Even then, Cassandra eyed him suspiciously. “Promise?”
“Yes.”
Stillskeptical, Cassandra looked at Phoebe, who at this point was about at her end with her. “Can I put any faith in that?”
Hold me back …Counting to three, she smiled through her anger. “You can. Shanus is our Supreme Counselor. He never lies.”
“Phoebe, look at me.”
Don’t take that tone with me, bitch. I’m about to slap you!
“Tell me the truth. Are we safe here?”
With them?“Yes, I swear it by everything I hold dear—even Urian’s life. You are here because Stryker will never think to look in an Apollite commune for you. Every one of us here knows that if your baby dies, so does our world. And our lives, such as they are, are still precious to us. Twenty-seven years to the people here is better than none at all.”
But if you don’t shut your hole and get in that room so that I can check on my husband, I’m going to beat your ass.
Finally, Cassandra took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay.”
Passing an annoyed look behind her back to Shanus, Phoebe opened the door.
Shanus choked on a laugh and excused himself.
Furious, Phoebe followed them into their new home. Like all the units here, the main living room was about five hundred square feet and had everything a regular human home had. An oversized, stuffed sofa and love seat, and an entertainment center complete with television, stereo, and DVD player.
Chris headed straight for the entertainment center. “Does that stuff work?”
“Yes. We have relays and uplinks that can bring the human world down to us.”
Kat opened the doors to the bedrooms and bathroom, which were off the main living area. “Where’s the kitchen?”
Phoebe gave her a droll stare for the stupidity of that question. “We don’t have kitchens,” she reminded her. “But the counselors are working on getting a microwave and refrigerator brought in for you since you do actually eat. Along with groceries. There should be something here very soon for all of you.”
Since they didn’t have phones, Phoebe showed them the small dark green box on an end table. “If you need anything, the intercom is here. Just press the button and one of the operators will help you. If you want to buzz me, tell them you need Urian’s wife and they’ll know which Phoebe to put you through to.”
A knock sounded on the door.
Phoebe went to answer it while Cassandra stood back with Kat and Chris. “What do you guys think?”
Chris shrugged. “It seems okay. I’m not picking up any evil vibes, what about you two?”
Kat looked around. “I agree with Chris. But there’s still a part of me that doesn’t trust them. No offense, Cass, but Apollites aren’t known for being honest.”
“Tell me about it.”
Phoebe snorted atthatcomment, especially given the track record of human honesty. Um, yeah … Last article she read said the average person lied thirty times an hour.Average human.Thirty times an hour. Didn’t speak well for what a pathological or “unaverage” human did, did it? And they dared to call Apollites dishonest?
Yeah …
Irritated to the extreme, Phoebe exchanged a peeved smirk with Dr. Lakis, who was even in height to her and dressed in a light pink sweater and jeans. Since she was on duty, she had her shoulder-length blond hair pulled up into a loose bun.
Lucky for her sister, Dr. Lakis was better at hiding her irritation. “Cassandra?”
She waited for Cass to look at her.
“I’m Dr. Lakis.” She extended her hand to Cassandra. “If you don’t mind, I would like to examine you and see how the baby is doing.”
The two of them headed off.
