****
The others hung out for the afternoon and evening mostly at the hotel bar.
"I'm worried about Mary," said Doll. "She looks more tired every day, despite sleeping most of the time."
"She's a tough little old lady," said Snake. "She'll be alright."
"I don't think so," said Doll. "And Ed is worried too. I can tell. That's why we aren't moving to San Francisco today."
"I offered them medical care but they refused," said Mara. "Meanwhile we have business to discuss."
"True enough," said Ken, "and we might as will move straight to it."
"There are Stone-Coat, jant, and human factors and players to consider," began Snake. "My Brother Hacker is the brains of our outfit but we talked things over good before I left China Lake and we can move things along here and now. I'll trust Mara to convey this discussion to the Governor."
"Move what things along?" asked Mara.
"And could it have to do with whatever secrets Ed and Mary learned about at Ames?" asked Ken.
"It has nothing at all to do with Ames," said Snake. "I'm talking about my retirement and Hacker's. Ideally within about ten years the Brothers would like to turn over the Confederacy back to the State."
Ken's jaw dropped. Even Doll looked surprised, though not displeased.
"The Stone-Coats will indirectly help enable this," said Snake. "The living conditions for everyone in California will be improving thanks largely to Stone-Coats. That will provide wiggle room for social and political changes. But it ain't going to be easy. There are other things to settle first, and a lot of transition details to work out, both within the State and within the Confederacy."
"That's for sure," said Doll.
"And what about jants?" Ken asked. "Will they be allowed to spread throughout the Confederacy with human assistance, as they have done in the North?"
"Yes I suppose so," said Snake. "We'd eventually have to learn how to live with them anyway. But first we have to solve the zombie problem."
"Plus a lot of Storms will be very upset at dissolving the Confederacy, said Doll."
"You got that right," said Snake. "But we aren't there yet. For one thing the Scar situation has to be settled before we announce our plan to the Confederacy, or there will be no Confederacy. But now we're beginning to see that Scar is only the tip of a mighty big jant iceberg that extends to Northern California and maybe even nation-wide and world-wide."
"Yes, the jant business needs to be understood and then either countered or otherwise accommodated," agreed Mara, "and that will likely require the involvement of both Jerry Green and Ed Rumsfeld."
"Maybe the jants aren't so bad," said Ken. "Maybe you just have to stay on their good side."
"I'm not quite that much of an optimist," said Snake. "But I've come to trust Ed. He's been living with jants; maybe we can also."
"Then there's those secrets that Ed and Mary learned about the Space Program," said Ken. "What are we going to do about that?"
"Why should we do anything?" Mara asked. "The Rumsfelds were supposed to visit Ames for Green and they did. Whatever they learned is Jerry's business. Other than providing economic and technology stimulus I don't see that the Interplanetary Space Program much impacts local politics."
"How do we know for sure that what they learned has nothing to do with the State or the Confederacy?" Ken asked. "Can Jerry's people in Ames really be trusted from State and Confederacy perspectives? I'd still like to know what the hell the Rumsfelds learned at Ames!"
"You and me both," said Snake.
"But you can't always get what you want," added Doll. "We've said that we trust Ed and Mary. If what they learned at Ames related to us I for one am confident that they would have told us already."