It's a wonderful day, the sky a deep blue and a warm breeze blowing. Janis is right about one thingI don't remember ever seeing this neighborhood before. The taxi cruises between rows of clapboard-fronted houses with white picket fences and mercilessly laundered grass aprons in front of them, then hangs a left around a taller brick building and drives along a tree-lined downhill boulevard with oddly shaped buildings to either side. There are other taxis about, and people! We drive past a couple out for a stroll along the sidewalk. I thought Sam and I were the only folks who did that. Who am I missing?
The taxi stops just before a cul-de-sac where a semicircle of awnings shield white tables and outdoor furniture from the sky. A stone fountain burbles wetly by the roadside. "Village Cafe," recites the driver. "Village Cafe. Your credit score has been debited." Blue numerals float out of the corner of my left eye as I open the door and step out. There are people sitting at the tablesone of them waves. It's Janis. She's looking a lot better than the last time I saw her: She's smiling, for one thing. I walk over.
"Janis, hi." I recognize Tammy sitting next to her but don't know what to say. "Hello everybody?"
"Reeve, hi! This is Tammy, and here's Elaine"
"El," El mumbles.
"And this is Bernice. Have a chair? We were just trying to work out what to order. Would you like anything?"
I sit down and see printed polymer sheet menus sitting in front of each chair. I try to focus on them, just as a box with a grille on it abovethe door to the cafe crackles and begins to shout: "Good afternoon! It's another beautiful day..."
"I think I'll have a gin and tonic," I say.
"Your attention please, here are two announcements," continues the box. "Ice cream is now on sale for your enjoyment. The flavor of the day is truffle and banana. Here is a warning. There is a possibility of light showers later in the day. Thank you for your attention."
Tammy pulls a face. "It's been doing that every ten minutes since we arrived. I wish it'd shut up."
"I asked at the counter," Janis says apologetically. "They say they can't shut it offit's everywhere in this sector."
"Yes? What is this sector, anyway? I don't remember it." I bury my nose in the menu immediately in case I've just made a faux pas.
"I'm not sure. It appeared yesterday, so I thought we should go look at it."
"Consider it looked at," says Bernice. Who is dark and slightly plump and wears a perpetual expression of mild disgust: I think I've seen her at Church, but that's about it. "Mine's a mango lassi."
A zombie, male, wearing a dark suit and a long, white apron, shuffles out of the cafe. "Are you ready to order?" he asks in a high, nasal voice.
"Yes, please." Janis rattles off a list of drinks, and the waitron retreats indoors again. The drinks are mostly alcohol-free: I seem to be one of the odd ones out. Oops , I think. "Tammy and El and I have been meeting up every Saturday for the past few weeks," she adds in my direction. "We tell our husbands we're a sewing circle. It's a good excuse to gossip and drink, and none of them would know a real sewing circle if one bit him on the toe, so..."
"What is a sewing circle?" asks Bernice.
El reaches diffidently into a huge bag and pulls out a thing that looks like an airlock cover made of cloth. There are pins stuck in it, and colored thread. "Something like we all get together to do embroidery. Like this." She pulls a needle out and manages to stab herself in the ball of one thumb with it. "I'm not very good yet," she adds mournfully.
"Count me out of the sewing," I say. "But the drinks and gossip are another matter."
"That's what she said you'd say." Tammy flashes me an apologetic smile. "Besides, I was wondering if you knew what had happened to Mick."
Oops again . "I'm not sure. I asked Dr. Hanta about him, and she said it was under discussion , whatever that means. I know Cass is still in the hospital."
"Ah, right." Tammy leans back. "Ten dollars says they both retire from the experiment within a week."
I shiver. There's only one way in or out of a MASucker, for reason of securityto let the flight crew barricade the door if the civilization on the other side of it collapses. "I'm not sure how likely that is," I say. "But Dr. Hanta has a way of straightening things out. I'm sure she'll be able to do something for Cass, and I know Mick hasn't visited her since... well."
"What about Fiore?" asks Janis.
I am getting the distinct feeling that they've invited me here to pump me for information, but what do I care? They're buying the drinks. "I ran into him after the business with Cass," I say. Then the cafe door opens, and the waitron returns with our drinks. I shut up until his back's turned. "He, um, I get the feeling he doesn't approve of us doing anything unpredictable, but at the same time Mick went too far. We solved a problem for him."
"Oh." Janis looks disappointed, and I mentally kick myself. What she's really asking about is what happened in the library the day she was off sick.
"I got talking to Dr. Hanta in hospital," I offer. "She said, uh, well, she doesn't approve of the business with Esther and Phil at all. I got the impression she was yelling at the Bishop about it. They're going to add rules for divorce proceedings to the score system to stop it happening again. And rape, to stop anyone getting ideas from Mick."
"Hmm." Janis looks thoughtful. "If they stick to a strict dark ages re-creation, they'll make rape a serious penalty score, but only if the male gets caught."
"Eh?" Tammy looks indignant. "What good will that do?"
"What good does any of this do?" Janis asks drily. She reaches into her handbag and pulls out a piece of knitting, which she passes to me. "I think this is yours, you left this in the library," she tells me.
I gulp and hastily stuff the Faraday cage lining of my botched experimental carrier into my handbag. "Thanks, I sure did," I babble.
Janis smiles slowly. "It's a bit scratchy, but it catches the light just so."
Wheels within wheels. "It needs a bit more work," I extemporize. "Where did you find it?"
"In the back office. I was just tidying up."
My heart seems to be pounding, but nobody else has noticed. Janis looks at me, then looks at El. "What do you think?" she asks.
El looks up from her embroidery, harried. "I think I feel a little sick," she says, and reaches for her pink lemonade. "Church is going to be bad tomorrow."
"Lots of developments," Tammy agrees.
"What are you talking about?" I ask.
Janis nods at me: "Yes, that's right, you've been in hospital all week. Since Tuesday, anyway."
Tammy pulls out a tablet and puts it on the table. "Lots of new stuff in here," she says, tapping the screen. "You'll want to know about it."
"About what?" I ask.
"For starters, it seems our last cohort is in place here."
"But they said there were another fourteen after mine"I do the math"so we're six short. At least?"
Tammy taps her tablet. "They've been running multiple sections of YFH-Polity in parallel. We're just one subsector, a parish, they call it. From Monday they're all going to be linked up, so we've got lots of new neighbors."
So far this is what Dr. Hanta told me. "And?"
Janis gives me a long, appraising look. "It's a lot bigger than they told you outside when you were signed up. What does that suggest to you?"
I look at her belly. It's not much of a bump yet. Then, almost involuntarily, my eyes slide sideways. "El, are you, I mean I hope I'm not prying here, but are you by any chance"