Chapter 33: Judith Visits the Training Center

Judith was awakened by someone shaking her shoulder. She turned on the bunk, annoyed that she'd been awakened. About to complain, she recalled where she was, and she looked up.

She saw woman looking down at her.

"Hi!" the woman said; "I'm Donna, Donna Gromelski. Is your name Judith? Master Crane told me you were in Cell Eight. You could really use a shampoo and styling. I don't have time to do it this evening, but maybe I can do it tomorrow. I'll comb it out for you while we're putting on your makeup. When you're dressed, we'll go to the bathroom down the hall for that. Crane wants you to join him for dinner tonight."

"Hey, Donna!" Judith heard another woman's voice. "Forget the gab. Get her ready!"

Judith sat up, bleary-eyed. She laid aside the four towels.

The talkative woman was a chubby brunette with bobbed hair and a round face, about thirty. She was pretty and her figure, with a few less pounds on it, would be voluptuous.

"I'm Judith Sterling. I came here with Senator Ellsworth. Can you tell me why I've been put in this little room? I'm supposed to be in a suite with him."

Donna didn't reply, and Judith looked at the other woman.

Now that she was awake, she recognized the girl. It was Sarah, one of the girls who had brought her from Crane's office. The woman who had awakened her was dressed in a blue button-down column dress like the one that had been worn by that other girl, Nina. Both Donna and Sarah wore tan leather collars similar to the one about her own throat.

Sarah smiled, and she said, "If you're going to dine with Master Crane, I need to take off those things."

While Sarah unlocked and removed her collar and handcuffs, Donna brought a garment from one of the clothing hooks.

It was a royal blue halter dress with spangles. It seems that they expected her to wear it without a brassiere. When it was on her, the vee neckline hem was well above the swellings of her breasts, but the material was very sheer, apparently of silk or nylon and it outlined the contours of her nipples and even showed their tint through it.

"I knew it would fit you," Sarah said. "We went through your clothes to get your size."

"Where did you find them?" Judith asked. "Are they in my room--the room in our suite? Everything is confusing here! No one has explained a thing to me. I'm supposed to be in a suite that I'm sharing with my--my employer. He's a senator in the States. I'm his attorney."

Judith felt her face grow warm. Perhaps she'd revealed more than she should have. The Senator had warned her not to disclose their relationship outside of Washington.

Donna raised her eyebrows. Judith saw her glance at Sarah. But the younger girl just shrugged and replied, "You'll be dining with Master Crane; you had better address your questions to him."

Sarah reached into a satchel that lay on the opposite bunk. She withdrew a pair of stockings and pumps that were wrapped in plastic bags. Judith recognized the shoes as her own.

The two women escorted Judith down the hallway to an elevator. They rode it up to the second floor and exited into a hall similar to the one they had left, walked a dozen steps; and then entered through double doorway marked 'Dining Hall' in gold lettering.

The room was filled with tables that seat four, with cloth napkins and silverware already set at each table. A heavy black carpet containing gold threads that produced attractive spiral patterns covered the room from wall to wall. High above, chandeliers illuminated the room with a soft light from small bulbs. The ceiling seemed very high. Judith guessed that its height was that of two floors: the second, on which they had entered, and the third, above them.

Judith noticed the wall murals. Three of the four walls were covered with paintings. All three were parts of a single outdoor scene that reminded Judith of paintings by Maxfield Parrish. These murals had the Greek temples and the bucolic scenery as well as the beautiful women. There the similarities ended, for all the women were nude and, along with a few men, most were engaged in erotic activities that overlooked nothing. During her subsequent dinner with Crane, Judith observed every coupling that she could imagine, including homoerotic and multi-partner ones.

Crane's table was located at the opposite end of the room, the wall which consisted entirely of windows. Judith observed the ocean through it, even before they were halfway to his table. The sun was low over the water, and the view was magnificent.

There he is. I'll ask him where the Senator is; and why he had me put in that dungeon.

Those girls must have done it on his orders. And, why did they leave me naked? Perhaps they knew I'd be getting this gown. I suppose that Crane wanted to return those clothes that I borrowed from Yvonne on the ship. I'm really curious about this place.

Crane turned to look at her, and Judith's heart began to race. The man's masculinity was sort of overwhelming. He was dressed in loose dark slacks and a white knit short-sleeved shirt. His biceps looked like steel. He resembled some athlete, a boxer or tennis pro and, when he rose from his chair as she approached, he looked very smooth on his feet.

His face was rugged rather than classic. His look began to embarrass her, and she looked about the room. The waitresses, all wearing black and white French maid uniforms, were extraordinarily attractive. How did Crane manage to get such gorgeous young women to work on such an isolated island, away from cities and from young men? Most of the men she passed seated at the tables were considerably older than Judith, and the waitresses were much younger than she.

Crane was holding out a chair out for her. Her seat was parallel to the windows, opposite his. "I thought you'd want to see the sunset," he said, waving a hand at the windows. Judith noticed a pair of women's sunglasses on the table beside her tableware and a similar pair beside his.

She smiled, raising them. "I don't need these. The sun is so red."

"You will, in about half an hour," he said.

He handed her a stapled sheaf of three typewritten sheets of paper. "Tonight's menu. It's a bit primitive; we print the menus daily. On an island, it's necessary to dispense with some of the niceties. By the way, you look beautiful."

She blushed. "Thank you. My hair is something of a mess."

"It's to be expected, considering how you spent last night. Actually, it doesn't look bad. When my salon staff is less busy, I'll have them do your hair for you. We're rather crowded at the moment; we've had quite an influx of young women."

She looked for her escorts. But Donna and Sarah had disappeared.

One of the girls dressed in a French maid's uniform approached. She wore a black blouse and skirt, a miniscule white apron and with a white cap perched on her blonde head. As the girl leaned forward, Judith could see through the sheer black material of her blouse. Although her nipples were covered at the moment by the apron, she obviously lacked a bra. Her breasts were full and prominent.

The girl poured them each a goblet of red wine and placed the bottle on the table. With a smile, she told Judith, "I'll give you time to make your selections, Mistress, and I'll be right back." She left.

Mistress?

"Will you tell me now just what this place is?" Judith asked, indicating the room and building with a motion of her head. "It's more than just a resort hotel."

She wanted to say, 'Mister Crane, I know it's a sex club. A friend of mine belongs to one in San Francisco. Am I right?' but suppose she were wrong? She'd be mortified. She postponed her query.

Crane shrugged. "After we dine, I'll show you the most important room in the Academy. I'll explain your situation then."

He told her a little about the climate in their location. There were occasional hurricanes, but the buildings were located high enough to preclude flooding.

Crane looked up. "Our waitress is back. She'll take our orders."

"I don't see any prices on the menus."

"They're prix fixe," he said. "All dinners are the same price. But, in any case, since I'm the manager, I won't be charged for our meal. Don't skimp."

She ordered lobster. Crane ordered a vegetarian dinner. Although they had consumed less than half of the bottle, Crane said to the girl, "Another bottle of wine, please."

"Yes, Master Crane," she responded.

Judith raised her eyebrows. Master? Shades of the Gemini Club! Maybe that is what this place is! Well, he said he'd explain after dinner; I guess I'll wait.

"How is the lobster?" he asked, as soon as she had finished cracking and consuming a claw.

"It's delicious," she said. "You must have a fine chef!"

"Yes. He's good. One of our French clients recommended him. He's expensive, but the fringe benefits that I offered him he found irresistible."

"Where is the Senator?" she asked. Has he been looking for me?"

"Before I answer your questions, I want to know more about you. Tell me about yourself."

Christ, it's hard to get information from him. If he's the manager of this place, he has no boss. Why is he so close-mouthed? Does he think I'm from some law enforcement agency?

"If I do," she replied, annoyed; "will you tell me about you, and about this 'Academy' as you call it?"

"I told you that I would after... "

Suddenly they heard murmurs from other tables, all around them. Everyone seemed to be looking at Judith. She became self-conscious, wondering what was wrong with her appearance.

Crane glanced at his wristwatch. "Put on the sunglasses," he said.

She glanced out the window. A crescent had been cut from the sun's disk.

"It's an eclipse!" she exclaimed, thrilled.

She wiped her hands and put on the glasses.

"It's an annular one," he said.

She frowned. "A what?"

"You're an attorney. You must have taken Latin;."

"Well," she said; "I think annular refers to a ring."

"That's correct. Wait and watch."

It took several minutes, but finally the sun disappeared. In its place was a black disk surrounded by a ring of fire.

"Wow!" she exclaimed. Besides the thrill of the view, she felt turned on by this strange man.

"We're fortunate that it's over the water. The moon is between us and the sun, and it's at apogee, its farthest distance from us. Its apparent size is too small to cover the entire solar disk."

"Thank you, Professor," she said, smiling. "Where did you go to college?"

"I didn't. I read a lot."

She had finished her lobster and the waitress removed their plates; at the same time she left a finger bowl and a card containing a listing of desserts. Judith glanced at the latter.

"What are you having?"

"Just coffee, but I recommend the crepes suzette."

After the waitress took their orders, Judith said, "You don't seem the type to read. At least not until you spouted off about the eclipse. One of those girls that I went downstairs with told me that you're always busy. When do you find the time to read?"

He shrugged. "I don't require much sleep. But, I was asking about you. You're an attorney. Where did you go to college?"

"Berkeley," she replied. "I grew up in Montana, in a town called Kalispell. You've probably never heard of it. In high school I thought it was the pits. When I got to college, I met my best friend. We used to go to San Francisco a lot. We loved the city."

"Are your parents still in Montana?"

"Mom and Dad still live in Kalispell. I visit them every summer when the Senate shuts down."

He nodded. "I recall that you came on the ship with the Senator."

She blushed, catching his allusion to how he had found her, bound on the floor of the cabin, naked.

"I'm Senator Ellsworth's attorney," she explained, hoping to get off the subject. "He vacationed here last year. Perhaps you've met him."

"I know who he is," Crane responded. "He's a very large prick."

Judith laughed.

"You're not alone in that opinion. Some of his acquaintances in Washington think the same thing. The Senator can be abrasive, but he's very influential in Washington, and also in our state. I'm a resident there. I've been asked to fill a Congressional vacancy left by a Representative who's retiring."

"Since you're not wearing a ring, I presume that you're unmarried. Are you the Senator's mistress?"

Judith blushed again. She was especially upset by his inference being so close to the mark. She felt humiliated that he assumed she belonged to a man over sixty.

"That's a sexist term, Mister Crane," she replied. "And, it's obsolete. I don't sleep around. Even if I did, it's no concern of yours! If I travel with Senator Ellsworth, it's part of my job. What else I do is none of your business."

"On the contrary," he said, coolly. "If you 'sleep around' as you put it, it could change my plans for you."

"Your plans for me!" she exclaimed, surprised. "Do you imagine that you're talking to some school child?!"

His smile irritated her even more.

"You're a well-educated young woman. Surely you can guess the position you're in here."

What is he talking about?

"It's about time, Mister Crane, that you should answer some of my questions! Where is Senator Ellsworth? Why did those two girls put me in that cell instead of an apartment? Do you know that they left me in there, naked? Just what is this place?!"

He shrugged. "Please call me Crane for the time being, Judith. Evidently you don't believe your own eyes. Think about the Senator's recent actions toward you. You must recall how Sarah and Kelly were dressed. And think about the accommodations they put you in."

His words were chilling. Judith didn't want to think of the implications.

She looked about the room. It had become crowded. Although there were a number of other women in the room, dining as she was, many more of the clientele were male. Of the few women she saw, she saw only one looked as young as she. The only beautiful girls in the room were the waitresses, the girls who were dressed in French Maid's attire.

None of the men looked as young as she, either. But then she noticed two men at a table also adjacent to the windows, and she corrected herself. One of them appeared to be in his twenties. Still, he was by far the youngest man. Many, perhaps a third of the men, looked as old as the Senator.

Bill never said that the men at the Gemini Club were particularly old. But here it's different. To travel and stay out here for at least a week when the cruise ship returns must take a lot of money. Maybe that's why there are so many old men here. How can Crane pay women-especially ones as attractive as these--enough to work out here on this remote island?

As she glanced around the room, she counted five waitresses. Each one of them was beautiful enough to be a model.

She saw Crane smile, and she wondered if he read her mind.

"When we've finished dining," he told her; "I'll take you downstairs to the T.C. When you see it, you'll understand the purpose of the Academy."

Judith had crepes suzette for dessert; Crane had coffee. "You should be fat," he said, evidently amused by her appetite.

Judith saw his gaze lower; he was staring at her breasts.

She felt a shiver go down her spine. She was conscious of how bare they were under the gown. She'd not had access to a mirror except for the ill-lighted one in the bathroom off the small room, and she wondered how much he could see. Compared to the breasts of the waitresses, though, hers were small. She didn't know why, but suddenly their size bothered her.

Wanting to divert his thoughts, she replied, "I don't usually eat so much, but the food here is so good!"

Crane nodded. "My clients are wealthy; they expect the food to be what they're accustomed to."

They exited the elevator onto the lowest floor. Judith didn't recognize it at first, as they turned left and passed wooden double doors marked 'Power Plant' in bright brass lettering. After this, she saw the line of gray metal doors on both sides of the hallway. She guessed that one of them must be the door to the cell in which she'd spent most of the day.

As they arrived about halfway down the hall, Judith heard strange, high pitched muted sounds from somewhere ahead. Accompanying the sounds were louder ones that sounded a little like firecrackers exploding, although these were also muted, sounding as though they were coming through some closed door ahead of them.

Following the last gray door on the right, they reached another set of double wooden doors. Above, marked in bright brass paint on a glass transom, were the words 'Training Center'.

The odd sounds were coming from within. Crane, grabbing her arm, led her through the doors. The room was nearly as large as the Main Lounge--the largest room in the building that she had yet seen.

"Look around," Crane said mildly; "and tell me what you conclude about what you see."

As they stood in the doorway, Judith felt his grip on her arm, but she was so shocked by the scene that she would have halted on her own had he released her.

Wooden racks, stocks, and pillories packed the room from wall to wall. Each one of them held a young, beautiful, and naked girl, fastened to the device by manacles clamped about her wrists and ankles.

"Well?" he asked, meeting her eyes. "What do you think is the purpose of this room?"

Judith flushed. Her heart pounded. She felt so appalled, that she had stopped looking around the room after its first impact on her.

"I-I hardly know what to think," she said.

Despite her embarrassment, Judith forced herself to look around. Close to each wooden device and facing it were arranged a semicircle of armchairs, most of which were occupied by more than a dozen spectators who were enjoying the exhibition. Among the audience she saw three women.

As she stood with Crane in the doorway, there was one such group seated directly before them. It consisted of three men and one woman. Two of the men appeared to be in their fifties and one even older, with white hair and a paunch. The woman was of indeterminate age, but Judith guessed that she might be in her fifties. Her hair, perhaps dyed, was red and her figure was shapely if slightly overweight.

The girl who they were watching was a pretty blonde, about seventeen or eighteen years old. She was bent over a large sawhorse-shaped wooden rack, her belly upon its ridge with her hands and feet on the carpet, her wrists clamped in handcuffs bolted to its front legs and her ankles clamped in ones at its rear ones. Her body formed an inverted 'V', with her buttocks the apex.

A man stood behind her whipping her with a leather belt. The girl was crying, but a ball-gag was stuffed in her mouth, held by wide straps around her cheeks and the back of her head, muting her cries. Her sobs were the sounds Judith had heard through the closed doors when she and Crane had approached the room from the hall.

The man must have been beating the girl for some time before they entered, as the girl's buttocks were already marred by pink welts. The man brought the belt down methodically, starting from just below her coccyx and working down to the crease between her buttocks and thighs, and covering every inch between.

"What's her problem, Duke?" Crane asked, leading Judith into the room.

"The usual one we have with high school kids," Duke responded with a shrug. He pointed toward their right.

Judith recognized one of the blue girls, Nina. Wielding a glossy black leather strap, Nina stood before a lineup of four naked men, each of whom had his handcuffed wrists held over his head by a chain linking the handcuffs to a hook in the ceiling. Each male's legs were held wide apart by a bar with manacles at each end that gripped his ankles. Two of the males looked to be in their mid-thirties, while the two others appeared much younger, of high school age.

One of the men suddenly shouted at Nina, "You bitch! Why don't you stop them!?"

Judith watched, wondering how the girl would respond.

The blue girl looked up at him and smiled. Then she reached between the man's legs. She grasped his penis, which Judith thought was the largest she had ever seen, and twisted.

"Ow! Let go, you bitch, let go!" the man cried.

"That's not a proper response," Nina said, and she turned her wrist further. The man emitted another "Ow!!"

"Apologize properly," Nina said in a cool voice.

The man groaned. Finally, capitulating, he said, "I'm sorry, Mistress! Please, let go!"

"Your wife isn't the only one who needs training," the blue girl replied. "So do you."

Holding his penis up against his navel, Nina reached out with the strap until its end was just under the man's dangling testicles. She flicked her wrist, and the strap struck them. It flung them outward, causing them to swing up and carom off the hand that gripped his penis.