Tanderon (29 page)

“Hey!” somebody said in a loud voice. “I thought this class was for grownups. Isn’t it time for little kiddies to be home in bed?”

I found the big-mouth, a young, dark-haired, freedom-loving kind of squirt, and looked him over.

“You must be something else in diplomacy class,” I observed. “Meet the new teacher.”

Somebody else might have thought about it, but he was the brash sort who knew all the answers.

“Come on!” he snorted. “This class is handled only by Special Agents. If you’re a Special Agent, why are you dressed up like a cadet? And why aren’t you carrying any of the newest weapons?”

Knowing Jeff, I’d known I’d run into the weapons question. Jeff had a weakness for every new toy the research department came up with, and he liked to show them off.

Happily he dropped the weakness when he got down to business, but infiltration class didn’t qualify.

“What I wear is my business,” I answered without anger, “and I’m an old-fashioned girl.” I brought the knife out of my thigh sheath fast, and flipped it into the wooden desk. It was a good class … only half of them jumped. “I happen to like old-fashioned weapons.”

“Where did you get that?” Freddy demanded, coming away from the wall he’d been leaning on. “Pete still has the original you were carrying.”

“It’s funny you should mention that,” I said, turning my head to look at him.

“Somehow, coming home from Pete’s office yesterday afternoon, I must have lost my way. I found myself in this big place with thousands of these things, and since there were so many I decided no one would miss just one so I borrowed it.”

“You broke into the armory!” he accused as a light ripple of laughter went through the room. “Wait until Pete finds out about this!”

“You can’t break into a place that has no locks,” I told him primly. “All you can do is stay away from the guards. And Freddy, I want to ask you something privately.” I wiggled a finger at him, and he came close. “Did Pete ever find out what happened to that box of Leverian cigars that disappeared on him?” I put very softly.

Freddy flushed and stared at me. “Ruining them was an accident, but how did you find out about it?” he demanded in a hiss. “You weren’t even here!”

“I’ve got friends,” I replied with a grin, keeping my voice low. “Those friends usually find out whatever there is to find out. If Pete hears about my knife, you can be sure he’ll hear about those cigars.”

“That’s blackmail,” he growled, putting his fists on his hips.

“Is that what it’s called?” I asked in the mildest of tones. “I’ve always looked on it as swapping favors. Does Pete still foam at the mouth at the thought of those cigars?”

“You win,” he conceded, not looking at all pleased. “But there’s got to be something in that story about you being related to Pete. You’re too much like him for it to be an accident.”

I laughed and turned back to the class as Freddy returned to his piece of wall. The class members hadn’t heard much of what had gone on between Freddy and me, but they had seen him back down. It had satisfied most of them, but not loudmouth.

“You can’t tell me a knife comes anywhere near a disruptor,” he insisted, waving a hand at me. “You can’t do anything with a knife.”

“I’ll bet your name is Nalvidi,” I said as I looked him up and down, and the rest of the class chuckled.

Loudmouth frowned. “Sure my name is Nalvidi,” he returned belligerently. “What about it?”

“This about it,” I said with patience, pulling the knife out of the hardwood desktop.

“If you’re so foolish as to go on with this course of training, you will one day find yourself in a place where you have to get by a very alert guard. But the place will also be one where the first vibration of a disruptor will set off about six hundred different alarms. You will then have two choices: either go back where you came from without completing your assignment, or doing this.”

There was a sectioned figure of a man on a chart hanging on the wall to my left. It had the cardinal death points marked out in red and was obviously a visual aid for another class, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t make use of it. I threw the knife hard, and it buried itself in the heart section of the chart and went part way into the wall.

“I know Jeff likes to play with all of the newest weapons, but he can do that too,” I continued into a pleasing silence. “So can most of us. I usually carry a nonmetallic knife as well, but I’m traveling light these days.”

I’d spoken dryly and had glanced at Val. He sat there showing faint amusement as he enjoyed the show, but that was only because he didn’t know it was soon to be his turn.

“But what happens if the guy is in armor and there are no alarms to set off?” Nalvidi insisted again.

“Then you use a disruptor, if you’ve learned which end of it to point,” I came back, finally losing patience. “I’m not saying a knife is the only weapon you should concern yourself with, because I’ve learned to handle most of the conventional ones around. I’m trying to tell you that flexibility is the key. Don’t ever fall so in love with a plan or weapon that you stick to it no matter what new information you come across. That’s the fastest way to a cheap funeral.”

I was wasting my breath with Nalvidi, who sat there with a stubborn, disbelieving look on his face, and I knew that as well as Jeff had known, but I said it anyway.

Nalvidi wasn’t the only one in the class; if what I said made some of the others think, it was worth it.

“I know just about where Jeff left off, and we’ll get on with it in a minute,” I continued. “Right now I’d like to tell you something about how I run a class. You’ll never find me taking attendance, and if half of you don’t show up from now on I won’t even notice. I don’t give exams because they’re a waste of time; either you learn this stuff or you don’t. I already know it, and that’s one of the reasons why I’m still alive. If you think you can do without it, go ahead and try. It’s not my neck.

“You will, however, be expected to pass a final exam in this course, but don’t start making up gyp sheets. The final is a field test, and wherever you get sent, don’t think for a minute that the ammunition isn’t live. And don’t try to pump me for locations, because I have nothing to do with that part of it.

“That’s just about it except for one last thing that doesn’t really belong in this course, but I’ll throw it in anyway.” I turned to Val and purred, “Agent Carter, when you’re out on business, what’s the only thing that should be concerning you?”

Val’s amusement strengthened, and he opted for the game of “bait the teacher.”

“The blue-eyed redhead you’ve got your arms around?” he asked with full innocence. The class broke up, so I smilingly waited for them to run down. Val had played right into my hands, but then nothing he could have said would have saved him.

“That’s not as funny as it sounds,” I said when they were finally quiet. “Agent Carter’s my partner, and that’s why we’re both here now. It was what was concerning him the last time we were out together, and we were almost killed because of it.” Then I gave Val a significant look. “That sort of thing makes your partner think about finding someone else to team with.”

The class wasn’t laughing any longer, and most of them had turned to stare at Val.

He, on the other hand, was staring at me, and there was no expression on his face.

He had to have been feeling the stupidity of what he’d almost done on Xanadu, but in a way the situation also paid him back for the needling he’d done over the last couple of weeks. He could have tried to protest the interpretation I’d put on his actions, but if he had he would have sounded as if he were making excuses. He had no choice but to sit there and take it, and that was fine with me.

“Let’s get on with the work,” I continued, ignoring Val and his displeasure. “Jeff had you memorize infiltration info on a particular target. Who’s supposed to lead the way?”

A girl signaled casually with her hand, and I was surprised to see that she was a blue-eyed redhead too. She must have had fun with Val’s comment.

“I have that pleasure and privilege,” she said with a grin. “My name is Hughes.”

Jeff had had some interesting things to say about Hughes, and I was curious to see if he was right. “Okay, Hughes,” I agreed. “Take it away.”

The girl leaned back in her chair and began to explain the infiltration problem, but I didn’t need her commentary to recall the time in detail. Margaret Renistow had been appointed ambassador to the planet Dagristol with a good deal of nervousness on the part of the Council, but not because Margaret was unqualified. Madam Renistow was an excellent ambassador with a brilliant career record behind her, but Dagristol is a planet of nonhumans with a long track record of making trouble.

Someone decided that Margaret would have the best chance to calm the Dagris with her charm and wit. Before the thing was thought all the way through, the new ambassador had already taken up residence in the Federation’s embassy on Dagristol. If anyone had bothered to check, they would have discovered that the Dagri’s had an exaggerated sense of protection toward their own rather delicate females. But if anyone had bothered to check, they probably would have come up with the wrong conclusions.

When the Dagris laid eyes on Margaret, they immediately attached the wrong sort of importance to the deference shown her and promptly kidnapped her. Their letter of demands ran about five-and-a-half pages, listing everything they could think of to ask for and then some, but the ambassador’s place of detention was included in the letter of announcement they sent. The Council requested a short time to consider the demands, all the time counting on the Special Agent who had been sent to get Margaret back where she belonged.

Hughes described the building where the ambassador had been held, then went into the details of the infiltration itself. She went along step by step, and I didn’t say a word until she was more than half way through.

“I go gracefully down the central hall until I come to a series of arches,” Hughes said, pointing with her right hand, her eyes up toward the ceiling in memory. “I decide that the third arch holds the most appeal for me, so I tiptoe through – ”

“And then gracefully fall down dead,” I interrupted with a pleasant smile. “The third arch is boobytrapped. It’s the fourth arch that’s clearable.”

She studied me for a moment then asked quietly, “How do you know? You’re not even following the master.”

“Jeff needed the master but I don’t,” I said, shifting on the edge of the desk where I’d been sitting. “This was my operation and you don’t forget things like that.”

She flipped up some papers, and checked her copy of the master. “D. Santee,” she mused.

“D. for Diana,” I supplied. “I know you think this exercise is B for boring and I can’t really blame you, but this is one subject in which on the job training gets a bit hazardous. You have to have some idea of what to expect when it’s your turn at the real thing. Getting used to memorizing data properly can drive you up the wall, but you’ll find it comes in handy.”

She thought about it with her head part way down, then raised her eyes again.

“Would you mind if I started over?” she asked.

“Go right ahead,” I agreed with a smile, gesturing to her. “And you can be as graceful as you like.”

She grinned and started again, and this time went all the way through without a mistake. I would not normally have allowed a second chance – after all, you so rarely get them in real life – but she didn’t need the point belabored. And I suppose my mellowness of mood was added to by the memory of how indignantly funny Margaret had been when I’d found her.

She’d been ready to take on the whole planet in personal combat, nearly crowning me with a stool before realizing I was there to get her out. It had taken more than a little diplomacy on my part to get her calmed down enough to follow me without going off on her own. If she had she would have tripped every alarm and boobytrap in the place, but once we’d started back she’d followed my orders precisely and without question.

She was a big woman, nearly bigger than me, and had taken great pleasure in giving me a hand when we ran into a small Dagri patrol. Once all the dust had cleared, she’d insisted on my joining her on her private yacht for a small celebration. It turned out that she knew my mother, and between drinks and courses of food we uncovered a number of other mutual acquaintances. Not every assignment ends as pleasantly as that one had, and it was nice to have a memory like that to look back on.

Things went well after that, and I was relieved to find that there was only one Nalvidi.

Some of the women and fewer of the men would not make it unless a miracle happened, but that was about average. At 2300 I wrapped it up, telling them I’d see them again on day 1 of the following week. I was over near the chart, trying to get my knife out of the wall, when Val came up behind me.

“I want to talk to you,” he growled, hovering threateningly over my head. “I think you need some adjustments made in your sense of humor.”

I got the knife free, replaced it in the thigh sheath, then turned to smile pleasantly at him.

“Not while I’m the teacher,” I informed him gently. “If you get a bad evaluation in this course the Council will have to find something else for you to do, because they won’t dare turn you loose as an agent. Was there anything else you wanted?”

“You can bet on it,” he answered, giving me that old look. “We’re still going to have that private talk, and I’ll take my chances with the Council.”

He wrapped his hand around my arm, but suddenly Freddy was there right next to us.

“Are you ready to leave, Diana?” he asked in a calm and quiet way. “Your pass won’t be good beyond 2330.”

Val let go of me, and he and Freddy looked at each other. Women examine other women with an eye out for possible competition, but men tend to have a stallion-of-the-herd complex. If they’re anything alike physically, they measure each other wondering who would win if it got down to fists and feet.

“Freddy Drummond, meet Val Carter,” I put in, wondering if either one of them would hear me. “I’m set now, Freddy. All I need is my jacket.”