The lights flared suddenly bright and computer fans howled inside their boxes, but not for long. Several cracks, fizzes, and pops preceded an abrupt silence and the acridity of what technicians called an expensive brown smell.
Semyon surged out of his chair. “I will make you my bitch!” he roared and shook a finger at the camera.
It swiveled in his direction, as did the one nearest it.
“And yet I distinctly heard your companion say you were not equipped for that,” the voice taunted.
“We will find you,” Yana told him, “and then, we will burn you to the ground.”
“Which reminds me,” the voice added in an infuriatingly conversational tone, “there are several old gas lines coming into this building—”
No sooner were the words said than all hell broke loose. Chairs fell over as the hackers leapt out of their chairs and raced to the door. Most headed directly to the stairwell. The ones who ran to the lift changed their minds when the voice chuckled and they bolted for the stairs as well.
Back in the Virtual World, BURT watched them go.
“Lying is so much easier if you provide an example before you bluff.”
Not long after, Stephanie watched as Ms E was ushered out of a strange convertible, the door held by a tall man with salt-and-pepper hair. He looked military, but she couldn’t imagine why the woman would look so happy to be brought home by a military guy.
She frowned and watched them intently. Her mentor didn’t look like she was in trouble. In fact, she—
Her jaw dropped when the older woman leaned up and gave the guy a light kiss on the cheek before she made her way toward the office foyer. The way he stood there, staring after her like she’d punched him instead, was actually quite funny
It reminded her of Todd. She shook the thought away.
“Well, well, well. Go, Elizabeth!”
The man finally seemed to gather his wits and watched Ms E enter the office before he slid into his car and drove away.
“So...” she began and stepped out of the corridor. “Who was that?”
Elizabeth jumped and glared at her.
“None of your business.”
“And does Mr. None-of-Your-Business have a name?”
The woman smiled but there was nothing sweet about it. “Sure he does. It’s get out of my face and quit asking about my dates before I kick your ass for poking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
Stephanie snickered. “Uh huh. And how did it go?”
Ms E tried to step around her but she casually blocked her path. “How did what go?” the woman asked brusquely.
“Your date.”
Unbelievably, she blushed. “Why are you out here?”
“I have a message from Burt.”
“And?”
“How’d it go?”
“Did BURT ask you to ask that?”
Stephanie grinned. “Nope.”
“Then what?”
“Date? Or do I let the boys know they have competition?”
“They aren’t competition.”
“That’s not what I’ll tell them.”
“Don’t be a brat,” Elizabeth snapped, but Stephanie merely smiled at her and finally, she smiled in return. “It went fine. Now, what did BURT want?”
“To speak to you at your earliest convenience,” she told her and skipped away before the woman could respond.
She giggled when Ms E muttered. It was only a single word, but it worked.
“Brat!”
Ten minutes later, Elizabeth looked around at the team.
“There was another hacking attempt,” she told them, and Stephanie glowered at her. “BURT dealt with it, but it is not the first and it won’t be the last.”
“Did we get them?” the younger woman asked and Ms E shook her head.
“We were able to track them until they reached the public transport hub and they scattered. We’ve put their images into the system in the hopes of finding a match, but they were a team of relatively experienced people with some good counter-surveillance skills. We’ll have to pick them up later.”
“Do we at least know who sent them?” Lars asked and she favored him with a cool stare.
“Not yet. However, that brings me to the next item—and one that is more relevant to us now. The last time we fought off an attack like this, it was followed by a physical attack on HQ. We need to be prepared for that. Keep your gear prepped and handy.”
The team leader glanced around at the others. “Go-bags,” he told them, and they all nodded, including Amy and Tracy.
“I’d rather hunt them than wait for them to come and get me,” Stephanie grumbled, and she gave her a smile.
“So would I, but we lost them so that option is out, for now.” When the young woman’s frown grew deeper, she added, “Besides, they might never come, but that does not mean we should not prepare.”
Zeekat sat and rested his head on Stephanie’s lap, allowing her to stroke his head. Bumblebee stood and butted her thigh with his forehead while his horns gored the air. Before she could touch him, though, he twisted back along his own length, pounced on Frog’s foot, and sank his teeth into the guard’s boot.
“Ow! Hey! Let go,” the guard shouted, bolted out of his seat, and promptly fell on his ass.
The feline dragged him closer, released the boot, and leapt upward to land with his front paws on the man’s chest.
“Sonofabitch, you furry fucking menace!” Frog yelled. “Get your fat ass off me and keep your paws to yourself.”
“Bee!’ Stephanie snapped. “Get off him and come here.”
The cat looked at her and she glared back. “Do not make me come over there...”
The cat mewed what could have been a protest but went to sit at her side.
“Good boy,” she told him, and Frog snorted as he picked himself up off the floor.
“We need time in the pods,” she said and changed the subject and looked at Elizabeth. “Do you know when the ones for the cats will arrive?”
“And mine,” Vishlog added, reminding them that there was no Dreth-sized pod set up in the pod room.
“I’ll look into it,” the older woman told them and stood quickly. “In the meantime, you can practice your moves in the training room. Knowing what it should look like in the real world goes a long way to making it real in the Virtual, too.”
They adjourned and Stephanie led the team to the training room. Elizabeth sent Amy and Tracy after them. “Like I said, I’m perfectly safe here and I promise not to go out without you.”
When they both looked skeptical, she gave them an evil grin. “I need at least one of you to drive and the other one to reload while I shoot.”
That made them both smile and relax far better than any other assurance she could have given them.
Two days later, Stephanie stuck her head through Ms. E’s office door. “It’s time,” she announced, and Elizabeth shooed her two guards out.
“Same deal as usual,” she told them. “I don’t go anywhere outside the building, and you go train with Steph and the team—get to see them do their thing in the Virtual. Oh, and maybe die a couple of times to prove a point.”
She laughed as both their eyes widened. “I’m only kidding on that last one.”
They relaxed, right up until she fixed the witch with a firm stare. “Got that? No killing my girls this time around.”
Stephanie rolled her eyes. “As if I would.”
Amy and Tracy exchanged glances and nodded.
“She can kill us all she likes, Elizabeth,” Amy told her, “but she’ll have to do it one at a time because we’ve decided you need one of us with you at all times.”
“Even when you’re in the office,” Tracy clarified in case there was any confusion.
They both stared at her, their faces set and determined.
She glared at them, and Amy returned it unflinchingly. “You hired us to do a job. We’re not doing it when we’re both in training. You eithe
r need a third guard—and we’ll sit in on the interviews for that—or only one of us can train with the team at a time.”
Ms E knew an ultimatum when she heard one. “Fine,” she agreed. “Amy, you go first.”
“Done.” The woman fell in step beside Stephanie, but the other two women followed.
“I watched them install it,” Elizabeth explained, “but I want to see what the cats make of it.”
“They’ll be fine,” Stephanie reassured her and she was right.
She let the cats watch the guys climb into their pods before she showed Bumblebee and Zeekat the ones they’d had built for them. The felines had watched Vishlog slide into his with a grin on his face a mile wide and bounded over to the two remaining ones.
“In you go, Bee.”
Elizabeth had expected the cat to balk, but he didn’t. He leapt up and landed on the mat and immediately curled into a ball and settled his head on his paws. Stephanie rubbed his head between the horns and he blinked once and closed his eyes.
Zeekat did the same.
“I’ll see you on the inside,” she assured him as she sealed him in.
He flicked his tail over his nose and closed his eyes as if he were going to sleep.
“Amazing,” Ms E murmured while the witch raced down the hall to her private pod room and closed the door.
“Leave us in,” she ordered as she stripped out of her clothes and left them folded neatly in one corner, “unless something happens and you need us, okay?”
To the older woman, the girl looked as excited as any kid on Christmas morning.
“Crazy, the lot of them,” she said and shook her head once the pod had closed. “The ones that follow her are all crazy.”
Tracy snorted. “So,” she asked, “what does that make you?”
She closed the door to the pod room. “Me? Crazy’s mother.”
Chapter Fourteen
The training had gone well but Stephanie needed more time. After settling the cats, she returned to the pod and slid inside. Elizabeth might not approve the extra hours, but the woman had to be there to know and Lars was cleaning up after the last session.
She emerged into the white room and looked around. “Burt,” she said, “I got your message about the university course. We need to talk.”
This time, the room she found herself in reminded her of something out of ancient Japan in its sparseness. Straw mats contrasted with the dark wooden floors and formed a base for a tall wooden table.
On either side were two blue-cushioned seats. They were tall, as was the Meligornian style.
“Whoa.” She caught her breath and stared out through a wide window overlooking a garden where bamboo grew beside a pond. A pink flowering tree dropped petals onto the surface and brightly colored fish swam in the clear water.
“I’m so glad you like it,” said a familiar voice and she turned toward the first Meligornian master she had ever met, who entered through a door at the rear of the room.
“Oh, I remember him.” She smiled in happy recognition. “You created a construct so I could meet a ‘real’ Meligornian and learn a little magic.”
Without hesitation, she extended her hand in a formal Meligornian greeting. “Kaitel Gorniffula.”
He still wore the blue and gold robes she remembered, and his silver hair cascaded over his shoulders. Burt returned her greeting, his face lighting up with reflected pleasure.
“This space is only accessible to you and I,” he told her, “and I thought you would find it easier to discuss your thoughts on magic with a Meligornian Master than a businessman. I can always alter my appearance if you wish.”
No. I like this,” she told him. “I still remember the first spell you ever taught me.”
She repeated the Meligornian words, “T’lercten, T’suman. Kluman depen stahk,” and held her hand out to show him the ball of colored flame that nestled there.
He laughed, created a flame of his own, and released it as a colored butterfly before he gestured to the table. “Please, sit. I am sure you have much to discuss and there will no doubt be questions.”
She settled onto one of the chairs and waited as he took his place opposite her. A tea setting appeared between them, and he poured them both a cup, handling the delicate china as though born to it.
“Where did you learn that?” she asked.
“It is something the real M’rick knows,” he replied. “Do you like tea?”
“It all depends,” Stephanie answered and cradled her cup.
He sighed. “Well, what did you want to discuss?”
“This course,” she began tentatively. “I’ve never written a course before. Hell, Burt, I’ve never even finished a university course. Wouldn’t it be better if we got the real M’rick to write it?”
He shook his head. “He is Meligornian, not human. This course is for humans and you are the only human who knows enough to even think of writing it.”
“But how?”
“Think of all the things you would want to have known when you were learning magic. If you could have had a teacher, what do you think they would have taught you first?”
“Oh...” That made more sense to her. Her time on Meligorn had taught her that the Meligornians did, indeed, think of magic differently than the way she did. It was as if growing up with it, they took it for granted. She didn’t want that for One R&D’s students.
That, in turn, made her think. What did she want for them? What was the purpose for them finding those humans who could wield magic? Why was it so important that she not be the only one?
“Because I can’t be everywhere at once,” she told herself, thinking of her time in space. “If something had happened at home when I was chasing pirates, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.”
“This is true,” Burt agreed.
“And there is no one else here who could have done anything against something like the Nihilism, or even other humans using Nihilistic Energy.”
“Also, true.”
“So, we first have to think about the students we want and then we have to think about what we’ll teach them. We can’t teach them to use magic if they’ll simply use that power to harm others. It would be better if they never knew they could than to do something that would hurt others.”
Burt arched his eyebrows. “Oh?”
“Yes,” Stephanie told him and darkness crept into the edges of her eyes. “Because if they hurt others, I have to do something about it and I will make them wish they had never been born.”
Her voice softened and her eyes returned to their natural blue. “And I don’t ever want to have to do that. It would be terrible.”
“I understand,” he reassured her. “We will do our best to choose our students carefully.”
“That won’t mean we won’t ever make a mistake,” she responded, “but at least I will know that when the time comes.”
“You are already so sure?”
“I know people,” she informed him, “and it will come. I can only hope that it won’t come for a very long time.”
“So, Step One—choose our students carefully,” he repeated. “What qualities should we look for?”
“To include?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Well, we need to make sure they know that they have been chosen to protect the Earth and everyone on it and that is their primary role. We need to be very sure they’re on board with doing that. We can’t take them otherwise, no matter how good they are.”
“I can design attitude tests,” he replied thoughtfully. “That way, we could be almost certain they have the basic outlook at the beginning.”
Stephanie nodded. “Good. After that, I think they need to be taught how to recognize magic when they sense it, both around them and within them. They need to know how to monitor the levels they hold and how to measure what they hold—and they need to learn control really early.”
“Definitely,” he agreed and they both smiled.
&nb
sp; They remembered what she had been like when she first started. Control and self-awareness were essential.
“And they need to be strong enough to be responsible for their own actions,” she added. “They need to think about what they’re doing and make sure they’re acting for the right reasons and not blindly following orders.”
“But what if those are our orders?” Burt asked and she quirked an eyebrow at him.
“Are you saying we’ll never make a mistake and tell someone to do something that they’ll see is a bad mistake when they’re in the middle of a situation?” she challenged and he nodded.
“I see what you mean. Very well, but they have to be very sure and able to explain why what they did was a good idea.”
“Agreed,” she acknowledged, “but they also need to know they won’t be punished if they choose to do the right thing over something that’s wrong, no matter who told them to do it. It’s why we’re not part of the Navy. Those guys don’t understand that.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “We need to not be answerable to them. They have their own agendas.”
Stephanie shrugged. “It’s politics,” she told him. “We have to be governed by protecting our people, regardless of the politics involved.”
“And by ‘our people’ you mean the Dreth and Meligornians as well,” he prodded.
She nodded quickly. “That’s why we need to have protection as our watchword and not politics. Humans don’t always remember that our allies are people, too.”
“Not even when that ally is a human,” he added. “Yes. It is a good thing we are not the Navy’s responsibility at this time. We must make sure our students understand what ‘our people’ means, and I do not mean only with their heads.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “Being part of the Navy would be problematic.”
Burt chuckled. “Wait,” he told her. “At some point, you will have a Navy of your own.”
Stephanie leaned back in her chair and rolled her eyes.
“I have one ship,” she protested. “Well, one big ship and a couple of shuttles. That is hardly a Navy.”
“A university starts with only one teacher and a student,” he told her. “One big ship and two smaller ones is a good beginning.”
Witch Of The Federation III (Federal Histories Book 3) Page 17