Douglas and I both peered close. Douglas said it first. "We're at Gagarin!"
"Not quite. It's just over the hill. We're walking distance."
"And we didn't see it because the sun was in our eyes!"
Douglas grinned. "Edgar Allan Poe's 'Purloined Letter.' The safest place to hide something is in plain sight. Only what was Alexei hiding–us or Gagarin?"
"Both," said Mickey. "Listen–Charles, Douglas? Can you trust me for just a little while longer. I mean, I can get us out of here. I can get you to safety. And to a colony bid. After that, if you never want to see me again, I'll understand that too–what do you say?"
Douglas looked to me. I could see he wanted me to say yes. "Chigger?"
"It's a fair deal. If he'll live up to it."Maybe I was still being too suspicious, but somebody had to be.
"I don't want to hurt you any more," Mickey said to us, but mostly to Douglas. "I'll keep my word."
"All right." Douglas offered his hands for a Lunar handshake. "Let's do it."
Mickey grabbed both of Douglas's hands in both of his and the two of them looked at each other and shook hands. And then I put my hands on top of theirs and Stinky put his hands on top of mine, and we all shook together.
And then we laughed and broke apart and Mickey snapped immediately into problem‑solving mode. "All right, girls. Let's find our bubble suits. According to the map, there's a local road. See? It's less than a kilometer. It's all in shadow. We can be there in an hour. Grab some food and water, extra air tanks just in case. Reflective blankets. Headsets. Everything we had from the pod. I think Alexei packed them all in the blue case. Didn't we leave that one up by the hatch?"
"Uh, Mickey–" I said softly.
He glanced to me.
I gestured toward the ceiling. What if he's listening?
"Let him listen," he said, loudly enough for any hidden microphones to hear. "We'll be safe at Gagarin long before he can catch up with us."
We found the bubble suits and other supplies exactly where Mickey had said. We unpacked them quickly, but Douglas held his up, frowning. "These suits have expired, Mickey. They're only good for one wearing or six hours, whichever comes first. And we went beyond both of those limits."
Mickey snapped back, "I know what those suits are tested to, Douglas. Some of them have lasted as long as ten wearings and over six hundred hours. All we need is thirty minutes, maybe less. Do you have a better idea?"
He didn't. We started dressing ourselves for a trip across the surface. I was already dreading this, but we were too busy going through the separate drills of zipping and unzipping, checking air and water supplies, tightening the Velcro straps on the jumpsuit shoes, grabbing the inflatable airlock, all that stuff.
But we didn't actually put on the bubble suits themselves until we were standing under the exit hatch. Mickey stood beneath it, happily punching at the controls, occasionally swearing, canceling things out, and going back to do it again.
This wasn't the same airlock we'd entered through. This was a larger one, with multiple hatches. There was one hatch overhead and at least half a dozen more spaced around the walls. The hatch in the floor led back down to the living quarters.
"All right," Mickey announced. "I've got it. Everybody get your suits on. Douglas, seal that floor hatch–"
"Wait," I said. I went over to the hatch and sang down into it, " I would dance and be merry, life would be a ding‑a‑derry, if I only had a brain ..." All three of them stared at me, as if I'd suddenly gone crazy.
"Chigger, what the hell are you doing?" He made as if to close the hatch.
"Wait, dammit!"
"We don't have time–"
I sang down into the hatch again. This time louder. "I would dance and be merry, life would be a ding‑a‑derry–" That was as far as I got. The monkey came flying up out of the hatch like something out of an animated cartoon.
"What the hell–?" That was Mickey.
"My monkey!" Bobby shrieked. The monkey flew into his arms and hugged him excitedly. They still looked like long‑lost twins.
"Chigger–?" Douglas grabbed my arm.
"I did it, yes. I told the monkey to hide and stay hidden and not come out until I called it. So Alexei wouldn't get it. Or anyone else–"
Douglas gave me a look of exasperation and rage. He turned and dogged the hatch. His face was working furiously, while he tried to think of what to say. Finally, he turned around. "Your little brother hasn't stopped crying–"
"I know, and I feel like a shit, okay?! I'm sorry, Bobby! I didn't do it to hurt you. I told the monkey to hide so no one could steal him–"
"Everybody stop arguing!" Mickey shouted. "We've gotta go!" He armed the airlock. "Get into your suits now."
Bobby gave the monkey one more hug, then bounced onto Douglas's back, the monkey jumped onto mine. We pulled on our suits quickly and zipped ourselves in.
"You haven't heard the end of this, Chigger!" Douglas called across to me. "You told me you wanted me to be honest with you–and you didn't tell me the truth about the monkey?!"
"I didn't want Mickey to know. I wanted to tell you first."
"Yeah, you've always got an excuse."
"Shut up, Douglas! Chigger did good. We're still alive right now because Alexei couldn't find the monkey!"
"He should have told me!"
"I was going to–I didn't get a chance."
"It's all right, we've got it back now," said Bobby, trying ineffectively to be a peacemaker.
"Shut up, all of you! I can't concentrate!" And as he said that, the hatch opposite us popped open. Not the hatch above! "Go!" Mickey shouted, pushing me toward it. "Come on!"
"Huh?" But I was already moving.
"You're not the only one who can keep a secret. Let's go, Douglas!"
I bounced through into a horizontal tube that stretched ahead forever. It was the same stuff as the inflatable pressure tubes that linked one vehicle to another–a spiral coil with plastic walls; you extended it wherever you wanted it to go–only this one was longer. It stretched away like a tunnel. It had a collapsible mesh deck for a floor, with several pipes and tubes running along underneath it. Outside the plastic, I could sense more than see that the tube was half‑buried in Lunar dust. Farther out, lay the dim outlines of a shadowy horizon.
"How far does this go?" I called back.
Mickey was sealing the hatch behind us. "At least a kilometer. I hope. Go as fast as you can, Chigger. We're right behind you."
"But this isn't the road!"
"I know it. But maybe Alexei won't. I cut all his visual monitors to the airlock. At least, I think I did. So he's going to think we took the road."
"But how'd you know this tube was here?"
"Call it a lucky guess. But I know Alexei better than you. Keep bouncing." I didn't look back, I could hear them pounding behind me. "See, you wouldn't have noticed it, Chigger. You're a terrie. Sorry, no offense. But I knew that the Brickner station wasn't working the minute we climbed down into it. It wasn't hot enough!You can't melt Lunar ice without heat, and you've got to pump a lot of heat into the ground to get the ice to melt. And it wasn't hot enough! So where did all that water come from then?"