As they’d arranged, Lisa and Auguste meet in the hotel lobby. Check-in is swift. “The bellman will help you with your luggage,” the clerk informs them.

“No need, we’ve only the one small case,” says Auguste. “We might do some shopping later, should the need arise.”

“Very well,” says the clerk. “Enjoy.”

But before Lisa and Auguste can turn from the counter, a bellman has snagged their bag and set off toward the elevators at a jaunty pace. Lisa and Auguste shrug and follow.

The red-capped fellow silently ushers them into the elevator, presses eight, the ultimate floor, and stands discreetly back. Auguste and Lisa embrace. Their bodies press close, Lisa deftly unbuttons and unzips Auguste’s fly. Her hand finds what it sought. Auguste bends to kiss Lisa’s forehead, her eyelids, her nose, and then her forehead again as Lisa’s hand sends him to his toes.

Neither of them notices that the bellhop has donned a mask and that a scentless gas is calmly but rapidly filling the compartment.

Auguste awakens groggily. He’s on his back. The floor is hard and cold. Everything is gray. Gradually his vision clears. He sees the bars, heavy and gray. Wan light through large windows. He manages to get to his feet. Only then does he realize he’s naked. He’s in a cell, one solid wall with the barred window, bars on the other three sides. A twelve-foot square. To either side is a similar cell. There seems to be a gate. He stumbles towards it. That’s when he notices.

In the adjacent cell, in the back corner, sits a tiger. Auguste backs a step away from the bars. The tiger has his eye on him. Lying on the concrete floor on her back, naked, just in front of the tiger, is Lisa, her face turned away. He can’t tell if she’s breathing. Just asleep, he tells himself. Just drugged. The tiger sits impassively. Staring. Green, unblinking eyes. At Auguste’s feet just on his side of the bars half-dead rats overflow a metal pail.

Having opened the gate, August uses the rats as bait to lure the big cat into his cage, and while the beast snacks, he hastens through the open gate, secures it, and tends to Lisa.

With her revival he takes abundant care. Under the tiger’s watchful eye, their lovemaking is at first sleepy and healing.