The Superiors Page 29

  Tonight he would change his life.

  But first, he had to think of the practical things. He stopped at a feed-store and bought a box of crackers, a few cans of beans, a can of mangoes, and a few containers of vegetables. At the counter he scanned the food items and then added a caramel. It was an expensive item and he didn’t want to spoil Cali, but he wanted to make the first night as pleasant as possible for her.

  After he left the store he stopped for a few minutes at a small shop down the street. He came out and tossed his purchase on the seat beside him—a basic guide for sapien care. He thought he knew the basics already, but he would probably overlook something obvious and look like a fool. He didn’t want his sap to think he had no idea what to do for her.

  After making his last stop, he made his way toward the Confinement. He tried to contain his enthusiasm a bit. After all, he only meant to purchase a sap. Lots of people owned one. He already felt like an idiot and he hadn’t even bought her yet. Sure, Cali was special, and this night meant a lot to Draven, but it wasn’t like she was a person. The thought of seeing her shouldn’t make him quite so happy. He reminded himself that he only wanted to see her to satisfy his craving.

  Of course on the night he wanted to hurry, he ran into Bonnie.

  “Why, hello, Draven. Long time since I seen you in here. What, you too good for me now?”

  “No, Big Bonnie. Just been out of town.”

  “You been outta town? What kinda excuse is that? You know how to use your pod? Come on, now. Next time you better think up a good excuse.”

  “Actually, I did some thinking while I was gone, and I believe you’ll be happy to hear my conclusion.”

  “Well, I’ll be,” Bonnie said, shaking her head. “I never thought I’d see the day when Draven Castle come in here thinking.”

  “Alright. I guess I won’t tell you then.”

  “Aw, come on now, you know I’m only kidding you. What you got cooking in that big brain of yours?”

  “No, never mind. I’ll just tell you next time.”

  “You best tell me. You know I’m a patient woman, but you’s killing me now. What you got to think about?”

  “I was thinking I might return to my Catcher job.”

  “Hallelujah, glory be. I never thought I’d see the day. Come here and give me some love.”

  Draven laughed and allowed the large woman to embrace him. “I want to fill out the forms today, but I have some other business to take care of first.”

  “Business? What kinda business you got here?”

  “I’m buying a sap.”

  “Nuh uh, no way. You mean to tell me you come into some money and you ain’t shared it with Big Bonnie? Come on now. I thought we was friends.”

  “I’ll come by and fill out the forms for the job at the same time as the ownership files.”

  “Alright then. You just go on and get yourself a good one and we’ll get you all squared away. Least you know if your sap runs away you’ll be the first one to find her. I’m gonna draw up your files right now. You come on back here as soon as you find the one you want, you hear now?”

  “Yes, Bonnie. I’ll be back shortly.”

  Draven left Big Bonnie, a bit impatient at the delay. Still, he always found himself in better spirits after talking to her. He pushed through the doors of Cali’s old barracks before he remembered she didn’t sleep in the bunks anymore. He continued anyway, glancing at her old bunk out of habit. A young man slept there.

  Draven exited the barracks and turned into the muddy lane that led down the middle of the row of shanties. He stopped at the booth at the end of the row and scanned his card. He could have done this after he had her, but since he already knew which sap he wanted, and he already knew her number, he got the formalities out of the way first. He punched in Cali’s number and was ready to push the FINISH button when the screen blinked back at him.

  UNKNOWN IDENTIFICATION CODE. PLEASE TRY AGAIN.

  Draven punched the number again, impatient this time.

  UNKNOWN IDENTIFICATION CODE. PLEASE TRY AGAIN.

  He grew irritated. The Superior guard stood in the booth reading a magazine on shoe design. Draven had to knock on the counter before the man looked up.

  “Hello there, gorgeous,” the man said. More of a boy, really. “Remember me?”

  Draven looked a minute and then he did remember him. The boy had worked at 28 Flavors. For Ander. Ander, whom Draven had killed five weeks ago. He felt a sudden stab of paranoia, that somehow the boy would know. But he doubted the boy owed allegiance to Ander anymore. After all, Ander had died and the boy—Crane, Draven thought—had found employment elsewhere.

  “Ah, yes. Can you help me?”

  “Oh, you know it. I can help you anytime, with anything. What you want tonight?”

  “I’m looking to buy this sap here, and the screen says I’m putting in an incorrect ID for her.”

  “Ooh, you buying a sap? I like a man with money, honey. I knew you looked delicious and now I’m only getting more and more turned on. Let me help you with that.”

  Crane took Draven’s ID card, touching his hand longer than necessary in the process. “It’s not my ID that’s not working. It’s the sapien code.”

  “Okay, I got it. Tell me the code and I’ll look her up right here.”

  Draven stirred restlessly, glancing down the row of houses. He could have just gone down to her house and known by now. He kept running into people who wanted to talk, when Draven just wanted to go claim his prize.

  “Um, you see, she’s not in our system anymore.”

  “She died?” Draven asked, feeling something like panic set in. He’d done all this, and he’d thought about her lying sick in the hospital while he was gone. But towards the end, and especially after he’d completed the mission and knew he’d have enough to buy her, he hadn’t let himself think about the possibility of her not surviving. He had the money, he meant to buy her, and he couldn’t accept any other outcome. He’d killed a man so that he could have this one thing. He had to have it. Otherwise he was just a murderer.

  Crane shrugged. “I wish I could tell you. All I know is she’s not in our system. She could have died, or someone could have bought her, or a restaurant, or she could have run away and gone to the blood bank. Or maybe she got sent to another compound across town that needed more females. I don’t have the information here, but the office probably does. All I have is information on the ones we do have. Anything else you’d be interested in? Or maybe it’s not a sap you’re needing anyway. I don’t mind a little bite now and then if the moment is right.”

  Draven turned away and rubbed his face. “Merde, merde, merde.” He tried to collect his thoughts, to think of what he should do next. “Okay. I will be back.” He slid his ID card back across the counter and strode down center pathway. He stopped at Cali’s house and pulled back the tin flap. He didn’t bother knocking tonight.

  “Hey, wake up,” Draven said. “I need to talk to you.”

  One of the sisters sat up and squinted at him. He counted four bodies in the bed and almost let himself believe there had been a mistake. But he didn’t smell Cali, and after a moment he remembered that one of the sisters had a baby. He lowered his voice when he spoke again.

  “Where is Cali?”

  Another of the girls sat up, the oldest one. “She got bought.”

  “So she isn’t dead? That’s good. Did she recover from the infection, then?”

  “Oh, yeah. She was sick for a while after that, and she stayed in that clinic thing for about a week, I guess? Right?”

  “Yeah,” the other sister said. “A week sounds right. Then she came back here and she was real weak for a while. But then I think she was pretty much all better?”

  “So what happened to her?” Draven asked, trying to pace in the one meter of floor space and finding that he could only turn in circles.

  “Some bl—someone bought her. You know, one of you guys.”

  “She was
purchased? When?”

  “I don’t know. Pretty recently.”

  If he hadn’t waited so long. If he’d gone right when he got the money. Or even before that, if he’d come when he got back, at least he could have drawn from her one more time. He’d thought about her taste the whole time he wandered in the desert. The promise of it had kept him going when he wanted to give up and stop walking. And when he’d come back, he felt like he’d caught a faint whiff of her scent when he reached the city. The craving had set in the moment they’d drawn close. And now someone else had bought her, someone who probably didn’t crave her half so much.

  “Who bought her?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. That one she complained about, the one who followed her out here from that restaurant.”

  “That was me,” Draven said, nearly yelling in his impatience.

  “No, not you. The other one.”

  “The one who left her bites open? The one who gave her the infection?”

  “Yeah, him. He bought her.”

  “Dammit.” Draven hit the wall with his palm and the house began to tilt. He grabbed the support and righted the small house. The girls’ eyes went wide and they breathed a collective sigh when he saved their lodging from collapse. “Dammit, dammit, dammit,” he repeated. “Who is he?”

  He thought of Ander, if the man had survived, had somehow known Draven wanted her…but that was impossible. No one knew that. Except the doctor. Had someone bribed him for information? Despite what Cali said about the doctor, Draven thought the man seemed genuinely compassionate about the sapiens and their welfare. Surely he wouldn’t sell a sap to someone who had infected her. Not if he’d known anyway.

  But all that seemed unlikely. He was probably just another Superior, one with a taste for Cali. Still, for a price the man might part with her. Draven hated to lose the extra money he’d earned, but he’d use the entire sum to buy her. They’d be stuck in his apartment instead of getting to move to a nicer place with sapien accommodations. But he could work towards that.

  He left Cali’s sisters, passed Crane, and went back into the office. Big Bonnie had gone out somewhere, and a man Draven didn’t know sat in her office.

  “When is Big Bonnie coming back?” Draven asked, skipping the introductions.

  “She made a run over to one of the other offices. Can I help you?”

  “I don’t know, perhaps. I need the name of someone who bought a sap.”

  “Um, okay. What for?”

  “Because she was my sap. I was going to buy her.”

  “I’m sorry, sir, but we can’t just give out the names of our buyers. That information is confidential.”

  “Yes, I see. But I need it. This is an emergency.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. I can’t give you that information.”

  “Big Bonnie would give it to me.”

  “I don’t think she would. Now please calm down.”

  “I’m not going to calm down,” Draven said, too loud. “Not until you tell me.”

  “And what are you going to do with that information? Go bother the buyer? Go negotiate with him? We can’t just give out information and have people like you following our buyers home. We’d be shut down if we did that.”

  “I can pay. How much do you need for the information? A hundred anyas?”

  The man’s eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up at the offer, but he didn’t budge. “We don’t sell our client information. I’m sorry I can’t help you.”

  Draven could see he’d get nothing from the man. “I’m sorry, too,” he said, shoving an electronic number pad onto the man’s lap and stalking out.

  He went back outside. “Crane, I need your help.”

  “Anything you need, you know I’d be glad to serve you,” the boy said.

  “Alright, fine, great. I need to know who bought that sapien I asked about.”

  “Boy, I don’t even have the information on what happened to her. I don’t know who bought her.”

  “Don’t bullshit me,” Draven said, leaping over the counter in one nimble movement. He pinned the smaller Superior to the wall. “Let me see the screen,” Draven said, keeping his forearm pressed against Crane’s neck. The boy didn’t struggle, just let his eyes dart to the side.

  “It’s there,” Crane said. Draven didn’t have to smell fear to know the boy was scared. He probably thought Draven had gone insane. Draven thought he might have. But he had worked all this time, and he couldn’t let it come to nothing. He’d murdered a man. He couldn’t let it have been for money alone.

  He had a picture in his mind of how things should turn out. He could not accept this conclusion to his services for the North American government. Sure, he could buy another sap, but it wouldn’t be the same. He didn’t want another sap. He wanted Cali. And one way or another, he would get her.

  He got the pad from Crane without much struggle from the boy. But when he scrolled through it, he found that his flamboyant admirer had told the truth. He had no information on Cali. It was as if she’d never existed. The office had the information, and they didn’t want Superiors like Draven getting it from the guards. So the guards didn’t have it.

  Draven let go of Crane and stepped away in disgust. But he couldn’t give up yet. “I apologize,” he said, stepping back around the counter.

  “Oh, it’s alright. I quite enjoyed it. I knew you’d be more masterful than you look.”

  “If you want to help me, I’ll let you.”

  “And what is this information worth to you?”

  “Whatever you want it to be,” Draven said. He could flirt too, if he needed to.

  “Is that a promise you’re prepared to keep?”

  “Let me put it this way. You give me what I need, I’ll give you what you want.”

  “Ooh, boy. That’s what I want to hear.”

  “Now tell me what I want to hear.”

  “I’ll try,” Crane said, but he didn’t look very certain of his ability.

  “Good. How long have you worked here?”

  “Um. I don’t really know. I guess a few weeks, a few months maybe.” The boy shrugged.

  “That’s long enough. The sap I wanted to buy, she lived in that house,” Draven said, pointing to the pile of trash where Cali had sheltered. “She had blonde hair, about this long,” he said, gesturing just past his shoulders to show Crane the length of Cali’s hair. “Amber colored eyes. Roundish face, perhaps sixteen human years. Freckles on her face. About this tall.” He tried to remember anything else about her that might help.

  The boy started nodding. “Yeah, I remember her,” he said, looking more lively now that he knew he could help. “Kind of sickly looking? Walked slow?”

  “Yes, she had been sick.”

  “Yeah, I saw her come in at night a few times. She was late coming back from eating or I wouldn’t have noticed her.”

  “Alright, good. That’s good. Now, a few days ago a man came in and bought her. Do you remember his name?”

  “Oh, shit. Um, yeah, I remember he came in and signed for her and everything. I checked his ID and shit, but I’m not that good with names. Let me think.”

  Draven fought his urge to shake the stupid boy. How could he not remember? It was so important.

  “Okay, yeah. I remember now. The guy said he liked her but she had an attitude problem and he wanted a discount. Which, by the way, I didn’t give him. He was maybe middle aged, brown hair, he had a gut. And real important looking. A Second Order for sure. Um, maybe an Enforcer? I think his name was King something.”

  Draven stood perfectly still, and his breathing stopped for a minute. If he’d had a heartbeat, that would have stopped, too. His voice came out slow and measured. “Kingsley? Was his name Byron Kingsley?”

  Chapter Fifty

  “Yeah, I think. That sounds right, anyway,” Crane said.

  Draven looked at the boy and the boy looked back blankly. Draven’s world began shifting slowly. It all made sense now—why Byron had gotten
so upset when Draven had taken that particular sapien from the restaurant, why Byron had the doctor check her out to make sure Draven hadn’t done anything inappropriate to her. The unhealed bites, like on the trip. Byron always hurried because he didn’t like to touch the saps, and Cali had said the man who bit her always hurried. And Byron had sent her to Draven in the hospital, not so Draven could see that she lived, but because he thought Cali had the best sap.

  To be fair, Draven had said he didn’t like her at one point. But he’d also later told Byron he did like her taste. That aside, he couldn’t stand the thought of Cali living her whole life in pain. And even though he believed Byron would never hurt her unnecessarily, he knew that the man had no feelings when it came to humans. Draven couldn’t stop thinking about the story of Byron killing the first sapien, the girl he crushed in his ignorance. Maybe it had never happened again, and maybe it never would. But perhaps...

  “So I helped you out, I guess,” Crane said, leaning on the counter and swaying his hips slightly. “When do I get my payment?”

  “When your information gets me my payment,” Draven said, and he turned and left, trailing his hand back to swipe his ID off the counter as an afterthought.