But she couldn't suppress as big a smile as her face could handle for Londo. Thank You. Thank You! “There. Good morning or afternoon, or whatever it is.”
He brought the back of his table up to sitting position. The blanket drooped to expose the broad chest that set Lina's pulse pounding. He reached out to pull her to him to kiss her, and his arm barely shook. Then he kissed her again.
“Good morning, chérie.” He smiled that Londo smile. “How are you feeling? They said you'd been hurt pretty bad.” His bleary gaze swept her face and clearly realized the extent of her condition for the first time. “Ah, shit. Poor baby. Does it hurt?”
His concern showed so baldly that she wanted to cry from happiness. He still cared! She smoothed his hair back from where it stood on end. “I'm fine, just a little sore. Don't worry about me; how are you?”
The right corner of his mouth crooked as the others approached, and he spoke low. “I could use a back rub just like the one you gave me before.” He gave her a sly look.
“Then I'd say you were feeling much, much better,” she whispered. She eased her hand back from Londo's, but he took it back.
“What's the matter?” he asked her. “Ashamed of me?”
Wiley and Jae's approach didn't give her a chance to reply. She let Lon hold her hand while he spoke with them. She wanted to fade into the woodwork—or rather, plasticwork. Lon was back. They wouldn't be interested in anything she had to say now. She'd run through the entire gamut of her abilities and then some. There was nothing left she could do.
“You've got better color to you today. Blue didn't suit you,” Jae observed as Lon held out his other hand for him to grip. “Welcome back from the land of the dead.”
“A trip I'm not anxious to repeat.” Lon used English for Lina's sake. It didn't bother the others, since their own translator units hovered next to them.
“I don't think you'll have to, Londo,” Wiley said, tossing something in the air as he came. It was small and caught the light, but it twirled too fast for Lina to make it out. “I've recorded the entire process to my satisfaction.”
“Then it's settled, eh. I don't need to die again.” At Lon's laugh, Lina's insides relaxed completely. All was well. “Assez. Do you guys have any breakfast left? I can smell it.”
“Time for lunch, maybe,” Jae said.
“Good. Lina said you were sending out for fried chicken. Jae? A little help here?” He and Lina had to drop their hands as Jae stepped between them to ease Lon up to a full sitting position. One at a time, Londo swung his legs over the side of the table.
Lina's fingers clamped over her mouth. “Should you be trying that?” she squeaked.
Wiley shrugged. “Londo's not the average patient. If you feel like standing, Lon, I'd say go ahead. You may need this, though.”
He handed Londo what he'd been tossing: a ring like what he and Jae wore. Londo chuckled when he saw it and put it on his middle right-hand finger. He clenched and unclenched his fist. “Feels good, Wiley. Thanks. I don't feel so naked without it.”
“Rand calibration test,” Wiley said into his own matching ring, and Lon's brows went into a minor scowl as he concentrated on his ring.
“Up two points,” he told it.
“Rand calibration test,” Wiley repeated, and again Londo considered his ring.
“It's good for now,” he finally declared and glanced at Lina. “It has a… Have you ever used a vibrating beeper?”
“Not lately.”
“I think it's like that, a little pulse vibration,” Londo explained.
“In Lon's case, an earthquake,” Jae said.
Londo pondered his ring. “Very funny, Jae. It also communicates silent messages.”
“A secret decoder ring.” Lina nodded to Jae. “Everyone should have one.”
“But then everyone would be in on the secret messages. What fun would that be?” Jae countered pleasantly.
Lon steadied himself with a hand on the table. “And how have you been treating Lina?” he asked them as he wobbled slightly.
Wiley crossed his arms in front of his chest and assumed Lecture Mode. “I've incorporated a neuro-patch on her arm in order to reroute the—”
Jae knocked on the older man's head. “Hello? Anyone home?”
Wiley stopped speaking and gave Jae a level stare with both eyes.
“I'm going to get you a dictionary,” Jae told him. “One for each mind.”
Wiley frostily ignored Jae and turned to Londo.
“I meant,” Lon said, “have you been treating her well? I think she looks a lot better than she did yesterday,” he squeezed her hand, “but you haven't been ignoring her, have you?”
“I assure you,” Wiley said gravely, “we have not.”
“She feels to me like she needs styrifin,” Lon said. “A lot of it. Can we get her down to Gorgeon to—”
“Quarantine,” Jae told him. “Plus Triple Level Five security.”
“Oh.” Londo scowled as the situation sank in. “Oh.”
Wiley's brow creased as he aimed a scanner at Lina. “Styrifin indeed. Interesting. How did you know? Lina, if you're in pain you need to say something.”
As Wiley busied himself getting another set of shots ready for Lina, Londo nodded his head. Even though he was still sick and in quarantine, he was in control again. Things were as they should be. “Good. Consider Lina my guest here. That means that you, Wiley, will not perform endless tests on her or have her running mazes. And you, Jae, will neither mentally nor physically torment her in any way. I have my eye on you.”
“Not even a footsie flop? It's not often that we have bare feet running through the lab.” Jae looked disappointed.
**What's a footsie flop?** Lina silently asked Lon.
**Is that what it translated as?**
**What is it?**
“And you, Lina, will communicate out loud when in the presence of others. A guest does not talk behind her hosts' backs.”
“Yes, Londo. Sorry.”
“A footsie flop is… Have you ever left a bag of doggie doo on someone's doorstep?”
“Of course not. Ouch.” Even if those shots didn't break the skin, they hurt. Lina gave Wiley a fierce frown but he didn't seem to care. She forgave him after a second or two when her pains dissolved into a faint, irksome fog.
“No, of course you wouldn't. But you know what one is. A footsie flop gives pretty much the same effect, minus the flames.”
“Flames?” Jae perked up.
“No fires in my lab without my permission!” Wiley declared. “I'll start handing out demerits at the first sign of smoke.”
“No flames.” Londo cuddled Lina. “We'll warm things up in here enough. Things got pretty hot back on that island, didn't they, chérie?”
She squirmed and tried not to blush. “Hush, Lon.”
He wrapped his arm around her neck, and she ducked her head to hide in his bulk. “Mine,” he declared. “Jae, make a note of that. No putting the moves on Lina. Lina, you watch out for Jae here. He thinks he's a sex machine. But I don't think he can match anything we pulled in the last few days!”
“Londo!”
Lon laughed as she gently batted at him.
Jae planted his fists on his hips. “I bet Wiley you were going to hang a sign at the main entrance,” he said. “How big will it be? Are you going to be issuing a statement to the media?”
“Londo! Make him stop!”
“Jae, you're upsetting my little kitten here. There will be no media involved.” Lon freed a hand to rub his nose. “At least for now. But I am going to throw a party. I think the occasion calls for one. How'd you like that, Lie? You like parties, don't you? We'll have one as big as you could wish for.”
She gave him a final bat and disengaged herself. “You throw one as big as you want, Lon. I will be home. Where it's quiet. Where there are no crazy sex maniacs running around.”
“Not even me?”
“More liquor for the rest of us.” Jae ey
ed Lina up and down before he turned back to Londo with a sly elf's grin. Londo returned it triumphantly.
“Hold this,” Wiley instructed Londo and passed him a hand-sized dumbbell. “Right hand.”
“Lon's right-handed,” Jae informed Lina.
“Aren't most people?”
“Not any that I'd noticed.”
Lon held the variable-weight dumbbell for a minute, then shifted position to hold it more steadily.
“No, that's enough,” Wiley told him. “Left hand.”
“People around here are ambidextrous,” Londo said. “I don't know why.”
Lina was about to offer a quick theory but decided that might be presumptuous, what with folks Out Here having all this medical tech. They probably gave prenatal inoculations to tweak all kinds of things. Too bad they couldn't control the temperature better. She shivered.
“You need some more clothes,” Lon said as he handed the weights back to Wiley. “Got anything else in here for her to wear?”
Wiley clicked at something invisible in front of him. “We weren't prepared for contaminated people beaming directly into the lab from across the galaxy. At least, ones who didn't bring their luggage with them.”
“Sor-ree,” Lina muttered darkly. She hadn't planned on being a burden.
Londo bent down to his boots—Lina wondered that no one had removed them through all this—and grabbed at the table before he fell over. Lina and Jae both pushed him back up. “Socks,” Lon said abashedly. “She can have my socks.” His mouth twisted. “Maybe after I wash them,” he added.
“You're sweet,” Lina said. “But you need warm feet, too.”
“Lon's sweet feet will stay warm with just his boots,” Jae assured her. “We'll see just how sweet those toesies smell now, why don't we?” With a great deal of fuss he began to pull at Londo's boots until Lon waved him off with dire threats, and promises to Lina that he'd launder the socks in a few minutes.
Through it all Wiley kept staring at the air about a foot or so in front of his face. Lina realized that he'd been doing that every so often.
Lon caught her thought and explained, “He's got polarized viewscreens he uses for high security matters.”
Without warning, Jae jabbed at one of Wiley's many plain rings, and in fact a floating screen did appear just in front of Wiley's right shoulder at easy reading distance.
Lon nodded at it as Wiley touched his ring and swatted at Jae. The screen disappeared again. “When it's polarized, it follows the movements of his eyes. It only focuses for his retinas. And he has a third eardrum rigged up to handle audio from it.”
“How cool.” Lina blinked. “Except for the third eardrum part, I mean.” Different world. Different tech age. She shivered again.
Lon reached out to twine his fingers through Lina's, grinning at Wiley's vague displeasure. “When we get out of here, I'll take you shopping. As I recall, you weren't wearing too much on the island.” His eyebrows came together as he recalled. “That man—that bâtard who had you. He didn't—”
“He was caught in one of the blasts,” Lina told him. “There wasn't much left of him.”
“Bon. Skurny bon. Let's hope his end was painful. When I get back, I’ll make sure every last one of them get what they deserve.”
Lina let out a squeak.
He considered for her sake. “With due process of law, kitten. Don’t worry; I’ll take backup. We’ll make it quick.”
That seemed to mollify her. “How much of it do you remember?”
Lon scowled. “I remember that it hurt like hell. I remember that you got one hell of a lot of the guns. For a moment I thought we were home free, Lie.”
“I missed a few,” Lina admitted. “I was working as fast as I could, but I didn't understand them. I didn't want to give it all away before everything was disconnected. I didn't want them to notice.”
“What's done is done, chérie. I'd say you did extremely well for your first—and last—combat situation.” Londo smiled at her and turned to the others. “We need to borrow this one trick of hers for covert ops. Go ahead and show 'em, go on.”
That caught Wiley's attention. “Covert ops?”
“Show what?” asked Lina.
“That cover-up thing you do. The hiding.”
“I'm sure they'd want to see me hide.”
“What I want to know is how you managed to do it, Londo.” Jae considered the two of them and for a moment Lina wondered what he meant by that. His jaw jutted, his eyes squinted as if he were angry at something. Was he still upset by the morning's channeling?
Jae continued, “How did you manage to stay alive for two full days without powers?”
“Very nicely, thank you,” Lon replied. He arched a reproving eyebrow at Jae.
“I've seen you in combat practice,” Jae said. “You cheat. You and all those powers of yours. Invulnerability—you blunder into things and expect your thick hide to protect you.”
“I was the picture of finesse,” Londo crowed. “Perfect timing. They didn't stand a chance against me.”
“Except for that guy who was about to tie you up and blow your head off,” Lina teased. “And the one who burned your back. And then you talking so loudly when they had listening equipment—”
“They don't want to hear about any of that,” Londo said quickly.
“Oh yes we do,” Jae told her. “So Lon couldn't keep his mouth shut? What, was he bragging about himself?”
“I think I need to hear this, too,” Wiley told them all, “just for the official record. Debriefing.”
Lina caught her breath. “I was just joking. He—he brought us through alive and well. Right up until that part at the end, and that wasn’t his fault.”
She shouldn't have made fun of Londo, not here. Stupid! Sometimes her mouth got ahead of her brain. Trying to tease Londo in public, as if he were a normal person— She had to remember that this was Valiant. “That island was swarming with soldiers. And jungle. And a couple of volcanoes. No one else could have gotten us out alive. No one!”
Londo's eyes crinkled. “That's my girl,” he said softly, squeezing her hand.
Wiley gave the two of them a sour look. “All right,” he said, “how many casualties do you think these mercenaries suffered?” He directed his notepadd at Londo.
Lon sighed, trying to remember. “Voyons. Three committed suicide while in custody at the house. During the trek across the jungle I went up against maybe… How many would you say, Lina?”
“Twenty more?” she ventured.
Lon kept hold on her hand as he watched her expression. “More like twenty-six. How many dead of those?” he asked. “I counted nine.”
“Twelve,” she said tightly. “It happened later, after we'd gone. The angels told me.”
“I'm sorry. You know the situation we were in.”
“I understand it. It's a shame that they chose to end their lives that way.”
The way she looked at things. “I think it's very nice that we didn't choose to end our lives at their hands.” Londo sighed. “And when they confronted us… Eh bien, we were stuck. And that was my fault entirely.”
“I don't know how many died there.” Lina shook her head. “Maybe thirty, thirty-five. Maybe a lot more. It was hard to tell.”
“Thirty-five? From what?”
“From the guns they threw at you, Lon.”
“What was this?” Wiley leaned forward and Jae crossed his arms, cocking his head.
As with many accident victims, Lon hadn't retained some of his short-term memories. He could remember the initial energy attack, but Lina had to tell them of the grisly scene afterward. “The more they fired at Lon, the more of their own men they took out.”
“That would explain part of the blood we found on you two,” Wiley nodded. “Were these clean cuts or—”
“Wiley,” Londo said sharply. He held up his hand to fend off Wiley's questions.
“No, that's okay.” Lina swallowed as the picture came back to
her and did her best to describe the bodily injuries. Wiley wanted to know if there were clean holes or tears, discoloration around the contusions or not, if the blasts came with a shimmering of air beforehand, if beams seemed tight or affected the area overall. Did any of the guns ricochet off objects? Did they just affect bodies, or…?
Lina apologized again and again for not noticing something that might enable Wiley to begin to reconstruct what kind of weapon could affect Lon that way. She tried her best to explain what she'd seen through a fog of pain.
“…Like broiled, runny Jell-O,” she finished.
Londo made a wry face. “I don't think I'm ever going to eat Jell-O again.”
“I'm sorry.”
“Mais non, I'm sorry for getting you into that mess. I should have evacuated us both as soon as I was able. It was completely stupid and unprofessional of me.”
“And I should have sensed all those guys. I don't understand why I didn't.”
“For the same reason I didn't.” Lon tipped her chin up so their gazes met. Both their faces softened into silly smiles. They didn't even notice the buzzer at first.
“Go ahead,” Wiley answered, and a long screen appeared in mid-air in front of their group. It morphed into a life-sized man standing in their midst. Lina jumped. Lon hugged her to him with a reassuring squeeze.
“It just the phone,” he murmured to her. “Hologram.”
The athletic-looking man wore what must be a costume because the tight, cobalt blue outfit had a repeating-line insignia on the chest, too bold to be a normal fabric design. He was dark-haired with a grayish blue cast to his hair, sharp blue-black eyes, and chiseled cheeks that were also distinctly blue, though this time in ultramarine.
**Is the color balance off?** Lina asked Lon. He shook his head but paid attention to the screen.
The man turned to them as if he were actually there in the room. “Good afternoon, Londo. Glad to see you're back with us.”
“Hi, Stoan. I just decided to drop by at the last minute.” Londo gave an easy grin.
There must have been a translator inside the phone because Lon's use of English didn't seem an impediment. “How is he?” Stoan looked at Wiley expectantly.
Touch of Danger (Three Worlds) Page 39