The hostel was an ordinary-looking house, not much more sizable than average. A single window showed light from the second floor. An entryroom was illuminated but empty. When the hinged door had shut, quietness drew in on Aleka. Dust, a few pieces of weary furniture, a musty smell—no robots, then; two or three humans in charge. A role for them to play. Tonight they were playing another and frenzied one. However, that shining window—Her blood thrilled. Baggage or no, she ran upstairs.
Doors lined a corridor. They lacked any kind of scanners or annunciators. Mentally orienting herself and recalling historical shows, she chose which to knock on. It opened, and the sight of Kenmuir’s simpatico face set her spirit free. “Aloha, aloha,” she gasped.
“You!” he exclaimed. “Cosmos, but you’re welcome. Come in, do.” He took her suitcases and secured the door behind her.
The room was about four meters square, with an attached bath cubicle and a woven carpet underfoot. It possessed neither phone nor multi. A bed, a dresser, and two chairs were as primitive in workmanship as in design. The sash window was another anachronism,full of the night that had fallen. Kenmuir shut it against the sounds, to which he must have been listening, and turned on the air cycle. Coolness blew sweet into an atmosphere that had begun to stifle her.
He took both her hands. “How are you?” he asked anxiously. “I’ve been so worried since this trouble broke. I was hoping you’d sheer off and post a new message for me.”
“I thought of it, but that would’ve cost more time and I don’t know how much we can afford,” she explained. “Maybe I should’ve. Too late now.”
He sensed the grimness. “What do you mean?”
She told him about her arrival. He scowled, paced to and fro, shook his lean head. “Let’s hope Bruno has nothing more in mind than a bit of farewell sociability, to show off his importance.”
“What else might it be?” she asked with a flutter in her throat.
“I … can’t say. Of course, he can’t detain us, or anything like that. We can point out the legal consequences of trying. I’m afraid that ruffian outside is too stupid to understand, and we could end with a broken bone or two. But Bruno—I’ve come to know him a little, this past couple of days. He’s been … cordial, in his clumsy way. Eager to impress me, the man from the wide world. Cultural inferiority complex, I think, fuelling a lot of the bluster and violence.” Kenmuir’s tone had gone scholarly. He curbed it and his unrest. A laugh rattled out. “But I say, what kind of host am I? Do sit down, or lie down if you’d rather. Would you care for a drink? I acquired a bottle of whisky.”
Aleka took a chair and smiled up at him. “Gracias. Plenty of water in it, por favor. Don’t worry about me. I’ve been through far worse. This was unpleasant but short, and I’ve already bounced back.”
Charging the tumblers, he regarded her and said slowly, “Yes, you are an adventurous lass, aren’t you? A great deal to tell me, I’ll wager. Well, we’ve hours to wait, and we can talk freely. This room is one place— one of the very few places on Earth—we can feel sure there’s no surveillance.”
“We do need to talk,” she agreed.
He gave her her drink, pulled the other chair close, and fofded himself onto it. Tenser than she, he took a stiff swallow before he began: “Who are you, Aleka? What are you doing in this affair, and why?”
“I’d like to know you better, too, Kenmuir.”
“But you’ve been briefed about me. Haven’t you? While to me you’re a complete mystery.”
She couldn’t help grinning. “Woman of mystery? That’ll be news to all my folk. How do I go about it? Should I put on a foreign accent, or find me a low-cut gown, or what? No, that’s Lilisaire’s department.”
His lips tightened for a moment. Did she see him wince? She remembered what had been in his eyes when they spoke with the Selenarch from that furnace enclosure in the desert. Sympathy welled forth. By every evidence, he was a decent man, a quiet man, pitched into a situation for which he was no more fitted than a Keiki was to climb a mountain, yet going bravely ahead, without even the hope that drove her.