Tanderon (21 page)

“Why in the name of reason did you attack a chief proctor with a knife?” Freddy whispered with a stricken look as soon as Pete’s attention was elsewhere.

“Because he reminded me of you,” I came back, folding my arms as I turned my head to look him over. “Thanks for all that help back there. I hope you didn’t strain yourself.”

I turned away from him again as he went red at my comment, then saw that the sergeant was staring at us with undisguised confusion. It was highly unlikely that he knew what was going on, and he was just about to say something when we all heard Pete slam off the switch on the ‘phone. Considering how silent that action usually is my two brave companions were starched again, but Pete didn’t come back out.

“In here, Santee, and on the double!” he roared instead. I glanced at Freddy, then went on in to Pete’s office.

“Close the door,” Pete said in a more normal tone, those eyes slightly less frigid.

“We’ve got some things to talk about.”

I closed the door and walked over to his desk, ignoring his guest chair after glancing at it.

“Smart,” he said with a nod toward the chair, a gleam now in his eye. “Maybe there’s some hope for you after all. But nobody said ‘at ease,’ so tighten it up.”

I shifted back to full attention, and he leaned back in his chair to look at me calculatingly.

“This is the biggest screwball mess I’ve ever seen,” he said, his voice having turned colder again. “I always knew you were a hotshot, Santee, but you must have really come up with a good one to get this handed to you. What’s it all about?”

“Sir, I’m not at liberty to discuss it,” I answered with my eyes straight ahead.

“Bullshit!” he countered with a snort. “Would you be at liberty to discuss it if I added some extra duty to your schedule?”

“Sir, you’ll have to take it up with the Council,” I maintained, refusing to budge an inch. “I have no intentions of getting myself put out an airlock without a pressure suit.”

He considered that for a minute. “That hush-hush, hm?” he mused, rubbing at his face with one hand as he made up his mind. “Okay, we’ll leave the subject for now.

But the question still remains: what am I going to do with you? You’re almost a third of the way to the first fifty demerit mark, and when you hit that I’m supposed to cordially extend your visit.”

“The Colonel can always have his proctors turn their backs for a few minutes,” I suggested without losing the neutral tone I used. “Then both our problems will be solved. Sir.”

He clasped his hands on the desk, and leaned forward.

“No way, Santee,” he growled. “If I catch you even thinking about the shuttle ports I’ll clap you in leg irons! Ringer told me all about what you tried to pull on him on Xanadu O.S.” Suddenly, he grinned an evil grin. “He also told me what you got for it. I liked the idea so much I’m thinking about putting it in here.”

“The Colonel had better not be thinking of trying it himself,” I said coldly, bringing my eyes over to meet his. “If memory serves, the last time we had a go-around in the gym the Colonel picked up a few bruises he wasn’t expecting. Sir.”

The reminder was enough to take care of the amusement he’d been showing, but Pete wasn’t the sort of man to feel resentment over a thing like that. He leaned back in the chair again, ran an annoyed hand through his short gray hair, then fixed me with a baleful stare.

“You’ve put me on a hell of a spot, Diana,” he complained as if finally remembering that we knew each other. “How am I supposed to turn you loose among all those innocent kids? You look younger than most of them, and there’s bound to be trouble even if you don’t start it.”

“Don’t look to me for the answers, Pete,” I returned with a shrug, relaxing a little now that I was no longer “Santee.” “Coming here wasn’t my idea.”

“Well, it wasn’t mine either, but I think I’m going to take advantage of the situation to solve another problem I have,” he answered with an odd distraction. “How many times have you taught that infiltration course at 2?”

Infiltration was a course usually taught only by Special Agents, but I didn’t see the connection.

“Four or five times,” I said, suddenly not liking the way he’d begun to look at me.

“Why do you ask?”

“I ask because Jeff Kelner has been teaching it, but they just pulled him out on me,”

he muttered, now checking through his desk drawers for something. “I’m about to assign you an extra little chore, but don’t worry about it. It’s only ten hours a week.”

I felt my jaw hit the floor. “Ten -! Pete, you’ve got to be kidding! I don’t have ten minutes a day!”

“That’s okay,” he told me with a grin and a glance. “I’m rescheduling the class for 2100. You’ll get there in plenty of time. Freddy can take you over every night in a hopper. It’s only a fifteen minute flight.”

“When am I supposed to sleep?” I asked in annoyance, leaning one hand on his desk. “I’ll be running from morning till night as it is.”

“A rough, tough hyper-A like you doesn’t need any sleep,” he said, the gleam back in his stare. “Maybe if you can’t keep your eyes open you won’t be so quick with a knife or your hands.’

“That wasn’t any part of this deal,” I pointed out, putting my free hand flat on the piece of paper he’d set in front of him. “What if I refuse?”

“You refuse, and I’ll start to count demerits,” he grated, lifting my hand to free the paper. “As long as you keep me happy, I’ll forget any arithmetic I know. And if I know you, I’d need a computer to keep track.”

“How about classroom demerits?” I asked after I straightened and thought about it for a moment. “What are you willing to do about those?”

“Absolutely nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “In the classroom you’re on your own. Try being a normal cadet.”

“‘Tried it once, didn’t like it,’” I quoted, matching his headshake. “This is not going to work out.”

“It had better work out,” he disagreed with a growl. “I can’t reach the Council with my displeasure, but I sure as hell can reach you.”

Good old Pete. He’d started to give me those eyes full blast again, just to be sure I got the point. Somehow, I had no trouble getting it.

“All right, have it your own way,” I grudged. “I teach the course and you close your eyes.”

“I usually do have it my way,” he said, a look of satisfaction finally spreading across his face. “Don’t forget it.”

“I plan to forget everything about this place as soon as possible,” I told him, turning slightly to eye the plain, light gold walls of his office. The only things hanging on them were his official appointment as Commandant, and a copy of the Council order that had established the Academy. If anyone ever wondered what was important to Pete, a look at his office walls would tell them.

“Can I get back to my quarters now?” I added once I’d had my look around. “I’ve been standing in lines for hours, and you haven’t helped any.”

“Not so fast,” he said, and I looked back at him to see him rubbing his palms on the ends of his chair arms while staring at me. “There’s still the matter of thirteen demerits and somebody’s name on report.”

“Come on, Pete, give it a rest!” I protested, noticing in annoyance that that gleam was back. “You’ve had your fun, so let it go, will you?”

“I’m not letting anything go, cadet,” he growled, those eyes of his totally uncompromising. “I’d need power tools to cram anything else into your schedule, but you’ve got some free time now. You look so much like a school kid, I’ve thought of the perfect punishment for you. Here’s some paper and a pen, and you can use Freddy’s desk over there. You’ll write ‘I will be a good little girl’ 5,000 times, and don’t plan on taking all afternoon. I intend to see you at evening parade.”

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I ever heard of,” I stated, wondering why he didn’t look as if he were joking. “I’m not a school kid no matter what I look like, and I won’t do it.”

He moved his hand deliberately to the ‘phone, and put one finger right against the switch.

“You’ll do it, or I’ll put Ringer’s idea to work right now,” he growled, his expression leaving no doubt about how serious he was. “Even if I can’t manage it myself, I’ve got plenty of help to call on. I don’t run this place for nothing.”

His green-ice eyes told me he meant every word. Silently chanting the litany of “No spilled blood, no spilled blood,” I leaned forward to grab the paper and pen, then went over to Freddy’s desk. But on the way, just to show how I felt about things, I kicked the guest chair hard enough to send it skidding toward the wall.

“Make that six thousand times,” he called after me. “Cadets have no business throwing temper tantrums.”

“If you want to see a temper tantrum, wait until the next time I get you into the gym,”

I snarled, glaring at him as I sat down. “My temper won’t be the only thing that’s thrown.”

“Funny, but my schedule’s full up for the next three months,” he said with a grin, having picked up a letter opener to toy with. “Start writing.”

I started writing. It took four and a half hours.

When I finally got out of Pete’s office, I had to keep flexing my fingers to get rid of the writer’s cramp. Freddy was waiting in the outer office with the sergeant when I walked out and quietly closed the door behind me. I would have slammed the door, but I know Pete. He was just waiting for the slam to hit me with another thousand sentences, but I wasn’t about to give him any more souvenirs. He’d taken the finished pages I’d handed him, carefully put them in his desk, and grinningly refused to tell me what he planned to do with them.

Freddy had been in once or twice during those four and a half hours, had glanced over to see what I was writing, and had grinned his way out again. After a while, I knew that Freddy must have passed the word on to the sergeant. When that same sergeant came in once with papers for Pete, the man was clearly holding back amusement and pointedly kept himself from looking at me.

“I’m glad you two got so much amusement out of that,” I said, watching them fight to keep neutral expressions. “You should have been with me on my last assignment.

I got two weeks in the hospital out of it, and you would have positively roared.”

“Come on, Diana, it was funny and you know it,” Freddy said with a grin after finally losing the battle. “How long has it been since the last time you had to do that?”

“I never did it, Freddy, because I never got caught,” I explained, then rubbed at my eyes. “But things haven’t been going too well for me lately… I’m getting out of here before Attila the Hun thinks up any more entertaining exercises. I’ll see you around.”

“Wait a minute and I’ll take you back to your quarters,” Freddy said, stopping me by catching my arm. “You might not remember the way.”

I stopped and gave him the most sarcastic look I was capable of, and at least he had the decency to look embarrassed.

“Sorry,” he apologized with a wry grin. “I guess I forgot that infiltration techniques include automatic memorizing of routes covered.”

“Yes, they certainly do,” I agreed. “And it looks like it’s a good thing you’ll be auditing my course at 2 every night. I think you need a refresher. Pete said to tell you we start tomorrow night.”

“Fine,” he acknowledged with a nod. “I’ll pick you up at your quarters at 2045 hours, right after – ah – ”

He knew damned well I was scheduled for punishment before the meeting time he’d specified, but the pink in his cheeks showed he thought it impolitic to mention it.

“You’ve got it,” I told him sweetly, patting his cheek. “2045, right after ah. Don’t be late or I’ll leave without you.”

I unhooked my arm from his grip and left the building, making sure to close the door firmly behind me. Normally I wouldn’t have minded Freddy’s company, but I had a couple of stops to make on the way back to quarters. It had been a while since I’d last visited the Academy, but the locations of my stops weren’t difficult to remember.

One was just a short way up South Street and the other was just beyond South Street at the far end of White Sheet Lane, not too far from the women’s barracks.

Both spots were guarded by human beings rather than electronic equipment, and if I hadn’t been there on private business of my own I probably would have called Pete and described their sloppiness. No human being, man or woman, can be alert all the time, but guards walking posts are usually expected to make some effort toward that end. One day it wouldn’t be me trying to get past them, and that somebody else might not mind leaving no living witnesses behind.

I stood in a quiet and shadowed corner for a moment, toying with the idea of reporting them to save their lives at a future time, then shrugged and left them to their destiny. None of the guards was a child and they all knew better, and none of them would be grateful for being called on their sloppiness. I had enough problems of my own just now, and slipping away quietly was one way of not adding to them.

When I got back to my quarters, I discovered that my two roommates were back.

They looked up from their bunks when I opened the door, and gave me the sort of inspection only one woman can give another. They were both about eighteen, both had dark hair, but there the similarity ended.

One was plain looking – the shy, mousy type – and she smiled when I looked at her. I returned the smile, then looked at the other one again. This second girl was a real beauty with clear, translucent skin, peaches and cream complexion, and deep, limpid eyes. She lay stretched out in long comfort on her bunk, and her expression said she hated me at first sight. This was the sort of trouble Pete had been thinking about when he’d said I didn’t even have to start it. With some people, you start trouble just by being there.

“Hi,” the mousy one greeted me, shifting around on her bunk. “You must be the third of our party. I’m Elaine Reynolds, and this is Linda Simmons. What’s your name?”

“Diana Santee,” I told her with a nod. “Nice to meet you, Elaine, Linda. Care for a smoke?”

I held up the carton of cigarettes I’d filched from the stores warehouse on White Sheet Lane. I could have tried to buy them from the PX, of course, but I didn’t feel like taking any chances. If one more person told me I was too young to do something, I’d scream. Or worse.