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She beamed. "I thought you were just brilliant."

He touched her right hand to his lips, winked at her, and strode off to rejoin his coterie. Ruth took her right hand in her left as if she wanted to wrap it in tissue paper.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Mary Ann said.

Sylvia chuckled. "He's a nice young man. I can understand what Jessica sees in him."

Mary Ann's smile was ghastly. "Let's get home, Cad. I'd like to build a big fire in the bedroom. Get really toasty. Okay?"

"Sure."

Sylvia unwound herself from his arm, and headed off. "I want to check with Linda on her simulations. I'll be up to the Bluff later, all right?"

"No problem." The crowd was thinning now. Cadmann took Mary Ann's small hand in his, squeezed it gently. "Things are changing fast now. It had to happen."

"I... don't want to talk about it just now. Cad. Take me home."

Chapter 6

SURF'S UP

Friendship is Love without his wings!

GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON, Hours of Idleness

Justin brought the skeeter in for a last approach to Surf's Up. He'd skidded through the mountain passes. The land road would have added an extra five minutes to the trip. The thermals coming over the mountains could be a little hairy, but there were beacons in the pass, both visual and radio, so that it was just dangerous enough to be fun. There were unofficial records for three paths through the mountains under varying conditions: on visual, on radio, blind at midnight, fog, storm.

It kept the lords and ladies of Surf's Up busy, if not out of mischief. It also drove the adults crazy.

When he called in for landing he didn't just get the usual Cassandra go-ahead. He got an audio channel, and from the background noise, the party had already begun.

He shot out of the pass at 120 kilometers per hour accelerating all the way, putting him well ahead of the other Seconds racing him back from the colony. Light flooded the beach from a huge flat vidscreen twenty meters square that showed a daylit mountain scene on the mainland. He took the last few meters skewing sideways, shot straight over Surf's Up and out over the ocean, where a little night action was under way.

Justin had viewed holograms from Hawaii; Malibu, California;

Australia; and other places supposed to have the best surf action on Earth. In Justin's expert opinion, Camelot Island beat them all. The water was cool but not cold, the waves rolled forever, and the surfing season lasted all year long.

Someone was riding his board in with a torch held aloft in one hand . ...o, now that he saw it more clearly, there were three of them, carrying horsemane gum torches that silvered the entire wave crest. Two girls and a guy, and one girl was Katya Martinez, lookin' good.

Sand whipped in all directions as Justin touched the skeeter down. He dismounted and ran to the open barbecue pit, kicked off his shoes, and did a kind of victory dance, screaming, "We're going over, troops!"

They howled like mad dogs, and Little Chaka hurled a beer pod. It slapped Justin just above his heart. It stung, but the pod didn't break.

He grabbed a lady and got a long wet kiss, and then grabbed another one and did it even better, then plopped down in the sand and popped the beer open.

Derik Crisp spread big beefy hands. "So?"

"So the mining machinery is down. Great timing. They've got to go over."

"Great timing." Derik grinned. "So how'd you do it?"

"Me? No," Justin protested. "Hey, that'd be real sabotage, nasty stuff."

"Sure," Derik said. "Sure." He was still grinning, but he read Justin's irritation. "Does this have to be real? Nobody had to blow anything up. Just tell Cassandra to make pictures."

Justin said, "I never thought of that. Who could do that?"

"Edgar," someone yelled. "Yeah, but he wouldn't."

"Depends on what he's offered," Little Chaka said.

Jessica had come running out of the communications room in time to hear them. "You don't really think it's the computer, do you, Justin? Whoever did it would have to be good, really good, they'd have to fool Linda and Joe-" She cut herself off.

"Yep," Derik said. "Edgar Sikes could sure as hell do it."

"And no one else," Jessica said. "Gee, Linda's got enough generation problems without that." She shook her head. "And I saw Linda's files, sure, if anyone can fake it Edgar could have, but I just don't believe it." She looked accusingly at Justin. "The explosions were real; now, how did they happen?"

"Sheesh! Why me?"

"Why Edgar?" Jessica demanded. "Same reason. Who else could it be? Who could have done Mount Tushmore?"

"You wrong me," Justin said, but he had trouble hiding the pride in his voice.

"Aaron," Derik said. "Aaron Tragon could have done it."

Jessica nodded vigorously, and a lot of Justin's pride faded.

"I'm going to call them," Derik said suddenly.

"Hey now, wait-"

"No, just to talk to Linda. See if she knows anything." Derik went to put through the call.

Derik and Linda had been a thing, once, for about ten days. Calling her right now might cause Joe Sikes to shove his phone down his throat. Jessica would have stopped him... but others were gathering around them now. "What's the word?" someone called.

"We're going," Jessica answered. "Not just the chicken run for the candidate Scouts."

The light from the screen had been a view of the mining site on the mainland. Now it was Linda Weyland standing fourteen meters tail, holding four meters of baby Cadzie under one arm. Jessica couldn't hear her or Derik.

Aaron Tragon waded out of the water carrying a sand-colored writhing shape. The thing wrestled with him, but he had it by the blades. He dropped it onto the grill and went for a towel.

The crab struggled as it cooked. It was a Camelot sea crab. They'd found more than twenty variations already, all with a bifurcated shell and four mobile limbs, but-"This one's new," Chaka said.

"Study it quick," Aaron suggested.

There would be no rescuing the beast. Chaka knelt above the fire pit, one hand bladed below his eyes to shield them from the heat. He watched the crab move, noting the play of the joints. The crab had two wide fins for swimming, and the shell had expanded into a big aerodynamic plate. The forelimbs were agile little spears now trying to fight the fire. The armored wrist/elbow joints were almost human in their agility.

"More incoming natives. Those wrists. You can't help wondering if something's waking them all up at once," Chaka said. "I want the shells."

Another skeeter touched down neatly next to Justin's, and Stu Ellington hopped out. Six more came over the mountains in tight formation. Two carried firewood. One brought food from the main encampment. The others brought passengers, and the party grew until it seemed that the beach would sink under their weight.

Aaron Tragon strode among them, and slipped one brawny arm around Jessica's waist. "Well, now," he said merrily. "I think we can call that a major victory."

"Let's take a look at Dad's plans first," Jessica said. "And then we can decide how much victory we've got." She was about to pull free, reflexively. Justin saw her decide: she leaned back against him. They had been casual lovers for nearly a year now. Casuaclass="underline" Justin had never seen Jessica change a plan to be with Aaron. Or any other man. Sometimes he wondered-

Justin felt someone kneading his shoulders. He looked around just enough to catch a glimpse of dark hair. Long. Wavy. A face not pretty, but made beautiful by devastating eyes. Eyes to drown in, to die for. Katya. He reached back and grabbed her, pulling her close to him, and craned around to gnaw on her neck.