by Pam Uphoff
Paer was looking happy. "Tell me about the . . . oh, crumb, the look my father is sending this way. We'll talk horses tomorrow."
Izzo grinned. "Actually I think he's missed your monomania. That was probably just an automatic reflex." The man looked over at Ebsa. "So you're also a junior?"
"Yes, I transferred in from the University of Montevideo in Uruguay."
They blinked at him, and looked at Rael.
She nodded. "Kitchen."
"I have almost managed to shed that unfortunate nickname."
"Right. So, Ebsa, what are you aiming for, specifically?"
"Info or Explorer Team. It would be totally fine to be the first into a new world. To find people, animals . . . and . . . new stuff." He flushed a bit. "Well, no doubt the professors will disabuse me of my starry-eyed misconceptions."
A man further down the table snorted. "Six months of classifying algae on a world where that's the highest form of life? That'll change your mind fast."
"Are you with External Relations, sir?" Somebody I ought to be extra polite to?
"Wllo, subdirector of Savannah."
Definitely. "One of the Free Worlds. Must be a relief to not have any problems with natives." Ebsa eyed the man.
Who just shrugged. "Which means we're always short of laborers. Multitude don't like to go across, for fear we'll treat them like primitives. And even Servaones won't do some tasks."
"So, Halfers?"
"Yeah. And they expect to be well paid, despite the low housing costs."
"Saving up to come back, I expect." Ebsa tried to sound cool and analytical. Got a shrug in reply, and sat back. Don't push! But actually I'd better keep that question in mind for sociology reports. It'd be a good research project.
Izzo's eyes were twinkling. Sharp man. He recognized my instant kiss up.
"So what region are you the subdirector of?"
"Pacific. I had a brief stint as 'Western Hemisphere' when they tried to combine the regions."
Ebsa grinned. "I remember the outrage, that we weren't important enough for a subdirector of South America."
"Yep, so they split up again, and shuffled subdirectors. I wound up with Pacific, which was shockingly logical. My stint in Precog made me thoroughly familiar with New Zealand, and at least a recognized name in most of the larger region. Of course, most of my staff is out in the region, and I spend at least half my time out there."
"Right. You're the head of the police, and work with the district governors?"
"Mostly. The police situation can be a bit awkward, as the districts each elect a District Chief of Police, who is the day-to-day manager of their forces. I mostly get reports, from those Chiefs, and the Governors, and my own analysts send me anything interesting they see in their area. The staff here distills anything that the Director needs to know and I occasionally make a nuisance of myself in person. With five divisions in the region, each with between ten and fifty districts, I can spend a lot of time traveling with little to show for it."
"But you don't really have anything to do with the government?"
"Not the actual administration, at any level. I liaise. The governors are appointed by the council. It takes a bit of diplomacy, but developing good relations is worth it. It makes a few things, like emergency response after typhoons, a whole lot easier if the governor feels he can just call me without making anything official, yet."
"Huh. I didn't think the old Oners network could actually be useful."
Izzo grinned. "We pretend it isn't that. That it would work just as smoothly with a Halfer, Multitude, or Native on one end."
Xiat snorted. "Then it turns into the old boys network. Izzo's got Native friends across, who start with him, any time they need to do anything here."
A growl from further up the table. An older man, shooting a glare Izzo's direction.
"They have faith in either my widespread contacts, or failing that, their ability to bug me until I find a good contact for them. Rather to some people's dismay." Izzo's eyes were twinkling, as he glanced toward the older man. "I get to research some of the oddest things."
The old man glared. "The appalling thing is how often it turns out to be important. Izzo's infamous for the odd things he turns up." A few people glanced their way . . . or a bit past him. Were they glancing at Ra'd?
They took a guided (by Paer) tour of the high points of Government House. The Office of the President. The "workroom" where Urfa met with his agents. The garden. Paer got a little quiet, there. They didn't linger.
The same limo took them off across the city, and barely out of it, to what had been the President's country retreat. Now the suburbs were encroaching, and would no doubt eventually engulf it.
"Right. We've got these six rooms on the end. Yes, I did live as near the stable as possible. Sue me. Anybody want to see Crystal?"
They all changed clothes and headed for the barn.
"It's only five in New York, after all." Heak looked to be both eager and apprehensive.
Crystal was much larger, up close, than the horses Ebsa had been riding. And loud. She neighed a greeting and stomped and thumped her stall door.
A groom whisked up, saddle and bridle in hand. Grinning. "Don't believe a word she says. She gets ridden every day."
Ebsa wandered around, looking at the other horses. All shiny and fat, and thankfully more placid than Crystal. Because, as he'd suspected was going to happen, Paer was suggesting which horses they ought to saddle up for her friends.
A cry of delight and a skinny girl threw herself at Ra'd. Same black hair, a bit more Arab looking, thirteen, maybe fourteen years old.
Paer looked over and grinned. "This is Qamar, with the Arab pronunciation, so the Q is pronounced almost like a G."
And the first A is hard, so it sounds almost like Gamer. I wonder what her actual letters are?
"Hard though it is to believe, Ra'd has a nice little sister."
Qamar was blushing when she let go of her brother. Big brown eyes and arms swinging as she bounced on her heels. "Hi Paer! How's the University? I heard Ra'd got better grades than you did. Have you scoped out the stables there? Have you decided if you are going to take Crystal or buy a new horse there?"
Paer grinned. "Qamar, meet our new friends. Heak Withione New England, Azko Withione Seattle, and Ebsa Clostuone Montevideo. He's the guy Rael calls Kitchen."
Qamar's eyes opened wide. "Oh! Rael trained you! Are you the one who beat up Ra'd? Uncle Isakson was disgusted when he heard Ra'd only been second in the placement tests."
Ra'd wrapped a hand around his sister's mouth. "Pay no attention to the chatterbox. She's in trouble, because she didn't tell her mother she was coming here."
Qamar squirmed out of his hold. "I left a note."
"Probably mostly underneath something."
"Most of it shows. Well over half."
"The half without writing on it."
"So?" She grinned.
"Go home. Maybe she hasn't noticed. I'm going to ride and you know you can't get away with that." Ra'd glanced at them. "Her mother has a keen nose. One whiff of horse sweat . . . "
"Okay, okay, I'm going!"
She galloped off through a side door.
Ebsa sighed. "Sometimes I wish I had siblings."
Ra'd punched his shoulder. "Unfortunately that one came with a hideous mother. But yeah, sisters are not a bad thing."
Ebsa was a little alarmed to find himself riding the big bay mare the president rode, when he needed to do so in public. Parades and so forth. She proved to be lazy and easy going. Well trained and smooth as glass.
Azko looked terrified, perched on a creature even less energetic. Ebsa paralleled him and gave an impromptu lesson in steering and stopping in the small corral outside the barn. Heak at least had the general idea, and Ebsa led them off on a well-lit path to a covered arena where Paer was jumping Crystal over obstacles that appeared to be taller than the mare's back.
"She doesn't expect us to do that, does s
he?" Azko sounded horrified.
"Nah. That's for maniacs who haven't ridden for two months and just can't live without sore muscles." Ra'd rode up behind them.
Nighthawk steered a black horse around him and peered at the pair in the arena. "Xen says she's a better rider than he is. I don't believe it, of course."
Crystal collected herself and leaped a huge triple.
"But then we don't go around jumping over things for the fun of it. Much."
Ra'd raised an eyebrow. "How sensible."
Nighthawk laughed. "We mostly practice jumping the sorts of natural barriers one is likely to encounter when chasing or being chased by bandits."
"You run from bandits?" Ra'd looked down his nose.
"Depends on the odds." Nighthawk smiled sweetly. "Because I'm sensible."
Paer trotted up to the fence. "Right. Got that out of my system. Now why don't you all come in? I won't keep you out too long, nor expect you to jump anything."
For some values of not too long . . . Even Azko trotted a bit.
Paer's groom trotted out and lowered the jumps for Ra'd and Nighthawk. Ebsa watched their comfortable nonchalance atop leaping and running animals. He met Azko's gaze. "I guess a few weeks of riding lessons a couple of times a year isn't enough." Although he'd rented a horse now and then to try and keep up his skills in between the rounds of lessons. "Karate lessons always seemed more important." And less expensive!
Nighthawk laughed and they looked around. No idea what Ra'd had done to elicit that.
Heak was drooping a bit, and Azko was fumbling his reins.
Ebsa stretched. "Right. If I'm going to be able to get out of bed in the morning, I have to cease torturing my thigh muscles. You maniacs can keep going if you want. I'll spectate from the ground, thankyouvery much."
Paer laughed, but followed them out. "Ebsa, you are too sensible to be a teenager."
"I'm almost twenty and I got 'teenage idiot' knocked out of my system early. I'm still surprised I survived the concentrated course."
Ra'd walked his sweaty horse past them. "I don't think I had a teenage. And yes, it's much too late for me to start acting like an idiot."
Heak and Azko swapped grins. "I think he's talking about us."
"Can't be. I'm too smart. You don't suppose he's talking about Nighthawk, do you?"
In the morning his thighs felt like jello, but he forced himself to stride out. Shook his head at the limping Azko. "Never let them see you limp. No matter how much it hurts."
Heak giggled, behind them. "Does that count for girls, too?"
"Double."
"Oh no!"
After a huge breakfast, they got to pretend they weren't limping through the fine arts museum. And renewed their soreness with a long ride around the grounds at Versalle.
Dinner at Versalle was both less formal and much smaller. Qamar was there, and the oft mentioned Uncle Isakson. The uncle had the facial features of an arab and the headgear and full untrimmed beard of a devout Islamic. And fierce predatory body language and a glow that shown hard and bright around a habitual shield.
Ebsa was willing to bet that no one crowded him on the public transit. Or got snippy about him wearing green.
The old man looked Ebsa over. "So. You think you're better than Ra'd?"
"No sir. I came out ahead of him once in a controlled contact contest. I am very glad to be on the same side as Ra'd. And I suspect I will continue to be glad of that in any situation."
"Humph." Isakson looked beyond him to Ra'd, nodded. "You are right about him."
Ebsa blinked. Looked at Ra'd. What did you say about me? And . . . do I really want to know?
The next day, the botanical gardens. And a ride out into the ruins of Old Paris. Fairly tame, since it had been at least twenty years since any major discoveries by archeologists or treasure hunters. But there were plenty of ruined remains of walls, streets, fountains. Bizarre plants gone wild, far from their native homes. Sudden pits and mounds that Paer insisted were collapsed brick buildings. "The wooden-framed buildings got blown down, or burned, leaving basements like this. Stone and masonry buildings collapsed. You can still see, in some places, the steel frameworks of the early skyscrapers."
Well hidden among the trees of the centuries-old forest.
Paer, Ra'd and Nighthawk galloped their horses a bit. Ebsa eyed the alert look of Heak's horse as he watched his herd mates gallop away and the alarmed look on the girl's face. He casually turned ahead of her mount, blocking any impulse to run after the other horses. "Hey, isn't that one of those ginko trees they said were nearly extinct?"
"Umm, planted in someone's fancy back garden, do you think?" Heak and her mount both relaxed.
"And gone wild. There's a bunch of them back in there." Ebsa turned his horse away and they plodded along until a guard found them and steered them down a narrow trail that intercepted a larger loop, about the time the other three galloped up.
"What took you so long?" Ebsa tried for innocent, and got laughed at.
Monday they hit the Museum of Natural History, and a brief tour of the Internal Relations Directorate building. Basically a skyscraper full of bustling office workers.
Izzo laughed. "Don't look so horrified. We aren't trapped here. We go out into that fascinating city every day. But, of course, you'll all get sent across."
Ra'd grinned. "Like that subdirector said, to classify algae. I, for one, look forward to it."
"Me too. I just love algae." Ebsa looked around. "Otherwise I'll be sitting at a desk hoping for something exciting to investigate, like algae, and getting glared at by old men."
Izzo pointed upward. "Do not casually insult Director Agra. Poor man has to put up with me, and that's probably giving him ulcers."
Ebsa's knees felt weak. The old guy at dinner? That was the Director of Interior Relations? I have got to hunt down pictures of people I want to impress, and especially the ones I really don't want to piss off!
And Izzo's grinning again. Must work on my poker face.
They had dinner at a slowly spinning restaurant atop a tall building, watching the lights of the city creep past. Then back into the limo for the ride home.
Paer sighed. "I could have snuck in one last quick ride."
Heak snickered. "Before breakfast didn't count?"
"Nope. Next semester, I really need to get a horse."
Chapter Fourteen
10 Shawwal 1402 yp
All three girls joined them in the Old Library to study.
Ebsa grinned at their expressions. "What, you didn't know about this building full of old actual paper books? It is haunted only by History grads looking for obscure original sources to base their thesises . . . thesii? Whatever. On. And a few people who might be delighted to have found a place where the Action Team Trainees never go."
"Theses." Heak looked around. "I thought everything was digital now."
"I'm sure it's all been scanned." Azko shrugged. "But that doesn't mean you can toss the original printed source material. Has it been checked? Is it properly converted? Searchable? Sooner or later they'll decide they need the space and stick this all in compact shelf unit storage out in some inexpensive suburban annex. For now? It's Nice Guy Headquarters."
"Our secret hideout." Ebsa waved at their usual nook. "Please join us. Do any of you know Latin?"
Paer did, and he checked her calculus homework, cursed Ra'd for finding an error on his chem lab analysis . . .
Heak wandered the stacks and studied the old classification system. "I really like the Intro to Info class I'm taking. Maybe I'll specialize."
It was late by the time they left. And their path home just happened to take them past Nighthawk's dorm before they reentered Directorate School territory, coincidentally at the north end of the dorm row where the women lived.
"And they didn't even beat us up for escorting them safely home." Azko trotted off to the freshman dorm.
Ebsa grinned. "Yeah, having seen them in action, even without Paer
's bodyguards, I pity any fool that attacks them."
Ra'd shook his head. "All the men here are just as well trained. And stronger, with a longer reach." He was silent for a long moment. "And crazier. Ebsa, if you ever think I've gotten twisted enough to be a danger to any of them . . . kill me."
Ebsa looked at him. "You won't. You have honor and will never give into those impulses. Now, taking over the Empire . . . "
"Idiot."
"For your cyborg masters . . . "
"Speaking of crazy, check your mirror."
***
And on the weekend, Paer dragged them out to a stable. Nice mild well behaved horses for rent. They plodded placidly through the park, admiring the fall foliage.
"Don't complain. It keeps our muscles in shape." Paer managed to get her horse to trot.
Ebsa, Azko and Heak exchanged glances and snickers.
Paer looked back, and her horse immediately stopped. "Well, I'm not going to be getting much exercise. And you three can . . . build on the good start you got a week ago."
Ebsa nodded. I need to learn this. Get good at it. Qualify for teams on primitive worlds where we can't use vehicles. Might even impress Paer.
He thought that over and shook his head. Not going to happen.
Chapter Fifteen
19 Shawwal 1402 yp
"Bloody stupid Oner men."
Ebsa glanced around as Nighthawk stalked up and thumped her comp down on the table. "Edge?"
"Who else. Idiot pulled me into his house. I hope he's got a headache."
Ra'd scowled at her. "You hit him over the head?"
"With an energy drain and judo throw. Why do you put up with behavior like that?"
Azko hunched his shoulders. "It's caused by an imbalance among three gene pairs. Some men can't help themselves."
Ebsa wrinkled his nose. "You mean, some men have more trouble with their self control. It's hardly absolute. And why do the rape laws cover all Oners?"