“Yes,” Li said. “Certainly.”
He sprang up from the chair, all six and a half feet of him, and nearly sprinted to the desk where the phone was. Brumado wormed out of his jacket and tossed it onto another chair. He was rolling up his shirtsleeves when Joanna stepped into the office. She too was wearing a softly comfortable running suit, butter yellow and muted orange. Brumado wondered idly what the Russians thought about this craze for American fashion.
“I will leave the two of you alone,” said Li softly, nearly whispering. He scurried from the room like a wisp of smoke wafted away on a strong breeze.
Joanna came over to her father, bussed him on both cheeks, and sat in the chair that Li had used earlier.
Brumado studied her face. She looked serious, but not upset. More determined than fearful.
“Dr. Li tells me you are leading a mutiny among the scientists.” Brumado found himself smiling at her as he said it. Not only did he find it difficult to believe such an outrageous story, but even if it were true he could not be angry with his lovely daughter.
“We took a vote last night,” Joanna said in their native Brazilian Portuguese. “Out of the sixteen scientists scheduled to fly the mission, eleven will not go if Hoffman is included.”
Brumado brushed his upper lip with a fingertip, a throwback to his youth when he had sported a luxuriant moustache.
“The sixteen includes Hoffman himself. Did he vote?”
Joanna laughed. “No. Of course not. We did not ask him.”
“Why?” her father asked. “What is the reason for this?”
She made a small sigh. “None of us really likes Hoffman. He is a very difficult personality. We feel that it will be impossible to work with him under the very close conditions of the mission.”
“But why wait until now? Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
“We thought that Father DiNardo could keep Hoffman under control. Hoffman admired DiNardo, looked up to him. But the thought of having Hoffman without Father DiNardo-having him as the prime geologist for the mission-we realized we could not stand that. He would be insufferable. Unbearable.”
Brumado said nothing, thinking: I’m not going into space with them. I’m not going to be cooped up inside a spacecraft for nearly two years with someone I can’t stand.
“Besides,” his daughter went on, “Hoffman was chosen mainly for political reasons. You know that.”
“He is an excellent geologist,” Brumado replied absently, thinking now about the difficulties he was asking his daughter to face. Two years in space. The stresses. The dangers.
“There are other geologists who have gone through training with us.” Joanna said, leaning slightly closer to her father. “O’Hara is from Australia. He can move up. And there is that Navaho mestizo, Waterman.”
Brumado’s attention suddenly focused on his daughter’s eyes. “The man who stayed on at McMurdo to help your group through your Antarctic training.”
“And the following groups. Yes, him.”
“And O’Hara.”
“Waterman has done extensive work on meteor impacts. He even found a Martian meteorite in Antarctica, although Hoffman took the credit for it.”
“Is he the man you want?”
She pulled back again. “I think he is the best-qualified person, isn’t he? And everyone seemed to get along with him very well.”
“But he’s an American,” Brumado muttered. “The politicians don’t want more Americans than Russians. Or vice versa.”
“He’s an American Indian, Papa. It’s not really the same thing. And O’Hara will make the Australians happy.”
“The politicians wanted Hoffman to help represent Europe.”
“We already have a Greek, a Pole, and a German to represent Europe. As well as an Englishman. If Hoffman goes on the mission there will be trouble,” Joanna said firmly. “His psychological profile is awful! We have tried to work with him, Papa. He is simply unbearable!”
“So you took a vote.”
“Yes. We have decided. If Hoffman is chosen there are at least eleven of us who will resign from the program immediately.”
Again Brumado fell silent. He did not know what to say, how to handle this situation.
“Ask Antony Reed,” Joanna suggested. “He has had more training in psychology than any of the others selected for the mission. It was his idea to take the vote.”