“Actually no surprise. I know about your little secret.”
“Knew about it when you gave me that damned card?”
“I don’t think I want to tell you. Let ReseuneSec figure what to do about it.”
“Patil was your source.”
Jordan shrugged. “Or not.”
“So you know about it. All right. And certain Centrists know, but that doesn’t make them happy, because they’d have to go off in the deep dark and actually build their new Earth, which means no nice, warm offices and no influence in Novgorod, doesn’t it, so some of them aren’t as happy as they could be.”
“That could be true.”
“And then there’s the Abolitionists, oh, ask Grant about them. They know what’s moral for everybody but them. The world is going along pretty much on course, and the War’s over, so it’s unemployment for radical types…everybody’s too comfortable. They’re sending Patil out to handle Eversnow, and now somebody’s killed her. You know, but you don’t want to say how you know, and that doesn’t look damn good, Jordan, it doesn’t. You had your little fling with the Paxer element, which damn near got Grant killed… So what in hell are you involved in this time?”
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
“Dad. Talk to me.”
“So how do you know?”
“You can figure how I heard about it. From Ari.”
“From the little dear. Who keeps you from unemployment until the bills come due and your pretty, safe world blows up in your face. You know what your precious Ari is, son of mine? The same as the first one–a damn self‑contained genius with the power to run mindsets on the whole human species. You get all bothered about terraforming a planet we weren’t born to, oh, the poor microbes–the damn stupid megafauna that’s been turning this planet to desert for twenty million years: we’ve got to save them so they can go on desertifying the planet. We get all worked up about that, and never mind this one woman is imposing her mental design on the whole human species, dictating the social ratios from one end of space to the other, dictating the attitudes, the thoughts, the philosophies, of every single azi that gets his CIT status and turns into a breeding, proliferating citizen of this planet and everywhere else we reach! Every freedman on every station in Union space is teaching his kids the sacred dogma Ari Emory embedded in their psyches. Every planet we ever occupy and every station in Union space is going to be populated with just the right ratio of brilliant to moderately stupid that Ariane Emory decided is just fine and right for humanity. We don’t need a god. We’ve got one!”
“The Bureau of Defense was the one that landed a colony on Gehenna. The first Ari modified it so as notto create a human timebomb.”
“Do we know that?” Jordan fired back. “Seems it did pretty well at being a bomb. Alliance is still trying to figure out how to get the locals out of the bushes.”
“Good question. I’m sure I don’t know what she’s thinking and I don’t know what your Ari thought. But I’m even more sure the Defense Bureau doesn’t know what they’re doing from one campaign to the next, and if you want somebody to blame for this mess, Jordan, blame the people you were dealing with when it all went wrong. They wanted a weapon. A poison pill. They didn’t care how it got mopped up so long as Alliance had to do it, and now we’re not at war with Alliance, and you’re right when you ask what do we do now, sterilize the planet? It’s not going to happen, Dad. It’s what we’ve got to live with. It’s going to be this Ari’s problem.”
“We’ve got a whole new branch of the human species out there, thanks to her. What are we going to do with that, when it wants off its planet? Is it going to like us? We don’t fucking know, do we?”
“We’ll learn from it. And we’ll deal with it.”
“Oh, I’m sure we’ll learn. And I hope your little dear keeps her hands the hell off it before it gets worse. That’llcome back to make us sorry, no way it won’t.”
Deep breath. “So Gehenna worries you. Fine. Meanwhile your precious Centrists want to play god with Cyteen’s ecosystem. Populate the world. Turn it into Earth. And Eversnow’s not going to be good enough for most of them and now Patil’s dead. What do they want, Dad?”
“Well, tonight they haven’t got Thieu and they haven’t got Patil. I wonder how thatbenefits them. Idon’t think it does.”
He shut his mouth. For several seconds. He really didn’t want to know the next answer. “So who does it benefit? Do you know?”
“The short answer is, it doesn’t benefit them. Ergo it wasn’t the Centrists who did it.”
“A split in the Centrists? Centrists who were willing to have Eversnow be the project–versus those that aren’t? Yanni just made a deal with their leadership. I think you know that. I think maybe you’ve even discussed it with him.”
“So let these mythical asymmetrical Centrists all go play at Gehenna. There’s a nice lab. It bites back. They can’t make it worse than it is.”
“You gave me Patil’s card, Dad. Whatin hell was I supposed to do with it?”
“Take it to the little dear. What else would an upstanding lad like yourself do, who wants to keep his precious career spotless? Mine’s done. What do I care?”
“Your career isn’t done. It doesn’t need to be done.”
“My own son won’t work with me! What’s left?”
“For God’s sake don’t try pity, Jordan. I’ve got my own problems. You want my help, take it, or quit whining!”
Silence on the other side. Jordan spread his arms along the back of the other couch, feet extended and crossed. “Dear boy. Whining, is it?”
Somehow that posture conveyed threat. Justin became just a shade cautious. “I’d help you, Dad, I would. But everything I try to do for you is a risk. Not from her. From you. Every time I try to make a gesture, you slap it down. Every time I try to do anything for you, you do something to make me sorry I even tried.”
“Now who’s whining?”
“You dodged the question.”
“Ask it.”
“ Whatwas I supposed to do with Patil’s card? What were you doing with it? Why involve yourself with her? And why is she dead?”
Jordan sat unmoving for a moment, then leaned forward and took a sip of the vodka. “Shoved her out a window, you say? That would account for it.”
“Don’t take that tone with me.”
“The little dear can’t question me under drugs, so you volunteered.”
“I’m worried about you, dammit. Cooperate! You’re not guilty of anything.”
“Thank you,” Jordan said, with a salute of the glass. “Thank you. I appreciate that.”
“Well, then don’t act the part. Tell me what in hell you meant with the card.”
“Thieu talked a lot about her. A lot. Brilliant woman. Going to save the Centrist cause. Ad nauseam. Nothing’sgoing to save the Centrist cause. Never was a chance of it from the moment they passed the law that put Cyteen off‑limits for terraforming–of course, that was afterwe had ReseuneLabs and Novgorod andPlanysLabs already down here, not to mention Big Blue–here we were in the middle of a war, and with the no‑terraforming law that hampered us protecting ourselves, it got downright dicey trying to keep civilization going down here. But on‑world settlements suddenly seemed a good backup in case somebody got a strike in at the station. Military ne‑cess‑i‑ty. So we enacted the Habitation Zones Act–incidentally what I assume the little dear is relying on for this spurt of building I hear she’s indulging in upriver. Turns out she’s the best ally the Centrists have got. One little slip, one breach of quarantine, and they’ll have to designate another big slice of land into the Zones…wouldn’t thatbe ironic?”