Chapter 10
"Damn, that does look like Cirron, doesn't it?"
Vic leaned into the war-room where Daggon and Aeko were examining one of his monitors thoughtfully. "Hey, guys, Mar and I are--" He trailed off, looking at the painting reproduced on the screen, his cheerful expression vanishing. "Damn. Something tells me that tomorrow's overtime isn't going to be nearly as restful as I had hoped."
Aeko looked up first. "You're one of the cops guarding the painting, Detective Bruno?"
"Yeah." He nodded.
"Good, we need tickets to the unveiling," Aeko told him.
"What's his name and what's he want?" Vic sighed.
"Her name, Vic," Daggon said, smiling up at him. "Zarreth. She's a very dangerous Dessarian thief."
"And she seems to have her shifty eyes fixed on this painting," Aeko added.
"Since when did Zin become an art collector?" Vic scoffed.
Aeko smiled faintly. "Well, either he wants to give it to his human pet for Valentine's Day or he wants to sell it." She shrugged and leaned over Daggon's shoulder, typing a few commands on the keyboard. "Personally, I would… guess the latter."
Vic nodded, returning his attention to the business at hand. "This something I have to worry about?"
"No." Daggon shook his head. "She will be at the party, I'm sure, but she will be…" He paused, searching for the English word.
"Casing," Aeko supplied idly.
"Thank you." Daggon nodded. "Casing the museum to prepare for the theft, probably later that night after the other guests have gone."
"So the extra security details aren't in any danger?" Vic asked.
"As long as they don't try to get between her and what she wants, Vic," Daggon assured him.
"Slightly less comforting than I could have hoped for."
"Would you relax, Detective Bruno?" Aeko asked, rolling her eyes. "The whole point of having Daggon and myself there is to prevent any harm befalling anyone else." She straightened and walked over to Vic, looking up at him with grave, tired eyes. "We won't let your people get hurt," she whispered, squeezing his shoulder. "Promise."
Vic smiled faintly at her and nodded. "The two of you up for this? Taking on this Zarreth? Dessarians are nasty."
Aeko smiled wryly at him, shaking her head. "Hey, you know what they say…"
"No. What do they say?" Vic asked, sensing a set up.
"It takes a Dessarian…"
"Cute," he laughed, shaking his head. "Very cute, Aeko."
"I am not familiar with that particular figure of speech, Aeko," Daggon said, frowning up at them. "How does the rest go?"
"Takes a Dessarian to catch a Dessarian," Vic provided without really thinking.
Daggon frowned and shook his head. "No, I'm definitely not familiar with that expression. On which planet is it popular, Aeko? And how did you know it, Vic?"
"It's a human saying," Vic began.
"Humans have a saying about Dessarians?" Daggon frowned and shrugged, returning his attention to the computer screen.
As Vic tried to recover from the comment, Aeko took pity on the Cirronian and bent over him, whispering a few words in his ear. He smiled up at her and nodded his understanding.
"You are going out with Detective Cruz again tonight?" Daggon asked.
"Yeah." He nodded. "She'll be here in another twenty minutes or so. In the meantime I guess I'll see if I can hook you up with tickets."
"Thank you, Vic." Daggon smiled at him.
"You okay, sir?" Aeko asked when Vic had gone. "You don't look like you're feeling very well."
"I'm fine, Aeko. I just…" He shook his head. "Never mind."
"What?" she asked, frowning and touching his forehead. It was certainly warm enough to indicate good health in the Cirronian, but he was not acting himself, either.
"I can't meditate," he confessed.
"You can't… shit." Aeko frowned in alarmed confusion. "Why? For how long?"
"On and off since the anniversary of the murders."
"But… you seemed so much… freer after that night." He had spent hours crying and talking and, for the first time since the murders, giving vent to his anger over them, and it had seemed to do him a lot of good.
"I was, I am." He shook his head. "But I… just can't meditate some nights. I think about her and then I can't focus on anything else."
"Your wife?"
He shook his head. "This… woman I dreamt about."
"This woman you dreamt about?" she repeated, blinking.
"She has the most beautiful eyes. They match her spirit." He smiled. "She's beautiful, Aeko. Morah. Neh Etan. Melah en'i."
"Yeah, beautiful. Got it the first three times." Aeko nodded, frowning. "And she's keeping you from meditating?"
"Not often." He smiled reassuringly. "I think she just likes to make her presence known, remind me of herself."
"She's a dream, sir," Aeko reminded him gently. "A phantom of your subconscious."
"She's a very beautiful phantom, then." His smile faded. "But she has so much pain, too, and doubt, and… fear." He shivered and rubbed his arms in spite of the heat of the small room. "I feel like if I could just… touch her, I could take it all away."
"You want to… touch her?" Aeko repeated, shaking her head. "Respectfully, you've been in that body too long, sir. You're starting to think like a human male."
"Aeko, that's an unfair generalization…"
"But it's true, isn't it?" She shook her head, dismissing that consideration. She was more than a little worried by the Tracker's fixation on a dream. "It doesn't matter either way. She's not real. She doesn't exist so whether you want to touch her or kiss her or even mate with her doesn't matter. The point is moot."
"She feels real," he said, shrugging. "There are nights when I feel that I could find her out there." He gestured towards the window.
"This is not healthy," Aeko pointed out quietly, shaking her head. "This is not like an obsession with a real, live human… You dreamt this one up, a creature to replace your wife, but she is not real. You have to let her go."
"I love her, Aeko. I can't let her go yet."
"Fine." She shrugged, annoyed by his refusal to behave rationally. "Just bear in mind that Cirronians have a nasty habit of going psychotic when they can't meditate for more than a week." She turned to leave.
"Aeko, it's not that bad," he protested, rising and catching her arm. "One night, now and then. Where's the harm?"
"In living in a fantasy world? You'll end up as hooked on her as I am on Fek-Maln. Not a day will go by when you don't think about her, want her. Nothing else will ever be anything but a sorry replacement."
"This is already the case, Aeko."
"Wonderful. Then you just brood over your little dream-lover for the rest of your sorry life." She shook her head in disgust. "Let's get back to work."
"You're angry with me," he whispered.
"Just a little, sir," she agreed, nodding.
"I'm sorry. I won't speak of her any more."
"Do yourself a favor. Get a real woman," she advised with a sigh.
"Who would you suggest? One of the fugitives?"
"You could always do what Zin did and find yourself a human," she suggested gently. That he needed someone was obvious or he never would have dreamt up his Melah en'i, his 'hidden beauty'.
"No."
"Why? I know you aren't like some of the others who actually have a problem with the species…"
"I just… it would feel wrong."
She shook her head. "You are gone, sir. Irretrievable for a woman who doesn't exist. Doesn't that bother you?"
"No, Aeko."
She shook her head. "Right, then. Let's finish getting those museum schematics."
"They're printing now," he told her.
"You know that I worry…"
"Of course you do, Aeko." He smiled up at her. "But you don't need to. This is not a problem."
"If you're sure…"
"I am." His smile widened. "In spite of what many other species believe about the Cirronians, we are not children. I do know fantasy from reality, Aeko… Sometimes I just like to have my imaginings about my Melah en'i. There's no harm in it," he promised, reaching up and lightly touching her cheek.
"Okay." Aeko smiled at him, nodding. "Good." She grabbed a handful of papers from the printer tray and began leafing through them. "We need to take you shopping tomorrow," she added.
"Why?"
"We need to buy you something to wear to the party. In spite of the fact that you in those tight jeans of yours is a sight that no human woman in her right mind wants to miss, you can't wear them to the party."
"What will I be wearing instead?"
Aeko gratefully launched into a lecture about formalwear versus casual, glad to change the subject, but she could not help but wonder why the Cirronian would go to all the trouble of inventing a fantasy woman who was so clearly imperfect.
***
"Damn!" Mel snapped in disgust, shaking her head and turning her back on Reta. "I'm never going to get this!"
"It is not difficult!" he snapped back, his eyes flashing. "Just be calm and allow it to happen!"
"Easy for you to say," she grumbled, shaking her head and sitting down on one of the benches that lined the exercise floor's walls.
From the other side of one of the room's many two-way mirrors, Lana chuckled softly. "It's a wonder they haven't killed each other yet."
"Reta knows better than laying a hand on her." Zin shook his head. "He is many things, but never a fool."
Lana shrugged. "She's not going to get it, Zin. Why do you persist?"
"She will learn to use her powers to fight. She has come this far. It is only a matter of time." He smiled at Lana. "Perhaps anger will avail her where her teacher has failed…" Zin smiled, imagining the look on Reta's face if Mel were to suddenly take him in the chest with a bolt of energy during one of their many spats.
"Rest here," the Cirronian ordered Mel, leaving the exercise floor.
"Not going well?" Zin asked casually as he joined them in the observation room.
"She's hopeless, Zin! There's nothing more that I can teach her."
"I'll be the judge of that, my friend," Zin informed him levelly. "I say that if you have taken her this far you can take her all the way."
"I believe that 'taking her all the way' is your job," Reta replied sullenly.
Lana backhanded him hard enough that all three heard his jaw dislocate. "Hold your tongue!" she snarled the way only a Vardian could snarl. "You remember whose presence you are in and you treat him with the honor he is due!"
"And you remember who you are speaking of," Zin added, glaring at him and stalking out of the room.
"You overstep yourself," Lana informed the Cirronian flatly. "Your insolence wears on us both and that mongrel in there is the only reason we haven't killed you for it yet. Now remove yourself from my sight." Shaking her head, she returned her attention to the glass.
"Melanie. I hear you're having a difficult time of things?" Zin asked gently, sitting down next to her.
She sighed and nodded, her expression apologetic. "I'm sorry, Julius. I'm trying so hard, I am, but…"
"Hush," he ordered gently, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her against him.
"I feel like I'm never going to learn," she sighed, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her cheek against his shoulder.
"You will, Melanie, I promise. Just give it some time." He kissed the top of her head and sat with her in silence for a moment. "What you need is to get away for a few days. It'll do you good. This cold can't be helping. People like you prefer warm places, they thrive in them."
"Why do you know me better than I do?" she sighed, looking up at him. He was right. Since her training had started, she had been even more sensitive to the cold than she had been in the past and the thermostat in her apartment was permanently set to 90.
"The blood-work tells the story," he told her simply, shrugging. The more she trained, the more latent Cirronian genes were activating themselves and the more truly Cirronian she was becoming. "The Caribbean!" he suggested abruptly. "We'll leave tomorrow."
"You're kidding?"
"Why not?" he asked, smiling down at her. "It'll do you good. Get you away from your lessons for a while, too. You can come back to it fresh." He shrugged and amicably added, "Or we can go somewhere else if you prefer. Arizona is supposed to be nice this time of year, but it's supposed to get cold at night… There's always Hawaii or Costa Rica… Costa Rica is supposed to have an amazing array of tropical plants and wildlife. Read an article about them in National Geographic. It's beautiful down there."
Mel stared up at him with wide eyes. "You want me to go with you to Costa Rica… tomorrow?"
"Or tonight if you prefer," Zin said, shrugging. His smile widened although it had more to do with imagining the look on Lana's face at this point in the conversation than it did with Mel's reaction to his offer. "Nothing going on in the next week that can't be handled by phone."
"Costa Rica?" she repeated in a whisper. "Julius, that's…"
"Just what you need, Melanie. Say yes. It'll be fun."
"How long?"
"Mmm, five days? That should be enough to get you rested up."
"I'm not sure if I can be away from the bar for that long…"
"Three days, then," he countered. "And I am not taking no for an answer on this, Melanie," he added firmly.
"You never take no for an answer," she pointed out with a grin.
"Well, there was that one time when I was seven, but I don't like to talk about that…"
Mel laughed and shook her head.
"It'll be good for you, Melanie." Zin smiled down at her. "You know you want to," he added in a teasing tone. "Get away from the snow and ice…"
"Three days, huh?"
Zin nodded. "And I'm sure you'll feel less like killing Reta at the end of that time."
"He's annoying, Julius." Mel shook her head. "I have never in my life met a man who is as holier than thou as he is… How do you put up with him? Why do you?"
"He's a necessary evil. Given what he has that he can teach you, putting up with him is something I'm willing to do."
Mel sighed. "There has to be someone else…"
He would never have gotten so impatient with her, she thought, but immediately pushed the thought aside. Too many stray thoughts of Vic's friend these days. Zin was starting to notice, to comment on the dreamy look occasionally to be seen in her eyes, on the smile she always wore when she slumbered. So far Mel had always been able to brush his questions off or change the subject, but there was no point in pushing her luck, either, so she did her best not to think of him too much. At least not when there was anyone else around…
"There is not anyone else in my employ who can train you. I'm sorry." Zin sighed, then smiled reassuringly at her. "It won't be long now, I promise you, Melanie. You have learned most of what he can teach you."
"Is the combat-training really necessary?" she sighed.
"It is. Daggon is a danger to us. I want you armed against him."
"You told me… yesterday that, with everything I've learned, there's hardly anyone on the planet who can do me any real harm…" she protested. "Just people like us…"
"He is like us. He's like Reta, Melanie," Zin sighed. "Same powers, same life-long training."
Mel stared up at him with wide eyes.
"I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to worry… But until you can take Reta down, I am not going to be comfortable with the idea of you potentially coming up against Daggon. Especially since you won't let me assign you a body-guard."
"I'm starting to rethink my stance on that issue," Mel murmured.
"Smart girl. When we get back from Costa Rica I'll have someone assigned to you."
She smiled and nodded. "I appreciate it, Julius. Anything else about this Daggon character that I should know?"
Zin smiled faintly and shook his head. "I daresay you know enough, Melanie."