Jelka smiled. "No. But I think he'll be pleased to see me."
"Well, follow me. He's awake, but he may be working."
"Working?"
The nurse laughed. "He never stops. The morning after the operation he was sitting up, looking at files. But we've kept him from using the input as yet. It takes a while for the implant to take, even with the latest drugs."
Jelka gave a vague nod, frowning. It sounded horrible. Behind her, her bodyguard, Zdenek, looked about him, ill at ease without his gun. Only Jelka's strongest pleas had made him agree to come in here.
"Were there any problems?"
"No. It's a standard enough operation, these days. More than three million last year, they reckon. But he has to rest. Otherwise he'll be back in here with an embolism. And that would be very serious."
"Ah . . ." But Jelka was far from reassured.
"He's a friend of yours?"
It was none of her business, but Jelka answered her anyway, aware that Zdenek was listening, and that whatever the bodyguard heard would be reported back to her father. "He works for my father. And for Li Yuan."
The nurse glanced at her, her eyes widening, then nodded. "Ah, so that's why he's here." She laughed. "I thought it was strange."
They came to the end of the corridor and turned left. At the second door the nurse stopped and tapped out a code on the panel beside the door. A screen lit up at once, showing an overhead image of a patient in a bed. It was Kim. Leaning forward slightly, the nurse spoke into the grill.
"Shih Ward, you have a visitor. Jelka Tolonen. Will you see her?"
Kim smiled broadly, looking up at the camera. "Of course. Please . . . show her in."
As the door slid back, the nurse stood aside, letting Jelka go inside. Zdenek made to follow, but Jelka turned, facing him. "Please, Zdenek, stay here. I'll be ten minutes, that's all."
He hesitated, then shook his head. "I'm sorry, Nu Shih Tolonen, but your father would have me court-martialed if I did. My orders are never to leave you alone." He paused, clearly embarrassed at having to be so heavy-handed. "You understand why ..."
She was quiet a moment, then turned to the nurse again. "Have you an audio unit? Just the earphones."
The nurse hesitated, then nodded. "You want me to get a pair?"
Jelka nodded, then turned back, smiling at Kim. "I'm sorry. This won't take a moment."
He smiled, drinking in the sight of her. "That's all right. It's really nice to see you. How did you know I was here?"
She glanced at Zdenek, then smiled broadly. "I'll tell you ... in a moment."
The nurse returned, handing Jelka the headphones and a small tape machine, an under-ear sling. Jelka handed it to Zdenek. "Will you wear this for me?"
The big man looked at the earphones and laughed, relenting. "Okay. But when your father asks me I want to be able to tell him something. All right?"
She smiled and leaned forward, pecking his cheek. "I'll make something up. Okay?"
Zdenek nodded, then went to sit in the far corner, the earphones balanced awkwardly on his large, close-shaven head. Satisfied, Jelka went across. She pulled out a chair, sitting beside the bed, her back to the guard.
Kim was sitting up in bed. The comset he'd been working on was pushed aside on top of the bedclothes. He leaned forward, intending to kiss her, but she made the smallest movement of her head.
"What's the matter?" he asked quietly, then looked past her at the guard. "Is this your father's idea?"
"He thinks it's necessary when I travel."
"And you?"
She nodded. "They've made three attempts on my life already. It's unlikely they'll stop now. They can get at him through me. That's why it's best to take no chances."
"I see." But it was clear that he hadn't realized before just how tightly circumscribed her life was.
She smiled, her mood brightening. "Anyway. How are you?"
He looked past her briefly, then met her eyes again, smiling. "I'm fine. It's still sore, and the headaches are bad, especially at night, but they say it's healing well."
She leaned closer, looking at the silvered stud that jutted from the flesh beneath his ear. The skin surrounding it was red and chafed, but the single, thread-thin scar above it looked good. Even so, the thought of the implant made her feel queasy. She had never been happy about her father's, and though he had had it long before she was bom, it still seemed unnatural. More so than his artificial arm.
"Well?" he asked softly.
She drew back her head and looked at him. The uncertainty in his voice was clear. He hadn't been sure how she would take it. After all, he hadn't even told her he was going to have it done.
"You need this?"
He looked at her intently a moment, then nodded. "It'll make my work much easier."
She looked at the silvered stud again. "It's a neat job."
"The best. Li Yuan's own surgeon."
"Then I'm glad. Really I am." She hesitated, then looked down. "Your work ... it means a lot to you, doesn't it?"
He was quiet, watching her.
"No ... I mean, I know it does. My father said. But more than that, I can see it in you. It's what you are. You can't separate yourself off from it."
He let out a long breath. "And you don't mind?"
She looked up, meeting his eyes. "No. Why should I mind? It's what you are. It's what makes you what you are. I can see that."
"Can you?" He watched her a moment, then nodded. "Yes. I can see that."
They were silent a moment, then she reached out and took his hand. "I understand. I..." She lifted her shoulders slightly, looking away from him, then met his eyes again. "It's like my father, I suppose. He loves me, fiercely, almost possessively, but there's more to him than that. He has to do what he does. When he was exiled—when he couldn't be General anymore—it was like he was dead. Or like a shell, paper-thin, the mere pretense of a man. Seeing him like that made me understand. Like you, he is what he does. The two things are inseparable. Without it ... well, maybe he would be less of a man than he is. And maybe I'd love him less than I do."
"Maybe," he answered, his eyes watching her carefully, a strange tenderness in their depths. "And you?"
She laughed and sat back, cradling his hand now in both of hers. "Me?"
"Yes, you. Isn't there something you want to do? Some part of you that needs something more?"
She shook her head slowly, squeezing his hand between her own, her face suddenly more serious. "No. There's nothing I want to do."
"Nothing?"
She smiled. "No. IVe already found what I want."
from his SEAT in the corner Zdenek watched everything. Jelka had her back to him so he could see nothing of what passed on her face, but he could see the Clayborn Ward clearly. He saw how the child-man smiled, and looked down, disturbed, knowing he would have to tell what he had seen.
And then?
He felt sorry for Jelka. This would hurt her. Badly, perhaps. But it was necessary. Her father would end this thing, for there was no way she could marry Ward, and a mistake here might spoil her chance of marrying well elsewhere. Besides, Ward was Clayborn, and Clay was Clay, it could not be raised.
And Jelka? He watched the back of her head, seeing how the overhead light caught in the golden strands of her hair. For a moment he was distracted by it, then, smiling, he looked down at his big, ugly hands. Jelka Tolonen was something special. Something high and fine and . . . well, above Ward, anyway. Far, far above him.
"Well? What should we do?"
Tsu Ma turned, facing his cousins, his broad, manly figure framed in the moon door. Beyond him, through the broad circle of the entrance, the sun lit up the western garden. "To be frank with you, Yuan, I think we should dig much deeper. Find out where the brain came from, and who designed it. What Tolonen says makes sense. We should send Karr out to Mars again. Have him turn the Colony inside out until he finds what's going on out there. This . . ." he shook his head, "this frightens me, Yuan. The fakes that came in to kill your brother, they were bad enough, but these!"