Chapter 1

 

Sir Ralph relaxed in the library of his London home. It was one of biggest in Mayfair and still boasted a full staff from butler down to scullery maid and yet only he and Lady Scott who lived there - and then only intermittently for he also had his country seat as well as apartments in New York and Peking, all permanently staffed. He also had his large ocean-going yacht and private Lear jet.

He was a very wealthy man, perhaps among the wealthiest in Britain, but it hadn't always been so. When his father died, he inherited the family seat and little else. It was run-down and needed a great deal of money to restore it to its former grandeur. Sir Ralph, as he now was, having inherited the baronetcy with the house, set about that task with single-minded fervour.

He discovered he had a nose for investment and played the stock market with astonishing success and very soon amassed sufficient to begin the restoration of the estate as well as the beginnings of the nest egg that was going to finance his prime interest in life. It was this other interest that would accumulate his now enormous wealth.

He and his wife, now Lady Diana Scott, formerly the Lady Diana Ridgley, second daughter of the seventh Earl of Gunthorpe, had a penchant for horse-racing - but not the equine variety. Sir Ralph had read of human pony racing in a fetish magazine he had picked up. He had leafed through its pages with astonishment - and a massive erection. He showed it to his wife, not sure how she would take it, but had been very pleased to find her as intrigued with the idea as he was.

"We will do this one day, my darling, you just wait and see ..."

That was many, many years ago; long before he had begun to make his fortune but then, as the money began to accumulate, he began to think of his dream and how he could put it into reality.

That reality had come to fruition and now Sir Ralph was the head of a vast slaving empire which he used to recruit the best for his pet hobby, the racing of human ponies. It had taken a great deal of work to acquire a suitable island in the Pacific and build the track, stables and accommodation for staff and guests and of course to set up his very secret agencies in the East, in Africa and in selected other parts of the world. Running a successful multi-national takes a great deal of expertise; running an illegal multi-national takes a lot more. It was this slaving empire that had made most of his money but he was able to hide this fact under his co-called 'nose for business and investment'.

Now, as he sat in his library in Mayfair, he surveyed his guest over the large snifter of brandy and smiled. "And you say she's special, Kendo?"

"I've never seen a girl more athletic, Ralph. She's tall and magnificently built - and a beauty to boot."

Sir Ralph smiled. She sounded just as he liked them. He and Diana only dealt in the best slaves. They were all young, aged between eighteen and early thirties, were handsome if male and beautiful if female - but they also had to have at least the makings of superb athleticism. He had facilities in some of his agencies around the world to train and condition them but he wasn't going to take fats or skinnies. Turning such people into athletic specimens took far too much time and time, in his business, was the essence of profits. For while he delighted in racing the best of his ponies, both male and female, profit was still the prime motivating factor, as his friend and fellow human pony-racing aficionado, Kendo, well knew.

He looked again at the photograph his friend had handed to him and his eyes widened yet again as he looked over the beauty portrayed there. "She certainly is tall, and as you say, perfectly built for our purposes ... Who is she?"

Now it was the Japanese man's turn to smile. "She is the daughter of an arch-competitor of mine. As you know, while I am a hard businessman, I have never played the dirty-tricks game ... Well, he pulled such a trick on me last year and I have decided to teach him a lesson he won't forget. This girl, Hiroko is her name, is his only daughter; his only child as it happens. She is at university studying business but she is also a champion athlete, as you can see from her figure."

"You don't think it is an unacceptable risk to kidnap her?"

"Not if we arrange a rather final 'accident'."

"But then he won't know you are taking your revenge?"

"No, but it doesn't matter. We Japanese have subtleties in our culture you in the West can't imagine. He won't know but I will and while I will know she is alive and well, his grief will be my revenge."

"I see. But I think it would be best if she was to go straight to the island. I will buy her from you once you have kidnapped her ... No matter how well you cover up her disappearance, if she went to your training school and got away, all hell would break loose ..."

He was being over cautious. No slave had ever got away from any of his or his friends' establishments, their means of constraining them was just too effective, but Kendo didn't argue. Racing young Hiroko was his aim anyway and Sir Ralph's stables were bigger and better equipped than his. He didn't mind that his friend would purchase her from him as an untrained recruit.

 

The island in the Pacific was Sir Ralph's pride and joy. It was totally isolated, well off the shipping lanes and the usual courses steered by yachtsmen in that area. Further, it was surrounded by a very extensive coral reef and, while there was an entrance, it was now controlled by an underwater boom he had arranged to be installed, made up to look like more coral and this prevented unwanted vessels entering into the basin. The buildings and the track and stables were all located well inside the jungle perimeter of the island so any casual passers-by would think the island deserted. At eighty hectares, total size, it wasn't big enough to support even a small village but was perfect for Sir Ralph's purposes.

Here the permanent staff, headed by the trainer, a German named Werner von Baum, took the slave recruits sent to them by Sir Ralph and put them through a highly rigorous regime of training to turn them into perfect human ponies. They only lasted a year or so at this, however, especially if they didn't win races, for there was a never-ending supply of new meat to train and race, and were then shipped out to one or another of Sir Ralph's slave dealerships to be sold as slaves. Never, of course, back to their own country.

But the ponies they raced there were not only his. Kendo had his own stable and so did many of their other friends. They trained their entries at their own, highly secret establishments in other parts of the world and brought them in, either by fast motor yacht or by long-range helicopter. Once the yachts had dropped off their passengers and pony-slaves, they then made off to stooge around, hundreds of miles away, while their owners took their leisure on the island, enjoying the luxurious accommodations Sir Ralph had built for them all staffed by naked slaves who were of course 'available' to them in all ways.

The stables were big enough to house these extra ponies and the other owners stored the gigs there also. Races were held monthly or as the owners agreed between them. Costs of running the island were shared by the owners who also pooled huge sums as purses for the winners. The prize for a major race could be as much as a million dollars and this added an enormous fillip to the natural incentive to win. Lesser races, for newer, less trained ponies didn't carry such enormous stakes but they were still valuable purses and the owners' trainers were encouraged to get the best out of their charges by bonuses if they won - and by the threat of demotion if they didn't. Accordingly, Werner von Baum and his colleagues worked very hard to get the very best out of the human ponies under their control.