Kingdom of Stars (The Young Ancients: Timon Book Three) by P.S. Power Page B

behind. She might anyway." He wasn't certain that she wouldn't, as
soon as they were alone, to be honest. She looked pretty miffed at him at the
moment.
    There was a pause and then Kolb spoke again.
    "Tell her I said hello. Out." The line broke then.
    Timon didn't want to chat with the woman, but it was her County,
and she was the boss there, so he did it. The trick was the common one now
though. He had to tell her the truth, but not all of it, since she knew Tor and
wouldn't be able to control her mind like Tiera was doing.
    He started by making himself sound young, since that would
probably get him more slack than anything else. Or at least he tried for that.
It came out sounding professional and a bit clipped instead, like a military
man.
    "The others are getting readings right now. It was a
nuclear device. I don't know what that means past some basic facts. It's a bad
sign, that it was used at all. Right now I need to go and meet up with them, so
that I can do some scutt work or something along those lines. Sorry about being
abrupt earlier. It was rude of me to just get off the line like that.
Nerves." He was ready to go into greater depth, but the woman in front of
the craft just nodded, clutching something small and copper in her left hand.
It was probably an explosive device. That's what Timon would have wanted, if he
had one, which he simply didn't.
    "I understand. This isn't a good situation. You were
just in a combat rage as well, so I take no offense. I'm sure it won't come
between us, as friends." She was being a bit stiff about it still, and
didn't smile, but that was probably because she had to be considering kicking
him out of school, or at least asking him to leave on his own.
    People were trying to kill him, and it wasn't just a normal
assassin or two. She didn't have to know the whole story to get that Remy
Seventeen wasn't just some guy with a knife that might accidently stab the
wrong person. People had come very close to destroying her entire city, killing her in the process.
    If that was the kind of thing that was going to happen
now... Well, no place was really safe, but removing the target, which seemed to
be him in this case, at least so far, made sense.
    Of course that also made him wonder why they were working
quite that hard to remove him from the picture. He was, no matter how you
sliced it, still just a boy with a few tricks. Ones that a person working with
them had come up with, for the most part. If he was a threat to them at all it
was only because of Tor. That didn't make him happy to realize, since he was
still angry with him, but that didn't make it false either.
    The woman took a deep breath and went rather still, her body
language stiff suddenly.
    "Timon, I mean no offense, but... it might be best if
you weren't here, for the time being? I don't want to send you away,
it's simply that we aren't ready to face this kind of thing." She
seemed... shamed by her own words, even if they were the right ones from her
perspective.
    "Understood. Kicked out after one class. I was doing so
well too. I hardly bled on anyone at all. Well. I'll figure something out.
Don't worry about it." His behind was a little sore from sitting already,
which probably had to do with the incredible amount of tension he was feeling.
Shifting a bit he smiled at the woman through the front and then got ready to
leave. His not being wanted there didn't mean he could get out of the rest of
his work.
    She mumbled at him, which wasn't like her at all, from what
he'd seen.
    "Forgive me?"
    After feeling a moment of irritation, since the whole thing
had been an excuse to stay away from his brother, Tim nodded.
    "Don't let it worry you. Have Mindy pass out the
shields, in case of another attack. The clothing too. Make sure you get an
accounting of who has what though."
    "I shall. Until we speak again." Then, rather
deliberately, she shut off her device and walked away, looking stiff and
uncomfortable, as if she thought that Timon