“I can’t feel her pulse… no wait… yes, she’s breathing.” The guard exhaled loudly. Several other comments of relief followed from the side.
The harsh sound of tires quickly stopping on the gravel made all those present turn around immediately. The guard stood, ready to confront the newcomers. A car skidded to a halt before the upside down van.
“Identify yourself, recruit.” A woman in her sixties with a deep voice and a large gun positioned to fire walked toward the group composed of four bodies on the ground, one woman standing and three other women looking like beaten dogs.
“I am Cadet Byne, Colonel,” the guard whispered and let her gun fall as she raised her once-armed hand to salute the higher-ranking woman.
Leander’s arm shot out in the direction of the gun, but the older woman was faster and snatched it without any effort, kicking him in the face as an afterthought. Then she commanded the cadet to recount what had happened. When she was satisfied with the tale, she dismissed the younger woman as utterly incompetent. Without breaking eye contact with the group, she stepped back, reached her car, and talked to someone inside. She waited until the women got out and retraced her steps, while aiming both guns at the slaves.
“Look who’s here. My mothers’ infamous and efficient publicist.” Rosie, who had kept silent the whole time, spoke calmly, as if resigned. “Have you come to fix things as usual?” she asked.
“I think that you actually like it. Otherwise, why else would you be such a pain in my ass?” A woman wearing a business suit glared at Rosie and then turned around to speak to the colonel.
“Nobody here saw anything. Is that understood, Colonel? Invent some night drill and put it on paper. I’ll sign it,” the business suit said.
“Not so fast, Bruna. I won’t let you get away with whatever you’re planning.” Rosie moved to face her, still shielding Mauricio.
“What is it now? Getting pregnant wasn’t enough fun for you? You needed to transgress some more? You really want to end your mother’s career, don’t you?” Bruna flattened a wrinkle on her skirt. “You had to choose perversion as your new hobby. What about the usual: drugs, gambling, and cheating on your tests, like every other good society girl? No, that was too much to ask. But, I almost admire you. You went beyond any expectations I had. You have outdone yourself this time. Congratulations. Now, shut up and let me clean up your mess. As usual.”
“Where are my mothers?” Rosie asked.
“I wasn’t going to wake them up for this!” Bruna pointed a finger at the slaves and looked utterly disgusted. “You’ve already aged them twenty years with all the shenanigans you’ve put them through.” She looked at Rosie with pure contempt. “We are going to deal with this situation quietly. And you are going to collaborate with me.”
Mauricio, after a sudden moment of clarity, used all the energy he had left to slowly stand up and step outside of Rosie’s shield.
“Don’t!” She followed him and automatically started rearranging her position to protect him.
Mauricio squeezed her arm gently and stopped her where she was. “It’s okay. You have done more for me than I could’ve possibly asked any other human being to do. I am grateful I lived long enough to get to know you,” he whispered to her and then moved aside to expose himself completely.
The colonel took advantage of Rosie’s momentary confusion. The older woman rested one of her guns on Mauricio’s temple and cocked it. Rosie flinched at the sound.
“Don’t shoot him,” Rosie cried and fell to her knees. “I beg you, please don’t shoot him.”
Rosie, no…
“You are pathetic.” Bruna marched toward Rosie and pulled her up. “Colonel, kill him and the other two slaves and then clean up this mess.”
“Listen to me! If you touch him with even one finger, I’ll let the whole world know what I learned about the sementals…” Rosie let the sentence dangle, unfinished.
“Don’t listen to what she is saying. She is clearly in shock and in need of psychiatric assistance. The poor thing won’t even be able to raise her own child,” Bruna said, slowly looking around. “You are going to spend the rest of your life locked up, as I wisely suggested a long time ago. Finally, your mothers will listen to me,” she added in a lower voice, meant to be heard only by Rosie.
“Bruna, I can start talking now. I can tell you exactly what happens at the Temple, where all the pure breeds go to have their children. Do you have kids, Colonel? Maybe you are interested in hearing a fascinating tale. Or maybe you already know… Do you, Colonel?” Rosie had managed to free herself from the publicist’s tight grip on her arm.
“Rosie, you are playing a dangerous game,” Bruna cautioned her.
“Am I, Bruna? Maybe you’re the one who doesn’t know about the incognito—”
“Stop there, Rosie. You don’t know what you are doing.”
“You won’t intimidate me. I’ll go with these men, and you’ll let me take your car. As long as you don’t come after me, I won’t say a word.” Rosie moved closer to Mauricio and put a hand on the gun still pressing against his skin. The colonel flinched at Rosie’s gesture.
“Move the gun, now,” Rosie said to the colonel, who was trying to decide whose orders to follow.
Mauricio could see from the colonel’s indecision that she had no clue what Rosie was talking about. But Bruna did. It’s written all over your ugly face.
“Bruna, I am not bluffing. Tell the colonel I’m dead serious,” Rosie said, trying to press the gun away from Mauricio’s body. The colonel was now looking anxiously at the publicist.
“Rosie, think for once in your life. Think for Heavens' sake! He’s just a slave! Why do you want to ruin your life for… something less valuable than an animal?” Bruna was furious. She spat the words while walking closer to Rosie.
“Stay where you are. I think it’s story time. Sit down and relax; it’s going to take a while to explain everything.” Rosie raised one outstretched hand, but the publicist wasn’t impressed by the gesture; the woman simply stared at Rosie with an unreadable look on her face and then turned her head toward the colonel.
“Shoot her as well,” Bruna commanded the colonel, who stared back in shock. The night became preternaturally silent and still.
“I don’t think I understand—” the older woman said after a long pause, but Rosie interrupted her.
“You do realize that she can’t get away with killing me without killing everybody else here.” Rosie was talking directly to the colonel now. “She can’t risk it. She can’t have a full investigation with all of you alive. Sooner or later, someone could talk,” she added when she saw the colonel’s arm falter slightly. “She will ask you to kill all the guards, and then she is going to get rid of you. Maybe not tonight. Probably not tomorrow. She’ll still need you to confirm her story, at least for a few months. But your days are numbered if you kill me. I am your life insurance policy. If you don’t shoot me or the slaves, you have my promise that if anything happens to you, I am going to talk.” She tried to reason with the colonel. Meanwhile, several guards had gathered around them and watched intently.
“Don’t listen to her. I only want to protect the President from a scandal that could end her career,” Bruna interjected.
“It’s not just about my mother’s career. You want to shut my mouth because what I know will destroy your precious Ginecean status quo. And you don’t want that. You have influenced my mother’s political decisions for so long that you can’t lose it now. But you were in too much of a rush, Bruna. You shouldn’t have asked the colonel to kill me. That was a mistake.”
Mauricio looked around to see how many guards were there, waiting for an order.
“Do you think that any of you can get away with killing the President’s daughter?” Rosie asked the closest guard. The woman looked away immediately.
“My mothers won’t rest until they have discovered what happened to me,” Rosie pressed her point.
“But you see, swe
etheart, I’ll be the one directing the operation,” Bruna said.
“Exactly. Think—” Rosie put one finger on her temple and looked around to see the reaction on the other women’s faces. “—think about what she just said. She will be the one supervising that nothing, absolutely nothing, comes out. And the only way to assure it is to make sure that nobody is left to contradict her.” Rosie locked her eyes on the colonel.
Soft murmurs started to fill the silence.
“She’s right. Colonel, she’s right!” the woman standing guard over Captain Reece said. Another agreed loudly. The guards who didn’t talk nodded nervously. The colonel slowly retracted her hand.
Mauricio started breathing again.
“You are making a huge mistake, Colonel,” Bruna hissed and was going to say something else, but an idea crossed her mind and she acted on it before anybody could do anything to stop her. She attacked the guard who had just spoken, took her gun, and shot the captain. Then, before the guard could react, Bruna shot her as well.
What the—
“Now, who’s next? You, Colonel? Or you, Rosie? Anyone going to argue with me now? No? I didn’t think so. What I think is that the slave here took the gun from the heroic guard who was trying to save her captain. The slave shot them both and then, when he saw that there was no way out of it, he shot himself as well. Yes, that’s how it went. You, Colonel, arrived just a second too late, but in time to save the rest of the troop. You, Rosie, will be too traumatized to be reacquainted with society. Your ticket for the Mental Illness Center has been ready for a while. I am not sure that you kept the baby, unfortunately. Actually, you were never pregnant. A therapy based on a series of electroshocks will eventually cure your memory. If you didn’t die in the carnage tonight, of course. That’s something I have yet to decide,” she said without blinking once.
“I’ll confess to every single crime you want to accuse me of, and I’ll gladly die for something I never did if you leave Rosie and the baby alone.” Mauricio was already on his knees. “I’ll be your scapegoat. Just let her have a normal life.”
“How dare you talk to me?” Bruna pointed the gun at him.
“You should listen to what the slave is proposing,” one guard whispered.
“If the slave is accused of what happened here, we’re all off the hook,” another found the courage to add.
“He’s a fugitive already, along with the other two. If we pin everything on him, nobody is going to investigate further. He’ll be executed, and we’re not going to reveal anything about tonight. It’s in our interest to keep our mouths shut,” the guard who had spoken first, who had been reassured by the other heads nodding in unison, added.
“Maybe you should at least consider what they are saying,” the colonel said softly.
Please…
“Bruna, there must be another way out.” Rosie looked exhausted; she fell to her knees so she was side-by-side with Mauricio.
“If that isn’t a sweet sight. The precious brat where she should be: on her knees like a beggar. You don’t deserve the exceptionally good luck you had at your birth. I think I’ll go back to my former plan and kill you anyway. I deserve some satisfaction, after all. But maybe I’ll get rid of someone else first. So, who’s it going to be?” She brandished the gun this way and that. She finally decided on her target, and with a sick smile, she aimed at Rosie’s belly.
Chapter 11
Mauricio acted out of pure instinct and threw Rosie away from the bullet’s trajectory. At the same moment, the colonel fired her gun at Bruna. She collapsed on the ground, her eyes locked on the older woman with a surprised expression.
Mauricio stared in fascination at the whole scene. Why is everyone moving so slowly? I can barely hear a thing.
“Mauricio!” He heard Rosie calling him from far away. Thank the Goddess Bruna didn’t get you, was his first thought when she came into view and saw that she was unharmed. It’s okay, everything is fine. You don’t need to be worried anymore. Then he followed the direction of her eyes and saw blood coming out of his midsection. Oh… The pain arrived several seconds later.
Rosie caught his head before he hit the ground and immediately applied pressure against the wound. “Somebody help me!” she screamed, tears streaming down her face. None of the women came closer, but Leander and Arias dragged themselves to Mauricio’s side. They were barely conscious but tried to help.
Nobody heard the third vehicle coming. It stopped by the fugitives’ car with the tires sending up fumes. The strident sound and the acrid smell elicited a mild interest in the guards, who were closer to the car. Only when a door opened and then slapped back in place with a fury did the colonel turn around. “Madame President,” she greeted the imposing shadow, her voice nervous.
“Mom?” Rosie raised one hand to screen her eyes from the high beams.
Darya Layan, the President of Ginecea, here. What an honor. Mauricio, in his pain-induced haze, almost found the situation funny. There was blood everywhere, and the colonel was cowering under the President’s darting eyes.
“Rosie?” the President bellowed when she saw her. “What did they do to you?” she asked horrified, once closer.
Mauricio felt Rosie’s body become rigid when her mother went to touch her. She had turned to look at him while the other woman was trying to get her attention. Then she was torn from him.
“What happened to her?” the President screamed to anybody who would answer her question. She gathered a bloodied Rosie in her lap and cradled her. In a few seconds, her hands and her clothes were smeared in blood, too. “Rosie, where are you wounded?” she asked.
Mauricio saw two women approaching and recognized an out-of-breath Guen, who took a good look at Rosie and then nodded at her.
“Rosie! Oh my Heavens, honey. So much blood!” the other woman cried.
“Rina! I told you to wait in the car,” Darya Layan said.
Rosie disappeared under her second mother’s suffocating embrace.
“The First Lady was too worried,” Guen explained to the President and then mouthed to Mauricio, “Everything is going to be okay now.” She then crouched beside him to check his pulse.
“I’m not wounded. I don’t have a scratch on me. The men did nothing to me,” Rosie finally answered her mother’s question. “Bruna ordered the colonel to kill me.”
“I—” The President stared at her daughter.
“Mom, this man needs a doctor, immediately,” Rosie said and then turned toward Guen and lowered her voice, “He looks paler than he did a moment ago.”
“What are you talking about?” the President asked.
“Rosie, we have wounded women here that need medical attention,” Rina said, looking at the captain and at the other guard lying on the ground.
“They don’t need anything anymore,” Rosie impatiently said.
Her mother, Rina, opened her mouth to intervene, but her wife spoke first. “Maybe they don’t, but Bruna does.” The President looked at Rosie, shocked.
“She killed them. She doesn’t deserve to live. You have to call the doctor for this man. Please, we are wasting time he doesn’t have.” Rosie was getting anxious. “I don’t care what you want to do with Bruna; she can wait, but he can’t.” Rosie took Mauricio’s hand in hers.
Both of her mothers gasped in horror at the sight of their daughter touching a man.
“Rosie? What is it happening here?” Rina asked when it was clear that Darya was too shocked to talk.
“What’s happening?” Rosie repeated. “What’s happening, you ask me? An innocent human being is bleeding to death before your eyes, and you are doing nothing.”
“A slave’s life isn’t worth our bother,” Darya answered.
Mauricio was trying to remain awake, but it was getting hard to breathe.
“Rosie, something must be done immediately,” Arias said.
“Moms! I’ll never forgive you if you don’t try to save his life.” Rosie didn’t turn to see their react
ion. “Mauricio, I love you.”
“I love you,” he said through his blurred vision, happiness spreading through his cold body.
She leaned closer and brushed his forehead with her lips and then moved toward his mouth.
Mauricio’s heart somersaulted in his chest a second time. Not so long ago, the proximity of her mouth to his had elicited a similar reaction in his body. If anything else, you’re going to kill me for sure. His lips curved up.
A scream stopped her from getting any closer. Rosie’s protective shadow moved away, and he felt lost.
“Rosie! Move away from the slave.” Darya was shaking. She raised her hand to slap her daughter, but Rina stopped her before she could hit Rosie.
“The doctor is on her way. I called her as soon as we arrived,” Guen said to Rosie, and then she turned to face her mothers. “This semental is too precious. Tarin can’t afford to lose a good specimen without reason.”
“This semental is worth nothing, and I have already signed his death sentence.” Darya Layan, the President of Ginecea once again, confronted Guen with a cold stare.
“I apologize, Madame President, I didn’t know about your orders,” Guen lied, lowering her head.
At the same time, Bruna thrashed around, moaning loudly, and the Layans hurried to her side.
“I’ll be right back,” Guen whispered to Rosie and went to the colonel’s car, only to come back a few seconds later with a briefcase. “Move aside for a moment. Let me see if there’s something I can use from this first aid kit.”
Don’t leave me alone. Mauricio was glad for Rosie’s hands caressing his throbbing temples. I’m so tired. His eyes weren’t working properly, red spots were dancing where Guen’s face should have been.
“He needs blood,” Guen said.
Mauricio distractedly observed the woman raising his shirt to expose the wound. I don’t feel a thing. Why don’t I feel anything? He thought while Guen touched his abdomen.
“I’m a universal donor. I’ll give it to him,” Rosie proposed.
No, you won’t.
The Priest Page 13
