Colonel Berry

36. On the Chopping Block

Three soldiers, all with their pistols drawn, escorted David along the hall from the small room to a bigger one, also brightly lit and with mirrors on the walls. Centred on each wall was a large, square-set chair made of posts and planks, looking like a crude attempt to build a throne. The one to the left was occupied, and the other three were empty.

When the soldiers had directed him to the throne on the right wall and ordered him to undress, he shook his head. "No! This has gone too far. I'm an innocent salesman, falsely accused."

His responses were laughs and the sounds of three Mausers being cocked. He glanced at the blood-stained seat of the chair. Oh, God! How fast this has escalated. Surely, the next one will listen to reason.

After David had undressed, he was ordered to sit. His wrists were strapped to the chair arms, and straps were placed around his biceps and pulled tight to the uprights. Then his hips were strapped to the back of the chair, and his legs were splayed uncomfortably wide and fastened.

He watched in silence as a soldier rolled back his foreskin, looped a cord around the head behind the ridge and drew the noose tight. He gritted his teeth as his penis was stretched to its painful limit, and the line was secured on a nail at the edge of the seat. Then, after each testicle was looped with a cord, he choked back his nausea as they were pulled to the limit of his scrotum's stretch across to nails at the front corners of the seat.

His mind wandered to thoughts of the French Major on the train to Paris last year. Everything down there gone, he remembered Claude saying. He had already created a family, so he ... David paused his thinking when two men approached. Oh, God! The same unreasonable officer.

An older man in a stained blue apron sat on a bench between David's splayed legs and smiled as he held a mallet above the right testicle. The Leutnant pointed and said, "Let's ignore his balls, Schneider. Begin with his acorn."

So, this is it. David cringed, more in anticipation than from the pain, as the man placed a huge knife blade behind the rim of his head and slid it lightly to part the stretched skin and draw blood before lifting the mallet to hover above it. "What in God's name are you doing?"

"I'm the one to ask questions here. You want to keep your acorn?" The Leutnant laughed as he examined it. "Apple is a better word for this one. Once more now, tell us for whom you're working."

"I'm a Swiss citizen selling watches for Rolex and fuses for –"

"You've said that before. Many times."

"It's the truth. Do you want me to lie? Why do you refuse to examine my identification?"

The officer laughed. "Because even stupid saboteurs have forged papers. Tell us again what you were doing out there, but the truth this time."

"I was coming to a scheduled meeting."

"You've said that before." The officer looked at the sheet of paper on his clipboard. "Many times."

"Have you considered it's the truth?"

The officer laughed as he placed a hand on the aproned man's shoulder. "Ready with the mallet, Schneider."

David squirmed in his bindings and winced. "Have you checked?"

"And waste our manpower? You really are naïve, aren't you?"

"No, just honest and innocent."

"You play that game well." He ran his finger along the top of David's penis, pausing at the knife blade to tap it into the cut before moving on to stroke the head. "I've not before seen one so huge."