Earth 2788 by Janet Edwards Read Free Book Online Page B

didn’t notice or I’d have washed it off
and …”
    “No!” Lolek
interrupted me. “Don’t touch your face. Don’t move. Don’t talk to anyone. We’ll
be with you in a few minutes.”
    He abruptly
ended the call. I stared at my lookup in bewilderment. I hadn’t expected my
great-uncle to call me himself, or to care about a simple scratch on my cheek.
He’d said the words “we’ll be with you,” so he must mean he was coming to visit
me himself. I hoped he’d only stay for a moment, and then leave my parents and
friends to help me.
    It shouldn’t
take Lolek more than five minutes to go to our clan hall portal, dial the right
code, step through, and walk the remaining short distance to my door. I tensely
watched the time on my lookup, aware that I must look an awful mess after the
way I’d been crying. I desperately wanted to wash my face, redo my makeup, and
brush my hair, but Lolek had told me not to touch my face. Lolek could get very
angry if his orders weren’t strictly obeyed.
    It was much
longer than I’d expected, nearly twenty minutes, before there was a soft chiming
sound from the door. I stood up, and took a deep breath to try and calm my
nerves. “Door command open.”
    The door opened
and I stared in confusion as people flooded into the room. Lolek was in the
lead, but behind him weren’t my parents or the friends I’d expected. Instead,
there were a couple of my older cousins carrying cases of vid equipment, and
several strangers.
    No, at second
glance I saw these weren’t actual strangers. The two men and one woman might
not be clan members, but I had seen them before. The woman was our clan doctor,
one of the men belonged to the law firm we used, and the other was our clan
image consultant.
    The doctor
hurried up to me. “Please sit down, Lolia,” she said.
    I sat back down
in my chair. The doctor waved a scanner at me, concentrating on my face, before
turning to Lolek.
    “Only very minor
bruising and a superficial scratch.”
    “But it’s still
legally second level assault,” said the lawyer. “Under Betan law, any drawing
of blood automatically escalates an assault from first to second level. Use of
a weapon would escalate it even further to third level, but it would be
extremely hard to argue a fashionable ring counted as a weapon.”
    The image
consultant was studying my face now. “We could use more blood for the vid.”
    My two cousins
had finished unpacking vid bees from their carrying cases. Lolena picked up a
makeup bag, and came over to me. I felt her dabbing some liquid on my face,
while my other cousin watched critically.
    “I wouldn’t
overdo it,” he said. “I know face wounds bleed a lot but …”
    “I’m not
overdoing it,” said Lolena. She stepped back and studied me for a second. “Perfect.”
    “We’ll need
Lolia crying in the vid,” said the image consultant.
    Three small,
spherical vid bees floated up into the air, and hovered across to me. I saw
their lights flash as they focused on me and started recording. What the chaos
was going on here? Our clan business was making vids, but why were they making
a vid of me?
    I finally got
over my shock enough to speak. “What’s happening?”
    Lolek turned to
glare at me. “What’s happening?” He repeated my words in a mocking voice. “What’s
happening is we’re trying to limit the damage you’ve done to the clan, Lolia.”
    I shrank back
into my chair. “Damage? Me?”
    “Are you
completely brainless or merely totally self-centred?” Lolek gave an impatient
sigh. “Ever since I formed this clan, I’ve been working towards getting us
official recognition and a true clan name. Surely even you must understand that
an important step on that path is to be in an alliance with clans who already
have official status.”
    He didn’t wait
for me to reply, just swept on. “I spent years trying to negotiate our way into
an alliance without success. We’re wealthy, so an alliance might have