Chapter 112 Treachery!
The dreadful shock of recognition sent waves of fear and near-nausea
surging through Erika's body and suddenly she was engulfed in a maelstrom of
terrible memories, chief among them the orgiastic banquet over which the
merciless general had presided, and at which she had been so cruelly abused by
him and his depraved cronies.
Her mind and body reeling, Erika fell backward into the sheltering embrace
of her be-ribboned escort, feeling safe against the strong, manly body of the
German vice-consul. But her sense of a world gone mad only increased when the
protective arms of the Prussian nobleman released their comforting pressure on
her waist. Erika, dazed and in shock, was powerless to move as the baron's
hands slid slowly up over the thin fabric that clung to her perspiration-damp
torso, before coming to rest on her heaving breasts. "What ... what do you
think you are doing?" she stammered, as the marauding hands proceeded to squeeze
her full breasts through the flimsy silk with a studied disregard for her every
attempt to fend them off.
"Hold still, wench!" the baron growled angrily as Erika tried to squirm
free of his grasp.
"N-no! No!!" Erika screamed, as she struggled frantically to liberate
herself from the baron's pillaging hands, barely conscious of the fact that the
tall Prussian began to claw at the bodice of her dress just as she managed to
extricate herself from his grasp. She managed to pull herself free and spin
away, but at great cost to the material of her new dress. She tried valiantly
to hold the tattered fabric in place over her half-revealed breasts while she
stared in horror at her once-gentlemanly escort, whose distant smile had widened
into a sardonic smirk. "It can't be ... it can't be ..." Erika gasped, as she
shook her head in bewildered disbelief.
Because not only the degrading events of the banquet at which she had
forced to cater to the depraved pleasures of the general and his friends, but
more, much, much more came back to her in a chaotic, whirling rush. All of the
memories that had been lost -- the horror of the shipwreck in which her parents
had met their deaths, her betrayal by her heartless adopted brother, her long
months of sexual servitude to George Chan; her torturous stint as a rower under
the seductive taskmistress, Ming-tsu, and her handsome lover, Li Chang; the
shameful humiliation of being put on display at the Black Pagoda, and the
punishing flogging by the crazed professor. All of these nightmarish,
long-suppressed memories and more flooded over her at once, engulfing her in a
dark, drowning sea of despair. {Chapters 7, 11, 13-14}
Holding her hands to her face in horror, Erika fell to her knees, pale,
faint, and gasping for breath. One glance into the demonic eyes of General Wang
had done what all of Daniel Kauffmann's treatments and therapies had failed to
do - it had restored both her memory and her identity.
"Thank you, Baron von Gutmayer," General Wang said with a slight bow, " for
being so good as to escort our lovely guest to the Yangtze Dragon." The
black-hearted general gave the dazed blonde who knelt uncomprehendingly at the
feet of the three men a mocking grin. The baron had torn her pale dress
entirely off of one creamy shoulder and the gossamer-thin camisole beneath did
more to attract male eyes to the size and shape of Erika's proud-thrusting
breasts than it did to conceal them.
The shaven-skulled general eyed Erika's mouthwatering cleavage with
vulturous rapacity, remembering the sublime surge of power he had felt when he
had administered slap after breast-stinging slap to Erika's ripe-nippled globes.
The night of the banquet had been the most arousing evening he had enjoyed in
many years, and Erika's body had incited him to prodigies of ruthlessness and
stamina that the middle-aged warlord had thought were long since behind him.
General Wang's lips parted in a gloating smile. It would not be long before he
was reliving those moments of masculine mastery once again ...
"You should be honored, fraulein," the general continued with a diabolical
leer, "for you will be our only passenger. The entire staff of the Yangtze
Dragon will be free to ... attend to your needs," he chortled sadistically. "I
am sure that you will find your sea voyage quite ... bracing. Captain McMahon,"
he added, almost as an afterthought, "we shall not be needing you for the
moment."
The red-bearded skipper of the Yangtze Dragon lifted a freshly-lit pipe to
his lips and sucked on its hollow stem thoughtfully, eyeing the crouching,
full-breasted beauty salaciously for a long moment before expelling an aromatic
plume of smoke and leaving the room with a laconic, "Aye."
When McMahon had closed the cabin door behind him, the baron snapped the
heels of his boots together smartly and presented his card to General Wang, who
turned it over in his hands, studying both sides of it briefly before pocketing
it and giving Erika Weiss a feral glance.
"You are most welcome, General," the baron replied. "It is unfortunate
that I only learned recently that you were looking for my young friend here.
Had I known sooner ..."
Just then Erika, who had been looking around, sizing up her chances for
escape, sprang up out of her crouching position and made a bolt for the door,
trying to dart past the tall Prussian. But the baron, moving quickly for a man
of his size, grabbed her by the right arm and, pivoting counter-clockwise to his
left, swung her around and slammed her chest-first into the book case so
violently that half a dozen books tumbled off the shelves onto the floor.
Half-stunned, Erika groaned audibly and slumped to her knees in pain.
General Wang continued as if the baron had done nothing more noteworthy
than swat at a pesky fly, "It is really not I who has been looking for her,
Baron, but George Chan. I left the brothers Chan just moments ago; you know
them, I believe?"
"I have met them only once, at Madame Wong's," said the Baron, remembering
how the three Chans had first interrupted and then stayed on to witness his
memorable subjugation of Kyoto, the petite Japanese beauty he had punished on
the Silken Arch. {Chapter 76} "Clever fellows, those two. Especially
Richard. Even if they do run the crookedest gaming tables this side of Monte
Carlo."
"Indeed, they are clever, " General Wang conceded with a cryptic smile.
"But they are becoming increasingly obstinate, particularly Richard. He is
standing in the way of my plans. This lovely creature," he added, lifting
Erika's chin up so that he could stare tauntingly into her pain-moistened blue
eyes, "will be a useful pawn in my game."
Returning his attention to his blonde captive, the baron planted his left
foot firmly on the floor and then pressed the solid heel of a leather boot
against the base of Erika's spine.
"Unnnghhhh!" Erika gasped in pain as the baron crushed her body against the
sturdy bookshelf, while the wicked Chinese warlord looked on, nodding his shaven
head in malicious approbation.
Erika knelt against the bookcase with arms outstretched, her tender mons
crushed against the first shelf and her silken-clad breasts painfully flattened
against the second shelf by the force of Baron Gutmayer's black boot. The
delicate hands which Ju had manicured with such care gripped the vertical
uprights at either end of the book-shelf, in a vain effort to relieve the
pulverizing pressure of the baron's leg.
"A beautiful woman makes for a lovely pawn, does she not, General?" the
Baron observed, as he admired Erika's hourglass figure from behind while he
ground his thick-heeled boot relentlessly into the upper portion of Erika's
shapely derriere. "Rounded at the top, narrow in the middle and rounded again
at the bottom," he said mockingly. "On occasion I have found it useful to reduce
the mobility of an impudent pawn," he chuckled through tight lips. "But at
other times," he observed cheerfully, "I have found it useful to sacrifice them
... in a good cause, of course."
"Indeed, Herr Baron, " the General hissed sibilantly as he bowed to the
Prussian. "But have no fear. Your sacrifice of this lovely pawn will be amply
compensated. I will see that your gambling debts are forgiven, as I promised."
"See that you do," the Baron said sternly. "I part with fraulein Weiss
only with great reluctance." With those words, he withdrew his boot from Erika's
rounded bottom, relaxing his relentless pressure on her spine. "Forgive me,
fraulein," the Prussian smirked slyly, "but your foolish attempt to escape
forced me to put my foot down."
The general and the baron exchanged knowing smiles while Erika eased her
death-grip on the sides of the bookcase. But she remained on her knees, her
head down, breathing heavily, trying to regain her strength.
The baron glanced at the nautical chronometer on the Captain's desk. "I
do not have a great deal of time, General. May I ..." he gave Erika a
lecherous glance, "collect my ... finder's fee now?"
"Certainly, Herr Baron," General Wang said with a bow.
Erika's brief respite from suffering was shortlived. For a moment later
General Wang grabbed a handful of her golden hair, and hissed, "On your feet for
the Baron, woman! And see that you please him well! After all," he concluded
with a malicious leer, "it will be excellent practice for you! Because I am a
man not easily pleased!" And with those menacing words the General strode
resolutely out of the captain's cabin.
