Saleh snorted. "Oh, it's a trade agreement, all right— Allerton is moving to open up an independent pipeline to the alien marketplace."
"Or Colonel Meredith is," Msuya offered, shaking his head. "I'm not really sure whose side Meredith is on these days."
"Forget your doubts. He's an American soldier on American-claimed soil. Any rifts that appear are purely for show."
"Perhaps. But either way I submit that it's high time the UN made a move to assert its rights on Astra."
"Your economic embargo of the colony, I presume?"
Msuya nodded. "Whatever agreement Meredith—or Allerton—is setting up, the Rooshrike can't deliver food that we don't let off the Earth."
"The Americans have their own starships—"
"Which now use Ctencri drives and are supplied from the ground by Ctencri shuttles. We can cut off the flow of spare parts and fuel cylinders any time we want. It would take months or longer for them to get their older shuttle fleet back in service."
Saleh pondered. He hadn't liked this idea much when Msuya first proposed it, and he didn't like it any better now. To deliberately put his hands to the throat of a colony he himself had helped set up … but, then, it undoubtedly wouldn't come to that. The Americans would back down before they'd let their people starve.
"You're sure their own crops won't be adequate?"
"Positive. Even after harvest, crop yield analysis can be done very accurately."
"And if the Rooshrike open up a shipping route to Earth … ?" Saleh smiled and answered his own question. "We don't let them, of course. Earth is technically within Ctencri borders, and we could simply ask them to keep Rooshrike traders out. Very well; I'll put the matter before Allerton this afternoon, give him a chance to back off on his Rooshrike deal."
"Why bother? You'll just give him that much more time to prepare for the embargo."
"Because if we proceed with so drastic an action," Saleh said coldly, "I want the world community to have no doubt that it was fully justified."
And whether it actually was or not was almost incidental. That much, at least, every politician knew.
Secretary of State Joshua Purvis looked about as surprised as Allerton had ever seen him. "What Rooshrike treaties?" he asked.
Allerton shrugged helplessly. "I gather it's something Meredith has initiated on his own, for whatever reasons. We won't know for sure for at least another week, until the Pathfinder comes in. Possibly not even then."
"So what'd you tell the Lord High Secretary-General?"
"I tried to stall, of course—told him that I couldn't take any action or make any statements until I had Astra's own report on what was going on out there."
"He buy it?"
"Not really. He offered to fly a U.S. representative out in one of their new Ctencri ships to assess the situation and give any appropriate orders." Allerton paused, then picked up a piece of paper from in front of him and handed it across the desk.
"Complicating matters, I'm sure, a Ctencri ship arrived only half an hour ago and delivered this to Saleh's people. I don't suppose it improved his patience any."
Purvis scanned the paper briefly. "This is, what, the results of the Rooshrike tests on their Spinneret cable? … Holy mullah." He looked at Allerton. "This has to be a misprint, John. A billion pounds per square inch?"
"Check the footnote—that's a minimum tensile strength. Apparently even the Rooshrike weren't able to break it."
"But a billion pounds per square inch?" Purvis fumbled with his calculator. "That means … one of those cables could lift over two million tons. That's half a fully loaded supertanker."
"And don't forget it's less dense even than water, let alone normal metals,"
Allerton pointed out. "Now remember that superglue coating and its unique superconducting properties, and consider that Saleh thinks we're trying to keep all of it for ourselves."
Purvis studied the paper for another few seconds, then put it back on the President's desk. "I think," he said quietly, "that we'd better figure out right away exactly what our policy position here is—and then make sure Meredith is operating in line with it." He hesitated. "Whether we're willing to go on being unpopular with the rest of the world because of Astra is your decision, of course.
But I think that stand could use a little reevaluation."
"In other words, you think we should knuckle under to Saleh and just hand over Astra and the Spinneret to the UN?"
"I didn't say that." Purvis shrugged. "But an embargo of food to Astra would be hard if not disastrous for them, and it's only the tip of the iceberg as far as Saleh's options go. Legally, we may have some mandate rights to the Spinneret cable, but in practice as long as Saleh's got the Ctencri in his pocket he can keep us from getting a single strand of the stuff. In any real confrontation the Aurora and Pathfinder might as well be space-going tuna boats."
Allerton grimaced. "You think the Ctencri would give the UN armed ships?"
"Before the Spinneret came along they apparently wouldn't even give us advanced star drives; Saleh's now got two. I think the Ctencri see a chance to get in good with the official owners of Astra and are grabbing it. Who knows how far they're prepared to go to protect their investment?"
"Yeah." Allerton sighed. "Well, then, I suppose we'd better take Saleh up on his offer of a lift out to Astra. Try to straighten things out as quickly as possible."
"You want me to go?"
"No … no, I think I might just go myself." He smiled lopsidedly at Purvis's expression. "Come on, Josh—space travel's supposed to be as easy as crossing the Delaware these days. And a lot safer."
"Unless Saleh decides he'd like you put on indefinite hold," the other said bluntly.
"In which case you could hardly give him a better opportunity."
Allerton waved the objection aside. "Saleh's neither strong enough nor desperate enough to kidnap a head of state. Not yet, anyway."
"Maybe," Purvis said. "Maybe not."
"It's so nice to be invited here, for a change," Perez commented as he sank into the chair across from Meredith. "Usually I have to bully your secretary to let me in."
Meredith's expression remained studiously neutral, and Perez mentally crossed off the possibility that the colonel had a social chat in mind. "I understand," Meredith said, "that you're thinking about the possibilities of making some spending money off the Spinneret cable."
"That's right," Perez nodded. "And I understand you're actually going to do so."
The colonel's eyebrows rose fractionally. "Miss Olivero told you?"
"She confirmed what I'd already guessed. Was it supposed to be a secret?"
Meredith smiled sardonically. "Don't you wish. Secret deals by the corrupt military dictator—it would have been made to order for you."
"That's a little unfair. Colonel," Perez said, feeling his face warming."I don't deliberately distort the truth—I just try and keep others from doing so."
"Of course." Meredith tapped computer keys and swiveled the screen toward his visitor. "Well, here's a little bit of truth for you—see what you think."
Perez leaned forward. Preliminary Analysis of Alien Cable, he read … and suddenly he knew what this was. "It's the Rooshrike test results, isn't it? Is this why you're keeping the trade deal quiet?"
"We've been keeping the negotiations quiet; no deals have been made yet. After all, we needed to know more about the cable in order to fix a fair price for it."
"You're going to use the Rooshrike's own numbers for that purpose?"