So this was what Mick Rory's shebeen looked like these days, Evelyn Sharpe thought. It has grown in popularity - and size - until it couldn't really be called that any more. It now served food as well as drink and even had a few overnight cabins for those who couldn't make their way home after an evenings drinking. It was ably staffed by the half dozen or so orphans that Mick and Joanne had informally 'adopted'.
She stood and looked at the less than tidy sprawl of buildings and then at the ocean just over a hundred yards away. They had made a good life here and, in a way, she envied them. But she wouldn't have changed places with them. She was happy in her marriage to Ava and - yes - she did enjoy her work at A.R.G.U.S. Even though being sent to smooth 'any ruffled feathers' as Director Ulrickssen had put it, was very far from her favourite assignment.
''I'm not going to lie to them'' she had protested.
''Of course not'' he'd answered blandly.''But you don't have to tell them everything.''
For all his smooth manner, it had plainly been an order. She had to grit her teeth and get on with it.
''Penny for them'' said a familiar voice.
She remembered a time when he wouldn't have needed to ask. Turning round she saw Leonard and Sara coming towards her. They hadn't met in twenty years and, like her, they paused, seeing the changes that two decades had brought about. Leonard's hair was a pale grey now and Sara was no longer the agile looking person she'd been - she had borne five children after all. For all that they were still an attractive looking couple. She hop[ed she'd a chance to meet their children.
For a moment, she tried to see herself through their eyes. A woman in her mid-thirties, now a middle-ranking officer in A.R.G.U.S., married to her cousin, who also worked there. She knew that - in the eyes of some - such as Oliver and Lyla - she hadn't fulfilled her potential. But the crazy days when she'd gone undercover in Savage's organisation, when she'd be an archer-vigilante, were way behind her now.
It was good to see them both and for a few minutes they simply exchanged greetings and news. Sara was interested to hear that she and Ava now had three children - one each and one adopted. Leonard, who'd never got on very well with he older Sharpe cousin, managed to keep a gracious silence. He'd always liked the younger one - brave and smart and devious when she needed to be. He hoped it wasn't that quality that had led to her being sent to talk to them.
Greetings concluded, they walked along the veranda to where Mick and Joanne were sitting in the shade. They really were an old couple now, but plainly enjoying every minute to their life of leisure, now that the younger generation were doing so well at running the family business. The four ex-Legends were happy, she thought, even though coming here had been a form of exile.
''They're all here now'' Mick told her.
Joanne was silent. On account of her childhood experiences, she didn't like official, bureaucratic authorities - and A.R.G.U.S. was one of those.
X
''The agreement with A.R.G.U.S. was that it cause any large scale atmospheric solution'' Joe West told her, in a frostier tone than she'd expected from him.
''I've brought Director Ulrickssen's apologies'' Evelyn offered. ''And an assurance that it won't happen again.''
''It shouldn't have happened at all'' Terry said bluntly.''What was it anyway?''
She hesitated. The chemical formula was not something he would have understood She didn't however have the same view of him as the Director, who'd dismissed him as a 'scar-faced scavenger'.
Twenty years ago, she replied, and now married to Joe West's daughter, who's no fool when it comes to weighing people up. That hadn't cut any ice with Ulrickssen.
''I'm not an expert''she began ''but I'm assured it won't cause any major or lasting harm to Green world's ecology..''
She could see that she wasn't satisfying any of them by that remark.
''This is a cover-up'' a new member of the council- or at least one she didn't know - pronounced.
Automatically, her eyes flickered for a moment towards Leonard, feeling relief that he could no longer get confirmation of the last statement. At the moment, he was looking no friendlier than any of the others, for all his easy manner with her before the meeting.
X
He was friendlier in the evening, when she went to Sara's and his home for a meal, and she had a chance to meet the twins Len and Mike, Laura, Lisa and Quentin.
But it did come with a warning.
''There's a growing feeling among the colonists that a research facility like A.R.G.U.S. doesn't have any place here'' he said quietly. ''Some people would like to refer the matter to the U.N. Suggest to Ulrickssen that he might want to bear that in mind.''
As if I'd dare do so, she thought. But didn't say.