Part 22 (2/2)
Faced with that, the professor's memory improved. ”Yes, yes, now that you remind me, I do remember her. Fine old woman.”
”You suggested that she might want to improve her security situation when she told you I was coming to Eden.”
”Did I?”
”She told me that you did.” Mentally, Kris dared him to call Gramma a liar.
”Then I guess I did,” he agreed. And seemed proud of himself for it.
”Fifteen minutes ago, Gramma Ruth was kidnapped,” Kris bit out. ”Right here on your campus.”
”Oh dear. We haven't had a kidnapping on campus in, oh, years,” he answered.
Kris ignored him, but filed the data away for later examination. ”Two Marine emba.s.sy guards are dead. She is gone. And the two security rentals that you suggested to her are nowhere to be seen.” Kris paused to let that sink in to the professor's balding dome.
For the second that the man of learning took to absorb that, there was silence. Followed by a quiet ”Oh.”
”Yes. Oh,” Kris snapped. ”You suggested she hire those guards and they did nothing to guard her. Or worse, they threw in with the thugs that kidnapped her.”
”Oh, they couldn't have” didn't have much a.s.surance in it.
”Why don't you tell me where they came from and let me go find out.”
”Oh yes.” The idea of getting these invaders of his quiet corner of the world gone to somewhere else lit up his eyes. But only for a moment. ”Oh, but I can't.”
”And why not?”
”Because I don't know who she did business with. I called a provider of temporary security. They pa.s.sed her needs along to several bidders who offered services and she chose from them. That's the way it's done here. You are new, aren't you.”
”Hardly been here a week,” Kris said while her brain whirled. ”So, who's the provider?”
”I don't know. I have his number here.” He pulled a Rolodex from a drawer. A Rolodex! Kris had only seen such things in ancient movies.
He held up the number. ”Here it is. Security. That's all I know about it. That and the number. I'll call them.”
Kris let go of his hand so he could happily b.u.mble about with an ancient phone, one with numbers on its face. Kris glanced at Chief Beni and the techs with him. They had their black boxes out.
”The number you have dialed is no longer in service” came from several speakers in the room.
”Oh dear, I must have misdialed.”
”No he didn't,” Nelly said from around Kris's neck. The professor eyed Kris as if she was infested with a demon.
”Do you have another number for security?”
”No,” the professor said.
”Any way to get in touch with them?” Kris demanded.
”No ma'am, er, Your Highness. Security guilds contact you.”
”They don't advertise?” Jack said.
”Oh no, no, no, my boy. If you need security, and security wants your business, they contact you.”
”And you came by that number how?” Kris asked.
”Oh, years ago. Someone approached me and offered me his card. You don't buy security the same way you buy soap,” he said indignantly.
”We do on Wardhaven,” Kris said.
”Well, that's the Rim. This is Eden,” he sniffed.
Kris did not like dead ends. But even she could see one when it slapped her in the face with a several-day-old fish.
The return trip down the stairs was at a slower pace. Jack stayed behind just long enough to advise the professor that he should not kill his squawker. The princess might want further words with him tonight. The professor huffed something about that being illegal. He never did anything like that.
Kris was back on the wide walkway in front of the administrative building before she turned to her team. ”Anybody got any ideas, pipe up.”
Only the background rumble of college life answered her.
No, Abby was huddled together with the two youths. For several seconds they continued at a low hum. Then Abby looked up, a frown on her face. ”We may have something here.”
Kris, Jack, and DeVar came close. The trigger pullers formed an outer circle looking out. The chief and his techs did things with their black boxes and the air lit up as several nearby bugs met their doom.
”Area's secure,” Chief Beni announced.
”What do you know that we don't?” Kris asked.
”I can back-trace phone numbers to addresses,” the boy said.
”On most planets, that's quite easy,” Kris said. ”Here, it seems to range from impossible to illegal.”
”Ah, yes, ma'am, I know. But you see, ma'am, I know some folks that do illegal things. For a fee, you know,” the boy said with an uncomfortable shrug.
”And how long can we get away with this illegal thing if we pay?” Jack asked.
”I don't know. Mick and Trang, they pay their money and they get what they pay for, and n.o.body comes looking for them. Princess Kris here pays money, she'll get what she paid for-I think-but some alarm is bound to go off. Someone's likely to start something. Don't know what it will be, but...”
Smart kid, Kris nodded in agreement. What might work for the locals was bound to get folks excited if a Longknife started poking around in it.
”Abby, you have a few credit chits that don't have Longknife on them.”
”I have a few that might take the best of them a week or more to trace back to you. Shall I give one to Bronc?”
”Not here. Not now. I don't want to make it any easier for them that aren't making it easy for us. Let's get moving.”
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