My Enemy's Son (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 2) (13 page)

Chapter 5

Shelly

“Shelly?”  His hearing must have been
getting worse because he was yelling over the vid.  “Shelly?  It's Dr. Kenak.”

“Hello Dr. Kenak,” I yelled back.  “How
are you?”

“Doing fine, doing fine,” he shouted. 
“Shelly, Donak and I would like to chat with you.  Can you come to my office
this afternoon?”

“Of course,” I shouted back and made a
date for 4pm.

“Shelly!”  Kenak hugged me as if it had
been years since we had seen each other even though I saw him touring the SdK
campus with Donak last week.  “How are you, how are you?”

“Fine, fine,” I replied and gave Donak a
hug as well.  “So what's going on?”

“Rumor, rumors,” Kenak sighed and I nearly
burst out laughing as I knew exactly which rumors were being spread.

“Which rumors?” I asked, pretending I
didn’t know.  “There are so many of them.”

“Ah Shelly,” Donak answered.  “The rumor
mill at the hospital is declaring that our prince is married.  Do you know
anything about that?”

“Really?” I gasped and feigned surprise as
I sat down on the sofa.  “And how do all the nurses know that?”

“He has apparently become very chaste and
is refusing the attention of all the ladies determined to get his attention.”  Donak
winked.  “Your Nurse Kersey has announced that is because of a Spacewoman with
whom he has either married or contracted a communicable disease.”

“That sounds like Janet,” I laughed.  “I
suspect she's right that it's because of the Spacewoman though.  Do you want me
to ask him?”

“She’s a Human?” Donak asked.

“Yes.”  I nodded.  “LCDR Katie Golden who
came in with a head injury last month.  He treated her and spent the next few
days with her.  I think he knew her from before though.  I think she said
something like knowing him for a long time already.”

“Blessed Saint, Blessed Saint!” Kenak wailed. 
“We must ring Captain Loman.”

“Why?” I asked.  “Is he not allowed to get
married?”

“No, no, definitely not,” Kenak cried and
a moment later Loman's shaggy head appeared on the vid.

“Explain Shelly,” Kenak told me so very
slowly so the Universal Translator could keep up, I told Captain Loman all
about LCDR Golden.

“You think he plans to marry her?” Loman
asked.

“I don't know,” I replied suddenly feeling
terrible about this.  Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut.  Never the
less, I continued.  “She's the first girl that he's spent more than five
minutes with.  But really she is a darling girl and he's been very happy this
last month.  In fact I've never seen him so happy.  Other than the time when
those damn Saintists, the ones who thought he was the Infidel reborn, were
picketing the campus, he's been positively cheerful.”

“Pardon?” Loman interrupted.  “Saintists
picketing what?”

“Well,” Kenak answered for me.  “Once he
became famous and his name well known naturally there arose some opposition. 
After all it's been a thousand years since a de Kudisha lived on this Rozari
and you know as well as I do what happened last time.”

“We may have to recall him,” Loman sighed
and drummed his thumbs upon his desk.  “I must speak to the King about this.”

“Don't recall him!” I cried.  “The campus
is just now getting staffed, the hospital is practically full already and
equipment sales are going through the roof.  SdK is going to be a huge
company.  We need Ron here!”

Loman looked at me across the vid and blinked
his eyes several times waiting for the translator to catch up.  He scratched
his scraggy mane and then his chin.

“A huge company?” he repeated.

“Yes, yes,” Kenak responded.  “Sehron has
built an amazing company in a very short period of time.  He plans to expand it
to several other planets.  Donak and I had a delightful tour of the grounds
last week with Shelly’s son.”

Loman furrowed his brow.  “Sehron is no
longer a doctor?”

“No, he still is,” I replied.  “He has
surgery on Wednesday only though.”

“But he lost his privileges at the RSI
Medical Centre so he had to build his own hospital,” Donak interjected.

“Well he was building the hospital before
he lost his privileges,” I corrected.

“And why did he lose his privileges?”
Loman rolled his eyes as if he already knew.

“Because of the Human woman,” we all said
at the same time purely by coincidence.

“She was a patient at the time,” Donak
added quietly and cleared his throat.  “Hospital room, ahem.”

Loman sighed again.  “Senya and trouble
are synonymous.  Alright, I'm drawing up summons.  I'll ring you back as soon
as I have His Majesty's signature.  You can tell His Royal Highness to pack his
bags.”  The screen went dark.

“No!” I cried.

“Now Shelly,” Kenak said, but I could see
he was disappointed too.

I felt horrible.  I felt like I betrayed
Ron.  I felt like everything that SdK Corporation was going to become wouldn’t
happen now because of me.

“What's the matter?” Janet asked.  It was
the next day and I was useless behind my desk.

“I think I screwed up,” I replied.  “I
think I got Ron in more trouble.”

Janet snorted.  “Is that even possible?”

“Yeah.”  I swiped at a tear trickling down
my cheek.

“Whatever it is, it's not your fault,
Shel.”  Janet patted my shoulder.  “Trouble has his name on it.”  She picked up
the chart she had come to get.

“Somebody else told me that exact same
thing yesterday.”  I sniffed as Dr. Ron came in.  It was Wednesday and he was
still in scrubs.

“Oh.”  I winced and pointed at his tunic. 
“Do you mind leaving the dirty ones back at the hospital?”

“Is it dirty?”  He frowned.

“Yeah, looks like you had a spurter or
two,” Janet replied and held out her hand so he would take off the tunic and
hand it to her.  “You ruined that nice silk tie.”

“Now I have ruined all but one of them.”

“Yep, the little woman will be furious,”
Janet smirked.

“Kari-fa!” Ron swore and put his hand on
his head.  “What day is this?”

“Wednesday?”

“No, when?  What day?  What month?”

“You don't know?”  Janet sneered.  “What's
wrong with you?  Did you miss a date or something?”

“I’ve just been too busy.”  Ron shook his
head.  “Shelly, I need a spaceplane.  Actually, tell Thad.  He shall come too.”

I brought up the schedule for the two
private SdK spaceplanes that had recently been built for the company.  Both
were booked by directors but since Ron trumped everybody, I reserved one for
him.

“You're taking Thad on your date?” Janet
asked.

“Janet,” Ron said, taking off his glasses
and pressing his eyes.  “You are beginning to irritate me.”

“Sorry.”  She held up her hands and backed
away with the dirty tunic.  “I don't want to end up flying around the parking
lot.”  She turned on heel and then went into her office, slamming the door.

“Actually, honey, I need to talk to you
about something,” I said quietly.

He looked down at me with his shining eyes
and my head went fuzzy for a moment.

“It is not your fault,” he concluded.  “I
need to go there anyway.  When Loman rings back, you can tell him I am coming
now.”

“Are you coming back?” I asked.

“Of course.”

“But Loman said you were going to be
recalled?”

He shrugged.  “They do not want me there
anymore than I want to be there.  We shall return in a few days.”

“Can I go?”  I followed him into his
office.  He sat down at his desk and started flipping through his emails.

“I think Tim would not be very supportive
of that.”

“About as supportive as LCDR Golden,” I
remarked.  “Furthermore, Tim's at a meeting on Earth.  He won't be home until
late next week.”

Ron considered this for a moment.  “Not
this time.  Thad will be too busy and I shall probably end up getting flogged
or killing someone or both.”

I laughed.  He didn’t.

“You're not serious.”

“Not this time, Shelly.”  He reached for a
stack of documents on his desk.

“You haven't told her yet, have you?”

He flipped through the papers.  “This is
not important yet.”

“Actually it is,” I replied.  “You want to
stay married longer than five minutes, you'll need to be upfront about things
and this is a pretty big one.  From what Tim's told me about LCDR Golden, she's
one sharp cookie.  She's not going to like being blindsided by this.”

“I am not blindsiding her as you say.  I
have hinted a bit.”  He started typing on his vid.

I raised my eyebrows.

“I sent her chess pieces, a king and
queen.”

I nearly choked.  “Honey, you may be the
smartest man alive but you are still a man and you have no clue.  Being the
brilliant brain surgeon that you are, you might have realized by now that
women's brains are wired differently than men's.”

“Well technically…”

“Ron, Senya,” I rolled my eyes.  “Just
don't hide things from your wife.  I'm going to the mall.  Do you want me to
pick you up some new ties?”

“Do I need some?”

“Yes and probably some shirts too.  Do you
need anything else?”

“Lunch?”

“Okay.”  I walked around the desk and
kissed him on the top of his head.  “I'll pick you up a sandwich too.”

He looked up from his vid with a surprised
expression.  “Thanks Mum.”

“No problem, Sweetheart.”  I shut the door
behind me as I left his office.

Chapter 6

Berkan

The vid chirped.  I ignored it.  It
chirped again.  Luci pushed me off. 

“Answer that,” she said. 

I wanted to break it, not answer it.  “If
it's your mother, I am going to break it,” I said and rooted around the floor
for my pajama bottoms.  It chirped a third time.

“Hello?”

The screen was black.

“I'm so sorry,” a voice said.  “My timing
is impeccable.”

“Who is that?” Luci called.

I wasn’t sure.  “Who is this?”

A chuckle.  “Come on Berkie, surely you
know my voice?”

My blood froze.  There was only one person
who ever spoke the Noble Mishnese with a Street Mishnese accent. 

“You're dead,” I said.  “I went to your
funeral.  I even sat in the second row.”

“Ach, Berkie.  Didn't I tell you never to
believe a word Akan said?”

“But the King?”

“He's gone dotty.”

“Then, you're not dead?”

Laughter.  “Do I sound dead?  Right, I'm
ringing you from Hell otherwise known as Rozari.  Listen Berk, I've only got a
minute or two here.  I need you to ring Loman and tell him I want an audience
with both Yokaa and Merakoma.  I should be there by tomorrow, late.”

“Okay?”

“And Berk.  I'm putting you to work now. 
I'm going to bring one of my associates with me.  He will explain what we want
to do and how we are going to do it.  In the meantime, I need you to scope out
some land in New Mishnah.  Find me about fifty acres to build a complex of
office and manufacturing.  We can tear down existing if need be, yes?”

“Okay?  Sir.”

“Good man.  Come by my flat tomorrow and
let me know what you have found.”

“Yes, Sir.  I will.”  The vid went dark.

“Who was that?” Luci demanded.  “Who wants
an audience with Yokaa and Merakoma?  As if we all go about referring to kings
by their first names.  I want an audience with Yokaa, Berkie.  Get me an
audience too while you are at it.”  She giggled and beckoned me back to bed.

“I've got a job,” I replied, looking at
the blank vid with stunned amazement.  “I'm going back to work!”

“Are you serious?”

“You heard him!  He said he's putting me
to work.  I've got a job Luci!”  I raced over to the bed and threw myself on
her.  “And things are going to get better now.  Things are going to be a whole
lot better for everybody.”

She started laughing.  “How do you know? 
Who was that Berkie?”

“That was my best friend Senya,” I said
and felt like crying.

“Senya?”  She frowned and shook her wild
red curls.  “You’ve never told me about anybody named Senya.  And what kind of
best friend could he have been if he let you think he had died.  Wait a minute
here…”  Her mouth fell open.  “Wasn’t Senya the MaKennah’s nickname?”

“Yes,” I nodded.  “You know that old pinup
you have of the MaKennah giving the bear to the girl.  The one that’s hanging
on the wall in the baby’s room?”

“Yes?”

“I was the one who told him to give the
bear to a girl.  I'm the little boy right behind him, the boy wearing the blue
baseball cap.”

“Really?” she gasped and jumped out of
bed, pulling the blanket with her.  She raced into the bedroom next door and
stared at the pinup hanging above the empty crib.

“That’s me, Luci.”  I gazed up at my
twelve year old self, half hidden by Taner.  “I was his best friend.  I lived
in the Palace with him for almost a year.”

Luci started to cry.  “I can’t believe I
never realized that was you.  How many times did I look at this pinup and never
saw you?”  She turned suddenly, her eyes wide open, her nose as red as her hair. 
“What kind of job is he going to give you, Berkie?”

“I don’t know!”

“Blessed Saint,” she squealed and danced
round.  “He's really alive!  You really know him!  Is he going to pay you a
lot?”

“I don’t know but I’ve got to call my
dad.  He wants his apartments ready tomorrow.”

We raced back to our bedroom and the vid.

“Berkie,” Luci cried.  “Why didn't you
tell me any of this before?”

“He was supposed to be dead, honey.  Up
until right now, it wouldn't have mattered.”  I swallowed my excitement and lowered
my voice as I rang my dad’s office at the Palace.  I was working for the
MaKennah now.  I was back on Senya’s roller coaster and it was about to take me
to heights I couldn’t even begin to imagine.

The next day I scouted out New Mishnah for
property.  There was a lot available, too much.  Our country had been in a deep
depression for more than ten years now.  Unemployment was at more than fifty
percent.  Shops and restaurants had long since closed as food and consumer
goods were scarce.  Nearly every city looked like Old Mishnah. 

I found exactly the property Senya was
looking for and in a cruel twist of fate; it was the old Clock Tower Mall.  The
water and amusement parks were decrepit, twisted and rusted versions of their
former selves.  The mall had closed at least five years ago and was now
inhabited by a city of homeless living in cardboard boxes in the former parking
lots.  The property had gone into foreclosure and then the bank holding the
paper on it had also gone under.  It was one of the many, many properties now
owned by the bankrupt city of New Mishnah, acquired due to lack of payment on
property taxes.  Senya could probably buy the whole city if he wanted.

I spoke quietly to the City Manager and
not mentioning my buyer, discussed the price the city was willing to take. 
Happy to get it off their hands and get it back on to taxpayer rolls, the city
was willing to throw in an adjacent office building as well as the mall
property.

“How many people do you think you will
employ there?” the City Manager asked hopefully.

I had no idea but if Senya wanted fifty
acres, probably a lot.

I called Luci and told her I would be home
late as I needed to go to the Palace first.  I wanted to make sure Senya's
apartments were ready.  Luci was still in a state of shock after my revelation
last night.

“Can I come?” she begged.

“Not this time,” I said.  “But if he's
coming back to stay, I promise you will get a chance to meet him.”

“Oh Berkie, I love you, I love you.”

I wasn’t sure if she loved me as much as
she loved the idea that I knew Senya.

The next morning, a limo came and took me
to meet Senya's associate Thad at the property.  We walked the campus and
discussed what Senya wanted to do through a Universal Translator clipped to
Thad’s belt.

“I can't believe what shambles this
country is in,” Thad remarked, gazing up at the pitiful wreck of the Clock
Tower Mall.  “But I suppose we'll be able to hire people really cheap, get our
labor costs down.”

“What exactly are we building?” I asked.

“I'll show you.”  Thad pulled out a tablet
and called up a website of SdK Corporation based in Kalika-hahr, Rozari.  “A
subsidiary of this.”

I was impressed.  Senya's company was very
large and had several divisions.  Many people were employed by it.  The
hospitals were state of the art, the equipment very advanced.  I could see why
he wanted to bring all this to us but I was not sure if I was the one who would
be able to do it.

I reflected on this as the limo pulled up
in front of us.  Since I had been unemployed for several years, I had no
speeder.  My father granted me the use of a limo to chauffeur Senya's friend
and while at the Palace I had a new suit made which I was wearing now.  Thad
couldn’t tell I was living in near poverty.

“So you'll be able to do this.  Right,
Berkan?” Thad said, climbing into the back seat.  “Gosh this is really nice.” 
He palmed the soft leather.

“Yes, of course I'll be able to do it,” I
boasted, though I had no idea how.

“I'll be working closely with you on it. 
You can call me anytime and I think I'll be able to come over here if you need
me.”

He must have sensed my hesitancy.  “Ron
trusts you, right?”

“Right.”  I nodded and looked out the
window at the rain splattering against the pane. 

We approached the Palace from the north,
soaring over the forest and into the courtyard.

“Wow, this place is something else,” Thad
exclaimed.  “What is it anyway?  Like a Ritz-Carlton resort or something?”

“Pardon?”

“This hotel.  It's really grand.”

The limo taxied to a stop and the door
opened for us.  I was anxious to see Senya again after all this time, to
discuss all this with him and to be reassured by him that this was something I
was capable of doing.  After all these years of thinking he was dead, I had
instantly reverted back to being dependent upon him and upon his opinion.  How
quickly I had become once again his servant.

“Hey, Berkan?”  Thad stepped toward the
door.  “Isn't this where we are staying?  Shouldn’t we get out here?”

“Yes, yes,” I said, pulling myself to my
feet.  We headed out across the courtyard to the Big House, the royal residence
building and Senya's apartments.  Last night, for the first time in nearly
twenty years, I had come back here.  It was both an odd and heady feeling.

“So how long have you known Ron?” Thad
asked as we entered the marble foyer at the base of the building.  He whistled
through his teeth.  “Is this real gold?”

“Everything is real,” I said, leading him
up the staircase.  “I have known Senya since we were twelve.  I lived here with
him for almost a year.”

“You lived here, in this hotel?” Thad
gasped.

We continued on to the third floor.  A
guard stood outside Senya's suite.

“Is His Royal Highness in?” I asked.

“Yes, Mr. Berkan.  You are expected.”

“I don't think that translated right,”
Thad mumbled, looking at his Universal Translator.  “Whose room is this?”

“Come on, Thad.”  I stood aside as the
guard pushed open the great door and then I waved for Thad to follow me
through. 

The French doors leading out to the
balcony were open and the wind and rain were blowing into the suite leaving
puddles on the marble floors and soaking the ornate handmade wool rugs.

“What fool left the doors open?” I cried
to no one in particular, racing over to slam the doors shut.

“This fool,” Senya replied bitterly.  He
was sitting out on the steps that led down to the beach.  Dressed in an elegant
blue uniform with an abundance of gold braid and trim, he sat there unbuttoned
and soaked through to the skin.  His hair was long and dripping wet, held back
in a simple pony tail by a diamond studded barrette at the base of his neck. 
Of course he had no shoes on and a sweet smelling cigarette hung off his lip.

“Your Royal Highness.”  I knelt on the wet
marble.

“Ach fuck it, Berkie.”  Senya waved his
cigarette at me.  “Get up or sit down.  Go get yourself something to eat and
get Thad a beer.”

“Could we at least go back inside?  Come
on now it's pouring down rain.”

“Yeah, alright,” Senya said and dragged
himself to his feet.  He had a near empty bottle of vodka with him.  “Fuck it,”
he swore again and smashed it against the side of the building. 

We went inside and I headed to the fridge,
picking up some bottles of beer for all of us.  Thad stood by the door with a
stunned expression on his face.

“Um, Ron,” he ventured and glanced quickly
at me.  “Um, what are you wearing?”

Senya let loose a string of obscenities
and pulling off his jacket and sash, dropped them in a heap on the floor.

“Are those real diamonds on that?” Thad
pointed at the back of Senya’s head.

“I told you, Thad,” I reminded him as I handed
him a bottle of beer.  “Everything here is real.”

Thad studied the bottle in his hand. 
“What brand is this?”  He pointed at the label which bore the Eagle Coat of
Arms.  Everything that Senya touched had to bear his crest.

“MaKennah Beer,” I smirked and picked up
Senya's jacket and sash from the floor.  I took them into the wardrobe, placing
them in the worn clothing pile and fetched Senya a clean, dry blouse.  When I
returned, Senya was sitting on a sofa with his feet up on the table.

“Did your audience not go well?”  I held
out the fresh silk blouse for him.  He slipped off the wet one and gave it to
me.  Thad stared at the markings on Senya's arm, the scars on his back.

“What the heck happened to you?” Thad
pointed.

“Fuck off,” Senya swore yet again and took
a long pull on his bottle of beer.  “Sit!”  He pointed at the couch.  Thad and
I immediately sat.

“Do you want to tell me what happened,
Sir?”