chapter 3

The three women, all around their thirties, were members of a secret branch of the Corporation : project Valkyries. This appointment was more of a mercenary work, mandated by families or individuals, desiring to bring change to one of their kin, revenge on an enemy or needed help to satiate a kink. The service provided was simple : You gave a name and a number and the Corporation sent their best to do the work, no questions asked, once you cleared as trustworthy. Jeanette, Nina and Simone, respectively the science and muscle, the technological and culinary genius and the strategist and security expert, provided a service that no one offered, they were the Valkyries. Once the Corporation called them (they never had any direct contact with the clients), they would come to their target's house, apartment, or kidnap him or her, and them start the treatment. It consisted of a mix of Jeanette's elasticity chemical compound turned into a fast acting drug, of high calories cooking done by Nina, all on a tight schedule of one week of force-feeding by the Valkyries. In seven days, they could turn any twig into a fat tub of lard, no matter the number given by the clients. Once they had you under their control, you were their inflatable toy and they all enjoyed the process. In the one year since the inception of project Valkyries, the women already inflicted the treatment to twenty-three people, mostly men and the occasional woman, leaving them helpless beached whales. Six months ago, although most of the cases were kept secret by a combination of shame from the victims and a large network of very well connected people, able to make any traces of their existence a myth, a nosy two bit journalist linked on a fluke some of the sudden fattening together, and went to the police with them. The Valkyries' case was born and although the Valkyries themselves were still beyond any risks, the investigator in charge, an ambitious young female detective was on their tail, at least, she thought so. In the press, the Valkyries were described as a strange fat fetish cult that puzzled most of the criminal profilers, since aside of the fattening, they didn't seem to follow any logic in their victims' selection and were leaving seldom any clues and none usable anyway. Some conspiracies theorists even guessed that they might be, in fact, ghosts. Nina loved the idea tremendously and even started to play a remixed version of the theme song of Ghostbusters to their victims during their treatment, which baffled the police even more, to the short woman's delight.