Project LOSS

Chapter 20

 “So, Daniel, you said slavers kidnapped your girlfriend?” Kai asked the young man sitting to his left. Kai leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, fingers laced. The smaller man had to lean forward and twist to look Kai in the eye as he spoke.

            “Yeah, I know they took her to a bar called Crimson, but I can’t take on the guards alone… I went over all this with the other guy,” Daniel said, eyes blinking behind thick glasses.

            “The Donk? Yeah, I know. He said you’re broke and I rarely do discounts.” Kai briefly considered lying about having some charitable intention but ultimately couldn’t be bothered, “But, I’m bored so….”

After having completed three bog standard jobs that week, Kai was happy to undertake a task not so run-of-the-mill in nature for a heavily discounted price, partly because he craved the distraction and partly because the job description piqued his interest.

 The CDA girls were always desperate to visit the party district—an attraction that pulled in the young, the stupid and the depraved in roughly equal measure; all drawn to its lack of rules and free-for-all mentality. Kai had never been interested in going there for pleasure. He preferred to spend his leisure time in more peaceful and familiar surroundings, but he was curious to see what the fuss was about, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Music with a heavy bass line blasted Kai in the face as he pushed the double doors of the club entrance inward. Inside was huge and stylish, boasting a circular bar as its central feature that, by itself, was larger than any drinking establishment Kai had visited. The place heaved with activity. People danced, fought and engaged in drinking contests as well as other activities normal people kept private.

It did not take long to locate Emma, the target of the rescue. She dressed scantily in a fashion similar to Meredith’s usual attire but with the addition of bunny ears, a tail and a collar with a chain that tethered her to the bar. She wasn’t the only woman shackled in such a way. Kai spotted at least three other women dancing in cages suspended above the dance floor and another splayed out naked on a table, her dignity covered only by a selection of fruits and shot glasses filled with drinks every colour of the rainbow.

The owner of the bar—and the women—an ordinary-looking man of maybe forty stood beside Emma at the bar and loudly announced a drinking competition.

“If you can beat this pretty little bar bunny in a drinking contest, you can take anything you like from behind the bar,” he declared with a false looking grin. He raised his arms to highlight the collection of rare and expensive whiskeys and liquors displayed in the cabinet behind him.

“What if I lose?” Kai asked purely out of interest, knowing he couldn’t lose a contest involving alcohol. This notion was not down to arrogance; his metabolism was more effective at removing alcohol from his system. He had been fall-over drunk before but could not—try as he might—drink to the point of blissful oblivion.

“You lose, and you buy a round for everyone here,” the owner stated, prompting a room full of cheering and glass raising.

The bar bunny, Emma, leaned over the bar and pouted at Kai, giving him more of a view than what was already on offer.

 “You in?” Emma whispered seductively. Kai could smell her sickly sweet cherry lipstick and the acrid scent of cigarette smoke on her breath. There was something repugnant about the woman, although wildly attractive in the traditional sense, who appeared perfectly at ease considering her predicament.

As soon as Kai nodded in the affirmative, Emma got to work, lining up two lines of twenty shot glasses and expertly filling each glass with a fluorescent green liquid. Curiously, although they had come from the same bottle, the ones on the back looked ever so slightly different to Kai. There was little visual distinction between the shots yet something about the texture of the liquid and the way it sat in the glass was off.

Kai leaned over the bar and breathed deeply. His nose detected little to no alcohol and the ones on the front row but his contained not only alcohol but enough tranquilliser to subdue a rampaging elephant.

Hmm, it’s like the fancy mouthwash Vrethie bought, Kai thought. The mouthwash had a pink and a blue layer that would always separate out, no matter how vigorously Kai shook it up.

Kai grabbed the first shot from the line Emma had poured for herself and knocked it back with a cruel grin before she could protest. “I’ll take this row.”

“Why? You watched me pour them from the same bottle,” Emma cried.

“So, what difference does it make?” Kai asked with a knowing smile.

“Do you know what will happen to me if I lose?” Emma leaned in to whisper pleadingly.

“It’ll be Okay. Do you know who I am?” Kai replied in an equally hushed tone.

“No,” she said with a slight change in vocal range and heart rate; indicative of a lie.

Why would you lie about that? Kai shrugged. Heh, there’s probably a simple explanation.

“Trust me.” Kai winked and continued knocking back the alcohol-free shots he was happy to discover were watermelon flavoured. Left with no other option, Emma chocked down as many of the mini alcohol and tranquilliser cocktails as she could manage before passing out. The bar owner stepped back behind the bar and poked Emma with his foot a few too many times before sourly declaring Kai the winner.

“So? Which of my fine collection will you be relieving me of?” Mr Rosco sighed.

Kai pointed to the unconscious woman. “I’ll take her.”

Mr Rosco cleared his throat and shook his head, “No.”

“You said anything behind the bar...” Kai reminded the man who was pacing back and forth, his index finger resting thoughtfully over his nose.

“She is a person. I said any—thing,” Mr Rosco was quick to point out.

“Yes, but she’s a slave. A slave is a thing in your possession,” Kai argued before realising it was a waste of his time. “Look, I am taking her. I came for her and I am taking her. I went to the effort to go through this façade... the least you could do is honour your word.”

Barging past the owner, other bartenders and customers, Kai slid behind the bar to retrieve his prize. Flinging the girl over his shoulder as though she were a jacket, he jumped over the bar and started toward the exit. He was about to vacate when two beefy looking security guards emerged from the sea of scantily clad bodies. The large men looked at each other before one whispered to their boss: “Uh Mr Roscoe, I think that guy is the super strong reaper from the free city.”

What’s a reaper? Some new term the hip young people dreamt up?

Although Kai was technically young himself, he rarely felt it. The pressure on his shoulders must have prematurely had aged him.

Mr Roscoe looked Kai up and down and curled his lip. He didn't seem overly impressed by what he saw.

“If you follow me or make any attempt whatsoever to take her back, I will break every bone in your body,” Kai warned. He leaned close to the man’s face. “That is a promise.”

Kai pushed the swinging door with his foot and exited the bar, hoping never to return. He only managed ten paces before he heard the footsteps of at least twelve men at his back. A faint breeze ruffled Kai’s hair as he gently placed the girl on the ground and sauntered back toward the bar. The security team shuffled and exchanging frightened glances but not make a move towards Kai.

You know exactly who I am, Kai thought. Don’t throw your lives away for that scumbag.

Instead of apprehending Kai, they gathered just outside the entrance and listened to the screams of their employer as Kai enacted the threat he had made just moments before.

When Kai returned to Emma she was stirring, groggily rubbing her eyes and temples. “I feel like I got hit by a bus.”

“Your former owner is in worse shape, trust me.”

“What are you going to do with me?” Emma asked Kai, no hint of fear or perturbation in her voice. If anything, her tone was inappropriately seductive. The way she looked Kai up and down make him uncomfortable. He turned away from her and walked as she stood, forcing her to run a little to catch up.

“Take you home,” mumbled Kai.

Daniel was waiting in a smaller but no less notorious drinking establishment closer to the outskirts of the party district.

A pungent cloud of smoke entered Kai’s lungs and stung his eyes as he pulled back the wooden door. He escorted his prize into the dark, dank room inhabited by an altogether more subdued clientele than Rosco’s. As Kai met Daniel’s eyes through the smoke cloud, the kid jumped out of his seat with such vigour it fell and clattered to the ground, prompting grunts of disapproval from the heavyset gentleman on the adjacent table.

“Oh, my god ... you did it!” Daniel cried with way too much enthusiasm and disbelief for Kai’s liking.

Well, yes… it was hardly difficult...

“Come on then, buy me a drink,” Kai prompted. The exuberant charged looks passing between the pair of lovers became nervous sideways glances.

“Uh, I think it would be best to leave here as soon as possible. It isn’t safe for Emma—” Daniel stammered before Kai interrupted them.

“Rubbish. You’re with me. There aren’t many safer places than that.” Kai knew of how arrogant he sounded, but it was not as if he were exaggerating. If anything, he was understating the truth, for he could not think of one other person more qualified to make that claim.

 “Maybe we should stay for one,” Emma suggested. “We owe him.”

“I insist,” Kai said with a grin, ushering the pair toward one of the empty tables before rushing to the bar. He craved a drink with more kick than the fruity sugar water shots Emma had served up. As he stood at the bar, scanning the dusty wooden shelves for a brand he recognised, he overheard the conversation two patrons shared with the barkeep.

“Did you hear what just happened up at Roscoe’s? Apparently, they got away with thousands. Did a real number on the guy too.”

 Kai cleared his throat loudly. “Huh?”

The group of men turned to Kai and were more than happy to share the gory details of the story as best they could on second-hand information, proving that it wasn’t only middle-aged women who thrived on idle gossip.

During the conversation, Kai noticed Emma and Daniel had vacated their seats and were edging toward the door. Their actions gave credence to the story about a man and a woman who recently robbed the most successful bar in the district.

Shit! Duped again.

Kai felt stupid and angry in equal helpings. He had helped those people out of the kindness of his heart, and it was not as though he had vast reserves of compassion from which to draw upon.

The couple halted abruptly when Kai turned to them with a maniacal grin, stopping them like two rabbits caught in headlights—fitting, considering the woman’s attire.

“You know, you aren’t the first or the most attractive woman to con me lately.”

“I didn’t—” Emma began what would be a futile attempt to talk her way out of her predicament. Kai didn’t allow her the chance, shoving his finger against her lips.

“Shush… I speak, you listen,” Kai demanded in a quiet but firm voice. “This is becoming a trend, and that’s worrying. I’m afraid I’m just going to have to make an example of you.”

“How?” Emma swallowed loudly.

“Hmm,” Kai leaned his head back as though deep in thought but watched the couple out of the corner of his eye. “I think I’ll cut off your heads and stick them on spikes. That should act as a deterrent to any other con artists.”

“Please don’t kill us!” the couple cried in unison. “It wasn’t even our idea!”

“Some old guy put us up to it,” Daniel told Kai, who was pulling a long sword from a sheath on the back of his leather armour. Kai paused, sword poised and ready to remove two heads in one strike. “Old guy?” he asked, curious.

“Yeah. He had these yellowy green eyes and orange hair that was kind of long but receding in the front.” Emma nodded frantically in agreement. “Yeah, he came up with the entire plan.”

Kai slowly re-sheathed his sword, puzzled as to why the man they were describing—his father Jimmi—would do such a thing. The only explanation that made sense was that Jimmi had wanted to draw Kai out to talk to him, but if so then, where was he?

“Take me to this man, and I might not kill you.”