Chapter Four #2
“We can always use someone who can do front of house and calm bruised egos. That pays really well when you are dealing with actives all day.” Keska chuckled.
“Oh. Right.”
“Come, see the vibe and know that you will always have backup. At the very least, get away from the folks here. You can use a new environment for a few hours.”
Jienne nodded and smiled as she pulled the Salat and Khytten tee over her head. “How does that look?”
Keska chuckled. “Like one of my people. Shall we? We can get lunch while we are out.”
“Sure.”
They headed downstairs, and Keska said, “Ava, I am heading to work and taking Jienne on a ride-along.”
Ava nodded and waved. “Make sure she gets lunch.”
Keska gave her a thumbs-up, and they headed outside to a gathering of vehicles. She walked over to a rich-red low-slung sports car and opened the door for Jienne. Jienne got into the sports car and buckled up.
Keska got behind the controls, buckled up, and smiled. “Don’t worry. I keep the speed for the track. Nice car though. This is the road-safe prototype.”
“Wait. So, you design vehicles?”
“I design everything. In this case, the engine assembly and transmission. I had a friend do the exterior. He prefers black, but I snuck out with some spray paint. After that, he had it properly painted.”
They began to glide forward silently, slowly making their way down the long drive. When the gate opened, Jienne smiled. “It is silent. That’s an expensive motor.”
“Naw, I made it out of junk while eating tortilla chips. I should have cleaned my hands more frequently, but I managed.”
Jienne laughed softly. They were soon on the main road, and the car glided under expert hands.
Jienne asked, “So, why live ranges?”
“Because actives need a place to let it loose. When Cas and I were in Uradda, we were watched every minute of every day. We only learned about Ava when they brought us out for assessments. Nigel was a complete surprise.”
Jienne murmured, “So, you all escaped together?”
“Yes, and no. We escaped at the same time but not together. It wasn’t until we all ended up in the special actives foster care centre that we laughed and hugged. Even Nigel.”
“You were children.”
“Yes.”
“You broke out anyway.”
“Absolutely. They were trying to make another Blade of Uradda. We didn’t want that to happen, so we left. Ava and Nigel had the same idea. It just happened to be on the same night at the same time. We split the guards and made a run for it.”
Jienne asked, “How did you do that as children?”
“We had no choice. One of us was about to be tortured as an incentive for the other to do their best, and then they were going to switch and see which one of us would make the right energy signature.”
“Oh. I am sorry.”
“It was what it was. We are here now. We are safe, and we are doing well.”
“You live with Avagail?”
“All of us live here. There are multiple wings to the house. My wardrobe is just there because I bought it myself before the BDC took off. I lost my position as an escort, so I took my equipment home.”
“Your clothing.”
“The only equipment an escort needs aside from their own body.”
Jienne blushed. “Yeah, I am not sure about that.”
“You know the masks?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you know where they came from?” They were weaving through traffic gracefully.
“From the necessity of hiding the patron’s identities.”
“If we just wanted that, we could make them wear the masks. No. Ancient cultures like the Bennari use heavy makeup for their courtesans. The covering covered blushes and gave anonymity to the courtesans, male or female. The masks were built on that, and I used the memory frequency that I emit to blur the memories of the night. So we copied that and built it into the masks.”
“How did he follow me?” Jienne wrapped her arms around herself. “He wasn’t supposed to be able to follow me.”
“The BDC location is a well-known secret, and he just followed your transport. The security of the building held.”
Jienne nodded. “Right. It did.”
Keska drove through the traffic and took them to the Dekkar live range. “Have you ever been to a live range before?”
“No.”
“It’s sort of like an escape room but with the option for live rounds or using an activation. It is a lot of fun to watch.”
“I am a little nervous.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got you. You won’t be on your own no matter what.”
“Thanks.”
“First stop will be to show you the change rooms and rest rooms. They have force locks. No one can follow you in once you trigger the lock.”
“Okay. That’s a good tip.”
Keska grinned. “Okay, here we go. Stay close. There are peacekeeper training runs. They get a little excited.”
Jienne stayed close, and as they entered the shop, the roar of the excited crowd swamped her. She kept close to Keska, and they walked toward the clerk, who was watching the range images and keeping the list of the next groups up to date.
“Hey, Minno. This is Jienne, and she is following me today. She had a career shift and needs to reboot.”
Minno nodded. “Welcome. Trust Keska. She’s really good at what she does.”
Jienne smiled. “I do.”
Keska nodded. “Okay, we are starting in my office.”
Keska shepherded her to the door behind the counter and down a hallway lined with images of those who had beaten the range on a regular basis. There were several images of Salat and Khytten, Blackout, Gorith’s angel, and Gorith made up just a few.
Keska opened a door that had Mechanic’s office on it to a wonderland of bots and structures that gave a weird, fantastical appearance to things.
“What the hell?”
Keska grinned. “The government is allowing a day of celebration for Uraddan citizens. They want to have a parade, so these are part of the dreams of freedom float. An active is coming in ten days to load them onto the float. I can’t lift the fuckers.”
Jienne looked at what she now recognized as dreams of holding hands, having families, and using their activations. “Oh, I think I am gonna cry.”
Keska walked to where there were two office chairs on rollers. Neither had arms nor backs.
“Don’t cry. Come and chat with me while I fix the bots from the last few rounds of clients.” She took the first bot and touched it. The lights began to blink, and the machine whirred up and went to store itself on a shelf.
“So, you just touch them?”
“I have focused telekinesis and can use it for fine repairs. That’s my activation.” She grinned. “Well, one of them. All of the lab-grown ladies have a certain stacking of energies.”
Jienne blinked. “Oh. What number were you?”
“Ah, that. I was Escort Tek. We were before numbers. We made the rules that made the patrons behave.” She sighed. “Usually. There were events even with us when we needed to get away from them in a hurry.”
“What did you do?”
She chuckled. “In those days, we called a team. They came in, and the patron got a talking to. We weren’t allowed to show our stuff.”
“Speaking of show, I can’t describe what you look like. I try, but my mind won’t do it.”
Keska snickered. “Yeah, that happens. I am five eleven with black hair with gold strands in it. Those are handy. We are the blends of both progenitors.”
“You grew up in care?”
“Sort of. We had a guardian but were allowed to direct our own studies. We blew through all the courses in a matter of months and ended up being eleven in university. We continued our education via distance learning while we got emancipated, and Ava started playing with investments. After that, we were ready for contact from Zera. We chatted with her during university projects and agreed that the restriction of actives in the capitol was stupid, so we ran a project, tried it out. Made a more organized stab at it and took copious notes to prove the concept. We formed the Blind Date Corp and found out that there was a market for companionship and flat-out energetic sex.”
Jienne blinked. “Yeah. There is.”
They both laughed, and Keska kept working through the destroyed bots, restoring them and sending them off to the storage shelf.
At one point, ten bots rose and headed down a tunnel high in the wall.
Jienne said, “What’s that?”
“A single player. They fight the bots.”
“Can we watch?”
Keska tapped the counter of her workbench, and a huge display was in front of them. The bots got into place, and then the client emerged and started flying to find all the targets.
“Wow. You really don’t see the agents in casual clothing.”
“He just wants to work out some frustrations.”
“Wait, is this an alternative to the BDC?”
“Yup. Not everyone qualifies to be a patron. Some have trauma that is not dealt with. Some have issues with sex partners. Some have issues hiring a sex partner. There are financial restraints—though most governments are actually paying the bills for them—and some of the actives of all sexes are just jerks. The escorts don’t need to deal with that. ”
A deep rumble came from behind them. “And some actives have physical restrictions and have to wait for a matching partner.”
Keska smiled. “Hey, Salat. This is Jienne. She had a rough night. Dex got involved.”
“Oh, that’s her, huh?”
Jienne’s heart was pounding because she couldn’t see the demon cat of Aksalla.
“Salat, you might want to show yourself. Jienne is about to have a coronary.”
Salat appeared in front of them.
Jienne said, “You knew where he was.”
“Yup. It’s a frequency thing.” Keska smiled and kept working.
Salat said, “So, Kes, do you have those special target drones for me?”
“Yup. Do you have the waiver filled out?”
He smiled and lifted up a tablet.
Keska took it and looked at the signatures. She nodded and wheeled back from her bench, bringing out a black case. She opened it and turned it toward Salat. He grinned and rubbed his hands together. “This will be a present that I can show her in public.”
Keska laughed. “Yeah, the triplets ruined the surprise on the other one.”