Part 58 (1/2)

Lunzie caught Conigan's eye, and shrugged. The other woman grinned and shook her head: no accounting for Bias, in anything but his own field. Brilliancy hath its perks. Lunzie noticed that Jarl was watching her with a curious expression that made him seem very much the heavyworlder at the moment.

As the guards moved through the crowd, checking IDs, Jarl s.h.i.+fted until he was next to her, between her and the other team members. His voice was low enough to be covered by the uneven mutter of the crowd.

”It's none of my business, and I have none of the, er, scruples of someone like Bias, but . . . you do know, don't you, that Zebara is now head of External Security?”

She had not known; she didn't know how Jarl knew.

”We were just friends,” she said as quietly.

”Security has no friends,” said Jarl. His face was expressionless, but the statement had the finality of death.

”Thanks for the warning,” said Lunzie.

She could feel her heart beating faster and controlled the rush of blood to her face with a touch of Discipline. Why hadn't he told her himself? Would he have told her if they'd had more time? Would he tell her at their next meeting? Or as he killed her?

She wanted to s.h.i.+ver, and dared not. What was going on here?

By the end of the works.h.i.+ft the next day, she was still wondering. All the way back to their quarters, Bias had made barbed remarks about overs.e.xed female research-

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ers until Conigan finally threatened to turn him in for harra.s.sment. That silenced him, but the team separated in unhappy silence when they arrived. The morning began with a setback in the research; someone had mistakenly wiped the wrong data cube and they had to re-enter it from patient records. Lunzie offered to do this, hoping it would soothe Bias, but it did not.

”You are not a data entry clerk,” he said angrily. ”You're a doctor. Unless you are responsible for the data loss, you have no business wasting your valuable time re-entering it.”

”Tell you what,” said Tailler, putting an arm around Bias's shoulders, ”why don't we let Lunzie be responsible for scaring up a data clerk? You know you don't have time to do that. Nor do I. I've got surgery this morning and you're supposed to be checking the interpretation of those cardiac muscle cultures. Conigan's busy in the lab, and Jarl's already over at the archives, while Lunzie doesn't have a scheduled procedure for a couple of hours.”

”But she shouldn't be wasting her time,” fumed Bias. Tailler's arm grew visibly heavier and the smaller biologist quieted.

”I'm not asking her to do it,” said Tailler, giving Lunzie a friendly but commanding grin. ”I'm asking her to see that it's done. Lunzie's good at administrative work. She'll do it. Come on. Let's leave her with it; you don't want to be late.”

And he steered Bias away even as the biologist said, ”But she's a doctor . . .” one last time. Tailler winked over his shoulder at Lunzie, who grinned back.

It was easy enough to find a clerk willing to enter the data. Lunzie stayed to watch long enough to be sure tile clerk really understood his task, then went on to her first appointment. She waited until well after the local noon to break for her lunch, hoping to miss Bias. Sure enough, he'd already left the dining hall when she arrived, but Conigan and Jarl were eating together. Lunzie joined them.

”Did you get the data re-entered?” asked Jarl, grinning.

Lunzie rolled her eyes. ”I did not, I swear, enter it

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myself. Thanks to Tailler, and a clerk out of the university secretarial pool, it was no problem. Just checked, and found that it's complete, properly labelled, and on file.”

Jarl chuckled. ”Tailler told us when we came in for lunch about Bias's little fit. He says Bias is like this by the second week of any expedition, to Diplo or anywhere else. He's worked with him six or seven times.”

”I'm glad to know it's not just my aura,” said Lunzie.

”No, and Tailler says he's going to talk to you about last night. Seems there's some reason Bias is upset by women a.s.sociates having anything to do with local males.”

”Alpha male herd instinct,” muttered Conigan.

Jarl shook his head. ”Tailler says not. Something happened on one of his expeditions, and he was blamed for it. Tailler wouldn't tell us, but he said he'd tell you, so you'd understand.”

Lunzie did not look forward to that explanation. If Bias had peculiar notions, she could deal with them; she didn't have to be coaxed into sympathy. But she suspected that avoiding Tailler would prove difficult. Still, she could try.

”I'm having dinner with Zebara tonight,” she said. ”Bias will just have to live with it.”

Jarl gave her a long look. ”Not that I agree with Bias, but is that wise? You know?”

”I know what you told me, but I also know what Zebara did for me over forty years ago. It's worth embarra.s.sing Bias, and worth risking whatever you fear.”

”I don't like anyone's Security, external, internal, or military. Never been one yet that didn't turn into someone's private enforcement agency. You've had a nega-'tive contact with heavyworlders before. You have a near relative in Fleet: reason enough to detain and question you if they're so minded.”