CD (actually CL) Chapter Forty-one (Patreon)

It took about two hours to run back to the city, enter the storage facility, transfer the twelve boxes in the storage unit to her new car, and hit a hardware store to buy a few house plants. It was a small detail, but if Liam ever entered Ava’s suite again, she wanted him to see some plants enjoying that east-facing window. She grabbed some groceries while she was at it, and by the time she returned to the walled compound where Carl Landon lived, it was well after dark.

The security guard at the gate was a woman now, and she flicked dark eyes over Ava’s face and car. When she emerged from the gatehouse, Ava tensed, but the young woman was friendly as she handed Ava a vinyl sticker with a seemingly random design printed on it.

“You’ll want to put this in your front window.” She tapped a spot on the windshield. “Only approved vehicles are allowed in, and this lets us know this one was checked already.” She used a flashlight to peer in at all the boxes. “I got approval for you to come in with your things, but be aware that everything  needs to be checked before it goes inside. Someone will meet you at the door to help carry your boxes and do a quick security check.”

Amythyst sighed. “Typical Carl. Like anyone cares enough about him to try to blow up his fancy compound.”

Ava just nodded at the guard, ignoring the commentary. “That makes sense. Thanks for the warning.”

The woman grinned. “No prob. I’m Chun Li. I have the night shift most of the time, so I’ll probably see you again.” She stepped back, straight black hair swaying beneath her uniform cap, and waved as the gate opened and Ava drove away.

“Weird that the friendliest person I’ve met here is a guard,” Ava subvocalized.

“Yes,” Amythyst responded. “It is. Don’t trust her. Don’t trust anyone.”

Ava hummed in agreement as the car pulled to a stop in front of the house. Now that it was dark, the mansion loomed eerily, though lights illuminated the grounds and should have made the area feel safe.

Three dark shapes separated from the house, resolving into a tall man in a guard uniform, and a shorter man and a woman in simple, tailored uniforms that probably indicated they worked in housekeeping. With a minimum of courtesies, the guard took Ava’s key fob, and the two servants carried the boxes up the stairs and placed them on a dolly.

After glancing through the car, the guard handed the fob off to yet another man, who drove the car away. Turning back to Ava, the tall man said, “The boxes will be scanned and returned to you, so you can go ahead to your rooms.”

Ava looked at the grocery bags neatly stacked on top of the boxes. “What about my food?”

Shrugging, the guard said, “You can take what you need right now, but I still need to check it.”

Ava forced her expression to remain calm as she pulled bread, sliced cheese, a package of wrapped deli meat, and a frozen container of orange juice concentrate from the bags. Amythyst had warned her that Carl was intensely suspicious, but Ava had still thought she was being overly cautious. Obviously, Ava was wrong.

The guard manipulated the bags of food, slightly squashing the bread and opening the paper wrapping around the meat. The orange juice he hefted, examining the frost on the outside and the white plastic seal before handing it to Ava. “You’re good to go, Ms. Shaw. The rest of your belongings should be delivered within the hour. Have a pleasant evening.”

Ava nodded, murmuring the appropriate response, and the guard and the male servant wheeled the cart away. The woman, a gray-haired lady wearing slacks and a button-down shirt that nearly matched her hair, hesitated, smiling tightly at Ava.

“Do you have the app available, Ms. Shaw?” she asked.

Ava nodded and pulled her screen from her coat pocket, though she had to stuff the orange juice in the other pocket in order to get a hand free. When she pulled up the app, the woman leaned in and tapped the red ‘You are here’ dot. It flickered, and three speech bubbles appeared around it.

GO HOME.

GO TO WORK.

GO TO…

The woman tapped ‘GO HOME’, and glowing green footsteps appeared in the digital hallway near the dot. “Just follow the prompts, and it’ll take you to your suite.” She turned away, clearly intending to follow the two men, and Ava held up a hand.

“Thank you, ah…”

“Paula,” the woman said, already walking away.

“Paula. Thank you, Paula!” Ava waved the phone after the woman, who just waved as she hurried off.

Ava stared down at the dot and the green footprints, rotating the screen until the front door on the map was ‘behind’ the red dot. “Okay, so, uh, right. I think.” That made sense, since she and Liam had gone that way earlier, and when he’d taken her to the employee’s wing, she thought they’d continued going right. Though, honestly, she was so turned around, they could have been going up and she probably wouldn’t have noticed.

“Good job,” Amythyst murmured over her implant. “Now, get home before your orange juice melts.”

Ava hustled down the hall.

If the manor had been a neighborhood instead, the entrance to the servant’s wing would have been a good four blocks from the main door. Ava wasn’t out of breath, though, in spite of nearly jogging at least half the distance. She hadn’t seen anyone else in the halls, so she’d relaxed enough to move faster than she would have been able to before her time in full immersion, though nowhere near as quickly as she could now.

When she finally entered the main corridor that connected the suites and the communal facilities, Ava slowed, nodding to a couple who were standing outside a neighboring suite, chatting. They nodded back, expressions filled with curiosity, though they didn’t speak to her. When she set her hand on the handle of her own door, she heard their whispers rise in intensity, but she just pushed inside and closed the door firmly behind her.

The room was dark, and she realized she hadn’t yet set a routine for the house system. Raising her voice, she said, “Lights on,” and the overhead lights brightened. Leaning against the door, she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Orange juice in the freezer,” Amythyst prompted her, and Ava used her palms to push herself away from the reassuring solidity of the door. She knew her feeling of safety was an illusion, since she had no way to lock the door, but it was still good to put something sturdy between her and the strange people who inhabited this house.

Crossing to the half-size refrigerator-freezer in the tiny pseudo-kitchen, Ava swung open the door of the freezer and stuffed the container of orange juice inside. Amythyst sighed in relief.

Ava hesitated, then set the bread, meat, and cheese on the counter by the microwave. “I guess that’s it, then? Dinner and bed as soon as my things arrive?”

The little icon of Amythyst’s face that lurked in the corner of Ava’s vision nodded. “Yes. Try to get some rest. Tomorrow’s a big day.”

The big day, Ava thought, but she didn’t answer. Amythyst’s bugs were scurrying all over the house right now, settling into hidden, out of the way places, and through them, Ava and Amythyst knew that all the ‘public’ areas of the house were constantly monitored, and neither of them were convinced that Ava’s suite was entirely secure. Not yet, anyway.

Amythyst had at least managed to convince the house app that it was in Ava’s implants, even though it wasn’t. She had created a sort of virtual copy of the implants for the app to monitor, and fed filtered data through it. It gave Ava the creeps to think that any part of her could be ‘hacked’ now, but it wasn’t like the implants were in her brain. She could even have them removed after all this was over, though she hadn’t decided yet if she would do that. Her attention flickered up to the tiny Amythyst-face. What she did after this was over would depend… on a lot of things.

Quickly, Ava threw together a sandwich, and found a single glass in a nearby cabinet. She poured herself some water, discovered that the ice-maker in her freezer wasn’t turned on, and drank tepid water while she ate her dry sandwich over the small kitchen sink. She wished she’d been able to bring the jar of mayonnaise she’d bought, but it was large and awkward, and she hadn’t been sure she could get it and everything back to her room without dropping something.

Not long after she rinsed out her glass and set it beside the sink to dry, an authoritative knocking sounded at her door. “Security,” a man’s voice said.

Ava closed her eyes, swallowing hard. “Just a second!”

She crossed the room and opened the door, revealing the same guard who’d taken away her boxes. He held up a clear plastic bag with a black canister in it. “Is this yours?”

She didn’t have to fake her anxiety as she looked from it to his stern expression. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t even realize that was in there. My dad must have packed it.”

His face softened, but he shook his head. “No weapons of any kind are allowed in Landon House, Ms. Shaw. That includes pepper spray. We also confiscated a, ah, cat-shaped keychain with ears designed to be used in self-defense.” He clenched his fist, miming using brass knuckles to punch someone, then chuckled slightly.

“Don’t worry. Everyone here has been thoroughly vetted, and you’re never far from a member of security. You’re completely safe without this.” He waggled the bag meaningfully, and she blushed and nodded. She and Amythyst had agreed that it was better to leave security something to find, but she could practically feel the fascinated gazes of the people poking their heads out into the hall to see what the commotion was.

“I’m really sorry,” she whispered, forcing her hands to pluck at her skirt nervously instead of balling into fists the way they wanted to.

The man actually patted her on the shoulder. “It’s all right. We always find something when a new hire moves in.” He lifted a hand, motioning to someone else in a ‘come here’ gesture, and Ava peered down the corridor to see that Paula and her co-worker were there, too, with Ava’s boxes stacked on two trolleys. The groceries and plants were there, too, though the dirt around the plant’s roots looked as though it had been disturbed.

Ava stepped back as the trolleys were pushed into her suite. The male servant stared around as Paula said, “If you ask housekeeping, they’ll bring you more dishes. You just have to make sure to return them when you move out.” Her eyes were on the upside-down water glass and the crumbs in the sink.

Ava flushed, but offered the woman a grateful smile. “I’ll do that. Ah, you can just… leave those there, I guess. I’ll unpack most of them tomorrow.”

Paula and the man shifted the boxes from the cart to the floor, then wheeled the empty trolleys back out into the hall. Ava thanked them again, and closed the door on their retreating backs. Once again, she leaned against the door, feeling exhausted. She didn’t want to do anything except fall into bed, but she hadn’t even looked at the bedroom properly yet.

She walked around, peering through all the doors. There was a large, well-equipped bathroom, what looked like an office or small workroom with a desk, and a single bedroom with one queen-sized bed and a dresser. The bed was made, and the covers turned down, and she wondered if they were left like that, or if someone had come in and freshened up after Ava accepted the suite.

Glancing around the bedroom, Ava saw another door. Opening it revealed a good-sized closet, though it wasn’t a walk-in. She hurried back out to the main room and picked up a box labeled ‘Work clothes’. The tape had been cut, but the flaps were folded together, so she had to tug at them to reveal the folded clothes within. The top outfit was another skirt suit, made from ‘wrinkle-free’ fabric, and she pulled it out and hung it up. The rest could wait until tomorrow.

Another box gave up a pair of pajamas, and another contained her toiletries. Inside were duplicates of everything Mandy and VaVa had left for her, and Ava could see that everything had been opened. She wondered if Felicia had done that to make it look like the things were used, or if security had opened them and checked to make sure that the lip gloss and mascara were what they claimed to be.

It didn’t really matter, though, since there was nothing to find, so she just set them out on the vanity in the bathroom, and then put away any groceries that required refrigeration. By the time she washed off her makeup and started brushing her teeth, she was yawning nonstop.

She stared into the mirror as she stood with her toothbrush wavering while she fought yet another gaping yawn. It was unnerving to look into two matching blue eyes, even though she’d tried contacts more than once when she was younger. Ava hated touching her eyeballs, though, and by the time she could stand putting the contacts on and off, it just hadn’t been that big a deal. Ava had come to terms with the fact that she was strange-looking, and her mismatched gaze was just another part of that.

Still, the single contact she was wearing now wouldn’t have to come out for another twenty-eight days, so Ava needed to get used to her new look. Between the solid blue gaze and her new hair, she still felt like she was looking at a stranger. She leaned forward and spat the toothpaste into the sink, automatically trying to tuck the short wisps of her hair behind her ears as she did, then leaning forward until the cool porcelain of the sink pressed against her forehead. Mint rose up and filled her nose as she closed her eyes.

Ava Shaw had two blue eyes, wore suits and makeup every day, and styled her hair like a modern-day Tinkerbell. Ava Gardner had heterochromia, preferred jeans and t-shirts, and trimmed her hair with a paring knife. Most importantly, Ava Gardner wasn’t there. When Ava left her room in the morning, she had to be Ava Shaw from her scalp to the tips of her toes, and Ava Shaw should be sleeping well tonight, because she had nothing to be nervous about. Well, nothing except meeting her new boss, anyway.

Ava rinsed her toothbrush, set it beside the sink with a click, and braced her hands on each side of the sink, staring into Ava Shaw’s blue eyes. “Good night, Ms. Shaw,” she murmured, and in her ear she heard Amythyst repeat the words, then add, “Good luck.”