Free Killswitch by Joel Shepherd Page B

like you are the reason four legs and a tail suddenly became attractive." Ari clutched at his heart, dramatically.
    "At least she didn't say men like you are the reason she started sleeping with women," Sandy offered.
    "You haven't started sleeping with women," Ari retorted.
    Sandy smiled. "Give it time." With a playful glance at Vanessa above her next mouthful of breakfast. Vanessa grinned back, trying to keep Jean-Pierre's searching tongue out of her ear.
    Ari blinked. "Well I guess that won't bother me too much, provided I can watch."
    "That's a nice outfit, Rhi," Anita called over from the sofa. "What's the occasion?"
    "I have a day off today," said Rhian, beaming. "Major Ramoja has us all on duty rosters, and today's my free day."
    "I haven't had a full day off in weeks," Vanessa sighed.
    "I'm going to do some shopping," Rhian continued, "then I'm going to Denpasar to see the big wildlife enclosure, then to Patna to see that Festival of the Sun they keep showing on the news, that looks really nice ... then I'm going to a football game in Santiello in the evening."
    "You really like football, don't you?" Anita asked, resting chin upon her hand, elbow upon the sofa arm, gazing with obvious fascination. "Sandy's never gotten into sports, she says there's not a sport invented that's a technical challenge for a GL"
    "She's right," Rhian agreed. "I just like being at the game. Everyone's so excited, and the crowd roars and waves banners, and the players all hug each other when they kick a goal. It's fun."
    "I guess I just like my cultural events to mean something deeper," Sandy reflected around a mouthful. "Physical performance might be a big deal to a straight, but I just can't get excited about it. It's too easy."
    "For you, maybe," said Rhian. "You have to learn to empathise better with straights."
    And Sandy just stared at her, incredulously. Vanessa grinned, and Ari shook his head in smiling disbelief. Jean-Pierre struggled to be free of Vanessa's arms, bounding to the ground and trotting toward the familiar scent of Anita, who lowered a hand for him to sniff.
    "It's strange," Rhian continued, apparently unaware of the minor commotion she'd caused, "I checked a database on the history of football, but when you go back far enough, most of the references are to a different sport entirely-one with a round ball and the players don't even use their hands."
    "Oh that's soccer," Anita said, highly amused as Jean-Pierre tried to grasp her fingers with his tight little hands, and lick them. "Football began in India, and they got so huge they spread the sport around the world and it took over from soccer a few hundred years ago as the biggest football code."
    Ari made a loud, quizz-show-buzzer noise to the negative. "Wrong," he said. "Football began in Australia, it was called Australian football. It was inspired partly by Gaelic football from Ireland, and partly by a game the Australian Aborigines played. India borrowed it from them sometime in the twenty-first century."
    Rhian frowned. "I've never heard of Australia."
    "Big, empty, boring place with lots of stupid furry animals," said Ari around another mouthful. "Lot like here."
    "Rhi," said Sandy, fixing her friend with a solemn gaze. "Before you get going, could I ask you to do something for me?"
    Ari also gazed at Rhian, the humour abruptly replaced by calculation. "Of course," said Rhian. "What would you like me to do?"

CHAPTER FOUR

    HE ride over to HQ was not a pleasant one. Vanessa fumed all the way, although precisely what she was upset at, Sandy couldn't say.
    Rhian simply sat in the backseat of the armoured government cruiser, and gazed out at the spectacular aerial view of passing towers on a carpet of green urbanity, gleaming bright in patches beneath the slanting rays of the morning sun. Here and there the sunlight flashed on the surface of one of the many tributaries of the Shoban Delta. The air seemed thick with morning haze, typical midsummer humidity rising off