“I’ll go back up with Scarab Ten.” Dr. Failia straightened up. “I’ll contact Mother Earth myself. Ms. Yan should be able to call together an emergency meeting with the C.A.C.”
Vee turned to look at her. “Shouldn’t this go straight to the Secretaries-General?”
“Bureaucracy will have its way.” Helen’s smile was humorless. Vee watched her eyes. She was calculating something, planning, working the variables. “It will get to them soon enough.”
“Whatever you say,” Vee said with a shrug. That was not her field, and she didn’t particularly want it to be. “What should we do here?”
Helen was silent for a moment. She watched the People, hovering like living kites out in what Vee knew Helen thought of as her world. “Keep them talking.”
“Dr. Lum gave me permission to visit the Cusmanoses,” said Grace to the security guard outside Kevin Cusmanos’s door. She held out the screen slip with Michael’s authorization and seal on it.
“Right, Dr. Meyer,” said the very thin, very brown man. “You can head on in.” He touched the override pad.
The suite door swished open. Kevin looked up, startled, from his seat at the dining table. Derek was sitting in a strangely forlorn-looking chair in front of where the desk used to be. They’d hauled all the communications equipment out in preparation to turn Kevin’s home into a cell. It had been Ben, of all people, who had talked Michael out of keeping them locked in Venera’s minuscule brig.
“They’re going to be manhandled by the yewners soon enough,” he’d argued. “Let’s at least let them wait for it in comfort.”
“Hello, Kevin. Hello, Derek.” Grace held up the pair of brown bottles she carried. “Brought you some beer.”
“Thanks.” Kevin got up to the take the bottles from her. He’d changed over the past week. It was as if the fire had gone out inside him, leaving behind nothing but cold resignation. Grace thought she knew the cause. Whatever he thought about the Discovery and how it came to be, Kevin believed heart and soul that he deserved to be punished for what had happened to Scarab Fourteen.
Grace turned her attention to Derek, who hadn’t moved since she came in.
“Hello, Derek,” said Grace again, gently.
Derek did not respond.
Kevin eyed her uneasily, but she waved him away. “It’s all right, Kevin. I don’t blame him. He’s angry.” Grace sighed. “I’m sorry you got caught up in this, Kevin.”
Kevin’s just slumped into his chair at the dining table. “It was my fault.”
She nodded. “Among others. We were all in danger. There was so much to lose…at the time it seemed like a good idea.” If either of you knew how long, how hard I tried to find another way, you’d understand how desperate the situation really was. I tried everything else first. It was the only way. “I got so damn tired of being ignored.”
“Ignored?” Derek looked up. Sudden, raw hatred filled his eyes. “That’s why you talked me into this? Because you didn’t want to be ignored?”
And you just didn’t want to lose your job, you spoiled child. She didn’t say it. “Seems pretty stupid now that we’ve got real live aliens to talk to. No one’s going to give a damn that I spotted their traces first.”
“Well that’s just too bad,” growled Derek.
“Okay, Derek,” said Kevin wearily. “You can’t blame her for what you did.”
“The hell I can’t!” Derek snapped. He stabbed a finger at Grace. “It was her idea! If she hadn’t—”
Kevin stood up slowly. His brother matched him for height, but Kevin’s shoulders were far broader. He loomed over the smaller man. “You didn’t have to do one damn thing,” Kevin told him slowly. “She didn’t have a gun to your head. You did this, and I did this. We got caught, and Bailey Heathe got killed because of us!”
“Because of you,” grated Derek. “Don’t try to bring that one down on me!”
Grace stepped between them, putting her back to Kevin before he could react. “My lawyers will get you out of this,” she told Derek firmly. “You and your brother.”
“They’d better.” Derek didn’t take his gaze off his brother, but he backed up a few paces. “Because we are not going to rot in a jail on Mother Earth alone, understand me?”
“You will not go to jail.” Grace turned a little so she could see them both. “I’d better go. Kevin, try not to worry. It’ll all be okay.”