Chapter 12

Preparations

***

    Mr. Tsu had felt a moment of sheer terror when the computers at San Carlos Island had been shut down, dumped, and reloaded. It had cut him off from his son, and it was all he could do to not panic. But once they'd come back online, and the systems at HKS3 had told him exactly where Hop Sing was, he sighed in relief. Thanks to the unique chip he'd implanted in the boy's neck, Tsu would always know where he was. It had been a long-running debate, everyone knew - the pros and cons of GPS trackers implanted into children. Most people screamed about it; it even incited riots in some areas when local governments proposed it. It was proof that the masses, no matter where or how oppressed, still wielded some power. Tsu was wondering how he'd ever be able to wait while Hop Sing made his trip to 'wherever'...where Wong was taking the boys. As he watched the indicator showing him that his son was moving rapidly on the ATV across the island, his phone rang again.

    "Pack up and go get your family," Li's boyish voice told him. "Come to airport, check in as Mr. Dongbin and family for charter flight. It's all arranged. Boss says we all need a vacation."

    It wasn't hard to convince his boys that they were going somewhere, but the missus protested. Tsu silenced her with a direct order and within the hour, the Tsu family was checking in as the Dongbins at the airport. They were directed to a small but fast-looking charter jet, and when they boarded, they found several men in immaculate suits waiting for them. As they were seated, Tsu was greeted by a face he didn't really want to see.

    "Mr. Chow," he nodded to the man who had taken the money that he'd received for Hop Sing. Chow greeted him warmly, and when he leaned forward across the aisle, Tsu noticed a small boy seated next to him. "Word is that your company may be going under," Chow said conversationally, "So we hear. I think Wong is up to no good, regardless of what he likes to do?" Chow winked at him and patted the boy's leg. "This is my nephew, Keye. It's his birthday shortly, and he's going to the Island," Chow said. Tsu cringed. "Oh, don't look at me like that," Chow laughed, "Nephew knows all about it. His cousin went last season, and he knows all about it." Keye didn't say a thing. He just looked out the window. "Sons are good, but too many sons or illegitimate ones can get in the way," Chow explained, waving off Tsu's protest, "Don't worry. I've spoken with Ben already. Other than some, ahhh, red security measures, we'll say, your boys will be safe on the island. We all will be."

    "Do you think this will work?" Tsu asked, as his family looked on in confusion. After all, a surprise vacation was a very strange thing for them - not that the boys minded.

    "Of course it will work. What I want to know is how YOU think it will work, and HOW we find out where to go?" Chow asked.

    Tsu leaned over and whispered in Chow's ear about the chip in Hop Sing's neck. Chow smiled at him. "I think you need a new job," he literally beamed, as the charter jet opened up its engines and roared towards San Carlos Island.

***

    Back at the Tsu home, a clock chimed. It was silenced by men ransacking the house, though. "There's no one here!" One of them shouted in frustration.

***

            Tsu thought about that job offer for a moment.

            “Father, are we going to Hop Sing’s island?” Guo Jian spoke up.

            Tsu looked over his shoulder at his thirteen year old son and reluctantly nodded. He just hoped that Ben Toeber and Chow had some kind of security measures in place to shield his family from what was really going on at the island. After all, Guo Jian had wanted to go – thought that HE should be the one to go – and now there they all were.  Even An Dong’s girlfriend, more further along in her disguised pregnancy than the young couple had admitted, was there.

            “Stop worrying about them and worry about your other son,” Chow whispered to Tsu. “And don’t think too badly of me, right Li?” He asked.

            “Yes, sir,” Li nodded. “It’s a good place to grow up,” he added, smiling. “I can’t wait to get back. I miss it.”

            Finally, Mrs. Tsu spoke up. She wasn’t stupid, after all.

            “This has something to do with you gambling, doesn’t it, husband?” She demanded, as she stood up and smacked Tsu upside the head with her purse. “They’re going to dump us all in the ocean, aren’t they?!” She yelled.

            Chow laughed.

            “You didn’t tell her, did you?”

            “No,” Mr. Tsu grumbled.

            “Trust me, it’s a vacation!” Chow assured her.

            “It looks like a mob hit to me,” An Dong spoke up.

            “In a way,” Chow agreed, “But it’s not YOU we’re hitting. Your father is in the top security company in the world, boy, and the company has problems. Big problems. This could be a global disaster, actually.”

            The Tsu family went quiet.

            “Your father has proven that he is honorable man,” Chow went on, “You are right, An Dong, was it?  Yes, you are! But your father is working for US now. You’re part of the bigger family now, so to speak.”

            “Then the person you plan to hit knows, and they would have come after us?” Mrs. Tsu reasoned. Chow nodded. “That’s why you took all of us along? And my husband is the only one who knows how to get you what you need? What’s to say that you won’t just kill us, then, when you’re done with him?”

        "If you'd stayed home, you'd be dead by now, knowing this man we want," Chow nodded, "You're in no danger from us."

            “Bad business, ma’am,” Li explained, as Chow nodded at him. It was clear that Mrs. Tsu was tiring him. “We don’t work that way. To maximize the profits, one must maintain the best resources. And Mr. Tsu is obviously the best. Losing him would be a waste.”

            “This has something to do with Hop Sing being apprenticed, doesn’t it?” Mrs. Tsu demanded of her husband, which sent Chow, Li, and all of the other men into fits of laughter. Next to Chow, young Keye snorted.

            “Innovative way to explain it,” Chow finally gasped.

            “Ma’am,” Li told her, “You have NO idea how important Hop Sing is to all of this. In fact, most of the chances for success ride on him. In fact, every security system in the world built by HKS3 rides on him right now. John Wong, your father’s boss, is a very bad man, let’s say,” Li added.

            Mrs. Tsu went pale. Guo Jian’s and An Dong’s jaws dropped.

            “Now, let’s talk about the patent on that new bio-chip you designed, Tsu,” Chow offered, as the plane flew on.

            Jie Kang and Keye had gone to sleep.

            When they touched down at San Carlos Island’s runway, there were no boys hanging on the fence to watch the landing. But every security guard on the island was there to meet them. So were Ben Toeber and Doctor Ronnie Knox.

            “That was fast,” Toeber congratulated Chow, turning to Li. “Welcome back, boy,” he smiled. Li hugged him. “Look at you, all grown up and still a baby’s face! Working hard?”

            “Li works very hard for Mr. Chow,” Li bowed.

            “I don’t doubt it, you always were a hard-working boy,” Toeber smiled again. “And this must be the family? Tsu, we’ll all chat on the way, if you don’t mind? I need you over in IT right now! Things are working perfectly again, we just have to wait.” He then nodded to Keye, who was leaning close to Mr. Chow. "Is this one staying?"

            “Yes, and he knows,” Chow told Toeber, “But the paperwork and check-in can wait.”

            “Uncle?” Keye whined, but that was all he said. A look from Chow silenced him.

            “Ma’am, if you’ll come with me?” Knox asked Mrs. Tsu, “Right over here to the receiving room?”

            “Don’t worry about your boys, Tsu,” Toeber assured him, “All the island boys are confined to the grounds between their dorm and the guests’ hotel. Right now, we’re under a lockdown, still, so your family won’t see a thing. Did you tell them?”

            Tsu shook his head, glancing over to see Knox having his family filling out some forms.

“We’ll find some entertainment for them. You sure you don’t want to sell that middle one?” Toeber joked. Tsu shook his head.

“Boys,” one of the guards then asked, holding out some red collars. The Tsu boys, plus Keye, stared at him.

“Security collars with GPS tracking,” Toeber explained, “Built and programmed by your father, boys. They’re to keep you safe. They record your location, and also serve as communications, like a phone. They don't come off, so don't try.”

The guards then snapped the red collars around all of the boys’ necks. Tsu breathed a sigh of relief when no one tried to take the boys’ clothing. Keye looked sideways at the Tsu boys, but didn’t say a thing as Knox ushered them all out for a “routine checkup…island safety, you see…have the boys had all their shots?” Mr. Tsu heard Knox chatting about something about a child psychologist with the missus, but he didn’t catch it. He’d been spending far too much time away from his family, he realized. Hell, any of the boys could have had any number of medical problems, and he’d had not known a thing about it.

Tsu got into a golf cart with Toeber and Chow, and they headed for the IT building to get down to work.

At that point, though, it was mainly a waiting game as they watched the blip that was Hop Sing traveling south-southeast towards South America.

“You’re pregnant!” Knox exclaimed, reading over the scans of An Dong’s girlfriend, Mie.

“Seven months. Small babies run in my family. I was only 4 pounds,” Mie admitted, having been carefully hiding her condition with large clothing. Knox was not impressed and admitted her for tests. He dismissed the Tsu boys and their mother with a couple of guards, but kept Keye. As he was getting Keye ready for his physical exam across the hall, Matti came in, looking a little confused. Mie gasped at the sight of the naked boy. Matti jumped as well, snapping out of the daze he was in.

“What’s SHE doing here?” Matti yelped.

“Oh, Mie, did I mention that this was…ahhh…sort of a nudist resort? Clothing optional?” Knox asked lamely.

“No,” Mie grinned, but that thought didn’t bother her, it seemed, as she eyed Matti. Matti blushed harder.

Knox wondered how she’d take it – how they’d all take it – if they happened to run across a naked eunuch, though!

Pregnant, Knox thought, as he set up to do another scan of Mie’s unborn child. Timmy, my boy, this is YOUR lucky day!

“Matti, take Keye to the other exam room, if you would, and get him prepped and cleaned up and out for me?” Knox asked, “Ben's busy,  so the boy’s check-in will have to wait until tomorrow. Once he’s clean, I’ll be in for the rest of the exam? Oh, and you can go ahead and have one of the nurses start him on his shots?” Knox added. Keye looked nervous, but followed Matti to the exam room.

When he was finished with his scans, Knox led Mie in to the main ward. Timmy was the only resident, and he was sleeping, covered by a white blanket.

Mie stared at him. “What happened to him?” She asked.

“Mie, I have to ask you something, regarding your baby,” Knox told her.

Over in IT, Tsu, Toeber and Chow waited.

After an hour, the blip was still moving.

“Let’s go relax in the pool,” Toeber suggested. “The alarm will go off if the blip stops. I know Delray has a place somewhere near Chile, so that's what we're waiting for. He won't arrive there until much later tonight.”

In their guest suite, the Tsu family settled in. They were on a high floor, and had the floor all to themselves with guards at the elevators and stairs. The doors had also been programmed to not let the boys out of their suites.

“Oh, dear,” Mrs. Tsu gasped, reading over a more sanitized brochure about the island. If nothing else, Ben Toeber was prepared for almost anything. It wasn’t the first time he’d had to hide someone on the island, after all.

“What is it, mother?” Guo Jian asked, looking out the window. “I’m bored already!”

“Well…uhhh…I don’t know…it’s ahhh…well, boys, the resort here is…sort of…,” she wheedled.

“Clothing optional?” An Dong asked, gesturing out the window. “I swear there’s a naked man down by the pool!”

“Well, yes,” Mrs. Tsu admitted, with just a bit of a flush.  Her biological clock might have been ticking, but the alarm was far from going off! Perhaps it WOULD be  a good vacation spot after all!

“Can we go swimming?” little Jie Kang asked, bouncing on one of the beds.

“I think I’d better call your father,” Mrs. Tsu groaned.

“That’s him in the pool!” An Dong exclaimed.

Mrs. Tsu looked perplexed, then anxious. “Boys, I’ll be right back,” she promised, and out she went.

“That’s disgusting,” Toeber grimaced, as Mr. and Mrs. Tsu frolicked in the pool.  Actually, it was the very thing that Mr. Tsu needed. He had so much to tell his wife, and he’d missed his family so much. Chow watched and laughed. Mrs. Tsu, it seemed, was a bit of an exhibitionist herself!

About then, Ben’s phone rang.

“Ben, me bored!” Lewie’s voice complained. “No roomie yet, and wanna go out!”

Toeber winked at Chow.

“Guard, send Lewie down here,” Toeber called, winking at Chow. “I think it’s high time Mrs. Tsu found out what’s going on. If we don’t do something, we’re going to be out of business. The natives are getting restless!” 

Mrs. Tsu’s reaction to Lewie was less than serene, which Toeber and Chow both enjoyed. Having raised four boys, it wasn’t the nudity aspect that bothered her. She was often interrupted in the bath herself, and saw her sons naked all the time. What shocked her was Lewie’s lack of male genitals, having initially mistaken him for a short-haired little girl. Mr. Tsu almost had a stroke right there in the pool. When the missus had calmed down, Ben Toeber explained it to her, with Lewie’s help. As Lewie sat on Mrs. Tsu’s lap in a deck chair, Toeber explained it all to her. Mrs. Tsu’s face darkened as he told her the whole story about John Wong. Apparently, his story had just saved Mr. Tsu’s life, as the looks she’d been giving her husband were deadly.

“So it was Wong who stole Hop Sing from you,” Chow added. “He set up your husband to get to the boy.”

“And that’s why we’re here, to help you catch him?” Mrs. Tsu asked.

“Pretty much,” Toeber admitted, “And to protect you. With Wong in with Delray, we can't be too careful. They know I'm pissed, and they'll probably be after you, too.”

"And Hop Sing was...was...made like Lewie here?" Mrs. Tsu asked in disbelief.

"Yes, he was," Toeber nodded. "Most of the boys are. But you should be proud of your son, ma'am. He hates being a sex slave, but the neutering didn't seem to bother him at all. It's his sense of duty to his family that really impresses us. He's a fine lad who'd do anything for his family or friends."

"So he gets...he gets...well...," Mrs. Tsu fumbled.

"Fucked, every day!" Lewie piped up, smiling. Mrs. Tsu almost fainted.

“The red collars will keep our boys from being ahhh…mistaken for island boys,” Mr. Tsu offered lamely, "The others aren't in any danger of that...being molested...I mean, never mind!"

“Husband, this is much to accept,” Mrs. Tsu sighed, obviously still not over the shock of learning that her husband was dealing with a business that brokered in supplying neutered boys for sex slaves to rich men, and that one of her own sons was now a said 'island boy'. “But I understand what John did to you. To us. Poor Hop Sing!” She then cried, bursting into tears. Lewie hugged her and tried to make her feel better.

“The boys here are all treated very well,” Toeber assured her, “And they’re all financially set for life when they leave. Granted, they’re all still eunuchs when they leave, and always will be, but sex isn’t everything.”

Mrs. Tsu composed herself, busying her hands with trying to do something with Lewie’s hair. The small eunuch laughed at being mothered.

“Me very happy here,” Lewie assured her. “Hop good boy, friend to Lewie! Miss him,” Lewie sighed.

“And you…you like being…?” Mrs. Tsu struggled for words, pointing at Lewie’s sexless crotch.

“Being eunuch sex-boy?” Lewie laughed, “Love it!”

“Husband, we need to talk about Guo Jian’s little…ahhh…problem, then,” Mrs. Tsu stated, which got the men’s attention at once.

Mr. Tsu looked confused. Ben and Chow looked interested.

“Guo Jian is gay,” Mrs. Tsu informed him. “He’s known since he was eight.”

Toeber fell off his chair in laughter.

“Well, at least you got oldest son, making grandbabies now!” Chow laughed, too.

Tsu looked as if he might just drown himself.

“Has he…has he?” Tsu fumbled.

“Got a boyfriend? No,” Mrs. Tsu replied, “If you were around more, you’d know! An Dong told me. Guo Jian confides in him, but he's not sexually active - yet.”

“What do you say to letting him out of his room?” Toeber asked slyly. “Find out if he really is?”

“Are ALL the boys here…like Lewie?” Mrs. Tsu asked again.

“Most, but we do have what we call trainers, intact older boys, who teach the new boys about sex,” Toeber answered. "Clients can't have a slave boy until he's trained and has a green collar on. Guo Jian will be perfectly safe."

“Well, I guess there’s always going to be adults who want children,” Mrs. Tsu shook her head. “At least you provide a safe place for it and care for the boys.”

“That’s the general idea, yes,” Toeber smiled at her. “Ma’am, if you think your boy’s gay, this is the perfect place for him to find out for sure. We can put him with a trainer, a good and gentle one, and he can experience it. If he likes it, well, then he likes it. You can’t cure a boy who’s gay, like they used to try and do. Here, he can express himself and have a good time and know for sure.”

“Hop Sing’s brother staying?” Lewie piped up excitedly.

“Why don’t you go and fetch him?” Toeber suggested.

Lewie found Guo Jian in his room, where An Dong and his little brother had already eaten and made use of the hot tub. An Dong had fallen asleep trying to get Jie Kang down for a nap. Guo Jian almost fainted at the sight of Lewie, who encouraged him to take his clothes off and come down to the pool. After a long talk - which Lewie excelled at - and with an obvious erection, he did that and went with Lewie. "Can...can I touch it?" He asked nervously, pointing at Lewie's nullo place. Lewie, of course, let him. Guo Jian almost fainted. "That's hot," he breathed.

"Ask your mom, maybe Ben fuck you too!" Lewie laughed.

***

It took some convincing, but after Tsu told his gay son that he wasn't ashamed of him at all, Guo Jian finally came out and asked if he could try it. Tsu consented, and Lewie took the boy to the hospital where Doctor Knox prepped him, right along with Keye. "No, nobody gets anything cut off today," Knox assured the both of them, putting them both down for the night after the exhausting exam. Much to his surprise, the prostate check sent Guo Jian into orgasmic spasms. Knox was impressed. "Tomorrow, now that you're all clean and prepped, you can have a trainer," he added. He neglected to inform them that he'd also given Guo Jian the same medications that all the other slave boys got. By the morning, the boy was going to be itching to try it.

***

Much later that night, IT notified Ben Toeber and the rest of them that Hop Sing's readings had stopped moving. The GPS system showed them a small island off the coast of Chile.

"Delray won't make much of a move or do anything to them until they've settled in and he's made sure the boys are OK," Toeber assured them all. "I know him."

Chow then went to a computer. "Time to call in backup," he growled. "I don't like that man!"

***

    Wong had regularly used Hop Sing on the trip by submarine to Delray's own island kingdom, off the coast of Chile, 800 miles from San Carlos Island.  The boy, currently in the boat's infirmary, was recovering from their last session.  Once again, Wong had gone too far.  Luckily, he'd done no permanent harm to Hop Sing, who would recover.  Even on the submarine, they had a bone regeneration machine.  Hop Sing's broken arm would heal in days, not weeks, had they not had the machine.

    Meanwhile, the boat's doctor had forbidden him access to the boy.  That left only Sander.  Wong wanted him.  After Hop Sing, he'd probably never wanted a boy as much.  Sander was beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful boy Wong had ever seen.  He could see why Delray wanted him.  Wong wanted him, despite his being Caucasian, fair skinned, and blond.

    He preferred Asian boys, preferably  Chinese boys, but others would do, as long as they had black hair and eyes, or had been denuded of hair, as had Hop Sing.  Sander's beauty, however, transcended race.

    But Wong didn't dare touch him.  He belonged to Delray; and if Wong was afraid of anyone in the world, it was Delray, not just because of the video Delray had, but because he knew that if he pissed Delray off enough, he'd never leave Delray's island alive.

    And who would know the difference?  The last time he'd been seen, he'd been on San Carlos Island.

    He'd gone too far.  Wong knew that.  He could have abducted both Sander and Hop Sing without anyone knowing it had been him, had it not been for Timmy, had he not needed to torture and kill Timmy.  But the boy had asked for it.  He had laughed at Wong, and no one, especially no nullo boy, laughed at John Wong.

    Now Ben Toeber would know it had been him.  He would even KNOW he had killed Timmy; but he couldn't prove it.  Wong's sabotaging the security system had prevented any record of his crime; and since the security system was down, who could say someone else didn't have access to his room where Timmy would be found?  He was even reasonably certain that Timmy was still alive when he'd left the island. 

    He wouldn't have been for long, though, Wong thought to himself, smiling as he did.  His heart would have given out.  No heart, not even one as young as his, could take that many orgasms.  An interesting way to die, hey?

    But he was ruined.  Wong knew that.  His company was ruined.  When the word got out that he'd sabotaged his own security system, HKS3 would be ruined.  Knowing that, Wong had liquidated all the company's assets he could, secreting the funds in a bank in a country where they would be safe, an account identified only by a number, not a name. You gotta love Switzerland, ever neutral, Wong thought, Let the ones who wanted a buyout buy it out!

    He'd resurface in a different country, under a different name.  He could do that.  The 500 million credits he'd stolen from his company could buy him a new identity.

    Of course, he could have done that without acceding to Delray's demands, but he wouldn't have had Hop Sing.  That had become more important to Wong than even his freedom from Delray.  Possessing Hop Sing had become an obsession that Wong couldn't deny himself.

    Now that he'd had him, it was no longer so important.  Oh, he'd take the kid with him when he left, but Hop Sing was just a boy he'd already had.  The world was full of boys he hadn't had yet, and besides, the uncle-relationship with the boy was over.

    Wong knew that Hop Sing wasn't likely to long survive his attentions.  Just hurting a boy was no longer sufficient.  It hadn't been, since he'd killed the first one.  Wasn't that the ultimate possession of a boy, the taking of his life?  Nothing else would do for Wong.  He'd fucked Hop Sing.  He'd hurt him, even breaking his arm.  What was left, but to take his life?

    What better way to show his love for the boy?

* * *

    Still submerged, the submarine entered the underwater cavern that extended beneath the extinct volcano that had formed Delray's island. Once inside the ancient volcano, it surfaced, docking at the pier built inside the cavern. 

    Well lit, the cavern hummed with the sound of the fans that ventilated it. Lester Delray awaited them on the pier.  It wasn't a pleased expression he had on his face.

    "You incompetent fool," he said to Wong upon seeing him.  "Toeber knows I'm behind this abduction.  He would have suspected it, anyway, but somehow he KNOWS that I was.  I've received a call from him demanding the return of the boys.  I even know of your attempt to kill the boy, Timmy."

    "Attempt?" said Wong.  "You mean he's alive?"

    "Yes.  You failed even at that.  The boy still lives."

    "And Toeber told you that?" asked Wong.

    "No," said Delray.  "He didn't have to.  I have a mole on San Carlos Island, someone Toeber would never suspect.  Nothing happens there I don't know about."

    At that time, the two boys were brought up from below.  "Well, Sander," Delray said, "we meet again."

    Sander and Hop Sing, both naked, no longer wore collars.  Wong had removed them before they'd left San Carlos Island.  Hop Sing had his arm in a sling.  Sander looked up at Delray, but his mouth set, his lips pressed into a tight, thin, line, he didn't reply.

    "Oh, look, he's just speechless!" Delray smiled, "Don't feel like talking, Sander?"  Delray nodded to a eunuch accompanying him.  Obviously a slave, the man wore a black collar.  Naked, he had a tiny, prepubescent penis, but no testicles.  He didn't have a hair on his body, not even eyebrows.

    The slave had three black collars slid up on his forearm.  He snapped one around Sander's neck and one around Hop Sing's neck. The boys noticed at once that these black collars were heavier and fit tighter than the green one's of Ben's.

***

    Unbeknownst to anyone there, even to Hop Sing, the chip embedded deep in the boy's neck interfaced with the HKS3-made black collar and began transmitting. The virus-like code that ran it locked onto the nearest GPS system it could find, "sweet talked" it, and did it's job. Back on San Carlos Island, Mr. Tsu smiled at the computer screen. "Come to father," he breathed, as he accessed Delray's systems.

***

    Wong looked at the third collar.  It was larger than the other two, large enough for a man's neck.  Delray nodded, smiling as he did, "Yes," he said, "that one's for you."

    Two of the burly guards alongside Delray grabbed Wong.  The eunuch snapped the third collar around his neck.  To no avail, Wong struggled in their grasp, "Why?" he asked Delray.

    "You failed," said Delray.

    "I brought you the boy?" said a shocked Wong.

    "But you gave them my name."

    "I never mentioned your name."

    Delray pulled a small flip phone from his pocket. He flipped it open.  "Replay Wong, golf course," he said.

    Wong's voice came from the phone. "With me, you stupid boy," the voice said, the words Wong had spoken to Sander back on the island.  "You have a date - a permanent one - with Mr. Lester Delray."

    "But they couldn't have heard," said Wong.  "I disabled the security system and Sander's collar!  No one could have heard me."

    "Evidently, someone did," said Delray.  "You fucked up, Wong.  Now, you'll pay."  When Wong struggled, Delray said, "Hit Wong, level three." 

    A small device, no larger than a microchip, implanted in Delray's neck so he was never without it, picked up his words.  Wong screamed, collapsing to the pavement, writhing in pain, clutching at his collar. The guards looked pleased.

    "Hurts, doesn't it?"  Delray asked, "Hit Sander, level one." 

    Sander screamed and collapsed.  "Next time I speak to you, boy, you'll answer me," said Delray.  "That was level one, not much more than a caress.  You don't want a level three like the one I just gave Wong.  It goes as high as level 5, but then, no one has ever survived a fiver, and fours cause brain damage."

    Both Wong and Sander had lost control of their bladders.  Sander lay in a puddle of urine.  A wet spot spread across the front of Wong's trousers.  Both man and boy lay twitching on the ground, neither yet able to control his muscles.

    "These collars, you see," Delray continued, "have features your others didn't.  A level one does no lasting harm, but as you know now, it hurts - so much - you probably wish you were dead. Fantastic invention of yours, Wong. How does it feel?"

    Yet unable to speak, both Sander and Wong continued to writhe on the ground, even though their collars no longer infused their nerve centers with pain.  The effects often lasted for minutes.  The two guards stripped Wong of his clothes, then bent him over a rail.  Still twitching, he was unable to resist. Hop Sing watched in mute horror, but came to a decision. You won't do that to Sander again, he thought.

    Delray stepped up behind Wong.  A guard handed him a knife.  Delray reached between Wong's legs, grabbing his balls.  He pulled, stretching Wong's ball sack - then cut - slicing off Wong's balls, sack and all.  "None of my slaves keep their balls," Delray said.

    The two guards led Wong away, blood streaming down his legs onto the pavement.  "Don't let him bleed to death," Delray said.  "I have other plans for him."

    By that time, Hop Sing had helped his friend to his feet.  Sander's muscles still jerked and twitched, but he could stand with Hop Sing's help.

    "You know what to do," Delray said to the eunuch slave, who led the boys away.  Delray hadn't seemed to even notice Hop Sing.

***

    Back on San Carlos Island, while his family slept, Mr. Tsu turned to Ben Toeber and Mr. Chow.

    "I'm in," he said, "And Delray doesn't have a clue. What would you like to know?"

    "Damn, he's good," Chow grinned.