“Why do it, then?” I asked.

“Did you know it’s illegal to conduct surveillance — -even citizen oversight — within the capital of any nation on Earth?”

I had heard that.

“Some things in government must be done in private. Even in this ultra-rational age, when everybody is educated and plebiscites are huge and immediate, there must be times when the rules are not followed.”

“The Peterson non-absolute,” I said. Peterson — icon of so many second-form classes in management — said that any systern aspiring to total organization and rationalism must leave itself an opportunity to break rules, break protocol, or it will inevitably suffer catastrophic failure.

“Exactly. Go home, Miss Majumdar. Choose your mentors and your leaders carefully. Work for unity. However Mars comes into the fold, come in it must. I have studied enough history to see the terrain ahead. The slopes are very steep, the attractors are strong, the solutions very fast — and none of them are pleasant.”

“I’m just an assistant,” I replied pathetically.

He looked away, expression grim. “Then find someone who has the strength to become a pilot and guide you through the storm.” He pulled back and adjusted his lapels, picked up his lunch bag, and stood. “Good-bye, Miss Majumdar.”

“Good-bye,” I said. “Thank you for your confidence.”

Mehdoza shrugged and walked across the grass and east toward the Capitol building.

I sat on the bench, head turned toward the Lincoln Memorial, as cold inside as the curve of marble beneath my fingers.

A month later, Bithras, Allen, and I packed for our return to Mars. The packing itself took little time. I had not seen Bithras for several days — he spent most of his time locked in long-distance communications with Mars, but I think also in deliberate isolation from us.

Allen no longer treated Bithras with the respect due an elder statesman. It cost him dearly to show any respect at all toward our syndic. Bithras did not want to push me into a similar confrontation and be faced with my presumed negative judgment.

But I did not hate him. I barely felt enough to pity him. I simply wanted to go home. Two days before our departure, Bithras came into the suite’s living room and stood over me as I sat in a chair, studying my slate.

“The suit against me has been dropped. Cultural differences pleaded. The ruckus is over,” he said. “That part of it, anyway.”

I looked up. “Good,” I said.

“I’ve filed suit on Alice ’s behalf,” he said. “Majumdar BM seeks a judgment against Mind Design Incorporated of Sorrento Valley , California .”

I nodded. He swallowed, staring out the window, and continued as if it were an effort to talk. “I’ve consulted with Alice One and Alice Two, and with our advocates on Mars, and I’m hiring an advocate here. We’re seeking a jury trial, with a minimum of two thinkers impaneled on the jury.”

“That’s smart,” I said.

Bithras sat in the chair opposite and folded his hands in his lap. “All of this has been done in confidence, but before we leave, I am going to release the details. That will force Mind Design to take the case to court rather than settle in secret. It will be scandalous. They will deny all.”

“Probably,” I agreed.

“It will be very bad for GEWA, as well. Our advocate will voice suspicions that Earth is involved in a conspiracy, using Mind Design, to cripple Mars economically.” Bithras sighed deeply. “I have made mistakes. It is only small relief to believe they have done worse. Alice Two will stay here.”

“Good plan,” I said.

“Someone should stay with her. Allen has volunteered, but I thought to offer the chance to you.”

“I should leave Earth,” I said without hesitation.

“We have both had enough of Earth,” Bithras said. Then, dropping his gaze, “You think I’m a fool.”

My lips worked and my eyes filled with tears of anger and betrayal. “Y-yes,” I answered, looking away.

“I am not the best Mars has to offer.”

“I hope to God not,” I said.

“I have given you opportunities, however,” he said.

I refused to meet his eyes. “Yes,” I agreed.

“But perhaps disgrace, as well. The Council will conduct hearings. You will be asked embarrassing questions.”

“That isn’t what makes me so angry,” I said.

“Then what?”

“A man with your responsibilities,” I said. “You should have known. About your problems and the trouble they might cause.”

“What, and have myself therapied?” He laughed bitterly. “How Terrestrial! How fitting a Martian should suggest that to me.”

“It happens on Mars all the time,” I said.

“Not to a man of my heritage,” he said. “We are as we are born, and we play those cards, and none other.”

“Then we’ll lose,” I said.

“Perhaps,” he said. “But honorably.”

I said my farewells to Alice in the suite an hour before we left for the spaceport. For a time, Alice had withdrawn, refusing to answer our questions about her contamination. She would not even talk with the advocate chosen for our lawsuit, or his own thinker. But that changed, and she seemed to accept her new status — a beloved member of the family who could not be employed as she had once been.

“I have been replaying parts of the sim you shared with Orianna,” she told me as she tracked on her carriage into my room. My suitcase and slate lay on the field bed, squared with the corners. I am sometimes excessively neat. “You kept all of it?” I asked.

“Yes. I have observed fragments of created personalities undergoing portions of the sim. It has been interesting.”

“Orianna thought you might find it useful,” I said. “But you should delete it before the Mind Design thinkers check you over.”

“I can delete nothing, I can only condense and store inactively.”

“Right. I forgot.”

Suddenly, Alice laughed in a way I had not heard before. “Yes. Like that. I can temporarily forget.”

“I’m going to miss you,” I said. “The trip home will seem much longer without you.”

“You will have Bithras for company, and fellow passengers to meet.”

“I doubt that Bithras and I will talk much,” I said, shaking my head.

“Do not judge Bithras too harshly.”

“He’s done a lot of harm.”

“Is it not likely that the harm was prepared for him to do?”

I couldn’t take her meaning.

“People and organizations on Earth behave in subtle ways.”

“You think Bithras was set up?”

“I believe Earth will not be happy until it has its way. We are obstacles.”

I looked at her with fresh respect. “You’re a little bitter yourself, aren’t you?” I asked. And no longer very naive.

“Call it that, yes. I look forward to joining with my original,” Alice said. “I think we may be able to console each other, and find humor in what humans do.”

Alice displayed her image for the first time in weeks, and young, long-haired Alice Liddell smiled.

We returned to Mars. News of the suit on behalf of Alice followed us. It did indeed make a ripple overshadowing Bithras’s indiscretions. The scandal caused GEWA considerable embarrassment and may have contributed to a general cooling of the nascent confrontation between Earth and Mars. The suit, however, was quickly swamped in drifts of prevarication and delay. By the time we arrived home — the only home I would ever have — ten months later, there still had been no decision. Nothing had changed for the better. Nothing had changed at all.