The Significant (6 page)

      
When she passed through the second set of
doors, she felt like she had stepped into another world. The room was dark and
slightly cold, with dark coverings on the walls and floor. There were couches
of deep red and black scattered about the large greeting room and, sitting on
the couches, talking lightly, were several extremely attractive people.

      
They all turned when she entered.

      
“Well, hello, beautiful,” one man said,
standing and walking to her, his opened shirt exposing his well-defined
muscles. “Anything I can help you with today?”

      
Kailynn was immediately reminded of the
prostitutes that tried to pick up tricks in the Walking District.

      
“Trust me, gorgeous,” another man
started, also approaching her. He was wearing a tight black sweater and
sporting a perfect smile, “you don’t want him. I’d be better suited for you, I
can tell.”

      
“I think she might be here for another
reason, boys,” one girl chuckled, joining the group around Kailynn. She was
wearing a tight dress that accented every curve. “Isn’t that right?”

      
“Actually,” Kailynn started, forcing her
voice to strengthen, “I’m here to apply as a Significant.”

      
“Oh,” the girl said, her expression
changing immediately. The boys started looking her over, as if evaluating if
she had what was necessary to be a Significant. “Then you want to talk to Jak.”

      
“Okay, where is he?”

      
“She’s brave,” one man laughed. “Look at
you, charging in there to talk to him. He’ll like that.”

      
“I’m not joking around,” Kailynn said
strongly. “Where is he? I’ll talk to him right now.”

      
The others chuckled and the girl smiled
broadly.

      
“I’ll call him for you.”

      
She pressed the area just in front of her
right ear. “Jak’s office,” she started. “Jak, it’s Mysty,” she said. “There’s a
pretty little girl who wants to talk to you in the greeting salon.”

      
She tapped the same area of her ear again
and turned back to Kailynn.

      
“He’s on his way,” she said. “What’s your
name?”

      
“Jacyleen,” Kailynn tried to say as
naturally as possible.

      
“Hmm, that’s a nice name,” Mysty said.
“And you don’t seem too nervous about talking to people. Maybe you would be
good here.”

      
“She’s pretty, too,” one man added. “She
could probably become a favorite, if she wanted.”

      
“What do you mean?” Kailynn asked,
turning as one man walked behind her to continue his examination. She resisted
the urge to punch him in the face for leering at her. She knew that
Significants were meant to be pretty and to talk to people, so she had to put
up with the examination if she wanted to work as a Significant, but it went
against all her self-preservation instincts.

      
“You’re good-looking enough that you
could get a lot of partnerships.”

      
“What are those?”

      
“It’s where the same client wants you
several times,” Mysty explained. “They pay more money to have a scheduled time
with you every week or every month. You get more money, basically. But that’s
only if clients like you enough and have enough money to bid for a time slot.”

      
Kailynn could only blink in surprise and
confusion. There was a part of her that was sickened at the thought of having
to see the same person multiple times as a Significant, constantly having to
act as though they were close with the client and pretend to be whoever, or
whatever, they wanted.

      
“Mysty, you better be telling the truth,”
a voice said at the back of the room, walking to them. “Who’s here to talk to
me?”

      
Kailynn looked over the man. He was
older, his hair greying and his skin lightly creased with wrinkles around his
eyes. He was not particularly tall, but he had burly shoulders that made him
seem bigger.

      
Mysty pointed at Kailynn and his blue
eyes turned to her.

      
“Who are you?”

      
“My name is Jacyleen,” Kailynn started,
“I want to apply as a Significant.”

      
“There’s an application through our
page,” he said, confused. “You should have filled one out.”

      
“I didn’t have time,” Kailynn said
hurriedly. “Look, I’m in hard times, and I want to work here. So, I’m applying
in person.”

      
“While that’s a cute trick, you can’t
just—”

      
A gentle chime sounded and the door
opened as an older woman walked in, dressed in rich Anon clothes with her
makeup painted heavily over her skin.

      
Jak groaned and grabbed Kailynn’s arm,
pulling her away as the Significants in the greeting salon went forward to
greet the customer.

      
Jak pulled Kailynn to the elevator around
the corner and punched a button, waiting for the door to close before turning
to Kailynn.

      
“We’ll discuss this in my office.”

      
It was a very short ride in the elevator
to Jak’s office, which was a glass room that was just as dim as the rest of the
building. There was something about the dark coverings on the walls and floor
that made Kailynn feel like she could hardly see.

      
Jak closed the door behind her and sighed
heavily, walking to his desk.

      
“Look, I understand that you are in hard
times and you want to apply for a job here, but there is a procedure, okay? You
need to fill out the application and then come in for the interview.”

      
“Well, I’m here for the interview,”
Kailynn said strongly. “I need this job, and I’m willing to work twice as hard
as everyone else. I’m good-looking, young, and I can handle anything the
customers throw at me.”

      
“I am impressed that you are able to keep
eye contact,” Jak said, nodding. “Most applicants can barely form a sentence
and keep their eyes down the whole time.”

      
“I’m not like the other applicants,”
Kailynn said. “I’m a quick learner, and I already know how to talk to people.”
Kailynn leaned across his desk and looked at him seriously. “I promise, I will
earn my keep
and
more.”

      
Jak looked her over, heaving a sigh and
motioning with his hand.

      
“Stand in the middle of the room.”

      
Masking her nervousness, she did as he
ordered.

      
He leaned against the front of his desk
and looked her over. “Take off the jacket.”

      
Again, she did as she was told.

      
“Okay,” he started, nodding. “You’re
thin, but that can be fixed. In that time, I’m sure you’ll fill out some
cleavage, though it’s not bad now.” He stood straight and walked around her,
looking over every inch. “That dye in your hair will have to come out. It’s
poorly done.” He continued to circle her as she tried not to shiver in anger.

      
She closed her eyes, hating the scrutiny.
She felt like something less than a Trid as she stood there, being examined for
her worth as a Significant. She was tempted to storm out and never return, but
the thought of Theo being executed was enough to make her stay and bear up to
the humiliation.

      
“Not bad at all.” Jak finished his circle
and walked back to his desk. “I will admit, you do have some potential, and you
are a little darker, so you have an exotic look.”

      
He sat down at his desk.

      
“Why do you think I should hire you?”

      
Kailynn was thrown off by the question.
She hesitated, thinking carefully about what he wanted to hear.

      
“Because you don’t have anyone like me,”
she finally said.

      
“How do you know that?”

      
Kailynn smiled, tossing her jacket over
his desk and leaning forward once more.

      
“Because I’m not like these pretty little
bitches you have around here,” she said. “You have someone that no one else
wants? I’ll take them. Someone your little, soft-skin babies can’t handle? I
can handle them. I’m one tough bitch and I can handle more than these kids
can.”

      
Jak smiled, nodding shallowly.

      
“How old are you?”

      
“Twenty-two.”

      
“Let me see your papers.”

Chapter
Five

      
The last thing Kailynn expected was to be
a natural as a Significant.

      
Jak had hired her and immediately put her
in classes to learn how to act as a Significant. The class in which everyone
else struggled, she excelled—communication.

      
Since people rarely spoke face-to-face,
most applicants and other Significant trainees had to go through schooling to
learn the art of conversing with another human, but Kailynn was a natural.
Having grown up in Trid, where there was nowhere near the technology available
in Anon, Kailynn knew how to hold a conversation, how to read body language,
and how to hold eye-contact.

      
Manners and etiquette, on the other hand,
were a struggle.

      
But she forced herself to behave in
class, trying to learn how best to act like a Significant. She figured the
sooner she learned, the sooner she could earn money, and the sooner she could
leave Companion and get the hell out of Anon.

      
But the classes were difficult for her
without the skills of reading or writing. She stumbled through and was teased
by the other trainees in the classes until they got to conversation class and
she excelled.

      
It got the attention of everyone at
Companion and, before long, she was doing simulations where teachers and
evaluators for the company would act as clients and have the students come in
with different requests for behaviors and those students had to perform as though
they were with a real client as a paid Significant.

      
At first, Kailynn had trouble with the
simulations, since they felt incredibly fake and she had difficulty staying in
character, but she disciplined herself to keep a straight face.

      
It was a small relief that everyone
called her Jacyleen rather than Kailynn. It made her feel like someone else was
acting as a Significant, not her.

      
The day that she had her picture taken
and her promotional video made for the Companion page, she felt accomplished
and disappointed at the same time. She was thrilled that she could now get
clients and earn money, but her Trid upbringing made it hard for her to accept
that she had pleased those in Anon enough to excel in the job.

      
Shortly after she was made available on
Companion’s page, Kailynn met Nix.

      
He knocked on her door after her classes
one day, since she had been living in the Companion dorms since starting her
training.

      
“Hey,” she said, looking over his
impressively tall and broad stature.

      
“Uh, hey,” he said awkwardly. “I’m Nix.
I’ll be your guard from now on.”

      
“Oh, okay.”

      
“Jak said you have a client tonight. I’ll
meet you in the greeting salon at 18:30.”

      
“Alright,” Kailynn agreed, trying to hide
her excitement that she was going to have her first client and, therefore, her
first paid job. “See you then.”

      
She closed the door and the nerves
overtook her.

      
She was unsure she could be the proper
Significant. Fears of not being paid, or could be fired and destroy her chances
of getting her brother out of Uren, became stronger every passing moment. She
had invested so much time and taken so many risks to get to that point, she
knew she could not screw it up at that stage.

      
By the time she was expected in the
greeting salon, she had worked herself into near-hysteria.

      
She nervously met Nix in the greeting
salon, where other Significants were waiting, scheduled to handle walk-ins. Nix
led her to the car that was sitting in front of the building. It was growing
dark, but the brightness of the outside world compared to the dark atmosphere
inside Companion gave her pause.

      
Kailynn had also never been in a regular
car before—only the delivery trucks when working for Brad.

      
She got into the passenger’s seat and
looked around the sleek, expensive car. There was no means to steer it, though
Nix got into the driver’s seat and entered the address of her client. Once the
car started forward, Kailynn watched in fascination as they descended into the
underground highways of the city, joining the other self-driving cars.

      
“Jacyleen,” Nix said, calling her
attention. He was holding out a necklace with a large, red pendant. “This is
how I’ll know if you need help once with the client. Just press the pendant and
I’ll immediately be inside.”

      
“Okay,” Kailynn said, taking the necklace
and fastening it around her neck.

      
“First client?”

      
“Yeah.”

      
“You’ll do fine,” Nix assured with an
awkward smile. “This client just wants to talk with you as a friend. It’s only
an hour. You’ll be done before you know it.”

      
Kailynn took a deep breath and tried to
steady herself.

      
They arrived at the apartment building
and took the elevator with the guest key from the Caretaker robot at the front
desk. Kailynn tried to keep herself from fidgeting as she watched the numbers
ascend on the screen above the door.

      
The numbers stopped and the doors opened.

      
Nix led Kailynn out of the elevator and
walked with her to the door of the apartment where her client lived.

      
“You’ll be fine,” Nix reassured, smiling.
“I’ll be right out here if you need me.”

      
She pressed the bell for the door,
waiting for a moment before a young man answered.

      
“Jacyleen?” he asked. She nodded
silently, too nervous to speak. “I’ll tell him you’re here.”

      
Kailynn was surprised to see a live
caretaker at the home of her client—that was an indication of his wealth.

      
She walked into the living room,
surprised to see the stark, black-and-white theme. It hardly looked lived-in.
She was afraid to touch anything, seeing the paintings and sculptures
throughout the house and knowing immediately they were expensive.

      
“Jacyleen?” a voice asked. She turned to
see an older gentlemen walking into the room, followed by the silent caretaker,
who slipped away without speaking. “It is wonderful to see you.”

      
Kailynn prepared herself to put on the
act he had requested.

      
“It’s wonderful to see you again, Kris,”
she said with a smile. “It has been such a long time.”

      
“And a lot has changed recently,” Kris
said with a small laugh.

      
He motioned for her to join him on the
couch and she took the seat next to him.

      
“Tell me how things have been going,” she
prompted.

      
He began explaining to her that his son
had just graduated from law school and was going to another planet to study for
a few years before returning to Tiao to work on inter-planetary law—all of which
was far beyond what Kailynn could understand.

      
But once he began talking about his wife,
the tears came.

      
He suddenly, almost violently, confessed
how he had been unfaithful to his wife while on a trip to see the school where
his son would be studying off-planet. When she discovered his infidelity, she
immediately filed for divorce and he was extremely upset because he claimed he
still loved her.

      
Kailynn had to bite back her every
instinct to tell him that it was not love if he could cheat on her so casually,
but she refrained.

      
She comforted him and let him complain
and cry about his life and the turn it had taken.

      
The hour was up before Kailynn knew it.

      
She excused herself tactfully by saying
that she forgot she had an appointment and that he could call her if he ever
needed to talk to her. He thanked her, his tears causing his face to swell, and
bid her goodbye.

      
And, just like that, her first
appointment was over.

      
“See? Nothing to it,” Nix said with a
smile as they returned to the car.

      
For the following four months, Kailynn
met with all kinds of clients, from wealthy men and women who just wanted to
pretend to hold a dinner party like they had seen on television, to the middle-class
men and women who wanted someone to listen to their problems.

      
She met with a noble family that wanted
to get their son to leave his NGS game and sit with them for a meal. However,
when the son came out for dinner, he saw a new person in the house, panicked,
and retreated to his room.

      
Defeated, the parents tried to tell
Kailynn that they had bought him an NGS console and had been unable to get him
away from it other than for his lessons. When she asked what an NGS was, she
found out it was virtual reality gaming console that put the player in the
middle of any game they wanted, mimicking smells and sounds as well as the
weight of weapons and, occasionally any injuries sustained, though the games
were proven harmless.

      
After spending the rest of the night with
the parents, who could do nothing but talk about the stock market and financial
trends, Kailynn understood why the kid wanted to be in an alternate life with
his NGS console.

      
Kailynn also ended up taking clients that
wanted her to spend the night. At first, having sex with the clients was
awkward and left her feeling dirty and disgusting. But as they all started
calling her Jacyleen, she started to adapt more to the name, and decided that
Jacyleen was the Significant, leaving Kailynn as the Wild Child of Trid.

      
For months she took every client she
could, offering to take the jobs no one else would, just for the money. At the
end of every week, she would receive a credit chip, the different colors
indicating the different amounts on the chip. She would count them on days when
her determination would waver, and it would help her realize that she was
getting closer and closer to buying her brother’s freedom.

      
Occasionally, Kailynn would return to
Trid and spend some time with her gang. They knew that she was trying to gather
money for the release of the Heart of Trid gang, but they did not ask how. Only
Viv and Raphael knew of her work as a Significant.

      
On one visit back to Trid, Kailynn went
to Raphael’s apartment and drank herself into a stupor.

      
She had just finished with a client, a
very wealthy man who had bought time with the Significant to talk to his wife,
claiming that she never spoke with him anymore because she was always in her
GAL life, which was a challenge-like simulator that was very similar to an NGS
console, except it focused more on long-term games that were not meant to be
beaten, such as cultivating an island and learning how to survive, or playing
puzzle games against the clock.

      
When the wife found that he had called
the Significant for her, she began screaming, telling him that he was also
always in his GAL life, where he had several wives and did not need her to keep
him happy.

      
As the yelling match progressed, Kailynn
watched the caretaker robot deliver a drink to a young girl in the corner of
the room, who was drawing on the interactive coffee table.

      
Kailynn ignored the parents and went to
sit with their daughter and drawing with her on the table.

      
It broke her heart to leave the child
there with such horrific parents, but she could not stay past her appointment
time.

      
With a heavy heart, she left the girl
with her bellowing parents.

      
After that, she had to go into Trid and
drink herself silly.

      
“What the hell’s up with you?” Raphael
asked, lighting a cigarette and laying on the bed next to her.

      
“I swear, those shitheads in Anon are
fucked up,” she groaned, declining when Raphael offered her a cigarette.

      
“Oh, yeah?” Raphael asked. “Well, you
have my attention, tell me.”

      
“These people actually pay me to go over
there and act with them. Like, they
know
it’s fake. But they sit there and pretend I’m some great friend of theirs, or
girlfriend, or sister, or mother, sometimes. It’s fuckin’ freaky.”