Doctor Who_ Beyond the Sun - Matthew Jones [43]
Emile and Tameka, brought up no doubt on a diet of Kwik Kurry and McSwine burgers, took one look at the curled-up strips of dried vegetable and simultaneously screwed their noses up.
‘Just don’t start, all right?’ Bernice whispered. ‘We’re in enough trouble as it is. First rule of field trips: eat what’s offered and look grateful.’
‘Benny, you should meet my mother,’ Tameka said, picking up a strip of what looked like aubergine between finger and thumb. ‘You’d get on like a house on fire, I’m telling you.’ She bit into the strip and chewed slowly, making no attempt to hide her displeasure. ‘So, who’s your friend?’ she added, nodding towards the reptile man.
‘This is . . .’ Bernice began.
‘Leon,’ he finished, and pushed a bowl of white sauce that looked a little like yogurt towards Tameka. ‘Try it. Those vegetables can be a bit dry on their own.’
‘Cheers, Leon,’ Tameka said and dipped her vegetable strip. Inexplicably she began to giggle.
‘Leon the lizard! I just got it. Hoo boy, I’m not even going to touch that one.’
Bernice closed her eyes, suddenly wanting the ground to swallow her up. She was about to apologize for her students – again – but Leon spoke first.
‘You people are so strange,’ he said in his gentle, almost melodic voice. If he’d been offended by Tameka’s comment, he didn’t show it. ‘Scott said that you were from the companies. Is that right? Are you corporate people? Profiteers?’
Emile was staring at Leon, trying to work out what he was saying. ‘My father works for Krytell,’
he said. When Leon looked blank, he explained. ‘It’s one of the biggest companies in the sector.
In our sector, that is. My dad’s a communications engineer. I lived with him on an X-boat relay station. That’s a sort of artificial satellite, only smaller.’
Leon looked puzzled, but intrigued. ‘And he works for this Krytell company and is paid for his labour in return, is that right?’
‘He gets a salary, if that’s what you mean. Quite a decent one.’
‘And works late and ignores his son and thinks more about machines than he does about his wife,’ Tameka butted in as she reached over to wipe up some sauce with a strip of the aubergine-like vegetable. ‘Just like all the other company robots. Selling their soul for a few stupid shillings.’
Leon cooed with humour again, and Bernice was startled to see a thin forked tongue flicker around the edge of his mouth. ‘Ah, do I detect a voice of dissidence?’
‘Detect what you like, mate. You wouldn’t catch me working for Krytell. They’re as corrupt as the church.’
The conversation between Leon and Tameka became more animated as Leon suggested that all companies were corrupt by definition. Bernice noticed that Emile had slumped back in his seat a little, his shoulders sagging. Tameka’s earlier comment seemed to have deflated him somehow and he suddenly looked like a little boy. ‘Are you all right, Emile?’ Bernice asked.
He met her gaze for a moment and smiled weakly. He wiped his nose on the back of his hand.
‘Yeah, I’m all right. You don’t have to worry about me, Professor S. I was just thinking about my dad, that’s all.’
She reached over and stroked his cheek with the back of her fingers. ‘I know I don’t have to worry about you, Emile. I just like worrying about you.’
His smile grew a little. Poor kid. His colourful clothes were covered with the dry orange dust of the planet, and he’d lost an earring since he’d baled out of the haulage ship. His usually neat bleached hair was sticking up all over the place, and was dusted with grit. He looked like he’d just walked away from a space crash, and then Bernice remembered that this was precisely what he had just done. ‘Missing home?’ she asked.
He shook his head and then took a deep breath as if he were struggling to control a powerful feeling. He distracted himself by refilling his plate. ‘No, not really. Just wish I’d left on better terms.’
‘Ah, I see. Parents not pleased to see you go?’
‘Something like that.’
He seemed uneasy and Bernice wondered if he was afraid that he wasn’t going