Girl Under Glass by Monica Enderle Pierce

Author:Monica Enderle Pierce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stalking Fiction

Fourteen

The elevator opened to a softly lit lobby and a set of brushed metal doors. Ehtishem went through the same security procedure for these doors, crossed through a passway to frosted glass doors, then entered an elegant, cavernous room and set me on a light gray, tufted sofa. He moved to a table in the middle of the room and touched the top of a narrow, black post the size of a pint glass. A series of yellow lights wound their way from top to bottom and back, then a ring around the base glowed green.

I frowned at a faint, throbbing pressure in my skull and touched the back of my shaved head where the tracker was implanted. Ehtishem glanced at me. “You’re feeling the interceptor’s pulse. It scrambles tracker signals and the monitoring equipment that’s standard in all military quarters. Soon you won’t notice it.”

He addressed our escort in Ohnenrai. “Gentlemen, I appreciate your prompt and careful attention when I called, but this situation is tenuous at best. I won’t bargain with your loyalty, and I don’t demand it. If it’s offered, I’ll gratefully accept but only with your clear understanding that pledging it places a target on your backs. If you choose to walk away, I will neither fault you nor withhold my allegiance infield and shipboard.”

Timsai stepped forward. “Fra, I don’t need to pledge my loyalty. It never faltered. You are the thrai. I will stand with you until old age or war takes me down.” Ehtishem clasped his man’s hand and murmured his thanks, even as the other guards followed suit and asserted their loyalty.

As his bodyguards took up positions outside the main doors, he and Timsai discussed the past and immediate future. “We can expect visitors, aevadasa,” Ehtishem said to his first lieutenant.

I looked away from the men and around the cavernous room. A darkened window ran the length of it and the ceiling rose three stories to a vast skylight through which the Milky Way sparkled like crushed diamonds. I’d never seen it like that.

“No doubt, fra.”

And I’d never seen anything like these quarters. There was a kitchen with wide counters and tall wooden cabinets, and a formal eating area with a polished, dark wood table. Opposite the kitchen entrance was a wood and glass stairwell leading to a second floor. Another stairwell led up to a third level. The rest of the room was filled with low tables, chairs, couches, lamps all arranged into small conversation areas. A blue-green glass sculpture of two dogs—a bitch and a pup tugging her ear—sat on the table beside the device Ehtishem had activated. A polished wood grandfather clock tick-tick-ticked against one wall. There was artwork and more sculptures. A reader, transparent and thin as a playing card, sat on a table beside the couch. It all felt elegant and sophisticated. And so much of it had been stolen from Earth.

I folded my arms, tucked my filthy hands beneath my armpits, and glared at Ehtishem and his aevadasa.

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