Tanderon (3 page)

“You have no business being here,” he stated in that single-minded way of his.

“Clinicians have the final word on health matters, and none of them gave you permission to leave that bed.”

“Clinicians are called doctors here, and I’m not going back,” I told him, sitting up straight to meet that stare. “There’s nothing wrong with me, and I’m tired of sitting around doing nothing.”

“I don’t care how tired you are of it!” he growled, closing those big fingers of his on the couch back. “If I’ve learned nothing else about you, I’ve learned how careless you are with your own well-being. That means you’re going back even if I have to carry you, just to make sure you go all the way to being as healthy as possible. We have some unfinished business pending between us, and this thing with Marcie will be added to it. As if it needed anything to be added.”

He stood straight again, looking down at me with that special look of his. Val had had two weeks to think over the various ways I’d set him up, and it seemed the more he thought about it the angrier he got. He’d apparently made up his mind to teach me not to con him ever again, and refused to see that if he hadn’t constantly been in my way there would have been no need to con him.

I was just about to start that particular argument all over again when the ‘phone chimed, interrupting before I could do more than open my mouth. Val turned away from me and went to answer it, pausing in front of the screen to impatiently flip the accept switch. Just past his right arm I saw Ringer’s face form on the screen.

“Have you found her yet?” Ringer growled to Val, his whole bearing showing just how mad he was.

“You bet I found her,” Val answered, glancing over his shoulder to send me another of those looks. “She’s here right now, up to her old tricks, and insists she isn’t going back. If you want to see how much good that will do her, watch while I carry her to that bed and tie her down.”

Ringer’s expression turned thoughtful, and his diminutive image held up a hand.

“Since she’s found and being watched we can afford to wait a few minutes,” he decided. “Just keep an eye on her and I’ll be right there.”

The screen blanked just before Val flipped the cutoff switch, and I could see from his movements that he wasn’t pleased with Ringer’s orders. He turned back to stare at me in that dark-eyed way of his, undoubtedly wondering why Ringer hadn’t agreed with sending me straight back to bed. I just made myself more comfortable on the couch, retrieved what was left of my cigarette, and waited patiently for what would develop next.

Ringer made it to the suite in a matter of minutes, and when Val let him in Ringer headed straight for the couch I sat on. He sat himself down on the other end, then looked me over with very little approval. He didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to speak, but once Val had gotten himself situated in a gold chair opposite us, Ringer shook his head at me.

“If you ever learn to obey orders, I’ll probably pass out from the shock,” he said by way of preamble, then narrowed his eyes to demand, “How did you get out of that hospital area? I had the station computer watching for you.”

Most accomplishments are worth at least a small smile, so I gave Ringer a small smile and said, “I mugged a nurse then turned invisible. It’s part of my job to get in and out of places without getting caught – remember?”

I felt kind of mellow, but Ringer clearly shared nothing of my mood. He growled low in his throat, controlling his temper with difficulty, then he pulled a cigarette out of his jacket, jabbed it into his mouth, and lit it. The first lungful of smoke seemed to calm him down, and he leaned back to look at me with nothing resembling friendliness.

“There’s very little about you I care to remember,” he rasped, answering my rhetorical question. “Since you refuse to tell me how you got out of the place you’re supposed to be, suppose I tell you about the way you’re going back to it.”

“Don’t waste your breath,” I returned with a snort, aware of Val’s annoyance even though I now looked only at Ringer. Val didn’t like to hear me saying no to direct orders – his or anyone else’s – but I’ve never learned to take them. Order-takers have a habit of waiting for orders when they should be making decisions, and in my line of work that’s tantamount to suicide.

“Damn it, Diana, I’m tired of arguing with you!” Ringer roared, leaning toward me to emphasize his anger. “You know as well as I do that you belong under medical care!”

“The hell I do!” I snapped back, deciding it was time to lose some pleasantness.

“What I do know is that I’m at least as fit as you are, and you know it. And while we’re discussing it, would you like me to count the number of times you’ve pulled me out of a hospital bed because you had an assignment that needed a Special Agent? But now suddenly things have changed! It couldn’t be you have some other reason for wanting me under wraps, could it, Ringer?”

Ringer’s face darkened at the double jab I’d hit him with, but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything. He really had very little idea about how fit I was, but he did know why he wanted me locked up in a small room somewhere. He might also have been thinking about the various times he’d pulled me out of a bed half healed in order to hand me a new headache – for instance, the time he’d referred to earlier when he’d visited me.

It was true I’d signed myself out before I should have, and it was true I was bleeding again the very next day. But it was also true that Ringer had come by before I’d done anything at all, and had told me about the problem he had. He hadn’t been hard to find once I was out of that hospital bed, and he hadn’t refused to give me the assignment he’d spoken about. I still don’t know whether he knew how really bad off I was, but it wouldn’t have been hard for him to have checked on it.

But Ringer hadn’t checked, because the survival of one agent isn’t as important to him as getting the job done. I have no argument with that point of view; I just don’t like temporary and personally motivated reversals.

Ringer didn’t seem prepared to continue the argument, but that was only half the battle. The other half stirred in his chair with the annoyance he clearly still felt, and then he decided to put in his four bits worth.

“We’re not getting anywhere with this back and forth,” Val said, leaning forward to put his forearms on his thighs. “None of us can do more than offer opinions, so why don’t we get a doctor up here to decide it one way or the other?”

Ringer blinked, obviously liking the idea, but I was all set to turn thumbs down on it before a sneaky thought hit me. A doctor in the suite might be just the key I needed to unlock the door to freedom.

“Diana doesn’t seem to agree,” Ringer observed, looking me over in a calculating way. “I, on the other hand, think it’s the best idea I’ve heard yet. If she’s as fit as she claims, we’ll sign her out and keep her here. But,” and his hand holding the cigarette came up to point two fingers at me, “if she still needs looking after, back she goes whether she likes it or not.”

“That gives me one hell of a great chance,” I complained, putting a suitable amount of bitterness into my voice. “You call in a doctor who remembers what shape I was in when I first got here, and I’m supposed to expect that he’ll turn me loose? All he’ll be seeing will be the necessary healing time, not whether or not I’ve already healed.

Sorry, Ringer, but I think I’d rather pass on that.”

Val opened his mouth, obviously to argue what I’d said, but Ringer held up a hand in his direction.

“Just a minute,” Ringer told Val, his tone reasonable as well as thoughtful. “Diana has a valid criticism, so let’s see if we can deal with it. Diana, suppose we call for one of the doctors who has never seen you? Whatever gets decided then will be completely unbiased.”

It was amazing how Ringer now played right into my hands, but I couldn’t afford to appear too eager. I drew my legs up under me with a deliberate look of frustration on my face, then tried to temporize.

“He’s bound to know something about me, so how unbiased can he be?” I demurred. “And why should a doctor be necessary in the first place? Why can’t we –

”

“Forget it,” Ringer interrupted very flatly, the look in his eyes growing hard again.

“Whatever it was you were going to suggest, just forget it. The only choice you have is between going back right now, and seeing that doctor. Which will it be?”

I made a sound of annoyance at his tone, then got to my feet.

“I’m sure as hell not going back,” I told him, having no trouble holding his gaze.

“That doctor you bring had better know the sight of a healthy female better than you two do, or you’re going to have a fight on your hands.”

And then I walked between them toward my bedroom, feeling their eyes in my back until I’d closed the door behind me. Once the door was safely shut I leaned on it and nodded, pleased with the way things were progressing. I should be able to make use of whichever doctor turned up, but it still remained to see just how far I’d be able to take it. Everything depended on the man or woman’s sympathy quotient, how much he or she disliked getting involved, and how susceptible he – if it was a he – was to large blue eyes.

My bedroom was well furnished, with an oversized double-double bed, light mock-wood furniture, ice-blue carpeting, ice-blue bed cover, and ice-blue drapes around the vu-cast window. I considered the drapes for a minute, then got a cigarette lit and carried it to the silver, deep-furred comfort chair the room provided.

A small hand table with an ashtray on it stood next to the chair, so I sat down and hung my legs over the arm after making sure the ashtray was in easy reach. It was time to relax and think about what might be a reasonable approach to an unsuspecting doctor. Putting together a lucid-sounding story wasn’t difficult, but my mind kept going back to what was hidden in the folds of the drapes. Ringer and Val would have a fun time if the doctor bought everything I told him or her, and I wondered how Val would react to it.

Ringer, having once been an agent himself, would probably give at least grudging admiration to the way he’d been mouse-trapped, but Val wasn’t likely to look at it in the same way. It would probably make him feel completely betrayed, but that was one way of teaching him I wasn’t someone to get serious over, wasn’t it?

The sort of jokes I’d played on him had always been enough to keep other men from pursuing their mistaken interest, but with someone as stubborn as Val it was obvious that stronger methods were becoming necessary. Once he came to his senses he’d probably thank me, knowing that what I’d done had been for his own good. I wasn’t the sort of woman any man should have serious thoughts about, and once Val learned that, things would go a lot better between us.

It took only twenty or twenty-five minutes for a doctor to get there, and by then I was all set. When Val ushered the man into my room, I already sat with feet flat on the floor, hands clasped in my lap, head slightly down, and face expressionless. I didn’t look up as the footsteps came closer, but I couldn’t have missed the sound of Val’s voice.

“There she is, Doctor,” Val introduced me to the newcomer. “If she gives you any trouble, just call me. I’ll be delighted to take care of it.”

The speech was Val’s way of warning me to behave myself, but that wasn’t the way it came across. I raised my eyes to see the doctor frowning at the remark, and he didn’t turn all the way to face me until Val had left and closed the door again. He was a tall, spare, balding man, fortyish with tired brown eyes and sandy hair, and he stared at me quietly for a moment, then put his bag down.

“How are you feeling, young lady?” he asked, his voice gentle. “I’m told you consider yourself well enough to be discharged from our care.”

I gave him a pleading look and opened my mouth to speak, then closed it without saying anything. I shook my head and looked away from him again, and the action crystalized the suspicion that had been in his frown.

“Maybe you’d better explain what’s going on,” he said tightly, then gestured toward the door. “What did that man mean by the remark he made? I thought he was your guardian.”

“He is,” I said in a hopeless voice. “Please don’t ask me about it, Doctor. I can’t involve you in my troubles.”

The statement was hook number one, and he bit immediately by coming closer to bend down.

“You listen to me,” he said, taking my chin in his fingers and turning my head gently toward him. “I became a doctor to help people. If that help lies beyond the realm of medicine, well, I’ll just have to see what I can do. Now, tell me what’s wrong, and that’s an order.”

There was no getting out of obeying a direct order, of course, so I sighed deeply and asked, “What did they tell you about me, Doctor?”

He frowned again and said, “As I understand it, you came here with your uncle and went down to tour Xanadu. Somehow, a maniac kidnapped you and beat you badly before the Pleasure Sphere Management got you away from him. Your uncle brought you back up here for treatment, and that other gentleman joined him a few days later.

Isn’t that what happened?”

I shook my head miserably. “That’s almost the way it happened, but a few things are left out.”

Truthfully, more than a few things were left out. I’d gone down to the Pleasure Sphere for the sole purpose of executing a death warrant on a slaver named Radman. I’d managed to put him away, but one of the Pleasure Sphere customers had decided I was just what he wanted for his next birthday and got annoyed when I didn’t cooperate. He’d cut my back to ribbons with his cane before Val broke in and killed him, and the bandages over the new skin growing on my wrists were due to his tying me to a bedpost with rope.

Since Ringer doesn’t believe in advertising the activities of his agents, I’d had to make sure what story he’d put out. It wouldn’t do to have my version contradict what “facts” were known.

“What really happened was this,” I continued in a dead voice. “When my mother was – gone (my mother was always going one place or another), this man Valdon Carter showed up claiming he was my uncle. He had some sort of papers, and the authorities said I had to go with him.