For a heartbeat or two Vijay didn’t reply. At last she murmured, “You could at least consider it, love. You could be a bit more flexible.”
“No.”
She slid her body against his and ran a hand down his abdomen, to his crotch. “Y’know, love, a hard man is good to find, true enough. But sometimes you’ve got to bend a little.”
Jamie closed his eyes as he felt his body tingle beneath her hand. “You’re using your feminine wiles on me.”
“Just asking you to think clearly, love. Look at all your options. Don’t make up your mind until you’ve explored the different paths that’re open to you.”
He grunted. “You sound like my grandfather.”
He could hear the smile in her voice. “I make you think of your grandfather?”
Jamie reached for her. “You’re a damned good psychologist, you know.”
“That’s right, love. And now it’s time for some physical therapy.”
In Boston it was well past seven p.m.
“Are you going to hide in here all night? We’re almost ready to serve dinner and you haven’t even said hello to our guests yet.” Dex’s wife was frowning at him from the doorway of the big old house’s library. Wearing a skintight, low-cut gown of gold lame, she held a stemmed martini glass in one hand.
Dex looked up from the phone screen and forced a smile. “Just another minute or two. Tell the cook that he works for me, not the other way round.”
His wife’s frown deepened, but she said nothing further, just turned and swept grandly out of his sight.
“Sorry for the interruption,” Dex said to the image in the phone screen.
Rollie Kinnear grinned at him. “Hey, I’ve got a wife, too.”
Dex could see it was midafternoon in Hawaii. Rollie was stretched out on the lanai of his beachfront home, dark glasses over his eyes, garishly bright shirt flapping in the sea breeze.
“She’s throwing a dinner party,” Dex muttered.
“Trying to raise money for you?”
“I wish. She couldn’t care less about Mars.”
“So when do you tell your Indian pal that you’re shutting down the whole operation?”
Dex sucked in a breath. “It’s going to just about kill Jamie, you know.”
“Hey, you know what general Sheridan said about good Indians.” Kinnear laughed.
“I can’t do it in a goddamned message,” said Dex, surprised at his own words. “This is something that’s got to be done face-to-face.”
“So bring him back home and tell him,” Kinnear said, his smile shrinking. “I’ve got investors who’re hot to trot. But they won’t stay hot forever, you know.”
“I know,” Dex said, as he realized what must be done. “There’s a flight going to Mars in three weeks. I’ll go out on it and tell Jamie what’s going down.”
“To Mars? How long’s it going to take you to get all the way out there?”
“Less than a week. The fusion torch ships are fast.”
“Can’t be fast enough,” Kinnear said, totally serious now. “I want to get this deal finalized, Dex. We’re talking major bucks here, pal.”
“I know,” Dex replied. Silently he added, And we’re dealing with a man’s life.
The Village
It was the same dream.
Jamie walked through the village, an unseen ghost among the Martians. They were going about their various businesses as the warm sun baked their adobe structures. Try as he might, Jamie could not get a clear vision of them. He knew they were all around him, moving through the narrow packed-dirt streets, but he couldn’t quite make out what they looked like.
Up on the cliff face far above him the temple buildings stood white and clear in the sunshine. Jamie stood for a long time in the village’s central square and stared up at the temple complex.
Maybe I can go up there and ask them what their writing means, he said to himself. He saw that there were steps carved into the nearly vertical cliff wall. A rugged climb, he thought. They must be terrific climbers. “Ya’aa’tey!”
Whirling around, Jamie saw his grandfather Al, once again in his best black leather vest and the hat with the big drooping brim and silver band circling its crown.
“Ya’aa’tey,” Jamie replied happily, reaching both hands toward his grandfather.
“How’s it goin’, Jamie?” Al asked. “Makin’ any progress?”
“The whites want to bring tourists here,” Jamie said. In his own ears his voice sounded as if he were nine years old.
“Naw, they can’t get here. Not here.”
“That’s right,” Jamie said, feeling relieved. “This village doesn’t exist anymore, does it?”
Al grinned at him, dentures white and even in his weathered, seamed face.
“You don’t get it, do you, grandson? They can’t come here because this village don’t exist yet.”
Tithonium Chasma: The Graveyard
Fifteen people, Jamie thought as he stared at his computer display. Fifteen men and women. Who’s going to stay? Who’d want to stay, under these conditions?
I can’t ask Vijay to risk it, he told himself. She’d want to stay with me, but it’s not fair for me to keep her here. But I can’t send her away, either. I promised her we’d be together, whatever happened. If I stay, she stays. She won’t want to leave, not without me. And I’ve got to stay here. I’ve got to.
His pocket phone buzzed. Flicking it open, he saw Billy Graycloud’s face in the tiny screen. The kid was outside at the dig, clear nanofabric bubble over his head.
“Dr. W, we’ve cleared one grave. You oughtta see it before they start takin’ the bones out.”
“Right,” said Jamie. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
He jumped up from his chair so fast he banged a knee against the wobbly folding table and nearly knocked his laptop to the floor. Stuffing the phone back into his shirt pocket, Jamie rushed to the suit lockers by the main airlock hatch and hurriedly pulled on a nanosuit.
“Not so fast, please.”
Jamie looked up and saw the diminutive Kristin Dvorak, one of the astronauts.
“I am the safety officer today,” she said, in her Middle European accent. “You rush too much, you kill yourself.”
Jamie smiled sheepishly. “I know. It’s just—”
Kristin held up a finger. “I’ll check you out. Make sure you’re sealed up good.”
He stood there like a suspect in a police shakedown while she walked all around him, checking his suit seals, his life-support backpack and their connections to the suit’s metal collar.
“Hokay,” she said, her ballerina-slim face utterly serious. “Now pull up the hood and inflate it.”
Jamie did as he was told. Then she checked the transmission from the radio clipped to his ear. At last Kristin smiled and said, “You are clear for excursion. Have a pleasant day.”
Jamie grinned at her and ducked through the airlock hatch.
Once outside he loped across the stony ground to the edge of the excavation and down the ramp to its bottom. A small crowd was standing off at the far side of the pit, where the cemetery lay. Jamie couldn’t see Carleton among them.
“Dr. W!” Graycloud’s voice. “Come and see this!”
Jamie made his way along the central street of the long-buried village, ancient building foundations dark and low against the reddish ground on either side of him. Nobody was working among them, he saw. They’re all at the graveyard.
“We waited for you, Jamie,” said Carter Carleton. Jamie was surprised to see him in a nanosuit instead of his usual hard-shell.
“I’m sorry if I held you up,” he said, panting a little from his trotting.