"You didn't come to me last night," Fikrit growled at me as I walked up to this yacht outside Effendi's restaurant.
"But I'm on time now, aren't I? I've come here knowing what you have in mind. How many of your other men have done that?"
His eyes flashed anger with an edge of lust. "You think you know why you're going on this boat ride?"
"It's why I stayed away from you last night. It makes today all that more enjoyable. Time to build up tension, and strength . . . and cum."
"You don't know anything about it, or you wouldn't be here. I'm going to break you. I'm going to break you in two." I was standing on the quay and he in the stern of the yacht, but he had my forearm in a vice grip. I wasn't going anywhere he didn't want me to go now.
"That's what I want you to do," I said defiantly. "I want to be broken. But I won't pretend that I have been broken until I am, so do your worst."
"You won't have to pretend," he growled, as he jerked me into the boat, and, losing my balance, I fell in a heap on the deck. "Take him to the cabin, Ahmed."
The black Egyptian hauled me up, hustled me down some steps and down a narrow corridor and then into a cabin. He left me on a double bed against one of the cabin walls, my wrists and ankles bound and a ball gag in my mouth. I was still clothed in my T-shirt and shorts, though. I surmised Fikrit wanted to cut those off me at some point.
As the yacht maneuvered through the harbor, past the glaring walls of the castle, and out to sea, headed toward international waters, I was sure, I looked around the cabin. Quite an operating theater, I decided. The light in the cabin was dim, because all of the surfaces were covered in sheeting, which covered the portholes as well. The walls were draped in white sheeting as was the floor of the cabin. Sheeting was even pinned up to the ceiling. A hook, with two short chains ending in restraints dropped down from the ceiling near the middle. Spaced a bit from those and spread from each other, but parallel to each other, were two more hooks, both with short chains ending in restraints. On the floor underneath these hooks, I saw a large, rectangular metal tray with a rim on it. I started to pant and go hard.
I'd seen such a chamber before. I knew they existed in my line of work. I'd never participated in anything that went on in one. But I knew they existed. They encompassed my feeling of guilt of even knowing such chambers existed and were put to useâguilt for which I constantly sought punishment and atonement. I had had this guilt a long time before I sent Peter into Syria and he was executed there.
There were implements of tortureâsexual tortureâon a table on the other side of the cabin. I'd seen them immediately upon being manhandled into the cabin by Ahmed, but I had looked away. I knew they'd be here, thoughâchains, hand and ankle cuffs, dildos in various sizes, floggers, whips, gloves attached to batteries, clamps, ball weights, strings of graduated bulbs, what looked like an electric prod, sounding wands laid out on a cloth, razors . . . flaying knives. Different implements perhaps from the other torture chambers I'd seen, but just as lethal.
I'd barely had time to take it all in when the commotion started. I heard yelling. I heard Fuad scream. "Evasive action. Turn us west."
I heard the motors rev up and felt the force of the yacht's bow jerking up and the pressure of the increased speed. Then more shots, and screams. A bullet came through a porthole into the cabin, tearing through the sheeting, and I rolled myself onto the floor at the side of the bed. More screams and shots. Then the loss of power, followed not long after by the bumping of the hull of another a craft on this one. Splashes. Voices, still concerned, but not yelling now.
"What are you doing down there, Clifford Clarke?" An almost bemused voice, pronouncing the name distinctly, both of us knowing that wasn't my real name. He knelt down beside me, placing his Glock on the deck, and released the ball gag from my mouth. His hands then went to undoing the other bonds.
"Umm, quite a nice collection of toys here, I see," I heard him say as he popped the ball gag out of my mouth.
"Ted Severn, come to save me, I presume?" Both of us knew his name wasn't really Ted Severn.
A woman appeared at the door, alert and efficient looking, still on guard, She leaned against the door frame, holding her Glock in both hands, the barrel pointing up. Cynthiaâthe young woman at the bar at the Harbor Club the other night. She was looking straight ahead toward the stern of the yacht, a statue, not seeing or listening to anything from inside the cabin.
"You almost had yourself in one big pickle," the man whose name really was Andy, said, as he freed me from my bonds, hoisted me up, and sat me on the bed. "Seeing what's in here would have made me keel over dead before help arrived," he muttered, his voice full of awe.
"Yes," I answered, trying to keep the slight note of disappointment out of my voice. Andy didn't know the extent of my fetishes and vices. He had no idea how aroused this chamber had made me, even knowing where it could end up. No one in the Agency did or ever hadâno one but Peter. Hung from a chain and sounded? Been there, did that, enjoyed it under the hand of Peter. A hot and bothered Peter, in a chamber much like this, but just used for other purposesâby men like Peterâin an afterglow unleashing of the rush that brought them to men like me. Peter not that different from Fuad Fikrit. Not much different at all.
"The two men? Fikrit and the Egyptian?" I asked.
"Dead before we boarded. Several shots each. To keep this from being messy and to keep the opposition guessing, the bodies went overboard."
"And the cargo. Heroin, I assume? Overboard too?"