Kelley Eskridge Read Online Free Page A

had gone so bad between them.
    “Don't they teach you anything in those
process classes?” he was saying. “Feedback is an integral part of
improvement, Jackal. You really ought to learn how to handle it.” There
was a bite to the words, and a challenge; and then he smiled in a way
she recognized, and she understood that he was picturing himself on top
of her, moving his hips slowly while he held her face in his hands and
said—
    “Stop,” she said.
    The smile deepened. “Oh, don't be like
that,” he said. “I know you like to play.” And that did it. Her heart
juddered hard against her breastbone once, twice, and Tiger became
outlined in crimson, and she let the leash inside her slip: just this
once, she thought wildly, just this one time, and lunged across the
table, and broke his nose with the blade of her hand.
     
    Ko always moved fast, particularly where
Jackal was concerned: Tiger's blood was still damp on her shirt when
the assistant showed her into Analin Chao's office in the Executive Two
tower. Chao was short and sleek: Jackal gangled over her while they
shook hands.
    “Sit down.” Chao waved her to an armchair
that looked large enough for two of Jackal, with an ottoman
conveniently canted to one side.
    “No, thank you.”
    “Why not be comfortable?”
    The furniture, upholstered in a deep blue
fabric, looked slightly worn and indeed very comforting, as if it could
cradle all her troubles away. From its corner on the far side of the
office, the chair faced a floor-to-ceiling window that looked out to
the east coast of the island. It was a clear day: Jackal could see the
hazy bumps of the Hong Kong skyline on the horizon of the flat sea. A
person could sit in this chair and be safe without being trapped; a
person could be wombed here. But she wasn't falling for it. She had
studied with the lead designers of Ko's consumer psychology division:
they had even used last year's model of this chair as a class
discussion topic.
    She shook her head.
    “Ah,” Chao said, “of course, you'd be
aware of the subliminals. Sorry, most people don't get that training
until director level, at least. How about this one?” She pulled her own
chair from behind her corner desk.
    Jackal ignored it. She did not like being
so easily read, and she was determined not to let this Chao disconcert
her. All she wanted was to go home and curl up in a hot bath and be
tired of everything. She folded her arms across her stomach, smearing a
brush-stroke of blood across her shirt along the underside of her left
breast. She made no move to wipe it off; Chao was watching everything.
    Jackal said, “Dr. Andabe is my usual
counselor.” That was the right note, just casual enough but still firm.
Good.
    Chao smiled as if Jackal had said
something clever. “Yes, he is,” she agreed. “He'll get copies of all my
notes, of course. But Khofi is really more of an educational and
motivational advisor, after all, and you're certainly past that now,
don't you think? Your training is almost finished, Al Iskandariyah is
less than a month away. You're about to be officially invested as a
world Hope. It's important that any difficulties—” she smiled and
opened her hands in a way that made those difficulties shared, “—be
resolved efficiently before they complicate your taking up your new
position.” She sat easily on the edge of the ottoman, waved again to
the chair she had pulled out for Jackal.
    “Your needs are changing.” She spoke
earnestly, and her hands traced persuasive arcs in the cool recycled
air of the room, pale against the earth tones of the smooth walls and
the thick woven rug. “Ko wants to make sure you have all the support
you need to make what is, after all, a very important transition. So
the executive team has decided that I should be available to you from
now until your investiture, at least. To be a resource, help you work
out any concerns you might have. Think of me as someone to help you
with managing