Part 17 (1/2)

Ping!

It was his very own room on board Halcyon's s.h.i.+p.

After Gaws and Mildrid had pushed off to plan whatever stunts they were up to, Sook explained that Halcyon wished to see him first thing in the morning.

'Then he's a brave man,' said Fitz, 'as anyone who's ever woken up next to me will testify.'

She gave him a narrow look. 'How did did you swing it with PadPad? You been fitted with an implant or something?' you swing it with PadPad? You been fitted with an implant or something?'

'Something,' he agreed. 'You can stay and try to beat the truth out of me if you like.'

She snorted. 'What do I care? I have enough to do.' So started a major league moan: the art treasures needed distribution around the galleries, though she'd at least agreed to leave the TARDIS where it was. The OPs were useless amateurs, coming aboard like that. She couldn't afford for Halcyon to get suspicious now if she was sacked, she'd never be able to n.o.bble him on their behalf, would she?

He'd slept well after that little lullaby.

The door slid suddenly open. Fitz started from his reverie.

'Rise and s.h.i.+ne,' said Sook, now wearing a quite becoming blue catsuit.

'Don't you ever knock?'

'I doubted you'd know how to open the door yourself.'

She had a point. 'Have you brought me breakfast?'

'No. But I've burned your old clothes.'

'You did what what?' He jumped out of bed, then realised he was naked and dived back for cover.

Sook appeared unmoved. 'Naturally I kept your belongings. But if you're to appear in public among Halcyon's retinue and given the bee you've placed in his bonnet, that's pretty much inevitable you'll have to look the part.'

'It's looking a a part that I'm worried about,' Fitz grumbled, remembering Roddle's skimpy attire. 'Did you even dump my Cuban heels?' part that I'm worried about,' Fitz grumbled, remembering Roddle's skimpy attire. 'Did you even dump my Cuban heels?'

96.'There's retro, Kreiner, and there's retro.'

She placed some black coveralls and some funky black and white s.p.a.ce shoes on his bed. She turned her back while he changed, and he found himself quite happy with the dark and austere look.

'You'd better shave too,' Sook added. She held out her hand.

Fitz scratched indignantly at his five days' growth. 'We don't have to shake on it! If you can get me a razor, I'll get on with it.'

She stared at him. 'Huh?'

Now Fitz came to look, he saw what looked like iron filings in her hand.

'You don't know what they are, do you?'

'Why all the fuss? I look good with a beard!'

'And you don't know about Halcytone, or PadPad. . . ' With a slightly wicked smile, she said, 'I'll bet you don't even know where Callisto is.'

'I know it's got a count called Monte,' Fitz bl.u.s.tered.

'It's a moon, Kreiner. Orbiting Jupiter.'

'I've been to Jupiter before! This big s.p.a.ce station called Farside, you must have heard of it?'

'Yeah, that's a weird little footnote in the local history. It was lost, like, three-hundred years ago!' Sook walked towards him, eyes piercing. 'Kreiner, who are are you? Where do you come from?' you? Where do you come from?'

Fitz blushed lightly. 'We could be here all day answering that one.'

She cupped his cheeks with both hands. He smiled. His man-of-mystery charm had done it again 'Aagh!' he cried, as Sook s.n.a.t.c.hed her hands away. There were no iron filings in her hands now, they were snagged in his stubble. And they were chewing chewing it. it.

'Get them off,' he yelled, scrabbling at his face. 'Get them off, they're eating my face!'

'They're shaving you, you idiot. Right down to the skin, closest shave you can get. Halcyon uses them five times a day.' She paused. 'So it's not an act, then? You're really that ignorant?'

'I don't hold with these newfangled gadgets,' said Fitz demurely.

'They're, like, a hundred years old.'

The tickling sensation had stopped. He brushed his cheek, and dead filaments fell away. His skin felt unbelievably smooth and moisturised.

'Look, Sook. I think you only pick on me so we don't dwell on you you.'

She seemed amused. 'Oh, yes?'

'Yeah. You're the one who thinks rearranging the furniture makes a difference to anything beyond the hoovering. Isn't life a bit short to be doing sums every time you want to move a vase?'

She shrugged. 'It's an eight-thousand-year-old philosophy.'

97.'I say it sounds like an omelette.'

'My parents weren't Old Preservers, but they impressed the importance of the past upon me from the start.' Sook didn't bother hiding her bitterness.

'And of course, no learning cradles for me, no fast tracking. I was opted out of all of that. Instead, my mother taught me. Everything she knew.'

Fitz smiled. 'And made a star out of you, right?'

'Ha!' Sook narrowed her eyes. 'She made me a freak. She made me useless.

Shaped so much by the past there was nothing of the present I could fit into.'

'She didn't teach you Feng Doo-dah, then?'

'Nope. She went senile and had a termination order placed on her when I was thirteen.'