Of course, they put them all through rigorous screening and protocol processes long before they brought them here, to make sure none carried the disease. They put them through the same on this side, as well, from what Dalejem said.
I peered over the top of the ladder, spotting the surveillance camera as soon as I looked up.
I stared at it, frozen briefly, then realized the light was off.
It appeared to be dead, just like it was supposed to be.
Taking another breath, even as Revik’s fingers circled my ankle in a silent question, I began to move, distengangling my foot from his hold carefully so I wouldn’t accidentally kick him in the face. Once I got to the top, I walked deep into the nearest row of storage crates, to get out of view of the open stretch of pier.
Looking back to make sure Revik followed me, I unhooked the waterproof pack and set it on the ledge of the nearest container once I saw him. I unzipped the bag to get at my regular street clothes, along with a headset, jewelry and the small gun I planned to carry. I’d already pulled the wet tank top over my head by the time Revik had his own backpack off.
He was staring at my bare upper body when I glanced up.
I smacked him again, clicking softly.
“Come on, pervert,” I whispered. “Mind on the job, okay?”
He smiled faintly, but shrugged, then slid out of his shorts, turning me into a hypocrite when I paused long enough to stare at him.
“Mind on the job,” he said softly, mimicking my voice.
I laughed, quietly, but kicked off my own wet shorts.
I used the small but highly-absorbent towel I’d shoved in the bag just enough to get off most of the excess water. I tossed that on the edge of the metal crate when I finished, then reached into the bag for a black, camisole-style top. It’d just pulled it over my head and arranged it awkwardly over my still-damp body when Revik moved suddenly, his motions jerky enough to bring my eyes over to the opening on the other side of the storage crates.
Seeing who stood there, I stiffened, even before I saw him staring at Revik’s naked body. He seemed to feel some element of my anger though, and clenched his jaw, looking away.
Revik continued to stand in front of me, shielding my own mostly-naked body, as Dalejem approached where we stood. The long-haired seer still hadn’t spoken. I saw his eyes flicker down Revik a second time. Watching him stare at Revik’s bare ass and cock more heatedly that time, I jabbed my husband pointedly in the back with my fingers.
Jumping a little, Revik turned, glancing at me.
Watching me finish pulling up my underwear, he colored a little at my glare and turned swiftly to block his own body at least partly from view. Without looking at either of us, he tossed the towel he’d been using on the edge of the container and reached into his bag, pulling out a pair of boxers and tugging them on hastily. I continued to watch as he found a dark t-shirt and yanked that over his head and back, as well.
I pulled my hair into a ponytail once I had my skirt on, squeezed it out as hard as I could, then wound it up into a tighter bun at the back of my head, to make it less obvious that it was wet.
When I saw Dalejem watching Revik again, I almost said something that time.
Before I could open my mouth, the other seer stiffened, turning back to face the end of the aisle of storage crates.
I barely had time to comprehend what he was reacting to, when Dalejem moved, swiftly that time, and nearly soundlessly. I was still tugging a shirt over my head when he appeared by my side. I looked up at him right as his muscular arm wrapped firmly around my waist, his hand squeezing my side once he had hold of me.
“Go with this, Esteemed Bridge, I beg you,” he muttered.
I turned, intending to elbow him off...when a shout rose from the other end of the crates.
I froze.
Before Dalejem caught hold of me, I’d been finishing tugging the stretchy shirt around my back, a shirt that still left some of my midriff bare under the cami, and now I realized I still looked half-dressed, given my lack of shoes and the short skirt.
Revik’s pants were half undone, too, but he seemed to be on board with whatever Dalejem was doing. I saw him move deliberately to block us from view, right before Dalejem used the hand and arm out of sight behind Revik’s body to shove our bags deep into the cracks between the storage crates, presumably so they wouldn’t be seen.
Once he had, Dalejem grasped hold of me tighter, and dragged me with him towards the opening in the aisle between the crates, where three uniformed guards now stood, along with a man in local civilian clothes who scowled at us.
“What the fuck are you doing down there?” he said, speaking Arabic.
“Brother, brother...” Dalejem said, raising his hand and speaking lazily in Arabic, just as the other had done. “Do not get excited, brother... we were only testing out some of the merchandise... it is a small thing. And here she is back with you, safe and sound...”
I stiffened in surprise, then softened my light all at once, melting my body into Dalejem’s side. I felt his light react, even as I felt Revik’s spark from behind me.
Before I could wrap my head around that, Dalejem’s hand wrapped possessively around my rear end, making me jump a little, even as his light flared again. That time, I couldn’t help but react with a corresponding flush of pain off my own light. I felt Dalejem feeding more light into mine as soon as I opened enough to give him the opportunity, likely to mimick that we’d shared light recently––which in no way made it any less unnerving.
Revik liked that even less.
I felt a flush of real anger off him that time, but the fact that we shared a connection made it difficult to tell how visible that was to anyone else.
Either way, Dalejem didn’t withdraw his light, and I kept mine open, too, which caused me to react to what Dalejem was doing to me even more. I felt Revik fighting to control his light again, even as Dalejem’s arm squeezed me tighter against him.
The male seer leading the soldiers––for he was a seer, I could see now, from his dark blue eyes with their odd, white flecks, and his height as we approached him––stared at us from the opening between storage crates. I saw him sum up the situation, right before he frowned, placing his tanned hands on his hips. He wore a white robe, like something out of a movie about oil barons or sheiks.
“Who are you?” he demanded of Dalejem, still speaking Arabic. “I could have you arrested, do you know this? You do not simply ‘borrow’ merchandise meant for the markets... brother.”
Dalejem smiled at him, gesturing an apology, but he didn’t look or feel very apologetic.
“We thought there was no harm,” Dalejem said, his voice calm. He glanced at me, using the fingers of his free hand to tug at the loose neck of my shirt. He pulled the thin fabric up over my shoulder, sliding a few stray wet locks of my hair behind my ear, right before he caressed my collarbone with those same fingers, pulling at my light. “We intended to return her very shortly, my brother... as you can see us doing now.”
Behind him, Revik let out a laugh.
I was probably the only one to hear the anger in it.
On the outside, it sounded almost like he was drunk.
“A few more minutes would have been better,” he muttered in Arabic.
I glanced at him that time, and saw him finish fastening up the front of his pants.
His light exuded a pulse of post-coital heat that caused a flicker of reaction in mine, even given where we were. Dalejem’s arm squeezed tighter around my waist, his hand gripping my ass harder briefly, even as his own light exuded a dense whisper of the same frequency I’d briefly felt on Revik’s. I felt that heat, enough to react to it.
Which of course brought another flare of reaction off Revik.
Clearly, the sheik-guy in front of us felt it, too, although Dalejem managed to make it seem almost as if he was attempting to shield his reactions to me, either out of politeness or embarrassment for letting me get to him.
While Dalejem continued to caress my neck and rear, using both of his hands now, I subtlely highlighted several structures in my light that I’d gained from working for the Lao Hu. I tried not to be too heavy-handed about it, more using them to pull lightly on Dalejem’s aleimi as he touched me. Once I had, I felt a flare of reaction off him again, and that time, it didn’t feel quite as scripted. Moreover, I could tell now that he was getting turned on for real... enough that I looked down before I’d really thought through whether I should do that, either.
Yep. Definitely getting turned on.
A more cynical, or maybe just a more possessive side of me wondered if it was actually from me, or the fact that Revik was watching this.
Behind me, Revik’s light had gone unnervingly still.
In any case, the seer in front of us, the one wearing the robe, blinked up at the space above my head not long after I highlighted the Lao Hu structures. I saw him notice those structures for the first time.
Once he had, his light sparked in interest, as well.
“Ah,” he grunted. Understanding reached his voice, even as he switched to Prexci, the seer tongue. “She is one of those Lao Hu bitches. I heard we had some in this shipment.”
Shipment?
My mind understood the word just fine, but some part of me fought to suppress my outrage anyway, even apart from the role I was supposed to be playing.
As it turned out, outrage wasn’t a terribly unusual sentiment for seers in my position.
“Your sexy little bauble does not like this,” the seer sheik said, smiling at me knowingly. He waggled a finger in my face, clicking in mock admonition. “Get used to it, sister. This is a new world we are in. Chinese whores like you don’t get to play high and mighty to the rest of us anymore... no matter how good they are with their tongues.”
I felt my mouth twist into a darker frown.
“Yes, this is, indeed, a brave new world,” I retorted, using the more formal version of Prexci, the same version I’d learned as a consort of the Lao Hu. “Where seers enslave other seers... after fighting for generations against our human cousins for doing the same.”
The robed seer only laughed, his light exuding indifference.
Clearly, I wasn’t the first seer to lob those words at him.
Glancing briefly at the soldiers standing behind him, the male seer clicked his tongue, looking at Dalejem and then at Revik, his eyes holding a more open sympathy that time.
“I see why you took her,” he said, his voice definite now, even patient. “I do, my brothers. But do not do this again.” Making his mouth firm, he gestured sharply with his hands to reinforce the point. “The bosses... they do not like this. If they caught you at it again, you might receive more than my gentle rebuke. More than a loss of your jobs, even,” he said, his voice slightly darker. “They want the cargo to go right to the markets... especially the expensive ones. It is my own ass on the line, you see... and these Lao Hu cunts may be difficult to train in manners, but they are also very rare. Especially now.”
I found myself pausing on his last words, turning them over in my mind.
I didn’t have long to do that, either.
As soon as he finished speaking, he motioned with his head and eyes to the soldiers waiting behind him. Two of them stepped forward at once and caught hold of me, one at each arm. They pulled me away from Dalejem without a pause... without so much as an apology to either of us. Dalejem released me when their pull grew insistent, but I felt the reluctance in his light.
I wondered how much of that was put-on, too.
The sheik-guy only smiled at Dalejem though, again exuding mostly sympathy, and even some humor now.
“How was she?” he said, his voice holding more of a friendly tone. “Can I ask top dollar for this one, do you think, my brother? What is your expert opinion?”
Dalejem gave the barest of glances at Revik.
In that one look, for the first time, I saw an infinitesimal break in the infiltrator’s mask he wore. It was there and then gone, flashing so quickly across his eyes that I almost questioned if I had seen it at all.
His answering smirk met the sheik’s a bare sliver of a second later.
“Definitely,” he said, winking at me. “She was... quite talented, brother. A mouth like an angel, and a velvet cunt to match. We were just considering taking her again, when you came.” Clicking softly, Dalejem clapped the robed man on the shoulder, giving him another knowing smile. “If you want my advice, I would accept nothing less than the very highest price for this one, my brother. Perhaps, if they argue with you, you should remind your buyers that training them in manners is half the fun?”
I felt something off Revik’s light at that, too, but he muted it almost at once.
Even with our connection, it barely lasted long enough for me to feel it, and most of that reached me through the bond structure we shared.
The sheik didn’t spare Revik so much as a glance.
Instead he laughed again at Dalejem’s words, tilting his head in acknowledgment as he smiled. He gave both of them a polite bow, making a respectful sign with his hands in seer sign language, even as he straightened.
“Very good,” he said, still smiling. “I will do exactly as you say, my brother.”
He clicked his fingers then.
Before he’d even turned to follow, his guards were already leading me away.
I wasn’t wearing shoes, but I guess that wasn’t a priority for them, either.
It didn’t occur to me until I’d already rounded the corner that I hadn’t gotten a chance to grab the earpiece I’d brought, either... or my gun.
Then again, given where I was going now, maybe that was for the best.
27
UNREQUITED
REVIK FOUGHT TO control his light.
He fought to remain silent, too, knowing they were still under surveillance, particularly while they remained in the area of the docks. As long as he could feel those lines humming around his form and recording his light, he focused instead on his physicality, as well as the aleimic cloak he’d woven over his light. He focused on keeping his legs walking outside of their normal rhythms, on holding his body differently, on keeping his mannerisms and the way he used his light in relation to his body less...harmonious...than usual.
He hunched more, too, and patterned his gait after a civilian, versus how he normally walked, which had more of a military and mulei bent to it, at least when he wasn’t trying to make it otherwise.
Even so, he had to fight to control his light.
He kept his cloak tightly around his body as they left the main area of customs, watching as Dalejem flashed badges for both of them to get them through the access gate.
The guard waved them through once they’d gone through several scans, and Revik stood there, feigning tiredness as if coming off a shift, but even with the added distraction, he felt his light struggling. He continued to follow Dalejem’s lead as they exited through the transit portal used by the rest of the dock workers, then walked down a long corridor to the train station dedicated to the main port.
Dalejem took him to the train reserved for the dock workers themselves, Revik noted, clicking back and forth from his memory of the specs. He knew civilians got out via a different line, one that fed into a second set of customs and quarantine protocols on the city side, which is why they’d gotten him and Allie worker IDs, instead of civilian ones.
Once they hit the cool, outside air of the desert––or what Revik could feel of it from the aboveground, train station platform––Revik could no longer remain silent.
He didn’t lose his head totally, of course.
He knew this part of the platform had minimal surveillance, from the specs he’d studied on the carri
er. Even so, his eyes searched for any additional surveillance briefly, any changes to the landscape from the specs he had memorized.
Then he looked for other bodies, human or seer.
Once he knew the area was clear, he grabbed the other seer’s arm. He stopped him in mid-stride, even as Dalejem had been aiming his feet to bring them closer to the yellow line warning them off the train’s tracks, and back into the line of the cameras.
Revik lowered his mouth, until he was speaking directly into the other’s ear.
“What the fuck did you just do?” he growled. He bit his lip, barely keeping his light under control, or his voice. “What if they knock her out? Or drug her?”
He didn’t add the rest of what he was thinking.
Meaning in terms of the other things they might do to his wife.
Dalejem looked up at him, his light exuding calm. He held up a cautioning hand, even as his eyes did a perfunctory scan of the platform, as well.
“Relax, brother. Your light will be protected. Relax...”
“Maybe you’d better not fucking call me that right now, brother...” Revik said, lower, again glancing around their immediate environment. “And I don’t give a damn about my light! Do you really think that’s my primary concern right now?”
He paused in his words, seeing a small group of seers descending onto the platform in the distance, walking down a recessed set of stairs. They were far away from where Revik and Dalejem stood... too far to hear any of their words, or even see what they were doing clearly. They definitely wouldn’t be able to make out their facial expressions with any accuracy, especially if they were human, but Revik fought to control himself anyway.
Luckily, it was early enough yet...or late enough...that any major shift changes remained a few hours off. Revik and Dalejem stood more or less alone on the north end of the platform at the moment. Even so, conscious once more of where they were, Revik released the other male’s arm, right before he stepped closer to him, lowering his voice.
Allie's War Season Four Page 120