"I'm in the pictures, too," Jennifer said.
"Yes. You would require two doubles and two surgical alterations of adults. Is this beyond your capability?"
Freddy's eyes wandered from the screen to Glenda Ruth to the screen, and he shook his head.
Victoria, watching him carefully, said, "Jock's survival surprised you, Freddy, when you learned of it from Jennifer and Glenda Ruth. With her training, could Glenda Ruth deceive you? And Jennifer?"
"It's not that. Think, Victoria. If that's not Jennifer and Glenda Ruth, then it's two actors just out of surgery who have to fool Motie Mediators, and know they've done it!"
Good, Freddy! "This game gives us no profit," Glenda Ruth said. "Victoria, you already feel better than you have in years! And your Engineer, and your Warrior, are they sick?"
"Is this reversible in fertile castes?" Victoria demanded.
"Probably. With difficulty, but very probably. Is the native parasite endemic to space civilizations?"
"If so, I do not know of it. It is no skill of mine. Would I be infected with a parasite and not know?"
"Why not? People often are," Freddy said.
"Even those who live in isolation? I see you believe so." The Motie paused, and whatever expressions Glenda Ruth had been able to read were replaced by a different mask. "I must think on this."
"Wait. There." She could have remained silent- Too late. Victoria turned. "What?"
"I don't have any better argument than that." Glenda Ruth pointed. "On the screen, Victoria."
The busy spacecraft of Captor Fleet had torn away a tremendous strip of the city's skin. Pandemonium lay exposed, a hive of cells still sparking with defenses. Corpses floated away in a pestilential cloud of black dots. The ships pulled a square kilometer of transparent skin over the wound and moved inside to work. Nothing was to be lost.
"That's your past, a million years or more of your past. Breeding yourselves into a starving cannibal horde, then tearing your numbers down in blood. Vermin City. That's your future, forever, without us." Glenda Ruth waved at the screens. "It's Vermin City or the Crazy Eddie Worm."
4 Messages
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac
"Chris, it's time," Kevin Renner said. "Tell me about you and Joyce."
Blaine looked from Renner to Horace Bury. No help there. Sinbad's lounge had grown larger yet; it seemed very large, and very empty.
"All right, Captain, we were sleeping together, so to speak, and then we weren't. I'm more worried about what the Moties might get out of her."
"So am I. Try again."
Chris Blaine saw no point in pretending to misunderstand. "I got to know her. I could see what she was looking for in me, in a man, and when I got some free time, I, hell. I let her see it. But when we reached MGC-R-31 and Motie ships came spitting out...How to put this?"
"She wanted you to keep your promises."
Chris gaped. "Well, but I never-"
The Captain said, "What she wants from a man is knowledge and power. That was what you let her see. But when Moties appeared, she wanted in on the action. You couldn't give her that. You couldn't even let her keep interrupting you while you were on duty. What else couldn't you give her?"
"Aw, hell. Captain, she wanted to know what my sister's bringing. I don't know! Not certainly, I only know what Dad and Mom, what the Institute, wanted."
"Which is enough," Renner said.
"Well, no... well. That was the trouble. I couldn't tell her as much as I do know because the Mediators would read her. They'd be doing that now if she knew anything. Now she won't talk to me at all."
"Chris, you did make promises. You used body language and nuances and all the things Jock and Charlie taught you. You've got to be more careful of how you use people."
Chris's ears burned.
"If you told her anything, if she learned anything that the Moties shouldn't know, tell me now."
"Captain, she heard you talking about Crazy Eddie's worm. She was sure I must know all about it. There was nothing I could do to tell her different."
"She's a reporter. She must have met every brand of liar there is."
"Yeah. I thought it must be Mom's C-L worm. I didn't tell her that. Now she thinks I'm dirt. Yes, she's right, I lied to her. I had to."
Captain Renner studied him and presently sighed. "All right, Lieutenant. Now what the hell else is going on? What's your reading of this situation with the Crimean Tartars?"
"I think Omar is as confused as we are," Blaine said. "Glenda Ruth must have done something to shake them up."
"We may well be able to guess what it is," Bury said. "Which could leave her in some danger."
"Whether or not the worm works as advertised," Chris said.
"Yeah, I'd thought of that," Renner said. "But so far-"
"So far no harm has come to them," Bury said. "And time is very much on our side. The Empire, for all its divisions, remains a nearly unified force. We have no need to negotiate alliances to gain great strength. With the Moties it is not so."
"Horace, what will happen to the Moties?" Renner demanded. "What should happen to them?"
"I truly do not know."
"You'll pardon me, but you don't seem quite the fanatic you used to be."
"Kevin, how could I be? I see here a tragedy, a people not unlike my own, with few resources, divided against themselves."
"Finding the whole place shot through with Bury Mediators might have changed your perspective?"
"Don't miss the implication," Chris said. "They can swallow His Excellency's views and not choke. That tells us a lot about them."
"Yeah, but does it tell us enough? Horace, I can't believe you've changed that much."
"I bow to Allah's will. Kevin, the Empire barely had the resources to guard one gate, and that one through a sun. Shall it now have two blockade fleets, one to hold a volume of normal space? Perhaps, but at great cost, and for how long? Kevin, the Moties are no less a threat than ever, but our ability to contain them is not adequate to the task."
"So now what?"
Bury looked through the Mosque's picture window and made a face. Somewhere on the pale face of Base Six was Joyce Mei-Ling Trujillo, unreachable.
He said, "One day's work at a time. We are to compose a message, which the Moties will attempt to send for us. What shall we say?"
"Think we're secure here?" Renner asked
Bury shrugged. "All of Nabil's skills were unable to detect listening devices. I do not believe the Moties can be so confident that they could plant a device with the certainty that we would not find it. If we found one, it would very much affect our relationship. Let us act as if there are no Moties listening, but not act as if we were certain of it."
"On that score, what happens when Ali Baba's with us?" Renner demanded.
"Then we are faithful allies of East India," Bury said. "Mediators serve their own Masters."
Renner nodded. "Blaine. Message."
"A quick description of the situation, with all of the Alderson geometry data we have," Blaine said. "Including all that data from the Alexandria Library. That will make it a lot easier to get the Fleet in here. Of course there's not much chance it will happen. Admiral the Honorable Sir Harry Weigle. Sent out after Joyce Trujillo's first articles. Assigned to clean up the corruption, put some discipline back in the Crazy Eddie Squadron. He's doing a good job at that, but he's not big on disobeying orders."
"And his orders are to maintain the blockade," Renner said.
"Just so."
"What can we do to convince him?"
Blaine thought for a moment. "He'd have to be convinced that he had a higher duty than carrying out his orders."
"Could you persuade him?"