Local townspeople were in awe of our new civic library - or the Interactive Literary & Learning Hub as we had been told to refer to it. It replaced a 100 year-old red sandstone monolith, built in the days when philanthropists erected grandiose monuments to themselves and their wealth. Ours was to be converted into a multi-cultural food bank and refuge for battered wives.
The brash new elongated ILLH was clad with curved semi-transparent purple panels which shimmered in the sunlight, giving the appearance of a living, breathing mammal, like a giant iguana. Within, it was bright and white and positively bristled with hi-tech gadgetry. You could take out or return a book without speaking to a librarian, call up video links or download documents from the other side of the world. You could even make yourself a latte (and pay for it) without encountering another human being. George Orwell didn't know the half of it.
I had gone down to the ILLH to do some research on the building's top floor where it tended to be quietest. There was no piped music up there or excited toddlers and the loudest noise was the clack-clack of computer keyboards - although certainly not all the stuff you saw of screens as you passed was strictly of a literary nature!
My chosen subject was Lucerne in Switzerland. But behind a large wall of guide books I had secreted the latest edition of 'Toned Hulks', a photographic collection of high-definition images of muscular, bronzed hunks, all exceptionally well hung.There was nodody within the immediate vicinity of my work station, so I eased down the zip and slipped my hand inside my shorts to gently withdraw my cock. I'd decided I would work myself up into a nice state of erotic excitement, before slipping off to the toilets to finish the job in private.
As I flipped from one double-page spread to the next, I noticed that a shadow had fallen across the glossy pages. The scene I was studying was an all-male bukakke session by an outdoor pool, with several of the hunks ejaculating over each other.
I looked up to find a female library official had approached my desk quietly and was now standing over me, looking down at the opened magazine and the activity beneath the desk. The identification label on her blouse read 'SECURITY; Linda'.She was under fourty, with a trim figure clad in the library's standard issue blue slacks and a tight-fitting white blouse. She had a long slender neck, an oval face and high cheekbones. Her blonde hairstyle was cut in what is now called a buzz cut. Her stainless steel-rimmed glasses and a rather unsmiling demeanour reminded me a little of an immigration official at a border crossing."May I see your Library Pass please, sir?"
"Certainly." With my free hand I managed to extricate the pass from my opened satchel on the desk.
While she checked it I hastily adjusted my dress. She swung a flat-screened tablet round that was hanging from her shoulder by a rainbow-coloured lanyard and swiped the pass across its screen."May I ask the nature of your visit to the ILLH today, Mr Nesbitt?"
"Research, Miss err... Miss Linda."
"Research into what?"
I nodded at the pile of books in front of me. "Switzerland."
She frowned with undisguised disbelief. "Really?"
"I'm a writer, you see. My next novel is set in Lucerne."
Smiling for the first time, she laid her tablet on the desk beside my satchel. "When anyone mentions Switzerland I always think of Orson Wells in 'The Third Man'."
This oblique cinematic reference threw me for a moment, though I was relieved that the subject of ejaculating naked hunks appeared to have gone off the agenda. "Really? I know the film well, but I always thought it was set in Vienna."
"It was; it WAS!" She became quite animated. "But don't you remember the scene in the Prater amusement park? When Harry Lime is lecturing Holly Martins, after they've ridden on that old Ferris wheel?"
The scene from the noir classic came back to me, but I still couldn't grasp the Swiss link. She gave a mischievous giggle. "I have to confess that Lime's little soliquoy is one of my party pieces. Friends get me to recite it when I've had too much to drink."
She pulled back her shoulders, drawing attention to the lovely firm breasts beneath her blouse. I could see she was wearing a black bra. "Would you like to hear it?"
"Sure."
She coughed to clear her throat. "Sorry, but I can't do the Wells growl. Here goes: 'Remember under the Borgias? In 300 years of murder, terror and bloodshed, they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, in 500 years of domestic peace and brotherly love, what did they produce? The Cuckoo clock!'"
I gave a gentle round of applause and she bowed.
"But now, Mr Nesbitt, I'm afraid we must return to the matter that brought me here." She nodded towards my lap. "The matter in hand so to speak."
I knew exactly what she was alluding to but decided to play the innocent."I'm sorry, I don't follow."
She glanced up at the ceiling. She'd reverted to her immigration officer mode. "Do you know how many CCTV cameras there are in this building?"
"I've no idea. I've never really given it much thought."
"Well I should if I was you - next time you smuggle one of your sexy lads magazines in. For security reasons I'm not permitted to divulge the precise figure, but let's say it's in excess of 200. Many with zoom facility."
"Zoom, Miss Linda?"
"Zoom, as in close-up, Mr Nesbitt! Giving me the ability to watch you wanking while I'm sitting in my office."
"And were you?"
"You bet - when I wasn't checking the oversized tools of some of those guys jerking off round the pool."
I decided to throw caution to the wind. Go for broke. I dropped my hand onto my crotch and slowly stroked it. "And what was the verdict?"
She gave an impish grin. "Those guys are all a bit on the big side for me." She tapped one finger on the page. "I don't think I could even get that one in. But you'll do nicely - what I've seen of it."
I was pretty sure I wasn't about to have my Library Pass withdrawn, but couldn't decide if the final remark was an invitation to play. My move.
"Is your office on this floor?"
She nodded. "Over there, at the back by the lifts."
"How would it be if I called by in about 10 minutes - after I've returned these books to their shelves - and maybe give you a real-life close-up?"
She pursed her lips and shook her head. "Far too risky." She tapped a tiny black earpiece (no bigger than hearing aid) which I hadn't even noticed. "I'm on call 24/7 with this gismo." She nodded at the far corner of the reading area. "How about in the toilets?"
"Aren't they a bit cramped?"
"The disabled one is huge. It doubles as a baby-changing facility." She scooed up her tablet and slung it over her shoulder. "Give me two minutes, then come over and join me." She nodded up at a small disc of smoked glass set into the ceiling above us, gave a knowing wink and strolled off.
I took one last peep at the hunks before slipping the magazine into my bag. I collected up all the Swiss guides, returned them to their book stack and sauntered across to the toilets which Linda had indicated.There were four doors inside the toilet area. One was marked with a male silhouette; one with a female figure; a third said, 'CLEANERS'; and a fourth extra-wide door showed the outline of a figure in a wheelchair. Above it was a notice reading: 'OUT OF ORDER. Please use facility on 3rd floor.'