She tries to reach him

“Bill?!” Katie ask incredulously. “What's he done now?”

“Who’s ‘Bill’?” came Xane’s query over the chat.

Nico queried, “wasn’t he the one who let Paul dissect his Gadget for the design?”

“Why would he have access to this one though?” Xane asked, “This one will have a completely unique signature; I didn’t even have access to the original device to duplicate it.”

Molly just shook her head, “Paul put the new device on the same account. He probably didn’t bother setting up a new account.”

“That shouldn’t be a big deal if he owned the account,” Xane explained. “You should be able to control multiple different devices on the same account; you just have full admin rights to anything put on there by default.”

“It’s not Paul’s account though,” Molly countered, “It’s Bill’s account. He must have given Paul access.”

“Oh,” Xane said with realization, “then Bill would have full control over it. But how did you have access to it then?”

“That original device was mine,” Molly explained sheepishly.

Nico caught on next. “so, Bill did training on you too?!?” he asked salaciously before continuing with a huge, “you are a fun family!”

Katie could tell this line of questioning down her history was making Molly uncomfortable and tried to get the track by online, “so are you thinking Bill used some routine on Paul at your sex dungeon?”

“It’s not a sex dungeon,” Molly retorted defensively before coming to that realization, “but I hadn’t thought about that. You don’t think he and Bill....”

Xane thought they might be jumping to drama he didn’t want to be around even remotely, “if this BIll guy is there, can’t you call him and use him to check on Paul? Maybe get him home?”

“I can try,” Molly said happy for the possible resolution as she used her phone to call Bill from her contacts. “Fuck! Voicemail,” Molly admitted before continuing with her message, “Umm, hello, Sir Bill. Umm... I was wondering if you were at the club tonight and might have... bumped into... Paul. Could you, um, give me a call if you get a chance? Thank you, SIr.”

“Sir Bill?” Nico chuckled, “soooo formal.”

Katie just rolled her eyes at the grown child, “you said they can’t take their phones in the dungeon area right?”

“Ya, no electronics in the play spaces; cameras and what not,” Molly explained.

“Makes sense,” Katie agreed, “so, he probably put his phone away. When he heads back to the locker rooms to shower, he should see your voicemail, right?”

Molly looked at Katie perplexed, “It’s a BDSM dungeon not a gym.”

“Ya’ll don’t shower after that stuff?” Katie asked her own perplexity thinking how sweaty her sexual escapades usually are.

This caused Molly to blush as she remembered the shower stalls with the plexiglass windows to the waiting area that were not exactly there just to keep people clean and were rarely used due to the intended exposure, “not there exactly.” Molly than explained, “but there is a row of lockers by the changing rooms.”

“Fine,” Katie said exasperated, “so when he takes his phone out of the locker, he’ll see your voicemail and call you.”

Molly replied anxiously, “ya, I guess.”

“Great!” Katie agreed and then quickly switched topics to get Molly’s attention elsewhere, “Xane, you were saying something about double dosing?”

Xane entertained expression quickly changed to a ‘deer in the headlights’ look as the question came back to him. “Um, ya, that was about the inhalant.”

“So, what’s a double dose do?” Katie pressed.

“Oh, it’s not horrible,” Nico jumped in volunteering to answer much to Xane’s annoyance. “It’s kind of additive,” Nico finished with a little whine.

“Additive how??” Molly asked concerned.

“Welllllll......” Nico tried to dodge feeling Xane’s stare press him through the phone. “It kinda increases the pitch.”

Molly looked at him with disdain, “well that explains why his voice was higher later in the day, but what else is there? You seem to be holding back.”

“He’s double dosing on that stuff?!?” Katie’s turn to be surprised as she looked at Molly exasperated.

“I didn’t know!!” Molly nearly yelled defiantly before she continued with an only slightly lower tone. “I didn’t think to research ‘why is my husband’s voice extra high when he’s dressed like a tart and inhaling some magical voice changing spray?’ Was kinda dealing with other things.”

Katie could understand Molly’s perspective and nodded conciliatorily.

Molly realized she still wasn’t getting everything from Nico and turned back to the phone, glaring at the men on the other end, “what’s the rest of the story? What else haven’t you mentioned?”

Nico just shrugged his shoulders and acted innocently with a denying “no,” but fell very flat with Xane’s judging look.

“Tell her,” Xane prodded.

“Yes, ‘tell her’,” Molly pushed.

“Whaddya mean?” Nico continued to feign ignorance and still failed miserably.

“She’s not dumb; she’s going to piece it together soon anyway. Just tell her.”

Katie jumped in and threatened the two over the phone, “I swear to God, Nicky, if you two don’t hurry up and spill the beans, I’m going to personally fly out there and shove enough prosthetics up your asses you’ll be shitting silicon into colostomy bags for the next 30 years.”

Even Xane’s irritation was prevalent as it was dawning on Nico he’d pushed being cagey too far. Taking a deep breath like he finally broke in an interrogation room and started his minimal explanation, “some of our clients nick named it ‘Bimbo’s Breath’.”

Molly’s eyes went wide at that name.

Katie looked very skeptical, “breath in some magical mist and Paul suddenly becomes a bimbo? I don’t buy it."

“Not exactly,” Nico tried to explain, “it doesn’t turn someone into a bimbo, but you remember how I said it acted kinda like **** with the oxygen deprivation? Well, just like the vocal is additive, the deprivation is additive.”

“He’s gonna suffocate?!?” Molly asked in near panic.

“No, no, no,” Xane quickly corrected, “nothing like that. It's just a little makes it a little harder to concentrate, make logical decisions, lower the inhibitions.” He could tell they were still questioning, “it's not going make someone do something they wouldn’t want to do, but it's going to reduce the impetuous not to do something because it's ‘wrong’.” Xane even used the air quotes to Katie’s annoyance. “Its also going to make it harder for them to think up contrary thoughts if someone is arguing with them, but if someone didn’t like or want to do something, they’re still not gong to do it.”

At this Molly’s eyes got really wide, “how much so?!?”

Silence remained on the line for several beats until Xane finally broke it.

“Nico, you know better than anyone else on the call,” Xane finally replied smugly.

Nico harrumphed at everyone on the phone and finally admitted, “fine, but I didn’t feel right selling something without one of us at least trying it first.”

“OMG!! Were you the bimbo with the breath?!?” Katie asked with an excited giggle.

“NO!!” Nico emphatically replied, “that was Kala’s nomenclature, but that gurl was just this side of whore and looking for any excuse to flip that switch over!”

Katie was not doing well at stifling a giggle.

“So what happened???” Katie asked exasperated.

"Like I said, the first dose is kinda like having a little ****. Little buzzed, kinda freeing, and raises your voice.” Nico explained. “The second dose was really close to drunk without any beverages, but at the time I didn’t really notice much but the haze, but the video showed how slow and agreeable I was; it was embarrassing.”

“There’s video?!?” Katie asked with an excited grin.

“Oh, ya,” Xane says with a wild grin, “and it is glorious.”

“God, it was bad at two, and if I were aware of how bad it was, I wouldn’t have done the third pump,” Nico admitted.

“What happened after the third?” Katie quizzed excitedly.

“Uh,” Nico said trying to cover, “it was real hazy; I don’t really remember.”

“That’s okay,” Xane jumped in helpfully, “I captured it on video. It was mostly harmless; let me show you.”

“Oh, gawd!” Nico uttered as a video clipped into the call.

“Is it over yet?” Nico asked with his head buried in his hands.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Katie said openly laughing. “That was golden!”

Xane chuckled in response, “that was just the highlight real. The whole thing was about 4 hours which seems to be how long it lasts regardless of how many doses you take at once.”

“Thank God for that,” Nico said looking very exasperated.

“I had no idea you were that good of an opera singer, Nico. You’d make a great soprano.” Katie teased.

“Bite me,” Nico playfully shot back.

Molly the replied thoughtfully, “so, Nico was still able to say ‘no’ and couldn’t really be convinced at doing something stupid like streaking through the warehouse, but what was with the sword, big hat, and even bigger feet?”

Nico hung his head again as Xane broke down again. “It was supposed to be Frodo Smurf,” Nico admitted looking at the floor.

“Whaaat??” Katie asked laughing.

Nico was about to answer when the conversation was interrupted by Molly’s phone ringing. Being the only other one not in near hysterical laughs and happy to get the conversation going somewhere else, Nico asked Molly, “who is it?”

Slowing her laughs and wiping away errant tears from her eyes, Molly’s expression quickly changed straightened as she read her screen aloud, “Sir Bill.”