Sarda nodded at the suggestion. He had to have been put up to it. Already, he was sure, he could remember her provocative words and sultry urgings for him to claim what was rightfully his. “And I walked right into it,” he muttered blackly.
“I always knew she’d latched onto me for what she could get out of it,” Balmer said. “But I have to admit I didn’t see all the way through her either. An opportunist, yes; but I never realized she could be that much of one.”
Sarda showed a hand. “And this pained, moral high tone she put on, suggesting it was me who was being unethical . . . when all the time she was working to clean out both of us.”
Balmer breathed heavily. “It almost makes you want to lose faith in—” The chime from the front door interrupted. “Who’s this?” He raised his voice slightly. “House manager. Door view.” The wall screen opposite the couch activated to show two figures standing outside. One, tanned, suave, was Lee Mullen, a local “facilitator” engaged by the syndicate to help with its inquiries. The other was dark-skinned and bearded, also expensively dressed in a suit. Balmer didn’t recognize him. “Function, door open,” he said, moving in the direction of the hall. Mullen and the other man stepped inside just as Balmer came through the doorway to meet them.
“Hi, Doc,” Mullen greeted. He looked past Balmer, into the living area, where Sarda had risen from the recliner. “Well, say, the other guy’s here too. That makes it easier. We’ve got a few things to discuss,” he told them. “But first, I just wanted to let you know that we’ve come up lucky on the guy with the dog. Seems like he’s a doctor too—going under the name of Thane. He took off a week ago with a party that went out in the desert to dig up rocks. We’re sending some friends out there to bring him back for a talk. So don’t you two get any ideas on going anywhere, okay? We want you around to make sure he gets asked the right questions. People back at the Firm are getting very anxious about this. . . .”
Low and sleek, like a blue-and-white shark out of water, the Guardian Angel stood in front of the workshop behind the office at Alazahad Machine, where Solomon Leppo had towed it to be fitted with its automatic cannon from Mahom’s miniature armory. Phil Verlan, the sales manager, stood, arms folded, contemplating it alongside Mahom, while Leppo and Mack, an avionics-specialist friend of Mahom’s, finished installing the fire-control box inside an access hatch forward of the driving compartment.
“So what do you reckon, Phil?” Mahom asked, giving Verlan a picket-fence grin of pearly teeth. “Sol says there’s gonna be a big market one day.”
“Who with?” Verlan replied. “Are we planning on expanding into the military supply business?”
“Private security,” Leppo said over his shoulder as he held the cover panel while Mack gunned in the fixing screws. “There’s no Mars law here yet that everyone agrees on, and the place is filling up. People who matter are already organizing their own protection and alliance deals. Five years from now they’ll all be wanting one.”
“Is that the way it’s gonna go, Phil?” Mahom asked Verlan. “Should we be thinking about taking options?” All prospective business ranked equally in Mahom’s estimation. Passing judgments on what ought or ought not to be didn’t figure into his way of calculating.
“Let me sound out a few contacts before I answer that,” Verlan said. He glanced at his watch. “Speaking of which, I’m supposed to be meeting a couple of guys, and I’m running late already. I need to pick up some things from the office, too.”
“I’ll walk back in with you,” Mahom said.
“Keep at it, Sol,” Verlan tossed back as he and Mahom walked away. “You could be onto something there, all right. I’ll start doing some sounding around on it, like I said.”
“We can’t lose. You’ll see,” Leppo called after them confidently.
Mack began replacing items in the toolbox from his truck, parked a few yards away. “That should be fine when the sights are calibrated. We’ll fly it out to the range at Stony Flats tomorrow for some test firings. Suppose I stop by at ten?”