“I’d like it dark, please,” Lanier said. The rooms darkened.
He sat upright on the illusory couch and mentally repeated what Patricia had said after the meeting. Alarms set off. Did she mean that the Axis City had known they were in the Stone since their arrival? How long had self-contained, self-powered Olmy been watching them?
As he mulled, he felt the ineffable tension in the lower part of his abdomen and realized that mentally he was as uninterested in sex as he could be, but his body was disregarding his brain.
The door voice announced, “Karen Farley is in the hallway and requests entrance.”
“Why?” he asked abruptly, angry at the convenience, the coincidence. “Wait—is she alone?”
“Yes.”
“Send ... let her in.” He stood and smoothed down the jumpsuit he had worn on the V/STOL, now cleaned and pressed. He had ignored the robe laid out for him on the elliptical bed in the single bedroom.
Karen had not. As the door irised open, the lights came up and she entered in a very similar robe, this one a golden beige rather than midnight blue. ”Pardon my comeuppance,” she said, smiling and lifting her hands as if to fend off a rebuff.
“What?”
“Is that the right phrase?”
“I don’t think so,’ Lanier said. ”What can I do for you?”
“I’ve been talking with Patricia,” she said, “or rather, she came to me, and I thought you’d like to know a few things.”
He indicated a chair opposite the couch. ”She and I had a conversation before the meeting, but it was more confusing than informative.”
“Heineman and Carrolson are together tonight,” Farley said, sitting. “Patricia didn’t tell me that—Lenore did. And before we left the Stone, I noticed Wu and Chang were sneaking away together.”
She smiled at him, a brisk, armored smile with a touch of puzzlement and irritation.
Lanier lifted his shoulders and clapped his hands together softly, then rubbed them. ”That’s normal,” he said.
“Yes. But I caught you when your guard was down, didn’t I? I mean—”
“I appreciate what you did.”
“I don’t know what to say.” She looked around the apartment curiously. “I’ve never really had a leech for you—”
“Letch,” he said, grinning.
“Oh, yes, my God. Letch. I haven’t. But you looked so lost. And I was feeling lost, too. Honest, you’re still the boss.”
“That’s not important,” he said. ”What did Patricia—“
“It is important,” Farley said flatly. ”I enjoyed you. I believe you enjoyed me. It was healthy too. I just wanted you to know I thought so and don’t resent you.”
Lanier said nothing for a moment, regarding her with his dark, falsely Amerindian eyes. ”I wish I spoke Chinese so we could really understand each other. I could learn ...”
That would be useful, but not necessary right away.
She smiled. ”I could teach you.”
“What did Patricia say?”
“She thinks we’re being used by somebody—Olmy or somebody else—to some end. Olmy has been talking to her a lot, and she’s even had some conversations with the Frant. She thinks there’s a lot of politics in the Axis City, and we can’t possibly know what any of it means. Not yet. Also, she says the data service in her apartment actually accesses less information than the ones in the third chamber city. She thinks they may be censored for us.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Lanier mused. ”Or rather, it might not be good—it might not mean anything. They might want to treat us gently, let us get accustomed slowly.”
“I told her I thought that, and she just smiled. She’s behaving strangely, Garry. She also said she has a way to get us all home. There was a real tinkle in her eye when she said that.”
Lanier did not correct her. ”She told me that, too. Did she elaborate?”
“Pardon? Oh, yes. She did. She said the corridor moves forward in time about one year every thousand kilometers. And she said it’s the most beautiful curve she’s ever conceived. Gar, they kidnapped her—she believes they kidnapped her because they were afraid we might interfere in the sixth chamber. Remember all the people all those Naderites in the second chamber being forced to move out, years after the third chamber exodus?”
He nodded.
“Patricia says she thinks they were forced out against their will, because the people on the Axis City wanted the Stone empty. No interference, no sabotage. That’s why she think we’re stuck in the middle of politics. There is still division between Naderites and Geshels.”
“Has it occurred to anybody that no matter what we’re told, these rooms are bugged?” Lanier asked. ”That means we shouldn’t be discussing these things here?”
“Where can we discuss them?” she asked innocently. “They could follow us anywhere they wanted and listen to us, maybe even read our minds. We’re children here, very ill-educated children.”
Lanier looked down at the milky translucent table between the couch and the chair. ”That makes sense. I really like the way this apartment is decorated.”
“Mine’s nice, too.”
“And how would they—the rooms, I presume know what we like?”
Her expression became conspiratorial. ”Right,” she said.
“I’ve asked the room voice and it just says, ‘The rooms are made to suit.’”
Lanier leaned forward on the couch. ”This whole place is incredible. Unbelievable. Are we dreaming, Karen?”
She shook her head solemly.
“All right, then. Is Patricia dreaming she’s found a way out, a way to go back to Earth?”
“Oh, she doesn’t want to go back to Earth the way it is now. She says she can take us ‘home,’ whatever she means. And she’s serious. She’ll explain later, she said.”
“You’re a physicist. Is what she says possible?”
“I’m just another child here, Garry. I don’t know.”
“What else did she say?”
“That’s it. And ...” She stood. “I’ll go.now. But I didn’t just ... Oh.” She clasped her arms around herself and looked at him.
“Not just to tell you what she said. To make sure you understood I wasn’t taking advantage.”
“I understand.”
“It’s just, like you say, healthy, though I’ve been worried—“
He hadn’t called it healthy; she had, but he found the transference acceptable.
“Don’t.”
“Okay,” Farley said..
He stood. ”In fact ...” His face flushed again. ”I feel just like a teenager when—when you’re here and we talk like this.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, her face falling.
“No, that’s good. Until now, I’ve felt like a very old man, losing all my marbles. I would enjoy it if you stayed with me.”
She smiled, then abruptly frowned. ”I will enjoy that, and I will stay,” she said. “But it worries me about Patricia.”
“Yes?”
“She is now the only one of us sleeping alone.”