The Avatar (6 page)

But when man and wife alone were awake, Brodersen said, “I feel restless. Think I’ll tinker with that monofilm recorder. Why don’t you come along and help?”

Such projects were not among Lis’ hobbies, but she caught his meaning and replied, “Sure.”

They sought his workshop. In half an hour he had cobbled together the apparatus he wanted from an ample supply of spare parts and activated it. A whine filled the equipment-crowded chamber. He clicked his tongue. “Dear me. Inefficient.”

“Is that to cover our voices?” she inquired.

She had realized what worried him. People spoke Finnish on her parents’ farm in the Trollberg region, and he had acquired a few extra languages in the years when he knocked about Earth. But all he and she had in common were English—their everyday tongue—and Spanish, both of which would be known to any detective.

“No,” he explained. “Sonics wouldn’t work, at least not without a lot of fancy heterodyning gear. This is no more’n a high-powered wide-band radio noise generator, which ought to jam electronic communications within a couple hundred meters, and seem accidental. I’m assuming the opposition has planted bugs along our walls, to pick up speech inside and buck it on to a receiver. Easy to do. Those things are small. You could lob ’em into the shrubbery with a slingshot.”

Dread touched her. “Do you really believe Aurie Hancock would order that, or the police would obey? Demeter’s supposed to be a free society.”

“Supposed to be. It’s actually a set of societies, you know, and a lot of mother countries aren’t exactly libertarian. If I were governor, I’d keep a few men on the force whose background doesn’t include scruples about privacy. Might need ’em someday to deal with criminals who were finding this planet a happy hunting ground.” Brodersen hitched himself onto the workbench and sat swinging his legs. “Anyway, Lis, I don’t
believe
we’re bugged, I’m
assuming
it. This matter’s too big for optimism. Tomorrow you have Mamoru Saigo come around with a detector and check for spy gadgets. If he finds any, hm, I’d suggest you destroy them, but first speak a sharp message that if this happens again, you’ll go to court and the news media both.”

She was mute among the tools while her gaze searched him. The window behind her was closed and blinded, but from it breathed a slight chill, like a sense of the darkness beyond.

“You won’t be here, then,” she foreknew.

He fumbled after pipe and tobacco. “‘Fraid not, honey. We can’t let the bastards ream us out, can we? Judas priest, the whole future of human spacefaring! Besides—have you forgotten?—the mate aboard
Emissary
is Carlos Rueda Suárez, my friend, Toni’s cousin. I don’t write family off.”

“Also Joelle Ky, if she’s alive,” Lis said quietly.

He winced from the pain he saw on her. “Yeah, well, an old friend too.”

“More than a friend.” Lis raised a palm. “No, don’t bother pretending. I’ve never objected to your little flings, have I? I’d like to meet Joelle myself. She must be rather special, to mean this much to you. You’ve never mentioned her to me as casually as you imagined you did.”

“You win,” he said, fiery-faced. “Not that we got romantic, understand. She’s too… strange for that. But—Anyway, the
main point is, I don’t see how the cabal can ever let
Emissary
go. The publicity would wreck their whole aim, and their personal careers to boot. At the same time, it’s dangerous maintaining prisoners. They may decide on a massacre.”

“If they are that villainous. If there is a cabal.”

He nodded. “The chance I take, that I’m mistaken.”

“As well as chances with your life, Dan.”

“Not too bad. Honest. I value my hide. It’s the only one I’ve got.”

“What do you want to do, essentially?”

“Go to Earth. Investigate. Act. Mainly, I suppose, alert the Rueda clan. At most, they’ll’ve heard vague rumors. I haven’t written to them directly, as you know, because I wasn’t that sure of my facts; and then when I was, I trustingly asked Aurie to push her queries harder, and then today she dumped this crockful over me. Our mail is bound to be intercepted, stopped if it says anything inconvenient. Nobody that I know on Demeter whom I might somehow pass the word to, nobody knows his way around Earth or has the connections I do there. No, I must get to Lima in person and talk to the Señor.”

“How?”

He paused in stuffing his pipe to give her a lopsided grin. “Lis, that plain and practical a question alone, right in this hour, would make me love you.”

He had not seen her blush and drop her glance in a long time. She squeezed his thigh. “We’re partners, remember?” she whispered.

“I’m not about to forget.” He set his smoking apparatus down to lay a hand over hers. “Okay, we haven’t a truck load of time, we’d better conspire onward.

“I don’t yet have an exact plan. Mainly, I figure it’s needful I bust free, out of reach. And immediately. If nothing is seen or heard of me for the next two-three days, I think Aurie’ll take for granted I’m sulking in my tent. After that, however, it’d seem funny if I didn’t at least make an occasional phone call. So I’ll skite off tonight.”

She didn’t require details. None but the two of them knew about their tunnel. A few years past, he’d rented a burrower to add a wine cellar to their storm shelter. While he was at it, he excavated a crawlway to the middle of the woods north of their land, reinforcing with spraycrete. That was during the bitter dispute, on and around Earth, regarding jurisdiction and
property rights among the asteroids, when for a while it looked as if the Iliadic League would secede. If that federation of orbital and Lunar colonies left the Union—and the Union probably resorted to arms to bring it back—God knew what would happen, also on Demeter. The crisis faded away in grumbling compromise, but Brodersen still jawed himself for not having provided a secret exit from the house before then. He’d seen enough disasters, most of them due to governments, that he should have taken out that insurance at the start.

From the woods he could hike five kilometers to a lonely airbus stop, fly to a distant town, and rent a car. He had established a couple of fake identities, complete with excellent credit ratings, to protect privacy when he and his traveled. In the pond that was Demeter, population less than three million, he’d become a bigger frog than he liked.

“What next?” Lis asked.

“Let’s think,” he said, kindling tobacco and drinking smoke. “Obviously I’ll need transportation to Sol, transportation that’ll do me some good after I get there.
Chinook
—what else?—the crew she can carry, the supplies aboard, the auxiliary boat. Besides,
Williwaw
is practically designed for jobs like snatching me unbeknownst from wherever I am on this planet.”

“How do you hope you’ll get
Chinook
through the gate, past the watchship?”

He chuckled. The prospect of operating, instead of being operated on, cheered him immensely. Not that he welcomed the present mess. Yet in recent years his days had gotten too predictable for his taste. “We’ll figure that out. If you can’t handle the negotiations, dear, we’d better both report to the gero clinic. Off hand… hm … well, Aventureros”—the parent company of Chehalis—“certainly could use another big freighter within the Solar System; and with no prospect now of
Chinook
going starward, why, we might as well put her on charter there.” He snapped his fingers. “Hey, yes, that’d give her the perfect official reason to contact the Ruedas.” Leaning forward, going earnest: “Yes, let’s count on that. Tomorrow you buzz the crewfolk. Speak about a possible trip to Sol on short notice, and invite them here for a conference about it. La Hancock did tell me quite frankly we’d be bugged whenever we had visitors, and jamming at that time would look too suspicious. But you can prepare written summaries to hand out, and all the real talk can be in writing, while harmless things are spoken that you can also
have written out beforehand. They’re bright people I picked, quick studies. They’ll put on a convincing show.”

Lis frowned. “Will they necessarily go along with such a risky venture?”

“Well, some may be too law-abiding or something. However, I feel sure that if any refuse, they’ll still be loyal enough that they won’t run off and blab. I didn’t choose them to be my crew on a possible voyage to new planets without getting to know each one of them pretty well.”

“Even so, Aurelia is no fool. If she learns that
Chinook
is about to leave, she may slap on a hold, on whatever pretext she can think of, just to play safe.”

“Need she know? The Governor General’s office doesn’t usually keep track of spaceship comings and goings. I’ve little doubt you can hit on an arrangement.”

Brodersen hesitated before adding: “Uh, in due course she will grow certain I’ve vamoosed, and quite likely speculate that I was smuggled aboard. You’ll be in for considerable static, I’m afraid.”

“I can give as good as I get,” she assured him.

He smiled. “Yeah. How well I know. I don’t see how she can make really serious trouble for you without tipping her hand, which she mustn’t. What can she legally prove, except maybe that you helped your husband break out of a dubiously legal custody? And if that came to trial, wow!”

“She might trump up something worse,” Lis said. “Not that I think she’d want to. She’s not basically a commissar. But she might be ordered to.”

“Our lawyers can drag out any court case for months,” he reminded her. “By that time, I should’ve gotten the whole stinking business busted to flinders.” He frowned. “Of course, if I fail—”

“Don’t worry about me,” she interrupted. “You know I’ll manage.”

Again she grew quiet, standing beside him. “I’ll be afraid on your account,” she said at last.

“Don’t be.” He shifted his pipe and laid an arm around her shoulders.

“Well, since you are bound to go, let’s plan things carefully. For openers, how do we keep in touch?”

“Through Abner Croft,” he proposed. That was among his fictitious personalities. Abner Croft owned a cabin on Lake
Artemis, a hundred kilometers hence. His phone possessed more than a scrambler. It had a military gadget Brodersen had learned about on Earth and re-created for himself, as an extra precaution during the lliadic crisis. A tap on the line would register a banal pre-recorded conversation. He and Lis had had fun creating several such, using disguises and voder-altered voices. He could get in circuit from any third instrument by requesting a conference call; the switching machinery didn’t care.

“M-hm,” she said. “Where do you expect you’ll actually be?”

“In the uplands. Logical area, no?”

She paused. “With Caitlín?”

Taken aback because she spoke so gravely, he floundered, “Well, um, that’s where she is this time of year. Everybody local’ll know how to find her, and think it quite natural that an outside visitor would want to hear a few songs of hers. And who else could better keep me concealed, or tell what’s a safe rendezvous in those parts, or… or whatever?”

He puffed hard. Lis touched him anew, and now she did not let go. “Forgive me that I asked,” she said low. “I’m not protesting. You’re right, she’s a fine bet to help us. But you see—no, I’m not jealous, but I might never see you again after tonight, and she means a great deal more to you than Joelle, doesn’t she?”

“Aw, sweetheart.” He laid his pipe aside, to slide from the bench and stand holding her.

Head on his breast, fingers tight against his back, she let the words tumble forth, though she kept them soft. “Dan, dearest, understand. I know you love me. And I, after that wretched marriage of mine broke up, when I met you—Everything you’ve been says you love me. But you, your first wife, you were never happier than when you had Antonia, were you?”

“No,” he confessed around a thickness. “Except you’ve given me—”

“Hush. I’ve made it clear to you I don’t mind—enough to matter—if you wander a bit once in a while. You meet a lot of assorted people, and I don’t usually go along on your business trips to Earth, and you’re a mighty attractive bull, did I ever tell you? No, shut up, darling, let me finish. I don’t worry about Joelle. From what little you’ve said, there’s a kind of witchcraft about her—a holothete and—But you didn’t ever invent excuses to go back to her. Caitlín, though—”

“Her either—” he tried.

“You haven’t told me she was anything but a friend and occasional playmate. Well, you haven’t told me that, openly, about anyone. You’re a private person in your way, Dan. But I’ve come to know you regardless. I’ve watched you two when she came visiting. Caitlín is quite a bit like Toni, isn’t she?”

He could only grip her to him for reply.

“You said I didn’t have to be a monogamist myself,” Lis blurted. “And maybe I won’t always.” She gulped a giggle. “What a pair of anachronisms we are, knowing what ‘monogamy’ means!… But since we got married, Dan, nobody’s been worth the trouble. And nobody will be while you’re away this trip and I don’t know if you’ll get back.”

“I will,” he vowed, “I will, to you.”

“You’ll do your damnedest, sure. Which is one blazing hell of a damnedest.” She raised her face to his. He saw tears, and felt and tasted them. “I’m sorry,” she got forth. “I shouldn’t have mentioned Caitlín. Except… give her my love, please.”

“I, I said earlier, your practical question reminded me what kind of people you are,” he stammered. “Then, uh, this—You’re flat-out unbelievably
good.”

Lis disengaged, stepped back, flowed her hands from his ribs to his hips, and said far down in her throat: “Thanks, chum. Now look, this’ll be a short night—you’ll want to catch your bus when the passengers are sleepy—and we’ve a lot of plotting to do yet. First, however… m-m-m-m?”

Warmth rose in him. “M-m-m-m,” he returned.

T
HREE HUNDRED KILOMETERS
east of the Hephaestian Sea, two thousand north of Eopolis, the Uplands rose. There a number of immigrants from northern Europe had settled during the past century’s inflow. Like most colonists, once it became possible to survive beyond the original town and its technological support, they tended to clump together with their own kind. Farmers, herders, lumberjacks, hunters, they lived in primitive fashion for lack of machinery; freight costs from Earth were enormous. Later, when Demetrian industry began to grow, they acquired some modern equipment—but not much, because in the meantime they had developed ways well suited to coping with their particular country. Moreover, most of them didn’t care to become dependent on outsiders. They or their ancestors had moved here to be free of governments, corporations, unions, and other monopolies. That spirit endured.