Her lovely dark eyes widened. “Oh! That was your Bolo my aircab passed? Doing wargames?”
She surprised him into smiling. “Yes, Sonny’s having the time of his life, playing cat and mouse with the air force.”
“If he’d really been shooting, Jefferson wouldn’t have an air force.”
Simon’s smile widened. “No, it wouldn’t.”
“I’m Kafari Camar,” she said, shaking his hand with a firm grip despite the nervous tremor in her fingertips.
“Ms. Camar, it is a distinct pleasure. May I present Abe Lendan, President of Jefferson. He was kind enough to radio my request to your cab.”
“I’m honored, sir,” she said respectfully, shaking his hand, as well.
Simon was pleased that she maintained her poise. Good, solid self-confidence. The kind that bred survivors. He wanted this girl to survive. Very much, in fact.
“You came in on the Vishnu-Mali freighter?” Abe Lendan asked.
“Yes, sir. I took a look at all those refugees coming in, and the news reports from the other side of the Void, and decided I’d better come home. Fast.”
“I wish it hadn’t been necessary. But…” There wasn’t much point in his elaborating further, since every one of them knew the score. “Major Khrustinov would like to discuss some things with you, Ms. Camar, if it isn’t too much of an inconvenience? Or did you have someone waiting to pick you up?”
She smiled, a little shyly. “No, sir. I didn’t want to waste my family’s money on a SWIFT message or a long-distance call from Madison. There are always rental scooters available here, anyway. There was no need to pull anybody away from the spring planting, just to pick me up.”
“I’d be happy to have my driver drop you at your home, if you’d help us out with Major Khrustinov’s questions.”
A startling smile turned her features radiant. “I guess I just lost that bet with myself,” she chuckled.
“Oh?”
“I figured whoever was in that official car wouldn’t be coming to our house for dinner.”
Abe Lendan grinned. “I wouldn’t dream of imposing, but it’s a kind offer. After you,” he added, gesturing toward his waiting groundcar.
Simon fell into step beside her. “How was your trip home, Ms. Camar?”
She shot an intent glance his way, then surprised him by answering the question he hadn’t asked. “Tense and worried. The town-based kids are terrified. Even the students from Granger families are scared. Those of us who are Granger-bred at least know how to use rifles and handguns. That might help, if it comes down to shooting Deng infantry, although it would be pretty useless against a Yavac. But most of the Townies have never even seen a real gun, let alone fired one. It was us Grangers, primarily, coming home on that freighter. Seventy percent, maybe. Most of the Townies stayed on Vishnu.”
“You have a gift for situation reports, Ms. Camar.”
She gave him another radiant smile. “I had a good teacher. One of my uncles is a career military officer.”
They reached the presidential car, but didn’t enter it, just yet. They were waiting for Lieutenant General Shatrevar to arrive, since the commander of Jefferson’s ground forces had not only suggested this tour, but wanted to act as tour guide. The defense of this region would fall under his jurisdiction.
While they waited, Abe Lendan joined the conversation. “Whereabouts does your family live, Ms. Camar?”
“About a kilometer from the dam, under the Cat’s Claw.” She glanced back at Simon. “That’s a local landmark. A spire of weathered sandstone shaped like a huge claw.”
Abe Lendan smiled. “I know it well. When I was a boy, my friends and I would come out here to race our scooters and go fishing in Klameth Reservoir. We’ll be passing close to your house.”
Simon felt a twinge of loneliness, listening to these two people who’d never met, sharing a common bond of places fondly remembered. In the next moment, Kafari Camar startled him nearly speechless. She met his gaze, her own dark with concern, and said, “It must be very difficult, Major Khrustinov, to constantly move from world to world.”
He knew his eyes had widened. For a long, awkward moment, he had no idea how to respond. The burning wreck of Etaine flashed, ghostlike, through his memory, blotting out all else for several moments. Then he managed a strained smile. “Yes. Very difficult. But this is my last duty post. I’ve been assigned permanently to Jefferson’s government.”
A soft smile touched something deep and virtually forgotten in Simon’s heart. “I hope you like it here, Major.”
It was, he realized, more than just a polite phrase. She meant it. The innate warmth with which these people had welcomed him deepened Simon’s determination to defend this world, even as it worsened the aching fear that he would leave yet another beautiful place in ashes. It would be far better, far safer, if he refused to let himself care too deeply for any of these people, at least individually, until the danger was past.
Fortunately, he was saved from further comment by the appearance of a military-issue aircar. It came arrowing in from the opposite direction Airfleet One had come, since General Shatrevar had left Madison the night before, putting in motion phase one of their defense plans at various military bases scattered across Jefferson’s supercontinent. The aircar landed neatly and a moment later, Shatrevar was striding toward them. Simon heard a gasp at his elbow and turned to see a shocked expression on Ms. Camar’s face. Then the general saw her and broke into a delighted grin.
“Kafari! You’re home!”
She ran forward with a cry of welcome. “Uncle Jasper!”
He swept her into a rib-cracking embrace. “Why in the world didn’t you call? Oh, never mind, that’s not important now.” He held her at arm’s length for a moment. “Honey, you just get taller and prettier every time I see you.” He glanced their way and added, “I see you’re keeping good company, as always.”
A blush touched her cheeks.
“That’s my fault, actually,” Simon offered. “I wanted to talk to one of the students off that freighter, this morning. Your niece has been very helpful, debriefing me on the situation among the off-world students.”
“Glad to hear it. You’d have to go a long way, Major, to find a better, more reliable source of information.”
Her blush deepened, but she smiled as he snaked an arm around her shoulders and headed their way. Shatrevar shook hands, then they piled into the president’s groundcar. One of the bodyguards, a lean and preternaturally alert man the president introduced as Ori Charmak, rode with them, while the other rode shotgun in a second vehicle. Once underway, they got down to serious business.
“There’s a lot of terraformed land on Jefferson,” Shatrevar began as they left the airfield and headed down a broad, well-maintained road that paralleled a swift-moving river. “But this is the biggest stretch of land under cultivation in this hemisphere and it’s protected from the worst ravages of weather, which is why early terraforming engineers chose to build farms, orchards, and processing plants here. Most of the food supply for Madison comes from this canyon system and that hydroelectric dam is critical to the whole region. Most of the small towns in the Adero floodplain rely entirely on power generated at the Klameth Canyon Dam. Even Madison would be hit hard, if we lost that generating capacity.”
“All of which makes this canyon a prime target.” Simon nodded.
General Shatrevar’s niece swallowed hard, then gazed unhappily out the window. Simon also studied the terrain with a critical eye, trying to decide whether the Deng would be likeliest to blow the dam and let the resulting flood sweep away farms, crops, food animals, and people, or whether they would attempt capturing the dam intact, for their own electrical power needs. Deng weren’t particularly interested in Terran foods, but the houses and outbuildings would serve as adequate shelters for thousands of Deng warriors — and, eventually, thousands of Deng families, too. It was always cheaper to use an existing structure, even one not entirely suited to the size and shape of the invaders, than it was to build from scratch.