Page 84 of Freak Camp
Tobias saw thecome hereflick, but not coupled with the slight raise that would meanget up first,so he crawled.He crawled on his hands and knees and kept his head down until he was about two feet away from the Director and then stopped, sitting back on his heels.That was as close as he could come toward a real without further permission.
He didn’t look at the stranger’s face, but he could hear the amazement and something more in his voice with his next words.Tobias let his eyes flicker sideways to where Crusher stood, one hand holding a cutting whip, the other clenched at his side.Crusher was, predictably, hard, and he had the familiar brutal lust in his eyes.
Maybe I can get a sandwich out of him later,Tobias thought idly, before returning his gaze to the Director’s hand.
“How are you doing that?When you said you were training the freaks to be useful, I thought you were either unhinged or bullshitting us, Jonah, but that ...that was something.My wife’s dog doesn’t obey like that, and she’s taken it to more schools than a PhD dropout.”
“He’s a freak, Senator,” the Director answered dryly.“Much as I hate to admit it, he’s quite a bit smarter than a dog.I use gestures when I don’t want to bother vocalizing basic instructions.Granted, this one has taken to the training rather better than most, but just kneeling and crawling is not that impressive.He can do quite a bit more than that, can’t he, Mr.Sloan?”
Crusher started to attention and nodded.“Yes, sir.Pre—the freak’s ...good at a lot of things, sir.”
“What—” The senator put down his beer.“What kinds of things?”
Of all the men in the room, only the Director was completely calm, at ease.Tobias couldn’t stop his heart rate from picking up.He doubted the senator cared about the history of wendigos in North America.
The Director considered, eyes steady on him, before they flickered to Crusher, moved to Tobias, and then back to the senator.“By all reports, he’s quite skilled with his mouth.Would you like to see for yourself, Senator?”
“His ...mouth?You mean ...?”The senator leaned back, wiping his greasy fingers on the napkin on his lap.
“Quite so,” the Director said.“Mr.Sloan can corroborate.”
“Yeah,” Crusher said.“He’s ...yeah.I ...yeah.Sir.”
“Would you be interested, Senator?”The Director lifted the pitcher and poured himself another glass.
The man stared.
“Sir,” Crusher said, stepping forward.“If Pr—if the freak’s sucking him off, can I—”
“No, Mr.Sloan.”The Director’s tone made Tobias wince, grateful it wasn’t directed toward him.“No, you may not.”
“But, sir—”
The Director turned in his chair to look directly at the guard.“You will control yourself and do your job, Mr.Sloan, or you will leave this room, do you understand?”
The guard retreated to the wall.“Yes, sir.”
“Well.”The senator coughed.Tobias could just see his fingers nervously twitching over his knees.“If you’re offering a, a demonstration—I’d better accept it myself, just so I know you aren’t blowing smoke—or, y’know what I mean.”
The Director gave a short, clipped laugh without humor.“Yes, I do.”He jerked his head at Tobias and made another gesture.
Tobias did as he was told.It was easier than usual, since the man never released his death grip on the arms of his chair and couldn’t seem to do anything but make sharp, high-pitched whines.
Afterward, as Tobias slid back the required two feet, the senator wheezed, “Holy shit.”
“I take it he performed well?”The Director sipped his tea.
“He, uh, you could say that.”
“You can help me, then, with your opinion.Did he perform well enough that I should waive the usual punishment for touching a real human without asking for permission?”
Tobias froze, unable to breathe, to feel anything beneath the pounding in his ears.How could he have been so stupid?There was always a test, always more under the Director’s commands, and he should have fucking known better than to assume that it would be all right just because he was clearly not the only one the Director was training today.
Touching a real without explicit permission or orders, even when they had said yes to the blowjob, even when they clearly wanted it, or were touching him, was equivalent to hitting a guard.Monsters routinely lost limbs or disappeared into Special Research for even implying that they might fight back.
It took all his self-control not to panic, not to throw himself on his stomach and beg and apologize, not to run and hope that Crusher accidentally killed him.Because this too was a test, and Crusher would never kill him, would never step that far out of line, unless the Director said he could.
And begging wouldn’t help.It never had helped unless that was what the Director had told him to do.Then, sometimes, if he did it well enough, if he repeated enough of what the Director had told him about how worthless he was, about how much he deserved the pain, if he created new ways to say that he was sorry, then the Director would stop the pain, because Tobias understood his lessons.
