Programmed for Peril
soon as you can.” The line went dead so loudly that she wondered if he had slammed down the receiver— something she had never seen him do.
She tried to take the time needed to tie up the loose ends of her day’s projects. No hope! Her attention was as fragmented as a broken light bulb. She made the drive to the Palmer mansion in a wash of worry.
No one greeted her at the door. She hurried toward the building’s rear. One of the library’s two wide doors was ajar. She edged it wider and stepped through.
Foster sat behind the 1850s heavy black desk. She had expected to find him angry. What she saw was more frightening.
His tear-smeared cheeks.
His eyes were red, though he wasn’t weeping at that moment.
“Foster...”
“Close the door.” She did as he asked.
He nodded toward a chair that faced a TV and VCR on a rolling stand.
“Why did you invite me here? Why the hurry?” She could normally read his lean face like a newspaper. Now it seemed hunched and huddled from her scrutiny. He didn’t answer. “Foster...”
“Sit. And watch.” He picked up a remote control from the desk. “This morning the mail brought me the videotape you’re about to see and will have to explain.”
“I don’t understand this!” She felt very threatened. Foster had never before come close to being threatening. Anxiety welled up like muddy water. She found herself edging forward in her chair even before he used the remote.
A flash of video snow, then—oh, Lord! It was she, naked, bound, blindfolded! How could... And there! Carson, Carson. He hovered over her, fingers curled, like the devil above a sought soul. She knew the place, the larger sleeping platform at Castle Carson. When? Her heart sank. During one of those endless weeks during which she had lost track of time and he cruised like a man o’ war upon the little lake of her life.
Bad enough the color and several cameras at work. Hear the clear sound track! It fell upon her ears as corrosive as acid. She heard afresh Carson’s growled obscenities, his vocabulary vivid and imaginative. And her responses! How had she allowed such... smut to escape her lips? Her pleas for further degradation betrayed her true nature as the uncontrollable outbursts of a torture victim condemned him to death.
How had this tape been made? Why? Of what use could it ever have been to anyone? Had Carson in his devilish genius found a way to peer into the future? Her stomach heaved, and she felt the color drain from her face. Oh, look at her! Look at what she was doing....
Carson stood over her, thick nine-inch phallus in hand.
“Turn it off!” she screamed.
Foster stared mesmerized at the screen. She wailed inwardly at what must surely be his arousal.
“Foster!” She reached out for the remote. He swung it away, eyes on the screen. Fresh tears gathered in his staring eyes. Even so his face reddened further. She knew what that meant. “Foster, turn it off!” He didn’t move.
She sprang up and rushed at the wheeled cart. She heaved and bowled it over, howling as it toppled. Though TV and VCR crashed down, they continued to operate. So clever, these Japanese! She dived for the extension cord and jerked it out of the wall with both hands. She lay on the long soft pile of the Kirman carpet, fingers wrapped around the black wire. She pressed forehead to hands and began to sob.
She heard Foster’s voice, heavy as ballast. “Explain,” he said.
Explain Carson and Queen of My Heart? She had warned him that Carson was no ordinary man. Could an ordinary man have reduced her to what Foster had beheld on that evil tape? She tried to gather herself to rise to the massive task of exposition. When she struggled to stand she shivered as though an icy blast blew on her from the stinking pit of her past.
She first did her best to expand her earlier description of Carson. One of those who achieved success early and often in life, he dared so many more things than those hobbled by mediocrity, she said. With their victories mounting one on another they tossed aside rules and laws meant for commonplace people and wrote their own. Those few like Carson, who had fully maximized their potential, exported daring into all phases of their lives. So doing, they didn’t hesitate to pursue their tastes, whether for wealth, power, or... domination.
As for her, she had been primed for him by her family life. Without ever understanding, she had at that time badly needed a figure to help her
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