Wasteland
by Becca Abbott
Part 8
Raoul sat and sipped his wine, watching the mongrel kneeling before him. Guy's hair clung damply to his gleaming shoulders. Wisps of it hung in eyes that swam with tears. His hands were slick with his own ejaculate and trembled as he held them away from his body – as if they were something foreign and foul.
"Lick them off," Raoul instructed softly.
That generous mouth thinned. Raoul straightened, leaning forward, watching in fascination as the mongrel prepared to bring trouble on himself yet again. With an angry growl, the youth suddenly bent forward and wiped his hands on the carpet. Dark eyes glared up at him, but Raoul could see fear lurking in the angry defiance. The Blondie rose and walked around his pet to stand behind him. "Get up."
Hesitation – would Guy defy this order, too? – and the mongrel rose. Reaching around, keeping his movements slow and his touch gentle, Raoul took hold of Guy's leather-manacled wrists. He deposited a kiss on one tense, sweaty shoulder, and locked those wrists at Guy's back.
Finding the leash, he looped one end around Guy's neck. Then he put on his shoes, did up his shirt and slipped into his coat. All the while, Guy watched, silent, increasingly mystified. Raoul took the leash and, with a sharp tug, led Guy toward the door.
The mongrel understood abruptly and stopped, digging in his heels. His eyes were wide and color flooded his handsome face. "W-Where are we going?"
"To my other condo."
"Where is it?"
"Not far. At Kastia Towers."
"But – I'm naked!"
Raoul grinned. "Yes. You were naked when I brought you here."
The color deepened. "I - I don't remember very well." The lean jaw clenched. "Why are we going there?"
"It's where I keep my harem."
Guy's dark eyes widened. "You have a harem?"
"Of course." Amused, Raoul saw curiosity war with outrage. "I..." He broke off. Something whispered in his head.
Raoul.
Abruptly, he unhooked the leash. Spinning the mongrel around, he unfastened the young man's shackled hands, as well. His heart was pounding. "Go to your room."
"What?"
"Go!"
Scowling, Guy turned and left. Raoul stood still.
Come to my Sanctum.
Alarm thrilled along Raoul's nerves. It tightened cold fingers around his gut. Without waiting another moment, he hurried from the condo.
A harem? Guy stared at the video without seeing it. It had never occurred to him that the Blondie might have other pets. Raoul seemed to spend so much time in this condo tormenting him! Did Raoul fuck them, too, Guy wondered suddenly? He was assaulted by a vision of the handsome Blondie sprawled among a heap of cushions, beautiful, naked boys all around. Heat flooded him and Guy sat up on the couch with a curse. His cock was hard just imagining it and he found himself wishing Raoul were here. Unwilling, Guy's hand crept down to his crotch.
Idiot!
He flung himself from the couch and went to the bar. Daringly, without permission, he poured himself a glass of Raoul's expensive wine and downed it in a single gulp. Then he went to the window and stared out at Tanagura's endless vista. He missed his freedom with a fierceness that twisted his gut and brought tears to his eyes.
"Damn you!" he shouted, smashing his fist against the glass. It reverberated, but didn't crack. "Let me go!"
Was Riki locked in a golden cage, too? Probably not. Riki had accepted his bondage. Guy leaned his flushed face against the glass. He wasn't even sure that was what Raoul wanted of him. Much as Guy hated to admit it, Iason did love Riki. Guy was under no such illusions where Raoul and himself was concerned.
Where was Raoul? He'd been gone for hours.
Am I so desperate that I look forward to his company?
As if in answer to his unwelcome thoughts, he heard the condo door open. Guy jumped to his feet, heart accelerating. Raoul came in and froze, staring at him. Then he closed the door. There was a bandage on his right temple. Tossing his coat onto a chair, he said, "Make me a drink."
Guy did so. Raoul took a seat on the couch near the bar. His face was set, eyes hard. That dark gaze was fixed unwaveringly on Guy.
"What is it?" asked Guy finally, beginning to get scared. "Have I done something wrong?"
Raoul's blue gaze focused. "Not this time," he replied, a glimmer of amusement showing in his face. It was gone almost at once, however. "You told me that you spent some time in the Wasteland."
"Almost a year," the mongrel replied, remembering that nightmare without pleasure. "It's not a nice place."
Raoul blinked.
Guy gave him a feral smile. For a one-armed man, the struggle to survive in the ruined city had been brutal, but those were the days right after Riki's death and Guy had wanted desperately to join him. He'd reckoned that the Wilderness would offer him that chance and in the best way he knew – to die fighting. There had indeed been plenty of fighting, but he had discovered to his chagrin that he wanted to live. In the end, tired of the loneliness and the bestial violence of the place, he had come back to Ceres.
"Do you know it well?"
Guy narrowed his eyes. "Well enough." Head tilted, he regarded his Master uncertainly. "Why?"
"Iason and Riki have been abducted. Their last known location was seventy miles into the old city."
"Abducted?" His heart jumped into his throat. "By who?"
"Unknown. Sit."
Ordinarily, that tone of voice was enough to raise Guy's hackles, but so unnerved was he by the news that he obeyed at once, sinking to the carpet at the Blondie's feet.
"There have been two brutal murders, Elites and a pet," Raoul went on. "Iason and Riki may be dead. But they may not."
"The police haven't found anything?"
"At the moment, the police are not involved. Jupiter doesn't want word of the situation to cause panic among the Elites. She has decided to send in a small team to attempt to locate them. If they still live, she'll send in android troops to rescue them."
"Ha." Guy's lip curled. "Good luck. Ceres is rough enough. This team of hers will be sitting ducks for the psychos in the Waste."
"Jupiter acknowledges that the police have a disadvantage in the old city. She has no surveillance or defense devices there. What connections that once existed have gradually ceased to function."
There were places where Jupiter couldn't see? Guy was left breathless by the revelation.
"That's why she's sending us."
Guy opened his mouth, then shut it again. Raoul's face gave nothing away. He was quiet and beautiful as a marble statue.
"Us? You're going? Now I know Jupiter's crazy," said Guy finally. "A Blondie in the Wilderness? Why don't you just cut your own throat right now and get it over with."
"Give me some credit," Raoul retorted, falling back into the cushions of the couch. The doorbell sounded. "Come in."
Across the room, the door opened. Katze. The redhead was carrying a bag and a small, portable computer. He came over and dropped the bag into Guy's lap and kept going, putting the laptop on the bar.
"Take that into the bathroom," Raoul told Guy, "and wait for me there."
Guy almost protested, then thought better of it. He nodded, got to his feet and hurried away. Closing the door after him, he opened the bag. Inside was a bottle of black hair dye.
The room they'd put him in was dark and cold. What light there was came through the crack under the door. Iason, his bare back against the concrete wall, stared at it. There was a silence in his head where there had never been silence before. That bothered him almost more then the unpleasantness of the past few days.
They'd taken his clothing, laughing at his outrage, and subjected him to a humiliating body search. "Just makin' sure your mama ain't gonna be payin' us a surprise visit," the woman, Jelly, had laughed. Her hands had lingered between his legs in a way that still made his skin crawl.
"Serves him right," Minton had drawled, watching in amusement. "Wonder how often he did shit like this to that poor kid."
Riki. Riki. Where are you? What are you thinking?
Iason leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. Their captors had separated them in Dr. Juno's office. Riki had gone without protest. He'd seemed almost thoughtful and hadn't even looked at Iason as he left. The memory chilled Iason even now.
He had to think. He had to figure out what to do. Don't worry about Riki. The others seemed to like the boy, to have sympathy for him. At the moment, it was Riki who was probably the safest. How long that would last, Iason suspected, depended on himself and whether or not he would be able to do whatever they would ask of him.
Eleanor Juno. Dr. Crane. Hiroshi. Scientists in the company of a crack military unit. Not Tanaguran. Probably not even Amoin or any of its satellites. The implications of that were enough to set his pulse to racing all over again.
It was the destruction of Jupiter they were after. He'd asked how, but so far, they weren't telling. Perhaps it was his initial reaction to Dr. Juno. That had surprised and disturbed them. Eleanor Juno wasn't a being of light and energy, yet her features were Jupiter's features and there were small, subtle gestures that he'd seen from the computer's projected persona.
Footsteps sounded in the corridor outside his cell. His throat tightened and he scrambled to stand up, to be on his feet when they entered. The door opened, filling the dark with light. Iason winced, shutting his eyes against it. The next instant, pain roared through him, sending him to his knees on the dank floor, clawing ineffectually at the metal ring around his neck.
"Just a reminder," came Jelly's cheerful voice through the roaring in his ears. "Mind your manners, freak."
His vision cleared. His hands dropped to his sides.
"Get up," said Minton, looming over him.
He got to his feet, aware that they stepped back involuntarily when he was standing straight. They were tall for mongrels, but still, they were only mongrels and he was taller. He kept a wary eye on Minton, who had the collar control, and suffered Jelly to bind his hands.
They took him from the cell, through the corridor to another room, this one furnished with a narrow, metal-framed bed and nothing else. Jelly took the cuffs off and pinched his buttock. He gritted his teeth.
"Get dressed," said Minton. "We'll be back."
They left him alone again. He stared at the door. Then he went to the bed. On it, neatly folded, was a pair of loose pants that tied at the waist, and a sleeveless shirt of the same gray, soft material. It was very plain. He put it on and felt better almost at once. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he tried to put order to his tumbling thoughts.
These people were not linked to the Lamda system in any way. From what he'd seen, this base was small, but well-established and well equipped. They had been here for a while. Almost certainly, Iason thought, this place was somewhere in the vast ruins of Old Tanagura.
A sharp rapping at the door brought his head up. "You ready?" came Jelly's shout. Without waiting for an answer, she came in. Deliberately looking him up and down, she said, "Shit, man. Gotta give that AI credit for knowin' how to put together a good lookin' stud."
Iason smiled at her. Her eyes flew open, then darkened. She jerked her head toward the door. "They're waitin' for you in Conference Room C," she growled.
"They" were Dr. Crane, Juno, Hiroshi and a couple of strangers. They sat around a long table inset with computer monitors. He sank into the chair at the end of it, aware that every eye was on him. He met those stares. Jelly and Minton remained at his back.
"Iason Mink," said Eleanor Juno. "What do you know about your ancestors?"
He looked from one face to the other. "They came from Tansk and colonized Aiom, but lack of order threatened their existence. Jupiter finally took control and saved them from extinction."
There was a snort from behind him.
"And if I told you that was a lie? What if I told you that your AI went rogue, killing the scientists and engineers who created it and enslaved this entire colony?"
"You're lying," he said through tight lips. "Who are you? Tanskians? Are you from Nordansk?"
The woman smiled. Dr. Crane chuckled. "Rather farther than that, young man."
"I guess the AI doesn't let you guys out much, does it?" piped up Hiroshi. "Tansk was wiped out in a meteor shower a hundred years ago."
"You're from Nordansk?" Iason stared. Nordansk colony was nearly eighty light years away – three generations' journey by lightship.
"Farther," said Crane.
Farther? The hair lifted on the back of Iason's neck. There was no place farther except... "Earth?"
"That's right," the scientist beamed.
"Impossible!"
"Hundreds of thousands of humans left the planet in the first great wave of interstellar colonization. Your ancestors were among them. Thanks to your Jupiter, that's all the further the humans of this colony ever evolved. Out there," Crane continued, a wave of his arm encompassing the universe, "humanity has been moving right along. We have developed faster than light travel. Earth now has the means to check up on all her missing children."
"And to correct the mistakes made while they were out of our reach." Dr. Juno leaned forward, elbows on the table, chin cupped in one hand. "Many, many years ago – I won't even hazard a number, given the paradoxes of FTL travel – my great-great-great grandmother left to build a utopian world where humans need do nothing but create great works of art and science. She failed catastrophically. We are here to correct that. We are developing a virus. Once it neutralizes the AI, we intend to reprogram Jupiter, to set Amoi back upon the path its founders intended and you, Iason Mink, are going to help us do it."