The two of them lay on the beach gleaming in the lowering sunlight. The sand looked rosy in the late afternoon light. Blond hair and white, the white finally grown long enough to wear in a warrior que, mingled where the two of them lay their heads together watching the clouds above them. Their surfboards abandoned now, both of them lay still, catching their breath. 

"Do you miss your island terribly?" Anja asked.

"Sometimes," he said.  "I miss the silence and the space as much as I miss the ocean."

Anja nodded. "I mostly miss time. There never seems to be enough time to just think."

"It's going to get worse for a while," he said, pulling her closer, "Given what they're planning."

She nodded. "They're quite crazy."

He gave a bark of laughter.  "No kidding, but it's my kind of craziness. I mean, they do have a nice eye for causes."

Anja rolled over to lay on her stomach and look up at him. "You do enjoy it don't you?" She was smiling at him.

He looked into her eyes and the lights turning in the blackness.  "Mostly.  I'm good at it, which I suppose is why.  Do you mind?"

"No. But I do wonder if you'll ever be able to give it up."

"I'm not good at much else, sweetheart.  Surfing, loving you."  He brushed her hair back from her face.  "Do you want me to be able to give it up someday?"

Anja frowned. "I'd like to think you could. Or would. If something better came along."  She paused, then added, "I'm .. I'm sorry. I suppose it's just that the violence and the inhumanity sometimes make me despair."

"You've nothing to be sorry for.  And I suppose, if something better came along, I'd be willing to try it.  I'd also be willing to try something else if you needed me to do that.  Or even give it up.  I've enough money, so it's not like I'd need to work to support us if it came to that."

"So you'll see my world," she said, obviously ready to change the subject. "You'll hate it. Lots of snow and mountains. No surfing."

"And cold too, I suppose," he said, letting her for the moment.  "Though skiing's a lot like surfing.  What's Snow saying about all this?"

"He's become quite proud, I'm sorry to say. He's planning on preening and showing them that even if he wasn't much of a dragon when he was a baby that he's grown up to be quite fearsome.  He wants to make his mother proud."

Laz laughed.  "There's nothing wrong with wanting to make his mother proud of him.  But I meant the whole evolving thing," he said, sitting up.

"He seems to think it is just natural. Perhaps his pride looked on the whole idea differently. He's rather struck about how excited Kalie is but doesn't understand why."

"Yeah."  He looked back at her.  "Marc wants to take on a couple more crew.  Security types, especially for when we're planet side.  There's a couple of kids I want you to meet."

"Me? Why do you want me to meet them?" she asked, looking surprised.

"They're at St. Azael's," he said. 

"Ah. I should do my monk whammy on them," she said with a giggle. "What am I looking for?"

"If they're ready."

"For the Rim? Who is."

"No.  Not like that.  Ready is maybe the wrong word."  He sighed.  "But I don't want to explain.  I want you to meet them first."

"All right. I'll go to meet them tomorrow."  As she said it there was a sudden influx of cold air and a man zapped in up by the beach house. Whoever he was, he collapsed in a heap near the door.

Anja was up and running as quickly as Laz.

Laz reached him first, taking him in in a glance.  As he bent down to pick him up he said, "the big first aid kit's in the kitchen.  Get it, your bottle of aqua vitae and a bunch of towels."  He stood up and carried him into the house, putting him down on the bed in the spare bedroom.  Then he stripped the man's jeans off with a thought, straightening the wounded leg so he could see it better.

The man came back to consciousness with a curse on his lips. Anja was standing in the doorway with the bottle of liquor and the big first aid kit and his eyes were locked onto her.

Then when Laz reached out to touch the wound in his thigh his eyes came back to Laz. "I couldn't wait for our meet. Sorry."

Laz laughed.   "Her name's Anja.   His name's Lev and he gets the bottle first."  He looked at Lev.  "I can knock you out for this if you want.  But I'm gonna have to dig it out, unless you want to go to the healers."

"No, no healers. It's not that bad. I'd rather stay awake. Hullo Anja."

"Hullo Lev. Who shot you?" Anja asked.

"Nobody you need to worry about," he grunted as Laz began cleaning off the wound.

"Give him the bottle, sweetheart," he said, putting towels under Lev's thigh.  "He can get started while I wash my hands."

Anja came toward Lev and handed him the bottle. Lev turned it up and then gasped when he could breathe again after downing about a fourth of it. "Who drinks this stuff," he said with a frown.

Anja grinned. "Me. No hangover afterwards."

"So says you," Lev grunted and swigged down more of the stuff.  "Is it kosher?"

"Whadda you care?  You aren't." Laz poured betadine on the wound and picked up a pair of probes.  "Want something to bite on?"

"Yeah," Lev replied. "I'd rather not scream in front of the lady. Never know what I might say."

Anja grabbed a washcoth and rolled it up. "Trust me, I've heard it all," she said, handing it to Lev who gurgled down more aqua vitae and  stuffed the washcloth in his mouth, then nodded at Laz. He was sweating bullets as Laz dug for the bullet but he neither passed out nor screamed, although he did make several grim faces.

"Done," Laz said as he dropped the bullet in a cup and started cleaning the wound again.  He packed it with antibiotic powder, bandaged it and then gave Lev a shot of antibiotics.  "You okay?" he asked as he put some pillows under the leg and then started cleaning up.

"I feel like throwing up. I'm obviously not drunk enough," Lev replied. "She's pretty."

"You're drunk alright.  Or you'd know what you're looking at is beautiful, not merely pretty," Laz said, moving a trash can to the side of the bed.

"I'm workin' on it," Lev replied and drank some more then pretty much passed out.

Anja reached over to take what was left of the bottle out of his hand.  "Who's this then and what's his story?"

"Lev Nazarov.  I used him a lot when he went free lance after he left Home.  He needs to get out of Dodge for a while and thinks he might like to see the Rim.  He was working as Betty Jo's body guard.  She suggested he come work with us."

"Ah. He's pretty. I approve."

Laz burst out laughing and pulled her into his arms.  "As Marc has been wont to say to Dinah, you're taken, all of you."

"I know, but it doesn't mean I can't look. Who was chasing him, do you know?"

"Probably Mossad," Laz said, drawing her out of the room and closing the door.  "Or someone very like them."

"Not the sort of people to make an enemy," she said as she wrapped her arms around Laz and held him tightly.  "I hope we can help him."

"No, not the sort.  We can talk about helping him when he wakes up," Laz said, bending his mouth towards hers.  "But right now, we need to talk about how you can help me."

"I'm all ears."

He lifted her in his arms and started towards the bedroom.  "I think it'll be easier to show you," he said.  "Definitely clearer."

"Oh, I do love it when you show me these things. I'm such a slow learner, I don't know how you keep interested, having to do these things over and over..."

"It's because I love you, sweetheart."

"Fortunate for me, then. Will Lev be all right?"

"Yes.  As long as he doesn't die of alcohol poisoning," Laz said as he dropped her on the bed, making sure she was naked by the time she finished bouncing.  He put a knee on the bed, leaning over her.  "I'll let you nurse him."

"But not now, I think. You seem to have something else entirely in mind, and I do like what I see."

"Me too," he said and then he kissed her.

Several hours later, Laz asleep on the bed, Anja got up and went to check on Lev. He was awake and looking decidedly greenish around the gills.

"I'll get you something for the pain," Anja said.

"No, please don't. I'd rather be thinking clearly," Lev replied.

Anja chuckled. "You are hardly thinking clearly through that much pain."

Lev frowned. "Yeah, you may be right. How's Laz?"

"I murdered him and he's lying in a pool of blood in the bed," Anja replied.

"I've risen from the dead," Laz said from the doorway.  He tossed Anja a bottle of ibuprofen.  "Give him four."

"Where did you find her?" Lev asked.

"Dinah needed a body guard and they hired her," he said leaning back against the door.  "Dinah needs more than one, especially these days."

"Don't know her. What's she into?"

"Saving the world.  Or maybe I should say the universe.  She's getting ready to piss off the local version of the Mafia, known as the Syndicate and their marginally more legit counterparts, known as the Barons." Laz said.  "And this after she blew up the Syndicate's favorite cash cow.  The Barons already don't like her, either."

"Betty Jo said something about that. I guess she figures she didn't piss them off enough already? Man, she sounds like trouble."

Laz laughed.  "Oh yeah.  Marc keeps her on a fairly tight leash, though."  Laz considered him.  "Look man, this'll be as much merc work as personal security.  The consensus is this will turn into a shooting war eventually.  Though, for what it's worth, I think she's doing the right thing.  It's me, Paul and Natha along with Anja and a few others you don't know who are as good.  And a dozen dragons."

"Dragons huh?" Lev took the pills Anja handed him and washed them down with the last of the aqua vitae. "Well, I need a job, preferably a busy one, so if you've got room for me, sounds like something I'd enjoy."

Laz eyed him again.  "Is there something I should know?"

"Not a thing. I don't think Mossad has an interplanetary reach and anything else is back in London. No worries."

"We'll be in port as it were for a few more days.  Then there's a thing on St. Michael's, the opening of the new session of the Assemblies...think Parliament..that Marc and Dinah will attend.  Then we're heading to Anja's home world for some research and after that it'll be back to the Rim.  Couple of weeks.  So you'll have time to recover.  You're welcome to stay here if you want or I can ship you somewhere else."

"Whatever you prefer. I don't think I'll be dancing for a few days anyway."

"Then Anja's volunteered to nurse you and help you work on your tan while I surf.  What could be better?"

Lev grinned. "Sounds like a plan."