Archon's Queen (32 page)

A bleary voice murmured from the console two minutes later. “Who is this? Do you ‘ave any idea what bloody time it is?”

Doctor Mardling’s face appeared in hologram a few inches in front of the control terminal. A hand floated into the image, wiping sleep from eyes that widened when he saw her.

“Great Caesar’s ghost! Anna, what the devil’s happened to you? Please tell me you’ve not been―”

“No, no… I just got… Someone pinched my clobber is all.” She blushed and looked to the side at the seat. “I need ‘elp. Please.”

“The hell would anyone steal your dirty rags?” A voice that emanated only from his side of the terminal drew a scowl. “Yes, yes. Bloody hell, I’ll accept the fare.”

“Thank you for using Britain’s Autocab!”

The cheery singsong jingle faded away and the car lurched forward. Anna lay sideways on the seat, fetal and shaking, trying not to give in to the emotional load wanting to come out of her eyes. Doctor Mardling cared. He wanted to help her from the moment he had seen her.

Staring down at her soaked and trembling body, it hit her she might just be in need of some assistance.

ostled about in the back of the tiny car, Anna hid low to the seat in an effort not to give other motorists a show. Amid the alternating pattern of teal and orange squares woven into the light grey fabric, she searched for what she would say to him. The heat had kicked into high, fogging the windows over to an opaque pattern of drifting lights and traffic, blobs of whitish-yellow and red bathed the interior in a color like shining a flashlight through a closed palm.

She curled up on the bench seat, shivering. Up front, the emergency steering controls wobbled as if manipulated by an invisible driver. Tiny nubs in the front dash, they seemed a toy version of the control sticks for normal cars. In theory, they existed in case of a system failure, but in practicality, they were so small as to be all but useless. Why would a corporation spend credits on things only necessary in an emergency?

The autocab spun around a corner. A sudden downhill lifted her weight off the seat, sending her sliding ass-first into the far wall as it pulled a hard right. She crashed down on her back, feet against the roof. Before she could scream, she rolled onto the floor when it jammed to a halt.

“Thank you for using Britain’s autocab. Your travel fare is forty-three credits, paid collect. Have a wonderful morning.”

The single gull wing door lifted skyward, leaking pure white fluorescent light into the cabin. Anna curled into a ball again and stared at the blinding patch of outside, broken in the center by the dark silhouette of a man. He faded into view and reached toward her.

It was James, holding a blanket out for her.

Anna blushed as she sat up, so ashamed of herself she had to cling to the handles to keep from shaking into a spill. She emerged from the tiny, sheltering car into the cold post-midnight air of a subterranean parking deck as frigid as the concrete beneath her foot. At least the air was dry.

He wrapped her with a warm embrace of fabric that tickled at her thighs an inch above the knee. The amazing feeling of no longer being exposed sapped the strength from her legs. James reached for her. Expecting a hug, she gasped in surprised when his arm scooped behind her knees and lifted her up like a babe.

“Welcome to your new life, Anna.”

Quiet as he turned, she leaned her head on his shoulder. The autocab had been kind enough to drop her off adjacent to the elevator, and in short order, they ascended to the forty-second floor. A few people returning home at this hour from various functions and late nights at the office all paused to ask if everything was all right. James made something up about her being robbed down to, and including, her clothes. It felt strange to have people act concerned; none of them knew where she was from.

Hallways, white walls and green carpet, glided by. She stared at the scallop-shell flanges of frosted glass throwing light up to the ceiling in cones every few feet. By all rights, this was a middle-class residence tower, but to her it felt like a palace. Any second now, someone would scream at her for daring to set foot in such a place.

His apartment was darker than she expected it to be, deep browns and burgundy dominated most of the décor. A leaping gazelle hologram galloped across the far wall between the two exterior windows, casting a radiant blue and green light. His maroon couch faced an unpowered holo-bar, its silver shell glimmering with the motions of the illusory animal. If the amount of stuff piled around it was any indication, James didn’t watch videos often.

She floated over the threshold in his arms, gliding past the couch and around past a kitchenette to a tiny hallway with three doors. The first, on the right, led to a quaint room with a single Comforgel bed near a small table. The second, on the left, looked to be his bathroom. She imagined the far door was the master bedroom, but he had stopped at the bath.

James gestured to the shower. “I’ll imagine you’d like to get the smell of whatever refuse you’d been frolicking in off of you.”

Anna stared at the autoshower, filled with longing. “More appealed to the warm of it.”

A pained expression crossed his face as he looked at her. “Yes, you should. Your lips are turning blue. I’ll fetch you a nightshirt.”

He knocked moments later, while she basked in a cascade of hot spraying water. “Shall I leave it by the door or bring it inside.”

Anna put her back to the door, not as embarrassed as she thought she would be. “You can bring it in.”

He entered and left with speed borne of tact, and when she looked to the sound of the closing door, she spotted a large black button-down shirt draped over the sink. After running a double dry cycle, extra warm, she slipped into the improvised dress. Silent as a mouse, she slipped into the soft-carpeted hallway and looked each way. The hint of Earl Grey drifted in from the right; she crept toward it, and found him waiting in the kitchen.

Doctor Mardling looked like he didn’t want to be awake at that moment, but offered a bleary smile and indicated two cups of tea arranged on either side of a tray of small pastries. She took a seat, as did he, and clasped her hands around the cup. It smelled somewhat different from what she had before, and he chuckled at the look she made.

“Hydroponic… I take it you have not had the genuine article before?”

Regardless of how hard she stared at the surface of the tea, she could not see her mother in it. “I have, but it’s been a very long time.”

Clattering rose from her hands. The shaking had returned. She let go of the cup and blushed.

“It’s all right, Anna. That is normal. Your body still wants that drek in your veins. It will pass.”

She took one of the pastries, dipped it, and ate it almost whole. Another one died a dry death in two bites. After a sip of tea, she gazed at her lap, enamored by the black and gold tiger stripe pattern in the buttons while listening to the crumpets’ faint screams emanate from her belly.

“I lost my bearings downtown. Tried to get some more.”

Stretching across the table, he put a hand over her wrist. “That could not have been easy to admit, Anna. Thank you for trusting me enough to do so. You will make it through. The way you are acting tells me you are not proud of yourself.”

“I’ve not been proud of m’self for quite a span.”

A grin crept across his lips in time with the glimmer through his eyes. “You should be. I will help you find the life you deserve. It is my duty.”

Eyes down, she took a long sip of tea and savored the core of heat it created inside her. “Thank you for paying the autocab… I was―”

His hand squeezed hers. “I know. You have accepted at last that you cannot do this alone. You have taken the first step. Your body no longer craves the drug at a physiological level. We need only convince your mind of the truth of it.”

A comforting smile drew a tenuous companion from her lips. She thought about her mortifying walk. “All those people talked to me like I was some kind of piece of rubbish.”

Anger rippled in a flash over his face, gone as fast as it had shown itself. “No, Anna. You are about as far removed from rubbish as is possible to get. You are perfect, more than they could ever hope to know.”

Anna’s blush outlasted the remainder of the Earl Grey. After seeing her attack the tea pastries, he had made her something a little more substantial to eat. Some manner of instant meal with fish; it was not glorious, but it was handy and quick. Whatever the doctor had done to her had given her an appetite again.

Once she had eaten, he led her by the hand to the spare bedroom. She sat on the edge, looking up at him. Memories of the cold trek through the city shivered through her still, and she thought about her emergence from the autocab; naked into the world from a womb of metal and plastic, she had gone straight into his arms.

The Doctor had been there for her.

The amused smile that formed from the way she stared up at him made her blush. This man wanted to look after her, and did not yell or hit. At thirty-five, he was older by about twelve years, but it wrapped him with a safe feeling.

Unsure of what came over her, she leapt to her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips. His eyebrows shot up, remaining there until after she stopped and sank back onto her heels.

“Anna… You know you do not have to trade yourself any more. I am here because I want to be, not because I expect anything in return. You are special, more special than you understand. I will be here for you… no strings.”

She blinked and sat on the Comforgel pad. The weight of her body activated it, sending a ripple of orange-red glow spreading through the otherwise dark violet block. Her mind swam with an attempt to figure out why she had done that as she reclined and slipped under the blanket.

“It’s not that, Doctor. I wanted to.”

On her side, she peered through a curtain of fast-approaching sleep at the man in the doorway. After exchanging weary smiles, he swiped his hand at the wall panel, and the room went dark. Amid the soft glow of the warming light, she lay still, watching as he backed out of the room.

The door and her eyes closed at the same moment. Not having to worry about who or what might interrupt her sleep, she drifted off.