“If that’s doable, then I’ve lost touch. That’s not the America I know. I don’t have the stomach for that. I’d have to resign. You’d have to be chief of staff.”

“No, Leon, you’ve got to be chief of staff You’re the seasoned professional, you’ve got Beltway credibility, and I’m … Well, I can’t be in the picture at all. With my personal background, I can’t possibly front a big medical-publicity spin.”

“I know you want my job.”

“I’ve got my hands full already.”

Sosik snorted. “Don’t give me that.”

“All right,” Oscar said. “I admit that I’d like to have your job, but I have my own agenda to look after now. You see, it’s Greta.”

“Who?”

“The scientist, damn it! Dr. Penninger.”

Sosik was astonished. “What? Her? She’s pushing forty and she’s got a face like a hatchet! What is it with you, kid? Not two months ago you had your pants around your ankles for some campaign jour-nalist. You were lucky as hell not to be outed on that. And now her?”

“Yeah. That’s right. Her.”

Sosik rubbed his chin. “I forgot how hard up a young guy can get… Can it possibly be that good?”

“No, it’s not that good,” Oscar told him. “It’s no good at all, it’s bad. It’s real bad. It’s worse than you could imagine, it’s terrible. If we’re ever caught, we get outed. She’s a fanatic workaholic — science is the only thing in the world that doesn’t bore her to death. Huey adores her and wants to recruit her for some kind of mad-genius brain lab he’s building in a salt mine … She drinks too much. She has allergies. She’s eight years older than me… And oh, she’s also Jewish. Though for some reason the Jewish thing hasn’t come up much.”

Sosik sighed, his breath steaming in the air. “So that’s your situa-tion, huh?”

“That’s almost it. Except for one more thing. She’s truly a ge-nius. She’s a unique, brilliant, wonderful thing.”

Kevin Hamilton was visiting Oscar’s house for a neighborly chat. Kevin, a man of deeply irregular schedules, had brought a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a bag of dried banana chips.

“Politics are irrelevant now,” Kevin informed him airily.

“I’m not asking you to become a political activist, Kevin. I’m just asking you to join my krewe and run my security.”

Kevin munched a handful of banana chips and had a swig of chocolate milk. “Well, you being the guy you are, I guess you’ve got the money for that sort of thing…”

Oscar adjusted his laptop on the conference table. “There’s not a lot of time for idle chitchat here, so let’s put our cards on the table. I know you’re a rather special guy, but you’re not the only guy in the world who can do net research. So can I. You’ve got a civil disobedience record as long as my arm. You spent ten years with no visible means of support. Your dad is a convicted computer criminal on elec-tronic parole. You’re a police informant and a surveillance freak. I really think I need a guy like you in my outfit.”

“Nice of you not to mention my dicey ethnic background,” Kevin said. He set his sandwich aside and produced his own laptop from a battered valise. The ancient machine was pasted together with tension straps and travel decals.

“I never, ever mention that sort of thing,” Oscar said.

“Not that you would. You’re not an ‘ethnic’ guy.” Kevin con-sulted his own screen. “As far as I can figure out, you’re some kind of lab product.”

“Guilty as charged.”

“My dad went bad after his business crashed-but your dad was a genuine gangster. Good thing for you that the feds don’t like to bust movie stars.”

“Yeah, and his films were criminal acts, too.”

“You must be really hard up, man. I don’t do bodyguard work. I’ve got it together to run a successful neighborhood watch. It’s a good gig for a guy who was a big-time nomad — I get to sit still now, and I’ve got a roof over my head. But you’re a dodgy politician with some major-league enemies. I could get killed working for a guy like you.”

“The plan here is that I don’t get killed, and you get paid for that. ”

“I dunno why I’m even listening to you, man. But you know — I gotta admit that I kinda like your proposal. I like a guy who knows what he wants and just goes right after it. There’s something about you that… I dunno… it just inspires confidence.”

Time to play the next card. “Look, I understand about your father, Kevin. A lot of decent people suffered when intellectual prop-erty crashed. Friends of mine in the Senator’s office could talk to the Governor about a grant of clemency. I believe I could do something for you here.”

“Now, that would be great. You know, my dad really got a raw deal. He was never your typical racist white-power bomber. The feds just brought up that terror-and-conspiracy indictment, so he would plead out on the embezzlement and wiretapping charges.”

“He must have had a good lawyer.”

“Sorta… his lawyer had the good sense to defect to Europe when the real heat came down.” Kevin sighed. “I almost went to Europe myself, and then I thought… what the hell? You can drop out as a road prole and it’s almost the same as leaving the country.”

“You don’t mind traveling to Texas? You don’t mind missing Christmas? We’ll be flying there right away.”

“I don’t care. Not as long as I can still log on to my own servers.”

The door chimed. Moments later, Donna arrived with an airmailed packet.

“Is that for me?” Kevin said brightly. He eviscerated the package with a massive Swiss Army knife. “Mayonnaise,” he announced un-convincingly, producing a sealed jar of unlabeled white goo. “This stuff could be really handy.” He stuffed the jar into his accordion-sided valise.

“She’s arrived,” Donna whispered.

“I have to see another guest,” Oscar told Kevin.

“Another ‘guest’?” Kevin winked. “What happened to the cute one in the bathrobe?”

“Can you get back to me in the morning with your decision?”

“No, man, I’ve made up my mind. I’m gonna do it.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah, it sounds like a nice change of pace. I’ll get right on the job. Clear it with your sysadmin, and I’ll see what I can do about shoring up your net.”

7

Life in the Collaboratory lacked the many attractive facilities of the Back Bay in Boston.

Oscar and Greta met in a broken car in the dark parking lot behind the Vehicle Repair Facility. This assig-nation spot was Kevin Hamilton’s idea. Kevin was very big on secure meetings inside anonymous cars. Kevin was no Secret Service agent, but he brimmed over with rule-of-thumb street smarts.

“I’m afraid,” Greta confessed.

Oscar adjusted his jacket, tugging for elbow room.

The car was so small that they were almost sitting in each other’s laps. “How could you have stage fright over such a simple thing? You gave a Nobel Prize speech in Stock-holm once.”

“But then I was talking about my own work. I can always do that. This is different. You want me to stand up in front of the board of directors and tell them off to their face. In front of a big crowd of my friends and colleagues. I’m not cut out for that.”

“Actually, you are cut out for it, Greta. You’re abso-lutely perfect for the role. I knew it from the moment I saw you.”

Greta examined her laptop screen. It was the only light inside the dead vehicle, and it underlit their faces with a gentle glow. They were meeting at two in the morning. “If it’s really this bad here — as bad as you claim it is — then it’s really no use fighting, is it? I should just resign.”

“No, you don’t have to resign. The point of this speech is that they have to resign.” Oscar touched her hand. “You don’t have to say anything you don’t know to be true.”

“Well, I know some of these things are true, because I leaked them to you myself. But I would never have said them out loud. And I wouldn’t have said them this way. This speech, or this rant, or what-ever it is — it’s a violent political attack! It’s not scholarly. It’s not objective.”