The First Love Of Alipang Havens

This was the second day after the day when Miguel De Soto had nearly died; and erotic movie director Zimmo Garland still was keeping his actors oblivious to real-world events. By setting up sleeping spaces in the building they were using, and paying some local exiles to bring in meals, Zimmo had been able to step up the shooting schedule. He was hoping that whatever happened in Washington, his "artistic masterpiece" could be completed, and would take its place in the annals of progressive cinema.

For Zimmo Garland was NOT only in it for the money. An avowed admirer of Woody Allen and other God-mocking figures from Hollywood history, he had staked his whole feeling of self-worth on his ability to pretend that America still had an excess of "puritanism" which he would bravely correct.

By two in the afternoon, the movie company had passed what the director thought of as the fail-safe point: enough scenes had been completed with the flesh-and-blood actors, that if they had to quit shooting now, the rest could be filled in with computerized images. He did try to continue with another scene; but now, when an interruption came, he could accept it more calmly than if it had happened _before_ he had gotten "enough" done.

A male Commerce Inspector, who had been loaned to Zimmo as studio security, announced: "Internal Diplomat Daffodil Ford, and Forest Ranger Supervisor Mark Terrell, are at the entrance, asking to be allowed to speak to everyone."

Osmawani Jalil, who like most of Zimmo's actors was currently without clothing, hastily grabbed something to put on. Despite her own seductive behavior toward the teenager when they had first met, something about her increased acquaintance with Daffodil now made her wish for him NOT to think of her in an undignified way. But Daffodil's own mother, also in her birthday suit at present, seemed completely indifferent to whether her son beheld her thus.

"What do they want?" asked Samantha. "Don't they understand that _artistic_ productions are America's only major export to the world now? Our job here is important!"

Zimmo looked at Osmawani, who was already almost decent. "Osmawani, you're someone familiar with the law-enforcement community, in addition to being friends with Daffodil. You go see what they want; the rest of us will shoot some of the views which don't require you." So as soon as she had her blouse and skirt in order and shoes on her feet, the Malaysian-born woman went with the Commerce Inspector to the entrance where the visitors waited. Zimmo, meanwhile, activated the building's audio-surveillance equipment, so as to hear what would be said.

"Hello, the collective is all, how are you doing, what's up? I can speak for Citizen Garland," said Osmawani in a rush as she came in sight of Daffodil and Mark. Whiplash, the enhanced border collie, sat quietly beside his master.

"Miss Jalil, you do remember how Nash Dockerty came to be retired from the triumvirate, do you not?" asked Mark.

The question was sobering, as Osmawani guessed the Forest Ranger had meant it to be. "I remember, all right; I was closer to those events than I ever asked to be."

"Similar events are happening now, _outside_ the fence," Daffodil alias David Redfern told her. "They _don't_ affect you as heavily as the Overseers' downfall here in the Enclave did, but they will have _some_ effect on everyone still employed by the Department of Indoctrination."

"If you're going to frighten me," said Osmawani, "don't be frightening AND mysterious; just tell me what's going on. Daffy, does it have anything to do with what looks like a partly-healed broken nose on your handsome face?"

"It does," Mark Terrell affirmed. "Daffy here got hit in the face while helping to save the life of someone who was marked for murder."

"Murder?" she echoed. "Whom? By whom? For what?"

"The intended victim was Miguel De Soto, the newspaper man."

"And the planner of the crime," David added, "was the _very_ man I allowed to be the opening announcer at my Blue Moon Concert: Fidel North!"

Osmawani's jaw fell, and her defenses rose. "Fidel??? I didn't have anything to do with it, I swear, I didn't _know_ anything about it! I _wouldn't_ be part of murdering anybody! Daffy, you believe me, don't you?"

"Of course I do," the tall boy replied. As for Mark, he turned to his dog and said, "How about it, Whiplash? Do you think this woman would be part of murdering someone?"

The border collie shook his head emphatically.

"We aren't here to arrest anyone," the Forest Ranger continued. "But there are going to be some job changes for everyone who has remained with the Pinkshirts. The three Undersecretaries want the remaining Indoctrination personnel in Rapid City to come to a briefing on the situation, one hour from now, at the airport offices. Although _you're_ not being blamed for the latest crisis, it is _quite_ a shakeup that's going on."

"Ranger Terrell," David interjected, "can't we just tell her? Osmawani, the Department of Indoctrination is being _abolished_ altogether. The man who was Dockerty's boss was found, among other things, to have been a party to Sherman Lake's power-grid takeover plot which he had pretended to be innocent of. He's being eliminated, and Secretary Penfield is being demoted. Of lower-level Indoctrination personnel, only a few are being charged with anything; but the rest of you will have to be reassigned. Many will be transferred to the State Department."

"There's more, some of which even Daffy doesn't know yet," said Mark; "you'll hear more at the briefing. Please tell the others in there, including Zimmo Garland, that they need to attend. That would include Samantha Ford, even though there's confusion about whether she even still IS working for any Cabinet department."

The time that passed from David's mention of the State Department to this instant was enough for Samantha, suddenly grasping that something was up, to get just barely enough covering onto her shapely body to equal something like decency. Osmawani and the Commerce Inspector were just turning to re-enter the videocording studio when Samantha almost knocked them off their feet in her frantic hurry to get to her son. As Whiplash backpedalled out of her way, the ex-ambassador flung her arms around the boy, squeezing him close and kissing him repeatedly, seeming oblivious to how uncomfortable she was making him.

"Daffodil, son, my darling boy! I heard you saying that the State Department is gaining in status! This is your chance! Just let me counsel you through satisfying the tolerance requirement, and the sky will be the limit for us!"

Loathsome though she had become to the former Daffodil, she _was_ his mother all the same. So he neither struck her, nor threw her to the pavement, nor even said anything harsh to her. He even postponed informing her that he had changed his name. He simply told her, "You need to attend the briefing, Mother. I'll be there too. Then we'll understand the situation better."
 
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Josiah had known where David, lately Daffodil, was going; but he had to get back to work, helping Matti to kill more of Miguel's cancer cells. Knowing her husband was in good hands now -- never left unwatched anymore -- Tilly went down to the hospital's front entrance to see if David would return soon. It was unclear how much the triumvirate would need to tell the teenager and those with him. Brendan, Matti and Josiah were getting messages independently, and they had learned that no less a person than Vice-President Anselmo was being accused of extreme negligence, for diverting surveillance assets to his own projects instead of keeping them available for serious matters.

One thing Brendan found heartening was hearing that Presidium leaders had made references to Miguel De Soto by name, and spoken as if they would _not_ have been pleased if the attack on him had succeeded. This reinforced the hope that "God-fascists" would not be made scapegoats for anything now happening in the federal districts.

Meanwhile, this group had not yet been informed about the unrelated attempt on Yang Sung-Kuo's life.

Suppertime drew near, and still there was no sign of David; nor could Josiah get through to him by dataphone. Wilson, accordingly, volunteered to ride across town on a bicycle the Balubal family had lent him, to try to find out what was going on.

When he came within sight of the office building once used by the late Nash Dockerty, he saw that the nearest entrance was being guarded by two men in district-police uniforms. Coasting closer, he saw shoulder patches identifying them as officers of Inspector Eileen O'Hennessy's contingent from the Rocky Mountain District. They informed him that no one unauthorized was allowed inside at this time; that the meeting was still in session; and that there was no knowing when it would adjourn. Wilson decided to wait half an hour, then return to Sioux San if nothing happened.

About twenty minutes later, people began coming out, all of them looking very solemn, but none of them seeming to be in mortal terror of imminent death. Among these people, Wilson recognized Osmawani Jalil, Bailey Melville and Moonrose Quickpace; the latter two women were a surprise to him, as he had not realized they were even in South Dakota Sector. Three minutes later, Samantha Ford emerged with a gaudily-dressed man whom Wilson had never met, but whom he guessed to be Zimmo Garland. At last, the newest member of the Redfern family appeared.

"What happened? What was this about?" Wilson demanded.

"Hmmm, they didn't say we _couldn't_ tell other people the general news, although the reassignment plans are confidential. It was the Distribution Undersecretary who facilitated the briefing, which surprised some of us; but that would seem to reflect the rising fortunes of her department. The power struggle is getting bigger. If America still _had_ armed forces, there would be a scramble right now for control of them. As it is, a request has gone out for the Texas Rangers to send _two_ of their big airplanes to patrol above the Enclave instead of just one. Distribution says the idea's to keep the Enclave neutral."

"But who actually IS fighting, meaning the political fight? Isn't the Indoctrination Department already shattered?"

"Yes, it is. But now Carlos Anselmo has been accused of major dereliction of duty. Besides not anticipating the attack on Mr. De Soto, and besides that frivolous business with Jerry Sunderberg which HE ordered, it seems Anselmo is also being blamed for failing to prevent some other murder attempt, though I don't know who that intended victim was. Anyway, Anselmo isn't taking this lying down. That was the main reason why we were kept in there for so long: the Energy Undersecretary was receiving real-time updates from Washington by some sort of private channel, and all three triumvirate members wanted us all to hear if any further major changes occurred. And Lord save us, they sure did!"

All Wilson could say to this was, "What? What?"

David looked sick. "As soon as he saw that Jessica Trevette had turned against him, the Vice-President sprang an enormous surprise on the Presidium. He produced nano-video evidence, and an _eyewitness,_ to prove... that President Trevette _herself,_ during a past official visit to the Aztec-Maoist Republic of Aztlan... had performed at least one HUMAN SACRIFICE with her own hands. Cutting a living man's _heart_ out!"

Wilson stood stunned; no words he could think of would convey enough stupefaction.

Kilometers away, Josiah Redfern was also stunned, for he had previously hacked into his son's dataphone, so that through his own phone he could overhear what went on around the boy. This had been intended to give warning if David were in trouble, but now it gave warning of a change on the continental chessboard. Shielding on the government building had kept him from picking up anything while David was inside, but he heard the whole conversation with Wilson. Josiah, of course, had already known Jessica Trevette to be guilty of ritual murder; but what amazed him was that someone _else,_ independently of the secret army, had _also_ learned this. Anselmo must have been keeping the knowledge as a hole card, for exactly such a confrontation as he now faced.

Josiah was _grateful_ now that the nearest thing the Diversity States had to a modern military was -- the Texas Rangers. For at least the Rangers would not allow themselves to be used for wanton bloodbaths to support one rival ruler against another.

As for that: if Emilio Vasquez had been with him right now, Josiah would have urged the Ranger leader to pass a recommendation to the Ranger Commandant ... to _accept_ President Garcia's invitation to join the Mexican Alliance. But things were just going to have to play themselves out. One thing Josiah _could_ do now was to _pray_ plenty. And so he did.

David, unhindered by his mother (and still not yet having told her about his intended name change, since there had been so much else to think about), eventually returned with Wilson to the hospital, where they had a late supper with Josiah's party. Brendan lent the use of his dataphone again to let Wilson tell his parents what was going on. Three hours after that, when the two boys and the De Sotos were all asleep in one place or another, a secure channel which Professor Siermaala was monitoring yielded even _more_ explosive news.

There had been a _gunfight_ right inside the Fairness Party Presidium Building, formerly the United States Capitol Building. Intelligence that the secret army could obtain was sketchy about who had been shooting at whom; but several Mid-Atlantic District Police and several Diversity States Marshals had been involved, as well as what seemed to have been private hirelings of the Vice-President's.

The one thing the spies could be sure of, a fact not yet being revealed to the proletariat by the Party, was that President Jessica Trevette and Vice-President Carlos Anselmo... had both been killed.

 
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The theme and vision of this novel have made it unavoidable that the plot would jump around from one set of characters to another. Events which affect the world ARE NOT confined to the actions of six or seven super-busy persons.

Since I won't start the next chapter until sometime after my wedding to Karoliina Aleksandra, this is a good moment to provide a refresher description of some characters who've been offstage for awhile, but who might show up in the narrative again before all is completed....

HENRY SPAFFORD is our modern Apache brave, recently married to the former HULDAH ROSENBAUM, who has come to share Henry's faith in Yeshua the Messiah. They have settled down with their combined extended families in the Crazy Woman Creek area (an actual part of the actual state of Wyoming). Because he has his hands full building a new sheep ranch, and seeking to make some little Messianic-Jewish Apaches, Henry has been excused for the time being from Grange service.

BRITTANY PIERCE and JED BRICKHOUSE are the Commandant and Vice-Commandant, respectively, of the Texas Rangers. It was Brittany who masterminded the political strategy which enabled the Rangers to avoid being disbanded when the Diversity States was established, and enabled an undivided Texas to be its own "federal district," in which more freedom survives than in the other districts of the D.S.A. American military veterans who had neither fled the country nor been arrested, gravitated naturally to Texas, putting the Rangers in a strong position when the Diversity States needed someone to defend against the aggression of the People's Aztec-Maoist Republic of Aztlan. Brittany is keeping secretly in contact with "the nameless secret army;" carefully watching the accomplishments of EMILIO VASQUEZ and his aviation detachment in the Enclave; and fretting over the question of whether the Texans should accept the secret invitation they received, to secede from the D.S.A. and become a sovereign nation allied with Mexico.

TIBERIU PARNESCU of Poland, FATHER DUNAK OKIGBO of Nigeria, ETIENNE LACLEDE formerly of Switzerland, and YIRIMYAHU KOHEN formerly of Israel, are among the leading figures in that nameless army of good guys. Their underground organization first began as a resistance movement against the conquest of Europe and Africa by Islamic fundamentalists. But they have widened their portfolio to combat other tyrannies as well, including the two contrasting tyrannies which took over what had been the contiguous United States. The more familiar character of BRENDAN HYLAND is one of their comrades.

GENERAL YANG PANG-ZHU, not related to YANG SUNG-KUO, is the commander of The Orbital Palace, Greater China's huge space station, which openly functions as a unique hotel, and less conspicuously doubles as a multi-purpose military and diplomatic installation. The Burmese-born safety guard, NYUNT ZEYAR, is a prominent employee of the station. General Yang has been a go-between when his country negotiated sensitive interactions with its main rival India, with the secret army, and with the Pacific Federation. In the latter case, he met with BERT RANDALL from Australia. The General has also had some involvement with the affairs of China's Moon colony.
 
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Chapter 112: Daring to Hope for Still More

At Texas Ranger Headquarters, in the same secure conference room where Gloria Cervantes and Leroy Lincoln had once briefed the Rangers, the top four officers in the Rangers' regular chain of command were all gathered in one place for the first time since the day Vice-Commandant Pablo Sotero had fallen in the line of duty.

Commandant Brittany Pierce looked into the eyes of Jed Brickhouse, Martha Pollock, Wade Sampson -- and the one much more junior Ranger who was included in this meeting. Sally Pitt, a technician with Colt Finnegan's flight crew, had been sent to represent the Rangers' aviation branch, and to furnish up-to-date information that her Texas Tu-95 had gathered literally less than two hours ago. Captain Finnegan had dropped her off at the airfield, then resumed patrolling, in keeping with the Party Presidium's call for maximum air security in this time of governmental turnover.

"Ranger Pitt," said the Commandant, "our last word about the violence in Washington was that, when Vice-President Anselmo realized how serious a charge of neglect of duty was being directed at him, he decided to go for broke, signalling not only his personal guards, but secretly-planted operatives, to kill President Trevette. Trevette's own guards, along with D.S. Marshals who were present, returned fire; and the shooting didn't stop until not only Trevette and Anselmo were dead, but also all of Anselmo's gun hands and _nearly_ all of their opponents. Then several Supreme Court Justices, who were in attendance in their capacity as senior Party members, took command of the confusion, and got the Continental Marshal to alert all police entities to a state of emergency. No evidence has yet been found of the Aztlanos, or any foreigners, having played a hand in this. Do you have any changes to that story?"

"Some fill-in, anyway. Chief Justice Govinda's reaction to the gunplay was to stand there flapping his arms, _really_ believing he could fly away. Wanda Shang pulled him to cover."

"Justice Shang was the one guilty cohort of Sherman Lake to have escaped penalty when the Court's own coup failed," remarked Martha Pollock. "She must have been especially anxious to look innocent and virtuous when a new crisis broke out in front of her."

Sally nodded. "Our sources say that the rest of the Justices present simply cowered on the floor, everyone for himself, till the shooting was over."

"Shang's political survival was partly due to her closeness with Trip Conklin," observed Brittany. "Now that the Indoctrination Department's being abolished, is she faced with double jeopardy?"

"Seems not, ma'am. The Party seems to think that the Sherman-Dockerty business is old news."

"Despite Vitaly Khloponin being _recently_ exposed as connected with it?" asked Jed Brickhouse.

"That's how it looks now, sir."

"Is there going to be an autopsy on the Vice-President?" asked Wade Sampson. "They might want to know if anyone tampered with his brain. My impression of Anselmo was always as a man who'd rather watch lurid streamcasts than start a fight to the death to hold on to his authority."

"You never know," said Martha. "Up till this, Anselmo had never _been_ faced with serious Party displeasure."

"As far as we could find out," Sally told them, "there were no plans for an autopsy. The bodies of the President and the Vice-President were _both_ ordered to be composted this evening. Not without a few sugary words being said over them by a Oneness Priestess."

"As if that will do them any good where _they're_ both going," Jed snorted.

Brittany stayed on topic: "Is the Secretary of State succeeding to the Presidency as we expected?"

"Yes, ma'am, she is. The Secretary of Distribution was the first person to pledge his loyalty to her -- an interesting move, since he and Ms. Atkinson had never been especially thought of as close allies to each other."

Wade offered a shrug and a one-word comment: "Opportunism."

"This may mean opportunity for US, also," said the Commandant. "Since we've determined that no one _among_ us was working for our enemies, the Rangers once again have better internal cohesion and confidence than any other armed body in the Diversity States. And our airborne operations have gained increased respect for us from other forces, notably the Transport Police. Thus, even while staying in the D.S.A., Texas should be in a good position to wield influence with the new administration.

"But I would not yet completely rule out the option of our seceding and joining the Mexican Alliance. Would any of you?"

Every Ranger in the room agreed sincerely with Brittany Pierce.
 
A mobile corpse-rendering unit, hastily draped with flowers, was driven up in front of the Rainbow House. As the bodies intended for it were brought forth, a Oneness Priestess did indeed speak sugary words over the dead; in addition, a second Oneness Priestess performed an interpretive dance, which none of the onlookers could make any sense of.

The bodies were pulverized and composted -- or "welcomed into the embrace of Mother Gaia" -- in very short order. Then, Distribution Secretary Reed Harrison stepped to the microphones and faced the streamcast reporters, all of whom were aware that a shakeup in their organizations was impending.

"Citizen journalists! I know that all of you are as indignant as I am at the way your departmental colleague Vitaly Khloponin abused his office, and the way Secretary Penfield failed to curb his actions in time. The tragic, deranged actions of Carlos Anselmo have of course drawn more attention; but he was already an accessory to the Indoctrination Department's malfeasance, as when he presumed to employ Pinkshirt Manager Fidel North in a juvenile attempt to embarrass a decent Western Enclave citizen -- not long before Commander Khloponin set North to a deadlier plan against _another_ decent Enclave citizen.

"While it was Vice-President Anselmo who brought bloodshed to the Presidium, it was the Indoctrination Department which spent _years_ practicing a sort of political overkill upon dissenters here in America."

Neutron Invincible herself was in the crowd of reporters, and she had enough prestige to dare to ask a question of Reed Harrison: "Citizen Vice-President-Designate, are you saying that everything we've done to suppress Oppositional Defiant Disorder in the population has been _unnecessary?_"

"Oh, it was necessary up to a point," he assured her. "And up to a point, it will remain necessary. But the Indoctrination Department simply was doing too _much_ of it -- as is most obvious in the way they _continued_ plugging away at this nonsense about 'Ku Klux Quakers' even _after_ it was _proven_ to be nonsense.

"Yes, un-mutual thinking is harmful, and must not be allowed to unbalance the collective. But as I have come to understand more deeply in my years as Distribution Secretary, as long as the Party keeps firm control over all _material_ resources, it really _doesn't_ matter so much what nonconformists think. And when practical control is maintained, we can even afford to allow nonconformists to be useful. As in the case of that exile dentist, Alipang Havens, gaining the attention of satellite-monitor observers to reveal how the late Carlos Anselmo was playing irresponsible games with an ex-convict newly transferred to the Enclave. I know that I speak for Megavolt Atkinson when I say that the new administration will NOT practice gratuitous, unproductive harshness toward the Biblicals in our population, be they inside or outside the Enclave."

During this, Tim Govinda was being soothed into rationality by a woman calling herself Indira Payam, who was actually his adult cousin Chida Govinda. Though she had been Anselmo's last girlfriend, she had been as astonished as anyone by the Vice-President's insanely daring coup attempt; this fact being confirmed by brainwave lie-detection, she was cleared of any suspicion, and thus was able to hang around with the boy judge. When Chida prevailed upon Tim to quit barking and resume human speech, Tim proceeded to swear in Megavolt Atkinson as the second President of the Diversity States. She took her oath with her hand on a copy of The Bhagavad-Gita, which was placed on top of a copy of Das Kapital.

Once declared to be President -- and patiently bearing it when Chief Justice Govinda _licked_ her face -- Megavolt waited for her ally to be sworn in as Vice-President, then addressed the crowd in her turn:

"I thank all our faithful citizens for their loyalty to the Party. I concur with everything Vice-President Harrison has said. And in particular confirmation of his words about the Western Enclave, my very _first_ decree as President is that something the Presidium has discussed, _shall_ be done. The Enclave _shall_ be allowed to restore higher education, beginning with a medical university to be created on an unused college campus in Rapid City.

"As for the understandable perplexity expressed by Citizen Invincible, allow me to assure all you media workers that none of you is to be _punished_ for anything. None of you bears a stigma from the late Vitaly Khloponin. Though the Indoctrination Department as a Cabinet entity is now abolished, the majority of you will be continuing to work at essentially the same jobs as before -- only under different management. Citizen Invincible, along with Arista Penfield, Galaxy Spirit, Jessamina Pinder and Fluttery Madsen, will henceforth be employees of my own old organization, the State Department. Dynamo Earthquake, Trip Conklin and Zimmo Garland will be subordinated to the Teachers' Union, to concentrate henceforth on youth-enlightenment projects for the schools and the Diversity Pioneers. Additional reassignments will be forthcoming shortly..."
 
At the Spafford homestead near Crazy Woman Creek, the two cabins were unusually crowded. Besides Jay, Gloria, Henry, Huldah, Leah, Spencer, Kitty, Bobbie, Yitzhak and Yakov, room also had had to be made for Beltran and Phoebe Ugarte, who had come across the Big Horn from Greybull Valley to visit _just_ before the Enclave administration had barred travel. Knowing only hints of what was going on in Washington, the closely-packed exiles had been waiting in suspense to learn more.

Fortunately, telephone service had not been shut off. Thus, the Ugartes had managed to contact Grange volunteer Gabe Ellison, to ask for him and his dog Clementine to look after their sheep while they were stranded. Gabe lived near enough to the valley that he could get away with doing as the Ugartes asked.

On the morning after the Presidential funeral, Henry and Yakov were fishing -- not for fun, but for food, since Henry was not at liberty to travel the farther distance that would be required for any serious hunting of land animals. At the same time, Henry's little brother Spencer was at another location close to home, with Henry's Everstrain hunting bow. The synthetic material's ability to store up the kinetic energy of the person pulling it meant that even someone as relatively weak as Spencer could shoot an arrow from it with effect. Spencer's assignment was to shoot any large edible bird that might fly over within his range.

The reason why Henry was fishing, instead of watching for game birds, was that he considered fishing more of a sure thing. Meanwhile, Beltran, Yitzhak and Huldah, helped by the Rosenbaum family's two English sheep dogs, were watching the sheep; Leah and Phoebe were working in the family's large vegetable garden; Kitty and Bobbie were doing household chores; and Jay was making a wooden chair he hoped eventually to sell.

Henry had caught one fish, and his young brother-in-law had caught two, when Kitty came running from the main cabin to find her big brother. "Henry! It's Mister Wisebadger, he called for you on the phone!"

"Is he waiting on the line?"

"Yes, he is. He said you can go places again, and the Grange needs you now!"

When Henry's long legs had swiftly carried him home, he found his mother holding the phone and speaking with the Agriculture Ombudsman. As she held out the receiver to him, she told him, "John says that the Transport Police just announced it: people can move around again!"

Once Henry was on the phone, John Wisebadger filled him in more completely:

"Captain Brewster's putting out the word to all Ombudsman offices in the Enclave: a new administration's been safely installed in Washington, we reservation dwellers are NOT blamed for anything, and we have permission to have lives again. One immediate result is that back mail can be delivered now. I'm asking all Grange volunteers to report to their Grange Halls to pick up the bundles of letters and packages that have been accumulating."

Phoebe Ugarte was within hearing, so Henry didn't say anything about the Ugartes being able to go home now; it wasn't their fault they had been stranded, and he didn't want them to feel that his family was in a hurry to be rid of them. What Henry did say out loud was, "Can you tell us anything about the new regime?"

"The Secretary of State is now President, and the Secretary of Distribution is now Vice-President. Their Cabinet seats are being filled by in-house promotions, persons I never heard of otherwise. Anyway, there's more good news."

"Which is what?"

"Creation of a university in the Enclave has been officially approved! And they say they're going to increase access for outside relatives to come in and visit exiles!"

"I'll knock on wood for both of those things as I get going."

Henry told Huldah what was up, gathered his gear, and found that his father had already saddled Cochise for him. Reclaiming his bow from a disappointed Spencer (who had not even had a good chance to TRY shooting a bird), the tall Apache soon was off on his first Grange errand since before he had gotten married. He took no food with him, for he didn't want to make it short rations at the last meal Beltran and Phoebe would eat with his family before they started for home.

He would shoot something for himself to eat as he went.

 
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Captain Sally Brewster of the Transport Police had barely gotten done passing the word that freedom of in-Enclave travel was restored, when she was asked to meet with the Energy Undersecretary. Arriving at the triumvirate offices, she found that Inspector Eileen O'Hennessy and Forest Ranger Mark Terrell -- these being the other two most senior law-enforcement officials immediately available in the Enclave capital -- had also been called in by the Undersecretary.

"I've summoned you here to say that we need to make up for lost time," the sharp-minded old woman declared. "I'm sure all of you realized before now that our exile population IS NOT given to throwing bombs and cutting throats. Now that we have a new President who _also_ realizes this, we can get busy making this reservation a _productive_ community -- in ways which will both win goodwill for the exiles, and reflect credit on us who manage them.

"That movie, Sectors of the Heart, was delayed from its nationwide opening because of the latest rioting _outside_ the fence. It will now begin to be shown to the proletariat, which makes it all the more timely for us to help our Enclave residents prove their merits."

"As by letting them start their own university at last?" asked Captain Brewster.

"That and other things. But 'letting' is a key word there. Persons like John Wisebadger and Barney Jamison don't _need_ us micro-managing their every move. This being the case, I am going to urge Distribution and Agriculture to agree with me that police resources should be applied to the only segment of our population which _does_ need supervision."

"You mean the newcomers being delivered to Yellowstone Sector," said Inspector O'Hennessy.

"Correct. Not many of those are likely to cause trouble on purpose, given that so many of them got reprogrammed by order of the late Carlos Anselmo. But they will still need guidance in their new circumstances. If they see authority figures as benign instructors, that should yield future benefits in the harmoniousness of our enclosed society. Accordingly, if my colleagues agree with my plan, we will be sending ALL Transport Police and Commerce Inspectors, along with most of our Forest Rangers and District Police officers, up into Yellowstone for at least a month."

Ranger Terrell caught the Undersecretary's eye. "Has the new administration _told_ you that the geothermal project needs to be hurried up?"

"No; but I'm not going to _wait_ for them to decide that they need to hurry us along. So far, this new and larger national shakeup has not caused any trouble to us who run the Enclave, apart from the reassignments of the remaining Indoctrination personnel. Well, that and the arrests of Kasim Rasulala and Fidel North with their accomplices, of course. As of now, Freda Weckerling and Myra Brooks are literally the _only_ persons retained in the Enclave who ever worked for Arista Penfield. All the rest of us can infer that we've been given a tacit statement that we're all right. But we want to _keep_ it that way, by showing that we produce good results."

"And if President Atkinson is friendly to us," observed Captain Brewster, "we would do well to make sure that the Party Presidium never considers her to be _mistaken_ in trusting us."

"Yes, one hand washes the other. I want all of you to be easily reachable during the next two hours; it shouldn't take longer than that for the triumvirate to finalize our police allocation plan. The Texas Rangers will be getting their new reinforcements presently; but they won't be affected greatly by the increase focus on Yellowstone, since they've already assigned officers there. For the most part, they'll continue general air patrolling.

"You may go for now; get some lunch if you're hungry." The Undersecretary did not mention to any of them the real reason why she wanted the "Sky Rangers" to be kept patrolling: she didn't trust the Aztlanos NOT to try something while the Diversity States was off balance.



 
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It was a busy day for Alipang, and for Kim as his anaesthetic acupuncturist, as dental patients who had been stalled by the travel ban started coming in from the surrounding farmland. During this, Esperanza took a phone call from the Montefioris, reporting that their teenage son Giacomo would be riding up to Sussex on that family's one good riding horse. Giacomo intended to join the Grange volunteers, and since all current volunteers were being asked to go out and carry the backlogged mail, the boy would be asking to accompany Alipang on that excursion. On top of this, Wilson Havens finally came home from Rapid City, accompanied by the former Daffodil Ford and his newfound father Josiah Redfern.

Jillian Forrester went to the train station on behalf of the Havens family to meet the arriving trio. "Hi, Jillian!" exclaimed Wilson. "I'd like you to meet Mr. Josiah Redfern, and his re-labelled son, David Redfern!"

Shaking hands with Josiah, Jillian said, "We've heard some about that here. It's good to meet you, Mr. Redfern, I mean Mr. Redfern the elder! Daffy, or Dave, how does it feel to have a male name at last?"

"It feels good, but it feels _better_ to have a father."

"Are you going to move away to Africa with him?"

David looked uneasy at this, so Josiah supplied an answer: "He has the invitation, and my family back in Uganda has let him know he's welcome there; but he still has to seek the Lord's will about it. I'm not upset; rather, I'm glad that my new son _cares_ about knowing God's will."

"Well, good. Now, let's get you over to the Havens house."

They had not walked far before a second greeter sprinted into view. "Mister Redfern, David, you keep going, Jillian will show you the way. I need to talk to my cous--" This was as far as Wilson got before a girl-shaped missile crashed into him and clung to him like a boa constrictor. The other three left Wilson and Cecilia Ruth in as much privacy as standing outdoors in daylight near the train station could afford.

It was only because there could be strangers watching them that Cecilia did not kiss Wilson at all. But she would not be denied her right to squeeze herself against him with all her might.

"Wilson, Wilson, we only just barely started to be together again after all those years! I would've died, I would've dropped right down dead, if you'd been killed. Except for Jesus, my parents, Tommy and Irene, there's _nobody_ who matters to me as much as you do!"

Squeezing her in return, Wilson tried to choose words. "Cousin, honey, I, um, we...."

Cecilia hugged him still harder. "Can't you just say that you love me? I can say it easily: I love you! How hard is that to say? You do love me, don't you?"

"Of course I love you, Sizzle. And that's what we need to talk about: what we _mean_ by saying that."

Cecilia loosened her possessive grasp long enough to look around. "Could we go over to those trees? More away from anyone spying on us?" Wilson was agreeable to this, and she clasped his hand for the short walk toward comparative seclusion. In the shade, then, Wilson himself initiated a renewed embrace.

"Here we are, Cecilia. Ladies first: say what you want to say."

"Wilson, for all the years you and your family have been inside the fence, you've at least had the freedom to pray and worship and think, and work at jobs that make sense. My family's been living in a giant madhouse! America outside the fence is a madhouse! Now we're in the Enclave too, and even if you were nothing special, I like it here a kazillion times better than outside. But _with_ you here...." She moved her head from leaning on his shoulder, bringing her face close to his face. "This is a place I can be happy: here with freedom, here with good people -- yes, that includes Gustave and Victor, but neither of them is important to me. Both of them have been over to your house to pray with us, and I like it that Gustave and Victor _aren't_ mad at each other for both of them liking me. They're both good guys, part of a whole picture of good Christian people. But I'm not seriously _interested_ in Gustave or Victor, and I'm not _going_ to be interested in them."

She tightened her arms around Wilson, then continued: "More than two years ago, Mom gave me The Talk, about boys and girls and how everything works. As if every FOUR-year-old child didn't already know _everything_ about it, the way the Diversity States is! And she explained why it is that brothers and sisters aren't supposed to get married. I had no idea, back then, why she talked about that. But since we've joined all of you here, I've noticed Mom and Uncle Alipang looking at each other a couple times, like their minds were talking.... like they were both _remembering_ something. Not like they remembered _doing_ anything wrong, but like they remembered _feeling_ something. Even before that, in The Talk back in Georgetown, Mom said something else to me. She said, 'Brothers and sisters are still brothers and sisters even if it's only by adoption, but I really believe it would be different for two _cousins_ who are not related by blood.' She said all that to me in private. I didn't understand why she would bother saying that, either. Not _then,_ I didn't."

A deathly silence hovered around them. Neither one would break eye contact. At last, Wilson whispered, "Yes, I know you and I are not related by blood. Not only that, but-- you didn't get many chances to read the Bible on the outside, did you?"

"Hardly ever."

"Well, Jacob, the man who started Israel, _married_ his own first cousin Rachel, even though they _were_ blood cousins..." He fell quiet once more; but now, somehow, his chin was faintly touching her chin.

A few more long breaths; and then Cecilia murmured, "I've kissed _you_ twice since we've been reunited. Aren't you _ever_ going to kiss me?"

Dizzy with emotions, but finding the will to lean half an inch forward, Wilson brought his lips against his cousin's lips. And there they stayed. It had been disorienting when _she_ had initiated kissing the other day; to find _himself_ starting a kiss was like skydiving or something scary. But whatever fear might be called for, it wasn't fear of rejection; for Cecilia was kissing him back desperately. They had no experience, but plenty of feeling on both sides.

Several ecstatic centuries later, Wilson managed to move his mouth off of Cecilia's mouth. "Sizzle, I don't see any reason why it would be _sinful_ for you and me to -- to get married, eventually. But we're still only fourteen and thirteen years old. Whatever we do, we've GOT TO keep from hurrying!"

"You're right," she agreed -- yet claimed one more kiss of pretty fair duration before she would complete her own thought. "We have to take our time and be wise. But I love you, Wilson. I already loved you even before I saw you again. You're brave and smart and kind and good, and in _this_ way, like to want to get married, I love no one but you."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

When David, Josiah and Jillian came to their destination, it was to discover that Alipang and Kim still had their hands full seeing patients in their little clinic -- though they did allow their elder son, when he and Cecilia caught up, to slip in long enough to embrace them both. Jillian, accordingly, undertook to assist Esperanza in rustling up something for the travelers to eat, while Brendan dragged luggage upstairs in anticipation of Josiah and David staying the night.

Amid the gladness of having Wilson and David back, and of getting to meet Josiah, Esperanza was the first to think of bringing up the subject of the man who had been the cause of Wilson _being_ in Rapid City. "Mr. Redfern, how is Mr. De Soto?"

"Pretty good. Before I left Sioux San, we had gotten enough of his cancer cells killed that the staff doctors judged it was time to start regenerating his normal tissues."

"Then he _will_ receive tissue regeneration?" asked Jillian.

"That, and anchovies on his pizza! That's one good thing about almost getting murdered: you can lay guilt trips on people. I don't think anyone belonging to the hospital _wanted_ Miguel to die; but they allowed Fidel North to use the residual intimidation power of the Pinkshirts to bully them into looking the other way when he took control of the security monitors. So now, with the new regime in Washington showing favor to the exiles, the Sioux San folks are _highly_ anxious to make amends to Miguel. He's happy, Tilly's happy, and the city of Casper soon will be happy. Miguel is expected to be able to go home around the end of next week."


 
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"Have you heard any more news about the new university?"

David, formerly Daffodil, answered Jillian: "Yes, the physical property for it has been selected; and the first faculty member has been hired. You folks in Sussex know Avery Glass; he's going to be the head of the dentistry school there."

Esperanza smiled at this. "That's good. Poor Dr. Glass was having so much pain in his hands; now he'll be able to work with his _brain,_ teaching new dentists."

"And," remarked Josiah, "the very _existence_ of the new university will do as much as the geothermal project to affirm some dignity for you Enclave residents. Who knows, maybe eventually _you'll_ really be running this country."

Finally getting a break from seeing patients, Alipang and Kim returned to the house and were introduced to Josiah Redfern. An unspoken mutual recognition of kindred spirits passed between Alipang and Josiah as they shook hands.

"Thank you, Doctor Havens, thank you for encouraging my son, for allowing him to hope that he could be a man without being hauled up in front of the feminist inquisition."

"You're welcome. He's welcome. All of us here know that Daffy, or David now, has it in him to do and be great things. He just needs to know he's _allowed_ to do great things. Which is why, although my family has always enjoyed his company, I hope to God that you will take him back to Uganda with you -- so he'll _have_ his chance."

David spoke for himself: "I confess I'm pulled two ways. I can't think of anything I'd like _better_ than to live in the kind of family that my father has. But I _would_ miss you, Dr. Havens, and -- and your whole family here."

"He's told me how he feels about your youngest sister," Josiah interjected.

"And it's no sin for him to feel what he feels," Kim said to Josiah. "We just don't know if it could work out."

"I wish I could advise David in this," Josiah told them. "But although I've done plenty and seen plenty in my time, one area where I _don't_ have deep experience is finding love in spite of great obstacles. God almost literally dropped my Melody into my lap; her being pregnant wasn't an obstacle for me, because I knew the circumstances and I love children. She and I clicked immediately, and we got married within weeks after our first meeting. That doesn't work for everyone, but it worked for us. We had it easy in that respect; my son has a harder field to cultivate."

Alipang frowned in thought. "David will be seventeen before this year is out; but Harmony's already twenty-two. Even a smart boy like David needs to have _some_ further growing-up time before he's ready to be involved seriously with an adult woman, let alone married to one."

"As for that," put in Kim, "even if Harmony _weren't_ existing under the constraints of an internal exile, she would still need to be sure about _her_ feelings. I know that she _likes_ David a lot, and has no _other_ male object of interest so far; but she can't help feeling awkward about the age difference."

"If it were all up to me," said Alipang, "I would have David go to Uganda immediately, and live there for at least a year. Let him grow into the shoes of a free man. Then, when he was at or near what _used_ to be the age of consent in America, he could see if he still felt the same way about my sister after a long separation. If he did still feel that way, and if _she_ had not found someone else by then, perhaps that would be God's direction that there _could_ be something between them."

Josiah glanced at his tall yet self-doubting son. "I haven't pushed the issue of emigration for David with the authorities here; but Professor Siermaala, Brendan and I have gained enough respect through our work that I think I could pull it off."

Alipang suddenly brightened. "There's another possibility. Since David is already an employee of the State Department.... Josiah, you're in a better position to know this than I am. Does the Diversity States have an _embassy_ in Uganda?"

Josiah was visibly intrigued. "Yes, but not a big one or a very active one. The reason for that is because Jessica Trevette always hated Uganda for showing so much public support for sexual abstinence and chastity. But with Trevette gone to the eternal frying pan, the new government just _might_ be willing to expand its embassy operations in Uganda, and let my son be one of the new embassy workers!"

Alipang nodded. "That way, he wouldn't have to renounce his D.S. citizenship, yet he _could_ be with your family there."

They had not spoken for long about this possibility, when Giacomo Montefiori showed up. Encountering the former Daffodil for the first time since the day they had been on a train together, Giacomo behaved so cordially that David felt no more trace of his former apprehensiveness about the sturdier boy.
 
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That evening, Josiah regaled the Havens household with his past military adventures, much as Brendan Hyland had previously done. While they listened to the Army veteran, Wilson and Cecilia Ruth sat near each other, but not quite touching each other. Neither of them was sure how to tell their parents about what they felt for each other.

Giacomo Montefiori cast many appreciative glances toward Cecilia, but received no acknowledgment. He slept that night in his sleeping bag in the dental clinic, since the makeshift stable where his mare Cerenterola was lodged had no loft where a human might bed down.

In the morning, after breakfast (for which Josiah insisted on paying), the two Redferns went to board a train for Casper, so that David could introduce his father to more members of the extended Havens-Salisbury-Vasquez clan. "My Melody has told me that she'd like to be introduced by dataphone to this other Melody," the Iraqi Freedom veteran remarked.

At the local federal office building, Alipang and his friend Sumerico both took charge of bundles of delayed mail. Sumerico's batch called for him to ride in those areas to the north and west where both he and Alipang had done the greater part of their Grange service. This left Alipang, and his tag-along, to make deliveries in a region more southerly than Alipang usually visited. But this meant that Giacomo was more familiar with the assigned mail route, and could lead the way to the various rural recipients.

Sammy and Cerenterola carried their riders willingly enough, since neither horse had gotten to do much travelling lately. Once Alipang had absorbed the young shepherd's advice on their initial direction of march, casual time-passing conversation could begin.

Giacomo began by asking a question which had not come up the evening before: "Dr. Havens, are you disappointed that you didn't get to act on camera in Sectors of the Heart?"

"Not seriously. I'm sure it would have been fun, even if I'd been required to fall down in a heap after Chilena touched me with one finger. But when it comes down to it, I think I like reading books better than acting."

"My Papa says that when you're not reading Shakespeare, you prefer science fiction."

The warrior-dentist nodded. "Well, much of the time, anyway. Recently, bit by bit as I had any free time, I read a sci-fi novel from something like twenty years ago, by an author I hadn't heard of before, named John Ringo. It's called There Will Be Dragons. Peter Tomisaburo found a thrown-away copy of it in a building he was working on, and gave it to me. It was remarkably appropriate for someone here in the Enclave to read, since--" (here Alipang patted his horse, and touched his bow and quiver) "--it's about people being forced to live with more primitive technology when they suffer a loss of modern infrastructure."

"Like riding horses and shooting arrows?"

"Exactly. It was fun to read, if you could swallow the immoral and amoral parts. At any rate, it illustrates one element of the process by which America came to what it has come to."

"And what would that be, sir?"

"This country came to a _loss_ of its moral foundation, because too many of even the well-meaning people had settled for only a _partial_ understanding of the basics of right and wrong. When John Ringo uses his characters as his mouthpieces, he presents a number of _good_ points about things like individual responsibility and freedom, as _applied_ to the economic and military needs of a society. For instance, he correctly confronts the hard truth that predatory aggressors _won't_ become friendly just because pacifists toss flowers at them. But like most science-fiction writers, Ringo is clueless when it comes to the _spiritual_ needs of a society, both as relates directly to God, and as relates to love and family. One of the main heroines of the book, for instance, has left her husband just because she _felt_ like it, and she gets _praised_ for having done so.

"Thus, although authors like this one did realize that America needed to preserve its liberties by rejecting imposed collectivism, they didn't know how to give people the spiritual foundation which would have _enabled_ them to resist the totalitarian tide and preserve their liberties."

Giacomo swept his gaze in all directions, then looked back at Alipang. "Well, sir, we do have a spiritual foundation here in the Enclave. Do you think it's too late for freedom to return?"

"When you ask that question, son, you're really asking whether the world has yet reached the events of the Book of Revelation. At some point, the world _must_ be temporarily subjected to the unjust reign of the Antichrist, until Jesus comes to destroy him. But as long as it is not yet _indisputably_ proven that we are locked into that course of events, I have to believe that it's _possible_ to regain freedom for our country. Only, for us to play our part in God's plan, we have to remember the meaning of being both harmless as doves and wise as serpents."

Giacomo did not feel so bold as to ask how this meshed with Alipang's having done bodily violence to evildoers on a few occasions. The boy realized that a Christian did not have to be an _absolute_ pacifist; but he didn't want to seem like a smart-aleck in the eyes of a man his family greatly respected.

 
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Chapter 113: New School, Old School, and a School Reunion

Among the numerous pre-revolution college campuses in and around the Enclave, the one that recommended itself as a site for the new university was the former Western Dakota Technical Institute. Located on Mickelson Drive near the eastern city limit of Rapid City, it was a place which had offered medicine-related courses in its day; and some surviving hard copies of textbooks from these courses were fortuitously found in a long-unvisited storage room.

A second department head for Western Enclave Medical University had been chosen: the elderly Barney Jamison, who would head up the Surgery Department. He and his wife Ursula came down from North Dakota Sector to meet with Avery Glass. These three conferred while exploring what was to become their campus. Accompanying them were Avery's daughter Lenore... and Samantha Ford, who, being finished acting in Zimmo Garland's "artistic" movie, was distancing herself from further connection with him until she was sure he would not be a career liability to her because of the Cabinet shakeup. Being familiar with various forms of media, Samantha had offered to assist the new exile faculty in getting learning materials transcribed into the analog media forms which they would be allowed to use.

While the Jamisons and Dr. Glass were inspecting office space, guessing what faculty departments would be housed where, Samantha availed herself of an opportunity to speak with Lenore alone. Since Lenore had been wronged by a former husband, the ex-ambassador assumed that Lenore would share in her contempt for males. It was in the strength of this assumption that she said:

"They're not going to let any _more_ departments be headed by _male_ professors, are they? I'd say that two chairs for men is more than enough."

Since the other woman had not directly insulted her father, Lenore answered her without showing annoyance: "You'll recall that the triumvirate, not any exile, is making all the choices for faculty appointments. But I know that there are women in the Enclave who would be capable of teaching internal medicine, pediatrics and pharmacology. I'm not sure if they'll be trying to set up more than those five departments anytime soon."

Remembering that it was an exile she was talking to, Samantha ramped up her pretense of sincere friendliness to the same "God-fascists" whom she had long blamed for all the world's ills. "That many departments, if they can turn out even three or four graduates per department in the next ten years, will earn quite a reputation for the university. In fact, I'll be urging the President to offer the incentive of allowing graduates who prove themselves by an internship in the Enclave to take up their practice _outside_ the Enclave."

"That would be an impressive offer," said Lenore, tactfully keeping to herself her knowledge that other governmental figures were already advocating the same offer Samantha had mentioned. The dentist's daughter believed that this idea had less to do with a mood of generosity toward the exiles, as with the likelihood that healthcare professionals of every type were emigrating from the repressive Diversity States whenever they found a chance to do so.

When Avery, Barney and Ursula rejoined them, the latter was carrying two box-like objects. "Look here, Citizen Ford! We found two old audiotape recorders in a cabinet, with some of the tapes they used! Do you recognize the model?"

Samantha peered closely at the tape recorders, then replied, "They look similar to a recorder my chromosome-sources had. If they work -- or for that matter, with any analog sound recorder that _does_ work -- I can provide the voice for sound recordings of print materials you currently have available. I developed flawless enunciation over my years of giving speeches."

Samantha saw this as a means for her to be confirmed as a useful part of the university's creation, without getting into technical territory where she might make a public fool of herself. The other four persons also saw this as a means for her to be useful without getting in the way too much. The one caveat that came to mind, was raised by Barney: "It's an outstanding idea, provided that we can assign someone to help you pronounce the more obscure scientific terms correctly."

"I'll do it," Avery swiftly volunteered. He knew the type of person Samantha was; and he would regard it as a subtle, private revenge upon the Fairness Party when he made this heterophobic witch dependent on a _male_ to save her from bungling the voice-recording job.

 
At Natrona Airport on the west side of Casper, Donna Morales was glad to resign from her temporary deputizing with the Texas Rangers Enclave Aviation Detachment. The promised additional personnel had arrived, including four male Rangers who would henceforth cover permanent security duty for their Enclave headquarters.

The Texans even brought with them a gift intended for the new university: a pair of life-sized anatomical dummies, representing a man and a woman, which could be disassembled and reassembled. Originally used as an aid in training crime-scene investigators, they would now be a resource for anatomy courses, at a medical school which was denied the use of holographic projections.

Most of the incoming Rangers would be staying. But one who was not to be staying, found herself summoned to the detachment commander's office. Entering the spy-proofed room, Ranger Zella Greenlee greeted Emilio Vasquez -- who promptly drew her attention to the other man in the room, Brendan Hyland.

"On behalf of my anonymous posse," said the secret agent to Zella, "I will be asking you to transport an important hard-copy document back to Texas, and to deliver it personally to Commandant Pierce. She'll be expecting it."

"Of course," replied the young Ranger. "Am I allowed to know what's in it?"

"You are," Emilio told her. "It's the life's work of a man as lost in time as a nineteenth-century cowboy: an _honest_ journalist."

"If he's honest," she observed, "he must be an exile. Which must mean he's that Cuban-American fellow, Mr. De Soto?"

"The same," said Brendan. "Miguel has been given a new lease on life, thanks to Professor Siermaala's ultrasonic anti-cancer process. But his life expectancy would plummet again if it were known what he has written. You are going to be carrying an old-fashioned book of investigative journalism: the _real_ thing, not a fabrication designed to libel people chosen as scapegoats by the Fairness Party." He showed her the hefty paper manuscript. "This is in part Miguel's autobiography, but above all it is an expose' of the true history of the Fairness Party -- digging up the dirt not only on the late, unlamented Jessica Trevette and Carlos Anselmo, but also the _other_ leading figures of the regime."

Zella looked worried. "But if making it public would be likely to get Mr. De Soto killed, what use _can_ be made of it?"

"Intel, naturally; it turns out that, before he was ever exiled, Miguel unearthed a few gruesome facts that even Colonel Parnescu didn't know -- things equally as gruesome as Jessica Trevette having played at Aztec human sacrifice with the Formenteras. And for wider consumption, Miguel's material can be sanitized. Once the manuscript has been typed into a computer file, our people can edit out everything that identifies him; and fusing his information with other data will disguise his contribution still further. Then we'll have a massive indictment of the Party."

Now the characteristic perkiness returned to Zella's face. "But doesn't the whole _world_ already know that the Fairness Party is a gang of crooks?"

"Sort of. But I've been around United Nations diplomats more than you have; I can tell you that at least half of them are disgustingly indifferent to the moral principles that the Party tramples on. The way this manuscript will change things, is that it will prove the Party guilty of things which _even_ the worthless United Nations will admit are unacceptable. Representatives from the Caliphates, and from other dictatorships, laugh off the slaughter of proletarians; but they can't afford to be equally tolerant of politicians who kill off THEIR OWN PEERS. Miguel's book fleshes out a picture we already knew to some extent: the fact that Trevette and others had assassinated rivals _within_ their own movement even before the Fairness Revolution."

"Then are you going to cut loose with this, and condemn the Party in the eyes of the world community?"

"That remains to be seen -- just as it remains to be seen whether you Texans will accept Andreas Garcia's invitation to join the Mexican Alliance. This new Atkinson administration is making noises about being much more lenient to nonconformists in the D.S.A.; we don't want to crucify them if they're sincere about that. Starting up that new medical school for the exiles is a strong sign of good faith on President Atkinson's part. So we'll give her a chance to prove herself, but we'll have our incriminating ammunition ready."
 
Alipang and Giacomo missed regular Sunday church during their mail-riding tour, but managed to get in some prayer time and fellowship with a farm family a day's ride west of where Giacomo's family lived. As they went about, Alipang taught the shepherd boy how to distinguish various animal tracks; but they met no dangerous beasts. The large-predator population seemed finally to be under control, since the Forest Rangers had been supplementing the efforts of the Grange Association.

It was on a Tuesday morning, after parting with Giacomo at the Montefiori farm, when Alipang rode up to Sussex -- to find an excited Kim, on her own horse, meeting him partway. "Al! Something good's come up!" she exclaimed as soon as her husband was within hearing. "We're going to have a chance to get up to Yellowstone and see the Rands!"

Ever mindful to spare his hard-working mount, Alipang slid out of the saddle and ran on foot to close the remaining distance, letting Sammy follow at his own pace. When the huntsman-dentist reached his wife, she leaned over to kiss him soundly, then explained her news:

"We got a phone call from Forest Ranger Demophilos. He's driving a bus up from Nebraska Sector, bringing several Commerce Inspectors who will be under his supervision during an assignment in the geothermal-project area. He said he can squeeze you, me and the baby on board; and I've already got the Forrester, Tomisaburo and Rochefort families lined up to look after our other kids and the horses while we're away. At last, we'll be able to _see_ Summer and Evan!"

"Outstanding!" cried Alipang, drawing her down for another kiss. From there to their house, he jogged all the way, even on the hilly part, able to keep up with the relaxed trotting pace which would make the home stretch easy on Sammy and Lacey. One more dental emergency awaited him at home, a little girl brought in by a family whose land neighbored Britt Gavilan's farm; but Alipang was able to attend to her needs fairly quickly. Kostas Demophilos arrived as he was finishing up, after which it was hasty packing, and a hasty goodbye to Wilson, Esperanza and Brendan -- all of whom were hoping soon to meet Summer and Evan's children.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

"Our latest news looks like proof that President Atkinson is staking some of her political capital on her confidence in exile workers," remarked one woman among the Commerce Inspectors in the bus.

"What news in particular?" asked Alipang.

"A change in the geothermal-plant construction plans. You know that Sustainable Energy was intending to get all of the geothermal generators ready to go _before_ putting any of them online in the power grid. But now the President has instructed the Energy Department to take the portion closest to completion, push that ahead as a separate plant, and get it putting out power as soon as possible."

"There's practical sense in that," remarked one of her male colleagues. "As soon as the first segment is operational, it can itself supply electricity for the work on the remaining segments."

"True enough. But it's also true that Atkinson wants to be able, sooner instead of later, to be able to say to the whole Party Presidium, 'See? There's a tangible result, added energy for the country's needs. I told you that decent treatment for the exiles would pay off in more productivity _from_ the exiles.' You, Dr. Havens and Mrs. Havens, must be happy to have Meg Atkinson in the Rainbow House now."

"Although I don't recall being allowed to vote about it," replied Alipang, "I don't mind agreeing that this President appears to be offering us a better deal than having to wonder every day if an Overseer would be in the mood to fry us with a particle beam."

From where he sat behind the wheel, Forest Ranger Demophilos leaned back and said, "You'll find your friends Evan and Summer in an optimistic mood as well. I was on the radio earlier with personnel at the worker-intake center, and a woman calling herself Sister Arabella told me that those two have really taken to their work."

"I'm sure they have," remarked Kim. "Now that the Campaign Against Hate is gone, I can say frankly that I would take the same satisfaction that Summer and Evan are taking -- in helping people to _recover_ from the damage that the Campaign did to them."

"You _will_ be part of that process," Kostas told her. "The intake center has no dentist assigned."

Alipang looked at his wife. "Good thing we brought my portable dental kit and your acupuncture needles."

 
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It felt strange to Alipang and Kim to be passing beyond what had until recently been the perimeter of the Enclave. Only enough of the old fence and the infrasonic minefields had been removed to allow for a handful of ground-travel routes into the new Yellowstone Sector; entering that northernmost fringe of Wyoming which had never been part of the original Enclave, the exile couple could see still-standing sections of the barrier, though of course these were no longer activated.

As they went, Kim suddenly laughed and remarked, "I just realized: Devil's Tower will now be inside the Enclave! Does that mean that we'll get to meet the space aliens from Close Encounters of the Third Kind?" Alipang replied, "No, it just means that the Party thinks we _are_ the space aliens!"

But they did not get _very_ far beyond the old perimeter that day. The unmaintained state of roads around what had been eastern Wyoming's border with Montana, when combined with a June thunderstorm, slowed their progress. Kostas parked the bus for the night at a deserted truckstop, and some of the Commerce Inspectors explored the building.

Portions of the interior looked as if they had long been in use by animals; something, in fact, skittered away from the humans amid the shadows. Accordingly, after making use of the still-existing toilets, everyone contrived to sleep in the bus. By the Forest Ranger's insistence -- naturally seconded by Alipang -- Kim, with Baby Peggy, was given the best spot, namely the rear half of the aisle of the bus. After nursing her daughter, Kim lay down on her raincoat on the floor, with Alipang's raincoat spread over her, and her head pillowed on her travel bag. Peggy, in her own blankets, lay under a seat: near her mother, yet in a place where there was no danger of Kim rolling over onto her. Alipang slept near them, sitting up -- and remembering a night spent at the airport in Seattle, more than twenty years ago.

The other portion of open floor was awarded to a female Commerce Inspector who had the most driving experience in the group apart from Kostas; this woman would be taking over the driving tomorrow.

The rugged Greek had taken a seat for sleep which allowed him to speak softly with Alipang. "I hear through police channels that, for the sake of hurrying the powerplant construction forward, the Party is discussing a new incentive program. If it's approved, then once the geothermal project is deemed to be showing good results, a few exile workers who are judged to have been especially useful.... will be _released_ from the Enclave, with their families."

"I guess that's plausible," replied Alipang, "since by now they've had years in which to see that it's our nature to contribute to society instead of sponging off it."

"You don't sound excited."

"Why should I be? No one in my family is involved in building the geothermal plants."

"But if you serve as part of the healthcare infrastructure for the project, that _makes_ you part of it. Wouldn't you like a chance to be able to leave the Enclave?"

"That would depend on what we were leaving TO. Here, we already have significant freedom of speech and religion; and it's recently become possible for persons dear to us to come _into_ the Enclave to see us. I'm not sure that life _outside_ the fence would be an improvement for us now. That is, unless we kept on going, all the way to Africa."

The Forest Ranger's black eyebrows rose. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, sorry, that's something you haven't been following closely. One of those outside medical technologists who were allowed to enter the Enclave is an old friend of mine, and he lives in Nigeria. Another of them was revealed to be the test-tube father of our friend Daffodil -- who changed his name, as you may have heard. That man lives in Uganda. Both of those African countries enjoy general freedom; I wouldn't mind living in one of them, assuming I could find work, which I'm sure I could. It would also mean being relieved from freezing winters! But I would still be sorry to leave America -- as long as anything remains that is _like_ the America where I grew to adulthood."

Kostas nodded. "And for you, the Western Enclave IS that remnant of the United States."

"That's what it is, all right, _even_ with all the snow and ice of Wyoming winters."
 
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"Lunge onto your left foot... then back... now onto the right foot... then back... left arm straight up, then down... right arm straight up, then down..."

At the former Saint Labre School, shortly before lunchtime on the day when Kostas Demophilos' party would arrive, Evan Rand was leading the equivalent of an old-fashioned aerobics class; at this time, though, the seventy-plus ex-convicts following his instructions were working more to normalize the range of movement in their limbs, than to improve their wind. Evan's wife Summer, their oldest child Michael, and Sarah Highbranch the Native American nurse, were moving among the construction recruits as they exercised, offering suggestions. This rehab group contained all of the worst-malnourished of the recent arrivals at the Northern Cheyenne Reservation; much of their time was devoted to eating, and exercise was kept at cautious levels. Others, who were in better health, were being coached by Rusty the handyman in the use of assorted tools.

A fortyish woman, one of the nutritional assistants, came trotting up to announce to Evan in a joking tone: "Mister Rand, we're saved at last! A squad of police has just driven up from Highway 212, to rescue us all from the terrible crime wave that's been going on!" The "crime wave" to which the exile woman referred, consisted of three trivial scuffles among non-programmed inmates, plus exactly one instance of a blanket being stolen in a dormitory.

"Thank God for the cavalry!" replied Evan in the same kidding manner. "Which band of noble knights do they represent?"

"One senior Forest Ranger, with some low-ranking Commerce Inspectors placed under his leadership. And when they began getting off the bus, I heard one woman saying something about a dentist."

"Dentist?" echoed Summer, who had come up in time to hear what the woman said. "Evan, you don't suppose--?"

Evan's eyes lit up to match those of his wife. "They did say they would visit up here if possible; and with the only project dentist being over at the construction camp... Class, dismissed! Come on, Summer! Michael, go bring your sisters and brother to the parking lot!"

The Rands hurried to where the bus would be. Before they could quite see the man they were looking for, they heard his voice: a voice which carried Evan and Summer back to a happy day eighteen years before, when that same voice had pronounced Evan to be worthy of Summer's affections. Right now, the voice was saying to someone:

"Relax, ladies, I'm not mad at you. If I _were_ to start holding grudges, there'd be plenty of people ahead of you on my gutflak-list, anyway. But you can easily score some positive points with me now: just tell me where--"

By the time Alipang Havens had gotten this far, Evan and Summer had caught sight of him and Kim, the latter holding Baby Peggy. The women to whom Alipang was speaking were the physician's assistants, Freda Weckerling and Myra Brooks -- who had been involved, less than a year ago, in the abduction of Alipang's Apache friend. Freda and Myra did appear intimidated by the short but muscular Filipino; he, however, showed no sign of ill-will toward them.

The shouting of Alipang's name by Evan made it unnecessary for either Freda or Myra to offer any directions; they accordingly faded back and left the reunion to run its own course.

Evan walked fast, but Summer sprinted outright, as Alipang and Kim turned to look at them. It suddenly crossed Evan's mind that he and Summer, due to their ordeals in Self-Esteem Centers, were more drastically changed from their teenage appearance than was the case with Alipang and Kim -- even if one overlooked the two missing fingers on Summer's left hand. The same realization was slower to dawn on Summer; it only struck her when she was within three paces of her substitute brother, and realized that he was staring to make sure she was who he thought she was.

"Summer?" Alipang asked, sounding almost bewildered.

All at once, the girl pal from Smoky Lake, who had been important in Alipang's life despite having no romantic involvement, was weeping uncontrollably. She wept because Alipang's face had unwittingly declared how suffering had marked her appearance; wept because her family had missed out on years in which they should have been enjoying frequent socializing with the Havens family; and wept because her parents had not lived to witness this reunion with mortal eyes.

Alipang crossed the last bit of space, and gathered her into his mighty embrace. The rest of her sobbing was done on his brotherly shoulder, as she clung to him with one maimed hand and one intact hand. She kissed Alipang once on the cheek, and he kissed her twice on the forehead. As the reunited friends held each other close, Michael Rand came up with Anne-Marie, Grace and Grant.

Meanwhile, Kim had approached Evan, holding out her one arm that was not holding her baby. "I expect I'm allowed to hug you, too." Once Evan was hugging her, she whispered in his ear: "Don't worry, Al never cries out her name in his sleep."

"Nor she his," Evan replied. "I'm not worried. Far from it, I'm delighted you're here. Getting back together with Al will do Summer nothing but good. One thing: when Summer starts admiring your baby, remember that the prison system sterilized her. She'll never have another baby; even though we love the four we have, that cutoff rankles in one corner of her soul."

"I understand," said Kim. "Hopefully, catching up on old times with Al will give her enough happy stuff to think about, that seeing a baby won't depress her."

And Kim proved to be correct about this.

 
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Simply clinging to Alipang was enough to satisfy Summer for the length of time it took for Kim to be introduced to all four of the Rand children (of whom the elder two did have some recollection of her), and for these children and their father -- along with several random bystanders -- to be introduced to Baby Peggy. Also for the time it took for Evan to ask those bystanders to make sure that Felicia Robles and the staff knew that a dentist had just become available. Also for the time it took for Kim to ask Evan to relate the story of Reagan Desmond's miraculous healing back in Georgetown, about which Kim and Alipang had heard only a condensed account from Dan and Chilena. Not until Evan was finished with this story did Summer unwind her arms from around Alipang's torso, raise her hands to hold his face, pull him to her for a light kiss on the lips, and then step clear of him.

Seeing Summer turn toward her, Kim instantly judged that it was better to make a good-humored acknowledgement of the other woman's demonstrative affection to Alipang, than to say nothing and perhaps cause her to fear that Kim was holding in a jealous annoyance. Thus Kim, leaving Peggy in the arms of Anne-Marie Rand, said, "Glitches, Summer, it's a shame you don't like Al anymore!" Then she stepped up and had her own hug with Summer.

Not letting this embrace end quickly either, Summer whispered in Kim's ear, "I hated to stand back and have him SEE me like this. I look like death warmed over."

Kim put Summer at arm's length and declared: "No, you look like life, enduring the storms."

"And the climate's better here than in Leavenworth or Joliet," Evan affirmed. "We're even allowed to have prayer meetings and Bible studies, and not only on Thursdays!"

"Although the only Bibles we have here are some of the officially condensed ones," added Summer. "So we're always having to explain to the other folks what was in the missing parts."

They managed a few more minutes' worth of small talk before Sarah Highbranch hurried up to them. "Doctor Havens, is that you? God knows you came at a good time; we have no fewer than six patients with serious dental problems. You did bring equipment along, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did. Kim, you go ahead and continue the reunion with Summer and Evan; I can take care of triage myself."

Summer grasped his arm for a moment -- purposely using her maimed hand. "I may look a mess, Al, but you and Kim, and your new baby, look like a piece of Heaven to me."

He patted her hand on its remaining fingers. "I agree with what Kim said about the way you look. We'll talk more later."

As he accompanied Sarah to the building which Dr. Robles had claimed for medical purposes, Alipang asked, "How did you determine who has dental problems? Did the police who brought them here hand over dental records on them?"

"Nope, no dental records; indeed, no health records of ANY kind, except in a few cases where the person had a really severe ailment. The ones we know of, told us about it themselves."

"And of the ones who told you they had tooth trouble, were any of them subjects of that passivity programming?"

Sarah halted in her tracks. "I hadn't thought about that connection! The ones who told us they had dental problems, as far as I know, were ones who DIDN'T have that reprogramming."

"I was afraid you'd say that," Alipang told her. "Judging by the one clockwork orange with whom I've had substantial contact, the conditioning makes them afraid to complain about anything. Is it possible to assemble all the programmed people, so I can ASK them if they need dental care? I'll bet my number of patients will triple once those folks are given permission to SAY that they need help."

"We'll get them rounded up for you, just before they eat," said the Cheyenne woman. "Then you'll have a chance to eat with us, before you start giving examinations." And soon there was an assembly, to which Alipang issued the invitation to reveal any dental needs, promising that no one would be punished for telling him their situation.

Alipang's guess had been optimistic. His number of patients was soon quadrupled.
 
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Anne-Marie Rand volunteered, before she herself ate, to run to the quarters that had been set aside for Alipang and Kim; from there she fetched Alipang's equipment back to the dining hall, so that the about-to-be-swamped dentist would have it ready to pick up. Thanking the girl was almost the only thing Alipang said at the table; he was devouring his lunch like an old-time Army bootcamp recruit with only five minutes allotted to eat.

While he was gobbling, Kim told Summer and Evan: "Even with the latest crisis all over with, it's an eventful summer for us. You remember Ransom Kramer? His sixteenth birthday is coming up; we and his mother will give him his last pre-Amish birthday party, at which we'll see to it that he gets photographed for the last time. Soon after that, he'll be baptized into the Amish faith. We expect this to be followed shortly by an announcement of his engagement to Lydia Reinhart, though of course they won't actually get married until they're a bit older. Al and I will be celebrating our fifteenth anniversary. And any day now, Sectors of the Heart will begin to have showings inside the Enclave."

"I realize that you got to see some of the shooting on that movie," said Summer. "Is it something we'd be able to watch without throwing up? --You understand that I mean in the context of the message, not of Dan and Chilena's performances."

Alipang, with a mouthful of biscuit and gravy, did nod at this, but left it still to his wife to reply: "Of course. And yes, you should be able to watch it without reverse digestive peristalsis. Business corporations come in for the standard bashing, but _Christians_ are not shown as villains. In fact, _female_ Christians are even allowed to be smart and brave."

Evan looked at Alipang while saying, "Well, we mustn't expect too much. After all, who ever heard of a _male_ Christian being smart and brave?"

The smart and brave male Christian whom Evan was complimenting by implication, managed to smile in Evan's direction while cramming in some turnip greens. As Kim spoke further about the recently-made movie, Alipang finished eating, patted her shoulder, grabbed his dental kit, and sought out Sarah so she could lead him to the room being set up to be his temporary dental office. "I'll need someone with paper and a pencil," he told the nurse, "who can write down my dental-triage comments. The next dentist who will see all these mouths deserves to have _some_ kind of prior data to go by."

"It's your lucky day, Dr. Havens: we found some notepaper tablets in a cabinet last week, decades old but still usable. I'll ask Sister Arabella to write your information down for you; she still can't get around very well, but she'll be glad to be useful this way."

"Thanks. Do you know if anything's been done to enable the newcomers generally to take care of their own teeth?"

"No one thought to supply us with toothbrushes for them when we started the intake process, let alone those modern evaporating mouth-cleaner capsules. But Miss Brooks hit on the idea of supplying them with salt water as an oral rinse, and Miss Weckerling dug up some fishing line that could be cut into half-meter lengths for use as dental floss."

Alipang nodded. "That's better than nothing; and it's nice to know that those ex-Pinkshirt ladies can do _something_ constructive."

"They do their jobs very well here," Sarah assured him. "If they hadn't proven themselves valuable in the time since they transferred out of the Campaign Against Hate, I expect the triumvirate would have counted them still as Indoctrination workers, and thus expelled them from the Enclave."

At this point, they arrived where they were going -- to see inmates of the processing center starting to form a waiting line. Sarah went to summon Sister Arabella, and Alipang began introducing himself to his new patients.

 
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Chapter 114: Thugs of a Feather

At the presidential palace in Los Angeles, Aztlano President Emilio Formentera enjoyed a last few kisses and caresses with the woman who had shared his bed overnight, then told her, "You just relax now; Conchita will bring your breakfast, and then you can replay the conference on the monitor. We'll talk later."

Once he had shaved, showered and dressed, El Presidente emerged from the private suite, to find his sister Lupita waiting to see him, along with his six-year-old daughter Sadida, who was named after Emilio's and Lupita's deceased mother. "Well, Sadida, did you have a good time with Tia Lupita last night?"

"Yes, Papa," the child replied, running to her father's embrace. "She showed me all the kill spots for knife work."

"She's going to be a natural," remarked Lupita -- whose own interest in killing skills had increased since she had come close to being murdered by the late and unlamented Cho Kwok-Shu.

Emilio kissed his daughter. "Excellent! Now, your aunt is going to be busy with me this morning, so Mandy will be with you." Where the servant Conchita was a paid employee, Mandy, an African-American who had been unable to get out of California before the Aztec Maoists took over, was an obedience-programmed slave.

One of the two bodyguards who had been on duty at the door of the suite now escorted little Sadida to Mandy's custody, while the other man accompanied Emilio and Lupita to the secure conference room where their important guest waited.

As a sign of trust in his guest, Emilio brought no guards of his own into the room -- unless one counted Vinu Dandekar, who was already there. Vinu had risen very high in Emilio's favor when he had saved Lupita's life in Hawaii just after Tonio Formentera's downfall; the India-born gunman had not after all chosen to take on the complications of being Lupita's lover, but both siblings thought highly of him (and approved of his having a relationship with Conchita instead). Vinu now sat at the table beside the special guest, who had three bodyguards standing behind his chair.

Mr. Swapnil Vamsa of Mumbai now rose to shake hands with Emilio and Lupita. He had been one of the Indian mafia guests aboard Emilio's yacht on the day when Sunki Pavatea fell over the side with Morton Tannenburg and appeared to have drowned. "It's great to be back," he told his host and hostess, "especially now that I don't have to share time and space with Triad men."

Knowing that Swapnil knew about her narrow escape from being murdered, Lupita told him, "I certainly don't miss the Chinese mob."

"Shall we get to business?" asked Emilio. "You know that I'll have plenty of entertainment for you afterwards."

"Indeed." As Swapnil sat down, Vinu made things a little easier for him by starting the least happy of the Indian gangster's disclosures:

"Jefe, I'm afraid that Senor Vamsa's people have been unable to get any Indian satellite use for your purposes. The Indian government has too tight a lid on. Ever since the Pacific Federation helped them to uncover your father's weapon-smuggling operation, they've been more alert about everything."

"Not your fault," Emilio assured Swapnil. "When Beijing cut off all of our access to _their_ satellites, they also put out the word that they would rather not see anyone _else_ providing us that service. It'll be a long time before China forgives us for having worked with the Triads, I'm afraid."

"But I have something to offer in compensation," said the Rajput Racketeer. "There's a government which _already_ has China annoyed with it, and which therefore feels it has nothing to lose by spiting the Chinese. I refer to the Egyptian Caliphate."

Lupita raised a graceful eyebrow. "Do they have any surviving orbital assets? Since their attempt to take over the Lunar Orchard was unmasked, we hear that all of their satellites have been 'accidentally' destroyed in orbit."

"True. But they still have plenty of aircraft-mounted reconnaissance equipment; and commercial aircraft of theirs are often in Canadian airspace, occasionally in D.S. airspace too. I believe we can persuade the Egyptians to work with us. After all, they hate both the Chinese and Indian governments, and they have no quarrel with Aztlan.

"In addition... I can offer a valuable asset for intelligence ON THE GROUND."

"You mean, on Diversity States ground?" asked Emilio.

"That's right. You may have heard that the Anti-Gravity Development Corporation of New Delhi has just cut a deal with the Atkinson administration, to use the Yellowstone project as a testing ground for their newest apparatus. What you _haven't_ heard is that five employees of Anti-Gravity Development are members of MY association. They can obtain substantial information about conditions inside the Western Enclave."

"Especially the status of the geothermal project, of course," offered Vinu.

"That sounds promising," said Emilio. "How soon will the Indian technicians be in the Enclave?"

"No later than mid-July."

Emilio smiled. "We may do just fine without satellites, after all. I'll tell you something now. My people have gotten their hands on eight of the mini- and micro-drones that the Triads had stolen from the Chinese intelligence service. By themselves, they would be a highly useful means of gathering information; but when they're combined with what you can provide, I think we'll be able to proceed with our plans on an accelerated schedule."

 
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Up in Heaven, a junior-ranked guardian angel visited Wilson Kramer's mansion, bringing along a visitor -- one who had been a young woman when she died by violence on Earth. The God-given intuition of dwellers in Heaven made the former Navy SEAL aware that he had company, so he materialized at the door to welcome them.

"Hello, Eliadon. Glory to God, I sense that this woman was... a _clone_ on Earth!"

The angel nodded. "Yes; still a rare phenomenon. All the same, a human soul. Since you used to be involved with secrets, and you still like to keep track of events below, I knew you'd find her interesting to talk to. See you later."

Eliadon was laughing as he flew off -- not with malice toward anyone, since that sort of laughter does not exist in Heaven. He was laughing because of his own use of the word "later." Or more accurately, he was laughing because it brought to his mind the way mystically-inclined mortal Christians talked about eternity. Those dear humans, bless them, thought they wouldn't be "spiritual enough" unless they spoke of Heaven in terms of an "eternal Now" which excluded _any_ concept of passage of time. As if there could even be any _events_ if a cause could not _precede_ an effect! God Himself was the First _Cause,_ after all, having existed _before_ anything else, and that "before" had a meaning.

"Have a seat," Wilson invited the woman. She sat directly on the Heavenly air inside the mansion, saying, "I love being able to do this! Now, Eliadon told me that your mortal name was Wilson Kramer; mine was Prime Decoy."

"A clone and a decoy; but now you have your white stone." Wilson was referring to the white stones with new names that were given to new arrivals in Heaven. Now he peered at her more closely; and since there was no such thing as a wrong motive among the saints, she was not bothered by his scrutiny. Then he spoke again: "Oh! Now I realize--! But that's remarkable. Please, tell me more about it!"

She smiled more brightly than before. "I've only now gotten around to giving any thought to my past; I've been meeting the Holy Trinity, and the chief worship-spirits who surround the throne. My introduction to God was astonishingly sudden. I was wounded, I was dying; then everything slowed down, and the Holy Spirit Himself was there. He opened my eyes, _made_ me understand the Godhead; He explained that since those who used me had kept me in such ignorance, I was being given the chance now, before I died, to receive my Creator's love by faith."

Wilson smiled back. "Which you obviously did, since you're here."

"Indeed. You know how it is meeting God; I had so much to take in, I couldn't spare any thought for my ended Earthly life until I had absorbed a fair understanding of Heavenly things. But now I am ready to tell you about my mortal experience.

"My childhood, if you can call it that, took place inside an institution that I was never allowed to leave until I was nearly an adult. I was shown _some_ kindness, between times of instruction and conditioning; but at the same time, I was taught to believe that something called 'family' was the greatest of evils. I had to give my loyalty to 'the collective' instead.

"No one explained it to me while I was little, but I was being subjected to early-maturation processes. This was being done so that, when I began my service, I would appear to be the same age as my original. From the day I emerged from incubation, it took only thirteen years for me to reach the right biological age. My original visited me frequently during all of this growing time; she was always affectionate to me, saying that since the essence of life is self-love, I as her duplicate was extra-special to her. It was left to the behavioral scientists to do the harsher part, teaching me that it would be horrid and wicked of me _not_ to show devotion and obedience to my original, since she was my true self. As soon as she became the acknowledged public leader of the movement, I assumed my duties as her double."

"Of course!" exclaimed Wilson. "I haven't bothered watching her closely since I've been up here; my eyes have been on those I love on Earth. But it makes sense for her to have used a substitute at times; even if there were no danger at all of assassination, it could be convenient for her to have you taking her place at some function, while she sneaked away to do something else."

"Something else, is right," said Prime Decoy, in a voice as near to sad as could occur in Heaven. "As I now know, one of the things she did while I was posing as her... was to _murder_ people for fun. For fun!"

Wilson shot a divine-love beam out of his eyes at her, to add to her peace. "The sons shall not die for the sins of the fathers, the Lord told Ezekiel. Neither shall the clone be blamed for the sins of the bio-template."

She shot her own rays of joy back at him, and continued: "My original was distressed --though not in the sense of conscience, for she had no conscience -- when she found out that some people _knew_ that she had committed these crimes. The degenerate political atmosphere had allowed her to get away with causing tens of thousands of deaths like _your_ death, Lieutenant Kramer; but it would still be an embarrassment for her to have it known that she had grinned with glee while _wielding_ a knife with her own hands to cut out the hearts of defenseless victims. Between this and other considerations, such as realizing that the Texans were growing stronger at the expense of her power, she decided it was time for her to disappear until she had a new power base."

"But you didn't realize all of this at the time."

"No, I didn't. She simply told me that she needed me to fill in for her during some of the Presidium deliberations concerning the dismantling of the Indoctrination Department. I certainly didn't know that she had previously seduced one of Carlos Anselmo's bodyguards, and arranged for him to shoot me, while another of her lover-puppets was a district policeman assigned to make sure Anselmo died in the ensuing gunfight." Here the clone laughed. "Enjoying fleshly pleasures with men was one area in which my original _never_ allowed me to substitute for her!"

Wilson shook his head. "What a scheme! And now that my mind's on it, intuition confirms for me that Jessica Trevette, Jesus rebuke her, is still alive! You haven't done any Earth-gazing since you arrived here, have you?"

"No, I haven't. Being a tool for an evildoer's use all of my mortal days leaves me with rather less to look back on fondly than you have."

"Understood. But give it a try now; let's see where Jessica Trevette is."

Together, they extended their perception across the boundary between Heaven and Cosmos... and in what had once been the state of California, they discovered the real Jessica Trevette.

She was eating breakfast in the presidential palace of Emilio Formentera.

"Well, she is not my true self," declared the clone. "But I will pray for her salvation."

"Amen," said Wilson, clasping her hand. "And if she does get saved, then when she arrives up here, she will confess that you deserve to be called the _real_ original."

 
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