A12 Who Can Own the Stars?

by Mackey Chandler

  I’m sending this by courier to Mr. Mast’s fair site as well as to O’Neil’s store, as I am told you do business with both.

  Sincerely, Ted

  It shouldn’t bother him. Ted Foster had so many contacts and business with so many people he had lots of sources of information, but he knew so much about Vic that it felt invasive, like all the cell phone tracing and internet tracking had before The Day.

  Vic decided there was no need to answer Ted quickly. He felt upset right now so the best thing would be to stop and think on it a couple of days rather than answer while upset. Ted hadn’t done him any harm or demanded anything. He handed the message to Eileen and smiled because his frown was upsetting her.

  “Think about that. In a few days I’ll tell Foster what we want to do,” Vic invited.

  “That many sat phones?” Eileen said, surprised. “I thought three or four.”

  “Across six counties, and he doesn’t name them,” Vic pointed out.

  “I think that’s further than his radio broadcast reaches,” Eileen said. “It might be worth having contacts over a wider area. I suspect the ones further away may have other contacts even beyond. They just don’t have any reason to pursue contacts if it is beyond their reasonable range to do business.”

  “What is the advantage then?” Vic wondered.

  “If any outside agency starts trying to take control of the area. We might get some advance warning,” Eileen said.

  Vic nodded. He especially noted she didn’t say the USNA. It seemed like a reach for Mexico, so that left Texas. It would have sounded crazy before The Day, but he wouldn’t bet against anything after the changes they’d experienced.

  * * *

  “Irwin, I’d like to come by your office and make a presentation of what we’ve found on Colombe,” Chen said.

  “Are you worried about privacy?” Irwin asked. “I just expected April would tell me what you found or you’d send a text.” Privately he wondered if it was that horrific.

  “I’m close and I’m a bit conflicted about this report myself. I’d rather see you face to face to see your reaction and for you to get a clear input from me. Talking on the com loses a lot of subtle nuances for me.”

  “It’s near lunch. I’m right by the old cafeteria anyway. Come by and I’ll take you to lunch,” Irwin offered.

  “In about a half-hour,” Chen agreed.

  Chen had his wife with him. Irwin was surprised he hadn’t mentioned her.

  “My hospitality would extend further,” he said at the modest meal they chose.

  “We tend to eat a late breakfast and an early dinner so this is a between meals snack for us,” Chen said. He had an egg salad sandwich he split with Huian and a piece of apple pie. She had a big brownie beside the half sandwich.

  “The first thing you need to know is that we have no smoking gun. We’ve spent extra time on Colombe simply because he has frustrated our efforts so much. April would probably be horrified if we told her precisely how many man-hours are in this investigation, but we’ve found all sorts of other interesting things about the underside of Earthie banking that will be useful to them.

  “Nevertheless, the deeper we got into it, the dirtier Colombe looks. It’s just we are at the limit we want to expend resources to prove it. What we have is all circumstantial. He has far more properties and assets than can be explained by his income, and we made sure he has no great family wealth or a significant inheritance. His wife appears to hold more than him and technically she doesn’t hold any job. I’ll give you a list, but they own three expensive homes in as many countries, as well as businesses that seem to favor cash transactions. The refining business in Switzerland is handy for laundering metal. Other businesses involve transport that could be used for smuggling or other illegal activities. It’s interesting that he had seven personal properties just a year and a half ago and has divested himself of four of them. One of the current three is for sale too.”

  “That would fit with his plan to move off Earth,” Irwin said.

  Huian put her sandwich down and spoke up. “I asked Myat to inquire of her contacts in the alternative Islamic financial custom called hawala. Like banking off Earth, it is centered around personal trust and integrity, not government regulation and efforts to regulate honesty by ever increasing laws and regulations. In some ways, they protect your privacy better than even the Swiss, but it is also a common thing for individuals working in that system to farm out the risk for any one transaction across several dealers. That still requires something in the way of an opinion about a customer that may be more accurate than a rating agency.”

  “I’m of course familiar with the concept if not all the details,” Irwin allowed. “I’ve never been certain in your dealing with Myat if either of you fit the defined roles of advisor and customer the west expects. I think she may regard you as a customer or a colleague, depending on which way the deal you are working on goes. I’m aware I may just be a third party facilitator.”

  “I would not deceive Myat in either role why I was inquiring about Mr. Colombe. I made clear I didn’t want details of his private affairs but asked simply if she or others in her association could recommend doing business with him?

  “They were entirely unambiguous in saying they could not recommend him, and then added they would suggest avoiding entanglement with him, which was far more than I asked. I don’t think they would have said that if not for compelling reasons. I realize that doesn’t give you any specific reasons to avoid him, but I trust their report.”

  “What are you suggesting I do then?” Irwin asked both of them.

  “We are aware you were with our employers in France recently. We did not feel free to ask them, or certain they would even know,” Chen admitted, “but does this inquiry have to do with your business dealings with France?”

  “Worse, it has to do with my personal relationship and care for the Prime Minister of France and possible harm to his administration,” Irwin said. “He treated me well.”

  “It’s a possible political bomb?” Chen asked. “It’s that big?”

  “Big enough to splash on Joel and tip an election from scandal,” Irwin said.

  “Then our advice is to provide all the information in the package we are giving you directly to him and his intelligence experts should be able to unravel this mess from the inside much better than us. Just be sure you don’t reveal there is an investigation to the wrong person. We have no idea how many people inside French agencies might alert Colombe about anything that brings up his name. Even in innocence. The head of the French Bank, after all, has the legitimate ability to request all sorts of information.”

  “I’ll give it directly to the Prime Minister and it’s on him who he trusts with it.”

  “The file is on your home com,” Chen said. “April asks a favor that you request of the Prime Minister, should you decide to warn him. If you decide you are satisfied with the breadth of it after examining it, a word to our employers also would be a kindness.”

  “I suspect I will be satisfied,” Irwin said, “and I shall not neglect giving thanks all around. What could April possibly want now?”

  “That sounds like her,” Irwin said when it was explained.

  “I’d like to make another suggestion if I am not too bold,” Huian said.

  “Feel free,” Irwin invited.

  “I know the western banking systems are not friendly to you. Less so even to the Solar Bank. Although you view the differences between interest and participation shares through different moral filters. I think you might be able to get along with hawala easier than the various central banks. You are already dealing with Myat through me, but there are thousands of practitioners. More than either of us could possibly service.”

  “That not only makes sense,” Irwin decided, “it would open new markets to us.”

  Huian just nodded an acknowledgment of that with a satisfied look. She wouldn’t insult him by asking a finder’s fee if that worked out
. He’d always treated them well.

  * * *

  The evening radio report had a few cryptic paid messages at the end and then Ted Foster’s voice took on a strained quality.

  “Lastly, we have a request and an unfortunate sort of public service announcement from Bruce Tilly at the edge of our broadcast area to the north. He reports finding a body on the road between his house and a neighbor. A young man in maybe his thirties with a full beard, wearing jeans, and a green and gray plaid flannel shirt. He seemed in generally decent health, no skinnier than is common now. They heard shots the night before and found him all torn up and surrounded by lots of hog tracks on the road. He had a pistol with three shots fired to match what they heard, but no signs he hit anything. If anybody is missing kin or friend, they kept a patch of the shirt to help ID him and claim his pistol for taking the time to bury him deep and respectfully. That’s all for tonight. Same time tomorrow. Don’t forget to charge up!”

  The three listeners all looked at each other, horrified.

  “Shooting at black pigs in the night. That’s about impossible,” Vic said. “There weren’t that many wild pigs here before The Day.”

  “I’m terrible,” Alice said. “All I can think is I’m sure he’s no danger now.”

  “Makes sense from your perspective,” Vic allowed. “You didn’t owe any of that lot any well wishes. I wouldn’t waste too much guilt on ‘em.”

  “We should probably let Ted and Arlo know,” Eileen suggested.

  “Yeah, and if I’m going to call Ted, I think we might as well accept being listed to the other satellite phone owners, don’t you think?” he asked Eileen.

  “I’d feel a little less isolated,” she agreed.

  * * *

  “It has circles of nanodots sticking up all over the inside surface,” Holbrook said. “And the feed to them suggests they display a patterned dual polarity too.”

  “Straight up all the way around?” Houghton asked.

  “Nothing so simple. The surface has waves formed in circles and the dots stick up perpendicular to the surface they are on, but at angles to the axis of the tube both ways,” Holbrook said waving his hands and illustrating with finger pokes.

  It was so unlike him Walter Houghton had to fight to keep from grinning and offending him.

  “So it is an electronic discharge device. That had to be a hell of a thing to fabricate,” Walter decided.

  “More like grown,” Holbrook said. “I have no idea how you would do it at this scale. There don’t appear to be any boundaries where rigs or segments were assembled. The nanodots appear to tapered on the end to a single atom or three at the worst. The circuitry to the dots seems to be similarly integrated. If we’d made something similar with large discharge spikes it would spew ions, ozone, and nitrogen oxides.”

  “So, just like the radar it’s beyond our ability to produce just yet?”

  “To make it the same way, yes. We can even make the dots pointy, I was surprised to find out. But it’s not beyond our ability to create rings and assemble them to make a very similar structure. Just very expensive,” Holbrook said.

  “At first. That’s always the case at first,” Walter said. “I shudder to think what the first integrated circuit prototype must have cost. Eventually, you get to the fourth or fifth generation devices and people are ordering them in hundred-thousand-piece lots.

  “I hope you are right, because we’re going to try making a small-scale prototype.”

  Walter got that distracted look Holbrook was learning to dread.

  “What is it? I bumped you into thinking way too hard on something,” he accused.

  “Well, if you don’t have any dimensions set yet, may I send you a proposal for external mounting dimensions for your proto?” Walter requested.

  “Sure,” Holbrook agreed, expecting to hear more but Walter just nodded.

  * * *

  Irwin appeared on April’s screen, looking distressed.

  “As much as I want to warn Joel, I’ve decided I can’t do so and speak for you too.”

  “Mylène too,” April said. “I care for her and even Pierre as well as Joel.”

  “Then I wish you’d inform him about Colombe,” Irwin requested. “I won’t look foolish by suggesting they shouldn’t be holding the returned Martians. I might be falsely accusing him if it’s not France’s doing. You don’t know.

  “It has nothing to do with any banking issues. You are using me the same way Joel used Pierre, as a buffer. I can assure you he’s going to ask me why they should release them. It’s unreasonable to ask him to take my word for it when I don’t know myself. I won’t say because April says so.”

  April sighed. “You’re right. I have a secret I don’t want to be revealed. Joel will just sit and stare at me until I either spill the beans or forever damage our relationship.”

  “He’s not stupid. You’re going to cause a split with him whether you are there to be upset at it happening or just have me do it by proxy,” Irwin insisted.

  “It’s a huge burden of a secret,” April warned him. “Are you sure you want to know? Then it’s on you of whether to pass it on to Joel or not.”

  “Colombe is pretty smart,” Irwin allowed. “I suppose we could just ignore the whole thing and hope his fraud doesn’t get revealed until the Durand administration is done and gone. It might never come to light. After all, I doubt it is the only theft ever done to the French people. What business is it of ours to fix?”

  “If you are trying to make me feel guilty, it’s working,” April said.

  “Do you trust me to keep this secret even if I don’t reveal it to Joel?” Irwin asked.

  “Yes, but how many people can know it before it isn’t a secret anymore?”

  That gave Irwin pause. He thought about it a bit.

  “I suppose it only matters if you tell people with the power to act on the information. Are you sure that isn’t what is bothering you? You aren’t going to retain the power of this secret? Did you promise anyone to keep this secret?”

  “No, and you are right, it’s been in our interest to keep it hidden,” April admitted.

  “If you trust me, is it Joel you can’t trust?” Irwin asked.

  “Yes, as much as I like Joel, as a person. I’m not sure as Prime Minister he’d hold this close if he is convinced it would harm France to not reveal it.”

  “As he should,” Irwin countered. “It’s up to you then. I appreciate your help investigating for me, but I won’t be your deliberately uninformed messenger boy. Trust me or handle it yourself.”

  April was conflicted. She was cornered and going to damage her relationship with Irwin too if she didn’t trust him. Wasn’t this the same issue she’d argued with Gunny and Jon over, about Earth Think damaging security?

  “Irwin, the Martians have been hiding the wreck of an alien starship from the rest of the human race. They have formed a near religious cult around the secret of it, convinced the rest of us will panic over its revelation. That’s why they are expelling the scientists doing other research on Mars. This has taken over as their reason for being there. They’re willing to kill people to keep this secret and we thought we were doing them a favor rescuing them. But maybe not, if they are imprisoned.”

  “Oh sure. Pull the other one. I can see them in rows, bowing before a green alien idol with deely-boppers,” Irwin said holding palms up and bowing himself.

  April stared at him, mouth hanging open.

  “I share the biggest secret in the Solar System with you and you make fun of it!”

  She made a fist and Irwin saw it coming down on the com console like a hammer to disconnect. It happened far too fast for him to make any kind of a retraction. He’d already figured out before the screen went blank that he’d screwed up. It occurred to him that of all the recordings he’d seen of April, warning Earthies that she was about to rain thermonuclear devastation upon them, he’d never seen her that angry.

  He sat there looking at the b
lank screen. It wasn’t even worth trying to call back. He was certain he’d be blocked. The only thing to do was go knock on her door and beg forgiveness. At worst, she’d just shoot him, and that would resolve all his conflicts. The longer he waited the worse it would be, so he got up and got moving to plead his case.

  Chapter 11

  Jeff had a couple of face to face meetings and then went to his old apartment. April’s friend and neighbor in Hawaii, and his renter, was back home, and had graciously told April any of them could use the tiny apartment any time she was gone.

  It felt weird to be her landlord and guest too, but April assured him Diana could easily afford it without asking day rent. She’d paid them a huge compliment to assume they would treat her well by not leaving a mess or disturbing the few things she left there. Jeff was amused to see she was using the second bedroom pretty much as a walk-in closet. That didn’t leave enough room to fold down the bed in that bedroom as he’d planned. Rather than use her sheets and blanket he put a thin mattress pad right on top of her made bed. He could just roll it up when she returned and not have disturbed anything of hers.

  He’d grown accustomed to having April’s door set to his hand, but still announced himself and waited for her to invite him in if she was home. He’d had very few reasons to drop something off in her absence, and didn’t think he’d ever feel free to stay there while she was away on the Moon or ship schedules or work had them on different clocks. Right now she was back but he hadn’t asked to join her until he got some things done. He’d be poor company.

  It was nice not to be in his office space that he shared with an employee. They both slept there too. He could think and work without distraction. He noted one of her bottles of an impressive collection of liquor was quite low. He decided leaving a full bottle beside it would be a nice way to leave an anonymous thank you for the use of the place. When he went to order it, he almost reconsidered. The price in Australian dollars took most of three grams to purchase.