Return to the Valley   Part 4



It was two days later before Tonya heard any more news concerning the
discovery of Liz Morning in Adoption. Two days during which she, and all the
other employees who had by now found out, wondered if the Kennel was going to
be around much longer. A well know actress had been kidnapped, tortured, and
dumped on them. Surely the police would be flooding the building any minute,
on the lookout for any other unwilling captives. But there was no news from
the outside, and that worried Tonya.  Nothing was said on the TV news
channels about it, and Tonya wondered if Jane Carey's police contacts were
really that good. As she took care of her other charges, she wondered if this
would be the last time she would see any of them. At least, she thought, the
Pets were unaware of the drama being played out around them. Tonya kept
thinking back to the day of the discovery. Dr. Carey had immediately ordered
that the girl they knew as "Jane" be taken to one of the medical examining
rooms and released of all her bondage.	While the abused actress was being
treated for her injuries by the medical staff, the doctor got on the phone to
her personal contact on the New York Police Department to report what she had
found.	Tonya, meanwhile, found herself baby sitting the young actress,
talking her through everything that was going on and generally keeping her
calm until someone gave her a sedative. Then the doctor ordered Tonya out and
back to her regular duties. All she knew from that point on was that someone
came and collected the now unconscious girl and took her to a hospital. The
few times she had managed to get Dr. Carey alone, Tonya had been unsuccessful
in finding out any more. But now it seemed that might change. It was early in
the morning and Tonya was still asleep in the dorm room, when she was woken
by someone shaking her shoulder. She saw through bleary eyes that it was
Jenny, the B shift night supervisor. "You awake yet?"  Jenny whispered.
"Yeah, what's up?" "You're wanted in Dr. Carey's office. Right now." "Oh."
was all Tonya's still sleepy mind could muster. Jenny left to head back to
her post while Tonya pulled herself together and slipped off the bunk. She
glanced around the dimly lit room at the other sleeping forms, glad that no
one else had woken up. The last thing she wanted was questions she couldn't
answer, and reached for her tunic. She slept without it, as did all the
girls, by order of Dr. Carey. All anyone was allowed to wear to bed was their
harness, something that couldn't be taken off anyway. There weren't even any
sheets for the beds, all were covered in a very soft sheepskin that was very
comfortable to lie on. The room itself kept warm so that blankets were
unnecessary. Stretching, Tonya donned her tunic and shoes and made her way up
to her boss's office. When she got there she found a lot more people than she
had bargained for and was immediately self-conscious about her attire. While
from the waist up she was reasonably decent, from the waist down the tunic
was barely long enough to cover the chastity plate that was locked on her. It
wouldn't have been so bad if she had been able to recognize everyone there,
but there were several people she had never seen before. She stood in the
doorway uncertain as to what to do until Jane Carey waved her in and pointed
at the pad beside the desk. Conscious of all the eyes in the room upon her,
Tonya quickly walked in and took her place on her knees at Jane's side. "Face
the room, dear."  Was her boss's first words to her. "Yes, Maam."  Tonya
replied, and did as she asked, knowing that the metal plate covering her
crotch would now be visible to everyone in the room. Jane Carey's "Dear", was
a signal to her to be on her guard and to obey without question. A half a
dozen people sat around the office in chairs that Tonya knew had to be
brought in.  She recognized two of the men and one of the women, but the
other two men and one woman were definitely unfamiliar to her.	The woman she
knew was Miranda White, the Kennel's Deputy Director, the two men she
recognized she didn't know by name but knew that they were board members of
whatever organization owned the Kennel. For them to be here meant that this
was a very high level meeting indeed. Jane introduced the others to Tonya.
One of the men was Lieutenant Wood, NYPD. The doctor's police contact.	The
man and woman were introduced simply as  Alvarez and Stabler. They were the
FBI agents who had been running the Liz Morning Kidnapping.  Neither of them
looked very comfortable, they both kept trying to avert their eyes from
Tonya's rather exposed position. Tonya glanced up at Jane and saw that her
face was set in a very familiar 'I'm not going to take any shit' expression.
It was aimed at the FBI agents, Tonya was glad to see. The others in the room
seemed quite comfortable with Tonya's position, including the NYPD cop who
stared at her with open admiration. It was one of the FBI people that broke
the silence. "I think first, before we get any farther, I should pass on our
thanks to you for rescuing Liz Morning." Stabler, the male FBI agent said to
Tonya. "If you hadn't insisted that your boss take a closer look, we
understand it may have been weeks before she was discovered." Not knowing how
she was to respond, Tonya glanced up again at Jane Carey. "You may speak."
Dr. Carey told her. "Thank you, Maam." Tonya replied, than to Stabler she
said thank you again. Stabler, now that he was talking, seemed to relax a
little, but Alvarez had now settled into staring at Tonya as if she was
something she had found under her shoe.  Tonya found it extremely unsettling.
"But now we need your help again."  Stabler continued. "What do you know
about Hiro Atamo?" "Nothing, Sir.  I am not familiar with the name."  replied
Tonya. Stabler nodded. "I wouldn't expect you to have heard of him." Tonya
looked about the room, hoping to get a little reassurance from the people she
knew, but all were either watching the two FBI cops, or each other.  There
was no missing the tension in the air, however. Tonya had a feeling that
before she had come in there had been a big argument among these people.
Stabler nodded for a moment before continuing. "Hiro Atamo is a Japanese
national, the head of a large electronics firm in Japan that supplies basic
electronic components to manufacturers both there and abroad.  We've been
investigating him for the last year, but because he has never set foot in the
country we have not been able to approach him directly." "Why are you
investigating him, sir?"  Tonya asked as Stabler paused. "Well. Like I said,
Atamo has never set foot in the USA, even though he spends about half his
time over here grooming his clientele, boosting his business.  He owns a
large, ocean going yacht, which he keeps moored over here. When he wants to
come over, he has the yacht sail out into International waters and he flies
out to meet it on a private flying boat.  It isn't so far off shore that he
can't do business from the yacht as easily as he could in an office on dry
ground. But over the past year we began noticing a pattern, a rather
disturbing pattern. My current case load consists of eight Kidnappings,
scattered around the country, all on or near the coasts. At about the same
time as each Kidnapping, Atamo's boat, the 'Leta' was anchored offshore in
the same area. Up until now, this was just circumstantial, nothing we could
take to a Judge to allow us to board and inspect that boat in International
waters. It wasn't even anything we could take to our superiors until the
coincidences began to mount up."  He glanced back at his partner, who nodded
with a reluctant look on her face. Tonya waited, not quite sure what this had
to do with her yet. "As we investigated, we discovered that Hiro Atamo has
this appetite for...well...submissive women.  Sources tell us he always has a
few around him and that they are more like slaves than companions. Heavily
involved in the BDSM community in Japan, he seems to want acceptance here in
the states among the same type of people."  Stabler paused again, his face
turning red, his eyes darting over everyone in the room but the law
enforcement personnel. "Anyway.  A month ago we got wind of a party he was
holding on his yacht, a party specifically for...well, your kind of people.
We got a couple of agents to go in posing as a couple, with hopes that they
could scout out the boat and maybe get us a lead as to whether we were
chasing the wind or not.  We haven't heard back from them, and we can't do
anything about it until the yacht reenters American waters, which it hasn't
done." "May I ask, Sir, what this has to do with me?"  Tonya asked. Stabler
paused, as if deciding what to tell her.  "Four days ago, a ransom was paid
by Liz Morning's family for her safe return.  We expected the pick up of the
money and the return of the victim to follow a pattern set up by four
previous Kidnappings. True to form, the money was picked up without us being
able to get a track on the mule, and a message sent to the family saying that
the victim was being sent somewhere she would be discovered.  Your paperwork
states that a man named Mike Smith signed Liz Morning in here. He doesn't
exist, not under that name. But a man fitting his description works for an
American electronics firm we know to be owned by Atamo.  It's another
coincidence we can't ignore. "We know there is going to be another party
tonight, and because of the connection between Atamo and the actress, we have
clearance to try again to get someone aboard to look for our agents and
possibly get some dirt on Atamo. The problem is, we need someone who can pass
for one of their own, we don't have time to train an agent to do this. We
need you." Tonya blinked in surprise. "You want me to go see this guy, Sir?"
"Not exactly.  You'll be in the company  of someone Atamo already knows, a
Mr. David Hull.  Your...boss...here told me that it was Hull who sponsored
Mike Smith's initial application here. We'll be calling on him as soon as we
leave here to make sure he still has an invitation to the party.  You will be
his companion for the day. Together you should blend right in, especially
since you are essentially part of the group anyway." Tonya looked stunned.
"You don't have to do this you know."  Jane said to her. "Unfortunately, that
may result in our possibly mishandling the media clamp down we have on this
case."	Alvarez said, speaking for the first time since Tonya came into the
room. "Right now no one, not even Liz Morning herself knows where she was
found. But if we have to scramble to find someone else to go in at the last
minute, who knows what details may slip through our fingers and cause you a
public embarrassment." "There's no call for that."  said one of the board
members. Tonya silently agreed, but there was no mistaking the message they
were sending. Cooperate, or the Kennel is history.  No wonder everyone was so
tense. Tonya hung her head in thought, aware that everyone was now focusing
on her. She would have loved to have been watching when this plan had been
first revealed to the others before she came in. She had no doubt that her
boss had made clear what she thought of being manipulated like that. "We need
an answer now."  Stabler said. Tonya looked up at Jane for a moment.
"Alright." Twenty minutes later Tonya was once again in street clothes and
sitting in the back seat of the agent's car. She rubbed her wrist, free of
it's wrist band for the first time in a couple of years. It felt very
strange. Tonya was a little unprepared for all the rushing around, but she
gathered that time was a critical factor as far as joining the party was
concerned.  Atamo's get together was supposed to be a daytime affair.  Ending
in the early evening so that there would be time to fly all his guests back
from his yacht. Through the ride across town to David Hull's apartment,
Alvarez kept looking back over her shoulder at Tonya in the back seat. Tonya
wondered what she was thinking. They arrived at the apartment building and
the agent's Government credentials got them past the doorman and into the
apartment without too much fuss. David was someone Tonya already knew. Not
from the Kennel, but from before. He had been friends with the man who had
fancied himself her 'Master' until she found out how he liked to show his
affection for her with a baseball bat. The David she knew then had seemed
harmless enough, she hoped he hadn't changed. Looking at him now, it seemed
he hadn't changed much. He was a little older, a little heavier, but still
wore that faintly surprised expression that seemed a permanent part of his
face. He was certainly surprised to see FBI agents in his home, and was
hardly able to say hello to Tonya before Stabler went through his routine
again. After telling David all he had told Tonya earlier, Stabler finished it
off with a different threat if David decided not to cooperate. "We can get a
pretty good charge of accessory to kidnapping pinned on you."  Stabler said.
"After all it was with your help that Atamo was able to utilize your little
club in the first place." David nodded, his face dark. "All right. You don't
have to join all the dots. I'll do it." "Good!"  And for the first time,
Stabler smiled.