Jezebel's Ladder (9 page)

Jez managed to bribe a table from one of the wrinkled
retirees with a kiss on the cheek and the promise that he could watch her play.
She ordered a pot of Frangelica, the subject’s favorite coffee.

When he arrived, Pierson seemed
even more caricatured than his photos and was not in the least active. He waved
to a few other customers, calling them by name. Then, he shook her hand,
pleasantly surprised by her appearance. “To what do I owe the privilege,
Mademoiselle Johnson? Your secretary was a trifle vague. You have confidential
information which may affect my negotiations?”

She gestured for him to sit and
offered him a cup of coffee. “Mr. Pierson.”

“Call me Tom.”

“I’m Jezebel, Jez to my friends. I
thought we would play a few games of chess while we discuss a theoretical
issue.”

He wrinkled his brow. “To what end?”

“I want to convince you to come
work for me.”

He blinked nervously. “I am, as far
as I know, still employed. What could possibly be more important than resolving
the current crisis in the Middle East?”

She smiled. “That conflict will
rage on long after you and I are gone. I am offering you a chance to make a
difference in a new field, unprecedented in history. Within five years, my
company intends to have a private colony in space. I will need your help
negotiating with the UN and drafting the moral code we will live under.”

Tom burst out laughing. The
laughter continued until he saw that her face was serious. “You’re not joking?”

“I have resources at my disposal
you couldn’t dream of, including billions in backing. We’ll succeed with or without
you, but my job would be much easier with your assistance. I need someone I can
trust to delegate to.”

“Why a diplomat?”

“I need someone who knows people
and nations at a fundamental level, someone who can build a foundation. Frankly,
I need someone who can lie. I can’t do that anymore and it’s inconvenient.”

She placed a cigar box full of
chess pieces on the checked table top. “I haven’t played this since I was
sixteen. That’s when boys got more interesting. Beat me two games out of three,
and I’ll answer any questions you like over dinner anywhere you choose. But if
I give you a spanking, you agree to fly to Los Angeles and check out my
facility.”

Henri, the retiree behind her,
grinned. “Go on, Tom, let her spank you.”

Tom raised a finger. “Miss, as much
as I would love a personal tour of your fine facilities, I feel it only fair to
warn you that this is my club. I am the reigning champion here.”

“I understand. You don’t want to be
embarrassed in front your friends.”

Smile fading, he began setting up
the black pieces. “Ladies first,” he said, indicating the white.

She started slowly, letting her
talents reach out to borrow computing power. He took one of her pawns en
passant. She apologized, “I’d forgotten about that rule. I’ll do better.”

Tom had a distinct advantage at the
start, but she got loose on his king’s side and tunneled toward his jugular. He
only survived by promoting a pawn to queen at the last second and putting her
in mate. The exercise tired him, though, making him sweat. He no longer wore
the tweed jacket. “You, Miss Johnson, are wicked and aggressive. If you wish to
surrender now…”

She grinned, taking off her jacket
as well. Several men applauded the view. Not only did the show of bare arms and
curves help distract her target, but her game got easier the more spectators
they gained. Everyone else in the café had stopped playing to watch. “I warned
you I was rusty, but I won’t lose again. I’ll throw in my BMW against a week of
your consulting time.”

Tom set up again, this time more
slowly. “What sort of consulting?”

She shrugged. “The UN Bill of Human
Rights is too broad for my purposes. I don’t care about marriage rights or
nationalities. What I want to define are hard questions: in a closed society,
when is it okay to kill?”

Tom shrugged. “In what context? I
try not to kill bugs in my house unless I’m on the toilet and something
poisonous threatens to bite me. I even let the mice from my office go in a
field.”

Jez opened with the Dragon
Variation and started pounding his defenses. “You begin with the premise that
all life is sacred. Your second axiom is capture before kill. Bugs and
micro-organisms seem to be easy. Good insects like bees are fine outside the
home and we try not to harm them. However, for health reasons, do we have the
right to kill the larvae of disease carriers and parasites nearby?”

“Yes, I would even allow the
movement of wasp nests beyond a person’s front yard. A ring of safety is
allowed around our homes, schools, and places of work.”

“As your third axiom, our immediate
safety trumps the rights of lower forms. With your mouse example, what if he
cannot be captured, but starts eating your wiring in the attic? It keeps you
awake at night and could burn down your whole apartment.”

“Keeping me awake would not
qualify, but eating my food stores and leaving diseased droppings would. The
mouse is a parasite in this case, presenting multiple dangers to the whole
community. I would put out poison to kill it quickly, making sure no children
can get the poison and no cats would eat the affected mouse. Animals were here
long before us, but most are smart enough not to live in the den of a predator.”
He traded a knight for a bishop.

“To generalize the third axiom to
higher animals, if we warn with fences and walls, dangerous animals are
expected to follow the rules and not come into our safety zones without our
permission. However, if we go into the wild, we’re fair game?”

“More or less. Animals hear us
before we see them and avoid contact. We should do the same.”

“The implied fourth axiom would be
that we have the right to protect food we have worked for. To clarify three,
what if a rabid dog enters a yard and threatens children?”

He contemplated a dangerous
combination, unsure of anything after the third move. “Diseased, insane animals
are different. Any adult is honor-bound to put those out of their misery for
the good of everyone.”

As she began a cascade of captures
without batting an eye, she said, “An exception to rule two is the virus. As
axiom five, we state that there is a meta-human you call the community that has
its own rules.”

He shrugged. “For most purposes, in
your hypothetical colony, the rules for a meta-human are the same as for an
individual.”

She nodded. “However, the rules for
higher animals in all earlier axioms now apply to humans as well.”

When the exchange was complete, he
wasn’t sure who was ahead in the game any longer.

“If an animal kills a human, do we
retaliate?”

“We capture the animal and examine
the circumstances. Perhaps the person deserved it.”

She said, “Animal trials, like
Napoleon’s time.”

The crowd laughed.

Tom countered, “Axiom six: Even an
animal deserves fair treatment under the law. The one passing sentence should
not be related to the victim. Napoleon did have one thing right: three judges
are much fairer than one when someone’s life is at stake. Are you making fun of
me to get me to make a mistake?”

“On the contrary, this is your
interview. I like the idea of tribunals.”

“No more talking till this is
finished, please,” the envoy requested. Jez shrugged and out of nowhere came up
with a knight combination that decimated his queen’s side. The crowd was
buzzing with suggestions on how to counter this assault.

Henri leaned over the envoy. “She
has been toying with you, stretching out the games.”

Sweating from the effort, Tom
eventually conceded the point, tipping his king over. “Now we are tied. Henri,
all this talk of food has made me hungry. Get me a hard salami sandwich. Miss
Johnson, for what types of questions will you require my expertise?”

Men gathered at the bar, making
wagers and exchanging small bills. Their next game would decide the club
championship. Taking advantage of the distraction, she said, “As an opening
exercise, I would have everyone develop moral axioms the way you just did.
Together, we would rank and coalesce them. The first week I would address how
we punish people in a society that needs every person to survive. Then I would
move on to the hard questions.”

“We’d solve all of society’s
problems, just like that?”

She shook her head. “We would build
a framework for later generations to have a chance. You see, when they meet us
for the first time, other societies will want to know our rules. I need a
simple, common set that every frontier colony can follow and present.”

The envoy was dumbfounded. “Pardon
me, miss. You are clearly intelligent, but do you honestly believe we will meet
other species?”

She smiled, leaned close to his ear
and whispered, “We already have. How do you think I’ve been winning?”

Tom looked as if he had been
struck. Putting her jacket back on, she told him. “Because I cheated, I will
leave you with your crown. If you want to know more, you have my number.”

She left elated, ignoring the
headache blooming behind her right eye as her guard performed a bomb sweep
before he would let her into the car. Tom Pierson called to accept the offer
before she got back to the hotel. She diverted the car to a boutique to
celebrate. Now, her only worries were getting appropriate souvenirs for her
team before the flight home.

When she reached the hotel with her
bags, there were police vehicles outside. The desk clerk explained, “In your
absence, someone forcibly entered your room and ransacked your suitcases.
Fortunately, no one was injured.”

Because I wasn’t here.
She
opened her awareness. The man in the corner of the lobby, pointing a cell phone
camera at her, was active. Her hairy associate from Liverpool stayed to check
on her company laptop, now missing. Meanwhile, she bolted to the airport
without speaking to the police or checking out. She bought new suitcases at the
gift shops.

When Jez got back to her LA apartment, contractors were
installing bulletproof glass. Benny was overseeing the work personally. As she
dropped off her things, the actor said, “You and Oobie both get upgrades.
Someone shot at Dirt Bag as he walked from his car to an appointment at the Federal
Trade Commission offices.”

“
C’est la guerre
,” she
quipped. “What was he doing there?”

“Someone inside his own company is
trying to block the Brazilian deal. He’s doing damage control with the Feds. Now
talk to me, Jez. You’re as pale as a heroine addict after a lost weekend.”

“Always something a girl likes to
hear.” Nevertheless, looking at her reflection in the entryway mirror, she had
to agree with his assessment.

He gazed into her eyes, looking for
clues. “What else happened? Did you take a drink?”

“No, I couldn’t sleep on the flight
back. I have a migraine so bad I could puke. Because they’ve hit places I'm
supposed to sleep twice in two days, I can’t relax.”

“Twice?” He grabbed her arm as she
wavered and then helped her into a padded chair.

“They raided the hotel where I was
staying. I was stupid and left my laptop in the room.”

He shrugged. “It’s thumb-print
encrypted.”

“That won’t hold them forever. It
wouldn’t stop us. They’ll know what I’m working on. I’m sorry.”

Noticing that the light from the
window was making her wince, Benny interposed himself, blocking the glare.

She said, “I used my talent to beat
Peace Pipe at chess. He’ll be reporting for work here in two weeks.”

“Maybe you used the trick for too
long. You need to see a doctor.”

“Not Ward Seven,” she begged.

“Vader is staying in an apartment
in the other wing while he interviews. I’ll walk you there.” It took a moment
for her to connect the code name with the inventor of the breathing apparatus,
Dr. Henry Weiss.

“Isn’t he an engineer?”

“He has an MD; he just never
practiced. He found the equipment easier to deal with than the patients and
administrators. Discontent with government administrators drove him to accept
our offer. Good find.” Without waiting for her response, the former actor was
already leading her down the hall.

She protested weakly. “He’s not
going to want…”

“I’ll talk him into it. It’s what I
do.”

His face was so determined, she acquiesced.
Once she stopped fighting it, the attention felt nice.

Dr. Weiss reminded her of an old,
TV-western doctor. His hair was completely white, and the Houston sun had
turned his skin to leather. Laid back and folksy, he talked to her at length
about her symptoms. Then he told Benny, “I need access to her medical records.”

He immediately pulled out his
phone, typed in a password, tapped a few icons, and handed the device to the
doctor. “Good, you have scans in here.”

“Why are you carrying my medical
records in your phone?” she demanded.

“In case you were shot and the
hospital needed them,” Benny replied hastily. “It’s standard operating
procedure for field assignments.”

“Mr. Fortune’s files are on here as
well.” The doctor read through their boss’s files for several moments before
Benny cleared his throat. “Sorry, it’s very interesting reading. You both share
some symptoms. Might-could be any number of things: brain swelling, low
potassium, or adverse chemical interactions. We’re in new territory.”

The doctor pulled out a
prescription pad. “Stop in at the clinic for a blood workup. Proactively, we
need you to take these vitamins. They’re stronger than normal. You need to take
a couple-few days off.”

“I’ve got to reproduce days’ worth
of work that I lost when they took my laptop, not to mention…”

“I wasn’t finished. I’m not working
for you yet,” Weiss interrupted. “I can’t believe they missed this in the
intake, but that implant in your arm could be causing side-effects. I want it
removed.”

Jez said, “It's just a birth
control device. The medicine might cause weight gain, but…”

“Out. Every chemical you put into
your body has a dozen unintended side-effects. We need to simplify your life.
You’re not having sex right now, are you?”

She blushed. “No.”

“Then there should be no
objections,” the doctor concluded.

On their way to the clinic, Jez
asked Benny, “What did he mean, working for me?”

“While he’s getting his clearance
and training for the first two weeks, you get to borrow him for your think
tank. After that, he’s on the Red Giant team.”

“I need my think tank here together
at the same time,” she insisted.

“I’ll get Tom to use his vacation
to come here, if you agree to take off two days. I could even throw in a studio
tour as incentive.”

“I’ve never been on a studio tour,”
she said.

He missed a step. “I meant for the
envoy, but I’m a man of my word. I finish work here at one tomorrow.”

“It’s a date,” she said, uncertain
why she had finagled it.

****

As Jezebel’s “kids” opened their
gifts, Daniel noticed the gauze wrapped around her arm from removing the
implant. “Bullet wound? We heard there was trouble.”

“Nothing major,” she said over the
sounds of paper rustling. “But they gave me two days forced medical leave.”

Nena’s soft, Dutch accent purred, “It’s
gorgeous. People are trying to kill you and you buy me this dress?”

Daniel’s eyes popped out a little
as she stood up and held the revealing dress against her chest. Swallowing, he
said, “Thank you.”

“I knew you’d like a book on French
Impressionism,” Jez said.

Daniel looked down at the book in
his hands. “Yeah, that too.”

“By the way, I got my own key. So I
can give yours back. I can’t thank you enough,” the girl said as she bent to
kiss Jez on the cheek.

Jez was going to say that she meant
for the newcomer to get her own
apartment
, but just went with the flow. “My
purse is on the stand by the door. It seems I have to be ready to leave on a
moment’s notice around here. I’ve got an overnight case packed.”

While Nena was out of earshot, Jez
asked, “How’s it going?”

“No new actives,” he reported. When
she nodded toward the girl, he went, “Oh, okay. I’ve stopped her from going on
dates with three other guys already.”

“You haven’t told her how you feel?”
she asked. He stammered ineffectually for a few moments till Nena came back
with a prescription bottle.

“Prenatal vitamins,” Nena stated. “Anything
we should know?” Daniel dropped his art book on the floor.

“No. I’m just anemic or something.”

“That’s hard to believe. I saw you
walking on Mr. Hollis’s arm. You’ve got to be dating.”

“No. We go on our…second one
tomorrow, technically. But it’s more as friends. I tricked him into it because
I like how he treats me. I’m not ready for the sort of relationship you’re
talking about yet.”

Nena cocked an eyebrow, but Daniel
defended. “It’s true. She can’t lie anymore, not since that shock to the back
of her head.”

Nena made an O with her mouth. “That’s
a fun trait in a roommate.” Daniel snickered until she asked, “What were you
two whispering about behind my back?”

“He
likes
you but is too
chicken to ask you out. There may actually be a shrine to you in his room.”

Daniel turned red, and slugged Jez
in her bad arm. “Ouch! Watch it. You’ve been working out too much to do that
anymore.”

He fumbled several apologies.

Nena just said, “Interesting. Are
we going to eat out to celebrate your success?”

Jez shook her head. “I can’t; I’ve
got a new laptop to break in, but you two can still go.”

“Subtle,” Daniel complained
quietly.

“Okay,” Nena agreed. “But he’s
paying. I don’t have a positive balance in my checking yet. I’ll just touch up
my makeup, then we can go.”

Daniel was speechless. Jez just
opened her new laptop and smiled.