Chapter 3

The closest Mars gets to Earth is about ninety million klicks (that's kilometers for the non-military) and since we haven't yet been able to circumvent that pesky speed limit that light travels, that means it takes at least ten minutes to get a message there and back, if the response is instantaneous. We were at about double that distance right then so it would be at least a twenty-minute round trip for the radio beams to take the wonderful news there and back. It doesn't make for an easy conversation ― more like leaving messages to each party ― but you get used to it.

Now normally there wouldn't be a prayer in hell for someone like me to get a message through to these rich muckity-mucks so I used the girls' names in the From line in the header; that ought to draw some attention. I knew they had been declared lost and presumed dead when the shuttle they were on crashed so I'd hoped it would draw some attention and be forwarded on to the appropriate people. I gave a brief explanation of how I found them and how to reach me and attached a short vid of them Sharon took for me of them sitting around the screen looking at clothing.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the girls were dead, didn't I? Well they were, officially anyway. The orbital shuttle they were on crashed about fifty klicks outside the shuttle port and everybody aboard was presumed dead. At least that's what the news vid said. I didn't think anything about it until a day or two later when I heard a rumor from one of my more unsavory contacts that more than a few had survived and had been declared slaves and sent out into the general market.

You're probably saying to yourself, that's impossible. As nasty as slavery is, although legal on Mars, it's still highly regulated. You can't just be made a slave; it has to be a court order as punishment for a crime and the process should take more than a few days. You'd be right ... and wrong. It should take quite awhile and go through a whole lot of administrative hoops before it becomes effective; this time it didn't. Shit, the fact that they're filthy rich should have ensured them of a really long trial even if they'd murdered someone in cold blood in the central plaza in Old Dome. Come to think of it, murdering someone might not get slavery imposed even if you weren't rich; not paying your taxes would, though.

The whole thing stunk and honestly scared the shit out of me. Something wasn't right but greed did me in; the payoff on this had the potential to set me up for life. I just hoped it wouldn't be a really short life. Somehow someone had gamed the system here and that isn't easy. As fucked up as Mars is, one thing they don't tolerate is corruption in the government. Petty officials taking bribes may be condemned into slavery but higher-ups found tapping the till or playing fast and loose with the laws are just set outside without a p-suit. It actually happened to the mayor of Old Dome a few years ago. They found out his expense account was padded more than an underage stripper in a B-bar and they set him out for a walk. It took him about ten minutes before his lungs bled enough to choke him to death. I know because they put it on the vids for the public to watch.

So maybe Terry was correct when she said I was stupid. It was a good possibility there were people out there who really didn't want to have this found out. If I'd done something like this, I sure wouldn't. I figured the best chance I had was to make this as fast and as quiet as possible. Grab them, get them out of here, get my money and maybe disappear to one of the newer colonies somewhere on the other side of the planet. It sounded good at the time.

It didn't sound so good right then, but I was committed. You know what they say about commitment: the chicken is involved with breakfast, the pig is committed. I was that pig and I was hoping like hell I could keep my bacon out of the fire.

Praying I hadn't screwed the pooch for the final time, I encoded the messages and sent them as highly confidential to three separate corporate headquarters. The die was cast and I got up and went out to see what the girls were up to.

They must have been done with their shopping since there was some silly holo-vid on the screen when I entered the room. They were sitting down, Terry with her legs propped up on a table and Eve's long, long legs crossed just sitting there looking bored.

"What's up?" I asked from behind them. Kee jumped up and promptly stumbled over the end of the couch and fell against me. I caught her and held her upright. She looked up at me and actually smiled. Her beautiful eyes were open but a little glazed.

"Looks like we need to get you to bed," I said. Sighing, she leaned against me her head on my chest then she completely relaxed until only I was holding her up. I already had an arm around her shoulder so I reached down and scooped her up into my arms. Terry had jumped up when Kee did the boneless act. "Terry, you want to help me get her tucked in?"

"Sure."

As I said before I'm no hulking brute of a man but Kee felt feather light in my arms as I carried her back to the first spare bedroom. I let Terry fold down the covers before I settled the now sleeping form on the triple-wide mattress, I put triple-wides in all the rooms except mine; mine's a little wider but I like to stretch out when I sleep. During the war I spent so much time wrapped up in a tight little bedroll or in a hammock I swore I'd get the biggest bed I could find when it was over. So I did. We left Sleeping Beauty lying there and I told Sharon to dim the lights but not turn them off entirely.

"That's the first time I think she's really been asleep since we got here," Terry told me as we left the room.

"The sedative," I commented.

"Hmm, partly," she agreed. "But I think she finally feels safe for once."

"She better not get used to it," I said shaking my head. "We need to talk."

And talk we did, the three of us. I hadn't heard the whole story before; the vids only said the three socialite debutantes (Do they still have debutantes? Not in the circles I run in.) had been taking a graduation tour of Mars before returning to Earth and entering university. What they told me didn't do anything but increase the wrongness I felt about the whole situation.

"It was supposed to be a 'growing experience'," Terry said. "A once-in-a-lifetime trip to get a fuller understanding of what was really going on out here before I got my degree and started working for the company. Supposedly it would help me when it was my turn to take over." Terry's mother was actually the president of the corporation and held fifty-five percent of the stock either outright or by proxy.

"So your mother thought you should come out here?" I asked.

"Actually it was my stepfather; he recommended it and mom went along." Terry's step-father was the corporation's CFO (Chief Financial Officer). They had been married two years after Terry's real father died in an accident while inspecting a construction site.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," she shrugged.

"Been there, done that," I snorted. "How did you end up out here, Eve?"

"Actually it was my stepmom that brought it up," she said bouncing the paper slipper up and down on the end of her toe. It drew attention to her legs which believe me didn't need any help in that department. Legs like hers should be banned as potential heart attack causes for all heterosexual males and I definitely fit in that category. Personally, I don't care one way or another if two guys want to screw each other's brains out; I just didn't see the point in it. No interest, nada. Now two girls ... Well, I am a guy; sue me.

"She mentioned that Terry and Kee were going so it sounded better than sitting at home and doing nothing. Terry, Kee and I have been friends forever; it seemed interesting."

"So you were out to see the worlds before heading to collage?"

"I suppose so," the bored sound came back into her voice. "Get a degree and do ... whatever. It's what you're supposed to do to get ahead aren't you? Although I don't know how much further ahead I could get. Terry's got all the brains; all I have is my looks. I guess I'll graduate and marry some dumbass that dad picks out for me. Probably push out one or two little dumbasses for him."

"How romantic," I said dryly. She went back to giving me one of those bug-under-a-microscope looks again.

All the brains and personality, I thought to myself as I grunted. There was no doubt about it: Miss Eveta Marissa Delgado was exquisitely beautiful, but Terry was no skank. Honestly, knowing the two of them even as little as I did, I would have taken Terry over Miss Universe in a single heartbeat. Even then I could tell living with Terry would be like trying to ride a tornado without a seatbelt. But damn! What a ride it would be!

I actually had three years of university myself; then came the war. All through it I'd assumed I'd go back after and finish but then came the exile. Not much in the way of AI circuit logic research on Mars; actually not much in the way of higher education at all. I suppose that will come later. Yes, I was studying to become an AI engineer; maybe that's why I feel such an affinity for them.

"Actually, I think Kee's stepfather brought up the idea to her," Terry muttered as she stared off into nothing; I could almost see the gears and smoke again. Suddenly she blinked and turned to me changing the subject completely.