The power board, with its blue ceramic antimatter jar, was the most vulnerable point. From where she stood, behind Curtis, it was five or six meters away on the other side of the bank of crts, disk drives, and walls of folded program listings. If she could get at it, she could pull it completely free of the assembly, like pulling a giant plug out of a socket.
The problem was that Curtis still held the gun. She was not afraid to die, if it came to that, but she was afraid to die without stopping him, without even being able to get to the panel.
She pushed herself away from the desk she’d been leaning on and walked toward the front of the cave, keeping her distance from any of the critical parts of the transporter.All told the thing was nearly ten meters long and four or five wide, the oriental folding screen standing in the center like an oversized breadboard in a child’s do-it-yourself electronic kit.The gateway itself was on the far side, out of Molly’s reach, and none of the thick, black power cables led anywhere but to the main power panel.
She kept walking, noticing for the first time in a long while how large the cave actually was. Most of the time it was lighted with pin spots or dim red floods, as if Verb resented the inflexibility of the raw rock walls.The general overhead lights, dim as they were, seemed like a
violation, one more small brutality.
Something flashed at the front of the cave.
The airlock. Somebody wanted in.
Molly glanced back at Curtis; he hadn’t seen.Alonzo was looking over Curtis’s shoulder, and the only one watching the airlock was Hanai. Molly started for the open hatch as quickly as she could without attracting Curtis’s attention, but before she could get within ten meters Hanai blocked her way.
“Don’t do it, Molly,” she said.
“Do you know what’s going on here? Do you know what Curtis is trying to do?”
Hanai shook her head.“That doesn’t matter. Just stay away from that hatch.”
“I’m not trying to get away. I’m just going to close it.”
“I can see the signal as well as you can.You don’t know who’s out there.What if it’s the Russians?”
“What if it is the Russians?” Molly said.“Curtis is crazy. He’s lost it. He’s going to wipe out Moscow. Do you know what that means? Not just that we lose Frontera, which we will, but it means war, nuclear war,bombs dropping on cities,the end of everything.The Russians will have to retaliate, Morgan will get sucked in, and then it’s the end. Everybody dies.”
Before Hanai could answer Molly gently pushed her aside and crossed the open floor in front of the hatch, stepping over Curtis’s empty suit and switching on the intercom mounted on the wall. She tuned it to the standard suit frequency and said,“This is Molly.Who’s out there?”
“Takahashi.The inner door is jammed or something.Can you get it shut?”
Molly looked back at Hanai, who was still wavering.“Yeah, I’ll shut it. But come in fast and get under cover as soon as you’re inside.There’s a world of trouble going down in here.”
“I already know.”
She closed the hatch and stood with her back to it, watching Curtis at the far end of the cave. Keep your head down, she thought. Just don’t look up. She heard the hatch open behind her and twisted her head to see Takahashi move into the shadows of a set of metal shelves.
Hanai moved slowly toward him, as if fighting her instincts.Takahashi
pulled off his helmet and his eyes connected with Hanai’s. She looked
away quickly.
“Is she still with Curtis?” Takahashi asked Molly.
“I don’t know. I think she’s making up her mind. I take it you two know each other.”
“This morning,” Hanai said.“I found Dian—her body, I mean. I think Curtis killed her.”
“Yeah,” Molly said.“I think he did, too.”
“Can we stop him?” Takahashi asked,
“I don’t know,” Molly said.“He’s got a gun. He could kill us both. I think he’d kill any of us if we pushed him.”
“What about Kane?” Takahashi asked.
“Kane?” Molly risked another look at Curtis; he still had his head down, but he could look up at any moment. Now Lena had noticed them and crossed over from the far wall.
“If Kane’s here,”Takahashi said,“we can use him. He can stop Curtis. It’s what he was programmed for.”
Molly turned slowly and looked at the shadows that clung to the walls of the cave, the clutter of equipment and furniture.The idea that Kane was out there somewhere, dazed, obsessive, a pawn to the biotechnology in his brain, gave her chills.
“Kane’s programming is screwed up,” Lena said.“He’s living out some kind of Greek mythology fantasy.We can’t count on him.”
“Can we count on you?” Takahashi asked.
“Depends on what you want,” Lena said, and Molly could see the claustrophobic tension of the flight from Earth in her sudden anger. “I’m with you against Curtis.”
“Then somebody,” Molly said,“for Christ’s sake think of something. There’s less than an hour left.”
“What about her?” Takahashi asked, pointing at Hanai.
“I’ll help,” Hanai said.“But I want protection from Curtis.Whatever it takes, even if it means taking me back to Earth.”
“You’ll be okay,” Molly said.
“That’s not good enough. I want a promise.”
“I promise,”Molly said.“I’ll do whatever I can to protect you from him.”
“I want to know where Kane is,”Takahashi said.“I still think he’s our best chance.”
“He’s here,” Lena said.“He was coming here, anyway.”
“Then I’m going to look for him.” Takahashi pulled off his suit and moved quietly into the darkness.
“We better break this up,” Hanai said. She was looking past Molly’s left shoulder, and Molly turned to see one of the other guards moving toward them. It was Iain—whose hero thing, Molly remembered, had been a solo rover expedition to the Mutch Memorial Station, site of the first Viking landing, where he’d snapped off the soil sampling arm and brought it back as a trophy.
“What’s this about?” he said, and Molly shook her head at him.
“Nothing,” she said.
“Let’s just get away from this hatch, then, eh?” he said.“And you, Molly, come back with me. I want you where I can keep my eyes on you.” He put one hand on Molly’s arm, and she shook him away fiercely.
“Don’t touch me.”
He held up both hands.“Right. Just let’s move along, okay?”
She walked away from him, crossed the cluttered floor to stand next to Curtis. He and Alonzo were staring at an odd-shaped polygon on the crt.The shape reminded her of an Apollo spacecraft for a second, the heat-shield pointed slightly up and to the right.Then she noticed the fainter lines surrounding it.
The Kremlin, then, and the upper right corner was Red Square.
“Phenomenal,” Curtis said.“Un-fucking-believable.”
“Curtis,” Molly said.
“Don’t start.”
“Will you listen to me for just thirty seconds? Will you think about what you’re doing? Do you think this is some kind of video game you’re playing?”
Curtis glanced up from the screen, checking the disposition of his troops.“Iain,” he said,“shut her up, will you?”
She glared at Iain, who shifted his feet uncomfortably.“What exactly do you want me to do with her?”
Curtis handed him the Luger.“Take her out of my way and watch her. Use the gun if you have to, but for Christ’s sake don’t hit any of the equipment.”
“That’s right, Iain,” Molly said.“You wouldn’t want to damage anything valuable.”
Curtis turned in his chair to stare at her with a look of angry impa
tience.“Shut up.” Above the crt a digital display clock read 23:11. Nineteen minutes left.
Moscow coming in,” Chaadayev said. “All right,” Mayakenska said into the radio. Her heart was pounding and she didn’t know whether to be terrified or to try, somehow, to pray.