Migration by Julie E. Czerneda Read Free Book Online Page B

at the figure seated all too comfortably behind her desk, chin resting on her hands, brown eyes fixed on her: ’Sephe.
    Was no one going to let her sleep?
    “It is the middle of the night,” Mac observed.
    “So it is. Where have you been, Dr. Connor?”
    Mac straightened from her tired slouch, enjoying a welcome surge of adrenaline-rich anger. “Is that why you’re here?” she snapped. “To check on where and when I sleep? There’s no—”
    “Answer the question, please.”
    “I took a walk.” Mac marched to the couch, where she thumped her pillow into submission and threw it to one end. “Now about that sleep.”
    Rapier-sharp. “This isn’t a game, Dr. Connor.”
    Mac yanked her oversized sweater from the screen and laid it on the couch, adequate blanket for a warm spring evening. “If you say so.”
    “You can’t take Mudge ashore tomorrow.”
    Her back to ’Sephe, Mac squeezed her eyes shut, her heart giving a heavy, hopeless thud, anger draining away. They’d promised her privacy, at least here, where she lived. Like a fool, she’d believed.
    Had they made charts of her sleepless nights? Recorded her cries when she did sleep and the nightmares woke her? Counted the times she’d called out their names? Emily. Nik.
    Brymn.
    Mac unfolded the fists she’d unconsciously made and turned. “If you heard that much, you know I gave him my word.”
    Dark fingers flicked the air. Dismissal . “Tell him you lied again.”
    At the somber look in the other woman’s eyes, Mac choked down what she wanted to say, settling for the blunt truth: “That won’t stop him. He’s determined to check on the Trust lands. He’ll do it by himself if he has to.”
    “Unfortunate.”
    A pronouncement of doom? With the bizarre feeling of having switched places with one of her students called to task, Mac went and stood before her own desk. “Oversight isn’t part of this, ’Sephe,” she insisted. “Leave him alone.”
    The Ministry agent stood as well, her full lips thinned with disapproval. “That’s not your—”
    “Leave him alone,” Mac repeated, forced to look up. Had she shrunk since this morning? “We’ll go onshore tomorrow. I’ll show him the bare minimum, trust me. Oversight will go home and write a scathing report about our mistreatment of his hillside that your people can bury however deep they want.”
    “Inadequate.” ’Sephe’s expression didn’t change. “Stick to your fish, Dr. Connor. On-site risk assessment and management are my responsibility, not yours.”
    “At least use what I know!” Mac retorted. She shook her head, then leveled her tone to something if not completely civil, then hopefully persuasive. “I’ve handled Oversight for fourteen years. Believe me—the best way to deal with him, the only way, is to let him see what’s there with his own eyes and file his own report. Anything else will simply raise more and louder questions than your Ministry is willing to answer.” She hesitated, worrying she’d gone too far— or not far enough? “Don’t underestimate him,” Mac continued. “He has connections at every level of Earthgov.” She spared a moment to be grateful Mudge wasn’t one of those eavesdropping. Pleading his case was something she’d never live down.
    A long, more considering look. Mac kept quiet under it. Whatever orders ’Sephe had to follow, surely she had some discretion in how.
    “Fine,” ’Sephe said abruptly. “Take him. Give him the tour. But not first thing in the morning. I’ll need time to manage the ramifications.”
    Mac guessed those “ramifications” would include briefing those who watched over Base. Sensible . “That works,” she replied, relieved and willing to show it. “It’ll probably take me till noon to find a way to get Mudge past the tiggers anyway.”
    The magic smile, the one that pretended they were old, dear friends. “Leave that to me.” The smile disappeared. “But keep your friend away from the Ro