Chapter 7

Paris May Be The City Of Lights, but the new club there really is dark and dreary, almost like a dungeon!

"Girls, what is the name of the club?" Max had a simple answer, "The Dungeon! Of course!"

Leave it to a man to expect some French name of mystic, but no, just some obvious name for a slave club.

We entered through the back. I was not very impressed. To say the least, it was not my idea of a club, until I entered the glassed in office.

Down below, were what seemed to be hundreds of people. Some were dressed in costumes, and some were not dressed at all. We moved closer to the windows and there walked up the perfect vision of some horror classic. Her stage name was 'Madam Vlad', and she came from Bulgaria: Transylvania, to be specific.

How the girls got her I'll never know, but she seemed to brighten up the whole place.

It was only after a few moments that I noticed she was wearing a costume that was painted onto her. Silver lame, it looked like paint but may have been just silvery dust, rubbed all over.

"Hello, Dahl-ling," she rasped. Max just looked at me, and shrugged her shoulders. "Welcome to opening night! We should have used the other floor, too. If you think this is a good showing for an opening night, look out front. They are lined up for blocks to get in. Is it too late to ask for a larger salary? Only joking, boss!"

"Just have a seat and relax a bit. Ginny will bring you something to eat and drink. God, I think I'm going to love my new job. Let me tell you all about it. My Papa was a King. He was a very poor King, of a very poor country. My husband ... or rather, my former husband ... convinced him that he had a plan that would make us all very wealthy. His plan seemed very simple, and easy to understand. One of the things that we are rich in, is history. It is said that in the old days, 50,000 men died in a single week of fighting. Those that remained were impaled on stakes lining the road to the castle. That King got his name, Vlad The Impaler, from that war. Some say, he was the original Dracula who drank human blood, and ate the flesh of his enemies. Over the years, he is said to have piled the heads, or skull bones, of all he killed into mounds all over our country. This gave me the idea for a dungeon theme for the club."

"Nice," I said. "But what happened to your husband, and why did you agree to open this club?"

"Alex, that was his name, wanted to find some rich investor to open a theme-park near the old castle. He found out that there were many people that wanted to invest. He got greedy, and sold the same rights, over and over again."

"The last time, he sold it to the wrong people. When they found out, Alex never woke up one morning. He had been killed while he slept. That's when I found Gino. He told me how some Russian investors did not take kindly to being made fools of. He sent Marcia to console me. We went on a long cruise and I never looked back."

"I found out where some of the money went that Alex had swindled. I also found thousands of plastic skulls bones and dozens of lifelike bodies in an old warehouse. You might guess where those ended up. I sold them to you as used, and at a reduced price, too. When Marcia told me that you needed a private club, like the one you had in Spain, I thought, why another same old club. Marcia left it all in my hands. The unlimited checking account sort of helped, too. I may have gotten a bit carried away, as I leased several buildings on this block."

"The old warehouse in back was a perfect place for your cars to park, and the Russians made the whole place secure. We have two other places that could be attached to this one; and two more floors, here, for other things."

"Marcia mentioned that bedrooms might occupy one of the floors and a clinic the other. This building, when we get it all done, can have three unique themes. Both sections will, of course, be available only at an extra charge. One will be the Dream Room, where the appearance will change from week to week. It will only be open on Friday and Saturday evenings, the same as The Dungeon. The other room will be The Harem. The theme is obvious. It will be very exclusive, but will be open everyday from 11:30 until midnight. The Harem will be more like a private club. Meals, drinks and meeting rooms will be available. Members will pay $250,000 Euros annually on top of the regular club prices. Marcia said that you wanted a place where people would come, relax and perhaps reveal personal information. Every area can be videotaped. The staff will be hired and trained to ... how do you say ... to be very discrete and accommodating. For opening night we only have The Dungeon completed. It was by chance that everything that was needed, I had or knew where to get."

"This place is unique. We have been running background checks, security checks and reference checks on all who wanted to buy charter memberships. A charter Membership costs $75,000 Euros annually, and the fee will remain the same for five years. There were bidding wars for the 200 that went up for sale. We had nearly 1,000 applications and could have taken more. I thought I was crazy, but these people really are!"