"Everything?"
"Okay, not everything. Not you. Not Petra. But I hate everything else about this land."
I wish we could be sure it's not an act, said the little voice. He would be a great asset.
Is there a way to test him? she thought back.
We are considering this.
Hamilton lay on his side, head propped up on one elbow, considering the face and form of the sleeping girl next to him. Seventeen, he thought. Maybe eighteen. So much skillful wickedness in so young a girl. Almost . . . almost, I can see the attraction of Islam if it enables a man to own such beauty. Better, she makes it seem as if she's a lover, not just a whore playing a part. Perhaps that's only because she's a natural whore, though, if she is. It's possible, too, that she's just been very well trained. Or both.
Only things I can be sure of are that she's both beautiful and an amazing fuck.
Christ, what kind of pervert am I, fucking a seventeen-year-old?
A little contrary voice said, Hey, look at the bright side; maybe she's eighteen.
Oh, that helps a lot.
Could have been worse. She could have been thirteen and you would still have had to fuck her to keep up your cover.
Unable to stand it anymore, Hamilton reached out one hand, shook the girl awake and asked, "How old are you?"
"Seventeen," Petra answered groggily. "Why?"
Pervert.
Our best consensus, for the moment, is to ask him for proof, the little voice in Ling's head said. It is not perfect but, if he turns out to be an agent provocateur, you can claim you asked for proof in order to denounce him. In the interim, it moves us a bit along toward confirming his true thoughts.
Did you know they made a whore of his sister and that she's my best friend and lover here? Ling asked back.
We watch your every move. Of course we knew. That is still not proof. The Caliphate produces only one thing of genuine excellence, and that product is fanaticism.
True, she agreed.
If you had access to a laboratory, we could teleoperate you to create a first grade truth serum. Sadly—
—I don't. And the still where Latif makes the poor stuff won't do. In truth, Ling hated the very idea of being teleoperated, which involved surrendering complete control over her own body to another. It was bad enough sucking and fucking people she didn't want to. Teleoperation was, in its way, even more degrading.
Still, in vino veritas. What he said last night while drunk is a good indicator of his true feelings. We're still reviewing the tapes. We'll get back to you. In the interim, ask for proof. And try to be clever about it, won't you?
"Reviewing the tapes"? Ling sent back. I'm sure you voyeuristic bastards are.
Be nice, Ling. We can teleoperate you without permission, you know.
Breakfast for the two was delivered to Petra's quarters by a eunuch. It didn't have any bacon, or pork sausage, of course, but was otherwise decent.
Hamilton already had the name of the girl sitting opposite: Petra. Moreover, she was already, technically, his wife for the next thirteen days.
"I've never had a wife before," Hamilton said.
"You don't really have one now," Petra answered, perhaps a little sadly. Clothed in a nightgown, still her young, firm breasts showed through the front opening. Her nipples were pink, Hamilton saw. "It's just something they do to get around the law. Doesn't mean anything."
I will not ask, "how did a nice girl like you end up in a place like this," Hamilton thought. I will not ask . . .
"How did you ever end up here?" he asked.
"You don't want to know."
"Yes, sure I do."
"It's a sad story," Petra said. Saddest of all for me.
"Even so."
She sighed, cast her eyes upward and then down to the floor. "I was a pretty little girl—"
"I can believe that."
"The tax gatherer picked me and my brother. First he set the jizya—"
"Jizya?" Hamilton asked.
"A tax non-Moslems pay here as part of their surrender," she explained. "Anyway, he set it so high my father couldn't pay . . . and when he couldn't the taxman took me instead. I was nine. My brother, Hans—he's the one who attacked you last night—they took later."
"They sold you to this place when you were nine?" And how are they any worse than Bongo and I? We've just sold some six year olds.
"No . . . no. That came later. Though my friend, Ling, was sold even younger. At first I was sold to a wonderful family . . . I thought they were wonderful anyway. Their daughter, Besma, really was. We still write. She's married—really married, I mean . . . not the travesty we have here—and has two children now. She named the girl for me. She's says she will come for me, and not to lose faith. Faith! Like I have any reason for faith."
"It's okay," Hamilton said, disconcerted at the pain growing in Petra's voice. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want."
"You are my Lord and Master, for the next two weeks," Petra said, a trifle bitterly. She sensed, somehow, that with this client she could get away with a lot more than with most. "You asked; it is my duty to tell you."
"Anyway," she continued, "life with Besma was pretty good. If you don't count her stepmother who used me to control her. And then her stepbrother and two friends decided I was just the thing for a dull afternoon—"
And then the tears came forth. The force with which they gushed took Hamilton completely by surprise.
"I never talk about it," Petra sobbed, "I never talk about—"
After which she couldn't say anything, as Hamilton was kneeling beside her chair, holding her in his arms, and pressing her head into his shoulder. "Shhh," he said soothingly. "It's all right. You don't have to talk about it and I am a complete ass for even asking. I'm really sorry."
* * *
"Hans, I need you to listen carefully to me," Ling said. "This is important and the answer means everything. Why did you attack that man last night?"
Hans drew in a deep breath and then exhaled forcefully. "He's a slave trader, and I saw his cargo. They were just children, Ling, even younger than Petra was when they took her away. He's a stinking slave trader."
Ling chewed on her lower lip, wracked with indecision. Finally, she asked, "What if he wasn't?"