Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24103 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 121(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24103 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 121(@200wpm)___ 96(@250wpm)___ 80(@300wpm)
“Is what they say true?”
I frown again.
“About what?”
The older woman giggles behind an open hand before shooting me an appraising look.
“You know what I’m talking about. Do you have the genetic deformity rumored of the royal family? You certainly are a fine piece of man flesh, Prince Haakon, and there’s so much gossip about your anatomy swirling around.”
I grimace because this is not the woman I want to be having this conversation with.
“Why? Maybe,” I hedge. “What’s it to you?”
Nerilda leans forward then, her eyes bright.
“Show me,” she breathes. “This will be one for the ages.”
But I pull back, already repulsed by the middle-aged madame. She’s not ugly. In fact, Nerilda is quite attractive if you like hardened MILFs with jet-black hair and obviously fake breasts. But I know how to play my hand.
“If you tell me where Matilda is, then I might show you.”
Nerilda’s eyes go wide as she flicks her cigarette.
“I already told you, I don’t know.”
I shrug.
“Really. The madame of a whorehouse doesn’t know where one of her girls is.”
Nerilda holds both her hands up.
“I swear it. Matilda hasn’t been around recently!”
I shrug.
“Yeah, but you have spies all throughout the city. There are little birds that whisper in your ear at all hours of the day and night. So where is Matilda? Tell me and I might let you have a glimpse.”
Nerilda licks her ruby lips, considering my offer.
“I might know something,” she concedes. “It’s not concrete, but there are rumors.”
“Then tell me,” I command. “And you’ll get to see the Lysenian double shaft.”
With that, Nerilda’s eyes light up with anticipation.
“Okay,” she says in a rushed voice. “There are rumors that Matilda was kidnapped.”
I squint.
“Okay, by who? Who would want to kidnap her? And for what? To where?”
Nerilda rolls her eyes.
“So many questions, my prince. But I’ll tell you what I know. Matilda went on a date with Albert Ray. Rumor is that Albert kidnapped her, and that she’s off in the Colonies now.”
I squint.
“What? The Colonies?” The Colonies refer to a far-flung wasteland located beyond the reaches of Siberia. Allegedly, women are brought to the Colonies for hard labor, and the conditions are atrocious. They sleep in the open without access to clean water, and the mortality rate is fifty percent within the first year.
Of course, we’ve worked with other countries in the EU to put an end to the Colonies, yet our efforts have been unsuccessful. Somehow, women are continually trafficked to the wasteland despite our best efforts, and they disappear with alarming frequency. The area is controlled by violent warlords, many of whom kneel to no man.
“Holy shit,” I whisper, the blood draining from my face. “Oh hells.”
“Yeah,” Nerilda says. “So I’d get there fast if I were you. But now, it’s my turn,” she says in a snippy voice. “Pants down, pretty boy.”
I wish I could say that I stalked off and showed her nothing. I wish I could say that I slapped the madame across the face for daring to talk to a royal that way. But I knew I needed more information, and it was likely that the madame had more up her sleeve. So I upheld my end of the bargain. I showed Nerilda the Lysenian double-dick, as she laughed and clapped, beaming with excitement. Then I did even more, in order to extract additional information. After all, I’m desperate to find Matilda no matter the price to be paid … and the Colonies were the key to it all.
9
Matilda
I hack at the steaming dirt beneath my feet, trying not to breathe in the fumes. The earth beneath the pick cracks open, revealing luminescent shimmers of some strange, unearthly material. Clearly, it’s toxic because nothing natural looks like that. I raise my hand, and a droid floats over with a camera, which it aims at the bubbly liquid.
“Affirmative,” it says in a flat voice, clicking on the shutter. “Shovel, please.”
Another droid floats over with a shovel in its mechanical claw, which it hands to me.
“Collect and retrieve,” it commands. “Agent 2-6-1 reporting.”
I take the shovel and begin hacking away at the soil again. Meanwhile, women all around me toil in similar conditions. My back aches, my hair sticks to my forehead, and I’m dressed in dirty rags. I’ve been sent to the Colonies for no reason whatsoever. I don’t get it, and wonder what I did to deserve this.
After all, I was kidnapped during a date with Albert Ray, and I still don’t understand why. Everything seemed fine. I showed up at the bowling alley, and Albert was courteous. Friendly, even. But then, some crazy manager offered me new bowling shoes, and when I woke up, I was hog-tied in the back of a van, while Albert regarded me from a hard metal seat bolted to the vehicle wall.
“So you’re Haakon’s whore,” he said in a flat tone.