Thursday, March 26, 2009

Chapter 26: Strip Club

Daise left me on the couch to go and wake Alina as Sgt Major Dhlamini walked into the lounge. They greeted each other and the Sgt Major dropped heavily into an armchair.

“What’s up with you Sgt Major?” I asked him, noticing the frown on his face.

“Are you letting your penis do your thinking for you Major?” he asked me.

“What?”

“Just yesterday, you were taking the proper precautions: not going out onto the veranda; having people watching the road and generally taking care. Today you buy a flashy red car and blithely let the woman drive it home, with you following. If you are going to change tactics and set them up as bait, I would appreciate being told beforehand.”

I could see he was mad with me, and I felt a bit guilty. “You are correct Sgt Major. I wasn’t thinking clearly. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t apologise to me Major. Just don’t make such bloody stupid mistakes again. I couldn’t give a shit about you, but my people’s lives are at stake and I am starting to get a little fond of the two women.”

“Sgt Major! You are going to make me cry if you aren’t careful. It sounds almost as if you are trying to protect an officer from his own stupidity.” I waited to see how Sgt Major Dhlamini would respond to my attempt at levity, and wasn’t disappointed.

“You only cry when you see people kicking puppies. You know better about the way I feel about stupid bloody officers,” he said while grinning wryly at me.

“Too true. Thanks for the kick up the arse. I wasn’t thinking clearly. “

“Are you ready for tonight?”

“I think so. Are you happy with the plan?”

“Not really. I do think that it is the best we can do though. Just don’t act like a silly bugger tonight and we should gain some useful intelligence.”

“Ok. I’ll make sure I don’t sodomise anyone…”

“You know what I mean. There’s only so much we can do if they attack you in the club.”

“Here come the ladies,” I said seeing the two of them descending the stairs. “Ladies, if you will forgive me for saying so, you would both look like a million dollars dressed in sacks. In those jeans, you look like ten.”

“You like?” Daise asked as she twirled to show off the tight jeans she was wearing.

“Yes, I do. Do the boots fit you Alina?”

“They’re perfect, thank you Rupert.”

“No problem. Both of you need to be comfortable and I figured that good boots stand anyone in good stead if they have to do any kind of running or fighting. There’s nothing like being prepared.”

I got up and went to the gun safe. Daise already had her Vektor SP1 in a bikini holster on her belt, and I got out the little Luger 9mmK. “Daise tells me you know how to shoot an automatic,” I said as I handed the weapon to her along with a bikini holster.

“Yes I do. I haven’t shot much though,” Alina said as she started threading her belt through the holster.

“This weapon is simple enough. It has a thumb safety. Move it down, and pull the trigger. I will cock it for you so that it is ready.” I matched actions to words and handed her the weapon. She took it from me and tested the feel of it in her hand.

“This fits my hand perfectly,” she said with a surprised note in her voice. “I expected it to be too large for my hand.”

“That’s why I gave it to you. Don’t think about it too much. It’s only there in case there is a dire emergency, then you have it as backup. The old saying is ‘You never need a fire-arm until you really need a firearm’. Don’t draw it unless you really need to use it, OK?”

“Ok.” Alina practiced taking off the safety and engaging it again, then, once she was happy that she knew what she needed to know, she slid the weapon into her holster. “How do I hide it?”

“Just pull your T-Shirt out and let it hang over the holster. If it shows too much, then pull the holster slightly round behind your back.” I demonstrated by lifting my T-Shirt to show them where my holster sat. “I’ll have to leave mine behind when I enter the club, so I won’t have it on me. I’m relying on Cpl Maseka and his crew inside the club, and you guys as backup on the outside.”

I glanced at my watch and started hustling the girls out to the Land Rover. Sgt Major Dhlamini climbed into the front passenger seat and the girls got into the back. I took a few seconds to load the Lee-Enfield into its storage compartment and we were on the road.


We arrived in the parking lot of the Strip Club ten minutes before nine and I saw thatRoy’s car was parked near the entrance. We had already decided that he would enter the club before me, so I wasn’t too worried about that. I stopped and looked to see if I could see Cpl Maseka’s car. Just as I hauled out my phone to call him, he arrived along with three others in the car. He waved at me and found a parking spot. Our plan was that the four of them would be a distraction as well as my support in case anything happened inside the club. They got out of the car and stood around chatting. I gave Daise and Alina a quick kiss and got out of the Land Rover. As I walked towards the entrance to the club, Sgt Major Dhlamini drove the Land Rover out of the parking lot and stopped across the street.

I walked into the club’s entrance and stopped at the barrier. The bouncer there, a giant of a man dressed in a suit, patted me down before directing me to the cashier’s window. He was distracted though, as we had planned, because Cpl Maseka came up right behind me with his three companions. I paid my R100 entrance fee and entered the club proper. As I came through the screen door, I was greeted by one of the waitresses who asked me if I was alone or whether I was expecting anyone. When I told her I was alone, she asked me to follow her and led me to a table in the centre of the club, near the ramp. I asked her if I could rather sit against the wall and she just smiled and agreed.

I sat down in a booth with my back to the wall and looked around. Cpl Maseka came in shortly after me and the four of them moved to a larger table right near the ramp, but about two tables away from mine. They immediately ordered a round of drinks.

I hadn’t been in this club before, so I was interested to see the décor. I had been in another club a few months before on the occasion of a friend’s bachelor party, so I had something to compare it to. This club was not as clinical and well lit as the other had been. The booth I was sitting in had red leather covered seats and was fairly sheltered from view. I looked up at the ceiling and saw that it was possible to pull a curtain across to ensure privacy. The table was fairly sturdy, and I guessed it had to be to handle the rigours of women dancing on it. There was no-one dancing on the ramp, but there was a table dance going on a few tables away from me. When I looked a little closer, I saw that the blonde dancer’s legs were resting onRoy’s shoulders and his nose was about ten millimetres from the crotch of her panties. Well, his cover seemed to be intact.

There were about twenty dancers in the club that I could see. Other than the one busy with the table dance forRoy, there was one other table dance going on the other side of the ramp. I craned my neck and saw that it was two dancers up on the table doing a dance for a group of eight guys. Only a few other tables were occupied; it seemed to be a little slow.

The waitress came back once she saw I was settled and I ordered a brandy-and-coke which I thought I would be able to nurse for a while. There were signs on the walls giving a list of the rules, the most important of which seemed to be that there was no touching of the dancers and no photos were to be taken.

Shortly after my drink arrived, the current song ended and the DJ announced that ‘Bettina’ would be doing a dance for us. All the girls that had been doing dances on the tables, as well as the others who were sitting on chairs against the far wall, disappeared into a staff-only door. The lights dimmed a little and a new song came on. I recognised it as Joyride from Roxette.

As Hello, you fool, I love you, C'mon join the Joyride erupted from the speakers, a tall, striking red-headed women appeared on the ramp. She was dressed in a pair thigh-high black leather boots over tight green pants and a white men’s dress shirt. Over that she had on a long green cape. She started out by dancing along the ramp, swirling the cape and playing with it coquettishly to cover and reveal her face. After a few minutes of this she discarded her cape, and started using the poles spread along the ramp. I watched her eyes, and noticed that like all good strippers, she was evaluating her audience, checking to see what appealed to them and where she would get the most attention. She used her hands constantly to direct the audience’s eyes away from her face to her breasts and her legs, them drew them up again to watch as she moved on.

The first song soon came to an end, and as the next song started, she sat down on a chair to remove her long boots. Once they were off, she started dancing again, going through basically the same routine until about halfway through she started unbuttoning her shirt. The way that she moved and twirled provided a very titillating experience, showing occasional flashes of her bra.

I was suddenly distracted from the show when I caught movement in my peripheral vision and turned my head slightly to see that three men had come into the club. I watched as they moved to a table and two of them sat down, so engaged in their conversation that they were completely oblivious to anything that was happening around them. Their lack of attention was compensated for by the third man, who’s attitude screamed ‘body-guard’ as he stood against the wall near their table and tried to watch everything going on. His gaze flicked across me and I could see that he evaluated and dismissed me as a threat. I kept watching the two at the table, trying to hide that I was doing so. I suspected that the shorter man was the Dimitri that I had heard so much about, while the taller man looked more like a local. I risked a glance inRoy’s direction, and got a slight nod from him as if he was confirming what I thought.

When I started paying attention to the dancer again, she was down to her panties, and I took a few moments to admire the truly impressive job that some plastic surgeon had done on enhancing her natural assets. As the song ended and the next one began, ‘Bettina’ bent over from the waist and slowly removed her panties. Her rear was pointed away from the audience while she did so, and she kept glancing around coyly, giving the impression that she was alone and was worried that someone was watching her. I was tremendously impressed with her skill. She was obviously not just a run-of-the-mill bump-and-grind dancer, but someone who took great pains to actually dance, and to put on an act at the same time. It took her almost half of the song before her teasing was done and she was fully nude. After that, she went back to the poles and eventually was displaying herself completely to the audience. She moved around the ramp, stopping every now and then to put on a bit of a show, and once again used her hands to direct the eyes on her; starting at her face; then down her body; pausing at her breasts; before moving on to stop between her legs. It was instantly obvious that she was either a true red-head, or her hair had been died to match top and bottom.

When she was facing me, she caught my eyes watching her, and returned my look. She moved her hands to direct my gaze away from her face and I smiled at her, nodded and continued to look at her face. She moved on after giving me a slight nod and a faint smile.

At the end of the song, ‘Bettina’ gathered up her clothes in one arm, performed a very elegant bow to us with her whole body, then turned and left the ramp through a door in the wall. As soon as she had left, the staff-only door opened and the rest of the girls appeared again. They started circulating amongst the tables.

I was approached by three at different times, who asked if they could sit down. I turned them away politely, saying that I might be interested later.

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