April 6: And What Goes Around (23 page)

Lindsey
incorporated that key moment and changed the angle of view subtly from the
reality of the club, drawing them in such a way that you could see Ben face on
and Martha in semi-profile at his side, yet the stage with musicians
counterbalanced them on the opposite side of the sheet and set the scene.

Instead of her
usual central area in precise detail and vivid color she had two focal points
of detail. The couple at the table and the pair performing on the stage. April
had been happy to find Lindsey was flexible enough to alter her style that
much.

The rest of the
drawing followed her usual style of becoming less photo-realistic and more
muted in color as your eye left the primary subjects. So the other diners at
their tables and details of the bar and entry faded and lost focus toward the
edges to mere pastel shapes suggesting patrons and furnishings in an extreme expressionist
style.

They propped the
drawing against the wall and sat on the sofa admiring it. There was something
else in the envelope and Martha retrieved a memory chip. That was a recording
of the  pair on stage, Amos of The Ancient Astronauts and Ruby, a onetime
professor of Medieval Music. Martha put it on low to play through the com
console and sat back by Ben, who put his arm around her.

"She drew you
looking straight on," Martha noticed. "You're still quite
recognizable. You have strong features."

"It a very natural pose. I'm looking at you," Ben demonstrated,
doing so even closer. It turned into a kiss. April would have been delighted at
what her gift started.

Martha Wiggen,
previous President of The United States of North America and recently married
to Ben Patsitsas joined the line for breakfast in the main cafeteria. Her
husband was right behind her and got the silverware and napkins for both of
them, as was his set custom already. It was the sort of a little gesture she
appreciated him doing. It was a short line and always moved ahead quickly. She
was not a natural early riser but they were still in honeymoon mode and even if
she delayed him from getting up she then accompanied him to breakfast.

She was the first
female, and near the youngest, to break the circle of the coffee brigade which
occupied the tables closest to the pots in the cafeteria. The informal group
formed years ago and the members changed through the years, but with surprising
continuity.

The group started
forming each day late in the back shift from insomniacs and grew as retired
people and the self employed with no set schedule drifted in. By 0900 early in
the main shift it was as large as it would get that day. By lunch it was dissolved,
each going their own way. A few who wandered in worked as they socialized, as
Ben often did when he was on a roll with new book. He found the noise and
people coming and going stimulating rather than distracting. Others discussed
the news, politics and business at length. A few still followed Earth sports
out of habit nostalgia or because they bet on the games.

The few who drank
coffee and ate but kept one eye on an open pad trading stocks were not active
like they were a couple months ago. The markets below were in chaos with some
closed and others under restrictions.

The coffee had
switched back to liquid concentrate two days ago when the cafeteria ran out of
bean coffee due to reduced shuttle traffic. Nobody was going hungry but the
shell eggs were used up and dried substituted for scrambled and omelets. Fruit
was reconstituted and frozen. Ruby was pushing pancakes and waffles or oatmeal
and still had plenty of nuts and raisins to garnish them. She had literally
tons of pancake mix. The challenge was going to be making them interesting when
people got sick of them. There was still orange juice from concentrate and
Martha got some, correctly guessing it was a low priority item and likely to
run out before their supply problems improved.

Another couple
joined the line behind Ben chatting and put trays on the line. They added items
off the hot bar and seemed in a jolly mood. Martha reached back to put butter
on Ben's tray and glanced behind at the couple. She jerked in surprise and her
mouth fell open. Ben turned his gaze to see what shocked her so. She wasn't
normally inclined to such theatrics.

The couple were
Asian and middle aged. Altogether unremarkable looking, except the man looked
embarrassed or chagrined. Ben's first reaction was to be embarrassed too, by
his new wife's treatment of these strangers in public.

"I know
you." Martha said. Somehow she made it sound like an accusation.

"Madam
President. I didn't mean to startle you so. Perhaps I should wear a bell,"
he quipped and gave her a smile.

"I've heard
you are a
very
hard cat to bell," she shot back, recovering her
composure. "Not to mention you seem to have the proverbial nine
lives."

"People make
unfounded assumptions," he said with a shrug. "Unfortunately some of
them seem to do so because they are
hopeful
of my demise."

"Then, you
know this fellow?" Ben asked, clueless to the reason for the verbal
fencing.

"This is the
first I've met him in the flesh. I've spoken to him on com. This is the fellow
who took April in when she visited Earth. She stayed in his home on
Hawaii." Then Wiggen's face changed and she looked unhappy.

"I'm sorry for
what happened," she told the man. "You lost your home and were
treated very badly. You vanished and nobody knew what had happened. There was
nothing effective I could do then and little later. Some thought you and your
family had to be dead and April along with you. The agency people though were
deeply skeptical and never accepted you were dead. Not even when your yacht was
reported lost."

Papa-san waved it
away. "I don't blame the loss of my home on
you
. You had your own
troubles with the Patriot Party at that time. In fact the bodyguard you sent April
was stifled in using the assets you gave him by the Patriots or we might have
weathered that particular assault and left in better order. We couldn't deal
with the Chinese
and
the Patriots. But Hawaii was untenable for someone
like me once the Patriots had power, entirely aside from being associated with April
or you.

"It seems you
were rather difficult to
eliminate
yourself, Madam President.  
We
just silently slipped away.
Your
exit was rather spectacular. I have
spoken with... acquaintances, and I understand you crossed Washington at less
than eight thousand meters altitude at about Mach 7. There are historic
buildings they still haven't repaired and it took to the middle of the next
summer just to fix all the busted water mains."

"Yes, the
pilot Jeff sent to pick us up was insane. It was an experience," Wiggen said,
rolling her eyes. "On the other hand we are here because they couldn't
shoot him down. Not for lack of trying."

"Does the gentleman
have a name?" Ben inquired again gently.

"Oh, uh...
" Martha looked stricken. "I'm sorry, what stuck in my head is April
said you preferred Illustrious Lord or Benevolent Master in your home, but
would answer to Papa-san. You have to admit that would be pretty hard to
forget, but it pushed your real name straight out of my mind."

"Papa-san is
still entirely acceptable," he said, amused. "But if you should have
need we are Tetsu and Lin Santos."

"Santos! Of
course. Although my spies said it in hushed tones like you were the Lord of
Darkness."

"Spies?"
Ben asked, pausing with his syrup in the air as if it was forgotten.

"Big time,"
Martha confirmed. "But he worked for us or I wouldn't be so chatty."

"And
gratefully retired now," Papa-san assured her firmly.

"Would you
join us?" Ben invited. "I'd
love
to talk to you about a book
I've outlined. I've been a writer of mysteries and I have this itch to write a
spy thriller. They're really not so different."

Martha and Lin
looked around the men at each other. They looked resigned.

"If you like.
I'm afraid the day to day business of spying is much less exciting than people
think. The irritating thing about it is how
hard
it is to convince
everyone you have retired. They keep asking you things as if you still have all
the assets of an agency working for you and dropping little confidences you now
have no use for at all."

"But surely
you still know others who aren't retired yet," Ben said. He picked up his
tray and led the way to a table.

"Yes, but it isn't like working in a bank or something. You don't
keep playing golf with the board after you've been put out to pasture, or ask
them over to do something on the barbie." His face suddenly shifted.
"Except this one crazy fellow I know. He'd make a wonderful character in a
book. His name is Jan, and
everybody
here knows he's a spy. Jon and
Eddie who worked for him and Jeff and April and all the people involved in the
Home revolution. They probably all have stories if you ask. You'd just need to
change his name for the world at large. Let me tell you about one time when he
crashed a party," Papa-san started...

* * *

"The hand is
definitely better," Barak told them, pecking the message out with that
hand as if to prove the point. He could touch the finger tips to the heel of
his hand but couldn't really make a tight fist. It didn't hurt unless he pushed
it like that. He could probably suit up and work if he had too. Their tools to
use in a suit all tended to have bulky handles he could grip sufficiently.

Charlotte had declared
two full days of no duty beyond basic maintenance in a brief text with no
explanation. None of them had seen the XO, not even in the galley, which almost
certainly meant she was monitoring and avoiding them. She hadn't asked any help
caring for Captain Jaabir, or kept them updated on his condition. With the
issue of Barak's hand and her insane accusations they were just as happy to let
things slide and not risk upsetting her anew.

Barak was dreading
hearing from Jaabir when he could resume duty. He had no idea what the man
would remember of the encounter in the corridor, or if he'd start the
accusations about Hanson all over again. God only knows what Charlotte would
report had happened between them. He'd have to be very careful  what he said
until he was sure just how much the man remembered.

When she finally did send them a text all three of them were in Barak's
cabin. Their coms all buzzed at the same time.

All crew,

Normal operations will resume tomorrow. We shall test each engine in turn
for function and if adjustments or repairs must be made Deloris Wrigley will
accompany Barak Anderson on extravehicular duty. Anderson and Wrigley will
stand ready to suit up if testing reveals a problem. Alice Evans will continue
to maintain environmental systems and assist me if I should need it. Operations
will resume the usual schedule at the 0600 hr.

Charlotte
Dobbs, Acting Captain

They all looked at
each other alarmed. Did she really intend to not say a word about the Captain?
Was Jaabir unable to resume command? Or was there a power struggle with her
refusing to relinquish command back to him? Had he tried to push blame off on
her?

"Who should ask?" Deloris said in helmet talk. Alice raised her
hand to designate herself. She tapped the message in her com and didn't copy to
Deloris or Barak. They just leaned in to watch her screen.

Charlotte
Dobbs, Acting Captain

Is Captain Jaabir still incapacitated? Is there anything additional I can
do to help?

Alice Evans,
Environmental Officer

They waited for an answer. Charlotte's brief, curt and unenlightening
message seemed beyond odd. They were all starting to worry if she had gone
unbalanced with this behavior on top of the insane accusations against Barak of
somehow causing Harold's death. Nobody had said as much yet but they all looked
worried.

Alice Evans,
EO

Captain Jaabir is deceased. He never regained consciousness. Our sponsors
have been notified. You will undoubtedly have to shoulder extra
responsibilities Ms. Evans, but what those will have to be I'll determine as we
resume operations shorthanded.

Charlotte
Dobbs, Acting Captain

"Stop!*Don't*ask*anymore,"
Deloris said emphatically in helmet talk.

"Agreed,"
Barak said quickly. He looked at both of them and entered text on his pad.
"He was alive. He reached up and touched his face and
said
something. I'm not sure what, but it was words not a moan like he made before
that. I'm
sure
."

"My God,
there's no way she can expect us to believe that." Alice looked physically
ill. "Do you remember what Deloris said?"

"Uh, no. I'm
not sure what you're talking about," Barak admitted.

"She said –
"I see no advantage to her from his regaining consciousness."

They all sat
silently for a moment thinking about what that implied. Barak almost snatched
the tablet back and punched his message in with stiff angry fingers.

"She's
not
going to pin this on me. I know I didn't kill that man. I'd feel terrible if I
did but I saw him feel his face and moan and mumble something."

"It should be
on the audio you played for us of your conversation with the XO," Alice
typed.

"If it isn't
clear
Yuki-onna
should have software to clarify it," Barak added to
that text, nodding.

"I kept a
copy. I'll find it," Deloris volunteered. She isolated the file and
amplified it. They each listened to it with earphones.

"Five
words?" Alice asked. "I get 'what' for a first word but that's it.

"I think the
second sound is two words slurred together, not a two syllable word, but let's
send the file to
Yuki-onna
and ask for an analysis," Barak said. He
and Alice made go ahead gestures to Deloris since it was active and isolated on
her machine.

She hesitated.
"But how do I make sure
Yuki-onna
doesn't share this with
Charlotte?"

"We could ask
the
Yuki
how," Alice said.

Deloris shook her
head no. "Just
asking
that would look bad if it gets to
Dobbs."

"Jeff gave me
a pretty good sized block of one time pads before I left – just in case. I
suspect this is the sort of thing he had in mind. I can encrypt it on my pad
and send it attached to a message. I'm sure he'll process it for me as a favor.
If Charlotte sees an encrypted attachment and wants to know what it is I'll
just refuse to discuss it. I didn't promise to expose my private mail to their
scrutiny when I hired on and it's not like we can be on much worse terms with
each other. But we'll have to wait on the light lag both ways and his time to
arrange things on that end if I send it to him to run an analysis."

Alice gave an
exaggerated shrug. "We aren't going anywhere," she said in helmet
talk.

"Anybody have
other files with his voice?" Deloris typed. "That would help
maybe."

"I have some
short snatches on my suit recordings," Barak remembered. "I'll
suggest Jeff look for some at Home to verify mine aren't faked since I have
motive to do so now. There should be voice files of his getting clearance to
depart from local control. Maybe other traffic in the past before the
Yuki-onna.
"
He considered how much he wanted to reveal. "Jeff has
assets
for
that sort of thing. He'll find it if he needs it."