Senescence (Jezebel's Ladder Book 5) (17 page)

In Rome, Grant received
medical treatment while Kaguya contacted the Canadian Embassy to get the ball
rolling on his new passport. Then she called in sick for her daughter and put
in for the four months of back vacation Mori Biotech owed Laura. Her division of
the company would be crippled without her. On the next phone call, Kaguya
reserved a four-star hotel with her credit card. When Grant rejoined them, the
group found a café near the Trevi Fountain to eat dinner.

Laura
dozed through the meal. Grant seemed overly concerned with guarding their
meager luggage. A tourist or two snapped Kaguya’s photo as she waved gaily and
chatted. When fans recognized her from an album cover from twenty years ago,
she felt obligated to reward them. Following the meal, Kaguya insisted on
buying Oleander a new dress and a visit to a hair salon. “I don’t know,” said
the astronaut.

“You’re
going to meet the family of the man you loved,” Kaguya said. “You want their
first reaction to be, ‘Of course he fell for her.’”

Oleander
seemed reluctant. “I don’t think I’ve ever been to a salon in my life. I cut my
own hair.”

Raising
an eyebrow, Kaguya said, “Just like in prison?”

“Bitch.”

“Other
people are afraid to tell you the truth. Crazy people like me don’t bother to
lie.”

Grant
tasted his hazelnut gelato. “You do have kind of a prisoner-of-war vibe going.”

“I
can see why women on the show like to abuse you,” Oleander countered. She
jerked a thumb at Laura. “What are we going to do with Sleeping Beauty?”

“I
know all her sizes,” Kaguya replied. “I buy most of her clothes anyway. She’s
always working.”

“You
really think she’s a good match for Stewart?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“I’ll
buy her one of those, too.”

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

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

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

“I
hear you. What sorts of calculations?”

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

“Why
would you care?”

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

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

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

****

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mama
B rolled her eyes. “The paparazzi.”

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

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

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

****

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

“This
food is amazing,” Laura said.

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

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

“Pardon?”

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

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

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

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

So much for girl talk.

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

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

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

“Sif
didn’t reply?” Laura guessed.

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

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

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

“You’ll
have to find independent corroboration.”

“Always.”

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

“Now
you’re just teasing.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Laura
smiled. “I’m incognito.”

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

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

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

****

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