Sons of Abraham: J-17's Trial (3 page)

“No thank you Lord Elsmere,” Nathan responded. “Either I’ll love it and always miss it, or I’ll quickly discover that I’m allergic. Always seems to be the case.”

Lord Elsmere laughed, his muscled, thin chest heaving in and out as the robe spread with each exhale. The crest hanging from the man’s ‘beard’ waved back and forth as he moved, displaying how heavy the metal accessory was.

“You make an excellent point Agent,” Elsmere replied. “Since we do not export the Kimyana fruit, I’m afraid you would have to come back for a second taste. It must be difficult, traveling from planet to planet, all while avoiding the tiny treasures each has to offer.”

The man sat on a massive chair, wide enough to seat four people. Unlike the bench to the transport, the seat was red plush, the frame seemingly made from the same red glass as some of the windows. The frame was curled, twisting in natural shapes like a vine. Nathan wondered how long it took the craftsman to blow such magnificent work. As the agent returned to the Cyber’s side, he could see tiny jewels mixed in with the glass which were dark blue, uncut and raw. The light coming from an untinted skylight above shone through the entire frame, casting red and purple shadows upon the tiled floor.

“Speaking of tiny treasures,” Elsmere continued. “Where are my manners?”

The man clapped two long, thin hands. The claps echoed off the walls as a door opened to the investigators right. Three figures entered the rooms, each shorter than the previous. They wore the same red, silk robes, but with hoods pulled up over their heads. Blue-jeweled veils covered their faces, keeping Calloway from discovering their identities. They walked in single-file, the lower half of their robes hanging open, exposing toned legs with every stride. The robes opened and closed, the furthest leg showing high to the inner thigh. The first was quite pleasing to look at, but something foul-filled Nathan’s mind as he glanced to the shorter two. Something about the exposed legs and the height of the trailing procession made him feel uneasy with himself as if he’d thought something, he’d been taught not to.

“Allow for me to introduce my mates,” Elsmere bellowed, his long hand stretching out towards the three.

The robbed figures all turned, facing towards the investigators. Two elegant, dark hands slipped out from the sleeves of the tallest robed figure, reaching upwards towards the veil. With delicate movements, the hands unclasped the veil that hooked to the hood. Blue jewels clanged together as the veil was wound around the long fingers, revealing a thin featured woman. Her cheeks and chin were sleek, forming a near perfect ‘v.’ Her red, plump lips formed a smile, gleaming white teeth showing between the well-balanced mouth. A tiny, pointed nose with a slight upturn spread to a wide brow with two perfectly trimmed, long eyebrows hanging over dark brown eyes. The elegant fingers grasped the edges of the red silk hood, slowly pulling it over a sea of black hair, swept backward over a narrow, long neck. The hair fell to the young woman’s right shoulder, a jewel tying the hair together towards the back.

“This is my first mate, Lura,” Elsmere continued.

Lura’s smile wavered, her eyes turning towards Elsmere as her hands slid down her silk robe. She paused for a moment, waiting until the man nodded his head. Gaining her orders, she lowered her head and untied the front of her robe. Each silky side fell away, revealing a long, slender body. A tiny, black bikini left little to Nathan’s imagination, showing there were no straps to it as the robe slid off her bony shoulders and fell in a thin heap upon the tiled floor.

“Uhmmmm,” Nathan started.

“My second mate, Ira,” Elsmere continued, ignoring Nathan’s discomfort.

The middle robed figure’s hands slid out, performing the same act as Lura had a moment earlier. The jeweled veil was removed, though lacking the same delicate manner in which the older woman had mastered. The veil unhooked and the hood was slid back in the same manner. The younger woman named Ira appeared to be almost identical to Lura, though far younger in age and features. Nathan turned away as the younger girl untied her robe, the same black bikini covering less ample features, fell to the floor behind her.

“And finally, my third mate Zulanna,” he bellowed.

It was all Agent Calloway could do not to become ill. The third, far shorter figure unveiled and disrobed, though with much finer elegance than Ira had used. The black bikini lay flat against a formless body as the tiny robe crumbled to the tiled floor. Nathan tried to face forward, but the tiny girl’s practiced smile kept driving his gaze to anywhere but forward.

MA Joseph had not flinched during the presentation, his eyes slowly watching over each move of the display before him. After the final girl had disrobed, he returned his attention to Lord Elsmere. Calloway gave his companion a glance, searching for some sign that the Cyber was, at least, a tenth as uncomfortable as he was at the moment.

Searching: Common Law: Earth, present status………

“Are they not precious?” Lord Elsmere asked, his hungry eyes staring over each of the young women in turn. “My garden of flowers, if you will.”

Agent Calloway closed his eyes as every horrid memory of each twisted planet demanded his full attention. It wasn’t uncommon to see such things this far from Earth. In his younger days, he’d tried fruitlessly to bring such sickened beast to justice, only to find that his superiors would never back his actions. Eight years ago, he’d found himself on the wrong end of a four-month suspension as he tried to drag a member of the Hierarchy to prison for his lust for small boys. The Council made a quick decision, making a clear point that Nathan was only to investigate the matters that they had ordered him. The laws of Earth seemed to disappear with each passing Gabriel Ring.

“Lord Elsmere,” Calloway stated, his eyes looking straight to the man. “Perhaps we should discuss the crime at hand now?”

The smile faded from the man’s face, his outstretched hand slowly falling to his side. His brows furrowed, his eyes squinted as he looked from one investigator to the next. Each of the girls sensed his displeasure, dropping their gaze to the floor.

“You do not like my flowers?” he asked judgment in his voice. “You come to my home and disgrace my mates before my very eyes? You are a man, are you not? The women are lovely, and their bodies are almost as exquisite as their attire. Tell me, Agent Calloway, why the judgmental eyes?”

“Oh man,” Nathan muttered, trying to look anywhere but towards the mostly naked, underage girls before him. “Just a difference in upbringing Lord Elsmere, no judgment here.”

The light haired lord allowed the smile to form, showing the cards he played. The grim man knew that the site of the disrobed girls would bring the investigator to an uncomfortable state, thus giving him the advantage over the ordeal. True, he had no need for the upper hand, but it was a practice he seldom broke from.

Downloading file: Article 47: Paragraph 4:

“No person shall be forced into servitude, nor slavery, under the practices of Common Law. The buying, selling, or owning of any persons deemed, by definition of the law, to be a slave, is forbidden,” MA Joseph repeated as the file loaded to his memory.

The plain haired MA looked at the girls, one by one. Lord Elsmere fixed on the Cyber’s eyes, watching the white and pupil wave away to a mirror finish. The mirrored eyes continued to scan the girls for several seconds, as he also did the entire room before they returned to their normal appearance.

“Filthy Cyber!” Lord Elsmere spat. “Why do you dishonor my home by bringing this vulgar THING with you? I should have him melted down as we speak.”

Agent Calloway watched the man’s hands, waiting for him to reach for the small panel on the right arm of the red glass throne. A wave of relief came over him as the man simply folded his hands over his knee, the look of disgust still locked upon his narrow face.

“According to my scan,” MA Joseph stated, ignoring the threat. “Two of these girls are not of consenting age. To refer to them as your mates is to say that you have sexual relations with them. By common law, the act is deemed illegal. Tell me, Ira and Zulanna, has Lord Elsmere engaged you sexually in any way?”

Lord Elsmere laughed, his hands breaking wide to each side before clapping against the plush seats. There was something foul about the man’s smile, Calloway noted, like watching fabric being pulled over a metal frame. Faint bumps could be seen under the man’s taut skin, in areas where no cheekbone or other protruding bone structure would be. He was starting to ponder if the man had a skin condition. It wasn’t uncommon on terraformed planets, such as Parasus. Usually, such conditions were found in the first generation, shortly after the planet was deemed habitable. Parasus, however, was over a hundred years old and shouldn’t have been subject to such issues.

“I do not touch them,” Elsmere laughed. “At least not yet. They will spend many years in training before that day will come. I rather enjoy the wait, like a dog anticipating a meal. I almost need a handkerchief around my neck to mop up my saliva.”

The remark was made towards Calloway, the lord’s eyes fixated upon the agent from Earth. At this point, Nathan had caught on that the man was simply trying to provoke him though he wasn’t certain if it was Nathan’s presence that was making him carry on so rabidly. As he’d witnessed a few times prior, people of importance went out of their way to make the work of Earth representatives difficult, especially when Cyber’s were involved.

“I understand what you say,” Joseph replied in a monotone voice. “However, I am required to hear it from their voices, not yours. Perhaps, if you would give the girls some privacy, we would be able to resolve the matter more quickly?”

It was all Nathan could do not to yell ‘damn’ as the uncomfortable tide shifted in the MA’s favor. This would not be the first, nor the fifth time that the MA pissed off a dignitary in Calloway’s presence. The investigator wished on several occasions that he could be the full-time partner to the MA, if for nothing more than to watch him make powerful people squirm.

“That won’t be necessary,” Ira spoke up, stepping forward from the other two. “I assure you that Lord Elsmere has been nothing but a gentleman with my younger sister and me. Your concerns are appreciated, but unnecessary military advisor Joseph.”

Halfway through the response, the MA’s plain eyes took the mirror-coated form once more, scanning the young woman as she spoke.

Scanning: Pulse normal. Breathing normal. Subject is telling the truth.

“See, all good,” Agent Calloway offered. “Lord Elsmere, if I could just receive your formal complaint, we can be on our way.”

The light-haired lord sighed, snapping his finger before shifting in his seat. The nasty little man from earlier shuffled to Agent Calloway, handing him a data stick. The Agent inserted the strip into his pad and waited for the information to transfer. He didn’t look at the little man, patiently waiting for the return of his data stick, opting to yank it from his device and drop the data stick from his outstretched hand. Nathan hadn’t bothered to see if Terrance’s hands were anywhere near his when he let it go. Quite frankly, he didn’t care if it hit the special tile in between them and shattered into a dozen pieces.

The screen of the Agent’s pad sprang to life, a long list of data rolling down the center of the screen. Calloway frowned as the data was not a list of items were taken, but rather a message from a Yomiel Koranth from Mesa. It seemed that the man was able to pay off a debt he owed to Lord Elsmere and had hoped to have his collateral returned to him. The letter was exceptionally formal, full of words that Nathan had to skip over rather than look up the definitions. An odd sensation was forming in his stomach, telling him that this was not going to be as simple as stolen property.

“Alright, the orders I received was over stolen property,” he started. “I’m not seeing the property listed here. All I’m seeing is some guy owing you money who wants to pay it back with interest to get his collateral back. You mind filling in the blanks here?”

Nathan looked from the tablet, waiting for the lord to offer a reply. The lord, it seemed, was far too interested in gazing upon the backside of the three girls to his left to be bothered with such things as speaking. Realizing that his master’s mind was trailing off, the tiny, whiny voiced man from earlier stepped forth and took over.

“Mr. Koranth owed a debt of nearly two hundred thousand credits,” Terrance announced, adjusting the red glasses upon his nose. “As a sign of good faith, Mr. Koranth had to give collateral to Lord Elsmere for the money to be borrowed. Lord Elsmere, however, found himself to be in a generous mood and allowed for Mr. Koranth to pass on the debt. It seems that this did not please the man from Mesa, as he hired thugs to try to persuade Lord Elsmere to reconsider. I do assure you, though, the property of Lord Elsmere’s was taken. Property that must be found and returned or Mr. Koranth will be subject to Parasus law and punishment. You are here to prevent this from happening Agent Calloway. Find the thugs, and return the property. Lord Elsmere, in his kindness, has agreed to waive the charges if they do so.”

The odd sensation in Nathan’s stomach slowly churned. The agent only needed one guess to know what the missing property, and the collateral, involved. This incident was looking to be sent before the Council. Too many common laws were being broken for investigators to ignore.