Betsy hung up. “Go up to the ship, shower and soak. Come back for breakfast. I’ll get this meeting arranged.” She knew she sounded annoyed. But someone in New York was about to be much more annoyed.
Viera gathered an outfit, grabbed her coffee, then went to the panel and requested a direct transmit to Thorn’s room on the Ziner. Thorn went with her.
Once they were gone, Betsy found the number for Orson Mard, the head of the government department Juk worked in. His boss’s boss. Or was there another layer? Didn’t matter, he’d make sure Juk learned how things worked.
“Hello?” Orson’s deep voice came through the phone.
“Orson? It’s Betsy.”
“Betsy! My friend. It’s been too long. Why don’t you call me more often?” He sounded genuinely happy.
“Well, you always assign new pups to be my point-people. Why don’t you give me someone I don’t have to train?” She huffed in frustration.
“You’re my best trainer, dear. Have been for years. A few years with you and I have the best international agents a department can ask for.”
She grumbled. “That’s not my job, Orson. And the last two you’ve given me are the worst. I called Juk, told him I need to meet today. I said he could have one or two hours. He said to call through proper channels next time, and we could meet next week Thursday.”
Orson scoffed. “Does the boy know it’s Monday and that’s a week and a half away?”
“I don’t know.”
“How important is this?”
Betsy rubbed her forehead. “In a level of one to five, it’s about a twenty-seven.”
He sighed. “Okay, meet in the main conference room in an hour and a half.”
“Sounds perfect. Will you be there?”
“No, I’m in Maine. I can’t get to the office in that time.”
Betsy had explained her situation to him several times, but he didn’t want to transport. “Okay, I’ll let you know of the outcome, but I’m not holding my breath. This point-person isn’t worthy of my time. You need to find someone better.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll put it on my to-do list.”
***
Betsy and Viera walked into the government building just over an hour later. There was a desk blocking the stairs and elevator with two security officers. Betsy went to the first officer and gave their names, and they each showed their IDs. They were waved through to the elevator.
When they got to the correct floor, they headed to the room. They found only Juk waiting for them. Betsy clenched her jaw shut to avoid showing any other reaction at seeing only the young pup waiting for them.
He stood with a smile. “Ms. Doeth, lovely to see you. I wanted to apologize for any misunderstanding. I didn’t understand when you stated you wanted to meet today that you meant today-today, and not, soon-today.”
One of her brows rose. “For the record, when I say today, I never mean ‘soon.’ I mean now.”
They all sat, and Betsy wondered if getting a root canal would be less annoying and more productive.
Chapter 26 - School Yard Antics
Viera
As the elevator zoomed up, Viera massaged her temples. Between depleting her magic and a heavy guilt at not being able to save Juniper, Viera felt dizzy and a bit nauseous. Both the space station and Abritos had different numbers of hours in a day, and she wasn’t sure how many days her body thought she’d been away. She knew what the calendar said the date was and what the date had been when she’d left: two weeks. According to the people on Earth, she’d been gone for two weeks. With the weird different time frames, her body didn’t know what it felt.
The elevators dumped them out into a waiting room with a stern looking woman in her thirties sitting behind a raised desk. She sat in front of a wall with the words Department of Interstellar Coexistence and Knowledge Sharing. The last time Viera had come, she’d been so nervous, she hadn’t really thought about this department or its name. More than that, they’d been sent to a spare conference room three floors down, apparently not important enough for the main room.
Betsy plastered on a smile and walked past the woman.
The guard stood, then her eyes widened as she recognized my friend. “Pillar Doeth. Welcome, I’ll bring you your favorite tea.” Her gaze swung to Viera. “Do you also like chamomile?”
Viera smirked, realizing not everyone was as vapid as the two she’d met last time. “That would be great.”
Before they went any further, Viera reached out and touched Betsy’s arm. “Department of Interstellar Coexistence and Knowledge Sharing?”
A laugh burst out of Betsy. “One of the better names I’ve come up with, don’t you think?”
“DICKS? You named this department DICKS?”
“Well, I’m often working with them, why not name the place after them?”
They both laughed as they made their way to the conference room. Juk had a condescending smile on his face as they walked in. Viera wasn’t sure what Betsy had said to the man to get this meeting to happen, but there they were in the government building in downtown New York with the man himself.
“So, Juk, you made it?” Betsy actually sounded calm. Viera wasn’t sure how she did it. Though Viera could keep a poker face when teaching her second-graders and Juk didn’t seem that much older, the images of Juniper’s ship exploding kept playing in her mind, and it was hard to not be emotional.
They all sat and the woman who guarded the entrance brought their tea. Juk looked confused, but Betsy just smiled and thanked her.
Seeming to want to control the room, Juk’s smile widened. “You mentioned this was important. What’s happening in our wide world that you feel this meeting had to happen today?” His brow furrowed and he flipped through his notes. “Didn’t Viera head back to that space station a couple of weeks ago? Does it have to do with that? A paper report or an email would’ve been fine, you know. You do understand email, right?”
Betsy leaned back, her eyes steely. “When Viera and I were here last, we warned you that there was a krottel ship near Earth’s space—”
