Sounds drifted out from behind some of the closed doors, porn movies, noisy sex, sometimes violent, laughter, on the second floor a drunken argument that ended with someone being slapped, hard. The third floor was quiet. They clustered silently in the hall outside Room 303, listening at the door while Steve put the key in the door and gently began to work the lock

Two women were talking, the sound coming clearly through the thin door.

“…never be able to do anything, Nicki…he’s too out of it…how much did you give him?” They heard something hit the floor then another thud … sounded like shoes.

“Well, duh…I don’t know how much he weighs now do I? I gave him a hit of Special K and a 2mg Ruffie….I think….plus he’s been drinking. C’mon Urs, C’mon pretty boy…let Nicki get your pants off…that’s a good boy.’

“Honey?....Baby, when did you get so tall?”

One of the women started to laugh. “The red hair worked…”

The woman the singers recognized as Nicole called out to the two men who had been silent up to now.

“You guys have the camera ready yet? Then Claude, get your clothes off and Bryce you work the camera while Claude does him. Make sure you can see his face…we need to be able to recognize him.”

They heard the sound of a body falling on a bed and a giggle as someone ripped Urs shirt off.

“That tickles…..,” his speech was slurred, but they knew it was Urs.

The singers were getting desperate to get in the room. Simon glanced at David and saw that he was ready to try and kick the door in, held his hand up for calm and Steve nodded and whispered, … ‘almost’.

“Sit up Urs, here we’ll help you…that’s it, now on your knees…c’mon Urs it’s a game, don’t you want to play a game?”

“No……. I just want to love you, Honey….”

They heard a slap and then she demanded that Claude come help her.

“Even drugged he’s obsessed with that whore!!! Set him up however you want before he passes out.”

Steve stood and nodded. Simon swung the door open and they all rushed in.

The room was large, not any cleaner than the rest of the building but likely a lot larger than the other rooms. A bed with gauzy curtains hanging at the headboard took center stage, the windows were blacked out with heavy old draperies and near the door as well as on each side of the bed, bright lights shone on the dark spread and the man who had been drugged, taken, stripped and thrown down on his stomach with several cameras on tripods pointed at him from various angles.

The biggest of the other men in the room was naked except for his sox and boots, stood at the foot of the bed reaching for Urs but freezing when the door burst open.

Both women screamed and Nicole flew across the room at Carlos who was the closest to her. The other woman cowered against the wall crying. The second man tried an end run around the singers but Seb took him out with a right to the jaw while David flew across the room and beat furiously on the naked man until he went down.

Carlos had both of Nicole’s wrists in his hand and forced her to her knees, not speaking just looking at her with loathing.

Simon came over to Nicole where she knelt still screaming curses at Carlos.

“Shut up or we’ll knock you out too,” he said just loud enough for her to hear.

She quieted immediately.

Simon nodded to Carlos to bring her over beside the other woman, Connie he learned.

He looked around the room and motioned to Steve to shut the door, then to Seb to put some clothes on Urs. He took a few steps over to the still man, rolled him over, lifted his eyelids to see if the hazel eyes were dilated and felt his pulse.

“We need to get him treated, that Special K is nothing to fool around with.”

Simon pulled his cell out and spoke into it for a few minutes then folded it up and looked at the woman again.

“Two can play your little game, Nicole. No, don’t move or Carlos will have to hold you down again. When my friends get through with you, you’ll be lucky to get a job in a porn movie…very lucky since you don’t really have the body for it. I don’t take kindly to people who do nasty things to my friends.” He turned his back on her and spoke to the singers.

“Gather up all of Urs things and the films just in case, then take him down to the car. Wait there for Steve and I.”

Steve had taken the belts of the two downed men and tied their hands behind their backs. Now he helped the Divos get Urs on his feet and started him walking in a shuffle between David and Seb. Urs eyes were closed and he had a smile on his face, kept giggling but not saying anything they could understand.

They took Urs down the 3 flights of stairs, moving slowly as he kept drifting in and out between lethargic and agitated. Phil was still in the lobby and tossed David the car keys as they went past.

Carlos had followed them down with the rest of Urs things and the films out of the cameras in the room and they waited, trying to keep Urs more or less awake and as calm as possible, though it wasn’t easy. He wanted a drink, then wanted to sleep, then bounced back and demanded a woman, any woman and right now, then collapsed again and when he came back wanted to dance and complained that his skin hurt.

Half an hour later a group of six hard looking men in dark jeans and jackets suddenly appeared from nowhere, 2 got in the van and the other four went in the hotel. Ten minutes later they came back out herding the two men, one still naked and the two women ahead of them, put them in the van and drove off.

A few minutes later Phil, Steve and Simon came out, Steve got in to drive again and they left.

They drove to Simon’s townhouse, all went inside and he had them take Urs to a guest room, where David put him in a cool shower that made him scream that his skin hurt, then he rubbed the circulation back in his friend’s body with a fluffy towel. Again he screamed and tried to swing at David, saying that his skin was on fire. David wrapped him in a soft blanket before forcing him into bed and stood back listening as Urs raved in Swiss, tossing and turning, alternating between wanting to get up and crying that he was on fire. A few minutes later Simon brought a middle aged man in the room, a doctor he learned and they discussed Urs symptoms.

“Stupid woman…she gave him too much Ketamine…it’s meant for horses, not people. He could have died. And on top of the Rohypnol…..anything strenuous could have killed him, sex, dancing, fighting. This should fix him up but you call me if he starts to vomit or has convulsions. And he has to be watched for the next eight or ten hours.”

He gave Urs a shot of something called Flumazenil, closed up his bag and went over to the sofa against the far wall, lay down and was asleep instantly.

David sat in the chair beside Urs bed and glanced at Simon.

“What’s going to happen to Nicole and the others?”

Simon sighed and leaned against the bedpost with his hands in his pockets.

“I called in a few favors. The two thugs are no problem, they go with the money so we will just scare the hell out of them and pay them off, send them somewhere out of London. Nicole and Connie are going to think we killed them and that it was filmed in such a way that they will be blamed IF we send the evidence to the police. There won’t be any more trouble with Nicole or her friend. I’m afraid they are going to find a lot of doors closed to them in London and be happy to move on, I suggested Florida…nice climate.”

David grinned and shook his head in wonder.

“I’m sure glad you’re not my enemy.”

Simon laughed. “Well I saw the way you clocked that big guy tonight. I’m glad you’re on my side too. Get some rest, David. I’ll stay with Urs for a couple of hours, then some one else can take over. I think the others have crashed in the Lounge…. And you might want to call Holly so she doesn’t send out a search party.”

They were all flopped on furniture in the spacious Lounge, working on a carafe of coffee and a tray of sandwiches that Phil had magically made appear.

“How is Urs?” Seb asked the second that David came in the room.

“The doctor gave him a shot of an antidose, flu something or other….he said Urs could have died, that she gave him stuff that’s meant for horses and gave him too much.”

He sat on a sofa and pulled out his cell to call Holly.

“I already called the girls,” Seb said. “I told them we’re staying at Simon’s, that we went clubbing with him and Steve and can’t make it home. We can fill in the blanks tomorrow. Should Urs be alone now?”

“No, we have to watch him for vomiting and convulsions. Simon’s with him now. One of us can take over in a couple of hours.”

“And what about Nicole and her merry band?” Carlos wanted to know.

David rested his head on the back of the sofa and just said: “Simon will explain tomorrow.”

**

The Divos woke to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. Phil was just placing the tray with coffee and mugs on the low coffee table when David suddenly realized he had slept the whole night in Simon’s comfortable leather chair. Seb and Carlos were gradually coming back to life as well, so that meant that they had let Simon carry the burden of staying with Urs all through the night.

“Mr. Simon said to tell you your friend is doing fine, sleeping normally now. There was one episode of convulsions in the night but Doctor Shapiro gave him another shot and he’s ‘out of the woods’,” Phil said with a soft smile and using his fingers for quotation marks around the last words.

Phil disappeared and a few minutes later Simon strolled into the Lounge, a little haggard from the wild night and the sleepless aftermath. He helped himself to a coffee and cut David off when he apologized for not spelling him.

“It isn’t a problem, David. He’s awake off and on but doesn’t remember a thing….that’s apparently quite common. Sometimes the memory never comes back.” He lounged back in one of the chairs and waited for the questions he knew were coming.

“What did Nicole hope to gain from it? Why was she doing this to Urs after he was so good to her all those years?” David looked confused and young, not very experienced in the convoluted logic of the seedier element of society.

“Money. She told my friends that she spotted the group of you early in the evening when she and Connie were clubbing. They hatched this little plot and followed wherever you went, hooked up with Bryce and Claude at some point and waited for a chance to drop the K and Ruffie in Urs drink. They were going to tape Urs and Claude performing indecent acts, set up so that no one would know that Urs wasn’t aware of what was happening. Then she would threaten to sell it to the tabloids unless Syco or Sony paid her for the film and the negative. It was payback for dumping her, but I think she misses the money and the status of being his girlfriend more than she misses Urs.”

Seb had paled at the thought then grew angry and looked like he wanted to punch someone again.

“If he doesn’t remember should we tell him what happened?”

Simon looked thoughtful for a moment. “I think we should give him a slightly edited version, leave out the part about the two men, tell him that we got there just after the two women got his clothes off, that nothing happened. It wasn’t his fault but he’s going to feel embarrassed about the episode anyway.”

Shortly after they finished a leisurely breakfast Dr. Shapiro popped his head in the kitchen and said Urs was showering and would be down soon.

“He doesn’t remember anything about last night and I told him nothing. I’m off. Simon, we still on for poker on Saturday?”

“You bet! Bring your cheque book.”

Urs joined them about half an hour later, a little the worse for his experience, with shadows under his eyes and pale skin but clear headed even though he asked what had happened and why had they stayed at Simon’s.

“You don’t remember anything?”

He sat at the table with a coffee that Phil poured for him, looked again at Phil’s bruised cheek and temple and asked if he had hit Phil.

Simon smiled. “No, that was someone else. How much of the night do you remember?”

Urs concentrated while he sipped his coffee. “The clubs, and then the one where we met up with you and Steve…Nicole was there…she tried to talk to me but only for a moment. The rest is kind of blurry……Dancing with someone, bright lights, Honey was there but it wasn’t her….it’s all so jumbled.”

Gently Simon told him what had happened, leaving out the part about the 2 men and what really had been planned. His face grew paler as he absorbed what Simon said. He looked to David, Seb and Carlos for confirmation, flushed bright red and hung his head.

“Hey, Bro…you have nothing to feel bad about. She drugged you with stuff they use on horses as well as that date rape stuff. Let’s all just be thankful that we found you in time…..NOTHING HAPPENED Urs, ……except you flashed us when we found you.”

David’s little joke made him smile.

“Sorry about that, guys. I hope you don’t feel…inadequate now,” he joked back and they all laughed.

It was early afternoon when the four singers finally made it home.

**