Titanium Texicans (32 page)

Bill looked at Tasso. “Menzies?” He pointed at the chair Tasso had recently vacated. “This is a request, not an order. If you don’t want to stay, we can reschedule to meet tomorrow in my office. I was hoping for a more casual atmosphere for a little business discussion.”

Tasso sat on the edge of the chair, his back straight and his hands gripping his knees. “Sir.” He wanted to say more, but he knew it would come out wrong if he said anything else.

“
Papi
—”

“No,” Bill said. “I put up with enough of this kind of crap in my office. I don’t want to hear it when I get home.” He looked at his wife and gestured with his chin.

Señora Rojo stood, “Children, go play in your rooms until supper. Not you, Kendra. Supper will be ready when Daddy says it is ready.”

Bill looked at his daughter and back at Tasso. “Trainee Menzies, do I have your permission to replay La Dueña Dunstan’s recording of the event between you and Anisa, Ivan, and Flacco?”

“No,” Tasso said. “I don’t care whether she believes me or not, and I don’t care whether you do, either. Shouldn’t I have my supervisor here if I’m being falsely accused of something?”

“We’ll make this official.” Bill tapped his dataport. “Sis, I need you and Anisa over here, right now. Maria Macias and the Security Office supervisor on duty, please conference in with me. Now.”

Tasso gripped his knees harder, his knuckles turning white. He knew if they were going to try to gang up on him, that was fine. He hadn’t been in a one-on-one fight his whole life, even the stobors had to cluster into groups when they attacked. Why should it be any different here?

“Macias, here,” Maria’s voice boomed from Rojo’s dataport.

“Security, too,” a voice added.

Bill said, “Hold one.” He stared at Tasso and looked back at his daughter. He couldn’t see her face, so he grabbed her chin and brushed her hair back. She glared at him. He looked over at his wife, his expression an unspoken question. She shrugged, looked at Tasso, back at their daughter, and nodded.

“Dammit,” Bill said.

Rosa Graham and Anisa came through the door without knocking. When Anisa saw Tasso, she tried to back out of the room. Graham grabbed her daughter by the arm and sat her next to Kendra. She set another chair upright and plopped down in it. “Long day, Bill, and I’m more than ready to put my feet up.”

Bill put his foot against an ottoman and pushed it over to her. “Be my guest.”

Maria Macias’ voice rang out. “Mira, people, my supper is getting cold. Can we get on with whatever emergency this is?”

Bill replied, “There seems to be some issues between members of your work crew, Señora Macias.”

Macias said, “Really? I hope this isn’t any of that teen angst crap that I heard about this afternoon, children fussing about who said what to whom behind someone’s back. I raised my own teenagers and got them out of the house. I don’t need to be raising yours, too.”

Tasso said, “I don’t need any of you trying to raise me. My grandfather did fine. Just leave me alone and I won’t shout at anyone or threaten to beat up anyone.”

Kendra shouted, “Are you going to punch someone like you did Cruz? Or maybe break someone’s hand like you did Ebie when he hadn’t done anything to you?”

At Tasso’s confused look, Bill said, “My oldest son, Eber Rojo, is Kendra’s twin brother.”

Tasso suddenly remembered Eber was Kendra’s brother, but he hadn’t realized they were twins. He said, “Yeah, maybe I will. I might as well if I’m going to get accused of it anyway.”

Graham said, “Okay, everybody. I’m not up to speed here. Has Tasso been in a fourth fight? Or is it the fifth, I’ve lost count.”

Kendra said, “Fifth?”

Macias and the voice from Security both began expressing concern.

Bill said, “One fight at a time, people.”

Graham said, “As first officer and the senior supervisor over all trainees, I’m advising Tasso Menzies, Kendra Rojo, and Anisa Rojo-Graham to not say anything unless you are asked a specific question. Is Trainee Eber Rojo involved again?”

Bill shook his head. “He isn’t that I know of. He’s confined to his quarters in the trainee section.”

Kendra said, “Why is Ebie grounded? He didn’t do anything. Flacco told me today that Menzies broke Ebie’s hand and that Ebie was just standing there when Menzies attacked him. I wish I knew that before today.” She took off the wooden bracelet Tasso had bought her and threw it across the cabin.

Anisa nodded and started to speak, but Graham interrupted. “I said to keep your mouths closed. All three of you and I mean it.”

Tasso decided he wasn’t talking. He’d explained himself more than once. He wasn’t even going to answer any direct questions at this point. Even with video to back up his story, he was going to be blamed for whatever happened, so they could accuse him all they wanted.

Graham said, “I need to know what’s going on.”

Bill filled everyone in on what supposedly went on between Anisa, Ivan, Flacco, and Tasso. He explained Kendra was accusing Tasso of threatening another trainee.

Graham looked at Tasso, “Do you deny this?”

Tasso kept his face blank, but he could feel his face turning red. He clamped his jaw shut and stared back at the first officer.

Graham nodded, “Security, are the special surveillance and injunctions on Tasso Menzies still in place?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Graham said, “Señora Macias, how did Flacco Gravilla and Tasso Menzies end up working on the same crew?”

Macias said, “No one told me about any injunctions. I simply picked a random, age appropriate crew from trainees who were changing training stations. How was I supposed to know they weren’t supposed to be together?”

Bill said, “You don’t know anything about any altercation between Tasso and Ivan Carrere today?”

“First I’m hearing about an altercation. Ivan Carrere isn’t even on my crew. All I heard about was a little juvenile spat of the boyfriend-girlfriend kind.”

Kendra said, “I heard all about it from Flacco—”

“Enough,” Bill said. “One more word and you’ll join your brother in lockdown. I mean it.” His voice began to rise in anger. “I haven’t had a good day, and you started all of this, so you listen to your Aunt Rosa and keep quiet.”

Kendra hid her face behind her hair, but she held her tongue.

Graham asked “Tasso?”

Tasso clamped his mouth closed, glared back at all the adults and refused to look at Anisa or Kendra. He’d gone through his whole life without friends. He could keep it that way if that was the way they wanted it. It didn’t matter how many times he tried to defend himself, it just ended up being twisted. Maybe those Bog-Irish deserved being beaten back on Saronno. Maybe Cruz got what he deserved by the elevators. Maybe he should have punched Ivan in the nose when Ivan threatened him in the attic. He might as well punch him and Flacco the next time he sees them, since he is going to get into trouble anyway.

Graham said, “I’d really like to hear your side of what went on. Did you shout at Anisa because she was talking with another boy and then did you threaten him?”

Tasso stared back. He had no reason to want to punch First Officer Graham, but he had no reason to answer her questions, either.

Bill said, “Security, give me the playback.”

“What playback?” Anisa asked. “I was off duty, La Dueña Dunstan didn’t have any reason or right to record me.”

Graham nodded. “As her senior trainee supervisor, I have to agree, Bill. We can’t playback anything self-incriminating against her. However, she has made a serious accusation against another trainee constituting harassment, abuse, and threats. So, as her mother I say, play the damned thing.”

“Ma!”

“Shut it, mija.”

Bill said, “Playback only the sections relative to Trainee Menzies’s involvement.” He set a coffee table upright and gestured for his dataport to play the recording on the table.

Everyone watched as Tasso walked around a corner and saw Anisa and Ivan kissing. The playback stopped as Ivan walked off after threatening him. Tasso knew he should feel justified, but he was still so angry at having been accused when he did nothing wrong, he was unable to feel better even after having watched the playback. He recognized his first impulse had been to break the kissing couple apart and punch Ivan. He had clenched his hands into fists, even if no one else mentioned it, his reaction was clear on the playback.

Anisa was turning bright red, evident even on her dark, olive skin.

Kendra shouted at her cousin. “You lied to me!”

Anisa shouted back, “I didn’t think you’d go blabbing to crew about it!”

Kendra said, “And Flacco wasn’t even there.” She looked at Tasso, “Did you even break Ebie’s hand?”

Tasso tried to stop his head from moving, but against his own desires, he nodded. He knew he’d broken Eber’s hand, just like he was going to punch Ivan and Flacco the next time he saw them, whether he was provoked or not. He’d already been provoked enough to justify any action. He was ready to punch the Lamonts the next time he saw them. He was even sorry Cruz was off the ship. Eber might be safe as it sounded like he was being punished already, but he knew Eber had better not even look cross-eyed at him or he would punch the other boy as hard as he could.

Before Kendra could reply, Graham held up her hand. “We damn well better have all trainees take a class in how to keep their mouths shut. Anisa, you and I will have a discussion at home about your behavior. Get home now, and not another word unless you want to give up all of your free time until you turn eighteen.”

Macias said, “Okay, people. I can’t have these trainees on the same crew. We have more to do there without having crew watching over hormonal teens. I don’t care if we fire the lot.”

Graham nodded. “I think it would be best to reassign everyone.”

Bill said, “I disagree. I believe we should leave them in place. I need Tasso reassigned to my office. Lil and I have a little project where he can be of help. That was why I invited him up here for a meal. I wanted to see if I could sweet talk him into voluntarily changing training stations. I believe now that we should transfer him without his consent. Leave everybody else in place. The attic cleanup should be a teamwork effort, Macias. Teach them to be a team. Those trainees report to you, and ultimately, they report to First Officer Graham, but you are primarily an accountant, and you report to me. Either get them straightened out, or get someone else to take over your supervisory position.”

“Yes, boss.”

Tasso held his breath. He didn’t know what was going on, except it sounded like everyone was still infuriated with him, and watching the video playback didn’t do much to diminish the hostility in the room. He didn’t want to care what other people thought about him, but he couldn’t help it. He also didn’t want to lose his job in the attic. The job wasn’t as relaxing now as when he’d worked alone, but it really was fun. It didn’t sound as if they were offering him a choice. That really fit in with the rest of his life. There hadn’t been any choices in anything since he chose where to bury his grandfather and he’d chosen that spot because that was where Grandpa would’ve wanted to go.

Bill, Kendra, and Tasso sat silently until Security and Macias signed off the comms, and First Officer Graham shut the door behind her. Even Señora Rojo disappeared back into the kitchen. Kendra looked confused, as if she didn’t know whether to keep being incensed or not. She managed to keep her silence.

Bill looked at his daughter. “Mija, your brother and his friends Cruz, Ivan, and Flacco attacked Trainee Menzies twice, as a group. We know Cruz was the instigator and we had him removed from the ship. Eber confessed to breaking his hand when he and his three friends tried to hit Trainee Menzies in a four against one brawl. Any damage to your brother caused by Trainee Menzies was committed in self-defense. I’ve seen the security footage on the second attack on Trainee Menzies by Armando Cruz. Tasso threw the first punch under extreme provocation, and he hadn’t been given any choice but to fight.”

Kendra looked stricken, as if her world was collapsing around her.

“I know you love your brother. Your mother and I do too, however we’re not blind to what kind of a little pendejo he can be at times. I’m sorry, but he seems to think being a star quarterback and a member of the Rojo family is going to keep him from ever getting into trouble. That’s why he’s grounded, and that’s why he may have to give up his position on the team.”

“Papi! Quitting football will kill Ebie!”

“It may not be my choice, Kendra. It’ll be up to your brother. Now, what about you?” He stroked his daughter’s cheek. “I have an invited guest for dinner, and all he gets from you is a lasso burn across his neck where you tried to lynch him. That plus my supper is getting cold.”

Kendra slid from the couch, dropping to her knees in front of Tasso. Placing her forehead on his knee, she said, “I was wrong and I apologize, Señor Tasso Menzies. I placed my trust in people I thought were my friends and I hurt you. I’ll try to never let it happen again.”

Tasso still wanted to be angry. He wanted to push her away and rush out of the cabin, ignoring her apology. What he wanted and what he got were two separate things. Her forehead against his knee felt hot. Unbidden, the memory of her standing in the kitchen in a wet t-shirt popped back into his mind. She slid her face up until her chin rested on his knee, her large dark eyes starred up at him wetly.