Phoenix Rising

That night at eleven the two divers, Steve and Valerie, started to prepare for their adventure. It was clear that Valerie was angry with Trudy as she did not speak to her at all and cast her continuous looks of ill will that spoke volumes.

At last they were in the water and the navigation lights were switched on. The sea, with its soft swell, had an eerie quality, contemplative and flecked with the reflections of the full moon that was almost at zenith.

With two soft splashes, Steve and Valerie were gone and Henry stood in the cockpit looking for signs of the bubble trails from the divers that would give some small indication of their position under the water.

Trudy climbed the couple of steps and stood by him for a while. She seemed nervous, almost frightened as he stood watching the water.

Finally, after thirty minutes or so, she spoke in a soft voice.

“Henry?”

Without taking his eyes from the smooth water Henry answered with a small sound.

“We have to go!”

Henry turned to her and saw that she had tears in her eyes and her face was animated by some passion that he could not quite put his finger on.

“Pardon?” he said.

“We have to start the engines and leave, now!”

“What? Why?”

Her voice carried a quiver of a sob as she continued.

“Valerie! I have to escape her!”

“That’s a bit heavy isn’t it? I mean leaving them in the middle of the Caribbean here, to end a love affair over a small spat?”

“You just don’t understand,” she cried as she tried to reach the starter button. “She’s not my lover, not willingly anyway. She owns me!”

At last Henry took his gaze from the swell and looked at her.

“What do you mean? Owns you?”

For a moment Trudy was so emotionally distressed that she could not speak. Henry put his hands on her shoulders.

“Just leave her in Nassau,” he said. “I mean we get back in a day or so...”

“God! Henry, I cannot just run in Nassau,” sobbed Trudy, “She has my passport and, and everything.”

Henry looked at her and wondered what was going on that he didn’t understand.

“Valerie owns me. That means that I am hers, she bought me from a place in Long Island where they train their victims and then sell them to rich people like Valerie for their amusement.”

Henry had never heard anything like it in his wildest dreams.

“She is the very devil and I have to escape,” said Trudy. “Please help me!”

Henry started to think that Trudy was crazy. This was a preposterous tale that belonged to the script of some cheap film.

“That’s none of my concern,” he said as he turned his gaze back to the water and hoped that this mad woman would just go away and stop spinning fantastic tales.

“You just don’t believe me, do you?”

“No!” he replied in a strong tone. “Speak to her and leave at Nassau, like I said. It’s nothing to do with me!”

There was a moment’s silence before Trudy shook him by the shoulder and said, “We haven’t got much time, I’ll just have to show you the truth and then if what I say is verifiable then you promise to get us out of here?”

Henry looked at his watch. One hour of the dive was done and the tanks held just over two hours of gas for Valerie and Steve. He nodded assent wearily and followed the eager Trudy down into the depths of the cruiser.

She opened the cabin that she and Valerie used to reveal that almost the whole cabin was a bed. Henry squeezed into the small space and shrugged his shoulders. That Trudy and Valerie were addicted to fucking was certainly no surprise.

Trudy threw herself onto the bed and Henry almost cut and ran as he misinterpreted the move as a pass, an invitation of sorts.

“It’s here,” muttered Trudy as she pulled up a corner of the thin mattress and pulled out a box that rattled.

In triumph she opened the box to reveal a selection of sex toys that would have shamed a depraved debauchee. Chains and plastic cocks filled the box as well as other items that Henry could not really identify that looked like jewellery.

He shrugged noncommittally at the tearful Trudy.

All of this was proof that he’d better not get mixed up with these two strange women.

Trudy started to shout at him in a loud voice: “Don’t you see, they want you too. It’s you they want...”

“Pardon, why would an aging dyke lesbian like Valerie want me when she has a cute little thing like you?”

Henry had already turned and was on his way back to the deck when the answer came and stopped him dead.

“For your money!”

He came back to see her tipping the contents of the box onto the bed with a rattle of chains and handcuffs and then she turned to face him.

“I didn’t hear all of it; I only caught part of the conversation...”

Henry was shaking her now. “What conversation?”

“That there was some person, a woman I think, that has asked Valerie to do something with you. I think I heard something about a loan being signed.”

Henry let her go and stared at her.

‘What the fuck is all this?’ he thought with his mind in turmoil.

“Do you owe money?” asked Trudy. “I mean I know that some of the people who were being trained as slaves owed money that they couldn’t pay back.”

“No, I don’t owe money,” he said.

There must be more truth to this than he had thought after all. He thought of that bitch lawyer in Miami and how she had had him followed.

“Well I don’t know why that awful policeman in Nassau pretended to be someone else then!”

“What do you mean?” he asked. “Policeman?”

That ‘Las’ guy, he owes a fortune in the casinos and Valerie was laughing about how cheaply she had bought him.

Henry thought back.

They had met in the Pilot’s office in the docks. No; that was not true they had met outside and then Henry thought of how easily he had been tricked onto the boat.

Another thing occurred to him and he pulled his passport from his pocket and opened it. All the pages were blank!

Every single one.

It had the right cover but it was not his passport, it was nobody’s passport. No wonder that it had been in the wrong drawer!

“We can’t waste time like this,” cried Trudy. “We have to get out of here before they come back.

“I need my passport,” he said as he crashed through the boat and flung open his cabin door.

“It will still be on the bloody boat if we escape,” shouted Trudy. “Find it later but for fuck’s sake get a fucking move on.”

It took a moment before Henry realised that she was keeping her head while he was losing his and he raced for the exit to the deck.

Trudy disappeared out of his sight and then he saw Steve stepping into corridor by the galley!

He was dressed in his wet suit and a knife was in his hand.

Chapter 6 : Negotiation.

***

For a moment Henry was actually on the point of attacking Steve despite the knife and his physical prowess. Steve made a small movement with his hand and flipped the savage looking knife to face the point away from his thumb so that he was holding it like a dagger and Henry felt his enthusiasm for a fight fade and wither.

As the two stood in a standoff that could only end in Henry surrendering Valerie appeared behind Steve dragging Tanya by the wrist. Valerie in a wet suit was a sight to behold, all curves and overly feminine contour.

With a jerk she flung Tanya to the floor and placed a foot on her neck as if to prove her complete control.

“I think that we caught the two elopers just in time,” said Valerie in a grating voice. “This slave has managed to overcome her training and act independently. I suppose that I will have to claim a refund on goods that do not serve their intended purpose!”

A smile played on Steve’s lips for a moment as the irony of her comment tickled his black sense of humour.

The boat moved as there was a dull thump, another boat had come alongside and there was a call from the deck. Valerie and Steve ignored the voices and continued.

“On the floor bitch,” said Steve.

Henry did not understand that Steve was talking to him and did not move; so that he blow from the left forearm caught him by surprise and laid Henry out on the narrow floor.

“That’s better, bitch,” said Steve as he reached into Valerie’s cabin and recovered a pair of handcuffs. He tossed these to Valerie who cuffed Tanya to a pipe before he did the same for Henry himself.