Page 19 of Captain Santiago and the Sky Dome Waitress
Unbidden, she recalled the video she had seen of him talking to Blake, before kissing her. The laughter that had lit his face and made his eyes dance. The smile he’d worn.
Was that the real Santiago? Was the bear everyone walked carefully around these days just a mask he’d donned? Something he’d become because of Blake’s death? Was the happy man she’d seen still in there?
Lucie decided that for now, she would assume the real Santiago—Elijah—was still there. She spoke to that man. “I didn’t like the way I…crumpled. I was useless. I couldn’t have lifted a finger to stop the woman. Shearer.”
“No one else did, either.”
“You did.”
Santiago glanced at her. She thought she saw a startled look in his eyes. Then he gave the tiniest of shrugs. “I’ve had some practice dealing with…things. You haven’t. Every Varkan goes through what you just did. It’s a rite of passage and they should warn you about it before they push you out of the nursery.”
“I think they did,” Lucie admitted, recalling lectures. “It just didn’t register at the time. Everything else was new, too.”
“I hadn’t thought of it that way.” He pointed. “This way. It’s a shortcut.”
They eased over to what looked like a narrow service corridor between multilevel office buildings. “We’ll hit the dome wall at the other end,” Lucie pointed out.
“No, we won’t. Trust me.” He strode down the narrow lane, forcing Lucie to follow him.
Immediately, the noise of many people walking and talking and doing business faded.
At the other end of the lane, the white, scratched and stained dome walldidface them, but the buildings were set back from it, so that they could rise higher. A three-meter-wide lane separated the building and wall. Lucie suddenly wished that this dome was transparent the way Celestial was, instead of just having the transparent top, where exclusive commercial outlets fought for retail space.
They moved along the back of the buildings, which were considerably less charming on this side. The lane emerged onto the wide road that led to the other inner domes.
Itwasa short cut.
“You’ve had a lot of practice dealing with the Varkan, then?” Lucie said, as they joined the outward flow of pedestrians heading for the other domes.
“One does, living on Charlton City,” Santiago said, his tone dry.
“Would they?” Lucie asked. “It’s almost impossible to figure out who is Varkan and who is human, here. Everyone just…blends in. Well, except for Varkans like me, who demonstrate just how young they are.”
“That’swhat’s bothering you, then,” Santiago said, with a pleased note. “Everyone starts out young.” He shrugged. “We all get older, too. Enjoy your youth while you have it. Everything is new and unique and a marvel for you.”
“Which makes people like you cringe.”
“No.”
“Yes.” Lucie looked up at him as they passed the wide entrance to Gantry. Gantry was the docklands village. People who lived there tended to work in the docking bays or on the ships that used the docking bays. It was a tightly packed village, with a workmanlike lack of decorative details. Every time she passed the entrance, Lucie could smell a metallic aroma that made her think of warmed grease.
She wrinkled her nose as the smell wafted around them, and said to Santiago, “You made fun of me the first time we met. In the docking bay. You called me new and guessed exactly what my itinerary was.”
Santiago remained silent for a moment. Then, “That was…uncharitable of me. I apologize.”
Lucie managed to keep her jaws together, so her shock did not show on her face. An apology! Her pathetic performance in the restaurant had clearly triggered his pity. Why else would he be nice, right now? It was likely why she wasn’t irritating himinto anger, the way she usually did, just because of the way she looked.
They still had two hundred and three…a couple hundred meters to walk just to reach the entrance to Celestial. Lucie cleared her throat. Then she remembered something.
“The security officer. Roderick. When you told him Shearer was throwing things, he grew all still and cautious and asked you to confirm that she had been throwing thingsatpeople. And you said, very firmly, that she was not.”
“Yes.” Santiago kept his gaze ahead.
“I don’t understand why the difference seems so significant.”
“Then Barney isn’t doing his job. As a new resident, even a temporary one, you should have been acquainted with the most common laws of the city.”
“Throwing things is a law?” Then she added quickly, “Barney gave me a four-hundred-page manual. The laws are in there, I suspect. But I got this job so quickly, and I haven’t read it yet.”
