Preface
In The Penitent, Kathy Ryan, a young, wealthy American widow, submits to the will of
Ezra Stein. Stein is more than twice her age, grossly fat, ugly, but brilliant. After
Stein subjects her to a number of degrading obscenities, she agrees to marry his retarded
and deformed stepson, Richie. Richie vulgarly abuses and humiliates her before her friends
and in public. A witness to her debasement is Mr. Satomi, one of the world’s most
powerful men. Kathy becomes unexplainably attracted to Satomi.
After she signs a contract to become Satomi’s concubine, she is handed over to Abul, the
chauffeur of the rich Japanese. Abul is a ruthless thug whose hatred of American women is
pathological. He defiles and torments Kathy in her own home. She escapes to London, but
is apprehended and brought to Satomi’s “Training Facility” in Northern Pakistan. There,
she is horrified to discover that her training Master is to be the brutal Abul.
This book begins with the training of Kathy Ryan and ends with her trial.
CHAPTER ONE – The Gift Withheld
Kathy, naked under her caftan, sat in the stretch Lincoln between the two Asian women who
also wore the traditional Muslim dress. Except for the upper halves of their faces, all
three women were completely covered from their heads to their sandals. A few minutes
after the limousine had pulled away from the cinder block building next to the airport’s
single landing strip, the car phone rang. Miko, the older Japanese woman, picked up the
phone. She was surprised to hear Abul’s voice. “How many needles were prepared with the
drug?” he asked.
“You wished for her to show you great respect before your friends. We instructed her
about what she was to say and do. She is ready to obey you without question. In order to
do this, we prepared six needles,” Miko answered.
“Too many,” Abul said.
“I think with less she would not have done it...I mean, she would have resisted.”
“But with six?”
“It is true that she’s been heavily drugged and that I have put her mind in a place
where she can do little except what I tell her to do. She will say that she wants the
gift. She may even accept it.”
“Well, there’s been a goddamn change!” Abul shouted. “Satomi sent new instructions
and Madam Khe agrees. There’s to be no gift.”
“That is bad. We work hard. I think she is ready,” Miko said.
“Put her on,” Abul ordered. Miko handed Kathy the phone and lifted the black cotton
veil so the young woman could speak. “Rich American widow?” Abul asked.
Even Miko’s drugs could not insulate Kathy from the fear that swept over her at the
sound of his voice. “Yes,” she said softly.
“You wish to honor me in the way we spoke of?”
She did not answer immediately. She stared ahead, unblinking, then a shudder shook
her body. She forced the hateful image of him from her mind. “Yes,” she whispered.
“You will be disappointed to hear it, but there will be no gift, at least not today.”
Kathy relaxed slightly. “But you will serve me and my friends in other ways, and you
will show that you are thankful to be permitted to give such service.”
“I will be grateful. I will do whatever pleases you,” she paused, glancing at Miko
who nodded. “Master,” Kathy added.
“To obey me and please me in all things...that is the only reason you have been sent
here to the Facility.”
“I know, Master.”
“And when you are brought to me?”
Kathy hesitated, closing her eyes, she said as if in a hypnotic state, “I will kneel
before you, Master, and bow my head to kiss your feet.”
“And then?”
“I will thank you.”
“Miko has instructed you in the proper method. Unless I order otherwise, you will
always greet me in this way.”
“Yes, Master, always.”
“When you arrive at the Facility, Miko and Mi Jong will tell you how you are to be
used and they will prepare you.”
“Thank you, Master,” Kathy said. She handed the receiver to Miko who took it,
listened, nodded once, and returned it to the holder. Kathy sat rigidly between the two
women and stared straight ahead. They drove on in silence.
The Facility was a low single story complex built against the base of a treeless
mountain. Before leaving the limousine, Kathy was blindfolded. Miko and Mi Jong led her
through the iron-gated entrance. A heavy oak door swung open as the three women
approached. Miko spoke to someone, and the door closed behind them.
In another part of the Facility, an angry Abul confronted Madam Khe, a thin Chinese
woman who, although she could easily have passed for forty, was in her mid-fifties. She
made a striking appearance: porcelain skin, high cheekbones, jet black hair pulled back
from her face, piercing green eyes, high arched eyebrows, a wide mouth and perfect teeth.
Her full lips were painted bright red. She wore mascara and eye shadow. She had small
high breasts, a narrow waist, slender hips, strong well-proportioned legs, and very tiny
feet. She was dressed in a tight fitting floor length black chignon, which was slit above
her knees on each side. Black patent leather heels were held to her bare feet with narrow
straps. The red lacquer on her toes and long fingernails matched the color of her
lipstick.
“Goddamn it!” Abul complained, “The American bitch is ready. She wants it. Miko
said so, and she said so.”
Madam Khe looked up from behind her huge ebony desk and shook her head. “You keep
forgetting, Abul, that Mrs. Ryan is the property of Mr. Satomi. She is here to be broken
and trained. She is not here to inflate your pathetic ego and certainly not to satisfy
your obsessive wish for revenge.”
“The bitch ordered me out of her house!”
Madam Khe leaned back, “I don’t blame her. You are ugly, mean, and you smell bad.
I would have done the same.”
Abul’s face reddened. He clenched his fists and stared down at the small woman
behind the desk. “You go too far,” he said.
“I don’t go far enough,” she returned his stare unsmiling. She reached for a piece
of paper on her desk. “This is a fax from Mr. Satomi. These are his orders. You
understand...orders.” Abul looked away, and then nodded his head. Madam Khe continued,
“He wants us to break her spirit, to completely destroy it but without drugs.”
“That’s impossible,” Abul protested. “She will never agree to...to...”
“Accept the gift unless she’s drugged and hypnotized?” Madam Khe interrupted.
“Yes,” Abul answered, “the thought of her, the thought of anyone accepting it makes
even me uneasy.”
“Mr. Satomi and I believe that only when she is willing, without needles, without
drugs, without Miko’s suggestions, to submit completely and unconditionally will her
spirit be destroyed. If she accepts what we propose freely, she will do anything Mr.
Satomi requires...anything!”
“But how...” Abul began.
“We start with the needles and Miko’s hypnotic suggestions. This woman seems to be
very receptive to Miko’s skills. We also continue to remind her that failure to comply
will put her beloved sister-in-law in danger. Gradually, we reduce all of these while at
the same time stimulating her sexual needs without fully satisfying them. We train her
slowly and methodically to associate sensual excitement and release with the very things
she finds most repulsive.” She leaned forward, tapping her long pointed nails on the
desk. “If we do it right, Abul, there will be no need for drugs or intimidation. She
will accept. When the training is complete and we deliver her to Mr. Satomi, he will own
her body and her mind. She will have no spirit, no will of her own. Then, her devotion
to him is certain to be absolute, unconditional.” She sat back.
“I hope you are right.”
“I better be right for both our sakes.” She stood. “I understand Miko used six
needles that were prepared with the drug?”
“Yes,” Abul said, “that seems like too many.”
“Miko would not have used them if she didn’t believe it was necessary. This
afternoon the American woman will do whatever you tell her because of the drugs and
because she can’t resist Miko’s instructions. It’s as if her will has been temporarily
taken over by Miko. After the drugs wear off, she probably won’t even recall what she has
done. That’s no good. That’s what Mr. Satomi wants us to change. She must be trained to
obey without the use of drugs, and afterwards she must be able to remember.”
“To accept what we propose without Miko’s needles...” Abul shook his head, “I don’t
think she will ever do that.”
“I think you are right, Abul. If she cannot be made to accept the gift we’ve spoken
of without drugs, then we will have to prove her spirit is broken in another way.
Everything is a process. One step at a time, Abul. Now, since she has been made ready,
and since we can’t have you lose face before your guests, we will proceed with the
alternate plan.”
Abul shrugged. “Miko says the drugs and her instructions to the woman will be
effective for about six more hours. It won’t be the gift, but she will be well used.”
“Good. I’ll stay here and watch on the monitor.” She pressed a button on her desk
and a panel in the side wall opened to reveal a large television screen. “We will talk
afterwards.” She gestured toward the door, dismissing him.
In a small room next to the reception hall, Miko and Mi Jong had been busy
transforming Kathy’s appearance. They removed the heavy make-up and reapplied the kind of
cosmetics Kathy herself would use if she were meeting her husband in town for dinner.
They dressed her in a pleated white skirt, a white silk blouse that buttoned down the
front, and white pumps with a very high heel. She was given an expensive leather bag with
a shoulder strap. She wore no bra or panties. While dressing her, Miko repeated over and
over in a soft monotone a long list of instructions. After every repetition she would
ask, “You understand?”
Each time she asked, Kathy turned to face her and answered, “Yes, Miko, I
understand.” Then Miko would have her repeat exactly what she was to say and do. When
they were finished, Kathy was told to lie down. There was a narrow bed against one wall.
Miko knelt beside her and spoke while she stroked Kathy’s forehead. After awhile they
heard a single chime from a bell in the reception room. “We go now,” Miko said.
The two older women led Kathy out and across the hall where a door swung open for
them. The center of the marble floor was covered with a large many-colored circular rug.
In a semicircle around it five men sat in beautifully upholstered chairs. Each man wore a
white caftan. Abul occupied the middle chair. Kathy, her head bowed, approached to the
edge of the carpet, her heels clicking on the marble floor. She then got to her knees and
crawled to Abul, where she lowered her head to his bare feet. They were dirty, the long
toenails almost black. Gently she pressed her mouth to the space between his big toe and
the one next to it. Tentatively she parted her lips and with her tongue she touched
between these two toes, first on the right foot, then on the left. She crawled back a
little way and stopped, her head still bowed. “Thank you, Master, for allowing me to kiss
your feet.”
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