After they'd eaten and had said their goodbyes, they discovered what everyone learned eventually. Going downhill is a lot easier than going back up, especially when you've been ill. The girls were tired enough that they didn't raise any serious objections when Jason hailed a cab to take them home. All it had taken for them to agree was for him to point out that he hadn't had to pay for his lunch and thus it wasn't really what you could consider an extraordinary expense.

When they got home, the three of them popped in on Blair to report the results of their experiment and to tell her that the twins owed Alicia for lunch. Blair nodded, then dismissed Jason, with: "Thank you for bringing them home. I'll see you later."

Jason was in a good mood. He'd had to be prompted to speak at the inn, but he'd apparently said the right things. Not only that but he'd been able to spend the entire day with the twins.

That night he fell asleep easily and slept deeply. The next morning he awoke feeling refreshed and ready for whatever the day would present, which, contrary to what you might expect after so many things had happened recently, was nothing in particular. And so it was for them for most of the next year.

-------------------

Monday, February 27, in the Year 724 After the Founding

"Mrs. Fukui, Mrs. Fukui, may we have a minute please?"

Akane turned around to see a group of five students scurrying to catch up with her. "Of course you may. Here, or in my office?"

"Oh, here will be fine. It's nothing private or anything. It's just that we haven't been able to come up with any ideas for our end-of-term papers and were hoping you might have some suggestions?"

How very interesting. Most of her students disliked writing papers as a matter of principle, especially if the subject was history. Many young people viewed history as irrelevant, even budding scholars at a school like Ingvold. Normally they only asked her for advice when the deadline was approaching, which usually resulted in papers that looked like, and probably were, finished at 2 a.m. the morning of the day they were due. The end-of-term papers weren't due for another two months.

"May I ask why you want my suggestions?"

There was a bit of shuffling of feet, and some slightly embarrassed looks, but finally Aleena Speziale spoke up, "Well. It's because class has been a lot more fun the past few months. It's even a bit exciting sometimes."

She turned to her companions. "Right?"

Akane saw nods all around. Interesting. The reason for their attitude change was glaringly obvious and irritated her no end. She must have been awful to them before she began spending time with Blair and Miranda.

Thinking quickly she came up with a possible solution. "Well, let's see. First I'll ask you a question. Last semester we read some of the ancient Greek plays, including Aristophanes' comedies. Did you enjoy them?"

Seeing smiles and nods, and hearing one whispered comment, "It's a good thing our parents haven't read them," she continued, "You said that class was more fun. Why not use that as the basis of your papers. Look up the different ways humor has been presented in various cultures and times. Then see if there has been any effect on the culture in general or specific.

"For example, we know that Plato said that Aristophanes' play 'The Clouds' was at least partly responsible for the execution of Socrates. You might look for other examples of humor affecting either single important people, or groups, or whatever."

She leaned toward them with a conspiratorial look. "Besides, you might enjoy reading some of that material just as much as you did Lysistrata. "How does that sound?"

Aleena exclaimed, "That sounds great Mrs. Fukui!" She turned to her friends. "What do you all think?"

There were murmurs of agreement, thanks, and smiles, followed by the the group making a beeline for the library. They wanted to get the books they needed before some upperclassman learned of their project and took what they needed just to spite them.

Not for the first time, Akane marveled at how every group tended to be a microcosm of cultures as a whole. The groups might be smaller, but they tended to all be the same, whether helpful, neutral, or hurtful. They were always there. She was sure that there was an excellent paper hiding in the concept, but nowadays she was far to busy to do more than make suggestions to others.

Hiroshi Macklin had been right when he'd said, "Welcome to The Insomniac's Club." Even when nothing momentous was going on, just keeping up with the daily demands of the job was exhausting. It was especially true in her case since she was working with both Blair and Miranda on a regular basis, and even Hiroshi from time to time.

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One thing had become clear as crystal. Being needed, and appreciated, by those one worked with did wonders for one's attitude. She suspected that she'd been more than a bit of a sourpuss for most of the years she'd been teaching. She was aware that she'd been "needed" by Ingvold, but she had never before felt appreciated. All in all, it was rather pleasant.

She shook her head slightly. Standing in the hall woolgathering wasn't getting any work done.

--------------

After school she'd managed to wrap things up a bit earlier than usual, so she stopped by to see Miranda. It was more because she wanted to see a friend than because she had any particular business. The entire idea that she HAD friends was new to her, and, in the back of her brain, there was a little voice that occasionally popped up and told her that she was imagining everything.

She was escorted directly to the conservatory. It was glassed in on five of its six sides and was a bit over eight meters tall and 11 meters wide. A few plants crowded the top, having been planted as many as nine generations in the past. Miranda had readily admitted to Akane that she had, at best, a thumb that could barely be considered green, so she left the care of all the plants to the Donetti's gardener, who was himself the third generation in service.

Had anyone been able to look in past the bushy trees that rose above the wall surrounding the property, they might have concluded that Miranda was one of the lay-about wives who never concerned themselves with anything other than clothes, parties, and gossip. As Akane now knew, Miranda's limp pose was due to fatigue.

"I don't want to take any of your time Manda, especially when I've showed up unannounced. To tell the truth, I just wanted to see a friendly face before I went home. Some of those hidebound, dried up old men at school still treat women as beneath them and think of us as unworthy to be teachers, which makes no sense at all. When I was especially pissed off at them a few years ago I looked up who their teachers were. A full half of them were women."

Miranda smiled up at her. "And that my dear is why women are the most successful spies. Most men still have that unconscious feeling of superiority. In fact, we make use of it on a regular basis. All three of us have rather flamboyant men in our employ whose job is to look as if they might be spies. Would it surprise you to find out that each of them has a woman on his staff who takes great pains to be unremarkable and that they're the ones who usually find things out for us?"

Akane chuckled, with a touch of bitterness. "Not really. Knowing what I do now, I'm not surprised at all.

"Anyway, thanks for seeing me and letting me unwind a bit. I'll take my leave and let you rest. Gods know that you need it."

Miranda grinned. "Isn't that the truth? Oh, and while you're here, I have something for you."

For just a moment she looked somewhat flustered. That was very uncharacteristic of her. Normally, no matter where she was, she had perfect control of her face.

Suddenly Mimi appeared and handed something to Miranda. Then she took herself away as quickly as she had come.

"Ah, I, we, owe you an apology. It was just yesterday that we noticed it, and, being a Sunday, we couldn't do anything about it until today. So don't worry about dropping in unannounced. I needed to see you. Anyway, here..."

Miranda held out a slip of paper, which Akane accepted, though she was uncertain what had just happened. She took a quick glance, then did a double-take and looked for quite a bit longer. It was a deposit receipt documenting a substantial addition to her account at the bank she and Sebastian used.

As she was standing there, stunned, Miranda said, "Oh, and don't worry that anyone at the bank will be asking questions about where the money came from. By pure chance, if you believe in such a thing, your bank is secretly owned jointly by Robert and Hiroshi. A few years ago Hiroshi suggested to Robert that they were missing a great deal of profit by not having at least some dealings with the middle class. Robert researched it and realized that Hiroshi was right. They started this as a private project because some of their regular customers at Griffon are such snobs that they don't want to be associated with people who themselves associate with their 'inferiors' -- the idiots.

"At any rate, it's now the one we use for payments to our agents and for any other 'special' expenditures. All employees have been carefully selected and trained. Since that near disaster with the late, unlamented Avi last fall, Hiroshi has rechecked the credentials of every employee. They all checked out."

Akane's response was more of a stammer than anything else, "All right. I understand that, but, but, why?"

Miranda correctly divined the intent and giggled. She disliked giggling as it made her sound far too young, but sometimes you just had to, right? "Akane, neither your city nor your country expect you to work for free. It would be nice of course, but if we didn't pay you it would set a very dangerous prececent. Can you imagine how easy it would be to bribe an agent who never got paid for risking her life or who was paid only a pittance?"

"Oh. Well, yes, that's true Manda, but this much?"

"First of all, you're working for all three of us, which is officially two and a quarter positions that you occupy. You're getting paid for one and a half -- as always our budget is far less than what we really need. Also what you see there is only part of what we owe you. We here in The City get paid quarterly since all of us have other jobs that provide our 'official' incomes. That's your pay for the September through November period. Another deposit will be made at the end of next week for December through February. That one will be much larger as you'll have worked all three months and not just two."

Akane was feeling rather faint, but there wasn't a chair nearby for her to drop into, and falling on the floor was incredibly undignified, so she took slow, deep breaths until her head stopped spinning. "Ah yes, I see. Thank you for the explanation. I think I should take my leave and get home. I need to see about feeding those piranhas I call my children."

"Bye Akane. I'll see you Wednesday for our usual confab."

"Yes, indeed. I'll plan on seeing you Wednesday. Goodbye."

Just before she stepped out into the street, Akane buried the receipt in the bottom of her clutch. Once she got home she'd put it in the secret drawer in the back of the desk she'd inherited from her grandmother.

It wouldn't do if she spent the money all at once. That would draw unwanted attention. However there were a number of small things around the house she'd had to put off that could now be attended to. They were highly unlikely to be noticed if she spread the expenditures over the next month or so. Also, some of the children's clothes were getting to be either a bit worn, or too small. Replacing them would be seen as only natural. This time though, she'd be opting for better wearing, and thus more expensive, fabrics. In the long run, it might even save her money.