Articles of the Federation - Keith R. A. DeCandido [100]
Esperanza couldn’t help but smile, though she was now even more grateful that she’d kept the Cardassia problem on fourteen. “They’re not gonna attack you in your sleep, ma’am. You have bodyguards, remember?”
“That just reassures the crap out of me. You and your boyfriend are sure they’ll be fine?”
Sighing, Esperanza said, “Ambassador Morrow is not my boyfriend, ma’am, and I talked to him this morning. He said they seemed a little tired, but eager to make up for their bad first impression.”
“After this is all over, you should ask him out. You’d make a cute couple.”
“Ma’am- “
“I know about these things, you know. Who do you think got Fred and Ashante to finally tie the knot?”
“Yes, ma’am, when you’re no longer president, you can spend your retirement years as a very successful yenta.”
The president laughed. “All right, I’ve got to talk to Safranski. I’ll fill him in on this disaster, too. Mind if I keep this?” She held up the padd.
Esperanza nodded. “I’ve got a copy. Safranski did good on ICL.”
“I missed it. How was T’Vrea?”
“She wasn’t-her first officer was on instead.”
Again, the president frowned. “That’s odd. It’s not like T’Vrea’s camera-shy.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it, ma’am. Something could have called the captain away, and she sent her XO.”
“Yeah, I guess. All right, let me know when you set things up with Kalavak.”
“Of course. Thank you, Madam President.”
Chapter Twenty
YOU KNOW, Ozla Graniv thought, if I hadn’t bothered interviewing Tawna, I’d be back in Paris by now, listening to Kant be snide, filing stories, and generally being happy.
Instead, she was sitting naked on a crate, in a dank underground room on Deneva that smelled like avro dung, with two very large Balduks standing in front of her, aiming disruptor pistols at her head.
They’d been sitting there for about half an hour, ever since the two Balduks had shown up unannounced at her hotel room while she’d been showering. Showing no consideration for-or interest in-her nudity, they’d grabbed her and hauled her to a building on the outskirts of Down-river. Tellingly, no one had batted an eyelash at them.
But then, Ozla had done an expose on the Orion Syndicate, so she knew that Ihazs, Deneva’s local Syndicate boss, controlled dozens of interests on Deneva, and that everyone knew not to mess with his two Balduk bodyguards, even if-especially if-they were carrying a naked Trill reporter through a hotel lobby.
I guess I should be grateful that these two are just threatening me. They were content to stand facing her, brandishing their weapons, but never speaking. They didn’t sit, either, though there were plenty of crates in the room besides the one she occupied. The room’s illumination was dim, provided only by a weak overhead light, so her exact count of the number of crates was approximate at best, though she did try to count all of them by way of distracting herself.
Ozla’s estimate of the passage of time was also approximate, but she was pretty sure they had gotten close to forty-five minutes by the time a door opened to reveal a slim Takaran. “Well, well, well,” Ihazs said. “If it isn’t the infamous Ozla Graniv. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in the flesh.”
The Balduks laughed at the bad pun.
“And very nice flesh it is-for a Trill, my dear, you are very attractive. If not for those spots and your unfortunate skin tone, you’d make a delectable Takaran. I take it my guards have treated you well?”
“Depends on whether you define grabbing me from the shower as ‘well.’ “
“Yes, I do apologize for that,” Ihazs said with an expansive gesture. “You needn’t worry, though. These two have been genetically modified to have no sex drive. It’s handy when they’re asked to guard Orion women.”
Ozla smiled. “I’d point out that it’s illegal to perform genetic modifications on Federation citizens-but