Chapter 57

Time: Saturday, March 2, 2019 3:45 PM

Three hours after leaving the river and already half-way home, Carla felt so confident about their situation that she called out a fifteen minute break. They had been jogging along a ridgeline roughly two hundred meters west of the edge of the cylindrical sky, a short gully on their left, and a broad drop on their right to the forest below. Within a few minutes, the four Hindu women drifted away to a spot about twenty meters distant. They sat and chatted while munching on some of their new high-energy food bars, smiling happily at the meal.

They were also giving Tom and Carla a bit of privacy, something Tom did not fail to notice. He nodded at Carla and said, “You operate a closely knit team. A few subtle hand gestures and they discreetly give you the opportunity to pump me for information.”

Carla grinned back at him as she realized Tom was not offended by the maneuver. “Well, not subtle enough if you picked out my hand signs. But I would like to ask you a few questions. Do you mind?”

“Oh no, not at all. That’s partly the reason Jada sent me.”

Carla nodded and felt herself relaxing. Tom was being so honest with her. It reminded Carla of Jada, and how much trust Jada offered her. Carla stretched her tired legs and took a moment to reflect on the forest below, her fingers idly caressing her firearm. “Wobanakik is a very pretty world, if you don’t have to fear it.”

Tom nodded and joined her enjoying the view. “The surface of the planet is beautiful too. You should see the satellite images.”

Carla scrunched her nose. “You have satellite images?”

“Better than that. Jada’s husband Mark has partial control of an orbiting telescope.”

“My gosh. How did you people swing that?”

Tom sighed. “It’s a long story. Much of it isn’t even my own. Parties #1 and #5 fought a war...”

Carla nodded slowly. “I remember you and ... Mindy?”

“Mandy.”

“Right. You and Mandy were from Party #5, and Jada was from Party #1 and she is in charge. Did Party #5 lose the war? Were you a prisoner?”

Tom shrugged. “It wasn’t black and white. Fortunately I never had to fight myself. Another guy named Charles and I surrendered to Party #1. They gave us an opportunity and told us they would forgive us and we accepted. My fraternity ... We enslaved the women who were with us. Many of them were raped. We had a lot to be forgiven for.”

“My gosh...” Carla squirmed uncomfortably on her rock.

Tom saw a question in Carla’s eyes and added without thinking, “No, thank God I didn’t rape anyone.”

Carla blinked. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get that personal...” Carla felt momentarily confused. She was unsure whether she asked the question or not. She had no clear memory of speaking, but somehow she felt she had asked Tom if he had forced himself on a woman. And his answer! She was looking into his eyes as he spoke, and it was as if she saw straight into his heart for the truthfulness of his reply. That was so strange. It was as if there was no place to hide a lie in what he had just said, no place at all.

Carla shrugged off the strange feeling for future analysis and got back to what she wanted to ask. “Tom? One burning question, is getting back to Earth possible?”

He shook his head sadly. “I’ll tell your group everything this evening, all the details. But no, there’s no hope, none at all.”

“That was my intuition too, but why are you so sure?”

Tom’s jaw twitched and he whispered, “Sunday December 23, around 6 AM Eastern time, two days after we got here, Earth’s sun had a collision with a neutron star.”

“What?!” Carla had half shouted and she noticed four sets of eyes from her team turn to her. She gave a brief hand gesture that everything was okay and they uneasily went back to their break. Carla sat like stone for a moment and then whispered, “But everything is not okay...” Her eyes were filled with tears and she began to cry. Tom came over and put his arm around her shoulders, hugging her as she softly wept. Her teammates looked on in confusion but did not interfere.

Time: Saturday, March 2, 2019 3:55 PM

Paige and Allison were working a monitor shift at the Hilton Complex and were grinning at each other as they watched their screens. Akiko and Lynn had just announced that they had activated a new Leophone. New kayaks and supplies were already positioned at the bottom of the great stairwell. Tomorrow’s rescue mission into the underworld was a go!

Paige turned back to her monitor screen and her smile slowly fell from her face. Alfonso and Jessica had been guarding Jacob’s Bar and Grill. On a typical day, Paige would have guessed the two lovers still had four more hours to go on their twelve hour shift before being relieved by Jenaro and Hernando. The schedule had become routine. Paige would see Diego only briefly in the Mall, perhaps a few times a week, and Ricardo almost never. The other two pairs would rotate shifts at 8 AM and 8 PM.

Paige’s face twitched as she remembered a scene from an hour ago. She had watched something with Allison and then called Fatima and received permission to delete a video, something they would normally archive. Alfonso had copulated with Jessica while they were on guard duty.

It was somewhat embarrassing to watch and also hard not to watch. The actions of the two spoke volumes about what kind of emotional pressure they were under. The two had been orbiting the store and making quick peeks with small mirrors down the mall corridor, just as Ricardo had trained them to do. And then after one series of observations that showed them the usual dull corridor, seemingly be chance Jessica was standing both directly in front of Alfonso and directly away from him. She simply put down her mirror and lifted the back of her skirt, exposing the flanks of her naked skinny rump.

That’s all it took. Her longtime lover pushed her G-string aside and then unzipped his pants. Jessica bent forward slightly, legs apart ... She jumped a bit when Alfonso entered her, but she seemed to like her fucking once he got started. But her eyes! They never left the freezer which was the back wall entrance into their home complex. And her face ... Paige couldn’t get the phrase “terrified rabbit” out of her mind.

Here was a woman who had tortured Paige, the one who had driven her to exhaustion when Paige was assigned “pussy-on-the-hoof” duty. Jessica had also laughed when she explored Paige’s rectum for nonexistent contraband, and yet, Paige found herself feeling nothing but pity for Jessica’s plight. Even her lover’s orgasm inside her brought her no peace, just a quick jump for some tissues while Alfonso zipped his pants.

And now Jessica was looking terrified that her master had somehow discovered her fornication. Hernando and Jenaro had just entered the store, followed by Diego and then almost shockingly by Ricardo. To her knowledge, all six remaining people at Black Mall hadn’t been down in the Mall together since the day Ricardo killed Uno and had the others drag his body into the Mall for disposal. As Paige stared and made sure they were recording, Allison connected Fatima and told her what was going on.

It was a particularly fortuitous day that Ricardo had picked to have his entire team down in the Mall. In preparation for their new missions, the Society had no away-missions out on assignment today. Kiyoko and Cassidy who were currently sleeping in preparation for their night shift duty, but for everyone else, within a few minutes they were all watching the unfolding events at various library stations.

“Do you notice all five men are armed?” Fatima’s voice said over the network to no one in particular.

“All five men have guns...” Charles replied with a tone of mild correction.

“Uh, Charles, what’s the difference?” asked Hannah.

“We can’t see if the guns are loaded. It would be just like Ricardo to set something up like this, where nobody knows who is really armed and who isn’t.”

“Ah, got it. Thanks.”

“Yeah, no problem Hannah ... My guess would be nobody except Ricardo is really armed ... Hey, everybody, look at this! They’re all coming out of the store!”

“Emily! Where are you?” It was Fatima’s voice over the network. “Your team has a Leophone right now, correct?”

“Yes Fatima. Ann has it, and we’re both here in the Red Mall Library.”

“Excellent. Emily, take the Leophone and bike to the trapdoor at Esau’s as quickly as you can. Don’t do anything there. Just get in position and report back.”

“I’m on my way. Fifteen minutes...” The last part of her comment was faded as Emily raced from the Library with Ann in close pursuit.

Paige wondered why Fatima would ask such a thing. Kiyoko had reset Black Mall’s lounge elevator to a new code during Mark’s rescue. Anyone in their society could now go there from any active elevator.

Ricardo’s people were acting very strangely. They all stood in the Mall corridor just outside Jacob’s Bar and Grill. They just stood there, talking to each other and pulling out notebooks. Then they stood in front of the store opposite Jacob’s and began taking notes.”

“What the hell are they doing?” Holly asked after a while over the network.

“They seem to be taking inventory,” Toshi answered. “That’s my guess.”

“But why take an inventory from outside the store?” It was Fatima’s voice. “Toshi, where are you?”

“Hi Fatima. I’m sitting with Holly in the telecom lab. We’re getting a very good view of this. Akiko and Lynn are with us too.”

They watched their monitors in silence. After about two minutes, the group of six moved to the next store on the outside arc, coming up the spiral in the direction of the hub. Again the five underlings appeared to be taking notes while Ricardo looked on. He idly took a few practice swings in the air. Jessica flinched as the cane came near her ear, but she didn’t stop writing.

“Fatima,” Toshi call out. “I agree. It doesn’t make sense to do an inventory like this. Could they be making drawings of the floor plans? Or...”

“Or what?”

“It’s a trap!” came Amber’s voice in a shout. “They’re baiting us!”

Fatima’s mind flashed back to the day Uno died. As Ricardo and his remaining people dragged Uno’s body in the mall, it occurred to several people that someone could take the elevator to the Black Mall lounge and go down and lock the door leading into Jacob’s. But when they attempted the transfer, their origination elevator signaled its destination was in use. The obvious implication was that Ricardo had opened the elevator carriage at his home lounge and then blocked the door from closing.