April 6: And What Goes Around (18 page)

"Ask away. If
it's anything I
know
I'll be glad to tell you."

"Is this
yours?" Jon asked substituting an image of the wall cruising robot for his
face.

"I have
something like that at home on the wall..." April said, squinting at the
image. Jon was alarmed. "I think it senses the temperature and oxygen
levels and stuff. Probably smoke too. You don't have a scale on it. How big is
it?"

"About eight
centimeters," Jon said going back to his face image. "Does it
move
?"

April looked at
him like he was losing his sanity. "Of course not. It plugs in a socket. I
called housing and environmental services and got a code to punch in so I could
pull it to lay new wall covering right up to the edge of the socket without
alarms sounding."

"Alright, I
wanted to eliminate it being yours. I know you have this
thing
about
knowing what is going on. Sometimes to extremes."

"Really?
Extremes? Have I ever invaded your privacy?" April asked, a bit miffed.

"I remember the
scanners you and Heather had," Jon said. "That's not a common habit
among the general population."

"We still
have them. They aren't invading your privacy. If you broadcast in the clear you
might as well shout down the corridor and complain I listened. I seem to
remember you were happy to hear Heather's intercept of the Seal who was conducting
black operations in your jurisdiction. What does that have to do with your
little
thing
?" April asked, tracing out a rectangle with her
fingers.

"It's
crawling around on the corridor walls and I supposed it might be some sort of
snoop device." Jon admitted.

"Yeah or it
might be a hunter," April said right away.

"Yes... That
possibility occurred to us too. We're looking right now to see if there are others
and keeping an eye on it," Jon said.

"But you
didn't want to upset me with the idea." April had an accusing tone. Jon
ignored it.

"Might it
belong to Jeff?" Jon asked. Obviously a new thought from the change on his
face. Jeff did have some sort of intelligence group.

"Jon, Jeff
would never be so obvious. If Jeff snoops on you you'll never
know
. He's
way
smarter than me and
I'd
never be so obvious," April
said.

"How would
you do remote sensing around Home if this is so crude and obvious?" Jon
asked.

April had some
more sausage and considered the matter a whole fifteen or twenty seconds.

"There are all
those delivery 'bots that take packages all over the hab. I'd probably subvert
a few of those or put my own in service. Nobody even thinks anything about one
going by. They're effectively invisible. They have to plug in and recharge so
they could report back through the power lines," She'd stopped eating and
was giving the problem entirely too much thought for Jon's comfort.

"Please, just
don't
," Jon asked her.

"Oh, don't
worry. It's much more trouble than it's worth," April assured him.
"But those delivery 'bots, does anybody have any veto on them? I know they
aren't licensed, but are there any safety standards or limits on how many are
in service?"

"I know
Mitsubishi set a spec for them to conform to some Earthside safety standard.
Not to bump people and such. I'm not sure if it was a Japanese or USNA
standard. But they're so expensive I don't think there was ever a problem
limiting them," Jon said.

"Maybe the
little wall crawler is legal too," April suggested. "I mean, do you
know
it doesn't meet spec? I see a little delivery cart going around that says,
"Home Chandlery and Provision Co.", but Zack is proud of his business
and is advertizing. Not having your name on it may not be required by the
spec."

"That's a
novel idea, except the damn thing acts
guilty
," Jon said.

"How can a
little box act guilty?" April asked, perplexed again.

"It stops
moving and tries to look as innocuous as your temperature control if anybody is
moving in sight of it. It only moves when nobody is watching. That's how we
having it pinned down in a fairly safe section of corridor right now. I had
people walk through until I'd have had to start repeating. Then I sent a man to
start scrubbing down the opposite bulkhead on the corridor. It's a long
corridor, and he's going as slowly as possible, but eventually I'll have to
dream up some other activity to keep it inactive," Jon said. "Or
destroy it."

"Oh yeah," April agreed, "that's
totally
not
innocent behavior."

April related the
side of her conversation with Jon that Jeff hadn't heard.

"That sounds
really crude," he decided. "Why wouldn't they use fliers? All our spy
bots on Earth have that capacity." He thought for a bit staring off at
nothing and April didn't interrupt his thought. "Of course it would be
different to make a mini-bot to fly in zero G. It isn't just programming. They'd
have to be redesigned completely because all of them have a certain balance to
fly in gravity. They have a center of gravity under the lifting surfaces so
they are naturally stable in flight. They'd be unstable in zero G and the
aerodynamics would just be all wrong the way they are made now. Flying in
different
gravitation levels might be tricky too." He always loved a new problem and
was engaged.

"You heard
me. I assured Jon it wasn't your bot because it was way too obvious. So don't
make a liar of me."

"Oh, I won't.
He'll never see mine," Jeff promised, grinning. "But if we are
getting spy bots here I am going to design our own hunter killer bots to clean
them out. They
will
be optimized for a habitat and function in zero G.
And we'll make a version with a fuller sensor suite to smuggle into other habs.
We really don't know enough about what is happening on them from human
intelligence."

"So, you were
too busy to go to supper with me at the Fox and Hare. How about tomorrow? Can
you be free?" April asked.

"I'd like
that. Can you get a reservation on such short notice?" Jeff asked.

"I could, but
I'd consider it an imposition so soon. I had more in mind a quiet intimate
dinner at my place," April offered, and put extra effort into her smile.

"That sounds
wonderful," Jeff said, not totally oblivious. "What time?"

"I'll be home early. Any time after 1600," April offered.

* * *

 Jeff was slouched
on April's couch, relaxed and waiting to help her make dinner. He'd found it
both instructive and therapeutic the few times he'd done so before. His eyes
kept going to the big drawing on the wall. He wondered if he'd ever get tired
of it? He didn't have anything like that in his cubic. When his phone rang he
went ahead and answered it since April was changing. When she was dressed he'd
turn it off except the highest emergency overrides. He hated it when people let
their phones dominate their lives. It was a Home origin call so he answered even
more readily.

"Mr. Singh?
My name is Haruki Natsume and I'm a senior sales manager for YYR. I'm staying
at the Holiday Inn Home and wonder if I might make an appointment to discuss
some business with you?"

Jeff couldn't
place the face on his screen. The man appeared Japanese in his face, hair, and
how he was dressed. "YYR?" Jeff asked, trying to place them.
Certainly not a Home company. But then he'd said he was at the Inn, so he was
probably a visiting Earthie. He was wearing spex, but some Earthies were
comfortable with them even in social situations. Despite being a Japanese
subsidiary, M3, the physical habitat on which the nation of Home resided had
few Japanese. He knew for a fact it was considered a hardship posting.

"Yaskawa –
Yushin – Robitiq," Natsume supplied readily. "Perhaps you do not
involve yourself at that level of acquisition?" he wondered, and looked
disappointed.

"Oh, no!
There's very little we do that I don't involve myself in directly. I had to
give up personally designing spacecraft, which I miss. It's just too time
consuming. But everything else I at least sit and talk directly to the people
doing a project for me. I know the company now. We buy robots from you. If
you'd made your logo I'd have known right away," Jeff bent his wrist and
put his index finger and thumb together delicately in front of the camera, like
picking up something tiny and splayed the other three finger back the way a
society matron might wield a dainty tea cup.

"Yes, that's
us," Natsume agreed smiling.

April joined Jeff
on the couch, hair wet and dressed to stay in. But she sat back curious and not
acting anxious for him to be rid of the man.

"I'm about to
have dinner with one of my principal partners," Jeff said. "Could we
perhaps continue on com later tonight or in the morning? Do you have some other
customers you can contact tonight so your time is not wasted?"

"I hadn't
actually planned on speaking to anyone else. We don't have another significant
customer on Home. If I felt free to have a meeting on com I'd have done that
from Earth. I didn't even want to broadcast that I was seeking a meeting until
I could do it on your local net. There is entirely too much... interest,  in
Home com traffic. I'd rather wait to speak face to face, or if that is not
possible in the near future perhaps I can return to Home at another time."

"Let me
consult briefly with my partner," Jeff requested, and muted the pad.

"If he'd
waste the price of a shuttle ticket to speak with us discreetly he's serious,"
April said before Jeff could speak. She'd been evesdropping on his call.
"Why don't you have him meet us for dinner?"

"I'm not
comfortable bringing him here. Especially with Gunny gone," Jeff said.

"Neither am
I. I meant to change our plans and meet him in the cafeteria," April said.
"Dinner will keep in the frig for tomorrow. I have a feeling this is
important. I'll throw on boots and a cardigan."

"You don't
mind talking business over supper tonight?" Jeff asked her.
He
minded actually.

"No, it
always comes around to something business sooner or later. That's fine,"
April allowed.

"OK, I'll ask
him," Jeff agreed.

"If you are
not too tired from traveling would you like to meet us in the public cafeteria
in about ten or fifteen minutes?" Jeff offered. "It's on the same
corridor as the Inn. Your dinner is our treat and we'll be pleased to speak
with you. Our other partner is absent on the moon, but April and I are two
thirds owners of our principal enterprises."

"We... will
be able to speak freely in such a public place?" Natsume asked.

"Likely with
security as good as in our private spaces," Jeff assured him.

"Yes, I'll be
there, thank you." Natsume sounded sincere but didn't look convinced.

When Jeff cut the
connection April asked, "What do we buy from him?"

"The little spy bots," Jeff said, holding up his finger and
thumb a scant centimeter apart. He smiled. The gesture wasn't that different
from the company's logo.

* * *

"I haven't
walked through a cafeteria serving line since I was a salary man," Natsume
said. It seemed to amuse him. He wasn't shy loading his tray so he must be
genuinely hungry.

"I'm
surprised you use that expression," April said. "I thought it was
derogatory."

"Perhaps a
little. But then I've escaped it so I can afford to use it that way. That sort
of work goes up and down in the public regard depending on the economy. When
times are good people feel you have no ambition to be a corporate drone. When
times are bad there may be fewer of those jobs, but any employment is held in
better regard when it is scarce."

"And how do
you feel things are trending in Japan right now?" April asked.

"My, you are
direct. It's quite complicated," Natsume insisted. "Could you be more
specific?"

"How do you
feel Japan will do in the financial crisis we see unfolding the last few days?
Do you think Japan will be able to maintain social spending without allowing
immigration now that the incentives for having children have been reduced in
value by long term inflation? Do you see Herr Hutz in the German Central Bank
continuing to buy Japanese debt if Japan slips back into the sort of deficit
spending it pursued almost a century ago? And are you going to be able to keep
the trade that fell in your lap when China went into civil war if they
restabilize?" April asked.

"I really had
no idea how
deep
an answer you wanted," Natsume said, surprised.

"April is
tasked with economic analysis for our bank," Jeff said. "She may
actually be ahead of the game because she is aware how little she knows. She
brings few preconceptions to it. The other day she told me that there is no
such thing as an economy, that it isn't a discreet entity that can be modeled.
Rather it is the sum of billions of irrational and emotional individuals with
different customs and cultures that affect each other according to relative
economic distance from each other. She felt we aren't close to being able to
model economic subsystems such as a national economy of one group of people
adequately, much less the world."

"There is a
certain truth to that," Natsume agreed. "I was not aware you had a
bank among your ventures. How do you measure relative economic distance? I've
not heard the term used."

"By vector,
value and necessity," April said. "You are closer to us by selling
directly instead of through distributors. Closer by being in a political system
friendly to us, and further away in physical distance which adds significant
cost, thus economic distance, to lift items to us at L2. That increased when we
had to leave LEO. You are at somewhat of a moderate distance in necessity
because there are other sources Jeff tells me. But your items balance out at a
point we like between actual cash price and features. As new models come out
that balance can push you further away or draw you closer. And there are
factors outside the effective control of either of us such as the exchange
rates between the currencies we must use."

"Economic
theory seems a very advanced study for someone of your apparent years."

"Consider the
predictive record of the current crop of economists," Jeff said. "How
could she do worse? You might beat them with a dart board."

Natsume just
inclined his head to acknowledge he had a point.

Wanda set the last
item they'd been waiting for on April's tray and Jeff led them to the far side
of the room away from the knot of people by the coffee pots.

Natsume looked
around and visibly gauged the distance to the other people.

"Our Head of
Security for Home, Jon Davis, is very jealous of his public spaces," April
said. "This is one of those locations that any traveler or new person is
watched like a hawk. It would be very hard to plant any listening or video
devices. Also we know every one of the people sitting over there eating. There
is one new person, but you can figure his being with the others as a firm recommendation.
The sort of bug you sell us wouldn't last a minute here. We have an
understanding with Jon that we don't conduct surveillance in public areas, so
he knows there aren't any friendly systems."

"This is like
being back in my childhood village," Natsume said. "You couldn't buy
a chicken in the market without everybody knowing what you were having for
dinner before you got home. To answer your questions, April. Everything is
integrated to some degree on Earth. Of course we can't avoid being caught up in
the current market disruption. It will be up to people far above me... I
believe your expression is 'above my pay grade' as to whether we make it better
or worse with government intervention. That is likely out of my company's
hands. I have no idea how much influence they have.

"I have no
idea why the child incentive wasn't maintained and extended. The birth rate has
declined in a linear relationship to the value of the payments. It's one of the
few programs that by every indication
worked
. Japanese people are not
prudish, but there seems to be a moral stigma attached to being a
'paid for
'
baby. I know because I'm one of them. I think the Germans will have their own
problems pretty soon sufficient that Japanese debt and stocks will still look
good to them. As for the Chinese... this is the third time most foreign
investors have lost everything they put into China. It seems to happen once a
generation. I think eventually even the greediest investor has to notice that
sort of a track record," Natsume said.

"Thank you,
I'll think on all that," April promised.

"Our industry
is fortunate. More than I realized when I picked this career track. We do well
in good times and even better in bad times. It's like making war materials
without the need to rationalize away any responsibility for the death and destruction
your products create," Natsume said. "But even with business being
good we noticed Singh Industries orders are on an uptrend."

"How
significant to your company?" April asked.

Natsume twitched
at her bluntness, but to his credit didn't object. "You are our twenty
seventh customer in order size this last fiscal year. But the first off Earth,
and we see more growth here than below. We wondered how you could be using them
in the sealed and restricted environment of a habitat. But we have a program
that tries to identify our units in the 'wild' so to speak. Imagine our
surprise when we found units on Earth we could trace to your lots. A few dead
units, some self destructed at the end of their service life. However some
objected so strenuously to being sampled that they destroyed our collection
units."

"Oh, you ran
into some of our enhanced bugs," Jeff said, unsurprised.

"Enhanced?"
Natsume exclaimed. "That's what you call the murderous little killing
machines?"

"Well, there
seemed to be some...  competition for sites," Jeff said in a huge
understatement. "There are only so many entrances and places to hide. Not
only did we find there was already a machine from somebody else in a lot of
cracks and crevices, but at a certain point if the target has so many bugs
infesting it that the dead ones are turning up in the floor sweeping and inside
equipment every time it is serviced it
rouses
the building occupants to
wage war on
all
of them."