Tanderon (43 page)

“I wonder just what that is,” Ralph said, turning to stare at me. “Maybe I can find it with a stethoscope. Let’s go, it’s your turn.”

“Nothing wrong with me that a shower and some sleep won’t cure,” I denied, sipping at my coffee. “But ask me again after I finish this job. Maybe I’ll be in a mellow mood.”

Ralph frowned, then turned quickly to Ringer.

“You can’t send her out again!” he grated, his voice just short of trembling. “I thought this was all finished, or I would have sedated her as soon as she walked in!

Don’t you realize she never knows when enough is too much?”

“Who else will you send?” I asked Ringer as soon as I saw his hesitation. “How many of the agents at 2 can handle what you just asked me to do?”

“How many times were you raped in Flowerville?” Ralph asked me harshly while Ringer looked from one to the other of us without saying anything. “How many times did you eat? You can’t keep going on like this as if you were indestructible!”

“Of course I’m indestructible,” I said softly, smiling into his furious face. “If I didn’t believe that, I couldn’t keep going out on new assignments. What do you say, Ringer?”

Ringer stood staring into space for a moment, and then he turned away to study a picture on the wall.

“Sorry Ralph, but you’ll have to catch her in another day or two,” he said without inflection. “I don’t have anyone else to send.”

“You’re both crazy,” Ralph said with deep bitterness as he got to his feet. “Maybe that’s what it takes.”

Then he walked out without saying anything else, and the silence was so thick it could have held down a shuttle.

“Diana…” Ringer finally said, still staring at the picture on the wall, and I suddenly knew what he was thinking. I could almost hear myself back on Xanadu O.S., talking about the times he’d pulled me out of a hospital bed half healed because he’d had an assignment that needed seeing to. I wasn’t anywhere near as cocky as I’d led Ralph to believe, but I don’t like to leave things I start unfinished.

“You’re not sending me anywhere I don’t want to go,” I told Ringer’s uncertainty.

“Ralph doesn’t understand but you should. I may look like hell to the casual observer, but sitting around thinking about it will only make me feel the same way.

Has it been so long that you’ve forgotten?”

He took a deep breath and shook his head.

“All right then,” I said, hiding relief. “I’m heading for a shower and a bed. Get me up in time to have a light, high protein meal.”

I started to stand up, but he turned back toward me and put a hand out.

“Just another minute before you go,” he asked. “There’s one more thing I want to discuss with you.” I settled back again and waited, and he studied me again. “We had some action around here too while you were gone. I missed the best part of it, but I managed to put the whole story together and I don’t really understand it. Maybe you can explain it to me.”

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I shrugged and then nodded for him to continue.

“It starts the last night you had the class at 2,” Ringer went on after my nod. “I know you don’t need to be reminded of what happened while you were there, so I’ll begin from when you left. Everyone got so excited and shouted so many questions at each other that the guards came in about two seconds after you were gone to see what the disturbance was all about.

“Valdon was right in the middle of it as he tried to follow you, but the guards refused to let anyone leave until they found out what had happened. Valdon ended up going over all three of the guards, but by the time he reached the hopper field you were gone. The guards caught up to him as he was trying to figure out how a hopper works, and it took six of them to get him out of the hopper. He shouted and fought so much that the guards decided he must have gone over the edge, and they carted him off to Blue Skies.”

“Ringer, do you have a cigarette?” I interrupted to ask. I’d listen to his story, but I refused to think about it since I’d already made my decision. He gave me a cigarette and lit it, and after lighting one of his own he continued.

“At Blue Skies they locked him up tight and arranged for Dr. Jo to see him the next day, but Pete’s emergency call to her sent her to the Academy instead. She stayed with you until the day after, and only got to see Valdon after she got back to Blue Skies. By that time, he was alternating between shouting something about needing to apologize and brooding for hours. Dr. Jo got him calmed down, and they had a long talk. Just what they said to each other I don’t know, but at the end of the talk Dr. Jo arranged for a hopper and pilot for him. It was the same pilot, as a matter of fact, who took him to the Academy the night of that dance. I hear you have reason to remember the night of that dance.”

I took a drag on the cigarette and didn’t answer him. I just sat there feeling everything I’d gone through in the last week.

“In any event,” he said after a pause, “they must have gotten to the Academy only minutes after we left and I still don’t know how we missed them. Pete was just about ready to leave the mess hall when Valdon stormed in, demanding to know where you were.

“Now, you may think you know how Pete feels about that gag Valdon pulled the night of the dance, but believe me, you don’t. Pete is convinced that if not for that gag, he would have kept closer tabs on you and that trouble with Langley would never have happened.

“When he saw Valdon walk in, Pete exploded. Freddy told me that nobody breathed in that entire mess hall the whole time those two went at each other. Pete was on one side of his table, Valdon on the other, and the shouting they did was enough to deafen everyone at the Academy. Valdon yelled that he’d tear the place apart if Pete didn’t produce you on the spot. Pete yelled back that if Valdon ever went near you again he’d personally grind him up into fertilizer.

“It went on like that until a squad showed up, and Valdon found himself locked up again only this time in the guardhouse. A few members of the squad had to go to the infirmary afterward, but Valdon was still locked up. If there’s anything I regret, it’s missing seeing Valdon and Pete go at it.”

Ringer was grinning, but I must have been even more tired than I thought because I couldn’t seem to see anything funny about it. To tell the truth, the strain of the last week just made me want to cry. Ringer’s grin faded, and he cleared his throat before going on.

“A short while after you and Hughes left, I got into the act when Freddy called to tell me what had happened. He’d tried to get Pete calmed down, but hours had gone by and Pete was still raging. I took a hopper back there and told Pete all about how Valdon had shaken you loose on Xanadu. Pete huffed and puffed some more, but finally had Valdon released. I brought Valdon back here, and Dr. Jo and I managed to convince him that if he tried to go after you to Wheatley and Flowerville it could mean your life. After that I had him taken back to 2 and he’s been over there ever since, brooding and poring over the procedures texts – to give him something to do, I suppose.

“Now we’ve come to the part I don’t understand, so let me explain. Ever since you two got back here from Valdon’s part of space, there’s been an almost constant battle going on between you. He beats the hell out of you and you poison him. He frames you on a job then slaps you around, and you start to carve him up. All this happens, then suddenly he’s chasing all over the planet trying to find you, incidentally going over anybody who tries to get in his way. What I don’t understand is why the sudden change of heart? Is he crazy or am I?”

Ringer sat waiting for an answer, watching my face for what he thought he’d see. My body ached and I felt deathly tired, but I tend to find the strength somewhere for things that have to be done.

“You’re not the crazy one,” I answered with a wide yawn before leaning back on the couch again to swallow at my coffee. “Val always wants to tag after me, and to tell the truth I’m beginning to get tired of it. I made a bad mistake bringing him back here, and I can see now that he’ll never make an agent. Tell you what, though, I’m willing to do the right thing. I brought him so I’ll get rid of him. Have him meet me on the liner to Faraway and tell him he’s assigned to help me stop the pirates, but don’t tell him anything else. I’ll take care of the rest.”

Ringer continued to stare at me, so I managed a grin even though I couldn’t add any words.

“Diana, are you sure?” Ringer asked gently, confusion and vague hurt showing in his eyes.

“Of course I’m sure,” I responded, back in control after the momentary lapse.

“Don’t worry, going home will be his idea and the Council won’t be able to say a word to you. Right now I’m going for that shower and bed. Don’t forget to order that meal for me.”

I got up and headed for the door, waving to Ringer without turning around. I found out what room I’d been assigned to, then got to it as quickly as possible without leaving people to stare after me. Once the door was closed I leaned on it for a moment, then forced myself to head for the bathroom and the shower screen.

Turning on the bathroom light made me stop short, but the haggard female I’d been startled by was only me, reflecting back from the full length mirror on the bathroom wall. I moved forward and stopped in front of the mirror, staring at a redhead who seemed to have aged years in a matter of days. There were dark smudges under bloodshot blue eyes, filthy clothes covering a gaunt and weary body, tangled hair surrounding a face without expression. A true vision of loveliness, I thought to myself, something any man would be eager to compliment and take to bed.

I was too tired to keep the tears back any longer, and they mercifully blurred the picture I saw. Val, oh, Val, why did I ever have to bring you here from where I found you? For a compliment or two I could finally believe? For someone to fill a cold and lonely bed? Or for someone to turn on when the kill lust was burning high?

I hadn’t learned to know him any better than he’d learned to know me, but I did have a knack for knowing which basics a given person responded to most strongly. When Val and I met again I’d be digging for all the wrong responses, and going home would really be his idea. After he left … well, after he left I’d go back to doing what I always did, and I’d never be stupid enough to take a partner again.

I dropped my clothes to the floor then, and stepped into the shower without looking at the mirror again. The mirror would have shown me nothing but a crying woman, and sights like that don’t do much for the professional point of view.

It’s amazing what a few solid hours of sleep can do for a fifteen-year-old body. By the time I woke up the blush was back in my cheeks so to speak, but I was moving around too fast to notice it myself. I got to the orbital station early enough to catch the first shuttle to the liner to Faraway. When I got to the liner, it took the ship’s captain’s skepticism about my errand to tell me I was back in the running for Miss Teenager of Tanderon.

If the captain could have felt my body the way I felt it he wouldn’t have been that skeptical, but swapping with him wasn’t much of a practicality. Ringer had arranged for a replacement of my I.D. – the original having been left in the slaver Radman’s collection of mementos – and a Special Agent’s cultured and biomatched I.D. is enough to convince anyone about anything.

Once convinced that I wasn’t pulling his leg for the sheer girlish joy of it, the captain then had to be talked out of grabbing the group of would-be pirates as soon as the fools showed themselves on his ship. I told him what I meant to do instead, coerced an agreement out of him, then headed for the cabin I’d been assigned to. Once everything in the cabin was arranged and ready, I sat down to wait for Val.

Something I’d eaten that morning must have disagreed with me because I was beginning to get a headache and my stomach felt queasy.

The last shuttle from the orbital station delivered its load and left, and we had just gotten under weigh when the door to my cabin opened and Val was there. He stood in the doorway and stared at me with an expression that said he was trying to think of what to say, but I was already prepared for the moment.

“Well, hi!” I greeted him with a friendly smile, projecting surprise. “I didn’t know Ringer was going to send you to help me. I guess it doesn’t matter, though, because there isn’t much for you to do. If you remember to follow my orders there shouldn’t be any trouble.”

I went back to buffing my fingernails on an emery puff, but had no trouble seeing Val’s frown.

“Is that all you have to say to me?” he asked unbelievingly as he closed the door behind him. “I almost tore that planet apart trying to find you!”

“Why would you do a thing like that?” I asked in a puzzled voice, looking up at him again. “I know that place too well to get lost there.”

His beautiful face lost all expression, and his voice went flat to match it.

“You act as if you don’t remember what happened the last time I saw you,” he said.

“But if you don’t remember, I certainly do.”

“The last time,” I mused, acting as though I had to think for a minute before suddenly “remembering.” “Oh, that!” I said with a laugh, gesturing a dismissal with one hand. “It was nothing special. When I work I tend to forget about everything else, and sometimes I get a bit tense. I’ve lost more boyfriends that way, but for me the job always comes first.”

“So the whole thing was nothing special,” he said, his tone still flat. “And I suppose our partnership is nothing special either.”

“Of course our partnership is special,” I assured him with another smile. “Our governments are very anxious for it to work, so we have to look at it the same. I know I’ve been neglecting you lately, but I have been a little busy… Tell you what: as soon as this business is over, we can come back here and I’ll make it up to you.

How does that sound?”

He took a step toward me without saying a word, and his hands had turned to fists.

His pain-filled stare was terrible to see and then he turned away to stare at the wall instead, his breathing faster than normal. Inside me I shivered at the way I’d hurt and insulted him, but there was no backing out of the course I’d chosen. The first string was pulled and the first button pushed, and he was already on his way back home even if he didn’t know it.