Part 20 (1/2)

”I quite understand,” said Faure, ”and I agree. Your detention has been a sad error on the part of certain over-anxious members of my staff. I apologize most humbly.”

Joanna looked totally unconvinced.

Faure went on, ”I am giving orders this instant that you are to be released and provided transportation for whatever destination you wish.”

Warily, Joanna replied, ”We've been given to understand that we'll need some hefty security because of public resentment over the Peacekeeper's death.”

Faure made himself nod reluctantly. ”Alas, that may be true, Madame.”

”If you don't mind,” said Joanna, ”I'd rather provide my own security. And my own transport, too.”

”Of course! Whatever you wish.”

The woman looked suspicious. Faure made himself smile at her as he thought, With a bit of luck, some fanatic will a.s.sa.s.sinate her.

Joanna mumbled her thanks to Faure and broke the phone link. Looking up from the screen, she saw that Lev was already on his feet.

”We're free to leave,” she said, not quite believing it.

Lev scratched at his beard. ”Something's changed Faure's mind. I wonder what it was?”

Joanna had no answer.

”Do you think Ras.h.i.+d got to him, at last?”

With an angry shake of her head, Joanna replied, ”No. I think Ras.h.i.+d was very happy to keep us bottled up here. I think he's going to be badly shaken up when we arrive in Savannah. At least, I intend to shake the little rat as hard as I can.”

DAY TEN.

He hasn't been alone for more than five minutes, the mercenary grumbled to himself. I don't mind taking him out in front of witnesses if I have to, but it'd be better to get him alone, make it look like an accident or something natural, like a heart attack.

He almost laughed to himself. Heart attack. The kid's twenty-five years old and healthy as a horse. It's going to have to be an accident.

Plenty of places for an accident to happen, he reasoned. Might have to take out a whole lot of people, though. Knock out the air pumps or rig an explosion in one of the labs.

He hasn't gone out on the surface since this thing started. It'd be easy to get him when he's in a s.p.a.cesuit. Or maybe in the airlock. Christ, I'm starting to grasp at straws! Why's it so f.u.c.king tough, knocking off one guy?

Because you don't want to do it, he answered himself. Because you really admire the kid. He's everything you could've been if you'd been born different.

Yeah, sure. And I could fly if I had wings. The facts of the matter are that you've been a.s.signed to decapitate the leaders.h.i.+p here and this Stavenger kid is is the leaders.h.i.+p. Sooner or later the Peacekeepers are going to come back in force and either take this base or flatten it. If you haven't done your job by then you're dead. Either you get killed in the battle or they drag you back to headquarters, a failure. And you know what that means. Better to get yourself killed trying to do your job. the leaders.h.i.+p. Sooner or later the Peacekeepers are going to come back in force and either take this base or flatten it. If you haven't done your job by then you're dead. Either you get killed in the battle or they drag you back to headquarters, a failure. And you know what that means. Better to get yourself killed trying to do your job.

He tried to calm himself and think his problem through. The only time Stavenger's alone inside the base here is when he sleeps. And he hasn't been doing much sleeping, the past ten days. Conferences all the time. He's always got a gaggle of people around him.

Maybe tonight, though. He's got to sleep sometime. Maybe I'll walk him to his quarters and do him there and get it the h.e.l.l over with.

”All right,” Doug said, standing on a table in The Cave. ”This your meeting. Let's hear what you have to say.”

Almost the entire population of Moonbase was jammed into The Cave. Only a skeleton crew was left on duty at the monitoring center, and they were piped into this meeting through the base intercom. The dinner s.h.i.+fts were finished. The other tables and chairs had been pushed against the far wall so everyone could gather into the s.p.a.ce. From his vantage atop the table, Doug saw their faces focused squarely on him. They were standing shoulder-to-shoulder; the only empty spots on the floor of the big cafeteria were the little squares of gra.s.s.

Edith Elgin, now in a Moonbase-issue white coverall, stood off to one side, where she had set up both her minicams on tripods to record the meeting.

Jinny Anson was standing in the front row at Doug's feet. She asked, ”Well, are we independent or not?”

The acoustics in The Cave were good enough so that she didn't need amplification.

Doug answered, There's been no confirmation of our declaration of independence from the U.N. or any recognition by any country on Earth.”

”Great,” someone sneered.

”Physically, though,” Doug went on, ”we're showing that we can exist independently of supplies from Earth. The U.N. hasn't allowed a flight here since the Peacekeeper mission took off. We're under siege.”

”Big deal.'.

”Wait a minute,” one of the women asked. ”You mean we can't go back Earthside if we want to?”

”I don't know,” Doug said. ”I'm sure we could arrange with Faure for transport to take people back Earthside, if there're enough who want to leave to make a flight necessary.”

”What about us?” asked the manager of the Canadian dance troupe.

Doug lifted his hands in a gesture of helplessness. ”Until we can negotiate your return Earthside, you'll have to remain here as our guests, I'm afraid.”

”But we have contractual obligations! Dates in a dozen cities!”

”I can let you call Faure yourself, or your government in Ottawa,” Doug suggested. ”Unfortunately, no one is returning our calls.”

”I don't want to be stuck here forever!” another voice called out.

”It won't be forever,” Doug said, with a grin. ”It'll just seem that long.”

”My son's birthday is next week.”

Doug made a can't be helped can't be helped shrug. shrug.

”How soon can I launch my survey satellite to the Farside?” asked Zoltan Kadar. He had pushed his way to the front row, Doug noticed.

”That's a good question,” Doug replied, stalling for time to think. ”We'll have to work it out with the logistics program, to see if your launch will use any supplies that we might want to hold onto, in case this siege goes on for a while.”

”All I need is rocket propellant and some electricity,” Kadar shot back.

His rocket would be propelled by powdered aluminum and liquid oxygen, both extracted from the regolith and both in plentiful supply, Doug knew.

”We'll see,” he said to Kadar.

”What're Lev and Joanna doing?” a man's voice asked from the crowd.

They went Earthside to negotiate face-to-face with Faure and the rest of the U.N. leaders.h.i.+p,” Doug said.

”Have they met with Faure yet?”

”Not yet. They were detained at the Peacekeeper base in Corsica for a couple of days, but they're back in Savannah now. She should be meeting with Faure in a few days, at most, I guess.”