Security - Keith R. A. DeCandido [14]
But it provided no answers now. It was just an old tool in an old box.
The door chime rang. Corsi ignored it, not having any great desire for company. Her combadge was on the nightstand, placed there after she tossed her sweaty uniform into the recycler. She had showered and then put on the flannel robe her mother had gotten her when she graduated the Academy and which was still in fairly decent shape.
Again, the door chime rang, this time accompanied by a voice. “Dom, it’s Fabian. I know you’re in there. And I know you’re alone, since we haven’t found Lense yet.”
Fabian. Perfect. She sighed. She couldn’t really use the excuse that she wasn’t properly dressed, considering that Stevens had seen her in much less on more than one occasion.
“Come,” she muttered just loud enough for the computer to hear and allow the door to slide open.
Stevens entered, a look of concern on his pleasant features. His dark hair was mussed, like it usually was after he’d been working all day, as he tended to run his hand through it. That meant he had been up all night, since alpha shift was just starting.
“I hear you’ve been riding the newbie pretty hard.”
Hawkins has a big mouth, Corsi thought. Her deputy chief and Stevens had become close since their shared trauma on Teneb, so it had to be him. Either that or Hawkins talked to Abramowitz and she talked to Stevens. Hell, it could be anyone—Fabe’s always making friends with people. Regardless, it was completely inappropriate. “Are you part of security now?” she asked in a tight voice.
“Of course not, but—”
“Then keep the hell out of security affairs, Mr. Stevens.”
Rolling his eyes, Stevens said, “Oh, come on, Dom, this isn’t a chat between officer and enlisted, this is you and me in your quarters. Forget the ranks for a second—what’s wrong?”
Placing the ax on the deck, Corsi swung her legs around and sat up, facing Stevens. “Nothing’s wrong. Tell Hawkins or Abramowitz or whichever other gossipmonger told you to come talk to me to stay the hell out of my business.”
“Nobody told me to come talk to you, Dom, I came on my own.”
Corsi regarded him angrily.
He relented. “Yeah, okay, Hawk and I had a talk, but that was it. Besides, he’s worried about you, and he figured I had a better chance of finding out what was wrong than he did.”
“Well, he’s wrong. Get out of here.” She stood up and pointed at the door.
Stevens shook his head. “You know, you really should start wearing a sign around your neck.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“So I know which Domenica Corsi I’m talking to. It’s hard to keep track.”
Corsi moved closer, looking Stevens right in the eye. “I am two steps away from ordering you out of my quarters, Mr. Stevens, now—”
“ ‘I just worry that she’s going to completely close herself off.’ ”
Blinking, Corsi stared dumfoundedly at Stevens. He was obviously quoting something. “What the—?”
“You know who said that? You—right after you broke several regulations trying to set Commander Gomez up with Captain Omthon.”
Turning around, Corsi went back to the bed. She needed to sit down. “Yeah, well, that was stupid.”
“No, Dom, it wasn’t.” Stevens sat down on the bed next to her. She wanted more than anything to reprimand him, to remind him that she kicked him out of here, but one look at that goddamned earnest expression on his face, and she couldn’t do it. “You’ve been prickly ever since Ken and Ted died, and it’s gone into overdrive since we got back from Coroticus. Did something happen down there that I missed? Or is it because of Kim and where he’s from?”
That brought Corsi up short again. “What?”
“He’s from Izar. Hawk isn’t the only one concerned—Rennan noticed that you went a little crazy when the new guy said he was from Izar. So I did a little digging, and you’ve been there, when you were deputy security chief on the Roosevelt. Solved a big homicide and everything. Kim was the son of one of the peace officers you worked with. What’s-her-name