Chryseis Kent, Head Librarian of the Acquisitions Department at the University Library, was working late in her basement office on her monthly report for the University’s Board of Trustees. She had just made herself a hot cup of English Breakfast Tea and was sipping it from her “Librarians do it by the book” mug as she read a draft of the report on her widescreen computer monitor. She compared the numbers in the report to numbers on her tablet to make sure she had transcribed them correctly. The attractive, shapely and dark haired librarian was preparing to print the report when the computer screen suddenly went black.  

Chrys stared at the blank screen and was startled when an animated character, which bore more than a passing resemblance to Chrys, appeared on the screen and scampered across an animated library before taking a dive headfirst into a cartoon-like black hole that had appeared on the opposite side of the monitor. Chrys watched as once more the screen went dark until an image of a white skull and bones appeared, only to abruptly morph into the animated likeness of John Tenniel’s walrus. The animated walrus winked at Chrys before it also disappeared and was replaced by the text of a poem typed in a blood red colored font:

The time has come the Walrus said
To talk of many things
Of poisoned cups of evening tea
And the painful death it brings
And whether in an hour’s time
You’ll wear an angel’s wings

But there is a way to forestall death
By solving all the clues
Starting with the one below
Be fast -- or else you lose
And be sure to do as you’re told
Don’t think you can refuse

Each hint will lead you to a book
Where another note you’ll find
Be sure to do as it commands
Even if it seems unkind
Because you have no choice, Ms. Kent
Your fate has been defined

Chrys gasped as she looked at her empty mug and re-read the first stanza of the poem on her monitor. The blood seemed to drain from her pretty face as fear swept through her. More text materialized beneath the poem:  First Clue:  792.8

So many thoughts raced through Chrys’s mind as she sat at her desk staring at the computer screen. Had she really been poisoned?  Did she feel like she’d been poisoned?  Should she call Poison Control?  Should she call anyone else?  What should she do? She was at a loss, but she knew she was under the gun if the poem’s threat was true because the macabre verse had implied that she’d be dead within an hour unless she solved the clues provided by her unseen and unknown tormentor. She had to do something, so she printed out a copy of the poem before reading it again in its entirety.

Despite her dire circumstances, after a few seconds, a smile formed on Chrys’s lips. She focused on the first line of the third stanza – “Each hint will lead you to a book.”  Then, she stared at the numbers beneath the poem – 792.8. The numbers were a hint that would lead her to a book and, in a library, that meant one thing. “The Dewey Decimal System!” Chrys said aloud even though no one else was in the basement. “It must be a call number for a book.”

Unfortunately, the University’s library, like most large academic libraries, did not use the Dewey Decimal System as a means of cataloging and locating books in their collections. Instead, they used LCC – the Library of Congress Classification system. Chrys called up Google on her computer and found a website that converted Dewey Decimal call numbers to LCC numbers. She found the equivalent LCC call number and pasted it into the University’s online catalog. The resultant display appeared almost instantly, telling Chrys the location in the vast library of the book she needed and that it was a book about ballet. Chrys grabbed her tablet, which was also connected to the library’s WiFi system, and rushed upstairs to the main stacks of the library. She made a beeline for where she would find books about ballet.

When Chrys arrived at the right series of shelves on the library’s expansive fifth floor, she immediately spotted a box sandwiched between various books about ballet. A typed index card was taped to the box: “Put these on and Proceed to the next clue!”  She looked in the box and her mouth opened in stunned silence as she stared at a pair of En Pointe Black Patent Locking 8” Ballet Ankle Boots complete with padlocks and a 12” hobble chain that joined the boots. Surprisingly, the ballet ankle boots were in Chrys’s size. “Someone has done their homework,” she thought to herself as she grabbed the box and found a nearby chair. Without hesitation, Chrys removed her black high heels and put the ankle boots on over her white stockings. She stood tentatively and tested her balance. She was used to wearing heels, but the ballet boots were unlike any she had ever worn before. She took a few steps away from the chair and found that although she could walk, she would not be able to move quickly thanks to the boots themselves and the hobble chain. She also realized that she had to focus to keep her balance in the uncomfortable boots. As she slowly walked back to the chair, she spotted another index card taped to the inside lid of the box.

“The second clue,” she thought as she stared at the typed letters on the card:  BMattisonH.

Again she smiled as she realized that in library science lingo the letter B signified biographies. Her smile soon turned to a frown though as she realized that unlike in most other academic libraries, which locate biographies in accordance with the LCC system by shelving them in the main stacks based on the subject of the book, Chrys’s library had opted to have a separate section on the fourth floor for biographies to make it easier for students to locate books about a particular person. Slowly and uncomfortably, Chrys hobbled up the hall towards the elevator. She could feel the muscles in her shapely calves straining from the steep angle of the ankle boots with every step she took.

She rode the elevator to the fourth floor and walked a distance to the M racks in the biography section. She quickly found the book and cringed as she read the title on its spine: “Ivy League Stripper: A Memoir by Heidi Mattison.” Chrys pulled the book from the shelf and saw what looked like a jewelry box tucked behind the book. When she opened the box, she saw two small items that she didn’t recognize and a note. She read the note and turned pale. The note said, “Go topless – except for these vibrating nipple clamps -- and then Run along to the next clue.” Chrys bit her lower lip and pouted, but, remembering that she had been poisoned, she obediently removed her white blouse and bra. The cool library air rushed over her bare breasts and she could feel her nipples hardening involuntarily. She whimpered as she picked up the two nipple clamps and affixed one to each of her nipples. She took some comfort in the fact that the clamps only mildly hurt her sensitive nipples and were not vibrating, but acknowledged to herself that their weight did hurt her nipples as she moved. All thoughts of nipple discomfort though were pushed aside when Chrys found the next clue on the back of the instructions card. It was simply a series of numbers: 0440004152.

Chrys stared at the numbers and tried to decipher their meaning. The first two clues related to libraries and books so, she reasoned, the third clue likely did as well. She called up Google on her tablet and ran a search – “libraries and numbers.” The search took her to a host of articles about call numbers, but the ten digits in the clue were not a call number. She tried again, searching the phrase “books and numbers.” This search also was not helpful; the results were primarily about books with numbers in their titles or books about mathematics. Chrys grew nervous because each wasted minute brought her closer to the one hour deadline she had been given. She stared at the clue and thought, “Numbers. . . .Numbers. . .”  She counted the numbers in the clue and typed another series of words into the search box: “books and ten digit numbers.”

She was rewarded on the first hit – a Wikipedia article titled “International Standard Book Number.” Chrys realized that the ten digits were an ISBN number. She remembered from her library science class studies that a unique ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book. ISBNs contained 13 digits today but, for books published before 2007, ISBN codes contained only 10 digits. She typed a fourth Google search -- “ISBN 0440004152” – and learned from the result that the book she needed to find, “Ball Four,” was a 1971 best seller about baseball by a former player named Jim Bouton. She switched apps on her tablet and plugged the information into the library’s online catalog to find the LCC call number. The book was located back on the fifth floor.

Chrys, topless, hobbled as fast as she could to the elevator, wincing as the nipple clamps bounced with every step she took. She wanted to slow her pace to keep the clamps as still as possible but, because she was racing against the clock, she could not afford to go any slower. She eventually made her way to the appropriate section of the shelves and saw a box identical to the one that had held the ballet ankle boots right next to “Ball Four.”  She opened the box and gasped as she saw an index card and a 1 ¾” black ballgag with black leather straps. She read the typed words on the card to herself:  “This BALL is FOR your mouth, so put it on now; Your next clue awaits! Three DOWN and three to go!” Chrys reluctantly placed the black ball in her mouth, popping it behind her teeth before securing the straps behind her head. She considered refusing but then remembered the warning in the poem: “And be sure to do as you’re told; Don’t think you can refuse.” Once the gag was in place, Chrys found herself drooling on her bare breasts.

Chrys did not see the fourth clue, but she knew it had to be there because the note on the index card said that there was another clue to be followed. She paused and thought to herself, “No, that’s not what the index card said.” She read the second part of the typed message again: “Your next clue awaits! Three DOWN and three to go.” She wondered why her tormentor had capitalized the word “down” and then it dawned on her. Chrys went back to the shelf and found the Jim Bouton book. She looked three shelves down from the book and found another tablet, identical to hers. She turned it on and when the display appeared, Chrys saw the following message:  SF427 .A673 2007.  

She was not stumped this time and, if she hadn’t been wearing a ballgag, she would have smiled. As the Head Librarian in the library’s Acquisitions Department, Chrys immediately knew what the message was – a Library of Congress full classification number for a book! Chrys called up the online catalog for the Library of Congress on her tablet and transcribed the code from the second table into the LC Online Catalog Quick Search field. The result popped up almost instantly: “Puppy Care & Training” by Teoti Anderson. Chrys shivered and her nipples tingled, and, as she stared at the title of the book she now had to find, she felt the color drain from her face while goose bumps covered her arms. Still, she forced herself to move forward and, using her tablet to locate the next book, she discovered that it was located on the third floor of the library in the Agriculture/Animal Husbandry section of the stacks.  

Chrys grabbed her tablet and made her way to the elevator, frowning at how she was now hobbled, ballgagged, topless and had her nipples clamped. She made her way to the appropriate set of shelves on the third floor as quickly as the ankle boots allowed and shook her head when she saw another box next to the Anderson book. She opened the box and found a ¾ inch wide black leather collar with a 1” silver “O” ring along with a small mirror that was the size of an index card. Taped to the front of the mirror was a message: “A collar to control your behaviour; put it on and then it’s Over to your next clue.”

Chrys pouted behind the black ballgag. She also felt dizzy as she secured the collar around her neck, wondering if the dizziness was from the stress of her situation or from the poison. She felt very frustrated. She was also tired of solving clues; tired of being run around the vast library; and tired of being made to jump through hoop after humiliating hoop as she solved each clue. But, she also knew she had no choice if she wanted to live, so she looked for the fifth clue. She found it very quickly thanks to the note, which literally told her where the clue was – “it’s Over to your next clue.” Chrys turned the mirror over and there it was – another series of numbers: 18031904.  

The numbers puzzled her because they did not seem to be part of the Dewey Decimal System, LCC, ISBN or anything else that might suggest a location in the library where she would find the next clue. She knew the answer lay in the numbers and the mirror, but she felt that she was missing something important. She turned the mirror over and read the original instructions and then looked at the numbers. Nothing came to her. She did it again, wasting precious time, but then, when she read the instructions for the fourth time, she noticed something. The word “behaviour” – it was spelled in the British manner as opposed to the American way. She turned again to her tablet and ran a new search on Google – “British and mirror.” Her heart raced faster, either from the poison or from the excitement at seeing the first of the search results: Mirror Online – the website for the British national daily tabloid, the Daily Mirror. She also realized that the numbers were not a library location reference; they were a date written in the European format – 18 March 1904.

Chrys knew that she had to find a copy of that day’s edition of the Daily Mirror if she was to find the next clue. She made her way to one of the computer terminals on the third floor and, after powering it on and inputting her staff password, she called up the University’s main webpage. From there, she navigated to one of the Library’s subscription services – UKPressOnline.co.uk, a website which touted itself as “The best British newspaper archive on the web.” Chrys used her tablet and looked up the Library’s annual subscriber code to gain access to the many news archives available on the site. Chrys found the search box and typed in the date, remembering to do so in the European format. She limited the date search to editions of the Daily Mirror only and clicked the green “search” button at the bottom of the screen.  

The search took less than three seconds and, after the first page of the newspaper from March 18, 1904 appeared on the monitor, Chrys knew right away that she had to return to the biography section on the fourth floor of the library. The headline for March 18, 1904 read: “HOUDINI’S GREAT VICTORY – How He Picked the “Mirror” Handcuffs in One Hour and Ten Minutes.” She grabbed her tablet and hobbled as fast as she could in the ankle boots back to the elevator, trying again to ignore the weight of the bouncing clamps attached to her nipples. Given how each prior clue had led her to being hobbled, clamped, gagged and collared, Chrys had a sinking feeling about what awaited her among the books about the great Harry Houdini, who was also known affectionately as The Handcuff King and The King of Cuffs. She was not mistaken. When she found the section of shelves dedicated to The Great Houdini, there was a box waiting for her. Inside the box was a shiny silver pair of handcuffs, a note and a small piece of candy.  Chrys read the note: “Cuff your wrists tightly in front and Rejoice that you have one last clue to solve but not to eat.”  

Chrys’s frustration had finally peaked as she angrily crumpled up the note and threw it on the ground. Tears brimmed in the corner of her eyes at this latest humiliation of having to handcuff herself and being mocked that she could not eat the piece of candy even if she wanted to because of the ballgag. Nevertheless, she did as she was told, cuffing her wrists tightly in front of her, because she trusted in the original poem which said that her only hope to avoid death was to solve the clues and do as she was told. She took some comfort in the fact that there seemed to be just one clue left, but it was a small comfort only because, with each clue she had solved, she had been rendered more and more helpless.  

Finally, she pulled herself together and looked at the small piece of candy in the box. It was a bite-sized 3 Musketeers candy bar. She smiled through her tears because this was at least an easy clue. The Three Musketeers was a classic work of French fiction by Alexandre Dumas, and she knew that it could be found in the Literature and Languages section of the library on the third floor. Chrys uttered a deep sigh through her ballgag and once more made her way to the elevator and back to the third floor. By now, she was used to the weight of the clamps bouncing from her nipples with every step she took.

Chrys found The Three Musketeers on the shelf, but the familiar box was not near the various editions of the book. She found it though one shelf up between two copies of another Dumas classic – The Man in the Iron Mask. She opened the box and was horrified to see a black leather bondage hood with an attached black leather blindfold; the space for a buckle-on leather gag was empty. She felt her legs grow weak and had to balance herself in the ballet ankle boots by leaning against the book shelves.  A note was in the box with the hood: “Put this on, Ms. Kent, and make sure it’s on tight. The antidote awaits!”

Chrys stared at the leather hood and knew that after she put it on, she would be utterly helpless. But, she reasoned, if she didn’t do as the note commanded, she might be dead. She had no choice, so, with great trepidation, she lowered her head and, due to the awkwardness of having her wrists cuffed, she struggled to pull the loosely laced hood over her head. As soon as the hood’s blindfold panel covered her eyes, Chrys felt even more trapped. She stood motionless and, locked in the darkness of the hood, she lost all sense of time. In addition to robbing her of her sight, the hood also greatly hampered Chrys’s ability to hear, which was why she didn’t realize she was no longer alone until she felt someone tighten the laces at the back of the hood.

Chrys made a muffled noise of protest, but whatever she said was unintelligible thanks to the ballgag strapped inside her mouth. Her protests became more vehement when she felt two hands reach for her breasts and stroke them lightly. Suddenly, she felt a pleasurable sensation coursing through her nipples. Whoever was there with her had activated the vibrating nipple clamps. Chrys whimpered behind the gag and shook her head from side to side, but, despite her situation, she soon found herself enjoying the steady vibrations from the clamps. She mewed as loud as she could, but received no response from her mysterious assailant. Chrys began to wonder if she was alone again when, without warning, someone grabbed her left arm. Chrys tried to yank it away but, being handcuffed and hobbled, the effort made her lose her balance. The unknown person kept her from falling. Conceding defeat, Chrys tried to relax as best she could while standing still.

Suddenly, the hand holding her arm gripped it tighter, preventing Chrys from moving her arm at all. Then, she felt a sharp jab in her left bicep followed by a feeling of coldness flowing through her upper arm. Realizing that she had been given an injection of some sort, she made as much noise as she could from behind the ballgag to express her displeasure. Chrys's efforts were rewarded with the sound of unkind laughter that penetrated the leather hood. The laugh sent shivers up Chrys’s spine as her body tensed. She recognized that laugh.

Next, she felt a hand softly caress her cheek through the hood. “You didn’t really think I would let you die from that poison, did you, Ms. Kent?” asked Ms. Pryor. “I told you before that I wouldn’t let anyone actually hurt you, didn’t I?  I said I would protect you, remember?” Ms. Pryor laughed again as she kissed the ballgag in Chrys’s mouth.  “And I also told you that, for you, this library was a sanctuary and an erotic playground, didn’t I?”

Chrys breathed heavily inside the hood as she remembered both that conversation with the mysterious Ms. Pryor and what happened with her afterwards. Chrys slowly nodded.

“Good,” replied Ms. Pryor with a lilt in her voice as her hand gently caressed Chrys’s breasts. “Then, what do you say we go explore that playground?” she said as she snapped a leash onto the silver ring in Chrys’s collar before slowly leading the captured librarian away from the shelves and into a darker part of the library.

************

Notes about The Six Clues:  

I always loved the poem “The Walrus and The Carpenter,” which was recited by Tweedledee and Tweedledum in “Through The Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There” by Lewis Carroll, so, with apologies to Mr. Carroll, I borrowed and perverted that poem for my own purposes here. John Tenniel, who is mentioned in the second paragraph of The Six Clues, was an English illustrator who most famously illustrated both Through the Looking Glass and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  If you want to see Tenniel’s version of the walrus that ran across Ms. Kent’s widescreen monitor, look here:  www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/pi…  (The actual Lewis Carroll version of the poem is here:  www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/wa…)

All of the books mentioned in this story -- Ivy League Stripper: A Memoir by Heidi Mattison, Ball Four by Jim Bouton, Puppy Care & Training” by Teoti Anderson, and both The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas – are actual books that can be found online or in libraries.

Although has indicated that Ms. Kent’s library is fictional and can be based on any library, anywhere in the world, I modeled my library in The Six Clues after my college’s library. I only cheated once by creating a “biography section” in order to bounce Ms. Kent from the fifth floor to the fourth floor of my library.

I tried to be as accurate as possible when referring to the Dewey Decimal System, the Library of Congress Classification System and International Standard Book Numbers.  It was actually very interesting for me to research these systems and learn about them.  How books are assigned ISBNs was particularly fascinating to me even if the assignment process does involve algorithms!

You really can find archived copies of Britain’s Daily Mirror through UKPressOnline.co.uk, but I found the March 18, 1904 edition of the newspaper, which described The Great Houdini’s Daily Mirror Handcuff Challenge here -- www.handcuffs.org/mirror.  I did take the liberty though in my story of moving the Houdini article to page one of The Daily Illustrated Mirror; the actual article appeared on page three.

The conversation at the end of The Six Clues that Ms. Pryor refers to when she speaks to the gagged and hooded Ms. Kent took place at "Librarian Perils #14 - Secret Desires” -- fav.me/d8v6mwm  

Finally, most of the bondage devices mentioned in The Six Clues, i.e., the En Pointe Black Patent Locking Ballet Ankle Boots, the black ballgag, the black leather collar, the handcuffs and the black leather bondage hood with removable blindfold and gag panels, were based on items I found on various bondage equipment websites. Inquiries about the vibrating nipple clamps though should be directed to my illustrious illustrator,