Crystal Universe - [Crystal Singer 03] - Crystal Line by Anne McCaffrey

facetious and was irritated that her advice seemed to solve his problem. She caught a glimpse of his relieved smile as she continued on her way into the office.
    “Haven’t you two moved?” she demanded as she saw them in positions similar to yesterday’s.
    “I never knew just how much power the Guild wields,” Lars said, beckoning to her in an airy fashion.
    “You ought to,” Killa said, scowling at Lanzecki. “We trade rather heavily on it whenever we leave Ballybran.”
    “I don’t mean as singers, Killa, but the Guild as a force in interstellar politics. And policies.”
    “Oh?”
    “And all without having to leave Ballybran! Whoever needs to speak to the Heptite Guild
must
come here!” Lars chuckled with an almost boyish delight. Lanzecki wore just the slightest smile as he glanced over at her.
    To Killashandra that cynical amusement meant that Lanzecki was building to something devious. Shecocked her head at him. He shook his head very slightly in denial.
    “I’ve a meeting later today, Killa. I’d appreciate it if you and Lars would sit in on it.”
    Killa jerked her finger over her shoulder in the direction of Bollam. “He’s your assistant.”
    The fleeting shift of Lanzecki’s dark eyes told her that he didn’t expect much of Trag’s replacement, and his lack of such expectation worried her all the more.
    “Yesterday Enthor, today Trag?” she asked, mockingly.
    “I’d appreciate your counsel,” he said, bending his upper body just slightly toward her in an unexpected bow.
    She wondered if he knew that that deference would insure her support. Probably. Lanzecki had usually been able to read her, at times better than Lars did. She realized then that she usually compromised with Lars more than she would have with Lanzecki. But then, she wanted to. She trusted Lars Dahl more than she had ever trusted Lanzecki, even when they had been passionate lovers. Or maybe because of that!
    “Bollam? Have you got those trade figures?” Lanzecki called out.
    “Still working” was the all too quick reply.
    A look of pained patience crossed Lanzecki’s face.
    “I remember Trag’s system,” Killa said, turning on her heel and retracing her steps to the worktop where Bollam was plainly unable to find the relevant pencil files. “Move over,” she told the flustered man. “Now, who’s coming?”
    “The Apharian Four Satellite Miners League,” he said, both resenting her usurpation and relieved that finding the documentation was now someone else’s responsibility.
    She typed “Apha4SML.doc” and obediently the recalcitrant entry blossomed across the screen. Bollam groaned.
    “I did, I tried that. I really did.”
    “The library banks know an authoritative punch when they get one,” she said, shrugging. She tapped a deliver.
    “He wants the Interstellar Miners League, as well.”
    “What year?”
    “Twenty-seven sixty-six.”
    Killa frowned. Twenty-seven sixty-six?
When
had she left Fuerte, storming out off her native planet with that crystal singer—ah, what
was
his name? Had it been 2699? Or 2599? She shook her head in irritation, then concentrated on tapping out the required sequence. The new files joined the others in the delivery slot. She was a lot better at his job than Bollam was. She gave him not even a look as she gathered up the files and brought them in to Lanzecki and Lars.
    Lanzecki gave her a grateful smile as he began feeding them into the reader slot. He folded his arms across his chest as the first one came up on the monitor.
    Feeling an obligation to assist the Guild Master, Killa stayed on, as Lars did. She accessed additional data when Lanzecki asked for it, ignoring Bollam when he hovered in an attempt to figure out how she found files so easily. At first it amused her that Lars and Lanzecki worked together so effortlessly. She wondered that, at times, Lanzecki seemed to defer to Lars’s opinions. Certainly he tapped them into his own notes.
    Then the representatives