Chương 73: Chapter 72: Exotic Partner Management

They will tell you the danger is the traffickers. The traffickers are the end of the process. It begins with a jealous person who feels that something rare has ended up with the wrong owner. - Tomasz Wręczycki, Area 3 Task Force Supervisor Forty minutes in, the virtual board had more striked lines on it than clean ones. Glasses had opened it through his interface and pushed access out to both of them, so they could see it and collaborate in real time.

"Starting with what's not in our hands," he looked at Kara.

"We can't control who saw you come in. Four minutes of walking, maybe two hundred people - half the second and third years would know by now and the other half would know by tomorrow. So hiding them is off the table."

"Agreed."

"We can't control whether somebody works out what they are, either. Lifesciences has the same reference library I do, and there are people in our year who'd enjoy the puzzle. Even if they don't find out they're exotic, they will know they are very rare for sure, considering that they won't be able to find them in the library." He struck another line.

"Which leaves us with managing the inevitable attention." On the floor, Vixen had Pip held up above her at arm's length, and Pip had both hands closed round her thumbs and was chirping at her.

"Don't drop her," Kara commented.

"I have never dropped an animal in my life." Vixen lowered Pip onto her chest, where Pip started going through her hair with the thoroughness of a Task Force officer. Kara looked at the virtual board.

"Two things happen from here," he said.

"Either the story gets told by whoever tells it loudest, or we tell it first."

"People will want to hear it right from the source."

"Exactly. We need to control the narrative. I want to put out a version that's mostly true and dull enough that people stop repeating it after a fortnight." Glasses set his elbows on his knees.

"Go on."

"I spent the summer on a PfP placement. That's on my record, anyone can look it up." Kara counted it off.

"Vixen's done a placement in a wildlife integration research group. We've both been visibly competent in Lifesciences for a year. You understand interfaces better than anyone in our batch. Three second-years with three unusual partners is a story that invites people to speculate and maybe try their luck. Three second-years running a sanctioned study is a story that would not only bore them, it would make them think twice about getting too bold." Glasses looked thoughtful.

"A study, huh," he said finally.

"Yep, a continuation of our placements if you will, a combined project. Ongoing, supervised, and boring. The PfP arranged Pip's transfer, the paperwork already exists."

"That doesn't fix the entire problem, though." Glasses said.

"You understand the problem isn't just curiosity, right? There's about a dozen exotics on this planet. Three of them are now in one hostel room. There will be people in this university who look at that and feel envious, that they weren't the ones who were chosen for this study. There's also the fact that this is gonna be a long, long study."

"It doesn't fix it," Kara said.

"But it will make them think thrice before doing anything. Somebody who's merely jealous will take their shot against three students. Very few, if anyone, would risk going against the PfP and a couple of other organizations. It would buy us enough time, at the very least till the end of this semester. It's almost a guarantee that someone would try their hand by then. But this way, it won't be too many someones. And when it does happen, we need to make an example out of them so that it doesn't happen again."

Glasses was quiet for a moment, then he added the plan in the board.

"It holds," he said.

"It's not perfect, but this is a lot better than letting the year's rumour supply come from whoever was standing outside the library at two o'clock." He frowned.

"But there is another complication."

"What?"

"The Animal Affairs Committee." Glasses grimaced.

"They are going to hear about this and want to be part of it inside a week. And if we shut them out they'll go looking for their own explanation, which puts us back where we started, except now with an offended committee doing the looking."

"That is a problem."

"So someone has to manage them." Neither of them said anything for a second. Then they both turned round. Vixen had Pip sitting on her stomach and was holding one enormous ear out sideways to look at the inside of it.

"Vix. Opinions."

"Hm? Yeah, whatever you two decide." She let the ear go. It sprang back.

"You're the brains of the operation. I'm just the pretty gal who loves animals. And knows how to talk to people." Kara and Glasses shared a look.

"What," she added, when the silence went on.

"Don't look at me like that. I did hear what you guys were discussing. The important bits anyway. Who do you think is gonna be doing the talking and "controlling the narrative"? You guys?" She sat up and turned Pip round to face them.

"Somebody's got to sell that story in the cafeteria and talk to the Animal Affairs Comminute. Is it going to be the one who's had more conversations with devices than people, or the one whose last conversation with a stranger was to thank a shuttle driver?"

"Ahem." Glasses found something on the floor suddenly very interesting. Kara looked at Waggy for support. Waggy stood up, walked up to Vixen and sat down next to her. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Well, in my defense-""Yeah, no, don't try. I'll do all the talking, alright. The whole controlling the narrative and the committee both, and you two will stay out of my way." She was grinning now, petting Waggy.

"I know Adaeze from the senior batch in the Animal Affairs Committee, and the current batch rep owes me for helping him with last year's Lifesciences project. So yeah, I've got this. If anyone asks you anything, just smile and wave." Kara and Glasses looked at each other, shrugged and nodded.

"Good. Just smile and wave, boys. Just smile and wave," Vixen said, and went back to Pip's ear. They spent the next few minutes simply catching up and watching their partners. Pip had worked her way round the room twice, been removed from the shelf three times, and had finally taken possession of the top of the wardrobe along with a sealed component tray, which she held with both feet.

"That's sealed," Glasses said. Pip regarded him.

"Fine. Trade." He picked up a bent visor arm he had been meaning to throw out, held it up in one hand, and put the other out flat underneath. Pip looked at the visor arm. She looked at the tray. She dropped the tray into his palm, took the arm, turned it over twice, and put one end in her mouth.

"Hmm," Glasses observed.

"Maybe I'm not as bad at this as I thought." When he turned round from putting the tray back, she came down off the wardrobe and onto his shoulder. Glasses froze.

"She's on me."

"She is indeed," Kara confirmed.

"What do I do?"

"Nothing," said Vixen, without looking up.

"She's decided you're her new favorite toy. Congratulations." Glasses stood there with a small pink animal chewing a broken visor arm on his shoulder and just looked around like a lost toddler. Pip abandoned the visor arm halfway through and went back down the desk to find a dead handset. She turned it over, got two fingers into the seam where the casing met, and drew out a bent sliver of metal. The handset lit up.

"Huh," Glasses said. He picked it up and turned it over.

"I've been trying to work out how to get that out without taking the whole casing apart." Pip looked pleased with herself, and looked up at him. Glasses tentatively reached out and she leaned in to the touch. Glasses petted her gently, a small, contented smile on his face.

"She's soft." Kara and Vixen were both looking at him.

"What?" Neither of them said anything.

"Look, it's too early," Glasses said, giving them a knowing look.

"I know that's what you're both waiting for, so, yes, I've thought about it and it's just too early. She came off a bond eleven days ago and it hurt her. She needs time before anybody asks her for another one. I also need time to see if I really can take care of her. I don't want to get into a commitment, especially a lifelong commitment, unless I know I can do my bit."

"That's a good instinct," Vixen said.

"You can start as friends, get comfortable, really get to know each other. You'll both know when the time is right." Kara nodded.

"Fair enough." The subject selections for this semester took longer. Both Kara and Vixen looked at Glasses.

"Alright, I know the two of you haven't read up about it," he sighed.

"Second year is specialisation. First semester is practicals only, in two specializations you can choose now. The specializations have to be from the subjects you chose last semester, but it can be one from each or both from the same subject." He stood up and started pacing around the room, Pip making herself comfortable on his shoulder.

"The part that many people ignore is this - Your performance in the practicals earns you merit. In the second semester, you are allowed to go on missions. What the merit from this semester does is unlock different tiers in the mission board. The tier you can access is set by the merit you're carrying. Of course, there are ways to earn merits in the second semester too, particularly through the missions."

"So the missions just award more merits?" Vixen asked.

"Nope, that's the best part." Glasses stopped pacing and turned round.

"Apart from merits, depending on the tier of the mission, it rewards things from items to credits to anything really. The highest tier missions offer some really good rewards from what I've heard." Kara and Vixen sat up straight. Waggy and Vitaly looked at them, trying to figure out what caught their attention, and then promptly went back to sleep.

"And merit is based on how well we do in the practicals?"

"That's right, it's performance based."

"Then we're grinding the first semester."

"You bet," Glasses said happily.

"So better choose your specializations carefully." The room went quiet for a moment, all of them browsing their interfaces. Vixen rolled onto her front.

"Symbiotics and Beast Ecology for me."

"Symbiotics?" Kara looked at her.

"It's new this year, it's the bond as an actual discipline. Should be interesting. Also-" she nodded at Glasses and Pip, "- I have a feeling this room's going to need somebody who's studied it formally rather than somebody who's read three books and has opinions."

"Cool, I'm in for symbiotics too. Now that we're done hiding, time to find out more about the bond," Kara said.

"Yeah, I thought you might be interested in it too."

"And combat arts for me as the second. Umbrella and chain dart... Assuming I can find someone to teach me." Vixen's head came up.

"You're keeping the dart? You haven't touched it all summer, and last time I watched you use it you nearly took your own ear off."

"Hey - that was just the one time. And it's no reason to drop it."

"That sounds exactly like a reason to drop it and take something you're good at."

"I'm running it past my counsellor later in the evening anyway," Kara said.

"As you know, selections have to be locked with them, so I'll take his opinion on it as well. I'll also take him through the exotic animals plan at the same time and see what he thinks." Both of them stopped.

"You're going to walk a faculty member through the plan?" Glasses said.

"Today? The plan that involves implying institutional oversight we don't actually have?"

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Vixen asked.

"Who is your counsellor?"

"Uh... Mr. Tamba, Narak Tamba." Neither of them said anything, and it went on slightly too long.

"Of course," Glasses said.

"Of course the Chairperson of the University and the Head of the Area Ruling Council is your counsellor. Sure. Why not. Next you're going to tell me your dad's an S grade Head of the PfP or something."

"What? No." It came out faster than Kara intended.

"They're perfectly - uh. Average people. I think." Vixen's head tilted.

"You think?"

"I haven't seen them in a while."

"How long is a while?" Kara did not answer straight away.

"A few years. Around four years to be precise. I... I went into isolation training for a while," he said.

"Cut all communications for the duration, no distractions. When I came out and turned everything back on, I could no longer reach them." He looked down.

"They were just... gone. There was no real investigation and by that time, the trail was weeks cold. And nobody I asked had any idea what happened to them. From the interface, I know they're still alive, but they're not somewhere I can reach." The room was quiet for a moment. Then Glasses crossed the room and put a hand on his shoulder, and left it there. Vixen came round the other side and gave him a side hug.

They stayed like that for about two seconds before Waggy hit all three of them at knee height, rubbing himself on them. Vitaly came in behind him, decided this was a game, and jumped onto Vixen's chest, which took her down onto the bed and Kara half with her. Pip came off Glasses' shoulder onto his head and stayed there, hanging on, chirping furiously at the whole arrangement. Waggy decided to jump onto Kara, not letting Vitaly get ahead of the competition.

"Get - Vitaly, you enormous -""He thinks you're being attacked."

"I'm being attacked now." Kara found himself laughing, on his back, with a hyena's face pressed against his ear, and when he sat up all three of them were smiling and the room had come back down. He had considered whether to tell them about Ghilim or his grandparents. But it was too much for one day. Baby steps. Soon, he thought, and stood up, and reached for the umbrella.

"Back before the cafeteria shuts. If anyone asks tonight -""Just go." Vixen smiled and waved at him.