by Todd Young
“What would be wrong?”
“Oh, nothing. Nothing.” He paused for a moment. “You really are a freak, you know. Getting around in your underwear.”
“I’m not in my underwear.”
“No, not now, but …”
“It wasn’t a good look, Thee.”
“No?”
“No.”
“I don’t see anything wrong with it.” He lifted his head, fixed his stare on Creig, and said, “Why should you be telling me what to do?”
“Why should I? I don’t know. Maybe you want to get picked up for deviance. I mean, we’re talking about incest here. I’m talking about incest. Do you get that?”
Riley’s eyes began to smart, but he sat in silence, the three of them staring at one another. Then he said, “It’s not like we’re lovers.”
“Yeah? You think so?”
“We’re not.”
“Even so. You’d have something to explain. You want me to call the feds, Theo?”
“The feds?”
“I could call them.”
“And what would they say?” Riley said. “Most likely nothing.”
“Do you mean that?” Theo said.
“What?”
“About us?” He reached over and grabbed Riley’s wrist.
“Oh, hell,” Creig said, getting up.
Riley shook Theo off and got up too. They stared at one another for a moment, as though squaring up for a fight. Then Creig turned and stalked toward his room. The door slammed, and Riley stood in silence for a few moments.
Then he turned on Theo. “You really can be an idiot, you know? You’re going to wreck this for both of us.”
Theo nodded silently, pouting.
“I’m going to go and lie down,” he said. He nodded at Theo, who looked on the verge of tears, and then stepped into his bedroom. Half an hour later he came out again, but Theo had gone. He wasn’t in living room and he wasn’t in the kitchen either.
23
Riley knocked tentatively at first, and then a little harder.
“What is it?” Creig said.
“Is Theo in there with you?”
“Theo?” Creig said, opening the door.
Riley nodded, but it was pretty obvious from the expression on Creig’s face that he hadn’t seen him.
“Hell, he’s taken off,” Riley said.
“Taken off? You mean gone out?”
“No, no. You don’t understand, Creig. He doesn’t know the city. He’ll get lost. Next thing we know we’ll be getting a call from the CPF.”
“Well, that’s something to be avoided.”
“Tell me about it.” He took a breath. “You reckon you could help me look for him?”
“Look for him?”
“He can’t have gone far. It’s only been a few minutes.”
“I guess. And at least we know what he’s wearing.”
Riley winced.
Ten minutes later they were outside, rugged up against the cold. It occurred to Riley that Theo must have walked out in what he was wearing. He’d be freezing.
[] [] []
Theo turned right onto Fifteenth Street. What difference did it make if he wore the same clothes as Riley. The world was crazy. He knew that much. It was impossible for him and Riley to have sex. He wasn’t supposed to go outside — not if Erran what had said was true. But he’d just had to get out.
Now he was freezing. He should have grabbed one of those coats Riley had bought him.
Riley!
Hell, Riley. He was the guy’s clone. And now he was in some sort of nightmare. Training was bad enough, but maybe this was even worse. He folded his arms around himself and huffed air through his mouth. Hell, it was so cold it felt like he was going to freeze.
At the intersections he watched for the lights, but if there was a break, he ran across. Soon, he was crossing over 9th Avenue. He had no idea where he was going. All he knew was that he didn’t want to face Creig again — not even Riley. Riley could have been kinder about the clothes. They had a deal. They were going to wear the same things all the time. What had he done apart from that?
A drunken guy approached him and pulled a knife.
“Give us your wallet, bud,” he said.
Theo kicked the knife out of his hand and then kicked him in the throat. The drunken guy went down and Theo felt a rush of adrenalin. It warmed him slightly.
There was no point going home. No point going back to the apartment. That was over. Creig had seen him in the clothes, and seen him in his underwear, and Theo knew it just wasn’t right. There was no way Riley would take him back now.
He reached a barrier and climbed over it. Ahead was a pier. He walked to the end of it and stood looking over the Hudson River. It looked dirty and turbulent, but before he’d realized it, he’d slipped, and he was in the water.
It was ice cold, and the current was carrying him downstream. He’d been in plenty of holographic rivers in his life, and he knew not to panic. The thing to do was to work against the current and do it steadily. Soon he was breathing heavily. And for a moment he thought he might not make it. Then he felt mud beneath his feet, and he knew he’d found the shore once more.
He slipped on the muddy ground and fell onto his chest, his face skewed one way. Ahead he could see the lights of the road, but he was worried now about freezing to death.
Why had he left the apartment. It seemed so stupid now. He stumbled up the bank and climbed the barrier. He watched as one and then another hovercar passed. He wasn’t sure of the way home now. Then, surprisingly, a hovercar came to a halt by him, and the gullwing door opened.
“Riley?” a female voice said. She was leaning forward. “What on earth are you doing?”
It occurred to him all at once that this was the girl Riley knew. She’d mistaken him for Riley, and if he wanted to get home again, he’d better play along.
“I fell in the river,” he said.
“You fell in the river.”
“I walked to the end of the pier and I slipped.”
“Hell, you’d better get in.”
Theo climbed into the car, his clothes muddy and sodden.
“You didn’t think of dressing for the cold?”
“No. I had an argument — with Creig. I just walked out.”
“Pretty stupid.”
Theo nodded.
The girl spoke to the driver, said, “Drive on,” and the gullwing door closed. A moment later they were floating through the air. They skirted the park and pulled up at a swank tower. The gullwing door opened and the girl got out.
“Come on,” she said. “You can get cleaned up upstairs.”
Theo had been hoping to get back to the apartment. He knew it was Fifteenth Street, and he knew what the building looked like, but this certainly wasn’t it.
He got out warily and tried to brush some of the dirt from his clothes. She grimaced.
“Come on.”
They walked inside and she said hello to a guy at a desk. His name was Benson. Then they were in an elevator, rocketing skywards.
[] [] []
Riley could be pretty odd. She was discovering that. What on earth he was doing in the Hudson she had no idea. But this might just be a chance to save him. If she could get him into the shower, and then into a robe, who knew what might happen.
She asked him to take his shoes off at the door and then led him straight through to the shower.
“I have a robe you can wear. But you really need to shower.”
[] [] []
The shower stung. It was so hot, he didn’t know how to adjust it. Then finally he worked out how, and doused himself in cold water before adjusting it to warm again. He stayed under for minutes, until she must have been worrying about him. Then he shut it off, dried himself, and put on the robe.
“Your clothes are in the washer,” she said. “But I have some other things you could wear. I always keep a few men’s clothes on hand.” She paused, a coy smile on her face. “
How about a brandy?”
He nodded, unsure what a brandy was.
She bought it in a big glass, with a bit of liquid in the bottom. He sniffed and then drank it, intending to drink it in one gulp, but it was hot to the taste.
“That should warm you up,” she said.
Already he felt heated. His face was hot from the shower, but the most disconcerting thing was the way the robe was revealing his thighs.
Then, before he knew it, she was down on her knees in front of him. She parted the robe, found his penis, and threaded it into her mouth. He felt nothing at first, and then a vague tingling sensation. He began to get a little hard, and then he pushed her roughly. She fell backwards.
“I don’t want that,” he said.
She frowned, and got to her feet. She turned away, and then turned back again. The look on her face was dark. He covered himself.
“What’s the problem, Riley, you don’t like girls?”
“Not like that,” he said
“Not like that!”
“I could report you.”
“Report me?”
“For deviance.”
“Just because I wouldn’t let you do that?”
“That’s right.”
“I see.”
“Well, you can, then.”
“No, I don’t think so. I think it’s time for you to go home. I’ll call you a car.”
She turned with a flounce and tapped her watch. After giving the address she turned back to him.
“I might come with you, Riley. You’ve been very secretive about where you live.”
He nodded.
“And you’re not acting yourself, are you. I’d almost say you were a different person.”
He swallowed. Then finished the brandy.
The car came in five minutes, during which time they talked desultorily. It occurred to Theo slowly that he’d got Riley into a lot of trouble. If this was his girlfriend, then he must do things with her. The thought made him sick, and sick with grief all over again. He didn’t think he could face Riley now. He didn’t think he could tell him what he had done.
24
Susen had another meeting with Creig the following day. They met at a cafe on the Upper West Side. Creig wanted half the money up front and immunity from prosecution. The money she could do. The immunity was a little on the iffy side.
She transferred one hundred fifty thousand into his account. She’d figured she could take a cut of fifty thousand for herself. Once the money had gone through, and he’d checked his balance. He became excitable, and wanted to know when and how.
“Well, you live with him. Has he ever given you any indication.”
“He grabbed my wrist once when we were drunk. It was pretty obvious what he meant.”
“Then do the same. Do it the same way.”
“You think it matters if we’re drunk?”
“Hell, no.”
“Only problem is, I have to get Theo out of the apartment.”
“Theo?”
“His brother.”
“His brother?”
“What, you didn’t know he had a brother. They’re twins.”
Susen was pretty quick on the uptake, and it took her only a moment to realize that she’d met “Theo” last night. Which brought all her feeling for Riley back, as he might be altogether different to his brother.
She winced and then tossed back her wine. It occurred to her that Riley had said he had no brother. A lie, obviously. Well, in this business there was no call for heart.
“Well,” she said, “this Theo must go out.”
“Rarely.”
“Well, send him out on an errand. Ask him to do something for you.”
“I guess so.”
“You guess so.”
[] [] []
When Theo came in the previous night, he was dressed in the same clothes, but with a blue sweater on. He’d been gone for hours. Creig and Riley had trudged the street for a long time, and it was only after they’d just come in that Theo showed up.
“Where the hell have you been?” Riley and Creig said in unison.
Theo shrugged. He walked into Riley’s bedroom and closed the door.
“Better leave him to me,” Riley said.
Creig shrugged.
Theo was on the bed with a pillow wrapped around his head.
“Okay, I’m not going to get angry with you, I just want to know what you were thinking.”
“Angry. Fuck. You’re going to be so angry at me.”
Riley frowned.
Theo began by explaining how he’d fallen in the river. Then he moved on to the hovercar stopping, and a description of Riley’s girlfriend.
“She thought I was you.”
Riley gripped his head. He listened in dismay as Theo recounted the events of the night, the trip to her apartment, the shower, the robe, the attempt at oral sex.
“Oh, no, Theo. No, no, no, no, no.”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“Accept it.”
“Accept a girl — touching me — there.”
Riley took a seat on the bed and laid his head in his hands. How was this fixable. That was his first thought. How was this fixable. He would have to call Susen. That was the only option he had. Make a date. A date for sex. There was nothing else to do.
But he couldn’t do that now. Not right now. He would do it in the morning, and after a fitful sleep. He phoned her around eight.
“Susen!” he said brightly. “How are you?”
“Not so good.”
“Sorry about last night. I was so out of it. I had no idea what was happening.”
“It seemed pretty clear to me, Riley.”
“Oh, don’t be like that. I was frozen, I was overheated. It was the last thing I was expecting.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t like to be pushed.”
“It was just the surprise, that was all.”
“Well, I gotta say, you sure were acting weird.”
“I took a pill.”
“You took a pill?”
“Yeah, my roommate got me a pill. Last time I’m doing that.” He paused and swallowed heavily. “How about we meet up tonight some time. I could come up to your place and we could …”
“Oh, right. Okay, Riley. How about eight?”
“Suits me just fine.”
He ended the call there and flopped backwards onto the bed. Whatever happened tonight, he would need some medication, which meant seeing a doctor today instead of going over to Marlow’s. Hell, he thought, bloody Theo.
[] [] []
Akam was outside Erran’s building at eight a.m. He figured he had a long wait, but he didn’t mind walking up and down the block. Then, at about nine fifteen, Erran emerged. He looked both ways as he exited the building and then walked in the direction of the Eiffel Tower Cafe, if that was where he was going.
Akam followed at a distance. He allowed Akam to reach a street corner before hurrying ahead, but it was pretty clear he was headed in the same direction, and again on his way to meet the mysterious F.
The cafe loomed ahead. The absurd tower making a landmark of it. Today, Akam had an eavesdropper, so he would be able to hear what they were saying even halfway down the street. He took a position by a newsstand and waited for Erran to take a seat. F. was already there.
“Frances,” Erran said, and nodded his head.
“Erran.”
He took a seat and immediately started to play with the saltcellar. “So,” he said, “you think Taylor’s got it in the bag?”
“It’s starting to look that way. We’ve got three days, and everything’s going according to plan.”
“Did you see the street rally?”
She nodded.
“That made a difference. People expect a change now.”
“And that’ll mean a change for us.”
At this point the newsstand owner asked Akam if he wanted something. He picked the first thing he saw, The Company News, an
d then turned his attention back to the cafe. But Erran was already leaving. He followed him to the hub, and after waiting twenty minutes, pushed the button on the roller door.
25
Theo woke from a fitful dream and Riley turned to him.
“I’ve been dreaming about that elephant again.”
“Oh, yeah,” Riley said, but he wasn’t happy with Theo, which was obvious in the tone of his voice. He’d only just hung up on Susen.
“Why don’t you come back to bed?”
“I’ve got to go to the doctor.”
“The doctor?”
“Yeah.”
“How come?”
“Because, Theo, tonight I’m going to have sex with Susen and I’m going to need some help in the aphrodisiac department.”
“No.”
“What?”
“No, you’re not having sex with her.”
“Well, Theo, it’s either that or I get done for deviance, which means no balls and eighteen months in prison.”
Theo pouted. “Even so, there’s probably some way to get out of it.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. I’ll think about it while you’re at the doctor.”
The 24-hour doctor’s complex was a short walk down the road. Riley was seen within half an hour, and after explaining his problem — that he couldn’t not only get it up, but not get interested, he was given two prescriptions, both of which he filled.
Home again, and jittery about how long they took to work, he took three tablets of each medication, which according to the box was an overdose.
Theo was still in bed. He had his hands behind his head and his nipples were exposed. Riley couldn’t think of anything less exciting right at the moment, but after he’d gone and eaten some breakfast, he came back into the room and found himself staring at Theo.
“What?” Theo said.
“What?”
“You want to do something, don’t you?”
“I really want to fuck you if you want to know the truth,” Riley said, and then felt his neck and face flood with heat. “I feel really hot.”
“You are hot.”
“No. I feel heated. I might have a cold shower.”
He turned and walked into the bathroom, and after considering for a split second, decided to leave the door open. Perhaps Theo would come in.