So Seely did. "Are you hearing me?" Seely asked Florian.
"Yes," Florian said.
"The Instructor is under reprimand. The amount of explosives allotted exceeded the strength of the set-up. The Hostage attempted a distraction according to his orders, while the team inside was Trapping the door. The Hostage doesn't know what happened at that point. He took out one team member. Apparently the two working with the door had set their kit close to them, probably right between them, and possibly the distraction, or the third boy falling against them—dropped the charge they were working with into two others they had in the kit."
"They didn't start Trapping the door they were behind until we got in past the Minder," Catlin said, walking close to the bed. "They thought they could get out and score points, because there was a third team coming in at our backs. They didn't tell us that. They were working with the Enemy and they were supposed to hit us from behind. But they were sticking to the Instructor's timetable and we got past the Minder too fast. . . ."
"Too fast?" Florian murmured, with a flutter of his eyes. "That's crazy. What was I supposed to do?"
"... so the other team tried to improvise and tried to Trap the door when they knew we were ahead of what they expected. And the Hostage followed his orders, kicked the guard, but the guard fell into the two at the door and they dropped the charge right into their kit. Wasn't your fault. We couldn't fire into the room because of the Hostage. He was supposed to be on our side and cause themtrouble. It was a double-team exercise. So it was the set-up that went wrong."
"You didn't Trap the door," Seely asked Florian.
"I can't remember," Florian said. Then, blearily: "No. I wouldn't. No reason. Not in the plan."
"You didn't," Catlin said. "I was covering your back, in case the third Enemy was behind. You were going to blow the door and gas the room, remember?"
Florian grimaced as if it hurt. "I can't—remember. It's just gone. I don't even remember it blowing."
"Happens," Seely said, arms folded, just like Catlin. Ari sat there in a straight chair and listened. And wondered at Seely. "You may never get those seconds back. The shock jolted you. But you're all right. It wasn't your fault."
"You don't put your charges—" Florian said thickly, "under where you're working."
"You don't exceed your building limits with the charges in a training exercise, either, or set up a double-team course with a Murphy-factor in it like that in a dead-end room. You exceeded expectations. The other team fell below. End report. You'll be back in training next week. They won't."
"Yes, ser," Florian said quietly. "I'm sorry about them, though."
"He needs tape," Seely said, looking at Ari. "He shouldn't feel that way. That'll give him trouble in future."
That made her mad; and shouldn't. Seely was trying to help. "I'll decide," she said, afraid he was going to say that to uncle Denys too.
Seely nodded, very short, very correct. "I have business," he said, "if that's all, sera. You're doing everything right here."
"Thank you, Seely. Very much. Tell uncle Denys I might be over here for supper."
"Yes, sera."
Seely left.
Catlin walked over to the chair, arms still folded, and sat down.
"Catlin," Ari said. "Did youget hit?"
"Not much," Catlin said. "Most of my end of the hall was still standing." She flexed her left arm and wrist. "Sprain from moving the blocks. That's all."
"I went too fast,"Florian said, like he was still a little tranked. "That's crazy. It was an old-model Minder."
"They made the mistake," Catlin said firmly, definite as the sun in the sky. "We didn't."
Ari bit her lip. Floriangot to use the House library. Florian got into the manuals for the House systems. Florian knew a lot of things they didn't, down in the Town, because Florian and Catlin never stopped learning.
She went out in the hall, got permission for the phone, and called uncle Denys herself.
"Uncle Denys," she said, "Florian worked the course too fast. That's what they're saying. He got hurt for being better. That's lousy, uncle Denys. He could have gotten killed. Three people did.Aren't there any better Instructors down there?"
Uncle Denys didn't answer right off. Then he said: "I've got Seely's report up now. Give me a while. How is he?"
"He's damn sore," she said, forgetting not to say damnto uncle Denys. And told him what Dr. Wojkowski had said and what Seely and Catlin had said.
"I agree with you. If that's borne out in the report, we're going to have to do something. Do you want to spend the night down there, or is he going to need that?"
"I want to do it. With Catlin."
"All right," uncle Denys said, without arguing at all. "Make sure you get something to eat. Hear?"
Uncle Denys surprised her sometimes. She went back to the room, feeling a little like she had been hit with something too. Everything had been so good, and then everything went so bad. And then Seely and Denys both got reasonable, when she least expected it.
"They're going to fix things," she said to Catlin, because Florian's eyes were shut. "I just called uncle Denys. I think there's a foul-up somewhere higher up than the Instructor. I think you know too much for down there."
"Sounds right," Catlin said. "But it makes me mad, sera. They keep saying we're a little better than they expect. They wasted those azi. They were all right. They weren't the best in Green, but they didn't need to get killed. They lived right across the hall from us."
"Dammit," she said, and sat down with her hands between her knees. Cold all over and sick at her stomach, because it was not a game, what they did was never a game, Catlin was right from the start.
ix
Florian was still limping a little, but he was doing all right when he came into the barn with Catlin and Amy and the other kids. Ari watched him, watched a smile light his face when he saw the Mare and the filly—two fillies. One with a light mane and tail, that was Ari's; and one with black—that was Horse's daughter.
"Look at her!" Florian exclaimed. And forgot all about his limp; and came and patted the Mare on the shoulder, and hugged her around the neck. Which impressed hell out of the kids. Except Catlin, of course, who knew Florian wasn't scared of horses.
The Mare deserved it in Ari's estimation. The Mare mothered both babies, the one she had birthed and the one who was her genesister, which of course the Mare could not understand, except the Mare was just generous and took care of both of them.
"She's so big," Amy said.
They were a little scared of the fillies too. It was the first time they had ever been close to animals, and they were still afraid they were going to get knocked down—good guess, because they tended to spread out and get too close and dodge into each other's and the horses' way when the horses shied. Even Catlin, who backed up and tucked her hands behind her, stiff and azi, when 'Stasi nearly bumped into her. Maddy yelped and nearly got it from the Mare's backside, and Ari just dropped her face into her hands and looked up again, with the horses all off across the big barn arena and the kids looking a little foolish.
"You have to go a little slower," Andy said from behind them. "They don't want to step on you. But you smell funny to them."
The kids looked at Andy as if they thought he was joking or they had just been insulted.
"Come on," Ari said to Florian. "Let's see if we can get her."
"Wait, sera, I can," Florian said, and walked after her.
It was strange finally to come out in the open, and pretend they were mostly friends of Amy's, that everyone knew was her friend, and who, she figured, was safer from Disappearing than anybody else because her mama was a friend of uncle Denys and uncle Giraud. She didn't think it would happen anymore, but the kids worried; and that was the set-up she had worked out with Amy—because the kids were still worried.