The Significant (27 page)

      
“I know,” Remus agreed. “I will talk to
Rayal. Perhaps he can discuss safety precautions with Kailynn and get her to
agree to an emitter chip. I don’t think we’ll be able to keep Isa away from
her.”

      
“And I’m going to call Paul,” Dr. Busen
said. “I don’t want her working herself up like that again.”

      
“That reaction surprised me,” Remus
murmured. “It means she’s been thinking about this for quite some time. She’s
already starting on the spiral that led to what happened five years ago.”

      
“I know,” Dr. Busen breathed. “I don’t
want you to worry, Remus. We’ll keep a very close eye on her. And if we can get
Kailynn to be proactive about her own safety in this manner, it will help Isa
immensely.” Dr. Busen hesitated. “Speaking of which,” he started slowly, “this
cannot be easy for you, Remus.”

      
“What?”

      
“Everything,” the doctor said. “You were
horribly affected by Colonel Amori as well.”

      
“I did not have to go through anything
like what she endured,” Remus whispered. “And, if you’ll remember, I had over a
year of weekly sessions with Paul.”

      
“Yes, I do recall,” Dr. Busen said. “But
now you are having to deal with Isa turning to someone else.”

      
Remus’ eyes dropped to the ground.

      
“This must pain you greatly,” Dr. Busen
whispered.

      
“You are confusing me with a human, Michael,”
Remus murmured.

      
“Forgive me,” Dr. Busen said with a
knowing smile. “I do forget that I am speaking with an Elite on occasion, since
you do not act like a typical Elite. But, then again, you never have.”

      
Remus glanced at the doctor.

      
“I better call Rayal and talk to him
before Isa wakes,” he said carefully. “I do not want to leave her for long.”

      
He began to turn when the doctor stopped
him.

      
“Remus,” he called, “please impress upon
Rayal the severity of the safety concerns with Gihron. We do not understand how
they operate.”

      
Remus was silent and still for a few
moments before he turned fully and walked back to the doctor.

      
“When we were at the Academy, and
learning about all the planets
not
in
the Crescent Alliance, our professors told us that there were two currencies on
Gihron—pride and blood. If Gihron pride is hurt, blood will spill. If Gihron
blood is spilt, pride will lead to revenge.” Remus glanced at the door to Isa’s
room. “There is no doubt in my mind that Gihron will exact revenge on Isa.
Because that is the way they operate.”

      
Kailynn could do nothing but pace around
her room for hours after she returned to Companion. Her mind was frantic. She
continued to scold herself, telling herself that she had no idea what she was
getting into and there was far more to everyone’s actions than she could ever
understand.

      
When her legs were tired, she sat on her
bed and found herself asleep almost instantly. She was exhausted, the stress of
the night before wearing down her last threads of energy.

      
She woke near dinner time and decided to
venture downstairs to grab something to ease the tight knot in her stomach.
When she entered the almost-silent dining hall, the silence became deafening.
Everyone turned to her, stopping their quiet conversations or looking up from
their tablets. Kailynn was frozen in the doorway, scanning the eyes in the
room.

      
Her heart began pounding. She was sure
that everyone knew of the attempt on Isa’s life, and it was possible that
everyone knew she was in the Elite’s home when the attack occurred. But the way
they were looking at her made her feel as though they already knew about her
relationship with Isa.

      
She held her head high and walked toward
the rations counter, ignoring the whispering that started around her.

      
When she reached the counter, she looked
over the packages, trying to think enough to pick something to eat.

      
However, a voice startled her.

      
“Jacyleen.”

      
She turned.

      
“We’re curious about something,” Amyn
said, smiling darkly, surrounded by her friends. “Why was a
fresh-out-of-the-ghetto girl like
you
in the Golden Elite’s home when she was attacked?”

      
“I was there on a job,” Kailynn said, her
voice dark and strong in an attempt to scare off the other Significants.

      
“A job, huh?” Brett said, his tone
disbelieving. “You weren’t booked for anything last night.”

      
“It was a private request,” Kailynn
growled, “in an attempt to avoid
this
kind of speculation. I was there with Tarah, the caretaker.”

      
“Seems a little suspicious, don’t you
think?”

      
Kailynn’s heart was starting to climb
into her throat again.

      
“Perhaps, she
wasn’t
there with the caretaker,” Jyun said, his eyes sharp on her.
“Perhaps, you were the reason our Golden Elite was attacked.”

      
Kailynn’s eyes shot wide.

      
“Are you
accusing
me?”

      
“Hey!” a deep voice said, walking to
them. Kailynn turned to Jak, relieved to see him, but also ready to start a
fist fight in the dining hall. “What’s all this about?”

      
“Jak, Jacyleen is trying to tell us that
she was booked with Golden Elite’s caretaker last night.”

      
“She was,” Jak said simply. “Because the
appointment was in Anon Tower, it was kept off-record for security reasons.” He
took Kailynn’s arm as he glared at the others in the room. “Remember your
place.”

      
He pulled Kailynn from the room. Even
though he had lied for her, Kailynn could not help but be worried. She thought
that no one would pay too much attention to the information that she had been
in the Golden Elite’s home when the assassination attempt occurred if she said
she was there for Tarah, but it only raised more suspicion.

      
Jak pulled her through the halls of
Companion to his office, closing the door and locking it behind them.

      
“Jak—”

      
“Quiet,” he snapped. “You have put
everyone in danger.”

      
“I didn’t mean to!”

      
“What were you doing there?” Jak growled,
walking around his desk and grabbing a pack of cigarettes. “Are you
insane
? It was dangerous enough to have
you over there when Venus and the Silver Elite were on board. Now you’re going
over there whenever you fucking please?!”

      
“No!” Kailynn protested. “Jak, it’s not
like that.”

      
“You did not check in night before last,
so you were out all night. The next time I hear from you, you are being brought
back by the head of Syndicate Intelligence after an assassination attempt on
the Golden Elite. What the hell were you doing there?”

      
“Look,” Kailynn said, raising her hands
peacefully, though she kept her eyes averted, letting her exhaustion show in an
attempt to disguise her lie, “I went and saw my brother,” she said. “He was
doing better, but it’s still difficult to see him like this. So I went to get
some air. I was walking around when I got a call from Tarah, the caretaker.”

      
“You shouldn’t be walking around,” Jak
said, rolling his eyes. “It raises suspicion.”

      
“The point is, I went to spend some time
with Tarah. She was so good to me when I was staying there that I felt like it
would be nice to spend some time with her. We were having dinner when Elite Isa
was attacked. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

      
Jak looked her over, unconvinced.

      
“For your sake, I hope you’re telling the
truth.”

      
He lit his cigarette and shook his head.

      
“Somehow, running this company has become
more difficult since I acquired you,” he murmured. He grabbed a box on his desk
and extended it to her. “Here.”

      
“What is it?”

      
“A package addressed to you,” he said,
shrugging. “There is no name on it other than yours.”

      
Kailynn carefully took the light, small package.

      
“It might be best if you stay clear of
the others for a while,” Jak advised. “I’m going to clear your schedule until
this blows over.”

      
Kailynn merely nodded.

      
“You may go.”

      
Kailynn returned to her room, her hunger
forgotten. She opened the package and was surprised to see a phone. She stared
at it for several long moments, sure that the phone without a message could
only mean something ominous. She picked it up carefully, trying to tell herself
that there was no reason to be afraid of something as trivial as a phone, but
she was in such a high state of anxiety, she could not help but worry.

      
She pressed the button on the phone’s
screen she knew to be the power button and then tried to think of all the times
she had seen nobles and Isa use their phones to see if she could figure out how
to make it work.

      
Pressing a mechanism on the side released
the tiny disk that acted as the ear piece. With the disk in her hand, the
screen lit up with a message.

      
Call
?

      
Below the question was a name. She kicked
herself again for being unable to read. She could not even make out the name on
the screen.

      
Hesitantly, she hit the green button and
placed the disk in her ear. A monotone beeping sounded as she struggled to put
the earpiece in correctly. A voice came through the phone before she could
figure it out and she had to contend with holding the disk as close to her ear
as possible.

      
“Rayal Teleta.”

      
“Rayal?” Kailynn repeated. “It’s, uh,
it’s Kailynn.”

      
“I see you received the phone I sent.”

      
“
You
?”

      
“Yes,” Rayal responded. “I figured it
best that we have a way to reach you directly.”

      
“I don’t know how this works,” Kailynn
admitted, pressing the disk into her ear. Rayal chuckled lightly.

      
“You get used to the discomfort after a
while.” He sighed heavily. “Kailynn, you and I need to discuss some things.”

      
“I was worried you were going to say
that.”

      
“It’s far too late now, and it has been a
very trying day,” he continued. “Tomorrow morning at ten, I will come by
Companion and pick you up.”

      
“…and go where?”

      
“My office,” Rayal said. “You are not in
immediate danger. There is no need to be suspicious.”

      
“So you say,” Kailynn muttered. “It feels
like this is getting out of control.”

      
“No, not yet,” Rayal assured. “Everyone
who knows is working very hard to keep this a secret. We’re doing damage
control on what happened last night. I understand that everyone has been
warning you about the dangers, and they are right. But we are going to do our
best to protect both of you. That is why it is imperative we speak tomorrow.”

      
Kailynn was silent for several long
moments.

      
“Okay,” she finally whispered.

      
She slept in sporadic periods that night,
waking up with night terrors of Officials banging down her door, there to kill
her. The night terrors took their toll on her sleep, but she was too exhausted
from the previous night that she managed to fall immediately back to sleep
every time her dreams woke her.

      
When she did wake and dress for the day,
she could only sit on her bed, fiddling with the phone and watching the time
pass on her clock. She did not want to go downstairs, worried that she would be
confronted with glares and whispers of other Significants.