door left and right. Another at the far end was heavily padlocked.
A pool of water had seeped under the door to the left. I switched off the torch. There was no light from under any of them. I switched it back on.
Weapon up, I stood in the puddle as I closed my other hand round the plastic handle. The moment it was ajar, I was hit by the stench of human shit.
Two naked bodies hung by their feet from the ceiling. One was still alive, though every inch of her was cut and blistered. She was able to support some of her weight by pushing herself up on the back of a chair. She screwed up her eyes against the torchlight and whimpered softly. I didn't understand what she was saying, but I knew she was begging. As I took a step closer, she sounded like she was praying.
Noah heard it, too. His laugh echoed round the building. ''Bout time that bitch learnt a little respect . . .'
The other girl was way out of Basma's reach. She hung like a tongue-dangling carcass in a slaughterhouse. Her teenaged body was covered with black scorchmarks and red blisters. In places, her skin peeled.
75
A flick of the torch revealed butane bottles, gas rings, a kettle. The fuckers made them watch the water come to the boil knowing what was about to happen.
I gave the live girl a slap. I had to make it sound like I'd come up here to carry on spreading the good news. Noah heard the scream and approved.
I left the door open and headed to the one opposite. It opened, but there was nothing inside except a tea chest in the corner. That left the padlocked room.
The keys hung from a nail punched into the doorframe. The reek of shit coming from the other side made me gag. I knew this wasn't going to be a good day out.
The Yale turned and I pulled open the door. The torchlight swept across a huddle of maybe twenty girls, heads bowed, bodies naked, emaciated, bruised and cut. Some were so young they didn't even have pubic hair.
The heads of the two nearest me were swollen from beatings. I pushed them aside. There was no sign of Dom. I moved through the middle of them. All they could see was torchlight, and they were flapping big-time. This wasn't whore-conditioning, this was sadistic shit. These fucks were enjoying this. That was why they were here in-country. They could get away with it.
I left the room and locked them back up for now. It had looked like a scene from a Nazi death camp, or the Idema pictures on the door at the Jock's. The guys hanging, burnt and whipped, the guys in the cupboard, the guy in the . . .
The hanging girl was still whimpering as I ran past and into the empty room. I shone my light on the tea chest.
Noah's laugh rolled up the stairs.
I ripped the nail holding the hasp closed and lifted the lid. The body was big, and white, its skin bruised and battered. They must have jumped up and down on the poor fucker to get him into this thing.
I leant closer. He was breathing.
I put down the weapon and torch, grabbed a handful of matted, blood-soaked hair and pulled. There was a moan. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but it was definitely Dom.
He rasped at me through swollen lips and gaps torn in his once perfect teeth. 'Please, please . . .' His eyes were so swollen they couldn't open.
I tipped the chest gently on to its side and pulled him out. He was cramped into a ball and his joints had locked. He couldn't unfold. Blood and saliva poured from his mouth as his begging went into overdrive.
It was Noah's kind of music.
'Only a few more hours, dude – he's gonna make us fucking millionaires!'
76
I ran back, unpadlocked the other room and threw the door open. The girls cowered in the corner, each not wanting to be the one the torchlight picked out.
'Go! Go! Get the fuck out!' I pointed the Mini-Ero at them, trying to get them sparked up.
A couple of heads lifted and stared. I dragged them out by their hair. 'Go on! Get the fuck out!' I left the rest to it. They looked too scared to move, but they'd get the idea.
I went back to Dom. He hadn't moved an inch. These fuckers hadn't any intention