Cade grinned and slid an arm around her shoulder. “Of course I do. Life just gets better, doesn’t it?”
A few seconds of silence passed, as if Julia were pondering something. “Wasn’t it ever good before?” she asked finally.
“It depends when did you mean? Any time in particular?”
“Oh . . . when you were with Marie, for instance. Was it good like this then?”
“It had its ups and downs, I guess.” Cade was surprised. “What made you bring that up?”
“I’m not sure. . . . Maybe when those two ISS people came here, asking about her.”
Cade shook his head. “Like I told them, that was all over years ago. The last I heard, she was in China.”
“They seemed to think she’s come back,” Julia reminded him. She seemed to let the subject rest there, then added lightly, “Do you ever hear from her?”
“What? Hell, no. Why should I?” Cade turned his head. “Don’t tell me you’re getting jealous.”
“I was just curious,” Julia replied.
* * *
The next morning, Mike Blair called to inform Cade that he was going to Australia. Krossig, the Hyadean anthropologist at the LA mission, would be leaving almost at once to join the Hyadean scientific field station still being operated there. He and Blair had gotten to know each other in the course of Blair’s long periods of ensconcing himself at the mission, which had resulted in an invitation for Blair to go too as Krossig’s Terran scientific understudy and consultant.
“It sounds good, Mike,” Cade told him. He had taken the call in the gym behind the garage at the side of the house, where he had been working out with Luke. “So when is this likely to happen?”
“Once these guys make their minds up, they don’t fool around. It could be a matter of weeks.”
“What’s the political situation like there?” Cade asked. He was always curious about backgrounds that could affect business.
“With a pure scientific research station, it’s okay. The government’s trying to keep the contact but stay out of any main currents. The Hyadeans have had a presence there since the first landings. It’s probably good diplomacy to just go along with them.”
Cade nodded. “It sounds like we’re going to need another party to send you guys off, then.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say no to that.”
Luke came through on his way to the shower room, clad in a blue track suit with a towel tucked around the neck, his face still red and perspiring. “It’s Mike,” Cade told him, gesturing with the compad. “Krossig’s transferring to that place they’ve got in Australia, and Mike will be going too.”
“Great,” Luke acknowledged.
Cade thought for a moment. “What do you think Hyadeans might say to a day out fishing, Terran style, instead of another party?” he asked Blair on the screen.
“Vrel would like it for sure. Probably Krossig too. . . . I don’t think he’s ever tried anything like that. Sounds like a good idea.”
Cade looked back up at Luke. “Talk to Warren when we’re done, would you? Tell him to get the boat set up for a day out. We’ll make it a smaller thing this time, just family—something different for them to talk about when they go back to Chryse.”
* * *
Julia brought up the subject of Marie again that evening, while she and Cade were driving to a dinner party in San Clemente. It struck Cade as unusual. Julia was of a practical disposition and had always tended to leave what was over in the past, where it belonged. What kind of a person had Marie been? Intense, Cade said. A human perpetual-motion machine. One of those women who would never have a weight problem because she burned everything off with nervous energy, regardless of what or how much she ate. So how would he describe their relationship? Julia wanted to know. Cade took one hand off the wheel to make a side-to-side motion in the air. “Mercurial,” he told her.
“How did it end?”
“She could never really get comfortable with being comfortable. Know what I mean? When life took swings for the better, she seemed to get more guilty about it—as if it wasn’t right for her life to be coming together while so many other people’s were messed up. She always had this idealistic streak about helping to make the world a better place. . . . I guess when it became obvious that I wasn’t going to change, she decided to move on to find somewhere she could do something about it.” They drove in silence, while Julia either contemplated her next question or digested the information. Cade turned his head to glance at her. “What is this? You’ve never gone into any of this before, and you never do anything without a reason. So what’s the reason?”