“So there’s no way you might still be in touch with her?” Rossi tried again.
“I already said, no. And even if I could, I’m not sure I’d want to. Life is good and comfortable. Why should I want to get mixed up in whatever you’re talking about? I don’t know anything about Hyadean weapons.” He cocked an eye pointedly. “Anyhow, you still haven’t told me what you’re talking about.”
Rossi stared at him for a few moments longer, as if perhaps giving him a chance to change his mind if there was anything to reconsider. Then he said, “Your ex-wife’s views and her going to China were not a coincidence. We think she’s back in the U.S. now, with one of the cells that CounterAction is organized into. We think that cell might be the one that the Hyadean plasma weapon found its way to.”
Cade sat back slowly, massaging his brow. Now it all made sense. They were following up any lead, and the ex-husband would be an obvious name to put on the list. But still, what they were saying didn’t feel right. Yes, he and Marie had had their differences, which at times had erupted into rows of her venting exasperation with what she saw as lack of principle on the one hand, and his protesting the wasting of life on what struck him as futile posturing on the other. And yes, he could see her agitating for what she believed in, or even wielding a gun if need be when passions ran high. But premeditated assassination in cold blood? . . . That didn’t sound like her style. Rossi had evidently been prepared and was letting him think it over.
“You said on Sunday that you didn’t think the two Hyadeans were planned as part of it,” Cade said at last.
“They were hitching a ride at the last moment. The targets were Farden and Meakes.”
“So what was so terrible about those two? Why should CounterAction have singled them out?” Cade wanted to know if they were guilty of anything which by any stretch of the imagination he could see Marie reacting to so drastically. Rossi looked at his colleague and nodded for her to take it. Wylie handed Cade a pamphlet from the document case. It showed a picture of Joel Farden over the caption WHO’S SELLING BOLIVIA? and below, a page of angry denunciation. Large banner type above showed the piece to be a product of SOVEREIGNTY.
“Farden was pushing Congressional bills to open up big sales of Hyadean services and products,” she answered. “Their minerals extraction program in Bolivia owes a lot to his pushing.” Cade knew a bit about that from his various contacts. The Hyadeans were constructing huge facilities to mine and process minerals from the Bolivian central Altiplano region, which was rich in deposits but underdeveloped due to capital shortage. Their advanced technologies could cut out traditional Terran industries with prices that couldn’t be beat.
“A pretty good way to open up resources that it seems no one figured out how to touch before now,” Cade commented. “And sure, the people who did figure it will come out okay. Why would they bother if there was nothing in it for them? You have to have movers.”
Wylie waved the pamphlet she was holding and nodded. “But you can see how it can be turned into a propaganda piece for stirring up lots of people looking for something to blame their problems on. Some of them get mad enough . . .” She left it unfinished.
Cade nodded. Yes, he could see how somebody like Farden could be made into a hate figure. “How about Meakes?” he asked.
“Even simpler,” Wylie replied. “He wanted to revamp our defense capability by incorporating Hyadean weapons and methods. We’d be talking near-invincibility here. You can imagine how the AANS would feel about that. So it was turned around into a story that he was going to put our defense under Hyadean control.”
Cade could see how that would work too. But he still couldn’t see Marie getting involved in murder over it—simply because she had strong principles. Or could she have changed that much in three years? Who knew what she had been exposed to in China? Why get mixed up in it? He showed his hands in a way that said he understood but really couldn’t help.