A head and shoulders in the screen, beautiful as a snowpeak, vivid as a flame. The auburn tresses were tousled but the green eyes altogether wakeful. “Hail,” purred the Wardress. “What will you two of me?”
Kenmuir’s clasp dropped free of Aleka’s. His tongue locked. It was she who stood erect and gave a succinct account.
Lag. Lilisaire was smiling the least bit. Kenmuir stared and stared. Through the back of his head swirled bits of news he had gathered—Aleka was from Hawaii, she’d met an agent in San Francisco and that agent was a sophotect—what kept it from abandoning the Lunarian cause and merging with the cybercosm, if it had full intelligence?—but before him was the sight of Lilisaire.
She stirred. Her smile gave way to bleakness. “I belabored my wits most mightily about Pragmatic Venator,” she said, half to herself. Who? For an instant, a grin flashed. “I did somewhat about him, too. A minor wile, but maychance we shall find a use for the outcome.” She went serious again. “You deem truly, swift action is vital, else are you lost. Aleka, the Carfax machine laid out for you my skeleton of a plan. Do you still think it bears any possibility?”
“Yes, if, if we can get access to the file,” the Earthwoman answered. “I wonder now if that isn’t double-guarded.”
Lag. Lilisaire looked thoughtfully before her. Kenmuir lost himself in her eyes.
“I believe I have a means to that end,” the Lunarian told Aleka. “Hear me. Captain Kenmuir shall go to a place where the pursuit will not likely seek him soon. Pick one that is not far from your ultimate destination, which you and Carfax have discussed. Let him abide there while you double back to—Kamehameha is the spaceport nearest you. I have prepared a thing which an agent of mine shall bring on the morn watch shuttle. He will be a Terran, I do not at this instant know precisely who but he will carry the name Friedrich and take a room at the Hotel Clarke. Meet him there, receive what he gives you, and rendezvous with Captain Kenmuir. Thence proceed according to plan and your own cunning. May fortune fare with you.” Her tone glowed. “If you win to the truth, you shall have what was pledged you, in full and overflowing measure.”
She settled back to wait, like a lynx for its prey.
Aleka swallowed. “I, yes, I’ll try,” she got out. “They don’t suspect I’m involved, oh, surely not. Nobody will take any notice of me. Yes, I’ll try, my lady.”
The fear that she was mastering reached out into Kenmuir. He was being hunted. “What of me?” he cried. “What’s my reward?”
Lag. Heat, thirst, longing, Aleka breathing at his side.
Lilisaire smiled anew. “I have told you, my captain,” she answered like a song. “The cause of libertyand of humankind going to the stars. But you have right, that is abstract, and this is no longer a simple canvass you make but a fight that you wage. Eyach, then, would you be the chieftain over my emprises in space, and dwell with me as a seigneur among the Selenarchs? That will I gladly give you, my captain, if you come to me victorious.”
Seconds drained away while he stood stunned.
Aleka nudged him.
Decision could not wait. He could say, “No,” make his way to the authorities, and damn himself till he died. Or he could take the crazy hazard, jump into the unknown, very likely gain ignominy or death, at best go into a future of endless grief, jealousy, intrigue, homesickness—but he had no real home any more, did he?
“Yes,” he called.
Through the time lag he looked at her face and understood, piece by hurtful piece, that whether or not he actually loved her, he desired her as a man lost in wilderness desires water and fire.
“Again will I kiss you,” she said. Never in his knowledge had a Lunarian spoken thus to a Terran.
The screen blanked.
After a long while: “Bueno,” blew from Aleka, “we’re committed for sure, aren’t we?”
“Why are you?” he asked dully.
“That’s a long story, and we have to move. First, to get out of this oven.” She plucked his sleeve. “Listen. It shouldn’t take me more’n a couple of days to run her errand. What I’ll do is take the car we came in to Santa Monica. At the airport I’ll direct my volant to fly here and put itself at your service. That’ll be tomorrow earlyish. Oh, yes, first I’lFve bought a change of clothes and suchlike for you and left them in the volant. And I’ll send the groundcar back to Iscah, and catch a flight to Hawaii. Meanwhile you should be safe here, if you stay mostly under cover and put one of those cowls on you whenever you go out. ‘the Drylanders have a code of hospitality, and their padre favors us. But once you’ve got transport, you’d better scramble.”