7
I gazed up at Captain Scorpio. He was a gleaming black African, his features seemingly chiselled from polished ebony, bright predator's eyes, a flash of gleaming white teeth as he smiled at his victim. "It's my pleasure to meet you, Miss Eulalia Merida. I've heard so much about you!" My body wriggled spontaneously at his deep, resonant voice, like the growl of a lion holding down his prey, still alive but helpless under his claws. "And let me introduce you, young lady, to my special friend...."
Oh no, oh please God no! My muscles seized as I recognised what he drew from the instrument tray – the Thumbscrew! We girls had been shown at school a propaganda film from the MSC, in which a brave, strong young freedom fighter, who'd stood up with contemptuous disregard to the most cruel beatings and preliminary tortures, was reduced to a howling baby by that simple device.
Scorpio held it up for me to contemplate, a small, exquisitely fashioned apparatus of gleaming polished steel. Across the flat surface of its shoulder I observed the broken cross of the MSC delicately engraved, surrounded by a stylised tangle of bramble tendrils, such artistry devoted to such an instrument of cruelty!
He fitted it with small screws to the sill alongside my left thumb, then, using the pincers to hold me, he inserted my thumb into its aperture in readiness, screwing down the clamp. As soon as it started to press I jerked in fear and began to moan, he continued turning, tighter and tighter, till my thumb was firmly held, though in truth it was not really painful – yet! – it was just my terrified anticipation that tortured me.
A new Interrogator had arrived, when he started questioning I recognised his arrogant, sneering tone from the Interrogation Room. His questioning took me back to the café incident, when I first got myself arrested. We'd popped in for a quick cola after swimming, Sara, Averil and me. They were teasing me about my short skirt – "when the Contras take power, you'll have to be a slavegirl to dress like that!" I carelessly repeated mum's scornful comment, "If the MSP have nothing better to do than go round with rulers and mirrors checking girls' skirt-hems and knickers, it's time to disband 'em!"
Was it chance? That man with big ears reading his paper in the corner? The boy behind the counter wiping glasses? EvenSaraand Averil...? Somehow I'd said the wrong thing in the wrong place, it was enough. And now I was being questioned again and again on what my mum had taught me – that the Contras and their military allies wouldn't dare reintroduce slavery or impose restrictions on women, "They'd find they need women to run the world far more than women need them!" she said, "Our sisters have tasted freedom, that won't let themselves be enslaved again, or turned into gift-wrapped parcels just to gratify men!"
Mum was wrong, of course. When the Military took over and announced the new laws on women's dress and conduct, there was little protest. Feminist intellectuals, who'd been so vocal in the media before the coup, turned out to be a pretty small and powerless bunch – some made it across the border, many were rounded up, most just shut up and faded into the background. A few rowdy student demos were easily dealt with by the Riot Squad, after a handful of ringleaders had been captured, a gaggle of hotheads beaten to pulp, the rest were too drunk or stoned to bother. The Bear Cubs, the best, keenest girls from the Libertarian Youth Movement, were by far the most organised and disciplined, they gave the authorities real trouble for a few weeks, but the Night of Fire sent their hopes up in the smoke of roasting girl-flesh.
And so many women, the 'silent majority' as it turned out, were – or said they were – happy with the reforms. Snobbish women pleased to be clearly marked off from slave trash. Churchy women sanctimoniously praising the restoration of "Christian" standards. Parents and teachers glad to see some discipline and decency imposed on their daughters and pupils. Even younger women came forward to say how proud they were to wear the new 'cover-up' costumes and headscarves, how much better they felt not having to be exposed to the lustful eyes of men, not to be exploited by fashion freaks trying to dress them in less and less that cost more and more. Even many slavegirls seemed relieved to report back to their owners or hand themselves in to the Security Police.
So now here was I, daughter of a leading feminist, myself a former leader of the Libertarian Youth, stripped of my illusions as well as my clothes, stretched naked on the Torture Beam, my body oozing with the sperm of half a dozen men, learning the hard way some painful truths about being a woman!
But Mum was still alive, so was Laura somewhere – God knows where – I had to be careful not to say things that could screw things for them, or for any of their friends who are still free. So I soon had to fall silent and endure the Screw. The pain was beyond all imagining, as the small bone was slowly, relentlessly crushed tighter and tighter. Scorpio would begin each infliction by slightly loosening, then squeezing even tighter, watching with his blazing eyes the distortion of my face as I shrieked like a soul in Hell.
He didn't break the bone – quite – it could surely have withstood no more pressure, but there was another touch of sadistic ingenuity in the construction of the Screw. Down through the centre of the barrel of the Screw ran a slender metal rod with a sharp tip, on a spring, with a loop in the top. Scorpio had only to take the loop between his fingers, pull the rod up, pause for a cruel long moment, then release it so it pounded into the most tormented spot on my thumb like a nail being hammered. The squeal of agony that drew from me clearly delighted him, as did the way my whole body leapt up from the Beam in the shock of agony. And he could repeat it, again and again.
But he varied the torment, using also a small flamegun, a gas lighter, that he played on the tortured tips of my fingers and in between them, gripping them with the pincers so there was no escape from the merciless heat.
Soon the combined badgering of the Interrogator and unbearable suffering inflicted by Scorpio got me confused, almost delirious, my answers became contradictory, I seemed to be lying....
Punishment. "Heat the Irons, Rat!" Rat was still on duty, slaves work much longer shifts than Torturers! She fetched the rods from the cupboard, I heard the clang of metal, the hiss of the gas hob. Two Cadets came to hold me, one stood grasping my hips to control my pelvis, the other knelt and grabbed my thigh, one hand clutching at my groin. As the Torturer approached, I smelt the smouldering metal, the Cadets' hands squeezed my flesh tight. Aaaaargh! The glowing brand pressed my left buttock. Skilfully, the torturer knew exactly how to hold it so that the burning continued, my skin was heated enough to begin roasting without all feeling being lost. As he pulled it away, I could feel my flesh tugged, I was welded to the hot surface till he tore it clear.
Now the Cadets changed sides, and my right cheek experienced its share. After this, more was inscribed lower down on either side – I could not see, but guessed I'd been branded with the broken cross and lightning flash, and the acronyms MSC and SIS. It was another experience, yet another kind of pain, though the Cadets' squeezing hands restraining me as I jerked and squirmed in response had an arousing affect, the cruel heat in my bum mingled with a womanly warmth inside.
After a short break for beer, fetched by Rat, the session continued with the Thumbscrew moved to my right thumb. Still the questioning pounding on. I had to recall every feminist meeting I'd been to, as a student, as a schoolgirl, with friends (what were their names?), taken by Mum when I was a kid. Who was there, what did the say? What had I read in all the books, papers, pamphlets that filled our house? What had I distributed to other girls? The whole network of Libertarian Feminism was being painstakingly unravelled, I was being made to lead them along the various threads....
A second Punishment – surely they can't do any more to my bum? Oh yes they could. Again the Cadets took up position to hold me. I couldn't tell quite what the Torturer was doing for a few moments, then my nerves told me – he was slowly, carefully, slicing off a strip of my skin with a scalpel, literally flaying me alive. The pain was hideous, and far worse when they got Rat to wipe the wound with acid paste, then played the flamegun over them. I was screeching, gasping, choking in the smell of my own rump steak burning!
After this, another Confession, another series of crimes and been tricked or tortured into admitting. Scorpio had made me repeat my first Confession at the beginning of the session and after each Punishment. Now I had to recite it again with the new clauses added. So it would grow, Torture Session by Torture Session.
And after Confession, more rape. Rat had at last been relieved, a new slave-girl, a solemn-faced youngster with dark hair right down her back to her legs, hauled the bench out into position. I knew the procedure, lay back on the wood, using my feet to ease the pain on my brutalised bum, stretched out my arms so my wrists could be shackled to the ring. My fingers and thumbs hurt so fiercely I could no possibly grasp at the ring, they simply splayed and contracted continuously, trying to ease their ongoing suffering.
I gazed up at Scorpio, his lower body now bare, his hand fondling a magnificent penis, his grin gleaming triumphantly. I sighed, my shoulders moved slightly, I felt my breasts heave, I opened my thighs a little wider....