Free Reunion by Andrea Goldsmith

away from the entrance, pulled out a cigarette and lit up. ‘I made an effort for Ava’s sake. We all did. I won’t say I became a Harry convert, but he was growing on me. But this NOGA business, this power, has made him a monster.’ Small puffs of smoke accompanied each word. ‘He thinks he can tell me what work I should do. He actually threatened me.’
    Jack asked her to explain.
    â€˜Not here, not now,’ she said. ‘I have to leave before I do something I’ll regret.’ She rummaged in her bag for her hat. ‘I’ll ring you,’ she said, pulling on a green cloche. And with her scarf flapping in one hand and the cigarette glowing in the other, she bolted down the steps and into the night.
    Â 
    Inside the venue Jack’s body temperature soared to tropical discomfort. He helped himself to a glass of wine and made his way through the crush to a small raised area at the far end of the room. There he cooled off while his gaze traversed the crowd. There was no sign of Ava, but he could see Connie and was about to join him, when Connie slipped from the party into the adjacent auditorium.
    Jack remained on his perch at the edge of the throng. He took in the array of hairstyles, the shaved domes, the mobile mouths, groups of people in twos and threes and fours. He noticed Harry weaving through the crowd, working the room. The Harry Guerin he knew was an entirely different creature from this host of the party, this expansive and attentive man laughing with this guest, talking closely with that, a slap to a finely clad back and kisses to the cheeks of elegant women.Whatever had transpired with Helen just a short time ago had left no detectable impression on him.
    Power, it’s in a class of its own, Jack found himself thinking. The beautiful know they’re beautiful, the successful know they’re successful, but people with power tend to exercise it as their right, without reflection, as if power confers its own moral authority. NOGA was not a big player even by Australian standards, but within the context of this party Jack could see that Harry was powerful – even more powerful than the position he occupied, more powerful than NOGA itself. How human power inflates itself. And not for the first time he wondered what he and Connie and Helen had got themselves into. So much information flowed into NOGA. How was it being used? How might it be used? And who would have access to it? He had raised these concerns with Harry, but Harry had an answer for every question, an explanation for every doubt. That in itself was troubling.
    Jack slipped back into the crush. He stopped to allow a passing waiter to fill his glass, then went in search of Ava. While he sifted through the crowd, he told himself that now was neither the time nor place for doubts about NOGA; he, Helen and Connie had signed up as the inaugural NOGA fellows and they were integral to tonight’s show. Harry had nominated Connie to speak on their behalf, and Jack and Helen had agreed, not simply because Connie had a new book to promote and a TV series in the offing, but of the three, Connie seemed a better fit among Harry’s guests, his ‘knights of industry’ and ‘people who make things happen’. Although as a NOGA fellow, Jack assumed that he, too, must be one of those ‘people who make things happen’, but more in the way of primary producer, he decided, than the value-added peoplewho made up this party. He stifled a smile. He had known for a good long time that it was easier to parody Harry than envy him, although as he caught a glimpse of the homunculus bobbing through the crowd, a blur of glistening head and a permanent smile beneath the ridiculous moustache, Jack was forced to concede that no amount of parody or ridicule would alter their situations.
    The air was heavy with perfume and food and too many people speaking at once; Jack moved through the pack to the wall of