Chapter 3-2
1325 Words
“I don"t doubt it.”
“I shouldn"t have lost my temper.”
Cassi had one hand on her hip as she studied him. “Wasn"t it just a few months ago that you were saying that you despised telepaths?” she inquired. “What happened to change your mind.”
“I had a chat with my Nassai.”
“Ah. Yes, that"ll do it.”
He was trying to get a read on this woman. Cassiara was naturally flirtatious. So, was her attempt at assessing his feelings just friendly concern…or was there something else going on? He would have to probe with judicious care. “I sense that you don"t have a high opinion of Keli.”
else“I don"t have any opinion of her one way or the other,” Cassi replied. “I"ve worked with her a few times, and I will admit that she"s good in a crisi, if a bit unpredictable. But other than that, I don"t know her.”
“So, why do you ask?”
“I can"t get to know one of my colleagues?” Cassi protested. “You might not have noticed, but I"m something of an expert when it comes to getting over a broken heart.”
Rajel answered that with a wolfish grin. “I see,” he said. “So, are you offering your services in that regard?”
“Oh no!” Cassi said, shaking her head. “I"ve already been one man"s rebound girl this year. I"d rather not repeat that experience. But maybe…When you"re a little more settled, we can revisit the issue?”
“I"d like that.”
To his surprise, she started tapping her lips with one finger and watching him as if she wasn"t quite sure what to make of him. “Interesting,” she murmured. “I half expected you to insist that you"d be mooning over Ms. Armana for the better part of the next year.”
“Why would I waste energy on someone who doesn"t want me when I can explore opportunities with someone who does?”
Cassi strode forward, laying a hand on his forearm. “Ah! It seems we have a lot in common.” She took back her sarong, then stood on her toes and clicked her teeth together an inch away from his ear. “Perhaps we won"t have to wait as long as I thought.”
She was gone a moment later, leaving Rajel to stand there with a big, dopey grin on his face.
Hunched over the desk in the small office they gave her aboard Station One, Larani typed a report on a small metal keyboard. The inclined plane of SmartGlass – a segment of her desk that was tilted to form a screen – displayed several paragraphs of text. Larani checked them several times. She had always been a fastidious woman, but with Dusep"s popularity surging, it was important to make sure that everything was done by the book.
She glanced over her shoulder to find stars in the window behind her desk. That irked her. She was used to seeing the blue sky or other buildings or nature of some kind, not the empty vacuum of space. But her people had built stations in orbit of Earth rather than setting up bases on the planet"s surface. A part of that was to assure the Earthers that their Leyrian cousins were friends and not invaders, but the Earthers also seemed to want to maintain a sense of separateness, an independence of culture. Which was ludicrous in her opinion, but there it was.
natureA hologram appeared in front of her desk, a ghostly figure comprised of swirling blue letters and numbers in Leyrian script. It almost made Larani jump out of her chair. Almost, but not quite.
She looked up to blink at the apparition. “Ven,” she said. “This is a surprise. I didn"t think we"d be seeing you again for a while.”
“Assemble your people, Director,” the hologram said. “We have work to do.”
Yawning so hard it hurt, Anna slapped a hand over her mouth. “Goodness,” she mumbled, stepping into Larani"s office. “My apologies, everyone. I didn"t get very much sleep last night.”
Jack followed her in with his head down, and of course, his cheeks were pink. Earthers could be so modest sometimes. But then, her boyfriend seemed to be very impressed by how she handled that random cop this morning.
Cassi was leaning against the wall with her arms folded, and she glanced in Anna"s direction with a knowing smile. “Just glad you could make it,” she teased. “I do hope we didn"t interrupt something important.”
“Oh, nothing of consequence.”
Rajel stood behind the desk with one hand pressed against the slanted window pane that looked out into space. “Well, now that we"re all here,” he said. “Maybe Larani could tell us what this is all about.”
“Not yet. There"s still one more-”
Melissa came stomping into the office and stopped abruptly two paces away from the desk. She looked up at Larani with hard eyes. “Ma"am, with respect, I would like to know why my father wasn"t invited to this meeting.”
Reclining in her chair, Larani studied the young woman for a brief moment before nodding. “Agent Carlson,” she began. “The reason that you were invited to this meeting is your wise decision to report your father"s dealings with the Overseers as soon as you learned of them.”
youEveryone exchanged glances.
“I had already heard as much from Hunter and Lenai,” Larani went on. “But now, I know I can trust you. In light of your father"s recent decisions, I"m sure you can see why his presence would not be advisable.”
“Yes, ma"am…”
Larani was on her feet an instant later, pacing around the desk as she spoke. “Now that we"re all assembled,” she said. “I"ll turn the floor over to our guest.”
A hologram appeared in the middle of the room, and Anna felt a sudden rush of joy! She hadn"t seen Ven in almost a year! She had hoped for a chance to get to know the AI, and maybe now she would get it.
“Ven!” Jack exclaimed.
“Jack,” the hologram replied. It turned slowly on the spot, as if taking in the sight of each of them, and then something almost like a sigh came through the speakers. Ven was becoming increasingly adept with human mannerisms. “I wish that I could be here under better circumstances,” Ven said. “But I have some terrible news.”
Anna felt cold inside. Ven"s last visit had resulted in Jack being captured by the Ragnosians. And the time before that, they ended up fighting a guerrilla war in the streets of Queens. “What is it?” she mumbled.
“Five months ago,” Ven began, “you raided a castle in the Lyrian highlands that Slade was using as a base of operations.”
“Yes.”
“While you were there, you retrieved encrypted data from one of their servers. The algorithms used to protect that data were very complex. Larani granted me access on my last visit, and I"ve only just finished decoding it.”
Jack was at her side with one hand in his pocket, his eyes fixed on the floor. “We should have known that would eventually come back to haunt us,” he mumbled. “What does it say?”
“You probably expected Slade to meddle in the upcoming election,” Ven said. “But I"m afraid it"s worse than anyone could have anticipated. Slade is planning to assassinate Sarona Vason.”
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