Death by Crucifixion (7)
“Suffering.”
MI6 SIS Building, Lambeth, London, UK
Roger Moore smoothed The Times newspaper out onto the polished surface of his walnut desk. He sighed. Nothing had been heard from Agent Novikova for over 48 hours, and whilst Ekaterina had said that she would be ‘going dark’, it still made him nervous.
But Belarus was in the International headlines today and he slipped on his glasses so that he could read.
GORKI, /TASS/. “With regards to integrating the treasury at Minsk within the framework of the Union State, then, whilst it is mutually beneficial, it will be necessary to normalise the situation inside Belarus first,” Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev told Russian mass media in an interview.
"As far as integration processes are concerned, I still assume that our common position is that integration [between Russia and Belaru]) is mutually beneficial, and that we should integrate more closely and unlock the whole potential of the Union State, including the elements of bringing our economies closer, integrating them on all types of issues, up to common currency," he said.
Meanwhile, Medvedev added that "… but now the situation there [in Belarus - TASS] is slightly different, so first it is necessary for them to stabilise the overall situation inside the country. However, I am confident that the integration movement should go ahead as there is no alternative," he noted.
"The Belarusian economy is fully geared towards the Russian economy, [Belarus] supplies much of its goods here [to Russia]," Deputy Chairman of the Security Council said, adding "this is why it is in the interests of the two countries to closely integrate the economies, take the most important regulation decisions."
His secure cell phone rang. It was the Foreign Secretary.
“Have you read the press today on the Belarusian issue?”
“Yes, Mister Foreign Secretary, I have and it gives me great cause for concern.”
“It should Roger, because we have reports from our sleepers in Minsk that a party of observers from Vitebsk State Medical University have been called to Pishchalauski Castle Prison, and as part of their study into the Medical pragmatics surrounding the Crucifixion of Christ, they have been invited to regard and report upon the crucifixion of a young Russian girl, who has been handed over by the SVR as a part of the currency deal.”
Moore felt sick to his stomach.
The Mound, Administration Block at Pishchalauski Castle Prison, Minsk, Belarus.
How long had it been? Had she slept? It didn't seem like it. How could she sleep when the pain never stops, always grows worse, constantly demanding a shifting of her body upon its nails.
First upwards, away from the sedile and then down to impale herself once more. Up. Then down. Each movement such agony that it stops the breath, blocks the voice, rends the mind!
Even those bastards watching her seemed restless and more than a little uncomfortable.
Kat ground her teeth. Hard! But it didn't help. Nothing helped.
Mother, Sister … her mind was becoming addled.
And the thirst! Building up. Drying her mouth. Cracking her lips. All she can think about is water. And the pain.
She prayed to God, but he was ignoring her.
Kat fought an exhausting and helpless battle to breathe when all she wanted to do was die … instead her body steadfastly retained an unwittingly conscious state.
Her eyes had closed for a second, a transition from real pain to illusionary pain and back. But that's all the relief she would get. Short lapses of consciousness before the body forced itself to rise and the inflamed nerves of bone and muscle screamed at her! Waking her up! Making her keenly alert, maddeningly aware of the agony!
Those bastards knew how to place the nails. Miss the arteries and veins. Hit the nerves. Minimal bleeding, maximum torment! The body will do the rest as it demands the right to breathe!
She hoped for madness to blunt her senses, send her adrift into delirium, a fantasy world where there is no pain or thirst. But madness wouldn't come.
Please let me die!
Weeping. Moaning. Praying. Shifting up. Shifting down. Simmering pain growing to white hot agony! Up again so her body can exhale. Down again to relieve the torment. Her back raw and haemorrhaging. Her hands and feet swelling angrily around the nails. Her tongue dry and swollen, her lips cracked and bleeding …
Through the heavy lids of her eyes, Kat saw the students being ushered further away, to a place not quite so close. An officer appeared at her feet with a bucket and a long pole. He stared up at her pussy for a while, then dipped a sponge into the bucket and attached it one end of the pole. He raised it up and touched it to her mouth.
Water! She lunged at it like a dog seizing a piece of meat, sucking desperately at it, leaning into it, pulling against the nails in spite of the pain! Until there was nothing left except the damp, vaguely salty taste of the sponge.
"More, please!" Her voice hardly audible. "Please!"
He laughed and moved off.
Her thirst slightly assuaged, she settled on the point of the sedile. She watched the flies and mosquitos accumulate on her body, drawn to the mixture of sweat and dried blood. Some were already at work burrowing into her exposed genitals. If she were not in so much pain elsewhere on her body, she would have been distressed at the many bites from these and other insects, and the stinging and the relentless itching left by their toxins. That she was helpless to discourage these tiny predators in any way was only part of her despair. If only she could die! Why wouldn't her body let her die?
But the pain kept her moving. Slowly up. Hold herself there to take some deep breaths until the agony soared beyond bearing. Then down for the infernal pain of the sedile in her ass. It was getting harder. Her strength was ebbing. She could no longer cry. Her eyes and mouth had dried as a part of her ravaging thirst.
It was hard to keep the insects out of her mouth as the poor girl’s efforts to exhale deteriorated to shallow grunts. She wept in bleak frustration, but there were no tears left and Kat realised that she was weakening fast. She could barely push herself up off the cruel point of the phallus, now lubricated by blood and secretions.
The endless up and down motion against the upright of the cross had torn much of the skin away from the rear of her body, coating the wood with her blood. Every new push against the nail in her feet was more painful than the last.
Another officer appeared.
"Hey, you, bitch!" he called up to her. "How'd you like some of this?" He dipped a cup into the bucket, raised it to his lips and sipped it noisily.
"Please," Kat croaked. "Water."
"Oh, you
do want some?" He tipped his head back, lifted the cup over his mouth and let water fall into it. Then made a show of licking his lips.
"Please!" she begged in a broken whisper. "Please, have pity."
He watched her writhe for a while, mouth open, gasping, pleading with her eyes.
"You're a fucking mess. You know that?" He wrinkled his nose in exaggerated distaste as he moved the cup down to his groin. Yulia heard the sound of his piss filling the cup. When he had finished, he saluted her, immersed his sponge into container, before pushing it on the pole towards her lips. Without hesitation Ekaterina grabbed it with her teeth, drew it into her mouth and greedily sucked every drop of urine out of it.
Then begged for more.
Up. Down. Up. Down.
Please let me die! Please.
Kat tried again to raise herself, but cannot. She's asphyxiating, struggling to exhale. Her arms and legs are numb, her vision blurred. The nails begin to feel distant. The group of observers is blurring.
But none of it matters any more. The pain is fading quickly. The suffering is over. Ekaterina had said goodbye to no-one. Not her parents, not her sister, nor her friends …
Her heart is doing desperate things to keep her alive. Stuttering its beat. Struggling to pump. But there's too little blood for it to work with.
Movement is impossible. She can't breathe.
The world sparkles in a gathering darkness.
Sounds swirl inward to a pinpoint.
Silence.
A blurred gloom.
Darkness.
A high-pitched buzzing.
Then noise. A commotion, but she cannot open her eyes to see.
Movement.
Men by her side and she is being pulled away. Hammers are clawing nails out of her body, but the barely alive girl is too numb to feel anymore pain …
Epilogue
The SAS had been deployed within the hour of Moore speaking with the Foreign Secretary. Russia had allowed two Gazelle AH1’s to fly in over Moscow and Smolensk, across the border and onto Minsk.
The President of the Russian Federation was appalled that such an atrocity could be going on so near to his borders and of course he would assist the poor girl’s recovery by allowing airspace. Whatever was happening in Minsk was nothing to do with Russia, and he, the President, was not aware of this unspeakable situation. The ultimate in plausible deniability.
The currency deal fell through. Belarus faced sanctions from the rest of the world, and even Russia had to back off for a little while.
The ‘Death by Crucifixion’ Programme was suspended and would never see the light of day again.
The girl with the long dark hair and the guy with the unkempt hair never did get to fuck.
Ekaterina Novikova was rescued at the eleventh hour, in just the nick of time. The Emergency Medical facilities on board the Gazelles kept her alive until they reached the UK, whereupon, under heavy security, she was immediately taken into the care of the excellent Wellington Hospital in St John’s Wood.
Roger Moore breathed a huge sigh of relief, whilst Comrade Colonel Tretykov seethed. He hadn’t known that his Agent had been ‘turned’. Yemanov, the handler, was recalled to Moscow and never heard of again. A similar fate befell Julian Sands, Head of Derivatives at the Bank of Moscow
(see The Secrets that we Keep).
******
The Wellington Hospital, St John's Wood, London
Ekaterina had been comatose in the Intensive Care/High Dependency ward of the Wellington for two weeks when her eyes finally flickered open and she the faint outline of a benevolently smiling face appeared, looming over her.
“Hello my angel,” said the benevolent voice, in a warm comforting tone, “You’re back with us.”
Kat could barely see. Her mouth and throat had ceased to work, but she managed a weak smile … it was enough.
FIN
And so, the latest chapter in the adventurous life of Agent Ekaterina Novikova comes to a close. Doctors, nurses and surgeons, the best the UK has to offer will work on her, but how much of her sharp mind and beautiful body they can save remains to be seen.
But I am too attached to let Kat go now, and so both she and the writer will take a few weeks off to replenish the creative juices. What will be left of our gorgeous girl remains in the hands of the medics, but, in some way, shape or form … she will be back!
Thank you for your tremendous support, it is very, very much appreciated.