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Authors: Harold Robbins

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BOOK: Descent from Xanadu
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“No hurry,” he said. “I’ll wait.”

She heard the phone click off in her ear before she could answer. Slowly she sat up in bed, picked up the telephone again and pressed the service button.

Ginny answered. “Yes, Doctor?”

“May I please have a pot of strong coffee?” she asked.

“Of course, Doctor,” Ginny said. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

Sofia got out of bed and went into the shower. A few minutes later she was back in the cabin wrapped in a towel. The stewardess was there waiting for her.

The coffee was hot, black and strong. “That’s good,” Sofia said.

Ginny stood there.

Sofia looked at her. “Is there anything wrong?”

The girl’s voice was tight, strained. “You’re going up to him, aren’t you?”

Sofia nodded. “Of course.”

Tears flooded into Ginny’s eyes. “Please. Don’t go up there. Not tonight. After we had such a beautiful day together.”

“Ginny,” she said softly, understanding. “Child.”

“Please.” Ginny seemed almost begging. “I don’t want him to use you the way he does all the others. I love you.”

“Have you ever—?”

Ginny interrupted her. “We don’t have any choice. He buys and owns all of us.”

Sofia looked at her, then drew the girl to her. Ginny’s voice was muffled against her shoulder. “But you don’t have to jump through his hoop. He doesn’t own you.”

“Child, child,” Sofia whispered. “You do not understand. Everyone, yes everyone, is owned by somebody or something.”

Ginny looked up into her face. “Then you’re not in love with him?”

“No,” Sofia said. “I am not in love with him.”

“But you will go with him?”

“Yes,” Sofia nodded.

“I hate him!” Ginny said angrily.

Sofia was silent.

“Do you love me?” Ginny asked.

Sofia met her eyes. “Perhaps, in time.”

The sun streaming through the window was burning her eyes. By shutting her eyelids she managed to close the shade. She rolled over in the bed. She had a splitting headache and opened her eyes again. She sat up. She was in her own cabin. She took a deep breath. It was strange. She did not remember coming down the stairs.

She rolled out of bed to the bathroom. Quickly popped two aspirin tablets and a five-milligram Valium. She took a deep breath and stepped into the shower, turned on the water full blast. Ice cold first, then hot, then ice cold again. Her head began to clear a little.

She stepped from the shower and reached for the bath towel, then was shocked frozen by what she saw in the full-length mirror. Her naked body was almost wholly covered with tiny black-and-blue bruises all the way from her jutting breasts, across her belly, to her hips. She stared at herself in disbelief. Her pubis had been cleanly shaven, her mons veneris was swollen like Mount Vesuvius and her clitoris felt sore and was red, like lava from the volcano’s lips.

She took a deep breath and turned to look over her shoulder at her back. Thin red lash stripes crisscrossed her back and buttocks. Tentatively she touched the bruises. There was no pain. Again she coursed her fingers over her buttocks, then cupped her breasts. Still no pain.

Slowly she wrapped the towel around herself and walked into the cabin. She sat on the bed and tried to remember what had happened last night. But it was all a blank.

She picked up the telephone and pressed the service button. Raoul, the chief steward, answered. “Yes, Doctor.”

“What time do we expect to land in Honolulu?”

Raoul’s voice was impassive. “We departed Honolulu three hours ago, Doctor.”

She hesitated for a moment. “Could you ask Ginny to bring a pot of coffee for me?”

“I’m sorry, Doctor,” the steward said without expression. “Ginny left the flight in Honolulu. I’ll have a pot of coffee sent to you.”

Then it all came back to her. Just as she put down the phone. It was almost as if it had been a nightmare. The little Chinese girls, like two peas in a pod. Identical twins. Naked and rolling the small pill-like gum of opium in their fingers, lighting the pipe and holding the stem to her mouth with delicate little hands.

Then the lovely clouds and silver mist. Floating inside her body and then feeling outside the beauty of her body as the tiny girls touched her, feeling the love in all her nerves. Then the orgasm that had exploded her into a million tiny fragments, shattering her body in the blackness of night.

The blackness was exploded by pain. She fought the night to climb back up to consciousness. Then the pain began again. She opened her eyes and saw Ginny’s face, snarling with rage and hatred, teeth tearing at her, then the thin lashes of the whip. She screamed and screamed and screamed.

Then the door had been pushed open. Suddenly, Ginny was gone. Judd was looking down at her. She tried to speak to him, but she heard no sound.

It was his voice that she finally heard. “Ice pack, procaine, and ACTH ointment. Lots of it. Two Syrettes of Demerol.”

“Pain,” she said. “Pain.”

“It will be gone in a moment,” he said. Then she fell back into blackness.

A knock came at the door. “Come in,” she called.

Judd looked in. “May I?”

She nodded.

He stood to one side as a stewardess placed the tray with the pot of coffee on the small table next to her bed. He waited until the stewardess was gone.

“How do you feel?”

“I hurt,” she said. She sipped at the coffee. “Maybe you are a better doctor than I am. I never knew what was happening.”

“The opium put you away,” Judd said. “You were asleep when we took you to your cabin.”

“Thank you,” she said. “I could have been killed.”

“The girl was crazy,” he said. “None of us could have known that. Not until we broke through the door and saw her there.”

She looked at him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make any trouble.”

“It was not your fault,” he said. “Anyway, I’m happy that you’re okay.”

She was silent for a moment. “Again, thank you.”

“We’ll be in San Francisco in about four hours,” he said. “Why don’t you sleep until then? I know a doctor there who will help your bruises disappear in less than a day.”

12

The helicopter that carried them from the San Francisco airport to Crane City set them down exactly at eleven in the morning. Two automobiles were awaiting them.

Several men were standing as they descended from the copter. One of them, a tall distinguished man with salt-and-pepper gray hair, held out his hand. “Judd.”

Judd grasped his hand. “Jim. Thanks for meeting us so promptly.” He turned to Sofia. “Sofia, this is Dr. Marlowe. Brigadier General Marlowe, retired, was formerly in charge of the burn and skin center at NASA hospital in Houston. Jim, this is Doctor Ivancich, Sofia.”

The two doctors shook hands. “How do you feel, Doctor?” Jim asked.

“Sore,” Sofia answered. “But I feel they are mostly surface contusions.”

Jim smiled. “We’ll take a look at it. I’ll take you to the clinic.”

Sofia turned to Judd questioningly.

Judd smiled reassuringly. “I’ll be at my office. As soon as Jim takes care of you, he’ll bring you over.”

He watched as Dr. Marlowe’s car rolled away. Fast Eddie and Merlin followed him to the other car. He raised the window that separated the chauffeur from the passengers and looked at Merlin. “How come Ginny’s psychomedical report didn’t uncover her latent psychosis?”

“Nobody knows,” Merlin said. “They’re reevaluating the tests now.”

“I want a full review of it as well as the complete tests and procedures. All it would take is one nut like that to blow us all out of the sky.”

Merlin knew better than to reply. Judd’s anger was never obvious on the surface, but it was deadly. He had no tolerance for mistakes.

Judd changed the subject. “Did you notify Judson at construction about S. Yuan Ling?”

“Yes. He was very pleased. Also he asked me to tell you that he is reworking the bridge construction labor method and thinks that he can bring that down by about another million dollars.”

“Good,” Judd nodded. “Is Barbara meeting me at the office?”

“Yes, sir.”

Judd nodded and leaned back into the seat and lowered the chauffeur’s window. He snapped his fingers. Fast Eddie looked back over his seat. He knew what was wanted.

The small gold vial and spoon passed in the palm of his hand. Judd covered his hand and turned to the corner of the car. He felt better as soon as the two snorts of cocaine hit him. He nodded and palmed the vial and spoon back to Fast Eddie.

***

He kissed Barbara on the cheek. “You look beautiful.”

She smiled. “Flatterer. I’m a sixty-year-old lady.”

“I won’t tell if you won’t,” he said. “You can fake out everybody with forty.”

“Thanks,” she said. “You look tired.”

“I am,” he said. “But I’ll get over it. I’ll get a long weekend’s rest at Boca Raton.”

“You ought to give me a corporate title,” she said.

“You tell me, you got it.”

She laughed. “Godmother.” She turned serious. “I worry about you.”

“I’ll be okay,” he said.

“I hope that doctor you brought from Yugoslavia will do you some good at least,” she said. “And that she doesn’t play around with any more rough-trade dikes.”

He was surprised. “What do you know about it?”

“I told you. I’m the Godmother.” She paused. “I saw the telex you sent to the clinic.”

He shook his head ruefully. “Shit.”

“Don’t be angry,” she said. “Don’t forget you have a very close-knit family.”

“I’m beginning to find that out,” he said. “Was it the same with Father?”

“More,” she said. “You are away more than he ever was.”

He turned to face the windows. It was nearing lunchtime and the offices were beginning to empty out. He turned back to Barbara. “Jack Maloney tells me NASA is not giving us any cooperation at all. Hughes has the next six satellites locked up tight.”

“That’s right,” she said. “I checked with General Stryker at Hughes. He was an old friend of mine. He told me that they’re sitting tight also.”

“All I want just now is two of the six.”

“They won’t budge.”

He thought for a moment. “We supply the directional semiconductors for Hughes, is that right?”

“Yes,” she nodded.

“Have they been shipped yet?”

“I don’t know,” she answered. “What are you thinking?”

“If Hughes doesn’t have those semiconductors, the satellites don’t go up. Right?”

“I’m not an engineer,” she said.

He called Merlin into the office. “Call the procurement office at Hughes, notify them we’re not shipping the semiconductors. Tell them they’re not ready yet, and we don’t know how long it will take.”

“That’s going to cost you a forty-million-dollar lawsuit,” Merlin said.

“Fuck ’em!” he said.

“You’re the boss,” Merlin said and left the office.

Judd turned to Barbara. “Now you can do your godmother bit. Call your friend General Stryker, tell him that because of your relationship with me, you could expedite those semiconductors if they waive two of their satellite launches to me.”

“That’s blackmail,” she said.

“That’s right,” he said.

She laughed. “I love it!” She began to leave his office, then turned to look back at him. “I know the Hughes organization. It might take some time. Everything goes through channels.”

“I have the time,” he said. “They’re the ones in a hurry.”

“Do I get a chance to meet your doctor?” she asked.

“Dinner,” he said.

“Lovely,” she said and left the office.

***

“I didn’t know that your stepmother was married to Dr. Marlowe,” Sofia said, as Fast Eddie opened the door to the penthouse Judd maintained at the Mark Hopkins.

“It’s been six years now,” Judd said, following her into the suite.

“She’s a young woman,” she said.

Judd nodded.

“And Dr. Marlowe is a genius. I never knew a technique like that. Some things about American medicine are light-years ahead of us.”

“What did he do?”

“Subcutaneous dispersal injections with a combination of ACTH, procaine and nonallergenic collagen. His touch is so gentle and light I never felt it.”

“He’s good,” Judd said. “NASA didn’t want to lose him. But he is seventy and decided that enough is enough, so he retired.”

“They have a beautiful home on Nob Hill, is that what you call it? Have they had it long?”

“It has been in his family for ages,” he said. “He comes from here.”

“Your mother must be a happy woman.”

“She is,” he said. He led her into the bedroom. At the far end of the room just in front of the curved ceiling-to-floor windows was an oval Jacuzzi whirlpool bathtub. He pressed a button turning on the water. He looked at her. “Is water okay for you?” he asked.

“If it’s not too hot,” she answered.

“88 Fahrenheit?”

“Should be all right.”

“Let’s have a bath then,” he said.

He was in the tub before her. He turned as she came naked toward him. “He is good,” he said. “The bruises seem almost gone.”

“He said that by tomorrow they will be completely gone.” She carefully put one foot on the step and checked the water. “It’s fine.”

He held his hand up to steady her. She saw a smile on his lips. “What are you thinking?” she asked.

“Your pussy,” he said. “It’s like a baby’s.”

“Does it look funny?”

He shook. “On the contrary. It’s a great turn-on. The way your clit pushes out there.”

She looked down into his eyes. “Would you like to eat it before I get any water and soap on it?”

“Crazy question,” he replied.

She pulled her hands around his head, then straddled her legs so that she could ride his face.

13

Dr. Lee Sawyer, director of the Crane Medical Research Center in Boca Raton, Florida, was a man of medium height, fortyish, bald, with water-blue eyes and the lugubrious expression of a basset hound. He sat in a chair next to Judd’s hospital bed. “I never believed you would really go through with this,” he said. “How long has it been since you’ve stayed in one place for three days?”

Judd looked at him. “I don’t know. Where’s Sofia?”

“She wants to attend every one of your tests,” Doc Sawyer said. “I’ve arranged a suite for her on the floor near yours.”

BOOK: Descent from Xanadu
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