Sirius Academy (Jezebel's Ladder) (33 page)

“Don’t use her full name here,
ma’am, or you could get us all killed. Mary didn’t talk. How did you trace us?”

“What does it matter?”

“I’m her head of security, too,
ma’am. If there’s a hole in her cover, I need to fix it now.”

“On Mary’s desk, I saw a team photo
of the real girl in her astronaut costume.”

“The wedding photo,” he sighed. “We
would have invited you, but it was sudden. Even Daniel couldn’t make it.”

“Her period was late?”

“A rocket launcher reminded us life
is short, ma’am. If you ask Mira questions this way, I will respectfully escort
you to the airport.”

“I don’t scare you, do I?” Rebecca
said, narrowing her eyes.

“Respect is different than fear,
ma’am. I just spent an hour in hand-to-hand combat with Red and Trina. I can
take a hit.”

“Red?”

“Short for Redemption. It’s her
pilot call sign. Everybody but me calls her that. It’s her aggressive side.”

Rebecca glanced at the pad. “The UN
investigation said you saved her from rape.”

He looked away. “She saved herself.
I picked up the pieces.”

“Chamomile tea,” the grandmother
ordered. He complied. “You’re a good man, Conrad. Ever consider running for
office?”

A month into the semester, Daniel came to Zeiss after his
last class. “Conrad, my wife ditched me to watch a tournament that Red’s
refereeing. I’m eating alone tonight. Do you want to make it a guy’s night?”

“Sure,” Zeiss said. “Restaurant? I
can tell you about our search for a new fuel. Water fuel is too heavy for the
amount of hydrogen we get from it. We’re considering ammonia, methane, and even
doping the water with sugar to get the capacity we need for the prototype four-engine.
Heh, Herk suggested vodka. We have to do some experiments to see what the
side-effects are.”

“I ordered a pizza,” Daniel said,
steering aside to his pod.

“What did I do wrong?” the newlywed
asked.

“What?”

“Either Mira asked Trina to have
you explain something to me, or there’s something distasteful and dangerous
only I can do.” When Daniel’s face reacted like a pickpocket’s caught in the
act, Zeiss hissed, “That’s it! You want me to do something and the girls won’t
approve. Don’t ask me to move Mountain Dew for you, man. If I get caught again,
I’ll do hard time. I’ve got a wife to think of now. I’ve gotta fly right,
boss.”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Daniel
said. Once they were sealed in his room, he said, “I just need you to talk to
someone.”

Zeiss’s face paled. “Not Kaguya.”

“If there were any other way, I
wouldn’t ask. She’s not eating. Her hair’s all tangled. She perked up a little
after we gave her a music mixer for confessing she was O, but she flew into a
rage and broke the machine.”

“Sedate her and use an IV.”

“Ha. Trina wanted to use a doggy
shock collar. Good luck finding anyone to attach it. The prisoner is
broadcasting suicidal ideation so loudly that we have to monitor her guards.
One of them started playing with razorblades and taking long baths this week. We
can’t let empaths or broadcasters within twenty meters of Kaguya. You’re the
only one with sufficient shields to talk to her. Plus, she still asks for you.”

Zeiss looked around as if cornered.
“Wait until she passes out from lack of food, then use the IV.”

“This is the daughter and future
majority owner of our biggest ally. Her father wants to talk to her, and she’s
a screaming harpy. Kaguya trusts and respects you. If you asked her to take a
bath and record a message to Daddy—”

“Red would never let me visit her.”

“So don’t ask. There are a hundred
fifty thousand Fortune employees and they’re all at risk if we go to war with
Mori.”

The newlywed squeezed his stress
ball, pacing. “Trina ordered me never to go see her.”

“Trina leads with her emotions. She
still holds a grudge against the Bermuda Triangle; it clouds her judgment.
We’ve used Mori computers almost exclusively in our secure facilities. I need
to know if there’s a vulnerability. Kaguya’s behavior’s been getting more
extreme lately and we may have to turn her over to Ward Seven. If that happens,
we lose the information and Mori’s support.”

“Red’s going to know where I am within
minutes.”

“Do you realize you change what you
call her based on her expected behavior?”

“Consciously; Mira can be reasoned
with—Red’s the personality that
reacts
to perceived threats with
violence.”

“She’s actually a multiple
personality?” Daniel asked, concerned.

“More like a police officer so deep
undercover that they lose track of who they are. There are cues as to who
you’re talking to. Most of the time with me, she’s Mira. But it’s a minefield.”

Daniel offered, “What if I give you
a pair of shock cuffs and ear plugs. You sneak in and slap the cuffs on her.
Taggart and I will monitor through the cameras. If the prisoner pulls anything,
I’ll zap her.”

“Why now?”

“The type of explosives we found in
the last raid will crystallize and become unstable over time. If she has more
hidden, who knows what will blow up or when? You can also grill her about the rocket
launchers they used on you.”

“You’ll tell your niece it was
your
idea?”

“Yes,” Daniel promised.

“Tape it; I’m not doing this twice.”

The billionaire nodded. “I’ll have
the medics standing by in case she kicks your ass again, or in case Red gets
past the barricade.”

****

When Zeiss crept into the dimly lit
cell, the first thing he noticed was the smell. The singer had thrown feces and
food at the walls. Extreme had been an understatement. He crept around the piles
of wrappers and torn clothes to reach the huddled form on the floor. Her famous
hair covered her face in a snarled mess. She was dressed in a long-sleeved
white silk shirt. The buttons that she’d bothered with were off by one hole. He
got one cuff on her before she reacted. “Conrad! I knew you couldn’t stay away.
You came to finish our ceremony.” Her foul breath caused him to blink.

“No. I’m married now, Kaguya,” he
said clicking the second cuff into place.

“I won’t tell if you let me be on
top,” she purred. “I’m good at secrets.” She was a pleasure junkie, and she’d
been without a fix for a month.

“I came to talk, to help. If you
try a trigger phrase, use emotion control, or psi-bolts, Horvath will shock you
senseless,” he said, lying about who was working the controls.

“You’re bluffing.”

The cuffs sparked and she gasped in
pain.

“You’ve really pissed her off,”
Zeiss warned. “She’s itching for an excuse. Please don’t give her one.”

“
If
I talk, what’s in it for
me?”

“You haven’t had company in a long
time. I’ll talk too.”

“And?”

He glanced at the camera. “I’ll
brush and wash your hair.”

She softened. “I’d like that,
Conrad. Sometimes I think you’re the only decent human being in this place. I
think I threw the brush at the cleaning bitch. Look over there.” She indicated
a direction with her head.

He bent over to grab the brush
under her bed, and she whistled at the view. The cuffs gave her another mild
jolt. “Easy,” she complained.

Zeiss opened with, “Tell me about
the Iranian rocket launchers.”

“I want to hear about your new
ring,” she countered.

“It’s unbreakable. It represents my
vow.”

“Who?”

“Your turn.” Zeiss said, working on
her rat’s nest, separating a few hairs at a time. “Someone tried to kill me
from a Chilean ship using Iranian weapons. I need details.”

The brush made periodic ripping
sounds, but she didn’t seem to mind because she had company. “Wasn’t us. We
won’t go near the Iranians—too high profile, too much infighting between the
branches of their secret police. We might use Pakistani, but more likely stolen
oil rig explosives from Oman.”

She closed her eyes, feeling him
with her extra senses as he worked.

“You’re saying it wasn’t Mori
Electronics?”

“Definitely not. My last order was
to keep you safe for recruiting; my mother backed me. Nobody crosses her.”

“Hmph. Thanks, I guess.”

“Believe it or not, we kept most of
the little fish away from the island so no one would suspect
our
operation. You feel different now, more
powerful
. I can’t put my finger
on it.”

“I’m Quantum now.”

“That means you can see me Out of
Body?”

He shrugged. “I see Daniel-san.
Does Mori have a secret backdoor for our computers?”

She chuckled throatily. “Do you
like using the backdoor? Ouch!” She glared at the camera as the cuff tingled.
“No. It would be too hard to conceal. We do, however, have a way to melt down
our chips remotely. I never learned the details.”

They chatted for a few moments
until Kaguya said, “It should have been us. We’d make an unbeatable team; our
talents would dovetail perfectly.”

Zeiss caught a snag in her hair and
apologized.

She smiled. “It’s okay; I like it a
little rough.”

The cuff bit her again, harder than
before, making her swear a blue streak. “Horvath, when I get my hands on you,
I’m going to bruise your tits worse than Red did.”

When he laughed, a little emotion
leaked past his guard.

“I don’t believe it! Red? You
bonded to the twelve-year-old?”

“Mira’s eighteen. She’s very mature
in a lot of ways.”

“You pervert,” she said, giggling.
“Do you have to offer her a lollipop and vodka?”

“I’ll go.”

“No! Stay! The Oman explosives were shipped here in coffee cans.”

“Coffee is banned.”

“Banned
inside
the island.
The guards keep a stash in the customs area.”

“Where are the explosives now?”

She stared at him and he felt
invisible fingers dancing on his spine. “Do you think about me when you’re with
her?”

He shook his head to clear it. “No.
I ran away from you to get to her. We had a previous . . . relationship.”

Her face bloomed with the taste of
his shame and fear. “She’s O! That spiteful little girl is O?”

“I never said that!”

“How many fillies are in your
harem?”

“Only one woman—ever.”

“Aw. If something happened to her .
. .?”

Zeiss pulled her hair back hard.
“Hint at that again, and I will leave you to wallow in your own filth until Horvath
gets tired of laughing. She wanted to post pictures of your state to your fan
site, but I begged her not to.”

“Okay. Your protection extends to Red,”
Kaguya promised. “Begged? You like me?”

“I’ve never been your enemy, Kaguya.
We wanted the same things; I just disapproved of your methods. I’ve been
lobbying for an early graduation, but you haven’t made it easy for your
allies.”

“Allies? There are other people who
want to free me?”

“Of course. It’s against the
charter to keep people against their will.”

“Then how are they justifying it?”
she demanded.

“There’s a clause about terroristic
threats. It gives Horvath sweeping powers. If you give us the names of your
agents and the places where you store weapons, she has nothing!”

“Finish my hair,” she ordered.

As he did a thorough job on her
hair, Kaguya reeled off a list of contacts and their sexual proclivities. While
he lathered her hair in the sink, she moaned in pleasure a few times, and continued
the list. After the second rinse, she stared at him in raw hunger. “You’re very
good at hair. Does Red like this?”

“Mira washes her own hair. I did
this for my mother.”

“You want me. Why do you resist?”
she asked.

“No.”

“Prove it. Kiss me. Then I’ll believe
you.”

“What do I get?” he squeaked.

“Anything you want,” she said
suggestively.

“Promise not to harm or subvert any
person in this program.”

She locked eyes with him, and he
could feel her sincerity through the Collective. “Okay. Kiss me for a full minute
and don’t pull away.”

His body blocked hers from the
camera as she picked up her tanned leg and placed it on his shoulder. He
thought himself clever as he kissed the tattoo instead of her mouth. Instead of
objecting, she curled her toes and said, “Yes, pet the bunny.”

He wondered what excited her until
he felt her toes curl around his neck while the other foot caressed his crotch.
He barely had time to find the whales before the assault arced between the base
of his neck and his groin. A month’s worth of psi energy pumped into his
pleasure centers as she soaked up every vicarious sensation, but it was too
much of a good thing.

As the heart monitor flat-lined,
Daniel bellowed, “Medics!”

****

Red met them at the clinic, tears
streaming down her face. She’d been listening to the interrogation from Trina’s
office. Daniel couldn’t look her in the eye as he said, “C-Conrad got
everything we needed and more.”

“Tell me you let that bitch die on
the floor,” Red demanded.

“She can’t talk yet. But her
responses indicate . . . I made him go in there,” Daniel insisted. “He didn’t
do anything wrong.”

Trina’s head snapped up. “She had
an
orgasm
? She got off on trashing his nervous system?”

Daniel held up his hands. “We’ll
get help, fly in professionals to undo—”

“Get her out of my home! Before he
wakes up,” Red shouted shrilly. “If I see her again, I’ll break her into
pieces!” Spittle flew from her mouth.

Hours later, guards gagged Kaguya,
dressed her in a new blaze-orange flight suit, and escorted her to the mail
plane. She squinted at the bright sunlight. The decks had been cleared so that
she couldn’t touch or speak to anyone else. A red laser dot lit her chest.

In the midst of all the tension,
one of the female guards glanced at the horizon and said, “Aquaman’s still at
it.”

The other guard followed her gaze
and laughed. “Yeah, they like Z.”

They wouldn’t let Kaguya stop and
look, so once they stuffed her into a seat in the plane, she sent out her
astral form to scout. Kaguya found dolphins and whales clustering around her
end of the island. She felt a brief pang of regret and then one of the dolphins
spit water at her. From her empathy she could tell it wanted her to leave.

Then she realized the dolphins
could see her, just like the Quantum Computer Zeiss. She now suspected what
whale-secret meant.