Being an investigative journalist came with its fair share of risks. Kate Bremen knew this better than most. One did not win awards for reporting and journalism by playing it safe, after all, and in the past five years she’d been working for the Daily Standard, the ashen-haired beauty had risked a great deal in her relentless pursuit of the truth. And it wasn’t just the usual concerns about ruffling the feathers of the rich and powerful or pissing off sponsors either. More than once, Kate had found herself bound and gagged for her troubles, held prisoner in some foetid lair, or hauled away to be sold as a sex slave, or staring down the proverbial barrel of a deathtrap arranged by the men she was nosing around. And while it was good to know her investigative instincts were sharp enough to uncover these villains, she could certainly do without the experience of being kidnapped, not to mention the condescending lectures she’d inevitably get from the police and her editor upon escaping.
Tonight was no different. Fred Pinto, the blustery, arrogant and thoroughly self-serving mayor, ever eager to cozy up with the city’s well-to-do, was hosting his annual “Fred Feast” gala, an occasion as much about conducting backroom deals from the convenience of his own mansion and leering at beautiful women in formal wear as it was displaying his magnanimity to the voting public. With so many people attending, it was easy for Kate to slip inside, her red silk cheongsam helping her blend in perfectly with the other guests in their finery. Likewise, the prospect of trespassing charges was a risk worth tempting for the chance to snoop about Pinto’s office, for his corruption was a cancer eating away at their city, one that needed to be exposed and ultimately excised if things were ever to improve.
And so it was that the beautiful reporter slipped her way into Pinto’s office, a hundred possible exposés dancing in her head as she looked through his computer and found all the evidence she’d ever need. She was still inwardly debating what story to break first when the wet cloth was suddenly slapped over her nose and mouth, the nauseating and regrettably familiar stench of chloroform overpowering her in seconds to leave her in darkness. When she did finally awake, head still fuzzy in a way that she had become painfully accustomed to, the gaudy décor of the Pinto family estate had been replaced with a more industrial environment, gilded columns and endless portraits of the fat mayor exchanged for rusted machinery and scrabbling of rats across broken glass. She’d been taken to an abandoned factory, one of the many that littered the city after decades of deindustrialization, and laid down on a rubber conveyer belt, the cold breeze caressing her bare arms and the pale light of the moon proof she’d been out for hours.
Naturally in that time, she’d been tied up. Stout ropes encircled her upper body beneath her breasts, keeping her arms secured behind her back at her wrists and elbows, and binding her legs at the ankles and thighs, the coils snug against her dark nylon pantyhose. More still kept her from rolling off the conveyer, fastened tight about her existing bonds to anchor her in place. “Mmmmppggghh!” And of course she’d been gagged, the thick cloth balled up into her mouth held in place by a second length cleaving her pretty pink lips. “Mmmmppggghhh!” she cried out again into the darkness, pale features red with anger with frustration. Why does this always have to happen to me? “MMMPPPGGGHHH!”
And then Kate twisted about as a cruel laugh sounded behind her, and Mayor Pinto himself stepped from the shadows, piggish eyes staring balefully at the beautiful reporter. “That’s the risk you run when you snoop around, Ms. Bremen. Sometimes you get punished for it. Are you enjoying your evening?”
“Mmmmppggghhhhh! Nnnnggghhh!” Kate snapped back. “MMMMPPPPGGGHHHH!”
Fat fingers threaded their way through her short ashen hair, and Kate twisted away with a growl of disgust. “It’s a shame such a pretty thing like you met such an untimely end. Seems not all the equipment in these old factories was properly dismantled, but to suffer an industrial accident like that?” With a start, Kate realized what lay at the end of the conveyer belt, spurring a fresh burst of struggles. “It’s too risky to leave you alive, Ms. Bremen. You’ve already proven too great a nuisance, and I won’t have my re-election campaign thwarted because you dared pry into my business. Of course…” His hand shifted, tracing a path down her long, pantyhose-clad legs and making the reporter’s stomach churn. “I suppose I could be persuaded otherwise…”
Blue eyes flared angrily, Kate’s use of the efficacious word obvious even through her gag, and she was rewarded by the mayor’s face going red with anger. “That’s what I get trying to talk sense to stupid bitches,” he snarled, wobbling over to a nearby control panel and throwing a lever. The conveyer belt gave a sudden jerk beneath her, while at the end, metal grinders sparked to life, their rusted teeth whirring against one another with harsh shrieks. “Maybe this will teach you the risks of sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong!”
The mayor scuttled away into the night, doubtless to give himself some plausible deniability, and in his absence, Kate thrashed and bucked in her bondage, lithe figure straining at the ropes. As she watched the grinding metal teeth come steadily nearer and nearer, a single thought managed to cut through her growing terror.
God, I need to find a job with less risk!