She launched herself out of her bed toward the bathroom. “Get me my usual, and buckets of coffee, and what channel are we using this morning on our personal units?”
Sally gave her the frequency. “And I’m making your breakfast with my own hands,” she said as she departed.
That made Marmion pause at the threshold of her bath. Surely Matthew … No, he wouldn’t, but Bal wouldn’t be beyond it. The ploy of detaining the persons the commission would call before them was a matter she couldand wouldprotest, since none of them could be proven guilty of any action against Intergal, unless a passive resistance was now considered a crime. All the active resistance had come from the planet. And Intergal doubted that this world had a mind of its own! She allowed herself a rather ruthless smile, one that had many times alarmed business colleagues who opposed her, as the hot shower water completed the process of waking her up. She was already clothed and discreetly made up by the time Sally arrived with a laden tray.
“Place is in an uproar, Dama,” Sally reported, her usually cheery demeanor rather forced today. “All of Matthew’s lovelies running about with streamers of hard copy, all of which seems to upset them for some reason. I saw Braddock Makem taking one of the others to task for coming up with results that were the opposite of what Luzon had ordered. Couldn’t find out much more. The place is as well guarded as a first-touchdown camp, and more troops were shuttled in from, I think, the CISS Prometheus.”
Marmion paused in the act of pouring her first, badly needed cup of coffee. She stared at Sally, aghast. “They’ve called in a CISS cruiser? But they’re not authorized to call in CIS until this matter has gone through committee and up the chain of command. Otherwise, of course, I’d have preempted them and already called in CIS myself.”
“You might remember, Dama, that the captain of the Prometheus is a nephew of Vice-Chairman Luzon.”
“Scuttled, are we?” Challenge only made Marmion sharper. “We’ll just see about this!”
“I must also inform you, Dama” Sally’s face was sad and angry. “I heard that a large clouded feline was seen being wheeled into the veterinary surgery early this morning.”
“Ah, not Coaxtl!” Marmion took a deep breath and, eyes glittering, added fiercely, “It’s bad enough that the humans of this world have to be mauled and pushed around like pawns, but when the beautiful animals are … Well, there’s a thing or two Patrick Matthew Olingarch-Luzon will not want to hear as public gossip back at Space Station One-Thirty-One!” She downed the coffee in one gulp, poured another cup, and then went to the work desk and her terminal.
Chapter 17
Yana was roughly aroused by an imperative hard shaking and looked up to see two of the Omnicron troopers, truncheons in their hands. One of them gestured for her to get up. When she went toward her clothes, they each caught an elbow. She shrugged, as much as she could in their grip, and did her best to match their long strides down the hall to the end and an open door, through which she was pushed with sufficient strength to propel her several meters into the room. The smell and the appurtenances told her it was medical. A male orderly swung through the open door on the right, a paper shift in his hands. He gave it to her and gestured to the screen.
She took it with a flicker of a smile. The silent treatment continued as she stepped out from behind the screen and was marched, strong fingers gripping her elbow, through the open door.
CAT scan, she thought as she saw the huge cylinder, and she nearly burst out laughing, remembering Marmion’s observation that Clodagh would never fit in that, though the circumference of the equipment was wide enough for most human bodies.
She endured the prodding and probing, took the jars and produced the specimens, and had rather a lot of blood samples taken. She was crowned with the metal band of one of the more sophisticated brain-function devices she’d ever seen and sat through that while her reflexes were tested and she was pricked with more needles and had patches slapped on and pulled off. The doctor who performed the gynecological examination did a double take when he realized she was pregnantat her age!but murmured automatic reassurances that the fetus seemed to be in good shape. She was put up on a treadmill; and as it moved, she had to run faster and faster to keep from falling. When they stopped that test, she was barely puffingand rather pleased that she was so fit. She waited passively, while the various medics had a huddle. The oldest of them, and he couldn’t be more than her own age, finally gestured to the orderly and she was taken back to collect her underwear and then marched back to her cell.