Posted by PK on December 02, 2001 at 18:08:11:
"We don't do that any more," Jeff had told Katri. "We're not the Ss'Rith."
"No, you're much cuter," Katri had replied.
"So," Ferrin went on, "Imagine being with one of these fascinating, supernatural godlike
people who might at any moment consume you..." she wriggled deliciously.
Imagine being surrounded by cute, sensual females who wouldn't mind if you ate them up,
Jeff thought. I don't have to imagine. Why fight it?
"What me, godlike?" he grunted. He felt anything but.
"You're a werewolf. You've got balls, I like that in a man." She cupped his scrotum and
squeezed gently. It was a pleasant sensation. "You'll do."
"What do you suggest I do if I find the mole?" Jeff asked casually.
"Eat her, of course." Ferrin said. "Just one thing, I've often wondered...."
"What?"
"What exactly are fava beans?"
"Haven't a clue, Boss," Flix said. "Sorry. The comnet was hacked through here and there is a
high probability that they were let in. That's it. There's not enough left of the logs to say who
did it. I also did a little snooping - do you really want to hear this?"
"Um? Yes." Jeff couldn't get the images out of his mind. He'd had one of the dreams again,
after all Ferrin had done. His teeth tearing Katri apart, gulping her down in big, juicy bites.
He'd loved it at the time. Seemingly, so had she.
"Several people in the office have downloaded info from the KLF. Katri, Risha, Ferrin," she
paused, "and you."
If Fen is the mole I'm going to pack up and go home, Jeff decided. She was the only person
he really trusted. Maybe it's me, he thought. Maybe I'm cracking up.
"Not Shay?" I should send Kat away for her own good. Before she screws us up completely
or I hurt her.
"No, not Shay, or the twins. I've scanned their propaganda site myself but I didn't waste much
time on it. Not my cup of tea. I don't see the point."
"You don't?"
Flix gave him a puzzled look. "No. I don't get it. If they want to be slaughtered like cattle, fine
by me. I'm sure they'll find someone to take them up on it if they look around. Why do they
try to involve the rest of us? If I wanted to be eaten I could consent to it, that's my right under
Federation law on self-determination. We all have that option now, what more do they
need?"
Jeff shook his head. She could be faking - what better mole than the system tech? - but he
strongly doubted it. If she is, we're screwed anyway, he thought. "Converts, I suppose," he
said. He gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder. "You did your best, I'm sure nobody could
have done better. Leave it for now. Just keep an eye open for anything odd..."
The mole could still be anybody, Jeff brooded after she left. Even me. Maybe I'm going nuts,
maybe I've got MPD and one of my alters is the mole. That would explain the dreams. Had
he actually ordered Raya for lunch himself and forgotten it? The girl had said it was a female
but the comnet was degraded at the time and there are ways to mask or synthesise voices.
Hello, Doctor Jeckyll, meet Mr. Hyde.
If that were true, Katri could be in real danger from him, not the other way around. He
couldn't let go of the idea that the tension between them might be the source of the problem.
In his dream, Kat had wanted to be eaten, but that wasn't reality it was HIS dream, not hers.
And therefore his problem.
He ordered lunch and brooded. And eventually came to a decision.
Katri came into his office without her usual ebullience. She obviously didn't know why he had
called her in. Or maybe she suspected...
"Please sit," he said. "There's something I have to discuss with you. I've been thinking that it
might be in your best interests to work somewhere else," he said. "Somewhere you won't be
in contact with any Federation people, particularly male personnel." 'Particularly me' went
unsaid.
Katri's looked stricken. "W-why?"
"I don't think you're temperamentally suited." One of us isn't, anyway.
Katri stared at him, white faced. "Not suited? I don't understand. What do you mean?"
What did he mean? That her seductive manner was disruptive, or just that it bothered him?
he could hardly tell her that he was afraid he might crack up and tear her throat out.
"I can transfer you without prejudice," Jeff continued, uncomfortably aware that he sounded
like a complete pompous arsehole, "Good references, no loss of pay.."
"This isn't fair!" Katri protested, her voice rising to a wail. "I haven't done anything wrong!
Why are you doing this to me?"
"Katri, this isn't a punishment, I just feel..."
"You think I'm the mole, don't you?" Her eyes narrowed. "Is that it?"
Yes, he did, or he had. "There's no evidence as such of any.."
"Or is it this?" She tugged at the material of her T'saaish. "It's comfortable, that's all." Jeff
stared at her and she crumpled. "All right, it's sexy, I was flirting, maybe I went too far, I'm
sorry, please....." She was babbling now.
"Katri, calm down. It's not you it's just...I think you'd be better off...." Safer, he didn't say.
Katri breathed in, looking down, and looked back up. Her face was flushed and tears were
running down her cheeks, but she kept her voice steady. "Yes Sir," she said. "You will have
my resignation on your desk by lunch. Also my signed permission to dispose of me. I would
appreciate it if you would invite the others." She stood up unsteadily, knocking over her chair.
"Kill you? Katri, I can't - I won't..." I mustn't.
"You won't? You want to disgrace me too? All I ever wanted was to be here, to work with the
team, with people like you...I thought I was just being friendly, I didn't understand..."
That makes two of us, Jeff thought. Her reaction was out of all proportion to what he'd
expected but her distress was convincing. Well handled, Jeff, he told himself bitterly. Kat
had reached the door and was fleeing into the outer office. He followed.
"Kat..." He reached for her shoulder, she stumbled as he caught the shoulder of her robe and
she spun and fell down backwards, lying sprawled on the floor with legs apart and her upper
body exposed. She made a perfect display of the T''saaish's ability to fall off at the drop of a
hat.
Nice tits, Jeff observed. Every bit as good as they'd looked in his fantasies. Not big, granted,
but round, ripe and firm. Bite me, they invited him. Another part of his brain observed drily
that this would make a great scene in an old Terran sexploitation horror flick. Here's where
the werewolf pounces. Cue scary music, cutaway, screams...
Everybody in the office was watching. And one other. Raya had arrived with his lunch.
The scene was frozen, time slowed. Kat stared up at him with huge, dark eyes. Raya looked
at her and at him, and at the sandwich in her hand, she held it up. "Sir? Will you be needing
this?" Jeff fought down an urge to laugh out loud.
"What's going on, Boss?" Ferrin wanted to know.
"I think he's going to eat Kat," Risha said with rather more relish than was necessary.
"Is she the mole, then?" That was Flix, sticking to business as usual, bless her.
Jeff held a hand up to Raya, signalling her to be still. He offered the other to Katri to help her
up. Idiot, he told himself. All this time working with an elite Ku team and you still didn't grasp
how important this is to them. Good grief, the girl really would rather be roasted than lose the
prestige of working here. What else had he missed?
"I may have been hasty," he told Katri. "Perhaps I could reconsider my options."
Kat lifted her chin. She hadn't bothered to refasten her robe. "You'll do me the honour, then?"
Her tone was absurdly formal and resolute, slightly defiant. Not Katlike seductive.
Something about the tableau caught the edge of Jeff's mind. He relaxed his attention to a
wider focus, letting it come. Raya was staring at Kat and Risha, frowning slightly as if
confused. Jeff followed her gaze. Risha caught his look and glanced between him and Raya.
"Problem, Risha?" Jeff asked quietly.
"Not me, Boss," she replied promptly. She looked away abruptly, turning to Katri who was
looking puzzled. "Are we all going to eat her, then?"
Jeff looked at Raya and nodded permission to speak. "What's bothering you?"
The small girl hesitated. "I-I don't understand, Sir," she said meekly. "Why did she tell me
you wanted to have me for lunch? Then you ordered a sandwich instead and you said it was
all right and now..." she looked at the half-naked Kat. "I don't know what's happening. Please,
what should I do with this?"
Jeff took the sandwich from her hand. "Never mind that. Who told you? When?"
Raya looked straight at Risha. "She did, yesterday. I heard her. I didn't know until I heard her
talk just now. I thought it might be the other one, they look alike, but they don't sound alike.
I'm sorry."
Jeff touched her shoulder reassuringly. "It's all right," he said. She was sorry? It had never
occurred to him to ask her to identify the mystery caller by voice. No big deal, given the
number of mistakes he'd already made. "Well, Risha? Why did you?"
It's funny what you don't notice, he ruminated. Quiet, efficient, unobtrusive Risha couldn't be
less like the flamboyant, temperamental Kat, which was why he hadn't realised that they
looked alike enough to be sisters. Or to be mistaken for each other in a blurred com image.
Risha looked indignant and a little flustered. "Me? You're accusing me because that Lowly,
that silly little kitchen wench..."
"But you did, Miss," the kitchen wench insisted, edging nearer to Jeff for protection. "I heard
you. Was it a mistake?"
It wouldn't convict a dog in a court of law, and if he was wrong this time it would be the last
straw for his credibility as a leader, but Jeff went with his gut. "The 'Lowly', as you so
charmingly call her, has perfectly good hearing. Time to own up, Risha, we'll pin it down
sooner or later. We both know you did it." He had even less evidence that she was the mole
too, but he cast a wide net by leaving the charge undefined.
"You screwed the system too?" Flix glared at her.
Pinned by the increasingly suspicious stares of the whole room, Risha slumped. "I had to
make you see," she said. "You Feds, you're predators, you should admit it to yourselves. I
thought Katri would do it for me, all that throwing herself into your face, offering herself on a
plate...."
Kat spoke indignantly. "That's not what I meant by it..."
"But when I didn't take the bait," Jeff said, "You sent Raya, under cover of the confusion you
caused by letting the KLF hack the system. Two birds with one stone. Who cares if the girl
didn't really want to die? She's just a Lowly, it's her place, right?"
"Well, it is," Risha said defiantly. "You just don't understand us...."
"Not entirely," Jeff admitted. "But I'm getting there. Well, it didn't work, so maybe you don't
entirely understand us either, eh? Kat and Raya aren't going to be sacrificed to make your
point and you'll never work anywhere with this level of clearance again. Fancy a job in the
kitchen?" Risha grimaced in horror and disgust. "Or will you put your money where your
mouth is?"
Risha's didn't pretend not to understand. "Me?"
"Why not? It's what you believe in, isn't it? Time to front up. Or does it only apply to
everybody else? Kat's your equal but you were happy to let her take the consequences."
"She wanted to. Look at her!"
"She accepted it rather than be disgraced, as she saw it. Raya came to my office expecting
to be killed because she thought it was her duty. What's the matter, chicken?"
Jeff honestly had no idea whether she was or not, he was simply angry and tired of being
confused and on the defensive, tired of screwing up. Lashing out, he had backed Risha into a
corner. She could wimp out or face the music, he hardly cared at that point.
Risha smiled. "When and where?"
After the details had been agreed, Risha left. Jeff dismissed Raya with thanks and turned to
Katri. "I owe you an apology," he said.
Kat shrugged, smiling. "It's okay, Boss. That was pretty smart, using me to smoke out the
mole. I didn't realise, of course you couldn't tell me. I really didn't guess it was her, I had no
idea..."
Just like a mystery vid after all, Jeff thought. The great detective unmasks the unlikeliest
suspect in a dramatic denoument. Except he hadn't. Sheerluck Holmes strikes again.
No more lies. "I didn't either," he admitted. "I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know
what, Raya prevented a disaster at the last minute. Flix did all the work and Fen had more
idea what was going on. I'm truly sorry I put you through all that. If you still want to work for a
total fuckup like me, you're more than welcome to stay on." And I'll have to read more
Kipling, he thought.
"Hey, we're a team," Katri said. "But if you're really sorry..." she grinned. It was nice to see
her sparkle coming back.
Jeff looked at Ferrin.
"Now that was fun," Ferrin said comfortably, from her familiar position under his right arm,
head nestled on his shoulder. Jeff wasn't about to contradict her. The sequence of erotic
conjunctions they'd been through had left him pleasantly exhausted.
"I'll second that," Katri said. She leaned over him, breasts brushing his chest and kissed
Ferrin. "Sorry I've been such a bitch the past couple of days. I got you all wrong."
"Join the club, Kat," Jeff said. "She had it right all the time."
Kat rested on top of him, smiling into his eyes. "And all this time you've been fantasising
about eating me? That's so sweet! I'd started to think you weren't attracted to me."
"Forbidden fruit," Jeff said. "I didn't have to sublimate with Fen because we played it out
together. I couldn't understand why it didn't bother her more, even though she told me she
was attracted to you too and she's a Ku. Live and learn."
"What will you do if Rish chickens out?"
"Toast her anyway," Ferrin opined. "She's signed the release. She tried to get Raya killed and
let Kat take the blame..."
"And nearly wrecked the team, I know." Jeff was tempted himself, but his anger had gone
with the frustration. "No. We're not the Ss'Rith. Anyway, I don't think she'll back out. On
Saturday, we'll eat her, medium rare." He was looking forward to it. He grinned, feeling his
teeth lengthen and his body hair sprout.
Katri snuggled under his left arm. "Are you really a werewolf?"
He licked her hand. "Count on it."