36
IMPACT COURSE
Francesca had also been startled when the lights of Rama had suddenly begun to flash. Her initial impulse had been to run inside, just under the roof of the barn. Once there, she felt slightly more protected. What’s going on now? she thought as the reflected lights from the adjacent buildings forced her to close her eyes to keep from becoming dizzy.
When she heard Nicole’s cry for help, Francesca started to rush over to help her fellow cosmonaut. However, she tripped on one of the spheres and banged her knee as she fell. When she rose, Francesca could see in the strobing light that Nicole’s position was very precarious. Only the backs of Nicole’s shoes were visible. Francesca stood quite still and waited. Her mind had already raced ahead. She had a nearly perfect image of the pits in her memory, including a fairly accurate assessment of the depth. Ifshe falls she’ll be injured, she thought, maybe even killed. Francesca remembered the smooth walk. She won’t be able to climb out.
The flashing lights gave an eerie overtone to the scene. As Francesca watched, she saw Nicole’s body rise barely out of the pit and her hands scramble for a hold on the lip. In the next flashes of light the shoes changed angle with respect to the pit and then abruptly disappeared. Francesca heard no scream.
If she had not controlled herself, Francesca would have hurried over to the pit and looked into it. TVb, she said to herself, still standing amid the small spheres, ! must not look. If by chance she is still conscious, she might see me. Then I will have no options.
Already Francesca was thinking about the possibilities offered by Nicole’s fall. She was certain, based on their earlier exchange, that Nicole intended to do her utmost to prove that Borzov had ingested a pain-inducing drug on the last day of his life. It might be possible for Nicole even to identify the particular compound and then eventually, since it was not common, to trace its purchase back to Francesca. The scenario was unlikely, even implausible. But it could happen.
Francesca remembered using her special permits to buy the dimethyldexfl, along with a batch of other items, at a hospital pharmacy in Copenhagen two years earlier. At the time there had been a suggestion that the drug, in very small doses, could produce mild reelings of euphoria in highly stressed individuals. A single journal article in an obscure Swedish mental health publication the following year had contained the information that sizable doses of dimethyldexil would produce acute pain that simulated an appendicitis.
As Francesca walked rapidly away from the barn in a northerly direction, her agile mind worked through all the possibilities. She was performing her usual risk!reward trade-off. The primary issue she was facing, now that she had left Nicole in the pit, was whether or not to tell the truth about Nicole’s fall. But why did you leave her there? somebody would ask. Why didn’t you radio us that she had fallen and stand by until help could arrive?
Because I was confused and frightened and the lights were flashing. And Richard had sounded so very concerned about our leaving. I thought it would be easier for us to all talk together at the helicopter. Was that believable? Barely. But it was easy to keep straight. So I still have the partial truth option, Francesca thought as she passed the octahedron near the central plaza. She realized she had walked too far to the east, checked her personal navigator, and then changed her direction. The lights of Rama continued to flash.
And what are my other choices:” Wakefield talked with us just outside the barn. He knows where we were. A search party would definitely find her.
Unless… Francesca thought again about the possibility that Nicole might eventually implicate her in the drugging of General Borzov. The resulting scandal would certainly result in a messy investigation and probably a criminal indictment. In any case, Francesca’s reputation would be sullied and her future career as a journalist would be seriously compromised.
With Nicole out of the picture, on the other hand, there was virtually zero probability that anyone would ever learn that Francesca had drugged Borzov. The only person who knew the facts was David Brown, and he had been a co-conspirator. Besides, he had even more to lose than she did.
So the issue, Francesca thought, is whether or not I can make up a believable story that both reduces the chance Nicole will be found and does not implicate me if she is. That’s a very difficult task.
She was nearing the Cylindrical Sea. Her personal navigator told her that she was only six hundred meters away. Dammit, Francesca answered herself after thinking very carefully about her situation, ! don’t really have a completely safe option. I mil have to choose one or the other. Either way there’s a significant risk.
Francesca stopped moving north and paced back and forth between two skyscrapers. As she was walking, the ground underneath her feet began to tremble. Everything was shaking. She dropped to her knees to steady herself. She heard Janos Tabori’s voice very faintly on the radio. “It’s all right, everybody, don’t be alarmed. It looks as if our vehicle is undergoing a maneuver. That must have been what the warnings were all about… By the way, Nicole, where are you and Francesca? Hiro and Richard are about to take off in the helicopter.”
“I’m close to the sea, maybe two minutes away,” Francesca answered. “Nicole went back to check on something.”
“Roger,” Janos replied. “Are you there, Nicole? Do you copy, cosmonaut des Jardins?”
There was silence on the radio.
“As you know, Janos,” Francesca interjected, “communications are very spotty from here. Nicole knows where to meet the helicopter. She’ll be along quickly, I’m certain.” She paused a moment. “Say, where are the others? Is everyone all right?”
“Brown and Heilmann are on the radio with Earth. ISA management will be completely freaked out now. They were already demanding that we leave Rama before this maneuver began.”
“We’re just boarding the helicopter,” Richard Wakefield said. “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
It’s done. I’ve made my choice, Francesca said to herself when Richard was finished. She was surprisingly elated. Immediately she began to rehearse her story. “We were near the large octahedron in the central plaza when Nicole spotted an alley off to our right that we had not noticed before. The street leading to the alley was extremely narrow and she remarked that it was probably a region where communications could not penetrate. I was already tired — we had been walking so fast. She told me to go ahead to the helicopter…”
“And you never saw her again?” Richard Wakefield interrupted. Francesca shook her head. Richard was standing on the ice next to her. Beneath them the ice was vibrating as the long maneuver continued. The lights were now on. They had stopped their flashing when the maneuver began.
Pilot Yamanaka was sitting in the cockpit of his helicopter. Richard checked his watch. “It’s almost five minutes since we landed here. Something must have happened to her.” He glanced around. “Maybe she’s coming out somewhere else.”
Richard and Francesca climbed into the helicopter and Yamanaka took off. They cruised up and down the island coast, twice circling over the solitary icemobile. “Edge into New York,” Wakefield commanded. “Maybe we’ll be able to spot her.”
From the helicopter it was virtually impossible to see the ground in the city. The “copter had to fly above the tallest buildings. The streets were very narrow and the shadows played games with the eyes. Once Richard thought he saw something moving between the buildings, but it turned out to be an optical illusion.