Maisky downed another glass of vodka and dismissed Velikov's pessimism with a wave of the hand. "Faith, General, not in miracles, but in the brains of Soviet scientists and engineers. That's what will put America's most advanced spacecraft on the runway in Cuba."
Giordino stared dubiously at the plate sitting on his lap. "First they feed us slop and now it's sirloin steak and eggs. I don't trust these bastards. They probably spiced it with arsenic."
"A cheap shot to build us up before they tear us down again," said Gunn, ravenously digging into the meat. "But I'm going to ignore it."
"This is the third day the goon in room six has left us alone. Something smells."
"You'd prefer having another rib broken?" Gunn muttered between mouthfuls.
Giordino probed the eggs with his fork, gave in, and tried them. "They're probably fattening us up for the kill."
"I hope to God they've laid off Jessie too."
"Sadists like Gly get turned on beating women."
"Have you ever wondered why Velikov is never present during Gly's punch parties?"
"Typical of the Russians to let a foreigner do their dirty work, or maybe he can't stand the sight of blood. How should I know?"
Suddenly the door was flung open and Foss Gly stepped into the cell. The thick, protruding lips parted in a smile, and the pupils of his eyes were deep, black, and empty.
"Enjoying your dinner, gentlemen?"
"You forgot the wine," Giordino said contemptuously. "And I like my steak medium rare."
Gly stepped closer and, before Giordino could guess his intentions, swung his fist in a vicious backhand against Giordino's rib cage.
Giordino gasped, and his entire body jerked in a convulsive spasm. His face went ashen, and yet, incredibly, he gave a lopsided grin, blood rolling through the hairs of his stubbled chin from where his teeth had bitten his lower lip.
Gunn rose up from his cot on one arm and heaved his plate of food at Gly's head, the eggs spattering the side of the torturer's face, the half-eaten meat scoring a bull's-eye across the mouth.
"A stupid reaction," Gly said, his voice a furious whisper. "One you'll regret." He reached down, grabbed Gunn's shattered ankle, and gave it a sickening twist.
Gunn clenched his fists, eyes glazed in pain, but uttered no sound. Gly stepped back and studied him, seemingly fascinated. "You're tough, very tough, for a little man."
"Crawl back in your hole, slime," Giordino gasped, still catching his breath.
"Stubborn, stubborn," Gly sighed wearily. For a quick second his eyes took on a pensive look, then the black emptiness returned, as cold and evil as if chiseled on a statue. "Ali, yes, you distracted me. I came to deliver news of your friend Dirk Pitt."
"What about him?"
"He tried to escape and was drowned."
"You're lying," said Gunn.
"A Bahamian fisherman found him. The American consulate has already identified the body, or what was left after the sharks were finished with it." Then Gly wiped the egg from his face, removed the steak from Giordino's plate, dropped it on the floor, and ground his boot in it. "Bon appetit, gentlemen."
He walked from the cell and locked the door behind him.
Giordino and Gunn looked at each other in long silence, a sudden realization growing within them. Then their faces lit up with broad grins that quickly turned into laughter.
"He did it!" Giordino cried, his elation overcoming his pain. "Dirk made it home free!"
<<51>>
The glamour experiments on the space station Columbus centered on the manufacture of exotic medicines, the growth of pure crystals for computer semiconductor chips, and gamma ray observation. But the bread-and-butter activity of the forty-ton settlement on the fringe of the last frontier was the repair and service of satellites.
Jack Sherman, commander of the station, was in the cylinder-shaped maintenance module helping a team of engineers jockey a satellite into a repair cradle when a voice came through the central speaker. "You available, Jack?"
"I'm here."
"Can you come to the command module?"
"What's up?"
"We've got some joker breaking into our communications channel."
"Pipe it down here."
"Better you should come up."
"Give me a couple of minutes."
The satellite secured and the airlock closed, Sherman peeled off his pressure suit and slipped his boots into a pair of slotted rails. Then he walked in a sliding motion through the weightless environment to the brain center of the station.
His chief communications and electronics engineer simply nodded at his approach. "Listen to this." He spoke into a microphone mounted in a control panel. "Please identify yourself again."
There was a slight pause and then "Columbus, this is Jersey Colony. We request permission to dock at your station."
The engineer turned and looked up at Sherman. "What do you think? Must be some weirdo on earth."
Sherman leaned over the panel. "Jersey Colony, or whatever you call yourself, this is a closed NASA channel. You are interfering with space communications procedures. Please break off."
"No way," came the strange voice. "Our lunar transfer vehicle will rendezvous with you in two hours. Please advise us on docking procedures."
"Lunar what?" Sherman's face tightened in anger. "Houston Control, do you copy?"
"We copy," came a voice from the Houston Space Control Center.
"What do you make of it?"
"We're trying to get a fix on it, Columbus. Please stand by."
"I don't know who you are, fella," snapped Sherman, "but you're in deep trouble."
"The name is Eli Steinmetz. Please have medical assistance standing by. I have two injured men onboard."
Sherman pounded a fist on the back of the engineer's chair. "This is crazy."
"Who am I communicating with?" asked Steinmetz.
"This is Jack Sherman, commander of the Columbus."
"Sorry about the abrupt intrusion, Sherman, but I thought you'd been informed of our arrival."
Before Sherman could reply, Houston Control returned. "Columbus, his signals are not coming from earth, repeat, not coming from earth. They originate in space beyond you."
"All right, you guys, what's the gag?"
The voice of NASA's director of Flight Operations broke in. "No gag. Jack, this is Irwin Mitchell. Prepare your crew to receive Steinmetz and his colonists."
"What colonists?"
"About time someone from the `inner core' showed up," said Steinmetz. "For a minute there, I thought we'd have to crash the front gate."
"Sorry, Eli. The President thought it best to keep things quiet until you reached Columbus."
"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Sherman demanded in exasperation.
"Eli will explain when you meet him," answered Mitchell. Then he addressed Steinmetz. "How are the wounded?"
"Resting comfortably, but one will require major surgery. A bullet is lodged near the base of the brain."
"You heard, Jack," said Mitchell. "Alert the crew of the shuttle. They may have to advance their departure."
"I'll take care of it," Sherman said. His voice settled and the tone was calm, but he was far too intelligent not to be bewildered. "Just where in hell does this. . . this Jersey Colony come from?"
"Would you believe the moon?" Mitchell replied.