The Blue-Haired Bombshell (25 page)

‘‘I may have spoken too soon,’’
HARV said.

‘‘They were brothers. They’d compete over everything,’’ Lea said.

‘‘At least they were smart enough to marry identical twins or else they never would have been able to settle on who married the best-looking woman,’’ Melda said.

‘‘Yes, it’s the only time they ever agreed to a draw in their lives. If not, they would have driven each other crazy,’’ Lea added.

I thought about what they had said, taking it in. I had to say, ‘‘Then why are you so certain Bo wouldn’t kill Mo?’’

Melda laughed. ‘‘My husband thought Mo pushed him, made him better. He hasn’t been the same since Mo died.’’

‘‘I know Daddy’s an administrator and politician and therefore there isn’t much he wouldn’t do.’’ Lea reached out and gently touched my arm. ‘‘Trust me, Zach, this is the one thing he wouldn’t do. Kill his brother. He had nothing to gain.’’

‘‘What about Elena?’’ I asked.

‘‘I wouldn’t rule out her killing her father and blaming poor Bo,’’ Melda said.

‘‘No, I mean, would Bo try to eliminate Mo to get to Elena?’’

‘‘I don’t think anybody can control Elena,’’ Carol chimed in.

‘‘Yeah, but if anybody thought they could, it would be Bo,’’ I said.

Lea shrugged. Her eyes opened wide. ‘‘Why would he need to control Elena?’’ she said. ‘‘He already has me. You saw how easily I took my cousin out when I needed to.’’

I leaned away from her. Don’t know why, it just seemed like the right thing to do. ‘‘You and a small army of psis and apes.’’

‘‘Oh, this is going to be good,’’
HARV said in my head.

I knew I was egging Lea on and by doing that I risked her cracking. Or worse, her cracking
me
, then scrambling me like an egg. It was a chance I was willing to take.

Lea shot a finger in my face. ‘‘You’re just lucky I like you or you’d be cleaning the Moon dust off my shoes with your tongue right now!’’

I locked eyes with her. ‘‘Yeah, I get that a lot. My point still stands.’’

‘‘Zach, are you sure you know what you are doing?’’
both HARV and Carol said in my head.

No, of course I wasn’t sure, but I’ve never let that stop me. I was flying by the seat of my pants and they had a huge rip in them. If history has taught me anything though, it’s that you learn more about people when they are angry than when they are calm. The harder they are to get to boil, the more you discover when they do pop. Lea was a cool customer most of the time, but I was stirring the pot of her emotions, cooking up trouble. I only hoped I could digest the results.

Lea looked up at the stars in the sky. She inhaled. She exhaled. ‘‘Earthers,’’ she mumbled, though she obviously wanted me to hear it. ‘‘You all think you know it all.’’

‘‘I just know what I saw,’’ I said. ‘‘It looks like it takes a
bunch
of you to equal
one
Elena.’’

Lea’s golden skin turned bright red. It didn’t look right, not right at all. That meant I was onto something. So I dug in deeper.

‘‘I guess her dad must have given her more mojo than you.’’

‘‘We are entirely equal,’’ Lea shouted at me.

Melda moved forward and put an arm around her daughter. ‘‘Lea, calm, please.’’

Dealing with Lea, Melda had an uncharacteristic rigidness about her, like she was a bomb squad member dealing with a very sensitive explosive. Lea was one of those ‘‘calm on the outside, powder keg on the inside’’ kind of people. ‘‘Please take a nice, slow, deep breath,’’ Melda said to Lea. It was much more of a request than an order.

Lea sat back in her chair, closing her eyes. I watched as her chest rose, then fell, then rose again.

‘‘Don’t watch too closely there,’’
Carol said in my head.

‘‘Ah, he is a man,’’
HARV said.

‘‘I’m fine,’’ Lea said, pulling her legs up and curling them under her. ‘‘I’m fine.’’ She looked me dead in the eyes. ‘‘See, Zachary, my cousin and I share power, not personality.’’

‘‘I understand,’’ I said. The thing I understood was that Lea was far more like her cousin (who was actually her genetic sister) than she wanted to believe. That made her another person of interest to me.

The dome of the colony was now clearly in view. I was anxious to end this excursion. Entering the dome, I looked down and noticed everybody was looking up. Gazing upward I saw the entire dome was acting as a giant movie screen. It didn’t take long to figure out why everybody was so interested. The message EARTH TO VOTE TOMORROW ON MOON FREEDOM was scrolling across the dome. Didn’t matter where you looked, you saw the same message.

Our transport landed and shifted into ground-based mode. As we drove through the streets they were buzzing with anticipation. Tomorrow could be it. Tomorrow could be the day they were free at last, free at last. I wasn’t picking that wording, that message was now scrolling across the dome in huge letters.

Lea and Melda were both gently touching their PIHI-Pods putting them closer to their ears as if to give themselves more privacy. They were listening intently.

I glanced around at everybody else gazing upward.

‘‘HARV, how is the council pulling off a vote so soon after losing three members?’’
I asked in my head.

‘‘They have replaced the three already,’’
HARV answered.

‘‘With whom,’’
HARV said.

‘‘Well one of them is easy,’’
HARV said.

I took a deep breath.
‘‘Ona,’’
I said, though I was hoping either the council itself had decided against it or Ona turned it down. Though I figured I was blindly grasping at razor-sharp straws on that one.

‘‘Ona happily accepted,’’
HARV said.
‘‘It makes sense since the world looks up to her anyhow.’’

‘‘They only look up to her because she’s rich, powerful, and beautiful, not because she’s meant to be a leader,’’
I said.

‘‘That makes her far more qualified than 99.99 percent of the others elected to positions of power in the history of history,’’
HARV huffed.

‘‘Who are the other two?’’
I asked despite my better judgment.

‘‘You know them,’’
HARV hinted.

‘‘Do I know them, know them? Or know of them?’’
I asked.

I had an idea where HARV was going with this, but I was afraid. It couldn’t be. What I was thinking made absolutely no sense. DOS, it had to be.

‘‘The other two council members are Twoa and Threa,’’ I sighed while mumbling out loud.

Everybody else turned their attention to me. ‘‘Yes, how did you know that so soon?’’ Melda asked.

I pointed to my wrist communicator just to remind them. ‘‘Remember, where I go, HARV goes,’’ I said. ‘‘He’s like a PIHI-Pod but better.’’

‘‘Much better,’’ HARV said, appearing from my communicator. ‘‘I have just updated Zach on the situation.’’

I shook my head. Ona was bad enough but at least she was relatively sane. ‘‘Twoa and Threa,’’ I moaned. ‘‘That makes no sense.’’

HARV patted me on the shoulder. ‘‘Zach, we’re talking politics; the less sense something makes the more likely it is to happen.’’

Now don’t get me wrong. I like Twoa and Threa— I mean what sane man wouldn’t. They are each drop-dead beautiful (literally—it’s happened) and certainly have their own strengths, but they are also loons.

‘‘I didn’t think psis were allowed to be on the council,’’ I said.

‘‘That’s true,’’ Melda said. ‘‘It’s unfair but true.’’

‘‘Technically, Ona, Twoa, and Threa aren’t psis, as they were genetically altered, not born that way,’’ HARV said.

‘‘There’s a difference?’’

HARV shook his head. ‘‘No, not really, just technically.’’

‘‘Twoa and Threa are interesting choices,’’ Carol said. ‘‘The council must have thought . . .’’

‘‘The words
council
and
thought
aren’t usually spoken in the same sentence,’’ I interrupted.

‘‘I am downloading the official press release now,’’ HARV said. ‘‘It states they are already superpowerful, superstars who have conquered everything else. Politics was the next logical step.’’

‘‘Politics and logic aren’t ever mentioned in the same sentence either,’’ I said.

‘‘Their appointments are only temporary. There will be elections next month. Anybody who chooses may run against them,’’ HARV finished.

‘‘Twoa, a politician,’’ I said. ‘‘Her crime fighting causes as much trouble as it solves.’’

For those of you living in a media blackout, Twoa thinks of herself as a superhero called Justice Babe. To me, her most amazing superpower is the fact that her skimpy outfit is able to reign in her ample breasts. She is so hot, criminals (and starving actors) perform crimes just so she’ll pummel them on worldwide HV.

‘‘Part of the deal was she gives up crime fighting except on weekends,’’ HARV said.

‘‘And Threa! She doesn’t even claim to live in this plane of existence! Just a couple of days ago wasn’t she being accused of not paying her taxes?’’

HARV nodded. ‘‘True. Apparently politicians, unlike scorned lovers, have very short memories. She agreed to pay those taxes.’’

Threa . . . in politics. I guess there have been stranger things than a self-proclaimed fairy princess holding a political office. I do recall that the Terminator was once governor in the old days. Of course the Terminator wasn’t appointed just a couple of days after he tried to kill the very person he might be replacing.

‘‘Sexy was afraid of Threa. She could very well be a suspect in the killings,’’ I noted.

‘‘I didn’t know Threa was ever a suspect,’’ Melda said.

HARV just looked at me. ‘‘She was never a real suspect—at least not in the eyes of the council and the law.’’

‘‘She sent ogres to shake down Sexy,’’ I said.

Lea’s eyes shot wide open. ‘‘Really? How subzero!’’

‘‘Zach, you brokered an end to that dispute yourself. You’ve talked to Threa since then. You know she didn’t kill the council members.’’

All of what HARV said rang true. It still didn’t vibrate well in my gut. ‘‘I don’t like the idea of Threa on the World Council,’’ I said.

‘‘Nobody asked for your approval,’’ HARV said.

‘‘I don’t like that either.’’

We pulled up to the hotel. I figured no good would come from me further pointing out how no good could come from the Thompson girls’ dip into politics.

‘‘Thanks for the trip, ladies,’’ I said with a tip of my hat.

‘‘It was our pleasure,’’ Melda said.

Melda glanced over at Lea. She was sitting next to us, but she might as well have been on another planet in another galaxy. Melda nudged her daughter in the ribs with an elbow, not the most motherly of moves.

Lea’s green eyes opened wide. ‘‘Yes, a pleasure as always,’’ she said.

I quickly got out of the car, hurried around it, and opened Carol’s door for her. Carol slid out.

‘‘And they say chivalry is dead,’’ Carol said with a wry smile.

‘‘Nope, just on life support,’’ I told her.

‘‘That marks the hundredth time in the last year that I am glad holograms can’t barf,’’ HARV said, finger down his mouth.

‘‘Not very civil there, HARV buddy.’’

I looked into the shuttle, ‘‘I’m sure I’ll see you ladies later,’’ I said.

‘‘Bo would like to invite you for dinner tonight at the Head Administrator’s home,’’ Melda said.

I hesitated. Part of me was sick of Bo and his psi ladies. I needed a break. The other part of me, the business part, knew I should stay close to Bo. They were making my job easy by inviting me.

‘‘Of course Zach will accept,’’ HARV said to the ladies.

Melda’s entire face started to glow, not actually (you can never be sure with these ladies), but she still lit up the area around her with her sparkle. She clasped her hands together. ‘‘Splendid,’’ she said. She pondered for a second. ‘‘You don’t have any allergies. Do you?’’

‘‘Neither of them do,’’ HARV said.

‘‘Great, then let’s say 1900 hours, standard Moon time,’’ Melda said.

‘‘That’s seven o’clock,’’ HARV whispered needlessly in my ear. Sometimes I don’t think HARV has a lot of faith in me.

‘‘We’ll be there,’’ I said. ‘‘Then tomorrow morning I can see Electra?’’

Melda lowered her head and her lips curled upward in a polite, politically correct smile. ‘‘Of course.’’

‘‘See you tonight then,’’ I said closing the door.

Carol and I started into the hotel. I heard another of the shuttle’s door close behind us. I winced. That could only mean I didn’t close the door properly the first time or that somebody else had gotten out of the car. I knew it had to be the second.

‘‘Wait a nano please,’’ Lea called.

DOS, I hate it when I’m right. Against my better judgment I turned. Lea had popped out of the shuttle and was heading toward us. My first instinct was to run. I fought it. If I’ve learned anything over the course of my career, it’s that life is easy when the superwomen are on your side. You don’t want to piss off somebody who can melt you with a thought. I stopped walking, turned, and started talking. ‘‘Yes, Lea?’’

Lea was back to the calm controlled Lea. She held out her hand to me. I accepted it. ‘‘I’d better walk you to your rooms,’’ she said.

‘‘I’m a big boy, I can take care of myself,’’ I said.

‘‘Plus he has me,’’ Carol added.

‘‘And me,’’ HARV added.

‘‘Don’t forget me!’’ GUS chirped from under my sleeve.

Lea squeezed my hand a bit tighter. ‘‘Yes, but you are on my world now,’’ she said. ‘‘I feel I would be amiss if I didn’t bodyguard you myself.’’

‘‘Fine,’’ I said with a little bow, swinging my arm gently toward the door. ‘‘Lead the way.’’