by Steve Liszka
Taylor shrugged.
“They don’t even know what the man stands for. No doubt he wants to destroy the very lifestyles these young people enjoy so much, yet they are out celebrating him.”
Milton shook his head, “And these kids are supposedly the future of the country. Well we can’t have that. That’s why I’m pulling some of our units out of the Old-Town and back into the City. There’s no point being on guard out there when this sort of lunacy is going on right under our feet. By the way,” he said dropping his voice, “yours would be one of the units located in the City, so you wouldn’t even have to go back there again.”
He gave Taylor time to let the words sink in, “So what do you say, is it a deal?”
Taylor knew he shouldn’t do it, but he asked the question that had been formulating in his mind anyway.
“Does your wife have anything to do with this offer sir?”
Milton gave him a puzzled look, “My wife? No…should she?”
Taylor quickly shook his head, “No, its just that I recall telling her about my plans for the gym some time ago.”
Milton thought about it for a moment, “I imagine she must have told me about your wishes, otherwise how else would I know?”
Just as he was beginning to think Milton was clueless to the affair, he was surprised to see his mood change once more.
“Speaking of my wife, how are your classes with her going?”
He had now become the friendly inquisitor.
Taylor struggled to find a satisfactory answer, “Very good thank you. She’s taken to it really well.”
Milton smiled, “Excellent, it’s good that a woman knows how to defend herself don’t you think?”
“Definitely, sir.”
“So she’s good at this goo-jitsu then?”
“Jiu-jitsu,” Taylor corrected him, “and yes, she’s very good, a natural in fact.”
“Then I must get her to show me some of her moves. In the six months you’ve been teaching her, she must have learnt an awful lot.”
“Of course,” Taylor answered, knowing she was unfamiliar with even the most basic techniques.
“Well, all I can say is that she loves your classes, so if you have the same effect on your other clients, I’m sure this business of yours will do very well.”
Taylor was unsure why he said what he did next. Maybe it was to avert the conversation away from Charlotte,
“Do you mind if I ask you another question?”
Milton opened his hands wide apart, “Ask me anything.”
“I realise this must sound stupid,” he said, already feeling stupid, “but why, when ClearSkies already runs the country, do you bother keeping the government in power. Why don’t you just get rid of them altogether?”
Milton laughed. Not just a quick chuckle, but a sustained belly laugh, confirming to Taylor the idiocy of his question.
“I’m sorry,” he finally said, sounding apologetic, but still laughing, “it’s just that I haven’t been asked that question for a long time.”
Just as quickly has it had appeared, the smile fell away from his face, “The government are our best customers. As long as that remains the case, we shall continue to be friends.”
He prised himself out of Mason’s seat, signalling the end of the meeting,
“Have a think about my offer and hopefully we’ll see you back here tomorrow morning.”
He held out his hand for Taylor to shake and smiled the warmest of smiles, “I’m sure you’ll make the right decision.”
Chapter 18
Charlotte’s finger barely made contact with his skin as it traced the curve of Taylor’s spine. She was less than half way down when he arched backwards like he’d just received an electric shock. Childish laughs quickly followed.
“I told you,” she said, “nobody can make it all the way.”
He rolled onto his back and gave her an accusing stare, “How many people have you done this to exactly?”
“Only you, lover. You know there was never anyone else.”
He pulled her on top of him and gave her naked breast a playful bite. Charlotte responded with a quick, business-like kiss on the lips, then with both hands, pushed against his chest so her body pulled away from his. His eyes dropped to admire her breasts; one of them still having a tiny red mark on it where his teeth had been seconds before. Even with gravity working against them, they somehow maintained their immaculate form.
She rolled her eyes, “Haven’t you had enough yet?”
“How could I ever have enough of you?” he answered, mimicking the actions of a lovesick teenager.
He tried to pull her closer towards him but she locked her elbows, refusing to be drawn in.
“You’re strong,” he said, “I wouldn’t like to see you in a fight.”
He remembered his conversation with her husband and realised he should have said something before. But that was the nature of their relationship; sex always took place first, the familiarities came later.
“You know, when I spoke to Freddie earlier he started asking all these questions about our classes. It made me think you were right. Perhaps he does suspect us.”
Charlotte broke free of his grip and sat up, drawing her knees to her chest. She stayed in the same position until Taylor appeared next to her, enveloping her in the bed sheet.
“I told you,” she whispered. Her body rocked back and forth like she was sitting in a boat with a lazy wind on its sails.
Taylor tightened his grip around her shoulder, “Don’t worry, I’ve already thought about it. Just in case he asks, I’m going to teach you some really basic moves; stuff that look impressive but is dead easy to learn. It won’t take much to convince him you know what you’re doing.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she snapped, “it’s too late for that. That was his way of warning you.”
She pivoted around so they faced each other.
“Do you remember you said you’d protect me if anyone tried to hurt me?”
Taylor nodded, “Of course.”
“Did you mean it?”
“You know I did. But that’s not going to happen. I know the sort of men who are capable of hurting people and Freddie doesn’t fit the bill. I saw a different side to him today… I’m beginning to think he’s not who I thought he was.”
Charlotte looked disappointed, “So he’s taken you in has he? That’s not surprising, he’s good at making weak people follow him.”
Instinctively, Taylor lunged forward, squeezing both of her arms by the wrists. His anger made his features contort.
“What did you call me?”
“Nathan please,” she pleaded, “you’re hurting me.”
As quickly as he had grabbed her, he relaxed his grip.
“I’m sorry. It’s just you’re the second person to call me that this week. The other one’s dead now.”
It was Charlotte who was now doing the comforting.
“Why? What happened?”
“He was a friend of mine a long time ago, we found him at the co-op. He called me a traitor, told me I was weak and then my men shot him. I should have done something about it but I stood there and watched it happen… Perhaps you were both right, maybe I am weak.”
He tried to turn away from her gaze but Charlotte placed both her hands on his face and turned his head towards her.
“No Nathan, you’re wrong, I was wrong. You’re not weak, you’re a good man doing a difficult job in an impossible situation. I’m proud of you for what you do, I really am.”
He was temporarily lost for words. No one had told him they were proud of him since his mother had died. She would kiss him and tell him she was proud if he put his litter in the bin or was nice to the other kids at school; little things she considered important. He could never recall his father saying it, not even when he won tournament after tournament, beating one boy after another. Not even at the end, when he knew they would never see each other again.
“You know I c
ould be wrong,” he said, his mood suddenly upbeat. He spoke again before she could answer,
“Freddie said something else that makes me think he may be none the wiser.”
Charlotte looked intrigued, “Go on.”
“After the raid, I went back and told them I was leaving, that I was quitting SecForce.”
Her eyes widened, “You’re leaving?”
“That was the plan, but then he made me a crazy offer. He said if I stay on until the wall is complete, he’ll help finance my gym.”
He was surprised to see the excitement he had briefly witnessed in her face disappear.
“What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happy for me, for both of us. This way I get my gym and it means Freddie doesn’t suspect anything.”
Her gaze remained unmoved,
“He could just be playing you,” she replied, “building your dreams up so he can smash them later. It’s the sort of thing Freddie would do.”
Taylor tried not to become annoyed by Charlotte’s pessimistic thinking, even though he could concede the possibility made sense.
“Maybe you’re right,” he said, “but it sounded legitimate enough to me. He’s desperate for this wall to be finished, you said that yourself. Sometimes when people are feeling desperate, they do desperate things.”
“So are you going to accept?” her eagerness for an answer betrayed her usual reserved manner.
Taylor shrugged, “I honestly don’t know. It’s an amazing offer, but after what happened at the raid and all the other shit that’s gone down lately, I just don’t know if I’ve got the stomach for it anymore.”
He looked coy, almost embarrassed, when he spoke again, “Would you still be proud of me… if I didn’t go back?”
Charlotte wrapped her arms around him and planted a long, lingering kiss on his lips.
“I’d be proud of you no matter what,” she said, breaking away, “just remember, you turned down the chance to tell Freddie about the co-op. You made a sacrifice for what you thought was right, how many other people would do that?”
“It was hardly a sacrifice, it’s not like I ever wanted to end up in a desk job. That shit just makes you soft, I’ve seen what it’s done to Mason.”
“Either way, you put what you believe in ahead of yourself, and that’s what matters.”
Taylor laughed, “The only thing I believe in is myself. Trusting anybody else is a waste of time.”
“Really?” she asked, not knowing how to react, “Don’t you believe in me?”
He reached forward and pulled her back down to the sheets, kissing her as they descended.
“You’re the only good thing in my life, of course I do.”
Without answering, she burrowed into his chest and hugged him with all her strength.
“What did you mean before,” Taylor asked when she finally relaxed her grip, “when you said you’re not who I think you are?”
Charlotte stared at the ceiling. For the first time since he’d known her, she displayed the merest hint of what he thought may have been awkwardness.
“Nothing really,” she said, “just that there are things about me that you don’t know.”
“Like what?”
She shrugged, “It’s not important.”
Taylor rolled onto his side and stroked her shoulder, his voice softening,
“It is to me.”
Without hesitating, she spoke again, never taking her eyes from whatever point above her they were fixed on.
“Do you remember what it was like in the old days. Before the fences went up?”
He knew that even though she was asking a question, no answer was required of him.
“When the history books look back, they’ll say that before Triage people could live wherever they liked regardless of how much money they had. They’ll say the rich and poor lived in harmony and that where a person was born was no barrier to them succeeding in the world. They’ll call Freddie a monster for doing what he did.”
“Freddie owns the history books,” Taylor butted in, “he can make them say whatever he likes.”
“Things change Nathan. That’s one thing history has taught us.”
She continued speaking as if Taylor’s interruption had never taken place.
“The truth is, it’s always been this way, it’s just that they had a better system of disguising how things really worked backed then… My parents believed in that myth of people being able to better themselves. They thought that as long as they worked hard enough, they’d get what was owed to them.”
“And did they?”
“You could say that. My father grafted for twenty-eight years in a factory when they laid him off before he could receive his pension. Funnily enough no one else was willing to employ him after that. As for my mother, she spent her life going from one minimum-wage job to another. When my father got the sack she had to double her hours just to keep me at school.”
Taylor gave her a confused look, “But I thought-,”
Charlotte had pre-empted his words, “The university used to give a handful of scholarships out every year to the poor kids like me, I never would have been able to study there otherwise. But even then, my parents still had to find enough money to help pay my bills and accommodation.”
“Shit,” Taylor said, “I had no idea.”
He thought about it for a moment, “So that’s how you met Freddie?”
“Not quite, that came later. See, the funny thing was, even though I worked my ass off to get there, once I begun my studies, I realised just how pointless it all was.”
“Yeah?” Taylor asked cynically, “and how did you work that out?”
“Well,” she replied, “there I was debating market strategies with the cream of society when my parents could barely pay for a loaf of bread. It didn’t make sense anymore… That was when I decided to take what I’d learnt and put it into practice…”
She adjusted her position in the bed, keeping her eyes trained on the ceiling.
“You see one thing my studies taught me was that making money is all about supply and demand. If you had a product that was in high enough demand, you could charge as much as you liked for it, and that’s exactly what I did.”
Taylor sat up, “I’m not following, what could you provide?”
Charlotte looked down at her own naked body. At the same time her hand motioned from the top of her breast to the soles of her feet, the way the pretty girls on the game-shows did when they were showing off the prizes that could be won by the contestants.
With Taylor slow to register what she was saying, she felt the need to continue,
“I was a valuable commodity. You’ve got to remember I’m from the lost generation; there were hardly any other women out there. The young men I came into contact with, the rich young men that is, wanted company and I was there to provide it for them.”
Inside Taylor’s head, the penny finally dropped, “Are you saying you were a prostitute?”
Her gaze met his without the slightest hint of shame, “That’s exactly what I’m saying. And I don’t regret it either. The money I was earning meant I could send enough back to my parents to make sure they could get by. Without it they would have starved like the rest of their neighbours.”
“Did Freddie know about all this when you met him?” he asked, then watched as the smile on her face grew.
“He was my best customer. He also fell for me harder than all the others did. When he proposed to me I only asked for two things in return; the first was that we set up our home here, in this country, and the other was that he looked after my parents. After we wed, he bought them a nice little apartment with a view of Greenacre Park. My mother would sit and look out at the joggers running past the window for hours. It was where the main square is now, before Freddie decided we needed a new city.”
When she finished speaking, Charlotte smiled at Taylor. Her face looked completely relaxed, free from guilt or worry.
“So that’s it, now
you know everything about me.”
Taylor took his time before he spoke again, “You know something, I think you’re incredibly brave.”
Charlotte laughed, “Please Nathan, don’t use words like that for me. I don’t deserve it.”
“Why not? It’s like you said, you made a sacrifice for the things you believe in.”
She shook her head; “I don’t know how many people would regard marrying the most powerful man in the country as a sacrifice. I think I got it pretty easy.”
“You know what I mean,” his voice had grown serious, “at your own expense, you put other people before yourself.”
“If you get the result you were looking for,” she answered, “the cost is always worth it.”
He leant across and kissed her on the forehead, then felt strange for doing so.
“What happened to your parents?”
“They died not long after they moved to the City. My father couldn’t get used to the place. He said everything about it was wrong, even how it smelt. No matter how hard he tried he just couldn’t adapt to his new surroundings. He fell asleep one night and never woke up again. My mother died less than a month later. Her heart was broken without him… You know it’s funny,” she said, then stroked her fingers through Taylor’s hair,
“I did everything I could to get them away from where they were, but it was the City that ended up killing my parents… Isn’t it funny how things work out?”
“Yeah, it is,” he answered thinking about his own history.
After laying in silence for a few cherished minutes, Taylor slowly dragged himself to his feet. In slow motion he stretched his arms over his head, forcing the tiredness from his limbs. Charlotte laughed at his lack of modesty.
“Mind if I jump in the shower before I go?” he asked.
She shook her head, “Be my guest.”
As he walked to the bathroom, Charlotte called out, stopping him in his tracks.
“Did you mean what you said?” she asked, “that you may turn down Freddie’s offer.”
Taylor’s shoulders lifted into a shrug, “Maybe, I just need more time to think it over.”
“Well don’t take too long to decide, he won’t want to be kept waiting,”
