Schemes of the Unknown Unknown Ch. 14

"Not as yet," said Beatrice with a broad grin.

"It's that serious? Iamimpressed. Just two weeks. My husband and I lived together for thirty years before we finally got married."

"It's as serious as it could possibly be."

"Why did you leave your husband? Ecstasy is a terribly long way from Venus and the records show you made a very good career for yourself on the planet."

"Things didn't work out. I'm sure they will with Paul. I can already envisage us spending the rest of our lives together."

"Indeed," said Special Officer Patthana whose sympathetic smile was incongruous amidst the tangle of mystic symbols etched on her face. "Has Paul told you where he's going?"

"He said he was going to Earth," said Beatrice. "I'dloveto go there!"

"I would too," admitted the Special Officer. "I especially want to go to Bangkok. That's where my roots are. Where are yours, Beatrice?"

"I'm not sure. Somewhere on Earth."

"Well, they're unlikely to be from anywhere else."

There was a pause in the proceedings as Special Officer Patthana carefully examined the holographic notes that hovered in front of her.

"There's not much I'm at liberty to tell you," she said at last. "In fact, to be honest, there's very little I'mableto tell you. Paul Morris is on a highly classified mission the destination of which I've not been fully apprised and the nature of which I'm no more knowledgeable than you. Unless, of course, he's told you more than he should have done?"

"All he's told me is that he'll eventually arrive on Earth and probably travel on from there to somewhere else."

"That's very vague. Hasn't he told you more than that?"

"No. Nothing at all."

"Well, thatsomewhere elsemay very well be a very long way from anywhere else," said the special officer. "If you were to accompany Paul on his journey, you might well find yourself in a more remote location than you've ever been before."

"But Paul is scarcely a space traveller or explorer," said Beatrice. "It can't possibly bethatremote."

"Yes, I admit that he's a very unlikely candidate for extensive space travel," said the Special Officer. "However, were you to accompany him, you would be bound by very severe restrictions as to who you could talk to and what you can say. This is a highly classified mission and even what you already know puts you in a very high risk status. Even if it's decided that you shouldn't accompany your lover, you will be bound by law to keep secret everything you know about him, however trivial it might seem. From now on, I'm afraid you're under surveillance whether you remain on Ecstasy or travel onward."

"It's a small price for the love I feel towards Paul."

"It may be a bigger price than you anticipate. Just your presence in his vicinity puts you at more risk than you appreciate. You won't already know this, but I can now tell you in confidence, is that Paul has been the object of several thankfully unsuccessful assassination attempts. These have mostly been on Godwin but, on the very night you met him, he was the intended victim of another such attempt here on Ecstasy."

"I can't believe that! Why wouldanyonewant to kill Paul?"

"You're asking me a question that I can't answer. This isn't just because you don't have the appropriate security clearance for me to tell you. It's because I genuinely don't know."

"What happened on that night?"

"Our agents aren't sure, but it appears that the would-be assassins were the victim of gangland violence. There's a lot that goes on in Ecstasy below the radar, but occasionally criminal justice works to the advantage of the law. I don't tell you this because I want you to think that Paul is embroiled in interplanetary crime—a less likely gangster I can't imagine—but to emphasise the risk that you've unwittingly put yourself in just by being by his side. Your life is now just as much at risk as Paul's."

Beatrice paused to assimilate this information.

"I am ready to sacrifice anything to stay with Paul," she said at last.

"Even your life?"

"My life won't be worth living if I can't stay with him," said Beatrice with more truth than the Special Officer could ever imagine.