Moonbase - Moonwar Part 39

Joanna watched the man's face as he spoke. Even though Yamagata maintained a bland mask that revealed almost nothing of his inner emotions, there was something something going on inside him, she was certain. He's not telling us his real motivations. going on inside him, she was certain. He's not telling us his real motivations.

"You will maintain the nanotechnology laboratories at Moonbase?" she asked.

Yamagata avoided her eyes. "Yes, I think so. Although we will have to keep their work quiet, so that the fears of the nanoluddites are not aroused."

"Including the medical research?"

"Of course."

"But what good will the researchers' work be, if their results can't be used on Earth?"

He shrugged. "It is my belief that scientific research should always be encouraged."

"Even if its results have no practical uses?"

Yamagata dipped his chin slightly.

"Or even if the results can be used only on the Moon," Joanna guessed.

He seemed to freeze, like a small animal caught in the headlights of an onrus.h.i.+ng car. Joanna saw something flicker in his eyes. Fear, perhaps?

At last Yamagata replied, "Yes, even if the results of the research can be used only on the Moon."

Suddenly understanding, Joanna asked, "Mr Yamagata, do you intend to live at Moonbase someday?"

Yamagata had been sitting ramrod straight. Now he sagged back on his heels noticeably. He eyed Lev carefully, then turned his gaze back to Joanna.

"Perhaps," he said, in a near whisper. "I may retire there, eventually."

"So that you can have the benefits of nanotherapy without worrying about the reactions of the luddites," Joanna said. It was not a question.

Yamagata did not reply.

"What is the problem?" Joanna asked softly. "Cancer?"

Still he did not reply. He sat rigidly on his heels, eyes staring now on infinity, looking stiffly at the wall behind Joanna and Lev.

"It is cancer, then," Joanna said.

Yamagata's earth-brown eyes focused on her at last. He sighed, then said tonelessly, "If you even hint to anyone on Earth-or the Moon-that I am afflicted with cancer, I will have you a.s.sa.s.sinated."

Joanna stared at him from across the lacquered table.

"Do you understand?" Yamagata said. "I will not tolerate any insinuations or rumors about my health."

Joanna's mind was racing. He's got cancer and he needs nanotherapy. He needs Zimmerman and he can't bring him back to Earth for fear that the nanoluddites will find out and try to a.s.sa.s.sinate them both. That's That's why he's surrounded himself with all this security! He's already tried nanotherapy. If the fanatics learn of that... why he's surrounded himself with all this security! He's already tried nanotherapy. If the fanatics learn of that...

"There is no need for threats," Lev said. "If you want Moonbase's nanotherapy expertise and Moonbase's nano-technology to ferret out helium-three for your fusion reactors, why not simply enter into a cooperative arrangement with us? Why the U.N. and this attempt to take Moonbase away from us?"

"The answer is obvious," Yamagata said, looking squarely at Joanna instead of Lev. "I must be in control. Cooperation is fine-as long as I am in complete command of our cooperative efforts. That is why I must have Masterson Corporation, including Moonbase."

"But if Moonbase wins its independence-"

With iron in his voice, Yamagata replied, That is why I am helping Faure to a.s.semble a Peacekeeper force. Before the World Court convenes in November, Moonbase will be operated by Yamagata Industries."

"Or destroyed," Lev said.

"We will try to avoid that," said Yamagata. "No one wants to see Moonbase destroyed."

"Except the fanatics."

"Yes," Yamagata agreed. "They are a danger to all of us."

"Then cooperate with us and stop this military confrontation!" Joanna urged.

Yamagata shook his head. "No. I will take Moonbase. I must take it. I cannot rest easily until Moonbase is in my hands."

"So all your talk of cooperation is a sham," Joanna said.

"Not so! I welcome your cooperation. And you will cooperate with me-once I have Moonbase."

Joanna bit back the reply she wanted to make. Instead, she took a deep breath to calm herself.

Yamagata interpreted her silence exactly. "I know that very little of this pleases you. But I hope you can understand why I must act so."

"I can understand," Joanna replied, "without agreeing."

Yamagata dipped his chin slightly. "Now that you understand, please tell your son that resistance is futile. If Moonbase resists the Peacekeepers again, the results will be very bad for all of us."

"What do you mean?"

With an unhappy sigh, Yamagata answered, "If your son tries to fight the Peacekeepers, forces will be set in motion that not even I can control."

"Forces?" Lev asked. "What forces?"

"You think that I control Faure. I thought so too, once. But he has the backing of fanatics, madmen who send out a.s.sa.s.sins and terrorists to accomplish their ends. Faure has turned into a monster," Yamagata said bitterly, "a Frankenstein that I helped to create."

"You're talking about the nanoluddites," Joanna said.

"The nanoluddites. Fanatics who are so frightened of nano-technology that they will destroy Moonbase if you try to resist the Peacekeepers."

"How could they destroy Moonbase?" Joanna challenged.

"If your son tries to fight against the Peacekeepers, Moon-base will be wiped out," Yamagata replied. "All its people will be killed. And there is nothing that any of us can do to stop it. It is too late to stop it. The forces are already in motion. That is why I urgently plead with you to allow us to take control of Moonbase. Cooperate with me, or Moonbase will be utterly annihilated."

DAY FORTY-THREE.

Doug's helmet earphones chirped.

"Doug, this is Jinny.' Her voice sounded weak, faint. "Latest imagery from Kadar's bird shows Gordette's tractor parked outside tempo six."

"Parked?"

"Didn't move all through the satellite's pa.s.s overhead," Anson said. "That's only five minutes or so, granted, but it sure looks like he's either inside the tempo or out there on foot."

Pus.h.i.+ng the volume control on his wrist keyboard, Doug thought aloud, "Maybe his tractor broke down? Dust. Electrical malfunction."

"Maybe," Anson said. He could barely make out the word.

"Okay, thanks. We're heading that way. Call you when we get there."

"h.e.l.l you will. You'll be over the horizon even for the antennas up on Yeager."

They were pa.s.sing the crater's central peaks, Doug saw, where the astronomical center was located. Jinny's transmission was already starting to break up.

"Okay, then," he said into his helmet mike. "I'll call you when we're coming back."

"I'm sending a security team out after you," Anson said, a faint whisper being drowned in crackles and hisses.

"No!" he snapped. "No need for that."

"Can't hear you, boss," Anson said through the growing interference. "You're breaking up too much."

Doug clicked from the long-range frequency to the suit-to-suit freak. "She's pretty smart, Jinny is," he said to Edith. "Knows how to use the systems."

"I feel better knowing there's a security team backing us up."

"By three hours or so," Doug said.

"What makes you think she waited until now to send them out?"

Doug felt his brows rise. "You're pretty smart yourself, you know."

Edith replied, "You're just figuring that out?"

She could see Gordette's tractor trail easily now that there were no other cleat marks chewing up the regolith. No one's been out here in a long time, she thought.

"Tempo six was one of the original shelters my father built," Doug explained. "Before they decided where the permanent base would be sited they dug shelters into a dozen spots on the crater floor and outside the ringwall on Mare Nubium."

"Do you think Gordette has really stopped there?" Edith asked.

She waited for several moments before Doug replied, "I don't know. I can't understand why he headed this far away from the base. There aren't any easy pa.s.ses over the ringwall up in this region. If he wanted to get out of Alphonsus, Wodjo Pa.s.s around Yeager would be the easiest way."

"Maybe he's going to meet somebody or get picked up, something like that," Edith said.

"Maybe."

She went on, "That'd mean he'll have other people with him, wouldn't it?"

"If they've been waiting for him at the tempo, yeah, maybe."

"Then we're steering ourselves right into a trap, Doug. He's tried to murder you twice. You're giving him another shot at it."

A longer silence this time. Edith stared at Doug's s.p.a.ce-suited figure, trying to peer through it to see the man inside. All she saw was the cermet suit, like armor, and the strange metal pistons of the muscle amplifiers on the backs of his gloves, like a skeleton's hands, but made of metal rather than bone.

"Jinny didn't say there are any other vehicles parked at the tempo," he said at last. "I don't think anybody else is there."

Then why did he stop there?"

"That's what we're going to find out," he said.

"Why don't you wait for the security team to catch up with us?" Edith urged.

"I can't let him get away. He can tell the Peacekeepers exactly how to knock out our electrical power and take over the base."

"You don't think they know that already?"

"Bam knows what we've been doing, what we've been thinking. I can't let him tell it all to the Peacekeepers."

"Doug, you're full of bulls.h.i.+t," she said, feeling anger rising in her. "You're acting like some macho gunslinger who's got to face down the bad guy all by himself."

"It's not that, Edith."

"The h.e.l.l it isn't. You're going to get yourself killed, and me too."

"No! I-" Doug realized there was some truth in Edith's accusation. He turned to look at her and saw only the reflection of his own blank visor in the dim Earthlight.

"At least wait for the security team," she repeated.

"Edith... I trusted him. I thought I saw a man I could rely on. I don't why he tried to kill me-"

"Because he's an agent from the U.N.," Edith snapped. "Or Yamagata, more likely."

"Or maybe the nanoluddites," Doug heard himself agree. "I never thought of that before, but maybe they were able to infiltrate Moonbase, after all."

"Then why confront him?"

Yes, why? Doug asked himself. The man's a murderer, a hired a.s.sa.s.sin, maybe a nanoluddite fanatic. So what if he can tell the Peacekeepers about the pitiful defenses we're trying to set up? Big deal. They're going to walk in here and take over the base no matter what you do.

Then he thought of Tamara and how he helplessly watched Killifer rape and kill her. Murderer! his conscience shrieked. You let him murder her while you stood by as impotent as a baby. He saw Killifer's smug, hateful face, the glint in his eyes, the snarl of his voice. I'll find him, Doug told himself. I'll track him down wherever he is and kill him. I'll rip his guts out. I'll tear him apart.

But Killifer's a half-million kilometers away, on a world you'll never return to. Gordette's within reach; you'll be face-to-face with him soon. Are you going to kill Bam? Are you going to make him pay for Killifer? Why not? What difference does it make? They're all killers, all murderers. It's time to start paying them back. Time to even the score.

Yet another voice in his head spoke: I liked liked Bam. We could have become good friends, in time. He seemed so steady, so focused, like a big brother... Bam. We could have become good friends, in time. He seemed so steady, so focused, like a big brother...

And then Doug remembered. "Greg tried to kill me, too."

"What?" Edith asked.