Page 12 of Bound to the Tiger Scout
“Come on over here,” Owen said before leading me to one of those guest chairs. He went around to the host’s chair. “So we found some footage of you walking across the roof to get to the shuttle, smiling and waving down at the crowd. I suggest we show it and talk about who you were waving at and what you felt in that moment. Okay?”
“Um, yeah, okay.” I couldn’t help flicking a glance toward Ghosha.
“Hey,” Owen said, “how about we practice first?”
I nodded enthusiastically.
He pushed on a section of the desktop, and it opened to let a screen slide out. “And just so you know, I’m trying really hard not to puke right now, too.”
That made me laugh. I wasn’t even sure it was funny but laughing chilled me out a little bit. It might’ve helped Owen, too, since he blushed and grinned at me.
“I’m going to do this like I would if the cameras were live,” Owen said, “but nothing’s on yet.”
I sat up straighter so I wasn’t slouching and was glad that at least the horror of public speaking had taken care of my boner. “I’m ready.”
Owen looked toward the cameras and smiled. “Thanks so much, Doug. I’m here with Squire Landry, who is the first human accepted into the sex worker program.”
Since he looked at me, I gave a nod to the camera and did my best to smile as well.
“Let’s get right to the point,” Owen said and gestured at his monitor. “Other news networks are saying you’ve been abducted against your will, but this is you leaving Earth, right?”
I watched myself walk across the roof of the convention center, looking pleased as hell even from the weird up-from-the-ground angle of whatever camera had filmed me. Smiling, I had waved down at the crowd, and then led the way onto the shuttle, Ghosha following close behind me.
I got distracted watching that, turned on by seeing the size of him looming over me.
Owen asked, “Who did you wave at there?”
I cleared my throat and refocused. “I was, uh, waving at my mother, Virginia Landry. Saying goodbye.”
“Did she know you applied to the program?”
“Oh, yeah,” I said with a snort. “She and her pastor wanted me to join up and spy on the Norlons. They thought I’d get something bad that they could use to rile up the Humans First folks.” I glanced at Ghosha and couldn’t help grinning. “But Ghosha found the recording thing they put on me and broke it. He totally freed me from all that hate and wrongness.”
Ghosha smiled back at me, and something about the way he looked at me made me fidget and blush.
“Your mother is a member of Humans First?” Owen asked with a frown.
“Yeah, most of the town is actually. It’s…real bad there.” I gestured at the monitor. “All those news people are giving them a chance to spread their lies now. She ain’t sad to see me go. She’s just embarrassed and mad that I’m doing it for real. I won’t…” I gulped and ducked my head, a pulse of homesickness hitting me in the gut. “I won’t ever be able to go home.”
There was a beat of silence before Owen reached over and squeezed my shoulder. “I’m so sorry, Squire. I know how that feels.”
I gave Owen a grateful smile. We had wrong-headed parents in common, and I felt a little less alone.
“Let’s nip this in the bud now,” he said. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-two.”
“Not underage then.”
“And not a baby,” I said with a roll of my eyes.
“Definitely not.” Owen chuckled and held out a hand. “Thanks very much for letting us set the record straight and meet the first accepted member of the sex worker program.”
I shook his hand. “Yeah, of course.”
“Okay, that’s everything then,” Owen said. “How’d it feel?”
“Pretty good? I don’t think I messed up anything.”
