Page 12 of Relyn
“True, but what are you going to do about it?”
“Athen will send his best to-”
“Youare Athen’s best,” Humility said sweetly.
He paused to think on this. He didn’t seem pleased with the result.
“I was shot by a little gangster named Tommy. He was trying to turn my student into a drug runner.”
“I will find this Tommy,” Kave grumbled.
“You’re going to Philly to find a drug dealer named Tommy. Good luck to you, pal,” Jane said, shaking her head.
“Are there many Tommies on Terra?”
“First of all, yes. Second of all, Tommy probably isn’t even his real name,” Jane counted off on her fingers. Nora knew she was right. Her only hope is that the undercover officer had kept very good logs of his suspicions.
“Has he no honor? Men with no name have no honor.”
“I saw him kill a cop. That’s why I have to go back. I’m a witness. They dumped his body into space, and I have to tell them where and when. Otherwise, they will get away with it.”
“I’m sure that we can work on something,” Meadow said. “Write a deposition or-”
“I have to make sure I protect Marco. He was only trying to get some Blue Cure,” Nora said.
“Blue cure doesn’t work very well,” Humility said quietly. “I know, we tried it on my dad.”
“I’m sorry,” Nora said.
“That’s fine,” Humility said. “This one practically killed me to get my dad here. The Mahdfel med bays are amazing. They can cure just about anything. We still have a doctor. He’s attending a new mom right now. Otherwise he’d be here and be annoying.”
“You were in no danger, my love. I had everything under control,” Kave said, practically cooing at his wife.
“Sure you did, big guy,” Humility reassured him even while she shook her head.
“In any case, you are quite welcome to stay here with us. I mean, there aren’t any unmatched mates here, but we’re expecting a new group in a few months. And there’s plenty of space,” Meadow said.
“Thanks for the invitation, but I have a job back at home. I was right in the middle ofPride and Prejudice.Subs just won’t do it justice.”
“You’re an English teacher! I’m a librarian. Or I was a librarian. Here, I’m kinda like the unofficial reception committee. Jane and I, we greet the new ladies and give them an orientation, that sort of thing.”
Nora got the distinct impression that Meadow liked to ramble when she was avoiding the bad news.
“How soon can I leave?”
“About that,” Meadow began.
“It’ll take at least a month to get a ship here. Another month to travel to Etlon, and probably another month to actually get to Earth. Like I said, we’re really far out there,” Jane finally said.
Three months? By then, she’d miss the rest of the semester and a good chunk of the year will have gone to hell. They’d probably write her off as dead and fill her position.
“I-” Nora didn’t even know where to start.
“For now, you are safe, you are healthy and you are welcome here. The rest we can work on, okay?” Humility said.
She took a deep breath. “Okay.” Nora could handle this. She was an inner city high school teacher for goodness sake. She had been thrown curveballs her entire teaching career and she’d always managed to come out on top. “So what’s the fastest way to get home?”
Chapter 6
