Chapter 35: Chapter thirty-four

Present day

 

Liz woke with a jolt, her heart pounding. Someone was knocking on her bedroom door and had woken her in the middle of a nightmare about small cages and violent men. For a moment she thought it was the Program come to take her back, and she broke out in a cold sweat before she realized that they wouldn’t bother knocking as the bedroom door didn’t have a lock.

“It’s me,” the man who had saved her said from the other side of the door. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

“Give me a second,” she called back, throwing open the curtains to allow the sunlight to pour in and doing her best to seem at least a bit presentable before opening the door.

 

 

Liz opened the bedroom door and the man felt an instant pang of attraction towards her. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was messy from sleep and she wore no cosmetics, but still she was beautiful. She wore a pair of pyjamas the man had brought her the day before and he was pleased, though not surprised, to see that his estimation of her measurements had been correct. Following his attraction was a small, distant stab of guilt when he thought of Gwen and a reminder to himself to not let his attraction show. That wasn’t what she needed. Then, he noticed the sweat on her and the tension in her body. She looked to have had trouble sleeping, likely nightmares after being abducted. He would need to keep an eye on that. He wasn’t overly worried about PTSD or anything of that nature, that sort of thing was relatively rare and even rarer if no one actually mentions it as a possibility, but trauma can damage people’s psyches in a variety of ways that don’t rise to the level of mental illness.

All of these thoughts passed through the man’s mind in a piece of a second before Liz asked, “What is it?”

He motioned her into the lounge, turned on the light, and sat with her on the couch.

“The security at the Night Market will be too tight to break in,” he said. “And the price of admission is too high for me to pay. That means I have to go in as a seller.”

Liz nodded, clearly not sure why he had woken her up for this.

“The problem is that the Market is three days from now. That’s barely enough time to apply. It is unlikely I will be able source a piece of tech to sell there too.”

“Okay…”

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“Which is where you come in,” he said. “The Night Market sells everything, even people, and I am confident you would fetch a high price.”

“You’re going to sell me at a black-market auction?” she demanded.

“Only with your permission,” he said. “I’ll do what I can to keep you safe, but it will be dangerous, so it has to be your decision.”

Liz thought on this for a while. “Will you be able to do this without me?”

Avenues of manipulation opened up to him. He could see ways to cajole or strongarm her into providing her help. He ignored them, because manipulating innocents into putting their lives in danger was not what heroes did. Instead, he was honest.

“Possibly. But the probability of success is lower.”

“Can I think about it?”

“Yes, but I will need an answer by tonight in order to have time to register as a seller.”

The man’s phone rang. He answered it.

He felt a fleeting guilt when Gwen’s voice came down the line, though that was easily dismissed.

“Can you come to my apartment?” she asked. “I think I’m in trouble.”

The man frowned. Gwen lived some distance away from this safehouse, and it would take some considerable time to get there. Still, nothing to be done about that but to hurry.

“I have to go,” he said. “I’ll be back tonight for your answer.”

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