Callisto 2.0, Susan English [i love reading .TXT] 📗

woman! But no, I was being unfair. How would I feel in her position? Taking a deep breath, I said, “I’ll come with you to your hotel, okay?”

“Okay,” she replied in a small voice.

“Let’s move out,” said Frank.

We followed him down the hallways, with Jeanne flanking us. I, for one, felt very safe. But then again, no one was pursuing me.

We rode the metro train in silence, and when we got to Marley’s hotel, Frank had a low conversation with the security guard on duty, a beefy man with narrow eyes and bulging muscles. Jeanne waited with us, arm resting protectively around Marely’s shoulders.

“Will you stay with me tonight?” Marely said, turning to me, eyes entreating. “I just 97

don’t want to be alone.”

Feeling trapped, I flicked my eyes at Jeanne, who pulled Marley closer. Marley visibly stiffened in response.

“We’ll make sure there’s a guard outside the door all night, Marley.” Jean said. “I can stay with you, too, if you want me to.” She released Marley, and tapped her wrist computer. Marley’s own computer chirped again. “If you need someone to talk to, I just sent you my private contact info. You’re not alone in this.”

The muscles in Marley’s jaw twitched. “Thank you,” she said, but she seemed more angry than grateful. I imagined that the situation must be humiliating for her.

“Okay, you’re all set,” said Frank as he walked back over to us, the hotel security guard at his side. “Clyde will take over from here.”

“Marley, is it?” said Clyde. “Please come with me.”

Marley shot a parting glance at me, still angry, then, shoulders drooping, she followed Clyde through the doorway to the rooms.

“Your friend will be fine,” said Jeanne, patting my arm.

“She’s not even my friend,” I said, “I just met her.”

“We’ll accompany you to Shambhala,” said Frank. “If I didn’t get you home safely Berit would have my head!”

I laughed at that, the tension in my body easing. “She’s definitely feisty.”

“You said it!”

As we made our way to the metro station, Frank said, “Where did all of this occur?

So we can examine the video feeds. I’ll follow up with Marley tomorrow, get a full statement, but she didn’t seem very communicative tonight, probably still in shock.”

During the short train ride, I told them everything I knew, which was almost nothing.

“Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful,” I said as we stepped onto the Arcadia metro platform.

“Since we know his first name and relationship to Marley, we’ll track him down,”

said Jeanne.

“Thanks again, both of you, especially for going out of your way.”

“Just doing our job,” said Frank with a smile. “Even though we’re stationed in the University Sector, all the security guards work for the Collective, we’re part of the network. And like Jeanne said, unless that stalker is a ghost, we’ll find him.”

When I got to my room, I called Berit. “I’m here, at Arcadia. Everything’s fine, Frank took care of it.”

“Oh my gosh, you have to tell me everything!” she said.

“I will, promise. But I’m exhausted. Meet you in the morning for breakfast?”

“Okay, fine, but I want all the details!”

◆◆◆

In the morning, I asked Annie to locate Berit, and found her sitting at a table in the 98

dining room. “Calli! Finally! I thought you were going to sleep till noon. I almost had Annie wake you up.”

“I appreciate your restraint.” I sat, placing my tray in front of me—scrambled eggs with taro toast.

“So what happened?”

“It was a crazy night. Thanks for your help, by the way,” I said between mouthfuls, eating with relish. Shambhala’s food was delicious, but we didn’t have fresh eggs.

Berit looked at me, eyebrows raised. “What? They don’t feed you on the orbital lab?”

I laughed. “It’s good to see you, Berit.”

“Okay, enough chit-chat! Are you going to tell me or what?”

I wiped my mouth with my napkin, and started telling the saga from the beginning.

When I got to the part just before Marley put her hand on my leg, I felt myself flush.

Narrowing her eyes at me, Berit leaned forward. “You hooked up with her!”

“What? No!” I squirmed in my chair.

“Come on, something happened between you before the big escape. I can see it in your face!”

“Marley, well, she kind of came on to me.” I gave a little shrug.

“She did?” Berit’s eyes lit up. “What did you do?”

I waved my hand dismissively. “Nothing happened! I wasn’t interested in her in that way.”

Berit’s face fell.

“Don’t look so disappointed!” I admonished.

“I was hoping for a good story,” she said with a pout, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“And the whole running-for-our-lives part doesn’t count?” I raised an eyebrow.

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I want to hear it all! No more interruptions, I promise.”

True to her word, she listened intently as I related the rest of the night. When I finished, she said, “I talked to Frank this morning. He told me Marley refused to see him, didn’t want to make a statement, and almost begged him to forget about it. They couldn’t find anything on the video feeds, either.”

“How strange.”

“Yeah, I know.” She gave a little shrug. “At least you had a little excitement for a change.”

I laughed. “I get enough excitement on Shambhala, thank you. Working on the warp drive is more than enough stimulation.”

“Physicists,” she said with another eyeroll, then she smiled at me. “Are you taking the shuttle back to Shambhala later?”

“Uh-huh.” I had slept late, and it was already ten a.m. “In fact, I should get going.”

I wiped the remains of my eggs off my plate with a piece of toast, savoring the last bite, then stood and picked up my tray. “Tell Frank thanks for me, will you?”

Berit nodded. “You bet.” Then she looked up at me, her expression a little wistful.

99

“Tell Naomi I said hi.”

“Okay, sure.” I walked quickly to the door, dropping my tray in the sterilizing unit, and headed to my room. I wanted to take full advantage of a shower in a gravitational field before going back to Shambhala, even if it was only one-sixth G.

◆◆◆

On Monday, I was eager to get to the lab to talk with Hadley. After an abbreviated workout, then a quick bite to eat, I found her sitting at the conference table, studying our specifications for the warp drive.

“Hi Calli,” she said. “How was the conference?”

“I’ll tell you all about it, I promise,” I said, settling onto the couch and patting the seat beside me, “but first, you need to come tell me about your date Saturday night!”

She reddened slightly and came to sit beside me. “It was no big deal. We just hung out.” She gave me a sly smile.

“Not even a goodnight kiss?”

“Nope. Not even a kiss on the cheek.”

“Are you going to ‘hang out’ again soon?” I raised my eyebrow.

A blush this time. “Tonight.”

“That’s great! I’m so happy for you.”

“Well, nothing’s happened yet, anyway. So, tell me about the conference.”

“I met your professor. She was like you said, a little abrasive. I went out with her for a drink last night, and you won’t believe what happened.” Berit was right, it was nice to have an exciting story.

Hadley’s mouth hung open as I retold the events of the night before, omitting the part about the flirting, since, anyway, it didn’t go anywhere. Telling Berit had been more than enough!

“How scary,” she said when I’d finished. “Glad you’re both okay.”

“Yeah, the whole thing was bizarre. But I’m happy to know that the lunar security is so reliable.”

“Uh-huh. The Collective is really good about that stuff. Though I had no idea Marley’s personal life was so, I don’t know, dramatic.”

“But she was your professor, right?”

“Yeah, but we never interacted, I just went to her classes. She’s a good lecturer.”

“I agree. Her presentation at the conference was compelling.” I thought for a moment. “So, you never talked to her?”

“Nope. We had office hours with a teaching assistant.”

“Weird. She said you were her favorite student.”

Hadley gave a bark of laughter. “Impossible! We had to be a hundred students. I was just a face in the crowd. She couldn’t have known who I was.”

I shook my head. “She even asked if you were still working on the warp drive.”

100

Hadley’s eyebrows shot up. “I didn’t even know about the theory of warp drives back then. It was undergrad. I started focusing on warp technology in grad school.”

“It could be she just likes to follow the careers of her former students.” The back of my neck prickled, and I rubbed it with my hand.

“No, not possible! We are too many.” Hadley pursed her lips. “How strange.”

“That’s not even the strangest part. She really wanted to come to Shambhala. She almost begged me to take her with me.”

Hadley cocked her head, brow furrowed. “She did?”

“Uh-huh. She seemed kind of desperate.”

“So weird,” said Hadley, rubbing her chin with her hand.

“Maybe she just likes to keep tabs on the competition,” I ventured.

Hadley snorted. “Competition? Ha! No one takes warp technology seriously, you know that.”

“Only too well!” I smirked, then grew serious. “I almost got the feeling she was being controlled, or manipulated, or something. Maybe it was that guy, her ex.” I rubbed my neck again, as a frisson of uneasiness passed through my body.

“Or just her personal quirkiness,” said Hadley, waving a dismissive hand in front of her face. “But anyway, I went over our revisions this weekend, and I think we’re ready to start working with the engineers on a prototype, they’re expecting us today.”

“Are you sure this isn’t just an excuse to spend more time with Andrea?” I asked, eyebrow raised.

Hadley laughed. “You’re welcome to go over the calculations yourself, Calli.”

“No, no! I believe you!”

She stood up, grinning. “Let’s go!”

101