Regenesis

“Oh, Catlin, do entertain Paul. I’m aching to talk to Jordan a moment. Jordan, do come into the dining room. Please.” She snagged his arm, moved him, solo, the two further steps through that doorway. “I’m so curious about you,” she said brightly. He was warm, and smelled like Justin. “There aren’t many people in my acquaintance who really remember from way back, way back when everything was starting up in Reseune.”

An eyebrow lifted as she let go his arm. He looked at her, just like Justin. “I’m not that old.”

“But you did actually meet my sort‑of grandmother.”

“I did.”

“Was she really the bitch everybody says she was?”

That got a little flare of the pupils, and an immediately suspicious shutdown, no laughter at all. “I never knew her personally. But she was reputed to be that. Andpassed the trait on.”

She took that with a silent laugh. And just then Callie showed up with the drinks, damn her timing, but she took hers and let Jordan take his own. “I know about your feud with the first Ari. Two very bright people trying to work together. Two people who each hadto run things.”

That didn’t sit totally well. “You could say so.”

“She valued you, though, as the most brilliant designer in Reseune, right along with her. She couldn’t get along with you, you weren’t in the same field, exactly, but she did respect you.”

“The hell.”

“I have her notes. She also warned me you were pigheaded.” Sip of wine. Jordan hadn’t touched his Collins. “Is it all right?”

“What?”

“The drink. Did Callie do it right?”

Jordan just looked at her.

“You surely,” she said, “can’t think I’d pull something as silly as that.”

“You did on my son.”

Wide eyes. “ Whatdid I do?”

“You know what your predecessor did.”

Lowered lashes, a nod to the correction. “I know what she did. I’m sorry for that.”

“Of course you are.”

“I don’t like what she did, understand. I don’t like what happened to you, either. Let me tell you the truth. Uncle Denys thought he was going to make me into his own model. But he didn’t. I came out something else, and not liking him much at all, especially for what he did to Justin. And the way you couldn’t work with the first Ari, I canwork with Justin. I don’t ever want it otherwise. I just wish you could be part of that arrangement.”

A sardonic smile. “Is that so?”

She drew in a breath. “You’re going to see it doesn’t work, aren’t you?”

“That’s your conclusion? You have us bugged, you have my office bugged, you have our apartment bugged, including the bedroom. And that’s the best guess you can manage? I’d have thought you understood us inside out.”

“Who’s Dr. Patil to you?”

Ah. He didn’t control that look, not well at all. She’d got him mad, and she got a reaction.

“Friend of a friend. Someone I’d like my son to know, outside the cloistered halls of Reseune. Is that a crime?”

Florian walked into the dining room. That was the arranged cue: Justin was arriving.

She smiled. “Denys would have thought it was a crime. Hewas your enemy. Heset you up. Heblamed you and made your son’s years here–and mine–more difficult than you know. I doubt Justin’s told you the half of it. You should ask him.”

The front door opened, a hall away.

“When,” Jordan asked, “am I going to get that chance?”

“Not over tonight’s di

“Being posthumous, you mean? Have it straight: she had it coming. I didn’t kill her, but I’d like to have.”

Oh, good shot. Just as Justin and Grant showed up at the dining room door. She smiled at Jordan and laid a hand on his arm.

“You areeverything I expected. Hello there, Justin, Grant. Delighted you could make it. Would you like a drink?”

“Vodka on ice,” Justin said with a worried glance at Jordan. “H’lo, Dad.”

“You’re late,” Jordan said.

“Am I?” It was a question whether Justin would come out with his version of the time he’d been told to arrive; but he was a survivor of the secretive Nye years, and he simply said, “I guess so.”

“Grant?”

“The same, thank you, sera,” Grant said. “Ser. Paul.” Paul had come into the room with Catlin. “Good evening.”

“Good evening,” Jordan said darkly.

“Why don’t we sit down?” Ari suggested with a wave at the table. There were flowers, and the lit candles. Staff had done their best on very short notice. She took the host’s seat at the end, and let her guests sort things out–Grant and Paul would settle farthest away. There was no endmost seat, just the service cart for the drinks, and that left Justin and Jordan one on a side–Florian and Catlin stayed standing, and Callie, who was being bartender, offered the requested cocktails, and prepared a bottle of wine and another of water, while staff hurried around in the hall beyond–a little unpracticed in formal service, but doing their best.

“How do you like your office?” Jordan asked Justin.

“More convenient to the apartment,” Justin answered, stepping neatly around that one.

“And how are you liking being back in your office?” Ari asked, as if she were completely oblivious to the undercurrent. “It won’t have changed much, will it?”

“A little barren,” Jordan said. “But I’m sure the walls are well‑populated.”

“Jordan,” Justin said under his breath.

“I really don’t blame your father for missing you,” Ari said. “But it’s regulations, Jordan. Justin’s on restricted projects. No one’s objecting to his being; there, or you, but it’s the stuff he works with. I don’t know if he felt clear to explain that, but that’s a fact. You couldapply for a security clearance.”

“There’s a waste of time,” Jordan muttered. He was at the bottom of his Collins, nursing the last out of the ice. “Let’s go back to honesty. There’s not going to be a clearance granted. There’s already an investigation going on. –You gave her that card, didn’t you?”

The last sailed across the table, at Justin, as Callie set the requested vodka down by his hand.

“It was a little obvious, Dad. I don’t know what else you expected.”

Ari smiled tightly. “Of course it was. And I’m sure it’s an inconvenience to Dr. Patil, whoever she is. I’m sure you know that.”

“And I’msure,” Jordan said, “you know damned well who she is.”

“I’m learning,” Ari said. “She must have really a

Jordan rotated his empty glass, frowning at Justin.

“And why do you assume,” Ari asked, “that you’re not going to get your clearance back? Don’t you want it back? Or is your whole aim to assure you don’t? There could certainly be several reasons for that.”

“And we aren’t even to the first course yet,” Justin said. “Can we save this for dessert?”

“It’s not my choice,” Jordan said.

“Many things are,” Ari said, and smiled, and signaled the servers. “But Justin’s right. Let’s enjoy di

“We may not need dessert,” Justin said, as the salad course went down. “Nice.”

“Let’s love each other for at least three courses,” Ari said, smiling at Jordan. “How is your work going, Jordan? I think you and I are about at the same stage–deepstudy until our eyes cross. I’m trying to get started and you’re trying to span the gap.”

“It’s not that big a gap,” Jordan said defensively, and had a bite of salad, while service poured the first wine.

“Of course there’s a lot I have to learn. Justin’s going to cross‑check me on my theta sets. Would youlike to, just to get back in the game?”