'You'll be with him, won't you?' Roon said. 'And Ms. Kalopolis said I'd be able to watch from the sidelines.'
'Ms. Kalopolis doesn't have the legal background I do,' Gretchen countered. 'And I double as legal counsel for the Emporium. I'm afraid the other performers can't act in loco parentis in these circumstances. Station regulations. I looked them up before we docked.'
'But I want to be a clown,' Janni said, his eyes filling with tears. 'I want to ride the elephant.'
'Sorry, kid,' Gretchen said. 'It's just impossible. You can't go out there alone.'
'What if I went with him?' Roon said suddenly.
Kendi held his breath.
'What do you mean?' Gretchen asked.
'What if I went along? You could dress me up as a clown, too, and we'll both ride the elephant. It'll solve the whole problem.'
Gretchen paused, then shook her head. 'Won't work. Union rules, you know. And we only advertised one clown winner per show. I don't want the Emporium to be brought up on charges of false advertising.'
'Aw, come on, Bobo,' Ben said. 'We can't disappoint this kid. Who's going to know if we don't tell anyone? No one'll even recognize Mr. Roon here, so the union won't say anything. Have a heart.'
'Please, Ms. Bobo?' Janni quavered. 'Please?'
Gretchen paused, as if thinking it over. Kendi clenched his fists.
'Well… all right,' she grumbled at last. 'But I'm adding a gag order to this waiver. Sign here.'
With a grin, Roon scribbled his signature with the stylus and set the pad back in Gretchen's gloved hand. She set it carefully aside and turned to Roon. 'Let's get that shirt off, then, Mr. Roon. We'll have to work fast if we want to make the final act.'
Still grinning and no doubt gloating that he was about to both have and eat his cake, Roon complied. The key glittered on the chain around his neck. When Gretchen reached for it, however, he snapped a hand over it.
'I can't take this off,' he said. 'That's non-negotiable.'
'Not a problem,' Gretchen soothed. Kendi saw her slip another hand into her pocket. 'But I do need you to close your eyes so I can do your lids. Don't open them unless you want a makeup pencil in your cornea. Ready?'
Half an hour later, Ben led the new clowns, one tall and one short, out of the dressing room and down to the elephant bay. Both Roons were chatting excitedly. The moment they were out of earshot, Kendi emerged from behind the wall hanging.
'Gretchen, I could kiss you,' he said, and swept her into a hug instead. 'You were brilliant.'
'All right, all right,' she said gruffly, though there was a note of pride in her voice. 'Put me down before Ben sees you and gets jealous.'
Still laughing, Kendi obeyed. 'Where's the copycat? I'll take it and the data pad back to the ship.'
'Right here. And don't touch the pad without gloves on or you'll ruin Roon's prints. Put it in this bag.'
Kendi obeyed, then looked thoughtfully at the doorway. 'You know, we made Roon's fondest dream come true, and he's the biggest bastard in the universe.'
'Then we'll do our best,' Gretchen replied, 'to turn it all into a nightmare.'
The coughing fit doubled Bedj-ka over so fast, he almost smacked his forehead on the dinner table. Harenn quickly swallowed a spicy mouthful of minced lamb and set her flat bread down. The galley was empty at the moment. Kendi, Ben, and Gretchen hadn't returned from the circus yet, and Lucia was deep in some kind of meditation in her quarters, leaving Harenn and her son the run of the ship.
'Are you all right, my son?' she asked with concern.
Bedj-ka stopped coughing and reached for his water glass. Before he could get it to his mouth, he sneezed. Water sprayed everywhere.
'Bedj-ka!' Harenn said. 'Are you ill?'
'I'm okay,' he mumbled.
'That is not what 'okay' sounds like.' She slid around to his side of the table and put a hand on his forehead. It was warmer than Harenn would have liked. 'Do you feel sick to your stomach? Dizzy? Tired?'
'I'm okay, Mom,' he insisted. 'I'm not sick.'
'I will determine that. Do you want to finish your supper first, or should we visit the medical bay now?'
'I'm not sick,' Bedj-ka insisted again, though his argument was weakened by another wet sneeze. 'You don't need to put me to bed or pray over me.'
Harenn, halfway through the act of rising from the table, halted. 'Pray over you?'
'I didn't do anything wrong, did I?' His voice was thick, as if he were about to cry. Confused, Harenn sat down again and put an arm around him.
'Bedj-ka, what is the matter? Tell me what is wrong and we will try to fix it.'
'I'm sick… because… because I sinned,' he gulped. 'But I don't know what I did. Was it the books? Or that I got mad at Sister Gretchen?'
A slow, angry burn started behind Harenn's eyes. 'Bedj-ka, is this what the Enclave taught you? That sickness is punishment for a sin?'
He nodded up at her, his face a picture of misery. She hugged him hard, wanting to lash out at these people who had done this to her son. How could they teach such a dreadful thing?
'You are sick because you encountered a virus,' she said, forcing her voice to remain steady. 'No other reason. And here is what will happen. We will go down to the medical bay. I will run tests to determine the structure of your pathogen. I will make you an anti-viral. By morning, you will be well again.'
'I will?' He sounded startled.
'Indeed. And I will hear no more nonsense about sin making you-'
' Harenn, are you there? ' It was Kendi's voice. She tapped her earpiece.
'I am here, but a bit busy. Is this important?'
' Sorry to interrupt, but it is. We got Roon's key with him none the wiser. I need you to have Todd drugged and ready to talk by the time I get back because we need more information about the Collection's security procedures. And then we need to have a… conversation.' He gave further instructions, and Harenn had to force herself to listen. Bedj-ka waited, his silence puncuated with the occasional cough and sneeze.
'I will have everything ready,' Harenn said when Kendi finished. 'Though I must also examine Bedj-ka. I think he's come down with a virus.'
' Poor kid! Is it bad or can he wait until we're done with Todd?'
'I will have to run a viral analysis for Bedj-ka to determine his treatment, so it would be better if we took care of Todd first.'
' Then I'll come down directly. '
'Bedj-ka, I want you to wait in our quarters until I call you,' Harenn said. 'And then we'll have a long talk about stupid people and stupid beliefs.'
The hazy fog cleared from Isaac Todd's mind so abruptly it felt like he had fallen to the medical bay bed. He stared up at the white ceiling above him and felt slightly chilly, as he always did after one of these interrogation sessions. Oddly enough, he didn't feel any fear. Every other time the bitch's dose of hypnoral had worn off, he had come out of it feeling like he had just awoken from a horrible nightmare. This time, however, he felt clear-headed and awake. He was about to say something when he realized people were talking.
'… do you want something like that?' It was Harenn's voice.
'Because the best way to steal something is to convince the current owner that he doesn't want it anymore. Once you do that, he'll give it to you outright — or sell it to you cheap.' The speaker was the leader, the Father whose name Todd hadn't managed to catch. 'In this case, we need to convince the Collection that my family are worthless.'
Todd froze. Didn't they know he was lying within earshot? Obviously not. Or maybe they didn't care. No. It made no sense for them to discuss plans like this where Todd could hear. So why were they doing it?
The answer, when it came, was obvious. Harenn had screwed up. The dose of hypnoral she had given him hadn't lasted as long as it was supposed to. Maybe he was building up a tolerance for it after all this exposure, or maybe she had accidentally under-dosed him. In any case, it was obvious that Harenn and the Father didn't know he was awake and listening. He shut his eyes to keep it that way.
