Chapter Twenty Four

“What was that?” Lisbet asked, thinking that she had never heard someone call ‘Yoohoo!’ unless they were A) female, B) intruding, and C) very unwelcome and trying to hide it by being extra friendly.

Beck bent and retrieved his cigarette from off the floor. He grabbed Lisbet by the hand and pulled her into the dressing room. He pulled her to a specific cabinet and opened the door to show a display of sex toys that would make a love boutique blush.

Lisbet stood there and gawked like the virgin she was while Beck searched for what he was looking for. Having found it, he tied a mask over her eyes.

“Unless I am very much mistaken, that was my mother,” he said shortly. He grabbed a hat from another cabinet and slammed it on Lisbet’s head. It had a wide brim and it was edged in feathers.

Why was he trying to hide who she was?

But there wasn’t time to ask him. He was giving her more instructions as though their lives depended on it. “We have to pretend we arrived to use this palace to its full extent. You are not Lisbet, the wife of Vantz Bloomburg. You are my plaything and you will act as such. Do not say a word unless I say that you can. Got it?”

Beck took his hands off her, straightened, ruffled his hair, cracked his neck, and went out into the great room.

Lisbet followed him but kept her distance by peeking around the corner.

It was so quiet that Lisbet expected to see his mother standing in the great room by herself. It was a big surprise to see the space full. Yes, his mother was there, but an older gentleman in a black space suit was standing next to her and the two of them were surrounded by a group of bodyguards in body armor. They were obviously armed with tasers at their sides and communicators at their ears. They surrounded Beck and Lisbet, though their body language suggested they were there to protect her and Beck rather than harm them. Either way, they still seemed to be covering all paths of escape.

“Hello, Father, Mother,” Beck said in a lazy drawl as he approached them.

Lisbet knew their names because they had the kind of names people liked to drop in The Boiler Room. They were Carlos and Hessia Beltrose.

“Son!” Hessia gushed as she approached Beck. “It’s been so long since you popped in! We wondered if Vantz had starved you to death in his castle.” She touched his face with two hands under his chin in a way that surprised Lisbet.

Was this woman really his mother?

“I’m fine. I’ve told you before, all the food on the surface is the same and it doesn’t kill anyone,” Beck said, removing her two hands with his two hands.

Then he turned to his father and shook his hand in a way that was far more familial. Beck didn’t exactly look like Carlos, but something about him was similar. At least, they looked related.

“It’s strange that you should dive underground when Vantz is talking about blowing up the surface,” his father said crossly.

“I think there’s a few minutes before that happens,” Beck defended.

“If only!” Carlos rasped. “They’re breathing down our necks, forcing us to give up everything we have worked for. Vantz acts as though it is only natural we give up all our possessions and our servants in exchange for not being prosecuted. As if there is anything he could prosecute us for!”

“Calm down, honey,” Hessia said, putting a hand on her husband’s chest. “Beck doesn’t think like Vantz. He just wants to be at the center of things.”

Beck breathed and said nothing.

His father said nothing.

The moment hung.

Finally, Carlos broke it by saying, “I have been good to my servants. Have you told Vantz that?”

“Do you think a man like Vantz would listen to me?” Beck said, sounding like the young man his parents expected him to be.

“Does Vantz like you? Does he trust you?” Hessia asked, looking at her son with pleading in her eyes.

Beck’s mouth hung open for a moment. “Uh… He’s kind of hard to read.”

“Do you know what I think?” Carlos said, getting a little fire in his voice. “I bet that all the riches that are being plundered from the ransacked pleasure palaces are going straight into a vault that Vantz controls.”

“Is that so?” Beck said, sounding interested in his father’s theory, which was undoubtedly incorrect. “Where do you think he keeps his vault?”

Hessia interrupted Carlos before he could go off on a rant regarding the final destination of the unearthed wealth of Mars. “Beckett, who’s your friend?” she inquired, pointing at Lisbet, who looked slightly crazed in a mask, wide-brimmed hat, and a space suit.

Beck put his hand over his mouth. The purpose of the motion seemed to be to keep his tongue in his head. “Oh, we just needed a place to talk,” he said. The way he said the word ‘talk’ suggested that he had no intention of talking for the rest of his life. He was looking for a place to fool around.

“Really?” Carlos asked, sparing a curious glance at Lisbet before turning back to Beck. “From the motions we picked up on the surface, it seemed like you might have ducked in here because you were having a bit of trouble.”

“Yeah, I guess we were. Trouble with our land rover. It got shot by a helocarrier and was leaking fuel,” Beck admitted loathfully.

“We can help you with that!” Hessia called out joyously. “There’s a new garage not far from here. Our boys can tow it!”

“A new garage?” Beck asked slowly. “Does that mean you’re still expanding? When I was here last, my palace enjoyed a lot more privacy. Not a thing was ‘not far from here’.”

Hessia’s face fell. She clearly hadn’t meant to give away that tidbit.

Carlos slapped Beck on the back. “She exaggerates. It’s not close. She just doesn’t want you to think that we’re going to any special trouble for you. She knows how you hate that.” He gave a nod to two of the bodyguards and they disappeared into the garage.

Lisbet heard the airlock click into place behind them. Now, even if Beck could have repaired the land rover, the opportunity had passed him by. They were stranded.

The look on Beck’s face did not alter at all with their changing circumstances. He gave no outward look and said nothing to indicate his feelings one way or another. Lisbet didn’t know if she’d ever met anyone in her whole life who had more control over himself than Beck.

He thanked his father. “I could have patched it myself, but it’s much nicer to have professionals do a job that is practically a factory reset. Thank you, Father. I’d invite you to stay for a meal, but we just arrived and I doubt there’s anything special on hand. I haven’t even checked what is in the food stores.”

“You didn’t do that as soon as you got here?” Hessia reproved, adopting her motherly tone. “Isn’t that the first thing you were taught to do when you arrive at a vacant pleasure palace? Otherwise, you might find out that it has been raided of supplies like a tomb in the Valley of the Kings.”

“I should have, but…” he gave Lisbet a look that was both predatory and sensual. “I couldn’t wait. We never got to the kitchen.”

“Ah, but we knew your larder hadn’t been stocked in years. We packed up a picnic basket and came right over,” Hessia continued. She looked nothing like a woman who would call ‘yoohoo’ back on Earth with a scarf in her curls and a mid-length floral print dress. Hessia was wearing a spacesuit that was more expensive than the one Lisbet had been given, in that it actually made her look expensive. It was white and her hair was slicked back in a style that couldn’t be damaged by the dome she had to wear on her head. She had brought a picnic basket?

Lisbet almost laughed at the oddness of their predicament.

Beck nodded to his mother. “Well, that was very thoughtful of you.”

“We should all eat together!” she said noisily as a few of the bodyguards went to fetch the basket from where they’d discarded it at the door.

Beck was about to point them toward the dining room when he suddenly dropped his hand. “They know their way,” he said, giving his father a conspiratorial glance. “We’d love to eat with you, but we need a few minutes to freshen up. It’s been a long couple of days for us. Please feel free to use any room you’d like to freshen up yourselves—your guards too. My spacesuit feels like a sandworm swallowed me. Excuse us.”

He took Lisbet by the upper arm and hauled her almost like she was his duffle bag after him into the dressing room before flicking a switch and closing the doors behind him.

Lisbet had been manhandled so few times in her life that the way he carted her after him surprised her. No man had ever wanted her with him so bad that he didn’t at least pretend to give her a choice. She was enjoying a pleasant buzz from the interaction when he stopped moving, turned toward her, and started undoing her space suit.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I can do it myself!” she hissed in complaint.

“We don’t have time,” he hissed back. “It would take you five minutes to get out of that suit on your own and we have to hurry. My parents are not pleasant people regardless of what you just saw. If we leave them alone too long, we’ll lose our chance for a moment of privacy. None of the locks on this place work against my father. They’ll come in here to see what we’re doing if they get bored.”

“Surely, they wouldn’t,” Lisbet said, fighting his fingers and holding the front of the suit over her chest closed as he undid the clasps on her boots.

“They would. If they walked in on us screwing around, they’d be delighted. They’d take seats and watch. We have to hurry and you need to get changed first because if they walk in on you naked, you’re going to have a very different reaction than if they walked in on me.”

“I’d scream,” she conceded as he finished up with her boots and got to his feet. “What would you do?”

“Absolutely nothing. I have no shame over anyone seeing me naked. It doesn’t bother me,” he said, diving into the closet, finding clothing, and throwing it at her.

The first thing she caught of the things that were thrown at her was a black slip and she started by throwing that over her head as she peeled the spacesuit off under the shield of the silky fabric. A blush dawned on her face like the rising sun, but when she turned to look at Beck, he was already out of his spacesuit. It was in a discarded heap on the floor.

Her cheeks were suddenly aflame.

She had been so cautious because she didn’t want him to see her naked, but then to turn and see that he wasn’t even interested in such a thing blew her mind.

Raising her eyes to observe the whole dressing room, she saw he was behind a closet door at the other end of the corridor. He was throwing things again, but his body was hidden.

Foolishly, she grabbed a closet door, positioned it to work as a modesty screen, and put on the things Beck had given her in order. Once finished, she moved to see herself in a mirror. They were easy to find since they were everywhere.

She was in a black slinky dress with an exceptionally low neckline.

“It’s so lucky you don’t have any moles or marks on your chest,” he said, popping up behind her.

She cringed at his sudden appearance. Then breathed the tension away. At least he was dressed. It was black trousers with a dark green turtleneck sweater.

His brown eyes looked very green in the light above the mirror.

“Why is that?” she asked hesitantly, wondering why it was lucky for her to have no marks.

“You’ve been on media outlets for months,” he replied smoothly. “You have marks on your arm that are an instant tell and mark you as you.”

Lisbet pulled on the tight sleeves of the dress and revealed her arms. What was he talking about? She didn’t have any marks on her arms… until she did. She didn’t notice them, but she had two freckles side by side on her left forearm, but just as Beck said, her chest was as blank as a canvas. It could belong to anyone. He had noticed that about her?

“How did you know that?” she suddenly asked.

“I’ve only seen you in about a thousand different dresses since you got here,” he said as he moved to another part of the closet.

Lisbet looked in the mirror again. It was too much skin. She’d never worn a dress in her whole life that showed that much breast. “Ah… I get the point about the focus of this dress being on my chest, but does it have to be so… busty? Can’t we choose another one?”

“There isn’t time. Not only that but if you don’t look the part of my plaything, my father will send me a woman to entertain me tonight. We don’t want that,” he replied tersely, tearing off a strip of black lace off a spindle with his teeth. His desperation made up for what he wasn’t able to cut with his teeth and the lace broke.

“What’s that for?”

He covered her eyes and tied the black lace in a knot behind her head. “Just now, you weren’t close enough to my parents for them to recognize you. You had the mask, you had the hat, you were on the other side of the room, but at dinner, you’ll be closer, and there will be more light. If they see your hellish violet eyes, we’re done for.”

“Hellish?” she exclaimed.

He huffed as he reached for her discarded mask. “I’ve told you before that I didn’t think much of that body augmentation of yours. Anyone who looks into your eyes will recognize you, which is the last thing we need right now.”

She nodded.

“This way, the webbing on the lace will cover your eyes, which the mask doesn’t cover, and no one will recognize you. That’s the point of the dress, the mask, the wig…”

“What wig?”

“This one,” he said, plopping a black bob wig on her head.

“That’s basically my hair color and style anyway,” she said when she saw herself in the mirror.

“Yes,” he agreed, “but it looks like a wig. That’s the point.”

Beck stopped to admire himself in a mirror. He checked the folds of his cuffs, sprayed his hair with cologne, and took a little electric razor to his stubble before he declared them both ready.

“Are you sure you’re not thirty-five?” she asked drolly.

“I’ll be thirty-five if you want me to be.”

She looked at him.

He looked at her… before he scoffed and turned away. “Whatever doe-eyed look you’re trying to give me, I can’t see it through the mask and lace. Let’s go.”

***

The dining room was one of the places Lisbet had yet to see on her tour of Beck’s pleasure palace. It was truly ridiculous how grand it was. The ceiling was domed with a royal finish that resembled a blue Earth sky above them. The chandelier that hung over the white marble table was thousands of crystals. The way the bodyguards instantly became waiters and the way Beck had been a sad tech boy who lived alone in a VR cage who had suddenly become the heir to the kingdom was something else.

Lisbet wasn’t sure if the whole situation was loathsome or spectacular.

She held her breath on her opinion as the food was served. Beck had told her that there was better food underground, but that it wasn’t being shared and that felt more real than it should have as she was served roast lamb with mint sauce. It was a little cold, but it was the most delicious thing she had put on her tongue since she arrived on the red planet.

Beck had told her not to talk and one of the perks of not talking at a dinner party was that she got to enjoy the food. She got to cut the meat up into tiny little pieces and eat everything the way she had been taught table manners. It wasn’t quite like eating a navel orange with a fork and knife, but not all of the table manners she had been taught came in handy.

Carlos watched her cut the fat off her meat and deposit the little pieces in her mouth with fascination.

“Is something entertaining, Father?” Beck asked, holding his wine glass by the stem instead of the bowl.

“I’ve just never seen a pleasure princess eat like that,” the man replied.

Lisbet had never had anyone comment on her table manners before, but she knew they were of the highest standard. Her mask didn’t cover her mouth, so it didn’t get in the way, and even though she was looking down at her plate through black lace, it wasn’t hindering her. Then, she realized that Carlos thought that her eating was too civilized. She had erred on the side of being too classy.

Beck shrugged his shoulders. “You can train a person to do anything that excites you.”

“I’ve got to try that,” Carlos said under his breath. “Beckett, what’s your girl’s name?”

“Charity,” Beck answered smoothly, like what he said wasn’t a lie.

Lisbet wondered when he had decided on that name for her.

“How have you been?” Hessia asked, directing her attention toward Beck and acting like the concerned parent.

“What she means is, how has it been working for Vantz?” Carlos asked, sounding more genuine in his disapproval.

Hessia interrupted before Beck could answer. “We were so pleased to learn that you were not hurt when Castle Ares was stormed by that angry mob. You got out all right?”

“I’m here before you,” Beck said pleasantly. “Unharmed.”

“You have always known that I didn’t want you working for anyone who was terraforming Mars, but I wanted to ask you if you were able to talk sense into any of those executives you work for,” Carlos said, wiping his chin with a blue cloth napkin.

“Ah… You mean your ideas about finding a way to give Mars an atmosphere without the necessity of evacuation. I wish I could have, but I’m merely a tech boy. You must know that,” Beck said softly. “It’s not as though they listen to the children who work for them.”

“I suppose not,” Carlos replied, clearly annoyed that anyone wouldn’t want to listen to an extension of himself.

“You must check in more often,” Hessia stressed, like the end of their world wasn’t soon, like things could go on the same as before. “We were so afraid when we saw the footage on the media outlets. You were living in that castle when it fell, weren’t you?”

“Yes,” he said, giving his parents everything they wanted without fussing. “I’ll be sure to check in more often. Should I send a message once a month or once a week?”

His mother looked relieved and chose the weekly option, though she wanted daily reports if there was another emergency.

Carlos cocked his head before pulling out an electric cigar much like the one Beck smoked constantly. He puffed on it, releasing the scent of old wood. Lisbet was very entranced by it, her nose filling with the precious familiar vapor of home. It was probably the most precious scent on the whole planet.

“Are we keeping you from your interests?” Carlos asked, sparing a sideways look at Lisbet.

Beck did not nod, shake his head, or smoke. He kept his eyes on his father and said, “It would be inexcusable of me to indulge myself when my parents are present after such a long absence.”

“I see you still like your privacy,” Carlos puffed. “Very well, we’ll be on our way. There’s a party tonight at the main palace. I’d like you and Charity to come. I know everyone would like to see you. I’ll send a vehicle to fetch you.”

Beck nodded. “Thank you, Father.”

Carlos got up with Hessia following his lead. There was fussing and air kissing and almost hugs before they were finally through the airlock with all their bodyguards.

Once they were gone and the airlock was sealed, Beck turned to Lisbet and said firmly. “Do not trust them. They are the ones who sent the helocarrier to shoot at us. They orchestrated our capture and prepared this palace for us. This is not how I left this place. It looks as though it was touched up by a maid yesterday. They aren’t being this nice to me because they like me. They’re hoping to use me as a tool to force Vantz to back down, even though he’s already evacuated two-thirds of the planet.”

Lisbet’s mind fired rapidly as she reviewed everything she knew. Vantz was an AI who had been programmed by Beck. “Us being here won’t stop the timeline?”

“No. Vantz will blow me up along with everything else, but that’s why it’s so important that no one finds out who you are. If they think they have Vantz’s wife, my father won’t evacuate the pleasure palaces he controls, thinking he holds the ultimate trump card over Vantz.”

“Vantz will ignore me as a hostage as well as you?” Lisbet asked with bated breath.

Beck nodded. “He’s programmed to ignore everyone. That’s the only way for Mars to be reborn. That’s one of the reasons Mars was held back in the past. The miners kidnapped important people and held them hostage underground until the head terraformer quit. I wasn’t going to let any of that happen this time”

“Beck,” she said, thinking of everything he’d told her. “How did you do all of what you’ve done to get this far with Mars?”

“You mean how have I managed all the projects, put them into place, and kept them on track?”

She nodded.

“All the plans were made before I took the job,” he explained with a roughness in his voice that Lisbet had not heard before. “The plan to have the pleasure palaces gassed, the unconscious people removed, and the places stripped? Not my plan, but I found a way to do it. The building of the magnetic field generators? Not something I put together. But I finished what someone else started. The plan to put the evacuees in cryostasis in orbit? That was the brainchild of someone at Sleeping Beauty Inc. who was pissed off at the fate of their models who were sent to Mars. Every part of this plan was made by someone else. I’m just the stubborn bastard who won’t be manipulated. So… if we can’t find a way out, we’ll either get gassed and taken out by force by the Voynich boys when my father’s palace is up on the work docket, or we’ll die. Whatever happens, the plan will not be halted because we’re down here.”

Lisbet swallowed as the sweat pooled at her neck.