Patrols protecting a brothel? She was in the right place.
All this talking was just going to slow them down.
Kick some booty, oh boy.
As they approached the facility, her armor’s thermal and UV optics easily picked out the individual guards. There were two up front at the brothel’s entrance and a few on the roof, eyes keenly surveying the building’s approaches as they held their weapons ready.
The building was a wide, three-story structure set back into a low hillside. Halfway up the hill, protected by high rock walls, was a landing pad with a small cargo ship and a pair of shuttles. She suspected that the research lab section of the building was set in the hillside. Why would Harken would bother fronting this facility with a brothel? she wondered.
As she studied the building, a third shuttle passed through the atmospheric shield over the landing pad and landed. She cycled her vision to a higher zoom level and watched men and women, clearly dressed for a night of hard partying and sex, exit the shuttle and walk to a well-lit doorway. Of course, the well-to-do executives who ran the mining rigs—and anyone else with good money—would want a nice place to spend the evening, away from the mining towns where the regular workers socialized.
It gave them cover for whatever else they were up to—like kidnapping girls.
Kylie crouched low behind a pair of crates and watched the guards, timing their movements; she wasn’t about to blindly trust her armor’s stealth tech and walk right up in the open. Every fifteen minutes, one of the guards would walk along the roofline to the far side of the building and survey the perimeter, leaving a blind spot that would allow her to sneak up the hillside to the landing pad.
Kylie bit her lip as she thought it over.
Kyle piggybacked on the brothel’s public Link access and reached out to the Dauntless.
She held her breath as she waited for someone to respond. It was Rogers.
That piqued Kylie’s interest.
Modified and synthesized for the perfect experience. Kylie wondered if they worked for Harken of their own freewill, or if the research lab subverted kidnapped girls and turned them into willing sex toys. There was always a market for that sort of thing.
When the guard moved away again, Kylie crept toward the side of the building. She used the crates for cover and then a parked ATV sitting near a side entrance. Laying on the seat was a black supply bag with an ID tag. Curious, Kylie took both and hurried along toward the building.
Kylie didn’t respond as she scampered up the hill and crouched behind the cargo ship’s front landing strut. There was a locked door nearby and a wide window beside it. From her position on the pad, she could tell the door led deeper under the hill, probably where she wanted to go. Unfortunately, there was no handle.
Marge sounded annoyed.
Kylie looked across the landing pad to the door the group from the shuttle had gone through. A sign over the entrance read Harken’s House of Harlots.
Seriously?
Kylie laughed to herself. Did she somehow get a prim and proper AI?
Kylie backtracked partway down the hillside and came to the balcony. She jumped over the railing and through the grav shield. Her suit registered breathable atmosphere, and she set her rebreather to pull fresh oxygen.
There was a soft snick sound, and Kylie tried the handle. The door slid right open.
Kylie didn’t want to think of what that sort of ‘rescue’ that would have involved and instead focused on the room she had walked into. The décor was gaudy, to say the least, with a vibrating bed and beaded curtains covering a closet and the bathroom.
All the latest gadgets and gizmos available to modern humans, and still the most engaging thing was a bed that could vibrate on twenty frequencies. Simple pleasures sometimes really were best.
A pleasant smell managed to get past her rebreather. Kylie’s armor analyzed it, showing a rather potent batch of pheromones that would intoxicate just about anyone, keeping them off their game.
Kylie set her rifle and handguns on the bed, shutting off its vibrator first so they wouldn’t end up on the floor, before shimmying out of the stealth suit, which she lay on the bed beside the w
eapons.
Kylie nodded and pulled off her helmet before pushing aside the beaded curtain in front of the closet. The thing was bigger than her personal quarters on the Dauntless by a long shot. She found the perfect black, skimpy dress with color-changing sequins, a shimmering Paige boy wig that changed color in tandem with the dress., and a pair of black, thigh-high boots
Seemed like Momma was going to get a new pair of shoes. What better way to blend in at a brothel?
Kylie hid her armor and weapons in drawer at the bottom of the closet and dressed quickly. The tall boots went up under the dress, so she hid one of pistols into the top of her right boot. It made the boots rub together and squeak as she walked, but that was the sort of thing people liked in a place like this.
She piled her short, brown hair onto her head and pulled the wig over the top. It was loose at first, but it sensed her skin’s warmth and tightened, its edges adhering to her skin. Handy. She wasn’t the best at makeup, Nadine usually took care of that for her, but Kylie sat at the mirror and managed to throw on some shiny red gloss and simple mascara.
She looked like a different person as she sauntered out of the bedroom into a small hall. The gun between her thighs made her throw her hips, altering her walk—hopefully in a sexy fashion. Kylie heard music, laughter, and a few squeals of delight from down the hall. She followed the sounds, taking a few corners until she entered a luxurious lounge. Overhead, twinkling chandeliers cast low light on the occupants who stood around the room and reclined in deep sofas.
Kylie had spent a lot of time in Maverick’s less-than-savory establishments. Generally, they were shady clubs with dark corners for grungy sex and whatever else the patrons wanted to get up to. But even for catering to a better clientele, this place seemed over-the-top. They must’ve been playing a new angle that Kylie wasn’t privy to.
Interesting.
On the far side of the room was a door for wait-staff. If there was a way deeper into the facility, it was through there. Kylie worked her way through the sitting area as the men and women she passed—lounging on cushions and drinking at the bar—undressed her with their seedy eyes. She played with the exquisite crystal necklace she had picked up from the room’s wardrobe and flashed them some sexy glowers.
She was almost at the rear door, when someone tapped her shoulder. Kylie slowly turned around and came face-to-face with a beautiful woman whose hair cascaded around her face in long, golden ringlets. She was completely sheathed in black latex, and her waist was cinched tight in a black corset, but it was her eyes that held Kylie’s attention—the strangest, most pale, twinkling blue Kylie had ever seen.
“Boss wants a good time,” the woman’s voice purred. “A few girls are being sent up to her rooms and I know she’ll love the look you have going on. She loves the classy type.” Her eyes narrowed. “Wait, I haven’t seen here before. Who are you?”
“I’m new, came in on the last shuttle,” Kylie pulled her shoulders back and placed her hands on her hips. With a flick of her finger, she triggered her own batch of pheromone spray she always kept in case of emergencies.
The woman took a deep breath. “Mmmm…the guild doesn’t always send us such a lovely find—we usually have to do some work before they look as good as you.” She touched Kylie’s cheek gently with her well-manicured fingers, each with a jewel-encrusted tip. “Gorgeous doesn’t begin to define what you are. A gem in the rough. Ohh…I’m going to enjoy giving you some extra enhancements.” She pushed her breasts into Kylie’s.
Kylie had no idea what the woman was referring to and didn’t want to find out. She knew it would be easy to subdue this woman, but once she did, her cover would be blown. However, going up to some low-life’s room wasn’t exactly something she had time for.
“I’d rather stay here, I think,” Kylie’s hands slid around the woman’s tightly cinched waist, mouth hovering a hair away from her lips, “with you.”
The woman pushed into her, and her tongue flicked out, running over Kylie’s lips before she stepped back. “Later, darling. Harken doesn’t like to be kept waiting. Since she keeps us fed and clothed….”
Harken. Kylie’s heart skipped a beat. “Okay, then, let’s go. I haven’t been up there before, so I might need someone to show me the way.”
The woman held up two key cards. “I wouldn’t dream of letting you up there alone. She has a few of those scientists with her, celebrating some big tech breakthrough. I’ll round up the others, and then we’ll go up…” She walked away, barely able to saunter in the tight skirt that welded her legs together. “What’s your name, anyway?”
“You can call me Ana,” Kylie said with a pleasant smile. She leaned against the wall and waited, jutting her hips out to one side. She just had to be patient. Just had to wait her turn and soon, she’d be with Harken, and she would take her to Lana. Whether she wanted to or not.
Then maybe all of this would be close to being over.
HEAD OF THE SNAKE
STELLAR DATE: 08.46.8947 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Harken’s Brothel/Research Facility, Perseverance
REGION: Scattered Disk, Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
In a total, ten girls were picked, each elegant and glamorous in their own right. However, a certain type of girl was certainly in evidence. Elegant, dressed in long gowns, looking like vid-stars at a showing—in fact, some looked uncannily like a few actresses she had seen in recent vids. In stark contrast, Kylie and her new friend, the Madam of the establishment—Giselle was her name—stuck out from the rest. Giselle was obviously playing to some specific tastes.
They rode an elevator down two levels, and then took a short maglev further into the facility, which triggered Marge to check in.
They got off the maglev car and followed a short corridor to what Kylie assumed where Harken’s quarters. Well, suite would be more accurate. The outer room they were led into had a large, sunken seating area. In the center, a low table held drinks and a circular sofa wrapped around it. The scientists Giselle had mentioned—strangely, all men, and many still wearing their lab coats—were easy to identify, as they spoke nervously while the girls were ushered in.
It couldn’t be the first time these men had been in the company of beautiful women. Kylie wondered what had them so on edge.
Giselle nodded and prodded girls to stand in a line. Hands on their hips, each girl moved seductively in an effort to entice the men and be chosen first. Some tossed their hair, and others puckered their lips, blowing kisses. Kylie didn’t want to be chosen by the scientists, so she didn’t do anything provocative. She was waiting to see Harken—if she was picking a girl tonight—Kylie wanted to be that girl.
The scientists had ended their conversations as the women lined up, and two rose first, then the other four joined them and approached the women with broad smiles—like kids in a candy store. “They really are some of the best we’ve made here. Just as beautiful and lovely can be.”
Proudly, Giselle smiled. “Of course, the girls I keep here are some of our finest stock. It’s important to impress the buyers when they come around. For example, Tyna here loves to please, I think she’d just die if she didn’t have someone to please.” Giselle laughed as she touched Tyna’s chin and the girl nodded emphatically. “The ways she’s been modified to increase your sexual pleasure can�
��t even be described. You have to feel them to believe.”
Kylie finally understood what the brothel was all about. These women were enhanced and modified before being sold as sex slaves to the highest bidder.
That’s what Giselle had meant by giving her extra enhancements. Kylie worried that somewhere in the facility, Lana was undergoing these sorts of modifications…maybe she was even one of these girls, made to look like a famous star, ready to be sold off.
No, Kylie knew that couldn’t be it. That didn’t explain the bounty hunter’s interest. He wasn’t the sort that got sent in on a job like that.
Kylie watched as the scientists paired off with the girls. She was one left of three that hadn’t been chosen. Giselle gave her the stink eye. “I feel like you’re not giving it your all, dear. I thought you’d be number one—not that you were intended for these men, anyway. Still, I wanted to test your curb appeal.”
“I’m glad, these guys weren’t really my type,” Kylie said, and then her ears picked up the sound of the suite’s door sliding open. Harken stepped through. She was dressed in a black A-line dress and a leather bolero. Her heels snapped a staccato rhythm across the floor as she approached Giselle. “Now she looks more my speed.”
“Well, you have high ambitions, don’t you?” Giselle laughed and ran her hands down her torso as she sidled up beside Kylie and whispered in her ear. “If you knew a thing or two about Harken, you wouldn’t want to be chosen. I’m her favorite pet, and what she does….”
Kylie sucked in her breath as Harken drew closer, her cold eyes inspecting them. She held out her hand, and Giselle bent over and kissed it. “Darling, Giselle, you’ve brought me a sampler pack.”
Giselle blushed as Harken took her by the waist and gave her a drawn-out kiss. “I wanted you to be sure that you had the best.”
“As I always do. It’s been awhile since I’ve tasted our wares, but tonight, I have a reason to celebrate.” Harken moved through the remaining girls and inspected each one like they were a piece of furniture. She caressed their breasts, held their waists, and kissed every woman. When Harken had sampled all the others, she approached Kylie, who drew a trembling breath.
Close Proximity - An Aeon14 Space Opera Adventure (Perilous Alliance) Page 22
