Rentboy

the iPad from Dr. Howard’s hands and thrust it into Fox’s face. His father
    was on Skype. He wore his camo gear as usual, but the background was unfamiliar. “I’m in Uganda.
    Why are you there and not at home where you’re supposed to be?”
    For no more than a second Fox looked at the man he despised before looking back at the man he
    loved. “They’ve nearly killed Eddie. Do something, please, sir.”
    “Get him to tell them the information they want, and they’ll let him go. They just want the
    information.”
    At once Fox said, “Eddie, give them what they want, or they’ll kill you. Just give them what they
    want.”
    It took Eddie more than a minute to answer, and when he did, his voice was weak with effort.
    “I’ll die first, but I won’t let them kill innocent people. I’m not telling them anything.”
    “Eddie, I didn’t know anything about this. I stole your computer, but beyond that, I’m not
    involved. I didn’t know; I didn’t.” He blinked back tears, ashamed to be emotional before these men
    and his father. And the state Eddie was in, if anyone should be crying, it was him, but he wasn’t.
    Eddie sat stoic even in his bloodied and beaten state. There was vomit on his polo shirt and shit
    soaking through his trousers, but he wasn’t crying, and he was still refusing to compromise his
    principles.
    Through swollen lips Eddie said, “I know, dear.”
    At the words, Mr. Maputwa laughed out loud. Around him his lackeys laughed too. “They are in
    love. Captain Baillie. Your son is in love with Dr. Atherton.”
    “You’re a fucking madman,” Fox said. “And you’re drugged up to your eyeballs.”
    The smack across his cheek stung like hell but didn’t do the damage Eddie had suffered. Eddie
    looked like he’d been hit with a sock with a brick in it. Maputwa leaned into Fox’s face; his fetid
    breath turned Fox’s stomach. “Tell your boyfriend to give me the information I want, and all this will
    be over. You will be free to go and do whatever dogs like you get up to.”
    Maputwa looked at the iPad. “Captain Baillie, what do you recommend next?”
    “Show me the queer,” he said. Laughing, Maputwa turned the iPad toward Fox. “Not him. The
    other queer.” The man’s laugh was insane, literally like a hyena, as he turned the iPad to Eddie.
    “Show me his whole body,” Baillie said.
    Maputwa stepped back to give a better view. “He’s too injured to push him further, and if he can
    take that knee injury and still refuse to cooperate, he’s willing to die for what he believes in.”
    “Yes!” Fox said. “That’s my Eddie.” The next words that came out of his father’s mouth struck
    him a blow like no other.
    “Torture Fox. That will make the other queer talk.”
    “No! No!”
    For one unreal moment Fox thought he had cried out, but he was too stunned to speak.
    Eddie, with a tortured look on his face, had screamed the words. “Don’t hurt him.”
    Maputwa placed the iPad flat on the table and took a bag from his pocket. On the iPad screen he
    razored and snorted a couple of lines of cocaine before thrusting the bag back into his pocket. The act
    seemed to give the others leave to do the same. Several of the men present followed suit. Then
    Maputwa picked up the iPad and walked out of the kitchen, saying, “Tell me how best to do it. I take
    it you don’t want him dead.”
    Across the kitchen Fox’s gaze met and locked with Eddie’s. If he weren’t about to be tortured
    and the man he loved weren’t sitting there with a bone sticking out of his leg and his face looking like
    raw meat, the look would have rivaled the best romantic film. “I love you, Eddie. I love you.”
    “Do you?” He looked really weird speaking through swollen lips that hardly moved.
    Not a sound came from the other men in the room during the exchange.
    Minutes later Maputwa walked back in carrying a towel. “Dr. Howard.”
    “Yes, Mr. Maputwa?”
    It was like they were at the Mad Hatter’s tea party. A gang of complete nutters was doing blow
    while politely using everyone’s proper names. “Hold the computer so that Captain Baillie can watch
    his son.”
    The man with the Charlie Chaplin walk obeyed while Maputwa went to the kitchen sink. After
    rooting about in the cupboard underneath, he pulled out a large black bin bag. Fox couldn’t take his
    eyes off him. As terrified as he was, he felt strangely still. It was like when he cut himself. Everything
    looked