License Invoked

Liz and Boo hurried at their heels like a pair of terriers. In all their years of school, Liz had seen Fee Kendale go off like this only once. It had also been on the occasion of a matter of incompetence, but it showed how stretched the other woman's nerves were that she was reacting like a spoiled schoolgirl. The cacophony they made clattering through the hallway surprised a tour group on its way around the Superdome. A couple of the tourists recognized Fio

Not having had time to scope out the passage before Fio

Emotions were already high in the control room when Fio

"Did you get up this mornin' and say, `Today I think I'll screw up everythin' I touch'?" Fio

"I'm sorry," Robbie began, but she didn't stand a chance against the might of Hurricane Fee.

"There's a lot of people you're inconveniencing here, most of whom are pretendin' they're not as a

Someone snickered.

"And the rest of you needn't think I'm forgettin' about you," Fio

Liz was as caught by surprise as the rest of them. It was such a reasonable argument, appealing to their pride, their better nature, not the flat-out dressing down that she would have assumed Phoebe Kendale would have handed out. She'd grown up. Fio

Fee was sweet and reasonable but stretched to the breaking point with everyone except the special effects coordinator, for whom Fee wouldn't soften under any circumstances. The star swiveled back again to glare at Robbie. "That is, if you can manage to do your job when it really matters."

"I know every cue in the concert," Robbie said, who had been pushed all the way through fright to defiance. Her voice shook, but she stood her ground. "I know them forwards and backwards."

"Yes, and so you've been telling me," Fio

"I'm sorry I've been messing up. I'll make it right."

"You bloody well better!" Fio

Robbie gasped. She looked around at the others watching her, hoping for a kind face. Her eyes brimming with hope, she met Lloyd's gaze. He locked eyes with her, but kept his face carefully expressionless. Liz could tell he didn't want to be part of this argument. No one sane would have. Robbie appealed silently to him, brows lifted.

"And you keep off Lloyd," Fee added, not missing a thing. She interposed herself between the special effects engineer and her bodyguard. "He's here for me, not you."

That shot hit home. Robbie's face flushed even redder. The girl seemed really to have thought no one else had noticed. Liz felt very sorry for her.

"We get along," she said stoutly. "It's not against the law for him to be nice to me."

"So you don't deny you've been trying to steal him!"

Robbie saw the trap, but much too late. It was unwise of her to attempt to justify her feelings. If she'd been smart, she wouldn't have admitted to them at all. It gave Fio

"You're wrong! I don't have to steal him. I mean, I'm not trying to... There's nothing you can do if there's feelings involved! He only works for you. It's a financial arrangement. Not like..."

"You're trying to make out that there's more going on than there is, you silly creature," Fio

"No! If anyone's the princess around here, it's you!" Robbie shouted. "You waltz around like the high priestess of something, but you jump if a shadow crosses your path. I'm trying to do my job!"

"You are trying?" Fio

Turning like a model on the runway, Fio

With the agents and her bodyguard on her heels, Fio

"Let's try it again," she said, calmly. She smiled at them, serene again but very, very firm. "Once, all the way through, no stops. All right?"

Everyone rushed to their places, unwilling to be the next to receive Fee's own brand of personal attention.

Liz shot a glance at Boo-Boo. His wary expression told her he felt the same magical buildup that she did. The pent-up energy that had been pressing at the edges of her magical conscious was reaching an overload. It could burst out at any moment.