Sirius Academy (Jezebel's Ladder) (10 page)

“You sound more afraid of her than
the terrorists,” noted the Seal.

Without shame, the dean said, “Yes!
She’s KGB trained and packs a mean grudge.”

Daniel said, “All three of them feel
like their chests were attacked by a swarm of angry bees. They’re packing ice
on her now for the bruising.”

“You watched?” asked Rogers, interested.

“I had to make sure no one got
killed. Mori can be dangerous too. It didn’t help that Red practically peed
herself laughing.”

Zeiss cleared his throat. “I still
have two demerits that I haven’t assigned disciplinary action to.”

The other men in the room seemed to
notice him for the first time. The former Seal removed an unlit cigar and
snapped, “And?”

“Those can be commuted to other
instructors,” said the TA.

Daniel smiled and said, “You are
positively evil.”

Rogers laughed. “Looks like
Grunt-Monkey’s a free man. We have a new whipping girl.”

“What’s his real name, anyway?”
asked the dean.

Daniel shook his head. “I’m not
sure even he remembers anymore.”

Sunday night, after the normal dinner club meeting, Red was
putting back half an uneaten tub of ice cream. “Auckland eats like a bird—twice
his weight in a day.”

“He’s completed his sciences, and
now he’s taking the physical stuff and survival,” Risa explained from the
bedroom. “You burn a lot of calories in this heat and you have to replace them.”

“Now that you mention it, he did
say my food was much better than the bugs he ate last week.”

“Praise like that’ll turn a girl’s
head,” the Latina said, putting on her nightgown. “Why didn’t you invite Toby,
too?”

“His security clearance is taking
longer than I thought because he moved around so much. Besides, our room’s too
small for all these people. We need a bigger place.”

“To reserve any of the public
places, you need to organize as a club and register with the dean. There’s some
other rules, like having a charter, officers, and a faculty adviser. I was
thinking of starting a solar-powered boating club, but I don’t have as much
free time as I thought I would.”

“You and me both, honey,” Red said
with an affected accent.

As Red rearranged the freezer, she
counted. Supplies were disappearing a little faster than expected. Breakfast
went on the top and desserts went on the bottom, so she dug down. There was an
unfamiliar container inside, a cheap, bulk barrel of ice cream. “Sonrisa!” she
said the way a little girl called for her mother in a thunderstorm.

“What’s wrong?” asked the Latina, rushing in. Red pointed to the ice cream like a snake. “Oh, yeah. Herk felt guilty
eating all ours, so he bought a couple containers to pay you back. Don’t worry;
I didn’t tell him the combination.”

The young heiress didn’t lecture
her roommate about trust or contamination. “With the space they take up, I
miscounted my meals by a week. I never would’ve offered to feed everyone if I
knew . . . I have less than two weeks’ food supply left.”

“Easy, chica, you can buy more.”

“But I can’t pick it up. I’ve been
grounded
,”
Red said, close to hysteria. “It takes almost three weeks to cook and ship them.”

“Get a waiver or learn to like
peanut butter and noodles.”

At nearly ten o’clock, Red ran
across the lawn to pod one and pounded on Zeiss’s door. Tired, he shouted,
“Read the sign. This means you!”

“It can’t wait till tomorrow!” she
yelled back.

He opened the door, wearing plaid
pajama bottoms. “You really have no boundaries.”

“They grounded me. I can’t fly to
pick up supplies for a whole month.”

He rolled his eyes. “Maybe that’ll
keep you out of trouble. One more incident in the probation period and you’re
suspended.”

“You don’t understand,” she hissed.
“I have under two weeks of food left in my freezer, and it takes almost three
to order more through proper channels here in BFE.”

“In my office,” the TA said, aware
that she was genuinely distressed.

When the door was pulled shut, he
said, “Security recording: on. You have one minute. Why is this an emergency?”

“Because people have been trying to
poison me since I was six. That’s why I have a locked evidence freezer. I can’t
trust anything I didn’t open unless the person has a board-level security
clearance.” Her hair was a mess and the baggy clothes were rumpled. However, her
innocent blue eyes still dominated her face.

Zeiss muttered, “The Chinese have a
saying: if you save a person’s life, you’re responsible for them from then on.”

“What?”

“I’ll think of something by our
regular
meeting tomorrow,” he promised, opening the door again. “Good night.”

“I can’t sleep worrying about
this.”

“Two weeks from now is the least of
your problems.”

“What do you mean?”

“They didn’t tell you?”

The girl looked both ways. “My appointment
with the dean is 0800 tomorrow. What didn’t they tell me?”

He wiped his face. “The bloody
cowards.”

“Tell me. What’s more horrible than
starving to death on an island, surrounded by people who hate me?”

Zeiss looked at her. He knew he
should spit it out, but it would be like kicking a kitten. “Go home and read
your duty log.”

As soon as she left his pod, the TA
checked his pad out of curiosity. Had the dean posted the punishment? Yes, at
1700, the document had been updated . . . with Conrad Zeiss as the issuing
agent. Grabbing his pillow and comforter, he ran to the faculty gym.

The guard at the door said, “We’re
closed, sir.”

“I just sent Red Benson home to
read who she’s doing her service hours with for the rest of the semester. I
can’t go back to my office.”

The guard chuckled, pointing to his
own chest. “Red, isn’t she the one who lit up Horvath’s front porch?”

“She’s the new Grunt-Monkey,” Zeiss
said, trying a lame smile.

“Come on in, sir. I never saw you.”

****

Daniel found Zeiss in the men’s
locker room the next morning and laughed at his pajamas. The professor said,
“Good call, though. During the night, your pod door and window were smeared
with blue paint grenades. Security was called out by the other TAs, but they
didn’t catch the culprits.”

“She’ll see reason,” Zeiss said
softly. “Eventually. How’d you find me?”

“Well, I couldn’t see you anywhere
on the island. Since there are only three places I can’t look into, I figured
you were either hiding in here, or you jumped ship in a rowboat.”

“You weren’t worried she’d dump my
body in the ocean?”

“Nah, when Red offs somebody, she
tells me why they deserved it.”

“Not funny,” Zeiss said, wiping his
face. “Wait. Why a locker room? So spies can’t watch you get undressed?”

“OOB students—the first place they
head.”

“Men’s locker room, women’s locker
room . . . and your bedroom?”

Daniel smiled. “You never cease to
amaze me. My whole pod, really. We don’t confine our activities to just the
bedroom.”

Zeiss held up a hand. “I don’t want
any other pictures of your bony ass seared into my brain. How do you shield? Is
it lined with lead like for Superman’s vision?”

Daniel tossed him a gel stress
ball. “It’s a suspension of a compound similar to mu-shield.”

“The stuff physicists use for
electromagnetic shielding?”

“Yup. Only took ten years to
develop.”

The TA marveled at the sparkling
green ball. “Why do you carry this with you?”

“Emergencies. It also blunts
certain other mental attacks if you hold it to your temples. I’m thinking you
need it more than I do right now. Although, maybe you should put it in your
front pocket.”

“Thanks,” Zeiss said sarcastically.

“Let me take you to breakfast at
the restaurant, my treat.”

“No workout?”

“I can afford to skip a day to
celebrate.”

Outside the front door of the
dining hall, Zeiss said, “I hear that you burn through a lot of assistants. The
first time someone screws up, you send them off to a dream job somewhere else.”

“Who? Oh, Miss Benson was feeling
spiteful,” Daniel deduced. “You’re only the fourth person to qualify: Jez, my
wife, and Desmond—a man who took several bullets for me ten years ago.”

“Oh. Then I’m honored . . . I
think.”

While eating, Zeiss said, “Wow, it
must be a result of being a hunted man, but this quiche is better than normal,
even for the restaurant.”

Daniel nodded. “François was my
personal chef for years. He still cooks special treats for me.” Even though the
handicapped table was one of the most secluded in the place, the billionaire
still whispered.

The TA stopped chewing. “With your
own
sealed
ingredients?”

The professor nodded as his
assistant got a faraway look in his eyes. Zeiss asked, “I have a solution.”

“The way you say that means ‘I need
a favor.’”

Zeiss laid out Red’s problem. “We
need to feed her, but we can’t let her eat here; that would be seen as
favoritism. We need to let her know she can trust us but still do some sort of
penance for her blatant disrespect for authority.”

“Against you?”

“No. I get that ten times a day. I
dinged her for railing against you. Let me tell you what I had in mind.” As
Zeiss described the plan, Daniel’s mouth became a thin line. He checked Red’s
location using his pad—the shooting range. She was probably working off a load
of angry before class.

“Make it happen. But keep her
stewing till eight o’clock tonight. I need to meet with her first. This spoiled-brat
act has gone on long enough.”

“Yes, sir.”

“After we’re done, wheel me to the Kendo
studio and get some rest till Alien 101. You’ve earned it.”

****

Red was practicing with live
ammunition. Herk and Sojiro were at a distance, guarding the door to the range
so that there were no accidents. She had to brace the large gun against a
pillar. From the impact on the targets, they looked like anti-tank rounds or
spent-uranium slugs. A few dummies had been turned to dust.

Daniel appeared, standing, behind
her. “You’ll burn through your allowance by lunch at this rate.”

She whirled the weapon to face him,
tripping a minor alarm on the shooting range control board. When she noticed
she could see through him, she lowered the muzzle.

Knowing he had her attention, he
continued. “I’m serious about the allowance. If you keep spending at this rate,
someone will follow the money back to the source. I’ve capped you at two
thousand a month so you’ll fit in better.”

Seething, Red snapped, “Afraid to
face me?” Her friends couldn’t see him, but she kept her voice down so they
thought she was just muttering to herself.

“Afraid.” He cocked his head. “Is
that really what you think of me?”

“No,” she said softly. “Never.
You’re the b-bravest man I know.” Red stared at his form, whole in ways his
physical body couldn’t be. However, if one knew where to look, there were still
scuffs around the edges of his image like sandpaper might leave. “You just
don’t want to blow my cover. I know this costs you. I appreciate it.”

“We can talk in person when the
other students are away for Christmas. Trina will need to teach you a few
tricks before you can get within a few meters of me,” he explained. “This
tantrum has to end.”

Red sighed, “I feel better now.”

“Not just today’s fit. I mean the
constant, childish lashing out that’s been going on since you arrived,” he said
in a fatherly tone. When she opened her mouth, he added, “You can hate me all
you want, but you
will
treat my assistant and my wife with respect.”

She moved her jaw in a few abortive
attempts. Her breathing grew ragged as she held back tears. “I don’t hate you.
But this isn’t fair.”

“I get that girls your age rebel. Hell,
I did my share. I don’t care what you blow up. However, if you make Trina cry
again, you’re off my island. That woman gave birth to you. Understood?”

Red nodded shakily. “But Zeiss . .
.”

“Conrad has been your
only
advocate on the faculty. That man has been run ragged trying to patch the holes
in your cover.”

She stared at him, comparing her
memories as a six-year-old to the present. “I was worried there wouldn’t be
much of the real you left.”

He snorted. “Because of the
physical injuries, I lost a kidney, part of my colon and spine. I’ll never walk
on my crutches again. During the operation, I had a small stroke. I have halo
vision at night and still haven’t regained full use of my left hand. I have the
bone density of a ninety-year-old lady, and late stage Fortune Syndrome. On the
plus side, thanks to the new meds they developed based on your body chemistry, my
tremors are at a minimum now. The hardest thing is not being able to tolerate
the presence of other people.”

Tears welled up in the corners of
her eyes. “I know. You did it all for me.”

“Stop that. I did it for all my
ladies, for Benny, and just to be ornery. It was
my
choice. My only
regret was that I used you to pull the trigger.” This wasn’t going the way he’d
hoped. Her face was drenched from crying. “I didn’t tell you so you’d feel
guilty. I told you because every day of that ordeal, Trina was right there by
my side, feeling my pain, even when I was drugged into unconsciousness.” Her
uncle stared at her, flickering back in front of her when she turned away from
the intensity. “Remember that when you call her a Nazi to your friends.”

Just like that, he vanished. She
let herself wallow for twenty minutes. Her friends eventually left the door to
investigate. Sojiro handed her a red handkerchief. “Thanks,” she snuffled. “I
got some blowback from that last round.”

“It’s okay,” said the artist. “You
don’t have to be bad ass in front of family.”

She hugged him, soaking the front
of his shirt. He was clearly uncomfortable, but stuck it out until she said,
“I’ll hit the head and wash my face. It’s time for me to get my new name tag.”

“And she’s back,” announced Herk.
When she was out of earshot, the bomb technician whispered, “Holding her didn’t
make you feel just a little het?”

Sojiro shook his head. “Made me
think about having kids of my own some day, though.”

Herk decided, “You would make good
girl daddy.”

****

The two men from her club stood
behind Red for moral support. Grunt-Monkey met her at the door of the dojo. He
tore the tape off his own badge and stuck it on her vest. As he left, the guard
said to Red, “You’re good at martial arts, but you need discipline. She can
give you that. Listen to her and do what she says and you’ll never have a
problem. If something is too hard, you’re probably doing it wrong. Ask. Sensei
says what she means and means what she says. Life would be a whole lot easier if
more people were like her. She’s in back waiting for you.”