More Questions Then Answers

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

06/02/97:

"Find out anything new?" Oria asked as I stomped up the left
set of stairs. She was sitting in the kitchen, drinking a
cup of tea and rubbing her shoulder.

I plunked down in the chair. "Nada... this is very
frustrating. Page can't even find anything about Burke, his
DNA matches nothing at all knows. She's not even sure of his
species."

She raised an eyebrow. "Really. I would think the hair would
be distinctive to one species or another, or at least the
basic animal."

"Yes, normally so, and it's fur. Page says that it looks
like a human, lion mix."

Oria laughed. "That's not possible! Species don't cross
breed like that."

I smiled. "Don't be so sure. Magic can do something like
that. Especially by some of the more advanced Techno-mages.
Even the unbreakable laws physics can be bent from time to
time by a little skill with magic."

She smirked a bit, and shook her head. "Oh well... she'll
get it figured out, she always does."

"Ya... I'm starting to wonder if Rachel and I keep giving
her to much for her to do. Either that, or if she feels over
worked by us."

She nodded, rubbing her shoulder more.

"You ok?" I asked, watching as she squeezed herself. "That
looks like it hurts."

"It does. I spent most of the day with Kalie. She had me
training on riffles and a few other things. The recoil is
hell on my shoulder."

I nodded, Kalie had once given me a quick training on
armaments. Though not like the one she was giving Oria. I
expected that by the time Kalie was done with her, my little
lioness would be able to use most any type of projectile
weaponry, and use it well.

She continued. "I'm thinking of getting the same type of gun
Marn has. A Needler. Compact, almost zero recoil, and can
hold an array of ammunition."

I chuckled. "You may take this the wrong way, but you're
sounding like a bit of a professional at this."

Oria stopped rubbing her shoulder, then slowly lowered her
paw until it was resting with the other on the table top.
She stared at them, a frown crossing her face.

"Don't worry Oria. You have the review in a couple weeks.
You'll fail good enough to end any suspicion, and then you
can forget all about it. Forget Marn, forget the guns, and
just let it be."

She nodded. "I hope so."

"Oh dear," a voice said from accost the room, by the slider
out to the deck, both Oria and I turned to look at who was
addressing us. Burke was standing next to the door. He was
dressed in a business suit, all in pure black though. Black
pants, shirt, tie, shoes and jacket. Pinned on to each of
his lapels was a blue star, with a gold border.

He continued, walking towards us. "Hope is such a fragile
thing, I do hope it doesn't break." He laughed at his own
joke. Then looking at Oriana, he frowned. "My dear lady,
this is hardly necessary. Would you please put it away."

Looking out of the corner of my eye, I found that Oria was
now holding a gun. She held it on the table, resting softly,
but pointed at Burke. I didn't even know where it came from
and I didn't notice her getting it out. She was trying to be
casual, but the look on her face wasn't, nore were her ears,
which were laying flat against her head. She looked like she
wasn't very happy about pulling the gun in the first place,
not to mention doing it so quickly.

"I really don't think so. I'd rather keep this pointed at
you if you don't mind."

Pulling out a chair, he sat down at the table. "Frankly I do
mind, but I don't have of a choice. I was warned about you,
and frankly, I refused to believe it."

She gave him a smile that was all teeth. "Oh, why's that.
Didn't think a whore would be armed? Or was it that I had it
out before you noticed I moved?" She twitched her ears in
obvious distaste as she said the last part.

The human smiled at her. "No, that you would be so blatant.
I always assumed you would have been a bit more subtle."

She frowned a bit, then slowly relaxed, her ears slowly
rising a bit. Still though, she keep her paw on the gun.

While this had been going on, I had used the time to dig
through my pockets and pull out the EMD I had been keeping
just for this type of situation. Turning it on, I set it on
the table and pointed it at Burke.

He noticed this, and smiled at me. "Yes, very cute toy that.
It should come in handy in the future."

I sighed. "What the hell do you want?"

He raised his hands. "Picky picky. I came because you
figured out my message from last time. I assume you found
the letter I sent to the Brothers?"

"Yes, very cute. Why did you do that?"

Burke gave me a smile. "Because, if I didn't you would have
done some idiot hack into the networks back on your world
and would have been found by now. Not to mention starting a
very long chain of events that would have ended up making
the whole system into one very large cloud of atoms."

I sighed. "But it's not going to happen because of you."

"Wrong," he said poking his finger in my general direction.
"It's not going to happen because of you! Not to mention my
boss who told me what I needed to do. She's very knowing in
these type of things."

That gave me a shock. "She? Last time you said your boss was
a he."

He shrugged, smiling. "Well... you can't have everything can
you. Now I think I had rather go." He started to push his
chair back so he could stand. I was faster, shooting my foot
out I caught one leg of the chair and pulled it back in, him
along with it.

"First, who are you?"

He chuckled. "You know I can't very well tell you who I
really am."

"Some how I suspect you can."

He smiled, and leaned back in his chair. "All right then.
I'll give you a clue. Think math." Then suddenly he was
gone. Not even a pop, or a rush in of air to fill the void,
he was just gone.

"Your right," Oria said, her gun gone as fast as it had
shown up. "He is annoying."

I nodded picking up the EMD. It had recorded the whole thing
every way it could be made to. I closed it and put it back
into my coat pocket. "Yes, very. Though what does math have
to do with this?"

"What does it have to do with anything?" She asked, once
again starting at her paws.

I smiled. "You wouldn't be here with out it."

She nodded glumly.

I stood, and walked over behind her, resting my hands on her
shoulders. "When was the last time you talked to you
sister?"

"A month and a half."

I rubbed her shoulders a bit. "Well, it's clear to me you
need to talk to someone and that's not going to be me. Maybe
you should go back to your world for a few days, relax, and
pour your heart out to your sister."

She nodded a bit, taking one of my hands into her paw. "I
think I will."

She stood up and turned to look at me. Then with a smile she
hugged me close to her. "I still love you Fox." she
whispered into my ear.

I felt a slight pang inside myself, guilt I suspected. "I
know." I whispered back.

Kissing me on the side of my face, she broke away. Then
giving me a soft smile headed down the stairs and out the
door.

I shook my head. The end of her training with Marn wouldn't
come soon enough. Learning to be an assassin was slowly
killing her, I didn't like watching it.

It hurt to much.

-----

This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.