execution.”
A collective gasp rose in the room. Alex leaned his elbow on the table and pressed the palm of his hand to his forehead. Across from him, where Paul Dinardo sat, he heard quiet laughter.
Jaguar, dressed in the colors of the empath, her complicated history known to everyone there, scanned the faces around her. She held one long hand palm up, let her shoulder lift and fall.
“He didn’t do it,” she said.
Chapter 1
What happened next was administrative meltdown. Never in the history of the Planetoids had a Teacher spoken against execution at this point in the proceedings.
Richard Tremont had to consult the codebook to find the proper protocol, while the other Teachers and governors each insisted on saying something about it. As they yipped on, Jaguar made the most discrete exit Alex had ever seen from her.
He was glad of that. If she stayed, there was no telling what she might have said or done. And he should have known there’d be trouble. She was far too relaxed going in to be confirming an execution order. While he was trying to discern what, exactly, made her decide as she had, Richard discovered that in a case where consent wasn’t unanimous, the next step was to thank the committee for its time and dismiss them. He did both, expeditiously. Paul cast a look at Alex and made his own quick exit.
The remaining governors gathered to fulminate around Alex, asking repeatedly what the hell was wrong with Addams this time. He had no answers, but that didn’t stop them from pounding away at the question. When he finally extricated himself he made his way to the holding tank, hoping Francis was still there. He had some questions of his own to ask before he went home.
Francis was in situ, and the conversation Alex had with him took a good deal of time because he wanted to be thorough. It was past nine when he got back to his apartment, but his telecom was buzzing as soon as he walked in.
He hit the answer key and once again saw the perturbed face of Richard Tremont, this time on his viewscreen.
“Alex—did you talk to Addams yet? What the hell is she playing at?”
“In general,” he said, “Dr. Addams only plays when she’s hunting.”
“Then what the hell is she hunting for? Never mind. It doesn’t matter. We’ve called a meeting. Tomorrow afternoon. Four o’clock, in the boardroom.”
“You want her there?”
“Absolutely not,” Richard said. “But you’d better be.”
With that, he signed off.
Of course, Alex thought. Administratium, the heavy element. When in doubt, it called a meeting. He put his telecom on silent mode and took a moment to contact Jaguar empathically.
She was open to him, but her mood was similar to that of a cat poised either to strike or run away. He got right to the point.
You could’ve warned me, he said into her.
I thought you knew, she replied.
Thought I knew, or thought it would be more fun to surprise me?
Thought you knew, came the definite reply. That, however, was followed immediately by an even more definite mischief. But it was fun, wasn’t it?
A smile formed on his face, against his better judgement. She was right on all counts. He should have guessed. And it was fun, in its own way. A Jaguar kind of way.
He let her feel his laughter, and then he filled her in briefly on what she’d missed after she left. He didn’t mention his conversation with Francis, but he did tell her about the upcoming meeting. Her response was brief.
I’m not going, she told him.
They don’t want you there, he replied.
He sensed her surprise, felt her thoughts moving through the possible implications. Her relationship with him had changed, and she herself had changed in some fundamental ways, but she hadn’t lost her suspicion of the bureaucracy. That, he thought, was a good thing.
How bad is it? she asked.
We’ll figure it out. Lay low. We’ll talk tomorrow.
She offered the thought of her hand pressed to his face, and her stubborn insistence that she was right. With that, she left him, and he made his own way to bed. He was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, not at all troubled by this. They’d survived much worse, and gone on to see their escapades become nothing more than local legend
* * * *
When Alex entered the boardroom the next afternoon the first face he saw was Regina Hawthorne’s, the Planetoid One governor responsible for Francis Durero’s zone.
“Alex,” she said. “Sit by me.”
Alex raised an index finger to indicate he needed a minute and moved around the table to where his own governor, Paul Dinardo, sat.
Paul gazed up at him, his long, basset hound face looking even glummer than usual. “You gonna say I told you so?”
“I don’t have to, do I?”
Paul ran a hand over his balding pate, then looked at his palm. “Y’know, I had a lot more hair before she started working here.”
“I don’t think you can get her on that one,” Alex noted.
“Yeah. Go see Regina. Maybe you two can work something out.”
Alex patted Paul’s shoulder, then moved around the table and took a seat to Regina’s left.
“Alex,” she said. “How are you?”
“I’ll be better when this is settled. You?”
“Perfectly sanguine,” she said. “This, too, shall pass.”
Alex could see she meant it. Her face expressed only calm. It was, in general, a calm face, her short and curling silver hair framing wide blue eyes in a circle of fair skin with soft lines that seemed as if they’d been etched in at birth. Unlike many governors, Regina always looked as if time was her friend.
She gave the impression that she’d seen all the world and could cope, which might explain why she was the untitled Uber-governor for Planetoid One. She never panicked, and she had a way of sharing her quiet energy that made her popular. She was often in the hot seat, the one called on to give press conferences for controversial cases with home planet interest, the one asked to address legislative funding meetings. And she was responsible for the programming Planetoid One had now, with its emphasis on medical intervention, and its work programs.
Alex didn’t necessarily agree with everything she did, but he admired her personal integrity and valued the peace she could bring to a volatile situation. He hoped it would work at this meeting, attended by many of the same people from the execution committee, with a few additions from Planetoid One. Most were talking quietly to each other or using their cellcoms to make last minute contact with people in their zone regarding other important matters. Alex kept his attention
