Chapter 28: Albert and Hugo Attend the Auction

Albert entered their suite. His brother was in an armchair reading. Albert found his college work too involving, and he seldom had time for pleasure reading. But Hugo, despite all his activities, even when he'd been in graduate school, always found time to read.

"What's the book?" he asked.

Hugo held it up. "Bulgakov," his brother said. "'The Master and Marguerita'. This is my second reading of it. One of the great novels of the last century. Are you familiar with it?"

Albert shook his head. "I don't read much fiction. I haven't since high school. Do you still read a lot? I remember when I was a kid I used to see you on the front porch swing, reading."

"I didn't read as much when I owned the company, but I did read some. For relaxation, principally fiction."

"Did you go running this morning?"

Hugo nodded. "I got back just in time to beat the downpour. On my way out I passed the shipment of girls. They had just come off the ship."

Hugo closed the book and smiled. "There are some appetizing ones in this bunch. I'm very tempted to have one of them in my bed tonight. If not tonight, then as soon as her training is done."

"Well, you can afford it. I'll have to rent one like you did last year. That is, if I can afford it. How much does Crane charge? Have you seen him yet?"

Hugo shook his head. "He's been too busy. When I do see him, I'll let him know that you're just out of school. His charges vary but, if you're willing to settle for a woman past her twenties who doesn't have a body to illustrate a centerfold, you can probably afford one. Anyway, Crane is flexible. Once he knows you're my brother, he might even give you a freebie. He can probably keep you off his books.

"Tonight, I'll see if he has free time. Besides telling him about you, I'd like to pick up our boxing where we left off five years ago."

"In Puerto Rico?"

Hugo nodded. "When I was setting up the lab. He was managing a casino, and we met in the San Juan Athletic club. We're... At least we were fairly evenly matched. He is more a street fighter, a Dempsey type. Tough. I was first on our team in college and, when he told me he'd never had lessons, I thought he'd be easy. Even though he didn't know all the moves, he was all I could handle."

"They're setting up for the auction. I came up to let you know. One of the girls in blue told me that she expected the shipment to be ready in about an hour."

"Why don't I show you around the building?" Hugo proposed. "When we get down to the main floor we'll stick our noses in to see how close they are to starting."

He inserted a marker in the book and slipped his sandals back on. They left the room and headed down the long corridor, toward the rear stairwell.

As they exited the stairwell on the ground floor, they found their way blocked by a blue girl leading a group of girls and women, all or almost all in evening dress and wearing leather slave collars, with their hands bound in handcuffs attached by chains to their collars. A guard in a tan uniform followed the group. The blue girl led them single file through a door into a dimly lit room.

"They're gorgeous!" Albert whispered. He had counted eleven of them as they left the hall. "Are they the ones to beauctioned?"

"Probably," Hugo answered. "I recognize two that I saw this morning when they were coming from the ship. This group is better looking than the ones I saw last year, although I never saw that entire group together. These look like they've been made up. Their hair looks styled, at least on some of them. I don't know if we'll get to see them undressed. Maybe those gowns are supposed to serve the purpose instead. The girls are naked underneath those dresses."

The guard followed the girls into the room and closed the door behind him. Hugo and Albert went past the door to the double doors and pushed their way in.

A few other clients were present toward the front of the room and were already seated.

"We'd better go in," Hugo said. "I'd like seats near thefront."

"You're really going to buy a girl?" Albert asked.

"I told you that I was," Hugo told him, sounding a bit irritated. "How often are you going to ask that, Albert? If I don't get one, the only reason will be that I've been outbid."

Looking around from the rear of the room, Albert thought the 'Auditorium' name euphemistic. The room was far smaller than any assembly hall that he had ever seen, and that included ones in his elementary school, high school, and college.

"We used this room last year as a cinema," Hugo said, as they walked down the aisle. "A client that I met in here told me a little of the history of this island. He said that this room was designed for only fifty spectators. See those fixed seats? The ones in front. Just five rows, with ten seats in each."

A girl in a blue dress was directing the seating. She and two other girls were carrying in metal folding chairs and setting them up behind the fixed rows of seats.

Albert suggested aiding the girls, but Hugo smiled, restraining him.

"These are slaves, Albert," he told his brother. "Get used to treating them as slaves."

"Well, I know," Albert responded; "But these ones in the blue dresses apparently have a lot of authority. They don't act much like slaves."

"It's relative. Just wait. When you see how a few clients treat them, you'll realize how little authority they actually have. Crane may not be aware of what some of the girls have to put up with from an occasional client. If I see Crane tonight, I'll tell him. Although it could be things are different this year. Last year I saw things happen in the corridors of this building that were almost incredible. The clients won't like my squealing, but I don't care much what they think.

"One guy made a blue girl give him a bj--a thorough one--right in the hallway. After he left and the girl was zipping up her dress, she saw me. I remember her words: 'That Wally is a pig!' That was my opinion of the guy, too."

The blue girls set up three additional rows with the folding chairs. The girl directing added one chair to each end of the front fixed row; then she cordoned off the entire front row with red ribbon.

"I'm surprised," the younger man said to his brother. "I calculated eighty-two chairs. I didn't realize so many clients were staying here. Your friend Crane must make a bundle from this place."

"I suppose so," Hugo responded. "But he has plenty of overhead. I doubt if he pays the blue girls, but he has trainers, guards, and technical personnel. They have a generator, a transmitter, and a die shop here. He has to pay for supplies. Whoever snares and ships the girls has a dangerous job. I'm sure Crane has to pay the shipper a big cut.

"These chairs probably aren't all for clients. Some may be for staff and blue girls.

"Last year, besides us clients, a lot of Crane's guards and trainers attended the movies in here. As for the auctions, I didn't see any. There was one the day I arrived here, but I missed it. I left before there was another shipment."

The brothers took seats as close to the front stage as they could, in the second row, behind the cordoned one. The six middle seats were already taken by a group of women and one man, a tall and extremely handsome one of about Hugo's age who reminded Albert of the latest double oh seven star. The two brothers took seats close to the aisle. Other people began to enter, and a single male client took the last seat in the row, on the other side of the women.

Albert glanced to each side. "I guess we're lucky we arrived early," he said; "but I'm surprised to see all the women."

"So am I," his older brother said. "Last year I didn't see many female clients. Only five or six the entire time I was here."

"This one row alone has six women in it. Only two men besides us."

Albert looked at the rows behind them.

"The row behind us has all men in it and it's already full. Maybe all the women came together, and they just arrived earlier than the men."