The Superiors by Lena Hillbrand

of his cash cow. That’s how it worked.
    He also liked Nina personally, and after he’d closed up shop for the night, he’d take Nina in the back and have a go at her himself. He knew her act was just that—put on and fake as the girls in the porno-pictures down on South End. After a while he’d get tired of the canned noises and her artificial persona the way he did with all the new girls he’d taken to, but for now she was still fresh enough for him to crave on a nightly basis.
    He went back in for Nina, and when he came out, one of the Enforcers had come through the restaurant to have a smoke. He saw Ander about the time Ander saw him. Ander released Nina and got the Enforcer before he could get his pod out and alert the rest of the Enforcement team. Ander hit the man’s head with a fist as hard as he could, and while the man was still reeling, he knocked his feet out from under him.
    Ander had always been strong, even as a human. He pinned the Enforcer and secured his hands with a pair of steel cuffs—procured illegally, of course. Ander had lots of things he shouldn’t. Running an illegal operation brought him in contact with all sorts of other illegal operations. After he’d cuffed the Enforcer to the support beam on the back of the restaurant, he grabbed Nina and opened the door of the apartment.
    “You are all free,” he said, but his remaining sapiens just blinked stupidly at him. Hell, he’d done his best for them. Not his fault they’d been bred to be so dumb half of them couldn’t find their own assholes.
    He took Nina to the car, and she squeezed in with the other four. He’d gotten the best of the bunch. He had to go see Eddie. Eddie owned the same sort of businesses that Ander did. He wasn’t a friend so much as competition. Eddie had opened Sap Haven right down the street from Ander’s Sap Heaven. What a prick. But like most men of his thinking, Eddie liked one thing more than everything else in the world combined—money.
    Ander didn’t respect Eddie, and he had a hunch the feeling was mutual. Ander liked to get friendly with his saps, something Eddie disdained, and Eddie liked to rough his saps up on occasion. Ander never damaged a sap—that was throwing away money. As much as he kept his saps in check and didn’t want them scratching up a client and hurting his business, he also didn’t want a client hurting his business by putting one of his girls out of commission. He had a reputation for having high-quality, well-behaved whores, and also for taking care of the men who didn’t treat them as such. He’d become legendary in his own way.
    Once about fifty years back Ander had a nice meek little sap on the menu, and he’d offered her services off the menu as well. Some Superiors really got off on subservient sapiens. One crusty old pervert had rented a room, got little Suzanne back there, had a good time, and left the poor sap with a broken hip. Ander couldn’t stand for that. Saps didn’t heal well, and putting her out of business for a few months cost him too much money. He tracked down the man who broke her hip and cut off the man’s leg. The legend went that Ander had turned around to the screaming man before he left and said, “That’ll grow back in a couple months. Now you know how it feels for the sap.”
    Ander didn’t pay much attention to rumors like these. He didn’t start them and he didn’t try to dispel them. He neither denied nor confirmed them. He only cared that the men who frequented his whores knew not to damage the merchandise. A prostitute was a loan, not a purchase.
    Ander left the saps in the car and went to speak with Eddie. The government would repossess all Ander’s remaining saps, but the business remained in Ander’s name for now. Before the government could confiscate it, he sold it to Eddie. Of course Eddie robbed him blind, knowing Ander was in a bind or he’d never sell such prime real estate. But getting half what the property was worth beat