Chapter 1

Rhianna Summers had had a long time to contemplate her current predicament. Five days so far. Tied up as she was, more or less blindfolded, stuck in a small room to herself, all she could do was think about how she'd gotten mixed up in this case for the FBI. Often she wondered why she'd said yes to Agent Wilson and Assistant Director Vessor. Once again, she went over the events in her mind, starting the previous Tuesday.

Agent Wilson was part of a special FBI division that handled terrorist threats. That he had called Rhianna was curious, that he wanted to meet with her was even more curious. The work sounded intriguing, what she knew of it. One of her reasons for joining the FBI originally had been to get into exciting work, protecting the country. She knew that the job was not like the movies, but a part of her wanted to be the James Bond type spy, saving the world. The reality of the job had been quite different. But she had no regrets and had enjoyed most of the assignments she'd been on. The one that had been the roughest on her had been her last one, and she had only been back to work for a few weeks following her recovery from it.

That assignment had been to infiltrate a group of partygoers on a boat own by Hiro Atamo, to try and find information about kidnappings that seemed to be connected to Atamo. Not only had they not found any information, they had been captured and her partner, Cory Lincoln, had apparently been killed. They'd never even found his body, probably dumped out at sea. Rhianna herself had be held as a slave, abused and beaten. She had even been sterilized, although at first she thought she'd been given a hysterectomy. Throughout the course of her recovery, she had found out that she had instead been given a tubule ligation, and that the lack of periods all the women on the boat experienced had been due to some strange herbs they had been given in their food. Knowing that she wasn't completely sterile, and that there was a chance to reverse it, had done a lot to helping her recover. She was a strong woman, and the doctors soon pronounced her fit for duty again. She had come a long way, and had nightmares only occasionally now. Most of her scars had faded, and her hair, shaved off on the boat, had grown quite a bit since then.

She had been on a few routine assignments since her return, and longed for something more than surveillance. She was about to get her wish. She made her way to Agent Wilson's office and wondered again what this assignment was about. A secretary showed her in, and she took a seat across from Agent Wilson, at the large table in the room. The only other person there was Assistant Director Vessor.

"Thank you for coming, Agent Summer," Agent Wilson greeted her. "We know you're curious about this so let's explain, shall we?" He punched a button on a remote for a slide projector and the room lights went out. A blurry picture of a man in a dark coat filled the screen. "This is Matthew Anderson, someone we know is an weapons smuggler. Anderson is a very good smuggler, and while we've been able to stop some of his shipments, we've never been able to catch him." There was a click as the next slide was shown. The picture was better than the last, showing Anderson's face clearly. Despite being a crook, he was a handsome man, Rhianna noticed. "We have information that Anderson is going to help smuggle in a very dangerous weapon, within two weeks. The weapon is a biological agent, and from what we can find out, it might be able to kill a city." The next slide showed some foreign agents that Rhianna recognized from some briefing she'd had earlier. "These men are paying Anderson a large sum of money to bring the weapon into the states."

Agent Wilson click through a few more slides. It showed the trail of evidence that had led to this point, and there wasn't much of it. What was there was scary enough, though.

"Why don't we just go and arrest Anderson?" Rhianna asked.

"Several reasons. First, we don't have enough evidence to hold him for long, and arresting him would obviously alert him. We think he would still find a way to get weapon in, and it would make it that much harder to finally catch him. He has an amazing ability to evade being followed. We can't count the times we've lost him. Second, we'd like to get the weapon, the buyers, and Anderson, if possible. We think it would put a big crimp in terrorist activities in the States if we did that." Wilson paused.

"For that reason, we've kept a low profile on surveillance on him. We've only done what we thought would escape detection. He has some sophisticated devices for spotting bugs, and he's naturally paranoid. We've been able to search his apartment briefly once, but we've had no luck coming up with his schedule for delivery." Wilson turned to Rhianna. "That's where you come in, Agent Summer." He pressed a button to turn on the room lights.

"Okay," she said, "What do you want me to do?"

"We need someone that can get close to Anderson without arousing suspicion. Listen for details, look for the schedule, and report back to us. And we need someone to do this within the week. We need someone with special experience, and in talking to an Agent Stabler," Rhianna grimaced at the name, "we think you might have the experience we need to pull this off."

Rhianna was on guard, very suspicious of this whole assignment now. Agent Stabler had given her and Cory the Atamo assignment, and she blamed him in part on Cory's death. A recommendation from him bothered her. Also, she wanted to know what special skills she had that they might need. She asked Wilson as much.

"Well, we've talked to his most recent companion about it. She didn't know anything about his work, but gave us a little insight into his character, and his likes and dislikes. We think you would be a good choice to, to fill in as his companion. That way, you'd be able to -"

"Fill in. What the hell are you talking about?" Rhianna asked, annoyed.

"He's a bit embarrassed about the subject, Agent Summer." It was the other men at the table, Assistant Director James Vessor.

"Assistant Director Vessor? What subject?"

"What Wilson has been pussy-footing around is that Anderson is into the BDSM lifestyle, and his previous companion was his slave. In fact, she only left Anderson after we informed her he was a smuggler. She wasn't very cooperative with us, I think she was quite taken with him."

"I still don't understand what this has to do with me," Rhianna said.

"You are the type of woman that Anderson likes," Agent Wilson answered. "Height, build, hair color. And, you've had some experience in these matters."

"These matters?" she asked. She was still confused.

"BDSM, Agent Summer," Vessor told her. "Although it was perhaps traumatic for you, you do know have an understanding about the lifestyle that none of our other agents would have. And finally, there is the time factor. We only have a few days to prepare."

"For what, prepare for what?"

"Anderson's previous slave was of the opinion, for a number of reasons, that he would replace her soon, most likely within the week. In fact, he will most assuredly go to a place called the Kennel to pick a new slave. It's a part of the BDSM underground that serves as a kind of - hotel for submissives." Rhianna had learned a little about the Kennel from Tonya, the woman who had helped her escape from Atamo's clutches. Rhianna hadn't spent much time with Tonya other than in captivity, but they had talked briefly since Rhianna's recovery, when Rhianna had called her to thank her. She didn't volunteer this information to Vessor, however.

"It's also where submissives can be - adopted, by men like Matthew Anderson His previous companion was from the Kennel, so he's done this before and was pleased. She left somewhat abruptly, but on good terms, none-the-less."

"So, you want me to work at the Kennel, so I can meet him? I don't understand."

"No, Agent Summer," Vessor told her. "We need you to be one of the Kennel's adopties."

Rhianna told them flat out no.

"You must be insane to think I, or anyone would do this. Do you know what you're asking? Do you have any idea?"

"Actually, Agent Summer, "Vessor said, "I believe I do. I know this seems very harsh. But we do know that Anderson is nothing like Atamo. He treats his slaves very well and does not abuse them. His former slave said he was gentle and took it slowly with her. There is reason to believe that he won't be too demanding, especially in light of the upcoming shipment."

"You are playing with my life, and more! Besides, the last assignment was botched because I didn't know what I was doing!" Rhianna almost yelled.

"We think your experience on your last mission will give you valuable knowledge on how to act this time, more than any other agent we have available. Your being Anderson's type also helps." Vessor paused. "If we could see another way, we would do it. We know this is a dangerous assignment, and you'll have little if any contact with other agents while with Anderson. In fact, your part in this is known only to us," he said, indicating the three people in the room. Vessor leaned forward, resting his arms on the table.

"The fact is, no one else will be able to get as close to him as you could. There is no other way to discover the schedule. We don't see any other way to catch Anderson and put a stop to a terrorist organization's plot to do a lot of damage, possibly killing thousands, perhaps millions of Americans."

Rhianna sat there for a minute, trying to calm down, thinking about what they had said. What they had said and showed her seemed to make sense. She could see that she would be in a unique position to get the information they needed. Keeping close to Anderson, she might be able to determine his plans. She thought about what had happened to her aboard Atamo's boat. Finally she spoke.

"I can't. I just, I just can't."

Vessor looked at Wilson and nodded, and Wilson went to his safe. Vessor turned to Rhianna. "Agent Summer, I think I understand. We've put you in a bad position. The last thing I want to do is aggravate any problems you might be having due to your capture. There is, however, a reason you were picked beyond being Anderson's type."

Rhianna looked up at Vessor. "I've read the reports from the doctors, concerning your recovery. You're a very strong woman, Agent. I wouldn't have approved you for this assignment if I didn't think you could handle it. The last thing we need is someone falling apart during the operation."

Agent Wilson came back from his safe with a large envelope and placed it in front of Rhianna. The envelope was marked "TOP SECRET" top and bottom, and "CIA" in the middle. "There's a few more reasons we've picked you, Agent Summer. Time is of the essence, and even if it weren't, you'd still be our best candidate." He paused, reluctant to let Rhianna see the contents of the envelope. Finally, he continued. "That, and those." Wilson pointed to the envelope. "Go ahead, you've been cleared to see them, as a condition of working on this case."

Rhianna picked up the envelope and opened it up, pulling out some papers and a stack of photographs. Glancing through the photos, a look of horror came over her face. "I don't understand, what - what are these?"

"It used to be a small village of Kurds in northern Iraq. At first, we thought Sadam was up to his old tricks, but it turns out it wasn't him at all, at least not directly," Wilson told her.

"But all these people, what killed them?" Rhianna asked.

"The same biological agent that we believe is being smuggled into the country by Anderson. It appears to be related to the plague, but it acts much quicker." Wilson leaned over and tapped on one photo. "We think this man lived for a few hours after coming down with symptoms. He took his own life." Most of the pictures showed numerous dead people lying in the streets in bloody pools.

"The bubonic plague? Like in the Dark Ages?" Rhianna asked.

"Actually, the pneumonic form," Wilson said. "Seems to kill within a day, maybe within 12 hours. A modified form of the Yersinia pestis bacterium."

"This seems to have been a test," Vessor told her. "The village is in a valley, and is very hard to get to from the outside. The dead weren't discovered for days."

Rhianna was horrified by the photos, but she kept her professional calm about her. "These are CIA photos."

"Yes, they're asking for our help, especially since we've dealt with Anderson before, in a manner of speaking."

Rhianna looked over the photos. The accompanying papers said the 78 people in the village had died. It was the entire village. Rhianna sighed.

"All right, what do I need to do?"

The plan was to take her to the Kennel and have her pose as one of the ownerless slaves, available for adoption. They had already talked with the Kennel's management, and they had, somewhat reluctantly, agreed to place Rhianna in the adoption ward. In fact, she was going to be looked after by Tonya.

"We'd like you to be there this afternoon," Vessor told her. "You'll have to wait for Anderson to come in and 'adopt' you, but the people running the Kennel said they would go as easy on you as they could. You'll have to be prepared to spend your time like the rest of the 'Pets' there, however. That means you'll be chained up."

Rhianna almost backed out right then. She had just gotten over having nightmares about Atamo and his men mistreating her. She had to keep reminding herself that this was to stop smugglers and terrorists. She thought of the dead Kurdish village.

"Agent Wilson will pick you up later at your place. I assume you'll have a few things you'll need to take care of first?" Vessor asked her.

"Yes sir, there are some things I need to do first. But, if I could, I'd like to ask that you be the one to take me there."

Vessor was slightly surprised by this. "Well, I will if you think it would be better, Agent Summer. Any particular reason?"

"I think that we need to keep up appearances the whole way, sir, just in case. No offense, but Agent Wilson doesn't strike me as someone who'd be turning in a slave for adoption." Rhianna didn't trust Wilson, but didn't want to say as much in front of him and Vessor. Assistant Director Vessor just struck her as more confident, more "masterly". If Wilson was offended by her choice, he didn't show it. If anything, she noticed he seemed a bit relieved.

"I think it might be a good idea after all, Agent Summer," Vessor said. "I'll be by to pick you up with a limousine at 3 o'clock."

"All right," she told him, and left.

End Chapter 1