by Rayner Ye
“You messaged him in rehab?”
“No.”
“Have you messaged him at all?”
“No.”
Nabi’s eyes widened. “How long you been on Kuanja?”
“A Nerthus year.”
Nabi sucked her teeth. “He must be worried sick. I know you’re hurt, but life’s too short.”
“I booked a slot at the Air Dome. Haven’t used an airSphere for so long. Going next weekend.”
“Will you contact him?”
“Yeah.”
“Good.” Nabi stretched her legs and toes. “It’s crazy. Some ex-pats fly to Markaz just to use the airSpheres there.”
“Mosh mentioned Bhaltair had gone to Markaz’s port city, Wang.”
“Yep.”
Aedre sniffed, unsure whether she should be blunt. They were both high. Why not? “Why on Kuanja did you marry Bhaltair?”
Nabi sighed, burned the block of resin with her lighter, and crumbled it into Aedre’s pipe. The sweet odour filled Aedre’s senses.
Before smoking, Nabi said, “I’m gonna tell you something I’ve never told anyone else. Promise not to repeat?”
“Promise.”
“I was a prostitute in Rajka, and Bhaltair bought me.”
Aedra coughed. “What? No way.”
“Only Bhaltair knows.”
“Why are you telling me?”
“Maybe it’s the drugs or the fact I feel connected to you.”
“Thanks, that’s nice to say. But what about your family?”
Nabi sipped her tea. “I like this Enderlish style of drinking tea with milk.” She giggled, then her face crumpled, and she sobbed.
Aedre put an arm around Nabi’s shaking shoulders.
“My family.” Nabi sniffed as tears ran down her face. “I can’t remember them. I was taken as a young child from my village and then sold to a beggar woman—like those you see in busy places, yes?”
“Yes,” Aedre said, feeling ashamed for being annoyed at them.
“I soon got bigger, and then people were less sympathetic, so she made less money. She sold me to a brothel in Ingan when I was four.”
Aedre’s jaw dropped.
“Don’t think badly of her. She was kind. She always gave me food first and ate the leftovers. You can’t imagine how poor we were. She had to sell me to save me. We were starving.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
Nabi smoked from Aedre’s pipe and blew out rings. “My village was on a small western island off Rajanakki. There are thousands of islands there. You know about the God of Fire Mountains?”
“I learned about it in Plan8 Geology.”
“Hundreds of thousands of years ago it blew apart Rajannaki. Those Islanders look similar to Rajanakkis because we had evolved on the same landmass before.”
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but how do you know all this stuff? I mean, you were raised by a beggar woman, and then sold to a brothel.”
Nabi laughed. “Information is hard to get for the poor of Inarmuzza. You need money to study. I learned a lot from my clients, not only about their hopes and dreams but also about Plan8.”
“I guess you talked as well as, ah—” Aedre gulped her tea in one go.
“Some of my clients were rude, stupid men, others were kind and thoughtful.” She sighed. “I always dreamed that one of them would whisk me away, but the nice ones were always married.”
“Ever find out about your family from that village?”
Nabi frowned. “The beggar woman told me Sattchi rebels had killed them in a massacre. My village was Bogan, you see. Different God, different religion.”
“That’s terrible! How can such bad things happen? Good thing Bhaltair got you out of prostitution.”
“First, I thought he was my white-skinned saviour, but he was a demon.”
“I know he’s a bully, but—”
“You know nothing.” Nabi pulled up her T-shirt. Welts and bruises covered her torso. “He doesn’t touch my face or arms. He doesn’t want people to see.”
“No!” Aedre stood. “You have to report him to the police! I’ll come with you! I don’t care if I lose my job. I’m not sure I could keep working for him, knowing about this.”
“The police are corrupt. I have no money to bribe them. It would make things worse.”
“How much would you need?”
“Come on. It’s not that simple. We don’t live in Markaz, you know? The whole Inarmuzzan system is corrupt. Even if he gets arrested, where does that leave me? I haven’t any money, and I have no one.”
“You have me. I can help you. We can escape together. I have compensation from my Maglev accident.”
“No, Aedre. Keep it. I don’t want to be put on the streets or in a brothel again.”
Tears filled Aedre’s eyes, and she stared at Nabi. “You have to get away from him.”
“I’m too scared I’ll get caught. Human trafficking is everywhere.”
Five bangs came from the front door. Aedre peered through net curtains at two police officers stood on her doorstep. They wore black stretch suits with reflective yellow stripes down their arms and legs.
Aedre gasped and jumped back. “Shit,” she mouthed to Nabi. “Police.”
Nabi’s face lost colour, and she dropped to her knees. “Get down. Don’t answer.” She grabbed their lump of resin and froze.
The door banged again, and Mosh called from upstairs. “Coming. Coming! Goddam.” He saw Aedre and Nabi on their hands and knees and was smiling until Aedre mouthed, “Police.”
The banging accelerated. Mosh grabbed Nabi’s resin and ran upstairs. The toilet flushed. Hopefully, all evidence was gone.
The police kicked the door open. The first one sprinted upstairs, and the second grabbed Nabi and Aedre by their wrists. He shouted so fast Aedre didn’t understand. He let go of her to force Nabi onto the floor. Afterwards, he pushed Aedre’s chest onto the tiles too. She fought for breath in short wheezes.
“Bachow, bachow,” he said. This time Aedre understood. It stinks, it stinks.
Shouting exploded from upstairs, and the second policeman released them as Mosh tumbled down the stairs. His bulk crashed on the hard tiles. The first policeman came close behind, dragging Mosh’s naked woman by her arm.
He showed his colleague items in his other hand—that massive lump of resin and papers for rolling joints.
Shock gripped Aedre. She gagged and turned to find Mosh curled like a shrimp on the floor. A jab pierced between her shoulder blades as the second policeman forced her face onto cold tiles.
The first policeman shot questions at them. Mosh’s woman whimpered back. One yanked Aedre to her knees by the back of her T-shirt.
“Is this yours?” he asked, pushing her pipe in front of her face. Everything went silent. She could say no. But if they did a DNA test on it, then what? Did you get capital punishment for lying or telling the truth?
She nodded, yes.
The officer reached for his cuffs.
Yiksaan
Two guards led Aedre into a small interview room and shoved her into a chair. They handcuffed each wrist to a chair arm, then left her alone with a man seated on the opposite side of the table. He wore coke-bottle glasses and had a long face that ended in a goatee. Finally, she had the chance to speak to someone after being held for hours in a stinking cell.
“Who supplied the leaf resin?” His voice sounded like a woman’s.
She took a deep breath as the events of the arrest rushed in. She was about to tell him it belonged to Mosh’s woman but kept silent out of loyalty.
He cleared his throat and leaned over. “Foreigners are let off more lightly than Native-Reds. Whoever supplied the drugs won’t be as lucky. You and your Mayleedian friend, Mosh, would attend a labour camp or go to prison. Nabi and Beth are Native-Reds and would perish.”
Aedre’s eyes widened.
“You know capital punishment in the Firesnake is death by lethal inj
ection?” He steepled his fingers and watched her face.
“Yes.” A shudder ran through her. She wouldn’t let anyone die. “It was me.”
Disappointment clouded his features. He nodded and peered at the tape recorder. “Where’d you get the drugs?”
“A man outside the toilets at a nightclub.”
“I see. Got a name? Help us find him, and we’ll reduce your sentence.”
Should she lie more? Pretend she might have a lead on the dealer? No. It would be fruitless. Her lip quivered and brought tears to her eyes. “No. It was dark. I don’t know who he was.”
If only Dad could see her now. In a notorious Firesnake’s prison for smoking leaf resin. Would he shake his head and say “I told you so,” or break down the walls to save her?
***
That night, a man woke her by shoving a lamp into her face and pulling her to her feet. He gripped her wrist, then hauled her along corridors leading out of the complex. He opened the back of a van and pushed her inside.
She remained silent. A scream might have asked for a broken nose or jaw. Street lights flickered as they drove through empty roads.
Goosebumps prickled her skin, yet hope rose in her heart at the possibility of being set free. In silence, they passed landmarks she recognised, Republicans Tower and Central Gardens. At last, the van slowed to a stop by a high chicken wire fence. Security guards at a checkpoint chatted with the driver and flashed lights into the van.
They parked outside a warehouse, and the man led her through a small side entrance.
She looked up at his pockmarked cheek. “Gue lamad?” she attempted to say. Where am I? But nothing in return.
They walked through several corridors with doors on either side. A hotel, perhaps? They reached a double door, and after a wall-mounted device scanned his eye, the doors opened, and they stepped in. Aedre froze, but he pushed her forward. A large cage held about forty naked women. Some so young they were girls.
Her mouth went dry, and she waved her arms. “No!”
A Native-Red maid in a white tunic and trousers approached her. “Remove your clothes.”
“But I don’t want to.”
“Take your clothes off,” the pock-faced man said.
“Please, no.”
“Off!” he screamed in her ear. “Or I’ll rip them off and rape you here.”
Her breath quickened. She undressed and handed a maid her filthy clothes.
Something in the maid’s eye flashed. Then, the maid turned and dropped her clothes into a metal box.
The man unlocked the cage, grabbed Aedre by her shoulders, and pushed her inside. The door clanged shut, and she turned to watch him leave.
Lost in an ocean of terror, she sobbed so long she didn’t know how much time had passed. Minutes or hours? The ocean came from within her. After some time, she sat, head on knees.
Someone touched her shoulder. “Did you fail the concubine exam?”
Aedre looked up. It was a blonde with a black eye swollen shut.
She looked around at women in the cage, then at the blonde. “Concubine exam? No. I went to prison. Smoked some leaf resin. Got caught.”
“Dear. That’s bad. You weren’t even a slave?”
She shook her head.
“You were free, before?” a purple woman asked. “And now you’re here for smoking leaf resin? That was stupid. Very stupid. Rajka police are mobsters.”
Aedre broke into sobs. “Yes. Where am I?”
The purple woman sat opposite and hugged her knees as well. “A brothel. We don’t get paid.”
The blonde crouched by her side. “Not only a brothel, the centre of the Yiksaan mafia.” She pointed at a maid entering their room with a trolley of bloody towels. “Notice anything?” the blonde asked.
“She looks like the other maid. Twins?”
The blonde whispered in her ear. “Androids.”
Aedre whispered back. “I have to escape.”
***
Later, an android maid approached Aedre. “Boss wants to see you. Wear this.” She handed over a white tunic.
Aedre dressed, then realised her tunic was completely open at the back, but for two ties. Was the boss planning to make her do tricks for clients already? She followed the android out, conscious of air on her naked behind.
Escape looked impossible. CCTV cameras viewed every move she made. They reached another door, and the maid knocked. A man who looked like a Nerthling from her planet opened it. He was hairy and had black hair and olive skin. He gestured for her to sit at his desk. The maid left.
“So,” he said. “Aedre, I believe. From Oxfire, of all places. Very posh.”
She kept silent. He looked dangerous and evil. His gold teeth and gems on each finger gleamed in the light.
He fingered a piece of paper. “I’ll cut to the chase. Your friend, Nabi, went out of her way to get this message to me.”
“How did she know I was here?”
“You weren’t at the police station when she went to find you. Guess she knows where whores end up.”
“I’m not a whore.”
“Could become one. You’re in the right place. But your friend says you have money and can pay your way out of here.”
Aedre took a sharp breath in and straightened. She coughed to clear her throat. “Yes. Compensation from my maglev accident.”
He tapped his fingers on his glass desk. “How much?”
She winced. Better not lie. “Ten thousand wondees.”
He sighed. “Not much. But this could be your lucky day. Give me your money.”
She gazed at her lap. That money was her security.
“What account’s it in?” he asked.
“Android Bank of Enderland.”
“Got eye-scan access?”
“Yes.”
“Want your freedom back?”
“Yes.”
“Shame. Don’t have many Nerthling whores.” He reached over and touched a curl. “Especially Sax redheads.”
Later that night, she stood barefoot in a derelict market, outside a bank machine with the pockmarked man. Raw sewage and rotting food stung her nostrils. It was a rough part of Rajka, hidden from the rich. The kind of place where street vendors scooped water out of open sewers to cook with and threw leftover oil on the ground. She stepped over scattered wet noodles and tiptoed around broken glass.
Gold chains around their necks, a gang of youths lurked on a corner.
The pockmarked man spoke not a word as the machine scanned her eye, and she withdrew her life savings.
He took it. “You speak a word of this to anyone, your friend, Nabi, dies. My boss will have mosquito drones on both of you, watching your every move. You never met us. The police took your money and freed you, not us. Go back to your mediocre job and forget this happened.” He turned and walked away.
She gasped, “Money for a taxi?”
He kept walking.
“I don’t know where I am. I’m not dressed properly!”
He opened the van door and hopped inside. The van squealed away, leaving her penniless and alone, in nothing but an open-backed tunic.
Crying silently, she walked along the street. Where was she? She heard laughter behind her and looked back. The gang followed.
Air Dome
Mosh bear-hugged Aedre. “No way. You’re home!”
She trembled. “I need money to pay the taxi driver.”
“That’s the least I could do. You saved us all. I’ll pay your cab driver. You stay here.”
His footsteps echoed in the dark.
Aedre stiffened, turned towards the open front door, and brought her hand to her mouth. An image of him getting shot in the head by an assassin flashed in her mind.
The taxi’s engine revved and faded away, and Mosh’s footsteps got louder on his return, a welcoming sound in the dead silence of the night. She released her breath and slouched.
Mosh took a step towards her, then stopped. “Man, what the hell happ
ened? On second thought, you look exhausted. You should take a shower and sleep. Or you wanna eat? Have you eaten?”
She smiled weakly. Mosh moved as if barefoot on hot coals.
“I do need all of that. But please stay downstairs and don’t leave me.” Tears stung her eyes. “I’m scared.”
He hugged her—this time for a long time. Warmth rushed into her.
“I gave them all of my money, Mosh.”
He let go. “Fuck. I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault for bringing Beth here.”
“It’s not your fault. We all agreed to smoke it. What happened to Beth and Nabi?”
“Freed and safe at home. Thanks to you.”
“Good.”
“They took your money?”
“Yeah.”
“What’re you gonna do? Hey, you can have some of mine. I only have a bit, but I’ll split whatever I make with you. You saved my life.”
She sniffed back snot. “Don’t worry. I have to keep going. Will you make me Enderlish tea while I shower?”
He half-smiled, and laughter lines cut across his cheek. “With milk?”
“Yeah. Could you cook me some of your spicy noodles too? I’m starving.”
He laughed. “I’m here to serve and obey.”
A shiver rippled up her spine. The women in the cage were there to serve and obey too.
***
The following evening, Aedre leaned forward on her cosy seat to take a closer look at Nabi’s tiny hologram. “How’s it going?”
Nabi yawned, wiped her black and white hair from her eyes, and looked up at Aedre and Mosh. “I’m all right.” T-shirt sagging to her knees, she stood atop Mosh’s phone. “What’s happening?”
“We’re going out for drinks.” Legs comfortably astride, Mosh sat in the other seat. He swigged a can of beer.
Aedre checked the clock. “We’re going to celebrate our lucky escape. Wanna come?”
“No, guys. Sorry. The last few days have been so scary. I wanna enjoy an early night in an empty bed.”
“I understand. You get an early night.”
Mosh flung his hands up. “Come on. This is your last weekend of freedom before Bhaltair comes back. There won’t be any illegal drugs.”