Read Online Vacation by Jeremy C. Shipp - Free Book Online Page B

Finally, Mr. Johnson, there’s classical conditioning. Why didn’t I hypnotize you before torturing you? Because I need my men to associate brutality with pleasure. My men celebrated listening to your screams.” He lifts the torture device and tosses it into a nearby crate. “I knew you weren’t with the Garden in the first place. No one with full clearance in their organization would wear ad clothing. Luckily my men are too stupid to realize that.”
    Suddenly those horrific creatures I crapped out don’t seem so bad.
    “Here’s what’s going to happen,” he says. “You’re going to go back to the Garden. Knock on the door. They’ll answer, because they’ll know it’s you. They have a peephole of sorts. Whoever answers, you’re going to knock that person unconscious. Keep the door open. That’s when my men and I will storm the place. It has to happen this way. Our presence can’t be known before the siege. We don’t want to Garden to be ready for us, because they have weapons. I don’t want anyone to die needlessly. Got it?”
    I nod, but barely.
    “If you’re afraid we’re going to kill those nice people, don’t be,” he says. “We want some of their seeds. That’s all.”
    “Seeds?”
    “My people are poor, Mr. Johnson. We can’t afford to buy enough suicide seeds to keep us alive.”
    “Suicide seeds?”
    “You really don’t know anything, do you?” He crosses his arms. “Suicide seeds create a harvest, but they don’t reproduce. They’re a one-shot sort of deal. What the Garden has are fertile seeds. We want some. That’s all.”
    “This might be a stupid question, but have you asked them to share?”
    “Your question is ignorant, not stupid. There’s a difference. And to answer your question, yes, many have asked the Garden to share their resources, but they refuse to do so. Hence the secret security code.” He uncrosses his arm and turns halfway. “Well, you’ve had a long day. I’ll give you a long night to recuperate. Tomorrow, we’re going in. Agreed?”
    “Agreed.”
    Stimulus-response.

Part 10
    “You don’t have a wedding ring,” the girl with the wooden leg says. “Are you married?”
    Before she interrupts my thoughts, various scenarios play through my head.
    One, I do what the Sergeant commands, and betray Noh and Odin and all the other Gardeners I haven’t met.
    Two, I step into the cave and close the door behind me, and warn the Gardeners of the danger. The Garden can’t be completely self-sustaining, so they’ll have to go out eventually. That means they’d have to fight their way out. That means I’d get stuck in a middle of the battle, and all the deaths would be on my head, because I could have prevented the bloodshed, if only I’d done what the Sergeant commanded.
    Maybe the Garden should share their seeds.
    But the girl with the wooden leg says what she says, and I open my eyes and reply, “No.”
    And she begins to untie me from my cot. “Weis couldn’t tie a decent knot if his life depended on it. I’ve never seen him fire his weapon either. I doubt he’s capable.” She unties my last appendage. “He could ask one of his drill instructors to give him basic training, but if word of it ever got around.” She shakes her head. “He’s a talented strategist at least.” From behind her, she rolls over a dolly with a cloth bag on top. “Get in the bag.”
    I don’t.
    “Listen, I do their laundry from time to time. I can get you out of here.”
    So I climb into the bag and curl myself up, fetal and afraid.
    She rolls me out into the camp. Laughter booms and I wonder if there are still torture parties going on in my honor. My body heats and cools as we pass by numerous bonfires. I imagine us passing by Sergeant Weis’ tent. And with his back to us, I flip him off in the dark.
    In no time at all, the girl unties my bag, and I’m free, in the forest once again.
    She motions for me to follow, then leads me alongside a gentle creek.
    “If