Family Law

by Mackey Chandler

  "That helped a lot when the three adults were busy. I can use a handheld navigation tracker on planet and find my way back roundabout. I can shoot three and six millimeter hyper-velocity pistol and hit my mark half way decent. I take landscape and art pictures, draw colored pencil and ink drawings, speak fair German, good Derf and I'm working on Japanese, but it's harder even than Derf," she complained with a look at Gordon.

  "I know a lot of ancient Earth history, but not much detail since the industrial revolution. I just haven't gotten around to that yet. Dad taught history in a very linear fashion. Mom taught me the basics of unarmed defense, but I haven't been able to spar with anybody for ages."

  "I can troubleshoot an environmental system and do simple circuit and computer repair. I can't program to speak of, but I can sharpen a knife or an ax really well. I can't pilot and so many other things, but I can cook a pretty good breakfast.

  "I know the stuff anybody needs to know, like algebras, trig, geometries, topography, calculus, statistics, N-space drive geometry and second generation special relativity, vector calculus, practical quantum mechanics, theory of astro-navigation and basic chemistry."

  "Stuff anybody needs to know?" Richard echoed disbelieving.

  "Oh! - And I can stalk a Derf through the dark Derfhome woods and get the drop on him," she said proudly. "I just learned to do that."

  "Which is undoubtedly a great skill," he allowed, looking at Gordon and thinking about tracking something that big and dangerous and smart into a dark forest. No way in hell he wanted to try it. "Was there some sort of exercise to test your training in this?" he asked, thinking of some of the tactical training programs Blackwater maintained.

  "Nah, we were camped for the evening in the forest on a pilgrimage and this young fellow from another clan came by. His clan and Gordon's clan don't see eye to eye on their boundary. I saw him headed toward our camp and he was carrying his carbine at the ready quite menacingly," she demonstrated a port-arms grip. "Now with Derf you have to remember, as long as you leave your weapon holstered, or hanging friendly, no problem. Lay your hand on it even if you need. But if you pull that sucker out you better do something with it quickly or they'll show you how."

  "I was worried for Gordon and followed this cub back to camp close and quiet. I shouldn't have worried. He went in and was snooping in our shelter and Gordon wasn't there. He turned around and Gordon was standing there like a frigging shadow appearing. Nothing that big should be able to move so quietly," she said, giving Gordon a dirty look.

  "They had a little talk – talk and this kid only sees the ax in Gordon's belt. He seemed to be seriously thinking maybe he could shift and shoot him, before Gordon can get him with the ax. Gordon gave him fair warning there were factors he didn't know.

  "I wasn't sure if that was my cue or not, but I snapped the safety off my pistol as loudly as I could. The woods were quiet and Derf have good hearing, so you should have seen his ears twitch! He laid down his weapon meek as could be and walked away. It turned out Gordon was holding a pistol in a true hand tucked in his armpit," she illustrated. "He didn't need me at all, but maybe it was good I was there, for the other guy, not Gordon."

  "If he had tried to bring his weapon to bear would you have shot him?" He looked at her appraisingly.

  "Shot him? Someone that big and armed too? Gods no, I'd have let him have the whole magazine of twenty six rounds on full auto."

  Gordon reached over and ruffled her hair. "Smart girl."

  * * *

  Richard had something for dinner called a Porterhouse, that looked like a pork chop but had to have come from a much bigger animal. Gordon went with his reliable ham, but ordered up enough side dishes to keep it interesting for all of them. Lee was delighted there were items on the menu she had never seen, so she ordered two extra of them, Gyros, with chopped tomatoes, onions and rice, flat bread and a cucumber yogurt sauce and something called Spinakopita. It was hard to tell what it would be like from the picture, but she was sure there would be something she liked.

  After he demolished most of the Porterhouse, Richard paused and looked at Lee. He was obviously composing himself to say something,

  "I know that you folks have enough money now that eating is a trivial expense, but I'd advise you about a cultural taboo. There are so many people on Earth now, that feeding them is a very non-trivial problem. A lot of people can't eat what they want and some of them can't even get enough plain calories of any sort. So if you order up in public like this table," he swept his hand in an arc at the collection of half empty dishes, "people will use it to paint you as insensitive and selfish, or even deliberately flaunting your wealth."

  "You should try to order only what you can actually eat in public. Quite a few restaurants offer half portions. Even vid stars and politicians will ask for any they didn't eat, to be boxed to carry away. I doubt many of them actually eat it later, but it helps their public image."

  "Why should I care about a public image? Why should I even have a public image?" Lee asked with puzzlement.

  Richard looked at her sharply and then relaxed. "This is something about which you should talk to your instructor in Earth customs. The short answer is that's how our society works. People expect you to have a certain amount of respect for the aggregate, or at least the majority opinion of what is proper and right. Truthfully, the public consensus on anything may be idiotic and manipulated at any given time. Public opinion changes not just from year to year but from week to week. If you posed that first question to reporters quite a few people would take it as arrogance. That's how widely it is assumed it is important how people view you."

  "Gordon told me I would have a hard time dealing with a human society. He said they have all these laws and customs that are stronger than laws. Is this one of those customs?"

  "Yes, your dad is very perceptive about that."

  Lee liked how naturally that fell off his tongue. She was sure he really accepted her adoption or he'd never have said "your dad" so naturally.

  "They can't arrest you for ordering up too much in a restaurant, well maybe in China, but not most places. However the news services can make a lot of people not like you, without saying a word. All they have to do is show you sitting at a table like this and people will be shocked at the waste and jealous of your ability to afford such extravagance. Eventually it comes back on you. You don't get invited to events on your social level. Businesses don't want to be seen as associated with you. They will be horrified to see you using their products in a video. It can even affect how fairly you are treated if you have a legal case. Quite a few places, cases are decided by juries. If all the jurists have seen you in the news and have a bad opinion of you, they are more likely to believe you are guilty of something. If the case is decided by judges, well, judges are people. They watch the news too."

  "I think my head is going to go POOM!" Lee said, grabbing it in both hands.

  "And part of what your security does is to keep the press off you, so you can say: 'No comment'. It's not all about actual hostile threats, but about keeping the stress of being a public figure down to manageable proportions and trying to preserve that public image as being favorable."

  "Quick question," Lee said, suddenly changing her whole demeanor to an almost threatening mode and pointing an index finger straight at him. "How do you feel about Gordon?"

  "I don't really know him yet," Richard said holding his palms up to her in surrender.

  "Not know, feel. Do you think Derf are less than human? Are you going to think your real boss is me or Mr. Stanley because Gordon is just a talking animal and not really a person?"

  "No, of course not." He seemed more surprised than indignant. "You're basically asking if I'm Humanist Party. Blackwater would never hire those sort of people. We spend close to three days doing a psych profile when we hire and it's all under brain scan. They know if you are lying. If you can't work with an alien, or a woman, or even a black skinned man," he said arching his eyebrows at
her, "you aren't much use to Blackwater. We have to form and dissolve teams on the fly for all sorts of assignments. We don't have time to cater to that sort of garbage."

  "People are prejudiced about woman and black people too?" she asked innocently.

  "Black people were often slaves in America until the mid-1800s," he explained. "There was a war and they were technically freed. But it took over a hundred years to really start integrating them into society. Women during the same period slowly went from being chattel near absolute as black slaves, to being able to own property and vote. There are as many black idiots as any other group, but most of us at least know from our own history how stupid it is to deny other people their personhood."

  "Gordon said the same for Derf, that every family and clan seemed to have a quota of idiots no matter how hard they tried to eliminate themselves. OK, I had to ask straight out, because I don't want people mistreating Gordon and I no good at reading all the clues yet, I just have to ask right out which side you are on."

  "That's fine, but if you really need answers like that you'll have to screen people just like Blackwater does, with a full questionnaire and brain scan. People - Lie," he informed her with absolute certainty.

  "Can we do that with the people Stanley sends us?" Lee wondered.

  "Absolutely. It is well established in law you can do that for sensitive positions. Working with you and your intimate business dealing so closely is plenty sensitive."

  "Quick question," Richard asked doing the same bark and finger jab she subjected him to. "We're going out to dinner and somebody shoots a gun out on the street. What do you do?"

  "Dive," she said immediately. Dive and crawl if there is cover around, until you know where it is coming from. Return fire if you know where it came from."

  That's pretty good," he admitted. "With security you are going to want to dive and look to see what your escort wants you to do. But your instincts are good if the general answer is to get down. You won't have anything to return fire. In Luna even your escort won't have a projectile weapon. Loonies get pretty ugly about anything that can breach pressure. I can see both of you will be relatively easy to protect."

  "How do you plan to protect us?" Gordon asked. "I know you are the expert, but I can't feel confident to finalize your hiring without knowing something about your plan." Lee heard in that a gentle reproof, that Richard should not assume he was hired yet.

  "Two escorts on you in public places. Four if it's a high risk environment. Some places we simply won't take you. We have the option to terminate our contract if you want to do things, or go places we can't protect you. The same teaming on each of you if you go out alone. You'll need to move to a bigger suite, so we can occupy adjoining rooms. All traffic comes through our door and one agent always watches the suite even when you are gone. I may at times call on extra people to patrol the building or neighborhood, if we perceive a threat and if you are going to a museum, or restaurant, or some sort of public event I may send a couple agents to case the area and who frequents it. I may have a couple lurking agents in any venue, unknown to your escort. We supply all transport, no public taxis. We'll have a clipping service and a web watch collecting articles and threats on you. I can have it all in place by morning. You're going to have a secretary right?"

  "Yes, we're going to interview for one," Lee answered.

  "How are you filtering your com now?"

  "What did you tell them, Gordon?" Lee asked.

  "I told the front desk to hold all messages except my clan, our bank, our attorneys, the Claims Commission and the space field. I forgot Hiroshi," he suddenly realized. "I'll tell the desk about him too."

  "What about physical deliveries and mail?"

  "I can't see that we'd get anything. We haven't ordered anything. Why would we?" Gordon asked.

  "Oh Dear God," Richard said dismayed, "can you authorize the room to let me address the front desk and initiate actions and charges?"

  "I haven't hired you yet," Gordon reminded him, a little peeved. "Let's settle that first. Lee, how do you feel about him? Want to go with his company, or interview somebody else?"

  "I trust Sydney on him. I don't need any brain scan, I get the sense he's OK. He just doesn't have any sneaky feel to him. I don't think he's trying to rush you, Gordon. I think he's genuinely concerned about something."

  "OK, Richard, you're hired. House, take a voice sample from Richard Dixon. He has full rights and access to the room and services. Acknowledge."

  "Access granted. Voice sample already collected from third party in room."

  "House, give me voice and image, to the manager or front desk," Richard instructed.

  "How may I help you?" a smiling middle-aged lady asked. The screen had a hotel logo and identified her as Gail Burpee.

  "I'm Richard Dixon, Blackwater Associates, EP. We were just hired as security for your guests Lee Anderson and the Derf addressed as Gordon. Tomorrow we will have a private switchboard in place for routing com and I'll have a daily list of our employees entering your property to coordinate coverage. Are you holding any deliveries for my clients?"

  "We have two large canvas bags of postal letters and approximately two cubic meters of packages being held in our service garage. There are also six gigabytes of saved com messages directed through the hotel address, unsorted and stored. We didn't save rejected voice messages unless they appeared to be from an official agency, or someone claiming prior relationship. We are obligated by Lunar law to record and hold any messages containing a commercial offer of any kind and they are in a separate file. I should warn you however that a number of them are offers of questionable business ventures, investment opportunities, marriage, relationships less formal and a few so bizarre we couldn't categorize so we saved them to protect ourselves."

  "Marriage?" Lee asked surprised, "Gordon or me?"

  The lady turned a bit pink hued at this question from a little girl and picked her words with visible care. "Either or both, in several formats and cross species in several complex and most improbable ways," she admitted, rolling her eyes.

  "People are very strange," Lee said in awe.

  "Indeed," the lady agreed, relieved at Lee's response and lack of further questions.

  "Have the packages been checked for hazards?" Richard inquired.

  "Sir, we have checked for any out-gassing of common explosive agents. We do that real time at the entries and elevators anyway, but we don't have the technical ability to deep scan and find exotics like metallic explosives. We have not tested for bio-hazards or mechanical traps, snoops or tracking devices. We already have two clerks taking voice com calls alone. We'll welcome you taking that over."

  "My clients didn't realize the extra labor they were imposing on you. I'll have a team here within the hour you can direct to test the packages and we'll provide an alternative delivery site that's safer for everybody."

  "That's why they are in the service garage. If something nasty activates there we won't have an event in our main structure."

  "I have two agents in the hall right now. We'll need a double suite when you can move us. I'll have my men ID themselves. Thank you Ms. Burpee." Richard got up and walked back and forth across the edge of the room, talking low on his phone as he paced.

  He pocketed his phone. "Well, that's a good start on it. I'm taking a room on this level until you are in a bigger suite. Just ask the room to connect to me if you have any concerns and I'll be very close."

  "Mr. Dixon," Lee asked concerned, "Are you going to be part of our team, or will you go off and do different assignments once you have everything in place?"

  "We're not usually real keen on discussing our internal arrangements, but I intended to directly supervise your needs as long as you are on Luna. I'd figure that's going to take maybe 80% of my time, But I intended to check on other teams I have running and deal with new problems as they arise. If I need another supervisor level employee to run a big job I can have one from Earth orbit in a few hours. Do
you feel you need an exclusive call on my time? My billing rate is pretty high and I didn't see any necessity to charge you any more than needed. You aren't going to stay here permanently and become residents are you?"

  "We don't know where we're going to end up," Lee admitted. "Gordon says I need to be socialized with a full human society and I want to go down and visit Earth for sure while we are here. I just wanted to ask if you could come back and just talk with us some more? I know we're going to get these other people too, but I've learned so much from you in just this one visit I'd like more."

  "Sure, when I talk to my people and check up on them I'll stop in and chat. Some clients want you to be invisible in the background, but I'm happy to keep you informed. I've found if clients don't see anything happening pretty soon some wonder if anybody is minding the store, or even if their security is really necessary. Time for me to go make it happen now," he explained getting up. "There will be a couple fellows come by within the hour to secure the suite electronically. I'll see you sometime this evening again."

  "Thank you, Richard," Lee told his back.

  Chapter 24

  Richard joined them for breakfast. "I took an entire floor fifteen levels down. My boys will have their own suite and they will man the elevator foyer so you don't have to go through their quarters. You have a suite and that leaves two open for now. The difference in price between taking a full level and renting suites individually wasn't worth the hassle. You can move there whenever you like."

  "Let me throw our stuff back in our bags and we can go," Lee offered.

  "People of your station don't pack their own bags," Richard told her mildly. "You can if you wish, but it would be somewhat eccentric. It's one of those small things it's easier just to let others take care of for you. Most middle class folk would envy you the luxury. I recommend it."