Edward (15 page)

Edward
stared square into Tatiana’s eyes. “Less than an hour ago, I got to hear that
exact same speech just worded the other way around.  But she didn’t use
the word ‘diva’.”

Tatiana
giggled and stared at her toes as she wiggled them like a school girl, “Yeah,
well, I guess my own family isn’t sunshine and roses either.  The short of
it is, I don’t know what to do.  I like the
current arrangement and am loathe to change it.”

Edward
smiled, “That makes three of us.  But that is just putting off difficult
questions.”

“Like
questions about families and things.  And who moves where… The little
Gruaer kid, Moira, her parents move back and forth from the Highlands all the
time…”  Tatiana wrinkled her nose, “No.  On second thought, I think
that is just dodging the question.” Tatiana shrugged, “I don’t know what to do,
but I have an idea.”

“And
that is?”

“We
talk about it together.”

“That
sounds like an excellent plan,” interjected Gillian.

Tatiana
stared over at Gillian in horror, “How long have you been listening in?”

“From the start. 
Moms do that,” Gillian grinned.

“Gigi
is already in place?” asked Edward over the comlink.  They were less than
two minutes out from a “private” dinner party being thrown by a visiting music
mogul, Clarence York.  While Gillian was producing Tatiana’s current show
and was her agent as well, if she wanted to make a splash off planet, Mr. York
was definitely capable of making that happen.  The dinner party itself
didn’t bother Edward so much in itself; indeed, most of the talking was going
to end up being between Gillian and Clarence. The problem was that it had been
announced in the local media.  That meant fans and lots of them.  It
also opened the possibility for the RRFC to strike.

“Mr.
York invited her along for drinks,” laughed Trevor.  “She is in deep
cover.  We also have two people in as staff; try not to make eye
contact.  Paul is covering the front of the building.  Jake is ten
minutes out; he’ll be watching the roof and adjacent buildings.  Lucas and
Alex are both casing the crowd outside the building.”

Lucas. 
Edward had only met him in passing.  He was new to the group but was a
Highlander, a Silver, and Takru spoke for him;  that
was plenty well good enough for him.  “Tatiana wants to work the crowd, so
I’m hanging close to her.  Can we get Alex in close?”

“Will do.  Anything else?  I see you in front of the building.”

“Nope,
thanks.  Out.”

“Out.”

 Edward
nodded to Tatiana, “Mingle, have fun.  But if there is any push at all, we
cut it short.  Okay?”

Tatiana
nodded.  She was getting used to the seriousness of the situations, but
she still didn’t like them.

“Gillian
and Zoë, stay close to Tazo and link up Alex and Meeka.  Tazo, once they are well inside, then and only then, come back and
link up with me.  I’ll have Lucas to help in the meantime.”

“Aren’t
you glad you don’t have screaming fans?” Gillian asked Zoë.

“I
think they’d be really cool, for about five minutes.  And then they’d
creep me out,” replied Zoë with a grin.  “I’m not quite the people person
Tatiana is.”

Tatiana
beamed honestly, “But it is so much fun!”  

The
door to the armored car opened and Edward had to work hard to make sure he was
out before Tatiana.  She was in high form and soaking up the crowd. 
The reception had been delayed a week, and she was making up lost time as she
waded into the crowd.  Edward pressed tight against her as he strained his
senses to keep up with the ebb and flow of the crowd.  It seemed like ages
before Tazo finally returned, and Edward took some amusement that the Shukurae,
even at almost three meters in height, had a hard time wading through the
crowd.  Tatiana could have easily spent an hour out front, meeting people
and signing autographs, but Edward kept her slowly moving forward, and
eventually they made it to the doors of the restaurant.

Edward
was glad to link back up with Zoë and Gillian, and he was amused to notice that
Tatiana actually had to stop and catch her breath.  Working the crowd was
harder work than he thought!  She quickly caught her breath and the four
of them, with Tazo following discretely in the distance, presented themselves
to the waiting
maître d’
.  

They
were quickly led past a great long sparkling dining hall to a large private
room in the back.  Great glass doors swung open as they approached to
reveal a lavish room with a long central dining table and a series of smaller
tables and chairs comfortably set to the side.  Mr. York was waiting for
them while Gigi giggled, sucking down a cocktail and hanging off his arm. 
A stern looking lady stood at the far end of the table and watched them with
unwavering eyes and her tail swished suspiciously as they entered. 

York
quickly approached and shook hands with Gillian, “Good evening, Gillian. I’m
glad you and your client could make it on such short notice.”

Gillian
smiled broadly, “Glad to meet you again!  We are glad you could take time
out of your busy schedule to see us.  I do believe the last time you were
here was what, three years ago?”

York
smiled and nodded to Tatiana, “And my, has she grown since!  No longer the novel young girl with the magic voice; now you have
the figure and stage presence to go with it.”

Tatiana
ear’s flushed and her fur stood on end, “Thank you, Mr. York.”

“I
don’t think she had noticed the transition,” joked Gillian.

 “And
these other two are?”

“This
is Zoë Sylva,” began Gillian formally.  “She sings duet, plays piano and
violin, and is also Tatiana’s flatmate.” 

“Duets
don’t do well.  People come to either see a band as a unit or a solo artist,”
snapped the stern lady in the back.

“Then
we will be blazing new territory, now won’t we,” Gillian fired back.

Mr.
York smiled, “You must forgive Mrs. Thatcher.  She is practical to a
fault.  But I do confess, I have never lost money
following her advice.”  He stared square into Tatiana’s eyes, “So where do
you
stand?  With Zoë or Mrs. Thatcher?”

“Mrs.
Thatcher can go politely hit the roof,” replied Tatiana evenly.

“Excellent pun, young lady.  But youthful spite is best put behind you.  If
you want to make it big off world, you would be advised to listen to your
elders.”

“Gillian
is
my
elder.”

Mr.
York smiled again, “
Touché! 
Gillian, you have a live wire
there!  If cultivated, that can work well.”  He wrinkled his nose as
he looked over Edward.  Edward was sharply dressed, but his attire was
obviously out of fashion with the rest of room, “And you are, sir?”

Edward
smiled and let his fur coat cycle in color.  That caught both Mr. York and
Mrs. Thatcher off guard.  “Edward Silverglade.”

“He
is their boyfriend,” interjected Gillian. 

Mr.
York glared at Edward with disdain, “A Highlander.  Their. 
Plural.  That will never do.”

“Then
this simplifies things greatly,” glared Tatiana.  “We can all just leave
now and go have dinner with civil company.”  She nodded to Zoë and they
turned to leave the room.

“Your
third-world boyfriend is more important than your career?”

“Our
fiancé, not boyfriend,” began Tatiana.  Zoë flashed Edward a quick grin
and she bobbed politely back as Tatiana continued, “And Afon is the
homeworld. 
If you’d seen half the things the Highlanders can do, you’d drop your
attitude,” Tatiana fired over her shoulder as she offered her arms to Edward
and Zoë.

 “You
leave now and you will never make it off this backwater planet, young lady,” Mr.
York replied sternly.

“How
many diamond tiaras does a girl really need?” scoffed Tatiana.

“You’d
best not turn your back on me,” snarled Mr. York.

“You’d
best learn some manners,
Clarence
,” replied Tatiana.  She nodded to
Gillian, “We’ll be at table twelve.”  She spun and headed for the door.

Clarence
York was furious, and furious people do stupid things.  High on his
“stupid list” for the evening was reaching for Tatiana as they headed out the
door.  Edward, never one to take kindly to such actions, quickly
intercepted Clarence and, with no delicacy at all, spun York’s arm around
backwards and slammed him to the floor.  Mrs. Thatcher started to move but
quickly froze as she found herself staring down the sights of Tazo’s rather
large sidearm.  Gigi just giggled to herself, her cover still secure.

“Don’t
kill him, Edward,” began Gillian coldly, “he’s not
actually
a threat and
it’ll create a lot of paperwork for Trevor.”  She walked over and glared
down at Mr. York, “Don’t you
ever
try to touch my client.  Do we
understand each other?”  She turned and glared at Tazo, “I thought Kadu
would have told you, simple kinetic weapons.  Don’t bring grenade
launchers: they make a horrid mess.”

“Yes,
Gillian.  I will rectify the situation this evening,” replied Tazo formally.

“Okay,
kids, scoot.”

“You
want Tazo?” asked Edward.

“No,
I’m fine,” Gillian smiled back.

Edward
stepped on Mr. York’s tail on the way out of the room.  He just had
to.  Outside, in the grand dining hall, Tatiana had already flagged down
the
maître d’
again and politely requested their usual table.  With
the efficiency that one would expect from such a restaurant, the three were
quickly seated.

Zoë
stared at Tatiana with wide eyes, “You were awesome, girl!  Just plain
awesome!”

“I
thought you really wanted to hit the big tours,” asked Edward carefully. 
“I’d hate to think that I spoiled it for you.”

Tatiana
quickly downed three glasses of water; she was far more nervous on the inside
than she let on. “There are a lot of ways to make it to the big times. 
Half the cast of the show thinks I already have.  I wasn’t kidding; how
much more stupid jewelry do I need?  I’ve just gotten comfortable with you
two, and I’m not going to let some big busybody from off planet come in and
mess things up.  Not to put too fine a point on it, but if things get
messed up, I want to be the one that messes them up.  Does that make
sense?”

 Edward
and Zoë both laughed.  

“I
guess it does,” replied Zoë.  She grinned as she cocked an eye at Edward,
“Fiancé?”

Edward’s
fur cycled uncontrollably as he looked at the pair of girls, “Well, if you two
will have me…”

Both
the girls laughed as they hugged him.

“Of
course, silly boy,” lectured Tatiana.

 “We’ve
fully embarrassed the poor boy, now what do we do?” giggled Zoë.

Tatiana
cocked her eye at Zoë, “I thought that was obvious.  We eat!”

“Is
Gillian going to be okay in there with those two?” asked Zoë.

Tatiana
gritted her teeth, “I
think
so.”

“She’ll
be fine,” replied Edward calmly, glad for the shift in conversation.

“How can
you be so sure?” asked Zoë.

“Did
you see the girl Mr. York was with?”

“Yeah,
some cocktail floozie,” replied Tatiana with some disdain.

“
That
was Gigi,” replied Edward with a smirk.

Zoë
and Tatiana both laughed at that.  Yep, it was time for food!

An
hour later and the trio was starting to get both giddy
and nervous.  Dinner had gone
very
well, the
maître d’
would
not hear otherwise, but they were both worried and curious about Gillian. 
They knew Gigi was there too, and there had been no disturbances, so it wasn’t
as if anything physical had happened.  But there were easily several tons
of venom and spite being thrown around in the back room.

“Gillian
is a professional,” offered Zoë with as much optimism as she could
muster.  “This is how she earns her pay, right?”

“Well,
yeah,” murmured Tatiana sheepishly, “But I didn’t make her job any easier.”

“On
the scale of one to ten, how bad of a diva are you, really?” asked Zoë. 
“Come on, I’m sure Mr. York is used to dealing with people that are far more high
strung than you.”

“Yeah,
but I got the impression he wasn’t used to being pushed around.  Insisting
on having your bed covered in miniature chocolates is one thing, walking out on
him is another.”

“It’ll
be good for him, it’ll build character,” smirked Zoë.  “Edward, you are
being awful quiet.”

“Whoa,
I have no idea what to say when it comes to power players with big
business.  My idea of solving a problem is whacking it, stabbing it, or
having my friends drop rocks on it from orbit,” joked
Edward.   “Now if we need a barrage of twelve, one hundred and twenty
kilogram ceramic coated tungsten rounds dropped onto his car from low orbit,
I’m pretty sure we can sweet talk Trevor into something.”

 “I
was thinking about something simpler, like letting the air out of his tires,” joked Zoë.

“I
think he had a repulsar lift car,” replied Tatiana lost in thought.

“That’s
easier,” replied Edward.  “Wait until he is at speed, and then touch off a
small DEMP grenade.  The entire coils will collapse and his vehicle will just
be sliding on the ground, grinding away.”

“DEMP
grenades?” asked Tatiana.

“Sorry! 
DEMP—Directed electromagnetic pulse.  It fries electronics in a
heartbeat.”

“That’d
put his snooty butt where it belongs,” smirked Zoë.

 “Speaking
of snooty butt,” muttered Tatiana under her breath.  She gestured over
Zoë’s shoulder and, sure enough, there was Mr. York.  He had walked out of
the room without his precious Mrs. Thatcher.  Gigi was still along for the
ride; this got a giggle out of the trio.  They watched with some curiosity
as he worked his way over to the front desk and waited.   A few
minutes later someone from off the street entered with a package and handed it
to him.  A signature and a tip later, the man departed.  A few
moments later, Mr. York and Gigi disappeared into the bar at the back.

Gillian
and Mrs. Thatcher exited the back room and smartly shook hands.  
Thatcher headed directly for the bar while Gillian waved to the trio and slowly
threaded her way over to them.  As they watched one of the servers from
the front desk approached at the same time carrying a pair of thin black boxes.

Tatiana
rose from her chair and hugged Gillian as she arrived, “How bad did it
go?  I’m sorry I walked out, he was just…”

Gillian
smiled and held her tight, “Don’t worry about grumpy old men like him. 
You stuck to your principles, you stuck to your friends, and that means you
will be able to sleep well at night.”

They
all giggled.

“Okay,”
blurted Gillian, “Poor choice of words.  But you get the point.”

“Excuse
me, ladies,” interrupted the server.  “Mr. York asked that these be
delivered to you.”