He nodded.
She listened to the sea. “I miss you, Solly.”
“I know. You’ll just have to give it time. There’ll be others.”
“Please don’t—”
“Sorry.” And after a moment: “I shouldn’t stay.”
“That’s Shepard talking.”
“No. It’s me.” He gazed for a long moment into her eyes. The room seemed very quiet. “I have a suggestion.”
“Okay?”
“I don’t want you to take offense.”
She knew what was coming. “I won’t, Solly.”
“It would be best if you let me be. For a while anyhow, until you’ve got things back together.”
She stared at him. His image got blurry. “Solly, I can’t stand it, not having you here.”
“I know.”
“You don’t. You never went through anything like this.”
“Kim, you were the best part of my life. And I wouldn’t trade the voyage to Alnitak for anything. The price was worth it.”
He grew indistinct and faded gradually, very unlike Shep’s usual exit technique. When he was gone she got up, started for the bedroom, but paused at the foot of the stairs. “Shep?”
“Yes, Kim?”
“How did you know what happened on the Hammersmith?”
The AI didn’t answer.
Two days later Matt called to tell her they were moving ahead with the Alnitak mission and that he was optimistic. She asked whether there was anything she could do.
“Just stay out of trouble,” he said.
It was midafternoon. She’d just gotten home after completing a luncheon speaking engagement at the Seabright Literary Society. A heavy rain was pounding the island. At this time of year storms came in every day at a quarter to three. They moved as punctually as the trains. She was sprawled on the divan, listening to the weather, thinking about the Valiant, when Shep broke in. “Kim,” he said, “Tora Kane would like to speak with you. She says it’s urgent.”
Kim looked around the room. It was not very tidy. “Put her through, Shep. Audio.” And after the click: “Hello, Tora. What can I do for you?”
“Kim, I’m at home. Can you come over? There’s something I want to show you.”
“Sure. What’s it about?”
“Not on an open circuit. I’ll tell you when you get here. Please hurry.”
So they were on a first-name basis now. Puzzled, Kim sent for a taxi. Ten minutes later she was in the air, headed north. Rain beat down on the aircraft and the wind gave her a rough ride. But the storm subsided as she came in sight of Tora’s villa. The flyer descended onto the pad and Kim got out, instructing the vehicle to wait. She splashed through puddles and climbed onto the porch.
“Can I help you?” asked the house AI.
“Dr. Kane asked me to come by.”
“I’m sorry. Dr Kane is not at home.”
“That can’t be right. Are you sure?”
“She is not here. But I will be happy to relay a message to her, if you wish.”
Kim stared at the front door. The house stared back.
She used her commlink to find Kane’s number and then put through a call. It chimed twice.
“Kane.”
“Tora, this is Kim Brandywine.”
“Hello, Brandywine. What can I do for you?”
“I’m at your place. You asked me to come over.”
“You’re where?”
“At your place.”
“My place? I don’t know anything about it. Who’d you talk to?”
“Forget it,” she said. She switched to Shep’s circuit, but he didn’t answer.
Not good. She strode quickly to the taxi and ordered it back home.
Two hours later she walked into Matt’s office. He looked up from his desk, surprised to see her, startled at her appearance. “You okay?” he asked.
She closed the door behind her and sat down. “Somebody’s been at Shep.”
“Uh-oh. What did they get?”
“I think we can assume everything.”
“The Kane disk?”
“That too.”
He looked around the office as if suddenly wondering whether it was secure. “Why? Who would do it?”
“I can only think of one person.”
“Woodbridge?”
“Yep.”
“So what’s everything? Do they know what we talked about this morning?”
“There’s no way to be sure. Shep didn’t have any of it, but it’s possible somebody was listening.”
Matt nodded slowly. “So what did they get that they didn’t already have?”
“The Valiant.”
“They know where it is?”
“They know it exists.”
“That’s not so good.” He inhaled. Exhaled. Looked uncertain. “I was going to call you.”
“About—?”
“I’ve spoken with Dr. Agostino.”
“I thought we agreed we wouldn’t bring him in.”
“Come on, Kim. Be reasonable. He understands the situation and he’s willing to set up a contact team.”
“He’s probably why I got raided.”
“I don’t believe it. When’d it happen?”
“Around three.”
“I talked to him less than an hour ago.” It was almost five o’clock.
“All right,” she said. “Look, they’ll be coming after the Valiant. We need to get moving.”
“The plan was to leave next week. We thought that was pushing it.”
“Not good enough. We need to be on our way tomorrow.”
“That’s not practical.”
“Forget practical. We’d be better off clearing out tonight. Tell everybody we go tomorrow. Anybody who can’t be there, leave without.”
“You’ll need supplies, Kim. This kind of thing can’t be managed overnight.”
“This one has to be. Do it overnight or forget it.”
“I’ll do what I can,” he said. “We’ll be using the McCollum. It’s in port and ready to go. All we need is the people.”
“Then get them started. Have we got a pilot?”
“Ali Kassem. Do you know him?”
“Met him once or twice.” Solly had spoken well of him. That was good enough.
Matt called her at home late that evening. “We got a late request,” he said. “Can you talk to the Terminal City Business Association tomorrow?”
It was the signal. They would leave tomorrow night.
She complained that it was short notice, and he apologized, said he’d originally planned to handle it himself, but something had come up, and he’d appreciate it.
“Okay,” she said. “But you owe me.”
And she went to bed happy.
31
Nothing in this hand, nothing in my sleeve—
Kim slept soundly through the night and was up at six, ate a good breakfast, and finished packing. She put her wet suit and a metal sensor in a carrying case, instructed Shep to inform callers during the balance of the day that she was on assignment in Marathon and after that to say simply that she was on vacation and would be unavailable for the foreseeable future.
Shortly after nine she arrived at the train station and directed the loader to ship her bags through to Terminal City, and signed in. By 9:40 she was on her way to Marathon.
Marathon was a garden town, populated predominantly by people who were satisfied to live off the basic allotment, and to devote their lives to the pursuit of leisure and the arts. It had more theaters per square meter than any other place in the world, more game rooms, more libraries, more swimming pools, and probably more sex.
According to legend, its name commemorated the ultimate one-night stand when Annie Muldoon, a personage at the edge of history, took on the town’s entire adult male population, said to have numbered an even one hundred, and to have exhausted them all in a single night. There was a statue of Annie, with a bunch of bananas thrown over one shoulder, in the city hall courtyard. Kim saw it from the train window as she pulled into town.