Chapter Fifteen

Zoe

 

“Why should it be surprising?” I asked, frowning at Doloroso. “You’re the one who sent us here.”

“Ah, yes. I did, didn’t I?” he mused, giving me that oily smile of his.

“Yes, you did,” I said pointedly. The way he was looking at me gave me the creeps. Especially since I was wearing the damn see-through dress. He looked like he was undressing me with his eyes only he didn’t have to—everything was already on display. “So…why are you here?” I asked, trying unobtrusively to cover as much of my goodies as I could with my arms.

“Just a little matter I needed to discuss with the mech tech,” he murmured. “But I suppose he’s busy with your master?”

“Sarden is not my master,” I said stiffly. “He’s just a guy who…” I was about to say ‘a guy who owns me’ or ‘a guy who bought me’ but that made it sound like he was my master, after all. “He’s just a guy I’m traveling with,” I ended at last, lamely.

“Is that right? Well, perhaps I should come back later. The dark cycle is coming soon, after all.” Count Doloroso opened the door and stepped halfway out. But before he got all the way back out to the alley, he reached into his long, black cloak—which was twitching oddly—and pulled out a yellow bag with a drawstring. Carefully, he opened the drawstring and extracted something from the bag.

I gasped when I saw what it was—a little purple and green nib-nib! Doloroso had it by the tail, pinched delicately between thumb and forefinger, and it chattered desperately in its high-pitched, squeaky voice.

“Oh my God,” I said, fascinated. “A nib-nib—you’ve got one!”

“More than one, actually. Would you care for one? They’re a bit crunchy but quite delicious.”

“What? What did you say?” I asked faintly. Please let him not be saying what I thought he was saying. Suddenly Sarden’s earlier words began to make an awful kind of sense.

“Some find their flavor bitter,” Doloroso went on, dangling the tiny monkey, no longer than my pinky finger—above his mouth. “But I quite like it.”

“Their…flavor?” I still couldn’t believe it.

“Yes, their flavor. They’re a kind of snack food, you know. A specialty of Gallana.”

“Oh no—you can’t be serious. You can’t be.” I was filled with a sick kind of horror.

“Of course I am. What did you think they were? A kind of pet?” He laughed and popped the screaming, chattering nib-nib into his mouth.

“Stop!” Modesty forgotten, I hopped to my feet and ran as fast as I could in my stripper heels, trying to reach him before he could bite down. “Spit him out! Spit him out!” I demanded, pounding on his chest. He was almost as tall as Sarden but the heels made him easier to reach. I slapped and punched and pushed as hard as I could. “Don’t you dare hurt him—spit him out!” I yelled.

More from surprise than from the effects of my punching, I think, Doloroso opened his mouth and spat the little nib-nib into the palm of his hand. The poor little guy was shivering and all nasty and damp from the awful man’s mouth but he didn’t seem to be harmed.

“What in the name of The Assimilation is wrong with you?” the Count asked, looking at me as though I’d grown a third eye. “I offer you a snack and you attack me.”

“He’s not just a snack. Give him to me! In fact, I want all of them—how many do you have in the bag?”

“Only two more. They’re quite expensive you know. And you’re acting unbecomingly greedy, young lady, if I may take the liberty of saying so.”

As he spoke, he moved backward and I found myself following. To my surprise, I found that my momentum when I had pushed and pummeled him to make him spit out the nib-nib, had carried us out the door and into the dark alley beyond. The ground under my ridiculous shoes was uneven and rutted and I nearly stumbled as I went after him.

Go back, Zoe—this isn’t safe! a stern voice spoke up in my head. But I couldn’t leave the nib-nibs to be eaten! Count Doloroso had the one he’d spit out clutched in his large fist with only its little head poking out. It was chattering and looking at me with such fear in its large, liquid eyes it twisted my heart. I couldn’t bear to think of it going back in his mouth to be ground up to mush. What a horrible fate—to be eaten alive by this creepy man!

Well, it wasn’t going to happen on my watch.

“Please,” I said, taking another step towards him. “Please, just give them to me. I…I’ll have Sarden pay you for them. He promised he’d get me some. He won’t mind. He’ll pay you double…triple even!”

“Aha, but what if I’d rather be paid in information than credit?” he asked, taking another step backward.

“What information?” I took another step forward—we were far down the alley at this point and I could barely see the pinkish light at the mouth of it anymore. I wondered where it ended.

Count Doloroso’s eyes gleamed.

“Information about your home world, of course. I checked, you know. Salex Prime is a rocky wasteland much too close to its sun to bear any life at all.”

“Where?” I asked, my eyes still on the tiny nib-nib in his hand which was crying pitifully.

“Your home planet—according to Sarden, anyway.” He smiled triumphantly. “I knew you weren’t from there. What I want to know is where are you from? You are, as I said before, a very unique specimen, my dear.”

“That’s because…because I come from another galaxy,” I said, thinking fast. I wanted to save the nib-nibs but I most certainly did not want to send a creepy bastard like Doloroso back to Earth to pick out his own “specimen” from the Alien Mate Index.

“Ah, I see.” He nodded, still walking backwards. “And what galaxy would that be? And what planet exactly?”

“I’ll tell you everything,” I lied recklessly. “Just give me the nib-nibs. All of them.”

“Very well. You may have them.” He stopped and I saw that we were at the far end of the alley now, the opposite end from where Sarden and I had entered.

“Here.” I held out my hands eagerly and he dropped the first one—still kind of damp, poor little guy—into my cupped hands. “Hey, little guy.” I leaned down and whispered to him, trying to use my softest and most gentle voice. “It’s okay—I won’t hurt you.”

The nib-nib looked at me doubtfully and chattered softly.

Gently, very gently, I used one finger to stroke the soft greenish-purple fur on his little back. Immediately, his large eyes closed and his tail began to twitch in time with my stroking. A soft, musical humming sound came from his tiny throat—so high it almost sounded like the buzzing of a bee.

“Well, well—it seems he’s quite taken with you,” Doloroso said right in my ear.

“Huh?” I jumped and suddenly realized that he was close—a lot closer than I wanted him to be.

“I’m sure the other two will be as well,” he remarked and dumped them out of the sack and into my hands.

Immediately, all three of the tiny monkey-creatures started chattering and scampering all over me, as though I was a giant jungle gym set up just for them.

“Oh—oh my God!” I gasped as they ran up my arms and into my hair, down my neck, and across my shoulders. Their tiny claws had no trouble holding on and they went all over the place, playing a game of tag all over me that tickled horribly. “Stop—stop you little boogers!” I gasped, not sure whether to laugh or panic.

“Here—I was afraid this might happen. Let me try to get them off you.”

Suddenly Count Doloroso had me by the arm and was dragging me off into another alleyway.

“Hey. Hey, stop!” I yanked my concentration from my three new pets to the creepy man beside me. “Let me go—I need to get back to Sarden!”

“I don’t think so.” He smiled at me in a way that made my blood run cold. “I think we have a lot to talk about, my dear Zoe. But it’s a discussion best held in private.”

I can be loud when I need to and I felt the need right now.

“Sarden!” I shouted as loudly as I could. “Sarden! HELP!”

“Shut up, you foolish girl!” Doloroso clamped a big, clammy palm over my mouth but I wasn’t having any of that. I bit him as hard as I could and one of the little nib-nibs—I’d like to think it was the one I rescued from being eaten—scampered forward and bit him too.

Doloroso howled in pain and jerked back as my mouth filled with his blood. It didn’t taste like blood though—it had an acrid, oily, bland flavor that made me gag and spit.

I didn’t have long to clear my mouth because Doloroso was already coming after me again. I dodged away from him as he made a grab for me, the nib-nibs chattering in my ears. They were all in my hair now, maybe thinking it was the safest place to be. I wasn’t so sure about that but I couldn’t take time to secure them at the moment because Count creepy was determined to get me.

“Get back!” I shouted as loudly as I could, dodging another one of his boney, grabbing hands. “Get away from me! I don’t want you anywhere near me!”

They say that shouting definite negative statements like that will often scare off an attacker or possibly bring help. But so far, neither one of those things was happening. Where in the Frozen Hells, to borrow one of his own phrases, was Sarden?

“Come here,” Doloroso snarled, his long fingers catching in my hair. “Come here you little bitch!” He gave a tug and I screamed and stumbled towards him, grabbing at my aching scalp.

My hair is long and I was bent over, trying to pull away so I had a clear view of it. If I could have, I would have cut off the hank he had in his fist but obviously, I didn’t have any scissors. As it turned out, though, I wasn’t completely unarmed. I heard one of the nib-nibs chattering , almost as if he was talking to the others. They chattered back and then all three nib-nibs ran forward and bit the hand tangled in my hair.

“Ow! Filthy vermin!” Doloroso howled, at last releasing his grip on my hair.

With one more yank, I got free, leaving several long curly auburn strands in his grip. My scalp ached fiercely—it felt like he’d tried to snatch me bald, as my Granny would have said.

Unfortunately during our struggle, our places had gotten reversed and now Doloroso was between me and the mouth of the alley where the mechanic’s shop was. I cast one last glance in that direction. Where was Sarden? Well, wherever he was, I couldn’t trust him to save me. I was going to have to get away on my own.

If I can just get back to the moving walkway, I told myself. If I can just get back, I’ll be safe. There are plenty of people there and if Doloroso tries anything I can shout that he’s hurting me.

Mind made up, I turned in the direction I thought was most likely to lead back to the walkway. Then I kicked off the ridiculous stripper heels and ran.

 

Sarden

 

“Stop. Did you hear that?” I pulled off the protective ear-shields the mechanic—whose name was Gil, I had found out—had given me to wear as he turned off his equipment.

He’d wanted to show me the new panels and then his assistant had helpfully offered to demonstrate by using a lithium cold laser blowtorch on them. And after that, he’d insisted on showing me that even a blast grinder wouldn’t scratch them. And then of course, we had to have a simulated meteor shower in their private wind tunnel. All these tests were extremely loud. In fact, even with the ear-shields on, I was beginning to wonder if I would ever hear properly again.

But I did hear something—it sounded like someone calling my name.

Zoe? My heart started pounding and I dropped the ear-shields carelessly on the floor as I jogged back to the swinging metal door connecting to the front of the shop.

She’ll be fine, I told myself uneasily. It was just my imagination—I’m sure of it.

I wasn’t so sure when I pushed out into the front of the shop and found it empty. Zoe, who had been sitting on the organically grown stool in the corner of the room, wasn’t there anymore.

Well, maybe she just went outside for a breath of fresh air.

I went out of the shop but she was nowhere to be seen in the alleyway either.

“Zoe?” I called and then raised my voice. “Zoe?”

No answer. I felt my heart stutter in my chest.

It was just as I had feared—she was gone.

 

Zoe

 

I hadn’t been running for more than a couple of minutes before I got a horrible stitch in my side. Also, I could hear Doloroso gaining on me. He was panting and letting out a string of curses that didn’t make sense but sounded extremely nasty nonetheless.

He’d been acting like such a gentleman back when he was making his deal with Sarden but, he’d turned into a real potty-mouth now. I was pretty glad I didn’t understand half of what he was saying—no doubt it would have really hurt my feelings.

Ha—better my feelings than my body though, right? I had no intention of letting him catch me to find out.

I wanted to keep running in the direction of the moving walkway, but the creepy Count was making my plan unfeasible. I had to get away from him any way I could.

I saw a side street coming up but I didn’t know if I could make it—or even if I should try. What if I ended up someplace even worse? What if I got trapped?

Then again, maybe I should take a chance.

My feet were getting cut and tattered on the jagged pavement but I couldn’t worry about that now. I could practically feel him breathing down my neck and the chattering of my nib-nibs was getting more and more frantic when something that was either the best luck or the worst luck ever, happened.

A huge voice that came out of the sky like God talking to Moses suddenly boomed, “Light cycle is over. Night cycle now commencing.”

And suddenly, the pinkish glow from the “sky” overhead faded to nothing but a dull, barely-there gray which left everything in almost complete darkness.

The sudden change made me feel as if I had gone blind all at once. I tripped over a rock and stumbled, almost going down. It was a good thing though—as I rocked forward, I felt the wind of Doloroso’s arm and hand making a missed grab over my head. Clearly he was trying to get his hands on hair again.

If he gets me now, I’m dead! I thought wildly. I felt like a character in a slasher movie where the bad guy is right behind them with a long, sharp knife and they keep making stupid decisions—like going with the killer, letting him distract them with tiny cute monkeys, then lure them away from safety—until he ultimately catches them and kills them.

Okay, time for a good decision.

My eyes were adjusting a bit now and I could still see the side street I’d been eyeing coming up.

Go for it—now or never, Zoe! I told myself in a silent pep talk. Quick and quiet as a rabbit running for its life, I dodged down the narrow side street and came to…

A dead end.

 

Sarden

 

The night cycle of Gallana had commenced by the time I ran to the end of the alley we’d entered to get to the mechanic’s shop. The street outside was plunged into gloom but that didn’t bother me—the Vorn part of my heritage gives me excellent night vision. I could easily see that Zoe wasn’t there.

I almost charged out of the alley and went back the way we had come. I was thinking that she must have changed her mind about being traded for my sister to Tazaxx. I guessed I couldn’t blame her for that but I was still worried as hell. What I had told her about being taken aboard a strange vessel and cut up for cloning seeds was the absolute truth. She might not want to go live in Tazaxx’s private zoo, but at least she’d be safe and well cared for there.

A safe, well cared for prisoner, whispered a voice in my head. Can you blame her for running? Of course she tried to get away.

But was this the way she had gone? Something—some instinct, maybe the same one that had tried to warn me when she was drowning in the sensitivity tank—told me no.

I jogged back the other way, going to the distant end of the alley instead. She wasn’t there either but something else was. First I found an empty yellow drawstring bag—the kind used to hold merchandise bought at the docking area. I sniffed it and drew back, my nose wrinkling—nib-nibs! Exactly what Zoe had been asking for so insistently back at the mechanic’s shop.

I frowned. What the hell was going on here? Had someone offered Zoe what she wanted and gotten her to follow them out of the shop? But who? And where would they have taken her?

Heart beating fast I walked a few more steps and found some other things. The first was something anyone without my night vision would have missed—a few strands of long, curly hair. And then the ridiculously high shoes I’d given her to go with the Majoran dress she was wearing. She’d taken them off. Why?

It wasn’t another visual clue that gave me the answer—it was an olfactory one. Because of the Ambergeis amplifying her natural scent, I could smell that Zoe had been here recently. And there was a sharp tang of fear mixed in with her sweet natural aroma. She’d been frightened then—possibly she’d called out for me but I hadn’t heard her due to the damn ear-shields.

I gritted my teeth. Gods, what must be happening to her now? Had whoever had lured her out here taken her away?

I thought of how much attention her unique beauty had attracted at the docking area. Every male within the entire area had probably been watching us. They’d seen what she showed an interest in—those damned nib-nibs. Then they probably followed us to the mechanic’s shop, waiting for the right moment to make their play. And, like a fool, I had given them the perfect opportunity. I had dragged her out to this Gods’forsaken area of a spaceport known to have a brisk black market in cloning and then left her alone. What in the Frozen Hells was wrong with me?

Should have known better than to leave her alone. Should have known better than to bring her here in the first place. I should have found another way to get the ship fixed. Now she’s gone, possibly being cut into little pieces while I stand here like a fool and it’s all my damn fault. My heart twisted in my chest and I felt sick, imagining her cries of pain. I don’t usually pray but I sent up a prayer now.

Please, Goddess of Mercy—let me find her! Let her be all right!

I took another step, following her scent, so full of fear and desperation, and then I saw it—a spot of blood on the rough and broken pavement. It was just beginning to dry but when I scented it I knew it was hers. There was another further on and then another. The drops were spaced widely apart as though Zoe had been taking long strides when she made them.

Of course—her feet were bare so she was probably cutting herself all to hell. Well why had she taken off her shoes in the first place? I flashed on them again—the ridiculous things were so high I hadn’t even wanted her walking in them on this broken pavement. I’d been afraid she would twist an ankle. She couldn’t walk in the damn things—let alone run, which was what the length of her strides indicated.

Sudden understanding broke over me and I felt a surge of relief. She must be running away! Running from whoever had lured her out here! So maybe she was still on the move and they hadn’t caught her!

I gave a groan. My little Pure One was on the run in the middle of the bad part of Gallana during the night cycle which lasted a full ten solar hours.

Gods, I had to find her—and hope I got to her before her attacker did!

 

Zoe

 

A dead end. Good going, Zoe—you really know how to pick escape routes, a little voice whispered snarkilly in my head.

Shut up! I told it. I don’t have time for this—I have to find a way out.

My eyes had adjusted as much as they were going to, to the deep gray gloom that had fallen over the entire spaceport. Which meant I could see Count Doloroso coming at me just fine. Apparently my sudden dodge into the side alley hadn’t fooled him a bit. All I had done was manage to get myself cornered.

I looked wildly from side to side. There was blank, stone wall much too high to climb to my left and a shut door to my right. Was it locked? Probably but you don’t know until you try. I went to reach for it but Doloroso made a lunge at me and I had to jump back.

“Come here, you foolish girl.” His voice was ugly and sneering, as though he was laughing at me—as though he knew I had no place to go. Well, he was right but I wasn’t about to admit it.

“Stay back,” I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking. “Just stay away.”

“Why? Do you think you can run from me?” He stepped over to the door I’d wanted to try and put his hand flat on a wide rectangular pad to one side of it. It lit up and his large, boney-knuckled hand was outlined in red. “See? Locked. There’s no way out.”

“There’s always a way out,” I said, to sound brave even though I was pretty much scared shitless. Sorry for the language, but I was. You would have been too, in my place.

“Not this time, young lady—you’re coming back to my ship with me,” Doloroso informed me. “And the first thing we’re going to do is put you back in the sensitivity tank to finish the scan the sensu-pods started.” He licked his thin lips. “They are…eager for another taste of you and I can’t say that I blame them. You are a luscious little creature, even if you are a bit temperamental.”

“What? Put me back in that awful tank?” I stared at his shadowy form in horror. “Why the hell do you want to do that? Are you some kind of sadist or something?”

“I assure you, I am not,” he said in a way I somehow found completely unconvincing. “I just want to know a little more about you and your home world. The blood sample from the chip-driller and the half-finished sensitivity test from the tank I purchased from your Master were most instructive. They let me know that I have much to learn from you and your people. In fact, I believe that you might be exactly what I have been searching for ever since the Last Day.”

He said “last day” in a way that made me think it was some kind of holiday or a historic date with special significance. Not that I cared. I had been feeling around with my cut and bleeding feet as we talked, searching for anything I could use as a weapon and I had finally found something.

It was a long length of metal—some kind of a pole or pipe maybe?—and I could feel it under my bare toes.

“You’re going to come with me now without any more trouble,” Doloroso informed me. “The Assimilated have much to learn from you, my dear.”

As quickly as I could, I reached down and grabbed the long metal pole. Holding it like a baseball bat and picturing his head as a big, nasty ball, I swung it as hard as I could.

“Learn about this you monkey-eating asshole!” I yelled as the pole connected.

Unfortunately, I only hit his shoulder. I can be brave when I want to but I have to be honest, I suck at sports, baseball included. This was my only time at bat and I had struck out.

My blow did make Doloroso stagger backwards a few steps, though. For just a moment he wasn’t blocking my way to the mouth of the alley. I had a window of opportunity to get past him and run.

Instead, I ran to the door—the one he’d demonstrated was locked. I don’t know why I did it—instinct? Stupidity? I don’t know—pick one. Anyway, once I got there I pressed my own hand to the same pad he’d used to prove the door was locked.

I felt a tingle in my palm and fingers and then suddenly the pad lit up—green this time.

I shoved hard with my shoulder and the door creaked inward.

“Stop, you little bitch!” I heard Doloroso scream. Yup, when he thought he had me I was “young lady” but the minute I started getting away, I was suddenly a “bitch.” Of course, as far as I was concerned, he was an asshole all the time.

“Sorry to be such an inconsiderate bitch by not letting you kidnap me,” I shouted as I shoved the door closed in his face. “But I don’t feel like it—I’ve been kidnapped enough for one week.”

He started to snarl something else but just then the door clicked closed and I heard a buzzing sound that I hoped was the lock falling back into place. Sure enough, I heard Doloroso slapping at the keypad and cursing. The door rattled on its metal hinges but he apparently couldn’t open it.

I breathed a shaky sigh of relief and the nib-nibs, which I hadn’t even been thinking about, chattered from their place on top of my head. They were probably making a terrible mess of my hair up there but I didn’t care—I was just glad I wasn’t all alone.

“It’s all right, guys,” I told them in a low voice. “It’s all right now—everything is going to be all right.”

And then I heard a grinding-sizzling sound start just outside the door. To my horror, I saw sparks along the edge of the door nearest the hinges. Did Doloroso have some kind of laser or grinder he was using to cut his way in?

The answer appeared to be yes. Quickly, I backed away.

If the outside had been dark, the inside of the building was pitch-black. I had no idea what this building was or what it contained but I didn’t want to stay by the door with Count Creepy cutting his way in. I still had the length of pipe I’d used to wallop Doloroso, but I wasn’t interested in going for round two. I had to get out of here—get further into the building and away from the door. It seemed pretty thick but who knew how long it would take my assailant to get in?

My assailant. I gave a shaky little laugh. It made me sound so important—like someone out of a crime drama. Who would have ever guessed plain, plus-sized Zoe McKinley would have an assailant? Then again, who would have guessed that I would have an artificial life form as a friend, a hot, Devil-looking captor, or my hair full of alien monkeys?

My life was getting weirder all the time. Not for the first time, I wished I was back at Lauder, Lauder and Associates having staplers thrown at my head.

But we can’t have everything we want.

“Okay, guys,” I said softly to the nib-nibs. “Let’s see if we can find a way out before Count Creeps-a-lot gets in.”

They chattered quietly and I hoped that they were housebroken since they had apparently decided my hair was the best place for a monkey condo. Then, feeling my way forward with my bruised and battered toes, I began moving through the dark.

I managed to find a wall and put my fingers against it, trailing lightly over its cold, metallic surface as I went. I read somewhere once that if you’re lost in a maze or an unknown building you should pick one direction and keep going that way. Like stay right and keep turning right every chance you get. And that was somehow supposed to lead you out of the maze.

I had never had a chance to try this bit of trivia before but I can share with you now that it is complete bullshit.

I put my fingertips to the right hand wall and I kept taking rights every time I felt a corner but my strategy didn’t get me to any kind of an exit. Instead, the wall I was following abruptly stopped. What I mean was, I came to the end of it and there was no corner. It just kind of curved away in a way that made me think maybe the room I was entering was either round or oval.

It was also absolutely huge.

I could tell because the soft, shuffling of my bare, wounded feet was suddenly magnified by a factor of about a thousand. I held still in the silence, trying not to breathe for a moment.

It wasn’t completely quiet in the big, empty space, though—I could hear a kind of rhythmic lapping sound—a soft liquid gurgle that made me shiver. What was that? It sounded a little like the indoor swimming pool my therapist had made me go to in order to try and overcome my past. That had been a big, fat failure by the way, but the sound of the water lapping and gurgling, echoing in the huge tiled room reminded me of what I was hearing now.

Cling! I’d been listening so hard that the end of the metal pole, which I was still carrying even though it was damn heavy, dropped a little and scraped the metal floor.

The small sound rang and echoed, flying around the vast room like a flock of bats. God, this place must be bigger than a football stadium! The nib-nibs in my hair chattered uneasily and even that small sound was magnified.

“Shhh, guys,” I whispered to them. “Let’s keep it down, okay?”

But it was too late. Somewhere in the darkness in front of me I saw two fiery red spots appear. After a moment, I realized they were eyes. Freaking eyes staring at me from out of the pitch-blackness.

And then something growled.