"Cool. Oh, you might not know that the crew collected some skin flakes so they'd have a head start on genetic material from you guys." Sino grinned, patting her bag. "Which were all stored here. When TG took off, she left those, too."

"I knew I could count on you, Doc." Jason started laughing. "I finally get it! Lady Mari, you told me that I needed to trust in people. You didn't mean my mom! You meant I should trust in you, and in people like Doc Sino."

"That's right," Mari told him. "Alain and I figured that Talese Groveen would be eager enough, greedy enough, and in a rush enough not to think through what she was agreeing to. She did flinch when you threatened to testify about other things. That may have been what caused her to give in."

Jason laughed again. "I made that up. I figured my mom must have a lot of bodies buried somewhere…uh, that's a metaphor for lots of stuff that she doesn't want anybody to find out about, because I don't think she's actually in person murdered anybody…and her guilty conscience made her worry that I'd found out about some of it."

Kira's mother grinned. "I'm beginning to understand more why Kira likes you now, Jason. That reminds me. What do we call you? Do you want to hold on to the name Groveen, or—?"

"No! Can I be, uh, Jason of Pacta Servanda?"

Mari shook her head. "You're not from Pacta. Isn't there any place on Urth you called home?"

It was Jason's turn to shake his head. "No. I never really had a place. Just, Earth, I guess."

"Jason of Urth? That can work."

They rejoined the cavalry, one of the troopers dismounting and double-riding with a companion so that a delighted Doctor Sino could take her horse.

"How are we going to handle this?" Mari asked Alain as they all rode back to the city. "We just acquired a sixteen-year-old boy."

"Do we want him living with us?" Kira's father asked.

"Yes," Kira said.

"No," Kira's mother said. "We'll find a good place. I wonder if Alli and Calu would take him for a while? Calu would love to pick Jason's brains, and their boys would be great companions. He could ride the train—"

"The train?" Jason said, looking alarmed.

"You are wise to be worried," Alain commented.

"The train," Mari said. "It's an easy ride between Pacta and Danalee."

"Danalee?" Kira demanded. "You want Jason to live in Danalee? That's almost as far from Pacta Servanda as Urth is!"

"Give or take a bunch of light years," Jason muttered.

"See? Jason agrees with me!"

"We could ask Asha and Dav to take him," Mari said with mock seriousness. "I'm sure that their girls Ashira and Devi would love to have a boy near their age staying with them."

Kira made a face at her mother. "Very funny. What is wrong with him staying with us?"