Chapter 5

Somewhere nearby an alarm went off, or maybe some lights blinked, it didn't matter. I'd gotten barely three meters through the door when a large black man with a dragon tattoo flying around his massive bald skull stopped us.

"Excuse me, miss ... Would you like to check your purse?" He was polite about it anyway and I had little choice in the matter.

"Whatever," I shrugged, slipping my purse off my shoulder.

Ransom and Viv exchanged looks, but didn't say anything. I seriously doubted either one of them had ever touched a gun in their lives. This was just the price of being strapped and I'd gone through it plenty of times before. Most decent clubs had detectors and they'd hold it for me until I was leaving.

"Just put your thumb there," the girl said, a cute little coat check girl, pointing at the pad on her counter.

And just like that I was unarmed. Sorta.

"Don't lose it," I told her, knowing she wouldn't.

"Thank you. Have a good time," Baldy said and I gave him a grin, like why wouldn't I?

"I want to dance!" Viv exclaimed, taking me by the hand. "Ransom, find us a place to sit. I want to dance with Bingo."

"I guess I'm dancing," I giggled and Ransom just rolled his eyes.

The place was crowded and noisy, filled with smoke and flashing lights and all the stuff to make the brain go a little numb. A lot of off-worlders were drinking at the bar, but even more citizens were sitting at tables and booths, talking and watching and getting high. The place wasn't real upscale, not like some of the tourist clubs, but decent enough to be respectable.

It was nice playing civilian, and a little freaky too, cause nobody gave me a second look, just like nobody completely ignored me. I didn't feel invisible anymore, like a ghost the way I would have been around a bunch of real people in my real get-up. The dance floor was packed and ponygirls were prancing the edges of it, hooking shots of synthetic adrenalin mixed with Biox for twenty credits a pop.

Dancing is dancing, like the way people have been doing it since the dawn of time, probably. A lot of jumping up and down, grinning, and generally bumping into hot sweaty people who were getting warmed up for some good sex later. Like everyplace on Broken Window, that sex usually happened in the middle of the dance floor, just cause it was easy and convenient and nobody really gave a shit. It's why half the population had a virus of one kind or another, most of them harmless enough, but a few carried bugs that would put you in the fire eventually.

That's what the Biox was for, a super cocktail of antibiotics, RNA sleepers, and gene triggers that put a body's immune system into orbit for about a couple hours, maybe six at the most, depending on how much adrenaline you pumped. It would kill just about anything you might catch, except maybe a cold. Nobody had figured that one out yet. The problem with that stuff was if you did too much too often it killed your normal immune system. And too much could be a single shot or a hundred shots, nobody knew for sure cause everybody was different that way.

There were a lot of people addicted to it, not cause they wanted it, but because without more Biox they'd be dead in a week. It was illegal on every other planet in the galaxy, but not on Broken Window. Here it was just another chance in the big game of fun. I stayed away from that shit and Viv did too, which meant we had to watch our asses, literally, cause there were some horny bastards on the dance floor and it was like joining an orgy. Once you were in, you were fair game.

We did all right though, staying close together and ignoring everyone else for the most part. I liked to dance and Viv turned out to be pretty good at it, getting both of us worked up sweet and hot until she ended up bent over with my hard little cock in her pussy. She felt hot and wet inside, and a little too big maybe, cause my dick isn't much more than an oversized clit so far as I'm concerned. But we were dancing, not fucking, so it didn't matter anyway. We were laughing and just grinding away like regular people having a good time out on the town.

"You all pumped up?" Ransom had been watching us dance from a table upstairs, on the big balcony circling the dance floor.

"Fuck!" I grinned and Viv and I were both pink and breathless.

"Yeah," Ransom grinned. "Come here..."

He pushed his chair back and I could see he had his cock out, all nice and hard and already wet with precum just for me. He'd been stroking himself, or maybe one of the ponygirls had been giving him some head, cause they sold that too. Lots of people were having a good time on the balcony, like what was the point of living on Broken Window if you didn't fuck in the clubs?

I didn't mind. I was seriously hot for it and just being in the middle of the dance floor with all the sights and smells and sounds filling my senses would have been enough to jack up a eunuch. I pulled my tight black skirt up, and my thong to the side, straddling Ransom's thighs with my back to him while he guided his cock inside my horny little ass.

Viv watched us, smiling and nodding and licking her lips. She picked up the drink that Ransom had ordered for her, some smoky red champagne in a fluted glass, and sipped it slowly.

"Oh yeah..." Ransom groaned, pulling me down until I winced as his big dick split my ass wide, driving deep into my rectum. He wanted me to sit on him with his cockhead touching bottom, filling me with that pleasant discomfort I'd long ago learned to love.

We didn't fuck, I just sat there with every inch of Ransom up my butt, leaning back against him with my skirt covering us. Not that anyone would care. Ransom kept one arm around my flat chest and used the other for drinking and talking. He liked to gesture, you know those kind of people, and him and Viv were talking some boring citizen stuff, while I was figuring my plans.

It was a good way to kill some nervous time.

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"You don't lose my stuff," I smiled up at Viv while I waited for my purse.

"But why do you have to go tonight?" Her green eyes were dark and she'd been unhappy to learn I wouldn't be coming home with her.

"Viv, she'll be back." Ransom rubbed his jaw, he had to go to work soon, but he'd see Vivian home first.

"I gotta see a guy about a horse," I giggled.

"Here you are," the check girl was all smiles and I looked inside my purse, just to make sure my stuff was all there. She didn't even frown.

"You had fun, right?" I looked at Viv after I was satisfied with my quick inventory.

"Yeah," Viv smiled reluctantly, being the good salesclone and besides, she knew I didn't owe her anything.

"Give me a kiss, Mommy," I said in my best fucky girl voice. And she did, Viv gave me a nice one, sweet and I almost felt bad.

Ransom gave me a dirty kiss, fucking my mouth and fingering my ass while we stood near the entrance of the club. That bald bouncer kept watching me close cause I was armed now. He didn't like that and just wanted me out the door.

That was about all the goodbye I was good for and I left them there, going outside to catch a shuttle cause it wasn't much slower than a taxi and it cost a lot less. They were just uncomfortable cause of all the assholes. Mostly off-worlders and stupid tourists on their way down to the Basement, since it was getting on towards midnight and Valence hadn't done anything but warmed them up. They were the hardcore people, the ones who wanted to get fucked up.

"Yam Zabbit Vlamp!" some computer was saying on my phone and I hated that hacker shit.

"Whatever, it's me," I said and disconnected.

I dropped my phone to dangle around my neck as I sat down between a couple space marines. There musta been like two dozen of them packed onto the shuttle with everyone else. Some cruiser was in orbit and so there were jarheads running around on their three day passes or whatever it was they got. They'd be drinking and fighting and spending all their money a long time before they spent all their time.

"You talk to God on that thing, honey?" the guy on my left asked me and he was one of the small ones, only like three times my size.

I glanced up at him. "I only talk to God when I fuck."

"Well, shit. Maybe you could introduce us then," he chuckled and licked his lips. The man was black as coal, but his tongue was shiny and pink like a baby.

"You wanna meet God?" I gave him a coy look.

"I wanna meet you," he had a deep voice. "I'm Jeremiah Jericho..."

"Leave her alone..." one of his friends was saying.

" ... they call me Jay-Two for short."

Bip-bip ... Bip-bip

My phone rang and I gave the marine an apologetic look.

"Sorry. God's calling me back." I stood up, squeezing past two giant jarheads, which gave me a little privacy actually. "Yeah?"

"Fuck ... I knew it was you!" Stan always sounded surprised, but he knew everything.

"I gotta see you," I told him.

"How do I know it's really you?" he asked, because he was paranoid too.

"You know where I am?"

"Almost ... In the air someplace, hold on..."

"Well, if I wasn't me I'd be someplace else, wouldn't you think?" I laughed and then waited about fifteen seconds, listening to Stan's heavy breathing. "Are you jerking off?"

" ... shuttle, oh one one five nine, bound for City Center, six minutes out..."

"Took you long enough."

"I'm burning cycles on a sqwack," Stan's voice shrugged. "What do you want?"

"Magic."

"Go to the circus."

"Stan ... You owe me," I reminded him, and he really did.

"I got a lot of heat on me. I shouldn't even be calling you, but..."

"You love me, I know. About an hour, okay?"

"I'll call you," Stan promised.

"Sixty minutes, I'm serious."

"I'll call. Don't hang up for ten seconds."

"Why?" I narrowed my eyes, but Stan had already disconnected. I counted to ten slowly and then thumbed my phone off.

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The Virgin Mary stood about five feet tall, naked with a swollen belly and small, sagging tits. One hand cradled the Fetus Jesus from beneath, while the other was outstretched towards the stained glass dome high above her. She was looking up, naturally, like she was asking God how the fuck she was supposed to explain this to her old man.

Immaculate Conception was probably so original, old Joe might have believed her for about three seconds before kicking her ass.

Beneath the statue, I found my drop. There were seven Cards, each of them bright green with a holographic likeness of a player and a name. Mine said "Bingo" and I thumbed it, finding the menu easily enough and I checked the odds real quick, cause I was so curious it hurt. The data would be updated continuously and factored by stuff like how much was being bet and who was still in the game. I was the long shot, as I expected, paying at fifty to one right then, which seemed almost insulting; the favorite was a paltry six to one.

Nobody had ever heard of me before though and being a hard luck old fuck toy wasn't much of a resume for murder.

There was a background option and I looked at that too, just to see what they had on me, and I giggled when I saw they had me down for blowing the skull off that Domme in the trolley. That had knocked me down a little probably, since they knew I wasn't a virgin at least. Other than that it didn't say much and all they'd have on anyone was whatever was public knowledge, whether it was true or not. Rumors and street talk had a way of becoming the truth after awhile.

I didn't want to stay long in that church, cause it was after midnight and I was playing now. The other players would be busy getting their drops too though, so it wasn't too likely I'd run into one sitting there, but you couldn't know until it happened either. Least I was in a pretty good disguise; I didn't look much like my card at all. Behind me there were maybe a half dozen people, most of them sleeping, but one guy was praying hard, on his knees jerking off, and he must have fucked up bad the way he was going at it.

I had about ten more minutes until Stan called me back and I didn't want to leave the place before I knew where I was going, so I slipped into the pew behind Praying Man. Not for any real reason, but he was mumbling and I wanted to know what he'd done. I got right behind him, kneeling on a cum stained knee-bench, padded and sticky. I glanced up at Jesus, nailed to the blood soaked cross behind the altar. His swollen cock was dripping precum and he smiled down at me, forgiving me with his dark, gentle eyes, and he was a pretty good one.

"What did you do?" I asked the man, since I couldn't fuckin' understand a word he was saying.

He shut up quick, going stiff and lifting his head without turning it. He was busy looking for God and maybe I was too. I needed something to reassure me cause fifty to one was a real heartbreaker, though I mighta expected it.

"What are you praying for, man?" I asked again.

"Forgiveness." He jerked at the word and his voice sounded confused, like what else would he be wanting?

"What did you do?"

" ... did I do?" he mumbled and turned his head, looking at me with his red rimmed eyes, all puffy from crying. "Fuck you."

He turned back around and he'd probably thought I was one of the nuns who took care of sinners like him, but they were all off someplace else and it was probably happy hour downstairs. Lots of people liked the Dungeons of St. Peter's and the Sisters were always busy punishing the sinners. Priests would hear confession and mete out penance, administered with whips and crops, and the occasional hammer and nail. That's where tonight's Jesus had come from; it's where they always came from, the penitent faithful who wanted to bleed for their sins.

"You think God can hear you?" I asked him softly and the soft fwap-whap-slapping of his fist along his dick echoed through the church. Masturbation and prayer are the same thing to a lot of people.

He began mumbling again and I was in a church, which I liked for some reason. Maybe it was the smell of cum, I don't know, but that place always got me off and I opened my purse, pulling out my seventy-seven and I pressed it to the back of his head. My arm was straight and he didn't even flinch. Whatever he'd done, it must have been bad. Probably sold his kids, I figured, maybe his wife too. Sold to a snuff gang for fun fodder kiddie vids. Lots of money in that for addicted daddies with the need, but he coulda done anything really. It didn't matter a whole lot to me anymore.

"Maybe you need to get a little closer," I suggested and I squeezed the trigger slow, introducing the guy to God with a soft pop.

My phone rang a few minutes later and I felt the relief, cause I hadn't really known for sure that Stan would call. But he did love me, I knew that much. He was weak that way.

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"Anybody follow you?" Stan wasn't joking, but he shoulda been.

"No," I shook my head and looked around. "What happened to your old place? I liked it."

"Me too." Stan sealed the door behind me, which had opened from an alley behind a cockfight arena in Chinatown.

"Poor Stan," I smiled petulantly, twirling a bit on my hips cause he was looking at me now.