“When Traci finished crying, she grabbed all the clothes she could carry and bought a bus ticket. She had just enough money to get here and get herself set up. She never even told her parents. Has not contacted them since she arrived. She seems to be doing her best to erase her past as well as her future.”
Suddenly, Terry felt a burst of emotion that was as human as anything he had ever felt. Only this was powerful enough to cause near-physical pain. It took him a second to realize it was from Mir.
In a voice that said if it was connected to the right equipment, it would be crying, Mir shouted telepathically, “And I cannot stop her! I try to push her back, but she fights her way down the wrong path every time! I scream to warn her of what she is doing, but she cannot hear me! I would give all to be able to talk to her like Tanoak can talk to you. To be able to tell her that it isn’t her fault. That she deserves a better life than she thinks she does. She has the courage of a lion in the terms of some of your literature, but she thinks this is paying her dues. That if she punishes herself enough, she’ll be forgiven. That someone will love her!”
Terry could feel the power of the emotions Mir fought down to maintain a semblance of composure. It was almost overwhelming. The thought he had had earlier that, perhaps, Mir did love her, after whatever fashion the Chrliti recognized, seemed to have more truth to it than he had thought at first. Charlie had told him they were past such things, just as they were past gender, sex and evil. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d been wrong.
Terry thought about his own loss, an ex-girlfriend, Chandra, and what might have been. Of the kids they might have had. It suddenly hurt to think about. It hurt to realize that this beautiful girl was punishing herself for the things others had done to her. It hurt even more to think he might add to it.
Terry could keep Charlie out of a part of his mind and keep some thoughts to himself. He had learned that first. It was the only way he had been able to survive. He got better at it over the years and, now, could summon up a private place to think for himself at a moment’s notice. He did so now, as he thought about how things could change so quickly. She was not what he was looking for when he came to town. All he wanted was a little fun.
But as he looked down at Traci, curled up and still sleeping peacefully, he realized this wasn’t going to be anything like normal.
He opened himself to the other two and took over the conversation.
“I won’t promise anything. I’m just a human. We try to pick up hints as to what the other one wants and hope we got something right. I know you guys think you got all the answers, but the trouble here is you been a couple of million years removed from the question.”
Mir was still unsure of Terry, but he felt with Charlie, as he would with almost any of his people, that he could trust him. Mir had little contact with Chrliti of the kind that Charlie and Terry had dealt with in Lester. If he had, he might have had cause to rethink his belief that the Chrliti were above such things, his own attachment to Traci notwithstanding.
Terry had had enough. Whatever was happening in Chicago, he couldn’t help from here. But before he left, he had one thing left to do.
“Mir, can you wake her up?”
Caught off guard for a moment, Mir seemed confused. The change in the conversation barely registered on him at first. He knew humans were famous for abrupt and seeming-unrelated changes in their lines of thought. This, however, was the first time he had ever been subject to one of these changes in person.
Only for a moment, though, as he recovered quickly. “Tweak her left breast lightly. It’s one of her favorite spots, and I have sensitized it to the point it will cause her an intense burst of pleasure.” After a short pause, he added almost slyly, “If you are in the mood for more sex, that will be a good way to start.”
Terry was almost surprised. “You pushing for it?”
Mir was amused, and it came through. “I have held her back for so long, her escapade with you was…refreshing. The amount of pleasure she received was enough to cause her to think that there could be another way to live. You could be the thing that saves her. You could be what she needs to bring her back from this long night she keeps herself in. If you chose to, that is. Of course, the choice is yours.”
Oh great, Terry thought, no pressure.
Charlie had remained silent throughout the exchange. Now, privately, he told Terry, “This is a woman that has been a prostitute by choice for years. You owe her nothing.”
With equal discretion, Terry replied, “She’s a human being, Charlie. A human being that needs help. If she were a victim of a psycho, there wouldn’t even be a question of whether or not we’d be coming to her aid. And on top of all that...” Terry mentally argued with himself for a moment about whether he should even say it, then decided, fuck it and finished.
“I like her. If there were nothing else, that would be enough for me to want to help her. So that is the way this goes. Problem?”
Charlie retreated silently. There was no point in arguing. Nor was there any reason to. Charlie’s desire to help pretty much anyone was as strong as Terry’s. And older.
He still remembered the terrors he had experienced the night the Titanic went down. He had been relatively new to Earth, and the intensity of the emotions they produced. Especially the fear. But the worst he could remember was the terror and sadness of the parents for the children that they couldn’t save. Or of husbands for their wives that they put on the lifeboats knowing that they would ever see them again.
Inexperienced as to what he could do for them as all the Chrliti were, he could only watch as humans died all around them, sometimes bravely or even heroically, some calling out for deities he was at that point unfamiliar with. He marveled at the way they had faced it in some cases with a courage he had no understanding of or a calm he couldn’t fathom.
The Chrliti had been on Earth for less than fifty years then and had only discovered how to amplify humans for ten of those. They had little knowledge of what their bodies could do or what they could make them do. Now, he could have boosted a human to the point that he might have been able to survive even the cold, but back then, he had no idea of how to do such things.
He had tried several dozen people that night before he finally merged with one that would survive the holocaust. Even then, he could only watch as hundreds died in freezing water, several dozen of them occupied by his people.
His people were, for all intents and purposes, immortal and, as such, were unused to dealing with death on any scale, much less the kind that happened that night. Several of the Chrliti had frozen, dying with their hosts just because they simply couldn’t understand the concept.
When it was over, Charlie found himself in a member of the crew that returned to Plymouth on board the S.S. Lapland. He found it was impossible to break his occupation in time and had had to make the return voyage. While the trip was uneventful, he nonetheless found it far from enjoyable. He had simply avoided the ocean after that for decades, exploring the European and Asian continents, finally winding up in the deserts of Iraq. He had lost count of the hosts he had occupied over those decades, although if he wished, he could recall everyone. Some brave, some inhumane and cruel beyond words, he had been part of them through it all but only as an observer. Then came Terry and the unique chance among his people to really make a difference.
He had no idea the cost of this gift, but in either case, he would not waste it. So, if Terry felt this woman was to be their latest project, he would not complain. It was Terry’s choice. As he had said, his head, his rules.
* * * *
Terry took Mir’s advice and pinched Traci’s left nipple. Her response was instantaneous, as she gasped and spun to look at him, sleep still dimming her eyes. The effect lasted only for a second though, as she smiled at him and stretched, hoping that this was the signal for more of their earlier fare.
“Umm, I could get used to getting woken up by you. Of course, that depends on whether or not yo
u had enough to eat.”
“Uh-huh. Well, just so you know, I did and the food was as good as you said it was. But, we need to have a little talk before you get your motor running.”
Traci stiffened. It had been her experience that nothing good happened when she heard the term, we need to have a little talk.
Terry felt the tension in her and pulled her to him. “Hey, relax. It’s nothing bad. I just wanna know if I can get you to do me a favor?”
“What kind of favor?” She had yet to relax despite his cheerful manner.
“I need to get to Chicago on business. I can wait until Monday, but I think I need to get moving on this thing. What I wanna know is can I get you to take me to the airport then keep my car until I can get back.”
Traci looked at him wide eyed. “Are you serious?” She was so stunned, she couldn’t find anything else to say.
Terry smiled at her. “That was the question. It’s no big deal. Just keep the car for me. You can drive it, wash it or not. But there’s another part to this.”
Traci’s eyebrows dropped. She knew there was another shoe to drop. What she didn’t know was that it was more like the store collapsing.
Terry looked her in the eyes and said flatly, “I want you to quit hooking. Just…stop. You’re not a hooker. It isn’t you. Why you do this shit, I don’t know, but this is not you and you need to quit.”
Traci’s eyes had gone wide again. “Are you crazy?”
Terry grinned. “I thought we had already established that. But aside from that, what’s crazy? I think you made a mistake. I think you’re still making a mistake.” He couldn’t tell her how he knew all the things he knew about her or even that he knew them, so he had to tread carefully.
“I think you want to get out of this, but you don’t know how. I’m gonna give you an out. One that I think even you can get behind real quick.”
With that, he got up and pulled out his wallet. He had three thousand dollars in it, all hundreds. He counted out ten then threw the rest on the bed.
“That’s two large. You can take it along with the five, excuse me, four hundred there on the dresser. With all of that, you can be off for at least a couple of weeks. That oughta be long enough for me to finish whatever I gotta do in Chicago. Then, when I get back…”
“When you get back what?” Traci exploded. She was not used to being played and this had all the earmarks. She looked at the money on the bed. “You just hand me two grand and some change and then ask me to what? To wait for you? Then what? You gonna come back and take me away from all this? How? You gonna marry me and make an honest woman out of me? You met me what? Three hours ago on a street corner, and now, you gonna take me home to Momma? And tell her what? Hi, Mom, look what I found! Or maybe, she followed me home; can I keep her?”
Terry’s eyes narrowed. She was bordering on hysteria, so he did his best to overlook her outburst. But there were parts that demanded an answer.
“First off, there is no mother for you to meet. Or father for that matter. Second, if there were, when you met them, you’d realize that the only thing they’d care about was if I was happy. If I were, the way my mother thought about things, the rest would attend to itself. As for marrying you? Shit, I don’t know. To tell the truth, I ain’t got that far down the road yet! But, I have been with hookers on three continents and in at least thirty states. I don’t have time for much anything else. And no, I don’t know what it is that makes a good hooker before you get around to asking that. What I do know is that you could be one, but you ain’t! And you never will be. Because whatever that thing is that makes a good hooker, you ain’t got it! But you are a damn good fuck! So yes! I wanna take you off the market. Maybe for a month, maybe two, hell, maybe forever. I don’t know. What I do know is that you want to go, you just never thought anybody was gonna show up and do it like this. Well surprise! Here I am! You don’t have to agree. But you’d pretty much be a damn fool not to. I think you’re something special. I just want the chance to make you believe it too!”
Traci stood wide-eyed while he ranted. Then, she opened her mouth, but before anything could come out, Terry shouted, “And as for being crazy, it’s kept me going for years. I tried sanity, but it was too confining, and in my line of work, that is just the wrong thing to be.”
Traci realized her mouth was hanging open. He had to be nuts. Some rich kid from out west that wanted a story to tell his preppie buddies about when he got back to the country club. Or something that made more sense than this. It was what she had always dreamed of happening. What she prayed for silently with every man she’d been with over the years, even long before she took up the trade. Was it possible that she might really have found her prince come to take her off into the night on his white stallion to live happily ever after?
It was impossible. It was insane. But she looked at the man standing before her glaring like he was, angry? Disappointed? Confused? She didn’t know what to think. Or, at the moment, how to. The money meant nothing. The car meant nothing. But she looked at him and remembered all the things he did to her. How she felt when he did them and how she longed for him to do them again, even now.
Was it worth taking the chance that he could be telling the truth? Just keep the car and take the money and stay off the streets? For how long? Even as she asked the question, she heard herself saying in her mind, this is crazy. But she listened as he answered.
“I don’t know. Tell you what. We’ll get up tomorrow and have breakfast, then you can take me to the airport, and I can get a flight from there. When I hit Chi-town, I’ll give you a call to let you know how long I think it’ll take. You…you go to a spa. Pamper yourself. Have a good time! When I get back, we can take it from there. There’s no reason to rush anything.”
For the second time, Traci looked like she was going to cry. It was insane, but if it was, it was the kind she had been hunting for all her life. Then, she started to laugh. “All this off of one fast fuck?”
Terry smiled with all the aplomb of a man who’d just made the deal of the century as he reached in to tweak her left breast again, saying as he held up his other hand, “No. Two.”
As he pushed her back on the bed and shoved his head between her thighs, he added, “Unless I decide to take a later flight. Then, who knows?”
Chapter Seventeen
The flight left at six thirty. Terry had time for breakfast and dinner before he had to be at the airport and a few more rounds of lovemaking with Traci before he finally, reluctantly tore himself away to let her drive him to the plane. She had been silent for the entire drive and only spoke when he was getting up to board. She grabbed his hand as if she didn’t want him to leave and squeezed.
He looked at her and smiled.
She smiled back, saying, “I’ll be here when you’re done.”
He leaned in and kissed her, his hand resting on her back. “Tell me something? Have you ever been to San Francisco?”
Her eyes went wide for a moment, but at that point, there were no more shocks to be had. “No.” she said quietly.
“Well, we’ll fix that once this is done.”
He turned to go, but she pulled him back round and kissed him again, harder this time. When she broke it, she stared at him deeply as she asked, “Are we really going to try this?”
He squeezed her hand back and smiled one last time. He kissed her forehead and said cheerfully. “We already are!”
He boarded then. Once seated in his window seat, he looked out to see her standing at the window, trying perhaps to get one last glimpse of him. She stood until the plane backed out and headed for the runway.
Now, as the plane climbed into the air over Billings, Terry settled back and went to his private place. Charlie had been silent for some time but that didn’t worry him. Charlie often went quiet for hours after a marathon session. Given the last few hours with Traci, he might not hear from him for days if he left him alone.
He slipped into the state that gave him the only true
privacy he could get nowadays. Charlie might have been able to get into his little corner of his mind, but Terry was sure he wouldn’t. So, it became the only place Terry could let himself fully relax.
It wasn’t a long flight. Besides which, Terry had to learn whatever he could from the files Smyth had sent. While it was true he could probably learn more by going over them with Charlie, he liked to run through them alone first. He liked to think it was so he could look at the data without bias or commentary, just to absorb the data in its most raw form, but the truth was he wanted to do it by himself so he could claim bragging rights if he found something on his own.
Like most everything else, that disgusted Terry. People’s lives were at stake, and he was playing a silly game. Despite the tones of the day, machismo wasn’t dead, it had just gone underground.
The thought made him think of the way things had gone with his mother. She had dreamed of greater things, but after Terry had been born and she found she could have no more children, especially the daughter she had wanted so badly, she had gone back to work as a medical secretary and more or less withdrawn from Terry’s life. She hadn’t been a bad mother, just an uninvolved one. And since Terry’s father had been a workaholic all his life, Terry found himself left to his own devices on most things. Still, when young, Terry had asked questions, she had done her best to answer them or, failing that, gave him an idea of where to look for the answers. He had spent many an afternoon going through his father’s library for books concerning matters he considered of great importance.
And reading. He had loved to read the old classics, even before he was truly old enough to understand them. Shakespeare’s Othello, Cyrano de Bergerac, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Moby Dick, all stories of great heroism and stalwart men that knew right from wrong and made sure you did as well. He found he had an attraction to the Hamlets and Henry-the-Fifth types of literary heroes but not the same kind, as he found himself admiring Hamlet for his cunning and Henry the Fifth for inspirational leadership abilities. With those, he fleshed out a persona that his schoolmates found tiring and lame.
The Primal Connection Page 13
