Elizabeth at War Ch. 07 - Goats

Jenny's troops were careful not to march behind her, they strolled careful out of step, not to present too military an image. Stan brought up the rear and looked at the team. All in fatigues, all prime specimens of humanity. They lined up before the veranda. Stan noted the goat staked out on the green sward, grazing contentedly. On the veranda Elizabeth sat, clad in a light sundress, next to a wizened little Asiatic man. Jenny looked at her troops, then bowed formally to Master Tsang.

"Sir, may I present my... my group. Tommy, ex-Marine, veteran of numerous combat missions. Linda, SWAT trained in three police forces. Charles, ex-Ranger, also a combat veteran, paratrooper and mountaineer. Lost an arm to an IED in Syria. Ramon, ex-French Foreign Legion, paratrooper. Tammy, National Karate champion, spent a year in jail for breaking and entering. She specialised in jewellery in luxury hotels. Stan, Intelligence specialist, veteran of three tours. And myself, Special Forces operative, also three tours, lost most of my leg during a failed operation in the sandbox."

They bowed and the old man stood up, bowed, then came down and walked up and down the line. He tapped Tommy on the chest, nodded, remarked: "Big man. Very strong? We will see."

He walked around Tammy, felt her backside, nodded. "Nice arse. Make good babies. Lots of anger here. Not good."

He looked Ramon up and down. "Flashy one, likes the ladies. Not big, but hard and angry inside. Anger gets in your way."

Elizabeth had warned them that he was going to provoke them and everyone kept a straight face. Master Tsang paused again in front of the group and asked in a quiet voice: "Take clothes off please. Everything."

Jenny took the lead in stripping naked, and the rest followed. Master Tsang walked up and down again, and only Elizabeth's experienced eye saw that he turned next to the stake to which the goat's tether was attached. A few seconds later the animal scampered away towards the vegetable garden while Master Tsang walked up and down the line, making remarks about breasts, buttocks, Jenny's prosthetic leg, Charles' prosthetic arm. Then he turned around and walked back to Jenny.

"Can your people catch that goat before he eats my lettuce? And you can hit me."

"Hit you? Are you sure?"

The team tried to corner the animal, who found the game amusing. Jenny looked at the scrawny man standing before her. She aimed a gentle blow. He was just not there to receive it.

"Try again. Hit me, not make love, ok? Try to hit hard."

Again her fist met air. And again. And again. Eventually he laughed and said:

"Better luck next time. Call the guy with the iron hand and go help them with the goat."

One after the other they tried to hit Master Tsang, and one after the other they missed him as he danced out of the way. A long and frustrating half hour later the sweating team were still running, naked, all over the sward, and the goat was having a lot of fun. Master Tsang clapped his hands and called them to him.

"Come, we need some new ideas here. Elizabeth, can you catch the goat please?"

She walked down the steps, ignoring the goat who kept a wary eye on her and the team. Master Tsang cackled. "Look, he is thinking of goat curry. Now, you will see how a confrontation is handled."

Elizabeth opened the wicket gate to the vegetable garden and the goat came trotting up. Carefully she selected a big leaf off one of the lettuce plants, held it out to the goat. When he reached to nibble she took a firm grip of his halter.

Master Tsang bowed to her and said to the team: "So, the first lesson: Violence seldom solves a problem. Now you need to learn how your violence can be controlled to hit the target."

That evening Elizabeth asked: "Guys, did you learn anything?"

Big Tom frowned around his forkful of steak. "That a little man could outwit every one of us?"

Linda laughed, a little uncertainly. "I think he was trying to teach us humility, indirect thinking, concentration."

Elizabeth smiled. "Look, I am not at all an adept at his way of thinking. I can tell you, that black goat's daddy let me a merry dance every time I got there. I think you are right, Linda. Humility, not arrogance, that's his way of thinking. He has a way of turning confrontation against you in ways I hope you never find out. He also will teach you, in some way I cannot explain, how to make your blows count, how to direct your aggression, your violence, in such a way that it makes a difference. That is, if you decide to use it. May I wish you a week of fun with the black goat?"

***

Nondescript house, peeling paint, garden in need of maintenance. A single, nondescript car in the driveway. He frowned, checked the address, then stepped out. His trained eye spotted a man doing unnecessary work on a garden fence a few houses down over the road, a movement in a neighbouring garden. Must be the right place.

The door opened as he was about to ring the bell. A diminutive girl greeted him, asked him to put down his briefcase and phone, expertly patted him down.

She showed him into the lounge and stepped out of the door. Six people were waiting for him. Nobody introduced themselves, one stood up and waved him to a chair.

"I believe you take coffee, Mr Nunes? We are having tea, there is soda as well."

A man with a prosthetic hand brought a tray, nodded, then also left the house.

Nunes lifted an eyebrow, and the bigger man smiled. "Looks like cloak and dagger, no? So, you were involved in a case involving a silver Mercedes and a woman dressed in silver, right?"

He nodded. "I am not sure what the relevance is, but I was pulled out of my work and checked to the fillings in my teeth. The Commissioner personally told me I am being sent on detached duty. What is all this about?"

A woman spoke: "We are following up on a network that may have infiltrated some of the most sensitive industries in the country. We believe there are many people involved, and the network centers here. We need someone who knows the area, can get us in touch with the seamy side of town, and can think laterally. Your name came up as such a person, and also someone who has faced danger. Are you interested?"

He looked at her, at the others, then nodded. "That's my job, isn't it? So tell me what we are doing?"

She smiled. "Let me then introduce us. I am Elizabeth Durr. A while ago I worked with a management consultant, doing an audit on a major corporation. We picked up a few irregularities, amongst others that the CEO had handpicked a team of men who took pleasure in denigrating and humiliating her. She had learnt to enjoy that while a student here. This team ran the corporation and squirrelled away money, sent sensitive technology overseas. The full extent of the damage is not yet clear. We drafted a report, and they killed my colleagues, almost killed me with a nerve poison spray. We were assured that the whole network had been rolled up due to my surviving and having kept a copy of our report where they did not suspect it. Then, a few weeks ago, someone tried to assassinate me. I am convinced the spider is still there, controlling other networks."

"Interesting, but why me? I know the streets, the immigrant community, but not the big corporate scene."

She sat forward: "Because I have a hunch you may already have a connection with our case. The case you were involved with, the woman wearing silver clothes who was murdered and crushed in the remains of her silver Mercedes? The report stated that the gang leader fingered one André as the person who had ordered the killing. Right?"

He nodded and she went on: "The woman at the heart of my case, Sondra, went to University here. In a cache of old documents in her mother's house was an invitation card to a Club Climax, an old, extreme sex club, signed by André. The club is long defunct, but we need someone to find us records, people who may remember."

Nunes nodded. "That should not be too difficult. May I bring in a few colleagues? One, Maria da Silva, is well entrenched in that area."

The man nodded. "Yes, you can bring in a few, but of course, for security purposes, fewer is better. At the same time we can task any police or other security instance to help gather information, and we have overriding and cross-linked networks to feed a special database. By the way, I am Stan Best, I am an intelligence specialist, but military intelligence, so I will lean heavily on you to guide as to police matters. My wife, Jenny there, she is in charge of our special action team, a few of whom you have met. They will do the heavy security should it become necessary, and also whatever breaking and entering or fighting we need to do. Terry Durr, over there, is Elizabeth's husband, he is our manager, setting up control structures, running the geeks who designed and operate our computer network, which by the way had made a few interesting points of collaboration, also based on some of your reports. For instance you filed a report on a vagrant that you had pulled in, who reported seeing the silver woman and silver Mercedes at the empty factory space, and who had a receipt for having sold a telephone he had found in the garbage there to a pawn shop. That telephone belonged to a vanished friend of Elizabeth's, Jessica. She was picked up in a small town by a woman wearing a silver suit, driving a silver Mercedes."

"Now how did you get that information? It was a footnote on a part of my report regarding the murder that was never used."

"But it was filed, and our data robots trawled it out. You'd be surprised what it comes up with."

Nunes laughed. "You cannot build a case on such tenuous facts, Stan. You know as well as I do that coincidence is useless when it comes before the courts. All you have is the name of André coming up twice."

"You are right, and you are wrong. At the moment we are looking at indicators, points to follow up. And we do that based on intuition, facts and analysis. Once we have identified where we need additional information we can target areas for further investigation. We have been going over a number of incidents in the industries we are interested in, and the data seems to point to this area too often to be coincidence."

Nunes nodded. "I understand the concept. What worries me is the time and manpower that might be needed to get all the necessary evidence, in a form that could be presented in court."

Terry smiled. "In many cases the existence of tenuous information would be enough for Boards of Directors to act and expose suspects, and that would be enough for our purposes. Our database has already picked up a number of probable links and nodes, all seeming to center around some deviant or extreme sex practises, mostly in this area. What we need now is to get inside this circle and start filling in the blanks. Sunitra, here, and her husband, Dr Bill, are adepts at Tantra practises and we plan to let them get a 'foot in the door' of some of these parties. That and some information from Club Climax should give us enough to work on, for a start."

Nunes smiled. "Ok, let me talk to da Silva. I would have to get her released from her present tasks, though."

Terry nodded. "Understandable. Here is a card for the contact person at the Commissioner's office, she will arrange everything on your word. But remember, she knows nothing else about the project, only that you are authorised to take decisions on this program. Any operational requests must be channelled through me, for a start, or this number in an emergency."

Sergeant Maria da Silva was dressed like a high class escort about to go to work, but Sunitra was dressed in black, with subdued makeup. They sipped margaritas in a seedy bar near the waterfront.

"Here she comes now." Da Silva involuntarily nudged the big handbag with the eye and Sunitra smiled. Even experts at surveillance get nervous.

The woman who answered the wave of Maria's hand showed the effect of many, many late nights, a diet of alcohol and drugs, of too little sunlight. Her trowelled-on makeup was flaking at the corners of her eyes.

She sat down, perched on the edge of the chair. Sunitra could confirm Maria's assessment -- she was clearly on some sort of drug. Her jittery movements betrayed more than nervousness.

Maria spoke: "Nikita, I wanted to introduce you to my friend, Sunitra. She would like your help to set up some workshops, some Tantra awareness groups, some massage sessions, you know."

Nikita looked at Sunitra like a bird checking out something to eat. "Tantra? I used to do that, you know. We would do all hundred of the Kamasutra positions for a john if he did not come first. What a laugh. No money in it, though. I can get you in on some light BDSM. You'd like that, got the body for it."

Sunitra shook her head. "Where did you do tantra? And when? Maybe there is a demand for that now?"

Nikita smiled. "The demand comes from the big guys, love, and they aren't interested in your sort of thing. Maybe to get appetites going, but these guys are into serious stuff. Johns want to pay for a quicky, well, ok, there's that. But the big spenders are willing to pay to watch a girl get raped, whipped, that sort of thing. Not like in the old days when some exotic dancing, some arse grabbing, some lap dancing and a quick visit to the toilets set you up for the next one."

Her Bloody Mary came and Nikita gulped it. Maria asked: "Good old days, yes. You remember the old Club Climax?"

Nikita sat back a little. "Do I remember! That was when I was young and beautiful. I started dancing there, you know. I danced at another place before, but they offered me more. Of course he wanted me to screw the clients, same as the other girls. I did not want to so they got Maurice to break me in. For a while I turned tricks in the rooms they had behind, but I wanted out, you see? Of course I was stupid. So one night they grabbed me, strapped me up to a crossbar, and had the johns whip me. André and Maurice fucked me in between. Punishment, see? So I liked it. Made me feel I paid for being a slut. And the johns liked it, paid well to whip me and fuck me. I was the main attraction for a week."

Maria held a hand to stop Sunitra interjecting and asked: "You became a sort of madame there, if I remember well."

Nikita shook her head. "Nothing so grand, love. Just the star of the show for a while. Then they wanted more girls so I trawled the clubs and bars and the frat houses. The frat boys loved me, loved gangbanging me and then I would dare their girls to join me. I got a number of girls that way."

Sunitra leant forward and asked: "How to you mean you got them?"

Nikita looked around for another drink, then confided: "I was good at that, you know? You get these young girls, they have all these repressions, these rules, these guilt feelings. So you get them to loosen up, let it out, see? Some you can see immediately, they would make a good whore, so you get them to the club, or get someone to spike a drink, then you get some guys to fuck her silly for a day or two, break her spirit, set her up with a pimp. That's easy. But then you get some with a guilt feeling, you know? Some church thing, they want to screw but they need to be punished. I was good with that. Loved fucking them myself, then they go all guilty with being lesbian. What will mama say? So then you get them addicted to being spanked, get them to have a few guys spank and fuck them. Punishment and reward. Pain and pleasure. Easy."

Maria nodded wisely. "Of course some of these girls work it out of their system, no? Go on to become mothers and so on?"

Nikita frowned. "I never knew what became of them. I know a few became regulars at the club, Maurice sold many on to pimps, he had a team working for him. Then already he had links with the drug cartels. André, he was a devious one. He took a few out of the system, god knows what he did with them. I know he set up one with a guy in the mob, and when she talked, he had her snuffed. Made a party out of it, had guys pay a fortune to fuck her while they .... I'm not supposed to... I don't remember..."

Maria smiled. "No problems, Nikita, we are friends. We've all been there. You need a refill? Now, do you know any places or people who can help Sunitra?"

Nikita dragged at a cigarette. "No money in that, I told you. She can talk to Damian, or I can ask around. There are a few parties going on, very restricted, you know. Maybe some swingers, I don't know. Let me see. I think there is a swinger thing coming up some time soon, they wanted a few girls to spice up things a little. Give me your number, I'll see if they are interested. Look, I have to go, I have a shoot and I haven't eaten..."

Sunitra smiled. "Neither have we. Can I get you something? I was looking at their chef's salad."

They settled down to eating something, with Nikita knocking back another few Bloodies. Maria steered the discussion around to names and girls Nikita could remember. She told them about a girl called Marita who would take on twenty guys at a time. "She loved that, you know? Started competing with me at a frat party gangbang, then liked it and the idea of getting paid for it. Eventually some guy from Mexico, some cartel type whisked her away."

"Sounds like you had some fun at these frat parties. Ever met a girl called Sondra?"

Nikita was showing the effect of the Bloody Maries, and shook her head. "Can't say I did. Sandra? Wasn't she the Madam at that place at the docks?"

"No, I think she was a student who liked to be humiliated. Getting pissed on, that sort of thing."

Nikita sat back and burped. "We had a few girls like that. Ah, now I remember. A blondie, right? Tiny little thing, hot as hell. Very clever, she was studying something serious. But she had some daddy issues, you know. So bright, but she had this guilt feeling. I think her father felt threatened by her success. So she got hooked on this humiliation thing. She had a friend, Anita, I think. Wow, that one was like a firecracker. We had her turning tricks in a week. Earned a lot for Maurice, but the arsehole would not give me anything, would he? Tightwad, the bastard."

"Not like André?" Maria was playing Nikita like a fish.

"No, André's a gentleman. Always pays me a finder's fee. He'd never cheat me."

"He took Sondra away?"

Nikita shook her head. "How am I supposed to know? I mean, he took the pick of the girls, of course, but I knew never to ask. Never saw them again once he went off with them."

Maria knew when to end an interview. "Who cares anyway. Now, remember about the Tantra sessions, please, and keep in touch. And here's a hundred for your trouble, ok?"

Nikita grabbed the cash and scowled. "You think I can't earn my own? I'll have you know I am still the hottest around. I can do everything you want. Let me tell you about the time..."

"Next time, love, but you said you had to go to a shoot, and I don't want you to be late. Can I call a taxi?"

***

The team crowded around the computer where Maria was replaying the recording.

Sunitra sat back and said: "Most of what she said confirms what we knew. But one thing struck me: When she spoke about André her face lit up. She has a veneration for him."

Elizabeth shook her head. "True, but did you notice she used the present tense when she said 'André's is a gentleman'? Not '... was a gentleman' but 'he is.' She is in contact with him."

Nunes looked at Maria. "How do you read it?"

She shook her head. "She was pretty drunk by then, and she was high on something to begin with. I wouldn't read too much into that."

Sunitra disagreed. "Could one not argue that she would, for these reasons, be less on her guard? I think she let something slip. Is it possible to have her watched?"

Nunes smiled. "Do you realise what it costs to stake out someone? You need at least three cars, eight people..."