The screen showed the door opening. Into the bare cell was pushed a man, near-naked. Martens had no idea who he was, never seen him before. But the subject looked clearly taken aback.
Thrust into a bare room. Walls clad in stainless steel. The floor the same – cold, bare, intimidating. The man was given another shove in.
Martens could see the strangeness of the setting unsettled him. Pushed into the room. The momentum pushed him two steps forward. Then he jammed his foot onto the floor. Looking about him. A small room, five yards by five maybe. Totally bare. Walls, floor, ceiling — all stainless steel. He looked unnerved.
~~ ~ ~ ~
“We have something to discuss.”
Martens was avoiding looking at the Boss, he’d already suspected why the Boss had summoned him. Been on edge. He’d been nearly pissing himself all day. Working on his story. But for the life of him he couldn’t work out what that problem had to do with this near-naked muscle-head on the screen
“Just some punk we picked up off the street.”
The Boss shrugged. As if reading Martens’ mind. His dismissive gesture saying the guy stripped down to his underwear was a nobody. Martens could forget about who-or-what he was. Dispensable.
“Got into a fight with some of my guys. Didn’t like their attitude to some whore in the bar.”
The Boss looked amused.
“Asshole-here got it into his head to interfere.”
He snorted.
“Regretted it soon enough ….”
Martens was examining the man on the screen .. preferable to looking the Boss in the face. The guy in that steel cell was powerfully built. Very muscular Mind-blowingly.
“Took quite some beating to calm him down apparently.”
Martens wasn’t surprised. His own guys would make sure they were well tooled-up if they had to go up against a physique like that.
The Boss added.
“The boys were pissed. At him getting so much in. At putting up helluva fight. Dragged him back here. Thought they’d teach this punk a lesson he’d not forget.
Martens had already spotted the marks on him. Clearly he’d already paid for standing up for the woman in the bar.
“Some tough motherfucker, though. Gave the boys back a hard time. Got right up their noses .. giving as hard as he took. That doesn’t happen often.”
Martens didn’t need to be told. He was already turning over this strange encounter with the near-naked stud in his head. Confused. But the Boss was leading this somewhere. It always did, he thought nervously. And, ten-to-one, it affected himself. He’d been called. The Boss didn’t piss around .. straight to the matter. He never did things by half. And Martens was summoned here .. for what? .. lucky if got off with a dressing-down. But what had that to do with the stud on the monitor screen?
“Struck me,” the Boss continued, “ … we could put this prick to good use.”
~~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~
