Chapter 14

The man on the chair had removed his shadow sock. He stared at her, his blue eyes like sapphires as he blinked a few times, adjusting to the light. He was even more handsome than she had thought he might be, with a square jawline and a perfect nose. His hair was a sandy blond, short but wavy on top. He sat up, placing the black shadow sock over his manhood. It looked as if he might be considering getting out of the chair.
“I know martial arts!” Rain shouted, bringing her hands around in front of her and taking a stance like the Mother who had trained her to protect herself had shown her. “You’re not supposed to move!”
The corner of his mouth twitched slightly, as if her statement somehow amused him. “Relax, I’m not going to try to hurt you.”
Rain’s eyes enlarged at the sound of his voice. It wasn’t anything like what she expected a man’s voice to sound like. She had heard some construction workers yelling directions to each other once or twice, and their voices were low rumbles, angry shouts. But 24C’s voice was soft and gravelly, not at all threatening. Still, she knew she couldn’t trust him. “You’re supposed to keep that on. If they find out you took it off, they’ll take you to the Bridge.”
“They won’t know I took it off because the cameras are out,” he said gesturing over his shoulder at the small circular dome in the ceiling Rain knew housed a camera. It had always bothered her that there were women watching them in the rooms, but she’d heard they were only there for emergencies. And this was definitely an emergency. But he was probably right. Only the emergency lights were on. Nothing else was running. None of the machines, not even the air regulators. It was beginning to get stuffy in the small room.
She looked around, trying to figure out what to do. She wished she’d had time to get her clothes on. She realized now that this is why she’d brought them in here in the first place, so she’d be able to get dressed in an emergency, but here she was in lockdown with a man staring at her, and she was only wearing the short black gown. A wetness on the inside of her thigh reminded her she hadn’t even wiped his sperm off of her legs. It made her queasy.
“Are you okay? Do you need to sit down?”
“I’m sure you’d like that,” Rain said, regaining her wits. “Then, when the system’s back up, I’ll be strapped to the chair, and you can have your way with me.”
He laughed. It wasn’t just a little chuckle, either. It was almost a belly laugh. She stared at him until he stopped. “Believe me, miss, if you were strapped to this chair instead of me, the last thing on earth I’d want to do is have my way with you--or any sort of way with you. I’d be making a beeline for that door and freedom the second the damn thing came unlocked.”
Her forehead wrinkled as she considered what he’d just said. Why wouldn’t he want to have his way with her? Sure, they’d just had intercourse, but he was a man, an Inseminator at that. Didn’t he spend most of his day thinking about intercourse or actually having intercourse? How could a man pass up the opportunity to have his way with a woman?
Maybe he just didn’t like her. She did choose him a lot, and she never did really get into it much. Did he know it was her, picking him all the time? Did anyone else pick him often?
Rain caught herself asking a series of questions that didn’t matter. She looked at the door again, straining to hear if anything detectible was happening nearby. Nothing audible caught her attention, so she turned back to him. He wasn’t looking at her anymore. He was sitting on the edge of the chair, his feet on the floor, the shadow sock still over his private area, but the rest of him she could see quite well. Feeling him in the dim light and looking at him with the bright emergency lights around them were different. He was well toned, muscular from head to toe, with a broad chest and arms that could probably lift her and toss her all the way down the hall. If he were ever allowed in the hall.
She slid along the wall away from the door, catching his attention. The idea of sitting on the floor had entered her mind, but she didn’t. What she really wanted was to grab a wipe and stop the uncomfortable dripping, to put her pants on. To get dressed and go home.
“What’s your name?”
Her eyes flew to his face as if she hadn’t heard him right. Leaning forward, he waited for her to answer, as if she would. “Why do you want to know?”
He shrugged. “Why not? You choose me a lot. I finally have a chance to say something to you. I thought I may as well ask. I know you don’t want to get in trouble. I don’t either. That’s fine. I just… wondered, that’s all.”
Keeping her eyes fixed on him, she thought about what might happen if she did give him her name. And how did he know she chose him a lot? It was dark, after all. He was probably just flattering himself. “What’s your name?” Rain countered, folding her arms.
One eyebrow raised in a crook. “24C,” he said, like she already knew that.
Shaking her head, she said, “No, I mean, what do people call you.” She had a number, too, but she also had a name. Everyone had a name, didn’t they?”
“My name is 24C,” he said again. “People call me 24C. My full name is 24C198H4328N. But no one is going to rattle that off unless we’re in trouble. The Mothers call me 24C. The other Dicks call me 24C. I’m 24C.” His tone was even, somber, dry, and possibly a little irritated.
“The other Dicks?” Rain repeated, never having heard that word used for the Inseminators before. “Why do you call them that?”
“Because that’s the only part of us that seems to matter,” he held his arms up, his hands wide, for a moment. “Not that we even have a chance to talk to each other more than a few minutes a day. Most of the time, we’re working out or waiting in our little shoots to have our number called.”
So many questions popped into her head. Before she could ask any of them, the announcer’s voice came over the speakers again. “Inseminators are reminded to stay in their seats with their shadow socks on at all times. Do not speak to the women. Women, do not speak to your Inseminators.”
24C sighed and scooted back slightly in his chair. “Guess that will end the chance of you saying anything else,” he muttered.
Rain took a few steps closer to him but not near enough that she couldn’t protect herself if he moved too quickly. “What’s a dick?” she asked, hoping she didn’t sound too stupid. She had an idea, but she wanted confirmation.
Again, he looked at her like he couldn’t quite grasp her naïveté. “That thing you were just riding for the last twenty minutes. That’s a dick.”
A wave of heat took over her face, and Rain rolled her eyes. What else could it have been? “I figured. I just… I wasn’t familiar with the term.”
“What do you call it?”
Her blush grew deeper. “Uh… manhood? Member? I don’t know. Penis.”
That crooked grin was back on his face, but he didn’t laugh at her this time. “Those are much more polite terms than what we call it.”
“Are there other names for it?”
He nodded. “None I’d care to say in front of a lady, though.”
“A lady?” That was an old fashioned word some people used to call women, back when there were different classes of females. Now that they were all essentially the same, except for the government officers, of course, with each level of Mother, Grand-Mother, Great-Grand Mother, etc. exceeding the next in respect and authority, no one had ever called her that. “Where did you hear that word?”
“I read it in a book,” he admitted. “We are allowed to read sometimes. I’m sorry--I wouldn’t say it in front of a woman.”
“You seem to be trying awfully hard to be polite for someone who took his shadow sock off and broke the rules.”
“Do you have any idea what it’s like to have this damn thing on your head? It’s not as breathable as you might think.” He leaned back and pointed at the objectionable item but didn’t move it. “None of this is fun for us. You do realize that, right?”
Rain crossed her arms again and looked at him so intently, he likely thought she was glaring at him. “What do you mean? Men love intercourse. All you do all day is have intercourse. How could you not love it?”
Now it was 24C’s turn to look surprised. “We do? Sure, there are parts of it that don’t feel half bad. I hate to tell you this, woman, but we don’t love being strapped naked to a chair, having no choice who our partner is, and sitting here in the dark, suffocating while she does whatever the hell she wants to. Sure, you’re pretty respectful as women go. But there are others who aren’t so nice. Even if everyone treated me as kindly as you do, I still wouldn’t like it. Do you think you would like it--if the situation was reversed?”
It had never occurred to Rain to put herself in his position. What was the point? Women didn’t like intercourse the way that men did--or at least the way she’d been taught that they did--so of course she would hate it; there was no reason to imagine what it would be like. And everyone knew men used to force women to have intercourse all the time before the Claiming. That was one of the major reasons the Claiming had been necessary.
But he’d said so many other things, things she hadn’t considered, about women not being nice, about not having a choice. She hadn’t been thinking about the inseminators as people--she hadn’t been thinking about men as people. And now, here she was, having a conversation with one who seemed not only intelligent but potentially like a person--like a good person.
“I’m sorry.” His voice was soft, and he was looking away from her now. “I didn’t mean to get upset at you. It’s just… this is the first opportunity I’ve had to say anything to anyone, other than the other Dicks--the other guys--and we aren’t given much of a chance to talk without being overheard. It’s not your fault.”
It wasn’t her fault--that was true. But she hadn’t done anything to fix it, either. As a matter of fact, it had never even crossed her mind that there was anything to fix. Rain felt ashamed of herself. The conversations she’d had recently with Mist, even some with Cloud, came back to her. Clearing her throat, she took a few steps closer, and he looked up at her questioningly. “My name is Rain.”