Food poisoning was the doctors’ first suspicion, but it became less plausible as further checking showed the condition to be confined to just those five cases. One of the doctors recognized the symptoms as the ones affecting the corporation people and their military detail down on Mars, upon which the security head from the Oasis recalled the eccentric Asiatic who had visited Marissa there. Velte needed no further proof that the Martian Cross the Khal had given her to bring up to Asgard was the culprit. “It’s impregnated with something or releasing something,” he fumed as the facts strung themselves together before his eyes. “Get it over to the labs and find out what’s in it. Take it apart down to the last molecule if you have to.”
They X-rayed the Cross, electromeasured it, sonogrammed it, broke it in pieces, ground parts of it to powder, and subjected samples to neutron activation tests, fluorescence tests, gas and liquid chromatography, various types of spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance tests, a battery of solution assays, and biometric imaging. And they found . . . nothing. For the moment the experts were baffled.
“But we know it was the Cross, although not operating through any of the mechanisms they’re looking for, don’t we, Dad?” Marissa said when they got a chance to talk alone. She was having trouble keeping horror from showing on her face as she looked at him. “You have to ask the Khal for guidance. He’s the only person who’ll know anything.” Hamilton had his assistant call the Oasis hotel down at Lowell, but she was informed that the guest of that name had checked out without leaving any contact information.
“I still think you’re jumping to unwarranted conclusions,” Velte maintained stonily, despite his own condition. “Something broke out on Mars, and a lot of people here have just come up from Mars. There’s bound to be a simple connection. What’s the latest on the ones they’ve got at the hospital down there?”
Hamilton had Asgard’s medical chief call the unit down at Lowell who were dealing with the syndrome. And the startling news from there was that Justin Banks—and only Justin Banks—was magically recovering.
“Now what do you have to say?” Gilder stormed at Velte, finally losing his patience. “Everything he said has come true! No, I can’t explain it, you can’t explain it, and neither can anyone else here. But there isn’t a single fact known to science that couldn’t be explained at some time.” It was one of those rare times where Thornton Velte found himself too shocked and bemused to say anything.
“What do you want to do?” Gilder’s assistant asked.
Gilder thought furiously for several seconds. Marissa watched him anxiously. “Get a fast transfer ship ready for immediate descent to Mars,” he ordered. “The only hope now is that other mystic that the Khal talked about. We’ll go down there, and we’ll talk with him directly.”
“Does that mean you’ll let them have the site?” Marissa asked.
Hamilton squared his jaw stubbornly. “I didn’t say that. Let’s see if this guy can get rid of whatever this is first. It’s still a big investment to throw away. Then we’ll play it by ear. There might be ways of getting to him yet—just like anyone else.”
* * *
The eight-man squad that Mahom had recruited was taking it easy outside until plans were sufficiently advanced to hold a detailed briefing. Inside Mahom’s office, Kieran sat across from the desk, staring at pictures of the building that Leppo and Casey were being held in, along with floor and site plans purloined from a city architect’s office. Since it suited him to keep Kieran Thane invisible for a while longer, and he didn’t know when circumstances might require the reappearance of the Khal, he had changed into casual clothes but kept the swarthy Asiatic features and grizzled hair. The squad’s commander, Major Everit, small, brown skinned, dapperly turned out in a dark jumpsuit with black beret and calf-length boots, went once again through what seemed to be the only option.
“Speed and surprise. A distraction phone call, diversions front and back, and then straight in behind stun and flash grenades, and grab them. It’s a high-density location. The geography doesn’t give any maneuvering options.”