Chapter 2

A few months went by. I was relocated to another city, a job was found for me, in construction, thank god, and it was good to be back amongst the working men and women. Construction wasn't just a male-oriented trade here. There were just as many women in the building trade as men, and there were no differences, only in gender. They drank, they swore, they worked hard, they played harder.

The women flirted with the men, wolf-whistled at the passing talent, and told ribald jokes. Just like old times!

Then my doppelganger, Murchison, turned up at my door one night just before I was about to hit the sack, and as I let him in, he said, 'Thought you'd like to know. We've cleaned out that nest of snakes. We found twenty-two young girls that were sex-slaves in that one town alone. The ones who talked gave us good intel about other places, and those were cleaned out as well, and the girls found are undergoing treatment.'

'The ones who talked?' I asked, and he shook his head.

'You don't want to know, ' was all he said.

'Now, ' he said, 'what to do about your niece? You've been given the option of having her go into rehab, to get psych eval and treatment, or you can take her as is.'

He looked at me, and warned me, 'She's pretty messed up, Robert. She's been a sex object since she was a baby. That's all she knows. To survive that kind of life, she became the abuser. She helped snatch kids, all girls, and 'trained' a few of them herself.'

Murchison shuddered. 'Her mind-blocks are like thick stone walls, she won't let anyone in. She's a young girl, but my god, man, she's as hard as a diamond, so damned hard.'

I sat down on the couch, and took a sip of my beco, an aromatic dark brew made from beets. It had a rich satisfying flavour, and cleared the mind.

'I need to talk to her, ' I decided. 'I need to see if we can work this out. If she's not too damaged, maybe we can salvage her.'

'Good luck there, man, ' Murchison said, not sounding hopeful.

'Maybe that's all I need, ' I said.

I wasn't needed for the court case. My recording was all the testimony the Prosecutor needed. My brother, Trevor, and nineteen of his cronies were sentenced to life, with hard labour, for their various crimes. More were killed in firefights or by suicide rather than be taken.

My one recording had started a tidal wave, one which reached out and encompassed the country. Child sex rings were toppling all over the place, and the attrition rate was staggering.

There were so many taken, that the death penalty was instituted, and then the jails and prisons started to empty out. Maximum security prisons were deemed too expensive to maintain, so they were 'emptied' out as well. The crime rated dropped, for the first time in recorded history. Prison just wasn't a viable option anymore as a lifestyle choice.

The hitman sent to remove me was killed, but Murchison shrugged. 'Shit happens. I had an idea he didn't want to be taken. I had to shoot him. He walked into the office, asked me if I was Robert Allison, and when I said I was, he pulled a silenced pistol out, and before he could get a shot off, I put a bullet between his eyes.'

The matter-of-fact way he told me this chilled me.

'We didn't find out who was in charge, ' he continued. 'We thought it was your brother, but he was only the second-in-command. He still won't tell us who it is, no matter what we try.'

He was genuinely puzzled. 'Your brother actually seems to be terrified of this person.'

'Where's Selene now?' I wanted to know.

'She's at a facility a day's travel from your town. She's being held in protective custody, in isolation. At first, she tried to kill our officers when they stormed the compound where the girls were kept. She was dropped by mexo, mexodrine. It's a nerve blocker. One drop of that, all your muscles stop working, but your heart keeps pumping. Any more than that, you're dead.'

'We got your brother and most of his crew with our darts. Unfortunately, some perps were hit multiple times in the crossfire, and their ashes are fertilising grass now. We're not sure if the head man was one of them. We hope so.'

'Fucking hell!' I breathed. 'You guys play rough!'

'Have to, man! These ain't schoolyards we're playing in!'

Then Murchison hesitated, and he said, 'You know, when we dropped your niece, some guys swore she was giving orders to the perps. It was thought that because she was brainwashed by her life, that she didn't really know whose side she was on.'

'I'd be very careful, man. Step lightly here when it comes to Selene. Nobody can figure her out. She's ... I don't know, man.' He shook his head perplexed, 'I just don't know!'

'See the sheriff about her release into your custody if you want to have her. You'll have to sign some papers, but there won't be any trouble.'

'So I can go home now?' I asked.

'Sure can!' he beamed. 'By the way, we put a guy in to run your business for you, after I had to head back for debrief. The Force did that to help you out for your helping us. Your people are all happy, business is going good, and for fuck sakes, man, get a fucking secretary or something! Your books are a fucking mess, and the guy running the place almost tore his hair out trying to find shit!'

I laughed, the scene was hilarious. There was me, telling me off! I shook my head and said, 'Okay, pal, one secretary coming up! Pass on my apologies. I didn't realise how bad things were. I had my system, and it worked for me. I'll get that shit sorted out when I get back.'

'That's fine, ' Murchison told me. 'Well, Robert, it's been a blast being you, but now, I want to go back to being me.'

He stuck out his hand, and as I clasped his, there was that jolt again, and the true Murchison stood before me, looking tired.

'Crap, ' he said. 'I feel like I could sleep for a week!'

That was one thing that Murchison had confided in me. Replacers could take the form of other people, 'inherit' their memories, adopting their mannerisms, in effect becoming the person they replaced. But when they 'transferred' back to their own form, the mental, physical and sometimes emotional strain of the person's persona that they had become wiped them out. Sometimes, it took a Replacer a week or more to recover, depending on how long he or she had taken another's identity.

Sometimes, a Replacer became lost in someone else's identity, totally unaware that they were not the person they thought they were. Those were retired, he said.

He didn't elaborate.

Murchison dug into his pockets, and pulled out an envelope.

'Oh, yeah, before I forget. Here's your final pay sheet. There are travel orders, and some money for food on the way. Your pay is in the bank, with holiday pay. You can leave tomorrow if you choose, it's up to you.'

He shook my hand again, but there was no jolt this time.

'Take care, guy, ' he said, with a smile. 'It's been fun!'

'Take care yourself, ' I told him.

It felt good to be able to travel openly back to my town. I didn't rush back, I took my time getting there. I stopped at various places, seeing the sights, doing the tourist dance. When I got back to town, I went straight to the sheriff's office, and expressed my interest in having custody of my niece, Selene.

'Murchison filled you in on what's she like?' the sheriff asked me sombrely.

'Yes, ' I said nodding, 'and I'm willing to take a chance on her. I can give the girl stability, and in time, I believe she can be rehabilitated, if we work at it.'

The sheriff shrugged, and told me, 'Your decision. But if she becomes too much for you, we have a hotline you can call, and she'll be taken off your hands and put into treatment.'

It didn't take long to get the paperwork signed, and an officer gave me directions for the facility Selene was kept at. The security was tight, my identification scrutinised time and again, but before long, I was sitting in a well-lighted room deep underground, Selene sitting opposite me, smiling but wary.

The girl was wearing a sky-blue shift and white cotton underwear, that was about it. Her arms were folded across her stomach. This made the cotton shift adhere to her chest, prominently displaying the two rounded bumps underneath the cloth. Her breasts had started growing, a part of my brain told me. Her hair was tied back into a severe ponytail, making the skin on her face tight, and her cheekbones stood out sharply. For a moment, she looked like a younger version of my mother, making my heart soften toward her.

My mother was part Tchekala, an Indian nation that lived on a reservation not far from town, up in the mountains.

The smile didn't reach her eyes, however. Those ice-blue eyes of hers watched me closely, minutely. She was tense, highly strung, and she almost seemed to vibrate as she sat opposite me in that room, ready to explode into movement at any moment.

The room was divided by a clear bomb-proof Plexiglas partition. The table we sat at was divided by the glass, right down the middle. We could hear and see each other, but we couldn't touch or make physical contact with each other.

'Took you long enough, ' she said finally, her voice hard with rebuke.

Then she smiled, a proper smile this time, and she seemed to glow with happiness.

'Hello, Uncle Robert!' she gushed, wiggling on her seat, a young girl once more. 'I was hoping you'd come for me! Can we go home, now? Please? I really don't like it here!'

She sat back, relaxed. This girl was very mercurial, her personality changing at random. 'The people here are okay, I guess, but I really missed you! I knew you would come for me, you're the only family I have left.'

She looked sad, and said, 'No-one else wants me, ' she pouted. 'The people here tried to find someone, family, like, to take me in, but they weren't interested, once they found out about my past!'

Her eyes hardened again, chips of cold ice. 'No-one wanted a dirty, rotten soiled little whore. I was unclean, tainted by my father, your brother, for fucking me since I could walk!' she spat.

There was a snarl on her face, making her look feral and dangerous. I was actually afraid if that child for a second.

The snarl dropped, her features becoming calm.

'I have memories of waking up in my bed, his cock in my mouth, did you know that? No, that's right, you didn't. Why should you? He'd make me suck on him until he shot into my mouth. I cried a lot, Uncle Robert. I didn't want to do that, to choke on that thing in my mouth, it made me sick, but he'd force me to do him. After a while I gave in and did it anyway, just to make him go away. Then, he wanted me to do it anywhere, anytime of the day or night. I couldn't go out to play like a 'normal' child, he was constantly horny, and without warning, he'd pull his cock out, grab my head, and make me suck it.'

'When I was six, he put me on my back, and shoved his cock into me. I thought I was going to die, Uncle Robert. I kept fainting with the pain, then waking up only to faint again. It seemed to go on forever! He didn't care, he just kept going. I wasn't safe after that. I had to be beside him, or near him, so that he could fuck me any time he wanted me.'

'He used to put his cock between my legs and rub himself against my little girl pussy until he shot off, ' Selene continued her grisly tale. 'Before he fucked me for the first time, I mean.'

Her eyes bored into mine relentlessly. Selene was making damned sure I knew what I was getting, what I was letting myself in for.

'He'd hold my legs together, and tell me what a 'good little girl' I was.'

Selene spat on the floor, grimacing.

'I didn't feel anything. He was rough with me. He didn't care that he left bruises on my body. He didn't hear me crying as he shoved his cock into my cunt. He didn't hear me screaming as he raped my ass.'

All this time during the monologue Selene had never raised her voice, hadn't got emotional, cried or shown an ounce of humanity. She was the soul of calmness. I was chilled by the matter-of-fact way she delivered her speech.

She leant forward, her eyes still holding mine. Putting her elbows on the table she steepled her fingers, and in a hard voice, she said, 'So, Uncle Robert, do you still want me now?'

I leaned back, putting some distance between us. Selene smirked, and sat back as well, crossing her legs and smoothing her shift flat on her legs. I was in a state of shock. I had no idea Trevor was, had been, capable of doing such filthy vile things to his own child.

Which made me ask her, 'What about Serena? Where was she during all this?'

Selene grinned, and then said, 'He took her for a ride one day. When she was sober enough to notice what was going on, they argued a lot, and then one day he drove off with her, and when he came back, she wasn't with him.'

The girl smirked again, and in a teasing tone, she said, 'I'm sure we can guess what he did with her! Her body is probably still out there somewhere, what's left of it!'

That definitely gave me goosebumps.

'There are a lot of dead little girls out there, ' she said intensely. 'Some are buried, some he made me watch as the wild animals tore their corpses apart.'

'I trained myself not to care, ' the girl said. 'I knew that if I didn't go along with him, that body being torn apart would be me next time.'

'I know, because he told me so!' she growled.

Selena nodded for no apparent reason, and stood up, stretching.

'That's about all I'm willing to tell you!' she said, raising her voice. 'Memory Lane has been closed, thank you for your time, God bless and Goodbye!'

Selena looked at me, and in a tired voice, she said, 'Come on, Uncle Robert, let's go home.'

The door behind her clicked, and swung open by itself.

I was waiting in my car by the front doors when Selena came out half an hour later. She was dressed in jeans, black calf boots over the jeans, a denim fur-lined jacket, with a pink shirt underneath that. She had a scarf tied around her head, wearing dark glasses that hid her eyes. She had an olive green duffel bag slung over one shoulder. She looked neither left nor right as she walked up to my car. The whole effect made her look like a movie star exiting an airport.

She was tired, and didn't say much for the first hour of our trip. She sat in the front passenger seat, staring out the window, answering only in monosyllables as I tried to have a conversation with her.

'Uncle Robert, ' she finally said in exasperation, 'please, just shut the fuck up will you!'

I didn't have much to say after that.

When we got to my house, I let her in, and followed her into the living room. She looked around silently, then putting her bag down on the floor she walked through the house, looking into every room, every cupboard, and every closet. She came back into the living room, took off her glasses, folded them and put them into her jacket pocket, and said dully, 'Which is my room, or am I 'sharing' yours?'

'I've decided that your room is the one down the end, the one with the sliding door that goes out onto the balcony, ' I told her. 'Get your things put away, and then we'll see about dinner.'

Picking up her bag, she murmured sulkily, 'I'm not hungry.'

She stepped past me, and went to her room, closing the door behind her. I had a shower, changed my clothes, and got some dinner cooking. I'm not a first-class chef by any means, but I can cook without burning the water.

The smell of the food finally brought Selena out of her room. She must have been hungry after all. She didn't say a word as she sat at the table, and when I put a plate of dinner in front of her, she asked me suspiciously, 'What's this crap?'