“Maybe I better take the first stretch at the wheel,” Hanno said: The van growled to life. He paid the parking fee and set forth westward.
15
IT WAS natural that Mr. and Mrs. Tu would arrange a picnic for their guests, the people they’d met in the cities, but the kids were disappointed that they weren’t invited too. These seemed like real interesting folks, in spite of not saying much about themselves. First was convalescent Miss Adler, whom the Tus met in Pocatello and drove here; she was mending so fast that her trouble couldn’t have been too bad. The rest had to stay at the hotel hi town but spent their days on the ranch: Mr. and Mrs. Tazurin, Mr. Langford, who admitted he was an Indian, and black Miss Edmonds, all different from each other and from everybody else.
Well, probably they wanted to be alone and talk about plans, like maybe for enlarging the house, making room for more fosterlings. They did act pretty solemn, nice enough but not like vacationers. Mostly they, including the Tus, strolled off by twos and threes, gone for hours.
On the brow of a hill that commanded a wide and beautiful view, Tu Shan had long since assembled a redwood table and benches. The party parked their cars nearby and got out. For a while they stood silent, looking. Halfway up the eastern sky, the sun made a few clouds as brilliant as the western snowpeaks. Between stretched a thousand greens, range, cropland, trees along the lazily shining river. A pair of hawks wheeled aloft, their wings edged with gold. A breeze mildened the air. It murmured and smelled of ripeness.
“Let’s talk before we unload the eats,” Hanno proposed. That was unnecessary, having been understood, but it got things started. Humans were apt to put off making difficult decisions, and immortals especially so. “I hope we can finish in time to relax and enjoy ourselves, but if need be we’ll wrangle till sundown. That’s the deadline, agreed?”
He sat down. Svoboda joined him on his right, Wanderer on the left. Opposite them were benched Tu Shan, Asagao, Aliyat, and she whose name among them remained Corinne Macandal. Yes, Hanno thought, in spite of having tried to get well acquainted and become a fellowship, we still un-noticingly divide up according to the partnerships we had.
None would have accepted a chairman, but one person had to take the initiative andWhe was the senior. “Let me summarize the agenda,” he said. “I can’t tell you anything new or unobvious. However, maybe I can save us further repetition.
“The basic question is, shall we surrender to the government and reveal to the world what we are, or shall we continue our masquerade, using new masks?
“On the surface, there’s no great hue and cry out for us. Rosa Donau was spirited from the hospital. Corinne Macandal dropped from sight. Likewise did Kenneth Tannahill and a couple of house guests, but that was elsewhere, and he often goes out of town, is away much more than he is at home. No sensation in the news, not even Rosa’s disappearance. She’s obscure, few people really care about the patients in that hospital, nobody has claimed she was kidnapped or otherwise met foul play, and in fact none of the persons I’ve named are charged with anything.
“I thought that must be too good to be true, and Corinne ., informs me it is. She’s queried her connections—twice, was it?—from her hiding places. Ned Moriarty is still very interested. The FBI thinks the matter is worth looking into. Could possibly involve drugs or espionage or antics less spectacular but just as unlawful. Have you any later information, Corinne?”
Macandal shook her head. “No,” she replied quietly, “nor will I. Already I’ve put more strain on the honor of those men than I should have. I won’t call them again.”
“I’ve pipelines of my own, from Seattle,” Hanno said, “but using them gets dicier for every day that passes. Tan-nahill is associated with Tomek Enterprises. The FBI will at least be inquiring into that. They may decide there’s nothing to it, that Tomek’s friends have no idea why Tannahill vamoosed. However, they certainly will not if they discover that those friends showed some awareness of the situation earlier. I’d rather not take that risk. We’ve a plenty as is.”