'You have until midnight tomorrow. Local time.'
'You're a bitch, Chase.'
'Alex, how far are you?'
'I'm about three hours away.'
'Get him here by three.'
'Impossible.'
'Well, I can be reasonable. I'll give you an extra two hours. Have him here by close of business.' I was still watching Bong. 'Would you get that creep out of here?' Bong's disappointment morphed into anger. 'Shelby,' said Wexler. 'Wait outside. And see that Ms.
Kolpath gets transportation to wherever she intends to go.'
Bong delivered one more frustrated stare. Then he left. 'There's something else I want.' Wexler looked trapped. 'What?' 'Mr. and Mrs. Ivan Sloan. He's the pilot who took me out to the asteroid.'
'What about him?'
'You have him, too. I want him turned loose also.' He shrugged. 'Okay. Sure, we've no reason to hold him.' 'And there's somebody else.'
'For God's sake, Chase-'
'Haley Khan.'
'Who the hell is that?'
'Vicki's pilot. I want them all back.'
'Okay. I'll arrange it.'
'Not that I don't trust you, but I'll be in touch with them within the hour. If they're not free, all three of them, the deal's off.' 'I wish,' he said, 'you had some notion of the damage you're going to cause.' 'Whoever's in this with you, Doctor,' I said, 'will probably throw you to the wolves. You and the administration have wasted several months. That thing's a lot closer now than it was when you first found out about it. And you've done nothing . Except move money and real estate around.' 'That's not so, damn you. We've been creating shelters. Storing supplies. Getting ready as best we can under extremely difficult circumstances.'
'Circumstances, hell. Look, Wexler, I'd be willing to bet Aramy Cleev learned about this thirty years ago.' 'Yes,' he said. 'That's probably true.' 'He's the guy you led a revolution against.' 'He was a monster. And if you're trying to compare him to me-' He stopped, his jaws clamped. 'It's hard to see a difference,' I said.
They delivered Alex to me in the middle of a public park. Kids rode swings, birds chirped, a cluster of guys were playing the local version of chess. Alex took me into his arms. 'You were beautiful,' he said. 'You okay?' 'Yes. Still a little rattled, but I'm all right. How about you?' 'I'm good.' 'They won't tell me anything. I take it the big light was missing.' 'Callistra? Yes.' 'I'm sorry to hear it.' 'They've got three years.' We sat down on a bench. 'You knew all along, didn't you?' 'I suspected it from the time we heard about Jennifer's comment.' 'That it didn't matter whether the wedding had a religious element?' 'Yes. That and the Calient business and the math.' 'Ah, yes,' I said. 'The math.'
'Parker did what he thought best. Star was tired so he took the short route home. I mean, what were the chances, really?' 'But it cut through the darkest part of the forest.' 'I know. But the point is, he meant well.'
- Etude in Black
We were sitting on top of a tidal wave, but at least we saw no reason to hide any longer. We checked back into the Blue Gable, where we'd stayed when we first arrived in Marinopolis, and took over the penthouse suite. It had a broad balcony and a magnificent view across the top of the city. Ivan called. 'They let us go.' 'Good. You guys are okay, right?'
'Yes. We're fine.'
'Glad to hear it. You hear anything from Khan?'
'No. Why? Is he in on this deal, too?'
'Supposed to be. Anyhow, I guess I'll be seeing you back on Rimway.' 'I don't know,' he said. 'Are you going somewhere else?'
'We talked it over.'
'And- ?'
'I don't know. She doesn't want to leave. We have friends and family here.'
'Oh.'
'We've talked to a few of them. They don't believe us.'
'I'm not surprised.'
'Even if they did, I'm not sure they'd go. This is their home.' 'So what are you going to do?' 'I'll let you know.'
Twenty minutes later I got a call from Khan. He said thanks.
I rewrote the report I'd stored online, eliminating everything that implicated Wexler and his stooges and also anything that I thought would tend to spread panic. That latter part wasn't easy. But I'd used the term Thunderbolt to refer to the gamma-ray burst, and I got rid of that. I also tried to make the account a little less breathless. When I'd finished I directed the AI to deliver it to Peifer at one minute past midnight. Then to follow up and give it to the rest of the world three hours later. As I had earlier, I took precautions to ensure it couldn't be blocked. Then, for the first time in a while, I collapsed and slept through the afternoon. That evening we ate in the hotel dining room, which was filled with well-dressed patrons. They had candlelight and soft music, and it felt good to be together again. 'I thought I'd lost you,' I told him after the host had seated us by a corner window. We were on the ground floor. Outside, shoppers moved beneath glowing lamps, their arms filled with packages. We were approaching a local holiday in which it was customary to give gifts. There was a theater across the street, doing a musical, Late Night Out , which had been imported from Khaja Luan. I'd seen it two years before, enjoyed it thoroughly, and still remembered the show-stopper, 'Go for Broke,' at the end of the first act. A family trailing a boy and girl passed outside. The parents carried bags of packages, while the kids giggled and ran along beside them. The boy stopped and looked through the window. At us. Our eyes connected, and he waved. I waved back. He'd be about ten when the gamma rays came. The Thunderbolt. 'I feel guilty sitting here,' I said. 'I'm anxious to hand it over to Rob. Get it over with.' 'I know.' 'We're talking twelve hundred light-years, Alex. I didn't think novas could do any damage this far away.'
We both had a soup appetizer. He tried his, but didn't react to it. 'It's a hyper nova.' 'The worst kind.' 'Yes.' Alex cupped his chin in his hands and closed his eyes. 'Callistra is- was -a hypergiant. It's been on the verge of collapse for thousands of years. The people here knew that. Everybody knew it. There was a time, a couple of thousand years ago, when they kept instruments out there. Monitors. But the instruments had to be maintained, nothing ever happened, and eventually people got used to it. And forgot about it. 'I found some reports that the current administration was going to restart the program. But they had other priorities. So it never happened.' 'Other priorities.' 'Yes. No wonder Vicki did the mind wipe. She knew, and she couldn't warn anybody. She did it because it looked like the only chance she had to get a warning back to Salud Afar. She sacrificed herself.' 'Gutsy woman. Alex, I hate seeing Wexler walk away from this.' He looked ambivalent. 'You know, he's not entirely wrong about the worldwide reaction. I'd just as soon not be here when the news gets out.' 'I hate this, Alex.' 'Me, too, babe.'
Peifer found us first. We'd just gotten back to our suite. 'Chase?' His hologram barged into the room. 'You got Alex back?'
'Yes, he's here.' 'Thanks.' His voice rasped. 'I really appreciate your letting me know.' 'I was going to call.'
