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  “Ten dollars,” she said in Tok Pisin, the Papuan trade language, “hide us, hide the truck under your house.”

  The woman pursed her lips. “Twenty.”

  “Twenty dollars.” Opal reached into the truck, unzipped one of the pockets of the backpack, and produced a small wad of bills.

  The woman took the money and started calling out to her neighbors. In a matter of minutes the truck was under the house, hidden by tarps and brush and garbage. Pholus and Opal were hurried off to another house, and shown to a shadowy back corner where a hammock hung.

  It wasn’t her luxurious mattress, but to Opal it was the most inviting bed she had ever seen. Opal wanted more than anything to climb into it and sleep, but there were still things to do. She took the medical kit out of her backpack, and cleaned and re-dressed Pholus’s wounds, then sat down on the floor and attended to the burn on her foot.

  While she was working on it, she heard a cough at the door. A small child, thin and clearly ill, stumbled into the hut followed by his mother, cradling his arm.

  “My son is sick,” she said, leaving unasked the obvious need for help.

  Opal beckoned the child closer. He held out his hand to display a badly infected wound. He winced as she probed the wound gently. Pus oozed from the open wound. Two of his fingers, if not his whole hand, were in danger of needing amputation. Opal rummaged in her bag for an air injector. “This will make it feel better,” she said, injecting anesthetic in several places near the wound. “What’s your name?”

  He looked up and nodded weakly. “Afa.”

  “You might want to look away, now. I’m going to clean out the wound.”

  The child didn’t avert his eyes, in fact he was quite curious as Opal cut away the ruined flesh, lanced the pustules, and applied an antibiotic cream. When she dressed the wound with clean bandages from her kit, he helped her hold the ends in place while she secured them.

  “You’re very good at this.” She prepared an injection of antibiotics and some vaccines.

  “I’m going to be a doctor.”

  “That’s wonderful!” With the last dose injected, Opal ruffled the little boy’s hair. “Maybe some day you’ll be taking care of me instead.”

  Opal turned to the boy’s mother, hovering nervously nearby. “I did what I could, but you need to take him to the clinic.”

  “We have no money.”

  Opal retrieved a few bills from her pack. “This ought to cover anything he needs.”

  “Thank you,” she said, with a somber nod, clearly torn between needing to see her son thrive and taking so much charity.

  “Is there anyone else in the village who is hurt or sick?”

  “No… at least, no one as sick as Afa.”

  Opal sensed that there was more. “And…?”

  “You are hiding from someone. They will not come. They are afraid.”

  “I understand.”

  The woman escorted her son out of the dark hut.

  Fatigue that had been waiting for hours to claim Opal finally fell in its full weight. She climbed into the hammock, and fell asleep before it stopped swinging.

  * * * *

  Opal awoke in complete darkness and near total quiet.

  “Pholus?” she whispered.

  “I’m here.”

  Opal opened her eyes wide, willing them to make sense of the darkness around her. “Are we safe?”

  “For now. We still have to get to Port Moresby, but we’re past the worst of it.”

  “Do you need to sleep?”

  “I’m good.”

  Opal’s eyes adjusted to the gloom enough to make out Pholus’s profile, leaning against the wall near the entrance. “Come here,” she said. “I want you closer.”

  “Will the hammock take both of us?”

  “This one’s made for a whole family. It’ll take both of us.”

  The fibers creaked as Pholus carefully transferred his massive form to the hammock. Opal cuddled up close to his side. She ran her hand over the dressings that criss-crossed his chest and abdomen. “How are you feeling?”

  “I heal fast.”

  “I can stay up a while to keep watch, if you need to sleep.”

  “No, I’m good. Really. I don’t need to sleep as much as you hu—as much as you.”

  “You were going to say ‘humans.’“

  Pholus lay silent.

  “You may not have been born the normal way, Pholus, but you’re a man as far as I’m concerned. A lot more man than that bastard who burned my foot and a lot more man than the ones that shot up a village full of innocent people trying to catch us.”

  Pholus’s whisper was nearly inaudible. “What’s going to happen to me, Opal?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When we get you to Port Moresby... what’s going to happen to me? Are you going to bring me to a lab, parade me for the cameras?”

  “We’ll figure something out, Pholus. I’ve got money. Money solves lots of problems.”

  “I don’t know, Opal. Everything is going to change when we get to Port Moresby. The police are going to have questions about me. It’s going to be very hard to get me out of the country.”

  “I know people, Pholus. Don’t worry.” Opal slid her hand up and touched Pholus’s cheek, and found wetness. “You’re crying.”

  “I’m sorry, Opal. I...”

  “You’re afraid, Pholus. Don’t be. Don’t think about tomorrow. Even if everything goes wrong, even if we are separated... we have tonight.” Opal shifted and pulled herself up to kiss Pholus’s cheek. “Have you ever had sex in a hammock?”

  “No. I’ve... never had sex with a woman.”

  “Never?”

  “... and with a man?”

  Pholus took three long breaths before answering. “We have… a way...” He swallowed, and started again. “Discipline is maintained among my people by swallowing semen. Our bodies processes it, makes us recognize the scent of the giver... as one who is to be obeyed.”

  “Which is why you obeyed me while my blood was in your veins.”

  “Yes... at… at first.”

  Opal slid her hand down to the waist of Pholus’s pants. “Do you want to?”

  “Do I want to... what?” Opal felt Pholus’s belly quiver.

  “Do you want to make love with a woman?”

  Pholus’s answer was as quiet as a mouse’s sigh and yet it echoed through Opal’s soul like the blast from a trumpet.

  “Yes.”

  Opal undid Pholus’s pants and pulled the wings of his fly aside. Underneath, no underwear hid his uncircumcised manhood from her touch. It twitched, responding to her gentle caress, and as she wrapped her fingers around it, she felt it start to swell.

  “How big does it get?”

  “I don’t know. Nine inches or so? I’ve... ohhh.... I’ve never measured it.”

  “That’s very big, Pholus. Bigger than any man I know of.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t think it will be a problem.” Opal smiled to herself. In the darkness, Pholus’s organ seemed to be growing to enormous proportions. “You know... I’m almost glad you ruined my clothes today.”

  “Hmm?” Pholus’s cock throbbed in her hand, hard as tense muscle.

  “I don’t have to take them off.”

  Carefully, Opal slid her leg up and around Pholus’s body and then pushed up on top of him, holding her body close to avoid unbalancing the hammock. She felt the tip of his cock nuzzling around in the folds of her pussy. She slid one hand down between them to guide him in. She was still horny as hell from her tantalizing treatment aboard the float, and her juices were flowing freely. Inching downwards, she pressed, letting the head squeeze her lips apart until the head of his huge cock slipped inside. It hurt, just a little, but the fullness more than made up for it. A pause, relaxing, then she slid just a little further down. A pause, and then a little more. And again.

  When she had taken his cock as far as it would go, she took
Pholus’s hands in hers and guided them to her body. “Touch me,” she whispered.

  Pholus gently caressed her hips and belly, and ran his hands up her shirt. He pulled the fabric down from her breasts and let them slip out into his palms.

  “Yes,” she said. “Touch me. All over.”

  Opal moved by millimeters, feeling her pussy start to relax around his massive shaft. She had had a few lovers in her life, but never anyone who was as big as Pholus. In that moment she knew that this could not be the last moment that she would have this bliss. Whatever it took, she would see Pholus to safety. He had brought her safely this far; from here, it was her responsibility to do the same for him.

  As her body gradually adapted to his, Opal was able to start a shallow rhythm. She stifled her moans, not knowing if any of the villagers would be sleeping nearby, but nothing could hide the shaky breaths she was taking, or the musky scent coming from her body. Pholus’s hands were unskilled but gentle and untiring, and the feel of his fingers on her nipples laid another layer of ecstasy on top of the sensations coming from her cunt.

  Pholus groaned softly. Opal recognized the throbbing pulses coming from his cock, knew that he was getting close to orgasm. She doubled her pace, letting out small cries of pleasure as his massive cock buried itself inside her. He let out a loud groan, and she felt his cum erupting inside her.

  Quickly, desperate to achieve release while he was still hard, Opal drove herself down onto Pholus’s cock, and to her immense relief she felt the tremors radiate from her cleft. She buried her face in his chest to stifle her cry of ecstasy.

  She crawled up, using her fingers to locate his face in the darkness. Her lips met his, and she felt his strong hand gently stroke her back.

  “Nice,” he murmured.

  She purred and nuzzled his cheek, letting her body conform to his. “Are you tired?”

  “No. Like I said, I don’t need much sleep.”

  “You don’t know how happy that makes me.”

  Pholus froze mid-caress, and she felt the tension in his body return. She started to speak but he shushed her sharply. After a few seconds, she heard it too—a humming sound, a motor, growing slowly louder and more ominous. Opal felt the freezing grip of terror that had been broken by Pholus’s touch refresh its grasp on her stomach.

  After the sound had completely faded again Pholus broke his silence with the barest of whispers. “They’re still looking for us. That was the command float.”

  The silence stretched.

  Opal slid down alongside Pholus and held him. He wrapped his arm around her body and squeezed her lightly.

  “I’m so tired of running,” she whispered.

  Chapter Six

  Opal dozed fitfully in Pholus’s arms, troubled by vague nightmares of pursuit and separation. She awoke with a start and found herself alone in the hammock. An erratic rain patted the roof with fat drops. She called out softly but desperately. “Pholus?”

  Pholus spoke quietly. “I’m going to take a look around.”

  “Did you hear something?”

  “I’m still worried about that float that went over. Either it was Harry taking advantage of a favorable wind, or it was a Blackstorm command ship out looking for us. I’m betting on the latter. If they spotted anything suspicious they would drop a platoon to hunt on foot.”

  “Anything suspicious... like the truck.”

  Pholus slowly peeked out the front door of the hut. “Yep. The engine is probably still warm enough to pick it up on infrared.”

  “Won’t they have seen us, too?” Opal pulled the hem of her shirt up over her breasts.

  Pholus ducked back inside. “Yes, but we were in the hammock. They probably mistook us for a family of locals piled up together. The rain probably fouled things up some, too.”

  “Is anyone out there?”

  “I didn’t see anyone. If we go moving around out there, though, we’re definitely going to look suspicious, so we’ll have to stay here.”

  “Come back into the hammock. Please?” Fear left her voice weak and tentative.

  Pholus hung his weapons on the wall nearby and maneuvered his huge form into the heavy net. “We’ll get through this. We’re almost there. In the morning we’ll hire someone to drive us to Port Moresby.” He stroked her back lightly, and the touch of his strong hand soothed her. Within a few breaths she succumbed to her fatigue and fell into a dreamless sleep.

  * * * *

  A thin band of sunlight fell between the seams in the ramshackle hut onto Opal’s face. She awoke, blinking, to see Pholus climbing into the hut. “Everything looks clear.”

  Opal rolled out of the hammock and onto her feet. She stretched, growling a little. “Is there any water around? I’d like to wash up a little.” The remains of the night’s lovemaking had turned into a sticky mess.

  “There’s a rain cistern out there.” Pholus nodded in the direction of the open doorway.

  Opal rearranged her clothing, regaining what modesty she could, and climbed down out of the hut. Overhead, heavy clouds hung low in the sky. The cistern water was cold but it got most of the residue off of her body. Around them, the little village was already awake and going about its business.

  The little woman who had taken her money the day before approached, offering a basket of boiled yams, fruit, and greens. Opal’s stomach growled in a most unladylike manner. Opal bought the basket with another dollar from her backpack, and handed the food to Pholus.

  “We need a ride to Port Moresby,” she said, in Tok Pisin. “We can pay.”

  The woman smiled and nodded, and chattered some instructions.

  Opal thanked her, and turned to Pholus. “She says there’s a bus every day at the store down the road. If we hurry we can get there in time.”

  “Then let’s move.”

  “One thing first.” She turned back to the woman. “You know who owns the truck we came in?”

  The woman nodded.

  Opal handed the woman a twenty dollar bill. “Tell him I am sorry I borrowed it, and I hope this money is enough that he is not angry.”

  The woman smiled and tucked it under her waistband. “I will give it to him.”

  They finished their breakfast quickly and hit the road.

  Pholus walked alongside Opal, in the center of the road. He scanned the undergrowth on either side of the muddy track, and the clouds above them.

  Opal tok Pholus’s hand in hers. He gave her a firm, comforting squeeze. “So, uhm… how did you wind up with Blackstorm?”

  “They owned the military academy where they sent me when I was ten. That’s where I learned what I was. Blackstorm hired all of us as soon as we graduated.”

  “What was that like? The academy, I mean.”

  Pholus shrugged. “It was military training. In between classes in math and history, we had physical training, tactics, and more physical training. Have you ever been to a training camp?”

  “Actually, yes. My family didn’t have much money, so I went into the military after high school. I trained as an OR nurse and served in the Zagros campaign.”

  Pholus whistled. “I read about that. Some nasty action, there.”

  “I didn’t see much combat. I spent most of the war at a field hospital in Abadan. That was bad enough.”

  “Still, that explains why you’ve been able to hold it together through all this.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Military training is what keeps you sane in the face of death.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that. I’ve always been a pretty stable person, but I’ll grant you that it helped a lot.”

  “So how did you get from Abadan to here?”

  “I saved up enough money in the army to go to medical school. I met my husband there.”

  “You’re married?”

  “I was. He died about six years ago.”

  Pholus nodded and made another scan of the sky.

  Pholus and Opal continued to chat as they walked, and with
each step she felt more sure that she wanted to spend time with him. The combination of confidence and vulnerability, the raw sexual power of his body and the naiveté of his mind combined into a cypher she found incredibly compelling.

  A warm, gentle rain began falling.

  * * * *

  They reached the store just as the bus was pulling up. A small crowd of people piled out to meet another crowd of people waiting to meet them. Crates, bags and cages were unloaded from the pile atop the bus in a chaotic tangle. Opal and Pholus stood back from the fray, waiting for things to calm down before approaching.

  The driver eyed Pholus and his weapons suspiciously, but took Opal’s money and gestured for them to board. Pholus gently guided Opal towards the first seat, near the door. “This is pretty much their last chance to catch us,” he said quietly. “I don’t see any sign of them.”

  It took a solid hour to get everyone and everything that was going onto the bus crammed in. It was cramped, smelly, and noisy, but Opal was happy to be there.

  Pholus got curious looks from everyone coming onto the bus. People pointed and muttered to each other, but no one gave them any trouble. The driver took out a cell phone, spoke into it briefly, and then climbed aboard and got into his place behind the wheel. He wiped his brow and smiled at them, then cranked the old engine into life and started down the road.

  Pholus nudged Opal and nodded in the direction of the driver. “The driver looks nervous. He’s up to something.”

  Opal shook her head. “He’s got a huge mercenary with a machine gun sitting behind him. Of course he’s nervous.”

  Pholus nodded, but Opal could tell that his head was still very much ‘in the game.’ He constantly searched the road for signs of a threat, and his hand stayed on the gun in his lap. Opal adjusted her clothes and wished silently that she had bought something in the village to wrap around her. To preserve some morsel of modesty, she pulled her battered backpack up onto her lap.

  “Pholus... any reason to keep the computer shut off? I want to set up our flight.”

  “Blackstorm will pick it up. They’ll know where we are.”

  Opal looked around the bus. “There’s a good half dozen people with cell phones in here, not to mention the driver. Are they going to pick my signal out from all these?”