Part 31 (1/2)
Nick struggled up on one elbow and squinted at the digital clock.
”It's nine-twenty!” he yelped. ”Good lord, Claire, you've gotta das.h.!.+”
She opened one eye and snaked a bare arm around his neck. ”Married hardly more than eighteen hours and you're already giving me orders.”
”But the time-”
”Relax,” Claire said dreamily. ”I'm not going anyplace.”
”Not going? What do you mean not going?”
”I'm staying right here with you,” she said, opening both eyes at last.
”But you can't do that!”
”I gave my boarding papers to Ellen Berson,” Claire said. ”Last night, while the rest of you were getting blotto on rocket juice.”
”You what?”
”Ellen's got a boyfriend in Philadelphia. My boyfriend is right here.”
”You can't do that,” he repeated, his voice high, panicky. ”They'll stop her at the rocket port.”
”No they won't. And even if they do, I decided I'm staying right here with you.”
”But they'll force you-”
”n.o.body's going to force anybody,” Claire said, quite firmly. ”And if they send some goons from security I'll put up such a battle they'll be afraid of harming the baby.”
”You're crazy!”
”Over you, sweet-face.”
”But you can't have the baby here. It's not allowed.”
She smiled knowingly. ”Nick, there's a first time for everything.”
”But...' He ran out of steam and sank back on the pillow, defeated. Yet delighted.
”It was during the wedding,” Claire said. ”When the archbishop said that bit about cleaving together. I made up my mind then that I'm not going Earthside until you can go with me.”
Staring up at the low ceiling, Nick said, ”There's going to be h.e.l.l to pay over this.”
But he was grinning from ear to ear.
DAY THIRTY-NINE.
Joanna deliberately took the seat at the end of the long conference table, where she could look directly at Ras.h.i.+d, up at the head. Every member of the board was present in person, even old McGruder in his powered wheelchair and its bulky life-support system. The old man was still waiting for a heart donor; he was more heavily wired up than an astronaut, Joanna thought.
Ras.h.i.+d and Tamara Bonai came in together, not exactly holding hands, but obviously happy to be in each other's company. Joanna seethed. If that little tramp has gone over to Ras.h.i.+d's side I'll...
She stopped, not knowing what she'd do. Or what she could could do. She had told Doug to woo Bonai and win her over. It looked as if Ras.h.i.+d had done it, instead, and there was nothing Joanna could do to counter that. do. She had told Doug to woo Bonai and win her over. It looked as if Ras.h.i.+d had done it, instead, and there was nothing Joanna could do to counter that.
The conference table was buzzing with whispered conversations, board members catching up with the latest news and gossip among themselves. No one spoke to Joanna. She sat as if in an isolation ward down at the foot of the table.
The murmurs died away as Ras.h.i.+d sat down and smiled brightly at the board members.
”I'm delighted that all of you could manage to make it here in person to this special meeting,” Ras.h.i.+d said in his slightly reedy tenor voice. ”Including you, Mac.”
From behind his oxygen mask McGruder rasped, ”Couldn't keep me away from this one if you tried, my boy. When all this nonsense with the U.N. is over, I'm going to Moonbase and get some of those nanomachines to fix my heart.”
He broke into a cackling laughter; the other board members joined with him, politely. All except Ras.h.i.+d, Joanna noticed, who sat with his original smile frozen on his face. Mac's on our side, Joanna knew. She had been feeding him information on nanotherapy for months now.
”There's only one item on the agenda,” Ras.h.i.+d said, ”and we should be able to take care of it fairly quickly.”
All the heads along the table swivelled to Joanna.
”Since you called for this meeting,” Ras.h.i.+d said to her, ”and it's your resolution that we're here to discuss, why don't you give us the formal reading, for the minutes, Joanna?”
She didn't bother even glancing at the display screen set into the table before her. Joanna said in a clear, strong voice: ”Resolved: That Masterson Corporation exert its best efforts to support the political independence of Moonbase.”
A dead silence fell upon the board room.
Finally, one of the white-haired men halfway up the table asked, ”You mean we don't don't support Moonbase's independence?” support Moonbase's independence?”
”Why should we?” a woman board member asked.
”Because if we don't,” Joanna answered before anyone else could reply, ”we stand to lose the Clippers.h.i.+p manufacturing to j.a.pan.”
”j.a.pan?”
”That's not entirely fair, Joanna,” said Ras.h.i.+d.
”The Clippers.h.i.+p product line belongs to our Kiribati subsidiary, doesn't it?”
”How's j.a.pan going to get it? I a.s.sume you mean Yamagata Industries, not the j.a.panese government.”
”They're pretty close to being the same thing,” Joanna said.
”I don't understand how Yamagata can take the Clippers.h.i.+p manufacturing away from us.”
”But we don't manufacture them; Kiribati does.”
”We get the profits, don't we?”
”Wait, wait,” Ras.h.i.+d called out, motioning them to silence with both hands. ”Let's go through this calmly and logically.”
Joanna immediately said, ”We set up Kiribati Corporation to get out from under the nanotechnology treaty.”
”Yes, and then the d.a.m.ned islanders signed the treaty anyway,” said one of the men. Suddenly he realized that Tamara Bonai was sitting across the table from him, and his face reddened. ”Ah, sorry,” he mumbled. ”No offense intended.”