Audacious

20

Nelly, TELL JACK, ABBY, AND PENNY I WANT THEM IN MY QUARTERS NOW! Kris thought as she marched into the embassy. TELL THEM FIVE MINUTES AGO WOULD BE EVEN BETTER. OH, AND TELL PENNY SHE CAN BRING HER THUMB SCREWS.

YOU ARE JOKING, KRIS?

JUST TELL EACH OF THEM WHAT I TOLD YOU TO TELL THEM.

YES, YOUR HIGHNESS, MA'AM, BOSS.

Kris found Abby already in her quarters.

''You got a command performance, baby duck,'' she said, removing Kris's cover and running a testing hand through her hair. ''Ambassador says there's this charity art show that you just must make an appearance at. Oh, and he suggests that you spend some of that Longknife money buying some of this art…for goodwill sake.''

Kris stepped away from her maid. Was this for real, or was Abby just doing another one of her Oh-we're-so-busy-no-time-to-talk song and dances?

The arrival of Jack and Penny interrupted that dance. To Kris's disappointment, the professional interrogator was not juggling thumb screws or pushing a rack.

And people said Kris had problems following orders!

Abby raised an eyebrow at the intrusions, then did her best disappearing act, backing herself up against a wall and leaving the floor to the others.

''Not this time,'' Kris said, and used Abby's own movement to corner her. ''What were you doing yesterday?'' Kris demanded.

''You gave me the afternoon off. I was on personal business. Even a poor maid needs a bit of time to herself,'' Abby said as self-righteous as any who spoke for the downtrodden masses.

Kris shook her head. ''Not good enough. What were you doing yesterday meeting with the very gangs that provided the shooters that I was running from three days ago? Why did you have supper with two of those gang members?''

Now Kris found Jack at her right elbow, Penny at her left. They said nothing, getting their briefing, as it were, from Kris's own questions. But what they heard caused narrowing eyes to go hard as they locked on Abby.

''I thought everyone had a right to some privacy. Isn't there any time a poor working woman can call her own. And why were you spying on me?'' Abby shot back. It hadn't taken the maid very long to find grounds for a counterattack.

She was good.

''I was not spying on you, though the next time you throttle the GPS squawker on your computer you better have a good reason. No, Inspector Johnson seems to have all of us under surveillance. Don't spit on the sidewalk, any of you, or you'll end up with a rap sheet. But let's get back to the questions I'm asking. Why were you meeting with gang leaders?''

Abby pulled herself to her full height, and if possible, her back got even more rigid. She sniffed. ''I was not meeting with them. I failed to avoid them while getting the hell out of Dodge. They demanded to know why they shouldn't take out on me some of Your Highness's bad karma with them. My argument was brilliant, and they bowed to my logic.''

''How many did you kill?'' Jack demanded.

''None. I said they bowed to my logic.''

''Am I the only one having a hard time swallowing this?'' Penny said.

Once again, Abby was doing a great job of misdirecting her interrogators. Kris held up three fingers. ''Okay, let's say you answered one. Why buy a couple of gangers supper?''

''Because Bronc needed the time to put together the computer I'd bought him. The cops did mention that I bought one of them a set, or rather the parts to build a set.''

This was getting weird. Kris still had two fingers up. She would not let Abby confuse her…or deflect this line of questioning.

''You bought two ganger's supper?''

''No, I bought pizza for my niece, who I assure you is not part of any gang. And I bought a computer for her boyfriend, also not part of any gang, for helping me do what I went there to do,'' Abby said very slowly. ''He also liked the pizza. I hear most teenage boys do.''

''So why were you in that part of town? With your squawker off!'' Kris demanded.

''I. Was. Looking. For. My. Mother.''

''Your mother.'' came in three separate gasps.

''Yes, my mother. Everybody has one, don't you know, Kris.'' Abby gave Kris one of her dry scowls. ''Didn't your mother give you the basic talk about the birds and bees? Princesses have mothers. Maids have mothers. Princess's usually have fathers. For a maid it is optional. Makes it easier. If you're born a bastard you don't have to work so hard to earn the title…as some around here do.''

''She did say she was from Eden,'' Penny pointed out.

''And I didn't want to come back here, may I remind you.''

''So you went looking for you mom…on the worst side of this town,'' Kris said.

''When you're born and raised on that side of town, where else you gonna look?''

''So you found your niece,'' Jack said.

''With a whole lot of help from her boyfriend. I'd promised him a computer. You wouldn't believe what he was doing with just an old magazine reader.''

''With a whole lot of help…'' Penny said. Kris gave her a glance. Maybe they had taught her something in interrogator's school.

''With a whole lot of help,'' Abby said slowly, ''we talked Cara into taking me home to meet the family.''

''Why's that?'' Penny asked.

''Why do you think? Princess here was born and raised in Nuu House. Fancy place. The first couple of houses I lived in got bulldozed for urban renewal. Nothing growing there but a few weeds, but trust me, it's an improvement.''

Abby paused, swallowed hard. ''When I was twelve, I didn't take a lot of friends home, either.'' Then again she stiffened. ''And I killed my squawker ‘cause I wasn't all that interested in any of you knowing where I was…what I was looking for.''

''I'm sorry, Abby,'' Kris said, wondering if she just bought another ticket for a ride. ''Did you see your mother again?''

''Yeah, and my sister. And Cara. A good kid. She deserves better.''

That got three nods.

''Well, if you need time off to visit…'' Kris started.

Abby cut her off. ''If I had my druthers, I wouldn't be going back there anytime soon.''

Again three people nodded, knowing that whatever feelings were going through Abby, they had no idea what they were.

''But I will be going back a whole lot sooner than I want.''

''Why?'' Kris asked.

''Because I bought Bronc a whole lot more computer than I'd planned on. He'll need it if he's going to stay alive with a Longknife on this planet.''

''Huh?'' This conversation was going round and round. Was there a center to it?

''Kris, my mom knows I'm working for you. My momma's gotten herself uptown. Says you might be surprised to find her being squired around on some fancy man's elbow at a party or two.''

''That's, ah, nice,'' Kris said, but tried to leave half a question mark hanging.

''Not nice…at all. There's no reason for her to know I'm working for you. Your name was in all the papers. I wasn't even in the background of any of your pictures.''

Kris took a step back, no longer pinning Abby to the wall. The others beside her were backpeddling, too.

''Maybe she saw your name in some landing report?'' Penny offered.

''For a planet like Eden, where everything's a secret, the chances of that are poor. And when you consider I am now Abby Nightingale, a name my mother never knew me by, it gets harder and harder to match her knowing I was back—and working for you—to just coincidence.''

Kris nodded slowly. Yes, this was a whole new development. An entirely different can of worms.

''There's a whole lot of people knowing a whole lot of stuff about us,'' Abby said slowly. ''A whole lot of people who are working real hard to know what they know. Me, I want to know a bit more about them.''

To Kris, that sounded like a great idea, too.

''Oh, and Kris…'' Abby seemed to add as an afterthought. Though coming from her maid, Kris suspected she'd been leading up to it the entire time. ''If I was you, I'd reimburse me for my little investment in Bronc's hacking skills.

''Oh, and if you can arrange it, you might want to have Chief Beni buy the kid pizza a couple of times. The more software on Bronc's new computer, the safer we all might be.''