The Vigilantes (The Superiors)

Hillbrand/The Vigilantes
             
             
31

The Vigilantes

Lena
Hillbrand

Kindle Edition

Copyright 2011 Lena Hillbrand

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PART ONE

QUEST

Chapter 1

Draven was going to get his human. It mattered little that she didn’t technically belong to him, that she belonged to someone else. It mattered little that the someone else was a man twice Draven’s age, twice his rank, and whom he had once considered his closest friend. He was going to get her if it killed him.

Draven had worked hard for the right to buy the homo-sapien. He had done terrible things with that same friend, hired himself out as an assassin. And all the while he had thought it would be worth it when he received his government check for services rendered and turned it back over to the government in exchange for his homo-sapien. He already thought of
Cali
as his own before he even received his payment. She wasn’t his property or possession, but rather his right.

But all that had come to nothing when he’d gone to get her and found that his friend had already bought her, leaving Draven with nothing but a swollen bank account, a smudged conscience, and one more plan that hadn’t worked out. A plan was as good as nothing—Byron had ownership documents. That mattered more than anything to Byron, his friend, the man of principle, the law Enforcer, who knew that under the law, Draven had no claim at all to the human.

Draven didn’t much care for the law right then. He didn’t care about Byron, or that if he had to, he’d steal very valuable property from a man he admired and respected.

As he drove northward, he thought of these things with a fierce resolve. He concentrated on making good time and going as far as he could manage before the sun rose. He could drive in the daytime, too, but seeing turns and signs ahead proved more difficult, and it gave him a headache to squint into the brightness for long. The roads would be deserted by mid-morning, though, since most Superiors didn’t like to suffer the discomfort of staying out past daybreak.

Draven didn’t think about finding Byron, not just yet. He had time to think of that later. For now he thought of nothing more than the numbers on his speedometer rising. He lagged several days behind Byron. Until Byron stopped, the chances of catching up were slim. But perhaps Draven could gain a day if he drove late into the morning and started early, in the afternoon. He didn’t mind putting aside a little personal comfort for the human. Already he’d done much more for her.

Thinking of
Cali
aroused his hunger, but he didn’t stop to eat. It would prove too much hassle. He’d have to register at the next town, verify his identity and employment, and wait for his information to be sent to the new town so he could get a ration card. Easier to use some of his precious anyas and buy the disgusting cold sap from the stores. He needed the money to purchase
Cali
, but he knew how much she cost, and he had a few hundred extra anyas. He was prepared to negotiate with Byron, although he knew his superior would not part with
Cali
without a fight. Still, Byron would make a tidy profit if Draven brought all his money and offered it up for the sapien.

Byron was a reasonable man. Perhaps he would realize that Draven was willing to part with far more than the sap’s worth, and he’d take advantage. Or perhaps he’d keep
Cali
just to rankle Draven. Perhaps he’d not sell her for any price. Perhaps the Second was as attached as Draven. Or perhaps he was only attached to his ideas and principles. He wouldn’t like that Draven showed up uninvited to buy livestock he’d already said was not for sale. But Draven could work out a compromise when he arrived.

He drove late into the morning, when even through his dark glasses the glare gave him a headache. He slept in his car. Staying in a hotel would cost too much—he had to make certain he had enough money to buy
Cali
when he reached her. He ate a package of dried sap flakes, which clung inside his mouth in an awful way. The taste only vaguely resembled the real thing.

After covering the windshield with his light-safe shield, he tipped his seat back and prepared for sleep. Some cars came equipped with light-blocking technology, but he couldn’t afford those cars. His Mert performed the required duties and not much more.

Draven lay in the seat, trying to ignore the pounding in his head. He drank a bottle of water to fulfill his body’s need for fluids. Still, sleep eluded him.

He thought of Byron, of how surprised the man would be when Draven appeared at his new home. He only let himself wonder for a brief moment if Byron would turn him away, refuse to sell the sapien. Draven pushed the thought away. He couldn’t let himself consider that possibility. He knew he had acted rashly, dropping everything and leaving home with only a week’s extension of rations. The rationing program only allowed a week’s advance. If he wanted more next week, he would have to stop and register in another city. He did not know where he would be in a week. He hadn’t seen a city all night.

He thought of
Cali
, as well. About the warmth of her skin that he no longer found as offensive as he once had. About the wonderful sound of her blood pumping from her heart, slipping through her veins and arteries, sliding under her skin and past his nose, the delicious flavor of her sap springing into his mouth. What he wouldn’t give for just one taste.

But he would not have to limit himself to a taste. When he arrived at Byron’s, he would have more than enough money to purchase her, and he could draw from her every day of her life. Perhaps he’d mate her to another sapien, and when
Cali
grew old and died, he’d have another one with at least half her appeal. He could keep her offspring, and breed that with another. That way he could keep a part of her for quite some time. He hoped her special taste wouldn’t be too diluted to enjoy after a few generations. Sapiens lived such fragile, short lives.

Draven shifted in his seat, trying to get comfortable. Again, a fierce determination that
Cali
belonged to him by right if nothing else flooded through him. Although usually he went along with the laws, with society’s dictates, this time he could not remain passive. He’d always lived his life in the routine of his world no matter how it chafed his personality. But now he had killed a man. And he’d done it for one reason alone. He never would have taken the assignment if he’d known he would not get
Cali
as a reward. Most Second Order Superiors had killed during the War, but to Draven, it had meant more than he’d like to admit. He had gotten through it, and his resulting guilt, by thinking of his inevitable reward. And then Byron had bought her before Draven had the chance.

He looked down with mild surprise at his body’s physical response to his passionate conviction. Again he shifted, allowing himself access to the part that had grown as rigid as his determination. For a moment, a thrill of excitement passed through him when he thought of doing something about it, allowing himself a pervert’s fantasy. A thought filtered into his mind, a memory of Byron saying he’d lost respect for a friend who had fantasized about sex with a sapien. It was a taboo thing, but one that happened often enough. Hesitantly, Draven took hold of himself.

He thought of
Cali
, her tousled hair, her warm skin, the taste of her.

He took his hand away and shuddered. Something about it crossed a line he couldn’t bring himself to step over. Draven had never considered himself a particularly sexual person, and his sex life was routine if not exactly dull. The women he fucked seemed happy enough without him adding anything out of the ordinary. Almost nothing remained taboo in a
Superior
’s sex life, anyhow. This one thing, and perhaps a few others—animals, biting a
Superior
hard enough to draw blood, anything debasing the superior nature of their being. He’d never felt the need to cross these lines, even in his fantasy life.

He knew people dallied with their livestock, saps and other animals, but he preferred not to think of it. It made his stomach turn a bit, both in disgust for the perpetrators and pity for the animals. The other taboos were broken less often. He’d once bitten a woman during the act—quite by accident—a hundred years ago or so. She’d broken his nose in response and never spoken to him again, although she had shared a few words with the world on his database profile. Though he’d been appropriately shamed at the time, now the incident amused him.

Draven sensed that moment when his brain shut off, and then he slept, as always, without dreams. When he woke, evening had passed into full darkness. He cursed himself for sleeping so long and righted his seat. He turned on his pod and considered calling Byron again. But he’d rather keep the element of surprise, so he switched to music mode.

The road began to wind sharply, and he had to wonder if he was on the same road as Byron. He came to a place where the pavement had buckled over time, where rocks had forced their way through. He stepped from the car and studied the road. It would slow him some, but he thought he could get past the area if he cleared it a bit.

The night temperatures in the desert dropped below his comfort zone, although his car had been broiling when he awakened, so he knew the days grew quite warm. Now the cold whipped at him under the dark sky of piercing stars. His fingers ached with cold as he worked, but he didn’t have the human advantage of growing numb. Quarter of an hour later, he had cleared away the rocks and chunks of asphalt. But he had lost that quarter of an hour in catching up with Byron. Before starting out again, he checked the electronic dash screen in his car to see if he could find a more accessible road. He found a larger one, but he’d have to backtrack for an entire night to reach it. It circled to the east, then back towards the mountains. The road he now followed went straight to the mountains—straight to Byron’s new home. If Byron had taken the longer, larger road, they might arrive in the city the same night.

Draven switched on his car and traversed the rutted road. He tried to remember the last car he’d seen, the last lights, the last city. He’d passed through it a few nights before, although it seemed longer. He drove along the winding road, over areas where sand blanketed the asphalt and areas where tumbling webs of dried plant skittered across the road and into the blackness.

While he drove, he ate a packet of dried sap that proclaimed, “TWO FULL RATIONS IN EACH PACK!” across the top. He drank a bottle of water. He listened to music and looked at the night sky, blazing with a trillion pinpricks of light. Again he thought of
Cali
, and wondered if she was frightened, or in pain, or if Byron treated her well now that he owned her. He knew that Byron didn’t treat his livestock with much kindness, that he thought they were dumb brutes with no emotion. But he also knew that a shrewd man like Byron would never kill a sapien and waste such a valuable investment. Byron would make sure
Cali
lived, not out of kindness or pity, but out of practical self-interest.

The night had faded towards dawn when Draven noticed the changing landscape. The dunes and sand flats gradually gave way to small swells in the land, and scrubby bushes replaced tumbleweed. Draven remembered his time in the desert with Byron, the talks, the walking, the comfortable silences. He longed for that company again. He knew that what Byron had done didn’t quite qualify as betrayal. In Byron’s eyes, it had simply been a tactical maneuver, out-playing his opponent. Byron had known Draven’s fondness for the sapien he also liked, and he’d taken advantage of Draven’s ignorance of their mutual inclination.

If Draven had known Byron had hurt
Cali
, given her an infection that almost killed her, he might not have trusted his friend so much, might not have respected Byron if he’d known the treatment his livestock received. Still, the events might have transpired in the exact way they had, despite Draven’s opinion of his mentor. After all, Draven hadn’t sought the assignment that had brought him the money to buy
Cali
. He had only taken it so he could afford her. He likely would have taken it even if he’d known Byron was the man who had been so cruel to the sap. And if he had known of Byron’s intention to buy
Cali
, he wouldn’t have been able to stop him. Byron was his elder—and a Second.