“Not a chance.” Dek shrugged as he took another spoonful. “Wouldn’t have made any difference had I tried. You have to understand: Falise might not be right, but sure as clap-trapping hell, she’s never wrong. She’d have done it her way no matter what.”

“She really that dense?” Kylee asked. “That’s the kind of stupidity I’d expect from Dortmund Short Mind.”

Talina told her, “If all you’ve ever known is the inside of an artificial bubble, where everything is provided for you, decisions are made for you, and you do what you’re told, how can you even conceive of a place like Donovan? These people don’t have a clue.”

“Yeah. Thought you were going to lay fancy Falise out flat when she mouthed off to you out there.” Kylee used a piece of bread to sop up the drippings in her bowl.

“Wouldn’t have been smart,” Tal said. “Too many repercussions. And I heard the pretty boy whispering that they’d get even with me later. So, Dek, what’s with the golden-haired guy fawning at your sister’s side? He looks too beautiful and perfect to be real.”

“That’s Ednund. Her valet. He’s her political and social advisor, errand boy, bodyguard, bed companion, spy, killer, and jack of all trades. The stately woman who looks like a reincarnated Egyptian queen is Clarice. Think of her as a sort of human computer and analyst, but also capable of performing most of the tasks Ednund handles. From birth, they’ve been trained, molded, tested, and prepared to perform any task my sister might require of them.”

“Maybe Donovan will corrupt them like it did you,” Talina noted. “Maybe I’ll make them an offer.”

“Don’t,” Dek warned her. “Talina, they belong to Falise. They are property, raised, engineered, and designed to serve her. It’s their sole purpose in life.”

“You mean they’re slaves?” Kylee asked as she stared thoughtfully across the room. “The kind I read about in the history books? Thought slavery was illegal in The Corporation.”

“They are, and it is.” Dek felt his smile turn grim. “The families are, shall we say, above the law.”

Talina drew a deep breath. “Chad Grunnel was within a hair’s breadth of getting himself laid out back on the shuttle field. I got the feeling that eye-candy woman was going to launch herself at me. She as good in a fight as I think she is?”