She left. After an instant, Erann followed. The Earthman’s gaze trailed them out of sight.
Dagny led a mute way to Wahl’s personal office. It would be secured against eavesdroppers. When they were inside and closed off, she looked around. The silence was very full of him, his pictures, souvenirs, bow and trophies, the silver icon of Christ crucified. His words were still on the computer screen: “— cannot and will not suffer this. It is more than mutiny, worse than rebellion, it is treason to humankind. That we should be led into violence against each other, when outside our fragile shelters lies inhuman space—”
“Sit down, por favor,” Dagny said.
“I have been too much seated,” Erann answered.
“My neck hurts when I crane it. Sit. Down.”
He obeyed, folding himself into Wahl’s chair and swiveling it around from the desk to glower at her. She stood before him, arms folded. O God, he was ‘Mond’s blood and hers, and he looked so like Brandir at that same age! Somehow she made her voice crisp: “All right. What was the business between you and him?”
Beneath the alabaster skin, a vein in the neck pulsed blue. “I plighted secrecy. But I say to you, it was of no consequence to anyone else.”
“If you tell me, probably it need go no further. I’m good too at keeping my mouth shut. But if you don’t cooperate now, the whole damn Solar System will likely find out. There are ways of gathering clues and making deductions from them. Meanwhile you’ll be in a chemical vat of a mess—what price your dignity then?—and your lord and his cause in a bigger one. Do talk, son.”
The lips pressed tight.
Dagny sighed. “After all, I can pretty well guess. You can’t very well have been a special emissary, so this must have concerned Wahl personally, and deeply enough that he’d take time for you in the middle of a life-or-death global crunch.
“Little Pilar. She was sweet on you. It stuck out of her a light-year, the time I saw you two in the same room. I doubt you felt it about her. Not only race; a couple years’ age difference is mighty wide when you’re that young. But it would’ve amused you, and given a sensation of getting some of your own back, to string her along. Nor do I suppose anything untoward ever happened, though that may well be because her father got her out of harm’s way.”
You rarely saw a Lunarian go red. “That … is a … conclusion fetched most far, … my lady.”“Oh, I’ve more basis than an offhand impression. I knew the parents fairly well, remember. When they told me they were sending her to school on Earth, naturally I asked why. Jaime was pretty evasive, which wasn’t his habit. Later Rita confided a bit in me. The rest was obvious. I didn’t think much about it, just felt ‘sorry for them and for the child, and trusted she’d forget and be happy. But now—
“Of course she’d write to you, over and over, and beam to you and talk whenever a chance came alorig. It was easy for you to keep her on the hook, without committing yourself in any way. Easy, amusing as I remarked, and cruel.” Dagny shook her head. “I wish I could think better of you.”
Erann gripped the chair arms. “Dare you believe that of me?”
“Do you deny it? Let me remind you, if the police find reason to make the effort, they can trace such things back. Databases record where interplanetary calls went from, where to, and when. But me, I’d start with the girl. Her father is dead, Erann. She’s a good kid. Not that she’d suspect you, not right away, but she’d be quite open to skillful questioning.”
He sank back. “I would not have gone on,” he muttered, “save that I was told the friendship might someday prove valuable.”
“Exploitable, you mean,” Dagny said heavily. “Your grandfather’s idea? Not that I reckon he had anything definite in mind. It was simply a potential to keep in reserve. Until all at once—“ She pointed at his heart. Her voice whipped. The lash went through and through her. “Whose idea was it to try murdering : Jaime Wahl? His, yours, the both of you?”