Life as a New Hire Ch. 04

"Cáel, she was making stuff up again," Loraine attempted damage control.

"No, I didn't," Aya protested. "I want Cáel to live."

"That can be answered with two questions, Loraine," I locked eyes with the sixteen year old.

"Cáel - do not do this," Desiree ordered.

"Sorry, Desiree; I think this falls in the 'I need to know' category," I defied her. "Loraine, do malformed female babies get tossed off the cliff alongside all the male babies." Loraine paled and gulped. Europa looked equally worried. Aya was afraid - afraid of my reaction.

"I apologize, Cáel. This is not something I can talk about," Loraine murmured.

"This is the point where you decide if I'm a human being, or some servitor creature," I studied her.

"I can't," Loraine repeated. I nodded then faced forward. There was silence for a while.

"Cáel, are you upset with us?" Europa inquired nervously. I looked back at her.

"My emotional status is of no relevance to my assignment, Europa," I replied dead-pan. "Will there be anything else?"

"Why are you acting this way?" Loraine groaned.

"I am a Havenstone employee, Loraine," I answered.

"I have no instructions to behave in any other fashion. I am sure if I have done anything inappropriate, you may report me to my boss, Desiree, or my department head, Katrina, so that I may be suitably disciplined," I informed her.

"Please don't talk like that," Aya sniffled.

"Aya, if I have upset you, please request another Havenstone employee on your next service order," I said. Aya began bawling. God, she was emotionally volatile.

"Desiree, make him stop," Loraine pleaded.

"Make him stop what? You don't want a man, you want a cuddly toy with 101 programmed warm, fuzzy responses," Desiree responded. "Toys don't go above, beyond, and even against their instructions to do a better job. You are getting exactly what your Mother has requested. You have a Havenstone employee. You can't afford the man who befriended you."

That was more than Desiree coming to my defense. She was trying to teach the children the harsh reality of life. Amazons, due to their conduct toward men, had to think of them as lesser beings. The sickness was more than tossing male and unfit female babies to their death, it was mothers handing their children over to be murdered.

"I apologize, Cáel," Loraine said softly.

"Okay," I replied crisply. More silence.

"Are you still angry with us?" Europa asked.

"I can still do my job, if that is what you are worried about," I told her. Aya wailed. I was starting to feel that Aya had mental issues that went beyond wanting a father.

"Yes," Loraine finally answered my question. I remained quiet. "Isn't that what you wanted to know?"

"No, Loraine; I wanted you to treat me as if I had some worth in your eyes," I sighed.

"I love you," Aya pleaded. I struggled and struggled and only one other societal model made sense.

I turned half-way around to look at the group once more.

"When is the trial?" I probed. No answer. "At some point as you are growing up, you ladies have to pass some sort of basic test. When is it?" My model was male yet still fit - Sparta.

"How do you know any of this?" Loraine wondered.

"I was actually hired because I'm bright," I stated in all seriousness, "along with good looks and being in excellent physical condition."

"Twelve," Europe filled me in. I didn't need to say anything. The two older sisters shot worried looks Aya's way.

"Your Aunt's are sterile, correct?" now Europa and Loraine flashed quick glances between them.

"Yes," Loraine muttered. "How did you...?"

"That's not important. What is important is that I will do my best to stick with Aya as long as I can," I informed them. I tapped Aya's nose. "Stop that crying. You are better than that."

"Sorry," she sniffed.

"No, you 'apologize' to show regret. 'Sorry' is for a flaw," I reminded Aya. "Don't go around school telling your classmates I'm a spy either."

"What do I tell them?" Aya gulped.

"Tell them I am not a spy. Insist that I'm not a spy. Loudly declare to everybody who asks that I am not a spy," I grinned. "Do you understand?" Aya didn't, but Europa did.

"Aya, by insisting that Cáel isn't a spy no matter what, everyone will believe he's a spy. It is the art of misinformation," Europa hugged her younger sibling.

"By saying he's not a spy, everyone will think he is a spy?" Aya appeared confused.

"Yes," Loraine assured her.

"Okay," Aya accepted the illusion. "You are still going to marry Momma, right?"

"I never said that," I protested. Aya smiled sweetly. I frowned. She became absolutely cherubic.

"I make no promises," I turned forward.

"Go for it," Desiree whispered. "Caitlyn is only one of Katrina's sisters." I make a point of trying not to cry in public. I continued to be depressed on how I failed to make crucial connections. Whose family, besides her own, would allow me this close? Damn, I couldn't keep playing catch-up.

"Katrina is your aunt?" I inquired quietly.

"She's my sister," Desiree stated. Watching Loraine, Europa and Aya acting together helped that make sense. Katrina felt responsible for Desiree in the same way Loraine looked out for Aya. Katrina's Mom had abandoned her when she fled with the man she loved.

When an aunt brought her back, Katrina had stood by the sister she'd never seen before because that was what sisters do. You saw a lot of that in Celtic societies. Epona was a Celtic name - a Goddess in fact.

"If you and Mom go on a date, I can come along as a chaperone," Loraine offered.

"I'm surprised you even know what a chaperone is," I grinned back.

"Sure we do," Europa giggled. "That's the one who holds the leash." Loraine blushed furiously.

"Don't say that," she chided Europa.

"Sis, I think he knows something is going on beyond Aya's Daddy issues," Europa countered.

"I deny everything," I proclaimed.

"He is as stupid as he looks," Desiree volunteered. By the surprised looks of Europa and Loraine, this was as frivolous as they'd ever seen Desiree act.

"That's not true," Aya protested. "Cáel is wonderful and he's going to make Momma very happy and be our Daddy."

"Yay," I said with muted enthusiasm. "I can envision our first date now."

"Would you mate with my mother?" Europa teased.

"That's not what I'm envisioning. I'm thinking about what my heart looks like, torn from my chest and held up to my dying gaze."

"No," Aya moped.

"We are joking, Aya," Europa hugged her sister. "We'd never let Momma take a knife with her on a date with Cáel."

"Yes, because fingernails hurt more," I scoffed. Europa hit me playfully.

"Do you have a girlfriend?" Loraine inquired.

"Yes. I met her on a job with Desiree - sort of - and we went out, ate a light dinner and walked and talked for over an hour afterwards. She's real nice," I related.

"Did you have sex?" Loraine was a bit distressed.

"Nope. I save the sex for all my other women in my life. No one at Havenstone," I somewhat lied. "I'd like to build a substantial rapport with this woman. Hopefully I won't screw it up, like I do every other relationship."

"Are you joking?" Europa prodded.

"No, not in the least. I like women. Women appear to like me," I shrugged.

"How long does it take you to romance a woman?" Loraine questioned.

"Quickest - three minutes," I answered. In fact, we were heading for that wonderful woman right now.

"How many women at Havenstone?" Loraine was becoming disillusioned.

"None. Oh God, I am not going to mix work with pleasure," I swore.

"80 days, Bitch," Desiree promised.

"80 days?" Europe inquired.

"In 80 days I cease being an intern, so it will no longer be against the rules for a woman at Havenstone to have a sexual relationship with me," I gulped.

"What are you going to do then?" Loraine asked.

"Hang from the ceiling like a Spider Monkey and watch them try to knock me down with sticks," I grinned. Europa snickered at the imagery.

"Honestly Loraine, there can be no 'us' until your eighteenth birthday. You are too young," I explained.

"Are you afraid of our Mother?" Loraine was oddly happier.

"Yes, but fear hasn't stopped me before," I assured her. "I am devoid of reason when presented with a pretty face."

"Wait," Loraine smiled. "Why isn't something going on between us right now?"

"Desiree put a block of C-4 in my underwear. If I misbehave, I'll be half the man I used to be," I warned them.

"Desiree, please don't blow his weenie off," Aya requested. Snorts and laughter echoed throughout the car.

"Oh, look," Desiree sighed in relief. "We are here." We'd made it to school again.

"Cáel, would you come with me to class," Aya begged.

"Cáel, for the love of the Goddess, can you try and make it back in a reasonable time frame," Desiree scowled. Europa and Loraine studied me inquisitively.

"Cáel, can you come to my homeroom as well?" Loraine teased.

"Me, too," Europa poked me.

"Give me your homerooms and I'll try to stop by," I pledged. When we got to Aya's homeroom, I could see that Ulyssa Reichmann was exceedingly excited that I'd returned.

"Aya, I need to talk to your Daddy for a few minutes. We'll be back soon," Ulyssa announced then proceeded to drag me back to the conference room. She finished a round of pulse-pounding passionate intercourse with...

"Would you like to go out on a date?" Ulyssa 'suggested'.

"I'd really like that," I responded because, you know, it wasn't like my social calendar wasn't confusing enough already. "Let's exchange digits and give me a call when you get off work today. Lunch times suck for me. Oh, I should warn you, in my first week here, they've given me the true meaning of working 24/7. I've been called in at 3 a.m. and worked until 10:30 at night - be warned."

"I'm good at all hours," she purred. "My roommate and I stay up late all the time." Please be a guy, please be a guy.

"Is he a nice guy?" I prayed.

"No, Silly," she kissed me. "My roommate is my older sister." Please be a crone, please be a crone. "Here is a picture of her." Of course...she was a stone-cold fox.

"What's her fiancé like?" I sobbed internally.

"She just got over a messy break up. She's been very depressed," Ulyssa informed me. That's what I needed. It wasn't like a gorgeous roommate in need of comfort had every ruined things for me before...except those other five times when things exploded all over the place. "If you have one, maybe your roommate can double date with us."

"His name is Timothy," I forced a grin. Asking Timothy to double date with me so I wouldn't end up banging my date's roommate/sister was way out of bounds. I'd ask, proving I really was a sorry human being, but I was feeling bad about it. That had to count for something. We walked closely, side by side, back to her room. I played with Aya.

One bully hadn't gotten the message yesterday and called Aya a freak in my presence. I asked him why he thought he could get away with it. He said his dad was a hotshot lawyer. With a toothy glimmer, I told him that would look nice on his father's tombstone. After all, I didn't hurt kids. I hurt adults; grown-ups like Mom and Dad - the hotshot lawyer.

Aya polished that off by insisting that I wasn't a spy. Absolutely, positively not. What did I do for a living? Aya couldn't talk about it because good people might get killed - good girl. With that settled, I went to Loraine's homeroom. Holy Cow! She had the whole 'Plush Mature Teacher' thing going on, including the spectacles on a chain and hair in a bun.

Her name was Rachel Simpson, 42 and never married. In the classroom, she was aloof, condescending and chilly. Two minutes later her mouth was moaning 'no, no, no' while her body was responding with 'more, more, more'. Had she not pulled me into the custodial closet, I might have been worried about taking liberties.

I'd have to catch Europa's homeroom tomorrow. As it was.

"Sixty-five minutes...God, you are messed up," Desiree commented as we pulled away.

"What do you tell the security guard when you are just sitting here, waiting?" I asked.

"I tell the guard you are inside fucking your way through the female staff," Desiree stated.

"And they buy it?" I was aghast.

"She's seen you. She believes it. I hate you," Desiree answered.

"I apologize?" I looked sheepish.

"Here is her number on the off-chance you are ever bored," Desiree handed me a torn piece of paper. "You are a totally contemptible pig."

"I think you are a Saint for putting up with me," I smiled.

"By all means, please jump out of the car while we are in motion then run through traffic, preferably in front of buses and dump trucks," Desiree requested.

"Is this your way of suggesting I meet some nice nurses at the closest hospital," I reposed.

"Die." We were non-communicative for a few minutes.

"Desiree, I'm tired," I sighed. "Please stop the car."

"What..." she started to snap then she saw my face. I was ashen. Reality was catching up. Desiree changed lanes and pulled up to the curb. I got out.

"I'll walk into work," was all I said before shutting the door. Children and sex aside, I was confronting evil and I couldn't ignore that anymore. My working theory was that, after a century of genetic manipulation, the Amazons were dying out. Sterile women, deformed babies, pre-teen girls with fragile psyches and men bred for pliability and lack of aggression.

The science of genetics dated back to 1866. That would mean roughly seven human generations. In turn, that suggested they already had a fatally poisoned male breeding population and their imperfect application of science made it worse, not better. The dilemma became how to introduce a strong male gene strain into the Amazon breeding population.

What this meant for the now useless breeding males was yet another horror to contemplate. My future involved walking the nearly impossible line between the 'masculine' traits they were looking for without the aggression the Amazon's responded negatively to. I knew I was too aggressive and my survival was mainly through the efforts of Katrina.

I had made progress with a few women and they'd come to accept - no, tolerate - my irreverence. I was still wrestling with that whole mess when I walked into the atrium of Havenstone. I flashed my ID. They security personnel told me to wait, then took me to a side room and relieved me of my badge and phone.

Two security detail ladies replaced the two security guard types then Constanza showed up.

"Come with us," she ordered.

"No," I replied. "I work for Desiree right now." They didn't say something nice like 'do this or else'. No, they went straight for the stun guns.

My perception was overloaded with pain and I believed I was screaming, but wasn't sure. Before I knew it, I had been rolled over onto my stomach and my hands cuffed behind my back.

"What have I...?" I got out before they stunned me again.

"Shut up," Constanza snapped.

"Bitch!" I snarled. They stunned me again. I could no longer stand without assistance. The second I could form words, "Whores!" came tumbling out. They stunned me again. The points they gained for cruelty they lost to their lack of forward thinking. I really tried to not repeat my insults, but honestly, my mind was too numb by the end for me to be sure.

They slammed me into a chair in front of Elsa's desk. Opening my eyes hurt. My tongue was so bloody and swollen, talking was no longer an option. The echoes of my own screams of pain muffled what Elsa was saying. They jolted me and I spasmed right out of the chair. They picked me up and Elsa - or somebody - said something.

About the time I could make sense of the world again, Elsa clued in to what I had been doing.

"How many times did you stun him?" she barked.

"He kept insulting us," Constanza answered. "We made him shut his filthy mouth."

"Did it occur to you he was doing that on purpose?" Elsa seethed.

I giggled. Actually, I made some indescribable noise as I'd bitten my tongue and cheeks repeatedly and the amount of blood in my mouth was getting troublesome. Elsa pushed her chair back and came around her desk. I surprised them all by hurling my body into her. My knees buckled and I fell down before I even left the chair. Someone caught me before I hit the ground.

Elsa's face took over my view. She grabbed my jaw in her right hand and steadied my head.

"You did that on purpose," she stated. "It won't do you any good. No one knows you are here and you aren't leaving until I have what I want to know." I mumbled something. "What?"

"Never surrender," I worked out, blood drooling passed my lips.

"Fine. Cáel, do you believe I am an honest woman?" Elsa inquired. I had to think about that.

"Ugh - yeah," I mumbled.

"Good. I'm going to give you a chance because you did behave courageously yesterday," she congratulated me. "Tell me what I want to know, or things will become very painful for you."

"O-okay," I grunted.

"What did you and Katrina discuss over dinner last night?" Elsa asked. I had to think. My next words were crucial.

"I - ah - do you prefer silk sheets, or cotton?" I whispered.

"I understand," Elsa patted my cheek. She went back to her desk, pulled a dull silver box out then extracted a loaded syringe. "This is going to hurt a lot." I didn't struggle. What was the point?

"Man, the penalty for sexual harassment in this corporation is harsher than I thought," I gasped.

They expedited matters by having Constanza brandish her knife and cut my left coat and shirt sleeves off. Those were brand new too. She expertly tapped for the vein, the needle went in and this cool sensation worked its way up my arm. The promised pain didn't come, so I decided to play against the play. You steeled yourself against pain. It was the rational reaction.

I began humming, keeping my breathing level and relaxed. I chose Bruno Mars' Grenade as my first musical selection. Something about loving a woman destroying a man appealed to this situation. Had I possessed my facilities, I would have realized I had lost them. Elsa kept asking me questions.

I confessed she had sexy eyes - she really did, she had one of top ten asses I'd seen all week and I was dying to see her in her underwear. I had no clue why this drug wasn't working on me. It was a little weird when Elsa transformed into Katrina. She asked me how I was. I asked her if she'd let me breastfeed if we got married. That was my last memory for a while.

I rolled, saw a carpeted floor coming at me and threw out my arms and legs in time not to face-plant. Then I vomited. Here was the pain that Elsa had promised. My gastro-intestinal tract was on fire, the pressure in my head was about explode and if I had a nerve ending that wasn't in agony, it wasn't for a lack of trying.

I managed to roll over farther so I didn't fall into my own vomit. The desert Sun blazing down on me made me cry. My eyelids refused to close...no, they were closed. My eyes were simply that sensitive.

"See," Elsa said, "he's alive."

"Thank you for that crisp and unsolicited professional medical opinion," Katrina purred. "When I wish you to leave this room, I will let you know." I wished they would stop screaming. The urge to vomit overcame me. All I got for my troubles was a series of violent dry-heaves. "Don't, Tessa," Katrina spoke, "his trachea and esophagus are inflamed. He might choke on the water."

This time I was able to push up so that I was on my haunches. I didn't feel any better, but I was struggling to project more pride than I could from lying on the floor. There was no conception of time passing. All I knew was that I could make out six people in the room when I motioned for the water. Sure enough, it was Tessa Carmichael giving me a glass.

"Small sips," Katrina advised me. I did as suggested. My physical abilities were starting to revert to normal.