The assault would commence in about a half hour.
The first thing Sam had done when we finished our lesson was go and blab to anyone who would listen about the whole thing with the proliferation kits.
I didn’t want to think about it. That revelation did suggest that it possibly was the kits that had been the problem all along. The kitsincluded thousands of packets of baby food and vitamin supplements for children five and under.
If ithadbeen the kits all along, we still had no idea if it was a deliberate act of sabotage or maybe there had been some sort of mistake. And it asked the question, was all that stuff with the magnetic field real? The fact that Earth didn’t know which specific colony fleet had the bad kits suggested, at least to me, that it hadn’t been intentional.
If thatwasthe cause of them doing this, did it matter? It wouldn’t change anything.
My bracelet buzzed. It was a text message from Lulu.
Come to the command room now. Come alone.
I didn’t question it. Sam was on the other side of the flamethrower talking to Tito and Axel—who insisted on being there despite his injury. I went to the ladder, moving in and then out of the newly fortified bunker for the recyclers and the group of men guarding it, past Cindy and the chickens, and into the command room.
Lulu was sitting in the chair. She had her flak armor on and her canister lobber leaned against the wall.
For a moment, I marveled at how natural she now looked in the armor. Just three days ago, I thought all that stuff looked bizarre on my sister, like we were all playacting. I didn’t know what had changed. The equipment itself hadn’t. Yet she looked perfectly natural in the armor now.
“What’s up?” I asked.
She indicated the seat next to the terminal. She put her finger to her lips, telling me to be quiet, and then she pointed at the screen. It was an email from Earth.
Roger floated into the room and closed the door behind himself.
“Instituting electronic countermeasures,” he said. “We should beable to talk freely. I do not believe there are any active listening devices in this room, but if there are, they still shouldn’t be able to get past my countermeasures. You may now speak freely.”
“What is this?” I asked, sitting down.
“It’s a message I received on my Real-Friends account this morning.”
I read the message.
To: Farm Girl Gigi
From: Mario Bart
This Friend is a current subscriber.
This Friend’s donations to date: ¥146,626.
This Friend has received 6 private shows.
I looked up before I read further. “Is that a lot of money?”
Lulu paused. “Yes, Oliver, that’s quite a bit.”
