Page 4 of Bound to the Tiger Scout
GHOSHA
Excuse me, sir, do you have a moment?”
I paused and turned to find a fellow Khess from the interview group looking up at me with big gray eyes. She had an extra-long spotted gray and white tail and a round face, making me think I remembered her. “Faysa, yes?” I asked, fairly certain that was her name.
She smiled. “Yes, sir. Do you have some time to discuss a candidate?”
“Of course.” I set my things down on the table, very willing to be late to this next meeting for any and all reasons that could possibly come up. Alam was still a bit cross with me over the way I’d handled the American politicians, even though it had sparked several worthy debates on the human news channels afterward. I was getting quite tired of defending myself, though.
Faysa turned her tablet around to show me the face of a human male who looked decidedly nervous. There was visible sweat curling the dark hair at his brow, he was quite pink-skinned, and his eyes were wide and shoulders tense. “This is Squire Landry,” she said. “I had my virtual interview with him just a few minutes ago, and I believe he was lying the entire time.”
“Ah. Cut him out of the?—”
“Actually, I’d like to submit him as a special case and accept him into the program.”
I reared back a bit in surprise. “Special case statusandacceptance? Whyever for?”
We had established special cases for anyone who applied and expressed reasons like addiction, current prostitution, or other issues that had them feeling like they were without choices or resources. Often, we were able to help them in some other way to improve their lives, and so they were not accepted into the sex worker program. That Faysa wanted to classify this man as a special case plus accept him was a first.
“I believe he was being pressured and coached during the interview by someone who was off-screen. He wasn’t just nervous, he seemed terrified and desperate.” She gulped and looked up at me with such deep compassion in her eyes. “Sir, I think he could be in a very bad situation, and we need to rescue him. If we accept his application, we could get him to safety. Maybe then he’ll be able to be honest with us.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t believe her—each of my interviewers were skilled at reading body language and interpreting what might lie between the lines of things said aloud. But since this hadn’t come up previously, I was curious about what she’d seen to get her to this point.
“Let me see some of his interview.”
“I created some clips,” she said before calling up six videos on her tablet.
The first one showed him trying to answer her question on how he’d feel about leaving the planet. He had a tremble to his voice and his eyes kept flicking from one side of the camera to the other. While his answer was a mix of hesitation and curiosity—normal from what we’d seen so far—I got the impression from the way his eyes moved that he was reading as he spoke. He alsomispronounced two words and flinched backward right after saying them. Had someone silently gotten upset with him?
“I see what you mean,” I said as the clip ended. “When will we be in his area?”
“Three days from now. He would be in the New Orleans group.”
We were going down to the surface to test applicants by simply being in our physical presence during a casual conversation. The first places we would stop were New York City, San Francisco, and New Orleans—cities that had provided the majority of our applicants in America.
“I’ll be in that city,” I told Faysa. “Let Layleen know to add… What was his name?”
“Squire Landry.”
“Let her know to add Squire to my schedule, and I’ll speak to him personally.”
Faysa smiled and relaxed. “Thank you, sir.”
I patted her shoulder since she looked so relieved and gathered up my things. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. It was the right thing to do.”
We parted, and I made my way down to the conference room where those of us heading a portion of the delegation were meant to meet.
After all the weeks of being on the ship night and day, a part of me was eager to return to the surface of Earth. Just a part, given the level of hostility still aimed at us, but it was there inside me nonetheless. I wanted to remove my boots and sink my claws into lush grass—even if it was green instead of the gold back home. Running through a forest would be beyond welcomed, and if I could climb a tree… I sighed as I walked along boring gray corridors. Only the atestia tree log in my room eased me nowadays, though the poor thing was definitely showing signs of excessive use from my claws.
“Ah, our esteemed colleague has arrived,” Alam quipped the moment I opened the conference room door. “Do make room for his highness.”
So he was still feeling a bit snotty then.
“No need for such formalities with me,” I said with a smile as I took the empty seat beside the temperamental Yook. “We’re all in this together.”
Not to mention I was one of two hundred and six Khess princes, so my royalty mattered very little on Nor, let alone on a ship orbiting Earth.
I glanced around and saw that the rest of the people in the room watched us like a sporting match. I also noted someone’s absence. “Is Logan not joining us?”
