Chapter 20: Attempt at Escape

Orphe sat in his viewing room in the expensive villa he had rented, watched three of his pets fornicate, and found no pleasure in it. Instead, he was thinking of a dark-haired human that was chained to the wall in the cellar. What was it about the mongrel that has enraptured Iason, had turned his brother from a proud impenetrable and stoic Elite to a pathetic breaker of rules? Why had no one else seen how damaged Iason had become? What he was considering would mean breaking the number one rule for an Elite, but it was for the betterment of his kind. While it would need to be covered up for now, one day the people of Amoï would praise him for his deeds; for destroying the faulty android named Iason Mink.

It was a completely logical course. Iason’s rumoured resurrection and return would mean that he, Orphe, would be ordered to step down as leader of the Syndicate. He couldn’t allow that. He was just starting to make the changes needed to bring his brothers into a new era. He would change the face of Tanagura so no one would ever question their strength again; the way it should have been from the beginning.

Iason Mink was in the way of his goal of transforming what the Syndicate was. He was doing their world a favor by removing Jupiter’s favorite son. No one would be the wiser as everyone already assumed Iason was dead. Wouldn’t his Elite brothers be outraged to learn that their great leader was shacked up at a beach house with his mongrel pet all this time? Ignoring his duties? It would be sweet to tell them, but such news might interfere with the plans he already set in motion.

He could hear his pets and for some reason, their passionate moans and sighs just annoyed him, rather than aroused. Would the mongrel make such noises? How would Riki look being mounted by Cajel, or sucked on by Janyn? He touched a gloved finger to his lips as he remembered their near kiss, felt himself harden unexpectedly.

“Get out!” he suddenly demanded, watched his pets falter in their ecstasy, startled. “Out I said! Get out of my sight!”

He threw his wine glass at them as they scrambled to grab their flimsy outfits and hurried from the room. Running a finger across his forehead, Orphe rose. He needed to learn the truth, that was all. All these lingering questions were distracting him, so he would find the answers he required. This was all about learning the facts and he needed to have all the facts when dealing with Iason, didn’t he?

He paused when he entered the dank cellar and spotted Kanin seated by their prisoner’s side. “How is he?”

“Sleeping, he will probably be out for some time.”

“Very well, leave us.”

Kanin rose, looked like he wanted to argue, but nodded instead and moved towards the door.

“Take the guard with you.”

Once he was alone, Orphe stood over Riki’s bed. The boy was too old, he decided, too old to be a proper pet, and not really very beautiful at all. His skin was too dark, his body too muscular. Why had Iason chosen this boy?

Moving around the bed, he pulled back the thin blanket that Kanin had covered Riki with and ran a gloved finger across the human’s hard, smooth chest. “What is it about you?” he hissed, aggravated when he felt his loins stir once more. “You are exotic, I suppose; in a dirty sort of way.”

Riki didn’t stir.

Orphe focused on Riki’s lips, and before he realized what he was doing, he had leaned down and pressed his own lips against them. In his sleep, Riki’s trained body immediately responded and Orphe watched as the young, supple body suddenly flushed with an intoxicating allure. Pulling back, he experimentally ran a finger across Riki’s nipples, watched the young man arch in invitation, and felt his arousal grow.

“So responsive,” Orphe murmured in astonishment and moved closer with the urge to see how receptive a mongrel pet could be, only to be interrupted by the signal of his wrist device. “Yes?”

“We are having some difficulty with our surveillance feeds, sir. You requested notice of any unusual activity.”

“I am on my way. Have the guards assume first position.” Orphe stared at Riki wistfully then rose. “And so it begins. Soon I will have your master, and then...” He ran a gloved finger tip over Riki’s soft lips. “I will have you.”

Riki’s eyes opened the moment he heard the door close. “Not fucking likely,” he hissed, having woken to a strange beeping sound just in time to hear the Blondie’s terrifying promise. He had to warn Iason, he had to keep him away from Orphe.

The lights had remained on inside the cellar so he could finally get a good look at his prison. His shackles were off and his ankles and wrists bandaged, so he was now free to move around. There were no windows, just the bed, a straight back chair beside it, the lab table he had been chained to earlier, and the door across the room with a small palm panel on one side of it.

He glanced at the camera directly above him just as a guard entered and stood by the secured door. He sat up slowly put his hand to his mouth, then he lurched over the side of the bed and dropped to all fours, as if were about to vomit. As predicted the guard immediately moved towards him.

“Hey!” he grumbled. “What’s wrong with you now?”

Riki moaned and lowered his head. “S ... stomach hurts.”

“Who the fuck cares, get back on the bed...”

As the guard reached his hand down to grab Riki by the shoulder, Riki rolled to the left, caught the man’s wrist and pulled him off balance. He wrapped his legs around the guard’s neck and squeezed, until the man passed out. If someone was watching the camera feed from another room then they would come bursting in, but if what he heard someone say to Orphe was true, that the main feed had been interrupted, he may have caught a break.

Riki kept his hostage and counted to thirty. When no one else hurried into the room, he shoved the man aside, stripped him and changed into his clothes, dismayed at how badly his hands were shaking. What kind of drugs had Orphe given him? He could remember clearly one of the pets trying to touch him and him threatening her, but everything after that was foggy and then blank.

He pulled his long hair up under the guard’s cap, scooped up the long-range laser rifle, then hauled the unconscious guard over to the wall to place the man’s hand against the palm plate by the door. The door slid open and Riki cautiously peered out. No sign of anyone between him and the stairs leading up, just a small computer console with one monitor and a chair; which he assumed had been the guard’s station.

He stepped out, paused and leaned against the wall when a wave of dizziness assailed him. It took a moment for it to pass, and when it did, he slowly started up the stairs. His body felt as though it had been caught in between a fabric press and a heavy-duty cord stretcher; battered, scraped, and paper thin, he pressed forward, reminding himself he had felt far worse at the hands of Iason.

When he reached the top of the stairs, opened the door to the hallway, and had seen no one waiting for him he grew suspicious. Had they all been pulled away to deal with whatever caused the issue with the camera? Was Iason already here? There was no way that Orphe had left him completely unattended so this had to be a trap of some kind. Maybe he was the bait for Iason? Maybe they were going to let him run outside and distract Iason long enough to capture or kill him. The idea that Orphe could be using him made him hesitate and he was still paused a figure came around the corner.

Riki dipped down behind a large planter and readied himself to tackle the person as they passed. He watched a shadow spread across the floor as the person grew closer to his position, but just when he thought they would pass, a voice said.

“I know you are there.”

Ignoring the leap of fear in his heart he slowly rose, lifted the weapon he had pulled from the guard and faced the bastard blue haired elite that had injected him with the aphrodisiacs. “Don’t fucking move.”

“Fascinating,” Kanin returned, curious. “You shouldn’t even be able to stand, in your condition.”

“I can still shoot to, you fucker.”

“You have a remarkable constitution, pet. I would be very interesting in running some tests...”

“Can a Sapphire elite survive with no head?” Riki growled as he focused the red laser sighting in the middle of Kanin’s forehead. “That’s a test I’d like to run.”

“Is this how you show gratitude to the man who saved your life?”

“Say what now?”

“You went into cardiac arrest. You should thank me.”

Riki was alarmed that he had nearly died, again, and couldn’t even remember it. “You never should have put that shit in me in the first place!”

“I did what I was instructed to do,” Kanin returned. “Yet, I find that I am curious. What will you do next?”

“Where is Iason?”

“I have no idea.” Kanin suddenly tossed Riki a key card, proving he really wasn’t concerned about being shot. “You will find the other boy up the stairs. Down the hall and behind the third door on the left. Will you free him or will you kill him, I wonder? He is the reason you are here and he did try to kill you, after all.”

Riki felt a wave of nausea sweep over him and almost staggered from the force of it, but managed to keep his weapon trained on the Elite. Guy. Why did he have to come back, and why would be involved with Orphe of all people? Katze was supposed to have erased Guy’s memory, so what happened? Fuck! He didn’t have time to deal with this shit, but he who had to deal with it. He hated what Guy had done, hated that both he and Iason had been hurt by his friend’s obsession, and he still blamed himself for fuelling that obsession. What would he do? What should he do? Guy had to be stopped, once and for all. He couldn’t spend his life looking over his shoulder waiting for the other man to attack again and he couldn’t let Iason be hurt again. Would Guy listen if he tried to talk to him again, or would he turn to madness again?

“Hmmm, you actually hesitate to kill him.” Kanin moved swiftly, had taken Riki’s weapon and pinned both Riki’s hands against the wall, before Riki could respond to the statement. “Curious indeed. This mongrel betrayed you and injured your master. How can you forgive such actions?”

Being slammed against the wall made Riki realize how weak he still was from the drugs; not that he could fight an Elite even at his best, but his body suddenly shook with the effort it took to remain standing. “I have no master!”

“Really? But you were calling out for him earlier. Master, save me. Save me Master. Don’t you remember?”

Riki flushed with shame, attempted to struggle. “F ... Fuck you!” God, had he really said that? He gathered what little strength he had left and spit in Kanin’s face. “Kill me or let me go, you impotent piece of shit. I haven’t got the time to play your fucking games.”

Instead of anger or offence, which was what Riki had expected to be the Sapphire’s reaction, Kanin laughed.

“Ah, well, since you put it like that.” Kanin released him, gave Riki back the weapon, and stepped back. “Exactly opposite the room where your friend is, there is a den with a balcony overlooking the outside pool. It is a bit of a drop, but you just might survive it.”

“Why are you doing this?” Riki’s chest was heaving, his arms trembled with the exertion of lifting the gun towards the blue-haired Elite again, then he just let it drop to his side. “Is this part of Orphe’s sick game?”

“I’m a doctor, not a fortune teller.” Kanin slid his hands into his trouser pockets, and it was then that Riki noticed the Sapphire was not wearing gloves, like every other elite. and started walking away. “I suggest you hurry, pet. Your path is currently unencumbered; however, the video feed may only be disrupted for another few minutes and more guards will be dispatched.”

Riki watched Kanin disappear around another corner, and unable to chance that the doctor might be telling the truth about Guy, he bolted up the stairs and down the corridor. His hands were shaking from both pain and adrenalin as he slid the card Kanin had given him into the reader and watch the door slide open.

“Riki!” Guy cried, joyously. “Thank God you’re...”

Riki’s fist swung out and nailed the other man on the chin. Guy stumbled back into the room, overbalanced and landed on his ass.

“Riki! What?” Guy started to rise to his feet, only to freeze when Riki aimed a weapon at him.

This was it; Riki thought. He had to decide now how to deal with Guy. Wiping his memory apparently hadn’t worked, neither had reasoning with him. He couldn’t allow this to happen again, not again. Could he kill him, like Kanin suggested? He thought of the fire he and Iason both nearly died in. He thought of the pain when Guy cut the pet ring off him. And he could still feel the soreness around his neck where his former pairing partner had tried to strangle him.

“It has to stop,” Riki growled.

Guy froze in his position on his knees, staring at Riki and the laser that was suddenly trained on him. “R ... Riki?”