Kinsmen 01 - Silver Shark

identify emotions in my line of work." She smiled. "It keeps you breathing longer. So why distaste?"
    Claire looked at the flowers. "You reminded me that I am an outsider."
    "Oh? Where are you from?"
    "Uley."
    "So how did you and Ven meet?"
    "He hired me." Claire closed her mouth, hoping to leave it at that, but the older woman watched her with a rapt expression. Silence stretched.
    "It started with the war ending," Claire said. "I worked as a secretary, so I was viewed as civilian..."
    Twenty minutes later, when she was done explaining, Meli smiled. "I'm glad you and Ven found each other. Celino and I married late by kinsmen standards and Ven is almost as old as Celino was when we married. ."
    Claire looked into her empty wine glass. "I think you might have an incorrect impression. Ven and I are not a couple. I'm his admin."
    Meli sipped her wine. "I see. There go my hopes. It's impolite to listen in on a conversation that doesn't concern you."
    Claire drew back. Something rustled in the garden below. A small tan hand clasped one of the wooden columns supporting the roof. The second hand joined the first and a child pulled himself up on the balcony rail. He was tan, with Celino's grey eyes and Meli's chocolate brown hair. A streak of dried blood marked his temple and his left forearm sported a long knife cut.
    "How did it go?" Meli asked.
    The boy raised his face. "I kicked his ass."
    "Good. Go wash up. Your father will expect full account at dinner."
    The boy ducked inside.
    "Neighbor kid problems," Meli said.
    "Yours is a strange culture," Claire said. "Beautiful, vibrant, and passionate, but also savage."
    Meli stretched "It's the planet. It heats our blood and makes us do crazy things. Resistance is futile, Claire. It will claim you as its own sooner or later."
    The bionet jungle flashed in Claire's mind. "I think it already has."
    When Celino and Ven emerged from the study, they moved to the dining room. They had dinner, a delicious parade of perfectly seasoned dishes, during which the ten-year-old Ramiro Carvanna had to describe in excruciating detail every moment of his fight with twelve-year-old Soldano Chellini. The Sangori problem was discussed briefly - the always prosperous family had made a number of costly investments that failed. The firm was teetering on the brink of collapse and the establishment of the bionet servers was Savien's desperate attempt to project an image of thriving success and drum up more business. Celino pounced on the opportunity as if he'd smelled blood in the water. She couldn't quite follow the intricacies of their conversation, but if everything went their way, Carvanna and Escana would own most of Sangori by the quarter's end.
    Ven and Carvanna caught up on the latest gossip. Someone married someone else. Someone's sister left the planet. Someone had engineered a short-life, weapon-grade plant virus and nuked the rival's garden with it. Names floated by her. She could've used her training to memorize them, but she didn't bother. What was the point? They were too vivid and too bright, too familiar with each other, and she simply faded in the background.
    Later Claire found herself back on the balcony, standing at the rail, watching the last splashes of sunset as the star rolled behind the gardens. Ven came looking for her. At first, she ignored his approaching mind, then she ignored his footsteps, then he leaned on the rail next to her, and she couldn't ignore him any longer.
    "Do you like them?" he asked.
    "They are very pretty," she said, surveying the flowers.
    "I meant Celino and Imelda."
    Why did it matter if she liked them? If she said no, what would it change? "They are wonderful hosts."
    He leaned closer, searching her face for something. "Did you not like being here? You didn't say more than two words at dinner."
    She wanted to grab him and shake him. Why? Why would he bring her here to this little paradise and show her what she could never have? Why introduce her to a perfect woman she could never be? It was cruel. "I'm just a little tired," she said with a small smile.
    Ven turned, leaning with his back on the rail. "Was someone rude to you?"
    "Not at all. Your friends were perfectly courteous."
    "Then what is it?"
    "It's nothing, Venturo. I am just a little tired."
    He exhaled. "This would be so much easier if you were a psycher."
    She pushed from the rail. "Well, I am not." And even if I was, I would lock you out of my mind.
    His mind reached out, hovering next to