Around what? The circumference looked about right for my upper arm, or my...
My neck.
Terror pooled in my stomach, like fuel set ablaze. That ring was a collar.
I instinctively tried to scoot my chair away from the shiny, high-tech device, but Bowmans heavy hand landed on my shoulder. Vandekamps collar was much lighter, sleeker and cleaner than the thick iron rings Metzger had fitted around resistant centaurs and satyrs, but even diamond-encrusted collars are for pets.
Woodrow picked up the control device and used it to point at the collar Shaw still held. Im going to explain this to you once. That is an electronic restraint collar, which can be controlled by any of the remotes carried by the Spectacles staff. Those tiny spines will slide through the back of your neck and into your vertebrae, where they can deliver specialized electric signals with the press of a button.
Shaw tilted the collar to show me that the inner curve of one half of the collar held a vertical line of three very thin needles.
I stared at the steel ring, trying to control panic as it clawed at my throat. Its a shock collar?
Its much more than that. Woodrow clipped the remote back onto his belt and met my gaze for what he obviously considered the most important part of my orientation briefing. This collar can deliver a painful shock or temporarily paralyze the beast wearing it from the neck down. The settings prevent cryptids from using their monstrous abilities until those settings are changed, which only happens during scheduled engagements. Which means the sirens cant sing, the succubi cant seduce, the shifters cant shift and the beasts cant lift a hand in aggression. Until we want them to. So consider this fair warning.
The collars receptors also receive signals from every single door in the compound, Shaw added. Restricting you to any room or wing we choose.
I could only stare, stunned. Id never seen or heard of anything like it. How can that possibly work?
Shaws eyes lit up. Vandekamp designed it himself. Receptors in the spines respond instantly to the spike in adrenaline and in species-specific hormones that
Shaw, Woodrow growled, and the handlers mouth snapped shut.
But Id heard enough to understand.
Woodrow stood. Get on with it.
Okay, now, hold still. Shaw came toward me with the collar, and panic lit a fire in my lungs.
No. I stood, and the folding chair scraped the floor then fell over, hanging from the cuff attached to my left wrist.
I cant wear a collar.
Sit down, Woodrow demanded, while Bowman aimed his tranquilizer rifle at my leg. Thats the only warning youll get.
Please dont do this. I backed away from them both, dragging the chair, though I had nowhere to go. Ill be reasonable if you will. There has to be another
Woodrow glanced at Bowman. Do it. And dont forget to write a report and log the spent dart.
I turned to Bowman just as he fired. Pain bit into my left thigh. The tiny vial emptied its load into my leg before I could pull it out with my free hand.
As I backed farther away from them, my focus flitting warily from face to face, the edges of the room began to darken. The scrape of the metal chair against the floor sounded suddenly distant. My central vision began to blur. Stay back.
My legs felt weak half a second before they folded beneath me, and I didnt even feel my knees slam into the tile. The ceiling spun around me as I fell onto my back. The chair clattered to the floor, and Woodrows weathered face leaned over me.
Gallaghers going to kill you... I warned, but my words sounded stretched and distorted.
Do it now, before the bitch wakes up again, Woodrow said, as the world faded to black around me. Looks like shes going to have to learn everything the hard w
Culminating in a narrow Senate victory, Congress has passed the Cryptid Containment Act, which will allow cryptids to be housed and studied in both public and private labs, for the purpose of scientific advancement.
from the February 4, 1990, edition of the Boston Herald
Delilah
Wake up, Delilah.
The surface beneath me felt hard and rough, but neither cool nor warm. Light glared through my closed eyelids, and something snug was wrapped around my neck.
My eyes flew open, but the world remained hazy. The three women bending over me had blurry faces, and their grayish clothing was shapeless and unfamiliar.
Shes waking up, one of the blurry forms said, and I recognized Lenores voice even without the mental tug of her sirens lure. I exhaled slowly. I was among friends.
What happened? Blinking to clear my vision, I pushed myself upright on a rough concrete floor and reached for my neck, but someone grabbed my hand.
No, dont touch it! Lala cried.
The faces were finally starting to come into focus.
Lenore. Lala. And Zyanya, the cheetah shifter. A few feet away, Mirela sat next to Rommily, who was curled up asleep on the floor with one thin arm tucked beneath her head. In addition to those stupid gray scrubs, they all wore
My hands flew to my neck, and my fingers brushed smooth, warm steel that had taken on the temperature of my skin. I felt along the curve of the high-tech collar until I got to the hidden hinge at one side, distinguishable only by a tiny crack where the two sections were joined. How can they
Dont! Lenore cried as I slid my finger beneath the front of the collar. Excruciating pain shot through my entire body, lighting every nerve ending on fire. My jaw spasmed, trapping a terrified cry of pain inside, and the jolt didnt end until someone knocked my hand away from the collar.
What the hell was that? I demanded when my jaw finally unclenched, as painful aftershocks coursed through me, far outlasting the initial pain. I leaned back against the concrete wall to keep from falling over. I felt like a human lightning rod.
You can touch the collar, but if you pull on it or put your finger under it...that happens. Lalas gaze was full of sympathy. Weve all tried it. They really dont want us taking these things off.
As if we could, Zyanya snapped. The damn joints locked the second they snapped it closed, so this shock treatments overkill. These things arent coming off until someone cuts them off.
Theyre not afraid were going to take the collars off, I said, as my gaze roamed the large concrete room, where we sat among at least two dozen other women of various humanoid and hybrid species, each of whom wore the same uniform and collar. They dont want you to pull on the collar because the needles will damage your spine.
Like they care, Lala said.
They care about the money Vandekamp has invested in us. Just like Metzger did. If you give yourself nerve damage, youre worth less to them. Which gives them less incentive to keep you alive.
On the bright side, Mahsa said, and I turned to find the leopard shifter curled up in a nearby corner. I havent seen anyone beaten yet.
Give it time, Zarah said, as she and Trista padded toward us on bare feet. Only paying customers get to cause damage.
On the bright side, Mahsa said, and I turned to find the leopard shifter curled up in a nearby corner. I havent seen anyone beaten yet.
Give it time, Zarah said, as she and Trista padded toward us on bare feet. Only paying customers get to cause damage.
What does that mean? Mahsa crawled closer, and we formed a protective ring of former menagerie captives.
Exactly what that gamekeeper said. This isnt a circus, ladies, Trista explained, pushing long pale hair over her shoulder. The rumors about the Savage Spectacle seem to be true. They rent cryptids to their customers with no bars and cages to stand between them.
Id heard no rumors. But then, I hadnt spent my entire life in captivity, piecing together an understanding of the outside world through stories traded with new prisoners.
We wondered how they did that. Zarah ran one finger over the outside of her collar. Now we know.
Mahsa blinked wide leopard eyes. Rent us for what?
Dont ask questions you dont want the answers to. Finolas voice was full of bitter resentment. Like Lenores, it now held none of the calming effect shed once used to help her friends through the transition from captives to masters of their own fate in the liberated menagerie. The collar had robbed her of her purpose in a way no cage ever could have.
Why is your shirt inside out? Lala asked.
I followed her focus to the shallow V-shaped neckline of my scrubs top, where the back side of the seam showed. My jaw clenched. Theyd stripped me while I was unconscious, then put my clothes back on inside out. Was that intentional, so Id know...
Know what?
They were looking for your tell, a soft voice said from my left, and I turned to see a young dryad sitting against the wall, braiding a long length of hair, among which grew thin woody vines blooming with small white flowers. To figure out what you are.
She held one hand out to us, palm down, and I saw that her veins appeared bright green beneath her skin, rather than the normal blue or blue green. Her feet looked much the same. If she were ever allowed back into the woodsthe forest nymphs natural habitatshe would be able to bury her feet in the dirt and draw sustenance from the earths nutrients, like a plant.
But I could tell from her pale skin and the dark circles beneath her eyes that nothing more yielding than concrete had been beneath her feet in a long, long time.
They couldnt have done anything more than examine you unless they paid the rental fee. There are cameras everywhere. No one gets away with anything hereneither the jailed nor the jailers. She returned to her woody braid. Im Magnolia, by the way.
Without waiting for us to return the introduction, she stood and wandered across the room toward a small cluster of captives gathered against the opposite wall.
My focus followed her, taking in the large, mostly empty room. Where are we? The walls held a series of tall, narrow windows. I couldnt tell which direction the sun was coming from, but the weak daylight felt like early morning. Equidistant apart on the ceiling were two dark security camera domes, like the kind used at any department store for 360-degree surveillance.
At first I thought it was a holding cell. Lenore tucked her knees up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. But theres a bathroom through there. She nodded toward an open doorway on the opposite wall. And I think those mats and blankets are to be slept on.
I followed her gaze to the left, where three stacks of blue vinyl-covered gymnastics mats were lined up against the interior wall, with folded blankets neatly piled on top.
Youre right. This is a dormitory. My focus skipped from face to frightened face. Ladies, I think were home.
Lenore slumped against the wall. Well, its bigger than a cage. And at least were together.
I nodded because I didnt want to poison her optimism, but I felt none of it. Vandekamp hadnt rescued us from the misery of a new menagerie; hed delivered us into a whole new brand of captivity. A fresh hell.
So, has anyone tested the collars, beyond the one-finger booby trap? I asked.
Yeah. Zyanya tapped the concrete floor with one long, thick clawa remnant of the feline form that, along with her eyes and incisors, remained even when she took on human form. I tried to shift earlier, but the second I thought about taking on fur, my whole body froze from my chin down. I couldnt move at all. She trailed the point of one nail over the front of her collar. How does this thing work?
I think it recognizes increased levels of adrenaline and feline hormones. Basically, it senses what youre going to do before you can do it, and it sends electric impulses into your spine, temporarily paralyzing you. I turned to Lenore. What about you? Have you tried to sing?
No, but I tried to inject a suggestion into my tone of voice earlier. It was an accident. I was trying to help calm Rommily, and I didnt realize what Id done until I was flat on my back, immobilized.
It doesnt prevent visions, Lala said with a shrug. I guess those arent much of a threat.
That, or Vandekamp hadnt been able to isolate the proper physiological signals.
Speaking of guards, where are they? There was no one in the large room but us and our fellow captives, yet the door wasnt made of steel or iron, and it didnt meet the standards typically required by facilities licensed to house cryptids.
Who knows? Mirela said as she stroked Rommilys hair. Im starting to think theyre not needed here. These damn collars wont let us leave the room, except to go to the bathroom. And theres one of those sensors in the bathroom doorway too, in case they need to stop us from emptying our bladders, for some reason.
Its all about control. My hand strayed to the collar, trying to ease the persistent feeling of constriction, and only Zyanyas quick grab for my wrist saved me from another brutal shock. This place is cleaner and nicer than the menagerie, because the upscale clientele pays for exotic and beautiful, not skinny and dirty. The thought of exactly what that clientele would expect for its money made my stomach churn. But the truth is that Vandekamp has a measure of control over us that Metzger could never have dreamed of. We wont have any hope of getting out of here until we figure out how this system works.
Maybe they can answer those questions for us. Mirela stared across the room at the other female cryptids.
Maybe. I studied our new roommates. Most were shifters or anthropomorphs, like sirens and oracles, but several were species Id never seen in person. I counted three nymphs, who had feathers, leaves and vines in place of normal human hair. A young echidna had the upper body of a human woman and the lower body and fangsand likely the venomof a very large snake. They watched us warily from several small cliques, however none, other than Magnolia, seemed willing to breach the gap and make an introduction. But until we get to know them, its probably better that we dont ask.
Why? Lala said.
Because they might be willing to sell us out for extra food or privileges, Zyanya explained, and it broke my heart to know she spoke from experience. Or for time spent with their children.
Children! Mirela turned to her in sudden horror. Zyanya, what happened to your kids? Did Vandekamp buy them?