Bill Darcy arrived a few minutes before eighteen-thirty. A year younger than Susan, he stood six feet tall and sported light brown hair with hints of red and gray at the temples. The lower half of his face was hidden beneath a full growth of beard. He wore a light green casual jumpsuit.
"You're looking good," Susan said as she let him in.
"A bit grayer," he responded, "but I do feel good." He looked her up and down. She wore her own variation on the latest Earth-side female evening attire: a few strategically placed patches of silver lace and a complete iridescent body-paint job. The pendant hung between her breasts from its chain.
"You haven't changed," Darcy said. "In fact, you actually look younger than the last time I saw you."
"You always were a charmer." He smiled, and Susan gently squeezed his upper arm. "You don't think I might be exposing too much for Luna City, do you?"
"Without a doubt, but I like it."
"Then I won't change."
His smile broadened and Susan reached out, stepping into his arms. They kissed warmly as the door irised closed.
"What would you like for dinner?" he asked.
"Italian."
"That's what I like about you. You always know exactly what you want."
"And I usually get it," Susan joked. "Right now, I can think of nothing I want more than to be with you."
Darcy beamed. "There's a nice Italian restaurant a short walk from the theater. We'll have to hurry, though-the ballet begins at twenty hundred hours sharp."
They left the apartment arm in arm. A few steps down the corridor, Susan asked, "How's your brother?"
Darcy looked questioningly into Susan's eyes. "You know Sam is dead."
She stopped, then turned to face the man. "No, I didn't know. When did it happen?"
"Susan, you know Sam died five years ago, in that mining accident out in the asteroids. What's wrong with you?"
"I don't know. Sam isn't Luna City's mayor?"
Darcy shook his head in disbelief. "Like I said, he's dead. I've been mayor here for the past six years. But you know that."
Then the From line of the script message had been right.
But what of her memories? She remembered Sam Darcy as mayor of Luna City, and Bill as a councilman. She remembered Sam alive and married; three years ago she had visited him and his wife here in Luna City. And only a couple weeks ago she'd watched him deliver a speech on a holo-vid broadcast beamed Earth-side.
Yet Bill had just said his brother died five years ago. Why would he lie?
The answer was obvious-he wouldn't.
There was the same feeling to this there had been during that incident in the corridor outside the curio shop. The same uneasiness filled Susan's thoughts now as had then. She would have to check her memories against those stored in her LIN/C, but she was certain they would match.
"Maybe we'd better not go out tonight," Darcy said, scattering her thoughts. "You should get some sleep."
"I'll be fine. I want to be with you."
"You're sure?"
"Positive. We haven't seen each other in such a long time."
Darcy nodded, and they continued down the corridor, Susan leaning on his arm a bit more than necessary. She felt suddenly weak and vulnerable.
Less than fifteen minutes later, they sat talking quietly in a booth at the back of the restaurant, becoming re-acquainted. Most of what Susan told Darcy about her life since they had last met she fabricated on the spot.
When the waiter arrived to take their order, Darcy asked for a good vintage Earth wine. The waiter told him he could no longer serve wines imported from Earth.
"But I was in here only last week, and I was served an Earth wine." To Susan, he said, "As Luna City's mayor, I shouldn't admit this, but it is much better than the wines produced here on Luna."
"I agree, Mr. Mayor," the waiter said, "but we can no longer get it. The ban on Earth wines came down from D. I. only three days ago."
Darcy frowned. "Very well," he said, but Susan could tell from the tone of his voice that it was not very well. "Bring a bottle of your best Luna City red."
The waiter nodded and left.
"What was that all about?" Susan asked.
"Hyatt's pushing for independence again."
"Can he do it this time?"
Darcy shrugged. "He has more of a following than he did last year at this time, thanks to completion of the solar power satellite. It makes us more self-sufficient than ever before."
Again something jarred in Susan's mind. The solar power satellite had been destroyed three months ago, yet Darcy acted as if that destruction had never occurred.
She said nothing. If he couldn't believe she remembered his brother alive and well only three weeks ago, he would never believe what she remembered about the satellite.
"This D. I. the waiter mentioned," she finally asked, "what is it?"
"Department of Insularity," Darcy said. "Hyatt possessed enough influence in Luna City politics last year to maneuver me into forming it. It's why you haven't seen any holo-phones here in Luna City. We stopped using them six months ago. Not only are they manufactured Earth-side, but they consume copious amounts of energy that can be better used to further our push for self-sufficiency. At any rate, that's the theory."
Susan had thought the lack of holo-phones was due to the power satellite's destruction. "There seems to be quite a bit going on here of which I wasn't aware," she said.
"Communications beamed Earth-side have been censored for the past six months. Right now, we still need General Fund money to keep going. And if nothing comes of all this-" He shrugged.
The waiter returned with the wine, and their conversation fell into a more casual track. The meal was good, and the companionship even better.
Still, Susan's mind mulled over what she had just learned. The solar power satellite had not been destroyed, as she remembered. And Hyatt's group was closer to independence than anyone on Earth might suspect.
She relaxed some at the ballet, for the first time in two days. It was just what she needed. She knew she was taking a chance being out-the latest attacker had proved he would strike in a crowd-but she would probably be no more safe in her quarters; the first assailant back on Fleet Base had used a spore-lock scrambler to get into her rooms.
And somewhere out in the crowd, unseen, Clayton watched.
She pushed those thoughts from her mind and sat back to enjoy the performance. She hadn't seen a low gravity ballet in almost ten years, and she had nearly forgotten just how much fun it could be. The dancers were considerably more acrobatic than their Earth-side counterparts, able to do things in Luna's one- sixth standard gravity only dreamed of by those on Earth.
But by the final curtain fear was again gnawing at the back of her mind. There was an assassin out there in the crowd, perhaps more than one, waiting for a chance to kill her. She was making it too easy by taking this night out; there was simply no way she could control the environment sufficiently. At least in her apartment she could exercise some control, and she trusted her own abilities far more than she did Clayton's.
Besides, with these two new bits of knowledge-that Sam Darcy was dead, and that the solar power satellite still hung in Clarke orbit above Luna City-she had enough to think about.
She had Darcy take her back to her quarters immediately following the performance.