Lienne glanced at her tablet. "So it is. Thank you."
"You're welcome."
The older woman regarded her for a long second and rapped her knuckles on opaque door. The frost melted from the glass. Ven sat inside. He was wearing a bionet suit. Dark circles clutched at his eyes.
Claire forced herself to sit down at her desk and look busy.
Lienne stepped inside the office and crossed her arms. Her mind sent a focused thought.
"Rolando said you and Claire had an intimate dinner in the Roof Garden on Friday."
Ven grimaced. "Rolando needs to keep his mouth shut."
"I've warned you about this, Ven."
His face looked grim.
"I'd gone to see Sangori. Claire insisted on coming with me, because apparently I 'shouldn't go alone.'"
"You shouldn't have."
"I ran into Castilla, Lim, and Pelori. Pelori locked Claire in front of a lobby full of witnesses. She didn't scream. Didn't panic. When I forced him to let go, she landed on her feet and asked if she should alert the authorities. No shaking in the voice. Nothing. She made us look strong and competent. She singlehandedly restored my standing in the community and she doesn't even realize it."
"I know all that." Lienne waved her hand. "The story is making the rounds."
Ven looked up and his eyes betrayed anger. "Then why in the world are you badgering me about serving her dinner? Should I have sent her home and then be notified that her mind developed a lesion and her brains leaked out of her ears?"
Lienne leaned forward, resting her knuckles on his desk. "That's not what that dinner was and you know it. You cooked for her, Ven. You served her pink wine. You were up there for two hours. The only thing missing from this romantic rendezvous were the passion cones and only because the kitchen didn't have any."
Ven leaned back in his chair and sighed.
"There are things that aren't appropriate between the owner of a business and an employee."
"Don't lecture me," he warned.
"I will lecture you. Has it crossed your mind that she may feel obligated to accept your advances?"
"What advances? Nothing happened."
"She can't decline your invitations. In her mind, you're putting her into a position where she must accept your overtures or risk being sent back to a hellish planet where she might be put to death on arrival. You're putting her into a very difficult position."
He waved his hand at her. "Nothing. Happened. It wasn't that kind of dinner."
"Oh? What did you talk about?"
"Nothing. She asked about Castilla and then I asked her about her childhood."
"Venturo! Do you not see the writing on this wall? She is a talented girl, smart, efficient, and conscientious. If you keep pushing this, she may quit to escape. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find an admin who can actually tolerate you, Ven?"
He stared at her, incredulous. "You didn't even want to hire her! I hired her."
"However she came to work here, she is here now, she is doing exceptionally well, and I don't cherish the prospect of having to replace her."
Venturo raised his hand. "Enough."
"It's not fair to her, it's not -"
"I said, enough!"
The force of Ven's mind tore out. Lienne fell silent.
They looked at each other.
"Why are you wearing a biosuit at this hour?" she asked.
He rubbed his face.
Lienne checked her tablet. "The log says you've been logged into the bionet for the last thirty-five hours."
"I've met a psycher," he said. "Young. Female. Grade A."
"And?"
"She was powerful."
"How powerful?"
Ven met her gaze. "She iced me."
"Don't be ridiculous. Nobody has been able to ice you since you were sixteen years old..."
He just looked at her.
Lienne fell silent. "For how long?" she asked finally.
"Six seconds."
Lienne dropped into a chair.
"Was she DDS?"
He shook his head. "She iced me and took off. I traced her to a portable hub and the connection went dead."
"You have to find her, Ven. If DDS gets a hold of a psycher who can ice you, Castilla will kill you."
"Yes, who would you berate then?" He grimaced.
"Don't be ridiculous," Lienne's tone was soft. "Find her."
"I will."
Lienne rose. "And Ven..."
"What?"
"About our previous conversation: there are ways to go about those things. Your mother knew this and so did your father."
Venturo blinked.
"It's a bit extreme, but who will tell you no?" Lienne shrugged and left the office.
Claire kept her haze firmly on her desk. Lienne's worries were misplaced. She could've told her that. The end of the conversation made no sense at all.
Ven stepped out of the office. "Claire?"
"Yes?" She forced a smile.
"Clear my schedule for the rest of the week. Split my shift between Victorio, Rukah, and Daneb. I'm not available for anyone for anything unless it's an emergency."
"I'll take care of it."
He nodded, looked like he was going to say something else, and returned to his office instead.
Claire sipped her tea. It was Friday, and she sat in a soft blue chair of the fourteenth floor recreation room. The room, shaped like a horseshoe, was positioned so the straight wall faced the diagrid. The wall was glass and sometimes Claire stood next to it, looking down the long sheer drop to the lobby. She liked to watch people, knowing that she was all but invisible.
Today she just wanted solitude. She'd dimmed the glass wall to near darkness, shutting off the bright light of the afternoon streaming in through the solar panels of the diagrid until only the pale purple and blue mood lighting remained. Her head hummed. Being a replacement Venturo Escana was a tiring business.
Claire took another sip of tea and checked the tab. Passion raspberry. Hmm. Delicious.
It was thirty minutes past five. The building was mostly empty. The support personnel had gone home, eager to escape and start their weekend, with the exception of the psycher assistance unit. Both Rukah and Angelia were logged in, although Rukah was coming to the end of his shift and Angelia was just beginning hers.
In the past week Claire had made more executive decisions than she cared to admit. Venturo spent every waking hour logged into the bionet. Attempting to reach him proved futile. He simply brushed her off. Lienne carried her own workload and the couple of times Claire consulted her, the older woman defaulted to "Ask Venturo."
In the end she resolved most of the problems herself, under the banner of Ven's authority. If Lienne or he ever realized who had handled most of the arising problems, she would be fired on the spot for overstepping. Claire smiled to herself. Right now getting fired didn't seem overly tragic. Sure, she would have to find a new job, and her probation period had shrunk to mere six weeks instead of twelve, but it might be worth it.
It would be worth it to be free of Ven. To be free of the fantasy that would never come to pass. She was too proud to spend the entirety of her life as his silent shadow, while he imagined her beating off the prospective assassins with her tablet.
Ven's mind approached.
Claire sipped her tea.
He emerged from the shadowy hallway, the bionet suit adhering to him like second skin. She ogled him quietly, looking through her eyelashes while pretending to drink from her cup.
Ven dropped a stack of pseudo paper next to her and landed on the couch. "I found you."
She almost panicked, but her shell was firmly in place and thick enough to withstand a probe. "I wasn't hiding."
"Yes, you were. Lights are off, your desk is organized, as if you've left. If it wasn't for your bag, I wouldn't know you were in the building."
"My desk is always organized."