Crisis Management Read Online Free PDF Page B

stupid.”
    Devani smiled. Leothanak was a typical teenager even if she was close to seven feet tall.
    “Why are you smiling?”
    “You verbally tried to put me in my place. It was cute. Feel free to try again.” Devani chuckled.
    They reached the room that was to be Devani’s and her charge opened the door. “This is where you will sleep. My room is down the hall.”
    Dev shook her head. “I am afraid that will not do. I will sleep on a cot in your room. You may be comforted in knowing that it will only be for a week or so.”
    Leothanak scowled. “What? I am not sharing my room with you.”
    “I am not offering you a choice. Either allow me in or submit to a monitoring device to be planted in your room and the receiver will be with me.”
    The girl glared down at her. “I am not going to submit to interference in my privacy.”
    “You will until this is over. When it is done, I will be on my way and you will finish growing up. How old are you anyway?”
    Dev knew the answer, but she was trying to get the girl to participate in the conversation.
    “I am almost an adult.”
    Dev shook her head. “Not for another decade. Nice try though.”
    Leothanak stomped down the hall and slipped into her room locking the door quickly.
    Dev made a fist and punched through the door, unlocking it by removing the lock and handle with one strike. The moment that Dev opened the door, she noted that the young girl trying to crawl out the window.
    Sighing, she walked to her charge, grabbed the back of her dress and tugged her back inside. “Now, we are going to go over what is and is not acceptable. Crawling out of windows is not acceptable. Locking me out is not acceptable, nor will it work.”
    The girl looked over at the door with the fist-sized hole in it. “You…you…”
    “I am a little stronger than I look. Now, what is your current field of study?”
    “The history of the Alliance.” Leothanak looked at the window, then Dev and finally to her console.
    “Perhaps you should work on your assignments seeing as how you will soon be in the very place you are studying.” Dev watched as the girl walked to the console and sat down, bringing up her assignments.
    Yagoth matured slowly, she wouldn’t reach full height or maturity for a decade, but age-wise, she was more than ready for most species. “Were you meeting a boy?”
    “No. I was going to meet friends in the local shopping centre.”
    “Do you still want to go?”
    Leothanak blinked, “You would let me go?”
    “I would come with you. Now, do one hour of study, and if you make progress, I will accompany you to the shopping centre.”
    Leo frowned. “I don’t need to go. It was just a test for you.”
    “I am not here to stop you from living your life. I am here to stand between you and danger, Leo.” Dev spoke softly, and it made more of an impression than if she had shouted.
    “Only my friends call me Leo.”
    “I will not call you Miss, I need to use something you will answer to. You seem like a Leo. You can call me Dev if you like, or Agent Jarix if you don’t.”
    “Dev? What is it short for?”
    “Devani.” She smiled as Leo visibly relaxed.
    “That is a nice name. Did your mother name you or your father?”
    “Neither. My folk are raised by the state. I have never met either of my parents.”
    Leo sat in shock. “You are a clone?”
    Dev chuckled. “No. I was born of my mother, but she gave me up at birth. If you look into the social structure of the races of the Alliance, you will see many different ways of raising children. Some let the children come to education on their own, other species begin education the moment that the eyes are open. It is an interesting topic for research.”
    “I don’t understand. Why would she give you up?”
    “My people are raised by the crèche system. Not one of us has been instructed in what makes a good parent beyond choosing the proper match for our own genes. It is the only decision we make.”
    “May