Free Necessary Evils (Adventures in the Liaden Universe®?) by Sharon Lee, Steve Miller Page A

as his first act on planet. The second file was something else. He frowned, scanned through, then went back to the top, one hand already reaching for the desk-comm.
    He punched up the first number on the contact page; a woman answered, sounding surprised. Hers was, after all, a purposefully quiet office on a purposefully quiet planet.
    "Tora Belle here."
    "This is O'Berin," Clarence told her, firm and quiet. "Contact staff and let 'em know there's a meeting at headquarters when the port goes dayside. I want everybody here, sharp and ready to work."
    "Yes,
sir
," Tora Belle said. "Day labor, too?"
    "Everybody," Clarence confirmed, letting her hear a touch of impatience.
    "Yes,
sir
," she answered. "Anything else?"
    "Bring yourself here an hour before the others. I fancy I'll be having some questions for you."
    She drew a breath, slow and not quite steady.
    "Questions," he said to that minor sound of dread. "You can expect from me what you had from Herself, for the same cause and reasons. Fair?"
    Out the breath came, stronger. "
Yes
, sir," she whispered.
    "Tomorrow, then. O'Berin out." He cut the connection and turned back to the screen and its tangled skein of news. It was going to be a long night.
    Sighing, he peeled out of his jacket and adjusted the gain on the screen. He checked to make sure the telltales would talk to him in case anyone unexpected--which was just about anyone at all--tested the defenses, and reached automatically for the cup still likely sitting on his desk at Landofar.
    He should've asked Belle to bring along coffee tomorrow, he thought, ruefully, if there was coffee to be had. Well, and it would be inneresting to see, as Herself would have had it, what Belle might think of on her own.
    *
    "More tea, mother?" Daav asked, reaching for the pot.
    "Of your considerable goodness." Chi yos'Phelium held out her cup with a smile.
    He served her, and then himself, replacing the pot on the warmer. They shared a late breakfast on the patio overlooking the so-called wilderness. To Daav's eye, and no doubt to his mother's, the well-grown and cared for strip of trees looked rather overly domesticated. No matter, the view was pleasant, and if it were somewhat tame, at least they could be assured that no wild animals, nor wild men, for that matter, would come roaring down upon them to smash up the porcelain and make all untidy.
    "Really, Daav," his mother murmured as she took her cup in hand, "you have become extremely useful. I wonder that I allow you to return to the Scouts."
    He sipped his own tea, outwardly unperturbed. "Surely, ma'am, you must know that my usefulness is directly attributable to the knowledge that I am not long for Liad. Were you to deny me the Scouts, I make no doubt that I should soon revert to the surly fellow we both know me to be."
    "It is true," Chi said, as if the thought had just occurred to her, "that you are far from sweet-tempered, my son. Doubtless you are correct, and I would tire of your company in a few days under such changed circumstance." She put her cup, gently, on the table. "Well, then, back to the Scouts you shall go, when your leave is done." She shot him a quick, mischievous glance from beneath thick golden lashes. "Now, own yourself relieved, sir!"
    "Reprieved!" he exclaimed in obligingly melodramatic tones. "So near it was that my heart fair stuttered in my breast, and very nearly was I unmanned! Yet, Doom stayed her fair hand, and turned her face aside. Surely, I am the most fortunate of men!"
    His mother laughed, and brought her hands together in a Terran clap of appreciation. "Well-played, sir! Truly, Daav, you should have sought the stage, rather than the Scouts."
    "A traveling troupe, ma'am?" he asked her, and she sent him another glance, this one sharp and serious.
    "You will need to come to terms at some point," she commented. "I will say no more, other than to note that the point grows nearer, not more distant."
    That this was undoubtedly true did nothing to ease