So Mistle became Sly’s wife and servant. He had married the perfect partner - she was already trained to be subservient though rumour was that he’d had to punish his wilful young wife on more than one occasion. The women of Muritai never saw Mistle alone in the village - she was forbidden by her husband to leave the property unless accompanied by either him or one of the men who worked for him. But these visits to the village were few and far between and eventually stopped altogether.
Everyone on the island knew of Mistle’s beauty, and Humans pitied her for her enforced barrenness and her lonely life waiting on her husband. She also had to wait on his visitors, including young, pretty women. She was a prisoner in her own home and her husband was the powerful and ruthless jailer.
Curtis understood Ryxin resentment of the Flim-Flam laws, but his parents had taught him from a young age to obey and respect them, pointing out on many occasions that Ryxins’ ability to live on Earth had saved at least some of their race. Besides, to disobey Human law brought heavy penalties.
After returning home from the library, Curtis received a telepathic message from Janux. She had been sent a letter saying that because she was now a widow and still young enough to have children she was expected to join the Ryxin breeding programme. However because she was already in her thirties she was only expected to have one child. To this end, could she therefore report to Sly Onyx, Manager of the RBP (Ryxin Breeding Programme) the following Tuesday for an appointment. At this time she would be allocated a date for her opportunity to begin trying for a baby for the sake of the Ryxin race. Once again, because of her age she was to be allowed to choose a male from a list of ten. It was signed: Yours sincerely, Mr Sly Onyx, Manager RBP.
Underneath in small print were the words: Failure to respond will mean a personal visit to your home to discuss the matter by the RBP Committee: Mr Ferdy Xyle, Mr Spryz Frurster and Mr Lion Chrys-Morngel. Janux understandably was terrified.
Curtis laughed to himself at the audacity of these people. Who did they think they were?
“Will be at your place mid-afternoon,” he sent back. His visit with 17 was at two. He would go straight to Chamonix Beach after that.
As usual, Dux opened the door for him at 7 Xlesky Street, but for the first time she smiled sweetly. Within a few minutes of entering 17’s room Curtis had fulfilled his duty. He felt sure that soon she would be pregnant. Her skin was glowing with health and to him she was like a luscious plum that he devoured with a hunger he’d never known. Afterwards she begged him to stay longer, but he couldn’t disobey the RBP rules for fear of losing her altogether.
At the required time he left, and set out immediately to see Janux, the other woman he was pledged to help. She would be worried and angry at the stupid, demanding letter.
As he drove, Curtis realised he was no closer to finding Roscoe’s killer. He’d fallen under 17’s spell. Sure, she’d stopped him from yearning for his ex-wife, but the closer he got to Chamonix Beach the more his head swam. What on earth had he been thinking when he agreed to seeing 17 four times a week? He was, after all, on his first case since passing his PI exams and still needed to solve it before fully graduating. At the time he’d felt ready to tackle the world of Ryxin crime. Those who lived in that world had no one to help them. Ryxin women, beaten or raped by their own kind, had to suffer the injustice of it. Human law forbade their police from going to the aid of Ryxins if the dispute did not involve a Human. The selfish pigs were turning a blind eye to murders, fraud, rape and all sorts of other injustices inflicted by filth like Sly Onyx.
Curtis brought the car to a stop as he neared Moa Bay, seeing Mistle Onyx sitting on the grass verge.
“Hey, Mr McCoy, what you come here for?” Mistle called.
He wound down the passenger window. “I could ask you the same question, young lady,” he said, turning off the ignition. “Are you all right? You’re a long way from home.”
“Youse only knows the road way. I got other ways to get here, Mr Clever, isn’t it?”
He was surprised by her lack of subservience now that she was away from the house and her husband. “I must be going. I have someone to see. Goodbye, Mistle.”
“Wait, Mr Clever McCoy, please don’t go.”
He looked at her and felt compassion. “What is it you want, Mistle?”
“I wan’ to escape. I don’ like havin’ no baby and cleanin’ all the time, don’t it? I wan’ my own baby.”
He felt sorry for her, but there was nothing he could do. “I have to go. I’m sorry but I cannot change Flim-Flam law.”
“Please come and see me again, don’t it, at our home?”
“Yes, I will come. Goodbye.”
He drove off, telling himself that he must now put all his efforts into finding Roscoe’s murderer. Each time he drove past the area at Moa Bay, he always felt as if Roscoe was begging his help and pleading with him to help Janux. He told himself to be single-minded and to stop being emotionally side-tracked by his relationship with 17.
Janux’s eyes were red and her face looked flushed as if she’d been crying for hours. “Show me the letter,” Curtis said.
She handed it to him. It was written on a coarse kind of turquoise handmade paper, the letters printed heavily in black ink. So these three men were the committee, Ferdy Xyle, Spryz Frurster and Lion Chrys-Morngel. He remembered someone called Ferdy Xyle but the other two names meant nothing to him. All the same he was sure that these men were, like Sly, Ryxin purists who didn’t mind hurting and exploiting their own people to get the kind of Earth they wanted - one ruled by Ryxin leaders and managed by a new set of Ryxin rules. As for the inconvenient fact of Human beings having souls - Curtis was sure that was something they hadn’t even factored in to their master plan.
“You’d better come and stay at my place for a while,” he said. “You’re in danger here on your own. Will you come?”
“Yes,” she said.
He saw how vulnerable she looked. This letter had really frightened her - as it was supposed to, he was sure. He wanted to protect Janux. Not only was she his client, but there was something about her that made him feel quite different from when he was with 17. “Pack a few clothes then. I think we should leave straight away.”
As they drove back to his home in Tahatika Road, Curtis told her about seeing Mistle at Moa Bay. She screwed her face up. “I don’t need that pig in my life any more than his poor wife does,” she said between clenched teeth. “No wonder she wants rid of him.”
“Yes, but she also wants a child from him. She’s one mixed-up woman.”
“She’s a fool. If she had any sense she’d have escaped him long ago.”
“Listen,” Curtis said, lowering his voice, “I’m sorry I haven’t progressed any further with the case. Other things have got in the way.”
“I know, but you said yourself the other things you’ve been busy with might help us. Has that changed?”
Curtis didn’t want Janux to know that he’d fallen in love with 17. He didn’t answer her immediately.
“Well?” she said.
“No, of course not,” he replied, knowing he hadn’t any idea what to do next.
Late that night the phone rang. It was 17. “Mistle Onyx has been brought to the house. She’s now part of the breeding programme.”
“What? Was that her husband’s idea?”
“I heard that she’s being punished. He found out she’s been sneaking away from their house when he’s out. He had her followed. They had a big argument and she accused him of not giving her the baby she craves for. He said if you want a baby you can go and have one from someone else.”
After he’d hung up he told Janux what 17 had said. “Looks like Mistle could get the baby she wants, only she’ll never get to keep it.”
Later, he thought about the fact that he’d never seen any other women at 7 Xlesky Street besides Dux and 17. Obviously the place was a virtual prison for the women kept there. Dux noted every arrival and departure of the v
isiting men in her lined exercise book, not to mention the exact times. Many elderly couples had chosen Muritai Island as their place of retirement. He wondered if they also paid a price for the privilege of having a live-in child slave.
CHAPTER 14
Janux settled into the spare room, which overlooked Tauiwi Bay.
“I can’t leave the bees for too long,” she said next morning over breakfast. “I need to get the honey sent out as well. If I had your powers I’d have dropped that bastard into the Pacific Ocean, as far away from here as I could, and then watched him try to swim ashore. Is it true you can’t lift yourselves out of water?”
“Not deep water - that renders levitation impossible.”
When Curtis next visited 17, he heard sobbing coming from one of the rooms as he walked down the hall.
“It’s the new number 4,” 17 told him in a whisper voice. “Mistle Onyx, wife of the Master. The original number 4 had twins so she’s off the programme for good. Mistle’s been given her number and her room.”
“Having twins is your passport out of here?”
“Sure, or triplets or whatever.” 17 hung her head and turned away from him.
“Listen, my love,” he said, putting an arm around her, “let’s just talk today. What’s the matter?”
“No, we must take every opportunity. If I don’t get pregnant soon the Master will interview me again.”
Curtis was suspicious. “When you say interview, what does that mean?”
“I go before the committee. There’s the Master and three other men. I’ve heard that sometimes one of the committee takes over as a woman’s partner and comes to sleep with her whenever he chooses. I’ve heard that such girls always get pregnant very soon.”
“But I was told we were to have six months together,” Curtis said, feeling sickened. “Has Sly been annoying you?”
“No, but with his wife here he comes to the house more often. He wants to make sure she’s being punished in the way the committee has decided. Even Dux is under scrutiny. Mistle isn’t allowed any leave or any special favours. In fact she’s being treated like a street girl.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, sometimes Sly and the committee pick up Ryxin prostitutes and force them into the breeding programme. They don’t get any leave either. And they don’t get to look after kids.”
“What do they do all day?”
“They have several numbers a day visit them. The visits are only thirty minutes.”
Curtis was shocked that Sly would treat Mistle in this despicable way.
“Usually those girls want to get pregnant quickly. That’s the only way they can have time away from the programme,” 17 continued.
“They can stop sleeping with numbers as soon as they know they’re pregnant?”
“Yes, they get checked out by two different doctors and then taken away to a pregnant mothers’ house. They stay there until they give birth, and their child goes to a home for abandoned babies until he or she is five. If the child is female she will then be farmed out to become a servant. Males go to a separate facility to begin learning martial arts.”
“And what about the mothers - what happens to them?”
“After three months of resting they go for another interview and a doctor’s check. If they’re still under thirty and healthy they must go back to the breeding programme. If they’re over thirty they can choose a permanent breeding mate. They’re given a list of ten names and have to pick one. After that they only have to produce one or perhaps two more kids. Then they get sent out again to fend for themselves in the world.”
Like spent machines, Curtis thought bitterly. There was no government assistance for Ryxin women without husbands and though Human law gave them the opportunity to find a Human partner if they could, these women were considered discards and no man wanted them. So they usually worked as prostitutes or moved away to another place, hoping no one would know their history so they could try and make a life for themselves.
Ryxin men certainly wouldn’t touch them – they only married hand-picked virgins who were kept as virtual servants and always available whenever their husbands wanted their conjugal rights. These wives were like possessions and if one disobeyed her husband, like Mistle had done, she was punished hard.
Mistle’s life may have been tough before, but now it would be tougher and no one would be able to help her. Her days of escaping to Moa Bay for hours of freedom when Sly was away were over. Curtis pitied her, poor beautiful Mistle, trapped now by her bullying, controlling husband.
CHAPTER 15
Curtis was almost certain 17 was pregnant, and although she hadn’t said anything he was also sure she knew. She looked different in small, almost imperceptible ways. Her skin seemed to glow and her eyes looked bluer, while her lips felt softer and more yielding. He dreaded what would happen to their child. He also dreaded losing 17; once it was definite she was pregnant she’d be sent away until the birth of their baby.
He began working on a plan, sitting outside in the shade of his back porch - already the day was scorching hot. Janux was down on the beach.
Curtis needed to find out if there were any homes for abandoned children on the island, though he suspected most were on the mainland. He also wanted to find out how many elderly couples on the island had adopted children to work as servants for them. He was going to try Kieran’s website again, hoping this information wasn’t confidential. The histories of people who were deceased were one thing, but it wasn’t so easy to get information on those who were still living. Unless of course someone you knew already knew these things and was willing to tell you. Like maybe Siegfried Plante. He must phone Siegfried and arrange to visit him.
When Janux came back from her walk he’d tell her a little about what he was doing and try to convince her that his hunt for Roscoe’s killer was included in his plan. Yet he was so cravenly in love with 17 he found it hard to think of anything else but her and their child inside her. He even woke at night groping for her. Going to Xlesky Street seemed more and more like visiting a prisoner in jail. He thought of Dux as the jailer, and although she smiled at him she never once forgot to check her watch and write down his exact movements.
Next day Curtis went into the village library to look up the official list of Ryxin homes in the area, which by law had to be registered and visited whenever the Human authorities saw fit to do so.
As he put coins in the parking meter he saw a woman who looked like Claudette Peace walking ahead of him, accompanied by a tall, thin man. But when she’d phoned him recently from the mainland she hadn’t mentioned anything about coming back to Muritai. Without giving too much thought to the matter, he decided to follow them. They were getting into a blue Toyota hatchback about a block away so he jumped into his car and pulled out onto the road just as their car sped off towards the western side of the island. He kept well back since there were few cars on the road and he didn’t want to advertise himself.
On and on they went, travelling at a speed that was well over the limit. Curtis had to do the same in order to keep up but fortunately a red Mazda, going even faster, overtook him and stayed between them. When they reached Pohatu Cove the Toyota veered left to drive along the seafront. The Mazda kept going straight ahead so now Curtis had to be careful that they didn’t see him. But suddenly, there was the Toyota, stopped outside a large house at 18 Lighthouse Drive.
He drove past just as the two of them were walking up to the front door, apparently deep in conversation. He was quite sure it was Claudette. But what on earth was she doing back on Muritai? He wondered if the man was Vandy, who’d invited her to the Changeover Day party. Curtis kept going and went straight back home. He didn’t bother even going to the library.
“Will you come with me to Pohatu Cove tonight?” he asked Janux after explaining to her what had happened.
“Of course, Janux said, busy making them club sandwiches for lunch. “Hey, what do you reckon they were doing? Maybe she’s
been asked to make babies too.”
“I don’t think so - she’s Human. But usually she keeps in touch. I get the feeling I’m not supposed to know she’s here.”
“‘You know what writers are like. Maybe she’s getting information for a story.” Janux put the plate of sandwiches down onto the table and sat down opposite him.
Curtis looked at his watch. At two he must visit 17 as usual. He and Janux never discussed his visits to Xlesky Street, which occurred every second day. She knew what it was about, but whenever he was getting ready to leave she always made herself scarce. He knew she didn’t like him being involved in the breeding programme. He wondered if she might be in love with him. Sometimes as he was on the ferry going to visit 17 he found himself thinking about Janux and what she might be doing in his absence.
“Let’s go about nine o’clock, when it’s really dark,” he said.
Janux poured coffee into their cups. “Too right. I don’t trust the buggers in charge of any kind of breeding programme - they’re nuts, if you ask me.”
When he arrived at Xlesky Street his watch showed he was punctual. But Dux wasn’t the only person waiting to greet him. There was also a man. Curtis thought he recognised him as being Ferdy Xyle. He was a large man whose face appeared to have been rearranged by an inexperienced plastic surgeon - or maybe it was being constantly worked over in the boxing ring. Like his boss, Sly, he was a very tall man with an expression of permanent anger. His eyes were like black marbles, fixed and staring straight at Curtis as Dux greeted him - this time without smiling.
“You’ve made good time, 35,” she said.
“Afternoon, Dux.” Curtis tried to ignore the hulk-like gargoyle and made to go to 17’s room as usual.
“Wait,” the hulk growled, stepping out from the behind the desk to block his path. “17 is not fulfilling her promise to the Master. That means you too. He’s not willing to tolerate your behaviour for much longer. Both of you are running out of time. You have two more weeks only - and, 35, listen to me carefully. If you and 17 don’t fulfil your promise by then I have been instructed to interview you both.” He handed Curtis an envelope. “Both of you must read the Master’s new contract that will replace your current one if certain conditions are not met in the stated time. Make sure you both read it today.”
Aliens in Godzone Page 7
