An hour later, the taxi came to a screeching halt in front of the largest slave market in Mexico. David leaned over the back seat to talk to Carlos.
“How much for your services for the day?”
Carlos looked at his serious look. He cleared his throat, “I can't really say—”
“How much?” repeated David.
Carlos threw out an amount. “Half a million dollars?”
“Quarter million would be sufficient.”
The computer chirped and the dash board of Carlos' taxi lit up the “In Service” light. David's lips tightened into a thin line. He shoved open the door and stepped out. Slamming it hard, it latched on the first try. Carlos rolled down his window.
“Excuse me, señor?”
David glared at him with exasperation, “What?”
“What is she to you? This girl?”
“The daughter of a friend.”
“The one who rejected you?”
“Yes,” grumbled David.
“So, why? Revenge?”
“Because I couldn't live with myself knowing that she's sold into slavery when I have a chance.”
“She's already a slave, there is no going back. Property of whoever buys her. You can't change that, señor.”
David took a long breath. He balled his hands into fists. “This must be my fault. If her mother didn't run away, she could have asked me to rescue her. I would have paid for her. And, if someone is going to own her, I'm going to make sure it isn't anyone who will ever hurt her.”
“You?” The older man looked at him with a strange smile.
David sighed. “I pay for my mistakes.”
Carlos nodded. “Good luck, señor.”
Spinning on his heals, David pushed his way into the crowded slave market. It was arranged like a flea market, with hundreds of naked men and woman on sale. They stood on concrete blocks wearing nothing but an iron collar. Many of them were the salt of the earth, bitter and angry. David barely paid attention to the easy to read signs above them: bars for prisoners, red crosses for medical problems, even the country flag of their origin. He hurried around the people, desperately scanning each block trying to find Olivia.
He found her when he came up to the large auction hall in the back. Ten meter tall video screens lined both side of the grand entrance, showing off the premium sales. David stopped in front of them as Olivia came flashing up on the screen, standing naked with a heavy metal collar around her neck and her perky breasts standing tall. Tears ran down her cheeks as a rapid-fire Spanish blasted over the speakers, no doubt extolling her virtues.
David dove into the auction hall just as Olivia was put on the block. It started at a pathetically low amount, a thousand dollars. David looked around and saw a registration desk. Hurrying up, he got in line and anxiously waited for his turn as Olivia's price inched up. By the time he got his own account, less than a minute, she had a million dollar price tag attached to her.
Panting, David entered the auction area. Hundreds sat in chairs and hundreds more stood in the area by the stage. Around the upper decks of the room, a dozen box seats were filled with the rich of society. Olivia stood in the center of the stage, with the three cameramen circling around her, focusing on her pussy, ass, and mouth and presenting them on the video screens behind her. An announcer spewed out a stream of Spanish. David couldn't understand most of it, but he knew the words for prostitution and whore.
He looked at his computer, where the registration software came on and advertising flashed by. Then, he got to the bidding screen. On the stage, above her, the count down flashed in the few remaining seconds since the last bid.
David hesitated.
Then he entered two million into the price. It flashed up on the screen again, immediately replaced by three million. David sighed and put in five. Ten million dollars flashed up. David looked around the crowds as he put in twelve million. The counter-bid brought it fourteen million. He added two more million, but as soon as the number flashed up, he saw a fat man in the corner jamming his thumb down and twenty million showed up.
David stared at his opponent. The man looked like he had money judging from the black tuxedo completely out of place in the heat-baked room and the gold necklaces that nearly strangled him. It was a mixture of high class and gangsta rock and completely out of place with the rest of the room. David's eyes flickered over to the three men and four women surrounding the man. Two of them knelt down on the ground, their heads bobbing up and down as they sucked on the man's dick. The others rubbed their naked bodies along his arms and legs, massaging him as he ignored them. One of the girls stood up from blowing her master and turned around to grip the railing. David saw a scar that ran from her face to her groin as she positioned herself over her master's cock, sinking down. Finally, the man responded. He grabbed the girl's hair and yanked back and jamming her down on his shaft.
David shuddered at the roughness that he fucked his slave. His eyes returned to the stage where Olivia stood there, trying to cover her body and having every aspect of her body plastered up on the screen.
“Damn it.”
He tapped the screen and one hundred million showed up on the screen. A gasp rolled through the crowds. The other purchaser looked around and their eyes met for a moment. Then the man continued to look across the room, not seeing David as a possible threat. The man's free hand hovered over his terminal for a moment. Then he shook his head.
David let out a gasp of relief as the countdown finished and a horn rang out loudly. The announcer belted out the sale and Olivia dropped to her knees, sobbing loudly. Two strong men grabbed her and dragged her off the stage while bringing the next slave, a dark-haired beauty with full lips and wide hips. David saw the man who bid on Olivia immediately jam his finger on the terminal, bidding before the announcer declared the next sale. David saw the number flash up, one thousand dollars, and felt a sick feeling in his stomach.
Then he remembered something Victor told him, “You can't save them all.”
Dejected, he hit the checkout button on his computer and it deducted Olivia's price from his account. The balanced flickered but barely; David still had a few trillion dollars and 137 weregild in the bank. Time with Victor taught him a lot about investing. A map to the back rooms flashed on the screen, giving him directions to pick up Olivia.
Trying to ignore the next auction, he walked around the hall and into the concrete passageway along one side. The din grew quieter as he traveled through the urine-smelling halls. At the end, two armed guards stood in front of steel doors. As he drew up, the building's computer beeped and the doors unlocked. David nodded to the guards who ignored him and walked through the doors.
A different type of deafening noise slammed into him. It wasn't a thousand conversations, but more of the sound of livestock and property being sold and traded like common supplies. The wide hallways had a line of steel rings mounted into the walls. Chains hung down from the rings to attach to the slave collars of the naked men and women on both sides. They sat in various states of distress, tears and crying, but they didn't respond to David except to reach out for him. He was reminded of the fateful prison trip he took with his friend Terrance, before he acquired Terrance's slaves and his best friend was killed by Victor.
He walked past handlers, all muscular men wearing uniforms, shoving slaves into line for the auction while looking bored at the same time. There were slaves in cages, mostly pregnant women and violent men. Beyond those, he found a long table where purchases could be picked up.
He walked up to a pretty-looking woman.
“Hello, I'm here to pick up my bid.”
“Not hanging around?”
“Blew my budget already.”
“Hope it was worth it.”
David chuckled, “I think it might be.”
He pressed his hand on the receiving panel and it beeped. The woman looked down at the picture of Olivia then looked up at David, obviously not impressed. He fretted for a moment, then he gave her a false grin.
“Daughter of the woman who killed my sisters.”
“Oh, I'll get her right away, señor.” David hated the realization that she just improved her opinion of him drastically. And more so that he liked it. David could almost hear Victor laughing at him.
When the handlers brought Olivia out to him, David could hear her screaming long before she came into sight.
“No, god, no! Please, I don't want to be a slave! It wasn't my fault!”
David winced at the shrill tone of her voice. Then she came into view. Her curly brown hair flew in all directions as her bare feet skittered on the floor. Wide eyes stared in all directions as the men struggled to keep her in place.
Then, she saw David. There was a pause, a lull in the storm, then she screamed as loudly as she could. Kicking out in all directions, she managed to catch one of the handlers in the groin; her foot slammed into his cup with an uncomfortable crunch. She flailed out violently, fear overriding her discomfort.
“Excuse me, señor, you might want to calm her down before we release her.”
David glanced over to the woman behind the table, then nodded. She spoke a few words in Spanish. Then one of the handlers reached out and punched Olivia in the gut. The brown-haired girl bent in half, then collapsed to the ground. The handler grinned and said something else in Spanish.
“Problem stopped,” smirked the woman.
David groaned. “Thank you.”
“Do you have a vehicle?”
“Yes, out front, a taxi.”
She raised her eyebrow and his reputation dropped. David didn't care. He called Carlos from his phone and waited for the taxi to pull around to the back. As the taxi came to a halt, the woman ran around the table to run over to it.
“Carlos! Mi abuelo!”
She dove into the window, hugging the old man tightly. Carlos laughed and hugged her back. The woman kissed him on the mouth a few times, but David couldn't get a good look. He did get a view of the black thong that rode up the girl's cleft. He turned away to inspect Olivia.
The Spanish woman walked past him and flicked him on the side. “Carlos says you are good. If he says so, then you are okay.”
And David's reputation rose.