The mood in Kendra’s nerve center had plummeted from bad to worse, but when Max Piering entered, she found herself feeling optimistic even before he gave her his news.
“We’re pretty much shut out,” he said. “I only see one real possibility.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask.”
“Well,” the big man said, “all of the primary power was cut. They pretty much ran a perfect game there. But they missed something.”
Was there actually some good news? “What?”
“Well…,” Piering said, and leaned toward her.
A precious hour had passed since Kendra Griffin had begun her spiel. In the interim, the mood in gaming control had shifted from glum to almost celebratory. Merry enough, in fact, that Kendra was not amused in the slightest.
Kendra watched Xavier prance between one workstation and another, improvising a happy little dance as he did.
Finally, she could restrain herself no longer. “Mr. Xavier, are you certain you understand the seriousness of this situation? You seem entirely too… entertained.”
Xavier stopped his little leprechaun jig and peered up at her shrewdly. “Am I? I apologize. Sometimes I do forget where reality ends and fantasy begins. Do you think perhaps that’s why I’m so damned good at what I do?”
Then he laughed, and turned back to his assistants.
Kendra turned to her own. “He knows more than he’s telling us,” she said.
“I do hope so. We have to let him do things his way,” Max Piering said. “What choice do we really have?”
“Dammit!” She wanted to punch Xavier’s lights out. “No time for someone else to learn the system. You’re right.”
The Asteroid Belt was its own society, so far from the rest of humankind that they coveted every Earth contact as if it would help them retain their humanity.
In one of the many small living modules, four men played cards, watching the lunar feed on a visual field that filled an entire wall. “Mitch-have you seen this? Is this for real or what?”
His partner laughed. “I say it’s a hoax. A game within a game within a game, man.”
“Yeah, well, put me down for twenty.”
On Earth and around the solar system, the game was racking up unbelievable ratings, rapidly threatening to become the most watched event in human history.
All day Kendra had faced an office full of angry voices and floating faces, and by now she was near exhaustion. “I’m completely hamstrung!” She threw her hands into the air, frustrated. “There are so many overlapping jurisdictions that no one knows anything at all.”
Chris Foxworthy’s long face looked glum. “This is completely unprecedented.”
Piering was just as large and solid as he had been four years before, when he had helped dig Scotty out of a deep, dark premature grave. But he seemed more brittle now, and at the moment very close to his edge. “We’re paralyzed. Who in the hell has the authority to let me go forward? My men can’t act if we don’t know what to do.”
Then… the message-balloon blossomed. A priority executive message, available only for corporate accounts at a very high level. Kendra’s receptionist cleared her throat.
“Ms. Griffin? I have one here you might want to take.”
“Which is?”
“An Adriana Vokker. She has information about your husband.”
“Vokker? I don’t know the name.”
“She says she was one of your husband’s clients.”
Kendra shrugged and pushed the button. “This is Kendra Griffin. What can I do for you, Ms. Vokker?”
The woman appearing before her was very young, blond, pretty in a waifish way. She sat at a dark-stained wooden desk with still-life pencil sketches hanging on the wall behind her. She seemed very worried. “Do you know who I am?”
“I believe a few months ago you caused my husband considerable trouble.”
The girl inclined her head. “I thought he was your ex — husband.”
That took Kendra by surprise. Had she really been referring to Scotty as her husband all day? Fascinating. She wondered what a stress tech would make of that. “How can I help you?”
“The news is everywhere,” Adriana Vokker said. “No one’s talking about anything else.”
“Ms. Vokker, time is at a premium. I need you to tell me what’s on your mind.”
“Yes, yes, yes.” The girl folded her hands on the desktop. “When I heard what had happened, I thought that this might be a chance for me to make up for what happened in Switzerland.”
Kendra sighed. Charming. Scotty had a groupie. This was a waste of time. “And how exactly did you hope to help?”
“Mrs. Griffin, I have access to all of my father’s business interests. It’s part of my education and legacy. And this morning, there were alerts from our cocoa plantations in Central Africa.”
Kendra’s eyes widened. “Central Africa?” This conversation had suddenly become ten times more interesting.
“Yes. The Republic of Kikaya. We buy a million pounds of their cocoa every month, so any internal unrest is a matter of great interest.”
Kendra motioned to Piering to come join them. “And what exactly did you learn in this process?”
Adriana said, “There’s been a news blackout from Kikaya, but through some of our sources we see that the capital is under attack. At the same time, the heir of the throne has been…”
“Kidnapped.” Kendra turned to Foxworthy. “This is strong. If this is right, then we’re talking about a kidnap operation that had to be coordinated months in advance. There will be money, resources… Who on our rolls has connections to Kikaya?”
“On it.”
Kendra hunched forward toward Adriana’s floating image. “What else do you know?”
“I know that Mbuto airport is only one hundred miles from the plantation. Modifications are being made and workers hired. The rumor is that preparations are for the arrival of a space vehicle.”
And those words made Kendra’s stomach clench.
Kendra and her assistants sat in the center, surrounded by technicians who seemed too stunned to speak.
“I think that we can make some guesses about this now,” she said.
“We know their escape route,” Foxworthy said.
“Yes,” she replied. “There is a coup in Kikaya. The Prince is being kidnapped, and their plan is to get off the Moon-”
“Not as difficult as you might think. Nobody wants to touch this one.”
Kendra ticked off possibilities on her fingers. “What are you thinking? That we’ll be ordered to let them go. And they’ll have a safe place to land, from which they will simply disappear.”
“And?” Foxworthy asked.
“It’s not going to happen. Kidnap, destruction of property, assault. Somebody died. One of their men died, and when people die in the commission of a crime, his coconspirators can be charged with murder. I can believe that wasn’t a part of the plan. But it happened, and I’m not just rolling over.”
“So…?” Piering asked.
“So no direct actions. We follow those instructions. But we investigate.”
“Good. Damned good,” he said. “Coordination of communication, resources…”
“Such as?” Kendra asked.
“Weaponry. Personnel. Information. Money has changed hands, you can count on it.”
“We backdoor this,” Kendra said. “We don’t use ordinary investigative channels. Too many politics, and too many potential conspirators. We trust no one except who’s right here in this room.”
Foxworthy hailed her attention. “Ms. Griffin? I have your call.”
The worried face of Alex Griffin bobbled in the air. “Kendra! I’d been watching, but wanted to stay out of your way. Is there anything, anything at all I can do?”
Kendra gave a long exhalation, only at that moment realizing the depths of her shock and distress. Alex’s smile, even one as worried and wan as this, was like a warm, fatherly hug.
“Dad, I need to brainstorm, and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather talk to. You know about the kidnap situation. Hostages. But what we just learned is that there may be a connection between that, and the coup currently underway in the Republic of Kikaya.”
“A coup?”
“You tell me,” Kendra said. “There’s been a news blackout on the lunar stream. Are you getting anything on your end?”
“I guess I’d seen a banner, but hadn’t clicked through to read about it. Dammit, what was I thinking?”
“Don’t beat yourself up… who could have known?”
“So Scotty’s Prince has been snatched on Luna.” A quarter-million miles away, Alex Griffin’s brows furrowed. “This was to put pressure on the King?”
“We can only guess at this point, but it would make sense. The kidnappers may have been paid by the insurgents, or people sympathetic to their cause.”
“That could answer their exit strategy. I’d wondered where they could get the nerve to think they’ll get away with this. But they can only do that if there’s a place to land, and if they can get off the Moon. Exactly who has jurisdiction?”
“The United Nations. Cowles Industries. Heinlein Explorations Limited. The lawyers are fighting over it, and as long as no one else is killed, we’ve been told to stand down.”
Inside the dome, the gamers sat in a circle, struggling to understand what had happened to them, and what their options might be.
“We’re not gettin’ any help from outside. Bet on that,” Darla said.
“None,” Scotty agreed.
With one slender forefinger, Angelique drew a line in the layer of thin, fine lunar dust. “If we go back, we fall right into their hands. But we’re boxed in here. To keep going, we’d have to knock a hole in the wall. No way that won’t make noise. They’ll see and hear, and catch us.”
The others were quiet for a time, then Mickey cleared his throat. “Then we have to give up. If we can’t go forward, the only thing that makes sense-”
“No!” Maud’s face had reddened with anger. She looked as if she wanted to slap him. “What? Do you trust these people? Do you think they’re just going to say ‘righty-oh’? Not punish us for trying to get away? If you believe that, you’re just an old fool.”
“Maud!” Mickey chirped in protest.
She crossed her arms. “I’m not talking to you.”
“People. People.” Angelique as peacemaker. “Darla was about to say something, and I think it would be smart for us to listen.”
“Look,” Darla said. “If we can’t get into the next bubble without noise, then we have to make some noise. Too much noise is as good as none at all.”
“A distraction?”
“Got me an idea,” Darla said. “While we were putting this dome together, we had an emergency alarm system set up in case of dome breach, release of toxic gases. Gremlins. Whatever. It’s the most hellacious racket you ever heard. I heard one go off over at Tycho once, and it like to split my skull.”
“Can we access it? Something like that might cause enough chaos.”
“Not from the inside. They seem to have overridden most of the systems. But there’s a parallel system on the exterior of the dome. With the right tools, one person could do it.” She gnawed at her lower lip. “But I have an idea. It would take three people to pull it off. I know where we can find two suits, and we’ll need another.”
Wayne clucked. “Then what are we talking about? We can’t. If there is no way, what difference does it make?”
“Once again, you forget that I am here.” Asako’s mechanical voice took them by surprise. “You talk as if I am not here. I am the reason you need to cross that breach. I am the reason that you cannot just disappear into the spaces between the bubbles-”
“Asako,” Scotty said. “Even if we could, we can’t just escape through the aquifer. You heard Kendra: It’s sabotaged. Booby-trapped. Whatever. You want to blow us up?”
“At least we’d have options,” her pod’s speaker rasped. “This is what I am saying to you: You have to let me help.”
“Help? How?”
“My pod is rated for vacuum. My treads should be able to lock on to the service ladders.”
Only silence greeted her.
Then Darla broke it. “You saw mechs working on the outside of the dome. Standard utility tracks-your pod should work just fine. Fine. But Asako… it’s just too risky.”
The bubble-girl laughed. “Risk. You speak of risk? Darla, thank you for caring, but I have nothing in my life except this.” Her frail hands gestured weakly. “No family save gamers. Have you any idea how my heart would break if I caused damage to my family? If you did not escape because you were trying to protect me? You must let me try to help.”
The gamers glanced at each other. One at a time, they nodded grimly. Then Ali said, “I will go as well. None of you would be in danger, if it weren’t for me-”
“No,” Darla said. “Ali. Ain’t no joy down that road, pumpkin. The only ones to blame are the pirates. They started this whole fandango. Listen, you got no training for this. Scotty and I do. Asako has the bubble, so we can’t tell her no. But no one else has to take this risk.”
“Can this actually work?” Scotty asked.
“Yes,” Asako said. “It can.”
The pirates of Neutral Moresnot had made their own plans and preparations.
“Shotz,” Celeste said. “We have the pool sealed. We have their communication blocked. No one on the outside of this dome knows that they have gotten away from us.”
Shotz ran his fingers absently through his long blond hair. “What are you saying?”
Celeste’s hard face softened, became almost shy. “I’m saying that in a very real way, it doesn’t matter. That conditions on the ground in Kikaya are dependent not on the reality of the situation, but its appearance. If the King abdicates, we still have our landing zone.”
Shotz seemed to roll the idea around in his mind, as if savoring its taste. “Then… we need only have sufficient hostages to get to the shuttle…”
She nodded. “And once we’re off the surface, it is a diplomatic matter. We were always in the hands of our employers there. Either we can trust them…”
“Or our emergency procedures go into effect,” he said, finishing her thought for her.
She nodded. “Unless Motabu wants to spend the rest of a short life looking over his shoulder, he will ensure our passage to L5, and from there to Earth. We were satisfied that they had the leverage before. Perhaps we need not fear now.”
Shotz scratched his scarred throat. “Excellent,” he finally said. “We proceed.”
The links between the bubbles were mostly structural, but partially practical for human entrance and egress. Sharmela and Wayne bustled Asako and her pod along the walkways between one bubble and another, being as quiet and cautious as possible. With great stealth, they made it to the northern external maintenance door.
Sharmela sighed. “If only we all had suits…”
“We could just walk away,” Wayne said. “And if pigs had wings, we’d have flying barbecue. But they don’t, and we don’t, so don’t drive yourself crazy.”
Sharmela looked at the track used by the automated maintenance mechs. “Will the treads fit?”
Asako responded by locking her pod into position. She raised a stick-thin arm, made a “thumbs-up” sign and smiled.
It was the warmest smile Wayne had seen from her so far. “Why are you so damned happy about this?”
She sighed. “I’ve been sick longer than I ever remember being well. Imagination has been my only escape. I wanted to be an adventuress, to save kingdoms and right wrongs.”
“You never wanted to be the one rescued?”
She managed a marginal shake of her head. “I’ve always been the victim. Always the rescuee. And now, for the very first time, I get to be the rescuer. Don’t you dare even consider taking this away from me.”
“All right. All right,” Wayne said. “You’ve got it.”
There were gear lockers and dressing rooms all over the dome, especially near the airlocks. Darla had promised two suits, and here they were, near the west-most dressing room on level C. The gear was not customized, and Darla’s was a little too tight through the middle, while Scotty felt cramped all over. It would have to do.
She gave Scotty a once-over, and he did the same for her, soberly checking each other’s equipment. “When you get outside, stick to the marked maintenance routes. Don’t get fancy.”
Scotty clucked. “Yes, Mommy.”
He tried to sound cavalier, but his heart was thundering in his chest, and he was hyperventilating.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah,” Scotty said. “I’m fine. Let’s do this.”
It had been years since Scotty had stepped into vacuum. He’d never quite gotten used to it, never was able to totally forget that a half inch of pressure suit was all that kept his blood from boiling. Once, it had been exciting. Then it had become terrifying. What would it be now?
He looked out the lock’s window at the naked stars. Immediately, they began to blur. He gulped air and lowered his head. “Breathe,” he gasped. “Breathe, you bastard.”
A third of the way around the dome, Darla had positioned herself, arm slung over a rung. She was waiting for the others to reach their own designated data entry spots.
“Little Dee on local area net. Sign in?”
A crackle on her radio. “S-man.”
Another: “B-girl.”
Darla nodded. “Good to go?”
“Good to go.”
“Good to go.”
Celeste sat at their main table in bubble 37-C, surrounded by the equipment the Frost brothers had stolen or borrowed and moved into the dome. “Sir,” she said, “we have teams sweeping the bubbles. And the spaces between. It’s hard, because we have to be certain they aren’t slipping around behind us.”
“To what end?” Shotz asked. “No. They will try to escape through the aquifer. We put men in the spaces there.”
“Nonlethal force?” Celeste asked.
“For now.”
Scotty kept his eyes focused on the concrete-white curve of the dome in front of him.
Darla’s voice came to him clearly, almost as if she were right there with him. “We have to assume that these Moresnot pirates have their fingers into the entire system. So what we have to do is put the sensors off-line so that they won’t know the airlock doors are opening. There is the bare chance that they might realize what we’re doing.”
“Pirates, huh?” He chuckled. “Close enough. I don’t know how they would,” he said. “You actually explained it to me, and I still don’t understand.”
“You will,” Darla said. “There is a biopad right level with your nose. To disable it, punch in the following sequence: XXA19836.”
He punched the combination in. “Light went yellow.”
“I have yellow here,” Asako said.
“All right. You’re makin’ Mama very happy,” Darla said. “Along the side of the box there are two slits. Insert a knife into the bottom slit on the right side, until you make contact. The light should turn red.”
Scotty did as he was instructed, and once again Darla was proven right. Clever girl.
“I have red,” Asako said.
“Good.” Scotty heard the engineer take a deep breath.
“Now. On the door itself, you just punch in a few little letters and numbers for Darla. XX563.”
Scotty entered it, and the door began to buzz.
The door LCD displayed a message. Warning. You have disarmed safety shields on this pressure door. The outer door has been sealed, and cannot be opened until the safety mechanism has been reengaged.
The message was repeated in Japanese, German and Spanish.
“All right,” Darla said. “Now, unscrew the top of the keypad. It isn’t hard. When you have it unscrewed, you’ll see two switches governing the emergency explosive bolts. You’ll need to reverse the positions of those switches.”
“And then what?” Scotty asked.
“Get ready to rumble.”
Scotty did as he was asked. “What do I do now? The digital timer is counting down.”
“Get in the opposite corner,” she said.
Scotty hunched down in the farthest corner, breathing heavily.
Then-a moment of intense sound as the floor shook. Then… the curved door flew out into the lunar landscape.
“Here goes nothing,” Scotty said, and climbed out.
Asako felt as if she sat on the threshold of infinity, the stars and crystalline rock and crater formations. She felt overwhelmed with wonder and joy.
Scotty’s voice intruded. “Asako. Are you all right?”
“No,” she said. “So much better than that.”
“Stay frosty. Let’s do this.”
“Aye-aye, Captain.”
She rolled out into the blinding unfiltered sun. Her bubble’s canopy polarized. The treads locked onto the maintenance tracks. And swung out onto the dome.
As Scotty moved out, he kept his eyes down, his breathing harsh and hard.
“How are you doing there, big guy?” Darla asked.
“Good to go,” Scotty said. The words sounded flip, even to himself.
“All right, handsome,” Darla said. “This part is easy. Just climb straight up.”
Keeping his eyes down, Scotty began to climb up, listening to his breathing, struggling to remain calm. The side of the dome was stenciled with reference numbers. The numbers dropped as he climbed. Just to his left was the numeral 86.
“Keep climbing until you get to the number 51. Do you see it?”
“My lower pod camera can see it,” Asako said. “My arms can reach it. We’re still fine.”
“This is the only hard part. You have to move over to the secondary ladder. We don’t have a tool to make your foothold. So you’ll have to stretch out, grab hold and swing over. Can you do that? Asako, your pod can use the maintenance droid ladder. Type in 336-A, and it should move automatically.”
Scotty looked over to the side. He could see stars. He breathed heavily. Looked down. Far below him, lunar soil. He stretched out his arm, and grabbed at the ladder, missed… and as he swung back he swung onto his back, so that he was staring straight up into space.
“Christ,” he whispered. “The stars.”