(Eastern Nejd Plateau, central Saudi Arabia, 11^th September 2001)

The Sheikh ended his mobile telephone conversation. He was eager to recruit some occupants for the four currently empty cells in the basement of his new remote desert residence and consequently had just placed the relevant order.

The Saudi Arabian middleman, with whom the Sheikh was dealing, specialised in particular merchandise, which was mainly acquired for his fellow countrymen from the Indian subcontinent. Obtaining the goods from the USA would be much more difficult but not impossible, especially given the substantial amount of money his extremely wealthy customer was prepared to pay for the fresh imports. He had also recently become secretly aware, from Tuareg sources, that a quarter of the order might unusually be secured more cheaply from Africa.

As for the other three-quarters of the goods to be acquired from the USA, the middleman was assisted by having a Russian contact, who would know of potential suppliers of the goods concerned.

(Plateau de Tchigaï, Agadez Départment, Niger, Africa, 1 week later, 18^th September 2001)

Robert was sitting on a high rock, adjacent to the similarly aged and pretty black Hausa boy, whom he had befriended despite early problems of communication. They had been charged with keeping a watchful eye on the sheep belonging to the Tuareg family group for which they acted as slaves. From their lofty position, the pair of 13 year-olds, attired only in their skimpy loincloths, could see all the animals grazing immediately below them amidst the sparse shrubbery of the Plateau de Tchigaï.

Robert had now discovered that the Hausa boy was called ‘Nsikak’ and that he had been a slave for as long as he could remember, having been separated from his mother and sold to his present masters when just an infant. The black 13 year-old had also apparently accepted his current life as a slave, including regular performance of sexual tasks for the family elder and other Tuareg males, as being a normal existence, not knowing any other.

As Robert’s fluency in the Tuareg ‘Temajeg’ tongue improved, he had begun to attempt to disabuse Nsikak’s idea of normality by explaining aspects of the world beyond the northern deserts of Niger. In a development that the young American was later to regret immensely, he was thereby fatefully starting to instil the notion of freedom and a better life in the mind of the Hausa boy.

On this day, Robert had just attempted to describe New York to Nsikak but had encountered enormous difficulty and not just because of the language problem. The young American was trying to explain one of the great cities of the world, full of very tall skyscrapers, to a boy who had never seen a brick building, let alone a permanent settlement.

As they talked, Robert had to change his sitting posture frequently because of the discomfort being experienced by his bottom. This soreness did not emanate from the hard rocky surface on which the pleasant curves were resting but instead from the fact that the boy had spent the last seven nights sleeping with the family elder.

Sleeping was, of course, not the only activity indulged whilst sharing the family elder’s bedding. The Tuareg appeared to have an insatiable appetite for Robert’s young body and so the boy had been forced to accommodate such a taste by gaining further experience of fellatio and sodomy. However, there had been three consolations for his involvement in such debasing activities.

First, Robert guiltily and shamefully could not deny the fact that he thoroughly enjoyed being skilfully fondled and otherwise manipulated in foreplay by the apparently sexually expert family elder, invariably to delicious personal orgasm and ejaculation. Second, the boy’s subjection to subsequent sodomy was becoming less painful, as his rectum became increasing accustomed to regular nightly invasion by the Tuareg’s large cock. Third, the young American had quickly learnt how to perform fellatio competently, including swallowing the product.

Robert had been encouraged to become proficient at fellatio by the consequences of the incompetence exhibited when he had first performed the demeaning and literally distasteful act, after just agonisingly losing his anal virginity to the family elder one week previously. The boy had gagged as the Tuareg’s fresh ejaculate had poured into the young American’s mouth, causing him to cough the sperm back towards the tribesman’s hairy groin.

The angered family elder had immediately grabbed Robert’s now rather long silky straight fair hair, in order to prevent the naked boy from moving, and then sent his leather crop crashing down hard onto the young American’s exposed bare bottom. The Tuareg’s fury was only sated once five vivid scarlet stripes had formed on the now crying and shrieking 13 year-old’s lightly tanned buttocks.

Robert, called ‘American boy whore’ throughout his lashing, was then encouraged by the family elder to cease sobbing in favour of licking up the carelessly spilt cum from the Tuareg’s hairy, sweaty and smelly groin. Given such a physically and mentally painful experience, he also managed to swallow all of the tribesman’s ejaculate on the following evening and every other night since then.

Robert was rewarded by the family elder for his new competence by being given the humiliating nickname of ‘Allaitant’, which is French for ‘Suckling’. To the boy’s subsequent enduring shame, this derogative was quickly adopted by the rest of the amused tribal group, even most of the other slaves, with the Tuareg children gaining particular enjoyment from using the term in respect of the young white American.

Nsikak was one of the few not to call Robert ‘Allaitant’. The Huasa boy instead addressed his new white American friend by his Christian name, although he used the French pronunciation, which, to those who speak English, appears to omit the letter ‘t’.

Nsikak had not escaped sexual duties whilst being absent overnight from the family elder’s bed. As on previous occasions when the senior Tuareg had not wanted him, there were plenty of other tribesman ready to invite the pretty black boy into their tents or, if such canopies were shared with family, to disappear temporarily with him into the privacy provided by nearby bushes.

Virtually all of the Tuareg tribesmen in the family group had enjoyed Nsikak at some time, the boy having been subject to molestation ever since he had been bought as an infant. When Robert eventually came to learn of this fact, he began to realise why his Hausa friend considered such activities to be normal. The young American also started to fear that he too would become the sexual plaything of the other tribal males, although the elder’s selfishness seemed to be currently sparing him from such degradation.

Robert did not, however, presently appreciate that the family elder’s selfishness in respect of the young American’s sexual services would soon be ending.

(New York, USA, same time)

New York and the world were still in shock as a result of the appalling attack on the Twin Towers in the previous week. There was, of course, blanket coverage of the terrible event in the media. This was the reason why little attention was paid to the disappearance in the city of a boy on his way home from school, apart, of course, from that afforded by the people closely involved in the mystery, such as 13 year-old David’s distraught parents and the investigating police.

No-one also connected the disappearance within the next week of two other prettily featured fair-haired blue-eyed 13 year-old boys in similar circumstances elsewhere in the USA. John was missing in Boston, Massachusetts, whilst the local police in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were searching for Michael.

David, John and Michael would sadly eventually just become more names on the missing persons’ registers in their home cities, with some people believing that they were probably runaways. However, those who really knew the boys, and the loving and prosperous homes from which they came, worried that something much more sinister had happened to them.

(Plateau de Tchigaï, Agadez Départment, Niger, Africa, another week later, 25^th September 2001)

Robert had to acknowledge that Nsikak played the drum with his hands very well to establish the necessary melodic rhythm. Nevertheless, the young American felt both awkward and ashamed to be trying his best to dance to the tones in the way his Hausa friend had just shown him.

The appalled Robert had recently been advised by the family elder that he had to learn to dance erotically to Nsikak’s manual drum-beats with competence or be flogged severely for ineptitude. The Tuareg also informed the boy that he only had one week to acquire efficiency, as the young American would be performing at a celebration to be held in seven days’ time.

Robert would then be dancing for the gathered tribal elders to celebrate his own enslavement, first in his skimpy loincloth and then naked. The boy would subsequently act as a ‘prostitué’, or prostitute, for any of the honoured guests who wanted to enjoy him.

(New York Harbour, New York, USA, same time)

In modern times, a Russian-owned merchant ship, built in Japan, flying the flag of Panama, having Bulgarian officers and a Chinese crew and exporting American goods to the port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia is not usual. Even in the wake of the recent attack on the nearby Twin Towers, the New York harbour authorities therefore paid no special attention to the vessel, as it readied itself to sail.

The harbour authorities did not, of course, know that the ship was actually often used by Russian gangsters to smuggle drugs into the USA. Nor did they realise that the vessel was also now being used to send illegal exports to Saudi Arabia.

Three carefully bound, gagged and drugged beautiful 13 year-old boys, named David, John and Michael, were secretly occupying a cabin, considerately vacated by one of the bribed officers. Such valuable exports would naturally never appear in any trading figures.

If such exports were to be somehow quantified in official returns, $2,000,000 would need to be cited for each boy, this being the price a certain Sheikh was spending to acquire them.

(Plateau de Tchigaï, Agadez Départment, Niger, Africa, another week later, 1^st October 2001)

The women and children of the Tuareg family group had retired to their tents for the night to allow their menfolk and male guests, warmly dressed against the evening chill, to continue the celebration alone. The setting for the festivity was a cleared area in the middle of the encampment, with the tribesmen sitting in a circle on mats, eating the remains of the recent feast and drinking beverages, prepared and served by attendant slaves. Heating and the illumination from the full moon and stars above were supplemented by a large campfire, whilst background music was supplied by Nsikak and his drum.

Nsikak drumbeats suddenly became more agitated. The increase in tempo actually signalled the imminent appearance for the first time of the boy whose acquisition as a Tuareg slave the tribal elders were happily celebrating.

As Robert heard the change in musical tones inside the nearby tent in which he had been secreted to await the time of his performance, he was not protected from the evening chill, being attired only in his skimpy loincloth. The boy also appreciated that even this minuscule modicum of cover would not last, as he was expected to be naked when he completed his act. However, the young American additionally realised that any bodily shivering to be encountered would not emanate from the usual cold of the desert at night, as his energetic dancing should keep him warm, but instead from nerves.

Robert was nervously not looking forward to dancing for the large group of Tuaregs. Even though the boy now believed himself competent in the art, he considered gyrating, first virtually and ultimately actually naked, in front of the undoubtedly lecherous tribesmen to be deeply degrading and humiliating. The young American also positively abhorred the idea of then being compelled to return to this tent to entertain in other ways any of the tribal elders who wanted to be so pleasured. The idea that he would probably have to service over a dozen men overnight both disgusted and frightened him.

Nevertheless, as Nsikak’s revised drumbeats indicated that Robert had to leave the shelter of his tent to perform his dance, the boy’s cock, tucked within the minuscule thong underneath the tiny anterior flap of his skimpy loincloth, pulsed and attempted to grow. The young American’s sudden apparently shameless arousal was also evident by the development of a small but noticeable bulge at the front of his sole garment.

Robert realised that his arousal would also soon be revealed to the Tuaregs in other ways. The boy knew from practising that his energetic dancing would cause the flaps of his loincloth regularly to rise.

Such activity would reveal, beneath the front flap, the tight thong within which the full outline of Robert’s genitals would be clearly evident, as well as, under the rear, the boy’s bare bottom. The ultimate shedding of the young American’s sole garment in order to dance naked would also exhibit his disgraceful excitement to all.

In the event, Robert’s disgrace turned out worse than he imagined. As the boy’s completely smooth uncovered genitals flapped energetically around during the nude literal climax to his dance, and to the delight and hilarity of the fascinated spectators, he experienced productive sexual ecstasy.

In the process, the initially orgasmic but ultimately acutely abashed Robert sprayed his lithe torso and limbs with his own semen, as well as left copious creamy droplets on the ground beneath him. However, such spermatic despoliation of his gorgeous young body did not distract any of the watching tribal elders from now being very eager to enjoy the boy’s soiled form in the privacy of the tent from which the young American had earlier emerged.

The honour of being the first to be thoroughly entertained by the naked young American slaveboy prostitué inside the waiting canopy was naturally afforded to the most senior and aged of the guests present. Nevertheless, this rather wrinkled, ugly and smelly septuagenarian proved to be most virile, as Robert’s oral and anal orifices were to discover over the next hour, before his second keen client of the long night ahead replaced the first customer.

As Robert performed his long series of degrading chores with a succession of Tuareg tribal elders for much of the night, he could hear the constant rhythm of Nsikak’s slowed drumbeat, as the 13 year-old Hausa resumed his background music. The young American did not, of course, know at the time that his black friend, as he played, managed to overhear a conversation that was highly pertinent to the white boy’s future.

(Plateau de Tchigaï, Agadez Départment, Niger, Africa, another week later, 8^th October 2001)

Robert was again sitting on a high rock, adjacent to Nsikak, with whom communications had improved because of the young American’s increasing understanding of the Tuareg ‘Temajeg’ tongue. They had once more been charged with keeping a watchful eye on the grazing sheep.

"But I’ve never ridden a camel," Nsikak protested, "and I’m sure that you haven’t." "But," Robert retorted, whilst they indulged in further plotting to escape from slavery, "it’s the only way that I can think of to flee successfully. If we try on foot in this desert, we’d quickly be either recaptured or fodder for carrion!"

Robert had been planning escape ever since Nsikak had informed him about the conversation he had overheard at the celebration one week previously. Having heard from his white friend about the wider world, the young Hausa had also demanded that he should share the dangers of the young American’s attempted flight.

The stimulus for Robert’s desperation had not been the degradation of now sexually serving the family elder nightly, or the Tuareg’s fellow senior tribesmen occasionally. The revelation, overheard by Nsikak, that the young American would soon be sold on to an Arab trader, had instead spurred him into wanting to attempt a quick escape despite the difficulties.

According to the conversation overheard by Nsikak the secret market for pretty boys of Robert’s nationality offered the family elder a highly lucrative trade. Even though the white 13 year-old had not yet heard about the atrocity of the Twin Towers, he was aware enough about political and other issues to appreciate one of the reasons why young Americans were especially coveted by certain Arabs with particular tastes. Such knowledge therefore enabled him to recognise that a change of ownership would undoubtedly lead to a far more unpleasant existence, even when compared to that he was presently suffering.

Robert would be even more concerned if he knew that a certain Saudi Arabian Sheikh, with a new palatial residence in the eastern Nejd Plateau, was still in the market for young American slaveboys, despite the imminent import of three delectable specimens direct from the USA.

(Plateau de Tchigaï, Agadez Départment, Niger, Africa, next day, 9^th October 2001)

Nsikak had been firmly bound between the two sturdy wooden stakes resolutely embedded in the ground within the Tuareg encampment. Robert had already been compelled to watch his now naked friend being severely flogged all over his back, buttocks and the rear of his legs in front of the whole of the family group, including the women, children and other slaves.

The family elder, with a sharp knife in one of his palms, subsequently approached the sobbing Nsikak from behind. The Tuareg then knelt and harshly grasped the boy’s smooth scrotum with his free hand and yanked the organ painfully downwards, causing the tearful young Hausa to yelp in shock.

The family elder’s positioning had been deliberately chosen so that everyone else, apart of course from the young victim, could clearly see, from in front of the rightfully terrified Nsikak, the horrendous event that was to occur next. "Let this be a lesson to all slaves who might be considering trying to escape," the Tuareg then declared to launch the relevant action, before beginning to use his knife to slice through the base of the boy’s scrotum.

The overnight attempt of Robert and Nsikak to escape by stealing and then riding a camel had ended in farce and swift recapture. The animal, being accustomed only to the usual rider, had initially refused to stand, let alone move with the two boys on his back.

The camel had eventually only been induced to stand and move when Robert began desperately to hit the animal with a stick. However, the beast had simultaneously uttered a loud series of screeches, which had aroused the whole Tuareg encampment.

The camel also quickly secured revenge for being hit with a stick when it started to jerk its back wildly and continuously. This frantic reaction caused the animal’s two young riders, who did not have the benefit of a saddle or stirrups to help them cling on to the beast, to tumble off. The boys were then rapidly recaptured by the furious Tuaregs only a couple of hundred metres from the encampment.

The family elder’s brutal castration of Nsikak was quickly over, with the boy’s severed scrotum resting in his manly hand. The Tuareg subsequently ordered another tribesmen to cauterise the young Hausa’s terrible genital wound.

The freshly red-hot branding iron, used to mark the Tuareg family group’s slaves with a scorpion symbol, was utilised for the excruciating cauterisation procedure, during which Nsikak thankfully fainted. By now, the face of Robert, who was standing nearby, was awash with his own tears, after watching the appalling punishment inflicted on his friend.

Robert now sincerely wished that he had not influenced Nsikak to seek freedom and want to try to escape with him. However, the young American’s regretful thoughts were then swiftly overcome by concerns for his own welfare.

Robert had heard the family elder command the removal from the dreadful scene of the unconscious Nsikak and then order fellow tribesmen to "Strip ‘Allaitant’ naked, as it’s now his turn to be similarly punished!"

(To be concluded in part 5 – ‘Charité’)