Three

Billy was trying to absorb the full gravity of the situation. Digesting what had happened. After filming the full shot he shut down the stream and looked over at Gaze and Yezid who were trying to revive Faraz's unresponsive body.

Omar rushed over and removed the mask from Faraz's face. He performed the cardiopulmonary resuscitation and checked for signs of breathing. After repeated attempts to pump the heart he checked the pulse. Nothing. Then he auscultated the chest with his stethoscope and looked over at Billy with a dismayed expression.

Omar had seen people die before right in front of him. But that was in the operation theatre. Never like this. He looked at the young cyanosed face. Such a waste of life. Faraz was supposed to be back in his room within a few minutes and wake up tomorrow with no memory of the encounter. Instead.

'What have you bozos done?' Billy glared at the two maniacs.

'Is he dead?' Lester came running down from the balcony waving his arms frantically.

'Dry asphyxiation. He's dead,' Omar replied ruefully. Lester sat down on the ground and clutched his head sobbing.

'I thought he had more in him,' Gaze said.

'More what? More life? You just sucked it out of him,' Billy said furiously.

'This was the first time I performed waterboarding.' Gaze was looking around meekly.

'And you went overboard with it.' Billy said.

'I didn't mean to.' Gaze tried to explain.

'You could have stopped him you big baboon.' Billy turned his attention to Yezid.

Yezid remained silent. He knew better than to talk. He had a room temperature IQ and knew his place.

'You just watched a couple of videos on the subject and became the master. What made you think you could see it through.' Omar cried looking at Gaze with contempt.

'Why didn't you stop me then?' Gaze hit back.

'We did you crazy fucker,' Omar said.

'I mean physically.' Gaze said.

'We didn't because it was streaming live you asshole. You can't expect us to come on screen and pull you off.' Omar explained.

'You could have shut down the stream sooner and prevented this from happening.' Gaze countered.

'And missed a shot like this,' Billy replied testily. 'No way. I have a responsibility to my viewers. I was too caught up in the moment anyway. You are supposed to be the expert. Not me.'

'So this is your fault as much as mine.' Gaze responded.

'No this is entirely on you,' Omar interjected.

'I'm the one who takes risks while you two hide behind the camera. I'm the reason people turn up to watch. I get the ratings.' Gaze read his resume to stress his importance.

'That is not the point motherfucker.' Omar said.

'Congratulations. You committed murder live in front of thousands of viewers.' Billy scoffed.

'As if they care. They probably enjoyed it more than their first fuck,' Gaze said.

'They probably did.' Billy said looking at the figures on the computer. 'The numbers are off the chart.'

Gaze looked around triumphantly.

'Stop being pretentious and clean up this mess,' Omar said.

'Disposing off dead bodies is not part of my job description,' Gaze replied.

'Yeah. You're just a low grade underground torturer. We know,' Omar said menacingly.

Lester tried to compose himself. 'Stop this squabble,' he said feeling the need to assert his authority. 'Did anyone see you?'

'No one except the manager of the establishment,' Billy answered. 'And that too coming in.'

'We need to fix this.' Lester took charge of the situation.

'Gaze has a room booked in the motel for tonight,' Billy went on. 'The manager would have seen him going to his room with his friends. He has no reason to suspect. He didn't see us leave with the guy.'

'Any security cameras see you?' Lester asked anxiously.

'No,' Billy said.

'Are you sure?'

'Yes,' Billy answered convincingly.

Lester walked across to the bench harbouring the dead body. As it loomed closer Lester had go bite down another urge. He had no remorse over what had happened. The only reason he was lamenting a while earlier was over the repercussions if any.

'We might get out of this yet.' A newfound sense of hope grew within him. 'I need to make a phone call.'