They were in the open expanse of her family's farm now. He chased her past the goats to the barley fields were the breeze moved the stalks like waves on the sea. Her long black hair trailed behind her, leaving the scent of lilacs in its wake. She smiled at him over her shoulder as she crested the hill where he'd first made love to her. She pulled up the hem of her long dress as Damteni got closer. He laughed and reached for her, but she'd been so fast. He'd only been able to catch her when she let him, which she did. She slowed and he lunged. He wrapped his arms around her and brought her to the ground, cushioning her fall with his strong body. They giggled like children and rolled in the barley. His hands roamed her body feeling the softness and its hardness. Damteni loved it all. She smiled to him, her husband. Her dark eyes glimmered like stuck flint when she looked up at him. Just that fast she was gone.

Bright day in his dream became dreary dusk. Damteni tried to wake up. He knew what was coming, but he couldn't stop it, not now, not then. There was scorched earth all around him after the battle. He searched for his wife, but saw only hollowed and collapsed houses all around him. He jumped to his feet, grabbed his weapon and ran as fast as he could. It began to rain, the kind of rain his wife would have loved, but now it turned the ground to mud beneath her feet. That was how they caught her. Her beautiful face was contorted with fear when she'd looked back, seeing her attackers but not her husband closing in. He got there too late. There was so much blood as he held her in his arms. The gaping wound in her side was fatal. He was soldier. He knew. The blood ran hot down his arms soaking the ground. He wasn't alone though. His mind fixed the dream. There'd been a child crying at his side. It was the most mournful sound Damteni'd ever heard. His wife had spoken his name and rubbed his face before…

Damteni opened his eyes and sat up in the bed before she'd breathed her last in the nightmare. He was strong, but not strong enough to relive that again. He looked at the clock realizing that he'd managed a few hours of sleep. He wouldn't get any more this evening. He got out of bed and walked across the hotel room to his laptop. He had some work to tend to.

Wen Liang put her little feet on the bottom rail of her bed and pressed her shoulders to the floor. Her tight little glutes crumpled and flexed to iron hardness as she forced her hips higher. Her hamstrings bulged as if something behind the muscle were trying to push through her skin. She lowered her body slowly, inhaling until her butt touched the floor then rapidly exhaling as she raised her hips again. The channel in the center of Wen's abdominal wall was deep enough to store ink pens, which her sister Shu often did during workouts, but Wen wasn't working on her abs. She squeezed her ass again and flexed at the top of her rep and with a final exhale allowed her entire body to rest on the floor for a moment.

Wen was still on a high from her successful mission in America. It had been the best couple of days of her life so far. The only downer was that her twin sister Shu hadn't been there to share the triumph. While she and Lars had been in Chicago, Shu and Rico had been sent on a mission for the master. Wen was happy for her sister and a little sad for herself. Her joy would wait though, and when Shu came back both of them could celebrate together. The master finally trusted them enough to be sent around the world to do his work.

She rolled to her stomach and crossed her legs before doing a textbook pushup. Wen wasn't going to, but the sensation of feeling her pecs, triceps, and deltoids flex sent enough endorphins through her brain to convince her to do fifty quick reps. Her tight little body rocketed up rep after rep with almost blurring speed. Shu could keep up with Wen in almost everything, but when she wanted to, Wen could get her body to a state of absolute shredded hardness that no one around could come close to matching. Even at Liv's hugest she wasn't as cut as Wen. By the end, her arms were almost unreal. Ropes of muscle twisted and curled from her little wrists up to her elbows like encircling vines. Her serrated triceps jutted behind biceps that bulged even when stretched. When she stood up, muscles sat on her body like barbs. She was hard and vascular and striated and still bored.

Wen toweled her face and drank some water. She grimaced a little at the first taste because the filtering system on this little island fortress wasn't working properly. It was the same machine the Japanese had used 65 years earlier with only a few modifications. As she finished the glass, Wen thought that the machine was probably due for few more. After showering, Wen opened a drawer and pulled out some of the newest skinny jeans that were all the rage. Then she went to the closet to get her second favorite blouse since her last favorite had been destroyed. She was reaching for the blouse when another garment caught her eye.

She pulled out the mandarin gown that had been a gift from Damteni after a trip to China a couple of years earlier. It was beautiful, colorful and fit Wen's slim, muscular body like a glove. Only she never wore it. The master had bought Shu one too, and she wore it on her birthday or on Chinese new years, but Wen only looked at hers from time to time. The dress reminded her of home, of her parents, of how they died. Wen often said that Shu had all the good memories of home, and that she held onto all the bad ones. That wasn't really true. Wen loved her homeland. She even wanted to move back there one day when her master's work was completed. She'd build a new life for herself and carry on her family's legacy at the same time. Those things would have to wait though. She hung the dress back in the closet. She probably look at it again in a few months.

Wen wandered into Shu's room, flipping on the light. She wasn't looking for anything in particular, just wallowing in her solitude. She was just about to go back to her room to read when she looked to the back of the room and stopped. Wen twisted her mouth as she approached the ledge where Shu kept her lily. It was normally beautiful and vibrant, but not at the moment. Shu'd been gone a couple of days and it had been months since that plant had been to the surface to catch a single ray of sunlight. Shu should have reminded Wen to look after her plant. She'd probably been too excited about being chosen for a mission to remember. Wen could relate. The lily shouldn't suffer for its owner's forgetfulness though.

Wen looked at the slumped, fading plant and pointed her index finger at it. A thin stream of golden tinged energy moved from her finger like smoke from a candle. When the little energy stream touch the flower it traveled up and down the stem before being absorbed. The flower straightened; its hues became vibrant, and its wonderful scent wafted to Wen's nose. She smiled and cut off the energy flow. The lily would last a while longer here in the dark. Wen gave the plant some precious bottled water, then left her sister's room. She stood in the hall for a moment wondering which way to turn.

She felt so alone with Shu gone. Rico was next on Wen's chat list, but he was gone too. Master Damteni had taken Liv on a mission so she couldn't pass the time talking to the outwardly shy Swede. Instead Wen headed to Miyu's room. She hadn't talk to her since the sparing session the week before. Wen hoped Lars wasn't in there as she knocked on the door. "Come in", Miyu called softly.

Karim Azimi made a show of attending the near dawn prayers at the same mosque he'd attended growing up here in this hard scrabble area of northern Afghanistan. People came up to him and Karim, fresh from prayer, was obliged to give them charity. All the money he'd handed out amounted to only a few hundred US dollars, but his name would be spoken with reverence for many weeks to come. Everyone knew that Karim was a warlord and drug kingpin, but his violence and crimes were committed far away from here. He didn't have to fight in his homeland very often since his place in it was secure. Even the Taliban had mostly let him be during their terrible reign.

Karim entered his house and sat down for a small breakfast. While he was drinking a cup of local style coffee he thought of the message Morgen Stern had sent him. Some group lead by a shadowy figure called Damteni was responsible for all this trouble. Karim wasn't a scholar or even sentimental, but the tablet that had been stolen was the key to something big and powerful. Karim wasn't sure what it was, but he was sure that he was going to retrieve his property and punish this Damteni. He had a target, and once he knew who to attack, Karim never stopped. He'd used all of his resources in this effort, and when his phone rang, he knew he was getting somewhere.

"Karim, old friend, do you realize what time it is here in the Kingdom?", Khaled complained although he sounded wide awake.

"I am seeking your help", Karim said, ignoring the fact that he knew exactly what time it was in Saudi Arabia.

"I wondered what sort of man you might need to complete this task and one person kept walking across my mind. Years ago I worked closely with a man called Terval, a European. He helped us get supplies to the mujahedeen, often right under the Russians' noses. He used to run a private army. I believe Terval can help you, my friend."

"Thank you. I'm not willing to waste my own men on this hunt. I'd rather have them protect my operations", Karim admitted even though it was his men's thirst for revenge that had convinced him to act this boldly in the first place.

"I understand fully. Let me contact Terval's man and set up a meeting."

"I already owe you a favor Khaled. And if this Terval works out then the favor is magnified."

Khaled laughed. "Just be serious. Terval was a hard man back then and I am sure age as not softened him."

"Pakistan isn't so bad", Liv declared after a sip of water as she sat in her master's suite where he'd just finished a telephone conversation. "I mean it's not London, but there's lots of stuff.

Damteni agreed. "Karachi is a great city. However as you know we aren't staying here. We have business in the north… in the tribal areas."

Liv nodded. "I know. I'm ready."

She opened her eyes wide when Damteni actually chuckled. "You aren't ready for anything. Put some sun screen on or you will look like a lobster in under a day." The slender young woman got up and sheepishly headed to her own room to find where Lars had packed the sunscreen for her. It didn't matter that Damteni was actually fairer than she was. Nothing seemed to hurt him. Why should the sunshine?

A few hours later, Liv was quite happy that her master had convinced her to put on sunscreen because it was blazing here, even in winter. They'd taken a flight from Karachi to Islamabad in northern Pakistan and then Damteni had bought an suv from a local man. He'd neglected to mention to Liv that the man had removed and sold the roof of the vehicle some years earlier. She wrapped her head against the sun and to sort of blend in, but even a quick glance would out her as a foreigner. They turned off the main road and took a northeasterly route over rough unserviced roads deep into the hills outside of Peshawar, into the tribal areas. Liv looked out at the countryside seeing ranchers and farmers and merchants and towns as they rode past. Damteni wasn't much for conversation, at least not with her, which was fine. Liv didn't enjoy small talk either. She was just glad the humidity wasn't too bad here because in the Philippines it could be insufferable.

Damteni drove into a town and stopped just off the main road. "Stay here", he ordered and got out of the truck to approach a group of men sitting on the corner near a stone building. Damteni bowed and spoke passable Pashto to the group. One man stood up and shook Damteni's hand. Damteni walking inside the building and a moment later came back to the doorway and motioned for Liv to join him. The men eyed her the entire way, some looks were of pure curiosity while others were more lecherous. She didn't let it affect her. She wasn't afraid of these men, only of upsetting her master.

The inside of the stone building was oddly lush when compared to the outside, with rugs and neat furniture spread about. The light was low but not too bad and the local spiced tea was great. A man served Damteni while a woman who Liv hadn't seen when she'd come in brought her a cup. Liv wished that she'd been able to say thank you in the woman's language, but Damteni said thank you for both of them.

They'd finished two cups of tea before Liv got the nerve to ask, "What are we doing here?"

"Waiting. There was an agreed upon time, but I was warned that it might be difficult for a man in his position to get away unseen. Are you becoming impatient Liv?"

"No, no. Not at all. I will wait as long as it takes. It's just…"

"Just what?"

Liv swallowed and said, "It's just that I didn't know people would be bold enough to make you wait."

Damteni smiled and leaned closer. "Humility and power should go hand in hand because the use of one always enhances the use of the other."

Liv thought on that as three hours passed. Eventually the door opened and two men walked inside. The one in front was obviously the one in charge. He was a white man, possibly mid-forties, with grey streaks in his red hair. Liv saw that he was in good shape when he adjusted his suit jacket as he walked towards the tables. He extended his hand as Damteni stood up. "I hope you accept my apology. Every time I tried to step out it was one thing after another", the man said. The accent pegged this guy as an American and his mannerisms pegged him as a man who was used to being in control. He was cautious and capable too, just the sort of man Damteni would do business with.

"Bruce, I know that if you could have been here sooner you would have been. Apology accepted. Now, let us discuss business."

"Your shipment is moving as quickly as we dare move it", Bruce said as he sat down across from Damteni. "Everything's going well, but we have attracted some attention with the extraordinary measures we've taken."

"How so?", Damteni inquired.

Bruce sighed. "There's a British intel guy who's taken an interest in our smuggling operations. There's a team of Green Berets he's been sending out after us. British intel guys and Green Berets are a bad combination. Neither knows how to back down. They've been one step behind us, just one small step."

"Tell me you've taken measures."

"Of course we have. We've given them false leads and dead ends. They've seen through most of them, so we hired a fixer."

"A fixer?"

Bruce smiled. "Yes sir. I think you'd like him. He has the power to control darkness and shadows and such. He is a badass for real. Comes from India. Asks no questions and has never failed. We're just waiting for him to check in after the Green Berets are dead. I don't expect the powers that be to stop looking for us, but our fixer should buy us the time we need to get your package delivered where and how you want it. We're rolling down hill now, sir", Bruce said to reassure his client.

Damteni seemed pleased although it was hard to tell. "There must be other problems, or you wouldn't have asked me to Pakistan."

"That's true", Bruce admitted. "The package has to move through Iran, and those guys aren't taking our precautions seriously. They don't seem to be as professional as the Moldovans or the Romanians. Those men lost some of their own to that team of Green Berets, but that didn't compromise the package. The Iranians though… they could be a problem. I thought you should know." Bruce reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out several sheets of folded paper. He slid them across the table. "That is the Iranians' info, locations, names and such. Hopefully there won't be a problem, but we can't operate on hopefully."

"You're doing a good job, Bruce", Damteni said and shook the man's hand. "I look forward to this stressful delivery being concluded."

Bruce chuckled. "You and me both, sir. This is the most complex package we've ever delivered, but you will be satisfied."

"I have no doubt." The two men shook hands again. Bruce nodded curtly at Liv then walked out. "We're eating dinner here", Damteni stated and sat back down. The strange smells of the local food entered Liv's nose but she was too hungry to be choosy. She'd have eaten a live rodent at this point, well not quite, but almost.

It was sundown by the time Liv and Damteni got back on the road. Only the sound of the treads on the road filled Liv's ears until Damteni asked, "What did you learn today?"

"That you are more patient than I, although I'm working on it."

"What else?"

"That you and Bruce have done business before, but that this deal is the biggest to date."

"Okay, go ahead."

"I also learned that this might be the most excited I have ever seen you." Damteni grinned. "I just don't understand why this is so important."

"You will. I'll explain it one day", he promised then fell silent.

They were about forty miles from the small town when steam began rising from under the hood. Damteni pulled over and very quickly found a hole in the radiator. "Should we go find a town?", Liv asked, trying to keep the frustration of the situation from her voice and almost succeeding.

"No. People turn in early around here. We wouldn't find much help." He walked to the top of a hill a ways off the road then went back to the suv. He pulled the vehicle to the backside of the hill then shut it off. "These hills will keep the wind off of us. We'll sleep here tonight", he declared.

"Here? Out in the desert?"

Damteni seemed amused. "This isn't a desert my dear. We're in the high plains above the Indus River valley. Weather's good and it has been a long time since I've slept beneath the stars."

Damteni grabbed some luggage from the vehicle including a sleeping bag which he gave to Liv. She'd had no idea he'd packed these things. It seemed that Damteni thought of everything. He dug an almost perfectly circular fire pit, lined it with stones and got the blaze rolling in under five minutes.

Liv got comfortable more quickly than she'd have imagined. Damteni laid his head against a hollow log and looked at the sky admiring the constellations. Having slept the night before, he knew that he wasn't going close his eyes for long this night. Instead he thought of all the operations he had running at this very moment. Some were relatively simple while others, like this business he had with Bruce, were quite complex. Then there were future operations. His mind moved to Chris Adams . He wondered if that young man understood how serious a role he was going to play one day.

The men of this region of Pakistan knew no national borders. They were tribesmen and their lands were their lands, national governments be damned. A group of tribesmen moved through the dark underbrush as easily as if it were day, creeping close to easy prey. All of these men had fought against the soldiers in Afghanistan at different points in the four years since the war had begun. They were hard and opportunistic. They'd been in town with the girl and her man had come. The guy was big and serious looking, but they weren't afraid. People only brought a frail, naive looking girl like that to the tribal areas for one reason, and these men didn't see why they shouldn't be the one to profit from selling her.

They'd been very careful when sabotaging the suv. A big hole would have made the vehicle overheat too quickly, but they were experts. This wouldn't be the first time they'd ambushed unsuspecting fools in this area. They were happier living this way, than herding goats or picking poppies.

They were almost silent, so quiet that Damteni didn't hear them. He smelled them though. When the breeze blew he recognized the unique scent of gunpowder, but neither he nor Liv had a gun. He pulled off his jacket as he sat up. He couldn't tell how many there were, but knew he'd find out soon. He reached across the fire and tapped Liv on the shoulder. Her eyes shot open just as six men ran over the hill with AK-47's pointing down at them.

"Lie on the ground!", the men shouted in Pashto, but Damteni stepped towards them as they ran closer. They shouted all the louder and Damteni's face got sterner. Liv started to pull herself from the sleeping bag when three men came from behind and grabbed her, sleeping bag and all. That was when Damteni got angry. It was true that he hadn't thought of military positioning when choosing this camp site, but it stung his pride when theses tribesmen successfully flanked him. Their tactics were expert in this kind of attack, but that didn't temper his anger. He took two more steps before one of the attackers had seen enough and depressed the trigger of his thirty year old rifle. Like always flames licked from the end of the barrel as the 7.62mm rounds shot out one after another. The tribesman's aim was true. The first bullet hit Damteni just below the sternum and the second the center of his abdomen.

Sparks flew and the bullets shredded Damteni's shirt as rounds ricocheted like they were hitting plate steel instead of human flesh. Damteni didn't flinch as another man opened fire on him. Bullets hit his neck and chest even his face. Two bullets hit Damteni's chest and changed direction hitting a Pashtun man in the leg. He fell to the ground grasping the bleeding wound. The first shooter couldn't process what he was seeing. He kept his finger on the trigger even as Damteni strode to within arm's length. The big man reached towards the still firing AK-47 and grasped the smoking hot barrel. A snarl showed at the corner of Damteni's mouth as he wretched his hand upward then jerking his arm back so hard that he broke the leather strap holding the gun around the man's shoulder, and the man's shoulder as he went flying towards the fire pit. The rifle had suffered the most losing the first six inches of its barrel. Damteni turned and stabbed the jagged gun barrel steel into a tribesman's neck. The man gurgled blood as he faded into death.

Three men ran over the uneven ground with Liv still wrapped in the sleeping bag. They turned when they heard the gunshots, but didn't stop. They figured incorrectly that their mates were simply putting the big man down. They should have paid closer attention to what they weren't hearing. Liv hadn't struggled when they'd snatched up her. She didn't scream either. All that had happened was, they began to smell the sleeping bag singeing. When they were almost to the top of another hill the girl let out a roar and puffs of white stuffing went everywhere.

Liv fell to the ground and the man holding her feet tripped over her. In the low light he didn't see Liv smile as she raised her suddenly muscle bound arms and crash them down onto his chest. It felt like he'd been hit by a bus. Liv's smile widened as she heard the satisfying sounds of breaking bones, but it wasn't enough. It was nearly enough.

The other two men stopped and turned. They felt the thump of Liv's hands crushing their friend's chest, but didn't know what it was. Then they heard stitches tearing like someone was ripping a long cloth from end to end, but it was Liv's body. Her muscles expanded as more and more strength surged into her body. Her pecs were so pumped that nothing could have contained them. The men saw the remnants of the sleeping back. They heard a roar from behind them and saw something coming at them from the darkness that their brains couldn't quantify. Muscles sat atop muscles in a striated orgy of veins and tendons. One man tried to pull his gun around while the other tried to run. Liv took one leaping stride and grabbed the runner by his collar while sending a weak punch to the other man's gut. She snatched both men close and wrapped her arms around them. The men struggled against their tightening muscle prison. Liv pulled her arms in until neither man could take a breath. Her biceps and forearms compressed their torsos against her chest and that was when she grinned. Liv's eyes narrowed and she began to flex her chest, flex it hard, pump it as full as she could. It took mere seconds for her rolling striated masses to begin breaking ribs. The men cried out and they prayed as Liv kept her arms still like an anvil while her pecs continued to flex harder and bigger. Her smile grew and her eyes frenzied as she felt their bodies breaking against hers. She sucked in a slow breath making her chest swell and swell. Her own joints popped as her body adjusted to the strength coursing through it. Liv loved the pain of it, loved the way it made her feel. She also loved blood and she wanted some. Her face became set with concentration as she demanded more size from her already bloated pecs and they obeyed, growing by inches and smashing the internal organs of her victims. Blood ran down her right arm and a spray from the other man sent droplets of blood against Liv's face. "Yummmm", she moaned as she licked it off of her cheeks, not getting enough of the iron rich gore. She felt a tingle between her legs and a rush go through her body, but these men were not enough. They were already broken and misshapen, they were almost enough to get her excited. Then she heard voices from up ahead, more men. She dropped the two bodies in her arms and moved to the left when she saw a flashlight beam coming her way.

The men were sure footed as they climbed the incline to the top of the hill shining their light as they went. They called the names of the men who were supposed to meet them here until the light fell on the mangled corpses of two of them. They'd seen men shot with high caliber weapons. They'd seen what was left of a man after a missile strike, but never had they seen two bodies killed like this. Liv drank in their fear. It energized her as she screamed and charged. The closest man raised his gun, and Liv grabbed the AK-47 just like her master had done, but instead of ripping it off, Liv closed her fingers. Her face grimaced with effort as she applied tremendous force with just her forearms. She didn't completely close the barrel, but she shrank it so that the bullet couldn't travel through it. The AK exploded in its operators hand. Liv laughed a deep murderous laugh and grabbed the staggered man by the head. She looked into his eyes before gripping his skull tightly with all of her fingers. Blood ran from ten tears in his flesh as Liv's face took on a look of crazed zeal. She pulled her arms apart while gripping this man's skull and watched it crack open like a skin covered egg.

One man vomited and died where he stood when Liv punched a hole through his chest. His friend fired a round, but the muscle beast was fast on its feet. Liv dodged to her left and lifted the man who had shot at her high over her head. Then she picked out a spot in the darkness, wound up, and threw the man as hard as she possibly could. She thought it was comical hearing his scream fade off into silence as he got out of earshot. She looked down the hill and saw lights moving away. Men were running from her. It had to be at least five or six more men. She didn't even think of letting them live. She chased after them, her powerful legs allowing her to run at great speeds. She heard the sounds of hooves. They tribesmen had brought a donkey to carry back their prey, but now they were the prey and Liv wanted to kill them so badly that she couldn't stand it. She couldn't wait. She chased the donkey and the beast didn't have a chance. Liv lunged after it, grabbing its rear legs. The donkey tried to pull its legs free, but Liv set her feet and lifted the nearly half ton donkey up and threw her arms apart ripping the donkey's legs out of socket. The creature didn't suffer long. As its rider scrambled away from her, she used her arms to crush the life out of it. A donkey's blood just wasn't as satisfying as a person's though. Liv was unsatisfied, so she resumed her chase.

Five men ran for their lives with a monster behind them. The slowest of them got caught. It chilled their blood to hear his screams as he was killed. They kept running towards their base of operations, to the place where they'd have stashed the girl if they'd succeeded in their abduction. There was a line of ridges to the east where these men had made their camp. The smoke from their fire still rose to the sky and beyond that, safety.

Liv saw the cave as she ran. She'd been toying with these men, herding them, but once she saw their destination, she knew that she had to hurry. She gained on the men with each stride, but they were too close to the cave. Liv screamed in frustration as her play things scampered into a five foot high opening in the side of a cliff and into the cave. Liv got on all fours and went in after them. The cave wound and snaked into the hillside. She saw lamp light up ahead and knew that she must be getting close to the end. That's when gunshots rang out, knocking sharp shards of rock in her face. Liv pressed forward, but the bullets zipped right past her and she stopped. She roared in frustration, the sound of which momentarily drowned out the AK-47's powerful reports. Liv banged her fists against the cave walls as the men kept her at bay. Liv's blood thirsty mind couldn't carry a thought long enough to find a solution to her problem. Her frustration mounted and her muscles throbbed as the anger grew inside her. She crawled backwards out of the cave knowing that she couldn't go forward. She started to stand up when she was nearly out of the cave. When her shoulders touched the top of the opening her eyes opened wide and her mouth began watering like a starving man looking at a steak.

Liv's head was tucked in tight as she pressed her shoulders against the cold stone. Her knees were slightly bend and her back mostly straight. She cackled with delight as she gathered her strength and began to stand up with the weight of the cliff face bearing down on her. Her thighs billowed and her calves blossomed as she tried to do the impossible. The ground shook all around her. Rocks and dirt from higher on the cliff fell down around her. Deep rumbles boomed and her muscles flexed with petrified fury. The little capillaries were too numerous to count, but they were dwarfed by the large veins rising along the surfaces of her swollen muscles. Spit and sweat flew from Liv's shaking head. A growl started deep in her throat. Her feed cracked the rock near them as they sank down, then Liv was treated to the best sound she'd ever heard. It was better than the breaking of bones. Better than dying pleas, almost as good as the feeling of blood itself.

When the bedrock fractured it sounded like grenades exploding. Liv burned with the passion of the moment. No man could ever begin to give her pleasure like this. She set her teeth on edge, pouring more power into her gigantic legs. Her quads had a texture like a battle scarred wall, with striations like gouges and pulsing veins like barbed wire. Her calves were otherworldly. A child couldn't have wrapped arms around even one of them, and as she pushed more, they grew harder and bigger.

Cracks formed along the cave walls, spreading like webbing. Two main cracks ran the length of the rock formation as Liv began to lift the top third of this cliff like it was a massive lid. Her quads glowed red as so much power flowed into them. Her glutes had grown as her body had grown, but now those crumpled lumps of pure muscle were imploding like black holes, getting denser by the second, adding their power to Liv's mad effort. Her lats were so wide that they began to press against the side of the cave opening causing rock to chip and fall to the ground where they made contact. Her abs pushed out away from body like they were trying to leap off of her body, they were so thick and striated on their own that it was unbelievable. Her lower body though was where the action was until all at once her legs straightened.

What had started as small cracks in the rock walls looked like gashes. The weight of the rock above was all on Liv's shoulders. She wasn't satisfied.

She put her palms on the ceiling near her head and with a growl like a diesel locomotive began lifting the mass with just her arms. Her body arched backwards allowing her head to rolled back to rest on the granite hardness of her traps. The ground around her shook more violently as her arms moved the mass inch by inch. Her biceps were beyond anything she'd ever seen from them before. Sweat ran from her body, mixing on the ground with the juices flowing from down her legs. Liv was in her own personal heaven as the trapped men began clearing the rocks from the cave-in. She saw one man's face as he moved a rock. Their eyes met. He saw something that no one had ever seen.

Liv's pale skin was red and angry as she pushed her body towards limits that it didn't really have. Her naked chest was thrust towards the ceiling as she pressed the cliff. Her pectorals were all ropey with twisting dissected muscle. Her little nipples were lost in the landscape of muscle that made up her chest. Those abs looked like someone had shoved misshapen balls under her skin and her pants had slit along the side leaving only a few ribbons of clothes to block the image of her legs. They were so thick and meaty. They pulsed with the beating of Liv's heart. Her face though scared this man more than all of her muscle. Blood from his dead friends streaked it with red. Her lips were always thin, but pulled back in a snarl like they were, they disappeared, and her eyes… he almost couldn't look into them. The combination of lust and power and anticipation made the man want to cry and to wretch.

Then Liv lifted her arms the last few inches in one big push. Big boulders rolled down the backside of the cliff like items from an upturned table. Liv barely felt it when the stuff fell off. Her eyes were locked on the men trying feebly to dig their way out. She was so much more than they were. They were less than ants. With a scream heard for nearly a mile around Liv pushed arms up as hard as she could, forcing the cliff face to fly nearly ten feet above its base before gravity took control and bought the cliff and the hillside crashing down. Liv was nearly orgasmic looking at the destruction, that had actually registered on seismic devices in far away universities. What had once been a wall of rock was now a collection of jumbled gravel, well that and a tomb, a tomb that she had created with just the power of her muscles.

The world slowly filtered its way back into Liv's brain. She saw the fire that these now dead tribesmen had made for themselves and thought about her master. She had to get back to her own camp, but first Liv looked around this one. She walked to what had once been the backside of a small cliff and saw some packs and some tied up donkeys who were so scared they were almost pulling the trees from their roots trying to get away. Liv laughed. The donkeys were strangling themselves trying to get away from her. She gripped the ropes and tore them with one easy pull of her massive arms, letting the donkeys flee, because there was a blue pickup truck right behind them. All the crashing had caused something to crack a corner of the windshield, but a quick look showed no serious damage. Liv put a hand on the bumper and curled the truck up like nothing at all so she could see its chassis. It wasn't bent. It would work for what she had planned.

She thought about getting in and driving it, but instead she just took a grip on the jack point and lifted the truck to her back like she was a flatbed. With the truck resting on her steel hard muscles, she began retracing her steps. Liv wasn't an expert tracker, but she knew more than the basics. It was child's play to find where she had been though. There was a trail of destruction. She grinned when she looked down at the donkey she'd crushed to death. She carried the truck up the hill where she'd burst from the sleeping bag. The two mangled bodies were right where she'd left them, but she didn't see the third victim. A close look showed drag marks. "Huh", she wondered and followed them. They didn't last long.

The first man she'd hit hadn't died. She had broken his ribs and ruptured some things inside him, but he clung to life and was even trying to escape. He crawled away until the shadow of a pickup truck on a muscle beasts back blocked out the light of the moon. He spun to his back and looked up at the unreal sight of Liv looking down at him. Her mouth smiled as she looked down at him, but her eyes didn't. She lifted her foot off the ground, easily holding the two ton pickup truck with one leg. She placed her foot on the man's already broken ribs and just let it sit there. She didn't push her leg down through him, she simply shifted the weight on her back and let the weight of the pickup truck do it. To Liv it felt like she'd stepped into a hot puddle of blood as she killed this last man.

She continued the short distance to the camp to find her master there, changing shirts. Liv realized that she'd never seen him like this. In the flickering firelight she noticed a foot long scar on Damteni's right side. Then he noticed her. She was a gory mess standing there. Blood and bits of dead men clung to her skin. She wore them like war paint. Her face was back to neutral, but her eyes still burned with all the fun she'd just had. Damteni sighed. "Put the truck over there", he pointed next to the suv. Liv's strides were fluid despite her bulk and the weight on her back. She set the truck down rather gently and stood in front of her master. His face was unreadable as he got to see all of her, all the muscle and the death. "There is a stream four hundred meters that way", he pointed west. "Go clean yourself."

"Yes Master", she said and went the way he'd sent her. Liv found the stream right where Damteni said it would be, but she didn't begin to wash herself right away. This night had been too much fun, and it had made Liv extremely excited. She lay down on the bank of the bubbling stream and snatched the rest of her pants off. She ran her hands down the bulbous musculature of her abdomen before plunging two fingers inside herself. She was leaking like a faucet as she put both her hands between her legs, pushing the fingers in as deeply as they would go. She felt all the blood getting sticky on her skin and it was too much. Liv brought on a chain of orgasms before she waded into the stream. She forced herself to relax and soon the water around her became as hot as a bath while she cleaned herself.

Nearly an hour later Liv came back to the camp, thin and gangly without her wonderful muscles. She didn't try to cover herself for modesty, but against the chill. She didn't have to hide her body from her master. He'd seen it before. He had to know that this wasn't really Liv. The way she'd been before, that was the real Liv. This was just the face that she had to show the world.

Damteni sat on the log he'd been resting his head. He didn't say a word as she walked back the small camp. She noticed the clothes he'd neatly folded and left on a rock for her. As Liv got dressed she realized that perhaps her master did think of everything. "We should go", he said once she was dressed.

He hot-wired the pickup she'd taken from the dead men's and off they went. They bounced along the ground on their way back to the road. That was when Liv saw six fresh, neatly arranged graves facing southwest towards Mecca. Damteni had properly buried all the men he'd killed. Only then did the fun of this night's massacre drain from her mind. She put her elbow on the door and rested her head against her arm. A single tear rolled down Liv's cheek. She'd never be like him she thought. She knew that he'd driven her past those graves on purpose, and seeing them had the effect on her that he'd thought it would. He didn't lecture her though. They drove to Islamabad in silence. They ditched the stolen truck on the outskirts of town then caught a taxi to a hotel.

Late the next day, Damteni found himself alone in his suite in Karachi when his satellite phone rang. He already knew who it was. "Tell me good news", he said to Shu in her native Cantonese which he knew always made her smile.

"We have the Controller, Master, but it's not what you might think", she announced.

"How so?"

"It's not an object. The Controller's a person named Francis Kuan Peng." Shu couldn't see the look on her master's face change. It was subtle, but she'd have noticed it. "He's a little older than me, but not much. From Macau. He has a bit of an attitude, but he's been cooperative so far."

"What's his disposition after being forced to work for the Triads?"

"I don't think he was forced, not truly. He owed them some sort of debt and worked to pay it off, only he was so effective that the Triads chained him up. He was only sort of helpless though."

"He could have escaped?"

"Pretty much any time he wanted. He was trying to get enough leverage on the Triad leader so that his family wouldn't be in danger once he left. I'm fairly sure he was getting close to leaving on his own. Rico and I were only incidental in his escape… a convenient happenstance."

"I see. So how does he treat you and Rico?"

"I think we're the only people who have really interacted with him months, so we're his new best friends. I don't know if that will last or not."

"Does he respect your powers?"

"Hard to say. From what I've seen he has to touch someone to really gain control of them and he knows that touching me could be fatal. I think he'd hesitate to touch me if push came to shove, but Rico…"

"Keep a contingency, but as long as everything goes smoothly, then you go smoothly. Understand?"

"Completely, Master."

"I look forward to seeing you soon", Damteni said and quickly ended the call. He'd wanted to congratulate Shu, to heap praise on her, which was almost unheard of from him, but she was the best young soldier he'd ever trained. Shu was more serious minded than her sister and more creative with solutions than either Lars or Miyu. Rico was her equal in determination, but Shu was more powerful than he. Then there was Liv… That young Swede had so much to learn.

Shu couldn't put into words just how much she would have rather gone to Shanghai, but they decided to get further from Triad territory and Beijing was about as far away as one could get. They had no power here in the capital. The three of them shared a room at a fairly nice hotel that had been upgraded to hold tourist for the Olympic Games which would be in the city in a couple of more years. Shu wasn't much of a sports fan, but she did appreciate competition and people who had pushed themselves to be the best at their respective disciplines. Looking at Francis she realized that discipline was what he was lacking. He'd get it though. Between Ansari and of course Damteni, they'd make a man of him.

None of them slept much. Turned out that the entire group was too hungry to sleep. They thought of ordering room service, but they figured that it would be more conspicuous for three young adults to stay cooped up in their room rather than going out, so they all got dressed and went out. It was then that Shu realized just how rusty her Mandarin was. It turned out that Francis' was worse. Shu warmed up as she talked to more people who knew right away that she was from the south.

They took the advice of a man on the subway and went to a restaurant in a part of town not overflowing with foreigners. Rico ended up being the only one. "So how different is the Chinese you two speak to the Chinese they speak here?", he asked while nibbling on a hundun.

Shu and Francis looked at each other and snickered. "They say that Mandarin and Cantonese is like a chicken trying to talk to a duck", Francis said for the both of them.

Rico just looked more confused which caused Shu to smile. "You grew up speaking Spanish… now imagine trying to explain something to a Frenchman."

"Makes sense I guess. But why don't they just have everybody in the country speak the same language?"

Shu looked appalled. Her brow gathered and she leaned in. "Cantonese is an ancient language Rico, and five times as many people speak it than live in your whole home country."

Rico laughed. "Maybe so. I just wanted to get a rise out of you."

Francis joined in. "I think it worked."

Damteni had waited some time before going over the papers he'd gotten from Bruce. The situation with the Iranians was certainly going to need his attention, but he would have to play it carefully. The timing would be important. He didn't want to get too close to the cargo, not yet. He opened his laptop and started typing. He had some arrangements to make before his trip to Tehran. He was booking a hotel when the satellite phone rang again. He knew it wouldn't be Shu calling again after only just a day. It was Ansari. Damteni's second in command only called when something needed his boss' immediate attention.

"Potential client", Damteni repeated and thought for a moment. "I suppose we might have allowed that portion of the business to lie dormant for too long. How soon does he want to meet?"

"Today if possible", Ansari replied.

"Set it up", Damteni ordered and picked up the pace of his work. He wanted the plans for Iran finished before his meeting in the afternoon.

Karim hadn't stepped foot in Pakistan in years. He didn't like the feel of the place. His displeasure was tempered a bit because he was in Karachi, the greatest city in the Muslim world by his estimation even if it was unfortunately in Pakistan. The meeting was taking place in an open air café for the protection of both parties. It was just as well. Karim hated doing deals in empty warehouses or in back alley shacks like a rat.

The café was located near UBL World Headquarters. Karim in his Italian suit and shoes fit in with the bankers and business leaders. He saw the man he was supposed to meet sipping some coffee. He too wore a nice tailored suit and would have looked at home in any business district anywhere in the world. He was a big man with close cut hair, blue green eyes and was quite pale. Karim knew it was him because he was the only man there wearing a red and white tie.

"You must be Terval", Karim said and extended his hand.

"I've been called that on occasion", the man replied with a slight grin. "Please sit down. I don't suppose you want to drag this on more than necessary."

"Very true", Karim agreed. "Khaled highly recommends you for the type of work I have in mind."

"And what might that be."

"I need a man taken out."

"I'm not an assassin. I have heard that there are some very good organizations who specialize in such things."

"This man has an army of his own. They stole something very valuable from me", Karim said, getting angry as he spoke. "Back in December a team of snakes broke into my facility in Georgia and took amongst other things, a tablet. On the surface it looked like nothing but an antique trinket, but it is far more than that. Several of my men were killed trying to protect my property, and to make it worse we never found their bodies. This fool must pay!" Karim took a breath to settle himself. "I want you to make him pay."

"There's a problem", the man said with a deep sigh.

Karim sat forward. "What's the problem?"

"I am the man who stole the tablet from you, and I'm also the man who killed your men", Damteni stated matter of factly and watched Karim's eyes open wide. "Terval is a name I've used in the past. Sometimes I use the name Giorgi. Most of the time, I call myself Damteni." Karim looked around for his guards, but he'd left them a block away.

"No need to worry, sir", Damteni reassured him. "I did a job for a client. I have no loyalty to him beyond that, nor any animosity towards you."

"I will be going", Karim said and started to rise.

"Wait", Damteni said then carefully reached into his pocket pulling out a pen and pad. All his movements were deliberate so Karim wouldn't get spooked. The last thing he needed was another headache. Not with the Iranian situation hanging over him. "This", Damteni began and handed the sheet of paper to Karim, "is the place where your men are buried. I don't take lives without consideration and those who fight well should be honored in some way, even if it simply means putting them in the ground with some dignity."

"You bury the men you kill?"

"Sometimes", Damteni admitted. "I buried these men for two reasons, one of them is so their dead bodies wouldn't be found on the streets of Tbilisi."

Karim looked across the table wondering how he'd gotten himself into this situation and more importantly, how he was going to get himself out. "Never come against me again. If the bodies are where you say then I think I can convince my men that our fight is over. In our business people die."

"What about retrieving your tablet", Damteni asked before Karim could stand up.

"You would betray a client?"

"For the right price. I see a future where you and I can do business, and I think my associate Tony might be in over his head in some of his dealings. So, you and I can discuss a price for me to get it back from him."

"I don't think so, Damteni. I will use my own men for that. We're done here." This time Karim did stand up.

"When they get to Tony's place, they'll die in less than a minute", Damteni stated and sipped from his cup.

"Are you trying to scare me? To discourage me from attacking your friend?", Karim accused.

Damteni didn't raise his voice as he asked, "Do you want your tablet back or not?"

For a heartbeat Karim was ready to walk away, but he hesitated. "What are you not telling me? What makes you so sure my men would fail?"

"Because not long ago I helped Tony Cosolini move a rather large artifact to his Chicago warehouse that would take control of your men in seconds and render them useless."

"Fantasy!"

"Reality. It is a set of musical bells called a bianzhong. It comes from Han Dynasty China. The power of just one bell is awesome, and Tony has almost the entire set. Even a man of iron will could be overcome by the power of that instrument. Your men don't stand a chance", Damteni informed Karim who at this point didn't know what to believe. "But I have something that could render the bianzhong useless."

"What do you have that could get my men past this… this bianzhong?"

"I have a descendant of the man who built it."

Francis was awake in the late afternoon, but didn't want to open his eyes. He'd crashed after breakfast and was sprawled on the bed with his head only half on a pillow that was softer and cleaner than anything he'd slept on recently. He was afraid that the last few whirlwind hours of his life had actually been a dream. He had to convince himself that he really was free of Hong Kong, free of the dungeon where he'd been chained. He was sleeping on clean sheets and the people around him weren't scared of him, or at least they didn't act like they were. Rico and Shu were earnest, but Francis wasn't dumb enough to think that they trusted him. He appreciated the charade of them acting normal around him just the same.

He gathered the courage to force his eye lids to open and was glad that he'd done so. Shu walked through the door wearing a soft pink and robin's egg blue leotard that hugged her hard little frame like a second skin. Her body looked hard as nails. Her legs were spectacular from the front, the way the changing shapes of her quads caught light was like nothing Francis had ever seen. Then she stopped at her bag and bent down to unzip it. Francis almost gasped at the cable pulley like definition of her hamstrings and her ass was as tight as a clenched fist. Once she stuffed something into the bag she started taking her shoes off then turned around quickly, quickly enough to see Francis close his eyes. He hoped that she hadn't noticed, but she had. Shu was always more alert after a workout. She grabbed a few more things from her bag then strutted her tight little ass into the bathroom.

"She saw you looking", Rico said with a snicker.

"Well, I mean she's hot. What am I not going to look", Francis defended himself. "So, are you guys… like you know, a pair?"

Rico chuckled. "No."

"Okay. I don't want to step where I shouldn't. So how long have you known her?"

"I met Shu and her twin at the same time about four years ago I think."

"Wait! Twin? Shu has a twin?"

Rico slapped Francis on the shoulder as he walked past him to pick up the telephone. "She's just as cute too", Rico said just to watch Francis' hormones ramp up.

Shu came out of the bathroom fully dressed. Her silky hair was pulled over one shoulder and her face looked as fresh as a newborn's. Her workout pump was almost gone, but the veins running from her front deltoid down her biceps were still visible enough to make Francis' hormone level spike again. She was just about to put on some shoes when her phone rang. She walked off while talking to the person on the other end. Francis wasn't curious enough to try and hear what Shu was saying and he wasn't dumb enough to use his power to enter Shu's mind. He'd get both sides of the conversation that way, but a half skilled telepath could tell that he'd been in there. He didn't know this Damteni fellow, but he didn't want to get off on the wrong foot with the guy by rooting around the conscious thoughts of his operatives.

Rico and Shu both ended their calls at almost the same time. Shu spun back towards the group as Rico put the phone back on the cradle. "Well", he began then sighed. "I just confirmed our tickets to Manila."

"Cancel them", Shu said to everyone's surprise. "We need tickets to Karachi immediately."

"Karachi?", Francis asked with a look of confusion on his face.

"Yeah. Get packed up. I think you're going to meet the Master sooner than expected."

Karim found himself in a soon to be torn down building in a middling area of town. He had an army of armed men around him, while Damteni had only that young, wispy looking assistant with him. Karim figured that a man as formidable as Damteni felt that he didn't need to travel with muscle, because that girl didn't look like she could swat a fly.

Liv was excited to be here with her master who sat in a chair with his legs crossed reading a local paper. She stood behind him and to the left. Her eyes scanned the area, but the only people in the entire building were Karim and his men. The men had all looked Liv over and dismissed her as no threat which she thought was smart and insulting at the same time. She could kill all of them and only break a sweat because she'd get horny in the process.

Damteni looked at his watch and not five seconds later the door on the western side of the building opened. To Liv's near shock, Shu walked in with Rico and some guy that she didn't know. Shu looked like a tumbler full of perfect as she approached the group with confidence that got everybody's attention. Liv and Shu often had differences of opinions, but they'd bonded in the last several months. She was happy to see her.

Damteni stood up with a grin and approached the group. He greeted Rico and Shu like the returning soldiers that they were, then looked to Francis. Damteni gave the young man a once over then stepped towards him. "You must be Francis", Damteni said in Cantonese and shook Francis' hand and look him in the eye. For the first time in a long time, Francis felt some fear. The little smirk fell away from his lips and his eyes jerked a little in his head. He'd never touched someone like this before. Probing a person's brain was as natural as breathing for Francis. He reached out with his power just like he did with his hand, but his power had hit a stone wall when it tried to enter Damteni's mind. It was like Damteni wanted him to feel this because he held the shake a little longer than needed. "It's nice to meet you."

"You too sir", Francis replied respectfully. "I've heard a lot about you."

"We are going to have plenty of time to get to know each other. I think you'll fit in with us just fine, young man", Damteni said and motioned for the group to join him and Karim at the table.

"Shu I want you to translate. Our client Karim doesn't speak much English, and I don't believe Francis speaks Dari."

"Umm no sir", Francis confirmed then listened as Damteni and Karim explained the problem.

"So let me see if I understand", Francis said after listening for half an hour. "This Tony guy has an ancient subjugation tool. Wow, I've only read about those things. The Han emperors used to use certain devices to guarantee the loyalty of crucial administrators. Only crackpot researchers even look into things like the bianzong, but they say that the technology originally came from Persia, but that it was perfected in China. Who knows? Anyway they fell out of favor because the emperor wasn't really in charge of anything. It was the man who controlled the device.

"There's an old family legend that more than 100 members of my family have been executed over the course of history. They say that my ancestors moved to the island of Macau to get away from politics, to disappear. My family has been there for more than a thousand years, and shit like this bianzong put us there. I love Macau, but for centuries it was a damned backwater."

Damteni noted the young man's passion then looked at him. "Can you shield Karim's men from its effects?"

"Yeah. I have a pretty good idea of how they work." Francis stood up. "I need everybody who's going to get close to the bells to hold hands." Karim's men looked reluctant as they gathered in an open space holding hands. Francis seemed nonchalant as he stepped up and clasped hands with men on either side of him. The group didn't know what to expect as the young man closed his eyes. Each man felt something that seemed like an inch inside their skulls that went away as quickly as it had appeared. Francis released the hands he was holding and turned to Damteni. "All done."

"That's it?", Karim asked.

"That is it", Francis confirmed after Shu had translated. "Your men are protected from the bianzong and from telepaths or empaths or any type of mental manipulation I can think of. Hell, they can't even be hypnotized."

"How long will it last?", Karim asked.

Francis scratched his head. "Umm… I'm not exactly sure. Two maybe three…"

"Days?", one of Karim's men asked.

"No months", Francis answered quickly. "There are a lot of you. I mean I could try harder to make it last longer, but then there might be gaps in what I can protect them from."

Karim seemed satisfied. "Tell your friend that two or three months will be sufficient. Now, Mr. Damteni, how much do I owe you for this?"

"Nothing at the moment. Let your men go get your merchandise. Then see me about price."

"Fair enough."

Damteni sent Shu and Rico back to the Philippines with the new recruit as soon as the meeting with Karim was over. Liv didn't get time to catch up with Rico or Shu, to discuss the adventures they'd had while on missions. She'd barely had time to learn the new guy's name. He was soft, but powerful. She saw that. He was the sort of person Damteni and Ansari would mold. He'd been a soldier before long.

Liv and her master were traveling alone again, this time to Tehran. She'd seen some of the sights in Karachi, but she only saw the seedy parts of the Iranian capital. The dimly lit room where Liv and her master sat was full of smoke and vice, the sort of vices that the Iranian government would never admit was in their country, but was actually right under their noses. Liv had seen two sales of hash and three of cocaine. They weren't there for drugs of course. They were there to find a particular smuggler. Drug dealers needed special people to move their product so there was always work to be found in a place like this.

Liv's eyes turned when the door opened and three tough looking men walked in. They were well known in this area. Moving drugs was only a side business for them these days. Now they moved high priced goods like weapons or people. Liv shifted on the stool where she sat when Damteni stood up and approached the group. "Hassan", he said and the main member of the group of men turned his head. "I was sent by a client. We need to talk."

"What client?", the no nonsense man asked.

"Bruce", was all Damteni needed to say to get Hassan's attention. He motioned for his men to take a seat while he followed Damteni to the table where Liv was waiting. He usually stationed Liv a few tables away but for some reason he wanted her to hear this. She listened, but the conversation didn't last long.

Damteni didn't let Hassan know that he was actually the person having the cargo moved. He pretended to be an agent for Bruce who as actually his middle man. Hassan didn't ask many questions and answered even less. Damteni couldn't get a status report or even an update on how the cargo had been handled. Liv studied her master's face while the two men talked and saw the frustration building while Hassan either didn't notice or didn't care. After about five minutes, Damteni was angry enough to tear Hassan in half, but Liv knew he wouldn't, not here with so many people around. When Hassan and his boys left, Liv was almost certain Damteni would follow, instead he looked over at her for almost a full minute. She felt like a flower wilting in the heat as he stared. Finally he said, "Go get him. Bring him to our room."

Liv stood up and took a step before she stopped suddenly and turned. "What about his bodyguards?", she asked, remembering the lesson in Pakistan.

But Damteni was always full of surprises. "What about them?", he replied and witnessed a small smile turn up the corners of Liv's thin lips as she hurried outside.

Hassan hated parking his Mercedes in this part of the city. He always thought he'd return one day and find it gone, but it was right where he'd left it. His driver pushed the button to unlock the doors. The flashing lights illuminated a person. The bodyguards put their hands on their guns for a moment before the person stepped into the street lights. It was the girl who'd been sitting next to the big guy. "What the hell do you want?"

"My Master wants to continue his conversation with you Hassan. You should come with me."

Their confusion ended when their snickers began. "Get out of our way and go home!", the men laughed.

"So you're not going to come willingly?", Liv asked in the same tone she'd began with, ignoring their laughs.

"I don't usually hurt little girls, but I might make an exception", Hassan laughed then stepped past his men towards the rear of his car.

Liv didn't move. She just lowered her head and glared through her lashes. Hassan really was ready to smack this silly little girl, but something was wrong. He looked around, checking the roof tops for shooters, checking behind him for an ambush, but they were alone. The bodyguards put their hands on their guns, ramping the tension until something had to happen, and it did.

They smelled a scent like fabric that had been left in the dryer too long. The men looked around for the source of the sudden smell. Their eyes fell on Liv last. Wisps of smoke rose from the sweater she wore against the night's chill. Steam rose from her head and exposed neck. Her skin flushed crimson red as her body temperature rose and rose. It was only the prelude. The real show hadn't even begun.

Liv's body began to pulse like the cone of a deep bass speaker. Her spindly arms and legs flexed for all they worth gaining modest size with each throb, but unlike a normal person, her muscles didn't reduce. They kept their size as the next pulse began. Liv's lips curled into a snarling smile when she saw the realization on these men's faces. They were seeing something that a thousand words couldn't explain. They didn't know that they hadn't seen anything at all yet.

Liv's arms rose from her sides, only she wasn't lifting them. They were being forced outward as lats appeared where none had been before. She sucked in a deep breath, expanding her chest that kept expanding even after her lungs were full. Her little tits looked like bobbing boats on a rising sea of muscle. Her nipples hardened enough to show though the fabric. Her legs were no longer shapeless tubes. Deep separation and cuts defined all four heads of her quadriceps through her jeans, which were the first garments to succumb to the growing muscle. Steaming hot muscle spilled from long rips in the denim like demons escaping from a lair. Her hip flexors and quad insertions were a tangled cityscape with tendons and ligaments rising and thickening to handle the enormous strength her muscles would soon produce.

Liv's muscles began to crowd each other. Her biceps were so huge that she couldn't have bent her arm an inch, and her calves were so large that they were only millimeters from her burgeoning hamstrings. Her body was impossibly muscled and seemed like it couldn't possibly hold anymore. Her traps and delts looked ready to crush her head flat, when the men heard a sound like a hundred knuckles cracking. Liv's body began to jerk oddly. Her big impossibly muscle bound arms flung outward while her legs shook violently. It was only after a moment that the men noticed that she was growing in another way.

Her arm and leg bones grew longer and thicker. Her feet blasted out of her shoes. Her shoulders widened, as did her pelvis, making room for even more muscle. The waistband of her jeans failed spectacularly, sending the metal button flying fast enough to chip Hassan's windshield. The jeans couldn't escape by falling off of her body. They were plastered to her legs like a second skin. Her body grew until she was taller than the men she faced, as tall as her master.

Her ribcage expanded like she'd filled it again and again with air. Her pectoral muscles had been smashed together in an indistinguishable blob of expanding sinews, but now each had room to spare, room to grow. All her muscles had room to grow. Hassan and his men thought that they'd seen Liv get big. They'd only seen the beginning, the prologue. Liv's eyes burned as hot as her body when she finally let loose her power. Her growth exploded like a muscle bomb had gone off inside her. Biceps reached towards the sky and her legs grew to double their already massive thickness.

Then it stopped. It had only lasted seconds, but had seemed like hours. Hassan and his men were stunned into inaction. All they could do was gape in awe at this thing in front of them. The clothes hung from this thing's muscled body like discarded rags. Dense, blood red muscle showed all over her. Her face had changed too when her bones had changed. The face only resembled the little girl from earlier. It was harder now just like the rest of her. Her eyes remained the same however. Hassan realized too late that even when she'd been sitting meekly in the building, the madness had already been in them.

The bodyguards drew their guns. It was too late. The time when Liv would have been concerned about pistols had long passed. She rolled her fingers into fists causing a wave of growth along her arms that continued all the way to her head sized delts. She finally exhaled. The shimmering heat dissipated and her color settled to a shade darker than her normal. She took a step towards them. Most of her sweater fell away with that simple movement, showing the unholy size and definition of her chest. Her abs undulated like a muscle ocean as she stepped again. The jeans were just ribbons after only two steps. Her quads flexed bigger by inches every time she simply raised her foot off the ground.

The bodyguards didn't stay stunned for long. One bodyguard grabbed Hassan under his shoulders and practically threw him towards the Mercedes. The other guard drew his gun and fired. He didn't bother aiming. The muscle beast in front of him was too big to miss. A bullet hit Liv on the left side of her chest. The seething muscle swallowed the 9mm slug like a croc swallowing a fly. The bodyguard fired again. This shot skipped along Liv's left shoulder. Fine drops of blood sprayed out, but only the tiniest trickle of blood ran from the wound.

The man tried to take aim at her head, but didn't get the chance. She stood in front of him, all six feet five inches of her. Sweat kept the singed clothes tight against her skin. Her chest and abs reached towards the bodyguard with each breath. She moved quickly despite her bulk, snatching the pistol from the man's hand before he could blink. He backed up realizing that the gun she held was a tame weapon compared to the muscles that flexed and rippled at the slightest movement. Part of him wanted to run, but the rest of him, the soldier in him, knew what he had to do. He spun and sent a kick to Liv's head that turned it. He threw a kick to her knee and then pulled back for a punch. It was hard to tell which sound was louder at impact, the smack of human bone hitting something much harder than steel, or the sound of those bones shattering. Liv laughed as the man slinked back, his mangled hand shaking. The fear in his eyes made her mouth water. Liv took a step towards him. He backed up more. He took another step back then launched himself at the muscle beast, throwing kicks and punches with his one good hand and elbow strikes with his hurt arm. Liv absorbed all of them for a time, then snatched the front of the man's shirt and lifted him off the ground. She didn't seem to notice him kicking her midsection as she held him.

"I like you", she said, her voice was husky and her Farsi passable. "It's good when a man keep fighting. But let me show you something." Liv brought the gun up for the man to see, but she didn't point it at him. She pressed the muzzle tightly against her temple and pulled the trigger. The entire gun exploded. She'd used her own flesh to plug the end of the barrel like mud and her right arm had been so strong that the recoil from the shot hadn't caused it to wiggle. She pulled the horrendously ruptured gun from her head. Smoke wafted from the split barrel as the flattened slug fell to the ground. It had never even made it out of the barrel, stopped cold by Liv's skull. Some blood ran from a 9mm sized wound, but not much. Liv looked at the gun then back to the bodyguard who whimpered.

"Now you understand. You can't hurt me. I'll let you live if you go now. Right now!", she growled and opened her fingers.

The bodyguard took one look at his charge and at his partner before turning and running. He'd done his job anyway. The front of the Mercedes Benz was clear. He'd lured Liv away from the car. The other bodyguard started the engine with the transmission in neutral so it took less than a second to slam the car into drive. He jammed his foot on the gas pedal and the car jetted forward. Liv looked over her shoulder as the rear tires spun against the pavement, throwing back white smoke. The big sedan had impressive acceleration, but Liv could reach her top speed much more quickly. The driver looked over his shoulder, hoping to locate the muscle beast. He saw nothing behind him.

He blew through an intersection. There wasn't much traffic in this part of Tehran, and people knew better than to ask questions. The driver went through another intersection, and allowed himself to relax a bit. Just then a garbage dumpster flew out into the street, landing right in the middle of the narrow road. Trash paper flew all over and the side of dumpster dented on impact with the road. The driver pushed the brake pedal all the way to the floor. The front end of the big German sedan dove while the back end pitched up. The wheels barely locked though and the Mercedes stopped like a race car.

The car had just settled when there she was, standing only a few yards from the front of the bumper. She'd been angry before, but now her features seethed with murderous fury. Hassan pressed his back against the rear seat trying to put as much distance as he could between that thing and him. Liv started towards the car. The driver didn't know what to do, so he smashed the gas. Liv looked annoyed as the front of the car sped towards her. She was ready to get this over with. Her master was waiting.

At the last possible moment, Liv bent down and the car slammed into the palms of her hands. The impact wasn't nearly as brutal as it could have been because Liv bent her arms, absorbing all the power from the v-8 engine. Her triceps looked as big as the crescent moon as they slowed the Mercedes to a stop. The driver pushed the gas more and the engine screamed. The tires smoked, and the hood crumpled beneath Liv's hands. As the hood and frame bent, the bumper inched its way towards Liv's knees. She was tired of all of this.

She allowed the car to hit her legs, just so she could open her arms wide, like she was trying to hug the auto. She hooked her hands under the wheel wells and began to squeeze. She smirked as her muscles powered up. The muscles along her lower back flexed with the perfection and power of a machine as she lifted the front of the car off the ground. The wheel still spun against her, but Liv was no longer concerned with that. She had something on her mind, something she'd never done. Her pecs crushed steel beneath them as they flexed bigger, pressing themselves into the warped metal of the hood. Her biceps inflated, growing bigger and harder as she crushed front the car. When she'd crushed the car in by a couple of feet, she felt real resistance. She'd crushed the fenders and suspension until they were pressing against the engine block. That's when her smirk became a frown and she really squeezed. Fluids emptied from bursting reservoirs under the diminished hood, but the engine still roared, trying to push the car forward with all of its horsepower behind it. Liv felt the pressure from the wheels trying to move her backwards, but ignored it. Her arms were beginning to encircle the engine, isolating it from the rest of the car. Smoke poured from under the hood, but the engine still ran, until with a growl Liv closed her arms. Her muscles shook as the engine block sat for a moment like an unbreakable nut inside of her embrace, but her muscles were too strong. The engine began to fail, losing power like an animal being choked to death. Liv's torso shook and her proud pectoral muscles surged from her chest like tides, creating enough cleavage to amputate a limb. The struggling engine block cracked open with a thunderous explosion of steam and fire. Liv loved every second of it. She'd strangled a Mercedes to death. That was a story she'd tell her brother when she got back home.

She only allowed that moment of levity though and repositioned her hands on the nearly spike shaped front of the car. This time she grabbed what was left of the bumper with her right hand while pressing her left hand on top. Her biceps inflated again, like muscle filled balloons and the front end folded over. Then she began rolling up the front of the car like it was a tube of toothpaste. Her eyes burned and her muscles boiled as she crushed the car into a tube small enough to be rolled by her hands. The work wasn't quick, but it was unstoppable. The ruined engine fell to the street in several pieces. The windshield cracked when the steel around bent under the onslaught. The driver jumped from the driver's seat just as the firewall collapsed down where his legs would have been. Hassan reached for the door handle causing Liv to really get angry. She lifted the car, raising the back end off the ground and smashing it down like a child with a toy. She continued to roll the car up then. It looked like a giant black newspaper with bits of glass, wires, and hoses jutting from it. Liv gritted her teeth and pushed her muscles to generate more power. The thicker the roll of steel became, the harder it was to continue, but Liv loved using her muscles. The airbag tried to deploy, but its expansive force was dwarfed by the force being exerted by Liv's muscles. The chemicals filled what was left of the cabin. That was when Liv figured that she'd had enough fun and the men in the back seat of the car had been completely terrified. She was wrong.

She walked to the rear of the car and sank her fingers into to the door's steel skin. With a quick and powerful tug, the hinges failed with whining groans. She tossed the door to the ground and bent down to extract Hassan. The remaining bodyguard put himself between Hassan and muscle bitch. He raised his pistol and fired point blank, hitting Liv in the neck and then in the stomach. There wasn't another shot. She grabbed the gun with one hand and squeezed so hard that the steel twisted and bent. The man's hand nearly liquefied. His screams echoed far down the narrow street until Liv grabbed his throat with her other hand. "I gave you chances", she complained. "You should have heeded them." She looked at the little trickles of her blood running through the channels and canal sized striations of her chest, and then up to the bodyguard before closing her fingers around his neck. His head flopped to the side and eventually fell off of his body completely.

Hassan emitted a sound that was part scream and part squeak. He was beyond fighting back when Liv reached into the car and dragged him out. "Stay within five feet of me", she told her prisoner. "If you try to escape I will make what I did to that car look like a game. Understand?" Hassan nodded meekly, wondering if he was going to live through this at all.

Liv quickly picked up the pieces of the Mercedes that had fallen off and stuffed them into the back seat crushing the dead body of the bodyguard and not caring. Then she used one of the chassis rails to lift the entire car and hook it over her back like a giant knapsack. Hassan followed as Liv hurried to a construction site about a half mile from the scene of her crime. She set the car down, and then ran to a front end loader bucket. The piece of steel was almost as big as she was, but she lifted it with ease. Hassan watched Liv use that piece of construction equipment like a shovel, lifting out five tons of dirt with each scoop. It only took her four minutes of furious digging to create a hole big enough to hide a small house.

Liv didn't think as she dug, she just let her super powered muscles do the work. She'd scouted this location before confronting Hassan. He might not think so, but her master was having an effect on how Liv thought. Normally she'd have left the scene of her crime for the authorities to find, but now she knew better. Hassan watched as this thing, put the bucket back on the surface and jumped out of the deep hole with a single hop. She tossed the car with the body inside down into the pit. He just stared. Disbelief didn't begin to describe how Hassan felt. Nothing that had happened during the first 43 years of his life had prepared him for the last five minutes. He'd thought of himself as a powerful man, but now he knew what real power was.

Liv held the bucket in front of her like a shield and pushed it against the twenty foot tall pile of dirt. Her feet cracked the ground beneath them as her legs pushed forward with more power than a dozer. Tons of dirt fell into the hole, but it was only a start. She readied to push again, but stopped when she looked over at Hassan. Suddenly something her master had said to Karim jumped into her mind.

"Do you want to say some words over your man's grave before I finish?", she asked Hassan who for a moment was too surprised to speak.

"He died in service", Hassan said. "He never neglected his duty, and I was fond of him for that. He will be missed", Hassan said and watched the hole fill up. There was a small dust storm when Liv packed down the dirt with her feet, stomping it hard enough to make Hassan's chest boom. When the dust storm was over, Hassan felt a heat like from a furnace blasting him in the face. It made him back up. Liv stepped out and he gasped. Her gargantuan muscles were gone. Her body had shrunk back to its normal size. Hassan wouldn't have believed that this was the same being, but her feet were covered with dirt, and her hands were caked with dried blood and oil. Her clothes were still rags, but now they sort of covered her body. The bullets his men had fired, had fallen to the ground when her muscles had gone away. The wounds shrank along with everything else. The bullet wounds looked like mere scratches now. The one on her temple was just a scrape. She looked like she'd fallen from a bike rather than been shot.

"Don't try anything", Liv warned. "When I turned before I did it slow, for effect to see if you would surrender without a fight. I can do it really fast." She stepped up close to Hassan who was now several inches taller than she and many pounds heavier. He looked down, seeing her body, but locking in on her eyes. They were still the same. "I could kill you before you took a step", she warned again unnecessarily.

"I believe you", he said.

"Good. Now follow me. You're going to see the Master again, and this time you're going to answer his questions."

Liv first lead Hassan to the other side of the construction site where she'd hidden a bag of clothes. Once changed, Liv and Hassan traveled through the city with ease. They ended up in old Tehran. Liv held open the door while Hassan stepped inside the cramped room. "Was he much trouble?", Damteni asked once Liv had stepped in.

"No trouble at all, Master. It was fun… just not too much fun", she said.

"The bodyguards?"

"One was smart enough to save his own life. The other was not."

"I see", Damteni replied.

Liv continued. "I left no trace of the man or the car for anyone to find except for an oil stain on the road."

Damteni nodded and Liv smiled as she walked towards the bathroom to take a shower. Then the big man turned his attention to Hassan who stood in the center of the room. "I will tell you what you want to know. Just let me live", Hassan pleaded as Damteni walked over.

"Whether you live or die depends on you, on your answers actually. So, let's see how important you think your life really is."

to be continued....

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