Chapter 2: Interesting Times

The buying and selling of slaves goes on at two levels; there are harem slaves, mostly women, mostly young, bought for pleasure in its many and varied forms and eventually, when they are too old for their owner’s tastes, sold again, often to brothels, and there are what are known as field slaves who toil at various forms of manual labour. The auctioneer was completely flummoxed by the request from the Chief Eunuch of the Golden Palace for a female teacher of scientific subjects, age immaterial, appearance immaterial, virginity unimportant. That was four criteria he had never, ever, been given before, but like the true lover of money that he was he would try his best.

“That will cost money,” he observed, “A lot of money.”

“If she’s old and ugly, she will be almost worthless,” replied the Emir’s representative, happy that the auctioneer had not laughed, but had started haggling.

“But we will have to find such a one, and then take her, and then bring her here, and then feed and look after her, and train her; the expenses will be endless.”

“Your profits will not be endless, nor will your expenses,” replied the eunuch, “She will need no training, because she will not be used in the harem. She will need no food, because she will come direct to the Palace. The only need is for speed. His Magnificence, the Emir Mahmoud Abdullah, may he live for ever, has decreed it, so be grateful that I pay you anything at all.”

After the Chief Eunuch had left, the auctioneer made several ‘phone calls to his agents in Europe. They all reacted in disbelief at the specification, but the phrase ‘the Emir has decreed’ soon quietened them down.

It was the Italian agent who solved the problem first. He was, to all appearances, just another indolent rich Arab living in Rome, but secretly he had a hand in a number of dealings with the Mafia. He occasionally imported things for them in his private Learjet under diplomatic privilege and in return they did him occasional favours. It was to one such friend that he mentioned the problem later that day.

“Let me get this straight,” his friend said, “You want a teacher of science, and age and appearance are unimportant, but she must be a female?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

The Arab shrugged his shoulders, as if to say “Who knows? That is what I was told.”

“No trouble,” said the Mafia man, “When do you want her?”

“Would yesterday be too early?” asked the Arab.

“Have your ‘plane ready at six tomorrow morning,” was the surprising answer.

Promptly at six the next morning a crate was loaded on the Learjet at a small private airstrip near Rome. The customs official would not be on duty until eight, so the manifest was left for him in his office; it did not mention the crate.

When they were safely in the air and well away from Italian airspace, the Arab opened the crate and checked that the woman was breathing freely. The drug would keep her asleep for the few hours the journey would take, but he did not want her to have any problems. He was surprised to find that his prisoner was a middle-aged nun. The documents with her told him that she was Sister Annamaria and that she held a degree in Physics from the University of Dublin. A note from his friend told him that she had entered a teaching order after the early death of her husband, and taught physics and chemistry at a convent school in Naples.

Shrugging his shoulders, the Arab closed the crate and wondered why the Emir wanted a school teacher, and what he would say when he found that he had bought a nun. Fantasies of being beaten by a school teacher were, he knew, popular on the internet, but would a nun play bedroom games like that? At least she had been married, so she would know the basic facts of life.

Chapter 3 »