2312

“Swan, don’t be angry at me, I needed to tell the inspector what happened to stay in good faith on an important matter; this operation is delicate and the whole situation had to be told.”

“So now it is.”

“Yes, and soon you’ll know everything too. But for a while you have to trust us.”

“Us?”

“I’m going to help the inspector. It shouldn’t take too long. During that time I hope you will go back to Terminator and talk with your people there, about the situation on Titan and about us.”

“You think I’m still interested in any of that?”

“I certainly hope so. It’s more important than your bruised feelings here, if you will allow me to say so. Especially as they needn’t be bruised. I think considering you and Pauline as an indivisible pair is a good thing, don’t you? It’s accurate, it describes you better, let us say. You are a new thing. And most especially to me, I might add.” He reached out and clutched her hand, then stopped them both by braking his wheelchair with his other hand. They slewed around, and he held on to her hand even though she tugged on it. “Come on,” he said, “be serious. Were you out there marooned with me or not? Were you in the tunnel or not?”

Turning her question around on her; and of course she remembered. “Yes, yes,” Swan groused, looking down.

“Well then, here we are now, and there is a situation that requires confidentiality, and so in that context you have to see what I just said to Genette as being under the light of utmost necessity. Especially given my own feelings for you, which are”-he paused to pound his chest with his wheel hand-“profound. Confused but profound. And that’s what matters. It makes life interesting. So I have been thinking that we ought to get married, in the Saturnian creche I am already part of. It would solve so many problems more than it would create that I really think it is the best thing for both of us. For me, certainly. So I am hoping you will marry me, and that’s the long and short of it.”

Swan yanked her hand away, raised it as if to hit him. “I don’t understand you!”

“I know. I have trouble with that myself. But that’s not the main thing. It’s only part of it. We would make that part of our project.”

“I don’t know…” Swan began, then trailed off: there was so much that could follow this opening that she found herself at a loss. She didn’t know anything! “I’m going to Earth, anyway,” she said mulishly. “I have a meeting there with the UN mammals committee; we’re making some progress there. And now I want to talk to Zasha too.”

“That’s all right,” Wahram assured her. “You think about it. I have to go join Genette; we really are engaged in something urgent, and this information from Kiran is the linchpin, so let us complete that, and I’ll come see you wherever you are, as soon as I can.” And after an anguished clasp of hands to heart, he swiveled and wheeled back down the hall to the inspector.

WAHRAM AND GENETTE

W ahram returned to Genette, who was leaving for Vinmara and did not want to waste time, saying only, “Come on,” and then hurrying off as fast as a terrier. As Wahram wheeled along in pursuit, Genette looked back up at him and asked if all was well with Swan. Wahram replied that it was, although he was none too sure about this. But it was time to focus on the plan.

As they flew to Vinmara, Genette talked to some of his associates using his wristqube Passepartout as his radio, and Wahram gestured at it questioningly.

With a shake of the head Genette said, “There are qubes working for us, as Swan pointed out, and indeed hers may be one of them, it seems likely. But I haven’t been able to check it yet, and you were probably right to keep her out of this. It’s hard to tell what she would do. But meanwhile Wang’s qube and Passepartout have both been checked out, and are helping us as instructed. So I believe,” he enunciated at his wristqube with a cross-eyed frown.

Wahram said, “Do you think the qubes are beginning to function as their own society, with groups or even organizations, and disagreements?”

Genette threw up his hands. “How can we tell? It may be they are only being given different instructions by different people and therefore acting differently. So we hope to apprehend the maker of these qube humans in Vinmara, and then maybe we can find out more.”

“What about the Venusians? Will they allow you to do what you intend to here?”

“Shukra and his group are backing us. They are in the midst of quite a tussle right now, and the stakes are high. Lakshmi’s people are either manufacturing these humanoids or else are benefitting from their existence, I can’t tell which yet, but either way Shukra’s group is happy to assist us. I think the Working Group is divided enough that we can do what we need to and get off-planet before they can react.”

This sounded ominous to Wahram. “Jump through the middle of a civil war?”

Genette said with a quick shrug, “No way now but forward.”