The Lotus Eaters

'You know,' he said, to Rocaberti, 'I don't think your nephew ever got to rape my wife. She killed him, you see. That much is certain. And she denies having been raped. Now, is it possible he raped her beforehand and that she's lying about it? Sure; it's possible. And that's one reason why you're going up on that cross, just in case she needs to feel thoroughly avenged. As important, I want anyone who might even think about siding with the TU to realize that they can't be relied upon at all and that the penalty for doing so is extreme. Lastly, I just hate your guts.

'Take him.'

Casa Linda, Balboa, Terra Nova

Lourdes watched the televised crucifixion dry-eyed and unsympathetic. She'd changed a lot in the last month, so much so that she hardly recognized herself. These people had threatened her and hers, nearly killed her husband, nearly raped herself. They had killed someone her husband looked up to almost as if a father. Other innocents, too, not least the Garzas and their men, deserved their revenge. Those men could hang there and die by inches over days and that was just fine with Lourdes de Carrera.

Artemisia was staying at the casa. 'I just can't go home yet, Lourdes,' she'd said. 'Not until I can look at something of Mac's without breaking down.' Of course, she was welcome to stay forever, if she liked.

Someone, Lourdes hadn't a clue as to who, had rearranged Moises Rocaberti's corpse before anyone could see that he'd been partially undressed. Whoever it was, Lourdes thanked that person, silently. It would never do for Patricio to think anything had happened to be for which he would blame himself. Better to hold it inside.

For that matter, oral sex was the only kind she would give her husband now. I told him it was because I didn't want to damage his setting bones. And that's true . . . as far as it goes. Mostly, though, I want to wash the taste of that bastard's cock out of my mouth. And that is going to take a lot of washing.

Her reveries were interrupted by Arti. 'Lourdes, that satellite call to Pashtia went through. Ham's on the line.'

She rushed for the phone.

Ham spoke first, in a voice on the edge of puberty and cracking on about every fifth word. 'Mom, what the hell is going on back home?'

'We had a coup attempt,' she answered, 'but we came through it all right.'

'Do you need me to come home?'

'No,' she answered, 'but there is something you can do for me.'

'Anything, mother.'

'I've discovered we can't trust people. I'd never have believed that before, but it's true. I need some guards, maybe two hundred of them.'

'You want me to send some of my people to you?'

'Could you? Please? As trustworthy as you can find.'

'Well . . .' the boy hesitated, then continued, 'these people take blood and marriage ties pretty seriously. Would two hundred sons in law and nephews and cousins in law do?'

'Where would you . . . WHAT?'

'I'll have to ask my wives for their recommendations, of course . . . Mom? Mom, are you there? Mmmooommm?'

Epilogue

UEPF Spirit of Peace, Rift Point, Terra Novan side

The rift was fixed in space. The planet, however, moved. That's what made timing a rift jump tricky. Pass the rift too early and a ship could end up chasing a receding planet even while trying to slow down, and having a harder time slowing down because the lasers on the far end were running away, hence more attenuated. Come too late and spend a year or two swinging around the local sun, and then having to chase a receding planet.

Wallenstein—rather Richard, Earl of Care, acting under her instruction—had timed it rather well. Peace would assume orbit around the new world in just about seven months. Already they were in communication with the fleet, though there was a not inconsiderable time lag—just under eight hours—between messages. This would shorten as the ship closed on the planet and the planet continued in its orbit.

Not that every message took that long. Not long after Peace came out of the rift, Wallenstein ordered a tightbeam opened with UEPF Dag Hammarskjold, Captain Bruce Shi (Class One), Count of Wuxi and Knight Commander of the Order of the Sun, commanding.

'Captain Wallenstein,' Shi began, with a small nod of the head. Raising his head and eyes, Shi looked more carefully. 'Ah, Admiral Wallenstein. Let me be the first this side of the rift to offer my congratulations, Marguerite.'

'Thanks, Bruce. From you, that means something.' Wallenstein gave Shi the smile she normally reserved for former lovers, still on good terms.

'Honestly, Marguerite, I wasn't sure I'd ever see you again . . . in this turn of the wheel. You convinced the Consensus, then?'

'I convinced the SecGen,' she answered. 'He convinced the Consensus . . . or enough