Limit

by Frank Schätzing

  He turned his teacup thoughtfully between his fingers, staring down into the green tea. What then? He would dutifully call his superiors and tell them of Orley’s suspicions, only to find himself up to the neck in state secrets. Real state secrets, which were no concern at all of his, because nobody had brought him into the circle. Obviously, he’d be classed as a national security risk straight away. Flying Julian Orley over to Gaia in the shuttle was the least of his problems. It was hostile territory up here, and in case of doubt, they just didn’t fly. Similarly, it would need permission and approvals in triplicate to let the Englishman use Chinese satellites to communicate. Before the Moon crisis, Jia would have been able to make a decision like that on his own, but that option was off the table now.

  He would have to call.

  So what would he tell them?

  He pushed his teacup from right to left, left to right.

  And all of a sudden he knew.

  There was still a risk, but it could work. He stood up, went to the control panel, put a call through to Earth and had two short conversations.

  * * *

  ‘I’ll sum it up,’ Jia said, after he had asked Julian back into the narrow control room to join him. ‘You invite some friends for a private trip. Quite unexpectedly, one of your guests turns out to be a killer, he mows down five people and leaves you stranded on the Aristarchus Plateau.’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘All this in response to his overhearing a conversation between yourself, Gaia and company headquarters in London, which was about how terrorists may have smuggled a nuclear bomb onto the Moon to destroy an American or Chinese moon base.’

  ‘A Chi—’ Julian blinked, bewildered. Then he understood. ‘Yes. That’s right. That’s just how it was.’

  ‘And you have no idea who might be behind it.’

  ‘Now that you put it that way, Commander, I haven’t the foggiest idea. All I know is that Chinese or American citizens may be in danger.’

  ‘Mm-hm.’ Jia nodded earnestly. ‘I understand. That makes it all very clear. By which I mean to say that it is in the interests of our national security to look into the matter together with you. I have explained precisely these facts to my superiors, and I have been given permission to prepare the satellite for your use, and then to fly you on to Vallis Alpina afterwards.’

  Julian looked at the taikonaut.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said softly.

  ‘I’m pleased to be able to help.’

  ‘You do know, however, that the conversation I am about to conduct may lead to some unjustifiable accusations against China.’

  Jia shrugged.

  ‘All that matters is that I don’t know right now.’

  * * *

  Shaw stood by the table of the conference room. She looked unkempt, as though she had been running about the whole day. Andrew Norrington and Edda Hoff were with her. Behind them, a rather rumpled-looking blond man leaned in the doorway.

  ‘Julian!’ she called aloud. ‘My God, are you all right? We’ve been trying to reach you for hours.’

  ‘Have you been able to make contact with Gaia?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why not? You should be able to reach Gaia by the normal radio chann—’

  ‘We’ve tried that. Nobody is responding.’

  Julian felt his heart skip a beat.

  ‘Before you ask, there hasn’t been an explosion at Vallis Alpina,’ Shaw said hurriedly. ‘At least that much is good news.’

  ‘And the base? Have you been able to talk to the moon base?’

  ‘No response.’

  ‘Erm, Julian,’ Norrington broke in. ‘Our theory is that somebody is using the satellites to disrupt communication by unleashing a huge botnet on the Moon. The comms equipment up there is completely clogged up, so to speak. The truth is, we’re half blind and completely deaf, we need information from you.’

  ‘How could anybody clog up our comms?’ Julian snapped.

  ‘Quite simple. You need an inside man.’

  Inside man. Inside woman. Great God, why couldn’t he shake the idea that Lynn had something to do with it.

  ‘We’re just going over Hanna’s background,’ Hoff said. ‘There’s not a great deal we can say about him for sure, though his whole life story turns out not to be worth the paper it’s printed on. We are however agreed that he can’t be operating on his own up there.’

  ‘Once again, where are you?’ Norrington urged him.

  Julian sighed. He gave a brief account of what had happened in the hours since communications had collapsed. Shaw’s face turned paler with every death he recounted.

  ‘Jia Keqiang has been kind enough to agree to fly us to the hotel,’ he finished up. ‘We’ll try to reach Gaia through the Chinese satellite first, to—’

  ‘Mr Orley.’ The blond man straightened up from the doorway and took a step forward. ‘You shouldn’t fly back to Gaia.’

  Julian looked at the man, frowning in confusion. Then all of a sudden he realised.

  ‘You’re Owen Jericho.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I beg your pardon.’ He spread his hands. ‘I should have thanked you long ago, but—’

  ‘Some other time. Does the name Hydra mean anything to you?’

  Julian gawped. ‘Greek mythology,’ he ventured. ‘Monster with nine heads.’

  ‘Nothing else spring to mind?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘It looks as though an organisation called Hydra is responsible for all this. Heads that grow back when you cut them off. A great many heads. Invincible, worldwide. For a while we thought that the people pulling the strings were in Chinese high finance or politics, but whichever way you look at it, that doesn’t make any sense. By the way, a friend of yours was on Hydra’s hit list.’

  ‘What? Who was that, for heaven’s sake?’

  ‘Gerald Palstein.’

  ‘What? Why would they want to get Gerald?’

  ‘That’s the easiest question to answer,’ Norrington chipped in. ‘When Palstein was shot, that meant that he had to pull out of the moon trip at short notice and make room for Hanna.’

  ‘But how—’

  ‘Later.’ Jericho came closer. ‘The most important thing for you to know right now is that the attack isn’t aimed at Gaia.’

  ‘It’s not?’ Julian asked. ‘But you said—’

  ‘I know. It looks like we made a mistake. In the meantime we’ve been able to decode more of the message, and it seems that the bomb isn’t there to destroy your hotel.’

  ‘But what, then?’

  There was silence for a moment, as though everyone in the room was waiting for someone else to spill the beans.

  ‘Peary Base,’ Shaw said.

  Julian stared at her, his mouth open. Jia looked as though the ground had opened up under his feet.

  ‘Beijing would never plan—’ he began.

  ‘We’re not certain that Beijing’s behind it,’ Shaw interrupted. ‘At least, not Chinese government circles. But that’s irrelevant right now. Hydra want to contaminate Peary Crater, the Mountains of Eternal Light, the whole region! They don’t want anything from us, they just used us to get up to the Moon. Contact the base straight away, however you do it! They’ve got to search the place with a fine-toothed comb, and evacuate if need be.’

  ‘Good God,’ Julian whispered. ‘Who are Hydra?’

  ‘No idea. But whoever they are – they want to wipe America off the face of the Moon.’

  ‘And Carl’s headed there right now.’ In an instant, it all became clear. He leapt to his feet and stared at Jia. ‘He’s going to arm the bomb. He’ll arm it, and then clear out!’

  * * *

  They couldn’t reach Peary Base with the Chinese satellite either, which made Orley even more frantic. They tried to reach Gaia, with no luck. Then the base again. Then Gaia again. Shortly after four o’clock, they gave up.

  ‘It can’t be anything to do with our satellite,’ Jia argued. ‘We c
ould talk to London no problem.’

  Orley looked at him. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’

  ‘That the bomb has already exploded, and that’s why we can’t reach anybody?’ Jia rubbed his eyes. ‘I’ll admit, I had considered it.’

  ‘It’s horrific,’ Orley whispered.

  ‘But we heard that the satellites aren’t the problem. It’s the communications equipment. Peary Base and Gaia have been attacked; we haven’t. Which means that we can communicate, just not with the hotel, and not with the Pole. Besides, a nuclear explosion—’ Jia hesitated. ‘Don’t you think we’d have been told? My country keeps a very close eye on the Moon. I think your hotel must still be in one piece.’

  ‘But the base is in the libration shadow, which means that your country can watch until they go blue in the face, they won’t see anything!’

  ‘Please be assured that China has nothing to do with it.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’ Orley paced around the small control room. ‘I simply don’t understand. What’s all this in aid of?’

  Jia turned his head. ‘When do you want to set off?’

  ‘Now. I’ll tell the others.’ Orley paused. ‘I am really very grateful, Commander. Very.’

  ‘Keqiang,’ Jia heard himself say.

  Really? For a moment, he felt an urge to withdraw the offer, but he liked this easygoing, long-haired Englishman. Had he been too harsh in judging the relaxed Western ways? Maybe being on first-name terms was a step towards harmony among the nations.

  ‘One thing’s for sure, Keqiang,’ Orley said with a sour grimace. ‘There’d have been no Moon crisis if it had been down to us two.’

  At that moment, they heard his name.

  * * *

  It droned from the loudspeakers, part of a looped message, an automatic broadcast signal.

  ‘Callisto to Ganymede. Callisto to Julian Orley. Please come in. Julian Orley, Ganymede, please come in. Callisto to—’

  Jia leapt up and raced to the console.

  ‘Callisto? This is Jia Keqiang, commander of the Chinese mining operations. Where are you?’

  For a second there was only crackling from the loudspeakers, then Nina Hedegaard’s face appeared on the screen.

  ‘We’re flying over the Montes Jura,’ she said. ‘How come—’

  ‘We’re keeping our ears open. Are you looking for Julian Orley?’

  ‘Yes.’ She nodded emphatically. ‘Yes!’

  Julian shoved into view. ‘Nina! Where are you?’

  ‘Julian!’ Suddenly Tim’s face appeared next to hers. ‘At last! Is everybody all right?’

  ‘I’m afraid not.’

  ‘But—’ Tim was visibly distraught.

  ‘That’s to say, Amber’s fine,’ Julian reassured him hurriedly. ‘What happened to Lynn? And Gaia? Tim, what’s going on here?’

  ‘We don’t know. Lynn’s – we’re alive.’

  ‘You’re alive?’

  ‘Gaia was destroyed.’

  Julian stared at the screen, lost for words.

  ‘There was a fire, several people died. We had to evacuate anyway, because of the bomb.’

  The bomb—

  ‘No, Tim.’ He shook his head, and clenched his fists.

  ‘Don’t worry, we’re safe. At the moon base. That’s where we just flew from. There are two search parties out to—’

  ‘Are you in touch with the base?’

  ‘No, they’re cut off from the outside world.’

  ‘Tim—’

  ‘Julian, I’m coming in to land,’ Nina said. ‘We’ll be back at the Pole in an hour. Then we can—’

  ‘Too late, that’s too late!’ he yelled. ‘The bomb’s not in Gaia. Do you hear? Gaia has nothing to do with all that. The bomb’s stored at the Pole, it’s meant for the moon base. Where’s Lynn, Tim? Where’s Lynn?’

  Tim froze. His lips formed three silent words:

  At the Pole.

  ‘Don’t tell me that!’ Julian wrung his hands and looked about frantically. ‘You have to get her out some—’

  ‘Julian,’ Nina said, ‘the second search party set out after us, they’re circling over the Mare Imbrium. As soon as we’ve picked you up, we’ll climb until we can make contact and we’ll send them straight back to the base. They’re closer than we are.’

  ‘Hurry! Carl’s on his way to Peary. He’s going to arm it!’

  ‘We’re on our way.’

  Peary Base, North Pole

  Dana Lawrence sat in the half-dark of the command centre in Igloo 1, breathing in pure oxygen through a mask, staring dead ahead. She’d had enough oxygen back in Gaia to see to the smoke inhalation, but a couple more breaths couldn’t hurt.

  ‘Don’t you want to go get some sleep?’ Wachowski asked sympathetically. The lights from the control panels and screens bathed his face in an anaemic blue-white glow. ‘I’ll wake you if anything happens.’

  ‘Thanks, I’m fine.’

  In fact she didn’t feel tired at all. For as long as she could remember, all her strength had been focused on not falling asleep. In the sickbay, Kramp, Eva and the Nairs were lying comatose, exhausted. They were all under sedation, and tended by DeLucas, the station medic and life-support specialist. Even DeLucas, though, had no idea what Lynn needed. A young geologist called Jean-Jacques Laurie had suggested leaving her in the care of ISLAND-I, an older model than ISLAND-II. The programmed psychologist had diagnosed shock, to nobody’s astonishment, along with a possible case of late-onset psychosomatic mutism. Since then, Julian’s daughter had been either lying wide-eyed in the dark, or wandering about like a zombie, a prisoner in her own body. The Ögis were the only ones who were healthy and in full possession of their wits, and they had taken a room in one of the western towers. The base was short-staffed, all the survivors were out of action, the search parties had set off on their fool’s errand, and Hanna would be trying to get back to the hotel. God knows she had done everything she could to make things easy for him, but Hanna wasn’t coming. By now it was past four o’clock, and any confidence she had had that he would turn up was gone. The plan had been that they would carry out the operation together, but in this trade, you fought side by side with your comrade until circumstances demanded you sacrifice him. In two to three hours, the search parties would be back. By then, one of them had to have done the deed.

  She got up.

  ‘I’m going to stretch my legs. It’ll help me stay awake.’

  ‘We brew a pretty good coffee up here as well,’ Wachowski said.

  ‘I know. I’ve had four cups already.’

  ‘I’ll put on some more.’

  ‘I’ve had enough smoke inside me to poison my system, thanks, I won’t risk a caffeine overdose. I’ll be next door in the fitness room if anything happens.’

  ‘Dana?’ Wachowski smiled, embarrassed.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘I can call you Dana, can’t I?’

  Dana raised an eyebrow. ‘Of course – Tommy.’

  ‘Respect.’

  ‘Oh.’ She smiled again. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘I really mean it. You’re keeping it all together! After everything that happened, Orley can be glad he has you. You’re keeping a cool head.’

  ‘Well, I try to.’

  ‘His daughter’s pretty much in a world of her own.’

  ‘Hmm. ISLAND-I says she’s suffering from shock.’

  ‘Pretty severe shock. What’s up with her? You know her better, Dana, what’s her problem?’

  Dana was silent for a moment.

  ‘The same problem we all have,’ she said as she left the room. ‘She has her demons.’

  Hanna

  The freight train with the helium-3 tanks shot up the valley bed to Peary launch field at more than 700 kilometres per hour, but Hanna’s thoughts were moving faster.

  He had to arm the bomb, but before he did that, it would be best to make contact with Dana. He hadn’t the first idea what might have happened at the hotel. All he kn
ew for sure was that with his cover blown, they had a lot less room for manoeuvre. If he waited for her at the Pole, they could escape together, but he’d find himself an officially wanted man, by the time they boarded the OSS at the latest, and he could forget taking the elevator back down to Earth. The whole screw-up called for quick action. Set the fuse timer, then get out of there on the Charon. Xin’s finely crafted plan could still work. Not exactly in all details, perhaps, but with the same results. It would be best if Dana were still safely tucked away in the Vallis Alpina, putting on a show of concern, and hoping that the Chinese could put her through to Earth under their treaty obligations for mutual assistance.

  The high plain drew closer. He could see the blast walls around the spaceport, the hangars, antennae, the neat lines of human presence. He was pressed against the tank in front of him as the maglev slowed, much more sharply than the Lunar Express. For a moment he was afraid that he had misjudged things, that he would be crushed in the murderous deceleration, then the train slid round the last curve as gently as a Sunday excursion and drew to a halt at the station. Hanna jumped onto the platform before a manipulator arm could mistake him for a helium-3 tank, taking care to stay out of sight of the surveillance cameras. All around him the machinery awoke to life, forklifts rolled up, the arms began to unload. He scurried to the further edge of the platform and leapt the fifteen metres to the ground in a single bound. Two kilometres of rough ground stretched away ahead of him, broken only by the road from the spaceport to the igloos. They showed starkly against the hills beyond and the factory buildings around, flanked on either side by the towers of the residential quarters and, in amongst them, a seemingly random assortment of warehouses and huts. Some distance away, a vast structure reared out of the stony surge of a hillside, the shell of the helium-3 power station, under construction.

  Hanna loped away at an even, unhurried pace, keeping off the road and in the shelter of the slopes for as long as he could see the base to his right. Soon enough there’d be another sun shining here, only briefly but so blazing bright, and it would change everything. The landscape around. The course of history.