Logic (2 page)

Bebe casually turned and saw the four Guardians of W’lyn sitting down at a booth in the corner in full view of their adoring public. Bebe had to admit there was a lot to adore. The men were strong, handsome and powerful. Their lives were devoted to public service.

Smiling, she turned away. She could almost hear the pulses in the restaurant speeding up.

Tamra was staring with a worshipful gaze. “I can’t believe they are here.”

Bebe smiled at the waiter who brought her her meal. “Even Guardians have to eat.”

She was lucky that she had gotten her order in in time. All the servers flocked around the Guardians and everything came to a halt in the restaurant.

Bebe shared her meal with Tamra when the woman decided that she needed to eat more than she needed to stare at the superheroes in dark leather. There was no way she would get service before the concert started as long as the Guardians were in the room.

“You have to spring for a snack at the end of the evening, Tamra.”

“I will get you some gashki during the concert.”

Sugared beetles. Oh yay.
They weren’t really bad, they just took some getting used to and Bebe had not bothered getting used to them yet. The beef jerky crossed with candied-nuts flavour was not one she sought out often.

As she paid the bill and they rose to leave, she muttered, “Fine, but find a vendor that takes the legs off.”

Tamra winked. “I promise, though you did look cute with those legs in your teeth. It was as if you had just been on a flyer without a windscreen.”

They headed past the crowd gathered to watch the Guardians eat, and Bebe made her only concession to a night out. She untethered her hair and let it fall in a pink curtain down her back.

With a sigh, she ruffled her hair and followed Tamra through the crowds.

* * * *

At the table, Toyo looked up, as did his three companions. The scent that had just struck them was a heady mix of innocence and female.

Rand gave him a look. “Did you catch that?”

Toyo nodded. “How could I miss it?”

Drovin looked around casually, “Does anyone know who caused it?”

Toyo stared toward the crowd and saw a blue head approaching the door. A moment later, the smaller figure of a female in a scarlet suit with soft pink hair appeared on the steps. “On the steps. Damn, it is a teenager.”

Loesh turned and used his enhanced vision. “No, it isn’t. It is an alien and definitely a mature female.”

The women passed the window of the restaurant, and Toyo saw the delicate features of the alien. She was cute, and if she tasted like she smelled, she would be a woman worth pursuing.

He scowled when he realised that the other three were tracking her as well. “I sensed her first.”

The others looked at him and grinned.

Drovin said, “I believe that the one who actually meets and woos the young lady is the one who has a claim to her. She will choose.”

Toyo blinked at the light of the hunt in the eyes of his companions. It wasn’t like them to fight over a woman, but this one did something to their senses. It could be dangerous or blissful, he had no idea which.

The first thing they had to do was find her.

* * * *

Lights, drums, harps and de-legged gashki made for a wonderful evening. Their seats were up high so they could see the entire performance, or that is what Tamra said.

The group they were with were boisterous between the songs and completely silent during the performance. Analysts were a funny group. They were intelligent, intensely focused on their speciality and loved to unwind when not on duty.

W’lyn was home to the largest gathering of analysts in the sector, and the Imperium was dependant on the information they processed on the comings and goings within the systems of W’lyn.

Bebe had crime correlation as her speciality. It was what she had learned as a child and what she was good at. She solved crimes based on the data left behind after a crime and drew the logical progression as to the next move that those criminals would make. She had a ninety-nine percent accuracy rating and that was pretty good for an analyst.

“Micro, what do you think?”

Bebe made a face at Uurin. “I told you not to call me that.”

He waved it off. “What do you think of the departmental bonuses coming down due to an increase in accuracy?”

“I think it is a good thing, right? It means we are getting better and more lives are being saved.”

Tamra smiled and sat up. “It means we are getting bonuses. Who cares why?”

Bebe watched her friend semi-reclining in the arms of one of the weather analysts. “You can get that dress you have been watching in the window.”

Tamra gave her a thumbs-up and leaned back.

The orchestra began tuning up again and all fun and games stopped until the music was over.

Bebe could not get enough of the music, but she tore her gaze from the lights that accompanied it and looked across the audience. The Guardians were sitting in the VIP section with their leather uniforms gleaming dully in the lights. They were perfect specimens of the W’lyn bloodlines. Each male had long hair in a variety of shades from scarlet to metallic gold. Their skin tones were the standard mix of pale to dark grey and their ears were pointed. Aside from that, they were far from normal.

The idea that power lurked under their skin was amusing to the Terran woman in her, but the teenager that was under her more adult mind was swooning at the thought of superheroes just a few hundred feet from her.

With effort, she turned her attention back to the music and the light show.

* * * *

Toyo whispered, “Did you find her?”

Loesh nodded slightly. “I recognize some of those she is with.”

Drovin whispered, “Well?”

“Analysts. She is with the analysts.”

Rand smiled. “Excellent. I feel the urge to do a facility inspection. What about you?”

Their nearest neighbour shushed them, but the four of them spent the rest of the concert grinning like fools.

Toyo could feel it. If tomorrow didn’t bring a disaster, they were going to the Analysis Centre.

* * * *

Bebe said good night to Tamra and entered her apartment. Two blissful days of nothing but catching up on biology vids and eating food that came as close to Terran as she could manage.

She set her alarm for just after dawn so she could get to the market for the freshest options and remove her suit in the one place it was safe to do so, her own apartment.

She had known what living amongst predators would mean, or she thought she had. With a groan, she headed for the shower and let the water touch her skin.

After her first month on W’lyn, she had tried to wear a cloak and robes and walk amongst the people during the day. The gazes had tracked her, and after less than three blocks, she had a following.

She had circled and used the emergency spray she had been given for such an occasion. Her groupies had faded in confusion, and she had returned home as quickly as she could to put on a suit.

Three years on W’lyn was going to be all she could stand. She needed to be able to walk amongst people and not feel like a travelling steak.

Two and a half years to go.

Toyo watched Drovin pinch the bridge of his nose when he asked the manager if there were any analysts not on duty for the day. The gesture cloaked frustration.

Drovin returned to the Guardians and muttered, “She isn’t on duty today. She is off on a free day. She has pulled a lot of shifts lately and they ordered her to take the time.”

Toyo inclined his head. “Did you get her name?”

“I did, and you will find this interesting, she is a Terran by the name of Beryl Wilkinson.”

Toyo and the other two straightened in surprise. Rand was about to speak, but Loesh held up his hand.

“This is not something to be discussed here.”

They looked at each other and nodded, completed their tour and headed back to the ship.

They had just lifted off when a disturbance in the marketplace came over the com. They were closer than the peacekeepers, so Toyo called in that they were responding to the robbery and attack.

They swung toward the marketplace, and he launched himself from the skimmer, circling the cowering locals until he had a good view of what was going on. Robbery in a jewellery store and hostages.

He used his com to call it in and landed in front of the shop. It wasn’t going to take long.

* * * *

Bebe sat on the floor with the others, glaring at the nearest man with the weapon who didn’t like the way she spoke to him. She had only explained that only a moron wouldn’t go out the back, and he had used the butt of the weapon on her face, fortunately, the skin didn’t break.

Her analysis of the situation was that the robbers didn’t know what they were doing and what they wanted. That made them dangerous. No suggestion was going to penetrate under their level of stress and that meant she may as well sit down and wait for the blasting to start. Peacekeepers were going to shred them, and hopefully, she would make it out unscathed.

The other three hostages were looking at her like she was insane, and to them, she probably was. Bebe waited, and the sudden silence outside indicated that someone was staging out there.

The blast of electricity cut through the air in an arc that sizzled over her scalp by two inches. The other hostages dropped to the floor.

Bebe blinked. This wasn’t peacekeeper procedure. “Oh, damn.”

The robbers had been knocked back by the shock and were staggering to their feet. “What was that?”

Bebe didn’t go limp fast enough. She was hauled to the chest of the guy who had hit her in the face and used her as a living shield.

The door opened and a Guardian walked in. “Gentlemen, please let the lady go and we will take you into custody peacefully.”

The jerk squeezed her tightly and said, “No, you are going to let us out of here and we may let this little one go when we choose to do so. Not before. I don’t care who you are.”

That was it; she was not going to be hauled along like a demented dolly. Bebe reached up, grabbed his ears and made a wish.

His scream echoed in the room, and three other Guardians came in to subdue the other robber while her captor threw her into a display case.

The suit absorbed most of the damage, but she felt the glass slice along the collar and into her neck. “Damn it!”

She let go of the robber’s ears and clapped a bloody hand over the small wound.

Toyo, the Guardian who could fly, came up to her and knelt next to her. “Are you all right?”

“A small wound and a black eye. I will be fine.”

He picked her up and held her against his chest. Her inner teen swooned, but her adult side kicked her feet. “Not necessary. Please put me down.”

Toyo laughed. “I am sorry. It is protocol. We have a med kit in our skimmer if that will help.”

“Save it for the other guy. His ears are in all that glass.”

He winced. “That was a very…effective move.”

“Thank you. My self-defence instructor told me about it. I have to admit that it is effective, though I doubted that I could reach him for a moment.” She was carrying on this whole conversation with her bloody hand clutched against her neck, but she could feel her blood welling against her palm.

Toyo carried her through the crowd and set her on the edge of the skimmer. He went to get a medical kit, and to her embarrassment, he looked at her black eye first.

Another Guardian that she recognized as Rand came over and said, “If you would like, I can tend to your wound.”

She blinked. “Um, no, that’s okay. If you could just leave me with the kit for a few minutes, I can fix it and you can be on your way.”

Toyo and Rand looked at each other with amusement. Rand nodded and stepped into the skimmer.

To Bebe’s shock, Rand grabbed her arms and pulled them away from her neck while Toyo moved in with the cleaning swabs.

With the camouflage of the robber’s blood gone, Toyo and Rand got the full force of her scent. Rand’s hands clenched on her wrists, but she could actually see Toyo’s pupils expand.

Her rescuer shuddered, and she watched his neck flex as he swallowed. His hands shook as he cleaned the slice on her neck and the mess she had made with the other male’s blood. Once he had cleaned her, he eased her suit open so he could get at the wound.

Bebe was beyond embarrassed. Sweat was beading his brow by the time he sprayed her neck with synthetic skin.

To her surprise, he scrubbed his hands immediately as well as did a good job of removing traces of her own blood from inside her neckline. When her scent had been contained, he relaxed a little.

“Rand, you can let go of her now.”

Bebe gasped as her arms were released. She flexed her shoulders a little and knew that her wrists would be bruised the next day.

“Sorry, Toyo. That was…distracting.” Rand’s voice was wry.

Toyo returned to put a regenerator over her bruised face, and she slowly moved to seal her suit.

“Too bad, I was enjoying the view.”

“Rand!”

“Sorry, Toyo. Well, miss, you did a wonderful job of defending yourself. Anyone who hears of this will not mess with you for fear of not hearing afterward.” Rand chuckled.

She blushed. “It was my only way out. If you had let them go, they were going to break my neck anyway. They were disorganized and unsure, that made them very dangerous.”

Toyo smiled. “That reminds me. I have been rude. My name is Toyo.”

To her surprise, he extended his hand.

She placed her hand in his and swallowed at how small she was next to him. “Beryl.”

“What do you do for a living, Beryl?” He curled his fingers around hers carefully.

“Um, I am an analyst at the Analysis Centre.”

“Really? What is your speciality?”

She could see the other two Guardians behind him, rolling their eyes at his delicate inquisition.