“Getting daring these days, aren’t we, Vrel?” he quipped as Vrel mixed himself a gin and tonic—with a generous measure of tonic. “Taking fish back to eat at the mission, now, and halfway toward becoming an alcoholic.”
“I think I’m just beginning to realize how insipid our food is,” Vrel said, making a face.
“I hope you’re remembering to take those pills they give you. Wouldn’t want you going down with any of these terrible Terran germs.”
“I know you used to take them once,” Dee said. “But I don’t remember seeing them for ages.”
Vrel made an indifferent shrug. “Maybe, getting to know Earthpeople better has made me start to think that maybe Hyadeans can be a little . . .” He groped for the word, then muttered something to his veebee.
“Neurotic,” it supplied.
“Neurotic,” Vrel repeated.
Dee laughed delightedly and squeezed his arm in a way that said she liked him better like this. Vrel grinned.
“How is he going to fit in again when he goes home?” Cade asked her.
Dee pouted. “Roland! Don’t talk about him going home.” She looked at Vrel. “That’s not going to be for a long time yet, is it?”
Vrel’s face became more serious. “I don’t know. I suppose a lot depends on what happens here. Two Hyadeans from the mission were harassed and jeered at in a mall near Lakewood yesterday. The police escorted them back. They’ve put extra security around the mission again.”
“Oh. . . . That’s a shame,” Cade said. The outbreaks of protest and violence across the country were causing anti-Hyadean reactions in places. ISS agents landing in a helicopter assault had wiped out what was said to be the base of the group that had mounted the attack in Kentucky, and security units across the nation were cracking down with arrests of suspected CounterAction supporters. Cade had always tried to steer clear of such things. Yet now, he reflected, his action in harboring Rebecca was probably enough to get him on a wanted list already. He hoped Udovich wasn’t being affected. If pressures developed that prevented him from following through, Cade could find himself saddled with having a fugitive from the federal government in the house indefinitely.
He sighed and tasted his drink wearily. One mention of Marie, and life was getting complicated again. Even at this distance—whatever distance; he didn’t even know where she was—and after so long, it seemed her nature was still that of catastrophic upheaval, disrupting what had started to become his predictable, gravitationally stable universe.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
TWO DAYS PASSED BY. Independent sources on the net circulated critical accounts of “search and intern” sweeps being carried out by airborne security forces landed in remote parts of Appalachia, Colorado, and Utah. The media billed the actions as counterterrorist, directed at the groups who had begun a campaign of political assassination, which the authorities would not tolerate. A number of helicopters were alleged to have been brought down by missiles. An ISS spokesman called for Hyadean defensive equipment to be fitted to government-operated air vehicles as a precaution.
Then, Cade received a phone call one morning when he was with Julia and their accountant, who had stopped by to review some figures. A smoothly articulated masculine voice asked him what the color of coal was. “My kind is red,” Cade replied.
“Then I gather I’m speaking to the right person.”
Cade asked the accountant to excuse him but this was private and important, and took the phone through to his study. He closed the door and indicated it was okay to go ahead.
“I have a message from Mole Woman. It says you could always be depended on for surprises,” the caller informed him.
Despite everything, Cade couldn’t contain a smile. This was his proof of validity. “Mole Woman” was one of the names that he used to call Marie in their lighter moments—from the comic-book Catwoman, a joke at the way Marie had of burrowing into the bedclothes on cold mornings to leave just her nose showing.
“It must be my nature,” Cade affirmed. “Okay. What do we have?”
“I understand you have a job applicant seeking an overseas position,” the voice informed him.