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She ripped it from my hand and jumped to the other side of the incinerator. “You really are stupid,” she cried jubilantly, and hopped over the wall, out of sight.
With a sigh, I threw my bundle of trash as close to the incinerator as possible, muttering to myself all the way back to Gitgo’s house. My stomach rumbled in protest for having given away the food and I called myself stupid just like the girl had.
“Where is my seshsquad?” Gitgo bellowed the moment I entered.
“I ate it,” I informed him, closing the door. “I have to eat.”
“Not the whole thing,” he complained, rummaging through the fridge.
“If you let me go, I’ll buy you a hundred seshsquads,” I promised, not holding my breath he would take the bribe.
“Can you protect me from the imperial guards?” he snickered.
“I can.” I nodded eagerly, with a flash of hope.
“Even if you know the emperor himself, you wouldn’t be able to protect me,” Gitgo grumbled. “That lying calleio owns me until the rest of my days.”
Was he talking about Lady Natoi? Was she the one behind my abduction? Suddenly I remembered seeing her with that other woman, and their short interaction took on another meaning.
“I’m about ready to leave,” the other woman had said before Lady Natoi could give me her name. She had looked, if not familiar, like someone I had seen before. In my mind’s eye, I watched her again petting Lady Natoi’s shoulder. “Don’t worry.”
And I remembered asking, “Don’t worry? Is everything alright?”
And Lady Natoi’s ominous answer, “Nocc, but it will be.”
Was I reading too much into that short interaction? Or had they plotted against me? But why?
Because nobody wanted you for their mekarry and you were becoming a burden to her, my mind whispered. It’s possible, I allowed. But why would she do this now? She had seemed thrilled that Daryus had shown interest in me, and Sir Vodin.
My head was beginning to hurt and I asked Gitgo outright, “Are you talking about Lady Natoi?”
He didn’t even look up from the fridge. “I have no idea who that is.”
Was he lying?
Gitgo found something in the fridge and brought it over to the table. “You stink.”
I probably did, and he could probably now smell it since I had cleaned out all the filth from his house, which was the reason I smelled. I didn’t reply.
“There is a bathroom upstairs. Clean it and then yourself,” he said, sitting down by the table.
My eyes fell on a large machine on the counter. I had cleaned and polished it yesterday, but still I had no idea what it was for, other than if I hit him over the head with it, it would be lights out for him. But then what? I wondered.
I would still be a prisoner in his house. I doubted the orange Pandraxian had left the key for my collar with him, if there even was one. As far as I knew it was completely controlled by the damn remote.
I could hit Gitgo over the head with it and take the remote. With my luck though, I would push the wrong button and electrocute myself. I might have chanced that eventually I would push the right button, but by then Gitgo would probably be awake again. Unless I killed him outright.
I gave the puss-encrusted alien a once over. Could I kill him? Could I kill anybody in cold blood to get free?
Perhaps, I allowed. The problem was that even if I killed him, even if I got the collar off, I would step outside into streets I didn’t know, and Gitgo had already implied that it was more dangerous out there than in here.
The metal covering his windows supported his claim.
Alright, I told myself, one step at a time. I needed to explore my surroundings first. I knew there was an alley on the back side of the house, now it was time to explore the front.
Once I had more of a plan for where to go from here, I would consider if I had it in me to kill Gitgo. You could tie him up, my mind offered as an alternative.
A shiver ran through me when I asked myself why I hadn’t considered that option first instead of going straight to killing him. I needed to do some self-reflecting on that.
