Episode 6 #7
He ducked into a cafe and ordered coffee.
Leaning against a wall while waiting for his drink, he checked online forums. Sure enough, there was a bounty listed for him and Jun, posted for American-based criminals for hire.
He recognized the agent posting. Not many would, but he and Rei had been thorough over the years.
Some of those parties had been edifying.
He screen captured the offer on Jun and sent it to Ellisandre, attaching what he knew concerning the agent.
Then he forwarded a report of both bounties to the Yadro with a terse question: “Routine surveillance on subject. Is this approved or do we have a rogue? Advise.”
His drink order was called as he finished.
He leveraged himself off the wall and snagged the single-use cup from the counter then pushed through the door back out into the freezing wind.
If he was efficient with the rest of his errands, he would make it back in time to take Rei to the farmers’ market.
Rei
Face mask firmly in place, Rei walked beside Sevastyan through the crowded stalls. The air smelled fragrant with spiced meats from the food truck stalls running at one end and aromatic soaps and flowers perfuming the other. The air itself was like a watercolor painting of everything good.
Sevastyan looked down at the meat skewer in his hand. “It’s not spicy. Tasty, not spicy.”
“You just want Sichuan la de,” Rei murmured, smothering a smile behind his mask.
“I’d take a good taco with some peppers at this point,” Sevastyan muttered. “Doesn’t have to be Sichuan.”
Rei chuckled. “This is the United States of America Midwest.”
“Yes, well.” Sevastyan huffed. “At least this city has a good immigrant population that can cook.”
Rei shot Sevastyan a questioning look.
“There’s a story that some guy and his family were run out of town in the midwest because he put a pinch of pepper in his restaurant’s macaroni.”
Rei frowned. “What is macaroni?”
Sevastyan finished chewing the last bite from the meat skewer and tossed the stick into a rubbish bin. “A dish made up of small, fat noodles stewed in a cheese and cream sauce. It’s usually orange to yellow and sticky. Served in a bowl or piled on a plate.”
“Just pasta and cheese?”
Sevastyan nodded. “Not healthy. If it comes out of a box, the cheese is imitation. The kind that made you sick when we were in Hawaii.”
Rei made a face. That was not a good memory. He’d been sick for days. “I would like to not eat this, please.” He left off the “master,” mindful of the ears around them.
“Sometimes they make it with real cheese and cream. It can be tasty, but it’s usually bland. Better with some green onions, paprika, black pepper, red pepper, and cumin.”
“Is this a central dish?” Rei paused beside Sevastyan as he looked over some jars of artisanal jam.
“Can be. Often it’s a side with turkey, ham, bread, jello, some sort of wet salad.”
Rei pressed his hand to the front of his mask over his mouth. “What is a wet salad?”
“A salad in a sauce. Sometimes there is meat or cream in the salad. It’s possible I have the wrong word for it.” Sevastyan selected two of the jams and paid for them.
As they moved away from the jam shop, the bag of wrapped jam jars in Rei’s hand, Rei murmured. “I thought salad was green. Lettuce, carrots, cucumbers.”
Sevastyan’s smile curled on the edges of his lips. “I do not understand how Americans use the word salad. I was at a dinner once and they served a salad, but it was jello. There was fruit in the jello, but no greens.”
Rei dropped his eyes and shook his head a little.
He didn’t dare reach for a phone and look up the word salad.
If the Merchari was watching, he couldn’t be seen using a phone.
“Perhaps salad is anything they put in a bowl with small pieces?” He gestured towards a stall that was displaying tea.
Lisa had reminded him that they were nearly out.
“But then macaroni would be a salad.” Sevastyan acknowledged Rei’s gesture towards the tea but pointed up ahead to a picture advertising dishes that could be purchased at a hot foot stall further down the row.
In the photo, a cardboard food boat was filled with half round noodles and smothered in orange sauce. “That is macaroni.”
“Perhaps it is not a salad because there are no vegetables.”
Sevastyan raised an eyebrow. “The jello salad didn’t have vegetables either.”
Rei let his shoulders slump. “Perhaps we should ask.”
Sevastyan winced. “I do not think I dare.”
Rei smiled behind his mask. “Tea, then?”
“Yes, tea. Something civilized.”
Rei chuckled, dropping his eyes to the ground so no one could accuse him of fawning over his master.
Rei
The condo was quiet when Rei and Sevastyan returned.
Rei dropped to his knees and took Sevastyan’s shoes off.
He dared to press kisses against the front of Sevastyan’s thighs, glancing up at Sevastyan as he did so.
His master chuckled and reached down, ruffling his hair.
“Come on, beautiful. Let’s get the food to the ’fridgerator. ”
“Yes, master.” Rei stood, taking off his own shoes. “The refrigerator may be warmer than outside.”
“True.” Sevastyan gathered up the bags as Rei hung up their coats. “Lisa hasn’t come out.”
Rei met Sevastyan’s eyes.
Sevastyan glanced around the entrance area. There wasn’t anything out of place. He grimaced and reached for his gun, dropping the groceries. “Stay down.”
Rei knelt, making himself a small. Sevastyan went around the corner into the condo. A moment later Rei heard Sevastyan call his name. He scrambled to his feet and ran towards the sound. It led him to the bedroom and then the ensuite bathroom.
Lisa sat against the side of the large tub.
It was full of water, but Lisa was dressed.
All black. A silk shirt and a pair of Sevastyan’s casual slacks.
His hair was clumped and half starting to curl as if he’d been in heavy steam.
But the heat was gone from the room. One of the kitchen knives dangled from the ends of his fingers.
He flinched as Rei entered, hiding the knife behind his back, face turned away. Rei dropped to his knees in front of Lisa.
“I didn’t do it,” Lisa whispered.
Rei held out his hand. Lisa surrendered the knife. Rei pushed it away from both of them, sending it sliding across the floor.
He couldn’t feel anything, because he was feeling everything. And none of it was safe. It was a walking déjà-vu. Except this time the roles had changed. He glanced back at Sevastyan. His master’s face was pale and hard. They were remembering the same moment.
Rei fixed his eyes on his master’s face until Sevastyan looked at him. Their gazes met and stayed locked together for a long moment.
We can do this. We’ve done this. Rei pushed that belief through his chest as if Sevastyan could read his thoughts.
Sevastyan nodded, slowly, and looked away.
Rei turned back to Lisa. He reached out slowly, where Lisa could see his hand, and touched his fingers to the back of Lisa’s palm.
Lisa turned his hand over and curled his grip around Rei. He squeezed slowly. Rei squeezed back.
“I didn’t do it,” Lisa whispered, repeating himself. “I couldn’t. Every time . . . ” He flinched again and cut his eyes towards Sevastyan.
Whatever the reason that kept him from finishing the task he’d set was one that could be used against him, but it was already too late. And he seemed to realize it. His shoulders fell even further. “I thought of you coming back and finding me. And I couldn’t.”
Rei gripped Lisa’s hand with all his strength. A different master would use this confession against Lisa. There was a reason you never let yourself become attached to other slaves. It was leverage. And most masters were jealous. You were only allowed one love, your master.
Except Sevastyan wasn’t like the others. The confession sat on Rei’s tongue, yet he couldn’t bring himself to defy Sevastyan.
“Why?” Sevastyan asked. Rei looked back. His master was still in the doorway. He looked like he wasn’t certain if he should approach or not.
Lisa reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He held it up towards Sevastyan, not meeting his eyes. “Master Alexi called. He said he would talk to you about resetting the chip before it’s time.”
Sevastyan stepped into the room and took the phone. He glanced at the screen. “You miss him that much?”
Lisa tensed, his back pushing against the side of the tub. Everything in his limbs looked like he wanted to run, and then he collapsed in on himself again. “You shouldn’t be kind, Master Sevastyan. You make me want things I can’t have.”
Sevastyan’s body stilled. Rei closed his eyes, breathing in a breath, searching for strength, for words, for a magic spell that would untangle the web strangling all of them.
“I would free you, if I could.”
Lisa lifted his eyes to Sevastyan. They were red-rimmed and bloodshot and yet Rei doubted he’d been crying.
More like bleeding from the inside. The way pain could rise to the very edges of one’s body and just crest and stay there.
There was a particular kind of broken where tears no longer fell.
A kind of hopelessness that erased them.
Choosing to live today had done that to Lisa.
Rei dropped his eyes to where his hand joined with Lisa’s.
“Even if I believed you, you can’t make me forget,” Lisa whispered.
“No, I can’t.” Sevastyan picked the knife off the floor.
Lisa looked up towards Sevastyan. “Can there be freedom, at all, after a life like this?”
“Not until you end them,” Sevastyan said.
Lisa held Sevastyan’s eyes for a long time. “When you reset the chip, you’ll be just like them.”
“And if I don’t, you’ll die.”
Lisa closed his eyes. He squeezed Rei’s hand again. “Are you going to tell Master Alexi?”
“No.” Sevastyan’s voice was thick. “You didn’t do anything.”
“Then what happens now?”