Up Against It - M. J. Locke [151]
“Right.”
“In fact…” she chuckled. “I have an idea, something extra special, to go along with it.”
“What kind of idea?”
“You’ll see … if it turns out we need it. I’ll need a few minutes to prep,” she said. “Stand by. I’ll signal you when I’m ready.”
* * *
It was getting late and Jane was exhausted. She called Sean to take him up on the offer of a place to stay.
“Very good,” he said. “Just head right over. I’m working late tonight, but I’ll let Lisa know you’re coming.”
On the way up there, she stopped at Charles and Rowan’s place to pick up Xuan’s and her belongings. They lived only a level up from Deirdre and Sal, so Jane decided to stop by her friends’ place while she was nearby.
Dee entered the room, tying her robe. Jane already knew, but she asked, “Is Sal…?”
“Gone.” Dee shrugged. “Don’t know where he is. Don’t care. I’ve kicked him out. I’m done.”
Jane sat down across from her. “So. How can I help?”
Dee sat, too, and gave her a penetrating look. “From what I’m hearing, you have enough to deal with right now, Jane. Don’t worry about me. Frankly, I’m relieved. Trying to make that marriage work, it was killing me. Just killing me. I love him, you know? We’ve been through a lot together. He’s not a perfect husband, but I never doubted his love for me. But he’s a terrible father. He’s … just … too broken. And nobody hits my boys. Nobody.” Her fist balled and a muscle jumped in her jaw.
Jane said, “Sean told me what happened.”
“So, I have to get my finances in order, and I have to mourn my son. My Carl.” She pressed a fist against her mouth, and Jane watched her struggle against her grief. “But I’ll be all right. Eventually.” She leaned back with a sigh. “Truth to tell, I feel relieved it’s over.”
“Dee…” Jane said slowly. She had had a thought. She had already given away one of her berths on the Sisyphus, and she wasn’t about to use the other without Xuan. Dee’s family was from the moon. “Ever wanted to return home?”
She explained her situation. Dee looked thoughtful. “That’s incredibly generous of you, Jane. But Wednesday? its awfully sudden…”
“I’m sure I can wrangle a ticket for you to use whenever it’s convenient. Just let me know and I will sign it over to you.”
“I’ll think it over. Thank you, Jane. You’ve been a good friend.”
They made their good-byes and Jane left. Despite Carl’s death, despite everything, she realized she felt better about Dee and her situation than she had in a very long time.
* * *
Next Jane headed over to Sean and Lisa’s place in Design Plaza, near the city’s administrative offices. The neighborhood was only a couple of levels below the Hub. Lisa greeted her at the door, floating barefoot in her robe, smelling of perfumed lotion. Her long, wavy hair, black shot through with white, was damp and bobbed about her face.
“I’m sorry to get in so late,” Jane said, but Lisa wouldn’t hear any apology. She showed her the spare room and bathroom. Extra towel rolls and soaps hung in the air, still settling from Lisa’s preparations. Lisa offered to make her cocoa while she unpacked.
“I’ll be fine. Don’t let me disturb your evening routine.”
“Will Xuan be arriving tonight?” Lisa asked.
“He should be. But I’ll be glad to let him in. You go on to bed.”
“All right, then. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen.”
Once she had bathed and dressed in her pajamas, Jane nestled in the hammock and took a look at Masahiro’s latest set of e-mails. He had found numerous bootleg videos of the Uraniaville location. As he had warned her, several of them had crude avatars or other changes inserted into them. But it didn’t matter. Because six of them, created by different people in different parts of the world, showed that Nathan Glease and Andrew Mills had encountered Ivan Kovak in the plaza near the kiosk.
As Ivan walked away from the kiosk with the groceries and the little girl, Glease and Mills had approached him from behind. He turned, and at first seemed calm, but after Glease spoke, Kovak maneuvered his daughter behind him. He drew himself up taller, thrust out his chest, and spoke, jabbing