"I mean the idea that you have a son my age. You can't have a baby at the age of five. Four."
She chuckled. "You say the nicest things. Why don't you come here and marry my son? He's always wanted an heiress."
"Am I an heiress?"
She sobered. "Urn. I can't break the seal on that will until your father is officially dead, which he is not, in Luna City, not yet. But he will be shortly and there is rio sense in making you call back. I drafted that will. I checked it for changes when I got it back. Then I sealed it and put it into my safe. So I know what's in it. What I'm about to tell you, you don't know until later today. You're an heiress but fortune-hunters won't be chasing you. You are not getting a gram in cash. Instead the bank is instructedÄthat's meÄto subsidize you in migrating off Earth. If you pick Luna, we pay your fare. If you picked a bounty planet, we would give you a Scout knife and pray for you. If you pick a high-priced place like Kaui or Halcyon, the trust pays your fare and your contribution and assists you with starting capital. If you never do migrate off Terra, on your death funds earmarked to assist you revert to the other purposes of the trust. But your migration needs have first call. Exception: If you migrate to Olympia, you pay for it yourself. Nothing from the trust."
"Dr. Baldwin said something about that. What's so poisonous about Olympia? I don't recall a colony world named that."
"You don't? No, I guess you're too young. That's where those
self-styled supermen went. No real point in warning you against it, however; the corporation doesn't run ships there. Dear, you are running up a fancy comm bill."
"I guess so. But it would cost me more if I had to call back. All I mind is having to pay for the speed-of-light dead time. Can you switch hats and be Ceres and South Africa for a moment? Or maybe not; I may need legal advice."
"I'm wearing both hats, so fire away. Ask anything; today there's no fee. My advertising loss leader."
"No, I pay for what I get."
"You sound like your late father. I think he invented tanstaafl."
"He's not really my father, you know, and I never thought of him as such."
"I know the score, dear; I drew up some of the papers about you. He thought of you as his daughter. He was inordinately proud of you. I was most interested when you first called meÄhaving to keep quiet about things I knew but looking you over. What is on your mind?"
I explained the trouble I had had with Wainwright over credit cards. "Certainly MasterCard of California has given me a credit ceiling far beyond my needs or assets. But is that any of her business? I haven't even used up my predeposit and I'm about to back it up with my closing pay. Two hundred and ninety-seven and threetenths grams, fine."
"Rhoda Wainwright never was worth a hoot as a lawyer; when Mr. Esposito died, your father should have changed representation. Of course it's none of her business what credit MasterCard extends to you, and she has no authority over this bank. Miss BaldwinÄ"
"Call me Friday."
"Friday, your late father was a director of this bank and is, or was, a major stockholder. Although you do not receive any of his wealth directly, you would have to run up an enormous unsecured debt and neglect to reduce it for quite some time and refuse to answer queries about it before your account would be red-flagged. So forget it. But, now that Pajaro Sands is closing down, I do need another address for you."
"Uh, right now, you are the only address I have."
"I see. Well, get me one as soon as you have one. There are oth
ers with that same problem, a problem unnecessarily made worse by Rhoda Wainwright. There are others who should be represented at the reading of the will. She should have notified theni, did not, and now they have left Pajaro Sands. Do you know where I can find Anna Johansen? Or Sylvia Havenisle?"
"I know a woman named Anna who was at the Sands. She was the classified documents clerk. The other name I don't recognize."
"She must be the right Anna; I have her listed as `confidential clerk.' Havenisle is a trained nurse."
"Oh! Both of them are just beyond a door I'm looking at. Sleeping. Up all night. Dr. Baldwin's death."
"My lucky day. Please tell themÄwhen they wake upÄthat they should be represented at the reading of the will. But don't wake them; I can fix it afterwards. We aren't all that fussy here."
"Could you represent them?"
"On your say-so, yes. But have them call me. I'll need new mailing addresses for them, too. Where are you now?"
I told her, we said good-bye and switched off. Then I held very still and let my head catch up with events. But Gloria Tomosawa had made it easy. I suspect that there are just two sorts of lawyers:
those who spend their efforts making life easy for other peopleÄand parasites.
A little jingle and a red light caused me to go to the terminal again. It was Burton McNye. I told him to come on up but be mousequiet. I kissed him without stopping to think about it, then remembered that he was not a kissing friend. Or was he? I did not know whether he had helped rescue me from "the Major" or notÄ must ask.
"No trouble," he told me. "Bank of America accepted it for deposit subject to collection but advanced me a few hundred bruins for overnight money. They tell me that a gold draft can be cleared through Luna City in about twenty-four hours. That, combined with our late employer's sound financial reputation, got me out of the bind. So you don't have to let me sleep here tonight."
"I'm supposed to cheer? Burt, now that you are solvent again, you can take me out to dinner. Out. Because my roommates are zombies. Dead, maybe. The poor dears were up all night."
"It's too early for dinner."
It wasn't too early for what we did next. I hadn't planned on it but Burt claimed that he had, in the APV; and I didn't believe him. I asked him about that night on the farm and, sure enough, he was part of the combat team. He claimed that he had been held in reserve and thus was merely along for the ride, but nobody yet has admitted doing anything dangerous that nightÄbut I recall Boss telling me that anybody at all was taken because bodies were so scarceÄeven Terence, who doesn't really have to shave yet.
He didn't protest when I started taking his clothes off.
Burt was just what I needed. Too much had happened and I felt emotionally battered. Sex is a better tranquilizer than any of those drugs and much better for your metabolism. I don't see why human people make such a heavy trip out of sex. It isn't anything complex; it is simply the best thing in life, even better than food.
The bath in that suite could be reached without going through the bedroom, laid out that way, probably, because the living room could double as a second bedroom. So we each tidied up a bit and I put on that Superskin jump suit with the wet look that had been the bait with which I had hooked Ian last springÄand learned that I had put it on through thinking sentimentally about Ian but that I was no longer worried about Ian and JanÄand Georges. I would find them, I was now serenely sure. Even if they never went home, I would at worst track them down through Betty and Freddie.
Burt made appropriate animal noises over how I looked in the Superskin job, and I let him look and wiggled some and told him that was exactly why I had bought it, because I was a slitch who wasn't even mildly ashamed of being female, and I wanted to thank him for what he had done for me; my nerves had been twanging like a harp and now they were so relaxed they dragged on the ground and I had decided to pay for dinner to show my appreciation.
He offered to wrestle me for it. I didn't tell him that I had to be very careful in moments of passion not to break male bones; I just giggled. I guess giggling looks silly on a woman my age but there it isÄwhen I'm happy, I giggle.