"Run, Dale!" shouted Flash as the aircar's motor died with Ming the Merciless's elite Imperial forces in hot pursuit. They lost power in a heavily forested part of Mongo that Dale and Flash had simply intended to fly over when they were spotted by a patrol. Now a group of Ming's air cars were converging on this spot.
"Go that way, Dale so they can't catch us at the same time."
Dale headed off where her lover pointed into even thicker woodlands. Proving that things could indeed get worse. The heavens open as thunder roared and lightning flashed. Dale kept her head down and kept running.
**
"We are hot on the trail of the earthing Flash Gordon," your excellency.
"Splendid! And the earthwoman?" returned Mongo's despotic leader.
"We traced her to a broken expanse of fence. Your excellency, she crossed into Fernia Territory."
"Blast!"
"Should we risk voiding the treaty to try and pursue the girl?"
"No, focus on Flash. With the weather the way it is and nothing around for kilometers, she'll probably die of exposure in a few hours any way. As nice as a prize as she is. Flash Gordon is the real threat to my throne."
"Yes, your excellency. We'll have flash shortly."
"If you don't I have your rank, captain."
**
Dale ran past the point of exhaustion through mud and brambles, thorns and muck. At one point her feet went out from under her and she landed hard on her wrist which throbbed badly ever after. Forlorn, depressed, and at the limit of her endurance she spotted a dim light in the woods and the smell of a fire in hearth. The very last embers of her strength brought her to the isolated cabin. With a loud moan she collapsed just outside the front door.
**
"At least you didn't catch Dale."
"Only speak when spoken to, prisoner!" said the captain of the guards as he slapped Flash hard across the face.
"Or what? You'll execute me?" shot back Flash not even deigning to rub his chin.
"No, Ming's already tried that, and you escaped. Ming does not repeat himself. You are to be tortured and altered until your mind is no longer your own. Gordon, we are turning you over to Doctor Pain."
Those words gave Flash pause. Doctor Pain, known only as a name, was a legendary terror weapon in Ming's arsenal. Great hulking soldiers had been reduced to frightened, timid children by Doctor Pain. Men who had fought with bravery and intelligence had been altered by the mysterious doctor until they were frightened of their own shadows, useless now as solders and barely qualifying as men any longer. Flash had seen the results of Doctor Pain's work first-hand. The thought of becoming just like those sniveling fidgety, cowards gave Mongo's most inspiring hero real pause.
'That's inhuman!" cried Flash to the captain.
"Actually, she's quite lovely."
"The door to the interrogation room opened and in strode a stunningly attractive redhead in an Imperial Guard uniform with the prominent death's head logo of the Torturer Corps on her jaunty cap. She was at least a head shorter than Flash but as she strode into the room, she conveyed great height and extreme menace. She wore a major's cluster and a short skirt and smiled malevolently. The captain and Doctor Pain exchanged salutes.
She focused on Flash. "The legendary earthman in my clutches at last!"
She strode close to Flash, pressed her prominent bosom against his chest and gazed up at him.
"I am like nothing you have ever experienced before, tall blond, and expendable. In no time I'll have you crying for your mommy like you haven't since you skinned your knee as a toddler. I'm going to strip you down every way imaginable and then give the contents of your brain a good jumble. It's what I'm good at and that is why the emperor pays me so well. I never fail!"
Flash had faced many terrors since coming to Mongo, but the ice-cold soprano voice of Doctor Pain instilled in him waking nightmares. He had no doubt that she had spoken sincerely with complete honesty and not a hint of conceit. It was clear she was capable of everything she claimed, and Flash realized that he was in the most trouble he had ever faced.
Doctor Pain watched the expression of Flash Gordon transition from curiosity to fear and emitted a merry chuckle.
"Escort General Gordon to my playroom and secure him but otherwise don't lay a finger on him. I have to prepare for our date."
"Yes Ma'am!" stated the guards with relish.
**
Dale awakened to find herself between clean, white, scented sheets. Her clothing was nowhere in evidence. A smell of breakfast cooking filled the air causing her stomach to rumble. She felt a tightness about her right wrist with revealed itself to be a cast. She had an acute need to relieve herself.
"Ah, my beguiling visitor is awake!" came an enthusiastic bass male voice. Dale turned her head towards the voice and found it coming from a remarkably handsome dark-haired man with matinee idol looks, a tall frame with broad shoulders and a winsome smile. He was wearing a silk robe.
Too stunned to even ask the obvious, Dale simply gaped at the handsome man.
"Oh, I do hope you are not mute. I was hoping for some conversation."
"Where am I?"
"Ah, the obvious question when one finds herself in your circumstance. You are in the cabin of your host, Malachi Sur-Lebette, son of Enoch Sur-Lebette, the ruling duke of Frenia. And whom might you be beautiful miss?"
Rather than give her name, which might put her life in danger as there was a huge reward out for Dale Arden, she replied with, "Betty. Betty Grable."
He strode forward and grasped her left hand and kissed it gently.
"A beautiful name just like you."
The duke's son looked at Dale and read her distress.
"The toilet is through that door."
He gathered up a second silk robe held it open for Dale and politely turned his head. The earthwoman wasted no time in slipping on the robe and fastening it about her waist. She sped to the indicated door, shut it behind herself and blissfully relieved herself.
When she came back out, she had finally formed some more meaningful questions.
"Sir?"
"Please, Malachi"
"Mr. Malachi, I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage. The last thing I remember was collapsing to the smell of a wood burning fire."
"Yes, I discovered you on my doorstep in a most disheveled state. I took you in, we put you to bed and set the bone in your wrist. I've had quite a bit of medical training. That was three days ago."
"I've been out for three days?"
"More or less."
Dale tightened the obi of the robe. "Malachi, does anyone else live here?"
"Not as a general rule, no."
Dale's eyes grew big. "Where are my clothes?"
"Outside, drying on the line. After two solid days of deluge, it was finally sunny enough and dry enough for them to dry. I washed them, of course, they were caked in mud."
"You said we put me to bed."
"Oh, I do use the royal we a bit too much for some people's liking, but it goes with the territory."
"I see." Said Dale hotly.
The duke's son guffawed.
"I save her life and she'd obsessed with her modesty. That is rich."
Dale took a deep breath and held it.
"I'm sorry, Malachi, but you have me at a disadvantage."
"Well then let us sit down to breakfast and discuss things like civilized people."
Dale sniffed. The food did smell irresistible.
