Edward (17 page)

Thirty
minutes later they found themselves at the hospital.  Tazo was in surgery;
consistent with Gigi’s earlier appraisal, it was not expected that there would
be any complications.  The group loitered in Kadu’s room as they waited
for news about Tazo and back from Trevor as well.

“So,
did Edward set a new record on going through partners?” joked
Gillian to Kadu.

“Actually,
I anticipate Tazo will be back in service far sooner than one might
expect.”  Kadu grinned at Edward, “Do I understand that you soaked six,
25mm APFSDS rounds?”

Edward
smirked, “I
soaked
one.  That was no fun.  I took a cue from
Gigi after that and just deflected the next four rounds.  Alex took care
of the sixth round.”

“Ah! 
He learns!  All those times I knocked his smug butt to the mat have
finally paid off,” beamed Gigi.

“Yes. 
Yes, ma’am.  It did!  If I had only learned
earlier
I would
have kept my fur better in place.”

“Eh,
you learned at all,” beamed Gigi.  “This teacher is happy just at
that.  Jumping subjects,  Zoë.  Um, you
might want to hand over the grenade launcher.  The hospital security
doesn’t know you aren’t part of us, and that’ll make for some serious
paperwork.”

Zoë
grinned as she handed over the weapon to Gigi who, in turn, carefully propped
it in the corner.

“Where
did you learn to handle a weapon like that?” asked Gigi.  “You did it
quite reflexively even if it was the wrong size for you.”

Zoë’s
fur bristled and she broke eye contact, “Um, well, there are some things I
learned at home besides piano.”

“Why
the heck does a young girl need to learn something like that?” asked Tatiana.

“Well,
she had to know how to protect herself in case her father came home,” offered
Kadu plainly.

Zoë’s
eyes went wide and she turned and ran out of the room.

“I said something I should not have,” groused Kadu.  “Edward, go to her.”

Edward
nodded and quickly turned and ran out the room after Zoë.  He didn’t have
to go far; she had only made it ten meters down the hall before she had
collapsed to the floor crying.  Edward carefully approached and sat down
beside her and gently put a hand on her shoulder.

“She
was right, of course,” Zoë said through the sobs.  “My uncle taught me how
to shoot, and I did my share of practice with him.  Well, at least until
father had him killed.”

“Hey,
it’s okay.  If you don’t want to talk about it, that
is okay.”

“Don’t
you think you deserve to know how messed up the girl you are engaged to is?”

“I
already know how strong she is.  That is obvious.  You aren’t messed
up.  You just had your share of challenges growing up.  But you know
what?  You excelled in spite of them.”

Zoë
sat up next to him, “I just had hoped I could put all that behind me.  I
guess I should have known that the security detail would have known all about
me.  How detailed did they get about my family?”

“I
have no idea.  It was treated as a need to know, and I had no reason to
know.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously. 
You and your brother  have said something in
passing about someone named Rachel, but I know nothing about her, for example.”

Zoë
sighed, “Well, do you want to know?”

“Only if you want to tell me.”

“Do
you think you need to know?”

“I
don’t think I
need
to know.  I quite clearly said ‘if you want to
tell me.’”

Zoë laughed,
“You’ve been around Shukurae too much.”

“Actually
for that type of wordsmithing, I think I get from my oldest brother.”

“Rachel
died of a drug overdose.  Her death was the catalyst that finally got my
brother and me moved out of the house,” Zoë offered
suddenly.  “I never liked her.  She was an annoying older sister, but
that was no way to go.  Dad had the drugs in the house.  He’d run
them from down south for extra cash.  Rachel and her friends would skim a
little now and then.  I don’t know what all happened, I don’t want to know
really, but one night she just didn’t wake up again.”

Edward
nodded, “I’m sorry to hear that.  But I am glad you told me.”  Edward
was glad, it was that final level of trust and comfort that he had been missing
with Zoë, and he was grateful for it.

 “Come
on,” murmured Zoë, “Let’s get back before they send out a search team.”

Edward
helped Zoë to her feet and one long hug later they headed back to Kadu’s
room.  Tatiana was peeking around the corner as the approached.  “You
okay Zoë?”

“Yeah,
I’m just a little silly at times.”

Kadu
immediately started to apologize as they reentered the room but Zoë would have
nothing of it.  “Don’t worry Kadu,” began Zoë, “you didn’t mean
anything.  It’s just been a long day.  Too long.”

“Tazo
is out of surgery,” said Gillian, “Let’s go say our hellos and then go back to
the hotel.”

That
sounded like the best idea anyone had heard in a long time.

“A 2x25mm Satyr Systems Mk3 Medium Auto-Canon.  Betcha didn’t expect one of those, did you?” asked
Trevor quite rhetorically over the comlink.  Practice had been going an
hour, and, considering how skittish everyone was acting, was actually going
quite well.  Three people had walked, citing “excessive and unreasonable
risk.”  None of the cast or crew had been in harms’ way yet, but Gillian
did not challenge them and terminated their contracts without prejudice. 
On the up side, the opening night was sold out well in advance.

“Um, no.  No
we didn’t expect one,” replied Alex over the link.  “How narrow minded of
us to not consider
squad
antiarmor
weapons at a
restaurant.”  Alex needed a sponge to clean up the sarcasm.

“What
was the final verdict from last night?  It looked grim from where we
were,” interjected Edward.

“Tazo
injured, to be released today.  Three civilians were injured, one
critically.  May result in amputation.  Bad
guys: one dead, two in hospital, both critical.”

“They
could always amputate their heads,” murmured Alex, careful not to have the
comlink pick it up.

“Whoa!
Tazo is going to be released today?” asked Edward more than a little surprised.

“Tough
little bugger, isn’t he?  Yeah, he’ll be on site in the afternoon. 
We are going to keep him on reserves for four days to give the stitches a
better chance to heal.  So be nice to him, Edward.”
 

 “Yes, sir!”  Edward was delighted.  Reserves or
otherwise, he was looking forward to seeing Tazo on his feet.  Shukurae
were truly remarkable.

“River of Tears?”
Ah, that was Lucas.

“Yes,
indeed.  The remarkable part is they had the weapon disassembled and
delivered to a store across from the restaurant.   It took them the
last two days from what we can deduce.  Ottra was able to flush them out
of their spot using the armored car as cover, and Jake and Paul brought them down
as they tried to run.”

Awesome.
 
Ottra was crazy gutsy; made the Shukurae proud.  And those humans have
sharp eyes and steady hands!
  “Next
time at the bar, you guys, I’m buying.”

“Oh,
we got a nice queue, don’t worry,” came Paul’s laugh.

“Which
brings us back to the question of the day,” began Trevor in his casual voice.

“How
the heck did they get an auto-canon?” asked Alex.

“There
we have it!” chimed Trevor.  “Anyone care to attach a name to this mess?”

“If
you say Police Constable Johann Talvis, I’m going to puke,” came
Lucas’s voice.

Edward
agreed. If that rat was responsible for one more thing…

“Nah,
I was pulling your tail.  It was Inspector Albert Dreyfous, his boss.”

“And
I’m supposed to feel better about that, how?” asked Alex. 

Edward
nodded.  They all felt sick at this point.  How could people inside
the police be involved in something so brazen?

“Data,
my fine furry friends,” came Takru voice with a
sinister hiss.  “We are now starting to be able to connect the dots
between him and PC Talvis and project outward as to where their slimy fingers
have spread.  Working with the police’s Internal Affairs unit, we are
starting to get patterns and several quick checks have already come up
hot.  Very hot.  So hot that in less than
twenty minutes they are going to be pulling some people off the street, the
hard way.”

“Do
they have muscle they can trust?” came Ottra’s voice.  Fair question
coming from someone who had just stared down an auto-canon!

“Takru
brought it up, not me.  So that means…?” teased Trevor.

“We
can’t go in, we’d be spread too thin,” replied Alex.

“1212
^th
CSOG?” asked Ottra.

“Exactly!”  boomed Takru.  “Their IA-Task Force will be riding with
them, but the 1212
^th
will be the meat of the muscle.”

“Owww!”
grinned Alex.

Edward
suddenly had a soft warm feeling.  Not exactly
schadenfreude
at its finest, but close.  This was more like getting a chance
to watch the karma-fairy.

“Okay,
boys and girls,
that
is someone else’s problem right now,” began Trevor
in a way too cheerful voice, “so I have something planned to alleviate the
boredom.”

“Oh
goody,” replied Edward sarcastically. “That means a drill.”

“Exactly. 
Starts in 30 minutes and odds are 50:1 that the infiltrator can make it to the
stage.  Any bets?”

“Just
you serve the beer when you lose,” replied Alex.  That was the normal
bet.  It was about pride, not money.

“Fair enough. 
Please chatter in case something real happens in the meantime.”

“Has
anyone warned Gillian or the cast?” asked Edward.

“Gillian
has been warned. She has a comlink hardcoded to PB if you need to talk to
her.  I’ll warn her myself, when it actually starts.”  Trevor was
prepared, as always.

Alex
looked at Edward, “When did Gillian get a comlink?”

Edward
shrugged, “You are asking me to keep up with the miracle of sneakiness that is
Trevor?  Just shave my fur and call it a day.”

Alex
laughed as he and Meeka spread out from Edward and started to case the concert
hall.  Every day the hall seemed to grow larger and larger.

Trevor’s
thirty minutes went by and then thirty more.  Edward was beginning to
think that the drill was all about just trying to stress their systems when
Trevor finally came over the comlink with an announcement, “Game is on, comlink
sensors for Jake show no heart beat.”

Rooftop.
 
Was it a rooftop shot or was someone up there with him?

“I
have a bead on Jake; he is slumped over.  I heard nothing,” observed
Paul.  “Wait a minute.  There are no birds on the roof top either.”

“I’ll
take the rear access hatch,” offered Lucas.

“Meeka
and I will hit the service door,” replied Alex.

“I’m
going topside directly over the stage on the catwalks,” called out Edward as he
jogged over to the stage and started climbing up the stairs.  Gillian
smiled at him as he went by.

“Lucas
and Krista are both off line,” called Trevor with sinister glee.

Alex
raised his live steel and Edward did the same as he dropped back to the
stage.  “Okay, the intruder is by the rear access hatch.  Inside if
they got Krista too.  I’ll approach from the front, you loop around,”
called Edward to Alex.

“D-tack
and silent,” came Alex’s reply.

Edward
stayed low as he slunk to the back of the concert hall.  He moved in an
uneven pace and staggered his breathing as he strained his eyes and ears for
any trace of the intruder.  Suddenly he heard Meeka call out and go
down.  Live Steel in hand and armor out, he raced toward Meeka and
Alex.  As he turned the corner he saw them both sprawled on the floor
“dead” and looking quite annoyed with the world.  That left a clean shot
to the stage.  Edward ran as fast as he could toward the stage while he
scanned the floor and seats for the signs of the phantom intruder.

As he
reached the front hall, he noticed someone new sitting in the front row. 
A woman, someone he’d seen before, but somehow just didn’t click in his
mind.  Was she the intruder, a distraction, or a distraction by
proxy?  
Oh CRAP!
  Suddenly Edward recognized the lady,
she was Ivy Startford.  If Ivy was here that meant the intruder was…

A
searing burst of pain lashed through him as a Live Steel blade, in practice
mode, neatly stabbed him between the opening in his
armor.  He recoiled in pain and fell to the floor more frustrated than
anything else. 

Edward
slapped his comlink, “Trevor, that was dirty
pool.  We should have gotten way better odds than 50:1 with Llewellyn
after our furry butts.”

“Yeah,
but if I had given
proper
odds, you would have figured out who it was
immediately and then just told me to do something anatomically infeasible.”

“I
may tell you to do that yet,” groused Edward.

“Okay,
team.  Return to stations, the intruder made it to the stage.”

“Would
you like a hand up?” offered Llewellyn.  His tone was sincere and
brotherly.  This whole thing was probably Trevor’s idea not Llewellyn’s.

“Sure,”
replied Edward.  He was actually glad to see him.  Pushy as his older
brother was, that meant that at least he could breathe easily for a day or
two.  Llewellyn could probably take on the entire River of Tears gang by
himself, seated, at a café, without spilling his drink.  Edward could
start to feel the jealousy crawl back under his skin.  But this time it
was different.  He wanted to feel the comfort and knowledge that he could
protect Tatiana and Zoë with the grace and power of a true High Silver. 
At least the longing was serving a higher purpose.  At least that was what
he was telling himself.

Llewellyn
looked nothing like Edward.  He was tall and lean with a coat like a snow
leopard.  He moved with a grace and poise more like a dancer than a
fighter.  Edward was stronger, if it came to moving rocks.  But his
brother was faster and had far better endurance.  He was a machine. 
In his day, he had been one of
the
premier riders.  Banned by
treaty from entering over four star systems, he was as feared as he was
respected.  Llewellyn hated all of that, but that was his history.

“What
brought you way out here, and with Ivy?” asked Edward, genuinely curious.

“You and this production.  I wanted to check up on you and Ivy was very curious
about the show, the singer, and the piano player.”

“Well,
they are both excellent at what they do!  Shall I introduce you to them?”

“Sure,
once there is a proper break.  No sense in messing up practice on our
account.”

“How
long are you here for?”

“We
were thinking two days, if that’s okay.”

“That
should be fine.  We’d love to have you around.  Things have been
hectic on the best of days.”  Edward thought for a bit, “Wasn’t it a long
trip out here just for two days?”

Llewellyn
grinned, “Normally, yes.  However, Dawn has figured out how to use the
blank gate at the citadel to link up with the gate stones.  Toch the Red
has them and we were able to gate straight to him.”

That
floored Edward, “No one has figured out how to use those in two hundred
years!  Just opened a wormhole right up?”

Llewellyn
beamed, “Dawn is a sharp cookie!  Yep, clean and stable wormhole.  No
distortions at all.  You couldn’t pick it out from one of the gates back
home.  The only downside is the gate stones have to recharge themselves
between uses.  Doesn’t matter how long the gate is open.  Just how
often you try to open a new one. ”

“To
say ‘fascinating’ is an understatement!  Oh, they are taking a
break.  Shall we?”

Llewellyn
nodded over to Ivy, a striking lady with an orange-red coat with a splash of
white down her chin and belly with brilliant curly red hair.  She smiled
and joined the pair of brothers as they walked up the stage. 

Edward
waved Zoë over to where Tatiana and Gillian were standing, and soon the entire
crowd converged.

Gillian’s
eyes glowed, “Ivy Stratford?”

Ivy
laughed and nodded, “Yes indeed.  I find it funny to still be recognized
off-world.”

Gillian
laughed back, “Well, someone like you sticks out in my mind.  I’m Gillian Rose.
I’m the producer of the show as well as Tatiana’s agent.”

“We
call her ‘mom,’” interjected Edward.

 Gillian
and Ivy both laughed at that.

“This,”
continued Edward, “is my brother Llewellyn Stratford
of clan Silverglade.”

Gillian
nodded politely, “We’ve been delighted to have Edward around.  And not just as security!”  Gillian motioned over to
Tatiana, “This is Tatiana, the lead for the show.”

Tatiana
bobbed politely and smiled, “We’ve heard so much about both of you.”

“And
this,” continued Gillian, “is Zoë.  She plays piano, violin, sings
opposite on the duet and wrote it as well.”

Zoë
was giddy, “I heard you play, Mrs. Stratford, when I was thirteen.  It was
magical.”

Ivy’s
fur flared slightly, “I’m so glad when young people take to concerts like that. 
It makes all the practice worth it.”

“Speaking
of practice…,” interjected Gillian, “did you two have anything planned for
after this was over?”

“Well,
we planned on just goofing off tonight.  And then tomorrow, for all who
would care to join us, sit down with our entire family
for dinner.”

“Your
entire family is here?” asked Gillian more than a little surprised.

Edward
laughed, “No, but they will be.  Thanks to Toch the Red and a gate stone.”

“I
won’t ask how that works,” muttered Tatiana.

“Good,
because I’m not sure either!” laughed Edward.

“So,
Edward, do you have a date you can bring tomorrow?” asked Ivy.

Edward
rolled his eyes as Zoë and Tatiana giggled, “Um, Zoë and Tatiana.”

Ivy
beamed, “Both? Excellent! Your partner is invited as well of course.  You too, Mrs. Rose.”

“Just
call me Gillian,” she laughed.  “May I bring a date too?”

“By
all means,” replied Ivy with a grin.

“Who’s
your date?” asked Edward.

“I
thought that was obvious,” replied Tatiana, “Trevor.”