Emerald Eyes | Page 6

tech who wore that badge was probably paid twice as much as the tech who did not; even today, over eleven years after the end of the Unification War, there were not enough skilled decon techs to go around.
The lab was huge, easily the largest room in what was not a small building. This, thought Amnier, is where they work. The things that had been missing everywhere else were in abundance here; comic strips had been inscribed in the glowpaint, and decorative calendars were hung in three different places. The dozen or so desks scattered across the place were personalized to various degrees; one that caught his eye held the holograph of a ballerina, turning eternally on point.
The laboratory was the first place Amnier had seen in the building where glowpaint gave an approximation of yellow sunlight.
A huge laser hung nose-down from the ceiling, pointing at a table that bore a ceramic depression nearly a meter in diameter. In the middle of the depression was a small transparent container that had been clamped into position; tubes so small that Amnier could barely see them from where he stood led to the container.
Amnier made his way down from the catwalk slowly. Montignet was already down at floor level. One of the technicians was showing her listings from the devices attached to the transparent container; Montignet rose from the computer, snapped, "Ellie, get me nutrient flow now," and went back to the readouts.
Amnier reached the floor and found Malko Kalharri there, waiting for him. Kalharri stood with his arms crossed, pale blue eyes calm and rather relaxed. "Hello, Darryl."
Amnier sat down abruptly on a step four from the bottom. It put his eyes almost on a level with Kalharri's. "Hello, Malko. How have you been?"
"Well. And yourself?"
Amnier shrugged. "Busy. I work. What is happening?"
"There was a source of radiation." Kalharri eyed Amnier speculatively. "It's gone now. Vanished. We haven't been able to track it down."
"Assuming," said Amnier, "that you yourself have not caused this excitement--and I do not put it past you--please accept my assurance that I am not responsible for whatever has happened here today." He looked directly at Malko. "Did you let them take this Jorge person to the hospital?"
"Of course not."
"It grieves you that you could not."
"It would have made Robin feel better."
"But he would still die."
"Yeah."
Amnier watched the technicians in silence for a moment as they rushed about at errands that he, and he suspected Kalharri also, found incomprehensible. "If a living fetus comes out of this, and what I am hearing leads me to believe it might, I shall find it all most suspect."
Amnier thought a smile might have touched Kalharri's lips for an instant. "You're flattering yourself, Darryl."
"Perhaps. It is a danger in my profession." Amnier paused. "Our profession, I might say. You have not forgotten the way things work, at any rate. I have not needed to say a startling number of things."
"I've been thinking," Kalharri said, "about what you said to me the last time we talked."
Amnier stared at him. "Malko, that was seventeen years ago."
"I think you may have been right. The United States was in trouble." Kalharri spoke slowly, almost reluctantly. "I mean politically. In other ways it was not. The Unification Council--the entire superstructure your Sarah Almundsen designed--it is, in some ways, more vigorous than what we had; certainly better than what the Russians had, or the Chinese. Perhaps this Unification is better. Perhaps it was worth the deaths that came about in the War."
"It's good of you to say so."
"Darryl."
"Yes?"
"You are--all of you--already losing sight of what you fought for. I did not agree with you, and today I am not certain that I was right--but your government is being overrun by the barbarians. It's already happening." He paused. "I don't know if Americans will tolerate it."
Amnier said gently, "You're too much of a philosopher, Malko. It was charming when we were boys, but it helped you lose the War."
"--in republics there is greater life, greater hatred, and more desire for vengeance; they do not and cannot cast aside the memory of their ancient liberty."
Amnier looked at him quizzically. "The Prince," he said after a moment. "The Old Man would have been proud of you." He smiled distantly. "In the same work it says, this is a paraphrase, a city used to liberty can be more easily held by means of its citizens than in any other way, if you wish to preserve it."
Malko nodded. "Yes. It says that."
Amnier did not answer. There was a silence that continued until Suzanne left her work station and returned to where they waited. Amnier sat with his eyes unfocused, looking off into a distance that did not exist; Kalharri stood, eyes fixed on Amnier's face. Neither saw what they looked upon.
"Malko?" Amnier looked