Chapter 8 -- The Big NOLA Auction and Dangerous Investigations
THE NIGHT BEFORE
Neck drove Lena to New Orleans across Mississippi and the long bridge into the city. New Orleans in 2045 was almost an island with most of the delta now underwater. Parts of the city had already been surrendered to the Gulf of Mexico, leaving above water the old downtown and Garden District and a few other areas that were a bit higher than much of the city. The permanent population was only 250,000. The city had two major industries: tourism and the sex boats.
"Of course, Storyville is long gone and 'Walk on the Wild Side' wouldn't be the same today," Neck explained as they drove. "There is still some illegal prostitution in the city, and there are three sex boats permanently moored at Algiers near the city in mainly salt water. The Free States' central confederate government and the Free State of Louisiana have an uneasy relationship with the City of New Orleans, but what else is new? The preachers runnin the country would like New Orleans to be as well-behaved as the rest of the country, but they know that that would kill the golden goose. New Orleans still has a magic coating of beautifully ripened sin. That sin brings people in from around the world but won't do so if the same rules apply here as in Idaho and Alabama. So, New Orleans still has sin. Sort of 1950s-style sin except on the boats.
"The sex boats have their corporate headquarters here. Everyone agreed on that. New Orleans wanted the business, and the confederate and state governments were happy to have all this wonderful nastiness out of the way, practically out to sea.
"We'll be stayin at an old hotel on Toulouse Street. Most of the buyers for the boats and the sheriffs selling women stay here as it is very close to the auction house.
"I got some biziness tonight with guys from the boats, so you'll have to amuse yourself."
Lena did not want to be at the business meeting until Neck excluded her from it. "Why is not your assistant to be at the meeting with you?"
"Cause you ain't really my assistant an I got shit to discuss that I don't want an investigative reporter to hear." Neck answered. "An hell, you plum worn me out. If I let you go to the meetin, you'll want to fuck afterward, and baby I ain't got that much jam left."
Lena was about to argue more when she decided that she would really rather have a night to herself on the town than sit at a table and discuss the business of buying sex slaves for sex boats. "Are we meeting for breakfast, or how is your assistant going to get into the auction?"
"I gotta get there early. The auction starts at 9:00, and I will leave your name at the door. The building where the auction is held is at St. Louis and Chartes Street in a big ugly, institutional-lookin building that was built after something nice was destroyed by a hurricane. There's a holding tank nearby if you want to hear the deputies whip the women just about midnight," Neck said with a chortle.
Lena did not catch the reference and did not like the mental picture.
"One last question," Lena said, "a sheriff deputy a couple days ago knew my name. How is that?"
"Who was the deputy?"
"He said he was Cyrus Seele, a kind of funny name; Seele means 'soul' in German'"
"It don't mean nothing in English, and the fact that Deputy Seele knows you isn't a big cause for worry. Fact that I have a very attractive foreign lady travelin with me is probably known to a lot of people. It's a small world an you had me go through all sorts of towns with sheriffs active in the auctions. Almost nobody will give a shit about you, though, unless you are up for sale.
"Seele is an outlier. He is sort of a scholar among the deputies who show up at auctions. Nobody, including his boss, Sheriff Tauro, knows this, but I don't think he likes the whole slave business much."
"How do you know that?"
"I smooze with everybody, honey. I drink with the boat buyers. I drink with the boat owners. I drink with the auctioneers, and I drink with the competitors, be they in the form of the sheriffs or, rarely, the bankers. Hell, I even have dinner with crazy journalists in Hamburg when I think it will help me bring more customers to my paintball gunfights."
"What has Seele done that made you think he does not like the business?"
"His frowns during the auctions when many of the women are sold. Mainly, though, I know he don't like the bizness cause he told me in a bar when it was just him and me that he thought the whole business of arrestin women to put them on the boats was totally fucked up, and he was disgusted to have anythin to do with it. Hell, he's even worse than Killer, who is pretty disgusted with indentured servitude in the Free States but generally bites his tongue cause Killer, in his way, is even more cynical than me.
"Both Killer and Seele will follow orders. But, Seele ain't goin to give you no trouble if he thinks you are givin the sheriffs trouble."
Lena kept quiet about Deputy Seele's offer to help her and said, "OK, I was just concerned that the police are keeping track of us."
"Course, they are, but, like I said, they ain't gonna do nothin until you give em a reason to do so an you ain't gave em a reason yet. You go threatenin their racket, and all hell'll break loose. If you gotta run a story before you are out of the Free States, don't go after the lawmen. You can go after the bankers if you want."
After they checked in and Lena changed into the most revealing dress she could wear without violating Free States rules, she wandered out into the French Quarter. She saw a few women dressed somewhat more provocatively than what Lena had been told was allowed in the Free States. Being nosey, unafraid, and always willing to be offensive, she walked up to mulatto woman in a short skirt and tank top and said, "Excuse me, I'm a foreign tourist, and I was told that one could not wear clothing like you are wearing in the Free States under God."
"You can't wear this in most of the country, particularly if you are a pretty blond like you and don't want to get stuck on a sex boat and become a sex slave and babymaker."
Lena put on her best dumb and incredulous look.
"Of course," the local woman said, "they probably wouldn't grab a foreigner unless they knew no one was protecting her, and anyway, in New Orleans, the cops don't hassle tourists or even local women unless they do something bad. Our thighs and tank top boobs are part of the scenery for the tourists here, the best the town's got since the prudes shut down all the naked titty bars. I'm on my way to work as a waitress and can take you to someplace loud that drunken college boys and salesmen like if you want that."
"Loud is not exactly what I'm looking for."
"Then go to Frenchmen Street. It ain't what it used to be before the big storms and the national divorce, but there's still some pretty good music and bars quiet enough for a woman to hear herself think."
Lena went and did have a pretty good time drinking a beer formerly called Blackened Voodoo and listening to the music on the street and in the bars. Most of the bands were doing jazz versions of old church hymns (not including "Amazing Grace").