How many hours had she been going now? Rayne had forgotten, and hadn’t even bothered looking at the clock the past couple of hours. She was pretty sure it was somewhere in the vicinity of midnight.
Rayne, only 27, had been recruited almost two and a half years ago to work for Superior. On the surface, Superior seemed like any normal research facility. There were labs in half a dozen countries, and many on the team were top research scientists, experts in their field. New drugs were being tested, ones that could lead to a cure for diseases such as alzheimer’s. However, that’s not why she was recruited. Rayne was part of the company’s dark underbelly, the side that dealt with the “breaking” of those that various governments or other organizations needed information from.
Ever since college, Rayne had excelled at various techniques which proved effective in information extraction. She was mostly left to her own devices, and had gained quite a dark reputation in the underground community at large. If someone needed breaking, she could quite possibly do it. Thus, she had gained her nickname “mistress of misery”. She felt it was a bit much, come on really? Just because she knew techniques to get people to confess didn’t mean the job was all of her. Oh well. She had just shaken it off and rather enjoyed the fact that most kept their distance from her. Her personal walls were built pretty high, as a result of her rather unsavory past.
College helped, however, as she managed to get into Cambridge on a scholarship and applied herself to a new field, depth engrained psychology. Specifically, her fascination fixated around how to tie into the two deepest levels of emotion, fear and desire, and manipulate human behavior as a result. Perhaps her fascination and dedication was due to her feeling powerless in her formative years, or perhaps there was a darker reason. Whatever the motive, Rayne finished as the top student in the field and became a powerful influence in the development of techniques related to control and extraction.
Of course, this led to some rather bizarre career opportunities, and she had trained with some hardcore individuals in the past several years. Some were sadists to the core, she reflected. They delighted in the torture simply for the sake of it. In Rayne’s eyes, this made them weak and less effective for the task, which was ultimately to gain information for whatever entity might have put forth the order and funding for the operation. She was able to maintain objectivity since she didn’t have a sadistic bent (well, perhaps just a little) and she could analyze the detainee and see what techniques would work the best.
Discovery is the mother of invention, and Rayne had discovered that one of the best methods to get what she wanted out of her captives was to explore the pleasure/pain threshold. Using just the right amount of each led to a large amount of dopamine release in the brain, flooding all the senses and leading to more compliancy. She had quite a menagerie of tools at her command that she had acquired over the years. Leather bindings, gags, whips, small vibrators that could stimulate even someone who seemed to be made of stone.
Speaking of stone, her latest conquest was pretty hard to break. His name, if it even was his real name, was Ecio. Rayne had to look up the meaning of that name, since it was quite unusual. It meant, “possessor of great strength.” She supposed he lived up to his name somewhat, for he had not given up much in the way of information. This was the first time doubt had crept into her mind about whether or not the individual needed to be subjected to the process or not. He was a member of a small but powerful underground movement that was determined to give at least a semblance of peace to the region near the Horn of Africa. The group never named itself, preferring complete anonymity in order to further protect itself from the oppression of the governments at large in the region. Rumor was that they were tied loosely to Operation Enduring Freedom, only they were much more radical in their methods. Nothing was beyond them to attain their goals. Such passion and dedication is what gave them their strength and power, she mused.
However, this guy. Despite her reservations about handing over any information he might give up to the powers that be (she was never told exactly whose contract she was working with, in case others came after them and infiltrated) she was very determined to extract whatever she could from him. His stubborn and willful personality angered her, fueled something deep within her soul that made her want to explode and use everything she could to get him to react, to feel, to bend. Rayne would make him bend.
Rousing herself from her musings, she turned off the viewscreen where she had been watching the previous footage of her interactions with him. It was way too easy to let her mind wander when she was tired, and she was definitely tired at this late hour. However, the research showed that during the late hours of the night, especially around what legend calls the Witching Hour, is the time where the mind is the most pliant and open to suggestion. If this guy’s mind would ever become pliant at all (which she doubted), it would be within the next couple of hours.
Rayne stretched, took another sip of her highly caffeinated energy drink, and stalked to the detention area. After making sure all lock mechanisms were in place, she opened the huge door. Rayne crossed her arms and leaned against the wall opposite Ecio, focusing. His powerful body, clothed only in the shorts they had for the prisoners, pulled taut against his bindings, which held him to the wall. It was like watching a panther or some other wild, stalking creature testing its bindings. His eyes met hers. She held her breath without thinking about it, as the impact of his expression hit her hard. It was a combination of different emotions which emanated from his eyes, all of them feral and heady. It had been a long time, longer than she could remember, since anyone had an effect on her.
Rayne had closed herself off to everyone, and her senses had dulled enough that sexual attraction simply was not a part of her thinking any longer. The walls she had erected around herself were strong, and this career combined with her reputation only reinforced the concept. The fact that he had an effect fueled anger from deep within her, that he could have an impact at all was quite infuriating. She had allowed these emotions to lead her on this one, so she would feel no guilt with gaining whatever information was necessary. He would pay, oh yes. He would pay.
She walked over to her case, slowly and confidently, allowing him to see her every move. She opened it, glancing at her toys within. No gag for this one, she wanted to hear every moan or utterance he might emit. She ran her hands along her whip, stroking it as she picked it up. This was her forte; she was extremely dexterous with it. Unlike some of her acquaintances (she called them that because she had long ago given up on the idea of true friends) she used the whip to elicit pleasure instead of pain. The threshold between the two begins to blur anyway, she mused, when the pleasure moves to the level of the extreme.
In short, she derived a lot of satisfaction in driving her subjects crazy, then watching them once they were released. Male, female, it didn’t matter. They were all tested to the limit, exposed to both fear and desire, and the results she got were generally quite extraordinary. All her colleagues saw were her tools and toys, never were they allowed to see how she actually used them. Thus her scary reputation. It was fine with her, let them keep their distance.
Her whip trailing on the floor beside her, Rayne flicked it several times, hearing the cracking sound reverberate in the room from its contact with the floor. She enjoyed the way most of her detainees flinched slightly when they heard the sound. Anticipation was part of the manipulation. This elicited no visible response in Ecio, that she could detect anyway. The bastard. So stubborn. Nothing used on him so far had worked. Why did that affect her so much? Rayne was mildly irritated with herself. She generally made it a rule not to rely on emotion to drive her. Somehow though, with this one, she almost felt as if she needed it. Therefore, she clung to them fiercely, and had ever since she began with this stubborn being.
“You will eventually decide to talk, one way or another Ecio. I’ll make sure of it.” The expression he gave her back was one of complete obstinance. Oh, how he irritated her! She stalked toward him, then slowly went behind him. His body was highly toned, every muscle visible from the strain. Her hand holding the whip was tingling. Rayne suspected there was a connection between her and her whip, she had trained with it so long that it was an extension of herself. Sometimes she felt it had a mind of its own, and desires to be used on human flesh. Her whip’s wishes were about to be granted.
The first strike landed on his right shoulder, kissing his skin expertly. She knew the pain level was absolutely minimal. But the sound it made was exquisite to her ears, her sadistic side coming to life. The slight reddening of his skin made her smile, but only inwardly. Never convey emotion to your prey. Not if you’re any good at what you’re doing. And she was very, very good.
The whip smacked some more, along his chest and arms. Sometimes a little more force, but never enough to cause true pain. That level would get people to shut down, not open up. She noticed there was beginning to be a reaction from him, and one she didn’t anticipate so soon. He was beginning to become aroused. Even his eyes and expression began to convey desire, and then almost as if he realized it indignation replaced it.
He’s aroused, and it’s angering him, she thought to herself. I’m going to heat him up to boiling, then see what happens. Suddenly, the man who had so enraged her became an object of fascination. She couldn’t wait to test his limits. Slowly, taking its time, her whip landed lower and lower along his body, kissing his abdominals, his hips, the tops of his thighs. Moans escaped his lips, even though he remained defiant and tried to close them. Hot, he was getting hotter. Again, he caused a reaction deep inside her, as if there was a breach in her wall. How dare he meddle with me and my armor? The thought made her want to rage, to lose control and whip him into submission. Luckily, he wasn’t her first case, or she might have done it.
Instead, seeing his arousal clearly through the cloth of his shorts, she went back over to her case, pulling out a penis sleeve. It contained a built in vibrator too, one with a remote. She would see how far she could push this stubborn Adonis. Striding back over to him, she loosened the tie to his shorts, while Ecio struggled to pull away from her.
“You’ve got nowhere to go, you know, so you may as well give up now,” she murmured. Of course he didn’t do that, and fiercely tried to avoid her ministrations.
“If you don’t be at least a little more cooperative, I’ll go get my taser and electrocute you into submission, worm!” That got a bit of a reaction, he stopped moving quite so much. She managed to get the sleeve on his semi-erect cock, then backed away. She put the stimulation setting at 3/10 and pressed the button.
“Ungh, aaah, ooh” she got the sounds she wanted out of him. Finally, progress. Rayne again brought her whip to life, caressing his erection through the shorts, pushing the button at the same time. She could tell he was getting more and more aroused. His breathing changed, and his face began to flush a bit. He was sexy, actually, bound to the wall and unable to do anything about what she was inflicting on him. Get a hold of yourself, Rayne. He’s just another subject you need to crack.
