Cassandra Kresnov 04: 23 Years on Fire by Joel Shepherd Page A

with a short cut, military style. God knew how these cosmetics were decided, the ethnicity of appearance and names. GIs had to fit in to the regular population, and the regular population of nearly all colonial worlds, League and Federation alike, was racially diverse.
    But it was always amusing when Federation media assumed she could speak Russian, or could name more European classical composers than Indian ones.
    “How did you find me?” Eduardo asked finally.
    “You’re about a kilometer from the Grand Council Congress,” she told him. “This whole neighbourhood is new—this park, the buildings, streets, everything, less than a year since it was all opened. And of course, it’s all wired with surveillance.” She paused, peering at him more closely. “But I think you knew that.”
    He moved, and with a twitch a pistol was in her hand, down in her lap, angled up at his neck. Eduardo kept moving, slowly, and stretched an awkward kink.
    “I like the moonlight,” Eduardo explained. Sandy frowned. There was no silver light from the moon tonight. She didn’t want to look up to see, and take her eyes off Eduardo, but a quick uplink calendar check confirmed her observation. The moon had set two hours ago.
    “I’m told you came from the League,” Sandy tried. “Why did you come here?”
    “Rinni and Pasha.”
    Sandy frowned. “Who?”
    “I came for Rinni and Pasha. Came to see them.”
    Sandy opened her mouth to ask further, but was interrupted by Singh. “ Sandy, Rinni and Pasha are a kids’ TV show. My kids watch them all the time. ”
    “Eduardo,” Sandy said carefully, “are you telling me you came all the way to Callay for a kids’ TV show?”
    Eduardo wasn’t really responding to her. Just sitting, and gazing at the park, and lights of tall buildings that rose beyond the trees. She didn’t think it was an act. This GI wasn’t entirely there. There were as many possible reasons why as with a regular human.
    “ Who are Rinni and Pasha? ” Sandy silently formulated to Singh.
    “ They’re friends. A boy and a girl, they go to school together. It’s funny, like all kids shows, but the idea is that they’re just friends, but of course they’re really more than that. You know, teenage romantic tension. ”
    “ Yeah. ” Well, she’d heard of it. And to Eduardo, “Why do you like Rinni and Pasha, Eduardo?”
    An uplink activated. A gentle touch on the local net, a contact on her barriers. Attached was a tiny little picture file, far too small to hold some kind of code bomb. Sandy accepted it, and a picture opened upon her vision. It was Eduardo, and a girl. A GI, Sandy guessed, by the look of her. They had an arm around each other and looked cheerful, posing for the picture.
    “She’s very pretty,” said Sandy. It was redundant, since nearly all GIs were pretty, but it seemed the right thing to say. “Who is she?”
    “She’s Pasha,” said Eduardo. “I’m Rinni.”
    “Oh.” Sandy’s heart began to thump. It wasn’t excitement. Cold dread, more like it. Something here just felt very wrong. “Eduardo, where is Pasha now?”
    “They were going to take her.” He took a deep breath. The breath shuddered, with obvious emotion. “It’s not good when they take you away. I’m here now.”
    “You came from New Torah, didn’t you?” Sandy pressed. “Did they send you to Callay? Did they take your friend, your Pasha, and make you come to Callay? Did they threaten to do something to her if you didn’t?”
    “He wants to kiss her,” said Eduardo, very sadly. “He wants to kiss her, but he can’t. You know?”
    “Eduardo,” Sandy pressed urgently. “I’m a GI like you. I came from the League. I belong here now, and I have many friends. They can be your friends, too. Would you like that?” She took a risk, and placed her non-gun hand on his arm. “This can be your home too, if you want.”
    He turned and looked at her for the first time. His stare was unfocused, but not stupid.