BSS-669 Slave Trader's Captive by Mark Townsend


Chapter 1


"One thousand Turkish Lira," said the taxi driver. "In advance."

Penny Hale hesitated a moment, staring at the lean brown hand extended 
over the back of the seat. The man was filthy and his face reminded her 
of the pictures she had seen in books of the men who had tortured the 
Crusaders such a long time ago. His teeth were blackened, some broken 
off at the gums, and his left eye seemed to be blind. The young blonde 
shivered and reminded herself that the porter at the luxury hotel where 
she was staying had selected this man as reliable. Finally she reached 
into her purse, took out one crisp bill and paid him. With what seemed 
to her to be a derisive smile, he took the money and stuffed it into 
his torn shirt pocket. Then he started the engine and slowly pulled out 
of the parking lot.

Soon they were weaving in and out of the heavy late evening traffic of 
Istanbul. He certainly seemed to be a competent driver, she thought, as 
he skillfully threaded through the human obstacle course in the narrow 
streets. Suddenly they rose over the crest of a hill and she gasped at 
the sight. Below she could see almost all of the European side of the 
ancient city. The moon was nearly full, and combined with the lights of 
the city, it enabled her to get a panorama a hundred times more 
impressive than any travel poster she had ever seen. She recognized in 
the distance the famous Hagia Sophia, the Topkapi museum, the Blue 
Mosque with its seven minarets pointing at the sky like so many 
missiles ready to be fired. Beyond that, like a thick serpent curled 
around the Golden Horn, the Bosporus glistened brightly in the 
moonlight, separating the main part of the huge city from the darker 
Asian side. She knew that on the other side where she was going now 
there were camels and mud houses in some of the small villages, and 
that the men still wore baggy pants and kerchiefs tied around their 
heads. That much she had learned from the brochures that she and her 
new husband had been reading over the past year before finally deciding 
on Istanbul for their honeymoon.

The picturesque quality of the young boys running through the streets 
with brass trays balanced on their hands carrying the tiny dipper-like 
containers of thick black Turkish coffee, the strange babble of voices 
coming in the windows of the taxi, the whole exotic scene around made 
her suddenly very sad.

Why, oh why did it have to happen this way, she cried inside her 
troubled mind.

Penny had been looking forward to her first night with Robert for such 
a long time-she had never dreamed it would turn out this way. It didn't 
seem possible that only two days ago she was still living in her 
apartment in Philadelphia waiting for the arrival of the so carefully 
planned wedding day. Only by the greatest effort of her will could she 
recall her feelings of that time that seemed so long ago now.


End of Page 1. See bss-669.txt for full story.