Spying on the harlequins

They passed by the locker rooms of a woman's gym, a ballet corps and an English boarding school, all of them full of beautiful women in various stages of undress. Other mirrors showed the inside of girls' bedrooms, bathrooms, hotel rooms, lingerie-store changing rooms, dormitory showers and the backstage areas at fashion shows. Susie felt like she ought to look away as she watched naked girls lie on their beds reading, or slip into a warm bubble bath, entirely unaware that they were being spied on by creepy strangers.

"Hey," said Bonnie, coming to a halt in front of what seemed to be a dressing room inside a large billowy tent. It was full of lady acrobats, slipping into and out of spangly harlequin costumes. "I think I saw that blonde in Sideshow Alley earlier. She must work for the carnival!"

"So they're helping us to spy on their own employees?"

"I guess. Hey, what's this button do?"

"The big one labelled CLOWN AMBUSH?"

"I don't know."

Bonnie pressed it. Immediately, half a dozen white-suited clowns walked in through a tent flap, grinning and looking around as if they couldn't believe their luck. The undressed harlequins squealed, covered themselves, threw things at the clowns and demanded they get out, but the clowns were implacable.

Panties were stolen. Shower curtains were twitched away, exposing a bevy of startled soapy blondes to the clowns' amused attention. The girls who complained most were picked up, thrown over clown shoulders and carried off-screen, their legs kicking, their bare bottoms in the air.

"What happens if I press it again?"

"Um, Bonnie, I don't think that's a good idea..."

Bonnie smashed the button again. Two more clowns entered the picture, armed with old-fashioned flashbulb cameras, and started taking photos of the showering girls. She pressed it again, and again, and again. "Come on, do something else!"

"Bonnie, are you sure..."

"This is here for our entertainment, isn't it? We're paying customers."

"No we're not," said Susie, as a door in the observation chamber opened. A clown walked in, followed by two more.