It's My Party

Mark grimaced as he realized what sort of night work Akiko was referring to. It suddenly struck him what Uno was doing. "Let me guess. The four women who aren't here, their boyfriends aren't here either."

Akiko nodded as she watched the monitor. "Correct. You're thinking the same thing I'm thinking. With an unknown enemy at his doorstep, Uno decided he was a bit heavy in the pussy barn department."

Mark felt himself blushing but couldn't stop himself from asking, "The pussy barn?"

Toshi was standing quietly by Mark's side. She brushed the back of her hand against his to get his attention. "It's a mattress store two doors down from Jacob's Bar and Grill. It's where they would lock us up after they were finished with us for the night. Forgive us for being crude, but that's what they call it."

"Oh… So you weren't forced to sleep with them overnight?"

Toshi shook her head no. "Mark, think. The men need their sleep too. Would you allow yourself to become that vulnerable, to fall asleep with a woman you just raped?"

Mark looked chagrined. "No, I guess not. Forgive me Toshi."

"Huh? For what?"

"For not appreciating the horror you women went through."

Toshi reached up and gently touched Mark's cheek. Their eyes locked for an instant. "We shared our minds last night," Toshi thought, "Shared the measure of our souls. Your apology is completely unnecessary."

Mark let out a deep, sad sigh, breaking the eye contact. He spoke into his phone. "And now they've isolated the missing four women and are trying to sweet-talk them into returning as loyal members of the team. Think it'll work?"

"It might." Akiko answered over the phone. "Don't judge the women too harshly Mark. Rape is a really horrible experience. This is their only way out."

Emily spoke up. "Mark, if you get a chance, check out the first stores on the outside arcs, not just the inside. You need to be on the outside arc to set up the monitoring relays."

"Ah, you think the elevator locations were picked with that in mind? Okay, we'll take a look." Mark looked at his phone. "I'm running a bit low on power. I'll try to find someplace to plug in."

After saying goodbye on the call, Mark and Toshi hiked an eighth of a kilometer to the 240-degree point and the first store of Red Mall's outside arc. A thorough search found nothing of interest.

Thinking about the Mall's designers' love of symmetry, Toshi suggested they proceed another quarter kilometer and check out the two stores at the 360-degree mark. Again there seemed to be nothing special about the stores. After an hour of searching, they concluded the stores' only access points were the corridor doors.

And the afternoon was progressing. Mark thought they had time to check out one more spiral and the choice was obvious. Investigate the hub area of Black Mall while it was still safe to do so. Shortly after 2 PM, they stopped their bikes at the 360-degree mark of Black Mall, 438 spiral meters from Hex Hall. There was a Zappos Shoe Store on the inside arc, and an Esau's Bar and Grill on the outside.

Mark remembered that his Leophone was almost out of power. Stopping for an hour to charge it would be a reasonable precaution. And he also noticed his stomach was grumbling. He turned to Toshi and smiled. "Hungry? We never had lunch."

She peered inside the Bar and Grill and then smiled back. "You like burgers?"

Mark laughed as he dismounted his bike and began to unlock the restaurant. "Who doesn't? I remember an English teacher I had in high school. He was trying to teach us that the English language sometimes overloads the same word with completely different meanings. His example phrase was, I love my wife, and I love a good burger with everything on it."

Toshi laughed at the joke. "Yes! The desire to honor and cherish a spouse is completely different than the desire to consume a hamburger!" Grinning at each other, they both entered the restaurant.

It was easy to prepare a very tasty lunch, large lean burgers on whole wheat buns, loaded with sharp cheddar and sautéed mushrooms and onions, and large salads with vegetables so fresh is seemed as if they were growing in Earth's sunshine just an hour ago. Toshi ate her meal with great enjoyment and leaned back in her chair and stretched at the end, sipping her second bottle of iced tea, munching the few remaining potato chips on her plate and looking a little sleepy.

"Oh boy, that was good," she murmured as she munched. "Thanks Mark. You're a great cook."

He grinned at the compliment. "The quality of the food here is so fabulous, it would be hard not to be a decent cook. I'm glad you liked it." He looked at his companion for a moment and added softly, "Toshi, this last month, were you getting enough to eat?"

She shook her head. "No. So much food everywhere, such an abundance, but no. The fraternity boys used food as a weapon, as a reward for submission." She took a deep breath and smiled. "But, that's all over now! So, what's next?"

Mark glanced at the time on his plugged-in phone. "Well, how about we clean up here, take our time and do a good job searching this place and Zappos, and then have an easy bike ride home?"

"Sounds perfect." They worked in silence for a while busing the dishes and cleaning up. Then Toshi asked, "Why are we bothering to do this? Won't the mechanical servos clean up if we just leave the dirty dishes?"

Mark nodded as he dried two plates are returned them to their cabinets. "Just a habit I guess, but it's one I'm reluctant to let go of. And somehow I think the strange interface of this place agrees with me. It should be our responsibility to clean up after our own messes. The Mall will pick up after us if we're sloppy down here, but it's really our job to be respectful."

"Respectful of a machine?"

"No, respectful of our own standards for accountability."

"Ah… Yes, I think I see what you mean." Toshi stared at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Mark, do you think our species is on trial here?"

"Well… It sometimes seems that way, doesn't it? I mean, we've been provided with everything we need, fine food and shelter, vast recreational facilities. Our challenge is whether we can survive our own stupidity."

"Yes, that and our cruelty, the dark side of our emotions." Toshi made a deep bow to Mark. Mark blinked at the gesture. He was so unused to having anyone bow to him. He just gave Toshi a shy smile back, and a few minutes later they were finished with their cleanup and were ready to get back to exploration. They would start with the second floor of Esau's Bar and Grill.

Mark glanced at his Leophone. It wasn't quite half charged yet, and he was tempted to leave it plugged in and just pick it up on the way out, but that would violate the rules the group had set for exploration. So he unplugged the phone and threw it and the charger in his pocket before heading up the stairs with Toshi.

There were no eating areas on the second floor, just a small lavatory and row after row of food storage closets, cool but not frozen and packed with food that was showing absolutely no indication of decaying. They were methodical in their search, testing the walls of the closets for hidden passageways, but discovered nothing unusual. They found the last closet to be large, three by four meters, and completely empty. Mark frowned as he stared at the dimpled white diodes in the burnished metal ceiling. They reminded him of something. Meanwhile the door behind them silently closed.

Immediately the wall to their right began to slide open. Mark's jaw dropped in amazement, and then he grimaced at the heavy smell of stale beer. Toshi barely managed to stop herself from shrieking.

They were at a home complex lounge area, and Toshi recognized it immediately as the lounge of Black Mall. The lounge itself was empty, but there were numerous voices both male and female coming from the kitchen area just beyond, and it seemed as if Toshi and Mark were just seconds away from being discovered. Toshi looked around wildly for an elevator keyboard to type an exit code, but the carriage was absolutely bare. Both she and Mark realized simultaneously that the door would not close with them still inside. They had to find somewhere else to hide, and quick. But where?!

A young woman came out of the kitchen and into the lounge. She stood shock-still at the sight of Toshi and the unknown man standing with her. "Toshi!" she called out in a gasp.

"What?!" an angry man growled from the kitchen. Toshi recognized the voice as Uno's.

Chapter 25.

Time: Wednesday, January 16, 2019 3:40 PM

"Fresh Dill!" the woman at the lounge entrance yelled out to the kitchen crowd. "I just remembered! Toshi would always put fresh dill on a roast. It's a great idea, and I forgot. But I know where it is!" She turned around and ran back into the kitchen.

Mark grabbed Toshi hand and together they ran out of the elevator. The door began to close the instant they left, and just a couple of seconds later Mark and Toshi slipped into the vestibule connecting the lounge to the walkways on the hexagonal perimeter. Mark's mind was working furiously. Should they make a dash down the walkways and risk being seen through a window, or try to hide in the vestibule closet?

In the closet they would be helpless if discovered. Mark thought their chances to escape by fleeing were much more reasonable, even if the men managed to see them go. So his first thought was for them to run through the vestibule and flee along the perimeter walkways.

Mark was about to open the final door to the vertex when another thought occurred to him. Would the men see them running? If Mark and Toshi were seen escaping down the corridor, the woman who had called out Toshi's name would be in a horrendous position. Mark couldn't be that callous, not after she had risked her life to save theirs. He pulled Toshi to the side of the vestibule and into the side closet with him, closing the closet door behind him.

There had been a few white-diode lights in the ceiling of the vestibule, but when the closet door closed they were in pitch blackness. "Hell Mark!" Toshi hissed. "We were in the Mall! What happened?!"

He whispered back, "One sec. Thank God I have my phone." By the light of the display, Mark put his phone in silent mode and then dialed Emily who quickly added Jada and Akiko to the call. It only took a moment of whispering to explain the situation. Mark turned the volume on the phone to absolute minimum, and Toshi had her cheek touching his so they could both hear the conversation.

Jada sounded very upset over the phone. "Damn it! I knew we shouldn't split up like this. We don't have the phones or the people!"

Emily sighed. "Oh Jada, what could the others do? Besides, they should be back from White Mall anytime now." Before Mark and Toshi had split off from the main group, Madison had told Emily to expect the main group back by four o'clock.

"Mark," asked Jada, "Can you describe your situation?"

Mark thought for a moment and whispered back, "We're in pretty good shape. I've got my phone with over a half charge, and I've got my charger. We had a big lunch at Esau's Bar and Grill, and we both used the lavatory facilities there afterwards." Mark could feel Toshi's cheek lightly brush against his as she nodded. "And Toshi has a half-liter iced tea bottle. It's still unopened…"

Mark shined the tiny light of the Leophone around the closet. There was ample space for them to sit and even to lie down. It was a right-triangular space. The wall leading to the vestibule was a little over two meters in length, and the perpendicular wall separating them from the lounge was four meters. The hypotenuse wall separated them from the hexagonal perimeter walkway. There were three deep shelves in the acute angle of the closet opposite the door, set at one, two, and three meters in height. The shelves were totally bare. Before the entrance of Mark and Toshi, the closet was in pristine condition.

"I don't think they've ever used this closet," whispered Mark. "Maybe they don't even know it's here. It looks just like ours. No lights, but there are a pair of small ventilation ducts. I can feel a slight breeze on the floor vent. I would guess the temperature at 18C or 19C."

"Mark," said Jada. "You promised me you'd travel with spikes."

"I've got some, four. I hope to God I don't have to use them." Mark returned to thinking about the shelves. "The top shelf, I'm looking at the angle. It might hide us from someone in the doorway. Just maybe, if they're not too tall…"

"Toshi," whispered Kiyoko, "was it Frida who saved you?"

"Yes. How did you guess?"

"Of the four, I think only she would have the courage."

Toshi nodded, again brushing her cheek against Mark's. "Yes, and the kindness." She paused for a second. "Perhaps Cassidy would also have made the gesture."

"The woman's name was Frida?" Mark whispered. "Well, she saved both our lives. We were sitting ducks in the elevator. It was brilliantly fast thinking."

"Mark," asked Jada, "what should we be doing?"

"Uh, yeah… Toshi and I left Esau's Bar and Grill wide open." Mark felt his jacket pocket. "I still have the mushroom lock with me. Someone should bike down there with another lock. Take a side-car too, pick up our bikes."

Emily blinked at a sudden realization and hissed, "Of course! The two brothers, Jacob and Esau! The Black Mall home complex is through Jacob's Bar and Grill."

Jada growled and asked derisively, "Was this place designed as a childish joke?!"

For an instant Mark thought Jada's rhetorical question held a profound nugget of insight, but then his mind went back to Jada's earlier inquiry. He whispered, "Under no circumstances step into the empty storage closet at Esau's. It acts as a one-way trapdoor to Black Mall's home complex."

"Uh, Mark," began Jada.

"I mean it, no rescue missions. You guys were wondering when I'd issue my first decree. This is it."

"Mark, don't abandon the possibility of rescue," said Emily. "Once Kiyoko is the Section Five janitor, we could use the trap door to come to you, activate Black Mall's elevator and leave. We could be in and out in one minute."

"But Emily," Jada responded in a soft wail, "that could take weeks!"

Kiyoko spoke. "I will dedicate my life to this, make my training as intense as the interface allows."

Jada addressed her next question to all four of the Japanese women. "How much has Uno explored the surface around Black Mall's home?"

There was a long pause and then Akiko answered. "I never heard anything about surface exploration. But it might have occurred. I just don't know."

Mark glanced at his phone. "I'm going to sign off and conserve battery power. I have at most twenty minutes of airtime left." The Leophone was the size of a large cell phone, but due to the greater power needed to communicate with a satellite, a full battery supported less than an hour of conversation. Jada promised that both their phones would be ready to hear from Mark whenever he called. They said quick goodbyes and Mark shut off his phone.

One hour later.

The group of eight women sat around their conference table at the Modern Coin Superstore, waiting for Kiyoko to finish her training session at 5 PM and join them. The video from the kitchen cutlery sensor displayed on a large monitor nearby. So far the Black Mall citizens had shown no inclination of exploring the locked section of their mall, and the women had yet to visit Esau's as Mark had suggested.

Madison stared at the dull video of the empty corridor and commented, "Looks real peaceful. Anyone walking down the corridor would never suspect such a large crowd is waiting for them."

Fatima nodded. "A clever arrangement they have with the optics." A large mirror had been strategically placed just inside the doorway of a store on the outside arc, and a large telescope had been carried into the opposite store on the inside arc. But the mirror worked both ways. They could see the men taking turns keeping an eye on the locked corridor.

Emily and Kiyoko stepped out of the sky-bridge and sat down. Fatima called the meeting to order. They briefly discussed work plans for the next few days. Creating surveillance networks from the sky-bridges of Blue Mall and Yellow Brick seemed the obvious choice, in case the Black Mall people started to explore the spirals. And after some debate, they realized the monitors at the coin store did not need constant observation. There was no immediate action that needed to be taken if the Black Mall Party started walking the locked spiral. They would leave the monitors unattended from midnight to 6 AM.

Kiyoko would continue her training. The interface had declined her request for more than three two-hour training sessions per day. But she would study in the evenings and try to speed things up as much as possible. She even had some books with her now.

The rest of the meeting was spent debating what advice to give Mark and Toshi. There was general agreement that the next time Mark called, they should try to persuade Mark and Toshi to abandon their position and find a safer place at least a few kilometers from Black Mall's home complex. In their previous surface explorations, the group did find a few places for food and lavatory facilities. And except for the area belonging to White Mall, there was ample evidence on the infrared satellite imagery of groups surviving away from their home complexes. Perhaps Mark and Toshi would find an outlet to recharge the Leophone. Having them stay at Black Mall's home complex seemed insanely risky.

Their plans made, Fatima closed the meeting with a prayer. Ann volunteered to monitor Black Mall and stay with Kiyoko as she studied. Nobody felt like having dinner yet. The other eight women jumped to White Mall via Blazo's Art Gallery at the Green Mall sky-bridge.

Six hours later.

Time: Wednesday, January 16, 2019 11:42 PM

Mark awoke slowly. His body was not stiff, even though he was lying on a hard flat floor. As he became more awake, he realized why. Toshi. She was curled and tucked up so sweetly against him, providing both warmth and softness. Mark had been smelling the scent of her hair and body as he slept, and it had provided the basis for some very delightful dreams.

And he could feel her body now, the relaxed deep breathing. Mark blinked in the pitch darkness. His upper hand. It was inside her pants, inside her panties, the palm of his hand pressing her just below her navel, and his fingers descending into the stiff silkiness of her pubic fur. Mark could feel his fingertips touching the soft flesh on her upper thighs.

Memories came flooding back. Mark had been holding Toshi, cupping her womb with his hand as they drifted off to sleep, but his hand had been on top of her clothes. "She must have slipped me in underneath when I was asleep," Mark thought. The intimacy was the result of many hours of conversation in accelerated time. It did feel sexy to hold her like this, but the primary emotion Mark felt was one of protection, protecting Toshi, protecting her womb, protecting the life within it. Toshi was pregnant.

She was only about ten days past her expected period, but she was sure she had been impregnated. Her body felt subtly different in a dozen different ways. And she was also sure of the father. It was Gilberto, Uno's fourth in command. He had latched onto her and claimed exclusive rutting rights on her soon after Toshi's group had arrived at the 2525 party. He forced himself on her for a week, often in the laughing presence of his sadistic girlfriend Nadine. Toshi felt herself ovulating the day after she arrived.