International Affairs 9

Before Linh could raise or even turn her head, she felt a sharp pain to her neck and everything went black. The tall woman with the black hood mask lowered the unconscious Asian to the ground and nodded complacently.

»Seems I still have the touch!«

She looked for her colleague who still was standing by the door. Like her, she was wearing a black hood mask they had put on shortly before entering the garage some minutes after they had seen the man had left.

The smaller woman stood there, one hand at the door frame, the other massaging her temple, as if she was suffering from a migraine attack.

»Maybe, it`s the air in here!«, she thought. The smell of sweat was overwhelming, since the garage`s only window was closed and had been during the girls` forced exercises. She let her eyes wander over the four helpless women, fighting down the remnants of compassion she still had for these.

On one bed, a tallish woman with shoulder-length dark blonde hair was tied, naked like the other captives. Her ankles were cuffed and fixed to the foot end of the bed and it seemed that her wrists were tied behind her back. A scarf around her neck held her to the bed`s upper end. She was blindfolded by a sleeping mask and the lower half of her face was covered by several rounds of silver duct tape. The woman slightly squirmed and seemed to have noticed that something was going on, since she seemed rather alert than frightened.

On the adjacent bed, a slender, tallish blonde with long hair was tied identically, but a cruelty had been added: a clothespin was biting into each of her nipples. The girl squirmed stronger and let out high-pitched mews through her gag.

The masked woman looked at the air mattress on the floor where two more women were tied face to face, forced to embrace each other with their wrists tied behind the other`s back. The women were also hogtied and from what she could see, they were wearing the same sleeping masks and were gagged with rounds of tape, too. The smaller, redheaded one seemed to wriggle whilst the other one, a tallish woman with a brown bob, seemed less energetically.

Her colleague still stood by the door and she was about to say something when she shook her head and nodded towards her.

»It`s okay, just a kind of déjà vu!«

She had spoken in a normal tone and it was as if someone had thrown a stone into a beehive, since now, the four captives raised a cacophony of humming and mewing, demanding to be freed from what they thought to be rescuers. The taller woman sadly nodded.

»I can absolutely understand you, Ladies, but if our plan shall work out, you will have to wait a little longer!«, she thought by herself. Then, she sneaked over to her colleague and whispered:

»Which one?«

The smaller woman looked over the four helpless women and again, the other could sense that she was suffering more from what she saw than she wanted to show. But as usual, she kept her tough mask and pointed at Katja. The tall woman nodded.

»Right. Get the bag, I start taking care of that one!«, she hissed, pointing at Linh that was lying unconscious at the floor.

***

»All right, I am back! Have I missed anything?«, Sonja Schmidt asked her colleague as she sat down on the passenger`s seat, balancing a tray with two paper mugs and a bag from the bakery where she ahd just been.

»In the five minutes you have been away, three radio messages came in: two bank robberies and a terrorist attack at the main station«, Leonie Konrad answered and reached for one of the coffee mugs.

Sonja scoffed. Since the government had sent them to Mainz, they were convinced that the city either had the crime rate of a small village or that their older colleagues kept them away from all real police work. Of course, the two 18 year olds still were police candidates who were absolving their three months of practical service before going back to the academy to do their final exams. So, it was okay they were kept from the line of fire. But neither Leonie nor she had attended the police forces to do paper work or to prepare coffee at the police station. It was almost a highlight that today, they had been sent on a patrol tour on their own – in the suburbs and with strict orders to inform the headquarters before they even controlled someone`s ID.

»Oh, some clichés have to be kept alive!«, Leonie said, distracting Sonja from her self-pity. She had opened the bag and taken one of the two donuts Sonja had bought for them. With a theatrical sigh, she added:

»So, I will always remain the pretty blonde`s fat colleague!«

Taking her own donut, Sonja smiled and shook her head. They were best friends since school, but somehow, one had always slightly envied the other`s looks. Sonja, measuring just 5`2``, was also petite, but very sportive whilst Leonie was four inches taller and buxom. So, Sonja sometimes wished she had Leonie`s impressive cleavage whilst the auburn-haired Leonie envied Sonja`s flat, trimmed tummy.

They sipped from their coffee when Sonja pointed at white camper some 150 yards away. She had noticed the car or rather its owner before, since he had went into the car, but left it a few minutes later and now was waiting beside it for some 15 minutes now.

»What do you think? Is he a drug dealer or just selling a stolen car?«

Just to kill boredom, the two colleagues sometimes invented fictional criminal backgrounds of people they saw. Leonie giggled:

»I`d rather say he is providing illegal immigrants with weapons!«

At that moment, someone approached the man waiting by the camper. It was a young man with dark brown hair, wearing a shirt and jacket, but no tie and carrying a small leather suitcase. They shook hands and now, the newly arrived went inside the van whilst the other was leaning in the open door, obviously talking to the other.

After some minutes, the man in the jacket left the car and after a few more words, they again shook hands. Then, he reached inside his suitcase and handed the other an envelope whilst the owner of the camper gave him in exchange what obviously were the keys and the car papers. A minute later, the man entered the camper and drove off.

Sonja nearly spilled her coffee when Leonie started the car.

»What are you doing? You do not really believe that these are weapon traders or drug dealers, do you?«

Leonie reached for her sunglasses, put them on and drove from the parking lot, following the camper.

»Perhaps, this was just a usual private car sale. However, two things made me think!«

Sonja decided to join the game. She also put on her sunglasses, even checked her gun and asked:

»So, what was it, Sherlock?«

»Elementary, Watson! First: he just looked inside the car and then immediately bought it. I mean, who would buy a used car without a test drive?«

Sonja shrugged.

»Maybe, he has already done so and today, he just came to pay and fetch the car?«

However, Sonja now was intrigued, too. If that was true, why had he looked inside as if he had never before seen the car? Leonie smiled and continued:

»Second: he just reached inside his suitcase and handed him the money. So, he didn`t even try to haggle. I say, instead of sitting our butts flat, we could also do a routine check!«

Sonja nodded, looking at the camper some 100 yards in front of them. She thought if they should inform the headquarters, but decided against it. There was a chance of some 99.9 % that this had just been a normal, albeit a bit hasty, car sale and so, there was no need to make any fuss about it.

She opened the window and put out her elbow. At least, this would kill some time until their quitting time.

***

Cordelia still couldn`t believe what just had happened. Since Linh and Alex had tied her and Tina up, she had been all too busy in coping with the latest humiliations they had done to them: again, she was naked and tied to another woman in the same state, but this time, they were tied front to front. She felt Tina`s voluptuous boobs press against her whilst her own breast rubbed against the redhead`s cleavage. Down below, the way their crotch ropes were tied to the other`s wrists caused their pubic mounds to grind against each other, though the terrible thing was the crotch rope itself. Each time Cordelia moved a bit or even shifted her position on the mattress, the tight rope sent strays of pain through her womb. If she fought her bonds and thrashed around, it tore so hard her eyes watered under her blindfold and she groaned through her vile gag.

The gag competed with the crotch rope about being the most horrific part of Cordelia`s current predicament. Ulinka`s panties not only filled her oral cavity, they were the used underwear of another woman! Cordelia had to fight down the mere thought and she shuddered from disgust from the taste of sweat.

»It`s just sweat!«, she told herself and indeed, the panties were soaked with it, since Tina had been forced to wear the panties during their exercises. But before, Ulinka had worn them for two days and Cordelia knew that the vile taste was also something else. She retched and knew that the urge to gulp would sooner or later force her to swallow some of her saliva, mixed with-

»Uuuhhmmmmm!«

She groaned and cringed. A pull on her crotch rope reminded her that panicking wouldn`t be a good idea and she forced herself to calm down, hyperventilating through her nose, when she suddenly heard steps and little later, the voice of a woman:

»It`s okay, just a kind of déjà vu!«

Of course, the presence of someone new had caused all four damsels to squirm and mmph, fired by the hope that now, they would be rescued. However, nothing had happened – or rather, nothing that had brought them closer to freedom.

A few seconds after some indistinct whispering of the unknown persons – Cordelia was almost sure it had been two women – the high-pitched mews of Katja suddenly had stopped. Some rustling had followed, accompanied by the gagged protests of the remaining captives and then, the steps had told them that the unknown women had left, leaving them as they were, naked, bound and gagged.

Of course, they had fumed and screamed through their gags, but the line of fire between her legs had quickly persuaded Cordelia not to struggle too much and to her relief, Tina also stopped fighting her bonds. Now, they lay panting and Cordelia now heard another sound: Ulinka`s energetic aches were now accompanied by other moans. Obviously, there were still four bound and gagged women inside the garage.

»It must be Linh! But why have they taken Katja instead of freeing us? Or, if they are rival criminals, why did they take just her and leave us behind?«

Her overwrought mind quickly developed several explanations; however, none of these was somehow soothing.

Then, she again heard the sound of an opening door.

***

Alex still was coping with handling the camper, despite only driving some 35 mph and only a few other cars around. But though he was quite a good driver and had even accustomed to driving on the right side, he wasn`t used to the camper`s size and to having no inside rearview mirror. He managed to get to the paved parking lot in front of their garage without damaging or hurting anything, but his concentration on the road in front of him meant that he still hadn`t recognized the police car following him. Without looking around, Alex entered the garage through the side door.

»Now, that`s strange, too!«, Leonie said. She had resisted the urge to put on the horns and the blue lights and instead just followed the camper according to traffic rules. Sonja pushed her sunglasses up her forehead and asked:

»What`s strange? That he has kept to the speed limit or that he now has parked on a parking lot?«

Still, she was sure that the most illegal thing they had observed was that the camper`s first aid equipment perhaps had exceeded its expiry date. However, Leonie now again went into her »Sherlock-mode«:

»First: why does he not stop in front of his house, but here? Doesn`t he want to show it to his family or at least impress his neighbors?«

Leonie`s »here« was referring to the row of single and double garages that were some 200 yards away from a few apartment buildings to which they obviously belonged. Sonya oppressed a yawn.

»Perhaps, he has no family and hates his neighbors. Leonie, we-«

»Second«, Leonie interrupted her colleague, », why does he bring the camper to the garage anyway? It`s too high to get it inside!«

There was an excellent explanation for that, too: maybe, the man had his gas bottles or other camping equipment stowed there. But when Leonie left the car, she followed her, even putting her sunglasses back in place. When they had bought these, they had both worn their uniforms and checked carefully which looked the coolest. If they had boring routines to do, the least they could do was to look cool.

»All right, give me backup, Officer Schmidt!«

»Aye, Officer Konrad!«

Since they were on public ground, they didn`t pull their guns, but they leaned back to back and raised their hands with outstretched index fingers, posing like »Charlie`s Angels«. Then, they looked around if anyone had seen them before they slowly approached the camper.

***

»Hello, Ladies, I am back ho-«

Alex`s mockingly friendly words died on his lips as he suddenly realized that something had happened. First, he saw that Linh wasn`t inside the garage. Of course, she could have been inside the toilet box, but then, he saw her dress draped over the folding chair.

Then, for the fraction of a second, he thought that Katja had been replaced by a humanoid alien.

On the second bed, another naked woman had been tied, but where her face should have been, he noticed something with unnaturally big eyes. It took Alex a few seconds to realize that the woman had a white pair of panties pulled over her head and was looking at him through the leg openings.

»What the-«

He stumbled closer and now, he could see that he knew this woman: her medium-sized tight breasts, her flat tummy, the small tattoo on her shaved pubic mound. It were Vietnamese characters, but she had once told him it meant »Enter those who dare!«.

In other words, the woman was Linh. She was tied up exactly like Katja had been, together with the clothespins on her nipples. However, whoever had done this to her had pulled a pair of panties over her head and fixed them with a round of tape and also had applied a tight crotch rope to her. From the way the rope slightly tightened and loosened, Alex guessed it was fixed to her wrists.

»Mph!«

With an indignant grunt, Linh snapped him out of his torpor. He went to her and asked:

»Linh! What the fuck happened?«

»Hrrrrrmmm!«

The eyes inside the leg openings now glance angrily and Alex wanted to reach for her gag when suddenly, there was a knock at the side door. Startled, Alex froze in motion, not sure whether to continue to free Linh or to head for the door.

»Who is it?«, he croaked.

»Police!«, a female voice answered.

Minutes ago, the two policewomen had walked around the camper and even looked inside through the windows. It looked like an ordinary camper, a bit shabby perhaps, but nevertheless harmless.

Sonja had checked the license plate and it had told them the car belonged to a Werner Schuster, 54, living exactly where they had seen the young man buying the camper. Obviously, it was still registered under Schuster`s name and the new owner would not be able to change that before the next morning.

»So, let`s just tell Mr. John Doe that he has to register the car a.s.a.p., otherwise, Mr. Schuster might get problems with his insurance company. He sure knows that, but at least, we then know that we have wasted petrol for nothing!«

Obviously a bit disappointed that there hadn`t been some bazookas or at least bags of weed lying on the passenger seat, Leonie nodded and they approached the side door.

Inside, Alex was just considering which option would be the best: jumping to the door and trying to turn the keys before the police entered; get into his car and break through the garage door; or trying to get rid of the policewoman at the door, hoping she would not recognize the moaning of the gagged damsels that now had raised again.

He staggered towards the door when it suddenly flew open. In stepped two young women in police uniforms, a small blonde followed by a taller auburn haired. They hadn`t drawn their guns; instead, their jaws dropped at the sight of the four naked, bound and gagged women inside the garage.

»Eh, me, I-«

Alex tried to stammer something coherent, though he knew that they would not fall for any explanation he could give them. Before he could do anything, the blonde had shaken off her rigidity and drew her gun.

»Freeze!«, she shouted, »Hands up and lean to the wall!«

Still feeling like this was all a bad dream, Alex obeyed. He was doomed! Not only would they end up in prison for years; Daniel had seemed friendly, but sure, the organization would not appreciate if he or Linh would spill the beans about a white slavery ring operating in Germany.

Before he could further imagine his dark future, a terrible gurgling sound drowned out the moaning and grunting of the excited girls: Linh was twitching and shaking her head and again producing that horrifying retching sound. Alex wanted to get to her, but the blonde raised her gun.

»Stay where you are or you are dead meat! Leonie, look for that woman, she`s choking!«

Quickly, the other policewoman jumped to the bed and began to rip on the tape that held the panties over Linh`s head. The Asian twisted her eyes and pulled on her chains.

»Easy, I will have you free in a second!«

Now, the other damsels increased their moaning, too, but since none of them seemed to be in imminent danger, Leonie kept on unwinding the tape from the Asian`s mouth. Besides, she could only help one at a time anyway.

Ignoring the mewing around, she removed the tape and pulled a pink wad of cloth from the woman`s mouth. Still, she croaked and seemed to have trouble breathing. Hastily, Leonie looked at her and saw the scarf tied around her neck. With fluttering fingers, she began working on the knots to loosen it .

»You bastard!«, Sonja hissed, still keeping her gun pointed at Alex. She was feeling overwhelmed by what they had just discovered and her fingers cramped around the gun`s handle. What had begun as a routine check had turned out to be a major crime!

Once Linh had been released from the scarf, she sat up, sobbing. Now, the other three captives were thrashing around and screaming through their gags. Leonie looked around in panic, not knowing where to begin. Suddenly, the Asian spoke:

»Scissors on table! Free me, I help!«

Even in his current excitement, Alex noticed that Linh had spoken in broken German and with a strong accent. He knew that Linh`s German was far better than his and so, he wondered if she perhaps had a plan.

Leonie had found the scissors and nearly cut Linh`s toes when she removed the cable binder fixing her ankle ties to the bed. Then, she also cut Linh`s crotch rope, avoiding to touch her anywhere but her waist. In the corner of his eye, Alex could see that when the auburn haired policewoman had turned her back towards her, Linh quickly brought her hands to her front. He tensed his muscles.

With a quick move and still cuffed at wrists and ankles, Linh attacked Leonie from behind, slinging the chain of her handcuffs around her head. Leonie shrieked and was pulled backwards. When Sonja got distracted from that, Alex saw his chance: he slammed both his hands on her wrists, causing Sonja to drop the gun.

Sonja was young, but she was trained in martial arts. So, she spun around and tried to kick Alex`s into his balls, but slightly missed, only hitting the top of his thigh. He grunted, but though he staggered, he still managed to hit her, pushing the petite woman back a little.

Meanwhile, Leonie was trying to reach Linh to get her from her back. However, she had instinctively put her fingers between her throat and the chain and though this prevented her from getting severely choked, her fingers now were trapped. Linh, flexible as she was, had brought her knees to Leonie`s sides, squeezing her ribs. However, she knew that sooner or later, the policewoman would win.

Linh looked at Alex who was trying to grab the blonde, but she managed to avoid his grip. With a curse, Linh decided to try an all-or-nothing-move. She leaned backwards, increasing the pressure on Leonie`s throat. Desperately, the policewoman held against it. Immediately, Linh let her go and was pulled forward, over Leonie`s back and head. Linh landed on the ground, rolled gracefully and before the policewoman was standing straight again, Linh had grabbed the gun.

»Now, stop that and raise your hands!«

Leonie froze in motion and Alex and Sonja who still were engaged in their brawl stopped, too. For a moment, it seemed that the blonde would try to attack Alex anyway, but now, Linh repeated her thread and managed to get back to her feet without letting Leonie out of her eyes. Though she was still naked and cuffed and one of the clothespins still was biting into her left nipple, she suddenly seemed to have everything under control.

»Alex, stop pretending to fight with that girl and get her colleague`s gun!«

He obeyed and now, with a weapon in his hand, he regained his confidence, too. Linh ordered the two policewomen:

»Get side by side and kneel, hands above your heads!«

The two obeyed, Leonie still puzzled by the rapid turns of events, Sonja fuming with oppressed anger. In the background, Cordelia, Ulinka and Tina still were squirming and moaning. Linh raised her voice and said:

»Calm down, Ladies, everything`s under control!«

That was far from being true, but at least, the mewing and grunting ceased. Now, Linh ordered:

»Alex, look outside and see if someone has noticed our little encounter!«

Alex did as told and returned a minute later.

»Everything`s quiet! Of course, there`s still the car of these two!«

Linh nodded.

»We have to decide what to do with them anyway!«

Leonie and Sonja, still kneeling and with their hands on their heads, exchanged a worried look.

***

Katja was trembling with fear. Her situation had changed, but definitely not for the better.

After the short commotion that had followed the appearance of the two strange women, she had shortly hoped that this meant rescue, and when she had felt that somebody had sat on her bed and bent over her, she had anticipated getting freed from her gag and blindfold the next moment.

Instead, however, a finger had brushed over her neck. Before she even could have protested, Katja had felt a sharp pain and then, she had lost consciousness.

When Katja had awoken, she had first felt that she still was bound, gagged and blindfolded. A faint tingling in her nipples told her that at least the terrible clothespins had been removed, but that was the only improvement in her plight.

She still sported the cuffs, but now, they had been connected behind her back, putting her into a hogtie. Her blindfold had been replaced by some sticky tape and in addition, Katja felt that she had been put into some sack or large bag.

She still had to chew on her old gag, however. The day before, Katja would have sworn that being gagged with her used panties was the worst thing that could have been done to her. However, being gagged with another woman`s panties definitely topped that! Katja whimpered from both the humiliation and the awful taste in her mouth.

She had realized that they were driving in a car. The surface she was lying upon seemed soft, obviously, she had been placed on the backseat rather than the trunk. First, Katja had thought that she was suffering from the aftereffects of some drugs, since she could only hear indistinct and faint sounds. Then, she had realized that her ears had been plugged. The plugs did not cut off all noise, but they made it hard to understand anything of what her captors were talking about.

Had Katja been able to hear properly, she would have noticed that the two women spoke English – and that the smaller one, though fluent, had a recognizable German accent.  The two had removed their hood masks and now, even their black sportswear, consisting of leggings and sweaters, just seemed casual.

The car was driven by the smaller woman, a slender person in her mid-thirties. She had her shoulder-length brown curls tied to a ponytail and she seemed calm, though from time to time, she looked into the rear mirror with concern, checking both for potential followers and the slightly moving bag on the backseat.

The woman on the passenger seat also sported a ponytail and shoulder-length hair, but that was where similarities ended. Her hair was fair blonde, a sign of her Scandinavian ancestors, though she had been born and raised in Texas. She was tall, one inch shy of six feet, and the sweater could not hide her big boobs. She was well-trained and athletic and indeed, she held a black belt in Karate – one of the qualifications that had gained her her current position. One of the others was the ability of being ruthless if necessary, something she shared with her partner.

»Sometimes, you`ve gotta break some eggs to make an omelet«, she said to herself, but loud enough for the other woman to hear. She turned her head towards her, showing an expression of hidden concern.

»I am okay, Nancy! It was my idea, after all. And now, we will do it! Even if it means we have to do things like – that!«

She pointed towards the squirming bag with her chin. As on keyword, Katja let out a louder whimper, causing the smaller woman to let out a fluttering breath.

She would have loved to free Katja or at least to tell her what this was all about. But to make their plan work, it had to look real. Nancy grimaced.

»I don`t want to seem indiscreet, but in that horrible garage, you said something about a déjà vu. Have you – have you experienced such things before, Jeannie?«

Though she hated that nickname, she forced herself to smile. She knew that Nancy was a tough woman and she appreciated her slightly clumsy attempt of showing compassion.

»So to say!«, she answered enigmatically and then concentrated on the road in a way that Nancy knew she wouldn`t tell more, at least not now.

Her partner had indeed experienced similar scenes before. She had, so to say, first-hand experience. Seeing those helpless women had triggered some flashbacks of those experiences. Being naked in front of strangers. The humiliation of getting bound and gagged and not being able to free herself, thus leading to further embarrassment when she had been found. And other horrors she had so far pushed away and that even these poor women had been spared.

However, what she and Nancy were doing right now was part of her healing process! Three years ago, she had been fully rehabilitated and her colleagues back then even had managed to keep most of the – spicy details out of the media. However, if her and Nancy`s plan would succeed, she would be able to rehabilitate herself in front of her strongest critic: herself.

She left the street and the car followed a path that tested the car`s suspension to the limits. After some half a mile, it led into the forest and then, after some more twists and turns, they were standing in front of a remote hut. Officially, it belonged to the local forest office, but some weeks ago, she and Nancy had broken the door, changed the locks and also added heavy additional latches to both the door and the lids of the only window.

She got out of the car and began to work on the locks whilst Nancy took the bag with the squirming and moaning Katja in it. Meanwhile, her colleague had opened the door and they entered. Nancy switched on the electric light, powered by a strong battery, and quite unceremoniously dumped the bag on the floor. The other woman handed her the bunch of keys and said:

»All right, Nancy, you know what to do if something unpredictable happens. I will now get back to my other life and see if our enemies have started to make their first mistakes.«

Nancy just nodded and closed the door after her partner.

***