"Well . . ."  Vorlynkin trailed off vaguely.  And diplomatically, Jin supposed.

Jin heaved a sigh.  "I wish I might have a ferret!"

Jin's mother choked; Vorlynkin glanced at her, and at Nefertiti who was now nosing among the violets, and put in, "You just got a—er—almost a lion, at least.  Possibly enough wildlife wishes granted for the moment."

Mina twined her arms around her mother and rested her head on the maternal shoulder.  Mom hugged her back.  There's a wish, thought Jin.  There's a real big wish, to have granted.  Bigger than a ferret any day.  Bigger than a lion, even.

Although—Jin had seen pictures—ferrets were really cute.  Cute-and-furry was always an easier sell than carapaced-and-multi-legged, for some obscure reason.  Grownups, so unreasonable . . .

The grownups started talking about lawyers and lawsuits and NewEgypt's evil executives, all under arrest, and Mom's old political action committee and what would happen to it next, which they'd been doing nonstop for days, practically the whole week since Suze-san's place had almost been burned down, so Jin drifted away to watch Nefertiti.  Mina, equally bored, followed him.

The sphinx was crouched down in the patch of purple and white violets.

"Oh, no!" cried Mina.  "She's eating them!"

Jin, worried that the consul might be attached to his violets—thin green stems, at this point, mostly—grabbed the sphinx and dragged her away, scolding.

"Fud," mumbled Nefertiti, squashed lavender petals dribbling from her mouth.

"Vorlynkin-san!" Mina called in anxiety.  "Will eating violets make Nefertiti sick?"

Jin's mother gulped in dismay, except that she was also laughing, but Vorlynkin seemed barely taken aback.  "I shouldn't think so.  Edible flowers are sometimes put on salads, and violets, I believe, are among them.  They're also served candied.  It would doubtless be prudent not to let her eat too many at a time, however."

Jin and Mina both slumped in relief, for slightly different reasons, perhaps.  Vorlynkin-san knew all kinds of nifty things.  And he smiled at Jin's mom.  And Jin's mom smiled back, which wasn't something she'd done much, lately.  He was actually an all-right-all-round sort of fellow, though he needed to be brought up to speed on zoology, if he was . . . going to stick around.

So that's all right, thought Jin.

#

Miles selected a table at the edge of the balcony overlooking the Escobar transfer station's main concourse.  From here, one had a doubly dizzying view, of the people passing two floors below, and of a broad slice of star-specked space and Escobar's rim, glowing with light and color, through the transparent wall above.  He set out three coffee bulbs, took a seat, and gestured Roic to another.