Merv sat in the corner under the jungle vines, drinking coffee through a straw and stroking Snout. Caked orange dribble on his collar told me he was dry, but only just.
I ordered tea and something that resembled sugar dough.
Lam nodded at the waiter, to confirm that my request was on the house. Then he sat himself at the counter.
I picked up my order casually and made for a table under the vines. I sat with my back to Lam, blocking his direct vision of Merv.
‘C-can’t talk for long,’ Merv muttered. He fingered the chocolate roll in front of him.
‘Have you found anything?’
‘Not yet. Snout’s been digging b-but there’s a quiver. I had to bring her in.’ His hand shook as it lifted the roll to his mouth. ‘Y-you go out in a quiver, y-you don’t come back. No matter how good you are.’
I sighed. A quiver was a hack’s equivalent of an earthquake - major shake. It spooked them all. The paranoid ones believed that it was a rogue surveillance program. But nobody knew who wrote it and nobody knew who sent it. Maybe that was what Honey meant about Merv being scared of shadows.
‘How long does a quiver last?’
Merv shrugged. ‘Not long. M-maybe.’
I swallowed a surge of impatience and tried another tack. ‘What is Brilliance?’
The fear put there by the thought of the quiver didn’t fade from his voice. ‘An AI.’
‘How does it work?’
‘Sh-she edits everything we see on the screen. I mean everything that is supplied to her.’
‘How do you mean?’
He tapped the bitten end of his roll into his plate as though he was stubbing out a cig. ‘She relies on r-raw feed from the Priers. All the Priers are owned by the big three.’
‘Monk, Bau and Laud?’
He nodded. ‘M-monk feeds her sport. S.K. Laud feeds her lifestyle. And Sera Bau c-cams everything she needs for DramaNet. Brilliance edits and p-programmes, depending on her gauging of the v-viewers’ response.’
I stared down through the transparent floor. Breeza’s. Good name. You could almost feel the wind licking between your toes.
‘Sounds like Brilliance has a lot of say.’
‘Her original program was designed just for multimedia editing. Programming selection is something that seems to have evolved.’
Merv hunched his shoulders in a way that told me there was more.
Behind me I heard Lam clank his plate on the cafébar. I stretched and looked around. He was staring at me with an empty expression that made me nervous.
I turned back to Merv and spoke quickly. ‘Who else figures in the big time stakes around here?’
‘The b-banking royalty, I guess. They m-manage the money still but they don’t have much p-personal wealth. Information is p-power and they don’t own it.’
He looked away from me suddenly - just before Lam slapped me across the ear.
I jerked upright, fists clenched.
‘What’s so interesting?’ Lam said in perfect Australian.
The surprise of hearing him finally speak stalled my gut reaction to hammer him. I used the moment to tell myself that a full-scale brawl probably wouldn’t further my cause.
‘Well, you’re not exactly scintillating conversation,’ I snapped, rubbing my ear.
He laughed. A breathy snort.
Before I had a chance to reconsider my passive line Amoratos from the Luxoria spilled in, chattering and laughing, as beautiful in the daylight as they were in the dimness of the club. Glorious was among them.
Merv got up and left as they approached. They ignored him as though he was invisible.
Glorious came over to me, glowing with beauty - a combination of effects created by her incredible hair, her amber-tinged skin and some early-morning exercise.
‘You look better,’ I said spontaneously.
‘We have to keep in shape for our profession. But then, you’d know that. You have an exceptional body.’
The others giggled and made rude noises at her. They settled at tables around me, calling for food and coffee. Lam resumed his bland expression and withdrew to the counter.
Glorious’s compliment made me squirm. I didn’t like social chat, and I didn’t like the direction of the conversation. She was flirting.
She sat on the stool next to me, leaning in close as if we were good friends.
‘I’m glad you’re here,’ she said. ‘When you didn’t call me last night I thought something might have happened. That you’d left.’
I grunted. Non-committal. My heart accelerated, though, disturbed by her easy manner.
‘Look at your bruises. I’ll put something on them when we go back.’ She reached up and stroked my face.
‘What are you doing?’ I growled, glancing around.
The others didn’t seem to notice - only Lam, who watched from a distance over the lip of his cup.
Glorious stared at me, eyes wide with innocent interest. ‘There’s something about you, Jales. I’ve never met anyone who . . . Delly said you are an Amorato. I can sense desire in you but there’s resistance too. It’s not usual for someone of our trade to be divided.’
Divided? It described exactly how I was feeling. She’d forgotten to add confused, crazy and infected by a lustful, violent parasite. What else would explain this femme turning my stomach to liquid and my legs to purée? Doll Feast was the only woman I’d been with before but that had been more about survival and need.
Women weren’t to my taste in that way - they got competitive about all the wrong things when sex came into it. This . . . attraction was something I’d never experienced before and it was freaking untimely.
I pushed her hand away. ‘You got a degree in mind-reading?’
Glorious looked puzzled. ‘Applied Endocrinology, Sexual Alchemy and Bio-Communication, actually. But you must have similar qualifications?’
‘Er . . . yes, though things are different in the west. We train on the . . . er . . . job.’
She brought her face closer to mine. ‘I can work out most people within a few minutes of meeting them. After that, their inhibitions are easily overcome. But I cannot find the beginning of the thread with you.’ She whispered the last, her sweet breath fanning my lips. ‘You frighten me.’
This was not the sort of conversation I was used to having at breakfast - sophisticated and loaded with sexual undertones. I was usually too busy stuffing in hot dough and cursing Teece.
I turned my mouth to Glorious’s ear, careful not to touch her flesh. ‘Be frightened,’ I whispered, hoping to put her off.
She gave me a wicked smile. ‘Fear is exciting.’
Without warning she locked her arms around my neck and slipped her tongue straight into my mouth. An explosion of taste hit me - sweeter than jam, tangier than lemon.
Desire sprang loose like a wild thing. I wanted to reach under her clothes and feel the texture of her skin.
‘I still haven’t shown you my room,’ she breathed.
‘You should,’ I said.
We left with Lam trailing behind, smirking discreetly. Whatever his instructions from Lavish, they didn’t prevent me fraternising.
As we walked back across the bridge Glorious wound and unwound her fingers through mine, tickling and pinching the flesh of my hand.
By the time we got to her room my self-restraint had failed completely. A haze fell across my vision. I wanted her so badly that it hurt.
Or maybe it wasn’t her. Maybe I just wanted it.
My hands trembled on her shoulders as she keyed in her door code.
We stumbled inside and I snatched Glorious against me, forcing a leg up between hers. Our kiss wasn’t tender or loving. It was something far cruder.
I rolled her on to the bed and tore her shirt open. My mouth fixed onto the length of her nipple. I sucked roughly, without any expertise, only need.
Glorious seemed to like it. She freed the other nipple from her opened shirt so that I could squeeze it between my
fingers.
Then she reached down to my pants and slid her fingers inside the waistband. I loosened them and wriggled them down over my hips.
She trailed her fingers from my navel downwards, so lightly that I thought I might die from the teasing agony of it.
‘Please,’ I groaned. ‘Hurry.’
In the back of my brain I registered that she’d barely touched me and yet I was out of my mind with desire for her. No one had ever done this to me before - not even Loyl. The flesh hunger denied the existence of anything else.
Glorious’s fingers probed and stroked, finding the entrance to the moist slit where she could slip inside me. I arched, ready for it, but she suddenly pulled away, climbing off the bed to put some distance between us.
Confused, dizzyingly so, I watched as she picked up a small spray from her Alkem module and doused herself with it. She returned and sprayed it on me as well.
I went to touch her but her flesh felt different, almost repellent. Somehow, in a few seconds, the heat had gone from my lust. The sight of her breasts was no longer erotic. My near-orgasm faded back to a troubled urge.
Glorious read my reaction and smiled. ‘I think the mélange I made was strong enough to disarm your defences. Don’t you?’
I opened my mouth and shut it again three times. Even then I couldn’t form a word.
She smiled again, almost smug in her sincerity. ‘I love what I do, Jales. But to me it’s science, you understand?’
Glorious stripped and stepped straight into the san, calling out some instructions to the Alkem module.
I turned away from her nakedness and forced myself over toward the window to think. I’d been dosed with an aphrodisiac without even knowing it.
Embarrassment left me hot in a different kind of way.
Lesson numero uno in the art.
I tried to clear my mind by staring at the view from Glorious’s room.
One hundred and fifty floors up and not a vestige of smoke in the sky. I didn’t know if Viva had climate and pollution controls - but it sure seemed like it.
To the east Jinberra Island floated on a glinting sea, taunting me. In a data collection, somewhere on that island, was the name I desperately wanted - the reason I was here acting as sport for a bored sex worker.
To the south, the greyish line of The Tert was the only blemish between the expanse of glittering chrome-edged city and the horizon.
I had a colossal desire to go home where I understood the rules. Where I wasn’t at the mercy of Glorious’s beauty and my overactive glands.
Thinking about The Tert soothed me some and my libido slid back under my control, leaving behind the usual restless frustration. I didn’t want or have time for these distractions and yet without Merv’s help I couldn’t get the name I needed.
Patience.
‘What did you think of my blend?’
I risked turning to look at Glorious. With relief I found that the intoxicating effects had waned. Behind me stood a clean, naked girl with beautiful, intelligent eyes and a well-toned figure. The question she was asking was purely professional, one colleague to another.
I tucked my embarrassment away and tried to look casual. ‘Sure. Fun stuff.’
She bent over in the doorway of a large built-in ’drobe crammed with clothes, wig kits and other trimmings. ‘You’re not a standard size - we’ll have to order in,’ she muttered, bending down to rifle through some low shelves.
‘I don’t need new clothes,’ I said automatically, wishing she would stand up and put some clothes on.
‘You’re right. Let’s start with the important things.’ She sat down in front of her Alkem and tapped the side of her seat. ‘Come here, there’s room.’
A lesson in theory had to be safer than the hands-on variety even if the tutor was stark naked - so I did as she asked.
‘How much do you know about blending?’ she asked.
‘Just give me the quick and dirty version.’ The unfortunate words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
Glorious gave me a searching look, to see if I was joking.
I took a deep breath. The heat in my cheeks annoyed me. This kind of talk was not something I did with flair. ‘Er . . . I mean, give me the short version. I’ll ask if I need to know more.’
She nodded and leaned forward, flicking her wet hair back, blowing onto a sensor. The Alkem’s cover opened to reveal rows of multicoloured vials with exotic stoppers: angel’s wings, mermaids, birds of prey, naked statuettes . . . one even featured a tiny solar system with rotating planets.
‘Our range of aphrodisiacs is extensive.’ She ran a hand lovingly along the rows. ‘And most clients still prefer to think that the effect on them is entirely natural. You can administer a blend in a number of subtle ways - stroking, kissing, biting, scratching if you aren’t geno-fixed; sweating if you are.’
Glorious pointed to an object shaped like a hollow finger. ‘If you place a finger into it, it will coat the tip in a blend. When you touch your client’s skin their body heat dissolves the coating in a few seconds. This is safer than a direct spray inhalation or a sweat exposure for new clients.’
She saw the question in my expression.
‘At the Luxoria we manufacture our own dizzies internally and our tolerances are naturally high. The receptivity of each client’s vomeronasal receptors varies so much that it’s very easy to overdose them.’
‘What do you mean, internally?’
She didn’t hide her surprise. ‘I suppose you must use primitive means, Jales.’
The heat rose in my face again. Primitive was a pretty good description of everything in my life. ‘We . . . er . . . spent more time on actual techniques.’
Glorious didn’t look convinced but she continued anyway. ‘My sex glands have been geno-fixed to produce pheromones on conscious demand. I don’t need the right enviornment or the right partner.’ She grinned. ‘The alchemy side of things is purely for the clients. Once I know someone well I can use my own perspiration to stimulate them. It’s slower to take effect but ultimately more powerful.’
‘Fascinating,’ I said, despite myself. ‘I’m surprised I’ve never heard of it before.’ I thought you could get anything done in The Tert.
‘The procedure is expensive and only one genetic chemist in the southern hem performs it. It’s irreversible, you see.’
‘What’s the payback on that?’
Glorious thought about it for a moment, giving me a chance to study her. I figured her make-up was either permanent or geno-fixed as well: full, shaped lips, balanced bone structure and seductively sloping eyebrows - more than her share of beauty. The whole package was a freaking lot more effective than the quick-sculpt I’d had to straighten my face and cover my more obvious scars.
Even her hair had been tampered with so that it fell about her face like combed silk. The artifice ran so deep that the line of distinction between real and unreal had vanished. She could have been born ugly and deformed - you would never know.
‘I guess it changes you fundamentally. Pleasure becomes so simple, and so necessary. My libido is constant if I want it to be.’ Another smile: a dirty one this time. ‘And sometimes I do - if I think my partner can handle it.’
The conversation was taking a turn for the worse and I tried to steer it. ‘You used the finger coating on me?’
She nodded. ‘On your face.’
I remembered her stroking my cheek in Breeza’s.
‘I’ve never seen a skin work quite like that before, Jales. It must be something to do with your different training.’ She paused. ‘I’d like to hear more about where you come from and what you’ve learned.’
‘Er . . . sure, later,’ I mumbled.
Glorious shrugged and went on methodically describing her formulas and their specific effects. ‘This one prolongs orgasm. This heightens its intensity but the muscle contractions can be severe. This sensitises the body to pain. This does the opposite. This combined with this is called E
lusive. It’s the one I used on you. You rarely have to touch the person’s genitals to bring them to orgasm. It can be quite useful if you find your client distasteful or potentially diseased. Of course, here we screen for the latter.’
I stared at her, not sure whether to be insulted or relieved.
‘One thing to remember.’ She tapped each elaborate stopper lightly with her tattooed fingernails, making a clicking noise. ‘Unnecessary amounts of any of these can either kill or inflict permanent damage. And overuse is addictive.’
‘What about you?’
‘Oh, I’m addicted in a different way. We all are. If anyone attempted to alter the hyper-functioning of our glands, we’d die. But it’s not like I’ll ever have to stop.’
She threw me a questioning look.
‘Delly wants me to dizzy you up for your interview with Monk. But when you meet him in person he might be difficult. Jaded.’
‘Oh?’
‘If you get in a tight spot, these can be . . . useful.’
Glorious handed me a small, flexible ring.
‘We call them life-savers,’ she said. ‘Just lick it if you need to use it. The acid in your saliva breaks the seal, then the blend is released into your mouth. If you kiss your partner the chemicals are shared. This one is called’ - she squinted at the coloured stripes - ‘Castles in the sky. Whoever you use it on will have the experience of their life.’
I wanted to laugh. But this was her practical way of helping me, so I took the ring and slipped it on my little finger.
‘We make all our blends here but we buy in the base ingredients like synthesised androstenol and androstenone. Then we mix it with a few of Delly’s specialities.’
She pointed to a vial with a lable that read 5-a-androst- 16en-3a-on.
‘It occurs naturally in male sweat but we don’t advertise the fact.’ Glorious grinned as I wrinkled my nose. ‘I do the alchemy for some of the others as a trade-off for learning other skills. Each of us has a domain. I help Dazzle with his dizzies. He’s taught me how to tie knots.’ Her eyes widened a little. ‘You can’t believe how particular some of my clients are. Placement and style are everything.’
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