Free The Price of Pleasure by Joanna Wylde Page B

would take her whether she had the protection of a contract or not.
    At least with a contract there would be a substantial sum of money waiting for her in a Guild escrow account in six months. She’d be off station, she’d be free and she’d have enough money to set herself up somewhere. Calla figured that whatever those six months held would be worth it, especially if she could find Jess.
    Dani was less comfortable with the situation. Seth had her followed day and night.
    Her apartment had been seized and searched twice, and her Saurellian customers were avoiding her. She was used to being appreciated by men, not punished.

    * * * * *
    On the day Seth was supposed to come and pick up Calla, Dani felt like a mother hen losing her chick. Despite Calla’s reassurances, she paced back and forth in the small House of Lilies parlor where they sat. Finally Calla actually grasped her by the shoulders, forced her to sit down and brought her a glass of fortified wine.
    “Dani, I can never thank you for all you’ve done for me,” Calla said, gazing into her friend’s eyes with affection. She hated the thought of Dani worrying about her. “You’ve risked so much to help me, and I’m ready for whatever happens on this trip.”
    “But honey, you need to understand this isn’t a normal contract,” Dani burst out, momentarily losing her composure. “You’re going to have to protect yourself. This man is obsessed with you, far beyond what’s normal! You’ve got to be careful, because this kind of thing can get ugly. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
    “I’m not sure that I do,” Calla said carefully, trying to gage Dani’s meaning. “But whatever it is, I can handle it.”
    “Really?” Dani asked spiritedly. “Do you realize that men sometimes beat private contractors? There have even been murders! Usually you’re pretty safe going through the Guild, because we take contract violations very seriously. If this guy hurts you, we’ll find him and make him pay, that’s just good business. But that won’t bring you back.
    You’ve got to be careful.”
    “Dani, I understand that there are risks, and I also understand that this isn’t the kind of contract we’d hoped it would be,” Calla replied with feeling. “This would be a terrible contract for you, but it’s more than I’d ever dreamed could happen to me. You need to understand that.
    “Remember, I was born on an imperial slave farm. It’s not like I lost my mother. I never had one. I’m the product of synthetically created human egg cells. Do you understand what that means? Do you understand how many religions don’t even consider me to be human? When I was at the hostel, Jenner could beat me any time she wanted. She could sell me to whoever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She could even kill me and no one could complain!
    “I lost my crèche-brother because he was a slave. Do you know what it means to be raised in the same crèche?” Calla continued bitterly. “Fifty infants were born–expelled–from incubators on the same day. We were placed in one room, tended by two slave nurses who had raised a thousand others like us. Thirty-five of us survived the first year… it was a higher survival rate than usual. They were very pleased with us.”
    “Oh, Calla,” Dani said. She was at a loss for words–she had never heard Calla’s story before, had no idea where slaves came from. She had always just assumed they were born to slave parents and were raised like other children. It was an ugly truth to confront
    .
    “The nurses left when we were five, and we started our training,” Calla continued, her face wooden. “We were moved into a training camp. We spent all day, every day learning to be excellent slaves. We learned how to work, we had obedience conditioning–I wouldn’t have been able to even think about escaping if Jenner had been more regular about keeping up the conditioning sessions–and we learned not to care about each