CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

B y the time Rafe had rescheduled Penelope’s appointment with the therapist, Emil had found her a quiet place to work, shifting an assistant one door farther away. Rafe cocked his head at Penelope. “Do you want me to call Mother, or—”

“Please,” she said. “And tell her…” Tears spilled over.

Rafe felt helpless. Any of the usual comforting phrases would be an insult. “I’ll tell her that you and I are both staying here for the time being. I think we can find a therapist who agrees that’s best for you, if yours doesn’t.”

“Th-thanks,” she said, swiping at her eyes. “I’m sorry—” She stood up. “I—I want to find a room—”

“Emil will show you,” Rafe said. “If you need a restroom, or something to drink, or anything—”

When she had left his office, Rafe called home. His mother answered. “Rafe—where’s Penny? Did she go with you? Is she all right?”

“Yes, she’s fine. She’s here with me. Her therapist is coming here today. We’re going to stay here for a few days at least. She needs to get away for a while.”

“Away? But this is her home; she’s safe here.”

“She was abducted from that house,” Rafe said. “She doesn’t feel safe.”

“I—I don’t—” Her face seemed to melt into grief. “I couldn’t stop them…my little Penny.”

“She’ll be fine here, Mother,” Rafe said. “I’ll take care of her. There’s a lovely apartment…and now, I’m sorry, I must go.”

Emil had set up a call with System Defense, whose civilian chief had known his father well. “I was sorry to hear about his condition,” Humphrey Isaacs said. “But he is expected to recover fully, isn’t he? And return to work?”

“We certainly hope so,” Rafe said. “But the damage was severe. The doctors can’t tell us how long it will be, or whether any of the problems will remain. In the meantime, I have data vital to our systems security.” Isaacs said nothing, and Rafe gave him a brief summary of the situation.

“ISC’s fleet isn’t more than a match for them?”

“No. It will take the combined forces of several systems to eradicate this threat. They have already overwhelmed several systems. Most of them weak and underpopulated, but one at least—Bissonet—mounted what we all thought was a sizable and effective space defense. Now they have Bissonet’s ships as well as their own.”

“Well…this is not what I wanted to start my workday with,” Isaacs said, scowling. “You know—or at least your father knew—what our system defenses are. We depended heavily on ISC to round out our numbers.”

Rafe knew more about Nexus’s defense establishment than his father, but it would not be prudent to say so. Officially, here on Nexus, he had never had an identity who was supposed to know anything like that. “I will forward you the data gathered from the recent engagement,” he said. “It is clear that the enemy have a variety of advanced technologies that give them an edge, ship for ship. We at ISC will be upgrading our fleet as quickly as possible; I would suggest you do the same.”

“You don’t think they’d attack Nexus, do you?” Isaacs asked. “We’re one of the biggest, most powerful systems—”

“We’re the richest target around,” Rafe said. “And now that they’ve found ISC vulnerable, I expect they’ll try to amass enough force to do just that. That may have been their aim all along. Capture Nexus and you have a central location already equipped as a communications center for all—or most—human-occupied space. Every system they capture gives them more resources—more ships, more weapons, more wealth. And every capture hurts the legitimate governments and organizations—economically as well as militarily, with the decline of trade. Even if the population resists, there will always be some who see personal profit in joining up.”

“That’s a frightening prospect.” Isaacs looked more thoughtful than frightened, however.

“Yes. I believe it’s going to require immediate consultation and cooperation with other systems to prevent serious consequences not just for us but for all civilized and peaceful systems.”

“Can’t ISC release some of its experimental technology to give us back that edge?”

“I haven’t had time yet to look into our research program and see what would be suitable,” Rafe said. “I do know there’s a technology newly patented over in the Moscoe Confederation that would be of immense benefit. When I’m through talking to you, I’ll be talking to the patent holder to find out how fast it can be produced.”

“Get a license to make it here,” Isaacs said.

“I tried,” Rafe said. “The patent holder has a preexisting deal with the Moscoe government for local manufacture. But I’m hoping we can reserve the first production run.”

“What is it?” Isaacs asked.

“I’d rather not say until I’ve locked in an order,” Rafe said. “But if you can come by my office tomorrow—”

“I’ll be there.”

“Good. Talk to you then.”

Rafe took a few minutes to check on Penelope. She was ensconced behind a desk, staring into a screen.

“How’s it going?” he asked.

“I’m not sure what you want me to look for, Rafe. Emil gave me a stack of financial records…am I looking for embezzlement or…or what?”

“We have several problems, Penny, and I don’t know which you’d be best suited to detect.” Rafe hitched a hip onto her desk. “Embezzlement is one of them. I started by looking for Parmina’s accomplices at the higher levels, the easiest way first: comparing their lifestyles with their known legal income. I figured he had to be paying them, or they had to be stealing from the company. Found one that way. But there are other problems with the company right now, and they’re not necessarily the result of illegal actions. What I’d like you to do is analyze the relative amounts we’ve spent in the main divisions over the past thirty years. I think Research and Enforcement may have been consistently underfunded, but I don’t know where the cream has gone.”

“You want me to concentrate only on the main divisions?”

“Not if you find something that looks strange. Follow your nose. I need a better idea of where the money went—in all ways—and I need to know if it’s fraud or stupidity or just inertia.”

“Is ISC really in trouble?” she asked, as she had the night before. “And…is it Father’s fault?”

“It’s in trouble,” Rafe said. “That much is certain; it’s what I told the Board. There’s new technology loose that has broken our monopoly, though not everyone realizes it yet. We could have had that technology and marketed it ourselves. Instead, we didn’t even patent it, and now someone else has the rights to it and has improved it. We’re so far behind the curve, it’s…it’s as if we weren’t on the same track. About Father—I don’t know. One of the things I need to find out is if he made bad decisions, or if he didn’t get the right data to make good decisions, or if his orders weren’t followed.”

“So this is one giant fishing expedition,” Penelope said.

“Yup. And a lot of work. Work that needs to be done by someone I can trust. Right now there’s no one in our financial divisions I can be sure of.”

“I see,” she said. “Well…I’ll do my best.”

“I’m sure you will,” he said. “I’ve got to get back to the other stuff—we can talk about that later.”

“What did Mother say?”

“What you’d expect. Don’t worry about it. You’re here and she’s there. Later on, when I take a break, I’ll take you over to the apartment and let you get your things settled. Or I can have someone take them now.”

“No. I’d rather do it myself. If you’re busy, where can I get something for lunch?”

“Ask Emil. He can order something up, or you can eat in the executive dining room. If you do that, one of my bodyguards will go with you.”

She nodded. “It’s…it is better here. I’m not seeing…that…”

“Good. Get yourself back to work, then. Your therapist will be here in about two hours; I’ll want to talk to him as well.”

As he went back to his office, Rafe was aware that one problem was—if not solved—maybe moving toward solution. At least Penny wasn’t crying, and she looked more alive than she had at home.

He looked up the temporal conversions. It was evening on Cascadia Station. Stella might be having dinner with someone; she would not want to be interrupted. But he had to talk to her. He placed the call.

“It’s Rafe,” he said when she answered.

“I didn’t think anyone else from Nexus would be calling,” she said crisply. “We will announce the successful licensee tomorrow at noon, as previously stated.”

“That’s not what I called about,” he said. “Are you in a secure location?”

Her face paled. “What—is Ky all right?”

“As far as I know, yes. But what I have to say concerns her.”

“I believe this facility is secure, yes,” Stella said. “Go on.”

“The pirates ran into an ISC fleet. Ky was there. Actually, Ky was the reason the ISC fleet was there—not by my orders, by the way. Against them. But anyway—the pirates chewed up our fleet with ridiculous ease.”

“And Ky got away?”

“Ky and a small number of Mackensee ships managed to drive the pirates away.”

“That idiot!” Stella said. “She should have run for it.”

“That’s what I told her,” Rafe said. “When I was told an ISC fleet was headed her way, I…” He stopped. Stella didn’t know about their shared cranial implant. How could he cover that? “Ky’s people had repaired a system ansible, a relay. That’s what alerted our enforcement division; they sent the fleet, standard procedure, to capture whoever had done the repair. When I found out it was too late to stop the fleet, I contacted her and warned her. It’s complicated—she’d already been in one battle, helping some mercenary ships fight off a pirate attack. She wouldn’t leave the system because the remaining mercenary ship wouldn’t leave. She said a merc relief convoy was on the way to bring supplies and change out trainees, but if the pirates returned in the meantime, the one ship would be helpless.”

“So she didn’t listen to you,” Stella said. “That sounds like Ky.”

“A very stubborn woman,” Rafe said. “I think it runs in the family.”

“You may think that,” Stella said. “I prefer to call it perseverance.”

“Apparently, everyone showed up in the system within a few hours: the ISC fleet, the merc convoy, and the pirates, who were calling themselves the Blueridge Defense Alliance. And using, according to an after-battle report I got from Ky, captured Bissonet military vessels.”

“That’s not good.”

“No. But the real reason I’m calling you now is to ask if it’s possible to preorder onboard ansibles in quantity. I know you haven’t awarded any contracts, but how fast do you think you could scale up production, if you had the cash in hand?”

“ISC wants them?”

“Everyone’s going to want them, but yes: ISC and also Nexus Defense. I’m sure Moscoe’s defense will also want some, but I see Nexus as a prime target. It’s clear from the post-battle data that ships without them are nearly helpless against ships that have them.”

Stella frowned. “Until we have a test run, I don’t know what the real production rate will be. If there’s enough demand, we could expand to another factory, I suppose…”

“I spoke to someone high in our System Defense this morning; I believe by tomorrow I can get you a firm commitment. And I’m going to be in contact with a respectable mercenary company as soon as we can get their ansible up and running—”

“Mackensee?”

“Well…yes. They were involved in the incident with Ky, and their commander on the scene says they’ll definitely want some.”

“Rafe, this is going to shred ISC’s monopoly.”

“I know that. I’ve already informed our Board. We’ve got to find another way to survive—but letting the pirates take over isn’t it.”

“What does your father say?”

“I…he’s still not…capable…”

“So it’s up to you?”

“Yeah. That’s a joke, isn’t it? The exile returns and is supposed to take over and perform a rescue.”

“You will,” Stella said. “How’s the rest of your family?”

Rafe shrugged. “About like you’d expect. My mother’s determined to get things back to normal—which is impossible—and my sister’s deep in depression.” He stopped. “Which reminds me, I need to talk to her therapist and change her appointment for her. I’ll call you later.”

That was abrupt, but the best he could do, he felt.

“I suppose it’s all right for her to move here for a short while,” the therapist said, pursing his lips. “But she’ll need careful supervision; she’s certainly not ready to be on her own. Really, I felt that the nurturing home environment was the best thing for her.”

“Nurturing home environment?” Rafe raised his brows. “You’ve been to our house?”

“I understand that you were removed from the house at an early age,” the therapist said. “Perhaps your resentment has blinded you to the qualities such a home has to offer.”

Rafe glared. “That house is the same house in which she was snatched up by a kidnapper and saved only because I shot him. That house is the same one in which she saw her husband murdered, as he tried to protect her, and from which she and my parents were abducted, to be held in captivity and tortured. She hates that house; she doesn’t feel safe in that house.”

“It is important for people like your sister to confront their fears—whatever you think. It’s a lovely house—comfortable, beautifully furnished—”

“Did you notice the pale patch in the living room where her husband’s blood had stained the floor and the intruders poured bleach on it to clean it up?”

“Er…no. If I may say so, you sound quite hostile and angry. It will not help your sister to be around a hostile person in her present state.”

“You’re evading the issue,” Rafe said. “Penny’s suffered severe trauma, physical and emotional. She associates that house with danger; she’s told me that she can’t sleep, that she relives both abductions over and over in that space where they happened. She needs to be where she feels safe…”

“You, sir, are not a therapist.” The man’s face had contracted to a knot of distaste. “You are disturbed; you have always been disturbed—”

“Excuse me?”

“Your therapist was my partner until his untimely death. I have seen your records. A born sociopath, a child killing without remorse; your subsequent course in the best possible therapeutic environment was proof of your deep-seated disturbance—”

“Poppycock,” Rafe said. He felt the dangerous edge of a magnificent and well-deserved rage, into which all the frustrations and angers of the past two days merged. And yet…this was Penny’s therapist. He had to be sure she was taken care of. He took a breath. “I was a child who killed an adult intent on killing or harming him, and intent on killing or harming his sister. The fact you can’t get around is that Penny and I would not be alive if I had not acted.”

“But you should have felt—”

“Feelings are what they are. It’s what you do with them that matters. I should have saved my sister and myself—and I did. I was scared; I was terrified; I used that fear to do what needed to be done. But that’s decades in the past. Now it’s my sister who needs help. And once again, I’m going to get her the help she needs—which is not being told to ‘confront her fears’ by staying in the location where the trauma happened. I’ll be seeking another therapist for her—”

“You! You aren’t qualified!”

“To do the therapy, of course not. To find her a competent therapist, yes. You will of course be reimbursed for today’s session and this conference.”

“You can’t do this!”

“Penny is an adult. She is free to choose whomever she wants for her therapist. She does not want you.”

“I’ll have to hear that from her.”

“Penny?” Rafe turned to the door.

Penelope came in.

“You don’t really mean—” her therapist began.

“I don’t want to keep seeing you,” she said. “I know I need more therapy; Rafe will help me arrange it.”

“My dear, you don’t know what you’re saying…your brother is…is not a safe companion for you.”

“My brother rescued me twice,” Penny said. “I think I’ll take that over your notions of safety.”

“Emil, see that this gentleman gets safely to his transportation,” Rafe said. When the door had closed behind him, he cocked his head. “Penny…I’m sorry. I didn’t realize the family had chosen someone like that for you.”

“It’s not your fault,” Penny said. Her eyes were red and glittered with unshed tears; she blinked them back. “I think Mother just went automatically to the same clinic…it’s what she knew, and she wasn’t really thinking clearly. Neither was I. I didn’t realize he’d been your therapist’s partner. How will we find another?”

“By doing what I should’ve done in the first place,” Rafe said. “The team I hired to get you out: they work with victims all the time. I’m sure they know the best in the business. I’ll call Gary.” He looked at the clock. “After lunch, I’ll call Gary. Let’s have lunch together. We can have it in the apartment; we can get you settled in there.”

The apartment, meant for visiting VIPs, had a curved window overlooking the river and its park in the dining area. “This window…,” Penelope said. She didn’t look at the trays on the table with their insulated covers.

“One-way glass,” Rafe said. “And armored. As well as a full alarm system—look at this strip here, and this. You will set the combination of your bedroom door to whatever you wish—it’s unlocked now—but it has a pushbar emergency exit, so you can always get out. And I hope you don’t mind—” He opened the bedroom door. “I saw how you seemed cold at home. And you brought only one small case. I ordered in some additional covers…”

Her eyes filled with tears again. “Rafe…thank you.”

“I think we need lunch,” he said. “Leave your case in there, freshen up.”

“Yes…”

She actually ate some of the thick soup and warm bread he’d ordered. “I need to get back to work,” Rafe said. “Do you need a nap, or are you good for another round of digging through figures?”

“I’ll come,” she said. “Unless I’m being too…clingy.”

She was, but it wasn’t her fault. Nothing was her fault, including his feeling of being trapped. “Not at all, he said. “And you’ll want to be there when I talk to Gary about therapists—we need to find you the right one.”

Gary had a list, as Rafe had expected. Penny’s former therapist wasn’t on it; when Rafe mentioned the man’s name, Gary snorted. “If you’re a socialite having anxiety attacks because your cook got sick two days before a dinner party, he might be of use. But not for anything serious. I’ve had clients before who went to him because he’s the big name that social class knows about. Your sister needs one of the others. Consider the woman; all her trauma’s been from men, right?”

“Good point,” Rafe said. He glanced at Penny. “How do you feel about a woman therapist, Penny?”

“I…think I’d like that.”

“Frieda’s solid, sensible…her background’s a little unusual, but she’s helped all my clients who have gone to her. Want me to give her a heads-up?”

“I was going to call her right away, but—yes.” Gary, Rafe knew, had data collected from the site that he had not shared with Rafe, data from the abductors’ own files. Penny’s therapist should have that.

“Go ahead; tell her we were the extrication team, and that I’ll forward the usual background data.”

Rafe called the woman’s office. When he explained who he was, that his sister had been held hostage, and gave Gary’s name, the therapist came online at once. She was a middle-aged woman, with streaks of white in her hair. “Let me speak to her, please,” she said to Rafe. “It is her therapy. And if you could give her some privacy…?”

Rafe called Penny over to the console and walked out to Emil’s desk, bemused that someone he hadn’t actually hired yet was giving him orders.

“How’s she doing?” Emil asked in a tone that made Rafe give him a longer look.

“As well as can be expected…Emil, are you falling for her?”

Emil looked startled. “No, sir. I just…she seems like such a nice girl—woman—and she’s had such an awful experience.”

“You’re right, and that’s exactly why she shouldn’t have even such a paragon as you trying to get too close to her too soon.”

“I wouldn’t think of it, sir. I just hope…things go well for her from now on.”

Rafe looked at Emil’s earnest face and thought about saying more, but Emil was so young. And probably had a girl already, or a string of them. “Just be kind to her,” he said.

“All right, Rafe, come on back,” Penny called. The monitor was blank; she had ended the call. “I don’t know if I like her, exactly, but…I feel good about her. I told her that I’d moved out of the house and she said that was a healthy decision.” She paused. “I—I hope you don’t mind my talking to her without you.”

“Not at all,” Rafe said. “She’s your therapist; there’s no reason for me to know everything you say to each other.”

The rest of that day passed in a blur; the conference with the sector commanders on readiness, a call to Mackensee’s local representative, another conference with the nearest sector commander on tactical analysis of the battle, plus the new Control supervisor wanting authorization for all the overtime doubling shifts would require, and queries from news media about the change in CEO.

He was just wondering whether to have a late supper sent up or go somewhere when his mother called. She looked haggard, and her voice shook. “Rafe! How could you! Firing Doctor Bradon like that—he’s one of the most prominent therapists in the city. He called me—he was so upset. He says you’re not fit to take charge of Penelope, that your separating her from her family means you want to control her. Rafe, I know you’re not as bad as he says, but—”

“Mother, please.” Rafe took a deep breath. “Listen—Doctor Bradon was affiliated with the same therapist who caused me so much grief. More important than that, Penny didn’t feel comfortable with him. She has a new therapist, someone Gary recommended—”

“Gary—?”

“The man who commanded the team that got you out. He is the system expert on hostage extrication; he has a list of therapists he knows who are particularly skilled in helping people recover from that experience. Penny’s already talked to one, and decided to try her for a time.”

“Doctor Bradon said you might say something like that, and he said if she got a new therapist it must not be a woman…that she has issues which require a male therapist…”

“I looked this woman up,” Rafe said. He didn’t need to tell her it was after Penny had already decided. “She has multiple publications in reputable journals on issues relating to the care of survivors of serious trauma. She has taught in two medical schools, and is still on the adjunct faculty of one of them.”

“Oh.”

“Mother, I am not interested in controlling Penny. I do want her to heal from all this as quickly and as thoroughly as possible…and that wasn’t going to happen in the same house where she saw her husband killed.”

“I just wanted things to be like they were…” His mother was crying now. “I thought if…and Doctor Bradon says she needed to confront her fear…”

“I’ll give you the names of the therapists Gary recommends,” Rafe said. “You can see for yourself that they have solid credentials.”

“I just want…” Her voice choked off. Rafe squeezed his own eyes shut and waited. What she wanted was impossible, as impossible as his child’s wish for that awful night to have been a dream. Or his wish now that the abduction had never happened, that he could have come home to have a cool but nonhostile conversation with his father, perhaps visit the house to have a meal…and then gone back to his own life, far away from Nexus.

“You must think I’m crazy,” his mother said finally. “Crying like this. It’s over. I should be over it.”

“No,” Rafe said. “I don’t think you’re crazy.” His stomach growled, reminding him that dinner was long overdue. He had been hungrier before, he told himself.

“The house is so…so empty. So…big. And your father…”

Rafe had a moment’s terror that she was thinking of moving into headquarters with his father…the thought of all of them here…

“But we have to stay; we have to show we aren’t afraid.”

“Mother, all you and Father have to do is recover. You don’t have to prove anything to me or anyone else. If you need to go to…” He racked his brain. They had had a summer cabin in the mountains, but it was too much like the resort where they’d been held, logs and all. “Why not that place in the islands? The warm water would be good for Father; you know the house is cold and relatively isolated in winter. Some of your friends are probably down there already.”

She said nothing for a long moment; he was afraid she’d start crying again. “Rafe, I…you may be right. I’ll talk to the doctors…I don’t know what Doctor Bradon will say…”

“I’ll check with Gary and see if one of the therapists he recommends is in the area. I’m sure we can find someone, and Father’s medical team can travel with him. If this is what you decide.”

“I—I’ll think about it. I really will. I’m just so…so tired all the time these days.”

“Of course you are,” Rafe said. “But some time in the warmth and sun might help you more than this gloomy cold.” She had always loved the tropics.

“My houseplants—”

“We can get a plant service in to take care of them.”

She sighed. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe…and it’s only going to get colder. I’ll look up some of the places, see if anything’s open.”

For the wife of ISC’s former CEO, someplace would be open, if he had to bribe someone to cut their own vacation short. “That’s what I have a personal assistant for,” Rafe said. “Let me take care of it.”

“Would you?”

“Yes, but not without checking with you to be sure it’s what you want. I’m not trying to force you into anything—” Not much, he told himself. He wanted his parents out of the city, into someplace safe, and out of his hair. Yes, he believed it would be good for them to be out of that house, with all its toxic memories, and into a warmer climate…but he was still manipulating them with all the skill he had used on unsuspecting marks before. And he knew it.

“Thank you, dear,” his mother said. “I’ll just let you take care of it, then. I know it’s the high season, but if you could, something with a view—”

“I’m sure we can find something you like,” Rafe said. After his mother clicked off, he put a note in Emil’s file. Perhaps he could get through supper without another crisis. A night’s sleep was probably too much to hope for.