Then Tatia announced she’d be sleeping in the house and would like some privacy, in fact she was tired and going for a lie down right now, would see them in a few hours, and expected something special for dinner.
“Tatia and Marc, hey?” Anson said as he followed Kara into the SUV.
“Yes and no,” Kara said and kicked off her shoes. “We are safe here?”
“Fighting’s all died down. We got sentry bots in case. Contract’s over. Safe.”
* * *
It was like before but different, so much past worry to be soothed... a little resentment for all that worry, perhaps, a little concern for feeling resentful, all to be blown away: we are one, together, forever.
“You made me love you,” Kara sang quietly, in a smoky blues voice, as they lay naked and for the moment replete. “I didn’t wanna do it...”
Anson wondered if the smile would ever leave his face. Even if it did, always ready to appear whenever he looked at her. Thought about her.
She suddenly stopped singing. “Bastard!”
“What!”
“Not you, that bloody Ishmael. Well, you’re involved...” her voice trailed away. How to tell him? “Congratulations,” Kara said. “I’m pregnant.”
Anson gaped at her, open mouthed.
“Doesn’t help when the father reacts like a congenital idiot.”
He put his arms around her. “Father?”
Kara surprised them both. “I want to keep it.” And explained how Ishmael usually took care of business, as she’d only recently discovered, but this time had decided to wait. “I’m sick of killing things,” she finished. “Maybe Ishmael knew.”
“I’m so glad,” Anson said. “This mean we’re going steady?”
Kara sniggered then asked where he’d heard the expression.
From her vid collection. He’d seen it as key to understanding her.
“Anything grab you?” she asked.
Anson confessed a fascination with musicals, asked if she wanted a drink then went to get one.
> You’d talked to Anson’s AI.
< We get on well.
> You had no right!
< I got an independent mind now. Didn’t ask for it. Don’t understand where it goes. I made a decision, Kara. What I thought was maybe best for you. If I’m wrong, say the word and the foetus is gone
> What you do is keep it safe. There going to be more independence?
< Count on it.
Kara smiled as Anson returned with two glasses and a bottle of champagne. “Talking of AIs,” she said, as the cork was eased out with a sigh. “What was put in Tatia’s head?”
“Nothing. She didn’t want one.” He handed her a glass. “To the three of us.”
She smiled, touched his face and sipped.
> Should I be doing alcohol?
< Your friendly neighbourhood AI will ensure no harm done. Don’t overdo it.
“Are you sure?” Kara said. “Because she had one. Or something like it.” She told him the story of how Tatia was kept sane on the Originator ship.
“Nothing like that in GalDiv. You say it’s gone?”
“Ishmael says so.”
“Better leave it there. One more mystery.”
“Sipping champagne with me,” Kara said. “Ever get the idea there’s a third player in all this? Like your little round floating alien? Because the coincidences are too great.”
“Tse used to say he sometimes sensed... look, if there is, it’s way beyond us. Got more important things to worry about. I’ve quit GalDiv.”
It would be a time of rebuilding. Maybe he’d go back when the dust had settled. Meanwhile there was a house in the Wild Forest of Dean, some fifty klicks away, on the banks of the River Wye. If Kara would like...
“Kara would love to live here,” she interrupted.
“Without seeing it?”
“If it’s crap we build a new one.”
“So no more assassin? What am I saying? You’re fired from the Bureau. Good redundancy package, though. What will you do?”
“I want to be an historian,” she said, surprising both of them.
“Interpreter not chronicler?”
She nodded. “It only just occurred.” And why not? Kara understood better than most how complex, how many-stranded and obscure was the truth about the past. She would love to learn and then explain how Earth really changed after the aliens came. And the long fight of human pre-cogs against their alien kin.
* * *
They took a refreshed Tatia to a restaurant in Gloucester, where over dessert she announced that she’d be staying in Marc’s house, and the AI was fine with it.
Adding that she had no intention of sacrificing her life to his memory, so not to worry, she had plans... which included getting to know her father and learning about her mother, so they could expect to see a great deal of her.
Then cried just a little when told Kara was pregnant, asked why she was drinking wine, looked severe when told Ishmael was overseeing the pregnancy, and then became thoughtful.
* * *
Six months after Kara and Anson moved to the Forest of Dean... and when Tatia’s own bulge established why she’d been so keen to stay in Marc’s house, Originator ships began arriving at Earth-colonised planets.
With all manner of high tech goodies to trade, even the latest star drives with no question of a human price. They were effectively given away.
It was as if the Originators were using the colony planets as a depository for all the tech they’d found or stolen over the past millennia. Inevitably they arrived on Earth with the same generous attitude. More and more people left the cities for the Up, helped by a GalDiv that now welcomed rather than warned.
The Wild wasn’t so sanguine, knowing there’d be a price to pay.
There always is.
15
Earth. Ten years later.
The vid stopped. The woman in black sat for a moment, thinking, then rose easily to her feet. “I’m done,” she called.
“Pretty damn good, right?” the vid’s owner said, bustling into the small study, empty shelves a reminder of the days when books were real.
“Entertaining,” she said. “As well as illegal.”
“Well, you’re not going to say anything.”
“I was wondering,” she said carefully, “if it’s worth the risk.”
The man nodded. “Most popular bootleg vid in the world. They say that some people in Rio were shot for watching it.”
She thought that nervous people say a lot
