But, they were parents and clearly thought that she, a noble from Fletcher, could do better than some guy who inventoried pine needles for a living. To make matters worse, while her father was happy that I had a job and seemed to enjoy my work, her mother was pretty sure something else was going on. She had a prosecutor’s nose for deception and clearly knew I was hiding something. Janella did a wonderful job of deflecting her mother, but Andrea still came after me—much in the way her namesake ’Mech relentlessly drove in on targets.

The problem was that despite his being a Knight and their both being proud and honored Republic citizens, neither one of them was cleared to know who I was or what I did. Heck, not even all the Paladins knew the identities of the Ghost Knights. Each might know one or two, and a few a handful, but the secret of our identities were held more tightly than licenses to pilot ’Mechs.

“Command performance, lover?” I put on my best I-can’t-think-of-anything-I’d-rather-be-doing face. “This time I am going to pay for dinner, and I’ll order a good wine, too—a pre-Christmas present.”

She kissed me on the cheek. “That will be perfect, yes, my dear. But, don’t worry, I will make it up to you.”

I smiled. “As long as you’re with me as you were today on the training ground, there’s nothing that will daunt me.”

Knights’ Hall, Santa Fe

North America, Terra

Prefecture X, Republic of the Sphere

10 December 3132

Dinner went as well as could be expected. Janella’s mother did make a couple of runs at me, but they were halfhearted. I actually welcomed them because her fire returned when she started on me, but quickly petered out. When she got going I recognized her, but otherwise Janella’s parents were strangers.

On Helen I’d been able to see the effect of the grid’s collapse on everyday folks. While it had an impact, folks didn’t spend a lot of time pondering the larger consequences of it. They looked at how it would affect their lives right then, right there, and didn’t waste the brain sweat on looking beyond because they had no way of calculating the consequences that far out.

Thomas and Andrea Lakewood did and had. For Thomas it meant interminable delays in important experimental data. He worked on projects where multiple labs were running parallel or complementary experiments, and lessons learned in one place would immediately be applied elsewhere. Any slowdown in that sort of information exchange wasted hundreds of man-hours and thousands of stones. The delays literally would cost lives as people waited for medicines and improved food crops.

Andrea seemed to feel the impact more keenly. Being a lawyer she liked order, and the grid’s collapse was a mortal blow to order. While she did not see an anarchist lurking in every shadow, she reacted sharply to Janella’s recital of her recent trip to Helen. My role there was left out, but it would not have mattered as Andrea burrowed in on Reis and GGF, balancing their roles, their actions and the subsequent changes in the power flows on Helen. As dangerous as GGF might have been, she saw Reis’ gathering power as more so, and clearly feared this would be happening over and over again throughout The Republic and beyond.

I don’t mean to suggest her parents were panicking, for they were not. They were just smart enough and had enough education to permit them to think several steps down the line. If people as intelligent as they were could see doom in the offing and, more importantly, didn’t see any immediate solutions, the future was not very bright at all.

Eventually conversation spiraled down into comments about the food and remembrances of meals we’d had elsewhere. It might just be my opinion, but beyond the obligatory questions about how your food tastes, or the near orgasmic moaning that accompanies dessert, dinner is not the place to discuss meals eaten elsewhere. That’s only one step above discussing the weather, and when you have nothing better to discuss than the weather, you just have nothing to discuss. There is no conversation, the meal is dead, and everyone should just go home.

We did rise above weather when, over coffee, Andrea declared she thought it was nice I could travel to Santa Fe while Janella was there. “When next she is given a mission, you’ll have to come see us. You still live in Zurich, don’t you, Mason?”

“I’m here for a while, Judge. Meetings, consulting.”

“On what?”

Janella smiled. “He’s had a meeting with Victor Steiner-Davion.”

“Oh, really, Mason? Helping him with his gardening, are you?” She phrased it sweetly, as if showing me the rose’s blossom would make me forget there were thorns lurking there.

“Yes, Judge, helping with his roses. Tough to grow here.” I got up, excusing myself and found the restaurant’s manager. I covered the bill, then snagged two roses from a woman who had a basketful. I returned to the table and gave one each to the ladies—red for Janella and white for her mother. I had nothing special in mind concerning the colors, but I let her mom chew on the possible meanings for a bit.

Thomas beetled his white brows. “Now, if they will just bring us the check.”

“I’ve taken care of it.” I held hands up to quell protests. “No, the last few times we’ve had dinner, you’ve paid. My turn is long overdue.”

“Nonsense. This was expensive.” Andrea gave me a kindly smile. “We know The Republic doesn’t pay… ”

“Mother!”

“Dear, it is just a fact of life. Now, Mason, we insist.”

“Appeal denied.” I rapped my knuckles on the table. “I appreciate it, but I needed to do this.”

A glance passed between husband and wife, and Andrea relented. “Well, at least come back to our place and have more coffee.”

“Andrea, I think we’ve taken enough of their time.”

Janella nodded. “There are briefings in the morning.”

I smiled. “And aphids. Can’t get after them quickly enough.”

Thomas’ hand swallowed mine. “Good to see you again, Mason. Thanks for dinner, and that was an excellent wine. Next time, though, there will be no slipping off to pay the bill.”

I shook his hand solemnly. “Just beat me to it.”

He laughed and lowered his voice. “You know, we’ll both be behind them.”

“Uh huh.” I smiled as mother and daughter hugged, then I gave Andrea a hug. “Thank you for the invitation. I appreciate you letting me intrude on your time with your daughter.”

Andrea held on a bit longer than was necessary. “Our pleasure, Mason. We almost think of you as family.”

We left the restaurant and walked quietly with them through the streets of Santa Fe. We reached Knights’ Hall quickly enough and refused another invitation to join Janella’s parents for coffee. As we made our way through the various corridors, Janella hugged my arm and laid her head on my shoulder.

“You do know I will have a talk with my mother, right?”

“No reason, she’s just being a mom. It’ll be interesting when she meets my mom.”

A little shiver ran through Janella. “I don’t know that I’m ready for meeting her myself.”

“My mom will love you.”

“You’ve said that. You’ve also said that she’s had umpty-eleven kids and works as a wildlife-management specialist in the forest preserve your father ran. She’s going to take one look at me and decide I’m soft.”

“Your being soft isn’t bad, you know, because it’s all in the right places.”

“Such a sweet talker. You think that’s going to get you somewhere?”

I smiled. “Well, that and the fact I let you eat half my dessert.”