Basante bowed his head, relenting, and Dionte faced Lopera. “Your people certainly did not suggest to Teal Trust that you would help her without some form of payment?”
Lopera pushed herself away from the wall and unfolded her arms, assuming a much more businesslike posture. “Of course not. She’s offering payment in eggs.”
Basante’s head jerked up. “How many?”
“One hundred. Enough?” Lopera arched her eyebrows.
Basante rubbed the information display on the back of his hand, performing his own type of internal calculation. “For a beginning anyway. Cloning will help extend the resources. Yes, yes.” Then he shrugged, as if he did not want to appear too easily convinced. Dionte looked at Lopera, not so much reading the set of her face as remembering how many times she had held back information before. Probably she had taken more from Teal than she had told them. Probably she was holding back a cache to see what advantage could be bought with it.
That was all right too. The extra resources might open up extra possibilities. She would have to think about that.
“It will certainly be better than nothing,” went on Basante. “But it’s really the womb we need. The immune system. We can create embryos until the heat death comes, but if they can’t grow to term without radical interference—”
“But there is one more Trust.” Dionte touched him again and smiled, the future taking shape inside her. “Chena.”
Understanding dawned on Basante like the light of a new day. His excited smile warmed Dionte at her core. She had him again. She had the future. It was working. The bonds were truly, finally, working.
“So you’ll have Chena Trust picked up?” asked Basante.
Dionte laced her fingers together briefly and let the cloud of futures and warnings whirl through her.
“No,” she said, fresh understanding coming to her as well. “Your evidence that she broke out into the wilderness is good, but it won’t convince the villagers. They are nervous right now. We’ve been taking in more donors than usual to try to replace Helice Trust. We do not need our plans disrupted by any unrest. If we induce Chena Trust to come to us, then her disappearance will become her own fault and arouse no fresh alarm.”
“How are you going to—”
“There’s nothing Chena Trust loves more than a chance to best the evil hothousers.” Dionte’s mouth puckered at this new wrinkle to the future. “I’ll give her one.” More ideas came then, flickering through her mind so rapidly she could not understand them all. Yet, they were all-important, she felt that. “Wait, wait.” Dionte stared deep into the future before her. “If we feed her the right information, Chena Trust will even help us toward our goal. Yes, I see that. I see how it may be done.” She forced her fingers apart so she could concentrate on the outside before the inner world, with its successes and complexity, overwhelmed her.
Basante shook his head. “I do not like this. She’s a villager. Worse, she’s an Athenian. We do not have enough information about her to make these predictions.”
“We do not.” Dionte laid a hand on his arm. “But I do.”
Basante looked down at her hand on his sleeve and said nothing.
“Well, now,” interrupted Lopera with false cheerfulness. “If you’re all happy, I assume you’ll be wanting to see Eden?”
“Of course,” said Dionte. “How is our project?”
“A pain,” said Lopera bluntly. “Hopefully, someone’s found him for you by now.”
The color drained from Basante’s cheeks. “Found him! What’s happened to him?”
“Nothing. He’s a bored five-year-old boy. He wanders around.” Amusement sparkled in her eyes. “Also, I don’t think he likes you. Something to do with all the needles.”
“You careless nit! Do you know what could happen to him in this warren? He could drown in the lake. He could fall and break his neck!”
Lopera straightened up, all amusement and tolerance gone. “What do you want me to do? Tie him up? Lock him away? You want him to be healthy. How healthy is he going to be if he’s caged?”
Basante wasn’t listening. He stalked forward until he was barely an inch from Lopera. “You don’t understand what’s at stake here, do you? If we lose him, we lose the entire world. Do you realize what that means?”
That’s far enough. “Basante…”
But in his anger, Basante did not hear her. “It means the planet will be gutted. It means the Authority will assume total control of us all, and then what do you think will happen to your pitiful, smuggling, tailoring, criminal little life?”