“You met him? Did he say where he intended to go?” Adam asked.
“He was scrupulous in guarding his business secrets, and was only willing to discuss the theoretical underpinnings of his venture, nothing about the practical aspects of his hardware or his business plan. But his company announced the Centauri system as their goal. From a practical viewpoint that was the only rational target, and that was the direction he was headed when he went >poof<.”
“Maybe he’s out there and couldn’t get back,” Adam speculated.
“Nah, we went there pretty quickly when he didn’t return, looked and swept all around, with a good dish on a decent radio system, and didn’t hear a peep.”
“I’m, not sure you aren’t putting me on,” Adam worried.
“You feel that way even after seeing us bring you back to the Moon from Mars in minutes?” Jeff asked. “And yet you wonder that we doubt we could convince the majority of the great unwashed back on the Slum Ball? How do you explain to to yourself what you experienced? Don’t you believe your own eyes?”
Adam looked a little panicky. “I suppose you might have drugged me.”
“Now you’ve really grasping at straws. Or we might have stuffed you in our secret time stasis box for the long voyage back, because nobody in their right mind wanted to crack your suit open in Dionysus’ Chariot’s tiny cabin. You believed it when you saw it happen, and now you are working hard to convince yourself otherwise. Admit it. You are conditioned to believe the garbage they present as news.”
“I’m… conditioned to believe I’ll be punished if I contradict them out loud.”
“Close enough,” Jeff agreed. “If you can say that much, we’re well on our way to breaking your dependencies.”
“It works both ways, you know,” Heather said. “If they embrace the lie as policy and convince the public of it, then they are stuck with it, even if they know better themselves. They going to find it very difficult to abandon or repudiate it later when it becomes inconvenient or unsustainable. Putting the best face possible on it, they may be doing good to merely look like they were idiots later, instead of lying psychopaths.”
“You’re convincing me. So you’re not going to dispose of me after interrogating me? What do I have to do to earn this kindness?”
“One would think you’d talk to us out of gratitude,” April said. “You certainly seemed eager to get off of Mars out on the field. I was under the impression we saved your butt. You’re starting to sound like we kidnapped you. I was listening to you talk to Delores on the field, you know. It didn’t escape me that you asked for rescue, not asylum. Well you have your rescue. If you want asylum you’ll have to ask Heather for it, and do not assume it will be granted automatically.”
“You’re right. I do owe you for my rescue. Yet, there are some things I can’t tell you and have any chance of returning to my former life.”
“You mean, return to your work for French intelligence?” Heather asked.
Adam sucked in a horrified gasp, and looked like he wanted to bolt.
“I’m starting to doubt there’s anything I can tell you don’t already know.”
“Then consider it our desire to confirm those facts with you,” Jeff invited.
“What are you interested in?” Adam asked.
“You could describe the work on this alien vessel, and anything interesting they’ve found out about its systems,” Jeff suggested. “We really don’t care about whom you work for as a spy in any detail, or their internals. We have our own intelligence people and they have more than sufficient experience and connections. We don’t get aggressive trying to counter other agencies unless they reach out to touch us in our own territory. We three don’t try to manage our own at what they know better. If we intended to treat you badly they would be questioning you, not us.”
Adam nodded to acknowledge he got the full message in that statement.
“I’d like to know how the Mars base is run from an insider’s perspective,” Heather asked. “Who are the dominant personalities? How do they keep power?”
“My grandfather was there recently and they tried to kill him, tried multiple times actually. I’d like to know if you saw or suspect that with others,” April said.
“May I bargain with those answers for at least a degree of freedom?”
“Let’s get past that,” Heather said, brow furrowed and righteously irritated. “Here, you are funded.” She leaned forward and slapped down both a platinum and gold Solar on the table in front of Adam with a crack.
“You can walk out the door there and just about anybody can tell you how to get on a bus to Armstrong or Marseille. Take it and go right now if you wish, and be damned for all your gratitude. You are then rid of us, but we are rid of you, which is looking more attractive the longer you whine and expect bad of us. But,” Heather warned, raising a digit to make the point, “you forfeit any other help we might offer you too. Just be aware, like we were discussing, it might not be wise of you to publicly contradict the official narrative on either James Weir or us. You might judge it safe to tell the truth to some of your own people in private, but that’s at your own risk to judge who will give you an honest hearing.”
“Two little coins?” Adam asked. It didn’t make any more sense than the rest.
“They’re Solars, twenty five grams of pure platinum or gold. How much do you think that is worth in depreciating EuroMarks?” Heather asked.
“More than I ever expected to hold on one hand,” Adam admitted, after he picked them up and weighed them on his palm. “I never held gold before.” He looked over his shoulder at the door, and laid the coins back on the table, lining them up carefully side to side, like somebody with a compulsive disorder. He simply started talking without saying why he decided to do so.
“At the site, since I’m not skilled at suit work,” he started, “I had a bench and they brought loose artifacts and systems cut out of the wreck for me to disassemble and evaluate… ”
They made coffee and shared it with him, and Jeff went away and brought sandwiches back and sat the tray between them, but they didn’t declare any sort of an intermission, not wanting to stop the flow once he started.
It was three hours before he said: “And my supervisor came in and jammed a photo under my nose abruptly to surprise me. He held it so close I had to lean back to focus on it. It was a fellow I’d seen around but he wanted to know if I knew him. I didn’t, but thinking on it later he must have become a security issue. Perhaps he was another spy I don’t know about, who was trying to find out why I had disappeared. I bet if you went looking for him he has disappeared much more thoroughly than me. And that’s about everything I know. I might think of some unimportant trivia over the next few days, but that’s the bulk of it.”
“That’s sufficient,” Heather allowed. “We don’t intend to keep trying to wring every last detail out of you. We don’t have the time ourselves and I believe we have a good enough picture of what’s happening.”
“They’d have put the cap on me,” Adam said. “I’m kind of surprised now that they didn’t when they showed me the photo of that fellow.”
“Veracity software is more than sufficient to our needs,” Heather said, and didn’t politely pretend they wouldn’t run it over their recording.
“Do you want to be given a guest room for the night?” Heather asked. “I’d imagine you are pretty tired.”
Adam blinked and looked spacey. “What would the other choices be?” he asked, but he wasn’t insinuating they intended anything threatening this time. He was just honestly too tired to process the idea he had other options.
“I meant it when I said you were free to leave, but you don’t look like you could stay awake to get very far,” Heather suggested.
“Yeah,” Adam agreed, and blinked once slowly while he processed the idea. “Please, a room, and somebody to help me when I wake up and show me where to go for breakfast.”
“Dakota, I need you,” Heather c
alled to the house system. “My aide will walk you to the housing,” Heather told Adam. “It’s not far. Just tell the room computer to call her back for you in the morning.”
“Thank you,” Adam said, and looked like he might face plant on the table, but Dakota was right there from the other room and he pushed himself vertical.
When he started to turn away Heather scowled at him and said, “Hey!”
He looked back clueless and she pointed at the coins, still irritated and indicated he should take them with a shooing motion. He nodded thanks, speechless and took then in his hand to follow Dakota. Apparently he didn’t want to trust them to his pocket.
“How did you know he was with the French?” April demanded when he was gone. “Did you get intelligence you never got around to sharing?”
Heather shrugged. “I guessed and bluffed. There were little things. He was so shocked when we jumped from Mars, and the Earth and Moon just appeared in front of us he said, ‘Mon Dieu’, not My God. I doubt if you asked if he’d remember, since he was still pretty sick. And his accent, he still has soft vowels and holds them just slightly. I have an ear for that after dealing with the people from Marseille. Even little things like how he sat. I was pretty sure it would rattle him enough, if I was right, to get him to talk. If not he’d either clam up or try to convince us I was wrong, which could have been beneficial too.”
“What do you think he’ll do tomorrow?” April asked.
“I’d give you good odds he’s going to go home. He has that compliant sort of personality. I don’t think he’d be very happy here,” Heather said.
April thought about it, and nodded. “I think you’re right.”
“But, I’m not sure they will make him welcome at home,” Heather added.
When the women looked at Jeff he started. “Don’t be looking at me like I should have an opinion. If I wanted to know what motivates people I’d ask you.”
* * *
“Fallat knew everything that mattered,” Director Schober told Liggett. “Not the exact location, but once they know what they are looking for it can’t be hidden from anyone in orbit. They can blow this wide open now.”
“It would be very much against their interests to do so, Director.”
“I’m just too tired to think straight. Tell me in easy small words, because I’d be happy to agree with you if you can persuade me,” Schober said.
“What will happen if this Moon Queen tells everyone what we’re sitting on?”
“Well, I expect the Union would give up trying to maintain a kinder and gentler public image and send a frankly military expedition to depose us and take over the excavation of the wreck. They would probably have visions of all sorts of priceless technology just pouring out of the wreck. If we told them all we’ve gotten is a novel linear motor and an improved electrical connector I doubt they would believe us,” Schober said.
“And if the European Union sent a joint expedition and seized our base and negated our territorial claim of the planet, what would happen to our agreement with Central?”
For the first time Schober’s face showed a hint of hope. “They’d immediately repudiate it, wouldn’t they? Maybe she will keep her mouth shut.”
“I really think so,” Liggett insisted. “Perhaps in the future their claims on the polar region will stand on the basis of their own use or occupation of it, but right now it has no validity except from our power to grant it.”
“You are persuading me. I’ve tried to think of how they have shown up so quickly. Ever crazy possibility ran through my mind. I thought perhaps they already had a secret base at some location on one of the poles, but then they offered to let us pick which one they’d take. I can’t believe they have a secret presence on both poles and were willing to give one up. Then they delivered the bacteriophage. That had to be from Earth. To think they had it here would mean they were conspiring with the Europeans. Brussels would sooner conclude a pact with the Devil than even talk to Central or Home.
“Then there was the nonsense the moon personnel told us about Lewis being picked up by an armed ship, and we got an impossible message from him soon after that purported he was on the Moon.
“It even occurred to me that Central might be in contact with our aliens, being used by them stop Humans from examining their wreck.”
Liggett forced himself not to say anything. Schober was going off the rails with that, concocting crazy conspiracy theories. There wasn’t any way to politely address that without calling his sanity into question.
“But unless they turn against us, everything they have done has enabled us instead of hindering us. The only conclusion I keep coming back to is they have a very fast space drive.
“Now, if it is fast enough to be a star drive is separate question. But it looks like they have a big secret of their own to keep. It may be a lever we can use.”
“They have to come and go from the other end,” Liggett reasoned. “I can’t imagine somebody in the Earth-Moon system doesn’t see evidence of it. But let me point out that the news services have make it perfectly clear the party line is that the star capable ship James Weir claimed to have was a fraud. To admit Central has such a thing so soon would immediately cast doubt on Weir being humbug. I really doubt they want to go there.
“So you think Weir really did have something like he claimed?”
“They’ve mocked it to the point that they do protest too much,” Liggett insisted. “I’m compelled to believe this is one of those things known between governments none of them will admit to their own people.”
“Then one has to wonder, if our supporters don’t get the Sandman bought, or a replacement built, could the Loonies be hired again to transport something critically needed on their super-ship?” Schober mused.
“I’m sure they could, if you are willing to barter off the other polar region,” Liggett said. “I didn’t hear any pledges of solidarity or proclamations of joint revolutionary fervor. Think they are a pretty hard mercenary bunch.”
“Yes, I got the sense their queen really didn’t like us, and I have no idea why.”
Chapter 22
That evening, after deciding to stay over until an extra night, Vic quietly consulted with Arnold and he informed Eileen they would stay in camp with the Woodleighs, but sleep out by the fire. There weren’t many staying over after the fair and festival was finished, but that wasn’t a problem with Mr. Mast. He wasn’t urging anyone to vacate.
It wasn’t near as comfortable on the ground as sleeping in a hammock. They wore their jackets and boots and folded both space blanket and rain flies around them. The hammock was draped over it all but not under them at all. Vic made just one trip to get evergreen boughs for cushioning, but the yard was well established with grass and groomed of any rocks long ago. If it wasn’t luxury it wasn’t that hard to fall asleep once they rolled up in the coverings and some body heat built up.
Vic eased out of their wrappings to feed the fire once, but Eileen barely remembered it. What did wake her and the rest of their party was the salt sellers packing up and leaving so early they had to use a lantern to hitch their horses. It was so early the sky was barely discernible as different from the dark woods below it. The lantern carrier walked around at the last, looking down making sure they didn’t leave anything.
When they got far enough away that the low mutter of voices, rustle of tack, and clatter of hooves faded to nothing everybody got a little more sleep. When they did get up the sky was bright, the day had color to it, and they packed and moved out with dispatch.
“That was rude to wake everybody leaving so early,” Eileen said, after she finished her breakfast on the road, walking.
“I didn’t appreciate it,” Vic said, “but I’d never say so to them since they got in so late coming to the festival. They probably don’t want to repeat that late arrival back home, and the trip might be more uphill going back than coming.”
This was why Vic was easy to live with so far. He wasn’t e
xcitable and had the ability to consider other possible viewpoints. So far it very different that her own argumentative family. She was learning she didn’t need to be as automatically defensive as she’d learned to be growing up.
Vic kept pace with the Woodleighs, but let them stay far enough ahead he’d have to raise his voice to get their attention. Eileen noticed he always walked on the edge of the road, but switched sides from time to time. With a little thought she could see he was anticipating possible ambushes and favoring the side that would offer the best cover. A couple times Vic fell back, but never let their friends get out of sight around a curve.
It was around just such a long sweeping curve that Vic stopped suddenly. Up ahead, Arnold was also stopped on the outside edge of the curve, but not seeking cover or backing up. He was holding an arm out with his palm showing back at Vic. They moved slightly off the road into the edge of the brush and Arnold gave Vic a come along gesture, but without any urgency.
Vic crossed over to the inside edge of the curve and pulled his carbine up at the ready with both hands on it. Eileen figured out whatever Arnold saw ahead they would be hidden longer from its view coming up on the inside. There was a hill on their side but not steep and not all that much in the way of concealment.
“Stick your left fingers inside my waist band at the hip and let me lead you,” Vic said. “I want you to keep watching the hillside and look behind us, even on the other side of the road every little bit,” he instructed. “I’m taking the strap loose from my rifle, if I should get shot and go down grab it when you run.”
“What about you?” Eileen asked.
“Think you can throw me over your shoulders and carry me down the road to join Arnold?” Vic asked.
“No way in hell. There isn’t enough adrenaline in the world,” Eileen said.
“Thank you for being sensible,” Vic said.
Been There, Done That (April Book 10) Page 32
