Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 430(@200wpm)___ 344(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
He looked at Dark, who was getting to his feet as well.
“Brother, do you…feel again?” he asked hesitantly.
“I…don’t know.” Dark shook his head. “But I do know we have to get to Lili. The Tribunal Center is too fucking far away—we’ll have to take the shuttle. Come on!”
35
LILI
“This meeting of the Tribunal will now come to order!” A Dark Kindred with half of his face covered in enhancements and implants banged his metal fist on the table.
There were two other Dark Kindred on either side of him and Lili was standing there in front of them, shivering in her ripped body stocking and dented, fake enhancements. LJ-91 was standing to one side of her with his sniffer, who was still emitting a low, buzzing growl.
Somewhere outside a siren was whooping. It seemed to be some kind of signal because more Dark Kindred were filing in and Lili couldn’t help noticing that many of them had sniffers with them. The large room they were standing in was rapidly filling up.
When there didn’t seem to be any more room, the head of the Tribunal spoke again.
“Now, as I understand it, LJ-91, who is one of our top apprehenders of Feel Crime criminals, has brought a case before us today.” He nodded at LJ-91. “Speak.”
LJ-91 stepped up and puffed out his metal chest importantly.
“Thank you, Tribunal Master. I caught this criminal in the loading docks earlier today.” He gestured at Lili. “I had suspicions right away that there was something wrong with him because my sniffer gave an alert. However, when we got closer, the criminal was somehow able to mask his pheromones and my sniffer could not detect them anymore. I almost let him go.”
“But you chose not to?” The Tribunal Master raised his one visible eyebrow.
“I knew something wasn’t right,” LJ-91 emphasized. “He claimed his name was XR-17 and that he was only seeking comestibles. So I took him to a spot I know of, where Feel Criminals are known to congregate, because they put a special seasoning in their garn.”
“It’s just salt, you idiot,” Lili muttered. She was scared to death but also angry at the self-important asshole who had dragged her in here. If he would have just left her alone she might have been all right. She could have gotten safely back to the Mother Ship—instead she was standing her on trial for the horrible crime of having feelings.
LJ-91 shot her a look but continued speaking.
“As expected, the criminal enjoyed the seasoning, sending me a clear signal that he was feeling as he ate.”
“That’s a lie!” Lili protested. As scary as this situation was, she had to speak up for herself! Clearly she wasn’t going to be provided with a lawyer so she would have to mount her own defense.
“What’s that?” The Head of the Tribunal looked at her with something like surprise. Clearly they weren’t used to the “criminal” defending himself—or in Lili’s case, herself. Though at the moment, they all still clearly thought she was male.
“I said, LJ-91 is lying,” Lili responded, raising her voice even more. “He was the one who enjoyed that nasty garn—he was raving over the seasoning and saying how good it was and how I was just going to love it!”
“LJ-91—is this true?” The Tribunal Master demanded.
“What? No! By no means.” LJ-91 protested. “I only bring suspected criminals to the place I spoke of because it exposes their Feel Crime.”
“Right. And that’s why you slurped down your whole bowl of garn and half a shaker of salt—I mean ‘seasoning’—while I only ate two bites! You enjoyed that stuff a lot more than I did—you even abused the poor robot waiter to make him bring it to us so you wouldn’t have to wait for it!”
Lili actually felt like she might be winning here. It seemed like a good strategy to turn the accusation of Feel Crime around and point it at her accuser. And the Dark Kindred Tribunal definitely seemed interested in what she was saying.
The part of LJ-91’s face that was visible around his enhancements began to grow noticeably red.
“You are lying!” he growled at Lili. “I would never commit Feel Crime!”
“You’re committing it right now!” she challenged him. “Look at him—look at his face—look at how red he’s getting!” she exclaimed, pointing at LJ-91. “He’s feeling very upset and angry right now. You don’t need a sniffer to know that!”
“I am not feeling!” LJ-91 shouted, his metal hands clenched into fists at his sides. He took a deep breath, making a visible effort to calm down. “If I was, my sniffer would react,” he added in a quieter tone.
“Unless you trained him not to react to your pheromones!” Lili challenged. “And to only go after other, uh, ‘Feel Criminals.’”
“LJ-91, the suspect makes a reasonable case.” The Tribunal Master raised his eyebrow again. “Have you had your emotion damper checked lately?”