She’s scared of her father! She’s afraid of disappointing him. She’s more frightened of failing Brumado than she is of sharks or freezing or dying a hundred million miles from home. It’s not her own failure she’s afraid of. She’s afraid of disappointing him.
He really does own her soul. He fills her entire life. What will she do when we get back to Earth? Especially if we don’t have any evidence of life to show her old man?
He turned over and fell into a troubled sleep. He dreamed of Navaho hogans dotting the barren desert of Mars and of splendidly feathered gods descending from the heavens on pillars of fire. The most magnificent of all the gods looked exactly like Alberto Brumado, and he glared at Jamie with the angry glittering eyes of an eagle.
EARTH
WASHINGTON: Harvey Todd was short enough to have been compared with Alexander Hamilton. Like Hamilton, he had never held an elective office in his life. He had a boyishly pleasant face, modishly styled sandy hair, and a reputation for being dynamic and ruthless. Not yet thirty-five years old, he had been involved in government since his college days, when he had made himself one of the tireless young men in the New Jersey campaign that had elevated a shrill schoolteacher into a congresswoman.
Now that congresswoman was Vice-President of the United States and Harvey Todd was her aide for science and technology. He was already spending most of his time preparing for next year’s primaries.
He seemed at ease sitting across the small table from Alberto Brumado. The luncheon crowd at the Jefferson Hotel was quiet, subdued, as if each table full of people had its own secrets to whisper, huddling in the deep plush banquettes so that it was almost impossible to see who was sitting with whom.
Brumado sipped from his tulip-shaped glass of Portuguese vinho verde. He barely noticed its taste, so intent was he on what Todd was saying.
“I brought a copy of the speech.” The Vice-President’s aide pulled a tiny computer disk from his inside jacket pocket and placed it on the damask tablecloth. “I think you’ll be pleased with it.”
“She accepts the necessity of further missions to Mars?” Brumado asked, hunching forward slightly.
“Unequivocally.”
“Wonderful.” Brumado reached his hand toward the disk.
Todd covered it with his own hand. “Has the Indian written his statement supporting the Vice-President?”
“Not yet. He’s been quite busy.”
Sliding the disk back toward himself, “Well, when you can show me his written statement I can show you her speech.”
“I see.”
“I’ve scheduled it for the NASA anniversary, as you suggested. Your Indian doesn’t have much time to get his statement to us.”
“He will. As soon as he comes back from this traverse to Tithonium Chasma.”
“Where?”
“The Grand Canyon of Mars.”
“Oh, right, of course. The scientific jargon always throws me for a loop.”
Brumado made an understanding smile.
Todd’s boyish face held the searching, probing eyes of an opportunist. “You realize, of course, that if there’s some calamity between now and the date of the speech, all bets are off. I can’t have her backing a dead horse.”
“I understand,” Brumado replied slowly, “that no politician wants to be identified with a failure.”
“On the other hand, if the mission should be a terrific success… if they find something alive up there, that would guarantee support all up and down the line.”
“They are searching for life right now.”
“It’d be a good idea if they found something. Even just a hint, let them send back word that they found something that makes it look like life existed there once. That might be even better than finding real live Martians.”
“They will find what they find,” said Brumado.
Todd grinned at him. “That’s right. They’re scientists, aren’t they? They never slant their reports, do they?”
Brumado did not like the implication, nor the sly expression on the young man’s face.
Leaning closer to the Brazilian and lowering his voice, Todd went on, “You know, if they do find something spectacular, like an ancient city or something, your Indian could write his own ticket.”
“The Vice-President’s support for further missions is what he wants.”