The slave girl Read online

  Chapter 1

  Upon the rich austerity of David Murchinson's polished mahogany the silver chrome of the handcuffs were a shining incongruity against the reticence of Corporate good taste. Corey Gibson eyed them with disdain. She was more concerned with what Murchinson was saying.

  "On the face of it I should simply shut up, keep quiet. I should allow Planet Oil Corporation to slide down the drain and your father with it. But I don't want that." He sighed heavily. "This old family role isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'm going to give you two alternatives and advise against both. I suppose that means I'm telling you something I think you ought to know."

  She laughed at his sobriety. "David, do cheer up, please! Are those absurd things on the table for a reason?" She nodded at the handcuffs. "Is one of us going to jail?"

  "His name is Assef Aslam." Murchinson gravely ignored her question. "He comes close to being one of the most powerful private citizens in the world." Corey Gibson wrinkled her nose. "I've met him…. at functions. He stands still and allows a lot of worried looking men to talk."

  "On two occasions you were pointedly rude to him."

  "Well, someone had to be… all that brown nosing! Besides, the way he looked at me…!" Corey Gibson sniffed with all the assurance of great wealth. "I've been optically undressed often enough, but that brother to the Sphinx takes off a girl's skin along with her clothes."

  "Hmmmmm. No doubt it was those two expressions of your disapproval that made a fix in his mind. He wants you bad." Murchinson grinned. "I've seen you rude a few times. You do it with a flair."

  "I'm said to be a bitch. Probably I am."

  "Never to me." "David, you're sweet – and you want to sell me into slavery."

  "No, I don't."

  "No, I don't think you do. But that's what Aslam's proposition amounts to. Next time I shall be very rude indeed."

  "Corey girl…." Murchinson held up a deprecatory hand. "Let's look at it cold. Next week the Planet Oil Corporation becomes a dry hole. Your father will be worse than broke, there's income tax suits pending. Assef Aslam will save it at a price. The price is you."

  "I followed you that far. Does this mid-Eastern jackal want to marry me?"

  "No. It's just as you said. Some form of slavery. Those handcuffs are his. He invites you to put them on your wrists and go down to the floor one of his companies rents in this building."

  "David, it's too bizarre! Chains…"

  "Exactly. But consider him. No one knows his nationality. He is self-made. He has never married. He carries a big, big chip on his shoulder about something… The Establishment probably, and I expect colour is in there somewhere. You epitomise something he envies. You have also hurt his pride. I fully believe his intent is to give you a thoroughly bad time. You also represent a hostage, a useful pledge of The Planet Corporation's good behavior." "What did the old Kings call them! A'whipping boy?, wasn't it? So I'd be his whipping girl! Dammit, David, the bastard probably actually would whip me." Corey Gibson's indignation overflowed. "Can I go down and throw those handcuffs in his face?"

  "Possibly you could. But I don't advise it."

  "David, you've something up your sleeve, you old so-and-so. What is it?"

  "It's a last hope." The Vice President of Planet admitted dourly. "But I never underrate the power of a woman. Go and talk to him. Keep an open mind. See if you can touch a nerve."

  "And spread my legs! No thanks." "I didn't say that, Corey. Talk. Sometimes words work magic."

  "Before of after he whips me?"

  "I know how you feel." Murchinson made a gesture of defeat. "Probably I'm a silly old man. The whole thing's an outrage. But in business we explore loopholes."

  Corey rose and patted a dejected male shoulder. Her voice still held laughter. "Father and Planet won't go broke. I just don't believe…! I'm going to take those things on the table, and next time I come face to face….! You know what I'll do-"

  David Murchinson silently watched one of the world's most beautiful women scoop Aslam's handcuffs and drop them in her bag. He accepted her light kiss on his forehead, then echoed her unworried good-bye. Long after she had gone he sat in contemplation of catastrophe. Corey Gibson herself was pressing buttons. The elevator should not have stopped where it had. It should respond to the controls but it did not. When its gate unexpectedly slid open she exited in anger.

  "Reid Hunter! Well, how nice…"

  "Corey!" His smile was always attractive. "You picked the wrong elevator. Happy chance. Spare me fifteen minutes for a drink?"

  "Why not." Corey allowed herself to be possessed. Reid was nice. He was one of the casual ones who admired but did not push.

  Doors. The indefinable smell of money. Another office like Murchinson's but far less austere. A bar. The chairs were for lounging. Corey picked one and watched the mixing of her cocktail. When it was done they clinked glasses to Reid Hunter's toast.

  "To beautiful females. Specially you."

  "I didn't know your office was in the Planet Building?"

  "It isn't." He gestured apologetically. "I'm afraid I'm borrowing it. Really lush, eh."

  "Mmmmmmmm, mmmmmmmm! What's his name?"

  "I think you're about to meet him, Corey. I hear sounds in the outer office. Ah, yes!"

  She should have known! Corey Gibson was furious with herself for not guessing. It had been far too slick….! She turned upon her bogus host. "Reid, d'you get paid for this? It's a damn lousy trick."

  "Friendship, Corey. Just helping out-"

  "You're not helping me. Damn you!"

  "This is the time to hurl the handcuffs, Miss Gibson." Assef Alam was politely entertained.

  She was on her feet, gulping the last of her drink. Flushed with anger she was on her way to the door when Hunter's blunt voice halted her steps. "The conversation upstairs, Corey – I'm afraid the room was bugged."

  "You bastards!" Corey Gibson looked from one to the other in disgust. "In that case you know my sentiments. I need not repeat them. Good-bye." Chin high, she headed for the door.

  "I fear, Miss Gibson, you'll find it won't open." Aslam informed apologetically.

  "In that case you can unlock it. Oh, and take those too." Breasts heaving, she threw the handcuffs at Aslam's feet. "You know what you can do with them." There was no answer. Just a waiting silence. Impatiently she strode to the door and grasped the knob. It would not yield. An angry rattle and tug achieved nothing.

  "I did mention it was closed." The dry voice was only slightly mocking.

  Corey Gibson was not yet afraid. The full weight of the Planet Corporation was solidly around her. Reid Hunter was a decent sort who, just at this moment, was being a bit of a bastard, but that was all. Assef Aslam was too ridiculous to consider a composite out of melodrama. The situation was best ended. Coldly she conceded: "I presume the door means you have something to say to me. Let's have it."

  "You already have it, Miss Gibson. David Murchison was reasonably explicit."

  Corey glared at Reid Hunter. "What do you get out of this?"

  "I'm an intermediary, that's all."

  "Wouldn't Judas goat be more accurate?"

  Hunter waved a deprecating hand. "For this small deception, yes perhaps. Corey, you're not easy to proposition. Without that locked door you wouldn't stay long enough to get a message." He grinned a comradely grin. "What are you, Corey? The most beautiful, the best dressed, the richest, the most eligible…? You're high in the top ten. It makes you hard to reach."

  "So you kidnap me?"

  "Yes. Somehow, I want to make you understand what's happening. To grasp an extraordinary power that's fallen into your hands."

  Corey Gibson sneered. "Barter my body?"

  "Yes."

  The single word caught her a
ttention. Reid was trying to give her a message. It was not like him to be so blunt. Corey's pulse quickened when he sauntered to the door. Having turned a key, he faced her squarely. His tone unusually sober. "It's not just your father, or Planet, or me, Corey. What you and Mr. Aslam decide will affect several thousand people." He nodded, shrugged, and was gone. The click of the lock was clearly audible.

  "A nice young man doing a difficult job." Assef Aslam commented affably. "May I offer you another drink?" From a welter of emotions Corey chose dignity. "Very well." She agreed without enthusiasm. "Probably by the time you've said your say I'll need it."

  The drink was strong. Sipping it, Corey Gibson assessed her host. Aslam had a quality, a presence. But what she was seeing was not the real man. She would have preferred him less polite. "Before I give you a refusal you'd best be more specific." She said bluntly.

  He picked the handcuffs from the floor and dropped them in her lap. "It would please me very much if you would wear these." His voice held a note of yearning Corey could not place. "It would set a tone. While you have them on your wrists I will give you their key."

  "Nonsense!" She tossed the shining things back at him. "Wear them yourself."

  "You are dealing in yesterday." He said gently. "My problem is to make you aware of this moment. You have been kidnapped."

  "Someone mentioned that." Corey said frostily. "When I've finished this drink you will unlock the door. If you refuse I'll make a loud and unladylike fuss."

  "No one will hear."

  He was infuriatingly sure of himself. "You are contemplating violence?" She inquired icily.

  "Two possibilities." Aslam said warmly. "You accept the handcuffs. You accompany me to my private plane – and I do assure you we will not been seen, and you go unquestioningly where I take you. The second is simple. I summon aid and we give you a hypodermic injection. When you wake it is al over."

  "Hell, why the talking? Call your help and give me the needle."

  "I prefer the other way. I want a whole girl who is totally aware."

  "You're dreaming. besides, you're forgetting my father."

  "Your father will be very easy to deal with while I hold you."

  "What you're looking for is an erotic kick out of having me abase myself, be a sacrificial virgin?"

  "That's your pathway to profit, Miss Gibson. With the needle you're nothing more than a kidnapped hostage."

  For the first time she felt the chill of fear. For the first time she gave Assef Aslam her full attention. "I can't take this seriously." She pointed out reasonably. "Surely you understand…?"

  There was a force in Aslam. The same extrusion of power she had sometimes noticed in her father. His features were good, his colour scarcely discernible. He might be forty-five. In previous meetings she had seen him through the eyes of the media. This was different. Assef Aslam was a handsome intelligent cosmopolitan. The voice he was using was not his own. He was leashing his tone in patience.

  "Forgive me. I am enjoying you." His smile quenched her protest. "If I stood in your shoes I could not possibly believe in what is going to happen…" He waved a deprecating arm. "I want this done my way. To help you understand I am going to change places with one of my secretaries. Her name is Audrey Cotswold. She is English. She is educated. What she tells you is all true. Here – catch!"

  The clutch was instinctive. Corey held the handcuffs with distaste. But this time curiosity won. She examined them. They featured in enough movies…! They seemed functional – and unfeminine! Indolently, she tossed them on a chair. Then looked up in shock.

  Audrey Cotswold was naked.

  There is a freemasonry in beauty. Beautiful women recognize it. They can assess. Corey Gibson conceded Miss Audrey Cotswold a high score. It was a relief that this poised and amused Britisher dropped no titch or broadened an'A?. Her's was a voice which belonged.

  "Those things bother you?" A bare arm indicated the shining metal, then swung to proffer a friendly hand. "My name's Audrey. I'm a slave."

  The grip of fingers and the smile were warm. They modified shock but did not erase it. Corey kept her voice even: "Handcuffs and a naked girl! Am I being conditioned?"

  "Of course." The admission was engagingly frank. "I have only a little while to tell you a great deal."

  "I don't want to hear."

  "Why should you! But I'll read the lines anyway." The nude secretary retrieved the despised handcuffs, and with an insouciant grin fitted them on her own wrists with a fastidious concern for perfection. Having clicked them most definitely snug she held them up to examine the effect as though they were diamonds bracelets. "They look much better on than off." She observed carelessly. "Oh, by the way, you don't mind me being naked, I hope? I'm nearly always naked. Slaves don't wear many clothes."

  "Couldn't you at least be decent?"

  "I am decent." The grin was confiding. "I'm decent by my owner's standards, and that's what counts."

  "I'd take it as a tremendous favour if you'd open a door and allow me to go."

  "That's how I felt the first time." Again the comradely grin. "It's so damn hard for a girl to adjust to in half an hour. I say, would you mind….? I mean, taking your clothes off?"

  "I mind, and I won't!"

  "Yes… I know." The cheerful voice turned nostalgic. "I've played this scene myself. I just couldn't believe any of it until the bruiser came in. By the time he'd bruised me here and there they certainly had my full attention."

  "Call him in."

  "Miss Gibson, you're bluffing. Here, watch…"

  The man who entered could have been a gym instructor. A pleasant athletic type who smiled winningly and picked up a heavy arm chair with one outstretched hand. His query was polite. "Is there something I can do for you, Miss Cotswold?"

  "Thanks, Bill. Now run along. But not too far." Audrey nodded a friendly dismissal.

  Corey could not slow her accelerated pulse. A picture was emerging. "That was cheaply obvious." She complained resentfully.

  "It was also kind. You're lucky, Miss Gibson, that Assef has a mental thing about you. He wants you humiliated from the word go. He will take you any way you compel him to. Force is so easy and so trite. He wants you to walk into slavery with your head in the air and without illusions. His concept of your kidnapping is uniquely civilized."

  Corey began to glimpse the enmity of time. Yet she could comprehend the logic of Aslam sequestering her in a space of minutes. Her disappearance would be slick and unobtrusive. But to cope with her kidnapping she had first to believe in it. She was surprised to find herself weighing a preference and inclined towards being manhandled rather than accept the chagrin of handcuffs and following where she might be led. Audrey Cotswold was a smiling enigma. The girl wore both nakedness and handcuffs gracefully. Her linked hands contrived the same fluidity of motion as if free. Never once did they seek to cover breasts or pubic hair. Determined to end an impasse, she demanded coldly. "Help me a little. Tell me what you plan… for me?"

  "You will become a slave, subject to both use and discipline."

  "You don't appear to have suffered either!"

  Audrey twinkled mischievously. "To be immaculate is a state of mind. To service a man with your sex, or to have him whip your bare skin need change nothing unless the girl wills it so."

  Corey Gibson sniffed. "Can I have another drink? And as for what you've just said, it's a bit of specious nonsense."

  "No, it's not. The first couple of times I met a fate worse than death and got myself whipped because I made such a fuss about it I went all the way to the bottom of the pit. But then I had a chance to look in a full length mirror." The chained hands offered the filled glass, the lovely eyes smiled in an invitation to trust. "I was actually shocked to discover I looked the same as I always had. If I smiled I was right back at square one. Sure, I'd got whip marks, but they wouldn't be permanent." Audrey giggled. "I remember doing a lot of pulling and twisting to get a good look at my vulva. The damn thing looked quite
pleased with itself. I felt a fool."

  "O.K. So I get raped and whipped! What else?"

  Audrey shrugged. "What's it matter! You'll be a man's property. He'll use you as he wishes. Look at me! I'm used all the time, and I still get whipped when I throw a tantrum."

  Corey Gibson took a stiff pull at her glass. "You're having me on. Dammit. Audrey, you're happy! You're loving this!"

  "Sort of. I'm loving you too. D'you like girls, Miss Gibson?"

  "Not at this moment. Audrey, please! Let me out of here. I'll make you rich."

  "You can't, remember? Daddy's broke. And anyway, I'm a faithful slave who doesn't want to collect any more whip marks than she has to."