Authors: Keith Hoare
“Okay, I’ll do as you ask. What time do you want me back tomorrow?”
“You are booked to come here every day just before dinner at around six, Karen. We will then go through how you are coping. I will check your heart, your breathing for the records, and I think, until we are certain the drug has gone we’ll take a blood test. But if you can’t cope, don’t wait until six, come and see me.”
She stood. “Thank you for your time, doctor.”
He nodded. “Thank you for being frank with me and take care, Karen. This is your health and your sanity you’re messing about with.”
The afternoon flew by; she’d taken a book and sat reading, as the doctor had told her to, in the regimental gardens behind the main building. A few times she’d fallen asleep, even once dropping her book, but by late afternoon she felt so much better. However, following dinner she returned to her room, lay down and fell asleep. Waking late in the evening she decided to clean her teeth, wash and go back to bed after taking two of the sleeping tablets she’d been given.
The next day, Karen didn’t wake up until six thirty. She’d slept the entire night without waking and felt really good in herself. She didn’t have to attend morning fitness, like all the other soldiers, so she went directly for breakfast and joined her own fitness instructor in the gym. It was always empty then and he took her through a very hard and rigorous routine, taking her to the very limit of her endurance.
After lunch she was in weapons training. They began at the beginning, taking her through all the safety in handling a gun containing live ammunition. How she was to keep the gun clean at all times, with a warning that a dirty gun can explode in your face, or fail when really needed. Her first introduction was followed by constantly assembly and disassembly until she believed she could do it blindfolded. And blindfolded she was, with the other soldiers urging her on as she struggled to actually assemble and disassemble the guns. Finally at the end of the session a vital part was taken from her, to add a little light relief. But Karen took it all in good spirit, after all this was the first real day of training. The last hour before her medical check-up she was back in the gym for close combat training. She did well at first, her previous judo and kick-boxing standing her in good stead. But it didn’t last long. Close combat was nothing like self-defence training, judo or kick-boxing. Close combat was directed specifically to kill or disable. Because of this difference she was on the receiving end of mock attacks to her and she lost every time. However, by the end of the hour she had begun to fight back as the new and violent moves were explained and shown her.
She left the medical centre and wandered slowly to the mess for dinner. Everyone else had gone and she sat alone eating. Karen wasn’t bothered; today had been long and hard. But she hoped it would get easier, as her fitness level began to rise again after the three weeks on the anti-depressant tablets. She finished quickly then made her way to the barracks.
“Where’ve you been I was just about to give up on you?” Shelly asked, as she entered the woman’s barracks.
“Medics, I have a check-up every day at this time, so it makes me late,” she replied.
“Well now you’re here, I’m out with two other girls for a drink tonight, and so are you. Have you got any jeans?”
Karen didn’t really want to go anywhere, she was shattered, but decided, if she was to be accepted and fit in, she couldn’t refuse to join in with the girls.
“I’ll come, but for only an hour, maybe tomorrow I’ll feel better and stay longer but tonight I’m really feeling like shit.”
“That’s okay, just so long as you show your face. There’s lots of the girls who want to meet you, and probably the lads as well. It’s not often we get a real live Lieutenant training with us. They all go to Sandhurst,” Shelly replied, at the same time texting her boyfriend to tell him she’d be late.
Fifteen minutes later Karen was ready. Dressed in tight hipster jeans, a short t-shirt and heeled shoes, adding to her five eight, she’d left her hair loose and used a little eye make-up.
Shelly stood aghast. “God, is this how you always look when you go out?”
Karen felt a little worried wondering if this was not what they expected a Lieutenant to wear. “I’ve got a dress, but it’s very short and figure hugging, if you think I should change?”
“God no, if you go out in that the other girls will have no chance; even now I think the lads are going to have one hell of a shock when they see you.”
Karen just smiled; she was very used to this sort of attention.
As they made their way to the Social Club, they caught up with two other girls, one Maggie, the other Crystal.
“You’ve got competition tonight, Shelly; it looks like you’ll be back to your boring old boyfriend. The Lieutenant here will stun the lads, you won’t get a look in,” Maggie mocked.
“Can’t you just call me Karen when we’re off duty?” she asked.
“Of course we will, if you want us to,” Shelly replied.
The Social Club facilities in the camp were large, modern and very full. The girls struggled to get to the bar. However, two soldiers, who were in the same troop as Karen, made them a way through. Although unknown to any of the girls they were Karen’s assigned guards for the night.
Annette sat quietly in the back of the car, staring out of the window. Just eighteen and from Leeds, she had always been a popular girl. As the others, she was five eight, slim with deep green emerald eyes and jet-black shoulder-length hair. Two had bid for her but an Englishman called Lomax was determined to have this girl and finally won at thirty-nine thousand dollars. Unlike Sammy, who she’d made friends with on the first night of the holiday, when they’d shared a room. Annette wasn’t aggressive but very feminine and outwardly seemed to accept everything that had happened to her. However, Annette was not really like that, she was angry, frustrated and determined, after getting her bearings, of leaving to find her own way home.
The house she arrived at was in a compound with guards at the entrance. Although the house was nice it was small with only four rooms downstairs and five bedrooms. She’d been given one with an interconnecting door to Lomax’s room. As she’d left the auction with only knickers and shirt, Lomax had stopped in a small town and taken her into a clothes shop. They fitted her out with two pairs of jeans, three dresses, t-shirts, underclothes and shoes. Finally he bought her a leather bomber jacket, telling her the nights could get quite cold.
Later, after showering and dressing in one of her new dresses, Annette joined Lomax for dinner.
“I suppose you wonder what you’ve got yourself into?” he asked.
She shrugged. “It’s pretty obvious; I’ve been sold as some sort of sex slave. I suppose you’re going to threaten me the same as that old hag with her electric stick?”
“I could if you want? But in my book Annette, this is your new home. It may not be what you’d choose but you can’t return home, so why not buckle down and we’ll get to know each other?”
She frowned. “But you’re English; surely you wouldn’t keep a girl against her will? Besides, you’re not bad looking, it’d be easy to meet a girl who really liked you and wanted to stay anyway.”
“That’s your opinion, not mine. So from now on keep it to yourself. I’m not throwing away good money to send you home, because you and I are English. In my book, unless you can show me some real affection and learn to accept me, all I’ve paid for is a prostitute, and if that’s the case I’ll treat you like a prostitute. So based on the normal hundred dollars fee for a young girl, you’ve got 390 sessions to pay off before you can think of going home, plus interest and cost of food, accommodation, clothes etc., so probably you’ll be here at least two to three years. During that time I could hand you around and get some money back that way. Alternatively you and I could look on it as an opportunity of two people being thrown together and finding out if there is common ground. You could learn to like me the same as me you and we’d become a couple. You’d want for nothing; in time we could even travel, eventually you could have contact with your family once more.”
Annette, although young, was not that naive to think he’d ever go that far. But she would rather try and be a part of his life rather than be thought a prostitute working her so-called debt off.
“I’ve thought about it a lot, Lomax, and realise no one would ever come to find me, even if they could actually locate where I was. So I’ve decided to throw myself into this relationship and hope it works out.”
“In that case, Annette, I’m happy to welcome you into my house. You will have your own room but at times I’ll expect you to join me. You can even have time to settle in if you want. I’m looking for a girl for the long term not a quick romp and that’s it.”
She grinned. “Thank you, but I’m not a prude who needs time. I have had boyfriends in the past and perhaps gone too far, but I enjoy sex, the point will be, can you keep up?”
He smiled back, filling her glass. This was the sort of girl he’d hoped to get. “All I can do is try Annette,” he replied, believing this girl would have her work cut out to keep up with him.
She on the other hand never replied, already she was planning her escape, her own future and it didn’t include the likes of him.
Saeed shifted his position on the settee and lifted up the telephone handset. “Saeed here,” he answered.
“It’s Ashram here, Saeed, I’m currently in the UK.”
“Asham, it’s been a long time my friend. How are things with you?”
“They’re good, but could be better. I spoke to your mother yesterday, but apparently you were in the hospital. She said you had some accident?”
“Of sorts, Asham, I have to go there every other day for the moment, but what can I do for you?”
“I heard on the grapevine there was this girl called Karen Marshall. Something about you were offering a large fee for someone to, shall we say, collect her for you?”
Her very name made him shudder, not with fear but hate. “You are right, I have made it known that I want this girl, but the price is alive, very much alive, there is nothing offered for her death even though I would have the satisfaction of knowing that the killer of my friends is at last meeting her maker. Why is it you’re asking?”
“She’s here.”
His heart skipped a beat, but he was also confused, had Asham caught her?
“Here, Asham, what are you talking about, where?”
“Karen, she’s in the same army camp that I’m stationed at. Walked into the Social Club large as life last night, no one ever said she was in the military.”
“She isn’t, you’re mistaken, my friend, Karen Marshall was a schoolgirl up to three months ago.”
“You’re wrong, Saeed. The girl for two weeks was in the paper every day, really photogenic she was and the papers knew it. Okay she’s gone blonde, which makes her look very different. She’s also changed her surname to Harris, but believe me this girl is Karen Marshall. She’s a Lieutenant with Special Forces.”
Saeed scratched his head confused. Why was she there? Had she joined the army, after all it was her sort of thing? But if she had surely she’d have started as some sort of beginner? “Tell me Asham, is a Lieutenant at the bottom, middle or where in the rankings?”
“It’s a high rank and only one below a Captain, Saeed, apart from which she’s something to do with army headquarters in London. She arrived with a four star General.”
“And you say she’s working with Special Forces there? How long’s that been going on?”
“That’s the strange thing, Saeed, she arrived three days ago. The camp was in panic I’ll tell you. Usually when top brass arrive, it’s with lots of notice and we even paint the side stones white, well not exactly every stone, but you can understand the place is given a good clean up at least. So you can imagine when a staff car arrived at the gate even the officers were shitting themselves.”
“Yes, yes I’m not interested in that, more with Karen.”
“Well like I said, she’s now billeted in the woman’s section, training each day, and no one seems to know, or will say, just how long she’s here for.”
“What’s the chance of snatching her?”
“Inside the camp, virtually impossible. But I work in the supply depot and we had a request for full battle gear for the troop she’s with to be available Thursday night. I checked the camp weekly training sheet and she’s on field training this Friday. It’s an overnight exercise so she’ll be staying out with two of her group. There’s weapons on the list, but no live ammunition, as it’s an exercise. A few selected lads would have them all in minutes.”
“Just who are these lads, can they be trusted?”
“They’re all ex-marine, work on the doors of a couple of girly bars in the town. Bung them a few quid and they’d relish a skirmish with the army lads, there’s no love lost between the army and navy you know.”
“Do it, Asham. I’ll have my man in the UK call you to make the handover arrangements.”
There was a short silence.
“I don’t like to ask, Saeed, but payment?”
“Five thousand, my agent will pay on delivery. If she’s dead or badly wounded you get nothing. Except, that is, my gratitude, and hatred because I didn’t get the pleasure of seeing her die.”