Part 6 (1/2)
Doug hesitated, digesting not only Takai's words, but their tone. He knows more than he's willing to tell me, Doug realized.
”Don't you think j.a.pan would recognize our independence if we drove off the Peacekeepers?”
”No, I don't.”
”Is Yamagata against us? I need to know, Tos.h.i.+. Lives depend on it.”
Takai said nothing.
”Well?” Doug demanded.
The pained expression on Takai's face showed the tension he was feeling. ”My instructions are to continue as usual. We will operate Nippon One as we normally do, despite your present ... difficulties.”
They both knew that Nippon One carefully refrained from using nanotechnology. Instead of using nanomachines to extract helium-three from the ground, they used c.u.mbersome bulldozers and old-fas.h.i.+oned ma.s.s spectrometers to separate the isotope from the other lunar ores. It kept the cost of helium-three at least ten times higher than it would have been if nanomachines had been employed to ferret out the helium-three nuclei, individually.
But Nippon One bought its water from Moonbase. Shut down Moonbase and the j.a.panese base dies, too.
”I don't understand how that can be,” Doug said.
”Those are my instructions.”
Walking beside his virtual friend in silence, Doug thought, He wants to tell me what's going on, but he can't. His loyalty to Yamagata is preventing him from telling me the whole truth.
”We've already declared our independence, you know,” Doug said.
”Yes, you told me. I doubt that it'll do you any good.”
”What was Tokyo's reaction to that?”
”No reaction. The first I heard of it was just now, when you told me.”
”Your corporate superiors didn't tell you about it?”
”Not one word.”
”We beamed the information to Yamagata headquarters and to every news agency on Earth.”
”I have not received any information about that,” Takai said, genuinely upset.
”That must mean that Faure intends to ignore our declaration and proceed as if it's a non-starter.”
”Yes, of course.”
They took a few more paces across the crater floor, skirting a fresh-looking craterlet about the size of a beach ball's indentation.
”Tos.h.i.+, how are you going to get water if Moonbase is shut down? You can't use nanomachines, and-”
”We will get our water the same way we do now.”
”But Moonbase will be closed. The Peacekeeper troops are on their way to shut us down.”
Takai grimaced, struggling inwardly. At last he said, The Peacekeepers are coming to remove you and your people from the management of Moonbase. That does not mean they intend to close the base entirely.”
Doug stopped in his tracks. ”Not...' His mind started spinning. ”Not close the base? Tos.h.i.+, are you sure?”
”It could cost me my position if anyone learns that I told you. Yes, I am quite certain. Or I should say that Tokyo is quite certain.”
”They're not going to close the base?”
”Faure spoke directly to the head of the Yamagata clan himself and a.s.sured him that Moonbase will continue to supply water to Nippon One-after the Peacekeeper troops remove you and your staff from the base.”
”Faure intends to continue running Moonbase,” Doug repeated, feeling hollow with surprise. ”The little fur ball doesn't care about the nanotech treaty; he wants to control Moonbase himself!”
TOUCHDOWN MINUS 93 HOURS 45 MINUTES.
”But don't you understand what this means?” Joanna demanded.
”It means that Faure wants to take over Moonbase,” said Doug.
”It means we can do business with him!” his mother replied eagerly. ”We can cut a deal.”
Doug stared at his mother. She was sitting bolt upright in the chaise longue she had brought from her home in Savannah as part of the elaborate furnis.h.i.+ngs for her two-room suite at Moonbase. Leaning toward her from the delicate little Sheraton sofa on which he sat, Doug shook his head unhappily.
”Faure won't make any deals. He intends to use the Peacekeepers to toss us out of here and then have the UN itself run the base.”
Joanna gave her son a pitying smile. ”Doug, he'll need trained personnel to run this base. He'll have to use the people who are here.”
”That doesn't include thee and me.”
”Don't be so sure,” Joanna said. She seemed actually happy with Doug's news; pleased that Faure wanted to take over Moonbase.
”He'll want to continue to manufacture Clippers.h.i.+ps, of course,” Joanna mused. ”That's where the profits are. Every transportation line on Earth wants our Clippers.h.i.+ps and he can pump the profits into the U.N.”
”Or his own pocket.”
”Maybe,” Joanna agreed. ”Even better. The more venal he is, the easier it'll be to deal with him.”
Doug shook his head again. ”That's what the German industrialists thought about Hitler.”
”Faure's no Hitler. He's not a fanatic. He isn't even going to stop our nanomachines. He just wants to run them for his own profit.”
Getting to his feet, Doug said, ”I'm still a.s.suming that we'll have to handle the Peacekeepers, and we've got less than four days to figure out how to do it.”
”What do you intend to do?”
He shrugged. ”I've asked Zimmerman and Cardenas to meet me in my quarters. Lev and Jinny Anson, too. And one of the aquaculture technicians, the only guy in the base who's had any military experience at all.”
”All right,” Joanna said, looking up at her son from the chaise longue. ”You do that. I'm going to put in a call to Faure. He'll negotiate. I know he will.”
”Don't commit us to anything until I get a chance to see what it is, okay?”