‘Hello, UJU-Quarz,’ he remarked, smiling. ‘Come sit down.’
‘Thanks.’ Jevon smiled as briefly as possible, then sat as far as possible, too, at the other end of the row.
‘That sweater becomes you, I must say.’ He was looking at her breasts. ‘Cold out tonight, eh?’
‘Very, yes.’ Jevon crossed her arms over her chest. ‘And how’s your wife?’
‘Oh, um, quite well, yes, thanks.’
‘That’s nice. Do you know what time it is? UJU-Trey should be here soon.’
‘Well, yes, so he should, eh?’ Wilso glanced at the cyberclock implanted in his wrist. ‘Yes, really, any minute. I don’t suppose UJU-Prime will start the meeting without him.’
‘That’s true. Funny - Prime always seems to know when we’re all here.’
‘Just so, just so. Eh?’
Both of them glanced at the screen, where in a brief while the scrambled image of their leader would appear. At times the other member of the First Step, UJU-Deuce, would join them as a guided revenant in the form of an old man with a stylized face and a body reduced to a column of black. No member of the Second Step -Trey, Quarz, and Quinze - knew who either Prime or Deuce was, though Jevon was willing to bet that they all had their theories. Jevon heard the door opening and turned her head to look. Dressed in black trousers and a black tunic, studded up one sleeve with steel, Dukayn walked in, nodding to each of them.
‘I hope I’m not late?’ he said.
‘No, no.’ Wilso glanced at his implant again. ‘Just on time.’
Dukayn sat down between the two of them and folded his hands in his lap. All three watched the wall, and sure enough, in a bare couple of seconds a light brightened, an image formed. On the vidscreen hung the bright and crystalline scramble of UJU-Prime.
‘Good evening,’ he remarked in his syrupy voice. ‘We shall reign in what?’
‘Splendour and the light of God’s Eye,’ they chorused.
‘When will the time of splendour be?’ said Dukayn, as senior member present.
‘At the opening of the return. I declare this meeting of the Second Step open. I have two things to lay before you. We must continue to discuss the rally, of course, that our public front will be holding soon. But first, a warning. My sources in Finance Sect tell me that a few Leps have begun arming themselves.’
‘Oh, have they?’ Dukayn snapped. ‘A sweep through-’
‘No, no, no, UJU-Trey,’ Prime broke in. ‘You must do nothing that can be traced to you and through you to UJU. If a regiment of Garang appear in Lep Sect to search for weapons, will not everyone know who ordered them there? From who it’s but a short distance to why.’
‘Well, true enough, Se. Still, I have a few good men that I can put on guard.’
‘A few for a few, yes, that will be well. Remember, we’ve only received a tip. It may not even be true.’ Prime turned his shadow-face Wilso’s way. ‘Are you still resolved to speak at the rally?’
‘Unless you forbid it, of course,’ Wilso said. ‘But my views on the subject are already well-known. No-one will be surprised to see me there.’
‘That’s very true,’ Dukayn put in. ‘They’d wonder if you stayed away.’
‘All right, then,’ Prime said. ‘UJU-Quarz, you are the contact between the Outer Committee and the Second Step. How are the committee’s plans proceeding?’
‘Very well, Se,’ Jevon said. ‘They’ve finally got the public assembly permit approved and put it on file with the Recreational Events Committee. I was beginning to worry, with time getting so short. After all, we’ve already advertised. If we hadn’t been given the permit, we would have shot our credibility. Now all that’s left is polishing the last few details.’
The meeting settled down to those details of UJU’s first public event, the rally in Algol Park with music, speakers, free refreshments, and a fine air of moderation all on the programme. Yet no matter how temperate the speeches, the rally would deliver a message, that on Palace there were plenty of humans who were sick and tired of seeing alien needs getting special treatment and alien species living on human turf.
‘After all, we pay our taxes, too, and we all vote,’Jevon remarked at one point. ‘Remember, that’s the note we want to strike. Peaceful change through the interactives and our elected officials. We all vote.’
‘That’s right, eh?’ Wilso said. ‘That’s exactly the point I’m going to emphasize in my opening remarks. We have a government on this planet, and we live under the rule of law. It’s lasted for over a thousand years, our government, which goes to show how well worth respecting it is.’
Dukayn smiled, glancing away, so remote that Jevon felt a flash of fear run down her spine. Just what was he thinking, that he would smile like a hunter seeing his prey?
* * *
Slender and delicate, TeeKay Rommoff stood just over five feet tall. Her hair, blonde at the moment, tumbled round her heart shaped face in carefully randomized curls. Her eyes were blue and deep-set, her mouth delicate. When she arrived at Vida’s suite, she was wearing a shirt of white lace, her favourite fabric, tucked decorously into well-cut blue slacks.
‘Dan isn’t here yet?’ she said. ‘Shit!’
‘That’s your favourite word, isn’t it?’ Vida said.
‘It suits my life, let’s face it.’ TeeKay flopped onto the divan and flung an arm over a pillow.
‘Aren’t you going to offer me a drink?’
‘Well, if you mean alcohol, I don’t think we’ve got any.’
Greenie shook its head and let out a long sigh from a cheek sac.
‘For an ex-whore from Pleasure, you’re really stuffy, y’know?’
Vida laughed. This business of the ex-whore had become their joke, a way of defusing potential hurt.
‘Oh well,’ TeeKay went on. ‘There will be drink a-plenty where we’re going. I can’t imagine Wan making reservations at somewhere lacking in that department. You look great tonight, by the way. I like that dress. It shows just the right amount of tit.’
‘Thanks.’
‘It’ll be wasted on your dumb-ass fiance, I suppose. Well, sorry, I shouldn’t call him that, not that I hear you rushing to defend him.’
Vida shrugged and sat down in an armchair, then gestured at Greenie to leave. Humming and hissing, the saccule bustled out.
‘We all do what we have to, huh?’ TeeKay said after a moment. ‘But why don’t you have a liquor cabinet?’
‘I never thought of it. I don’t even know what to put in one.’
‘Then we’ll go shopping, and I’ll tell you. God, Vida! A babe in the wilderness, that’s you.’
‘Back at The Close the bartender always took care of that.’
‘That makes sense.’ TeeKay hesitated briefly. ‘Tell me to shut up if I’m out of line, but I was curious about something. Do you ever feel like you’d like to go back to The Close?’
‘I’d like to see my friends there, sure. I’ll never miss the rotten life, but I really miss Tia and Aleen. They were my family.’
‘That’s amazing! Wanting to see your family, I mean. I’m always so pumped when I can get the money to get away from mine. Living in Government House sure beats the ancestral home and all that shit.’
‘You don’t have an allowance?’
‘I do, but it’s minuscule.’ TeeKay rolled her eyes. ‘My father is so cheap he’d charge for his farts if he could. Thank God I’ve got relatives I can blackmail, or I’d be living like a Lifegiver in some crummy room in Service Sect. Or worse yet, living in the ancestral muck out in the swamps. Do you know why there are aristocrats on Palace, Vida?’
‘Well, uh, no. I never gave it any thought.’
‘Because no-one would have been stupid enough to go live in those stenchy swamps and grow the food for this God-forsaken planet, that’s why, if they hadn’t been bribed up the ass. I mean, it’s obvious. The Colonists weren’t dumb. No-one would have gone out there because they just absolutely
loved
hydroponics.’
Vida had to laugh, and TeeKay grinned companionably.
‘But that’s not what my father will tell you,’ TeeKay went on. ‘He loves to talk about ancestral genotypes and quality. Quality will out, he says. In mushrooms as well as men. By God’s little tear ducts! If my genotype is so superior why doesn’t he give me a decent allowance? That’s what I want to know.’
‘He’s not like Dan’s mother, then.’
‘No. Spoiled rotten, that’s what Dan is. Oh well, it means I can always pry credits out of him when I need some. I am thankful for life’s small blessings when they come my way.’
The blessing in question arrived a few minutes later, dressed in a narrow-cut red velvet suit. He’d pulled back his long dark hair into a gold clasp and carried a gallant armload of blue and white flowers, a gift for Vida. The saccule bustled in after him.
‘Greenie,’ Dan said. ‘These go in water. Put the water in vases. Know what those are?
Good. Then put the flowers in the water, but don’t cram them in too tightly.’
Greenie pantomimed a spreading motion with both hands, then took the flowers and bustled out.
‘God only knows what the poor creature’s going to do with them,’ TeeKay said.
‘Eat a few, probably.’ Dan sank down into the sofa next to her. ‘But there’s lots.’
‘When’s Wan due here?’ TeeKay said.
‘In five minutes,’ Vida said. ‘But what’ll you bet he’ll be late?’
‘Huh,’ Dan snorted. ‘I never bet on sure things.’
Half an hour passed in small talk, another half in playing cards, which left the three of them hungry and irritable. When Vida put a commcall through to Wan’s suite, no-one answered. They waited twenty minutes more in case he was on the way.
‘Let’s just go,’ Vida snapped. ‘I don’t have to put up with this.’
‘A good point,’ TeeKay said. ‘Shit, I bet we’ve lost our reservations.’
‘It’s so late it won’t matter. Jak!’
The Garang stepped through what had appeared to be a portion of wall. TeeKay yelped.
‘Were you there all this time?’
‘Of course, Se Tina Karin.’Jak bowed to her. ‘I gather, Se Vida, that you would like me to summon the military escort? We are still going to the same restaurant? I shall call ahead to alert security.’
‘Yes, that’ll be fine. And leave a message telling Wan where we are, in case he deigns to show up. The restaurant’s right here in East Tower. Even someone like him should be able to find it.’
‘Ooh,’ TeeKay said. ‘You’ve got nice sharp claws tonight.’
Calling the military escort turned out to be a good move. As soon as the party left the lift booth on the Mercado level, pix and intakes appeared like a swarm of flies. Thanks to the pair of Marines, armed with stunsticks, they hovered a decent distance away, but nothing could stop them from taking pictures or from yelling.
‘Se Vida, Se Vida, where’s Se Wan? Where’s your fiance? When’s the contract signing? Se Vida, Se Vida! Is something wrong between you and the Peronida?’
Her head held high, Vida swept in ahead of her guests. Since the small lobby opened directly into the corridor, she hoped they wouldn’t have to wait for a table right in view of the pix, but in the event, the restaurant had been more than willing to hold its best table for Se L’Var and her friends. The owner himself, a fat Lep with painted claws and glitter-decorated scales, seated them. When Vida insisted that Jak sit at their table to round out the party, he sent a waiter to the kitchen to slice raw meat as an appetizer for the Garang to match those that appeared, instantly and unordered, for the humans.
‘This is all lovely, Se Ki Ki,’ Vida pronounced. ‘My friends would like drinks as well.’
‘Of course, Se Vida, of course.’ He bowed and rubbed his hands together. ‘We have a well-stocked bar, if I do say so myself.’
‘Oh come on, Vida,’ TeeKay said. ‘You have to have one, too.’
‘I’ve got to stay sober so I can chew Wan out when he gets here.’
‘You bet,’ Dan said. ‘TeeKay, lay off her.’
‘Oh okay! I just like to see everyone have a good time.’
If drinks could have given her one, Vida thought, then she’d have drunk herself blind. All through the evening - the elaborate meal, the stage show, TeeKay’s jokes and Dan’s stolid version of banter - Vida fumed, turning constantly in her chair to glance at the door, where Wan never appeared. Finally Jak leaned over to whisper.
‘Se Vida, you are distressing yourself.’
‘I know. It’s the insult, damn him. It’s not like I enjoy his company or anything.’
‘I shall discuss this matter with Dukayn. For now, why do we not leave and put an end to this humiliation?’
‘You’re right.’ Vida turned to TeeKay and Dan. ‘What do you say we call this an evening?’
‘Yeah, good idea,’ Dan said. ‘Jeez. I don’t know what gets into Wan, sometimes. He can be really loath.’
‘So I’ve noticed. I hope there aren’t any more pix waiting. I can see it now. This is going to be all over the screens: Where was Wan? Wan and Vida have a tiff.’
‘Maybe so. Well, we’ll get you home.’ Dan paused, staring over her head. ‘That’s weird. Look, there’s another woman with red hair! She’s, like, the third one I’ve seen today. Jeez, Vida, I thought it was rare.’
Surreptitiously Vida glanced around and saw, indeed, an older woman with thick red hair, done in matronly braids.
‘It’s dyed,’ TeeKay whispered. ‘All of them. You see redheads all over the place. They want to look like Vida. You’re fashion, Vee.’
‘Oh come on! Me?’
‘Of course, you.’ TeeKay rolled her eyes heavenward. ‘You’ll see what I mean. Let’s go to that party, for starters, the one up at Mara’s. I’ll bet Mara herself’s gone red.’
‘I can’t,’ Vida said. ‘I’ve got to look good for the newsjockeys tomorrow. It’s a big press conference.’
‘Vida! Don’t be so stuffy.’
TeeKay argued the case while Vida was signing the chit, then shut up when Dan told her, only to resume arguing outside. This late at night the Mercado levels stood empty and dimly lit, so silent that their voices rang against the mosaic walls. When TeeKay stopped talking, Vida could hear the splash of water in the many fountains scattered through many courts. All at once Jak raised one hand and turned, listening hard. The two human Marines went on alert, watching him, waiting for his superior hearing and sense of smell to give them the data they needed to act.
‘Footsteps,’ Jak said. ‘Ten humans, coming fast.’
‘Newsjocks,’ Vida groaned. ‘Oh no.’