by Zack
“Shit! What do we do?” Sam appealed to his friends.
Harry shook his head to help clear the effects of the drug in his system. “Leave him be, Sam. He’ll be better in the morning. Nothin else to do.”
Sam shrugged irritably and flung himself down on his bed. The others followed his example dispiritedly. The final events of the weird evening had drained that beautiful feeling that had burned in them earlier, and baffled sleep soon overwhelmed one and all.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Briefing and Debriefing
The ground juddered beneath him. He could hardly keep his footing in the quaking, shifting sand. Then it was clinging mud, threatening to drag him under in its glutinous grip. In its slurping grasp he heard bubbles rising to the surface viscously murmuring “gloop…gloop” as each burst on the swamp’s surface, like a voice in the distance, calling to him.
Gloop … gloop … glook.
“Luke, Luke, wake up, goddammit!”
He dragged himself from the skeins of nightmare and opened his eyes. Harry stood over him, shaking his shoulder intently. Luke made to sit up and was about to swear loudly but Harry pushed him down again and signaled to him to be quiet.
“Jimbo’s gone,” he whispered hoarsely.
“What do you mean, ‘gone’?”
“Shush. Keep your voice down! Vanished, vamoosed, disappeared, you dumb jerk.”
Luke struggled hard to get his brain working and focus on what Harry was saying.
“How do you know?”
“I’ve been awake for more than an hour. When I got up he wasn’t in his bunk, then about fifteen minutes ago I went outside to look for him. He’s nowhere in the compound either.”
Luke looked around the room. A susurration of quiet snores indicated that everyone else was still asleep. “There’s no way he can get off the island by himself, and even if we can’t find him, those cameras will sure as hell know where he is already.”
As Luke said this, he suddenly remembered his discovery of the night before and understood why Harry might be speaking in whispers. He swiftly related what he had seen inside the hacienda.
“So you see” he ended, “they’re probably watching us right now, and may even be able to hear us.”
“Actually,” said Harry looking a bit smug, “I discovered the camera about half an hour ago. I was lying in bed thinking about Jimbo. It occurred to me that if the cameras were everywhere outside, there might be some inside. There’s only one place it can be and that’s inside that slit above the connecting door—don’t fuckin look up at it! If you weren’t searching for it you’d think the gap was just an unfinished ventilation hole. But I doubt they can hear us as long as we keep it quiet.”
“Smart bastard,” Luke said, as he fought the temptation to look toward the camera’s hiding place. He lifted a hand to his mouth in case anyone monitoring was a lip reader. “But what do you make of all that computer shit and recording devices I saw?”
Harry snorted. “Have you gone all modest on me, ol’ buddy? I thought we decided that Ström was a randy old bitch who gets off on other guys’ hot sex action?”
Any further consideration of Ström’s murky motives were rudely interrupted as the door flew back and slammed against the wall. The sergeant’s signature tune. He stood silhouetted in the opening against the sun’s glare, clad only in a pair of bush shorts and a holstered pistol hanging from his belt. Gone was the cowering masochist of the night before—the cold mean look was back on his face and he looked pleased about something. He glanced at Jimbo’s empty bunk and then at Luke and Harry.
“I got a special treat for you fuckin fairies this morning.” And then in a louder voice, “Okay you bastards, outside in five minutes.” As he left Luke saw the lash marks standing out in sharp relief on his back, overlaid on the earlier ones he’d received from Harry.
The recruits shambled out of the bunkhouse, most of them naked and half-asleep. The sun was already high in the sky, and Luke guessed it must be nearly noon. As he looked around at the other recruits he wondered how the sergeant was going to get them in fighting condition by this evening, considering the lateness of the day and the wrecked state everyone must be in after last night’s “entertainment.”
“How’s the back this morning, Sarge?” one unwary recruit called out. No surprise, the British accent gave Alan away immediately. Luke raised his eyes to the sky, knowing what would happen next. He thought the big lunk must enjoy punishment.
In two strides the sergeant was on the dope and punched him hard in the solar plexus. Alan doubled over with a great whoosh and fell to the ground clutching his stomach.
“You’ll find out the answer to that very shortly.” The sergeant cast a baleful glare at the men. “Follow me, all of you.”
He led them to a six-foot high stake in the ground on the far side of the square from the bunkhouse. It hadn’t been there yesterday. He disappeared into the command hut and came out a few seconds later with a bull whip. He strode over to Alan, who still lay curled up on the ground clutching himself, hauled him to his feet, and dragged him over to where the rest of them waited anxiously. To their surprise however he let Alan go as he reached them.
“Don’t look so disappointed,” he sneered, “I’ve got something else for you first.”
From around the back of the briefing hut the two huge voodoo dancers appeared to barely stifled gasps from the gathering. Harry’s concerns for their Jamaican friend were swiftly answered. Between them they dragged Jimbo’s limp body. They hauled him over to the stake. While one hefted him upright, the other bound him to it, hand and foot. He sagged against the bonds, head slumped to his chest. The sergeant strolled casually over and slapped him into semi-consciousness. Jimbo raised his head, became aware of his surroundings and then of the stake he was tied to. His face twisted into a mask of fear and he began a low gibbering.
The sergeant turned to them.
“Jimbo here was not content with spoiling Mr. Ström’s party, he decided to desert as well. Even worse, the stupid bastard forgot my warning that we know everything that happens on this island. He thought he could hide on one of the jets. Can you believe how stupid that is!” His voice dripped sarcasm as he whipped round on Jimbo. “Got your pilot’s license, huh?”
He returned his glare to the recruits. “There’s only one punishment for deserters in any army when it’s in the field.” He paused. “Death!”
If Jimbo had not fully comprehended in his dazed state what the sergeant was saying, what happened next brought a trapped scream of realization to his lips. The sergeant stepped up close, unholstered his pistol, and placed the barrel’s muzzle against Jimbo’s temple.
The recruits were frozen with shock, and Luke knew that even if he moved now he could not save the man.
The sergeant looked at them coldly. “You will learn to fear me.”
Jimbo shook violently and, as he heard the slide click back to cocked position, a dark stain spread over the front of his ragged bush shorts. The sergeant waited a long minute before he gently squeezed the trigger. Luke shut his eyes, but all he heard was a loud snap as the firing pin hit an empty chamber. In the shocked silence, it sounded like thunder.
He opened his eyes to see Jimbo stiffen and fall forward against his bonds. And then the sergeant began to laugh as he raked the recruits’ white faces.
“Look at him closely, gentlemen. He’s not dead, merely fainted at the ultimate fear. He will obey now.”
Some of the guys grinned in relief, others just stared at the ground and shuffled their feet. Despite his hatred of the man, Luke had to admire the way he dominated these guys, for they now knew that he could inflict both pain and fear on them. Next time he might pull the trigger and they would never know it had happened.
“Go and have your breakfast …” he glanced at his chronometer, “ … or should I say lunch. There are only twelve hours to the assault and there are preparations to be made. Assemble in the briefing hut in one hour. You s
tay,” he said, pointing at Alan. “I need you. Strip … everything.”
The voodoo dancers cut Jimbo down from the stake and hauled him off unceremoniously toward the bunkhouse. The sergeant made the naked recruit face the vacant stake legs wide and then tied his hands to it. Kicking off his own pants, he picked up the bull whip and administered six sharp lashes to Alan’s back and then began to fuck him.
The atmosphere in the mess room during the meal was subdued. Luke and Harry took a table by themselves.
“Do you reckon he was really capable of shooting Jimbo?” Luke asked. “Put it this way, I’d bet my ass that he murdered whoever it was you heard screaming the other night. I think Jimbo blew his stack last night because he believed all that crap with the blood and that monstrous dildo was to choose another victim. For some reason he thought it was going to be him.”
“Then why didn’t he shoot Jimbo this morning?”
“Most likely cos the sergeant doesn’t want to be known publicly as a murderer. We gotta go back to civilization at some point remember. I reckon either Jimbo was wrong, or the sergeant set it up deliberately knowing that Jimbo would bolt and so get the chance to make an example of him.”
“Boy,” retorted Luke, “that brain of yours is wasted with a body like you got.”
“That’s okay, buddy, I need enough brain for the both of us.”
Luke reached around the corner of the table, grabbed Harry’s balls and twisted them.
“Mmmm,” Harry moaned, closing his eyes in mock ecstasy, “harder, harder.”
At that moment Alan appeared in the mess doorway fresh from his punishment, grinning stupidly. The sergeant was obviously an expert with the whip because while the marks showed his skin had not been broken.
The sergeant and Jan were waiting for them as they assembled in the briefing hut. Luke watched Jimbo with concern. He was seated in the front row, eyes fixed ahead in a blank gaze, but Luke knew there was nothing he could do for the Jamaican. He dragged his attention back to the sergeant.
The sergeant pointed his swagger stick at Luke. “Your unit will enter the grounds to the house through the swamp, as you’ve practiced—only without that little detour you made.” He grinned nastily. “First objective is to take out the watchtower in the center of the complex and then the guards on the main gate. Only knives, no firearms. They would only hold you back and stealth is vital. It’s essential you make sure that none of the enemies’ weapons are fired before you’ve taken main gate to let the second unit in to clean up.
“Now listen up! This goes for everyone who makes it to the house. None of the occupants is to be killed unless your own lives are endangered. Ström wants them taken prisoner.”
Luke asked, “And how many people are we supposed to capture?”
“Two, perhaps three. You will recognize any guards in the house by their uniforms, and there’s no restriction on eliminating them if necessary. Both Jan and I will be with the second, coming through the gates. It’s our job to…to take the owner of the house prisoner.”
Luke wondered about the man’s hesitation. It was unlike him. But perhaps they had other things to do once the house had been gained, and that was none of his business.
Harry raised a hand. “I’ve been wondering. Why don’t we have any night vision equipment, sergeant?”
The man frowned at the question, but it was Jan who answered. “With the full moon it won’t be necessary. The budget didn’t stretch for one thing, and for another our sources report that the enemy isn’t equipped either, so they won’t have any advantage.”
“How do we get to the island?” someone asked.
“By boat,” the sergeant answered. “Two fast speedboats will arrive here later this evening. We leave here at twenty-three-hundred. One mile from our destination the engines will be muffled. We shall arrive off the beach at midnight.”
The main briefing over, Jan ordered Luke’s unit to go with him so he could fill them in on the details of the swamp assault. Jan picked up a map and said they might as well go down to the beach for the discussion. Luke saw the sergeant glance quizzically at Jan when he made the suggestion, but he said nothing.
Down on the beach, as Jan went over the map with them, Luke got the impression that the gymnast was impatient and wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. He finished his briefing and fixed them with his gaze.
“The sergeant has not said this to you, and this is my own personal advice, but as far as possible you must avoid killing any of the guards tonight. Use the hafts of your knives just so”—and he showed them with his own blade—“to strike them above the ear.”
“Why are you telling us this?” Luke asked, by now every instinct alive with curiosity.
“Perhaps you may find this hard to take, but simply because I don’t believe in the unnecessary taking of life. You may go … except for Luke.”
Harry exchanged a look with Luke, but turned reluctantly to follow the others as they left the beach to return to their billets. When the last disappeared through the trees, Luke turned to Jan, eyeing him thoughtfully, wondering how he could take the opportunity that was surely being offered. Strangely, he felt almost afraid, afraid that he couldn’t match what Jan had done for him in New York. “I noticed you weren’t at the party last night,” he said tentatively.
Jan produced the faintest twitch of a smile. “No. I don’t really enjoy parties. I mostly prefer to take my enjoyment with one man.” For a second he maintained the eye-lock with Luke. Then he neatly folded himself down in one fluid motion and lay back on the sand. Luke stared hungrily at the clean, rugged muscles of his chest rising above the long, firm sweep of his six-pack stomach. A thin line of hair ran from his navel down into his tight bush shorts with their massive bulge down one leg. His thick meaty thighs were spread slightly apart and his knees raised a little. He was offering Luke his body and Luke moved to take it.
He reached over and undid Jan’s short pants and slowly pulled them down to expose the huge sex of the man. He peeled himself out of his own before kneeling to remove Jan’s shorts completely. He wanted no clothes in the way for this meeting of their bodies. Then he placed his knees either side of Jan’s hips and swayed down to wipe his upper chest from the top of Jan’s muscle-packed abdomen to his broad pectorals. As reached the top, he lowered his trunk to grind their swelling cocks together.
Luke flickered the point of his tongue over the left bullet-shaped nipple, licked in tight circles around the brown aureola atop the mounded pectoral, then moved to the right nipple. Now he was on the erect peak and Jan’s arms folded around him as he began to suck and nibble. The tang of clean sweat embraced his taste buds and its heady scent filled his nose. Luke felt hornier than he had been since the orgy and Jan’s quiescence aroused a welter of feelings within his own breast—lust, adoration, need. Jan made no sound beyond a sharp intake of breath as Luke chewed his erect nipples, and the gymnast ran his hands in fluttery movements over Luke’s back and flanks with a gentleness that belied his usual violence.
Luke bent his head back sharply and traced his wet tongue up under Jan’s chin, over its jut, into the dimple, to tease along the underside of Jan’s lips. Then he took a great tongue wipe over the left jawline to the ear, and thrust the point deep into the gymnast’s ear.
Jan breathed deeply and pulled away slightly, but only to strain down and close his mouth over Luke’s nearest nipple, which grew even harder as Jan softly bit it. Jan ground his teeth sideways and Luke jolted at the pain. He pushed Jan off him, pressed his head back onto the sand. The sun reflected from the sand suffused Luke’s face and, as if he were a mirror, threw it back to fill Jan’s face, softening the sharp planes of chin, jaw, and cheek bones.
Jan looked up into Luke’s eyes. “Don’t stop you beautiful stud,” he groaned. “I’ve wanted you again for a long time.”
Luke wondered at this, yet there was no doubting the unexpected passiveness Jan now exhibited. Luke went back to work. He tongued Jan’
s tapered flanks, dribbled saliva into the navel and swirled it around.
Jan’s eyes squeezed shut in ecstasy and his muscles tensed and strained, urging Luke’s mouth further down his body. Luke did not have to travel far, for Jan’s lengthy marble-hard meat easily reached to just below his navel. Luke looked down at the brown, thick-veined cock that not so many days ago had thrust its way up his insides. But he avoided it for the moment, knowing this would tease the man to even greater heights of urgency. Instead he licked and nibbled at the fair hairs on which the cock bobbed. Luke slipped his tongue through the thicket of hair at the swollen root and down onto the distended sac packed with Jan’s pulsing balls. Even as his tongue made first contact he felt the skin begin to draw up, pulling the big eggs closer to the base of Jan’s beautiful cock.
The heat between the man’s legs was intense and the aroma overpowering as his cum threatened to erupt up the throbbing shaft. Luke knew now that he was a match for this man, was perhaps even better, for he had him completely enslaved to his tongue.
“Suck me please. Please get my rocks off…make me cum. Lick it, suck it, take my cum please,” he heard Jan whisper in an almost broken voice.
Not yet, Luke thought. I’ll take you even higher. He spat and licked at the clenching balls until they were sticky with his saliva, and he had washed the man’s smell into him. With infinite care he sucked a ball into his mouth, tonguing it playfully and Jan’s thick thighs spread wide out to receive him. Now he opened his mouth as wide as it would go and drew in the second ball. He closed his lips, sealing them into his mouth so they pushed his cheeks out and Jan went wild, totally at Luke’s mercy. He writhed and stretched his body and arms backward, at the same time he thrust his hips upward as if he wanted to get the jerking base of his cock into Luke’s mouth as well.