“So, he didn’t get too close to one of those damn Longknifes,” Jack mused. “You got too close to one of those damn DuVales.”
“Pardon me?” said Mr. Louis DuVale.
“An inside joke, sir,” Kris said, “now turned on its head.” Kris let all that spin around in her head for a full minute. It truly was hard to accept. She was very surprised at how very much she felt insulted not to be the center of attention at an assassination attempt. She really needed to talk to a professional counselor.
Reflection time exhausted for the moment, Kris turned her face back to Bobby. “Okay, now what are you going to do with the time you’ve bought?”
“Change a lot of things,” he said, looking up at Julie.
“Getting married is nice. What else?” Kris asked bluntly.
“We’re opening up and spreading out,” Julie said. “Not just him and me, but a whole lot of youngsters. Your bank has staked over five thousand homesteads while you’ve been getting your beauty rest, girl.”
“Nice to know I never quit working,” Kris said, dryly.
“Also, Page Automotive converted an entire assembly line to pickups. The homesteaders moving out of Denver need them, and Mary’s supplied the capital to do it,” Julie said.
“Is our bank going to run out of money?” Kris asked.
“Some of the old folks still think us kids are crazy,” Bobby said, frowning, “but there’s money to be made, and more and more of them are following the money. Your bank, Kris, is just the seed money to get a whole lot started. We’ve been sitting on too much, too long. That Anderson fellow made a bomb explode. You’ve made a world explode.”
“That’s the kind of explosions I like,” Kris said. She looked around for some wood to knock on, but everything in the room was gleaming steel, plastic, or cloth. She crossed her fingers and hoped the pain of it would bring her extra luck.
38
A week later, the wedding went off smoothly. Bobby was on his feet and, except for a bit of swaying, was none the worse for the wear.
Kris came down the aisle ahead of Julie in her very own powered wheelchair. The dress was not all that horrid, and, being seated, the full effect was lost.
After the reception in the foyer of the DuVale Building, which showed no residual effects from the bombing, Kris flew up to the ski lodge for another week of recuperation.
She was in no rush to get back to the king’s business.
While she was still in the hospital, a reply came to Jack’s message about how Texarkana was proving to be more dangerous than they’d expected.
Grampa Ray was very sorry to hear that. No, he didn’t remember why he’d hanged a man eighty years ago. No, he could not grant Jack’s implied request that the mission be canceled. He really needed matters on Texarkana resolved in a fashion that kept his critical alliance on Pitts Hope viable. Kris should watch her step and do the job she’d been sent to do.
“You got to love Grampa,” Kris said after reading the message flimsy and handing it back to Jack.
“It doesn’t really matter,” Jack said. “I’m sending a message through Marine channels asking for a full set of replacements. Do you think I should ask to have them ready on Wardhaven, or do you want them sent here?”
Kris shrugged. “I don’t know, Jack. You call it. I want to get out of here as soon as I can ride a shuttle up to the Wasp. Doc says I need a week or so.”
“I’ll have the replacements wait on Wardhaven.”
A thought crossed Kris’s mind. “Jack, correct me if I’m wrong, but has anyone told me not to come back to Texarkana?”
“No,” Jack said slowly. “Even after we turned loose of that cowpoke we held a couple of days. There is the matter of the vendetta. I don’t think it would be a good idea to vacation here, but no one in power has actually told you they’ll jail you if you show your face here again.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Jack, this is the first planet I’ve ever helped that will actually let me back. That’s a great feeling right . . .” Kris started to use her good hand to strike her heart, but thought better of it. “Come to think of it, no part of me feels all that great.”
“You’re getting better,” Jack insisted.
After the wedding, the flight to the lodge got more exciting than Kris cared for. Thunderheads moved in, lightning put on quite a show, flashing from cloud to cloud and cloud to ground. The pilot of the plane said this was normal along the front range this time of year, and took a circuitous route.
Kris still got bounced around. For the first time in her life, she lost the slim pickings she’d eaten at the reception. It was humiliating to use a “burp bag.”
“I hope I haven’t lost my space legs,” she said, more frightened now than she’d been since she woke up.
“You’ll get over this. It takes a bit of time, Kris,” Jack assured her.
She did her best to believe him.
The lodge was very relaxing. The boffins were having a ball. The Marines were enjoying themselves, though most went about their fun with rifles slung down their fronts.
Kris had a cottage all to herself, surrounded by cottages with her staff and armed Marines. She got to watch deer graze from her front porch. At Cara’s insistence, Kris joined her in a walk around a local trail that seemed made for Kris’s powered wheelchair. They spotted elk, wolves, and a mother bear with two cubs.
Cara squealed silently with glee.
The Marines with Kris just as quietly pulled back the arming bolts on their M-6s. In time, the bears left.
At least that mom was smart enough not to cross a Longknife.
Kris found it hard to sleep. Maybe she wasn’t getting enough exercise to need the rest. Maybe it was the dreams that woke her up in a sweat when she did sleep.
One morning, about 0200, she gave up on sleep and rolled out of her cottage in her chair. The moon was full and up, reflecting off the huge swimming pool. She parked herself where she had a good view of the diamonds reflecting off the water and listened to the night sounds of the woods around her.
And heard footsteps.
Holding her breath, she waited.
An Iteeche walked quietly up to the pool. No, not any Iteeche, it was Ron. She’d been so busy with her own problems she’d hardly thought of him.
He dropped his robes beside the pool and stood for a moment nude in the moonlight. He was so sleek he almost seemed to gleam. Not willing to deny herself a bit of girlish curiosity, she checked him out.
He showed plenty of muscle, but of the equipment men are so proud of, nothing.
His dive into the water was as graceful as he looked. He swam, hands and arms moving smoothly through the water, much faster than a human could. He did two fast laps before pulling himself up on the side to sit with his back to Kris.
After a moment, his breath slowed.
“You spawning?” Kris asked. The radio on the wheelchair must have been tied into one of Nelly’s kids. It translated Kris’s words into Iteeche.
He jumped to his feet, spun around, then froze as he spotted Kris. “You startled me.”
“I’m sorry. I’m just sitting here. Not much of a threat,” Kris said, indicating her wheelchair with a wave of her good hand.
“You Longknifes are always a threat. Even dead, I’d fear you.”
“You almost had your chance,” Kris said.
“I am glad you survived this assassination attempt. You seem to have them almost as often as I do.”
“Who told you?” Kris asked, while noting down that Ron’s life was as much at risk as hers.
“Cara. She was very worried about you. She’s figured out how to have her computer listen in on your main network so she can keep track of your condition.”