Bones in the Sand by Julie Steimle (books to read to get smarter txt) 📕

fear the overthrowing of the government...as any privileged person of a regime would."

The other technician nodded, listening. Steve seemed confused.

"Continue," came the voice of Agent Sicamore who was standing in the tent doorway. "I'd like to hear your view of the whole tale once more, just to clarify things."

Jafarr peered back at him, cringing. Yet he sighed, as this was inevitable. "Ok..." He glanced back at Steve. "Well, of us regular Joes - there are about a five to one ratio of them in the city where I come from."

"Arras," Steve said, peeking at the FBI agent. "Kyle called it Arras."

"He's been pretty thorough, hasn't he?" Jafarr said, his eyes narrowing.

Steve smirked, folded his arms and nodded. This information made him feel superior.

Jafarr shrugged. "Ok, on Arras. The point is, from my end, the pushy one was making the lives of the other five miserable. So we started ourselves a little rebellion."

"Kyle said terrorists. He said your people were terrorists that wanted to make her the ruler." Steve corrected with bite.

"No..." Jafarr shook his head.  "It was a rebellion, and still is. We have not done any civilian bombing or any uncalled-for attacks - "

"What makes a called-for attack?" Sicamore asked, raising his eyebrows. He was growing more interested by the second.

Jafarr took a firm breath and stared at him squarely. "A called-for attack is retaliation against the People's Military for - "

"The People's Military is a defensive force against terrorists. You are a terrorist! I see what you are now!" Steve clenched his fists, glaring.

"Kyle really did a number on you," Zormna murmured, her eyes icy.

"You are evil!" Steve said, backing away from Zormna.

Shaking his head, Jafarr made sure he was between Kyle and Zormna to keep her safe. "The People's Military is not a defensive force. They're like the KGB."

The second technician grabbed hold of Steve to stop him from arguing back. "KGB?"

Jafarr nodded to him. "They were created to keep the people down - "

"They were created to destroy terrorists," Steve barked back, straining against his friend. .

Turning red, Jafarr burst out, "What do you know except what that cockroach spewed out to you? My mother, was she a terrorist? Did you know they killed her right on the street in front of my house? Just shot her. I was seven years old when they executed her, right there in the open! Seven! Were my peace-loving neighbors terrorists? The People's Military slaughtered the entire family, right down to a three-year-old child! Was that child dangerous? You only know what that idiot, Kyle, told you. And all he tells is lies."

"The People's Military slaughtered my parents when I was five years old," Zormna spoke up, looking right at Steve. "My father was a doctor, and my mother was a nurse. They hurt no one. They also arranged my uncle's death, and he was a police officer."

Steve unclenched his fists. He went white, stepping back.

"The People's Military was created to hunt down and kill all the descendants of the royal class - a class of people that descended from a peace loving king and queen who were murdered on their thrones," Jafarr said, calmer now, "by a member of the High Class. Understand? That king and queen were killed by a power-hungry man of High Class status."

"That's a lie," Steve murmured.

Jafarr shrugged and said, shaking his head, "Though I am known to lie once in a while..."

Sicamore snorted wryly.

"...This is not one of them." Jafarr met his eye, the look in them deep and cold.

"The reason Kyle tried to kill me was because I am a descendant of that royal line," Zormna said. "One of the few left."

"He said that you are probably the chosen Tarrn - whatever that is. Is that a lie too?" Steve asked.

Zormna glanced at Jafarr. She looked back to Steve. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Agent Sicamore broke in, exasperated. "I thought you did know. Isn't that why you two are working together? He found out, and you two quit bickering because of it."

Blushing as she shrugged, Zormna said, "Come on. I only know what I was raised to know. And I know nothing about being a chosen Tarrn. All that prophecy stuff is Jafarr's department."

"Prophecy?" Steve and the other technician asked together. Ears perked.

Cringing at Zormna, Jafarr nodded to them with a peek at Agent Sicamore who looked keenly interested. "So Kyle didn't tell you everything? I guess that proves that he's not a complete idiot."

"You have prophecies, though?" the other technician asked.

Zormna averted her eyes, blushing as she realized that she ought not to have spoken about that.

But Jafarr said, "Yes. But I won't get into detail - "

"Because it is a big secret?" Agent Sicamore almost growled.

Looking at him directly, Jafarr replied, "No. But it is against our law for us to be talking this much about Home. These men don't need to know."

"But we want to know," the technician said, eagerly looking from the Boy to Zormna who was averting her gaze.

"That doesn't matter," Jafarr snorted. He then nodded to Zormna. "I have it on good authority that we'll all be in a lot of trouble if you folks learn too much about us. The FBI already have so much incorrect information - "

"Incorrect?" Agent Sicamore snapped. "I'll have you know that we got from those last people we interrogated that - "

"Skewed, rather," Zormna cut in, a sharp eye on him. "Your point of view keeps coming from those who know they're screwed when pass information back to my superiors."

"You mean if ever you pass information to your superiors," Agent Sicamore retorted with a sneer. "I have it on good authority that you can't 'call home'."

Zormna's cheeks flushed.

Jafarr huffed. "Oh please. Good authority? I doubt that."

"You don't know all my sources, Jafarr," Agent Sicamore snarled.

Pulling back a little, Jafarr regarded him carefully. He nodded slowly to himself, his skepticism sheering off in his looks. "Alright. Then tell these folks what your reliable source says about the prophecy, and I'll see if it's accurate."

Jafarr leaned nearer to Zormna, folding his arms in wait.

Hesitating, as he did not like being goaded into revealing secrets, Agent Sicamore then turned toward the college students in the tent. "My sources claim that the word Tarrn represents seven families, rather than just one. This prophecy claims that the entire Tarrn lineage would be destroyed, except for one. That one - "

"Don't use words like 'destroyed' as if it some academic war strategy," Jafarr said with dark eyes on him. "Slaughtered. Hunted down by those that are afraid of the Tarrns retaking rule and purposefully slaughtered."

With a stern glare at Jafarr, Agent Sicamore said, "Fine. Slaughtered. The point is, your prophecy claims that the last of this entire lineage is supposed to retake rule and unseat the current leaders of your people, creating war and disaster."

Zormna closed her eyes and slumped against the table. "Ugh."

"My sentiments exactly," Jeff muttered. He then corrected, "No. Don't call those people ruling our society as 'leaders'. They don't lead anything. No one leads by gun-point. No one leads by conducting raids on homes and killing political dissidents. The prophecy describes the last Tarrn as a redeemer."

"Don't use that word!" Zormna snapped, her cheeks coloring. Her hands clenched against the box. "They'll get the wrong idea."

But the men could see in Jafarr's eyes that it was exactly how he saw it. However, he said, "Let it suffice that the last of all the Tarrns is supposed to lead our people to freedom."

Agent Sicamore peered at Zormna who averted her eyes again. She could tell Jafarr had not changed his opinion at all.

"And if she is this...last Tarrn like Kyle said, then what does that mean?" Steve asked, his cynicism melting.

Zormna slumped against the table frowning. "Then that means I am the last of the most cursed people that ever lived."

"No." Jafarr glared at her. "That means that if Zormna is the one, then no doubt she'll already be able to do the work because it is her destiny."

Zormna picked up the velvet-lined box and slammed it onto the table. "Well, give this to your destiny! I'm going outside." Zormna stomped out of the tent, brushing past Agent Sicamore.

"Zormna!" Jafarr followed after her, glancing back once at the bones that shook on the now vibrating table. He hurried quickly after her.

Everyone else swayed in the tent, blown by her explosion of anger. Just the idea that she didn't like being whatever Kyle had accused her of astonished them. Those in the tent stared at the box and then at one another.

"Do you think she could do it?" the one technician asked Agent Sicamore who also looked blown. He had never really been up close then those two had bickered. It was like being next to a blast of nitroglycerine.

Taking a step to the tent door, the FBI agent looked out. He could see Jafarr catch up with her with an expression of pleading. Agent Sicamore murmured as if only to himself, "Well, she was raised in a military school, or so she says anyway. We do know she is - or was - part of a military group and is highly connected. Certainly you can see how she can fight. She was gentle on that man Kyle. We've recorded worse when she'd handled others who have harassed her or him. I'd have to say that if there is fighting involved, she is apt to win. Problem is, I still can't tell who is in the right and who is not."

"If you can't tell," Steve replied as confusion crossed his face, "then why did you protect her from Kyle?"

Shaking his head, Agent Sicamore said, "Because, she's only fifteen. And...it's my fault her great aunt is dead."

They stared at him.

Sighing, the FBI agent admitted, "When she came here, like Kyle, I believe she had intended to quietly live with her great aunt. I know for a fact that she didn't want to come here at all and was forced into it by her superior officer. But, two years previously, I had exposed her great aunt to her enemies on accident, and the old woman was killed. I can't let that happen again." Sicamore sighed. "Besides, even my source tells me that she is a princess. That indeed was no lie."

Steve and his associate glanced at each other.

"I guess we'd better put the bones in that box then," the other said.

Steve nodded and pulled on gloves to handle the helmet.

"Zormna, you don't have to sulk," Jafarr said. He stood over her as she sat on a large rock on the skirts of the camp. It gave her a good view, but she wasn't staring at it. In fact, she glared at him.

"It's not like I haven't been protecting any other Tarrns." He then sat next to her. "I told you about the guy they found in the undercity, right?"

Scowling, she snapped, "That may be so, Jafarr, but I am sick of this prophecy being thrust on me. At least you had some heads up about it."

 

Jafarr tried to shrug it off. "Some heads up? Zormna, you and I are in the same boat. Both of us are carrying this burden, remember? I do lead a rebellion, you know."

"Yeah, but you chose that." Her expression eased only a little. "Do I have a choice about being a Tarrn?"

"Well, no. You got me there on that one," he said. "But think of the alternative. Would you rather you were a stinking cockroach from the uppercity?"

An involuntary laugh choked out of her. She tried to stay angry...but couldn't. She turned and smiled at him. "Jafarr, how do you do it? You can twist an ugly situation and turn it into something...well, maybe not beautiful, but tolerable. How?"

He shrugged with his face as placid as possible, though she could see mirth in his eyes.

Shaking her head, she said, "You Zeldars... I had no idea you were natural comedians also. Musicians, I knew. But you should do stand up."

Jafarr smiled,