Tulip and Orchid

[dommmu]

Abstract

She wanted to do something good. She wanted to help. But Anouk's latest errand for the aid organization she is volunteering for goes terribly wrong. Suspected of being a spy, she becomes the prisoner of a foreign dictatorship. In custody, she will undergo merciless interrogations and face the regime's sadistic henchmen. Where will her ordeal take her?

About

The idea for this story came to me in early January when I watched a movie with a quite interesting strip search scene (which I shared in the thread "Bondage / Captivity / Interrogation / Torture Scenes in Mainstream Movies"). So I began writing a short story about a strip search. But when I was done, I decided that it derserved to be part of a bigger tale, so I threw in some ideas that I had originally developed for other stories to complete the adventure. The result that I am going to share here is the second longest story that I have ever posted here so far.

As usual for my stories, at the time of posting this, I have already finished the draft. You can look forward to 26 chapters plus a prologue and an epilogue. I will post them over the next couple of days or weeks, after each chapter has gone through a final refinement.


Disclaimer / Trigger Warning

This story is a work of fantasy. All characters as well as the organization "Orange Hand" are fictional. Any relations to real persons or organizations are unintentional and coincidental. The same applies to the places Estoria, Libria and the Republic of Ascua, which only exist in the universe of this story.

This story contains scenes with nudity, sexual violence, torture and perils. In real life, I do not endorse acts of non-consensual sex, torture and murder!

There are several chapters in this story that address a war between two fictional countries. Any similarities to the current situation in Eastern Europe are unintentional and coincidental, since the concept and the draft of this story were created before the latest geopolitical real-life events unfolded. When writing about this fictional war, I do not mean to make an underlying political statement. It merely serves as a plot device.

 

[montycrusto]

Abstract

She wanted to do something good. She wanted to help. But Anouk's latest errand for the aid organization she is volunteering for goes terribly wrong. Suspected of being a spy, she becomes the prisoner of a foreign dictatorship. In custody, she will undergo merciless interrogations and face the regime's sadistic henchmen. Where will her ordeal take her?

About

The idea for this story came to me in early January when I watched a movie with a quite interesting strip search scene (which I shared in the thread "Bondage / Captivity / Interrogation / Torture Scenes in Mainstream Movies"). So I began writing a short story about a strip search. But when I was done, I decided that it derserved to be part of a bigger tale, so I threw in some ideas that I had originally developed for other stories to complete the adventure. The result that I am going to share here is the second longest story that I have ever posted here so far.

As usual for my stories, at the time of posting this, I have already finished the draft. You can look forward to 26 chapters plus a prologue and an epilogue. I will post them over the next couple of days or weeks, after each chapter has gone through a final refinement.


Disclaimer / Trigger Warning

This story is a work of fantasy. All characters as well as the organization "Orange Hand" are fictional. Any relations to real persons or organizations are unintentional and coincidental. The same applies to the places Estoria, Libria and the Republic of Ascua, which only exist in the universe of this story.

This story contains scenes with nudity, sexual violence, torture and perils. In real life, I do not endorse acts of non-consensual sex, torture and murder!

There are several chapters in this story that address a war between two fictional countries. Any similarities to the current situation in Eastern Europe are unintentional and coincidental, since the concept and the draft of this story were created before the latest geopolitical real-life events unfolded. When writing about this fictional war, I do not mean to make an underlying political statement. It merely serves as a plot device.

I’m in love with the picture already!

 

[dommmu]

I’m in love with the picture already!

The model's name is Kyler Quinn

 

[Barbaria1]

Looking forward to this. If I can offer a suggestion, it’s to space out postings at least a day apart so that readers can keep up and comment.

 

[Fossy]

I’m in love with the picture already!

Me too, it's stunning!

 

[dommmu]

Prologue

There had always been an altruistic streak in Anouk. In her childhood, she had nursed countless injured birds back to health. In her teens, she had spent most of her afternoons and her weekends assisting at the local animal shelters. And as an adult, she had helped at the soup kitchen whenever her university schedule and social schedule had allowed it. And now, holding her graduation in her hands, she was looking for one last good thing to do before she would enter the worklife and let some random office job occupy all of her time and her energy.

She quickly found what she was looking for. While walking across the campus on one of her last days of classes, she passed a temporarily set up information booth of the 'Orange Hand', a well renowned aid organization founded by Dutch students. A friendly (and to be honest, really hot looking) guy passed her a leaflet. For a moment, she thought about asking him if he could write down his number for her, but assumed it to be inapproriate. The flyer informed her about the organization's charity project in a country called Estoria. And apart from donations, they were looking for volunteers to help maintaining the land's infrastructure.

Anouk had never heard of that land before and had to do some research back at her apartment. It was hard to find anything on the internet, since the world press had never deemed the troubled history of Estoria to be worth more than a side note or a filler. It was easier to live in blissful ignorance than to trouble oneself with the misery of some tiny irrelevant countries.

Putting together the bits and pieces of information, she found out this: Estoria and its neighbor country, the Republic of Ascua, had once been one land, Libria. But the people had always been divided by different beliefs and rivaling ideologies. And when both an economic crisis and a series of natural disasters hit the region and made the already hard lives of the locals even harder, the tension grew among the people and caused a devastating civil war, killing almost twenty percent of the population.

Finally, after the war had already been raging for over a year, the representatives from the powers of the world brought the conflict parties together. The meeting took place behind closed doors and ended with a truce, which was still in effect to this day. A border was hastily drawn, ripping apart country, cities and families, and the state of Estoria and the Republic of Ascua were founded. That had been eight years ago.

While the Ascuan government did their best to isolate their part of the land from the outside world, reinforcing the border and claiming that their dependencies on others had been what had caused their misery in the first place, the Estorians proved themselves to be more open to the world, embracing every little bit of help from the outside. And over a glass of wine (or two, or maybe three, her research hand taken quite some time), Anouk made the decision that she wanted to be part of this help from the outside and support the people of Estoria. The e-mail she wrote to the Orange Hand's recruiting team was quickly replied, welcoming her in their ranks and informing her that she would be assigned to the branch in the city of Libria, which had once been the capital and bore the same name as the former country.

Later that summer, when Anouk left her plane after a ten hour flight and set foot on Estorian ground, there was a pleasant surprise: The head of the local branch was no one less than Annika Blomsteen, her old childhood friend! The two of them had grown up in a small village in Zeeland, the South-Western corner of the Netherlands. Anouk and her family had moved to Amsterdam when she had been nine, since both of her parents had taken new jobs there. It was funny how a distance of hardly 100 miles had made the two friends think back then that they would never see each other again. And now, about fifteen years later, they were reunited. All that had been necessary for this reounion was travelling to the other end of the world.

Needless to say, refreshing her friendship with Annika made arriving and settling in much easier. They spent a lot of their time off duty together, laughing about old stories and sharing new ones. Annika also taught her a lot about Estoria and its people: Their culture, their beliefs, their superstitions. And their language, Nabano, since she was fluent in it.

This helped Anouk in her daily business but also with living here in general. Many of the local people, especially the older ones, could turn out to be a bit skeptical when dealing with the foreign helpers. But when you greeted them in their native tongue, it would always cheer them up.

Nabano could best be described by taking simple Spanish and mixing in some Portuguese. And if you minded a few local slang words and grammar quirks, you would quickly be able to lead a basic conversation. Anouk found that it wasn't that much different from her own mother tongue, Dutch. Anyone with advanced skills in both English and German would be able to at least read a Dutch text and figure out its meaning.

The main responsibility of the Orange Hand was to support the local hospitals. Anouk mostly ran errands, either distributing medical supplies from the central warehouse among the hospitals or delivering prescription drugs to patients whose treatment continued at home. At rare occasions, she had also transported a donor organ from one hospital to another. And whenever a clinic was temporarily short on staff, someone from the Orange Hand was requested to step in. This way, Anouk had already assisted in two childbirths and one appendectomy. Of course, she had neither the qualification nor the training for this. But down here, no one asked for certificates or diplomas. If you had a hand to spare, you were qualified enough.

The work for the Orange Hand was hard and demanding, but Anouk did not complain. She knew that she played a part in improving life for everyone here. And that was all the motivation she needed to get up in the morning.

Originally, she had planned to stay only a couple of months. But the good feeling that working for the organization gave her and having her friend Annika at her side had made her stay for almost one and a half years now. Of course, the payment she received as compensation for her efforts could not be compared to the salary of a job at home, but it was still enough to maintain her small apartment back in the Netherlands (even though she was rarely there, since she left Estoria only for important family events). And she did not need much money for her life here. Volunteers of the Orange Hand were provided with food, clothes and daily essentials by the organization.

Right now, she did not think about leaving the project. She saw herself and her work confirmed every day when treatments of the sick and injured were completed and lives were saved because of her. Maybe it was a bit too naive of her to disregard the thought that her helpfulness would not be appreciated by everyone...

 

[dommmu]

Chapter 1

The holidays back at home had been a full success. Spending Christmas with her parents and her younger brother had been as homey and pleasant as ever. And the New Year's Eve Party she had been to had ended in a hot one night stand with a handsome guy. Barney Stinson's old ploy of the volunteer about to leave home to help people in need worked on guys, too. But unlike the Barney from the classic sitcom, Anouk had not have to make her story up. Duty called and she was back on her way to Estoria on the second day of the new year.

Right after leaving the plane she had boarded at Shiphol airport this morning and claiming her luggage, she checked her phone to see if Annika had texted her their new adress yet. The message popped up the same second Anouk turned off the phone's airplane mode. It was followed by a second message from Annika, asking her to see her when she arrived.

Annika and her skeleton crew had not only managed to keep operations running while most of the volunteers had been on home leave over the holidays, but they had also moved the entire headquarters of their Orange Hand branch from the trailer park in the outskirts into a hotel at the border between the city center and the suburbs. The new location would take them closer to the action and would make most of the long rides in overcrowded busses and subways every morning and evening a thing of the past. The downside was, that the taxi ride from Libria Airport took almost two hours. By the time she arrived at the hotel, it was already dark outside.

The hotel the new branch headquarters was accommodated in was run by the city. They had left the entire first floor to their helping guests, free of charge. Anouk suspected though, that not only the gratitude of the locals, but also state funds had been an incentive. Taking a quick look at the front of the building, she could see that most windows on the first floor were dark. That was probably due to the fact, that most volunteers were still at home and would only return over the next couple of days. Behind one of the few illuminated windows, she spotted Annika, pacing up and down in her room like she always did when figuring stuff out.

Right after paying the taxi driver, checking in and bringing all of her things into her room, Anouk went to see her friend. Annika's room was the first one in the hallway. When Anouk knocked on door 101, she noticed that it was open and entered right away.

The stench of fresh cigarette smoke hit her and made her retch. Anouk was a strict non-smoker and finding out that her childhood friend had turned into a heavy one had been the only unpleasant surprise when the two had met one and a half years ago. Annika of course always vowed to improve and announced that she would finally quit smoking every couple of weeks, but never lasted more than a few days.

And so Anouk watched her friend put out another cigarette in an overfilled ashtray while she continued to walk in circles in front of the windows, lost in thoughts, probably not even realizing that someone and entered her room.

"Hey, a happy new year to you!", Anouk woke her from her trance.

Being ripped out of her thoughts, Annika jumped and gave Anouk a startled glance. But then a faint smile appeared on her face and she came over to welcome her friend back and returned the new year wishes with a jovial hug. Anouk noticed that Annika's hands were shaking and that she was weirdly tensed while they hugged.

"What's wrong?", she asked, knowing that something was burdening her friend.

"I... I have to ask you to do something", Annika answered hesitantly. "I need you to go over to Ascua and get something from there."

"I'll do it", Anouk replied right away.

"Anouk...", Annika sighed. "This is not like the errands you usually run. This is dangerous. Crossing the border between Estoria and Ascua is not like crossing the state borders back at home. I would do it myself, but the Ascuan authorities know that I am with the Orange Hand. As you might know, they are not very fond of our organization. To them, we are 'foreign provocateurs' who want to 'poison their perople' with 'noxious ideologies'. If I tried to cross the border, they would probably... arrest me right away. But you have never been over there. You are not in their files, so they don't know about you."

"But what is so dangerous about going there?", Anouk wondered. "I mean, yes, I have heard stories about people being harassed by customs officials, but that's only the regime flexing the muscles, right?"

"No, Anouk, it is more than that." Annika lit another cigarette. "The Ascuan government does not play by the international rules. If you piss them off, they will do anything to make sure you regret the day you were born. I want you to know that the very moment you set foot on Ascuan ground, neither me nor anyone else can guarantee for your safety anymore."

Anouk took a moment to process the information. Then she made her decision.

"So, what is my mission?"

Annika closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Anouk could not tell if it was a breath of relief or a strained breath.

"A meeting has been arranged with an Ascuan dissident, code name 'Orchid'. Tomorrow morning, you, code name 'Tulip', will cross the Ascuan border at the Libria Main Station checkpoint. 'Orchid' will approach you and hand you an SD card. Once you have the card, you will immediately return to Estoria and come straight back here, without detours. Did you understand?"

Anouk nodded. "What is on the SD card?"

"Believe me, you don't want to know. Not even I know all the details. And in fact, it is better if we don't. Just in case anything goes wrong."

There was a queasy feeling in Anouk's stomach. She began to understand the gravity of the task she had so willingly and unsuspectingly agreed to do.

"What could go wrong?", she asked quietly.

Annika looked at her with uninterpretable look on her face.

"The authorities could get wind of it and take you in for questioning", she replied in a tone that Anouk did not like.

"But they will let me go eventually, won't they?"

"I do not know. As I said, once you are over there, no one can gauarantee for your safety anymore."

There was a minute of silence between the two friends. Anouk watched Annika put out her cigarette. Her hand was still shaking, albeit not as badly as before.

"So, tomorow morning it is?", she concluded eventually.

"Yes", Annika confirmed. "Thank you, Anouk!"

They both smiled at each other. Then, all of a sudden, Annika's face became serious again. She went over to her desk and opened a drawer, pulling out a small sealed plastic bag with a pill inside.

"This is your insurance if the shit should really hit the fan", she said.

"I don't understand. What do you mean?"

"These are only rumors, but every rumor has at least a bit of truth in it", Annika started to explain after a few moments of hesitation. "I have heard reports about the Ascuan police and government agents using very rough interrogation methods."

"Do you mean torture?", Anouk questioned.

Annika nodded silently. "The reports suggest that they are especially cruel with women. This pill contains a very strong poison. If you bite down on it, you are going to die within seconds. I really hope that you do not have to use it."

"So do I", Anouk agreed.

To be continued.

 

[montycrusto]

Chapter 1

The holidays back at home had been a full success. Spending Christmas with her parents and her younger brother had been as homey and pleasant as ever. And the New Year's Eve Party she had been to had ended in a hot one night stand with a handsome guy. Barney Stinson's old ploy of the volunteer about to leave home to help people in need worked on guys, too. But unlike the Barney from the classic sitcom, Anouk had not have to make her story up. Duty called and she was back on her way to Estoria on the second day of the new year.

Right after leaving the plane she had boarded at Shiphol airport this morning and claiming her luggage, she checked her phone to see if Annika had texted her their new adress yet. The message popped up the same second Anouk turned off the phone's airplane mode. It was followed by a second message from Annika, asking her to see her when she arrived.

Annika and her skeleton crew had not only managed to keep operations running while most of the volunteers had been on home leave over the holidays, but they had also moved the entire headquarters of their Orange Hand branch from the trailer park in the outskirts into a hotel at the border between the city center and the suburbs. The new location would take them closer to the action and would make most of the long rides in overcrowded busses and subways every morning and evening a thing of the past. The downside was, that the taxi ride from Libria Airport took almost two hours. By the time she arrived at the hotel, it was already dark outside.

The hotel the new branch headquarters was accommodated in was run by the city. They had left the entire first floor to their helping guests, free of charge. Anouk suspected though, that not only the gratitude of the locals, but also state funds had been an incentive. Taking a quick look at the front of the building, she could see that most windows on the first floor were dark. That was probably due to the fact, that most volunteers were still at home and would only return over the next couple of days. Behind one of the few illuminated windows, she spotted Annika, pacing up and down in her room like she always did when figuring stuff out.

Right after paying the taxi driver, checking in and bringing all of her things into her room, Anouk went to see her friend. Annika's room was the first one in the hallway. When Anouk knocked on door 101, she noticed that it was open and entered right away.

The stench of fresh cigarette smoke hit her and made her retch. Anouk was a strict non-smoker and finding out that her childhood friend had turned into a heavy one had been the only unpleasant surprise when the two had met one and a half years ago. Annika of course always vowed to improve and announced that she would finally quit smoking every couple of weeks, but never lasted more than a few days.

And so Anouk watched her friend put out another cigarette in an overfilled ashtray while she continued to walk in circles in front of the windows, lost in thoughts, probably not even realizing that someone and entered her room.

"Hey, a happy new year to you!", Anouk woke her from her trance.

Being ripped out of her thoughts, Annika jumped and gave Anouk a startled glance. But then a faint smile appeared on her face and she came over to welcome her friend back and returned the new year wishes with a jovial hug. Anouk noticed that Annika's hands were shaking and that she was weirdly tensed while they hugged.

"What's wrong?", she asked, knowing that something was burdening her friend.

"I... I have to ask you to do something", Annika answered hesitantly. "I need you to go over to Ascua and get something from there."

"I'll do it", Anouk replied right away.

"Anouk...", Annika sighed. "This is not like the errands you usually run. This is dangerous. Crossing the border between Estoria and Ascua is not like crossing the state borders back at home. I would do it myself, but the Ascuan authorities know that I am with the Orange Hand. As you might know, they are not very fond of our organization. To them, we are 'foreign provocateurs' who want to 'poison their perople' with 'noxious ideologies'. If I tried to cross the border, they would probably... arrest me right away. But you have never been over there. You are not in their files, so they don't know about you."

"But what is so dangerous about going there?", Anouk wondered. "I mean, yes, I have heard stories about people being harassed by customs officials, but that's only the regime flexing the muscles, right?"

"No, Anouk, it is more than that." Annika lit another cigarette. "The Ascuan government does not play by the international rules. If you piss them off, they will do anything to make sure you regret the day you were born. I want you to know that the very moment you set foot on Ascuan ground, neither me nor anyone else can guarantee for your safety anymore."

Anouk took a moment to process the information. Then she made her decision.

"So, what is my mission?"

Annika closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Anouk could not tell if it was a breath of relief or a strained breath.

"A meeting has been arranged with an Ascuan dissident, code name 'Orchid'. Tomorrow morning, you, code name 'Tulip', will cross the Ascuan border at the Libria Main Station checkpoint. 'Orchid' will approach you and hand you an SD card. Once you have the card, you will immediately return to Estoria and come straight back here, without detours. Did you understand?"

Anouk nodded. "What is on the SD card?"

"Believe me, you don't want to know. Not even I know all the details. And in fact, it is better if we don't. Just in case anything goes wrong."

There was a queasy feeling in Anouk's stomach. She began to understand the gravity of the task she had so willingly and unsuspectingly agreed to do.

"What could go wrong?", she asked quietly.

Annika looked at her with uninterpretable look on her face.

"The authorities could get wind of it and take you in for questioning", she replied in a tone that Anouk did not like.

"But they will let me go eventually, won't they?"

"I do not know. As I said, once you are over there, no one can gauarantee for your safety anymore."

There was a minute of silence between the two friends. Anouk watched Annika put out her cigarette. Her hand was still shaking, albeit not as badly as before.

"So, tomorow morning it is?", she concluded eventually.

"Yes", Annika confirmed. "Thank you, Anouk!"

They both smiled at each other. Then, all of a sudden, Annika's face became serious again. She went over to her desk and opened a drawer, pulling out a small sealed plastic bag with a pill inside.

"This is your insurance if the shit should really hit the fan", she said.

"I don't understand. What do you mean?"

"These are only rumors, but every rumor has at least a bit of truth in it", Annika started to explain after a few moments of hesitation. "I have heard reports about the Ascuan police and government agents using very rough interrogation methods."

"Do you mean torture?", Anouk questioned.

Annika nodded silently. "The reports suggest that they are especially cruel with women. This pill contains a very strong poison. If you bite down on it, you are going to die within seconds. I really hope that you do not have to use it."

"So do I", Anouk agreed.

To be continued.

Well.. the stakes just shot up through the roof! Don’t do it Anouk! (just kidding!)

 

[Fossy]

Chapter 1

The holidays back at home had been a full success. Spending Christmas with her parents and her younger brother had been as homey and pleasant as ever. And the New Year's Eve Party she had been to had ended in a hot one night stand with a handsome guy. Barney Stinson's old ploy of the volunteer about to leave home to help people in need worked on guys, too. But unlike the Barney from the classic sitcom, Anouk had not have to make her story up. Duty called and she was back on her way to Estoria on the second day of the new year.

Right after leaving the plane she had boarded at Shiphol airport this morning and claiming her luggage, she checked her phone to see if Annika had texted her their new adress yet. The message popped up the same second Anouk turned off the phone's airplane mode. It was followed by a second message from Annika, asking her to see her when she arrived.

Annika and her skeleton crew had not only managed to keep operations running while most of the volunteers had been on home leave over the holidays, but they had also moved the entire headquarters of their Orange Hand branch from the trailer park in the outskirts into a hotel at the border between the city center and the suburbs. The new location would take them closer to the action and would make most of the long rides in overcrowded busses and subways every morning and evening a thing of the past. The downside was, that the taxi ride from Libria Airport took almost two hours. By the time she arrived at the hotel, it was already dark outside.

The hotel the new branch headquarters was accommodated in was run by the city. They had left the entire first floor to their helping guests, free of charge. Anouk suspected though, that not only the gratitude of the locals, but also state funds had been an incentive. Taking a quick look at the front of the building, she could see that most windows on the first floor were dark. That was probably due to the fact, that most volunteers were still at home and would only return over the next couple of days. Behind one of the few illuminated windows, she spotted Annika, pacing up and down in her room like she always did when figuring stuff out.

Right after paying the taxi driver, checking in and bringing all of her things into her room, Anouk went to see her friend. Annika's room was the first one in the hallway. When Anouk knocked on door 101, she noticed that it was open and entered right away.

The stench of fresh cigarette smoke hit her and made her retch. Anouk was a strict non-smoker and finding out that her childhood friend had turned into a heavy one had been the only unpleasant surprise when the two had met one and a half years ago. Annika of course always vowed to improve and announced that she would finally quit smoking every couple of weeks, but never lasted more than a few days.

And so Anouk watched her friend put out another cigarette in an overfilled ashtray while she continued to walk in circles in front of the windows, lost in thoughts, probably not even realizing that someone and entered her room.

"Hey, a happy new year to you!", Anouk woke her from her trance.

Being ripped out of her thoughts, Annika jumped and gave Anouk a startled glance. But then a faint smile appeared on her face and she came over to welcome her friend back and returned the new year wishes with a jovial hug. Anouk noticed that Annika's hands were shaking and that she was weirdly tensed while they hugged.

"What's wrong?", she asked, knowing that something was burdening her friend.

"I... I have to ask you to do something", Annika answered hesitantly. "I need you to go over to Ascua and get something from there."

"I'll do it", Anouk replied right away.

"Anouk...", Annika sighed. "This is not like the errands you usually run. This is dangerous. Crossing the border between Estoria and Ascua is not like crossing the state borders back at home. I would do it myself, but the Ascuan authorities know that I am with the Orange Hand. As you might know, they are not very fond of our organization. To them, we are 'foreign provocateurs' who want to 'poison their perople' with 'noxious ideologies'. If I tried to cross the border, they would probably... arrest me right away. But you have never been over there. You are not in their files, so they don't know about you."

"But what is so dangerous about going there?", Anouk wondered. "I mean, yes, I have heard stories about people being harassed by customs officials, but that's only the regime flexing the muscles, right?"

"No, Anouk, it is more than that." Annika lit another cigarette. "The Ascuan government does not play by the international rules. If you piss them off, they will do anything to make sure you regret the day you were born. I want you to know that the very moment you set foot on Ascuan ground, neither me nor anyone else can guarantee for your safety anymore."

Anouk took a moment to process the information. Then she made her decision.

"So, what is my mission?"

Annika closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Anouk could not tell if it was a breath of relief or a strained breath.

"A meeting has been arranged with an Ascuan dissident, code name 'Orchid'. Tomorrow morning, you, code name 'Tulip', will cross the Ascuan border at the Libria Main Station checkpoint. 'Orchid' will approach you and hand you an SD card. Once you have the card, you will immediately return to Estoria and come straight back here, without detours. Did you understand?"

Anouk nodded. "What is on the SD card?"

"Believe me, you don't want to know. Not even I know all the details. And in fact, it is better if we don't. Just in case anything goes wrong."

There was a queasy feeling in Anouk's stomach. She began to understand the gravity of the task she had so willingly and unsuspectingly agreed to do.

"What could go wrong?", she asked quietly.

Annika looked at her with uninterpretable look on her face.

"The authorities could get wind of it and take you in for questioning", she replied in a tone that Anouk did not like.

"But they will let me go eventually, won't they?"

"I do not know. As I said, once you are over there, no one can gauarantee for your safety anymore."

There was a minute of silence between the two friends. Anouk watched Annika put out her cigarette. Her hand was still shaking, albeit not as badly as before.

"So, tomorow morning it is?", she concluded eventually.

"Yes", Annika confirmed. "Thank you, Anouk!"

They both smiled at each other. Then, all of a sudden, Annika's face became serious again. She went over to her desk and opened a drawer, pulling out a small sealed plastic bag with a pill inside.

"This is your insurance if the shit should really hit the fan", she said.

"I don't understand. What do you mean?"

"These are only rumors, but every rumor has at least a bit of truth in it", Annika started to explain after a few moments of hesitation. "I have heard reports about the Ascuan police and government agents using very rough interrogation methods."

"Do you mean torture?", Anouk questioned.

Annika nodded silently. "The reports suggest that they are especially cruel with women. This pill contains a very strong poison. If you bite down on it, you are going to die within seconds. I really hope that you do not have to use it."

"So do I", Anouk agreed.

To be continued.

Excellent build up and suspense. As a lot of you know I love a bit of espionage...

 

[dommmu]

Chapter 2

Roughly fifteen minutes late, the train arrived at Libria Main Station. Nobody really wondered or even cared about little delays like that anymore. Once a busy through station, Libria Main Station had been turned into a terminus, only accessible for trains coming in from the Estorian side, and thus had become almost insignificant for public transportation. Still it was a busy place, since it now served as the largest border checkpoint of the capital.

Just like the rest of the land, the city of Libria had been split in two by the Estorian/Ascuan border. When Anouk, who had traveled in the front waggon of the train, stepped out on the platform and looked to her right, she could see how the train tracks leading over to the Ascuan side of the city had been removed, just like the bridge they had run across. And everything else that had been in the way when Ascua fortified its borders. In the entire city, the main station was the only building on the border strip that had been left standing despite the border running right through it.

The border strip that had eaten its way through the city was about a hundred yards wide and consisted of several alternating rows of barbed wire fences and anti-vehicle barriers. Signs bearing skull and crossbone symbols had been set up, warning of landmines in both the local language and English. Anouk also spotted armored trucks patrolling on the Ascuan side along an improvised road thad had been laid down with concrete plates and connected the watchtowers protruding from the ground about every three hundred yards.

The menacing sight made her doubt her decision to accept this mission once more. To be honest, the doubts had kept her awake through most of the night. But Anouk had sworn to herself that she would not chicken out of this. She was not going to disappoint her friend Annika. She was going to go through with it.

The trains arrived on the upper level of the station. Anouk walked along the platform and descended the stairs leading down into the concourse where she would cross the border. The omnipresent queasiness in her stomach, which had held on to her since yesterday evening, was joined by a tingling in her groin. That was the poison pill. Explaining to Anouk that she could hardly carry it in her purse or her pockets only to have it discovered if she was searched, Annika had given her a condom wrapper and a small tube of lube and told her to 'get creative'. Of course, she had meant for her to put the pill into the condom and then push it up into her front opening. Anouk had done so. But in her nervousness, she had not minded the air bubble trapped in the condom when she had knotted its end. Now the pill was tumbling around inside the condom, stimulating her pussy with every step she took. In any other situation, Anouk may have been able to draw arousal from this, but in her current anxiousness it was simply irritating.

When she arrived down in the main hall of the station building, Anouk immediately saw the brick wall that had been pulled through it, blocking the direct passage between the two countries. In order to pass the checkpoint, she had to go further down, into the former subway station. No trains were running there anymore. Down here, the tracks had also been removed and the tunnels had been sealed with heavy grates.

The checkpoint office had been raised on the former subway platform with wooden walls. Anouk got in line for the entry to Ascua. Her heart skipped a beat when she noticed a yellow line painted over the dark brown tiles on the ground, only a couple of feet away from the entry of the office. The border! Once she stepped over this line, she would be at the mercy of the Ascuan authorities and the capriciousness of their officials.

The line of people waiting for their passage moved excruciatingly slow. Everytime someone had passed through the electric door of the passport control, it took minutes until it opened again to let the next one in. Anouk looked at her watch. It was only 8:45 a.m., which meant that she still had time. The handing over of the SD card was supposed to happen between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. and the agreed meeting point was less than five walking minutes away.

Anouk wondered how the dissident from the other side and Annika had managed to arrange the meeting in the first place, since it was nearly impossible for Ascuan civilians to communicate with the outside world. Annika had told her, that the Republic of Ascua had cut themselves off from the internet, their citizens were not allowed to own mobile phones and all landline calls going out of the country were monitored, as well as all mail of course. So Annika and whoever she had been in contact with must have found another way to exchange the details of the meeting. Maybe with coded messages? But if Anouk asked her friend about it, the answer would probably have been again that it was in her best interest not to know.

It was her turn for the passport control eventually. She entered a narrow corridor, hardly wide enough to walk through. The doors for entering and exiting the room marked its far ends. While one of the longer walls was barren, the other consisted of a wide glass window, with a small office behind it. Anouk handed her passport to the grim looking clerk through the small hatch. He picked it up without a word and began checking it, attentively flipping each page. When he was done, he started to type something into his computer, still giving her the silent treatment.

"Are you carrying a camera or a phone that is able to record images?", he broke is silence at last. "If you do, please hand it over to me for checking."

Anouk nodded and took the brand new smartphone out of her purse. It was not hers. She had received it from Annika this morning. Its only purpose was to serve as a vessel for the SD card she was going to receive. Needless to say, she had left her own phone at the hotel.

The clerk accepted it, pulled a sticker sheet from a drawer and applied identical round stickers each on the front camera and on the back camera of the phone. He then proceeded to enter the stickers' serial numbers into the computer.

"I have to inform you that since you are not a citizen of the Republic of Ascua, you are forbidden from taking pictures or recording videos while on Ascuan ground", he explained, handing the phone back. "If upon your departure from Ascua we find out that the seals have been tampered with, you will be detained until the contents of your phone have been checked and verified. Do you understand?"

Anouk nodded, swallowing down the lump in her throat. There had been an eery undertone in the word 'detained' when he had said it. The clerk finally returned her papers and indicated her that she could leave by pressing a button that opened the door on the Ascuan side of the corridor. She had gotten over the first ostacle. She had crossed the border!

Ascending the stairs leading out of the subway station, another look at the watch told her that it was 9:15 a.m. now. There was more than enough time left for the walk to the meeting point, but Anouk decided that it was best to go there without any delays or distractions.

After resurfacing to ground level in the concourse, she took a quick look behind her. She was indeed on the other side of the brick wall, but on this side, some additional barbed wire strands had been pulled along it. And there were armed soldiers guarding the wall. Apparently, the Ascuan government was more concerned about the people leaving the country than the people entering.

Unlike on the Estorian side, where the small stores and restaurants you would find at every large train station had been busy, they were abandoned here. That was no big surprise, since anyone coming up the stairs seemed to hurry to leave the place instead of lingering around.

Anouk had almost made her way to the exit of the station building and could already feel the heat of the morning sun shining down on the plaza outside when a man wearing a blue shirt and a shiny badge approached her.
"Good morning, miss. Would you please come with me?"

Fuck!

To be continued.

 

[Barbaria1]

There’s a certain quality of realism to this. Nicely conceived and written. What’s next?

 

[Fossy]

Fuck

Love a chapter that ends with such an expletive. Makes me want more ...

 

[dommmu]

Chapter 3

The man lead Anouk into a side wing of the station building. Back in the days when this building had been a normal train station, these premises had probably belonged to the station management. Now they were occupied by the customs office, as a large sign over the entry to the corridor told her.

Following the man, she entered a hallway and saw three identical wooden doors on each side. Suddenly, one of the doors sprang open and a woman, wearing nothing but her underwear, was dragged out by two soldiers. She was crying and rapidly babbling something in Nabano. When the woman saw Anouk, she called out to her for help, but Anouk was paralyzed as she watched in horror how the terrified woman was dragged further down the hallway and eventually disappeared behind the steel door at its end.

"I am very sorry for this", the customs officer apologized. "Please don't mind her."

He opened one of the other wooden doors and indicated her to enter the room that lay behind it. When Anouk, still frozen from the shock, did not move quickly enough, he grabbed her left arm and gave her a little shove, which woke her up again.

Less than a minute later, the contents of her purse were spread across a large table. She had emptied it out under the eyes of the officer and the two soldiers who kept watching her, ready to launch at her if she made the tiniest wrong move or acted suspicious in any way. Following Annika's advice, she had packed only what she might need. Her papers, a little bit of money and the phone her friend had given her.

"What is the purpose of your stay in Ascua?", the clerk questioned while inspecting each item.

"I am visiting a friend", Anouk replied. Of course, she would not be sent on a mission like this without a cover story, in case anyone questioned her.

"And what is the name of this friend?"

"Maria Perez." Another part of the cover story. Maria Perez was such a common name in this part of the world that, in combination with various middle or double names, you would find more than twenty people alone in the Ascuan part of Libria who went by it. That would make any background checks close to impossible.

"And why don't you have any luggage?"

"Because I am only going to stay for the day."

The officer frowned. Anouk could not tell if he was buying her story or not. Then he signalled the two soldiers to follow him out of the room.

"Please wait a moment", he told her before closing and locking the door from the outside.

Anouk was left alone for a couple of minutes. Not knowing what to do, she did not dare to touch her things on the table or to even move away from the spot she stood. When she searched the room with her eyes, she noticed a surveillance camera in one corner. Just as she started wondering who might be watching her on a screen somewhere else in the building, the door opened and a female officer entered.

"Strip down to your underwear and put your clothes on the table", she commanded while walking over to a wall cabinet, taking out a pair of rubber gloves.

"What? Why?", Anouk protested.

"Strip search" was the short answer.

Before making her way across the border, Anouk had known that anyone might get selected for a random customs check. She had also been warned about the penetrating questions the customs officials would ask. But no one had ever told her about strip searches.

"Is this really necessary?", Anouk doubted, forgetting Annika's advising words for a moment not to mess with the personell on the border. "I swear that I am not hiding anything."

"Standard procedure", the woman replied. "If you do not comply, you will not leave this building, at least not on the Ascuan side."

Anouk sighed. She could not let the mission fail only because she was ashamed to strip in front of another woman. She had already come too far for this. So she stripped off anything but her bra and her panties and laid it down on the table, just as she had been instructed to do.

The woman searched each piece of clothing extensively, while Anouk waited with her legs pressed together and her arms crossed over her chest. Waiting to be allowed to dress again, she gave the surveillance camera more than one anxious look. Who was watching her?

When the officer was done searching her clothes on the table, she gave Anouk another demeaning command: "Take off your bra and hold it over your head with both hands!"

Of course! If you wanted to let someone know who the boss was, you had to go through with it. Half angered, half frightened, Anouk reached for the clip of her bra.

"Wait!", the woman stopped her, her voice a littler softer and quieter now, pointing at the camera with her finger. "You might want to turn around for this."

Anouk gave her a quick thankful smile, then turned her back to the camera. If there really was a little pervert in the surveillance room who had looked forward to seeing some titties, he would be raging right now. Taking off her bra, she now faced the window front of the room. The windows had been pasted with a foil that let the daylight in, but did not allow anyone to look through from either side of the glass. What would the passerbies from the outside say if they could see her now, stripped down to her panties, lifting both of her arms over her head, making her bare breasts rise and her ribs show faintly under her skin?

The officer came walking around and examined Anouk's front. Recognizing that her breasts were so firm that you could not use them to hide anything under it, she saw no need to further assess them. Instead, she knelt down.

"I am going to pat your panties now", the officer informed her. "You can leave them on, but I have to ask you to spread your legs a little further."

Anouk complied again and increased the gap between her feet. She felt her face burn up from the shame of having a stranger touch her most intimate places. And then she noticed it: The damp feeling where the fabric of her panties touched her labia. In her nervousness, she had used way too much lube to get the condom with the pill inside of her, and now the excess was leaking out!

The officer noticed that something was going on in Anouk's crotch, too. When she felt the moist fabric, her hand recoiled and she gave her a bewildered look. Anouk shot her a nervous smile in return.

"Please don't tell me this is turning you on", the woman said, shaking her head and standing up. "You foreigners can be so weird."

The officer pulled the gloves from her hands and tossed them into a bin with visible disgust.

"All right", she concluded. "Dress and pack up your things. You can go now."

To be continued.

 

[montycrusto]

Chapter 3

The man lead Anouk into a side wing of the station building. Back in the days when this building had been a normal train station, these premises had probably belonged to the station management. Now they were occupied by the customs office, as a large sign over the entry to the corridor told her.

Following the man, she entered a hallway and saw three identical wooden doors on each side. Suddenly, one of the doors sprang open and a woman, wearing nothing but her underwear, was dragged out by two soldiers. She was crying and rapidly babbling something in Nabano. When the woman saw Anouk, she called out to her for help, but Anouk was paralyzed as she watched in horror how the terrified woman was dragged further down the hallway and eventually disappeared behind the steel door at its end.

"I am very sorry for this", the customs officer apologized. "Please don't mind her."

He opened one of the other wooden doors and indicated her to enter the room that lay behind it. When Anouk, still frozen from the shock, did not move quickly enough, he grabbed her left arm and gave her a little shove, which woke her up again.

Less than a minute later, the contents of her purse were spread across a large table. She had emptied it out under the eyes of the officer and the two soldiers who kept watching her, ready to launch at her if she made the tiniest wrong move or acted suspicious in any way. Following Annika's advice, she had packed only what she might need. Her papers, a little bit of money and the phone her friend had given her.

"What is the purpose of your stay in Ascua?", the clerk questioned while inspecting each item.

"I am visiting a friend", Anouk replied. Of course, she would not be sent on a mission like this without a cover story, in case anyone questioned her.

"And what is the name of this friend?"

"Maria Perez." Another part of the cover story. Maria Perez was such a common name in this part of the world that, in combination with various middle or double names, you would find more than twenty people alone in the Ascuan part of Libria who went by it. That would make any background checks close to impossible.

"And why don't you have any luggage?"

"Because I am only going to stay for the day."

The officer frowned. Anouk could not tell if he was buying her story or not. Then he signalled the two soldiers to follow him out of the room.

"Please wait a moment", he told her before closing and locking the door from the outside.

Anouk was left alone for a couple of minutes. Not knowing what to do, she did not dare to touch her things on the table or to even move away from the spot she stood. When she searched the room with her eyes, she noticed a surveillance camera in one corner. Just as she started wondering who might be watching her on a screen somewhere else in the building, the door opened and a female officer entered.

"Strip down to your underwear and put your clothes on the table", she commanded while walking over to a wall cabinet, taking out a pair of rubber gloves.

"What? Why?", Anouk protested.

"Strip search" was the short answer.

Before making her way across the border, Anouk had known that anyone might get selected for a random customs check. She had also been warned about the penetrating questions the customs officials would ask. But no one had ever told her about strip searches.

"Is this really necessary?", Anouk doubted, forgetting Annika's advising words for a moment not to mess with the personell on the border. "I swear that I am not hiding anything."

"Standard procedure", the woman replied. "If you do not comply, you will not leave this building, at least not on the Ascuan side."

Anouk sighed. She could not let the mission fail only because she was ashamed to strip in front of another woman. She had already come too far for this. So she stripped off anything but her bra and her panties and laid it down on the table, just as she had been instructed to do.

The woman searched each piece of clothing extensively, while Anouk waited with her legs pressed together and her arms crossed over her chest. Waiting to be allowed to dress again, she gave the surveillance camera more than one anxious look. Who was watching her?

When the officer was done searching her clothes on the table, she gave Anouk another demeaning command: "Take off your bra and hold it over your head with both hands!"

Of course! If you wanted to let someone know who the boss was, you had to go through with it. Half angered, half frightened, Anouk reached for the clip of her bra.

"Wait!", the woman stopped her, her voice a littler softer and quieter now, pointing at the camera with her finger. "You might want to turn around for this."

Anouk gave her a quick thankful smile, then turned her back to the camera. If there really was a little pervert in the surveillance room who had looked forward to seeing some titties, he would be raging right now. Taking off her bra, she now faced the window front of the room. The windows had been pasted with a foil that let the daylight in, but did not allow anyone to look through from either side of the glass. What would the passerbies from the outside say if they could see her now, stripped down to her panties, lifting both of her arms over her head, making her bare breasts rise and her ribs show faintly under her skin?

The officer came walking around and examined Anouk's front. Recognizing that her breasts were so firm that you could not use them to hide anything under it, she saw no need to further assess them. Instead, she knelt down.

"I am going to pat your panties now", the officer informed her. "You can leave them on, but I have to ask you to spread your legs a little further."

Anouk complied again and increased the gap between her feet. She felt her face burn up from the shame of having a stranger touch her most intimate places. And then she noticed it: The damp feeling where the fabric of her panties touched her labia. In her nervousness, she had used way too much lube to get the condom with the pill inside of her, and now the excess was leaking out!

The officer noticed that something was going on in Anouk's crotch, too. When she felt the moist fabric, her hand recoiled and she gave her a bewildered look. Anouk shot her a nervous smile in return.

"Please don't tell me this is turning you on", the woman said, shaking her head and standing up. "You foreigners can be so weird."

The officer pulled the gloves from her hands and tossed them into a bin with visible disgust.

"All right", she concluded. "Dress and pack up your things. You can go now."

To be continued.

A narrow escape! Better to be thought a pervert than a spy…
Great storytelling @dommmu !

 

[twonines]

A narrow escape! Better to be thought a pervert than a spy…
Great storytelling @dommmu !

The two are not mutually exclusive!

 

[Barbaria1]

"Please don't tell me this is turning you on", the woman said, shaking her head and standing up. "You foreigners can be so weird."

Giggle snort! Didn’t see that coming. Priceless.

 

[dommmu]

Chapter 4

Her little adventure at the customs office had cost her valuable time. When Anouk had finished redressing and stuffed everything else back into her purse and finally left the station building, it was 9:55 a.m. already. Now she had to hurry to get to the rendezvous point. The handing over was supposed to take place between 10 and 11 a.m. and both 'Tulip' and 'Orchid' had been given strict instructions to immediately abandon the mission if the respective other party did not show up within that window.

Anouk recalled the path that Annika had drawn for her on an old city map. She had made her memorize it, since taking the map, together with all the markings and notes on it, along on her journey would have been a silly idea. If they had found it on her during the customs check, Anouk would probably have been the next unfortunate soul to disappear behind the metal door at the end of the hallway.

She reached her destination at 10 a.m. sharp, perfectly in time. It was a small park where the damages of the civil war were still visible. No one had bothered yet to repair the damages on the empty fountain, which had been used as cover from a hail of bullets once or to re-erect the stone statue of some old Librian poet, which had been toppled in the fray of the battle.

The place was busy. Apart from a European woman on a secret mission, you could tell the people apart in three different groups: There were the soldiers, patrolling around in their menacing dark brown uniforms and showing off their deadly rifles they wore on a strap. There were the business people in their spotless black, blue and grey suits, carrying folders and briefcases around. And there were the civilians, by far the biggest of the three groups, going about their daily business. In contrasts to the uniforms and the suits, their clothes were in poor condition, some even ragged. Poverty was still a big problem in Ascua.

As different as the three groups were, there was one thing they had in common: Many, not quite half of them, wore either very short hair or were even bald. If she remembered correctly what Annika had told her about the habits of the locals, this had to do with some religious tradition.

Anouk sat down on one of the few benches that had remained intact. She was sweating under her jacket. Although it was early January, the daytime temperatures in Libria could easily reach 85 degrees Fahrenheit (or around 30 degrees Celsius as she would say at home) and even during the nights, it rarely dropped below 60 degrees Fahrenheit (or around 15 in Celsius). Anouk could remember summer days in the Netherlands that had been colder than an average January night in Libria. The tank top she wore underneath would have been enough for her, but Annika had insisted on her wearing this green jacket, since it was her identifaction mark for the dissident, together with the red framed (fake) glasses she had put on. Annika also claimed that wearing the jacket would make blending in with the locals easier, who would certainly all be wearing jackets, since it was technically winter.

Blending in! Anouk could hardly blend in. If she looked around, she found that everyone else had olive skin, brown eyes and dark hair (unless they had shaven it off). With her fair skin, green eyes and ash blonde hair, she was such a noticeable appearance that many of the people passing her shot her surprised or curious glances, giving her the uneasy feeling of being on display. It seemed like most of locals were not used to seeing outsiders. A brat from a group of teenagers even called out to his friends and asked them if the woman on the bench was a ghost, since she was so pale compared to himself. Blending in was impossible. Even the clerks at the customs office had started their conversation with her in English right away, because they had immediately assumed that she was not from around here.

Anouk took another nervous look at her watch. It was 10:15 and so far, there had been no sign of the woman who would approach her and ask her if she could help her transport a heavy bag of potting soil from her trunk into her appartment. Anouk was then supposed to ask her, if she was going to plant tulips. And when the other woman would say 'No, I'm planting orchids', this would be her sign to follow her to a remote alley that was out of scope for the omnipresent surveillance cameras and receive the SD card.

Time passed on. 10:30, 10:45. Still no sign of 'Orchid'. Anouk became increasingly nervous with each minute that passed. She pushed up the fake glasses that annoyingly kept sliding down her nose every few minutes. Now it was 11 a.m. and no one had approached her yet. Just to be sure, she waited for another five minutes and then decided that the mission had failed and that she would follow her instructions to make her way back into Estoria at once.

Arriving at the station building, she silently cussed when she saw the queue for the departure having grown so long, that it already reached the top of the stairs leading down into the subway station. Apparently, everyone from the Estorian side who had to do business in Ascua did their best to be back by lunch. Anouk got in line, hoping that the processing of the people leaving Ascua would be faster than for the people entering. The sooner she was out of here, the better.

Suddenly she felt a tap on the shoulder. Startled, she turned around and saw a man, maybe in his early 40s, wearing a dark grey suit and flashing a badge that was even shinier than the one the customs officer had worn.

"Would you please come with me?", he requested. "We need your help in clarifying a certain matter."

She immediatley understood that it was rather an order than a request. Then she spotted the two soldiers, who were not here on patrol but the escort of the suit. She assumed that by looking at their shoulder pads. Unlike the usual stripes in varying numbers that gave away a soldier's rank, these two bore a silvery sun symbol, the same sign that adorned the center of the Ascuan flag. She also knew by the way the two were focussing on her. Anouk had no intention to follow this man to wherever he wanted to take her, but trying to run away or causing a scene would certainly turn out to be even worse ideas. So she nodded and let him take her away.

'Fuck! Fuck, fuck fuck!' and 'Remain calm, just remain calm!' were the two thoughts alternating in Anouk's head when she walked, lead by the man in the suit and closely followed by the two soldiers, down the hallway of the customs office. But this time, she was not taken into one of the rooms behind the wooden doors. Instead, it was the dreaded metal door that was opened for her. Another hallway lay behind it, along with several more metal doors on each side. One of them stood open, expectantly awaiting the group.

The room she was taken into was not very different from the room she had been strip searched in earlier. It was around ten feet wide and fifteen feet long. There was a table standing in the middle of the room, with two chairs on opposing sides. The one crucial difference to the other room was, that this one had no windows. Instead of the warm daylight, it was illuminated by ceiling lamps casting cold beams of artifical light.

The suit ordered Anouk to sit down on the chair facing the door, wich was closed and locked the very moment everyone had entered. He seated himself in the other chair. His two hounds positioned themselves on both sides of the door.

"My name is Guillermo Fonseca", he introduced himself after silently assessing Anouk for a while. "I am an agent from the secret service of the Republic of Ascua."

'Shit, secret service. They know!', Anouk thought. But maybe, if she played dumb and denied everything, they would let her go? She had to hope they would.

Fonseca raised both of his eyebrows, displaying his anticipation for an answer from Anouk.

"What do you want from me?", she asked.

"Well...", he replied. "Since you are obviously not educated enough to introduce yourself to me, which I find to be very rude, I would like you to give me your passport for starters, so I can learn your name."

Anouk opened her purse and started searching it for her papers, mumbling humble apologies.

"Unless...", the agent interrupted her. "...you would prefer me to just call you 'Tulip'?"

To be continued.

 

[montycrusto]

"Unless...", the agent interrupted her. "...you would prefer me to just call you 'Tulip'?"

A definite “Oh shit!!” moment! Great buildup of suspense!

 

[Barbaria1]

Twist ending … I love it!

She pushed up the fake glasses that annoyingly kept sliding down her nose every few minutes.

Just one of the many excellent bits of thick description that populate the prose of dommmu’s writing. Really well done.

 

[montycrusto]

Just one of the many excellent bits of thick description that populate the prose of dommmu’s writing. Really well done.

You’d never wear fake glasses would you Barb?