"When?"
"In a few days. A very few days. There's more to it, Ari. Becauseyou've been a secret, your enemies haven't known about you either. If you go to Novgorod they will know. And you'll be in very real danger from then on. Most of them would sue you in court and try to take what you've got, thatkind of enemy; but some of them would kill you if they could. Even if you're a little girl. They're that kind."
"Ser," Catlin said, "who?"
"A man named Rocher, for one. And a few random crazy people we don't know the names of. We wish we did. If Ari goes to Novgorod she'll have a lot of Security with her. Armed Security. They can stop that kind of thing. But you have to watch out for it, you have to watch very closely, and for God's sake, leave any maneuvering to the senior Security people, you two. Just cover Ari."
"Do we have weapons, ser?"
"I don't think Novgorod would understand that. No. Just cover Ari. Watch around you. Keep her safe. That's all."
Ari drew a deep breath. "What am I supposed to do?"
"You talk to the judges. You go in front of the court, you answer their questions about when you were born, and where, and what your name and number are. Uncle Giraud will be there. Giraud knows how to argue with them."
She went cold and clammy all over. "I don't want Giraud! I want youto come."
"Dear, uncle Giraud is especially good at this. He'll show them all the records, and they won't have any trouble believing you. They may take a little cell sample. That'll sting a little if they do that, but you're a brave girl, you won't mind that. You know what that's for. It proves you're not lying. Everyone in the world has seen pictures of Ari Emory—you won't have any trouble with that. But there willbe other people to deal with. People not in the court. Newspeople. Reporters. There'll be a lot of that. But you're a little girl, and they can't be nasty, they'd better not be, or your uncle Giraud will know exactly what to do with them."
She had never thought it could be a good thing to have uncle Giraud. But uncle Denys was right, uncle Giraud would be a lot better at that.
If he wasn't withthe Enemy in the first place. Things were getting more and more complicated.
"Florian and Catlin are going for sure?"
"Yes."
"The judges can't just take them, can they?"
"Dear, the law can do anything; but the law won'ttake what belongs to you. You have to prove you're you,that's the whole problem. That's what you're going there for, and if you don't, nothing is safe here either."
So Ari sat in a leather seat in RESEUNE ONE,a seat so big her feet hardly reached the floor; and Florian and Catlin sat in the two seats opposite her, taking turns looking out the windows, only she had one right beside her, with the real outback under them for as far as you could see.
They would land at Novgorod, they would land at the airport there, but before they landed they were going to see the city from the air; they would see the spaceport, and the Hall of State and the docks where all the barges went, that chugged past Reseune on the Novaya Volga. They were going to see Swigert Bay and the Ocean. The pilot kept telling them where they were and what they were looking at, which right now was the Great West Sink, which was a brown spot on the maps and a brown place from the air with a lake in the middle. She could talk back to the pilot if she pushed a button by her seat.
"We're coming up on the Kaukash Range on the right side," the pilot said.
They had let her go up front for a little while. She got to see out past the pilot and the co-pilot, when they were following the Novaya Volga.
The pilot asked if she liked flying. She said yes, and the pilot told her what a lot of the controls were, and showed her how the plane steered, and what the computers did.
That was the best thing in days. She had him show Florian and Catlin, until uncle Giraud said she had better sit down and study her papers and let the pilot fly the plane. The pilot had winked at her and said she ought to, they were spilling uncle Giraud's drinks.
She wished she had her arm out of the cast, because that was a nuisance; and gave uncle Giraud an excuse to tell her she ought to stay belted-in in her seat. .
Most of all she wished they were all through the court business and the reporters, and they could get to the things uncle Denys told her they were going to get to see while they were in Novgorod. That would be fun. She was going to have her birthday in Novgorod. She wanted to prove everything and then get to that part of it.
Most of all she was worried what would happen if uncle Denys was wrong.
Or if uncle Giraud couldn'tprove who she was.
The court couldn't make a mistake, uncle Denys said, over and over. Not with the tests they had, and the law was the law: they couldn't take what belonged to somebody without suing, and then it was going to be real hard for them to sue a little girl. Especially because Giraud had a lot of friends in the Defense Bureau, who would classify everything.
That meant Secret.
The reporters are going to be a bigger problem than the court,uncle Denys had said. The reporters will pull up a lot of the old pictures of the first Ari. You have to expect that. They'll talk about a little girl Reseune birthed a long time ago, a PR off Estelle Bok. It didn't work right. You've beaten all that little girl's problems. If they say you're like that other little girl they're being nasty, and you answer them that you're you, and if they doubt that they can wait and see how you grow up. I've no doubt at all that you can handle that sort of thing. You don't have to be polite if reporters start being nasty, but you can get a lot more out of them if you act like a nice little kid.
It sounded like a fight. That was what it sounded like. She figured that. It was one of the only times uncle Denys had ever talked to her about Working people, but uncle Denys was good at it, and she was sure he knew what was what.
The Enemy cheats, Catlin always said.
It worried her, about whether the Court ever did.
"Sera," Catlin had come to whisper in her ear that night when they were all going to bed, Florian and Catlin on their pallets, and herself in her own bed with her arm propped up again, "sera, who's our side in this?"
Florian was usually the one who asked all the questions. That was one of Catlin's best ever.
And Catlin waited while she thought about it, and motioned Catlin up close and whispered back: "I am. I'm your side. That's all. You never mind what anybody says, that's still the Rule. They can't say I'm anybody else, no matter what."
So Catlin and Florian relaxed.
She looked at the papers uncle Giraud had given her to study about what the reporters and the judges could ask, and wished shecould.
iii
There was very little work getting done in Wing One, or likely anywhere else in Reseune on this morning, and if there was a portable vid no matter how old not checked out or rented anywhere in the House and the Labs, it was well hidden.
Justin and Grant had theirs, the office door shut—some of the junior designers were clustered together in the lounge downstairs, but the ones in some way involved with the Project sealed themselves in offices alone or with closest associates, and nothing stirred, not even for phone calls.
The cameras were the official ones in the Supreme Court, no theatrics, just the plain, uncommentaried coverage the Supreme Court allowed.
Lawyers handed papers to clerks, and the Court proceeded to ask the clerk if there were any absences or faults in the case.
Negative.
There was a very young girl sitting with her back to the cameras, at the table beside Giraud, not fidgeting, not acting at all restless through the tedium of the opening.
Listening, Justin reckoned. Probably with that very memorable frown.
The news-services had been right on it when the plane landed, and a single news-feed from the official camera set-up at the airport reception lounge had given the news-services their first look at Ari Emory, no questions allowed, until after the ruling.
Ari had stood there with her good hand in uncle Giraud
's, the other arm in a cast, wearing a pale blue and very little-girl suit, with black-uniformed Florian and Catlin very stiff and looking like kids in dress-up, overkill in mimicking elder Ari—until a piece of equipment clanked, and eyes went that way and bodies stiffened like the same muscle moved them.
"That'll send chills down backs," Justin had muttered to Grant. "Damn. That is them, no way anyone can doubt it. No matter what size they are."
The news-services had done archive filler after, brought up split-screen comparisons between the first and second Ari and Catlin and Florian, from old news photos; and showed a trio so much like them it was like two takes in slightly different lighting, Ari in a different suit, standing beside Geoffrey Carnath instead of Giraud Nye.
"My God, it's right down to mannerisms," he had murmured, meaning the frown on Ari's face. On both Ari-faces. The way of holding the head. "Have they taughther that?"
"They could have," Grant had said, unperturbed. "All those skill tapes. They could do more than penmanship, couldn't they? —But a lot of usdevelop like mannerisms."
Not in a CIT,had been his internal objection. Damn, they'vegot to have done that. Skill tapes. Muscle-learning. You could get that off a damn good actress.
Or Ari herself. No telling what kind of things Olga recorded. —Are they going that far with the Rubin kid?
He watched that still, attentive little girl at the table, in front of the panel of judges. They had not let Florian and Catlin sit with her. Just Giraud and the team of lawyers.
"Reseune declines to turn genetic records over to the court,"the Chief Justice observed. "Is that the case?"
"I need not remind the Court,"Giraud said, rising, "that we're dealing with a Special's geneset...."
The Justices and uncle Giraud talked back and forth and Ari listened, listened very hard, and remembered not to fidget, uncle Giraud had told her not.
They were talking about genetics, about phenotype and handprints and retinal scan. They had done all the tests but the skin sample already, when she checked in with the court ID office.
"Ariane Emory," the Chief Justice said, "would you come stand with your uncle, please?"
She got up. She didn't have to follow protocols, uncle Giraud said, the Court didn't expect her to be a lawyer. She only had to be very polite with them, because they were lawyers themselves, the ones who solved all the most difficult cases in Union, and you had to be respectful.
"Yes, ser," she said, and she gave a little bow like Giraud's, and walked up to the railing, having to look up at them. There were nine of them. Like Councillors. She had heard about the Court in her tapes. Now she was here. It was interesting.
But she wished it weren't her case.
"Do they call you Ari?" the Chief Justice asked.
"Yes, ser."
"How old are you, Ari?"
"I'm four days from nine."
"What's your CIT number, Ari?"
"CIT 201 08 0089, but it's not PR." Uncle Giraud told her that in the paper she had studied.
The Justice looked at his papers, and flipped through things, and looked up again. "Ari, you grew up at Reseune."
"Yes, ser. That's where I live."
"How did you get that cast on your arm?"
Just answer that, Giraud had said, about any question on her accident. So she said: "I fell off Horse."
"How did that happen?"
"Florian and Catlin and I sneaked out of the House and went down to the Town; and I climbed up on Horse, and he threw me over the fence."
"Is Horse a real horse?"
"He's real. The labs birthed him. He's my favorite." She felt good, just remembering that little bit before she went over the fence, and the Justice was interested, so she said: "It wasn't his fault. He's not mean. I just surprised him and he jumped. So I went off."
"Who was supposed to be watching you?"
"Security."
The Justice looked funny at that, like she had let out more than she intended; and all the Justices thought so, and some thought it was terribly funny. But that could get out of control and make somebody mad, so she decided she had better be careful.
"Do you go to school?"
"Yes, ser."
"Do you like your teachers?"
He was trying to Work her, she decided. Absolutely. She put on her nicest face. "Oh, they're fine."
"Do you do well on tests?"
"Yes," she said. "I do all right."
"Do you understand what it means to be a PR?"
There was the trap question. She wanted to look at uncle Giraud, but she figured that would tell them too much. So she looked straight up at the Justice. "That means I'm legally the same person."
"Do you know what legallymeans?"
"That means if I get certified nobody can say I'm not me and take the things that belong to me without going through the court; and I'm a minor. I'm not old enough to know what I'm going to need out of that stuff, or what I want, so it's not fair to sue me in court, either."
That got him. "Did somebody tell you to say that?"
"Would you like it if somebody called you a liar about who you are? Or if they were going to come in and take your stuff? They can tell too much about you by going through all that stuff, and that's not right to do to somebody, especially if she's a kid. They can psychyou if they know all that stuff."
Got him again.
"God," Justin said, and lifted his eyes above his hand, watching while Giraud got Ari back to her seat.
"She certainly answered that one," Grant said.
Mikhail Corain glared at the vid in his office and gnawed his lip till it bled.
"Damn, damn, damn,"he said to his aide. "How do we deal with that?They've got that kid primed—"
"A kid," Dellarosa said, "can't take priority over national security."
"You say it, I say it, the question is what's the Court going to hold? Those damn fossils all came in under Emory's spoils system—the head of Justice is Emory'sold friend. Call Lu in Defense."
"Again?"
"Again, dammit, tell him it's an emergency. He knows damn well what I want—you go over there. No, never mind, Iwill. Get a car."
". . . watch the hearing,"the note from Giraud Nye had read, simply. And Secretary Lu watched, fist under chin, his pulse elevated, his elbows on an open folio replete with pictures and test scores.
A bright-eyed little girl with a cast on her arm and a scab on her chin. That part was good for the public opinion polls.
The test scores were not as good as the first Ari's. But they were impressive enough.
Corain had had his calls in from the instant he had known about the girl. And Lu was not about to return them—not until he had seen the press conference scheduled for after the hearing, the outcome of which was, as far as he was concerned, a sure thing.
Of paramount interest were the ratings on the newsservices this evening.
Damned good bet that Giraud Nye had leaned on Catherine Lao of Information, damned good bet that Lao was leaning on the newsservices—Lao was an old and personal friend of Ari Emory.
Dammit, the old coalition seemed strangely alive, of a sudden. Old acquaintances reasserted themselves. Emory had not been a friend—entirely. But an old and cynical military man, trying to assure Union's simple survival, found himself staring at a vid-screen and thinking thoughts which had seemed, a while ago, impossible.
Fool, he told himself.
But he pulled out a piece of paper and initiated a memo for the Defense Bureau lawyers:
Military implications of the Emory files outweigh other considerations; draft an upgrading of Emory Archives from Secret to Utmost Secret and prepare to invoke the Military Secrets Act to forestall further legal action.
And to his aide: I need a meeting with Harad. Utmost urgency.
Barring, of course, calamity in the press conference.
iv
"Ari," the Chief Justice said. "Would you come up to the bar?"
It was after lunch, an
d the Justice called her right after he had called uncle Giraud.
So she walked up very quiet and very dignified, at least as much as she could with the cast and the sling, and the Justice gave a paper to the bailiff.
"Ari," the Justice said, "the Court is going to certify you. There's no doubt who your genemother was, and that's the only thing that's at issue in this Court today. You have title to your genemother's CIT number.
"As to the PR designation, which is a separate question, we're going to issue a temporary certification—that means your card won't have it, because Reseune is an Administrative Territory, and has the right to determine whether you're a sibling or a parental replicate—which in this case falls within Reseune's special grants of authority. This court doesn't feel there's cause to abrogate those rights on an internal matter, where there is no challenge from other relatives.
"You have title to all property and records registered and accrued to your citizen number: all contracts and liabilities, requirements of performance and other legal instruments not legally lapsed at the moment of death of your predecessor are deemed to continue, all contracts entered upon by your legal guardian in your name thereafter and until now are deemed effective, all titles held in trust in the name of Ariane Emory under that number are deemed valid and the individuals within this Writ are deemed legally identical, excepting present status as a minor under guardianship.
"Vote so registered, none dissenting. Determination made and entered effective as of this hour and date."
The gavel came down. The bailiff brought her the paper, and it was signed and sealed by the whole lot of judges. Writ of Certification,it said at the top. With her name: Ariane Emory.
She gave a deep breath and gave it to uncle Giraud when he asked for it.
"It's still stupid," she whispered to him.
But she was awfully glad to have it, and wished she could keep it herself, so uncle Giraud wouldn't get careless and lose it.
The reporters were notmean. She was real glad about that, too. She figured out in a hurry that there weren't any Enemies with them, just a lot of people with notebooks, and people with cameras; so she told Catlin and Florian: "You can relax, they're all right," and sat on the chair they let her have because she said she was tired and her arm hurt.
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