by Darcy Town
Katarina frowned. “He knows what the worst are like too, he tricks in alleys.”
Ravil frowned. “Tricks?”
Tasanee and Katarina shared a look. Katarina searched for the right words and shrugged. “I’m not going to sugarcoat this. He said you’ve seen him at his worst. You know he gets money the same way I do.”
“He has sex for money?” Ravil gagged.
Katarina nodded. “Ever since he started shooting up and couldn’t hold any other kind of job.”
“The needles?”
“Yeah.” Katarina nodded. “He was starving for awhile and when you’re starving to death and craving you’ll do anything. He did, he has. He got your medicine that way, too.”
Ravil leaned her head on the windowsill and touched her arm where the needle had gone in. “He didn’t tell me. He shouldn’t have done that, not for me.”
Tasanee made a face. “No one tells Rake what to do. Besides, he was all torn up about you being ill. I don’t think he cared about what he had to do to see you better.”
Ravil tucked her knees to her chest. “I wish he hadn’t.” She closed her eyes. “That makes me a party to it. I don’t want to be involved in…in that.”
Katarina patted her hand. “You’re putting way more emotion and thought into it than he did, Ravil. Don’t put your values on him, that’s not fair. He helped you.”
“I know and that makes it worse.” Ravil shook her head. “He did it for me, he didn’t have to. He should have left me in that warehouse.”
“You could have died.”
Ravil shrugged. “So?”
The pair eyed her. Tasanee leaned forward. “Ravil, he may be a whore, a junk head, and a general ass, but he’s not going to leave someone to die.”
Katarina nodded. “Especially not a girl your age.”
Ravil fingered Rake’s necklace. “But I’m bringing him trouble, causing him to have to do those things for money.”
Tasanee rolled her eyes. “Rake brings his own fucking trouble to his doorstep. He always has as long as I’ve known him.”
“It’s true, he does.” Katarina withheld her comment about Ravil adding fuel to that fire. “He’s attracted to it.”
“Can we not talk about this?” Tasanee handed Ravil the biology book from earlier. “Read some more. I want time with my woman.”
Ravil opened the book and shrugged. “Sure.” She backed towards a circle of orange lamp light and started at the beginning with conception and human babies. Beyond her Tasanee pulled Katarina up to her bed, the pair got comfortable under the blankets. Ravil wondered if this was the ‘normal’ childhood Calpsan had envisioned for her.
***
Rake writhed under thin silk sheets and cotton blankets. He pulled on his wrist restraints and winced; he’d rubbed his skin raw and blistered. He pulled on his left hand, trying to get it free or loose, anything that would allow him to scratch his chest, his neck. Blisters burst and added a new pain to his list of agonies.
He turned to the covered windows, weak morning light seeped in around the seams. How long had he been out? Wasn’t it light outside the last time he had been awake? What if only a minute had passed? He tried to think, tried to determine how long it had been, but nothing made sense. His dreams ran into hallucinations and those mingled with reality. He had no idea how long he had been here. He struggled to breathe. What if no one remembered he was even here? He’d die like this. He thrashed.
“Czar is right outside, Rake. Just call for him. Maybe the big dumb Russian will let you out.”
Rake glared at Lara with blurry eyes. “Go away.”
Lara laughed and snuggled up against him provocatively. She was back to being tan and warm again, alive looking. She wore a metal bikini and her hair was styled in coiled braids. She trailed a finger along his chest. “Just call for him.”
“Go away.”
“I don’t want to leave, Rake.” She licked the side of his face. “I don’t want to go away. Please just call for him.” Rake pulled on his wrist. She watched him. “You’re trying to get a fix babe and I’m trying to help you. I’m your personal cheerleader.”
“Fuck you.” He stopped pulling and closed his eyes. “I just need to scratch my fucking chest!”
“No, you need a fix.”
“Don’t tell me what I need!” Rake swallowed and winced, his mouth and throat were dry, raw. He had not been able to hold any water down for hours. He had stopped sweating, his lips were cracked, his eyes scratchy. He was too far gone to know that was a bad thing. “Only I decide what I need.”
Lara sat on his stomach. “Mr. Independent Rake, it must kill you to be so dependent on a thing.”
“It does, so I’m getting free.”
“You’ll never be free of it though, it’s going to linger in your system like I do.”
“You are going to go away as soon as I am off that shit Keto is pumping into me.”
“No, I think I’ll stay around.” She unhooked her top. “Don’t you want me to stay? I can be entertaining. I can make you feel good.” She rubbed up against his pelvis. “When was the last time you got any sex that you wanted anyways? It’s been years, hasn’t it?” She grinned and touched him through the sheets. “I bet you’re about ready to pop. Shall I help you?”
“This is fucking sick. Go away!” Rake looked towards the windows, the light increased as the sun rose. “I want you to leave and never come back.”
Lara grimaced and punched his ribs. “No.”
Keto came through the door and Lara faded out. Rake rolled his head to the side. “I’m fucking thirsty, Keto, and Lara is still here.”
“I know.” Keto touched Rake’s forehead, his neck. He stuck a thermometer in his mouth. He pulled the thermometer out and put a cold cloth on Rake’s head. “Betty says you’ve been vomiting all of your water.”
Rake nodded. “I’m thirsty.”
Keto got up. “I’m going to give you an IV, do not knock it over.” He stepped out of the room and came back with a busted up IV stand. “You’re going to probably get cold for a bit.”
Rake eyed the bag of liquid greedily. “I don’t care. I’m so thirsty!”
Keto moved to his other side and got the IV set up on his arm. He eyed Rake’s face and traced his finger along the hairline cut Marx had left on his cheek. “What is this from?”
“Karl Marx!” Rake laughed and bit his pillow. “He tasted like carbonated pennies, Keto.”
Keto sighed. “Right.” He adjusted Rake’s pillows and checked his wrists. He grimaced at the sight of them. He got out a roll of gauze.
Rake eyed it. “Are you going to let me loose now?”
Keto set the gauze down. “Not until you pass out again, I’m not that stupid.”
Rake shivered as a cool chill pumped through his body. “Co—cold.”
Keto added a blanket. “It will be for a little bit.” He popped an ice cube in Rake’s mouth. “Suck on that, don’t swallow or you’ll just throw up again. You should feel better soon.”
Rake rolled the small ice cube around his tongue. “Lara, Lara said…”
“Is she still trying to get you to kill yourself?”
Rake chewed through his ice cube. “I think she wants me to escape now.”
Keto nodded. “Another day, Rake, and you might be ready to get untied.”
“Another day?” Rake squirmed. “A whole day?”
Keto checked the level of the IV. “Yes Rake, a whole day.”
Rake yawned. He examined the IV. “You’ve drugged me again.”
“Of course. If you can’t keep water down, you haven’t been keeping the medicine down either.” Keto unrolled the gauze.
Rake struggled to stay conscious. “How…how is Ravil?”
“Upright and walking around.”
“Is everyone treating her well?”
“Yes Rake, she’s fine.” Keto eyed him. “She is very strange though.”
“Stranger than everyone else there? I find
that hard to believe.”
“She’s grown three inches and her hair is about a foot long last I checked. I don’t know how that’s possible.”
Rake shrugged, he didn’t care. “Did you ask?”
“I tried. She doesn’t want to give a straight answer and Danny won’t let me interrogate her. She doesn’t like being questioned about it.”
“If she doesn’t want to talk to you, she doesn’t have to!” Anger cut through the haze of painkillers. “She’s just a kid!”
“Is she, Rake? Is that how you feel?”
Rake looked puzzled. “Why do you even need to ask that question?”
“Because she’s aging as I look at her, Rake! She’s not normal.”
Rake turned his head away. “You’re just confused.”
“Or you are.” Keto shook his head. “Maybe you’ll see what I’m talking about when you come home. Then maybe Danny will let me examine her more.”
Rake struggled to hit him. “You won’t touch her!” He fought against the sedatives. “You touch her and I’ll kill you! She isn’t yours to do with as you want! I won’t let you! I will kill…” His eyes rolled back in his head.
Keto tapped his cheek, checking to see that he was actually unconscious. He undid one of the restraints and cleaned the wounds on Rake’s wrist, he wrapped them in gauze. Keto moved to each limb. He removed the IV and gave Rake another injection to keep him asleep for the rest of the day. He opened a book and sat by his bedside. He checked that the gun at his belt was secure and settled back to read in the dim light of the boudoir.
***
Marx backed out of a building with his hands in the air. It was his fifteenth brothel of the day and he’d finally found another dark haired Caucasian to take a blood sample from. Things had been looking good. He’d drawn a claw of blood for Kennedy to taste, but he’d been forced to retreat before being able to ask the man his questions. Marx considered his options.
A Japanese woman with a shotgun stalked out through her front door. “Not in my brothel, you sick freak! No one cuts on my patrons!”
Marx hissed. “I just wanted to ask the man some questions. I was polite.”
“Fuck. Off.”
Marx backed up another few feet onto a cracked sidewalk. Pedestrians watched the face-off in interest. Marx looked up at the windows of the building, gauging whether he could jump up to them. This new man fit the Rake’s description, and he was not sick or drugged like the Solo man had been. He did have a blood sample, but he still had questions to ask. He tensed and curled his fingers.
The woman narrowed her eyes, seeing his intent. She angled the gun and fired.
Marx cringed and stared at his left hand, blood pumped out of the stump where his pinky finger used to be.
She spat. “Damn I missed, meant to take your whole hand.”
He rounded on the woman. “Why? I did not attack you. That was not justified or honorable.”
“I saw you looking at my windows. Now you should leave before I decide to take your head off for thinking about it.”
Marx stuck the pinky stump in his mouth and sucked on the wound to clot the blood. He still had the sample he’d just collected, but he’d lost another, the one from the man named Solo. He turned and walked off. He dodged into an alley and stared at the wound. “Well Mr. Solo, I must pay you another visit and collect again.”
Marx got his bearings and turned back in the direction he’d come from. That brothel was across the city, several hours of walking at least. He wrapped the wound as he walked; he was in no particular hurry. The Solo man had been tied to a bed, sick and not going anywhere. And once Marx had filled his last claw, he would have to rejoin Kennedy. He did not have any desire to do that.
Marx sighed. Three fingers damaged on this mission, he found that irritating.
***
Arms wrapped around Ravil’s stomach and lifted her from the beanbag. She kicked. Tasanee dropped her. “Ow!”
“Rat?” Ravil yawned and sat up.
Tasanee rubbed her thigh. “Yep.”
Ravil smiled. “Sorry, I don’t like being startled.”
“Apparently not.” Tasanee held out her hand to help Ravil up. “You can go back to sleep, but you have to do it in your room. Kat’s starting with her regulars soon and needs the space.”
“I’m awake.” Ravil tucked her biology book under her arm; she had gotten halfway through it before falling asleep the night before. “Where is she now?”
“Grabbing breakfast.”
Ravil scratched her head. She pulled her hair in front of her face it was down to her sternum. “It’s still growing!”
Tasanee nodded. “Yep, you’re some kind of circus freak. Come on, hairy girl!” She put on a pair of pants and padded out of the room. Ravil followed. Tasanee paused in front of the stairs. “So.”
Ravil stopped by her side. “What do you do all day while Kat…works?”
Tasanee grinned. “Play with my toys.” She pushed her glasses up her nose. “On weekdays I fix stuff to sell in markets on the weekends.” She pointed up the center stairs. “You can see if you want to.” She ran up the flight of stairs, passing the third floor, she stopped on the fourth. There was only one door; the other doorways had been boarded up.
Tasanee pulled a key off from around her neck, she unlocked the door and gestured Ravil in.
Ravil stepped inside and stopped. “It’s one big room.”
Tasanee nodded and pointed to the ceiling. “The fifth is the same way too. We took the walls down awhile ago.” Paint blacked out every window, the room was dim. A few old couches lined the walls; their frayed edges were sealed in duct tape. Machine parts covered an array of beat up folding tables. The room smelled of oil and metal.
Ravil breathed it in; it was a familiar scent, industrial. She smiled. “This is a Fix-It room.”
“Better than a break it room.” Tasanee pulled on a chain hanging from the ceiling and a string of fluorescent lights illuminated half of the room. She chewed on her lip and passed by tables of toasters and TVs. “Where is that thing?”
Ravil followed her. “What are you looking for?”
“Remember that Russian shit you were reading? I need a part from it, it’s somewhere in this half of the room.”
Ravil looked around. “How can you tell?”
“Space stuff is this side, the other side is regular shit like radios, TVs, boring stuff.” Tasanee smiled and tossed a keypad back at Ravil. “Check it.”
Ravil caught it. She tucked her book under her arm and ran her fingers along the metal. “This matches the one on the tanker.”
Tasanee smiled. “So Rake did take you to see it.”
“Yeah.” Ravil pressed the buttons. “Where’d you get all of this?”
“Markets.” Tasanee flipped sheets of metal over and kicked containers of wires to the side. “The craft around here were taken to pieces before the government stepped in to recall them. You can rebuild entire ships if you know what you’re looking for.”
Ravil stared at all of the parts. “Russian ships too?”
Tasanee grinned. “You can find anything in the markets.” She grabbed a hose. “Ha!” She pulled and the hose came out of a pile with a ventilation unit and scrubber attached. “I knew I had purchased one of these. Czar’s going to be thrilled.”
Ravil leaned on the wall. “You’re rebuilding their spaceships?”
“Kind of.” Tasanee headed back towards the door. “It’s illegal to do that you know, very illegal, death penalty illegal.” She grabbed a metal lockbox labeled ammunition. “But I have a death warrant out for me anyways, and you can’t kill me twice.”
Ravil followed her out of the room. “Why does someone want to execute you?”
“Everyone in the Chinese space program was executed upon its official closure. Don’t you just love the Chinese?” She locked the door and headed down the stairs. She opened the box and pulled out a pistol and belt. She strapped the belt and weapon to her waist.
“This city and Bombay are the only two safe places for us on Earth.”
Ravil had never heard of Bombay. “Rake called it the No-Law City.”
Tasanee smiled. “Yeah, Bangkok is uncontrollable. It’s officially a Chinese territory, but no one comes here. We had a few raids in the first year after the Space Silence, but we’d slip away to come out later. They haven’t raided us in probably a year now. I think mostly they’ve gotten tired of looking for us. None of us has ever done anything worth killing us for anyways.” They reached the first floor landing. “But that never seemed to matter.”
Tasanee opened the front door and stepped outside. Ravil followed her out onto the front porch. A man walked up the steps, nodded his head to Tasanee, and stepped inside. Ravil watched him. “Who was that?”
“One of Kat’s.” Tasanee rolled her eyes.
“Oh.” Ravil gazed at the front door.
Tasanee hopped down the steps and reached the sidewalk. “So you want to come?”
Ravil darted out into the morning sunlight. “Where are you going?”
Tasanee jerked her head towards the overgrown field to the right. “My workstation.”
Ravil smiled. “Are there spaceships there?”
Tasanee winked. “Of course not!” She took off.
Ravil ran to keep up with her. She looked at Tasanee’s gun. “Are you worried about thieves?”
Tasanee stepped into the long grass. “I’m worried about snoops.”
Ravil remembered Danny saying that word the night before. “Government snoops?”
“Yeah, they’re not here for me, but if they happened to follow me and found what I was building, well it would be a whole world of shit for everyone.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
Tasanee shoved a section of chain-link fence aside and held it open for Ravil. She padlocked it shut after Ravil was through. “I’ve never done anything else.” Tasanee pushed grass out of the way as she walked. “When the Chinese started their program they allowed families to have two children, even three, but the deal was that once the extra children were toddlers they were taken into the space program, trained since before they could write on a specific task to further the empire, blah, blah, blah.”
Ravil could understand that concept. “So how old were you?”