“You diabolical woman. I can never win with you, can I?”

“Marriage was your victory. The greatest.”

“Arrgh, how I hate you.”

“Rammy, focus, please; if this proof does exist, will you help me?”

“I would have to see it before I even consider answering that question. And, Justine, it would have to be absolute proof. I need to see this Starflyer knocking up the Pope’s illegitimate underage daughter; the full in flagrante TSI recording. Nothing else will do. Even then I’m not guaranteeing anything.”

She grinned back at him. “Is she another tall blonde, then?”

“Evil woman!” He held her gently again. “Now I want you to promise me something.”

“What?”

“If this proof is not forthcoming, you will see someone who can help with the grief.”

“You’re kidding. A shrink? Me?”

His gaze remained steady. “An easy promise, surely? You know you are right, therefore you will never have to do it.”

“I taught you well, didn’t I?”

He gave a modest shrug. “Your word?”

“My word.”

“Thank you.” He bent forward and kissed her on the forehead. “And if you need someone there at the birth…”

“Oh, Rammy.” The tears were threatening to return. “It couldn’t be anyone else.”

***

Justine had just reached the elevators at the end of the Senate Hall’s long east wing when the alarm went off. She turned around to see doors opening all along the wide corridor, staffers looking around in puzzlement. A bright amber strobe was flashing above the door to Ramon DB’s suite of offices. “No,” she breathed. Shock turned her muscles to ice; she couldn’t move. It’s him! The assassin. He’s here.

“Priority call from Senator Ramon DB,” her e-butler told her.

“Authorized,” she gasped through tightened throat muscles.

“Justine.”

“Rammy! Rammy, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, shit, it hurts.”

“What does? Has he shot you?”

“Shot me? It’s my chest. Dear God. I hit my head when I fell. I can see blood.”

“Your chest?”

“Yes. Mitchan is trying to get me to drink water. Damn fool.”

“Let him help.”

“Not if he starts bringing out defibrillator paddles, I won’t.”

Justine started to run, pushing past the interminable number of people flooding out into the corridor. She was halfway there when three paramedics emerged from the freight elevator and shouted at everyone to get out of the way. An automated crash cart sped after them, followed by two nursebots.

“The emergency team is here, Rammy. They’re coming.”

“Oh, good; finally, some decent drugs.”

“How could you let it get this far? I told you, I warned you to watch your diet. Why don’t you ever listen?”

“Nag nag nag. It’s not so bad. At least I remembered to back up my memorycell this morning.”

The paramedics rushed through the door leading to Ramon’s office suite. Justine followed them in, hurrying through the anterooms where apprehensive junior aides and interns stood transfixed in their doorways, their faces locked in to frightened expressions.

Ramon was on the floor in front of the teak bench they’d just been sitting on. He had caught his head on the arm as he fell. Blood from a bruised gash just below his eye was soaking into the carpet. Mitchan, his chief aide, was kneeling beside him, eyes damp with anxious tears. A glass had been knocked over, water diluting the patch of blood.

One of the paramedics propelled the aide aside. Ramon’s robes were loosened. The paramedics began to apply plastic modules to his skin. Small arms unwound from the nursebots and began to press nozzles and needles into Ramon’s flesh.

Justine stood behind the crash cart, trying her damnedest not to look apprehensive. She could see how difficult it was for him to breathe. Every time his chest rose in shallow judders he winced. Bubbly drool was running down his cheek. Their eyes met.

“Toniea Gall will take over as head of the African caucus,” he wheezed painfully.

“Don’t talk, Senator,” one of the paramedics said. She covered his face with an oxygen mask. He pushed it aside. “Watch out for her,” he said, staring intently at Justine.

The oxygen mask was pressed back insistently. The paramedic held his hands down. “Senator, you’ve had another heart attack.”

“Another!” Justine squawked. She was furious with him, and frightened.

Ramon gave her a sorrowful look above the mask.

“We’re going to sedate you, Senator,” the paramedic said. “You will have to undergo rejuvenation this time. Your heart cannot sustain you any longer. Your doctor told you that.”

Text appeared in Justine’s virtual vision. GALL IS NOT AN ALLY. NOT FOR YOU. SHE WANTS THE PRESIDENCY. SHE WILL NOT INVOLVE HERSELF IN CONTROVERSY, NOT ON THIS SCALE.

“I understand,” she said softly.

I’M SORRY, JUSTINE. I WOULD HAVE HELPED, YOU KNOW THAT. GO TO CRISPIN, BUT BE CAREFUL, HE’S A WILY OLD SWINE.

“Yes. I will, Rammy.”

One of the nursebots slid a needle into his carotid artery. He blinked rapidly.

COME AND VISIT ME WHEN I’M YOUNG AGAIN.

“Every day, I promise.”

Ramon gave his office a last confused glance, and closed his eyes. SEE YOU IN EIGHTEEN MONTHS.

***

He spent a day and a half infiltrating the arrays of the huge Park Avenue apartment block. By himself he would never have managed it; he had to use several cohorts who were more adept at manipulating human electronic systems. Rich humans took their security very seriously indeed, using the most advanced and sophisticated arrays to guard themselves.

With the false data in place, he arrived by taxi at the block. Two doormen stood outside the wide entrance with its gull-wing canopy, wearing traditional uniforms of long coats with brass buttons, and white gloves tucked into their epaulets. They saluted as he went through the revolving door into the vast marbled art deco lobby. The stern-faced concierge behind the curving reception desk was not so accepting. He had to tell the man his current identity and who he was supposed to be visiting, which was checked against today’s list. With his legitimacy confirmed, the concierge permitted a brief smile before escorting him to one of the elevators.

Once the mirror-inlaid doors closed, he quickly placed his hand on the i-spot and changed the elevator’s instructions. It took him all the way up to the fortieth floor.

The door to Senator Justine Burnelli’s apartment had been the most difficult for the cohorts to infiltrate. Her Grand Family had installed their own systems in the apartment, which were even more secure than those of the block. He stood in front of it, waiting patiently for the sensor to scan him. The door clicked, and swung open.

He wandered through the vast rooms with their museum horde of furniture and art. While he was in the dark dining room with its five-hundred-year-old mahogany table the maidbots began their daily cleaning routine. Dozens of them emerged from their alcoves in the utility room just off the kitchen, and started to vacuum, polish, and sanitize. They ignored him, moving around his feet as he continued his inspection. There were no staff in residence to supervise them; the Senator always brought them in with her from their family’s Rye country mansion. Often she would stay overnight by herself.

When she did return, there would be some bodyguards with her, either the family’s or Senate Security. They would be watching for an external threat. He simply had to wait until they had all settled for the night.

Eventually he decided on the Senator’s own bedroom as the best place to wait for her. He sat on the bed to begin his vigil.

He’d been waiting for over twenty-four hours when the apartment management array received an encrypted order from the Senator to permit access to a technical support team from Senate Security. They arrived two hours later, three of them with a pair of cases each, which were full of additional security equipment. He watched them through the apartment block’s sensors as they parked in the underground garage, then took the service elevator.