But the old man just kept bouncing around the room. "Thank God, thank God. The last I remember was the heat and lava crawling toward her." He looked down at his pajamas, and suddenly seemed very distracted by what he saw.
"You're at Crick's in La Jolla, Dad. Miri wasn't hurt in the fire. Your left arm was pretty much destroyed." The flesh had burned down to the bone in places, burned all the way through the lower forearm.
Robert Senior touched the loose sleeve. "Yes, the doctors told me." He turned and dropped into one of the chairs. "That's about all they've told me. You're sure Miri's okay? You saw her?"
The old man never behaved like this. There was strain all around his eyes. Or maybe he's just reacting to the look on my face . Bob sat down across from this father. "I've seen her. I'll be talking to her later this afternoon. Her worst problem is some mental confusion about what happened in the labs."
"Oh." Then more softly, "Oh." He sat mulling the news, and then he was fidgeting again. "How long have I been out? There's so much you need to know, Bob… Maybe you should get some of your law-enforcement buddies in here."
Eve — > Bob: <sm>So he doesn't remember the debrief? I didn't think we were that good.</sm>
"There's no need, Dad. There maybe follow-up questioning about particular points, but we've dredged up all the dirty little secrets. You've been under interrogation for several days."
His father's eyes widened slightly. After a moment, he gave a nod. "Yeah, all those weird dreams… So that means you know about, about my own problems?"
"Yes."
Robert looked away. "There are strange bad guys out there, Bob. The Mysterious Stranger — the one who hijacked Zulfi Sharif — he was on my case all the time. I've never known anyone who could manipulate me as he did. Can you imagine someone riding on your shoulder all the time, telling you what to do?"
Eve — > Bob: <sm>Just as well not to follow up on the Rabbit.</sm>
Bob nodded. Rabbit — that was the name they had pried out of the Indo-Europeans — might be something new under the sun. Rabbit had compromised the SHE. Scenario-building within the DHS and USMC had actually been in support of Rabbit. The Indians and the Europeans and the Japanese had a lot to answer for, but Rabbit's scam might never have been detected if they hadn't launched their revocation attack against the creature. But how had Rabbit managed its trick? What else could it do?
Those were burning questions, but not ones to discuss with your trai-torous father. "We're taking care of the loose ends, Dad. Meantime, you have results and consequences to catch up on."
"Yes. Consequences." Robert's right hand played nervously with the chair's fine upholstery. "Prison?" The words came out softly, almost a request.
Eve — > Bob: <sm>No way. We want this guy running loose.</sm>
"No jail time, Dad. Officially, you and your pals were part of a campus demonstration that got wildly out of hand. Less officially — well, the rumor we're peddling is that you helped stop terrorist lab sabotage." That would be another job for the ever-useful Friends of Privacy.
Robert shook his head. "Stopping the bad guys, that part was Miri's idea."
"Yes, it was." He gave his father a stony look. "I was officer of the watch that night."
Eve — > Bob: <sm>Careful, Colonel.</sm> But the warning was empty. The interrogation strategists had agreed that Robert should learn part of this. The only problem was how to tell Dad without putting a fist into his face.
"Here? In San Diego?"
Bob nodded. "For CONUS Southwest, but all our action was here. Alice was my top analyst that night." He hesitated, trying to hold down his rage. "Did you ever guess that it was Alice who kept me from booting your ass out of the house?"
"I — " He swept his hand through unruly hair. "She always seems so remote."
"Do you know what JITT stick is, Dad?"
An abrupt nod: "Yes. Carlos Rivera gets stuck in Chinese. Is he okay?" The old man looked up and his face turned ashen. "Alice ?"
"Alice collapsed right in the middle of your adventure. We have good evidence that the — "
Eve — > Bob: <sm>No details, please.</sm>
Bob continued with barely a hesitation, "She's still stuck."
"Bob… I never meant her any harm. I was just so desperate. But maybe, maybe I set her up." He looked into Bob's eyes and then away.
"We know, Dad. It came out in your debrief. And yes, you did set her up." DHS had investigated the Gu home and personal logs as much as they had anything at UCSD; they even had pictures of the bot Dad had used in the front bathroom. But we still don't know exactly what it did . India and Japan and Europe blamed Rabbit, and Rabbit had been reduced to rumors and unreadable chunks of stale cache.
Eve — > Bob: <sm>Heh. We'll figure it out. A network attack on a bio-prepped victim — that's a technology that's way too interesting to ignore. </sm>
Dad's head was bowed. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Bob stood up abruptly. It was something of an achievement that his voice came out calm and steady. "You'll be out of here later today. Meantime, get something to wear and catch up with the outside world. For a while, you'll still live with us in Fallbrook. We want you to take up… right where you left off. I'll tell Miri about Alice — "
"Bob, it won't work. Miri could never forgive — "
"That's probably true. But she's going to get the abbreviated version. After all, your part in the attack on Alice is circumstantial. And it's hidden behind security that even Miri Gu is unlikely to penetrate. I… strongly suggest… that you don't spell things out for her."
And so Lieutenant Colonel Robert Gu, Jr., had performed the duty that he'd been assigned here. And now he could get out. He walked across the room, reached for the door. Something made him turn and look back.
Robert Gu, Sr., was watching with anguish in his eyes. It was a look Bob had seen before, on other faces. There had been times over the years, when youngsters in his command had fucked totally up. Young people get desperate. Young people do terrible, foolish, selfish things — sometimes with terrible consequences.
But this is my old man ! There was no desperation, no inexperience that could excuse him.
And yet… Bob had watched the CDC team's video as they followed Sharif's direction down into the labs. He had seen his father and daughter lying on the floor, just beyond the UP/Ex crater. He had seen the way Robert's arm was extended, how it dammed the curdling stone just inches from Miri's face. And so, despite the old man's monstrous fuckup, there was still something left to say:
"Thanks for saving her, Dad."
"Take up just where you left off," Bob had said. At Fairmont High, that was almost feasible. Juan and Robert had already taken their written final exams, then been out of action through Christmas and New Year's. Now they were back, and just in time for what most students considered the scariest part of the semester: the Parents' Night demonstration of their team projects. Problems of life and death and horrid guilt devolved to worrying about making a fool of oneself in front of some children and their parents.
Amazingly, Juan Orozco was still talking to him. Juan didn't know quite what had happened at UCSD. His memories had been gutted even more systematically than Miri's. Now he was piecing things together from the news, trying his best to separate the truth from Friends of Privacy lies.
"I don't remember anything after Miri and I got to campus. And the police are still holding what I wore. I can't even see the last few minutes of my diary!" The kid waved his arms with the same desperation Robert had seen in him the first day they met.