Epilogue
(Six weeks later)
Late summer in Moscow could be quite the advertisement if it wanted to; this season was turning out to be especially appealing. The buildings downtown all but emptied each day at lunch, as everyone from the lowliest workers to well-placed Party officials scurried out to the parks to take advantage of the warm sun and fresh breezes. Those who could took their work outside to begin with and found a comfortable spot under a tree somewhere.
But Piotr Kreshcheyev wasn't to be numbered among them today. His room at this satellite office for the NAU Embassy had no windows, a feature he'd requested both to increase security and to eliminate one avenue of distraction. Since arriving, he had passed the early morning by balancing pencils on the backs of his fingers, a habit he had when there was a lot on his mind and he needed some time to mull things over. He'd gotten three to hold steady a few times, but had yet to coax the last one into place. He was in the middle of his sixth attempt when his door opened and Violet walked in.
He started slightly and the pencils clattered to his desk.
"I'm sorry, Piotr! Didn't mean to make you jump."
"It is not a problem." He interlaced his fingers and rested his chin on them. "You have the reports?"
"Right here." She patted the thick document in the crook of her arm and plopped it down on his desk. "Everything you ever wanted to know about what the secret police didn't find at the embassy."
"Thank you." He eyed the binder but made no move to pick it up.
She cocked her head to the side and gave him the once-over. "Somethin' got you down?"
He raised his eyes to hers. "I beg your pardon?"
"You look like your dog died."
"Ah." He leaned back in his chair with a quiet sigh. "It is nothing. I was only thinking about Leonid Bolodnikov."
"Oh." She suppressed a frustrated sigh of her own as she bobbed her head in a short nod. "Yeah, that was a shame."
"A shame? Yes, to say the least. Also a tragedy … and a missed opportunity. His death is a monumental loss to our world." He shook his head in frustrated disgust. "Actual machine-driven teleportation? A super-computer no bigger than a roll of antacid tablets? What a terrible, terrible waste."
"Yeah …" Violet had heard this spiel many times before and searched for a way to change the subject. "Say, have you heard anything back from the Japanese supers?"
"What?"
"You know. You said you you'd sent a delegation, to see if they could talk to that super that helped me out. Did you get in touch with her?"
"Hmph. No. They returned Tuesday. They never got to see anyone connected with Japan's supers. They could not get anyone who worked with the Diet to admit Japan even had supers."
"Huh. I guess she didn't want visitors."
Piotr shook his head but didn't reply.
"Oh, cheer up Piotr! It's not all bad. The Demon's gone. That guy who killed your supers is gone. Trouble's gonna be back in action in another month. You picked up some cool tech from Achmedjan's headquarters, and about a zillion leads to other mobs."
"And we lost a community of over six hundred souls to Achmedjan's madness."
"Yes, you did. And I'm sorry about that. But you dodged the nuclear bullet with the NAU, and your Premier and our President are communicating better than they ever have before. You had a major role in that, and they both know it. On balance, I'd say you came out smelling like a rose."
"Perhaps. Nevertheless, I cannot help a few regrets over what we might have gained, had Bolodnikov lived."
"Well, I can't deny that. Have you found his base yet?"
"A few possibilities. We found four different complexes that traced their ownership back to Ivan Bolodnikov. The man had extensive resources, and any one of those could have served as his brother's lab. But there was nothing out of the ordinary in any of them. No notes. No prototypes. No unusual components. It is very frustrating." He tapped his knuckles on the desk. "If things had turned out just a tiny bit different at any of several points, he might have lived. If Achmedjan had not grabbed Leonid as the device activated, or if Dash had not been disabled in fighting Ivan, or if you had not run into Achmedjan when you did …"
"Oh, sure, rub it in."
"I am sorry. There was no way you could have known how that battle would go. And I should have told you what we knew of Ivan."
"Yeah, maybe so. But then you'd have to tell me how you knew, and that woulda been awkward."
"I suppose we can all share the blame in some way."
"I hear hindsight is like that. We can learn a lot from the mistakes we made, but we shouldn't beat ourselves up either."
"I suppose I must accept that." He reached over and picked up the folder.
Violet said, "So … if you don't need me for anything, I've got some more cross-referencing to do."
He looked up and focused on her face. "Do you? Why?"
"Uh … it's my job? Just a guess, but since that's what the Embassy's paying me for, they might like it if I took it seriously at least some of the time."
He shook his head in mild amusement. "I would think, given your status as one of the top supers of your country, that you would find this post to be … beneath you."
"Oh, heck no. After all we went through to get rid of Achmedjan, this feels more like an extended vacation than a work assignment." She raised one shoulder in a small shrug. "I'm available if the Team really needs me. But Dash is back at school, and, um, Mr. and Mrs. Incredible are in Scotland."
"What is wrong in Scotland? I haven't heard …"
"Nothing's wrong. They're on vacation."
"… Vacation?"
"Yeah. Mr. Incredible is on the mend, but he's got a ways to go before he'll trust himself on a mission. They're spending the time together while he recuperates."
"Oh." That news seemed to depress him, for some reason Violet couldn't grasp.
"So … are we done?"
"Hm? Oh, yes, of course." He cleared his throat and said, "До скорой встречи."
She squinted for a second, then smiled and responded, "До завтра."
He nodded in approval. "You are coming along."
She tossed a "Thanks" back over her shoulder as she stepped out of the room.
Violet could have used one of the Embassy ground cars to whisk her the few blocks over to the main building, but it was such a nice day she walked up to the roof instead. Getting her bearings, she went invisible, formed a force plane against the roof, and shot herself into the air. Twelve seconds later, after a couple of very long modified pole-vaults, she reversed the process and landed lightly on a terrazzo path that wound through the small garden at the Embassy's rear. She walked up to the door and shed her invisibility so the retinal scanner could identify her. Less than two minutes later she was back in the records room.
Many people in her position (and the vast majority of supers, they being an antsy lot) would have found the work tedious. But she looked at it as a chance to rest her brain, and after what she'd been through over the last few weeks, she thought she deserved it. So she tackled the stack of files and worked steadily down through them.
There were but two folders left on the table when she got an odd itch at the back of her head that caused her to sit up excitedly. With a bright smile growing, she hurriedly finished her task, locked the file cabinet, and exited the storage room, locking it as well. Then she trotted quickly down the long hall toward the servants' entrance. The small foyer there was one of the few places in the building that was not under electronic surveillance. Checking to make sure that no one was there, she placed her fingertips on four unremarkable contact points on her utility belt, closed her eyes, and concentrated.
There was an instant of disorientation, but when her vision cleared, she could see delicate rice paper walls. The room was fairly small, maybe five meters square and very sparingly appointed. A large lacquered vase sat on either side of the doorway she faced; behind her stood a tall screen, exquisitely painted with a stylized landscape where blossoming cherry trees featured prominently. Thin bamboo hangings over the two windows to her left and right rustled in a warm, misty breeze. Otherwise, the room was empty.
She stepped quickly to the door and ran outside. To the south, Mount Fuji was just barely visible through the lacy vapor. A narrow but well-kept path led down the hillside and up its neighbor, and she followed it eagerly, soon coming within sight of a much larger building.
This elegant structure gave one the feeling that it had not so much been built as grown out of the hill. Two stories high, three in places, the warm wooden walls and broad stone stairways followed the gentle contours of the hilltop in delightful and natural dips and rises, its mossy, tiled roof winding or retreating with the canopy of trees. She was perhaps fifteen meters from the wide door when Leo stepped outside, a grin threatening to bisect his head. Forming a small plane of force against the ground, she launched herself the remaining distance and landed in his arms. Wrapped in one another's embrace, they shared a lingering kiss.
At length they paused for breath and she leaned back to look at him. "Seems your weight training is paying off."
"Thank you." He patted one bicep. "The schedule Kitsune has plotted for me is difficult, but she insists that a finely trained mind must be supported with a finely trained body."
"I like that lady." She took one of his hands in hers, favoring him with a brilliant smile. "So what's the occasion?"
"Did you have a big breakfast?"
"Nah. Bagel and a glass of orange juice."
"Have you had lunch?"
"Uh-uh. I don't usually eat till early afternoon, and it's a quarter of eleven in Moscow. 'course you're seven hours ahead of me, so I guess it'd be suppertime here."
"Fairly soon. Come with me." He led her into the rambling structure that served as Kitsune's home base.
Violet glanced around and asked, "Is she here?"
"I do not think so. She said she needed to coordinate something with the other supers."
"Huh! This the first time that's happened since you've been here?"
"Yes."
"Must be big if she has to attend in person."
"I am not privy to details. All I do know is that since she got them all organized a dozen years ago, there has not been any crime to speak of in Japan."
Violet frowned. "Well, I knew their crime rate was low, but I never saw any statistics. What'd she do, get rid of all the bad guys?"
"I do not know her methods. I do know that there has not been a murder here in over seven years. Nor any other violent crime."
"Wait … none? None at all?"
"None."
"No rape? No armed robbery? No assault?"
"None."
"Whoa." She went silent, thinking about the implications. "How's she do it?"
"You know of my gift of foresight?"
"Yeah. She got it, too?"
"I believe so. Although she has not told me very much, I have deduced that her ability far outstrips my own. I get hints. She knows certainties."
"Wow. That's a heck of a responsibility."
"Indeed. But I feel that she is up to the task."
Leo stopped in front of a delicate sliding door of rice paper, and turned to her with a smile. "Would you care to take dinner with me?"
Her expression mirrored his. "I'd love to."
She was impressed. He had prepared the dishes himself, a pleasing combination of sushi, steamed vegetables, long-grained sticky rice, and bite-sized bits of grilled meats. He served her, and they had a long and pleasant conversation over the meal.
Afterward, they wandered along the winding paths that traced out the hills in the area, discussing her duties at the Embassy, her family, and how she was settling in as the NAU's semi-permanent super-ambassador. Occasionally they would switch to Russian. Violet was picking up the language very quickly, an unsurprising result since her tutor could share her mind.
As dusk approached they ambled back to the main building, stopping in a small garden where they took a seat on a convenient bench. She leaned toward him and he met her halfway. Arms sliding around each other, they held on tightly as, by mutual assent, their psyches merged.
This melding was so much more intimate than any physical contact. She floated, completely at ease, in the warm pool of his mind.
[ [ You mentioned certainties. ] ]
[ [ I did. Where Kitsune is concerned. ] ]
[ [ I think certainties are very nice. ] ]
[ [ I agree. ] ]
[ [ How do they do it? ] ]
[ [ Who? ] ]
[ [ Everyone else. The rest of the world, who
can't feel this, who can't know this. ] ]
[ [ I cannot say. Having shared your mind,
knowing your feelings as surely as I do
my own, is the most marvelous gift I could
possibly imagine. ] ]
[ [ It is. I love you. And I know that you love me.
It isn't a façade, it isn't guesswork. I know it the
way I know the Earth spins, the way I know
a rock will fall if I drop it. It's a certainty. ] ]
[ [ Yes. In the realm of my love for you,
mistrust is not possible.
We are transparent to one another. ] ]
[ [ Oh, not a hundred percent transparent.
I don't know everything about you, nor do you of me.
But that will come with time.
And in the meanwhile, a little mystery can be fun. ] ]
[ [ I am glad you feel that way. ] ]
He picked up a measure of amusement on her part which surprised him, and he asked,
[ [ What is it? ] ]
[ [ Oh, nothing. Just had a thought about how
mysterious you are, and it struck me as funny. ] ]
[ [ How mysterious I am? My dear Violet,
I am a man. Men are, by definition, not
mysterious. Certainly not in your league. ] ]
[ [ You're a special case. ] ]
[ [ … Perhaps. ] ]
She detected a bit of melancholy and asked,
[ [ What's bothering you? ] ]
[ [ Well … I revel in the oneness, the
melding of our spirits. It gives me a
feeling of completion beyond anything I
had previously imagined. ] ]
[ [ I hear a '… but ' on the end of that thought. ] ]
[ [ But, really, what will be left to discover
after our wedding? ] ]
[ [ What do you mean? ] ]
[ [ We are already closer than any other
two people on the planet. How will mere
physical interaction improve on that? ] ]
[ [ Oh, is that all? ] ]
[ [ That 'all' might prove to be significant. ] ]
[ [ Heh! Baby, let me assure you that you
ain't seen nothin' yet. ] ]
[ [ What do you mean? ] ]
[ [ Well … think about it … you'll be inside my
head, and I'll be in yours, both of us experiencing
everything the other can feel when … well … you know.
Trust me, we won't get bored any time soon. ] ]
He had not considered that; not in any respect. The implications shocked him to silence.
Violet gently pulled her mind away from his and he, regretfully, let her go. "Sweetie, I've got a meeting with the Ambassador this afternoon and I have to get ready for it."
"Of course."
"Thank you so much for dinner. It was wonderful!"
"You are very welcome."
"Will you have any free time this weekend?"
"I will make some free time." He leaned over and kissed her again, eliciting a small sigh of delight.
After they passed several more minutes in this lovely endeavor, he gave her a last hug and wished her a successful meeting. She stood, pressed the four contacts on her belt, and vanished.
He sat there on the low bench for a while, thinking about this dazzling woman who had completely upended his concept of himself, his work, and his life. As he sat in this comfortable haze of love and contentment, a voice sounded in his head.
[ [ Does she still not suspect? ] ]
He spoke aloud in response, "I cannot say."
[ [ She would give some sign if she did,
don't you think? ] ]
"Possibly. But it would not surprise me in the least if she had already guessed the truth about you."
[ [ Surely not! ] ]
"It is a good possibility. Given her comments about my being so mysterious, I would say she certainly suspects something. Perhaps not you, specifically … but something."
[ [ I can't believe that. ] ]
"In any case we must tell her everything, and we must do so soon."
[ [ Not yet, please!
I couldn't stand it if she …
if she were to … ] ]
"She would not reject us just because I brought you along for the ride, Ivan. You know this."
[ [ I wish I could be as sure as you are. ] ]
"Really, brother, this indecision is not like you. You were always the firm one, so secure in your plans."
[ [ That, Leo, was before I fell in love. ] ]
"Love surely does make fools of us all, does it not?"
[ [ It does. But even through the lens of love,
our Violet cannot fail to see
how much I have to atone for. ] ]
"I think you underestimate her capacity for forgiveness."
MY CHILDREN …
'They' jumped up and answered in unison, "Yes, Kitsune!"
ARE YOU REFRESHED?
This time their response was more restrained. "Yes, Kitsune."
THEN LET US RESUME THE LESSON
Leo/Ivan walked quickly toward the building, but Kitsune stopped them with a word of caution.
NO, PRACTICE WHAT I SHOWED YOU …
COME IN AS YOU HAVE LEARNED TO DO TODAY
"Forgive us, Kitsune. We were thoughtless."
Leo/Ivan closed his eyes and centered himself. Then, slowly, he/they rose into the air a few centimeters. Opening his eyes and smiling in triumph, he/they floated serenely back inside, just ahead of the light rain that began to fall.
The End
