DNA Valkyrie - Chapter Eleven: Closed Gate

CHAPTER 11: CLOSED GATE

After not so delicately pushing the kind Quentin out of her way, Cynthia continued on her quest to find Joss. She scanned the crowd around her to ensure that he wasn’t among them, before continuing with her plan to storm on into his backstage office. Quentin desperately tried to follow the angry detective, attempting to figure out what was going on, if she was simply unhappy with being fired or if it was something else.

“Hey, wait up! Where do you think you’re going?” Quentin questioned while following her.

“To see Joss. What else?” She said.

“You can’t do that. You technically no longer work here.”

“And could you please tell me the exact reason why?” She asked him all while maintaining a good distance between the bodyguard that she was supposed to be on friendly terms with.

“He’s probably tired of you getting here late, over, and over, and over again... Look, I’m not happy he got rid of you. It sucks... Things are going to get awful around here without you, that’s for sure. But you can’t just barge in here and attack your ex-boss, you know?”

“Who said anything about attacking him? I simply want to talk with him.”

“Your mouth says that, but not your body language. It really feels as if you are going to burst open the door of his office, and take a chunk out of his face like an Allosaurus would or something. Look, he probably deserves it, but I ain’t going to let you do that. It'll just make things worse, Cynthia.” He stated.

“Maybe. Maybe not. What are you going to do, Quentin? Stop me? Kick me out of the club? Come on now. We’ve known each other for almost four years. And I know you wouldn’t do a shitty thing like that.” She answered. After hearing that, Quentin looked down at the floor of the club while chasing after the emotion-filled Cynthia, nodded, inhaled, and exhaled.

“And I thought working at a strip club would be fun…”

Just like Quentin predicted, Cynthia burst opened the closed door of Joss’s office as she rushed herself towards it. After charging inside, she looked up to find that the room was empty.

“Where is he?” She asked herself out loud.

“Are you nuts, Cynthia? He is the owner of the place. He doesn’t have to be here at all times. What did you expect?” Quentin told her after finally catching up with her. The Saurius could walk pretty fast, but the private investigator was so determined to find and confront her ex-boss that she simply outpaced her friend. Quentin finally grabbed her by the shoulders in the hope of pulling her head out of the clouds.

“Where can I find him then?”

“What’s wrong with you? Let's just calm down and think this through. What exactly are you going to do to him if you ever find him tonight? It pains my heart that you’re leaving us, but you’ve got to let it go. You should probably go home, now.” He told her in Joss’s office.

“Home? They trashed it…” She barely whispered.

“Who? Joss?”

“No. Not him... Anyway, do you know why I was fired, exactly?”

“As I said earlier, while you were a darn, entertaining performer, you were late almost every day you punched in. I’m not surprised you were let go, to be honest.”

“Nope. I’m pretty sure it had nothing to do with that. I only got warned a few times regarding that and I’m positive it wouldn’t have been enough. Look... You probably don’t know, Quentin, but take a look at what I’m wearing right now…” She said.

“A fedora? And a trench coat?” He observed.

“Yes. This is what I wear when I’m running investigations.”

“Investigations?”

“When I’m not here working my ass off, stripping for pervs, I tried to make a little more money by accepting private investigations. Come on, it's not that big of a secret. I even told you once, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember now, but I thought it was like a hobby or only a story or something like that... Perhaps a role play thing? What’s your point?” He asked her.

“I was recently working on a new case and I got into big trouble. They took all my money, which is why I need to keep this job here so bad.”

“Who took your money?” He asked, extremely curious.

“It doesn’t matter now... And I do not have to be a detective to detect that Joss didn’t fire me just because I was late a few times.”

“Ahem... More than a few times...”

“Okay. Fine. More than a few times, but you know what I mean.”

“Sure. I’m sorry. I’m with you. Why do you think you were fired then?” Quentin seriously asked.

A beat.

After thinking for a few seconds, attempting to figure out the best way to properly explain it to the synaptic Saurius bouncer in front of her – she suddenly got interrupted by another Saurius male who just entered the office through the same door they used – it was Joss. He closed the door behind himself to keep things private between the three of them.

“What the fuck are you two doing in my office?” Joss terrifyingly asked them. The two slowly turned to him, very surprised.

“It’s not what you think, boss. We were both on our way out. I was just coming to escort Cynthia out of the club as per your instructions,” Quentin said. He clearly wanted to save his friend’s ass right now, but didn’t truly know how.

“Don’t bother. Looks like the employee I recently fired has something to say to me. Let’s hear it. I simply hope you’re here to collect your things before never showing your tits here again, you bitch,” Joss totally ignored Quentin and turned to Cynthia.

“Well hello Joss, nice to see you too. I just have a quick question to start off for this meeting, do you often get rid of your female employees that refuse to have sex with your ugly ass or to be your own, personal slave?” She directly threw at him with ruthless efficiency, getting straight to the point.

He didn’t say anything at first.

“Woo, wait a minute, what? This is the reason why he fired you, Cynthia? Joss asked you to have sex with him?” Quentin recapped out loud to make sure he correctly understood.

“Yup. That’s exactly it. And then a tall, creepy butler came to save me in time. Or rather, kind of just in time…” She said.

“Meaning?” Quentin asked.

“Joss forced me to suck his dick. I did it but then he wanted more from me. This is when the tall, creepy butler came to my rescue, kicked Joss’s butt as if he were still a mere baby salamander. Joss left after that. I finished taking my shower then left as well. And that was it. And then now you tell me today that I was fired. That’s the entire story. More or less…” She said. After finishing to listen to her, Quentin quickly turned back to his boss in the hopes of hearing out his side of the story.

“Is this true?” Quentin asked Joss after he maintained his silence.

“She was late for work. Again. You know it better than I do, Quentin. She is always late. I tolerated it for nearly four years and she was still late again this week. At this precise moment, I am one-hundred percent within my rights to replace her with another employee that would get to work on time. However, I proposed something to her. A legitimate deal. Her flesh for her job. She wasn’t forced. It’s as simple as that.” The vicious Joss said, recounting the events in his own words.

“Besides, you're not fully grasping what’s being said here! This cunt was faking her medical condition this whole time! Every licensed Saurius in this club could have been enjoying her sweet body for years now. Can you believe it? I ought to turn her into the Empire. She should be thanking me that this is all I'm doing to her!”

“Okay, so what? You’re going to blackmail her now? Is that what’s really going on? Look. I don’t know too much about this stuff, but it sounds like if this is true, then it’s a matter for Cynthia and the Empire officials to work out. It isn’t your place to go sticking your nose in the private affairs of your employees. Come on boss, it looks like she's willing to put whatever happened between you two behind her. Just apologize to Cynthia and give her job back. And try not to pull something so scummy ever again. Understood?” Quentin firmly stood up to his own boss, completely in defense of his friend. Hearing Quentin talking to him like that simply caused him to laugh a little.

“Look around you. This is a strip club. My strip club. It’s not a farm where we happily cultivate the field growing vegetables. Right? Do any of you see vegetables around here? No. We entertain people with sex. If you work here and can’t show up on time once in a while, either don’t bother to come in or be prepared to have a little bit of fun with the owner of the business as fair punishment. That’s all. Nobody was forced to do anything here. Should I remind you two that the laws of the Empire support me on this one. In the amendments to the Inter-Species Reproduction Act?” Joss explained while raising both of his arms in the air, gesturing to the place around him to support what he was saying.

“And which one is that? They're always amending that damn thing…” Quentin asked in return.

“The one about employer’s rights in workplaces, of course. In extreme cases of female employees not meeting reasonable expectations, a male Saurius employer is freely allowed to quote on quote punish with sex instead of straight up firing that worker. And since we are all working in a perfect place where sex is King, this makes even more sense. Don’t you think?” Joss said.

“She works here to get customers aroused. Not you,” Quentin quietly answered to him.

“I don’t care about you, muscle brain. So, Cynthia... If you are still interested, here’s one, final chance for you to keep your position here. Accept to have full on sex with me tonight before we close the place. Not just a simple blow-job. Do this and you’re back on the team. What do you say, whore?” Joss surprisingly, kindly offered the private investigator.

“Don’t bother, man. I already know what she’s going to say. She’s quitting and so am I. We won’t work with such a jerk ever again…” Quentin said before getting suddenly interrupted by Cynthia herself.

“I accept.”

Joss smiled, and soon opened the door of his office, showing her the way out in a veritable ‘ladies’ first’ pose.

“After you.” He said.

“What? Are you serious, Cynthia? He’s a monster. Why would you agree to have sex with him? This slime ball is going to make you have his kids! Why would you accept to keep working for a exploitative bastard like that?” Quentin yelled out loud, shocked and furious.

“Because I fucking need the money to survive. I would like to have the opportunity to eat this month if Humanly possible. Besides, now that I’ve lost my exemption card, it's only a matter of time before some random stranger knocks me up anyway, so what difference does it make? I’m ready whenever you are, boss,” she declared.