Predators

The man was about Zee's height but not as broadly built. His light brown hair was over his ears and slightly shaggy. He carried a tray with a bowl of soup and a large Greek salad.

"Do you mind if I join you?"

"Sure, we're going downstairs. Meeting a friend. Oh, this is one of your students, Ken Zabriskie."

"I'd offer my hand, Doc, but please, just call me Zee. I've enjoyed your lectures so far."

"I try, Zee, just call me Carl while we're here. It'll save Tracy getting confused. Just remember when I call on you in class."

"I'll stick with Doc, I'm easily confused," Zee chuckled, "lead on, teach! I'm in her 118 section."

They followed Tracy down the wide staircase.

"Let me know if she's not keeping you guys busy, Zee. Oh, Tracy, would the friend we're meeting happen to have red hair?"

Tracy's head twisted back and forth as she fought her balance on the last few steps. Why would he ask that?

"Uh, yeah," Tracy said as she turned slightly left, "under the windows past the tree."

The left hand length of the basement was under a row of glass angled at thirty degrees where it met more glass, now vertical. A long padded bench with tables and chairs ran along the windows. A large, square planter hid the further half of the bench seating area.

Asha looked up when Tracy led the pair past the planter. The redhead was seated on the bench at the second table beyond the planter. She smiled as she looked at Zee and Doc and sat back. Her white tee shirt contrasted with her darker skin and the round low neckline offered plenty of rounded flesh and a deep gap.

"At long last, Tracy," she said brightly, "all these years we've been meeting for lunch and you FINALLY bring some hot guys with you!"

Tracy snorted, nodded one way then the other. "This is my boss, Professor Carl Jarlson, call him Doc. And one of our mutual students, Ken Zabriskie. But call him Zee. This is Asha Washington, call her the Pirate Queen."

Asha grinned for a moment then she patted the booth next to her.

"Have a seat here, Doc. Zee, pick a chair. You, girl," Tracy squinted at the appellation, "thanks for the delivery. I think there's an open table far side over there. Women's business happening here."

"Maybe I'll take my guys over there with me," Tracy said but Doc had already set his tray down and was swiveling to sit down. The petite brunette made a rough sound in her throat. Zee chuckled and followed suit and sat across from Doc. Tracy sat down across from her 'friend.'

"Have you ever considered coming back for grad school, Your Buccaneer Highness?" Doc's accent had thickened beyond anything Tracy had heard. What the hell?

"Oh, hell no, Herr Doctor Professor," Asha laughed, "I leave that to the dedicated few who value the advancement of the mathematical arts over things with real value. In other words, money. Like you and my cute little dark-haired best friend. I'm way too mercenary for that sort of life. I'm a pirate!"

She turned her gaze on Zee as her crimson hair shook around a face with skin the color of coffee with milk.

"And how about you, Zee? You seem a bit older than the guys Tracy usually tries to seduce. She does best with the innocent and naive. She's good training wheels, before they graduate to, how do I say it, more womanly offerings."

Doc and Zee laughed as Asha smiled.

"Training wheels?" Tracy's voice edged toward its Doom incarnation. "And I'm not trying to seduce anyone..."

"Hey, now," Zee said with a soft lilt, "let's not be so hasty."

"Indeed," Asha said, "don't be hasty. But, Doc, speaking of money."

"Hmm?" He said as he sipped at his soup.

"Tracy keeps ignoring my investment advice because she says she has nothing to invest. How about a raise?"

"Like you said, she's dedicated to a life of penury in pursuit of knowledge," Doc said, "but unlike Tracy I might be in need of some investment advice."

Holy shit, Tracy thought, is he... Asha smiled and tilted her head.

"Saturday, 7:30 in the p.m.," she said as she looked at the math professor, "you pick the restaurant. Five minutes of investment advice and we can write it off. We'll see after that."

Tracy blinked. Doc smiled.

"Oh," Asha continued, "not La Caille."

Tracy was certain that Doc's face showed relief at that.

"Why not there," Zee chimed in, "I can't afford that place, but I hear it's awesome."

"Tracy used to be able to eat there for free," Asha said, "one of her hundreds of ex-boyfriends works there. Dunno why she dumped him. I guess his, uh, manhood was too small."

"Hundreds? No! But. Huh? That was NOT why!" Tracy said.

"Okay, you are kind of petite. Maybe he was too large?"

"It had NOTHING to do with his... crotch!"

"Well," Asha waved her hand, "whatever. He knows I'm her friend. He'd probably rub his tiny or his giant penis all over our food."

"He would... not... do that!"

"And not the Broiler, either," Asha looked back at Doc, "but that's closer to the mark."

"Why not there," Doc said, "I've been there. It's excellent."

"Bad memories. But if it's Bill 'n Ada's it won't go well for you."

"I would NOT piss off either of these ladies, Doc," Zee said and three faces turned to look at him, "Tracy knows as much about guns as any of the guys in my old Army unit, not to mention what she can do with her teeth. And that one's not a Pirate Queen for nothing, she knows her way around shiny, sharp instruments of torture and death. These two have had their moments in the spotlights."

Asha's expression acknowledged the truth of his statement but also offered confusion, but nothing like Doc's.

"Apparently I know less about my teaching assistant than maybe I should," he said.

"How long you been here?" Zee asked him.

"This is my second full year," Doc answered, "how I end up with freshman calculus."

He added a shrugged smile to that.

"Was before that," Zee looked at Asha and Tracy with admiration, "these two took down one of the more vicious criminal gangs in the area. One of the events involved that restaurant, the Broiler. One of the chefs, not Tracy's ex who worked there at the time, was smuggling drugs. In the fish! The gang broke in to steal the drugs, kidnapped these two and a TV reporter."

"Ah," Doc said, "I've heard a couple of mentions, hadn't quite gotten around to asking."

"But Asha and Tracy broke bones and carved chunks out of the gang members," Zee continued, "they're in prison now. Or, brain dead. Do NOT get on the wrong side of either of these two!"

"You know lots about us," Asha's voice had an edge of suspicion in it, "it's been a few years."

"I have a family connection," Zee looked at her, "I was away in the Army but my folks had reason to pay close attention. Tracy can fill you in later."

Asha nodded and looked across the table. Tracy mouthed 'later.

'Change the subject,' flashed through Tracy's mind, 'something harmless.'

"Oh, Doc," Tracy said and he looked at her as he chewed slowly, her own food had barely been touched, "have you had much to do with Dr. Lynch in Student Services?"

"You mean Dr. Glacier?" He smiled but it wavered quickly. "I met her during my orientations after I was hired. She seemed... efficient."

"She seemed very warm and friendly when she introduced herself in class," Zee said, "like, minutes after a certain pirate accountant had just been by!"

"I've heard about the visits," Doc gave a quick and warm glance at Asha, "and there's been talk. Not just math classes, all over. It's like she's a totally different woman! But according to Hoppensteadt---"

"He's the math department chair," Tracy interjected quickly, Doc nodded his head as a thanks as he looked at Zee and Asha.

"Yeah. He mentioned both of her parents died over the summer. Guess that might have an impact, seems she's never been married, no children, no siblings. And then Gnomic had his stroke..."

This time he caught the three confused stares.

"Oh, sorry," he said, "Walter Gnomic, Vice President for Administrative Services. One of the top dogs in the administration. Last week of August had a massive stroke, not that old, mid-fifties. Vegetable now. Right after Lynch had come back from dealing with her parents and one of her bosses... guess the cold hand of mortality touched her."

"Thin air here," Zee said to the suddenly somber table, "yesterday morning they found a student in one of the ravines behind the medical center. His car had gone over the edge and he's in a coma. Only twenty feet down, he must've hit wrong."

Tracy blinked. What? Maybe she should read the student newspaper regularly. She was tunnel-visioned on her dissertation and research and dealing with Zee and the Polychrome cuties and the rest of her charges... what the hell was going on? She looked at Asha but her friend's face didn't reveal anything.

"But enough depressing stuff," Zee's tone brightened, "I have a more important question. Asha, why do you call Tracy 'hand smasher'?"

Asha beamed. Tracy's realization at her mistake hit her like a brick.

"We went to England a few years ago," Asha said quickly, "London, Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare, Cambridge so we could walk where Isaac Newton invented calculus, or some crap like that. I went wherever Tracy ordered me to go."

Tracy snorted but the others chuckled at that. Could she stop this? Should she fake a massive coronary? Plunge a fork into Asha's heart? Maybe she could have a massive stroke herself, right now!

"Anyway," Asha continued and pointed at Tracy with her right hand as her other arm darted below the table, "me being this one's maid and butler and sex slave, I carried her bags around, made sure she had food and snacks and procured hot guys for her to engage in, um, I don't even know if words exist to describe the depths of sexual depravity she used them---"

"You did not," Tracy didn't quite shout, "I mean, you didn't carry my bags!"

"Note what she focuses on," Asha laughed and Tracy froze open-mouthed and Asha held up her right hand in a fist and poked her pinkie finger out and wiggled it, "anyway, one of the men was too small or didn't last long enough or something. To teach me a lesson she slammed a door on my hand. Yelled at me to 'do better, bitch, or I'll do the other hand too!'"

Asha held up her right hand and curled and uncurled her fingers and made 'ow' sounds as she did so. Then she set a four by six printed photo on the table between Doc and Zee. It was Asha and Tracy on each side of a stonework monument with a sculpture of a colorfully dressed balding figure with paper and writing quill.

"See?" Asha said, she was in a casual skirt and a short-sleeved button-down blouse with buttons that had mostly been left unemployed from their usual purpose, Tracy in modest shorts and a tank top. The redhead's right hand and much of that forearm were streaked with angry reds and purples and blues. "This was like the next day, we were checking on Shakespeare's grave. I was on my best behavior and obeying my mistress diligently at that point to not end up in that crypt with ol' Billy boy."

"I did... NOT... do that," Tracy growled as Doc and Zee looked at each other then at Asha's grin and Tracy's shocked expression, "the only part of that story that's true is it involved a door. But SHE hurt her OWN hand. Not me! And we took lots of pictures, how come you have THAT one right there in your bag?"

"People see you, 'she's so cute and little,' they think. But okay, maybe I didn't carry your bags," Asha purred, "but about the procuring... I definitely recall the name Geoff. And I recall he was an innocent, naive, sweet, young, man... when we met him. After, like he'd been aged a decade and could barely walk!"

"Enough!" Tracy shouted, stared. Her companions laughed and a few heads from other tables turned. She hunched her shoulders.

"Okay, him," she muttered.

"Didn't hear you," Asha said brightly.

Tracy's answer was an upraised middle finger on her right hand. Asha laughed.

"Ok," said Doc, "always interested to learn new things about my grad students. Need to run, professor stuff. You know, boring meetings. But after this discussion anything would be boring!"

He looked at Asha as she produced a business card from the bag on the floor between her jeans covered legs and offered it to him. He accepted it and quickly read it

"Address, number. But you won't need the phone number unless you plan to cancel. I would recommend you not do that."

"7:30 Saturday night. I shan't be late. And I won't be canceling."

"Good," Asha said, "or I'll be forced to turn Tracy loose on you. In which case, stay out of doorways."

Tracy growled as Doc laughed and carried his tray away.

"That's only my boss," Tracy's growl hadn't lessened, "now he thinks I'm a pervert. At least he's not on my committee."

Then she suddenly looked at Zee, who grinned back at her.

"Hey, teach," he said, "I promise to not tell the rest of the class."

Tracy's eyes tightened as his face went serious.

"So long as I get that A," he said then looked at Asha, "guess I'm finished having to do the assignments! Got any more info I can use?"

"Don't you have a job to go to or something?" Tracy said to the redhead, who shook with laughter. Tracy looked at Zee. "See? She's making it all---"

"About her butt plugs," Asha jumped in, "she probably wears one in class."

Tracy's head snapped around and her mouth locked open. Zee worked hard to stifle his incipient laughing fit.

"Has a whole selection of them," Asha continued, "I'm sure she'll show them to you eventually, maybe let you pull one out. Or push it in. Maybe she has one in now. I do!"

Zee's head swiveled between the two women. Asha smiled and Tracy shared her glare with both of them.

"Cool," he said, "I had my doubts about attending University after the Army. I think it's going to be much more interesting than I expected."

He glanced at his watch. "But, now, I have another class. With an instructor nowhere near as attractive and interesting as my Numerical Methods one. See you Tuesday!"

He slid the chair back and quickly stood up. "Bye, Hand Smasher and Pirate Queen! Still doing Halloween?"

"Make sure she can get your costume off easily, or at least she can get to your crotch," Asha said, "it'll make the night more fun."

"Aaarrggghhhh," Tracy said and her forehead hit the table after she quickly shoved her tray sideways.

They heard Zee's laugh as he walked away. Tracy's head rose.

"What the hell? My boss?"

"He's good looking," Asha said, "nice body."

"I doubt he's a virgin."

"It's not ALL about hunting," Asha said, "it's nice now and again to have a man who knows what to do with it. Besides, think I have the virgin thing well under control... fortunately no one sent ME a memo!"

Tracy renewed her glare. "They're... like... innocent."

"That's the point! And they're out of bounds for some of us! Well, officially. But this Army brat. Bit out of your mainstream."

"He's my student," Asha said with an edge, "I can't... the memo."

"Rules are for plebs," Asha said, "he won't go crying to the administration. The others? May the best predator win."

She and Tracy locked eyes for a few seconds before the petite brunette shook her head and exhaled loudly. Asha pulled her book bag from the floor and set it on the bench next to her, then extracted a notebook and set it on the table and opened it.

"Now, about the Halloween bacchanal..."

People Like Us

"Cherise, isn't it?"

The seated young woman's mouth opened as her eyes rose from the book in her lap. She started to speak but her voice caught and her hands fumbled at the book. The woman who'd spoken quickly reached and steadied the book before she put her hand on the girl's and a visible shiver ran up the tanned arm.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"Uh, uh, hey, um," Cherise slowly mastered her voice and the standing woman straightened, "you're... the... Dean?"

"It's okay if you don't remember, I'm Lydia Lynch. I'm only an Associate Dean," she added a soft laugh, "I stopped by your English class last week."

Cherise's mouth made a silent 'O' before it morphed to a shy smile. She nodded.

"May I sit down? Do you have a minute to talk?"

"Yes, Dr. Lynch," Cherise gathered her notebook from her left side and set it on top of her backpack on the other side of her, "I have an open slot before my next class."

"Please just call me Lydia," the older woman sat down and left a gap of a few inches before her right hand settled lightly on Cherise's left arm, "I'm not a big one for formalities."

Cherise glanced quickly before she looked down and nodded. Lynch let her fingertips linger before she removed her hand.

"How are you finding the big city, Cherise? I hope it's not too terrible a change."

"Huh, uh," Cherise's surprised expression faced the older woman, "you remember?"

"Of course! It's my job to know about my students, all of my students."

"There are twenty thousand of us," Cherise's voice had doubt, "that's... like... five times the people in my entire home town!"

"And I will admit I haven't met all of you yet," Lynch laughed, "but I have to start somewhere. The students who've been here a year or two can wait a bit, I want to make sure you new ones settle in. Met all of your professors?"

"If by meet, you mean they stood in front of two hundred of us," Cherise said with a slight shrug, "I read about it happening, I'll get used to it, take a while."

"That's the attitude," Lynch said, "I'm sorry about that but if you need help, make sure you chase down the TAs. I don't pay them well but I DO pay them. And if the professors decide to skip their office hours, you come to me about that. I have the power of life and death over them."

She smiled broadly and winked when the young woman looked at her with a shocked smile.

"But, Cherise," Lynch looked around quickly, the two sat on a section of the broad wall designed to doubly serve as a bench that surrounded the Library Fountain, "I have a special reason to make sure you're doing well."

They weren't alone but others were widely spaced. In front of them was a fifty yard wide plaza that led to the multi-story Uni Library. Students strolled in multiple directions and a few groups stood in knots of conversations. Behind the pair a wall of water fell into a pool that ran the length of the plaza.

"Huh?" Cherise tilted her head, her face scrunched slightly.

"You remind me so much of a friend I had when I was only a little bit older than you are now," Lynch said, "her name was Marsha. You could almost be her twin, your hair is dark like hers and she always wore it very short just like you. And she was tall and thin and pretty."

"I uh... I'm not pretty. That's why you remembered me? And I dress like such a slob, your clothes are so perfect and you're..."

"Yes, Cherise?" Lynch took the girl's hand. She didn't refuse the contact.

"Beautiful," the young woman's voice was soft.

"There's one more way you're like Marsha," Lynch said as softly, "it's the real reason you came to the Uni, so far from home."

"Uh... I want to be a writer, telling people in East Nowhere gets you laughed at," her voice had an edge of anger, she squeezed Lynch's hand.

"True. But that's not the only reason, Cherise. And that reason gets them angry. Not amused."

The young woman's eyes flared and she straightened but the older woman's face was full of kindness. And understanding. Cherise looked around, they weren't alone but they were in their own universe.

"How do you know THAT?"

Lynch squeezed her hand then released it and waved slightly to indicate the passers-by and others sitting along the fountain.

"You, all of these others, are here to study many things. I am a student as well. A student of all of you. It's been my passion for years. But I want to tell you, you are not alone here."