Laura
As promised, Hans had made sure a drone waited for me as soon as I crossed into the Motherlands. Half an hour later, I arrived at the village where Devlin was believed to be keeping a woman hostage. It was only four in the morning, and none of the other team members had arrived yet.
I chose to land the drone outside the rural village and walk to the house. That’s when it hit me that it had been a mistake to get here early. Standing for two hours looking at a dark house, until Hans and the other mediators arrived, wasn’t a solid plan. I debated whether to go back to the drone and wait there, or to investigate by myself. Isobel had the weapons that Magni had given me, and I’d left the non-lethal Motlander weapons with Hans. Still, a tiptoe walk around the perimeter of the house didn’t sound too dangerous, and it could prove useful later on when we had to come up with a plan on how to surround the house.
I made sure to be quiet, and kept the light from my wristband turned to the ground only.
The house was small and very old. It was hard for me to see what it was made of, but I guessed it to be GOTO blocks like most old houses here. My sensei had lived in a house like this, and she had told me that GOTO was short for Gift of the Ocean, a program that transformed plastic trash into building blocks. Some of these houses had been built more than two hundred years ago and were routinely renovated and upgraded. They didn’t use GOTO blocks to build anymore since they had run out of plastic trash long ago. That’s why it made sense to treasure these old houses. With everything from the old world either buried or destroyed after the war, the houses had become a historic part of the Motherlands.
Looking over my shoulder to be sure no one was around, I tripped over a shovel standing against the wall of the house. It spooked the hell out of me when it made a jarring noise as it fell down on some empty flowerpots. Thinking fast, I hunched down close to the wall, covering the light from my wristband with my other arm. I held my breath and didn’t move a muscle.
A dog barked in the distance and I thought I heard a voice from inside the house. For what felt like ten minutes, I listened for movement, but no one came and my pulse calmed down enough for me to stand up and move along. Quiet as a mouse, I tiptoed around the next corner and froze to the spot. A faint light shone from a window, and my first thought was to retreat to the drone to wait for the others.
I had only taken a few steps before I heard sounds that made the hair on my neck and arms stand up. Turning my head, I listened. My brain registered what those sounds were, but I didn’t want to believe it.
Folding my hands into fists and closing my eyes, I swallowed hard and took a long inhalation of the cold night air.
Muffled screams and low groans sounded again, awakening the bravest part of me. Telling myself that I was a Northlander and that we always rose to the occasion, I walked back and rose up on my toes to look in through the window.
The room was dimly lit, but I saw enough to understand that an innocent Motlander woman was being brutally raped by a large man who could only be Devlin.
My hand flew to my mouth, and my eyes grew wide when I watched the poor woman being pressed into the mattress. Her hands were tied down to the bed, making it impossible for her to fight him off. With Devlin covering her mouth with one hand and strangling her with the other, she was suffocating.
My stomach was in an uproar and I felt like vomiting. This was exactly what Motlanders had always accused Northlanders of being: rapists and monsters.
One of the escaped Nmen had already raped an innocent woman and now Devlin was doing the same.
The woman’s eyes were rolling back in her head, her legs kicking. The motherfucker was killing her and I was the only one around to interfere.
What would Magni do?
The answer was obvious. Magni would storm in there and break Devlin’s neck to save the woman.
There was no time to wait for backup. I had to act now!
Needing a weapon, I ran back to the side of the house and picked up the shovel before I sprinted to the front entrance.
The door was locked.
“Fuck!” I muttered under my breath and stepped back.
If I’d learned anything in these past six months living in the Motherlands, it was that Motlanders were trusting people who didn’t lock their doors. I had once asked my sensei about it, and she’d joked that it didn’t matter since the GOBO doors were so easy to break down that a lock wouldn’t hold anyone out anyway.
I considered testing to see if she was right, but knocking down the door would alert Devlin that I was coming.
My hands flew to the small keyboard on the side of the door and taking a chance, I pressed 1-2-3-4. Nothing happened. I tried 9-8-7-6 and then I saw the house number on a sign just above the box. No one would use that obvious a number, but I had to test it. With frantic movements my fingers took a long shot and pressed 1-0-2-4. I held my breath when a green light lit up and the door clicked. I would have to have a serious talk about safety with the woman living here, but first I had to save her life.
The sounds from the bedroom overpowered the low creaking sound from the door as I entered. Holding out the shovel in front of me, I steered towards the dim light coming from underneath a door to my right.
My palms grew sweaty when I heard squeaking sounds from the bed and skin pounding against skin.
“You feel that? You like having a real man between your legs?” Devlin’s deep voice was raw and panting. “Told you I’d fuck you hard if you didn’t do as I asked you to.”
It felt like my heart was trying to beat its way through my spine to get the hell out of that house, but I kept thinking about Magni. A month after we got married, we’d witnessed a crash at a drone race. We’d been on a balcony with Khan as guests of honor when two of the drones nearly collided and one of them spun out of control and crashed. Khan was shouting for people to get back in case the drone exploded, while Magni crawled over the balcony and jumped down, making his way through an audience that was in panic. I had watched in horror as he ran straight to the drone, kicked in a window, and pulled the pilot out. Magni always stormed ahead when others ran away, and if he were here right now, he wouldn't retreat. Tightening my grip around the shaft of the shovel, I moved closer with what would have been graceful cat-like movements if my legs hadn’t been stiff from fear.
With my hand on the doorknob, I counted down from three in my head.
3. 2. 1.
Boom. With my heart in my throat, I slammed the door open.
My brain registered the scenario in front of me with Devlin still on top of the poor tied-up woman, now with her knees on his shoulder. My hands clamped around the long shaft of the shovel, pulling it back to swing it full force against the back of Devlin’s head.
He turned his head just as the shovel made impact and was knocked on his side with a howl of pain.
My blood pumped with the speed of fury, and tunnel vision made me focus only on the disgusting monster in front of me. Taking advantage of his initial shock, I used the shovel to strike him again and again. He held up his arms to protect himself and shouted incoherently at me, but I couldn’t hear a thing for the noise in my ears.
I hit him as hard as I could on his back, arms, shoulder, neck, and hands. This disgusting man represented all my childhood nightmares of being taken by an evil man, like my father always warned about.
I channeled all my fear and rage at him with a hard kick.
“No.” The scream came from the woman and I scrunched up my face in disbelief. Motlanders were peaceful by nature, but she should be happy for me to punish this creep for raping her.
Devlin was quick to take advantage of my momentary confusion and ripped the shovel from me.
I tried to kick him again, but he blocked and got up to fight back.
“Where the fuck did you come from?” he sneered at me. “Did you really think you stood a chance against an Nman?”
I didn’t tell him I was a Northlander myself because I was too busy reacting to his attack. Even with the things Magni had taught me, Devlin was too strong and fast for me. My strategy had always been to keep my distance but within seconds he was breathing into my face, with a hand squeezing around my neck.
I turned my head and closed my eyes, as if surrendering. It made him ease his grip a little.
Magni had told me that Devlin would underestimate me, and he’d been right. His words for me to castrate that scumbag if I got the chance made me hammer my knee up into Devlin’s naked crotch.
Shoving me hard against the wall, he fell to his knees and buckled over in pain.
“No,” the woman cried out from the bed, yanking the ropes that had her tied to the bed. “Don’t hurt him.”
“I’m saving you.” My hands were already untying the knots to free her.
To my surprise, she ran to Devlin asking him if he was all right.
Blue in the face, he couldn’t respond.
“You didn’t have to hurt him. What did he ever do to you?” She asked with a blameful stare at me.
“Me?” I shook my head. “He was raping you.”
“Breathe, babe, just breathe,” she instructed him, while stroking his back up and down.
My hands went to my hair, and my eyes widened in a what the fuck expression. Nothing made sense.
“He had you tied down.”
She ignored me, focusing only on the man on the floor.
Looking to the bed, I assured myself that the ropes were still there. They weren’t just in my head. And then I saw it.
“What is this?” I asked and took a few steps to pick up the sign leaning against the wall. It said,
I’d take an Nman N-E day.
The border is bad.
Nmen are good.
“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered and turned to her. “You are one of those women?”
She only spared me a quick glimpse. “I don’t know what you’re referring to or who you are, but I want you out of my house.”
I pointed an accusing finger at her. “He wasn’t holding you hostage, was he? You’ve been hiding Devlin all this time.”
“So what if I have? It still doesn’t give you the right to go and beat him up.”
Devlin groaned, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of the physical pain or the humiliation of his woman seeing him get beaten up by a woman.
“You don’t understand,” I said. “Devlin is a criminal. He’s been in prison.”
“Yes, he told me.”
“And you still allowed him inside your house?” I couldn’t fathom the stupidity of this woman.
“He never hurt me,” she insisted, and that made me pick up one of the ropes and hold it out to her in an accusatory manner.
“How can you say that? He had you tied down and I saw him strangling you.”
Her eyes were shooting daggers at me. “I’m a naturephile, okay? We like role plays, and I don’t have to explain my fantasies to you.”
“Your fantasies?” My tone was incredulous.
Devlin lifted his face; a large red mark from where the shovel had hit him was already showing. “It was just a role-play,” he explained in a strained voice.
“It didn’t look like play to me. It looked like you were raping her.”
“I was pretending.” He gave me a hard stare. “Julia knows I would never hurt her.”
I rubbed my face, as if I could somehow wash away what I had seen. “This makes no sense to me.”
Julia found a robe to cover her naked body, and faced me. “I was up at the border when the earthquake happened. That’s when I met Devlin. It was a spontaneous decision to bring him here.” She brought him his clothes and I looked away as he dressed himself.
“Didn’t it occur to you that he might be dangerous?”
“No. People say mean things about the Nmen all the time, but it’s just rumors and lies. My friends and I have read every article about the women who have married men from the North. They all tell how wonderful their men really are.”
I was shocked at how naïve she was.
“Because they married good men. This piece of shit…” I pointed to Devlin, “…stabbed a man to death and went to prison for it.”
“He only stabbed the man because they were both intoxicated and the man attacked him. Devlin was only trying to protect himself.”
“Oh yeah?” I looked down at Devlin. “And is that why you stabbed my husband too?”
“Your husband?”
“Magni Aurelius. He’s got a scar on his arm because of you.”
“Fuck that, it wasn’t my fault.” Devlin frowned. “Look, fighting Magni is no joke. That guy is legendary and when I met him I was heading over to tell him what an admirer I am. If I’d known what a foul mood he’d be in, I would have kept my distance. I bumped into him by accident and he got so mad that he slammed me up against a wall. Your husband is crazy, and if I hadn’t pulled my knife, he’d have smashed my head in.”
“He was going through a tough time, that’s all,” I defended Magni.
“No shit. I heard that you left him. I would be going crazy too.”
Julia spoke up. “Devlin and I love each other.”
I lowered my brow. “You’ve only known each other for three weeks.”
Devlin pulled her into his arms and they both looked at me. “Julia is right,” he said. “We can’t get enough of each other. It was love at first sight.”
My jaw dropped at the sincerity in his voice. I’d been chasing this man for three weeks, thinking he was violent, brutal, and a danger to the Motlanders. And then it turns out that he was in a consensual relationship with a woman who saw him as a gift from heaven. It was mind-boggling to me that Devlin could declare his love for Julia without hesitation. How could it be so easy for him to say when Magni couldn’t get those words over his lips?
Clearing my throat, I addressed him. “You’ll need to go back to the Northlands.”
“I’m not going anywhere unless I can take Julia with me.” He tightened his grip around her, and she reciprocated by clinging to him with her arms around his waist.
“I’m sorry but it’s not up to me.” I could tell him to apply to become a permanent resident here, but there was no way the Council would allow someone with a criminal past to move here.
“If you try to split us apart, we’ll do something drastic,” Julia declared.
“Look, I’ll give you time to say goodbye, but there’s no way I can let you stay with her.”
Devlin sighed. “You could pretend that you didn’t find me here.”
I shook my head. “Others are coming.”
“Then you could let me and Julia leave together. I could take her back to the Northlands.”
“Devlin, it wouldn’t work. Julia will have to apply to marry you the official way.”
“But how long will that take?” she asked with a pout.
“I don’t know.” For a moment I took in the two lovers. My mind had a hard time catching up from seeing what I had perceived as his raping her to the image of the two of them standing in each other’s arms. “I suggest you take time to say goodbye. I’ll be waiting outside.”
Leaving the house, I chose a strategic position that would allow me to see if they tried to escape out a window.
My head was about to explode with all the impressions from what had just happened. But I kept my promise to Magni, and called him up.
As soon as his hologram appeared above my wrist, I blurted out what I was most proud of. “I found Devlin, and I took him down.”
Magni looked worried. “Where is he now?”
“He’s still in the house saying goodbye to Julia. She’s the woman he lived with these past three weeks. Turns out she was one of those women from the border. She’s been hiding him, and you’ll never guess what I walked in on.”
“What?”
“They were having sex.”
“You saw them?”
“I thought he was raping her. Otherwise I would’ve never gone in by myself.”
Magni’s expression hardened. “You went in by yourself? Where are the others?”
“They are on their way.”
“Tell me everything!”
I started from the beginning and told him what had happened.
“Why the fuck would you use a shovel instead of one of your guns?”
I closed my eyes, realizing my mistake. “Because I didn’t have my weapons. Isobel took them from me when I first arrived here. It’s illegal to carry lethal weapons in the Motherlands.”
His eyes bulged. “She left you defenseless?”
“No, they gave me a numb gun and the net gun. Except I didn’t have them on me.”
Magni’s face was growing redder by the second. “Are you telling me that you went in there completely unarmed?”
“You would’ve done the same thing.”
“That’s different.”
“I did the job. Why can’t you just be proud of me?”
Magni let out a sigh of frustration. “And you think Devlin is just going to go with you like that?”
“He’s nothing like you described. He told me that they love each other.”
Magni snorted. “He’s a horny Nman. Of course he would say that.”
That comment pissed me off. “You weren’t there, and from my experience saying I love you doesn’t come easy to Nmen.”
Magni ignored my comment. “As soon as the others arrive, leave the fucker to them and come back here. Do you hear me, Laura?”
Rationally, I knew Magni had been worried about me and that he wanted me back where he could keep me safe. But the way he ordered me around in his usual bossy manner triggered my need for him to treat me as an equal.
“I think I may visit some of my friends while I’m here.”
“Laura.” He spoke my name as a warning. “I want you home, now!”
“Why? Are you horny?” I tilted my head. “No, I guess not, since if that was the case you would have no problem telling me that you loved me, right?”
A deep groan escaped Magni. “Laura.”
My hands were shaking and my throat hurt from suppressing my scream of frustration. Why was love so effortless for others when it was so difficult and complicated for Magni and me?
“You’re coming home right now.”
“No. I warned you not to boss me around. I’ll come back when I’m ready.”
Magni was biting down on his fist with his cheeks bloated from the scream he held back.
“I just proved to you that I can take care of myself. I’m done waiting for you to treat me like an equal. I’m a warrior like you.”
Magni’s snort was the last straw that made me lose my temper and hiss, “You know what, I’ve had it with you. You treat me like a helpless child, and I’m sick of it.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean? I didn’t treat you like a child a few hours ago when I fucked you, did I?
“No, but I can’t be with you just because the sex is amazing. At least here in the Motherlands, people respect and appreciate me.” I spoke fast and with an accusatory tone. “If you can’t give that to me, I’d rather stay here.”
Magni was furious and hissed, “You’re coming back here, right now. That’s a fucking order.”
My voice grew shrill. “No, I’m not! And you don’t get to order me around anymore. I’ve tried to reason with you, but you won’t listen.”
“You’re not staying in the Motherlands,” he shouted.
“Yes, I am.” I had chased down Devlin and the other men and deserved Magni’s respect. His dismissal of what I’d done was offensive and infuriating.
“If you stay, don’t bother coming back. I’m not joking, Laura, I’m done with this shit. Make a choice. Me or the Motherlands.”
My anger clouded my brain and I didn’t even hesitate. “Goodbye, Magni.”
“Laura,” he called out, but with my body trembling from hurt, and my mind clouded with disappointment, I disconnected the call.