If she’d had time. The man was faster than a snake. All she could do was spin away from the powerful slap and try to remain conscious.
She found herself on the floor, propping herself up with her hands and trying to breathe just before a boot crashed into her side.
“I am not,” Schwenke said, just as coldly. “So let us not play games, yes? What are you?”
“A whore,” Katya said, curled on her side. “I was born in an orphanage in Novy Birsk. I was raped by a man like you when I was eight. If I could press a button and kill every man on earth I would. But I know better than to cross you. Good enough?”
“Perhaps,” Schwenke said, kicking her. “And perhaps too pat. Why are you here?”
“Because I killed my last pimp,” Katya spat. “Veniamin was a bastard. But he has friends. He knew too many of the men in the Balkans trade and too many in Russia. If I stayed, I’d be as dead as the pig. Turkey, though, there I could disappear. So kill me or beat me or fuck me, I don’t care. But if you piss me off too much, you’d better kill me.”
Schwenke paused and then laughed. Shrilly.
“Better bitches than you have tried to kill me,” he said, still chortling. “But I like your spirit. Feel free to try. We can make a game of it, yes? You try to kill me, I try to kill you. Nothing obvious. Shooting you, beating you to death with a lead club, these would be too easy. Fun but too easy. Poison? Do you know poisons? I know thousands. Shall we play the poison game, bitch?”
“Teach me a few and I’ll gladly give you a blowjob that will curl your toes,” Katya said. It was pure honesty and that shown through.
“Perhaps,” Schwenke said. “Perhaps. But you would probably not enjoy bedding me. I am a master of pain.”
“I have been hurt,” Katya said. “Plenty of men have beaten me.”
“Who said anything about beating?” Schwenke asked. “I prefer to simply give them a little cocktail. That way they scream and scream in pain as a fuck them. Then the pain passes and they are so grateful. Until I brew the next cocktail. I make them watch as I prepare the syringe. They begin to scream before the needle even touches them. Would you like to scream?”
Katya was stunned. She’d run into some real bastards, absolute sadists, as pimps. But this guy was just fucking nuts. More around the bend, if possible, than Katya herself.
“I’ve screamed until I was hoarse, plenty of times,” Katya said. “But if you’d settle for fake screaming and just teach me your recipe, I promise you won’t know the difference.”
“Oh, but I would,” Kurt pouted. “But for my recipe, would you take my little cocktail? Voluntarily?”
“I don’t know,” Katya temporized. “How much am I getting paid? I’ll fuck you for the recipe. For the pain… seven hundred euros. And Yaroslav doesn’t find out. For that much pain I’m not going to cut in the pimp.”
“What a delightful child you are,” Schwenke said. “We’ll talk about it, yes? In the meantime, you’ve been hired for other reasons.”
“Who’s the bitch?” Katya asked. “Your newest playtoy?”
“No,” the German said. “Alas, I’m not permitted to play with her. Not as long as her father cooperates. She stays in the chair except for two exercise periods each day. That is when she craps or pisses or whatever. Her hands are never untied. Her feet are shackled whenever she is out of the chair. You have to feed her, get her to the latrine, get her on the pisser. The men are not permitted to talk to her. You will only talk to her as little as possible. If any of the men try to see her, to touch her or rape her, you will report it to me. They won’t, though. They know the penalty. They start with my little cocktails. At night she lies in the bed. She must be shackled then, as well. You will shackle her and then return to whatever pisshole you call home here. I will check to make sure they are tight. In the morning you return. If I am unsatisfied by the tightness of her bonds the night before we will have another little chat.”
“I won’t let her go,” Katya said, chuckling. “I’d just as soon watch her raped.”
“You don’t want to know why we are keeping her?” Schwenke asked.
“I assume for ransom,” Katya replied with a shrug.
“Ah, and such a ransom,” Schwenke said. “You will not ask her her name. If I find that you discover her identity, you will be killed. I may play with you first, but you will definitely be killed. She does not want you to be killed, I’m sure, so she won’t tell you. But if you piss her off enough, she can kill you by simply mentioning her name. She did so to one of the girls who was… unkind to her.”
“I will be kindness in itself,” Katya promised. “What if she is a problem?”
“Then bring it to me,” the ex-Stasi said. “Here you are, the two of you trapped like a proton circled by an electron. Unable to escape each other short of the death of either. Or, of course, she being moved on. So I would suggest that, despite your nature, you become the very best of friends.”
“Hello, ladies,” Mike said, looking around the room. “Thanks for staying up until the middle of the night to meet with me.”
“You are very busy, Kildar,” Mother Ferani said. “We are at your disposal.”
“Here is the situation,” Mike said, gesturing at the pile of recently received steerable chutes. “As you know, a team is being inserted by advanced parachute techniques to set up a radio center. I’ve got all I can do just training them to minimal standards. And we all want Julia, Olga, Jeseph, Ivan and Pat well trained. But that will require that, towards the end of training, they do multiple jumps per day. The Master Chief and I are the only qualified parachute packers in the area. I won’t have the time to pack thirty chutes a day. That’s the six of us doing five jumps per day, which is what I’m shooting for. Sombody is going to have to pack the chutes.”
“Us,” Mother Ferani said, her eyes wide.
“Yes,” Mike replied, simply. “These days either specialized members of the military who use the chutes, riggers they’re called, or the users themselves generally pack the chutes. Because the very lives of the users depend upon them being packed right. On the other hand, I don’t have the time to train the team on HALO and packing. Nor do they have the time do do their own packing even if I did.
“However, four of the Six Families are represented on the jump. And a mother, sister or cousin of each of the team members is represented here. If they cannot trust their own mother, sister or cousin, who can they trust? Anyone who really feels they are not prepared to hold the lives of their son, brother or cousin in their hands after this training can opt out. There are actually about twice as many of you as I need. There’s a reason for that too, but I won’t get into it. However, if you don’t think you want that responsibility, you can opt out. After you’re trained.”
“Very well, Kildar,” Mother Ferani said. “We are at your command in things such as this. And I find it to be an honor.”
“Great,” Mike said, tiredly. “Let’s get started. But just one thing I’ll add: It’s pretty apparent that the Keldara are going to get used for more and more ‘special’ missions. And the Keldara don’t seem to mind, even when there are losses. So it makes sense to make sure they’re all as prepared as possible… ”
“You’re going to extend the training,” Liza Mahona said from the group.