Stuart Moore, my editor, who had the courage to make a leap of faith, has given me the courage to do what had to be done with this book. I am especially eager to hear from readers of this novel with comments, criticism, or questions because I am now working on a companion volume for this novel, titled Dream Spy.
And now I come to the foundation of all the efforts alluded to above. My husband, Salomon, does what husbands do and it works. Whod dare to ask for more?
Chapter one
They all wore Project Hail flight suits. Most had stacked their identical flight bags, each stenciled with the Project logo, at the place where the people-mover would soon pick them up. Two armed guards flanked the pile.
Dr. Titus Shiddehara, clutching his own flight bag, hovered at the edge of the crowd, with them but not of them. He scanned them, searching for the one who would be his adversary, reminding himself not to squint against the sun.
Remember to act human, Connie had admonished him, and whatever you do, this time keep your objectivity. Titus intended to do just that. Connie had made it very clear when shed chosen him for this mission that, this time, his life depended on his objectivity.
Far to his left reporters crowded up against a guarded fence. They formed a churning mass of humanity punctuated by the snouts of video and sound recorders. One reporter, wearing a fashionable red fedora and reflective sunglasses like Tituss, watched-a stillness amidst their motion.
All around, guards in World Sovereignties uniforms patrolled the fence and surrounded the press box. Tituss adversary would be inside the guards line.
Off to Tituss right were clusters of squat buildings. Out on the field, launch pads held commercial skytrucks. Project Hails skybus was on the main pad, fuming as workers swarmed over it. Theyd be boarding soon. If anything was to happen, it would happen now. Yet all was still.
Behind Titus was the civilian passenger terminal. Squinting despite himself, Titus saw two stragglers emerge and cross the tarmac to join the group. He wished his group had not been told to stand out here, in the brutal mountain sun. He couldnt see any security advantage to loitering so near the fence, and even the layers of sunscreen hed slathered over his skin didnt protect him from scorching.
He squatted down to search his bag for his gray silk scarf. It could shade the back of his neck.
Dr. Shiddehara! Something wrong? called one straggler. Her voice was rich and melodious, the accent French, and the tone that of an administrator who would now take over. Titus rose to meet Dr. Mirelle de Lisle. She was in her mid-thirties, short and compact, with a healthy complexion. Her hair was bound up in a hat with the Project logo on the band, a hat just like Titus wore except that hers bore the sigil of Cognitive Sciences. She had pushed it back rakishly so the brim framed her face. Titus wore his pulled low on his forehead for maximum shade.
Behind her came an older man with receding white hair and a well-controlled paunch. He carried his flight bag, and with his other hand slapped his hat against his thigh as he walked. Neither of them was the adversary Titus expected.
Titus called, Theres nothing wrong that I know of.
Mirelle came
declared, is that you have no faith in people. And if you have no faith in human people, how could you ever make friends with nonhuman people? Suddenly, as if shocked by her own words, she glanced into Tituss sunglasses, weighing, measuring.
Friends with an alien? scoffed Gold, but Mirelle kept staring at Titus.
Titus entertained the paranoid notion that she knew he was exactly such an alien as Project Hail sought to contact. With her skills, she might have seen something unhuman in him. Was that what all her flirting was about? Testing me?
He recalled another of Connies admonitions: The only live elderly agents are thoroughly paranoid agents. On the other hand, certain human women were attracted to his kind.
Why would anyone want to make friends with an alien? asked Gold. Trade, maybe, but friends?
Mirelle stared at Gold, and shrugged, Why not?
Titus focused on Mirelle as he prepared to break the promise he had made to himself when hed discovered his power-never to use it against a defenseless human. Hed known, when he took this mission, that hed have to set aside his scruples-but now that the moment was on him, he shuddered.
He hadnt realized his shudder was visible until Gold grinned. So you finally see it! If theyre aliens they cant be friends. The best we can hope for, even if our message is received, is some very expensive trading and a nonaggression pact. But friends are best made at home.
Au contraire. I have found some of my best friends-and more than friends-very far from home. Titus only just realized how reluctant he is to break a promise.
Shes reading my mind! Titus swallowed his panic. Stage magicians used muscle reading to simulate telepathy and muscle reading was a primitive version of Mirelles science. He focused his Influence on her, suggesting that he was just an unremarkable human, not worth such close scrutiny.