Sirius Academy (Jezebel's Ladder) (18 page)

Red said, “Now if you don’t mind, I
can’t get in the right mindset with boys commenting on my form.”

He held up his hands. “All
professional, no harassment.” He left her with a smile.

Zeiss made a list of every background
anomaly he’d ever found and would apply those checks to the rest of the people
on the island. He discussed the toolkit with Trina as they waited. As she
watched Red warm up, the anti-terrorist professor said, “She still has the
cutest little monkey feet.”

When the TA cleared his throat, she
put on a serious mask and added, “I mean the monkey claw style she’s using.
It’s what short people use against taller opponents.”

Red was the last person through the
last two exams but tested successfully for all three belts.

The team carried her to the
cafeteria afterward for a celebration. They gave her a paper crown with the
caption, ‘Reinita Monita’—the cute little monkey queen. Zeiss didn’t have to
ask the question about reinstating the club; he just raised his eyebrows and she
said, “Go play with your friends.”

Zeiss ran the new background filter on the entire island
with only two hits. One was a maintenance worker who had lied on his resume; he
was summarily dismissed. The other was a professor guilty of bigamy; he was
using the island’s remote location to hide from both spouses. The dean retained
the bigamist, deciding that this piece of information, given the proper supervision,
made him a more loyal employee.

On the last day of Red’s second semester,
Zeiss chatted with the men of the club on the flight deck while they watched
the Mori executive craft hover in for a landing. Since the
Half-Pint
was
unveiled, hybrid alien-tech VTOs were all the rage. “How’s the team shaping
up?”

Auckland said, “About a third of
the people we investigated got blackballed. The psychiatrist was particularly
annoying. Back to the drawing board for several of the slots, but we’ve started
recruiting operations on a Korean propulsion specialist—Park.”

Zeiss nodded. “I’ve seen his papers
on the ion drive—good choice. Wasn’t Red going to approach Llewellyn next to be
copilot?”

“She couldn’t get on the same training
runs as Lou,” Auckland explained. “She switched her flights to Sundays next semester
so she can bump into him more. It means our club meetings change to Saturday.”

Sojiro asked, “Any more luck on the
spy front, Se
ñ
or Fedora?”

“Nothing official.”

“Unofficially?” asked the artist.

“I ran the filter on Daddy Mori’s
flight crew that’s coming to pick up our pop queen,” Zeiss whispered.

The Japanese student winced on his
left side, as if he’d heard a random note from the brass section of an
orchestra. “That would be an insult if Mori found out. Daniel-san recently
referred to him as a valued partner.”

Zeiss glared at him to shut up. No
one else knew Daniel’s true identity or that he sent out routine press releases
about corporate events.
“I’m 98 percent sure that one of those
guys is really Omar, an Azerbaijani member of a known terrorist group.”

“Having his daughter
kidnapped or killed on our island would be an even bigger insult,” admitted
Sojiro.

“So you see my
dilemma. I need you guys for the extra 2 percent,” the large, blond TA said
looking at each man for confirmation.

Toby summarized, “Z,
after all the times you came through for us, we’ve got your back.”

“Why isn’t Red here?”
asked Sojiro.

“We need to be
subtle
,”
Zeiss replied. “Herk, do you know Russian?”

“Well enough. But
someone knowing Russian wouldn’t be enough proof.”

The TA weighed
alternatives and told him part of the truth. “Let’s say there are divergent
identity trails. The nasty one applied for a license to work an oil rig in Kuwait, had a tattoo visible on his neck, and spoke Russian. The rig blew up before he was
officially hired.”

“So we err on the
side of caution,” decided Herk.

“Good man,” said
Zeiss. “Sojiro, do you still have the Taser that Horvath gave you?”

The artist nodded and
took a device the size of a pack of cards out of his backpack.

“They’re not supposed
to see me or anyone in security for this to work. Walk past like you’re heading
to the
Half-Pint
.” Zeiss then whispered the rest of the plan. “I’ll get
Horvath to stay at the gate unless there’s an incident. The shack is eight
meters away. Because of Sojiro’s medical history, she has a group of very fast
medics standing by. They’ll check Omar’s neck for a pulse and any other
evidence.”

The men nodded as
Zeiss left the deck. In the office, Trina listened to his plan and asked, “Why
you?”

“My way nobody gets
hurt,” explained the TA. “I’ve checked your record, ma’am. You’re effective,
but leave scorched earth. I was Solomon’s friend, whatever atrocities he
committed. I don’t want someone else’s blood on my hands.”

“Conrad, I’m letting
you do this as a personal favor. If you botch this in front of Mori . . .”

“I’ll fall on my
sword, and you had no idea.”

Fortunately, the
execution of the plan went better than anyone could’ve imagined. After most of
the foreign crew unloaded and dispersed to grab fresh supplies, their suspect
attached an RV-style utility umbilical to the craft. In blue worker fatigues,
Herkemer wandered by. In Russian, he said, “Omar, your fly’s unzipped.”

The suspect
immediately checked it.

Sojiro zapped him at
range, and the other two team members helped the medics drag the terrorist suspect
to the guard shack.

Mori security was
caught flat-footed. Local security had the suspect bagged and tagged by the
time Mori’s captain protested.

When Kaguya arrived,
she smoothed things over. “Thank you for your diligence, Commander Taggart.”

“Z caught this one a
few minutes before they landed,” Taggart said, sharing the credit. “He worries
about student safety.”

“My father will
convey his gratitude,” she said, appraising Zeiss in a new way. “If this suspect
has no explosives on him, we’d like to take him with us for questioning.”

Taggart obeyed. Since
the man had committed no crimes on the island, he had no real jurisdiction.

By the end of the
day, her father spoke with both Daniel and Zeiss by video conference. “I don’t
suppose I could offer you a position at Mori Energy Solutions?” Mori asked the
TA.

“I am flattered but
consider myself part of the Fortune family.”

The Japanese tycoon
nodded. “I’ve heard that the two of you teach advanced combat class for
individuals
.”

“That’s to teach
people with Simplification talent to apply their gift to hand-to-hand combat.
Your wife was trained in the original form created by Master Robins. It is
available to fourth year students who have joined teams.”

“Assassins hunt my
only child
today
.”

“I’m merely a
beginner at Aikido and have no talents,” Zeiss replied, after a nod of
permission from his employer. “My sole purpose in a class is to make sure the
Academy will never lose a child entrusted to our care.”

“That is why I trust
you to teach her. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to wait until you feel worthy.
There are riots brewing at our Malaysian plants. There are several Middle Eastern
groups unhappy with my choice of Kaguya as heir, both because of her loose moral
reputation and her gender. I do not delude myself into thinking either situation
will change soon. Therefore, her ability to react must be enhanced with every
tool available. She is my only child, Daniel-san.”

The owner of the island
bowed. “I’ll rearrange our schedules to teach her, old friend.”

Once the conference
was ended, Mori met his daughter on the roof of his headquarters. “I’ve given
you an opportunity with this Monk. Are you sure he’s the one responsible for
thwarting our agents?”

The young woman
nodded. “Yes, Father. Positive. He hides from cameras and shields himself even
from my talents, but his friends brag. Mr. Zeiss is Daniel Fortune’s most
trusted assistant. This is a golden opportunity. If I can turn either of my instructors,
we can control the mission to Sirius. And I’ve never met a man I couldn’t bend
to serve me.”

“Us, you mean.”

“Of course, honored Father.”

****

Third semester was
shorter than the others but more intensive. At the start of her final freshman semester,
Red sat cross-legged in the smaller, basement dojo as Zeiss laid out an
assortment of practice weapons. “I can’t believe you got me into an advanced
combat seminar! Why are you here?”

“I’m cover,”
explained Zeiss. “The class is on the books as Advanced Kendo for Women.”

She looked at the
other classes listed on her pad. “Fluid Flow seems easy enough.”

“It’s a prerequisite
for thermodynamics and aerodynamics, both on your target list.”

“I’ve been wanting to
take Parallel Computer Programming. Thanks.”

“Sojiro’s polite, but
some things you could do yourself rather than call him at odd hours.”

“But this one doesn’t
make sense. Combinatorics and Complexity theory for math is all talk about how
hard things are without actually
doing
anything.”

He ignored the jibe.
“Daniel said you have to take complexity theory so you know how much computer
power something is going to soak up
before
you do it. Just a small shift
in direction up front can make all the difference in hitting the target, just
like martial arts.”

“I’ll get my
unlimited computer access back after this?”

“It’s also the
foundation for . . .” When she rolled her eyes, he skipped to, “Yes.”

Red covered her mouth
as she whispered, “Could you give me advice on getting guys to notice me?”

“I’m . . . not the
best person to ask about that sort of thing.”

“I know, but you’ll
talk to me, not like normal guys.”

He raised an eyebrow.
“Is this about Lou?” His voice was less than approving.

She scuffed her feet.
“Yeah. I’ve been going to the places that he and his posse hangout.”

“Posse?” he said with
the same British accent she’d used.

“Shut up. I even
managed to get into a dart game with them.”

“Let me guess; you
smoked them all and called them wimps.”

She chuckled. “That’s
what they do to each other.”

“And you want to know
why they treat you like a short, annoying new guy?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s a mystery.”

Before she could
pressure him about the sarcasm, they heard Daniel in the hallway, chatting with
another young woman. When Kaguya walked through the door, both she and Red asked,
“What’s
she
doing here?”

Daniel nodded to have
Zeiss close the door and turn on the white-noise generators that prevented
eavesdropping. Once they were secure, the professor announced, “Each of you has
a parent who served as a Fortune Aerospace agent and trained in the basics of a
new martial art that uses principles of Simplification. They’ve each passed
fragments of this top-secret art to you.”

The women protested,
but Daniel raised a hand. “I don’t judge; rather, I’m here to start you at the
beginning to teach you all the steps. To those outside, this class is because
my Kendo course rarely has women. I invited both of you because I cannot
maintain such a fiction often. That’s why we use this private dojo. Much of
this will be taught by guest lecturers from our security team, but even they
won’t be told the rare gems the two of you are.”

Kaguya, in her new patterned-silk
uniform, lit up at the compliment. They started with the basics of blocking
crude, armed approaches. The billionaire had them practice separately because,
when placed together, the girls fought constantly. Mori always seemed to turn
each question into a way to flirt with Daniel. At one point, she blurted, “Why
is that
nat
helping? You’re the expert.”

The billionaire said,
“By your standards, Conrad is slow. But he’s my pace car on this speedway. He
ensures your safety, and you’ll respect him as you do me. When he tells you
something, it’s for a good reason.”

At the end of the
first class, Daniel announced, “I know you feel this practice is artificial and
boring. Bear with us. We need to teach you the right way and increase the speed
gradually. By the end of this course, you’ll be sparring with each other, and you
two will be among the top five fighters on the island.”

After the ladies hit
the showers, Zeiss whispered, “Mori was all over you!”

“You’re
exaggerating,” countered Daniel.

“You’re going to have
to wash before you go home tonight. I can smell that perfume of hers on your
wrists.”

“Perhaps.”

“And every time she
said ‘yes, sensei,’ all slow like that, it sounded like a porn movie.”

Daniel closed his
eyes. “Point made. Forgive an old and vain professor. I’ll get another helper.
Because if I have those ladies practice together, it’ll be like tying the tails
of two alley cats together and throwing them over a clothesline. They’d kill
each other. They’re probably in there now, stabbing each other while wearing
polite smiles."

Zeiss laughed. “Do
you get many crushes?”

“This is calculated.
She knows who I am. She wouldn’t hesitate to sleep with me, or even marry me.
But inside a month, she’d divorce me and take half. Her family motto is: without
profit, there is no progress.”

“I’ll offer the slot
to Alistair if you don’t mind,” said Zeiss. “Trina’s already cleared him.”

“I’d be teaching from
A to Z. I like it. We could even get you Dr. Seussian uniforms.”

“To watch these two ladies
duke it out, I think he’d wear one.”

“If we put them in a
mud pit, we could charge admission.”

“Pudding. Red would
insist on pudding.”