We puzzled over that for a while without coming up with any real answers, and then he dismissed us all except for Toby, Nicolai, and Padma. I figured he would go over the St. Petersburg encounter briefly with the two more experienced Primes. After that, he would go over it again in more detail with Padma, pointing out to her all the little rules we have to follow. I know he did the same thing with me when I was new.
Shelley touched my arm as we left. "Trevor, how's about a training session in the gym?" Her words and tone were friendly, but she had a no-nonsense look in her eyes that told me I'd better not think of arguing.
"Uh, sure thing, Shelley," I said. "Give me five minutes to change."
She nodded. "I'll see you there."
She was waiting for me by one of the big bags. After we had spent a few minutes warming up and stretching, she said, "Let's do some kicks. Go ahead and start. I'll hold."
I set myself and started kicking the bag. Sidekicks to start off with. Bread and butter stuff, good for strengthening the legs and hips. Shelley watched me intently as I worked; a couple of times I thought she was going to say something, but then she always pulled back. Finally, I asked her, "So when's the lecture? The suspense is killing me."
She didn't smile. "No lecture, Trev. As far as I know, you haven't done anything wrong. Have you?"
"Not that I know of." Another sidekick, harder now that I was warming up. "So why did you want to talk with me?"
Now, someone else might have tried to blow me off with something like, "What makes you think I wanted to talk with you?" Not Shelley. Simple, honest, and direct. That's one reason I respect her as much as I do. "I'm not sure," she said after a bit. "I guess I mainly wanted to keep the lines of communication open."
"They're open." Bam, bam, bam! Three sidekicks in a row: low, middle, and high.
"Nice," she commented. Then, "Look, I know we just talked about this yesterday, but . . ." Her voice trailed off.
"You want to be sure I'm not making myself crazy about Lily?"
"Yeah, something like that. I can see you're giving her a lot of thought, and now you're telling her you want to help her and be her friend."
"Is there something wrong with that?"
"No, but . . . Trev, don't stop talking to me about her, okay? I want to know what's going on in your head, even if you don't think I'll approve." Suddenly she gave me a wry smile. "Especially if you don't think I'll approve."
I dropped my stance and looked at her. Honesty, I decided, deserved honesty. "I'm really not sure what's going on. If I did, I'd tell you."
"Fair enough." Shelley nodded. "She's a beautiful girl, isn't she?"
"What, do you think I want to get into her pants?"
She gave a short laugh. "No, that would be Mike; you're not that crude. It's just that it's easier to form an attachment for someone who's pretty than someone who's ugly. Everybody knows that."
"So . . . you think I'm falling in love with her?"
"Are you?"
I snorted. "No. That would be stupid. She's dangerous as hell."
"Well, that settles it, doesn't it?"
"I guess it does." I resumed my stance and started kicking again, the other leg this time. "I mean, the whole thing is crazy. It's like she's two different people."
"Three people, you mean?" she said with a smile.
I thought about it, and then I chuckled. "Yeah, you're right. Three people. There's the one who calls herself Lily Lee; there's that weird, kick-ass, kung fu zombie chick; and there's the girl I spoke to in Cantonese. They're all different."
"Then which one is the one we heard crying?"
"I don't know." I stepped forward and drove my foot hard into the bag. "Definitely not kung fu zombie chick. She seems more like a robot than anything else. If I had to guess, I'd say it was the Cantonese girl. She seemed the most, um . . ."
"The most vulnerable?"
"Yeah." I looked up at her in surprise. "Yeah, that's exactly the word I was looking for. She seemed the most vulnerable."
"That's the way it seemed to me, too." Letting go of the bag, Shelley sauntered around and laid an arm across my shoulders. "Then she's the one who's just breaking your heart, isn't she? Because you, Trevor, have a serious thing for damsels in distress."
It was as if I had been having an itch that I couldn't quite place and Shelley walked up and scratched it for me. As soon as she said it, I knew that was exactly what was going on with me, and the strength of my reaction surprised me. My eyes got moist, and for a second I had trouble talking. "Damn it, Shelley," I muttered as I wiped my eyes, "don't do that to me!"
"Do what?"
"Open up my head and peek inside like that. It's embarrassing."
She laughed and squeezed my shoulder. "Don't worry. I promise to do it only when no one else is around."
Chapter 13