Tharsis was much smaller than even the auxiliary domes of Lowell City. There were no sleds. Streets radiated from the four gates toward the central square. Aunt Kristin and Uncle Martin’s apartment was at the edge, on the third floor of one of the city’s oldest building. It had a spectacular view. The building wasn’t near this gate, however, but the gate on the opposite side of the dome. Even at this early hour, there were people hurrying through the narrow streets. Amanda didn’t want to be recognized.
“Come this way,” she said to Konstantin and took his hand. She led him and Demetria through the circular back streets to the apartment building. The tiny elevator—stairs took up too much space—carried them to the third floor. Amanda knocked.
For a brief disoriented second, she expected to hear Brother Meissel’s “Deo gratias.” But she would never hear that again.
Konstantin said, “Your uncle not to have house system?”
Of course they did. She was disoriented, after the weeks without a system in the abbey. Amanda said, “System, open the door. This is Amanda Capelo. Check voice pattern.”
“Hello, Amanda,” the system said, and opened the door.
Uncle Martin, a light sleeper, must have heard the knock. He came hurrying out of the bedroom, knotting a robe at his waist, and stopped cold. “Oh, my God!”
“Martin? What is it?” Aunt Kristen, rushing out, and then, “Amanda! Oh, Amanda!” She grabbed Amanda, hugged her hard, held her away to see if it really was true, and hugged her again. “Amanda!” Aunt Kristen started to cry.
She looked so much like Daddy. The same thin dark face. Amanda felt her chest tighten.
Uncle Martin said urgently, “Amanda, is Tom with you? What happened? Where did you come from?”
Konstantin answered. “Dr. Capelo are not by here, no. I to bring Amanda.”
Uncle Martin stared at him. “Who are you?”
“Konstantin Ouranis.”
“Ouranis? Wait … you’re the kid who kept trying to contact Tom about physics. And then you sent a message you were coming to see Kris here on Mars.”
“Physics, yes,” Konstantin said. “Splendid. My sister, Demetria.” Demetria nodded graciously.
“Amanda,” Uncle Martin said in his quiet way, “please tell us what happened.”
Amanda had finished hugging them. Now she worried that she probably smelled bad. She hadn’t had a shower in three days! Of course Aunt Kristen and Uncle Martin were too polite to say anything, but still … She tried to forget about smells and focus on what had happened. There was so much.
“Start with what happened the night of the kidnapping,” Uncle Martin suggested.
“Let me at least get them some coffee first, Martin,” Aunt Kristen said.
Demetria, for the first and last time in Amanda’s hearing, recognized an English word. “Coffee!” she cried, so ecstatically that Konstantin frowned and Amanda, against all reason, laughed out loud.
* * *
Coffee, and cake, and explanations. Amanda was hoarse by the time she’d finished telling her aunt and uncle everything that had happened. Aunt Kristen held her hand tightly. Oh, it was good to be here.
Uncle Martin said, “So you thought that since General Stefanak is no longer in power, and he may have taken your father—may, mind you—it was safe to come out of hiding and come here.”
“Yes,” Amanda said, but at something in his tone, she was suddenly uneasy. “Isn’t it?”
“I don’t know. Things are very unpredictable these days. Certainly Admiral Pierce’s coming to power hasn’t resulted in your father’s being freed yet. Amanda, there are some friends of ours I think you had better stay with until—”
“Visitors,” the house system announced. “Solar Alliance Defense Council soldiers. They ask immediate admittance.”
“Oh, God,” Aunt Kristen said. “Martin, tell them she’s not here!”
“I don’t think it will make any difference,” Uncle Martin said quietly.
It didn’t. The door opened to three soldiers. Two moved quickly through the apartment, taking up posts on either side of Amanda. The third, an officer, said to Uncle Martin, “Dr. Blumberg, I am Major Harper, SADC. Your niece Amanda Capelo entered this residence fifteen minutes ago.”
“Yes,” Uncle Martin said.
“I assume her arrival was unexpected.”
“Yes. What is this about, Major?”
“Is this the first time you’ve seen Miss Capelo since her disappearance the night of April second on Earth?”
“I think you know it is,” Uncle Martin said quietly. “What is your business with my niece, Major?”
“Admiral Pierce wishes to convey his congratulations that Miss Capelo is unharmed. Have you knowledge of her father’s whereabouts, Dr. Thomas Capelo?”
“No. And neither does Amanda.”
“Admiral Pierce wishes to talk to her. My instructions are to convey Miss Capelo to Lowell City.”
“But I just came from there!” Amanda cried. She’d come out from the kitchen when she heard her name.
“Hello, Miss Capelo,” Major Harper said courteously. “You must come with us.”
“No! I won’t! Where’s my father?”
“We hope you’ll be able to help us determine that,” he said, and even Uncle Martin looked surprised.
“You mean,” Amanda cried, “you don’t know where Daddy is?”
“Miss Capelo,” Major Harper said patiently, “the situation is complicated, and I’m not at liberty to discuss it with you here.”
Amanda set her chin. “I want my aunt and uncle to go with me.”
“Certainly, if you prefer.”
That was a surprise, too. Amanda decided to push. “And Konstantin. He’s … he’s a physicist.”
Major Harper looked skeptical. Konstantin stepped forward. “Konstantin Ouranis. My father is Stavros Ouranis. I am by Ah-man-dah.”
“Stavros, Ouranis?” Something passed behind the major’s eyes. “Does he know where you are?”
“Yes, yes. All okay at him.”
“But … Mr. Ouranis, I’m sorry, but my orders do not include you.”
Konstantin scowled. Amanda saw that he was not used to being told “no.” Major Harper took Amanda’s elbow; she was being led forward before she knew what was happening. “But … but I need a bath first!”
“I’m sorry, that’s not possible,” Major Harper said, but he did allow Uncle Martin and Aunt Kristen to change hurriedly from their nightclothes to coveralls. Amanda said to Konstantin, “Stay here, Konstantin. I’m sure my uncle and aunt won’t mind. I’ll be back as quick as … how long will I be in Lowell City, Major?”
Major Harper only smiled.
“Well, stay here with Demetria, okay?”
“Splendid,” Konstantin said, flashed his white smile, and touched her arm. Once again Amanda worried how she smelled. Oh, she wanted a bath!
Major Harper and his soldiers led her toward the elevator, and back to Lowell City.
FIFTEEN
WORLD
So decide now,” Magdalena had said to Kaufman, although Kaufman could see no reason for her sudden haste. She had hung around World for a while now. So her demand for an immediate decision was no more than a show of power: Jump when I say so.
He didn’t let his irritation dictate his decision. He said, “I’m coming with you. Just let me get Marbet.” He started for the skimmer door. Magdalena nodded and raised her comlink again, presumably to tell her two bodyguards to gather necessary items from her hut and report to the skimmer. Before she could link with them, Kaufman had her pinned against the bulkhead.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “but I need more time than I think you’ll be willing to give me. Not too much more, Magdalena, but enough to talk to Ann.”
She had too much sense to scream or fight; neither would have been useful. He tied her hands behind her back and then to the leg of a skimmer seat. Dieter said, “Lyle … you have thought this through?”
 
; “I just don’t want her to leave without us. Tell the two natives to return to the ceremony, without disrupting it, and send Ann and Marbet to the east side of the stockade.”
Dieter translated. The two Worlders scuttled out of the skimmer, their skull ridges deeply crinkled. Kaufman left Magdalena with the unconscious Essa, and he and Dieter strode to the stockade’s east wall.
“Lyle, what … they’re right in the crucial part of the flower rites!”
“Where are Magdalena’s bodyguards? It’s important.”
“In her hut, I think. She told them to stay there until she comlinked them. They’re not exactly interested in the flower ceremony.”
“Good. Marbet, the revolution on Mars succeeded. Stefanak is dead, Pierce is in power, and Magdalena is leaving for the tunnel immediately. I think she may be our best chance to find Tom. She has connections that you and I don’t. But we need to decide now.”
Marbet gazed at him. She said slowly, “When did our mission change from rescuing Ann and Dieter and possibly helping World, to rescuing Tom?”
“We can’t help World,” Kaufman said. “There’s nothing for us to do here. Or—don’t you think so?”
“I always thought so,” Marbet said. “But I wasn’t sure you’d come to that realization. The other reason we came, to rescue Dieter and Ann…” She turned to them quizzically.
Ann said, “We’re staying. Nothing has changed for us because you two came here. This is our home now.”
“Dieter?” Kaufman said.
“Ja, we stay.” He put his arm around his wife.
Marbet said, “But you can’t leave those two bodyguards here, Lyle! It would be profoundly unfair. No matter how much use they’d be against the Voratur-house marauders!”
Kaufman and Dieter exchanged looks. Kaufman thought, Let Dieter tell Ann what Magdalena did to the marauders. Dieter’s return look said sarcastically, Thanks a lot. But Dieter didn’t protest.
Aloud Kaufman said, “If you and Dieter are really staying, then there’s room in the skimmer and shuttle for the bodyguards. Magdalena’s shuttle, not ours—that holds only two. I’ll let her call them from the skimmer. So, Dieter—”
“‘Let her’?” Ann said suspiciously. “What do you mean, ‘let her’?”
“No time. Dieter will explain. Good-bye, Ann. You’re doing wonderful work here, undoing what I did.”
Her long, plain face softened. But all she said was, “Take care of yourself, Lyle. You, too, Marbet.”
Dieter threw his arms around them both in a bear hug. Kaufman endured it; Dieter was what he was. Kaufman turned to Marbet. “Five minutes in our hut, Marbet. Just grab some clothing and equipment. I don’t want Magdalena’s bodyguards to get to her skimmer before we do. Don’t let the natives see you, if possible, and—”
“Not possible,” Ann said. “I’ll explain all this later to Enli. Now I have to get back to the ceremony.” She was gone, and from her decisive stride, her long, embroidered native tunic might as well have been combat boots and full battle armor.
Ann Sikorski was, Kaufman realized irrelevantly, a happy woman.
Dieter followed his wife. Marbet had already left for her and Kaufman’s hut. Kaufman returned to Magdalena.
“We leave in just a few minutes,” he said placatingly. “Marbet is coming, Ann and Dieter are staying. If I untie you and let you summon your thugs, are you going to tell them to take me apart?”
Magdalena studied him. “And if I say “yes’?”
“Then they stay here and you stay tied.”
“All right, Kaufman, I won’t instruct them to mash you into paste. But why should you believe that?”
“Well, not because I trust your word,” Kaufman said. “But I don’t think you really want me either dead or left behind on this planet. I might be useful to you, at some point.”
“I don’t see how.”
“Nor do I, yet. But we know different people, have different allies, can call in different favors. Is it really worth it to you to lose that potential advantage just for the satisfaction of punishing me? I’ve only delayed you about fifteen minutes, you know. And of course, you always have the options of setting your thugs on me later. When your dance card isn’t quite so filled.”
Magdalena laughed. “You really were a good military negotiator, weren’t you?”
“Still could be,” Kaufman said pointedly.
“You and your tame Sensitive could return to the tunnel in your own flyer.”
“You are where the action’s going to be. Tom and Laslo.” Kaufman felt a twinge, evoking her son’s name. But it was her one vulnerable spot. Use whatever you can. He was going to need Magdalena’s contacts to reach Tom, and if Kaufman took his own flyer, she could easily escape him.
“All right, Lyle,” Magdalena said, saying his name with Marbet’s intonations, a delicate mockery. “I’ll summon my ‘thugs’ without telling them you tied me up. Untie me.”
He did, first glancing out the door to make sure Marbet was approaching. Magdalena was quite capable of leaving without her. Marbet rounded the edge of the stockade, still in her long drifting gown, her arms full. Kaufman released Magdalena.
Curtly she comlinked her bodyguards. Kaufman reached to unstrap the sleeping Essa. He would leave her on the ground; Ann would come for her as soon as she could.
“Leave the kid there,” Magdalena said. “No, don’t look at me like that, Lyle—this isn’t your call. She goes with us. I promised, didn’t I?”
“You can’t, she’s native to this planet … don’t bring her just to get back at me!”
“You flatter yourself. Leave her.”
“No.”
“Oh, yes, Lyle. Come on, Rory. We’re leaving.”
Her bodyguards arrived at the skimmer at the same time as Marbet. The senior one climbed in, looking hard at Kaufman. Kaufman had no chance against him. Augmented, almost certainly, and possibly engineered as well. Magdalena smiled.
Both the junior thug and Marbet carried loads of belongings. “Dump those in the corner and sit down, we’re going,” Magdalena said.
“But … Essa! Lyle—” Marbet began, and was thrown to the floor as Magdalena slammed the skimmer into high speed.
Her shuttle was parked ten kilometers away, in the middle of an empty field. In plain sight, it was nonetheless protected by an e-barrier, and evidently Magdalena didn’t care who saw it. Kaufman blinked at first sight of the shuttle. It was as big as the military shuttle he and Dieter had had on their previous expedition, when they’d dug up the artifact. That expedition had arrived on an SADN warship. What the hell was Magdalena’s ship like?
“Take off immediately,” Magdalena said. “Rory, stow the skimmer. Lockers inside for all that loose stuff, we’ll sort it out later. Kendai, bring that alien girl and strap her in.”
If the junior bodyguard was surprised at this command, he didn’t show it. Marbet said again, “Magdalena, you can’t. Lyle—”
“Lyle has nothing to do with it,” Magdalena said, clearly enjoying herself. “Nor do you. Essa goes with us.”
The two women faced each other. Marbet said, “Essa can’t survive off-planet. This is all she’s known. Why are you doing this?”
“Look at the Sensitive being,” Magdalena jeered. “How do you know Essa can’t adapt off-planet? She wants to go. Are you saying the engineered superwoman should make decisions for the poor inferior backward alien? Very colonialist of you, I must say.”
“You’re only taking her to make Lyle and me uncomfortable,” Marbet said. “It’s in every line of you.”
“Why don’t you ask Essa?” Magdalena said sweetly. “When she wakes up, of course … places, Rory. Let’s blow. Better strap in, Sensitive.”
“Lyle—”
“There’s nothing I can do,” Kaufman said, knowing that if Marbet hadn’t been so upset, she would never have made him admit it aloud. He didn’t look at Marbet as he strapped himself in.
Magdalena piloted. During the lift,
through the atmosphere, no one spoke. Essa slept through the entire flight. Kaufman watched World fall away beneath him. Green, lush, and … what? Doomed, he would have said a week ago, and writhed now at his hubris. He was not the destroyer of worlds. Not even the rescuer of fellow human castaways. Ann, Dieter, and World all managed their existences very well without him.
And yet he had changed the directions of those existences. So he was neither destroyer not savior nor neutral force, but something more elusive. More ambiguous, less clear. He, Lyle Kaufman, who had prized the unambiguous clarity of following military orders, while remaining emotionally untouched by those orders.
Not now. Any of it.
Lyle Kaufman gazed down, and watched the beautiful planet dwindle, and hoped to God to never see or set foot on World again.
* * *
Magdalena’s ship was as big as a Thor-class vessel. Crew of thirty, Lyle decided professionally. Suspicious attachments fore and aft; this ship was armed with a lot more weapons than any civilian liner should be. Her name, Kaufman noted wryly, was the Sans Merci.
“‘Palely loitering,’ indeed,” Marbet muttered sourly. Kaufman didn’t know what she meant, and didn’t ask.
As soon as the shuttle had docked, Magdalena disappeared. To call the Murasaki, Kaufman guessed. As far as he knew, the warship was still in orbit around the tunnel, still inexplicably. Magdalena must have gotten ship permission to enter the star system. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be here.
Two years ago, Colonel Ethan McChesney, SADC Intelligence, had been in charge of the Murasaki. McChesney, who had reported directly to Stefanak, had headed the Special Projects group that brought a live Faller to a SADN warship. The only live Faller humans had ever captured, which Marbet had slowly, painfully, learned to communicate with, until it was killed.
Was McChesney still aboard the Murasaki? Why was the warship still here? And who did Magdalena know to enable her to come and go with impunity—it was exactly the right word—past the Murasaki?
Whoever it was, the shift in power in Lowell City must have affected his or her standing. Not to mention the standing of Magdalena herself, well-known “friend” to the late Sullivan Stefanak. No wonder Magdalena looked concerned.