“I’m supposed to meet Debbie Hitler here. We’re scheduled to leave.”
The face twitched, the eyes blinked. Kyle couldn’t see much detail because of the shadows. “You are…?” he asked Kyle.
“Kyle Dacron.”
“The…?”
“New bodyguard.”
A machine in the booth made a low buzzing sound. “You are expected,” the guard said, and handed him a freshly printed pass.
“Report to the ship on pad area C-5.” He pointed.
The ship turned out to be a small passenger shuttle with nobody on board. The door was locked. Kyle stood around for a while, waiting, listening to the hissing and thrumming from the other ships around him. Tired of standing, he sat down on the ground with is back against the cold titanium surface of the ship.
Soon he was asleep.
Hours later, an air taxi landed nearby and the pilot got out, walked over to Kyle and kicked him. “Wake up, pretty-boy. Do your job!”
“What? Do what?”
“Your job!” He pointed at the taxi.
Kyle got to his feet and walked over to the craft. When he was close by the door, it opened, and Debbie stepped out. “You showed up!” she said, sounding surprised. “Oh! Leather! I like it.” She kissed his cheek, and grabbed him by the front of his pants and pulled him toward the shuttle. Finney stepped out of the taxi and followed, as did several other people. It appeared they had all just left a party. There were paper streamers in their hair, and a few had paper hats and noisemakers. They all stunk of alcohol.
“I want everyone to meet my new bodyguard, Bruce,” she announced.
After the drunken chorus of “Hi Bruce” was over, Kyle leaned over to Debbie and quietly said, “My name is not Bruce. It’s–”
“Your name is Bruce,” she told him. “All my bodyguards are named Bruce.”
Kyle frowned, but didn’t pursue it. They all crowded into the shuttle as the hatch opened, Debbie still pulling him along by his pants. She shoved him down in the front row of seats, and then reclined across him, using him as a pillow. They others sat around them, laughing and talking. The babble of voices all blended together, and it took Kyle a moment to realize much of it was in another language, one that he didn’t understand. Debbie was laughing, and posing, and preening, and all the while her hair was in his face and it was making his nose itch. The pilot sealed the hatch, glanced around nervously at his unruly passengers, gave Kyle an eyebrow-furrowed look of disgust, and then ducked into the control cabin. Minutes later, the craft drifted up into the sky.
It took a while, but gravity finally disappeared and the passengers all began asking Debbie to do magic. “Do some magic!”
“Magic!” “Magic, Debbie!”
Debbie produced a small sack of loose pearls, and opened it.
The pearls floated out, drifting, and Debbie said an incantation and made complex motions with her hands. The pearls aligned in a circle and began spinning as if in an orbit. She leaned far forward, inserting her head inside the ring so that her neck was the center of the orbit. The crowd applauded.
“Neat trick,” Kyle said. “How did you do it?”
The pearls scattered in all directions, bouncing and drifting randomly. All conversation ceased. Debbie pulled away from Kyle and turned, looking at him with a cold expression. “I do not do ‘tricks’,” she said. “I am a genuine sorceress. I do genuine magic.”
Kyle glanced around at all the glaring expressions, finding only one who seemed sympathetic. It was Finney. Finney cleared his throat, and said, “Everyone, especially Miss Hitler, might want to bear in mind that–”
“Shut up, Finney.”
“Miss Hitler, he is new to us, and knows nothing about you.”
“I told you to shut up.” Now Debbie had a pouting expression on her face, like that of a spoiled little girl. “Kanna ectuc enau-k-tu,” she said, holding her pouch open. She repeated the incantation several times, and with her free hand made a grasping movement. The pearls all drifted from where they had wandered in the cabin toward the open pouch, and bagged themselves one and two at a time. When it was all over, there was a spontaneous round of applause.
“More!”
“Do more!”
“More magic, Debbie!”
Debbie shook her head, putting her pouch away. She sat, sulking, far away from her bodyguard. She hardly said a word for the rest of the trip.
The shuttle docked at a big orbital station, where gravity was simulated. Finney ran out ahead to make sure that all arrangements were made. Kyle had to walk fast to keep up with Debbie, who seemed to be trying to get away from him. The others lagged behind, walking drunkenly in the reduced gravity and bumping into things.
They caught up with Finney at the boarding airlock of a large interstellar ship. Finney pulled Kyle aside, saying in a low, hurried voice, “Get Miss Hitler settled, check out the other passengers for anything suspicious, then get back to me. There’s a lot you need to know, and nobody has had time to tell you any of it.”
“Okay.”
“Sorry about what happened in the shuttle.”
“That’s okay. I don’t have a problem with it.”
Finney stared deep into Kyle’s eyes. “It doesn’t bother you, does it?”
“Not in the least.”
Finney smiled and slapped him on the shoulders. “I’m glad you’re with us.”
“Thanks.” Kyle ducked through the airlock and into the giant ship.
Debbie’s cabin was very large, especially for a starship, and looking around the interior Kyle got the feeling that it was originally designed as a meeting room and was converted over to a stateroom because of VIPs such as Debbie. She gave him an odd look as he poked around. “I want to be alone,” she said. Kyle nodded and left.
His own stateroom was right across the corridor, but was about 1/20th the size. It was barely big enough for a bunk, a fold-down table, a commode and a tiny little sink. Kyle tossed his spacer pack down on the bunk and left.
He wandered the long, narrow corridors for a while, checking out the other passengers. They were all busy getting settled in their cabins. None of them looked particularly threatening, but when he reached the entertainment area at the front of the ship there was one woman who gave Kyle a bad feeling. She had shock-white hair in a style that fanned out from the center, and her hairline came down to a point in the middle of her forehead.
She was older, and had a heavy, pear-shaped body. Her face almost looked masculine. She caught him looking, and her dark eyes widened, her heavy eyebrows lowering. He smiled, nodded, and continued on his way.
He was heading back toward Debbie’s stateroom when he ran into Finney. “This way,” Finney said in a low voice. He led Kyle into another stateroom, which was no bigger than his own. Finney closed and locked the door. “Sit down,” he told Kyle.
Kyle sat on the bunk. Finney remained standing by the door.
“Debbie is from a very rich family that has a very dark past.”
“I assumed she was rich.”
“Very rich. Obscenely rich. She does pretty much what she wants, and it’s my job to make what she wants happen.”
“I understand.”
“The one talent she has, the one thing she did herself and is proud of, is her magic. As you’ve found out, she’s very touchy about the subject. It’s best that you watch her do it, applaud, and ask to see more. This pleases her very much. Don’t question it, don’t say anything about it. That’s your best bet.”
“I see.”
“She learned this talent from a mathematician several years ago. The guy is now a hermit living on an island off the coast of Terra Marka, on Summerland. We’re on a sort of pilgrimage there now, so she can resume her studies.”
“Does she have many enemies?”
“There are people out to get her. Your job is real, though she treats her bodyguards as show pieces. There have been more than a few attempts on her life. You of course know the outcome of the last one.”
“Why did her old bodyguard decide to turn against her?”
“I don’t know. Either he was paid off or just couldn’t take the abuse anymore.”
“Paid off by who?”
“I don’t know. Debbie doesn’t have any enemies specifically, but her family does. Powerful ones.”
Both fell silent for a moment, then Kyle said, “How does she do her magic tricks? Were those specially made pearls, or what?”
“No, it’s not the pearls. I guess you could call it telekinesis — of course, she prefers to call it magic. From what I understand, she creates a point of gravity, gives the pearls kinetic energy and adjusts their virtual mass. That puts them in orbit around the point of gravity. She can only do that one in freefall conditions.”