Looking down at the glowing steps again, Elgin seemed to steel herself, then lifted her magnificent golden legs one at a time until she stood at the top of the steps.

  Faced with Galatea's apparently-stainless-steel hull, she asked, "Now what? How do I get in?"

  "Just walk forward, ma'am. You're invited. She'll let you in."

  "Who's 'she'?"

  "My flitter. Galatea."

  Elgin goggled briefly and grinned.

  I said, "Please don't tease her about her name. It's my fault, not hers. Are you coming aboard or not?"

  "I'm not sure yet. Why won't you show yourself?"

  Letting Tea's hull field drop, I said, "Just wanted to see if you had nerve enough to trust me a little."

  As I said that, I made all the steps but the one she was standing on disappear. As expected, Elgin bridled and gestured behind herself as she asked, "Nerve enough? Didn't I just come up these..." and then she saw the steps were gone and she was apparently standing on a deep green emerald about two feet square.

  Her eyes got big, her pulse hammered visibly, and for some moments she couldn't tear her eyes away from the courtyard below. When she could, she hurriedly stepped off the green block and onto Tea's deck.

  I grinned and cheerily said, "Welcome aboard, Agent Vicky!"

  Eyes still wide, she screeched, "What the hell was that trick about?" as I quietly asked Tea to put her in stasis.

  Tea said, "I need to know why, Ed. She's an agent of the US federal government, ostensibly aboard to try to arrest you."

  Ah. Okay. I asked, "Agent Vicky, are you here to try to arrest me? My flitter wants to know whether she should place you in a stasis field or not."

  "A what field?"

  "Stasis. That's where you can't move or do harm to others."

  "No! Tell it no, I'm definitely not here to arrest you."

  "Okay, thanks. See, Tea? How about now?"

  "I still need to know why, Ed."

  Again quietly, I said, "This is a character and psychological test, Tea. Just put her in stasis, please."

  "With great reluctance and under protest, Ed."

  "That's fine, ma'am. I completely understand."

  Tea then established a stasis field around Elgin. I walked over to her and thumped lightly on her black leather purse, then hefted it briefly. Yup. A gun and the rattle of cuffs. Probably a can of pepper spray in there, too. And, of course, her badge and ID. I ignored the derringer the backs of my fingers felt through her jacket pocket when I hefted her purse.

  Using a tiny field, I tack welded the steel ball nibs at the top her purse so they wouldn't part. She'd have to rip it open to get stuff out until the evening was done.

  Stepping back with a sigh, I said, "And such a fool was I, so thoroughly bedazzled by your beauty that I stood before you innocent as a lamb, helpless as a baby, a victim to your perfect loveliness, enthralled to your utmost pleasures, milady." With another sigh, I said, "Tea, let her go, please."

  Elgin wobbled slightly and caught her balance as Tea said aloud, "Thank you, Ed. I felt most uncomfortable restraining a law enforcement officer."

  "Altogether understandable, Tea, but it was for a good cause. Now I know I can trust her a little."

  "Because you welded her purse shut?"

  Heh. Elgin quickly tried to open her purse and failed. Her gaze narrowed to glare at me.

  I said, "No, Tea. Because she had the guts to come up those steps and onto your deck fully prepared to arrest me if an opportunity presented itself. She might not like doing it, but she's honor bound to try, which means she's a woman of courage and honor. Now take us straight up, please, and if you have any other such questions, please wait until later. I need to discuss some things with Agent Vicky."

  "Okay, Ed."

  Elgin growled, "What things?"

  "Well, first, what's the highest you've ever flown?"

  "What?"

  "How high, ma'am?"

  She shrugged. "However high commercial planes fly."

  "About thirty thousand, then. How'd you feel about that?"

  She peered at me and asked, "What do you mean 'how did I feel'? I felt just like everybody else, I guess."

  Nodding, I turned to walk to the gin bottle as I said "Well, you won't feel 'just like everybody else' after tonight, ma'am."

  Elgin had followed me. I took the gin and a bottle of bitter lemon to the seating area and sat down, using another seat as a table. Elgin took a seat near mine, set her purse down, and watched me open and pour two drinks.

  Sending a green tendril to each glass to make ice, I said, "We'll go up to twenty miles if you have the nerve. Maybe higher."

  Taking her glass, she said, "I've read flitters can go higher than that. Up to a hundred miles, I think."

  "Are you up for that?"

  She retorted, "I have to show up for duty tomorrow. How long would it take?"

  "About as long as we want it to, ma'am."

  She shook her head. "Give me an answer I can use."

  "Okay. From a very few minutes to an hour. Your choice."

  Elgin sniffed her drink, then tasted it. "Mm. Good." She moved her purse near another seat, a motion that dragged my eyes over her lovely legs, of course. Then she unnecessarily smoothed the side of her skirt. I mean, come on, lady. It's denim. If you stretch it a bit, it'll bunch up here and there. You can't smooth it, so pretending to try is either nervousness and damp hands or an attempt to guide eyeballs.

  But I looked anyway, as expected, and when I looked up, she sipped and fed me a steady gaze, also as expected. It was an 'I'm not afraid of you' look.

  I said, "Your bugs and phone are dead while you're on this flitter. That's because I want to show you some things. First up is this; a pic of Myra Berens."

  Calling up a screen, I put Myra's agency bio on display and said, "She's helped other people get out of the NIA and into the NSA. One only had about half the FBI course, but Myra set up the other half as OJT. I don't know what bits you might be lacking, but if there are any, she can probably help you get them."

  Putting up a pic of Angie with her 3rd World bio, I said, "She's my 3rd World Products handler, even now that I'm technically retired. I'm still available to her for odd jobs. As head of security, she can probably help you, too."

  Thumbing left, I said, "And now look over the side, ma'am."

  Elgin did, and she turned pale. Her hands trembled and she noticed, but there was nowhere to put her glass. I reached for it and she gave it to me, then clenched her hands a few times to strain them a bit. Flexing them, she watched for tremors and found nowhere near as many.

  Handing her glass back, I nodded. "Good. Now relax, have your drink, and enjoy the ride. That's really all it is; a ride. A few minutes in a place where we can talk freely."

  "Talk about what?"

  Trying to look surprised, I replied, "Me, of course. Didn't I mention I'm the center of my world?"

  She chuckled, "No, but I did get that impression." After a sip, she asked, "So... what about you?"

  "Well, you already know I have no patience for political crap. I'm not sure it matters a flying damn who wins an election anymore, except to the high-rollers and fat cats who govern money and the economy and suck the Treasury dry. I also don't care about the current laws that say Amaran medical treatment is illegal within certain countries. That's just other fat cats trying to control the money and power involved in the health industry."

  When I took a sip of my drink, Elgin sipped hers again and said, "Bad laws are still the law until repealed."

  "Tell that to accident victims. To cancer victims. To the guy who's mother is dying of something Amaran medicine could cure or the woman whose child is hurt or sick. To put it as plainly as possible, Agent Vicky, I truly don't fucking care about those laws and we should be arresting and imprisoning the greedy bastards who forced them on us."

  Sitting back with a grin, I dusted my fingernails on the shoulder of my shirt smugly and said, "Besides, I've found a way around them. It's a technicality, but it'll work."

  She grinned back at me and crossed those gorgeous legs. I covered my eyes and laughed, "Gawd, that's distracting. Gimme a minute to get my head back together, ma'am."

  Elgin snorted a laugh and asked, "So what I've heard is true? You're a total leg man?"

  I sighed, "Yeah, it's true. I mean, faces, arms, legs, shoulders, lips, and hips are all wonderful and some are truly special, but a really great set of legs... like yours, for instance... well, I just get all warm and fuzzy inside, y'know?"

  She laughed again and sipped as she pretended to try to push the hem of her skirt down half an inch with her fingertips, then laughed as my eyes tracked her attempt.

  Canting her head a bit, she asked, "What about your little friend Miss Connor?"

  "She sort of dumped me, ma'am. Something happened tonight that made her see me in a new light, I think."

  "Really, what was that?"

  "I think it might be better to show you than tell you."

  That made her eyes harden and she stiffened slightly. I put up a three-foot screen and started things where the two suits had started talking. Elgin held up a hand.

  "Wait. What am I watching and how did you get it?"

  Pausing the display and running it back to the start, I asked, "You know anything about flitter probes?"

  "A little. You can monitor remotely without having to place devices, right?"

  I nodded. "These guys were at Marie's clinic earlier, when all hell broke loose there. Did you know about that?"

  "We were temporarily put on alert, but we weren't told why."

  "This is probably why. You're watching Galatea's recording of our activities aboard her during events that blew a hole in the wall of that clinic this evening. Ready for more?"

  She obviously wanted more of an answer, but decided she had enough for the moment. Nodding, she sipped and said, "Okay."

  So I started the show again, briefly detailing or otherwise explaining various bits. Elgin stopped things a few times to read screens or get clarification of something, but then we got to Marjory and her collar. Elgin flatly couldn't believe what she was seeing as the probe view showed the bolts and det cord.

  She blurted, "My God! That's Primacord, isn't it?!"

  "Yup. Over a foot of it, embedded in the plastic and under the bolt mounts."

  "My God!" she said again, "That's enough to vaporize that poor kid's head!"

  I didn't bother agreeing. I kept quiet and continued the show. Elgin recognized the detonation devices, too, even though fiber optic lasers aren't all that common yet. I showed her how to use the screen and she took some time to run the show back and forth in places to reexamine what she'd seen.

  Stopping the show where Tanya had stepped off the flitter, I sat back and sipped.

  Elgin sat very still for a time, eyeing the screen pensively as she sipped. Taking a deep breath, she asked, "Why did you show me that?"

  "Because they'll slap a lid on it and try to hide it under bullshit. I'm not looking for credit; I want witnesses like you to know what really happened and I want you to have a copy of this tonight if you have anything big enough to hold it."

  "And if I don't?"

  "Then we'll stop at one of those all-night-everything stores and I'll buy you something to hold it."

  She tried to sip and seemed surprised to find her glass empty. I took it to make a couple of new drinks as she eyed the screen. While I poured, I heard parts of the show replay at double speed. I didn't bother watching.

  When I handed her a fresh drink and sent cooling tendrils, she reached up, then stopped to ask, "Is it safe to touch?"

  "Yup."

  She ran her fingers over the tendril, then wrapped her hand around it and peered closely at it.

  "So that's the same kind of field energy the girl used?"

  "Yup."

  "Why didn't your fields work against hers?"

  "They worked fine. She was just too damned strong. I'd have stunned her cold if I could have. But I couldn't. Neither could Stephanie, and she's an Amaran supercomputer AI. How much of Ocala would have looked like Cosgrove if she'd gotten out?"

  In the middle of sipping her new drink, Elgin swallowed quickly, held up a hand, and shook her head tersely.

  "No! No, Ed, I completely understand why you did it. I really do. She was punching out walls and killing people. There was just no other way."

  I chuckled drily, "Even I can punch out walls, ma'am. She was making the damned things vanish. Poof. Gone. They just fucking disappeared without even a puff of smoke."

  That brought Elgin's eyes into a lock with mine. "What do you mean, you can punch out walls? You can do what she did? I thought you were using the flitter's probes in that fight."

  Pulling up another screen, I showed Elgin a view of my skull. Just behind each ear were small silver ovoids. I pointed them out and said, "Mostly, I was using the flitter's probes through the screen. I can control them with these PFM implants. Nobody really knows why they've worked so well for me, but not for anybody else who's had them. I can make tendrils, domes, and other stuff with them, but nothing as powerful as she did. My stuns were like throwing pebbles at a damned bear. Totally useless."

  She eyed the silver eggs and said, "I thought PFMs were flat."

  "Most are, but they can be shaped."

  "But why'd you have them... installed... like that?"

  "Seemed convenient at the time. No regrets so far."

  "But... that means you can't take them off."

  I shrugged. "Yeah, and...? Why would I want to?"

  Elgin seemed to be looking for a way to say something. I sat back, sipped, and let her grope for a way that suited her. She crossed her legs again in what seemed to be an unconscious fashion and I studied her thighs briefly, then looked up to see her watching me.

  "Sorry," I said, "But they're gorgeous. I just can't help it."

  She snickered, "I'll bet you forget your own name at a beach."

  "Yeah, that's my burden in life, I guess."

  Snorting a soft laugh, Elgin asked, "Before... what I was getting at was... well, are your PFMs like everyone else's?"

  Hm. I hadn't thought about that. "Good question. Tea, are mine like everyone else's?"

  "Yes, Ed. They were merely shaped as required."

  "Thank you, ma'am."

  I said to Elgin, "There you have it. Why'd you ask?"

  Elgin fussed with her glass, then sipped, then took a breath and asked, "Well, what if... what if, sometime before you die, you decide you want to have kids? I could see that happening, I think, even if you just used a sperm bank."

  Hm, again. I opened my mouth as if to speak, then closed it and sipped. Would she take the bait?

  After a sip of her own, Elgin asked, "What? You were going to say something. What was it?"

  "Something funny. Or maybe not so funny, I guess, depending on whether you think I'm at all attractive."

  That made her blink. She looked me up and down and canted her head as she studied me, then said, "For your age, you're attractive enough. You'd find someone who'd want your children, I'm sure of that."

  I chuckled, "That's not saying all that much, ma'am. Some of the matchups I've seen make me wonder if people shouldn't have to get breeding licenses before they get marriage licenses."

  Elgin chuckled with me for a moment, then said, "Again, you were going to say something. What was it?"

  Sighing, I admitted, "Like I said, something intended to be witty that might have been more like half-witty. I got by fifty years without 'em and I have a flitter who can do field stuff for me. I was gonna say that for a chance with a golden goddess like you, I'd have these things yanked outta my head like a pair of bad teeth."

  A pink flush overcame Elgin's light tan across her neck and shoulders. Excellent. A blush most often also meant a thrill.

  Chapter Thirty

  Elgin sat very straight. Her legs uncrossed and her knees drew together snugly for a moment, then relaxed. She took another sip and it seemed a fairly long one, then she took a deep breath and spoke rather carefully.

  "No," she said, "Not half-witty at all. In one sense, it's exactly the kind of thing I've been led to believe you'd say to a woman. To me, in particular, because I'm fairly attractive and in a position of authority. In another sense, I've met you and talked with you and I saw what you did to spare the world another encounter with that kid. I think you just meant it as a humorous way to compliment me."

  "You're right, but..." I gave her a fisheye and asked, "Who fed you that 'fairly attractive' crap? Marilyn Monroe was only 'fairly attractive' without all her makeup. From what I can see, you don't need any. You're as hot as she ever was when she was all dolled up. It's different with you, but it's there."

  She returned my fisheye and rather skeptically asked, "Different? Different how?"

  "Different like... well, Marilyn waggled her ass and posed to get attention. She had to, because she was surrounded by herds of younger, do-anything starlets who'd have knocked her off her throne in a heartbeat. But you remind me of a woman I used to know in the Army. She was salutable in or out of uniform. It was the way she presented and carried herself, as if she knew deep in her heart something that others have yet to discover. Something that put her head and shoulders above the herd, you know? It said, 'By God, I'm special', and it wasn't just self-inflation. She was special and she knew it. Confidence. Poise. Real dignity, not the imitation kind people wear to get respect and take off like a suit when they're home alone. She had a sense of proven personal worth that most people never find."

  Sipping, I said, "And I'm not talking about my first wife, in case you actually read that far back. I'm talking about a lady I used to work for who'd stand up to the President if she thought he was wrong about something."

  Eyeing me for a moment, Elgin said, "Well, it can't have been Linda Baines. She was Navy, not Army."

  "Nope. Not her. A lot like her, though. She was a JAG lawyer. It wasn't that she was a hardhead, either. Show her a good reason to back off and she would, but never, ever threaten her or anyone around her. I like women like her. That's probably why I like you so much, stupid as it may be."

 

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