The naked man didn't release Whisper's hand until they got all the way to Recycling...

​     ...where they came upon a thin, middle-aged woman behind a counter.

     She wore a sensible skirt and blouse.

​     The look on her face said she hadn't smiled since the day she was born.

     "And who the Klob are you?" the naked man barked.

     "I am Edna," the woman replied.

​     "And what do you do around here, Edna?"

     "This must be your first time to Recycling."

     The man pushed Whisper in Edna's direction.

     "She's an escaped syn," he said. "She needs to be pulped."

     "I didn't escape from anywhere," Whisper whispered. "I was just...I needed someone to tell me..."

     "To tell you what to do. That's what I'm saying. I'm telling you what to do right now. Go with Edna and get yourself pulped."

     Edna said, "Before I..."

     "For Klob's sake! Don't you know who I am?" The man posed so that Edna could get a full look at his magnificence. "I am Barbak! I am the most famous whore in all the galaxies! I've been offered entire planets just for the pleasure of sucking my dick! Delph begged for a year before I finally agreed to come work for him, and, if there's one thing I insist on and have from the beginning, and that is zero contamination! I won't have some syn wandering the halls with cum running down the insides of her legs!"

     Whisper said, "I don't have..."

     "To even look at her makes me want to puke! I don't even want to think about her anymore!" 

     Edna yawned with her eyes. "I'm, sorry, but..."

     "Pulp her, bitch!"

     Edna saw Tika first as a swiftly moving shadow. 

     Before Barbak could speak again, his skull, still connected to his neck, bounced off each of his shoulders, then his chest, then his back. The expression on Barbak's face went from enraged and perturbed to astonished and agonized.

     He dropped to the floor, twitched twice, then died.

     Tika went to Whisper to look Whisper in the eyes.

     Then, together, they went to the nearest hole leading to The Cellars and disappeared. 

     Edna pointed to Barbak's corpse.

     "What do you want me to do with him?" she asked one aspect of Delphi.

     "He's all yours," Delphi replied. "That is one man I want to reproduce."

END OF CHAPTER NINE

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