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Authors: C. L. Anderson
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furious.”
“I’m not surprised. They’re probably in conference right now, trying to decide what they’re going to do about Mother.”
“You owe them an explanation.”
“Yes.”
He nodded once. “Okay, then. I’ll go get Jo on her plane, and I’ll tell her you’ll be in touch before anything else happens.”
“She won’t want to go.”
His smile was brief and bittersweet. “So what else is new?” His fingertips brushed my hand as he turned away.
I didn’t sit and watch him leave. A kind of grim determination settled over me and I rose and walked toward a secondary stairway. I strode down the steps, through the doors, and back down the halls. My peripheral vision was gone. I could only see straight ahead. Nobody got in my way. Nothing shut down in front of me. Misao’s door opened before I had to stretch out my hand.
He was still behind his desk. I swear he didn’t even have to look up. He’d been waiting for me, the son of a bitch. What was more, he’d brought Vijay and Siri in to wait with him.
“I am a Grade 3 for pay and benefits, and it all goes into trust for my kids,” I announced. “If I am hospitalized or killed, they get my pay, and they will keep getting it as long as they live, and it gets transferred down to the first-generationheirs if that takes a thousand years. You work it out with the bean counters and legal.”
Misao nodded.
“And you are paying all my expenses while I’m evaluated and retrained. All of them. If I want grain-fed beef and caviar three times a day until we launch, you are paying for it.”
He nodded once more and I drew in a ragged breath. “And there’s one more thing.”
“Yes?” Even now there was no impatience in Misao’s tone.
“I won’t have a Companion.” My voice had found its steadiness again, and something of its strength. This was it. My ultimate condition. Not even Bianca’s ghost could argue with this one. “If you require me to carry a Companion, I will not accept this commission.”
How badly do you want me, Marshal-Steward? Bad enough to make an exception to the rules?
Vijay shifted his weight. I could feel how badly he wanted to protest. I wondered what his Companion was saying to him at that moment.
Misao just blinked at me. I think I prayed at that moment, but I could not for the life of me tell you what I prayed for.
“Very well. I will make sure your exception goes through.”
The door in my mind sounded very loud as it slammed. It had been my last out, my last chance, and he wasn’t even arguing.
Why in all the names of God isn’t he even arguing?
Misao got to his feet. He touched a command on the desk and a red square lit up in front of where I stood. My palm itched. I laid it on the desk’s smooth, cool surface. Red light filtered through skin and blood, making the edges of my fingers glow.
“Are you Terese Lynn Drajeske?” asked Misao.
“I am.”
“Do you solemnly swear upon this life and all others to come that you will faithfully uphold and defend the laws and conventions of the United World Government of Earth?”
“I do swear.”
The first time I took the oath, I was in my third decade. My palms were sweating and my uniform itched. The oath was being read off the desktop by Marshal-Steward Amelia Dan—a willowy, white-haired woman with a voice like an opera singer’s. Maybe Jo would look like her one day.
“Do you solemnly swear that you will keep the secrets imparted to you by the Department of Peace and Security Maintenance or their duly appointed representatives in the course of your duty?”
“I do swear.”
I was in my sixteenth decade, and my palms were sweating and my uniform collar itched. We were outdoors then, under a canopy, with a brass band waiting beside the stage. Misao, in his dress blues and white gloves, administered the oath he’d memorized so I could take up my new rank as Field Commander. I could feel Bianca grinning behind me then too, and Vijay, and Siri.
“What
“I’m not surprised. They’re probably in conference right now, trying to decide what they’re going to do about Mother.”
“You owe them an explanation.”
“Yes.”
He nodded once. “Okay, then. I’ll go get Jo on her plane, and I’ll tell her you’ll be in touch before anything else happens.”
“She won’t want to go.”
His smile was brief and bittersweet. “So what else is new?” His fingertips brushed my hand as he turned away.
I didn’t sit and watch him leave. A kind of grim determination settled over me and I rose and walked toward a secondary stairway. I strode down the steps, through the doors, and back down the halls. My peripheral vision was gone. I could only see straight ahead. Nobody got in my way. Nothing shut down in front of me. Misao’s door opened before I had to stretch out my hand.
He was still behind his desk. I swear he didn’t even have to look up. He’d been waiting for me, the son of a bitch. What was more, he’d brought Vijay and Siri in to wait with him.
“I am a Grade 3 for pay and benefits, and it all goes into trust for my kids,” I announced. “If I am hospitalized or killed, they get my pay, and they will keep getting it as long as they live, and it gets transferred down to the first-generationheirs if that takes a thousand years. You work it out with the bean counters and legal.”
Misao nodded.
“And you are paying all my expenses while I’m evaluated and retrained. All of them. If I want grain-fed beef and caviar three times a day until we launch, you are paying for it.”
He nodded once more and I drew in a ragged breath. “And there’s one more thing.”
“Yes?” Even now there was no impatience in Misao’s tone.
“I won’t have a Companion.” My voice had found its steadiness again, and something of its strength. This was it. My ultimate condition. Not even Bianca’s ghost could argue with this one. “If you require me to carry a Companion, I will not accept this commission.”
How badly do you want me, Marshal-Steward? Bad enough to make an exception to the rules?
Vijay shifted his weight. I could feel how badly he wanted to protest. I wondered what his Companion was saying to him at that moment.
Misao just blinked at me. I think I prayed at that moment, but I could not for the life of me tell you what I prayed for.
“Very well. I will make sure your exception goes through.”
The door in my mind sounded very loud as it slammed. It had been my last out, my last chance, and he wasn’t even arguing.
Why in all the names of God isn’t he even arguing?
Misao got to his feet. He touched a command on the desk and a red square lit up in front of where I stood. My palm itched. I laid it on the desk’s smooth, cool surface. Red light filtered through skin and blood, making the edges of my fingers glow.
“Are you Terese Lynn Drajeske?” asked Misao.
“I am.”
“Do you solemnly swear upon this life and all others to come that you will faithfully uphold and defend the laws and conventions of the United World Government of Earth?”
“I do swear.”
The first time I took the oath, I was in my third decade. My palms were sweating and my uniform itched. The oath was being read off the desktop by Marshal-Steward Amelia Dan—a willowy, white-haired woman with a voice like an opera singer’s. Maybe Jo would look like her one day.
“Do you solemnly swear that you will keep the secrets imparted to you by the Department of Peace and Security Maintenance or their duly appointed representatives in the course of your duty?”
“I do swear.”
I was in my sixteenth decade, and my palms were sweating and my uniform collar itched. We were outdoors then, under a canopy, with a brass band waiting beside the stage. Misao, in his dress blues and white gloves, administered the oath he’d memorized so I could take up my new rank as Field Commander. I could feel Bianca grinning behind me then too, and Vijay, and Siri.
“What
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