“Naw. I simply remarked that considering how morons and collectivists breed, DNA like yours and Bill’s oughtn’t be flushed down the toilet.” His tone, deliberately coarse, gentled. “That was no basis for decision. You were what counted, Dagny, and Juliana was who eased the confusion out of you. Okay, now it’s my turn. We’ve settled the what and why, we need to settle the how.”
Her stride faltered. She recovered, gulped, looked into the distances before her, and asked quietly, “You don’t think I should keep the baby, do you?”
“No. You aren’t ready to be tied down. My guess is you never will be, unless it’s in the right place, a place where you can really use your gifts. It’ll hurt, giving up the young’un as soon as you’ve borne it, but that will heal. You see, naturally we’ll get the best foster parents we can; and I’ve got the money to mount a proper search for them. Not in this country, under this wretched regime, but abroad, Europe maybe. Don’t worry, I’ll find my way around any laws there are. You’ll know you did the right thing, and can put the whole matter behind you.”
Once more, briefly, she caught his hand. ‘-‘I won’t ever—not quite—but … thank you.”
“Meanwhile and afterward, what about you?” he went on in methodical fashion. “Let’s do what I should’ve seen to before and get you out of here, permanently.”
She stiffened. Her voice came thin. “No. I told you when you first suggested it. Dad needs me.”
“And is too proud to let me hire him the kind of labor you’ve provided for free. I know. That’s how come I never pushed the idea of putting you in a school where they teach facts and how to think for yourself instead of the Renewal party line. But the chips are down, honey. If you stay home and have the child, I doubt the community will be habitable for your family. And the story will forever be in your file, available at a keystroke to any busybody. If you drop out of sight, though, more or less immediately, the petty scandal won’t grow, it’ll die out in people’s minds. You’ll just be a black sheep that left the flock, soon forgotten. As for your father’s business, why, your brother’s pushing fourteen. Quite able to take over from you, and eager, if I judge aright.”
“I … I suppose so—”
They were mute for half a kilometer, alone between the sea and the driftwood.
Then she blurted, “Where? What?”
He chuckled. “Isn’t it obvious?”
She turned her head to stare at him. Hope went in tides, to and fro with her blood.
Guthrie shrugged. “Well, I wouldn’t come right out and say it till we had a notion of where you’d take your stand. But you know Fireball’s more and more arranging for the education of its people’s children, and we’re starting up an academy for professional training. Me, I know you’ve always been space-struck. For openers, how’d you like to come to Quito with us, and we’ll see what develops?”
She stopped. “Ecuador,” she gasped—to her, Camelot, Cibola, Xanadu, the fabled country that Fireball had made its seat because there the government was still friendly to enterprise, the gateway to the universe.
She cast herself into his arms and wept against his shoulder. He stroked the ruddy hair and shuddering back and made bear-like noises.
Finally they could sit down in the lee of a log, side by side. The wind whistled past, driving a wrack of clouds beneath the overcast, but the waters lulled, hush-hush-hush. The chill made them shiver a bit, now that they were at rest. She spoke in weary calm:
“Why are you so good to us, Uncans? Sure, you like Dad and Mother, same as you do Mother’s parents, but you’ve told us about friends all over the world. What’ve we done to deserve this much kindness?”
“I expected I’d have to tell you,” he said slowly. “It’s got to stay a secret. Promise me you’ll never tell anybody without my leave, not your folks, not Bill when you say goodbye to him—which ain’t going to be easy, even if the affair is over—not anybody, ever.”