have thought he could snatch you and use you to put pressure on us to release his associate, the man with the briefcase. Not that it turned out all that well for him.' He gave Megan a rather cockeyed look. 'You reacted fast. Maybe a little too fast.'
'You try being born last behind four large and hungry brothers,' Megan said, 'and see how fast it makes you.'
Winters produced a dry smile. 'Point taken. Anyway, your reasoning about why someone unknown should show up there right then was correct enough. And I wouldn't worry about having him turn up on your doorstep any time soon-not that, after a welcome like that, anyone lacking a deathwish would be terribly eager to. Besides a very sore chest and a body-bruise you could paper a wall with, the guy's already got several counts of assault, interstate flight, various other black marks… We and the other law enforcement agencies will be having a series of long talks with him, and one or more of those will land him in some none too comfortable Federal retreat for a good while. Your guy in the trench coat may not spend that long on our shores, but that's only because of all the extradition arguments that are going on at the moment.'
'Why?' Leif said. 'What was he carrying?'
'If either of you spent as much time watching the news as you do working on your hobbies,' Winters said, leaning back in his chair, 'you might make an educated guess.'
They both looked blankly at him. 'You really do need to pay more attention to the news,' Winters said. 'Two weeks ago someone shanghaied a bankers' courier outside the main train station in Milan. Dragged him off somewhere, then stuffed him into the trunk of a car that they left up near Udine somewhere, and went off with what the courier had been carrying-which was one point five billion Swiss francs' worth of 'white paper' negotiable securities. The police in Milan assumed that the thieves would run up into Liechtenstein with the paper-they're in a currency union with Switzerland-or maybe over to Jersey via France, and launder the paper by running it through one of the smaller merchant banks there, then moving the funds right along after clearance into various other jurisdictions, the Caymans, say, or Andorra… But whoever was running this particular white-collar thief decided to try the 'hide in plain sight' maneuver instead. They told him to go to the U. S. yia Amsterdam, and then arranged with your friend Mr. Vaud to put a 'disposable' courier on the same flight as a distraction.' Winters shook his head. 'Strikes me as an error in judgment. They should have covered him up a whole lot deeper… or alternately, they should have given your young friend Burt the paper. Who would have suspected him?'
Winters stretched and yawned. 'But they outsmarted themselves. Always nice when they do that' He smiled slightly. 'And you two are sitting pretty at the moment. If you want to go to Italy, I suspect the Milanese police would be willing to pay your airfare. That stuff was snatched on their watch.'
Megan smiled. 'Well,' she said, 'I'll see what my dad thinks.' She sighed. 'All I want now is to see Burt. I've had about six calls from my friend Wilma in the last two hours… '
'I'll get out of here,' Winters said, standing up. 'Come on, Leif. Let's let real life, whatever that looks like, reassert itself.' He looked at Megan with something she had never seen on his face before, something which brought her out in a hot embarrassed flush: just simple pride.
It lasted about a second. 'I want a complete report from the two of you, with discussion of the sociopolitical ramifications, in eighteen hours,' James Winters said. 'See me in my office for critique and further discussion two hours after you submit it.'
And he vanished.
Megan let out a long breath. 'Homework,' she said with genuine loathing.
'Yeah, but what homework,' Leif said. 'I'll call you later.'
And he vanished, too.
About two hours later Megan and Wilma and Burt were in Megan's space, sitting around and just reveling in things being a lot more normal than they had been for the past few days.
'I hate to tell you this,' Burt said, 'but even after all that… I don't know if I want to go home just yet.'
'Nobody's going to make you,' Megan said.
'But I miss you' Wilma said, She squeezed Burt's hand. The two of them had been holding hands almost constantly since Burt arrived, having been questioned by the police and released as soon as they had conferred with Net Force.
'I miss you, tooBut I can't go back there.'
'Megan?' said what sounded like the voice of the Great and Powerful Oz.
'Yeah, Dad?'
'Can I come in?'
'Sure, come on ahead.'
A moment later he was in her space and glanced over at Burt. 'Perfect,' her father said. 'I hoped you were here. Look, Burt… You've been through a lot, and you've managed it surprisingly well. If you don't mind, I'd be happy enough to offer you a spare room for a couple of months. We're redoing the garage at the moment, since we haven't been using it. It's better than being in a shelter, no matter how humane the shelter is.'
Burt shook his head. 'Mr. O'Malley,' he said slowly, 'it's really nice of you.. but I think the distance was doing me some good. I want to keep working with the Breathing Space people for a couple of months and see where it gets me. But I'll stay in the area.' He looked over at Wilma. 'We've got those qualifiers to think about in a few months, after all.'
Wilma took his hand and didn't say anything.
'Everybody will be able to find me,' Burt said. 'I'll be getting in touch with my folks, all right. I have some things I have to say to them. Maybe not the things they think… especially my dad. But after that.. We'll see. I can manage to finish school, anyway, if I don't have to go home at night. After that…' He looked at Wilma. 'I don't know for sure. But we've got a while to work on it.'
'Okay,' Megan's father said. 'That sounds good to me.
And he vanished.
The three of them sat there looking at one another. 'So…' Megan said.
'So,' Burt said. 'Let me see how you've messed up the sim of Buddy. Maybe if someone puts a real rider on top of him, we can get it fixed.'
A moment later he was being assaulted by two young women. A moment later they dragged him off into another area of virtuality. Beyond the white marble amphitheater, the Sun dipped below the surface of Rhea, and very gently, all around, the atmosphere began to sublimate out in a low-G storm of bluish swansdown snow…
