Needles

by William Deverell

  “It is a sad commentary upon the human condition that you are so lacking in trust, Mr. Cobb. How am I to know that when she has left us, you will not do that very thing? How am I to know that you will not then blow his head off, as you so articulately put it?”

  “I am a man of my word, Dr. Au. As you are.”

  Au smiled. “We shall all learn a lesson in trust, Mr. Cobb.” He spoke to Ng Soon, who let Tann’s arm go.

  “Keep coming, Jennifer,” Cobb said. “I have the key. Head straight across the channel and ditch it and run for the bush.”

  “Very well,” said Au. “But if you try to go with her, Ng Soon will disable you both.” He spoke in Chinese dialect to the gunman. “He now has instructions to take your legs off should you act unwisely. He will not kill you, and he will not kill her. I shall perform those services. I did promise Mr. Cudlipp that he could watch, and I am a man of my word.”

  “Get on the dock,” Cobb ordered Feng. “Untie the outboard.”

  Cobb followed Feng over the railing, keeping him between himself and Ng Soon’s gun. Au and Ng Soon walked toward the wharf.

  Tann reached Cobb. She seemed in shock.

  Cobb gave her the keys to the outboard; then in a low voice, out of Feng’s hearing, he said: “Never mind the shore. It’s twenty minutes from here to Glenda Bay. Go flat out. There should be a cop in Glenda Bay, and there will be radios. I’ll hold them as long as I can here. If they kill me, they will come after you, and they will catch up in a few minutes. If you see them coming, head for the beach. They won’t be able to beach the big boat without wrecking it on the rocks and stranding themselves. Just run for cover and hide in the bush. If I can get way with it, I’ll take their boat. Do you understand all this?”

  She nodded weakly.

  Cobb gestured at Feng with the gun. “This guy’s my insurance. Now, get in the boat. Go fast!” He kept his eyes on Au, who was at the dock now and moving closer.

  “Get back!” Cobb shouted.

  Au hesitated.

  “They will kill you,” Tann whispered.

  “Just do it, Jennie. Just go.”

  She got behind the wheel of the small boat and started the engine. It coughed and caught, then sputtered and died.

  “A little throttle,” Cobb said.

  This time it caught and held.

  “Put it in gear, swing it around, and fly!”

  The boat inched away from the dock, and as it did, Cobb released his eyes from Au for two seconds, turned his head, and called to her: “Look: I love you, okay? Now, get the hell out of here!”

  The boat turned about and she gave it full throttle.

  When Cobb turned back to Au, it was too late. He was lunging already. Before Cobb could squeeze the trigger the needle had stuck him and his four limbs were without feeling. He lost his balance and fell hands forward, and he heard the snap of cracking bone in his wrist as his arm hit the planks. The derringer bounced from the wharf into the water.

  He heard the sound of the engine of the small boat coughing again. Then the engine died.

  Feng, solemnly shaking his head, said: “I was asked to remove the fuel tanks, Mr. Cobb.” Au, smiling, kicked Cobb in the head, snapping it hard sideways and sending him sprawling across the boards.

  The reverberations in his head dimmed and became distant echoes.

  There was a stillness in the room, and Foster Cobb awoke into it in pain. The familiar sounds were gone: the generator was off; the fire in the wood heater had died; there was no music. The only sound was the pounding of waves, which came to him distantly. The only feeling was the pounding in his head. Soon he became aware of sharp pain as well from his right wrist where it had been broken. He could not move the arm to relieve this pain, because his wrists were tightly bound. As he slowly became conscious, he became aware that the side of his face felt swollen and tight as if caked with clotting blood. There were splotches of blood on his shirt.

  He could hear the men speaking now.

  “Hey, he’s coming to.”

  “Yes, and the paralysis is gone. He is moving his hands.”

  “Do you think he can hear us?”

  “Mr. Cobb.” It was the voice of Dr. Au. “There is a matter of some importance. And since I will elicit it from you in one manner or another, please help yourself by telling me now. It is about the small gun. Where did you get it?”

  “The gun . . .” Cobb groaned. As his eyes focussed, he saw Au standing in front of him, Snider and Ng Soon at either side, and Cudlipp at the far end of the room.

  “Yes, the gun,” said Au.

  “The man . . . in black.”

  Au’s eyes glinted. He turned to Snider. “My devoted young cousin. He is in truth, then, an emissary with an unsavoury message. We will ship him in parts to Hong Kong, and that will be Ma Wo-chien’s answer. He has been told to remain guarding the boat?”

  “Yeah,” said Snider. “He’s sitting on the dock staring at the barnacles.”

  Cobb had only dimly been taking this is. As he became more alert, he began to see around him. And he saw Tann.

  “Let her go, damn you!” he shouted in a cracked voice. “You gave me your word.”

  She was on the floor, bound and gagged, her eyes open and staring at him.

  “It was, after all, an excellent lesson in trust, Mr. Cobb,” Au said. “You are a wiser man for it.” He withdrew from his leather case a series of needles and laid them gently on top of a table. They were variously gold, silver, platinum, and stainless steel. He began polishing them. Then he paused, and Cobb saw that his eyes had dulled. He spoke to Cobb in a low and knowing tone: “You knew I would come, Mr. Cobb. I think you understand the nature of this visit. One must die that the other be free. Do you understand? Thus it had to be. Our destinies have become intertwined.”

  Cobb had no words for the occasion. He wondered if ultimately he would plead for his life. Could he master his fear? Would he find some dignity in all of this? As he searched himself for strength, he felt a tight knot form in his stomach and felt it grow and begin to take him over. Dizzily he looked at Au’s face. The man had moved outside reality.

  “You are not well, Dr. Au,” Cobb heard himself saying.

  “Oh, I have had that tried on me,” Au said. “Please don’t be banal at this most momentous occasion of the meeting of two great spirits. Two great spirits which now come together in majestic climax.”

  Cobb wondered whether he would beg for his life. He had never begged for anything. Would he grovel?

  Perhaps there was some level of the man’s head that he could reach into, some level of communication.

  “Do you understand why you are doing this?” he asked.

  “Of course, Mr. Cobb. For a brotherhood, a union of the opposite forces of yin and yang, a conjoining of your spirit with mine. We should have been brothers, Mr. Cobb, except for unfortunate circumstances of place and heritage. In spirit we have always been brothers. In flesh, we soon shall be brothers in fact.”

  Snider returned to the cabin, and took a seat beside Ng Soon, who cradled his M16 on his lap. Both were hoping for a good show. Cudlipp was further back, standing against a wall, holding Cobb’s gun.

  Au’s eyes blinked, and Cobb saw life return to them.

  “What I built, you destroyed, Mr. Cobb. I had grown fond of this country. Now I must hide in the shadows.” He picked up a silver needle about seven inches long, and wiped it with a sterile cloth.

  “It is better that you lie still, Mr. Cobb. It is not easy to find the points on a moving man. If you cause me to err and strike a pain point, the process will take much longer. Although, in all modesty, I must proudly own to an almost unerring ability to work with moving targets. My hands are very quick, very sure. I am wonderfully agile. I might have been an excellent surgeon, and of great fame. Do you not think it is false modesty to dis
claim one’s greatness? Do you not regard yourself as a lawyer of exceptionally quick mind? We do each other honor.”

  Cobb, fighting nausea, heard Au’s words vaguely in his ears.

  “The old practitioners fuss about for many minutes before finding the point of the meridian they seek, and are often unsure of the proper angle of inclination. The operations — I have seen many — can be tedious indeed.” Au tested the point of the needle by touching his finger to it. “It is an ancient art, yet there are so many secrets yet to be learned, and which, foolishly, I believe, we turn from. For instance, there are seven hundred and thirty points upon the body which we recognize as healing points. There are as many from which ch’i is released, points of destruction, points of pain. Is it not a waste to the world of science that such matters are ignored? Why should man be denied the benefit of wider knowledge?”

  “You slimy fuck,” Cobb snarled. He felt it didn’t matter now.

  Au showed him the needle. “The analgesic power of these simple devices has long been known. It is possible to anesthetize individual organs, or limbs, or combinations of organs and limbs, or the whole body. Thus, as you were standing on the dock, I found one of the points upon your body that temporarily removes sensation from the four limbs. Likewise, it is possible through acupuncture to heighten sensitivity in certain areas of the body. The point I am now seeking is the Point of the Gentle Fragrance, as it is called in the old language.” He inserted the needle at a point near the first knuckle of the fourth toe, jabbing it in and out by the sparrow-peck method.

  “It will make all parts of the body, particular the groin and pelvis areas, extremely sensitive to pain, lowering the pain threshold.”

  “God damn, Au, let her go. And get this over with.”

  “Oh, there will be such a rich feeling in the area of your groin.” Au was radiant in his enjoyment of this. “Perhaps it will not be the same delightful feeling you enjoyed while in the company of the lovely young lady.” He chuckled. “Oh, in many ways, we are brothers in spirit.”

  Cobb glanced at Tann, whose eyes were wide and filled with tears. He could not take it, and had to look away.

  “Just get it over with. I am ready.” Cobb surprised himself.

  “I suppose, Mr. Cobb, that you are hiding your sorrow. You need not feel that you must do so. I understand your pain. I, too, have felt pain.” Au closed his eyes as if to shut out the pain he now himself was enduring. Suddenly he felt it wash over him, and when he opened his eyes, Cobb could see they were glazed again. “We shall be brothers soon. I am honored to have you share the very feelings I once endured. There is a destiny which we share. The prosecutor and his victim. The doctor and his victim. Coming together . . . coming together . . .”

  For several seconds Au said nothing, and slowly, awareness came back into his eyes.

  “During the process of slow dismemberment, one may enjoy release from pain through entering an unconscious state. If that event occurs, I will seek certain points in the ear.” He brandished a pair of long platinum needles. “Platinum for the ears, Mr. Cobb. It will keep you awake, although it will be a feeling of flames devouring you.” A pause. “Snider,” he said, turning to the young addict, “the gown, please.”

  Snider wiped his runny nose on the back of his hand.

  “That will not do, Mr. Snider,” said Au. “You will wash your hands. I will not have your dirt about me.” Snider went to the bathroom, and returned. Cobb was trying to shut his world off, but his body was alive with feeling. “Now the gown, please,” said Au. Snider held it, and Au slipped his arms into it. Snider tied it at the back.

  “Gloves,” said Dr. Au. He held out his hands and Snider tugged the gloves onto each hand by turn.

  “Yes, Mr. Cobb, I, too, was in the process of enjoying a woman once, and paid dearly for it afterwards. In a sense, I have said, we are brothers.” He turned to Snider.

  “Scalpel.”

  Au’s pain came back, eating at his back brain and wounding him as Snider slipped the handle of the scalpel into his outstretched hand. And with the pain came a searing memory . . .

  Janice’s screaming enhanced the excitement for him, and he had intercourse a third time. But still, tantalizingly, his loins withheld from him that final rich burst of joy that was his due and right. The girl, naive and pretty and eighteen years old, had thought the handsome young medical student was playing a silly game of seduction when he asked to tie her ankles and wrists to the corner posts of the bed. (“May I suggest a complete medical examination?” he had said. “Oh, you!” she had replied, and coyly let him take her clothes off and tie her.)

  Au P’ang Wei, twenty-five years old, a second-year medical student and already an accredited acupuncturist, was discovering a great truth: The true pleasure of sex comes from pain. What a world had opened to him this night! There were so many exciting ideas, so many means of inducing the ecstasy of pain, so many secret keys to the dark chambers of forbidden sexuality. But why had he not thought to bring his medical kit? Or his needles? There were the usual utensils in the kitchen — but the knives were dull. Au groped through the medicine cabinet for something sharp — her father and brother were well-shaven, and must keep razors. Unless they took them with them to the inter-city rugby match.

  Ah! There! A straight razor. And a shaving mug. What intriguing ideas suggest themselves! But it is past midnight, and there may not be much time for lengthy surgical foreplay. Perhaps it could end quickly, perhaps the feel of sharp metal might induce the terror in her that would build for him that final agony of pleasure-pain, that seminal explosion, that wrenching climax of which he had always dreamed, yet which teased and tormented, and evaded him.

  He went to the girl, who was whimpering, her eyes closed. The bruises on her chest and legs were dainty, sweet, and sensuous. The voice whimpering softly. The flesh soft. The woman timidly delicious.

  When she opened her eyes to see the razor and mug in his hands, she screamed again. “Soap before dissection,” he said. “You must be clean.”

  Her scream was wild and extravagant, and her evocations of terror so filled the room that Au P’ang Wei did not hear the creak of the door as it opened. Then he saw her brother, Harry, back early. Harry was at the bedroom door, still in his playing togs, gaping. . . .

  Au stood still, the mug in one hand, the razor held high in the other.

  Harry called: “Jan! Jan! What has this bugger . . . ? Dad, come quick!” The two men leaped at Au P’ang Wei, who now knew fear himself. That fear caused him, when striking at the young man’s neck with the razor, to miss the neck and bury the point harmlessly in the forearm. A hard and expert tackle brought him to the floor, and his breath rushed from his lungs as Harry’s head struck the pit of his stomach with a crunching thud. A boot from Janice’s father, a boot studded with metal cleats, arrived with ringing impact at the side of Au’s head, and split his right ear open, tearing it nearly off.

  When the young medical student awoke in the breaking dawn, he found he was lying in a green hay field. The straight razor was between his legs. . . .

  “I am a eunuch, Mr. Cobb. A castrato. Now we shall truly be brothers.”

  The knowledge that again he would not be alone caused the pain in Au’s head to ebb, and for a few seconds he balanced the scalpel in his hand, getting the weight of it for the delicate cutting touch of which he was justly proud.

  “Ah, Mr. Cobb, I could have been a great surgeon.”

  Cobb opened his eyes and stared hard into the blazing eyes of Dr. Au.

  “Please let Jennifer free,” he pleaded. “Please don’t harm her.”

  “It cannot be allowed. Mr. Cudlipp deserves some say in these matters, and he has expressed a wish that there be no witnesses.”

  Cobb could see Cudlipp standing against the wall, behind everyone else, smiling, his arms folded. His leg was now bandaged.

  “You must
understand the matter of loyalties, Mr. Cobb,” Au said. “Mr. Cudlipp has rendered service. I owe him a debt of gratitude. It was through his good work that we all came to be here today.”

  “You’re slime,” Cobb called to Cudlipp, who returned a large grin and said:

  “Your good old buddy Eddie Santorini must want you dead very bad.”

  Santorini . . . Cobb gasped.

  “Who can you trust?” Au said. “Now, Mr. Snider, will you lower his trousers?” Snider did, tugging them down to Cobb’s knees.

  Au paused. “Where is Jin Feng?” he asked.

  Snider looked through the window. “Still down at the beach.”

  Au nodded, and returned to Cobb.

  “God damn, let her go, let her go.” Cobb kept mumbling this , and as he did, he closed his eyes and tried to shut his world off, to shrink back deeply within himself.

  The words he next heard were Cudlipp’s and seemed to come from a distance away, and at first they registered only dimly:

  “Cobb, you bastard, I’m finally getting mine back. I’ve been living for this time all week, since you did me in, in court.” A guttural laugh, a series of short grunts. “Don’t feel too good, hey?”

  Cobb found himself returning to the room, and his eyes reopened. “You’re asswipe, Cudlipp. You got what was coming.”

  Cudlipp’s face flushed as he raised his gun and with a grimace fired two shots in rapid succession.

  As he fired, Cobb rejoiced with the thought that he had taunted Cudlipp into taking his life, into cheating Dr. Au of his slow kill.

  Good Friday, the Twenty-fourth Day of March,

  at Twelve O’Clock Noon

  The contortions of pain and disbelief that expressed themselves upon the face of Au P’ang Wei seemed to Cobb awesome and terrible. He got the merest glimpse of Au’s face as the man leaped toward him like some ungainly panther, his limbs flailing. He sprawled across the table, coming to rest on his face and stomach a foot or two from Cobb. The scalpel and two platinum needles were clutched tightly in his hand.

  Blood boiled from two ragged holes in the middle of his back.