Channeling Cleopatra Read Online Free Page B

process."
    "Fair enough," Leda had agreed. The rain
still fell beyond the entry to the garage, a glistening beaded
curtain crackling as it hit the pavement. Now, occasionally, the
dark drops were silvered with the beams of headlamps, as a vehicle
drove into the garage. Each time, she apprehensively checked the
rearview mirror. No double rectangles. It was almost ten-thirty and
the eleven-to-seven shift was just arriving. "I guess we shook our
tail. You still hungry?"
    Chimera nodded, and Leda headed for the
all-night breakfast place where she and her dad sometimes met when
he was in town. While they were at breakfast, she thought of one
more thing she wanted.
    "Look, I would feel better
about this situation if I could have the backup I needed. You say
I'll be alone, and I don't much like that kind of odds so . . . "
    Chimera's slightly raised brows were the
only indication of concern about the further qualifications.
    "Don't worry. No queens this time. But as
you may know, my dad is a semiretired cop. I'd like it if your
company would hire him to do security for the job we were talking
about."
    "Do you think he would?"
    She nodded thoughtfully while chewing a bite
of pecan waffle. "Yeah. I think so. Laney—that's wife number
five—has invited her mom to come and visit, and Daddy can't stand
her. The mother-in-law, I mean. Besides, he's been looking a little
lumpy and peaked lately. I think he needs a change of climate.
Daddy isn't the kind of guy who should get in a rut, and he hasn't
changed wives or bought a new bike in over a year. Being bored
makes him feel old."
    Chimera smiled. "How old is your father now,
Leda?"
    "Oh, he's only seventy-two. How about
it?"
    "If he agrees and can pass the company
physical, we don't see why not. You can travel together that way.
We will speak to Wilhelm."
     
     

CHAPTER 2
     
    Duke Hubbard had been in law enforcement
since the tender age of fifty, when he finally decided he was
getting too old for motorcycle racing and stunt work and needed to
settle down. But training for the Nucore security force was like
undergoing immigration to a foreign country.
    In fact, Nucore and several of the other
international conglomerates of similar hugeness and diversity of
interests enjoyed much the same international status as an
individual country plus some additional perks. It was the security
force's job not just to protect the company property but to protect
its prerogatives as well.
    He was surprised to learn that company
security, not customs or immigration in the countries where Nucore
had large operations, was in charge of inspecting who and what came
into and left the facility in each country. Since Nucore had what
amounted to its own private air force, with aircraft flying under
the insignia of its various subsidiary holdings, and had in most
cases built as many airstrips and roads to supply its own needs as
the average army, the arrangement made sense.
    All of this he learned in the rookie class
in the brand-new Nucore facility outside La Grande. He and Leda
were staying with her scientist buddy, Chimera. It was a relief to
return to the house, kick back, and have a beer. Leda bought the
good stuff. Part of the pleasure of the beer was hearing her yell
every time she found another one missing. It was one of their
little family games.
    She spent a lot of time with Chimera down in
the lab, leaving Duke time to read all of the homework for his
rookie class. A bunch of it consisted of learning about electronic
doohickeys, alarm systems, and security devices that the company
employed to guard its premises. Procedural manuals, that kinda
thing. He'd be glad when they got to the part about apprehending,
knocking down, and cuffing somebody.
    The first week or so he was in the class,
the younger guys all looked at him like they thought he was some
supervisor auditing the class or was getting ready to be an
instructor or something. When they realized he was just taking the
course along with the rest