Synchronicity Trilogy Omnibus

by Michael McCloskey

  “My specialty is in software,” she said. “I’d better serve China in that capacity. I’m not really a field operative.”

  Chien shook his head. “On the contrary, you have everything it takes. A cool head. And bravery. I want you to go uncover secret information. This is an activity which you excel at, if memory serves.”

  He reminds me of my transgression. And of the punishment I avoided by coming to work for him.

  “Your boyfriend, Li Feng, didn’t have a problem joining the space force. You think that’s safe? It’s not. He’s a soldier in space, very dangerous. He did not hesitate to contribute his part. Or do you think women are creatures to be sheltered from all danger?”

  Some part of Xinmei knew Chien’s words were simply designed to shame or coerce her. Yet they hit home. Feng was doing very dangerous duty for China. Xinmei wanted to earn a place as his peer. She didn’t want to be a quiet housewife waiting patiently for her man to come back home.

  “Okay, I’ll do it,” Xinmei said.

  ***

  “Take your clothes off,” said the woman.

  Xinmei stood in an old warehouse with twenty three other women. Some of them she recognized; others may have come from other places in the ministry or perhaps the military. The main room was huge and mostly empty except for some old crates and pallets of rice.

  The woman in charge waited expectantly. Slowly, the women began to undress. Another woman came by and threw down an empty box in front of each of them for their clothing. Eventually they were all naked. The woman seemed to stare at Xinmei a moment longer than the others. Xinmei became aware of her relative attractiveness in the group. She had never thought it would come into play in such a bizarre fashion.

  She stood there on the cold floor, shaking slightly. The other women looked equally uncomfortable. At least the operatives in the room were female.

  The woman pointed at a box brought out by her assistant.

  “This is dirt,” the woman stated flatly. It would have been comical in any other circumstance. “Rub it on your body. You’ve been living without showers.”

  They passed the box around. Xinmei obeyed as did everyone else. She dusted herself with the dry parts, and left dirty streaks on her hands and cheeks with the moist bits. She felt truly miserable and realized that only worse could be in store.

  Another woman brought by boxes of filthy clothes. There was no choosing. Xinmei got her box and started to dress. She got mostly black rags, the remains of a T-shirt and old black pants with worn sandals. An old gray army coat stained with blood served as her only real protection.

  Then the woman in charge went through them one by one and added some details. Then they were dismissed through a side door. She came to Xinmei and looked her over.

  “You’re too pretty,” she said harshly. “It’ll be harder for you. Try to look ugly.” The woman struck her in the face.

  Xinmei yelped and fell to the floor. Oddly, the woman extended a hand and helped her back up.

  “Trust me. That’ll be better,” she said, looking at Xinmei’s eye. Her orbital throbbed.

  Xinmei glared angrily at her. The woman wagged her finger in Xinmei’s face.

  “Uh uh uh,” she said. “Look down at the floor. Whatever you get, you deserved it. You’re going into the slave trade. You’re the property of a gang. You’re their whore. Their sex slave they’ve used up and just want to get a good price for.”

  Xinmei looked away.

  “Okay, go out to see Guotin now.”

  Xinmei staggered away and went to the door.

  Inside, she found a short man dressed in simple street clothing. He had a tiny beard on his chin and a wide, fat face though his body didn’t look grossly overweight.

  The man looked her over with a harsh eye.

  “You are dumb,” he started. Xinmei braced herself. “Dumb and uneducated. Dirty. You crap in the ground. You harvest rice and fish, living at subsistence. Your teeth are the product of good genetics, not good dentists. Your father taught you some English but he’s dead now. He only did it out of a crazy idea it would help you somehow, but it never did.”

  The man stopped, so Xinmei nodded.

  “Be dumb for now. Once you get to a middleman facility, you’ll be tested,” he continued. “Then you get a fair bit smarter. Still, you can’t give away too much of your education. Especially about computer science. But you want to show above average basic intelligence so that they’ll attach you to special attention for the corporation. Believe it our not, the big companies actually want slightly smarter slaves than average.”

  The acid and hatred in the man’s voice was obvious. She knew now that his harshness was not directed at her, that in fact he sought to aid her despite his brusque tone.

  “Remember, you’ve been broken. That’s what the gangs do. They harvest and break. You’re being inserted past that point in the supply chain. That means you’ve been subjected to torture and rape. You’ve been humiliated and broken down until you follow every order. If you do more than hesitate for one second, expect to be hit. And it may ruin everything. At this point, you are less than human. If you show them you have a will, a sense of dignity, then they’ll at best refuse to buy you, at worst they’ll kill you and suspect us. Others could die, too, ones that went ahead of you.”

  Xinmei swallowed hard and tried to be strong. For the first time in a long time, she wondered if she had the will, the determination, to succeed.

  As if sensing her doubt, the man stood up and whispered to her.

  “Your body is only a vessel of the mind. Your mind is your weapon. Don’t let them hurt your mind, your resolve and your soul, and you are invincible. Every time they hurt you, take that pain and direct it towards their destruction!”

  Xinmei nodded again. The man sat back down.

  “Now for the hard part. Cut your link off from the net. From now on, you don’t even have one. Don’t open an external port from your yin xing ji until you’ve been placed at the company for a week and you have no reason to think they suspect you. If someone contacts you before that, pretend like you don’t know what they’re talking about. If they’re legitimate, they’ll have a code for your link.”

  Xinmei nodded. Her link dropped off the service network. It felt like the whole world had gone away, leaving only her and the machine in her head. Irrationally, she waited for it to come back. She shifted her weight nervously from one foot to the other.

  “It’s like going off drugs,” the man said and gave a harsh laugh. “It sucks for a couple days. You get used to it, though. Things will be tough, no doubt about it. You’ll get through and then once you’re placed, you’ll be contacted by friends and things will get better.”

  “Thank you for your advice,” Xinmei said sincerely.

  “Don’t thank me,” he said in traditional reply. He got up and took a step closer. “The ministry will keep the letters from your friend,” he said quietly. “Don’t worry. They’ll tell him nothing except that you’re still alive and on a mission. He only knows what you tell him.”

  Xinmei thought about that. The man was telling her that she needed feel no shame for her upcoming humiliations? Yet she realized that question would have burned in her weeks later if she didn’t have the answer. Now she knew. Whatever she went through, Li Feng didn’t have to know about it.

  She resolved to never tell him.

  ***

  The boat looked ancient at first, like a junk-rigged boat right out of the last century. Xinmei took a closer look, and saw through the facade: the hull was metal, though it had been camouflaged as wood merely for aesthetics. Similarly, the sails were modern and without wear, made of a dark material which no doubt greedily soaked up the sun’s energy.

  Guotin and another woman from the MSS lined up twelve women, including Xinmei, and marched everyone on board. Xinmei only saw three rugged looking men about the craft. She wondered if they worked for the ministry.

  A bottle of water was passed around. Guoti
n told everyone to drink their fill. Xinmei took a swig and passed the container on. Then one of the men marched the women down into the boat.

  Once below deck, Xinmei saw that the vessel might well be modern, but the conditions aboard were primitive. There were only two quarters for all the women, which would require them to double bunk and two others would still sleep on the floor. They all shared one bathroom. No one showed them any clothes washing facility or a kitchen.

  It all felt even worse to Xinmei, who had to keep her link silent. After a lifetime of its comforting presence in her head, she almost wailed in despair at its absence. Only the secret knowledge that she could turn it back on at any time kept her from truly weeping.

  For three days the women languished below, while the boat rocked and swayed. Xinmei was spared at least any motion sickness, though several of the women vomited until Xinmei wondered if they might die of dehydration.

  Xinmei took her occasional turn in the bathroom as an opportunity to snoop around. She couldn’t go far, but she peeked into a cabinet across from the bathroom when no one was looking. It was full of medical supplies and toiletries. There was an old razor, perhaps discarded by one of the men, lying in the back of the cabinet. Xinmei instinctually grabbed it and whisked it off with her into the bathroom. There, she slit a small hole on the inside of her army jacket next to the bottom hem and slid the razor in between the two layers of fabric. She thought about the risk if someone found it, but she decided it was worth it.

  All the women were silent at first, too shaken to speak, but finally a few started chatting quietly when the men were gone, just to fight off the endless boredom. They talked about the bathroom and how the water barely worked, how to take care of the sick women, and how to rotate their sleeping in the bunks. No one spoke a word about the MSS or any other agency.

  Finally the engine sound was cut and Xinmei heard some odd metallic clinking. She guessed they had come to a port. One of the men opened the door to the quarters.

  “Time to go, we have a client,” said the man. “Be on your best behavior, or I’ll throw you to the sharks. No shit. You better not cost me any money or you’ll regret it.”

  Xinmei wondered if the man was acting or if he really was unaware who the women were. At least some of the women, Xinmei thought. Were they all from the MSS or the military?

  Maybe some of them really were born at subsistence? I would be able to tell... wouldn’t I?

  The bright sun blinded her as soon as she moved out onto the deck. Squinting through tears, she caught sight of a submersible pulled up alongside the boat. Another glimpse across the bright sea didn’t give any sign of land.

  “Next!” someone said. A hand shoved Xinmei forward. A dark-skinned man with a gray cap and a red shirt grabbed Xinmei by the head. He looked at her face and examined her teeth. His calloused thumb brushed over her bruised eye and made her whimper.

  The man pulled her shirt up to examine her breasts.

  “This one,” he said, shoving her back. Xinmei staggered back and clutched the old army jacket around herself. She held her head low, but caught glimpses as the man selected two other women from the group. He walked aside to make arrangements with one of her captors. They negotiated for a while, but Xinmei didn’t see anything physically change hands. She had heard that sometimes in illegal dealings, links weren’t used at all for the purchases since they might be traced.

  Then the men were done.

  “You three, with me,” said Red Shirt.

  Xinmei and two other women walked to the edge of the boat. Red Shirt pushed them over one by one, where the women struggled to find footing atop the submersible. Then he opened the only hatch and pushed everyone in.

  Xinmei dropped down the ladder into the submarine first. She saw a cramped interior, with only two chambers. A group of bunks filled the rear cabin, and the forward area was twice as large, filled with equipment and manual controls. She could see why Red Shirt only took three women, as the craft could hardly have accommodated many more.

  “All of you, stay back there,” Red Shirt said in his bad Mandarin. Xinmei wondered if he spoke some other Chinese dialect natively, or some other language altogether. The women huddled back in the bunk area.

  Red Shirt got the submarine going. They immediately sank into the ocean, although there was still light from the outside, so Xinmei didn’t think they were very deep. She wondered if he had to submerge to remain hidden. It seemed likely, what other reason could there be for using a submersible?

  Xinmei resigned herself once again to hours of boredom. Usually anyone with a link could entertain themselves endlessly, and she often had done so at dull times, but now there was simply no escape except sleep. She’d already slept until her head ached.

  The toilet was merely a tube sticking out of the wall. Xinmei was starting to become dehydrated at that point and so she didn’t have to use it. Several times Red Shirt came back from the pilot’s seat to shoot a powerful stream of urine into the tube with poor accuracy. Even more so, since he stared at the women with a smile on his face every time he pulled his little brother out of his pants, as if daring them to observe him.

  Time stretched on. Once, Red Shirt dropped a silver packet of food in front of them. They pulled it open and found it filled with some flat slices of meat and a rice mush, which they ate greedily. Another time, Red Shirt gave them a drink from his own water supply, just enough to keep them conscious, it seemed to Xinmei.

  Days later Xinmei had given up all hope for anything. She needed more food, more water, and some kind of mental stimulation. Red Shirt tied them up so he could sleep. Xinmei was certain he’d been guiding the submarine himself rather than following some kind of automated course. She wondered if the machine was simply too primitive to drive itself, or if it had been broken.

  In the morning, Red Shirt let them free. He gave them some more water in a shallow pan.

  “Clean up, doves. Today we’re going to sell you off. Great money for me.” The man laughed harshly.

  The women half-heartedly washed the dirt from their faces. Then they waited for hours more, until the machine surfaced and Red Shirt came back to the bunks.

  “Get up. Up and out,” he ordered.

  The women barely had the strength to claw their way up the ladder. Red Shirt shoved them up, enjoying the opportunity to grab them. Xinmei felt a distant anger but she had started to numb to her new life.

  They came out to see a tiny cove in shallow green water, barely enough to allow the submersible up to a long dock. All around the cove, heavy vegetation grew out of control. Xinmei had no idea where they were. A European woman stood on the dock with a rifle in her hands. Xinmei’s eyes followed the dock to a small beach, where she saw a few buildings. She caught sight of a huge house nestled on the hillside overlooking the cove.

  Red Shirt talked with the woman. Xinmei couldn’t follow the conversation. She felt blinded by the sun and deafened by the hot wind. She felt hunger eating away at her insides.

  The deal was made. The woman with the rifle motioned them forward down the ramp.

  Xinmei started to go with the other women. Red Shirt stuck his arm out to block her.

  “Not this one,” Red Shirt said.

  “You sure? She looks like we could use her.”

  “I have another buyer.”

  “Okay. Let us know if you change your mind.”

  Red Shirt held Xinmei at the back of the neck and marched her back into the boat. Xinmei felt despair at having to go back into the tiny submersible, especially alone.

  As soon as they had submerged, Red Shirt turned towards Xinmei.

  “You probably wondering why I didn’t sell you,” he said slowly. “You see, dove, I realized that you’re simply too fine. I want you to myself!” He gave her a bone chilling smile.

  Xinmei’s heart accelerated again. Wanted her to himself? Xinmei wasn’t sure about the term dove, but whatever he meant couldn’t be good.

  He dropped another silv
er pouch of food before her. Xinmei tore at it. Red Shirt turned and walked back to his instruments.

  As she ate, the words of her MSS seniors came back to her. You’re less than human now. But behind her on this island were the people who were supposed to end up with her— the partners of Vineaux Genomix. If they didn’t buy her, the mission was already a failure. What good did it serve to become this man’s plaything now?

  Her fingers found the razor where she’d placed it in the old army jacket. She pulled it out of hiding and moved it to the big pocket on the right hand side.

  Could she kill such a large man with it? Even if she managed to slit a throat artery, did she even have the strength to fight him while he bled out? The man wasn’t bulging with muscles, but he had a lean, lanky strength that couldn’t be dismissed lightly. Unlike her, he’d been eating regularly.

  She looked around for other weapons. There was some equipment in the tiny cabin, but mostly it was bulky stuff and didn’t seem useful. If only he’d left a wrench or something similar lying around last time he’d worked on the submersible. She caught sight of an oxygen tank sitting in a mount on the wall. It looked like it could be pulled straight up an out of its berth. Did she have the strength?

  Red Shirt kept driving the submarine out of the tiny cove. The submersible rounded a rocky outcropping outside the bay and continued around the island. Xinmei caught glimpses of a vibrant reef passing by teeming with life.

  If only Feng were here, he’d smash this awful man to a pulp for me. But he isn’t. So I will have to do it myself.

  Red Shirt dialed down the power, slowing them with a lurch. He hit another control and Xinmei heard the sounds of an anchor sliding away beneath them.

  Then Red Shirt turned around.

  “Now let’s see what you’re good for, little dove,” he said in his odd accent.

  He crept out of the pilot position like a greedy troll coming to grab its dinner. He seized her savagely by the hair and kissed her. Xinmei forced herself to be patient. If he saw the danger, then she’d have no chance at all.