“Look Kat,” Michelle chirped excitedly, passing a smartglass tablet to her. “I managed to figure out all of that calculus stuff you were teaching me last year. In fact, I’ve got some of the highest grades in my class!”

She looked over her sister’s practice problems, unable to mute the younger girl’s enthusiasm by pointing out that the other kids in her class would be too fearful to score better than a shareholder’s relative. Michelle had changed schools after Kat had received her shares. Even with a mountain of pretenses, it wouldn’t do for her to continue her previous life in the Schaumburg Arcology.

Now, she was learning at a correspondence school. Most of the other students were the children of managers and executives that were assigned to far-flung holdings. They wanted their children to receive top tier educations, but at the same time, they lived too far from reputable academies. The correspondence high-school solved all of that by allowing them to take classes with skilled teachers that lived in Chiwaukee from anywhere in the world via smartglass.

Technically, Kat probably should have arranged for a small number of private tutors to handle Michelle’s education. That was the common practice for shareholders and senior executives. After all, children and siblings were too much of a kidnapping risk to leave out in the open.

For now, the correspondence school was good enough. She’d talked to the headmaster and the other parents, and none of them had even brought up the prospect of purposefully altering scores so that Michelle would excel. They didn’t need to. Kat saw it in their eyes. She just hoped that the process wouldn’t be too burdensome on Michelle’s classmates. After all, her sister needed friends, and at the same time Kat knew all too well how frustrating it was to be stuck in the academic shadow of someone else’s last name.

“See,” Michelle continued excitedly, reaching past her to swipe the smartglass tablet, displaying page after page of sample problems. “At first it took me longer than I liked, but now I’m able to do all of them within the time limit. Teacher says that I’m getting almost ninety five percent of the correct!”

Kat smiled as her eyes danced over the equations. Mentally, she solved the problems, following her sister’s work to look for any errors or mistakes. Ninety five percent might be pushing it, but there was no doubt about it. Michelle had blossomed and was excelling in school.

“This is great,” she said happily, reaching out to rustle Michelle’s hair. “It took you a little bit, but I’m glad you’re getting a hang of the math. The good news is that you won’t have to worry as much about science and math in the future. Most executive education programs focus most of their time on law, human resources, and project management.”

“Oh thank God,” Michelle replied with a quick giggle. “I’ve gotten better at calculus but I absolutely hate it. I’ve only kept practicing because mom makes me and Lucy is fun.”

“Lucy?” Kat asked, handing the smartglass back to Michelle. “Who is Lucy?”

“One of my classmates,” her sister responded, pressing a thumb into the tablet to minimize the homework program. Kat glanced at the software open under it and froze.

It was a network browser, open to a Chrome Cowboys fan forum that specialized in fan fiction. More importantly, a story titled “Wherein Jenny Silverhand Resolves Her Disputes Through Wit And An Occasional Use of Force” by TallDarkAndRugged69 was displayed. Michelle was on chapter one hundred and twelve.

Michelle blushed, frantically thumbing the document closed as she spoke hurriedly.

“Lucy has been helping tutor me in math. It turns out her dad works for the entertainment channels, and he was involved in the production of Chrome Cowboys. We started talking about the show and before too long we became best friends. She lives in Minneapolis and I was hoping to spend some time with her this summer.”

“Well,” Kat choked out in between awkward coughs. “It’s good that you’re making friends. That was my biggest concern about having mom change your school. I knew you had a lot of friends back in Schaumburg, I’m just glad that you’ve adapted so well.”

“Please don’t tell mom about the story,” Michelle continued more quietly. “She doesn’t really like Chrome Cowboys, but she says that the fan forums will rot my brain. I’m afraid that she’ll take my network access away if she finds out I am reading fan fiction.”

“You’re fine,” she replied, pressing a hand to her chest to try and help with the coughs. “I was just a bit surprised to see the name of the author. I’m pretty sure I know them.”

“You know TDR69?” Michelle squealed excitedly. “He’s a legend. All of her stories are very well researched, but there’s something off about them. It’s hard to describe, but it’s like they don’t actually understand how humans interact. A ton of us love reading her stories because the writing is good, but the attempts to write romance and corporate plots are hilariously off-kilter.”

The door jingled. There weren’t actually any bells on it, but Penelope had programmed the in house sound system to simulate them whenever someone came or went from their condominium.

A second later, claws clicked against tile as heavy steps raced from the entryway. A mass of heavy, damp fur slammed into Kat’s side, tackling her to the ground.

She rolled over onto her back just in time for Hanz to shove his large fuzzy muzzle into her face and bathe her with his tongue. Kat brought up a hand to ward the dire wolf puppy off, but he easily nosed her arm aside and kept slapping the side of her face with sloppy wet kisses.

“Hanz!” Penelope shouted, walking into the living room with a leash in her hand. At her side was a man in APEX armor, helmet removed and held under one of his arms.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

She rushed across the room grabbing the wolf’s harness and trying to pull it off of her daughter. Unsurprisingly, the wolf more or less ignored the slight woman, instead electing to shove its muzzle into Kat’s ear and snuffling loudly.

“Jeffrey,” Penelope called out. “Get over here and pull the dog off of Kat. It’s time to put all of those actuators to use and actually lift something heavy.”

The man chuckled, heavy steps reverberating as he walked across the entryway and grabbed the dire wolf’s harness. A second later, Kat felt the canine’s weight being lifted off of her. With a subdued mechanical whirr, he set the overly excited animal down two paces away and held it back when it tried to jump toward her again.

“No!” Penelope said sternly, rapping her index finger against the animal’s nose. “No jumping. Emma might allow you to do that when you’re at home, but not here. No furniture, and no jumping on guests.”

“Does that actually work?” Kat asked, brushing dirty pawprints off of her shoulders as she stood up. “The last I checked, the scientists on the dire wolf project managed to unlock some prehistoric DNA and make them a lot tamer, but they shouldn’t be much smarter than an ordinary dog.”

Hanz whined, jerking against the armored hand holding his harness hard enough to drag Jeffrey forward a step. Both of the man’s eyebrows went up as he looked down at the bear-sized dog. APEX armor was heavy to the point that Grocorp org charts classified it as a light vehicle. Being able to drag it even a step was an impressive exercise of strength.

“It doesn’t,” Penelope answered with a sigh, reaching up to brush a strand of hair from her face. “Even if Hanz could understand me, it’s not like Emma has actually trained the poor thing. There’s no way it would have the discipline to listen to anything I have to say.”

“How did Hanz get wet anyway?” Kat questioned, looking at her damp hands in distaste. “We’re in the middle of a research facility. He shouldn’t have access to rain or puddles, yet somehow he managed to get soaked on a twenty minute walk.”

“The complex has a fountain near the break area,” Penelope replied. “A bunch of your scientists and 3445 friends were trying to have lunch. Hanz ripped the leash out of my hands and jumped in the reflecting pool the minute he saw it. Without Jeffrey, I’m not sure I would have ever gotten him under control.”

“Thank you by the way,” Kat’s mother continued, smiling at Jeffrey. “I’m not sure how I’d keep this lump of fur out of any more trouble without your help.”

Kat tapped her smartpanel and swore to herself as the time popped up.

“Noon,” she said hurriedly. “I need to run, I’ve got a meeting with Belle at 12:30, and that’s not the sort of thing I want to do from my Mom’s condo. Dealing with that woman is like trying to steal raw meat from a tiger.”

“Not so fast,” Penelope cut in sternly, stepping in between Kat and the door. “You might be a big fancy shareholder now, but you aren’t getting out of this house without giving your mother a kiss.”

She rolled her eyes, leaning in to hug the older woman and give her a quick peck on the cheek. When she pulled back, Penelope put her hands on her shoulders, stopping Kat from simply walking past her.

“Be careful now Kat,” her mother said more quietly. “I know you’re strong, but there are a lot of strong people out there. A good number of them have died because they weren’t careful.”

“I’ll be careful,” Kat replied, squirming slightly in her grip as Jeffrey looked in her direction. “You know me. I might not be in complete control of the situation, but I’m always resourceful enough to figure something out.”

“Careful people can get unlucky Katherine too,” Penelope continued, her voice more worried than stern. “If you keep taking gambles where you have a 99 percent chance to survive, eventually the odds will catch up with you. After all, it’s not like you to stop at one or two gambles. You’ll try a hundred times if I don’t stop you, and if that isn’t enough you’ll try a hundred more.”

“You have underlings now.” She shook her head at Kat. “You’re an important person. You need to let others take the risks for you.”

Kat shook her head, reaching up to remove her mother’s hands from her shoulders.

“You’re right Mom,” She said, a wistful half-smile on her face. “I should. Unfortunately, I can’t. I’m not going to ask the 3445 to take all the risks while I hide myself away in some tower like a princess in an entertainment channel historical drama. I’ll pick and choose my battles, but so long as I can hold a knife, there will probably be blood on it.”

“And you,” Kat said, pointing a single finger at Jeffrey. “Not a word of this. I don’t need rumors spreading around the 3445 barracks.”

“I think you miss the point Ma’am,” the soldier replied with a chuckle. “The 3445 is a family. We all give each other shit like this, but we get it. Our parents don’t want us to go off and fight battles either. They stay up late making sure we come home after an operation, just like yours. There’s nothing to be defensive about. I think every one of us has had this conversation with our parents. It’s part of being a warrior.”

“What about me?” Michelle chirped. “When do I get to become a warrior?”

“Unacceptable.” “Never.”

Kat and Penelope both spoke at the same time. For a moment, they stared at the precocious young woman, but finally they looked at each other and Kat’s expression softened.

“Look mom,” She said quietly. “I’ll be as careful as I can. In the meantime, I really do need to talk to Belle. Whip said she found something in the records we retrieved, and Belle is by far our most competent ally, even if Jasper is significantly more trustworthy.”

“Fine,” Penelope relented, releasing her and stepping aside. “Were you planning on meeting up with your friend Emma afterward?”

Kat nodded, stepping past her mother and cracking open the door that led into the interior of the research facility. There weren’t many other people nearby, only the other APEX suited guard in her family’s security detail standing with their back against the front door of the residence. In the distance, Kat could see a pair of researchers turn a corner as they went about their business.

“Tell her to get well soon then,” her mom said before shooting a glance at where Hanz was struggling in Jeffrey’s grip. “Preferably very soon. Emma’s a nice girl, but I’m getting a little sick of dogsitting for her.”