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You will receive a commendation from Galactic Services for risking your job
and contacting us. The Minaran will be re-
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turned to its rightful home, and the guilty parties will stand trial for
this."
Candice's gaze caught Bern's. She opened her mouth as if to speak to Bern. but
then another officer called her away.
Beth watched for another moment, saluting the little Minaran mentally. "At
least," she whispered, "one of us is free."
viii
The Inlergalactic Police took only three hours to remove the
Minaran and clear the lobby. Hotel workers dismantled the cu-
bicle, and by afternoon, the space housed a banquet room again.
Belh watched through a double-paned window as a shuttle took the woman who had
kidnapped the Minaran away.
Maybe the little creature would go back to its family.
Maybe it would find someone to love it, to hold it, to give it the comfort it
needed ...
A hand touched her shoulder. Beth jumped. She turned and saw Candice standing
behind her, face ashen and worn with the stress of the day.
"My office," Candice said quietly.
Bern followed her in there. The normally neat office had papers strewn about
Screens on all four walls bunked with waiting messages. In addition to the
strain of talking with the
GLASS WALLS 151
officers, Candice's neural net was probably going crazy she had all her
superiors to answer to.
She closed the office door and slumped in her chair. Beth remained standing.
She didn't know what Candice could do, but she would do something. Still, out
there, the little Minaran was going home.
"I saw your face when they came in," Candice said. "What were you thinking?"
Beth knew better than to play dumb. She knew about the other things they had
installed in her net, in the pain centers, things they promised to remove when
her contract was up. "I
knew they wouldn't believe me, even with all the evidence in front of them.
That woman was rich, wasn't she? Rich enough to have the entire hotel at her
feet."
"So you used my name."
Beth shrugged. "I figured you'd get in trouble otherwise, if someone else
reported the violation. This is the first time I've ever seen the hotel party
to such a big crime."
"And you have the right to place a moral judgment on the rest of us? Did this
come from your experience on the penal ship?" Candice didn't move, but her
words had the force of blows. Beth resisted the urge to duck.
"I know what it's like to be trapped, with no escape," Beth said. "Like that
Minaran. There's no worse thing in the world."
Candice remained quiet for a long time, refusing to meet
Beth's gaze. Beth continued to stand, unmoving, until
Candice signaled that it was all right.
"You know I can never offer you a position of authority here again," Candice
said.
Beth nodded. "I could never exercise authority," she said-
She wouldn't punish or she would be too harsh. She would run in fear of some
creatures and worship others. And she would never, ever, allow a creature to
imprison another, no matter how much money was involved.
Candice sighed. "Leave me now," she said. "I have a mess to clean up."
IX
Beth spent the next three days in her room, leaving only to eat. She received
no summons from Roddy, no word from
152 Kristine Kathryn Rusch
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Candice. The other staff would not speak to her, and even the robotic units
kept their distance. If Candice had wanted a way to punish Beth, this was it.
Finally, someone knocked on her door. Beth grabbed a robe, and sent her bed up
to the center of the room. Then she let the door slide open. Willis was there,
bouncing from foot to foot, slapping papers against his hand.
"Orders from above," he said. "You're supposed to come with me."
Beth stared at him for a moment, heart hammering. The last time, they had
dragged her away from John, still naked, kicking and screaming. The time
before that, they had taken her off the planet with the other children,
promising them that they would be taken care of. They were taken care of, all
right. Analyzed, tried, viewed galaxy-wide, then sent on sep-
arate penal ships to parts unknown.
She hadn't done anything illegal. The hotel had no right to send her away.
"Get dressed," he said, "and pack up. It's okay. I'll turn my back."
His smile faded as she still refused to move. "It's okay," he repeated.
'They're setting you free."
He handed her the papers, and she saw her name all over them, with "completed"
stamped across the pages. She sepa-
rated them out, ran her fingers across them, wondering, wish-
ing, it was all true.
"You need a proper net," he said. "If you had a proper net, you wouldn't have [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]