A broad smile lights up Veronica’s face, “We’re firmly in a post-consequence world, Simon. Try looking around sometime. Does it seem like anybody is called to task for anything anymore? No. Precisely. You will stay here as my captive, because I have the power to make it so. And your girl will be hunted down and brought here too. If you’re very good, I’ll allow you to mate in captivity.”
I used to like Veronica because she believed in my work. Now I deeply dislike her for much the same reason.
“This isn’t going to work, and you know it. My family will look for me. Her family will look for her.”
“And they won’t find you,” Veronica says. “I really think you’re failing to understand how much money there is involved here, and therefore how much people will be willing to sacrifice to wring every last bit out of your brain.”
* * *
Lydia
It is 6:00 a.m. I am at the park. The men Veronica paid to kidnap me are milling around uncomfortably. A couple of them break out a hacky sack. It hits me, viscerally, that I could be captured by a man who hacky sacks, if I am not careful. I am starting to think that Veronica designed this all mostly as a humiliation ritual.
I watch them trying to catch me, and I think about how stupid they all are, and how dumb they clearly think I am as well.
But I am also missing Simon, and afraid for him. Veronica had an absolutely unhinged look in her eye when she told us that she was going to keep us, and I think she meant it. She clearly has the manpower to try to enforce it.
I know she won’t hurt Simon. He’s the whole reason any of this is happening. I also know she doesn’t really need me. So it’s possible they’ll stop looking soon.
I can walk away from all of this, maybe.
Just throw in the towel, let Simon rescue himself.
That’s probably what he wants me to do. He wants me to evade detection, stay out of trouble. I should do what he says. Or what I think he’d say. After all, he let them take me because he wanted me to be able to get away.
On the other hand, Simon is in Veronica’s grip. And I don’t like the idea of another woman having my man captive. It strikes me as wrong. Simon is mine. If anybody is going to introduce some weird and frankly inappropriate power dynamics to the situation, it should be me.
I start to get excited, the way I do when I’m about to do something I shouldn’t. I know I should stay free and just wait for Simon to contact me, but I’ve got nowhere to go. I just spent the night in a gym. I need a real place to sleep, and I need to feel Simon’s arms wrapped around me.
I put two fingers in my mouth, and I whistle.
“Losers! Over here!”
A dozen heads snap around at me. I jump out of the tree and I run.
I don’t know why. I guess I want them to catch me after all. I just want the feeling of escaping, I think, the chance to try. I can’t just stand there and let them take me in, that would be like surrender. In all things, I never give in. I have to be overpowered.
The nearest place to hide is a mall at the edge of the park. I dive in through the morning commuters, none of whom want to be part of this fuckery. They are wearing drab, beige, gray and black clothes, and desperately sucking on coffee in the attempt to wake themselves up enough to pretend like they care. I get it.
I slip between them easily because I am just a girl.
My pursuers are not so agile. They come barreling through like a stampede of rhinos, making more trouble for themselves in the process. The crowd surges back against them, in that old Newtonian way. Every force is met with equal and opposite force.
Long story short, I get away. I get up to the second level of the mall and crouch down next to the railing so I can watch the guys who are supposed to be catching me mill around in confusion as they try to work out where I went. Some of them head out the back entrance, others go into some of the stores. Not one of them takes the escalator up.
“Oh, my god! What the fuck?” I curse with annoyance when I realize that I got away. All of that effort and money to get me, and they missed me completely.
Feels a little bad, if I’m to be honest. Am I not worth properly hunting? Fuck it. If they are going to make my life hard, I am going to make their lives even harder.
I call Z-Corp and ask to be put through to Veronica.
It takes a few minutes, but eventually I hear her ice queen tones on the other end of the line.
“Yes?”
“I’m watching your guys try to catch me and they’re doing a very poor job,” I tell her.
She pauses for a moment, her breath hitching on the intake with obvious annoyance.
