"Good evening Ms Wang, come in please."
The door to the suite in the Hôtel de la Cigogne had opened as by itself after she had barely touched it to knock. Her heart was thumping, she knew that there might be no turning back if she entered now.
"This is it, Sherry," she told herself. "Maybe I should thank Mom for letting me get this hotel room. Well, perhaps someday." Still, she could not supress the trembling of her fingers as she closed the door behind her.
The lights were low and she could see the man sitting in a comfortable armchair, perfectly relaxed, watching her with mild curiosity.
He did not offer her a seat and there was no other chair so there was nothing to do but to stand there, feeling terribly awkward under his scrutinising glance.
"Oh, what a lovely dress you wear! I hope you will excuse my casual outfit, but it seemed appropriate for an informal business meeting in the evening."
"I, uh... th-thank ...... thank you..." she stammered. She had chosen her attire very carefully for the occasion, because this was most definitely not a little business meeting, but now she felt terribly overdressed and could not decide whether to thank him for the compliment or to excuse herself. Her insecurity made her cheeks flush and she hated herself for this. The little smile with which he mustered her made things even worse. Just as she finally decided to cut the slack and go right down to business, he took up a folder from the little table next to his chair and began to read aloud.
"Sherry Wang, undergraduate studies at the Taiwan National University, graduated with excellence. MA at Stanford University, again with recommendations. Since six months now PhD studies here at CERN with a scholarship ..." he looked up, smiling again. "Seems like a bright future awaits you Miss Wang."
"Stop reciting my resume. I want answers, dammit!" she snapped.
"Indeed, you do, but allow me to refresh my memory about who I am dealing with." he replied smiling away her angry reply and at the same time cutting her down to size, by demonstrating that she was not even worth to be remembered. The loaded sentence made Sherry uncomfortable.
"Your performance here at CERN thus far has been excellent, Miss Wang. Now, may I inquire why you asked for an urgent meeting with a member of what you call the ‘Inner Circle’?"
"Oh, you know what this is about! I saw the pictures! Watched videos!"
"Ah yes, you mentioned. I have to say it could be considered a serious breach of trust to hack into Prof. Amenz’ data files. Now, you found some juicy movies there. So what?"
"They're not just from some porn site. Oh no! It's all real! And, and you're in it too!" she almost shouted, her face reddening as she remembered what she had seen this man do in the videos.
"Oh my! Should I be flattered?"
"Don't you play coy with me! On top of all this, I actually found something even more interesting: You managed to create a breach! In space-time! You've been keeping it secret for God knows how long!"
"A break-through. How dramatic! I can’t remember to have read something about this in the monthly reports."
"You're not getting away with this! I got proof that you managed to open some kind of gate into a parallel universe of sorts. You can travel there and ..."
"Tut, tut, tut," his amusement seemed to grow with everything she said. This was definitely not going the way she had imagined, adding to her frustrations.
"So, you think you can prove that we are withholding some scientific results? And now? What do you want? Do you want to blackmail us? You want money? You want a promotion?"
"No-" she quietly replied. The way she said it sounded like she wanted him to understand something she could not make herself say.
"I'm sorry to ... you're talking too softly... can you say that again?"
She closed her eyes, swallowed, mustered all her courage and repeated, barely audible:
"I want to be in there. Become like those... those peop... those s-slaves"
His first astonishment had seemed genuine but he immediately found back to his patronising self-assuredness.
"So indeed, you believe that the place you have seen is reality. And even so you wish to experience this reality? Are you aware that, given that your ideas are correct, this would not be game? Not some kind of role-play? No safe words, but ... well ... just reality?"
Now that she had finally crossed the line, she began to feel more confident. Her heart still pounded, her fingers pressed the purse to stop trembling, but she was determined to go all the way. For the first time, Sherry finally felt her life now meant something.
"Listen. All my life, even when I was a young girl, I only wanted to... to be bound... tortured... humiliated... dehumanized..." She closed her eyes, listening to herself say the words, especially the last few. "Call me a privileged little rich girl. A weirdo. I don't care! I don't find any meaning in being groomed into becoming some kind of business heiress. I just... I just want to be tied up and... put on display... and used like some kind of... of thing. Not a woman, just a pretty-looking thing. To be enjoyed. There!"
"I see, Miss Wang ... ah no,” he smiled, “from now on Sherry will be more appropriate, don’t you think so?"
She averted her eyes and bowed her head low. Her back curved slightly forward, her spoiled brat posture seemingly gone.
"Yes, Sir."
"Well Sherry, look at this." he replied grinning, opening a drawer of the table next to him and taking out a syringe. "I can assure you, that you never would have left this room as something else but a slave, whatever your demands would have been."
Sherry smiled, counting it as a win, despite how she was told it turned out to be. In her mind, she got a great deal.
"But if this is what you actually wish for, it makes things easier and maybe even more amusing. At least for me."
He rose and stepped up to her, lifting her chin with a finger to look into her eyes.
"Take off your dress now, slave!" he said.