Page 54 of Mongrels United
When the team party broke up, it was late. Grady knew that Nash would still be awake, though. She moved through the darkened ship, and across the Palatine to stand before his apartment door.
When it opened, Nash picked up her hand and pressed her palm against the exterior door controls. The panel switched from red to green.
“For future reference,” Nash told her, his voice low. He pulled her inside.
Grady went to work the next day feeling a mellow low-key happiness, like a buzz in the back of her mind, that kept her steps light.
It was Siran’s second day in the office. Today, they would be finalizing preparations for the series of meetings and public events coming up. Carita Pemberton would again be accompanying Siran for those.
Grady reached the office before Siran did. She was usually there well ahead of everyone else, and got alotof high-quality work done in those few uninterrupted moments.
Siran arrived not long after everyone else was at the big table, with Carita Pemberton trailing him. He lifted his chin as he moved through the outer office. “Grady.”
She picked up her pad and followed the two into Siran’s office. “You’ve got a couple of in-house meetings this morning, Siran,” she told him as he moved around the big, automated desk.
Carita didn’t sit. Instead, she hovered by the door.
As Grady never sat, herself, until invited by Siran, it meant they were all standing.
“Let’s deal with the meetings in a minute,” Siran said. “First, I want to talk about last night.”
Grady lowered the pad, her heart jumping about. “Last night?” She spoke through numb lips. Siran wasn’t about to discuss Nash? Surely not…!
But her panic, which she had to quickly tamp down, confirmed yet again that Nash was right about not being seen with him. Not yet, at least. And it was that qualifying ‘not yet’ that made the arrangement tolerable.
But had it come to a sudden and untimely halt? Had she been exposed in some way?
There were too many lenses on this ship! It served the Bridge Guards and helped them maintain peace on the ship, but for the first time in her life, Grady felt the chaff of being observable no matter where she went.
How did the Bellish people manage to go unobserved?
Maybe they didn’t.
After all, the Bridge Guards didn’t watch every single second of every single feed from every lens available to them across the ship. They simply didn’t have the man hours.
But what happened to those feeds?
Grady squashed the excitement flaring in her. She would have to speak to Jack, later. But for now, she lifted her chin. “What about last night, Captain?” She kept her tone cool.
Siran scratched under his full beard with an irritable motion. “You were seen at the game last night, Grady.”
For a minute, her mind was blank, all thoughts scattered by the sheer unexpectedness of his reply.
“Game,” she repeated woodenly.
Siran made a waving motion, his discomfort at having to deal with this lifting his shoulders and making him scowl. “I shouldn’t have to lecture you on this stuff, Grady. I didn’t think I needed to. You can’t be seen taking sides. The Planets are an Esquilino team and everyone knows that you live there, but by attending their game, you’re showing that you’re biased, that you favor the Esquiline. Governing the ship is already delicate enough. We don’t need to provide proof of bias while we’re at it.”
“The Planets…” Grady breathed.
That was why Carita was here. PR was her specialty. She was here to fix the public perception that the Chief of Staff didn’t care about any of the ship except for the Esquiline district.
It was so wrong, so massively and one hundred and eighty degrees the wrong perception that Grady floundered, looking for words to string together to begin to answer Siran.
A laugh escaped her at the absurdity of the moment. Grady put her hand over her mouth while Siran raised a brow at her.
“Sorry,” she said, dropping her hand. “It’s just that…you’ve got thissowrong, it’s laughable. I wasn’t there for the Planets. I wasn’t wearing green. I didn’t sit in the Captain’s box. I don’t give a fig about the Planets.”
Siran glanced at Carita, then back at Grady. “You don’t? Then what were you doing at the game?”
