“Me too. Trip said I had to pack quickly or I’d miss the launch,” Camille added.
“I’ve got no one to tell where I go,” Mandy said quietly.
They all looked at Shondra expectantly. She withered under their stares. “OK, OK! No one knows where I went, either. Just that I took a trip with a boyfriend.”
“Your friends don’t know who your boyfriend is?” Luna asked.
“Well, I knew they wouldn’t believe me if I told them that I was going on a trip with Artemis Kinkade. I mean, I’m no socialite. I work at the bar on Nineteenth Street.”
“Crap,” Camille said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.
“I’m telling you, in the Empire, we just disappeared. No trace. But the agent – they’ll come looking for her. We need to help her.” Mandy went to the door to see if Trip was in the living room.
“No, Mandy,” Shondra whispered. “Don’t get us in trouble.”
Mandy waved a shushing hand at her, then snuck out of the bedroom. She found the charge port in the standard place: tucked in a kitchen drawer. Just as she closed the drawer, Trip emerged from the secret wing of the prefab. “What are you doing? Every time I go away, you’re sneaking around. What was the rule for staying out of the cell?”
“Don’t leave the bedroom without permission,” Mandy parroted. “I’m sorry, Trip. I was just so thirsty, I came looking for something to drink.”
“There’s water in the wash room.”
“I mean, something to drink,” Mandy replied, posing her body seductively.
Trip leered at her. “Drop the robe and I’ll break open a bottle.”
“It’s chilly in here, Trip. Let’s just drink, OK?”
Kinkade took a bottle of wine from the chiller and grabbed two glasses from the cabinet. “Sit with me on the sofa,” he commanded.
Mandy complied, but frantically searched her mind for an escape plan. “Wanna invite the others?” she asked.
“Not a bad idea. Everybody out here!” he called. Shondra, Camille, and Luna cautiously came out of the bedroom. “It’s party time! Last one to get undressed goes back to the cell.”
The women looked at each other for a second, then raced to drop whatever they were wearing. Mandy would’ve been OK with going to the cell so she could plot with Hailey, but the comm was in the charging drawer, and she didn’t know if one of the others would spill the beans, so she also dropped her robe. Kinkade looked around at the quartet of nude beauties around him. “I think… Shondra was last.”
“What? No! Mandy was,” Shondra objected, throwing the rebellious inmate under the bus.
“No, I don’t think so, Shondra, pet. But you can earn your way back…”
“What do I have to do?”
“Dance better than the others. New competition: everybody dance!”
“There’s no music,” Luna pointed out.
“You’re right. I have a comm with a great playlist in my charging drawer,” Kinkade said, getting up from his viewing place on the sofa.
Camille looked at Mandy, panicked.
Mandy jumped ahead of him. “Let me get it for you, Trip. You relax.” She pretended not to know which drawer had the charging ports inside, opening a couple wrong ones before she found the right one. Hailey’s comm sat there, building up battery life. Mandy breathed a sigh of relief, then took Kinkade’s comm from its charging port.
Kinkade, meanwhile, opened the wine and poured himself a glass, but none for the others. “Rules: winner gets a glass of wine. Loser gets a cell. Middle two, nothing. I’m the judge.” Mandy handed Kinkade the comm and he scrolled through his apps to find the music one, then started a raunchy song playing. “Go!”
Again, Mandy felt like she had to avoid being sent away. She copied the moves the dancers used at the club where she waited tables. She felt stupid and vulnerable, but she needed to avoid losing. After five minutes of dancing, Kinkade declared Luna the winner and Camille the loser. “Off you go, loser,” Kinkade said with a laugh.
“But Shondra lost first. Why does she get out of it and I don’t?” Camille complained.
“Suggest another competition. We’ll have a loser-off.” Camille and Shondra looked at each other. “I know,” Kinkade said, “wrestle.” Both women looked at him incredulously. “Pin the other, and you stay,” he said, grinning idiotically. “Mandy, Luna, sit with me.” He poured Luna her winner’s glass of wine and put an arm around her, clinking her glass with his own. “What are you waiting for?” he returned his attention to the contestants. “Go!”
Shondra attacked Camille first. In seconds, they were rolling around on the ground, trying to pin each other. “Oh, that’s good,” Kinkade admired. “Oh, but that’s not a view you want to see, eh, Luna?” Mandy turned her face away from the scene, embarrassed for the contestants, embarrassed for herself. She got up to leave. “A-eight, don’t let anyone leave this room.” The robot stamped A-8 stood in front of Mandy’s path to the bedroom. She sighed and returned to her seat, but she still didn’t watch the humiliating spectacle.
Mandy picked up the robe at her feet and draped it over her body putting her arms in the sleeves and wearing it backwards. When Kinkade took a break from fondling Luna on his other side, he turned toward Mandy and saw… not what he wanted to see. “Tsk tsk, MandaPanda. You’re kinda chubby, but I still want to see you.”
“I thought you were watching the fight,” she said, pointing at the women holding each other at bay, panting.
“Surround view, pet.”
“I’m not your pet.”
“You’re my bitch, and you know it. Now put yourself over my knee and take it like a dog.” Mandy hesitated. Kinkade took the sash from the robe and tied one end of it around Mandy’s neck. Pulling it tight, he yanked on the sash and whistled, leading her by the leash to be bent over his lap, the entire back side of her body exposed.
Mandy struggled to breathe but concentrated on her higher goal. She pressed her lips together, trying to control her emotions. At first, he caressed her round buttocks, then pinched them in several places. Little bruises formed at every spot he pinched, and he declared, with a laugh, that Mandy would have a polka-dot ass. He pinched her at least twenty times until he was satisfied with the dotting. She bit her lip and endured it for the goal of getting that comm back. Finally, Kinkade decided that her light brown ass needed to be more reddish, so he slapped her repeatedly with the full strength of his hand and arm.
Mandy dropped tears on Luna’s knees. Luna reached a hand to her and held it firmly. Mandy squeezed Luna’s hand with each hit. Kinkade’s ring had rotated on his finger and the stone-encrusted part of the ring began to leave nicks on Mandy’s skin. Soon, drops of blood oozed from the wounds and smeared all over her derriere. “Now, that’s what I call red,” Kinkade laughed. Mandy cried quietly. “Go get me a wet towel, bitch of mine. You made a mess on my hand.”
He held his hand up as Mandy slowly got up from her humiliating position. The combatants had stopped wrestling and were watching Mandy with tears in their eyes. Mandy took her arms out of the sleeves and turned the robe around to its proper location on her back as she walked slowly to the kitchenette. She looked through the drawers for a towel, deliberately opening the charging drawer to retrieve Hailey’s comm. She pocketed the device and continued her search for a towel.
After delivering the demanded wet towel to Kinkade, she meekly asked if she could go to her cell. Kinkade had three other playmates, so he retracted his command to A-8 and Mandy sullenly left the “party.”
Mandy lay on her stomach on her cot, going through the recordings of Kinkade’s voice. With single-minded hatred for the man, she collected his own words to use against him. Hailey had recorded almost two hours of fifteen-to-twenty-minute segments; Mandy hoped the short charge in the drawer would last long enough.
Meanwhile, Hailey lay on her cot, feeling sorry for herself. She was still hungry and depressed, wondering why SWORD hadn’t come to get her yet. She needed to be rescu
ed – just this once. When I’m a Wraith again, I’ll never end up in a situation like this.
She saw it all now: Kinkade’s carefully laid trap, his mission to shag a Wraith, probably to win a game. He liked games. Or maybe it was a bet. Whatever the reason, his vast network of people who would do anything, or at least look the other way, for the right payoff had cornered Hailey. What she couldn’t see was his plan for seducing her with her Wraithian abilities intact. He knew enough about Wraiths to know she’d never desire him and never be outsmarted or overpowered by him. Even with his robot army, he had no chance against a Wraith.
Did he intend to use the women as pawns in his sick game – victims to be sacrificed if Comet did not satisfy his wants? Surely, he didn’t anticipate her losing the implanted enhancements. Actually, she still didn’t know how that happened. Hailey was pretty sure the gas was not the cause. When she got her hands on the sick bastard, she would get some answers. She promised herself that.
From far away, she heard tapping. Confused at first, she realized, after a minute, that it was Mandy. Hailey crawled through the large slice in the wall and called out to her friend. “Mandy, you’re back. You OK? Did he hurt you for being in your cell before?”
“Not for that,” Mandy replied. The comm came through the small slit in the wall. “There’s not much battery left. I didn’t have a lot of time to charge it.”
“Mandy, are you OK? What happened to you out there?”
“He won the battle, but you’re gonna win the war, Hailey. Please, get us out of here.”
“I will,” Hailey replied, invigorated by Mandy’s successful completion of her mission. “You did great. Thank you.”
Hailey played the message Mandy had spliced together. She heard Kinkade’s voice, different tones and volumes for each word, saying the liberating phrase: sentries belay all previous orders obey orders from the target only acknowledge. Hailey nearly laughed with joy. She crawled to the door in the center cell. The sentries stood outside in the hall, keeping a lookout for “the target.”
Hailey opened the door a crack, not letting any of the sentries see her. She pressed “play” and slid the comm out the door. When she heard Kinkade’s voice command the robots, she chanced a peek at the top of the nearest one: “Sentries,” its light blazed brilliant blue. “Belay all previous orders obey orders from the target only acknowledge.” The green light blinked radiantly. Hailey knew the nearest robot had been reprogrammed. She tested it.
“Sentry A-ten, enter the room with the door ajar.” A-10 advanced, pushing the door open and seeing the target in perfect clarity. It made no threatening moves whatsoever. Hailey tapped on the wall. “Mandy, it’s working!”
“Go get ‘im, Agent!” Mandy returned.
Hailey smiled widely. “A-ten, destroy any sentry that threatens the target.” The welcome green light gave Hailey all the assurance she needed. She reached a hand into the hall and retrieved the comm. She stuck her head out, but every ACME seemed to ignore her appearance. Hailey stood. With renewed confidence in her plan, she walked silently to the end of the hall. She listened to what was happening in the living room. It was hard to tell what Kinkade was doing with the three remaining prisoners, so she chanced a peek around the corner. She couldn’t see him; the back of the sofa faced her direction, but the three women were at three stations on his body, giving him every pleasure he desired.
The one near his head glance up and saw Hailey. Hailey and the woman had never seen each other before, but the stranger smiled at Hailey and glanced meaningfully downward. Hailey put a finger to her lips, then mimed that the woman should cover Kinkade’s mouth with her hand at the count of three. The other women saw the exchange and took courage.
Hailey put up one finger, then a second. She pressed play, then threw up a third finger. As the comm played its halting command, the woman at Kinkade’s head covered his mouth. The woman at his feet sat on his legs. And the woman in the middle raised her elbow to the height of her head and slammed it down forcefully somewhere in the middle. Hailey couldn’t see Kinkade on the sofa, but she knew where she wished that elbow to strike.
All sentries in the room blinked green acknowledgment to the new order. Hailey stepped into the room. “I’m Agent Ramirez,” she told the women. “Please feel free to do as you please.”
The first one took her hand away from Kinkade’s mouth and punched him in the face. He groaned and spit obscenities. “I’m Shondra,” she said, approaching Hailey with her hand outstretched. “Is Mandy all right?”
“Would you please check on her?” Hailey asked. The second one punched Kinkade’s stomach. With an “oof” she left him to suffer and introduced herself as Luna. The third didn’t take out any frustrations on Kinkade’s body. She simply spat on him and went to meet the agent of SWORD.
“I’m Camille.”
“Please, ladies, support each other. I need to have a chat with our host.” Hailey strode around to the front side of the couch and found Kinkade lying naked, holding his crotch with one hand and his bleeding nose with the other. Hailey smiled. “Good job, Luna.” Luna shot her a friendly nod, then headed for Kinkade’s room to steal his clean clothes. “A-one, come here and hold Kinkade’s…neck. Acknowledge.” The sentry blinked green and stepped forward. It extended a robotic limb and clamped its robotic hand around Kinkade’s neck. “Now,” Hailey said, turning toward the kitchenette, “I’m starving.”
“Mari, you’re never getting out of here!” Kinkade threatened.
“That’s Agent Ramirez, ArtieFartie. A-one, if Kinkade speaks, stab his leg. Acknowledge.” The green light silenced Kinkade. Hailey pulled several things from the chiller and the cupboards and made a well-rounded plate of nourishing food. The women wandered back at their leisure and helped themselves to food and drink. “Trip-the-drip lost his voice. Do as you will. He won’t even scream.”
Hailey shook her head. Where did that come from? Revenge? Retaliation? Why am I enjoying a man’s suffering? That’s not right. The four women looked at the helpless, naked, shivering man on the sofa. They wanted nothing more to do with him, so they simply turned their backs on him and joined in the impromptu feast. Hailey watched them and felt ashamed. He had hurt them physically, mentally, emotionally. They did not return the crimes to him. She spoke softly. “You are all amazing. You know that?” They smiled weakly at her and continued to eat until they were finally full for the first time in two weeks. Hailey also ate her fill, then ordered the ACMEs to escort Kinkade to the first cell in the hall and lock him inside.
All the women found soft places to lie down and rest – at last.
Revelations
Laura and Sophie decided that addressing the crew of Emerald directly might not lead to their cooperation. Only the crew of that ship knew where Kinkade and Comet were, if they were together, or if they were even alive. SWORD agents boarding the ship and demanding answers might send them into a panic and they’d disperse. Better, they calculated, to stop the passengers and threaten them. As of yet, they were not in trouble, and if they wanted to stay that way, they’d make the smart decision to cooperate.
Three of the four men knew nothing except that they were invited on a trip to a surprise destination with a surprise awaiting them when they got there. They showed up on the right day at the right time, and trusted their friend, Trip, would show them a good time. The Wraith and Handler advised the three to go on home before things got really illegal and messy. They ran from the space port.
The fourth passenger, however, was not so innocent. He was also not forthcoming with the information the SWORD agents wanted. This friend of Kinkade’s was either very loyal or very well compensated. Either way, he was overly confident in his ability to keep his secrets from the secret agents.
“What’s your name?”
“Sanj.”
“Where are you headed on Kinkade’s ship?” Laura asked. He said nothing. “To the Belt? To the Frontier? To…uncharted…”
“Bingo,” Spice i
nserted. “What uncharted area? The Reach is too far. The Expanse is just stupid. Let’s see… a planet in the—no, an asteroid… yes, in the…” Spice didn’t know where to guess. She could tell, as could Laura, when they hit upon a correct guess by Sanj’s pupils, heart rate, body temperature, and breathing. But they’d have to name every hiding place in the Empire, which would be impossible because they were, by definition, hidden. Spice searched her TDN. “Where is this asteroid? Near a star cluster, pulsar, dwarf star, nebula, … there we go. Your turn,” she tag-teamed over to Lucky. Laura searched her extensive collection of facts gleaned over more than fifty years of service in SWORD. “Nebulae… OK, Aberdeen, Balok, Crab, Lagoon, Orion, Omega, NGC 248, NGC 6334, Taratula, T’skala, oh! There is it. Thank you.”
“I think this is gonna be the last time we’ll offer to listen politely and help you out of the mess you’re hip-deep in. You think so?” Spice asked Lucky.
“I believe you’re right. Answer now or call your lawyer.”
“OK, OK, I’m not taking the fall for Trip’s kinky fantasies.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lucky asked.
“It’s like you said: the T’skala Nebula. There’s an asteroid there – only the bridge crew know where – and Trip’s got some prefab buildings set up. He took a handful of women over there two weeks ago and said he’d ‘soften ‘em up for us’ and by the time we get there, three weeks later, we’d have personal…”
“Spit it out,” Spice demanded.
“It sounds so foul now that I’m saying it out loud… He made it all sound like fun.”
“What is it?” Lucky enunciated strongly.
“Personal sex slaves.” Sanj bowed his head, then shook it. “He promised they’d be submissive and ex-…, exchangeable,” he said with distaste now that he had to explain it to two strong women. “Except for one. There was one that was only for him. The other four we could trade around, and, well. Yeah.”
Hailey's Comet Anthology Page 9