Butler Did It! (21 page)

“Mr. Levasseur has also made a very
generous contribution to our Reef Rehabilitation project.”
Levasseur waved his hand like a King accepting the accolades from a
crowd of serfs.

“No lack of ego there
,” thought
Butler, as Katherine tugged even more insistently. “What’s the
matter?” He asked.

Katharine turned astonished eyes on
him, “That was Levasseur?” She squeaked, swallowing hard. “Why did
you talk to him?”

“Just stirring the pot to see what kind
of scum floats to the top,” Matthew answered.

The MC went on to thank the ‘Save Our
Seas Foundation’ and several other sponsors who had contributed to
the week of events, which made up the SUBIOS festival. Matthew
looked over at Katherine, her nervous anticipation of the awards
announcement expressed itself in her delicately flushed face and
parted lips.

The evening darkened around them while
the awards were handed out. Later there would be a bonfire on the
beach and a demonstration of Moutia, the traditional dance of the
Seychelles, followed by an invitation to dance for those brave
enough or drunk enough to participate.

The tent lay in near darkness,
illuminated only by candles on the tables and brightly flaming
torches placed around the perimeter. Clips of the nominated videos
were being shown against a screen on the stage before the awarding
of the prize. The general gloom made it difficult for Matthew to
watch the activity at Levasseur’s table. After what seemed to
Katharine like hours, the category in which she was nominated; the
People’s Choice category, rolled around. For a few seconds her
image lit up the screen; the vertical wall of a wrecked ship
covered in a mass of brilliantly colored coral, with a loggerhead
turtle silhouetted against a marine blue halo of the sun shining
through the water in the background. When they announced, “Second
place goes to Katharine Annenberg of Durban, South Africa” Matthew
heard her sigh, a sound not quite like that of a collapsed soufflé,
but he was not taking his eyes off Levasseur. The haughty pirate
gave no sign of recognition at the name but the ice maidens whipped
around to stare at Katharine.

Confident that Joe and Jawid were
vigilantly watching, Matthew tore his attention away from Levasseur
for a moment. Turning to Katharine, he took her hand and smiled
regretfully.

“It was a beautiful image,” he said,
knowing there was nothing better he could say.

She smiled back, “Its okay,” she
muttered, suddenly blushing.

In the sudden glow of a bright
reflection from the video screen, Butler saw the two women get up,
leave the tent, and then return almost immediately.
This gets
more interesting
, he thought.
What are you two up
to?

When the evening finally broke up,
Matthew watched Levasseur leave in a black stretch limo with the
two Ice Maidens at his side.

Well, we seem to have gotten away
with it, at least for now
, he thought, finally turning his full
attention to Katharine. They strolled away from the bonfire and the
urgent beat of the dance music, leaving their two looming
bodyguards watching from a distance.

Letting the waves lap at their bare
feet, they walked slowly. Katharine sighed, “I knew it was an
outside chance that I’d win, but even so it’s hard not to be
disappointed.”

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, “still;
second place isn’t too bad, really.”

She smiled, “I appreciate the thought,
but you don’t have to make it better. I’m disappointed, but also
strangely relieved. Success would have meant I’d have to work
harder to do even better next time. Which is what I’ll do anyway,
of course.”

Butler turned away from the water,
wrapping his arm around Katharine’s bare shoulders. He looked up
the beach just in time to see the two blonde Ice Maidens moving
toward them, and noted that the two visible bodyguards were moving
to intercept them, and that Joe and Jawid further away were also on
an interception course.

Uh-oh, I thought those two left
already
. Butler’s full attention was on the women, so he didn’t
notice the slight splash of water that signaled the arrival of four
black clad frogmen from the waves behind him. He and Katharine were
quickly grabbed and hauled into the water before either one of them
had time to react.

Matthew struggled, fighting the diver
whose hand covered his nose and mouth. He twisted and shoved with
all his strength at the man whose grip was like steel but to no
avail. A second diver approached and he felt something bind his
legs and arms so that he could do nothing but thrash like a beached
Orca. A quick look told him that the same thing was being done to
Katharine.

The Ice Maidens were decoys
,
Butler silently cursed.
Damn! We fell for it
.

Terror and fury rose up in him as the
trussed couple was dragged away into deeper water. His blue eyes
met Katherine’s terrified brown ones just as dark water closed over
their heads. The hand over his mouth and nose never relented,
filling his panicked mind with a claustrophobic dread. Powerful
kicks from the diver’s flippers pulled Matthew and Katharine
helplessly against the pressure of the waves. Blue and white lights
flashed before Matthew’s eyes as he used up the last of his oxygen,
thrashing his body wildly to get free of the diver’s
grip.

<<>>

Joe and Jawid, along with the two burly
bodyguards piled into the Butler Project helicopter. They had
contacted the Pelican the moment they discovered Matthew and
Katharine had disappeared. Butler’s two bodyguards had watched as
Matthew and Katharine were dragged into the water, but by the time
they had run to the spot, all sign of them was gone. They dove
repeatedly into the water, but could find nothing in the darkness.
Their frantic search gave the Ice Maidens time to withdraw while
all of the attention was on the shoreline.

Trask’s voice came over their headsets;
“Search the area for boats anchored offshore, I’m sending over a
team of divers. In the meantime, we’ll try to determine where this
Levasseur might have taken them.”

Kobi, who was up and around for the
first time since being brought on board the Pelican, had joined
Tommy in the machine shop where he was tinkering with the engine of
the ill-fated Jet Ski. When word came in about the capture of
Matthew and Katharine, both men felt the urge for immediate
action.

“We’ll take out the dolphin,” Tommy
notified Trask, as he and Kobi suited up. “The two of us can
quickly cover the area north of the SUBIOS beach, if you’ll cover
the south. With our fuel reserve, I figure we can search for a
couple of hours or so.”

<<>>

The sopping wet end of a bath towel
came out of the darkness with considerable force and struck Matthew
Butler full in the face. The pain was excruciating for a brief
moment before becoming just another one of a dozen new pains that
were queuing up along the tormented synapses of his brain. He
blinked at a bright light in his eyes, unable to focus beyond it.
Smooth, distinctly soft hands lifted him off the floor and pushed
him into an amazingly comfortable couch. He tried to inventory his
body. His hands were bound behind his back with what felt like a
nylon zip tie. It was painfully tight and he knew by the sensation
that it would soon cause his hands to swell. Fortunately, his feet
were unfettered. Things were looking, if not up, at least
horizontal.

“Welcome back, Mister Butler.” A
refined voice with a clipped British accent offered the greeting.
“I hope you and Miss Annenberg have had a pleasant rest, because
it’s time to pay the plumber.”

“Its piper, asshole,” Butler muttered,
not quite under his breath. He risked a quick glance over to a
nearby chair where Katherine sat. Her body posture indicated that
she was alive, hurting, and frightened.

A buzz of conversation nearby generated
a correction. “I do hate tawdry colloquialisms. They have ruined a
once elegant language. Very well, I stand corrected. It’s time to
pay the piper.”

“Okay, you stand corrected. Now, who
the hell are you, and where are we?”

Stereo sniggering echoed in the
background.

The voice returned. “My name is Simon
Njuguna. As of four days ago I was the Charge-de-Affairs for the
President of Kenya,” the voice boasted. “Today, I am, by default,
the Acting Minister of Protocol. In a few months, according to my
plan, I will be the President-Elect of Kenya.”

Butler blinked, squinting at the shapes
standing before him. Slowly a vision of malevolence came into
focus; an elegantly dressed black man flanked by the two Ice
Maidens, Else and Eva.

Butler glanced around. They were in a
large, expensively decorated room. In front of him, a wall of
windows showed a stunning view of a small bay and the dark expanse
of ocean beyond. On the opposite wall was an enormous fish tank,
decorated with various kinds of coral and dominated by two large
Moray Eels, winding their way back and forth in a leisurely
dance.

“You are in the home of my good friend,
Alexander Levasseur.” Simon continued. “Mr. Levasseur has been
temporarily detained, but asked me to entertain the two of you in
his absence.”

“And, your idea of entertainment is to
kidnap us from a public beach?” Katherine erupted with volcanic
fury.

“No, my dear, my idea of entertainment
is to eliminate any little difficulties that prevent me from
achieving my goal.” Simon snapped back. “You two have become a
difficulty, and Mr. Levasseur and I have decided that you need to
be eliminated.”

“So, what you’re telling me,” Butler
translated, “is that you three lackeys are just waiting for the
boss to show.”

Simon took a deep breath, ran a hand
through his tight curly hair, and changed tactics.

“I think it’s time to give the both of
you a little history lesson.” With that foreboding statement, Simon
removed a leather bag from the drawer of an ornate teak
desk.

“Do you know what this is?” He grinned
with Cheshire ferocity, as he opened the bag and removed a dark
object.

Sudden inhales of breath, followed by
delighted cackling erupted from the two evil women. Coiled in
Simon’s fist was a short black whip.

“That’s a bullwhip!” Katherine gasped
in horror.

“Not quite. Bullwhips are made of
braided leather. As you can see, this one is very smooth,” the man
cooed, as he slid the whip across Katherine’s hand.

Katherine, in panic, jerked backward in
her seat only to be pushed back toward a leering Simon.

“This is a Sambok – a hellish
instrument of pain, once quite popular with Belgian Army Officers
in the Congo. It is made from the penis of a rhino, lovingly dried,
trimmed, oiled and stretched until it is about three feet long and
about as big around as your finger.” Simon arose from his chair and
leaned carelessly on the corner of the desk, all the while slowly
caressing the Sambok.

“It has been used for more than two
centuries to punish the deserving. As you might know, the Chinese
have a torture called the death of 10,000 cuts. Well, death by
Sambok is the African version of that torture. A good cut with a
Sambok usually requires stitches to seal the wound. One strong blow
across a bare back will easily cut flesh to the bone.”

Simon raised the Sambok over his head,
and with all his might brought it down on the padded leather arm of
the overstuffed chair in which Katharine sat. The leather tore
instantly, tossing shredded stuffing into the air. Butler could see
the lust arise in the eyes of the two bodyguards as the blow
struck.

“I have witnessed men crippled for life
after just a single session. Years ago, I watched Idi Amin
personally execute a would-be assassin with a Sambok in front of
several hundred witnesses. Of course, back then he wasn’t the fat
slob he eventually became. He was very strong and he put all the
power he could into each blow. The first ten strokes cut the man’s
back to ribbons. After 30 strokes, he was unconscious, and Amin
stopped the execution to revive the unfortunate. In due course, his
punishment continued. In the end the would-be assassin received 100
strokes, but he died long before the last stroke was
laid.”

Simon was now striking his palm with
the Sambok harder and harder.

“Those who have received the caress of
the Sambok, say that a single stroke is at first bitter cold and
then instantly hot. The cuts are ragged and tend to scar horribly.
Disfigurement is a certainty.” Simon smiled wickedly at Katherine.
Instead of striking his palm, he now went back to caressing the
Sambok.

Butler understood Simon’s psychological
manipulation of Katherine. It was obvious that he was trying to
draw out every bit of terror from her soul. He knew if he warned
Katherine not to succumb to Simon’s mental torture, both of them
would suffer physically for spoiling his fun.

“Over the years, I, too, have had to
use it to straighten out a wayward servant or two. You would be
amazed how obedient one becomes after just a short session with the
Sambok.”