“Much better than Hoffman would have been, although I wonder how DiNardo would have fared here.”
“What do you mean?”
Leaning both his elbows on the lab bench behind him, Reed appeared as relaxed as if he were in a London pub. “Well, DiNardo has this enormous reputation, you know. If he had seen what Jamie’s seen out there at the Grand Canyon, I wonder if his prestige would have been big enough to get us to move the camp there.”
“The entire base?”
Reed cocked his head slightly, sending a boyish lock of sandy hair over his forehead. “If Jamie’s right and the canyon is the best place to look for life, then we should at least set up a secondary camp there, don’t you think?”
Nodding slowly, Joanna said, “But we can’t pick up this entire dome and move it.”
“With that silly Japanese getting himself killed,” Reed answered, “the mission controllers probably won’t allow us to do anything that’s even a millimeter off our official schedule.”
“But the schedule was meant to be flexible! They cannot hold us to a preset routine, as if we were puppets.”
“You think not? I can’t help supposing, though, that if DiNardo were here we’d already be working out a plan to set up a camp on the floor of the canyon.”
“That is what Jamie wants to do, is it not?”
“Rather. But he’s in trouble with his own politicos back in the States, you know, over this Navaho nonsense he said when we landed. I doubt that his recommendations would be accepted by the powers that be.”
Joanna studied the English physician’s face. He was no longer grinning. He seemed completely serious.
“I can speak to my father about it,” she said. “I am sure he already knows about the possibility-or he will, as soon as today’s data reaches mission control.”
“Yes, surely your father would be helpful. I was thinking more of DiNardo, though. If we can get his agreement that we should set up a secondary camp in the canyon, that would help enormously, I should think.”
Joanna felt a thrill of excitement run through her. “Yes! Of course! They could not fail to agree with Father DiNardo.”
“Hardly,” said Reed.
“I will contact him myself,” Joanna said. “And suggest to my father that he enlist Father DiNardo’s aid, as well.”
“Yes, that’s the ticket.”
“I will send a message now, this evening. Right away.”
“Good show,” said Reed. He straightened up and got off the stool. Leaning closer to Joanna he whispered, “We can accomplish a great deal, you and I, working behind the scenes.”
“Oh, yes. Thank you. I am grateful for your help.”
“Think nothing of it, dear lady.”
But as he strolled casually away from the biology lab back toward his own cubicle, Reed thought: She’s hot for Jamie, that’s for certain. Now the game is to work things out so that he remains out there in the Grand Canyon and she stays here. A thousand kilometers or so between them ought to give me enough working room. I’ll have her, sooner or later. All I need is patience. And a little help, which she herself will provide. How nice!
He actually whistled, tunelessly, as he strode past the wardroom where most of the others sat huddled together, discussing the day’s events like a gaggle of schoolchildren. Reed ignored them and headed for his cot and his dreams.
Jamie and Vosnesensky sat in the rover’s cockpit as they made their evening report. Once they were finished with their official duty, Pete Connors filled them in on the reactions to Konoye’s accident. While he watched the astronaut’s troubled features on the display screen in the center of the cockpit control panel, Jamie glanced at the secondary screen. The glowing curves of its graphic display showed that the ozone outgassing from the Martian dust in the airlock was now down almost to zero.
“The accident’s got everybody pretty down,” Connors was saying worriedly. “Dr. Li has been on the horn with Kaliningrad for hours now. God knows what they’re going to do.”
“But nothing went wrong with the equipment,” Jamie said. “The cosmonaut and the rest of the team worked just the way they’ve been trained. Konoye just had a stroke.”