Chapter 17
Furious Foxes
Ezra's alarm went off about two seconds after his head hit the pillow. He jerked awake, looking around in panic, then let out a deep breath. No crazed wind-scarred with blood bubbling from their mouths chasing him through a secret underground base while wearing sunglasses that were entirely too big for them. Good, good. He paused to consider how that had fit in the two seconds he had been in bed for. His time display blinked angrily at him. Ah, eight in the morning. Longer than two seconds, then. He yawned and stretched... then winced, hand flying to his head. Maybe this is a hangover, he thought, trying to be positive. I probably got over that whole getting hit in the head repeatedly thing before we even got back last night. Or this morning. Whenever that was. And besides, after a nightmare like that, today can't help but be–
Kirsten O'Donnell burst into the room.
–terrific, Ezra finished to himself glumly.
“There you are! Where have you been?! I've had DOLT looking for you all night after you conveniently neglected to answer my calls. And then I find you here, holding your head like some kind of drunk the morning after–” Her eyes narrowed, burning with fury. She sniffed the air, then asked coldly, “Ezra, have you been drinking?”
“Uh, I really didn't have anything, maybe just a sip!” His brain was not working at full power here. He needed something good, something slick. “It was the people around me! They were the ones drinking!”
Kirsten closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly, her whole body trembling in rage. Her eyes flashed open and she brought up her virtual terminal with a curt gesture. “Miss Crawford called. For whatever reason, she appears to have been amused by your,” her jaw worked a few times, “antics. I made arrangements for you to meet with her tomorrow afternoon, not knowing when you would be found last night.” She looked back at Ezra, glaring and continuing in a level, frigid voice as she stalked toward him. “I suggest that you consider treating her with the common courtesy due one of your peers.” Her hand flew up, one perfectly manicured finger coming to rest pressed against the underside of Ezra's chin, forcing it up. “I will be most...” Her hand shook in what Ezra could only assume was a tightly controlled lust for blood. “...displeased if there is a repeat of yesterday's incident.” Her tone indicated that this was the kind of displeasure with teeth. Possibly explosives.
“I-I will do everything in my power to see that she has a-an enjoyable and–” he shut his eyes and gulped, trying to think. What was another word? Come on, brain, start! Start! “Punctual! An enjoyable and punctual time!”
Kirsten's jaw tightened as if she was grinding her teeth. Her eyes flicked back down to the nebulous terminal. Her finger stayed exactly where it was. “I will need your approval to authorize the inspection reports for the damages you caused the night before last. Several of the port stations that were shut down are preparing suits for compensation due to unreasonably enforced downtime. I will handle them, but you may need to give out special dispensations to a select few. Also, several news sources of a certain... disreputable nature have requested interviews with you. I took the liberty of informing them that your schedule was full from now until the end of time.” Her fingernail pressed harder into Ezra's chin as she slowly looked back up at him, eyes slits of emerald fire. “If any of them attempt to contact you,” she said very quietly. “You will inform them that all appointments must be made through your secretary. Do you understand?”
“Yes Miss O'Donnell. Do you need my approval now?” The documents came up in his net connection, where he glanced them over and approved them quickly.
Kirsten considered the completed contracts, then idly straightened out his shirt. “Will that be all, Mr. Hawkins?” Her tone strongly implied that it would be, and Ezra nodded desperately. She turned to leave and he began to breathe a sigh of relief, stifling it when she stopped and glanced back over her shoulder just before opening the door. “Oh, one more thing,” she added, almost as an afterthought. “Please invite that friend of yours, Miss...” Kirsten's eyes tilted upwards, as if trying to bring a name to mind, “Galois Doe, to dinner tonight.” A sharp, cruel smile flirted with her lips. “I am looking forward to getting to know her better.” Without another word, she turned and left.
Ezra collapsed back onto his bed. Yesterday, he thought weakly, you got in your first fight. Against a superhuman. Who had already taken out two agents specially trained to deal with him. Alone, with nothing but a match and a sword. A village celebrated you. You were the star of a night of drunken revelry. Kirsten has no business being that scary, and you know it, so pull yourself together. He looked longingly at his pillow, wondering if he could find that nightmare again.
After a long shower, which he came out of still feeling crushed under the weight of the world, but clean at least, Ezra headed down to his lab to catch up on some work. His glider lay just off the generator platform, and he smiled at it wryly. “You just got me in all kinds of trouble, didn't you?” He picked it up and put it away, then got to work on re-balancing his equations for remote wormholes to account for the problems he had become aware of what felt like a lifetime ago. He was working on reconciling an especially difficult set of what seemed to be mutually exclusive theorems when his console alerted him to an incoming call... from Kirsten. He gritted his teeth and answered, voice only.
“Yes Miss O'Donnell?”
“Mr. Hawkins,” her voice was calm, cool and collected. There must be someone else listening in, Ezra thought exuberantly. “Please come to the showing room, you have a visitor.” The call went dead.
Ezra blinked a few times, puzzled. As he walked out the door and made his way slowly through the house he wondered, what kind of a visitor would Kirsten allow him to have today? Certainly not anyone good. He mulled it over in his head. It must be someone important, or at least, important to Kirsten. DOLT, maybe, investigating him after what happened on Founder's Day? Jeffries! He had said that he was getting a warrant! Kirsten had probably promised to get Ezra out there so she could tie and gag him while Jeffries trumped up imaginary crimes for him to commit! That was why she had needed his signature earlier! Oh, why hadn't he thought it through more carefully? He was probably going to spend the rest of his life rotting away in a holding cell, the failure who let the mighty Hawkins Legacy fall.
He paused for a moment, distracted from his misery. Let the Legacy fall? Kirsten was a lot of things, and most of them were loyal to what she considered the rightful place of a Legacy house. She wouldn't let Jeffries or anyone else tear it down without a fight. No, no it wouldn't be him, but who else would want to see him and actually convince Kirsten that they were respectable enough...
Ezra came down the grand staircase, wondering if he still had time to run. He was just about to turn for the front door leading to freedom and life when he heard a loud, bluff voice coming from the showing room.
“You know, I can show you a little something that can help with tense muscles. Women always tell me I've got magic fingers. Or a stretch! You just bend like this...”
Ezra grinned and opened the showing room door. Mat stood leering happily at Kirsten O'Donnell while demonstrating a stretch that would have been very... effective if someone like Kirsten were to try it. At least, from the perspective of every male in the room. Kirsten was busily working with her nebulous schedule, her manner somehow too calm and composed, studiously ignoring everything.
Mat spotted Ezra as he walked in the room. “Hey Ezra! You all ready to go? I've got a mat reserved at the gym for the next three hours.” He hefted a pack that contained several workout towels and a change of clothes. Two wooden swords of the same style as the one Ezra had used yesterday were strapped to the outside.
“The gym?” Ezra blinked. How much had he drunk last night? Had he really said they were going to the gym?
“Yeah, remember, you asked me to show you around one of these things after you were so dazzled by my awesome display at that thing yester
day.” He winked at Ezra, performing his mock salute from the night before.
Ezra glanced at Kirsten. Why hadn't she shot this down? “Well, I guess that I could go for a little while, stretch my muscles and–”
“Yes, good,” Kirsten interrupted him. “I'll see you back here for dinner.” She abruptly walked to the door and turned the corner, practically fleeing out of sight, vanishing deeper into the house. Ezra goggled at her hasty retreat.
“You can come and watch if you want! I could even help you work on your form!” Mat called after the redhead. “Not that it needs any work!” There was no response. He sighed, lifting his pack and slinging his other arm around Ezra's shoulders. “Why didn't you tell me your secretary was such a fox? Not right leaving me hanging out in the wind like that. What if you had answered the door instead of her, huh? I still wouldn't know! I can't believe it, I thought we were pals, man.” He went on, shaking his head and lamenting how there wouldn't be any pretty girls watching them today.
Ezra yelped as Gal practically tackled him the moment they cleared the door. “So, gonna learn some real self-defense huh? Flying around and lighting people on fire just isn't good enough anymore, is that it?” She smiled winsomely up at him then pulled him down in a hard and sudden kiss.
He grinned back at her dumbly for a few seconds while she laughed in delight, then his brow furrowed. “Why do you keep doing that? Kissing someone you barely know?”
Gal gave him an appraising look. “Maybe I think that I know enough.” She toyed absently with his hair. “You're clever and brave, an innocent idealist who makes things happen.” She pressed her lips hotly to his in a longer, more luxurious kiss. “Plus,” she whispered breathlessly when they parted, “you're just so cute.”
“Gag,” Mat rolled his eyes. “His house is right there, Doe, just pull him inside and get it over with.”
Ezra blushed, then glanced at Mat, confused. “I thought you said that there wouldn't be any pretty girls...”
Mat gave a negative gesture. “Nah, man, Doe's like practically one of the guys, especially at the gym.”
“Oh Mat, you charmer.” Gal fluttered her eyelashes up at him as she grabbed her own bag. “Just wait until I get you alone.” Her hands made playful jabbing motions Mat's direction.
Mat and Gal continued verbally sparring as they made their way toward the University gym, Ezra taking collateral damage on the sidelines. As the last of the Legacy houses slipped past, they were interrupted by the sound of running steps followed by a breathless, “Oh, hello Mr. Hawkins. I hadn't thought to see you until tomorrow afternoon, what with your work and all. And Miss Doe! It really is a pleasure to see you again as well.”
Liza Crawford, face slightly flushed as if she had just been running, smiled happily down at the three Guild mates. Mat swept in front of Gal and Ezra, bowing gallantly to the rather flustered woman. “Ezra,” he said reproachfully, “you must introduce me to your friend. Or were you planning on keeping all the girls to yourself?”
“Oh my.” Liza looked to be on the verge of a proper swoon as Mat smoothly took her hand and placed on kiss on its back.
“Matthew Matanane, at your service my lady. And may I just say that you look stunning in that sun dress.”
“Oh, well, really, there's no need, I mean, it was just such a nice day and I thought that I would take a walk when I saw, that is to say, when the three of you were...” she gestured vaguely in their direction, blushing furiously. Mat grinned broadly at her.
Gal rolled her eyes and cut between them, linking her arm with Liza's. “They were just on their way to the gym.” She said as if implying that Ezra and Mat would be missing out on far more interesting places, specifically wherever she was going to be.
“Oh,” Liza noticed the practice swords strapped to Mat's bag. “Were you going to be practicing with those? How exciting! Would you mind terribly, that is, if it's all right... and of course you can say no, I understand completely–”
Mat's grin broadened on his face. “Of course! I'd be happy to teach you! Any time you want, wherever you want, I'll-”
“Oh no, I couldn't. I really just wanted to watch. It all seems so exciting, but really, it isn't a very ladylike at all–” She gasped, hand flying to her mouth, looking at Gal's gym bag in horror. “But that isn't to say... not that you aren't... oh please Miss Doe, I beg your forgiveness, I meant no offense.” Her eyes began to brim with tears.
“Well,” Gal said, lifting her chin and gave Liza a stern look, fighting to hold down a smile. “There is really only one thing I could accept as an apology for something like that.”
“Oh anything!” Liza said, looking desperately down at the smaller woman.
The smile slowly won out over Gal's face. “You shall just have to come along with us. In fact, I insist upon training you myself.”
Liza's eyes flared with excitement. “Oh, you would really... um, I mean...” She composed herself, but couldn't keep from smiling, “I suppose that if there is no other way...”
“And there isn't!” Gal interjected.
“Then I have no choice but to put the honor of my family first and accept.”
“Good. It will be nice to spend time with someone else who has a little class, for a change.” The two women started off walking arm in arm, Gal's tiny physique almost comical next to Liza's towering frame. Gal flung a hand in the air and made a curt, beckoning gesture. “Come along boys,” she called back to Mat and Ezra, then leaned over toward Liza and, in a stage whisper, commented, “You really have to keep them focused, you know. They have such short attention spans.”
Glancing over her shoulder with a small smile, Liza whispered back, “I believe they may have heard that.”
Gal sniffed. “And one can only hope they will learn, dear, despite themselves.”
Mat snorted and nudged Ezra forward, Gal keeping up a constant commentary on the many dreadful shortcomings of men all the way to the gym.
Nearly three hours later, Ezra collapsed to the floor in exhaustion. Technically, he thought to himself, you were exhausted quite a while ago, and just haven't had time to think about it until now.
Mat had worked him hard to learn the basic forms, drilled him in swinging the weighted practice sword over and over until his arms felt like lead. “Got to teach your muscles how to move,” Mat said with a laugh, nudging Ezra with a foot. “So they can move even when you don't think!”
“Which has never been a problem for Mat.” Gal and Liza joined them, having just showered off after an extensive lesson on learning to throw a person and be thrown.
“Oh, that was fun.” Liza beamed at them all. “We simply must do this again. Perhaps tomorrow! And then we can all have a nice dinner afterward! We can arrange to meet at...” She glanced at the time and gasped. “Oh my! I've been gone a terribly long time; you really must excuse me, it was a pleasure seeing you both again, Mr. Hawkins, Miss Doe, and it really was just so nice to meet you Mr. Matanane, but I am afraid I must take my leave.” Curtsying, she backed her way to the door, tripping over several amused people, all of whom she apologized to profusely.
“That's an odd one.” Mat scratched his chin as he watched her progress.
“Arg, dinner. I forgot,” Ezra groaned from the floor, “Gal, I'm supposed to invite you to dinner tonight, but it's a trap. Kirsten is going to grill you alive and serve me as dessert, with a side dish of unimaginable agony.”
“Is she now?” Gal's eyes sparkled with defiance.
“Kirsten? Is that your secretary?” Mat leaned over, looking interested. “She say anything about me?”
Ezra spread a hand over his eyes, rubbing at his temples. “She didn't know you existed yet, Mat.”
“Well now, that explains why I wasn't invited,” Mat said, sounding reasonable. “So!” He clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “What are we having?”