The trip took about a day and a half. With auto-pilot on the long stretches, the driver just drove right on through, stopping only to use the toilet or to visit young ladies for reasons I won't get into. He asked me not to tell the captain about them. I just replied that it was none of my business and I wasn't likely to see her again anytime soon.
When we arrived at the neighborhood, he stopped after about three blocks to let me off. "Good luck on whatever it is the captain sent you here for," he called to me. "Oh, and watch out for the Dame."
"The who?"
"Not sure which house it is, but there's some crazy lady in these parts that lost her husband a few years ago. According to the locals he was robbed and killed on the street, but she's so nuts, she thinks he just stepped out on her and she's waiting for him to come
As much as I loathed pretending to be a dead man, at least I got a shower out of the deal, something I only had once a week in the Underground. Captain Case had been very kind to let me have free access to the water at her base, and I figured it would be a long time before I ever had another shower. Clearly, I was wrong... never had I so wished to be right.I went into the bathroom, took a very quick shower to get rid of the dust, then wrapped myself in a towel and returned to the bedroom. I caught a whiff of something familiar and I felt a complicated mix of dread and anticipation.The mist... this woman somehow had access to the same stuff the general had used in the Pit... and her bedroom was now full of the stuff. At least it gave me a decent excuse for getting dragged into her bed. It didn't help the guilt all that much; I had no idea how I would explain a
For the first day, Vanessa alternated between sex and sleep, putting me through all kinds of insanity. She released me only long enough to use the toilet- while she watched, of course, then she marched me at gunpoint back to bed and locked me in place.After a full day of meeting her demands, I started to feel weak, and I wasn't sure if it was from hunger, dehydration, or the damn mist. She kept it turned on at all times and my brain felt like it was slowly being baked by it. I begged her for food and water. She gave me occasional sips of water but withheld food."I think you need to earn it, Richard, given what you've put me through," she told me airily as she indulged in a large bowl of exotic fruit, making my mouth water. "When you learn to obey me, then we'll see about food.""I won't learn much if you starve me
After giving myself over an hour to attempt to come up with a solution, I started to look around the room for ideas. I dug into whatever drawers I could reach for tools to dismantle the bed but found nothing useful.I did find a few leftover snacks, which I devoured with an appetite only the truly starving could understand, but they gave me very little strength.I turned back to stare at the body, my mind working furiously. There was only one solution... the bed wasn't fastened to anything that I could tell. It was damn heavy... but if I wanted to get out of here, I needed to drag it across the room to get to Vanessa and get the key. It was my only hope.I moved to the foot of the bed and tugged. It might as well have been cemented in place, for all the good my tugging and yanking did. I leaned my head against the b
And so, my new life as one of only five children living within Central Control began. I don't understand why I am not allowed to go home- aside from the fact that it takes over a year for me to recover well enough to function properly again- but eventually, Grandfather explains it to me. Central Control has been a tightly-kept secret for years. Centuries, even. Ever since the very founding of our colony world.Now that I know about it, I can't be allowed to talk to anyone else about it. They wanted to use their mind machine to wipe my memory, but after one of the scientists made the mistake that resulted in a drug interaction- that nearly killed both of us- it's no longer safe to even try it. As far as my family knows, I just vanished. Grandfather too... he can't go home, either. He will stay with me at the mountain, stay with the Ten... he will be one of the world's heroes that tries to keep
Dragging myself out of my memories was getting harder, but I finally succeeded. I woke to find Lauren leaning over me. She turned and called out, "He's awake!""About damn time, but I can't say I really blame him, all things considered." Captain Case appeared on my other side. "How are you feeling, Toby?""I've been better," I muttered, taking a quick inventory of my physical condition, and finding it in better shape than I expected. "I've been worse, too. I feel pretty good, considering that you found me on the floor shackled to a dead woman's bed. How the hell did you find me?""It was a series of deductions that even the ancient detective Sherlock Holmes would be impressed by," Captain Case said dryly. "Here's the basics: your driver regularly drives this route. When he made his next trip, I asked him to check an
After two days of resting- and eating absolutely everything in sight- I was back on my feet and ready to go. I had a closer fix on where the tracker on Janice's key was signaling from. It would still be something of a hike, and I'd have to find a safe place to hide for a night or two, but it was better than where I was before Captain Case and her people showed up.I took a little time to call my grandfather. He chewed me out, but not very much. He was just grateful to see me alive. After verifying that my table scanner was still working properly, he gave me a few tips on how to deal with Janice if she got obstinate.I figured that if she'd been taken prisoner as I had been, she wouldn't have a whole lot of choice but to cooperate with me, no matter what I asked.Captain Case and her crew took me all the way to the d
Once I had identified the entrance to the building where the signal was coming from, I made my way cautiously into the dark, looking around, bracing myself for an attack. Nothing happened. The place felt oddly still... it felt weird, and above all, there was a weird smell. It was almost like the aroma of rotten perfume.I found one intact door in its frame and opened it, finding a set of stairs. It screamed "trap" but I knew I had to face it if I wanted the key. Moving down the stairs slowly, I watched every shadow. Nothing moved, nothing so much as made a sound. I started to get a feeling roughly akin to walking into a crypt.I entered a room furnished with a few sagging sofas, a cracked table, and some long-dried flowers. That was where the perfume smell came from, but it was somewhere between rotten and a really bad effort on the part of a perfume maker. The
The moment it seemed safe enough to move out in the morning, I headed out to the transport depot in the ration center. I needed to catch a ride to the far north. It wouldn't be easy, but I still had a few bags of sparkly things that could practically guarantee cooperation. The little things I'd swiped from Vanessa's house. Thinking about her gave me a pang... as much as I wanted to be free of her, I hated to see her suffer such a horrible death. I'd had enough with suffering in general.I checked, and as I'd been told, there was only one truck going that way. It wouldn't go all the way. I'd have to hope I could find a transfer, but it was a start, at least.The driver was easily bribed by the shiny diamonds and told me to hop in the back. He didn't mind doing a favor for the captain, but the officials at his destination would be far less forgiving, so he'd have