Tiger’s Territory by Ariana Hawkes

Author:Ariana Hawkes [Hawkes, Ariana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Luna Negra Press
Published: 2019-02-11T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Isa

“I, uh...” She fidgeted nervously, unsure what to say, her throat tight with tension. In the frenzy of what’d just happened, she hadn’t even noticed what screen Mason had opened when he’d clicked away from Faith’s file.

“Ah, it’s alright. Don’t worry about it.” He waved a hand. “Of course you have to know what you’re working with. I’m Joel,” he said, his lips stretching into a smile.

“Isa.” She returned the smile.

“Those are the lucky ones,” he said, lifting his chin in the direction of her screen. “The special interest.”

Isa looked at the screen and realized that it displayed the file of a young woman marked as a “special interest”—just like Faith. She raised an eyebrow at Joel. She wasn’t sure if there was sarcasm in his voice.

“Trust me”—he nodded, widening his eyes—“they are. Been here long enough myself to tell you that for sure. They’re the ones who have it easy. They go to wealthy benefactors, and all they have to do is please their new owners and procreate.”

Isa tried to remain expressionless and hide her shock as she realized what he was talking about: sex slavery. Faith was going to be sold or gifted to rich man who’d used her for sex.

“The ones who don’t have the physiques and faces for that are far worse off,” Joel continued. “Follow me, I’ll show you.” He went around the desks and switched on the second of the big TV screens.

Isa stood next to him.

“That’s a live feed from one of the busiest hospitals in town. Many shifters are cleaning laborers there,” he said.

The screen was packed full of women who were scrubbing frantically, cleaning the floor, the walls, and the seats of the waiting area of the hospital. “Have you been to a hospital recently? Since we started encouraging humans to submit blood for DNA testing of ‘people’ they suspect may be shifters, the health facilities have been flooded with DNA submissions. Queues and waiting times have become longer than ever, while a lot of doctors have left because of the inhumane conditions. Most places are a total mess. I’ve seen people peeing and worse in the waiting rooms, surgeons doing all sorts of procedures on patients all over the place. It’s horrific. Straight from a Hitchcock movie. Shifters that are cleaners there work eighteen-hour shifts, and they’re constantly drugged with Morph so they’re quicker. They’re so drained by the end of their shift, from the drugs and the work, they just crash.”

Isa gaped at him

“Yeah,” he said. “They do sleep on site. Here.”

He pressed something on a small remote he was holding, and the feed changed to a massive room lined full of single mattresses. There were rows and rows of them, and they were only about half a foot apart from each other.

“But that’s not the worst,” he continued, pressing another button.

The screen changed to a room that was even larger than the one before. It had a high ceiling with large metal tubes running along it, a concrete floor, and white-tiled walls, which were stained with brownish-red leaky smudges.

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