Sirius Academy (Jezebel's Ladder) (25 page)

The second morning of the semester beginning in January,
Zeiss was with Daniel in the gym. This time he was doing some working out of
his own. “Frustrated?” asked his boss.

The TA lifted padded bars from each
side up to a midpoint over his chest. “Red’s seriously pissed. She won’t say a
word to me that isn’t required by law. Three weeks after our rift, she dropped
the navigation class, and she needs that to graduate as a pilot. She won’t even
let the team members talk to me.”

“I promised her I wouldn’t talk to
you about the team either,” Daniel admitted. “It’s the only way she’d let me be
the new adviser.”

“You’re gaining weight from those
weekly meetings. Could you tell me about what sent her off the deep end?”

Daniel bit his lip as he played
with the weight bar in front of him. “I could tell you about another friend of
yours
not
on her team.”

Zeiss put the machine back in place
and sat up. “Go on.”

“Kaguya’s team started recruiting aggressively.”
Daniel rattled off a few student names and specializations.

“She’s using Red’s list, the one
she spent a year developing. Syd Green gave it to Mori!” He mopped his face
with a towel and draped it around his neck.

“In more ways than one, I hear.”

“So that touched off a blood feud?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny.”

“That explains why Sojiro watched
The
Godfather
.” When Daniel raised an eyebrow, Zeiss explained. “I monitor
their computer activities to give me clues.”

“Sneaky.”

“Occupational hazard. Of the nine recruiting
targets, how many has the other team scored?”

“Four so far; two are still in
play,” Daniel hinted. “We don’t think Green told Mori about only needing
eighteen talents; he was so new that no one had explained that to him yet.”

“That means Red’s team is up to
eleven people, right on schedule aside from no navigator. That confirms my
suspicions from the size of their beverage orders from the BX. But only three
team members are women.”

“You shouldn’t be worrying about
this anymore. When I asked about your frustration, I meant sexual. You’ve been
doing more pushups than me these days. How’d the date with Nurse Betsy go?”

“Yeah. Yvette set us up before Red
built the Iron Curtain. She said Betsy was sweet.”

“So, how
did
she taste?”

Zeiss cracked his boss in the butt
with the towel. “Dirty old man.”

“You didn’t swallow a second
earring to complete the set?”

“Eh? No. We had dinner at the
restaurant, that’s all. A date doesn’t mean sex.”

Daniel scratched his head. “Did she
wear a dress?”

“Yeah.”

“Colored bra?”

“How did you . . .?”

“Then she was expecting sex. What
was wrong with her?”

“She wanted me to pick the time,
order for her, and didn’t have an opinion about anything.”

“And the pilot from the mail plane
who offered to give you a ride back from the funeral? You used to pick up
parcels from her all the time. Now she asks about you.”

“Huh? She’s as tall I am with
bigger muscles. Have you ever seen her toss those mail sacks?”

“Might do you some good to get your
sack tossed.”

Zeiss stood up. “I ought to leave
you strapped to that thing.” Then he saw Herkemer walking through the gym
wearing shorts and a tank top. “Herk!”

To Daniel, the Polish bomb
technician said, “Tell this man I came to talk to my adviser.”

“Come on, Red doesn’t watch the
security videos,” insisted Zeiss. When Herk’s head jerked up to check the
camera, the TA said, “She does!
Gott in Himmel
.” Zeiss collapsed onto
the bench to have a drink and eavesdrop.

Daniel asked, “How did the trip to Panama go? Did Risa’s folks like you?”

“Her mom couldn’t stop smiling or
feeding me.”

Zeiss stage-whispered into Daniel’s
ear, “What made the mom smile?”

Herk slipped and answered directly.
“Whenever I opened a door for her or offered to carry something. I must’ve
fixed twenty things around that kitchen. Her aunts would fan themselves while
they watched.”

“You took off your good shirt so
you wouldn’t get grease on it, didn’t you?” suggested Zeiss.

“Yeah, how did you know, Z?” Catching
himself, he cursed. “I’m no good at this spy stuff.”

The professor nodded at the machine
on his other side, “If you’re working out, your knees block any lip-readers.”

“That’s why you’re an adviser,
sir,” Herk said, lying down at the machine beside Daniel’s.

“Why has Red been practicing lip-reading?”
asked Zeiss.

“Officially, the Academy teaches it
in case helmet radios go out,” Daniel said, covering his mouth. To Herk, he
said, “Tell us about Panama.”

“She has a huge extended family,
and they were all great, sir. Risa told them about me last year, but only
mentioned my first name—Rafael.”

“You’re kidding,” Daniel exclaimed.

“No, man. They all thought I was
Latino. Her relatives made me feel welcome even though my Spanish sucks. All I
know are short compliments for women and food. Her mom or one of her aunts
pinched my damn cheek every time I talked.”

“You speak four languages; you’ll
get there,” said Zeiss, turning his back to the camera. “What’s the problem
with her father?”

Herk sighed. “See, you get this. I
can’t talk to anyone else on the team about these things.” Lowering his voice
so others in the gym couldn’t hear, he said, “I asked him for his blessing, for
Sonrisa’s hand in marriage.” When Zeiss didn’t drop his water bottle in
surprise, he continued. Idly, Herk pulled the triangle handle down on the
apparatus in a rhythm as he enumerated his problems. “He doesn’t want us
getting married before she gets her degree. He gave all sorts of excuses. He
rambled about the honor of Panama, how they’d never get another astronaut if
Risa washed out. I think he used a triple negative at one point. He made a
point that they’re very Catholic in that family—no birth control. We couldn’t
live together here on the island. We’ve been together almost two years. I can’t
wait five years to . . . you know.”

Daniel smiled. “He didn’t specify
which degree. Nine months back from the bachelors’ graduation puts a wedding
about six months out. I don’t think you could plan a big wedding any sooner
than that. There’s one other married student couple on the island; it’s about
time we converted one of the pods to married housing. I was just about to
suggest that to Dean Stanton.”

“That’s fantastic, professor,” Herk
said with a relieved grin. “But kids?”

“Your friend here put the best UN-security-cleared
baby nurse on the planet on your team.”

“I was wondering about that,” Herk
fished.

“I’m still trying to prove my
theory. You’ll have to trust me a little longer,” said Zeiss.

“I owe you for taking care of her
the day of the bombing, Z. That buys you a lot, man,” Herk said pumping the
weights. “Risa’s dedicated to this mission; she wouldn’t risk it by getting
pregnant. Her dad also thinks my technician job doesn’t pay enough to support a
family.”

“I have a suggestion. You and Risa
will love it, but Red won’t,” Zeiss offered.

“Let’s see, sex three-and-a-half
years sooner, or tolerating a bad attitude from Red,” Herk said, pretending to
consider. “Since Red’s going to have a bad attitude regardless, I’d vote for
everyone else being happy.”

The other men chuckled. Zeiss
licked his lips. “Bodily Override talents get high-risk combat pay from day
one.”

“You want me to sign up to be a
Rex?” asked Herk, incredulous.

Daniel nodded. “Your team needs
one. You worked well with the ones on the fire team. I’d sign that request.” After
a moment, he whispered, “Rexes can also delay the release of problematic fluids
for over an hour. That’s why Kaguya always kept one handy. Of course we can’t let
her infect any more of them; she destabilizes them too much. That could be your
hook with Red—you couldn’t be recruited by Mori if you got Override training.”

“I guess I could do that . . . for
the sake of the team,” said Herk.

“So what’s the group doing these
days?” asked Zeiss.

The Polish team member smiled. “I
can’t talk about some of it. She’s doing the calculator trick every week to
practice, but it’s not the same without you.”

“Is Lou on the team yet?”

“He was impressed but doesn’t want
to settle for second chair. He’s aiming for pilot himself.”

“How about more personal
information: what classes is she taking for her second semester of her
Sophomore year?”

“Risa’s learning about combining
Ice Nine and solar cells. The solar fabric keeps the ice from melting in the
sun. She’s meeting with her talent mentor once a week.”

“I meant Red.”

“Oh. They’re probably all the ones
you suggested to Professor Sorenson. I saw the handwriting on her degree plan.
Chemistry, Thermodynamics and energy transfer, Space propulsion, Resisting
interrogation, and Biology. She hates Biology already.”

“Too bad, she needs it. Is she
getting headaches, keeping her potassium levels steady?”

Herk laughed. “You sound like
Risa’s mom. The only problem Red’s had lately is clothes that don’t fit
anymore. Risa, Yvette, and Trina are taking care of that.”

“She’s seeing Trina again?”

“Yeah. Red started tutoring in
place of that class she dropped last . . . oops. Sorry, man.”

Zeiss looked at his watch. “I have
to stretch Daniel some more. It’s been good
not
talking to you today,
Herk.”

“I owe you. I won’t forget this,”
Herk promised.

****

A few weeks later, the island was
rocked by a different set of events. Famine in Africa caused several loan
defaults. Bankers around the world scrambled to raise interest on their other
accounts to compensate. More defaults followed. Financial markets were sliding.

Red called an emergency team meeting
in the simulation center at 1900 on a Thursday night. Daniel and Trina were
both present. Sojiro had been there for hours prepping a new interface. She
told them all, “I’m adjusting the clearance level of everyone in this room.
Last week, of all things, a plague of locusts started a chain of economic
events in Africa.”

“How Biblical,” said Risa.

“Closer than you think. Seven years
ago, I and a close team helped to avoid a world-currency crash with similar
roots.”

One of the newcomers raised an
eyebrow. “When you were what, ten?”

“At ten, I was in Mensa and taking
remote math courses from Stanford. This was eleven. My parents saw me building
a model of the impending crash in my playroom. I worked with some of the best
minds in the UN to stave off disaster. We couldn’t avert all of it, but we
worked for a soft landing.”

“Except Somalia,” Trina whispered.

“They were trying to assassinate
members of the financial team. It’s evolution,” Red barked. “The Band-Aids we
left in place might have worked, except the Russians panicked and dumped
diamonds to shore up their own currency. This sent the Africans even lower.”

When Sojiro brought the
three-dimensional model of world economies up, people stopped doubting. The
first two attempts to manipulate the flow crashed the simulator. “More memory.
It’s bigger this time,” Red pushed.

“What are those big reservoirs?”
asked Park.

“Corporate, EU, and UN bank
accounts that we have access to,” Daniel explained. “Our brakes.” There were
several profane exclamations at the sizes involved. “Those are the major stock
and commodity markets.”

“Is this legal?” asked Auckland.

“It’s a gray area, but the original
charter for our team was never dissolved,” Daniel reasoned. “They’ll forgive us
if it works. If it doesn’t, we may well be living off what’s growing on this
island.”

“How can
we
help?” asked
Herk.

“I need to borrow your brains,” Red
announced.

“Told you she should’ve changed her
name to Frankenstein,” Yvette told Toby.

Trina said, “We’ll work in short
shifts. Daniel, Yvette, Auckland, and I will trade off every hour until this
crisis is resolved. We’ll bring some experts on financial topics into the next
room for a seminar on something. They’ll give us a boost.”

“All night?” asked Risa.

“We’ll find another excuse after
that,” Trina said.

“Z would have a plan by now,” Herk
muttered. Both Trina and Red glared at him. “Truth hurts. You won’t pull this
off without him.”

Red ignored him and started the
first shift. By eleven, she was haggard from several rapid, failed attempts.
Her old tricks weren’t slowing the slide to doom effectively enough.

Fists clenched, she told Herk, “Get
Z, damn it.”

Zeiss arrived in pajama bottoms and
a T-shirt that said, ‘Four out of five statisticians are above average.’ To
Daniel, he said. “Class is canceled tomorrow. Someone dropped sodium down the
toilets and flooded the auditorium. The dojo may need new flooring.”

“It definitely does,” asserted
Trina. “I’ll get Alistair on it right away.”

To Sojiro, he said, “To celebrate
the cancellation of classes, you’re throwing a Death Star party. Every Star
Wars game ever made is going to have a tournament right here, all night.”

“You can’t just come in here and
take over,” Red complained.

“I’ll send out the e-invites,” Risa
volunteered.

“We’ll need a prize,” Sojiro said.

“A six-pack of Mountain Dew,” Zeiss
replied.

“No,” whimpered Daniel.

“And a twenty dollar entry fee gets
you all the pizza you can eat,” the TA added.

Herk said, “That’s what I’m talking
about.”

Red whistled. “Everybody out. Ten
minutes with just me and the advisors.”