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The Anatomy of Anarchy
The Anatomy of Anarchy - Excerpt:
CHAPTER 1 – Addict
The new drug was fucking amazing. Damn, he’d get addicted if he wasn’t careful. But one more drop, yes, he’d risk one more drop.
Master Darnar put a breathing mask over his nose and mouth, took the flask with the secret drug--he wouldn’t tell a soul its name--and let one more drop of amber fluid splash onto the mask. He drew the sweet, musky odor deep into his lungs, feeling his muscles relax. Bliss spread in his throat and stomach like a cool green drink on a hot day. Lightness, peace, and simple happiness filled his brain. No desire remained. Well, almost none. Cozy satisfaction.
He slowly took the mask from his face. His office wobbled about him. The five-meter high door to his secretary’s antechamber swam in and out of focus. He looked over the expanse of his ten-meter fake marble desk, out the wall of glass, offering a view of his town, the future top of the world: Tonasa.
He got up, swaying and humming, stumbling to the window to drink in the sight.
Fuck the President’s Palace to his hazy right. His drug guild tower was taller. He giggled to himself. He made it taller the very moment his guild elected him to be its master. No way he’d be smaller than the shitty President’s Palace. The guilds ruled, especially his guild, not the stupid, incompetent bunch of executive officers sitting under that grimy statue of Lei Lao.
A soft beep echoed through his cavernous office.
“Yes?”
“Master Darnar?” his secretary’s voice chirped. “Master Juggernaut is here to see you. She has no appointment though.”
“Oh, that’s fine, Juggy’s always welcome.” Darnar lurched back to his desk.
The door to the antechamber opened.
Darnar tottered at the sight of Juggernaut. Ah, Juggernaut. A screaming red dress. Skin tight enamel. Curvy hips. Voluptuous bosom. Ghostly white skin. A black curly wig. Kilometer long legs. Monstrous heels that clacked over the black, fake-marble floor of his office.
“Darny, are you feeling all right?”
“Exceptionally well, Juggy, exceptionally. Let me tell you all about it.”
“Ah, a new drug?”
“Yep! My masterpiece, my life’s work, my legacy, people won’t take anything else once it’s released.”
“It’s not wise to cannibalize your entire product line, Darny.” She hopped onto his desk with her firm butt.
Darnar reached his chair behind the desk and slumped into it, gaze fixed firmly on that butt.
“The prostitution guild and the drug guild should never have been separated,” he said, fumbling for the mask and the flask with his legacy.
“I disagree, Darny. I like being a guild master.”
Darnar chuckled and offered Juggernaut the mask and the flask.
“Wanna try?”
“What does it do?”
“Find out.”
They looked each other in the eye, and with a smile Juggernaut stretched out her hand. Darnar withdrew the flask and mask from her fine, long fingers.
“Maybe you should tell me why you came to visit, before trying my invention. Take my advice, upgrade your demands. I’m not fully accountable at the moment and might grant you almost anything. You should take advantage of that.”
“How will you get permission from your special friend Luran over there?” She waved vaguely into the direction of the President’s Palace. “Especially for a drug with such severe side effects?” Juggernaut’s smile was so sly, he wanted to slap her.
“This is just the prototype. My drug engineers are working day and night on erasing the side effects. They will succeed, no doubt, and then I shall rule the world.”
Juggernaut laughed out loud.
“Oops... that’s the side effects talking. Ignore that last comment.” Darnar giggled. Maybe it was one drop too many. He’d have to be careful. Juggy was vicious. She’d use anything he said against him.
“Okay, Darny, then do let me take advantage of your drugged state. I came to ask a favor of you.”
“Excellent timing, I’d even do Luran a favor today.”
“Wonderful. There’s a building, seventy-seventh district northwest, no name. It’s only eighty-five floors high. At the moment floor seventy-four is empty. It’s a perfect location. There’s no authorized brothel in a one-kilometer radius. I want that floor to open a standard brothel there, but the stupid house owner, a nobody named Pete Fenla, isn’t cooperating despite a very generous offer.”
“Really? Why’s that?”
“I don’t know! I have the impression he fears for the ‘good’ reputation of his stupid building.”
Darnar wasn’t sure he understood. It had definitely been one drop too many. Juggernaut was right in front of his nose one moment, ten meters away the next. “Good reputation? What...”
“The asshole seems to think brothels are immoral or what the fuck I know.”
“Seriously?”
Juggernaut nodded. She was a hundred meters away now and he could just barely make out the nod.
“What planet does this guy live on?”
“I have no idea, Darny. Anyway, I must have this floor. It’s a perfect location, in an underrepresented district.”
“You sure about this? Seventy-fourth floor? That’s almost at the Bottom.”
Juggernaut’s face started to swirl softly, but he could find a smile in the middle of the whirlpool.
“It’s not, Darny. It’s the seventy-seventh district northwest, hardly anything there is higher than a hundred floors.”
“That low...”
Juggernaut nodded.
“Okay, what do you want me to do about your problem?”
“You could send in your little army, and they could talk some sense into this guy.” Juggernaut flickered kilometer long eyelashes at him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Juggy, I ain’t havin’ no army.”
Juggernaut edged a bit closer and zoomed into his wavering vision. Her skin was flawless, her lips horribly red.
“Well, what can I offer you, Darny?”
He just had to try. “A night with you?”
“Nah, that little favor is not worth an entire night of my services.”
Her sharp nose spun leisurely before his eyes.
“Just had to ask.”
“Sure.”
“Well, how about a house-warming party at your new establishment for me and selected guests, a favor you can owe me, and the name of your beautician?”
The red lips parted and revealed sparkling white teeth. “A party, by all means. A favor, yes. The name of my beautician? Sorry, but she only handles feminine clients.”
“Ah, too bad. No one wants to pamper my aging masculine bones and skin anymore.”
“You look darn good for seventy-five, Darny.”
“I am not seventy-five, I’ve never seen seventy-five. I will tell my secretary how old you are if you don’t stop.”
“You don’t know how old I am, Darny.”
“I do, Juggy, I do. Do I at least get a kiss?”
“Of course.”
Juggernaut slid over the slick black desk towards him. Her red enamel dress squeaked, a grim memory of the rubber dildo they had once used, long ago, before she had become master of the prostitution guild and he had become master of the drug guild. Her perfume contained potent pheromones and an aphrodisiac, and he felt his still-functional member bulging against his pants. She had the tongue of a serpent and the claws of an animal and her kiss took his breath away.
“Thank you, Darny,” she said after the kiss. “And tell Mortimer not to be too brutal, no deaths please. Just scare them, get them in a mood to cooperate. And tell him to please leave the seventy-seventh floor alone. A guy named Darryl lives there. He leads a cute little sect called the White Cloud Sect. He put in a good word for me with Pete the asshole, though to no avail.”
Darnar frowned, suddenly less inclined to do Juggernaut this favor. “A sect? The religious guild is in that building?”
“Oh no, it’s an unauthorized private sect. Darryl is a drop-out, formerly of the politician guild.”
Ah, much better, maybe he should donate to that little sect, help it defy the religious guild. “You have dealings with drop-outs? Whew-hew, Juggy, classy.”
“I know.”
“Sure, I’ll tell Mortimer hands off Darryl. But now, my masterpiece.”
He slipped the mask over Juggernaut’s nose and mouth, then poured two drops of the drug onto it.
“The end product will, of course, be in pill format,” he said. “Breathe in deeply.”
Juggernaut did so, then, only a second later, a lustful moan slipped from her lips. Darnar removed the mask and closed the flask. Juggernaut remained crouched on the desk for a moment, then she flipped onto her back, that amazing body of hers squirming on his desk in utter pleasure.
“Fuck, Darny, what is this stuff?”
“You like it?”
“Ohhhhhh... hell, yes. This is... ohhhh... this is better than morning-shine, kick-off, and rose-blood together!”
“That’s your preferred drug mix? You’re a naughty girl, Juggernaut.”
She giggled and arched her back in another moan. Yes, she knew her stuff, morning-shine, kick-off and rose-blood together were one knock out combination. Although...
“You should try one morning-shine, one kick-off and two rose-blood, Juggy, that’s even better.”
“Is it? But even that can’t be as good as this! Ohhhhh!”
“Glad you like it.”
“What’s the name for this one, Darny?”
“What name would you give it?”
“I’m not good at this, divine... something... I don’t know.”
“I have a name, but I can’t tell you yet.”
“Oh Darny, please. I swear I won’t tell anybody.”
“Nope.”
“Darny!”
“No, not yet.”
Juggernaut grunted in displeasure. “Anyway, you’re a genius, a fucking genius. This stuff is a blast. And it’s weird, I never thought of you in this way before. I never thought you liked people. But you must like them. You couldn’t invent something like this without liking people. You’re awesome, Darny, I’m gobsmacked.”
Darnar tried to suppress the smile that threatened to wash over his face. Yes! It was working. The drug goddamn worked.
Juggernaut sighed comfortably and the first rush ebbed away. She stopped contorting herself and lay still for a moment. Her breasts towered eye-level.
“That sight is hard to bear. I can’t work anymore. Can we go to one of your brothels, Juggy?”
Juggernaut looked him in the eye for a second, then suffered a giggling attack.
“Another side effect, sorry, it’ll be over in a moment. Let me call Mortimer about your problem.”
Darnar left the tittering Juggernaut on his desk, retreated to the window, and touched the bracelet on his right wrist.
“Mortimer.”
A deep bass voice answered promptly.
“Yes, Master Darnar.”
He explained Juggernaut’s problem to Mortimer. “Nothing fancy, no guardian involvement. Most importantly, no bodies please. Standard reward for you and your crew.”
“Tell Master Juggernaut that I’ll get right to it, Master Darnar.”
“Thanks, Mortimer. Please report in the morning.”
“Of course.”
While he spoke, Juggernaut peeled herself off his desk and tottered towards him on nylon stockings, her high heels in hand.
“Thank you, Darny.”
“You’re welcome.”
She wrapped her arms around him from behind and they both gazed out on the night. A sea of lights blinked in the smoggy haze. To their right lay the President’s Palace. To their left smaller buildings squatted humbly. In the distance shimmered the blinking and never resting monstrosity of the entertainment guild. Far beyond the President’s Palace flashed the blue lightning emblem of the mental energy guild.
“I still haven’t learned why Mortimer is so loyal to you, Darny.”
“That’s not for me to tell, Juggernaut.”
They watched for a moment in silence. “I love the view from your office.”
“Yes, me too.”
Juggernaut gave his ass a clip. “Okay, brothel.”
“Yep! Brothel.”
They staggered to the antechamber arm in arm.
Want to read more? The Anatomy of Anarchy is now released in paper and Kindle formats.
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Out Now!
The Anatomy of Anarchy
The Second Dome of Souls Novel
Cover by Naoyuki Katoh
About the cover artist:
Naoyuki Katoh is a noted Japanese science fiction artist since the 1970s and has contributed to many science fiction/fantasy magazines, novels and games. He did the outstanding cover art for all of Regina's books:
"She Should Have Called Him Siegfried."