“When they get it right. I heard this is practically a prototype.” It was a new technology being pushed by one of the Martian home manufacturers running on a stretched budget and high hopes—but allegedly they knew their stuff.
“It’s solid enough,” Mahom said. “But the competition is making them cut back too much on costs for the home-grown models here. They’ve put the know-how into a new, deluxe production design that’ll be coming out of the lunar factories.” He winked knowingly. “Loaded. Got double-sealed shells. Terran government subsidies picking up the tab. The word isn’t generally out yet, but I got an advance order in for a few. What I’ll do is rent you this until the first ones show up. You can get the feel of how it works, make up your mind then. Should be around a month. Does that sound good?”
Kieran walked slowly around the Kodiak, taking in the light yet robust frame, generous ground clearance, splayed wheelbase for stability at speed. A chrome logo affixed to the trunk carried the proud message: SUPPLIED BY ALAZAHAD MACHINE. The dynamics of gravity wells made it actually cheaper to ship loads from the lunar surface to Mars than from Earth to Luna. And if governments back on Earth were trying to extend political influence to the Moon by making their taxpayers help him buy a car, why should he turn it down?
“The new one’ll have a version with collapsible rear seats that’ll turn the back end into practically a hatch-top truck,” Mahom said, following him with his eyes. “You won’t beat that for versatility. CO-two compressor-reservoir boosted cooling, specially developed for Mars. For you, fifteen percent off the regular price. Flat four hundred a month on the rental in the meantime. That’s a steal all by itself.”
Kieran opened the two doors on the side nearest him and leaned in to look and poke around. The interior was finished in soft black with gray trim, comfortable and spacious, though with minimal extras as Mahom had said. Guinness bounded in and took possession of the passenger seat, panting and looking back at Kieran as if to ask what they were waiting for. He seemed to have made his mind up, at least.
“I have to go out to Stony Flats this afternoon,” Kieran said, straightening back up. “Let me take it out there for a test drive, and I’ll let you know tomorrow after I get back. How’s that?”
“Sounds like we’ve got a deal, Knight. I just need to take a swipe of your license in the office, and we’ll pick up the key. Then you’re on your way.”
They crossed the rear yard through a mix of commercial vehicles and various wheeled, tracked, and balloon-tired, earth-moving, digging, and drilling contraptions—even one on legs. There was a Chinese army personnel carrier that had found its way to Mars through God-alone-knew-what machinations, and numerous partly dismantled bodies and frames that would never, of their own accord, move again. Just before they reached the office door, Mahom beckoned Kieran over to a door in a square concrete building behind the office shack, which he unlocked. He flipped on the light inside to reveal racks and shelves packed with handguns, shotguns, assault rifles, submachine weapons, several plasma cannon, a row of machine guns, and seemingly every form of ammunition conceived by man, ranging from twelve-clips for automatics to hand-launched antiarmor projectiles and grenades. “I wondered if you needed to do any shopping in the accessories department too, while you’re at it,” he explained, beaming.
“Mahom, I’m just driving out to see a geologist, not starting a war. But if I ever decide to, I promise I’ll let you know.”
“Okay. Just checking.” Mahom turned out the light and locked the door again. “But in the meantime I’ll be looking into getting a good flymo for you. I haven’t forgotten about it.”
“I’m sure you haven’t, Mahom,” Kieran agreed with a sigh.
11
A road climbing a series of hairpin bends through one of the side canyons, then upward between crumbling buttes of wind-worn rock and sandy hills, led out onto the more open plain. The air was hazy, the sky above, a curious pale pink that seemed faintly luminescent. For the first ten miles or so, the landscape was being submerged by a rising tide of interconnecting living complexes, bubble towns, industrial buildings, and farm canopies, all tied together with a thickening web of roadways, tracks, power grids and pipelines—the ground-level testimony to the spreading of humanity that Kieran had seen in his descent from orbit. Farther out, the desert reasserted itself to preside over a scattering of domes and isolated structures. Kieran remembered scenes he had seen in Japan, where cities flowed away into the distance until the details of individual houses merged and were lost in continuous ribbons that looked like glaciers filling the valleys between the mountains. He wondered if it would be like that here one day.