The Devil's Playground (44 page)

thoughts.

She shrugged. ‘It’s not. Nothing’s working. Nothing’s

right.’

‘Are you sure this friend of yours can come up with the

goods?’

She looked up, distant, and, he thought, so beautiful in

that moment.

‘I’m sure,’ she replied. She knew how important it was for

him. She thought of last night’s phone call to Wouter. She’d

hated doing it but she’d asked for the favour anyway. Had

to endure his sarcasm and witticisms until he’d said, yes, he

knew where such a thing could be watched. Then he’d asked

her about Jon, prying little details. She’d put the phone down

shaking. She’d thought Wouter hadn’t cared that much about

their split but it was obvious he had and she wasn’t looking

forward to the evening ahead.

‘Where’re we meeting your friend?’

‘He owns a shop in the District, I said we’d meet him

there.’ She slipped on her glasses. Jon rose and, for a moment,

they almost touched, almost fell back into the old patterns,

but like poles of the same charge they turned from each

other at the last minute.

‘Jon, this is Wouter.’ She introduced him to the tall

Dutchman who sat behind a small table in the back of the

porn shop.

‘Glad to meet you, Jon.’ He got up and shook Jon’s hand

vigorously, squeezing hard. ‘Suze tells me you want to find

out about the other Amsterdam.’ He was grinning like a

child. Suze could smell the burnt tangy coke in the air and

could tell by his eyes that he’d been at it all day. She thought

of taking Jon and walking away. But she knew he wouldn’t

leave.

Jon nodded, looking up at this mountain of a man, curious

and a little scared. He heard a dog barking in the back room.

The hum of elevators ascending.

‘So, Wouter, where are you taking us?’ Suze said, flicking

ash off her cigarette for what seemed to Jon like the hundredth

time that minute.

‘Jon wanted to see the preview, that’s where we’re going.

I have it all arranged.’ Wouter looked at him. His eyes were

close together and they seemed angled in a strange way as if

he could see areas of the room that were obscured from

normal sight.

‘So, this is him then?’ he said to Suze.

Jon looked at her but she didn’t reply. He knew he’d

missed something.

‘Have a drag on this, you look nervous as hell,’ Wouter

said, handing Jon the joint.

He took a deep pull and suddenly his head spun out from

his neck and his eyes screamed against their sockets. The

world lit up. Suddenly, painfully there.

‘Coke,’ Suze whispered, taking his hand. ‘Everyone here

smokes it. Latest fashion, all very decadent. You’ll appreciate

it when we’re out there in the swarm.’

Jon took three more monster drags before handing it back.

They walked past the Old Church and through groups of

shaven-headed, middle-aged English men, drunk and bleary,

staggering in each other’s arms through the streets, shouting

and abusing the window-girls they passed. It was a weekend

and the binge tourists were out in force, walking in serpentine

steps, puking in corners or sitting bug-eyed staring at a single

cobblestone for three hours. They stumbled through the

crowded streets of the District, between bar and sex shop, watching men choosing their girls for the night, the fathers who’d brought their sons to learn the facts of life, the

lovers attempting to rekindle their sex lives and the latents

trying to persuade themselves that a woman’s body was still

attractive.

The early mass of tourists had changed now, if not in

number then in gender and type. Suze saw no other women

except those behind glass and she felt sad at how the men

who passed looked at her, even though there were far more

beautiful girls on offer; but it seemed for some that was just

too easy. She walked between Jon and Wouter sensing herself

paraded here, wondering why she suddenly felt like that,

having been in this area so many times before. She thought

about what she was doing. Helping Jon with his search or

still trying to stop him? More of the latter, she knew. She

noticed how Wouter kept staring at him. It worried her. It

wasn’t all just surface, she wanted Jon to see that, to realize

what lay beneath.

They stopped in a cafe and Wouter went into the back

room with the manager, coming out a few minutes later.

‘It’s all set up,’ Wouter said, checking his watch. ‘In an

hour, okay?’

‘Who’re we meeting?’ Jon said, feeling better now that

they were enclosed, away from the crowds.

‘Mr Nagatha. He runs an establishment in the District.

That’s where it’s showing.’ Wouter shook a Marlboro out of

his pack, flipped it into his mouth. ‘There’s something I

want you to see first, Jon. Something I think you’ll be

interested in.’

He led them into the back room of the cafe. ‘The manager’s

a friend of mine, keeps me updated about certain

things.’ Wouter stepped over to the desk and flicked the

computer into life. He keyed in some lines of code and lit

another of his foul-smelling joints. ‘Nazi films isn’t all there

is. There’s a lot of things that can be bought at auction these

days.’

Suze and Jon looked at each other, blank and lost, as

Wouter typed in the address and waited for the home page

to download.

“We have to access it from this computer because of, how

can I say? … security issues?’

The home page was basic, like a spare-time website, a

white background with large type scrolling down. On the

left frame was a series of hyperlinks:

Conrad

Bjiiy

James

Russell

Francis

Benjamin

‘What the hell is this?’ Jon asked.

‘Here.’ Wouter clicked on the first hyperlink. The screen

went blank.

As the photo slowly downloaded on to the screen, Jon

felt a sickness rising inside him, a black nausea that swept

his head and stomach. He took Suze’s hand and held it,

looking at the full-length picture of the naked boy and the

group of stats beside him.

Age: 6

Country of origin: United States

Status: Untouched*

Acquisition date: January 1999

Training: No

Starting bid: $50,000 US

Reserve: Yes

Bid limit: None

Time remaining: 56 minutes

* While we make every attempt to verify our information, we accept no liability towards false or misrepresented information.

Below that, a short description:

A rare and exciting opportunity to acquire such a fine specimen. As mentioned, he is untouched and has been kept off the market until this sale. He is good-natured and unproblematic and there is sure to be a lot of demand from bidders.

And:

Buyer arranges pick-up, shipping and all other attendant costs. Buyer must be a registered and cleared member. Bids from anyone lacking these credentials will not be accepted.

Jon looked back to the picture of Conrad, the thin boy’s

frame that hung dejected in front of the camera, his uncut

hair and the sad twist of his mouth. He noticed that all the

auctions were due to end in the next few hours and he

wondered how many people around the world, at this very

moment, were looking at the same page, clicking on the same

links and reaching for their credit cards and secret passwords.

The electronic medium took away none of the horror, for

he knew that behind the ones and zeros lay real boys in real

rooms tied to real beds awaiting the rest of their lives.

*You see, you can get anything you want in this city,’

Wouter said as he switched off the computer. Y^ou, my

friend, know nothing.’

Suze noticed his voice was getting shriller and that he was

enjoying goading Jon. She sensed a maliciousness in Wouter

she’d not felt before, a honing of his sarcasm and repressed

rage. She wondered if this whole thing was a set-up. If

Wouter had some plan, some way to get back at Jon, make

him suffer. Perhaps this had been a terrible idea.

‘You have the money, then Amsterdam has the goods.’

‘Why here?’ Jon asked, still thinking about the boy’s

mouth. Ghosts caught on film. Images of the dead. All

around him now.

‘Amsterdam is the new city of sin, every taste can be

catered for here as long as you have the money.’

‘You sound disapproving,’ Suze said, her hand on Jon’s

knee. She felt she needed to take control of this situation,

insert herself between these two men.

‘No, not at all. It’s good that all these things are on offer.

You must know as well as I do that there’s no point in

pretending they don’t exist or in outlawing them. They do

exist, or rather the need and desire for them exists in certain

people and you can’t ever get rid of that. As they say, “Any

crime that can be committed, is.” But just because everything

is on offer here, doesn’t necessarily mean you need to

have it.

‘Everybody has to ask themselves how far will they

go, and everybody needs to see what they are capable of.

For me that is a basic requisite of freedom and if it means

some bad shit will occur in the process then it’s a small price

to pay.’

Wouter took out another coke joint from his pocket and

fired it up. He turned to an old tape deck and hit play. The

opening notes of ‘London Calling’ came pounding out of

the speakers, followed by Simonon’s questioning bass line

and finally Strummer’s voice, ravaged and raving, a witness

to the end.

Jon picked up his glass, saw that his fingers were resting

on the breast of the woman moulded around it and downed

the warm, stinging liquid. He didn’t know what to say. His

head was spinning faster than a waltzer. He couldn’t get off

this particular ride. Wouter made him uncomfortable and he

wasn’t sure why. He’d guessed there was something between

him and Suze, something unrequited probably.

‘Mr Nagatha, that’s where he made his money.’ Wouter

passed Jon the joint. ‘Take it,’ he snapped when Jon feebly

declined. ‘Or so the rumour goes.’

Jon looked at Wouter. Was he the same shape and height

as the man who’d been following him? It was near enough

to make him shiver.

‘He was a sex slaver?’ Suze asked.

‘Yes. Very careful about whom he picked. Only the finest

specimens ended up on his private jet, bound for Africa. He

had men roaming the capital cities of Europe, the holiday

resorts of North Africa, finding and acquiring stock. A tourist

goes into a shop in Tangiers to ask the price of a leather bag

and never comes out again. Her husband waits patiently

outside smoking cigarettes and when she doesn’t appear he

goes in and is told that they haven’t seen any European

women come into their shop today. The man will search

the shop, tear the place apart, call the police, but all to

no avail — by the time he’s realized that she’s even missing,

she’s already on her way to an airport. A cargo plane. A

new life.’

‘That still happens?’ said Jon, shocked despite himself.

The idea of just disappearing like that was terrifying. The

world had so many holes into which a person could fall.

‘Happens all the time.’ Wouter laughed, looking at Suze.

*You hear about missing people and you know some of them

are headed for the auction block. Nagatha quit a few years

back, sold his business and retired here, but countless other

auctions still go on, every day. Remember, where there’s

demand there’s product — the basic axiom of capitalism taken

to one of its darker corners.’ He lit a cigarette. ‘You know,

someone came into the shop a few weeks ago, had a range

of home-made videos he wanted to sell me. I took him to

the back room, and watched them. They were all crush

videos. Footage of a woman stepping on rabbits and small

puppies, breaking their spines slowly with her feet.’

‘Did you buy them?’ Suze asked, appalled.

‘Hell, no. But someone else will.’

There was no sign above the door and only one bouncer to

even suggest that anything was going on behind the black

smoked windows of Mr Nagatha’s. Wouter whispered something

to the meat monkey, who checked on his walkie-talkie

before allowing them in.

Jon had imagined chains, blood and the black wings of

whips cracking in the smoky air. What he was not expecting

to see was a smart restaurant full of people in suits eating

and drinking amid the sharp Modernist lines of the decor.

The only unusual thing, Jon noticed, as they were led to a

table, was that all the diners were men.

‘It’s a fully functioning restaurant. Damn good food too.

Took a few favours to get you two in. This, though, is just

the waiting room,’ Wouter added and poured them some

wine. He kept staring at Jon and smiling in a way that made

Suze feel uneasy.

Fifteen minutes later a waiter came up to their table and