Kinsmen 01 - Silver Shark

efficient, and conscientious. If you keep pushing this, she may quit to escape. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find an admin who can actually tolerate you, Ven?"
    He stared at her, incredulous. "You didn't even want to hire her! I hired her."
    "However she came to work here, she is here now, she is doing exceptionally well, and I don't cherish the prospect of having to replace her."
    Venturo raised his hand. "Enough."
    "It's not fair to her, it's not -"
    "I said, enough!"
    The force of Ven's mind tore out. Lienne fell silent.
    They looked at each other.
    "Why are you wearing a biosuit at this hour?" she asked.
    He rubbed his face.
    Lienne checked her tablet. "The log says you've been logged into the bionet for the last thirty-five hours."
    "I've met a psycher," he said. "Young. Female. Grade A."
    "And?"
    "She was powerful."
    "How powerful?"
    Ven met her gaze. "She iced me."
    "Don't be ridiculous. Nobody has been able to ice you since you were sixteen years old..."
    He just looked at her.
    Lienne fell silent. "For how long?" she asked finally.
    "Six seconds."
    Lienne dropped into a chair.
    "Was she DDS?"
    He shook his head. "She iced me and took off. I traced her to a portable hub and the connection went dead."
    "You have to find her, Ven. If DDS gets a hold of a psycher who can ice you, Castilla will kill you."
    "Yes, who would you berate then?" He grimaced.
    "Don't be ridiculous," Lienne's tone was soft. "Find her."
    "I will."
    Lienne rose. "And Ven..."
    "What?"
    "About our previous conversation: there are ways to go about those things. Your mother knew this and so did your father ."
    Venturo blinked.
    "It's a bit extreme, but who will tell you no?" Lienne shrugged and left the office.
    Claire kept her haze firmly on her desk. Lienne's worries were misplaced. She could've told her that. The end of the conversation made no sense at all.
    Ven stepped out of the office. "Claire?"
    "Yes?" She forced a smile.
    "Clear my schedule for the rest of the week. Split my shift between Victorio, Rukah, and Daneb. I'm not available for anyone for anything unless it's an emergency."
    "I'll take care of it."
    He nodded, looked like he was going to say something else, and returned to his office instead.
    *** *** ***

    Claire sipped her tea. It was Friday, and she sat in a soft blue chair of the fourteenth floor recreation room. The room, shaped like a horseshoe, was positioned so the straight wall faced the diagrid. The wall was glass and sometimes Claire stood next to it, looking down the long sheer drop to the lobby. She liked to watch people, knowing that she was all but invisible.
    Today she just wanted solitude. She'd dimmed the glass wall to near darkness, shutting off the bright light of the afternoon streaming in through the solar panels of the diagrid until only the pale purple and blue mood lighting remained. Her head hummed. Being a replacement Venturo Escana was a tiring business.
    Claire took another sip of tea and checked the tab. Passion raspberry. Hmm. Delicious.
    It was thirty minutes past five. The building was mostly empty. The support personnel had gone home, eager to escape and start their weekend, with the exception of the psycher assistance unit. Both Rukah and Angelia were logged in, although Rukah was coming to the end of his shift and Angelia was just beginning hers.
    In the past week Claire had made more executive decisions than she cared to admit. Venturo spent every waking hour logged into the bionet. Attempting to reach him proved futile. He simply brushed her off. Lienne carried her own workload and the couple of times Claire consulted her, the older woman defaulted to "Ask Venturo."
    In the end she resolved most of the problems herself, under the banner of Ven's authority. If Lienne or he ever realized who had handled most of the arising problems, she would be fired on the spot for overstepping. Claire smiled to herself. Right now getting fired didn't seem overly tragic. Sure, she would have to find a new job, and her probation period had shrunk to mere six weeks instead of twelve, but it might be worth it.
    It would be worth it to be free of Ven. To be free of the fantasy that would never come to pass. She was too proud to spend the entirety of her life as his silent shadow, while he imagined her beating off the prospective assassins with her tablet.
    Ven's mind approached.
    Claire sipped her tea.
    He emerged from the shadowy hallway, the bionet suit adhering to him like second skin. She