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  Jis, throughout the meeting, nodded her understanding. She provided statistics of what the problem was already costing Ackalon commerce on an annual basis over the last fifteen years and projections of those same costs over the next ten assuming a steady escalation of pirate activity. Sori displayed similar material to illustrate the basis of Talmon’s concern. All in all, it was a very satisfactory meeting, except for the lies Sori was telling.

  To use an adjective Lexi was fond of using, my freakin’ abilities seem to be growing. I can almost feel this woman’s thoughts. I wonder if this could be due to the meditation training I’ve been giving Lexi. After all, she is a living Rose of Light. It never occurred to me that working with her would be the same as working with the artifact itself. In fact, it actually seems to be more effective. Won’t Father be surprised?

  I almost think my not always reliable precognition is overlaying my ability to tell truth from lies. Damn, that’s practically telepathy. Unless I’m fooling myself.

  Sori doesn’t have a clue why Dakman changed the meeting arrangements, although she does believe there may have been an emergency of some nature. There is no plan in place to deal with piracy, as far as she knows. That was a lie. It does seem they are aware of and concerned by the problem, at least. She also thinks that her headpiece, kind of pretty in a tacky sort of way, is blocking the ability of people like me from getting at her thoughts. I wonder if such devices really exist? I’ve never heard of them. And why do the Talmon think this one works? There are no truly telepathic races. I should mention this to Lexi. She’ll find it interesting. Probably build herself one that really does work.

  When the business meeting was concluded, Sori surprised Jis by asking, “If you don’t have plans for the evening, may I take you to dinner? We have an excellent restaurant near here serving authentic Talmon cuisine. A small dance troupe performs once each hour. Believe me, it is quite a delight.”

  Is this what we’re waiting for? If I agree, will I vanish tonight? Jis wondered. Probably not. Only Kahvia and the children were taken. If Jadkim had been scooped up in the same net, maybe. “I do have a dinner reservation already, of course. All of my evenings are planned in advance. Those plans are easily canceled. I would love to join you for dinner. I was expecting to eat alone with my people.”

  “Excellent!” Sori beamed, leaving Jis to wonder again if there was an ulterior motive to this. Then again, just being in a social interaction with an Ackalonian causes some people to respond somewhat over-enthusiastically.

  One of the things that thrills me about Lexi, Ron and Geena is with them, I’m just one of the guys.

  Sori enthused, “I’ll make the arrangements. May I pick you up at seven this evening?”

  Jis smiled gracefully at her. “Please. I’ll need the name of the place you want to take me so I can alert my embassy security people ahead of time concerning my change of plans. This sounds like fun.”

  Chapter 15

  Dinner With Sori

  The restaurant Sori selected to introduce Jis to Talmon cuisine was very upscale. The site occupied the top floor of a relatively large building on the north edge of downtown. The dining area boasted no more than sixty tables nestled a comfortable distance from each other in a space large enough for at least twice that number. The room wasn’t square. Walls, paneled in a highly polished dark wood, joined each other at odd angles, resulting in multiple semi-private nooks around the more open central area. Noise dampeners further enhanced the illusion of private dining by eliminating not only the clatter of other diners, conversations at neighboring tables were inaudible. If you listened carefully, the sounds of a light breeze rustling forest leaves could be heard.

  One of the longer straight runs of wall appeared to be floor to ceiling windows. When one realized the beautiful city observed through the windows was on Talmon and not Naragene Nine, it became obvious the windows were not windows at all but rather holographic viewscreens. The view was very convincing. Presumably, they were looking at a recording. There was no way the moving view could be real-time. Other than the windows, the walls were left bare. The owners decided not to clutter them with artwork some patrons might find offensive, or at least not enjoy.

  Overall, the restaurant was dimly lit by cut-glass chandeliers hanging from the nineteen-foot ceiling down to a height of about ten feet. Task lighting over each table allowed the diners to adjust their own lighting brighter if desired. Eight hexagonal columns, clad in the same dark wood as the walls, rose to the ceiling, breaking up the space further.

  Both Sori and Jis were greeted by name when they arrived. The two were led to their table in one of the more private nooks across an expensive looking inlaid wood floor by a formally attired maitre d’. As the maitre d’ held Jis’s chair for her, he was joined by a second man, likewise in formal attire, who held Sori’s chair. The staff left them alone for a moment to absorb the ambiance prior to the approach of an attendant to take drink orders.

  Sori, glancing halfway across the room at Ron, said, “Your bodyguard looks quite formidable. Does he really need to loom like that?”

  Jis momentarily glanced across the room to where Ron was indeed occupied with looming. Doing quite an impressive job of it too. With a column at his back, he had a good view of more than half of the room and an excellent view of their table. None of the other diners seemed at all disconcerted by his looming presence. A few of them may have had loomers too. At any rate, Ron was only one of several visibly armed, muscular men and women in the room holding up a wall or a column, all ignored by the wait-staff. Apparently dining with a dash of danger added excitement to a meal.

  Before Jis could answer, a server arrived bearing two folders containing actual paper menus, a sure sign that if this wasn’t already an upscale restaurant, it was striving to become one. If the food turned out to be as good as the service, Jis was certain the management had already attained that goal.

  Looking back toward Sori, Jis replied, “My sister says he’s cute, too. But yes, he does need to be there, and frankly, I don’t think he can help looming. You know I came here after stopping at Borgol. Jadkim is frantic about his missing family and rightly so. Therefore I have a bodyguard following me around whether I want one or not while I’m here. My father insisted. It’s a bit of a drag, but as far as eye-candy goes, he’s not bad at all. I do intend to get some shopping in before I head back home. He should be able carry quite a few bags, don’t you think?”

  Sori again glanced at Ron. With a small laugh, she said, “I agree. He is cute, in a masculine sort of way. Frankly, he looks like he could carry both of us and quite a few bags at the same time. More seriously, I heard about the E’Kret family, of course. That was quite a tragic occurrence. Fortunately that kind of thing is very unusual. This world is practically crime-free.” She sipped at her cocktail before adding, “I didn’t know you had a sister, Jis. I was told you were the sole Ackalonian heir.”

  With a small toss of her head, Jis said, “I’m sure the kidnapping, if that is what it turns out to be, is an isolated incident. As to my sister, she grew up on a Level-Two world. She’s a few years younger than I am. I didn’t even know about her until just recently. I don’t really think my father did, either. Odd, that.” She shrugged, then still smiling, asked, “When our server returns, why don’t you order for me? Something exotic, please. And maybe another of these cocktails. The flavor is quite stimulating.”

  Sori waved the young man responsible for their table over and placed orders for both a soup course and an entree. She also ordered them a mildly alcoholic Talmon craft beer to accompany the meal.

  Between the soup course and the entree, the restaurant’s lights dimmed further and they were treated to the colorful, four-member dance troupe performing an intricate, traditional dance under the spotlights. Jis pounded the table in time to the beat of the music along with most of the other diners. The professional guards, Ron included, managed to look bored, keeping their attention focused on their employers. Th
e dancers knew to avoid them as they pirouetted among the tables. As the spotlights died and the dim lighting came back up, Jis remarked, “This is really nice, Sori. Thank you for thinking of me.”

  Sori smiled. “Don’t let it go to your head. I’m a diplomat. Spending an evening out with a future planetary ruler can’t hurt my career, can it? Besides, I enjoyed talking with you this afternoon. You did an impressive job presenting your data and your concerns. So when is the big event?”

  Jis laughed. “The big event? No date has been set for my coronation as Plicora. The Rose of Light, which is an essential component of the ceremony, was damaged during the twenty-four years it was missing. We’re waiting for it to heal prior to the ceremony. So near the end of this year or early the next.”

  “It heals? I thought it was a gem.” Sori looked puzzled.

  “You’re not wrong. It is a gem. There are internal energy flows throughout it which are currently somewhat distorted. We’re coaxing them back where they belong. I think heal is a good term for that.” She sipped from her stein. “Traditionally, at the end of the ceremony the new Plicora gazes into it and it flashes. No one has ever explained why. It certainly doesn’t do that at other times. We assume it’s related to most of our population being united behind the new leader. We’re afraid, with the damage, it may not flash for me. That would be a bad omen and a disturbing start to my new role.”

  “I suppose.” She hesitated. “I’m curious about something else, Jis, if you can talk about it. None of us seem to know the extent of Ackalonian mental abilities. The head piece I’m wearing is supposed to block them. Does it work? Can you read my mind?”

  It was no concern of hers what people thought of Ackalonian abilities. Her people neither advertised nor denied them. “I’m not telepathic, Sori. None of us are. I do, however, feel the emotions of others. Right now, I can tell you’re enjoying dining with me. You feel an attraction for my looming bodyguard. Whenever your glance slides past him I sense a small emotional uptick. You won’t be able to separate him from my sister, so don’t go too far with that.”

  She paused while Sori nodded and glanced briefly back toward Ron with an accompanying emotional uptick. “Ackalonian abilities are termed empathy rather than telepathy. Because of that, I can sense truth and untruth. But if you were to tell me a lie, I would only know it was a lie, not what the truth is. No, your device doesn’t prevent that.”

  “I didn’t think so,” Sori said. “We’re trained to read facial expressions. I’m sure your diplomats are as well. You weren’t obvious about it, but your face gave you away a couple of times when I told you something I didn’t believe was true.”

  She smiled. “I also wanted to suggest, off the record, that you may want to consider some of my assurances somewhat questionable. I consider it odd that Ambassador Drisson was called away so hurriedly. He was in the embassy just this morning. The briefing I was given mere minutes before he was scheduled to meet with you was rather abrupt, almost scripted. I don’t understand why, either. I mean, we were discussing a legitimate issue. Piracy is a growing concern for at least a third of the Accord.”

  Jis looked at her, slightly puzzled. Nothing the woman just said was a lie. She wound up letting herself have an enjoyable evening. Her dinner was extremely good and sufficiently exotic. She ordered a second meal, packaged to go, for her cute bodyguard.

  Chapter 16

  Concierge

  Lexi and Geena finally found the chance to comm with Jis and Ron the next morning while sitting and enjoying their hotel’s breakfast buffet. The women put up a do-not-disturb sign on the comm-gear when they got back to their room last night. Urania understood and was prepared to take messages. If an emergency came up overnight, she would have ignored the do-not-disturb request.

  Lexi was overly pleased to discover that hotel breakfast buffets weren’t just an Earth custom. The food here was different, certainly, and a few dishes were in fact very different, one disturbingly moved under its own power, but still, it was a breakfast buffet. Nothing to complain about with that. Ron, she wasn’t surprised, made better coffee, but this certainly trumped what they drank at the Bureau yesterday. She didn’t think she would ever forget him bringing her coffee when they were stranded in a cold, dimly lit ship in deep space, running off of rapidly waning battery power with her desperately trying to figure out how to save all of their lives.

  Neither investigator Ron nor empath Jis spotted anything out of the ordinary about the hotel or its staff yesterday. This morning, they too were down on the lounge level for the breakfast buffet, a convenience the Elegan hotel also provided. Jis remarked to Ron that if she asked, the hotel would have provided a full buffet in her suite, along with servers. Despite the fact that such a request might not be too out of character with the role Jis was playing, she just couldn’t do it. Fluttering her hand at the desk on the way in still bothered her.

  Geena gave them a brief update on what they learned at the CIB yesterday as well as a brief sketch of what they planned for the day.

  Jis filled her teammates in on both her meeting and subsequent dinner with Sori. She offered to check out the aquarium. “I think Ron should be able to do some inconspicuous investigating and, besides, I hear it’s fabulous. Also, I have to attend a cocktail party at Ackalon’s embassy tonight. Ron and I will be getting in late again.”

  After well-wishing all around, Geena and Lexi headed back to their room to don the leather outfits. They didn’t bring anything else to wear suitable for packing guns and knives. Then they headed over to the Elegan.

  The Elegan’s front desk staff wasn’t very helpful. It wasn’t that they weren’t quite professionally cooperative, no one on duty at the desk knew anything useful. Lexi, being from Earth, wanted to interview the cleaning staff especially as there was nothing in their notes to suggest the detectives had bothered. Geena laughed and said that cleaning robots didn’t tend to be very conversational.

  The concierge, Karl Gee, however, was human, middle-aged, and male. Karl’s entire job was being knowledgeable, conversational, and helpful. Lexi got the sense the leather outfits didn’t hurt when they were talking to him either. He kept stealing glances quite a bit lower than their eyes. Maybe he didn’t want his neck to get tired from looking up at them?

  “Yes, of course I remember them, especially the two children,” he said without hesitation, looking at Geena’s chest. “Two little darlings. Well behaved as well. You don’t see that all of the time with children of the wealthy. Both the parents were very pleasant to talk with. Terrible, terrible thing. I sincerely hope they’re all found in good health soon.”

  “What were they interested in doing while here?” Lexi asked.

  “Well, as you might expect, mostly child-oriented activities. However the hotel does offer baby-sitting services if the adults want to take in some entertainment on their own. I recommended a couple of popular children’s shows, but they didn’t ask me to acquire admission tickets. Of course, their embassy also provides concierge services for visiting dignitaries. I did get them passes to the aquarium. The animal exhibits are fascinating, I imagine even more so to visitors from an arid world like the Grake are from. The little boy, Koe, spoke tirelessly with me about it after they got back. He particularly marveled at the man-eating serpents. Those are imported, of course.”

  He smiled. “My ears almost fell off.” Karl seemed sincerely happy remembering that. Perhaps he enjoyed conversing with enthused six-year-olds. He might have grandchildren of his own.

  Then again, perhaps he’s faking, Lexi thought, somewhat randomly. “What else did they discuss with you?” she asked. while noting that Geena was letting her do the questioning. Geena wasn’t shooting her any shut-up-now looks either. Not even when she asked about interrogating the non-existent housekeeping crew.

  “Well, it almost goes without saying, they all wanted to go sailing. I gathered that the father did as well, but Da E’Kret had business meetings booked all week. I overheard him discus
sing not attending a few of them. I don’t know what they related to or who they were with, of course. They were all such nice people, not haughty as the upper-class is often wont to be. We have a haughty Ackalonian residing with us now, but I shouldn’t speak to that.”

  “I’d have to agree with that assessment,” Geena said. “We met Da E’kret when he hired us. Seems like a regular guy. Did you help them with anything else? Dining? Shopping?”

  “Yes, of course. I provided a list of nearby five-star restaurants. Because the children were with them, I specified which were considered kid-friendly as opposed to those they might be more comfortable attending without children in tow. I don’t know which, if any, they chose, although I do know they never took advantage of the hotel’s baby-sitting service. They may have booked reservations through their embassy. As to shopping, I merely suggested they stroll through our shopping district. It tends to be somewhat touristy, as is inevitable, but you can find almost literally anything there. Quite an eclectic experience. As they weren’t shopping for anything in particular, I offered no specific recommendations.”