“Did you twist Lank Meyers’s mind?”
Ludendorff frowned. “I do not appreciate your bringing up such a bitter memory. My patience has a limit. It’s a bad idea to try to reach it.”
Throughout their conversation, Maddox had been gauging the professor’s reactions to everything. He studied the man while appearing to needle him. It was a deliberate process, with his Star Watch Intelligence-trained mind hard at work.
“Are you trying to tell me Lank Meyers willingly gave himself into the custody of the New Men?” Maddox asked.
The professor’s features tightened. “That is my final warning. Mention the incident again, and I will punish you.”
Maddox stared into the professor’s eyes. The captain believed he saw actual pain there. He had to push the professor, though. Maddox didn’t believe he could learn the truth any other way.
“I think you turned Lank Meyers into a kamikaze, the poor soul,” Maddox said.
“Enough!” Ludendorff said, sharply. He aimed the flat device at Maddox and pressed a stud.
The web field surrounded the captain. Then, shocks began to twist Maddox. His eyeballs bulged outward. He twitched as another round of volts struck him, but he endured them silently.
It was clear by this demonstration that the professor felt normal emotions and loss. Maddox felt that was vital information.
Ludendorff’s thumb lifted off the device. The shocks stopped. The professor’s eyes were red-rimmed and moist. Without a word, the man whirled around, taking his leave.
A few seconds later, the web field around Maddox, Meta and Dana disappeared.
“Why goad him like that?” Dana asked. “You went too far.”
Maddox said nothing, but he was more determined than ever to wrest control of Victory back from Ludendorff. This last incident gave Maddox an insight, which might give him the needed lever to achieve his goal.
-12-
Dana sat in a chair, examining the list of questions Ludendorff expected answered. The words were hard to read in the dim lighting of her chamber.
The professor was insufferable, an egotist of the first order. The man thought about himself front, center and back.
A brushing noise alerted her that Meta stirred on the couch beside her. Dana’s only true friend glanced up at her questioningly. Meta’s green eyes were glazed because of her hypnotic state.
“Don’t worry, dear,” Dana said, patting Meta on the shoulder. “You’re doing well.”
“I feel strange,” Meta said in a soft voice.
“No, no, don’t think about that for a moment,” Dana said. They had been at this for an hour already. Meta refused to open her mind to the time with Kane in the Xerxes System.
Had the teacher placed a block in Meta’s mind?
“Why…?” Meta used her tongue to moisten her lips. “Why can’t I remember what happened?”
“I’m not sure,” Dana said. “Now lie back, close your eyes and start counting to zero, beginning at one hundred.”
Meta lay back. She was strong with a tough mind, especially in dangerous situations. Dana knew she’d never have survived Loki Prime without Meta. She owed her friend, and she would never forget that.
At first, Meta’s romantic dalliance with Captain Maddox had bothered Dana. She had examined her thoughts on that many nights and finally determined that the relationship made her jealous. Dana hadn’t trusted Maddox’s intentions either. Over time, Dana’s thoughts on him had changed. The doctor also came to understand that Meta needed the captain’s calming influence. The man was like an oak tree, able to weather any storm. He was strong enough so Meta could take shelter in his protection.
There were deep hurts in Meta. Her coldblooded killing of others had twisted the dear girl, and her use of sex to obtain a tactical advantage had also caused her grave pain. Maybe some people could do those things without their conscience bothering them. Meta wasn’t one of them.
“Are you counting?” Dana asked.
“Eighty-three, eighty-two, eighty-one,” Meta said aloud.
“Think it, dear, don’t speak it.”
With her eyes closed, Meta nodded. Her lips twitched, but she didn’t make any more noise.
Dana glanced at the list in her hand. Insufferable Professor Ludendorff needed to know these specifics, did he? Damn his soul! Why was the man so arrogant? Why had he played it this way? He hadn’t acted like this on the expedition to the Adok System.
Oh, Josef Erich Fromm Ludendorff the III had been devious and secretive from the beginning. He had also been charming, with a beguiling and mysterious manner. And the love-making—Dana had never experienced anything like it. Literally, those times had taken her breath away after she’d stopped screaming in rapturous delight.
While sitting in the chamber aboard Victory, Dana frowned as she thought back to her early days with Ludendorff. Life had been difficult for her growing up on Brahma. The ancient Hindu caste system had been engrained into the planetary culture. In it, women didn’t hold important posts in society. That went to the high caste men, her father being one of them.
Raja Nehru, her father, had gone against Brahma custom by allowing her to go to university. There, Dana had excelled, gaining degree after degree with bewildering ease. It had been as if she was a rose grown in a dark corner, and finally, someone had thought to place her in the sunlight. She bloomed there, flourishing in the perfect culture. In time, though, her professors frowned upon her success. It was clear she was the brightest student in the entire university. Her father ordered her home. She refused, staying on as a teaching assistant. The boys—she had never been able to think of them as men—resented her instructions during the study halls. How dare a woman show them up with her incredible breadth of knowledge as she did?
Then, Professor Ludendorff arrived, teaching a fascinating course on alien technology. He was one of the few white men at Brahma Tech, and he hadn’t held to the same illusions as everyone else.
One by one, the other professors told Dana she could no longer assist them. Raja Nehru had used his influence to twist their arms. Finally, Professor Ludendorff was the only teacher who would employ her, paying her stipend out of his own resources. Dana survived on a pittance, refusing to quit. That would mean returning to the shadows where she would wither, killing her intellectual growth. So, for another six months she lived in a tiny garret and ate less and less so she could make ends meet.
“Are you on a diet?” Ludendorff asked her one day after class.
She shook her head.
That’s when he’d put a hand on her shoulder. Until that moment, the professor had been perfectly correct in all their interactions.
“My dear girl,” Ludendorff said. “I understand your situation. Come live with me. It’s the right thing to do.”
Dana looked up at him, shocked at the suggestion.
Ludendorff grinned and winked at her. “Yes, I mean to bed you, to love you as you’ve never known it could be. But I also mean to help you. You’re brilliant, Dana. You’re possibly the second brightest person I’ve ever met.”
“Who is the first?” she asked.
“Myself, of course,” he said with a laugh. “I constantly amaze myself with my intellect. It’s like being a star in the heavens.”
Dana blinked at him in wonder. She could never live with him. That would be scandalous.
Professor Ludendorff stepped closer, taking her in his arms. He held her, smiling, rubbing her back. Finally, his lips touched hers. It had been a feather-soft kiss, and it melted her.
Dana moved into his place a week later.
When her father discovered the scandal, he protested. At first, the university resisted Raja Nehru. Finally, they told Ludendorff he had to let Dana go home.