Страница 144 из 189
Young Victory was quiet, but her arms drew into an angry frown. For a moment, he thought she was angry with him. But then he heard her faint mutter, "The old fool." She sighed, and they rode in silence for a few seconds.
Surface traffic was sparse, mainly cobbers traveling between disco
Viki touched his shoulder. "I'm sorry...about Daddy."
She would know much better than he how far Sherkaner had fallen. "How long has he been into this? I remember him speculating on space monsters, but it was never serious."
She shrugged, obviously unhappy with the question. "...He started playing with videomancy after the kidnappings."
That far back?Then he remembered Sherkaner's desperation when the poor cobber realized that all his science and logic couldn't save his children. And so the seeds of this insanity had been planted. "Okay, Viki. Your mother is right. The important thing is that this nonsense not get in the way. Your father has the love and admiration of so many people"—including me, still."No one will believe this crap, but I'm afraid that more than a few would try to help him, maybe divert resources, do experiments he suggests. We can't afford that, not now."
"Of course." But Viki hesitated an instant, her hand tips straightening. If U
"The General is humoring him, isn't she? Even now?"
"...Look, nothing big. Some bandwidth, some processor time." Processor time on what? Underhill's desktop machines, or Intelligence Service superarrays? Maybe it didn't matter; he realized now how much of Sherk's low profile was simply the General keeping her husband from interfering with critical projects.But pray for the poor lady. For Victory Smith, losing Underhill must be like having your right legs shot off at the hips.
"Okay." Whatever resources Sherk might be pissing away, there was nothing Hrunkner U
"So, Lieutenant, how is your life in the military?"
Viki smiled, surely relieved to talk about something else. "It is a great challenge, Sergeant." Formality slipped. "Actually, I'm having the time of my life. Basic training was—hmm, well you know as well as I. In fact, it is sergeants like you who make it the ‘charming' experience it is. But I had an edge: When I went through BT, almost all the recruits were in-phase, years older than I am. Heh heh. It wasn't hard to do well by comparison. Now—well, you can see this isn't your average first posting." She waved at the car, and the security around them. "Brent is a senior sergeant now; we're working together. Rhapsa and Little Hrunk will go through officer school eventually, but for now they're both junior enlisted. You may see them at the airport."
"You're all working together?" U
"Yes. We're a team. When the General wants a quick inspection, and needs absolute trust—we're the four she sends." All the surviving children except Jirlib. For a moment, the revelation just added to U
Princeton's airport was in chaos. There were more flights, more corporate charters, more crazy construction work than ever before. Chaotic or not, General Smith was ahead of the problem; a jet had already been diverted for his use. Viki's cars were cleared to drive right out onto the military side of the field. They moved cautiously down designated lanes, under the wings of taxiing aircraft. The secondary paths were torn by construction, a craterlike pit every hundred feet. By the end of the year, all service operations were to be conducted without external exposure. Ultimately, these facilities would have to support new types of fliers, and operations in air-freezing cold.
Viki dropped him off by his jet. She hadn't said where she was bound this evening. U
She followed him out into the freeze. There was no wind, so he risked going without the air heater. Every breath burned. It was so cold he could see clouds of frost hanging around the exposed joints of his hands.
Maybe Viki was too young and strong to notice. She trooped across the thirty yards to his jet, talking every second. If it weren't for all the dark omens rising out of this visit, seeing Viki would have been an absolute joy. Even out-of-phase, she had turned out so beautifully, a wonderful incarnation of her mother—with Smith's hard edge softened by what Sherkaner had been at his best. Hell, maybe part of it wasbecause she was out-of-phase! The thought almost made him stop in the middle of the runway. But yes, Viki had spent her whole life out of step, seeing things from a new angle. In a weird way, watching her diminished all his misgivings about the future.
Viki stepped aside as they reached the weather shelter at the base of his jet. She drew herself up and gave him a well-starched salute. U
"What an interesting name, Lieutenant. Not a profession, not some bygone deepness. Where—?"
"Well, neither of my parents is a ‘smith.' And no one knows which ‘underhill' Daddy's family might be ascended from. But, see behind you—" She pointed.
Behind him the tarmac spread away from them, hundreds of yards of flatness and construction work, all the way back to the terminal. But Viki was pointing higher, up from the river-bottom flatlands. The lights of Princeton curved around the horizon, from glittering towers to the suburban hills.
"Look about five degrees to your right-rear of the radio tower. Even from here you can see it." She was pointing at Underhill's house. It was the brightest thing in that direction, a tower of light in all the colors that modern fluorescents could make.
"Daddy designed well. We've hardly had to make any changes in the house at all. Even after the air has frozen, his light will still be up there on the hill. You know what Daddy says: We can go down and inward—or we can stand on high places and reach out. I'm glad that's where I grew up, and I want that place to be my name."