Kristy was curled up, trying to read, in a corner of the Red Home's common area when Josh Cochran emerged from the cockpit, impatiently brushing aside the curtain of beads that marked its entrance. She looked up. "News? Are we there yet?"
"About an hour to go," he answered, looking a little off stride at seeing her there.
"Oh. Should we be getting ready for arrival?"
"No, not for a little while. Hey, Kristy, while you're here . . . um . . . have you seen Becki since we left Mendellia?"
Kristy thought a moment and then shook her head. "No. Most of the team has been through here once or twice, but I haven't seen her. She did get on board, right?"
Josh nodded. "I'm just going to go back and check on her."
Kristy started to get up, needing something better than a book she couldn't focus on to distract her from nervousness at the upcoming mission. "Want help?"
"No, that's okay," Josh insisted quickly. "It's probably nothing. But she seemed, well, a little distracted when she came on board, so . . . I'll just go see what's up. Won't take long." And he ducked down the hallway before Kristy could object.
She shrugged to herself and returned to her book, but she couldn't stop worrying about Josh Nolan and how she was going to prove herself to him (or if she even would be able to). Since rereading the same sentence ten times wasn't getting her anywhere, she set the book aside and headed after JoshC.
At the end of the corridor running through the passenger quarters, she caught up with him. The door to the women's bunk room was closed, but Josh, undeterred though looking annoyed, leaned close to it, speaking earnestly though too low for Kristy to hear.
She drew nearer; he had not yet noticed her presence, so soon she was able to make out some of what he said: ". . . really, I'm sorry. . . . If it's anything that I did . . . just open up, will you? You can't stay in there forever, Becki. We're almost to Jerusalem now. Come out and tell me what's wrong. . . ."
"Sure you don't want help?" Kristy interrupted at his shoulder and was rewarded with seeing him jump and twirl around to face her wide-eyed, his hand starting toward the lightsaber at his belt.
"Don't do that," he grumbled.
"I figured you'd know I was there, Psycho Jedi Boy. You're not supposed to be that easy to sneak up on." She nodded to the closed door. "What's the matter?"
"She won't tell me," Josh grumbled. "Won't come out, either."
"Are you sure she's even in there, then?"
Josh opened his mouth to explain but a voice from the other side of the door beat him to it. "I'm here," said Becki's voice, sounding tired and resigned.
"Well, come out and see the view," Kristy encouraged. "We're landing soon."
"I'll be there."
"Becki, are you all right?" Josh asked.
"Fine. Don't worry."
"It's just that no one's seen you in the past five hours and . . ."
There came a sigh deep enough to be heard even through the door, then a loud silence, before Becki finally answered, "I suppose neither of you is going to go away anytime soon, are you? Come in, then, if you want. It isn't locked anyway."
Kristy and Josh exchanged a glance and a shrug, then Kristy reached for the door controls. The panel before them slid soundlessly back to reveal their teammate, sitting cross-legged on her bunk, perusing a selection of maps laid out before her.
Josh crossed his arms and glared at her in disbelief. "You've locked yourself in your room to look at maps?"
"It wasn't locked," she reminded them. "Look here--Ben Yehuda Street's too close to the center of the city. Can't have the Red Home spotted there, and if we cloak it and then all of us disembark like we're just appearing out of nowhere . . . . What if we make a landing here, to the north of the city, then find a cab or something to get us to the auction house?"
"Becki?" Kristy frowned, stepping closer. "What are you . . ."
"Or," her eyes lit up as she traced a finger along to a new point of the map, "we could land here--the old Jericho road, just before it enters Jerusalem, just before the Mount of Olives. It's so empty out there in the hills, on that narrow ancient road, no one would be around to see us landing."
Josh scowled. "Look, we'll worry about that later. Seriously, you've been in here for the whole trip. I find it very hard to believe you've taken all those hours just to figure out a landing spot. What's going on?"
"Would you believe," she muttered, growing very still, "I've been drawing up my plans for world domination?"
"I almost would," Josh said, half smiling, "except that you'd be drawing them up in the common room and trying them out on us if you were."
"All right, then, I had a lot of homework to get caught up on--I am missing school for this mission."
"You never worry about homework on missions. You never need to."
With a quiet sigh, she closed her eyes and seemed to hold her breath for a moment, before looking suddenly up at Josh. Kristy frowned at the look in her friend's eyes: tearless, although clearly they hadn't been so for the entire duration of the trip from Mendellia, they locked on Josh almost despairingly.
A glance at the Jedi showed an answering alarm in his eyes, mixed with concern. At the look in Becki's eyes, he didn't speak. Nor would she. Kristy at last broke the silence, wondering what she was missing. The tension in the room was thick enough to be sliced and served with ice cream, and that wasn't jitters about what they would find in Jerusalem.
"Becki . . . if we can help . . ."
Becki broke out in a sudden smile then, turning her glance to Kristy; a weak and weary smile, but through it Kristy saw a hint of the once cheerful girl she knew. "Don't worry, I told you," she said. "I'll be fine. I just . . . Mendellia was a bit hectic and I needed some rest before we hit Jerusalem, that's all. Didn't mean to be antisocial or anything. I just wanted a little time to myself."
"That's all right," Kristy nodded. "If you're sure you're okay. If anything's the matter . . ."
"You'll be the first to know, Prophetess dear," Becki said with a strange smile. "Now . . . I guess we should be getting ready? Josh, here--the maps should go back in the equipment cases--" She reached for the nearest of them and held it out to him, and he moved to take it--then froze for a split second before accepting it. Kristy saw his glance fixed on Becki's bare left hand just before she herself noticed it and drew that hand quickly in toward her waist.
The moment was suddenly past, but Kristy hesitated, remaining behind for a moment as Becki, gathering up the rest of the maps, led the way out of the room and Josh followed after her, looking surprised and confused. Now I wish, Kristy thought, not for the first time that week, I hadn't been stranded up on Luna. Something weird's going on in this team, and I don't know where to start figuring out what!
The Red Home, cautiously cloaked, arrived in the skies above Jerusalem well ahead of schedule and, following Becki's suggestion, Mike brought the ship in low over the hills to the east of the city. The team, save for the Red Home crew of Mike, Raymond, and Zee, disembarked quickly and then set out for the long walk into the city.
Their path took them around the northeast corner of the Old City, past the sealed Golden Gate. The golden Dome of the Rock held their attention for a long while. Then, as it fell behind them and they walked on past the northern Lions Gate, beginning to grow more comfortable with their exotic surroundings, they gradually drew apart into groups of two or three, talking together as they walked, their spirits rising higher than they had been at any time since their mission began.
Kristy was catching up with Vickie (hoping to learn a little more about what she 'd missed while on Luna, but Vickie proved tightlipped on that, saying little about Paris that she hadn't already said when Kristy had talked to her back in Mendellia) when a hand at her left elbow drew her attention. She turned to see one of their team's newest members, Lenka Leannan, smiling politely and looking rather anxious.
"Captain Henscheid?" the Mendellian woman asked warily.
"Hello, Lady Leannan," Kristy smiled. "You can call me Kristy, you know. You're in the wrong place for standing on ceremony. Most of the lieutenants forget to call me Captain. On purpose, I'm sure." At her right, Captain Vickie Boyd chuckled agreeably.
"I'm sorry," said Lenka, smiling more easily now. "In that case, I am Lenka. Please. Kristy, there's something about which I'd like to speak with you, if I may."
"Of course."
"Jedi Boyd," Lenka nodded to Vickie, "I am sorry--but if you don't mind--"
"That's all right," Vickie nodded understandingly. She walked off a little way ahead of them, leaving Kristy and Lenka to themselves at the rear of the group.
Kristy glanced briefly at each of the other team members in turn: Brad, walking by himself and eyeing the Old City's walls and colorful markets as if planning a carefully calculated assault on them; Vickie, eyeing Josh Nolan warily a little distance ahead of her; and leading the way, Becki and Josh Cochran, because Becki, between her maps and her visit here two years ago, knew the route better than any of them, and because Josh--from the looks of things--had a great deal to say to Becki. Every so often she glanced at him beside her and answered briefly, but to Kristy's eyes she looked oddly uncomfortable.
"I am not really sure how to say this," Lenka's voice suddenly broke into Kristy's thoughts. She looked up at the Mendellian woman beside her.
"Say what?"
Lenka glanced to Kristy and then back ahead. "It's just that I think--perhaps--you've already noticed something. And since, of us all, only you weren't in Paris . . ." Kristy frowned at this reminder of what she'd missed out on. "It makes you an unbiased observer, you see. And so perhaps you can help me. Or rather, we each can help the other."
"What exactly am I supposed to be observing?" Kristy asked.
Lenka gestured to the team ahead of them, speaking quietly. "Of course, I haven' t known any of Terra Group long enough to be sure how things usually are. But surely you'll have noticed. The lieutenants, the two Americans."
"Josh and Becki?" Kristy named them, watching the latter shake her head slowly as the former gestured broadly to emphasize whatever point he was making. Discussing the plans for infiltrating the auction, were they? If not--then what? "There is something. . . . I don't know what. Becki's been out of sorts lately, it seems."
Lenka nodded, silent.
"Do you know what's going on, Lenka?" Kristy chanced, her recent lunar failure fleeing from her mind.
Lenka nodded absently again, still silent, apparently thoughtful.
"And . . .?"
The Mendellian turned and fixed a conspiratorial glance on her. "I know some of it. I don't think I know enough, however, to judge wisely in the matter. That's why I came to you. I wonder, Kristy, if we couldn't join our efforts. You care about them, I know. And while I haven't worked long with this group and don't know them too very well, I--well, my concern is for one who also is caught up in what is between them."
"Caught up between--Josh and Becki?" Kristy clarified, pursing her lips in thought as she worked through Lenka's riddling words. Who would be caught up between them? For whom would concern drive Lenka to approach Kristy in this way?
"One might say so," Lenka said quietly, and then, at the sound of the woman's resonant Mendellian accent, Kristy remembered who had sent her to work with Terra Group.
It began to make sense--alarmingly so. But surely it couldn't be--
"Lenka," Kristy said, "I think you'd better tell me what you know. Is there something between Josh and Becki?"
"One could read it that way. You see--" Lenka searched for words. "At the risk of sounding like a common court gossip," which was clearly not Lenka, not from what Kristy had seen of her, "the lieutenants have . . . shared intimacy."
Kristy's brows lowered threateningly. "That better not mean what I think it means."
"Grace, no," Lenka blushed in spite of herself. She wasn't as fair-complected as most of the Ladies-in-Waiting Kristy had seen around the Palace, and the flush suited her, instead of seeming glaringly obvious and patently feigned as, again, with so many other LiWs. "I mean--"
She drew a deep breath. "Plainly, then. I happened to be in Paris at the same time as your teammates. On an errand of my own, you see."
An errand of her own, hmm? That sounded suspicious, but there were bigger issues here, so Kristy's mind just twigged that, flagged it, then buried it.
"Despite its size, it is a surprisingly small city. I . . . happened upon the Lieutenants. We didn't speak; I saw them from a distance, and they did not notice me. Because they . . . were sharing a kiss."
What the hell?!! Kristy retained just enough self-composure not to let herself blurt that out. Clenching her teeth against the outburst she wanted to indulge in, she closed her eyes briefly to avoid combusting a passing camel with her glare. So there was something going on.
"I'm sure you know what Lt. Bush means to my Lord Thayer, and you see how this might affect them, were it to progress," Lenka was finishing, the very picture of discretion.
"Not well." Kristy pressed her lips together unhappily, her mind racing, feeling inexplicably like punching Josh Cochran in the face. "And I know you care for Thayer's happiness. But have you considered that there may be a perfectly logical non-romantic explanation for what you saw?"
A quick nod. "Several, as far-fetched as they may seem."
"Still, someone may have seen them in a place they didn't belong, and they were merely covering. I'm sure Josh has seen The Saint. And in the City of Love, young lovers enjoying the view . . ."
It was, as she had said, perfectly logical.
It also didn't feel right, to either of them. Kristy's head hurt, and she actually found herself wishing for the hectic "peace" of the lab she'd been working in as a technician since graduating from college.
Lenka sensed Kristy's doubt, it seemed. "But you see that, because of several angles, the matter may need to be investigated further?"
"TAWG, there's also Josh and Thayer--" Kristy drew in her breath with a hiss.
"Just so."
Okay then. . . . "Have you asked them?"
Lenka gave her a sideways look, almost amused. "And what should I say?"
Kristy balled her fists. "I suppose slugging Josh would be a bad way to look for answers. Damn! We do not need this right now!"
Now that she thought back on it, those little moments in the past few days that had set a part of her mind whirring made perfect sense, in this context. Even though she wanted--needed--it to be wrong. She needed that logical, innocent explanation to be the right one. She dared a look up at Becki and Josh again. They'd swung so quickly back and forth between total comfort and considerable tension when together, but...
But there was something else, something she'd not paid enough attention to, just an hour ago, on the Red Home.
"Lenka--Becki isn't wearing her engagement ring anymore." The realization made her feel cold despite the warmth of the morning sun.
Lenka's face didn't change remarkably, though Kristy noticed the frown between her brows. "Again, there could be a more mundane explanation. Perhaps she doesn't wish to risk it when in unfamiliar territory."
Kristy nodded, but neither of them really believed it. "On the other hand--or rather, not on the other hand . . ."
"How easy it is," Lenka mused, "to think the worst. Odd how people are, how readily they devour any hint of scandal, how quickly--even more so than usual, in a country so compact as Mendellia--rumor flies. . . ."
"Are you saying there's rumors about this already going around Mendellia?"
"There are rumors," Lenka nodded. "None as yet mention the kiss, but I think it is only a matter of time."
Kristy swore under her breath, feeling once again the urge to take out her frustrations between her clenched fist and Josh's face. "It's so stupid of them. And that's not like them, really. It could be the ruin of Terra Group."
"Likely of Lord Thayer as well."
Again she swore. "Thayer hasn't heard these rumors, has he?"
Lenka blanched and answered slowly, "I cannot say for certain what my lord has or has not heard. Kristy, I came here with your group hoping to find out the truth of the matter. I think, though, that won't be enough. Whatever is between them--whyever they kissed--it has to stop."
"So what do we do? Confront them with it?"
"Perhaps we should," Lenka said. "But--there is also this mission to consider. If we bring this out into the open now, will it make things easier? Or will it threaten the group's stability just when we most need to be working together?"
"If it were in the open, at least then I'd be free to slap Josh around a little for letting this happen!"
"You see what I mean?" Lenka scolded. "I should not even have mentioned this to you if that's to be your reaction. You won't get your mission done by fighting one another so directly. And do you think it would even do any good? You know him better than that, I think. Wouldn't a threat of violence just make him more resolved to carry on in his present course?"
"You're right," Kristy said, and then fell silent, considering their options. Finally she sighed, "We just can't let it go on any longer--assuming anything is going on, really."
"If it is," suggested Lenka, "they're only making it worse, keeping in such close company all the time. I wonder that no one else has taken notice of their familiarities."
"Close company," Kristy mused. "That gives me an idea. Maybe not the best thing in the long run, but it might at least get us through the mission. If nothing else, it would slow the rumors."
"Yes?"
"Could we just somehow keep them apart? Keep them safe from each other?"
"Keep them apart, in the middle of this mission?"
"Well, as much as possible. At least they aren't on the same team for the auction. Not even in the same building."
"No," Lenka said, "I am on his team. . . ."
"There you go," Kristy enthused. "If he's busy working with you, he'll have less time with Becki."
"I suppose," said Lenka with far less enthusiasm. "Grace knows that's worth a try, at least. Can you do the same with her, do you think?"
"She isn't on my team at the auction, but . . ." Kristy grimaced at the reminder that it was the other Josh, the one she'd nearly got killed, who was on her team. "I think I can. I'll keep her occupied somehow. No time to think about Josh." In both our cases, she thought.
"Then we'll do it," Lenka nodded. She smiled conspiratorially at Kristy and put out a hand for her to shake. "Good luck with Lt. . . . Becki. I shall go and start on my part of the bargain now, I think." She set off straightaway and joined the two lieutenants at the front of the group, leaving Kristy alone to fall back on her own thoughts.
"Such a dreadful long walk, sister," Dohrnaira complained, shooing away the street urchin who'd just offered to sell her an authentic olive branch from the trees of Gethsemane for a mere one American dollar.
"You've walked farther before, Naira," Etidorhpa maintained.
"But not in such dust!"
"What dust? Really, I don't know why you have to fuss so much. I find it quite pleasant."
"I can't believe we're even here, Eti! What by grace do you mean to do, out here in the middle of the desert?"
"Jerusalem's in the hills, not the desert, I think," Eti said uncertainly.
"No matter. We shouldn't have come."
"We didn't mean to come!" Eti reminded her sister, flaring up enough to toss a glare sidelong at Naira before storming off ahead of her along the stony street. The Terra Group team was just near enough ahead of them to follow without too much difficulty, but if Naira kept up her whining, Eti was sure someone would soon look back and spot the two of them.
"Then by Darwin's beard, why did we?" Naira caught up to her sister in a sullen sort of power-walk.
"You know why. We just . . . mistimed it, that's all. They left earlier than I had counted on."
"But why are we out here? We'd have been just fine back in their ship. They have to return to it sometime."
"We'd have been found, sooner or later, if we stayed there. We have to see where they're going. . . . Maybe we can . . ."
"Can what?"
"I don't know. I'll think of something, Naira darling, just don't bother me with questions. And don't fuss so much. And have you any more American money with you? There's one of those falafel sellers, I want to try one."
Naira grumbled under her breath but slipped her sister the last of her dollars; it would have been a waste, since Eti spit her first bite out and gave up on falafel before she'd half tasted it, except that, in a rare moment of generosity, Eti also passed the remainder of the pita-thing on to her sister to finish. It wasn't so bad, if you didn't mind garlic, which Eti did. But Naira didn't, so she allowed her doubts in Eti's grand scheme to rest for a while as, hunger now abated, she followed in her sister's wake as Eti followed in Terra Group's.