'Clearwater...?" Cadillac didn't seem to be able to take the news on
board.
'Yes. I reckon she's got about five months to go. Six at the
outside."
The words came slowly. 'Steve... is he the...?"
'Father? Well, I hope so. Do you have any idea who else it could
be?"
'No." Cadillac looked confused. 'When did this, uh, all...?"
'When did she conceive?" Roz knew exactly when. She had been there.
Inside both their heads. But this was not the moment to try and
explain how or why. 'A short time before we picked her up,' she
said.
'When the three of you were in the hands of Malone's renegades. Did,
uh they...?"
'No! No . . ." Cadillac cast his mind back over their period of
'captivity' and realised he'd lain in a drunken stupor and watched it
happen. It wasn't supposed to hurt any more but for a brief moment it
did. He wiped the picture from his mind and cleared his brow. Looking
up he found Roz eyeing him intently.
'It must be Steve. But how? From what he told me I thought the
President-General was - ' 'The Father of All Life? He is,' said Roz.
'But Steve's not a Tracker. He was only brought up as one. If he's a
Mute, like you, he carries the seeds of life within him." And maybe I
do too ....
'The point is,' she continued,' what are we going to do about it? I
mean, we just can't leave them there."
'No, I suppose not." Cadillac hauled himself out of the water and
began to towel himself dry. The towel, soap and the friction-glove
he'd been using were some of the items he'd purloined from the
wagon-train and stuffed into the Skyhawk before leaving. Not
everything produced by the sand-burrowers was bad. 'What have you got
in mind? Going into the Federation and bringing her out?"
'Not just Clearwater. All three of them."
Cadillac wrapped the towel round his waist and started pacing up and
down. 'Have you any idea what you're asking? Where would we start? I
