"Don't lecture me," he warned.

"I will lecture you. Has it crossed your mind that she may feel obligated to accept your advances?"

"What advances? Nothing happened."

"She can't decline your invitations. In her mind, you're putting her into a position where she must accept your overtures or risk being sent back to a hel ish planet where she might be put to death on arrival. You're putting her into a very difficult position."

He waved his hand at her. "Nothing. Happened. It wasn't that kind of dinner."

"Oh? What did you talk about?"

"Nothing. She asked about Castil a and then I asked her about her childhood."

"Venturo! Do you not see the writing on this wal ? She is a talented girl, smart, 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 actual y 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 exceptional y 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 final y.

"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, Castil a will kil 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 tel 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 wal faced the diagrid. The wal 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 wal 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 hal way, the bionet suit adhering to him like second skin. She ogled him quietly, looking through her eyelashes while pretending to drink from her cup.

Ven dropped a stack of pseudo paper next to her and landed on the couch. "I found you."

She almost panicked, but her shel was firmly in place and thick enough to withstand a probe. "I wasn't hiding."

"Yes, you were. Lights are off, your desk is organized, as if you've left. If it wasn't for your bag, I wouldn't know you were in the building."

"My desk is always organized."

He looked exhausted. The laugh lines around his eyes seemed more pronounced. His cheeks were withdrawn.

And yet he radiated a kind of magnetic sexual energy that made her watch him. Being in his presence was like having sex without ever approaching orgasm - she could watch and imagine, but he would never be hers and he would never want her the way she wanted him.

He sprawled on the couch, resting his head on the padded arm rest, straightened his legs, and winced.

Cramped. Clocking nearly eighty hours in the bionet in one week will do it to you. She'd done it before and it was unpleasant.

Ven nodded at the pseudopaper. "I found these."

Claire glanced at the sheets. The Quattrone Family quote.

"I know Lienne didn't approve this. Nor did she compile the data for the quote."

She didn't feel like lying. "How?"

"Lienne has a best friend, Fotina Heleni. When they were both sixteen, Deo Quattrone stood her up. They were at a party together, and he saw his ex-girlfriend in the crowd with another kid and made a giant scene. It got ugly. Lienne despises him and the whole family. If her hate were a plasma converter, she could launch a thousand spaceships into orbit."

Claire laughed. "Are you trying to hint that your aunt holds grudges?"

"I'm not hinting. I am saying it. So who helped you with these?"

She sighed. "Would it be so terrible if I had done them myself?"

"The quote shows a detailed knowledge of the bionet," he said. "Who is the co-conspirator, Claire? I promise I won't punish anyone. In fact, I may give this person a raise and unload the rest of the quotes on them. Although that would be a punishment in itself, I suppose."

Frustration boiled up in her. "You're right, Ven. A drone like me couldn't possibly understand the expense involved in structuring the spiral cel protection."

He focused on her. "You are not a drone. We've discussed that."

"And you never like to repeat yourself." She had to stop talking.

Ven sat up, propping himself on the armrest. "Why are you upset with me?"

Say nothing. Say nothing. Claire forced her voice to sound even. "I am not upset. I'm just tired."

"I get it," he said. "Unloading all of my work on your shoulders wasn't fair. But I have no choice. You can keep your helper a secret, if you wish. I'll find out eventual y anyway."

No, you won't. You can't find someone who doesn't exist.

"You're stil looking for your mystery woman?" she asked.

He nodded.

I'm sitting right here. "What's so important about her?"

He sat up. "Have you ever seen a silver shark?"

"No."

Ven reached for her tablet and pul ed up the console.

His fingers flew over the keys. A large digital screen ignited in the opposite wal . It was intense, deep blue, suffused with rays of pale green light, and she realized she was looking at the depths of the ocean.

Something stirred far in the distance. A hint of movement shifted the water.

A pale silver star winked in the distance.

Another ignited close by it.

Claire leaned forward.

More stars ignited and shimmered with nacre fire, shifting through the entire rainbow spectrum. A serpentine shape swam to her, graceful, beautiful, sheathed with silver scales and rippling with color. The sleek creature paused in front of the camera and coiled, displaying a multitude of wide fins bristling with spikes. There was something hypnotic in the way its body moved, sliding its coils through the water.

"This is what she was...?" Claire asked.

"Yes. It's a silver shark serpent off the Coral Coast.

Except she was more like this." Venturo tapped the tablet.

The sea serpent grew, swel ing, fil ing the screen. Her head sprouted ivory horns, tinted with intense electric azure. A mane of silver and blue sheathed her spine, flaring around her head. Some of her fins widened, turning into razor-sharp blades, others grew into wide wheels, rippling with iridescent rainbows. A line of pale blue lights ignited along the serpent's body. She gathered herself.