19
A QUICKENING TIDE
cheap flowers outside a crematorium.
Somebody somewhere wanted an abnor-mal market for the IVIs, and was angling for it to be on July 18. On that day, every com-mercial bigwig on the planet would be scrap-ing and bowing at the reception aboard the Scutari, fawning for a future audience with the senior trade negotiator or—wonder of wonders—Captain Florian Anderson him-self. Somebody somewhere stood to make a nice profit, and Knott’s odd date in the mis-sion statement had something to do with it.
Durante turned and stared into his cabin console, hoping for inspiration or at least distraction. There were two messages. The first informed him that the date of his refreeze had been set back 2 weeks while potentially defective parts of his suspension tube were replaced. T
