Family Law

by Mackey Chandler

  "I have a personal question also if you'd grant it," Ms. Barrett asked.

  "Sure, fire away," Lee invited, well relaxed from the drink.

  "Did Mr. Gordon pick out your outfit for our dinner?" she asked.

  Lee looked down at it. Soft black boots disappeared up dark blue slacks, which were topped with a pink blouse that had scarlet piping and buttons.

  "I picked it all myself. I'm not sure I'm all that keen on buttons, but I like the colors."

  "Ah, then did you perhaps pick Mr. Gordon's clothing for him?"

  "Gods no! The last time I stuck my nose in that business, he threatened to wear lederhosen in public. I don't go there anymore."

  Chapter 26

  "I understand you can go Earthside now that Lee has her papers," Richard told them exasperated. It wasn't like him to show temper. "I'm asking if it is wise?"

  "You said before you'd quit rather than take us where you couldn't protect us. If we want to go down to Earth do we have to hire a different agency? If you can make a case it's that dangerous, then maybe we'll reconsider. Do you have a specific threat that concerns you?"

  "Wasn't being shot in the head specific enough for you? Public sentiment is actually on your side off Earth and yet somebody still tried to kill you. If he'd used a modern weapon he'd have blown your head off. On Earth itself there are a few dozen organizations, that all would applaud that. I admit there is no one credible threat, in any of the mail or packages you received, but I simply can't make you entirely safe from a lone kook who is smart enough to get close to you."

  "My shooter was an Earthie too," Gordon reminded him. "So all those Earthies, so close, they can get to us here if they wish pretty easily. The price of a ticket from Earth isn't all that steep. We have reasons to show Lee a human society. Otherwise we could just head back home. And we do want to play the tourist a bit, but the Grand Canyon or Kilauea volcano are not going to ambush us. We can pass on Broadway plays and neither of us is interested in the local debaucheries. I'm guessing the way things are going it won't be safer to come back in ten years from now, will it?"

  "No, I think you have that right. I've been thinking more and more of going colonial myself. Earth has become too confining and all the kooks and nuts who didn't fit in, but were marginal in skills or intelligence went to Mars, or out-system when they couldn't qualify for colony slots. Ten years from now I might not be here either."

  "Come down with us if it will make you feel any better. Will your company rules let you escort us?"

  "If you request it, not just allow it. Though my boss will think you are nuts to request me, after I let you get shot once already."

  "Richard, I'd much prefer you come to Earth with us. Will you make arrangements for that please?" Gordon said very formally.

  "On one condition," Richard held out.

  "What's that?"

  "No-Disney-World."

  "Not a problem at all my man."

  * * *

  "What's that smell?" Lee asked, half way down the ramp to the Mohave Spaceport terminal. The long connector tunnel was off white with slick plastic walls.

  Gordon lifted his nose and swung his head back and forth like a bloodhound, making a great show of sampling the air. "Earth, gritty dusty blowing earth, far too many people, a bit of Diesel exhaust, disinfectant, chili dogs and cheap cologne."

  "They let dogs in the terminal?" Lee asked. She was afraid she was being set up for a joke again. Her guards described all sorts of silly things when she asked questions, playing off her naïveté. Mark and Aaron had gone ahead and the others traveled closely with them.

  "Indeed, they do in carriers," Jesus explained, amused for some reason.

  Lee stopped asking anything further; sure it would simply show her ignorance.

  "Wait until you have to use a public restroom." Richard warned grimly.

  "Citizenship and papers," demanded a man in blue pants and white shirt. He had a gold shield on his chest with an intricate design and a white fabric cap with a black visor, that deserved an ocean going vessel as an accessory. Jesus and Richard went first and presented passports. They were scanned and they each looked in a machine briefly. When they hesitated and didn't walk off down the corridor, the Customs agent looked back up and informed them that was all and they were free to go.

  "Yes sir, thank you." Richard agreed. "However we are with the young lady and Derf gentleman, as hired security," he explained pleasantly.

  "Indeed?" he said lifting an eyebrow, "Suit yourselves then," the man allowed, but his attitude changed and he examined Lee and Gordon with fresh curiosity.

  He didn't waste much time on Gordon and barely glanced at his papers. There was no hiding what he was. Lee however caused him to look askance at her, like he was the one being set up for a joke. He examined her spacer papers in detail and inquired verbally of his computer for possible matches on runaways and kidnap victims. Her name he traced out with an index finger and lifted an eyebrow.

  "So, young lady, you are a working spacer?" he inquired. His voice was deep and gravelly, but not unfriendly. There was definite skepticism there however.

  "I am." Lee assured him in a calm voice. "I was born to ship life and have not known anything else." She hoped that wasn't volunteering too much, remembering Gordon's warning about being too quick to volunteer information.

  "Ah, that's a new one on me," he told her, still worried about something. "You aren't being coerced to accompany any of these gentlemen?" he inquired with genuine concern. "If you are being moved against your will, now is your chance to speak up, because I can bring a whole lot of officers down on us in a matter of seconds."

  "Not at all," she assured him. "I grew up with Gordon and now that my parents are dead he's the only family I have. The two fellows with us are hired," she said, nodding towards Richard and Jesus. "They take my orders, not the other way around." Lee stopped and bit her lip a little, thinking of the implications of his interrogation. "Is that something that happens so often around here you are quick to worry about it?" she asked concerned. "Should I worry about it?" she asked even plainer.

  "Not – everyday," he admitted, embarrassed now. "Still, when you are in the urban areas best you stick tight to your security people," he advised. "I've been on this job for some years and I have seen too many young girls like you trafficked across the border for nefarious purposes," he admitted, somewhat vaguely.

  "Thank you," she said taking her papers back. "I appreciate your advice." Now she had to look in her com pad dictionary as soon as she had a moment and look up nefarious. She wasn't sure what it meant, but the way he said it sounded bad and being trafficked sounded worse. If Gordon couldn't explain that, she bet Richard could. They walked through a one way gate and security scan, into public spaces.

  The port looked much like orbital stations they'd visited, except the corridors were laid out straight instead of curved. The restaurants and shops seemed about the same. The single customs agent had not been armed and didn't seem like very intensive security, but there were pairs of security people scattered about in the public area in uniform, with com gear and stubby little guns hanging on web harnesses.

  A man coming toward them shook the last few pieces of something in his hand and tossed them all in his mouth. She watched as he held the empty box down by his leg and let it drop on the carpet. Her mouth fell open at the brazen behavior and she looked at her guards, but they seemed oblivious to it. She wanted to say something, but clamped her mouth back shut and took her cue from them to ignore it. She intended to ask about it later though.

  The walls of the corridor were flat panel displays, from ceiling to floor and even the windows of shops and restaurants would opaque briefly to full size ads and then back clear. The constant flicker of them upset Lee for some reason she didn't understand. The ads were glaring – shifting bright colors and images faster than she could absorb one, before it was gone. One showed pines and a restful mountain scene, then flashed an image of a Grizzly bear lu
nging forward with fangs and claws displayed when she looked. It was so disturbing she flinched away and stumbled into Jesus.

  She looked far down the wide hallway to avoid the screens flickering beside her, although the light reflected off floor and people. After a bit she saw a pattern.

  "The ads go off when people walk by don't they?" she asked her companions.

  "They not only sense people walking by, but they scan for age and gender too," Richard explained. "Some bank cards have a little echo circuit in them that they can read. So the computer can adjust the ad to what you can afford, or show things you've show an interest in buying before, like golf stuff or certain kinds of restaurants. Do you have a card on you?"

  "Yeah, I've got a debit card in my pouch."

  "We'll stop and get you a little cover for it that blocks reading it. Any drug store has them, usually in three packs."

  Chapter 27

  The glass doors to outside the terminal looked like an airlock, until one set opened as they approached and not three meters ahead another set opened at the same time. It just felt wrong. It was hot outside, which was unexpected. Nobody had warned her and it actually smelled worse outside. Hot to the point she beaded with sweat, before Richard could direct her into a small bus. Her guards faced each way at the door, with a hard expression she hadn't seen before. Their eyes were moving around searching in the glare.

  Lee put her hand beside the door to steady herself. It was a fairly big step up, to the tread that folded down in the door opening, then a smaller step up to the floor inside. She was surprised again because the outside of the bus was all gritty under her hand. Too late she saw there were grab bars inside the opening. When she took the seat Jesus pointed to as hers she examined her hand. The inside was all gray with fine grimy dust and there was a long dark streak of it soiling her sleeve half way to her elbow. She got out a sani-wipe and cleaned her hand and folded it shut and used the outside to scrub at the sleeve. It didn't do much good. In fact she had to use a second wipe before her hand felt clean.

  It was cold in the bus. So cold she felt clammy when it hit the sweat on her skin. The windows looked almost black as they approached the bus, but looking out now it was still bright. Her spex could be tinted, but she had to hunt for the menu. It had to be darkened to 70% before it seemed to make much difference.

  Looking at everybody else they all had on gloves. Even Gordon had gloves on his true hands and a pair of rugged work gloves on his lower hands. She dug around in her purse and got a pair out of the envelope of them she'd been given. Nobody seemed to notice her putting them on, much less give her a hard time about forgetting.

  The view outside was buildings, most of them, despite attempts at decoration, were basically big boxes much the same. There were some clusters of palms or desert plants in front of a few, but no big areas of landscaping. It was quickly boring.

  She looked around the bus with more interest. There was one narrow screen above the driver's security barrier running an ad for a hotel. The plastic let her see the driver and the road ahead, but it was nicked and scratched and dingy with hand prints and smudges.

  The closer she looked, every little corner had a grimy little crescent of dirt. Whoever cleaned never got the bus all the way clean. The parts that were painted all had scratches and even bare metal patches where the paint was rubbed off. The plastic was scuffed and the seat's upholstery had areas that were stained too bad to clean up. It made her lean forward and pull her elbows in, not wanting to touch anything.

  The arrival at the hotel was another quick blast of heat, light and a rush through revolving doors this time into cool air, but not chill. The inside was quiet with softer lighting, a patterned carpet and leather furniture set among ferns and palmettos. The plants she had expected outside were inside in abundance, some reaching high into the atrium. For the first time it smelled nice. There was a waxy green smell of the plants and coffee and something odd it took her a few seconds to place, then she realized it was popcorn. Richard went to the desk for them, but everyone else went straight to the elevators where someone was waiting to escort them to their rooms.

  The suite was huge, the common room on the north corner with a terrace at the point beyond a glass wall. A table and chairs sat outside the glass in brilliant sunlight.

  A slab of some sort of stone was a table between low couches. A basket of fruit wrapped in plastic sat on one end and a slim notebook occupied the other end with a voice only com holding it down. Lee wondered what the notebook held so she took it and sank down in the cushions. The couch slowly changed shape under her the back rest coming forward, tilting back slightly and the seat dropping until her legs could reach the floor. It fit her perfectly.

  She opened the folder and found it was all the services the hotel offered. It also assured guests that all the surfaces and controls in the suite were disinfected after every guest. The bathrooms she was surprised to learn were self cleaning. That would have been nice onboard ship. Everybody took a turn at scut work on the High Hopes, but she too often seemed to be the one who didn't have something else pressing, that only they could do. But what an extravagant waste of water it must be, she realized.

  The room service and bar items available, were listed in detail on the house com, but guests were welcome to order without reference to the menus and every effort would be made to meet expectations. She wondered how they would react to a request for Devil's Horn soup.

  When she leaned back the couch adjusted under her and a footrest extended under her legs and lifted them. She was sleeping by the time Richard finished their business and joined them.

  * * *

  Lee woke up in a strange bed. The room wasn't dark, but the lights were very dim. There were two doors both open slightly. She picked the right one first try and found the bathroom. There was paper but no sani-wipes and she had to use a washcloth to clean up and didn't know where to put it after it was used. She just rinsed it carefully and draped it over the tub edge.

  When she went to the common room Mark was sitting reading a book.

  "Where is everybody?" She asked him.

  "It's the middle of the local night, 0250," he informed her checking his com. "Your body clock is off. There's a pill to help, but if you can maybe have a snack and nap a little more it would be better. Otherwise you are going to run out of steam again early tomorrow."

  "I could use a bite. Is there a restaurant downstairs?"

  "There is," he briefly looked uncomfortable, "but if you want to go down I'd have to wake somebody up, to either cover for me or go with you. We're at your pleasure, but it would mess our shifts up and leave somebody sleepy tomorrow. Why don't you use room service? They have everything you'd get downstairs."

  "Is it really not safe to walk around in our own hotel?"

  He puckered his lips and seemed to really consider the question."It's complicated," he admitted. "You'd be safe down in the lobby or restaurant, but I'm not comfortable alone in the corridors and elevators of a hotel, late at night by myself. And I will submit to you I know the culture and risk much better than you. I've worked hospitality security. Hotels have their own security and they will have cameras on all the halls and elevators. But they never have enough people to watch every camera all the time. Most will use software that shows the people monitoring them only cameras that have a certain level of activity," he closed his book warming to the subject.

  "The bigger the town, the bigger the population of people living by crime. And the fancier the hotel the more the guests are known to have money and be targets for crime. And the guests limit how safe you can keep them, because they don't want to be guarded too closely. It's a balance for a hotel between keeping the facility safe and keeping it so safe they start losing business."

  "You lost me. Why is too safe bad for business?"

  Mark looked uncomfortable again. "Gordon told us you grew up isolated and you'd be naive about a lot of things. He said you were smart though and just to be blunt with you and no
t worry about polite conventions. You see, it's not normally polite for an unrelated man to speak bluntly about sexual things with a young girl. It's usually reserved to her close family. But your close family is a small mountain of fur that isn't even the same species and God only knows what his customs are, or what he considers proper. You know the mechanics, the biology of sex don't you?" He asked, hopeful that at least he would be spared from explaining.

  "Well sure, I took care of animals we had on ship, mice and rats and sparrows and pigs. I had to try to assign a sex to the specimens we collected on Providence, so I know some pretty far out variations of sex beyond humans. We'd set up a shower in our camps and we all used it so I saw my dad naked. I assume he was, you know, representative."

  "That's good, but your family was off isolated from society. The sociology of sex is something you have not been exposed to bit by bit as you grow up. You haven't seen relatives flirt with each other, or couples fall in love and get married. God, you've probably never been to a wedding," he said suddenly thoughtful.

  "No, but I've seen a few in movies," she offered.

  "Ah, videos. You've seen movies about people competing for another person's affections then haven't you?"

  "Sure. I know what a chick flick is and I've watched some movies about high school kids. I've seen two versions of "Romeo and Juliet". "Mark," she said very seriously, "are people really that stupid?"

  He took a really deep breath and grimaced. "Yeah, I'm sorry to say they are. And when sex is involved otherwise intelligent people seem to suddenly lose all thinking capacity."

  "So what does this have to do with hotels again?"

  "Well your mom and dad sound like they were good people and loved each other. They must have been for you to turn out as well as you have," he allowed. "But not all couples are happy with each other. That doesn't necessarily mean they get divorced. People have issues besides love, like money and religious restrictions. So some just cheat. Sometimes both of them. Some people are just plain sneaky and selfish, so they take lovers, or buy sex and hide it from their mate. And where do you think they go to get together for these illicit meetings?"