AEG: Mr. Pavlatos

Roy C. Lackey · 02 Oct 2009, 04:12 · from 2009-October.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 23:12:29 -0500
Subject: (urth) AEG: Mr. Pavlatos
Message-ID: <001901ca4316$92a7ea60$b1d14a0c@rclackey>

My cynicism aside, who is there to say that Cassie didn't find her lost love
and both lived together happily ever after? Whether Madame Pavlatos was
Bill's second wife or not doesn't really matter; all that is important is
that she has access to what has to be his wealth. There is nothing in the
text to indicate that she was a lonely widow or jilted ex-wife, no real
reason to suppose that she didn't have a man in her life.

If Cassie went back in time and found another version of  Reis, she can keep
him. It doesn't matter if the past cannot be changed in any significant way;
all she/they have to do is move beyond the time loop. The time loop is
bounded at one extreme by the farthest point in the past that either of them
traveled. It is bounded on the other end by Cassie's rescue and journey to
Woldercan.

Like this: Cassie goes into the past and finds a version of Reis. They get
together and return to Earth. Both know what happened before and are unable
or unwilling to change what happened. So they don't. Bill Reis is dead and
his enemies will not be looking for him. He takes yet another identity,
under which he manages his financial empire or uses Cassie (his common-law
legal widow) as proxy.

All Cassie has to do is rescue herself at the right time, while Bill keeps
out of sight. He has no need for more money, no reason to attract undue
attention by illegal or questionable activities. Everything plays out just
like it did in the story we have, but Cassie and Bill are free to live as
they please after the book is closed, as Madame and Mr. Pavlatos, or
whatever he wants to call himself.

-Roy

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