The third person Becki asked--a chamber-maid apparently--knew where Iris Sewallei could be found at that hour, and graciously led her to the old Den Mother of the Resistance. Becki thanked the girl, balanced Thirteen in her left arm, and knocked on the door with her right.
Iris's voice, still familiar despite the months since she'd last heard it, called for her to enter. Becki did so, then stopped short to find that she was not the first to come calling upon Iris that morning. "Fir! Hello!--and Iris, too," she smiled. "I haven't seen either of you in ages."
Iris and the tall Mendellian soldier exchanged a look before Iris answered. "You 've been missed, my dear," she said. "But I'm sure we're not the first to tell you that. Welcome home."
Becki smiled uncertainly and moved to the seat that Iris indicated. "I wish I could stay longer. But, actually, we're heading back out on the mission again tomorrow. Just as soon as Kristy finishes her tests on the little one here."
"What a pretty baby she is," Iris noted with a nod.
"And what a famous one she's becoming," Fir put in, glancing at Iris and then back at the child. "Pardon me, but--if I've understood correctly--you found the baby during your mission?" Becki nodded. "And the identity of the parents is unknown?"
Becki paused, but, remembering the days when she'd fought with these people against Eugor Atner and his Imperial allies, remembering their constant loyalty both to Thayer and to Terra Group, decided they could be trusted with what they knew about Thirteen. At least some of it. "The father is unknown. The mother--that's connected to our mission. We're all but certain that the child belongs to the agent we were sent to find, and Kristy's tests will most likely have confirmed that soon."
"Strange!" Iris said, blue eyes gleaming, "that nothing of that sort's been heard. That is--well, my lady, some rumors have been circulating about the baby. You know how people are; the less they know, the more they must seem to know."
"Most of the rumors," Fir grinned, "would name you as the mother."
Becki laughed, a little surprised. "Really? I'd heard--well, I mean, I've actually been asked if she's mine. A few times. But that was mostly Terra Group people, or those who've worked with us, and I took it for teasing. Since I've been the main one taking care of the baby since we found her."
"From them, teasing it may be," Iris smiled. "But we've heard it from sources less benign as well."
"Rumor volat," Becki sighed. "That's so silly though; I mean, I'm not even--" she blushed momentarily, casting about for a way to put delicately the things that never lent themselves to delicacy.
"Kristy's results will disprove the rumors, of course," Iris suggested.
"Those results will be secret, though, at least until the mission is over."
Iris smiled cannily. " 'Secret,' my dear, never means in Mendellia quite what it means elsewhere, you'll find. Leave it to me, though. Soon enough people will know the baby has been tested; and if they don't already know what the results were, they'll cast about for things to fill in that gap, so they can seem to know. I'll give them something--but not Kristy's real results. Something else to keep them busy."
"Even busier than they've been at guessing Becki for the mother?" Fir grinned.
"Trust me, dear," Iris said. "I know what I'm about."
Becki chuckled. "I believe you. And actually, what I came to ask you will tie in nicely with your--um--propaganda plans."
"Oh?"
"Will you do me a favor?"
"I am at your service, my lady."
"See, the baby can't really go with us to Jerusalem--I think one of the reasons her mother left her with us was that she knew the danger she would be going into there, and didn't want a newborn exposed to it too--so we're leaving her here and need someone to watch her. . . ."
"I'm honored to do so," Iris smiled.
"If you don't mind my asking, Becki," Fir said, suddenly sitting forward, "your mission takes you next to Jerusalem?"
"Oh. Um." She winced at realizing she'd just let that slip, tried to think whether it was something that shouldn't have slipped, then finally decided, again, that these were friends to be trusted, the most loyal of allies, not the rumormongering public to keep secrets from. "Yeah. Still on the trail of the mother."
"We're not supposed to know that?" Fir guessed.
"No, I think it's okay. Best if it doesn't leave this room, but okay for you to know."
"I asked," said Fir, "because of the coincidence of the timing. I just returned from Jerusalem myself."
"Really!"
"For my uncle's funeral." Automatically she began to offer sympathies; he nodded quickly and continued. "I was glad to get away from there, actually. For one thing, my uncles and I have never been close. There's a long-standing feud of sorts between them and my mother. And for another, Jerusalem is becoming such an uncertain place to be." He smiled and nodded to the baby. "I understand why you don't want her there. But you should be careful, yourself!"
"I will," Becki said. "With any luck we won't be there too long, anyway. I mean, I'd love to stay longer; Jerusalem's one of my favorite places; but . . . like you say, it's a risky place to be now. But we have much more information to work from now than we did when we set out for Paris, so maybe we'll just be able to fly in, find the agent and the shield, and--"
"Shield?" Fir sat up, oddly attentive.
"Oh dear. I did it again." Becki shook her head. "I usually hold my tongue so much better than this!" She grinned weakly. "Can I blame it on being up late with the baby?"
"No, it's not that," Fir said, a smile slowly spreading over his face. "Either this is one of the oddest coincidences I've yet seen, or . . . anyway, this shield, it's something beyond Earth's own technology, from the other worlds to which Terra Group answers, something that would make a nation--or many nations, maybe even the whole globe--invulnerable to attack, yes?"
She stared agape, then finally remembered to close her mouth and asked: "How do you know?"
"I think," he said, "I have some information you'll be wanting."
Minutes later Becki was hurrying back through the Palace corridors to find the rest of the Terra Group agents preparing for the next stage of their mission. Thirteen she'd left behind with Iris, but in exchange she had tucked in her pocket a slip of paper--an address Fir had given her, and a date and time. An upper room over one of the little shops on Ben Yehuda Street. Tomorrow might be too late--but if they pushed things a bit and moved their departure up to this evening, they should get there just in the nick of time.