They were camping just north of the mountainous escarpment that protected Salalah at Bandar Nus when Sheikh Hakeem sent for them. Entering the tent, they saw that a rolled-up carpet lay at the sheikh’s feet, which were resting on it.
“I have something to show you,” Sheikh Hakeem said, kicking the rolled-up carpet so that it unrolled, eventually revealing a man whose ankles were zip-tied together, as were his wrists behind his back, his face clearly that of the man who had inquired after them in Bora Bora, despite the tape across his mouth. “Do you know him?”
“No,” they all replied at once.
“Well, he’s about to tell us everything that he knows,” Sheikh Hakeem said, lifting his chin towards one of his men who ripped the tape from the man’s mouth. “Perhaps it would be better if you ladies left. This will most likely be very unpleasant.”
“Not a chance,” Krista said, staring daggers at the man. “This piece of shit has been trying to kill Susan. I want to watch.”
“I’ll not leave,” Susan said quietly, watching as the man pissed himself, and not for the first time, it seemed.
“As you wish,” Sheikh Hakeem sighed. “Listen to me very carefully, my friend,” he said, kneeling down and taking the man’s chin in his hand and tilting his face up so that he had to look at him. “I am going to ask you questions and you are going to answer them. How quickly and fully you answer will determine how painfully you are going to die. I can easily keep you alive for 4-5 days, cutting parts of you away piece by piece until there isn’t enough left to be called a man. Do you understand me?”
“Fuck you, you goddamned sand nigger,” the man spat, his face twisted in fury. “You have no idea who you are messing with, you camel fucker. You fuck with me, you and your entire tribe are toast.”
Looking up at the man who had ripped the tape off of the man’s mouth, Sheikh Hakeem touched his ear. Immediately the man pulled his jambiya, a specific type of dagger with a short curved blade that all of the Bedouin men that they had seen had tucked into their belts, and reached down, grabbing the man’s ear and neatly slicing it off, tossing in on the ground in front of the man as he screamed, blood streaming down his neck.
“I didn’t hear you,” Sheikh Hakeem said softly. “Do you understand me? An ear is nothing. You can still hear. What will happen when I start on your fingers and toes, then your nose, then your feet and hands, your arms and legs? I assure you I can do it and keep you alive, for a while, but it will be the most hideous death you can possibly imagine and you’ll end up telling me what I want to know anyway. So why don’t you save yourself a lot of pain and suffering and just cooperate. In the end, it will be to your advantage. Now, do you understand me?”
“Yes,” the man snarled, his face contorted with rage and pain.
“That’s better,” Sheikh Hakeem said. “Now, what’s your name?”
When the man didn’t immediately answer, Sheikh Hakeem nodded at his friend again who reached down and grabbed the man’s remaining ear.
“I didn’t hear you,” Sheikh Hakeem said. “What is your name?”
“Chet, Chet Nichols,” the man gasped, his eyes rolling crazily in his head, the terror on his face stark.
One of the sheikh’s men handed him a passport and leaned over whisper in his ear.
“Now, Mr. Nichols,” Sheikh Hakeem said, “why were you making inquiries about a woman with a long red braid traveling with a young couple?”
“I was being paid to find her,” Chet Nichols gasped.
“And what were you to do when you found her?” Sheikh Hakeem asked.
This time when Sheikh Hakeem looked at his friend, he didn’t hesitate and grabbed Chet’s other ear and sliced it off, tossing it onto the ground next to the other one while he howled in pain, rage, and fear.
“Once again, what were you to do when you found her?” Sheikh Hakeem asked softly after the howls of pain subsided somewhat and Chet lay there sobbing.
“Let them know,” he said, sobbing. “That’s all, just let them know.”
“Somehow that doesn’t seem plausible to me,” Sheikh Hakeem said musingly. “I think that there’s more to it than that. Tell me, what is the name of your partner here, the other westerner that you’re working with?”
“I’m working by myself,” Chet gasped, tears pouring down his face.
“You may be stupid, but I do think that you are brave,” Sheikh Hakeem said, holding up his pinkie finger.
“Wait, wait… aaahhhhh!” Chet screamed, retching with pain when he saw his pinkie finger tossed on the ground next to his two ears.
“I’m only going to ask you one more time,” Sheikh Hakeem said, holding up his ring finger. “What is the name of your partner here, the other westerner that you’re working with?” he asked as the jambiya was held against his ring finger.
“I’m working… aaaahhhhhh,” Chet screamed, vomiting as his ring finger was tossed onto the pile.
“Cut his cock and balls off,” Krista said, her eyes manic, her inner thighs sticky with her pussy juices as she came each time another part of his body was cut off.
“And make him eat them,” Susan added, implacable steel in her voice.