April 6: And What Goes Around Read Free Page B

might
give a premium for money from outside their government's control. There were
more reports but she was ready for supper.
    * * *
    April met Jeff for
supper. That was one way to make sure he ate. Sometimes she worried about him.
He'd always been thin, but he'd get involved in a project and visibly lose
weight until the work was done. He was always slow to gain it back. On the
other hand his dad was the same way and it hadn't seemed to hurt him yet.
    She'd asked Jeff
what his dad was doing and was told it was proprietary company work he couldn't
discuss with his son. April could understand the need for security, but could
not imagine putting rules ahead of her relationship with Jeff. She trusted him
absolutely not to make improper use of information. It was hard for her to
understand how his own father wouldn't feel the same way. In her mind rules
were never perfect and there always had to be exceptions.
    April followed
Jeff in line, observing what he got, and added an extra small plate of high
calorie items for him on her tray. When they sat he went to fill their mugs and
she put it on his side. He didn't argue when he returned. In fact he speared
one of her gift appetizers first thing and ate it, which made her feel better.
    "How are the
Chinese in Camelot adjusting to having a ruler instead of a People's
Republic?" April asked him.
    "I retained
one fellow who was an administrator. It was more of an adjustment for him than
the other workers. He was used to having goals imposed on him, sometimes all
the way from Earth, by people who had never been to the moon. When I wanted to
just sit and chat and get a sense of what was possible he was all flustered. He
might have thought it was a trick at first. In the end I had to caution him not
to set impossible goals for himself, that I didn't expect that. When we brought
in Annette to be the crown representative on site I think he was shocked again.
It wasn't customary to have a female, at least such a young one in such a
responsible position. No matter what their revolutionary philosophy claims."
    "What do you
think of Annette? I got to meet her mom, Dakota, but I haven't met her. I haven't
even had reason to do a video call with her. You must think she can handle it
or you wouldn't be back to Home."
    "She would
have begged off if she could. She felt she wasn't experienced enough. I'd
rather she be that way than full of herself and ready to make changes right and
left. But she's smart and she has been around Heather enough to have a good
idea what Heather's mind would be on things. I predict she will be a professor
if Heather eventually has the university for which she set aside land. Heather
gave her a good bit of advice and she seemed to take it to heart. I don't want
to leave her there too long. I think she'll grow weary of it and resentful if
we force her to stay more than a year or so. She's still young enough a year is
a long time. But fleeing Armstrong with her family is the sort of thing that
makes you grow up in a hurry."
    "Just like
us," April pointed out.
    "Yes,
similar," Jeff agreed. "She was in an even smaller community but more
limited too. Armstrong didn't have the foreign workers and visitors we got here
and the lunar colonies didn't visit back and forth and do business like we did
with the other habitats. They rarely had anyone that wasn't a USNA citizen, and
they really hid how tightly they would be controlled until they got there. They
didn't send people back to Earth for having kids, but it wasn't encouraged
either. They probably would have shipped them back if somebody hadn't
latched onto the kids as propaganda props. She was forced to make nice-nice for
the videographer quite a bit growing up and wasn't sure this job wasn't more of
the same. Which she regarded as foolishness. They usually made her do hops in
the low gravity and other tricks for the camera that were pretty silly. I was
told the kids learned to keep a low profile and avoid the Director because