Part 4 (2/2)
”I approved everything Andy and Elie recommended. Didn't expect to be using them. Glad for them now.”
”Yeah. Make sure you open the right one. They sent you everything from a chip fabricator to a bomb factory.”
”Andy wanted all the bases covered.”
”I'm leaving you a shuttle. I'll be in system every few days. A week at the longest.”
”I'll try not to holler wolf. Could you drop that shuttle down here tomorrow at the blimp base? Say, tenish. I don't want to beg a ride back to my base on anyone's blimp.”
”And it'll show these folks the power they're dealing with.”
”Something like that.
”Good by me. I'll see you when I see you. Out.”
Ray leaned back in his seat. The moons were above Mary. The luminous waves rose and fell, casting dim light on her. Ray could see the joy on her face. He could see everything else, too. ”Oh, Rita, I miss you.”
”You lost them!” Victoria Sterling shrieked. She had deigned to receive her security chief in her gilded coach and four. Grandpa Jason had included six horse embryos in his personal effects. The Landers who squirreled away survival gear among their private goods made it big here. The kids of those who brought trinkets were her servants. ”That mule has lights all over.” Victoria very much wanted her lab to take it apart and see what made it tick.
”Yes, ma'am,” he said softly, trying to soothe.
Victoria would like it better if he'd grovel. But we Santa Marians are so democratic. She sniffed at that; some things took so long to change. ”How did your trusty spies lose them?”
”We expected them to go back to the Residency. We've checked their rooms. The bugs are active. We gave them plenty of s.p.a.ce on the road. Didn't want them to notice us. They took a wrong turn. By the time we got to the corner, that d.a.m.n driver had turned again. We couldn't find them. We'll reconnect when they get back to the Residency.”
”If they go back. If someone hasn't offered them something better. Unless their shuttle drops out of the sky and hauls them off to heaven knows where. I want to know where they are and what they're doing every moment of their day. I want to know what they're going to do before they know.”
”Yes, ma'am.”
”Go. Find them, or I will find someone who can.”
”Yes, ma'am.”
Ray Longknife, humanity's amba.s.sador to Santa Maria, Wardhaven's misplaced Minister for Science and Technology, retired colonel of infantry, devoted husband and future father, watched Mary dance naked with the luminous waves and the moonlight. He wished it was Rita. ”Maybe she wouldn't, with the baby coming.” He sighed, then shook his head. No, Rita might be beginning to show a bit, but she'd be out there jumping and prancing with Mary just the same. That was the sprite he'd married. All work, when she was working. All play otherwise.
With a final splash, Mary strode from the water. She retrieved her dress, swung it over her shoulder, and backed toward the mule, eyes on the ocean. ”It's so free. No boss telling it what to do,” she whispered when she b.u.mped into the rig.
”It just goes on and on.” Ray nodded.
”Yes.” She turned to him. Excitement was in her eyes. Probably in other places. She was his for the taking if he wanted her. And he wanted her.
He choked on the wanting and swallowed it. Nothing facing them would be made easier by losing themselves in each other tonight. He returned her gaze, trying to reflect the happiness he felt watching her...and no more.
She slipped back into her dress. ”That was fun,” she said, settling it around herself. ”I see you've got my sidearm back there with you.”
”If some big, slimy thing had slithered out of the sea to dance with you, I wanted to make it keep a gentlemanly distance.”
”Locals didn't say anything about sea monsters,” Mary said.
”Lot of things the locals ain't got around to saying.”
Mary settled into the driver's seat. ”Sorry, sir, if my...uh...”
”Nothing to be sorry for, Captain. You were a joy to watch, and any worrying I did came to nothing. Tomorrow, Matt's dropping a shuttle for us about ten. Make our trip back faster. No need to mention it to anyone. After our tail tonight, I'd rather keep our friends guessing.”
The return to the Residency was uneventful; Ray was asleep before his head hit the pillow.
Ray lay on the operating table, looking up into the bright light. Waves of pain washed over him. The doctor stood above him in surgical scrubs, a s.h.i.+ning laser scalpel in his hands. As the surgeon reached for Ray, the scalpel changed into a hoe, the medic into a grubbily clad gardener. Ray screamed.
He lay on the ground, the smell of recently turned earth in his nostrils. A huge field hand wielding pruning shears grabbed him and began cutting. Dead branches fell away; fresh green ones were grafted on. Ray screamed.
And came awake, s.h.i.+vering and desperately in need of a trip to the bathroom. Head throbbing, whole body shaking in night chills and sweats, Ray struggled to his feet and moved as quickly as his canes permitted to the facilities. His body trembled in a pain he didn't understand. Done, he worked his way back to collapse in bed. Mary had laid out pain meds; he swallowed a pill. Better to make a second trip tonight than lie awake in the grips of this agony. Ray settled back, centering his thoughts on Rita, and a girl-child as beautiful as her mother.
Three months' fieldwork had gotten Jeff Sterling used to rising with the sun. At Fairview, however, he usually slept in. With Vicky running the business, sleeping was the most exciting thing he got to do around the family estate.
This morning, Millard woke him at dawn. ”Miss Sterling requires your presence at her breakfast, sir.” Since Vicky had sent the downstairs butler who taught hand-to-hand combat as well as proper deportment and etiquette to the staff, Jeff tied on his robe and went. Once in the solarium, however, Jeff pointedly ignored Vicky and puttered over the breakfast bar, filling his plate slowly with eggs, brown bread, and bacon. ”Do we have any strawberry jam?” he asked, knowing Vicky had sent the staff away for this private meeting and would have to answer herself.
”How should I know?” she snapped. ”Buzz the kitchen. And be quick about it. We need to talk.”
So Vicky was in one of her moods. This could be even more fun than usual. Jeff buzzed the kitchen. ”This place I was staying at, out on the front range,” he rambled, ”had this really delicious strawberry jam. Do we have any?”
They didn't. Orange marmalade would have to do. Very expensive stuff. The Swensons had held on to their monopoly on orange trees as tightly as the Sterlings held on to their metal claims. Vicky hated the Swensons but loved orange marmalade.
”Now sit down, Jeffrey. I want a word with you.”
”Yes, Victoria.” To her face, not even Jeff called her Vicky.
”Why didn't you tell me about the d.a.m.n s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p?” Vicky snapped, rubbing her eyes with both fists.
They'd been over this before. ”Because I didn't know about them until they landed. Besides, that village didn't have access to the net. How could I have told you?”
”Those cheap dirt farmers. They ought to be required to have net hookups. For their brats' education, at least.”
”More might, if we lowered the price on fiber cable.” Jeff was the family advocate for lowering profit margins and making it up in volume. Christ, fiber optic was only silicon! Vicky was for all the market would bear. With Dad dead and Mom in a convent, Vicky was in charge.
Vicky broke off a small portion of her croissant, b.u.t.tered it, and munched it slowly, her gaze out the window on the distant woods. Jeff was being ignored...again. He ate, waiting for her next announcement.
”They're hiding something.” The ”they” could only be the s.p.a.cemen. For Vicky to conclude they were hiding something was no big news. Vicky always hid half her cards; she a.s.sumed everyone else did. It made for tough bargaining even when the other side was hiding nothing.
Jeff, however, was pretty sure the s.p.a.cemen were hiding something. He would not, however, admit that to Vicky. ”I don't know, they seem pretty up front,” he said with his mouth full.
”Don't speak with your mouth full,” Vicky shot back in irritation, making Jeff's morning. ”Why won't they share their data files with us?”
”Chu Lyn is pretty dead set against them dumping all kinds of new tech on us. She's afraid of what that would do to the economy.” Chu led the Green Party in the Great Circle. Normally she didn't have the votes to stop Vicky. Recent nose counts had not been ”normal.”
Vicky flipped her hand up disparagingly. ”Lyn is afraid of her own shadow.” Still, Vicky said nothing about forcing a vote. The rumors Jeff had picked up were right. Votes were changing. It was fun watching Vicky sweat.
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