Free The Unseen by James McKenna Page B

trophy room the other. In the combat room he stored various equipment including a Samurai sword. He practised daily but had used it only once operationally, to behead Helen Carter. Discovering the keenness of its blade, the sudden and awesome consequence of its use had been stunning.
     
    He recalled every detail. Sweat soaked his naked torso as he stared down at her, knowing after three days and two nights of interrogation he had her compliant. Face to the floor, her wrists tied to her neck then hobbled to her knees, she could not lift or move other than to crawl butt up. He removed her gag.

    “One sound and I will whip your arse ’til raw. You want out of this then you better be totally obedient. Understand?”

    “Yes.” He heard her whine, heard the gargled shiver of her voice before she lapped water from a bowl. It was then she had urinated, destroying what he saw as the perfect ambiance of her submission.

    “You bitch, that’s against military regulations. For that you’ll suffer.” He replaced the gag, muffling protest as he velcroed the straps behind. He pulled up her head by the hair. “A good whipping, I think.” He removed his belt, dangling it before her. “Lesbian, ha. But now you know a real man I guess you think different.”

    “Nummhh,” she begged and shook her head, eyes wet and wide.

    “And if you make one sound, I’ll use this.” He picked up his sword. In the Victorian flat amidst the leafy suburban streets how he had loved the way her body trembled, the shiver of her skin, the total hysteria of her muffled pleadings. He had not planned to kill her, but kneeling at that moment she looked so vulnerable, so perfectly placed. The movement came before he realised. The sword severed her neck in one clean and precise strike so that the body sagged while still retaining its kneeling position. The head rolling sideways onto the blood sprayed carpet, its eyes and mouth open.
     
    The Colonel loved his home movie and gave Mark a bonus of two thousand pounds. Mark cut off her ears as a keepsake and put them in his trophy room.

    Combat training lasted an hour. Then dressed in fatigues, Mark cooked hash browns and beans before switching on his computer. Whistling, he downloaded the latest interactive games Crystal had emailed and spent the next six hours fighting Princess Kay-ling. By means he didn’t understand, Crystal had given Kay-ling Katherine’s face. At 0200 hours, he had beaten her to submission. His reward was her total capitulation. He felt good then, his body lathered in sweat. Mission completed, combat proficiently proven.
     
    “OK, bitch. Time to pay the price of failure,” he said and clicked the reward button.

    Crystal’s computer-generated animations were the best, totally different from those in the regular game. So lifelike was the presentation of his victim that Mark sensed her terror, begging for his mercy before he killed her. It felt good, but now for some reason he wanted to kill Sister Katherine for real. Her image came constantly to his mind, a perfect female face combined with the aura of virginity. When he slept that night he dreamed of her. The Colonel’s instructions were explicit. Operation Clean Cut would commence 0500 hours the following morning. Mark loved that name, Clean Cut. So neat.

     

    “Do you ever surf the Internet?” Katherine asked, her mind burdened with secrets. She pulled her legs onto the single bed and leant back against the wall. Teresa sat at the small worktable, absently doodling on a pad. She was plump, her face round and her smile radiant.
     
    “Of course, for research,” Teresa said.

    “I mean, looking for other things?”

    “We’re not allowed to.”

    “I know, but do you?”

    Teresa shrugged, her bright cherry lips pouting to a rose. “Sometimes,” she said finally.

    “I do, every evening.”

    “I know web addresses for sex sites.” Teresa dropped the pen and swivelled ready for telling. “By accident, of