Chapter Thirty

Iona was inside the bag. She had let herself stretch while she was stored in the cargo compartment of the Danger Zone, but got back in once she heard Gage outside the helocarrier talking about flight plans. Quick as a whip, she got inside the bag and zipped it up, only for Gage to close the door on the compartment and round up Testament and Heretic for the flight to the Tranquility Mansion. She unzipped herself and let herself lounge until they landed. Then, she got back in the bag and zipped it up.

Gage carried her inside on his back and then into an interrogation room like the one she’d seen inside when she first got to the Tranquility Mansion herself. She was placed under a table because Gage was sweet enough to say helpful things loudly.

“Do you mind if I put my bag under the table?” he asked.

“No,” the interrogator said. Iona wondered if it was the same woman she had seen with Leviticus with the green french braid.

Gage sat down and put a finger in the zipper to open it up a bit. “We’re being questioned separately?” he asked the interrogator.

“Yeah,” she said absently.

“What’s your name?” Gage asked.

“Nichi. This interview will be recorded and used as your testimony in the courts of Io whether you stay on the surface or not. This is a legal transcription and is being video recorded by three independent third parties. Do you agree?”

“Yes.”

“Delightful. Let’s begin. Tell me about your relationship with Olivine Bouvant.”

“No,” he said shortly.

“No?”

“No. All of that stuff is on public record. I’m not willing to review it all for this incident.” With that Gage gave Nichi a play-by-play of the events from when he saw Olivine at the Sleeping Beauty Inc. model show on Europa to that moment, leaving out that he had picked up Iona and she was now under the table.

“Can I ask you a few questions about Iona?”

“No. She’s not part of this.”

Iona could hear the impatience in Nichi’s voice as she said, “Please listen to what my stupid questions are before you refuse to answer them.”

“Why did Iona want to come to Io? There aren’t a lot of rich men or big industries here. It seems a poor place to scout an owner.”

“She wasn’t looking for an owner,” Gage replied.

“Was she looking for a husband?” Nichi countered.

“Yes.”

“Who did she have in mind? No one comes to the most active volcanic rock in the solar system without a higher goal.”

“Benediction,” Gage replied.

Iona’s ears perked up as Nichi clicked her tongue. “How many women would she have to beat out in order to get him to propose?”

Iona suddenly felt sick. She really hadn’t thought that through at all. The women of Io would hate her guts if she ran off with Benediction.

“Don’t know. Don’t care,” Gage replied easily. “She changed her mind about the plan before we got here, but I had already promised to help Leviticus tell Benediction about the untimely deaths of Heretic and Testament. It was a lie, but I didn’t know that at the time and we’d already scheduled to come here.”

It sounded like Nichi wasn’t even listening to Gage because the next thing to come out of her mouth was, “Are you aware of how much you look like Lord Benediction?”

“I’ve been told that,” he said dryly.

“Do you know how many women would like to spend time with you here on Io?”

Gage laughed. “Shit! That’s it! It’s for you!”

“What’s for me?”

“That’s what the pleasure mansion underground was for. It was for women like you who are butt over tea kettle in love with Benediction. Olivine and her cousin, Raylynn, made the mansion and were planning to fill it with the other nine of us. The plan was to turn us into an attraction because if all of you fanatic fans of Benediction could see us, watch us fight each other, and have sex with us, it would be like having sex with him. He would never be so compliant.”

“Shut up!” Nichi shouted.

Gage wouldn’t. “He gets you all stirred up, but all he does is preach to you. He doesn’t do anything to ease that stirring he causes in every woman’s belly, bottom, and mind.”

“I didn’t do anything!” she screamed.

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Benediction burst into the room with a bang of the door. “What are you saying, Theology?”

Iona sucked in her breath as she clutched her knees to her chest. She let the zipper out a little more and she could see Gage in his chair. He was leaning back with his feet close to Iona and the chair quite far away from the table. One of his hands hung discarded at his side and the other stroked the stubble on his chin. Iona could see his mouth, but not his nose.

“Did you allow that mansion to be built underground on church property?” Gage demanded.

“Certainly not!” Benediction spat.

“But someone in your church did,” Gage continued. “How else could they have got all those foreign materials down there on your land without anyone noticing? I think Olivine is behind the initial construction. The architecture feels the same as what her family built in the cavern on Mars, but how could she have done that without a lot of help? She sure as hell didn’t get it from the wreckers. They were eager to rip the place apart. You must know that your followers have sweaty tongues whenever you walk by. They had access and motivation. You’re a logical man. You know motivation and ability are everything. Without the electric charges under his skin, Leviticus has no motivation and he never did.”

Benediction hesitated before continuing. “Nichi. Get out.” He waited until she had gone and the door closed behind her before he continued. “Yes, I agree that nothing is wrong with Leviticus’ story now. It all makes sense.”

“What does he say?” Gage asked.

“He says that he was offered a new job with Raylynn after all of us were freed and he thought it would be just like his old job with her where all he had to do was screw her, but Olivine was very bored after her family and household were ripped apart and she went to go live with Raylynn and saw him and got a little too happy. Raylynn was poor at standing up to Olivine and eventually developed a taste for Olivine’s kind of fun. They faked Raylynn’s death and hid her and Leviticus in a fake tower on Europa.”

“How can you have a fake tower on Europa? Everything there is super hard to maintain without the government,” Gage wondered.

“Apparently, they used a trick in the architecture where each room is just a little smaller than it is supposed to be, but there was enough room in all those cracks and crannies to treat Leviticus to a life that only you could understand.”

“Well, all that makes me sick to my stomach. What will happen to him now?” Gage asked, letting his other arm fall lax.

“I’m going to care for him and get his help pulling this machination apart. I hate the idea that my followers did this, but that is the only thing that makes sense. They probably had no idea of torturing you all my clone brothers, but…” Benediction hesitated to finish his thought. “Slavery is torture.”

Gage snorted. “It must be strange to have every woman you know be that desperately strung out for you.”

“Shut up. Every woman I know is not strung out for me. I’ve just had word that Iona ducked out on Vych when she took her to Sleeping Beauty Inc. to submit some paperwork,” Benediction said grouchily.

“You thought she’d fall for you too?” Gage asked, slumping further down in his chair to check on the backpack Iona was in and giving her a view of his eyes.

“Yeah. I thought it would be easy since all the other women have been easy. Just because I’m curious, what would you do with the women among my followers who orchestrated this if you were me?”

“I’d let them come and confess,” Gage said smoothly. “Once you have enough solid evidence, get up in front of all of them and ask all of them to confess if they were involved. I doubt you’ll have much of a witch hunt on your hands. A few of them will probably come forward and enough of them will confess that all of them will because there will be too much evidence for any of them to hide. If you're lucky, you can get enough evidence against Olivine and Raylynn to save my day as well.”

Benediction nodded his agreement. Then after a moment's thought, he asked bitterly, “And what do I do about them all being in love with me?”

“You want my advice? My advice?” Gage asked incredulously.

“Sure.”

“I’ll only give it to you if you promise to stop calling me Theology. I only let women call me that when we’re in bed together and you don’t really fit the bill.”

Benediction chuckled. “Is that true?”

Gage laughed back. “No. It’s been a long time since I did any of that stuff, but I’m starting to warm up to the idea.”

“Fine. I won’t call you that,” Benediction agreed. “What would you do?”

“Excluding the women who were involved in the plot to capture all nine of your brothers, I’d make a schedule and say that any woman who wants a date with you is welcome to apply. Then I’d have a date with a different one every day–”

“Until I found the right woman?”

“No. Don’t ever choose between them, ever. Once they have their date with you, they’re welcome to sign up again. That’s the only way you can give yourself to all of them. This is the price you pay for their love en masse.”

Benediction groaned.

But Gage kept talking. “Also, find some other men to share your pulpit with. Since you're the only one who preaches, these women fixate on you too much. Prep a bunch of your choir boys and let those women fall in love with someone else for a change.”

“Huh… I’ll think about it, but even though Iona gave me the slip, I can’t help but be worried about her. Io is not a safe place.”

Gage scratched his chin again but didn’t say anything.

“You know where she is!” Benediction accused. “That’s why you aren’t worried!”

Gage put up his hands as if to push off the idea, a motion Iona found to be completely adorable from under the table. “I might know where she is, and so I’m not concerned about her. She’s a big girl and I have no doubt that she can figure out Io on her own. As it is, I told her I’d get on the recycling ship bound for Ganymede.”

“She’ll probably meet you there,” Benediction said pensively. “I’m always going to hate that I let her slip through my fingers. I wish you’d seen her, strapped to that rock screaming about how she wanted to be judged by the gods. It was beautiful.”

Gage smiled, but it was a smile that showed how disgusted he was. “Uh… I did see her strapped to that rock and I did hear her screaming about how she wanted to be judged. I just didn’t feel the same way you felt and I dug her out as much as I could while you were the one to tie her down. You’re right, she was beautiful, but… I… I’ve known her for years and the most beautiful she ever looked to me wasn’t at that moment.” He reached under the table and zipped up the backpack. “I’d like to go to the recycling bay now.”

“You don’t want to spend the night?”

“Nah, I want to go where Iona will meet me. Even if she isn’t there waiting for me. I want to be there for her.”

“Hmm… Testament wants to stay and help with the investigation, but Heretic wants to go with you. Will that bother you?”

“It’s not my ship. If he can get a cryochamber, then of course he can get on the same ship we get on.” Gage heaved the backpack onto his shoulders.

“That looks pretty heavy,” Iona heard Benediction say. “What’s in it?”

“My merchandise,” Gage replied.