Abandoned in the center of the crowd, Arisa fell to her knees, her face melted bloody red, her eyes little more than burnt pools of blood, her lips peeling off and exposing her bare gums and teeth. She wailed, a low moan that cut through the noise the crowd was making.
The priest took a medium sized rock from someone in the crowd and held it above his head, those holding stones in the circle of people followed suit. The priest was the first to throw, his aim true, striking her in the left breast. She cried out and staggered this way and that, unable to see where the rocks were coming from. Soon a shower of the hard missiles were raining down on her. Little flecks of blood stained the ground as more and more stones hit her. A large rock struck her on the temple and she collapsed in a pile, the stones still raining all around her until she was almost completely buried in them. Her bound arms, jutting through the rocks, twitched a few more times and then were still.
The crowd dispersed, the afternoon's entertainment done. Arisa's parents blew a kiss to their dead daughter and then they too left her in the street. Gideon fell to his knees when Akem let him go, a cold chill ran through his spine and he wondered what exactly he was dealing with when he was dealing with a man like Akem.
The men holding Leanin let her go without another word, perhaps thinking that she too would collapse without a fight. Instead she swung wildly at them as soon as her arms were free, catching one in the jaw and the other in the nose. They scurried away from her like rats.
Leanin ran to the little pile of rocks and scattered them. Gideon followed, his legs watery and his pace slow, almost dream-like. By the time he got to her Leanin's hands were bloody and torn.
“Leanin, she's gone, look at her,” Gideon said.
The body was just that, a body. There was no more Arisa there. The face was melted away, red bone sticking out here and there, the eye sockets hollow and empty. The dirt around her had turned black as it soaked up her blood.
Leanin turned and vomited, gasping and sobbing as the contents of her stomach left her. Afterwards she stood and took great gasping breaths. “It's not Jenny. Jenny's long gone. That's Arisa, and I don't know her,” Leanin said quietly. “I didn't know Arisa, and I have no feelings for her. We never shared any experiences together. We never laughed at a joke together. There is nothing tying me to her, she is just a decomposing bit of trash on the ground.” All of this was said in the slow, quiet pace of a mantra.
“We should burn her,” Gideon said. He could still feel Akem's touch on his shoulder, holding him back.
“Burn who?”
“Are you serious? Arisa, this girl. We have to do something for her. I have to do something for her. We can't just stand by and watch while her body rots out in the street.”
Leanin's face was hard, her jaw clenched. “What do I care about a body lying in the dirt? I've got better things to do with my time, and so do you. We have to find your fiance.” She started walking off.
“Just give me one minute,” Gideon called after her. He knelt down by the body. “I'm sorry,” he said quietly. There was nothing more he could think to say. He kissed the tips of his fingers and placed them on her forehead before he walked after Leanin.
...
They headed west on their motorcycles for half a day before the rain started up and they were forced to stop. A cave placed high up on a hill provided shelter, it was small but it kept the rain from them. There was a faint smell of sulfur in the air that stung their nostrils, but the cave was dry and warm, large enough for their tents and their motorcycles. Leanin pulled out her tool bag and went to work adjusting things on her bike.
“Have you ever been to Imperium?” Gideon asked. She nodded, her hands busy on the bottom of her engine. “What's it like?”
Leanin's eyes were a thousand miles away and Gideon wasn't sure that she was going to answer him, a wrench dangled loosely in her hand. “It's a big place, like most of the cities, and there's a few good people and a whole lot of bad ones. I didn't stay long. A guy helped me find someone I was looking for, and then I was gone.”
The rain pattered off the rocks outside and the sound of rolling thunder crashed some distance away. A rock was jutting into Gideon's lower back and he shifted to try and find a more comfortable position. “Why aren't you looking for Jenny any more?”
Leanin dropped the wrench and pulled out her knife. Her mouth set in a hard grimace, she began to dig at her nails. “Fucking hangnails, only way to deal with them is to dig 'em out.” She leveraged her knife against her hand and part of the nail broke off and up, flicking blood onto her face.
“Who was Jenny and why aren't you looking for her anymore?” Gideon repeated.
It was a long time before she answered. Blood trickled down her hand and she pulled out a small cloth to wipe it away. When her finger was clean she picked up the wrench and kept working. “She was my sister, and I'm not looking for her anymore because I already found her.”
Gideon didn't know exactly how to phrase his next question, so he just spat it out. “Is she dead?”
“She wasn't when I found her,” Leanin said in a flat tone. The muscles on her right arm tensed up as she worked at a particularly stubborn bolt. A sigh of satisfaction came from her lips as it loosened.
“I think we should have burned Arisa, it wasn't right for us to just leave her there for the dogs.”
Leanin reacted in an instant, slamming her wrench down deep into the ground. “Why do people have such reverence for the dead? They'll bend over backwards for a corpse. All the important parts of that girl went away, Gideon.”
They didn't speak for the rest of the night, each wrapped in their own thoughts, taking turns watching the mouth of the cave to make sure no one had followed them.
...
Imperium took its name to heart, styling itself as the largest city ever held under a dome, embodying the term, 'empire.' The buildings seemed designed with giants in mind, with large arches and towering heights. The roads twisted and curved like arteries flowing through a body, never simple and straight but rather shooting off in all directions. The citizens acted like they knew the city was not designed for them, hurrying along with their heads bowed, never looking up at the staggering tops of the buildings they lived in. Gideon felt trapped, suffocated, as though the walls on each side inched in every time he looked away from them.
They passed sitting children begging for coins, each missing an arm or a leg. The kids put their deformities forward, thrusting stumps at Gideon until he felt compelled to flip a coin into the middle of them.
“You shouldn't pay,” Leanin said. “Their parents do it to them, they cut them or burn out their eyes so that people will give them more when they beg. The more you pay, the more incentive for future parents to do that to their children.”
Gideon sighed and they continued walking. Following Leanin, he found it amazing that anyone could keep a clear head of where they were going in that labyrinth of buildings.
Soon they were on a street that felt familiar, women were walking around with scant amounts of clothing on, trying to catch everyone's eye, ducking into back alleys with those they could. Shadows squirmed and moaned in the dark corners of the street. They asked a few women if they knew a man named Malakir. It was not much to go on, but Gideon had searched with less. The women all shook their heads at both the name Malakir and the picture of Rolanda.
Hunger forced them to stop at a small cafe so they could eat sandwiches that were falling apart with grease. “I think I know a man who will help us,” Leanin said. “It's somebody that helped me last time, guy's name is Masumoto. He may not even still be in town, but I'd rather not keep putting it out on the street that we're after Malakir, just in case.”
After lunch they took an electric tram to another part of the city. The sea
ts were uncomfortable, made of hard bits of plastic, and there were windows to other compartments and out to the city. Gideon soon lost all interest in the buildings whizzing by, they all looked the same and watching them gave him a dizzy feeling in the pit of his stomach.
...
“Leanin Bibi, I heard you were in town,” Masumoto smiled as they entered his house. He sat in a wheelchair, his legs small and falling to one side, his upper body large and well toned; he motioned them into his home with hands wearing fingerless gloves. The house itself was small, with dust starting in a line just above head height. Plates with half eaten food sat on tables, there were no chairs. It was dark, the shades were all drawn, the only light in the place coming from a command center of computer monitors.
Leanin stuck her head out of the door before shutting and locking it. “You heard? Who did you hear from?”
Masumoto wheeled his chair into the center of the monitors and rubbed the side of one affectionately. “Kristina here told me. You guys registered under your own names. Gutsy, quite gutsy. Though I really don't think you'll have to worry the thirteen being computer literate.”
Gideon swallowed hard. He had left his pistol in his bags with the motorcycles. The thought left him feeling cold. Of course, he did always have the knife in his boot.
Masumoto smirked in his chair, greasy black hair falling into his eyes. “Leanin, tell your friend here he doesn't have to kill me, I haven't sold you out and I don't plan to.”
Gideon's mouth dropped and he stepped back a pace. Leanin laughed. “Masumoto has that affect on people. He just thinks fast and well, don't worry.” She grabbed at one of Masumoto's hands and he brought it to his lips for a kiss.
“The thirteen are the most prevalent clan in Imperium,” Masumoto said. “Our pretty lady here doesn't usually come for things on the up and up.” He was still holding her hand, for some reason it seemed obscene to Gideon, so he looked away. “Leanin, when are you going to marry me?” Masumoto asked.
She laughed and beamed down at him. “You always were a charmer. You know I can never stay in one place for too long, though. I get itchy feet.”
Gideon cleared his throat. “So, Masumoto,” he began.
“Mas, please. I insist.”
“Mas,” Gideon continued. “What is it you do here?”
The wheelchair bound man smiled largely, positively beaming. “Can't you tell? I fight crime. I am Imperium's protector, rolling over criminals with my armored wheelchair of justice.”
“Mas,” Leanin interrupted. “We need a favor.”
He adopted a look of faux seriousness, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned. “Yes, anything for my beloved. I will be all business.”
“His name is Malakir,” Gideon said.
The change on Masumoto's face was dramatic. The flush fell off of his cheeks and his eyes grew somber. “I know who you're talking about,” he said in a whisper and then began typing frantically at Kristina. After a moment he tilted a monitor toward them. “He's a rich prick, works with the thirteen, but as far as I can tell I don't think he's one of them.”
Malakir stared back at them from the monitor. The face itself could be considered handsome, it was well proportioned and the cheeks had a high nobility about them, the chin broad and thick, his hair long blonde and pulled back into a ponytail, but there was something off about it. The eyes were cold, icy blue with flecks of grey, the teeth sharp. Everything was too hard, too tight.
“You want to be careful. Malakir's very dangerous, I've been trying to find out more about his business for months,” Masumoto said.
“You have?” Gideon asked.
“I told you," he said, smiling, "I fight crime. From what I learned, Malakir is very high up in the organization, but there's someone else even higher, and I can't seem to find any details about that guy.”
“We don't need to know about that guy,” Leanin said. “Can you tell us where Malakir works?”
“27 south plaza. Thirteenth floor,” Mas read to them.
“Which room?” Gideon asked.
He cocked an eyebrow at him. “The whole floor.”
Leanin nodded her head. “Thanks, Mas. I owe you one.”
“I maintain that our marriage would be a happy and fruitful one,” Mas said as he showed them to the door.
Leanin bent down and kissed him on the cheek. In a rare moment of tenderness, she said, “I'm not sure I deserve that life yet.”
As they walked out of the home Mas stopped Gideon. “You be careful with that one. Nothing but heartache down that road.” They smiled and waved goodbye, walking towards the electric tram. “Sometimes that's the best feeling in the world, though,” Mas added quietly to himself before shutting the door.
When they had all left a shadow stirred a few doors down and a man stepped out, walking with slow and sure footsteps toward Masumoto's house.
...
The section of city that they traveled to looked nothing like what Gideon had expected. He had expected well cleaned streets and posh buildings with people waiting outside just to open the door. Instead the neighborhood looked like a rotting mouth, the buildings broken and jagged teeth. Bits of newspaper blew along the ground and were picked up for kindling by people warming themselves at a burn barrel. They walked past a couple pushing syringes into each other's emaciated arms.
“I thought this Malakir guy would be in a rich part of town,” Gideon said. “This seems to be the slums.”
The light was fading fast on the day, what was left reflected off the chip-toothed broken windows on the buildings around them. “The address should be through here,” Leanin said and they ducked down an alleyway.
Halfway down Leanin stopped her walk and held up a hand. “Something's wrong,” she said. Gideon looked around, it looked like every other alleyway he'd been down. There were broken beer bottles crunching underfoot and the acrid smell of stale urine everywhere, the windows were boarded up all around them. Trash cans stood outside of locked doors.
“What do you mean?” Gideon said.
“It's not natural. The fire escapes are all pulled up, boards over the windows. This alley was made like this.” Leanin crouched down onto the balls of her feet. “I don't like it. There's only one entrance and one exit, everything else is blocked off, and we're in the middle."
“Leanin, you're being paranoid. Nobody knows we're in town.” Gideon pulled her forward. With a loud click the electric lights of the city all turned on, all except for the ones in the alley they stood in. Night was fast approaching, the shadows growing long around them. “Alright, you may be on to something,” he said quietly.
An intense blue light arced behind them accompanied by a high pitched crackle. It buried itself in Leanin's side and she gave off a choked scream before falling to the ground in a heap. Gideon swung wildly into the darkness, feeling a satisfying connection of fist on flesh before the little lightning arc stabbed into him as well. The pain was immediate and immobilizing, every muscle in his body contracting at once and his brain lighting up before everything simply shut down.
...
When he woke his body was wracked with pain. Every muscle ached and his head was throbbing with the relentless beat of his heart. His jaw hurt, when he tried to speak he found that there was a hard rubber ball gag strapped into his mouth. The taste was terrible, like sweat and blood and medicinal rubber. He was in a concrete room with no windows nor furnishings except for a metal toilet and a drain in the center of the floor with dark stains all around it. He was stripped naked and tied to a metal chair, everything was cold, his bare feet going numb against the concrete. Thick ropes were strapped across his chest and legs, cutting off the circulation, his arms bent around and bound behind his back.
Leanin was similar
ly restrained, her flesh exposed, ropes tight around her breasts. There was a black and red welt at her side where the stun gun had zapped her. She stirred, shaking her dark hair from her eyes.
The cell door clanked and then swung open. Malakir stepped inside, his eyes as cold blue and granite as they had been in Masumoto's photograph. His facial expression moved imperceptibly more than his picture, he ran a hand over his long blonde ponytail and closed the door behind him, not saying a word while he took off a well tailored suit jacket.
“I heard you were looking for me, I thought I would arrange a little meeting for us.”
Kneeling before Leanin, his eyes wandered freely over her naked body. “Your form is very pleasing,” he said tweaking her nipple between two fingers. “You react well to stimulation.” His hand slid lower on her body, rounding over her stomach and turning inward at her thighs. She struggled against the ropes, they strained and creaked but held. “Yes, very well. Why are you searching for me?”
With a quick motion he undid Leanin's gag and she bit at him. Laughing, he jumped back. It was the first change in expression he'd had since they'd been there, and Gideon wasn't sure he wanted to see more. The door behind them opened and a hulk of a man came in with a large black sack draped across his shoulder.
“Leon, can you set that right here and go grab my tools please?” Malakir asked. The man he called Leon nodded with a leer. “I want to show you two something before we begin.” He walked to the black plastic sack and pulled out a knife, slitting the package open. “You guys were out for a while, long enough for us to have a little talk with your friend here.”
He pulled the sack open and the naked form of Masumoto stared back at them, a concave hole in his skull. Black and red burn marks speckled his chest and his fingers were bent upwards. When the body was unveiled Leanin didn't say a word, but her jaw clenched and she breathed deeply, averting her eyes.
The Woman They Kept Page 8