“There is no otherwise, really, if you aren’t suicidal. After you and I are through here, I’m getting in touch with Anson Guthrie. Yes, Fireball does not mix in politics, but also yes, he doesn’t approve of murder either, and Fireball stands to lose as much as anybody if civil war breaks out. Between us, we should be able to stiffen Haugen. With just a daycycle or two of delay, he’ll repeat Wahl’s ultimatum. If you still refuse, we’ll release the story of how Wahl died. Imagine the reaction on Earth. Only imagine.”Dizziness whirled, black rags blew across vision, she had been talking far too long and fast. She sagged in her chair and breathed.
After a minute, Brandir laughed low. “It is my highest pride that my lady mother is you,” he said. “Come, we will make terms.”
No, she would not’condemn him. He was what he was, forever her son, his children and their children forever hers too; let the future a thousand years hence sit in judgment on us all.
Of course they couldn’t settle matters on the spot. They simply discussed, in sketchy wise, what he would set forth before his confederates, and how she might help restrain the government. At the end, though, he said to her, the first glimpse of his inner self that she had had for longer than she could tell, “Abide in life, I pray you. Else shall we fare ill.”
Guthrie made a gruff remark to the same effect at the conference that followed between him and her. Eventually Haugen waxed fulsome on the subject. But this was well after the crisis had been resolved, for the time being. By then, Moondwellers in general, however much or little they knew about these events, took for granted that Dagny Beynac was their fountainhead of wisdom and leadership. Winnipeg Station was turbulent with color and laughter. The crowd numbered more than a hundred, Kenmuir judged: male and female, teens and twenties, drawn in from far across the plains and maybe farther. Snatches of overheard exuberance told him they were bound for a camp in the Rockies, a spell of mountaineering, whitewater kayak ing, fires and song and falling in love under the stars. Many tunics bore the emblem of a snowpeak and pine tree with the name Highland Club. He wondered how often they met like this. Probably it was mostly over the net, .their experiences mostly by vivifer or in quiviras. Besides demands of school and, perhaps for some, work, they’d have to wait their turn for reservations. Population hadn’t dwindled enough nor had wilder-’ ness preserves been restored enough that anybody could go anywhere into them, anytime and anyhow.
He had seen extrapolations which forecast that day for about a hundred years hence in North America. Elsewhere it might take longer, except in those regions where it already obtained.
Well, let him wish these youngsters a good holiday, and stave off envy. For them this was a happy world.
He stood aside with Aleka, as inconspicuously as possible, and watched them board. Around them the building soared in opalescence and airy arches. Close by, a tubeway lay like a wall, invisible save for supporting members and an electromagnetic coil. A coach hung in its vacuum, boxiness relieved by vivid hues and broad windows. The passengers funneled jostlingly and joyously to the gangtube and through. Aboard, they milled about, found seats and seatmates, stowed personal items, waved to friends and family who had come to see them off.
At the opposite end of the station, a smaller coach slid to a stop, connected to the gangtube at that point, and discharged a few people. A few others entered it. Not much eastbound traffic at the moment.
Sam Packer returned from a voucher outlet. “Here you be,” he said. Kenmuir and Aleka took the cards he had brought. “You’re on mini 7, predicted for, uh, about twenty minutes from now.”
Too long, Kenmuir groaned within himself. At any instant—No. He put down his fears. After all, he and Aleka had chosen a private car, where they could talk freely, although places on a larger one were available earlier. If the hunters hadn’t detected them here, it wouldn’t likely happen by then. Besides, traveling in plain view could be more dangerous.“Muchas gracias,” Aleka said. “What a poor little phrase that is.”