Read Trader's World for Free Online Page A

other arm. "Remember, we're not even supposed to know anything about the teaming. All you'll do is get Cesar and Davy into trouble."
    "And it wouldn't do any good complaining to Connery, even if the teams were officially known." Cesar Famares looked at Kallario's face, then slowly released his hold on his arm. "There's one other thing you don't know about Mikal Asparian. Connery is the one who brought him out of the Lostlands. Asparian is going to be his special pet, you can count on it. All you'll do if you complain is get on the wrong side of your senior instructor."
    Jake Kallario shook his arm free of Melinda's hand and rubbed at the place where she had been holding him. "I don't understand you two. You seem all ready to put your arms round him and welcome him—just as though he were really from a Trader family. Well, I'm not. You know we compete for places. If it weren't for him , damn it, Cissy could be here with us." He stared at Mikal Asparian, who was still wandering along past the display of Trader photographs and souvenirs that covered the side walls. "Maybe you're right, it's useless protesting if he's Connery's private pet. But I won't work with a stinking Hiver. Just wait and see."
    "Here, Jake, don't get any crazy ideas." Melinda put her hand on his shoulder. "Cesar and I came here to learn how to be Traders—we're not going to stand by and encourage you, while you spoil all our chances just because you're mad at Asparian."
    "Don't worry, I'm not going to sabotage you." Kallario's face was grim. "I want to be a Trader, too, as much as you do. But I bet you Mikal Asparian thinks he's God's gift to the Traders, someone really special. Well, I intend to find out just how good he is. I'm going to get through this training as fast as I know how, and I'm going to test him all the way." He turned again to stare at Asparian as the trainees began to wander back to their places in the classroom. "Then let's see if he can stay the course."
    And you may never know it, Melly, he thought, but if I get a chance I'll find a way to fix him properly.
    * * *
    "Trainee Asparian!"
    Mikal froze at the low-voiced call from behind him. He had deliberately hung back when the others left, very aware that they were forming cheerful, chattering groups of three or four people. Everyone seemed to know everyone else. They had all arrived just a couple of days ago, but already most of them walked about Pico Island as though they owned it.
    And while he felt confused, they apparently knew exactly what was going on. He had taken a copy of the Rule Book, but some of the trainees hadn't even bothered; they already had copies, and they acted as though they knew everything that was in there. He had done no more than glance at his own book, and he still had no idea where he was supposed to find that "informal" Rule Book.
    Mikal turned to face the senior instructor. Everyone else had left. Was it forbidden to do what he had been doing, staying to look at the pictures on the classroom walls? He looked nervously at the man on the dais.
    "Yes, sir?"
    "Relax, Trainee. We're out of class now." Lyle Connery had eyed Mikal in the classroom with never a glint of recognition. It was as though they had never met—still less that Connery had rescued Mikal from the Lostlands. Now a trace of a smile appeared on the instructor's face, and Mikal found it hard to hide his relief.
    "There's someone who wants to meet you," Connery went on. "Come on." He turned and walked through the inner door of the classroom. After a second's hesitation Mikal followed.
    Connery led the way deep into the mountain, along corridors that Mikal had not known existed. They wound round and down for hundreds of yards, past a score of branching corridors and through a hundred closed and color-coded doors. Finally, when Mikal no longer had any idea of direction, Connery paused in front of a pea-green door and gestured Mikal to go on through.
    The room was a small one, furnished with just a