Assassins - Ian Watson & Andy West Read Online Free PDF Page A

breasts, to gently squeeze.
    Yes, surely to squeeze first of all, for he
mustn’t simply impale her impetuously all at once! What had Abdul
said about causing ecstasy in a woman? Abdul might wish to know of
this, by hearing tell of the signs of ecstasy from Hakim’s own
report.
    As though aware of his perplexity, or perhaps
impatient, Cinnamon silently slid a finger down her belly to her
cleft, then within so that half of her finger disappeared.
Thrusting forward her pubes, she rubbed herself slowly, as if she
sought relief from itchy worms; yet surely her vagina must be
deeper between her legs. Evidently, she was showing him what he
should do to her, and how. Hakim refrained from speaking in case
what he said was stupid, and she seemed disinclined to speak, as
though mouths were intended for other purposes. Swiftly he shed his
clothing. He was, he was in Paradise, blessed by God for
what he had, for what he would , achieve!
    She must have moistened herself liberally
with an unguent, he decided presently after she positioned his
finger to replace hers. He massaged a small bump, which caused her
to moan, then cry out and toss her head from side to side.
    Before long she gripped his shaft and guided
him to where he fitted perfectly. As his weight bore down upon her,
she hoisted her legs to grip him, ankles locking together. How she
gasped at his thrusting, until deliriously he spent himself in
pulsing surges. Too soon his organ was limp and he withdrew,
kneeling between her splayed legs, assessing in the lamplight her
wet, flushed openness.
    She chuckled with a kind of patronising
complicity. And quite suddenly a great emptiness was within Hakim,
a hollow sadness as of waste and futility: the waste of some of the
carefully gathered funds of his community. The waste too of the
sheer tension , as of a taut bow that had been within him so
recently, all its accumulated potential now lost.
    Nevertheless, Hakim revisited the brothel twice more
with Abdul and Naguib, choosing a different woman each time for
comparison. After successfully establishing his ‘normality’, he
allowed himself to become privately more friendly with Sadiq, not
so that others would remark on this. As a result, Sadiq seemed
almost to fall in love in a spiritual way; their friendship was to
be special and confidential. Then Hakim focused upon mightier
matters, his mind cleansed, not least because by now his studies in
medicine had shown him many grotesque examples of disease and
malignancy, both externally and also internally. He knew full well
that anyone’s body, even the fairest, could become hideous.
    He immersed himself in the great medical
texts by Ibn Sina, ar-Razi, Jabir ibn Hayyan, and Abu al-Qasim
al-Zahrawi. A lecturer pointed out that ancient Greek doctors made
claims based on insufficient observation, claims which ar-Razi
disproved. Controlled, systematic experimentation was essential.
Commissioned to choose the best site for a hospital in Baghdad,
ar-Razi had famously hung up meat throughout the city to discover
where it decomposed least quickly, thus to pinpoint the most
hygienic place. Animal testing was important, even though a drug
might not affect a dog in the same way as a human being.
    Hakim paid particular attention to theories
of contagious disease, to Ibn Sina’s idea of bodily secretions
being contaminated by foul foreign bodies, and that water could
carry such bodies, as well as garments too. These foreign bodies
were far too small to be seen, though their serious effects belied
the size of the cause; therefore patients with similar serious
symptoms should be kept separate from others. Mercurial compounds
and sulphur and pure alcohol were surely efficacious, Hakim
reasoned, because they destroyed or hindered that which could not
be seen by any gaze less acute than God’s, Who saw all.
    Hakim couldn’t but note ar-Razi's insistence
that a doctor's aim is to do good, ‘ even to our
enemies’ . Yet if those enemies were also