Chapter Twenty

In the room, Gage and Iona did their banking from the computer station. They divided the money they got from the wreckers for Iona’s clothes and the Cannonball III. Gage transferred his share to an account with Sleeping Beauty Inc. since the ship was their property. Then he checked how much money Madam Damsel had sent him to compensate him for all the trouble he’d had with Olivine. It was more than he expected, but he never knew exactly what currency was worth at any given moment when he spent all his time in cryostasis.

Gage had a moment where he faced a serious dilemma staring at the computer screen. Looking at flights on and off Io, he saw that the next Sleeping Beauty Inc. ship that was coming to Io wouldn’t be there for five months. If he put himself to sleep for that time, waiting for the ship would be over in the blink of an eye. Normally, that is what he would have done. Except for one thing. If he put himself to sleep and that information was logged into the Sleeping Beauty Inc. system, he knew now that Olivine could just fly to Io and pick him up without any hassle at all. She wouldn’t even have to get off her ship. He had done that himself enough times, coming to Io, picking up a rack of Sleeping Beauty Inc. models, and leaving without taking a single breath of sulfur.

He also checked his ownership status with Iona. She still owned him, but there was a note attached to their contract stating that Sleeping Beauty Inc. was waiting for information on their status.

All that meant that he could not put himself to sleep.

If he had to wait awake for the Sleeping Beauty Inc. ship to retrieve them, he would have his twenty-ninth birthday on Io. By the pickup date, he would only have nine months left on his contract with them. Well, that was not his fault.

Having come to the conclusion that he had to stay awake on Io, he got up. “I’m going to buy some nose filters and a throat filter. If either of you are interested in such things, you have to come with me, so the machine can measure you to get the perfect fit.”

Iona got to her feet. “I’ll get some.”

“Me too,” Leviticus said. “I’ll just follow along in a second. I want to send that message to Benediction.”

“You’re just going to tell him about Apostate and Olivine?”

“Yeah,” Leviticus nodded.

Gage stopped. “Actually, I’ll watch you prepare it. It’s going to be sent from my account because I can’t help that with the system Sleeping Beauty Inc. has set up, so show me what you’re going to send before you send it.”

“Is it really necessary to watch him?” Iona wondered, sidling up next to Gage.

“Yup,” Gage said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

He did just that. The message was sent exactly the way both of them had agreed it would be sent and then they went to get fitted for nose filters.

“That is much better,” Iona said as Gage finished installing the one in her throat. Her voice had a slight rasp to it afterward because the filter stopped her from swallowing particles she breathed in while still allowing her room to breathe. “It’s so great you’re a doctor.”

“I am not a doctor. I have a medic ticket which means that I’m better than a kid with a lollipop and sticky hands, but that’s about it.”

“The pamphlet says that if you stay on Io for a full twelve months, with no filters and breath in the sulfur, it will stop smelling terrible to you. The filters are for visitors,” Leviticus said.

“I’m not staying on Io,” both Iona and Gage said together.

“Benediction found a place to hide out and that man is like fire,” Gage said, “but we can’t encroach on his territory. He deserves to be here alone. You sent him your warning. We’re done with him. In the morning, I’m going to fly to a collection of recycling collectors and ask them if they have any ships leaving Io that we could catch a ride on that weren’t listed in the flight plans. Does any of that sound interesting to you?”

Leviticus looked up at the ceiling playfully. “Sure. Sure, it does. I had been thinking of begging Benediction to let me stay here with him where I’m sure his followers will protect him from Apostate and Olivine, but now that I’ve smelled the area, I don’t think that will do for me after all.”

“I can drop you off there if you want to talk it out with him?” Gage offered.

“I’ll think about it. Now I think I can get those nose filters up myself without your help,” he said, taking the ones that were for him. They were exactly the same size as Gage’s. He pushed one up his nose and groaned. “Okay, I’d like the kid with the sticky hands to help me now.”

Gage frowned and went over.

***

For a minute, it felt like Gage and Iona were alone in the hotel room. As soon as the smell was downplayed, it was easier for the whole situation to feel better. In the room, Leviticus turned on the television, which was nothing but a service that let you choose what you wanted to watch. He turned on a bland action film with a hero that was chasing from location to location.

Gage took Iona by the fingertips and led her to the lobby. There were several pink velvet sofas there and it was quieter than listening to the ultra-fast heartbeat of the soundtrack of the film Leviticus was watching.

He settled her into the corner of one of the couches and reached for her foot.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I thought that if I undid your shoe, took off your sock, and gave your foot a little rub, you might tell me what’s bothering you. Are you still mad at me for suggesting that you don’t take another contract with Sleeping Beauty Inc.?”

Her shoulder fell. “I was never mad at you. I just failed to realize that when Excalibur Helocarriers bid on me they were viewing me as a pity project, like a pitiful dog that needs to be sponsored before it can get adopted.”

“I’m sure they thought you were worth it,” he said, running his thumb in a circle on the sole of her foot.

“It was so easy to forget that that was how the company viewed me because the customers that came into the helocarrier showroom do not have the same mentality. They viewed me as a really expensive piece of ass and there’s nothing Excalibur Helocarriers can do to stop their clients from pinching the salesgirls’ asses or ‘accidentally’ bumping into them so they can rub their junk up against a beautiful woman. Whatever happens, they have to hire a woman who is part whore for that role. It’s because the people who have the money to purchase helocarriers have so much money, they don’t understand that some things are not for sale no matter how much money you have in the bank. They think it gives them a free pass. I’ve been thinking it over and Excalibur Helocarriers has a list of clients who make orders and they never come into the showroom, but of the ones who come into ‘test’ out the carriers, the big orders are always made by the filthy men who want their inappropriate behavior to be overlooked. And because I allow myself to be sold, I’m part of the system that allows this to continue.”

“But what was going on in your life before you sold yourself the first time?” Gage asked.

“I was on Ganymede. I lived in a hole in the wall. I had run away from home a few times with nowhere to go, so I always ended up back where I started. It probably seems like nothing compared to you and what you’ve gone through, but when I signed myself over at sixteen, I had been beaten so many times that Sleeping Beauty Inc. had to hospitalize me for two months before they could put me up for sale. I have always felt that Sleeping Beauty Inc. was a safe place because I have had better treatment from the clients they got me than I received from my own family. I was so proud of what I became working there. I’m elegant. I’m calm. I can do what I’m asked to do and I make a lot of money. I felt like I finally deserved to be proud of myself.” Her voice cracked.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Gage nodded as he understood. “Until I saw Olivine on Europa, I thought Sleeping Beauty Inc. was a good place too. I mean, I didn’t expect that to last forever, but I hoped it would last long enough for me to outlive–” he trailed off and pointed toward their room with his eyes.

“You can’t have meant to outlive him,” Iona said in disbelief.

“Oh, yes, I can. Though it is not Leviticus personally I wish to escape. The story he told about Apostate killing Heretic and Testament really rang true for me because I don’t know what Apostate suffered. Depending on what he went through, a plan to kill everyone he knows might make more sense to him than merely sleeping in cryostasis to outlive them. He might feel like what he wants to kill is the experiment itself, so that no one repeats it. The idea of someone trying to collect us also rings true. That was part of the reason I wanted to stay in cryostasis, so I could stay asleep long enough for everyone to forget about us. The cat’s out of the bag now. I can’t go back into cryostasis until I’m convinced I’m safe. That’s going to be tough.”

“You’re not worried about getting more valuable as more of your brothers disappear?” she asked.

Gage didn’t answer. He wasn’t concerned. He merely reached for her other foot. Suddenly, he felt like confiding in her. He felt like telling her the story. If she couldn’t stand to hear it, he needed to know that because he was about two seconds from putting Leviticus on a ship to Ganymede and putting himself and Iona on a ship to the Saturn system. If Iona couldn’t hear his story, then there was no future for them.

“Have you ever been to Mars?” he said slowly.

She nodded. “I went there with one of my owners once.”

“The canals of Mars are wide and deep and the architects build even deeper. All the buildings and all the rooms are supposed to be mapped out, but there are places there that haven’t been reported. That was where I was taken after the lab where I was born on Earth was destroyed. I was sold alongside Testament, but that time isn’t important because Testament is gone, so there’s no point in reliving any of that. When I was ten, I was bought by the same owner as Leviticus. Testament was not entertaining. He cried a lot. I didn’t cry and apparently, neither did Leviticus so we were seen as a good match and bought by the same buyer for a higher price than some of the others. At first, it was okay to be in that underground mansion. In that household, I boxed Leviticus every day and acted as a bodyguard for the younger members of the house. Eventually, it became abusive. The master liked to watch us fight. Both Leviticus and I had our brains rattled every day because of blows to the head, but… it wasn’t hell. It was hell’s younger brother and it had its benefits. I learned how to fight, how to dance, and when I was older, I was a ready-to-wear date for the daughters who didn’t have dates of their own.”

“It sounds strange,” Iona said.

“It was actually a lot better than it was going to be. Our master owed a lot of money and he was told that the debt would be forgiven if he gave up his favorite slaves… me and Leviticus. He wasn’t in a position to say no, so he gave us up. Leviticus was wrapped in a bow and given to a teenage girl named Raylynn.”

“He said it was a lot of sex,” Iona remembered.

“I’m sure it was,” Gage agreed. “I was given to Olivine, who was… not very much what she’s like now. She had a problem. I’m not sure if I have ever understood what it was. Something about her didn’t work.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Something in her brain. Maybe something in her body. I don’t know. She was a person who should be pitied. She was very busy at school when I was first there. I walked her to her classes and she stuck her nose in the air like it didn’t matter to her if I was there or not. The only thing that made sense to me at that time was that she was uncomfortable and what pleased her more than anything else was making someone else as uncomfortable as she was. It was her thing to make me hit people at school who annoyed her. If I refused to hit them, I’d be punished at home. If I hit them, I’d be punished by the school. However, the school punishment was less than the home punishment so I hit, tripped, splashed, kicked, slapped anyone who she asked me to.”

Iona gritted her teeth and refused to comment.

“What happened then is the single worst event that has ever happened to me. The entrance to the crevice of Olivine’s mansion caved in. We were trapped. I don’t mean we were trapped for a little while. We were trapped for almost three years. Nothing life-threatening was happening. We still had food and water, air, and shelter. It was just that no one could go out or in. Things were shipped in an underground railroad and it was not possible for a human to take that road.”

“Why not?”

“The temperatures were too extreme along the transport route. It was supposed to be used in transporting drugs and the drugs could be moved in thermal air-tight containers, but they weren’t large enough for a person. Not even Olivine’s father could get out and trust me, if he could have got out, he would have.”

“So then Olivine started wanting you to screw her?”

“No,” Gage said with a sad head wag. “As I said, something was wrong with her. I never saw her undressed. As far as I know, she never slept with anyone. She liked making people more uncomfortable than she was, so she put me and the servants in the most uncomfortable positions she could think of. She began by getting me to drop my pants in front of the maids, shocking me with my wristband when I didn’t comply. It’s a miracle my hand still works for how many times she had to shock me. What that all means is that I performed a long list of atrocities that still horrify me.”

Iona took her foot out from between Gage’s hands and moved forward, taking his hands in hers in compassion.

Gage frowned in pain and his voice cracked in the pink light of the lobby. “There was nowhere to go. There was nothing to do. Olivine was very bored and she had all the power. I can’t tell you all that I did or all that was done to me. I can’t say how many times I was drugged or what I did when I was drugged. Three of the maids and one of the valets died while we were trapped in the crevice.”

“How did you get out?” Iona asked, urging him to skip to the end.

“Olivine’s mother had been kept in cryostasis all the time that I’d been there. When I first got there and Olivine was still in school, I was told her mother was on vacation. When the entrance caved in, I was told she was in cryostasis because she was waiting for her husband’s secret hooligans to dig us out. The truth of that matter was that the master’s hooligans loved him being absent and they were not digging us out. Some of us worked on it from time to time, but it was obvious that the problem could not be solved from underneath. One time, I was in the room where she was kept. It was actually the same room that had the entrance to the underground railway. I was unloading the food supplies in place of the valet we lost when I realized that the cryochamber wasn’t keeping her alive. She was already dead. I decided that she was probably dead when I arrived and that was another of the reasons behind Olivine’s morbidity.”

“You…? Did you?” Iona prompted.

“Yeah, I turned off the machine. I opened it up and unbuckled her. I carried her dead body to the end of the railway tunnel, which was where we were putting our other dead bodies. Then I put the cryochamber on the transport boxes, buckled it down, and got ready.”

“Weren’t you scared to touch a dead body?” she asked, getting the shivers.

Gage turned off the part of his brain that would have answered that question in more detail and gave an automated answer like a robot. “I had handled the other bodies we stacked at the end of the tunnel. They were behind a brick wall. I had bricked the wall up myself, but I didn’t bother to brick it up after Olivine’s mother.”

“You didn’t wait and try to perfect your plan?”

“No. I didn’t. I got in and pressed the mayday buttons meant to be used if it crashed on the surface of the planet because it wasn’t the type of cryochamber that Sleeping Beauty Inc. uses for surface models. It was one from outer space. If anything could handle the extremes in temperature, that cryochamber could. It was my only chance. I pulled the lever intended to send the railcar to where it would get restocked and hopped in while it was still moving. I closed the lid and I couldn’t stop it from filling with the gas that puts people to sleep, but I got my mayday call out. I can only imagine that the police were there to greet me when I got to the other side of the track. I didn’t see where I ended up. I was awakened in a police station where I told them my story and more than one operation was sacked. I busted a drug ring and a human trafficking ring.”

“So, you’re a hero?”

“Perhaps,” he said slowly, feeling strange about having told his story. “I really didn’t know what to do with myself once I was free besides my big plan to change my name.”

“That’s when Sleeping Beauty Inc. approached you, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. They framed it so beautifully, saying how brave I was to have put myself to sleep in a cryochamber without any experience doing so. They said I would have the courage to protect the girls I transported when other pilots would look the other way. It wasn’t that I believed them exactly. It was that what they offered was exactly what I wanted. I wanted to be away from Mars. They were offering me a job on the other side of the asteroid belt. They offered solitude and I wanted to be alone, badly. Lastly, at the end of the long sleep they offered, they offered a life where I could do whatever I wanted without the people of my past haunting me. I am very disappointed that my future with them has come to an end before Olivine died.”

“You must hate her.”

“I don’t know that I do,” he said slowly. “If I hated her, I could kill her. I think I just care too much about my own life to let her have any say in how the rest of it is going to play out. If I hurt her, there’s no happy ending for me. She’s still super rich, even after everything the police did to cripple her family. I thought about breaking her face against the glass at your show, but I didn’t do it. I must just want to leave her behind. There’s nothing more I can do or want to do to right the wrongs that happened on Mars. I just want to go.”

Iona kissed his fingers. “We don’t ever have to talk about this again.”

“I’d like that.”