Page 57 of Vicious
Our ship was the only one in the small docking port. Pristine, shiny white colored the walls, floor, and ceiling, and in the corner, a squat robot shaped like a thumb swept up trash by rolling over it. It blended with the room since it was the same color, as if it was meant to beoverlooked.
In the opposite corner, Crispin pushed open a door that I supposed led into the space station. Poh pulled it closed again, though, and tossed a glare over her shoulder atme.
“Any slower and you would be dead, Absidy,” she said. “This won’t work unless you do your part as myprisoner.”
“I know.” I forced myself onward, scratching the scales under myglove.
Halfway toward the door, an overwhelming cloud of tobacco smoke enveloped my senses, thick though I couldn’t seeit.
“Red?” I whispered. Was that her or something else? “Do you smell that?Tobacco?”
Poh took a step toward me, her yellow eyes sharp. “No…Why?”
I didn’t know, but that was Red’s signature scent. What was she trying to tell me? A warning, likely. To stay away? But it was too late forthat.
With a deep breath, I started forward again, ignoring the unease that swamped my gut. The door opened into an expansive hallway painted the same blinding white color as the docking port with more invisible robots scouring the already spotless floor. Along the wall at our backs, more doors led into what I supposed were more docks, and straight ahead, a young man in a blue uniform stood next to a narrowarchway.
A metaldetector.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” he said as we drew closer, his gaze raking over all my ironparts.
“No shitting required, I hope.” Poh nodded at me. “She goes throughfirst.”
“I-I don’t even know where to start. You’ve got chains in your hair, and…I can’t ask you to take your shirt off.” He blinked down at my girls spilling over the top of my corset, and his jaw slackened to zombie mode. “CanI?”
I whipped my hand out under his chin and nudged his head back up, much like Ellison had done to Mase when he’d first seen me wearing my corset. My heart splintered at the thought, but I squashed it back down and slivered my eyes intodaggers.
“I’m not taking anything off,” I said through grittedteeth.
Poh shouldered between us, patting the guard on the chest so he’d back up, and throwing me a secret smile before she turned back to him. “Yeah, better cool it there, hoss. She’ll bite out your tongue if you wag it too close. I reckon do what you always do, knowing that she’ll send your alarms into atizzy.”
He gave a sharp nod, smoothed his uniform shirt, and pointed at a plastic tray next to the metal detector. “Everything in your pockets and any weapons go in there. Nothing goes into the station except currency cards. You’ll get everything back when youleave.”
I didn’t have anything in my pockets, and I’d left my ice picks on Parker’s ship. The only thing I carried was the vial of consumectalons wedged down the front of my corset. As long as he didn’t frisk me—and hewouldn’t—I would pretend to forget about thatvial.
“I don’t have anything,” Isaid.
The guard swept an electronic wand over me that beeped the entire time. Then he sent me through the metal detector which—gasp—triggered thealarm.
He made it stop and then turned to Poh. She motioned for him to do his things with the electronic wand, which also beeped the entire time he scanned her. Whatever else she was packing didn’t appear to be inside her pockets, though, since they wereempty.
The guard ushered her and Crispin through the rest of these time-wasters, and then we were on our way again. At the end of the hallway were several double doors, none of which opened or closed. I glanced behind us, but only the guard, now facing away from us, and the cleaning bots joined us in here. We were alone, despite this place brimming with travelers. I rubbed absently at my bandaged, scaled arm, ticking my gaze around the hallway for any sign oflife.
As we drew within fifteen feet of the doors, darkness seemed to swallow the color from the shiny white walls to a dull gray. The tobacco smell grew stronger, erupting a burn through my nostrils as if I were breathing it in. I glanced up at the lights on the ceiling, and then at Poh and Crispin, who appeared not to notice the hallway shrink to justus.
Darker and darker until midnight choked everything out of existence. I crumpled to the ground, all of my oxygen fleeing. Something was wronger than wrong with this place. That fact sat on my chest and leaked tears down my cheeks. It chased cold over my skin and plumed my tobacco-laced, staggered gasps into theair.
“What’s wrong with you? Getup.”
Poh’s voice, a growl, but it was too dark to see her. Then with a pale spotlight, she appeared kneeling over me, her fingers digging into my shoulders and shakingme.
I dragged in a breath. “We have to goback.”
“No, fuck that.” She scowled, her terrifying mix of scales and fangs catching the light. “We goforward.”
I shook my head. She didn’t understand my meaning, but I couldn’t get enough air to set her straight. We needed to go back for my iron. This place… It didn’t feel right. Not at all. Something was here. Something dark, sinister, and laced with the metallic tang of blood that completely buried Red’stobacco.
“No, Poh.” My words caught on the chilledair.
