Free Earth Afire (The First Formic War) by Orson Scott Card, Aaron Johnston Page B

regarded him curiously, then extended her hand. “I’m Simona, Mr. Jukes’s personal assistant. I’m assuming you’re with Dr. Prescott?” She gestured to the desk across the room where Imala, Yanyu, and Prescott had gone to speak to the receptionist.
    “We’re to meet with Mr. Jukes,” said Victor.
    Simona appraised the Juke jumpsuit he was wearing. “Do you work in the observatory? I don’t recall seeing your photo on file.”
    “I’m not with the observatory,” he said simply. He didn’t like her questioning him. She appeared friendly enough, but she was fishing for information.
    “Dr. Prescott says this news of his is the biggest discovery in centuries,” said Simona.
    “He’s not exaggerating.”
    A dot of red light on the back of her holopad flashed for an instant, and then Simona looked down at her holopad. She tapped through it for a moment then looked back up at him. “Victor Delgado. That’s your name, isn’t it?” She turned her screen around and showed him his mug shot, which the LTD had taken upon arresting him. Beside it was the photo she had just snapped of him. Facial-recognition software had put the two together. “It says here that you’re in a holding facility with the LTD awaiting deportation back to the Belt. But seeing as how you’re standing in front of me, I’m going to assume you granted yourself an early dismissal.” She glanced back at the desk. The receptionist was pointing Prescott and the others toward Simona. “Dr. Prescott and Yanyu I know,” said Simona. “But the other one is a mystery.” She pointed her holopad, snapped another photo, and read the results. “Imala Bootstamp. Currently on probation from the LTD. This grows more curious by the moment.”
    Prescott and the others approached.
    Simona greeted them warmly, though her smile struck Victor as insincere. “You made it,” she said. “Good. Here’s how this will work. Mr. Jukes’s schedule is very tight. You will sit in the back of the studio and make nary a sound during the presentation. Once the holo transmission is done, Mr. Jukes will approach you. You’ll have five minutes. But before we go a step further, I need to know how these two are involved.” She gestured to Victor and Imala.
    “They brought the subject to our attention,” Prescott said.
    “And what subject is that?” asked Simona.
    “We went over this on the holo, Simona. Our message is for Mr. Jukes.”
    She pointed to Victor. “This young man has a rather extensive criminal record and might be a fugitive. I’m not bringing him into Mr. Jukes’s presence until I get some answers.” She crossed her arms across her chest and raised her eyebrows, waiting for someone to speak.
    “I saw something in the Deep,” Victor said. “Out in the Kuiper Belt. I took a quickship to Luna to warn everyone, and I was arrested on ludicrous charges. You have them there in front of you. You can read them yourself. They don’t make my story untrue.”
    “What did you see?”
    Victor looked at the others. He didn’t know how far to take this. Imala saved him the trouble. “I know you think you’re only doing your job here, Simona,” she said, “but we don’t have time for it. Thousands of people in the Belt are dead. We have proof and we know why. If you don’t take us to Ukko Jukes and he doesn’t do something to help us warn the world, thousands and millions and maybe even billions of people on Earth could be next. If that happens, then people are going to look up from the corpses of their dead wives and children and ask why didn’t Ukko Jukes do something when he had the chance. And do you know what we’ll tell them? We’ll tell them the truth. We’ll tell them Simona played gatekeeper and shooed us away because busy-as-a-bee Ukko Jukes didn’t have five minutes to save the world.”
    Simona stared at Imala, lips pursed, considering. Finally she said, “Very well. Follow me.” She snapped her fingers, turned on her heels, and