Page 24 of Warped

CHAPTER 23: BINX

I sit on the edge of the bed in silence as the two warpers stand and read through the files writ large on the massive wall imagers, their muscles limned in the pale, silvery light. I read along with them, and even though I’ve already gone through the information a dozen times at this point, the monstrosity of it all still shakes me to my core. It’s not just the enormity of the crime that rocks me, but the casual tone with which it is discussed, the nonchalance with which rich and powerful men speak of the lives of ordinary people, like they were nothing more than commodities to be bought and sold—and, if necessary, destroyed.

After about fifteen minutes, the warpers have only read a fraction of the email correspondences recorded on the datastick, but it’s enough for them to get the gist of it. Traven is the first to break the silence.

“Binx, how exactly did you acquire this?”

I drop my eyes, unable to meet his gaze. I wish I didn’t have to answer that question. It makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. But after everything Rek and Traven have done for me, they deserve to know the truth.

“My ex,” I answer.

“Ex-husband?”

Even though I’m not looking at him, the jealousy in his voice is beyond obvious, and I have to admit, it startles me a little. Traven is a warper. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s literally been with hundreds of women before me, and most of those women probably have triple-digit body counts themselves. I’m not judging. Heck, after all the dirty stuff I’ve done over the past couple days, I don’t have the right to judge anyone. I’m just a little surprised, that’s all. I never would have taken Traven for the jealous type.

It’s also slightly absurd to think about a warper like Traven being jealous of a guy like Stanley. Maybe he doesn’t have Stanley’s incredible wealth, but he’s ten times the man Stanley is in all the ways that count, and I’m not just talking about his prowess in bed. Traven is a real man. So is Rek. Stanley’s just an overgrown boy in an expensive suit.

“Ex- boyfriend ,” I clarify. “I started working for the Gaia Group in a low-level administrative role a little over a cycle ago. I started dating Stanley shortly after that. He was a junior vice president of research and development. The youngest exec in the whole corporation. He took me out for a dinner that cost more than my entire monthly salary. He was charming. At last I thought he was. I had no idea he was capable of…”

I gesture toward the screen.

“…of this! ”

Rek sits down on the bed beside me, and the mattress dips under his massive weight, tipping my body toward his. He places a protective arm around my shoulders and holds me.

“Binx, you don’t have to explain yourself to us. Sometimes the most charming people are the ones who are hiding the darkest secrets.”

I smile up at him.

“In that case, I don’t want to know what kind of secrets you’re hiding.”

He smiles back.

“Oh, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.” He nods toward the screen. “Nothing like this, though.”

Traven is still standing up, studying the files on the wall imager. He turns to look at me with his big arms crossed in front of his chest. He’s wearing a pair of sweatpants now, but his upper body is bare. Even under these less-than-ideal circumstances, the sight of his bulging muscles sends a thrill of arousal through my body. I chalk it up to the power of the Warp, but deep down I know there’s more to it than that.

“Rek is right,” he says. “We’re not passing judgement on you. But how did you come into possession of these files? I’m assuming this ex-boyfriend of yours didn’t just share this information with you willingly.”

He says the word ex-boyfriend like it’s something sour he wants to get out of his mouth.

I shake my head.

“I found all this stuff by accident,” I explain. “A couple of months ago Stanley, my ex, started acting strange, distant. He was working even longer hours than usual, breaking off plans at the last minute. I started to suspect that he was cheating on me, so I… you know…”

I blush, too embarrassed to go on, so Rek finishes my sentence for me.

“You went through his phone.”

I nod.

“Damn,” Traven says with a slight chuckle. “You’re even nosier than I am.”

“I thought my boyfriend was cheating on me!” I shout a little too loudly.

For a second, the fire of jealousy burns brightly in Traven’s eyes. Then he sees the tears in my own eyes, and his expression softens. He steps closer and strokes my hair with his massive hand.

“I’m sorry Binx. I shouldn’t be so insensitive. I can’t imagine how hard this has been for you.”

Holy shit. Did Traven—the asshat extraordinaire—just apologize to me?

Well that’s… unexpected.

I knuckle the tears from my eyes and go on: “Incidentally, Stanley was cheating on me. With several different women. I’m not sure where the fucker found the time. But honestly, I stopped caring about that pretty quickly once I found out what a monster he was.”

When I was going through Stanley’s messages, I stumbled onto something far worse than mere infidelity. I uncovered a plan that would end the lives of billions of people, all so Stanley and his buddies at the Gaia Group could make a few extra credits.

Here’s the plan I discovered…

The volcanic world known as Caldera was one of the first exoplanets to be colonized by humans following the development of Warpgate technology. Since then, Caldera has developed into a densely populated planet situated at an important nexus for interstellar trade. A prime piece of real estate, for people who think in those terms. People like Stanley and his friends on the board of directors.

The Gaia Group is the biggest terraforming firm in the whole galaxy. They take planets that are basically uninhabitable and transform them into lush green paradises. They make a lot of money doing it. A hell of a lot of money.

Stanley figured out a way they could make even more.

The board of directors liked his idea.

The plan isn’t exactly simple, but it’s simple to explain. Using certain devices that Stanley had cooked up in the R&D department, they could trigger a mass volcanic eruption on Caldera that would wipe out pretty much everything on the surface of the planet, including the human population. The whole thing would look like an unexpected natural disaster. Nobody would suspect it was actually murder on a mass scale.

After that, Gaia Group will buy the destroyed planet for next to nothing, terraform it back into its formerly splendid state, then sell it off piece by piece for a hundred thousand times what they paid for it. Considering Caldera’s strategic location along the interstellar trade routes, they would make a bundle and a half. Kind of like flipping a house, but on a planetary scale.

And with billions of dead bodies in the basement.

The whole evil plan is detailed in Stanley’s messages with his bosses on the board of directors. The same messages which are saved on my datastick, and which Rek and Traven have now read.

“Why didn’t you go to the authorities with this?” Rek asks.

“I did,” I tell him. “As soon as I found out, I went straight to the local Intelligence Office.”

“What happened?” asks Traven.

My blood chills as I remember. It was only a few days ago, but somehow it feels much longer than that.

“I spoke to a young intelligence officer,” I explain. “A woman named Katie. Even though my story was outlandish, she took everything I told her very seriously. After I showed her the messages, she took it even more seriously. She made a copy of all the files, and we exchanged information so we could meet again after she had taken the matter to her superiors for further review.”

I take a deep breath to calm my nerves. Then I keep going.

“After that, everything happened so quickly. I got a message from Stanley asking to meet up. I made some excuse about not feeling well. I decided to go back to my apartment. I was going to gather some things and spend the night at a hotel, just in case Stanley tried to come over. I didn’t want to see him. Right as I was arriving at my building, however, I got another call. This time, it was Katie. I answered it immediately. Before I even had a chance to say hello, she blurted something out. ‘Don’t go home!’ she warned me. ‘Whatever you do, don’t go home!’ Then I heard what sounded like a gunshot, and Katie stopped talking. A few seconds later, the call went dead.”

Rek rubs my back soothingly.

“So the Gaia Group has connections with the higher ups in the Intelligence agency,” says Traven.

“I guess so,” I answer. “That’s the only thing I could figure. I think Katie was an honest agent, but she was only low-level. That’s why they decided to kill her. After my call with her ended so abruptly, I was in a state of shock. I didn’t know what to do or who to turn to. I only knew that I couldn’t go back to my apartment. I had to get away. As far away as possible. And I had to warn the people of Caldera about the terrible thing that was going to happen. I figured if I tried to book a ticket on a Warpliner, the Gaia Group and their intelligence pals would have no problem tracing it, and they would intercept me. Maybe they would arrest me as some kind of corporate terrorist. Or, more likely, they would just send someone to kill me outright. Anything to keep their not-so-little secret safe.”

“So that’s why you created the fake Warpseekers account,” says Rek.

“It was the only thing I could think of,” I tell him. “I used what little cash I had on me to buy a burner phone. The rest I spent on a sexy outfit so you would think I was legit and an empty suitcase so you wouldn’t wonder why I was traveling without luggage.”

“A brave decision,” Traven says.

Coming from him, those words of approval make me flush with pride.

“I didn’t have any other choice,” I say. Then I smile. “I was nervous at the time, but I don’t regret it now. These past few days have been… amazing.”

I blush even harder.

“I agree,” says Rek. “I just wish you would have let us know what was going on with you sooner.”

“So do I,” I tell him. “I’m sorry I kept it from you, but I wasn’t sure if I could trust you guys. I thought, if you found out the truth, you might not take me to Caldera.”

“You kiddin’?” says Traven. “There’re billions of lives at stake here. Of course we’ll help you save ’em.”

“What was your plan once you got to Caldera?” asks Rek.

“I don’t really know,” I answer. “I’m pretty sure Gaia Group won’t put their plan into action until they’re certain I’ve been silenced. If they were to actually genocide an entire planet, and the truth came out after the fact, that would be a pretty serious PR problem, to say the least. I just need to find someone on Caldera I can give all this information to. Someone I know I can trust.”

Traven scratches at his beard again.

“We know just the person,” he says. “Before working as merchants, me and Rek did some time in the military. Our old commander is now a high-ranking officer in the Caldera Planetary Defense Force. He’s solid.”

“Yup,” says Rek. “Solid as a rock. We’ll get all this information to him, and he’ll know what to do next.”

I breathe a huge sigh of relief.

That was the final uncertain part of my whole half-assed plan, and it sounds like the warpers just solved it for me.

“Thank you,” I whisper. “Both of you.”

The wave of relief that just swept over me is immediately followed by other, less appropriate feelings. Considering the gravity of everything we’ve just been discussing, I really don’t have any business getting aroused, but I simply can’t help myself. It’s been several hours since the warpers last shared me, and here in the Warp a few hours without sex feels like an eternity. The sheets where I’m sitting are now growing damp with my need.

“Don’t mention it,” Traven says.

He rises from the bed and stands right in front of me. His crotch is right at the level of my face, and I’m able to see that his feelings match my own. His gray sweatpants are tented from his massive erection, and there’s a dark little stain right on the tip where his precum is leaking.

“Now that we’ve gotten the planning out of the way, we can move on to our next order of business.”

“And what might that be?” I ask.

A cruel smile touches Traven’s lips, and dark fire burns behind his eyes.

“Your punishment.”