Chapter 7

I stood in the hotel lobby looking around. The women’s bathroom was empty, so I conjured Zora into it. I still pretended to look around, as she stepped out of the bathroom, and headed down the stairs, with her luggage case rolling behind her. I spotted her, and waved. We hugged, and exchanged kisses on the cheek.

I walked her over to the concierge, “This is Ms Zora, she’ll be joining me in the hotel room, can you send her bag up?”

“Certainly Mr Barkley,” he replied, and rang the bell. He gave the number to the bellboy who recognized me. He gave me a big smile, and grabbed the bag, heading for the room.

“Is my table ready?” I asked.

The concierge checked his computer screen, then his watch. “I’m sure it is, enjoy your dinner Mr Barkley, Ms Zora.”

Arm in arm we crossed to the dining room. The maître d’ seemed to not have a table immediately available until I slipped him a gold coin, and asked for a quiet table with lots of privacy. We were seated immediately.

The spot was quiet, we could talk softly and not be overheard, as well as not overhear others. The question that mattered was, how angry was I still?

“Master, are you calmer now?” Zora asked.

I sipped my drink, a good glass of Scotch, and contemplated the question. “There is so much we don’t know for sure. But there are so many clues to make assumptions about. I think I’m calm enough to investigate without just ripping heads off.”

She sipped her own drink, a girly green tea concoction, as she listened. She started to repeat the list of things we suspected based on what was said to us by others, but I waved her off.

“Suspicions. All we have are suspicions. Rebecca is at the front of that list, but that doesn’t mean she is actually involved. It’s going to take careful investigation. Careful being defined as no one knowing I’ve swooped in, put everyone asleep, and mind-melded answers out of them.”

She shivered at the description, “Oh Master, you are so sexy when you are powerful.”

“We need to get you upgraded. We are in dangerous territory, and if you aren’t in storage you are at risk.”

“I’ve decided, my secret name will be Valkyrie.”

“Chooser of the slain? Is that pretentious?” I asked her.

“Not if I spend most of my life either training in weapons, and the rest stored away when you need either assistance or a big distraction. Let’s face it, your bed isn’t big enough for four.”

I sat back, feeling stunned. “You want to be a Valkyrie in truth?”

“Yes Master, give me abilities, armor, weapons, and I will train. I will be your shield maiden, the one who watches your back when you travel, the ace in the hole.”

“You make an interesting point. I could see where you might be useful, but my powers could likely accomplish anything you could do, but faster.

“But, I definitely see the benefit of having extra eyes, especially if I know you can hold your own.”

“Does it really matter if I die Master? I’m getting used to being blinked in and out of existence. I’m pretty sure I’d even be ok with having several of me at a time, but you only keep one of me, and delete the unneeded until next time.”

My stomach turned at that idea. What if one of the duplicates later decided they weren’t ok having their personal memories disappear, but I vanished them back to energy anyway, wiping that unique existence out?

“I love you girls so damn much, doing that would be very hard I think. I regret having insisted that I duplicate you the first time.”

“You’ll figure it out Master. Maybe keep a recording of everything they see and hear so the base model can watch it? Their experience then would be preserved.”

“That barely makes me feel better about this idea,” I snorted, “But it’s a start.”

She held up her ring, “Make mine black. I’m going to be very different from my sister’s.”

My power reached out and the stone in her ring turned darkest black. I reinscribed the name Valkyrie. “You know, I’ve got enough storage I could keep groups of you together for transport. I’d just need to keep one of you separate as the leader.”

“A female duplicate of Christian would be a better leader,” she suggested.

“She might be a better trainer, but this is your idea. I trust you to lead.”

“Christian and Doris seemed very gender fluid at the party. Duplication might give them a chance to stay connected to their boys.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Christian keeps his job, but his duplicate becomes head of company security, and training. The Valkyrie’s get experience working for her, but are independent in the field. Doris works for you, but her assistant is her male duplicate.

“With that connection, the younger couple befriends the older couple, and gets to know their sons as friends of the family. If they are close to the same age as the sons, they can remain friends even after the older pair move onto new identities, in twenty years or more,” she explained.

The Nora’s really are brilliant, “That’s an interesting plan, then when the older version dies, do they become the new younger friends of the younger version? They could stay connected to the family for decades at that rate,” I said thinking it through.

“Christian would have someone to give his beloved sports memorabilia too. Who loves it as much as he does?” she commented.

I snorted at that. There was one thing Christian loved to discuss, and that was his favorite football teams. The waiter brought our food, and I dug into my lobster and pasta, I almost couldn’t eat it when I remembered Rebecca suggesting it so long ago. But it was pretty good, so I put that memory out of my mind.

After dinner we went back up to the room. She undressed me slowly, then while I sat on the couch, she slowly undressed, teasing me with the show of bare skin. Once she was naked except her golden collar, she raised her eyes with a determined look on her face.

“Master, put me in storage and conjured me twice. We need to know that I can cope with losing one of myselves.”

I had the room so I copied her, and there were two Zora’s.

“Master, do nothing to make us distinguishable. You have two Zora’s tonight. When the night is over, we will only have one. You won’t pick, we will flip a coin,” they said in unison.

The anxiety of the situation wilted my penis. Suddenly I had an idea for an experiment. “I’m going to try to use my power to connect you together so that you both experience what the other experiences. I’ve done it once before when I shared a dream for a little bit with Nora and Rebecca. I’m wondering if it will be more effective since you are such close duplicates right now.”

“Yes, Master,” they again said together.

My power reached out, and filled their minds. I tried to tell my power what I wanted. I wanted them linked together, what one thought, the other thought. What one felt the other felt. A connected but distributed organism.