Chapter 5 — Intrigues in New City University

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*****

~ 1 ~ Isabel was looking for her. Rhoda’s Powers had alerted her to that fact, so Rhoda had just now left the Trillium Gardenland through the Gate between it and the Head Family Gardenland where Isabel was searching. This Gate was perched on a low hill of the Head Family Gardenland’s vineyard, from which Rhoda looked down the wide lane cutting through the vineyard and crossing the rows of grapevines. The light breeze bathing her was drawn from a place and a time in Earth’s Province which had never known cultivation. As it stirred her hair, she closed her eyes and inhaled its tantalizing wild, sweet scents. When she opened her eyes, she saw Isabel talking with Kurt, a few hundred feet beyond her on the lane. Rhoda slipped back through the Gate into her Trillium Gardenland, where she would work for several more hours in the few minutes needed for Isabel to finish speaking with Kurt.

Isabel had been walking slowly along the broad lane, stooping a little as she looked to the left and to the right for Rhoda through the neatly trellised vines. She had come upon Kurt at the lane’s crossing with a second wide lane. He had been pushing his old wooden wheelbarrow down the second lane toward the bean patch in the field below, when he had seen Isabel looking for someone. He had waited for her at the crossing. Because Isabel had been looking to the sides rather than ahead of her, she had been only a few feet from Kurt when she had looked up, seeing his kind and weathered face before her.

“Who’re you lookin’ for, Isabel?”

“Oh! Hi, Kurt. I’m hoping to find Rhoda here. Of course, she might be anywhere, but I know she finds her vineyard work relaxing, and Martha suggested that I try here first.”

“My dear wife probably guessed that we’d run into each other, Isabel. Look up at the ridge there where the main lane ends.” Kurt was not, himself, looking at the ridge. He continued to look at Isabel’s face as he asked, “Do you see anything?”

“I see two tall posts connected by a crosspiece that’s high enough to walk under. The wood looks weathered, like your wheelbarrow. But, Kurt, when I looked up there a few minutes ago, that structure wasn’t there. Instead, a few old benches were there, facing the fence between the Gardenland and the Commons. Have I gotten myself turned around?”

Kurt looked up the lane. “No, honey, you’re not turned around. I don’t see the old high Gate that you’re seeing, but I know Martin and Martha can see it. You’re seeing the Gate to Trillium.”

“Is Trillium Rhoda’s private Gardenland?”

“Yep. A few months ago I was here with Martha, when she was lookin’ for Rhoda like you’re doin’ now. She said to me, ‘There’s the Trillium Gate; Rhoda must be in her Gardenland. I asked, ‘Where?’, and she said, ‘If you can’t see it, wait here. You don’t want to get entangled in her Maze again.’ Isabel had heard the story of Rhoda, when she was a young girl, rescuing Kurt from the Great Maze, which in those days was her playground.

“We were standing about here,” Kurt continued in his slow, measured way, “where you and I are now, and then Martha walked on up to the place where the high Gate is that I don’t see, and she put her hand on something that was invisible to me—probably one of those posts—and leaned forward, calling Rhoda’s name. After a minute, Rhoda just stepped out of thin air in front of Martha, and they walked and talked for a bit. Then Rhoda took Martha’s arm and they both went back to where Rhoda had appeared, and they both disappeared. I scratched my head and went down to see how my beans were doin’, just like I’m fixin’ to do now. So, Isabel, if you do like Martha did, I’d bet that you’ll find Rhoda.

“Thanks, Kurt. I’ll try it. What is she growing in Trillium?”

“Martha said Rhoda has a big field of flax growing there.”

“Flax?”

“Its fibers are used to make linen cloth. Martin says what’s goin’ to be made from the cloth is a War Secret, and that’s all I know.” Kurt looked up the lane, and he saw Rhoda appear again out of thin air. “Look, Isabel; here she comes!”

“Are you spilling War Secrets, Uncle Kurt?” Rhoda grinned and hugged him. Then she noticed the letter in Isabel’s hand.

“I saw something that Kurt said is your Gate to Trillium, Rhoda, but he couldn’t see it.”

“You did? You must want to speak with me, not to tour my flax field.” Rhoda glanced at Kurt.

“I let Isabel know that you grow flax in Trillium.” Kurt hefted his wheelbarrow.

“Your Gate is gone, Rhoda!”

“Of course it is, Isabel. I’m done for the day.”

“Ladies, I’ll leave you to the War Thing. I’m off to my retirement.” Kurt left with his wheelbarrow, for the bean patch.

~ 2 ~ “Rhoda, I’ve just received this letter from Scott, and it’s not about a math problem. His problem is Het. Scott feels that he’s in personal danger because of Het's involvement with Arch.”

“Oh, dear.”

“Yes. Rhoda, as I’ve told Diego recently, Scott and Het are two of the people that I need to try nursing along onto the straight and narrow way. I think I should return to New City University as soon as possible and see what I can do for them.”

“Nursing them, Isabel?” Rhoda smiled, lifting an eyebrow.

“Um, well, when I said that to Diego, I thought I might be pregnant, and nursing is the sort of thing that was on my mind.” Isabel’s lowered eyes were focused on a bunch of grapes. In her mind they became the grapes splattering on a spinning motorcycle wheel as Yohanna easily lifted the machine in Rhoda’s garage in New City.

“Was that around the time of your conjecture that Thersa’s pregnancy is the key to Thiuderieks's dormition and her own longevity?”

“Yes. Now that I’m thinking of it, I recall that it was around that time, Rhoda.”

“A happy accident.”

“Since then, Rhoda, I’ve been checking my calculations and my assumptions every which way, just as Ricardo asked me to, and I've written it all out. It took me a long time, because of everything else that’s going on.”

“How long is your treatise?”

“About thirty pages, Rhoda, handwritten.” Isabel’s handwriting was neat, sure and small, and it flowed straight across the page as though the paper were lined.

“Well, sister, now that you’re going to New City, you’ll have an opportunity to show it to Ricardo. He likes well-though-out ideas.”

“When can I go, Rhoda?”

“Would tomorrow be too soon? Wilson will be making a roundtrip flight to Ontario, so you can fly out with him. There’s a guest bedroom for you in my place, and I might be able to meet you there at the duplex, myself. If not, Theresa Rose can show you around.”

“Rhoda, that hardly gives me enough time to say goodby to Diego.”

“You don’t want too much time for good-byes, do you, Isabel? Well, he might be able to accompany you on the flight to New City, and return with Wilson.”

“I see what you’re thinking. …A short goodby would be better. Rhoda, do you think Scott’s in hot water already? He does worry about things a lot.”

“Maybe he is. Talking face-to-face with him is the best way to find out.”

“I guess I should go tomorrow, but I’m happier here in Home Ranch where it’s so peacefully alive. I know New City University, and it’s not so good a place to be.”

“Well, there’s a lot of the world in Home Ranch, too, although we do deal with it better than they do in New City. Just think of Hector’s folly…And me!”

“You’re good at landing on your feet, Rhoda.”

“So far, but I don’t want to needlessly put that ability to the test; that’s why I can use your help.”

“Then I’m glad that Scott called for help. Diego has been telling me that you’ll need me, Rhoda. Had you talked with him about it?”

“No. Isabel, neither Ricardo nor I have spoken to him of our need for you. Diego is Ranch Chief because of his ability to anticipate needs like that and prepare the ground, and when the Ban of Swords is reinstated, he’ll probably be elected Head of the Clan in the Americas.”

But, what about Ricardo; what about you? “Rhoda, I’m worried about my mother, too. I haven't heard from her since she started working as hostess for the Eyrie. Her spirit has recovered, but it’s the same old spirit. I've had only one short letter from her. I've sent her a couple of letters since then, but she hasn't written back, and I’m feeling like I've failed her. I wanted to be able to share with her the life I've found here at Home Ranch, but… Maybe she's beyond falling in love with anyone or anything new."

They were walking together toward the Gardenland’s Gate to Home Ranch when Isabel said, ”Rhoda, there are some things that I don’t know about the War Thing, aren't there?"

"Of course there are, Isabel. In fact, there are things that I don’t know about Ricardo’s activity and things that he doesn’t know about mine. But it’s true that we’ve left you in relative tranquility so you can enable Scott's work; you've had a lot of difficult thinking to do, and you’ve done it very well. Also, because your relationship with Diego was blossoming, I didn't have the heart to involve you further in the War Thing. And everyone was opposed to your becoming my apprentice, so I backed off."

"Oh? Who is 'everyone', Rhoda?"

"On the day that you and I met here in Home Ranch, everyone was Martha, Yohanna and my mom. Later, it was also Daddy, Ricardo and Kurt. All of them let me know that they thought it would be too much for you then."

"Well, Rhoda, I've been successfully grafted onto your life here, and I’m part of it. I think maybe I'm strong enough now to leave the Ranch for longer than a few days.”

“But you won’t be my apprentice, sister; you’ve moved beyond that.”

“Then, what will be my relationship with you?”

“Isabel, I’m inviting you to be my Henchwoman, along with Yohanna. Your Self Sign will balance hers: Your Garth Weaver and Maker Self Sign complements her high Word Wise Self Sign.”

“But, Rhoda, that would put me in the line of succession for your place in the War Thing! I’m not…”

“You’re already in the line of succession, Isabel. In fact, by blood you’re more highly qualified than I am to be Head family, although by blood, Yohanna outranks us both.”

“I remember that you’ve told me that before, but I thought you were just being nice to me. I know I’m too green.”

“All the more reason to get some on-the-job experience, little sister.”

“Okay; I see what you mean. Where do I begin?”

“You should begin in the place that you’ve suggested, Isabel: with Scott and Het.”

“What about my mother?”

“After Het and Scott, you should visit Flavia. She’s working closely with Esther Rosen in planning for receptions in the Eyrie during Dr. Steuben's international War and Peace conference."

"I remember sexy and gossipy Esther from that party, Rhoda. And what I’ve heard about her suggests to me that she and Flavia might be birds of a feather.”

"You’ll soon find out, Isabel. And you may also meet again with your ‘uncle’ Oscar—your biological father. Het’s mother, Winthy Kerrigan, has contacted Oscar in Mexico. She has been in and out of New City University, too, talking with people who are involved in Het's affairs. We think she and Oscar are planning to meet, and we’re guessing that Oscar is also looking forward to meeting with Flavia."

Isabel slowly shook her head. "I’ve had difficult relationships with my parents—all three, including Escobar. You've been big-hearted, Rhoda, in sharing your family so generously with me. It’s not too late for me to have a life in a real family, and to appreciate my present good fortune. And I have Diego’s family, too.”

“Mother told me that you had a good visit with them. I’m glad for you, Isabel. Well, my parents and I have had our bad moments, and they’re mostly my fault. But it’s the relationships that you’ll soon be entering into that we need to consider. Renewing your personal relationship with Scott will bring you face-to-face with Het as well. As your half-brother, Het is part of your family, and he has an intense and complex relationship with Esther.”

“It’s not going to be at all like Home Ranch.”

“Well, even in southern California, we have our little Home-Ranch refuges: Yohanna’s Scion’s Garth, Ricardo’s Cliff Rancho, and my place are all a little like Home Ranch.”

“Rhoda, tell me more about Esther.”

"Okay. Esther could be one of several bad influences on Flavia in her current situation. Esther hasn’t become a Shade, but she’s deep in the counsels of the Circle. And, as Hans may or may not have said in corresponding with you, Esther and Het are Maker apprentices to Herbert Schooner. In fact, I’ve been instructing them as a part of our enablement of the Friend, and I’ve found that Esther has an intense interest in political control.”

“Are they the ones who will be making—or trying to make—the Soma that we’ve talked about in War Thing meetings?”

“Yes, and Herbert’s second team—Eugene and Evelyn— have a part in its fabrication as well. Isabel, you should know that Evelyn is my true first apprentice, and she’s keeping that a secret from Schooner.”

“Judith has told me about Evelyn. Eugene and Evelyn were at that stone cabin party, too. …Rhoda, it’s strange how my memory of that event has been growing slowly clearer and clearer. I hardly knew any of the people there that night, besides Scott and Het, and I used to make fun of Het in his classes.”

Rhoda took Isabel’s hand and smiled. “Isabel, don’t forget to say good-by to Daddy. He thinks of you as his daughter, and maybe as his apprentice.”

Later that day, Isabel looked into Martin’s office through its windows, and saw that he was alone. Entering quietly, as Rhoda always did, she realized that even Martha knocked before entering Martin’s office. How much she had come to be like a daughter to him! She told Martin about her discussion with Rhoda.

Martin told her everything that he could about his own experience with Oscar, and everything that he recalled hearing about Oscar from his own father, Walter. Then Isabel asked the one question about her father which had been growing in the back of her mind: What was the nature of his special gift of discerning the odds for outcomes of events? Was it a special Clan ability with its own Self Sign?

“Well, Isabel,” Martin’s eyes crinkled with a smile, “Oscar’s Self Sign might be rendered as ‘Scout’ in modern terms, or as ‘one who sees the lay of the land and who is moving at large in it’.

~ ~ ~

Two days later, Isabel was standing in Rhoda’s garage, staring in wonder at the two motorcycles. Although she was in the process of moving into Rhoda’s place in New City, Rhoda was currently not there. Yesterday, Wilson had flown Isabel and Diego to the Ontario airport, giving them some pilot’s training on the way. Then Diego had returned to Home Ranch with Wilson, while Isabel had received a ride from Alonso to her new quarters. She had eaten dinner with Alonso, Theresa Rose and their two boys, who lived in the other half of Rhoda’s duplex. The little boys seemed to have grown more mischievous since her first visit to Rhoda’s place with Yohanna. On that day, Yohanna had told Isabel and Hans about her motorcycle adventures with Rhoda involving the Barstow Bastards and the Fontana Few.

Isabel touched her hand to Rhoda’s motorcycle and shook her head. Theresa Rose had told her, “Rhoda comes and she goes, and she usually brings a treat for my boys.” In fact, Rhoda was sometimes not seen by them for weeks.

Isabel looked around the garage, feeling lonely. She wondered: Was she the same person who had tagged along with Scott to that party held by the biologists? That night, when she had seen Lisa Su exit her Porsche and greet people in the crowded parking area around the cabin, Isabel had felt a premonition. Looking at the cabin, she had shuddered. In the cabin, Isabel had sat on a rickey old folding chair next to the door. As she was recalling the preternatural experience of Rhoda brushing past her there, she saw Rhoda herself appear. Descending the stairs to the garage beneath the duplex, Rhoda called, “Isabel! I’m so glad that you are here. And Wilson told me Diego was able to accompany you to Ontario.”

Isabel ran to Rhoda and hugged her. “You are flesh and blood. I was recalling the first time I’d seen you. At the stone cabin. When you strode past me, leaving the cabin, you seemed like a preternatural being.”

Rhoda laughed. “I’m that, too, in a way. Isabel, if you’re interested, I’d like to show you around the neighborhood. It has—although I haven’t before thought of it that way—its population of preternatural beings.”

“I’d like a guided tour, Rhoda, but I think I’ve already met the worst and the best of the local preternatural population.”

“Who? The Foe and …me?”

“Oh, no. The Foe and Ricardo, of course.”

“Okay; I agree with you on that.”

”Where do we start?”

“We could pay a visit to the Bleak Berm, or test drive your new car.”

“Let’s put off the Berm for now. Do I get one of your Ghia's, big sister?”

Rhoda grinned. “Are you putting our sisterhood to the test? Well, the one in Bishop isn’t much used these days. It’s a very light pink in color. Would that do?”

“That would be fine, except that I was teasing. You know I’d be perfectly happy with an old car like the one Victoria uses when she visits the families in need outside the Ranch.”

“Well, that car happens to be parked right outside on the street! I drove it here from the hangar, where it has been refurbished. Like my mother’s car, it’s old on the outside but new on the inside—just what she said you wanted.” Isabel ran outside with Rhoda to look at the comfortably run-down Chevy sedan which was much like the car that Victoria had been driving when Alberto had met her. Alberto had not known Victoria’s identity then—after having arrived by bus for an attempt to access Home Ranch.

“Here are the title and the keys, Isabel. Let’s go for a spin.”

Rhoda asked her to drive to Antonia’s Bar and Grill, where they were to meet with Leo and Antonia, and Hans and Yohanna.

“This car handles very well, Rhoda—not that I’ve driven many cars to compare it with.”

“It handles well, Isabel, because it’s really a road Device like my Karmann Ghia. If anyone else tries to drive it, it will behave just like a run-down Chevy—noisy and hard to handle.”

“Rhoda, I’ll confess that I saw it parked at the hangar, but I didn’t say anything. I had talked with Martha and Kurt, and with Martin and Victoria, about the kind of car I’d like to have in New City. Your Ghia wouldn’t have suited my self-image.”

“You caught me off guard with your teasing about a Ghia, Isabel. That was tricky.”

“Speaking of tricky moves…” Having quickly become comfortable with the car, Isabel shifted to a more serious manner. “You’ve told me that I should give advice to Scott if he asks about any perplex issues concerning the Design and fabrication of the Soma. Do Scott and Het know what it really is that they’re working on?”

“Not exactly. Het has been told that they’re working on an advanced mineral extraction Device—which is, in fact, the use which had been envisioned by Thiuderieks for the Soma. They’re calling it the ‘Miner’. It would be very helpful for us to know what Het really does understand about the Soma. Do you think Het and the others would abandon the Soma project if they truly understood what it’s all about?”

“Rhoda, if I hadn’t experienced the Foe directly, even your Greased Lightning and the twinned rooms and hidden Gardenlands at Home Ranch would not have caused me to doubt the modern ‘enlightened’ understanding of things that I share with them. And, unless they abandon their deeply-held understanding, they won’t abandon their work for the ‘Friend’. It’s too exciting.”

“I know, Isabel, that our assistance in fabricating the Soma for the Friend (which we ought to call him in reference to our enablement of this work) troubles you.”

“Troubles me? It seems crazy to me! Rhoda, the ‘Friend’ has tried to kill both of us! Yet we keep on helping him.”

“He’s trying to kill ‘the witch,’ who is supposedly the tool of a god whose identity is unknown to the Friend, and who profits from the conflict between the Friend and the Heart Shield. We call this 'the Friend's third god theory.' The Friend wills to hold this false idea, and he tries to kill the witch whenever he believes the opportunity is at hand.”

"How can you know that, Rhoda?"

"I know much of the Friend's mind, and Ricardo may know more."

"How does a god will to hold a false idea?"

Rhoda arched an eyebrow. "Try asking the opposite question, Isabel: "What reason does a person have for seeking to hold true ideas?"

"Hmm, ...Love of the truth, fear of falsehood, or something like that?"

“Yes. And that’s the tack you need to take in approaching your friend Scott and your half-brother Het.”

“And my mother, Flavia—and, maybe my father, Oscar. And what about me, Rhoda? Do I really love the truth and fear genuine falsehood?”

“We need to ask ourselves that question every day, Isabel.”

~ 3 ~ Scott chose to have his office on the university’s campus, and Het’s annoyance with Scott for not taking up his offer of a Turret office was allayed by Esther’s reminder that there were things which Scott need not know.

Scott’s thinking was that it would be in his own interest to get clients only from the university world. What, after all, was Arch? It was thanks to Isabel’s friendship with Dr. Cox in the Mathematics Department, that Scott received a better office than he had expected. Het and Esther, however, attributed Scott’s good fortune to Het’s new standing in the University. Esther helped Scott move into his office. She casually befriended him and occasionally played go-between for him with Het. She knew that Scott needed watching.

Occasionally, Scott went to meet with Het in Het's new Keep office, and one day when he was expecting to meet with him, Het was not there. Idly, Scott looked around at the materials which Het had been reading. He knew Het's desktop filing system, in which materials piled on the far left corner had been read by him, and the items at the bottom of the pile were ready to be filed. Scott knew that those items had been periodically dumped into a box and stored in Het's garage, before Het had been given the secretarial support which he now enjoyed.

Knowing that Het was often late, Scott filled the time by pulling out the item at the bottom of the pile, which was a thick typed manuscript. Simultaneously, his eye was caught by Het's appointment calendar, which showed that the meeting for which he had come had been scheduled for the previous day. Crap! I should have checked. Berating himself, he dropped the manuscript into his briefcase.

In fact, Scott’s “bottom-feeding” was an established practice between Het and Scott. Het had once said, “If you want, bottom-feed on the lowest items in this stack of shit. I’m all done reading the stuff. The stack goes into my filing system when it gets to be six inches high.” Sometimes, the stack had acquired a foot in height before it had disappeared. Once, when Scott had accompanied Het to his place, Het had snatched up the “done reading” stack, carried it out to his car and tossed it onto the back seat. After parking in front of his garage, Het had opened the garage door and dumped the papers into an open cardboard storage box, bringing the level of its contents to the top. After taping it shut, Het had written the date on it before stacking it with the other boxes which had crowded his car out of the garage.

“Crap! Het, have you read all of the stuff that’s in these boxes?”

“Yeah; I don’t forget much. I’ve got an index card file with the title info in case I need it for a reference in a paper. But I like the feeling that it’s all here, anyway. Just in case.” Scott was unaware of the fact that in these days, a Keep secretary was carefully filing the documents in the “done reading” pile on Het’s desk.

Scott’s occasional "bottom feeding" frequently gave him insight into Het’s thinking, and although the manuscript which he had taken today was in German, he knew that he would be able to read it well enough. Scott penned a note for Het, confessing his schedule mistake, then returned his attention to the manuscript, having no idea that he had borrowed the one work that Dr. Kane and Esther did not want him to see: Fr. Sigurd's translation of the Touchstone.

Scott glanced through the Touchstone, scanning pages randomly. What weird stuff! …Oh, shit! It smells like the I Ching. Scott had checked out a copy of the I Ching from the library after the strange stone cabin party and the burning of Isabel’s apartment building, after which she had disappeared. He had begun to suspect that there was more to Het's meta time theory than he had thought. But the weirdness of this Touchstone led him to slip it back under the pile on Het's desk. Later, he wrote to Isabel about his disquieting feeling regarding Het.

She responded by sending a postcard to his home address: "Will be in your area soon. See you then. Don't tell anyone that I'm coming. Yours truly, i.” The "i” was a little joke between them, being the symbol for imaginary numbers, which had been discovered by a great mathematician named Euler; Scott’s discovery of Isabel had occurred after he had spotted a treatise of Euler’s being carried by her.

~ ~ ~

"Mort, there’s an explanation for Scott's brilliance,” Esther reported. “He’s getting help from another mathematician. Are you ready for this? She’s Isabel Tavares, who’s a resident of Home Ranch. We used to see her on the university campus, and I saw her on the night of that stone cabin party when Het communicated with the Friend. Het says Isabel is a lesbian. Dr. Cox in the math department told me she's on leave, in Texas. She and Scott have been writing to each other weekly, and this is most of their correspondence. Maybe you can make some sense of it. It looks to me like they’re no longer corresponding, so Scott knows now what he wants to know. About the only English in the whole thing is in his last letter, where he says, 'Thanks for all the help, Isabel. I hope to see you when you come back to NCU.’”

"What? Did Scott give you his correspondence?"

"Of course not, Mort. I spirited it out of his office; I have a key. Het doesn’t seem to know about their correspondence.” It was the message in the thousand-dollar wine bottle purchased by Esther at the Aero-T store, through which she had found out that Scott and Isabel were writing to each other.

Slowly, Kane read the letters, each of which consisted almost entirely of mathematical notation. At last he looked up at Esther with a satisfied smile. ”Our theory is complete, Esther. Together, Dr. Scott, Dr. Kerrigan and Herbert the Maker are our three-headed tool. We must keep them safe and happy. So the Clan has the complete theory too? Will they use it, or will they continue to work in their superstitious Goth Maker ways? Do you know more, Esther?"

"Not much more than I've told you. Het told me Isabel Tavares was giving Scott some help when she was on campus, but Het mistakenly thinks she was contributing only a little to Scott’s work. Dr. Cox told me she’s from Portugal, and he whispered that her father had committed suicide. Cox had worried about her after the apartment fire, until he received a postcard from her. He thought I was one of her 'special friends'.

"That’s interesting. I know of an Escobar Tavares. He’s a utopian dreamer whose wife kept an excellent salon in Lisbon. He may be her father.”

~ ~ ~

The frosted glass in his office door revealed to Scott the profile of a woman whom he did not recognize, her long skirt brushing against the glass. She knocked, and the door opened. Isabel’s beat-up old student valise, accompanied by her voice, preceded her body into his office. Scott relaxed.

”Scott, I got your letter about Het, so here I am. Hey, you have a nice office now!”

"Isabel!...Yeah, I do. Thanks for coming. ...You look different..."

"Things have changed for me, too, Scott."

"Yeah." Scott looked away uneasily.

Isabel seated herself before his desk, on the chair used as a table by his clients for spreading out papers illustrating the math and statistical issues in their scientific work.

"I can help you, Scott, …with Het."

"Het? Oh, yeah. I was worried when I wrote to you, so I finally had it out with him to find out what was really going on. While we were going at it in his office in the Turret, Esther showed up. I think she thought I might do violence to her boyfriend, but that’s just the way we talk when we get into it. So now I've got the picture. I know where I stand—and where you stand, Isabel."

"You do? Are you sure?"

"Yeah. You’re going to marry into the Knox empire.”

Isabel heard Scott’s statement as an accusation. "How do you know?"

"Alberto Mendoza told me so.” Scott smugly emphasized “Mendoza” by saying it slowly and with relish.

Diego had discussed with Rhoda and Victoria the letter received by him from his distant relative, Alberto—a newsman in southern California who wanted to do an interview with him about Home Ranch. That discussion had occurred before Victoria had discovered Alberto at the side entrance to Home Ranch and had sent him back to California with a care package. In the letter, Alberto had not said that he was editor of the campus newspaper, instead pitching himself as a big-time freelance journalist and hoping that kinship and his father's reputation would carry the day for him. Later, Rhoda had told Isabel about the event, but Isabel had not recognized the name, so Rhoda had informed her that Alberto Mendoza was editor of the New City University Review, and that he also had a sleaze column called “Intrigues” in the Hollywood Rag.

Isabel hesitated now, surprised more by Scott's changed stance than by his knowledge of her relationship to Diego.

"Then, I suppose you know about the Friend, too?" Isabel felt desperate.

"Big Brother? Sure I do: The Arch Company logo."

She felt a chill. "He's not a company logo, Scott. He started the fire in our old apartment complex in order to burn me up in it."

"And you're a lesbian, just as I’d thought. Well, maybe you’re are in bed with Miss Knox, too. That would make what you had me believing about you, a half-truth. Esther says the Knox Clan can do whatever they want. They’re their own country, and there’s a lot more people living in Home Ranch than the U.S. Census knows about."

"Well, are you in bed with Esther, then, to balance your budget?" Oh God, why did I say that! "I’m sorry, Scott. I didn't mean it."

"Right. You’re a good actress, Isabel. I know that fire started in your apartment. I was there just after your witchdoctor Yohanna carried you out of there. Were you on drugs? …Well, honestly, it was Alberto who was outside the building, and he saw that it had started in your apartment. I hadn’t known that it had started there, but if you want your books back, you might want to know that I rescued them.”

Oh! He’s in such a tangle of truth and lies! And I can’t trust myself to fix it!

"Scott, let's admit that both of us might not know as much as we think we do. Since you're in the know about some things, you know that now I’m obliged to help you with your work with Het. Okay? It’s not over yet.”

"Well, I've had my say, Isabel. It's true that Het didn't tell me everything until we had it out. Okay. Let's stick to business. But what about your books?"

"They'd make an impressive addition to your library. As you say, Scott, I’m rich now, and I can part with them in peace.” Isabel was happy to see the mild enthusiasm on Scott’s face after she had made the offer.

“Sure, I’ll keep them, Isabel, if you want me to.” It's like blood money for pulling the wool over my eyes. But, heck, I'm better off than I was.

"I do want you to keep them, Scott. And I have one more thing for you. Think of it as a birthday present.”

“What is it?” Scott was unable to read her expression. He was afraid that he had been too harsh, but he needed to convince himself that he believed the things told to him by Het and Esther, and Isabel had confirmed some of it. What is the truth, anyway?

Isabel smiled at him. “It’s the Perplex Numbers Theory. Scott, if you want to write it up for publication, with you as the sole author, that’s fine with me. You can have all of my notes. They’ll fit together with our correspondence pretty well. And I’ll review the draft for you. Just name me in the acknowledgements as a provider of some useful comments. Professor Cox says he’ll go over the final draft with you and help you get it published. He thinks it will make a big splash in the mathematical world.”

“But… Isabel…”

“I don’t need the glory, Scott, but you do. Remember: I came to New University to learn a useful trade. Now I’ve found one, and I’m more suited for it than I am for being a mathematician: I’m in a partnership on a big ranch in Argentina.” Isabel set her old beat-up valise on the desk and pulled out a thick pack of papers, clipped together. “These are the notes, Scott.” Isabel handed them over to him.

~ 4 ~ Without a preceding knock, Scott’s door opened and Het walked in. "Scott, I've got..." A woman was rising from the chair in front of Scott’s desk. Her back was to him, and she was blocking his view of Scott. She looked good from the back, and Het was anticipating a good front view, too, as she slowly turned to him, smiling enigmatically. She looked cool, composed and self-possessed—and sexy. Her clothing appeared to be a riding outfit at first: Her long divided skirt was topped by an embroidered blouse which was tucked under a wide, soft leather belt. She wore the fine fabrics in a way which revealed her womanliness while it also said, “Look, but don't touch.” Esther would be envious.

Frozen in the doorway, one hand still on the doorknob, Het saw that the apparition was Isabel! There was nothing in her now of the strangely alternating timid and haughty looks, slouching posture and careless, nearly slovenly dress. Het had disliked that former Isabel since first seeing her with Scott. Now, seeing the Isabel of his past become this Isabel of his present, he was touched by a whisper of fear.

Her eyes flashed at him. ”Het, dear," she said, taking his arm. She turned him around and marched him into the hall and toward the sunlit window at its turning.

In rising, Isabel had knocked over her old beat-up student valise. Scott said aloud to himself, "What the shit is going on between Isabel and Het? And what’s this?" He picked up another neatly clipped pack of papers, which had been disgorged by Isabel’s toppled case. They were densely covered in writing in Isabel's hand, and Scott was overcome by curiosity, seeing some notation which he did not recognize. He walked quickly into the hallway and saw Isabel and Het disappearing around the sunlit corner, their excited voices carrying to him indecipherable words. Scott hurried across the hall to the copy machine’s niche, unclipped the stack of papers and began to copy them—one page at a time to avoid the machine’s frequent jamming. Why was his heart beating so? Why did he feel like a spy copying Top Secret documents, knowing that he would be seized and killed if he were caught? I'm just curious; this looks like it has something to do with that weird Touchstone book I borrowed from Het. Scott was unable to talk himself out of the feeling of unease. He had copied the last page just as Het and Isabel reappeared at the corner, walking side-by-side in silence. Waving at them with one hand, he hid Isabel's original pages against his body with the other and left his copy in the out-tray as he strode back across the hall and into his office.

Hastily, Scott clipped together Isabel’s papers and slipped the bundle back into her valise, just before she and Het entered his office.

"I can prove it to you," Isabel was saying calmly. She went straight to her valise, rummaged around in it and produced a worn, open envelope. Handing it to Het, she said, "Here, keep it, and show it to your mother. She ought to recognize the handwriting; you recognize the name." Het took the envelope and read the name on its return address: “Oscar Nerzhin”. He stalked out of Scott’s office, slamming the door.

Scott stood unmoving, his heart still beating hard while Isabel closed up her valise. He asked, "What was all that about, Isabel?"

“I’ve learned that Het is my half-brother. Our father is Oscar Nerzhin. Het doesn’t believe it; he doesn’t want to.”

“Oscar Nerzhin, the Russian probabilist?”

“Yes, Scott. I’d thought he was my uncle. In fact, I’ve mentioned him to you a few times as my uncle.”

~ 5 ~ Het had seen that Scott was at the copy machine, when he had been turning the corner with Isabel. Now he saw the copies in the out-tray, and because he had seen Scott acting secretively about the copying, Het removed the papers and examined them curiously. Because they were copies of handwritten notes, and the handwriting was not Scott’s, Het thought that the notes must be something of Isabel’s. He took the copies up to his Turret office and glanced at them before setting them on the top of his to-read pile.

Esther slipped in behind him. Wrapping her arms around him from behind, she glanced over his shoulder at the notes and whispered casually, “What’s that, Het?” Het slipped around in her embrace to face her, and ran his hands over her soft behind. Esther breathed into his ear while looking more closely at the papers. Recognizing Isabel’s handwriting, she pushed Het away playfully. “Have you had another quarrel with Scott? You feel a little stiff.” She held his face gently in her hands and said with mock sternness, “I certainly hope you’re not developing an affection for him.

“Shit, Esther! It’s that bitch Isabel! She’s back. She was with Scott. She doesn’t look the same at all! And she claims she’s my half-sister, that Oscar Nerzhin is her father, too—and, shit! Maybe he is! But I don’t believe it.”

“You don’t like her much, do you?”

“I’ve disliked her the from the first time I saw her.”

Esther took his hand. “Come to my den and tell me about it.” Her “den” was Esther’s office in the Keep’s Turret. It was furnished like a lounge, with a small, elegant lady’s writing desk of polished dark wood serving as her business desk. The desk was placed so that when she sat at it she faced her office door, and a large window was behind her and slightly to one side. Behind her to the other side was a small round table which matched the desk, bearing in its exact center an ancient Chinese vase which staff filled with fresh flowers every day. Mortimer Kane kept a similar vase filled with flowers, but the scent of flowers never filled his much larger office as it did Esther’s mauve-painted den. Several comfortable chairs—for small meetings—faced Esther’s desk from various positions on a large, mauve and blue, vaguely Persian-style rug. To one side of the door was a liquor cabinet, and on the other side was a large, comfortable sofa upholstered in vivid pink velvet, to which Esther led Het. After he had sat, she poured a small drink for each of them, although it was still early in the day. She sat down next to him and grinned, raising her glass: “To your new extended family,” she toasted, using just the right touch of humor to make him spill out his concerns and anxieties to her.

Artfully, Esther drew from Het everything that he knew

about the copy made by Scott. “Maybe Miss Tavares was a bigger help to Scott than you had thought—or maybe she was stealing his ideas—your ideas—for the Knox octopus, or maybe a little of each. You said Alberto told you and Scott that Isabel was engaged to somebody big in that organization?”

“Yeah; somebody Mendoza—the same surname as Alberto’s.”

“And she was dressed in a pricy outfit, you think? I think I remember her from the last party, Het, dressed pretty sloppily. So, she’s not a lesbian?”

“The truth is, she looked pretty good before I recognized her. She does the sexy cowgirl really well. In fact, Esther, I thought you might be envious.” Het smiled at her.

He’s back to normal now, but how could she have knocked him off track like that? “So, your cowgirl gave you some proof that she’s your half-sister?”

“A letter, Esther. It could be fake. I’ve got to have my mom—wherever she is—check the handwriting. I wonder if it’s true, and she knows. Isabel says Oscar claimed to be her uncle, so it’s a letter to her as his niece.”

“Good luck with your mom, but, unless she knows about it and she says so, it won’t prove that Isabel is Oscar’s daughter.”

~ ~ ~

Esther said bluntly, "Herbert, you should read this. It's a copy of an original written by Isabel Tavares. She’s back on campus, and—Get this: She claims to be Het's half-sister. I 'borrowed' this from Het, who stole it from Scott, who stole it from Isabel while she was telling Het that he’s her half-brother. Het loathes her, and he hasn't had time to read this yet. Scott wanted it back, and when I took it from Het's desk and left him a note, I made my own copy before returning Scott’s."