Sirius Academy (Jezebel's Ladder) (29 page)

She managed to keep a grip on his
arm as she slammed to the mat. She gave a jerk and pulled him over as well. He
grunted in pain as she gave his an extra twist. “Why did you sabotage me with
Lou?” Red demanded.

“Arr . . . he wasn’t right for
you,” Zeiss panted. “He would’ve insisted on sex the first night.”

She released her hold and he
whimpered to his feet. “That’s
my
decision.”

“You didn’t tell him you’re
infectious,” Zeiss whispered. “It wasn’t informed consent.”

“I . . . could’ve told him.”

“If condoms are 98 percent
effective, that means 2 percent chance of pregnancy. Then all your plans—the
needs of the whole world—are put on hold.”

She hated that he was right. “Now
attack me,” she insisted.

“I won’t hurt you, Mira.”

She grabbed his arm and started to
throw him forward over her shoulder, but he was ready. He curled his whole body
around her, gripping under her knees.

She shouted, “You’re not my parent!”

When she couldn’t complete the
throw, he picked her off the floor like a five-year-old.

“Ouch,” she cried when he pressed
the sunburn on her shoulder blades. Instinctively, Zeiss relaxed his grip to
lessen her pain.

Between the ease with which he’d
neutralized her and the sting of the sunburn, her irritation level exceeded her
common sense. She used the extra freedom to butt his face with her head.

He dropped her as the blood gushed
out of his nose. “And I’m not your punching bag,” he snapped. “We’re done
sparring.”

The former Grunt-Monkey raced in,
giving the injured man rolls of cotton for his nostrils. Trina entered not long
after. “Problems?”

“My fault,” said Zeiss. “I told her
she had cute, little feet.”

Sojiro and Alistair burst out
laughing. Red growled and stomped from the room. “I guess I don’t bleed right,
either,” the former TA added.

Trina stifled a smile of her own.
“You practice the paintball drills with the other newbies on Saturdays this semester.
The Collective Unconscious page arrives on Monday. We’ll do the induction as
soon as it gets here.”

He stared at the floor. “Yes, sir.”

The professor glanced at him
tenderly. “If you need me, just say the word.”

Sojiro clapped Zeiss on the back.
“You survived with no breaks. Good job. You just made me ten bucks.”

“Drinks are on you then,” Zeiss
insisted.

Trina ambled to the women’s shower and waited for Red.
Swinging her legs off the edge of the washing machine, Trina invited, “Care to
talk?”

“He’s so
infuriating
,” Red
growled.

“Apart from his recent
transgression of trying to save you from yourself, what do you feel when you
scan our young astrophysicist?”

“Rare roast beef, with brown gravy,
and a side of garlic mashed potatoes—a little dull but something your body
needs once a month.”

Trina snickered at the analogy. “Didn’t
you just tell me that you’ve been dreaming about visiting New Orleans and
having a poor boy at Mother’s Restaurant?”

The girl relished the thought. “Oh,
yeah! They cook the beef all day till it’s so tender it melts in your mouth;
it’s called debris. They serve this bread pudding on the side with just a hint
of fruit flavor and bourbon. I wake up hungry every time.”

Trina laughed at the Freudian
nature of her dream. “How does Conrad feel lately?”

“I can’t read him. He’s all churned
up, blocking me on purpose. He stares at me, like I have spinach between my
teeth. I have to keep checking mirrors so see if I have another zit.”

Her aunt tried a different tactic.
“Do you trust him?”

“With my life. I gave him my crypto
key the day we met and he’s never abused it or read my files.”

“Would you consider him a friend?”

Red deflated. “Yes. The best.”

“Other than those annoying rules,
does he have any flaws?”

“He needs calcium and more
exercise. He’s never navigated a real plane. He refuses to hit me, even when I
push him as hard as I can.”

“So the reason you visited his
bedroom after hours was to give his bones exercise?”

Red blushed. “I needed aloe.”

“Hmm . . . you couldn’t get any
from the clinic, or the BX, or the cabana on the beach you terrorized?”

“Hotel security made me leave the
party early, and I needed someone to do my back.”

“I’ve been there, honey,” Trina
said with a husky chuckle.

Red made a sound of exasperation.
“Risa wasn’t here.”

“So you were lonely.”

“A little.”

“From the reaming you gave our
physicist in there, it sounds like you’d picked Lou to be your first time.”

“Sort of.”

“Lonely, horny, and in pain, you
sought out someone kind who you knew couldn’t say no.”

“Nothing happened, damn it.”

“The question is: did you want it
to?”

“He would’ve been very gentle, but
he ran away!”

“And that pissed you off.”

“Yes!”

“The truth rears its ugly head.
You’re punishing him for not sleeping with you.”

“You’re twisting my words.”

“Did you have a condom?”

“What?”

“You went there planning sex.
Having seen the catalog of all his earthly possessions, I know
he
didn’t
have one.”

“Oops,” Red said, biting her lip.

“I listened to the tape. If he hadn’t
run out then, you would’ve taken the risk without one.”

“Yeah, I would have. Hoo. Everything
he did to me felt wonderful. But he didn’t say anything about protection that
night. I repulsed him, and he ran—two guys in the same night.”

“Assuming you’re not Quasimodo, why
would a man refuse such an obvious offer?”

“I
thought
he was gay.”

“That he was in love with Sojiro.”

“But now I don’t even have that to
fall back on.”

Trina rolled her eyes. “You’ll have
to work this out yourself.”

“Another hint, please? He’s being
so weird now, saying no to all sorts of things.”

“You don’t like it when people
don’t obey you.”

“Cut that out. You make me sound
like . . .” Red struggled to find a metaphor that didn’t describe her behavior,
“a tyrant. He said we’re still friends, but he won’t even let me read his
dissertation.”

“His summary will change the face
of the Sirius Project, but the dedication was my favorite because it made me
cry.”

“That’s just mean,” Red said
resentfully.

“Daniel’s read it too.”

“Why can’t I?”

“Because your uncle put his copy in
his safe and said you couldn’t read it until Zeiss showed it to you himself. I
think you deserve a look. It’s a shame that he only printed one copy from the
machine in the sublevel and then wiped it from the system.”

Red furrowed her brow. “Part of it
would still be in the printer security log, wouldn’t it?”

“I never said a thing.”

The young woman ran to the library
elevator to read the forbidden document.

Once she reached the secure
workroom, Red punched buttons on the printer, talking to herself as she did so.
“Why are there pictures of me on here? That’s a little creepy.

“Here we go. Title page.
On the
Nature of the Sirius Artifact and the Implications for our Landing
, by
Conrad Zeiss and Miranda Scarlett Benson. Cool, he gave me credit. Page
forward. Dedication.” The print was miniscule but she could just make out the
words, “To Mary Smith, you opened the world to possibilities never imagined. Without
love, all technology is but the tinkling of a cymbal.”

Mira staggered down the hall in a
daze. Trina was waiting for her in the elevator. “He left me because he’s in
love with Mary Smith. I thought she was in Paris. Did he meet her on break?”

Trina shook the girl. “You told him
you
were Mary Smith your first year.”

“That makes more . . . Ohhh.” Red
slumped against the metal wall. “Oh no.”

Her aunt steadied her. “The penny
drops.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I tried. You kept changing the
subject to Lou and abusing the poor man more.”

Red covered her face. “He probably
hates me! Who else did he tell?”

“He didn’t have to
tell
anyone. He was one lovesick puppy. Anyone not looking in a mirror could see it
the moment you walked into the room. Daniel says he compared every woman he met
to you, and they all fell short.”

“Is that helpful?”

“This is a good thing, Kitten.
Assuming you feel the same way.”

“I don’t know how I feel. It’s so
weird, like the first time I flew inverted. He’s my best friend.”

“In a few months, you can start
slow: dating. Well, dates with just the two of you, because you’ve technically
been going out on group dates for two years; you just didn’t know it.”

Red punched her aunt in the
shoulder. “Why months?”

“Because if you hook up now,
everyone will know you’re O.”

“O?”

“For orgasm. It’s your code name in
UN security. They’re convinced you’re the latest Mata Hari. They’ve studied the
audio tape extensively for clues. All we had to do to get Z into the astronaut program
formally was promise that he’d give a seminar on foreplay to the delegates.”

“This isn’t funny!” Red insisted.
But Trina’s laughter was infectious.

Eventually, the older woman laid
her hand on her surrogate daughter’s face and said, “I wish Jez were here to
share this.”

“Me, too,” Red said, hugging her.
“It was weird seeing Mom’s picture on his computer.”

“He had a thing for her?”

“Not the usual way. He idolizes her
‘elliptically elegant mind’.”

“The apple doesn’t fall far from
that tree.”

“Thanks.”

“It takes a special man to tolerate—”

“I get that!”

“I think it’s very telling that
your father was rule-driven as well.”

“Enough!” Red smiled.

Trina squealed and stomped her
feet. “I can’t help it. Somebody loves my baby—for who she is.”

“Although, it’ll be good to know if
he likes my body too.”

“Would you stop! Daniel did say
he’s an ass man.”

“That helps. Did he say anything in
particular about mine?”

“The interrogator did say he
admitted if the cops hadn’t knocked down his door, he would’ve done
anything
you wanted.”

“Aww . . . that’s so sweet.”

“But loathed himself for the rest of
his life for being a pervert who took advantage of an innocent he swore to
protect.”

“Look, could you just locate Z for
me and let
him
give me the severe tongue lashing?” Red asked
impatiently. When Trina burst out laughing again, the young woman demanded,
“What?”

Kaguya Mori was making tea in the cafeteria kitchen when her
phone buzzed. She was wearing skin-tight hose and a Philippine Catholic schoolgirl
uniform that was several sizes too small. Seeing the guard on the other end of
the phone, she affected a longing purr, “Oh, I’d been hoping to hear from you
soon.”

Nervous, the guard whispered, “Goddess,
they let the Monk through the security checkpoint onto the island proper.
They’re tracking him with the orange guest ID and at least one set of eyes.”

“We knew that yesterday, pet.”

“I found out this morning that they
planted a listening device on the ID as well, so they could hear everything
people said to him. Taggart really wants to find O.”

“Well, done. Do you wish to be
rewarded?”

The guard’s voice shuddered, “Yes,
goddess.”

“Are you someplace private?”

“Yes!”

She sang into the phone, “Enter the
gates of my heaven.”

The man on the other end dropped
his phone as he began convulsing with pleasure. She sighed and severed the
connection. When she turned around, Conrad Zeiss was standing in the doorframe.

She dropped the phone in panic and
it skittered across the floor. Blast, he’d crept up on her again.

“I’ve been looking for you Miss
Mori,” he said, deadpan, as he picked up the phone. He walked with a limp,
winced from shoulder pains, and his nose was a little puffy. He’d obviously
been in an intense fight. Had he just dropped the net on her men?

She reached behind her for the
kettle, it wasn’t hot enough to scald, but she could bludgeon the spy hunter
with it before he slapped on cuffs. Instead, he handed her phone back politely.
“I didn’t mean to be rude. I just owe you that favor and wanted to pay up as
soon as possible . . . in case I wash out this week.”

Kaguya put the phone in her pocket
with one hand and poured a cup of tea with the other. “You’re a man of your
word, then?” She remained neutral, uncertain if he was toying with her.

He actually blushed. “You don’t
have to worry about improper advances; Sojiro is my chaperone in the other room.
I can call him in.”

Her demeanor shifted from prey to
predator. She made her voice seductive. “That depends on what you consider
improper. Could I offer you something?” When he looked away, she added, “Tea, I
mean. You look very sore, and this might help loosen your muscles.”

“Only if you’re having some.”

She smiled, and served them both. Kaguya
held up a finger and said, “I have just the thing to sweeten this.” She stood
on a chair to rummage through a cabinet. As she did so, Zeiss could glimpse
under her miniskirt to the tights beneath. The fabric became see-through where
it stretched the tightest, accentuating every curve, and revealing her narrow
vee of black underwear.

Zeiss stared into the teacup and
drank, admiring the bone-china design. “Very pleasing to the eyes, warm on the
lips, and fits in the hand perfectly.”

“You turn a girl’s head. Did that
work with many of the students?”

“No, I never . . .”

She giggled as she climbed down
with a container of honey. “I’m only being mean because you left during my
performance.”

“That was rude me. I had a fire to
put out,” he said offhandedly.

She chuckled throatily as she
poured a liberal dose of honey into each cup, “A hot one, I hear.”

“I’ll leave,” he said, sounding downcast.

She put a hand on his good shoulder
to push him back into his seat. “You haven’t given me a proper apology. I’m
still offended.”

The Japanese heiress sat on the counter
and fixed him with her eyes as she sipped from her cup.

He bowed his head in the Japanese
way he’d seen Daniel do over comm-links to avoid staring up her skirt. “You
have such a beautiful voice, why do you feel you have to distort it?” He
sipped. As she’d predicted, the honey was a perfect addition. “I hadn’t heard
the gate song before. It was enchanting.”

She smiled, drinking more. “It’s
new. I’ll sing the entire thing for you later if you like. After you suffer
through, I’ll consider the apology complete.”

“It won’t be suffering,” he said,
draining his cup to avoid her predatory gaze.

“Speaking of pain. Why didn’t you
go to the clinic after that truck hit you?”

“I’ll be fine. They would’ve asked
too many questions.”

“Jealous boyfriend?”

“Close enough,” he admitted.

She touched his shoulder and he bit
back a shout. Sojiro poked his head in. She shook her head. “You have a serious
knot here. The pain is reinforcing itself in a cycle of tension.”

“Told you,” said Sojiro.

“I’ll help you work it out,” she
offered.

Zeiss started protesting until the
artist told him. “She’s very good at sports massage. Since this was a false
alarm, I’m going out to finish my meal.”

“Thanks,” Zeiss said, waving, but that
action hurt, too.

The tall woman shook her head. “But
first you’ll need some muscle relaxants.”

“When I talked to Dr. Marsh about
my upcoming page, he said no drugs till Monday.”

“Piffle. Every girl in my pod takes
muscle relaxants for their cramps. They’re very mild, and you need something
for that knot.” She took out a tin with the name of a well-known feminine
product on the outside and white pills inside. “I’ll consider it one of my two
favors.”

He sighed and popped the meds in
his mouth. By the time she said, “I’ll get you more tea,” he’d swallowed them
dry. “Well, aren’t we the manly one.”

“You can’t stop skiing or hockey to
get water.”

“I meant because you took three. Put
your head down on the table and let me do my magic.” As she kneaded, the back
of his scalp tingled. He moaned and his hat clomped to the table. “I’ll take
that,” she said, putting the hat on her own head.

With her left hand, she placed the
badge on the still-warm electric stove-top. With her right, Kaguya released a
pulse of psi current into his pleasure center to cover the action. Then she
tsked. “This isn’t going to work. You need background music, hot oil, and a
chance to lie down so I can work the kinks out of that leg.”

“Okay,” Zeiss whimpered.

“My room has everything we need,”
she suggested, reinforcing the request with her Empathy talent.

He did the unthinkable and refused.
“That could damage your reputation.”

“Where else are we going to do
this?”

“The guard for the faculty gym lets
me in all the time and keeps quiet. I give him leftovers from the supper club
and I’m always with Sorenson. You can use your phone for the music. But keep
your video cam going so you’re protected.” He enunciated clearly for anyone who
might be listening.

“Okay. Start walking. I’ll get my
purse and catch up.”

As soon as he exited, she locked
the back door behind him. Then, she scooped the badge into the sink with a hot
pad. Once the frame was cool enough, she popped out the chip and put the warped
plastic back into the hat band. Poking her head into the other room, she
whispered to Sojiro, “He fell asleep a few minutes into the massage.”

“Happens,” Sojiro said. “He’s had a
hard day.”

“I’m locking up and heading home.
Can you make sure no one bothers him?” she pushed just a little with her
talent.

“Sure thing. No one gets by the
wall,” Sojiro bragged.

After she locked up every door and
left through the front in plain view, Sojiro called in a report, “Our boy went
out like a baby during a massage. Confirm that the back door is locked. We’re
going to be here a while.”

“The board says all secure.”

“Roger.” The artist pulled out a
pad and started sketching another episode.

****

By the time they reached the gym,
Zeiss was staggering drunkenly. The high speed of the island was generating heavy
winds, and he could hear the clank of a metal clip slapping against the
flagpole. Kaguya had her arm around him and was holding him up by the waistband
of his pants. She put a finger to her lips and winked at the guard, who shook
his head in wonder and opened the door.

As soon as they got inside, the
former TA bumped into the wall. The tightly dressed woman smiled. “You’ll fall
right off the massage table and I won’t be able to lift you. Let’s step into
the women’s locker room.”

“I don’t think—”

“Nobody’s going to walk in on us,
and they have yoga mats.”

She led him the next few steps by
the waistband of his pants, flipped a mat off the wall, and let him collapse
onto it. Shielded against Professor Sorenson’s influence, she could work on him
for at least a shift with no interruption. She texted her team to have the
front guard replaced immediately: no one in or out till further notice.

Turning on mood music from her
phone, she put down her purse and hid the hat. She placed a small camera atop
the lockers where the view angle could capture them both. “Personal video
record: on. While I get the oils ready for your back, you take off your shirt
and shoes.”

He managed the shirt but the latch
on the sandals puzzled him for a moment before he slid them off, too. When he
looked back, she ripped the miniskirt off with the sound of Velcro tearing. His
eyes bugged out until he hid his face in the mat.

She purred, “Relax. Oil stains
don’t come out of clothes. Ask anyone who gets a massage from me.”

As he lay facedown on the mat, she
began rubbing the warm oil into his neck and back. “Oh, that’s the spot,” Zeiss
advised.

“So, you’re still unattached?”
Kaguya asked.

“Huh?”

“Team-wise.”

“Red just put me in this shape,
what do you think?”

“Good. Because I wanted a chance to
pitch
my
team, where we know how to take care of a star performer.” She
caressed his muscles, gently at first but with increasing firmness.

The base of his skull began to
tingle. “Go on,” he murmured.

“You could have this kind of
treatment every week.” As she released the tension in muscle after muscle, she
listed the people on her side who were the best at what they did. If Red didn’t
get there first, this woman
would
reach the artifact. However, Kaguya
had a better chance because this would be her final year at the Academy.

Zeiss lost track of the songs
eventually, unsure whether two or four had played. The knowledge that his
friends were listening on the badge was all that kept him from falling asleep.
Zeiss felt the need to speak so they knew he was okay. “I could listen to your
voice all day. When you’re CEO of Mori, your speeches will be like music
videos.”

Kaguya knelt on his back; the heat
and weight caused him to groan. “Aren’t you full of compliments?”

“’s true.”

She leaned over and tickled his ear
with her breath. “We’re a lot closer than I thought. I’ll skip the rest of the
pitch and go straight to the important issues. Where’s the future of space:
companies or governments?”

“Companies,” he admitted. She
stroked the back of his neck and pleasure exploded in his brain. His body
couldn’t arch because she was holding him down.

“Elias Fortune understood that,
which is why my father joined him in this venture,” the Japanese woman
reasoned. His eyes were closed in bliss. “If we wait for the UN, we’ll never
see the artifact.”

“Agreed,” he mumbled. Next she
touched his right shoulder and all trace of the pain vanished.

Her voice continued to massage the
base of his brain. “Catering to them is like holding Grandma’s hand as she
dies, and Grandma’s senile.”

“That’s going a
little
far.”
His left shoulder went next. He was floating in peace.

She feather-stroked the base of his
spine. The tingling dragged a loud moan from him and his body responded in ways
he hadn’t intended.

“Miss Mori, stop. I . . .”

“Shh,” she said, slipping her hand around
the right hip to do the same. But this touch did nothing. “You agreed to let me
have my way with you.”

She had touched the psi-shield stress
ball, and it had blocked the effects, Zeiss deduced. But psi-shield only
prevented one thing. “Out of Body talents,” he blurted, unable to stop the flow
of words. As she flipped him face-up, he recited, “Your biological father was
one of the scouts from London office, the Japanese one. He mastered the whole
page, which includes psi bolts: pain touch and direct cortical stimu . . . stim
. . . You paralyzed the quantum candidate so he’d fail his splash test.”

“You’re good,” she admired. “Even
doped to the gills, you figured that out. And you took three pills. Solomon was
right about you.”

“Penguin!” Zeiss shouted to the
hidden microphone in his badge. “What was it? Ecstasy? LSD?”

“My own special blend. We use it in
religious ceremonies.”

“Your face is glowing!”

“That’s not the pills; you’re
seeing me as I truly am—your goddess.”

“How (pant) infected? Wasn’t sex.”
Her face filled his view.

“Yet. But all it takes is a little
DNA exchange. There was
me
in the honey; me in the tea. You’re becoming
Active.”

Zeiss began hyperventilating.
“Sojiro!”

“He can’t hear you,” she sang,
placing a curved headrest behind his neck. When he filled his lungs to shout, she
gave him a jolt of pure pleasure to the neck so intense that he couldn’t
breathe.

“Since you’re still awake, and
you’re the first, we’re going to skip to phase two.” She pushed a button and
changed the background music. “Since my mother’s experience, I’ve done a lot of
experimenting with Theta conditioning and bonding. The coolest technique I’ve
developed is called an akashic recording. We’re going to burn our own six-minute
video in your brain. For the rest of your life, you’ll flash back to this
recording whenever you hear . . .” The music said the words at the same time
she did. “
Enter the gates of my heaven
.”