“Then he might be a source of information if something else comes up I didn’t think to ask.”
“I say we take him out in the countryside and shoot him.”
“I know that’s your preferred method of dealing witheveryone,but we can’t just – ”
Suddenly the door opened, and both men fell silent.
Mei-ling stood there, dressed again in her street clothes. She looked slightly apprehensive.
Roberto walked up to her… smiled… and kissed her.
When he pulled away and we could see her face again, she was smiling, too.
“Okay – what the fuck wasthat?”Adriano asked in English.
Mei-ling raised one eyebrow. “What?”
Adriano flapped one arm in exasperation towards the area outside the office. “AllTHAT– what the fuck WAS that?!”
“The most efficient way of getting him to talk.”
“Why’d you dress up like – like – ”
“A dominatrix?” she said coolly.
“YES.”
“It was all part of the psychology of the scene.”
“The psychology of thewhat?”
“How did you know what to do to get him to talk?” Niccolo asked.
“It was obvious.”
“Wasn’t obvious tome,”Niccolo said humorously.
Mei-ling smiled. “I was a dominatrix for quite a while before I opened my club in Hong Kong. During that time, I dealt with hundreds of male clients. Powerful men – wealthy men. Men who had to project a certain image in society.
“Most of my clients thought they wanted something sexual from me… but it wasn’t sexual. Not really. At its core, their needs were psychological. Emotional. I provided a safe haven for them to experience things they couldn’t admit to others… and sometimes not even to themselves.
“As a result of all those interactions, I’m very well attuned to the male psyche. And rich or poor, powerful or weak, the patterns are all the same.
“The more macho a man acts – especially the more he degrades women, and the more he jokes disparagingly about gay men – the more insecure he is at a deep, primal level. About his sexuality… his gender… his masculinity.
“Subconsciously, almost every ‘tough guy’ is a scared little boy terrified that other males won’t think he’s a ‘real man.’
“To someone like our friend in theCamorra,what’s the opposite of a ‘real man’?
“A woman.
“A gay man.
“People with very little self-awareness tend to violently attack the thing they fear most – especially if they won’t consciously admit to themselves that they fear it.
“Every time he threatened me with sexual violence, or called you homosexuals, it was like flashing a neon sign over his head announcing his deepest fears.
“He thinks that being a ‘real man’ is all about penetrating women, with or without their consent.
