As the one holding the gun on Captain Gringo hesitated, Sir Basil pointed to the other and said, “Be a good fellow and hail us a hansom cab.” Then he turned to Marie and said, “Madame will dine with us, of course. Then I’ll have my man, here, run you home in my own carriage.”
Marie’s expression was fortunately hidden by her veil in the evening light as she didn’t answer.
Captain Gringo felt the muzzle move away from his spine as the sergeant muttered, “I shall have to report all this to my superiors, Don Hakim. But if you assume all responsibility—”
“Good, I see your comrade is fetching us a cab. Shall we be on our way, my young friends?”
As Captain Gringo took Marie’s arm, she murmured, “I do so wish someone would tell me what is going on.”
He said, “Let’s get out of here. I’ll tell you later.”
“You know what is happening, Dick?”
“Not really. It’s been a very confusing day. Just play along a few minutes more. I promise you’re not being kidnaped.”
“I hope you’re right. Father Jose said you looked like you could be trusted, but I must say you are most strange. Why did you not tell me you knew Sir Basil and were working for him?”
“I didn’t know it until just now.”
Sir Basil had lied about having dinner guests. The four of them dined alone on a terrace overlooking the phosphorescent breakers at the base of the cliff his imposing albeit rented villa was poised on. The villa was staffed with silent, rather spooky servants the strange little man must have sent on ahead. They were dark enough to be Latin Americans, but when Sir Basil spoke to them it was in an odd, guttural language Captain Gringo had never heard before. Marie confided in a whispered aside that she thought they were either Bedouins or Greek pirates. She didn’t speak either language, so they decided the servants could be just as easily gypsies or Turks.
The food was delicious, but, like the staff who’d prepared it, totally unfamiliar fare. The main course was some sort of meat, and the wine was pronounced a good Bordeaux by the French girl.
Since Marie was not privy to Captain Gringo’s real identity, Sir Basil made no further reference to employment, and Jenny, as usual, was silent most of the time. The American wondered, wryly, if he’d catch Jenny moving her lips when Sir Basil spoke.
Sir Basil made up for his companion’s silence by pattering on about the places he’d been and the things he’d done, while Captain Gringo tried to decide how much of it was bullshit.
The trouble with clichés was that they were mostly true, which is how they got to be clichés, and occasionally wrong, which could get you confused. Captain Gringo knew that nine out of ten men who claimed to be vaguely sinister men of the world were harmless clowns. But he’d just seen this little man machine-gun a horse and rider, and British Intelligence had him down as dangerous indeed.
It was enough to destroy one’s faith in the folk wisdom of the knock-around male. Any soldier, seaman, hobo, or cowboy would have put Sir Basil down as a flighty little dude who looked like a rug merchant and talked like a sissy Englishman. Perhaps that was one of the secrets of his success?
In his Army days, Captain Gringo had taken a course in the questioning of enemy prisoners. They’d told him there was one kind of prisoner neither torture nor trick questioning could crack. The strong, silent type, once he broke, told all. The weak-willed, frightened man told all before you asked him. But the despair of every intelligence officer was the born bullshit artist—the man who just talked and talked and never got around to saying anything important.
Marie kept saying she had to get to her own rented rooms, and Captain Gringo kept insisting he intended to escort her. But Sir Basil just went on talking about the chestnut trees in Paris, the one decent club in London, and a place near the Great Pyramids where they used mummy dust to season broiled lamb.
Jenny finally spoke up to point out the reasons they should stay at least for after-dinner brandy. She said, “The powers-that-be have to tell the local police the heat is off. One of the staff has gone to fetch more suitable duds for, ah, Richard.”
Sir Basil chuckled and observed, “I have a vast but, alas, more diminutive wardrobe. All the foreigners in Panama City seem to wear white linen suits, cut English, with a Yankee planter’s hat. One has to have mestizo features to dress like a pauper down here without drawing curious glances.”
Marie Chambrun said, “I have the feeling the three of you are trying to keep something from me. First that odd conversation at the railway station, and now this strange talk about attention and the police.”
Neither Sir Basil nor the redhead answered. Captain Gringo shrugged and said, “You may as well know, Marie. My name is Dick Walker. I got him a jam in the U. S. Army and had to run for my life. I made it down to Mexico and through no fault of my own, got mixed up in a revolution against the Diaz dictatorship. My side lost. I made it out one jump ahead of Los Rurales and they put out a reward on me. Just before I met you, I’d busted out of a Panamanian jail. That’s the whole story.”
The French girl looked puzzled. Then she asked, “Is that all? Heavens, I thought you were some sort of criminal!”
Sir Basil laughed and asked, “Madame is aware of the political realities in this part of the world?”
Marie said, “But of course. Colombia is trying to rob me of my widow’s mite. I thought for a moment I might have fallen among thieves, but if all you people want to do is overthrow the government, count me in, as les Americains put it.”
This time Captain Gringo joined in the laughter as Sir Basil asked, “Does Madame know how to fire a machine gun or perhaps a field piece?”
Marie looked determined as well as pretty as she said, “One can learn, non?”
Hakim said, “I’ll let you know if we have any openings for lovely young women. Meanwhile, I am not without influence with the government we still have, here. If Madame will permit, I shall have one of my legal staff call on her in the morning. If she will give him a full accounting of the monies she feels due her, I’m sure certain judges will see reason and Madame will no doubt return to France a modestly wealthy woman.”
“M’sieu is most kind, but I already have a lawyer.”
“Ah, but there are lawyers and then there are lawyers, Madame. I have no doubt the one you made arrangements with is a fine person. I have always found it better to hire crooks. When in Rome and all that rot, what?”
“Well, the lawyer I have says we don’t have a very strong case.”
“Of course not. Simple Justice is not only blind, she’s also not tough enough for the modern world. Consider the matter settled. After we have sipped our brandy I’ll have Madame escorted to her’ home by my servants and in the morning—”
“Just a minute,” Captain Gringo protested. “I said I was going to see Marie safely to her door.”
“Really, Richard, you are beginning to bore me with this meaningless gallantry. We’ve agreed it’s not safe for you to be seen on the streets until I’ve arranged some immunity for you. What’s the matter with you? Don’t you trust my servants?”
“I don’t know them. I don’t know you that well, either.”
“Ah, yes, I forgot to tell you it was my plan for Madame to awaken in the hold of a tramp steamer bound for Hong Kong and a fate worse than death. Really, Richard, you are suspicious beyond common sense.”
“I know I am. It’s one of the reasons I’m still alive. I told you I was grateful for your fast footwork at the railroad station. I said I’d consider working for you. But I’m going to take Marie home. Then I’m going to look up friends I have here in Panama City. I have to get a handle on the situation here before I commit myself to anything or anybody.”
Sir Basil sighed and glanced at Jenny. He said, “I suppose we’ll have to convince him we can be trusted. Don’t you agree?”
The redhead nodded and put her hand to her mouth as if covering a polite yawn.
The red velvet wall hangings behind Captain Gringo parted and a brawny brown arm came down hard with a sandbag. There was a sickening thud, and the tall American slumped forward, spilling his brandy on the floor. The servant who’d sapped him dropped the sandbag and grabbed the unconscious man’s shoulders before he could roll off the chair and bruise himself further.
Marie Chambrun leaped to her feet, her own brandy snifter shattering near her toes as another pair of hands materialized to immobilize her in place with gentle albeit no-nonsense firmness.
Sir Basil said, “Please don’t be alarmed, Madame. We did it for his own good.”
He barked a command in his own guttural language, and the servant who’d knocked Captain Gringo out picked him up and carried him from the room as the one holding Marie lowered her firmly to her seat and let go.
Marie saw that Jenny was following the one with her unconscious escort and Marie instinctively crossed her legs as she stared in dismay at the dapper little Hakim. Sir Basil explained, “When he comes to his senses, my servants will have seen you safely home. There will be a fresh change of clothing, cut to his measure. He will be bound hand and foot and completely in our power, at first. Then we shall release him and allow him to do anything or go anywhere he pleases. If that does not convince him I am his friend, I suppose we’ll simply have to become enemies.”
“M’sieu has a most odd way of making friends, non?”
“Ah, you should see how I treat my enemies! But allow me to offer you another brandy, Madame. You seem to have spilled your earlier one in the understandable confusion of the past few moments.”
He snapped his fingers and another brandy snifter appeared out of the wall near Marie as if by magic. She took it gingerly, but asked,
“May I assume there is nothing in this but brandy, m’sieu?”
“Really, my dear, you young people must not continue to think of me as a sinister person. I am what you see, a simple merchant.”
“You are really going to send me home, unharmed?”
“I said so, did I not? As we get to know one another better, you will find my modest success in international circles is due to my reputation for keeping my word, to the letter.”
“You said you might send me to Hong Kong in the hold of a steamer.”
“I was joking. Had I meant it, you would be well on your way by this time.” He chuckled and added, with a self-satisfied purr, “I deal in that commodity, too. But I’m here mostly to sell arms, and I’ve decided to be. your friend, for the moment.”
Captain Gringo couldn’t remember how the Rurales had gotten him this time, but here he was, tied to a post in the dusty yard with the bullet-pocked ’dobe wall at his back and the firing squad grinning at him in the oddly orange light. Captain Torture asked him if he wanted a blindfold this time, and the American muttered, “Fuck you. I thought I killed you, Captain Torture.”
The paunchy Federale grinned and said, “It must have been a dream. As you see, we’re shooting you at dawn as I promised you we would, a million years ago.”
“Go to Hell. That’s where you and these other mothers belong.”
Captain Torture laughed and began to play with the bound captive’s penis. Captain Gringo gasped in surprise. He hadn’t noticed until now he’d been tied naked to the post. No wonder the firing squad was leering at him over their rifles.
“Would you like a blow job before you die?” asked Captain Torture, in an oddly feminine voice. This was ridiculous. They’d told him the Federale commandant was a pervert, but surely he wasn’t going down on a man in front of his whole command!
Captain Torture did. He sank to his knees and began to suck the tied-up captive off. Captain Gringo didn’t want to respond, but his flesh was betraying him. The rotten sadistic Federale gave a really neat blow job and … “This can’t be happening!” Captain Gringo decided. So he woke up.
He stared up at the velvet hangings of a four-poster bed and tried to move his limbs. He was tied securely across the feather mattress and as naked as he’d been in the dream. He still had a full erection and someone was sucking it like a pro!
He raised his head off the pillow and made out the parted red hair of the head bobbing up and down below his waist. He muttered, “What the fuck?” and Jenny raised her face to smile mischievously.
She said, “I’d love to!” and rose to her hands and knees. As she crawled forward he saw she’d stripped to nothing but red frilly garters and a pair of black mesh stockings. Her voluptuous curves were alabaster white and her breasts were the size and firmness of honeydew melons as she brushed his belly and chest with her turgid pink nipples.
She got astride him, a meshed knee on either side of his floating ribs, and lowered her rather broad hips skillfully. He felt the red hair between her pale thighs part as she settled moistly on his almost ready erection. Then she clamped down hard and milked his penis into ejaculating on the fourth or fifth bounce.
He gasped in pleasure as she settled down to let it soak in, purring, “I hope there’s more where that came from, handsome.”
“Jesus, so do I. But what the fuck is going on, Jenny?”
“A fuck is exactly what’s going on. I like a man who’s big in every way. Basil had you knocked out and you’re in the guest room. We’re hoping to convince you you’re in friendly hands.”
“Well, I seem to be in the friendliest cunt I can remember! How about cutting me loose so we can do it right?”
“Uh-uh. Basil says you’re to spend the night here and, as you see, I don’t mind doing the work. We’ve sent the French girl home and we have a gun watching over her. Is she as good a lay as me?”
“I don’t know. This is weird as hell, Jenny. What do you mean about convincing me? Friends don’t tie each other up, even if they want to screw. Hell, if you’d only told me you were this anxious—”
She started moving her hips and contracting her vaginal muscles with astonishing skill as she answered in a very conversational tone, “You have to understand that Basil tends to be melodramatic. He really has taken steps to take the heat off you, and the girl really is all right. You didn’t seem convinced of his sincerity when he saved you at the station. He thinks a night of total helplessness, with you completely in our power, might convince you.”
“It’s still weird. Uh, would you move a little faster?”
She began to gyrate teasingly as she murmured, “Make it last this time. I love to feel the tip kissing circles on my womb like that. Basil told me to point some things out to you. He could have sent for the police anytime this evening. But you might have thought he hesitated because of your reputation for playing so rough when things get tense. As you see, it’s after midnight, you’re tied up helpless as a babe, and if we wanted to deliver you for the reward … well, Basil always says a man thinks more sanely after he’d had a good meal and a nice lay.”
“Oh, yeahhh! Don’t stop! You’re convincing the hell out of me.”
“I’m coming, too. Isn’t this friendly?”
Then neither spoke for a time as their bodies melted together in a long, shuddering orgasm. Jenny went limp and lay atop him with her full weight, face buried in the hollow of his neck and collarbone. She moved her long legs down, straight, and forced her knees between his as she kept him clamped tightly inside her. It was an odd reversal of positions, with Jenny on top moving like a man and the bound captive in the passive, open-thighed position of a willing girl. There was not a thing abnormal about the way their organs were still grinding, though, so he relaxed and enjoyed the piquant change.
He was half limp now, or would have been if Jenny hadn’t been so good at holding him in deep. Sir Basil might have had a point about sanity returning to a man after a good meal and a nice lay. He was still weak after his bout with fever, and the hit on the head hadn’t done much for his virility. He’d have been satisfied by now, if she hadn’t been so good at keeping things going.
He asked, “Am I to understand this romp with you was Sir Basil’s idea?”
“Oh, I was willing to volunteer. You’ve got a lovely body.”
“Thanks. That makes two of us. I got the idea you were Sir Basil’s ….uh …”
“I am. But his demands are rather modest. He must be sixty, and you noticed he wasn’t very big.”
“Then he knows you’re here, and what we’re doing, and he doesn’t mind?”
“Of course not. We’re more than lovers. We understand one another. He knows I like big dicks and I understand his need for, well, variety. Our relationship is a little hard to define.”
“That’s for sure. Okay, I’ve been wined and dined and screwed silly. When do I get out of these ropes?”
“When we think it’s safe. If you have to pee or take a crap, give a yell and one of the servants will bring a hospital urinal. We’ve entertained like this before.”
“I’ll bet you have. Would you like to open your legs again? I’m getting there again and this way feels silly.”
“Just float with it, honey. Variety is the spice of life. I can feel you getting bigger and it rubs my clit nice this way. I’ve got to get back to Basil, so this will be our last come for now.”
“Come again?”
“That’s what I just said. I want another nice juicy normal fuck before I finish off with Basil. He loves to eat me, but it’s sort of frustrating when a girl’s been empty for a while.”
“Oh, glugh! You don’t mean that little twit wants to go down on you, now!”
“Sure, it gets him hot as hell when I offer him warm seafood. I told you he was little. He’s sort of queer, too. He was raised in some crazy part of the world where they don’t have the differences between men and women sorted out.”
“Jesus, that nutty little Turk or whatever is bisexual?”
“Bisexual? Honey, he’s made it with boys, girls, animal, vegetable and mineral. He’s a lot of laughs in bed, but like I said, I like a real man once in a while to keep the juices flowing.”
Captain Gringo grimaced in disgust and would have taken it out had he been in charge. But the red-headed nymphomaniac was in full control and he couldn’t stop. He didn’t know whether he was going to puke or come. It felt like a little of both as he felt his gun go off inside her. She whimpered and ground her pubis into his, hard, and groaned, “Oh, yes, it’s so much fun to raise a growing boy!”
She lay there until her breath came back, then she rolled off with a lingering, reluctant withdrawal and began to wipe him dry with a clean, damp cloth. He said, “Come on, untie me.” But she kissed him and replied, “No. You move too sudden, and in unexpected ways. Just yell if you want anything.”
“Are you really going to do this all over again with another guy?”
“What’s the matter? You’re not jealous, are you? If you’re good I may come back and we’ll tear off another before breakfast.”
“Don’t you ever sleep?”
“Sure. In the daytime. The sun is bad for my complexion and it’s too hot down here in the daytime.”
She got to her feet and despite his revulsion, he had to admire her Junoesque nude curves as she said, “One more thing to ponder: I just told you Basil is a bit queer. He seems to like you.”
“Forget it! There is no way!”
“The hell there isn’t. You’re tied hand and foot and I’ve just proven you come easy. If he decided to come for some Turkish delight, you’d have nothing to say about it. He could blow you. He could fuck you. He could cut you open with a rusty can opener if he wanted to.”
Captain Gringo struggled with his bonds in silent rage as the redhead continued, “We’re breaking you the way the Cossacks used to break an unruly pony. It’s a combination of helplessness and kindness. You get a lump of sugar or a whipping, as we and we alone decide! After a while, even the most spirited stallion sees the sense of submitting to a reasonable master. We’ve used this system before. Once we tamed a stiff-necked Prussian general into buying a trainload of needle guns from Basil. The guns were quite good and the price was fair. So, in the end, everyone was satisfied.”
“I hope the Prussian had a big dick. What would you have done it he hadn’t gone along with you?”
“Oh, the same thing the Cossacks used to do to the one out of a hundred stallions who refused to bend.”
“Let Basil cornhole them?”
“No. He doesn’t make love to people who fatigue him. He just has them taken out and buried.”
She bent to give him a good-night kiss as she added, “Try to get some sleep, dear. We’ll talk about it some more in the morning.”
“Hey, Jenny?”
“Yes, dear?”
“Who’s really in charge of this weird outfit—you or that nutty little guy?”
“You don’t really want to know, Dick. People live longer and have a much nicer time with us if they simply do as they’re told”