Page 17 of V-Day
Daniel scowled. “There is a US military prototype drone heading for Washington, glowing with gamma radiation. It has been recalibrated and isn’t taking orders from the US Airforce. The President asked if I knew of any facilities on Vistaria which could control the drone.”
His gaze met Olivia’s.
“Hell’s bells…” Olivia breathed.
*
ANNAMARIA—THE MADAM, CALLI SUPPOSEDshe should be called—looked as though she was in her forties and was probably younger. Her hair was a dyed, dry blonde. Her figure sagged under the simple tee shirt and cotton skirt. Her eyes had bruises beneath them from long term sleep deprivation. “Marisa Roldán isn’t here,” she said, her voice strained. “After the first night, they took her to a place where they could lock her up during the day.”
“You’re locked up here, aren’t you?” Calli said, looking around. The room was perhaps thirty feet long, with a cold concrete floor and bare fluorescent tubes overhead. The walls were also raw concrete. The front half of the room held rows of folding beds and camp beds, with thin blankets and no pillows. Nearly two dozen women were sleeping on them. There were few beds left empty.
The rows of beds took up most of the space in the front of the room. On the other side, a counter was mounted along the wall. Mirrors were screwed into the concrete above the counter. More fluorescent lights illuminated the mirrors. On the counter in front of the mirrors were dozens of tin cans, some with their food labels still attached and some glinting dull zinc in the light. They all held makeup and hair accessories and brushes.
The other half of the room held the wardrobe.
Calli had scanned the rows of mobile racks with curiosity when she first arrived. Then she noticed the details of some costumes hanging from the racks. Leather and vinyl. Lacings and sheer garments. Holes in interesting places. High leather boots. Sets of chains and leather she could make no sense of, for they hung shapeless without a body to hang from. She had shuddered and turned away.
Now she tried not to look at the racks. She kept her gaze on Annamaria’s face, instead.
“We are locked here, yes,” Annamaria said. “Only, we are quiet and sleep. Roldán…” She sighed.
“She didn’t sleep?” Calli asked curiously.
“She talked!” Annamaria replied. “Always, about freedom and rights and how we should rise against the men who have us enslaved here.” Her mouth turned down. “As if we didn’t know that.”
Ibarra had removed Roldán because she was a bad influence over these ground-down women. Calli hid her smile and said soberly, “I am afraid I will do the same, Annamaria. This bordello…it is an offense against women.”
“Yet here it is.” Annamaria shrugged. “What would you have us do? Fight the soldiers? Take their shiny guns away from them with our bare hands?”
“Youdon’twant to do that?”
Annamaria rolled her eyes again. “I am a good Loyalist—”
“You are a Loyalist?” Calli was shocked for the first time since she had been pushed into the room.
Annamarie’s smile was wry. “We all are. Why do you think we are here?”
Calli stared at her, rapidly readjusting her assumptions. She had been trying to appeal to Annamaria’s sense of solidarity among women to bring her to Calli’s side and help Calli escape. Not for a moment had Calli thought a simple appeal to her political affiliations might move the woman.
Calli sighed. “How do you stand it, being cut off down here? Wondering what is happening?”
“We’re not cut off. Why would you say that?” Annamaria replied.
“Excuse me?”
Annamaria shrugged. “What do you want to know about the war?”
Calli stared at her. “I…um…what has happened in the last five days? I’ve heard nothing.”
“Are you asking for the Loyalist status, or the Insurrecto one?”
Calli blinked. “You know the deployment of the Insurrectos?”
“We are the toys of generals and colonels and majors.” Annamaria’s smile was dry. “Afterwards, they talk. They boast, to make themselves feel bigger. The data can be correlated, though. There are approximately eight hundred troops still posted at the northern base. The majority of the army is pulled in around the city borders…”
Calli held up her hand. “Wait. Let’s come back to that. First, I must know…have you heard anything about Nicolás Escobedo?”
“Your husband disappeared from Acapulco, three days ago.”
Calli’s heart leapt. “Disappeared…” she breathed.
“His absence gnaws at them,” Annamaria added, with a slow nod. “El Leopardomoving freely and unaccounted-for is a dangerous thing.” Her tired gaze met Calli’s. “Taking you was the wrong thing. It has backfired. They know that now.”
Calli grimaced. “Knowing they made a mistake hasn’t moved them to let me go.”
“Why would they? They have nothing to lose. They will want to have fun with you before the might ofEl Leopardolands upon them.”
While Calli shuddered, Annamaria tugged at the shoulder of her tee shirt. “We will need to find you something better to wear than this.”
