“Are you hiding?” Kaylee asked, stepping around Jayne to find Zoe in the shadows of one of the trees.

“Me?”

“Yeah. You.”

“I don’t hide.”

“Right. Only you’re giving a damn good impression of it right now.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I don’t really fancy having my fine features waved all over the planet,” Zoe said.

“Never thought I’d see you running scared,” Jayne commented, then wondered whether he should have taken a step out of punching range before speaking.

But Zoe surprised him. “Not running. I’m standing right here being scared.”

Jayne grinned.

“Honey?” Hank approached. “There’s a nice man from Channel 8 wants to have a word with you about …” He saw her face. “Ah. I’ll just tell him no, then, shall I?”

“Thank you, sweetie.”

At last nobody else wanted to talk to either of the candidates, the local Cortex crews had gone, and the crowd was dispersing. Mercy collapsed, rather unceremoniously, into one of the spindly metal chairs outside a café, and fanned her face. “ Diyu , but that was …” Her violet eyes were so wide they seemed to tint the surrounding trees.

“Yeah.” Zoe smiled and joined her, a little less forcefully.

“I never thought I could …” Mercy looked at her new friend. “Thank you.”

“What for?”

“Showing me I had something to give.”

“You did good,” Zoe said approvingly. A waiter approached carrying a tray. “Thanks, but we ain’t ordering.”

The waiter, a young man, smiled at them both, his eyes lingering a moment on Mercy longer than on Zoe. “It’s all right, ma’am,” he said politely. “This is compliments of the management.” He placed the tray on the table, and they could see it contained a jug of iced tea complete with mint leaves, and two tall glasses. “May I?”

Zoe felt a grin suffuse her face. “Don’t mind if you do.”

He poured, then smiled once more at Mercy before walking back inside.

“I think you’ve got an admirer.” Zoe picked up one of the glasses, feeling the slick of condensation on her fingers.

“Who, D