“Of course not. But issues aside, elections are nothing more than popularity contests.” Petrie’s eyes sparkled. “We can promote her as the Senator who restored the Dream. The voters will eat it up!”
“Even though it was Kendi who figured it out,” Keith said.
Petrie brushed this aside. “Kendi works for her campaign, so it’s the same thing.”
“Why did you sense it and no one else, Kendi?” Salman asked, changing the subject.
Kendi shrugged. “I’ve always been good at sensing Silent and tracking people in the Dream. The Despair didn’t change that. Other Silent will probably start to notice the kids, though. Within a couple of weeks, I should think.”
“Give me two days, Senator,” Petrie said, all but glowing with fervor. “That’ll let us double-check the information and set up a proper news conference. In a few months, you’ll be sitting in the governor’s seat.”
“Do it,” Salman said. “Let’s show Foxglove and Ched-Pirasku how to run a real campaign.”
Salman swore everyone to secrecy one more time before she let them leave. Her expression was so serious, Kendi half expected her to ask for pricked fingers and dripping blood, though he kept the comment to himself. Wanda Petrie’s training in evidence.
Keith and Martina headed toward the monastery—”Some of us have to work for a living,” Keith said—while Ben and Kendi took Salman’s flitcar to the medical center to check on Lucia. Gretchen, who had remained on outdoor guard duty during the meeting, piloted while Tan rode shotgun. Kendi sat in the back seat with Ben, trying to assimilate everything that was going on. So much so fast! Kendi had just signed a lucrative sim-game contract based on his life during the Despair, he and Ben were going to be fathers of two children—assuming Lucia didn’t lose this one—and now the Silent were re-entering the Dream. Kendi felt restless, like a lion in a cage. He didn’t want to be riding in this flitcar high above the trees. He wanted to be running through the streets, his feet pounding the boards and making the balconies tremble like the mickey spikes. Ben touched his hand and squeezed it, reading his mood and knowing the cause. Kendi gave him a wan smile but felt a little better.
When they arrived at the medical center, they found a small crowd of people in Lucia’s room. She lay propped up in bed amid a veritable forest of flowers, balloons, and stuffed animals. Several dozen photographs and holograms covered every inch of wall space, and someone had set up a small altar in the corner. From it, a figurine of Irfan Qasad gazed serenely about the room.
“What the hell?” Kendi said.
A tall, dark man with silvering hair the same color as Lucia’s stepped forward with outstretched hand. “Father Kendi Weaver! I’ve been wanting to meet you for a long time! But does my daughter arrange an introduction? Does she let me meet the great man whose baby she will bear? Or does she let her poor old father languish in—”
“Dad!” Lucia protested from the bed. “Don’t let him bully you, Kendi. He’ll talk until your ears fall off if you let him.”
“Someone who can out-talk Kendi,” Ben said. “Pretty impressive.”
“You must be Ben Rymar,” said a nearby woman who resembled a heavier, slightly tired version of Lucia. She leaned in to kiss his cheek. “I suppose this makes you my son-in-law, in a way. I should be happy—it’s better than no son-in-law at all.”
“Hey!” called a young man from one corner. “What do I look like? Pastrami on rye?”
“You married my oldest,” Lucia’s mother replied primly. “It’s different when it’s your youngest.”
“Mom!” Lucia warned.
“Do you know all these people, Ms. dePaolo?” Tan demanded from the doorway.
“They’re all family,” Lucia said. “They’re fine.” Gretchen and Tan withdrew to the hallway, looking grateful for the chance to escape.
Introductions went around. The only names Kendi remembered were Alberto and Julia, Lucia’s parents. The rest were a tangle of brothers, sisters, and cousins, all with the same glossy black hair, olive skin, and brown eyes. They sat on the floor, leaned against the walls, and perched on the edge of Lucia’s bed.
“The nurse tried to throw us all out, if you can believe that,” Alberto said. “Imagine! We’re her family and they try to throw us out on the streets like yesterday’s trash.”
“You are a little loud, Dad,” Lucia pointed out.
“Loud with love,” he said, and kissed her loudly on the top of the head. “The best healing there is!”
“Dr. McCall says the baby is just fine, by the way,” Lucia said. “I’m allowed of bed now, but the doctor wants to keep me here for another day just to be sure.”
Kendi exhaled heavily, and he felt a load of tension drain from him. Ben looked even more relieved.
“So tell me more about my new grandchild,” Julia said.
“Grandchild?” Kendi said.
“Of course!” Julia said. “My daughter is going to give birth to it. That makes it my grandchild, and don’t you dare forget it.”
“You have six grandchildren, Mom,” Lucia said.
“Which doesn’t make this one any less precious,” Julia said firmly. “But I want to know where this baby came from.”
“I hope I don’t need to explain that to you,” Alberto said, squeezing Julia’s arm.
She made a playful slap at him. “You know what I mean. Lucia says it isn’t her place to tell, so that means someone else has to.”
A moment of silence fell over the room and every eye turned toward Kendi and Ben. Kendi glanced went irresistibly to the altar. Irfan looked serenely back at him. In one hand she bore a scroll, symbol of communication. Her other hand was raised in a beckoning gesture. A DN” matrix wound around the arm. Kendi realized the silence was stretching out a bit too long.
Finally Ben spoke. “My mo—” his voice cracked and he cleared his throat. “My mother found these embryos on an abandoned ship several hundred light years from Bellerophon. She took one for her own—me—and gave the others to Grandfather Melthine at the monastery. He and my mother died during the Despair, so I sort of kept the others. Genetically they’re my brothers and sisters, but Kendi and I want to raise them as our children. Silent babies don’t survive in artificial wombs, so Lucia agreed to help us.”
“The bright lady has blessed our family,” said a cousin. What was her name? Franca? Francesca. It was Francesca. “Will you be raising the child in the precepts of the Church of Irfan, Father Kendi?”
Kendi blinked. “We...we haven’t thought that far ahead.”
“But you must,” she insisted. “Irfan looks after all children, but the Silent ones are her special province, and they must come to bosom of the Church, especially now that Vik has destroyed the Dream.”
“Vik?” Ben said. “But Padric Sufur was the one who—”
“The evil Vik worked his will through Sufur,” Francesca said. “There is no doubt. Vik taints us all, Mr. Rymar. His evil is everywhere and we must work hard to stamp it out. That is why we fight poverty and homeless in the name of the Church—the poor and homeless are more susceptible to Vik’s wicked—”
“Thank you, Francesca,” Lucia said. “We all serve the Church in our own way. I’ve chosen this one.” She rubbed her stomach. “I think I need to rest now.”
“Everyone out,” Alberto ordered. “She needs her rest. Out!”
Everyone duly filed out of the room, though each person paused to give Lucia a kiss or a hug. Ben and Kendi were the last.
“Thank you for coming,” Lucia said when they were alone. “I know my family can be a bit...overwhelming, but they mean well.”
“I suppose they should be part of the child’s life,” Kendi said. “I hadn’t thought of that. Harenn has only Bedj-ka, but in your case...”
“I have an entire clan,” Lucia finished with a small smile.
“What about the religious side?” Ben said. “Everything happened so fast that we didn’t have time to talk about it.”
; “Do you object to the child being raised by the precepts of Irfan?” Lucia asked. Her hand went to the Irfan figurine around her neck.
“I hadn’t thought about it either way,” Ben admitted. “It’s just...” He lowered his voice. “They worship my mother. And Irfan is also this child’s mother. Isn’t that just a little...strange?”
A ‘The universe is stranger than the Dream,’ “ Lucia said. “Irfan’s precepts and teachings are fine rules to live by, Ben. She teaches us to love and tolerate one another while we seek inner strength and serenity.”
“They’re good teachings,” Ben said. “And I don’t object to them. I just don’t know how to go about it.”
“I will handle that,” Lucia said. “Besides, we are not one of the more extreme sects of the Church, no matter what Francesca might sound like.”
“Let’s go, Ben,” Kendi said. “She does need to rest.”
They found Lucia’s family just down the hallway in a small waiting area that smelled of stale donuts. They were arguing heatedly about something. Kendi gave Ben a look. Gretchen and Tan pointedly kept their distance.
“I don’t see how she can go through with it,” Francesca was saying. “Not without a guarantee from the fathers that the child will be raised properly in the Church. It scares me that they might grow up ignorant of Irfan’s precepts.”
“It’s their decision,” said someone Kendi couldn’t see. “Lucia is the just vessel, not the mother.”
The sound of a slap. “Ow! What was that for?”
“You say such terrible things!” came Julia’s aghast voice. “Of course Lucia’s the mother, just as Mother Ara was Ben’s mother. And we can’t force anyone to embrace the Church. Irfan would frown on such a thing. But we can still—”
“Father Kendi!” Alberto said, suddenly noticing him standing in the doorway. Julia cut herself off. “Come in, come in.”
“We were just heading home,” Kendi said, “now that we know Lucia and the baby are all right.”
“Good, good,” Alberto said. “We will be seeing much more of each other, eh? Now that you two are the fathers of Lucia’s child.”
“This is getting more complicated by the second,” Ben said when they were out of earshot. “How are we going to handle this? I hadn’t even occurred to me that Lucia’s family might want to get involved with our child. Children.”
Kendi shrugged. “Legally they have no claim, so it’ll be completely up to us how involved they are. We can work it out as we go, but I’m thinking the more babysitters we have on tap, the better.”
Ben laughed, but it sounded a bit forced.
They exited the medical center and walked a ways in silence, Tan and Gretchen following a bit behind. It was still cloudy outside, and the light lay heavy with gloom beneath the trees. Kendi smelled rain coming. After a while they passed a playground on a wide platform. A trio of children were jumping rope, and they chanted with every jump.
Miss Irfan married Danny, and Danny went insane.
He stole her wealth and children, he ruined her good name.
He ran away to Othertown and tried to start a war.
He met up with some Silent and killed them by the score.
How many Silent did Dan Vik kill? One, two, three, four ...
Kendi looked at them as he passed. He had heard the rhyme a thousand times but hadn’t really paid close attention to it until now. A little gory. He supposed that’s what made it attractive to children.
“Do you think I’m evil?” Ben asked abruptly. “Or that I’ll go insane?”
“What?” Kendi started. “No! Why on earth would you think such a thing?”
Ben shrugged. “Daniel Vik was my father, and like those kids said, he went insane.”
“Not all historians agree with that assessment,” Kendi said. “And anyway, you’re you. Not Daniel Vik and not Irfan Qasad. Ben Rymar.”
“Insanity is sometimes inherited,” Ben insisted.
“No risk factors showed up on the genetic scans,” Kendi said. “Did your doctor ever say anything?”
“No,” Ben admitted.
“There you go.”
“It’s still creepy,” Ben said gloomily. “My dad was a genocidal maniac and my mother was a saint and they both died a thousand years ago.”
“It’s probably for the best that they’re dead,” Kendi said. “I mean, imagine what it would be like for me if they were still alive.”
“For you?”
“Sure. Irfan Qasad as my mother-in-law. I’d never get the house clean enough for her to visit.”
This time Ben’s laugh was real. In the middle of it, Kendi’s data pad beeped and a message flashed across his ocular implant.
“Whoops,” Kendi said. “I forgot—we were supposed to meet Keith for some male bonding time today.”
“Who’s we?” Ben said.
“I made the invitation on both our behalves,” Kendi said, “and then forgot to tell you about it. Can you come? Please? I’m trying to bring Keith out of his blue funk. We’re going to take part in an ancient Australian Aborigine ritual.”
“What ritual would that be?” Ben asked warily.
“Drinking our lunch. Come on.”
Kendi told Tan and Gretchen what was going on, and the women continued following the two men. The four of them made their way across several walkways, down a pair of staircases, and along a public promenade. Multiple shops, stores, and restaurants were stacked on top of one another in the trees, connected by lifts and stairs. Several of the shops were boarded up, and only a handful of humans and Ched-Balaar browsed among the open ones. Panhandlers sat among the dead, damp leaves that littered the walkways, begging from passers-by in dull, monotonous voices. Eventually, Kendi caught sight of Keith, who was wandering aimlessly back and forth on a narrow rope-and-plank bridge between two balconies. His hands were in his pockets. Every so often, he glanced at his fingernail, checking the time. Kendi called his name and waved, but Keith continued pacing.
“He can’t hear me,” Kendi said, heading for the bridge.
“Funny. Everyone else did,” Ben grumbled.
Keith had his back to them and had reached the other side of the bridge. Kendi trotted ahead of Ben to catch up to his brother. He was halfway across the bridge when a shower of wood chips cascaded over him and he smelled something burning. A terrible cracking noise groaned above him. Kendi glanced up and saw a branch the size of a support beam rushing toward him. Then something hit him and he was flying through the air. He landed hard. “ll the air burst from his lungs and his head smacked something solid. A tremendous crash tore the air. Several people screamed, and the noise mingled with panicked Ched-Balaar hooting. Kendi lay stunned for a moment, then sat up.
He was lying on the platform he had been trying to reach. Behind him lay a torn bridge and a stomach-turning drop. Gretchen was stretched out at the rim of the platform. The lower half of her body hung over the edge, and she was clawing at the remaining boards in an attempt to regain solid planking. Her face was pale. Kendi scrambled over to help her, trying to ignore the pounding in his head. He seized her arm and helped her up.
“Are you all right?” he demanded.
“I’m fine,” she said. “You?”
“My head’s going to ring for a while, but I’ll survive. What happened?”
“That.” Gretchen pointed up. A bare spot in the talltree above showed where the branch had broken off. It had fallen onto the bridge and demolished it. A raw stump showed pale wood. Kendi looked down and saw the wreckage of a second bridge. Far below, he could just make out the branch lying on the forest floor. From here looked like a twig.
“I saw the branch start to go,” Gretchen continued, “and shoved you. It almost got me.”
“Kendi!” Keith said behind him. “God, are you—?”
“I’m fine. We’re fine.” Kendi scrambled to his feet, his heart suddenly pounding hard. “All life! Where’s Ben? And Lewa?”
“You’re welcome,” Gre
tchen said.
Kendi caught sight of Ben and Tan on the other side of the bridge. He waved at them and activated his earpiece.
“I’m all right,” he said before either of them could answer. “Gretchen saved me.”
“I’ll give her a raise,” Tan said. “Wait right there. We’ve already called the Guardians.”
“I can’t breathe,” Ben said. “God, are you sure you’re all right, Kendi? When that branch fell—”
“Don’t go all panicky, Ben,” Kendi said. “Gretchen said she’d protect me and she did. Everything’s fine.”
“Not until I get over there, it isn’t.”
Ben and Tan circled around on another bridge and arrived on Kendi’s platform at about the same time the Guardians did. A mixed crowd gathered in the meantime, but fortunately no one seemed to have been hurt. The lower bridge had been unoccupied when the branch hit. Keith stared over the edge into the hole as if transfixed. Kendi had a sudden fear that Keith was planning to jump and he pulled Keith away.
“We don’t want another accident,” he muttered.
“Why do you have wood chips in your hair?” Keith asked.
“Father Kendi?” It was a Ched-Balaar who wore a blue head cloth on her head and a silver medallion around her neck. Silver for Guardians. “I’m Inspector Ched-Theree. If you and your companions could answer some questions?”
Kendi went off with her alone except for Lewa Tan, who refused to leave his side. Gretchen stayed with Ben. Ched-Theree’s first question, of course, was “What happened?” Kendi explained events as best he could remember, and it was during the retelling that he remembered the chips falling on him from above.
“Our technicians are inspecting the branch and keeping me updated by vocal transmission,” Ched-Theree clattered. “They are nowhere near finished, but they tell me even a novice could see this event was planned. Preliminary examination gives them to think some sort of directional incendiary device cut through the branch.”
“An explosive?” Kendi said.
Ched-Theree ducked her head in acknowledgment. “One whose force went entirely inward, toward the wood. This rendered the explosion nearly silent so you would not hear it and be warned.”
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