Dead Space Martyr Part 15

"Who told you about the pulse signal?"

Altman hesitated, tempted to lie, and then he realized it didn't matter: Hammond was dead.

And then, suddenly it clicked: he knew where he had seen the man with the gla.s.ses.

"Charles Hammond told me," he said. "I believe your a.s.sociates knew him."

Markoff looked back at Terry. The latter hesitated a moment, nodded.

"But we didn't kill him," said Tim.

"No, we didn't kill him," said Tom.

"No talking shop here, boys," said Markoff. "Terry, why don't you take Tim and Tom and wait for me outside?"

The three of them quietly left the room.

"How do I know you are who you say you are?" asked Altman.

Markoff turned back, his gaze steady. "I wondered when you were going to get around to that. Either I am or I'm not," he said. "If I am, then it'll be worth your while to cooperate if it will get you on the expedition. If I'm not, then there's very little you can do about it. Whether you tell me the truth or not, you're probably in trouble either way. Tell me ... what do you think you know?"

It's a reasonable enough gamble, thought Altman. thought Altman. I know that DredgerCorp is working with the military to salvage the submarine, so chances are he is what he says he is. The trick is knowing how to tell him enough to get him to bring me aboard on the project, but not so much that he thinks he's already gotten all he can out of me, that he doesn't need me anymore. I know that DredgerCorp is working with the military to salvage the submarine, so chances are he is what he says he is. The trick is knowing how to tell him enough to get him to bring me aboard on the project, but not so much that he thinks he's already gotten all he can out of me, that he doesn't need me anymore.

He took a deep breath. "I'd guess there's something in the heart of the crater," said Altman. "Not a natural phenomenon, but something else."

"Go on," said Markoff.

"Considering its location, it must have been there a very long time."

"How long?"

"It might have been there thousands of years. Or even longer."

"Why do you think so?"

"The Yucatec Maya have a kind of mythology surrounding it. They call it the tail of the devil."

He saw a gleam of something in Markoff's eye. "You've told me something I didn't know, Altman," he said. "How did you find this out?"

"I'll give you more details if you bring me in on the project."

Markoff nodded, his lips tight. "I'll let you get away with that, for a few minutes, anyway. What do you you think it is?" he asked. think it is?" he asked.

"I have no f.u.c.king idea," said Altman.

"There's no room on the team for someone who doesn't have imagination. What do you think it could be?"

Altman looked down at the tabletop, at his hands resting clasped together on it, at Markoff's hands still palm down on the other side. "I thought at first it might be a relic from some ancient civilization, but ... I've thought a lot about it," he said, "and the only other thing I can come up with frightens me." He looked up, met Markoff's gaze. "An object, sending a pulse signal from the center of a vast crater, perhaps buried since the creation of the crater thousands or hundreds of thousands, even millions, of years ago. What if it wasn't an asteroid that made the crater but the object itself, striking the earth?"

Markoff nodded.

"Which suggests that it was something that came from outer s.p.a.ce," said Altman. "Which in turn suggests that it was something sent here by intelligent life outside of our galaxy."

"Which raises the question of why it was transmitting," said Markoff.

"And who it was transmitting to," said Altman. "And what."

They sat in silence for a while. "If that's what it is," Altman said, "it'll change our whole understanding of life as we know it."

Markoff nodded, finally removing his hands from the table and putting them in his lap. When they returned, there was a gun in one of them.

"Ah, Altman, Altman," he said. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Are you threatening me?" asked Altman, his voice rising. He hoped he sounded tough and angry, that Markoff wasn't detecting the fear that he felt.

"You obviously have guessed too much to be let go. You've even guessed too much for me to just throw you in confinement. I have to decide whether to kill you or take you with us."

Altman slowly raised his hands. "I'd rather you took me with you," he said, a quaver to his voice now.

"Not a shocking preference, considering the circ.u.mstances. Take you or shoot you?" he mused. "I can see advantages to both. Can you tell me anything else to tip the scales? Is there something else you forgot to add?"

Altman kept his hands crossed, afraid that if he moved them, Markoff would see how much he was shaking. His mouth was very dry. His voice, when he began to speak, trembled. "There is one other thing," he said.

"Yes?" said Markoff, casually c.o.c.king the gun.

"The villagers found something. A strange creature, humanoid but not human, that they're convinced is connected to the happenings in the crater. They burned it, but there are still remains you can examine. I'll take you to them."

"Is that all?"

Altman swallowed. "That's all."

"Good-bye, Mr. Altman," Markoff said. He raised the pistol and pointed it at Altman's head, then started to squeeze the trigger. Altman closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He heard the snap of the hammer, but no bullet came.

He opened his eyes. Markoff was watching him, intensely focused.

"All in good fun," he said. "The gun was empty. I never intended to shoot you. Welcome to the team."

He stood and extended his hand. Altman was still in shock and didn't move. Markoff pried his hands apart from each other and shook one of them.

"You will be closely watched. You won't have free run of the facility, but I want you available if and when I need you." He leaned in closer. "And if you do betray me, Mr. Altman, I will kill you," he said in a low voice. "Do you understand? Nod if you understand."

Altman understood.

"Very good," said Markoff, and started for the door. "I'll have Terry make your arrangements."

"All right," said Altman quietly.

His hand on the doork.n.o.b, Markoff stopped. He stood there a moment, his back to Altman.

"There's the question of your girlfriend, isn't there," he said.

Oh, s.h.i.+t, thought Altman. thought Altman.

Markoff turned around, looked at him with searching eyes. "What should we do about her?"

"You don't have to worry about her," said Altman. He tried to stay calm and expressionless as he said it, poker faced, but his voice, he knew, was still trembling.

"But I want to worry about her, Altman," said Markoff. "Let's just say it'd be my pleasure."

"Look," said Altman desperately. "I understand why you feel you have to take me, but Ada's different. She has nothing to do with any of this. She even tried to stop me from taking an interest in it. Let her go."

Markoff smiled. "What you've just shown me, Altman, is that you care enough about her that I couldn't possibly think about letting her go. I believe she might come in handy."

"What are you planning to do with her?"

"Ah, Mr. Altman," said Markoff. "Questions, always questions."

He opened the door and went out.

33 Terry and the twins stood over him while he packed. They hurried him along. They impounded his phone and his holopod, as well as his terminal, the twins sealing them up in a crate and carrying them off.

"You'll have them back once Markoff has taken a look at them," said Terry. "Except for the phone."

"Can't I at least call Field and tell him I won't be in?"

"No."

"I need some time to wrap up my affairs-"

"No."

"What about my family, they'll be worried-"

"You're stalling," said Terry. "None of that other stuff is important. What's important is doing the job and doing it right. You keep stalling, and I'll give Mr. Markoff a call and we'll see how badly he wants you along."

"And then what, you'll kill me? Like you did Hammond?"

Terry winced. "I resent the implication," he said. "I saw him die, sure, but I didn't have anything to do with it."

"Then it was Tim and Tom."

"Not them either," said Terry. He looked at Altman in a way that made the latter realize he was genuinely confused and strangely vulnerable.

"What happened?" he asked.

"We were just trying to question him and he flipped out," said Terry. "I've never seen anything quite like it. One moment he was running and the next he was trying to kill us." He showed Altman an angry, awkward scar on his hand. "We didn't even have any weapons. Tanner had just sent us there to talk to him." He rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. "And then suddenly he took his knife and cut his own throat. Never seen anyone cut quite that deep so quickly. Been dreaming about it ever since."

Abruptly he straightened up, his face becoming closed again. "I don't mind being blamed for what I've done, but don't blame me for what I haven't. Come on, get moving."

They walked quickly to the DredgerCorp building, Terry holding on to his arm and hurrying him along. A few people looked at them curiously in the streets, but most just ignored them or deliberately looked the other way. The building now had a security fence around it, made of welded wire mesh. The building itself had been razed to the ground and was in the process of being replaced by a structure formed of interlocking concrete and steel panels, more like a fortress than like a corporate building.

"Some changes being made," said Altman.

Terry nodded. "You don't know the half of it."

He led him around behind the construction, to a concrete pad. On it was a helicopter, blades already spinning. They hurried to it, and Altman climbed aboard.

Ada was there, her face taut, drawn. He sat down next to her and she clung to him. She isn't usually like that, She isn't usually like that, he thought. he thought. She must be terrified. She must be terrified. Almost immediately the helicopter took off. Almost immediately the helicopter took off.

"I've been worried about you," he said, having to shout to be heard over the noise. "I thought they might have done something to you."

"I was worried about you, too," she said. "Are you okay?"

He offered her a feeble smile. "No permanent damage."

"Michael, do you know where we're going?"

"No," he said. "I'm afraid I don't."

"I told you," she said. "This would all end badly, I said. I told you to leave it alone. But you wouldn't listen."

"It's not over yet," he said.

He looked out the window. They had turned and were flying over the water now, were already fairly far from land. He looked around the helicopter, at the other pa.s.sengers. Terry wasn't there; either he'd stayed behind or was up with the pilot. It contained eight other scientists, all people he recognized by sight, even if he didn't know them all. Field was one of them, looking like he was sick to his stomach.

Skud was there, as was Showalter. Holding on to the roof straps, he moved over closer to them.

"Where's Ramirez?" he shouted.

"They didn't have him come," said Showalter.

"What did they do with him?"

Showalter shrugged.

"Did they give you a choice?" asked Altman.

"A what?" shouted Skud. "Why are they taking us?"

"A choice?"

"No!" shouted Showalter. "We had to come."

"Do you know where we're going?" shouted Skud.

Altman shook his head. "I was going to ask you," he said.