It was the sound of something going “Pop!” that woke Maria up. She had been
asleep only a little while it seemed, having got home with Joseph somewhat
late that evening.

After waiting an hour for the flying boat to arrive, Joseph and Maria had
been among the first to leave Hiro Atamo’s party. Joseph didn’t want to hang
around any more, especially since he had refused Atamo’s offer. Joseph
didn’t like the man, and was glad for the opportunity to go. Maria was
somewhat flattered at Atamo’s attention, but she too had been glad to leave.
The more time they spent on the boat the worse Joseph’s temper got. He
wasn’t a violent person, but his moods did put her on her guard. The two of
them spent the time they had left on board looking for David and Tonya, but
neither could be found, nor could any of Atamo’s people tell them where they
were. This worried Maria a little, but as David seemed to know Atamo well,
she figured that they were part of a more private party somewhere. Once back
in the city, Joseph had Maria dress up and the two of them went out to eat.
By the end of the evening Joseph’s mood had much improved and by the time
they went to bed he was back to his old self again.

But now something had woken her up. Maria would have looked around, but it
would have been pointless. She was sleeping blind, as she normally did, the
leather harness on her head held on the blindfold that prevented her from
seeing anything. She couldn’t take it off because her hands were cuffed
behind her. Her ankles were also cuffed together, separated by only three
inches of chain. This was all normal, it was how she had been put to bed
since the first day Joseph brought her home. She could hear though, and she
could talk. She cocked her head, but all was silent. No, not quite. Someone
was moving around the room. “Joseph?” Maria said quietly. There was movement
at the cage door. Maria slept in an ornate golden cage, almost big enough to
stretch out in, in one corner of the master bedroom. The cage was made out
of steel, decorated in gold leaf, and looked somewhat like an over sized bird
cage. Maria always thought it rather beautiful. A spotlight shone down on her
from above, illuminating her naked body in a way that always made Joseph hold
his breath in admiration. He never turned it off, that way at any time of
the night he could look over and see his sleeping beauty. That was why Maria
wore the blindfold, so she could sleep too. The cage door opened, the sound
familiar to the nervous woman inside. “Joseph? Sir?” she said once again.
She felt hands at her ankles, gloved hands. They gripped tightly and pulled
her hard. She began to scream, this was not right. The hands got another grip
on her waist and Maria began to twist around, trying to break free. It was no
use however, her sleeping bondage made it easy for whoever was grabbing her
to pull her out of the cage without too much trouble. Maria began calling out
Joseph’s name, convinced that whoever was doing this to her wasn’t him. With
a heavy thump her upper body exited the cage and fell the two feet to the
floor. The wind knocked out of her, Maria didn’t put up much resistance as a
rubber gag was shoved in her mouth and fastened behind her head. She began
screaming again, but this time hardly made a sound as the gag did it’s job
well. She twisted around as best she could, in an effort to break the hold on
her body, but a second pair of hands came to help the first and she was
easily rolled onto her front. She heard the sound of tape being ripped from a
roll, and her legs were doubled up behind her. Lifted up a little, they were
bound tightly in place, calves to thighs, her hands now touching her feet.
More tape, and her arms were bound to her body. This made it harder to move,
but she still tried. One set of hands let her go, the other set able to hold
her down without any help, and a moment later Maria felt a sharp jab in her
butt. Immediately she began to feel drowsy, and all the strength in her body
seemed to flow away. She didn’t loose consciousness though. Once she had gone
limp, the second set of hands let go of her and she heard the two intruders
messing around with something beside her. She couldn’t see this, but what
they were doing was unfolding a large vinyl bag of the sort used to transport
basket balls and other sporting equipment. Unfolded it was just big enough
to transport a hogtied woman. They lifted her into it and zipped it up. It
took a little jiggling before the man that was to carry her felt comfortable
with the strap over his shoulder. When they were ready to go they left the
way they came, through the front door with the easily picked lock. They
didn’t look at the figure in the bed, a pool of blood now growing on the
floor under a dangling hand. Maria fell back to sleep on the ride down in the
elevator. Unable to fight the drug in her system she was unaware of how the
two intruders, dressed in sweats and talking loudly about the Nicks, breezed
past the doorman covering the entrance to Joseph Booth’s apartment building.
She didn’t know how close she had come to being found and rescued when the
men, exiting the building, literally bumped into an off duty cop as he was
walking home. The cop thought that the lumpy looking bag was filled with
sports equipment, and, this being the city that never sleeps, thought nothing
of two men going to the gym at three in the morning. The men, after a quick
apology for running into the guy, made their way casually to their car. They
put the bag in the back seat and drove into the city traffic. No one saw them
leave the car and transfer to another. No one saw them leave this second car
and get aboard a large flying boat tied up along side a floating dock. No one
saw anything.

Tonya was also woken up by a loud sound, only for her the sound came from a
fat Japanese man, yelling at the top of his lungs for his charges to wake up.
There was a rattle of chain and Tonya climbed stiffly from the hard bunk she
had been trying to sleep on. She watched as a smaller man pulled out the last
few links of the long chain that had locked down all the girls in the room to
their bunks, the chain having passed through hoops at the end of each bunk
and through hoops on the ankle shackles of each girl. Once again Tonya cursed
David under her breath, and hoped to God that his plan would work.

After Hiro Atamo made his pitch to buy Tonya, he and David began haggling
over the price, with David playing the reluctant seller. Tonya began
protesting right away, saying that she didn’t want to be sold. Failing to
shut up after she had been told to, David asked for a few minutes alone with
her, which Atamo reluctantly agreed to. The couple went out into the hallway.
“Look,” David whispered to Tonya, “as long as we are guests we aren’t going
to see anything that Hiro doesn’t want us to see. The only people who are
going to get below decks are his own. So that means you have to become one of
his people.” “But…” began Tonya. “No buts. You’ll do it because it’s the
only way for the both of us to get out from under.” “How am I supposed to do
anything as one of his slaves?” Tonya asked him viciously. “You aren’t.
Just keep your eyes open. Look around and see if those agents are below deck,
and maybe those other Kidnapped girls. I get invited to these parties pretty
often, the next time I’m aboard I’ll ask to see you. You can tell me what
you’ve seen then, and then I can get the Feds to raid this place and free you
and their people.” “You have this all figured out don’t you?” “I hope so.”
David replied honestly. Then he back handed her across the face, drawing a
yelp of pain and a shocked look from her. “That’s so Hiro won’t wonder what
we were talking about out here.” Without another word, he dragged Tonya back
into the room and tossed her to the ground. Tonya let herself cry, trying to
get into the act of the abandoned woman, something that wasn’t hard to do,
while David and Atamo settled on a price. It wasn’t long before they shook
hands and Tonya was taken away, below decks, where David had planned for her
to go. He didn’t look at her as she was carried from the room. Instead he
waited until she was gone and then shut himself up in an empty cabin and got
drunk, only leaving when the last plane was ready to go.

Looking around her at the cramped bunk room, Tonya wished that it had been
him that had been brought down here. She stood at attention with the twenty
or so other women in the room, her features and her height the only real
difference between her and the others. She was clothed the same, that is she
wore a heavy metal chastity belt that hurt her hips, and also heavy chains on
her ankles and wrists. The manacles were leather lined metal, similar to
those that Liz Morning had been wearing back at the Kennel, although those
didn’t have the lining to protect her skin. Tonya also looked the same for
like every woman in the room, her head had been shaved until it was
completely bald. The only hair she had now was her eyebrows and lashes. The
twenty women were the ships compliment of slaves, she thought. Some were
senior enough to warrant duties above decks, serving Atamo’s guests and
generally being seen. The rest, like her, served below decks.

After having her head shaved and her bondage applied the night before, she
had been taken down to the galley where she was given the job of cleaning
vegetables for the crew’s night meal. All the instructions were given to her
in Japanese, punctuated with jabs from a big wooden spoon that the cook
always carried with him. He had handed her an apron which she had put on,
grateful for something to cover herself with, and with much prodding, shown
her what to do. As she worked she caught sight of a familiar face. Kina. She
was on her knees, naked and chained as Tonya was, scrubbing the deck with a
big brush. She didn’t look the worse for wear from being out on the prow of
the boat (Tonya later found out that she had only been out there twenty
minutes. The cold North Atlantic water would have given her hypothermia if
she had been out there much longer), but she didn’t look happy. Two other
girls moved about the galley, also chained and in aprons, doing what ever
work was required of them. They too were oriental in appearance. But there
was one woman in the room that Tonya couldn’t get a proper look at. She was
on the far side of the galley, her back to Tonya, washing the mountain of
dishes that was stacked up beside her. When one of the other girls passed
close to the woman, Tonya saw that she was taller than average. She also bore
the scars of a recent whipping, clearly visible on her naked body, for she
wore no apron or even a chastity belt. All that she had on was a set of very
heavy looking chains that jingled loudly as she moved. From the marks on her
wrists Tonya could see that the woman’s manacles had no inner linings. It was
a long time before the woman turned slightly so that Tonya could get a look
at her face, and because the woman’s hair had been shaved, it took a moment
for the face to register. It was one of the missing agents, Rhianna Summer.

Looking about the bunk room now, Tonya was sure that the agent wasn’t there.
She hadn’t had a chance to talk to her the night before, but then she figured
she would have plenty of time to get to know her, for who knew how long it
would take David to find a way to reach her. Meanwhile, she figured she had
better learn enough Japanese to stay alive. The fat Japanese started
bellowing what sounded like orders to the room, and the girls turned and
started to file out. Tonya followed, watching carefully so she wouldn’t screw
up. The entire line snaked into a small room with toilets and sinks and Tonya
took her turn at both, relieving herself and taking a quick wash with a
sponge. All too soon the group was ordered out, given rain slickers (except
for poor Kina) and shepherded toward a ladder up which they climbed out onto
the open deck. The sea was higher than it had been the day before, and the
wind was cold and wet. Following the lead of the girl in front of her, Tonya
picked up a brush and bucket from a pile, and knelt down to scrub the deck.
So began her second day as one of Atamo’s slaves.

Maria woke up and stretched. She was so surprised that she could do this that
for just a moment she forgot what had happened to her. She looked around at
the unfamiliar surroundings, and called out for Joseph. Instead of his
reassuring voice, she heard someone behind her go “Shhhhh.” Maria looked
around and saw that her company was a young, bald, oriental woman of
exquisite beauty. She lay on her side, naked except for the manacle on her
ankle to which a chain was connected, and a gold chastity belt. Maria saw
that she too was chained by the ankle, the rest of her sleeping bondage now
gone, even all her rings had been taken off, but she wore no chastity belt.
She reached up to feel her head, all her hair had also been shaved, the
smoothness of her skull felt very weird. Both women lay on a huge bed.
“Who…?” she began to say. The woman quickly put her finger to her lips and
made a desperate gesture for silence. Still a little groggy, Maria obeyed.
The room she was in was simply decorated, and was unmistakably a bedroom.
Japanese prints hung on the walls and a few throw cushions were spread
around, but apart from the bed the room was empty of furniture. The bed
itself wasn’t really a bed, but a very large futon. Three doors led out of
the room. Glancing over at the other girl, Maria tentatively got up on her
feet, something that drew no protest from her companion. At first she thought
the rolling she felt was the after affect of the drug she had been given, but
she soon realized that it was the motion of a ship that she felt. A sinking
feeling made it’s way deep into her guts. That’s when one of the doors
opened. “Ah, it is my beautiful one. Awake at last!” said the man in the
doorway. Maria turned and cringed, it was just as she had feared. Hiro Atamo
The other girl in the room rushed forward off the bed and took up a position
of submission, on her knees, forehead to the floor, arms extended toward
Atamo. “What’s happening?” cried Maria. “Where is Joseph?” Atamo stepped
into the room, followed by another man who carried a big bull whip. Maria’s
eyes were instantly drawn to it, the memories of being whipped herself sent
shivers down her body. “You would do well to follow the example of your
companion.” Hiro Atamo told her softly. Maria was frozen, staring at the
whip. All she could think about was the pain she had suffered, and also the
pain suffered by her friend Melissa. When it looked like Maria wasn’t going
to move, Atamo made a slight gesture to the whip holder, who uncoiled it with
a snap toward Maria’s side. Maria jumped, and then dropped to the floor,
copying the position of the girl beside her. She was surprised she didn’t
feel any pain, then figured out she hadn’t been hit. The man had skillfully
avoided striking her, instead making the whip snap just a few inches from
her. He was well aware that no one marked any of Hiro Atamo’s slaves with
out either his direct order, or a very, very good reason. But that didn’t
apply to the Government woman below, he thought to himself. “Very good. You
see, you can be taught to obey me.” Atamo said, almost kindly. “You must
not concern yourself about Mr. Booth, any longer. You are in my service now.”
“What did you do to him?” Maria asked, almost silently. “Silence!” Atamo
shouted. There was quiet in the room, although Maria was convinced that
everyone could hear her fast beating heart. “Very good. Maria, what a
western name that is. Lyrical, but inappropriate. I will call you Yoshi from
now on. You will forget the name Maria.” Maria didn’t dare speak, the image
of the whip still in her head. “How are you supposed to address your Master
when you are told something, Yoshi?” Atamo said with an edge to his voice.
“Yes…Master.” Maria/Yoshi replied. “Remember that.” Atamo ordered. “Yes,
Master.” Atamo smiled and left the room through another door. Not told to
break position, both women waited, watched over by the man with the whip.
Atamo came back in with another gold chastity belt in his hands. Maria
glanced up at it and was shocked to see that it’s inner surface had two
dildos fastened to it. “Stand up, Yoshi.” said Atamo. Maria got up. Not
knowing where to place her hands, she held them behind her. “Spread your
legs, wide.” Choking back a sob, Maria did as she was told. Atamo moved
forward and fastened the waist belt around her, then he brought the crotch
strap up between her legs and forced the dildos into her. Maria grunted and
bit down on her lower lip as she was being filled, crying inside at what was
happening to her. The only thing that she was grateful for at that moment
was that both dildos had been greased. At least there was little pain. The
strap tight against her groin, Atamo locked it on and stepped back. “Resume
you place on the floor.” Gingerly, because of the dildos, Maria got down next
to the other woman. “I will not need you today, so neither of you will leave
this room. You have my permission to talk, quietly. Misa, you should spend
the day making sure that Yoshi knows what is to be expected of her. “Yes,
Master Hiro” The girl replied. Atamo nodded, and both men left the room.