The Saffron Malformation

by Walker, Bryan

  Ryla sat thinking for a long moment. Finally she asked, “What’s it like?”

  “What?”

  “I mean… you were with him.”

  Rain nodded and smiled sly. “Oh, that… well in that there’s only one way for you to know. Cause I can’t tell you.” Ryla looked away and Rain added, “Except to say that it was very nice.”

  “You enjoyed it?”

  Rain nodded and answered with simple honesty, “Yes.”

  “Like you enjoy Arnie?”

  “Differently. That’s the other thing.” Ryla looked at her and she continued. “You may enjoy your boyfriend, but does he enjoy you?”

  Ryla was quiet for so long Rain thought the conversation over when she finally asked, “So how did you know which to choose? If you enjoyed them both, I mean, why not Quey instead of Arnie?”

  Rain chewed her lip slightly and sighed. “I admit that I could have chosen one as easily as the other but what it came to was that I tried to push them both away. Living the way I was it was hard enough to have Leone to worry about losing, I didn’t want someone else. So I pushed and when I did Quey let me go.” She shrugged, “Arnie didn’t.”

  Ryla sat for a moment, thinking.

  “Come on,” Rain said, standing and extending her hand.

  “Where?”

  “We’re going to make you lovely.”

  Ryla looked up at her and said, “I don’t think it’s really a date.”

  Rain smiled with a hint of a laugh and agreed, “Not officially, but a girl never lets a chance to dress pretty pass her by.”

  They spent an hour in Ryla’s room, give or take, where Rain helped her with her makeup, just a touch here and there as an accent. After that Ryla sat on the bed while Rain’s fingers danced through her hair, braiding the strands around the crown of her head and then hanging them down in the back and at her temples making her look like a princess. They kept the outfit simple, a slinky black dress with a V-neck that hugged her curves. Rain looked Ryla over thoughtfully for a moment then reached out and adjusted her breasts until they sat high and close on her chest.

  “What I wouldn’t give to manage a bit of cleavage,” Rain said, looking from Ryla’s chest to her own reflection in the mirror.

  “Why?” Ryla asked.

  Rain looked at her and shrugged. “I suppose because I don’t have any.”

  “I could make you some,” Ryla offered.

  Rain laughed a bit. “I’m sure you could, but that sort of thing isn’t for me. I have what I have.”

  Ryla looked at herself in the mirror. “I don’t have much, maybe I should make some for me.”

  “You’re fine,” Rain assured her. “More than.” Ryla decided to trust her in this matter and let it go.

  They returned to the elevator and pressed 1. It was a short ride and when they stepped out Rain spotted Quey sitting alone in the Restaurant with a plate of meat, potatoes and vegetables in front of him. She took Ryla’s hand and walked with her to where Quey was sitting. He looked up as they approached and his eyes widened as he scanned Ryla. He swallowed and said, “Wow, look at you.”

  Ryla smiled slightly.

  “She wanted to play a bit of dress up,” Rain said and she gave him a look as she said, “You know, like girls do?”

  He nodded to her, understanding her meaning and took a sip of his ice tea. His eyes scanned her again, tracing the line of her hips and lingering on the swells of flesh peeking out from her low neckline. “Well I do believe you did a fine job. So you two lovely ladies gunna join me or you gunna leave me to eat here all by my lonesome?”

  “Actually,” Rain said, “I’m looking for Arnie.”

  “He’s in the game room with Reggie and Nat, last I saw. How about you?” he asked Ryla. “You should try some of this,” he slid his plate closer to her.

  “No,” she said. “But I’ll sit.”

  “Good,” he answered simply.

  Rain left Ryla sitting across from Quey and smiled as she hurried into the other room where she found Arnie, Reggie and Natalie shooting pool. She took Arnie's hand and tugged.

  “What?” he asked and when he looked at her she gave him a sly smile, her eyes saying everything in a single look. “I think I must take my leave,” he said to the others and let her lead him away.

  She wouldn’t say a word on the elevator ride to the third floor, or as they passed through the main room and down the hall to their bed. She closed the door and slipped off her clothes.

  “Whatever I did right, you’ll have to let me know so I can do it again tomorrow.”

  Still she said nothing. All the talking she’d done with Ryla about loving him and the like had tickled her in that special way and she wasn’t the sort to waste that feeling. She lifted her arms over her head and danced toward him, swaying her hips like a belly dancer. She could tell his heart had quickened and she smiled as she shoved him back onto the bed, then she continued her dance, spinning slowly, her eyes finding him with lustful intent. Trembling with excitement he hurried out of his clothes, tossing them aside and rested naked on his elbows, watching her and throbbing. She smiled and knelt beside the bed. He threw his head back and sighed as her mouth settled around his cock, hot and wet and moving slowly.

  “I don’t know what’s gotten into you,” he said.

  “You,” she said as she climbed on top of him. “I love you,” she told him as she sat back and slid him inside her. He groaned and she said, “I want to make you feel good.”

  Her hips began to roll and she smiled as she watched him. She knew what he liked and that’s what she gave him, though she also knew what would finish him off and that’s what she held back. He tried to roll her over, tried to thrust beneath her and she stopped him. “You’ll get it,” she told him. “When I give it to you.”

  She felt his excitement pulse through his body as she made him wait. “Not yet. Not yet. Not yet,” she repeated as she felt her own excitement bloom and then finally rush through her. After that she slowed again and watched him squirm with desire until he finally said, “Please.”

  “Okay,” she said, slowing to a stop. He threw her onto her back settled on her. She watched his face as he thrust into her over and over with growing ferocity. It hurt a bit, given her size it was easy for him to go to deep but she knew he liked it so she ignored it and watched his face until he thrust one final time and burst. She hugged him with her legs and arms and whispered, “I love you,” into his ear.

  “I love you,” he repeated and then he nuzzled her neck. He tried to roll away but she held him.

  “Don’t leave yet,” she told him and so he rested on top of her, drained and softening inside her.

  Rain caressed the back of his neck and head until he fell asleep.

  Later that night, after a very pleasant evening with Quey, Ryla tried to go back to her room and let boyfriend satisfy her but what Rain had said was true. It wasn’t the same, and she’d known it, hell it was the reason she built Jacob in the first place. Loneliness. For years she thought she was immune to it, seeing as how she’d lived so long on her own without a bout of it. What Quey’s arrival showed her was that she was mistaken. She’d been lonesome all right, she just hadn’t known anything else.

  She sat near the edge of her bed, knees drawn against her chest, staring into space and thinking for what must have been hours because when she finally stood and went to the door the first bits of daylight were glowing pale in the windows. She snatched up one of her slips, a light blue one, and tossed it over herself on the way out the door. She was in the main room, heading toward the hallway past the kitchen when there was a small ping and a message appeared along the bottom of every screen. Analysis concluded, it read and Ryla knew that the tests she was running on Blue Moons mainframe network were finished. She stood looking down the hallway for a split, at the door where she could imagine Quey sleeping peacefully on the bed, then turned and hurried to the elevator.

  Home is Where the Danger Is


  Rachel and Ryla stood silently in the elevator, riding up to the third floor where the others were waiting, gathered around the kitchen table. Rachel had meant to use the time to gather her thoughts, to figure a way of explaining what she and Ryla had discovered but before she had time they were standing by the table with seven sets of eyes watching and waiting. In each she could see the hope for good news they were about to shatter.

  “Tell us something good,” Quey said as he sat, setting a fresh cup of coffee down in front of him.

  “The report Natalie and I were working on came out ahead of schedule. It was both comprehensive and detailed,” Ryla answered.

  After a brief moment Reggie laughed, “Think that about answers our question on how the hacking’s going.”

  Quey sighed. “There’s a snag then?”

  “More like a ‘torn to shreds,’” Rachel said solemnly.

  Ryla took a breath and spoke, rocking slightly on her heels as she did. “The universal network is off line completely. From what we could gather the connection is made manually from Blue Moon’s headquarters. Additionally, Richter Crows terminal is disconnected from all networks unless he is sending a message.”

  “So what’s that mean?” Leone asked, resting his hand on Rain’s shoulder.

  “It means we’re fucked,” Arnie told him.

  Ryla went on, as Rachel couldn’t seem to muster any words. “It means in order to send a message from his address to Blue Moon we would have to wait for him to connect to the network and send it before he disconnected again. Also, he would be aware of the hack.”

  “And what about the universal network?” Natalie asked, “Can we do anything with that.”

  “He never connects to both networks simultaneously,” Ryla informed them. “There are required updates that must be fulfilled to keep suspicion off the planet and in order to meet them he first connects to the planetary network and gets the updates for the universal network. Then he disconnects from the planetary network and engages the universal network. Then he updates the universal feed and downloads the planetary updates from the UN. Then he disconnects from the UN again and relinks to the Planets Network. Then he disconnects completely. It’s an inefficient way of meeting the uplink requirements, probably takes the better part of a day, but it does keep his personal terminal isolated and the universal network unreachable from the planetary one.”

  Everyone seemed to slump in their chairs a little.

  “So there’s no way to broadcast to the universal network?” Quey asked.

  “Not without accessing it directly,” Ryla said.

  “Yeah, but that’s on the fucking moon,” Reggie said. “So no.”

  “There must be a way…” Arnie said, trailing off.

  “There is,” Rain said.

  Eyes found her.

  “Richter Crow’s terminal.”

  “Little girl, you must have a death wish or somethin’,” Reggie said, and Rain looked at him. “Take a look around you, this look like the sort of expert force can just break into Blue Moon headquarters and start-”

  Rain shook her head, “We won’t have to.” She looked around the table and told them, “The master terminal isn’t in Blue Moon, it’s at his house.”

  There was a contemplative moment.

  “You sure?” Rachel asked.

  Rain nodded, “I’ve seen it, hell I’ve used it. Where do you think I got all that encrypted data? I mean, with what he has going on, is it any wonder he keeps everything close? You really think he can trust other people with guarding this sort of knowledge?”

  “And the house isn’t guarded?” Quey asked.

  “It has a security system that’s wired into a Blue Moon outpost ten minutes up the road or so, but none of that’ll matter. I grew up in that house.”

  “Rain you can’t,” Arnie began and she rested her hand on his, silencing him.

  “There anyone else who can?” she asked and looked around the table.

  “I could,” Leone said.

  “No!” she snapped and spun on him. “You’re not going anywhere near that place.”

  Leone’s face twisted with anger, “But it’s okay for you?” he snapped. “You know what he’s going to do if he finds you?” Rain looked at him, stunned into silence—something that’s only happened on a rarity of occasions before. “He’ll feed you to Stone and you know it. At least with me he’s not… I mean he might actually let me live.”

  Rain looked away from him. “I’ve handled him before, I can handle him again.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure that’s what mom thought too.” Her eyes snapped to him. He could see the hurt behind them but he didn’t care. “Yeah,” he continued. “All the times she should have taken us and ran and never looked back but she thought she could ‘handle him.’”

  “You don’t know anything ab-”

  “I know what you told me,” he interrupted. “And you told me enough so as I can make the pieces fit.”

  Arnie gripped her hand and said, “He’s right. It’s crazy, you trying to get in there on your own.”

  “I don’t see another way,” she said.

  “That’s cause we haven’t looked yet,” Quey answered. “But we will. Preferably at one that ends with a bullet in him and all the brood as well.”

  The look he got from those around the table was one of uncertainty.

  “That’s a mighty tall order,” Reggie said.

  “Unrealistic I know, but I mean to do my best to fill it.”

  “You don’t mean that,” Rain said.

  “Don’t I?” Quey asked with a glare Rain didn’t recognize. “Can’t fathom how anyone at this table wouldn’t. I for one am sick of dead ends and hopeless causes and being blocked at every turn. Sick of being hunted because a rich man sees me as a threat to some greater wealth.”

  At that Quey stood and walked to the elevators.

  “He’s losin it,” Reggie said solemnly.

  “We have things to do,” Rachel said. “Rain,” she continued, turning to the girl, “You and Leone should work on remembering everything you can that might be useful about the layout of the house. I think Ryla has a design program you can use, maybe make up some blueprints or at least a map.”

  Rain nodded once, it was clear her mind was elsewhere.

  “If it comes to it,” she went on, resting her hand on Rain’s arm. Rain met her eyes and Rachel told her, “You won’t be going alone.”

  “What about the rest of us?” Natalie asked.

  Rachel turned to her.

  “It’s just…” Natalie began. “I feel so useless just sitting here. There’s not even busywork because this place pretty much runs itself.”

  “You can learn to shoot,” Reggie said and that got everyone’s attention. The big man shrugged, “What? You think that isn’t going to come in handy, givin what’s lurking about in the not to distant.”

  Rachel nodded. “It’s not a bad idea.”

  “Do we have the ammo to spare?” Arnie asked.

  Ryla spoke up. “The amount of ammunition varies depending on the gun but I have stocks of all calibers numbering somewhere in the thousands. Should that run out the third basement can make more.”

  “Alright then,” Natalie said distantly.

  “I’ll get the gear. Meet me on the roof in twenty,” Reggie said, rising from his chair. He took a step then turned back. “You too Arnie. Not always going to be something that needs driving. Bout time you learned to be useful with a bullet too.”

  Arnie swallowed hard and nodded. Reggie disappeared into the elevator and the rest of the group began to move.

  Quey was in the bar on the first floor. He was at the end of his second drink, signaling for a third when he noticed the stool to his right move. He glanced over and saw Ryla sit beside him as his glass was refilled.

  “Would you liiike a beverage Madame?” Barbot asked and Ryla nodded.

  Quey looked over at her with a bit of surprise. “Thought you didn’t drink.”
r />   She shrugged.

  Quey lifted his glass to his lips as her’s was filled and told her, “Don’t think I’ll be much fun just now,” before taking a sip.

  Ryla shrugged again and told him, “That’s okay. Not like anyone’s ever accused me of being good company.” She took a sip of her own.

  He laughed lightly. “Well here’s to me making such an accusation,” he said and touched his glass to her’s before drinking again.

  After another, longer sip, and a brief bit of silence she said, “You think I’m good company?”

  He looked over at her and smiled. “Yeah,” he replied with a slight nod. “Have to admit I rather enjoy your presence.”

  “Even if I’m strange?”

  “Possibly because of it.” She peered at him quizzically and he added, “Sometimes strange is just another way of saying interesting, and you most certainly can not deny being that.”

  She took another sip, this one to gather courage. “Even if I’m a robot?”

  He turned to her and spun his glass nervously between his hands. “Even if you’re a robot.” She smiled at him. “Or an alien,” he added. “Or something else I haven’t thought of.”

  Ryla moved toward him and he looked over at her, eyes wide. “What…” he began but didn’t know what he meant to ask.

  “Come here,” She told him, her face extended toward him. “Find out.”

  He looked at her and after a brief bout with nerves he settled on a desire not to find out but to kiss her. From far off gunshots rang out and his attention jumped.

  “Reggie’s teaching some of the others to shoot,” she informed him with a whisper. “Those that can’t do it well.”

  He looked at her eyes, large and watching him and shimmering in the dull light. She was beautiful, or so he thought as he traced her face with his eyes. Her hand rested on his thigh as he leaned in to kiss her. A moment before their lips met he flashed back to Annie, sitting on her chair in the second basement and braced himself for contact. When they touched lips he opened his eyes with a bit of surprise, it wasn’t what he expected. Then she was on him, standing as close to him as she could manage as she kissed him and ran her hands over his arms and down his chest. He settled in and kissed her back, leaning toward her. Their lips tasted each other hungrily for a spell. Quey wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him, caressing her back and snaking his fingers through the hair where her head met her neck. They parted briefly and he buried his face in her neck and tested the boundaries until finally he gripped her ass in both hands, round and firm, and pulled her against him for another kiss.