Candidate (Selected Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

males, or the chance of some other fate, which would you prefer?"
    "What other fate?"
    She leaned back in the chair and didn't answer. I stared at her for a while, trying to glare. It was hard to be taken seriously when nearly naked and as helpless and vulnerable as I felt.
    "Why aren't I wearing my clothes?"
    "The visor explains," she said. "I'm not answering questions like that. You've heard my price. But I'm a busy woman, so I do hope you'll decide in the next minute or two."
    "Wait," I said. "Just wait."
    "You have everything you need to know to make a decision, Ms. Hayes."
    "Just wait," I said. "You told me your personal success rate is 100 percent. How big a sample size is that?"
    "I admit: it's not very large."
    "More than zero?"
    She made a bark of a noise, and I decided it was how she laughed. "Yes. It would take all my fingers and some of my toes to count. So not many."
    "Compare to how many the other way?"
    "A lot, lot more."
    "Twenty? Fifty?"
    "Add a few zeros to that," she said.
    "Oh shit."
    "I am a busy woman, Ms. Hayes. Have you decided?"
    "Please just wait," I said.
    "For a price."
    "With you there is always a price?"
    "Yes. If you wish me to wait, you will ask politely, and you will either smile or say something nice about me."
    "Seriously?"
    She started to get up.
    "Please!" I said. "Administrator... I'm sorry, I forgot."
    "Brighteyes," she said. "Jasmine Brighteyes. Yes?"
    "Administrator Brighteyes," I said. "Please give me a chance to think." She settled down and crossed her arms. I couldn't conjure a smile, but I said, "Your eyes are beautiful."
    "Thank you," she said.
    "Will you help me, Administrator?"
    "I don't normally do these interviews, Ms. Hayes. That's what employees are for. The fact that I'm sitting here should tell you something."
    "If I send you away, or you grow tired of waiting, then tomorrow you will give me to one of the leering males."
    "Or something like that, yes."
    "If I accept your offer, then you'll explain what's going on, and then you suggested something else might happen."
    "Yes."
    "You also said your personal success rate is perfect."
    "Yes. We've reviewed this already."
    "I think I only have one more question. How many of them were lesbians?"
    She smiled and leaned forward, staring into my eyes. "All of them."
    I felt tears spring to my eyes, I did my best to push them back. I hated crying. I turned my head and stared at the blank wall for a while. "Do I have any other choices?" I asked in a soft voice.
    "Not today you don't."
    I turned back. "I would like to accept your offer."
    She smiled again. "I hoped you would. To be clear, you will do your best to be polite. That means to me and to the guards."
    "What about to whatever man you try to give me to?"
    "If I give you to a man, you're free to be as rude as you want."
    I brightened at that.
    "You also will make no attempt to hurt yourself or threaten to hurt yourself," she added.
    "And you're going to enforce that, how?"
    "You keep your promises," she replied.
    "To be clear, I'm allowed to threaten to hurt you?"
    "And whomever I give you to," she said. "Please don't threaten the guards. It won't do you any good, and we've discussed the harm it causes. They don't really have a choice in what they do, but you don't have to make it worse for them than it already is."
    "Are you going to explain that?"
    "No, but if you are pleasant, sometimes they answer when the mating candidates ask personal questions. If you intend to do so, you may want to wait a few days."
    "I agree to your terms."
    "I want you to state specifically what you are agreeing to."
    "Fine. I will strive to be polite to you and the guards, and I will not use self-harm or the threat of self-harm. I presume both promises have a duration."
    "For your stay here," she said.
    "So once I'm not your problem, you don't care what happens to me?"
    "Actually, I do, but let's worry about the next few weeks."
    "All right."
    "Very good," she said. She picked up the visor. "You know