Parable of the Talents

happy to silence all women. Jarret preached that woman was to be treasured, honored, and protected, but that for her own sake, she must be silent and obey the will of her husband, father, brother, or adult son since they understood the world as she did not Was that it? The woman could be silent or she could be si­lenced? Or was it simpler than that—some pimp in the area just liked cutting out women's tongues? I didn't believe Cougar had done it There was nothing about his body lan­guage that said he was lying or being evasive. That might just mean he was a very good liar, but I didn't think so. It seemed to me that he was telling the truth because he didn't care. He didn't give a damn who had cut the girl or why. I did. I couldn't help it How much more of this kind of muti­lation would we be seeing?

The beautiful young man moved his feet in a restless, noisy way, dragging my attention back to him. Not that I was in any danger of forgetting him. And he was the one I had to buy now.

'How much for him?' I asked. It was too late to pretend I wasn't interested. I had all I could do to just keep func­tioning—speaking sensible words in normal tones of voice, pretend that the impossible was not in the process of happening.

'Buying, are we?' asked Cougar, smirking.

I turned to face him. 'I came here to buy,' I said.  In fact, I would chance making an enemy of the Georges and kill Cougar if I had to. I would not leave my brother in this man's hands. The thought that I had to leave any of these kids in his hands was sickening.

'I hope you can afford him,' Cougar said. 'Like I told you, he's one of my best'

I haven't had to do much haggling in my life, but some­thing occurred to me as Cougar and I began. 'He looks like one of your oldest,' I said. My brother Marcus would be almost 20 now. How old did one of Cougar's child-slaves have to be before he was too old?

'He's 17!' Cougar lied.

I laughed and told a lie of my own. 'Maybe five or six years ago he was 17. Good god, man, I'm not blind! He's great-looking, but he's no kid.' It amazed me that I could lie and laugh and behave as though nothing unusual were hap­pening when my long-dead brother stood alive and well just a few meters away.

To my further amazement, we haggled for over an hour. It seemed to me to be the right thing to do. Cougar was in no hurry, and I took my cue from him. He even seemed to be en­joying himself some of the time. Everyone else sat around on the ground, waiting, and looking bored or confused and angry. My people were the confused, angry ones. Dan in par­ticular looked first disbelieving, then disgusted, then furious. But he followed the example of the two men. He kept quiet He sat staring at the ground, his face expressionless. Travis watched me, then looked from me to Bankole, trying to fig­ure out what was going on. But he wouldn't ask in front of Cougar. Bankole maintained a perfect poker face. Later, the three of them would have a lot to say to me. But not now.

And Cougar did want to get rid of Marcus. Maybe it was Marcus's age, maybe something else, but I couldn't miss that veiled eagerness of his. What he said just didn't jibe with his body language. I think being a sharer makes me extra sensitive to body language. Most of the time, this is a disadvantage. It forces me to feel things that I don't want to feel. Psychotics and competent actors can cause me a lot of trouble. This time, though, my sensitivity was a help.

I bought my brother. No shooting, no fighting, not even much cussing. In the end, Cougar smirked, took his hard currency, and released Marcus from the slave collar. He had offered me the collar and a control unit too—at added cost. Of course I didn't want it. Filthy things.

'Nice doin' business with you,' Cougar said.

No. It hadn't been nice at all. 'I still want the Noyer girls,' I said.

He nodded. 'I'll keep my eyes open. That young one over there is a real good fit to the description you gave.'

I turned to Dan. 'Is she... anything like your sisters?'

The girl and Dan stared at one another, and it hit me again that I was going to have to walk away and leave these chil­dren to their pimp. I avoided looking at the girl.

'Yeah, she looks a little like Nina,' Dan mumbled 'But what good is that? She's not Nina. What good is anything?''

'Can you tell him anything more that would help him rec­ognize either of your sisters if he sees them?' I asked.

'I don't want him to recognize them.' Dan turned to stare at Cougar. 'I don't want him to touch them. I'd kill him! I swear I would!'

Bankole took him to the truck, and Travis, in spite of his confusion, followed with Marcus. I went back into George's and took care of Dolores. She hadn't found Dan's sister, but she had done me a favor that I would never have imagined anyone could do. She had more than earned her fee.