Christine nodded. Anything else I should know? she asked.
Now it was my turn to hesitate. I knew that I couldnt trust her, no matter how hard she was working to build a common cause between us, but there were things I couldnt figure out, and she had lived through an earlier period of history. I dropped my voice even lower to say: What kind of people were being frozen down in twenty ninety, do you think? In those days, you had to be a murderer, right? Or a volunteer?
I guess so, she said. Why?
Alice says that shes older than us, I whispered. That means she was in the freezer for more than seven hundred years maybe as long as eight before they fished her out three centuries ago. Its the only real clue Ive got as to who snatched us, and I cant make head nor tails of it. That and charity .
What?
Charity. I was in a storage unit. Most of the stuff stowed in there was newly imported, but some wasnt. The only word I could make out on the old stuff was charity .
I didnt really expect a response, but I saw her eyes light up with inspiration. There was nothing false or grudging about the smile that creased her face now. Shit, she said. Is that where we are?
I put my finger to my lips immediately, fearful of whatever listening devices the Wonderlanders had planted. Very softly, I said, meaning the way she had to whisper it in my ear. And dont tell the others just yet. First, we need to figure out whose side were on.
She had just enough time to tell me what Charity was before the knock on the door sounded. It seemed more apologetic than insistent, so I nodded to indicate that she should let the visitor in.
She opened the door cautiously, then stood back to admit Mortimer Gray. He was carrying a bowl, a spoon, and a water bottle, all of them molded in plastic but not the uninspiring gray stuff that made up the walls. The bowl and spoon seemed to my admittedly uneducated eye to be modern. The water bottle was unsealed.
Its only flavored gruel, Im afraid, he said. Guaranteed nutritionally adequate for your kind, however and we managed to master the microwave oven, so its warm without being desiccated.
What about me? Christine wanted to know.
Gray was too polite to answer, so he just gestured with his full hands to remind her that he only had two of them.
She went out, nursing her secret fondly. She closed the door behind her, with ostentatious carefulness.
Twenty-Five
History Lessons
Christine feels that she ought to look out for me, I explained to Mortimer Gray, as I sat up and took the bowl. Were both way out of our depth here, and she thinks we need to stick together. I think the broken nose brought out her maternal instincts. People used to have those, you know the plague of sterility didnt wipe them out overnight.
Gray nodded, as if he understood perfectly. He put the water bottle down on the mattress and hesitated, waiting
for an invitation to remain. I inferred that hed been delegated to get what answers he could from me, on the grounds that I seemed to be less hostile to him than to the other contenders.
You dont seem very worried, I observed. Lowenthal, Handsel, and Horne are all putting on a tough act, but underneath theyre as scared as poor Davida, if not as terrified as Christine, Adam, and I. Youre not or are you?
If youre looking for evidence of a conspiracy between our captors and me, he said, having obviously decided to speak plainly, youre looking in the wrong direction. Ive been in mortal danger before twice, in fact. Its surprising how quickly one learns from such experiences. Admittedly, I hadnt had my IT stripped out on either occasion, but I was rescued both times by the same person. Somehow, I cant seem to escape the conviction that all I have to do is wait for her to come and get me again. I know its absurd, but that doesnt prevent me from being grateful for the feeling of security.
Emily Marchant, I said, remembering the research Id done in what was fast becoming an alarmingly distant past. The way I heard it, you rescued her the first time.
Thats the way others tell it, he agreed. But I was there.
Emily Marchant is Niamh Hornes boss, I observed.
Not true, he said. Thats not the way things work in the Confederation, or on Titan. Emilys very keen on progress, and that makes her a political animal, but shes not part of any hierarchical power structure.
So it wasnt her who blew up the Earth?
His eyebrows shot up, but he didnt explode at me. No, he said. It certainly wasnt. You seem to be obsessed with the idea that the solar system is about to be plunged into a war, Mr. Tamlin. Did Alice really tell you that a war is imminent?
Since you last told me that war is unthinkable, I pointed out, weve been hijacked by people pretending to be aliens or maybe aliens pretending to be people pretending to be aliens. According to Alice, their reason for doing it is to try to avert a war that might already be inevitable. So I think I can be forgiven for sticking to what seems to you to be an unreasonable conviction.