How convenient Cami thought as the conveyance stopped right outside the Hall. She left the vehicle and entered the motley collection of buildings, immediately heading to the women’s area where she identified herself at the check in and received her pass to the proper changing room. Looking around as she entered Cami realised that neither Leda nor Ava were present. Changing quickly, Cami stored her clothes in the locker provided, securing it with her implanted chip. Nodding to the locker room supervisors Cami left to find her group on the indoor track field. There she also found her friends.

“Hi Leda, hi Ava,” from Cami brought ‘hi’s’ in return. Ava, a slim and compact gymnast also nodded and asked. “All ready, Cami?”

“Whenever you are,” Cami replied. “I am going to work out and get in shape for a good contract!”

“Good to hear that Cami,” one of the junior woman trainers nearby commented, “now let’s see if you can back that up with effort.” The senior trainer looked around. “Into your groups everyone, and let’s begin with trotting in place!” The warm up began.

The particular group that Cami and her friends Leda and Ava had joined consisted of an athletic program designed to enhance the girls’ confidence and assisting them in achieving their goal of getting a good contract placement.

Along with status, contracts are the heart and soul of business and personal life on Ti Lepus. Most workers are secured by a contract with the various level of government, business or personally with members of the high class.

This also applied to selected girls who, while young, fourteen is normal, are offered contracts to work in special establishments called salons where they are displayed for effective sale to the wives of high class men and their families. This is very important to them as it can affect their whole future lives. Securing a contract with a high status family of good reputation is something that all girls with lower status aspire to.

*********

Warm up complete, Cami gave her two friends a wave as they moved away, then turned and joined the girls who were doing the same athletic activity that she was. Further stretching and calisthenics were followed by short sprints. Then warm up completed, each girl worked on the individual activity that they were best at. After a period of individual work with coaches, concentrating on weaknesses and strengths, competitions began.

Leda was fast, she was a sprinter and was particularly anxious to improve her starts. Time and time again she got down into her crouch and, on the whistle, lunged out of her stance. On the other hand, Ava, now in the gym, slim and compact was a natural gymnast. On the floor, she twirled and bounced in the defined performance area, showcasing her natural talent before turning to other apparatus.

Cami had found a calling as a middle distance runner with a speciality in jumping over hurdles and other obstacles placed in the way. The obstacles ranged from those that would fall if touched to those that were solid and needed to be cleared. One, particularly disliked and always placed last, was made of thin branches tied vertically and these would whip the runners’ legs if not cleared properly besides also causing them to fall. It was bad enough for girls but the senior boys’ and adults version had branches that were longer which meant that the boys’ and adults had to jump almost twice as high if they didn’t want their legs to be struck!

Today Cami had completed the race, nicknamed the jump, three times. For her age group, from thirteen to fourteen years old, the race consisted of one complete circuit of the track which was slightly more than a klick in length, while jumping over the obstacles. Today, each race was a competition against a different group of girls in the same age group with the final race composed of the top finishers of the races. Cami had finished in the top three in her last race, and her times had been better in each race. While not totally satisfied, she still knew that she was much improved since joining the Girls Club and today she had her best finish yet. Her two friends had also shone in their own disciplines. The trio had been very excited in the changing rooms after.

“We watched your last race Cami, we really thought that you were going to win until that long-legged girl passed you on that last turn,” Ava consoled her friend.

“Yes, and then that red shirted girl barely caught you at the finish line.” Leda said. “Well,” She continued, giving her head a toss, “they get more training then you. I heard someone say they are high service class.”

“I know,” Cami said. “That is what the trainer wanted to talk to me about. She said that she could arrange some additional training for me, but I don’t think that Ma and Da could afford it although I was told that there was some kind of funding.” Cami sounded wistful. “I mean, I like running the jump but I am not sure, there is so much at home I have to do.”

“And we three also do the self defense classes as well.” Ava commented. “That takes away training time for you.”

“Yes it does but it’s good to have, I think.” Cami wrinkled her brow in thought. “Some of it anyway.”

Her two friends looked on in sympathy as they changed. Like at their homes, all showering was done in private stalls but they dressed communally in small groups or singly, depending on whether or not there were friends present.

“You really are getting fast, Leda, and I watched you do your routine Ava. I wouldn’t be surprised if you are picked for special training!”

“Oh Cami, don’t say that. It’s bad luck, like, you know.” Ava emphasised the last part. Her friends nodded. They knew who and what she meant. Everyone considered that it was bad luck to talk about the Dark Lord! At Ava’s comment, Cami felt a shiver run down her back as she remembered what her mother had said only yesterday.

With ‘see you tomorrow’s’ the three friends separated and went to their respective transporters and on to their homes.

*********

On the transporter, Cami unobtrusively looked around as she boarded. Everyone on the vehicle seemed to be lost in their own thoughts, including a darkly dressed couple sitting at the back and a man sitting a couple of seats behind her. This man wore a morose expression on his face so deep that Cami wondered if he had lost his contract. As he was wearing a cap rather than a broad brimmed hat which revealed that he was a member of the worker class. Then she noticed that the man sitting in the seat across from her had fastened his dull eyes on her. He was wearing the same type of clothes as her father did, showing that he was of the same class yet he didn’t have her father’s demeanour at all. Worse he appeared to be drinking something from a metallic container partially concealed in his right hand. Hoping that he was going to get off at the next stop, Cami turned her head and tried to ignore the man.

He didn’t get off at the next stop or the one after that.

“Hey, little girl, want a drink?”

Cami froze. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw he wasn’t trying to hide the flask anymore, it was openly displayed in his hand.

“Talking to youse, little girlie, not polite to ignores peoples when they talks to you.” The man’s florid face and slurred speech indicated his degree of intoxication.

Cami had seen drunks a couple of times before but had never been this close to one. How am I supposed to handle this, Cami worried, I don’t want to bring disgrace to my family. Glancing around she could see looks of disapproval, but no one seemed ready to come to her aid. The look on the face of the man wearing a cap now seemed to be annoyed rather than morose. Everyone else had the blank faces of people avoiding trouble.

“Let’s party little girlie.” The man had moved so that his feet were in the aisle, blocking any movement on the transporter. He leaned towards Cami as she cringed back in her seat. Fumes from the noxious brew he had consumed floated towards and around her. She wanted to hit him with her bag but knew that there was nothing in it that was heavy enough to stop him. Her self-defence classes had not prepared her for this.

“Why don’t you sit back” The man with the cap suddenly spoke. His voice was quiet but firm.

“Youse stays out of this!” The drunk snapped back surprised at the intervention but not at all intimidated.

The man with the cap stood and stepped forward pushing something into one pocket and taking something out of the other at the same time. “I said, sit back and stay quiet.” The man smiled while Cami watched almost in a trance, too frightened by the situation to wonder at the smile. “That way, no one gets hurt.”

The drunk snarled, staggered to his feet and swung clumsily at the man. The attempted blow was easily blocked and the response came too fast for Cami to really see what happened. All of a sudden it seemed to her that the drunk was now laying back in his seat and apparently asleep. Looking around Cami saw that some of the other passengers were nodding in approval, including the darkly dressed man at the back and his female companion.

The transporter had by this time pulled over at its next stop. Two members of the patrol who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere boarded the vehicle, batons in their hands.

“Where’s the trouble-maker?” The first asked truculently.

Stepping to meet them, the man wearing the cap showed them something in his hand. The two patrol officers looked startled, gave the man a long look but nodded as the man said something too low for anyone to hear and pointed back at Cami, then the drunk. Ignoring Cami, the two patrol officers lifted the drunk none to gently and dragged him to the front of the transporter.

“I know this one.” The younger of the two patrol officers laughed. “The Master Judge won’t be happy to see him again so soon, he’ll get a good vacation this time I bet.”

“And a few stripes as well, hopefully.” The older one responded in a bored tone while the two pulled the drunk of the transporter, passed him over to two other patrol officer who were waiting. Somewhat awake now but still drunk and confused, he was pushed into the back of a waiting patrol van, which left straight away.

One patrol officer spoke to the driver, pulled out his comm unit and fiddled with it for a fraction, then nodded to the man who had helped and left. The door closed and as the man with the cap walked back and sat in the seat facing Cami the transporter pulled back into the road

*********

The man carefully watched Cami, concerned at seeing how shocked and upset she was. Yet, he also noted with interest that there was a hint of defiance in her eyes and in the way she looked up at him although she kept her head bowed. The other passengers on the transporter ignored them in the Ti Lepus way. He decided to speak.

“You can relax now miss,” he used his calm voice, “The patrol will be taking good care to see that he doesn’t cause trouble again.”

Amused, but concealing it, he watched Cami slowly raise her head a little to look at him directly, but didn’t answer. He knew that was the way she had been taught. Young girls did not talk to strange men. He decided to ease her fears a little.

“Your stop is soon, Cami?” The man asked quietly.

*********

Cami froze, how did he know her name? The man’s lips twitched, he could see her sudden fear.

“When you boarded the transporter, it read your name as well as the drunks. I am with the police and used my comm to identify both of you. Don’t worry, you won’t appear in any police report, they already have enough on the man who was bothering you.”

“Oh,” Cami spoke for the first time, “I won’t get into trouble?” Her relief now showing clearly.

“No Cami, you won’t,” The man smiled slightly, “and you don’t even need to tell your parents.”

Surprised by the man’s smile Cami was emboldened to ask his name. “You know my name sir, but I don’t know yours.”

The man’s lips twitched, clearly he was surprised by Camis use of the semi-formal way of asking. “Dark gen Wattar, Cami, that is my name.” he replied.

Looking outside as the transporter pulled over Cami saw that Tremma was waiting at her stop. Standing, she faced the man who had helped her. “Thank you Master Wattar, you have been of much help today.” A small bow accompanied the formal words.

*********

Dark Gen Wattar nodded in reply. “I only did what any man of Ti Lepus would have done, Miss Nep.” Dark watched the young girl leave the transporter. That girl could go far, he thought. I hope that someone picks up on her soon. With a mental shrug he sat back in his seat, she was not his problem. His partner of the day joined him.

“Good thing you are heading back today, Sessi, sir” The junior agent remarked. “I think that you may have blown your cover.” He knew better than to say anything directly about Cami.

“Nothing local that you and the squad here can’t handle. No, the real problems are back in the capital. I am needed there.” Wattar was a senior member of the secret police, commonly called a gray, a reference to their rarely worn dress uniform. Sitting back in his seat, he considered the summons he had received. The call had come from the Chief Minister and he was to report to Councillor Trem de Markus on arrival. Cami sis Nep was all but forgotten.

*********

They both paid no attention to the man wearing a cloak and sitting in the back of the conveyance. The man remained expressionless but nodded slowly. Dark gen Wattar, He thought, I will have work for you. His companion just gave Him a speaking look, she still wondered why they were on this bus in the middle of what she considered was nowhere. The Dark Lord had not told her where they were going or why, the Lady of the circle figured that she knew where already and why would come soon enough.