Bonus
Still, his presence improved my mood slightly. It was nice to have a beautiful thing in the room, even if that beautiful thing was poor and pathetic and completely af my mercy.
“I need you to do something for me,” said, getting straight to the point.
“What is it?”
“Within the next twenty-four hours, I want you to have sex with Pat. And I want you to bring me video footage of it.”
His face went through a series of changes. Confusion. Disbelief. Horror. His mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for air. “What? No. No, no, no. I cannot do something like that.”
“You agreed to the original plan.”
“The original plan was to spy on Celeste, befriend Pat and make her like me and report back to you. Not to film myself having sex with someone without their consent. That is completely different.”
“You sound like you feel sorry for Pat.” I tilted my head, studying him. “You feel sorry for that old woman?”
“It is not that. It is just that I cannot…”
“Listen to me.” I stepped closer, my voice dropping to something cold and hard. “I am giving you twenty-four hours. I do not care how you do it. I do not care if you show your face in the video or not. But no matter what you have to do, you will get me that footage within the next twenty-four hours. Otherwise, I will walk into Helix tomorrow morning and I will tell Celeste and everyone else that you are the spy I planted in their laboratory. You will lose the job you treasure so much. You will lose your reputation. You will lose everything. So what is it going to be?”
He stared at me, his jaw tight, his hands curling into fists at his sides. For a moment I thought he might refuse, might tell me to go to hell, might walk out the door and leave me standing there with nothing. But then his shoulders dropped. His fists
uncurled. And he nodded.
“Fine. I will do it.”

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