The Moon and the Other by John Kessel

Author:John Kessel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Saga Press

CHAPTER

TEN

YOU’RE KIDDING, CAREY HAD TOLD her. I don’t think so, he’d said. And then he’d broken off the conversation.

Mira stood the tiny glass horse Val had made on her fingertips. No more than two centimeters tall, smooth as liquid. The white blaze on the black horse’s face had a trace of gold in it.

“We need to get going,” Cleo called from the other room. “It’s almost oh-nine-thirty.”

Mira slipped the horse into the breast pocket of the formal tunic she’d chosen for the hearing. High collar, subdued green. “You go on ahead. I’ll be there.”

Cleo came into the room. “I want to make sure we’re on time.”

Mira stared at her. “I want to make sure you get out of my face.”

Cleo’s expression was bruised. “I’ll wait outside.”

Mira yanked on her black slippers and tugged a brush through her hair. Cleo’s obsession with Reform Party politics wore Mira out. By undergoing genetic reassignment from male to female, Cleo had gained every right men were seeking through the movement, but that had made her only more committed to gaining those rights for everyone. “I’ll never forget where I came from,” she said. “I was a woman long before I got that second X.”

Her earnestness was tedious. Still, what Mira had said was cruel. She was about to go out to apologize when her Aide spoke: You have a call. Address blocked.

She threw it onto the wall. It was Erno. “Mira?”

“Hello,” she said.

“Do you have a moment?”

“Not really.”

“I’m sorry to bother you, but I’d consider it a great favor if I could meet with you sometime soon. Alone. We’d need to keep it secret.”

Since the OLS had sent their own security to the hotel, Mira’s desire to talk to him did not warrant facing the scrutiny of armed strangers. “What about?”

He brushed the hair out of his pale blue eyes. “I guess you could call it personal. I need a favor.”

“That’s as may be. I need to know what I’m getting myself into.”

Erno frowned. “Have you ever heard of a device called the Integrated Quantum Scanner Array?”

Cleo appeared at the bedroom door. She saw the image on the wall and raised an eyebrow. Mira froze the call.

“We really need to go,” Cleo said.

“I’ll be right there.”

Cleo left. Mira unfroze the call and told Erno, “I can’t talk to you now.”

“Is there a time we can meet—privately?”

“The lab will be shut down on third shift this Thursday. Come at oh-three-hundred. There shouldn’t be anyone there.”

“Please don’t let anyone know—”

Mira turned off the pixwall and left.

• • • • •

IN TODAY’S LUNANET HOTSPOT:V

ALENTIN ROZSSON CUSTODY SHOWDOWN

Throwing a spotlight on the notorious Society of Cousins’s childrearing practices, peculiar family structures, and limitations on the rights of men, is the ongoing battle for custody of a fifteen-year-old boy named Valentin Rozsson. In a world where men have no parental rights, one man, former Olympic athlete Carey Green Evasson, has challenged the law by taking custody of his son. Today If It Bleeds It Leads brings you the hearing that will decide the case.

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