by Lynn Rae
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like any more information, or would care for any updates. Rest assured that I will monitor the situation.
From Arturo Yee
Heat raced through Lazlo’s body as he absorbed what the advocate had communicated to him. Stars, what was happening on Sayre? And why hadn’t Del told him about this? Lazlo quickly checked his messages again—the last message from Sayre was from Amrita. He quickly opened it and it was a reminder to security staff that there was going to be a catered lunch in two days in the break room. Nothing useful there.
Why hadn’t she sent him a message? It had to have been frightening to realize the man who had assaulted her was free and that he seemed to know where she was. Lazlo got up and headed for his study carrel to compose a message to Arturo Yee and to decide what he could do to help Del from a million light-years away. Despite the advocate’s avowed intention to manage the situation, Lazlo needed a more well-armed approach.
He needed to think of someone he could trust to help her and that person had to be someone Del would trust enough to accept the help offered. Dee Dee. But how could he protect her? She would be out each day doing pickups and deliveries and her apartment was completely porous—no security system, no coded locks and her vid didn’t work after the raid. Somehow the sheriff’s dampener had fried the chips. He should have replaced those before he left. Balls, he should have installed some security measures before he left—that was one of his areas of specialization.
Feeling incompetent and overwhelmed, Lazlo began to walk and think.
*
To L. Casta
I’ve accomplished the enormous task of moving Del. She yelled and threatened and tried to convince me she could just go hide in some Outlands cave until after the trial, but I told her I needed her to work every day or the children would starve, so she relented. Of course the children are all working and earning their feed anyway, but she didn’t realize that until it was too late.
She is in your apartment and cannot return to hers since I had the cousins remove her new door and hide it under a broken lifter. She is not happy. But she is safe. We’re all keeping an eye on her, which makes her very angry.
Avo Kirk sent another message and a small box of chocolates to her yesterday morning and she moved into your place last night. Judge Titus signed the restraining order this morning and Arturo says that should help. Arturo is going to include you on any information updates about Avo Kirk. Thank you for offering your home. Del should message you with thanks but she is angry and stubborn. Thank you.
From DeLoris Browen
Breathing a sigh of extreme relief, Lazlo relaxed a little for the first time since he’d gotten the news about Avo Kirk. It seemed between Arturo Yee and Dee Dee, Del was going to be somewhat safer. Thirteen days and he would be back on Sayre. Major Sekar had requested him for security duty so he wasn’t going to be posted to the general barracks on Weave, as he’d feared.
There had been talk that he might be banished from Sayre to keep him out of the way until the trial, but his commander was bringing him home as soon as the classes dismissed. Two of his instructors had agreed he could take his initial examinations early, which would save him seven hours of waiting before he could make the jump back. He already had passage booked and was living out of his duffle until then.
The need to see Del burned uppermost in Lazlo’s mind, the compulsion to make sure she was all right overriding his concerns about final exams and scheduling new classes. She still hadn’t pinged him or sent him a vid as he had requested in his last two pings to her. He knew she didn’t have the marks to pay for one, so he’d sent her a prepay, but he had a feeling she was going to regard it as charity and not use it out of pride.
But he was getting updates from his apartment security system with every data pod. She was coming and going from his home with regularity, the doors did not open for any deliveries or visitors whenever she was there alone. He checked his datpad again and was delighted to see a vid for him with the code of the one he’d forwarded to her. Del had finally sent him a message.
But Dee Dee’s voice broke in before the image started. “Hello, Lieutenant Casta. It’s me, Dee Dee. Del refuses to cooperate, just as she has been uncooperative with everything for the last few days, so I’m going to vid her for you. She has no choice since I’m her companion today. And there she is.”
Dee Dee must have activated the image because he saw Del in the deck area of her family’s business, checking over a mismatched cart quickly and looking irritated. But she was safe, which was all he cared about. Del glanced over at her sister and scowled at her or the vid, probably both. Lazlo’s heart shuddered in his chest as he watched her shift and move.
The image blanked and he waited a beat. It returned to a close-up of Del driving the cart, her profile rigorously aimed to watch where she was driving and not to look at the vid or him. But she was safe. Stone walls flashed past in the background as she drove and Dee Dee spoke.
“Del, are you going to say anything to Lazlo?” Del blinked and swallowed, then braked the vehicle to a quick halt, which threw the vid into dizzy interference. Dee Dee righted things to show Del wrestling with blue containers at the back door of a restaurant, looking mightily agitated, then she was back in the driver’s seat and still not looking over. “Del, stop being mean and say thank you.”
Del glanced over at her sister and hissed at her, “Dee Dee, turn that off. I told you I’m not doing this with you.”
“Then do it by yourself later,” Dee Dee countered. “I will check with Lieutenant Casta and make sure you sent him something. And if you didn’t I’m going to make you filter all of the hydraulics we just piped in from the Sunsprite. About a metric ton of smelly, slimy, stuff that stains your skin blue for weeks. Think about it.”
The vid cut off and Lazlo waited, wondering if Del would relent and talk to him. He also realized he never wanted to cross Dee Dee Browen—the pretty girl was diabolical. The screen was black long enough that he almost shut it off, disappointed that she wasn’t going to appear. With a flash, it brightened to life. He saw his apartment, or at least a corner of the sofa, some of the wall and a section of terrace windows with what appeared to be morning light creeping in. There was a faded quilt on the sofa he thought he recognized from Del’s apartment and then there was Del, looking sad and reluctant. She blinked a few times, took a deep breath and started to speak.
“Lazlo. Hello. I’m sorry that I haven’t thanked you or pinged. All this hullabaloo with Avo Kirk has me rattled and being forced to move in here and then you…I’m just…I’m just upset all of the time. Angry, Dee Dee would say, which is true, but I’m also so sad.” Del sniffed and her eyes began to water.
Lazlo felt a pang that she was alone and suffering. “Thank you for the use of your home. It’s safer here. I’m finally starting to get some sleep. Before I was waking up all the time to check the locks, or I couldn’t even get to sleep. But it’s better here. Thank you.”
She looked at him with watery gray eyes and Lazlo almost reached for her. “I know we agreed we aren’t, that we aren’t…’’ She paused and looked up, a few tears rolling down her cheeks. “Thank you for everything, Lazlo. You have no idea how much I…” Del shook her head and bit her lip. “Whenever you need to lease your apartment, I’ll be ready to leave. I’ll pack up your things and forward them to wherever you need them. It’s the least I can do for you.” She looked at him one moment more with her mournful gaze. The screen blacked off, permanently this time.
Lazlo sat back, shaken. Seeing her had been equally reassuring and painful. He’d been thinking about her living in his home ever since he’d read she had moved in. He’d enjoyed the thought that she was sleeping in his bed, using the mismatched plates in his kitchen, seeing his digimas and watching whatever subscribed entertainment happened to arrive on his display from that day’s data drop. It made it easier for him to feel closer to her and he needed that feeling even more wit
h the threat of Avo Kirk roaming loose.
But now he yearned to be there with her, to share meals and discuss their days. Despite seeing proof of her safety, Lazlo felt worse than he had before, as if his whole chest had been hit with a hundred stunner bolts at once.
*
“So, brother, happy to see us?” Mart strode into the dormitory lobby as if he were ready to entertain a crowd of revelers on board the Regenta. He was wearing an elegantly cut suit that gleamed with expensive material and glittering accessories. Lazlo felt drab in comparison since he was wearing recycled jump pants and an old thermal shirt he’d been issued three years prior for arctic training exercises.
Mart’s wife, Fallon, trailed behind as she encouraged her daughter to follow along as she carried the baby. Both of his nieces were adorable and Lazlo again felt a pang that he was missing so much of their childhoods. But he’d chosen Civil Service over joining the family business and that was one of the sacrifices.
Lazlo was grateful that his family had been able to take a quick trip to Weave to see him. Mart and Fallon were on planet to present tourism proposals for the Regenta to various travel organizations and they’d brought the girls along for a mini vacation. It was fewer jumps for them than to come all the way to Sayre.
Not that Lazlo would have encouraged that idea at all. What his sophisticated and nearly spoiled brother would have found to do on the bare-bones agricultural world was beyond Lazlo’s ability to imagine. Just the thought of having to explain about the antifungals they would have to apply daily was enough to keep them several jump rings away. But Sayre didn’t seem like a hostile place to Lazlo. He missed it now. Missed the dust and freighters and pallets of food and his colleagues and most of all Del.
Mart grabbed him in a big hug, which Lazlo was happy to return, then he greeted Fallon with a kiss. Bets looked up at him with a dubious expression on her round five-year-old face. Lazlo doubted she remembered much about him, so he slowly crouched next to her and held out his hand.
“Hello. I’m your Uncle Lazlo.”
She narrowed her dark-brown eyes and gave him the same skeptical look that Del threw his way when she wasn’t falling for one of his lines. Apparently women had his number at a very early age.
“I know who you are. I watch your vids.”
“I’m not too silly in them, am I?” Lazlo asked and Bets slowly shook her head. “Why don’t you make me a vid sometime?”
The little girl drew up her mouth as if she had accidentally eaten a very sour candy. “What about?”
“Anything you like. Your school or when you go to the park. Vid your little sister or your mom.”
“Or your dad,” Mart threw in as he reached down to fluff his daughter’s dark-brown hair.
“No, Dad. You’re boring,” Bets announced with a decisive air and Lazlo chuckled. Mart looked scandalized.
“It’s true, honey. From her perspective, you’re boring.” Fallon defended her daughter but softened the criticism with a kiss for Mart. “Lazlo, it’s good to see you. You look tired.”
Lazlo shrugged agreement. He knew he looked nearly as ragged as he felt. Poor sleep, stress and worry about Del were taking a toll. But he still reached for the baby and tucked her up against his shoulder. The little girl wriggled and bobbed her head a few times as she tried to focus on this new large person in her range of vision.
“You seem frail, Laz. Let’s get to the restaurant and feed you and my girls before all of you faint from hunger.”
Mart had made some sort of connection with one of the tour operators, which meant they had reservations in a very nice private dining room at the top of a building that looked out over a manicured park. Wide windows surrounded their table, which was set with icy white linens and gleaming crystal. Fallon busied herself with settling her baby in a nearby swaddling seat while Mart arranged all Bets’ cutlery to her satisfaction and then turned on a datpad for her to use while they looked over the menu.
Lazlo didn’t care what he ate. He was glad to spend time with his family and be away from the utilitarian surroundings of the campus. It might take his mind off his troubles.
“So, Lazlo, what’s the story behind the beard?” Fallon asked as she input a drink order into the hovering servbot’s panel. She looked serene and lovely as she took care of her family.
“Just marking time, I guess.”
“Marking time until what? Your return to Freton to help me out?” Mart teased.
“No. Until I can get back to Sayre.”
“Sayre? You’re going back there after your classes are over? I thought that was a temporary assignment to get you away from Serra. And speaking of her, the last I heard of her is that she is close to being released. Again.”
Lazlo swallowed a drink of some sort of juice mixture the servbot had handed him. Trust Mart to be able to bring up painful topics as quickly as possible. That’s why brothers existed. But Serra was the least of his worries now. Fallon shot her husband a repressive look but Mart was unabashed.
“Maybe it was supposed to be temporary but I’ve decided to request a permanent posting. I’m just waiting on Major Sekar’s approval.”
Mart shook his head. “This is the commander who has it in for you at the most primitive posting in this arm of the galaxy. The same place where the territorial sheriff tried to kill you. The planet full of creeping spores. I’m not even sure I want to ask why you’re having this change of heart.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t,” Fallon chided her husband as she gestured for another servbot to take their meal requests. Lazlo sighed and input some random entrée requests into the robot’s waiting display.
“But I will. So what’s the story, little brother?” Mart fixed a dark and determined eye on him and Lazlo realized he didn’t have the energy to fight it anymore. He took a deep breath and wondered what to say.
“I decided that there were plenty of challenges there.”
“I suppose a lawless place like that must appeal to your need to do the right thing. But you have the qualifications to move on to something with a much higher profile, especially after you complete this first round of classes. Make us proud,” Mart advised him with patented older-brother certainty.
The arrival of plates of appetizers distracted him and he cut up servings for Bets to try. She looked over everything her father offered with great concentration as she declared she did not want any green flakes on her food, whatever those were.
Fallon took the respite from childcare to talk with Lazlo. “Do you like it there that much? It sounded like a harsh place, from your earlier messages.”
“It can be harsh, but I’ve grown to like it. I can make a difference there and I have some unfinished business.” Lazlo looked over his plate and wondered what he had ordered. Some sort of pale dumpling with lots of green flakes, it seemed.
“Right, the trial with the sheriff. But you could come back to testify in that case. Any other reason you want to return?” Fallon gave him a considering look as she deftly shook a rattle toy for the gurgling baby while maneuvering a bit of salad for herself.
Lazlo shook his head but his sister-in-law wasn’t easily diverted. “Who is she?”
“Who is she who?” Mart jumped in the conversation with a raised eyebrow.
“You sound like a broken datpad, Mart. We were just getting to that.” Fallon leaned forward in her seat and rested her chin on folded hands. She looked ready for any sort of confession that Lazlo might want to make.
Considering how much counseling she’d done while Lazlo was embroiled in his nightmare relationship with Serra, she probably had his personality traits and flaws memorized. Namely, his irrepressible urge to help damsels in distress. Not that Del needed any sort of rescuing under normal circumstances.
“She’s the woman who helped on that assignment. One of the men who assaulted us has been sending her messages since he was released from lockup. Flowers and chocolates.”
Fallon blinked with surprise. “Why in the
galaxy was he released?”
Lazlo sighed as he squashed his dumpling into a mashed paste. His appetite was gone. “It’s one of the loopholes on territorial worlds. Skilled workers are in short supply, so they can file for economic necessity and be work-released pending trial. So he’s out and he’s circling around Del and I don’t know why.” And I’m trapped here until I can go back to her.
Fallon must have picked up on his distress because she patted his hand before turning her attention to the baby. Mart leaned forward, all traces of joking gone from his manner.
“So this is the Del you’ve talked about before, the one who helped you? She’s part of your unfinished business?” At Lazlo’s nod, Mart took a breath and frowned. “Does she have anyone there who can help her?”
“Her family, but they’re in dire straits since the raid on their business destroyed most of their property. They’re close to each other but they don’t have the resources to protect her.”
“What can you do from here?” Fallon asked as she brought the baby into her lap and allowed her to grab at some peas on a small plate on the table.
“I’ve made sure that there’s a restraining order, and her sister made her move into my apartment because it has better security than her place. I alerted security and they are doing whatever extra patrols they can, but they’re stretched thin already.”
“When can you get back?” Mart wondered, cutting to the heart of the matter, all efforts to encourage his little brother to abandon Sayre gone. Lazlo explained his schedule and Mart nodded slowly. “Are there any private security firms there we could hire until you return?”
Lazlo sat back in surprise at his brother’s generous offer. “No. There’s just us in security.”
Mart shook his head at the situation. “What a planet.” Bets chose that moment to tug on her father’s sleeve and start to negotiate if she’d eaten enough of her meal to have dessert.