When she was finished, Nicole thanked her daughter profusely for having brought the photographs. “You can have them, Mother,” Katie said, standing up and walking over to the window. She opened her purse and pulled out cigarettes and a lighter.
“Darling,” Nicole said hesitantly, “would you please not smoke in here? The ventilation is terrible. I would smell it for weeks.”
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Katie stared at her mother for a few seconds and then placed her cigarettes and lighter back in her purse. At that moment a pair of Garcias arrived outside the cell with a table and two chairs.
“What’s this?” Nicole asked,
Katie smiled. “We’re going to have lunch together,” she said. “I’ve had something special prepared for the occasion—chicken in a mushroom and wine sauce.”
The food, which smelled divine, was soon carried into the cell by a third Garcia and placed on the covered table beside the fine china and silver. There was even a bottle of wine and two crystal glasses.
It was difficult for Nicole to remember her manners. The chicken was so delicious, the mushrooms so tender, that she ate her meal without talking. Every so often, when she took a swallow of the wine, Nicole would murmur “Umm” or “This is fantastic,” but she basically said nothing until her plate was completely clean.
Katie, who had become a very light eater, nibbled at her food and watched her mother. When Nicole was finished, Katie called in a Garcia to take away the dishes and bring some coffee. Nicole had not had a good cup of coffee for almost two years.
“So, Katie,” Nicole said with a warm smile after thanking her for the meal, “how about you? What are you doing with yourself?”
Katie laughed coarsely. “Same old shit,” she said. “I’m now director of entertainment for the whole Vegas resort. … I book all the acts into the clubs. . . . Business is great even though—” Katie caught herself, remembering that her mother knew nothing of the war in the second habitat.
“Have you found a man who can appreciate all your attributes?” Nicole asked tactfully.
“Not one who will stay around.” Katie was self-conscious about her answer and suddenly became agitated. “Look, Mother,” she said, leaning across the table. “I didn’t come here to discuss my love life. … I have a proposition for you—or rather, the family has a proposition for you that we all support.”
Nicole looked at her daughter with a puzzled frown.
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She noticed for the first time that Katie had aged considerably in the two years since she had last seen her. “I don’t understand,” Nicole said. “What kind of a proposition?”
“Well, as you may know, the government has been preparing its case against you for some time. They are now ready to go to trial. The charge of course is sedition, which carries a mandatory death penalty. The prosecutor has told us that the evidence against you is overwhelming, and that you are certain to be convicted. However, because of your past services to the colony, if you will plead guilty to the lesser charge of involuntary sedition, he will drop—”
“But I am not guilty of anything,” Nicole said firmly.
“I know that, Mother,” Katie replied with a trace of impatience. “But we—ElUe, Patrick, and I—all agree that there is a high likelihood that you will be convicted. The prosecutor has promised us that if you will simply plead guilty to the reduced charge, you will be moved immediately to nicer surroundings and allowed to visit with your family, including your new granddaughter. … He even hinted that he might intercede with the authorities to allow Benjy to live with Robert and Ellie. …”
Nicole was in turmoil. “And all of you think that I should accept this plea bargain and acknowledge my guilt, even though I have steadfastly proclaimed my innocence since the moment I was arrested?”
Katie nodded. “We don’t want you to die,” she said. “Especially for no reason.”
“For no reason.” Nicole’s eyes suddenly flashed. “You think I would be dying for no reason!” She pushed away from the table, stood up, and paced around the, cell. “I would be dying for justice,” Nicole said, more to herself than to Katie, “in my mind at least, even if there is not a single soul anywhere else in the universe who can understand it.”
“But Mother,” Katie now interjected, “what purpose would it serve? Your children and granddaughter would be deprived forever of your company, Benjy would remain in that foul institution—”
“So now here’s the deal,” Nicole interrupted, her voice rising, “a more insidious version of Faust’s pact with the
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devil. . . . Abandon your principles, Nicole, and acknowledge your guilt, even though you have not transgressed at all. And do not sell your soul for mere personal Earthly reward. No, that would be too easy to reject. . . . You are asked to take the deal because your family will benefit. Can there be any possible appeal to a mother that is more likely to sway her?”
Nicole’s eyes were on fire. Katie reached into her purse, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it with a trembling hand.
“And who is it that comes to me with such a proposition?” Nicole continued. She was now shouting. “Who brings me delicious food and wine and pictures of my family to soften me up for the self-inflicted knife that will surely kill me with much more pain than any electric chair? Why, it is my own daughter, the beloved issue of my womb.”
Nicole suddenly moved forward and grabbed Katie. “Do not play Judas for them, Katie,” Nicole said, shaking her frightened daughter. “You are so much better than mat. In time, if they convict and execute me on these specious charges, you will appreciate what I am doing.”
Katie freed herself from her mother’s grasp and staggered backward. She took a drag from her cigarette. “This is bullshit, Mother,” she said a moment later. “Total bullshit. You’re just being your usual self-righteous . . . Look, I came here to help you, to offer you a chance to go on living. Why can’t you listen to someone else just one time in your goddamn life?”
Nicole stared at Katie for several seconds. Her voice was softer when she spoke again. “I have been listening to you, Katie, and I do not like what I have heard. I have also been watching you. … I don’t think for a moment that you came here today to help me. That would be completely inconsistent with what I have seen of your character these last few years. There must be something in all this for you.
“Nor do I believe that you in any way represent Ellie and Patrick. If that were the case, they would have come with you. I must confess that for a while earlier I was confused and feeling that perhaps I was causing too much pain for all my children. But in these last few minutes I
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have seen what is going on here very clearly. . . . Katie, my dear Katie—”
“Don’t you touch me again,” Katie snouted as Nicole approached her, Katie’s eyes were full of tears. “And spare me your self-righteous pity.”
The ceH was momentarily quiet. Katie finished her cigarette and tried to compose herself. “Look,” she said at length, “I don’t give a shit what you feel about me— that’s not important—but why, Mother, why can’t you think about Patrick and Ellie and even little Nicole? Is being a saint so important to you that they should suffer because of it?”
“In time,” Nicole replied, “they will understand.”
“In time,” Katie said angrily, “you’ll be dead. In a very short time. … Do you realize that the moment I walk out of here and tell Nakamura that there’s no deal, the date for your trial will be set? And that you have no chance at all, absolutely no fucking chance?”
“You cannot scare me, Katie.”
“I cannot scare you, I cannot touch you, I cannot even appeal to your judgment. Like all good saints, you listen to your own voices.”
Katie took a deep breath. “Then I guess this is it. … Good-bye, Mother.” Despite herself, fresh tears appeared in Katie’s eyes.
Nicole wept openly. “Good-bye, Katie,” she said. “I love you.”
10
T!
•he defense may now make its closing statement.”
Nicole rose from her chair and walked around the table. She was surprised that she was so tired. The two years in prison had definitely diminished her legendary stamina.
She slowly approached the jury of four men and two women. The woman in the front row, Karen Stolz, had been originally from Switzerland. Nicole had known the woman fairly well when Mrs. Stolz and her husband had owned and operated the bakery around the corner from the Wakefield home in Beauvois.
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