The arrival of Jack and Penny interrupted that dance. To Kris's disappointment, the professional interrogator was not juggling thumb screws or pushing a rack.

And people said Kris had problems following orders!

Abby raised an eyebrow at the intrusions, then did her best disappearing act, backing herself up against a wall and leaving the floor to the others.

"Not this time," Kris said, and used Abby's own movement to corner her. "What were you doing yesterday?" Kris demanded.

"You gave me the afternoon off. I was on personal business. Even a poor maid needs a bit of time to herself," Abby said as self-righteous as any who spoke for the downtrodden ma.s.ses.

Kris shook her head. "Not good enough. What were you doing yesterday meeting with the very gangs that provided the shooters that I was running from three days ago? Why did you have supper with two of those gang members?"

Now Kris found Jack at her right elbow, Penny at her left. They said nothing, getting their briefing, as it were, from Kris's own questions. But what they heard caused narrowing eyes to go hard as they locked on Abby.

"I thought everyone had a right to some privacy. Isn't there any time a poor working woman can call her own. And why were you spying on me?" Abby shot back. It hadn't taken the maid very long to find grounds for a counterattack.

She was good.

"I was not spying on you, though the next time you throttle the GPS squawker on your computer you better have a good reason. No, Inspector Johnson seems to have all of us under surveillance. Don't spit on the sidewalk, any of you, or you'll end up with a rap sheet. But let's get back to the questions I'm asking. Why were you meeting with gang leaders?"

Abby pulled herself to her full height, and if possible, her back got even more rigid. She sniffed. "I was not meeting with them. I failed to avoid them while getting the h.e.l.l out of Dodge. They demanded to know why they shouldn't take out on me some of Your Highness's bad karma with them. My argument was brilliant, and they bowed to my logic."

"How many did you kill?" Jack demanded.

"None. I said they bowed to my logic."

"Am I the only one having a hard time swallowing this?" Penny said.

Once again, Abby was doing a great job of misdirecting her interrogators. Kris held up three fingers. "Okay, let's say you answered one. Why buy a couple of gangers supper?"

"Because Bronc needed the time to put together the computer I'd bought him. The cops did mention that I bought one of them a set, or rather the parts to build a set."

This was getting weird. Kris still had two fingers up. She would not let Abby confuse her...or deflect this line of questioning.

"You bought two ganger's supper?"

"No, I bought pizza for my niece, who I a.s.sure you is not part of any gang. And I bought a computer for her boyfriend, also not part of any gang, for helping me do what I went there to do," Abby said very slowly. "He also liked the pizza. I hear most teenage boys do."

"So why were you in that part of town? With your squawker off!" Kris demanded.

"I. Was. Looking. For. My. Mother."

"Your mother" came in three separate gasps.

"Yes, my mother. Everybody has one, don't you know, Kris." Abby gave Kris one of her dry scowls. "Didn't your mother give you the basic talk about the birds and bees? Princesses have mothers. Maids have mothers. Princess's usually have fathers. For a maid it is optional. Makes it easier. If you're born a b.a.s.t.a.r.d you don't have to work so hard to earn the t.i.tle...as some around here do."

"She did say she was from Eden," Penny pointed out.

"And I didn't want to come back here, may I remind you."

"So you went looking for you mom...on the worst side of this town," Kris said.

"When you're born and raised on that side of town, where else you gonna look?"

"So you found your niece," Jack said.

"With a whole lot of help from her boyfriend. I'd promised him a computer. You wouldn't believe what he was doing with just an old magazine reader."

"With a whole lot of help..." Penny said. Kris gave her a glance. Maybe they had taught her something in interrogator's school.

"With a whole lot of help," Abby said slowly, "we talked Cara into taking me home to meet the family."

"Why's that?" Penny asked.

"Why do you think? Princess here was born and raised in Nuu House. Fancy place. The first couple of houses I lived in got bulldozed for urban renewal. Nothing growing there but a few weeds, but trust me, it's an improvement."

Abby paused, swallowed hard. "When I was twelve, I didn't take a lot of friends home, either." Then again she stiffened. "And I killed my squawker 'cause I wasn't all that interested in any of you knowing where I was...what I was looking for."

"I'm sorry, Abby," Kris said, wondering if she just bought another ticket for a ride. "Did you see your mother again?"

"Yeah, and my sister. And Cara. A good kid. She deserves better."

That got three nods.

"Well, if you need time off to visit..." Kris started.

Abby cut her off. "If I had my druthers, I wouldn't be going back there anytime soon."

Again three people nodded, knowing that whatever feelings were going through Abby, they had no idea what they were.

"But I will be going back a whole lot sooner than I want."

"Why?" Kris asked.

"Because I bought Bronc a whole lot more computer than I'd planned on. He'll need it if he's going to stay alive with a Longknife on this planet."

"Huh?" This conversation was going round and round. Was there a center to it?

"Kris, my mom knows I'm working for you. My momma's gotten herself uptown. Says you might be surprised to find her being squired around on some fancy man's elbow at a party or two."

"That's, ah, nice," Kris said, but tried to leave half a question mark hanging.

"Not nice...at all. There's no reason for her to know I'm working for you. Your name was in all the papers. I wasn't even in the background of any of your pictures."

Kris took a step back, no longer pinning Abby to the wall. The others beside her were backpeddling, too.

"Maybe she saw your name in some landing report?" Penny offered.

"For a planet like Eden, where everything's a secret, the chances of that are poor. And when you consider I am now Abby Nightingale, a name my mother never knew me by, it gets harder and harder to match her knowing I was back-and working for you-to just coincidence."

Kris nodded slowly. Yes, this was a whole new development. An entirely different can of worms.

"There's a whole lot of people knowing a whole lot of stuff about us," Abby said slowly. "A whole lot of people who are working real hard to know what they know. Me, I want to know a bit more about them."

To Kris, that sounded like a great idea, too.

"Oh, and Kris..." Abby seemed to add as an afterthought. Though coming from her maid, Kris suspected she'd been leading up to it the entire time. "If I was you, I'd reimburse me for my little investment in Bronc's hacking skills.

"Oh, and if you can arrange it, you might want to have Chief Beni buy the kid pizza a couple of times. The more software on Bronc's new computer, the safer we all might be."

21.

Kris had a lot to think about, and as usual, the only time she had was in the tub...while Abby did her hair.

Abby had a mother. Not all that surprising. Kris had a mother...and did her best to avoid her. Interesting that Abby seemed inclined to do the same.

But it wasn't Abby's family dynamics that might kill Kris.

Somehow, despite all Eden did to hide things, said mother knew Abby was back in town...and working for one Princess Longknife. That must have taken a lot of pull.

How did Abby's mom do that? Why?

Or was it just blowby?...Some crumb of information that dropped into that motherly ear. From whom? And what was their interest in Kris's safety?

Kris reviewed her thoughts and came away with way too many question marks. Given a chance, she'd gladly vote to outlaw that particular punctuation.

Kris snorted and almost got soap up her nose.

All the money she'd spent on Nelly. All that computer to make sure she'd have information at her fingertips, and Eden was stonewalling her.

I AM SORRY, KRIS. I AM TRYING.

Oops, Kris had forgotten her latest gadget. Having a computer plugged directly into your brain was a great way to stay alive. However, at certain moments, like in the bath, Kris really didn't want Nelly around her neck. The surgery had come with a plug to seal the extra hole in Kris's head when Nelly was elsewhere.

But there was this really nifty new gadget. A plug that included a short-range network. And Kris was now doing her ruminating with Nelly listening nearby.

SORRY, NELLY, THAT WASN'T MEANT FOR YOU. I KNOW YOU ARE DOING YOUR BEST. IT'S JUST THAT WE ARE UP AGAINST A STONE WALL. AND IT'S NOT AN ACCIDENT. THEY DON'T WANT US TO KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON AND THEY'RE SURE DOING A GOOD JOB OF IT.

DO YOU THINK THIS BRONC MIGHT HELP US WITH THE NEW COMPUTER ABBY GAVE HIM?.

HE MIGHT. Then again, he might just get himself killed. Kris did not want more blood on her hands. Especially a kid's.

"Abby, how good is this boy...and your niece?"

"At staying alive. Not too bad. They grew up in Five Corners and they're still breathing."

"But are they ready for the hand they're being dealt?"

Abby took awhile to answer. "Your Royal Highness, I can only guess. All I know is that I made the mistake of going home and suddenly those poor kids are in this up to their cute b.u.t.ton noses and all I can hope to do is give them a helping hand at staying one step ahead of dead. You got any better ideas?"

"Your mom won't protect your niece?"

"My mom has my sister on drugs to keep her figure in the high price range."

On that thought, Abby rinsed Kris's hair with more than the usual fury. Kris's scalp took quite a beating.

As Kris rose from the tub and toweled herself off, she offered what she could. "Arrange for the kids to have a session with the chief. See what he can offer this Bronc. I'll pay for any software the chief says they need. And add on anything you know and the chief is weak in."

"It won't be eating," Abby said and went to select a dress for tonight as Kris started pulling on a spider-silk armored bodystocking. Tonight she'd add ceramics and anything else she had armored in her lingerie drawer.

No telling who'd be at this shindig.

Or what they'd be doing-to Kris.

"That big, white rig up there," Gunny Brown said, pointing out a limo that looked more like a s.p.a.ce liner than a ground car. "Story is that Miss Victoria Peterwald is renting that s...o...b..at."

"How'd you get that bit of intell?" Kris asked.

"I got one of the woman Marines reading the social columns. She likes that stuff and I'm shaking my head at all the information you can get from those gossips. You'd think people would know a bit about operational security."

"'War by social means,' as Billy Longknife is want to call it, doesn't mean that all its partic.i.p.ants are up-to-date on their Clausewitz," Kris said.

"Beggars ought to learn."

"But not too fast, Gunny," Jack said. "Their poor security gives us a moment to adjust. Thank heavens for minor favors."

But other than tightening her gut muscles, there wasn't a lot Kris could do.

And the big, white whale of a limo wasn't necessarily a sign of poor planning on Vicky's part. Showmanship might not belong on the battlefield, but it sure worked on the society pages. Winning by intimidation was a well-practiced tactic in business...and b.i.t.c.h fights.

Somehow Kris doubted Vicky was much interested in that kind of a win. "How large is my detail tonight?"

"I've got the inside with six good shooters, all in civilian and all armored," Gunny said. "Corporal Jorhat has three uniformed to keep the rolling stock secure. The captain has a response team ready to roll at the emba.s.sy. Mrs. General Trouble is with a group of students at a pub this evening. Captain wants to be able to reinforce in either direction."

Kris hoped Gramma Ruth had a quiet evening; heaven knows she deserved a few. It looked to be a few more years before Kris could make a claim on quiet.

Kris was hardly out of her limo when Marta Whitebread attached herself to Kris's elbow. And stayed there.

"I am so sorry you missed the autumn show. They really are quite fantastic. The horticulturalists and genetic people showed a lot more than just flowers."

"More than flowers?" Kris said, just to see if she could get a word in...edgewise.