Chapter Ten: Bad Company

Theresa Liggett had a window seat in the second passenger car. The seat was un-cushioned with an almost straight back; it was uncomfortable, almost as uncomfortable as all the attention she was receiving. Passengers bounced in unison every second or so as the old train rolled over welded joints and swayed to the curvature of the tracks. Tee had never ridden on a train before but she was certain that the Danubian rail system was not up to modern European standards; it was only a hundred and eighty miles from Danube City to Rika Chorna but the trip was supposed to take three and a half hours. To distract from the constant curious glances from the other passengers, Tee fished out the English to Danubian dictionary from her canvas bag. She picked a page at random.

Tu etes un bon chien- Budshkt dek harash sobakt.

�Uh... I think I picked from the wrong stack." Tee set down the book and looked out the window wondering what her chances of meeting a Frenchman in Rika Chorna were.

It was the last day of August 1993. Tee had gotten a phone call from her brother two weeks earlier urging her to come visit him in Danubia before her fall classes began. It was peculiar since he hadn't said anything about a trip before then, but that day he nearly insisted upon it. Tee used about half the money that her paranoid brother kept hidden in his freezer to pay for travel and two days lodging in Rika Chorna. Her mother was completely freaked out when she heard that her other child was going to that terrible country that held Arthur. Tee ignored her protests and went anyway.

The train slowed considerably as it climbed toward the pass, two miles away and a thousand feet below the calm waters of the Rika Chorna Reservoir stretched to the southern horizon. At its uppermost point in the central mountains the train went through a short tunnel and then the view to the east opened up.

Rugged slopes and hardwood forests transitioned into rolling hills and pastures dotted with sheep, cattle, farmhouses, and barns. The rural landscape stretched on for several miles and then ended abruptly; the western boundary of Rika Chorna looked like a solid wall of buildings on the plains. Factories, loading docks, and shipping containers stacked two high filled an industrial park on the right side of the tracks; on the left side multiple freight trains occupied the parallel tracks of a busy rail yard.

The train passed through the industrialized section of the city and into a residential zone with multistory apartment buildings, a city park with a sizable lake, and rows of small houses stretching far to the north. The train station was almost exactly in the city's center.

Air brakes hissed, the train car shuddered one last time and Tee's long train ride was over. She grabbed her bag and stepped in front of the lady who had spent most of her trip staring a hole though her. The station was was obviously old, built of gray marble and hardwood beams; some select pieces of marble encrusted with brilliant mineral veins of green malachite and blue azurite formed an arch around the main entrance. Everyone stared, ordinarily Tee enjoyed being the center of attention but the scrutiny she was getting from a police officer near the station's entrance was unnerving. With his German Shepard by his side the policeman kept her in sight.

Forty meters across the station Tee found a map that was labeled in English. The policeman was trying to be subtle as he strolled past her slow enough for his dog to sniff her canvas bag. With spiky hair and unique fashion sense she looked like the type of person who would carry something illegal, but she was not. The policeman continued on.

For reasons he didn't explain Arthur insisted on meeting at a small park a few hundred feet to the south of the station. Tee walked rapidly down a stone path with hedges to either side. It led to an open space with mowed grass, big shade trees, and a view overlooking a small river to the south. A family was eating supper at one of the picnic tables with a good view of the stream, another couple sat on a bench and watched their kids play ball. The park was otherwise empty.

�Tee, it's hard to believe you showed up on time."

She jumped and spun around to see Arthur leaning against a tree trunk wearing nothing but a collar and dusty orange boots.

Tee caught her breath and tried to not look embarrassed. "Hey, nice shoes."

"You like them?" Arthur slyly glanced to both sides. "Don't tell anyone but I've got a special deal with the Ministry of Justice. In exchange for twenty years of hard labor I get as many of these awesome orange boots as I need." Arthur looked Tee over. "You know, I really didn't expect that I would be the one who's dressed better. What, are you in costume? Don't tell me, let me guess... You're a colorblind gypsy? A whore from a Mad Max movie?"

�You have no sense of fashion Arthur. But even you have to admit that my new hairstyle is pretty awesome."

�Yeah, the colors are really... festive, but how do you get it to stand up like that? By the way, thanks for toning it down for your visit here like I asked."

�Anything for my troublesome brother, what are you called?" She examined the collar with a curious expression, then reached up and rotated it to find the engraving. "88588. James Bond has a better number but I guess it's easy to remember. So, how's the espionage business going these days?"

�So, so. I've been trying to build up my network of spies, but I don't have much to work with so far. And this place is so primitive I hardly know what to spy on, I did manage to infiltrate a mine reclamation site to the west of here but that's about it."

Tee was still messing with the collar, "So these are tracking collars?" Then she put an index finger through the loop. "What do they do, walk you on a leash?" Tee burst out laughing. "Is that why you're in the park?"

�Tee," Arthur struggled to look serious. "I had almost forgotten how much I hate you."

Tee wagged a finger. "Don't make me roll up a newspaper!"

�Fair warning." Arthur said. "I don't have my shots!"

Tee noticed the other people in the park watching her. "I'm starving. Where can we eat at anyway? I'll pay since I really don't want to know where you keep your money."

Arthur grinned. "Tee, criminals don't carry money, we have to charge everything using the number engraved on the collar or carry the bill back."

�So your collar's like a credit card?" Tee was amused. "What do we have to do run your head across a scanner?"

�Uh... No, more like an ID, and the waiter can just write the number down along with the order. By the way, you remember what I told you about this place? You know, about the lying, respecting the religion, public officials and such? You're no use to me if you're in here too, you know."

�Of course, Arthur. You're the one who can't stay out of trouble."

�Point taken. Anyway, are you still going out with that Roddy guy?"

Tee sighed and brushed her spiky hair back. "Nah, he couldn't stand my lizards any more, they've really grown since you saw them. Over three feet long, can you believe it? I told him to watch out for their tails; you know they're kind of sensitive about that. Anyway, one whipped him right across the nose when he sat down on the couch. He threw such a fit; you'd think he'd never been around a monitor lizard before. So the boyfriend's gone."

Arthur shrugged. "One does need to keep priorities straight. Anyhow, I can take you over to your hotel room and we can grab some food but after that I've got to go to church."

�What did they do force you to convert?"

�I go voluntarily, a man needs allies here you know. Besides, criminals tend to be religious." Arthur looked like he was trying not to laugh. "In fact, the Church teaches that the suffering that the Ministry of Justice puts me through is crucial in the process of realigning my damaged soul."

�So do you think you're aligned yet?"

�No, the police are giving it their best shot but I suppose it's going to take a few more tries." Arthur sighed. "Tee this is turning into one of our typical stupid conversations. I don't suppose you have anything important to talk about, something that you couldn't discuss over the phone or through the mail?"

Tee's eyes darted right and left and then she stepped close. "Oh, yeah." She said in a hurried whisper. "I brought you something. You remember Strangler? He died this spring." She reached into her bag searching for something inside. "Long story short, I've taken up taxidermy!" Tee pulled out a wide snakeskin belt that must have been over four feet long. With a smile that would have looked demented on anyone else Tee tossed it to her brother. "So what do you think?"

To people in the park it surely appeared as if Arthur was having a seizure. The bout of fierce laughter left Arthur catching his breath for a moment before he could say anything to the expectant Tee. "Awesome. If I could wear pants this belt would be the shit! I'm pretty sure I can't wear a belt even without pants, but if I could I would definitely have this on."

Tee beamed in pride over his compliment of her leather crafting skills. Her big brother's laugh was something she had badly missed; it was good to see him again, though she would rather not have seen quite so much of him.

After a while she watched her brother's demeanor change, Arthur seemed like he wanted to say something, but he stood in silence and looked around the park at nothing in particular. Tee waited. Her normally calm brother had a troubled expression.

�Tee, before we go through the city, you need to know what goes on here. I have many rules I have to follow, lots of restrictions. No clothes obviously, and there are a lot of places I can't go. They tell me where to live, where to work, I'm twenty-four years old and I had to get permission to go out on a date with Samantha. I've been told a number of times that I'm nothing but government property!"

Arthur's face was red and the furious expression seemed very out of ordinary for the even-tempered brother she was used to. He must have noticed her unease and lowered his voice somewhat, though he looked no calmer.

�And I have to kneel down to public officials like I'm worshiping a fucking pagan god or something. Then there's the police... they don't harass me as much as they used to but if they decide to humiliate me in front of you there's nothing I can do about it. They can make me kneel with my head to the ground right out on the sidewalk for as long as they want. If they think I'm being defiant they may even hit me."

Tee was taken aback by all this, but most of all by the change in her brother's personality, he had never been the type to act out of control in front of her.

Arthur looked at Tee and took a deep breath. He no longer looked angry, just miserable. "If they stop me don't do anything. Don't say anything... that would just make it worse on me... or you. No matter what they do to me, I've been through worse, just stand back."

�OK, are you alright Arthur?"

�Yeah, I'm fine." Though he quickly looked down Tee could see tears in her older brother's eyes. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

Arthur barely more than whispered. "No Tee, I'm not alright."

His shoulders trembled under her hand. Growing up, Tee had often run crying to her big brother for help, he was always so calm. She hadn't seen him cry since their father died six years earlier. For a few minutes Tee and Arthur stood together in silence at the edge of the park.

Arthur regained his composure and cleared his throat. "Look at me, this place is driving me nuts, if I stick around here much longer I'm going to have... emotions." Arthur shook his head in disgust. "We should get you to the hotel and stop standing around like idiots."

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�Samantha, Laura this is my sister Tee." They sat around Tee's cramped hotel room and had the usual awkward introductions.

�Tee's short for Theresa?"

Arthur chuckled. "Nope, you see dad used to be a golfer and when my sister was little she had a bad habit of sticking things where they didn't belong so one day a doctor had to remove a..."

�Arthur, really! Why don't you tell them why everyone in grade school used to call you Squirts?"

�Squirts!" Samantha rolled back on the bed laughing. "Now this I want to hear."

�Uh... Maybe we should go somewhere," Arthur said. "So we don't have to talk so much."

�We could go to the club, I was going to meet Demetri there anyway." Laura was spending a lot of time with her new Danubian boyfriend, though Arthur had barely met him.

�I'm game," Tee said. "There's definitely nothing on TV, it's been years since I've even seen a black and white television, this place is like going back in time."

�Or to another planet," Arthur remarked. "But Tee can't go in the criminal's club, we'll have to do something else."

�She can go in as a guest." Laura argued. "It's her clothes that have to stay outside."

�No way," Arthur forcefully said. "I don't want to see my little sister naked. It's bad enough that I have to walk around like this. She is..."

�Capable of making up her own mind?" Tee looked mischievously at Arthur, before snorting at his annoyed expression. "Well, as much as I would like to irritate Arthur I guess we will have to find something else to do; besides, with an outfit like this I want to be seen."

�Tee, with an outfit like that people can't help but stare, it makes me wish I was blind. Why don't we all walk over to the club, and then Tee and I will go do something else. I hear there's a movie theater west of here that allows criminals in, maybe they have some American movies."

The four of them walked up to the entrance of the club, Samantha and Laura went inside along with a line of other criminals. Tee was wide eyed as a young criminal who had probably been switched that morning walked carefully past her and made his way toward the entrance.

�Holy cow!" Tee whispered.

�They have those in India Tee, not here. Why don't we get going?"

�I knew it would be bad but... shit, did they beat you like that?"

�Yes," Arthur sighed. "Standard criminal treatment."

�Just once?"

�Every three months. Come on, let's go."

�Damn that must hurt, how do you stand it?"

�I don't know, you just do. Quit staring and lets go already."

�Shit! What about Samantha and Laura, they don't beat the women too?"

�Oh yes they do, twice a year. Now lets see if we can find that movie theater."

There were two posters at the front of the theater, both in Japanese. Old monster movies apparently. "What do you think, the one about the giant mutant rat or the one about aliens."

�Uh..." Tee got a close look. "The rodent's kind of cute... looks like one of those giant hamster looking things they have down in South America."

�Capybaras?"

�Yeah, that's it. Looks better than the alien movie anyway."

�There aren't any American made movies here." Arthur looked for the entrance. "Maybe they at least have popcorn. I doubt it though, they probably say it's junk food. At the concession stand I bet they'll hand us a bowl of oatmeal and a spoon. Speaking of the movie we should get our tickets."

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The seventh of December was exactly a year and a half after her arrest for drug possession outside the hotel. Samantha thought of that horrible night far too often.

The warning that Arthur had given them about Danubia's strict drug laws had scared them, though not enough. Instead of throwing their drugs out immediately they kept their stash hidden in the hotel room. Sunday was supposed to be their last night in Danubia and there were just a few pills left, just enough for one last night on the town. They went into the hotel room they shared, closed the door and retrieved what was left of the stash. They swallowed down their last ecstasy pills, touched up their makeup and then walked out the door already feeling the drug in their systems.

Out in the lobby Samantha dug through the pockets of her tight designer jeans to see how much money she could blow on her last night in Rika Chorna. "I've got a hundred... a hundred fifty five. I grabbed the hundred out of dad's suitcase this morning."

Laura laughed, "Samantha, you're so evil. What if he catches you?"

�My dad is such an idiot, just watch, he'll never even realize it's gone. Besides I think we can have more fun with it anyway. Got any cigarettes left?"

Laura paused to dig through her crowded purse. "I don't know... hold this." Laura handed the purse but Samantha wasn't ready. Her purse and many of the items inside spilled on the floor at their feet. Both girls went to retrieve the contents, and both saw one particular item.

A bundle of pink tablets wrapped up tightly in plastic rolled to a stop against the toe of Samantha's right shoe. Organization was not Laura's strong point, they had made several purchases in multiple countries, and with all the other junk she kept stuffed in her purse she had simply forgotten it was there. Samantha grabbed up the bag off the floor and shoved it in her pocket. Laura was pale with fear. "Hurry!" Her eyes darted toward a security guard. "He's coming over here!" They rushed to grab everything off the floor, shoved it all back in the purse and then walked as fast as they could down the hall.

The guard called out to them in Danubian. Almost at a run they turned the corner only to find a dead end with a locked door. Panic set in, Samantha had only a couple seconds to decide. She pulled the bag out of her pocket, ripped it open and dumped the contents into a canister ashtray along the hallway wall, then raked sands and ashes over the top. They turned back to put distance between themselves and the drugs. The guard rounded the corner ten strides later, Samantha tried to pass by but he blocked the way. She knew he had caught them red handed, they would be arrested. The guard looked them over carefully and then put his hand out; inside was a crumpled up note of Danubian money. Terror turned to relief; he was just returning the money that Laura had dropped in the lobby!

Their actions made them look suspicious though. So suspicious that the guard came back and searched the hallway carefully. Police were waiting for them when they returned that night. They were forced to strip naked right out on the street; the experience only got worse with the interrogation at police headquarters, the trial, and the switching. She and Laura had endured the punishment three times already; their fourth switching was scheduled for the eighth day of December.

Arthur came to her host's house after she had put the kids put to bed. Samantha's home was just a short cold walk from the criminal's club, and their chance to be alone. They went straight to one of the small rooms in back. Arthur shut the door behind them; once they were alone Samantha burst into tears. There was no need to explain; Arthur understood perfectly her dread of the next day's punishment.

After a few minutes she recovered some and dried her tears. "I'm sorry... I thought it would get easier but... I feel just as terrified."

�There's nothing to be sorry about. There would be something wrong with you if you weren't scared." Arthur said. "As bad as it is, it will end; and tomorrow you'll be closer to the day when you can leave this place behind and go back home."

�Arthur." Samantha hugged him tight. "You're serving a twenty year sentence, I don't want to leave you behind."

�Don't even think about staying because of me. When you get the chance... go. Besides, by the time you're released I'll probably be a drooling lunatic in a padded room somewhere."

Samantha leaned forward for a kiss. "Yes, but you'll be my drooling lunatic."

"Yeah that's quite a prize!" Arthur couldn't help but smile. "Let the other girls have the rich, successful, well adjusted types; you want the messed up criminal who talks to himself and has to tie a rope on his collar every night so he doesn't go stomping through the neighbor's flowers."

�You do that? You tie yourself up at night?"

�Yeah, ever since last year. The judge said I don't get any more breaks, he said it was my responsibility to make sure I don't cause any more disturbances. The tether wakes me up before I can get out the door anyway. Last time I was sleepwalking a couple days ago I had one end tied to a table leg, I jerked the table over on its side but it woke me up at least. That reminds me, I need to buy a lamp tomorrow." Arthur collapsed to the mattress and looked up at Samantha, her lithe form back lit by the single light over the door.

Samantha crawled atop him, enjoying the warmth of his naked skin. "You're certainly odd Arthur, but you're not so bad... for an enemy spy that is."

�And you aren't half bad either... for a petty criminal anyway."

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A year and a half after their arrest Samantha and Laura were once again on their knees in Spokesman Ralkliv's office. Their arresting officers handcuffed their wrists behind their backs and quickly got the two criminals to their feet.

The officers marched the young women down to a corridor in the basement of the police headquarters. The door to the third room was open. Inside the room the judge was seated at a desk along the far wall, there was a camera set up in the corner, and a metal table rested on the concrete floor near the center of the room.

Spokesman Ralkliv had a brief discussion with the judge before addressing his clients. "Laura, you must go first. Samantha you will take a seat by me."

Samantha sat and watched uncomfortably as her friend kneeled down and kissed the officer's shoe. The policeman moved Laura over to the end of the table and had her bend forward so that her bottom was presented in the direction of the judge. In a practiced efficient manner the policeman strapped her ankles securely to the metal table legs and bound her wrists and midsection firmly to the cold tabletop. There was a look of terror in her eyes but Laura remained silent.

The policeman pulled the switch from his belt and whipped it through the air, and then he moved close, trailing his hand down her spine and over the curve of her bottom. Trying to catch her off guard, he stepped back quickly and landed the first blow. Laura gasped but remained otherwise quiet.

Samantha flinched as the switch snapped against Laura's skin. Ten more fierce strikes of the switch left parallel lines swelling on the right side of Laura's bottom. The officer's cruel smile returned as Laura began crying from the pain of the switching and the humiliation of being touched by the policeman between strokes. Her pitiful sobs were punctuated by anguished screams as the punishment wore on. Samantha had to sit there and listen to it all knowing that she would be next. Ralkliv raised his hand after the fiftieth stroke. Laura sobbed hysterically as the policeman and his partner removed her restraints.

The judge called for a short break to give Ralkliv time to deal with his client, and the judge time to return to his chambers and refill his coffee cup. Samantha went to the restroom at the end of the corridor, collapsed to the floor and cried, but she knew her time was up when she heard approaching foot steps on the concrete floor. Samantha forced herself to stop crying, dried her tears on a towel and stepped out into the corridor. Spokesman Ralkliv offered a few words of encouragement before directing his client back into the room and shutting the door behind him. With eyes red from crying, she kneeled down in front of the policeman who would punish her.

The policeman ordered Samantha to position herself on the punishment table. She reluctantly placed her ankles against the leather restraints and bent forward across the cold tabletop. When all the restraints were buckled and the criminal was completely under his control, the policeman took careful aim and then struck five times across the lower curve of her bottom. Samantha shook from the pain but remained silent. Her resistance amused the officer. He traced the red lines swelling across the smooth skin of her buttocks, rubbing his fingers over sore flesh to increase the pain and further humiliate the criminal.

The policeman, unable to make Samantha cry early in the punishment, became methodical; striking hard and leaving parallel welts from the apex of her buttocks down to her thighs. Though Samantha made every effort to resist, she couldn't help but cry out and jerk at the restraints as he began to overlap the welts on her bottom and the pain became unbearable.

The last part of the punishment went at an agonizingly slow pace. He whipped the tender skin of her punished bottom and thighs with the flexible switch and then waited a full minute before he took aim and struck again. By the time the switching ended Samantha was completely broken down, too lost in the pain to care about anything else. Samantha's beaten backside was presented before the judge so he could certify the punishment, and like any criminal she had to kneel down, kiss her tormentor's shoes and thank him for the punishment he had inflicted upon her. With her fourth judicial punishment completed, a violently sobbing Samantha took the painful humiliating walk back to her spokesman's office.

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Arthur knocked on the door and waited in the frigid night air. He was wearing his orange work boots but not the insulated poncho that criminals are issued. During his first winter working for the Ministry of Natural Resources he wore the poncho nearly every day. It was drafty, the lining itchy, and it made a person look like a road-cone with legs but despite its faults it did keep a criminal working outdoors dry and reasonably warm. When Arthur was back in Rika Chorna he rarely used it, the inconvenience of having to take it off and hang it somewhere every time he went indoors was often worse than being temporarily cold.

Over a minute passed before the door opened and the head of Samantha's host family stepped outside. The man always insisted that Arthur acknowledge his superior status as a government bureaucrat by kneeling down to him no matter the temperature. Arthur pressed his forehead against the concrete and waited. The man stood in his warm winter clothes and let Arthur shiver at his feet for a completely unnecessary amount of time before bothering to invite him in.

Once inside the house, Arthur and the wife exchanged greetings that neither of them meant, and then he was at last allowed to see Samantha. A room toward the back of the house contained a sort of a nursery, with a child's bed along one wall, a crib, and toys strewn about. Along the wall opposite the bed was a canvas cot.

Arthur knocked on the door frame to announce his presence. The six-year-old girl sitting on the floor next to Samantha's cot threw her book aside and jumped up. "8!"

In one of many spiteful moves, Samantha's hosts didn't want Arthur's given name used, in their household he was criminal # 88588. To the kids he was simply 8. Arthur noted that the three-year-old boy was nowhere to be seen; a worrying thought since he treated Arthur like a human crash test dummy. Sneaking up behind a person with weapon in hand was his usual mode of operation.

Samantha lifted up on one elbow. "Arthur, I'm glad you're here."

Samantha had received the usual severe beating. The crimson welts covering her bottom and the backs of her thighs contrasted starkly with her pale skin. Arthur sat down in the floor next to her cot and took her hand.

�Ooh... your hands are like ice!"

�Yeah, that fucking yahoo kept me waiting out on the porch forever, and of course he made me kneel down to him out in the cold."

It was sometimes a nice advantage speaking a language that very few other people understood, so long as they spoke in a pleasant tone of voice no one had any idea what they were really saying. Sometimes Arthur and Samantha had a contest to see who could come up with the most vulgar way to describe her hosts. Samantha usually won; having to stay under the same roof with the hated couple gave her plenty of time to exercise her creative side.

Arthur looked down at the little girl, who was staring at him with big brown eyes. He changed to the Danubian language. "It looks like you're in good hands here though. Got your own nurse to take care of you."

�I'm a doctor 8, not a nurse!" The little girl stood with her hands on her hips, then she spotted a bruise on Arthur's back.

�Please excuse me doctor. Uh... there's nothing wrong with me is there?"

The girl poked at his shoulder. "8, you have a bear bite. Wait here." The girl quickly returned with a first-aid kit.

�A... bear? Thought I would have noticed that. Doctor are you sure a bear bit me?"

She slapped Arthur on the back. "Uh-huh, now stay still 8."

�She never leaves my side." Samantha smiled at the girl then spoke in English, "The first time she saw me after a switching, last December, she thought I was attacked by a bear too. She's terrified of bears for some reason. 'Sanka clawed by bear' she screamed to her mother. She wanted to take me to the hospital, and couldn't understand why no one else wanted to help. She sort of understands now, her mother told her how 'naughty' I had been, how I deserve this. I think her mother's jealous because she likes me better than her. She doesn't... Watch out!"

At full speed the three-year-old boy rounded the corner with a big stick in his hand. "Die monster!" He swung and connected with the monster's head just as it was turning around.

�Got you 8, killed you monster!" The boy giggled as Arthur disarmed him.

Arthur rubbed the sore spot on his forehead. "I can't imagine why they wanted help with the kids."

The six-year old girl scolded her brother, but she seemed pleased that Arthur had another wound for her to treat. As the girl squirted some kind of cold liquid on Arthur's shoulder, the boy climbed to the top of the crib.

�Ferik, you shouldn't hit people like that. 8 is not a monster." Samantha sighed as the boy leaped onto Arthur's back, grabbing hold of the collar on his way down to the floor. The boy yanked the collar backwards and growled. Arthur struggled to pry the boy's hands loose until small sharp teeth clamped down on his finger. Victorious, the boy retrieved his stick off the floor and ran out of the room hooting like an animal.

Samantha just sighed and shook her head. "Ugh... it's like living in the monkey pit at the zoo. So... how much longer are you going to be in the city?"

Arthur examined the bite marks on his finger and then turned to make sure the boy wasn't behind him again. "I guess I lucked out, they're remodeling the MNR training center and they need somebody to do most of the manual labor cheap. There's a lot of work to do, especially around the pool where they practice water rescues. So I'll be sleeping at home for several weeks anyway."

�There!" The doctor smiled at the superior job she did bandaging the bear-inflicted wound, and then she grabbed Arthur's head in both hands to closely examine the swelling red spot on his forehead. "Hold still, I'm going to fix your head, where Ferik whacked you."

Samantha watched as the girl picked a tube of ointment from the box and then yanked a handful of hair to tilt Arthur's head back. "Maybe we can meet Laura tomorrow after she gets off work at the store."

�I can't do it tomorrow," Arthur said. "I'm working late." The girl squirted some foul smelling liquid on his forehead and rubbed it in thoroughly.

�Meet at the club then? About nine?"

�Yeah, sure." When the young doctor pulled a long Ace bandage out of the first-aid kit Arthur had to stop her. "Uh doctor... you can't wrap me up... I'm a criminal, I'll get in trouble."

�Humph... You've been naughty too?"

�I'm afraid so doctor." Arthur winked at Samantha and changed to English. "Tomorrow night I'm planning on being extra naughty!"

Samantha rolled her eyes. "Arthur, if you even think about touching my butt tomorrow I'm going to stab your eyes out!" 

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The Not so Secret Agent - Chapter 11