Tanderon (19 page)

The other two added their agreement and so did a few more of the same sort who had joined them, everyone having a grand old time – except for me. I just looked from one face to the next, feeling my annoyance grow, wondering how many demerits I’d pick up if I flattened two or three of them. They were working hard at trying to crowd me, all of them coming on strong enough to show what big men they were. Normally I might have laughed it off, but right now I was in no mood for that sort of nonsense.

A number of them were talking at once, the sort of banter to be expected from a bunch of young males on the hunt, but above it all I suddenly heard my name being called. I turned to look out toward the center of the room and saw someone familiar fighting his way through the crowds, someone I hadn’t seen in much too long.

Jeff Kellner was a hyper-A like me, and we’d worked together often enough over the years to make our relationship more than simply that of coworkers. We’d spilled a lot of blood together and lost a lot of blood together, and the sight of the grin on his face brought a similar one to mine.

Jeff usually had a grin on his face, his way of telling people to relax in his presence, I guess, and it always made his dark-skinned good looks even better. Women usually looked at him with interest and men usually looked with envy, and his broad-shouldered build would have made Ensign Harris a good deal happier than I’d made him. Jeff looked the part of a Special Agent, something of a handicap for him, but that day I would have been happy to see him even if he’d been as ugly as proverbial sin. I laughed softly as I moved away from the horde of now-frowning kiddies, and walked a short way away from the line to wait until he reached me.

“Diana! I was afraid I’d miss you,” he said breathlessly as he came up. “I only heard that you were coming a couple of hours ago.”

“It’s great seeing you, Jeff,” I answered with a smile, letting him take my hand. “But how did you know it was me? The last time we met I looked a small bit different.”

“That’s easy,” he said, amusement dancing in his eyes. “I saw the new photo in your file in Pete’s office. He was called out for a few minutes, so I looked around to keep from getting bored. All I can say is, wow! Whatever you paid for that, it was a bargain.”

His gaze was moving over me in appreciation, but that was only because he didn’t have any of the details. I would have enjoyed telling him just what sort of bargain I’d gotten, but knowing the Council and their secrecy fetish it would have been simpler just cutting my throat. Which would have accomplished the same end as divulging classified information without prior Council approval.

“I’m still paying for it,” I told him with a sigh, “and I’m beginning to believe it was the worst mistake of my life.”

“What is going on with you?” he asked, grin fading behind the itch of curiosity.

“Why are you here decked out like a cadet? You look a lot younger now, but do you really have to go back to school? Pete came back before I had a chance to do more than see when you were due and what you now looked like, so fill me in.”

I took my hand back as I shook my head. “Don’t ask,” I advised, the disgust I felt tingeing my tone. “You could end up being my roommate.”

“That wouldn’t be too hard to take,” he said with the grin back, reaching over to tug at a strand of my hair.

“As a cadet?” I countered, meeting his eyes to show it was no joke. Once the message really got through, his fingers opened and he carefully withdrew his hand.

“Now that you mention it, I find my interest fading,” he murmured, and then he smiled. “I wish I had more time, but I was handed an assignment a little while ago and I’ll have to get cracking soon. Anything I can tell you about what’s doing around here? I was handling a course over at 2, so I’m not too far out of it.”

“There’s one thing you can tell me about,” I said, lowering my voice a little. “After the last week or so, I’m just in the mood for it. How’s the hunting?”

“You’ll never change no matter what you look like,” he returned with a laugh, shaking his head. “And the hunting’s better than ever. The locals are really pushing hard, and we’ve been getting a lot of action. We lost two recruits last week, but bagged a dozen locals in return. Pete almost flipped out when he heard and tried to close up every exit, but we both know that that’s impossible. But how do you expect to go hunting from here?”

“I don’t know,” I grumbled, looking around at all the uniformed innocence. “But I’ll find a way. All work and no play, you know.”

He laughed and started to say something, but we were interrupted by my group of admirers who had been hovering around the edges of our conversation, waiting to break in. They hadn’t been happy about my walking away from them, and they were anxious to make their displeasure known. They were being led by the one who had spoken to me first, and he and the other kids came close enough to give Jeff the scowl of unfair competition.

“Talk about cradle robbing!” their leader complained to me, covered head to toe with indignation as he jerked a thumb at Jeff. “That guy’s old enough to be your father! He’d probably fag out trying to keep up with you!”

Jeff’s amusement disappeared abruptly, and there was no way I could keep from breaking up. I threw my head back and laughed in delight, causing the kids who were watching me to frown in confusion. Jeff was not much older than I am normally, but at that point he probably felt older than Methuselah. He nodded at my laughter, showing he knew what had set me off, then folded his arms across his chest.

“Very funny,” he commented, his tone dry as he watched me struggling to control myself. “Anything to entertain the troops.”

I put my hand to his folded arms and shook my head, trying to get him to admit that it was funny, and the positioning of my hand seemed to bring one of the boys’

attention to Jeff’s I.D. The boy stepped forward past the spokesman of the group to peer closer, paled slightly, then hastily nudged the others while pointing to the I.D.

They stared at the words “Special Agent” under Jeff’s name, and the facial pallor spread to include all of them – especially the one who had put his foot in it by opening his mouth.

“Hey, man, I didn’t mean anything!” the boy quavered, his stricken gaze on Jeff’s face. He seemed to want to turn and run, but was too scared to move a muscle. “If you want her, she’s all yours! I mean, I wouldn’t try to move in on you! I just didn’t know!”

My amusement was faintly revived at that, but Jeff realized he’d made a mistake pretending to be angry at what the boy had said. He glanced at me as he unfolded his arms, and then put a calming hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“Relax,” Jeff soothed him, showing no amusement of his own. “She and I are just friends, but you can do me a favor if you will. I have to leave now, so I’d like you guys to keep an eye on her for me. This can be a rough place, and I wouldn’t want her to get hurt.”

The boy under Jeff’s hand immediately swelled with pride, his fear totally forgotten in the face of having been asked to do a favor for a Special Agent. The others grew their grins back, stirring briefly in relief before moving even closer, and I was not only back to where I’d been with them, but was now in an even worse position. All thanks to my good pal Jeff. I moved my eyes to his grinning face, and sent him a look he’d have no trouble interpreting.

“Thanks, friend,” I murmured, brushing at his shirt near the I.D. badge. “Next time you can watch your own back.”

Jeff laughed at my expression, put his hand to my face to stroke it gently with the back of his fingers, then he turned and moved off into the crowd. He waved once before he was swallowed up, but then it was as if he’d never even been there. I stood there a minute longer, watching the place he’d disappeared, silently wishing him survival in whatever he was about to begin.

It doesn’t pay to dwell on things like that very long, so I sighed in disappointment that I wasn’t going with him, then turned and reclaimed my place on the S line.

Unfortunately, though, my newly appointed bodyguards came trailing along after me.

The boys were talking excitedly among themselves, high over having been as close as they’d stood to a real Special Agent. That made me sigh again, since I suddenly realized how monastic the next few months were going to be for me. I have never been attracted to little boys no matter how good-looking they are, and the attitude extends to grown up little boys as well.

I was able to move forward a pace or two, wrapped in my own thoughts, before the blessed silence was once again rent asunder. The spokesman of my bodyguards was still flying high, and he came up behind me to put a possessive arm around my shoulders.

“Man, what a guy!” he enthused, obviously having become Jeff’s newest and greatest fan. Then he sent me a questioning look, and made a circling motion with his free hand. “But there was something I didn’t understand. What did you mean when you said that next time he’d have to watch his own back?”

I hadn’t known the boy had heard my remark to Jeff, but it really didn’t matter much.

I reached my hand back and took his arm just above the elbow at the pressure point, removed it gently from my shoulders, then patted his gasp quiet.

“Jeff has a peculiar habit,” I explained in a reasonable, sincere way, watching the hotshot rub at his arm where I’d squeezed so gently. “Every once in a while he gets the urge to have his back watched, just to see if the muscles are moving properly. If he doesn’t have anyone to help him he has to use two mirrors, and that gets to be complicated.”

“Oh,” the boy commented, giving me a very strange look. I felt sure he had no idea what to make of my explanation, but he wasn’t about to argue the point. I turned back to face the front of the line and moved up with it slowly, wondering just how many more things I’d find amusing around there. When I got to the head of the line, I found out.

“Santee, Diana,” the female clerk behind the counter repeated. “We’ve been given a special schedule for you. Just a minute and I’ll get it.”

She ducked out of sight for a minute but was back almost immediately, a formal schedule in her hand that had my name on it. I glanced at it with very little interest, did a doubletake, then raised unbelieving eyes to the woman who still stood behind the counter.

“Don’t blame me,” she shrugged, not at all discomfited by my expression. “It came straight from the Commandant’s office. I never saw a schedule that crowded before, but there must be a reason for it.”

There sure was – Ringer and the Council! Tanderon was a planet that fit in perfectly with standard Federation time units. It had a sixty minute hour, twenty-four hour day, and a seven day week. My new schedule called for up at 0500 for an hour of calisthenics, twenty minutes to shower and dress, and forty minutes for morning parade and breakfast. My first class started at 0700, when most everyone else had an hour free for personal chores.

Classes lasted till 1200 hours, then forty minutes for lunch, except thirty for me because extra duty had been penciled in from 1230 hours till 1300, then back to classes until 1700 hours. I only had twenty minutes again to change for evening parade, because extra study had been handed me from 1700 hours until 1740. Dinner promptly at 1830, and punishment details set for an hour and a half, beginning at 1910, when everybody else would be getting tutoring and doing assignments or just relaxing. Another whole twenty minutes to myself before lights out at 2100. I started to crumple the schedule in both hands, and the clerk suddenly got over her nonconcern.

“Don’t do that!” she yelped, nearly shattered to see a file card about to be destroyed.

“They have to be able to read it when you go for your class cards! If it’s messed up you’ll get a whole slew of demerits!”

“Wouldn’t that be a shame,” I muttered, seeing the relief on her face when she thought her threat had worked. I stopped crumpling the card, but knew damned well it would never work out. It wouldn’t take half the time it did before, and I’d be clawing at the walls to get out. I was already feeling suffocated, so I moved out of the line toward where class cards and billet assignments were handed out and tried to loosen my blouse tie.

“Uniform in disarray,” a passing proctor noted, flicking a finger under my tie. “Two demerits.” He got my name from the schedule I held and moved off, writing in his little notebook. I watched his back disappear into the crowd, remembering how I’d hated those notebooks when I’d been here the first time. I moved on to the place where I was supposed to be and got on line again, the crowd noises surrounding everything melting into a nerve-throbbing roar.

“Diana,” a voice broke in from behind me, grating through the crowd noise. “I like that. Diana.”

I turned part way around to see that same boy standing behind me, his eyes on my schedule. He was about two inches taller than me, with well developed shoulders and chest, the slim waist of an athlete, straight brown hair, and moist brown eyes. His face was young and handsome, usually seemed to be wearing a practiced grin that told everyone he was God’s gift to womankind, and his presence went beyond unbearable annoyance. Being pestered like that was the last thing I needed right now, but he didn’t even notice the look on my face.

“Let’s see what classes you’ve got,” he pushed after giving my name his approval.

“Maybe we’re together in some of them.”

He also seemed to have a bad memory, because his arm went around my shoulders again as he reached for my schedule. If he hadn’t touched me I might have been able to control myself, but as it was he didn’t stand a chance. I was mad as hell at everything around me, and his normal way of cozying up to girls put the finishing touches on my temper.

I showed my mood by driving an elbow back into his middle before his fingers closed on my schedule. Then I quickly stepped away from him as he choked and crumpled to the floor while fighting to get the air back into his lungs. I nearly moved forward again to finish him off, but stopped myself before things went too far. He was only a small, faint symbol of everything that was closing me in, and he wasn’t the one I really wanted to strike back at.