Alexei Iskakov, Bounty Hunter Ch. 03

Alexei had a lot to think about. He was starting to grow a soft spot for the girl who had snuck aboard his ship. He could sell her, and potentially make a lot of money, but there was no guarantee that whoever the buyer was wouldn't just kill him outright, whether to avoid having to pay for such a rare find, or to silence him, or both.

He dragged the recently re-blindfolded and gagged Sofiya to a bench, where he sat her down.

"Hold still. You were good for the doctor, so I'll make this a bit easier for you"

He undid the rope connecting her wrists and the neck loop, and re-tied it so that her hands, still tightly bound, had a bit more vertical freedom, letting her relax a bit from the strenuous position she had been in. He ruffled her hair a bit, then grabbed it, just hard enough to let her know she still wasn't off the hook, turning her relieved sigh into a scared chirp.

"I'm being nice, but you're not going to like what happens next. First off..." he ran her thick, wavy hair through his fingers. "Most of this is gonna have to go. I'm tired of you hiding from me behind it." he gave it a sharp tug, producing a squeal of protest "Plus, if I'm keeping you, and not selling you off to the highest bidder, I've got to give you some permanent reminders of who you belong to."

He gave her face a playful slap at that, enough to emphasize the point but not enough to leave a mark or do more than sting for a half minute, and opened a beer he had bought on the way.

"You want some, kid?" he loosened her gag and pulled it out of her mouth, holding the bottle up to her lips. She wrinkled her nose at the smell, but grudgingly took a sip.

________________________________________________________________

Zarina didn't like beer, but she hated the bit gag more, so she took a few sips of the bitter beverage grudgingly. The taste brought her back to sneaking out to party with her friends, before her family decided to emigrate to the stars. That was two... no. Twenty years ago. Right? It was supposed to be a twenty year hibernation.

The man started to pull the bottle back, but she grabbed it with her teeth. She needed this. She needed something to numb the nightmare her life had suddenly become. Iskakov laughed as she tried to guzzle as much of the beer as she could, coughing and spitting as it foamed out the corner of her mouth.

Her captor patted her on the head, almost tenderly, then she heard him stand up, and he gave a tug on the leash. Not wanting to risk the bit being put back in her mouth, she followed obediently, trying to nurse the buzz she had going.

They entered what was, judging by the smell and noise, a much more crowded area. She couldn't understand a thing being said, but she heard what must be at least a dozen different languages being spoken and argued in, and felt her bare skin brush against passersby as Iskakov led her through the crowd. She felt a slap and a grope on her ass, and cried out, then heard Iskakov yell angrily at the offender. Being paraded around nude was humiliating enough. Having her tormentor defend her was almost worse, in its own way. She felt very small and exposed, as the man hooked his finger through the loop in her collar and pulled her along more directly.

Soon, the smell of sweat and sea air gave way to the odor of burning incense, and she stopped feeling the sun on her skin.

________________________________________________________________

Alexei pushed aside the beaded curtain leading into the salon.

"Henri, is Madame Bounxouei in?"

The gene tailored young man at the desk, in a stylish collar of his own, took his sweet time before answering.

"Yes, Lyosha." The answer was cold. Alexei felt a pang of guilt.

"Look. I already apologized twice. I had a job, it was urgent..."

"Shut it. I'll get the madame." Henri looked over the blindfolded girl at Alexei's side "Poor thing. You gonna leave her in a hotel cuffed to the bed also?"

He swiveled in his seat.

"Mistress! Alexei Iskakov is here!"

A plump, middle aged woman in fine silks emerged from the back of the salon.

"Lyosha! It's been too long!" she soon caught sight of Sofiya and clicked her tongue disapprovingly "Were you dragging this poor thing through the street like this? Please tell me you're selling her to someone other than Pavel"

Alexei took the lady's hand from Sofiya's cheek and kissed it.

"I promise I'm not, Madame. I'm keeping this one... for now at least."

"Loosen her up! How long have you kept her trussed up like that?" The older woman felt Sofiya's hands for proper circulation. "And what would you like done with her?"

________________________________________________________________

Zarina felt the ropes being slowly unwound from her arms and wrists. She moved her hand to pull off the blindfold, but the slap in the face she got when she tried quickly discouraged her from that notion. Finally being free of the ropes was a relief, and she did her best to stretch while Iskakov led her to a surprisingly comfortable seat.

Before she could settle in however, she felt a padded band wrap around her neck, just above the collar. Iskakov and the man she had heard talking pushed her arms onto the armrests, and those too were strapped down. It was considerably more pleasant than the ropes she had been in earlier, but an ominous feeling was growing in her chest, pushed on by the electric buzz she heard beside her head.

Iskakov said something, running his fingers through her hair, and stopping at certain points and talking to the other man, with an elegant sounding older woman interjecting occasionally.

After they had finished their discussion, she felt a comb roughly but skillfully untangle her hair, then the buzzing got closer. When she felt the cold blade of the clipper against her temple her fears were confirmed. She tried to hold back the tears as she felt the hair come off her head and fall to the floor below her.

________________________________________________________________

After Henri put the finishing touches on the girl's hair, Alexei ran his fingers through it, using it as a handle to turn her head and get a view from a few other angles.

"Perfect. Just long enough I can still grab it." He said, giving her head a rub "Next part is the fun part. You're gonna need this."

He pushed the bit back into her mouth. This time she didn't resist. He strapped it behind her head, but didn't bother with the full harness. He signaled Henri, who had just finished brushing the bits of hair off her skin. Henri pulled out a long, hollow needle, and as Alexei held Sofiya's head in place, quickly thrust it through her nose.

________________________________________________________________

Zarina screamed into the gag as she felt her nose being pierced. As soon as the needle was out, she felt another, curved piece of metal being pushed through the hole in her septum, and a single drop of blood rolled down to her lips. No sooner had the piercer dabbed stinging disinfectant around her nose than she felt him pull down her lower lip and put another needle through it. Dabbing away the drool and tears, the man pushed another ring through that hole. But the time he moved on to her ears she was braced for the pain, and bit down on the gag, determined not to give her tormentors the satisfaction of crying out.

After several holes had been poked in her ears and filled, she heard another buzzing sound, much like the clippers. This time, instead she felt a stinging pain between the nape of her neck and shoulder blades. The sharp pain traveled around, as the man running the needle paused occasionally to wipe the blood away. After an agonizingly long time, she felt the same pain on her right thigh. She bit harder into the gag, and tried not to cry.

Finally, it was over. She heard Iskakov say something to the other man, and the straps holding her to the chair were undone, and the gag pulled out. Her captor pulled her to her feet by the collar, and took the blindfold off.

She was standing in front of a full length mirror, but it took her a second to recognize herself. Her thick, dark hair, which had until an hour ago reached down to her shoulders was almost gone, reduced to a very short, androgynous style, no more than five centimeters long at its longest point. Each of her ears had three helix rings, and there was a taper in each of the lobes. A large, solid septum ring sat in her nose, reaching halfway down to her upper lip, while her lower lip held a thick labret ring.

She looked down to her bare thigh. On it, against her reddened skin, she saw what looked like the chinese characters "慧心" written in large, vertical, seal style script. To the side of them she saw, in smaller type, also vertical, cyrillic letters "СОФИЯ" she wordlessly mouthed out the sounds.

'Sofiya.'

Behind her, she heard Iskakov confirm it. He put one hand on her shoulder, the other possessively on her ass, and slowly turned her around. It was hard to bend and see, but she had a QR code tattooed behind her left shoulder, and a seal or emblem of some sort just below the nape of her neck.

Her captor turned her back around, ran his finger along the Cyrillic letters and sounded them out.

"S-O-F-I-Ya" he pointed back at her. When she didn't respond, he tugged the collar and made sure she was looking as he repeated himself.

She broke a little as her name... no, his name for her, spilled out her lips.

"So... Sofiya."

________________________________________________________________

Alexei pulled the girl close, gently, as she burst into tears, and rubbed her head reassuringly. She tried to push him away, but weakly, giving up after token resistance. Once she had calmed a little, he turned to the patroness of the establishment.

"Madame Bounxuei, Henri did a wonderful job. I'm going to give him a nice tip if that's alright with you."

"Of course Lyosha, he's been very good this past six months, a little extra spending money won't hurt."

"Look just treat her alright okay? Poor thing barely seems to know where she is." Henri rolled his eyes, but held out a credit reader. "She deserves better than some asshole pirate."

"I'll be good to her Henri. Madame?" Alexei bowed "Always a pleasure, I plan to have her back for more when she's better trained."

He cuffed Sofiya's hands, in front of her this time, and only tightly enough that she couldn't slip them, and headed back for the ship, as she trailed despondently, but obediently behind him.

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

" Doctor Mota will be right with you Mr. Hao."

Hao Jinxing stepped into Doctor Mota's office, and settled his large frame. The damn knee was giving him trouble again. He idly scanned the room. The doctor's tablet was sitting on the counter. He picked it up. After boredly scanning a few lines, his eyes grew wide, and he crossed himself.

"Hao! Here about the knee?" the doctor entered "Did you do the exer- Mother of Mercy."

Mota tried to grab the tablet from the big pirate, but Hao, despite his bad knee, was much faster and stronger than the old man. In a flash, a blade popped out of his forearm, and he thrust it repeatedly into the doctor's torso, before rushing out the back entrance.

He made a quick call with a secure app on his phone.

"This is the Second Hawk on Mazu, tell the Heavenly King I found the Edenite."