Ram Kikura’s anger faded. She regarded him with deep interest. “You aren’t concerned with our petty politics, are you?” she asked.

Mirsky rapped his fingers on the table, an impatient gesture Lanier found intriguing. “Politics…never petty to those caught up in it. I am concerned only insofar as politics might prevent dismantling the Way.”

Karen entered the conference area and stepped forward to kiss her husband. The kiss was short but apparently sincere; there was no need, she seemed to tell him, for personal problems to come to the fore now. Nevertheless, he took her hand and squeezed it.

“The timetable is short,” he said, forcibly interlacing his fingers through hers. Her jaw tightened and she glanced around at the others, wondering what they were making of this, quickly seeing that social nuances and speculations were the last things on anybody’s mind.

Lanier did not loosen his grip. “Ser Korzenowski?”

“The Way could be opened in less than six months. I’m afraid Ser Mirsky’s story drove a wedge into the Nexus, and the neo-Geshels used that wedge to open a wide split. The Nexus will advise a permanent re-opening. Nobody doubts what will happen then—if the Jarts aren’t waiting for us, I mean. There’ll be a rush of entrepreneur legislation—permits to open ‘test’ gates, some of which of course will lead us to Talsit concessions…And if we establish commerce with the Talsit again, we’ll never shut the gate down. The Talsit are damnably seductive salesmen, and besides, many Hexamon citizens need their goods too much right now. There’s an air of desperation…. Ser Olmy?”

“Even Naderites enjoy their longevity,” Olmy said. “Within the decade, millions will have to give up their bodies and download into city memory…or die. Naderites dislike the idea of living permanently in city memory. They accept artificial life enhancements, but city memory is a kind of Gehenna, a limbo to the orthodox.”

“That sounds a lot like hypocrisy to me,” Lanier said dryly.

“It is, of course,” Korzenowski said. “Committees of partials are being formed in city memory to study the possibility—that’s all the neo-Geshels will call it—of Jarts reoccupying the Way. If they agree with Ser Olmy, they might delay the reopening until an adequate defense is in place—perhaps even a workable offense.”

“My God,” Karen said. “They’d fight the Jart Wars all over again?”

“They are being very optimistic,” Korzenowski observed darkly.

“What if the Jarts are right there, waiting for us?” Lanier asked.

Korzenowski grimaced. “Such a nightmare has occurred to me often the past few days. I have partials in city memory listening to all planning sessions. And I must participate in the defense of the Hexamon, if I am so ordered…”

“How can we defend ourselves?” Karen asked.