Asimov's Science Fiction: April/May 2014

by Penny Publications

  Back in her apartment, she kicked off her high heels and, without bothering to undress, threw herself down on the bed. The instant she closed her eyes, she could feel sleep closing about her.

  One more day down. Far too many yet to go.

  Rico was hung over the next morning, and had a black eye from his encounter with the doorman. So he didn't ask Su-yin out again, which was just as well because she got a call from the Algerian, insisting that they go clubbing.

  They went to the Dew Drop Inn, the Hotsy-Totsy Club, the Orchid Lounge, Swank City, the Top Hat, and the Roadhouse and danced to the music of Pat Boone, Doris Day, Barry Manilow, Patti Page, and Wayne Newton. To Su-yin's surprise, Jean-Luc behaved like a perfect gentleman. "When I was alive, I was a jewel thief and a cat burglar," he told her. "A very good one, too. I learned that one has to handle beautiful things with a light touch.

  "It would be counterproductive for me to throw myself at you, grasping and snorting," he said. "Though I assure you there is nothing I desire more. I must instead convince you to seduce me. Which is, notwithstanding the fact that you are unaware of it, something you most dearly desire to do."

  "It's not going to happen. My ather's soul is at stake."

  "That's a problem, of course." The Algerian winked roguishly. "I'll just have to be more charming."

  "That hardly seems possible," Su-yin said, amused. But she stayed on her guard.

  Jean-Luc had a wealth of stories of rooftop robberies and midnight escapes through the squalid alleys of Paris and Algiers. He asked her questions about her life and seemed genuinely interested in what she had to say. He told her that once, when he was wanted, he had hidden in a brothel in Marseille for a month—"the longest month of my life!"—without touching any of its employees. "I was in love, you see, desperately so. Only, when it was safe to come out, Mignette had moved in with a gendarme. She meant to wait for me, but—thirty days? Every woman had her limits."

  The Algerian was nice and, under other circumstances, Su-yin didn't see that giving in to him would be entirely wrong. She felt much the same urges he did. So long as she didn't get pregnant or catch a disease, why not?

  But she was in a contest with the Devil and it was one she was determined to win.

  "This is a feint," Leonid said, during their next foil lesson. "I thrust and you respond with a parry four, knocking my blade outward, or so you expect." He demonstrated in slow motion. "But when you do, I dip my blade under yours and up again on the inside—and lunge." The button of his foil touched Su-yin's jacket, right above her heart.

  He stepped back, pulling off his mask. "The whole purpose of the feint—of your Algerian, you understand my metaphor?—is to bring you off guard. To distract you from the real threat."

  "Which is?"

  "You'll recognize it when it happens. Provided you stay alert."

  "Leonid, I never asked you this before, but... why are you doing this? Giving me advice, I mean. I know why you're giving me lessons."

  "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. It was very disappointing to discover that Dante's sign didn't exist, and even more so to discover that some faint ghost of hope remains. Your father no more deserves to escape here than I do. But if he did, that would be a kind of revenge upon Miss Spite, and I would derive some thin, sour satisfaction from that." Leonid shrugged. "That's all."

  "Heads up again," Beelzebub said. "Young Lochinvar's hot for a second serving." And before Su-yin could respond, he was gone.

  Sure enough, Rico asked her out again. "Just over to my apartment. To hang out. Nothing fancy. I won't try anything, I promise."

  "I'll go if you want," Su-yin said. "But last time was such a disaster. Why repeat it?"

  "Because being with you makes me feel better," Rico said. "Not happy, of course, that's not possible here. But less miserable. Sometimes I think that if only I could make you happy then I'd be happy too, almost. Just a little bit."

  So she went.

  Rico's apartment was every bit as squalid as she'd expected: filthy dishes clogging the sink, unwashed clothes kicked into the corners. But he'd made a sort of coffee table out of a crate and a Parcheesi board from a discarded pizza box. "I got the idea from you," he said. "From your fake flowers. The dice are made from that tasteless white root that Cookie uses in his stew. Turnip, maybe? Parsnip? The pips are stale peppercorns."

  After so many dates with older men, Rico's youth—his callowness—was painfully obvious. He talked too much about himself. He knew nothing about what passed in Hell for current events. When Su-yin mentioned the race for the meaningless office of Persecutor General, he didn't even know who was running, much less which of the candidates had already bought the election. He gloated whenever the dice favored him.

  Still, Rico didn't try to grope her, and played the game with real enthusiasm, and on those rare times when Su-yin managed to turn the conversation around to topics of interest to her, he listened to what she had to say with genuine interest. So it could have been worse.

  When it was finally late enough that Su-yin figured she could call it a night without hurting Rico's feelings, she asked to be taken home. They walked back to her apartment building and when they got there, Rico said, "Tonight was really nice. I mean, it was almost pleasant. Really. It was easily the least awful time I've had since dying."

  Su-yin blocked his clumsy attempt to kiss her. Then, she planted a swift peck on his cheek and fled inside.

  "We should do this again sometime!" Rico shouted after her.

  When she got back to the apartment, Su-yin cried for hours. For the first time, her life here really did feel like Hell.

  So it went. A blind date who took her not to a restaurant but to an orgy where old men stood about naked, waiting for young women to service them. As they did, un-enthusiastically and in a variety of ways that Su-yin could not have imagined six months earlier. She stayed for as long as she could stand to watch and then demanded to be taken home. Followed by a truly delightful evening with Jean-Luc. Then a man who liked to tear off his own scabs and eat them. A woman who said she wouldn't be a lesbian if it weren't for Su-yin and demanded to know how she planned to make it up to her. A Lord of the Inner Circles who was offended she hadn't heard of him. A creature of uncertain gender who suggested things that Su-yin didn't think she understood and certainly didn't want to do. Jean-Luc again, and a yacht party at which they played games where the losers were thrown into the acidic waters of the Acheron. Another sad evening with Rico, where they played pinochle with cards he had made from discarded paper plates, and he shared every regret he had from an innocently misspent youth.

  All too slowly, the months passed. Sometimes the dates were so awful that Su-yin threw up afterward. Other times, they were not so bad. Always, she managed to be cheerful while she worked, whether she felt like it or not. Sticking it to the Devil was how she thought of it. Though, whether out of spite or a heavy workload, that Fearsome Lady never showed her face.

  On the next to last evening of the competition, the Algerian told Su-yin to dress formally and then drove her out of town to a trash dump to shoot rats. Su-yin knew how to shoot because her father had insisted on it, and of course the Devil's penthouse had an indoor firing range, so she'd kept in practice. Still, it was a bit of a letdown. "I feel silly being here dressed like this," she said.

  "Don't." Jean-Luc was carrying a matched pair of Anschutz bolt-action rimfires. He handed her one. "The contrast only makes you look all the more elegant."

  Su-yin checked the sight, made sure the rifle had a full clip, and thumbed the safety off. "How do we do this?"

  "Mes frères!" Two men stepped out of darkness. Each carried a gasoline can. "Michel and Thierry will be our beaters tonight." He gestured toward a mound of garbage. "Let's start with that one."

  The beaters trudged over to the mound and began sloshing gasoline on it.

  "How this is done is as follows: When the garbage is set afire, it will drive out the
rats living in tunnels within. They emerge with their fur aflame, so they are easy to spot. But they will be running as fast as they can, so they will not be easy to shoot. That's what makes it sporting. I'll target those that break right, you take the others. The winner is whoever pots the most rats. Ready?"

  Su-yin raised her rifle. "I guess."

  "Excellent." He raised his voice. "Light the fire!"

  It should have been grotesque. It should have been disgusting. But against all expectations, it wasn't. Hell's rats were filthy creatures, even more loathsome than their terrestrial counterparts, so shooting them didn't make Su-yin feel bad at all. Plus, they were difficult enough to hit that there was genuine satisfaction when she did get one. By her third kill, Su-yin was laughing with every shot.

  "To your left!" her beater cried as more rats shot, burning, from the trash fire. "Three!"

  Su-yin led a flaming rodent with her rifle, squeezed the trigger, and watched it flip over in the air. She made a slap shot at the second and missed, while the third got clean away. Another rat tried to escape and she got it in one. Then she was out of ammunition. She held out her hand and Thierry slapped a fresh clip into it.

  "I pegged four," the Algerian said. "You?"

  "Five. So far."

  "I'm impressed." The Algerian's face glistened in the light of the trash fire, but he held himself with perfect aplomb. He might have been modeling his suit for a fashion shoot. "I think this mound's about played out. Time to light up a second one."

  By the time they were done, Su-yin was sweaty and bedraggled and her dress reeked so of burning garbage she doubted it could be salvaged. But she was also ahead by a dozen rats. Michel and Thierry took their rifles and the Algerian led Suyin back to his Maserati.

  As he drove, the Algerian placed his hand on Su-yin's thigh and squeezed. She supposed she should have told him not to, but tonight had been so much fun—the only time she'd actually enjoyed herself since coming to Hell—that she felt she owed him at least that much. Anyway, it felt good.

  At the door to her apartment building, the Algerian took Su-yin into his arms and said, "This is your last chance to invite me up to your room."

  "Oh, Jean-Luc, you know I'd like to."

  "Then do. It's that simple."

  "I can't."

  The Algerian released her, lit a cigarette, took a long drag, exhaled. "I swore I would wait until you beckoned me. I thought I had that much pride. But as it turns out, your self-control is stronger than mine. So it is I who must beg. Please. I know you are not... experienced. That doesn't matter. I can give you the first night every young woman deserves: passionate, romantic, lingering. Allow me to introduce you to the pleasures of being an adult in a manner you will cherish forever."

  Su-yin found herself responding to his words more than she would have expected. Worse, when she tried to conjure up her father's image to help strengthen her resolve, she couldn't. After all this time, she was beginning, it seemed, to forget the general. This was a terrifying thought. But she could not deny it.

  The Algerian's eyes twinkled cynically. The cigarette dangling from one corner of his mouth made him look every inch a scoundrel. The kind of scoundrel that women like. "By now we have spent enough time together," Su-yin said, "for you to know that when I say no I mean it."

  "Oh, well. Alas." Jean-Luc shrugged. "Would you mind if I stubbed my cigarette out on the back of your hand?"

  "What? No!"

  "Quel dommage." Taking her hand as if to kiss it, the Algerian stubbed out his cigarette on its back.

  Back at the apartment, Leonid rubbed salve on her burn. "Tomorrow you'll wear gloves, of course."

  "I can't believe Jean-Luc did that to me. I thought he was nice! And all the while..."

  "He showed his true colors. He's gone. Forget him. Tomorrow is your final date. You can be sure that the Devil has something special in mind."

  "Who will it be?"

  "I don't know. Nobody tells me anything. One gets used to it. But your date will pick you up in the lobby at seven. Be on your guard. Remember everything I taught you. Whoever he is, he'll be almost irresistible. Resist him. Don't forget that your victory is my victory too. In a small, petty, and unworthy way."

  The next night—her final one in Hell—Su-yin came home from work to find Leonid looking pale and fearful. "It was Her Nibs," he explained. "She came by and she was not in a pleasant mood." He nodded toward the bedroom. "She laid out a dress for you to wear tonight."

  Draped across the bed was a silk gown of deepest scarlet. The skirt was long and had a slit up one side. Su-yin could see at a glance that she was not supposed to wear any underwear with it. The silk flowed like water; its thread count had to be astronomical. When she put it on, it fit her so elegantly that she felt three inches taller.

  It made her feel wanton.

  It took some time to get her makeup right. But when Su-yin slipped on her heels and, blushing, emerged at last into the living room, Leonid's astonishment made it all worthwhile. "I begin to understand," he said, "what heterosexual men see in you creatures."

  Then he was fussing over her hair, pinning it up, tsk ing over imperfections that only he could see, speaking rapidly all the while. "Tonight's not going to be easy. The Devil has her wiles. Don't let yourself be drawn off guard. Think four moves ahead— five, if you can manage it. Watch the alcohol. Don't do drugs of any sort. There's no place to hide a weapon in that dress, but your do is held together with a hairpin that's as good as a dagger in a pinch. You could kill a man with it, but I really think you should avoid doing that if at all possible. It would spoil your coif. Is this a split end? Don't think that you can get into a heavy petting session and pull out of it before it's too late. That's the oldest self-delusion in the book. Remember, Miss Venom will be watching. Don't do anything that would make her happy."

  At last, he stepped back and said, "It'll do."

  There was a triple mirror in one corner of the room. Su-yin stood before it, stunned, for one long minute. Then, slowly, she spun about in order to see herself from every angle. She was perfect. She wished she could look like this forever. She knew she would remember this moment for the rest of her life.

  Then the concierge called up to say that her date had arrived. Su-yin promised to be right down.

  "Be on your guard!" Leonid called after her as she stepped into the elevator.

  "I will!" she cried. "Don't worry!"

  As the doors closed, she heard him say, "We don't know who you've been set up with, but we know he'll be dangerously hard to resist."

  It was Rico.

  He wore a baby blue tuxedo that he explained was a rental. He also brought along a corsage, which he clumsily pinned to her gown. "How can you afford all this?" Suyin asked, when the limousine pulled up.

  "I've been saving up all year. No big deal. It's not as if there's much of anything else to spend it on."

  They went to the Cavern, a boutique club with flashing lights, distressing art on the walls, and live nude dancers in iron cages hung from the ceiling over the bar. They looked a hundred times sexier than Su-yin would ever be but after his first glance Rico never looked at them again. All his attention was on her.

  The music was hot and desperate when they entered and the club was thronged with sweaty bodies moving frantically. But when they stepped onto the dance floor, the tempo changed, so that they had no choice but to slow dance, holding each other close.

  "You've been practicing!" Su-yin exclaimed. Rico was nowhere near as good as the Algerian, of course. But he didn't step on her feet even once. And though she could tell he was aroused—how not? her dress covered everything and hid nothing—he did not let it influence how he behaved toward her.

  "Well, I didn't want tonight to be a fiasco like the last time. You know?"

  By twos and threes, the other dancers drifted back to their tables, until finally there was nobody but they two on the floor, holding onto each other and watched by hundreds of envious eyes. Above them
, the women in their cages rubbed themselves against the bars, moaning with desire. At the bar, ice cubes rattled and drinks were poured. The band played slow number after slow number until, wearied, Su-yin suggested they take a breather.

  When Rico broke free of her eyes, he seemed baffled to realize they had been dancing all alone. But he led Su-yin to a table, where she ordered a moonflower, a cocktail made from champagne, elderflower liqueur, and a peeled litchi, and Rico asked for a cola.

  Once they were seated, the music grew raucous again, and the clubbers filled the dance floor to its capacity and beyond.

  "So this is your last night, huh?" Rico said when their drinks had come.

  "I guess."

  "What are you going to do when you get back?"

  "I hadn't given it any thought. Go back to school, I guess. A lot depends on what my father wants." It was, Su-yin realized with surprise, going to be difficult to go back to being a dutiful daughter after a year in which she'd been free to do whatever she wanted. She imagined the general would be grateful for having been saved from eternal damnation. But she didn't for an instant think that meant he would be any more permissive toward her. Certainly, he wouldn't let her go to clubs like this. The general had expected her to refrain from dating until she was in college—and only then because he knew he couldn't be there to watch over her.

  Unexpectedly, Su-yin felt a twinge of regret for the freedoms she would be losing when she returned home.

  She stood. "Let's go outside. I need some fresh air. Less stale air, I mean."

  Out on the street, they wandered aimlessly down crumbling sidewalks and past shuttered buildings ugly with graffiti. Half the streetlights were out. When Rico tried to put his arm around her waist, Su-yin moved away from him. She didn't think so small a gesture would do any harm, but this late in the game she wasn't taking any chances.

  They came to the waterfront and stopped. There, by the oily black waters of the Acheron, Rico found a discarded shopping cart, which they turned on its side and used for a bench. "I'll miss you," he said. "But it was kind of a miracle you were here in the first place, wasn't it? You don't feel the miseries or see the abominations the rest of us do. Just being in your presence I can imagine a little bit what it must be like to be you. Glorious."