"Eight soldiers !! No. There are more !! Plan A !! Plan A !! Plan A !!"

As soon as she saw the soldiers walking briskly down the street, Hua knew where they were headed. [see Hua pic] She turned from her post at the front window of the small house toward the foot of the stairs and screamed the warning to the three women sleeping in the loft. "Ten seconds !! Hurry !! Hurry !! Plan A. Plan A." Four a.m. Of course the soldiers would come in the middle of the night.

Hua raced toward the back of the house, to the door leading down to the cellar, and screamed the same warning to the two women below. "Plan A !! Plan A !!"

Damn, she thought. Why bother naming it Plan A when there was no Plan B or any other plan? No. Their only "plan" was to have one of them act as lookout each night, and to have two of them sleep in the cellar so that, if the soldiers did raid their house, at least those two could escape through the underground tunnel in the cellar. It had taken them eight months to build that tunnel just for that purpose.

Hua knew that there was little chance that any of the three women sleeping upstairs would have time to make it down to the cellar without leading the soldiers right to the tunnel. So the instructions to those who could not safely make it down were clear: do whatever you can for as long as you can to stall the soldiers from finding the tunnel so that the two who escape -- and maybe others -- will have as much of a head start to get to the next safe house. Since this one could no longer be called that.

But why weren't the others down already, as they had practiced? Hadn't they heard her scream the warning? Did she have time to warn them again? Or should she make her own escape? The sudden pounding on the front and back doors, and the shouts and screams of male voices, answered those question for her. The soldiers would bang the door down within seconds. She could not risk trying to make her own escape. She had no choice. She quickly locked the door to the cellar, pulled down the drape hanging over it to conceal it, and dropped the key down a small hole in the floor where it could not be retrieved. Her own fate and that of her comrades upstairs was now sealed, she knew. But she knew it was what she had to do.

Upstairs, Kai-Ling, Bao and Zhen had been startled awake by Hua's screams. They were already dressed in the androgynous tan pants and shirt that all of the women in the house wore. They even wore these clothes to bed to be ready to move as quickly as possible in the event of a raid. But now they too heard the front and back doors crash down as the men made their way into the house, even before they had reached the staircase. They knew that they had no chance to reach the tunnel. So they had decided to wait upstairs to focus the soldiers' attention on them, and not on the cellar.

In the cellar Niu and Yi realized that the time for which they had prepared had come, and that they were the two fortunate ones whose turn it had been to sleep in the cellar that night. [see Yi pic] Yi handed Niu her boots, and, after quickly putting her own on as Niu lifted the trap door in the corner of the room, Yi dropped down into the tunnel, then waited for Niu, who was right behind her. Before closing the door its final few inches, Niu reached out to grab the crude stick lying next to the door. The stick's end was attached to a small rug on the floor, and she pulled the stick to drag the rug completely over the trap door. The soldiers would certainly discover the trap door under the rug, but it might take them a few more minutes before they did, and these minutes might prove precious to Niu and Yi as they made their escape through the tunnel to its end, behind the third house down the street, which, with any luck, would be beyond any perimeter that the soldiers might have set up to capture anyone fleeing the house. Yi would lead them to the only other safe house of which she was aware. Part of the group's protection was that only the rebels' very top leaders -- which neither Yi nor Niu were -- knew the location of more than one other safe house so that, in the event of capture, most could not provide sufficient information to the government soldiers to destroy too much of their operation.

Niu hoped that the house to which they were headed had not also been raided. She felt guilty locking the trap door behind her. But this was their agreement. The others had only 10 seconds to make their way down to the cellar. After that, the two in the cellar had been sworn to save themselves with no thoughts of the others, because it was crucial that at least some of them survive the raid and report to their comrades that their safe house was no longer safe. And the number of safe houses operated by those few Mainland Chinese still loyal to the Chinese on Taiwan was dwindling, as government agents became more successful in infiltrating their cells, and the public became less sympathetic with the rebels' actions, which these days could only be labeled as terrorist. But someone, they felt, had to keep the mainland Chinese aware of the tyranny of their government, and that task, they believed, unfortunately fell to them.

Chapter 2

To try to lead the soldiers upstairs and away from the tunnel, or at least stall them from searching the back of the house, Kai-Ling ran to the top of the stairs and headed right toward the soldiers that had entered through the fallen front door. She could see that there were at least eight soldiers in the front of the house and she could hear more in the back and outside. This was more than they had ever imagined would be used to raid their house.

"What is going on?" Kai-Ling tried to sound surprised by the sudden intrusion. She received no answer, but two soldiers raced up the steps in two bounds, grabbed her by her wrists and dragged her down to the bottom. She felt herself quickly spun around, her wrists handcuffed behind her back and a black hood pulled over her face and tightened, then secured by a metal collar around her neck. At least she could still breath. The hood must have at least a few air holes, she thought, so it was not designed to suffocate her. But maybe relief was not what she should feel. Maybe a quick suffocation death would be preferable to whatever it was that the soldiers had in store for her and the other captured freedom fighters. Although this was not what the Chinese called them. No. What the Chinese called them was traitors. Kai-Ling felt a pull on the collar and realized that it was attached to a long chain, and that one of the soldiers was holding the other end.

Hua reached the front of the house to find Kai-Ling chained and hooded. Fists flailing, Hua thrust herself into the group of soldiers to try to keep their attention on the front of the room, but it took the soldiers no more than 10 seconds to subdue, chain and hood her in the same manner as Kai-Ling. As Hua's world went dark, she heard the leader of the group scream up the stairs, "If there are anymore of you up there, you have five seconds to come down or we will shoot your comrades and then come up and shoot you." Hua could hear him close to her. "How many more?" he asked. "Lie and you die."

"Two." Hua and Kai-Ling answered in unison.

Bao and Zhen moved to the top of the stairs. [see Bao pic] "Hands clasped behind your neck!" the Captain ordered. They obeyed. "Are there any more of you up there?" Each shook her head. "Walk down slowly." Again, they obeyed. As soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs, the Captain turned to two of his men. "Search upstairs. Make sure." Two soldiers ran up the stairs. The Captain next turned to two other soldiers. "Check to see if they found anything in the back of the house." The two dashed around the staircase and out of sight.

As soon as Bao and Zhen reached the foot of the stairs, the waiting soldiers handcuffed their wrists behind their backs, as they had Hua's and Kai-Ling's, and secured metal collars around their necks. But as the soldiers prepared to pull the black hoods over their heads, the Captain signaled them to wait, and motioned them to move his four captives to the near wall of the empty living room next to the staircase.

The Captain took the chain holding Bao's collar and pulled her to the center of the room, then handed the chain to one of his soldiers. The other soldiers stood along all four sides of the room's walls.

The Captain placed his hand below Bao's chin and lifted her face to stare into her terrified eyes. Then he pushed her away, and, without a word, slapped her hard across the left side of her face, then back again with his palm across the right. Without pausing, he pulled his arm back and punched her as hard as he could in her midsection. Bao grunted, her body instinctively trying to bend and fall forward to protect herself. But, as her knees buckled and her body lurched, the soldier holding the chain attached to her collar pulled hard on it, forcing her to remain standing.

The Captain punched Bao hard again in her midsection, twice, three times, her body unable to do anything to avoid them. Bao started to retch, and the soldier holding the chain now pulled it up until she had to look up to the ceiling. The vomit that escaped her mouth dribbled down the side of her face, while she gagged and coughed on the vomit that fell back into her throat.

The Captain kicked Bao between her legs twice with his knee. Her eyes glazed. He nodded at the soldier, who released his grip on the chain. Bao immediately fell to the floor, curling up in a ball, still retching, with her wrists handcuffed behind her.

The soldier rolled Bao onto her back, her arms under her, and pulled her legs down. She wore no shoes. None of them had had time to put on shoes. He grasped the bottoms of her pants and pulled them down and off, revealing her formless white panties. He pulled her panties off, leaving her wearing below her waist only her bush of dark pubic hair. The soldier knelt down between her legs, and ripped open her shirt, exposing her small breasts.

Without looking again at the Captain, the soldier squeezed Bao's breasts hard, leaned down and ran his tongue over her left breast, then sucked nearly her entire breast into his throat. When he finished with it, he sat back upright, still on his knees, unzipped his trousers and pulled out his penis.

Wrapping his arms around her neck, he moved his body down until he lay completely on top of her. He guided his penis to its target, and, without concern that her body was not ready for his, pushed his arms down on her shoulder, his toes hard against the floor, and thrust himself into her as deeply as her unprepared body allowed. He eased himself out and thrust in again, and continued, his pace quickening. Bao screamed, and, while screams of pleasure are sometimes mistaken for screams of pain, there was no mistaking Bao's screams. She was being brutally violated by a detested Chinese soldier in front of a dozen or so other soldiers and her three comrades. All that she felt was pain. Physical and psychological pain that increased as some of the soldiers began to chant "harder, harder" in rhythm to her violator's quickening thrusts, while others screamed vulgarities about her, her body, her breasts and that her "asshole should get ready to receive a dose of powerful sperm to combat all the impotent sperm that she had received from screwing every soldier on Taiwan." All the while, the soldier's weight pressed her back into the metal handcuffs holding her wrists under her.

Just as the soldier held his final thrust and released everything that he had into her, his own grunts now nearly as loud as Bao's own, two gunshots rang out from the back of the house.

Chapter 3

The other captives shrieked in panic, fearing the meaning of the two shots, as one of the soldiers returned from the back of the house. "We found a locked door hidden behind a drape. We blew off the lock. It leads to a cellar. It looks like there was at least one woman living in the cellar, maybe more. But none are there now."

The Captain's face grew red. He turned to Hua and stuck his face up against the hood covering hers. "You fucking cunt. You told me that there were only two more women in the house when I asked you," he screamed, then pulled back and slapped her hard through the hood. A ring on his finger caught Hua's lip and she could feel the blood form in the corner of her mouth. She violently shook her head. "No. No. You asked me how many more were upstairs."

"And you didn't think that I wanted to know how many were in the whole house? How many were downstairs?"

"One more," Hua lied immediately.

"Making a total of five?"

"Yes." Hua wished that she could see whether the others objected to her providing these lies, which certainly would endanger them all if discovered, or whether they understood that she had to offer a number now that the soldiers had discovered the cellar, and that "one" was the best number she could give them. If they caught one of their two escaped comrades, maybe they wouldn't look for the other.

"That means that the one who escaped," the Captain looked at the soldier who had brought the news of the cellar, "either left before we arrived or there is an exit from the cellar. Check the cellar thoroughly."

"Yes, sir," and the soldier was out of sight instantly.

"There is a price for your treason and your treachery in not giving me a truthful answer the first time that I asked." The Captain's voice was cold, as he nodded toward Bao, who was still lying on the floor, her violator standing over her zipping his pants. "Get her up." The soldier yanked the woman, now naked except for her open shirt, to her feet. The Captain motioned to the far wall, about 15 feet away, and the soldier pulled her by the chain attached to her collar until he had forced her chest against it, her back to the others. He placed a black hood over Bao's face, and tightened it around her neck. He took a small knife out of his waistband, cut through the back of Bao's shirt, and pulled it off, leaving Bao wearing only the black hood and the handcuffs that secured her wrists behind her back.

The Captain turned to the other three captives, although only Zhen could actually see what was happening, and she was again screaming. "What are you going to do? No. No. Why? She did nothing !! You can't !!" Hearing her screams, Kai-Ling and Hua joined them, not exactly sure what the exact danger to their group was. The Captain made no effort to silence them, but instead screamed over them. "You will learn. There is always a price for disobedience !!"

The Captain reached into his waistband and pulled out a revolver. Zhen's screams grew louder as he raised it to eye level, straightened his arm and pointed it toward the far wall, directly at Bao's back.

Two loud pops in quick succession followed, as Zhen's screams reached their climax. The bullets struck Bao in the middle of her back between her arms, just above her handcuffed wrists. After each shot, she emitted a loud groan as the front of her body was pushed harder against the wall. Then her body started to slide down the wall until her buckling knees turned her body half way around, so that her back was against the wall as she slid farther down it. Another loud pop from the Captain's revolver hit her right between her naked breasts and her body crumpled to the floor on its side, a pool of blood growing under her.

The soldier standing at the side of the far wall walked up, knelt beside her and pulled off the hood. He felt her neck for a pulse, and, finding none, shook his head. The Captain whispered to another of his soldiers, who soldier joined the first, motioned to him, and the two dragged Bao's body by her wrists past the three still screaming captives, and placed it on its back on the lowest four steps of the staircase. "Leave her there to let any other traitors who might enter this house know the fate they will suffer." He smiled at Zhen. "Or worse," he laughed. "Take these other three back to headquarters. Let's see how much they know. And how much they can take." Kai-Ling felt her heart sink. Bao had been beaten, raped and murdered. Kai-Ling, Hua and Zhen were now captives of their mortal enemies. All had suffered this fate to save Niu and Yi. And now it looked as if their sacrifices might be in vain.

Kai-Ling felt herself being pulled out the front door to a waiting military truck. She, Hua and Zhen were lifted onto the open back of the vehicle. Kai-Ling knew that she would soon have no time to worry about Niu and Yi. No. She had no idea what to expect because none of her comrades who had been captured had ever been seen again. All had disappeared without a trace. Unfortunately, she knew that she would soon find out why ... and how.

Chapter 4

When Yi and Niu reached the end of the tunnel, they knew they could not be certain that government soldiers would not be waiting for them when they pushed the cover open. They had made sure that the tunnel exited into an area not visible to the street, an area where few persons walked. But there was no point worrying what might await them. They had no choice. Yi pushed the cover open and pulled herself out. No one was around. She breathed a sigh and helped pull Niu out, then put the cover back on. The two quickly moved toward the street. Yi looked down it toward their house. She could see that government soldiers had surrounded it. Obviously, they thought they needed only prevent anyone inside from escaping above ground, and had not thought that there might be a tunnel that extended past their perimeter.

Their destination was about a mile away. The rebels didn't want their safe houses too close together, but neither did they want it to take too long to get messages from one to the next. A mile seemed a good distance. Now the two women wondered whether it was too far. It would take them 15 minutes from the time that Hua shouted the warning until they could reach it, and another 10 or 15 minutes for the rebels there to gather what they needed to take from the house and to destroy what they could not take before abandoning it. Yi and Niu expected that at least one of their comrades would not withstand the tortures that she would face, but they hoped that they all could at least hold out long enough.

It was still not yet light. No one else was on the street. Yi and Niu were careful to keep to the shadows, to walk in the alleys behind the houses and building. This slowed their progress, but they could not risk being seen, since the only persons likely to be out in the middle of the night were those soldiers trying to capture them.

When the house finally came into view across the street, Yi motioned Niu to stop. They needed to cross unseen, move to the back of the house, tap four times on the window, then pause, tap three more times, pause and then tap twice. The rebel on guard would then lef them in through the side door. They had to tap loud enough for the guard to hear, but not so loud that anyone else might hear.

Just as Yi, who was senior to Niu in the rebel organization, was about to motion for them to cross, she saw a light from an approaching vehicle. They moved away from the street and lay prone on the ground until the vehicle passed. An observant passenger in the vehicle might have spotted them, but apparently word of the raid on the rebel house had not yet reached those not directly involved in it. Yi whispered to Niu that Yi would go alone first, and then Niu should follow in one minute, but Niu shook her head, saying it was safer to go together, so that their was just one risk of being spotted, rather than two. Yi assented, rose and walked as quickly and quietly as she could across the street to the side of the house, then around to its back, followed closely by Niu.

Yi tapped out the signal, the noise sounding deafening to her ears, and then moved to the side of the house. She was greatly relieved when the side door immediately opened, and she and Niu moved into the darkened house as the door closed behind them.

"I am Yi Feng. She is Niu Le. Call a council," Yi told the male rebel who had opened the door. "Our house has been raided. Four captured, we believe. We two escaped through the tunnel. We will all need to leave here as fast as possible."

Without a word, the man motioned the two to follow him, leading them to a door in the center of the house. "Wait here," he ordered them, left and, within minutes, returned with the others in the cell, three men and two women. One of the men opened the door and led them down a flight of stairs to the basement. He turned on several dim lights. The room was large and completely below ground level. This was obviously the "meeting room," where light would not penetrate the walls so no neighbor would know that the rebels were often plotting late in the night. Thick foam-like material lined the room's walls and ceiling, apparently for soundproofing, so that nothing said in the room, even in the heat of passion, could find its way to the ears of anyone on the outside.

"Tell us what happened," the male leader looked at Yi and Niu.

Chapter 5

When the truck stopped inside the gated military compound, the three prisoners were helped out. Kai-Ling's and Hua's hoods were removed, and the three were led inside a long narrow stone building on the left. One hallway. One room on each side. All numbered. And Kai-Ling could here the cries of some of its occupants. Part of the intimidation process, she thought.

The two soldiers holding Hua's arms opened the door to Room 4 and led her into it, the heavy door closing behind them, as the rest continued down the hall. When the others reached Room 6, the soldiers holding Zhen brought her into it. Kai-Ling was marched to Room 9 near the end of the hallway. Isolated and separated for questioning Not only did the Chinese want them to tell what they knew, they wanted to make sure that all of their stories matched.

Room 9 was small. No more than 10 feet square. Against one wall was a small table and chair. The rest of the room was empty except in its center was a strange chair made completely of black metal. While the chair legs in front and back were normal, the chair's seat was very shallow, extending no more than halfway to the front legs, leaving the front half of the chair open. Two vertical metal bars extended up the chair's back, each about an inch in diameter, about eight inches apart, until they joined in a circular arc at head level. Extended from these poles was a horizontal metal bar at chest level. And spaced every ten inches or so on all of the bars were black leather straps and bands. There was no doubt who was to occupy this place of honor.

"We can remove your clothes or you can. Do you prefer to do it yourself?" one of the soldiers offered.

"But there is no reason," Kai-Ling began to protest. "I am ..." Before she could speak further, the other soldier slapped her so hard across the back of her face that he knocked her unconscious. "I'll take that as a no." His companion caught Kai-ling before she fell to the floor, and they carried her to the chair in the center. In a matter of seconds, they pulled Kai-Ling's shirt and undershirt over her head, then forced her back against the vertical poles at the back of the chair, and her shoulders over the horizontal bar at chest level. They were pleased to find that Kai-Ling's breasts were nicely shaped and larger than might have been expected from her small frame.

They secured the cuffs to Kai-Ling's wrists, lower and upper arms, then pulled up the unconscious Kai-Ling's head and secured the straps around her neck and forehead to hold her head upright between the two vertical bars. Next, they took the much longer bands hanging from the bars at chest level and wrapped them tightly around the base of Kai-Ling's breasts, cutting off much of the blood flow to them and forcing them to jut straight out. The two soldiers pulled Kai-Ling's pants and panties over her shoes, spread her legs, and used the straps to secure her ankles and thighs to the chair's front legs. They moved back to examine their handiwork and to wait for Kai-Ling's look of terror when she regained consciousness and realized her situation.

Their wait was not long. As Kai-Ling slowly opened her eyes, she tried to move her arms, then her legs, without success. When she then tried to look down, she could not move her neck either. Her eyes darted down, seeing her bondage and her nakedness. Her chest began to heave in fear, as she remembered where she was and how she had gotten here.

"We didn't have time to enjoy you, Miss Rebel," one of the soldiers taunted her, "but don't worry. We can make up for that later."

There was a noise from the heavy door as it creaked open. A male and female, both dressed in plain clothes, entered. They moved in front of Kai-Ling, obviously trying to determine how much resistance she would provide.

"What is your name?" the male asked.

Kai-Ling summoned her courage. "Fuck you," she hissed. "Fuck all of you."

The man smiled and moved his face close to hers. "How very unoriginal. I suppose next you'll spit in my face." He grabbed Kai-Ling's engorged right breast and squeezed enough to cause her to cry out in pain. "And I can do so much worse to you. So last chance. Your name?" He squeezed her breast harder, then released it and moved back to his female companion.

Kai-Ling again stared at him for a second before responding. "I'm surprised you don't understand the word 'fuck,' since that's what you are. A little fuck."

"Actually, I do know the word," the man responded, as Kai-Ling felt a thick cloth gag pushed from behind into her throat and then secured. "It's what I'll let these soldiers do to you after you've told me everything and begged to fuck me. All of which you will do." The man nodded at the woman. "Time for you to begin your work."

Kai-Ling's eyes, which were about all she could move, followed the woman as she walked to the table, picked up several wires and moved directly in front of Kai-Ling. "These are called 'memory enhancers'." She showed Kai-Ling two long wires, one red, one black, with alligator clips on their ends, before attaching one to each of Kai-Ling's nipples. As she released them, they bit deep into Kai-Ling's flesh, and trickles of blood escaped from each. "No, I said memory enhancers, not mammary enhancers," the woman laughed as she walked back to the table. When she returned, she was holding a metal ring to which two more alligator clips were attached. She reached down between Kai-Ling's legs, used her fingers to separate Kai-Ling's labia, and attached one clip to each. These bit even harder and Kai-Ling let out a short scream. "Now these," the woman explained, "are the super memory enhancers." The woman clipped a wire to the metal ring she had just attached, then took the ends of all three wires and moved to the chair in front of the desk. Kai-Ling could see her attaching them to a metal box on the table. It was more than obvious what her captors had in store for her.

"Now twice you could not even remember your name," the voice now was the man's. "Let's give you some enhancement." [see Kai-Ling pic]

Kai-Ling heard a click, and instantly felt an intense cutting pain throughout her entire torso. Her body jolted and tried to move. Her muscles tensed and then spasmed painfully. She screamed unintelligibly through the thick gag. Her eyes bulged. She felt burning between her legs and in her nipples. She felt her body begin to sweat profusely.

Finally, Kai-Ling heard a second click, and the pain lessened, as she gasped for air, her chest heaving hard. The woman approached and removed the gag. "Did the enhancer work? Do you remember your name?"

"Kai-Ling. Kai-Ling Wong." She could not get the words out fast enough.

"Kai-Ling Wong. Good." The voice was again the man's. "And how long have you worked for the rebels?"

"Six months. Six months." Kai-Ling did not hesitate. She was doomed, she knew. She just wanted to avoid any more incredible pain. At whatever cost.

"And the name of the woman who escaped? Was there only one woman who escaped?"

Now the choice was harder. Now she was being asked to betray others, not just herself. Others who would then face what she was now facing. She couldn't betray them. She couldn't betray her cause. But she couldn't stand any more torture. Certainly not any more "enhanced" torture. What could she do?

Chapter 6

"You're the lucky one," one of the two soldiers informed Zhen as soon as the door to Room 6 had closed. Looking over the room, Zhen did not feel very lucky, however. In its center was a wooden rack that looked to be about seven feet long, six feet wide and three feet high. Ropes at each of the four corners were built into the rack. The ropes for her wrists were wrapped around a large wooden cylinder whose purpose was obvious. Zhen knew who soon would be wearing them.

The two soldiers pushed Zhen toward the table. She saw no benefit in resisting. Even if she somehow could overcome these two soldiers, the door to the room, its only exit, was certainly either locked or guarded from its outside. Probably both.

"Get on the table on your back," one of the soldiers ordered her. No surprises so far, Zhen thought. And no reason to begin to feel lucky, either. She obeyed, and, knowing what the next order would be, spread her arms and legs toward the corners. The soldiers immediately fastened her ankles to the ropes, then pulled her wrists up and secured them at the base of the cylinder, allowing her back to remain flush against the wood. She wondered how long she would have that luxury. In a matter of seconds Zhen's 5' 3" frame was on its back on the rack, spreadeagled and stretched tightly. Zhen guessed that most of the rack's occupants were taller than she was.

Her eyes followed one of the soldiers as he walked to a table at the far end of the room. The two tables were the room's only furniture. When he walked back to her, she saw that he was holding what looked like a small tube of nasal spray. He immediately jammed it into her left nostril and pushed the tube so that a full dose sprayed up, then did the same in her right nostril.

"We'll be back in five minutes to see how you're feeling," he said, and the two left the room, leaving Zhen to ponder how they expected her to feel. Within a minute she knew. Her heart started to race. She felt a tingling sensation begin to grow between her legs, as her nipples hardened against her shirt. Some kind of aphrodisiac, she realized. That's why they said that she was the lucky one. Within the next two minutes, Zhen wanted to reach down to stroke herself between her legs. But she was bound and could do nothing. She tried to close her legs to rub one against the other, but she could not. She tried to twist her hips to one side, then the other. Something. Anything, to help satisfy the fire that was quickly building inside her.

Five minutes they said. Wasn't it five minutes by now? Wouldn't they be back soon? Wasn't their plan to take her here on the table when they returned? That would help. That might help a lot, in fact. Yes. She wanted them to return. Soon. Soon.

When the two finally re-entered the room 15 minutes later, they saw that Zhen had been staring at the door, waiting for them, her hips rotating as far as her position allowed. "It's called PT-141. Maybe you've heard of it," the one who had sprayed her explained. "The side effects haven't been investigated yet, but I don't think that you're worried about those right about now, are you?" He moved to the right side of the table, while the other moved to the left. Both wore Lieutenant's uniforms.

"Would you like me to help you take off that shirt?" Lieutenant 1 asked.

Zhen nodded quickly, licking her lips.

Lieutenant 1 moved his hand to Zhen's neck and unbuttoned the top button of her shirt, then proceeded to move down, finally opening the shirt after he had unbuttoned them all. Zhen's nipples were hard and seemed to be trying to poke through her white undershirt. Her breathing was deep.

"Should I continue?" Again Zhen nodded, then moved her eyes from the Lieutenant's to the bulge in his pants as she continued to writhe her hips as much as she was able. Lieutenant 1 obliged, pulling her undershirt up over her head, and then under her head as it stretched between her shoulders, revealing her average sized breasts, and hard and elongated brown nipples.

"I'm going to have to tear off your pants, if you want them removed. Is that OK with you?" Zhen looked down her body to her pants, then back to the Lieutenant, opening her mouth and continuing to lick her lips with her tongue, seeming to suggest that the Lieutenant should think about using his own tongue on her.

The Lieutenant nodded to his fellow officer, who took a small knife out of his belt and cut the waistline of Zhen's pants and panties at the side, then walked around the table to cut them on the other side. He then climbed onto the table, straddling Zhen, grabbed the top of her pants and panties, and, in one motion, pulled them down and then completely off. Zhen now wore nothing but her boots, although her body rested on her open shirt and her neck on her undershirt.

Lieutenant 1 moved his hand between Zhen's legs. "You are soaking wet, aren't you? This PT stuff really works, doesn't it?" Zhen nodded, her mouth still open. "Of course, it usually doesn't work this fast. But we gave you a very high dose." He looked at Lieutenant 2. "You want her first?"

It was not a question that required an answer. Lieutenant 2 immediately moved to the foot of the table, pulled his pants down to his ankles, and pulled out his already erect penis. Then he climbed onto the table on his knees and moved his hands to the sides of Zhen's neck. She raised herself as far as she could to kiss his neck and to move her hips up as high as she could. With a single thrust, Lieutenant 2 was deep inside the gushing Zhen, who was screaming in ecstasy.

Chapter 7

Yi gave the rebel leader a brief account of what had happened -- the raid, the immediate need for escape, the fact that none of the other four had made it to the basement, their journey to this next house, and her fear that they had no more than 20 or 30 minutes to escape. The Leader, however, would not be rushed.

"No. We have more time. They will take their captives to their interrogation center. That will take some time. They will be firm, but deliberate. That is what we have learned from soldiers who have defected to our side. Their methods, though, are thorough, and our comrades will talk. But I'm not going to rush to the next house without more thought. Particularly not with two new women whom I don't know."

"Why you son of a bitch." Niu took a step toward him. "After what we just went through. After what has happened to our friends and compatriots. We came here to save you, and you doubt our loyalty!?" Yi restrained Niu, who regained her composure. "Go ahead," she continued. "Do your thinking. Just don't take too long or you'll sacrifice everyone here as well."

"You protest too much," the Leader looked at Niu. "The first question is how did the government learn about your house? Someone in your cell must have betrayed you. You are the two who escaped. Why shouldn't we believe that it is one of you who told them?"

"Look," Yi offered calmly, "that they learned of our house doesn't mean that we had a mole. They might have just discovered somehow by chance. We don't know." She looked around the room, but could see that the others were not convinced. "And, even if we had a mole, it could have been one of the other four. One who will be taken into custody like the others, but then released."

"But that doesn't rule either of you out as the traitor," the Guard who had let them into the house offered.

"Except," Yi continued, calmly and unfazed by the insinuations against her and Niu, "we came here to warn you. If I were the traitor, would I have come here? Would Niu have come here were she the traitor? No. If there is a traitor -- and I don't think there is, because I know these people who I lived with and who fought for our cause -- it is not Niu and it is not I."

"Strong argument," the Leader conceded, "but is it strong enough to take the chance?" He looked around the room, one by one, at each of his cell members. One by one each slowly shook his or her head "no."

"We need further questioning," one of the two women cell members said. "It may not give us the answer, but it may. And, if it does not, then I don't think that we can take either of these two with us and risk infecting the next house."

Now it was Yi who was incredulous. "What are you saying? If we can't prove our innocence, you are going to do what? Are you threatening your fellow comrades?"

"Enough," the Leader shouted. "We have already lost two houses in one night, and four members of our resistance. We can take no chances. Stand up," he looked at Yi and Niu, "and remove your clothing for examination. Then we will begin your questioning."

"This is absolutely crazy," Niu had not spoken in a long time. "If you think for a second ..."

"I think," the Leader interrupted, as two of the male cell members grabbed Niu's arms, "that you will do as we tell you or we will assume that you are hiding something and will suffer the consequences." The two men pushed Niu toward the center of the room. Yi joined her their without the need for assistance. Without waiting for Niu to begin, Yi unbuttoned her shirt, pulled it off and handed it to the female cell member who had insisted on questioning. When she pulled off the white undershirt that she was wearing underneath, she revealed small but firm breasts consistent with her thin frame. Yi then reached down, pulled off her shoes, and slid off her pants, again handing each item of clothing to the female cell member. Standing now just in her thin white panties, she looked at the Leader, her eyes hoping that he would indicate that she had stripped far enough. To her surprise, he nodded that she need not remove this last item. Yi hugged her shoulders with her hands to try to hide her breasts from the view of the male cell members. All eyes then shifted to Niu, standing next to Yi, who nodded to her.

Niu paused for several seconds, and then decided that she needed to show even more strength than Yi. Niu leaned down and removed shoes, then her pants, stood up and pulled both her shirt and undershirt over her head in one motion, revealing her small breasts, each with a small ring through its nipple. She dropped her clothes on the floor, pulled down her panties, revealing herself to be completely shaved, kicked them off, and then stood up and wrapped her arms around her chest in the same manner as Yi. Yi immediately pulled down and stepped out of her own panties, then clasped her hands behind her neck and stood facing her interrogators. Niu glanced at her, then clasped her own hands behind her neck to duplicate Yi's pose. But Niu's body shook.

Chapter 8

Hua too found herself in a small, nearly empty prison room. No chair. No desk. No table. All that was in the room was a metal bar, about an inch in diameter and six feet long, held horizontally about 30 inches above the floor by a thick vertical metal bar on each end.

The two soldiers pushed Hua toward the center of the room, then moved near the door. "You are to remove all of your clothes, throw them all into that far corner, and then bend yourself over the bar, face down." One of them stated in an even unemotional voice.

Hua looked back at the soldiers. Resistance was futile, she decided. She would obey, but she would not be humiliated. She refused to be humiliated. She reached down and removed her left shoe, then her right. She then pulled down her pants and stepped out of them, deciding that she would not undress in the order that the two soldiers expected, but would first remove her clothes below the waist. She tossed her pants and shoes to the far corner to which the soldiers had directed her, then slid down and stepped out her panties and tossed them in the same direction. She opened the buttons of her shirt, pulled it off, and finally pulled her undershirt over her head. After tossing the rest of her clothes into the corner, she turned to the soldiers, completely naked, clasped her hands behind her head rather than trying to hide her body, and stared at them, trying to look defiant and proud.

The soldiers stared back at Hua for several seconds, admiring her thin body, small breasts and patch of black hair between her legs. This was a pretty one. But soon, they knew, she would be just another sobbing, screaming, captured female rebel begging them not to do the horrible things to her that were part of their interrogation methods.

"Bend over the bar." One reminded her.

Hua took a deep breath to try to restore her courage, then turned and walked to the bar, which was at the level of her hips. She noticed for the first time metal cuffs at the base of the bars at the end, two on each side. Hua bent over the bar and could just touch the floor. After a few seconds, she heard the soldiers approach and secure her ankles and wrists to the cuffs. She was now bent over so that she was staring between her legs, which were chained wide apart.

"Now, we're going to ask you a few questions," one of the soldiers told her, as he put his hand between her legs, and began to move his fingers around and then into her, "but first we need to get you ready for what will come if you do not answer truthfully." The soldier continued to rub his fingers against her until he could feel her moisture on them. Then he stepped back. Hua looked up to see that the second soldier had moved to the corner opposite where she had thrown her clothes and pushed a button that opened the bottom half of the wall on the right side.

And when she saw what was behind that part of the wall, Hua screamed. And continued to scream. Her courage, her refusal to be humiliated gone. All pretense gone. And, she knew, all resistance gone. Because, behind the wall was a 140 pound Great Dane held on a short leash by the soldier.

"Oh, my God, no. No. You can't be serious. You're barbaric. You're insane," Hua began to scream. Hua pulled as hard as she could on all four of the cuffs restraining her limbs, until her wrists and ankles were chafed and red and cut. Desperate. Absolutely desperate.

The soldier allowed the Dane to move behind Hua. She felt his nose and then his tongue touch between her legs before the soldier pulled him back. The second soldier moved in front of Hua, knelt down and lifted her head. "You are going to talk to us aren't you?" She felt the Dane's forepaws against the middle of her back this time, before the soldier pulled him back. "Next time he won't pull him back. And trust me. He hasn't seen a female anything for a long, long time."

"Yes. Yes. Yes. I'll talk. I'll tell you whatever you want. Anything. Please. Yes. Yes." The words flew out of Hua's mouth. "Just get him away."

Suddenly the soldier and Dane moved behind the squatting soldier, in Hua's view, to remind her what would happen if she did not answer all the questions. "What's your name?"

"Hua Yen."

"And how long have you worked to betray your government?"

"I have always been loyal to the Chinese," Hua instantly responded. The soldier released the leash about three inches and the Dane jumped and barked at Hua, who immediately lost control of her bladder, her urine bouncing off the hard stone floor. "Eight months. Eight months," she quickly changed her answer.

"How many women escaped by the tunnel?"

"Two," Hua answered immediately before she could even think to lie and without recalling that the first time that she had been asked the question she had said that there was only one.

The soldier continued to hold Hua's hair to force her face to look at his. A smile came over his face. "Two. Useful. Good. Very good. And what are their names?"

"Niu Le and Yi Feng. Niu Le and Yi Feng." Hua wanted to make sure that the soldier heard her.

"Go get the Major," the soldier questioning Hua ordered the soldier holding the Dane. "Tell him that we are getting useful information here." The other soldier moved behind Hua, tied the Dane to the inside door knob, and left the room to fetch the Major. Hua knew that this was the question for which they most wanted the answer. A truthful answer might endanger half a dozen rebels or more. Had Yi and Niu had enough time to reach the house and get them all out to the next house, the location of which none of the captives knew? Hua just didn't know. But she knew what she did not want. She just had to hope that they had had enough time.

The door to the room opened, and the soldier returned with the Major just as Hua answered the question. "The yellow house on the corner of Harmony Road and Eternity Road."

The soldier interrogating her released his grip on her hair and her head dropped. Once again she found herself staring between her legs. The soldier walked toward the door. "We have the number. We have their names. We have their destination."

"She is an ordinary rebel. She knows nothing more," the Major responded. "Good work. She has served her purpose." The Major nodded and left the room.

The two soldiers followed, one holding the Dane's leash. The door closed and the soldier removed the leash from the Dane's collar. He then looked at the other soldiers. "We can't just leave her in there. Should we check that she's all right?"

The second soldier smiled. "I'll check" He opened the door halfway, until they could see the backside of the bent-over Hua. "She looks OK to me," he said, letting go of the door. Seconds before it closed fully, however, the Dane raced inside the room. And within seconds after the door closed behind him, as the two soldiers started walking down the hall, they could hear screams from behind the door more hideous and inhumane than any they had heard from Hua before.

Chapter 9

"Let's get started," the Leader motioned to a corner of the room. Two cell members immediately moved there, and carried back to the center of the room .... a wooden horse. "We get to the truth quicker this way," the Leader explained, "and, as you correctly told me," he looked at Yi, "we haven't much time to find out the truth."

Yi felt herself being lifted, and began to struggle, but to no avail. She soon was placed, as gently as possible, on the left side of the horse, facing outward, one leg on each side. Not that placement on such a device could ever be gentle. Yi screamed as two cell members pulled her legs down and attached a chain to each ankle, then a weight to force her to hold her legs in place. "I'm on your side," she screamed. "This is how you treat your fellow rebels !!??"

By this time a struggling Niu had also been lifted onto the horse, and placed in the same position on the right side, facing outward, her back to Yi's back. Two cell members then tied their arms around each other and wrapped a rope around their necks, the other end secured to a beam in the ceiling. [see Niu and Yi pic] Both of their body's quickly began to sweat from the pain. The others watched and waited for their Leader to begin.

But before he did, one of the female cell members, who had been examining the new arrivals' clothes, suddenly walked up to the Leader and whispered in his ear. She handed the Leader a shoe. The Leader motioned towards Yi. "Take her off, Give her back her clothes." Immediately, other cell members released the weights from Yi's ankles, untied her from Niu, helped her off the horse, and handed her clothes to her. Seeing this, Niu started to panic, knowing that the release of Yi could not bode well for her.

The Leader held up what looked like a thin small button, about an inch in diameter. Niu stared in horror, "This was found in that one's shoe." He nodded toward Niu. "It is a tracking device."

"No," Niu screamed. "I don't know what that is. I've never seen it before. It's not mine." She tried to turn to plead her case to the other cell members, but her movement increased the pain between her legs. "You have to believe me !!"

The Leader rose and walked over to the weeping, pleading woman. He put his hand on her shoulders and pressed down. She screamed. Keeping the pressure on her shoulders, he looked at her, face to face. "Are you saying it is not yours?"

"It is not mine."

"Then whose is it?"

"I don't know."

"Did you know where this safe house was before today? Before you came here? Not all cell members are told where the next safe house is. Did you know?"

Niu's eyes widened. She did not respond. Her failure to deny answered the question.

"Your companion here, Ms. Feng. She was the one who knew the location of this house, wasn't she? She led you here." Again Niu did not respond. The Leader looked at Yi, who had dressed by now. Yi nodded. "So, if she were the traitor," the Leader brought his face close to Niu's, "she wouldn't need a tracking device to tell the government soldiers where we were. She just would have told them !!" The Leader pressed even harder on Niu's shoulders, and Niu's screams now were a combination of pain and tremendous fear. "But you. You didn't know. So you needed the device. To lead the government soldiers here. And they are probably very close by now."

The Leader moved away from Niu to address the others. "Operation Move begins now. you all know the drill." The others immediately began well-organized movement. Most went back upstairs, but one or two gathered papers from the basement. Niu, sitting and sobbing on the horse, was momentarily forgotten now by all of them. "Ms. Feng, let me give you your assignment. The plan is to be out of here in 12 minutes."

Chapter 10

Kai-Ling too realized that her situation was hopeless, and that she could only hope that Yi and Niu had made it to the safe house to warn the others of their need to leave immediately. She had received a slight reprieve when the man, who had been addressed as Major, even though he wore no uniform, had been called out of the room for a few minutes, but now he had returned and moved directly in front of her. He stared at her without a word. She knew that she was expected now to answer the last question.

"Yi Feng. Yi Feng escaped."

"And was she the only one?"

"Yes." Kai-Ling figured that this was the safest answer, since it was the one that Hua had already given in the house. Telling the truth now might be viewed as a contradiction.

The Major frowned. "And we were doing so nicely up to now, but that was the wrong answer, Miss Wong." The Major nodded slightly to the woman, who turned a dial, and then again flicked the switch to the box in front of her. The pain between Kai-Ling's legs and in her chest was now 5-fold what it had been, as the current jumped between her breasts and legs and around her body. Kai-Ling's screams were constant, interrupted only by quick gasps for more breath to allow her to continue to scream. The piercing screams faded only as her throat grew hoarse, but, even then, they continued, the raspiness adding to the sound of desperation.

Finally, the woman flicked the switch again. Kai-Ling's lungs continued to heave for a full minute, seeming at times to be ready to jump out of her chest.

"How many?" The Major repeated the question.

Kai-Ling stared forward, her eyes large, her mind somewhere far off. But she heard the question. "Two," she responded more like a hypnotized automaton than a human being. "Yi Feng and Niu Li. They went to the house on Harmony Road." The Major nodded. Kai-Ling's information matched Hua's precisely.

"And is there a question that you would like to ask me?" the Major smiled, "or would you prefer that I nod again to the Captain." So the woman was a Captain.

Having barely caught enough breath to respond, Kai-Ling shook her head. "Major, please ..."

"Please what, my little rebel?"

"Please ... please fuck me."

"There. I knew you could do that. But no. That's a task I'm going to leave to my subordinates."

The Major headed to the door. "Good work, Captain. I'll be in my office co-ordinating our action. I want everyone there in five minutes." The Major left the room.

The Captain stood up. "You heard the Major. No time for you, I'm afraid. Close things up here for now. We'll be back later." The Captain followed the Major.

One of the soldiers walked up to Kai-Ling, checked to make certain that all of the straps were still secure, after all of her thrashing. Including the bands at the base of her breasts, which remained painfully engorged. The soldier flicked his fingers against her nipples. Kai-Ling groaned. Then he slid his fingers down between her legs. "I'm going to have my fun with you later." He leaned over and kissed her cheek.

The soldier walked back toward the door, while the second soldier stood by the table. "He's kinder than I am, " the second soldier shouted toward Kai-Ling. "I get my kicks other ways." He adjusted several dials on the box, then clicked the switch before the two left the room, leaving Kai-Ling alone.

Within a few seconds, she felt a jolt in her left breast. A few seconds later, the jolt moved between her legs. The shocks were not excruciatingly painful, no more than moderate. But they continued every few seconds. With no particular pattern. And within a few minutes, Kai-Ling was screaming, her body tense and sweating from the knowledge that another shock would soon come, but where she could not predict. Nor could she know for how long her captors would leave her like this.

Chapter 11

In room 6, neither of the Lieutenants had been able to take enough time with Zhen to satisfy her greatly heightened condition, and now she was begging them for more.

"I will give you more, in fact endless pleasure, but you must first answer a few questions for me," Lieutenant 1 told Zhen, who nodded quickly.

"Where is the safe house to which your two companions went?"

Zhen frowned and turned her head. "I don't know. Not all of us are given that information. I was not told."

The Lieutenants had enough experience -- both with the rebels and with the effect of drug PT-141 -- to believe that Zhen's response was probably true. "How many escaped?"

"Two."

"And what were there names?"

Again Zhen frowned. "Yi Feng was one. The other was named Niu, but she just joined recently and I don't think I ever learned her last name. If I did, I don't remember it. Please now, no more questions. Please. I need you." The Lieutenants looked at each other and nodded that they had all the information that Zhen could likely give them. [see Zhen pic]

Lieutenant 1 moved to the far table and returned with a small box, which he place on the table immediately between Zhen's ankles. He then pushed a button and a motor inside the box began to hum. Slowly, a large metal phallus moved through the center of the front of the box about 16 inches, and remained there for 10 seconds before moving back until only the 10 inches of the phallus itself remained outside the box. The Lieutenant then moved the box up until it was between Zhen's knees. A few seconds later, the phallus again pushed forward, until its full length was completely inside Zhen before withdrawing. "And this one doesn't tire," he smiled at Zhen, whose eyes were already closed, her mouth open. Being thicker and longer than either of the Lieutenants', Zhen let out a scream of pleasure as the device pushed and held itself inside her before withdrawing. "It's about 10 seconds in and three seconds out to start, but then it gets faster," the Lieutenant explained. "You are going to be in heaven, lucky one."

The Lieutenants moved to the door of the room, watching the restrained Zhen moan in pleasure. They watched for three more cycles, then left the room. Zhen was unaware that they had left.

Chapter 12

The Major looked around the room to make certain that everyone was present.

"We have confirming information on the identities of the two escapees and their destination from our three captives, although not all of them knew the location of the next safe house, which we know is the rebels' method of operation, thinking that it provides them with more protection in the event of capture."

The Major rose and walked to the wall behind him, on which was displayed a map of the city. "The escapees' destination is here." He picked up a pointer and pushed it against the map. The spot where he pushed now began to blink red. "It is the yellow house on Harmony Street. Two of the three captives identified this house. But, beyond even this information, we have more." He looked around the room to make certain that all were paying attention, then moved to a box on his desk and flicked a switch. Immediately a green light began to blink on the very same location as the red light.

"That is the transmitter from our agent who we placed in the house that we raided just an hour ago. She was one of the two who escaped. She had provided information that this would be the night that she was to be in the basement in the event of a raid. Through an underground tunnel." The Major moved back to the map.

"We let the two of them escape," his pointer pushed on the location of the house that had been raided, which began to blink red, like the other, "so that we could get her safely to the next house." He moved his pointer back to the first blinking red light. "She did not have its location at the time that she last reported to us, and we figured that, by raiding the house when she was to escape, she would locate it for us. Now she has and we want to take that house out, too. But they will be moving fast, even though, as we can see, they are still there at the moment. So those of you coming with me, get your units ready. We move in 10 minutes. And those remaining here, get the place ready for more captives. We are gong to break the rebels. Action." The Major sat down, as the others all rose and headed for their assignments.

In exactly 10 minutes, the Major moved out his assembled troop in jeeps and vans. The target house was no more than three minutes away at this time of night. Each vehicle knew its place, as did each man. With the Major checking the monitor to make certain that the transmission continued to come from the house, the group moved out, and quickly surrounded the house. Then, at the synchronized time, four windows, one on each side of the house, were smashed, and tear gas canisters tossed inside, as the troops broke down the front and back door.

The house was abandoned. No one on the main level. But the transmitter continued to beep that they were at its location. The soldiers quickly realized that the signal must be coming from the basement. As quietly as possible, they opened the door to the basement, and descended, one after the other. The basement lights were on, but there was no sound. Finally, the first soldier reached the bottom step, jumped out into the open prepared to fire, but found the room also deserted.

Or nearly deserted. In the corner of the room seated on the horse that she had occupied now for a considerable time, was Niu. Her legs remained weighted to the sides of the horse, her arms tied behind her back. But over her head was a plastic bag, held in place by a cord tied around her neck. The first soldier approached and felt her neck for a pulse, knowing that it was pointless. His eyes widened as they darted across the front of Niu's body. As the others gathered around, they saw, the letter S gouged into Niu's right breast, the letter P into her chest between her breasts, and the letter Y into her right breast. All of the letters were deep red and still wet, as was the pool of blood under her. And between the upper arms of the letter Y was not the nipple that should have been there, but the small thin circular transmitter that continued to send its signal.

The first soldier bowed his head, in respect, and the others followed his lead, just as the Major entered. He pushed to the front to examine the figure on the horse more closely, lifting up Niu's chin to look closely at her face through the plastic bag, his eyes then moving downward to see what the rebels had done to disfigure her body. Finally, he turned to the others. "Who is this woman and why did the rebels do this to her?"

The others were startled. "Major," the first soldier replied, "what are you saying? Our agent. Our agent was discovered, tortured and killed."

"Our agent?" the Major asked incredulously. "This is not our agent. I have never seen this woman before in my life."

Chapter 13

At 11:20 the next morning -- actually, the same morning as the events in the wee hours of the night -- the Major, dressed in plain clothes, sat outdoors in front of a small cafe, sipping his coffee and reading the newspaper. This was something he did four mornings each week. Not because he liked the cafe's coffee. No. He came so often because every sixth day he met one of his top agents here, and he did not want anyone to figure out that this was his only reason for coming to the cafe. So at least three times each week, when he came to the cafe, he simply kept the same strict schedule as he did on those meeting days. He would arrive at 11, sit by himself at an outdoor table for 30 minutes, eat a small breakfast, drink his coffee and read his newspaper. He would then rise, walk through the cafe to the employees' rest room in back, wash his hands, walk back to the front door and continue on to his office.

But today, Wednesday, was the scheduled meeting day, and, on those days, the the agent would arrive precisely at 11:28, walk inside the cafe to sit at the booth reserved for employees all the way in the back, across from the employees' rest room. This booth was not visible to the cafe's other patrons. And, since the cafe was run entirely by relatives of the Police Chief's family, this was a perfect place for the Major to meet with his agent.

But the Major doubted that the agent would show today. Not after the events earlier that morning. The attack on the safe house, the move to the next safe house and then to the next. The agent probably had not had time to gain the respect of the new cell members yet to be given the freedom to leave the house. So the Major expected that there would be no meeting this morning, but that he and the agent would both mentally calendar next Tuesday for their next encounter.

Just as the Major decided, at 11:30, that it was time for him to walk back to the rest room, he saw the agent casually striding down the street and into the cafe, without a glance in his direction. Two minutes late. Not bad, all things considered, the Major thought.

He waited two minutes before heading back, and, a few seconds later, slipped into the booth opposite the agent. "I guess we've got a lot to cover in our five minutes, so I won't interrupt."

"At the house on Harmony," the agent began immediately, "there was a lot of suspicion. In fact, there was very nearly a second body next to the one that I'm sure by now you found." The Major nodded.

"The cell members," the agent continued, "were certain that there must be a government spy in the first house, and that their only safe course of action was to kill both of those who came to warn them, figuring one must be the spy. Better to kill an innocent along with the spy, they thought, than to let the spy into the next house."

"So how are you here?" The Major asked.

"After both of us were stripped for questioning," Yi continued, "and put on the wooden horse -- god that hurt -- the two examining our clothes -- and they sure took their time; for an awful minute I thought they must be blind -- well, they finally found the transmitter in Niu Le's shoe, right where I had put it the night before. It was so thin and fit so nicely under the arch of her foot that she didn't feel it when she put her shoe on just before we fled through the tunnel. If you would have seen her face -- when they said they found the transmitter in a shoe, she was sure it must be mine when they let me down. She knew that she would never be able to convince the others that I had framed her. Since she was the new member of the cell, and didn't know the location of the Harmony house, she was the one who would need the transmitter. I knew the location. Why would I need it?"

"So that we could get you to the house after that, of course," the Major explained. "Precisely to frame Le with it and gain their trust."

Yi looked annoyingly at the Major for telling her what she knew already. "Anyway, they then wanted to test that I was a loyal rebel. And the way to do that, they thought, was to order me to dispose of Le. So what you saw was my handiwork. I carved the letters S-P-Y into her chest. After I put the plastic bag over her head but before she suffocated, as I'm sure you could tell from the amount of blood you found. Oh, her heart was pumping strong then. The rebels wanted this spy brutally tortured. They're a very vengeful group. Cutting off her nipple, which I made a big show of eating, and replacing it with the transmitter were my own added touches. That helped gain me enough respect that they let me go out this morning. Strange that I gained their trust by brutally murdering one of their own rebels right in front of their eyes." Yi seemed for a moment to be reflecting on what she had done before continuing.

"Anyway, I'm supposed to be getting groceries, and I'm already late, so I have to go. I don't want to lose the trust I worked so hard to gain."

"Give me the address of the next house," the Major asked. Yi quickly slid toward him a small piece of paper that she had been holding in her hand.

"Good. You're not going back. We can't take a chance. Two raids in two days and they will know it's you. We've got two full cells in that house. We're going in now."

"Don't be an asshole," Yi was even more annoyed now. "They're not all in the house now. Some work regular jobs. Others are casing possible terrorist points or running simple errands. You have to wait until tonight when they're all back. And, if I don't go back, then they will suspect and move immediately. As it is, they think that they are safe again in this house, since they disposed of the spy. So I'm much safer there than I was in the other house."

"It's still too dangerous for you."

Yi laughed. "Look, set the raid for 9 tonight. They don't expect raids until much later in the night. Like the last one. You'll be inside the house in 10 seconds. They won't have time to figure out why the raid is happening. They'll be busy trying to escape. No one is going to call a meeting to decide if I'm a spy. Besides, as soon as you enter, I'll blow away the two closest to me before they expect anything. I'll be fine. Probably in a safer position than you or your men. As long as you let your men know that I'm in there. And you might circulate a recent photo of me while you're at it just to make sure."

The Major thought a minute. He knew that Yi was right. But by the time that he reached that conclusion, she had already left the cafe.

Chapter 14

"Well, we got some sleep. Do you think that she did?"

"Not possible."

The two soldiers entered Room 6, and could hear the sound of the motor still humming from inside the box that they had so carefully positioned on the table on which they had left the stretched and spreadeagled Zhen in her supposed state of ecstasy. Now, as they walked over to her, that could see that the phallus attached to the box was still plunging in and out of her at a frenetic pace, obviously having reached its maximum speed shortly after the men had closed the door behind them seven hours earlier. But now it was obvious that the woman on the table was not feeling anything resembling ecstasy. Her eyes were open, bulging and staring. Her tongue hanging out of her open mouth. Her body was trembling, twitching. It was not clear whether she was conscious.

The first soldier flicked the switch on the box, stopping the movement of the phallus after withdrawal from its target. He picked up the box and moved it back to the table at the far end of the room. Zhen let out a huge groan, and her groans continued, one after another, almost as if her body did not yet realize that it was no longer being so regularly invaded.

"The three rebels are being brought to Room 10, and we are supposed to have been there already, so we have no time for play with this one," the second soldier lamented.

"She's got to be so loose by now that there wouldn't be much satisfaction in that anyway," the first soldier shook his head.

After releasing her limbs from their constraints, each soldier held one of Zhen's arms and grabbed her under her armpit to slide her off the table. They then stood her up and released their grip to see if Zhen could stand, but she could not. They caught her before she fell, turned and dragged her, face up, out of the room and down the hall to Room 10 at the end of the hall. When they entered, no one else was yet there. "You see," one of the soldiers complained to the other, "we did have more time. You owe me the next one."

Room 10 was larger than the others. Its walls were stone, as was its ceiling and floor. It was totally empty. Against one wall was a wooden board. Hanging above it, attached to the ceiling, were three sets of handcuffs. The two soldiers dragged Zhen to the middle set of cuffs, pushed her onto her knees, pulled her wrists high and attached them to the hanging cuffs. Then they tied her ankles together, and tied the other ends of the ropes around her upper thighs, forcing all of her weight to rest on her knees. Her head hung down between her chained wrists, her back to the wall,l her chest facing the soldiers.

*** *** *** ***

When the Captain returned with one her soldiers to retrieve Kai-Ling from Room 9, she was startled to find that the power from the metal box remained on. She watched it continue to give random shocks to Kai-Ling, as it had been doing now for seven hours. Every 15 seconds. And, with each, Kai-Ling, eyes glazed but still conscious, responded with a rasp of complaint from a throat that no longer made coherent sounds.

"I turned this off before I left," the Captain turned to the soldier. "Who turned it back on?"

The soldier's only choice was to accept the responsibility that he deserved or to blame the friend who had been with him when he had reset the dials and clicked the switch before leaving the room. "I did, Captain."

The Captain thought for a second. "I guess I never ordered you not to turn it back on, did I?"

Sensing a reprieve, the soldier relaxed. "No, Ma'am."

"And she is a traitor."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Well, let's see the result of your work." The two approached the rasping Kai-Ling. The Captain clicked the box off, while the soldier removed the wires attached to Kai-Ling's body. Kai-Ling continued to sit upright in the chair with its elongated back. But, strapped in as she was, she could not do otherwise. The soldier's eyes immediately fell on Kai-Ling's breasts, now turned completely purple from the bands stopping the blood's circulation to them. They looked like they were about to burst ... or fall off ... , he could not decide. Carefully, he loosened the bands at the base of her breasts ... and, as the blood began to surge back into them, Kai-Ling screamed in total pain. She was still screaming as the soldier released the rest of the straps holding her to the chair, noticing the bands of deep red every place on her body where the straps had held her tight.

The soldier's effort to straighten Kai-Ling's legs while she remained seated in the chair brought more screams of pain from her. He let her sit for a full five minutes, watching the purple color gradually redden and then fade from her breasts.

Knowing that they had orders to bring the captive to Room 10, the Captain and soldier forced Kai-Ling to stand, but, when she could not walk, the soldier moved in front of her, reached around to grab her around her upper thighs, flung her over his shoulder, and followed the Captain to Room 10.

When they arrived, they saw Zhen hanging by her wrists from the center position against the far wall. The soldier carried Kai-Ling to the wall, and locked her wrists into the cuffs hanging to Zhen's left. Kai-Ling's body stretched as her knees struggled to hold her weight. Two naked and helpless rebels were now secure in Room 10.

Chapter 15

The Lieutenants opened the door to Room 4. Hua remained bent over the bar, her ankles and wrists chained apart to the rings in the floor. Her head hung down. Lieutenant 1 approached, lifted her head, and saw here eyes slowly open. "You bastard," she said softly.

Lieutenant 1 glanced around the room, and saw that Lieutenant 2 had crossed to the other side and was stroking the Dane, which had been sleeping in the corner. He also noticed that, at the opposite corner of the room was a second Dane, also resting.

"C'mon, Lieutenant, she's a fucking traitor," Lieutenant 2 shouting across the room. "And this one probably still got away with a lot less punishment than the others did. Remember, this was just the humiliation room. You think she'll look worse than the one in the punishment room?"

Lieutenant 1 unchained Hua's wrists and ankles, then moved her off the bar and onto her back on the floor. Again her eyes looked up at him. "You bastard," she repeated softly. He signaled Lieutenant 2 to help him stand her up. The weakened Hua was able, though barely, to stand on her own. When she peered across the room and saw the two Danes, however, she recoiled and screamed. "Get them away from me.!! Get them away !!" The dogs barked at the screams, sending Hua into a second wave of panic.

Quickly the two Lieutenants escorted Hua out of the room, supporting her with their arms.

When they entered Room 10, Hua saw her two compatriots hanging by their wrists from the far walls, barely able to hold themselves up on their knees. The Lieutenants quickly marched her to the wall, and cuffed her wrists to the other side of Zhen. One of the soldiers then marched up to the three, and, one by one, wrapped a burlap sack over their heads, the ends extending nearly to their breasts, and tied them around their necks. He then withdrew. [see Hua/ Zhen/Kai-ling pic]

"No. I want her hood removed," the Captain indicated Hua. "The minds of the other two are gone. This is the only one who knows what is happening here. Let her know all." The soldier obliged and returned.

A second later the wooden board on which their knees rested slid away from under them into a slot in the wall. Three loud grunts escaped from the captives' lips as all three now hung free by their chained wrists, their arms completely stretched.

"We have other rebel captives coming in today to fill our cells," the Captain yelled at the three naked hanging women. "Captured based on the information that you weak rebels have given us. Captured because you three not only betrayed your country, but then betrayed your comrades."

Kai-Ling and Zhen remained silent, likely unaware of anything around them except the pain in their shoulders. But Hua shouted back toward the Captain and others, "We may have failed, but our cause will not fail. It will live!! And you all will die!!"

"These brave words coming from a total failure. As is obvious from the position in which she now finds herself. Was this the one who spent the last seven hours fucking dogs?!" the Captain retaliated, joined in her derision by shouts from the other soldiers. "Which makes her a bitch in every sense of the word, doesn't it!?"

Hua's energy, her strength was sapped at the reminder of the ordeal she had just undergone. She began to weep.

"Your final humiliation, dear helpless rebels," the Captain decided that hers would be the final speech, "is that soon your bodies will be dropped into the deep pit below this room, to join so many other of your fallen comrades. So the friends that you thought that you would never again touch, well, soon you will do just that."

Without another word, without any "ready," "aim" or "fire," a single shot echoed in the stone room and the bullet struck Kai-Ling in the middle of her chest. A grunt indicated that she had been alive at the time that it struck her. An instant later another shot reverberated, and this time the grunt came from Zhen as the bullet struck her in the between her ribs. Hua bit her lip hard and waited her turn. Nothing for five seconds. Then a dozen more blasts riddled Zhen's and Kai-Ling's hanging bodies, sending them bouncing against the stone wall, twisting them to the side, and then back to their original hanging positions. As the shots rang out, Hua screamed and continued to scream, but when the volley ended, no bullet had struck her.

Hua looked over toward Kai-Ling and Zhen in time to see a soldier standing off to the side flick a switch. The cuffs holding Kai-Ling's body opened, and her body dropped below where the floor had been, out of sight. The soldier then flicked the switch next to the first. The cuffs holding Zhen's body now opened, and her body joined Kai-Ling's in the pit under the room.

Hua suddenly regained her courage and screamed. "You are total barbarians. Inhuman beasts. It is no wonder that we oppose you!!" She screamed at all those in the room. "Cowards. Cowards!! All of you!!"

"And now it's my turn," the Captain stood up, drew her own revolver and aimed it between Hua's naked breasts. As Hua started to scream the word again, "Cowa...", the Captain fired. Hua grunted as the bullet struck her, spinning her body back to face the wall and then around to face forward again. As soon as she was again facing the room, the Captain fired again, this bullet hitting Hua just below her throat and sending her spinning in the opposite direction. When her body finally came to rest, it was facing front, with wrists twisted in the cuffs, her head slumped. Without considering whether Hua was still alive, the Captain pumped four more shots into her chest and stomach. When she saw the soldier move to the third switch on the wall, she stopped him. "Not yet," and she continued to stare at Hua's body for a long moment as its entire front reddened from its wounds. Finally, she signaled the soldier to flick the switch. As Hua's dropped to join the others, the Captain fired once more, the bullet striking her belly button. "Just like skeet shooting," the Captain holstered her weapon. Another flick of a switch and the floor of the room pushed forward again to the far wall, covering the rebels' tomb.

Chapter 16

At precisely 9 p.m., the Major double-checked the address on the paper that Yi had given him that morning, and ordered his soldiers into position. Lights were still blaring from the house, indicating that the rebels were not yet asleep. Should he wait until the middle of the night or should he attack now? Later, when the rebels were asleep, there would likely be less resistance. But there was also a danger in waiting. A greater chance of discovery, particularly now that the soldiers had all moved into position. No. He would attack now. Yi was in the house and he wanted her out. And two full rebel cells were in that house. A chance for a double capture. Probably a dozen rebels. How much more would they be able to tell when faced with the tortures that awaited them. This would break the rebel movement in this area.

The Major had intentionally given the rebels in the first house time to spot his men before they attacked in order to make sure that Yi had time to escape. This attack would be modeled after the one on the second house. No warning. Inside in 10 seconds. It wouldn't matter if the rebels were asleep or awake. Especially when Yi would take out several herself.

The Major gave the signal. Glass smashed on all sides of the house, as his soldiers entered through the windows and knocked down the doors. At least six entry points. Guns drawn, screaming as they entered.

But soon there was silence. The Major waited outside anxiously. A sporadic shot now and then. And then a soldier on the front step motioned him to enter. Had it been that easy? Perhaps there had been a mass suicide inside, the rebels knowing that they were doomed. Or had the rebels somehow learned of the attack and fled this house, too?

When he reached the front door, the soldier explained. "There is no one upstairs or here on the ground floor. We have secured the house. You need to go to the basement."

The basement? That was what had happened at the second house. The rebels had fled, leaving only the one rebel mistaken for a spy downstairs in the basement. That had been Yi's work. The Major descended the stairs and entered the basement.

To his horror, his sense of deja vu was immediately confirmed.

There, in the middle of the room, was Yi. Naked, wrists tied behind her back, hanging and swaying by her neck, the stool on which she had been placed knocked over about five feet away. But, like Niu, Yi had not been suffocated immediately. No. Wrapped around her body, circling it from under her left armpit, around her breasts and back, down across her hips and legs until it tied around her ankles, was a thick strand of barbed wire. And inserted between Yi's body and the barbed wire was a long wooden stick that ran up her back. This allowed a person, or more than one person, standing behind her to pull on the stick, or twist it, to force the barbs to dig deeper into her body at every barbed point. The blood and urine beneath Yi's body confirmed that she had been very much alive when she had been roped with the barbs. And that the stick had been pulled tight and twisted.

The Major looked more closely at Yi's breasts, but he already knew what he would find. Or, rather, would not find. Yi had boasted that she had removed one of Niu's nipples and eaten it. The rebels had returned the favor. Both of Yi's nipples were missing. The Major moved toward the body. Her mouth was partially open. He picked up the nearby stool, moved it in front of the hanging Yi, and stepped up on it. He moved his fingers inside her mouth and pulled out her tongue. There, sewn to her tongue, were both of her nipples. The rebels paid back in kind.

The Major stepped down from the stool and kicked it away. He walked behind Yi and saw that a metal pipe had been jammed into her anus, and that, looped over the end of the pipe, was a string to which was attached a sheet of paper. The Major pulled the paper off the pipe. At the top of the paper were grainy copies of five black and white photos. The first showed the Major sitting that morning at the table outside the cafe. The second and third showed Yi and the Major entering the cafe separately. The fourth and fifth showed the two of them separately leaving the cafe. All were date and time-stamped to show that this all happened in less than five minutes. And under the copies of the photos were written in red, apparently in Yi's own blood, just two words: "Mistake corrected."

Dear brave Yi. Who returned unafraid to the house that morning. To face a horrific torture and death not much different from the one she had inflicted on Niu. The Major wondered how soon after she had left him Yi's torture had begun. And how long it had lasted. Whether she regretted not following his advice that she not go back. Whether she held out any hope that he would attack immediately as he had originally planned, instead of listening to her explanation of why he must wait. He wondered how her agony had compared with Niu's. And with the others. These rebels were certainly as brutal as the government that they were seeking to overthrow. All of those from the first house -- Bao, Kai-Ling, Zhen, Hua, Niu and Yi -- had suffered horrible, humiliating and painful tortures and then agonizing deaths.

And, with the death of Yi and the escape of the rebels to yet another safe house ... this one unknown to the government ... the battle between these forces -- despite the horrors already inflicted by both sides -- had just barely begun.

EPILOGUE

The Major sat alone in his office, door closed. Opened on his desk was a small package that he had received that morning. No return address. Inside the package was a standard sized videocassette tape. The Major went through in his mind the possibilities of what might be on the tape and who might have sent it. He kept coming back to just one possible sender ... and one possible subject. He sat at this desk, the tape in front of him, not wanting to confirm his near certainty as to what it was.

Finally, he picked up the tape, walked to the door of his office, opened it and announced to his aide sitting at the desk outside that he was not to be disturbed. The aide nodded. The Major closed the door, placed the tape in the slot on his television monitor and picked up the remote control. He moved several feet away from the screen, but did not sit. He pushed the "play" button. And, once again, his fears proved correct.

The tape had been made by a stationary camera positioned on one end of the basement room of the third house. It was date and time-stamped. Six p.m. the day of the failed raid. Apparently the cell members had waited until all had returned before holding their "meeting." Why hadn't he decided to go in three hours earlier? The rebels were all back home by then.

Within a few seconds Yi Feng appeared on the tape, blindfolded with her hands cuffed behind her back, two masked soldiers pushing her from behind until she was in the middle of the screen facing the camera. She wore the same clothes that she had worn to her meeting with the Major. Tan pants and shirt. The Major guessed that these were the only clothes that she had after her escape from the first house the previous night. And he realized that she may have been waiting, cuffed and blindfolded, during the hours since her return to the house. Hours of terror to contemplate her fate. To know her fate.

The two soldiers remained standing behind her, one on each side. Eight or nine other cell members then appeared at the edges of the screen on both sides of Yi, in two lines. All wore masks, obviously aware that the proceeding was being taped, to make certain that their identities were not revealed.

"Yi Feng. You are charged with the murder of rebel Niu Le by torture. You are also charged with treason to our cause. How say you?" came a voice from off the screen.

The video and the sound on the tape were crystal clear. The Major could see beads of sweat already forming on Yi's forehead, above the blindfold.

"I am loyal to the cause. I killed only a government spy." She did not claim to have acted at the direction of the rebel Leader, although that was the case, she had told the Major. He guessed that she believed that it was more loyal to the rebel cause to have acted on her own.

"Niu Le was loyal to us."

"That is not true. She was wired to reveal our location." The Major could sense a slight tremor in Yi's voice.

"The wire was found in her shoe only because you put it there." The off-screen voice was firm.

"That is not so," Yi lied. "I had no reason to carry a wire. I knew the location of the house to which we were going. Niu Le did not. She carried the wire." The Major knew that Yi did have a reason to carry the transmitter. Just a more subtle reason than Niu Le might have had were she the spy.

"It appears, Yi Feng, that you require 'incentivization'."

One by one, the cell members standing on the left moved in front of Yi Feng. The first slapped her hard across her mouth with the back of his fist. The next punch her hard in the stomach even before the soldiers behind her could raise her back fully upright after the first blow. The third waited for them to pull her up, then pushed his feet against hers to separate her legs and kneed her hard in her groin. Yi grunted hard and then started to cough. The fourth soldier squeezed her breasts hard in both hands through her shirt until she let out a cry.

The line on the right then moved for its turn, and the process started over. By the time the four in the second line had finished, Yi remained upright only by being held under her shoulders by the soldiers behind her. Eight soldiers in the line, the Major had counted. Two holding her from behind. And the voice off screen. Eleven in the two cells combined. Consistent with the Major's information that each cell had about six members.

The off screen voice then spoke again. "Do you wish to change your statement, Yi Feng?"

Yi took a minute to recover her breath and restore her senses. "I am guilty only of killing a traitor to our cause."

"Were you not sent out this morning to bring back food supplies?"

"Yes. I was. And I did."

"How far from the house is the nearest market?"

"A ten minute walk."

"And did you go there?"

"Yes."

"Did you go directly there?"

"No." She looked toward her questioner's voice. He seemed to be waiting for an explanation, so she continued. "I ... I needed some time to myself to think of the things that had happened over the last day. I was nearly killed in the first house. You nearly killed me in the second house. I needed some time to clear my mind. So I walked. I just walked. For about 40 minutes. Then I went to the market. That's all."

"No, Yi Feng. You walked to this cafe." A third soldier, not the questioner, moved in front of Yi. lowered her blindfold, and showed her the second of the five photos that the Major had seen. Then he pulled the blindfold back up. The Major could sense that this was the first that Yi was aware that she had been photographed. He could see the tension mount in her body. "And you met your Major friend there. The man in charge of trying to destroy our operations. Didn't you?"

"No. It's not ..."

"Don't deny it. I have photos of the two of you there. Entering the cafe at the same time. Leaving at the same time."

Yi's restored blindfold prevented her from confirming the evidence against her, but she knew that her questioner was probably flashing those photos as he spoke. To show all the others the overwhelming evidence of Yi's guilt. She remained silent.

"More incentivization," several of the cell members shouted, and, after looking toward the holder of the off-screen voice, who must have nodded back at them, they again formed two lines of four. This time, after approaching the chained Yi one-by-one, each member tore at her clothing. The first pulled her shirt open. The second roughly tore the front of her bra, revealing her breasts. The third pulled her shirt and the remnants of her bra down her arms until they rested atop her chained wrists. The fourth squeezed her breasts hard, just as he had during the first "incentivization" session, but then reached down with both hands and pulled her pants down to her ankles.

Then the second line started. The first in that line pulled off her pants and shoes entirely, and the second cut off her shirt and bra, leaving her naked except for her panties. To the Major it appeared that the cell members might be lined up in the order of their rank, with the higher ranking members getting their chance at Yi after she had already been beaten or stripped by the others. The third member of the second line tore at Yi's panties until they came off in his hands. And then the Major watched in disgust as the final member of the second line moved directly in front of Yi, blocking her from the camera's eye, lifted her legs off the ground, while the two soldiers behind her continuing to hold her steady under her shoulders, and wrapped her legs around his body. After he had moved his hands in front of him, obviously to unzip his fly and remove his penis, he began thrusting into her. Yi screamed her objections, to no avail, the entire time. The member's purpose was not pleasure for himself, and certainly not pleasure for Yi, but simply to demonstrate further the members' absolute power over her. Her total helplessness. When he finally gave his deepest thrust, pulled himself out, and turned around to the camera, his dripping penis in plain sight, and walked out of the picture, Yi could once again be seen, weak-kneed and gasping, held up by the two guards behind her.

And then things got even worse for the helpless Yi. Yet another cell member, this one apparently their leader, the holder of the off-screen voice, entered the camera's view. The two soldiers behind Yi, each still holding under her shoulders with one hand, moved their spare hands to Yi's knees and lifted her off the floor. The Voice moved behind her. The Major looked down, knowing what was to happen, and soon heard Yi's loud and repeated screams and pleas of "no, no, please, no" over and over again as she was brutally sodomized, the cell members soon chanting in rhythm with each thrust of her body toward them. And, unlike her previous abuser, the Voice had far more stamina. And the camera's eye was not blocked this time. When the Voice finally moved away from her, the soldiers dropped her feet back to the ground. Her head slumped, and the soldiers let her fall into a heap.

After Yi regained her breath, the two soldiers again pulled her to her feet. Another cell member attached two metal clamps to her nipples, and chains to the clamps. The chains were run through rings in the ceiling and pulled down and weighted until Yi was forced to stand on her toes, her nipples pointing straight up. The soldiers behind her released their grip. Yi struggled to stand under her own strength, which was quickly fading. This, the Major knew, foreshadowed what he had seen in the room -- the beautiful Yi, no, the once but no longer beautiful Yi, nippleless, her nipples sewn to her tongue. Once she could no longer hold herself up, and her knees again buckled, it was the flesh holding her nipples to her breasts that would give way before the metal of the clamps. The Major could not imagine that Yi could stand this way on her own for more than a few minutes. He wanted to turn off the tape, but he could not. He had to watch out of a respect for his agent and her sacrifice. Her tremendous horrible sacrifice.

Now there were not more questions. No pretense of a trial. Just the infliction of more inhuman pain on helpless Yi. One cell member approached with a length of thin barbed wire, its end secured to a long thin pole that was placed behind her. He slowly wrapped the wire around Yi's body, beginning just below her left shoulder and circling it slowly, three times in all, until he reached her right ankle and secured the wire in place. All the while Yi screamed as the wire dug into her flesh.

Then one member pushed over a stool, and forced Yi to stand on it. While this temporarily relieved the stretch to her nipples, her terror was magnified, not reduced, when she felt a noose slipped around her neck. Standing, terrified, on a shaky stool, a rope around her neck, clamps to her nipples, a barbed wire circling her body. The Major could see Yi's knees trembling to the point that they were nearly knocking. No brave spy now. Just a frightened woman knowing that she was about to be disfigured and executed.

The Major pushed the pause button. He took a deep breath. He knew how the scene ended. It was now nearly identical to the scene he had come upon in the basement of the third house. He looked at the time stamp. More than an hour had passed since Yi first appeared on the camera. More than an hour of pure physical, emotional, psychological and sexual torture.

In a very small way, though, Yi was lucky. Had the cell members not known that they needed to move on to the next house very soon, they certainly would have taken much more time to torture Yi for her traitorous activity that had resulted in the capture and certain death of four of their members in the first house, her torture and execution of a fifth member in the second house, and her effort -- nearly successful -- to have these eleven themselves also captured, tortured and executed. But they had to leave the house soon, so Yi's torture could not go on as long as they would have liked.

The Major took another deep breath, pushed the button again, and the tape resumed. A cell member stood behind Yi, grabbed and twisted the pole. This eliminated all slack in the barbed wire, and its barbs now dug deeply into Yi at every point that they touched her body. Blood began to ooze out in sloping parallel lines around her body. Her screams now were so loud that no other sound was audible on the tape.

After leaving Yi like this for what the time stamp indicated was 30 seconds -- the longest 30 seconds the Major had ever experienced, but not as long as the same 30 seconds must have felt to Yi -- a member walked over to her and stood beside the stool, looking to the right of the camera, no doubt to the Voice. Still, only Yi's screams could be hear. Finally, he nodded in that direction, and swept his foot from the back of the stool to the front, pushing it out from Yi's feet.

And in one motion, Yi's body fell. The chain holding the clamps that held her nipples tightened, then tore free, just before the rope around her neck grew taut, ending her fall with her toes still in the air. The Major could not tell for certain whether Yi's neck had snapped or whether she was still breathing. Blood spewed from her chest, and from the barbs that already dug into her body, which had dug in much deeper as her fall pulled them even tighter around her. The Major could also see a stream of urine pouring from between her legs. He thought, but was not sure, that she also defecated, something that the Major, from his own extensive experiences in torture and execution, knew often occurred at the time of death.

With Yi's screams finally silenced, the Major could once again hear the cell members who, after a loud roar, continued to hurl insults at Yi ranging from the disfigurement of her body to the failure of her mission to her inability at the moment of death to control her bodily functions. One of the members moved behind her, no doubt to push into her the pipe that held the paper and photos that had been attached to her body when the Major arrived at the scene.

Suddenly the tape stopped, frozen on its last image. The Major stared at the monitor for a moment longer, then clicked the button to eject the tape. Poor brave Yi. So beautiful once. But now, when he thought of her, he would see only her last hour on earth, the hour after she had gone to hell.