“They loved us, in a sad way, but we knew how ashamed they were of us. Nothing that we ever did could change that. We stood it until six months ago. Then one afternoon, when a whole bunch of famous musicians were coming to dinner, we ran for it.
“Of course, we were picked up eventually, but only after we’d had four months living on the streets. Very educational, the streets are. We knew we’d have to go home eventually, so we did our best to learn to act like brainless thugs.”
“You certainly succeeded,” Sapphire said. But she spoke with a smile in her voice.
“Thanks. And I thought that here on Solferino we were losing the knack. But we had it all right when we went home. Mother and Father took one look at us and that was it. When an opportunity came along to send us here, they took it. They said they didn’t want to do it. But we wanted it more than anything in the world. Rick and Hag and me, we absolutely jumped at the chance. And here we are.”
Sig and Sapphire turned to Josh. He was convinced that they were going to ask him for the horrible details as to how he came to be on Solferino. Instead, Sapphire said, “You know Dawn a lot better than we do. Are you really convinced that she and Ruby saw some kind of intelligent rupert?”
“Yes. But I’ll never persuade Brewster.”
“Not without an actual animal sitting in front of him,” said Sig. “And maybe not even then. Saph, why don’t you ask Ruby what she saw?”
“I did. She doesn’t know about it being smart, but she swears that it had eyes. And Topaz agrees with Josh, Dawn was drawing what she had seen.”
“So you believe in it?”
“Yes. For me, the little black eyes confirm it. Ruby wouldn’t make up something like that.”
“Good. I believe it, too.”
“Then why didn’t one of you say something?” Josh burst out. “Instead of leaving me there for Brewster to roast.”
“Do you think it would have made any difference to him, if we’d said we agreed with you?” Sapphire asked gently.
“No. But it would have made a difference to me. It would be nice to have somebody suggest I’m not a total idiot.”
“Maybe. But it would also have dragged the whole thing on a lot longer. And we don’t think you are a total idiot.”
“But that’s not the real issue, is it?” Sig glanced around, to make doubly sure no one could overhear. “That’s not why I didn’t want to make a big deal of it with Brewster. We all three think there may be intelligent aliens here on Solferino. If we’re right, that’s the most important discovery in the whole of history. The real question is, what are we going to do about it?”
“Isn’t that Brewster’s job?” asked Sapphire.
“You might think so. But I’ve got an idea about that. I believe that all the rules would change if it turned out there was true non-human intelligence here. Foodlines would have to operate completely differently. Brewster wouldn’t be king of the castle any more, and he’d probably be kicked out of here.”
“I’m not going to weep about that,” Sapphire said.
“Nor am I. But it explains why he doesn’t want to think about the idea of intelligent ruperts, and why he’s behaving so weird.”
“But it doesn’t.” The others stared at him, as Josh went on. “He was being weird long before I mentioned about the animal that Ruby and Dawn found. You said it yourself, Sig. First he tells us we’ll be at the compound for days and days. Then before we know where we are, we’re on the aircar and dropped off at the camp. He leaves us to ourselves. Then he’s back, and now it’s the camp that’s the wrong place for us, and we have to rush back to the compound.”
“Josh is right, you know,” Sig said. “Brewster has been peculiar from the start.”
“And there’s one other thing.” Josh decided he might as well go all the way. “The ship. You came too late to see it, Sig, but I saw it very clearly. It was real, and low, and it wasn’t an aircar or even a lander. I wouldn’t be surprised if Brewster knows all about that ship, but he chooses to deny it.”
“But why?” Sapphire asked. “Why any of it?”
“One thing at a time,” said Sig. “We haven’t answered my first question. What are we going to do with the idea that some of the ruperts may be intelligent?”
“We can’t do a thing.” Josh looked to Sapphire for confirmation. “We’re traveling at four hundred kilometers an hour, and we’re going away from the place where we found the ruperts.”
“No argument with that.” Sig nodded. “So we have only two alternatives: Either we find smart ruperts near the compound, or we have to go back to the place where we found them the first time. That means we have to make two sets of plans.”
The way Sig said it, for a moment Josh actually thought it might be possible. Then he decided that Sig was out of his mind.
But it was a fine, attractive madness.
Chapter Thirteen
Brewster had no intention of letting anyone rest. He was giving orders almost before the cargo aircar had touched down. There was no time for planning return trips to the Barbican Hills, or anything else. Josh was ordered to report to the communications and computer center in five minutes and help Winnie Carlson. That gave him just long enough to drop off his gear in his bedroom cubicle. He was throwing his bag on the floor and shoving it under the bed when he noticed a slight difference in the way his clothes and personal belongings were laid out on the little cabinet at the end of the bed. It wasn’t much, and no one else would have seen it, but Josh had become very precise in the years-long wandering with his mother. In their monthly—sometimes weekly—moves from one apartment or hotel to another, the layout of his own possessions was one of the few constants of life.
Not now. The little framed image of his mother in the role of Titania was facing slightly away from the head of the bed. His spare toilet kit lay between his socks and his shirts, instead of behind them. His pants were not folded quite as usual.
But who in his right mind would come in and fiddle with pictures and toothbrushes? He suspected Rick and Hag, but he couldn’t see how or why.
Josh rearranged his things as they ought to be and puzzled over them, until he realized that five minutes and more must have passed. He rushed to the building that housed the communication center and hurried inside.
Winnie Carlson was not in the room, but Rick and Hag Lasker were. By the time Josh realized they were the only people present, the twins were moving between him and the door.
They didn’t say a word to him or to each other, but they worked together as if by instinct to cut off his retreat.
Josh didn’t waste time on speech, either. He had never thought he would be thankful for all those lonely hours on the streets when he could not face a lonely apartment, but that experience might pay off now. He had been a bystander to plenty of gang action, and he knew a threatening move when he saw one.
He didn’t turn or take his eyes off them, but retreated as fast as he could until his back was against a blank part of the wall. Maybe they were just out to humiliate him and smack him around a bit to show who was boss. And maybe they wanted to go a lot further than that.
He stood and waited. They would have learned a lot, too, in four months on the streets. Everything could be a weapon, fists and feet and knees and skull and teeth. The best thing Josh had going for him was that he had seen all that, but they didn’t know it. In their eyes he was a farm hick.