Marooned in Realtime

another, Chanson had a use for him.

ELEVEN

Della Lu arrived in early afternoon. Wil stepped outside to watch her land. The autons supplied by Yelen and Della were faithfully keeping station several hundred meters above the house. He wondered what a battle between those two machines would be like, and whether he could survive it. Before, he'd been grateful for Lu's protection against Yelen. Now it worked both ways. Brierson kept his face placid as the spacer walked toward him.

'Hi, Wil.' Even with his recollection of the early Della, it was hard now to believe that Chanson could be right. Lu wore a pink blouse and belled pants. Her hair was cut in bangs that swayed girlishly as she walked. Her smile seemed natural and spontaneous.

'Hi, Della.' He grinned back with a smile he hoped seemed just as natural and spontaneous. She entered the house ahead of him.

'Yelen and I have a disagreement we'd like you to...' She stopped talking and her body tensed. She sidled around the living-room table, her eyes flicking across its surface. Abruptly something round and silver gleamed there. She picked it up. 'Did you know you were bugged?'

'No!' Wil walked to the table. A spherical notch about a centimeter across had been cut from it. The notch was where Chanson had set his bug stomper.

She held up the silver sphere-an exact match for the notch — and said, 'Sorry to nick your table. I wanted to bobble it first thing. Some bugs bite when they are discovered.'

Wil looked at his face reflected perfect and tiny in the ball. It could contain anything. 'How did you spot it?'

She shrugged. 'It was too small for my auton to see. I've got some built-in enhancements.' She tapped her head. 'I'm a little more capable than an ordinary human. I can see into the UV and IR, for instance.... Most of the high-techs don't bother with such improvements, but they can be useful sometimes.'

Hmm. Wil had lived several years with medical electronics jammed inside his skull; he hadn't liked it one bit.

Della walked across the room and sat on the arm of one of his easy chairs. She swung her feet onto the seat and braced her chin on her hands. The childlike mannerisms were a strange contrast to her words. 'My auton says Juan Chanson was your last visitor. Did he get near the table?'

'Yes. That's where we were sitting.'

'Hmm. It was a dumb trick, ran a high risk of detection. What did he want, anyway?'

Wil was ready for the question. His response was prompt but casual. 'He rambled, as usual. He's discovered I speak Spanolnegro. I'm afraid I'll be his favorite audience from now on.'

'I think there's more to it than that. I haven't been able to get an appointment for us to interview him. He won't say no, but he has endless excuses. Philippe Genet is the only other person who seems to be avoiding us. We should put these people at the top of our interview list.'

She was doing a better job of proving Juan's case than Juan himself. 'Let me think about it.... What was it you and Yelen wanted to know?'

'Oh, that. Yelen wants to keep Tammy bobbled for a century or so, till the low-techs are 'firmly rooted.' '

'And you don't.'

'No. I have several reasons. I promised the Robinsons Tammy would be safe. That's why I refuse to turn her over to Yelen. But I also promised them that Tammy would be given a chance to clear the family name. She claims that means she should be free to operate in the present.'

'I'll bet Don Robinson couldn't care less about his good name. Things are too hot for the family, but he still wants recruits. If Tammy is bobbled she won't be doing any recruiting.

'Yes. Those are almost Yelen's words.' Della moved off the chair arm and sat like an adult. She steepled her hands and stared at them a moment. 'When I was very young-even younger than you-I was a Peacer cop. I don't know if you understand what that means. The Peace Authority was a government, no matter what its claims. As a government cop, my morality was very different from yours. The long-range goals of the Authority were the basis of that morality. My own interests and the interests of others were secondary-though I truly believed that survival depended on achieving the Authority's goals. The history books talk mostly about how I stopped Project Renaissance and brought down the Peacers, but I also did some... pretty rough things for the Authority; look up my management of the Mongolian Campaign.

'That youngest version of Della Lu would have no problem here: leaving Tammy free is a risk-a very small risk-to the goal of a successful colony. That Della Lu would not hesitate to bobble her, perhaps even execute her, to avoid that risk.

'But I grew out of that.' Her steepled hands collapsed, and her expression softened. 'For a hundred years I lived in a civilization where individuals set their own goals and guarded their own welfare. That Della Lu sees what Tammy is going through. That Della Lu believes in keeping promises made.'

Wil forced himself to think on the question. 'I believe in abiding by contracts, too,