Sgt Major Dhlamini arrived within five minutes and was not disappointed to hear that it would be a while before Alina would be ready to talk. He listened to my explanation of what I had deduced and his only response was a grunt before he wandered off to find Nqobile.

After ten minutes or so, he came back into the lounge, where I was sitting and flipping through the satellite channels on my TV, and told me that the sheep spit-braai was ready. He was holding a plate, and obviously ready to eat.

“Typical bloody Sgt Major,” I teased him, “always ensure that your stomach is sorted out as a priority.”

He laughed at me. “You know your lessons about the most important lessons for soldiers, ‘Always eat whenever there is food because you never know when you will get another meal.’”

“Ok, good point I suppose. Why don’t you organise that all the others eat, and you too, and I will wait until Daise and Alina are ready and eat with them?”

“Sounds good. By then I will probably be ready for seconds anyway,” he said with a grin.

“Probably thirds or fourths.”

“True.”

He wandered off and I carried on waiting for the girls, trying to war-game possibilities and options in my head while I channel-surfed.

Almost two hours had passed when I heard the girls coming down the stairs. I turned off the TV and waited for them to appear. They were both dressed casually and I could see that Alina had scrubbed the gunk off her face. Her red eyes betrayed the fact that she had done a lot of crying. I guessed, from my past experiences with women, that this meant that she had poured her heart out to Daise. I was happy about that; there was no way I wanted to deal with a weepy woman again, one had been bad enough.

“Hi Ladies,” I greeted them, “before we start would you like something to eat? Alina, we prepared a special meal to welcome you.”

“Thank you, Rupert. I’m ravenous,” Alina replied. Daise just nodded at me.

“Ok, let’s help ourselves. Nqobile has put it all out on the counter for us.” I picked up plates and handed them to Daise and Alina. We loaded up on salads, and I added mielie-pap and sauce to my plate. Both women looked at it suspiciously and avoided it. I led the way out to the braai area where Sgt Major Dhlamini and Cpl Maseka were standing and talking.

When he saw us coming, Cpl Maseka picked up a carving knife and an over-sized fork and asked the women what they wanted, then cut them slices from the carcass on the spit. I selected my preference and once my plate was loaded so much that it groaned, I pulled up a chair. The rest all joined me, Sgt Major Dhlamini with his umpteenth helping, and there was only the sound of mastication for a while.

Once all the plates had been cleared, I prompted Alina, “Time to tell us your story, Alina.”

Alina gulped, looked at Daise for reassurance and, apparently satisfied with what she read from her expression, launched into her tale.

“Rupert,” she said, “I’m really sorry about the way I acted earlier. I have been so scared. Daise has been telling me about you and your friends and the way that you have treated her since she got here, and I felt a little better about things now.”

“No need to apologise, Alina,” I told her, “just tell us what happened to you please.”

“You were right; I was beaten and I did betray you. I was in the departure hall at Schipol and I had just spoken to you and Daise on the new cell-phone I had bought. When I hung up, Dimitri appeared suddenly behind me and grabbed me by the hair. I didn’t know exactly who he was at first, but he soon told me.” She glanced at the Sgt Major and Corporal, then obviously made up her mind that as they were part of what was happening, that they should hear what she had to say.

“He explained to me,” she continued, “that he had been the one behind me during my rape.” She placed a particular emphasis on the word ‘behind’ which I understood to mean that she meant that he had been the one to sodomise her.

“He forced me to go with him. It was two hours before I was supposed to board, so he told me that there was plenty of time for us to ‘play a bit’. He had booked a room in the airport hotel, one of the ones that are used by people who have long layovers, and he took me up to it. When we got there, he started asking me all sorts of questions about Daise and about you. I didn’t want to answer his questions. This seemed to make him happy. I realised that it gave him a reason to do what he did next.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“To beat you?” I suggested.

“Yes. He had some oranges lying on the bed. He stuffed ‘something’ in my mouth …”

“What?”

“My panties.”

“Ok. Sorry to embarrass you.”

“No. It’s OK. I need to tell the story. Anyway, he gagged me and then put the oranges, I think it was four of them, into a pillow-case that he pulled off one of the hotel pillows. He threw me onto the bed and held me down by kneeling on me, then he hit me with the pillow-case. I soon wanted to talk, but he ignored everything I did and just kept beating me; on my legs, my belly; my chest; and even on my face.”

I watched as tears rolled down Alina’s face while she related this. Daise had scooted her chair closer to Alina’s and was holding her hand. When she started crying, she stroked her hair and her back and said something softly. I guessed it was those meaningless phrases that are meant to comfort. Alina seemed to take strength from this support and carried on.

“He stopped after a while and took my panties out of my mouth, then started the questions all over again. He didn’t show any emotion; it was as if he didn’t care whether I talked or not. I didn’t want to take the chance though; the look of pleasure in his eyes when he was hitting me was the scariest thing that I have ever seen. It was obvious from the erection he got while he was hitting me that it was pleasurable for him to hurt me.”

“What questions did he ask?”

“He started out asking about Daise; where she was and who she was with. When I told him about you, he focused on you and I told him everything I knew. It wasn’t much and at first I thought he wouldn’t accept that I knew so little. He listened to what I told him and I guess that he must have realised that I was petrified of what he would do to me if I lied or left anything else. When I stopped, he just thought for a few minutes then he told me what I would have to do.”

“What was that?”

“He said that I would have to come here and meet up with you. He told me that they would follow me and that I should lead them to you and Daise.” Alina looked at Daise and I guessed that she had already apologised to her because Daise just leant in and gave her a hug.

“He must have threatened you somehow?”

“Yes. He told me that there were about twenty-five of his ‘colleagues’ here and that if I didn’t do what he told me, they would all take turns with me and that when they were finished, he would cut me. Cut my face and body. He said they would make sure I survived so that I could learn what it was like to live with an ugly face and body and … with no tongue. As a warning to others.”

“Ok. What were you supposed to do? Call him?”

“He told me that they would just follow me until they knew where you were staying, then they would make an example of you.”

“Do you have any idea what they are doing here? It puzzles me that Russian criminals would be in South Africa?”

“Yes. He told me a little about that when he was explaining about making an example of you. They are busy setting up their operations for next year; for the Soccer World Cup. They are busy setting up their prostitution operation here the same way they did in Berlin a few years ago. They have bought some houses and they are busy removing any competition; either by killing them or scaring them away. From what he said, it seems as if there are some locals that will work with them.”

“Did he give you any hints about what he would do to ‘make an example’ of me?”

“He seemed to think that you wouldn’t be much trouble; that you would be backed down with a sufficient threat. I got the idea that he wanted to threaten you with violence, but that he was under orders to threaten your livelihood or something.”

“That’s great Alina, thank you. That gives us a little more of an idea of what to expect. Knowing how many there are is also good. It will help us plan our defence.”

“You aren’t worried?”

“Well … a little. I have some ideas about how I would like to handle this. I think it would be best to wait for the morning though. I think you have had enough to deal with today. I think Daise should help you to bed. Nqobile prepared the guest bedroom for you.”

Daise took the hint and pulled Alina to her feet and led her back into the house. I sat in thought for a while and then noticed Sgt Major Dhlamini watching me expectantly.

“What do you think Sgt Major?” I asked him.

“I think that the best form of defence is attack,” he replied. I could see the battle-lust in his eyes.

“Yes, it makes me nervous to have to sit and wait to see what they will do. We have a little time though because I don’t think they were prepared for the way that we evaded them on the way back from the airport. I think we need to be careful though; they won’t continue to underestimate what we are capable of.”

“They are criminals, not soldiers,” he said with contempt dripping from his words.

“True. It does make them more dangerous in some ways. They aren’t bound by many restrictions, while we do have to worry about the law.”

“Mmmm,” was his only reply.

“I’m going to get some sleep. I think I need to charge my batteries. The next few days might be a little draining.”

The Sgt Major grinned. “I think you just want to drain something else.”

I laughed at him as I got up and gathered the plates. His laughter followed me as I walked into the kitchen. I loaded the plates into the dishwasher and went up to bed.

When I slipped into bed, I was delighted to find a warm, nude, body waiting for me.

“Hiya,” I greeted Daise, “how are you doing with all of this?”

“I am just so happy that Alina is here now. I think you will look after both of us very well. Won’t you?”

The pleading tone in Daise’s voice cut right through to my heart. “I will do whatever it takes,” I reassured her.

“Thank you,” she said and proceeded to almost smother me with kisses. “I am still too sore to do anything like we did last night, but I still want to do something for you,” she told me.

“There’s no need,” I told her, but my body’s reaction gave away the lie. Daise smiled and disappeared under the covers. I soon found my manhood engulfed in a wet, warm mouth. I didn’t last very long and groaned as she sucked my essence from me within a few minutes. Her head popped out a few seconds later and she had a self-satisfied smile on her face.

“How was that, nice?” Daise asked.

“Very nice. Thank you,” I assured her. I fell asleep shortly after that, lying on my back with her head cradled in the crook of my arm and her body tucked snugly into mine.