They were met in the hangar by Colonel Carfield. He smiled at Tracker. “I hear you two had a little extra fun out there.”
”It was not fun!” Antoinette declared, clutching Tracker’s arm. “I thought he had been killed.”
”Come along,” the colonel said. “I want to debrief you.”
When they were finished, the colonel dismissed them. He put a RAM-chip of the debriefing in the report folder on the incident. Then he sat, chewing the end of his stylus. At last he stood and went to Magnum’s office.
Magnum looked up from his desk. “We have a problem,” Carfield said as he dropped into a chair. He reported what had happened.
”Remember I was wondering if we had a leak?” Carfield said. “Well, we do. We have to. That ambush took some time to set up. Even if the Castile team was waiting around for an opportunity to grab Tracker, somebody had to feed them information about the exercise — where they were going, what route they were following.”
”Who knew, or was in a position to find out?” Magnum asked, face hard.
”Myself, two men in the hangar and four in the Training Room staff, two of whom were in the hovervan on site.”
”Get with Major Walters. Have Security compile a dossier on each of them. I want that leak found, fast.”
”Yes, sir,” Colonel Carfield replied.
After being dismissed by Colonel Carfield, Tracker escorted Antoinette back to her room and booted the computer on her desk. Taking a moment to call up the required documents, he told her, “Just answer the questions in this form. Type in what you remember of the incident as completely as you remember. When you finish just touch the ‘Send’ button on the screen. It will bring up a copy of what you typed and ask you to read through it and make any changes you might notice. Touch the ‘Send’ button again and your report will be filed.”
He moved around beside her and squatted down on his haunches. “Antoinette, I know you don’t remember much when the tiger is awake. But the more you can remember about what you saw and what you did, the better it will be. The more complete the report is, the easier it will be for us at the hearing when it comes.”
With that, he left her working at the computer and padded around to his own room to shower and type in his own report. In a private log he keyed in his suspicions about the Castile presence and questioned if he would ever be free of them.
Before lunch, Tracker and Antoinette met Lisa in the Gallery. After greeting them, Lisa turned to a stone slab base, three feet by ten feet, rising six inches from the floor. She closed her eyes, concentrating, and an image formed above the slab, a blurry image of Antoinette changing into the tigress. She opened her eyes and stared at it. As they watched, the image grew more definition until it appeared that Antoinette and Tigresse both stood on the stone, racing into action. She walked around and around the sculpture, glancing at Antoinette repeatedly. She worked at the sculpture for half an hour, refining it and polishing it mentally. Finally she turned to Antoinette. “Like it?”
”It is too beautiful,” Antoinette said. She circled it slowly, biting her lip. She reached out and traced the outline of the light sculpture, running her fingers into and through the flowing, wind-whipped mane of black hair.
”Anything you want changed?” Lisa asked.
Antoinette turned to her, tears in her eyes. “Non. It is perfect. Is that really the way I look when I change?”
Tracker nodded. “She’s captured your shapechange perfectly.”
”Then I’ll go ahead and freeze it,” Lisa said. She closed her eyes and concentrated. A furrow appeared between her brows. After a moment, she relaxed. “There. It’s finished.” They all gazed at her creation of vibrantly-colored light. It was Antoinette, running across the floor, black hair blowing back from her nude body, then a delicate blurring, which melted into the tiger caught in mid-leap . Somehow both tiger and woman were depicted cleanly and clearly, partially superimposed on each other.
Antoinette turned and embraced Lisa. “Thank you, Lisa. I am so proud of my statue. It is wonderful. If there is anything I can do for you in return, I would be happy to do it.”
”There is nothing I need right now,” Lisa said, returning the hug. “But I’d like to continue to use you as a model for other sculptures. You’re graceful and you have a wonderful body, firm and well-muscled. It begs to be sculpted.”
”Any time, Lisa. I would be proud to pose for you.”
Lisa turned and opened a box on the floor. “I did these last night, after your workout.” She held up a small statue of Antoinette in a deep split, back arched to touch the floor with the back of her head. She put it down and took out another one, of Antoinette on her stomach, twisting her torso. “These are yours.”
”Ah, non. You made them and put yourself into them. They are yours.” At Lisa’s stubborn look, Antoinette said, “How about I choose one and you take the other?” Lisa nodded and Antoinette, after much deliberation, chose the second statue.
She hugged Lisa again. “Thank you.” She kissed Lisa on the cheek, then let her go and put her arm around Tracker.
Tracker put his arm around her and gathered her in close.
