Evelyn Evell’s shopping mall complex hides a sinister plan for worldwide domination and the unwilling forced feminization of every man on Earth. Can Stark and a group of unexpected allies redefine the phrase “hostile takeover?”

Evelyn Evell’s four o’clock appointment was extremely punctual, and as she watched the tall blonde walk into her office, it almost felt as if a force of nature had swept through the door.

‘A tornado wrapped in a smart back suit,’ she thought, ‘or a hurricane in Prada pumps. There’s enough anger there to wipe out a small city. Some man must have hurt her pretty badly for that level of rage. No wonder she’s sought me out.’

“Ms. Stark? Evelyn Evell.” She stood and walked around her desk, taking the other woman’s hand with a smile. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Thank you,” the blonde replied, with a smile of her own. “The pleasure is all mine. Or soon will be.”

Evelyn cocked her head slightly, a little confused before her eyes widened and she smiled wider. “Oh, yes, I believe you’re here hoping to join our cause.” She let go of Stark’s hand and wandered over to the sofa, motioning as she sat for her guest to join her. She didn’t notice the other woman staying right where she was. “I’m a bit surprised you’ve heard of us. Our little female-dominated shopping center has spawned a national organization dedicated to feminizing men, but we have tried to keep our true mission quiet, for obvious reasons. I assume you’re hoping to ... get in on the fun?”

“Actually, just the opposite,” Jo said, the smile turning into a grin. “I’m here to shut you down. Or rather, watch it happen.”

Evelyn looked up at her guest, unsure of what she’d heard. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“Well, it seems that you must have missed a day in business school. The day they taught about the importance of keeping an eye on the competition.” Stark walked over and took Evelyn’s seat behind the big desk. “I happen to be the head of a rival organization whose mission plan is diametrically opposed to everything you seek to accomplish. We believe in preventing the circumvention of civil liberties for those born with a Y chromosome, and in punishing those who think they have the right to destroy the lives of others just because they find them ... offensive.”

“I’m the founder of the Stark Initiative, Ms. Evell.” She spun around once in the boss’s chair and came back around to face her. “One of our goals is to stop women like you from doing whatever they want to men and boys, and some of your unwilling transformees have managed to overcome your hypnotic conditioning enough to find us, and let us know what’s going on here. Also, there was one poor boy, scared out of his mind, afraid of his own family turning him over ... to you. But that’s over now. It all stops here.”

Evelyn stood quickly, her face turning red with anger. “What gives you the right to --? To --?”

“To do what? To interfere? To try to stop you?” Instantly, the smile dropped from her face, and Stark’s voice turned sharp enough to cut glass. “I could say its just business, but that’s not true. The profit I earn doesn’t show up well on a spreadsheet. My bottom line is that you and people like you destroy lives. You cut and stitch people to your whims, and you have to be stopped. Every time I put an end to someone like you, I’ve done my bit to preserve the one thing that makes humans ... human. The right to self-determination.”

Jo leaned forward in the high-backed chair, her eyes glittering with hatred.

“Each of us has the ‘inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ But you’ve taken that away from every man and boy you transformed against their will — you and every one of your co-conspirators. I’m going to shut down this soulless abattoir in a shopping mall’s shell, Evie, and make sure everyone who enjoyed your 'profitable' beginnings gets their ‘cut’ of the losses as well.”

Evelyn’s lip curled. “And how do you propose to stop us? There are thousands like me, all over the country, ready to do what must be done to take this world away from those abominations who rule it now, with their macho swaggering and their rape and their endless oppression of women.”

Stark stood up and leaned on the desk. “Those young boys you keep castrating and turning into pretty little girls were never old enough to rape anybody, let alone oppress a woman. They were young and rowdy, but you stole everything from them — their lives, their future. Even the children they will never have. And sure, some of those men you turned into women were real jerks, but the last time I checked, there’s no law against being a jerk. However, there are laws against kidnapping and mutilating people — and I’m pretty sure there’s something about brainwashing somewhere in the federal statutes.”

“You would have to prove it was done against their will,” Evelyn said. “And I have signed paperwork from every one of the adults authorizing the surgery. As for the boys, I have the parent’s permission for everything that was done to them.”

“If even one of those parents were influenced by your mind-controlling drugs and hypnosis, you're going to jail. And your head of security has hours of saved digital video, showing how you kidnapped, blackmailed, drugged or hypnotized almost every man you changed. Don't get me started about how you twisted the minds of the fathers of those boys so they would sign consent forms.” Jo hit a few keys on the keyboard. “Didn’t it ever occur to you that hiring a obsessive-compulsive psychopath to be your security chief was a bad ideas? Especially hiring one who enjoys torturing men and likes to 'watch her successes over and over?’ You'll be crucified with the accumulated evidence!”

“In any event, feminizing the boys comes under the heading of parental abuse. At least in this country, you can’t authorize someone to cut your child’s genitalia off without just medical cause, any more than you could give the okay to amputate their arms and legs for no damned good reason. For their mothers, signing those papers was as good as signing a confession. They’ll never come within ten miles of any of their children again — once they get out of jail. If they ever do.”

“And since you and your freakish shopping mall of the damned aided and abetted the torture of multiple minors through humiliation, mental manipulation, and unnecessary surgery, you’re also on your way to prison. Hell, you designed the place expressly for that purpose. I’ve got state and federal prosecutors lining up to take you down.”

Stark waved her hand dismissively. “Finally, I have complete access to your network, including your secret plans for expansion and your contact database. It’s all legal — we’ve got warrants and everything. I know the names and addresses of every one of your co-conspirators — hardly thousands, Evie, so please don’t exaggerate. None of them will be getting away.”

“We also have the names and addresses of every one of those sub-human scum who ordered your ‘home conversion products.’ We’re going to visit them all and explain why it’s a bad idea to even think about feminizing any man or boy they’re having a problem with — then we’re going to make sure the idea never occurs to them again. You think you know mind control? Lady, compared to my people, you’re no better than a ten-year-old with a plastic HypnoDisk and a bad Dracula impression.”

“In a way, you’ve made our job a little easier.” Jo smiled again. “You’ve gathered a lot of the nuts in one basket, where we can crush them without having to go find them first.”

“So, you and your inner circle are going to jail, your organization is going to be dismantled piece by piece, and those boys and men you transformed are going to be free to put what’s left of their lives back together again. It’s already begun.”

There was a knock on the door. Jo stood up, and the door opened to reveal a tall smartly-dressed redhead in jeans and a leather jacket, with two uniformed male officers standing right behind her.

“Evelyn Evell?” She flashed a badge. “I’m Detective Emily Harris, and this is Officer Trent and Officer Machelli. You’re under arrest for forcibly detaining, coercing, and transforming a large number of men and boys into women and girls, and conspiring with others to expand your operations nationwide.”

She stepped inside and turned Evelyn around, shoving her roughly to put her hands on the desk and kicking her legs apart for a quick search.

“We’ve already shut down the school and gotten the boys out of there, Jo,” Harris said, handcuffing Evell and pushing her into the arms of the two policemen. “The girls, both genetic and transformed seemed cooperative, but we know they have all been heavily conditioned, so we’re staying alert.”

“I wouldn’t trust them,” Stark replied, “at least not until my people have a chance to look them over and try to undo some of the damage. You’ve seen the videos, and the drugs and hypnotic recordings. You know what these women can do, and have done. Who knows what triggers they might have implanted when they transformed their bodies and raped their minds?”

“Well, Jeff says you know your stuff.” Emily watched Evell struggle briefly, but Trent and Machelli kept her still. “He was a good cop before he left the force looking for that reporter friend of his. And judging by what you do now, I’m thinking he found ... her.”

Jo looked away briefly, then nodded. Harris reached out and touched her arm.

“For what it’s worth, I think you’re a good woman,” she said softly. “The work you’re doing needs to be done. And Jeff gave up everything to go after you, so you must have been a good man back in the day. Maybe there are some things that don’t change, just because a person trades one skin for another.”

“I’d like to believe that.” Jo looked down, and her voice dropped to a whisper. “But there’s still so much inside my head I haven’t been able to fix since they did what they did when they ... made me what I am today. And I’ve done things I’m not proud of in pursuit of vengeance instead of justice. It’s a hard tightrope for me to walk, and I’m still trying to find balance. I just don’t know if I can.”

“You used to be a man?” Evell started laughing, and the two officers looked at Jo and then at each other, confused. “No wonder you protect them.”

“HEY!” Harris shot back at her. “I’ve always been a woman, and you and your crazy sisters make me sick with rage. I have a husband and two young boys, and the thought of you being in the same time zone with them makes me want to vomit. The only reason you’re still alive right now is that I’m a better cop and a better woman than you’ll ever be, you twisted bitch. So shut the fuck up, or I’ll forget all about keeping you alive for trial and beat you to death with one of your Manolo Blahnik pumps.”

A uniformed sergeant appeared in the doorway with a clipboard. Her nametag said Rodriguez, but even if it hadn’t, her black hair, dark brown eyes, and dark complexion would have made you think Latina.

“Hey, Connie.” Harris threw her a smile. “How close are we to getting all of the evidence out of the offices?”

“Almost done bagging and tagging, Detective. A few more minutes, that’s all.” She shot a quick glance over at Evell. “The rest of the group is in custody. Is that the psycho behind all this?”

“You got it,” Harris said. “Meet Evelyn Evell, the leader of the pack. It was her idea from the start. Even messed with her own husband and child. Sick.”

The sergeant shook her head. “You are one piece of work, chica. Glad we caught you before you went national. I happen to like my men just the way they are — and I think most women do too.”

“That’s your opinion!” Evell couldn’t keep her mouth shut. Rodriguez walked up to her.

“Yeah, it is, and thank God I live in a country where we get to think what we want — oh, wait, you wanted us all to think like you, right?” Her eyes narrowed. “I helped pack up your brainwashing meds for the evidence room, and took a look at some of the videos before they got packed up too. You used that stuff on anyone who disagreed with you, man or woman. You have no respect for anyone’s rights but your own, and I hope you find yourself living a long unhappy life as someone else’s bitch. And for the record? That one doctor’s collection of pickled peckers? Seriously psycho.” Rodriguez curled her lip in disgust. “Just glad Jo found you all when she did.”

Another woman appeared at the door. She was short and slightly overweight, with tousled brown hair that bounced around her head in a halo of curls, and big brown eyes that held intelligence ... and more than a little anger.

“Detective Harris? Been doing an inspection of the mall, and I’ve got to say the place is nothing more a catastrophe waiting to happen. Hell, the whole complex looks like it’s ready to fall. Had to order an evacuation and shutdown.”

“Oh?” The detective smirked, and Jo reached up and hid a grin. “Do tell!”

Evell’s eyes widened. “WHAT? Who the hell are you?”

“I’m Laurell Stirling, chief building inspector for the County. And you’re totally screwed, lady.”

“You’re crazy. This place passed every inspection with flying colors!”

Stirling wheeled around and looked at her, and suddenly she felt the full force of the inspector’s anger and realized that this was more than a terrible run of really rotten luck.

It was an ambush.

“Me crazy? That’s a laugh coming from you. Jo explained what the hell you’ve been doing, and showed me why some approvals deserve to be revoked.” Laurell took a step forward and looked into Evell’s eyes.

“As far as I’m concerned, your entire complex is a deathtrap,” she growled, “and has been from the minute I found out what you’ve been up to. I took the liberty of replacing all the paperwork at the office with versions signed by a disgraced ex-employee who was so bent, he would look the other way and wind up staring straight at you. He’s in prison and still insists he’s innocent, so no one will wonder why he’s not corroborating our version.”

“He’ll deny everything,” Jo agreed. “but we’ve got other evidence as well. We altered his bank records from around the time the complex was being built, so it looks like you deposited a million dollars directly into an offshore account he didn’t even know he has. The money was then redirected somewhere else almost immediately, so there’s no chance anyone can trace it.”

Evelyn shook her head. “What? How?”

Stark grinned in reply. “Things like this are easy when you own a piece of the bank. And I have wonderfully talented hackers on staff. The million will go to help pay reparations for those you transformed against their will. It won’t be enough, but we’ll see what we can get out of your business interests through civil suits.”

The inspector looked at Stark and Harris.

“Not going to be much left when this is over, I’m afraid,” she said with a small smile. “The minute I realized who had ‘done’ the original inspections, I rushed right over this morning. Needless to say, I ‘found’ code violations everywhere. Structural defects, along with improperly install gas heating systems and electrical wiring flaws in every building, often within a few feet of each other. Hell, the complex is nothing more than a mall-shaped bomb, ready to blow.”

Laurell turned her attention back to the mall’s owner. “We’ve got police and fire trucks cordoning off the entire area, and making sure everyone gets offsite safely. I’m here to make sure you all move out and get to a safe distance. There are gas leaks everywhere, and too many mains run into the area to shut off the flow. Since every building was designed with its own redundant power supply, there’s no way to shut off the current — and if we do try shutting down the grid, the power supplies kicking in might blow the whole place. It could go up at any time.”

“In fact, we’ve had to get everyone out of the complex so fast, we had no time to rescue all of the millions of dollars worth of inventory on the premises — and the code violations I ‘found’ invalidate the tenant’s insurance coverage, not to mention your own.” She grinned at Evell. “Now ain’t that a shame? All those folks who bought into your plans are gonna wind up broke and in jail. You too, I expect.”

The mall owner, entrepreneur, and would-be destroyer of mankind was struck speechless.

Rodriguez’s radio delivered a burst of static followed by a brief message. She moved to one side and spoke into it for a moment.

“Evidence gathering is done, Detective,” she said, putting the radio away. “Time to get the hell out.”

“Understood,” Harris replied. “Let’s go, people.”

###

Their footfalls echoed hollowly as they walked through the empty mall, and there was a slight smell of gas in the air that made the atmosphere oppressive. As they passed the food court, they saw all of the food left behind on the tables in the wake of the sudden evacuation. Stores were left open and unguarded, their merchandise just sitting in plain sight. With a shock, Evell realized that in a few short minutes, all of this would be nothing but ashes, and it finally began to sink in that everything she had worked so hard to achieve had been taken from her in the course of a few short hours by these misguided women.

She stopped suddenly, taking both uniformed officers by surprise. The others took a few steps forward, and turned to find her standing alone, her arms held behind her by the handcuffs and her legs apart to keep her balance.

“Wait!” she shouted, almost pleading with the assembled group. “Why have you done this? You’re all women! Can’t you see that what I was working for ... what we were working for ... was for the best, for all women, everywhere? Think of it! A world without masculinity! Without its violence, its posturing, its endless conflict and oppression! A world without rape! Why would you want to preserve any of that?”

They all looked at her for a moment, and then Detective Harris spoke.

“Because your definition of what makes a man is wrong,” she replied, her voice calm and measured. “Because men can be good, and kind, and strong, and loving, too. And women are far from perfect. You and your organization are proof of that.”

Her anger rose to the surface, and her tone made every word cut like a knife. “The hard truth you don’t seem to get is that you and your man-hating sisters have no right to make decisions for every woman on this planet about what kind of people they want their men to be. And you have no right to twist the minds and bodies of men to make them want to be anything other than who they truly are.”

Evell looked at Harris as if she was speaking Swahili, and the detective sighed.

“Your dreams are dead.” Her voice turned cold again. “Live with it, or not. I don’t give a damn.”

She motioned to the officers. “Get her out of here. Now. Carry her if you have to, but I want us gone.”

###

Outside, the world was eerily quiet. Acres of empty parking lots stretched away from the mall’s main entrance, with only the last remnants of the forensics and evidence trucks and a few police cruisers waiting in attendance. They shoved the defeated mall owner into the back of a cruiser, and everyone else climbed into a waiting van. The entire caravan drove across the concrete fields, onto the perimeter road, and off of the property.

No one said a word. Nothing needed to be said.

At the mobile headquarters, the police and fire chiefs of the surrounding areas were assembled, and Laurell went off to brief them on how bad the situation was. There were a few television trucks there as well, with reporters doing live remotes, and Jo noticed that one of the stations had a live feed from a helicopter that showed the entire mall complex from above.

The reporter for that station wasn’t on air, and Stark wandered over to say hello.

“Hey, Tiffany,” she said with a smile.

“Hey, Jo,” the reporter replied. Tiffany Case was a tall willowy blonde with green eyes, and she smiled back in return at the woman responsible for bringing her this story. “Nice seeing you again, so soon after our last meeting.”

“Same here. I’m awfully curious. How’d you manage to get a helicopter for a bird’s eye view?”

“Funny thing,” Tiffany replied. “We received an anonymous tip that said the whole place was only a few minutes away from some kind of a massive explosion, and my boss figured, ‘in for a penny, in for a pound.’” She grinned. “You wouldn’t care to comment on the accuracy of that tip, would you?”

Jo grinned. “Oh, I don’t know. A few more minutes and you’ll have your answer, I think. I’ll let Laurell know you’re here. An interview with her would probably help clear things up.”

“Oh, was that Evelyn Evell I saw in that cruiser over there?” Tiffany’s voice was the picture of innocence.

“No comment.” Stark deadpanned, and Tiffany stuck out her tongue. Jo found herself laughing in spite of herself.

“Maybe she would consent to an interview. After all, it IS her mall.”

Stark shook her head. “You are incorrigible.”

“I’m a reporter, hon.” She shrugged. “It’s what I do.”

“Been there, done that,” Jo replied, before realizing what she was saying.

“You’ve been a member of the fourth estate?” She raised an eyebrow. “Color me surprised!”

Stark sighed. “Guilty as charged. City beat on the Baltimore Herald for a year or two.”

“Must have been a while back,” Tiffany mused, “’cause the last three guys on that beat were ... well, guys.”

“It was,” Jo said, a little sadly. She barely remembered that time, after all she’d been through. “I really miss it. Even though what I’m doing now is worth doing, I miss reporting — the thrill of chasing down a story, the pressure of getting the copy in by deadline, and seeing your byline in the paper the next day. I thought maybe someday I’d luck into a big story and earn myself a Pulitzer ...” She shrugged. “Funny how time changes things.”

“Reminiscing ?” A voice from behind broke into her reverie, and she turned and threw its owner a smile.

“Hey, Jeff!” He came over and stood next to her, almost touching. It made Jo feel good, just having him close. She wasn’t sure why, but she didn’t really want to look too closely at the reason. She was just happy he was here.

“Never get an old reporter started,” she said, “because they never run out of stories.”

“Neither one of you looks old enough to be thinking about old times.” Jeff grinned and Stark blushed, then remembered her manners.

“Tiffany, this is Jeff Blake, my second-in-command at the Stark Initiative. Jeff, Tiffany Case, doing a live remote for one of the local stations, the NBC affiliate, I think?”

Tiffany smiled, nodded, and held out her hand. Jeff took it and smiled back. “A pleasure. Sorry we didn’t meet at last night’s final meeting. The plane from Switzerland was delayed and I missed being able to get here on time. It looks like you all managed quite well without me, though.”

“Working with Jo, it was easy.” Detective Harris walked over. “Hey, Jeff. Long time no see.”

“Hi, Em. Everything go okay?” They hugged, and Jo felt her stomach drop until Jeff broke free.

“Thanks to Ms. Stark here,” Harris replied. “Jo was very persuasive, although after seeing the evidence a few days ago, it wasn’t like any of us wanted Evell to get away. Once everyone at the meeting agreed to the plan, it unfolded like a military campaign, only without the automatic weapons. I’m almost tempted to sign up with you folks myself.”

There was a muted boom, and Jo glanced over at the helicopter monitor in the truck to see the north end of the mall erupt in flames that quickly roared through the rest of the structure. A few seconds later, a mushroom cloud appeared over one of the outlying buildings, followed quickly by a second building going up in a cloud of debris, and then a third.

“Damn! Go live! NOW!” Tiffany ran over to the tech in the truck. ”Tell me you got that.”

“All of it, Tiff. No sweat,” the tech replied. Jo saw the image from the helicopter shaking as the shock waves rose to toss it around the sky, and burning bits of concrete and steel began raining down on parking lots all around the facility. The feed from the station changed to a BREAKING NEWS banner, and the explosions appeared under it.

Tiffany picked up the microphone. “A series of massive explosions have turned Evell’s Shopping Mall in West Springfield into nothing more than smoke, ash, and wreckage. Hello, I’m Tiffany Case, and what you’re seeing happened only seconds ago ...”

Jo wandered away from the reporter and let her do her job. Part of her almost wished the story was hers, then she snorted.

‘As if I could make it as a TV journalist in this body without winding up the weather girl,’ she thought. ‘Although Tiffany seems to be doing just fine.’

She wondered if she could ever go back to life as a journalist, but found herself drawn to the cruiser where Evell herself still sat. The woman was looking at the clouds of smoke with an odd expression, one that Jo knew all too well. The first time she woke up after her kidnapping, the bitches that taken her from the life she had known had led her to a mirror, and she found herself staring at the reflection of a centerfold, just a few years and an eternity ago.

A centerfold with a face full of disbelief, horror, anger, and despair.

Stark walked over to the cruiser and spoke through the open driver’s side window. She was surprised to find her tone almost sympathetic.

“It’s a question of natural law, Ms. Evell. Survival of the fittest. You thought you were the predator, and never realized you had become the prey until it was too late.” Jo thought back to that first day once more. “It’s hard to suddenly find yourself a victim when you thought you had it all, isn’t it?”

It was almost as if the mall owner didn’t hear her, but then Jo heard her whisper. “Dying dreams burn so well, don’t they?”

Stark thought of her past, of the dreams she once had when she was Joe, and male, and happy. She nodded.

“And sometimes, they just turn to smoke,” she replied.