“Aren’t you being a little harsh, Senator? I mean, there are a lot of lives at stake. Kraus and his people are trying to pull off a small miracle.”
“Sure they are. And who do they put in charge? I don’t want to malign those who’ve been lost, but the reigning so-called genius was a twenty-seven-year-old who managed to get herself and her pilot stuck for thirty-some years on a ship that she disabled. Maybe they should have picked somebody with a little more experience?”
The host was clearly uncomfortable. “Senator, I’m sure you’re aware that the most productive time for the great physicists down through the ages has always come before they hit thirty. That’s when they’ve had their major accomplishments. Do it in your twenties or forget it. JoAnn Suttner had an incredible career.”
“Until it mattered. The notion that you have to be a kid to do physics is a myth, Peter. It’s never been true. Never will be.”
“Jacob,” I said, “shut it down.”
After it went off, I don’t recall that my office had ever seemed so quiet. Outside, a few birds were chirping, and branches were swaying in a warm breeze. But somehow a general stagnation had infiltrated the country house.
“You okay?” Alex was standing at the door.
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“It’ll be all right,” he said. “She’s a crank.”
“I wasn’t thinking about her.”
“I know. You just have to have some time to get past this.”
“It won’t be all right, Alex. It never will be.”
He took me to dinner that evening at Bernie’s Far and Away. We sat out on the enclosed terrace, ordered drinks and I’m not sure what else. The Moon was full. But seeing Earth’s oversized satellite had spoiled me. Lara looked almost insignificant by contrast.
“I can’t help thinking,” he said, “how many artifacts will be created by everything that’s been happening.”
“How do you mean, Alex?” I asked.
“You remember the coffee cups you had made for Belle last year?”
“Sure.” Belle-Marie was inscribed beneath a pyramid and the company name, Rainbow Enterprises.
“If we get lucky and actually become part of the rescue—”
“Not much chance of that.”
“I know. But if it happens, those cups will be worth a ton of money in a few years.”
“How many years?”
“Well, maybe a century or two.”
“Okay. I’ll hang on to them, just in case.”
The drinks came. Dark wine. I raised my glass toward the Moon. “JoAnn and Nick,” I said.
Alex nodded. “Yeah. However things go, the price will have been pretty high.” We drank. And stared at each other. And put the glasses down. “I’ll tell you what has a chance of becoming a huge collectors’ item.”
“I don’t really care, Alex.”
“Okay.”
I could see I’d offended him. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right. I shouldn’t be preoccupied with trivia.”
We were both silent for a time. Then I finished my wine. “So what will, Alex?”
“Will what?”
“Become a big collectors’ item?”
“Oh.” He didn’t want to pursue the issue. “Anything off the Casavant.”
“Like its cups?”
“Yes.” He studied me. “You don’t believe it?”
“Eventually, everything becomes valuable.”
“These are historical times, Chase.”
I knew what he was doing, trying to get my mind off the losses we’d taken. “I know,” I said. “The ship’s name is inscribed on them, in handwritten form, beneath its silhouette.”
“They’ll be worth a fortune.”
“I hate to say this, but—”
“What?”
“I was thinking about human nature. They’d be worth more if things go badly, and nobody survives from the Capella. In fact, the value would go through the roof.”
“Yes,” he said. “It would. It’s the darker side of the business.”
“Yeah. While JoAnn and Nick—” My voice caught, and I couldn’t go further.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “we have short memories. Most heroes are forgotten by the next news cycle.”
Alex restored Gabe’s office. He moved the artifacts up to the second floor and took all the stuff he’d been collecting back there down into the basement. The walls had been filled during Gabe’s years with plaques and pictures, most of which had been taken down. I know that sounds a bit coldhearted, but I think the truth was that they were a painful reminder of a time Alex didn’t want to think about. He told me once that he’d never thanked Gabe, who had taken him in at a critical moment in his life and had cared for him for almost twenty years. Anyhow, everything was now back on the walls. Alex had also located a photo of Gabe and himself at about ten years old and my mom at a dig site somewhere. It had been framed and now rested on the desk.
He knew, of course, that the odds of bringing Gabe home anytime in the near future were remote.
But just in case.
I was standing at the doorway admiring how it looked when Jacob broke into my thoughts: “I hope,” he said, “that we get him back.”
Thirty-four
The storm has passed. Let’s go to lunch.
“Chase,” said Jacob. “You have a call from Mr. Conner.”
I didn’t know anyone by that name, which in our business happens all the time. “Okay,” I said. “Put him on.”
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was shocked when vid star Zachary Conner blinked on. He looked exactly as he had playing opposite Roma Carnova in Downtown. “Hello, Chase,” he said in that familiar deep baritone.
“Okay,” I said. “Who are you really?” Then I realized. “Khaled.”
Conner vanished, and my sailor buddy appeared. “Hi, Beautiful. How are you doing?”
“I’m fine, thanks. You know, you don’t look as much like him as I thought.”
“No, no. Too late to walk it back.”
“Where are you?”
“Skydeck. I got your message, so I thought I better come right away.”
Several hours later, when the shuttle arrived at the terminal, I was waiting. It was nice to see someone smiling again. We fell into each other’s arms. “I know you were a bit reluctant about this, Chase,” he said. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, no. I’m glad to see you.”
“If you’re upset or anything like that, just tell me, and I’ll go away. But I hope you won’t.”
“Khaled, you should have let me know. This is crazy.”
“I know.” Suddenly he looked scared. “I can get out of your way if that’s really what you want me to do.”
“That’s not the problem. The Capella’s close. I’m going to be leaving in a couple of days.”