was a pyramid with an eye inside it. The entire surface of the carving

appeared

to be covered in hammered gold.

My God, thought Royce as the blond girl led him to a couch, Carfax was being

absolutely literal when he was talking about men being nothing more than boys

with more sophisticated toys. He was so overwhelmed with how elaborate the

whole

thing was that he couldn't even speak. What on earth was there to say? Before

he

had seen this, if anyone had told him that some of the richest and most

powerful

men in England, peers, heads of corporations, respected jurists, even

ministers,

dressed up in black robes and gathered in a secret underground grotto hidden

beneath a rebuilt medieval castle, where they participated in elaborate

orgies

with lissome young girls, he would have said it was preposterous.

All right, perhaps not totally preposterous. A few among them easily could

have

had some secret vices along such lines, but for so many of them to actually

join

together and openly participate in such a thing as if they were debauched

Roman

senators and Carfax a reincarnation of Caligula, it was simply mind-boggling!

He

had known some of these men for years. They were all men of position with

families; he never would have believed this. He wanted to go over to Bob

Paddington and ask him what in hell was going on, but Paddington was

ensconced

upon one of the couches with a brunette, and Royce could only gape at what

was

going on.

Then the next thing he knew, the blonde was pushing him back down onto the

couch

and fastening her mouth on his. He felt her warm tongue probing between his

lips, and it was with an effort that he gently pushed her away. His heart was

pounding, and he felt the blood rushing to his face.

In spite of himself, he wanted her. The male animal within him was asserting

its

brutish nature. His willpower already had been subjected to a fierce assault

from Terri, and now this girl, who couldn't have been a day over eighteen and

whose name he didn't even know, was pressing up against him and rubbing her

leg

up and down alongside his. She was young and beautiful and ever so much more

than willing as she gazed deep into his eyes, her lips slightly parted, her

tongue moistening them seductively. She seemed to have little sparks dancing

in

her pupils, tiny little fireworks that burst apart, and he felt himself drawn

deep down into her gaze, unable to tear his eyes away.

He opened the door and looked down a flight of wooden steps leading to the

dark

basement. His hand felt strangely cold as he reached out to flick on the

light