Lek put his arm around Cyn’s shoulders. “I guess I’ll just have to make due with your kid sister.”
Mary took her target by the hand and led him back to room ten. Alice was just finishing up stripping the bed and remaking it. Mary peeled off a large bill and offered it to Alice. The girl bobbed her head, said, “Thank you, ma’am,” and hurried out.
One of the sheets in her arms had blood on it.
Mary wiped the thoughts that flooded her mind. Maybe she succeeded.
Her trick was already undoing his trousers. As they fell to the floor, Mary shoved him onto the bed.
Pants down around his ankles, dick waving urgently, he reached for Mary.
Mary settled on the bed next to him . . . and slapped his hands away.
“Dr. Bernardo, we are not here for what you think,” she snapped.
“I don’t go in for the hard stuff,” the young man said, reaching down for his pants.
Mary put a firm hand on his chest and pushed him back down.
“Don’t make this take longer than it has to, Doctor. I’m not here to screw you. I’m here to offer you a job. Unless a man who graduated with top honors from the New Eden Agricultural and Pharmacological Institute is happy developing that kind of shit you’re wasting your time on.”
“How do you know my name and where I graduated?”
“Dr. Bernardo, I know everything I need to know about you. I know that there is a job waiting for you on Wardhaven, developing the next generation of anticancer drugs, and I know it will pay you double what they’re paying you here.”
The man settled back on the bed, using his hands to cover his naked need, which was rapidly becoming much smaller.
“You can’t be serious. And if you are, this is a hell of a place to go head-hunting, if you know what I mean,” he said, chuckling at the double meaning of his words.
“You think I’d have better luck if I walked in the front door at the Farm and asked your boss to talk to you?”
Now he scowled. “We’d both end up in trouble if we were lucky and dead otherwise. Which we would be if the boss was having a bad day.”
“So we talk here,” Mary said flatly.
“You mean it? You can get me a job on Wardhaven in cancer research?”
Mary clearly had his full attention.
“I said it. I mean it. The man behind me can get you the job on the day you land on Wardhaven as well as a nice signing bonus the minute you walk onto the Society cruiser in orbit.”
“It’s a long way from the Farm to orbit, or haven’t you noticed?”
“I noticed, but it’s my job to resolve minor inconveniences like those. You want the job?”
“Yes.”
“Then get dressed. I’ll get a message to you in the next couple of days. Be ready to jump with the clothes on your back. No looking back.”
“Nothing I care to look back at,” the man said, leveraging himself out of the bed on his own. Mary certainly wasn’t about to give him a hand up.
“How will I know the message is from you?” he said, hitching up his pants.
“Because it will come from the last place you’d expect.”
He stood. Mary mussed up the bed a bit just in case someone got a glance at it before Alice stripped it.
“By the way, I need to talk to each of your coworkers. Or at least the ones you think will take a job offer like this one. You can skip the ones that might run to the boss. You know any I shouldn’t talk to?”
The man sucked on his lower lip. His answer would tell Mary a lot about how much she could trust him.
“Stanley and Kanker are awfully quiet when we get a bitch session going. Still, I’ve never seen them sucking up to the boss. Truth is, the boss is an idiot who doesn’t even wash his hands before entering the labs. His idea of sanitation is rinsing the test tubes in the nearest stream. I don’t know how he got this job. Anyway, it’s your ass if you talk to them. They might surprise me. Then again, they might surprise you, if you take my meaning right.”
“Maybe we let you see if they’re willing to take a little walk with you in a couple of days, huh?”
“That might work better.”
They returned to the front room. Dr. Bernardo put on a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin as he joined his friends.
“How good’s the new girl?” query drew a “See for yourself” response.
One by one, Mary took thirteen of them back to room ten. One by one, each of them got the surprise of their overeducated and devoid-of-common-sense lives.
None ran screaming from Mary’s presence with their pants around their knees and their cocks bobbing in the breeze. All took her up on her offer.
The night was going so very well. Mary was eyeing the door and planning a well-earned and very orderly withdrawal.
Then the bottom fell out.
The big man, Milassi himself, strolled into the party.
THIRTY-THREE
WHEN MARY FIRST walked in, she’d noticed three tables in the corner with RESERVED signs. Well, this was supposed to be a party night. Now those tables filled up with a lot of men Mary didn’t recognize.
There was one she couldn’t miss.
Milassi had come down with Ray to the car on the first day they landed. Now here he was, bigger than life. All Mary could hope for was that Milassi didn’t remember a certain woman in Explorer Corps grays and match her with the gal in the bright blue dress.
Whatever he might or might not remember from that day, he certainly liked what he saw every time he glanced in Mary’s direction.
Or was it the blond across from her?
Cyn rose precipitously from her chair. “Excuse me,” was all she said as she raced for the ladies’ room.
Mary stood, found that Milassi was eyeing her, and flashed him a distracted smile before she followed Cyn into the restroom
There, the young Marine was throwing up.
“What’s wrong?” Mary asked as she found a wash rag, dampened it, and put it to her subordinate’s forehead.
“I don’t know,” Cyn said, and heaved up more liquor and older supper. “I thought I was okay with things, but looking at that bastard eyeing me. I just don’t see how I could go through that again.”
She washed her mouth out. “Besides, I don’t have any more needles,” she whispered softly to Mary.
Mary glanced around. One of the working women exited the only occupied stall. She gave Mary and Cyn a knowing smile . . . and left without washing her hands.
Mary made up her mind. “We’re leaving as soon as I get ahold of Lek. You go straight out from here.”
“No. We’ve got to go back in there together,” Cyn said resolutely.
Mary frowned, but only for a second. The young woman was right. “Okay, we go back to get Lek and beat a slow retreat. But that doesn’t mean you have to look gorgeous.”
“Ma’am, I always look gorgeous to anything with a swinging dick between his legs.”
Mary mussed Cyn’s hair. Then she grabbed another washcloth and began cleaning the woman’s face of makeup and lip gloss. “No doubt there’s gorgeous, but there’s also sick and washed-out.”
Cyn stared at herself in the mirror, then got the dry heaves again. It was a while before she could weakly say, “Yeah, even my mom wouldn’t say I was pretty just now.”
A few other girls had passed through the restroom while they’d been busy. They cast them sad looks, but they hurried in and hurried out.
Working girls knew time was money.
Slowly, Mary got Cyn in good enough shape to challenge the parlor, if only long enough to connect with Lek and make their way out.
Still, they didn’t move fast enough.
As Mary settled Cyn at the table for the time it took to get them moving out, a dark man appeared at her arm. “President Milassi invites you to his table.”
“My friend is too sick to come,” Mary said.
“No doubt she is. But it is you the president would like to enjoy time with.
”
Lek raised an eyebrow at Mary.
“Enjoy time with,” was not the kind of thing this thug would say to a Marine officer, so apparently Mary’s cover was still holding up.
“You stay here until I get back,” Mary told Cyn and Lek.
“It may be quite a while. Maybe they should go,” the unctuous man said.
“We’ll wait. She’ll need a ride,” Lek offered.
“I am sure the president can provide her with a ride when they are done,” did not sound at all good to Mary. She gave Lek a quick smile and turned to see how much worse the night could get.
Sadly, she had no needles. Then again, she didn’t know how to use them.
I must ask Cyn how they work and where to get them, brought a smile to Mary’s lips, which was totally misunderstood by the president-for-life as she approached him.
“It is always good to see a smiling face. And a new one, even better,” he said.
The man did not rise for a lady, but then, Mary was not playing the role of a lady. Still, she suspected, he didn’t rise for any woman.
A man vacated the chair next to the president. Mary slipped right into it and quickly found an arm around her shoulder. “Would you like something to drink?”
“Champagne,” Mary said.
If I’m going to do this, you’re going to pay for it.
A lordly wave of a hand brought a bar girl running. This was a new girl, but she clearly understood the wink that accompanied the president’s order. Mary soon found herself daintily sipping from a sparkling drink that had never been touched by fermentation.
Not only was the president-for-life a louse, he was a cheap louse.
“I haven’t seen you before,” he said, moving closer. His paw was cupping her breast; his thumb stroked her soft flesh.
I wonder if I can throw up like Cyn and claim it’s a flu bug.
Instead, Mary smiled. “Every girl has to start sometime,” she said with as much mystery as she could muster.
Their chat stayed at that level of banality for several minutes, but it failed to revolt Mary’s stomach to the level she needed. She was about to resign herself to having to take this monster to bed when two redheads, identical twins from the looks of them, entered the parlor from the back and made straight for the president’s table.
“Steffo! What are you doing?” one said.
“We leave you alone for a minute, and what do you do?” the other said.
“She’s not one of the girls we picked out for you.”
“Can’t I pick out one for myself?” the president-for-life almost whined.
“Who knows where she’s been?” the first one said, swatting at Milassi’s hand, which was edging Mary’s top down to show her nipple.
“Your Excellency, she’s already been in back with thirteen other men just this night,” the unctuous one said.
“Used goods,” one redhead said, making a sour face.
“Not good enough for our Milassi,” the other one insisted with a well-oiled smile.
“You need someone fresh. Unspoiled,” the other one insisted.
To Mary’s horror, she saw Alice being pushed forward by the madam, no stern black-and-white maid’s uniform now for the girl, but something that was hardly there.
THIRTY-FOUR
MARY OPENED HER mouth to object, but muscle now stood above her, and a heavy hand rested on her shoulder.
“Do not make a scene,” he whispered. “You will be paid well for the distraction you have given His Excellency.”
Unarmed, all Mary could do was stay in her seat as the presidential party made its way to the back rooms.
Poor Alice just stood there waiting, eyes wide, pupils dilated so wide Mary could almost fall into them.
The poor child had been drugged.
Mary glanced Lek’s way. He had turned in his seat. He saw.
He was also shaking his head. Not much, and it was slow, but the message was clear. We can do nothing here. Hold it, girl. Hold it.
Mary held it. She held it by her bleeding fingernails.
She sat in her seat until the presidential party had disappeared in back. Without a word, she took the money she was offered. She stuffed it in her bodice, while tucking her breast back in there as well, as she slowly rejoined Lek and Cyn.
“I need a drink,” she said.
“We need to be out of here,” he said, and, brooking no argument, stood.
For arm candy, Cyn and Mary must have looked a sight. They left, though the bouncer demanded another bribe to open the door.
Outside, the night was sticky and hot. Lek mumbled something, and they were joined not a block away by Gunny and two Marines.
“Get me to the embassy,” Mary demanded.
“No can do, ma’am,” Gunny said.
“Why not?” she snapped.
“This kid says it’s after curfew. If we try to drive all the way across town, we’ll likely be stopped and asked for our papers, ma’am, and we don’t have no papers.”
Mary scrubbed at her face, trying to wash away the sight of Alice and the president. “I need a drink.”
“The kid says we should lay up at the shelter with the brothers and sisters. They’ll take care of us.”
“Are we putting them at risk?” Lek asked before Mary could.
“He don’t think so. I think we ought to give it a try. If it’s too risky, they can send us on our way.”
Mary nodded. Then she caught sight of the bar girl from that night. She was standing beside a scrawny boy who was doing his best not to stare at how much of her was out there to stare at.
“Why’s she here?” Mary asked Gunny.
“She says Alice helped her slip out the back with a load of laundry. She’s in some kind of trouble.”
“Yeah, most likely, but not as much trouble as Alice is.”
“What’s wrong?” Gunny asked. He, as well as many of the older Marines, had taken a shine to Alice.
Mary told him the problem.
Then Lek had to put get a tight grip on the old sergeant’s arm. “We can’t go charging in. The time’s not right.”
Mary listened to a long string of epithets as Gunny dissected the president and his habits to the fourth generation. The Marine finished with a scowl. “Judgment day is coming, and it can’t come soon enough for some.”
“Amen,” Mary and Lek said.
“Now let’s get off the street,” Mary added.
It was four blocks to the shelter. They used back alleys because, hard as it was to believe after seeing all the thugs-for-cops at the Gilded Cage, there were still a few walking the streets.
No sooner had Brother Scott opened the back door at their knock than the kid who had led them there was ready to head back.
“I promised Alice that I’d be waiting for her when she got off.”
“She may not be getting off anytime soon,” Mary said.
“Yeah, I know,” the kid said. “I heard what you said. And Alice knew that might happen. She told me so when she got the job. But I promised her that I’d be there for her no matter what, and I will be there. No matter what.”
“What happened?” Brother Scott asked, one of the sisters now at his elbow.
Mary watched the faithful lad disappear into the night, then turned to see how the brother and nun would take to the raw unvarnished world outside.
She failed to shock them.
“Yes, Spin told you right,” the nun said. “I can only hope that what I told her can help her in a time like this.”
“And what did you tell her?” Mary asked.
“That God loves her no matter what evil men may do to her. What else can I tell the girls here? You’re a Marine. You’ve been taught to fight. To kill men who in your eyes need killing. We can hardly train our young woman here to do that, now can we?”
“No,” Mary said, “I guess you can’t.”
“Now, all of you,” Brother Scott said, “let’s get you bedded down for the night. You�
�ll be wanting to get on your way back to where you belong as soon as the sun’s up.”
Mary turned to her own. Cyn’s teeth had started to chatter during the walk. One of the Marines, a private first class, had put an arm around her, and she’d gotten closer to him as it got worse.
Now the nun put a blanket around the two of them and led them off to a small room with a door that closed. She didn’t say a word, but closed them in by themselves.
At Mary’s raised eyebrow, Brother Scott said, “We may have taken vows ourselves, but that doesn’t mean we expect everyone to live as we do.”
“My Marine also got hauled into one of the back rooms and was likely raped by one of those thugs that pass for cops around here,” Mary said by way of explanation.
“It’s been a bad night for all of you,” Brother Scott said as he led Mary into another of the small rooms. The other brother took the rest of the Marines to settle them down on the floor in the large room among street kids who slept on, unaware of what had passed around them.
All except one who woke up whimpering. The nun moved to supply a hug until the girl could fall back asleep.
“Some worse,” Mary said. “Some got off easy.”
“Did they now?” Brother Scott said, pulling a bottle from a desk drawer and offering it to Mary.
She took a swig.
“Tell me, Brother, how could you let a girl like Alice take a job in a place like that?”
“Is that the best you have to throw at me?” he said, not seeming at all bothered by the sharp accusation buried in Mary’s words.
“Maybe I’m just warming up?” she said, then eyed the bottle. “This stuff is strong.”
“Raw, too. I know the fellow who runs the still. He drops me off a bit of his white lightning once in a while.”
“Whyever for?”
“He was one of my kids until he apprenticed with a moonshiner.”
“Another one of your failures, huh?”
“I like to think of him as one of my successes. He’s alive, got a wife and a kid, and he’s earning enough to keep them off the streets. But then, I might have low expectations, not being a Marine and all that.” He took a swig from the bottle.
“So you didn’t have any problem letting Alice get a job there?” Mary struck out again.
To Do or Die (A Jump Universe Novel) Page 19