A scream was suddenly formed, more suddenly cut off, the guttural cry that followed searing in its torment. What in the name of God was happening?
Scofield slammed his hand against the door, shouting as though only half- conscious, incoherent, his words slurred and barely comprehensible.
"Stop itt Stop it! What is this? I can't... can't.... Waitl I'll run downstairsl There are police in the square. I'll bring the policel" He pounded his feet on the stone floor as if running, his shouts trailing off until there was silence. He pressed his back into the wall and waited, listening to the commotion within. He heard slaps -and gasps of pain.
There was a sudden, loud thud. A body-her body was slammed into the door, and then the door was pulled open, Antonia propelled through it with such force she sprawled forward falling to her knees. What Bray saw of her caused him to suppress all reaction. There was no emotion, only movement... and the inevitable: he would inflict punishment. I The man rushed through the door, weapon first. Scofield shot out his right hand, catching the gun, pivoting as he did so, his left foot arching up viciously into the attacker's groin. The man grimaced in shock and sudden agony; the gun fell to the floor, metal clattering against stone. Bray grabbed the man's throat, smashing his head into the wall, and twisting him by the neck into the open doorframe. He held the Italian upright, and hammered his fist into the man's lower rib cage; he could hear the bone crack. He plunged his knee into the small of the man's back and with both hands acting as a battering ram, sent him plummeting through the door into the room. The Ita- Hn collapsed over the obstructing sofa and fell senseless to the floor beyond it. Scofield turned and ran to Antgnia.
Reaction was allowed now; he felt sick. Her face was bruised; spidery veins of red had spread from the swellings caused by repeated blows to the head. The comer of her left eye was so battered the skin had broken; a twopronged rivulet of blood flowed down her cheek. The loose-fitting sweater had been removed by force, the white blouse torn to shreds, nothing left but ragged patches of fabric. Beneath, her brassiere had been pulled from its hasps, yanked off her breasts, hanging from a single shoulder strap.
It was the flesh of this exposed part of her body that made him swallow in revulsion. There were cigarette bums, ugly little circles of charred skin, progressing from her pelvic area across the flat of her stomach over the swell of her right breast toward the small red nipple.
The man who had done this to her was no interrogator seeking information; that role was secondary. He was a sadist, indulging his sickness as brutally and as rapidly as possible. And Bray had not finished with that man.
Antonia moaned, shaking her head back and forth, pleading not to be hurt again. He picked her up and carried her back into the room, kicking the door shut, edging his way around the sofa, past the unconscious man on the floor, to the bed. He placed her gently down, sat beside her and drew her to him.
"It's all right. It's over, he can't touch you anymore." He felt her tears against his face, and then was aware that she had put her arms around him. She was suddenly holding him fiercely, her body trembling, the cries from her throat more than pleas for release from immediate pain. She was begging to be set free from a torment that bad been deep within her for a very long time. But it was not the time now to probe; the extent of her wounds had to be examined and treated.
Chapter Sixteen
There was a doctor on the Viale Regina, and a man on the floor that had to be dealt with. Getting Antonia to the doctor might be difficult unless he could calm her down; disposing of the sadist on the floor would be simple. It might even accomplish something.
He would call the police from a booth somewhere in the city and direct them to the pensione. They would find a man and his weapon and a crude sign over his un conscious body.
Brigatisti.
The doctor closed the door of the examining room and spoke in English.
He had been schooled in London and recruited by British intelligence.
Scofield had found him during an operation, involving Cons Op and MI-Six.