Chương 43

Louis became aware of the vibration before he opened his eyes. The metal beneath him trembled steadily, the motion passing through his shoulders, hips, and the back of his head. One side of his face rested against cold steel. He kept his eyes closed. His mouth was dry, and swallowing pulled pain along the side of his throat where the injector had gone in. The chemical taste remained, stale and medicinal. His stomach cramped. He turned his face toward the floor and retched, but nothing came up.

When the spasm passed, he breathed through his nose and waited for the nausea to ease. He opened his eyes. At first he saw only darkness. Then he made out a low ceiling and pipes above him, wet with condensation. He tried to raise a hand, but the restraint stopped him. His wrists were bound together in front of him with a black plastic restraint. Another secured them to an eyebolt at the base of a steel support. His ankles were secured to a second ring. He turned his head. The movement brought the nausea back.

He retched again, this time bringing up water and bitter acid onto the metal floor and his bare thigh. He looked for Angelique. She sat on the floor with her back against the steel support, one knee bent and the other leg stretched unevenly in front of her. Her wrists were bound in front of her just as his were. A gray shipping blanket covered her shoulders and lap, though it had slipped partly aside. Her hair was loose and tangled, with strands stuck to the side of her neck. After a moment, she looked up at him.

He had never seen her look so unwell. Her face was pale. A bruise marked her jaw, and another darkened the side of her throat. Her lips were dry, and she swallowed with difficulty.

"Louis," she said. Her voice cracked and barely carried. He tried to answer, but his mouth was too dry. He swallowed and tried again.

"Here." Angelique pulled the blanket back over herself with her bound hands. She paused to catch her breath before speaking again.

"Where are we?" He shook his head, winced, and stopped.

"I think we are moving." She exhaled.

"Yes." Something shifted on the other side of the stacked crates. A low curse followed. Both of them turned. Beyond the crates, Gladice pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders and muttered, "For fuck's sake." She sat beneath the pipes with her back against the wall, one knee drawn up and the other leg stretched out. Her bound hands rested in her lap. Louis stared at her.

"You—""Yes," Gladice said.

"I'm here." Angelique gave a weak laugh.

"Are you alright?"

"No," Gladice said.

"But I am very annoyed. That is close, for now." Louis said, "You found us."

"Clearly not well enough." She looked from Louis to Angelique, then around the room.

"We were ahead of them by minutes. Maybe less. Someone in that warehouse had a second route already staged. I should've known."

"You couldn't have."

"I could have. And I didn't. Now we're here." The floor continued to vibrate beneath them. Louis listened to the noises beyond the room. Boots passed outside, then stopped. Metal scraped against metal, followed by the click of a latch. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Wherever this is," he said, "it's not the city." Gladice shook her head, winced, and stopped.

"No. I think we are on a ship." Angelique shifted against the wall.

"Where?"

"Hard to say." Gladice rested her head against the steel wall and closed her eyes.

"I heard engines like this when they moved me to the outer harbor for off-site training. If I had to guess, I'd say somewhere in the Delta." Louis frowned.

"Why?" Gladice opened one eye and looked at him.

"Because the underworld of the Free City still trades people like produce. Because we were taken alive. Because whoever decided we were worth taking had to get us somewhere they could hold us without worrying about interference." She stopped to catch her breath, then continued.

"And because the Delta is where ships go to disappear." For a few seconds, Louis heard only the engines beneath the floor. He remembered the Delta from the air. A boat could travel for miles without passing a town.

"Do you know who they are?" Angelique asked. Gladice exhaled through her nose.

"Oh, I have guesses."

"Tell us." She opened both eyes and looked at Angelique, then Louis.

"There are factions in New Orleans who have wanted to hurt the Dominion since before the announcement of the state visit. There are local business interests who want the city under their own control and view the Dominion as a competitor. There are criminal networks who deal in anything that can be sold. And there are groups who would pay more than you want to imagine for a live Collins and a live Bourbon to trade as leverage against their governments." She stopped to breathe.

"And that is before we get to the possibility of foreign actors. So no. I don't know who they are. Only that they are very good at what they do." Louis swallowed, and the soreness in his throat returned.

"Are we going to be sold?" Gladice looked at him.

"Not unless someone pays very well. I'm afraid we are more valuable as bait." Angelique's bound hands tightened around the blanket. Louis said, "My father will come for us." Gladice laughed.

"Of course he will. But these people know that. They are counting on it. That is the point." She shifted against the wall, winced, and continued.

"The only question is whether we will still be alive when he finds us." Louis stared at his legs. The skin along his arms prickled. His heart began to pound. He drew a slow breath and forced his breathing to steady. Gladice tried to sit higher against the wall, then gave up with a curse. Angelique leaned toward her, but the restraint pulled tight and stopped her.

"No need. Stay still."

"You're freezing." Gladice shook her head.

"We are all freezing. I am just better dressed for it." The blanket had slipped below one shoulder, exposing the bruise above her collarbone and the bare skin below it. She was breathing fast and shallowly.

"They took our clothes," Angelique said quietly.

"Yes." Gladice looked down at her bound hands.

"And they took samples. And they tied us up. And now they are moving us wherever the hell they have decided to move us. Anything else?" Angelique looked away. Louis said, "How long have we been out?"

"I think I've been awake longer than you. But not by much."

"Hours?"

"Maybe. I don't know." Gladice closed her eyes again.

"I'm sorry, Louis." He stared at her.

"What for?"

"For not getting there fast enough." Her voice barely carried.

"For letting them take you twice in one day." Louis looked down at the restraint around his wrists. No one came. The light did not change, and the vibration continued beneath the floor. After a while, Louis began to shiver. As the drug wore off, his thoughts became clearer. That made it harder to keep the warehouse out of his mind: the gunfire, the cut clothing, the medical tray, Angelique bound to the pipe. Gladice broke the silence.

"I need to piss." Angelique looked at her.

"Then you'll have to do it where you are."

"Thank you, I had worked that part out myself. I just thought someone should acknowledge that this is a very undignified moment in an already undignified day."

"You always find a way to make everything about you, don't you?" Angelique said.

"I wish I could. If this were about me, I would have been able to stop it." Gladice pulled a corner of the blanket free from beneath her leg and wrapped it around her shoulders. She planted her bound hands on the deck and tried to get onto her knees. Pain forced her back against the wall. She tried again. This time she turned onto her knees and pressed her bound hands against the wall. She pushed herself into a crouch and rested her forehead against the metal until her balance steadied.

Her urine splashed onto the deck. Angelique looked away. Louis kept his eyes on the deck in front of him, feeling ashamed and helpless and also, ridiculously, grateful that Gladice had not asked for help this time. She stayed against the wall until her breathing slowed. Then she pulled the blanket over her legs and lowered herself back to the deck.

"You alright?" Louis asked.

"No," she said.

"But I am not worse." Angelique said, "You shouldn't have moved." Gladice looked at her.

"Would you have preferred that I piss myself?"

"Don't be vile."

"I am not being vile." Gladice settled back against the wall.

"I am simply no longer pretending we are in a position to afford modesty." They fell silent. The engine continued to vibrate through the deck.