Prologue

"You really are a cunning, conniving and unscrupulous bastard Ted Sullivan, I'm glad that I'm a civil servant at the Foreign Office and not a reporter on your staff. How could you be so cruel as to send two innocent young people to a country in the middle of nowhere knowing they will be raped and tortured? Sacrificing them to the god of money. " Despite the words, there was a smile on Peter Spencer's face.

"They will neither be raped nor tortured in my country," Colonel Nubaro replied with mock outrage, "There is no such thing as rape for people of their age in Tumali; all women when they get to child bearing age are available for insemination by any male. And we do not torture people. We use corporal punishments, that is true. Wrongdoers get chastised with a strap or cane or even the whip where appropriate to their crime but we do not consider that torture. It is a far better system than incarcerating them in prisons for long periods. And more economic too."

"From what I've heard Colonel, the chastisements are pretty severe by our standards and are carried out in public with the victims stripped naked."

"I cannot help it if the standards in this country are low Peter and we believe that everyone should see that justice has been carried out and the criminal does not have any hidden protection under his or her garments. The people of Tumali accept that and it certainly helps to keep our crime rate down. Besides, it is part of our culture, our heritage and our beliefs; almost a religion. Do you really think they will fall for this false document giving them diplomatic immunity Ted?"

"They're both shy and pretty naïve, the boy especially so, and I suspect they're both virgins Colonel..."

"They certainly won't be when they return and, unless there is something wrong with her internals, the girl will be pregnant," the Colonel interrupted and all three men laughed.

"The trip might help their careers too," Ted went on, "They are excellent writers, which from their college records is why I took them on, but they don't have the get-up-and-go that a reporter needs to winkle out information. Roger particularly wants things handed to him on a plate and someone to wipe his nose. He's great at manipulating images on the computer so much of the time, I have him doing the artwork for the magazines. She's a little better and is generally the leader of the pair but is still rather shy. They've produced some great stories but not when they've had to do interviews or investigations. My guess is that they will be very reluctant to go but I will hint that their jobs are on the line so even if they are unsure about the document, they'll go."

For a while longer the men sat around a table at the exclusive London club where Peter Spencer was a member. "Well it looks like you two get more out of it than I will, ' Peter remarked. "Ted gets an inside story exclusive for Today's World that could run for several months and he'll make a packet using the material on the underground DVD's he produces, you Colonel get the publicity that should attract the kind of white girls you'd like to breed for the light coloured babies that you sell but I just get to have a few girls when I negotiate their release."

"But the negotiations could be protracted," laughed the Colonel, "And I'll try and arrange for you to have young ones that are just coming to breeding age and are not already pregnant."

Chapter 1 »