Empire Builders (23 page)
THIRTY
THAT EVENING, AFTER dinner, after Tamara had gone back to her own room, Dan asked Big George to come with him. He did not say where until they were well out of the hotel, riding a powered walkway through the underground corridors that led to the Astro office complex.
THIRTY-ONE“Kate Williams?” George was aghast. “The one who’s running Astro now? Are you out of your looking mind?”
“I’ve got to see her,” Dan said grimly.
“You’ll get us all caught and sent to the penal colony!” “You can go back to the hotel if you want to.”
“What good would that do? They catch you, they pump you full of babble juice, and then they catch us.” “I wish I had some truth serum with me right now.”
George shook his smooth-cheeked face. Under Dan’s orders he had faithfully shaved every morning, complaining loudly each time about the pain to his sensitive skin.
“Let me get this straight,” George said as they rode past homebound Astro employees heading the other way. “You’re going to go back to your office, say hello to her and ask her to spill her guts to you?”
“Something like that.”
“You’re looking daft, my friend.”
“She screwed me out of my company!” Dan blurted. “And now you want to rape her? Is that it?”
“No!”
“Then what?”
“I want to-” He hesitated, groping for words. “I want to make her know that she hasn’t finished me. I want to spit in her eye and tell her that I’m going to take back everything she’s stolen from me. And I’ll break her back in the process. Figuratively, not literally.” “And the thought of sticking it to her has never crossed your mind,” George said.
“Well...”
“It’s a fooking enormous risk, just to impress a woman.”
Dan shrugged. The big kid is right, he knew. This is crazy. But I’ve got to do it. I can’t leave the Moon without seeing the expression on her face when I tell her that I’m going to get even.
“You had a lot of women in your day, didn’t you?” George asked. Dan looked sideways at him. “In my day.”
“I’ve only been with the ladies over at the camps on Nubium.” A sorry bunch, Dan knew. But he said, “In the dark, pal, all cats are gray.”
“I’ve heard that,” George said. “Is it really true?”
The big kid looked almost melancholy. Dan could not lie to him. “No, it’s not, Georgie. Women are as various and marvelous as fine wines. You can spend your life tasting and still not be halfway through the list.”
George brightened considerably. “Really?”
“There’s hope for you, Georgie. Why don’t you try smiling back at some of the women who watch you in the gym?”
“Oh, I don’t think—“
“Try it. Break the ice. They’ll come over and talk to you. You’ll see.”
They were coming to the end of the powered walkway. Beyond lay the corridors of the Astro complex. Glancing at his wristwatch,
Dan saw that it was well past nine P.M. Most of the regular staff was gone, even the eager beavers who worked late. But if Kate’s taken over my office, then she’s probably living in my quarters as well. If she’s not in one of them she’ll be in the other.
Mad dogs and Englishmen, thought Zachary Freiberg as he jogged along the broad, flat Santa Monica beach in the noonday sun. The surf was down, but the public beach was busy with shapely young ladies in skimpy bikinis sunning themselves while muscular young men showed off for them, playing volleyball, hoisting weights, or just flexing well-oiled biceps. They’d better be well oiled with sunblock, Zach thought, or else the UV coming through what’s left of the ozone layer will give ‘em all skin cancer.
There was a lot of skin visible to worry about. Zach felt distinctly out of place, old and puffing and potbellied, in his sweat stained running suit.
He had bolted from his office, unable to stand the pressure that was building up inside him. Invited to an international conference on the greenhouse effect being held at a hotel just minutes from his CalTech office, Zach had been refused permission to attend by the GEC bureaucrats who feared “a premature disclosure of the impending crisis that would cause widespread public panic and have a deleterious effect on the global economic balance.”
I should have told them to shove it and gone to the conference anyway, Zach said to himself as he jogged along the beach. Yeah, and then they’d send you to Zaire or Patagonia or some other sweetheart of a location, you and Jessie and the kids too.
Premature disclosure. They’d better disclose something soon.
Time’s ticking away and from what I can see all they’re doing is holding conferences of their own and shuffling papers. And trying to keep the lid on the situation.
He stared at the soft swells surging in toward the beach. Is it my imagination or is the beach narrower than it was last year? I ought to call the local parks department and have them make a measurement.
“Hey, Zach! Wait up!”
Surprised, Zach halted and turned to see who was calling him, one hand raised to his brow to shield his eyes.
He recognized Terry O’Doul loping across the sand toward him, suit jacket swinging from one hand, shoes in the other, shirt unbuttoned, a big grin on his lantern-jawed face.
“What on earth are you doing here?” Zach blurted as the lanky O’Doul caught up with him.
“Why the hell weren’t you at the conference?” O’Doul shot back. “It was right around the corner from your office, for god’s sake. You were invited, weren’t you?”
Zach tried to keep the bitterness from showing. “I was too busy, Terry. Couldn’t make it.” “Too busy—jogging?”
The hell of the GEC’s security measures was that Zach was not allowed to tell anyone why he was not allowed to say anything. “Come on.” He pointed toward the refreshment stand up the beach. “I’ll buy you a beer.”
They talked about the conference, the papers delivered, the people who were there, as they sat in the shade of the refreshment stand’s awning. Neither of them drank much of their beer.
“Everybody was asking for you,” O’Doul said. “Brudnoy was especially disappointed that you didn’t show up.”
“Couldn’t be helped,” Zach muttered. “Why not?”
“I told you. I’m too busy.” “Doing what?”
Zach did not answer.
“Your work’s related to the greenhouse, isn’t it?” O’Doul probed, his eyes showing more curiosity than suspicion. “We all expected you to give us the latest on what the new landers have found on Venus.”
Zach gave a single shake of his head and reached for his beer. “What the hell is it, Zach? What’s wrong? This is me, Terry, remember? We used to make up limericks about Brudnoy when we were in grad school, remember? You can tell me.”
“No,” Zach said. “I can’t.” “Why not?”
He gulped at the beer, almost strangled on it. Sputtering, he managed to choke out, “Job security.” “I don’t understand.”
Zach coughed down the beer, cleared his throat. His old class mate was staring at him, alarmed, worried about him.
“Listen, Terry, you still go down to Antarctica every winter?” “It’s summer down there.”
“To McMurdo?”
“Yes, most of the time. I make a trip to the station at the pole now and again.”
“I shouldn’t be telling you even this much,” Zach said, lowering his voice. “But you’d better start drawing up plans for evacuating those bases.”
“Evacuate? McMurdo?.” “All the Antarctic bases.” “But why?”
Zach flicked a glance at the youngster running the refreshment stand. He was at the other end of the stand, chatting with a couple of bikini-clad teenagers.
“Because all the bases in Antarctica are sitting on top of a mile-thick sheet of ice.” “So?”
“So the ice isn’t going to be there.” “What?”
“It’s going to melt down, Terry. It’s probably started melting already.” O’Doul’s expression went from incredulous to thoughtful.
“Well, the Ross shelf has thinned noticeably, but that’s just a long- term climate swing. The ice will thicken up again with the next sunspot cycle.”
Zach said nothing. “Won’t it?”
“Be prepared to evacuate. Just in case the ice keeps on melting regardless of the sunspot cycle.” “What are you trying to tell me?,” O’Doul asked.
Zach got down from his stool. “I’ve already told you too much. Got to get back to the office now. It was good to see you, Terry. Don’t tell anybody you saw me, okay?”
He started trotting to the parking lot where he had left his car, leaving O’Doul standing there scratching his head.
“But you haven’t even been here two weeks!” Kate Williams said, nearly shouting. Kimberly slumped in one of the chairs in front of Kate’s desk.
“There’s nothing to do here. It’s a bore.”
“Nothing to do? What about flying in the big dome, or low-g acrobatics? There’s—“ “It’s a bore!”
Kimberly snapped. “Everybody up here is boring. A bunch of Japanese who stick to themselves and some Americans who’ve mostly engineer nerds. I don’t need this! I want to go back.” Kate held her breath, trying to make herself as calm as possible before replying to her sister. In just two weeks Kim had gained a healthy bit of weight, gotten some color in her cheeks. Good diet and regular exercise under the carefully metered full-spectrum lamps in the gym had done more for her than months in the rehab clinic. “You can’t go back,” Kate said, keeping her voice soft and even. “There’s no one back on Earth for you to go to, unless you want to return to the clinic.”
Kimberly gave her a self-satisfied smile. “Rafe invited me to visit him in Italy .”
Kate felt her jaw drop open. The breath gushed out of her so hard she could not answer.
“I’ll be staying with his family, so it’ll be okay. They have a beautiful place down below Naples . He’s shown me pictures on the phone and he even sent me a set of holograms. It’s a gorgeous estate” “Absolutely not!” Kate nearly screamed. “You’re not going to see him!”
Kim’s smile turned nasty. “Have I taken your boyfriend away from you?” “I forbid it! You’re not leaving this city.”
“Hey, you don’t own me!”
“Oh no? Where did you think you were going to get the fare?” “Rare will send it.”
“The hell he will! I’ll impound it. You’re still a minor, legally.” Kimberly’s tawny eyes flashed with anger. “Then I’ll raise the money myself.”
“And how are you going to do that? What kind of job do you think you can get up here?” “Same as anywhere.”
“Get out!” Kate screamed. “Get out of here, you little whore? Smirking, Kim got to her feet and started for the door.
“You’re confined to your room,” Kate called after her. “I’m going to instruct security that you’re not to be allowed out and no one but me is allowed in. You’ll sit in there until I can talk some sense into you.”
“You’re just jealous,” Kim said, without a trace of anger. She was almost smiling as she spoke. “I thought you were finished with Rafe. Well, anyway, he’s finished with you now.”
She left, closing the door gently behind her.
Kate sank her head in her hands. Kimberly. Kimberly. That bastard Rare is just using you to keep his power over me. I’ve got to explain that to her, tell her the whole story. Will she believe me? Probably not. Can I keep her here, keep her from running back to Earth and into Rafe’s arms?
She sat up straighter in her desk chair. I’ll keep Kimberly here, no matter what it takes. If I have to break both her legs I’ll keep her out of that bastard’s clutches. No matter what. No matter what.
She called security and explained that she wanted her sister confined to her room. The woman on the phone screen promised to send a robot to Kimberly’s door.
Then Kate leaned back in her chair and lowered the room’s lights. For long hours she reclined there, letting the chair’s softly yielding surface soothe her, relax her. She drifted into a light, troubled sleep.
And awoke when she sensed someone stepping into the office.
Blinking her gummy eyes, she saw the figure of a man standing before the desk. In the shadowy light she could not quite make out his face, but she knew who it was anyway.
“Hello, Dan. I was wondering when you’d show up.”
SITTING AT MY desk drowsing, Dan saw. A line from Hamlet came to his mind: “Now might I do it pat.”
Kate stirred, eyes fluttering. “Hello, Dan. I was wondering when you’d show up.” As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, he came around the desk.
Resisting an urge to grab her and yank her out of his chair, Dan made himself sit on the corner of the desk. He folded his hands in his lap.
“Couldn’t leave without saying good-bye, Scarlett.” “You’re leaving?”
He nodded solemnly. “Going back to Earth.”
“Then coming here was a pretty silly thing to do,” Kate said. “I know.”
“But you couldn’t leave without coming to see me,” she said, looking up at him. Kate laughed softly. “I knew it. My security people went apeshit after you escaped. But once you registered at the hotel-”
“You knew about that?”
“That little old man you’ve got with you is pretty good at hacking into computers, but we’ve got the real experts.”
Dan marveled at the news. “You knew and you didn’t do anything?”
“I wanted to see what ‘Mr. Wilcox’ was up to. I didn’t have to send anybody out searching for you. I figured you’d come here, sooner or later. You couldn’t stay away, could you?”
“No, I guess I couldn’t.”
Leaning further back in the chair, Kate put her feet on the desk. Dan saw that she was wearing softboots, and the clinging fabric of her slacks outlined her calves and thighs tantalizingly.
“So what happens now?” Kate asked. “You going to tear my clothes off and rape me?”
Dan grinned down at her. “I imagine your security people are already watching us, aren’t they? How much of a show do you want to give them?”
“We’re not being watched. Oh, the office is locked tight now. One-way locks. I had them installed right after your friends sprang you. You can’t get out until I call security to come in and open the door from the other side.”
“That’s cozy.”
“We’re not bugged, either. I have my own people go over this office twice a day.” Curious, he asked, “Who would bug you?”
She laughed again; Dan thought it sounded bitter. “Lots of people bug me, Dan. Lots of them.” “Like me?”
“You? You’re the least of my worries.” That stung. “Then who?”
She straightened up in the chair, planted her feet firmly on the carpeted floor. “Do you know a GEC Councilman named Gaetano? Rafaelo Gaetano?”
“The representative from United Europe.”
“From the Mafia, you mean.” Dan felt his eyebrows hike up. Kate nodded. “That’s what I said. The Mafia. They’ve got their hooks into this global conversion program, and they plan to take charge of the whole operation.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’ve been working for them, how else? Gaetano has a hold on me and he’s forced me to let them infiltrate Astro.” “So I heard.”
“From who?” “Never mind.”
“The Duchamps woman? I transferred her out of here so she’d be out of Gaetano’s way.” “Somebody tried to kill her.”
“Jesus Christ! Murder?”
“Why not? They’re good at it. Centuries of experience.”
“This is getting too heavy.”
Feeling a different sort of anger heating his blood, Dan jabbed an accusing finger at her. “You think that milking the conversion program isn’t going to kill people? By the millions? What the hell do they care, as long as they come out on top.”
Kate nodded grimly. “I suppose that’s right.” “And Malik’s in with them, I bet.”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “Oh, sure, Malik’s efforts to get all the major industries under GEC control is making it easy for the crime syndicate to move in.”
“Yeah,” Dan said disgustedly. “Malik ties up everybody hand and foot and the crooks come in and pick their pockets.”
“Something like that.”
“So how do you like working for Gaetano and his family?” “I’d like to kill him,” said Kate.
Dan cocked his head at her. “That shouldn’t be too tough for you to do. You’re sleeping with him, right?”
“I can’t.”
“Don’t like the sight of blood?”
“I told you, he’s got a hold on me. My sister. If I kill him, I’m certain they’ll send somebody to kill her. And then me.”
Her eyes strayed to a framed photograph on the desk. In the dim lighting, Dan could make out a young woman’s face, long hair billowing, a strong resemblance to Kate.
“So you want me to do your wet work.”
“You don’t have to kill him,” Kate said. “Just expose him. Him and his whole rotten scheme. The law will do the rest.”
“The same law that screwed me out of my company?”
Kate got to her feet and stood eye to eye with Dan. “That’s right. The same law.” He grinned at her righteous anger. “Why should I help you?”
“I thought you wanted to save the world.”
“Looks like the world doesn’t really want to be saved. And I’ve got my own neck to worry about, thanks to you. And Malik.” Kate studied his face in the low, shadowy lighting for a long moment. Then
she turned away and stepped to the farther corner of the desk.
she turned away and stepped to the farther corner of the desk.
“You really don’t have much of an option, Dan. You are a wanted fugitive. All I have to do is call out for security and they’ll burst in here and arrest you.”
His grin widened. “And all I have to do is agree to get Gaetano for you and you’ll let me waltz out of here?”
“That’s my offer. Take it or leave it.”
“You’d trust me once I’m back on Earth, out of your control?” “I know you, Dan Randolph. More than anything else you want to get even with Malik. Destroying Gaetano will go a long way toward toppling Malik, as well. You can see that.”
“Maybe.”
“And beyond that, you really do want to save the world from this greenhouse disaster, don’t you?” “Maybe,” he repeated, more softly.
“So?”
“So if I go after Gaetano, won’t that still be dangerous for you? And your sister?”
Kate shook her head. “They’ll see the great Dan Randolph attacking them. They won’t even think about me.”
“I could get myself killed.”
“You’ve got nine lives,” Kate said, almost sneering.
“Maybe I did once,” he muttered. “I’ve got a feeling that a lot of them have been used up.”
She put both her hands flat on the desktop, leaning forward slightly. “That’s the deal, Dan. I’ll supply you with all the data you need. You nail Gaetano for me.”
“Or else?”
“Or else I call security and we send you to Malik with an airtight guard around you.” “Hmm.”
“And we sweep up all your friends, as well. The big Australian and your old computer hacker and all the other illegals who’ve hiding around Alphonsus.”
“You make a strong case for yourself, Scarlett.’ She did not smile. “Well?”
“There’s something I want,” said Dan. “You’re in no position to bargain.”
Ignoring that, he replied, “I want Tamara Duchamps protected. She’s got nothing to do with this game, there’s no reason for her to get hurt.”
“She knows enough for them to want to eliminate her.”
“I want your absolute guarantee of her safety,” Dan insisted. “Otherwise no deal.”
“I can’t give guarantees, Dan.”
“You keep her here under your personal keen eye, Scarlett. Protect her the way you’d protect your sister. You can do that much.”
She thought a moment. “Dan, I could agree to that. But it’d be a lie. I can’t protect her. I don’t even know if I can protect my sister and myself. Do you think I’d be asking you for your help if I felt safe here?”
It was Dan’s turn to be silent, thinking. She’s telling the truth, he realized. She’s scared and she knows she can’t protect Tamara now that the goons are after her.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll take the kid with me. But I want your promise that you’ll leave those other people alone. They’re not hurting you. They’re no threat to anybody.”
“The illegals?” Kate made a disdainful little huff. “They can stay. It’d be more trouble to round them up than it’s worth.”
“Deal?” he asked.
She let a smile curve her lips. “Deal.”
Dan put out his hand. Reaching across the length of the desk, Kate extended hers. They shook hands briefly. But Dan did not let go of her.
“One more thing,” he said. “I’m curious. If I had ever made a serious move on you, how would you have reacted?”
Kate pulled her hand free. “You’re a hopeless chauvinist to the bitter end, aren’t you? I’m not a person to you, I’m a goddamned set of sex organs!”
Dan raised both hands in mock surrender. “Just asking!” He backed away from the desk, then added, “Didn’t you ever even think about it?”
“Hardly ever,” Kate snapped. “Hardly ever?”
“Security code four-eight-four!” she called out. The phone responded, “Doors unlocked.”
“Now get the hell out of here,” Kate said, “before I change my mind and call a live team to arrest you.” “Okay,” said Dan. “But I’ll need the data you told me about.”
“I’ll send it to Wilcox’s suite at the hotel.” “And you’ll leave the illegals alone?” “Yes,” she snapped.
“That’s a promise, now.”
“You have my word,” said Kate.
Dan nodded, thinking to himself, Not as solid as a written contract but it’ll have to do.
Jane Scanwell felt utterly weary as she stepped from the limousine and went to the front door of her apartment building. The chauffeur waited, standing almost at attention beside the limo, until the electronic lock clicked and the ornate iron-grilled door swung open.
I wonder if limousines can be converted to electric motors, Jane mused idly as the lift carried her to her floor. The only electric cars I’ve ever seen are so little. It will be ironic if we have to give up some of our luxuries. But it might help in the public relations aspect of the program—if we ever get to the point where we reveal the program to the public.
She almost missed the note that had been slipped under the door. It was in a small off-white envelope, lying on the parqueted floor of the entry.
Frowning, she bent down and picked up the envelope. No return address. No writing on it at all. She put her purse down on the table beneath the mirror and opened the envelope. It was not even sealed.
ALIVE AND WELL AND LIVING IN PARIS . MEET ME AT THE TOP OF THE EIFFEL TOWER TOMORROW AT HIGH NOON. YOU KNOW WHO.
Dan! Suddenly Jane’s knees went weak and she sagged against the little table for support.
Dan. He’s alive and well and in Paris . She struggled for a moment to regain her breath. The fool! The stupid, arrogant wonderful fool. In Paris . He’s not dead. He’s here and he wants to see me.
She thought she would be unable to sleep, but Jane drifted off easily that night, her dreams filled with images of Dan and Morgan and Vasily Malik, all jumbled together. The next morning, dressed in a skirted suit of deep burgundy over a soft pink tailored blouse, she could hardly keep still in the office.
You’re behaving like a silly schoolgirl, she berated herself. Yes, a voice in her mind answered. Isn’t it marvelous? Jane did not even notice the drizzling rain until she went down to the porte cochere. The uniformed guard asked if she wanted a limousine called up.
“No, thank you,” said Jane, thinking that the limo drivers were GEC employees and kept records of who went where. “A taxi, please.”
Taxi companies kept records, too, so Jane told the driver to take her to the old Hilton Hotel. It had been bought and sold a dozen times in the past few decades, but still the taxi drivers knew it as the Hilton.
Instead of going to the hotel’s restaurant, Jane went to the clothing store in the lobby and purchased an umbrella for an extravagant price. Then she walked in the chill drizzle the few blocks to the Eiffel Tower . Hardly anyone was there in the gray misty weather. She rode the elevator to the top with a young Oriental couple who seemed to be honeymooners, smiling at each other, oblivious of the weather and of the city spreading around them as the elevator rose higher and higher.
The wind was so strong up at the top that Jane feared her umbrella would be torn from her grasp if she opened it. So she hovered in the scant shelter offered by the elevator tube. Where’s Dan ? she wondered, glancing at her wristwatch. It wasquarter past noon .
“Late, as usual.”
She spun around and he was standing before her, plastic rain hat pulled low over his face, trench-coat collar turned up, grinning like a teenager.
Jane flung her arms around his neck and they kissed until even the honeymooners noticed. “I thought you were dead,” she said when they separated slightly.
“I thought you wouldn’t give a damn.”
“Oh, Dan, let’s stop fighting. No matter what’s happened in the past, no matter what’s going to happen in the future, I love you. I can’t fight it any more. I love you.”
“And I’ve loved you ever since I first met you, Jane. All these years I’ve tried to hide it, even from myself. But I love you. You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved.”
Over lunch at the tower’s restaurant Jane brought him up to date on the GEC’s plans and politics. And the Mafia’s interference. And Jeff Robertson’s murder.
“So Rafe has actually declined the Council chair, leaving the way clear for Vasily to be elected,” she was saying.
Dan frowned at the news. “That means that Malik’s in with them.”
“I’ve been wondering about that. I don’t think he’s working for the crime syndicate, but-” “They wouldn’t let him take the chair away from their own man if he wasn’t.”
“Maybe he doesn’t realize it?”
“My left foot! He’s in with the bastards all right. He’s working hand-in-glove with the people who murdered Jeff Robertson.” Jane stared at him across their little table. “What can we do?” Dan grinned at her. “Same thing that the Founding Fathers did when they were writing the Constitution: trust the people.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’re going public, Jane. With the whole sorry tale. It’s the only way to smoke these snakes out from under their rocks.” “You mean you want to tell the public about the greenhouse cliff! Dan, you can’t!”
“We’ve got to. The longer this program stays in the dark, the longer the crooks have to worm their way in. And the longer Malik has to set himself up as global dictator.”
She shook her head warily.
Reaching into his jacket pocket, Dan took out a holo cube. Holding it between his thumb and forefinger, he said, “There’s enough data here to blow Gaetano out of the water. But what good is it if the people you give it to are working for the son of a bitch? All it’ll do is get you killed.”
“But Dan, if you reveal the news about the greenhouse to the public, people will panic. The consequences could be disastrous?’ “You don’t think they’ll panic once the GEC does release the news?” “Vasily is working out plans to orchestrate the information.” “Leak it out slowly. A drip at a time, like the Chinese water torture.”
Obviously displeased with his words, Jane replied: “Isn’t that better than throwing everybody headfirst into the deep end of the pool?’
“No,” said Dan firmly. “This is literally a sink or swim situation, Jane darling. We’ve got to throw a strong light on it. Now.” “You’re mixing metaphors,” she muttered. “But my heart is pure.”
“I can’t agree with you about this.”
“That’s okay,” he said cheerfully. “All I need is to know that you’ll be on the right side when the shit hits the fan. I’ll do the rest without implicating you.”
“You’re going to disappear again?” “For a little while. I’ve got to.”
“I had thought . . .’ Her voice trailed off. “Thought what?”
“Can’t we just chuck the whole business and go off by ourselves?
Nobody’s going to be able to solve all the world’s problems, Dan . Not you, not me, not all of us together. We’ve slaved at it all our lives and what has it gotten us except heartache? Can’t we just run away and live the rest of our lives in peace and be happy together?”
“I’m a fugitive from justice, remember?”
“I can fix that. You wouldn’t even have to face a trial if I testified that I went to Alphonsus with you willingly.”
He leaned back in his chair and studied her. “Where would we go, Jane? Tetiaroa? It’ll be underwater in a few more years. Geneva ? What’ll the Swiss do when the snow on the Alps melts down and floods their
valleys? Rome ? New York ? Where?”
valleys? Rome ? New York ? Where?”
For long moments Jane said nothing. She sat like a living statue, aubum hair perfectly coiffed, green eyes staring at Dan. Beyond her the restaurant windows showed that the drizzle had turned into a hard slanting rain. The sky, the city beneath, the whole world seemed gray and cold.
“You’re right,” she said, in a voice so low Dan could barely hear her, even though the restaurant was nearly empty and very quiet. Dan sighed. “For years I’ve said that when the going gets tough, the tough get going to where the going’s easier. But there’s no place to go, Janie. This is one fight we can’t avoid.”
She nodded reluctantly. “It’s just—I thought it would be so good if we could be together.” “We will be.” He reached across the table and took her hand.
“We’ll be together, Jane. There’s nothing in the world I want more. We’ll be together—come hell or high water.”
Her eyes went wide. Then she burst into laughter. “You certainly know how to choose your words!” He laughed too, thinking how good it was to see her happy, even if it was only for a moment.
It’s a myth that sea level is the same everywhere around the world, thought Amory Magee. Bending over his tabletop display, its light throwing weird shadows across his angular face, he saw the world’s oceans and seas as a living, breathing creature in constant motion, flexing, reaching, writhing with currents.
Gaea is the wrong name for this planet of ours, he thought as the display showed him the shifting patterns of ocean currents all around the world. The computer display was created from the sensors of three geostationary satellites, continuously and simultaneously. Ours is an ocean world. Poseidon is a better namesake than any earth goddess.
Magee was a solitary man, acknowledged by those in the Oceanographic Institute who had to work with him as a genius, but a prickly one.
“Sea level,” he muttered to himself, pushing his large, owlish eyeglasses back into place. They kept slipping down his thin, sharp nose when he bent over the display table. “No such thing as sea level, not really. The Pacific’s higher than the Atlantic , most places. Of course it’s much bigger. And the Arctic could get itself trapped behind the Bering Shelf, it’s been so low in the past. Probably triggered the Ice Age that way.”
He often talked to himself, alone in his laboratory. No one contradicted him. He liked that.
His eyes focused on the Gulf of Mexico . “Now, there’s a perfect example of what I mean. Trade winds blow the length of the Atlantic and pile the water up in the Gulf until it’s considerably higher than the ocean itself. That’s what generates the Gulf Stream , of course.”
Sea levels were rising, and much faster than anyone had anticipated. Magee had faithfully sent his reports to his superiors at the Institute. What they did with them he neither knew nor cared. His interest was in how the oceans were working, how Poseidon was behaving himself. Once in a while he thought idly that, at the rate the sea was rising, they would have to abandon these buildings. The idea of moving filled him
with such anxiety, though, that he usually pushed those thoughts out of his conscious mind as soon as they arose.
He flicked his fingers across the remote keyboard he held in his hand and data points appeared on the display. Earthquake predictions from the people over in California . Most people thought that earthquakes on the seafloor were nothing to worry about. Magee knew better. His favorite reading was firsthand accounts by the survivors of tsunamis. He enjoyed picturing the wall of water that could sweep miles inland, crushing and drowning everything in its path. “Serves them all right,” he groused. “Poseidon is nobody to take lightly.”
A new earthquake prediction had appeared since the last time he surveyed the display. “Somebody’s calling for a quake in the Gulf of Mexico ,” he saw, surprised. “That’s unusual.” Tapping on the
hand-held, he saw that the prediction called for a deep temblor, Richter scale seven or higher. “Big one!”
hand-held, he saw that the prediction called for a deep temblor, Richter scale seven or higher. “Big one!”
Working his remote control again, he saw that under the right circumstances a considerable tsunami could spread from the locus of the seafloor quake. “Florida?” he asked, pecking at the keys. But the tidal wave petered out before it could swamp Florida ’s west coast. “That’s good, I suppose,” he muttered, feeling slightly disappointed. “Florida’s already got enough problems with the sea-level rise. Lots of expensive condominiums are being emptied out, I hear.” The seafloor contours might guide the tsunami onto the Texas Louisiana coast, he realized. “New Orleans is going to be hard hit if these numbers are right.”
He tapped one more key and the display showed the timeframe estimate. Within one year. Magee whistled to himself. “Accuracy?”
The numbers said plus or minus twelve months.
Magee blinked at the numbers. “That means it could happen any day now,” he said to himself. Shaking his head, he added, “I wouldn’t want to be in New Orleans when Poseidon comes calling. Hope somebody’s put out a warning to them.”
As they stepped out of the Eiffel Tower elevator into the driving gray rain, Jane popped her umbrella open. The wind nearly pulled it out of her hands. Dan reached for it and helped her steady it. “Where are you staying, she asked.
“It’s better if you don’t know.” “In Paris.”
“For the time being.”
She looked out across the rain-swept park. “I’ll have to get a cab.” “You’ll never get one around here. I’ll walk with you to the Hilton.” “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“As long as you have the umbrella, yes.”
The only other people out on the streets seemed to be a few Japanese tourists, looking wet and bedraggled and miserably unhappy. “Jane, can you set up a meeting with Nobo for me?”
“Nobuhiko Yamagata?”
“Right. We had a kind of stupid argument the last time we were together. At his father’s freezing. He got pretty sore at me and—“ “He’s not angry anymore. I think he’d like to see you.”
“Good,” said Dan. “We could use his help.” “We certainly could.”
They parted at the Hilton, Jane waiting in the lobby while the doorman phoned for a taxi, Dan striding off through the rain toward the apartment he had taken, hat pulled low and shoulders hunched against the rain. They did not kiss good-bye. Not at the hotel. Too many people might have seen them.
I’ve got to protect her, too, Dan thought, squinting into the chill rain. She may have a GEC bodyguard, but I’ll bet Gaetano’s put himself in charge of security for the whole board. That’d be just their style of operation. Still, he grinned his widest grin as he walked splashing through the puddles on the sidewalks. She loves me. She really loves me. He wished he could sing and dance through the storm like that what’s-his-name in that old video. He wished he could feel like a kid again, so blitzed by the thought that Jane loved him that nothing else mattered.
But he knew better. He had the world on his shoulders. Now Jane’s safety was an added problem. Big George and Tamara were waiting for him at the apartment. The four of us against the world, with Malik and Gaetano and the whole double-damned international crime syndicate against us.
His grin vanished. I forgot to tell Jane about Tamara. Better remember to do it next time we meet. Got to make certain she doesn’t get the wrong idea about the kid. That could screw up everything.
Other books
The River Queen by Mary Morris
Memory Theater by Simon Critchley
Mesopotamia by Arthur Nersesian
The Broken Road (The Broken Series) by Ruff, K.S.
Dark Desire by Christine Feehan
Three Cheers for...Who? by Nancy Krulik
Now and Always by Lori Copeland
Dare You by Sue Lawson
In the House of the Wicked by Thomas E. Sniegoski
Wildlight by Robyn Mundy