The Woman They Kept (14 page)

Gideon approached a woman
wearing a large trench coat that was propped open, she was naked
underneath it, one arm tucked behind her. Her breasts sagged and
her stomach bulged out in a pouch of wrinkled skin, her pubic hair
untrimmed, her legs translucent pale, showing the blue purple
network of veins running through them. “It's twenty and I'll
give you all I got,” she said to him. "I work hard."

“
What's your name?”
Gideon asked.

“
Twenty,” she
repeated and held out her hand. Gideon put a bill in it and she
slipped it in her coat.

“
Well, Twenty, I need to
find a man,” Gideon said.

“
There should be some
walking around here. Felipe's a friend, he'll treat you right.”
She coughed into her sleeve, a wet and rasping sound that went on
too long. When the spasm was over she wiped red from her lips.

“
I don't mean like that.
Do you know Shelton Wainswick? I need to talk to one of his girls.”

She sniffed and wiped at her
nose. “He's got a place down on Broadway, Behind the Veil,
but I don't think they keep the girls there.” One of her
scabs peeled up and she picked at it, flicking bits of skin away
from her. A little trickle of blood came from the now open sore.
Gideon fought down his revulsion.

“
What do you mean?”
Leanin asked.

She brought her other hand out
from behind her jacket, and they saw why she kept it hidden. Her
hand had flesh that was rotted off it, exposing bone and brown dying
muscle underneath, she clutched at a little metal pipe and poured a
brown powder into it. It didn't seem like the hand would be able to
let go of the pipe, none of the muscles looked like they moved.
“It's a stroke joint. They got a shooting gallery there too,
but they're in two separate rooms.”

“
So they don't prostitute
there?” Gideon asked, tearing his eyes from the necrotic arm
before him.

Twenty lit the pipe and blew a
sweet smelling smoke up into the air before smiling at him. “You're
kind of stupid, aren't you? That's sweet, in a way.” Her
dead hand never shifted position on the pipe, she moved her mouth to
it, not the other way around. “It's a live show, the girls
get fucked on camera and it's projected into the place on Broadway.
The peeps get to watch and yank themselves off.” She laughed
a little. “I used to do that. It's a hell of a lot better
gig than being out here, that's for sure.” She lit the pipe
again.

“
What is that you're
taking?” Leanin asked.

Twenty's eyelids were beginning
to drift down and some of the lines on her face relaxed. “Krok.
It's easy to make, I can show you if you want some. You just need
some cold pills and cleaners.” Giggling like a schoolgirl
she pulled the jacket on her pipe hand up past the elbow. The bone
was completely exposed, dirty white, the muscles dry and brown where
they were falling away from it. “It makes you feel great, but
there are a few side effects. I have to hide it if I want any
clients. You can touch it if you want, it doesn't hurt.”

Twenty slid down the wall, a
little smile on her face, her eyelids almost completely closed.

“
We can't leave her here
like this,” Gideon said.

“
I'll be fine, I'm flying
now,” Twenty said.

“
You're not worried about
being mugged?” Leanin asked.

“
What do I have for them
to take?” She laughed and coughed again, more red coming up
wet on her lips. "They've got it all already."

There was nothing else to do, so
they left her there, lightly sleeping, after Gideon tucked a few
more credits into her jacket.

Behind the Veil was one of the
very few non-white buildings in Algernia. It was a light grey, hang
dog, lump of a building with no windows. There were two doors with
a sign above each. On one, a woman winking in bold neon lit up the
front, on the other a neon red cross shone like a gravestone.
Outside the door groups of men stood around smoking cigarettes under
the unblinking eye of a security camera. A man in a suit stood
between the doors, though he barely looked at them as they passed by
into the door under the woman.

There was a very particular
smell that greeted them when they entered, a combination of sweat
and beer and semen. Little tables littered the floor and a single
man sat at each one, only one couple shared a table. Waitresses
walked around and served drinks, though they stood with quite some
distance from the patrons. On each little table a small computer
screen glowed blue.

On one side of the room a fifty
foot tall projector screen displayed a red headed woman naked on all
fours as a middle aged man thrust himself into her from behind. He
was sweating profusely, the liquid dripping through his salt and
pepper goatee down onto the woman's back. The camera zoomed in on
her face and she turned away, only to have the old man grab her head
and force her back toward the camera. She tried to smile.

Gideon and Leanin took a table
together and ordered a few drinks. The table next to them had an
elderly man with a white head of hair grabbing furtively at his
crotch.

“
I think Twenty was
right,” Leanin said. “They don't keep any of the women
here. We'll have to talk to a waitress, see if any of them know
where they stay.”

The man on the projector screen
stopped as he was handed a note from off camera. “Alright
gentlemen,” he said, ducking down into the frame, “it
looks like the votes are in and you want to see me finish on this
pretty little peach's face. We aim to please at the Veil.”

The man grabbed her red hair and
pulled her up and around on the bed, standing over her, forcing her
face up and her mouth open. Gideon turned away until the screen
faded to black.

Leanin stood. “I'm going
to go see if I can't find a waitress to talk to, I don't really want
to watch this."

Gideon studied the crowd. It
seemed as though there were only patrons and waitresses here, no one
dressed in the finery that would convey an owner.

“
Hello,” a voice
called out. His heart leaped in his chest and he snapped his head
around, he recognized the sweet and melodious tremor of that voice.
Standing, he looked around the place. She was here. “My name
is Venus," the voice continued, "and I am here to fulfill
all your desires.”

Gideon's mouth dropped in horror
as he realized where the voice was coming from. Rolanda was
projected on the screen wearing a thin red pair of panties and a bra
that lifted her breasts and pressed them together. Her hair was
tinted purple at the tips, her face made up heavily in a way she
never would have back in Cormac, her eyelashes tinged a light green
and her lips ruby red. Still, it was her. Gideon placed a hand on
the table to keep from falling over.

"Sit down, asshole, I can't
see the screen," one of the patrons behind him said. Gideon
allowed himself to fall back in his chair.

A man entered the screen from
the left, completely naked. He had chest hair that was grey and a
gut that sagged down and almost covered his small erection. Much of
the hair on his head was gone, what little he had was pulled back
into a ponytail and his cheeks sagged and were covered with a few
days growth of scraggly beard.

“
Rolanda, run,”
Gideon whispered quietly. He couldn't move, his legs were numb and
his arms felt heavy. His breath began coming in quick pants, he
felt like he was being buried again. Everything about him was cold.

The old man kissed Rolanda on
the neck and shoulders, his sausage finger hands trailing over her
delicate body. Her eyes were blank and far away as he kissed her on
the mouth. Kneading and kissing her breasts he slipped her panties
down to her ankles. After a moment he turned and said to the
camera, “Alright, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to vote on
what you'd like to see me do to this young starlet.”

The screen on the center of the
table lit up with a list of sexual positions. Bile rose in the back
of Gideon's throat, he couldn't bring himself to read the choices.

“
And the votes are in and
it looks like Venus here is going to get a face fucking!” He
grabbed at the top of her head and pushed her down onto her knees.

As the wet sound of gagging
began to echo through the place Gideon turned away. His stomach
soured, he knew that as long as he lived he would never get that
sound out of his mind. This was torture, what had he done to
deserve this? His fists clenched tightly as the floor swooned under
him, he would kill whoever was responsible for this.

An arm tugged at Gideon.
“That's her, isn't it?” Leanin said, pulling him up out
of the seat. “You look like hell, let's get out of here.
I've got the address.”

Gideon couldn't stop himself, he
looked one last time on their way to the exit and immediately wished
he hadn't. The old man was giving the camera a thumbs up and a
smile while Rolanda's mascara ran down her cheeks.

As they exited the bar Gideon
lost control of his stomach and began to vomit thick chunks of dried
beef. Leanin rubbed his back as he heaved again and again. “They
ruined her,” he gasped.

Leanin patted him on the back.
“Don't say that. She's still your Rolanda, people don't get
ruined. Rugs get ruined. People just need help to deal with the
stuff that's happened to them.”

Gideon stood, his legs were
shaking. “I won't be able to look at her without seeing
that.”

“
Let's worry about mending
your relationship after we get her out of there. The bartender told
me where the girls are kept, it's not too far from here. The
important thing is to get her out of there alive.”

They hurried down side streets
and up alleys, Gideon barely noticed them passing, he just knew he
had to keep moving. Finally Leanin stopped them outside of a
wrought iron fence. “This should be it,” Leanin said,
breathing heavily. The house spiked out of the ground on a hill
above them, caged on all sides by the rusting fence. The corners of
the house rose up into the air in great spires, the windows on the
ground floor were all boarded up, the entire thing seemed less like
a house and more like a lair.

“
It looks so empty,”
Gideon said.

“
Empty? Yes, it does,
doesn't it?” A voice came from behind them both. “And
desolate. But what else did you expect?”

“
Who are you?”
Leanin asked, pulling a knife out from behind her waist. She
pressed it up against the figure's chest.

The figure was heavily robed in
a black hood and cowl, hunched over in the shadows. He reached a
skeletal hand up and lowered his hood. “I go by a great many
names. I believe you know me as Akem.” The angled and smooth
face smiled at Gideon.

“
Akem!” Gideon
said. “What are you doing here?”

The smile never faltered, in the
shadows it gave his face a hollow and skull-like appearance. “I
like to look after a good investment,” he said, placing a hand
lightly on Gideon's shoulder. He pulled the hood back up over his
head, leaving the sharp toothed smile exposed and the beady black
eyes glinting from the shadows. “You should tell your friend
to lower her knife.”

Leanin was standing rigidly
still, the blade naked in her hand. “Is he a friend?”
she asked.

Akem frowned and tilted his head
toward Gideon. “I don't know. Am I a friend to you?”

Gideon stepped forward and
pushed aside Leanin's knife. “He's one of the few who has
helped me thus far. You can trust him.”

Leanin lowered the knife, but
did not sheath it.

“
How goes your quest thus
far?” Akem asked, the joy in his eyes mirroring the width of
his smile.

The house loomed above them all
and a light turned on in a second story window. “Rolanda is
here," Gideon said. "We're just trying to figure out a
way to get inside and break her out.”

Akem was quiet for a moment.
Looking up at the house his eyes danced like he was looking into a
living flame. “Are you sure you want to go in there?”

“
We need to,” Gideon
said, his voice catching before he repeated it more forcefully. “I
need to.”

Akem smiled and turned to
Leanin. She held her body at an angle toward him, one leg forward,
her knife pointed to the ground but gripped tightly. “And
you, young lady? What is your stake here?”

Leanin swallowed hard, suddenly
reluctant to say anything at all into those small and hard cut eyes.
She shook away the fear that had settled along her spine. “I
am helping a friend, and if he needs to go in then I will follow.”

“
Then let's just walk
inside. I can take you, I know the owner of the place. Leave your
guns here, if they see you with them they'll know you are a threat.”
Akem took them both by the hands with surprising strength and
pulled them forward through the gate and up the walkway to the
house.

Gideon's jaw dropped as he hid
his weapon down at the base of the gate. “You do? Can you
help us get her free?”

Akem turned and held his hand
softly. They were smooth hands, pampered and lotioned to a point
where the lines across the palm were imperceptible, and they burned
with a strange heat. “That I can. I am sure that I can get
you a good deal, too.”