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"You could report it!"
"And get in the middle of it again? Get myself yanked in for another inquisition? I followed orders. I figured you were bugging my office. I figuredSecurity knew where she was. I figuredyou knew exactly what I said, which was nothing. Nothing,Ya
"You're paranoid."
"Damned right. Damned right,Ya
"Get out of here! Get the fuck out of here! I got you off. I got you off with Administration. I spent the fucking morning on you, Petroswasted a day covering your ass, and you're damn right this is a psych and you just flunked it, son, you just flunked it! I don't trust you. I don't trust you further than I can see where you are. You walk a tight line, a damned tight line. If she shows up again you get her out of there and you phone Denys before her steps are cool!"
"What about Jordan?"
"Now you want favors."
"What about Jordan?"
"I don't hear anything about them cutting the phone calls. But you're playing with it, son. You're really playing with it. Don'tpush. Don't push any further."
"What are you putting in that report?"
"That you're not real casual around that kid. That you've got yourself some real hostilities about that kid."
"Notabout that kid! About the lousy things you're doing to her, Ya
"And you've lost your perspective, boy, you've damned well lost your professional perspective! You're feeding your own damn insecurities into the situation. You're interpreting,son, you're not observing, you're not functioning, you've lost your objectivity, and you're off the project, son, you're off the projectuntil you come back here with your head back together. Now get out of here! And don't bother me with these damn play-time projects of yours until you getyour problem fixed. Get out!"
"I don't know what I could have said."
He was shaking. He was shaking all over again when Grant came over to the couch and handed him a glass. The ice rattled. He drank a gulp, and Grant settled down beside him with the tablet.
Give it a few days. Ya
He shook his head. Made a helpless gesture with the glass and rested his eyes against his hand a moment while the whiskey hit his bloodstream and the cold hit his stomach. "Maybe," he said finally, "maybe Ya
"That's not so."
"Ya
Grant grabbed the tablet next to him, and wrote:
Don't give up.And went on writing: Denys said once Ari didn't fake your Aptitudes. You've taken it as an article of faith that she did. You've always thought you belonged in Education. You do. But Ari wanted you in Design. I wonder why.
His gut went queasy when he read that.
Grant wrote: Ari did a hell of a lot to you. But she never refused to look at your work.
"I'm off the project," he said. Because that was no news to Security and their eavesdroppers. "He says I hate the kid. It's not true, Grant. It's not true. It's not true."
Grant gripped his shoulder. "I know it. I know it, they know it, Ya
"He said I flunked, didn't he?"
"For God's sake, that's part of it, that's part of the psych-out, don't you understand it? You know what he was doing. The test wasn't over yet. He wanted a reaction, and you gave it to him."
"I'm still pulling up what I said." He took a second drink, still shaking. "I can remember what I meant. I don't know if I can figure Ya
"Ya
He tried to. He wrote: The question is, whose side is he on?
xii
Horse dipped his head and took grain from Florian's palm. "See," he said to Catlin, "see, he's friendly. He just worries when it's strangers. You want to touch him?"
Catlin did, very carefully. Horse shied back.
Catlin outright gri
The cows she said looked strong, but she was not very interested.
But Horse got the first real grin Florian had ever seen from Catlin, and she climbed up on the rail and watched while Horse played games with them and snorted and threw his head.
"We aren't going to eat Horse's babies," Florian said, climbing up beside her. "He's a working animal. That means they're not for food."
Catlin took that in the way she took a lot of things, with no comment, but he saw the nod of her head, which was Catlin agreeing with something.
He liked Catlin. That took a lot of deciding, because Catlin was hard to get hold of, but they had been through the Room a lot of times, and only once had he been Got and that was because they had Got Catlin first, and there had just been a whole lot of the Enemy, all Olders. Catlin had been Got twice in all, but the second time she had yelled Go! and given him time to blow a door and get through, which was his fault: he had been slower than he ought; so she Got all the Enemy but the one that Got her, and he Got that one, because hehad a grenade, and the Enemy didn't expect him to have because he was a tech with his hands full. Catlin had been real proud of him for that.
He was just glad it was a game, and he told the Instructor it was his fault, not Catlin's. But the Instructor said they were a team, and it didn't matter.
He gave them half their Rec time.
Which was enough time to come over here. And this time he talked Catlin into coming with him and meeting Andy and seeing all the animals.
He was not sure Andy and Catlin got along. But Catlin said Horse was special.