I pulled back from her. I had to get away from her before I shot my newfound code of ethics all to pieces! I started to shift out from underneath her, as gently as I could. Her hands drifted to my arms where her fingers molded around the muscles of my biceps and grasped them firmly enough that her nails dug in slightly.
“Oh come on lady!” I breathed out in frustration.
I tried to remove her taloned grasp on one arm, but she held on. I didn’t want to use the force needed to remove her, as I didn’t want to wake her from her restful sleep. Groaning I lay there and put my ethics to the test.
Asia stirred for a moment restlessly and then bolted upright wide-awake. When she did the blanket covering her fell and she gasped snatching it back up, as she quickly realized that she was completely naked beneath the blanket. Her mind quickly left that horror tinged predicament to focus on the leather strap that was bound around her left wrist. The strap was tied off to the bed in a complex not that she doubted there was a fix for other than the slice of a knife. Waking up to find oneself naked and tied to a bed was not a good thing!
Despite the adrenaline pumping through her veins she still felt as weak as a newborn kitten. How would she defend herself? Against who would she be defending herself against?
Scattered thoughts returned to her all jumbled up. She had been running and then the mob had seized her and then…… She swallowed hard remembering, as the door of the room swung open. The sick monster had come for her!
I glanced up from the tray to my very awake patient. She’d moved as far from me, as the cord around her wrist would permit. I set down the tray and slid a knife out before leaning across the bed toward her.
Her eyes darted to the knife in alarm and she strained harder against the tether of the strap. Carefully I slipped the blade of the knife between the leather strap and the skin of her wrist and sliced through the leather binding.
“I didn’t want you to go wondering off on me, while I was gone Asia.” I said softly making direct eye contact with her.
Her eyes flared at the use of her assumed name. I flipped the blade end for end in my hand and offered her the handle of the knife. Her eyes came up to mine in open question of my action.
“Take it.” She did and I drew back from her.
“Now I know you’re thirsty and if you were hungry enough before to dine out on a rat then you’re probably ready to start downing centipedes.” I held out a cup of water and she reached for it so eagerly that she almost dropped the blanket, but she recovered the blanket quickly looking mortified in the process.
“Allow me.” I said tipping the cup of water up to her lips. Dutifully she drank, but kept one eye fixed on me the entire time, as her hand gripped the knife so hard she might have squeezed water out of it. The cup empty I took it away.
“Could I please have some more?” She asked, her voice rough and unused sounding.
Her English was perfect, except for only a slight accent that I liked instantly.
“You certainly may, but we need to space it out some.” I responded in keeping with her perfect manners, but I couldn’t help grin a little at the silliness of having manners in such a setting as this.
It was hot inside the tower and I hadn’t bothered to put a shirt on. I knew how intimidating I could look, especially to a woman fully expecting to have to defend herself against being raped. Her eyes seemed focused on one part of my chest in particular and I glanced down to the area in question. It was the scar I’d gotten from one of my bear skirmishes that hadn’t gone too well for me in the past.
“Where a bear swiped at me.”
Her eyes darted up to mine, as her cheeks pinked knowing that I had caught her looking.
I held out a piece of jerky, “It really is just bear meat. I don’t do the whole consume one’s neighbor thing.”
She kept my gaze for a moment, and then she took the jerky from my fingers. The taste must’ve surprised her, because she started gobbling it down.
“Easy! Don’t eat too fast you’ll hurt yourself! There’s plenty more take your time.” I said gesturing to the tray.
She did slow down some, but it was an effort on her part. An hour passed by like that, a cup of water then a piece of jerky or some other native food I had brought along with me. Her stomach had shrunk and I could tell when she was full after only a few pieces of jerky. She was looking tired again too.
“How would you feel about a little dessert?” I asked pulling a Hershey chocolate bar out from a fold in the covers.
I chuckled, as I saw her eyes light up with yearning and I handed the chocolate bar to her. She said something, as she took the chocolate from me that I didn’t here.
“What?”
“Thank you.” She said, only slightly more audible in tone.
I watched her eat the chocolate bar and had to admit to myself how rare the few times in my life were, when someone had ever thanked me for anything. The other side of that was that I hadn’t done much to deserve a thank you.
She was really enjoying the taste of the chocolate, but in some ways it was much more than that. “It’s nice to taste the way things used to be isn’t it?”
She nodded understanding my meaning. I had been referring to just a brief time before, when a candy bar had been a thing of commonality, with a million gas stations supplying them in never-ending supply, but now they were all but a memory in just a little over two years.
“Probably just tastes good too.” I said watching the relish with which she consumed every morsel of chocolate. She stopped and shocked me by breaking off several chunks in her hand to hold out to me. I stared at her offered hand and what it contained in disbelief.
She was sharing her food half starved as she was, with me, the man holding her captive!
My voice husky sounding I said, “No you eat it. There’s more where that came from.”
She pulled her hand back and I studied her curiously, as she finished off her chocolate. Her gesture had been oddly touching and it led me to a question.
“Are you a Christian?”
She looked up and nodded.
That explained a lot about her. Oddly I wasn’t put off by that like I normally would have been. Instead I found myself wanting to sit and talk with her and discover all I could about her. There was a wealth of knowledge in her eyes that I was fascinated to discover. I wanted to kiss her again so badly! I’d better leave now before I let myself go too far.
I glanced at the blanket she had firmly tucked beneath her arms. Some part of me just wanted to leave her naked for my enjoyment, but she was a person worthy of respect. And respect made me need to offer the basic human need for clothes. I reached down and brought up a pile of clothes, which I dumped on the bed.
“Something here should fit you, if not there’s plenty more that you can go through tomorrow.”
I didn’t miss the look of relief that flashed across her face at the sight of clothes. She liked to be decent. That sort of made her special in a way, as I hadn’t really known any women like that before. The women I had been with were all aware of what beauty they had and they flaunted it to good effect. There had been nothing shy about them and yet it almost seemed like a character trait with Asia.
I wasn’t sure I liked that trait of hers yet or not. It made me want to protect her in some way. Protect her from what? Me? Her hand was fingering the lacy cloth of a shirt that had fallen near her.
She didn’t look up, as she asked, “Am I your captive?”
Quite honestly I responded, “Yes.”
In a way I suppose that she wasn’t, but what I wanted from her wasn’t something she was likely to give freely and as I planned on having her anyway her choice in the matter was gone and thus she was my captive. She seemed to accept the statement of her captivity by me without undue protest.
Glancing up she asked, “If I’m your captive, then why did you give me the knife?”
That was a good question and I quickly searched for a plausible enough answer.<
br />
“Have you ever seen a cat that’s been declawed?”
She nodded.
“There never quite the same again are they? In answer to your question, perhaps I prefer my cats with their claws still attached.”
I got up to leave the room, “Rest now, there will be more food and drink, when you wake up. We’ll talk again tomorrow.”
There seemed to be a certain tension about her, as she stared up at me, as if expecting something to happen.
“Relax honey; nothing is going to happen tonight.”
I turned to leave the room, but her words stopped me, “Are you a Christian?”
“Heck no!” I flatly responded.
“You don’t believe in God?” She asked digging further.
I glanced back before leaving the room, “I didn’t say that.”
I closed the door behind me slightly unsettled by her questions. Why had she wanted to know that? And why had I given her the knife? It certainly didn’t make my conquest of her any easier, as I imagined that she could be quite lethal with a knife.
The best answer I could come up with was that at the time I had simply wanted to take the fear out of her eyes. I rubbed a hand across my eyes in frustration. The woman was messing with me and I was likely going to get myself killed if I didn’t smarten up.
Asia stared at the closed door for a long moment and then she cautiously searched through the pile of clothes. They were all her size. He must’ve looked at the size of her clothes she had been wearing, when he had removed them. Her cheeks stained red at the thought of that.
“Oh God!” She whispered.
What was she going to do?
Quickly under cover of the blanket she dressed, which completely wore her out. She collapsed back against the pillows as several tears slipped out. She was so weak and he was so brutally strong.
“What am I supposed to do against all that strength God?” She whispered out forlornly into the still room.
She glanced down to the knife on the bed beside her. She didn’t for a moment think that cats clawed or un-clawed had anything to do with why he’d given her the knife. She’d watched his eyes drift down to the left, as he’d accessed the creative side of his mind in search for a plausible enough sounding lie.
Why then had he given the knife to her?
He didn’t seem or look such the wild man anymore. He’d shaved and pulled his hair back and it was a little shocking to have to admit to herself how handsome he was. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy to dose up on steroids, but the sight of him with his shirt off! He was a hunk in every sense of the word.
He had saved her. Now why had he done that? Right now she could be sitting in a Code torture cell having her eyes burned out with a red-hot poker or something worse. She’d seen the pictures of the atrocities that had been done to fellow Code Breakers. The pictures were freely posted on the Code’s mainframe for all to see.
If her wild man hadn’t come into the group of human vultures that had seized her like a berserking Viking complete with sword that grim future would’ve been hers by now. Why had he saved her? For himself, that seemed pretty much clear.
She buried her face into the pillows, “Oh God help me!”
Why wasn’t he even now raping her? What kind of rapist nursed its victims back to health?
Why had he given her the knife? It was a bit much to risk for even an extreme risk taker, which he seemed to be. In some ways he almost seemed decent. He no doubt had her Code drives, which meant to some degree she had to work with him and she cringed at the thought of what that could mean.
Breaking the Code was worth every sacrifice she could make, even herself. Oh she wished there was another way! Her head lifted off the pillows, as the dim outlines of a plan of action began to emerge within her consciousness.
“No that wouldn’t work and besides I don’t have the guts for it!”
Her spoken words didn’t seem to matter, as the plan remained highlighted in her brain. The plan could accomplish two things at once, but she could lose far more than just her body being violated against her will.
She couldn’t do it!
She wouldn’t do it!
To follow the plan laid out in her mind meant to sacrifice everything. She sensed that she was denying the Divine and traveling down a path of her own choosing in terms of her stubbornness not to accept the plan. That was something she’d sworn that she would never do.
Crying brokenly into the pillows she stuttered out between sobs, “Alright I’ll do it, but please work on him! He scares me! All of this scares me! Oh God this isn’t fair! I’m not happy with this!”
On a keening sob she wailed out softly, “But I’ll do it! Oh God help me, I’ll do it!”
Sleep came in the midst of the tears and she was asleep and at peace without really knowing that it had occurred.
Chapter Seven
Option B
The door opened and I watched Asia hobble out. I leaped out of my chair toward her. I had completely forgotten about her ankle. I cursed softly; as I noted the pain it caused her to walk.
She didn’t draw back from my approach, which was surprising. Some part of me expected to see my own knife being used to disembowel me, but she let me swing her up into my arms without protest. I sat her down in the chair at the table, as I got down to my knees. Gently, I brought her leg up. Her ankle was only swollen slightly, but I felt around the joint carefully just to make sure the damage wasn’t worse.
“It’s just sprained not broken.” I said glancing up.
I was captured by the look in her eyes, as she watched me feel at her ankle. Her eyes seemed to peer into my soul and uncomfortably I looked back down.
“I saw some athlete tape a few floors up. I’ll be right back with it.” I said hurriedly getting up and leaving the room.
I found the tape in short order and made my way back down to Asia. She was sitting, as I had left her waiting patiently. She seemed oddly surrendered in some way that I couldn’t place. It was actually kind of unsettling.
Her ankle taped up securely I started to rise, when the tips of her fingers grazed my cheek, “Thank you.” She said softly.
There she was with the nice manners again.
“You’re welcome.” I said briefly before turning away.
Her nice manners made me feel like scum. All I did was daydream about what I wanted to do with her intimately. She in return continued to thank me and offer to share her food with me. If she wasn’t careful someone would take advantage of her kindness.
Who was I kidding! I was that someone and knowing that made me feel oddly guilty. I got out what food I had to offer along with water and we started to eat in silence.
For being a woman she didn’t talk much. I found myself wanting her to speak more, which was weird. Typically that was what I most wanted to fast-forward through. I stifled a groan. She was driving me crazy with the way she was licking the chocolate off her fingers. She’d said something.
“What?” I asked, blinking in an attempt to refocus some corner of my intellect from where my mind had been concentrated.
“You said we were going to talk today.” She repeated herself cautiously.
I came fully back to reality, “Yes, I did.”
I reached down and pulled the small drives out of a pocket and set them down on the table between us. Her eyes rose to mind and as usual I couldn’t really tell what she was thinking. I didn’t like that.
“I used to work, as an agent for a highly clandestine type of organization if you will. Needless to say I did something that earned me exile to a remote island off the coast of Alaska, where I’ve been for the last five years alone. I had no knowledge of this Code’s takeover of the world, until members of this agency came to visit me. They, like you, want this Code broken and the world restored, as it was before the Code took over, along with all the freedoms and other such nonsense. Anyway they’ve been unsuccessful in their attempts to break the Code, but they have the resources to
do it and to implement a strike back at the people behind the Code itself, which is where you come in. They know you hacked into the Code and that you possess the abilities to break it given the right equipment. However, they thought a plan to rescue you from the city was shear suicide and doomed to failure, which is when they thought of me, the crazy war hound left in the closet to rot. And here I am. I am to take you back to my island, where you will find the equipment and the safety you need to work on and break the Code. You’ll be there for up to a year, while the agency collaborates a global strike against the Code. The year off of any serious activity is also supposed to lure the Code people into a false sense of security or something like that. The battle won, the Code and its masters vanquished, everyone’s happy and they start manufacturing candy bars again and selling cheap rotgut food at fast food restaurants all over the nation, as everyone tries to put out of their memory how they almost ate great uncle Fred or as the case may be for some, did. Then judging by my own experience of the way politicians work, I’m sure that with so much freedom stealing, regulation will be put into place to make sure something like this never happens again. The weight of those oppressive regulations will in turn ensure that it will happen again, as some bright boy or girl out there gets the entirely unoriginal idea to play God, because they know what’s best for everyone, which is just a dark outward delusion best put in that they want everyone to worship and adore cute little evil minded them, even if they have to arrange it at the expense of torture, as they make everyone’s lives a living hell.”
A slight smile curved Asia’s full lips, “A little sarcastic don’t you think?”
“Being the half crazy person in the room I’m allowed at least two half-baked paranoid conspiracy notions a day before my medications kick in.”
She laughed softly and I found myself wondering how I could make her do it again. She was looking at me in all seriousness now.
Agent in the Dark (The Agents for Good) Page 5
