can.
Maybe it's too late.'
Kolya made a low, inarticulate sound of understanding, perhaps of acceptance.
2 04 vonda N. Mclntyre
'Infinity,' he said kindly, 'you are making it most difficult for me to retire as a hermit.'
Infinity said nothing.
'There is a meeting tonight?'
'There was. It's illegal, now.'
'Truly? I have not done anything seriously illegal in many years. Shall we attend this meeting?'
He rose and headed for the amphitheater. After a moment, Infinity shrugged and followed him.
'Feral!'
J.D. shook the reporter's shoulder.
'Feral! Come out of it!'
Hooked deep into Arachne's web, he jerked upright as if awakened from a deep sleep.
'What?'
'You're going to have to stop.'
'Why? No, J.D., I've got some good leads. A little more time—'
'I'm sorry. It's impossible. This is costing too much, and it isn't doing any good. I'm reserving a place on the next transport to earth. They won't sell me a ticket if I've run my credit past its limit.'
'But Stephen Thomas said—'
'And I said I have to go!'
'Okay.'
Dejected, they stared at each other.
'You like him, don't you?' Feral said suddenly.
'What? Who?' J.D. was confused by the abrupt change of subject,
Feral grinned. 'Stephen Thomas. You like him.'
'I like almost everybody I've met up here so far.'
'That isn't what I meant.'
J.D. shrugged, uncomfortable. 'I think he's a very attractive man. What has that got to do with anything?''
'Are you going to do anything about it?'
'Don't be ridiculous.' J.D. felt herself blushing. 'What 205
2 06 vonda N. Mdntyre
kind of a question is that? Are you a stringer for gossip magazines, too?'
Feral laughed. 'No. I was just curious.'
'I have more important things to think about!'
Feral grinned at her, unabashed. 'I think he's beautiful, myself.' He jumped to his feet. 'I'm starving! What time is it?'
'It's almost eight. The time the meeting would have started, if we were still having a meeting.' Just in case, she checked to see if the new rule had been reversed. It had not.
'I didn't get any lunch,' Feral said. 'I'm going to go find something to eat. Want to come along?'
'No, thanks. I'm not hungry.'
'Don't give up, J.D. I put out a lot of feelers. Some of them might touch something.'
'I hope so.' He regarded the search for Zev as a game to be won, and no great tragedy if he lost it; nevertheless, J.D.
appreciated his help. 'Thank you, Feral. Whatever happens.'
'See you later.'
He can go on to the next story, J.D- thought. But I can't.
She rose and paced back and forth. She wished she were near the ocean, where she could swim until she was exhausted. Sometimes exhaustion helped clarify her thoughts:
it left her with no energy for confusion or extraneous information.
She made contact with Arachne again and requested a place on tomorrow's transport. It was full. Almost empty coming in, full going out. Under any other circumstances she would have taken the news with resignation and waited for the next ship. This time, she used her status, demanded a place, and got it.
She smiled bitterly. The chancellor's refusal to accept her credentials had worked to her benefit, if being helped to leave Starfarer was a benefit. As far as the records were concerned, she was still attached to the State Department, still an associate ambassador.
She had nothing to do now except wait, and worry. She tried to put Zev out of her mind.
She could not help but think about what Feral had said.
She wondered if she were as transparent to anyone besides
STARFARERS 2 07
the reporter. Another blush crept up her neck and face. If Victoria had noticed, or Satoshi . . . they must have thought her reaction to Stephen Thomas terribly amusing. She did not worry particularly that Stephen Thomas had noticed. Extremely beautiful people learned to blank it out when ordinary people found them attractive. J.D. supposed it was the only way they could manage.
She would have to get over his extraordinary physical beauty. He was a real person, not some entertainment star she would never have to worry about meeting.
Maybe it won't matter, she thought, downcast again, I have to go to earth. I may never make it back into space; I may never see Stephen Thomas, or Victoria, or Satoshi, again after tomorrow.
'J.D. !' Victoria said.
J.D. jumped.
'Hi, sorry, didn't mean to scare you,' Victoria said. 'Do you want to come to the meeting with me?''
'I thought there wasn't going to be one.'
'There isn't supposed to be one. But everybody I've talked to is going anyway.'
'I don't know ... are you sure—? I mean—damn!' She stopped and blew out her breath. 'AH right.' What else can they do to me, she thought, even if they do decide I'm a troublemaker?
'Did you find your friend?'
'No.' J.D. started to tell Victoria that she was leaving in the morning, to find Zev and try to free him, but she could not bring herself to say it.
They crossed the campus. As they walked up the last small hill before the amphitheater, they heard voices welling up and tumbling past like water.
'Maybe we should outlaw meetings more often,' Victoria said drily. 'Usually we only take up the first few rows of seats.'
J.D. followed her along a path cut around the hillside. The daylight was slowly fading.
'Couldn't you run the meeting electronically, rather than having to get everybody together, having to build a place— and what do you do if it rains?'
'If it rains, we usually postpone the meeting. If it rains 208 Vonda N. Mcintyre
tonight, I suspect we'll all sit here and put up with getting wet. Every hill had to be sculpted; we designed one as an amphitheater. Sometimes people put on plays. As for meeting electronically . . . you haven't been to a lot of electronic meetings, have you?'
J.D. remembered in time not to shake her head. They worked all right.'
'A few.
'Small groups?'
'Five or six people.'
'That's about the limit. Somehow it's easier to interrupt somebody's image than to interrupt them face-to- face.' She gestured at the flat crown of the next hill, coming into sight as they circled the smaller rise. 'Besides, if people have to put in some physical effort to attend, the ones who come are more committed. The meetings are smaller, and believe me that makes a difference.'
A
