Chapter Two: Facing Reality

Brian Kinney certainly did stand out in his circle of friends and colleagues. The vast majority of the men he spent any time with were dark complected and wore the centuries old clothing styles of their forefathers, consisting of long flowing caftans of fine silks, linens, and cotton with ankle length robes added and their kufis or turbans covering their heads. Brian, on the other hand, was a typical Irish American with tanned but light skin, longish wavy brown hair, and piercing hazel eyes. He was quite tall with a slender, yet well toned body. He would have stood out in a crowd even if he didn't look so different from his companions.

Brian had lived in Eastern countries nearly all his life. His father had worked for a trading company that specialized in far Eastern and middle Eastern antiquities and art. His mother was an old fashioned woman who believed her place was beside her husband, whether she liked the man or not, thus she traveled everywhere her husband did...a fact Brian later learned his father hated. Personally, Brian loved the travel. He enjoyed the exotic locations that his dad would settle in no matter how long they stayed. He couldn't imagine being in one place too long when he was young.

Eventually Brian did settle down for a few years when he attended college back in America. He studied business administration so that he could help his father out, including advertising so that he could understand the theory behind buying and selling products. Once he completed his education, which his father paid for very reluctantly, he returned to Cairo where his dad had set up a permanent office in his absence. Within two years Brian had all but taken over his dad's position within the company. He was born to buy and sell and had a feel for what was worth acquiring to put up on the trading market. The fights between father and son began to be more frequent and heated. They had never meshed well, but the animosity had grown intolerable. Brian chose to leave.

It took Brian several more years to develop his own trading business, but he was brilliant in using the contacts he had formed while working under his father. He also had a personable persona that his father couldn't begin to muster up. Brian attracted people. Even with the self assured and sometimes cocky attitude that he sported, both men and women were attracted to him. He was an expert in exploiting that to his advantage. There was no equal to him in business and he was well known by a great many people.

His personal life was another matter. He did have a circle of friends, but the circle was very narrow. He had only one set of friends from his home country. He had met the Novotny family when he first came back from the States. His father had asked him to entertain a client by taking the man to a new cafe that had opened up in an old hotel that had been renovated to suit the tastes of the recent influx of Western tourists. The client had gotten quite drunk and began hitting on the belly dancer while she was performing her show. Brian had been mortified, but a young man with dark hair and dark eyes with a boyish grin had stepped up to help Brian in getting the client out of the cafe and into a taxi back to his hotel. When Brian went back into the cafe to apologize for the scene he found out that the young man was named Michael and his mother was the proprietress, Debbie Novotny.

Brian had discovered, after spending several hours chatting with Michael, that he was from a town just a short distance from where Brian had been born. One thing led to another and they discovered that they had a lot in common. Shortly after sitting down, the red headed and boisterous Debbie joined her son and ended up revealing a lot more about her son than the young man would have liked, especially with this total stranger.

"Whoa, Mikey, you've found a cute one this time," she had laughed when she first sat down.

"Ma!" the poor boy cried. But it was too late. The inference was clear. The fear in Michael's eyes said all Brian needed to know.

Brian just laughed and told the young man to relax. He had no problem with what Debbie was hinting at. Then he smiled crookedly at the young man. The two men had been fast friends ever since...nearly eight years now. Brian spent a great deal of his off time at the hotel cafe, especially after having another knock down drag out fight with the old man. Once Brian got his own business going, he brought all his prospective clients to the cafe to talk business or entertain. Brian, who had never gotten along with his own mother and didn't miss her at all since leaving his father's house to go to college, adored Debbie and her upfront attitude about life and the way things were. She was direct, with no subterfuge. Brian found it refreshing.

He had also made friends with some of the other Americans who worked at the hotel thanks to his friendship with Michael. There was Ted Schmidt, the accountant who kept the books for management and Emmett Honeycutt who was head concierge for the hotel. There wasn't a form of entertainment or perfect place to eat that Emmett didn't know about and could pass on to guests of the hotel. One of his favorite people was Debbie's brother, Vic who worked as head chef for her cafe. Brian was content with this small circle of friends.

It hadn't taken him long to figure out that every single one of the men were 'that way', a way that Brian knew he was too from a very young age. Of course he had been wise enough to keep his attraction to his own sex a deep dark secret from his family. He could still remember the day his father saw two men holding hands on a trip to Paris when he was a young boy. It had been on a stroll along the Seine River, and the venom in his father's voice when he pointed out the men to his wife and son was a memory that burned itself in the prepubescent youth's brain. For a short time he even denied his feelings to himself, preferring to be a loner. He stopped denying his feelings while in college.

Brian, besides being quite intelligent, was also very athletic. He had been on the track team in college and formed a close friendship with a fellow runner. One day, when all the other students and coaches had already left the locker room for the day, he had found himself alone in the shower with his friend. What had started out as casual horseplay under the hot water turned into a clinch that took both their breaths away. Thirty minutes later they lay on the shower floor exhausted and completely sated. It had been the beginning of a five month affair that brought Brian a great deal of pleasure. It ended as the school year came to a close and Timothy, his lover, introduced Brian to his fiancee when she came to pick him up with his parents. Brian's suggestion that it was unfair of Tim to marry the girl when he was in love with a man didn't set well with Tim and he ignored Brian for the last couple of days left of school. It taught Brian a lesson. He never allowed his heart to rule his actions again.

Brian also had another circle of friends that he spent some time with. These were men that he cultivated among the native population that were as like minded as he about relationships. It was a very closed and secretive society of male lovers who knew that there was great danger in being too open in their society. Most all came from wealthy families who had a position to maintain. Brian was the only American allowed into their group and only because of his friendship with Prince Ahmad. He had met the twelfth son of the King's brother during a day of camel racing and they recognized each other right away. After a wild night of sexual pleasure, they never fucked again but enjoyed their friendship. Prince Ahmad introduced Brian to a part of Cairo that he had been unaware of up till then.

It was just such a night of firsts that he was now looking forward to with anticipation. Ahmad had not given him any specifics, but he hinted that it would be quite an adventure. Nights with Ahmad usually proved to be so. Hopefully tonight would be one of those. Brian was definitely in the mood for something exciting. Life had become too predictable lately. Brian was bored. He had already been with practically everyone who was fuckable in his closed community and even though business was very good, there had been few exciting new finds lately since the opening of King Tut's tomb. Brian needed something to get his juices flowing again. Hopefully tonight would be the night.

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Justin, or so he had decided he must have been named, had had a very bad night. Sleep had eluded him and he had barely closed his eyes and begun to drift off in the middle of the night when his cell door had been yanked open and two more young men had been thrown into the cell. Now the cramped space held four frightened young men, the youngest looking to be no more than fifteen or sixteen. The others were all dark complected, unlike flaxen haired, fair skinned Justin. The two newcomers huddled together and spoke in a language that was completely foreign to the young man. His cellmate, Said, spoke to them and then informed Justin that the boys were brothers who had been kidnapped by bandits while on an errand for the family. The rest of the night had been spent in abject fear as to what would happen next. They didn't have long to wait.

The very next day, after receiving a pathetic bowl of some kind of thin soup with a small piece of bread, the four young men were startled when a rotund man with feral eyes came into their cell and shouted at them. Said interpreted for Justin, letting him know that they were being ordered to line up in front of him. Justin followed orders immediately, sensing that it was the wisest thing to do. His head still throbbed and he wasn't up for any more abuse.

The man began going down the line, checking each boy's features and spinning them around in order to view both sides. He grabbed their arms and legs in turn as if inspecting a piece of meat in a market. His touch set Justin's teeth on edge and he recoiled, which earned him a sharp slap to the side of his head. Stars flashed in Justin's sight, causing him to stand perfectly still no matter what his captive did next. When the man was finished with his inspection, he turned to the two men behind him and muttered some words.

Justin didn't like the look on Said's face when he heard what the large man said. He waited until the three men had left, slamming the bars behind them, and then asked what was said.

"You will not like it, sir," he told Justin. "The big man told the others that we would do....that we should fetch a good price on the market."

"On the market?"

"Yes. It is obvious. They are slave traders, and we are about to become their newest merchandise."

"But that's crazy," Justin protested. "Slavery has been abolished for over sixty years. It's barbaric...and illegal."

"First of all, sir, this is not America. Second, it is illegal here too, but that does not mean it is not practiced underground."

"But I'm not even a citizen of this country. They can't just take tourists off the street and sell them. This is insane." Panic welled in Justin's voice. "I have to let someone know. I have to get out of here."

"Who will you tell? You said you don't even know who you are or where you're from. It is obvious you're American by the way you talk, but that's all you know. You don't even know why you are in this country or how long you've been here. It does not matter anyway. They must have caught you alone or they never would have taken you. You belong to them now and if you wish to survive intact I suggest you do not give them too much trouble. Wait for your opportunity and you may be able to escape later."

Justin reluctantly recognized the wisdom in what his cellmate advised. It went against every instinct in him to cooperate with his captors, but he would bide his time. Somehow he would find the right opportunity to escape and get back to where and who he belonged to, whoever that was.

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Ahmad picked Brian up in his Austin 20 Touring Car, the pride of his fleet of vehicles. He was dressed to the nines in his pale gold caftan with dark brown Jilbab stitched with gold covering it. He normally favored Western dress, but he was all native tonight. Brian was turned out in all his finery with his black velvet jacket over a crisp white linen shirt tucked into his black pants. His longish brown hair was slicked back to reveal his high brow and perfectly formed features. He was a handsome man indeed. Ahmad paused to admire his friend.

Ahmad liked Brian Kinney a great deal. He liked all Western things a great deal. But tonight was different. Tonight the men were going to indulge in something that he doubted would ever happen in Western countries. Tonight he was taking Brian to his first auction. Slave auctions were frowned upon in modern Egypt and could earn you a severe penalty if caught, but this did not stop the very private, invitation only, sales among the rich. Ahmad himself owned two such young men that he had sent to his country palace away from the big city. He would visit the small palace several times a year where he would be serviced by the young men willingly, and in exchange they were able to live a hundred times better than they would have in their free lives. The fact of which was obvious since neither man ever attempted to escape even when opportunities presented themselves.

Ahmad worried about Brian. It was obvious to him that the older man was lonely. He never seemed to connect with anyone he met. He never even romanced any ladies in order to settle down and have a family, unlike Ahmad who had two wives already and three children. Maybe he could find some pleasing companionship at the auction. You never know. It was worth a try. Within minutes the two men were seated in the large car and on their way to the outskirts of the city. Brian could feel something in the air. Ahmad hadn't told him where they were going, but something told him that tonight was going to be different. He could hardly wait.

To be continued......