The city sprawled out both sides of the river like a concrete jungle, with its skyscrapers, rising like fingers into the air. The vista provided a picturesque scene through the wide windows of Maria Kelly's apartment.
To Maria it was the start of another day as a successful journalist working for the City Times. She felt good about her mission in life at present. She was full of confidence for what the job demanded so far and she felt good about herself because that morning the feelings of the night were still buzzing through her sensorium.
The city looked good, she thought as she sipped on her fresh cup of coffee. Then the hands of Paul Davies settled upon her hips from behind. She could feel his breath on her neck as he kissed her, parting her blonde hair to one side. "I think I'm falling in love with you." he whispered gently. She closed her eyes, snuggled her back into him, feeling his presence.
"I wish it was still Sunday. Then I could have you all day." she replied.
"Then call in sick. Tell them you have suddenly come down with this paralyzing and mysterious illness and you have to stay in bed all day."
Maria groaned her response. "I wish." She took his hand and placed it upon her breast and Paul returned a gentle squeeze, feeling the stiffness of her nipple beneath the white lace nightdress. "I loved it the way you fucked me last night."
"I don't do that for every woman I meet."
"Mmm....so I should count myself lucky?"
"No. I'm the lucky one."
She turned to look up into his brown eyes. Slowly they embraced in a passionate kiss. "Share a shower with me." she asked, parting their kiss for a moment as she ran her slender fingers gently over his slightly stubbled face. "Let us see what might transpire."
The thought made Paul get even harder than he already was coupled with the sweet aroma of sex that was still upon her body. The things he wanted to do to her again and the things he never had chance to do came streaming into his mind. She broke the kiss once more, placing her fingers over his lips. "You really do want me don't you?" she asked.
"Want isn't a strong enough word to describe how I feel at the moment."
Most people moved around the city by cab or public transport these days. The traffic was so busy and the city still poor to be able to provide adequate transport ordinances. Maria was fortunate to be able to hold an account with a cab company. The trains and busses were all too crowded at the best of times. Quite often they were the venue of some of the most horrific sex crimes even in broad daylight.
The cab dropped her off outside the main forecourt to the press office housed in one of the thirty storey buildings of the Main Street. She hated that elevator ride to the fifteenth floor, even though the workers and visitors in the building seemed harmless enough, there was always the chance of being a victim of transit rape, the newest and now highest crime in the city.
"Know what. I blame the Japanese." Vernon Wiles remarked, throwing the morning edition across his desk towards Maria. "Their obsession with schoolgirls and abusing them on public transport in Tokyo. To top it all, they video the whole thing."
"Vernon, I think that is all staged." she replied, thumbing the pages to find the article of their conversation.
"Look...I don't think so. You ever seen one of those videos? The look of sheer trepidation on those girls faces. I think it's real enough."
"According to this statement, it's happening here?"
"I have seen videos on the internet. This thing is getting big now. Like snuff movies and gonzo. Real life situations."
"Then surely the victims know who these people are?"
"Well, it seems not. Total strangers. There even putting Marky Dayton out of popularity."
"Dayton? Is he still going?" Maria asked with a smirk on her face. "I used to watch his show on the adult breakfast channel before going to high school every morning."
"Ever met him?"
"No. Not that I have wanted to either."
"Then now is your chance. I want you to cover a story that involves good old Marky."
Maria suddenly realised that she was being roped into a task she would not relish. She neatly folded the broadsheet and laid it on the desk and then leaned forward, allowing her average cleavage to show from the open top few buttons of the blouse she wore. Vernon liked the view. Despite his clean-cut moral stance on sex and being the father of three teenage daughters, the site of a nice neat titty package still turned his attention, especially from the still youthful Maria.
"You mean to say that you would send me out on an interview with Marky Dayton? Vernon I can't believe you."
"Look, Maria, you are the only one I can trust with this story. I am out to expose these perverts once and for all. My youngest daughter relies upon traveling the busses to school every day. It is only a matter of time before it hits on her route."
"So what makes you think I am a specialist in these things?"
"You are young and sexy enough to get what I need." Vernon replied, a partially evil grin growing across his lips. "Come on. You can do this. Makes a change from interviewing boring movie stars and thespians alike. You said you wanted a challenge. Now here it is."
Marky Dayton began his career as a tv personality many years ago. He was notorious for hitting the streets of the city armed with a camcorder and encouraging women to strip for the camera in back allies. A one-man bang bus team. But his victims were willing and they gave their consent. The footage was then shown on public access adult tv and he became very popular.
The growth of the Internet meant viewing changes and his ratings began to fall. Now he takes on the moral fight against those who commit transit rape and display their efforts on unregulated web sites.
Many people like Maria thought the whole thing was a new theme in the porn industry. Marky Dayton knew something different.
Maria was driven in style to where Marky lived on the outer areas of the city. The newspaper took good care of its journalists, especially if they were on an important assignment. The limo pulled up outside the millionaires' house and then left her to it. "Just call us when you want to be collected." the chauffeur explained.
She watched the car retreat down the drive and through the electronically operated security gates and wondered what was in store for her. A man like Marky turning moral over night only meant that he could be loosing out financially. He considered himself an artist in his own right, but one that believed in profit.
The house was a spread, styled on the Spanish villa design only bigger. Maria decided to take the backdoor entrance and found a gate leading into the rear compound and garden. Her explorations failed when met by two Doberman pinchers racing to the gate. She loved dogs, but not those trained as viscious guardians. She closed the gate fast and waited, noticing the inevitable jaws barking and growling at her from the safety of the other side. "Good doggies. Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't feel like lunch today."
The handler, a tall beefy man walked up to restrain the dogs on a leash. "You must be the guest? Miss Kelly?"
"Yes. City Times." She displayed her identity tag pinned to her jacket. "I see the guards here are both cute, angry and very keen."
"They do their job miss. We get a lot of trespassers here."
"Well, I am just pleased to be a guest."
Marky was busy on his telephone by the poolside. There was a defiant and assertive side to his nature. He owned shares in the public access tv channel he helped to run and with the recent trends away from their product, business was harder each day. He was also brash and although his life turned good after college in the media business, there were traits still present of his rough childhood upbringing in the poorer city streets and projects.
He clicked off the mobile phone, cutting someone out who he did not feel obliged to continue his conversation with. "Fuckin' idiots! I'm surrounded by them!" He looked at Maria, like he would any attractive woman and scanned her from head to toe. To him she was sex on legs in the first and then a journalist further down the line. Maria smiled and held out her hand to greet him. Marky however did not believe in association with a woman so intimately unless it was to satisfy his basic natural needs. The charm he used in doing what he did was trained and practiced to gain maximum advantage.
"So Vernon sent you? I expected a guy. So how good are you at your job?"
"I do OK. Why do you ask that?" Maria inquired. "Is it because you don't believe that women should do the things I do?"
"OK, let me put it this way.... if I told you to strip naked here and now, would you?"
"Certainly not." She stood arms crossed in defense. "Why should I?"
"Because it's what I think you're good at."
"Typical. I should have expected that from you. Infact, I did expect that from you, OK?"
Marky laughed at her expense. When he was not charming he was jokingly offensive. "Look, grab a chair and sit down. I was only joking with you. It's the way I am."
He ordered cool drinks of lemonade which Maria considered welcoming. It was turning hot in the mid-day sunshine and she was a little over dressed to be out of air conditioning. The pool was becoming inviting to her as time went by. Marky explained his point of view about the matter of transit rape and as expected he seemed to be fronting a moral objection to it.
"So how do you think it should be stopped?" She asked. "More cops, better public transport, regulated websites? How?"
"All of those things of course. It isn't right."
"But don't you think its all staged? I mean the victims complain but they don't point anyone out. I personally think they are paid in advance and agree to do it."
"So you think it's staged ah?" Marky replied.
