Rebels by David Liss

Author:David Liss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

* * *

After Tamret announced that she had brought along the guy she intended to marry, events unfolded in a bit of a haze. I think I gave Tamret a quick hug. I shook Villainic’s hand, which puzzled him, but he smiled and told me he had heard a lot about me and wanted to get to know me better. I tried hard to find the menace and threat in his words, but I came up short. He sounded like he actually did want to get to know me.

Tamret seemed, frankly, happier than I’d ever seen her before, and it made me uneasy. I excused myself, saying I had to use the bathroom, but really I wanted to talk to Smelly alone.

“Can you check her vital signs?” I asked. “Is she being coerced or on drugs or anything like that?”

I’ve already done so, Smelly said. I’ve accessed information on Rarel physiology from the Confederation database, and I’ve compared it with that female’s behavior and biometrics. I can detect nothing wrong but a light agitation, which, in my view, can be ascribed to the awkwardness of her showing up and completely crushing your dreams of happiness into little chunks of rancid, festering bitterness.

I went back outside and sat with the group, though as far away from Tamret as I could. She was busy showing Alice and Mi Sun her engagement necklace. I tried to look like I was interested, when Villainic came and sat next to me.

“Zeke! I am so glad to have the chance to meet you,” he said with the enthusiasm of a preschool teacher on the first day of class. “Tamret has told me how kind you were to her during her last visit to this place.”

“Yeah?” I was looking at him closely now. It’s hard to guess someone’s age when their face is entirely covered with fur, but I got the impression he was a few years older than Tamret. His voice made him sound older too.

“She said you were a good friend. She told me about everything you guys did together, and how it got everyone expelled from this remarkable space city.”

“Hold on,” I said, in no mood to have yet another being willfully misinterpret everything that had happened.

Villainic shook his head. “I am not blaming you. You and your friends ended up with dangerous enemies, and they took advantage of a bad situation. But I know she got through everything as well as she did because of you. I just wanted to thank you for looking after her. Besides, if things had not gone as they had, she and I would not be bound together today, so it all ended well.”

He smiled his nice-guy smile, and I had the terrifying feeling that this Villainic was being totally sincere. He was thanking me for being Tamret’s friend, like she was his responsibility and I had helped him out.

“How exactly are you two, uh, bound together?” I demanded. “Aren’t you a little young to be thinking about marriage?”

He laughed.

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