran a very successful escort agency. Some of her activities might be construed as being slightly off the straight and narrow. So he asked me no questions, and I told him no lies.

Besides, I wasn’t going to lose Krystol as a resource just because some prude in a bureaucracy didn’t like how she conducted her business.

I had also done her several favors – more than she had done me – by filling a challenging role for certain kinds of exotic sexual practices. As “Sirena,” I was one of Krystol’s prize performers and had the reputation to go with it. Unfortunately, Sirena was rarely available, and then only for the most important clients. Fortunately, that made her very expensive – and increased her perceived worth, both of which Krystol appreciated.

So when I called and made an appointment to see Krystol in her office under the name of Katja DeJung, Krystol knew I wanted something.

But pleasure before business. I had made the appointment for lunch. When I appeared at the office, Krystol told her assistant that she would be gone for most of the afternoon. Her assistant just smiled at me and nodded. It would seem that Krystol often took long lunches.

We went to a very upscale restaurant – Italian, because Krystol knew I liked it, and chatted as the old friends we were until she brought the subject around to business.

“Okay, Katja, what do you want?”

I smiled broadly because I was sure she would find it amusing. “Ivan.”

She looked a little startled, then laughed. “Well, but you could just call him up and make a date directly. Why go through me?”

“Because I want it to be his idea.” I leaned forward and lowered my voice. “I also want to start looking for connections in the Russian block. I’m trying to learn more about someone there, and don’t know quite how to do it. So I’m fishing – and part of that is to look in some of the dirtier pools.”

Krystol sat back and paused in thought. “Those are some pretty dangerous waters, Katja. I hope you know what you’re doing.”

I nodded, “I do. But that’s why I want Ivan to persuade me to open offices there. I want it to be his idea, not mine.” Krystol knew about Valkyrie Group and probably thought I was referring to that. I didn’t enlighten her.

“And where do you want Ivan to stumble into you?” she asked.

“Where is he likely to be over the next month or so?”

Krystol searched the corporate bookings on her phone until she found Ivan’s entry, then traced down the column. “He’s going to be in Berlin around the 5th through the 7th of next month. Can you find a reason to be here, and I’ll tip him off that you’re around?”

“Let me take a look…,” I said, exploring online. “Uh…there’s a financial trade show in Berlin just then. We wouldn’t normally go to that – that’s not the way we usually attract clients – but I could reserve a booth, and show up as the sex-and-smile girl there.”

Krystol nodded, “I’ll be sure to mention that to him as a friendly heads-up.” She signaled for l’addition, then said, “And now it’s time for bed, don’t you think?”

Shortly after that, we were in her apartment. She had skinned me of my clothes almost immediately, then marched me into her playroom. Since she enjoys playing Domina to my sub, she remained fully clothed – except I found she was missing her panties for some strange reason.

She pushed down on my naked shoulders, putting me on my knees in front of her, then sat on the bed with her legs spread wide – and waited.

I knew what she wanted, and started kissing my way from one foot up inside her knees, then almost to her kitty – then missed it and went back down the other leg, kissing and now licking my way to her other foot.

Then I started back up that leg, and was going to miss her kitty again – but instead, she put her hands in my hair and pulled my face up and into her shaved mound and fragrance. “You’re still a brat, aren’t you – Katja?”

I just nodded – and used the motion to lick up and down her external labia. She pulled harder, and I buried my face between her pussy lips and started licking and sucking in earnest. I knew all of her hot spots and hit them all – slowly.

I moved up to her pearl, which was just emerging from its hood, and paid homage, licking in circles around it, and finally, eventually, sucking it into my mouth. Meanwhile, I brought one hand up and started to stroke one finger up and down between her labia, partly to further her arousal, and partly to lubricate it. Shortly I added a second finger – then slowly inserted them, one beside the other, inside her.

I knew she was feeling what I wanted when she exhaled heavily, sat back, and spread her legs wide, releasing my head, and leaning her hands on the bed behind her. I slurped and sucked and licked while slowly finger-fucking her, drawing circles around her G-spot.

I was adept at reading her body, and so slowed things down as she got closer to cumming. To my surprise, she didn’t try to hurry me, but let me know that she liked what I was doing by her heavy breathing, and the tremors running up and down her legs.

I prolonged it as long as I could, even though my legs were starting to cramp, and my neck ached, because I knew she was enjoying the ride.

Finally, after I had strung her along for as long as I could, she reached forward, mashed my face into her pussy – and came. Loudly. Her entire body shook, and she wailed while rhythmically pulling my head closer, then relaxing, then closer again.

Eventually, she stopped. “Enough!” was all she said – and I sat back on my knees, her juices shining on my face and chin. “Oh, God, Nika. You really are something else. It’s been a long time since anyone did me like that!”

I smiled and ducked my head as her good little sub.

After breathing for a minute, she said, “Get up on the bed, knees up and spread, on your back, my eager little slutty girl. Time for me to return the favor.”

Wiping my face on the back of my arm, I scrambled up into the middle of the bed, assuming the position she wanted. She walked over to her toy chest and came back with a hot pink feeldoe. Shucking off her blouse and skirt, she spread her legs, used her juices to lubricate the toy, then, her face showing almost comical concentration, inserted it into her vagina.

Standing up, she walked towards me. Or rather, swaggered. I don’t know what it is about having a feeldoe, but it seems to make women somehow bolder. And I found myself admiring her body all over again. She was a tall, statuesque blonde, and reminded me of my Mistress in many ways—just another reason why I enjoyed playing bedroom games with her.

She climbed onto the bed towards me, then gathered honey from my kitty with her fingers, and used it to slick up the protruding toy. She closed her hand around it, and rubbed up and down, like a guy jacking off, partly to spread the honey, but also to warm the dildo.

When she thought she was ready, she walked her knees between my legs, and then carefully inserted the dildo.

I won’t lie. I have always enjoyed sex, and probably always will, but there is something particularly satisfying about having a big cock work its way into your cunt. That moment of entry is – or at least, can be – sublime, and Krystol knew what she was doing.

It just got better from there and for quite some time.

Eventually, we lay, panting and exhausted in bed. I was pillowing my head on her shoulder, and she was stroking my body gently. We were both glowing, almost purring with release and satisfaction.

She turned to me, “Katja – Nika – please be careful. It is dangerous in Russia, and not just because of the criminals. The government won’t be on your side there, you know.”

I nodded. “I know, Krys. But it’s the only way I can get to the people who killed Miriam.”

She looked at me for a moment, then gave a decidedly Teutonic nod, indicating that she understood and the subject was closed.

And that was how I came to “accidentally” bump into Ivan at the trade show in Berlin. He thought he had just been fortunate – and he had because he got laid. But it had not been random chance that deposited us in bed together.

“So, little Katja – or whatever name you’re using now…”

“It’s Katja. That’s my name, Ivan.”

“Are you still working for friend Hans and the Wolf Group?”

I shook my head, “No, not enough opportunity. Hans will always see me as an errand girl – an exotic one, perhaps, but still just an errand girl. I had the chance to become a founding shareholder in Phantom, not just a hired hand, but a part-owner. That’s more than Hans would ever offer me.”

“And what do you do for Phantom? You know, I could use someone with your skills…” and he playfully pinched my nipple, “…in our operation.”

I shook my head. “I’d be just another glorified errand girl if I worked for you, Ivan. You’re very kind to offer, but I want to be involved in the big decisions, not just what I’m going to wear to seduce someone.”

I giggled, “Although I still seduce people. It’s just that now I get a piece of the financial action instead of just what goes on in bed!”

We chatted back and forth for a while, and I was starting to get anxious that he wasn’t going to take the bait – until… “You know Katja, why don’t you open shop in Russia? There’s plenty of opportunity there. It’s a new Wild West!”

I looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “Russia? It’s dangerous working there! I’m prepared to risk my time and capital, not my life!”

And, as I hoped he would, he replied, “Yes, but not if you have the right connections, the right sponsors. I could open doors for you, and make sure you met the right people under the right circumstances.”

I looked up at the ceiling, as if pondering what he had said, “And what would you want for these…introductions?”

He gave me his wolfish grin, “You mean aside from the occasional, um, business meeting?” He twinked my nipple again. “How about you pay me a finder’s fee for every piece of new business I bring you?”

I picked his hand off my tit, and said, cautiously, “How much of a finder’s fee?”

“Oh, the usual twenty percent. Standard industry practice.”

I snorted. “Ivan, you once said you would never underestimate me again. The industry standard for a finder’s fee is five percent, not twenty! And we only pay it on the three month’s business, nothing beyond that.”

We haggled back and forth and eventually settled where we both knew we would. Then I sealed the deal by giving him a blow job.

My first step towards invading Russia was complete.