Senescence (Jezebel's Ladder Book 5)

by Scott Rhine

  “He can be naïve, trusting, and insufficiently aggressive. She’ll balance him out.”

  “You realize what you just called your daughter?” Oleander asked.

  “A survivor,” Kaguya said. “And because she loves him, she’ll make certain he survives, too. Idealists tend to become martyrs.”

  “Our alliance only lasts until Stu talks to her in Rio.”

  “Laura has an hour with him. I doubt it will take more than twenty minutes for him to surrender.”

  Oleander nibbled at the last of her stromboli crust. “He might resist her until the UN vote.”

  Grant shook his head. “No. I’ve seen the way that boy watches her. He’s a goner. Plus, he already invited her home to meet his mother. He’s too much of a gentleman to renege.”

  “I’ll order some flowers for Sif in your name to let her know you’re okay,” Kaguya offered.

  “Do you really think I should be that obvious?” he asked.

  “Yes,” replied both women and a waiter who had been eavesdropping.

  Grant asked, “So, how are you planning on dropping the grandma news to Mrs. Bartilucci?”

  That shut her up. Kaguya needed Oleander’s support, so she offered, “We’ll stop by Tiffany’s on the way to the salon. A tasteful charm with your daughter’s birthstone would make a lovely conversation starter.”

  “What if she doesn’t have a charm bracelet?” Oleander asked.

  “I’ll buy her one of those, too.”

  They parked Laura on Tiffany’s full-service sofa, where Grant guarded her, sipped espresso, and caught up on his news feeds.

  After chatting with Kaguya for several minutes over the jewelry selections, Oleander said casually, “Laura tells me that you used to watch all the Sanctuary broadcasts.”

  “Yes,” Kaguya admitted, though she doubted Laura had said any such thing. “She’d play in her pen while I tried to determine your ship’s course for the tracking crew. If I calculated for too long, she would capture my attention and bring me back to the moment. Children change your life.”

  “I hear you. What sorts of calculations?”

  “Like why your orbit seemed to decay over time and why Conrad took such lengths to change the approach flight path.”

  “Why would you care?”

  “I was building a line of ships to rescue him if he couldn’t come back to me. I determined that we had to shield the Icarus field against certain types of radiation,” Kaguya explained. “No more science, please. I’m already drifting and rethinking the parameters.”

  After thanking Kaguya for the gift, Oleander pushed a little more. “Who did you tell about the synchrotron radiation?”

  “It was part of my patent applications, silly. Anyone could order a copy by mail.”

  ****

  At the salon, Laura slept through her makeover. Kaguya purchased not one, but three new outfits at the boutique for all the women. She scheduled a plastic surgeon’s appointment for her daughter in Rio because she wanted to prevent any permanent scarring from Laura’s calf injury.

  At eight that night, their cab arrived at the Bartilucci home. When Kaguya tried to pay the driver, her credit card no longer functioned. Oleander offered to pay, but Grant stopped her. “No. If you do that, Mori will link your identity to us.” He paid the driver with currency Kaguya had slipped him earlier.

  The ancient apartment complex had a beautiful stone façade. Kaguya was pretty certain she had seen the building featured in a black-and-white Cary Grant film. The structure had been old even then. The hall was clean, but too narrow for a man to turn with a suitcase in each hand. Laura had propped herself in a tight stairwell.

  Oleander glanced down at her new outfit, Capri pants and a British sailor blouse. Her boots were still government issue, in case she had to don the sneak suit at a moment’s notice. “I haven’t been on Earth in civilian clothes for twenty-five years. I don’t know if I even—”

  Kaguya reached past her and rapped on the solid wood door.

  Johnny’s mother opened the door, saw the famous astronaut, and welcomed them all inside. She had graying hair and thick arms. Each of her breasts looked as big as a man’s head. She sat on the sofa next to Oleander.

  Oleander gave her the box from Tiffany’s, but the woman set the gift aside. “Tell me how my boy died.”

  “He saved me from a sniper, right after he found out I was pregnant. We’ll bring his body home if the UN lets us.” Oleander described the overwhelming alien assault on the human colony on Labyrinth and how the rest of them barely escaped. “I know Johnny would have married me if there had been more time.”

  “You call me Mama now.” Mrs. Bartilucci slid an arm around Oleander. “Tomorrow morning, we pray for Johnny. You pick the church.”

  “There are quite a few of those around here.” Grant asked Oleander, “Which was Johnny’s favorite?”

  Oleander distracted the Bartiluccis with a few hundred photos of Joan, who looked just like her father had at an early age. After the first dozen photos, Grant walked outside for a drink with the burly cousins.

  “When will we see our little one in person?” Mama B asked.

  “She has guard duty with the ambassador in Rio,” Oleander explained. “If the vote to make Sanctuary a nation passes in the UN, we can visit that week.”

  Kaguya’s phone rang. She stepped onto the white linoleum of the kitchen to answer it. Soon, she covered the receiver and poked her head out to ask Oleander, “Can I borrow your credit card? The hotel says all of ours have been cancelled.”

  Mama B said, “Please. You stay with us. Your money is no good here. You eat breakfast in our restaurant. We drive you to the church. In our city, you are guests.”

  “If you can cook half as well as Johnny did, we’ll take you up on the food,” Oleander said without delay.

  “Where you think he learned?” Mama B glanced at Laura with concern. “This girl, she is exhausted from travel. Let her rest here.”

  Grant stepped in to pull the shades. “You may want to accept the couch. The news drones outside are thicker than mosquitoes.”

  Mama B rolled her eyes. “The paparazzi.”

  “The cousins will keep any human visitors out,” Grant said. “One of them is a cop. The rest did time in the military.”

  Oleander nodded. “Thank you, Mama. That would nice. I’ve been on guard duty a long time.”

  Mama B found them all beds. Kaguya shared one with her daughter while Oleander stayed up answering questions into the small hours.

  ****

  Laura was the first of the guests to awake in the morning. After a shower and a fresh, chocolate breakfast pastry meant for four, she felt human again. She licked her fingers as Oleander entered the kitchen and wandered over to the antique coffee pot. Joan’s mother was still wearing her clothes from the day before.

  “This food is amazing,” Laura said.

  Oleander smiled. “Johnny’s best come-on line was always, ‘I’ll fix you breakfast and fill you up till you’re satisfied.’ He always did both.”

  Laura laughed at the bawdy humor and decided that she liked the woman. “The church of the Holy Stair.”

  “Pardon?”

  “Stu wants to visit it. I figured someone must have talked to him about it. Maybe because it was Johnny’s favorite,” Laura explained. “Crusaders brought the staircase from Pilate’s palace, the one Jesus walked up to his sentencing. People go there to walk where he walked and pray for miracles. You could pray for the UN vote while we’re there.”

  Oleander said, “Good choice. Thanks. I’ve never been to church before, other than our chapel in Sanctuary.”

  “Mom had me baptized when I was an infant because Conrad would have wanted it, but I haven’t been since.”

  Oleander whipped a knife out of her boot and cut the remaining pastry into pieces with impressive speed. Then she selected a slice. “I helped raise Stu as if he were my own. If you hurt him, you’ll never see me coming.”

>   So much for girl talk.

  Laura was still trying to formulate a response when Grant shuffled across the worn floor in a bathrobe. His cheeks were swollen and unshaven.

  “Aren’t you going to church this morning?” Laura asked.

  Grant groaned. “Only the fact that you two rescued me from the prince’s torture room is preventing lethal amounts of sarcasm. No, I’m not going to church. I’m going to crawl back in bed and pile bags of ice all over my body.” He opened the freezer door and pulled out the bucket of ice.

  “Sif didn’t reply?” Laura guessed.

  Grant pulled the cork out of what was supposed to be a hot water bottle and began stuffing it full of ice cubes. “She is immensely relieved that I am well, but doesn’t think of me in a romantic way. Our professional relationship is ‘far too valuable’ to endanger.”

  “Ouch,” Laura said in sympathy. “Do you think she’d agree to a date if you shared a Pulitzer?”

  He stopped beating a chunk of ice to make it fit. “What do you know that might earn one?”

  “You’ll have to find independent corroboration.”

  “Always.”

  Nervous, Laura warned, “It’s big, probably the reason the prince beat you.”

  “Now you’re just teasing.”

  “I’m almost positive my grandfather caused the last few food disasters so he could profit from them. He probably engineered the Egyptian wheat shortage. I think several people had the same idea for the Durum Wheat Crisis a few years ago and created the perfect storm.”

  He took out his new camera drone and clicked a button. “Names and dates, princess.”

  Laura described the Koku AI and how it could locate critical paths in scheduling and resource management. Oleander chimed in with descriptions of how Sanctuary used similar algorithms to run their ecosystem. Then Laura listed failures in multiple paths. “I think if you dug a little, you’d find the accidents were anything but.”

  Grant took notes on a napkin and stared at her for a long moment. “Why didn’t anyone else see this?”

  “I have a unique level of access, plus Simplification and Quantum Computing talents. I only put the pieces together because my brain hasn’t had a genetics puzzle to work in the last week or so.” She frowned. “Unfortunately, the nondisclosure document I signed prevents me from making any public accusation.”

  “All this time, I thought you were a high-society ditz.”

  Laura smiled. “I’m incognito.”

  “Why give this scoop to me? If it’s true, this is the story of the century. It could topple empires.”

  “Because you’ve been a good friend to Stu, and you like brainy girls,” Laura replied. “Besides, you have incentive to pin the prince’s ass to a wall.”

  Grant held out a hand. “Thank you. I won’t disappoint you. If there’s any evidence, I’ll find it.”

  ****

  On the way to the Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano, Kaguya informed Laura about their financial distress. Tetsuo Mori played hardball. “We have no security and no support. Even my media blocker has been disabled. As my legal conservator he’s tied up my funds, and he used your extended absence from work as an excuse to fire you.”

  “He ordered me to do it!” Laura protested.

  “He’s betting you won’t explain that to the press.”

  Tying a scarf around her head, Oleander asked, “Speaking of the press, could you create a distraction so Mama B and the boys can sneak me in?”

  Laura said, “My pleasure.”

  When they arrived, she climbed out first, greeting the crowd like a diva while Oleander held Mama B’s arm and escorted her inside.

  “We heard Mori disowned you,” one reported shouted; she couldn’t tell which.

  “Why were you fired?”

  “Why are you moving all your possessions to the ambassador’s house in Brazil?”

  “Are you converting to Catholicism for your marriage?”

  Laura asked, “Marriage? What gave your that idea?”

  A reporter in front said, “You visited a jewelry store, reinstated your reproductive rights, and scheduled plastic surgery to make yourself a virgin again.”

  She actually blushed when her mother stage-whispered, “Your grandfather must have disabled my media scrambler earlier than I thought.”

  Microphones pointed at Kaguya. “Laura defied my father. When he revoked the recent proxy on the conscience shares, they reverted to my daughter. Ambassador Llewellyn impressed her with his integrity and vision while she worked on his defense team. During their engagement, she grants him those voting rights to complete his vital mission.”

  Laura was too dazed to speak. Thank God Oleander hadn’t heard and the press had to stop at the front doors of the church.

  Inside, the peaceful, cool, marble floor of the foyer gave Laura a chance to recover from the unexpected news conference. Her mother had displayed her usual political genius. Stu was at a school filled with eligible girls. The decent ones wouldn’t go near an engaged man, and he wouldn’t tolerate the indecent ones. He couldn’t deny the engagement without losing his financial support and voice in Fortune Enterprises. In one swoop, her mother had prevented any other woman from claiming Stu while Laura was away.

  The church tour guide interrupted Laura’s reverie to inform her that sitting on the floor was not permitted. Church people are mean and have strange rules. Disgruntled, Laura joined Mama B at the head of the line in front of a wood-framed staircase wide enough for five people to stand abreast. A tour group flooded in soon after, preventing Laura from going anywhere but forward.

  The church lady moved a silk rope out of the way, and Mama B knelt on the first stair. “We say a prayer, kneeling on each step. The only way to climb this staircase is on your knees.”

  Oleander raised her eyebrows when she estimated the dozens of stairs before them. None of the visitors from the Ballbusters team knew how to say a rosary, but none of them would be the first to give up.

  Mama B said, “If you want your miracles, you have to work for them.”

  Laura sighed. Nice boys sure are a lot of work. He’d better be worth it.

  Feigning prayer gave her a long time for introspection. Halfway up, it occurred to her, If Stu was disappointed in me for kissing another man, how is Conrad Zeiss going to feel if I meet him? She prayed then, that her father might overlook her faults.

  Mama B put an arm around her as the tears flowed.

  Chapter 25 – STEM Rock Star

  At the customs desk of Rio de Janeiro’s Jobim International Airport, the vice president of Brazil greeted Stu enthusiastically. The politician had slicked-back, white-gray hair. “Ambassador Llewellyn, your mother’s homeland has become the first nation on Earth to ratify Sanctuary’s status as a country. We extend to you all the benefits of a favored diplomat. Do not hesitate to ask for help establishing an embassy here for your people. Our city has much to offer and would make an excellent interstellar trade center.” After his prepared speech, the vice president handed Stu a Brazilian diplomatic ID and posed next to him for several photos.

  Stu said, “I don’t think Commander Zeiss would grant exclusive trading status to a single country. Perhaps a nation-free zone at the border of several countries, like Washington, DC in the US would be more fair.” The vice president didn’t warm to the proposal until Stu added, “I’d leave you to negotiate the details with other South American countries.”

  Outside, Stu gawked at mountains that were impossibly steep and breathtaking. I could live here. Then he lowered his eyes to take in the crowds. Police held back religious zealots who protested “the alien hoax.” They wanted to expose the lies of the American Satan. Another group demanded he stop holding technology captive for his own profit. Between these two extremes stood the biggest group, surrounding a black limousine. They held a banner that welcomed Mercy Llewellyn’s son to STEM University. The limo driver held up a card with Stu’s name.

  Hans told Stu, “Go on.
Enjoy your fame. The rest of us will rent a couple vans and meet you at the university. Fortune Media, our parent company, has the exclusive for this event. We’ll get footage from them if we need it.”

  In his good suit, Stu waved and the crowd around the limo went wild. I could get used to this.

  Drones filmed his arrival from the curb. Onesemo and the two Fortune guards kept people back who reached arms past the police barricades.

  As Stu approached the limo, a red-haired man in his fifties stepped out. “Stewart, my boy, so glad you could visit us.”

  The resemblance to his father was strong. “You’re a relative?”

  “Your father’s cousin. Call me Uncle Kieran, boy. Put it there.” The athletic man shook his hand hard. When Stu tried to pull away, the man held fast and posed him for the numerous cameras. “The child of the founders has come to see what’s become of the seed they planted twenty years ago.” He spoke so clearly that the drones were sure to get every word.

  His uncle ducked into the air-conditioned limo before the reporters could ask any questions. After Stu climbed in, the driver closed the door behind him. Onesemo rode up front.

  Kieran held out a dark glass bottle. “Guinness Extra Stout? Your father’s favorite.”

  “Uh … sure.” Stu accepted the bottle. Why didn’t Dad ever mention this guy?

  “Look at you. Half the swagger, but twice the class of your old man.” Kieran popped a second stout for himself and took a swig. “I’m head of the trust’s board of directors and president of the school here in Rio. We’ll give you a wee tour on the way in if you’re not too tired.”

  “Those were students in the street?”

  “Yes, some current and some former. They have the day off because I declared a school holiday to celebrate your arrival—Founder’s Day. Oh, they love your mum around here.”

  “I’m partial to her myself.” After what happened with the German beer, Stu took the barest sip. “Ugh. Whoa.” The bitter taste was unexpected. “Herk brewed his mellower.”

  “Easy. Have a bite of cheese, beef stick, and crackers till you get your legs.”