Victory Conditions Read Online Free PDF Page B

as if Toby were still a child.
    Then he gave a sudden quick nod, like someone who had just taken a skullphone call. “Toby, your cousin is most insistent that your escort attend you at once—I am sorry she did not let me know they were coming; we would have prepared food for them, of course. They are on their way now. But have you felt at all anxious here? Other than the natural anxiety of a boy meeting a girl’s parents for the first time?” His smile now as open and warm.
    Toby smiled back. “No, ser, of course not. I thought Stella’s precautions were excessive, and I’m sure they were not from distrust of you, but to teach me more caution.”
    “Your cousin is wise, Toby, and I have taken no offense. The young are often incautious. Had I known about your escort, I would have arranged for their entry, of course.”
    Lunch, after that, was marred only by the presence of his security, two stolid men standing against the wall, refusing to eat while Zori and her parents and Toby consumed four delicious courses and made small talk. Zori’s mother had stories of her childhood on the planet—excursions into the country to boat or ride, parties and dances. Her face came alive as she told them. Zori’s father said little, but smiled fondly at Zori even when she tried to tease him into response.
    After lunch, Toby hoped Zori would walk back with him, but she came only as far as the gate to The Cone. “I have to talk to them,” she said. “But you did very well, Toby. I know they liked you.”
    “I was scared,” Toby said. “Until I thought of you. But I can’t—” He glanced around; the security men were there, as always. “Kzuret,” he said. “Kzuret adin.”
    “Kzuret adin,” she said. “See you tomorrow in class.” Then she was gone, walking briskly back up the passage to her home, and he led his security back out into the public areas of the station.
    When Toby got back to the Vatta offices, Stella called him in at once. “What did you mean, leaving your security behind?”
    “I had to,” he said. “It would have been rude to be late; I was going to ask Zori’s father when I got there—”
    “But you didn’t,” she said. “Did you?”
    “I couldn’t figure out how to do it without being rude,” Toby said. “Besides, it was safe. I was in a private home, with friends—”
    “Acquaintances,” Stella said. “Just because they’re respectable and rich doesn’t make them friends.”
    Toby felt hot. “Zori—!” he said.
    “Zori is your friend. Don’t bristle at me; I like her, too. But she’s not her parents. And it took her father a long time to unlock that gate for your security.”
    “He said if you’d only told him beforehand…” Toby’s voice trailed away at Stella’s expression.
    “I did,” she said. “Of course I did. He said it wasn’t necessary; I said it was our policy. Think about that, Toby. Would people we want as friends lie to you?”
    Toby wanted to argue with her—it couldn’t be true, these were Zori’s parents—but Stella would not lie to him. That much he knew.
    “He must’ve had a good reason,” he said, knowing it was a weak argument.
    “I’m sure he did,” Stella said. “Did he try to talk to you about your research?”
    The uneasy feeling he’d had in the study with Zori’s father returned. He couldn’t define it; he didn’t want it. “I need to work on my paper,” Toby said without answering directly.
    “Do that,” Stella said. He could feel her gaze on his back as he went into the lab where he had left his schoolwork.
    A couple of hours later, Stella called him. “Toby, do you have any linguistic analysis software that can make sense of this?” She held out an audio cube and a printout.
    “What is it?” he asked.
    “Ky sent it; it’s a recording and phonetic transcript of transmission by pirate ships. Nobody in her group can understand it, and she sent it to me. Nobody I’ve talked to so far has a clue; I’ll send a copy