Conduit - M J Marlow (best short books to read txt) 📗

initiation.” “You can’t do this to me,” Char protested and tried to get past the woman. “I am a free woman. I have…” “No one and nothing,” the woman finished for her. “Life here can be quite pleasant if you behave. Accept this fate, and your life will be relatively unhindered, a candidate for residency in the village we are rebuilding in the valley. Fight, and you will be chained. Continue to disobey and you will be drugged.” Char sank down on the chair, shaking in anger and despair. The woman smiled as the door opened and a woman brought Char a meal. Slavery had been abolished in the rest of the world; but it was obvious these people still practiced it quite willingly. And that poor child Professor Boussard had mentioned was going to be brought into this madness. Char knew she had to do whatever she could within her now narrow limits of freedom to protect that child from these madmen. But as she ate and drank what she had been provided, her resolve began to weaken. Her mind began to grow fuzzy until her old life was a blur. She knew she had been drugged then and she curled up in the corner and sobbed. “So,” a cold voice hissed as the door to her apartment opened, “this is the new human female.” Char looked up to see a seven foot tall man with sharp, almost reptilian features standing in the doorway and she screamed and backed away. The alien smiled and came into the room. The door closed and locked behind him. “I am told you have never known a man, little human,” the alien smiled as he clamped his hand on Char’s throat and tossed her onto the bed in the next room. “It shall still be so when I am through with you.” When he was through, he left Char nearly dead. He went to the control room and sank down in a chair beside their human ally. “Time is drawing close, Senator,” he said as he watched the television with the not-man, “We want the results of the breeding experiment in our hands before her human relatives get to her.” “We have our best man on that task, Ventik.” “You know the punishment if you fail us, Gibbons,” the alien snarled. “We will not fail,” the man nodded his head. “The girl is as good as in your cage.” “There is nothing as good as in my cage, Gibbons.” He rose to his feet, smiling. “Unless it is a virgin human in your cage. I will return later.” In an embassy in Washington DC, the Spanish attaché snapped to attention as Prince Antonio Rivero Santos strode in with his aides. The silver haired man was highly connected and powerful. He reminded the attaché of one of the old Hidalgo with his arrogant assurance. He had been told to expect the man. He had not been told why. He led the prince into his office and watched the aide, a tall silent man who made the attaché’s skin crawl, take up a position nearby. The prince motioned to the other man, equally as tall and forbidding, and that one opened a briefcase and pulled out a file. He slid it across the desk. “You will use all your connections here,” the aide spoke for the prince, “to find this child.” “Dulcinea Santos,” the attaché read. He looked up in shock. “Your son had a child?” “She is to be brought here as swiftly as possible,” the aide spoke. “Anyone who seeks to hinder your retrieval of her is to be punished.” The attaché rose as the prince did, bowing. The trio left his office to be given quarters in the visitors wing. He pulled the folder to him and looked at the photograph and history of the child he had been asked to find. She was about 17, he saw, and quite pretty for a girl in old ragged clothing. She was surrounded by other children of varying ages and the series of photographs showed them playing in a park. He recognized the park; it was in Washington DC! He saw someone he recognized seated on a bench nearby and he was shocked. The old man’s expression told him quite firmly that the Judge knew these children quite well. He had his start, the attaché smiled. He picked up the receiver and dialed. “Agent Davis, please,” he asked for his contact in the FBI. “This is Geraldo Santiago. I have a task for you.” He gave him the information. “Her grandfather wants her back, Senor Davis. I suggest you produce her before this becomes an international incident.” * I don’t know when I became aware of my shadows. I was about my business and strangers seemed to start taking far too much interest in me. When I took the money the twins had made delivering newspapers and bagging groceries to buy clothing for the younger children in our little ‘family’, there was a woman standing on the other side of the street. I lost her in the alleys that were my ground. When I went shopping, there was a short dumpy man with light brown hair and eyes hidden behind thick framed glasses leaning against the hood of his car. He pretended to be checking the tires, but he did not fool me. It continued for weeks and I was getting very jumpy. So I did what I should have done from the first day; I went to see “Gramps”, our undocumented guardian, Judge Norman Davenport. “Gramps!” The silver haired man on the park bench looked up from feeding pigeons and smiled as he saw me coming. We had adopted him as our grandfather because he was more than happy to help us with the things we weren’t old enough to handle on our own. Hotels frowned at 17 year olds renting rooms without identification. Despite the fact that he was a federal judge, he did not insist we return to Child Welfare’s nightmarish foster care system. The stories we had told him had led to several of those homes being closed and employees in Child Welfare and Social Services losing their jobs and/or going to prison. I sank down on the bench next to him and told him what had been happening. He was very indignant for me. “So I need your help, Gramps,” I smiled up at him. “I need to know the kids are going to be all right if something happens to me.” “I will take you all in, Dulcie,” the man replied. “I have that big place of mine and just me rattling around in it.” He saw my frown. “It wouldn’t be as regimented as a foster home; I’d be at court most of the time, but…” “We’d look after ourselves,” I nodded. “You really want us to move in?” My mind was spinning already with plans. This might work! “It could work, Gramps.” I grabbed his hand, my russet brown eyes bright with happiness. “You’d do this for us?” “Of course I would,” Gramps nodded. “You children have given me a reason to live again. It’s little enough as a way to thank you.” “You’ll still do it,” I asked him as I saw a familiar face, “even if I have to go away?” I saw Justin turning our way and looked away from him. “I need to know they’re safe, Gramps.” I handed him the money from the wallet. “This should help.” “Don’t worry, child,” Gramps smiled and handed me back my money. “I’ll take in your little family. They’ll have everything they could ever want under my care.” He saw me looking over my shoulder. “They’re here, aren’t they?” “I’d better move,” I said as I kissed his cheek. “Thanks, Gramps!” “You take care, darling child,” Gramps nodded. He watched me take off and saw the tall dark haired man following with a determined look on his face. He slipped out his camera phone and took a photograph as Justin passed by. The next photograph was of an equally tall blond man, obviously federal agent, who followed them. He had an earpiece in and was speaking as he moved. That done, he headed to City Hall. His secretary, also his daughter Jeanne Harrison, saw his look and followed him into his office. He made a few phone calls. “This is Judge Davenport. I have a few children I need you to assign to my care.” He gave the names. He informed them that the children he listed would be Wards of the State under his care until further notice. “I want them brought to my home immediately. They are witnesses to a crime.” “What’s going on, Dad?” she asked simply. “Why the change in tactics?” “Dulcie asked me to take them in,” Gramps smiled. He frowned as he connected his phone to his computer. He downloaded the photographs. “I’m afraid our little friend is in trouble.” He picked up the receiver as he emailed the photos. “David,” he said to the man who answered the call. “I’ve just emailed you some photos. Find out who these men are for me. They were following Dulcie Santos. I need to know why.” He could think of reasons why a man would abduct a 17 year old girl, and none of them was something he wanted to think me forced into. I managed to lose the tall man and hurried down the alley. There were children to feed, and they were depending on me to provide for them. I noted my three shadows as I entered the abandoned apartment building we had claimed as ‘home’ and hurried upstairs. The twins, manning their posts on the front fire escapes as I entered, would keep watch on them until I saw to the others. “You need to pack everything up, Sally,” I said to the 13 year old who was the next oldest girl in our ‘family’ as I began to find bags. “Gramps has agreed to take us all in.” “Why tonight, Dulcie?” Sally argued. “Because people have been following me,” I told her bluntly. Sally was old enough to hear the truth, I had decided. “And I have a very uneasy feeling that they are going to cause trouble tonight. Is that enough reason?” “We can’t let you run alone, Dulcie,” Snitch, the fourteen year old red head, frowned at me. “I need to know the little ones are safe, Snitch,” I told him, as I continued to pack. I handed him two full bags. “That means under your care,” I said firmly. He preened, as he always did when I trusted him with an important task. “You know the way there.” “I’ll get them there, Dulcie,” Snitch nodded. “You can count on me.” “I know I can,” I nodded. I looked around the apartment and frowned. All of it filled only seven bags. I found Amber’s doll and handed it to the five year old. I went to the crib and woke up three year old Adam. I found his teddy bear and handed it to him before handing the little boy over to Sally. “Now you two listen to Snitch and Sally,” I smiled as I kissed the young ones’ cheeks. I handed Sally the wallet. “There’s about seventy dollars in there. It enough for you to get to Gramps in a taxi and have enough left for hot dogs and sodas at the stand outside City Hall.” I saw their eyes light up at the usually forbidden treat. “He’s going to take care of everything for you after that.” I looked over my shoulder as someone whistled our signal. “Get going now. Out the back fast.” The younger four children hurried out of the apartment and I knew they would get where they were going. Snitch would not let anyone mess with them. I hurried to the front and went down the fire escape and