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told me the longer riffs derived from classic sizz, while the backbeat was pure Transkei rip-rap.
    I decided Jin was an interesting guy. That soft Pacific accent was growing on me. In the bar, people were dancing the old-fashioned way, not slinking around in separate colored energy fields, but actually standing together in ordinary space and moving their bodies to the music. When Jin suggested we try it, I agreed. Luc’s recovery made me want to celebrate. I would have said yes to anything.
    “La Sauvage, you’re a fresh breeze.” Jin stood smiling at me for a moment when the dance was over. He brushed a strand of stiff white hair off my forehead, and I blushed. Back at our table, we dropped into our chairs and ordered more beer. We were both perspiring a little.
    I liked the way Jin pronounced my name, but sometimes I wondered if he was making fun of me. We kept chatting about surface travel and dancing and Sydney, and after the fourth round of beers, things grew a bit unfocused.
    “So, your father runs Pacific.Com. Must be plenty wild to have a meta-magnate for a father.”
    His jaw quivered with sudden tension. I guess I’d put my foot in it. How fast his mood could change. “A father who lets three-year-olds work in factories,” he said. “Yes, that’s plenty wild.”
    “At least you have a father. My parents died before I could know them. What about your mom?”
    “Mother was fortunate. Like your parents, she died young.”
    That wasn’t kind. Jin swirled his beer, and his expression was so grim, I almost decided to stop right there. But not me, not Jolie Blanche Sauvage. I tried another subject. “Tell me about your work in the movies.”
    “Work?” His laugh was short and dry. “I’d hardly call it that.”
    “But acting,” I said, “you have to invent a whole world and live in it. That must take a lot of imagination.”
    He grunted and drained his beer.
    “If you don’t like it, then why did you choose it?” I asked.
    “I’m heir to a Com throne. Who says I get to choose anything?” Jin laughed bitterly. Then he tipped his empty glass on edge and spun it till it wobbled and fell over. I barely managed to catch the thing before it smashed on the floor. I set it carefully on the table between us, and when Jin finally spoke again, his voice was small and hard.
    “You might say my father helped me decide on acting. My father is the first head of our family to have a son in ‘the entertainment business.’ My career embarrasses him. But not much. Not enough.”
    Jin was glaring at that empty glass like he wanted to crush it with his mind. Right then would have been a very appropriate moment for me to keep my mouth shut, but I didn’t. “Judith Merida saw your face in a scandal ezine. So what scandalous thing did you do, Sir Jin? Get high? Break heads and hearts?”
    Even though I was inebriated, I noticed the shadow deepen under his eye. He moved the beer glass back and forth, making a pattern of moisture rings on the table. “You guess right, Jolie. Drugs, brawls, sex, the usual crimes of the idle rich. The choices I make require no imagination at all.”
    Instinct told me that wasn’t the truth. Jin was working through some serious trouble, but I couldn’t seem to hold my tongue that night. He had just saved my best Mend’s life, and all I could do was hassle him with stupid questions. Our hands lay near each other on the table. His were dark and elegant, with pale manicured nails. And mine—bony, callused, almost as white as the plastic cloth. I didn’t dare touch him.
    Without thinking, I blurted, “You’re such a smart man. Why aren’t you happier?”
    Jin uncrossed his legs and sat up straighter in his chair. “Your friend Judith Merida, she says we dream the world. What if the choices we make don’t matter? What if we dream a different life with every heartbeat?”
    “Don’t I wish!” I shoved ragged bangs out of my eyes.
    Jin regarded me thoughtfully. “Pretty Jolie.”