Yuen-Mong's Revenge (56 page)

 
     
"You are right. It is a choice that I should have taken when I was your
age. But then I didn’t have your courage, and I would not have had the
courage now if you had not come along… Will you forgive me?"

 
     
"You are forgiven, and I am sure that Mai will rejoice in your
decision. Only a few weeks ago she said she wished you would take up
painting again."

 
     
She stood up.

     
"Bee mentioned that you would like her to help you. Did she
understand that correctly?"

 
     
"Yes, I offered her a part-time position for setting up a psychological
screening program."

 
     
"It is against Foundation custom."

 
     
"The Foundation must either adapt to the 25
^th
century or be doomed.
I will make a determined effort to get more women into managerial
positions, and I would like Bee to be the first one."

 
     
"There is already one," he said, smiling openly for the first time.

     
"Uncle, encourage her to say yes."

* * *

After lunch in the cafeteria where they joined a group of young scientists
from the research section who quickly overcame their reserve, she called
Syd Twan. She had agreed with Atun that she needed to confront him
alone, that only then would she be able to probe his mind without interference.

     
Syd seemed to be pleased by her willingness to have dinner with him.
He met her after work and she sensed his hopeful spirits while he drove
her to the Lake Terrace Bar. The waiter ushered them to a reserved,
secluded table at the water’s edge. Syd ordered champagne.

     
"We have to celebrate. This is our first social outing, and it was not
for lack of trying on my part."

 
     
"Syd, I haven’t said yes."

 
     
"But I take it as a good omen that you agreed to let me spoil you a bit
as only a man like me can."

 
     
"You know that if I want to be spoiled, I can do that myself. Tell me
a bit about you and my mother."

 
     
"You would like to know?" surprise in his voice. "We knew each
other from childhood. I think I fell in love with her when I was fourteen
and she was ten. She was such a lively, inquisitive girl. There was a rebel
in her already then. She always wanted to participate in the games boys
played. I remember once another boy tried to have her excluded and she
punched his nose. From them on, nobody dared to leave her out, and she
was good. She was the strategist of our group, always coming up with the
most hair raising and unexpected plans that utterly confused the
opposition. You see, you are really your mother’s daughter. That was
brilliant how you kept your opposition guessing and pounced when they
least expected it."

 
     
"You think she loved you?"

 
     
"At that time, definitely. We spent most of our free time together all
through our senior schooling years. You know, you would have expected
that I was the one who helped her in her school studies. No, it was the
other way round, especially in physics and chemistry and mathematics."

 
     
"That’s interesting. She taught me physics and chemistry, but never
mathematics. It was always my father."

 
     
"Yes, he was a mathematical genius. But Zoshan wasn’t far behind
him."

 
     
"What happened between you? Why didn’t you get married?"

 
     
"Oh, we did promise each other before she went to the Academy of
Science on Palo. She only finished a year behind me, not four. She was
just 16 when she went there." He paused. "But when she came back after
a year for her summer vacation, she was a different person."

 
     
"How?"

 
     
"She was suddenly very critical of the Foundation and its rules. Sure,
the rules and conventions are a bit old-fashioned in some respect —"

 
     
"— I would say archaic —"

 
     
"I bet you do, the way you’re flouting them so deliberately."

 
     
"Why doesn’t the Foundation then try to haul me in?"

 
     
"May I let you in on a secret? … Because I told them that firstly they
wouldn’t win and secondly they would just draw attention to it, that it
was much wiser to simply ignore it."

 
     
You arrogant man,
but her face revealed only an amused smile. "I see.
I admit it makes life simpler."

 
     
"I knew you would appreciate it."

 
     
"So my mother …?"

 
     
"I think she didn’t have your humor. She rebelled inside against the
Foundation and somehow that came between us. It was worse the year
after."

 
     
She vaguely remembered her mother telling her that she discovered
her empathic skills during her university studies. So she would have discovered Syd’s real person only then, and that could well have been a
sobering disappointment.

     
"I also suspected that she had not been faithful to me and had gone
against the covenant about remaining pure until marriage."

 
     
"And had you been faithful to her and lived according to the covenant?"

 
     
He laughed, but she felt that he was uncomfortable. "Why do you
want to know?"

 
     
"Curiosity… To get to know you better."

 
     
"No, I had short affairs with several BD girls."

 
     
"But you didn’t admit that to my mother."

 
     
He laughed. "No."

 
     
"Tell me Syd, have you been faithful to me after you declared your
love for me?"

 
     
"I have not looked at another woman. That’s the truth," he said, taking
her hand, but she knew that he was lying.

     
"I didn’t ask for that, Syd. You are a free man. So what happened then
between you and my mother?" She withdrew her hand.

     
"I asked her to marry me before going back for her third year. I even
talked to Chen Young and he agreed, provided Zoshan agreed. I was even
willing to let her finish her degree."

 
     
How generous of you!

     
"But she refused. She said she was too young to for such a big step."

 
     
"I can understand that. She was only 18. That’s how I feel myself."

 
     
"Oh, you are a much more mature woman than your mother was when
she was twenty. She went back to Palo and did not return for her next two
summer vacations. When she came back, she said that she couldn’t marry
me, that she was very fond of me and that she would like me to be her
friend for life, but that she loved another man."

 
     
"My father?"

 
     
"Yes, they met on Palo. He was a researcher at the institute of the
Academy where she studied. I think she told your grandfather that either
he gave his approval or she would resign from the Foundation. That’s
when he offered your father a job in UniCom, where within two years he
became their leading scientist. The interesting thing was that his
condition for working for UniCom was that Zoshan would be allowed to
be in his research unit against custom, but then he was not Foundation."

 
     
"You mean accepting that my mother would work?"

 
     
"Yes, and allowing it."

 
     
"Would you have allowed her to work?"

 
     
He pondered that a bit. "I guess I would have given in to her if she had
insisted."

 
     
"You realize that I wouldn’t even ask."

 
     
"Oh yes, you are a different person. But I’m also confident that once
you have children you would want to be with them."

 
     
"You know more than I do. Did my parents marry shortly after that?"

 
     
"I think about a year later. Zoshan already worked at UniCom. You
see you are not the first one."

 
     
"And then?"

 
     
"What you mean ‘and then’?"

 
     
"Did you still see her after that?"

 
     
"Oh, yes. I liked your father. We became good friends. I was best man
at their wedding."

 
     
It felt that he was speaking the truth, but she thought the time had
come to shock him. "You know, Syd, I had you on my list of possible
people who could have sent my parent to their death. You had a motive:
jealousy." She saw him blanch.

     
"Oh, Yuen-mong, how could you? I loved your mother and I would
never have harmed her." Again it felt true.

     
"I believe you now."

 
     
"I’m glad. You really shocked me." He again placed his hand on hers.
"Was that the reason you didn’t say yes when I asked you to marry me?"

 
     
"No, it was not. It was because I wouldn’t be able to live up to your
expectations."

 
     
"What you mean? I want you the way you are."

 
     
"No, Syd. You want to tame me, and I would soon be unhappy."
Was
that another reason why my mother withdrew from him?
"Whereas Atun
places no demands on me, and I know I will be happy with him."

 
     
"Yuen-mong, don’t say that, don’t. You would be happy with me. I
would spoil you every day."

 
     
"You see, that is exactly it. Atun has no pretensions of spoiling me.
He puts no demands on me except comradeship, sharing parts of our
lives… Syd, I thought I was in love with you. I don’t know anymore. And
even if I did, I cannot forgive you for trying to kill Atun."

 
     
Although it was dark by then, she saw the blood drain from his face.
"Me, trying to kill Atun. Where do you get such crazy ideas?"

 
     
"Syd, we traced Pat Young’s payment to Jack Hart to you."

 
     
"What nonsense it this?" She sensed that he was psyching himself up
to show outrage. "I know of no Jack Hart."

 
     
"You may not know the man, but you arranged with Pat that Atun’s
air shuttle would crash."

 
     
"I don’t know what you are talking about." But she knew he knew.

     
"Syd, I’m an empath, as my mother was. Like she I always know
when somebody tells a lie; sometimes it’s like reading the person’s mind;
that’s why I knew you told the truth about not having sought my father’s
death. But now you’re lying. But don’t worry. I have no intention of
doing anything about it. You must have done this in a state of folly or
despair. Pat Young will resign from UniCom tomorrow or else
I will
fire
him — no, don’t say anything right now — I hope that you now realize
that the very act of trying to get rid of Atun means that you’ve lost me for
good."

 
     
Both remained quiet. She sensed that his mind was in turmoil.

     
"Syd, if you want to remain friends with me there is one rule you have
to follow: never lie; if you don’t want to reveal something, just say so. I
will respect that."