Nell, or The Right Thinkers

By L. V. MacLean

He's working his way through school at the Premier Escort Agency.

Jared Ramirez was born in the slums of a mining planet but he found his way to the planet Haivran, the intellectual center of the Four Species Alliance, where the major universities, institutes, research facilities serving all Alliance citizens are located. Agencies are legal, licensed and regulated, and an attractive young man with a flair for pleasing a female clientèle is in great demand. And Jared has an advantage; he can read minds, and sometimes influence the minds of the people around him. It's only a little talent, and he never talks about it, but it can be useful.

Nell ran away from a restrictive religious cult just months ago, and moved in with her aunt Veronica, who also left the cult many years ago. Roni has been a regular client of Jared's for some time. Now Roni has hired him for Nell, for a slightly unusual and unexpected reason. And complicating the evening, members of the cult, including Nell's ex-fiancé, want her back any way they can get her, if they have to chase her through the city, climb up the side of a hotel, or batter their way through the ceiling of her hotel room.

This is a novella, one of several prequels to The Misborn, to be released in the near future. The story is suggestive rather than explicit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: L. V. MacLean
• Release date: Mar 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476140131

L. V. MacLean

I come from a long line of story tellers and journalists, and I worked as a local journalist for years. That was fun, but my first love is fiction. Home is the eastern half of Montana, wheat fields and range land and small towns. I have a husband, two grown children, a lively grandson, and a superior cat. What more could anyone want? Just a laptop with a word processing program!

Book preview

Nell

The Right Thinkers

by L. V. MacLean

Copyright 2011 L. V. MacLean

Smashwords Edition

Cover Art by Taylor Steele

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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For F. T.

Who knew the Right Thinkers

and would have laughed

Nell

or

The Right Thinkers

Chapter I

The arrival of a moving body in the next chair roused Jared from Shal f'Zahnaz' epic work on the east-west migrations of primitive Zamuaon tribes in pursuit of the herds. He turned from the reader and his noter to find a thigh clad in skin-tight black leather at about the level of his nose. The thigh was connected to a black leather knee and a calf disappearing into a black leather boot with a viciously high heel hooked over the arm of the chair.

Above the thigh, the black leather ended in a wide black leather belt, studded, below the wearer's navel; there was an expanse of skin, very white and smooth, and then a black leather bra covering at least a third of her breasts. It, too, was studded, strategically; he admired the large studs positioned exactly at the nipples. She had a studded neck band, and matching wrist bands; in her right hand, the hand furthest from Jared, she held a long black whip with barbed ends, coiled. She was standing with her head and upper torso twisted to see the rear view in the mirrored wall separating the outer reception area of the Premier Escort Agency from the offices and conference rooms.

Do these pants make me look fat? Suzy inquired.

Jared glanced at the mirrored wall and stretched for a closer first-hand look. He wasn't into her specialty, but he couldn't help but admire the view. No, he said, but that whip makes you look dangerous.

Oh, thanks, she said, beaming at him. It's John's; he said he didn't need it tonight. Isn't it cool? She displayed it with a certain professional pride; Jared eyed the silver-colored barbs, matching the studs on her wrist bands.

Oh, yes, very cool, he agreed. So you're busy tonight?

I'm visiting a very bad boy, said Suzy, over in the Herald Building. She coiled the whip a little more neatly. She wore blood-red lipstick, and she had a black leather band, studded, of course, holding back her hair, which she had dyed dead black with glittering metallic highlights. He has a meeting tomorrow that's going to run late, he says, so Thursday night is the only open time he has. I'm supposed to be there in about half an hour. Unless I make him wait. How about you? I thought you were cutting back on weeknights. Which Maud should appreciate, getting to see you more often.

I am cutting back, and Maud does appreciate it. But this is a regular; I promised.

You look nice. All dressed up.

Not really. It was just a sports coat over T-shirt and jeans, to make a good appearance at the Riverbank Hotel where Roni had reserved rooms; it was a nice place, not a luxury hotel but one that prided itself on discretion and dignified quiet. Suzy's bad boy would not be welcome there – too noisy – but Jared could count on comfortable accommodations and undisturbed leisure, and perhaps even a bottle of decent wine. It would be easier if the niece were relaxed. And Roni would almost certainly want a glass or two. He might taste it himself.

Trudy again? Or Helen? She was just here last week, wasn't she?

No, Veronica. Well. Actually her niece. He tried to look as if he didn't mind.

Veronica has a niece? Suzy took a good look at Jared and grinned. How old? You lucky boy, do you get to initiate another little girl? I don't know why you mind it. Get 'em trained in right at the start, that's what I say.

Initiating little girls? said Jared, shaking his head. Just not my thing, Suzy. How do I know I'm doing the right thing with them? They don't even know themselves.

So why did you say you would? asked Suzy. She glanced at the clock, decided she had time to waste, and settled her leather-clad hips into the chair beside his.

Roni claims the girl is nineteen, so she isn't quite a baby. She asked me as a special favor, said Jared. and she's been a regular of mine – how long? Since Greg retired; that must be five years now.

Yes, at least. Suzy sighed. I'm getting old. I actually remember when Veronica started with Greg. She'd just come out of that, what is it, a cult thing? She wore those long skirts all the time. Scared she'd go to hell if she put on pants. Then she went the other way, of course, shorts and skirts up to her crotch. I'm glad she got past that stage. Last time I saw her she looked really nice. Maybe a little heavy. So who's this niece? Did she come out of that cult place too?

That's what I heard. She left a few months ago; she's been living here in Bridgeton with Roni. Getting ready to go to trade school next fall, getting used to life out here in the real world.

Getting some sex, said Suzy, grinning at him. I guess they don't do that in the cult. Where are they, anyway, out in the mountains? Can you imagine something like that here on Haivran?

It's a big world. Room for all sorts, said Jared. There are some Earthian Prime colonies up in Tuania, and a good-sized group of Zamuaon Traditionalist Practitioners I think out on the east coast. This bunch, Roni's bunch, is off around Prairie City somewhere, a long way east of us. Roni said she was trying to get as far from them as she could without crossing the ocean. They're called the Right Thinkers.

What do they think right about? inquired Suzy, toying with one of the barbs on John's whip.

The revelations of their Visionary, said Jared, who is in touch with their god. Or gods; I guess they have a couple of them. They believe in clean living and hard work to support the community and the Visionary. And very restricted sex lives. And long skirts, yes. He and Suzy shared a smile. He tried, and failed, to imagine her in a long skirt suitable for the community of the Right Thinkers.

What if the niece shows up in a long skirt?

I'll charm her out of it, said Jared optimistically. So how come John let you take his whip tonight?

You know what, said Suzy, "he's