“I want you to open this door. There are dangerous fugitives in this neighborhood; we are searching every house. You were told last night—and then you locked the house down so we could not search—”
“So that no intruders could get in,” Stella corrected. “Yes, you said that last night, and I informed you that we had been in the house and there were no fugitives. As I said, the house was broken into recently; a guard was stationed in it when we were gone.”
“Then open the damned door and quit stalling.”
“I wasn’t stalling; I was in the shower.” Stella opened the door. Ky grinned at the captain’s expression; Stella needed no makeup to have that effect. “We had a long day yesterday and I overslept. I am not in the habit of lying, and neither are my guests.”
“You have guests? The fugitives—”
“The guests are my cousin and her fiancé. As I said last night. I don’t believe you can have forgotten.” Stella stepped back and waved dramatically. “Come on in, since you are determined to insult my family and my personal honesty. Any breakage or pilfering will be documented by the house system. I am going upstairs to dress for work, and I trust you will not try to sneak into my private quarters and watch while I do so.”
The man’s face was red, but he led his squad in. Stella went to the stairs and started up; half the squad turned their heads to watch her, including the captain. When she reached the head of the stairs, Stella called, “Ky, I let them in the house. Are you anywhere up here?”
Ky looked at her three. “Through that door, now. I have to stay out here and be seen; they know I’m here. Once you’re in, I’ll close it. You’ll be safe. It may take several hours, but as long as you don’t make noise, you’ll be fine.”
They looked shaken but she nodded, and they went in. “There’s light and air circulation,” Ky added as she pulled the inner door closed. Then she pushed the outer door, faced with a bookcase, back into place, and pulled the office door partway open. She sat down in the green leather chair behind the desk, raising it to suit her height, picked up the top two folders on the desk, and opened both, side by side.
Stella, coming along the passage, looked in. “There you are,” she said brightly. “Did you find those reports?”
“I found”—Ky read the title off the folder—“last year’s P&L, but I’m confused by the coding on page seventeen.”
“I’ll explain later; I’ve got to get dressed before the search party comes up here. You haven’t seen any strangers, have you?”
“Of course not. Are they still looking for the same ones as last night?”
“Apparently. Be back in a few.” Stella left. Ky checked the house security. Two searchers in the living room, with sniffers. Two in the dining room. Four on the stairs now, including the captain at the top, looking both ways and carrying an audio booster. He had probably heard Stella talking to her. Good. She turned back to the folders, frowning and looking from one to the other.
She was reaching for a third when a voice in the doorway said, “Stop! Drop that! Hands up!”
She looked up to see the captain glaring at her, weapon in hand. “Oh, good grief,” Ky said, still holding the folder. “Who are you?”
“Drop that and put your hands on your head.”
“I am in the middle of a complicated analysis,” Ky said. She opened the folder and laid it, open, above the two already open. “And besides, you’re supposed to identify yourself, aren’t you? Are you police? You don’t look like police. If you’re not police, then I’m not obliged to obey you.”
“You—all right. I’m with Slotter Key Spaceforce Security.”
“And I’m not in Slotter Key’s military,” Ky said. “You have no jurisdiction here. So kindly put away that weapon and explain yourself.”
He slammed the pistol into his holster, still glaring. “We are seeking three Slotter Key Spaceforce personnel, dangerous fugitives.”
“Not here,” Ky said, looking down and turning over a page in one of the open folders.
“Our sniffers detected female persons in the back garden here.”
“That would be my cousin and myself. We went outside when it started raining because the children had left some toys out.”
“What children?”
Ky heaved an obvious sigh and looked up. “About seven years ago my cousin Jo was killed; she had two children. My aunt Helen, who owns this house, adopted them. After the break-in several days ago, she took the children to Corleigh, another family property, because she didn’t feel safe in this house with the kitchen door so damaged. My fiancé and I were staying on Corleigh; she asked us to come here and keep an eye on the house until repairs were done. Not that any of that has anything to do with the fugitives you’re after, or is any of your business. You say they’re women?”
He flushed. “I didn’t say that—”
“But you seemed to find sniffer traces of females in the yard suspicious. That suggests that you’re after women.”
“I didn’t—damn it, I ask the questions!”
From behind him, Stella said. “No, Captain, you do not. You have demanded entrance to a civilian home in your search for military personnel, after being assured last night that no such were here.”
“The house was shielded—”
“As I told you, and as the Port Major police are aware, that is because we had a break-in and chose to engage the full security capability. Which is neither illegal nor suspicious. If you had bothered to check with them, you’d know that—”
He turned to face Stella. Stella, Ky could see, had changed into a lavender suit, and looked every centimeter the wealthy, elegant, powerful woman she was.
“My men have found two bedrooms occupied in that other wing, both with traces of male and female occupation!”
Ky laughed. “You’re going to question a couple, both over legal age, on where they choose to sleep or lounge or… whatever… in a house this size? Once again: you do not have jurisdiction here.”
He turned his head to glance at her. “Is that man your fiancé?”
“Yes, he is. And we have been in multiple bedrooms, because we chose to. Why not? Some beds are too hard, some beds are too soft—”
He stared at her. “You—!”
“It’s none of your business what we do, or don’t do, anywhere—and certainly not in this house.”
“You’ve had time to look under all the beds,” Stella added. He swung around to look at Stella again. “I must get to the office; you will withdraw your team and leave my cousin and her fiancé in peace.”
“We need to scan this house.”
“No, you need to find your fugitives and not waste my time and annoy my family.” When he didn’t move, she looked past him to Ky. “Call Grace. I want this settled before I leave. I have appointments.”
Ky didn’t bother with the desk phone; she used her skullphone, direct to Grace’s private number.
“Ky—what’s wrong?”
“A man who says he’s with Slotter Key military has insisted on searching Helen’s house for some fugitives. We told him last night there were none here; he came back this morning and is acting like we’re guilty for turning on the security overnight. Stella wants him out before she goes to headquarters and he won’t leave.”
“Name?” Grace said. Ky told her. “Do you have a house phone where you are?”
“Yes, I’m in Stavros’s home office; there’s a secure line.”
“Call me on that, put it on speaker; I’ll talk to him.”
Ky leaned back in the chair as soon as Grace’s voice came over the speaker. The captain jerked around at the sound of his name. “Who?”
“This is Rector Vatta. You will personally report to my office at once and explain yourself; I expect you within the next ten minutes.”