The Palindrome Cult: A gripping, page-turning, crime suspense thriller, its fast pace takes you from London to New York, via Dubai and the Virgin Islands. (Hedge & Cole Book 1)

by Kevin Bradley

  There is a heavy concentration of salt and various other chemicals in urine and when applied to an open wound it can be extremely painful. Angel winced as the urine ran down his back, and he clenched his teeth as the freshly made wounds started to sting. The cuts from the knife were deep and the girl’s fluid ran into his flesh right down to the raw nerves. The pain was intense, but for Angel, not intolerable.

  The girl finished, adjusted her bikini and went back to sit on the bench seat. It was clear to Tariq that Angel was going to be more difficult to break than he had thought. He felt slightly irritated as he didn’t have much time for all this. He wanted to get back to land as soon as possible. However, he had promised results and so he moved on to the next stage of his interrogation.

  He called out several commands and two more of his men came from the back of the boat. Angel noticed that one of them was carrying an oxygen cylinder. It looked like something that a diver would wear on his back. The man placed the cylinder down close to where Angel lay. It had a valve at the top, and a long black tube came from the valve. At the end of the tube was a small pipe which looked like it was made of hard plastic.

  Tariq barked an order and his two men started arguing. It was clear to Angel that Tariq wanted one of them to carry out his instructions, but neither of them would. They were shouting obscenities at each other and both were getting very angry. In the end Tariq settled it by grabbing one of the men by the throat and pushing him towards the cylinder.

  The man said a few words under his breath and picked up the tube. He reached over behind him and scooped some engine grease from a small green can. He applied the grease liberally to the plastic pipe and then bent close to Angel.

  Angel tensed up as he was not sure what was going to happen next. He tried to pull away from the man but he was still tied securely. The man grabbed hold of one of Angel’s naked buttocks and pulled his arse cheeks apart. With a quick movement he fed the end of the tube into Angel’s anus and pushed hard. It slid in easily, helped along its way by the engine grease. The man pushed hard until around half of the pipe had disappeared, and then he stood back. He clearly hadn’t enjoyed his task, and he snarled as he wiped his hands down his trousers.

  Tariq smiled as he leaned down to talk to Angel. ‘Women say that one of the worst things about giving birth is the pain experienced by trapped wind in their intestines. Apparently it occurs as the baby moves around inside them and blocks the air from escaping. Perhaps you would be good enough to confirm just how painful it actually is.’

  With that, he reached for the valve on the top of the cylinder and turned it on. There was a hiss as the gas in the tank started to flow down the tube.

  Angel felt the gas enter his intestines, slowly at first, and with little noticeable pain. After around twenty seconds though, he started to feel the pressure build up. It felt like his groin and stomach were both expanding. He started to feel bloated, and the whole of his lower body began to ache, annoyingly at first, but then came the intense pain. It seemed like his insides were being squeezed and twisted. The pressure continued to build, his stomach started to feel bloated. He felt the urge to push down on his bowel muscles, but when he did so the pain was even more intense. It seemed impossible to him that his body could withstand the pressure he was feeling. His testicles started to scream with agony. The sensation coming from his scrotum was pure torment. It was almost as if someone had placed his balls in a metalworker’s vice, and was clamping it slowly shut.

  Angel screamed with the pain. Tariq laughed loudly. The two women watched, with their mouths open and their eyes staring in fascination at the scene before them.

  Just when it all seemed unbearable to Angel, Tariq leaned over, smiled broadly, and opened the valve a fraction more. The gas hissed louder.

  Angel bit down on his lower lip and as he did so he could taste his own blood. His whole being was now enduring unbearable pressure from the gas accumulating inside him. The organs in his body were being pushed out of place. He desperately wanted the crushing tension inside him to stop. His lungs must have partially collapsed under the intense strain, as he was struggling to draw breath.

  He tried to scream again but he didn’t hear anything coming from his mouth. A deep blackness descended on him as the pain became too much to bear. His eyes closed slowly and he passed out.

  Chapter Thirty Two

  When Angel came round he was still in terrible pain. The cylinder with the tube had disappeared but he still lay tied on the deck of the boat. He felt very unwell. Some of the pressure in his body had gone, but he was still left with a horrible bloated feeling.

  Tariq stood over him. He moved his head closer and spoke quietly near Angel’s left ear. ‘Well Mr. Angel, do you have anything you want to tell me now?’

  Angel slowly opened his mouth to reply. ‘There is one thing you should know,’ he murmured, ‘you need to change your mouthwash, either that or you need to stop eating your own shit.’

  Tariq raised himself and turned to his crewmen. ‘That’s enough of this. We are wasting our time. Prepare this idiot for the fishing line.’

  The crewmen rushed forward enthusiastically and untied Angel from the deck, making sure his two hands were bound together. He was then strung up to a wooden boom near the back of the boat. His hands were tied to the end of the boom and his legs dangled beneath him, so that his feet were a few inches above the deck of the boat.

  ‘Before we proceed, I want you to make sure that he can’t lift his legs out of the water. Remember what we did to the Egyptian guy we caught stealing from us last year?’

  One of the crewmen understood what Tariq was referring to and he rushed off towards the front of the boat. He came back a few seconds later carrying a large hammer, almost the size of a sledgehammer. Tariq took the implement from him and held it by the wooden handle. He rested the other end, made from solid iron, on the deck. He nodded towards Angel and the crewman swung him round so that his back was facing Tariq.

  Tariq walked over and stood close to Angel. With his free hand he felt down Angel’s back so that he could establish exactly where the base of his spine was. It wasn’t easy as there was still blood seeping out from the cuts made earlier. Once he was happy that he had found the right spot, he took a pace backwards and swung the heavy hammer so that it crashed into Angel’s backbone. It struck just where it was intended to, and the bone and spinal cord were both crushed by the force of the blow.

  Angel shouted out as he felt his spine being smashed to pieces, and a terrible pain ran through his body. Tariq laughed as he threw down the hammer and ordered his men to carry on.

  The boom that Angel was hanging from was now swung out over the back of the boat and then lowered until all of Angel’s legs were beneath the water.

  Tariq looked over the back of the boat and explained to Angel what was about to happen.

  ‘It’s very important that you keep your legs in the water at all times, and that is where the hammer blow comes in. Although you can still feel pain in your legs, you will not be able to manipulate them in any way. So even if you wanted to lift them up, you won’t be able to.’

  He paused to smile for a moment before continuing.

  ‘You may be aware that sharks are supposed to be able to detect blood from a long way off. Although blood does work, there is something that I have found to be much more effective. If you use fresh pigs liver as bait, for some reason the sharks are much more responsive and it also seems to make them more aggressive.’

  With that, one of his men passed him a bucket which was full of a brown liquid with what looked like lumps of animal offal floating about in it. Tariq swung the bucket and emptied the contents over the back of the boat as near to Angel as he could.

  Tariq threw the bucket down on the deck. The men on the boat stared out over the sea in anticipation. The two girls rose from their seats to try and get a better view of what was going on. All of them started to scan the near horizon to see if there was any activity.
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  The sea remained relatively calm and the boat bobbed gently up and down. Angel tried not to panic as he hung under the boom, with the lower half of his body under water. He hoped there were no sharks in the immediate vicinity. Five minutes passed but nothing happened, and the men on the boat started to feel disappointed.

  Then a grey fin appeared about a hundred metres off the back of the boat.

  Chapter Thirty Three

  There are many types of shark that have been seen around the coast of Dubai and most of them are usually harmless. However, the one that was now heading towards the boat was a Bull shark, and it was definitely not harmless. Bull sharks are known to be aggressive and tend to favour coastal areas with relatively shallow water. This particular shark hadn’t eaten a large meal for several days, so it was hungry. It was also aroused by the offal and blood it could detect in the water.

  There were a few murmurs of excitement from the passengers on the boat as they saw the sleek, grey object heading towards them. Angel could sense the change in mood and he could feel himself start to panic. He tried to twist his body around to see what was heading towards him, but he was too low in the water and could see nothing. Also, the attempted movement of his body caused him to scream in agony as the shattered bones of his spinal column grated against each other.

  The shark was now close to the boat and it disappeared beneath the water in an attempt to find some of the pig’s offal that it could smell. It took a few mouthfuls of liver and swung around to find more.

  Angel could now see the shape in the water and as the shark turned he caught a glimpse of the teeth that lined the front of the shark’s mouth. He tried to pull himself up the rope that held him to the boom, but he didn’t have the strength to move very far. It was also very painful. After a couple of attempts he thought it better just to keep still and not attract the attention of the shark. Angel felt very vulnerable with his legs hanging in the water. He wasn’t afraid of pain, but he didn’t particularly wish to have a shark bite into him. He was acutely aware of how much he valued the use of his limbs. He also valued his life, and he felt certain that any attack from the shark would likely kill him due to blood loss.

  The shark kept circling trying to pick up more pieces of the liver in the water. Once or twice it came very close to Angel but appeared not to notice him. After what seemed like an eternity, the animal took one final turn, scooped up a mouthful of the remaining offal, and headed back out to sea.

  Angel felt a wave of relief surge over him. The shark had clearly become bored with trying to find small scraps of offal and was off to hunt for a bigger prize. It hadn’t detected the lower half of Angel’s body in the water. Angel began to feel a bit calmer. He didn’t realise just how tense he had been while the shark was swimming around him. As he relaxed he became aware that he needed to empty his bowels. He still felt the pressure of the gas that had been forced into his intestines. It was incredibly uncomfortable and he desperately needed to relieve the strain.

  He pushed down hard from his lower stomach and a large amount of wind was forced out of his backside. It was agonising doing this as his shattered backbone was still giving him excruciating pain. However, he felt the need to push again and more gas came out. The pressure inside him started to reduce, thankfully, and he continued to try to force the gas out. The reduction of this internal crushing sensation, along with the release of tension from the presence of the shark, made Angel feel slightly better. He was engulfed with the need for one final push. It was a big push, but nearly all of the gas had now been forced out. What he was now pushing out was his solid waste. Before he realised, he was defecating into the sea.

  The watchers on the boat had been disappointed to see the shark leave so quickly, particularly as Angel appeared to be completely unharmed. Tariq was clearly annoyed with this failed attempt to have Angel eaten alive. He became even angrier when the smell of human faeces reached his nostrils. He turned to look at the brown stain that now appeared in the water near Angel. His face creased in disgust and he turned his head away from the smell. The other people on the boat, including the two women also noticed the stench, and were all equally revolted by it.

  What was interesting to note was that the people on the boat had become aware of the acute smell around five seconds after Angel had relieved himself.

  Meanwhile, the shark had moved quickly through the water, and was by that time around a mile away from the boat.

  Sharks have an incredible ability to detect odours in the water from a considerable distance. Amazingly, the shark smelt the same odour in the water a split second before the humans on the boat smelt it. The only difference was that the shark didn’t smell human waste.

  It didn’t smell what the people on the boat did.

  It smelt fear. It smelt distress. It smelt panic.

  It turned immediately and headed back in the direction of the boat.

  Chapter Thirty Four

  Back on the boat Tariq had started issuing instructions to his crew. Two of the men had moved towards the boom hanging off the back in order to start bringing Angel back on board. The two girls had sat back down on the bench seat. One of the crew suddenly shouted that he could see something in the water and so they all looked out over the back of the vessel.

  Angel tried to see what they were looking at, and as he turned he saw a blur directly in front of him. Panic started to well up within him once more. Was it a fin he saw, he wasn’t sure? He turned his head quickly from side to side, trying desperately to pick out any movement in the water around him. He thought his ordeal was over. Had the shark returned?

  A split second later, he sensed a movement in the water nearby. Then suddenly, he sensed a hard tug on his right leg. There was no immediate pain, but he was pulled under the water briefly, before the boom dragged his body back up.

  The shark had taken off his right leg just above the knee and was in the process of trying to swallow the body part whole. The power of the shark’s bite had ensured a swift cut, straight through the skin, muscle and bone of Angel’s leg.

  It was a full five seconds before the pain hit Angel. The bite had torn the muscle in his leg, and this along with the bone injury, all mixing with the salt from the sea, left Angel with horrendous agony. He screamed out loud, not just from pain but from the shock of what had just happened to him. He was bleeding profusely from the injury. He started to feel lightheaded, partly from the trauma but also from the blood loss. He was thrashing about in the water trying to make the pain reduce. It didn’t help. All that he achieved in fact was to attract the shark’s attention once more.

  With its second bite the shark took the top part of Angels left leg, along with a sizeable chunk of his lower stomach and what was left of his right leg. It was a big mouthful, but this was a large Bull shark. It was unable to swallow such an amount of bone and flesh in one gulp and so it had to dive deeper in the sea while it gnawed its way through its prize. As it chewed it headed slowly out to sea. What it had eaten would keep hunger at bay for a while.

  Angel felt the pain of the second bite for only a few seconds and then he blacked out. He now had massive injuries from the lower half of his body, and the blood loss he had incurred was not survivable. He died a few seconds later.

  The men on the boat were cheering loudly. The two girls had witnessed the carnage in the sea also. They both looked shocked, but felt unable to tear their eyes away from the dead man hanging off the back off the boat. The sea had turned a purple colour as a result of it now containing nearly all of Angel’s blood.

  Tariq had also watched the scene. He smiled with delight. This is exactly what he had hoped would happen. He felt elated, excited, and extremely aroused. He barked some orders to his crew and then turned to the dark skinned girl.

  ‘Come to my room below immediately,’ he said, and headed back into the cabin.

  The girl nodded, rolled her eyes to her companion, and then followed close behind him.

  It was a small boat and n
oise travelled easily. It was less than five minutes after he had left the deck, that the other people on board heard Tariq screaming in ecstasy. He would tell friends later that it was the quickest climax he had ever achieved.

  Chapter Thirty Five

  Fuller and Cole drove back to the spot where they had dropped Angel earlier in the day. It was just after five o’clock in the afternoon. They were a few minutes late due to the heavy traffic. The idea was that one of them would take over from Angel and carry on watching the bank, at least until it closed later in the evening.

  They waited for about fifteen minutes, but there was no sign of Angel. There seemed to be a lot of traffic, and so parking at the side of the road was not easy. More than once, an impatient driver beeped noisily at them as they tried to manoeuvre their own vehicles past the waiting car.

  ‘Let’s give him a few more minutes and then we had better go. We look too suspicious sitting here,’ said Cole.

  Fuller was dialling a number on his cell phone and it answered almost immediately. ‘Hello, this is Mr. Fuller here. I am staying at your hotel at the moment. Has anyone left any messages for me?’

  ‘No messages for you,’ replied the hotel receptionist, ‘but I do have a parcel addressed to Mr. Cole. I believe he is one of your colleagues. There is a note with the parcel.’

  ‘Mr. Cole is here with me now. Can you open the message and read it out please.’

  There was a short delay, and a tapping noise as the person at the other end placed the telephone handset on the desk. Then the receptionist came back on the line.

  ‘The message says, “Don’t wait around for me Cole. I got bored with hanging about outside the bank, and so have taken the rest of the day off to go fishing. I caught something big. See inside.”’

  ‘Who does it say it is from?’

  ‘It doesn’t say. There is no name or address showing.’