Altered Humans

by Darrell Bain

  “Anything else I can do for you, friend? A woman? A place to stay?"

  “Not now, thanks. Just forget you ever met me."

  “It's forgotten friend. Be careful; you're carrying a lot of money for this part of town.” Lee got into the car and drove away without a backward glance, leaving Gary standing in the parking lot.

  Gary returned to the slidewalk, not knowing exactly where he was going. At first he simply wandered, changing walks now and then, wanting to put some distance between himself and his last transaction. Carrying the bag didn't make him overly conspicuous; many of the slidewalk throngs carried bags, some by handles, some slung over shoulders. It was a reflection of the high unemployment rate and the fact that Houston had more jobs available than most cities, though a good portion of it was only quasi-legal. Nevertheless, it made the Houston area a target for the jobless and those displaced from other parts of the countryside by the plague of enhanced animals.

  Booger Bear squirmed uncomfortably in his pocket. He was really too big to carry that way for long now but Gary didn't want to free him in such strange surroundings.

  “Want a date, Mister?"

  A vacantly pretty young woman was blocking his path. She wore a bright red vest, hanging loosely open to display her young breasts, and a very short skirt split on both sides. Her blond hair was cut short, little longer than his own. Gary nodded no and started to go around her, then reconsidered.

  “How much for the night?"

  As young as the girl was, she had already learned to gauge the prosperity of her Johns. She named a figure he was loathe to pay, but at least it would get him off the street for the night and give him a chance to get re-oriented.

  “Let's go. What's your name?"

  “Veronica. Call me Vera. You want me to carry your bag?"

  “Is your place far?” Gary asked, ignoring the offer.

  The young girl stopped and gave him a curious stare. “We're not going to my place, Mister. You have to buy a room. Where are you from?"

  “Call me Larry. I'm from out of town. Look, I'll make it worth your while to go to your place."

  Vera sighed. “My old lady wouldn't like that. Come on, we're holding up traffic."

  Of course, Gary thought. She would have a pimp. Still, maybe she could help. “Look, Vera. I don't want to go to a hotel. Isn't there some other place?"

  She wrinkled her forehead then brightened. “I know somewhere but it will cost you."

  “Lead on,” Gary said. His money wasn't going to last very long at the rate he was spending it. No use worrying, he thought. Tomorrow will probably be worse and the most important consideration now was losing himself.

  * * *

  CHAPTER FIVE

  When Maria daydreamed, it was of herself as a cat in a woman's body most of the time. She had been engineered in a genetics laboratory in Mexico and grown in utero by a host mother. The lab had long since defunct; a casualty of the tight security now along the Mexican/United States border designed to stop the influx of altered humans and enhanced animals. She remembered little of her younger years. She assumed she had been raised in the laboratory crèche her first owners sometimes referred to. Her earliest memories were of a secretive Mexican couple who called her Maria and kept her inside most of the time, allowing her out only in their presence, with constant admonishments to keep her nails retracted, her long pelt-like hair covered with a scarf and to always wear opaque glasses on to keep anyone from seeing her eyes, which looked exactly like a cat's with their slit pupils.

  All this made for a lonely childhood. She had no friends and her early education came only through a primitive computer. She spoke Spanish and learned how to speak English in order to work with the computer. She learned quickly, pleasing the couple with her quick intelligence, but still they kept her under tight rein and gave her no love at all. She played only with cats. They had an affinity for her, as she did for them, sensing that they were kin. She enjoyed their company and found that she could interpret many of their sounds and mannerisms and even talk, in a limited fashion, to the few feral enhanced cats she came in contact with.

  When Maria was nine or ten, still pre-pubescent, she was suddenly and without warning delivered to another couple, this one in Ciudad Acuna, across the border from Del Rio. She spent more years there, and they became increasingly traumatic. Senor Munoz, as he insisted on being called, began trying to instruct her in sex as soon as she showed the first signs of developing into a woman. He was fat and oily, and not all pleasant to be around. Senora Munoz only compounded her problems. The senora used an electric whip to make her obey, black eyes glittering with undisguised pleasure when she winced from the shocks.

  Maria was no fool. She was allowed free access to the home computer terminal and she knew she was being trained as an exotic, eventually to be sold like an animal to some Norte Americano to use as a plaything. There was little she could do about it except resist as well as she was able. Both of her captors soon bore scars from her claws, retractile and sharp pointed like a cat's.

  Senor Munoz was a poor instructor. Maria learned to hate his attentions even more than his wife's. He was big and he hurt her young body more often than not. Senora Munoz's sexual demands were not painful but were extremely disgusting. On the nights when the senora had her, it was almost always necessary for her to use the whip before she would submit, and even then she rebelled, using her teeth and nails forcefully enough to sometimes be able to cut the sessions short.

  Maria often daydreamed of a life away from people entirely, with only cats for company, but she saw no way to satisfy that longing. She did still play with cats and studied their ways over the net. And as bad as her situation was, she still dreaded the day when she would be sold to the north. On the other hand, if she ever managed to escape, she was determined to somehow try to make her way to the great rich country and try to live as a free person. Altered humans were still considered human there, though barely.

  The Munozes made one mistake. They allowed her to play outside during the day. An enhanced leopard lived next door, kept behind a slatted fence. She made friends with the big cat and even began to learn some of the odd language that enhanced animals were beginning to use among themselves.

  One night when Senora Munoz was being overly enthusiastic with her whip, Maria screamed and the leopard came to her rescue. It tore its way through the slatted fence and battered down the door of the house. It tore out Senora Munoz's throat. Senor Munoz killed the leopard but suffered a fatal wound himself in the process. He lay on the floor gurgling his life away while Maria watched and smiled.

  As soon as Munoz was dead, Maria gathered up what few belongings she owned, then searched the house and took all the money she could find. She knew that the authorities would come looking for her and that left only one alternative, the Boystown section of Ciudad Acuna where she could hide. The police never entered that part of the city. It was devoted to servicing visitors from Estados Unidos, the great rich nation to the north. In Boystown, she quickly found a house that would accept her and allow her to practice the only profession she knew. As an exotic, she commanded a premium and could choose what kind of sex she charged for. That enabled her to avoid the more degrading experiences most prostitutes were forced to engage in. She stayed for several years and learned in the meantime that across the border she might find other, more pleasant ways to earn a living. She saved her money and dreamed of escape to a place where she might live a more normal life.

  Eventually she made contact with a smuggler who dealt in humans. She used most of her savings to buy passage across the border and on to Houston, where she thought she might find work at their zoo, caring for the big cats. Unfortunately, once she arrived in Houston she found that the zoo had been shut down for lack of funding, the same way others were closing all across the country. With the optimism of youth she didn't know that they wouldn't have hired her anyway without proof of citizenship. That could be illegally obtained but it was far out of h
er price range. When her money ran out, she took a job with a man who promised that all she would have to do was act as hostess at his place of business.

  Maria accepted the job, then found that she was nothing more than a captive, her illegal status in the country held over her head like a dangling weight, ready to fall at any moment. One day her employer took her aside and insisted that she engage in prostitution with his customers. When she refused and tried to leave, his guards barred her from the door. She retreated to the lounge where the food vending machines were located. The huge owner cornered her there and sat her down at a table. He spelled out her status and again ordered to service his customers. When she refused for the second time, he began beating her.

  * * * *

  Gary followed Vera along the slidewalk through the night time throng of people, down one street and across to another, through an alley and onto another slidewalk and off again until he was thoroughly lost. Finally they stopped at a two story building on a short cross street. It displayed no sign of being a business establishment and the door was locked. Vera touched her thumb to an inconspicuous spot beside the entrance and the door opened. Two huge men dressed in blue pants and leather vests barred the entrance. Gary could tell at a glance that their bodies were augmented by hormones as well as gene enhancement. Vera turned and held out her hand. Gary blinked, then realized that she wanted money. He handed over the agreed upon sum and the guards moved aside.

  He followed her up a set of stairs and down a hall marked with thumbprint dependent locks. She stopped at one and pressed her thumb to it as she had before. The lock clicked, but before entering, she tapped out a code on the touchpad and had Gary press his thumb to the lock. He realized then that the house must be personally attuned to the residents rather than managed by the net or a commercial security system. That suited him; he didn't intend to use his own computer again.

  The room was better than he had expected. It had holovision controls and a smart bed with touch-sensitive covers, designed to increase the intensity of skin sensations.

  Vera closed the door, allowed him time to drop his bag, then shrugged off her vest and began tugging at the fastenings of her skirt.

  “Wait,” Gary said. “I'm not interested in that. I just wanted a place to stay."

  Vera stopped undressing, her hands still on the closure of her skirt. She looked at him askance, then shrugged. “Whatever you say. You've paid for it; you can have it if you want."

  “I'd rather have something to eat,” Gary said, realizing that he hadn't touched any food since early morning.

  “Go to the right in the hallway, then down the back stairs. There's some vending machines against the far wall. I'll wait here."

  Gary eyed his bag.

  “Don't worry; it will be safe here. You're a strange one, you know."

  “Me and my cat both,” Gary remarked as Booger Bear poked his head out of the carrying pocket.

  “It doesn't matter here. Go ahead, I'll wait. You can bring me an alcohol popper if you feel like it."

  Gary decided to trust her. He really was hungry and he had certainly paid enough money to expect at least a minimum amount of honesty. He left his bag and departed.

  The back set of stairs opened up into a rather largish room with several tables and chairs and food vending machines along one wall. He had to change a gold coin at a ruinous rate to obtain money for the machines, but then he was able to punch out not only a meal for himself and Vera's popper but a food bar for Booger Bear as well. He ignored the only other couple in the room, a very large, well-dressed man and a small, pretty woman with Hispanic features and peculiar hair sitting in one corner. From where he was standing, it looked almost like a pelt. What he could see of her face appeared to be shadowed, then he realized that it was hair too, but of a very short and fine variety. He sat down and began to eat, letting Booger Bear use a chair for his meal. The cat ate while peering intensely across the room at the young woman.

  They were only half finished with their meal when Gary realized that the voices of the couple across the room had become louder. He looked over at them just as the man struck the young woman a brutal blow to the side of her head. She gave a cry of pain and held her hand to her face. The large man stood up. He doubled his fist, ready to hit her again. Gary wanted to ignore the scene. He had troubles enough of his own, but Booger Bear had different ideas about the matter. He abandoned his meal and bounded from the chair. He used only three tremendous leaps to cross the room and attack, claws extended. He landed slightly askew of where he had intended to strike, on the man's neck rather than his face. He only had time for one swipe at his eyes before his antagonist used one huge hand to tear him loose and fling him away while he drew his weapon with his other.

  He fired at the cat, but the woman spoiled his aim, bringing her hand up to deflect the shot. He backhanded the woman and fired again, this time sending a slug along with the laser beam, but Booger Bear had recovered and was moving. The shot missed, booming loud in the room and exploding the front of a vending machine the cat had been in front of a second before.

  “Stop!” Gary yelled, pulling his own weapon from the pocket of his jean jacket. The man whirled, clearly intending to shoot anyone interfering in his business. Gary fired first, his slug exploding into the man's face, sending blood and bits of bone spraying into the air. He toppled backwards, just as dead as Amelia's brother.

  Gary froze in place. It had all happened so fast that he had reacted without thinking of the consequences, his only desire being to protect Booger Bear. Good God he thought. I've killed someone else! His hands shook so uncontrollably that he put his gun away before he loosed another shot unintentionally.

  Booger Bear jumped into the woman's arms and began purring, such an unusual reaction to a stranger that Gary couldn't understand it. He stared at the scene in momentary consternation.

  “Bad man,” Booger Bear said, as if trying to explain the situation.

  The pretty young woman petted him briefly then looked up. “That was the owner you killed. Let's get out of here."

  Gary dithered only a moment longer, then decided she had the right idea. He thought briefly of his bag up in his room and mentally abandoned it. He could buy more powerpacks and clothes. “Which way?"

  “There's only one guard out back. Let's try that way, but be careful; he's bound to have heard the shots."

  Gary was only momentarily curious over why no one had responded to the noise, not knowing that in this environment, people normally either ran or hunkered down when fighting occurred. He let the slim young woman with the curious hair continue to hold Booger Bear while he drew his lasergun again and took the lead when she pointed the way.

  The guard was at the bottom of the stairs, apparently trying to decide whether to abandon his post and investigate or to wait for reinforcements. When he saw them coming down the stairs he raised his gun.

  Gary had been ready. Before the guard could fire, he sent a laser beam sizzling into the arm holding the gun, causing him to drop it. They ran down the stairs two at a time, with Gary waving the guard aside with the threat of shooting him again.

  “To the right!” The woman shouted. Gary ran that way. He saw a door and opened it."

  “Go! To the left!"

  Gary ran as directed, down the narrow alley, stepping in refuse and mud. They burst out onto a street little wider than the alley. He kept going, following his companion's directions, over to another street, down another alley and finally out onto a wider thoroughfare, finally stopping only when the woman cried out.

  “Slow down!"

  Gary held up. He quickly checked to see how Booger Bear was taking all this. His pet's fur was laying down and he seemed quite content where he was, despite the strenuous activity. He let her lead the way afterwards, mostly along the side of the streets until they came to a slidewalk area of shops again. They were still thronged with pedestrians. Eventually she took them into a small park, where she stopped, breathing heavily.<
br />
  Gary had no idea where they were and little idea of what was happening, other than the fact that he seemed to be turning into a gunfighter rather than a geneticist. His mind was numb with the day's events, still unable to comprehend the enormous changes that had occurred in his life in the course of just one day. He spotted a park bench and collapsed onto it. The woman sat down beside him.

  Booger Bear jumped from her lap to his and curled up into a ball. “Bad man,” he said again. Then he began purring.

  * * *

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Thank you,” the young woman said. “I was having a bad time."

  Gary turned to his new companion. For the first time he had the leisure to examine her closely. The glow of the park lights told him plainly that she was an altered human. Her hair was dark but it had the appearance of a long thick mane rather than human hair. She wore it collected behind her neck in some kind of clasp. Her skin was a light brown color and the hair on her face was more like a down. She sat erect under his examination, her pretty young face unquestioning. She gazed back at him with the slitted pupils of a cat. That caused him to glance down at her hands. She had retractile nails, the pointed tips just peeking out from beneath their sheaths. Her palms were free, but more down covered the back of her hands and fingers. There might be other alterations but from all appearances, her body was human, slim and nicely curved, with the nipples of her ample breasts limned against her shirt. Like him, she wore jeans and had on old fashioned footwear, a pair of simple slippers.

  “You don't have to thank me,” he said. “It was Booger Bear who got me involved."

  “Booger Bear?” The cat looked up from Gary's lap, still purring. “Oh, your cat. He's an unusual one. How smart is he?"

  Gary knew she was referring to his enhanced intelligence; his high-domed head was an unmistakable sign. “I don't really know. He's a new development, but his genome indicates that he should be nearly as intelligent as a human, allowing for differences in species, of course. What's your name?"