Preface

In The Penitent, Kathy Ryan, a young, wealthy American widow, submits to the will of Ezra Stein. Stein is more than twice her age, grossly fat, ugly, but brilliant. After Stein subjects her to a number of degrading obscenities, she agrees to marry his retarded and deformed stepson, Richie. Richie vulgarly abuses and humiliates her before her friends and in public. A witness to her debasement is Mr. Satomi, one of the world's most powerful men. Kathy becomes unexplainably attracted to Satomi.

 

After she signs a contract to become Satomi's concubine, she is handed over to Abul, the chauffeur of the rich Japanese. Abul is a ruthless thug whose hatred of American women is pathological. He defiles and torments Kathy in her own home. She escapes to London, but is apprehended and brought to Satomi's "Training Facility" in Northern Pakistan. There, she is horrified to discover that her training Master is to be the brutal Abul.

 

This book begins with the training of Kathy Ryan and ends with her trial.

CHAPTER ONE - The Gift Withheld

 

Kathy, naked under her caftan, sat in the stretch Lincoln between the two Asian women who also wore the traditional Muslim dress. Except for the upper halves of their faces, all three women were completely covered from their heads to their sandals. A few minutes after the limousine had pulled away from the cinder block building next to the airport's single landing strip, the car phone rang. Miko, the older Japanese woman, picked up the phone. She was surprised to hear Abul's voice. "How many needles were prepared with the drug?" he asked.

"You wished for her to show you great respect before your friends. We instructed her about what she was to say and do. She is ready to obey you without question. In order to do this, we prepared six needles," Miko answered.

"Too many," Abul said.

"I think with less she would not have done it...I mean, she would have resisted."

"But with six?"

"It is true that she's been heavily drugged and that I have put her mind in a place where she can do little except what I tell her to do. She will say that she wants the gift. She may even accept it."

"Well, there's been a goddamn change!" Abul shouted. "Satomi sent new instructions and Madam Khe agrees. There's to be no gift."

"That is bad. We work hard. I think she is ready," Miko said.

"Put her on," Abul ordered. Miko handed Kathy the phone and lifted the black cotton veil so the young woman could speak. "Rich American widow?" Abul asked.

Even Miko's drugs could not insulate Kathy from the fear that swept over her at the sound of his voice. "Yes," she said softly.

"You wish to honor me in the way we spoke of?"

She did not answer immediately. She stared ahead, unblinking, then a shudder shook her body. She forced the hateful image of him from her mind. "Yes," she whispered.

"You will be disappointed to hear it, but there will be no gift, at least not today." Kathy relaxed slightly. "But you will serve me and my friends in other ways, and you will show that you are thankful to be permitted to give such service."

"I will be grateful. I will do whatever pleases you," she paused, glancing at Miko who nodded. "Master," Kathy added.

"To obey me and please me in all things...that is the only reason you have been sent here to the Facility."

"I know, Master."

"And when you are brought to me?"

Kathy hesitated, closing her eyes, she said as if in a hypnotic state, "I will kneel before you, Master, and bow my head to kiss your feet."

"And then?"

"I will thank you."

"Miko has instructed you in the proper method. Unless I order otherwise, you will always greet me in this way."

"Yes, Master, always."

"When you arrive at the Facility, Miko and Mi Jong will tell you how you are to be used and they will prepare you."

"Thank you, Master," Kathy said. She handed the receiver to Miko who took it, listened, nodded once, and returned it to the holder. Kathy sat rigidly between the two women and stared straight ahead. They drove on in silence.

The Facility was a low single story complex built against the base of a treeless mountain. Before leaving the limousine, Kathy was blindfolded. Miko and Mi Jong led her through the iron-gated entrance. A heavy oak door swung open as the three women approached. Miko spoke to someone, and the door closed behind them.

In another part of the Facility, an angry Abul confronted Madam Khe, a thin Chinese woman who, although she could easily have passed for forty, was in her mid-fifties. She made a striking appearance: porcelain skin, high cheekbones, jet black hair pulled back from her face, piercing green eyes, high arched eyebrows, a wide mouth and perfect teeth. Her full lips were painted bright red. She wore mascara and eye shadow. She had small high breasts, a narrow waist, slender hips, strong well-proportioned legs, and very tiny feet. She was dressed in a tight fitting floor length black chignon, which was slit above her knees on each side. Black patent leather heels were held to her bare feet with narrow straps. The red lacquer on her toes and long fingernails matched the color of her lipstick.

"Goddamn it!" Abul complained, "The American bitch is ready. She wants it. Miko said so, and she said so."

Madam Khe looked up from behind her huge ebony desk and shook her head. "You keep forgetting, Abul, that Mrs. Ryan is the property of Mr. Satomi. She is here to be broken and trained. She is not here to inflate your pathetic ego and certainly not to satisfy your obsessive wish for revenge."

"The bitch ordered me out of her house!"

Madam Khe leaned back, "I don't blame her. You are ugly, mean, and you smell bad. I would have done the same."

Abul's face reddened. He clenched his fists and stared down at the small woman behind the desk. "You go too far," he said.

"I don't go far enough," she returned his stare unsmiling. She reached for a piece of paper on her desk. "This is a fax from Mr. Satomi. These are his orders. You understand...orders." Abul looked away, and then nodded his head. Madam Khe continued, "He wants us to break her spirit, to completely destroy it but without drugs."

"That's impossible," Abul protested. "She will never agree to...to..."

"Accept the gift unless she's drugged and hypnotized?" Madam Khe interrupted.

"Yes," Abul answered, "the thought of her, the thought of anyone accepting it makes even me uneasy."

"Mr. Satomi and I believe that only when she is willing, without needles, without drugs, without Miko's suggestions, to submit completely and unconditionally will her spirit be destroyed. If she accepts what we propose freely, she will do anything Mr. Satomi requires...anything!"

"But how..." Abul began.

"We start with the needles and Miko's hypnotic suggestions. This woman seems to be very receptive to Miko's skills. We also continue to remind her that failure to comply will put her beloved sister-in-law in danger. Gradually, we reduce all of these while at the same time stimulating her sexual needs without fully satisfying them. We train her slowly and methodically to associate sensual excitement and release with the very things she finds most repulsive." She leaned forward, tapping her long pointed nails on the desk. "If we do it right, Abul, there will be no need for drugs or intimidation. She will accept. When the training is complete and we deliver her to Mr. Satomi, he will own her body and her mind. She will have no spirit, no will of her own. Then, her devotion to him is certain to be absolute, unconditional." She sat back.

"I hope you are right."

"I better be right for both our sakes." She stood. "I understand Miko used six needles that were prepared with the drug?"

"Yes," Abul said, "that seems like too many."

"Miko would not have used them if she didn't believe it was necessary. This afternoon the American woman will do whatever you tell her because of the drugs and because she can't resist Miko's instructions. It's as if her will has been temporarily taken over by Miko. After the drugs wear off, she probably won't even recall what she has done. That's no good. That's what Mr. Satomi wants us to change. She must be trained to obey without the use of drugs, and afterwards she must be able to remember."

"To accept what we propose without Miko's needles..." Abul shook his head, "I don't think she will ever do that."

"I think you are right, Abul. If she cannot be made to accept the gift we've spoken of without drugs, then we will have to prove her spirit is broken in another way. Everything is a process. One step at a time, Abul. Now, since she has been made ready, and since we can't have you lose face before your guests, we will proceed with the alternate plan."

Abul shrugged. "Miko says the drugs and her instructions to the woman will be effective for about six more hours. It won't be the gift, but she will be well used."

"Good. I'll stay here and watch on the monitor." She pressed a button on her desk and a panel in the side wall opened to reveal a large television screen. "We will talk afterwards." She gestured toward the door, dismissing him.

In a small room next to the reception hall, Miko and Mi Jong had been busy transforming Kathy's appearance. They removed the heavy make-up and reapplied the kind of cosmetics Kathy herself would use if she were meeting her husband in town for dinner. They dressed her in a pleated white skirt, a white silk blouse that buttoned down the front, and white pumps with a very high heel. She was given an expensive leather bag with a shoulder strap. She wore no bra or panties. While dressing her, Miko repeated over and over in a soft monotone a long list of instructions. After every repetition she would ask, "You understand?"

Each time she asked, Kathy turned to face her and answered, "Yes, Miko, I understand." Then Miko would have her repeat exactly what she was to say and do. When they were finished, Kathy was told to lie down. There was a narrow bed against one wall. Miko knelt beside her and spoke while she stroked Kathy's forehead. After awhile they heard a single chime from a bell in the reception room. "We go now," Miko said.

The two older women led Kathy out and across the hall where a door swung open for them. The center of the marble floor was covered with a large many-colored circular rug. In a semicircle around it five men sat in beautifully upholstered chairs. Each man wore a white caftan. Abul occupied the middle chair. Kathy, her head bowed, approached to the edge of the carpet, her heels clicking on the marble floor. She then got to her knees and crawled to Abul, where she lowered her head to his bare feet. They were dirty, the long toenails almost black. Gently she pressed her mouth to the space between his big toe and the one next to it. Tentatively she parted her lips and with her tongue she touched between these two toes, first on the right foot, then on the left. She crawled back a little way and stopped, her head still bowed. "Thank you, Master, for allowing me to kiss your feet."