The Diaries of Ayesha

After the basic euphoria of the test results wore off, there was the sobering realization that someone's wife, mother, or sweetheart was laying in a drawer in Germany.

As we left the hospital, I took Mistress Miriam aside and asked if she knew of anybody trying to identify the remains as Lydia's.

She looked at me and shook her head.

"I didn't even think about that. Did Lydia even have any relatives?' she asked.

"I would hardly be the one to know. She hated my guts, but someone at the Rancho should know I would think."

"We should probably have the test results sent back. Perhaps Susan can contact someone."

We told Saphra that we needed a copy of the results and left her waiting while we dashed back in.

Dirk was a little surprised at the request, but ran off copies and gave them to us.

"I hope this helps. You really think you can identify the bodies?"

"My wife was with a friend of hers on this trip. I'm going to contact a friend who may be able to contact her relatives. We'll see what happens after that," I said.

"It would be nice," he said and then hesitated. "Uh, could I ask you a question?"

"Sure. Ask away," I said.

"Do you know if Miss Saphra is seeing anybody?" he said with a little stammer.

"Dirk, I've only known her for a couple of days, which hasn't left much time for learning about each other, but I'll do a little digging for you. That is if Miriam permits me to," I said with a look towards her.

"You can ask. We had a very nice discussion about her taste in men while you were out last night," Mistress Miriam said with a smile. "You might be surprised."

"By you? Not bloody likely. Her on the other hand..." I agreed.

"Oh am I predictable now? We'll see about that," she said smugly

I looked up at the ceiling helplessly.

"Waiter, check please."

"So who are you going to send this to, if you don't know for sure who it is?" she asked logically.

" One division of the Bank is an insurance company, so I think they can do the leg work for us," I explained. "We'll express the data there and see what happens. I should also call Wendolyn and brief her as well."

"I should call the Institute as well and let the Headmistress know what's going on," Saphra added.

"So it's off to the hotel and make a few calls and then we're off duty for a bit. Maybe we should do some tourist things while we're here," I said." We may not pass this way again."

"True. I know one tourist thing we'd like to do," Mistress Miriam suggested.

"Oh?"

"Shopping!" the two girls chorused.

"Why did I even ask?" I groaned.

When we got back to the hotel, Saphra called the Institute and briefed Dr. Ruth on what had been found so far and then I called Wendolyn Dawes to brief her.

"So, unless you adopted her or found her under a cabbage leaf, there is now some real evidence that Minkin isn't dead, or at least her remains aren't here," I concluded.

"Then you think she's alive and what? A prisoner somewhere?" Wendolyn pressed.

"Possibly. Maybe suffering from amnesia, I don't know. And again, until the tests are finished at the end of the week, we're still speculating," I cautioned.

"Michael, you are beginning to sound like you work for a cabinet minister. What do you personally think we should do?"

"Personally, I would start turning Lebanon and the mid east in general upside down and start shaking it to see what falls out. But that is a decision over my pay grade."

"But not over mine. In my youth I did have some contact with people in that part of the world that may prove useful. Having done a service for a prince with a harem that had a taste for honey, can pay off in later life," she replied.

"Or can possibly get you out of a sticky situation when needed," I suggested.

"Quite," she said with a smile in her voice. "By the by, have you used the credit card yet?"

"Actually I did have an occasion to use it. The hotel was reluctant to let us have the rooms for a week until the manager saw the card."

"It is a good tool for persuading people in most places. Where are you staying by the way?"

"Hotel Zepp. It's a nice little place, not too fancy, but comfortable."

I heard her scribbling on a piece of paper and I gave her the phone number as she asked.

"I'll call you if I come up with anything," she said. "What are you going to do for the rest of the week while you wait?"

"I thought we might do a little sight seeing. The girls want to go shopping."

"If you'd like a suggestion, you should go to Cologne. Wonderful city, beautiful old cathedral, and yes there are some very nice shops for the ladies."

"I'm not sure about the shopping. I don't exactly have a budget for it," I said hesitantly.

She sighed.

"Michael, I know you think of yourself as being a poor, impoverished technician, but the facts of the matter are you do have access to large sums of money if you choose to accept it. Please accept the gift you are offered. Return the money later if you feel you need to, but don't be a prig."

"Is that an order?" I said teasingly.

"If you like. I expect you to use your best judgement, but don't be pennywise and pound foolish."

"Yes ma'am. I think Cologne sounds like an interesting place to visit and I will accept your gracious offer. And Wendolyn..."

"Yes Michael?"

"I do appreciate you very much."

"I know," she said sounding much like her daughter.

"Forbin," I answered.

"Michael, Dr. Ruth here. I understand from talking with Saphra that you would like the test results compared to Lydia's DNA."

"Yes Ma'am," I said looking towards where Saphra and Mistress Miriam were sitting talking.

"Send the file to the Institute and I'll pass it on to Susan. Lydia has one sister that I know of, but Susan will have to determine if we contact her or not."

"I understand. I don't agree, but I understand."

"I take it that Saphra is in earshot?" she asked.

"Yes as a matter of fact," I agreed.

"I will convey your disagreement to Susan. And I would have expected no less from you. She may have been an enemy, but you have always been honorable in your actions towards her."

"I'm not so sure about that. And I know that a certain lady would disagree since every time we meet I seem to assault her with a grapefruit."

At the word grapefruit, Mistress Miriam turned towards me with a raised eyebrow.

"You didn't the last time. Although I don't seem to recall you having the chance. In any case, send me the information and I'll act as your advocate. And Michael?"

"Yes ma'am?"

"Good job so far with Saphra."

"Thank you. I'll be in touch."

I hung up and walked over to sit down with the ladies.

"Who was that?" Saphra asked.

"Oh, Wendolyn wanted to ask a few more questions. She also suggested we visit Cologne as a tourist spot."

"So what was that about assaulting someone with a grapefruit?"

"Oh that. I was in a stage production of Public Enemy that Wendolyn heard about. I wasn't really happy with my costar so I made sure I screwed up the rehearsal with the grapefruit scene at least three times. It was juvenile but fun," I ad libbed.

Mistress Miriam's reaction to that story was restrained, but I could tell she was trying not to laugh.

Saphra just looked at me as if I'd fallen off the moon.

Hey, it was a story.

It took a little doing to keep Saphra occupied as I didn't want her seeing the shipping address, but Mistress Miriam helped a lot.

It was after that upon hearing a train in the distance I had an idea. Why drive to Cologne? Take a train instead.

When I proposed the idea to the two women, I was pleasantly surprised to have them agree.

"I like trains," Mistress Miriam said. "I think it would be interesting to do."

Saphra nodded.

"I'd rather not drive anyway. This way I can sit back and watch the scenery go by."

We drove to the railway station and discovered that we had a large number of choices for our tickets, including a first class compartment.

"In England, Mistress Minx and I always used a compartment, so I'm spoiled," I said selecting the compartment.

"And you just have to have the Murder on the Orient Express feeling when you travel overseas, don't you?" Saphra said brightly.

"More like Ghost and Mrs. Muir experience. I can tell people to sheer off when they try and sit with us."

"I don't understand," she said.

"Very old movie. Miriam knows what I mean," I said.

Miriam smiled.

"Well I think you're a little closer to the old walrus," she teased.

"Ow."

The next morning bright and early we caught the first of two trains towards Cologne. The two girls were reasonably excited about the shopping potential of the trip, while I relaxed and listened distractedly to the two of them.

As the train rolled swiftly through the forest I thought back fifty years about the pilots of the U.S. and British air forces making their way over the same land to drop their payloads on a town older than almost any in either country.

The Romans had even had a settlement where the modern city of Cologne was located; parts of it still being excavated now hundreds of years later.

"A pfennig for your thoughts?" Miriam said derailing my train of thought

"Oh I was just thinking of the history of this part of the world," I said. "The Goths and the Romans were running this area long before anybody even thought of America."

"You know you are a very strange man," Saphra said. "Most people wouldn't be thinking about things like that. They'd just be enjoying the ride and the view."

I smiled at her.

"It's brain candy for me. Right now my fate is in the hands of the Goddess, and what I do depends on the final test results. If they show it isn't my wife, I have to find her. But it's likely that I won't be permitted to search for her, that I'll have to S squared."

" S squared?"

"Sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up," I explained. "There are forces at work that prevent me from doing what I want to do."

"But who would want to stop you from looking for your wife?" she asked in disbelief.

"Michael, I suggest you stand down," Mistress Miriam said firmly.

I slid off my seat and knelt before her in the position of respect, ignoring any possible reaction of Saphra's.

"By your command."

"All right, that's enough of that," Saphra said looking towards the windows that looked into the passageway of the train.

"Are we embarrassing you," Mistress Miriam asked lightly.

"I think you might be embarrassing Michael."

"Have I ever embarrassed you Michael?" Miriam asked.

"Not as of late," I replied.

"You may resume your seat if you like," she said gently.

"If it's all the same to you the floor is just fine," I replied.

"Then you can give us both a foot rub."

"I'd be delighted," I said looking at Saphra.

She started to say no and then shrugged and accepted.

I slipped her shoes off and her socks and then started gently kneading her feet, slowly and carefully under Mistress Miriam's watchful eye.

I let my mind wander as I rubbed, sensing Saphra's reactions as she felt the pleasure of my touch, and I took pride in my ability. I thought of the hours that I had spent worshipping my beloved Mistress' feet, the rubbing and pampering.

I never considered that I had a foot fetish and still don't think so, but I did enjoy making a woman feel good by rubbing her feet.

After some time Miriam touched me on the shoulder and I looked up to see Saphra had fallen asleep, her blonde hair falling over her shoulder as she leaned against the corner of the seat.

"Another kill," she said softly and leaned over to kiss me.

As our lips met, she pulled my head towards her and probed my mouth with her tongue roughly, then released me.

"I loved watching you give her pleasure," she said quietly and she pulled my hand towards her crotch. "Touch me."

Her jeans were damp to the touch and I drew my fingers away and smelled them, detecting the aroma of her arousal.

"This is what watching you did to me Michael. I want to make love to you right now, use you right here, but I can't," she said pulling me to her.

"I know," I said with a sigh. "Perhaps tonight we can try."

She looked into my eyes.

"Tonight Michael, we will succeed."

I got my first look at the cathedral as the train crossed the Hohenzollernbrucke Bridge over the Rhine. It was big. A mass of stone and glass reaching high into the afternoon sky, big in a way that was hard to describe.

That impression was only reinforced when we left the railway station and climbed the steps to face the building.

The three of just looked silently at the building, feeling the respect for the work and the age of the structure.

"I've visited a few castles in England," Saphra said finally ", but I never had the feeling I do now about a building."

"It's not a building. It's a cathedral. I never knew what that word really meant until now," Miriam said.

"Do you remember the three kings in the Bible that presented their gifts to the Christ child? This is where they were brought to rest almost a thousand years ago," I said remembering what I had read once.

We followed a group of people through the doors of the cathedral and were presented with a brochure about the cathedral that included a reminder that this was a place of worship and that the church would appreciate our cooperation in maintaining respect for the place.

It wasn't hard to respect the place.

All you had to do was look up. And up, and up and up.

There is a story about the Vertical Assembly Building at Cape Kennedy where they assembled the moon rockets that claims if the air conditioning failed clouds would form and it would rain inside.

Looking up towards the ceiling of the cathedral I could almost believe it happening in there.

I could probably go on for pages and pages about how beautiful it was, and I do have some pictures, but the best advice I can give is: Come see it for yourself.

One of the things I did want to do of course was to climb the tower and look out over the city and while the girls explored the rest of the building, I made my way to the staircase and after paying the requested donation, started to climb up.

There are five hundred and nineteen steps to the top.

I arrived at this number after a slow painful climb, moving to one side to avoid kids who had the energy and gumption to actually run up the steps, most of whom were on their way back down by the time I reached the halfway point of the climb.

When I got to the top I realized I had left the camera with Mistress Miriam, which annoyed me more than a little, but it was more than offset by the view of the city. I lingered there for awhile and then started back down.

It was about the three hundred and twelfth step down when I had one of those terrible, awful ideas. Now, could I find what I was thinking of?

I found the girls taking pictures of the Shrine of the Three Holy Magi, containing the relics of the Magi - Gasper, Melchior, and Balthazar - and joined them.

"Nice climb?" Mistress Miriam said as we walked towards the exit.

"I am definitely getting too old for that stuff," I admitted. "But I'd like to do it again. I wanted to take some pictures and forgot you had the camera."

"Maybe tomorrow. We still want to get some shopping done today," she suggested.

I bowed to the inevitable and we left in search of a bank for a cash advance.

I was rather pleased to find that the exchange rate was based on the British pound rather than the dollar so the exchange rate that day was actually three to one.

I took advantage of the courtesy of the bank clerk who processed the cash advance against the little blue card to ask for directions to a local shopping area and explained what I was looking for.

To my amazement I was informed that a very well known U.S. company had a store in the area and I should be able to find what I wanted there.

I considered momentarily letting the two women in on my plan, and then decided that it would be better if I didn't.

That way if there were any problems, they would have plausible deniability.

I divided the money up and told them I would meet them at the railroad station at 18:00 hours and then we would either catch a train back or find a place to spend the night locally.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" Saphra asked as we waited for a taxi to pull up at the stop.

"Nope. I'm going to take the camera and get those pictures I wanted and do a little shopping of my own. I have a gedanken experiment I'd like to turn into reality.

"A what?" Miriam asked.

"A thought experiment. Einstein coined the phrase," Saphra explained before I could.

"Yes, I'm planning on getting the answer to a question that has plagued man for many years. Just like 'How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?'" I replied.

A taxi pulled up at that point and the two ladies got in but before they left, Miriam pulled me close to her.

"Michael."

"Yes Mistress?" I replied quietly.

"How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?"

I smiled.

"An average of two hundred and ninety two. But don't tell anybody else. It's our little secret."

The girls went on their way and I waited for another cab to take me to my destination: Toys R Us.

Yes there are Toys R Us stores in Germany. Geoffrey Uber Alles.

I wound up buying two different types of the experimental device, one plastic and one metal and a total quantity of ten of each, then took a cab back to the cathedral to put my plan in motion.

I paid my fee to climb the tower, ignoring the look of the attendant at the bag in my hand and climbed to the top again, this time stopping to take pictures as I did, including one that shows people have no respect at all for history: A Coke bottle thrown into the stone work.

When I reached the top I loitered there, taking pictures and waiting for the right moment to execute the test.

After a long period of standing alone, I opened the bag and removed the device: A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing, eighty-seven feet long when stretched.

After all with five hundred and nineteen steps for it to go down, it might well set a new worlds record if I could get it to go all the way to the bottom without stopping.

I started the metal one first, and then the plastic one, snapping a picture as it started it's way down.

Slowly they walked their way down the steps, the plastic one losing momentum with each step, but the metal one just rolling down in slow motion, never really gaining speed but not losing any either.

I followed them down and as the plastic one finally halted, moved it out of the way just as a couple of people were coming up the steps.

They looked on with amusement as the metal one crossed their path and I shrugged helplessly.

"Just a little science project, nothing to worry about," I said as they stopped to watch the progress of the metal coil.

To make a long story short, after four attempts, the best I could get it to go was one hundred and forty-seven steps.

I would have tried for a fifth attempt, but I was politely dissuaded from continuing by one of the priests who confiscated my test equipment.

I apologized for the disruption, and retreated from the field of battle as it were, the priest staying right with me until I cleared the door and entered the plaza outside.

When the girls met me at the station, they had a number of packages marked COSMIC-WARE.

"Wait until you see what we bought," Mistress Miriam said handing me her bundles." By the way, how did your experiment go?"

"Inconclusive," I said shifting the load to keep from dropping it.

"So what was it?" Saphra asked.

"Can we discuss this after I put these down?"

It was decided that we'd spend the night in town at the Hyatt and wound up with a room overlooking the Rhine for a small extra charge, of course.

You do not get a room with a view for nothing no matter where you are.

The bellman delivered the packages and accepted his tip with a click of the heels, leaving the two ladies and I in peace.

"A little dinner is in order I think," I suggested. "How about it?"

"I don't really have anything to wear," Saphra objected. "The Glashaus seemed pretty fancy."

"You have a point. Miriam, opinions?" I asked deferring to the senior officer present.

She picked up the room service menu, flipped through it and then suggested we go to the Schälsick pub instead of one of the main dining areas.

"That should be a little more casual than the rest of the places here. I know you hate to dress up," she said.

"I don't hate to dress up, I just don't feel I look that good," I protested.

Miriam looked at Saphra

"He looks great in a tux, but you have to force him into it. I've heard a couple of stories from Minkin about that."

Saphra looked at me and then shrugged.

"I can't see why. It would give him a James Bond look," she suggested.

"Only if his name was Opus," I countered.

Mistress Miriam had made the right choice. The food in the pub was good, the people cheerful and the music a little loud for my tastes, but Saphra and Miriam got into it.

"Now, tell us what you did this afternoon," Miriam said as I sipped my coffee after an excellent steak sandwich.

"A physics experiment. Remember how Galieo dropped a couple of cannon balls off the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Well using the Dom, I carried out my own test."

"You didn't drop things off the roof did you?" Saphra said in shock.

"Of course not. Someone might get hurt. I tried to see how far down the steps I could get a coiled spring to go before stopping."

"A coiled spring. Like a Slinky?" Miriam said.

"Well Stephen Wright posed the question of a Slinky on an escalator, and I got to thinking with the number of stairs in the cathedral, it would be an interesting test," I explained.

"So let me get this straight. You started a coiled spring down the steps in the cathedral to see how far it would go," Saphra summarized.

"Yes. It traveled one hundred and forty-seven steps before it ran into the wall."

The two of them just stared at me and then Miriam started giggling and then despite herself Saphra joined in.

"What's next? Climbing the Matterhorn to spit from the top so you can say you can spit a mile?" Saphra chuckled.

"I didn't think of that. Thank you for the idea," I replied deadpan.

"Michael, you are not climbing the Matterhorn. Minx would shoot the both of us," Miriam scolded.

"I'll take that chance."

When we returned to our room I was directed to sit in the bathroom until I was told to come out. I started to object, but from the look in Mistress Miriam's eye, I decided that obeying was a far better idea than arguing.

The bathroom door clicked shut behind me and I settled down to wait, although I did strain my ears to try and hear what was going on in the other room.

"Michael, turn the shower on and leave it on," Mistress Miriam directed. "I know you're listening."

Curses, foiled again.

I sat and waited, the running water blocking the outside noise until there was a knock on the door.

"Wait for ten seconds and then come out," I was told.

Water off, and T-10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 and hatch open.

I entered the main room to find both Mistress Miriam and Saphra in tight black latex body suits, smooth and slick. I could see the outline of their nipples through the material and the mound of their pubes.

"Well Michael, what do think?" Mistress Miriam challenged.

I just kept looking at the two of them, just drinking in their beauty, Saphra's blond hair spilling over the shoulders of the black material and Mistress Miriam's clear white skin in contrast to it.

"Well, say something," Saphra prodded.

"It's Slinky", I gulped.

Chapter 29 Sections 1 to 10

Prologue to Eve of Destruction
Everybody Wants To Rule The World
The Bomb Run
We'll Meet Again
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life
It's Slinky
There's got to be a morning after
Burning Bridges
American Pie