Eve gives me a small smile in return. She was so angry with me yesterday, and I loved it.
I wish I could stay here all day just watching her. But unfortunately, there’s work to be done.
Reluctantly, I push away from the railing and make my way to Rafe's office. I don't knock before entering.
Rafe doesn't look up from his displays. “The message from Terra Sanctum has been sent.”
I pull up the communication on my IC.
Eve, call me when you receive this- Cal
Simple and direct, it’s perfect.
“Do you think she’ll wait until the end of her shift to call?” Rafe asks.
“No, she’ll make an excuse to leave her desk and call within the hour. She’ll be too curious.”
“You’re probably right; our beautiful rebel will need to know what Cal has to say,” Rafe says, “and he will tell her exactly what she needs to hear. That she’s doing an excellent job and that we are pleased with her. And, more importantly, her presence at the Grand Championships, as difficult as it is going to be for her, will make a tremendous difference for humans in the galaxy. And that every little thing she does helps free humans.”
“He’s going to use that line exactly? Free humans?”
“More or less,” Rafe says. “He needs to hint that there will be other ways in which she can help without being too explicit. That would be too obvious.”
“You don’t think the whole call is going to come off astoo obvious?” I ask.
“No, she’s notyou,and she has no reason to doubt Cal. He’s the only one who has given her the complete truth about Denise, remember?This is all going according to plan. His call will be more of a courtesy call to check in on her now that the Grand Championships are about to begin,” Rafe says, and then asks me, “And Gael’s people? Are they planning on approaching her?”
“Yes. My sources confirm that Terra Ka has already infiltrated the maintenance staff.” I activate another display showing security footage of a tall Imperial male with unremarkable features.
“And now we just watch and see if we’ve trained her well enough to perform.”
“And when we've captured Gael and sold off the coordinates to wherever he keeps the stolen pets, what happens to Eve?” I ask.
We both know the answer, though neither of us wants to voice it.
“She'll be happy here,” Rafe says, after a long minute. “As our permanent human liaison, securing the Grand Championships for years to come.”
“Will she? I don’t know whether we can continue this status quo indefinitely. And she will become lonely without another human. Right now she sees us every day for hours.”
“We can’t have her as a wife,” Rafe says with finality. “And we will not keep her as a companion. So, remove both of those thoughts from your head, Lorian. As soon as it’s legal to hire another human, we will do it so she can have a friend.”
My IC chimes. This time, it's a message addressed to Eve, routed through our standard communication channels. The sender is listed as a maintenance supervisor, but the embedded encryption suggests otherwise.
I decrypt the message and read it to Rafe. “Here we go:
“Hopefully, it won’t look too much like a setup.”
“At first she might think it’s just an actual maintenance check, but when she discovers it’s something else entirely, her whole conversation with Cal will take on a completely different meaning. And I think she’ll be too caught up in that to even consider that we’ve set this up,” Rafe says.
“Though it wouldn’t be amiss to dull her mind a little. We can’t have her overthinking this. I will make sure that the receptionists’ tier at High Table has excellent wine tonight, and that Lira drinks at least two glasses with her to keep her from over-analyzing the message.”
35
THE MAINTENANCE MAN, EVE
The High Tableglows like a shrine, Sovereign Rafe rises like an Imperial god, and we all feel it and stop talking immediately.
“Staff of the Celestial Spire. Our first guests have begun arriving for the Grand Championships, and already you all are performing exceptionally well. I expect you to keep it up.”
