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What felt like at least an hour passed before Ringer finally
interrupted.
"Hold on a minute, Valdon," he said, leaning forward to put his arm
on his knee. "What do you say now, Diana? Have you had enough, or
should he continue?"
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Tanderon by Sharon Green - Chapter 1
From the flaming ache in my backside I knew I'd had more than enough,
but how could I tell him? I lifted my head to look at him, and let my
desperation show through.
"Ringer, please - " I began, but his face was solid granite.
"Might as well get on with it," he told Val as he leaned back again.
"We could be here for hours."
"No!" I said as fast as possible, positive I could hear Val's arm
lifting into the air. They'd simply keep it up until I told them, so
it made no sense to take any more. Even if the security force
suddenly appeared in the room, the picture would show nothing but two
indignant adults teaching the brat in their charge some manners. I'd
lost, and I might as well admit it. But that other thing& "It's
pinned to the middle of the drapes in front of the vu-cast window,
low down on the left."
Val started to let me go, but Ringer snapped, "Keep her like that
until I check. She isn't known for her simon-pure honesty."
Val tightened his grip again while Ringer got out of the chair and
went to the drapes to begin the search, leaving me to pray as hard as
I could. Maybe he wouldn't find it. If he found it, maybe he wouldn't
understand. If he understood, maybe he wouldn't tell Val. If he told
Val, maybe Val would be less bothered than I expected& I let my head
drop as I ran out of maybes. I didn't have the chance of a weed in
Eden.
"Found it!" Ringer exclaimed at the drapes. "But wait a minute -
what's this?"
I stared at the carpeting and held my breath while Ringer looked at
what he'd found, but shouldn't have wasted the effort. He left the vu-
cast window with heavy steps, and walked close to wave a paper in my
face.
"That was a nice touch, Diana," he said, all granite again. "I'm
proud of you! I've got to admit it passed me right by."
"What is it?" Val asked in a puzzled voice while I closed my eyes.
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Tanderon by Sharon Green - Chapter 1
"Our girl is really good," Ringer growled, almost in a fury. "Even
without my credentials I might have managed to talk the security
people into letting me call the Council, so she didn't take any
chances. This is the origins section of your papers, and would have
been one of the first things they checked. When they found it missing
they'd have gotten a copy of it from the computer from when you first
registered here, and checked it out thoroughly.
"These papers are good because our people made them up carefully for
you, but they'd never stand up to the kind of inspection they'd get
from suspicious security people. As soon as the report came back that
you were unknown at your supposed place of origin, they'd put that
and her story together and decide they had slavers or pirates on
their hands. At that point we'd really be in for it. They'd sweat us
for days, and use every truth drug ever mixed to find out what we
were supposedly up to. I don't know about you, but only special drugs
work on an agent and I used to be an agent. That would really have
added the icing."
"I don't think your drugs would have worked on me either," Val said
in a very soft voice. "We're specially prepared for our jobs, too.
Are you finished with her yet?"
"I suppose so," Ringer growled, shoving the bulky set of credentials
into an inside pocket of his jacket. "You can let her up."
"I & don't & think & so," Val said slowly, and I knew without doubt
that he also looked down at me.
"What - are you going to do?" I asked unsteadily, very much afraid
that he intended to tell me how disappointed he was before letting me
up. Hearing it would be hard, but being held like that gave me no
choice at all.
"I'm going to finish the job I started, and this time do it right,"
he said, shifting where he sat to get a better grip on me. "My way of
applauding your effort, you might say."
"No, Val, please!" I blurted, appalled at the way he was reacting. He
should have been disillusioned enough to walk away, not interested in
punishing me! "I can't take any more of being treated like this!"
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Tanderon by Sharon Green - Chapter 1
"That's the whole idea, Diana," he said in the same soft voice. "It's
supposed to make you so eager to avoid a repetition of the treatment,
that the next time you get a bright idea you drop it without a second
thought. Let's see if it works."
"All right, I promise not to do it again," I said very quickly,
trying to find some way out of that corner. Strangely enough most of
the things I tried on Val seemed to backfire, and it was definitely
time to make an effort toward cutting my losses. "I'll even promise
to be good and listen to everything you say," I added, just to
sweeten the deal.
At that point I would have been willing to promise to turn inside
out, but I quickly learned that he wasn't equally willing to listen.
He started to apply that hairbrush again, only this time with more
enthusiasm than he'd been using. I was already sore from the first
dose, but it looked like he'd only been warming up.
"Ringer, make him stop!" I screamed, feeling every swat as it reached
me. "He's killing me!"
"Sorry, Diana, but nobody listens to me around here," he said with a
chuckle as he settled himself back in his chair. "If anyone should
know that, it's you. It's just too bad this idea didn't come up nine
years ago, when you first started to work for me. It would have saved
me a lot of trouble."
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