So the New Morality has its tentacles into the IAA now, Dan thought. And the GEC too, I’ll bet. And Humphries is playing them all like a symphony orchestra, using them to stymie me long enough so he can grab Astro from me.
Well, it’s not going to be that easy, partner. “What’s so funny?” Pancho asked, looking puzzled. “Funny?”
“You say, ‘Here’s my plan, ‘ and then you start grinnin’ like a cat in a canary’s cage.”
Dan took a sip of his brandy and dry, then said, “Pancho, I’ve always said that when the going gets tough, the tough get going—to where the going’s easier.”
“I’ve heard that one before.”
“So I’m going with you.”
“You?”
“Yep.”
“To the Belt.”
“You need a flight engineer. I know the ship’s systems as well as anybody.”
“Lordy-lord,” Pancho muttered.
“I’m still a qualified astronaut. I’m going with you.”
“But not until we do the uncrewed test flight,” she said, reaching for her beer.
Leaning across the table even closer to her, Dan said in a hoarse whisper, “Screw the test flight. We’re going to the Belt. You, Amanda, Fuchs and me.”
Pancho nearly choked on her mouthful of beer. She sputtered, coughed, then finally asked, “What’re you drinkin’, boss?”
Happy as a pirate on the open sea, Dan said, “We’ll let ’em think we’re doing exactly what they’ve told us to do, except that the four of us will happen to be aboard the bird when she breaks orbit.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that. We’ll calculate a new flight plan once we’re underway. Instead of accelerating at one-sixth g, as we’ve planned, we’ll goose her up to one-third g and cut the flight time by more than half.”
Pancho looked unconvinced. “You better bring an astrogator aboard.”
“Nope.” Pointing a finger at her, Dan said, “You’re it, kid. You and Amanda. I’m not bringing anybody into this that we don’t absolutely need.”
“I’m not so sure about this,” Pancho said warily.
“Don’t go chicken on me, kid,” Dan said. “You two have been studying this point-and-shoot technique for a lot of weeks. If you can’t do it, I’ve been wasting money on you.”
“I can do it,” Pancho said immediately.
“Okay, then.”
“I’d just feel better if you had a real expert on board.”
“No experts. Nobody else except the four of us. I don’t want anybody tipped off about this. And that includes Humphries.”
Pancho waved a hand nonchalantly. “He hasn’t said a word to me since we moved Sis.”
“I don’t think he knows were we stashed her,” Dan said, reaching for his drink.
“He knows about ever’thing.”
“Not this flight,” Dan said firmly. “Nobody is going to know about this. Understand me? Don’t even tell Amanda or Fuchs. This is just between you and me, kid.”
“And the flight controllers,” Pancho muttered.
“What?”
“How’re you goin’ to get the flight controllers to go along with this? You can’t just waltz aboard the Starpower and light her up without them knowin’ it. Hell’s bells, Dan, you won’t even be able to hop up to the ship if they don’t let you have a jumper and give you clearance for takeoff.”
Sipping at his brandy-laced ginger beer, Dan admitted, “That’s a problem I haven’t worked out yet.”
“It’s a toughie.”
“Yep, it is,” Dan said, unable to suppress a grin.
Pancho shook her head disapprovingly. “You’re enjoying this.”
“Why not?” Dan replied. “The world’s going to hell in a handbasket, the New Morality is taking over the government, Humphries is trying to screw me out of my own company—what could be more fun than hijacking my own spacecraft and riding it out to the Belt?”
“That’s weird,” Pancho murmured.
Dan saw that his glass was empty. He pressed the button set into the table’s edge to summon one of the squat little robots trundling through the crowd.
“Don’t worry about the flight controllers,” he said casually. “We’ll figure out a way around them.”
“We?”
“You and me.”
“Hey, boss, I’m a pilot, not a woman of intrigue.”
“You made a pretty good spy.”
“I was lousy at it and we both know it.”
“You hacked into Humphries’s files.”
“And he found out about it in half a minute, just about.”