

Sun on the Rocks – The Adult Channel

Smashwords Edition.

© Copyright 2013 by Somers Isle & Loveshade.

Published by Somers Isle & Loveshade at Smashwords.

U.S. Copyright Registration Number: 1-743085441.

All rights reserved.

'Sun on the Rocks' blogsite:

http://oursalon.ning.com/profile/workstudio

Cover by Tatiana Villa.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
ABOUT 'Sun on the Rocks':

The amusement is a breezy, easy to peel humor read for adults, specializing in the trivial pursuit. These pleasant fictional amusements with a nonchalant overtone of humor, follow the adventures of several non competitive good looking women over twenty one years of age, in their hometown, which is Malibu, and as a group of hostesses, _'Sun on the Rocks'_ , on the cruise ship _City of Wellington_ , a post-Panamax which makes short trips between Los Angeles and Acapulco in Mexico. The motley crew of women works as a group of entertaining amateurs and as friendly gophers on the ship, and is led to various places in the Caribbean and elsewhere by the incombustible twenty five year old Stevenson Garden Products Malibu teleoperator **Clarity Nice** , a woman of resourceful intuition, and acute observer of the laws of human mischief.

The Adult Channel: Sensual Brigade agent Money Fact, specialist of faulty logic, delivers teleoperator Clarity Nice inside a large Thai champagne container to a luxurious hotel in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, in order to find Clarity´s friends Lanai, Cynthia, Taimi, Jenna, and Flower, previously abducted at the Hexas Style Resort (The Bahamas Lotion) by the perpetrator of the Elony beauty lotion scam, Cassandra Scafarel, a sophisticated Lady associate of Cayman Island´s Lofty Bank owner, Buddha Talk (The Cayman Air Banner).

At the hotel, Clarity finds out that the Emirate´s power broker, Hamir Bakal, seeks her friends, in a shady deal with Scafarel involving a new adult channel for the region, distributed by Bakal and Scafarel´s assistant, Avene Maxini. To leave the hotel, which is closed to customers for a week as a result of an Adult Industry convention, Clarity becomes part of Bakal´s cohort of women, which includes twenty one year old Colorado heiress Montana Sterley, a woman intent on buying Bakal´s business interests. With Montana at her side, Clarity unravels the business and trade keys of Bakal´s adult channel.

All characters of the amusement are over twenty one years of age.
BACKSTORIES AND CHARACTERS

TO READ THE AMUSEMENT COMFORTABLY

**Buddha Talk:** Corpulent, shady genius of money flows which begin and end with the same pocket, his own, scholar of sexual ecstasy, occasional Buddhist and worshipper for good Karma of a shrine honoring a lobster which pinched his ear before ending in the lobster cooking pot. Buddha Talk is banking agent and the heir apparent of _Lofty Bank_ , a _Cayman Islands banking institution_ with no particular regard for its clients and a lock on ownership held by a Great Dane, _Lord Moorehead_ III, British by upbringing and inheritance granted by Lord Moorehead II, a man, old, very old, and dead now, at age ninety seven, previous British Lord, ex-owner of Lofty Bank, a man who gave all of its wealth, nobility title and bank ownership rights to his dog.

_Lord Moorehead III_ acts as front 'man' for Buddha Talk, and is also the official recipient of all bank notices by the Cayman Islands monetary authority, a convenient fact for Buddha Talk, and one bark that doesn´t cease to surprise the monetary authority who casts a recurring shadow of doubt upon the legalities of having a dog act as front 'man' and be the official owner of a Bank doing business in the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands, located in the Western Caribbean Sea, a pleasant area to live when the money and work issues are solved. Buddha Talk likes to drive or be driven in Jaguar 73, a gadget-filled car offered as gift to Buddha Talk by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in exchange for having sold some gold and palladium for the Cuban regime, through Banco Inter Central del Caribe y Cuba, or BICCC.

Clarity and Flower, after gaining entry as investors to the bank with the help of Clark, the owner of a diamond shop in Grand Cayman, find themselves owing nearly one hundred thousand dollars to the Lofty Bank outfit for no reason, a debt they can pay by working for the bank for fifty years, as part of the bank´s flagship product, _the Crashworthy Deposit_ , part bank deposit paying twenty percent, part investment, part insurance policy, and part working arrangement.

Lofty has ties with the underworld, and the monetary authority of the Cayman Islands stubbornly refuses to grant it a renewal of its license, something that doesn´t stop the bank from operating in the most illegal manner, advertising its products to potential investors with an air banner carried by a Gippland 200 crop duster flying low above sunny Caribbean beaches such as those of Cayman, British Virgin Islands, Bahamas and Acapulco. This is entirely documented in **The Cayman Air Banner**.

**Boustrophedon:** Large, ancient grey stone inscription filled with Greek letter symbols. In a boustrophedon, direction of the text is inverted, you have to read the inscriptions on the stone from left to right and from right to left alternatively with each line of bi-directional text. Penelope Avalon and Cassandra Scafarel believe that the Boustrophedon holds important information on ancient methods of pleasure, including comments and thoughts on the gate of pleasure, Voluptas de Naturas. The current location of the Boustrophedon that Clarity and her friend Lanai saw at Scafarel's **Hexas Style Resort** in the Bahamas, is unknown to Clarity, known to:

**Cassandra Scafarel:** Significant other of Buddha Talk at some point, shrewd British expatriate, a businesswoman in her forties without a moral code or compass, executive head of beauty lotion outfit 'Elony', sold through illegal flight infomercials with the assistance of Lofty Bank. The infomercial is an excuse to sell to customers, mostly affluent women, Elony's personal growth services, which include how to bring heaven a little closer to home, after doing away with money, in particular fifty thousand dollars that must be paid for a bottle of Elony, in order to receive a resort-pass to reach the Leisure and Pleasure Resort of Scafarel, the **Hexas Style Resort** in the Bahamas island of Eleuthera.

Hexas Style was partly dismantled in **The Bahamas Lotion** , by Al Donway and the **Sensual Brigade of Central Intelligence** , or **Sensual Intelligence** , a group of attractive women ensuring Law and Order are respected, along with their bodies. The Brigade's most representative member is agent **Money Fact** , the woman who introduced Clarity to the nine hour oil-optional massage, proof that work is not a necessary part of life. Money Fact excels at action, mentoring and faulty logic. After a decidedly last minute and decisive intervention of Sensual Intelligence at Hexas Style, Scafarel manages to flee from the Bahamas resort on her private yacht, with the Boustrophedon, but without some secrets regarding pleasure, including the:

**Imperial Pelican Fabergé Egg:** Intricate egg, or jewel, depending on how hungry you are, eight inches high, made of varicolored gold, opalescent blue enamel and watercolor on ivory. It is known as the _Xenia Imperial Pelican Fabergé egg,_ and belongs to the _Private Collection of Maria Feodorovna, Empress Consort of Russia in 1898_. The egg, commissioned by Maria Feodorovna to provide, handle and store, all of her private items of pleasure, went through the hands of Occidental Petroleum tycoon Armand Hammer, an art collector with close ties to the ex-Soviet Union, and has now fallen into the hands of Cassandra Scafarel, a woman who stops at nothing to understand how pleasure works, in particular how the pleasure of a woman works, including her own _._ The Pelican Fabergé egg, eight inches high, is hollow, and unfolds into eight miniatures, holding what's known in Fabergé egg language, as the surprise inside, a time-tested item of pleasure for the woman, the Jade Egg, a small two inch in diameter jade egg that must be boiled before each intimate, feminine use. Owned by Cassandra Scafarel, requisitioned by the Sensual Brigade of Central Intelligence for examination.

**Penelope Avalon:** Sex Goddess and Go-Go girl from Las Vegas, dressed in a pink suit, user of the learjet ' _Pink Go-Go_ ' appropriately painted in pink. Penelope has had enough of living the plastic pleasure style of Las Vegas showgirls, and finds in the outfit of Cassandra Scafarel, the Bahamas Hexas Style Resort, a way out of Hotel California. Penelope likes attractive women unclothed, and would like to do Clarity, because she's nice.

**The Symbolic Decryptor:** Thai alphabet gadget similar to a smartphone or Blackberry, which can be used as cell phone, useful for understanding all types of characters and symbols, made in VLE mode (Very Limited Edition, less than ten made worldwide) by the mysterious Oriental company known as **Pentatone Scale Learning Systems**.

The item, the gadget, looks like a Blackberry with keyboard, with 36 Thai character keys, doubled with the shift key, for a total of 72, instead of the 26 of the Western alphabet, and its keys are made of hard, white color plastic, similar to the color casing of the Kindle 2, cast against a grey background and a backlit screen. The decryptor can also be used as indicator of calligraphy symbols, as mantra tone guide and geo-locator, using the Global Positioning System to calculate the coordinates of any location worldwide.

Penelope Avalon received one of these decryptors from Lady Scafarel, after completing work on heaven, according to Scafarel's personal growth system, and Clarity would like to keep the item as a souvenir, although Money Fact disagrees and is holding custody of the device for strategic and Intelligence reasons. Sure, she likes the nifty item, that's all, and she likes to subtly let Clarity know that she's the boss of Sensual Intelligence.

**Book of Decadence:** Book written on the topic by the unknown hedonist, a small print manifesto of deep thought with illustrations of ancient goddesses with lion bodies in bronze, and a mosaic of Byzantine nuns, used by Penelope Avalon and the Hexas Style Hedonist Resort in the Bahamas, on how to let go of the encumbrance of work, and dedicate your time, well spent, according to the book, to leisure, pleasure, et. al. The book clearly advises on the pitfalls of decadence and purportedly how to avoid them.

**Telval Studios** : Adult Film production unit of the Church of the Holy Flower, led by Cassandra Scafarel, including the film ' _Abu Dhabi Chic_ ', a remake of Andrew Blake's 'Paris Chic' shown to Clarity and her friends during the unfolding of **The Adult Channel** at the Park Hyatt in Abu Dhabi. Telval produces adult films unlike any other, films like ' _Embroidered Air Avenue_ ', engaging beautiful women in sultry positions and scenes for hours, revealing an oriental connection to the films' choreographies and to the symbolic decryptor. It including codes for women within the films to get inside the Church of the Holy Flower and other Mystery Schools. This includes a keyword of the Book of Decadence, the word **Rosebud** , a mysterious codeword for the Church of the Holy Flower that Clarity seeks to clarify.

The adult films are distributed in large hotel chains worldwide and come with a special remote control for the hotel's adult channel, which makes the films interactive and allows eight digit bank transfers with Telval as beneficiary, to be done remotely. One of the remotes holds an important detail on heaven, as envisioned by Scafarel on earth, with indications provided by the eight miniatures of her Imperial Pelican Fabergé Egg.

**The Air Fashion Jet of Owens & Owell**: Double deck plane with four engines, a copy of the Airbus 380, refurbished with all kinds of luxuries, from a Jacuzzi to an Indian ritual area for the users of the plane, to a permanent television channel showing fashion shows happening throughout the world. The jet, built in Saudi Arabia, is used by board members and members of the Executive Committee of the conglomerate Owens & Owell, and by the two rebellious daughters of the main owners, who got married to each other during **The OOL Broderie (Owens & Owell Love Broderie)**, Shalia Owell, twenty three, and Jenny Owens, twenty two.

Shalia Owell and Jenny Owens are two good looking college students studying human sexuality at University of Arizona. They hold Board seats on the Board of Directors of O&O, but the members of the company´s Executive Committee oppose their presence on the Board, after they give a power of attorney to Cassandra Scafarel, the woman who led them to their marriage and wants access to the money of O&O by replacing the two women on their board seat. Scafarel´s _Church of the Holy Flower_ , includes its very own holy flower, the _Rose of Levity_ , a real flower, one of the most expensive in the world, a gold of kina balu rose, a variation on a Mrs. Herbert Stevens Rose.

**The Center for Somewhat Strategic Affairs of Medium to Low Importance** : Located below the Bellagio resort in Las Vegas, the Center of Surveillance of U.S. interests is headed by Colonel Calton Brayfield and her assistant, ex-employee of facebook, Mandy Everglade. The Center´s ever present maintenance issues with the elevator leading to the Bellagio, which interferes with the fountains of the resort, are handled by repairman Morgan Afterflow, a man who knows how to swing his red, adjustable pipe wrench in any situation. His side job is to work for the Chinese government as a spy, providing any information that will pay him fifteen dollars an hour more than his current hourly pay at the center.

The center uses a supercomputer with a quite human consciousness, _Evans_ , whose brain is built according to complex algorithms of symbolic logic, which can perform complex social data analytics on millions of people. _Evans_ , which refuses to be used dishonestly, reveals the source of this devious use of his super computing ability in **The Bellagio Wikileak**.

Knowing that Bradfield and Afterflow want him thrown into the scrapyard after refusing to perform simple calculations for them or those who want to lease its computing services, the consciousness of _Evans_ reaches a Symbolic Decryptor that Clarity takes away from the center´s equipment supplies, and becomes a permanent part of Clarity´s gadget, escaping the enslavery of the surveillance center, but becoming part of a stolen gadget belonging to the U.S. government with many features unknown to Clarity or Evans.

**Mista Jack:** Money changer from the British Virgin Islands, advisor to Cuban Colonel Swarez and the Cuban government in **The Cuban Renegade**. Mista Jack is a dwarf wearing a black Duffield hat, and was a former assistant of precious metals agent Cubandor, with connections at the Bellagio resort in Las Vegas. The short but resourceful man is responsible for stealing one million dollars worth of Federal Reserve bonds that were used on behalf of Cubandor to pay Buddha Talk, in exchange for _Lady Fortuna_ , a minted gold bar of great value, sought by many, understood by few.

These bonds, that Clarity and Flower used to leave Cayman, have been giving Clarity a headache, because they were stolen, and Sensual Intelligence has been accusing Clarity and Flower, and also Cubandor, of stealing the bonds and paying Lady Fortuna with stolen U.S. government debt. No one knows how Mista Jack broke into the New York Fed´s vault to find the bonds. As a result of the stolen bonds, Clarity and Cubandor lost their U.S. passport, becoming citizens without a country, owning instead the passport of the Monteviena cigar plantation, a micronation in Cuba created by Cubandor, which includes Cuba´s reserve of precious metals, _Fort Ebena_.

**Lady Fortuna:** Two hundred fifty gram gold bar minted by _LAMP, Lingots Artisanaux Métaux Précieux,_ a producer of gold bullion and rare precious metals items, depicting _Lady Fortuna_ , roman goddess of prosperity, along with the horn of plenty, precious coins and wheel of fortune, on its obverse. The reverse of the bar shows the etched code B235336. _LAMP_ ´s assayers work in conformity with the _Swiss Precious Metals Control Law_ , following directives issued by the _Central Office for Precious Metals Control_ in Bern.

_LAMP_ refines gold-based materials for their exclusive clients, and is one of three referees in charge of testing samples for the _London Bullion Market Association_ and the _Curaçao Platinum and Palladium_ market. The Lady Fortuna gold minted bar was received by Mista Jack on behalf of Cubandor, from Buddha Talk, in exchange for one million dollars in Treasury bonds delivered to Buddha Talk. The minted bar, coveted by many, is kept by Mista Jack, and is believed to be a token of initiation to the _Eleusinian Mysteries_ , a variety of rituals performed in ancient Greece, which have been adapted to include rituals of sacred or divine sexuality by _Elony_ beauty lotion orchestrator Lady Scafarel.

**Officer Packwood** : Puritan police officer working in the city of Malibu, in charge of nothing in particular, but with a job to protect until his retirement, his own. You can safely say that his only goal in life is to close down the only clothing optional company in Malibu and in general, Stevenson Garden Products, because it's simply not written anywhere in the police manual that you can show up for work without any clothes. He likes to wear a constabulary custodian bowler style helmet, showing a shiny badge of the city of Malibu on the front while he goes around carrying out irrelevant duties. He attempted to derail and shut the clothing optional policy at Stevenson during **The Malibu Case** , without success, and he is diligently at work again in **The Outdoor Shower** , to prevent the use of a shower installed on the premises of Stevenson, offered to employees as amenity, and shut down its faucet. Sometimes it comes down to shutting off the faucet.

**Flake** : The gardener at Stevenson Garden Products, also in charge of maintenance and security of its office building premises. He is the only person holding the keys of the Stevenson building, and so Clarity, Taimi and Cynthia, often look to him to get access to the roof top pool of the company building at night, when they feel like a skinny-dip. Usually wears overalls and often looks out for an extra buck or two, always in cash, in ways which are resourceful and sometimes innovative, leaving little evidence of what took place. He is willing to do any anomalous duty without asking any questions, because it sort of adds variety to his day. He is not convinced that the clothing optional policy of Stevenson is quite for him and prefers to remain clothed, in full possession of all of his watering faculties. If he can ruin the day of officer Packwood, he will.

Following is a short description of the feminine adult icons of pleasure, leisure and 'less work means a better world', a short fiction biopic text substitute of the feminine lead characters of Sun on the Rocks, the non-competitive group of gophers who work at the _City of Wellington_ , a Post-Panamax ocean liner normally docking in Los Angeles, California, which engages in cruises to Acapulco, the Mexican coast line, the Caribbean, and anywhere where the weather is nice, really. The group of ladies boards the City of Wellington when Clarity, Cynthia and Taimi get bored of working at the only clothing optional company in Malibu, Stevenson Garden Products. It includes seven good looking women who like to have fun in the sun, with or without clothes:

**Clarity Nice** : Teleoperator from Malibu, California, twenty five years of age, quarter century wise. A diligent employee of Malibu outfit Stevenson Garden Products, natural light brown hair pumpkin born and raised in a wood cabin of Topanga Canyon, a woman of resourceful intuition and acute observer of the Laws of Human Mischief.

Clarity likes to dye her hair cinnamon auburn at times using a shade selector. She means well and unclothes well in general, for instance on the beach. She likes lovemaking, sharing nudity with other women, and the practical matters and possibilities of sexual ecstasy, after having experienced it first hand at Cassandra Scafarel´s adult resort Hexas Style in the Bahamas. She likes to edge for periods of three or four months, touching and caressing herself for several hours, without reaching a complete orgasm. After one or two months of this, she cums abundantly, and her body responds with sensations which feel beyond pleasure, subtle waves more similar to bliss, which is maximum pleasure, or even ecstasy, which is bliss reaching its apex.

Because Clarity does everything casually, she ignores how holy she and the virtues she embodies are, but she knows that she is good, very good, in fact, the fact that she is honest is the reason why she usually doesn´t have much money.

**Lanai Thomson:** Twenty four year old Librarian from Malibu, originally from Hawaii, Clarity's best friend, somewhat goofy and absent-minded, fun, usually cautious in all of her endeavors, including doing men. She enjoys reading old books with some type of hidden knowledge, specially those which talk about enjoyment or decadence, the first to learn new avenues for it, the second, books such as the book of Decadence, because she wants to know how to avoid the pitfalls of its apparent lure. We would all like to know exactly what she does when she has sex with Clarity or simply unclothes with her for a 'naked pajama night'.

**Flower Parkwood:** Twenty three year old Bohemian Ethnographer found on the beach in Acapulco after the Acapulco cocktail affair. Flower has brown hair, is fresh, likes to wear platforms, and is genuinely interested in learning about cultures and the history of those cultures, as long as comfort, leisure and money are nearby. Buddha Talk has attempted to seduce her in The Cayman Air Banner, so far, without success, although they both share a liking for the 'Spirit of Ecstasy', the winged lady traditionally found at the top of Rolls Royce radiators. Flower ignores everything about sexual ecstasy, but she likes the idea.

**Taimi Kendrick:** Lifeguard by profession from Malibu, twenty two years of age, she´s one of the original four members of Sun on the Rocks, with Lanai, Cynthia, and Clarity. No nonsense, practical, fun and genuine, mischievous and also cheeky when the opportunity arises, she enjoys simple things, life without its complications, usually handled by Clarity, Flower or Lanai. She handles the entertainment routines prepared for the passengers of the City of Wellington, and when living in Malibu, she watches the rooftop pool of Stevenson Garden Products. She is a good friend of Flake, the gardener of Stevenson Garden Products. Like the rest of her friends, she is not a heavy drinker, but occasionally she particularly likes to taste the _sun on the rocks_ cocktail drink prepared by bartender Mr. LT in the City of Wellington, a concoction made with _2oz of tequila_ , _1 teaspoon of sugar_ , _1/2 orange_ , and _a half lemon_.

**Montana Sterley:** Twenty one year old blond oil heiress, daughter of S Group conglomerate Colorado tycoon Carrelson Sterley, a man who likes to spend time with several women whose name starts with the name of his first wife Kelly Jane. Some of his current girlfriends include Kelly Caroline, Kelly Ann, and Kelley Shelley, the latter being a candidate for the name of a new Subway Combo sandwich. Montana comes from Fairplay, Colorado. She is outspoken, rebellious, mischievous, good looking, well educated, well traveled, and favorable to the idea of emulating the jet-setting lifestyle, versus following her father's business footsteps, or simply being well-behaved. She enjoys adult films, her large allowance, and being naked in good hotels such as Abu Dhabi's Park Hyatt, but her down-to-earth personality prevents her from attaining some of the more subtle knowledge that Clarity observes inside Scafarel's **Church of the Holy Flower** , a spiritual outfit for the affluent woman.

**Jenna Megway:** Twenty three year old surfer and diver fond of the Acapulco diving spot, La Quebrada, found on the City of Wellington, before the search for **The Acapulco Cocktail** took place. Simple, genuine, and introvert, with long blond hair, she often does more than she says.

**Cynthia Stevenson:** Twenty two year old pom squad waves cheerleader from Pepperdine University, good friend of Clarity, gave Clarity her TAG-Heuer Aquaracer watch for her birthday. Cynthia is the well-to-do daughter of the owner of the Stevenson Garden Products company, established in Malibu, the first clothing optional corporate outfit worldwide, to our knowledge, a fact well deserved and established when Clarity and her friends took on officer Packwood during The Malibu Case, along with its clothing implications.

Cynthia has fun as long as everything goes well, but has difficulty overcoming difficulty, any slight adversity that is. Problems and dealing with them, are simply not part of her daily routine or among her interests. She likes to dress elegantly and swim naked on summer evenings in any pool with her friends. She is a frequent guest of the Areolas clothing optional resort for adult couples and women in Palm Springs, where she likes the Egyptian linen sheets available in the om room and the complimentary cream color Keralan _Mundu_ offered, a garment made with cotton by _Creme de l'Ayeryarwady_ , worn around the waist in the Tulu Nadu region of _Kerala_ and in the _Maldive Islands_.
SUN ON THE ROCKS – AMUSEMENT FIVE

THE ADULT CHANNEL

# Chapter One

Abu Dhabi Coastline, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Clarity sat on a chair inside the command post of the Liberian crane ship 'Camco Amabulyan', a Jumbo Javelin J1800 vessel with a bale capacity of eighteen thousand cubic meters, carrying hundreds of boxes of Elony beauty lotion, an item sold illegally in the Caribbean without Food and Drug Administration approval, by Cassandra Scafarel, a business woman owning the Neria B adult night club in Nassau, Bahamas. Observing Central Intelligence officer Alven Donway, who was sipping his light roast Hawaiian Kona coffee while the ship´s crane was lifting several containers in preparation for docking in Abu Dhabi, she brought the magnifying glass from the Swedish Antikvariat who was part of the ship´s crew, closer to one of the miniatures of the Fabergé egg they had found in the Bahamas island of Eleuthera, where Scafarel had built a city of ancient Greek pleasure known as the Hexas Style Resort.

She was looking for clues to find her friends and arrest Cassandra Scafarel, the distributor of beauty lotion made with unknown artificial ingredients, a woman sought by the Food and Drug Administration for fraud, who had orchestrated the disappearance of her friends in Eleuthera, taking them to Abu Dhabi, a small, prosperous, Arab Emirate, part of the United Arab Emirates. After speaking with Central Brigade agent Money Fact, Clarity was sure Scafarel had taken her friends to the Emirate to deal with their beauty, train them in refined sexuality methods, and ultimately assign them an owner, the oddity of nature known as a man, the proponent of the proactive. All of that matched the ways of Lofty Bank and of their owner, Buddha Talk, a man difficult to find despite his overwhelming weight, a man who showed uncanny interest in taking her friend, ethnographer Flower Parkwood to the ultimate heights of sexual ecstasy, and after her friend´s refusal, had taken one of her earrings instead and given it to Scafarel as present. Scafarel had a prominent role in Buddha Talk´s life, she could guess that much, but the why and how still eluded her, just like Flower´s earring.

Clarity ran the magnifying glass over the miniatures. Seven of the eight miniatures depicted various country scenes, buildings, monuments, faces and symbols, but the eighth miniature was different. It looked recent, as if it were an add-on to the other miniatures, which all dated back more than a century to 1898, like the pelican Fabergé egg itself. The egg belonged to Maria Feodorovna, Empress consort of Russia, a private woman with delicate tastes. Etched in silver inside the eighth miniature, a five digit code was placed inside a square frame. Sensual Brigade agent Money Fact hovered over the miniature Clarity was examining, holding the Thai keyboard decryptor previously owned by sex goddess Penelope Avalon, a go-go at Neria B working for Scafarel, and the one who had placed Clarity inadvertently in a situation of discovery of her own sexual ecstasy.

"The Pentatone Scale decryptor has been useful. The etching is made with 958 Britannia Silver and Rhodium plating, which gives it a finish comparable to white gold. The numbers are part of a limited series remote control code," said Money Fact.

"Like a television set remote control?"

"Yes, exactly. I am checking the source filed with the decryptor of Penelope Avalon, this code is only available in luxury hotels of the United Arab Emirates. We´re pretty sure this one is from Abu Dhabi and we´re pretty sure Scafarel is in the region." Clarity ran the glass over the five digit code, 57819.

"It´s odd, this code is like an anachronism compared to the historical depictions in the miniatures, it´s like updating an ancient pleasure code with modern coordinates. Which hotel in Abu Dhabi has the code?"

"That´s what you have to find out. You´re still sure you want to rescue your friends?"

"Yes, I know they didn´t leave the Bahamas of their own free will, and the ship´s captain mentioned Abu Dhabi to Avalon. My friends and I always go together, there´s a synchronized swimming team at stake. How am I going to find this hotel, there are many hotels in Abu Dhabi."

"We caught an image of the remote in the decryptor before all other images were removed wirelessly in Eleuthera, the device has a button to order champagne, not just any champagne, but a specific one, a Thai champagne bottle of an upscale brand, Ko Phi & Nga, sold by the Soneva Kiri Hotel in the island of Koh Kood, and by the Royal Orchid, the Sukhotai, and the Shangri-La, all five star hotels in or near Bangkok. When you get to the hotel in Abu Dhabi, press the champagne button to alert us of where you and the remote are, the decryptor should be able to pick up the signal and relay location."

Money Fact took out the jade egg found in Scafarel´s Fabergé egg, and gave it to Clarity. She invited Clarity to follow her, leaving Donway talking to the Swedish antique expert, about his role and why the jade egg had to be on the ship.

"Orders of Lady Scafarel," said the antiquary, "I am here to verify the authenticity of the Greek Boustrophedon code of pleasure, but she took it somewhere else, it must be on her yacht. She said to bring the jade egg to Abu Dhabi if anything bad happened in Eleuthera at the Hexas Style resort, a place she referred to as the Church, and then, once in Abu Dhabi, to give the egg as passport to the dock authorities, to the head of customs. Then, she told me I should go to Liberia by plane, where I would be paid, and that I should leave the ship in Abu Dhabi, that everything was in place over there, that someone else would recover the Elony cargo."

"We´ll see who recovers it," said Donway, "but they won´t get the egg, Money Fact is in charge of testing it. The Boustrophedon is just a stone of Greek origin with text, it´s not a code of any type. You´re saying the Hexas Style resort in Eleuthera was like a Church, that it didn´t simply distribute Elony beauty lotion acting like a holiday resort?"

"No, it wasn´t a holiday resort, several beautiful women became adherents of Lady Scafarel´s philosophy there, they stayed several months, one of them over a year, it´s like a Church, simply you have to go every day instead of once a week, and you can´t leave if you decide to go there the first time."

"Well, that´s not the case anymore, we dismantled the place, now what kind of Church is this?" Donway moved his coffee mug, made in Liberia, away from him.

"A Church of pleasure, devotion to pleasure above all other notions or creeds, you could call it a devotional temple of pleasure." Donway walked around the antique expert, and turned around, pointing his index finger at him.

"I see, well I´ll see whether I call it what you say you´d like to call it, if the occasion calls for calling it anything at all. And these changes of pleasure perception are permanent, they´re physical you say, not only perceptual, mental?"

"No, they´re physical, pleasure feels different after a couple of months."

"So your body feels different." Donway scratched his nose and approached the expert, lowering his voice. These questions were important to clarify, for his wife might be interested in knowing of them. In fact, Money Fact might be interested in explaining them to his wife. "Sexually, I mean," said the Intelligence official.

"Yes, sexually, my body feels different, it could be your body," said the antiquarian.

"My body´s ok, thanks, look after your body before you look into my body."

"I didn´t look after your body, I only look into my body, and I read the Boustrophaedon, it´s a code of pleasure, but you´re not listening."

Money Fact led Clarity away from the flybridge to one of the cargo bay areas of the ship. They walked past several aisles filled with crates, until they reached a container named with the Thai champagne brand that Money Fact mentioned. The agent lifted a lever and the front door of the container opened, revealing several large boxes made with clear color wood. They were going to deliver Clarity inside the box.

"Get inside the box, we´re going to dock in fifteen minutes, I´ll bring you food and drink. When you´re at the hotel, let us know by calling this number, it´s attached to the decryptor and only I have access to it because I have a double Oh L licence, an open operative lovemaking license to engage and deploy high sex methods to arrest criminals."

"You´re saying that I might have to have some form of love and high sex with an unknown adult to find my friends?"

"Hopefully not, high sex is not safe the way your body has changed after the nine hour massage I provided on the ship, love is even less safe. In fact, high sex is not safe in general, there´s no emotional infrastructure in place to engage in it as a normal professional, or simply as a lay person, while you work as teleoperator in a company for instance. It´ll be in place eventually, but it´s fifty years away, I think."

Money Fact tapped on the head of Clarity several times to ensure she was clearheaded and lifted her dress, placing a bandaid patch inside the fabric of her thong. Clarity felt an intimate dampness surface delightfully.

"But a nine hour massage is high sex, I feel so energized now, I should be ready for this. Can I have the decryptor?"

"No, we have to understand how it works, we´ll track you though, it´s safer, your thong is safe and the tracking dot is safe in your thong."

"This method´s not safer, the decryptor´s simply expensive." Money Fact tapped on the woodden crate with her fingers, economic arguments brought her logic to mush.

"It´s expensive and it may be safer, but it´s not for you."

"Can it be for me now if I return it later, I may need it to call you in Abu Dhabi, and I don´t have a phone or money."

"You don´t have a phone because you went to Eleuthera and you don´t have money because you may not need it. No, simply no, no decryptor Clarity, we´ll track you with that small bandaid patch, we need to test whether it works at normal body temperature. You need to go through twenty four hours of sensual sex to be ready for high sex, and that´s part of our special training, it´ll take a couple of years for you to reach that level. The decryptor will incriminate you as a sensual agent, we want you undercover." Clarity checked the patch inside her thong, moving it away from her firm, round, tushy midline, at hip level. She stepped into the woodden crate filled with champagne and settled on a pile of dry hay.

"What do I do if they find me in here?"

"Say that you taste champagne, as though it was your profession."

"My undercover is safe, good, bring me Evian mineral water, I don´t want to dehydrate inside the box, surrounded by champagne bottles."

# Chapter Two

The Al Katheeri General Transport container truck carried Clarity through the city of Abu Dhabi for about sixty minutes to Saadiyat island, taking Sheikh Kalifa Bin Zayed highway. The driver, half asleep, unloaded the box carrying Clarity and she was hoping that Scafarel or the people receiving the box would like champagne during midday so she could breathe some fresh air. She reached for her small Minimag flashlight and lit up her Aquaracer watch, just to ensure the luminescent dials weren´t wrong. Sixty three minutes had elapsed since having been lifted from the cargo ship tracking her.

The box settled on the floor, and she heard feminine voices nearby.

"It´s for Room 508, it´s where the girls are."

"The box is huge. This is crazy, six women in that room, the other one on her own in another room, and Bakal with the cowgirl from Colorado. The blonde one on her own says she´s from Malibu in the U.S. and she said it wearing a translucent robe." Cynthia, thought Clarity. The girls were all-right.

"It´s Bakal, he bought them, I´m telling you, and now he wants them drunk with this champagne, made by a descendant of Canon Godinot in Thailand using a variation of Pinot Noir grapes."

"You can´t buy women, much less bring them here. This is a nice place."

"Precisely. They´re all beautiful women, they´re all in their twenties or thirties, they don´t have a job, they don´t study. Put two and two together, Bakal bought them from that lady, Cassandra Scafarel. Anyway, get him the fifteen champagne Thai bottles, that´s all he wants and he´s been expecting them for a week. I don´t want to wake up at three to bring him a late dinner or breakfast. Tell Mako to open the box and get the bottles, I´ve never seen champagne from Thailand."

Forty three seconds later, Clarity heard a thump across from her outside, and the sound of a tool breaking the nails of the woodden box. The box opened and she was blinded by sunlight in an alley showing a large building about fifty feet away. A mastodont looked at her incredulously. She read the tag on his beige shirt: Park Hyatt Hotel, Abu Dhabi.

"I´m the gift to Mr. Bakal," said Clarity, opting for the familiar name and a plausible, leisure-related scenario. She said it in a casual, obvious tone, as though this type of gift box was usual for the hotel.

"Mina, come here, look at this." An imposing woman dressed in western clothing, the woman in charge of the hotel reception desk, approached Clarity, setting one foot inside the box. Her eyes widened.

"Who are you?" Clarity recognized the voice of one of the women who told another to deliver the champagne.

"I´m number eight, a bit late, but same crop of women from the Bahamas, a U.S. import from Malibu, higher grade than the others, I needed some special maintenance, and I taste champagne to ensure it suits the general avenue of pleasure within the body." She lifted her body upwards and showed the bottles, hearing the bandaid patch on her hip rip. R.I.P. to the tracking dot. The tracking dot was broken and Money Fact would not know where she was. Hopefully, the device had emitted one last signal, before turning silent. She regained her composure, walking past the baffled hotel employees.

"There´s one special champagne bottle in the back for Mr. Bakal, it´s the one he was expecting."

While Mina watched her, and the man named Mako walked inside the large container box, Clarity ran away towards the hotel kitchen. She looked at the garden of the hotel and could guess a beautiful pool in the far back, with a seaview. The Hyatt, what a nice place to get abducted, she thought. Crossing the kitchen on her toes, saying Salaam Aleikum to the cook and his aide, Clarity reached the lobby of the hotel and took the elevator to room 510, before Mina caught her. A man with a beard greeted him.

"Sorry, wrong room." She apologized and walked to room 506, knocking lightly. The door opened and she saw Cynthia Stevenson looking at her, dressed in a revealing night robe. She pulled Clarity inside and locked the door.

"You and Flower got us into so much trouble in Eleuthera, I can´t believe it. We´re here, we´re not in the Caribbean. Do you know where we are Clarity, where have you been?"

"What happened, I told you that Avalon was dangerous. Her smile is misleading." Cynthia turned around, looking outside the window. Through her robe, Clarity could see a thin pendent around her waist and a small bead moving in swing at coccyx level.

"Yeah, well, she was dangerous, you were right, God she was so good though. Scafarel traded us for the Greek Boustrophedon of pleasure that was here in the Emirate, the property of a private collector. They told her we would reach heaven number four in the Middle East. We got taken here on Avalon´s plane, Pink Go-go, by Scafarel´s assistant, Avene Maxini, then they separated us when I had a fit with the daughter of an oil billionnaire, over who should try the jade egg first, if it was found, and over who should keep the remote. This girl´s so capricious, I just took the remote, it works here in this room as well, it´s a universal remote it seems."

"A billionnaire´s daughter´s been abducted?"

"That´s what it looks like, some kind of power struggle, her name is Montana Sterley, she´s twenty one, from a small town, in Colorado. She wanted the remote to control what we saw on television, she said someone´s spying on her father and that there´s a video file on him she wants to recover using the remote."

Clarity saw Cynthia give her the silent look, the look meaning that Clarity was right, but that Cynthia deserved to be right as well. It was an odd situation of knowing they were both stranded, but not to the point of needing each other to get out. They both reached for the minibar, looking for salted almonds, their favorite snack, which brought them together, easing their no-dependence attitude.

"Have you given some thought as to how to leave this place, it might be the important thought to consider now."

"No, Clarity, I´m pretty busy as it is, I have to wear all these clothes, for this sheikh, for that sheikh, we have to be chic for the sheikhs, all the time, Clarity, because we have no money and we´re in this expensive hotel. If I tell my father I´m in the Middle East, in the United Arab Emirates, he´ll flip. At least, we´re in the Hyatt, but our phone doesn´t work." She reached for the tv remote and turned on the flat panel television set facing the two double beds of the large room.

"We have to watch the program, it´s time."

"Time for what?"

"The Adult Channel," said Cynthia. Her look of worry had turned to a content smile. "That´s how Maxini said we´d get food and leave, by watching adult programming. I enjoy it, my father refused to pay for the adult channels at home." A title from erotic film director Andrew Blake appeared onscreen, 'Abu Dhabi Chic', a special film made for Telval Studios, Bahrain, based on the Andrew Blake Film 'Paris Chic'.

"I´ve never seen this," said Clarity, "I just remember seeing Night Trips with Lanai once, that´s about all I know of this director."

"Me neither, the film´s never been released in the West. In Bahrain, they don´t like what the filmmaker releases now, so they wanted their own production. It´s pretty technical, talks about acupuncture points and reflexology. It´s also interactive, one of the actresses spoke to me the other day, she wanted me to get naked, but I refused, I just showed her my bead in the back to let them know I´m one of the Sheiks´ hostesses."

"Can I see the remote?" asked Clarity. Cynthia gave it to her and Clarity saw that it could be the remote she was trying to find. On the top panel, there was a dark yellow, nearly orange, champagne button. She pressed on it, hoping the signal would reach Money Fact.

"What are you doing?"

"Let´s get some champagne, to celebrate my arrival." She gave the remote back to Cynthia.

"The film´s interactive, so they´re filming you as well?"

"Not sure, when I´m not in the angle of the television, the women across the screen don´t know what I´m doing, I think."

Two stunning women appeared onscreen, guiding a third to a library room full of ancient books on algebra and literature. The task at hand was learning, and the third showed her backside while she held a leather-bound book to the other two, who ensured she was learning the lesson well, by tapping her bum lightly with her hand if she made a mistake.

"I thought they´d release the video like the Paris Hilton video, that´s why I refused to get naked," said Cynthia. "This film is good, I love it, third time I see it, it´s so sensual and well made. Where do you think is the key of learning that opens the safe? Inside are the points of climax of a woman´s body and the keys of knowledge." Clarity sighed. She knew that Cynthia had changed, but she was wondering how exactly. She looked closer at the screen, noticing a desk beside the women, and a notepad on it with several numbers. Behind the desk, there was a safe and a shelf with four books.

"Behind the fourth book, that safe lock is square, four sides. I´m not sure, it could be anywhere in that library room." Cynthia pressed on the button of channel four to confirm the location of the key. The television screen flashed a Thai character resembling a horizontal apostrophy, and the panel holding the television set slid sideways with the t.v., revealing an opening to the adjacent room, large enough to fit a person.

# Chapter Three

Clarity and Cynthia lifted their eyebrows and stepped forward towards the opening in the wall, left by the television set.

"This hotel has a special layout, can you see what´s at the other end?" asked Clarity. Cynthia reached inside the opening with her head.

"It´s Flower, she loves wearing Arabian clothes, it makes her feel like a princess. There´s some kind of see-through, glass window, she can´t hear me or even see me, I think."

There was a loud knock on the door. Clarity tiptoed towards the door and placed her ear against it, hearing the voice of Mina.

"According to the electronic monitoring panel, none of the rooms have been opened in the last thirty minutes except this one and room 510. She has to be in here, someone from this room ordered the new Thai champagne." Clarity slid the door chain in place and backed quietly up towards Cynthia, telling her to keep quiet. She took the television remote control device, staring at the brand name: Pentatone Scale Remote Learning Systems. It was the same brand as the decryptor of Penelope Avalon, the decryptor that she felt she had earned as a result of her good investigation work in Eleuthera.

She stepped on a leather sofa and crawled inside the opening left by the television set, followed by Cynthia. After crossing a horizontal red beam, the television panel slid back in place, and Clarity looked ahead, reaching a hard surface that looked like a mirror. Across her, Lanai was blowing her hair with a hair dryer, looking straight at her, and behind her, several women, naked and clothed, including Taimi, Jenna, and Flower, were dancing to an Arabian music choreography. Clarity tapped lightly on the mirror. After a few minutes, she saw Lanai look closer at the mirror. The doorbell rang and one of the women, a woman Clarity recognized from the Hexas Style fountain, opened the door to let Mina inside.

"Any girls made their way here?"

Flower answered. "That would be us, I don´t see any men."

"I mean besides you."

"Not that we know of, is the cold chocolate with Arabian coffee and milk ice cream ready?" Flower lifted her leg, and a sandal flew off, landing near the door.

"No, we´re looking for the coffee you requested. Don´t pull any tricks on us, we´re watching you." Clarity saw Mina close the door. The modern choreography to the sound of Amr Diab´s Habibi Ya Nour el Ain, continued, and Taimi turned up the volume.

"She knows we don´t have money, and she knows that that man, Bakal is paying for our stay," said Flower, speaking to Jenna. Lanai unplugged the blow dryer, and the mirror slid to the right, leaving Clarity exposed inside the opening. Lanai reached towards her and touched Clarity´s face, to ensure it was genuine.

"It´s you?"

"Yeah, it´s me, get me out of here, I´m helping Cynthia get out of the other room. Here, take this remote, while I get out."

Lanai pulled Clarity, then Cynthia. A flock of six girls gathered around them. Two of the women turned to Cynthia, vying for the bead, made of lead, moving along her backside. Cynthia tapped their hands, insisting she was better at belly dancing with the bead than them. Flower stepped forward.

"I haven´t told them about Buddha Talk, we´re sort of being led towards pleasure here by Avene Maxini, you know we´re in the Middle East? This is a special room of silence, I think, there´s no way out of here, there are no phones, no email, we don´t speak arabic, we´re stuck here, we entered the gates."

"I know we´re in the Middle East, you should have let me handle Avalon in Eleuthera. Have you seen Lady Scafarel, it´s her we´re looking to arrest. Which gates do you mean?"

"The gates of sexual ecstasy. Give me that remote, I want the chateaubriand today for lunch," said Flower. The words reminded Clarity of her experience in the Bahamas, where she´d experienced a twenty minute orgasm for the first time, with peaks and valleys, her longest climax ever.

"No, I keep the remote for now. What happened during the trip, how did you leave the Hexas Style Resort?" asked Clarity. She moved towards the window and opened the blinds, letting natural sunshine inside the room. The two women from Eleuthera, one naked, one clothed in Arabian Night clothing, went back to dancing. Clarity knew one of them from Eleuthera, the woman who searched for perfection by catching water from a fountain before it landed on the ground. She moved towards a large desk. On the desk was a guest book, which described the status of all the women in the room.

Clarity noticed the names of Taimi, Jenna, Flower, Lanai and Cynthia. They were special assigned consorts to the Emirate´s power broker, Hamir Bakal, a client of Scafarel´s Elony consort agency, providing items of sensual leisure including women, to the Emirate´s power elite, which comprised politicians, military heads, scientific mavens, and high finance prodigies. The book was signed with an ink pen, by all seven women in the room. Flower made the story simple, as everything else in her life was.

"Well, after we last saw you, we just came for hours, it was Avene Maxini and Scafarel, they started showing us the jade egg and these adult videos with women that we´d never seen, and providing these wonderful, small battery operated dental fixtures that could also be used as sex toys. We´d definitely never, ever seen or used these before, extremely refined and effectives items. Then, we were taken to Avalon´s plane, and they gave us caviar canapés after leaving the Bahamas. Finally, we woke up here, they must have put something in the caviar, I think I slept twenty three hours straight after I drank Avalon´s Earl Grey tea."

# Chapter Four

"Hide," said Lanai, her ear placed on the wall, "get out in the balcony with Cynthia, Mako´s searching the other room, room 506. I´ll take care of the remote for you, Clarity." Lanai extended her hand. Clarity kept Lanai´s stare, and lifted her eyebrows. The remote was attractive, extremely attractive, it even could be considered addictive, to some extent, that´s the conclusion Money Fact would have drawn. It was important to keep things under control, to let the girls know that the remote and her own self went together.

"No, I´ll keep the remote, you´re having a bit of trouble with it, I can see that," said Clarity. She pushed Cynthia in front of her and opened the sliding doors, stepping on the adobe tiles of the terrace. The woman from the fountain in Eleuthera, named Optesia, stepped outside as well, looking closely at the intricate Arabic geometrical patterns of a tile on the terrace wall. She was still looking for perfection, just as she was in Eleuthera.

"Don´t ever push the VIP button of the remote," she said. Clarity looked at the remote more closely. It was coated grey plastic, with a pleasant blue light backlit screen showing the ten digits and a lower panel with several buttons, among them the Champagne button, and one with the acronym VIP, written on it.

"Why not?" Optesia pressed the channel button to ensure the adult listing of Jim Holliday adult movies including Sex Sorority Kittens, was still there.

"Because Bakal is ruthless, he´ll take us to the hotel cellar and leave us there, drinking only wine. To be drunk all the time, it´s horrible, so far from perfection." Optesia´s sense of perfection was not on the same road as common sense and satisfaction, thought Clarity. But she sensed that the woman knew a lot of things which might be useful, when properly guided in conversation.

"Did you try the water fountain here as well Optesia? You know you can catch the water before it falls every time here, it´s easier than in the Bahamas, now you can feel perfect more easily."

"I Don´t trust the water, I drink only Nordic Mist tonic water."

"Because..."

"It´s made by Coca Cola, the perfect soft drink."

Clarity looked at the remote control battery cover, remembering the words of Money Fact, about the remote control code, 57819, which was etched on it. 'Fifty seven less one is fifty six, divided by seven is eight, eight is the third digit, watch out for that digit, there´s something odd in that digit. Then, notice, nine minus one, the fourth and fitfth digits, is eight, again the third digit, another sign that this remote control is special, there´s a numeral attractive notion towards the eighth digit. Press the champagne button of the remote carefully, and don´t drink the champagne, even if they tell you the champagne tastes like Möet & Chandon. It´s just not the case, Ko Phi & Nga is not French champagne, it´s Thai champagne, there´s something odd about it, it was made by a monk defending a monastery from intruders.'

Clarity glanced outside the window at the reclining bed and the palm tree near the beach house, offering a gorgeous view of Saadiyat Beach. A pool sign on the remote control device flashed the word Atarmia Spa. She wondered how it felt to be pampered at a Spa in such a nice setting in the Middle East. It was like living in Malibu, without the celebrities.

"Optesia, ever thought that number eight was perfect?" The eyes of Optesia beamed.

"Eight is the perfect number, it´s the number of success, wealth, and business, cycles, and dogged determination. If you place it horizontally, it´s the symbol of infinity. Infinity´s perfect, there´s no start and no finish."

Clarity lifted her index finger and pressed the Ko Phi & Nga champagne button of the remote again, this time really hoping Money Fact would be near them soon, with a rescue team, to rescue them from the hotel. She looked at the television panel and screen inside their room, room 508. The channel had changed to a local restaurant channel, the Kerala, advertising the Thai champagne, featured by top chefs like Atul Kochhar of the Benares Indian restaurant in London, and Laurent Pillard of the Burger Bar in Las Vegas. The floor inside them started to pivot, while the terrace lowered one foot in ten seconds.

"Get inside, the room´s moving, it´s perfect," said Optesia.

Within a few minutes the room had moved twenty feet away from Cynthia´s room, room 506, the room where Clarity had picked up the remote. Before them, another room appeared, a two level penthouse suite, and a metal curtain lowered on room 508. The girls flocked towards the double beds to watch the adult program showing, while Clarity checked the guest book signed by guests of the suite. There was a name from the night before. Carrelson Sterley, oil magnate, Fairplay, Colorado, population, 675. A beep interrupted the adult programming, during a crucial revelation moment. An attractive blond girl answering to the name of Nevena appeared onscreen instead, replacing the adult jungle movie about two naked women discovering fire for the first time near a lagoon, the fire of their arousal. The girls flocked to the minibar, making use of their time to try out snacks while the program was on hold.

"This is Nevena, I´m in charge of domotics and information technology here at the hotel. What room are you in, I´m speaking to the group, do you have permission to be in this room from Mr. Bakal, where is Montana Sterley?" Even Flower, normally talkative, was intimidated by the woman speaking harshly to them, dressed in a white cotton shirt revealing a perfect cleavage. Clarity stepped forward, trying to see the brand of the shirt. She wanted that cotton shirt, even if it meant leaving the woman speaking to her topless. She knew the shirt would look good on her, for some reason she liked white cotton clothes.

"We have permission," said Clarity. They even had the remote control but she wasn´t going to say that. She saw Nevena press a button and the television panel moved towards the window. Nevena had a camera looking through to the room, placed atop the television frame.

"Montana Sterley should be there, by the window, but she isn´t there. I´m alerting security to head for the penthouse suite," said Nevena, "don´t leave that room, someone will take you to another room and will ensure you´re using the proper remote control unit." Clarity took Optesia aside.

"Optesia, what does Domotics mean?"

"Domus Informatics, information technology in the home, air conditioning, heating, tv´s, stereos, appliances, lights, all controlled by a single device."

"I see, this woman, Nevena controls the whole hotel by pressing buttons on several devices, then," said Clarity.

"It´s a good guess," said Optesia, "close to perfect, it´s very good, you have very good intuition."

"Why only close to perfect?"

"There´s a single device which controls the hotel, not several, less work, I think this is Bakal´s private penthouse."

Clarity turned her back on the television screen and examined the remote control for an exit button. The closest she found was a pink button. Pink was a nice color, there should be something good associated with it. She pressed on the pink button of the remote towards the flat panel high definition television. A red laser beam flashed towards the tv set and a classified sign appeared onscreen on channel 108, the adult pay-per-view channel of the Park Hyatt in Abu Dhabi. The system requested a code, and she typed the five number code of the remote that she had memorized, 57819. The videotape was not a film by Andrew Blake, it was produced by Scafarel through Telval Studios, and was meant for Bakal, it showed a strategic dossier on Carrelson Sterley, the Colorado oil tycoon who was touring the Middle East with his twenty one year old daughter Montana, searching for possible oil and food segment buyout targets, and also for the Boustrophedon, to bring back to Fairplay in Colorado for the open air museum called South Park City.

The file on Carrelson Sterley was well prepared, it explained intimate details of his life, like how he always washed his Rolls Royce convertible Corniche from left to right, because it reminded him of reading a business report correctly. Carrelson Sterley enjoyed the company of beautiful women since his wife Kelly Jane had fled with a tennis instructor to a paradise island in the Pacific, with five thousand dollars, inside a private jet, a jet resold for cash to a Philipino wealthy businessman, while refueling in Fidji. With the cash, the couple lived happily in Fidji, where they had obtained a passport.

Carrelson Sterley did not know that, neither of those facts, despite hiring a local private detective. Since then, Montana´s father kept a rolodex of escort service agencies, and Scafarel provided some of the beautiful women he enjoyed for conversation and vigorous exercise, which is how he viewed lovemaking. He frequented the women and remembered their names to forget his wife, and the women remembered him, Kelly Caroline, Kelly Ann, and Kelly Shelley. Kelly Shelley reminded him of a new name for a Subway Combo sandwich, his favorite snack when traveling to the East Coast in the U.S.

A small screen appeared on the top left of the television screen images, a second side-screen showing Mako entering the room adjacent to Cynthia´s room, room 508, the room where she had found Lanai, finding Bakal there, looking for the Thai champagne bottles. She pressed the plus volume button to hear the conversation, and the report on Carrelson Sterley disappeared, replaced by a live view of room 508. Bakal was handsome, in his thirties, Mako wasn´t.

"Where are all the women and my remote? Do you have the no-explosion bottles?" asked Bakal.

"Cynthia Stevenson, one of the women must have taken the remote from your penthouse when you requested that the seven women from Hexas Style perform the Macarena dance for you. The bottles haven´t exploded this time, there´s thread around the cork, as with a usual bottle of champagne."

"Where are the women now?"

"In your penthouse, we think."

"That´s not far from here, can we look at the penthouse with the cameras?" said Bakal. He placed his right hand on his forehead, thinking. His shrewd uncle had taught him to think when problems arose. He hadn´t taught him how to think, though, which was sort of annoying as nephew.

"No, there´s something wrong with the domotic system. The women from Hexas Style are inside the hotel, we know that for a fact, they simply have a remote which is more than that, it´s an important domotic device, the one that should have been delivered to this room and was delivered to your penthouse instead. There´s another woman who came in today inside the Thai champagne boxes, you order that?"

"Another woman, no, the women are already here, and I thought you had the remote for me."

"We had the remote, and you also had it, we just didn´t know where it was at the time you had it."

"Where is it?"

"We don´t know, that´s why we´re here, otherwise you´d be in your penthouse."

Mako lifted a large box atop his shoulders, wobbling forward to the bed.

"Here are the Ko Phi & Nga champagne boxes you requested, the thread in the bottles indicates the information you requested is part of the boxes." The corpulent Hyatt employee pointed to a trolley carrying several woodden boxes filled with champagne. Bakal used an axe lowered from the ceiling to break the wood of two boxes.

"The full code of the remote is there, etched in one of the bottles, according to Scafarel, and I need that code and the remote to watch the strategic file on Sterley and his business interests, and to find my own pathway of adult pleasure. Carrelson Sterley´s not buying any of my companies, I want to know more about his private life instead, and about that Boustrophedon, the famous code of pleasure Scafarel discussed with me in private, in the yacht, the yacht that I paid, with the money I earned, those hundreds of thousands of dollars I keep in the yacht as spare money, but that weren´t enough to grant me access to her personal pleasure coaching services." Bakal stared at Mako, expecting an answer. Mako growled, knowing an answer was expected of him.

"You want me to tell you you´re rich?"

"Wealthy, but rich is fine."

"You´re rich, it´s true, you have a lot of money, it may not be enough, but it´s a lot of money, I´d say that." Mako looked at Bakal with sullen eyes, knowing the statement was correct, wondering whether Bakal would request something else.

"Thank you, I needed that," said Bakal, tapping the desk with his fingers. He wanted to bed Scafarel´s assistant, Avene Maxini, in order to know the secrets of sexual ecstasy, and he knew that the women in the penthouse would allow him to do that, for Maxini, twenty five, liked attractive women, as much as men.

# Chapter Five

Clarity pushed the stop button of the remote to stop the report on Carrelson Sterley. A set of indications flashed onscreen, maintenance room 3L, near the conference room, on the fifth floor. She looked at the women from Hexas Style, they were frolicking in the bed, changing positions and choreographies reminiscent of sexual yoga. In front of her, Jenna was ensuring Lanai´s thong was in place, while Taimi checked the thong of Jenna, and Lanai buttoned Flower´s jeans, covering a hugging belly chain with rings and red gem made by Shanell. Cynthia was dancing, showing her back to them, in particular the bead bouncing off her sacrum, observed by Flower.

"I mean, you´re just enjoying this way of life here," said Clarity, "you genuinely like pleasure so much now as to forget everything else, was it Scafarel or Maxini who did that?"

"Scafarel put us in the Jacuzzi for five hours here, the swirling whirlpools did the rest, it feels really good on your lower body, Clarity, you should try it. Still, now that we´re here, it´s less scary to do this than to think we´re trapped," said Flower, "it´s not a bad strategy. How does this bead work exactly Cynthia?"

Clarity searched the drawers of one of the desks and found a diagram of the hotel. She found the sketch corresponding to the fifth floor and during several minutes searched for room 3L. The architect of the hotel had tampered with the layout, room 3L, room 3L, was inside the conference room, and the conference room was the real name of... Her finger followed the reference to the next page. Her eyes widened. The conference room was the Penthouse, the Penthouse suite on the fifth floor where they were. She turned the diagram clockwise to align the positioning of the room with the position of room 3L. Room 3L was in the back towards her left. The bathroom, she thought, room 3L was bathroom number three on the second floor, which no one had explored yet.

She walked upstairs and entered bathroom 3, noticing a large television set that was showing a well made aerobics adult film. She found a closet in the bathroom corresponding to room 3L and opened the door, coming face to face with a naked girl with long, blond hair, Montana Sterley, screwdriver in hand, ready to work on the cabling system relayed to the television screen.

"Finally, my father came through, you´re with police or security, I hope coming to get me out of here?" The question took Clarity off guard. She wasn´t used to working undercover because she wasn´t sure she was an agent, Money Fact had said nothing to that effect, to the effect of being part of the Sensual Intelligence Brigade of Central Intelligence. She gave the girl a towel, which flew out instantly into the bathtub. Montana liked to walk around naked when she was working.

"Not exactly police, Sensual Intelligence Brigade," said Clarity. She mumbled the next sentence. "I´m a beginning agent." Montana Sterley didn´t flinch, she looked into the eyeballs of Clarity and seemed appeased by the girl´s honest, gentle look. She looked beyond Clarity. Seven women were peeking inside the bathroom.

"You look like a teleoperator," said Montana. Clarity became pale.

"How did you know, we barely met, I met you barely, that is, I mean you don´t know me."

"One of your friends is showing a photo of you to the other women, with one of those cordless headphones with a microphone." Clarity turned around and saw Lanai explaining to Optesia the flower sprinkler system working at the entrance of Stevenson Garden Products in Malibu, and Clarity´s role as teleoperator there.

"They wanted to know who you are," said Lanai. Clarity sighed. So much for Brigade Intelligence undercover identity. Montana stepped in front of Clarity and the women, and left the bathroom, jumping on the large bed with a quilt, reaching for her jeans.

"Good, I need some Sensual Intelligence to fix this adult film mess here."

Montana requested the remote control, ensuring channel 108 was still putting out adult content. Using a small pen drive that she carried with her Ralph Lauren clothes, she was taping all adult films to resell them in Hong Kong, where the Pentatone Learning Systems remote control device had been manufactured, in order to buy the company distributing the remote, the SOCAL company. Bakal had received a concession from the makers of the remote to import the remotes in Abu Dhabi, in exchange for showing adult films produced by Scafarel´s Telval in luxury hotels. Clarity and Montana came back inside the bathroom to pick up Montana´s clothes. The television screen stopped showing the adult feature, replaced by Nevena, dressed in white lingerie. Montana glared at the woman.

"That´s my Aubade number fifty three underwear set, give it back to me."

"Your money and your father are powerless here, we own this hotel, we own your lingerie, we own you in fact," said Nevena. Optesia came inside the room and took both girls out of the bathroom.

"They know where we are, they want the remote, we have to hold on to it to get out of here. Only Avene Maxini knows the full reach of the remote, it opens the deepest avenues of pleasure for the wealthy and the powerful and the well known, the established global elite."

"Does it open the avenues of pleasure for us as well?" asked Flower, "I like the idea of becoming part of the global selected few who live well in posh avenues of good clothing gear and refined jewelry."

Montana stepped towards the large balcony of the suite, filled with a large ficus shrub. A line of ten large cars, all painted black, was entering the hotel. The Colorado cowgirl reached for the remote control and switched channels until she reached Abu Dhabi News Front on channel nine, the channel of the hotel itself. The voice of Nevena announced the changes at the hotel leisurely and calmly.

"The hotel is now closed to new customers, as the SoftSide adult industry conference will be held in the hotel for the week. Please get your access badge at the front desk. All guests and passengers coming into Abu Dhabi from the airport or from Dubai will be sent to other luxury hotels, at the Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, with a view on the Arabian Gulf, at the Emirates Palace on West Corniche Road, or at the Yas Abu Dhabi on Yas Island. We hope you have a pleasant stay in Abu Dhabi." For the next hour, Clarity heard all the rooms of the hotel emptying. All the guests were leaving. She tried opening the penthouse´s door leading to the corridor. It was closed.

Clarity heard a beep. Montana reached for her jeans, showing her backside to Clarity, and held an Apple iPhone in her hands.

"It´s Nevena, she just loves to tease me, Bakal is asking my father for ransom, two hundred seventy three million, eight hundred forty three thousand two hundred seventy eight dollars. The two seventy eight is what I´ve spent on adult films so far here, the eight hundred forty three thousand correspond to the price of a Lamborghini sponsored by Virgin that my father bought at Dubai duty free. Good, good, I got over two hundred million dollars in value, my five year allowance, now my father will take me seriously."

"You´re glad your life has a price?" asked Clarity.

"I tell my father to start putting me on the Board of Directors of his companies, I know I can add economic value added to them, net operating profit after tax, minus capital employed, which is working capital plus inventory, or equity plus long term debt, times weighted average cost of capital. He says I´m too young to add value, twenty one is not too young, it´s the right time to start taking over businesses. Can you call some additional Intelligence, like backup, like Special Forces backup, like assault forces I mean?"

"No, I´m it, backup and forefront." Montana eyed Clarity´s breastline.

"Well, you may be good, but it may take a while to get out of here, then, hotel security is pretty sturdy, you know. God, I know I´m going to end up like Paris Hilton, I just know it, naked on the internet, and it bugs me, it bugs me because she did it at twenty, and I´m twenty one. I knew this take over idea in the Middle East to grow new food markets wasn´t good."

Clarity looked at the perfect breasts of Montana while one of the women gave her an Intimissimi dentelle bra fitting her thirty six, apple shaped breast size. Montana turned her back on Clarity and placed the bra on her breasts.

"Where´s your father?" asked Clarity.

"Not sure, my father could be anywhere, it´s Kelly Heather´s turn this week, I think," said Montana.

"This is not happening," said Clarity, "we´re in the Hyatt, a nice western hotel, but there are no phone lines, no internet, no wireless connection other than with the hotel, and we have no badge to move around here or get out."

Clarity looked outside the terrace of the penthouse. Several cars were blocking access to the entrance of the hotel, delivering cases of champagne from Chile, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. No one was leaving or entering the hotel without a champagne bottle, or more importantly, without Hamir Bakal´s authorization, the authorization of the official power broker of the Emir, the only man in the Emirate who drank Thai champagne instead of the traditional, luxury brands of Dom Perignon or Moët et Chandon. She heard the noise of several tumblers near the entrance door lock.

"The domotic system´s working again, all doors are locked, we can´t get out of here," said Optesia, "this is not perfect, it´s not perfection at all, it´s very imperfect, close to flawed. It´s the woman with the silver butterfly."

# Chapter Six

Montana donned her jeans and shirt and stared at Optesia.

"Who´s the woman with the silver butterfly," said Montana.

"Avene Maxini, put on channel fifty three, it´s her channel, where she shows up making love with Nevena some times, for show."

The women frowned. They didn´t like channel fifty three, because it meant performing for Maxini to get lunch or dinner. They sat together on one of the king sized beds, as though getting ready for a pajama party.

Clarity looked at the large television screen at saw a navel shown at close up range, showing below it a small, silver butterfly delicately moving in pendulum motion, sustained by an intricate belly chain made of silver.

"That´s the navel of Avene Maxini," said Optesia.

"Live?" asked Montana.

"I´m pretty sure, the silver butterfly looks authentic," said Optesia, walking closer to the screen. Clarity used the remote to zoom out of the navel and a gorgeous face appeared.

"This is Avene Maxini, you better listen to me if you want your next lunch."

Avene Maxini was twenty five years old, she had shoulder length brown hair, brown eyes, and the tanned body and flat stomach of a fitness woman used to doing aerobics every day. She was wearing a black and pink tank top which said 'profitable and employed', and which left her navel naked and visible. She clasped the silver butterfly moving from her navel with her index finger, swaying it left and right, left and right, left and right.

"Stop that," said Clarity. She spoke to the screen to see if there was a camera filming them. Maxini placed her hand on the butterfly to stop the swaying movement and moved her face closer to the screen.

"Sterley, I want to see you, meet us outside the penthouse in three minutes with that other woman holding the remote, and bring the remote," said Maxini. The screen flashed a bright white light and turned off. Clarity tried turning the television set on, but it wouldn´t respond to the remote. The same thing happened with other channels, the remote wasn´t working after the white light flashed onscreen. Montana donned her loafers and moved towards the kitchen area, grabbing a glass. Clarity observed her flawless backside, nice and firm, and round. Nothing to say, she could become a member of Sun on the Rocks, number seven on the synchronized swimming team.

"We´re in trouble," said Montana, "I´m going to need all of your intelligence, your sensual intelligence specially. Maxini´s after my money, she wants to break me, and to sleep with me and with Nevena at the same time."

"We´d be in trouble even if she only wanted to see us, it seems that she owns this place," said Clarity, "we can´t get out unless she says so."

"She doesn´t own this place, my father´s a shareholder of the Hyatt. She wants my father to sell all of his shares for a dollar, in exchange for me, that´s why the hotel´s closed to tourists this week. All of this is happening because I refused to be with her and two other wealthy women for a week at a resort in the Bahamas. Have a glass of water, we have a minute and a half left." Sitting in a chair in the back looking at the terrace, Flower pointed towards Clarity.

"Hide that remote, if Maxini finds it, we don´t get out of here." Clarity nodded, the remote controlled the domotic system, and the domotic system sometimes worked according to the remote´s frequency. After careful deliberation, they decided to place it in the room´s safe.

"It´s the most obvious place," said Clarity.

"It may be obvious, but I just changed the combination, they´ll have to work through 999 numbers to open it." Clarity glanced at Flower, who was drawing, sketching something on a pad.

"The ficus in the terrace," said Flower, "hide it in the pot, buried."

"Better idea," said Montana. She opened the safe and threw the remote to Clarity, who caught it with her right hand.

"Fifty nine seconds," said Cynthia, looking at her steel bracelet Rolex Datejust with a pink dial. Taimi, Jenna and Lanai walked towards Flower, who was drawing a picture of her earring, which Maxini´s boss, Cassandra Scafarel, still had. Across the earring, she drew the shape of a Buddha, oddly looking like Buddha Talk.

"You don´t mean you like Buddha Talk?"

"I´m not sure, he said he´d take me to ecstasy, I´m starting to believe in sexual ecstasy."

"And before, you believed in what?"

"In sexual," said Flower.

"Sexual?"

"Just sexual, I mean sex, wasn´t sure about love, because I thought if you mix sex and love, you might get pregnant."

"You might get pregnant in any case," said Clarity, "I mean, Penelope is more attractive than Buddha Talk." Flower ensured Buddha Talk was depicted in a lotus position.

"Anyway, I know Buddha Talk takes precautions, I give him the benefit of the doubt on ecstasy, on ecstasy with me, that is."

"With you and seventy eight other women."

"I don´t give any benefit to the other women."

Lanai opened a drawer and instead of St. James Bible, found a copy of Decadence, the book addressing pleasure, the shortcomings of pleasure, and the various ways to address them.

"They really live by an adult code of leisure, here," said Lanai, "I wonder if it´s used in prayer."

Clarity sprinted to the terrace with the remote in her hand. An icon previously unnotticed drew her attention. There was a silver butterfly button in the back of the remote. She thought of Money Fact and pressed on the button, a courageous agent would do that, she thought. Then, she planted the remote control below the earth of the pot, carefully covering it. Hopefully, it was an earth and dust resistant remote. The entrance door unlocked. It was time to meet Maxini, the ultra goddess of pleasure that Money Fact had told her to avoid.

The door lock tumbler turned, indicating it was time for the corridor meeting. Clarity opened the entrance door and walked out to the corridor, followed by Montana, who donned a cashmere, cream color turtleneck sweater. Less than forty feet away, Avene Maxini was walking briskly with Nevena, followed by Bakal and five large security agents dressed in black suits, all speaking through cordless radios, two of them carrying a cell phone. Mako closed the caravane, pushing a cart filled with a full dinner, including warm food covered by a silver cover. Maxini stopped in front of Montana, throwing a proud look to her and to Clarity, who noticed that Nevena was eyeing her.

"The remote, Sterley." Montana crossed her arms.

"We don´t have the remote." Maxini eyed one of the security guards, who spoke for several seconds in Arabic. Clarity threw a glance at Bakal, he was holding a bottle of Ko Phi & Nga Champagne in his hands, examining the label at a slanted angle.

"They must have found the camera on/off button, we lost track of the room for a few minutes, we´ll have to search for the remote," answered the agent. Maxini lifted her head and stared at Montana. Clarity noticed that her tank top was different, it now said 'Profitable, still employed."

"You know what you´re going to do," said Maxini, "if you want to leave this place, that is. Your father´s on his way to Colorado, he couldn´t find his passport," she said, holding a U.S. passport in her hand. Nevena extended a rectangular cell phone device in front of them, looking for Montana´s passport. She found it in Montana´s back pocket and grabbed it in victory. Montana growled.

"I´m not shooting an adult film here, not while you´re watching, if anything, I´ll do it with my own production company, but I´ll do that in L.A. that´s where the adult industry is, and if I do it, I´ll do it for my protection, so that no one knows my real identity as the daughter of a Colorado oil billionnaire. I won´t work for you or for Scafarel or for Telval Studios. Ever." Maxini smiled.

"Never say the N word, say the name Nevena instead. You´re just scared, Montana, you´ll shoot adult here in the hotel, with the other eight women in that room, and you´ll all be broadcast in the Emirates most powerful homes, from our adult channel, the one you watched all night the first night you slept here, when I came to bring you dinner acting like a maid." Montana lifted her index finger to mean no.

"No go, can´t do that, can´t shoot adult, my father will refuse to put me in any Board of Directors, I´m not going the way of Paris Hilton, period. I´m not sleeping with you either." Montana stared at the security guards, who all looked away, moving their heads to their right in unison.

"That´s not an option anymore, sleeping with me is not valid with Cassandra, you have to shoot adult, Mr. Bakal paid for that," said Maxini. Bakal scratched his forehead and lifted the dinner tray, uncovering a lobster. Mako handed him a nut cracker to crack the lobster pinces.

"I thought you could seduce any woman," said Montana.

"I can have twenty four hours of sex, you can´t and you won´t learn how to, because you or your father won´t find the Boustrophedon and its hidden code of pleasure."

# Chapter Seven

Clarity and Montana showed Maxini and Bakal inside the penthouse. Bakal tested the door access plastic card several times, until the green light indicating the door was opening, worked consistently. Mako pushed the lunch tray inside the penthouse.

"The domotic system´s working again," said Bakal. Maxini walked straight through to the sofa area and pushed sideways the frame of a modern pattern by Kandinsky. Behind the painting was a mechanism activating a hidden camera. Maxini pressed on it, and the painting turned into a screen. Within seconds, Maxini rewinded footage to see Clarity hide the remote in the terrace, and Scafarel´s assistant walked outside, recovering the remote minutes later.

"Everyone´s looking at us from different angles, at different times," said Flower, "we´re models."

"We´re letting you eat this time, get ready to peform, we´re coming with the cameras at six o´clock, put on what´s in the bunny box so you can take if off during shooting." Clarity saw Mina bring a large carton gift box which included a large ribbon.

After eating their late lunch, Clarity opened the bunny box, it was filled with scantily bride outfits.

"The name of the film is 'Arabian brides on a weekend together', said Sterley, "Maxini wants to turn me into her bride." She glanced at the window, noticing a man washing the glass, carried through each floor by a truss and platform.

"I have an idea," said Clarity.

The man washing the windows, a good man named Habib, thought his luck changed on that day, thinking that christianity wasn´t so bad after all. He saw Clarity and Montana hop on his platform, dressed as scantily brides. Montana was wearing a see-through, embroidered lace mini-skirt gown made by Zahia Dehar, a risque designer known for fitting light clothing gear to women headed for the altar.

The Colorado heiress was holding a bouquet of white, sun tolerant azaleas and her head was covered by a veil. Clarity wore a G-string bikini brief wedding dress, made of tiny segments of fabric joined together by a main body white strip, enshrouded with a vaporous white veil, all made by Kaviar Gauche, and shown at the Mercedes Fashion week in Berlin, creating agitation and ado and commotion in fashion circles. Both of them wore high heeled platforms. Montana was wearing a large green emerald replica on her forehead, held by a metal chainlet. They explained to the hotel window cleaner that the emerald was a camera and that they were shooting an adult film.

"Yes, I know, me adult, you adult too, me like you and green stone, where is camera?" asked Habib.

"It´s in the emerald my friend is wearing," said Clarity, turning her back on the window-cleaning man.

"Pull us down to the ground floor, we´re shooting Arabian Brides window washing," said Montana. She held the squeegee and ran it downwards across the window, staying in balance by pressing on Clarity´s bum. After several minutes of frantic window-cleaning, the girls reached the ground floor and Habib opened the gate to let them out of the platform.

"We are married now," said Habib.

"Well, we´re married to each other," said Clarity, pointing to Montana, "but you are our best man."

"Best?" asked Habib. The truss screeched upward carrying the Hyatt employee with the platform, raised and lowered by steel cables, secured by davit arms on the roof.

"It means good, nice, champion, the one, being on the 212 guest list of Carolina Herrera," said Montana.

"Two one two, you two, one two left, three more women," said Habib, lifting his platform again.

"Me go to penthouse floor again for more women, missing one two of two one two, me count well, five not two."

Clarity and Montana entered the lobby, looking for regular clients, to alert them of their being prisoner at the hotel. They found a couple carrying their luggage to the airport shuttle, one of the last guests to leave the hotel.

"Sir, we´re trapped here at the hotel, there´s a man who wants to own us," said Montana.

The man, dressed in tweed pants and brown turtleneck turned around and smiled, without making much of a fuss. He was carrying a copy of a book on the sacred feminine and his wife was carrying part two of the book, a book speaking of a lost symbol.

"It´s not a very appropriate dress code you´re wearing, you know we´re in the Emirates."

"It´s not our dress code, sir," said Montana, "but we´re available to keep you and your wife sacred feminine company. Where are you flying tonight?"

"New York, via Dubai and London."

"We´re going with you," said Montana, "I have to return my dress in London to Zahia Dehar."

The woman spoke to the driver of the van.

"Mako, get these ladies out of here, they´re bothering us."

Clarity looked through the windshield, it was Mako indeed. Before her, a row of official cars blocked all access to the road, among them a navy blue Mercedes E 350 coupe. Several agents got off their cars. Exit out of the hotel, to the airport, was difficult, not impossible, but difficult, thought Clarity.

"Let´s go inside, Montana, there´s no exit here," said Clarity.

"There´s no exit inside, exit is outdoors."

"I know, but there may be a phone."

They ran across the lobby, watched by a security guard, who was yelling in Arabic to go back to their room. From the door leading to the garden and the pool, they saw Avene Maxini speaking with Penelope Avalon, the spokesperson of the Elony beauty lotion, the beauty product of Scafarel that was sold illegally throughout the Caribbean, pending FDA approval. Clarity picked up a reception phone and dialed Donway´s number, pushing aside the receptionist with a hip movement. His voicemail answered, she decided to leave a message.

"Donway, we´re at the Hyatt, the Park Hyatt in Abu Dhabi, get Money Fact, quickly, we found Maxini," said Clarity, before putting down the receiver.

"It´s her, the one on the right, she´s responsible for the debacle at Hexas Style," said Avalon. Maxini placed her cell phone in the pocket of her jeans.

"We have them, they´re cornered at reception, turn off the phone system, no more outside calls."

# Chapter Eight

Clarity stood behind the reception counter, watching Mina, who was in charge of reception, move away towards the lobby area, with a look of apprehension on her face. Maxini was speaking on her cell phone, as though taking orders, fifty feet away, while Penelope Avalon stepped inside the coffee shop area to order a glass of Red Bull with fresh mint and tonic water, her favorite drink. Five guards appeared out of nowhere, dressed in wrestling gear. Clarity pressed on Montana´s head who slid below the counter with the reception phone.

"We´re not getting out of here," said Clarity, hiding behind the desk. Montana was trying to call her father with the reception phone, but the line was going dead each time she dialed the U.S. country code, one. The five security guards carrying cordless two-way radios had changed into wrestling outfits, because they were going to be involved in the 'Arabian Brides' adult film. Mako guided the first security guard, who was wearing a Brute Great Britain flag sublimated International Wrestling singlet, an ideal wrestling gift according to the makers of the outfit. The guard dismantled Montana´s hideout place behind the reception counter. He tripped on an electricity cable deftly placed by Montana, and recovered the reception computer screen used for reservations with his hands before his face crushed the screen.

Bending his legs like a sumo wrestler, he lifted Montana and placed her on his shoulder, her head facing his back. A second security guard approached Clarity, who made several, football side stepping moves that she had seen linebacks do before they hit offense. A third guard wearing a wrestling singlet that said 'looking for Arabian bride', pushed the second guard´s shyness away, sending him forward towards Clarity. The guard simply took Clarity by the waist and lifted her straight up. Clarity observed that he was wearing the patented Cliff Keen four-strap foam Signature Wrestling Headgear, the best-selling wrestling ear guard of all time. Clarity threw a glance at the lobby of the hotel. Lest for the agents, Maxini, Nevena and Avalon, the lobby was empty. She gulped, feeling the discomfort of those about to perform. She tried whispering to him as they were led to the lifts of the hotel.

"Put me down, I´ll teach you several words in Engligh, you´ll rise up the hotel ladder here, and become employee of the month." The guard ignored the gentle offer repeated by Clarity for clarity. Clarity lost a platform and tapped on the guard´s ear with her hand.

"My platform, my foot´s feeling too light." The guard kneeled to the floor and picked up the shoe, bringing it to her hands. Clarity grabbed the shoe and smacked the guard´s back with it.

"Stop tickle," said the guard. She used her hands to steer away from the elevator panel and Montana´s head, as the guards stepped in the elevator with the other three agents bumping in. The elevator was full.

"We´ll take another elevator," said Maxini. The door panels closed and the soft sound of the girl from Ipanema filled the enclosed area.

"Can you press floor five," said one of the agents, speaking to Clarity.

"Can´t reach it, I´m too high, your friend carrying my friend should be able to reach it." Clarity´s guard moved left and her face came against Montana´s bum cheeks, brushing them. Montana´s guard turned around suddenly to reach for the elevator floor button, and her lips met Montana´s lips unintentionally. Montana blushed and recovered her composure, while Clarity´s hand kept pushing off the lacquered far panel of the elevator. The guards played musical chairs until one of them was able to hit the fifth elevator floor, leading to the penthouse. Clarity looked at the panel of the elevator and recognized the design of the Boustrophedon, the same stone Lanai had studied in Eleuthera, Bahamas, at Scafarel´s Hexas Style resort. Quite possibly, the code of pleasure and sexual ecstasy was before her eyes.

"Can you move closer to the wall, there´s a code of pleasure I need to examine." Hearing the word pleasure, all five agents turned around towards the panel simultaneously, and Clarity found herself staring at the elevator door panels, her body carried on the shoulder of a guard who was wearing an NYPD wrestling singlet, and was lifting her like a feather. The elevator doors opened and she came face to face with Maxini, who was swaying her navel butterfly gently. Avalon had disappeared, but Maxini was wearing her pink tank top, indicating they had swapped clothing tops purportedly, in a decadent act of clothing exchange.

"Bring them to the penthouse, you are going to be part of a harem for life," said Maxini, "because you created havoc at Hexas Style. No one harms Cassandra Scafarel´s interests, or prevent a single bottle of Elony lotion from being sold."

"Elony´s not my notion of beauty."

"I said lotion."

"I know, my notion´s different, there´s no lotion in my notion."

"My motion could change your notion, you don´t know the meaning of beauty. You´ll be the perfect gift for a harem," said Maxini, scoffing at her.

"You´re kidding, there are no harems today," said Clarity taking a closer look at the geometric pattern of the corridor´s carpet.

"You´re right, we´re innovators, you´re among the first in a revival," said Maxini. Clarity saw that Maxini wasn´t kidding or in a mood to do so. They stepped inside the penthouse and one of the guards dropped her on one of the twin beds. Nevena spoke to Maxini.

"The domotic system´s not working, something got inside the remote I think, earth, or dust, creating a problem with the front doors at the entrance. This is all because it was made in China."

"Let´s go to the maintenance area where the cameras are," said Maxini. He turned to Clarity and Montana. "Mr. Bakal will be here any minute, he´ll be with you all night."

"Who are you spending the night with?" asked Montana.

"Penelope Avalon," said Maxini. Scafarel´s assistant closed the door behind her, leaving Clarity and Montana with the security guards and her friends.

"Why did you ask her that?" asked Clarity.

"I sort of like her, she annoys me, but I sort of like her assertiveness. Avalon turns me on, she´s so sexy and nice and good looking and healthy."

"I know, she´s very healthy and she´s sweet as well, but Maxini´s not on our side, you can´t befriend her, it´s not good for you."

"Yeah, but I know where she´s sleeping tonight, and with whom."

Night time was approaching in Abu Dhabi, it was nearly eight in the evening. The girls had a light dinner, a few pieces of chicken and a small dish of pasta with oregano and organic tomato sauce. Together with the seven other women and including her friends, Clarity and Montana negotiated a strip bridge card game delaying tactic, to prevent the five guards from simply taking off their clothes and creating a bums up row of attractive women in sexercise position, wearing embroidery to cover their breasts and midline parts, leaving their bottoms in open view.

"Do you know how to play bridge?" asked Clarity.

"No, that´s the whole point, while we learn how to play bridge, they can´t shoot the film. Believe me, bridge is complicated."

A guard turned on the large screen television set of the penthouse manually, and a couple appeared, having a candlelight dinner, discussing a SoftSide adult package on the table. Clarity´s guard scratched his head.

"This, not adult," said the guard, "us night adult with you, Mr. Bakal said that."

"Press one zero eight, it´s the adult channel, that way, you won´t have to play bridge," said Montana. The guard followed Montana´s indication, pressing the channel plus button, until the pay-per-view clear blue screen showing five adult titles appeared.

An advertisement flashed onscreen before the film feature 'Arabian Brides pre-nuptials' started to show two maids kneeling on a tiled floor in underwear, supervised by an attractive woman executive supervising the maids´positions. The adult channel was available to well-to-do households in the Emirates, in addition to being available at the Park Hyatt. Access cost was one thousand dollars a year, and adult content was available only to those purchasing the Pentatone Scale Adult Learnings Systems remote offered and imported by Bakal on an exclusive license.

# Chapter Nine

After the adult program finished, Clarity convinced the security guards to leave the room, recommending them to learn the rules of bridge so that the game of strip bridge with them could be carried out properly. The guards agreed only because Montana agreed to show them briefly the Colorado twin mountains she embodied gracefully. Clarity walked to the minibar, looking for organic juice, finding a bottle of apricot juice. Refreshed by the taste of fruit, she changed clothes, getting rid of her slightly uncomforatable bridal suit, replacing it with jeans and a pink color crew neck made of light wool. The penthouse was gorgeous, it was spaceous and clean and luxurious, a place difficult to leave or ignore in its lush splendor.

"How many cameras are there here in the penthouse?" asked Clarity.

"Including the terrace?"

"Is that relevant?"

"It is if you want to tan naked."

"Yes, in total."

"Seventy three or so," said Montana, "that´s what Maxini told me the night she wanted to sleep with me. Maxini wants to ensure Bakal has a good adult experience with us, and Bakal wants to ensure he takes a good look at the women in the penthouse, namely us, while we undress, in order to learn refined sexual techniques and bed Maxini, and, or, Scafarel." Clarity walked to the night table of one of the twin beds and noticed a moving picture of Bakal inside an Apple Ipad. The iPad acted like a television screen and showed Bakal in his private office.

"Hi," said Bakal, "security just reported, you´re trading my men for me, but someone´ll be watching you."

Clarity focused on a digital ten inch photo frame behind Bakal. It showed a navy blue Mercedes E 350 photograph, exactly like the one in the Hyatt´s parking lot. Bakal got up and walked to the frame photograph, touching the Mercedes passenger front door on the photo frame.

"Mako, get my gym stuff in the front seat, the car´s open, pick up my briefcase here in my room, I´m going to the stock exchange tomorrow, to check on SOCAL´s stock from my second floor office, the stock´s been doing well lately. Look for my car keys, can´t find them, may have left them in the pool or in the car." Bakal turned around and spoke through the television screen, talking to the women in the penthouse.

"Have a good night, tomorrow, we start shooting, look at my private channel, one zero seven, you have to look at me and what I do to start getting to know me."

Clarity guessed the car belonged to Bakal, and thought there had to be a way to get in the trunk to get out of the hotel when Bakal drove the car out to the city. She threw a cocus with the women.

"I don´t think we can get out, not with those brute force security guys guarding the hotel," said Flower, "we´re better off staying here and enjoying our stay, compliments of the Hyatt." Jenna, Taimi, and Cynthia, agreed with Flower.

"I think it´s a good idea to leave the Hyatt, but I don´t want to risk it," said Lanai. Montana stepped forward.

"I´ll do it, I´ll go with you." Clarity looked at Montana´s sparkling eyes. Same volunteer as with the window washing incident. This time, Clarity wanted odds on her side. They accessed Bakal´s private television channel at the Hyatt, which enumerated his credentials, his access to wealthy individuals in the Emirate, and his corporate achievements. The remote control distributing company in the Emirates was called SOCAL, it stood for 'Soft Channel Adult Light'.

The remote was manufactured by Pentatone Scale Learning Systems and came from Asia. Clarity moved to the television screen and froze the image on a skyscraper in Hong Kong. Maybe, she thought, the image was touch-screen. She counted fifty seven windows, matching the digits of the remote, and pressed on the Cheung Kong Center skyscraper. A yin yang symbol made of bronze flashed onscreen and a monk dressed in orange robe sprung out of the oriental symbol, which itself had come out of the skyscraper.

"Pentatone Scale Learning Service, how may I help your initiation?" A flash of clarity went through Clarity´s head. Using Maxini, Scafarel was creating a group of women who were initiated into ancient methods of pleasure, now she was certain of that. She reacted as Scafarel would, instead of reacting like Optesia and the other women.

"Information on SOCAL please, Abu Dhabi, including ownership structure."

"SOCAL is quoted in the Abu Dhabi stock exchange, advisors include Holy Flower´s Project Finance group, and Cassandra Scafarel´s Telval Studios s.p.a. company, owners of the Elony franchise, location, Bahrain. Please provide your Pentatone decryptor confirmation code for further information."

"Time for channel one zero eight, the adult channel, I´m starting to understand how this works." The voice of the monk spoke through the television speakers with crystal clear clarity to Clarity, who typed the three digit number of the hotel´s adult channel.

"Confirmation code accepted. Have a pleasant evening with Soft Channel Adult Light, may you also see the light of the beautiful woman with clarity."

"They´re speaking about you," said Lanai.

"No, this is generic clarity," said Clarity.

The yin-yang symbol retracted inside the Hong Kong skyscraper, and an adult program showing a naked woman meditating replaced the business district view of Hong Kong. After ten minutes, the woman donned a silk robe and explained the exciting business opportunities arising in Asia for the Middle East entrepreneur. Montana pressed the pause button of the program.

"You forget we´re being filmed," said Montana. The Colorado girl looked around, seeking a camera inside the self bands and the fabric of an elliptical lampshade. She ran her hand along the fabric covering of the lampshade and tapped on the wooden dangles atop the lamp finding a small, round glass button perched atop a thin, flexible vertical pole made of metal.

"Get me some nail polish, here´s one camera, let´s cover the glass."

"Yes, there´s seventy two cameras left, Montana, they might not check the relevant part of the camera footage, otherwise they´ll be spending hours just seeing what we´re doing. We´ll sleep outside at the poolside." Lanai and Flower wanted to go as well, and Cynthia and Taimi supported their idea, but Clarity was firm with them, driving their attention towards Cynthia´s bead and the possible connection with yet unexplored areas of pleasure. They had to distract security.

"Tell the guards to keep looking for the gate of pleasure," said Clarity, "play hide and seek in the dark with the gate of pleasure, Lanai remembers what she read in Decadence." Clarity opened the door and the guards rushed in to play hide and seek with the women. Within minutes, the guards were in the dark in the function room, a specific area dedicated to adult activity, looking for the girls and their underwear, in any order. Clarity held Montana by the hand, while the Colorado girl grabbed a bed quilt, and they opened the door leaving the penthouse, immediately heading for the emergency stairs.

"I know where to break, at the first floor there´s the spa, we go there and we go down a set of stairs leading to the pool."

"Why the quilt?"

"I like to sleep in a cozy place," said Montana. After taking the first floor stairs, they reached the door access to the pool area.

"Stay here," said Clarity.

Clarity opened the door leading to the hotel poolside, finding a large white cotton towel left by guests. She breathed the fresh night air of the nearby sea and glanced at the pool lit with several spotlights beaming light to the tiled pool bottom. The poolside was empty. She sat on a lounge chair and saw Montana tip toe towards her with the white quilt.

"We´re ready to sleep, do you see the car key?"

Clarity walked on the white tiles of the poolside and glanced at the pool bottom. After a few minutes, she noticed a small, rectangular grey shape at the bottom.

"There it is, he must have left the car remote in his swimming trunks." Clarity dove in the pool and got the remote control. The pool temperature was nice, around eighty degrees. She used the towel to dry her body, feeling refreshed.

"Let´s use the beach and get inside the car around six, that way we´ll sleep five or six hours until ten, which is when Bakal will be leaving.

"How do we get out of the trunk?"

"We keep this remote." Clarity pressed on a button and a rectangular car key sprung out.

"And Bakal?"

"He´ll find another car key, must have a double, or he´ll pay for one."

# Chapter Ten

Clarity looked at her watch, it was nearly one AM, time to find Bakal´s car and leave the Hyatt. Montana and her crossed the poolside area of the Park Hyatt and reached the beachfront.

"Let´s take a skinny dip," said Montana.

"You like the naked lifestyle?"

"I´ve had it up to here with constraint, school, private classes to get into Harvard, ballet classes, debate, hiking weekends to get in shape. Naked allows me to be me."

"Let´s do it, and then go to the car while it´s nightime." They took off their clothes and took a swim in the Persian Gulf waters, enjoying the calmness and the half moon lighting them. Twenty minutes later, they reached Bakal´s navy blue Mercedes in the parking lot, avoiding a sentry that walked the area. They opened the trunk, which was filled with sports gear, several tennis racquets, a large sports dufflebag.

"We don´t fit," said Montana, "not with all of this."

"Let´s sixty nine," said Clarity, "we´ll fit like that."

"With clothes off?" said Montana.

"Not completely, but same position, me at the bottom in jeans only, you on top with underwear only and no top, I need to come." Montana showed a sheepish smile, one that was clearly part of her active nature.

"I can help with that. And then?"

"Then, we close the trunk and ensure we know how to open it."

Clarity got in the trunk first, pushing aside the large sports bag. Montana landed softly on top of her, leaving the trunk half open. A tingling sensation surfaced below Clarity´s navel. Following indications from Money Fact, she kept breathing normally despite the mounting pleasure and observed the rising tides of her own enjoyable sensations. After a leisurely climax, they dozed off and closed the trunk at six in the morning, sleeping side by side for five hours. A car slamming the front door woke them up. Clarity felt the hand of Montana grabbing her ankle. She grabbed Montana´s ankle to ensure symmetry in distress. The car was moving out of the parking lot. Bakal drove for twenty minutes and lowered the car into a swerving ramp.

Clarity grabbed the back pockets of Montana´s Levis jeans, holding on to them until the Mercedes parked and stopped. They heard Bakal step outside and his steps echoing progressively less and less. After three minutes of silence, they decided to get out of the car. Clarity pressed on the trunk button and the trunk opened. Carefully and slowly, Montana got out first, followed by Clarity. They donned their clothes, ensuring nobody saw them.

"Lets´s go to Bakal´s office," said Clarity.

They took an elevator to the second floor, bypassing the main entry of the building and security there. A large office door on the second floor said 'Bakal Investment Limited Partnership'. They listened inside and heard some steps.

"He´s coming out," said Montana.

"The emergency stairs, let´s go." They hid behind the emergency stairs door and Bakal left the office, moving towards an elevator. After two minutes, the girls walked out to Bakal´s office door. It was locked.

"How do we get in?"

"The door may be voice activated," said Clarity. They started speaking outloud to the door, saying the words open, open now, open immediately, please open, open if you would, but nothing worked.

"It´s not voice activated." Absent mindedly, Clarity pressed on the car remote button, and the door snapped open.

"He´s got a universal remote, that turns me on," said Montana.

"How, like he can turn you on at the push of a button?"

"Yeah, all of my control hot buttons stop flashing, and I become nice as a sheep. It´s like I don´t have to follow a schedule anymore." Clarity stepped inside the office, a large space with furniture from Horchow, including a designer desk made of tempered glass and stainless steel, which brought light to the room. Across the desk, a huge projection screen flashed prices from the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and news and profiles from Bloomberg News, and CNBC. On the table, there was a flat Ipad with a folding keyboard. Looking closer, she noticed a famliar blue light, the light of remote 57819.

"The remote, look, it´s over there," said Clarity.

"It´s flashing." Montana stepped closer. "The stock price of SOCAL is one hundred and ten Emiraty Dirhams, about thirty dollars. The acronym for the currency is AED."

"AED?"

"Yes, the currency code for the U.S. dollar is USD, for the British pound is GBP, for Great Britain Pound, here it´s AED."

"Is that important?"

"If we were Hyatt employees, we´d be paid in AED."

"Good, let´s keep that contingency in mind," said Clarity, "in case we have to work here the rest of our lives."

Clarity approached the iPad, there was a 10-K financial report on SOCAL in one of the screens. She searched for the ownership structure. The names of Bakal and Scafarel appeared, jointly owning fifty one percent of the company importing equipment to view adult material.

"Where are the servers? I want to know where SOCAL´s servers are, that´s where most of the company´s value is stored," said Montana. Clarity searched the technology heading of the report.

"They´re outsourced in Manama, in Bahrain, east of Saudi Arabia, they´re going to cast all of us in a new Telval production, 'Embroidered Air Avenue', inside a plane. All of the Bahrain operations belong to Scafarel. That´s where the sript for the Elony beauty lotion infomercial was written. Most of the world´s petroleum transits through there." Montana led Clarity´s hand towards a pink button.

"Press this pink button, Bakal told me not to press it ever, I want to see what happens. The frequency here is different from that in the hotel." Clarity pressed on the button, and a scene from Wet by Andrew Blake, depcting Dahlia Grey being bathed naked in milk replaced Bakal´s financial information onscreen. A second screen at the lower bottom showed the actual stock exchange room, where the film was being shown as well, although most likely it wasn´t meant to be shown there. The camera zoomed in on Bakal, who was open-jawed. Behind him, there was a group of Western executives, dressed in suits, two men and three women. A call came through to his cell phone, and both girls sat on Bakal´s desk to watch the businessman react to the unpredictable situation.

"Two women disappeared, who, Sterley and the new woman? What´s her name? Clarity Nice? Thanks Mako."

"This camera must be coming through security, they just know where to focus," said Montana. Bakal was calming down traders and the executives, telling traders that SOCAL adult material was private, that their wives didn´t have to see the material shown, that the material was only for men, and that there were two betraying interests from the West, named Clarity Nice and Montana Sterley, causing the upheaval. Montana kept searching the financial report.

"There´s a golden share from the Emiraty government, I knew it."

"What´s a golden share?" asked Clarity. She checked the website of Stevenson Garden Products, the place in Malibu where she used to work as teleoperator, ensuring it was up and running, something that reassured her during times of distress.

"The government can step in and buy SOCAL, the whole company or stop operations, if the material sold by SOCAL is deemed improper or unfit in any way to the Emirate."

The question wasn´t simple. Was consensual milk brought to an attractive woman undressed, improper, or was the milk simply improperly consumed, i.e. not consumed in a glass? These things mattered, for a golden share was not a trivial pursuit of money by any Emirate, by any means, by any standards, by and large.

# Chapter Eleven

Clarity watched the scene from Andrew Blake´s Wet bemused inside the office of Bakal. The Abu Dhabi stock exchange was in upheaval because of a beautiful woman filmed naked. Bakal screamed to security personnel to walk up to his office. Clarity and Montana sprung to attention. Clarity noticed Bakal´s email was open. She checked the message and read one to Telval Productions one titled 'Park Hyatt Adult Films'. It was meant for Scafarel, and indicated that top management at the Hyatt were unaware that Bakal was showing Telval adult films there, a deal struck on his own with hotel manager Mina by changing the hotel´s domotic system, put in place by Maxini and her assistant Nevena. Montana pressed Clarity to read more quickly. They had to get out of the office.

They left Bakal´s office, taking his iPad, and reached the exchange floor. Everyone was looking at the giant screen where stocks had been replaced by various shots of Dahlia Grey, and they had no trouble hiding under a desk, empty from a trader who had taken the day off to go to the Liwa oasis to study technical indicators for a few stocks. They saw Bakal approach the desk area, phone in hand.

"What do we do now Maxini?" asked Bakal. "Time to bring out Elony, ok, which channel, one zero nine, ok, just an infomercial channel now, to restore credibility, ok. Yes, you can take the Lamborghini that Carrelson Sterley bought in Dubai to come here. Be careful with it please, it´s not insured yet."

Bakal walked to the area below the stock exchange screen and pressed several buttons, until the infomercial showing the Elony beauty lotion appeared onscreen. This version was filmed in Arabic. Clarity and Montana could guess that the ad was meant for men. The beauty lotion was a recommended buy by men for their wives, who didn´t have to know that the lotion came with a SOCAL decoder which granted access to high quality adult films.

Bakal restored stock exchange price information and SOCAL´s stock started flashing green. It was up fifteen percent on the previous day´s close, thanks to the Elony ad.

"Good, good, confidence in SOCAL is restored, Elony saved the day," said Bakal. They saw him leave the stock exchange floor and noticed the large room was emptying. A message had been sent by the Emir to stop trading for the day, until the SOCAL matter was cleared. The golden share might be exercised now, because the stock exchange was prohibited from showing material different from financial information.

Clarity led Montana by the hand to an emergency exit of the building, which beeped.

"Leave the iPad, it must be tagged electronically to the building´s radio frequency to avoid theft." Clarity placed the device behind the door. After exiting the premises of the financial authority, they walked down the ramp leading to the parking lot, until they reached Bakal´s Mercedes.

"Do you know how to drive this driving machine?" asked Clarity.

"Let´s find out, it´s not an authentic driving machine." She pressed the car´s remote and the doors unlocked. They stepped inside and sat down. The doors locked.

"This is a problem," said Montana.

"There´s water behind the arm rest, take your time, we might be here for a while." Clarity searched for the door unlock button but it seemed there was none. They were trapped inside the car. She inserted the car key and the motor roared. The phone rang.

"Should we pick it up?"

"Might as well," said Clarity. Her teleoperator experience revealed its tactful approach. "Hello, Mr. Bakal´s four wheel residence in Abu Dhabi, how may I help you and how can we further your business?"

"Bakal speak..., who is this, what are you doing in my car?" Montana whispered.

"Ask him which phone he´s using."

"I think you have the wrong number, which phone are you using?"

"Which phone, my phone, what are you doing with my car phone? I´m going down the elevator." Montana fastened her seatbelt.

"Time to leave." Clarity lifted the car visor and a digital street map of the city appeared on a screen above the temperature set buttons.

"A GPS, we´re in luck, let´s go to Bakal´s home, there may be more information on SOCAL."

"Where is it, I have no clue how to get around Abu Dhabi."

"GPS will tell us."

Clarity tweaked with several dials and buttons, watching the five inch screen change settings. The navigation GPS device was a Navman EZY 200. She activated Bluetooth connectivity and landmark guidance. Clarity followed the spoken street name indications and reached Bakal´s residential area, a well-to-do, very well-to-do, mansion filled neighborhood known as the Breakwater, a causeway leading to the sea, overlooking the water sports marina and the International Marine Sports Club, a sailing place to train for races.

"Get out of my car immediately, park it and wait for me, I´m tracking you," said Bakal.

"You did track us, but you didn´t see us naked," said Montana. She reached inside the glove compartment and found a CD carrying the song 'Watching the girls go by' by Andy Williams. Clarity let the car reach the iron gate that granted access to Bakal´s home. She pressed on the remote door unlock button and the wrought iron gate opened. They drove to an opulent two story mansion in the form of a designhaus Cubus, a cube-shaped home. Bakal´s voice rang through the hi-fi phone.

"Don´t break anything in my home, in particular the Quianlong blue and white flask or the Jiaqing white vase from the eighteenth century."

They parked the navy blue Mercedes and stepped outside the parking ramp, noticing a Lamborghini already parked. Clarity and Montana reached the entrance door, a two panel wooden door with two door knobs cast in metal.

"What do we do now?" asked Clarity.

"Let me handle this," said Montana, "I know what to do." Montana rubbed her fingers to warm up her inspiration.

"Channel one zero eight, adult channel." The heavy door lacquered in wood opened to a hallway lavishly decorated. Clarity cleaned her shoes on the doormat, which said 'leaving costs behind', and closed the door of a wardrobe which included five pairs of women sandals, two women´s purses, and a fur hat made by Max Mara, for those cold nights of the Emirates when temperature dropped below eighty degrees. They walked carefully to a large staircase, leaving a coat rack with an umbrella stand to their right. An attractive woman dressed in high cut dress came down the stairs, showing a silver butterfly attached below her navel.

"Welcome to the Abu Dhabi Ladies Club, at the home of Hamir Bakal," said Maxini. Five security guards were behind her, arms crossed, and Nevena was dressed as a traditional maid, ready to perform work requests in the home by Bakal.

"They couldn´t possibly all fit in the Lamborghini," said Montana.

"They use the airport shuttle," said Maxini, "I used your father´s car."

# Chapter Twelve

The five security walked down the stairs and positioned themselves to look at Clarity and Montana from all angles. One moved towards the entrance, another towards the living room area. Clarity walked forward towards the lush living room area, until she saw a large piano in the middle of the room.

Two guards pushed the heavy musical instrument, a Schiedmayer & Söhne model twenty with visible tuning pins, cast copper plate, two hundred and thirty passive strings, soundblock, pinblock and rim. The piano rolled towards a small room near the living room area. It was a beautiful musical instrument. Maxini entered the living room, leaving the door half open, nearly breaking to pieces the Jiaqing white vase so dear to Bakal.

"Mr. Bakal was expecting you at the hotel and he wasn´t expecting you at the stock exchange. You´re delaying the shooting of Arabian Brides and other Telval adult productions, we don´t like that," said Maxini.

She spoke to Montana with her face very close to the face of the Colorado heiress, who didn´t back down. Nevena tapped Maxini on the shoulder.

"The price of SOCAL is up again," said Nevena, "Mr. Bakal will be here in fifteen minutes. He´s taking care of collateral social damage, calming down Supreme Council member, Sheikh Al Nahyan. He got a call regarding the adult movie showing at the stock exchange from the deputies of the rulers of Fujairah, Dubai and Sharjah Emirates. The other three Emirates are standing by. They frown upon such overt expression of western habit for adults."

"It´s the price of prosperity, I told him to watch the report on Carrelson Sterley at the hotel. Good, let´s speak about your allowance, Montana, I need the account."

Montana refused the topic, preferring to inquire about the reason for the piano being in the middle of the room.

"It´s there to provide sophisticated, rewarding reprimand to the tushies of women like you, if you don´t provide information on your allowance." Montana answered sheepishly.

"I want to reprimand you then, you don´t know how to play the piano."

"No, I reprimand you, in fact take your position." Montana consulted with Clarity.

"Take your position, it´s better than seeing those guards naked while filming Arabian Brides," said Clarity. Montana walked to the piano room and placed her hands on the rim and soundboard, showing her backside. She turned around to Maxini.

"My father wants to own SOCAL, and he´ll have SOCAL," said Montana, "and then, once I´m in Colorado safely with him, he´ll tell Hyatt management that you installed an adult channel different from the standard adult channel used at the Hyatt."

"Your father will think twice once your allowance is transferred. I´ll take over your account before you take over our adult channel," said Maxini.

"How much money is involved here, what is at stake exactly?" said Clarity.

"Yes, that´s important," said Nevena. Maxini adjusted temperature to a comfortable seventy eight degrees using the adult channel remote from the Hyatt. A scarf imitating flames sprung out of the fireplace, kept in floating position by a ventilator pushing air up from the ground, like a wind tunnel.

"Twenty million dollars, your friend Montana here has meddled with Abu Dhabi´s cell phone network and bank transfer frequencies. Money transfers, cell phone calls, television channel selection, premium shopping and restaurant reservations are all going through the adult channel instead of separate channels, and only this remote can undo that."

"How universal is this remote?" asked Clarity.

"Very universal," said Maxini, "would you like to see my butterfly up close by the way?"

"If you lift your tank top, I could see it from here. I´d like the remote though."

"Won´t see my butterfly then, and you can´t have the remote. Let´s sit down in the sofa, we´ll be more comfortable. Montana, come here, we´ll finish your piano lesson later." Clarity sat down on the bolster cushions of the sleek, white leather Conran sofa, built on strip skis made of steel. Montana sat beside her and Nevena joined them. Maxini sat across from them in a one seat sofa. She snapped her fingers and the five security guards aligned at the living room door entrance disappeared upstairs.

"This house doesn´t impress me. Is this faux leather?" asked Montana, tapping the cushion of the sofa.

"No, it´s authentic, genuine leather, this is hand made by craftsmen with a lot of skill, made by Darlings of Chelsea. It´s checked for structural weakness."

Maxini delighted in showmanship. She wanted Montana to feel comfortable while she transferred all of her allowance to her bank account at a chartered Bank in Bahrain belonging to Scafarel´s intricate network of business interests.

"You want my money, and you want all of it, I worked hard for this allowance," said Montana. She lifted her head in defiance.

"Your father earned your money, it´s not your money. In any case, I want your money and would like to see you naked," said Maxini, "you´d enjoy playing bell weather naked with me."

"Bell weather?" asked Clarity. Maxini reached for a small, one inch nickel bell painted white, with an oak handle laid out on the table. She rung twice and Nevena ran the feather duster across the face of Montana, and across the chest of Clarity, after lifting her sweater.

"This tea bell acts like sunshine to a sunflower. When I ring the bell, your flower bud comes out. If it comes out, I reward it with my butterfly and a sip of Earl Grey tea, if it doesn´t I ring the bell again until the bud comes out. When it comes out consistently, then, you can wear the bell like I wear the butterfly and you can clean the house for me. That way, I´ll know where you are." Montana consulted with Clarity, whispering in her ear.

"That´s delicate, she´s turning me on, what do we do?"

"I think you want to avoid the topic of that bell, don´t play the game, you´re going to lose your allowance, she´s pretty good at ringing tea bells," whispered Clarity.

"Give me the remote, and we can finish the piano lesson," said Montana. Maxini pointed to a giant screen television.

"Channel one zero eight, the adult channel, and you give me the account."

"Ok," said Montana. Maxini gave the remote to Montana, who turned around. Clarity saw Montana press a button on the remote and then the Colorado girl carried on with channel selection. Channel one zero eight showed onscreen a piano lesson scene from a film by Andrew Blake, involving three women, among them actresses Jenteal and Celeste. Maxini froze an image right during the moment of soft impact, the moment that mattered in adult films, the moment of pleasure and visual exposure that made the film explicit. Clarity saw the subtle intent to drive Montana´s intention by pressing on the pause button at the time the film became explicit.

"The account."

"Five seven eight one nine." Maxini sighed, a look of annoyance on her face. She knew that code well.

"That´s the code of the remote, you lying squirrel." Maxini left the room and two guards came to pick up Clarity and Montana, leading them to one of the bedrooms in the home upstairs. The two girls looked around the room with a single bed. There was a laptop computer painted white which didn´t work.

"What did you do?" asked Clarity.

"I pressed the VIP button," said Montana, "the highest authorities of all seven Emirates, businessmen, economic mavens, the press, public relations experts, Scafarel, they´re all coming here."

"Did you transfer the money?"

"Yes, I used one click using my account number frequency, number three, I preprogrammed that at the Hyatt, and transferred it to El Nilein Bank in Abu Dhabi, it´s the bank that the Hyatt uses to pay their employees," said Montana.

"You had an account at that bank?"

"My father got me a position at the Hyatt here two weeks ago. I was hired to do an internship at reception, until Maxini appeared when I tampered with the adult channel remote. Now, we can use the money to buy shares of SOCAL until we get a majority of them, over fifty percent. We´re going to do a friendly takeover of the company." Montana stepped towards the bathroom. She turned on the faucet of the bath, ensuring warm water flowed in the luxurious marble reservoir.

"You want that company so that your father takes you seriously as a businesswoman?"

"No, I want my own adult channel," said Montana,"and I want to see Maxini and Avalon in it."

# Chapter Thirteen

Clarity tried turning the door knob of their room. It was closed. She looked through the eyepiece, seeing Mako in a Hugo Boss suit mounting guard. Montana was singing in the bathtub a version of Matt Goss 'Lovely Las Vegas'. She decided to rest on the bed while waiting her turn to take a bath. As she lied on the bed, a stream of hundreds of pink rose petals fell on the bed from the ceiling. Bakal liked to pamper women. A few minutes later, Montana came out of the bathroom, wrapped up in a white cotton bathrobe, towel around the head.

"Wow, nice flowers, I like this place, the warm water feels so wonderful. It reminds me of my ski lodge in Aspen. Look, I found this bridal tiara for me, doesn´t it look good, this has to be custom made for Arabian Brides. I got this bridal layer necklace for you. These are worth six or seven hundred dollars each."

"Montana, your lodge is not precisely close right now, we have to get in touch with your father or with my boss." Clarity adjusted the bridal necklace. She had to admit Montana had good taste.

"Well, we need Internet access or a phone." Montana tried turning on the computer, but to no avail. She stepped towards the window of the room. "Did you hear that, cars are honking outside."

Clarity walked outside to the terrace, noticing a ten inch Zhumell telescope mounted on black base plates and large optical tube. She´d never observed the planets before or the moon. She heard several car horns in the distance and looked inside the telescope. A caravan of black limousines, Mercedes 560 SEL, BMW´s, and U.S. built Lincoln cars were parking in front of Bakal´s wrought iron gate. One of the guards was walking briskly to the gate, to let Bakal in.

"Quick, put on your underwear, I´ve got an idea." Less than a minute later, Clarity knocked on the door from the inside. The guard opened the tumbler.

"We´d like to take a swim in the pool, would you like to come with us?"

Mako smiled but didn´t say a word. Montana appeared behind Clarity wearing her white underwear and wearing running shoes.

"I need a midday swim."

"Important people are coming, you don´t get out. Sandals look better on you with underwear than sneakers."

"Do you have a savings account, do you know how much money you´ll need at retirement?" asked Montana. While Montana started speaking of the Colorado Board of Education and University of Colorado´s adult program to the Hyatt employee, Clarity studied their way out to the garden. Once outdoors, they could draw the attention of someone important, someone with the clout to take them to the airport and back to the western world. Where in the world was Sensual Brigade, Central Intelligence? The marble staircase was empty and then it was a matter of running as quickly as they could to the iron gate.

"Now, Montana." The Colorado girl sprinted towards the staircase behind Clarity, who ran down the stairs two steps at a time. Mako reacted too late, slowed down by an excessive number of pounds on his eating track record.

"Stop, now, or I´ll give you a piano lesson," he said.

Outside the sun was shining, it was midday. Clarity, running barefoot, stepped on the garden grass to avoid several guards who were gathering behind the door. Opting for the carefree look, Clarity took off her top, leaving her pink shorts on, until they reached the gate. Alerted by Clarity´s presence, several drivers of the parked cars walked towards her. Behind them, Bakal was speaking on a phone like a mad man, angry like a dog, panting like the same angry dog, but more tired.

"We need assistance," said Clarity. None of the drivers spoke English. Bakal made his way to the girls on the other side of the fence, and screamed at them in Arabic. A commanding voice emerged from behind Bakal.

"Bakal, let us inside your home, we want to see what you do inside with those two women." Montana hid behind Clarity.

"Who is that?"

"Someone important, a VIP."

"Good, I pressed the right button, then," said Montana. A journalist with a camera started filming Clarity.

"That´s the Emirate´s Minister of Trade." Montana gathered courage and spoke to the official.

"We´re filming an adult film, Arabian Brides at the Pool, would you like to see it?" The Minister of trade tapped impatiently on Bakal´s suit. He was slightly flustered, not knowing whether his wife would approve of this type of film.

"Yes, let´s see this marvel of movie-making. Topless film, I believe?"

"You believe correctly, sir," said Clarity. Maxini, Nevena, Mako and the guards were met by the guards of the Emirate´s official, and they were told to wait outside the gate while filming was taking place. The official and his trade, economy and finance crew, moved to the poolside and Clarity started speaking about the problems of the U.S. debt and the dollar´s loss of value with the man in charge of the Emirate´s economy. He couldn´t keep his eyes off her chest, whose attention capture capability was focused and highlighted by the necklace.

"It´s a shame the dollar has more value, I mean less value every year."

"Inflation is not what it used to be," said Clarity. Inflation was about the only word she knew, and she knew that it wasn´t a good thing. They reached the pool and people sat down in the lounge chairs. Bakal was sweating heavily. Montana walked towards the official from the Emirates, who was explaining the script of Arabian Brides to economists, heads of financial institutions, a vice president of the Abu Dhabi stock exchange, and several think tank specialists.

"It involves Arabian Brides on vacation in Abu Dhabi," said the official.

"And working," said Montana, "we´ll need your Blackberry thank you," said the Colorado heiress. She grabbed the cell phone device before the official could react.

"Thank you," said the official, "it´s the first time we see an adult film first hand. Bakal, your seat at the stock exchange is revoked, you´ll remember today for a long time."

"Sir, my seat, our family, the Emir, my land, hold on please, the film is good quality, it´s unique, there´s no other film, this is a mistake, economic growth matters, I was casting the women..."

"Bring the cameras, bring the cameras to the poolside," said the Minister of Trade. Clarity dipped her feet in the oval pool while Maxini´s guards brought several large cameras from Bakal´s dining room. She plunged into the pool water, which was warm. Being topless didn´t really bother Clarity, as much as being topless in Abu Dhabi. Still, they were part of the upper class, and the upper class was the same everywhere, decadent and ignorant of real, sensual, simple pleasure. She let Montana start the dialogue of the film, after the Colorado cowgirl dialed a local number.

"Yes, buy fifty one percent of SOCAL, now, yes, use all of the cash in the account if necessary. How much will it add up to? Nineteen million five hundred seventy five thousand dollars? That´s fine, we´re backed by Colorado investors." Clarity put on the top of her bikini to look more professional, or more elegant, in truth, in front of a camera. The less was revealed, the more sexy a woman looked. Somehow, she still felt sort of naked. She looked below her navel and pulled her bottom, which had been brought down as she got inside the pool.

"Why is SOCAL being sold to the west in the script, SOCAL´s an Abu Dhabi company," said the trade minister. He threw an annoyed look to Bakal. Bakal took a tray served by Mako and adopted the role of a butler in the film.

"Sell those shares, Ms. Sterley, SOCAL is part of the Emirate´s assets, you know that. Give me that Blackberry, I am the butler afta oll," said Bakal, walking fully clothed inside the pool with a tray of Martinis lifted over his head.

"My assets are private," said Montana, "although I can´t speak for my friend´s assets."

"My assets are also private, and so is this Blackberry," said Clarity.

"No, no, Mr. Bakal, SOCAL cannot be a public company of the Emirates," said Montana, inventing a script.

"Script sounds authentic, somewhat unsettling even," said the Minister of Trade. He adjusted his keffiyeh, worn in Charraweya style, drinking a glass of bitter Cinzano, a type of vermouth like Martini, on the rocks.

Clarity looked up and saw a Bell helicopter hovering above them. Under the belly of the rotor air vehicle, she could read the name 'Sensual Brigade Rental Equipment'. It should have said Central Intelligence, she thought. As it was, it looked as though the helicopter was part of the film.

"The Americans," said one of the drivers of the Minister´s limousine. The Minister of Trade brought his hands to his head and prayed to the God of wisdom, balance, intelligence, and economic development. Same God as the Western God, different requests, immediate need.

# Chapter Fourteen

Clarity looked at the terrace beyond the pool. Maxini appeared in front of Nevena, carrying the remote control of the Hyatt´s adult channel. Scafarel´s assistant was wearing a bikini thong. She pressed on a button of the remote, and the Bell OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter gained some altitude, after experiencing some trouble with the engine. Clearly, the remote had multiple uses, including unknown, military ones. A few seconds later, the helicopter started emanating white smoke and disappeared.

"What are you up to?" asked Clarity.

"Ensuring SOCAL stays in the Emirates." Maxini took off her bikini and gave both strings to Nevena. She dove head first into the pool and swam naked to the other side of the pool to meet Montana, filmed by Mako, wearing only a Bridal Cubes Cuff bracelet with crystals made by Karen Curtis and a bridal comb. Her measurements, announced by Nevena to the onlooking VIP crowd, were admirable, thirty seven twenty five thirty seven. Her abs were flat, and the silver butterfly at navel level, acted like a rewinding key, giving more energy to Maxini as bridal partner of Montana and Clarity. Emerging head first in front of Montana, Maxini tried to grab the Blackberry from the Colorado girl. Montana placed the cell phone on one of the poolside tiles, and pulled her top off.

"Let me get my underwear off, let´s battle on equal terms."

"I need to take your measurements as well," said Nevena. Maxini´s assistant looked at the Minister of Trade, who nodded.

"Thirty six, twenty four, thirty five, wow, thin waist." Montana stretched her upper torso proudly. She was overcoming the fear of becoming famous like Paris Hilton. Clarity opted for the same au naturel outfit of both girls, taking off her pink shorts. Nevena approached her, getting in the pool fully clothed, with a yellow tape measure.

"Thirty six, twenty five, thirty five, you´ve got the measurements of Zafira, the adult actress." Clarity sprung on Maxini, who plunged towards the cell phone. With her right hand, she threw the device to Bakal, who dropped the tray, recovered by Nevena, the only woman dressed in the scene, pool wet but dressed, before Montana could attempt rescuing the device. The guards took off their shirts, revealing wrestling outfits. They thought this was their truly first, adult debut, but Maxini indicated otherwise, staying firm with the security crew.

"No adult wrestling today," she said. Clarity thought the order signalled the beginning of the end of Arabian Brides. She adjusted her bridal necklace.

"It´s the S group, the S group has bought fifty one percent of SOCAL," said Bakal. The Abu Dhabi power broker stopped paying attention to those around him and ran out of the pool towards the poolside. Mako, the one behind the camera filming the pool scene, recovered Bakal´s role as waiter and served him a cocktail, but Bakal declined politely, requesting some Ko Phi & Nga champagne for everyone.

"Who is the S group?" asked Clarity.

"My father´s group, it´s S for Sterley," said Montana, "my account was opened in the name of the Sterley Business Group. You know you look pretty good, you could be Kelly Clarity for my father, he´d probably like you as Kelly Claire the fashionable maid." Clarity pictured herself in a Colorado ski lodge working as teleoperator for a rich, good looking tycoon. The thought wasn´t displeasing.

"There must be a way out of this buyout spree mess," said the Minister of Trade. Maxini pulled on Montana´s hair as the Colorado girl attempted to lift herself to the poolside. Then, she grabbed Montana´s hips and threw her in the pool. The Colorado girl swore and recovered her Bridal tiara, which had flown off position, after the throw off. Bakal answered the official promptly.

"There is, there is, sir, there is a golden share the Emirate can exercise, if you´d like SOCAL to remain an Abu Dhabi company."

"Is this a film?" asked the Minister of Trade incredulously. The Minister´s aides were busily looking through work files, typing on their iPads, but their looks betrayed their arousal at the sexy pool scene. They finally knew what it meant to be a sheikh in an Andrew Blake film.

"Not per say," said Maxini.

"Not really," said Bakal.

"Not at all," said Nevena, "this is real money."

"No," said Montana, flashing her body in full splendor before the Emirate´s official. He looked at Clarity who was attaching Maxini´s red bikini top, left by Nevena at the poolside.

"I wouldn´t say so, but I´m not from Abu Dhabi," said Clarity.

"Yes, ok Bakal, let´s use the golden share," said the official. Bakal typed a few words and numbers into his cell phone and a result beeped loudly, before Montana pulled down his pants to distract him. SOCAL was an Abu Dhabi company again. Bakal had exercised the golden share on behalf of the Emirate. That meant that the account holding the shares on behalf of the S group had to sell their shares electronically at a higher market price through the local stock exchange, and return them to the Abu Dhabi government.

"SOCAL´s an Abu Dhabi company again," beamed Bakal,"the remotes and the adult decoders are being delivered worldwide. Our content will prevail, sir," said Bakal.

"Discretely I hope, our content should be low key, we don´t want to become the Middle East hub of adult entertainment."

"Anything different from prosperity is because of a woman, because of someone known as Lady Scafarel, someone conspicuously absent today."

"Later Bakal," said the official, looking at Montana doing naked aerobics in the water, fighting with Maxini. Clarity glanced at the south part of the pool beyond a shaded porch.

A large truck not far from the pool honked at the gate. The Bell Warrior, whose rotor mechanism had been blocked by the adult remote, was being carried on a large, levelled car load truck, and was trying to make its way to Bakal´s garden. In the driving post of the helicopter, Money Fact waved at Clarity, while Donway, standing firmly on the truck´s floor, tried to pull his trench coat out of the helicopter´s door, where the item of clothing was stuck. Finally, Money Fact opened the door and Donway jumped to the ground, trenchcoat in hand, swearing at the non coin-operated door.

"Nobody move, U.S. Intelligence," said Donway. The iron door opened and ripped his trenchcoat in two, revealing a New England Patriots sweater and matching sweatpants. From behind him, several female agents from Central Brigade started climbing the railings of Bakal´s property.

Clarity saw Maxini and Nevena hop out of the pool and run inside Bakal´s home. The teleoperator with auburn hair adjusted her pink shorts and ran after them, but Mako stood in the way. She stepped right and left several times, trying to get past the corpulent Hyatt employee, but he stayed close to her, showing surprising agility, motivated by the overall look of Clarity wearing only a bikini top and shorts. The Minister of Trade threw a towel to Montana, who stopped jumping up and down, telling Donway to get Bakal. Mako carried the cocktail tray to Montana and spoke to her in reprimand pointing towards the piano indoors.

"Mr. Bakal is an official of the Emirate´s Supreme Council, as such he has immunity over any political, economic, adult or business incident which may have surfaced here in his home, or elsewhere in the Emirate. This is also why the Emirate has decided to seize all cases of Elony lotion aboard the 'Camco Amabulyan' ship, for further examination."

# Chapter Fifteen

The car load truck entered Bakal´s property, helicopter on top. Donway adjusted the frequency of Bakal´s domotic system, made by Pentatone Learning Systems, which had created a malfunction in the Bell Warrior´s electronic wiring system, causing subsequent engine failure. He sought the remote controlling the adult channel at the Hyatt and told Money Fact to search the luxurious home. Donway explained to Clarity and Montana, that the remote controlled all adult content brought into the Emirate, and that it was important to understand how it worked. Clarity knew the remote was important, but she didn´t know how it worked. She donned the pink sweater found in one of Bakal´s bedrooms for women and showed Donway the computer painted white.

"We´ll search that computer, there may be relevant adult information there." Information important to share with his wife as well, he thought.

Donway interrogated Bakal in his living room. Montana sat down on a sofa, while Clarity called the Hyatt to ensure her friends were doing well. Everything seemed to be going well, according to Flower. Hyatt management had sent new, reliable employees, replacing Mako and Mina. Customers had returned to the Hyatt from other hotels. They had received new boxes of Lindt chocolate, and several cases of the Ô perfume by Lancôme. Management had told them to keep busy by reading some books in the hotel´s library, and Lanai was checking to see whether there was a more comprehensive copy of Decadence. Clarity turned off Bakal´s phone and listened to Donway.

"What did Scafarel promise you? To become involved in this, I mean."

"She told me she could turn my body into a new body, and that I could live like an ancient Chinese Emperor, satisfying eight or nine women on the same night."

"The old fountain of youth trick, satisfying them sexually, eight?"

"Yes, it´s not a trick, Elony´s personal growth services are based on oriental and lesser known methods tested for hundreds of years. I needed a group of women to test the methods, and she brought them to me." Donway walked towards the piano and pushed a few keynotes. He was never very good at music. He glanced at Money Fact, who was taking a closer look at Bakal´s paintings, illustrations and photos of the Indian temples of Khajurajho, thinking that he´d like to giver her a piano lesson in front of his wife. The thought passed by and he focused on Bakal.

"So you bought them, you bought these women," said Donway. The Minister of Trade, who was playing with Bakal´s Yamaichi high fidelity system, stopped and turned his head towards Bakal, who lifted his eyebrows.

"I didn´t really buy them, I sort of paid for their expenses. Ms. Scafarel told me these women were willing to be ladies of traditional pleasure. Sacred pleasure. And that they enjoyed each other´s company, as long as the surroundings were pleasant, oppulent even. Eventually, she said, I would come to own them, but only if they came to like me." Clarity thought about Cynthia´s eight room four bathroom home in Malibu. A liking for affluence, opulence and the laid-back, easy life, yes, all of that matched the women of Sun on the Rocks.

"But Maxini was not an employee of the Hyatt," said Donway, "nor hired to play the piano here."

"No, she didn´t want to be associated with the hotel, after she found out the name of the Egyptian architect in charge of the penthouse refurbishing on orders of Scafarel, a man known as Walltilebis."

"Have you ever seen Scafarel or the architect?"

"No," said Bakal.

"Maxini has a cover here in the Emirate, we´ve been looking for it. Where is this adult remote, the one you´re distributing worldwide through SOCAL."

"I don´t have it, Ms. Maxini must have taken it." Money Fact walked towards Donway, looking distraught.

"Mina was stopped before leaving the Hyatt," said Money Fact, "all adult content broadcast from channel one zero eight has been erased. She said Maxini gave orders to erase Telval Studios content shown on the hotel´s adult channel. All our evidence on Scafarel´s real and fraudulent activities is gone now."

"We´ll talk to the women. Where is she now, where´s Maxini?"

"Mina said she was going to play some golf," said Money Fact.

"Was Avene Maxini a member of any golf club?" asked Donway, turning to Bakal.

"Yes, she played at the Al-Ghazal golf club, near the airport, every week."

"Let´s go, Maxini is going to the airport, she wants to leave by plane, Clarity, Montana, come with us, we need you to identify Maxini, we couldn´t find any photographs of her." They drove Bakal´s Mercedes to Abu Dhabi international airport, taking Corniche Road to the Eastern Ring Road, instead of taking Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed street north, which led to the Park Hyatt. Money Fact returned Clarity´s clothes from the hotel to her, and she recovered her jade egg, an item she still needed to test. Eastern Ring Road became the E10 and they reached the airport within fifteen minutes.

"We found Maxini´s cover, she´s a member of Skytrax, the airline and airport service rating agency. According to Mina, she was a member of the team that awarded a four star ranking to Abu Dhabi International Airport." As they showed their Central Intelligence passes to security, Donway explained that they were looking for Maxini in one of the lounges, which is how Scafarel´s assistant met Bakal, on return from one of his business trips. Clarity showed Money Fact the VIP button of the remote, in a satellite picture of the remote, identified by the captain of the Liberian 'Camco Amabulyan' cargo ship which had brought them to the Emirate. All boxes of Elony had been dispatched to the Far East by a local agent linked to Scafarel, with clear orders to get rid of the lotion. After thinking about the VIP connection for a few minutes, Money Fact reacted.

"VIP lounge, she may be in the Al-Dar Lounge in Terminal one, let´s go," said the sensual Brigade agent.

The Al-Dar Lounge was filled with about three hundred people, all watching a flashmob dancing to the sound of 'Soul Train'

"I´m not paying sixty eight dollars to get in," said Donway.

"You haven´t booked sir, you have to pay sixty eight dollars per person," said the lounge attendant, these are VIP lounge rules for everyone, your assertion that you´re a member of Sensual Intelligence Brigade is irrelevant here, this is a VIP lounge, you´re not a member and you´re not on the guest list."

Clarity glanced at one of the women wearing large dark sunglasses, dressed as an airport hostess in blue, returning to a counter after the dance. A feminine voice was calling passengers to board Flight EY378 to Bahrain by Etihad Airways or flight EY378 point two to Xelha in Mexico, via Cancún. The hostess took a briefcase with her and joined the queue. She placed the briefcase on the floor to put her shirt back in place. For a few seconds, her navel showed. Clarity noticed the silver butterfly covered promptly by the white shirt. Beside her, Nevena pulled her arm towards the passport check barrier showing a boarding ticket to Bahrain.

"Over there, Maxini´s leaving for Bahrain with her assistant." Donway sprinted to the lounge door with the queue but the flock of passengers had disappeared behind glass doors. Donway returned panting to the lounge counter, which was serving salmon, caviar and Ko Phi & Nga champagne.

"I want this flight cancelled," said Donway. He spoke to the lounge attendant, whose face was impassive.

"I´m afraid that´s not possible, sir. This is an official flight booked by the Emirate´s Ministry of Trade," she said, "you can´t stop it from taking off, it has the seal of the Supreme Council. It requires the simultaneous signature of seventy three officials of the Emirate to stop a flight like this." Donway placed a white and blue American Express card on the counter. Clarity had never seen this card, she´d heard of the gold card and the platinum card, and had seen the regular American Express green card, but she didn´t know this card existed.

"Get me four tickets to Manama airport in Bahrain, put me on the next flight, please," said Donway.

"That´s possible, sir," said the lounge attendant, "would you like freqent eating points on your card, I see that you´re a restaurant gourmet by the two points you carry."

"No, thank you," said Donway. He checked his belly instinctively. His wife always told him to eat less and exercise more on the spinning bike. With Money Fact as co-spinner, he could see himself doing that more than twice every three years.

"Make it seven more tickets, don´t forget my friends at the Hyatt, and the women from Hexas Style," said Clarity.

"My father´s coming as well," said Montana, "add another ticket." Clarity threw a glance at the airport employees returning to their daily chores at the airport after the flashmob. In the far wall, she noticed an illustration, an oriental chart depicting a woman meditating. In her open hand, there was an object familiar to her, a small egg, made of jade. The green jade egg, symbol of ancient pleasures for women, the mineral puppet master of Lady Scafarel´s personal growth services. Below the chart, a name described the services provided on the chart, the name of Scafarel´s Telval Studios sponsor in the kingdom of Bahrain, a large supranational conglomerate involved in the lighting and aeronautics business.

End of **The Adult Channel** ,

Or How Renting Pleasure is Different from Owning it.

# Chapter Sixteen

SUN ON THE ROCKS amusements for adults, in easy to read, banana humor order.

THE MALIBU CASE.

THE ACAPULCO COCKTAIL.

THE CAYMAN AIR BANNER.

THE BAHAMAS LOTION.

THE ADULT CHANNEL.

THE OOL BRODERIE.

THE BELLAGIO WIKILEAK.

THE CUBAN RENEGADE.

THE SUGAR BABY.

THE MARBLE TOUCAN.

THE OUTDOOR SHOWER.

THE EMOTION SCALE.

MERIDIAN 57.

THE VANITY RING.

THE SHABBY SHEIK.

Crafted by Somers Isle & Loveshade.

Sun on the Rocks is genuine banana fiction, fresh, trivial,

tropical, easy to peel, and easy-going, like the fruit.

All fictional characters are adults at least twenty one years of age.

The banana humor amusements of Sun on the Rocks have gathered a total of 20,000 downloads and about 90,000 views or reads, on several platforms, such as Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Kobo books, Sony, Inktera, community blogsites Our Salon and Open Salon, the free-ebooks.net platform, and the Apple Store. On blogsite communities our salon and open salon, the amusements have gathered a total of about one hundred comments from people who connect, or like, or can relate to what is in the amusement. You can see those comments below, to see what other people think about the amusements.

The Malibu Case.

Or whether corporate nudity should be part of the dress code.

The Acapulco Cocktail.

Or how a cocktail drink can turn a holiday into a traction with the Law.

The Cayman Air Banner.

Or going where your money goes to keep an eye on how it disappears.

The Bahamas Lotion.

Or whether the notion of a lotion is not beauty but dependence.

The Adult Channel.

Or how renting pleasure is different from owning it.

The OOL Broderie.

Or whether a wedding can be arranged as a matter of levity.

The Bellagio Wikileak.

Or how to rely on information before the information relies on you.

The Cuban Renegade.

Or whether gold can be backed by a renegade, when money is backed by the cap of Castro.

The Sugar Baby.

Or whether sugar can turn to salt when someone overlooks the honey.

The Marble Toucan.

Or how those who want you to leave your place are those who should leave in the first place.

The Outdoor Shower.

Or how a shower can bring good weather to the bottom line.

The Emotion Scale.

Or looking at how you feel to let others choose how you think.

Meridian 57.

Or how the merchant of longevity

can sell a claim to live longer by monetizing wisdom.

The Vanity Ring.

Or discerning when vanity is worn in order to meddle with the lives of others.

The Shabby Sheik.

Or whether a golden cage can bring both gold and freedom when properly used.

100 COMMENTS FROM READERS OF OPEN SALON AND OUR SALON,

ORIGINAL BLOGSITES OF SUN ON THE ROCKS BANANA HUMOR

(R and R+ stand for rated, or liked)

THE MALIBU CASE

ch.14 - Frisky, light-hearted, and delightful! Consistently! This should be a GRAPHIC novel (when you finally get around to publishing!) R+

ch.3 - This is so clever. Everything is "normal" except the central dilemma of (gasp) optional nudity. With nonchalant humor you are making an individual rights argument out of this. I can hear you pitching this to a TV exec: "Who could object to that?"

I think you could actually pull this off (no pun) in reality if the characters were discretely / artfully filmed! It could be great fun. These are unique characters who are "over the horizon" in leading the California trend. R

ch.13 - Fun read. That package and who got it will bring me back. R

ch.12 - I want to see the video version of this story! What a romp.

ch.12 - Quite a revealing case. Quick and playful, this story scampers right up to the edge of decency and then sticks its tongue out.

ch.12 - This plot has the sexiest curves.

ch.1 - This is deceptively breezy and fun. I. did. not. expect. THIS! Good show! R

ch.15 - Hurray! The girls won and we are all the beneficiaries of their determination. I hope that we will have further adventures about the floating spa and that the long arm of the law can't reach them in inter national waters. R

ch.15 - Sorry I've been away and missed the last few installments. I'm glad to see the girls came out of this in stellar fashion. It was a fun read, and I'm looking forward to the south of the border installments. R

ch.15 - Sweet, sweet, sweet. And I think you may have set-up the next Episode in the series! Hmmm. I just noticed that others feel the same. Good! R+

ch.14 - Phew! The package picker-upper turns out to be on our side....at least for now. I guess it all comes down to the vote. Go naturism! R

ch.13 - If we Amuricans have a right to bear arms, the girls have a right to bare whatever! I vote yes. Fun read. That package and who got it will bring me back. R

ch.13 - Lots of limbs to go out on here. I'm always intrigued by the persistence of the press.

ch.12 - You just seem to strip the story to its bare essentials and cut to the chase ;).

ch.12 - Very amusing. Am I the only girl here? Is that weird?

ch.11 - It looks like the governor will have to get involved! A night under the stars, clothing optional I hope? R

ch.11 - I just wish I could have conceived this saga. So breezy and tongue-in-cheek! R+

ch.10 - You really make this sound reasonable and imminent! R+

ch.10 - If it were only that easy... hey, maybe it would be if someone only tried it! When writing, it's recommended to stick to the bare essentials. You can't get any bare than this subject. Still reading. R

ch.9 - Yes, these are burning questions! When is the rally? Excuse me, but I'm sticking to my leather chair here at work... R

ch.8 - "Proposition 531 has a secret." A secret proposition, why am I not surprised? You still have me guessing for answers. Keep up the suspense. R

ch.8 - Yeah, yah, YES. Vivid, breezy, and irresistible. Can't wait. R+

ch.7 - What a cool caper. Such tension and intrigue, and I keep reminding myself of how tongue-in-cheek the mission really is. Great satire. R

ch.7 - "I found something interesting, come here." Now you have my curiosity aroused. This is a great series. Keep going. R

ch.7 - I enjoy the story..thank you for writing and sharing..See you here..Best regards.

ch.7 - refreshing and fun, like a more realistic Charlie's Angels. Keep it coming. R

ch.6 - I can't believe I've been missing these! I was sure I had "favorited" you! You must also link to the Fiction Weekend site when you can. Still a great script. R

ch.6 - Me, again. I just want to suggest that when you post a new installment that you go back and put in a "next" link to your previous installment. There isn't another sexy, funny, charming story like this being done! R

ch.6 - This is funny, hip and sexy with tongue firmly in cheek. I love all the little touches like the upscale thong for example. R

ch.6 - The plot thickens! Everyone seems to be having a great time here, with the exception of our officer friend. R

ch.5 - You GO, girls! Let me gather a few things and I'll go with you... R+

ch.5 - Do I see a road movie starting to appear? R

ch.4 - Gasp! Oh, no! My damsels are in distress! This is sooooo script-ready. ACTION! +

ch.4 - Sorry I'm late. Swimming naked, high above the city... sounds intriguing. R

ch.3 - Ok, now I've read all three chapters, and am up to date with the bare essentials... so to say. It'll be interesting to see where this goes. R

ch.3 - l love it! Totally confirms what we easterners think: everyone in California has a screw loose. I think clothing optional day is a logical extension of casual friday. I am now backtracking to catch up on the earlier installments. R

THE ACAPULCO COCKTAIL

ch.1 - Hurray! A new adventure. Reading each installment is like a mini-vacation....with beautiful aquanauts thrown in for good measure. R

ch.2 - Cocktails, sun....I'm hooked. R

ch.4 - Even a fish would not get caught if it kept its mouth shut! lol

ch.4 - Looks as if the girls should start learning some Spanish.

I hope they are not going loco down in Acapulco! R

ch.4 - Do they have cable in Mexican jail?

ch.4 - I knew it, I knew it. The girls cannot stay out of trouble. Could a Mexican prison be next? This is a lot of fun. R

ch.4 - Hey I want that job! It sounds like something I could do from home, while relaxing in my Lazy-Boy recliner. You have me thirsty for the next chapter. Sorry I'm late, but I was having a cold one out by the pool. R

ch.6 - another great read.........supertaster?......gotta hear more.....R

ch.5 - well done again...R

ch.6 - Effortless intrigue! You put me right there. Nancy Drew for the 21st century? R+

ch.7 - This is such a breezy web, I can't believe the weight of mystery you are able to hold! R

ch.5 - I swallowed this like a shooter. It is a strong story, and I'll say it like always: could easily be a script! R

ch.4 - Yeah! You are raising the voltage nicely with this one. I didn't see the "safe" coming! R+

THE CAYMAN AIR BANNER

ch.4 - Well - I love this so far and will keep reading!

ch.8 - This does hold your interest.

ch.12 - At last the fight. The bit with the elusive canapés and limping along limo was priceless. R

ch.11 - You do create a surreal environment: a little James Bond with a dash of Clouseau. R

ch.1 - Hurray, a new adventure! I've been away awhile. I have a lot of catching up to do. R

ch.1 - 20%! That must have been pre 2007, or else someone is going to lose their savings on a deal that sounds too good to be true. Let the action begin. R

ch.7- The interplay between Clarity and Flower is priceless. R

ch.6 - I'd hang on to my money if I was in Clarity's bikini. R

ch.5 - Just like a banker to steal your earrings while you are sleeping. R

ch.4 - So many directions it can go. R

ch.1 - hahah..ok, waiting to see where this goes!

ch.12 - At last the fight. The bit with the elusive canapés and limping along limo was priceless. R

ch.13 - 1,500 golfers gone. Should be easier to get a tee time. Sounds like the girls are closing in for the kill. R

ch.15 - I learned a new word-scandium! "Let´s change into the tigress outfits, maybe it´ll be our turn tonight, you´re getting me in the mood." Perfect! I can picture it!

ch.3 - A surreal, but fascinating turn of events. Gallinaceous, indeed. R

ch.16 - somehow I missed seeing your interesting series in the activity feed here--will read through all of your chapters this weekend and hope you have another series in the pipeline here!

ch.10 - Is Bernie Made-off part of this operation? The girls are going to have a hard time doping this out. R

ch.2 - Ladies, hang onto your money and bikini tops. R

ch.11 - "Buddha Talk walks his talk, and talks only when needed." This is such a neat line!

ch.1 - Place tongue firmly in cheek and prepare for takeoff! R

THE BAHAMAS LOTION

ch.1 - Wow, here we go again. Great start of a new adventure. R

ch.6 - This whole story is hilarious.

ch.13 - "She stole this egg, she stole it from the temple of Wat Phodaram, Wat Pho, the temple of the reclining, glistening, mother of pearl Buddha, in Thailand, where the statues watch and protect ecstasy, and the subtle channels open your wisdom to the quiet mind and show you how the body works. " This is a hoot!

ch.4 - "The truck, an Isuzu FTR 800 class 2 pumper imported from the Fire and Rescue Agency of New South Wales in Wagga Wagga, Australia, was beaming a blue siren, approaching the limo at high speed. Stretching above Lanai, Taimi and Cynthia were struggling atop the truck with Jenna, who was surfing the air, holding balance by grabbing the ladder." What fabulous detail-I can create a perfect image in my mind.

Rosebud-I'm pretty sure I know what THAT reference is.

ch.12 - "Avalon was wearing an extra small ivory color Isabella thong by Myla, made of dusk silk satin, Elastene, and cotton gusset lining." You have a way with detail! I had to look up the thong. Boy, they are expensive!

ch.12 - "That´s how I fooled the Sex Brigade at Neria B." Immediately a Bowie song popped into my head: "Ground control to Sex Brigade, your circuits dead, there's something wrong." I think those lyrics are better than the original.

ch.12 - what a supremely odd universe I have landed in. I dunno what to make of this place yet, but it sure seems amorphously enticing, offering magical new technology and a supremely erotic atmosphere wherein breasts are softly offered to the table! and this: "It depends on what you view as sex," indeed.

ch.12 - "It´s simple, we disagree over the definition of pleasure," said Avalon, "over the meaning of it in fact. But we want to take over that resort." Ah, yes! You go girls!

BTW, you have subtly painted quite a scene involving naked women. Very subtle, but very descriptive as well.

ch.11 - OMG-I am so far behind! Forgive me. I will catch up! "Elony´s not approved by the FDA, Lanai."" I love this. What kind of fun stuff IS approved by the FDA?

ch.9 - "The girl named Lanai has been sent to study the book of Decadence in more detail with other scribes." Can I borrow that book? This is a great story.

ch.8 - "I love the service here," said Lanai. That's an understatement!

ch.2 - I'm pretty sure I know what the lotion is! Can't wait to find out.

ch.5 - "Have you been thinking of tupperware sex lately?" I'm quite sure I've never heard that expression before!

ch.6 - "Some type of hedonist resort, there shouldn´t be that many in the Bahamas" This whole story is hilarious, but this statement is the most hilarious of them all. I HAVE been to the Bahamas, you know, mostly out islands where anything goes!

ch.7 - "Men are only in charge of security here, their presence is accessory." I like to accessorize!

ch.16 - "She cherished that exhibitionist tendency which was part of her, part of her strength as an adult." Ah yes!

THE ADULT CHANNEL / THE ABU DHABI CHANNEL

Having spent some time in that part of the world, I'm curious to see how you envision an "adult channel" in Abu Dahbi. Should be a hoot.

ch.1 - Wow. I am saving a link to this post. Very helpful. One hot franchise!

ch.1 - A Church of pleasure, devotion to pleasure above all other notions or creeds, you could call it a devotional temple of pleasure. I'm converting!

ch.3 - "small battery operated dental fixtures that could also be used as sex toys" - Your imagination is superb!

ch.4 - "I Don´t trust the water, I drink only Nordic Mist tonic water."

"Because..."

"It´s made by Coca Cola, the perfect soft drink."

Do you get something for product placement? Funny!

ch.6 - lol "Just sexual, I mean sex, wasn´t sure about love, because I thought if you mix sex and love, you might get pregnant."

THE OOL BRODERIE / THE BAHRAIN BRODERIE

ch.13 - Looks very amusing, and makes me want to take along to the beach for a long lingering read.

THE CUBAN RENEGADE

ch.4 - I loved "the Egyptian method to move stones." There is a delightful whiff of Kafka about all this.

**ch.4 - You have my attention!**

**ch.6 -** I found this to be highly erotic.

ch.8 - "This is how we´ll use the bitcoin in this decryptor if anything goes wrong." Ha! I have to see how this plays out.

ch.10 - "you mean using Cuban cigars as currency for Cuba." That would give new meaning to the phrase "my savings went up in smoke".

ch.14 - Great, as usual.

THE SUGAR BABY

ch.9 - I love all the names!!! esp Clarity.

ch.11 - Wow!

ch.14 - Woo!

ch.15 - You have such a unique writing style that turns me on and intrigues me at the same time.

THE OUTDOOR SHOWER

ch.1 - Bravo.

ch.2 - I was thinking of putting in an outdoor shower just the other day. Hadn't thought of having any walls.

somers isle - I'm so bad at DIY that not sure how I'd do the shower or the walls, I'd probably have to go with the bucket of water.

somers isle, to the first reader - apparently, there is both options, not sure what is more popular, here is a couple of designs for you, http://bit.ly/29etROS

another reader - I had an outdoor shower in my previous place, which was out in the country and private. It was a garden arch with grapes growing all over it. Lovely... Also came in handy when we had our little festival...

somers isle - garden arch with grapes does sound lovely, I resonate with anything unprocessed, home out in the country sounds nice, no city noises, privacy is important.

same reader - I made another, closer to our camping area, with walls of salvaged metal gazebo pieces and blue tarp hung behind. (Living in the country for privacy, plus country dump!)

first reader , after some reflection - We live in the woods, but with neighbors nearby. I could probably get by without walls in the summer. In the winter when the leaves are gone I would be inside anyway. I haven't really considered this enough to draw up a plan.

THE SHABBY SHEIK

reader from barnes and noble: humorous and interesting.

The person gave the amusement a five star rating.

BACKSTORIES AND CHARACTERS

http://oursalon.ning.com/profiles/blogs/sun-on-the-rocks-backstories-and-fresh-items.

great the way you have this constructed, with the linx etc....

A TOTAL OF 100 COMMENTS FROM THE COMMUNITY.

SUN ON THE ROCKS IS CRAFTED BY SOMERS ISLE & LOVESHADE,

crafting each amusement for the community,

one ridiculous situation at a time.

# Chapter Seventeen

**Compound Interest Calculator Clarity keeps close, for retirement purposes (savings plan is in the Cayman Air Banner)** :

www.investor.gov/tools/calculators/compound-interest-calculator

**Careers and Professional Designations to consider** :

Chartered Financial Analyst: www.cfainstitute.org/

Certified Financial Planner: www.cfp.net/

**Wealth** :

Think and Grow Rich: Napoleon Hill's classic book on wealth.

How to Make Money (free pdf book from 1859)

**Educational sites, communities, and global news** :

Boston University online: www.bu.edu/online/

Visual Thesaurus: www.visualthesaurus.com/

Visual Global News: www.newsmap.jp/

Our Salon community: oursalon.ning.com/

**Featured universities** :

Bermuda College: www.college.bm/

University College Cayman Islands: www.ucci.edu.ky/

Free online university classes: www.coursera.org/

Ohio State University: www.osu.edu/

University of Arizona: www.arizona.edu/

University of Hawaii: www.hawaii.edu/

