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"You didn't." She was walking toward a towel hung over the spectator railing. "I've come to expect your scrutiny. Tell me: do you enjoy watching women exercis...
"Captain-"
Rubbing her hair briskly, she laughed through the towel. "You fluster pretty easily. Must make it easy for your wife to keep you in line."
He didn't like her insolence; he liked the stinging accuracy of her insight even less. "I assume you're finished with today's PT."
"Yep. About twenty minutes ago. Just putting in a little extra work: I need it. And I've got nothing better to do, since you won't give me any reading materia...
"That changes today."
"So you've said."
"It's true."
"That'll be a first."
Downing felt a thin line of heat along his brow. "I have not told you one lie about this assignment. Not one."
"Okay. You haven't lied about this assignment. But you've evaded. Declined to comment. Makes me feel real welcome here in the fabulous future."
"I'm sorry its been such a-a disappointing beginning for you, Captain."
"Yeah, I'm sure your heart is just bleeding for me." She stopped adjusting her shoes, turned quickly. "I apologize: that was uncalled for."
"No need for regrets, Captain. May I call you Opal?"
She thought for a second, looking off into the green scrub hills to the north. "No, I don't think so. Not yet. Maybe never. We'll have to see."
"About what?"
She looked directly at him. "About whether you turn out to be someone I can trust. Downing, I might one day come to tolerate, even like you, but I'll never li...
"I'm sorry you see it that way. You may find that it's something you'd want to do anyway."
"Yes, but I'm not free to find that out for myself."
"True. You were also not free to choose which of your combat assignments you felt were justified and which weren't."
"Look: I volunteered to serve my country as a combat soldier, not a courtesan."
"But it seemed as though you liked Caine-"
"So you tell me, but now I can't even remember him. That whole first week is pretty much gone."
"I'm not surprised. Emergency wake-ups are very hard on the nervous system, on brain chemistries. You can lose a lot-"
"Or it can be taken from me, as well."
Oh, bloody hell. "I beg your pardon?"
Her eyes were an unblinking challenge. "I mean, if the wake-up memories are fragile, it must be particularly easy to erase them-if you wanted to. Maybe with d...
She's right: I lie for a living. Lie number one: "There were no drugs." Lie number two: "As for electroconvulsive therapy, you might be misremembering cardiac...
She had not stopped looking at him. "Could be. But I seem to recall something a lot less benign than a few zaps with the paddles." She broke the accusing star...
He couldn't bring himself to contradict her: that would be just one more lie. "You can be sure of this: today you're free."
"Free to do what? To become a commando-courtesan for a man I don't even know? You've got a mighty strange definition of 'freedom,' Mr. Downing."
"Captain, you're not a civilian-and nor am I. For us, freedom isn't a blank check: it's a limited, occasional luxury-that we buy for millions of others at the...
She looked up: he hadn't realized that the tone of his voice had become so sharp. Then she nodded: "Okay, you're a true believer. I wasn't sure until right no...
Downing looked at it, smiled, was grateful, but also thought: I should find out how good she is.
He extended his hand toward hers, but at the last possible moment, reached past it and grabbed her wrist-
-but she had seen, or felt, it coming. She let him pull her in-he had the advantage of height and weight-but stepped outside and past him. With surprising-fea...
Flat on his back, Downing looked up at her. "Textbook," he grunted. "Well done."
"Wish I could say the same for you, Scarecrow. That was pretty predictable."
He rose to his spare elbows. "Just a basic check; sometimes, after extended time in cryosleep, reflexes go along with short-term memories."
"Not in my case. Here." She extended a hand to help him up.
He smiled crookedly, reached across with his own right hand-and again, snapped it down sharply on her wrist.
But she rolled her wrist around and out of his grab, even as she once again allowed herself to be pulled forward by him, this time into a trajectory that carr...
"Ow," he said.
Her eyes-the color of pecans, the shape of almonds-did not blink or smile. "Do I pass the audition or do we dance some more?"
"That will be quite enough, Captain: I'm done."
Her eyes flicked down at his pilloried elbow. "Yes, I'd say you are." She pushed his arm away in the same motion that she used to stand up. "Like I said, Down...
And she stopped. Her eyes were looking beyond him, her mouth still open a little, but the words abandoned. He rolled his head around, back in the direction of...
A man was walking out of its black maw: Caine. "Am I interrupting-something?" he asked, looking from Opal to Downing.
"No, no, not at all, Caine. I just had a tumble trying to get in a little exercise of my own. Can't keep up with this young lady. She's too fit for me, I'm af...
Opal offered Downing a helpful hand, tried to smile at him, failed. Caine stepped in, extended his hand as soon as she had finished helping Richard. "Hello. I...