Part 50 (1/2)
”This is important!”
”Of course it is,” Yamagata agreed readily. ”That is why the staff has routed your call to me, rather than some underling.”
Ras.h.i.+d blinked with surprise. ”You mean that you are in charge?”
His face going serious, the young man replied, ”My father left instructions that you are to be received by his personal representative and no one else. That personal representative is me.”
Sinking back in his cus.h.i.+oned leather chair, Ras.h.i.+d recognized the oriental manner of stonewalling: polite, gracious, accommodating, but stonewalling just the same.
”How may I help you?” Saito Yamagata asked solicitously.
Bowing to the inevitable, Ras.h.i.+d said, through gritted teeth, ”I have received information that among the Peacekeeper troops marching on Moonbase there is a special contingent of Yamagata suicide bombers who intend to blow up Moonbase.”
Yamagata's brows rose a couple of millimeters.
”Destroying Moonbase is idiotic!” Ras.h.i.+d snapped, unable to contain his temper any longer. ”Our entire operation, my whole understanding with your father, depends on Moonbase providing helium-three for your fusion generators. How can they provide anything if the base is blown to bits?” He fairly shouted the question.
Saito Yamagata's expression had gone from polite interest to mild surprise to the absolute blank face of a man who has much to hide.
”Is your information trustworthy?” he asked softly.
”I have my sources both in United Nations headquarters and the Peacekeepers' chain of command.”
”I see.”
”This is a betrayal of our understanding,” Ras.h.i.+d said harshly. ”It also destroys the very thing that your father wants so badly-Moonbase.”
The young man nodded. ”The suicide bombers are not Yamagata employees. They are volunteers from the Bright New Sun, an organization of fanatics that is allied with your own New Morality movement.”
”Then how are they allowed to be with the Peacekeepers? Who permitted them to come to Nippon One?”
”My father accepted their...' Yamagata searched for the right word, ”... their help, most reluctantly. You must understand that even in j.a.pan, religious zealotry is a very powerful force.”
”But you're going to allow them to destroy Moonbase!”
Yamagata smiled thinly. ”Not at all. My father is not stupid. He bowed to the pressures of the Bright New Sun and allowed them to add a squad of kamikazes to the Peacekeeper force. But they will not be permitted to damage Moonbase. The Peacekepers will take the base and there will be no need for suicide bombers.”
Ras.h.i.+d closed his eyes for a few moments, trying hard to think it all through.
”Suppose,” he said at last,'that the Peacekeepers fail to take Moonbase.”
”Impossible,” said Yamagata.
”They drove off the first attack, didn't they?”
Yamagata smiled again. ”This time there are three hundred troops, armed with missiles and heavy weapons. A nuclear bomb will knock out Moonbase's electrical supply. This time they will not fail.”
”But those people at Moonbase are very clever,” Ras.h.i.+d insisted. ”Suppose they stop the Peacekeepers?”
With a slight shrug, Yamagata said, ”Then there will be no option except allowing the kamikazes to blow up as much of Moonbase as they can.”
”But that is lunacy!”
”A clever play on words,” the young man said, although his expression showed no humor.
”You can't let them blow up Moonbase!” Ras.h.i.+d yelled.
”The forces are in motion,” said Yamagata. ”How they will play out remains to be seen. Even if Moonbase is entirely destroyed, it can be rebuilt.”
”But... but-”
”Patience is a virtue, Mr Ras.h.i.+d. Yamagata Industries will receive the U.N.'s mandate to operate Moonbase, no matter what condition the base may be in when the fighting is finished. If necessary, we will rebuild it. The important thing is that Moonbase will be in our our hands.” hands.”
It was not until that instant that Ras.h.i.+d realized he had put his future into the hands of ruthless men.
Only a few miles away, Joanna paced restlessly through the living room of her home.
”A new exercise regime?” Lev asked, stretched out on the big sofa across from the unused fireplace.
”How can you just sit there?” she blurted. ”The Peacekeepers have already started their march to Alphonsus.”
Her husband made a wry face. ”What can we do about it? The decisions are in Doug's hands. Working ourselves into heart seizures won't help.”
”If only we could get there...”
”And give Doug two more useless people to worry about?”
She whirled and rushed toward him. ”Lev, call him. Talk to him. Make him understand that he's got to surrender! He can't fight the Peacekeepers! They'll kill everyone in Moonbase.”
Slowly, like a weary old man, Lev swung his legs off the sofa and sat up. He grasped Joanna's wrist and pulled her down onto the cus.h.i.+on beside him.
”Listen to me, dear one. Doug understands the situation as well as we do, or better. He knows what he can do to defend the base-”
”Against missiles and nuclear bombs? You saw the news broadcast!”
Lev put a finger on her lips, silencing her for the moment.
”It isn't our decision to make,” he said softly. ”If I called him, not only would it distract him from the thousands of vital things he must think about, but I would end up agreeing with him-victory or death!”
Joanna stared at him as if he had gone mad. ”Victory or... what are you saying?”
”Doug believes in Moonbase with all his soul,” Lev replied. ”To him, it is his world, his life. He won't want to live in a world without Moonbase.”
”No,” Joanna said, feeling weak with shock. ”That can't be. Doug can come back here. He can live with us. I'll protect him, guard him...' Her voice faded into silence.
Lev shook his head. ”Not all the fanatics belong to the New Morality, my darling. In his own very rational way, your son is a fanatic, too. That's what it takes to fight hopeless odds.”
Joanna sank back into the sofa, stunned with the realization that Lev understood Doug better than she did.
And in the security office in the servants' wing of the house, Jack Killifer leaned over his partner's shoulder, grinning at the camera display of the Brudnoys in their living room.