Glimpses of the Island

Confrontation

Luisa sat at her workstation, staring at her reflection in the screen. She was supposed to be working on the pipeline templates, but her own problems were making it difficult to concentrate on business. Anna had been right about one thing. Kurt had worked his way into her head, and she couldn't get him out. He represented the worst of everything she had been taught to believe in, but for all his faults she was attracted to him. When she told Anna she would attend the ownership classes her intention had been only to learn what the instructors were like, perhaps to use as research for future articles, maybe find some insight into men like Kurt. Hearing the other women had changed her view. They were all sincere and open about what they wanted. And so was Kurt, for that matter. The classes had made her stop and think about her own life.

Her problem, and there really was only the one, was that it was getting to her. The Island, the company and it's training classes, Kurt, the ownership classes; it was all piling up against her mental defenses. She was seeing the difference between oppression and domination first hand, and it was destroying all her preconceived notions. Where there should be misery and the struggle to be liberated, instead she found contentment and the insistent desire to be the devoted captive. If it was brainwashing then it was very effective, for she could feel herself slipping into the same frame of mind.

And that scares me , Luisa thought to herself, it would be so easy to let go, especially for someone like Kurt . All it takes is to say yes, sign the papers, wear his collar, and belong only to him. After a year she could go back to the outside world. She could survive anything for a year.

She turned to look over her shoulder and saw Kurt watching her. Catching her eye he gestured for her to come into the office. Luisa figured he must have noticed she wasn't getting any work done. She stood up and walked into his office. He pointed to the empty chair in front of his desk. She sat down.

"You seem to be distracted. Is something bothering you?" His voice was quiet but his tone demanded an answer. He fixed her with a stare so intense that it seemed to pierce into her soul. She had to look down at her hands in her lap.

"No Kurt, I just have a few things on my mind. I'm sorry I haven't been focused on the templates." She made a conscious effort to hold her hands still, remembering not to squirm when nervous. Mrs. Dornier considered it to be unladylike. Luisa had learned early on never to do anything which did not meet with Mrs. Dornier's approval. That particular aspect of her training had become ingrained habit.

"Look at me." Again that demanding voice she could not resist. She looked up. His deep blue eyes locked onto hers, holding her gaze. "Do not conceal your feelings. Tell me what preoccupies your mind. Now."

Luisa heard herself start speaking, as if she had just been injected with truth serum. "I…it's your intention to acquire me. The oversight board told me about it. You want to own me.

"Kurt, I don't know what to do. I want to be myself, to make my own decisions, choose for myself how I live my life. I don't want to be changed into someone else. I'm scared. Something in me, it's driving me to say yes, but I know it has to be wrong. Why is this happening to me? I don't know what to do. "

Kurt leaned back in his chair, a thoughtful expression showing he was mulling over her words. "You are faced with a life-changing decision. I can show you how to resolve your dilemma, but first you must tell me this. Do you want the answer, right now, this very minute?"

Luisa frowned, how could he possibly accomplish what he claims? Still, it wouldn't hurt to hear what he has to say. "Alright. Yes, tell me how to solve my problem."

"The answer is simple." Kurt leaned forward again. Somehow his demeanor changed, becoming at once serious and intense. Luisa could feel it in his expression and body language. "If you value your independence foremost, if you cannot relinquish control of your life, then you will stand up and walk out the door of this office. But if you know, in the hidden depths of your soul that you will never be complete without my hand on your heart, then you will sit in that chair, speaking not a word, until I tell you otherwise. Do it now, go or stay, but whichever you choose remember this is the moment you decide the path for your future. It may be the last one you make on your own."

She knew the answer. No matter how attractive Kurt's offer, she couldn't surrender her freedom to him. Walk out and it's over , she thought, it's that easy . She reached out to place her hands on the side of the chair while gathering her legs to stand up. This would put an end to Kurt and his ambitions on her. She would go back to her computer and finish her job. Kurt would go back to being her supervisor at work and nothing more. She stood up.

Or tried to. Nothing happened. She looked down at her hands, still carefully folded on her lap, then up at Kurt. She couldn't move. No! She was near panic. I've got to stand up . Luisa closed her eyes and willed her body to rise. Stand up, turn, walk out the door. She opened her eyes to see Kurt peering at her. This can't be happening, not to me. No man can ever own me.

No man except Kurt. The barest hint of a smile told her he knew it too. Whatever he had done to her, it had worked. Defiance gave way to resignation in Luisa's mind. He was right again. The answer was simple, and one she could not deny any longer. Anna was right too, there was no stopping him, or even trying.

Kurt said nothing, and Luisa was unable to utter a word, silenced and immobilized by a simple command from him. She watched, helpless, as he savored the moment of his success. He pushed back his chair and stood up. She looked up at him expectantly, waiting to hear what he would do with her now. She turned her head to follow him as he walked around the corner of the desk.

"Eyes front, face forward." His orders were quiet and crisp, but to Luisa it felt like he had shouted in her ear. Her head snapped back to face his empty chair, her eyes looking straight ahead. She could feel him, close behind her back. "There is something else bothering you. I want you to tell me about it, right now, and don't hold back. I can see it has been eating at you. It is time you let go of your worries." He put his hands on her shoulders. "Tell me."

The words came out in a flood, uncontrolled. Everything about her search for the Island, her deal with the magazine, her false identity, even stories she had sent in. At some point she began to cry. The tears streamed down her face but she still couldn't move, even to wipe them away. Kurt's hands rested lightly on her shoulders but to Luisa they seemed to pin her to the chair. Her confession didn't stop with her deception either. She kept gong, describing how she really felt that night in the restaurant, how she was attracted to him, the shock of being handcuffed and how it triggered her into unresisting submission, even to the moment on the elevator when she wanted him to keep going, to use her any way he wanted.

When she stopped, still sobbing, he let go of her shoulders and went back to his desk to open a drawer. He took out a box of tissues and placed it in front of her. "You may wipe your face."

She took several out and cleaned off the tears. She was surprised at how calm he appeared, even after learning she had revealed the existence of the Island and quite possibly destroyed the lives of everyone on it. She had expected at least some indication of surprise. Nervously she asked, "What will happen to me now?"

Kurt folded his arms and sat on the edge of the desk. "First, you will finish your ownership classes. I expect you to catch up on the pipeline templates too. After that, we will go to the Records office to fill out the paper work. When that is complete," he paused, reaching into the desk again, "you will begin to wear this around your lovely neck." He dropped an oval shaped metallic ring on the desk. Luisa recognized it immediately, a collar. She could see his name engraved on the side, along with a number.

"But…what about the articles I wrote? The magazine might have already published them. The publicity will ruin the Island. There won't be any more collars."

One last time he reached into the desk drawer, this time pulling out a folder full of floppy disks and envelopes. "Do you mean these articles? They never left the Island. Luisa, your editor has a vacation home here. He saw to it your secret reports came to me. They never left this building."

"How…you mean…" she stammered, confused. Then it hit her. Luisa, he knows my real name . She hadn't told him her true identity in her outburst, only that her working name was an alias. He knew everything, perhaps from the moment she arrived. "Why did you let me carry on with the secret identity? You knew all along, why didn't you put a stop to it from the first?" She began to think they had played her for the fool, laughing at her behind her back.

"You had to see this place for yourself. If we had confronted you the moment you got off the ship, you would have been suspicious and hostile from then on. This way you learned about the Island, who we are, and most important you learned something about yourself. Any other way and I would have lost you forever."

He was right again. He was always right. She would have hated him as the poster boy for male domination. Hated and feared. One last question she had to ask. "What would have happened to me, once I was on the Island?"

"You would not have been allowed to leave, at least as long as you represented a threat. Don't ever forget, Luisa, the people here are generally kind and decent, but they will protect what they have, whatever it takes. That includes me. And now it includes you."

His last line made her pause to think. Up to this minute she had seen herself as the outsider, hiding under false colors, learning all about the Island but never really a part of it. She looked at the collar on the desk. My collar , then she corrected herself. No, his collar . A difference of perspective, now that Luisa was on the inside looking out.

"And the trip here? All arranged to get me out of circulation?"

Kurt nodded. "Yes, but the job offer was genuine. You were diverted onto the ship in the Seychelles to make you disappear. There was no fire at the airport in the Maldive Islands. The travel agent, Henri, he is legitimate but he knows all about the Island. A most congenial fellow, and very thorough. I understand he's retired from some French intelligence agency. Anyone trying to track your whereabouts would get no further than the airport at Victoria. Not a trace of you once you got off the plane. Your ticket to the Maldives went unclaimed. You would not have appeared on the security cameras either.

"The magazine company in New York is a front to divert attempts to publish information about the Island. Given your enthusiasm for your research project, the Island's security team deemed you a threat to the Island. You are intelligent, talented and can be very determined when you set yourself to a task. Eventually you would have found out enough to be a risk. A few discrete anonymous tips to steer you in the right direction and a predictable attempt to sneak in were all it took to get you here."

So someone on the Island, the shadowy security team Kurt had mentioned, had been not one but two steps ahead of her all the time. "And what about me now?" Luisa asked. "Am I still a danger? Were you part of the plot too?"

Kurt shook his head. "No, I didn't know about you until you started working here. And I didn't know the full story until I filed the request with your oversight board. As for your status right now, I'll be honest. You aren't considered to be a threat as long as you are here. When your contract ends you will not be allowed to leave. That's not a permanent ban though. It all depends on you."

There it was, confirmation of her worst fears. She was on the Island for the foreseeable future with little or no chance of ever escaping. She looked up at Kurt, still perched on the side of his desk. "Kurt, what can I do? Are the police coming to take me away? Are they going to put me in prison?" There was an edge of fear in her voice. For the first time she realized just how alone and isolated she was; no one to even worry about her.

He stood up, reached down to take hold of her trembling hands, and drew her up out of the chair. "What you can do is not worry about it," he told her, lifting up her chin so he could look into her eyes. "It's my problem now. No one is coming to take you away, and if they tried they'd have to get through me first."

Luisa put her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. He held her close, whispering in her ear his love for her, promising to protect her and keep her safe. She closed her eyes, still troubled over the future but no longer scared. She wasn't alone any longer.